Chapter 270
Chapter 270: Research Conclusions
“That’s basically the situation. The civilians who were trapped have been sent home, and the mall lockdown will remain in place until tomorrow. During that time, the assessors will confirm there are no remaining risk factors inside the sealed zone,” Song Cheng reported as he stood before Bai Li Qing’s desk. “The Technical Department is rushing to analyze all the data the deep dive team brought back, along with the audio and video records from their operation.”
Bai Li Qing sat behind her unusually wide desk, her expression calm and unreadable. Only after Song Cheng finished did she give a slight nod. “Any conclusions yet?”
“We can confirm it’s an otherworld that has never appeared before. The depth range recorded on the deep diver sensors is L-1 to L-2. What they saw was a neighborhood covered in thick fog. That area may be a ‘reflection’ of the real world, though we still can’t determine its boundaries. Our initial suspicion is that as you move deeper into the fog, the depth increases as well.
“This otherworld can randomly generate entities that should originally belong to other otherworlds. So far we’ve only confirmed three: Ink Mark, carnival revelers, and Granny Tree.
“Based on that, we’re temporarily rating this otherworld at Danger Level 3. But because the sample size is too small, this rating is for reference only. We don’t recommend any spirit realm detective organization or independent investigator enter on their own—except for experienced teams like Fairy Tale and Hotel.
“Of course, you don’t need to worry too much about that last point. Civilian investigators probably can’t get in anyway. We still haven’t found a stable method to open this otherworld. Right now there are only two ways in: Yu Sheng’s ‘Door Opening’ ability, or the locator the deep divers set up before they withdrew, followed by sending deep divers back in.”
Song Cheng delivered the whole report in one breath. He paused, gathered his thoughts, then continued. “Besides the opening conditions, the most urgent questions now are about its entity-generation pattern. This is the first time we’ve encountered an otherworld that can generate entities from other otherworlds. We have to figure out the mechanism—how many entities can it generate?
“Can it generate Danger Level 4 entities, or even higher?
“In the action report, Ink Mark, the carnival revelers, and Granny Tree appeared separately, but it’s also possible they could appear at the same time in that fog…
“Depending on the answers, this otherworld could be extremely dangerous. Level 3 might just be its lower bound.”
Song Cheng finished, but Bai Li Qing stayed silent for a long time, eyes lowered as if turning his words over. At last, she looked up.
“Little Song, don’t you think that besides the entity-generation mechanism, the abnormalities around the opening of this new otherworld are suspicious too?”
“You mean…”
Bai Li Qing tapped the desk slowly with one finger. “Those hundreds of brief tremors the equipment almost ignored. The opening time that lasted only one second. And the traces that were completely cleaned up afterward.”
Song Cheng’s eyes widened. “You’re saying the traces were… cleaned up?”
“A man-made incident,” Bai Li Qing said, stopping the tapping as her expression sharpened. “Doesn’t it look like one?
“Those short tremors look like someone running an experiment, and the goal of that experiment was to open this otherworld.”
“Then the trapped civilian…”
“Could also be part of the experiment,” Bai Li Qing said quietly. “A randomly chosen test subject, used to confirm whether the entrance really opened.”
Song Cheng frowned hard. “Who would have the guts to do that in the borderland? And who would have the ability to—”
He cut himself off, awkwardly meeting Bai Li Qing’s gaze.
Then, without a word, both of them looked away.
Bai Li Qing said flatly, “Of course, it definitely wasn’t him.”
“I didn’t say it was him…” Song Cheng muttered.
Silence fell again for a few seconds.
“In any case, treat ‘someone is sabotaging us on purpose’ as a possible direction,” Bai Li Qing said. “We have many enemies, and the anomaly on the night the angel fell was seen by many people. There’s no guarantee some idiot won’t get ideas. At a time like this, we have to be on high alert.”
“Yes, Director.”
After the report, Song Cheng left. Bai Li Qing remained behind her desk, still thinking.
A long while later, she turned on the computer and opened a series of video files.
Fog-choked streets. Intense firefights. Shattered clusters of revelers…
Firsthand footage from deep dive team members’ body recorders, captured from dozens of angles.
After a quick glance, Bai Li Qing stood and tapped a spot in the corner of the desk.
A faint hum rose from the ceiling.
The lights cut out. Hidden projection devices unfolded from the ceiling and floor, and dizzying holographic light spilled across the walls and furniture. Dozens of videos expanded through the room, then split again—cut and segmented by time into hundreds of frames that filled every inch of space around her.
All the frames began playing at once, fast-forwarded.
Bai Li Qing poured herself a glass of water and drank slowly, eyes tracking every recorded moment, every angle, frame by frame.
Behind her, outside the floor-to-ceiling window, hazy mist churned violently as her ability rebuilt the streetscape hidden inside the fog.
A pair of illusory eyes formed within that rendered street scene, darting through the constantly shifting imagery.
“Stop.”
Bai Li Xue spoke suddenly.
The scenery outside the window froze. The holographic playback paused with it.
Those eyes drifted through the glass, settling behind Bai Li Qing, and the two of them focused on a single nearby frame at the same time.
It was an ordinary shot aimed at an advertising sign for a ground-floor shop. Colored confetti from a shattered reveler entity drifted along the edge of the frame. On the sign, the bright words “XX Fresh Market” were clearly visible.
“…The words are normal,” Bai Li Xue said softly.
Bai Li Qing nodded. “Right. If this were truly a mirror image, the text should be reversed left to right.”
“So the essence of this otherworld isn’t as simple as ‘a few streets reflected in a mirror.’ It just happens that its entrance is a mirror,” Bai Li Xue’s voice lifted with a rare edge of emotion. “It’s more likely an independently existing space. A…”
She faltered.
Bai Li Qing finished for her. “A real-time copy of Boundary City—or, if you want to be dramatic, ‘another Boundary City.’”
The two sisters fell silent together.
After several minutes, Bai Li Xue finally spoke, careful. “How big do you think it is?”
Bai Li Qing shut off the holograms and sat again, rubbing her temples. “I don’t want to guess.”
Those eyes drifted, pressing against the glass behind her. After a long moment, the two of them spoke in unison—
“Why does this ridiculous stuff always happen when it involves him?!”
A knock sounded at the door.
Bai Li Qing straightened instantly, the lazy edge gone, her usual cool composure snapping back into place. “Come in.”
The duty secretary entered and placed a stack of documents on the desk.
“Director, this is the file the Technical Department just sent over. It’s about those ‘Anka Aila crystals.’”
“Test data on the crystals?” Bai Li Qing raised an eyebrow and took the file, flipping through a few pages. Her expression shifted, subtle and sharp at once.
“According to the results, the Anka Aila crystals—including the mother crystal and secondary crystal—showed no special response to mental-type attacks,” the secretary reported seriously. “That includes common hypnosis and consciousness guidance, higher-level memory manipulation and mind control, and even psychic shock released directly by an entity like the ‘enthralling butterfly.’
“The Testing Department ran basically every kind of psychic shock they could produce in the lab. The conclusion is what the report says… no protective effect at all.”
Bai Li Qing drew a slow breath.
She flipped through the file again, more carefully this time, and spotted another conclusion: aside from mental attacks, the samples had shown no special response to any other kind of stimulation, either. In terms of “protection specialization,” they had no special properties at all.
“So,” Bai Li Xue’s voice echoed in Bai Li Qing’s mind—still mechanical and stiff, yet somehow threaded with faint sarcasm, “these crystals only block that doll, right?
“And they’re useless for everything else?”
Bai Li Qing had trouble keeping her face steady. “So it’s specifically designed to counter her alone…?”
—
Irene was laughing so hard at a brainless variety show on TV that she toppled off the coffee table with a thud, then complained as she tried to crawl back up.
Yu Sheng rolled his eyes. “Go on, keep watching this junk every day. Your brain was already questionable. At this rate you won’t have any left.”
“What brain does a doll even have?!” Another Irene stood on the sofa with her hands on her hips, then noticed a row of small knives laid out on the table in front of Yu Sheng. “Huh? Why do you have so many fruit knives and box cutters? And you’re waving them around… I’m telling you, this is creepy.”
Yu Sheng sighed and picked up a fruit knife. He dragged it across his palm a couple times, then set it down. “I figured the knife I carry for bloodletting isn’t working anymore, so I wanted to switch it out. I ended up testing every blade I could find at home.”
“So the conclusion isn’t that the knives have a problem. It’s that you have a problem, right?” Irene grinned. She hugged a small knife in both hands and poked Yu Sheng’s knuckles over and over, dulling the tip in just a few jabs. “You eat random stuff every day, and that Silly Fox keeps stewing random things for you. I told you ages ago your diet is messed up.”
Yu Sheng snatched the knife away. “If my body keeps getting tougher, how is that a problem?”
“You’re too damn tough! Next time you get appendicitis and end up in the hospital, the doctor won’t even be able to cut you open. Then you won’t be laughing!”
Yu Sheng froze. For a split second, he had to admit the doll’s imagination could be weirdly useful. Then he waved a hand. “If that ever happens, I’ll just open a door to a volcano crater and jump in. Thirty minutes later, I’ll be back as a hero with no appendicitis. Faster than surgery.”
Irene stared. “…You’re treating appendicitis by dying to prove your point?!”
“What else can I do?” Yu Sheng tossed the knife onto the table. “At this rate I’ll have to carry a chainsaw. Low power won’t even work.”
Right then, the phone on the table rang, cutting off their argument.
Irene glanced at the caller ID and hugged the phone as she passed it over. “Here. Bai Li Qing again.”
Yu Sheng exhaled, took it, and put it to his ear.
“…What the hell is an ‘anti-Irene crystal’?”