Chapter 288

Chapter 289: The Hub

Yu Sheng did not know architecture. You could tell that from the many strange projects he had slapped together so far. But he was not worried his “wonder” in the Valley would collapse because of his skill.

In his sight, the rock rising from the ground was not just a “building.” It was alive. It had flesh and bone and even nerves that passed signals he could feel. He could sense each pillar forming, where it needed to grow, the weight it would bear, and the best way it all should connect.

Following that feeling, he let the great stones grow wildly yet precisely. Pillars propped beams, bones crossed bones, and lighter and heavier stuff, no longer easy to call just “rock,” filled in like organs and meat. He stood atop the highest pillar and watched that living “embryo” become the outline of a pyramid, then he started shaping the finer parts.

Its base took the original Portal Platform and pushed out several dozen meters more. A plain yet solemn cloister ringed the pyramid. From the outside you could see the clear seven level structure. At the top, the roof held a small platform, a viewing terrace high enough to see the Valley Floor. On the outer ledges of each level he left planting beds. One day those places would grow thick green life.

[If I can’t shape pretty details, I’ll plant trees everywhere and let nature do the work,] Yu Sheng decided. [At least the greening will pass.]

Not far away, cooking smoke rose. Foxy pulled a portable gas stove and pots from her tail. Snow White sent Thunder Titan to the town for food. King summoned two cooks to slice sheep. Soon a hotpot was boiling. Everyone sat on the grass by the new Hotel Hub, ate sheep in the mountain wind, and watched Yu Sheng build.

Rapunzel, mixing sesame sauce in a small bowl, looked up at the growing pyramid and said with feeling: “Not bad. Kinda grand. Like those big background buildings in some games that you can see but can’t do anything with.”

Snow White, dropping greens into the pot, said slowly: “You mean the ones you can’t enter. I’ve watched you play. You open ten new servers a day. I do not get the point.”

Mermaid crouched by the pot waiting for her potato slices. She glanced at the pyramid, studied it a long time, then said: “It looks like a grave mound. A giant one.”

The group fell quiet for a few seconds, then everyone agreed at once: “Yeah, that’s it.” “Right, that shape!” “Dang it, the grave mound hub is still chasing me.” “Oh, potatoes are done, potatoes are done.”

Foxy, sitting closest to the pot, stayed silent the whole time, only stuffing meat, fish balls, crab sticks, and tofu into her bowl.

The four Irenes sat in a row nearby, four bodies and not one full digestive tract among them. One body was still half paralyzed. Even so, Little Doll seemed in better spirits. She swayed where she sat and now and then sighed that Yu Sheng’s thing really did look like a grave mound, and now the grave mound had begun to grow grass thanks to the greening.

Rapunzel glanced at Irene and asked: “Your new body still isn’t moving well?”

Irene Pro Max lifted her arm and said: “Still stiff, but better than before. I couldn’t lift this arm above my head earlier. Now I can.”

She looked back at the big pyramid and then at sauce smeared Rapunzel, saying: “You are eating and drinking right here. Won’t Yu Sheng be mad when he comes down?”

Before she finished, Foxy lifted her bowl and declared: “This bowl is for the benefactor.”

Irene blinked and asked: “Does hotpot still taste good after it cools?”

King, still poking at fish balls, mumbled: “It has to be eaten cold. Has to be eaten cold.”

A heavy rumble rolled over from not far away. The tall pillar slowly sank. Yu Sheng jumped down. Behind him, the Hotel Hub stood completed, at least the main structure.

Yu Sheng took in the picnic scene and said with a laugh he could not hide: “You all sure know how to enjoy yourselves. Did you bring our whole kitchen? Hey, where are my bowl and chopsticks?”

Foxy hurried over with a bowl piled high and said: “Benefactor, this is for you.”

Yu Sheng rubbed Foxy’s head, found a spot on the ground, and sat. He ate with gusto while he explained: “The Hub is a rough shell for now. I’ll plan the portal positions on the first floor, then reach out to Engineer Sun for the interior work. We also need one, maybe two elevators. It’s seven levels, and each level is tall. Without elevators, climbing once would wear you out.”

Snow White started calculating at once and said: “Sounds expensive. At our orphanage, changing a single electric door took ages of budgeting.”

Yu Sheng waved it off and said: “It won’t be cheap, but the Hotel has enough funds now. Money should be used.”

Rapunzel squinted at him and asked: “Did you forget to leave stairs again?”

Yu Sheng’s chopsticks paused. Two seconds later he lifted his head, calm, and said: “Not this time. I remembered.”

Mermaid suddenly pricked up her ears and listened carefully, then said: “There is movement inside that grave mound hub. It just started. Something is growing in there, like this-”

She made the sound of living rock rushing through a hollow building. She even copied the tiny clinks of falling grit. Listening to it, Yu Sheng broke into a cold sweat.

Then he snapped back and asked: “Hold on. Why is it called the grave mound hub?”

Rapunzel scooted back and said: “Not our fault, big bro. Salted Fish called it that. She said the thing you built looks like a grave mound.”

So the Valley stayed loud and lively the rest of the day.

…

Deep inside the headquarters of the Special Affairs Bureau, in the Director’s office, hundreds of floating projection windows filled the wide room. Each one showed footage that Deep Divers had filmed while moving through the dense fog. Some feeds were live. Others were recorded earlier.

Bai Li Qing sat behind her desk, watching the screens while listening to a report through her comms: “Two squads have opened a path from Heyang District to the old city. Because of the fog, other squads had to detour a lot. The path we have is not very stable. The Barrier Device takes heavy interference in the mist.

“We are searching for the ‘contact point’ Yu Sheng described. We have narrowed the range, but we have not found anything abnormal yet.

“In the south city, we found traces of the Artificial Saintess, but the whole area is wrapped in very thick fog. It is hard to go deep for now. We are waiting for the High Powered Barrier Device.

“As ordered, all teams are operating in small groups. The Artificial Saintess is cautious. She has noticed us. Several members’ Spiritual Intuition briefly sensed her gaze, but each time we got close she moved away fast. She is hard to catch.”

Bai Li Qing listened in silence. When the report paused, she asked: “Any encounters with dangerous entities?”

The voice replied: “One squad ran into the entity called ‘Balloon’ while scouting a path, but there were no injuries. Other squads have not met dangerous entities yet. Compared to the report from Heyang District, most of the city in the fog does not seem to spawn entities as often as we feared.”

Bai Li Qing said calmly: “Stay on guard. We still do not know the rules for entity generation in the Mistbound City. Everything we see may be only temporary. Keep expanding the search and report at once if anything happens.”

The voice answered: “Yes, Director.”

The call ended. After a moment, Bai Li Qing shut down the projection system. The dizzying wall of screens faded at once. The office returned to normal.

A pair of huge eyes appeared on the floor to ceiling window, and a deep voice said: “You seem uneasy, sister. I feel you are… irritated?”

Bai Li Qing said evenly: “The Holy Revere Hermitage has stayed low key for over ten years. This time they moved with no warning and slipped past all our intelligence channels.”

The eyes asked: “Is that all? Or do the twisted sights in the fog remind you of something familiar? Like the Faded Labyrinth we went into together. The mood is very similar there.”

Bai Li Qing turned her head and looked at the eyes on the glass. Outside, the fog drifted and curled as usual.

The eyes blinked and said: “Alright, I will stop. I do not like that topic either.”

Bai Li Qing said: “Then do not bring it up.”

The eyes answered quickly: “Alright, alright, you are the boss.”