Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 590: Suspicious Voices in the Dark Alley

Peaceful and uneventful daily life is always rare. In this Boundary Land, it seems that having some incident in life is considered normal—Yu Sheng thought that after the World Bridge time ended, at least this city could be quiet for two months. However, the fact is that in this vast Boundary Land, there's never been a day when nothing truly happens.

Honestly speaking, he's not very interested if minor incidents happen in other places, after all, the Special Service Bureau will always intervene. But if something changes in the Dark Alley...he definitely needs to take a look.

Dusk has arrived.

Little Red Riding Hood and Yu Sheng arrived at the entrance of the old street again, also bringing along Hu Li and Luna. As for Erin—at the strong request of the little puppet, Yu Sheng eventually brought out the blond version.

The little puppet was still holding her beloved frying pan, eagerly expressing that if they encounter danger, she wants to showcase her skills.

To be honest, Yu Sheng doesn't have much confidence in Erin's "showcase of skills." After all, every time this little thing is full of confidence, something goes wrong. But he's also curious to see how her "original body shell" performs in actual combat...

The Special Service Bureau has already raised the danger level of the Dark Alley and issued a recent warning against entering the Dark Alley on Border Communication. Many ordinary Spirit Realm detectives and independent investigators who initially planned exploration have temporarily shelved their tasks. By the time Yu Sheng and his team arrived, they even saw several Special Service Bureau vehicles beside the node device at the old street entrance.

Several fully armed Special Service Bureau officers guarded the entrance to the Exotic Realm, with the node device operating at full power buzzing behind them.

Noticing someone approaching, the armed officers on site seemed a bit nervous, but after seeing Yu Sheng's face, they relaxed—obviously, Yu Sheng's face is quite well-known inside the Special Service Bureau.

Though the officers relaxed for just a moment, the next second their expressions turned even more serious than before, akin to facing a great enemy. As Yu Sheng walked over, two officers had the veins on their neck popping out, and a squad leader-like officer took the initiative to walk over, first saluting, then immediately showing a serious and nervous look—

As he began to speak, Yu Sheng simultaneously said, "The situation has become this severe?"

Then both were stunned.

Yu Sheng was the first to react, quickly coughing twice: "Cough, I mean has the situation become severe enough for the Special Service Bureau to directly lock down the 'Dark Alley'?"

"I also thought the situation was severe enough to need your intervention... But then I thought, there hasn't been any notice from above," the squad leader opposite awkwardly touched his nose, then quickly explained, "There's not yet a complete lockdown order, but non-senior Spirit Realm detectives and independent investigators have been prohibited from entering. We are here to prevent any incident."

Little Red Riding Hood frowned slightly, seemingly picking up on something from the officer's tone: "...Has the situation changed again?"

"...The entrance to the Dark Alley has drifted," the squad leader glanced at the few in front of him, not hiding the current situation, "Entering the Dark Alley now will directly transport one to random depths and random positions, rather than entering the safe area of the first layer. The risk of casualties has increased significantly. Moreover...previous rumors regarding 'humanoid entities' in deep layers have been confirmed. Currently, the Bureau gives a danger rating of 3, but it may be adjusted upward at any time."

Little Red Riding Hood blinked: "...The lethality has been verified?"

"There is visible and indiscriminate malice, actively attacking and attempting to kill invaders—and they operate in groups, possessing suspected abilities of spatial transmission and virtual concealment. A skilled team measured this," the squad leader nodded, "The only good news is the evacuation mechanism of the Dark Alley still works, and there remains a safe exit at the crossroads."

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood exchanged a glance.

"We should go in and take a look at the situation," Yu Sheng turned and said, "Do we need any procedures?"

"No need, there's an order from the Bureau, unless notified otherwise, you have investigation authority over any Exotic Realm at any time, including regions listed as prohibited zones—your team shares the same authority."

Yu Sheng said nothing more, just expressing thanks. After greeting the Special Service Bureau officers on site, he led his team past the blockade to the narrow entrance situated between two buildings.

The mottled old brick wall didn't retreat, didn't evade, at least this time, the entrance to the Dark Alley opened as usual.

The unique "heterogeneity" feeling of entering the Exotic Realm spread from beside, the scenery before the group changed, the noisy sounds from the street in the real world quickly faded, and the silent and gloomy alley emerged before their eyes.

Little Red Riding Hood first summoned her wolf pack, guarding around the team, the ethereal blue Fox Fire silently ascended in the air, dispelling the nearby darkness and chill.

Yu Sheng looked up left and right, seeing the alley extend on both sides of him, the narrow street shrouded in damp thin fog, the sky dark as if imbued with malice. The wet road surface reflected the disordered strings of lights and wires in the sky, the neon signs above nearby buildings glowing, but those lights that should symbolize vitality and bustle emitted eerie and cold light, flickering in the fog like a poor signal video picture, even constantly trembling and deforming slightly.

The situation is as the squad leader described, the entrance to the Dark Alley has drifted—this is clearly not the safe and stable "first layer," and Yu Sheng and others found themselves in the middle of the alley upon entry.

Yet nothing resembling the rumored "humanoid entities" was visible in the sight.

"It truly doesn't seem right," Little Red Riding Hood murmured softly, while controlling several Shadow Wolves to move outward, looking towards the end of the alley. Her eyes had already turned into a wolf's appearance in the dimness, emitting a faint glow, "All the doors are open..."

Narrow streets flanked by rows of street shops lit up, their once tightly closed doors now open, stretching to the fog-shrouded intersections.

However, the previously warm lights from the storefront windows and doors were now eerie and cold, unable to extend far as if grasped by some invisible force, confined within the buildings, like...sticky gelatinous matter.

Luna silently equipped her Fingertip Blade, then nimbly leaped onto a nearby rooftop, returning to Yu Sheng's side moments later.

"Cats."

She said succinctly.

Yu Sheng was momentarily confused, but quickly reacted and looked around, "The 'cats' here seem to have disappeared."

In the deep layers of the Dark Alley, physical 'cats' would appear, attacking 'invaders' who ventured into the alley. Their numbers would multiply with increasing depth.

This place was evidently a layer deep within the Dark Alley, yet there wasn't a single 'cat' in sight.

"... This is worse than when spider silk was everywhere," Erin muttered, clutching her cherished frying pan, "At least I'm familiar with that stuff."

Hu Li then pulled out two of her tails, one clamped under each arm, and turned to Yu Sheng, "Savior, should we bomb this place?"

Yu Sheng quickly waved his hand, "No need, no need, let's first figure out what's going on here."

As they were speaking, Yu Sheng suddenly heard a faint sound drifting in through the mist, vaguely reaching his ears.

It sounded like someone whispering nearby, but the sound seemed muffled as if behind a thick curtain.

Yu Sheng looked towards the direction the sound was coming from. There was only a shop illuminated by a lamp, its sign crooked, colorful moving light beads forming unreadable symbols, making it unclear what the shop sold.

He stepped towards the shop, stopped by a filthy window, and looked inside — the dim glow from the window was restrained in mid-air about a dozen centimeters outside the glass, while there seemed to be several almost transparent figures on the other side of the window.

Was that the shop's 'customers'? Or the rumored 'human-shaped entities'?

Yu Sheng was slightly shocked; it was his first time seeing human-like figures in the Dark Alley. The changes in this place were indeed odd — yet those blurry figures did not attack as mentioned in the reports. Instead, they just flickered within the window, like... projections cast from far away onto these glass panels.

Luna also stood by the window, staring at the blurry shaded forms reflected inside for quite a while, her head slightly tilted.

"C-shaped clasp? What did you find?" Erin asked curiously.

"Nothing," Luna slowly shook her head, her voice tinged with hesitation, "Just... puzzled, all of a sudden?"

Yu Sheng furrowed his brows: although the Holy Lady usually spoke slowly, she seemed to never have spoken in such an uncertain tone.

He moved forward, passing two other shops with indiscernible operations, before finally coming across a somewhat familiar place.

It was the 'Old Bookstore' in the Dark Alley. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

But at this moment, the 'Old Bookstore' was clearly behaving strangely — in an alley where all stores lining the street were lit up, this bookstore, often open, was instead engulfed in darkness, and even the string lights on its sign weren't lit.

Yet its door was open.

Inside was pitch-black, the adjacent window similarly shrouded in darkness.

Erin bravely jumped off Yu Sheng's shoulder, approached the bookstore entrance, and peeked inside. But before she could take a step inside, she quickly scampered back, her short legs moving fast.

"It's pitch black inside, silly fox, throw some fire in there."

"You can't set fire in a bookstore..." Hu Li grumbled, but nevertheless conjured a bright flame, preparing to throw it into the Old Bookstore.

As soon as she sparked the flame, Yu Sheng once again heard that indistinct whispering sound coming from some direction, clearer than before.

A man and a woman were conversing—

"... Have you heard? The two sons of the old blacksmith in the neighboring village were both 'selected' to go to the city to become knights, personally picked up by the Red-clothed Envoy..."

"Knights? That's nothing... Our village used to produce Saintess... A girl named Luna..."

Yu Sheng's eyes widened suddenly.