Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 591: Cats Are Good

Yu Sheng widened his eyes sharply, looking toward the direction from which the sound came, but saw only a strange, dim light hovering in front of a shop next to the old bookstore. In that light, resembling some kind of sticky gel, floated nearly transparent human figures, and in the blink of an eye, those figures disappeared.

The others around him had no reaction, only Hu Li suddenly twitched her ears, casting a puzzled glance: "Savior, what's wrong?"

"Didn't you hear the sound just now?" Yu Sheng was a bit surprised, "Someone was talking nearby."

"No," Hu Li's ears twitched again, "Just a little bit of wind noise."

Yu Sheng frowned tightly.

Hu Li's ears were the most sensitive; usually, even when he opened a pack of instant noodles in the attic, she could jump out from the basement. If she said she didn't hear it, then it could only mean those whispers... weren't really "sounds."

After a brief hesitation, Yu Sheng's eyes fell on Luna.

The latter immediately turned her head, with a face covered in bionic alloy showing a hint of doubt.

"I just heard someone talking nearby," Yu Sheng said, "and Luna's name was mentioned in the voice..."

He decided to share what he heard earlier—although they were just like hallucinations, countless classic cases taught him one thing: never hide this kind of information from teammates. Sometimes, if you think it's not the right time to say something, that time may never come...

The scene fell into silence.

The two sentences Yu Sheng heard carried significant information, even Erin could glean some insight, and Little Red Riding Hood had heard tales of the "Artificial Saintess." Upon hearing it, she immediately frowned deeply, eyes on Luna.

Luna stood motionless, her steel body maintaining an almost cold stability under precise programming. Yet, that almost eternal perfect smile faded from her face—for the first time, the Mechanical Girl's pale face showed such a distinct shock and agitation.

She looked stiffly up, gazing at the shop windows on the street that emitted eerie lights, her eyes scanning the near-transparent illusions inside, as if trying to discern something from those insubstantial shadows.

After a while, she awkwardly returned her gaze to Yu Sheng, stammering, "Was there still conversation?"

"No, I could only occasionally hear it," Yu Sheng said, "But we can check around; maybe we'll hear more."

"Okay." Luna slowly nodded.

So the group temporarily left the dark old bookstore, leaving only Little Red Riding Hood with two Shadow Wolves guarding the entrance, and Yu Sheng led the team further along the alley.

The group intentionally approached the street-facing windows reflecting strange lights along the way.

Occasionally, they would see swaying figures in the windows, like illusions projected from afar onto the glass.

Most windows emitted no talking sounds; even if there were sounds, to Yu Sheng, they were just indistinct murmurs, indistinguishable in content.

Luna's footsteps were very light—even metal heels on the stone pavement made almost no sound, as if worried about interfering with Yu Sheng's listening.

As they nearly reached the crossroads, Yu Sheng suddenly stopped.

"Someone's talking about a harvest," he listened intently, whispering to the others, then, after discerning for a while, uncertainly looked at Luna, "and there's a name that sounds like a place, something like Tasico or Tusico... couldn't hear clearly after that."

"Tasico," Luna tried hard to speak, more fluently than ever before, "a big city, heard of it, never been."

Luna's response confirmed the most incredible conclusion—

The "whispers" Yu Sheng heard in the Dark Alley... were they really voices from her homeland world!?

Is it a conversation happening right now? A "record" left through some inexplicable supernatural mechanism? Or a sign of something in the future?

Whatever the possibility, the biggest question is... why are these voices heard in the "Dark Alley"?

Everyone looked at each other, but there were no answers.

"I... have never encountered such a thing, nor even heard of such a case," Little Red Riding Hood frowned, "Exotic Realm communicating with another Exotic Realm is already incredible, let alone Luna's homeland potentially being in some star planet in the depths of a Lawless Star Region controlled by the Venerate Saints Monastery, how did they connect over such a distance? There's no World Bridge..."

"Even in Boundary Land, this would be absurd," Yu Sheng couldn't help but scratch his head, then looked up at the crossroads ahead, "This is the end. Going further might enter the next layer of the Dark Alley or return directly to the real world, so let's not head out yet, and instead go back to check what the old bookstore is like."

The group soon retraced their steps and returned to the old bookstore's entrance.

The bookstore door remained open, inside still in silence, the dark doorway and windows holding a silent invitation.

A Shadow Wolf poked its head in, halfway into the bookstore entrance, after a while pulling back out.

"The wolf says there's no danger," Little Red Riding Hood whispered, riding on another wolf's back, "but inside feels very strange."

"Strange atmosphere?" Yu Sheng glanced at the dark house in confusion. However, since the wolf had already scouted the way and confirmed there was no danger, he mustered the courage to step inside.

Several clusters of eerie blue fox fire illuminated the surroundings. Hu Li held a ball of fire in his hand, while several fireballs floated at the tip of his tail, following closely behind Yu Sheng.

The bookstore was as usual, with mottled and old walls. The counter was piled with disorganized items seeming to come from the last century, while the towering, heavy shelves stood silently inside like mute giants, filled with old books whose names were indistinguishable.

There was just no lighting—even though the door was wide open and the store was operating, it hadn't turned on the lights in accordance with the "rules" of the Dark Alley.

Yu Sheng's gaze swept around, and he didn't sense the "strange atmosphere" that Little Red Riding Hood mentioned; but perhaps this bookstore inherently exuded mystery, which might have dulled his feeling.

Nonetheless, he spotted some unusual phenomena.

In the corner of the old bookstore, at the junction of two tall bookshelves, a triangular area appeared particularly dark, resembling a stubborn shadow lurking there.

Hu Li saw it too, frowned, placed the fox fire in mid-air, and then twisted her head, rubbing the tip of her tail, generating several brighter flames to illuminate the area.

The dense darkness shrank slightly, continuing to linger under the firelight.

Hu Li threw a cluster of fox fire toward the darkness.

From the darkness came the sound of hissing: "Hiss—"

"Wow!" The fox girl was instantly startled, quickly retracting the flame back. At almost the same moment, Yu Sheng saw two hollow white lights appear in the darkness.

Vaguely around the white lights, the outline of a cat's head emerged.

More spots of white light appeared, pushing and shoving each other within the shadow, gathering together.

These were "cat" eyes—unique entities of the Dark Alley, their eyes emitting a pale light like this.

Suddenly, the shadow gathered in the corner of the bookstore began to move, numerous previously indistinguishable outlines due to their aggregation became visible from the shadow. Erin, initially standing on the ground, darted onto Yu Sheng's shoulder with a "swish"—how she managed that while holding a frying pan nearly her size was unknown.

Yu Sheng finally realized why they hadn't seen a single "cat" on this journey through the Deep Layer of the Dark Alley—it turned out they all hid in this old bookstore, forming a mass here!

At this moment, Hu Li's tail was unsheathed, Luna's blade shimmered coldly, two shadow wolves growled protectively beside Little Red Riding Hood. Yu Sheng, meanwhile, casually opened a door and equipped the "blood needle launcher" that Mo Ran gave him, pointing it at the heap of cats, while holding a blood grenade in his other hand.

Yet the heap of cats only pushed and shoved a few times on the spot, apart from hissing at Hu Li's fox fire, there were no other movements.

Little Red Riding Hood was on guard for a few moments, discovering the heap of cats didn't seem to intend to attack, she felt a bit confused: "...What's wrong with them?"

Erin sat on Yu Sheng's shoulder, gesturing with a frying pan: "Ma... Maybe their tails got tangled?"

Fearing the little thing might first smack him on the head with the frying pan, Yu Sheng subconsciously tilted his head. After observing for a moment, he spoke uncertainly: "It seems they're hiding from something... You all wait a bit, I feel these 'cats' are a bit different from before."

Saying this, he moved half a step closer.

Erin shrieked on his shoulder: "Hey, what are you doing—"

Several hisses came from the heap. But more blurry shadows squeezed out from it, waving their paws at Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng felt a vague sense of connection.

Suddenly, he remembered—he had bled in the Dark Alley.

He recalled deliberately leaving more "marks" near the old bookstore.

...Did these cats lose their aggressiveness because of this?

Yu Sheng wasn't sure, but he boldly extended his hand toward one of the shadows—actually, he wasn't sure if that shadow was a cat's head, as this heap looked like a big mass of cat slime, but after a moment of hesitation, the shadow leaned forward a bit and rubbed against his palm.

Normally, when an outsider contacted "cats," a constantly bleeding wound would immediately form on their body; this was the characteristic of the Dark Alley cats "scratching people at their crucial points."

But Yu Sheng only felt he touched a cold yet slightly furry head.

Also, a simple "thought" suddenly transmitted into his mind.

"There are invaders, hide, hide in the darkness."

Invader?