Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 618: Signs of Loss of Control

A long time ago, Yu Sheng asked the Special Service Bureau to investigate information regarding the "Artificial Saintess." It seems that his request back then was taken seriously, as the bureau indeed found a significant amount of related information from various sources—these reports brought by Song Cheng were timely, and successfully reignited everyone's anger once more.

Yu Sheng's gaze fell on Luna's face, yet he couldn't detect much change in expression on her eternally perfect visage. Through the bond formed by blood, however, he could feel a sharp coldness hidden beneath her reason and calmness—this coldness was brewing in her heart, growing incessantly.

The small puppet on his shoulder moved slightly, causing Yu Sheng to turn his head, seeing Erin pulling herself toward Luna with effort. He obliged and shifted aside a step, allowing Erin to finally reach Luna's shoulder. The small puppet wore an unusually serious expression on her face as she knocked the "C-clip" she'd often complain about, speaking in an assertive tone: "C-clip, I'm telling you, we're definitely going to help you regain face. I'm really awesome, next month I'll have a force of six regiments..."

Luna seemed a bit surprised; she stared at the small puppet in a daze for two seconds before slowly lowering her head, "Th-thank you."

Hu Li looked at Yu Sheng and Luna, then at Xu Jiali lying in bed. She, who hadn't spoken much, suddenly asked, "Are those guys who attacked still in the dark alley?"

"Definitely not," Xu Jiali sighed. "After we retreated, the bureau sent two more squads to investigate, but by then the dark alley had returned to its previous state. The Knight Order and the leading Saintess were nowhere to be found, and even the traces we left from our encounter were mostly repaired by the Exotic Realm's properties. This is something our captain should be aware of."

"Yes, I was the one who sent people," Song Cheng nodded. "We now suspect that the Hidden Monastery Sect has found a way to stabilize and control the passage, or at least discovered a pattern to the passage's activation. The group of enemies that attacked Xu Jiali isn't quite the same as the group you guys encountered before. This time they were organized, large-scale, and both their attack and retreat were orderly... Although I'd rather not admit, we were quite passive this time."

Yu Sheng didn't say anything, just pondered while stroking his chin for a long while before suddenly speaking up, "But looking at it from another angle, since they've come from the 'dark alley' twice now, doesn't that indicate that opening the 'passage' is also limited? So if we just find a way to keep an eye on the dark alley..."

Song Cheng nodded before Yu Sheng could finish, "That's exactly what we think too, which is why there's now a focus on monitoring the dark alley, and we've also dispatched specialized Spiritual Ability Users to set up there, hoping to find traces of the 'rift' in the dark alley—though there's been no progress as yet."

Erin started tugging at Yu Sheng's hair, "Still gonna take a look?"

"Gotta see for myself," Yu Sheng exhaled softly, gazing at Xu Jiali beside him, "You just rest here and heal, leave the rest to us."

Xu Jiali's face was tense (possibly because the painkiller was wearing off), she didn't speak after hearing Yu Sheng's words, but slowly nodded.

But just as Yu Sheng opened the door leading to the dark alley's entrance, he suddenly shifted, "Wait."

Yu Sheng stopped and turned his head.

"Be extremely careful," Xu Jiali spoke with a solemn expression, "That Artificial Saintess, very dangerous—I know others are dangerous too, but this one feels particularly off. She's not quite like Miss Luna, I can't put my finger on it, but during the encounter, I constantly felt like my every move was being seen through, as if something was persistently trying to infiltrate my mind. Other deep divers also reported experiencing similar situations; if not for the protection from the Spiritual Servants, our team's predicament might be worse than it is now."

Listening to the report, Yu Sheng's expression grew serious.

"Noted," he replied with extra gravity, nodding as he stepped through the door.

...

The coldness and dimness in the dark alley were as pervasive as always, with the thin mist in the air adding an eerie touch to the old, densely packed buildings.

When Yu Sheng's group entered the dark alley, the first thing they saw were the deep divers and Spiritual Servants guarding the entrance, along with the Special Service Bureau officers in black tactical gear setting up some type of sensing device in front of various shops.

The personnel here had obviously been alerted in advance, and seeing Yu Sheng didn't elicit much reaction; they just nodded in greeting and continued with their work.

Erin (with blonde hair) was holding onto Yu Sheng's head, muttering by his ear, "It really is... such a tense atmosphere."

Whether the atmosphere was tense or not didn't matter, Yu Sheng could tell this little thing was pretty nervous.

He raised his hand to pat the small puppet's head, firstly leading Luna and Hu Li to the place where Xu Jiali's squad had been attacked before.

The attack site was near an old bookstore, diagonally opposite a small store selling pet food.

As Xu Jiali mentioned, the Exotic Realm's "reset" property had mostly erased the battle traces here. Now, only some faint gunshot marks and cracks on the facades facing the street remained, and even these were slowly fading.

Luna silently stepped forward, inspecting the remnants of those marks. Her fingers brushed against a crack beside a display window, studying it thoughtfully.

"Yes, Artificial Saintess," she looked up at Yu Sheng, "but the style, differs from mine."

Yu Sheng: "What do you mean?"

"Like, an older model," Luna hesitated to piece the words together, "I, don't know, how to explain..."

She gestured at herself, "Identifiable, like, the body's, instinct."

"...It seems this is still one of your predecessors." Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow while his peripheral vision caught a small shadow.

It was a little black cat with a plastic texture—it was cautiously poking half of its body out from a puddle, watching nervously this side.

Erin instinctively tensed up for a moment: "Ah, another cat!"

"Don't be so startled; they're harmless now," Yu Sheng said while squatting down, beckoning the little black cat, "Come here."

The little black cat jumped out of the puddle, and amidst a series of "flashes," ran to Yu Sheng, its glowing white eyes staring intently, with a "meow" coming from its pitch-black body.

Yu Sheng thought for a while, placed his hand on the little black cat's head, concentrated on the blood connection, and gave the clearest command possible: "Tell me what you saw."

In the blood-established connection, a string of "fragmented impressions" suddenly began to emerge in his mind—blurred, intermittent shadows, and sounds—some were actual sounds, while others were "sounds" understood through the cats' chaotic and fragmentary minds; these chaotic information fused into something like—

People with hard shells, strange cat people with cat ears walking upright, coming in to rummage through things, getting beaten up, clanging sounds, didn't get any canned food, flew away several, oh meow, how miserable, didn't get any canned food...

Yu Sheng: "..."

What a mess!

His brain was buzzing, tangled by the little black cat's muddled mind, and was even more unclear from the outset; however, just as he was about to move his hand away from the little black cat's head, the last few snippets of scenes that appeared in his mind abruptly stopped him.

He saw a tall and elegant silhouette—a stranger, an Artificial Saintess—with knights behind her orderly retreating through a rift floating in the dark alley, yet the Artificial Saintess inexplicably stopped, standing in the middle of the alley.

On the street, scarred and battered after the chaotic battle, at the distorted force field left by the Spiritual Energy Scream, she stood alone there as if suddenly losing her mind or suffering some malfunction—similar to Luna's usual "crashed" state.

In the next image, a "Knight" seemed to perceive the Saintess's abnormal state, turned around approaching as if to prompt her.

Yet, the "Artificial Saintess" suddenly raised her arm, her seemingly slender arm grabbed the knight at the waist; despite his fierce struggles, she casually swung him, brutally throwing the tall bronze armor into the rapidly closing rift.

The next second, the "Artificial Saintess," who had just attacked her comrade, sharply turned, sprinting towards the intersection at the end of the dark alley.

Yu Sheng was dumbfounded.

The "memory stream" in his mind swiftly faded, the little black cat's limited mind could no longer provide more memory details, as Yu Sheng's vision blurred momentarily, his attention returned to the dark alley, then he shook his head vigorously, slapped his thigh: "She ran!?"

Hu Li beside him was holding two big tails, alert, hearing this tried to process it: "Huh? Savior, what ran?"

"That Artificial Saintess—she suddenly attacked the knights on the scene and then ran away!"

Yu Sheng quickly got up, rapidly narrated the scene he saw in the memory stream, then pointed towards the alley's other exit: "She ran from there—at the 'intersection' that creates an exit, so likely has run 'outside'."

Everyone at the scene was stunned upon hearing this (except Luna, whose expression remained inscrutable), Erin and Hu Li exchanged looks for a while before their gazes ultimately fell on Luna, almost speaking in unison: "Do you know what's happening?"

Luna stared blankly for a while, finally stammering: "I also, don't know!"

...

At the same time, in the old district of Boundary City, near the path at No. 66 Wutong Road, Zheng Zhi and Li Lin were strolling back, each holding a freshly bought baked sweet potato.

The weather was nice today; quite sunny and breezy, a bit of snow piled by the roadside, yet the weather felt warm; the Bureau had no plans, not much work; walking with a hot baked sweet potato in hand truly felt delightful—utter enjoyment of life.

Li Lin found the current days much more leisurely than outdoor errands with the captain.

Zheng Zhi thought so too.

The super intern officer took a bite of the baked sweet potato, warm steam wafting before his eyes.

A slight breeze blew, a bit cold, dispersing the warm steam.

An Artificial Saintess was standing right before him.