Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 646 - 645: Infiltration

Yu Sheng was startled by the scene in the hall—the "collectibles" taken from living people practically filled the place. They were placed in tanks or display cases like some kind of art exhibits, illuminated by carefully arranged lighting. A glance was enough to gauge the owner's perverse nature.

The sight made him feel uncomfortable all over. After a cry of surprise, he turned to look at the golden-haired elf standing beside him: "Luo, this 'Old Qiao' is way more twisted than you described!"

Luo had snapped out of her daze by now, but hearing Yu Sheng's words put a peculiar expression on her face. Her lips twitched as she glanced at Old Qiao's steel shell, which had been mutated by flesh, then looked at the heart that jumped out of Old Qiao's chest. After holding back, she couldn't help but say, "Boss, do you want to check your own style?"

"What's wrong with my style?" Yu Sheng asked confusedly, "I'm full of righteousness..."

Luo decisively chose to skip this topic, turning to look at Old Qiao, who was tied up with a myriad of ropes. She frowned slightly: "This is just an incarnation. Just tying this one up is useless; his true form is somewhere else... But I don't know where."

"Each one we tie is a success, anyway we've already found his lair," Erin said casually, controlling the spider silk. "But speaking of which, why is he not reacting... Did I just kill this body of his with one kick? It shouldn't be, this thing looks like a robot. Can a broken neck be a fatal injury?"

Luo walked over to check the condition of the steel shell on the sofa—hesitating at first, she extended several mechanical limbs from behind, piercing into the chest and abdomen of Old Qiao's shell. After checking for some residual signals among the lines, she finally spoke hesitantly, "His thought activities have been severely damaged; part of his mind is trapped in a death loop within this shell. But this 'daze' shouldn't last too long. Once his mind trapped in this shell completely 'dies,' his true form will wake up."

Erin instinctively asked, "What happens when it wakes up?" 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"Old Qiao won't just give in—this base is still garrisoned by a large number of cloned soldiers, and he certainly has more than one backup shell."

"Then let's fight," Erin said, getting excited (though it was unclear what she was happy about). She climbed onto the sofa back, hands on hips, "I've got six regiments, do you think we can't take down this lousy place..."

The little puppet finished speaking, and Yu Sheng also chimed in: "We still have some time, right? Let me get prepared first."

Luo looked puzzled at her current boss: "What are you preparing..."

Before she could finish speaking, she saw Yu Sheng open another door beside him, then squeezed through and brought back a set of equipment from a warehouse-looking place.

The thing was made up of a large tank and a series of pipes, valves, and other structures. Its top part had numerous talismans glowing slightly around its "lid," which looked like the style from Feiyu Star Domain. However, compared to the "magic treasures" made by immortals, this thing seemed much more sinister.

Luo felt the object was familiar at first glance, so she quickly recalled, and the dignified faces of the three sliding knee knights of the Demon Suppression Tower appeared in her mind, along with their emphatic declaration during a meeting:

"We are a noble and righteous sect, sworn to die for Yu Sheng True Monarch..."

As she pondered, she heard a faint "hissing" sound, wisps of blood mist appeared in the air and quickly spread and seeped in all directions like a living creature.

"I'll place a diffusion device here first," Yu Sheng said casually while following the usage instructions to activate the "magic treasure" brought from Shuji, "then stir things up here."

Luo blinked, feeling like she had a lot to say, but it was all stuck in her throat.

So she just sighed lightly, then turned her face to look at this place still deeply imprinted in her memory.

Those nauseating "art pieces."

Those fears seemingly still lingering deep in her memory.

The steel monster lying on the sofa, tightly bound by black threads.

She didn't want to remember, but she still recalled her days here as Old Qiao's "lab assistant."

Back then, she dreamed every day of escaping this terrifying cage. Yet, after escaping and many years later, she again dreamed of finding this place—destiny is such an unpredictable thing, and now, she truly returned.

Not only returned but also brought along powerful allies... Although some styles seemed a bit off, and the whole process wasn't exactly what she imagined before.

Luo laughed, with a smile brighter than ever on her face.

"Why are you grinning like that!" Erin's voice suddenly came from the side, her presence startling Luo. "Hurry up and tell us about this place—terrain structure, defense layout, and such. I've seen in movies that lone troops should have this info. We're not familiar with this place, and at least you've lived here."

"My information might be outdated—after all, it's been many years since I left," Luo instantly responded, pulling out a data terminal while speaking, "But the general layout should remain the same. The entire base is built relying on the original cave structure of this asteroid..."

The hissing airflow echoed in the room, the blood mist kept spreading, and quickly seeped into the walls and floors. Yu Sheng, while listening to Luo's explanation on the side, devoted a considerable part of his attention to the "diffusion device."

He could feel the connection between those blood-red mists and himself and sense his perception continuously expanding inside this secret base as the blood mist permeated—within another layer of vision, he could already see the pipes and support structures around the hall, his visual field gradually widening, the "scene ahead" fading like mist.

The "diffusion device" whipped up by the Skating Kneel Trio is indeed a good thing. The efficiency of its diffusion and infiltration far surpasses his previous crude methods involving finding a place to hang and bleed all over. But even though the efficiency is high, and the scale of this secret base is limited, he still needs some time to fully grasp this place.

——The "contamination" carried by Old Qiao's avatar upon its return is ultimately limited. Although it's enough to plunge him into illusions and frenzy, it's still far from sufficient for Yu Sheng to exert enough influence on the facility.

Just then, Luna, stationed at the door, suddenly raised her head: "An unidentified unit is gathering nearby."

"Old Qiao's main body has 'awakened'," Luo suddenly felt her breath quicken—it was hard for her to tell how much she was excited or nervous at the moment, "He should first let the clone soldiers in, and will arrange some avatars to lead; the most likely route is from channel number two..."

"I need a bit more time here," Yu Sheng spoke quickly, "Don't let anyone come in and disrupt."

"No problem!"

Erin, full of confidence, then stood on the sofa back and waved her hand—

Twisted space rifts appeared out of thin air throughout the hall, with heaps of mass-produced puppets with dead fish eyes being teleported into the hall.

"Hey, I have a suggestion," Luo witnessed this scene and suddenly seemed to think of something; her eyes lit up as she looked at Erin and said, "There's a ventilation duct, your puppet army can get inside..."

Erin immediately widened her eyes: "My dignified Alice Puppets to crawl into ventilation ducts?!"

Yu Sheng didn't lift his head: "In the movies, special forces always crawl into ventilation ducts."

"Is that so?"

...

The corridor leading to the base's core area flickered with an ominous red light, dense footsteps shattered the surrounding silence, fully armed clone soldiers silently raced past the connecting passage, and the oppressive, tense atmosphere lingered in the air.

A steel figure over two meters tall strode at the forefront of the team, the two "eyes" at its head position flickered with furious red light.

However, within that fury, there seemed to linger some remnants of fear from a "nightmare."

There were invaders within his base—through some tricks possibly involving Black Spirit Ability or subspace, they'd mocked the great "Qiao"!

The red light beneath the Steel Giant's eyes flickered, as those eerie and absurd "illusions" surfaced again in Old Qiao's mind.

He felt as if he'd had a long nightmare, a nightmare that seemed to have started when he left Gray Dwarf Star, but might have had signs even before. In the nightmare, he was dazed and confused, as if his thoughts were trapped in a recurring, sinking mire, a fatal defect in his body entrapped his mind in the dead cycle of a faulty shell, making it difficult for him to take action in the real world.

Many details of the nightmare were already unclear to him; he was unsure how he broke away from the dead cycle, but evidently, the defective body was thoroughly destroyed. Before its destruction, he only vaguely remembered seeing the invaders, and... Lou's figure.

"Time to resolve this mistake..."

Old Qiao gritted his teeth and murmured to himself.

The multiple enhanced bodies he left in the base were already activated, the clone soldiers stationed outside the core area had also assembled to enter, and a Spiritual Ability User force was entering the fortress from the upper passage, with the base's defense system also activated—no matter the background of the invaders who crawled in, there's no escape today.

Yet...why is there still such a strong sense of unease stirring within?

Before his subordinates, Old Qiao projected an image of the dignified and formidable presence he always had, yet deep inside, a feeling of instability lingered, like large chunks of memory went blank, certain critical and dangerous information was overlooked, but he can't, for the life of him, recall what exactly he ignored.

A strange noise suddenly came from the ceiling, disrupting Old Qiao's thoughts.

In the darkness, there was a "bang," like something fell to the ground.

The clone soldiers instantly reacted, the sound of bullets being loaded resonated in the corridor, Old Qiao cautiously moved forward, suddenly noticing a dark heap on the ground not far away.

It was a filthy puppet.