Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 656 - 655: Momo Knows Quite a Lot

Momo sat somewhat nervously on the chair in the reception room, her tail drooping from the armrest, tense and unmoving. For a Gyprolian, this chair seemed a bit too wide. She tentatively placed her hand on the armrest but quickly withdrew it—this motion only magnified her inner unease.

Across from her sat the figure who claimed to be a "spirit realm detective from the Boundary Land," but who was respectfully referred to here as "Yu Sheng True Monarch." Beside him was an Arglede Elf suspected to be a high executive of the Black Dot Group, someone who appeared to be an Artificial Saintess from the Hidden Monastery, and a nine-tailed Fox Demon.

A small puppet, black-haired with red eyes and only a few dozen centimeters tall, was running around the table—Erin suddenly leaped in front of Momo, her crimson eyes staring at the tense Gyprolian girl: "Hey, don't be nervous. The environment here is very safe—though there was once a Dark Angel problem, now the ground below is full of Angel Remains, but they've all been neutralized now."

Yu Sheng highly suspected that this little thing said this deliberately; he didn't need any evidence.

So he lightly coughed twice, picked up the small mischievous puppet from the table, and stuffed it into Hu Li's tail, then nodded to Momo: "You've more or less understood our situation by now, so let's talk about you. How did you become... um, Old Qiao's 'laboratory assistant'? How long have you been 'working' in that fortress?"

"About ten years, but I can't remember the exact days," Momo replied hastily. "I initially followed a scientific team to track a 'lone star' operating in the dark region, but our ship encountered an incident while passing through the Stargate of the Great Cross Nebula. The 'Nora Force Field' enveloping the ship ruptured during the jump, and we were 'flung' near the Dark Meteor Domain...

"Most people died on the spot. I barely repaired the ship's power and life support systems with the remaining engineers, but as we tried to restart the engines, the Sky Attacker Pirates traced the distress signal from our ship—we didn't know we had reached the Dark Meteor Domain then, and when everyone realized it, it was too late. The pirates raided the ship and took everyone.

"The leader of that Sky Attacker Fleet originally planned to keep us on the ship as slave labor to supplement his loss of personnel from a previous incident, but he was allergic to cat fur and later found out I was a technician, so he eventually sold me to Old Qiao.

"And then I stayed in that base ever since... At that time, there were actually a few others bought by Old Qiao along with me, but they all died one by one, leaving only me."

Erin sprang out from Hu Li's tail, peeking over the edge of the table: "What do you usually do? Have you come into contact with Old Qiao's 'business'?"

"Usually?" Momo's intact ear twitched as she recalled, "Most of the time, I help Old Qiao with experiments related to Living Metal, or cooperate with him on tests using myself, and also keep an eye on the production line of the Living Metal factory. When he goes out, I'm in charge of managing the laboratory staff—mainly to prevent any 'unexpected material loss.'

"As for business... I haven't had much contact with it. He doesn't trust others, especially when it comes to trade lines. He handles those alone, with only an AI assistant to help him. It's a model he personally adjusted, with strong computing power but a simple mind, ensuring it won't betray him. However, once I saw Old Qiao in the server room threatening the system fiercely—telling it not to steal his money. It looked like he was talking to himself, but it was quite scary."

"...Damn, this guy is seriously nuts," Yu Sheng said, holding his forehead, "Good thing we're doing justice today."

Luo sighed and then looked at Momo more seriously: "Have you come into contact with any of Old Qiao's other 'business dealings'? Especially with those..."

She intended to say "suspicious characters," but upon second thought, she realized that in the lawless Dark Meteor Domain, those words might encompass ninety-nine percent of intelligent beings within a million light-years, so she changed her wording: "those mystical ones, who seem like impostors..."

Momo blinked: "Are you referring to the Venerate Saints Monastery?"

Luo and Yu Sheng were taken aback, unexpectedly exchanging a glance. Yu Sheng spoke first: "You actually know?!"

"Yes, he doesn't hide it from us in this matter, especially since we can't escape or contact the outside world," Momo nodded. "His attitude towards us is like dealing with experimental animals, so while confining our freedom, he paradoxically lets us know quite a bit—sometimes, he even talks to us about all sorts of nonsense, rambling on neurotically as a way of relieving pressure.

"But I only know he's secretly in contact with people from the Venerate Saints Monastery; I don't know the details...

"Oh, sometimes he would even openly curse the people from the Monastery in front of us, calling them stingy and hypocritical, with demands that grow with each request."

At this point, Momo suddenly stopped, pondering for a moment before looking up at Luo: "Ah, he recently mentioned your name—he talked about some laboratory incident related to you. It seemed to make the Venerate Saints Monastery very... unhappy, which put a lot of pressure on him and made him quite displeased."

Luo frowned slightly.

At this moment, Erin had climbed back onto Yu Sheng's shoulder and casually asked Luo, "When your laboratory exploded, it's equivalent to clearing the evidence. Why wouldn't the Hidden Monastery be happy? Because they can no longer steal data from you?"

Luo seemed thoughtful, "I find it strange too. The accident at the Rift Laboratory... by that time all my core data should have already been transferred by the mole. How could those religious fanatics still..."

Halfway through, Yu Sheng seemed to have thought of something, suddenly spoke up, "Wait, could it be like this: When Old Qiao handed over your core data to the Venerate Saints Monastery, he might have bragged too much to raise the price, boasting about the stolen stuff, and those fanatics believed him. Based on Old Qiao's information, they activated their Rift Generator, and right after they started it, there was a big explosion on your side, Hidden Monastery folks turned and looked, oh dear—"

Speaking this, Luo also realized, and the two spoke in unison, "Can't shut it down!"

The room suddenly fell silent, everyone exchanged glances, and then their expressions became interesting. Even Erin, who's not the brightest, and the fox girl focused on their food, realized what was happening (Luna's shell was more reserved, so it didn't show on the outside). Then Hu Li clapped her hands together, "Hey! Now it connects. The Hidden Monastery has been active frequently because their rift equipment is out of control, and the reason for the loss of control is the errors in the data Old Qiao provided, causing the 'Gate of Eden' to be unable to close. And that thing is likely using the Dark Angel as a power source, so the awakening process of the angel has possibly become uncontrollable, thus they're pressuring Old Qiao..."

"The result of the pressure is Old Qiao had to 'take over' my assets immediately, this incident might have bypassed the standard company process," Luo quickly continued, "I was already suspicious before; how did Old Qiao take over the base right after my incident? He acted so hastily that he didn't even have time to deal with the most profitable mines and trade routes, but kept looking for my hidden disaster recovery databases..."

"Anything else?" Yu Sheng turned to look at Momo, "What else do you know about the 'collaboration' between the Venerate Saints Monastery and Old Qiao?"

"There's a planet called the 'Saint Realm', Old Qiao has cursed about this place several times behind its back," Momo thought, speaking while pondering, "That seems to be the Venerate Saints Monastery's capital. Once Old Qiao cursed furiously, said those inferior beings are stupid and shortsighted, placing that whatever gate on the Capital Star — once the gate collapses someday, not a single one will escape... at that time he wouldn't be able to find anyone to demand payment."

The room instantly became even quieter than before.

After two or three seconds, Yu Sheng finally exclaimed, "…They built that thing on their Capital Star?!"

"Whoa, that's a bit sensational even for cultists, I'm serious," even Erin reacted, her small puppet eyes widened, "I always thought they were welding detonators and sawing light bulbs. Goddamn it, they're welding beside a gas station..."

"...This doesn't make sense," Luo frowned, puzzled, as someone who also has always been welding detonators and sawing light bulbs, and recently managed to saw one to explosion, a seasoned unlucky guy, she couldn't fathom the cultists' reasoning, "Shouldn't such dangerous things be put far away? I even specifically built an independent space station for Zolda Black Stone, how dare they just start messing on their home planet..."

"Don't say that, you're not much better than them," Yu Sheng waved his hand, not being polite at all on this topic with Luo, then he stroked his chin and threw out a guess, "I have a thought about this... could it be related to some of their doctrines?"

Erin thought for a moment but didn't understand, so she poked at Yu Sheng's head, "What do you mean?"

"Like putting sacred objects in Holy Land? Or completing the final step of the ritual on the 'divine mother planet'?"

"Just for that, put this 'Angel Technology' that could explode at any moment beneath their feet?" Erin couldn't understand, "Aren't they afraid of blowing themselves up..."

Yu Sheng clapped his hands, "That's what you said, without doing something extreme, how could cultists stand out — especially in the Dark Meteor Domain, a place full of talents, without exterminating their entire family, how could they ascend?"

Momo blinked her eyes, looking at this odd group in front of her.

She didn't know exactly what happened, but she could feel that the intelligence she provided was useful, and this somewhat relaxed her.

Useful information... should mean no ordeal to suffer.

Just thinking this, several lines of sight suddenly turned directly towards her again.

Yu Sheng looked at the cat-head girl across the table with anticipation, "What else do you know?"