Dimensional Hotel
Chapter 304: Infiltration

After finishing his communication with Irene, Yu Sheng ceased his rest and continued his movement along the outer wall of the high tower.

Now that he no longer had the large tail in his arms, his movements became much easier. The only inconvenience was that he had to stay vigilant at all times, carefully planning each place he would grip with every step. He couldn’t afford to use too much strength in his movements, or he risked being flung off the tower and into the vast emptiness of space.

It felt much like walking in space without a safety tether—one misstep, and if he drifted too far, he wouldn’t even know how to “swim” back in the weightless vacuum. In that case, he would probably have no choice but to simply door open his way home.

However, perhaps he could leave a “coordinate” on the tower’s outer shell? While the tower might be in motion at this moment (without any reference points, Yu Sheng couldn’t tell if it was flying), he could use the tower’s base as a reference for his coordinates. Even if it was moving, he might still be able to door open back.

Yu Sheng’s mind swirled with various thoughts, but after passing a strange metal protrusion, he halted again.

He drew out his new “bloodletting knife”—made from the fingertip blades of an artificial Saintess, tough and razor-sharp. With it, he sliced his palm open.

Blood erupted from the wound, bubbling in the vacuum, accompanied by a faint red mist.

At first, Yu Sheng was startled, but he quickly found the scene rather fascinating. Luckily, he hadn’t forgotten why he was shedding blood in the first place. He quickly focused his mind control on the blood, directing it to float slowly towards the nearby high tower’s outer shell.

Before the wound had fully healed, the boiling blood had already silently melded into the tower.

Yu Sheng closed his eyes slightly, sensing the information the blood was transmitting to him.

He “saw” some vague structures—the high tower was revealing its secrets to him. Beneath the heavy, seemingly rocky exterior, which was actually an alloy shell, lay a labyrinth of pipes, circuits, cavities, corridors, and many technological devices Yu Sheng could hardly begin to understand.

His current range of vision was limited, and within it, he searched for a route that would allow him to infiltrate the tower.

Where the blood infiltrated, there were paths. However, Yu Sheng needed to find a “safer” entry point. He wasn’t afraid of death, but he feared dying in a humiliating way. If he went this far into infiltration only to be immediately caught and killed by heretic cultists, his face would be ruined. Irene would undoubtedly bring it up for months to come.

There was no suitable point nearby, so Yu Sheng continued moving along the outer shell. After a while, near some runic chains connected to auxiliary facilities, he performed the same trick and once again offered blood to the tower.

After three consecutive attempts, he finally stopped at a connection point between two layers of armor, a pleased expression spreading across his face.

Beneath him was a “safe passage” with no human presence nearby. Several pathways led deeper into the tower.

Without hesitation, Yu Sheng pressed his hand against the cold, thick alloy armor.

The armor was thick, with several layers of protective, cushioning, and sensory structures underneath. However, the door Yu Sheng was aiming to open wasn’t one that required cutting through these layers. Instead, he intended to form a short-range teleportation channel, using the blood he had already spilled as a conduit. The span of this channel was enough to bypass all the tower’s exterior structures and avoid the potential damage alarm system beneath the armor layers.

Yu Sheng didn’t know much about spaceships, but he suspected this one must have a similar alarm system to detect breaches in the armor, allowing those inside to react immediately. Since this was an infiltration, the longer he remained undetected, the better.

The “door” soon materialized.

Yu Sheng gently turned the “handle” and quietly pulled open the illusory door that had appeared on the high tower’s outer shell.

“I’m coming in…”

…

“Can’t find him! The drones are in place, but there’s no sign of anyone outside.”

“The ‘knight’ is searching near section three, but nothing here either.”

“The sensors aren’t reacting—external monitors are still offline. When will this subsystem be fixed?!”

Sage sat in the control hall, his face grim as he listened to the reports and conversations around him.

A tense atmosphere filled the hall, but at least everyone had regained their composure. Each person was focused on their tasks. Still, Sage could feel a sense of unease growing in everyone’s hearts.

Because they couldn’t find the “monster” moving on the pillar of order’s shell.

If that person was truly the one responsible for the previous mask failure and the failed jump, then the situation before him was undoubtedly disastrous. Seeing someone “hanging a ticket” in the vast expanse of space was certainly a terrifying sight, but when that person disappeared in the blink of an eye, it birthed a different, deeper kind of fear…

“Could it be some kind of collective hallucination?” someone cautiously voiced the hope shared by all, “We exited the jump state too hastily. This could have caused great stimulation to our nervous systems. Cases of collective hallucinations under such circumstances do exist.”

“Are you referring to the ‘Ruby’ incident in 1882 of the Holy Calendar? That ship, after a failed jump, docked in space four light-seconds away from the starport. The crew members, without any protective gear, walked right out of the ship—thinking they had arrived safely home.”

“Maybe, I mean, what if…?”

“Enough,” an Hermitage Member interrupted the pointless chatter, “Rather than comforting ourselves with collective hallucinations, I’d prefer to believe that the culprit has already infiltrated!”

As these words were spoken, the entire hall fell silent in an instant. Then, as if to puncture the stillness, a member stationed at the control console suddenly broke the silence.

“Report! The core zone’s perimeter passage has detected an intruder… he has really infiltrated!”

The figure in the white robe, the “Sage,” stood up abruptly. While those around him were filled with uncertainty, a smile formed on his face.

“Good—find him, and deal with him!”

Yu Sheng felt a bit lost.

He had entered this tower, only to find its structure resembling a labyrinth—countless intersections and bizarre rooms. The good news was that there was gravity inside, so he could walk steadily on the ground. The bad news was that some areas had gravity issues, causing him to suddenly “fall” to one side, making it even harder to tell up from down.

However, he didn’t think this was a big problem.

After all, he was unfamiliar with the place. Whether he was lost or not didn’t matter; what mattered was using his blood to see through walls and his immense confidence to navigate.

After wandering through a few corridors, he stopped in a quiet corner. Reaching into his pocket, he fished out his phone.

Unlocking it, he opened the Frontier communication interface.

Yu Sheng was certain that this seemingly ordinary “phone” was packed with Special Affairs Bureau’s high-tech gadgets. Even leaving aside everything else, just the fact that it had stayed operational in the vacuum of space for so long and remained silky smooth when he used it—this couldn’t possibly be made with regular “civilian parts.”

Of course, the fact that the phone didn’t malfunction in space wasn’t the most outrageous part. The most mind-blowing thing was when he pulled it out, he noticed it had signal.

A signal!

Yu Sheng had initially planned to snap a few pictures of the surroundings and send a little surprise to Bai Li Qing. However, when he saw the full signal bar on his phone, he was taken aback. Swiping down the status bar, he noticed that the service provider had switched from “Boundary City Communications” to “Starry Union Telecom,” with a warning: “Currently using the Starry Union channel, extra charges may apply…”

This left him in awe, but he didn’t waste time. After a brief moment of amazement, he quickly took a few photos of the surroundings and activated the phone’s environmental data monitoring function. Then, he sent a message to Bai Li Qing: “Guess where I am?”

Within moments, Bai Li Qing replied, her message starting with a string of question marks: “??? You’ve entered the high tower already?!”

Yu Sheng was a bit surprised: “Ah, you already know about this?”

“I received a report saying that Foxy shot you out with its tail, and you disappeared into the mistbound city along with that strange high tower,” Bai Li Qing replied swiftly—she had become quite proficient at composing such clever sentences. “I tried calling you several times, but you didn’t pick up.”

Yu Sheng quickly checked his call log, only to find multiple missed calls from Bai Li Qing. He was stunned because he didn’t remember hearing the phone ring, but after a brief pause, he responded, explaining, “Ah, it was probably because I was in a vacuum environment, I didn’t hear the ring—and I was busy finding my way, so I didn’t notice the vibration.”

Bai Li Qing sent another string of question marks.

Yu Sheng found it hard to explain the entire process of how he had “hung a ticket” outside a spaceship and then entered through a hatch. So, he vaguely replied: “The environment here is a bit complex; I’ll explain it to you later.”

After sending the message, he looked at the healing wound on his hand, then pulled out the bloodletting knife from his pocket and made another cut across his palm.

Blood seeped from the wound, as though it had a life of its own, floating slowly, covering the nearby walls and floor before infiltrating into them within a few seconds.

Once he confirmed the blood had completely infiltrated, Yu Sheng continued on his way.

He had been stopping and starting along the way, performing this task each time.

This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation