Dimensional Hotel
Chapter 321 Falling

Chapter 321: Chapter 321 Falling

Deep within the Special Service Bureau, in the director’s office, Baili Qing had just activated the projection device in the room.

Accompanied by the buzzing sound from numerous small devices originally hidden in the walls and ceiling, dozens of projection screens instantly replaced the original walls of the office. What was shown on the screens were scenes from various parts of "Mist City."

Some screens displayed streets and buildings shrouded in dense fog, while others showed the "pollution zone" covered by bizarre clusters of purple-black crystals. One could also see the deep divers in their heavy power armor moving around that crystal-filled area, collecting samples and setting up environmental monitoring devices.

"The appearance of the Venerate Saints Monastery in Mist City makes this already suspicious Exotic Realm even more questionable. Now, the Special Service Bureau has dispatched a large number of elite Deep Dive Teams. Not only are they focusing on the site where the ’Tower’ was rooted, but they are also continually expanding the exploration range of Mist City," Baili Qing said. "So far, we have yet to find the boundary of this dense fog."

Yu Sheng was amazed at the high-tech setup in Baili Qing’s office, and after hearing her words, he instinctively asked, "Are these all real-time images?"

"That’s right, real-time transmission. Some of it comes from recorders on the deep divers’ power armor, and some from surveillance devices set up everywhere—by rotating shifts, there are now at least three teams operating around the clock in Mist City. Their ’umbilical cord’ devices provide extra bandwidth to maintain real-time communication between the real world and that Exotic Realm," Baili Qing said. "Next, we plan to set up a semi-permanent signal transmission device deep in the fog to establish a more stable reality-Exotic Realm channel, so we won’t have to rely on the deep divers to provide bandwidth."

She paused at this and turned to Yu Sheng, "We should thank Miss Hu Li for her help."

Yu Sheng: "Huh? Thank her? Why?"

"The Special Service Bureau’s ’Deep Dive’ technology can only send living beings with souls or machines with a Mechanical Soul into the Exotic Realm. The ’umbilical cord’ device used to maintain reality-Exotic Realm communication must also be connected to an individual with a soul or Mechanical Soul—this is a complex ’Spiritual Resonance’ technology. Although it solved the communication problem between reality and Exotic Realm, its usage is heavily restricted," Baili Qing patiently explained. "And Miss Hu Li’s ’Mysterious Iron’ solved the most troublesome part of it."

Yu Sheng immediately understood what was going on.

The Special Service Bureau’s "Mechanical Soul"... can now be mass-produced on a small scale!

"Currently, it’s still in the testing phase," Baili Qing noticed Yu Sheng’s expression and continued, "If all goes well, we will soon be able to mass-produce ’Deep Dive Communication Instruments’ that can connect with ’umbilical cords.’ At that point, there will be signals in those already explored Exotic Realms. This is of major significance not only to the Bureau’s agents and deep divers but also greatly reduces the risk faced by Spirit Realm detectives and investigators when operating in the Exotic Realm."

Listening to Baili Qing’s calm narration, Yu Sheng felt a bit surreal. He hadn’t expected that the "Iron Block" Hu Li casually tossed out would quickly come into use, and in the foreseeable future, this usefulness might even change the destiny of countless Exotic Realm explorers. However, amid his astonishment, he thought of a very practical issue, "Does she have enough production capacity?"

"We only need it to activate the Mechanical Soul. Theoretically, the amount required for a single device is very minimal, but honestly... if we were to mass-produce, it wouldn’t be enough," Baili Qing admitted openly. "So we are also conducting other research to try to understand the principles behind the ’Spiritual Fox Mysterious Iron.’"

Yu Sheng blinked, finding this incredible: "Can research come up with anything worthwhile? That stuff could be related to some kind of black technology from an Alternate Dimension..."

"But it can stably exist in our Universe," Baili Qing said seriously. "If it exists, there must be a reason for its existence. There is no black technology in this world, only mysteries we temporarily don’t understand."

"Well, that does make sense," Yu Sheng scratched his head, agreeing with Baili Qing’s statement. Then his attention returned to the surveillance screens. "So, what have you found about ’Mist City’ now?"

Baili Qing nodded: "The biggest progress is that we’ve uncovered some of Mist City’s safety mechanisms—

"The fog density in that Exotic Realm is uneven, and in most cases, the fog density directly correlates with the Danger Level. There is a chance of encountering entities in any area where visibility is below twenty meters, but the same entity seems to only appear in one region at a time, at least for now. In the thinnest fog areas, there have been no sightings of entities. As a result, we plan to label the explored areas of Mist City according to their Danger Level and mark several ’Safe Zones’ and ’Prohibited Areas.’

"Additionally, we are trying to understand the entry and exit mechanisms of this Exotic Realm and have made some progress. It is almost certain that the thinnest fog areas may have ’safe exits’ to return to reality, but the conditions for opening these exits need careful testing. We can tentatively determine that it is related to ’mirrors.’

"Another point is the ’range’ of Mist City—it is enormous. So far, the explored area has almost reached a quarter of a Boundary City, and we have yet to find its boundary. While we cannot make any conclusions yet, many in the Bureau believe that the Exotic Realm could be as large as a Boundary City or even as large as an entire Boundary Land."

Yu Sheng spoke thoughtfully: "The connection between the Venerate Saints Monastery and this ’Mist City’..."

Baili Qing shook her head: "We haven’t found any clues yet. We can only confirm that they might have infiltrated a long time ago—the crystal samples collected from the pollution site show signs of long-term growth. But how long they have been lurking there and for what purpose still depends on the interrogation results of the cultists.

"In short, based on the current intelligence, they were in low-profile hiding for a long time and perhaps never even stepped out of the Tower. Coupled with the isolation of the Exotic Realm, no one noticed their existence at all.

"In fact, if it weren’t for the sudden exposure of ’Mist City’ and your accidental encounter with that ’Artificial Saintess,’ those cultists from the Monastery might have continued their hiding."

Yu Sheng frowned slightly, quickly realizing: "They’ve been lurking there for so long— does that mean the ’Mist City’ has existed long before? It’s not a recently formed Exotic Realm?!"

Baili Qing lightly nodded: "I’m afraid so—right under the noses of the Boundary City’s people, a nearly ’Boundary City copy’ Exotic Realm long existed, discovered by a group of cultists even before us. It really is quite embarrassing."

As Yu Sheng listened, pondering with his hand on his chin, he was about to speak when he seemed to sense something, his face changing slightly.

Baili Qing immediately noticed: "What is it?"

Yu Sheng didn’t immediately respond but instead frowned as if sensing something carefully. Two or three seconds later, he suddenly cried out in surprise: "Oh no! The Saintess I placed in the coffin is gone!"

Baili Qing was stunned by what she heard, but Yu Sheng clearly didn’t have time to explain to her—a door to the Holy Coffin Room had already been opened as he rushed in, leaving behind only a hurried remark: "We’ll talk later; I need to find her! The Artificial Saintess is gone!"

The next second, the illusory door slammed shut, and Yu Sheng found himself in the Holy Coffin Room.

The "Iron Coffin" stood quietly on the platform base in front of him with its lid open, but it was empty inside.

Yu Sheng stood dumbfounded at this scene, and it took him a good few seconds to react before he immediately began searching within his perception range for any trace of the Artificial Saintess.

A moment later, he seemed to sense something, quickly reached beside him to open a door, and stepped through.

He arrived at an open space near the center of a valley town, where the aura of the Artificial Saintess had briefly lingered.

However, as he emerged from the door, he only saw a few kids running around on scooters—a group of children staring wide-eyed at him.

"Hello, Uncle Yu Sheng!" the children cheerfully ran up to greet him.

Yu Sheng hesitated: "Have you seen a... um, very tall person with a veil on her head, and wrapped in a layer of black..."

He was just asking casually, not expecting that before he even finished, a child happily pointed in a certain direction: "I saw her! A really tall older sister went that way!"

Yu Sheng was taken aback by the words, and almost simultaneously, he indeed sensed that familiar aura again—for some reason, the aura felt intermittent to him, and even with the blood connection established, it seemed distant and blurred as if through a thick curtain. One moment he couldn’t find her whereabouts, and the next, he discovered she seemed to be nearby.

"Thanks—be careful while playing!"

Yu Sheng left this message with the kids, then quickly opened a door and emergency teleported to the location he had just perceived.

The next second, he stepped out of the door, only to hear Xiao Xiao’s teary voice—

"Big sister, this is our homework for our labor class... The teacher told us to do it ourselves, not to ask for help..."

Yu Sheng was dumbfounded by the noise, then looked in the direction of the voice. He saw Xiao Xiao and several same-aged children standing by the vegetable patch he had previously cultivated. And the Artificial Saintess, who had run off from the Holy Coffin Room...

Was weeding the patch.

Yu Sheng: "...?"