Chapter 510: Black Dot

The goldfish swam slowly inside its spherical fishbowl, then, as if drifting between waking and dreaming, swam outside the bowl and blew a bubble in front of Bai Liqing.

A moment later, it quickly returned to the bowl, and the bubble grew larger and larger until it became a crystal sphere about a meter in diameter, shimmering with an iridescent light. Clear images appeared on the sphere’s surface.

It was the entire sequence of the "intruder" appearing in the office. Compared to the bubbles that had uncontrollably appeared in the office when the containment zone was "flooded," the images the goldfish projected now were clearer and more complete, revealing many details absent before.

Then the goldfish blew another bubble, and the images inside were fuzzier and dimmer—a scene at the edge of the core zone. A security squad was locked in fierce combat with unidentified enemies. Their opponents were several tall, thin figures in black combat uniforms, moving with the speed of wind, not only heavily armed but also seemingly employing strange supernatural arts. The attacker who had previously appeared in the dean’s office stood behind those tall figures, clearly being shielded.

A garbled, distorted voice came from the image. It seemed to be the attacker with the swollen, twisted head speaking:

"Don’t kill them—if the security squad dies, it will trigger a core-zone burial... Get me out of this place first!"

After that, the images in the bubble froze.

Bai Liqing looked up at the "Dean" standing before her.

"That’s all I saw," said the tall humanoid shell, bending slightly. "After that, I completely lost control and couldn’t see what happened next."

Bai Liqing didn’t speak. Instead, she turned and stared at the two bubbles. After a moment of thought, she broke the silence: "...Agents of the Black Dot Corporation."

Then she raised her hand and pointed at the "attacker" in the office: "The one who attacked you is a Black Dot Corporation ‘Lurker.’ He must have been the inside man who let those agents into the sanatorium."

"...A Lurker?" The goldfish’s voice was full of shock. "But this Sun Chen was just an independent investigator before he was admitted here. He hadn’t even left the Borderlands..."

"He himself might have lived in the Borderlands for half his life, but his mind might have left long ago—most of the Lurkers who work for the Black Dot Corporation don’t know they are ‘Black Dot’ employees until the moment they are activated," Bai Liqing said calmly. "Lurkers lurk in their own minds, like parasites in their hosts. That’s why they are the most notorious infiltrators in the world."

The goldfish was stunned for a moment, its fins twitching uneasily. "Then... what do we do now? They’ve probably already escaped. Can we still catch them?"

"They went to such trouble, even willing to expose a Lurker and an agent squad, just to smash your fishbowl? No," Bai Liqing shook her head, and in rapid thought, many things came to mind. "...They are after the ‘knowledge’ buried deep in history. There will definitely be more moves."

She was silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke: "Where is that ‘Sun Chen’ body? The one with the exploded head."

"It should still be in the morgue," the Dean said quickly. "I just checked the access control. The security system in the morgue hasn’t been breached."

"Good, take me to see it," Bai Liqing stood up from her seat. "If the ‘Sun Chen’ who attacked you was a ‘split personality’ separated from the original body through personality materialization, then traces of the ‘guidance’ left by the Black Dot Corporation might still remain in his original nervous system."

The Dean hurried to follow her. "...His head exploded. Are there still clues?"

Bai Liqing turned back, her fading pupils reflecting the goldfish’s image. "It doesn’t matter. As long as he had a head before it exploded, I can examine his brain from yesterday."

...

The night was deep.

In a high-end residence in the central district of Border City , Bai Liqing stood in front of a large floor-to-ceiling window.

The home was dark, with only the dim glow of a nightlight in the corner. Outside the window, the city night was vivid—traffic like flowing water, neon lights stretching endlessly, the boundless giant city noisy and bustling under the night, while the erosion, contamination, monstrosities, and reshaping that occurred outside ordinary sight seemed as distant as another world.

A pair of enormous eyes silently appeared on the window. Bai Li Xue’s voice followed: "What do you think the Black Dot Corporation is after? Could it be the ‘Goddess of Ill Omen’?"

"Very possible. After all, they are most interested in ‘knowledge’ and ‘artifacts.’ And what that ‘Sun Chen’ said before attacking the goldfish revealed that his superiors are at least after the secrets of that Tower—and that Tower was a crucial part of the ‘Goddess of Ill Omen’s’ descent," Bai Liqing said thoughtfully. "But we can’t yet determine exactly how much they know..."

"Sun Chen first encountered the ‘Tower’ three years ago. There is evidence it was an accident," Bai Li Xue said. "But we can’t rule out that he was induced by the Black Dot Corporation to encounter that Tower—after all, based on the residual traces on the corpse, his neural deterioration also began about three years ago."

"Either the Black Dot Corporation induced a ‘gifted’ independent investigator three years ago to contact that ‘Tower,’ or a unlucky investigator accidentally contacted the Tower and was contaminated by knowledge, and then the knowledge echoing in his mind attracted a Black Dot Corporation ‘HR specialist,’ and he was tragically recruited," Bai Liqing said, letting out a soft breath. "Either way, new mice have crawled in again—truly not a moment of peace."

"Yeah, we never lack for troubles," Bai Li Xue said calmly. "...Then we need to ‘share’ this trouble."

Bai Liqing raised an eyebrow, instantly understanding her sister’s meaning.

She took out her phone and glanced again at the night view outside.

"I bet Yu Sheng isn’t asleep."

"...Why not wait another hour before calling?" Bai Li Xue urged. "He’ll definitely be asleep by then."

"Childish, lousy idea."

Bai Liqing commented flatly, then picked up her phone and started scrolling through contacts...

At that moment, Yu Sheng was on the attic floor of No. 66 Wutong Road, applying putty to Eileen’s arm.

Earlier, when he had pulled Zheng Zhi out of that strange space, Eileen had exerted a lot of force. Because the situation was urgent, she hadn’t had time to carefully select her body, so she used the one that Yu Sheng had originally processed from lotus root. It wasn’t very sturdy. Although they had managed to pull the person back successfully and her arm hadn’t actually broken, by the time she was about to sleep, she noticed several cracks in her arm and needed to repair them.

The little doll sat obediently on the table, her arms resting on wooden frames on either side. Yu Sheng sat across from her, holding a small bowl. He carefully picked out the "repair material" and gently spread it on the cracks in Eileen’s arm, smoothing it with a spoon.

Hu Li sat beside them, staring wide-eyed as the benefactor repaired Eileen’s arm, drool pooling on the floor.

Yu Sheng looked up at her, applied a couple more swipes to Eileen’s arm, scooped up a spoonful from the bowl, and fed it to Hu Li.

The air smelled of lotus root powder.

He went on like this—two swipes for Eileen, one bite for Hu Li, two swipes for Eileen, one bite for Hu Li... He almost ran out of half a bag of lotus root powder.

Hu Li squinted her eyes happily: "Lotus root powder is so delicious~"

Eileen (radiating lotus root scent) puffed her cheeks: "If it’s so good, go downstairs and mix some yourself! Why come here to mess around... Hey, stay away from me! Lick your own bowl!"

Hu Li quickly licked the little doll’s arm, then snatched the bowl used for mixing the lotus root powder and started slurping and gulping.

Yu Sheng smiled at the scene and was about to say something when an urgent phone ringtone sounded.

He pulled out his phone and saw it was Bai Liqing calling.

Eileen peeked at the screen and was greatly surprised: "Hey, that’s rare. She’s calling you late at night too!"

Yu Sheng was also surprised. He answered the call while reaching out to rub Hu Li’s head, reminding her not to lick Eileen’s still-unhealed arm. He put the phone to his ear: "Hello? Director Bai? It’s so late..."

Before he could finish, Bai Liqing’s voice came through: "Some trouble at the Jinglin Sanatorium. A group of mice have crawled into the Borderlands. I think they’re after the ‘Goddess of Ill Omen.’"

Yu Sheng: "...Huh?"

Beside him, Hu Li’s ears perked up instantly.

Several minutes later, they learned about the attack at the Jinglin Sanatorium.

Through the mechanism of personality materialization, the Lurker entity generated after Sun Chen’s death, the dean who briefly broke containment, the agent squad that infiltrated the sanatorium... and the Black Dot Corporation.

All of this happened shortly after Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood had left that sanatorium.

Yu Sheng listened on the phone, stunned.

"Holy..." he said in shock. "Wait, just in the time it took us to leave, all that happened?! And this Black Dot Corporation..."

He paused, matching data in his mind. "Oh right, I remember. I’ve heard of them. Something like one of those folk active groups alongside the Angel Cultists and the Order of the Holy Seclusion, right... How did they suddenly pop up?"

"From the standpoint of the Borderlands and most civilized orders, the Black Dot Corporation, like the Angel Cultists and the Order of the Holy Seclusion, are dangerous extremist organizations. But the Black Dot Corporation doesn’t see it that way—they always define themselves as a ‘cutting-edge tech company’ and a ‘free academic organization,’" Bai Liqing’s voice sounded somewhat tired. "Some of their members come from the Terra Archaeological Association and the Algred Astrological Society. I suspect the mice we’ve sniffed out here belong to the above branches. What attracted them... highly likely is knowledge about the ‘Goddess of Ill Omen.’"

(End of chapter)