Chapter 518: The Suddenly Appearing Passage

A silver-white artificial object, completely incongruous with the entire atmosphere of the Dark Alley, stood at the crossroad at the end of the alleyway, emitting a low humming sound. All around it, black spider silk had spread out of nowhere.

The entire device was about as tall as a person and roughly half a meter in diameter, roughly cylindrical. On its silver-white shell, thin, pale purple crystals were embedded at regular intervals, surrounded by complex grooves. Inside, lights could be seen shifting, their brightness fluctuating with the hum of the device.

This thing was clearly running—but what was it for?

Yu Sheng grew wary. Carefully, he circled the device twice, then pulled out his phone and took several photos from different angles before turning to look at Little Red Cap and Zheng Zhi. "Does anyone recognize this?"

"Never seen it," Little Red Cap immediately shook her head. "Clearly not from the Alien Realm, and it doesn't look like something from the Special Operations Bureau either."

Eileen, rummaging through Yu Sheng's hair, muttered, "...Could this be something that little Blackie Group made?"

"It's the Black Dot Group," Hu Li quickly corrected from the side.

"Can't rule that out," Yu Sheng said with a frown. He glanced at the large amount of spider silk surrounding the silver-white device and recalled the information the King had gotten from those black cats earlier—the spider silk had started spreading from the crossroad.

Could the web covering the entire Dark Alley have been "attracted" by this device? Did the Black Dot Group do this?

What was their scheme for setting up such a thing in the Dark Alley?

As Yu Sheng's mind raced, Hu Li seemed to notice something else. She leaned in close to the device and studied it intently for a moment, then suddenly pointed at a protrusion on the side. "Benefactor, it looks like this broke off from somewhere. See, the fracture surface is even glowing a little..."

Yu Sheng quickly looked where Hu Li was pointing and indeed saw something odd near the top of the cylinder. It appeared to be some kind of connection structure, but it had been cut cleanly, like by an invisible blade, leaving a smooth, abrupt break. Inside the break, something that looked like cable threads could be faintly seen.

Then Yu Sheng noticed faint cracks on the ground around the cylindrical device, as if from impact.

Yu Sheng stroked his chin. "Rather than someone deliberately 'placing' this thing here, it looks more like it fell off something and crashed down here..."

"Crashed here?" Little Red Cap frowned. "But this is an Alien Realm—a sealed space you can only enter with specific rules. Apart from your 'Door,' I haven't heard of anyone being able to throw something into an Alien Realm. Oh, the Dim Angel could, but this obviously doesn't look like something the Dim Angel made... Can the Black Dot Group really produce tech like this?"

"You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?" Yu Sheng muttered, then quickly made a decision. "Anyway, no matter where this thing came from, it clearly shouldn't be here. Let's take it back."

"How? Open a door? This thing looks heavy, and I'm not sure moving it recklessly might cause problems," Little Red Cap said, stroking her chin. "What if it just explodes? Even if it doesn't, this thing looks very precise—would a bump or knock ruin it?"

A professional spirit detective really considered things more thoroughly than an amateur. Once Little Red Cap muttered that, Yu Sheng immediately realized the risks of moving it carelessly. Before he knew for sure what the device did, he shouldn't touch it casually.

With that thought, he casually pulled out his phone, quickly typed a message, then opened a small door to the outside and sent it off, along with the photos he'd just taken. "I'll send a message to Bai Liqing—let the Special Operations Bureau worry about it later."

Just then, Zheng Zhi suddenly looked up, a bit puzzled, staring at the opposite side of the crossroad.

Through the crisscrossing spider silk, he could see another "Dark Alley" across the intersection—the scene there was identical to this one.

But an inexplicable sense of wrongness gradually arose.

Zheng Zhi rubbed his eyes, looking at the area separated by the webbing. In a daze, he saw the edges of the spider silk seeming to silently cut through space, as tiny cracks opened in the air.

An eerie humming sound emerged from those cracks.

Zheng Zhi froze. His experienced instincts kicked in quickly. "Brother Yu, something's wrong! I'm 'seeing' things again!"

The next second, before Yu Sheng could even ask, he began describing rapidly: "There are cracks at the edge of the web across the intersection. The cracks are about to open. There's noise, like something tearing open... Wait, there are figures! There are figures on the other side of the cracks!"

"Good job, nephew!" Yu Sheng reacted instantly, then grabbed Zheng Zhi and pushed him back. "Get behind us!"

Almost at the same time, everyone moved—Little Red Cap summoned several shadow wolves to hold the front line, Yu Sheng drew his Tetanus Wand, Luna deployed her blade to guard beside Yu Sheng, and Hu Li even pulled out her saber with a clang, extending two tails to either side like Gatling guns, with six more tails spread out behind her like a sword graveyard, foxfire blazing.

Given the cramped crossroad and the many areas blocked by the spider web, the King's summoned army had limited room to maneuver. He opted to keep his hero team on the field—each member quickly rifled through their bags, chugging potions, applying oils, burning incense, and praying...

The next second, Yu Sheng noticed the air across the intersection beginning to warp rapidly.

A series of unstable cracks filled the entire intersection in the blink of an eye. The black spider webs vanished between the gaps, and after just a few seconds of oscillation, those cracks merged into a clear, massive passageway. On the other side of the passage was an enormous... laboratory?

Even Yu Sheng was momentarily stunned. What he saw on the other side was completely different from what he expected. Instead of a sinister, bizarre alternate space, there was a brightly lit hall—a vast indoor space apparently built for some kind of large-scale experiment. He could see a raised platform in the distance, with a black irregular fragment trapped in a levitation force field above it, though he couldn't tell what it was. Around the platform, strange devices were running automatically.

But he didn't get a chance to observe more details.

Because there were people on the other side of the passage—a large number of people in white or light blue robes were standing at the edge of the passage, and some armed personnel were positioned directly opposite the entrance. They were watching Yu Sheng and his group with stunned expressions.

The scene was somewhat comical—clearly, when the passage opened, both sides were caught off guard.

But the stalemate from this mutual shock didn't last long.

Someone on the other side shouted—

"Class III Incident!"

The next moment, Yu Sheng saw all the robed people scatter, while the armed personnel in black combat uniforms covered the researchers' retreat. At the same time, the edges of the passage flickered and trembled violently, as if those on the other side were forcibly closing the crack—accompanied by harsh noises, the entire crossroad began to shake and vibrate, and large amounts of the black spider silk covering it started breaking and retracting.

"Hey, they're running!" Eileen shouted, standing up directly from Yu Sheng's shoulder. "These must be people from that Little Blackie Group! They've opened a hole right under our noses!"

Before she finished speaking, the little puppet raised her hand and summoned large swaths of spider silk. The black threads wove into a web, quickly covering the edges of the closing crack, as if trying to force the passage open again.

Then the armed personnel on the other side opened fire without hesitation.

They expertly used the crack's edges and the laboratory's terrain to set up firing positions, shooting all kinds of strange weapons at Yu Sheng's group. Dense ion beams and various projectiles crossed through the passage, whining sharply through the air.

In the hero team, the Wanderer Mage immediately raised a shield, but it only held for a few seconds before beginning to flicker dangerously.

Yu Sheng and the others used those few seconds to find cover and return fire.

Hu Li's foxfire barrage poured out like a waterfall toward the crack, followed by six Fox Carrot Missiles streaking through the air with brilliant trails, slamming into the laboratory opposite.

The armed personnel's shields flickered simultaneously. In the massive explosions caused by the Fox Carrot Missiles, some were blown away on the spot, but the shields that went up in time and Hu Li's deliberately controlled intensity only knocked them unconscious—the next moment, Yu Sheng shouted, "Try to capture two alive!"

At the same time, the edges of the crack began flickering violently again. The support structure Eileen had barely propped up with her spider silk was rapidly disintegrating. The little puppet stretched her arms wide, face red from exertion. "Yu Sheng—my arms can't hold out anymore!"

Yu Sheng's eyes widened. He turned to look at the little thing. "...When you go out to fight, bring a sturdier body!"

"I—forgot!!"

In a flash, before Eileen's scream had even faded, a harsh noise filled the air. The spider silk she had summoned shattered inch by inch, and the already precarious passage quickly closed.

But before that happened, a shadow shot out like a ghost.

Like a fluttering flower in a storm, crossing through a hail of bullets, Luna charged straight into the fire from the remaining enemy strong points across the passage. The armed personnel's reactions weren't slow—they could barely track Luna's movements, but only just barely—in an instant, Luna darted back through the enemies, completely unharmed.

The passage slammed shut.

An unconscious armed personnel member was carried back by Luna.

She dropped the person in front of Yu Sheng, her tone apologetic. "Only, caught, one."

(Oh, crap!)