Chapter 520: Hardcore Medical District
Luna maintained the holographic projection in midair with both hands, while Yu Sheng and Bai Liqing studied the strange object at the center of the projection together.
That thing was clearly the centerpiece of the entire lab—it floated on the most conspicuous anti-gravity platform in the hall, tightly protected (or suppressed) by a circle of pale blue light screens. Countless advanced devices and technical personnel buzzed around the platform, and even when fierce fighting broke out on both sides of the passage and Hu Li’s Fox Carrot missiles smashed into the passageway, the technicians stationed near several key pieces of equipment around the platform did not evacuate, behaving as if they would live or die together with the equipment.
But the object itself was rather unremarkable in appearance. It was just an irregular black stone fragment, as if chipped off some larger object. Its edges had a slight obsidian-like sheen. The entire fragment was about as tall as Eileen, making it seem quite inconspicuous as it floated in the force field.
Luna adjusted the holographic projection, zooming in so Yu Sheng and Bai Liqing could see more details of the black fragment.
To be fair, the Miss Saintess’s resolution was pretty impressive…
“There seem to be some patterns on this side, looking like part of some relief or carving,” Bai Liqing noticed first. She frowned slightly and pointed at a detail on the black fragment. “Miss Luna, can you extract the pattern from this part separately?”
“Yes.”
Luna nodded. Then the holographic projection floating above her palm flickered a few times. The lab scene disappeared, replaced by a highlighted pattern. She directly extracted and processed the patterns she had captured from the black fragment’s surface. With each pass of visual enhancement, the processed pattern grew clearer in the holographic projection.
Yu Sheng suddenly frowned, studying the pattern Luna had projected. A vague sense of familiarity stirred in his mind.
“I think I’ve seen this thing somewhere…”
Bai Liqing and Bai Li Xue said in unison: “You’ve seen it?”
“Yeah… give me a moment to recall.” Yu Sheng nodded and then frantically searched his memory. Soon he found the source of that familiarity. “Ah, I think I know what it is—”
The next second, he directly opened a small door beside him. As the faint sounds of Eileen shouting “Silly Fox, you’re stealing doubanjiang again” came from the other side of the door, he quickly retrieved something from 66 Wutong Road.
It was a tattered piece of cloth, with complex mystical runes printed along its edges.
Yu Sheng spread the cloth and compared it with the pattern in the holographic projection. His eyes lit up. “It’s this!”
Bai Liqing also recognized the cloth in Yu Sheng’s hand almost immediately. She raised an eyebrow. “I remember this is…”
“A fragment of the Omen Banner!” Yu Sheng said quickly. “There’s another piece at the Void Pivot… The pattern here should be some kind of symbol associated with the Goddess of Doom.”
Bai Liqing’s expression didn’t change much, but her eyes immediately grew more grave and serious. She looked at the holographic projection in Luna’s hand and slowly said, “…So the “Black Dot Laboratory” on the other side of the passage was researching some “holy object” related to the Goddess of Doom. Then they have more in their grasp than we imagined.”
Yu Sheng nodded, then fell into thought. “If that’s the case, what about that passage that suddenly opened? Was it related to their ongoing research?”
“Using the power of the Goddess of Doom to open a doorway across dimensions?” Bai Li Xue’s eyes drifted onto Luna’s alloy shell as she mused. “But judging from the scene at that time, the process was more or less out of control. Either they didn’t expect the passage to open, or they didn’t expect someone to be on the other side. Then again, they still had the ability to forcibly close the passage in the end…”
Yu Sheng didn’t speak for a moment, still thinking about the sudden opening of the passage. As he thought, he seemed to have another realization. The image of a noisy, naive little shorty began bouncing around in his mind.
Then his peripheral vision caught Bai Li Xue’s eyes drifting onto Luna’s face, blinking superimposed over Luna’s eyes…
“Bai Li Xue, can you find somewhere else?” Yu Sheng broke out in a cold sweat. “That looks a bit creepy.”
Bai Liqing beside him also put on a stern face. “Stop messing around, come down.”
“Oh,” Bai Li Xue replied, and then slowly drifted to a nearby floor-to-ceiling window. She continued, “Anyway, for now it seems the Black Dot Group is up to some new “black tech” again. Although that thing is apparently unstable, they already have the ability to open a gate into the Borderlands—even though this time they opened the door in the “Dark Alley.” It can’t be ruled out that they can open doors to other places. In fact, I even suspect they have already established some secret passages in the Borderlands, and it’s only because of this experimental accident that they got exposed…”
Bai Liqing immediately frowned slightly, looking at her younger sister who was now crawling around on the window. “What do you mean?”
“The agent squad that appeared at the Jinglin Sanatorium,” Bai Li Xue said slowly. “A group of outsiders like that, fully armed—even if they are the famous Black Dot agents, it’s not easy to infiltrate the Borderlands. And we still haven’t figured out how those people got in… But what if they’ve dug tunnels in the Borderlands? Then the border barrier and the watchtowers around naturally won’t see any trace.”
Bai Liqing’s eyes sharpened.
Yu Sheng had never seen this female director’s eyes change like that—not just her eyes, he even suddenly sensed an indescribable… aura from her, intangible yet perceptible, a real “presence” slowly radiating from her seemingly slender figure.
But this sensation vanished in an instant. The next moment, Bai Liqing returned to her usual cool and indifferent demeanor. She took a light breath, nodded slightly. “This speculation is not without merit. It seems we need to keep a close watch on every place in the coming days.”
Just then, the sound of footsteps came from the corridor, interrupting the conversation in the office.
A short-haired girl in a skirt suit pushed open the door and walked in, hastily bowing to Bai Liqing. “Director, our team leader invites you to the medical district on the 77th floor. He says that “Black Dot soldier” has woken up.”
Then the short-haired girl lifted her head and saw Yu Sheng standing in the office. Her eyes lit up. “Hey! Teacher Yu!”
Damn, it was the avid shipper and manuscript-pusher Ren Wenwen!
As soon as Yu Sheng saw her sparkling eyes, cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He hastily responded with a few perfunctory words and then gestured to Bai Liqing to head out. “Let’s get to business first—go see the condition of the prisoner we captured.”
Bai Liqing seemed a bit puzzled by Yu Sheng’s reaction for a moment, but she nodded and stepped out of the office. Luna followed close behind Yu Sheng.
Ren Wenwen naturally didn’t dare block the director’s path, but she still followed them to the door to see Yu Sheng off, enthusiastically calling out, “Teacher Yu, please let me know next time you come… Looking forward to your new work~”
Walking down the corridor toward the medical district, Yu Sheng couldn’t help wiping cold sweat from his forehead. Beside him, Bai Liqing seemed to have figured it out. She turned her head and gave him a look, expressionless. “Being popular is a good thing.”
“It’s quite stressful.” Yu Sheng gave a dry laugh. “Especially since that girl’s ship is a bit weird…”
Bai Liqing’s steps paused slightly. “What is CP?”
Yu Sheng: “…
He glanced at Bai Liqing, who looked only in her twenties, and realized that this director, who had been in charge of the Special Operations Bureau for a century and was usually completely absorbed in work, seemed not very familiar with “young people’s” things.
Probably a good thing.
Seeing Yu Sheng was silent, Bai Liqing didn’t press further. She walked on thoughtfully, then after a few steps suddenly added, “Actually, I’ve also read something you wrote.”
Yu Sheng’s cold sweat, which had just subsided, broke out again.
“I couldn’t really… understand it clearly, but they seemed like very interesting stories.” Bai Liqing seemed not to notice Yu Sheng’s momentary embarrassment and just continued. “I usually have little time to read, so I’m not very familiar with current novel trends, but the stories you wrote… I found them quite relaxing to read. But it seems you haven’t written anything for a long time—have you been too busy lately?”
“Uh, I’m writing, I’m writing. Should be about done once Eileen returns my computer…”
Yu Sheng’s cold sweat was about to reach his heels. He didn’t even know what he was saying—after all, he never expected that walking with Bai Liqing could lead to this steel-faced stoic urging him to update his work…
And he couldn’t exactly tell Bai Liqing that after his masterpieces “New Folder” and “New Folder (1),” his latest work in progress was called “New Folder (2),” could he?
As they spoke, they had crossed the corridor and taken the “magical elevator” unique to the Special Operations Bureau building, passing through countless bizarre floors until they finally arrived at the “medical district” located in some unknown dimension.
The reason it’s called “unknown dimension” was because as soon as Yu Sheng stepped out of the elevator, he saw two alien behemoths fighting in space outside the windows of the medical corridor. The two sanity-draining monstrosities crashed heavily against the shield on the side of the corridor—then a hospital security guard dressed like an Astartes pushed open the door and obliterated both aliens…
“…Isn’t the medical environment in your bureau a bit too hardcore?” Yu Sheng couldn’t help commenting. “With so many stable floors, why put it specifically here?”
“There’s more than one medical district in the building,” Bai Liqing said calmly. “This area is specifically for “external” use—its unique environmental configuration and treatment atmosphere can effectively improve patient compliance.”
Yu Sheng opened his mouth, and after a few seconds, forced out, “Then it seems you guys can sit at the same table as the doctors from Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain.”