Chapter 525: An Ill Omen

Everything dissipated like an illusion. The massive space station that had pressed down like a mountain passed through the buildings and ground of Mist City, maintaining a tilted angle as it merged into the earth, all without making a single sound. If not for the monitors on her power armor faithfully recording that thrilling scene, Xu Jiali would have wondered if it had all been a collective hysteria.

The Jipuluo girl beside her was trembling slightly, her cat eyes glinting with tension in the dim mist. Xu Jiali glanced back at her, and the girl jumped nearly a meter straight up—like a cat suddenly finding a cucumber behind its ass: "B-b-boss, why are you staring at me like that? You scared me, meow..."

"You just said you spent my allowance on what?"

"Boss, you must have misheard..." Lingdang said quickly, but then shrank her neck and turned away awkwardly. "I'll pay you back from my salary this month, meow..."

Xu Jiali ignored this catnip-addled kitty who had lost all sense of reality, and continued frowning as she warily observed the street. Then she checked the various environmental parameters automatically recorded by her power armor, discovering a large number of unexplainable blanks and brief interferences—something that had never happened in her entire service career.

"Captain, communications are back," a deep diver's voice interrupted Xu Jiali's thoughts. "We've picked up the signal from the Diving Port too!"

"Everyone surface immediately!"

...

Bai Liqing's expression was as usual, but someone familiar with her could probably detect an unusual gravity in her very pale gray eyes. She carefully studied the report just sent back from the Diving Port, and only after a long while did she raise her head to look at Song Cheng standing across the table.

"Have the physical examination results for that squad come back?"

"The deep divers are in good condition with no signs of contamination. The three briefly experienced soul dissociation, but it was mild with no lasting effects," Song Cheng replied promptly. "The accompanying psychic attendants show mild mental confusion and psychic agitation, possibly minor stress reactions from witnessing an event beyond the threshold—nothing serious, they'll recover on their own after some rest. I've already arranged for the squad to take leave."

Bai Liqing nodded slightly, then asked, "Xiao Song, what do you make of this?"

Song Cheng thought for a moment, then spoke slowly: "The black threads they encountered... are likely similar to the situation in the 'Dark Alley'—signs of the Goddess of Ill Omen's power spreading into other realms. As for the 'encounter' mentioned in the report, I believe they ran into something from the Black Dot Group. Judging by the footage from the personnel's body cameras, it should be a large space station with stylistic similarities to the Algrad 'Observation Station,' but without the Star Nobles' markings."

Bai Liqing didn't respond, but her gaze returned to the screen in front of her.

The image on the screen was frozen at the moment the massive alloy wall came crushing down along the streets of Mist City—the very scene captured by one of the deep divers' power armor.

"Issue a risk advisory to all psychic investigators and detectives: exercise caution when entering other realms deeper than L-2 in the near future. Also, if anyone finds traces resembling 'black spider silk' in any realm, evacuate immediately and report to the Special Services Bureau," Bai Liqing ordered without looking up. "Finally—dispatch twenty deep-dive squads into Mist City, focusing on monitoring the borders of the Fog District and several already identified spatial weak points."

"Understood."

Song Cheng left, and the spacious office quickly fell silent. Bai Liqing sat behind the desk, rubbing her forehead, seemingly lost in prolonged thought.

After an unknown amount of time, as if she had made a decision, she casually set the office to a lockdown state, then raised her hand and removed one of her earrings.

From the delicate silver earring hung a light purple crystal. Within the seemingly natural gemstone were hidden extremely precise and intricate patterns.

Bai Liqing turned the crystal's facets upward, brushed her fingers over the earring's edge, and waited a few seconds.

A stream of light rippled across the surface of the light purple crystal, and a holographic projection only the size of a palm appeared above the crystal. The projection showed no human image, only the words 'Channel encrypting.'

Some noise-like sounds came from the other end, and then a clearly technically altered electronic synthesized voice reached Bai Liqing's ears: 'A rare guest, a rare guest—business? Or sponsorship?'

'Something has happened in the Borderlands recently,' Bai Liqing said expressionlessly. 'Your people are about to cross the line from "minor moves."'

The communicator was silent for several seconds.

Bai Liqing didn't expect a response and spoke bluntly: 'Tell me straight—what are you up to? Has something already gotten out of control?'

'Why are you so sure it's me?' The other side finally responded through the earring. 'The group has countless project divisions, and you and I might not be that familiar...'

'...It seems I'm wasting my time,' Bai Liqing said, as if quickly losing patience yet having already gotten the answer she wanted. She shook her head and placed her fingers back on the earring's edge. 'You can continue hiding in one of your secret bases, but you should know that if the Borderlands fall into danger, nowhere that has connected to the Borderlands network will be safe anymore. Just a friendly reminder—don't touch things beyond the boundaries of reason.'

At the final moment before the communication was cut, Bai Liqing heard a voice reach her ears—

'If we can only be trapped within the boundaries, then reason itself is meaningless.'

Then the communication was cut off—by the other party unilaterally.

'Ah, as unpleasant as always,' Bai Lixue's voice came from the side, and a pair of giant eyes appeared on the nearby wall. 'If only we knew where those Black Dot fanatics are hiding, we could just send two ships of troops down and blow them to bits.'

Bai Liqing made no response. She calmly put the earring back on, then turned to look at the large floor-to-ceiling window. Outside, there were no mirages or mist, just the normal scenery of Border City reflected like an ordinary window.

She blinked, and in the depths of her faded pupils, another scene was reflected—one that only she and her sister could see. Among the endless city buildings were countless fissures and hidden pathways of all sizes.

Clusters of fissures ran through the entire giant city. Dense hidden pathways wove through the earth and sky.

Some of those fissures and pathways were entrances to other realms scattered throughout the city, some were channels that led directly to certain 'waypoints' in the observable universe, and others were hidden passages like 'shortcuts' that worked within the Borderlands.

The technical staff of the Special Services Bureau could monitor these fissures and pathways in the city using various detection devices, pinpoint their locations, and calculate their recent trends, but observing them directly with 'eyes' was clearly a different experience.

What appeared as abstract data and blurry radar images to the monitoring department was a magnificent and eerie wonder in Bai Liqing's eyes.

Bai Lixue's eyes drifted slowly to the floor-to-ceiling window, starting to wander back and forth in Bai Liqing's field of vision.

'Don't mess around, I'm ob...'

She suddenly stopped.

In her vision, the countless fissures outside the window that spread across the entire Borderlands flickered simultaneously, and then dense black spider silk suddenly emerged from every fissure, like countless intersecting hidden giant webs descending in an instant. In that moment, the entire city was covered in layers of giant webs, and even the sky fell into darkness!

Bai Lixue, who was crawling around on the window, let out a shriek and in a flash scurried up to the ceiling.

But in just an instant, the eerie and terrifying scene disappeared, and the view outside the window returned to normal.

Bai Liqing had just drawn in a cold breath, and the next second she could only stare in shock at the restored scenery outside.

Bai Lixue floated down from the ceiling: 'Sister, what was that...'

'I saw it too. It wasn't something actually happening right now, but it wasn't like a hallucination either.'

'Some kind of omen?'

'...Some kind of ill omen.'

...

'Achoo—'

Irene, who was sitting on the coffee table, holding her phone watch and arguing heatedly with some idiot online, suddenly sneezed heavily, throwing herself off balance and tumbling onto the carpet.

Yu Sheng, who was scribbling on a stack of manuscript paper on the sofa, felt something bump into his leg. He looked down and saw the little doll lying between the sofa and the coffee table, looking up and blinking.

'How can a doll like you even sneeze?' Yu Sheng casually picked up the little thing, dusted it off, and placed it on a cushion. 'And sneeze so hard at that.'

'I'm not an ordinary doll, I'm an Alice doll!' Irene said, raising her head proudly, clearly having forgotten about the online argument. Then her attention was caught by the manuscript paper in Yu Sheng's hand. 'Hey, what are you doing? What's that?'

'Weapon blueprints,' Yu Sheng said as he continued sketching. 'I'm preparing them for myself. I'll send them to Mo Ran later and have her produce a batch...'

Irene blinked, listening to Yu Sheng's explanation, then looked at the somewhat abstract diagrams on the paper. After holding it in for a while, she finally couldn't help it: 'What's all this? Blood storage tank? Blood gun? Blood needle launcher? Do all these high-sounding names have any connection to your abstract stick figures?'

Yu Sheng couldn't hide his embarrassment at that: '...I admit my drawings are a bit rough, but they're not at the level of abstract stick figures, are they?'

Irene went 'oh' and pointed at the paper: 'Then explain what this squirt gun is for first?'

Yu Sheng thought for a moment and said seriously: 'It's for spreading the biological carpet while trying not to get killed...'