Alien Hotel.

Chapter 430 The Mountain of Focus
In the director's office deep inside the Special Operations Bureau building in Jiecheng, Baili Qing let out a soft breath, then rubbed her thigh, which had just bumped into the table, as she got up and went to the large floor-to-ceiling window.

Outside the window, an invisible mist, seemingly tangible, began to flow instantly, transforming into various images under her gaze. Most of these were scenes Xu Jiali had photographed at Garrison-3, including sampling operations on the surface and the "Heart of the Crystal Remains" deep underground. The rest were many scenes reconstructed deep within her consciousness—various data about the "Star Derivative" and intelligence just transmitted from the Flying Feather Starfield were gathered, woven, deduced, and transformed into various "possibilities" for the planet's future in her mind.

Enormous crystalline structures surged from the depths of the planet, crystal clusters bloomed like flowers on the torn surface of the earth's crust, massive ascenders emerged from the planet, and uncontrolled crystalline matter grew rampantly without a "core." Cities were swallowed by crystals, and hundreds of millions of people drowned in a dreamlike world where a planet was emerging from its cocoon...

The flowing mist churned and rose, the images appearing within it repeatedly recombine and vanish. After a long while, the mist finally calmed down, and a pair of light gray eyes emerged from the depths of the thick fog.

“Sister,” those eyes looked quietly at Baili Qing, “it is meaningless to try to deduce infinite possibilities from limited information about the Dark Angels—especially since the variable this time is ‘Yu Sheng’.”

Bai Liqing let out a soft breath: "I know."

"What are you thinking about now?"

Bai Liqing was silent for a moment, then forced a smile and said, "Mainly, I've regained some of the feeling of working overtime recently."

"anything else?"

"And my legs hurt."

"There's nothing I can do about it, I don't have hands right now."

"……I know."

……

Yu Sheng quickly browsed through the information Baili Qing had sent to his phone, and in the process, he gained some more knowledge about "star bodies".

As Baili Qing said, the most bizarre and dangerous aspect of the celestial body is not its physical form, but its cognitive interference that intensifies as the degree of parasitism deepens, and the "reconstruction of reality" built on the basis of the superposition of cognitive interference.

Beneath the surface of "everything is normal," the crystallization of the celestial bodies has probably already covered the entire planet and permeated every corner of Mo City. The anomaly is right under everyone's nose, yet it remains in the blind spot of everyone's subconscious.

In theory, if only the cognitive interference released by the "star body" itself were present, then this level of "cognitive barrier" would not be able to hide from Yuanhao Zhenren, or even from Xuanche's divine sense. However, there are hundreds of millions of residents on this planet—ordinary people affected by cognitive interference—who, through their collective "observation," directly rewrote the reality structure of the Shuji surface.

This kind of "coverage" built on the level of reality has transcended the traditional meaning of "illusion," to the point that even if someone with "extraordinary talent" like Zheng Zhi could briefly see through the cognitive barrier created by the celestial body, or briefly tore open a "crack" in the sky above the city as he did when he encountered the great sage of the hermitage, they would not be able to truly penetrate the entire veil—

Because the shared understanding of countless "dreamers" on this planet will immediately repair the damage to the veil, correcting the world to the "normal" image in their subconscious.

The only good news now is that this seemingly impeccable "veil" has clearly malfunctioned. The "dream" built on the collective cognitive impairment of everyone on the planet is now in conflict with reality. The two are squeezing and tearing each other apart, creating the bizarre and distorted "Ink City" that Yu Sheng is seeing now. This twisted and absurd city may very well hide the crack that will completely tear open that veil.

As for how this "conflict" occurred... Yu Sheng didn't know. Perhaps it was because of the battle that took place at Garrison-3? Or perhaps Zheng Zhi and Yuan Hao, who remained at Garrison-3, did something? Or maybe a combination of both?
In any case, this is clearly an opportunity.

Yu Sheng put away his phone and looked into the depths of the rain ahead.

The crooked city buildings piled up like collapsed cream at the edge of the field of vision, then converged and rose in a common direction, forming a strange mountain. The surface of the "mountain" undulated slowly in the rain like a living thing, with various deformed and distorted neon lights and intermittently flickering projections flowing like water on the mountain. Amidst the shimmering light, one could still vaguely make out the shapes of some landmark buildings and the city's main roads.

Once again, a thunderous, lightless roar came from the direction of that "mountain," rolling across the sky.

Similar thunderous sounds have been coming from that direction ever since I left the hotel room.

Although Yu Sheng did not know where Yuan Hao Zhenren and the others had gone, nor did he find any other clues or traces near Huixianzhou, the rolling thunder seemed to be some kind of guide, reminding him of the direction to go.

Based on the information provided by Baili Qing, Yu Sheng can now roughly determine the current state of "Shu Ji".

The parasitic entity on this planet has entered the late stage of metamorphosis and is only one step away from becoming an ascendant. At this stage, the cognitive interference it creates has covered the entire planet. Therefore, theoretically, the entire "Shuji" is now in a distorted state.

However, this "distortion" is not uniform—although its source is a celestial body, it is supported by countless "ordinary people" whose cognition has interfered with its operation. Therefore, this dream that covers the entire planet actually has a large number of "supporting points".

Every densely populated area is a support point.

Mexico City is the largest city on this planet.

The most densely populated area in Mexico City is the "support point of the support point".

That "mountain"... that should be it.

Hu Li transformed once more into a gigantic nine-tailed silver fox. The protective aura around her dispelled the wind and rain that descended from the sky. Yu Sheng and Eileen sat on the back of the silver fox, while Luna's figure appeared and disappeared like a ghost in the shadows of the rainy night, closely following them. Twelve more bronze knights, their hazy phantoms, appeared intermittently in the rain.

In this "boundary" layer formed by the mutual squeezing and conflict between dreams and reality, the boundary between illusion and reality becomes blurred, to the point that even the knights around Luna are projected into reality much more easily than usual.

“There’s noise everywhere around here,” Eileen said, sitting next to Yu Sheng, clutching the fox fur beneath her and frowning. “Have you noticed those fleeting human figures along the roadside? And those colorful phantoms hovering in mid-air… they’re all minds on the edge of a dream. I’m at my wit’s end.”

Yu Sheng nodded: "I noticed that—the further we go in the direction of that 'mountain,' the more there are. It seems we are heading in the right direction... Mo City's 'Reality Reconstruction Focus' is just ahead."

Eileen blinked, then suddenly seemed to notice something and looked up at Yu Sheng intently.

"It seems you're facing another bloody disaster?" the little doll suddenly said.

Yu Sheng was taken aback when this guy suddenly stared at him just to say this, and he was both amused and exasperated: "You... fine, bloodshed is bloodshed. I'm used to it."

"The bleeding this time was extremely heavy."

Yu Sheng: "...Then I thank you for your kind words."

Eileen: "Mmm~"

Yu Sheng: "..."

Meanwhile, Hu Li had already crossed the last broken section of the main road on the city's central axis. The nine-tailed silver fox crossed a plaza structure floating in mid-air and finally arrived at the foot of the "mountain".

The mountain seemed to have grown taller once again, and the buildings that had merged and covered its surface twisted into an even more incomprehensible and chaotic structure. A broad structure, which seemed to have once been an aerial track, covered the mountain's surface and meandered toward the summit.

A cacophony of buzzing noises filled the air, and the fox instinctively slowed its pace.

Yu Sheng saw countless shadows—semi-transparent, colorful human figures, gathered at the foot of the mountain like passersby from another dimension. Some were walking on the road, some were sitting comfortably on winding benches, some were floating in the air, their postures appearing as if they were reading books or newspapers, and some were sitting cross-legged, as if they were meditating.

These are mental entities lingering on the edge of dreams—they may still be in the real world of Ink City, going about their daily activities, talking with relatives and friends, or busy with work. However, their subconscious has begun to perceive the incongruity deep within their cognition. The instinct for self-preservation caused a part of their mind to "drift" here and instinctively converge and gravitate towards other mental entities.

A huge outdoor display device is crookedly inserted into a building at the foot of the mountain, with intermittently flickering holographic projections floating above it.

"...Sleepwalking is spreading throughout the city, and cases of psychosis have surged again... It is advised not to approach the suburbs at night..."

"The shadows lingering around the old refining tower have been confirmed to be caused by a collective hallucination; residents who witness the unusual sights need not panic..."

"The storm has arrived as expected, and a new wave of cold air is moving into the south... The wind and rain in the city are expected to intensify further. Residents who have not yet reached the point of being able to absorb cold air should not engage in prolonged outdoor activities..."

"This city is great, this planet is great... Everything is great, everything is great, everything is great..."

Yu Sheng stared intently at the projection device half-buried in the building, watching the text on it tremble and change constantly, watching all sorts of bizarre and fantastical landscapes that resembled Mo City alternate between the text.

On the steep "mountain," more and more "billboards" were lit up, and the successive illuminated projections fluttered in the rainy night like a continuous string of welcoming flags.

"Welcome to Mexico City, the most prosperous city on the border."

"Today, Mexico City is peaceful and safe."

"Nothing happened today."

"Welcome to Mo City, welcome to Mo City, welcome to..."

"Boom!"

A thunderclap exploded, and the sky roared.

The hazy figures gathered at the foot of the "mountain" seemed to sense something. Many of them looked up at the sky in a daze, while the continuous, flickering holographic projections on the mountain trembled violently. Many words were dispersed by the thunder and vanished into the air.

Yu Sheng looked up at the sound and, with his superhuman vision, saw a cool and aloof woman in a long black dress with long, jet-black hair tied up in a high bun standing on the mountaintop, holding a sharp sword and looking down at the foot of the mountain with a somewhat indifferent expression.

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(End of this chapter)