Alien Hotel.

Chapter 509 The Goldfish's Freedom: Fleeting Moments

A black car drove through the gloomy woods and followed the forest path to the building that looked like a concrete tombstone and had no windows at all.

The Secret Service agents who were stationed in front of the main building immediately stepped forward—the car door opened, and Bai Liqing, wearing a white suit, stepped out.

She nodded slightly to the several fully armed Secret Service agents in front of her, then looked up at the drab sanatorium building.

"What's the situation now?"

An on-site commander immediately spoke up: "An hour ago, the alarm sounded in the core area. Currently, all patients and medical staff in the main building have been evacuated to the 'Shortcut' transfer station and the forest shelter in accordance with the emergency plan. However, a security team is still trapped in the building—it is the 'Dean's' monitoring team. They should have evacuated with the others when the alarm sounded, but for some reason they are stuck in the building. The signal intercepted by the communications station shows that they seem to be fighting with an unknown enemy."

Bai Liqing frowned almost imperceptibly: "Is there any other signal in the building now?"

“Only the ‘Dean’s’ containment system is still issuing leak alerts; the entire facility is shut down,” the commander said gravely. “The core area is currently flooded, and we cannot confirm the situation at the offices.”

Bai Liqing nodded, ordered the on-site security personnel to continue sealing off the facilities, and then walked towards the building entrance.

The access control system had been deactivated, and Baili Qing pushed open the door of Jinglin Sanatorium, where a damp smell immediately hit her.

The lobby on the first floor was deserted, with only the dim light of emergency lights illuminating the empty hall and corridors. Not far away, behind the reception desk, the large screen was still flashing alarms that the director had breached containment and that the facility was being evacuated. The surrounding air was so humid that it felt as if it were filled with water, and breathing gave one the illusion that one might choke on water at any moment. Many trickles of water flowed along the roof and walls as if they were living things, forming puddles of various sizes on the ground.

Without any entourage or guards, Baili Qing merely frowned slightly as she glanced at the situation in the hall before stepping towards the connecting passage leading to the core area.

The interior space of this building is far more spacious than its theoretical physical structure—especially after the "Goldfish" broke through containment. The flooded environment amplified the deep corridors and empty areas. The empty building, illuminated by dim lights, was deathly silent, with only Baili Qing's footsteps echoing hollowly in the corridor. As she went deeper, the surroundings became increasingly cold and damp, until the entire corridor presented an eerie atmosphere as if it had been submerged underwater for decades or even centuries.

Mottled algae covered the walls, and vibrant coral-like structures jutted out from the ground. Fluorescent filamentous aquatic plants hung from the roof, and streams of water of all sizes detached from the walls, floating in the air as if weightless, flowing silently between the corals and aquatic plants.

A pair of light-colored eyes appeared on the damp wall, and Baili Xue's voice rang out: "'Dean' has been very well-behaved for the past half-century... how could he suddenly break through containment?"

“All entities have a tendency to breach containment, regardless of whether they are ‘well-behaved’ or not; what they lack is the right conditions,” Baili Qing said calmly. “So rather than the issue of breaching containment, I’m more curious about who created these ‘conditions’ for it—that goldfish doesn’t like anyone barging into its office.”

She stopped.

A distinct layer of "water" suddenly appeared in the corridor—just a few meters away, the corridor leading to the dean's office was completely "flooded." The rippling water was perpendicular to the wall, as if bound by an invisible force. The clear water filled the entire core area and was expanding outward at a very slow speed.

Several figures wearing light power armor floated in the water not far away, drifting slowly with the current.

It was that security team that went missing.

Bai Liqing's expression remained unchanged as she strode straight toward the body of water.

A fine, scale-like pattern of light and shadow suddenly appeared on her cheeks and arms. She walked in the water as if she were walking in the air, without any hindrance. She came to the vicinity of the Secret Service agents who were floating with the current and raised her hand to press on the head of one of them.

The helmet visor of the light power armor quickly became transparent, revealing that no water had entered. The young operator even had his eyes open, with a serene and contented smile on his face—he was floating in the water with his eyes open and a goldfish swimming around inside his helmet.

The goldfish swayed its tail in the air beneath the mask, occasionally darting into the operator's head like a phantom, swimming in the latter's eyes, and then emerging from the ear, drifting leisurely and contentedly.

Bai Liqing inspected the entire security team and saw that there was a goldfish swimming around inside each person's mask.

These people are still alive, but if they had arrived half an hour later, it would have been no different from being dead—they would have lived forever in the dream that they were a goldfish, and would have even gradually forgotten how to breathe in the air.

Bai Liqing waved her hand, and an invisible force pushed the security team, who were trapped in the "Goldfish Dream," out of the water. They stumbled and fell into the corridor outside the water, and then suddenly woke up from the dream, looking around blankly.

"Get out of here. There are people waiting outside the gate." Baili Qing's voice echoed in everyone's minds.

Then Baili Qing turned around, ignoring the security team that had already begun to retreat, and continued walking deeper into the corridor.

The phantom of a goldfish appeared in the water, swimming around her.

I heard some small, sharp sounds.

The goldfish swam faster and faster, looking somewhat impatient.

Baili Qing frowned, patiently listening to the tiny voice that kept talking in her ear— "I've been attacked! I've been attacked! Despicable attacker!"

That was a voice that would make ordinary people dizzy and even fall into a dreamlike state, constantly babbling.

"I didn't deliberately destroy the fish tank; I was forced to breach containment! That perfectly healthy lunatic broke my fish tank!"
"I am innocent, I am a victim, I didn't want to run away—"

"I wanted the security team to evacuate, but they were knocked unconscious. I only went inside their heads to protect them; otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to survive in the flooded environment..."

"I knew you could get here within two hours..."

Bai Liqing stopped and stared expressionlessly at the goldfish phantoms swimming around in front of her.

Goldfish floated in front of her, their translucent fins trembling incessantly.

"Wait, be gentle when you hit me."

It discussed the matter cautiously.

"can."

The phantom of the goldfish vanished, and the door to the dean's office remained ajar where it had disappeared.

Baili Qing pushed open the door and entered.

In the office filled with clear water, numerous odds and ends floated on the surface. Besides these, bubbles of all sizes were scattered throughout the room—each bubble containing blurry images of light and shadow: scenes of daily life at the Jinglin Sanatorium, records of Yu Sheng and his group's visit, the "director" reviewing surveillance footage, and the attacker's actions in the office…

The image in each bubble repeats continuously in a seven-second cycle.

And a goldfish—not an illusion—was slowly swimming among the bubbles, circling around and around, as if wandering in its own dream.

Bai Liqing's gaze first fell on the bubbles. After looking at the images reflected in each bubble, she stepped into the center of the office.

The tall, human female body floated lifelessly in the water. The spherical fish tank at the head position had a crack. Although the entire office was flooded, the fish tank was completely dry.

Bai Liqing carefully examined the human body and the spherical fish tank for a moment, then calmly focused her gaze on the crack at the bottom of the tank.

The crack in the fish tank was reflected in her very light-colored eyes.

A moment later, the cracks reflected in her eyes began to slowly shrink—and as the scene in her eyes changed, the cracks on the spherical fish tank really began to heal.

The water level in the office began to drop, and the goldfish swimming among the bubbles seemed to be disturbed, immediately struggling. Then, the struggle turned into a fierce rampage.

But it only had time to charge a few times before it was suddenly gripped by an invisible force.

Baili Qing reached out her hand towards the goldfish. Fine scales covered her forearm and the back of her hand. Her originally fair and delicate human hand suddenly became rugged and ferocious. Her thick and powerful knuckles and sharp hook-shaped nails swelled and grew rapidly with a squeaking sound. She looked up and stared intently at the goldfish that was instinctively struggling. She slowly increased the pressure on her hand, and an invisible force pressed finger marks all over the goldfish's body. Then she slowly dragged it into the fish tank.

The goldfish's eyes bulged out, its body swelling and contracting violently like a balloon about to burst. A tiny voice echoed in the water: "Gently, gently, I don't want to run away either, but you know I can't control it... Hey hey hey! Stop squeezing! Chief, be gentle! X's almost out..."

Bai Liqing waved her hand and pulled, throwing the goldfish directly into the spherical fish tank.

The water in the office receded quickly, and the dampness in the air dissipated as if by illusion as the ventilation system restarted. Baili Qing's arm quickly returned to normal. She turned her head and saw the two-meter-tall human female body standing up unsteadily, its movements as sluggish and stiff as a system restart. The goldfish that had been squeezed half to death swam around the fish tank a couple of times before its fins gradually relaxed.

"Ah, it feels so good to have my mind clear again..." A languid and charming female voice came from the intercom under the fish tank, "Director, thank goodness you arrived in time."

Bai Liqing shook her hand nonchalantly and then pulled a tissue from her desk to wipe her fingers.

The previous "water immersion" seemed like an illusion; after the goldfish returned to the fish tank, everything that had been soaked in water returned to a dry state.

"Okay, now tell me, how did you end up like this?"

(End of this chapter)