Alien Hotel.

Chapter 510 Black Spot
The goldfish swam slowly in the spherical fish tank, then drifted out of the tank as if between wakefulness and a dream, blowing a bubble in front of Baili Qing.

It then quickly returned to the fish tank, and the bubble grew larger and larger until it became a crystal sphere with a diameter of about one meter, shimmering with a strange light, and a clear image appeared on the surface of the sphere.

That was the entire process of the "attacker" appearing in the office. Compared to the uncontrollable bubbles that appeared in the office when the containment area was "flooded," the image projected by the goldfish was clearly clearer and more complete, and it also showed a lot of details that were not there before.

Then the goldfish exhaled another bubble, and the scene inside was even blurrier and darker. It was a view of the edge of the core area, where a security team was engaged in a fierce firefight with unidentified enemies. Their opponents were several tall, thin figures dressed in black combat suits, moving with the agility of the wind. They were not only fully armed, but also seemed to be using strange and extraordinary skills. The attacker who had appeared in the dean's office earlier was standing behind those tall, thin figures, obviously being covered.

A muffled, distorted sound comes from the screen, seemingly from the "attacker" with a swollen and twisted head:

"Don't kill them—the death of the security team will trigger the core area's burial...get me out of here first!"

Then, the image inside the bubble froze.

Baili Qing raised her head and looked at the "dean" standing in front of her.

“That’s all I saw,” the tall, humanoid body said, bending slightly. “After that, I completely lost control and couldn’t see what happened next.”

Bai Liqing didn't speak, but turned her head to stare at the two bubbles. After thinking for a moment, she broke the silence: "...They are agents of the Black Dot Group."

Then she raised her hand and pointed at the "attacker" in the office: "The one who attacked you was an 'infiltrator' from the Black Dot Group. He was probably the one who, as an inside man, put those agents into the sanatorium."

"...An infiltrator?" Goldfish's voice was filled with astonishment. "But this guy named Sun Chen was just an independent investigator before he was admitted to the hospital. He's never even left the border area..."

“He may have lived in the border region for half his life, but his mind may have left many years ago—most of the ‘infiltrators’ who work for the Black Dot Group do not know that they are employees of ‘Black Dot’ until the moment they are activated,” Baili Qing said calmly. “Infiltrators reside in their own minds, just like parasites living on their hosts, which is why these people become the most notorious infiltrators in the world.”

The goldfish paused for a moment, its fins twitching nervously: "Then... what do we do next? These people have probably already escaped. Is it possible to catch them again?"

“They went to such lengths, even exposing an undercover agent and a special agent squad, it couldn’t have been just to smash your fish tank,” Baili Qing shook her head, her mind racing as she considered many things. “...These people are after the ‘knowledge’ buried deep in history, and there will definitely be more to come.”

After a brief silence, she suddenly spoke: "Where is that 'Sun Chen's' body? The one with the blown-up head."

“They should still be in the morgue,” the director said quickly. “I just checked all the access control systems, and there are no signs of the morgue’s security system being compromised.”

“Okay, take me to see,” Baili Qing stood up from her seat. “If the ‘Sun Chen’ who attacked you was a ‘latent personality’ that separated from the original body due to the materialization of personality, then there may still be traces of ‘guidance’ left to him by the Black Dot Group in his original nervous system.”

The dean hurried after him, saying, "...If your head's about to explode, how can you possibly leave any clues?"

Bai Liqing turned around, the goldfish's reflection shimmering in her faded pupils: "It's alright, as long as he has a head before he's blown up, I can examine his brain from yesterday."

……

The night is dark.

In a high-end residence in the central area of ​​Jiecheng, Baili Qing arrived at the large floor-to-ceiling window.

The lights were off at home, and only the dim glow of the corner lamp illuminated the dark room. The city nightscape outside the floor-to-ceiling windows appeared particularly vivid. Cars flowed like water, neon lights stretched endlessly, and the giant city maintained its usual hustle and bustle under the night sky. Meanwhile, the erosion, pollution, strangeness, and reshaping that occurred outside the sight of ordinary people seemed as distant as another world.

A pair of enormous eyes silently appeared on the French windows, and Baili Xue's voice rang out: "What do you think the Black Dot Group is after? Could it be the 'Goddess of Omens'?"

“Very likely, after all, they are most interested in ‘knowledge’ and ‘artifacts,’ and what ‘Sun Chen’ said before attacking the goldfish revealed that his superiors were at least after the secret of that tower—and that tower is an important part of the ‘Goddess of Omens’ descent,” Baili Qing said thoughtfully. “It’s just that we can’t be sure how much they actually know…”

“Sun Chen first came into contact with the ‘Tower’ three years ago, and there are already clues indicating that it was just an accident,” Baili Xue said. “But we cannot rule out the possibility that he came into contact with the Tower because he was induced by the Black Dot Group—after all, judging from the traces left on the body, his neurosis also started about three years ago.”

“Either the Black Dot Group lured a ‘talented’ independent investigator to contact that ‘tower’ three years ago, or an unlucky investigator accidentally came into contact with the tower and was corrupted by knowledge. The knowledge echoing in his mind then attracted the Black Dot Group’s ‘human resources specialist’ and he was hired,” Baili Qing said, letting out a soft sigh. “In any case, new rats have crawled in—it really never gets any peace and quiet.”

“Yes, we’re never short of worries,” Baili Xue said calmly, “...so it’s necessary to ‘share’ this worry.”

Baili Qing raised her eyebrows and instantly understood what her sister meant.

She took out her phone and glanced at the night view outside. "I bet Yu Sheng isn't asleep."

“…Why don’t you wait another hour before calling again?” Baili Xue urged. “They’ll definitely be asleep by then.”

"A childish and terrible idea."

Bai Liqing gave a casual comment, then picked up her phone and started scrolling through her contacts...

Meanwhile, Yu Sheng was in the attic of No. 66 Wutong Road, applying putty to Eileen's arm.

—When Eileen pulled Zheng Zhi out of that strange space, she used a lot of strength. Because of the urgency of the situation, she didn't have time to carefully select her own body. The body she used was the one that Yu Sheng had processed from lotus root, which wasn't very sturdy. Although she successfully pulled him back in the end and his arm wasn't actually broken, she still found several cracks on his arm when she went to bed that night, so it needed to be repaired.

The little doll sat obediently on the table, her arms draped over the wooden frame on either side. Yu Sheng sat opposite her, holding a small bowl in his hands, carefully picking out "repair materials," and gently applying them to the cracks in Eileen's arm, spreading them evenly with a spoon.

Hu Li sat to the side, staring wide-eyed as her benefactor repaired Eileen's arm, drooling all over the floor.

Yu Sheng looked up at the side, wiped Eileen's arm a couple more times, and scooped a spoonful from the bowl and put it into Hu Li's mouth.

The air was filled with the aroma of lotus root starch.

He would apply the powder to Eileen twice, give Huli a bite, then apply it to Eileen twice more, give Huli a bite... and the half-bag of lotus root powder was almost not enough.

The raccoon squinted its eyes happily: "Lotus root starch is so delicious~"

Eileen (smelling of lotus root) puffed out her cheeks: "If it's so delicious, go downstairs and make it yourself! Why are you messing around here... Hey, stay away from me! Go lick your bowl clean!"

Hu Li quickly licked the little doll's arm, then snatched the bowl on the table used to mix lotus root starch and started slurping it down.

Yu Sheng watched this scene with amusement, and was about to say something when he heard a rapid cell phone ring.

He took out his phone and saw that the call was from Baili Qing.

Eileen peeked out and was immediately astonished: "Wow, that's something else! She's calling you in the middle of the night!"

Yu Sheng was also quite surprised. While answering the phone, he rubbed Hu Li's head, reminding the girl not to lick Eileen's still-healing arm, then put the phone to his ear: "Hello? Director Baili? It's so late..."

Before he could finish speaking, he heard Baili Qing's voice through the receiver: "Something's happened at Jinglin Sanatorium. A group of rats have crawled into the border area—I think they might be after the 'Goddess of Omens'."

Yu Sheng: "...Huh?"

The ears of the raccoon next to it immediately perked up.

Minutes later, they learned of the attack that had taken place at Jinglin Sanatorium.

Relying on the mechanism of personality materialization, the infiltrator entities that emerged after "Sun Chen's" death, the director who briefly broke through containment, the special agent team that infiltrated the sanatorium... and the Black Dot Group.

It all happened shortly after Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood left the sanatorium.

Yu Sheng listened to the phone, completely stunned.

"Holy crap..." he exclaimed in astonishment, "No, so much has happened in the short time we've been gone?! And this Black Dot Group..."

He paused, then quickly made sense of the information in his mind: "Oh right, I remember now, I've heard of them before, they're some kind of active grassroots group on par with the Angel Cult and the Confession of Saints, right... How come this group of people suddenly appeared?!"

“From the perspective of the borderlands and most lawful civilizations, the Black Dot Group, like the Angel Cult and the Sacred Order, is a dangerous extremist organization. But the Black Dot Group doesn’t see itself that way—they always define themselves as a ‘cutting-edge technology company’ and a ‘free academic organization,’” Bai Liqing’s voice sounded somewhat tired. “Some of their members come from the Terra Archaeological Society and the Algred Astrological Society. I suspect that the rats that have sneaked in this time belong to one of these branches. What attracted them… is most likely knowledge about the ‘Goddess of Omens.’”

(End of this chapter)