Alien Hotel.

Chapter 518 The Sudden Appearance of the Passage
A silver-white artificial object, seemingly out of place with the overall style of the dark alley, stood at the crossroads at the end of the alley, emitting a low buzzing sound, while black spider silk spread out of nowhere all around it.

The entire device is about a person tall and about half a meter in diameter, roughly cylindrical. Its silvery-white shell is inlaid with slender, pale purple crystals at even intervals, and there are complex grooves surrounding those crystals. Inside, you can vaguely see light moving around, and the light and dark change with the humming sound inside the device.

This thing is obviously working, but... what is it for?
Yu Sheng felt a sense of unease. He cautiously circled the device twice, then took out his phone to take several photos of it from various angles before turning to Little Red Riding Hood and Zheng Zhi: "Does anyone recognize this thing?"

“Never seen it before,” Little Red Riding Hood immediately shook her head. “It’s clearly not from somewhere else, nor does it seem like something from the Secret Service.”

While ruffling Yu Sheng's hair, Eileen muttered, "...This isn't something that Little Black Group made, is it?"

“It’s the Black Dot Group,” Hu Li immediately corrected.

“We can’t rule out that possibility.” Yu Sheng frowned, glancing at the large amount of spider silk surrounding the silver-white device. He then recalled the information the king had gleaned from the black cats—the spider silk started spreading from the crossroads.

Could this device have attracted the spiderweb that covered the entire alley? Was it the work of the Black Dot Group?
What's their ulterior motive in setting up something like this in a dark alley?

Just as Yu Sheng's mind was racing, Hu Li seemed to have discovered something else. She leaned close to the device, stared intently at it for a while, and suddenly pointed to a protrusion on the side of the device: "My benefactor, it looks like it broke off somewhere. Look, this broken surface is even glowing a little..."

Yu Sheng quickly looked in the direction Hu Li was pointing and saw that there was something strange about the top of the cylinder. It looked like some kind of connecting structure, but it was as if it had been cut off by an invisible blade, showing a smooth and abrupt break. In the break, you could vaguely see something like the texture of a cable.

Then, Yu Sheng noticed a faint crack around the cylindrical device, which seemed to have been caused by an impact.

Yu Sheng stroked his chin: "Rather than saying this thing was deliberately 'placed' here, it looks more like it fell off something and landed here..."

"Smashed here?" Little Red Riding Hood frowned. "But this is another realm... a closed space, an other realm that can only be entered through specific rules. Apart from your 'door,' I've never heard of anyone having the ability to smash things into another realm. Oh, the Dark Angels could, but this doesn't seem like something the Dark Angels would do... Could the Black Dot Group really come up with this kind of black technology?"

“You’re asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?” Yu Sheng muttered, then quickly made a decision. “Anyway, no matter where this thing came from, it obviously shouldn’t be here. Let’s take it back.”

"What do we do? Open a door? This thing looks pretty heavy, and I don't know if it will cause any problems if we move it rashly," Little Red Riding Hood stroked her chin. "What if it just explodes...? Even if it doesn't explode, this thing looks very delicate, what if it gets damaged by bumps and knocks?"

Professional spirit detectives are indeed more comprehensive in their thinking than laymen. As soon as Little Red Riding Hood muttered this, Yu Sheng immediately realized the inappropriateness of moving it rashly. He shouldn't have touched it casually before he was sure what the device was supposed to do.

Thinking of this, he casually took out his phone, quickly edited a message, then opened a small door leading to the outside world and sent the message, also attaching the photo he had just taken: "I'm sending a message to Baili Qing—I'll give the Special Operations Bureau a headache later."

Just then, Zheng Zhi suddenly looked up and gazed at the other side of the intersection with some confusion.

Amidst the crisscrossing spiderwebs, you can see another "dark alley" across the intersection—the scene inside is exactly the same as this side.

But a sense of unease, which seemed to come from nowhere, gradually rose up.

Zheng Zhi rubbed his eyes and looked at the area separated by spider webs. In a daze, he saw that the edges of the spider silk seemed to be silently cutting through space, and tiny cracks were opening in the air.

A strange buzzing sound emanated from the cracks.

Zheng Zhi paused for a moment, then, with his experience, he quickly realized, "Brother Yu, something's wrong! I've 'seen' something again!"

The next second, before he could even ask, he quickly began to describe: "There's a crack at the edge of that spiderweb across the intersection, the crack is about to open, and there's a noise, it sounds like something is tearing something apart... Wait, there's a figure! There's a figure on the other side of the crack!"

"Well done, nephew!" Yu Sheng reacted instantly, then grabbed Zheng Zhi and pushed him back, "Get behind us!"

Almost simultaneously, everyone sprang into action—Little Red Riding Hood instantly summoned several Shadow Wolves to stand at the forefront of the group, Yu Sheng drew his Tetanus Staff, Luna opened her Blade to protect Yu Sheng, and Hu Li made a clanging sound as she drew her sword, pulling out two tails to hold it on either side like Gatling guns, with six more tails behind her spreading out like a sword mound, foxfire rising.

Because the crossroads were narrow and many places were blocked by spider webs, the king's summoned army could hardly be deployed here. So he chose to leave his brave squad on the field. But everyone in the squad started frantically rummaging through their bags, then taking various potions, applying oils, burning incense, and praying...

The next second, Yu Sheng noticed that the air across the intersection was distorting rapidly.

Unstable fissures filled the intersection almost instantly, the black spiderwebs disappearing into them. After only a few seconds of tremors, the fissures merged, forming a clear, massive passageway. On the other side of the passage was a huge… laboratory? Even Yu Sheng was momentarily stunned. The situation on the other side of the passage was completely opposite to what he had expected. The eerie, sinister alternate dimension he had anticipated did not appear; instead, he found a brightly lit hall. The vast interior space seemed to have been built specifically for some large-scale experiment. He could see a platform raised above the ground in the distance, with a black, irregular fragment imprisoned in a levitation field on the platform, though he couldn't discern what it was. Around the platform were numerous strange, automatically operating devices—

But he didn't have the chance to observe more details.

Because there were people on the other side of the passage—a large number of people dressed in white or light blue robes were standing at the edge of the passage, and some armed personnel were guarding the entrance directly opposite. They were staring in disbelief at Yu Sheng and his group on this side of the passage.

The scene was somewhat comical—because it was obvious that both sides were a little confused when the passage opened.

However, this stalemate caused by both sides being confused did not last long.

Someone shouted from the other side of the passage—

"Class III accident!"

The next second, Yu Sheng saw all the people in short robes scatter and run away, while the group of armed personnel in black combat uniforms were covering the researchers' retreat. At the same time, the edge of the passage began to flicker and shake violently, as if the people on the other side were forcibly closing the rift on this side. Accompanied by a series of ear-piercing noises, the entire crossroads began to shake and vibrate, and the large amount of black spider silk covering the crossroads also seemed to be disturbed, and began to break and retract.

"Hey, they're running away!" Eileen shouted on the spot, standing up abruptly from Yu Sheng's shoulder. "These must be people from that Little Blackie's Group! They've dug a hole right under our noses!"

Before the words were even finished, the little puppet had already raised its hand and summoned large swaths of spider silk. The jet-black threads wove into a net, instantly covering the edge of the rapidly closing crack, as if trying to force the passage open again.

Then the armed men on the other side of the passage launched an attack without hesitation.

They skillfully constructed firing positions along the edges of the fissure and using the terrain of the laboratory, and began firing at Yu Sheng and his group with all sorts of oddly shaped weapons. Dense ion beams and various types of live ammunition swept through the passage, whistling sharply through the air—

The wandering mage in the hero's party immediately erected a shield, but the shield only lasted a few seconds before it began to flicker rapidly and was on the verge of collapse.

Taking advantage of the few seconds that the mage's shield delayed them, Yu Sheng and his companions quickly sought cover and began to fight back.

Hu Li's side unleashed a barrage of foxfire projectiles that slammed into the crack like water, followed by six foxcart missiles that streaked across the air with dazzling trajectories before crashing into the laboratory on the other side.

At the same time, the shields on the armed personnel flickered with a faint light. In the huge explosion caused by the Fox Carrot missile, some people were blown away on the spot, but the shields that were deployed in time, coupled with the power that Hu Li deliberately controlled, only made them fall into a coma. The next moment, Yu Sheng shouted: "Find a way to capture two alive!"

At the same time, the edge of the rift began to flicker violently again, and the support structure that Eileen had barely managed to hold up with her spider silk was rapidly disintegrating. The little doll stretched out her arms with all her might, her face turning red from holding it in: "Yu Sheng—my arms can't hold up anymore!"

Upon hearing this, Yu Sheng's eyes widened, and he turned to look at the little thing: "...When you go out to fight, at least bring a sturdier body with you!"

"I brought the wrong one!!"

Before Eileen's scream could even finish, a piercing noise filled the air, and the spider silk she had summoned snapped inch by inch, quickly closing the already crumbling passage.

But before that, a dark figure had already rushed out like a ghost.

Like dancing in a storm, like flying petals passing through a hail of bullets, Luna charged straight towards the remaining firing positions on the other side of the passage. The armed men reacted quickly; they could even barely keep up with Luna's movements, but only barely—almost instantly, Luna rushed back from the enemy ranks, completely unharmed.

The passageway slammed shut.

Luna carried back an unconscious armed man.

She threw the person in front of Yu Sheng, her tone apologetic: "Only, we caught one."

(Oh my god!)

(End of this chapter)