Alien Hotel.

Chapter 522 Breakthrough Progress
The next morning, Yu Sheng received a message from Baili Qing—the "interrogation" on her end had yielded results.

Although it's unclear how the female bureau chief managed to do it, she clearly possesses some unique skills in restoring other people's memories.

After preparing a meal for Hu Li, Yu Sheng casually picked Eileen, tucked her under his arm, pushed open the door, and went to the Special Operations Bureau. Then, he followed Bai Liqing around and around until they arrived at a place that specifically held dangerous prisoners—the "black spot soldier" was no longer in the medical area but had been transferred to a single cell.

Inside the cell, separated by a force field shield, the "Algred elf" dressed in an orange prison uniform sat in a chair. He appeared to have no external injuries, but his mental state was quite poor. He visibly trembled when he saw Baili Qing enter the cell—this time, his fear was far more genuine than when he was lying in the hospital bed yesterday. Afterward, he showed a cooperative attitude.

“Tell me again what you told me before,” Baili Qing said, sitting opposite the prisoner with her usual calm expression. “Let’s start with the ‘research projects’ in that laboratory, such as the origin of that ‘stone’.”

The black dot soldier opposite the force field shield sighed softly, the struggle in his eyes lasting only a second. Then he looked up at Yu Sheng and Eileen sitting beside him before slowly speaking: "...That thing is called 'Zolda Black Stone,' but people in the lab usually just call it 'Black Stone.' It's called that because it first appeared on a ruined planet called 'Zolda' in the Great Triangle Sector..."

"Local scavengers say the stone fell from a 'black crack,' but the exact time of its appearance is unknown... For a long time, the 'black stone' was a 'sacred object' for the superstitious scavenger tribes in the area, and the leaders of those barbarians regarded the black stone as a symbol of divine revelation and divine selection. They took large doses of hallucinogenic herbs and prayed to the black stone all day long, supposedly in order to gain the power to predict good and bad fortune."

Local legend has it that the Black Stone can transport people to the Astral Plane, a land free from hunger and disease. Some have even witnessed it open a rift in full view of everyone, leading to the Astral Paradise, a land of endless food. Warriors have crossed the rift and returned laden with spoils…

"Anyway, they were all a jumble of true and false legends, and these stories eventually attracted the attention of some local barbarian warlords. Then, the chaos between the warlords caught the attention of the group company's local business personnel—and finally, 'Zorda Black Stone' was sent to our laboratory."

The soldier with the black dot paused and hesitated, as if the series of recaps had momentarily blocked his train of thought. After a few seconds, the dazedness and confusion in his eyes slowly faded, and he continued as if nothing had happened: "I'm just a guard and don't know anything about the technical aspects, but it's said that scholars have discovered incredible power in that 'black stone,' and also found 'echoes of information' hidden inside it."

“I don’t know the specifics, I’ve only overheard a few things from casual conversations among the researchers. They seem to think… the Zolda Black Stone is just a fragment that broke off from some kind of large device.”

"A large-scale device?" For some reason, Yu Sheng's heart suddenly skipped a beat, and his spiritual intuition was pounding. "What large-scale device?"

The soldier with the black dot frowned and hesitated before speaking, "Something used for traversing the world, something... a bridge? That's what the technical experts describe it as."

Yu Sheng took a light breath, and at the same time felt Eileen on his shoulder suddenly nudge his head.

"It sounds like 'Boundary Bridge'!" The little doll leaned closer and whispered in his ear.

"Most likely." Yu Sheng nodded immediately, speaking softly while controlling his facial expression.

It turns out that the things being studied in that black spot laboratory were actually fragments of the "Boundary Bridge"!

At that moment, he suddenly thought of many things, and some of his doubts were instantly answered—so, the rift that appeared in the dark alley was actually opened by that black stone? That black stone contained a portion of the power of the "Boundary Bridge," thus enabling it to create a hole in the spacetime structure? And the Black Dot Group's focus on the Ominous Goddess's knowledge, and the activation of an infiltrator to search for the secret of the Broken Tower (Boundary Bridge)... was also because they had deciphered a part of the secrets hidden within the black stone?

So... what exactly is the Black Dot Group trying to do?
Do they want to rebuild a "boundary bridge"? Do they want to master the technology? Do they want to find the goddess of omens?
Yu Sheng's brows furrowed deeper and deeper. He knew that the Boundary Bridge possessed the power to penetrate worlds. After all, its original purpose was to "guide" the Dark Angels into the observable universe. However, this power to penetrate worlds was essentially an amplification of the Dark Angels' own "penetrating" characteristics. Judging from the collapse of the Boundary Bridge, this technology was clearly unstable...

His expression became somewhat subtle at the thought—no, the original boundary bridge has collapsed, and those shady scientists really dare to use a fragment and a bunch of pieced-together knowledge (which is very likely incompatible with this world) to create a knock-off version?!

Yu Sheng immediately understood what Baili Qing had said when she introduced the Black Dot Group to him, and he understood why such a "technology company" could get along with two groups of cultists in various civilizations... They really weren't afraid of blowing something big!

"You guys aren't planning to restore that 'large device,' are you?" Even Eileen immediately thought of this, staring intently at the black dot soldiers on the other side of the shield.

“I don’t know—I already said I’m just a guard,” the black-dot soldier shook his head, but then quickly changed the subject, “but if it’s feasible…why not?”

Yu Sheng was shocked on the spot: "Holy crap... You guys still don't understand what that thing does or how it works, and you've just started the project like this? How long have you been working on it?"

“According to Terra standard time, about seven years,” the Black Dot soldier said honestly, adding a few words at the end, “Actually, I also feel that this project is somewhat unsafe… Most people in the lab know its risks—although many outsiders say we're extreme, we also understand the concept of 'risk management'.” Yu Sheng stared wide-eyed: “Uh, so…”

"So we buried a nuclear bomb under the lab," the black-dot soldier said matter-of-factly, "and made ample security preparations."

Yu Sheng: "!?"

Eileen: "Holy crap!"

The prisoner on the other side of the barrier sighed: "I don't understand why you backward barbarians are always so alarmed by our security measures..."

This exclamation was clearly heartfelt, stemming from a deeply ingrained worldview and prejudice, so much so that he spoke it with remarkable ease in front of Baili Qing—Yu Sheng couldn't help but scrutinize the face of the soldier with the black dot, only to see an air of composure and self-righteousness. In those pupils filled with pale gold stars, there was no fanaticism, no blind faith, only calm…rationality.

Meanwhile, the soldier with the black dot continued rambling: "Based on probability and the special nature of the project itself, once an experiment involving spacetime rifts goes out of control, there is no possibility of escape. In fact, the act of escaping itself may further amplify the damage caused by the loss of control—because any form of faster-than-light engine will further tear apart the rift opened by the 'Black Stone.' Therefore, interrupting the operation of the entire laboratory within a thousandth of a second of the nuclear bomb's detonation is the most effective way to control the risk—it's a simple mathematical problem."

"Besides, we're not going to detonate a nuclear bomb at the slightest sign of trouble; we have other safety measures in place..."

Yu Sheng blinked: "For example?"

"For example, immediately eliminating operators contaminated by Blackrock..."

Yu Sheng quickly waved his hand: "Okay, I understand, you don't need to say anything more."

The black-dot soldier opposite sighed again.

Although he didn't say anything, his face practically screamed, "It's really hard to communicate with you backward barbarians."

Even after Baili Qing personally performed a "memory restoration spell," this Algerian still retained a certain indestructible pride deep down.

"So, when did you start targeting the border region?" Baili Qing asked from the side. "When was that undercover agent named 'Sun Chen' turned into a spy by you?"

“I don’t know,” the Black Dot soldier shook his head frankly. “It’s beyond my scope of responsibility. All I know is that early in the project, the technical experts extracted information about a broken tower from the Blackrock, but the information was very vague, and the process of reading it resulted in the loss of several psykers—as for how they later located the ‘Boundary’ target from that little bit of vague information, that’s beyond my knowledge.”

"As for the undercover agent you mentioned named 'Sun Chen,' I've never heard of him. That's a matter for other departments."

“There’s another question,” Baili Qing asked again, “What do you know about the next step of the ‘experiment plan’?”

“I don’t know,” the soldier with the black dot shook his head again, but under Baili Qing’s gaze, he quickly showed a thoughtful expression, and after a moment he hesitated before speaking, “...Well, all I know is that experiments to open rifts are conducted every day, but not every time they are successful. In fact, most of the time before, ‘Black Stone’ would not respond to any commands we input, and would only occasionally open some unstable channels under the stimulation of a specific energy source. It’s only recently that the situation has changed.”

Yu Sheng frowned: "Changes?"

"It's only been a few months, but 'Blackstone' has suddenly become more active and started responding positively to the energy and activation commands we give it. The channels it opens are becoming more and more stable, and it has even become somewhat practical. It's as if... it has suddenly come to life."

After saying this, the soldier with the black dot breathed a sigh of relief and spread his hands: "That's all I know."

(End of this chapter)