Alien Hotel.

Chapter 523 Gloomy Haze
The black-dot soldiers on the other side of the barrier seemed to know nothing more—later, when Yu Sheng asked them about the strange device at the crossroads in the dark alley, they were completely bewildered and said they knew nothing about it.

Considering that this person was just a guard in the laboratory, and given Baili Qing's expertise in "memory restoration techniques," what he said should be true.

With a slight mechanical scraping sound, the isolation gate of the single cell closed again, and Yu Sheng carried Eileen back to the door, with Baili Qing beside him.

“Now you should understand why I called Black Dot Group an ‘extreme academic organization’,” Baili Qing sighed slightly, raised her eyelids and glanced at Yu Sheng, “Their research is always so reckless and haphazard—and their labs are really prone to blowing up a huge bomb.”

“It might blow up other people’s houses, right?” Yu Sheng smirked, then changed the subject, “But to be fair, they do manage to get something of real value… a fragment of the Boundary Bridge. No wonder they were able to open a rift leading to the dark alley.”

Bai Liqing frowned slightly, and after a moment of thought, broke the silence: "A deep-sea team has entered the alley. They found the 'silver-white cylinder' you mentioned, and they are now trying to get it out. We can't be sure what it's for yet, but one thing is certain: it is indeed some kind of equipment manufactured by the Black Dot Group."

“The soldier just now said he didn’t know anything about the silver device, nor did he know if his superiors had deployed any equipment to the border area,” Yu Sheng said as he pondered. “I initially thought they opened that rift to retrieve the machine at the crossroads, but now it seems… it’s more like two separate accidents.”

“It’s possible he’s lying,” Baili Qing said calmly. “Of course, your guess is also very likely, after all, it’s a Black Dot Group project—accidents and loss of control are the norm.”

Yu Sheng deeply agreed with Baili Qing's words.

After leaving the Secret Service, Yu Sheng didn't go straight home. Instead, he opened a door leading to a place near No. 66 Wutong Road and slowly walked with Eileen towards home.

"Why don't you just go home?" The little doll nestled in Yu Sheng's arms, secretly glancing around as it muttered, "I have to pretend to be dead outside..."

“There aren’t many people on this road at this time—you should come out for some fresh air once in a while,” Yu Sheng said casually, then looked down at the little doll in his arms, hesitated slightly, and continued after a while, “Eileen.”

Eileen raised her head: "Huh?"

"How long has it been since I released you from that painting?" Yu Sheng asked earnestly.

Eileen paused for a moment, seemingly unsure why the other person had suddenly asked this, but she still thought about it seriously and after a while, she said uncertainly, "Has it been a year? Ah, it shouldn't be... So how many months? I'm not really sure."

Yu Sheng didn't seem to care much about the answer, and just muttered to himself, "Judging from the time, the time when the activity of the 'Zorda Black Stone' in that laboratory suddenly increased was about the same time when I made your first body and let you come out of the oil painting."

Eileen listened, her eyes widening slightly, before finally drawing out her voice, "Wow—"

Yu Sheng often couldn't understand how this little thing reacted to various things, but he got used to it.

"If you feel anything is wrong with yourself, or hear or see anything, tell me immediately... or anyone around you, even Hu Li Luna."

"Uh-huh!"

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then added with some concern, "Including if you feel your mind suddenly becomes sharp or confused, you should tell us immediately."

Eileen: "I think I've always been very quick-witted..."

"This is an illusion—I'm talking about suddenly feeling a change."

"Oh... mmm!"

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then suddenly stopped: "Oh, I forgot to go to the supermarket!"

What are you going to the supermarket for?

"Buy lotus root and minced meat!"

Eileen looked bewildered: "Huh? But my arm has already been repaired..."

“No, not this one—Hu Li wanted lotus root sandwiches, I almost forgot,” Yu Sheng quickly opened a small door leading to the living room of No. 66 Wutong Road, speaking rapidly, “You go home first, I’m going to the supermarket.”

Before he finished speaking, he placed the small doll he was holding on the sofa opposite the door, then turned around, opened another door leading to a nearby supermarket, and hurriedly left.

Eileen was completely bewildered. By the time she came to her senses, she was already sitting on her sofa at home. The little doll blinked and looked around, first mentally cursing Yu Sheng's grandfather, then seeing Luna cleaning. Instantly forgetting the grudge of being carelessly thrown home, she jumped up and pointed at the artificial saintess: "Ha! A cleaning robot!" ...

Thick fog blanketed the streets.

Familiar cityscapes are blurred into indistinct, ambiguous reflections in the fog. Towering skyscrapers stand like tilted tombstones in the fog. The bustling streets of the real world appear deserted in this foggy city, with only a few empty car shells parked at nearby intersections, their windows filled with dark, seemingly distorted shadows.

Occasionally, suspicious swarms could be seen crossing the intersection through the distant fog, and enormous shadows, resembling giant insects with long legs, moved slowly between the clouds and skyscrapers. Several striking red lights projected from the rooftops of nearby buildings, dividing the fog into distinct boundaries, with large holographic projections scrolling continuously along the edges of the red lights.

"Warning: Dense fog ahead. Entry is strictly prohibited for unauthorized personnel."

This is the Fog City, a massive alien realm located "below" the real city. As a newly discovered alien realm, many of its rules and physical boundaries are still to be explored. Considering the astonishing size of the Fog City (which may cover the entire border region) and the extremely high risks of the dense fog areas, the Secret Service is currently maintaining a very cautious attitude towards exploring this alien space.

Apart from a small portion of the already explored "Misty District" that can be opened to civilian spirit detectives or investigators, more than 70% of the area of ​​the Mist City is still accessible only to the Special Operations Bureau's Deep Dive Team.

A burst of gunfire erupted from the dense fog, accompanied by the unique bright blue flashes of particle weapons annihilating matter and the energy hum of psionicists casting purification spells. The fog in the entire block began to surge violently as if boiling, before quickly returning to calm after a brief surge.

Several entities that were wandering on the edge of the fog zone were eliminated, and a team of figures wearing heavy power armor stepped out of the fog.

The leader was exceptionally burly.

Xu Jiali opened the power armor's helmet visor, glanced back at the barrier in the dense fog area, and rubbed her nose: "To be honest, it's really disgusting that a physical 'clown' like this appears outside the 'circus.' Teleporting around in open areas, I haven't fired as many guns in my entire life as I have today."

"But in the end, you still managed to blow my head off, boss," a petite figure wearing light power armor and cat ears on her helmet emerged from the dense fog, looking happily at Xu Jiali. "It didn't even have time to open the 'gift box'~~"

"That's because I'm a cut above the rest," Xu Jiali said cheerfully, then raised her hand to rub her nose. Her expression then became subtle as she looked down at her large fingers clad in power armor gloves, and her lips twitched.

"What's wrong, boss, meow?"

“One of the ten most painful things about being in power armor has happened: I fucking want to pick my nose…” Xu Jiali’s face was contorted, then she glanced at the psionic servant next to her, “Lingdang, can you do me a favor…”

“Ugh—boss, you’re making me sick,” Bell immediately took a half step back with a look of disgust, then raised her hand and waved it. “I’m wearing power armor too, so hang in there, meow.”

Xu Jiali twitched her lips, then rubbed her nose vigorously, muttering, "That's strange... I feel like there's a weird smell, but the environmental monitor isn't responding."

“Boss,” another deep-sea diver walked over from the side, his voice muffled from behind his heavy mask, “Barrier area scan complete, entity generation confirmed to have stopped, and the combat situation just now has been uploaded.”

“Okay,” Xu Jiali nodded, then glanced down at the information terminal on her arm. “This area will be handed over to the tactical walking machine. We will proceed as planned through Qinghe District to Donglin Square to meet with a newly landed technical team and assist them in setting up communication repeaters. Pay attention to changes in fog density along the way—the foggy areas in the eastern part of the city have been quite unstable lately.”

"Roger that!"

Upon receiving the order, the Deep Divers immediately completed a brief check of their equipment before setting off for the next fog-covered area. Several psionic servants, including Bell, were protected within the team. Normally, psionic servants are special units that only accompany Deep Divers on "outpost missions," but given the unknown conditions and overall instability of many areas in "Fog City," the Deep Divers have recently begun to bring psionic servants with them when carrying out missions in foggy areas.

The psionicist's keen senses and mental defenses can play a significant role in this vast fog.

The task force began moving along the barrier at the edge of the dense fog zone. They cautiously and quickly traversed the fog-covered areas, searching for the correct path among the seemingly unreal roads that were somewhat distorted from reality, leaving small signposts along the way to guide those following behind.

The bell suddenly stopped.

Each deep-sea diver has a certain telepathic connection with their psychic servant, and Xu Jiali immediately noticed the cat-headed girl's unusual behavior: "What's wrong?"

"Cold," Bell shivered and quickly moved closer to her boss. "I think I tripped over something just now, and then I felt cold to the bone, meow."

Xu Jiali frowned deeply, and the next second, he heard a teammate nearby exclaim, "I'm being entangled by something!"

(End of this chapter)