Alien Hotel.

Chapter 537 Luo

When two factions clash over their ideologies, and one side clearly has major internal problems but can't be reasoned with, kidnapping the other side's boss for a face-to-face meeting is actually a solution—at least that's what Yu Sheng thinks.

His problem-solving approach has always been quite direct.

It happened very quickly, and apparently the people on both sides of the gate didn't react in time.

Under Baili Qing's dumbfounded gaze, a dozen mass-produced Irene appeared near the golden-haired elf. Beams flew and clanged in the maintenance room. The golden-haired elf "Luo" tried to use her mechanical limbs to block the dolls that rushed towards her with dead fish eyes. However, the small size and agile movements of the mass-produced Irene made it difficult for her to cope. After two mental energy fireballs were blown apart by a dozen scorching beams of light from the dolls, she was covered in Irene—several times more than Yu Sheng usually was.

Some of the little dolls grabbed legs, some grabbed arms, some gnawed on mechanical limbs, some pulled hair, grabbed ears, bit fingers, and pulled skirts. There were even some that, finding no space, just grabbed a piece of meat and twisted it hard to hang themselves on the target... A whole bunch of short, clumsy dolls, crawling around like cursed dolls, lifted Luo up and shouted noisily, "Gotcha! Gotcha!" before rushing into Baili Qing's office.

Immediately afterwards, Yu Sheng waved his hand and closed the door.

Luo struggled violently on the office floor, her mechanical limbs scraping against the ground with a piercing sound, screaming incessantly: "Ah! Let me go! You little devils... Bai Li Qing!! You will be cursed... my ears!"

To be honest, even Yu Sheng, watching from the side, felt a little scared. From his perspective, he felt that this unfortunate elf was like someone who had fallen into the set of a Chucky doll movie—but even horror movie directors wouldn't be so heartless as to stuff a dozen or so cursed dolls into the victim's hands at the beginning of the film. This elf had four hanging from just its arm...

Fortunately, Eileen (the main unit) sitting on Yu Sheng's shoulder waved her hand, and the mass-produced girls finally let go of the unlucky blonde elf. A group of little dolls quickly climbed off Luo's body and then obediently ran behind Yu Sheng, standing in a neat row.

Luo awkwardly propped himself up with his arms and mechanical limbs and sat up, looking up to see Baili Qing staring at him expressionlessly from behind her desk.

She turned her head and looked around again, confirming that she had indeed been taken to the Secret Service director's office.

A wave of utter absurdity and bewilderment washed over him, and the elf's eyes seemed to blaze with fury: "I've never heard of such a thing being done..."

Before she could finish speaking, Baili Qing sighed, "I was quite surprised too."

Luo: "...?"

“You’ll get used to it,” Baili Qing continued calmly. “Yu Sheng often solves problems with amazing methods—but they’re generally quite effective. See, now we can have a proper chat, right?”

Luo was speechless for a moment, then heard footsteps behind her. She turned around and exclaimed in surprise, "Ah!"

It turned out that Eileen had climbed off Yu Sheng and wiggled her short legs to get behind her.

"You're weaker than I thought," the little doll said curiously, pawing at the mechanical limbs on Luo's back. "Seeing your appearance, I thought you were a formidable fighter, like Frankenstein's monster from the movies... but all you can do is conjure a couple of fireballs? Are these mechanical arms just for screwing in screws?"

The mechanical limbs twitched suddenly, startling the little doll, which hurriedly hid behind Yu Sheng. However, the expected attack did not come—Luo simply frowned, and his eyes became somewhat dazed after hearing Eileen's voice.

Yu Sheng keenly noticed the dazed look in the other person's eyes. He didn't speak, but his expression seemed thoughtful.

Bai Liqing then walked around from behind the desk and reached out to help the elf, who was still sitting on the floor, up.

"Anyway, I never expected our first in-person meeting to be like this," she said calmly. "Now we should talk about your dangerous 'research project'—believe it or not, it's really serious, and I don't understand why you're still..."

She suddenly stopped and stared intently into Luo's eyes.

A glimmer of light flashed in those faded, pale gray eyes.

Luo shuddered suddenly, as if startled awake from a dream. The dazed look in her eyes faded, and she looked at the person in front of her with some confusion, her voice hesitant and dull: "...What did you just say? My research project? What's wrong with my research project?"

Baili Qing quickly sensed that the other party's reaction was not right. Her eyes narrowed, and her voice seemed to carry some kind of power that could influence the mind: "Zorda Black Stone—you've been studying it for seven years, don't you remember? I've argued with you about it more than once recently..."

“Zolda Black Stone? Black Stone…” Luo frowned, her voice filled with doubt and confusion, but then, as if she remembered something, she put a hand to her forehead, “Yes, Black Stone, I’m studying it. We found that stone on a remote, savage planet. It… is an incredible information carrier. It has a physical form in the real world, but we can’t analyze its material structure no matter what. Knowledge… knowledge!”

Suddenly her eyes lit up, as if she had snapped out of her daze and become excited again. The mechanical limbs behind her stretched out unconsciously: "It is the carrier of knowledge, and a huge information structure is compressed into its real existence! Data... as long as you stimulate it just right, it will give you a lot of incredible mysteries—it can even explain to you the order in the unobservable deep space!"
"Do you understand? Do you all understand? All the 'properties' are secondary; the essence of that stone is far more fascinating than its power! I have learned a great deal from it; it is willing to convey those things to me..."

The blonde elf became completely excited, seemingly forgetting that she had been "captured" by unreasonable means. She even turned to Yu Sheng, gesturing with her arms outstretched as if eager to share her surprise with a friend: "Knowledge! Wisdom! The way to save this world from disaster! The future of everyone! Do you understand? Can you comprehend it? So much..."

A pair of scarlet eyes suddenly came into her view.

Many pairs of scarlet eyes came into her view.

The neatly arranged mass-produced dolls watched over Yu Sheng from behind.

Eileen stood at Luo's feet and reached out to tug at the elf's skirt. "What are you saying?" the little doll blinked. "You're shipping them?"

Luo's body swayed, and those scarlet eyes seemed to magnify wildly in her vision, then turned into two uncontrollable vortexes that interfered with and devoured each other, violently pulling her mind out of a certain "degradation".

"Knowledge" and "wisdom" crumbled and retreated like a receding tide.

Only a refreshing clarity of mind, as if I hadn't felt it in a long time, remained.

"...No!" Luo suddenly raised his head and turned to Baili Qing beside him, "There's something wrong with that stone!"

Bai Liqing and Yu Sheng said in unison, "Do you even need to tell me?!"

"I..." Luo Gang began to say another word, then suddenly raised his hand to cover his forehead, as if another wave of dizziness was hitting him, "I have noise in my head, very chaotic noise..."

Several more seconds passed before the terrible dizziness finally subsided. Luo gasped for breath, looked up at the figures in front of him, and finally his gaze fell on Baili Qing.

“I need the Secret Service’s help—at the cost, you name it.”

All her confusion and bewilderment vanished, and her expression turned serious, completely different from before.

“You need more than just the Secret Service; you also need the power of ‘The Inn’,” Baili Qing said, pointing at Yu Sheng. “Yu Sheng was able to bring you here, and now, he’s probably the only one who can help you shut down your out-of-control lab.”

“Yu… Sheng?” Luo blinked blankly, turned to look at Yu Sheng for a moment, and seemed to finally realize that some information matched up in her mind. “Wait, I think I’ve heard some news about him… that angel hunter?!”

Her eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at the powerful figure before her who had repeatedly opened the door to her secret base and had just brought over a dozen cursed dolls to bind her...

“Yes, I do have that title,” Yu Sheng said with a chuckle, pulling a business card from his pocket and shoving it into the other person’s hand. “I run a spirit detective agency called ‘Hotel,’ which takes on all sorts of supernatural services—including dealing with dark angels haunting homes.”

Luo: "...?"

The elf took the small card somewhat bewildered. On the front of the card was a huge fox head, and on the back were Yu Sheng's name and phone number, along with a bunch of advertising slogans.

Behind her came Baili Qing's voice: "We need to shut down your lab as soon as possible—at least quiet down that 'Zorda Black Stone.' That thing is currently drilling holes all over the border. If we hadn't suspected from the beginning that there might be something fishy going on, the situation would be much more serious than you imagine..."

Luo listened intently as Baili Qing explained the current situation. Taking advantage of her restored clarity, she quickly compared the fragments of memory she had previously ignored. After a moment, her expression grave, she broke the silence: "...Theoretically, as long as I reconnect to the Black Stone Space Station's system and activate the nuclear bomb buried beneath the laboratory..."

Before she could finish speaking, Baili Qing interrupted her: "Um, about that nuclear bomb..."

Luo: "?"

Bai Liqing: "It's in our hands now."

Luo: "...Huh?"

Then Elf Girl's gaze fell on Yu Sheng, her eyes filled with a strange look.

"Mr. Hunter, why did you kidnap my nuclear bomb?"

"Why would I kidnap a nuclear bomb?!" Yu Sheng couldn't hold back anymore. "That thing 'fell' into another world on its own, okay? We all suspect that Blackrock sent it over via a spatial rift."

Luo blinked, her brows furrowing slightly: "Is that so..."

However, she quickly pursed her lips and composed herself: "It's okay, there's more than one safety measure. There's another backup bomb above the lab. As long as I reconnect..."

Before she could finish speaking, a series of hurried footsteps came from the corridor, interrupting her again.

A knock sounded at the door, and after Baili Qing responded, Song Cheng pushed the door open and walked in, his tone hurried: "Chief, a team of agents found a fusion bomb in the 'museum,' and the markings indicate it belongs to the Black Dot Group..."

Song Cheng paused halfway through his sentence, then looked up blankly at the blonde elf in the office.

After a moment of awkward silence, Yu Sheng shrugged at Luo Yi: "You don't have any spare bombs now."

(End of this chapter)