Alien Hotel.

Chapter 541 The Hall of Cocoons

Led by Luo, Yu Sheng and Eileen carefully made their way through the connecting passageway near the laboratory.

The outer area was surprisingly quiet—although Yu Sheng had considered that the probability of encountering enemies outside the laboratory might be relatively low, he did not expect that there would be no one on this road.

The contaminated corridors, the cobwebs that seep into the real world, and the viscous "shadows" that writhe silently in the cracks of the walls and roof—that's all you can see in the outer area. The renegade space station defense forces, the laboratory security, and the insane researchers don't seem to be here.

"I feel a little creeped out," Eileen said, still clutching Yu Sheng's head tightly. Normally fearless, she was now showing signs of fear. "I... I won't play with the Death O Space anymore..."

“You weren’t this cowardly when the asteroids erupted before,” Yu Sheng glanced at the little thing on his shoulder, “wasn’t that thing scary too?”

"No, it's different," the little doll muttered. "Look at the threads around here, they're all beyond my control, and these shadows, I feel like they're all eyes staring at me—this place is targeting me!"

For some reason, Yu Sheng recalled the scene from the video materials Marlene had sent him earlier—a blonde doll carrying a frying pan arrogantly charging towards the ominous goddess descending from mid-air.

Judging from the footage from that time, the blonde Eileen was both strong and lacked manners, while the Omen Goddess was polite but cowardly.

The little Eileen on his shoulder at this moment clearly combined the characteristics of both of them.

He's both cowardly and rude.

He's still short.

It involves drawing on the shortcomings of all parties.

The little doll suddenly turned its head, its scarlet eyes staring straight at Yu Sheng: "Are you thinking something impolite?"

"Nothing of the sort." Yu Sheng casually ruffled the little doll's head a couple of times, trying to distract her, and then focused his mind again, sensing the bloodstains he had left in this space station.

After returning to the space station, his perception of the blood imprints there was also greatly enhanced. The feedback that had been blurry due to interference was now much clearer. Although he still couldn't decipher the "faults" and "blanks," at least now he could clearly and steadily visualize the "outline" of the space station's core area.

In the vicinity of the laboratory, he vaguely sensed a huge... "void".

All the material structures came to an abrupt end at the edge of that void. He could not feel anything in that void, as if a piece of the space station had been dug out of thin air.

"Wait a moment."

Luo's voice suddenly rang out from the side.

Her wheel-like limbs made a slight braking sound as she stopped at a corner of the connecting passage, then she pointed with the mechanical limbs behind her to a spot not far ahead.

Yu Sheng cautiously peeked out and looked in the direction the other person's "hand" was pointing.

The passage ahead was crooked and twisted, the walls seemingly cut into numerous irregular "puzzle pieces" by an invisible force. Between the cracks of varying sizes, one could see architectural structures that did not belong to the Black Rock Space Station, as well as many blurry figures, flashes of light, and muffled, distant explosion sounds.

"...It's from the Secret Service!" Eileen, with her sharp eyes, immediately recognized it and pointed into the distance, "Hey, hey, that one over there looks like Xu Jiali!"

“They can’t see us,” Yu Sheng frowned, quickly making a judgment, “...Let’s go, but be careful of the cracks on both sides, the spatial structure here is very unstable.”

The group cautiously walked out of the corner and continued forward along the passage that presented a scene of overlapping time and space.

A hollow and indistinct whistling sound faintly came from within, as if echoing directly in my heart.

Yu Sheng subconsciously looked up and saw what seemed like a rift opening in the darkness, from which slender and terrifying limbs emerged, blindly flailing in the air. The tips of the limbs stirred up translucent ripples, and viscous shadows dripped from the limb tips like mud, corroding pits in the space station corridor.

But the next second, everything vanished like a phantom.

"Did you see that thing just now? It looked like a spider..."

"Of course I saw it!" Eileen said immediately, instinctively shrinking her neck—her height was already only 66.6 centimeters, and after shrinking, it was probably only 65 centimeters. "Li, was this the thing that Li Lin saw before?"

Yu Sheng didn't say anything, but patted the little doll's back reassuringly and looked up ahead.

The last door leading to the laboratory appeared before him—a half-open gate seemed to be stuck, remaining in the open position.

There was a low humming sound coming from across the door, as if many people were gathered together praying for something, or as if it were just the unconscious murmur of a group.

Luo seemed to tense up, her mechanical limbs retracting slightly, and then she saw Yu Sheng stride straight toward the open gate.

"Hey, you're really not afraid of dying..."

Luo's low gasp rang out behind him, and at the same time, the scene inside the laboratory came into Yu Sheng's view. This once brightly lit, huge rotunda was now filled with shadows, and crisscrossing black spider webs covered almost every inch of the roof and walls. Most of the equipment was out of order, and the few remaining machines still had alarm lights and holographic projections of malfunctions flashing on them. And among the crisscrossing spider webs, Yu Sheng finally saw the "people" left behind in the space station.

Spider silk coiled into cocoons, enveloping slow-moving black figures. The crazed soldiers and researchers were all here. Countless human figures were hung on the roof, stuck to the walls, or fixed to the ground. Layer upon layer of prayers emanated from the writhing cocoons, pious, fearful, and as if they were intoxicated in a dream.

At the heart of these "cocoons of man," on the platform that once held the Zolda Black Stone, lies a massive void—the edges of the pitch-black fissure tremble, as if space itself is constantly flipping and falling into the center of the fissure. Even those who look down upon it seem to be drawn in by a powerful force, making it difficult to stand or think.

Luo glanced at the black crack and immediately felt his spiritual intuition screaming a warning, so he hurriedly shifted his gaze to the side.

Then she saw the viscous shadows overflowing from the edge of the platform—mud-like shadows dripping down from the “hole” above the platform, like blood and mud oozing from a wound. The shadows filled the platform and flowed out, spreading wildly along the laboratory floor and even flowing upstream along the surrounding walls.

One by one, these "cocoons of humanity" were immersed in those sticky shadows, as if drawing nourishment from them.

Luo subconsciously gasped: "How..."

Perhaps due to limited vocabulary, she ultimately failed to come up with the second half of the sentence, "what are they".

Yu Sheng's gaze had now fallen on the empty space in the center of the hall.

“This should be the source of all the spacetime rifts on the space station,” he said in a deep voice. “Turning this thing off should solve the problem… that’s what I think.”

"Close? How?" Luo looked at Yu Sheng, who was unarmed and eager to fight, with a look of astonishment, as if he had seen a ghost. "Wait, you're not planning to just go over there and start fighting, are you? Are you crazy?!"

“I told you I’m not afraid of death,” Yu Sheng said calmly, looking at the other person with a half-smile. “Didn’t you say you weren’t afraid either?”

Luo was completely stunned: "No, I meant I'm not afraid of dying... but I didn't say I was coming to deliver it..."

Yu Sheng laughed and stopped teasing her. Instead, he lifted Eileen off his shoulder and handed her to the other person, saying, "You two are together."

Luo Yi had a psychological aversion to seeing such a short, red-eyed guy, and almost slipped and fell on the spot, not daring to catch him: "Huh?"

Eileen was also caught off guard and, while being lifted into the air, turned to look at Yu Sheng: "Why?"

“You have a mass-produced body with an emergency teleportation portal inside your stomach,” Yu Sheng explained. “I’ll go up and close the rift later. If it succeeds, great. If it fails, you can immediately teleport Luo back to the valley—a mass-produced body can easily carry one person.”

"Oh, oh!" Eileen finally realized what was happening, and immediately agreed while turning her head and jumping onto Luo's arm, starting to climb onto his shoulder using both her hands and feet.

Luo almost jumped up on the spot.

Of course, the main reason she didn't jump was that the wheels weren't suitable for jumping—if she were in walking mode, she would have already flown by now.

"I'm holding on tight!" Eileen had already climbed onto Luo's shoulder, ignoring his pale face as she grabbed his long ear, gripping it like a handlebar, and turned to look at Yu Sheng, "You can go now~"

Yu Sheng nodded and walked towards the terrifying void in the center of the hall.

He stepped onto the viscous, mud-like "flowing shadows" and felt a sudden surge of cool, yet extremely peaceful and calming energy into his heart.

As he landed again, he heard a faint murmur in his ear, as if someone was calling his name, or perhaps it was just the hollow sound of the wind.

The third step was taken—the layers of prayers in the hall suddenly fell silent.

All the "cocoons of man" ceased to wriggle, and all the viscous shadows stopped flowing.

Amidst the tangled spiderwebs, cocoons with human-shaped outlines suddenly turned around, and invisible gazes pierced through the spider silk, landing on the intruders.

The next second, the cocoon broke open.

A humanoid figure, resembling mud, emerged from its cocoon and charged towards the intruders in the hall, shouting indescribable noises.

"I knew it wouldn't be that easy!" Yu Sheng shouted, already prepared, and reached out to retrieve his tetanus staff from a door. With his other hand, he opened the door leading to No. 66 Wutong Road, and without turning his head, he called out, "Eileen, call for backup!"

Before he finished speaking, twisted spatial rifts opened behind him, and mass-produced dolls stepped into the hall. Then, a whooshing sound followed as an elegant figure leaped out of the door, brandishing a sharp blade and lunging at the monsters that had emerged from their cocoons. Another silver-white figure, wreathed in eerie blue flames, darted out, happily bouncing around Yu Sheng: "My benefactor! My benefactor! My benefactor! I'm here!!!"

Yu Sheng then pointed ahead and shouted, "Attack!"

The fox girl let out a howl, and eight fox-shaped cannons flew up beside her and charged forward.

(End of this chapter)