Before long, two more people had entered Bai Li Qing’s office. One was the burly Song Cheng, and the other was an older man with graying hair, appearing to be in his fifties.
The latter wore narrow-rimd glasses, was of average height, and had a bit of a paunch. He looked like an ordinary office manager just nearing retirent. Bai Li Qing glanced up at the two people who had entered her office and gave a slight nod. “You arrived quickly.”
“Have you t with that person called ‘Yu Sheng’?” Song Cheng was the first to speak. “Judging by your expression… did you find sothing unusual?”
“I had a long conversation with him, and it went quite differently from what I had anticipated. Yu Sheng might be the most peculiar ‘non-natural’ individual I’ve ever t. But before we get into details, I want you to see sothing first.”
Bai Li Qing turned her gaze towards the man with graying hair — Luo Zheng, the head of confidential managent. “Luo Zheng, close the door.” Luo Zheng nodded imdiately, turning to shut the office door.
The mont the door clicked shut, an invisible pressure spread across the room, like a breeze sweeping through the area. As it passed, even the dust motes in the air seed to freeze in place.
Seeing this, Song Cheng’s heart tightened. He muttered, “Well, there goes getting off work on ti today.” Bai Li Qing, anwhile, silently stood up after sealing the office and walked over to the large floor-to-ceiling window.
This window was big, always covered in a light mist outside. Within the fog, the view shifted constantly. Sotis, it showed rolling mountain ranges; other tis, it depicted endless forests. Most of the ti, however, it revealed a still lake, its surface calm, with a small cottage standing in the distance, hazy and dreamlike within the mist.
As Bai Li Qing approached the window, the shifting fog quickly settled, and the ever-changing scenery began to fade away. Song Cheng and Luo Zheng looked on with serious expressions. A few seconds later, sothing else started appearing within the mist.
Buildings, their rooftops varied in shape, revealing a strange city they had never seen before, bathed in a red glow. “What is this?” Song Cheng couldn’t help but ask.
“This is what Yu Sheng showed ,” Bai Li Qing said softly, her pale eyes calmly watching the mist outside. The scenes stored in her mory were now surfacing within the mist, replaying themselves. “He seems fixated on this place. He’s seen it before, and he believes this is ‘another Boundary City.'”
Luo Zheng’s eyes widened in shock. He took off his glasses and wiped them on his shirt before peering out at the floating image. “Another Boundary City?!”
“Yes, another one,” Bai Li Qing nodded. “And I sensed his emotions faintly. He believes… that this is the true, ‘normal’ Boundary City.”
Song Cheng and Luo Zheng fell silent, unease crossing their faces as they looked at the “normal” scene outside the window.
The dark, silhouetted buildings stood on the land, their forms barely discernible. In the distance, bizarre towers rose high, their outlines grand and imposing. Mist filled the air, making those rooftops and towers look like rows of gravestones. Crimson light cut through the fog, bathing the sky in a dim and strange hue, and the sunlight…
Blood-red “sunlight” flowed through the city like water, swirling between the buildings, mixed with the crimson light as it poured down from the rooftops. It dripped from the eaves, pitter-pattering in a constant murmur.
Bai Li Qing’s voice echoed in the silent room, almost ethereal. “He said it’s a peaceful seaside town, with beautiful sunsets. The red glow spills like water over the sky, streaming along the rooftops.”
“Sounds like quite a poetic description,” Song Cheng said softly.
“It does. That’s what I thought at first,” Bai Li Qing shook her head slightly. “Until I realized—it’s real.”
“This can’t possibly be a real ‘place,'” Luo Zheng’s expression was serious now. He had shaken off the unease and nervousness from witnessing the strange vision and had regained his composure. “The universe may have countless strange planets, but this scene is unlike anything natural. The light, the sun—they seem to defy physical laws. They look like they’re… lting.”
“If anything, it reminds
of when my daughter plays video gas, and the graphics card crashes,” Song Cheng rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “The visuals glitch like that sotis.”
“This might be so kind of Otherworld,” Luo Zheng said cautiously. “From the scale of the scene, it’s large. But without reference material, we can’t determine if it’s a ‘Wilderness’ or a ‘Kingdom.’ It’s definitely not a ‘Fortress.'”
“It could also be an ‘Anomaly,'” Bai Li Qing suggested quietly.
“An ‘Anomaly’ type of Otherworld?” Luo Zheng sounded surprised, frowning. “Like a ‘Fairy Tale’ or an ‘Epic’? But this looks like a physical space…”
“An ‘Anomaly’ type can manifest itself as ‘real’ within our cognition. What I saw was just an image drawn from Yu Sheng’s mind, so we can’t rule out the possibility that it’s simply a mory or a story,” Bai Li Qing shook her head. “The crucial point is, regardless of what this ‘Otherworld’ truly is, Yu Sheng believes it’s another Boundary City.”
The room fell silent, the air heavy with tension.
In this world, there were countless Otherworlds, and many had established connections with the Borderland, so even overlapping with it. However, no matter what, Otherworlds were just that—other. The places where they overlapped with reality were extrely limited. In recorded history, no Otherworld had ever pointed to “another Borderland.”
Song Cheng stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, staring intently at the red-stained city outside.
To be honest, the dark silhouettes of that city looked nothing like the Boundary City he stood in. At least, he couldn’t see any similarities. He couldn’t understand why Yu Sheng thought this was another Boundary City. But there was one thing he did understand:
The world changes depending on your perspective.
To the Algladians, the stars were adorned with intricate lines and patterns. The Bamosians saw the world illuminated by both light and magnetic fields. The Gyproians could see the outlines of electric fields, while the ancient Forest Folk embraced ti in their ditations, sotis even glimpsing the future.
Humans were one of the “blindest” species in the world. In the eyes of those more gifted, humans were deaf and blind, perceiving less than one percent of the world’s information. But at the sa ti, with the right tools and thods, humans could process almost any kind of knowledge. Their ability to withstand and adapt to dangerous information beyond their perception was extraordinarily high.
This was why humans were recognized by all species as the “ideal investigators.” “The world he sees is different from the one we see,” Song Cheng suddenly said.
“Yes,” Bai Li Qing agreed. “But he can still live in our world just fine, albeit a bit awkwardly.”
“So, he has both human and… non-human perspectives? Or perhaps two cognitive systems?” Luo Zheng mused, frowning. “You’ve t him. Do you think he’s an ‘Entity’ or a ‘human’?”
“He seems more like a human. At least, that’s what he believes now,” Bai Li Qing turned back, lightly tapping on the glass window. As her voice fell, the view outside shattered, the scene collapsing back into its forr state—a calm landscape of mist, alternating mountains, and lakes. “I think it’s best not to disturb the current state of things—at least until we figure out what Wutong Road No. 66 and Yu Sheng really are.”
“Understood,” Song Cheng took a deep breath and nodded solemnly. “So, what do we do next?”
“Next, I want the Second Mobilization Squad to dedicate so personnel to handle affairs related to Wutong Road No. 66 and Yu Sheng. First, he needs so registrations done.”
“Registrations?”
“The two ‘people’ around him need legal identities,” Bai Li Qing spoke unhurriedly. “Also, Yu Sheng himself seems interested in registering as… a Spirit Realm Detective.”
Song Cheng blinked. “…What?”
“He said he wants to maintain Borderland’s order and fight against Otherworlds and Entities.”
Song Cheng was speechless. “…What?”
“I know what you’re thinking,” Bai Li Qing raised her eyes to look at Song Cheng. “The Special Affairs Bureau always deals with the strange and unexpected. Go make the arrangents—pick soone capable and sharp to handle this. I rember two individuals from the last report seed promising.”
Song Cheng’s expression was complicated. “I just gave them three days off…”
Bai Li Qing thought for a mont. “Right, they do need rest after all this. Still, make the arrangents soon. Don’t delay too much.”
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