Chapter 601 Brief Lost

Zheng Zhi's great-grandmother passed away many years ago. While she was still alive, he didn't return to his hometown often, so he saw her very rarely. But after she passed away, they met much more frequently.

Sometimes he could even see several at once, accompanied by various relatives, whether he knew them or not, as well as many strange things that were difficult to describe in words.

This situation worsened after he came into contact with the "angel umbilical cord," and at its most frequent, he would "encounter evil spirits" once a week.

Fortunately, the Secret Service's various training programs have been very effective. At least Zheng Zhi is much calmer now when he encounters such situations than before, and he has also mastered many ways to protect himself in the first instance.

The moment Zheng Zhi realized that his surroundings had become alienated and that he might have already stepped into another world, he immediately activated his phone's emergency location, environmental data collection, and recording functions. He then put the phone in his inner pocket and took out a sanity blocker from another pocket and injected it into his body.

Feeling a chill spreading through his body, and hearing a faint, low noise that briefly appeared and then quickly faded away, Zheng Zhi breathed a sigh of relief. He casually placed the plastic bag he was carrying at his feet, then reached under his clothes with one hand to find the self-defense pistol, while his other hand reached into his pocket and found a small, hard card.

I took out the card. On the seemingly ordinary white cardstock, the hostel's triangular emblem was drawn with dark red "paint," along with a few seemingly impressive runes (which were actually just decorations). The red marks had dried, but upon closer inspection, they gave the illusion that they were still flowing, or rather, still "alive," as if the dark red colors were veins and nerves that were pulsating slightly, maintaining a state between life and death on the surface of the cardstock.

This seemingly simple card gave Zheng Zhi a sense of security that almost surpassed that of the Secret Service-issued pistol that could fire rocket-propelled munitions.

This is a "life-saving charm" given to him by Yu Sheng. It is a "prefabricated door" that can be used once and is ready to be activated. As long as an individual has received "blood transfusion", he can use it to open a door to the valley teleportation hub at any time. Because Zheng Zhi would fall into the alien world every now and then, and it was very difficult to get him out each time, Yu Sheng simply gave him a stack of them. He would take two or three with him every time he went out.

Zheng Zhi breathed a slight sigh of relief, but did not activate the card in his hand immediately. Instead, he cautiously observed his surroundings.

He still remembered that he was a Secret Service agent—although he hadn't been officially promoted yet, although he only reported to the agency once every two weeks, although he spent most of his time lounging around in the "hotel," and although he sometimes forgot that he had a proper job... But now that he had his sidearm in hand, he at least remembered it.

Of course, more importantly, he felt that this "encounter with evil spirits" was a little different from usual.

After the brief hallucination disappeared, the street he saw was the same as before. He neither had the obvious feeling of "alienation" that he had when he entered the alien world, nor did he see any abnormal phenomena or entities that were visible to the naked eye.

The most unusual thing was that no one was on the street, and a thin layer of fog was floating around, making it impossible to see what was at the end of the road.

...A city in the fog?

Zheng Zhi frowned. His first thought was that he had fallen into Fog City again, but he quickly realized that it was unlikely. The fog here was much thinner than in Fog City, and if it were really Fog City, there should be Special Operations Bureau patrols and easily visible warning signs in this area.

He carefully moved to a street corner and looked outside using the buildings as cover.

The sky was getting darker, and the already gray sky was now as dark as if night was about to fall. The streetlights were not turned on, making the streets seem even more gloomy and oppressive.

Zheng Zhi rubbed his eyes.

In a fleeting moment, he suddenly saw many huge and strange shadows appear between the buildings on the street—some of these shadows looked like massive equipment or houses, while others resembled vehicles flying through the air. It was as if a "scene" from another time and space had suddenly superimposed onto the street, making him dizzy.

A soft voice came from the nearby air, sounding like a low conversation, but it was impossible to make out clearly no matter how hard you tried.

Zheng Zhi swallowed hard, one hand gripping the cardboard used to open the emergency evacuation passage. He slowly withdrew his gaze from the intersection and turned to look at the path behind him.

A thin mist also drifted along the path leading to a residential area, and in the hazy mist, shadows that seemed to have "overlapped" from another time and space floated.

Just then, Zheng Zhi suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head—his spiritual intuition suddenly jolted, and then several clear outlines suddenly appeared among the blurry shadows in front of him.

Several figures dressed in black smocks were walking briskly along the path, surrounding a middle-aged man in a white robe.

Zheng Zhi gasped instantly, cold sweat pouring down his face. He raised his gun with one hand and pressed the card against the nearest wall with the other. However, just as he was about to fire a shot and run, the group of people seemed not to see him and walked straight in another direction, disappearing into the wall of a nearby building a few steps later.

Zheng Zhi was stunned for a moment, still shaken, before putting away his weapons and the cardboard and looking in the direction where the people had disappeared.

Can't they see themselves?

Or perhaps... you and the other person were originally in two different timelines that were unaware of each other, and your "observational ability" was just too strong, so you accidentally saw what was happening on the other side?

The special operations intern, who had been exceptionally gifted since childhood, began to analyze the situation based on his extensive experience with supernatural encounters. Just a few seconds into his analysis, a low murmur of conversation suddenly broke out nearby—this time he could make out a few words.

"...Still unstable...Unable to fully reproduce..."

"The data is definitely valid; the problem mostly lies in the 'catalyst,' which lacks a strong..."

"...Recently...the influence of that device has been expanding, even causing cavitation phenomena on Ranch Star. Shouldn't we consider suspending it for now? The accident at the Black Dot Laboratory has already served as a lesson..."

“No…time is running out…the core of the Gate has a limited lifespan, after all, it was just a fake…and we recently lost a batch of 'knights,' although we haven’t found out the details yet, they’ve probably fallen on the border side, which could cause trouble…”

"How could it have ended up over there?!"

"...those fissures...may have a tendency to reappear..."

Zheng Zhi felt his heart pounding. Every word he heard seemed to be hitting his mind. He stared wide-eyed, straining to see the direction from which the sound came, but could only make out a few very blurry shadows. Those shadows stood in the mist, with what appeared to be some kind of huge control or display device in front of them. Further away, he could see a towering, curtain-like structure, which could be the wall of a hall, a barrier, or something similar.

The next second, the hazy mist in front of him began to flow again. Zheng Zhi felt a blur before his eyes, and the shadows on the street changed one after another, as if the "reflection" of space had shifted again.

Just as he was trying to discern more from the shadows of those changes, an inexplicable unease and chill suddenly welled up from the bottom of his heart.

Zheng Zhi involuntarily shuddered and abruptly turned to look in a certain direction indicated by his spiritual intuition.

He saw a very tall shadow.

It was a tall and elegant female figure with a perfect posture and a cold temperament. Her black body had a metallic texture, and she had a face that seemed to always be compassionate and gentle.

The tall figure stood at the intersection not far away, surrounded by many hazy, towering illusions, as if on guard duty, but unaware of this place.

Miss Luna?

Zheng Zhi's heart skipped a beat, and he subconsciously thought it was a friend he knew, but in an instant he realized what was happening, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead in fear—

She is an artificial saintess controlled by the Revered Order!

Almost at the same moment that he was startled, the "phantom" standing in the mist slowly turned its head in his direction.

It was a perfect, gentle smile, bearing a striking resemblance to the familiar "Saintess" at the inn, but this familiar appearance now seemed more eerie and terrifying than any other entity Zheng Zhi had ever seen in his life.

Actually, at this moment, he had a subconscious thought in his mind that the other party could not see him—after all, the street and the phantom on the street were clearly in two different time and space, and the people who had just passed by wearing robes and cloaks had not seen him either. But this thought only lasted for a moment, and his frantic spiritual intuition told him that the killing machine had indeed noticed him, the "uninvited guest".

It could be ultra-advanced radar, it could be dark psionic energy, it could be some kind of mystical contraption created by the Order of the Holy See—in any case, he was still discovered despite the barrier of the alternate dimension.

The next second, the smiling killing machine suddenly turned into a swift shadow in Zheng Zhi's eyes—he didn't even have time to react before several sharp blades were already embedded in his chest.

However, after a moment of panic, the expected pain and death did not come.

Zheng Zhi lowered his head in confusion and saw that the sharp blades were in a semi-transparent, illusory state, like shadows remaining inside his body.

He looked up again and saw that the "artificial saintess" in front of him was also somewhat illusory. Her perfect face seemed somewhat blank, and her eyes were not really focused on him.

This killing machine appears to have launched its attack solely under the influence of its radar system and a series of instincts.

Faint exclamations and curses drifted through the air; someone was ordering the abandoned artificial saintess back to her post; someone was inspecting the damage to some equipment; and an alarm seemed to be sounding—but all these sounds were quickly fading away.

Zheng Zhi took a deep breath and suddenly felt that the drowsy street had returned to its normal "atmosphere".

He's back.

(End of this chapter)