Chapter 2 Freshly Imprisoned
Because the tiger cub seemed special, Yanlan took some of her attention to squat down and look at it. In the end, Lin Cai took the tiger cub home.
Her home is simple, without too many decorations.
Lin Cai simply used a delivery box and a blanket to make a temporary little nest for the tiger cub.
"I'll take Xiao Ju to ask Lanlan tomorrow night if she remembers where she's seen it before." Lin Cai sighed, grabbed the tiger cub by the scruff of its neck, lifted it up, and examined it carefully.
"Nothing special about it. But it certainly doesn't look like a stray cat," she muttered to herself.
The tiger cub finally realized its predicament and began to struggle and thrash, but it failed to break free due to its small size.
He longed to go home, tears welling in his eyes. "If I could go home, I would never run around again, sob sob sob."
It's unclear which deity heard the tiger cub's inner prayers, but just as the tiger cub fell from the inner world to the outer world, a hole suddenly appeared beneath him, swallowing both the tiger cub and Lin Cai, who was carrying the tiger cub, into it.
...
Lin Cai fell awkwardly onto the grass.
The tiger cubs were placed under her.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch..." Lin Cai struggled to get up from the ground, carefully touching her calves and ankles that were in direct contact with the grass.
"Thank goodness, it's not a sprain. It's probably just a bruise." She quickly assessed the situation, then looked around.
This is a completely unfamiliar place; as far as the eye can see, there is only endless grassland.
There were no buildings or people.
Lin Cai: ...
What place is this?
Her hand unconsciously reached out to clench the hem of her clothes before she realized there was a soft ball of fur next to her.
Lin Cai looked down and met the gaze of a tiger, a small tiger with yellow skin and white stripes.
Lin Cai: !
She sprang to her feet and took several meters back, shouting, "Rare and protected animals have escaped from the zoo!!"
The tiger cub, still reeling from the shock of the fall, weakly cried out, "Help, help me..."
Suddenly it realized its mistake, raised its two paws and looked at them with surprise: "I'm back! Ahhhhh, thank you elder, thank you ancestor! I promise I won't run around like that again, waaaaaah..."
Lin Cai silently took a few steps back, then pinched her arm hard: "The tiger spoke..."
She's probably dreaming.
The tiger cub shook its fur and stood up: "Did you fall and get stupid? Why are you pinching yourself?"
This is a being with rational intelligence and normal communication abilities.
Lin Cai took a few steps closer to it and slowly asked a question, "So where am I now?"
"Good question, I don't know either." The tiger cub looked around.
Before the two of them could figure out what had happened, Lin Cai's hands were suddenly twisted behind her back and she was forced face down on the ground. Meanwhile, the tiger cub was bound tightly into a ball by its limbs with a silver chain.
"Patrol Team 342 of the Ju'e Branch of the Bureau of Foreign Affairs discovered an illegal cross-border thief and his accomplices in the southeast of the Ju'e Plain and they have now been apprehended."
"You have been arrested."
Lin Cai: ...
Life is unpredictable; the large intestine encloses the small intestine.
She and the tiger cub were temporarily separated and placed in two different cells.
Lin Cai's crime is illegal inter-border travel, while Hu Zai's crime is assisting illegal inter-border travel.
In short, there was one principal offender and one accomplice.
Lin Cai sat in prison and began to contemplate life.
Aside from bringing home a cat that might be a little unusual, she didn't do anything illegal or disorderly today.
Lin Cai didn't understand.
"No, is it illegal to pick up a cat now?"
---
Yan Shi discovered the incident next door just as his takeout arrived and he was about to happily unpack his fried chicken and begin his carb-filled dinner.
The world barrier fluctuated violently, and Yan Shi's hand, which was opening the fried chicken box, froze in mid-air.
She slowly turned her head to look at the next room, her heart filled with incomprehension.
What has the Cross-border Processing Department been doing lately?
How come the world barrier is as flimsy as paper? The child from the inner world can come and go as it pleases, but now it has suddenly gone back, bringing with it a resident from the outer world.
Is this reasonable?
Considering that Lin Cai is a pure resident of the outer world, meaning she is under the protection of the Bureau of Extraterrestrial Affairs where Yan Shi works, Yan Shi can ignore the life or death of the tiger cub, but he cannot ignore the life or death of Lin Cai.
She then thought of the huge pile of documents she might have to deal with and the extra meetings she might have to attend next week because of this incident, and her vision went black.
No, she has to get Lin Cai back now before things get out of hand.
I don't want to work overtime.
Yan Shi slowly put his fried chicken back into the insulated bag, grabbed a coat, took out his work card and put it in his pocket, then went out and walked to Lin Cai's door.
As expected, the place was already empty.
She closed her eyes: "God said, 'The barrier of the world, crack.'"
As she finished speaking, a crack as tall as a person was suddenly torn open beside her, revealing a huge, ancient stone city.
The relative positions of the inner and outer worlds remain constant; the barrier simply isolates them from each other. Therefore, if Lin Cai and the others enter the inner world from here, Yan Shi will also arrive at a similar location if he enters from a nearby position.
Yan Shi stepped into the crack in the barrier.
As soon as she stopped in the Otherworld, her phone automatically connected to the intranet of a nearby branch of the Bureau of Extraterritorial Control.
It was also shown that an illegal thief and his accomplice were arrested half an hour earlier in the southeast of the Ju'e Plain and are now being held in the Ju'e branch jail in Cerro City.
The files in the inner and outer worlds are synchronized, meaning that if someone is arrested in the inner world, they will also have a criminal record in the outer world.
Because the world barrier is very stable, there has never been a case of an ordinary person from the outer world entering the inner world in thousands of years.
Therefore, even if Lin Cai entered the inner world because of the tiger cub, it would be difficult for her to explain whether she had illegally crossed over into another world.
Things have blown up.
This means there will be more documents to process and more meetings to attend.
Yan Shi may even have to deal with this matter for the next week.
Her eyes were vacant as she stood on the streets of Selo, contemplating life.
She thought of how comic book protagonists always have many adventures, but she never expected Lin Cai to be so unlucky, landing right near the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs and encountering a patrol team as soon as she landed.
She followed closely behind, but it was too late to send the person back.
The Giant Jaw Plains are the territory of the Beastmen, inhabited by numerous powerful land-based beastmen, including the Tiger Clan, Lion Clan, Deer Clan, and Elephant Clan, who traverse the entire underworld. The Bureau of Alien Affairs branch on the Giant Jaw Plains is located in Cero City, and its overall style is similar to that of the city.
It's the one on the comic book cover.
Yan Shi stood at the entrance of the branch office, speechless and choked with emotion.
She should have realized it sooner. Why would the comic cover depict a branch of the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs in such detail for no reason? The only possibility is that this is the protagonist's adventure map.
Because of her prolonged stay, the guards at the gate all looked at her.
“Madam,” a guard stepped forward, “you need to show your appointment code to enter the Bureau of Extraterritorial Affairs.”
"If you don't have an appointment code, show your ID code and explain your purpose, and I will make an appointment for you."
Yan Shi: ...
Of course, she didn't have a reservation code or an identity code from the other world.
Yan Shi is a pure resident of the surface world. Because his work is recognized by the laws of the inner world, he will not be judged as an illegal cross-world traveler.
However, she still belongs to the surface world. Her identity code for the inner world has not yet been assigned.
Rounding up, it could even be considered an unregistered resident.
"Madam?" The guard stared at her in confusion.
"I'm just here to get a closer look at the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs," Yan Shi said, feigning composure. "Nothing much, I'll just take a look and leave."
"Madam, please keep a safe distance from the Bureau of Otherworld Affairs. This is an officially controlled area and visits are not permitted." The guard looked at Yan Shi with a puzzled expression, and after confirming that she possessed the aura of the Otherworld, politely asked her to leave.
Unable to enter through the gate, Yan Shi slowly walked out of the city again and found a deserted place. "God said, go to the Giant Jade Branch of the Sero City Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs."
She tore open the space and stepped inside.
Lin Cai was squatting in the cell, deep in thought.
She had finally figured out what the other world was from the tiger cub.
It was only later that I realized why Yanlan was suddenly paying special attention to a cat.
They must have noticed something was wrong with the tiger cub.
The problem now is, Lin Cai looks at the tall, sturdy door at the entrance and thinks heavily: how is she going to get out of here?
The tiger cub beside her was quite optimistic: "It's alright, Lin Cai, you'll only be locked up for a week at most. As for my disappearance, the elders should have already reported it to the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs, or we can wait until tomorrow to verify my identity and find out everything before I can leave."
Lin Cai: "So, there are organizations in the outer world that know about the inner world?"
“Let the Bureau of Different Management take charge,” Tiger Cub said. “Your world should be the same.”
“This means my file will be marked wrong this time,” Tiger Cub said, his big tiger face showing grief. “I wonder if the elders can negotiate with the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs to prevent this from being considered illegal.”
Lin Cai: ?
"This was an accident, is that illegal?" she said slowly.
Tiger cub: "Yes."
Lin Cai: ...
Very well, now she is also sincerely praying that someone will come and take her away.
Suddenly, a crack appeared out of nowhere in the center of the prison.
Lin Cai looked over in surprise.
Yan Lan casually walked out from the gap.
Lin Cai suddenly stood up, "Yanlan?"
Yan Lan looked at her with his dark eyes: "Mm."
Lin Cai gripped the iron bars of the cell door: "Yanlan, are you alright here?"
Yanlan had already approached the lock on the cell door and was examining the colorful screen.
"Lin Cai, who is this?" Tiger Cub was a little confused.
Seeing that Yanlan seemed to be thinking, Lin Cai whispered to Hu Zai, "This is my neighbor."
"Yanlan".
Tiger cub: "? Do you know where we are right now?"
It said incredulously, "The Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs' prison. There are no guards because it's impossible to break into the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs' prison. It's said that there are laws protecting it."
As he spoke, the tiger cub pointed at Yanlan again, "Something that even the big shots in the inner world couldn't do, a resident of the outer world just walked in?"
"And if they can break into the Bureau of Extraterritorial Control's prison, why would they want to settle in the real world?"
Lin Cai remained extremely calm: "Oh. But this is Yan Lan."
Tiger cub: ...
Is there anything special about this name?
Lin Cai: "What I'm trying to tell you is that this is something only big shots have—they like to live in seclusion in the city!"
Yan Shi had already finished watching the screen at the door, and now he turned his attention to listening to Lin Cai and Hu Zai's conversation.
She finally understood why Lin Cai was always so pleasantly surprised when she saw her.
The current situation is that going through the normal procedures is too troublesome.
The chaos in the underworld is none of her concern.
Yan Shi took out his work card from his pocket and opened the cell door for Lin Cai and Hu Zai.
“Let’s go,” Yan Shi said with a shrug. “I’ll take you away from here.”
The crack she had just torn open, which had come in from outside the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs, hadn't completely closed yet, so she pulled Lin Cai and Tiger Cub back in.
The moment they left, the cell alarm sounded: "Alarm: Inmates have not requested to leave the prison! Alarm: Inmates have not requested to leave the prison!"
A large number of patrol officers flooded into the prison.
The patrol captain of C76 looked extremely grim. "Squads 339-343, search the surrounding area immediately! If you see the suspect, arrest him on the spot! I will now report to the branch chief and the execution department, and also report to headquarters."
"This could be some long-dormant reactionary organization."
---
Yan Shi stood on the Giant E Plain with Lin Cai and Hu Zai, his face filled with bitterness and resentment.
She tried again, “God said, ‘Border of the world, crack.’”
There was no movement in front of her; the law had clearly responded to her request, but it just wouldn't tear open.
The reason is unknown.
Tiger Cub stared at Yan Shi in shock. "Is this the curse that can break through the Anti-Management Bureau's prison countermeasures? What a powerful curse!"
"You know this is a curse and not a power?" Yan Shi found it interesting. She also used curses in the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs, but none of the bigwigs at the Bureau's headquarters could tell that it was a curse and not a power.
“Using a spell will cause fluctuations in the laws,” the tiger cub gestured, “and the laws are very obvious.”
"Can we directly see the fluctuations of the laws?" Yan Shi was somewhat surprised. The tiger cub had also passively activated its barrier twice in one day.
Opening the world barrier requires an instantaneous burst of immense force to tear it apart. The tiger clan chief might be able to do it, but it is definitely not something a cub who is not yet an adult should be able to do.
As expected of the main characters in a manga, Yan Shi is becoming increasingly curious about Lin Cai's abilities.
Although the inner world, like the outer world, has a mature legal system, it is essentially still a world where the strong rule.
The Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs is able to maintain order in the underworld not because of official authority, but because the powerful figures within the bureau have enough power to firmly hold onto authority in the underworld.
As the core of the comic, and given that it's an adventure comic, and the tiger cubs in the main group all have such unique abilities, Lin Cai will only become stronger, not weaker.
"This spell is really amazing! And it actually responded to you more than once in one day!" The tiger cub continued to exclaim. "So there really is a surface world. I've only ever read about it in books before."
Yan Shi: "Your talent has awakened; you'd better go back and see your elders."
"Really?" The tiger cub was overjoyed. "I'm finally going to be an adult!"
"What's a curse?" Lin Cai interrupted.
“You can think of it as a prayer,” the tiger cub explained.
"A prayer?" Lin Cai asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Yes, it's about praying to the owner of the spell. Knowing the spell's name and origin allows you to communicate with it through chanting and obtain power from its source," the tiger cub explained in detail. "For example, the elder told me his spell's name. Because the elder told me personally, the spell's origin was directly imprinted on me. When I need the spell's power, I only need to chant the spell's name, and I can use the same ability as the elder."
Considering that this was an ordinary person from the surface world who knew nothing, the tiger cub paused and then explained, "Abilities can be various talents, not limited by race. For example, most of us beastmen awaken a talent related to our race when we reach adulthood, while elves are born with elven attribute magic, and humans master various spiritual powers and spells, etc."
"A spell allows orcs to use elven magic, but they generally don't know the spells of other races. This is just an example, because the conditions are very demanding, and spells are very rare."
"I get it! It's about borrowing things by praying to the gods." Lin Cai suddenly realized, "Yan Lan can borrow so many things in one day, and they're all very expensive. He's really amazing!"
"Whose spell did you borrow?" the tiger cub asked curiously. "You're just an ordinary person, you don't have any magic or spiritual energy fluctuations at all."
"It's a secret," Yan Shi said expressionlessly. He couldn't very well say that he had borrowed it from himself.
She tried the summoning spell to the tiger clan's territory again, and just like before, the law responded to her request but had no effect.
Yan Shi: ...Never mind.
"They've probably caught up by now. Let's go find the boundary gate."
A note from the author:
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