Chapter 618 Signs of Losing Control
Long ago, Yu Sheng asked the Special Operations Bureau to help investigate information about the "artificial saintess." Now it seems that his request was taken seriously, as the Special Operations Bureau did find a lot of related information from various channels. The intelligence brought by Song Cheng was timely and successfully reignited everyone's anger.
Yu Sheng's gaze fell on Luna's face, but he couldn't discern much change in her ever-perfect expression. Only through the connection established by blood could he sense a chilling coldness hidden beneath her rationality and calmness. This coldness was brewing and growing in her heart.
The little doll on his shoulder twitched. Yu Sheng turned his head and saw Eileen straining to lean towards Luna. He moved aside to cooperate, and Eileen finally managed to reach Luna's shoulder. The little doll's face was unusually serious. She patted her "C-shaped button," which she always complained about, and said in a cocky tone, "C-shaped button, let me tell you, we'll definitely help you get revenge. I'm awesome, next month I'll have six regiments of troops..."
Luna seemed a little surprised. She stared at the little doll for two seconds before slowly lowering her head and saying, "Th-thank you."
Hu Li glanced at Yu Sheng and Luna, then looked at Xu Jiali lying on the bed. She hadn't said much until now, when she suddenly blurted out, "Are those guys who attacked you still in the alley?"
“They’re definitely gone,” Xu Jiali sighed. “After we left, the bureau sent two more teams to check the situation. By then, the alley had returned to its previous state. The Knights and the Saintess leading the team were nowhere to be seen. Even the traces we left behind from our previous battle had been mostly repaired by the alien properties. Our captain should know about this.”
“Yes, I sent people there,” Song Cheng nodded. “We now suspect that those secret society followers have found a way to reliably control the passage, or at least found the pattern of opening and closing the passage. The group of enemies who attacked Xu Jiali is clearly different from the group you encountered before, Yu Sheng. This time they are organized, large-scale, and their attack and retreat are very orderly... Although I don’t want to admit it, we are quite passive this time.”
Yu Sheng didn't speak, but had been stroking his chin, deep in thought, for a while before suddenly saying, "But from another perspective, they both came from the 'dark alley,' doesn't that mean their access to the 'passage' is also restricted? Then we just need to find a way to keep an eye on the dark alley..."
Song Cheng nodded after Sheng finished speaking: "That's what we thought too, so the alley is now under close surveillance, and we've even sent dedicated psionicists to be stationed there, hoping to find traces of the 'rift' in the alley—although there hasn't been much progress yet."
Eileen started ruffling Yu Sheng's hair: "Should we go over and take a look?"
"I need to take a look," Yu Sheng sighed softly, his gaze falling on Xu Jiali beside him. "You just stay here and recover. Leave the rest to us."
Xu Jiali's face was tense (perhaps the effects of the painkiller had worn off again). After hearing Yu Sheng's words, she didn't speak, but just slowly nodded.
But just as Yu Sheng opened a door leading to the entrance of a dark alley, he suddenly shifted his position: "Wait."
Yu Sheng stopped and turned around.
“Be extremely careful,” Xu Jiali said gravely. “That artificial saintess is very dangerous—I know the others are dangerous too, but this one feels particularly off. She’s different from Miss Luna. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but when I fight her, I always feel like my every move is being read, as if something is constantly drilling into my mind. The other deep-sea divers have reported similar experiences. If it weren’t for the psychic servants providing protection, our team would probably be in a much worse situation.”
As Yu Sheng listened to the other party's account, his expression turned serious.
“I understand.” He nodded very seriously, then turned and stepped through the door.
...
The alleyway remained as cold and dim as ever, and the thin mist floating in the air added to the eeriness of the old, densely packed buildings.
When Yu Sheng and his group entered the dark alley, the first thing they saw were the Deep Divers and psychic servants guarding the entrance, as well as Special Operations Bureau agents in black combat uniforms setting up some kind of sensing device in front of various shops.
The Secret Service had obviously informed the personnel here in advance, and they didn't react much when they saw Yu Sheng. They simply nodded in greeting and continued with their own business.
Eileen (blonde) held Yu Sheng's head and whispered in his ear, "It really is... tense atmosphere."
Whether the atmosphere was tense or not is another matter, but Yu Sheng could tell that the little guy was quite nervous.
He raised his hand and patted the little doll's head, then led Luna and Huli to the place where Xu Jiali's team had been attacked.
The attack site was near the used bookstore, diagonally opposite the small pet food shop.
As Xu Jiali said, the "reset" feature of the alien world has basically eliminated the traces of the battle here. Now, only some shallow bullet holes and cracks remain on the walls facing the street, and these traces are fading away at a slow speed.
Luna stepped forward in silence, examining the few remaining traces. Her fingers brushed across the wall next to a shop window, gazing thoughtfully at the cracks on it.
“Yes, an artificial saintess,” she looked up at Yu Sheng, “but her style is different from mine.”
Yu Sheng: "What do you mean?"
“It’s like an older model,” Luna thought for a moment, then stammered, “I… I don’t know how to explain it…”
As she spoke, she raised her hand and pointed to herself: "I can recognize it, it's like a bodily instinct."
"...Then it seems this is one of your seniors." Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow, while his peripheral vision caught a small shadow.
It was a small black cat with a plastic-like appearance—peeking out from a puddle, half its body emerging from the water, looking nervously in this direction.
Eileen tensed up instantly: "Oh no, it's a cat again!"
"Don't be so alarmed, they're all harmless now," Yu Sheng said as he squatted down and beckoned to the little black cat, "Come here."
The little black cat jumped out of the puddle and ran to Yu Sheng with a series of intermittent "flickers." Its white eyes stared straight at him, and a "meow" came from its pitch-black body.
Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then placed his hand on the little black cat's head, concentrating his mind on the blood connection while giving the command as clearly as possible: "Tell me what you see."
Within the connection forged in his blood, a series of fragmented "impressions" suddenly began to surface in his mind—blurry, discontinuous shadows, and sounds—sounds that had actually occurred, and sounds that the "cat's" chaotic and fragmented mind understood. These chaotic pieces of information, when combined, roughly looked like this—
A person with a hard shell, a strange cat-man with long cat ears but walking upright, came in and rummaged through things, got beaten up, clatter, clatter, cans of food, didn't get any cans, knocked several away, oh dear, poor thing, didn't get any cans...
Yu Sheng: "..."
What utter nonsense!
His mind was buzzing from the little black cat's muddled thoughts. He was already confused, and now he was even more confused. However, just as he was about to remove his hand from the little black cat's head, a few images that flashed through his mind made him stop in his tracks.
He saw a tall and elegant figure—an unfamiliar artificial saintess—the knights behind her were orderly evacuating through a crack floating in the dark alley, but the artificial saintess stopped for some reason and stood in the middle of the alley.
On the devastated streets after the battle, in the center of the distorted field left by the psionic shriek, she stood there all alone, as if she had suddenly lost her mind or fallen into some kind of malfunction—similar to Luna's usual "crash" state.
In the next scene, a "knight" seems to notice the saintess's unusual state. He turns around and walks over, as if he wants to urge her on.
However, the "artificial saintess" suddenly raised her arm, and her seemingly slender arm grabbed the knight by the waist. Despite the knight's violent struggles, she simply waved her hand and roughly threw the tall brass armor into the rapidly closing rift.
The next second, the "artificial saintess" who had just attacked her comrade suddenly turned around and rushed towards the crossroads at the end of the dark alley.
Yu Sheng was completely dumbfounded.
The "memory stream" in his mind quickly faded. The little black cat's limited mental capacity could no longer provide any more details. Yu Sheng's vision blurred, and his attention returned to the dark alley. Then he shook his head vigorously and slapped his thigh: "They got away!?"
The fox civet, who was standing guard nearby with its two large tails tucked in, was completely bewildered when it heard this: "Huh? My benefactor, what ran away?"
"That artificial saintess—she suddenly attacked the knights present at the end, and then ran away!"
Yu Sheng quickly got up and recounted the scene he had seen in the memory stream. Then he raised his hand and pointed to the other end of the alley: "They ran from there—the 'crossroads' that generates the exit, so they've probably already run 'outside'."
Everyone present was stunned by what they heard (except for Luna, whose expression didn't quite reveal it). Eileen and Huli stared at each other for a long time before their gazes finally fell on Luna, and they said almost in unison, "Do you know what's going on?"
Luna stood there dumbfounded for a while before finally stammering out, "I... I don't know either!"
...
At the same time, in the old town of Jiecheng, on a small road near No. 66 Wutong Road, Zheng Zhi and Li Lin were strolling back, each holding a roasted sweet potato they had just bought from the intersection.
The weather was nice today, quite sunny and breezy. There was still some snow on the roadside, but it was still warm enough. There weren't many tasks scheduled at the office, and not much work to do. Walking around with a hot roasted sweet potato in my hand at this time of year was truly a wonderful thing—it was such a pleasure to enjoy life.
Li Lin felt that life was much more pleasant now than when he went out on field missions with the team leader.
Zheng Zhi thought so too.
The super trainee operator took a bite of a roasted sweet potato, a wisp of steam rising in front of him.
A gentle breeze blew by, making it a bit chilly, and the warmth was dissipated by the wind.
An artificial saint stood before him.
(End of this chapter)
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