Chapter 35: Hidden Dragons and Crouching Tigers of Second Team

Chapter 35: Hidden Dragons and Crouching Tigers of Second Team

Li Lin was jolted awake from the depths of sleep by the noisy ringing of his mobile phone. Accompanying the ringtone was the sudden appearance of a warning from his own spiritual intuition.

As a Special Operations Bureau agent with excellent training results, he immediately realized that something had happened. He snapped fully awake, practically launching himself from the bed in his temporary rental room onto the floor. Grabbing the phone from the bedside table, he rushed toward the street-facing window.

“This is Li Lin,” he said rapidly as he answered the call. At the same time, he sat by the window and aimed a device equipped with a complex lens assembly toward the street below. “What’s happened?”

Song Cheng’s voice immediately came from the receiver, sounding unusually serious.

“Have you observed anything unusual on your end?”

While watching the refracted images inside the optical device, Li Lin spared a glance at the laptop beside him that was automatically monitoring data. After quickly scrolling through the monitoring log, he responded at once.

“All monitoring data is normal. There was only a minor energy fluctuation around one in the morning. It was just the normal periodic ‘surge’ of the Boundary Zone...”

“...Xu Jiali has already departed ahead of schedule. He should be arriving at your location soon,” Song Cheng said gravely. “Maintain surveillance of the district, but even if you observe something, do not leave on your own. Report immediately. Remember, under no circumstances are you to leave the base alone before Xu Jiali arrives!”

“Huh? Ah, okay, understood!” Li Lin froze briefly before quickly agreeing. Then he could not help asking, “What exactly happened?”

“...The Boundary Zone is currently experiencing large-scale spatial-temporal dislocations and restorations of unknown origin. One occurrence every five to ten minutes.”

Ignoring Li Lin’s startled exclamation, Song Cheng ended the call. He took a deep breath and looked up at the enormous screen at the far end of the command hall.

Displayed on the screen was a map of the entire Boundary City. Beyond the map was a three-dimensional structure composed of countless curves and markers, along with massive quantities of rapidly refreshing monitoring data and remote surveillance feeds.

The vast command hall was brightly illuminated.

Employees of the Special Operations Bureau dressed in black uniforms stared intently at screens throughout the room. From time to time, people entered and exited through side doors, delivering updates from other departments or bringing even more bad news.

“There were several minor spatial-temporal dislocations over the past two days too, but none of them were this large or this frequent,” muttered a female Special Operations Bureau employee in a black business suit behind Song Cheng. “The Boundary Zone’s spatial-temporal structure is special. Things like this have happened before, so the alert level on those reports wasn’t very high...”

“Looking at it now, it feels more like probing before a large-scale operation,” another voice said nearby. “Now they’ve officially begun... Damn it, we got careless.”

At that moment, another report rang out from one of the terminals, interrupting the conversation behind Song Cheng.

“Rift detected! Destination identified as Chawen-12b. Precise location still unconfirmed... Attempting trace-back!”

Song Cheng’s brow furrowed tightly.

He said nothing and simply counted silently in his mind.

A dozen seconds later, the follow-up report arrived.

“Rift closed! Trace-back failed! Spatial-temporal structure restored!”

Reports like this had already repeated countless times throughout the hall.

One occurred every few minutes.

The intervals were not completely stable, but generally remained within ten minutes. Each occurrence lasted less than thirty seconds.

It seemed artificial, but...

What was the point?

And more importantly...

Who could possibly accomplish something this absurd?

“Rift detected! Destination identified as White Dragon-4c. Precise location unconfirmed. Attempting trace-back...”

“Rift closed! Trace-back failed...”

Song Cheng’s brow tightened further.

At that moment, a faint humming sound interrupted his thoughts.

The next second, a screen beside him lit up.

A woman who appeared to be under thirty years old appeared on the display. Her features were dignified, yet her temperament was cold.

She wore a white skirt suit. Her gray-white hair was tied into a loose ponytail behind her head. Even her eyes were gray-white, their pupils extremely pale. Her entire presence gave the impression of someone almost devoid of color.

The moment he saw her, Song Cheng visibly straightened his back, and a somewhat stiff smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

“Director,” Song Cheng greeted her. “We’re still tracking...”

“What’s the current situation?” the gray-haired, gray-eyed woman known as the Director interrupted, her voice cool and calm.

“Rifts are still continuously appearing and disappearing. We still can’t trace their source, but we’ve basically confirmed that the phenomenon itself is harmless to the Boundary Zone. The spatial-temporal structure hasn’t been damaged.”

“Hasn’t been damaged?”

“That’s right. Although these rifts have temporarily been classified as spatial-temporal dislocations, that’s only because they superficially resemble them. What they really are... we’re not sure yet.” Song Cheng forced a smile. “Whenever they appear, they don’t actually tear space-time apart. Instead...”

He struggled for a moment before finally recalling the technical expert’s description.

“It feels as though they’re part of the original structure of reality. The instant a rift appears, it’s as if the Boundary Zone has always possessed a stable passage leading to some distant location. And when the rift disappears, it’s as though it never existed at all. No shockwaves, no catastrophic collapse. In fact, up to this point, we haven’t received a single casualty report.”

The gray-haired woman listened quietly.

For a long time, she remained silent.

Song Cheng waited patiently.

“Has there been any change at that ‘special location’ you’ve been monitoring?” she finally asked.

“No. It’s currently the most ‘peaceful’ place in all of Boundary City. Peaceful like a black hole.” Song Cheng sighed. “That’s the strangest part. Everyone knows something is wrong there, but the biggest problem is that there’s no visible problem at all. I’ve already sent Second Team’s best Deep Diver there. In addition, I’ve arranged two extra surveillance groups to approach that street from different directions...”

“What do you think the purpose of all this is?” the gray-haired woman suddenly asked.

“...Hard to say.” Song Cheng considered carefully before answering. “At first I thought it was some sort of attack. But now it seems like they’re just opening and closing rifts over and over. It’s been going on nearly all night, and nobody’s even been disturbed...”

“Could it be a new Dim Angel phenomenon?”

“Probably not.” Song Cheng immediately shook his head. “Whenever a Dim Angel appears, it’s always accompanied by large-scale loss of control among Other Domains and widespread damage in the real world. Nothing this ‘harmless.’ Besides, we haven’t received any reports involving those angel worshippers lately. If a new Dim Angel had really appeared, that cult wouldn’t be staying this quiet.”

“If it’s not a Dim Angel, then that’s good.”

“Yeah, as long as it’s not a Dim Angel.” Song Cheng sighed. “But then again, if this is being done by a ‘person’... what kind of ‘person’ would that have to be? Creating this much commotion, what exactly are they trying to accomplish...”

The latter half of the statement was little more than self-talk.

After several seconds of thought, the gray-haired woman broke the silence.

“This world is vast. There are still many races and ancient beings we have never encountered,” she said softly. Though her appearance was young, her words unconsciously carried a sense of age and weariness. “And our universe is still very young. Many theorems and laws have yet to come into existence. Learn to adapt, Little Song. Our work has never involved dealing with the known.”

“...I understand.”

The gray-haired woman nodded.

Then, as if sensing something, she suddenly looked toward a certain direction.

Those pale, nearly colorless eyes froze for a moment.

Then she quietly broke the silence.

“It’s calmed down.”

Song Cheng looked up toward the hall.

No new reports of rift formation arrived.

A knock sounded at a specific rhythm.

Standing at the door, Li Lin used his spiritual intuition to confirm the presence outside before stepping half a pace aside and opening it.

A burly man nearly two meters tall ducked his head and squeezed through the entrance of the rental apartment.

Behind him he dragged an enormous black case that perfectly matched his physique.

“This place of yours is really cramped,” the giant said, glancing back at Li Lin standing by the doorway. “It’s even tighter than the landing capsule I rode in the day before yesterday.”

Li Lin rolled his eyes.

“It’s still roomier than your junk car. You managed to drive that thing all the way from headquarters, so stop complaining about my place.”

The burly man chuckled.

As he pushed the heavy black case against the wall, he casually sat down on the sofa in the living room and immediately let out a long sigh of satisfaction.

“Fair enough. At least this is a place fit for humans. This sofa is way more comfortable than the hard rocks and scorching sand of Aimein-IX.”

Li Lin stared at the giant before him with a slight toothache-inducing expression.

The best and most experienced Deep Diver in the Special Operations Bureau’s Second Action Team.

Mr. Xu Jiali.

Li Lin was very uncomfortable interacting with this man.

The primary reason dated back to his first day in the team. After seeing the name “Xu Jiali” on the personnel roster, he had gone around asking everyone about the person. Then, during the orientation gathering, a giant man standing 1.98 meters tall walked over, patted Li Lin on the shoulder, and introduced himself as Xu Jiali.

That self-introduction had been deafening.

Even now, Li Lin still flinched whenever he saw him.

As for Mr. Xu Jiali himself, he remained completely unaware of the issue.

After living with that name for thirty years, he had long since grown accustomed to it.

As the saying went...

The Special Operations Bureau’s Second Team was truly a place full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers.