Chapter 35: The Second Detachment of Hidden Dragons and Crouching Tigers

Li Lin was jolted from the depths of sleep by a noisy cell phone ring, and accompanying the ring was a sudden, spiritual warning from deep within his soul.

As a highly trained Special Services Bureau agent, he realized almost instantly that something was happening. He snapped awake, lunging from his bed in the temporary rental like a spring-loaded mechanism, grabbing the phone from the nightstand while simultaneously rushing toward the street-facing window.

"This is Li Lin," he said rapidly into the phone as he sat by the window, pointing a device equipped with a complex lens assembly toward the street below. "What's going on?"

Song Cheng's voice came through the receiver immediately, sounding exceptionally grave: "Have you observed anything on your end?"

While monitoring the light and shadows refracted through the lens device, Li Lin spared a glance at the laptop beside him that was automatically monitoring data. He quickly pulled up the monitoring logs and spoke rapidly: "Monitoring data is normal. There was only one small-scale energy fluctuation at 1:00 AM—just a typical periodic 'surge' of the Boundary..."

"...Xu Jiali has already departed ahead of schedule; he should be arriving at your location soon," Song Cheng said in a low voice. "Maintain surveillance on the block, but even if you observe something, do not leave the premises recklessly. Report immediately—remember, do not leave the base alone before Xu Jiali arrives!"

"Huh? Ah, right, understood!" Li Lin froze for a moment before quickly agreeing, then couldn't help but ask, "What exactly is happening?"

"...The Boundary is experiencing large-scale, unexplained spacetime displacements and resets, occurring every five to ten minutes."

Song Cheng ignored Li Lin's exclamation. After hanging up, he took a deep breath and looked up at the massive screen at the end of the command hall.

The screen displayed a flat map of the entire "Boundary City," and beyond the map lay a three-dimensional structure constructed of countless curves and identifiers, alongside a massive amount of rapidly refreshing monitoring data and remote surveillance signals.

The vast command hall was brightly lit. Special Services Bureau employees in black uniforms stared intently at screens at various terminals, while people occasionally entered and exited through side doors, conveying information from other departments or delivering more bad news.

"There were a few small spacetime displacement phenomena over the past two days, but none were this large or frequent," a female agent in a black professional skirt whispered behind Song Cheng. "The spacetime structure of the Boundary is unique; this hasn't happened before, so the alarm level reported at the time wasn't high..."

"Now it looks like some kind of probe before a large-scale operation," another voice came from beside her. "Now 'they' have officially begun... Dammit, we were careless."

Just then, a report from a terminal interrupted the conversation behind Song Cheng: "Rift generation detected! Pointing toward Chawen-12b, precise location still unconfirmed... attempting to trace the source!"

Song Cheng knit his brows tightly. He said nothing, merely counting numbers silently in his mind.

Ten seconds later, he heard the follow-up report—

"Rift closed! Tracing failed! Spacetime structure restored!"

Such reports had already repeated many times in this hall—occurring every few minutes.

The intervals were not entirely stable, generally staying within ten minutes, and while the duration of each event wasn't precise, it never exceeded thirty seconds. It felt intentional, but... what was the purpose of doing this? And more importantly... who could pull off something this absurd?!

"Rift generation detected! Pointing toward Bailong-4c, precise location unconfirmed, attempting to trace the source..."

"Rift closed! Tracing failed..."

Song Cheng's frown deepened, and just then, a faint humming sound interrupted his thoughts. A second later, a screen beside him lit up.

A woman who appeared to be under thirty, possessing a dignified yet cold temperament, appeared on the screen.

She wore a white skirt suit, her grayish-white hair tied in a loose ponytail behind her head. Her eyes were a distinct grayish-white, with extremely pale pupils, giving her an overall impression of... a lack of color.

The moment he saw this woman, Song Cheng's back visibly straightened, and a somewhat stiff, bitter smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.

"Director," Song Cheng greeted, "we are still tracking..."

"What is the current situation?" the gray-haired, gray-eyed woman addressed as Director interrupted him, her voice cold and calm.

"Rifts continue to generate and disappear. Tracing is still impossible, but it can currently be determined that the phenomenon is harmless to the Boundary itself—the spacetime structure has not been damaged."

"Not damaged?"

"Yes. Although those rifts are temporarily classified as 'spacetime displacements,' that is only a similarity in surface nature. As for what that thing actually is... it's hard to say," Song Cheng said with a bitter smile. "Every time it generates, it doesn't actually tear spacetime; instead..."

He hesitated for a long time before finally recalling the description given by the technical experts to continue: "It feels as if that is the original structure of spacetime—the moment the rift generates, it's as if a stable passage to the distance has always existed in the Boundary. And when the rift disappears, it's as if it never appeared at all. There is no impact, no catastrophic collapse, and so far, we haven't received any reports of casualties."

The gray-haired woman listened quietly, remaining silent for a long time.

Song Cheng didn't speak either; he simply waited patiently.

"Has there been any change in that 'special location' you sent people to monitor?"

"No. That place is currently the 'calmest' spot in the entire Boundary City—calm like a black hole," Song Cheng sighed. "That is the most abnormal thing about it. Everyone knows something is wrong there now, but the biggest problem is that you can't see any problem at all. I've already sent the best divers from the Second Team there, and I've arranged two additional monitoring teams to approach that street from other directions..."

"What do you think the motive of the person doing this is?" the gray-haired woman suddenly asked.

"...Hard to say," Song Cheng thought for a moment, speaking cautiously. "At first, I thought it was some kind of attack, but now it seems they are just continuously opening and closing one rift after another. It's been almost a whole night, and they haven't even disturbed anyone..."

"Could it be some new 'Dim Angel' phenomenon?"

"Probably not. The appearance of a Dim Angel is inevitably accompanied by large-scale otherworldly loss of control and widespread damage to the present world; it wouldn't be this 'harmless,'" Song Cheng immediately shook his head. "Besides, we haven't received any reports regarding those Angel cultists lately. If a new Dim Angel truly appeared, those cultists wouldn't be this quiet."

"If it's not a Dim Angel, then it's fine."

"Yeah, as long as it's not a Dim Angel," Song Cheng sighed. "But then again, if this is 'human' intervention... what kind of 'person' would they have to be? With such a massive commotion, what on earth are they trying to do..."

The latter half of his sentence was entirely to himself. The gray-haired woman on the other side of the screen broke the silence after a few seconds of contemplation—

"This world is vast, and there are still too many races and ancient entities we have yet to encounter," she said softly. Despite her youthful appearance, her words carried an inadvertent sense of antiquity. "And our universe is very young; many 'theorems' and 'laws' have not even been formed yet... Learn to adapt, Xiao Song. Our work has never been about dealing with the 'known'."

"...I understand."

The gray-haired woman nodded, then, as if sensing something, she suddenly looked up in a certain direction. Her nearly colorless, pale eyes froze for an instant, and then she softly broke the silence: "It has calmed down."

Song Cheng looked up toward the hall.

No new reports of rift generation arrived.

...

A knock at a specific frequency sounded. Li Lin stood at the door, using his spiritual intuition to confirm the aura outside before stepping aside half a pace and opening the door.

A burly man nearly two meters tall ducked his head to squeeze into the rental room, dragging a massive black box behind him that seemed perfectly suited to his height and physique.

"This place of yours is really cramped," the burly man said, glancing back at Li Lin standing by the door. "Cramped even more than the landing pod I sat in the day before yesterday."

Li Lin rolled his eyes. "That's still more spacious than that junker of a car you drive—you managed to drive it all the way from the Bureau, so don't complain about my place."

The burly man chuckled twice, pushing his heavy large box against the wall while sitting down on the living room sofa, letting out a long, appreciative sigh.

"Fine, at least it's a place a human can stay—this sofa is much more comfortable than the rock-hard stones and scorching sands of Aimain-IX."

Li Lin looked at the man before him with a slight headache.

The most excellent and senior diver of the Special Services Bureau's Second Action Detachment—Mr. Xu Jiali.

He was very unaccustomed to dealing with this powerhouse.

The main reason for this discomfort was that on his first day in the Bureau, after seeing the name "Xu Jiali" on the personnel roster, Li Lin had gone around asking everyone about the person. Then, at the orientation, a 1.98-meter-tall brute walked up, patted Li Lin on the shoulder, and introduced himself as Xu Jiali. That introduction had been deafening; even now, Li Lin still flinched whenever he saw him.

But Mr. Xu Jiali himself was completely unaware of this. He had lived with this name for thirty years and had long since grown used to it...

How did the saying go? The Special Services Bureau's Second Detachment was a place where dragons and tigers were hidden...

(End of Chapter)