Li Lin was jolted awake from deep sleep by the noisy ringing of his phone. Along with the ringtone, a sudden spiritual warning rose from the depths of his heart.
As a Special Operations Bureau agent with outstanding training results, he realized almost instantly that something was happening. He snapped fully awake, sprang from the bed in the temporary rental, and leaped to the floor. Then, grabbing the phone from the nightstand, he rushed toward the street-facing window beside him.
"I'm Li Lin," he said quickly as he answered the phone. At the same time, he sat down by the window and aimed a device equipped with a complex lens array at the street below. "What happened?"
Song Cheng's voice immediately came through the receiver, sounding unusually serious. "Have you observed anything over there?"
While keeping an eye on the light and shadows refracted through the lens device, Li Lin spared a glance at the laptop beside him, which was automatically monitoring the data. After swiftly pulling up the monitoring log, he said, "The monitoring data is all normal. There was only a small-scale energy fluctuation at one in the morning—it was just the normal periodic 'surge' in the Crossroads..."
"...Xu Jiali set out ahead of time. He should be reaching you soon," Song Cheng said in a deep voice. "Keep monitoring the neighborhood, but even if you observe anything, don't leave casually. Report it immediately—that's all. Remember, absolutely do not leave the outpost alone before Xu Jiali arrives!"
"Huh? Oh, okay, got it!" Li Lin froze for a moment before quickly agreeing. Then he couldn't help asking, "What exactly happened?"
"...The Crossroads is experiencing large-scale, unexplained spatial and temporal dislocations and resets. Once 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 enormous screen at the end of the command hall.
The screen displayed a flat map of the entire Boundary City. Outside the map was a three-dimensional structure constructed from countless curves and markers, along with vast amounts of rapidly refreshing monitoring data and remote surveillance signals.
The spacious command hall was brightly lit. Special Operations Bureau employees in black uniforms stared intently at screens before terminals throughout the hall. From time to time, someone entered or exited through a small side door, relaying conditions from other departments or delivering more bad news.
"There have also been a few minor spatial and temporal dislocations over the past two days, but none were this large or this frequent," a female Special Operations Bureau employee in a black professional skirt murmured behind Song Cheng. "The Crossroads has a unique spatial-temporal structure, and this sort of thing has happened before, so the alert level reported at the time wasn't high..."
"Now that I look at it, this seems more like a probe before some large-scale operation," another person's voice came from the side. "Now 'they' have officially begun... Fuck, we were careless."
Just then, another report came from a terminal, interrupting the conversation behind Song Cheng. "Rift formation detected! Direction: Chawen-12b. Precise location still unconfirmed... Attempting to trace the source!"
Song Cheng's brows drew tightly together. He said nothing, merely counting silently in his heart.
A dozen seconds later, he heard the follow-up report—
"Rift closed! Source tracing failed! Spatial-temporal structure restored!"
Reports like this had already been repeated many times in the hall—one occurred every few minutes.
The intervals were not entirely stable, but they were generally within ten minutes. The duration of each event was not precise either, but never exceeded thirty seconds. It seemed artificial, but... what was the point of doing this? More importantly... who could accomplish something so absurd?!
"Rift formation detected! Direction: White Dragon-4c. Precise location unconfirmed. Attempting to trace the source..."
"Rift closed! Source tracing failed..."
Song Cheng's brows furrowed more and more deeply. Just then, a faint humming suddenly interrupted his thoughts. The next second, a screen beside him lit up.
A woman who appeared to be under thirty, with dignified features and a cool, distant air, appeared on the screen.
She wore a white suit skirt. Her gray-white hair was tied into a loose ponytail behind her head, and her eyes were an unusual gray-white, with extremely pale pupils. Her entire presence gave people the feeling that she... lacked color.
The instant he saw the woman, Song Cheng's back visibly straightened a little, and a somewhat stiff, bitter smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"Director," Song Cheng greeted her. "We're still tracking it..."
"How is the situation now?" The gray-haired, gray-eyed woman known as the Director interrupted him. Her voice was cool and calm.
"The rifts are still continuously appearing and disappearing. We still can't trace their source, but we can basically confirm that the phenomenon is harmless to the Crossroads itself—the spatial-temporal structure hasn't been damaged."
"Hasn't been damaged?"
"Yes. Although those rifts have temporarily been classified as 'spatial-temporal dislocations,' that's only because their surface characteristics are similar. As for what they actually are... it's hard to say." Song Cheng gave a bitter smile. "When they form, they don't actually tear space and time apart. Rather..."
He struggled to recall the description given by the technical experts earlier. Finally, he continued, "It feels as though that's the original structure of space and time. The instant a rift forms, it's as if the Crossroads has always contained a stable passage leading somewhere far away. And when the rift disappears, it's as if it never existed in the first place. There's no impact, no catastrophic collapse, and so far, we haven't received a single report of casualties."
The gray-haired woman listened in silence. For a long time, she did not speak.
Song Cheng also remained silent, patiently waiting.
"Has anything changed at that 'special location' you had people monitoring before?"
"No. It's currently the most 'peaceful' place in all of Boundary City—so peaceful it's like a black hole." Song Cheng sighed. "That's the most abnormal part. Everyone knows there must be a problem over there, but the biggest problem is that we can't see any problem at all. I've already sent the Second Brigade's best deep divers there. I've also arranged for two additional monitoring teams to approach that street from other directions..."
"What do you think the people doing this are trying to accomplish?" the gray-haired woman suddenly asked.
"...Hard to say." Song Cheng thought for a moment before answering cautiously. "At first, I thought this was some kind of attack, but now it seems they're merely opening and closing one rift after another. Almost the entire night has passed, and they haven't even disturbed anyone..."
"Could it be some new 'Dark Angel' phenomenon?"
"It shouldn't be. The appearance of a Dark Angel is inevitably accompanied by large-scale Otherworld loss of control and widespread damage in the real world. Nothing this 'harmless.'" Song Cheng immediately shook his head. "Besides, we haven't received any reports about those angel believers lately. If a new Dark Angel had appeared, those cultists wouldn't be this quiet."
"If it isn't a Dark Angel, then that's good."
"Yeah, as long as it isn't a Dark Angel." Song Cheng sighed. "But putting that aside, if this was done by a 'person,' then... what kind of 'person' could it be? They're making such a huge commotion—what exactly are they trying to do..."
The latter half of his sentence was spoken entirely to himself. After thinking for a few seconds, the gray-haired woman on the other side of the screen broke the silence—
"This world is vast. There are still too many groups and ancient beings we have yet to encounter," she said softly. Though her features were still youthful, a certain weariness seeped unconsciously into her words. "And our universe is young as well. Many 'theorems' and 'laws' have not even come into existence yet... Learn to adapt, Little 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 raised her head and looked in a certain direction. Her nearly colorless, pale eyes froze for an instant before she softly broke the silence. "It's calmed down."
Song Cheng raised his head and looked toward the hall.
No new report of rift formation came.
A knock sounded at a specific frequency. Li Lin stood at the door and used his spiritual intuition to confirm the aura outside. Only then did he shift half a step to the side and open the door.
A burly man nearly two meters tall ducked his head and squeezed through the doorway of the rental apartment. Behind him, he dragged a huge black case that looked entirely fitting for his height and build.
"Your place is seriously cramped." The burly man glanced back at Li Lin, who stood beside the door. "It's even tighter than the landing pod I rode two days ago."
Li Lin rolled his eyes. "It's still roomier than your beat-up car. You managed to drive that thing here from headquarters, so stop complaining about my place."
The burly man chuckled twice. He pushed his heavy case against the wall, then plopped himself onto the living-room sofa. A long, satisfied sigh immediately escaped him.
"Fine. At least it's somewhere humans can stay. This sofa is much more comfortable than the rock-hard ground and scalding sand on Ameine-IX."
Li Lin stared at the burly man before him with a pained expression.
The best and most experienced deep diver in the Special Operations Bureau's Second Brigade—Mr. Xu Jiali.
He was very uncomfortable dealing with this brawny man.
The main reason for his discomfort was that, on his first day in the team, Li Lin had seen the name "Xu Jiali" on the personnel roster and asked everyone about him. Then, during the welcome meeting, a burly man standing one meter ninety-eight tall had 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.
But Mr. Xu Jiali himself was completely unaware of this. He had lived with that name for thirty years and had long since grown used to it...
There was a saying—what was it again? The Special Operations Bureau's Second Brigade was a place where crouching dragons and hidden tigers gathered...
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