Alien Hotel

Li Lin looked at the empty corner in a daze, still holding the scraper for sampling in his hand, feeling so dazed that he seemed to have forgotten what he was doing.

The middle-aged man known as "Team Song" - Captain Song Cheng of the Second Team of the Secret Service frowned tightly when he saw the blood stain disappear.

Something disappeared from his memory and thinking, but the remaining impressions remained. These impressions stimulated his "spirituality" and made him notice something was wrong.

A chaotic glow appeared in Song Cheng's eyes. He immediately controlled his mind and tried to "solidify" the last remaining impression in his heart to prevent it from disappearing along with certain memories. Years of professional training came into play at this moment. Li Lin, who was holding the scraper in his hand, raised his head after hesitation: "Leader, I feel like I suddenly forgot what I was going to do. Was there something here just now?"

"There is thinking interference!" Song Cheng reacted instantly and quickly reminded, "Check the 'depth' here immediately!"

Hearing this, Li Lin put down the sampling tool in his hand without saying a word. He quickly took out a palm-sized black box from his belt, pressed it on the surface of the box a few times, and then pulled out a thin "hose" from the side. Directly connecting the needle-like tip of the hose to his eyeball - after doing this, he raised his head and slowly looked around with the eye connected to the hose.

There was a slight buzzing sound from the dark iron box, and there seemed to be liquid flowing slowly in the thin tube. Li Lin's eyes gradually became darkened, and in his spiritual vision, the old street Everything started to take on a black and white tone.

"Depth L-0, no foreign reaction," Li Lin reported while observing, "I also didn't see anything or residue that escaped from the 'foreign land'."

Song Cheng frowned and glanced at the box in Li Lin's hand - this is a portable depth sounder. Its sensing range and sensitivity are not comparable to that of standard equipment the size of a suitcase, but even if it is portable, it Only if it can detect "depth" changes within the range.

He can be sure that something really affected his memory and thinking just now, and that residual "impression" is still forcibly solidified in his heart. There must be something evil here that is exerting an influence on him, but... equipment induction Less than.

And just when he was about to ask Li Lin to adjust the sensing mode of the depth sounder, the latter seemed to suddenly discover something.

Li Lin stared closely at a place at the end of the street.

One of the eyes connected to the hose was as black as ink, and the deep black reflected another vision. He saw that between the black and white street buildings, there was a faint hint of color - the color was very vague and light. , couldn't tell what it was, but it was very large. He worked hard to distinguish it for a long time before roughly determining the outline of the layer that was light to almost transparent, and judged that its size was about the same as a house.

"Captain Song, there is something in front of us, but it's very blurry. It looks like a house," he said as he walked forward cautiously. "The depth prompt is still 0, and there is no contamination reaction... I We're almost in front of it, can you feel something?"

Song Cheng followed Li Lin, holding a badge in his pocket with his right hand, ready to intervene at any time if the situation did not arise. At the same time, he frowned and shook his head: "There is no warning from the spirit."

Li Lin stopped somewhere. He felt that he had come to the hazy color. Then he hesitated and slowly stretched out his hand forward——

A sharp buzz suddenly came from the dark iron box, followed by several soft crackling sounds. Along with a burst of green smoke, the depth sounder stopped running.

The hose connected to the eyeball fell off instantly, and a dark, sludge-like substance flowed out of it, quickly evaporating and dissipating after contacting the air.

The soreness and stinging pain in his eyes made Li Lin couldn't help but say "fuck...". He threw away the black box that was already hot to his hands, and subconsciously wanted to rub the eye where the connection had just been established. Song Chengjian was next to him. Xiang immediately took a step forward, raised his hand and pressed it near Li Lin's temple: "Don't rub it! Just wait for a while!"

Li Lin suddenly froze in place. He felt a burning sensation near his temples, and the discomfort in his eyeballs quickly subsided. After a while, he recovered and saw the sounder still emitting smoke on the ground.

"...Will the bureau report it?"

"Report it."

"It's okay, I was shocked," Li Lin breathed a sigh of relief, then turned to look at the direction where he had stretched out his hand in confusion.

However, there is only a small open space here, and at the end of the open space is a wall - the wall is scrawled with graffiti by an unknown person, using colorful spray paint to outline pictures such as doors, windows, houses, trees and stones.

He reached out and waved forward, but didn't touch anything.

"There must be something here. The instrument has observed it just now, but the equipment broke down before I could confirm it," Li Lin muttered. "Before the equipment broke down, the depth indicated was still L-0."

"...Go back to the bureau first," Song Cheng pondered for two seconds before making a decision, "I will report to the council when I get back. This place really needs to be monitored for a while. It cannot be ruled out that it is some kind of unregistered 'foreign land'. I guess you need large-scale equipment and specialized "deep divers" to handle it. Are your eyes okay?"

"...If something happens, can you give me a half-day leave?"

"No, the bureau is short of people."

"That's okay, I'll just go back and put some eye drops."

Song Cheng nodded, while Li Lin bent down and carefully picked up the remains of the sounder that was no longer smoking. The two of them returned to the place where the electric car was parked one after another.

Li Lin turned the key of the car, and the LCD screen of the electric car flashed and then turned off.

He was stunned for a moment, raised his head, and met Captain Song's eyes that were the same as his own.

"My car broke down...and so did you?"

Song Cheng nodded silently.

"...Do you think it's a coincidence?"

Song Cheng shook his head slightly and said in a deep voice: "People from the 'Academy' have a special way of explaining this phenomenon."

Li Lin was startled for a moment, then recalled some information he had read——

"The machine soul is unhappy."/"The machine soul is scared."

The two said in unison.

Then they were silent for a moment, and this time they said in unison: "You remembered it wrong."

"We'll talk about it later," Song Cheng waved his hand, pushed up the electric car and walked back slowly, "leave this place first."

Li Lin pushed the electric car and followed Song Cheng: "...Boss, are you just going to push it all the way back?"

"What else? You don't want the car anymore?"

"Don't you have a small truck or something in the bureau? If not, you can just call the electric three-wheeler from the logistics office downstairs... If you push it back, it will kill you..."

"Stop talking nonsense, your physical strength at such a young age is not as good as mine?"

The two senior agents of the Secret Service pushed the electric car farther and farther away, and their figures gradually disappeared at the intersection of Wutong Road.

…

Yu Sheng was already very familiar with the boundless deep darkness around him. He came there more frequently recently, and he even felt like he was home when he was floating in this dark chaos.

Erin's screams were especially loud.

He thought that the scene where he opened a hole in his stomach, pushed open the door, entered the house and died inside, probably frightened the doll in the painting - it seemed that even Irene, who was a "cursed object", could not bear the psychological toll The ability is just that.

And this made Yu Sheng start to look forward to what would happen after his "return".

When he returns to the world and appears in front of Irene again... what will be the reaction of Miss Doll?

Will she... still remember what happened when she pushed the door open and died in the house?

Yu Sheng was floating in the darkness, and the figure of Hu Li appeared "before his eyes". Recalling his experience in that night valley, he remembered that when Hu Li saw him in the ruined temple, he completely forgot about her. The process of hitting a man to death with a mallet - although she suddenly recalled it for some reason later on, Hu Li had indeed completely forgotten his "death" at the beginning.

Yu Sheng didn't know what this "forgetting" was about, and he wasn't sure whether it was his own problem or Hu Li's problem - after all, the fox girl's thinking seemed to be quite confused, and it was normal for her to suddenly forget certain things.

But if Irene doesn't remember the scene in the room where he pushed open the door and died, then Yu Sheng can basically be sure...the problem lies with him.

There was no way to judge the length of time floating in the darkness, so after sorting out his experiences so far, Yu Sheng cleared his mind and let his tense nerves rest for a while while patiently waiting for the end of the darkness.

Then, he felt that familiar falling feeling, and felt that he was "returning" to the world quickly.

Yu Sheng, who was well prepared, immediately concentrated his energy and tried to capture the moment he crossed the "boundary" -

Scenes of familiar scenes appeared "in front of his eyes", and some vague sense of guidance drove him to "fall" in a specific direction. He struggled to distinguish among the numerous scenes that appeared in an instant, but he had no time to grasp anything. , and then "saw" one of the pictures quickly zooming in before his eyes——

No. 66 Wutong Road, the living room after entering.

Yu Sheng suddenly opened his eyes.

Familiar home furnishings came into view. In the dining room next to the living room, the simple and exquisite oil painting was quietly placed on the dining table.

Irene in the oil painting broke the silence.

"Yusheng! You are finally back!"