Dimensional Hotel

But not everything could be understood or fought by human intelligence. Even the most seasoned Deep Divers often faced failure. And now, this situation surpassed even Song Cheng’s experience—it seemed to exceed the Director’s expectations as well.

Six Deep Divers had been transferred from the “Tank” to the outside. Their power suits had automatically activated emergency medical procedures upon their return to reality. The built-in systems injected large doses of rationality blockers and protective agents into their bodies, calming them quickly. Support personnel stepped forward to check each person’s contamination status and confirm whether their consciousness had returned to the material world—ensuring nothing else had “come back” with them.

Song Cheng and Director Xu Jiali stood aside, watching with furrowed brows.

“Math problems?” After a long, heavy silence, Song Cheng finally spoke. “Math problems did this to them?”

Xu Jiali shook his head slightly. “Professors from Terra’s ‘Academy’ can attack by flooding ordinary minds with excessive knowledge, but it wouldn’t have this effect. Moreover, our Deep Divers are trained to adapt to ‘knowledge-based’ attacks. Besides having considerable learning abilities, their brains can actively shut down when facing knowledge beyond their processing capacity.”

Song Cheng frowned. “So, you’re saying…”

“The ‘math problems’ the Deep Diver mentioned before passing out might just be an impression they had during the dive. The real cause of the contamination must be something else,” Director Xu said gravely. “At the end of the passage… there was no Nightfall Valley. But why would it be math problems?”

Song Cheng didn’t dare interrupt the Director’s thoughts.

After a brief silence, Xu Jiali suddenly turned to him. “Little Song, you haven’t contacted that ‘Yu Sheng’ yet, have you?”

“Well, I planned to reach out today, but I didn’t expect so many unexpected incidents…”

“Don’t go,” Xu Jiali said calmly.

…

Yu Sheng heard some noise. He looked up, glancing around, but couldn’t find the source.

Business was slow; there weren’t many people in the café. Only a few customers sat at distant tables, and two staff members were scrolling through their phones nearby. The place felt deserted.

Occasionally, someone would glance curiously his way—probably wondering why a guy in his twenties was sitting in a café, buried under a pile of high school homework.

Yu Sheng sighed, looking at the remaining half of the test papers, feeling a slight soreness in his hand.

He had scribbled as much as possible; many of the big problems were practically illegible. He was used to typing on a keyboard and hadn’t written this much in years. It was more tiring than he’d anticipated.

But he couldn’t decide whether it was more exhausting to be here doing homework or to take Foxy shopping for clothes at the mall.

He thought about it and felt that copying test papers was slightly better—he really didn’t have the courage to take Foxy into a lingerie store; that would make him feel like a pervert.

Especially when Foxy showed such innocent ignorance, he’d likely be mistaken for a creep and reported to the police.

Just then, a voice echoed in his mind. “Hehe~ Yu Sheng, how much have you written?”

Yu Sheng’s hand kept moving. “Halfway done. High school students these days are really overloaded; why is there so much homework?”

“Keep it up! I just heard Little Red Riding Hood mumbling; she actually has physics homework too but forgot to bring it…”

“Let her go home and do it herself; I’m not handling that,” Yu Sheng replied irritably. “How are things on your end? Going smoothly?”

“Not bad. Foxy doesn’t really know how to use zippers; Little Red Riding Hood has been teaching her for ages. They’re both in the fitting room now… They left me on a bench outside,” Irene sounded cheerful. “Little Red even bought me a hair clip! From a doll shop—it’s red…”

Yu Sheng thought for a moment and realized. “That’s with my money! She’s draining me!”

“I know, I know,” Irene quickly said. “Just think of it as a gift from you to me… I didn’t ask for anything else, just a hair clip—not expensive…”

“Alright, alright, I didn’t say you couldn’t buy it,” Yu Sheng chuckled. “Just reminding you not to shop too long. Also, don’t forget to buy toiletries for Foxy, and bedding. You didn’t forget the size, did you?”

“Oh, I remember, I remember. Don’t worry, my brain…” Irene suddenly paused, her tone changing. “Wait, Foxy’s brain…”

An awkward silence fell in Yu Sheng’s mind.

This is what happens when your team can’t be relied on.

“How big was her bed again?” Irene’s voice sounded uncertain.

“One and a half meters by two meters,” Yu Sheng sighed. “Tell that number to Little Red Riding Hood. Let her remember it for you two. Also, tell her what else you need to buy; she’s a high school student—her brain works better than yours.”

“Yes, yes…”

Yu Sheng helplessly ended the conversation and lowered his head to continue working on the test papers.

However, at that moment, he suddenly felt something was off around him.

Silence. It had become so quiet. Even the low conversations of the few customers were no longer audible.

He looked up, quickly scanning his surroundings.

He was still in the café.

Countless tables and chairs were neatly arranged, extending endlessly forward and backward.

In the vast café, there wasn’t a single person. As far as he could see, there were only endless tables and chairs.

On his left was the window facing the street—but now the window also extended endlessly, and outside, he couldn’t see the street, only a vast expanse of white mist.

Enormous shadows moved slowly in the fog, occasionally approaching the nearby windows, seemingly gazing into the café, but no matter how hard he looked, those shadows had only vague outlines.

Yu Sheng stared in astonishment, slowly standing up from his chair.

But just as he was about to head for the door, a voice suddenly came from across him. “Hello.”

It was a slightly husky female voice, very young.

He was surprised to see that someone had sat opposite him—a woman who looked to be in her late twenties. She wore a sleek white suit dress, her gray-white hair tied back in a ponytail. She was very beautiful, but there was an indescribable aloofness about her.

Moreover, his attention was drawn to her eyes. She had pale gray pupils, as if all color had drained from them. Even the boundaries between her irises and the whites of her eyes were blurred, making her eyes look… not quite human.

Immediately, he noticed something incredible—the surroundings around this woman were rapidly losing color. From the nearest table and chairs to the floor and other furniture, everything was washed over with a pale gray hue. The colorless area extended over ten meters before gradually fading back to normal.

In the end, only the woman herself and Yu Sheng remained in color.

He steadied himself. He remembered what Irene had told him—that rational entities might appear in Otherworlds, but no matter how human-like they seemed, there would be obvious eerie, non-human characteristics. Although this woman looked a bit strange, she clearly wasn’t at the level of “eerie non-human,” which meant she was probably human.

Since she was human and had greeted him, she was someone he could talk to.

Yu Sheng temporarily gave up the idea of leaving and sat back down, looking at her curiously. “And you are…?”

“Xu Jiali, Director of the Special Affairs Bureau under the Border Committee,” the woman nodded slightly. “I apologize for meeting you in this manner—it’s for maximum confidentiality and certain safety considerations.”

The Special Affairs Bureau actually came looking for him—but at such a high level? The Director himself came?

While Yu Sheng was in a daze, Xu Jiali casually glanced at the table in front of him.

She saw the pile of test papers spread out, and her expression momentarily froze.

Math problems. All math problems. Real, full-length questions from past college entrance exams.