Dimensional Hotel
Chapter 280: Origin

Yu Sheng always had countless creative ideas—though some of them bordered on sheer madness.

And Foxy, without a shred of doubt, would joyfully carry out even the most absurd of her Benefactor’s whims.

Thus, when Yu Sheng declared his intention to pry off a murder machine’s fingernail to forge a knife and stab himself, the Demon Fox found nothing peculiar in it. Hearing his instructions, she cheerfully hoisted the terrifying mechanical arm, grabbed one of her tails from behind, rubbed the tip vigorously, and conjured a dazzling blue flame. Immediately, she began slicing through the metal doll’s palm.

She planned to cut off all five “fingernails” first, then follow Yu Sheng’s detailed instructions for further refinement. As for dismantling the entire arm… well, that could wait.

Blue sparks erupted in the living room.

The blazing glow splashed across Irene’s face, nearly blinding the little doll.

“Hey! Dumb Fox! Could you not do that here?!” Irene protested loudly. “There’s a sofa here, and electronics everywhere—you’ll burn the house down!”

Foxy paused thoughtfully. Realizing Irene was right, she hugged the arm and scampered off to the basement, deciding it’d be safer to finish the job in the Valley.

Irene watched Foxy run down the stairs before turning back to Yu Sheng. “You’re really planning to turn that thing’s fingernail into a knife? Seems kinda sinister.”

“Why not?” Yu Sheng replied casually, eyes fixed on his phone as he typed away. “Defeating a monster and crafting gear from the loot—it’s standard procedure.”

Irene, recently immersed in games herself, nodded knowingly at this explanation.

Then she noticed what Yu Sheng was doing and leaned over curiously. “What are you up to?”

“Messaging Bai Li Qing.” Yu Sheng had already attached photos of the mechanical arm he’d taken earlier, swiftly adding a brief account of his encounter in the fog. “She’s probably asleep, but I’ll leave a message. Who knows—maybe she recognizes whatever we fought tonight. Either way, tomorrow I need to visit the Special Affairs Bureau.”

Irene hummed absently, then returned to the sofa and picked up a black head veil to examine.

It was the very head veil Yu Sheng had pulled off the Iron Doll’s head—a garment resembling something a nun might wear. Its fabric appeared high-quality, and embroidered prominently at its front was a strange golden symbol: two circles, one large, one small, intersecting at their bottoms, split vertically by a golden fissure.

During the intense battle earlier, Yu Sheng hadn’t noticed this marking clearly. Now, seeing it up close, he quickly snapped a photo with his phone.

Meanwhile, Irene lifted the head veil higher, curiously inspecting its inner structure.

Given her mere 66.6 centimeters, the veil practically doubled as a cloak. Yu Sheng nearly reached out to poke the little doll, tempted to see her vanish beneath the fabric, but ultimately resisted.

“You think that Iron Doll might’ve been an Entity?” Yu Sheng mused aloud. “Not one of Alice’s Little House Dolls, certainly. And with that eerie aura, she seems exactly like something spawned from the fog.”

However, Irene immediately contradicted him, her voice muffled beneath the veil. “Whatever that ‘C-type Buckle’ is, I’m sure now she’s not an Entity.”

Yu Sheng blinked. “How can you tell?”

Irene struggled to flip the veil around, pointing to a small tag sewn onto the inside. “Because there’s a brand label here—plus washing instructions recommending hand wash only.”

Yu Sheng nearly leaped off the sofa in shock. “What?!”

He leaned in, astonished to see Irene wasn’t joking. Indeed, the ominous Iron Doll’s veil bore a commercial brand and care label.

Yu Sheng immediately searched online for the brand, quickly finding countless results.

It wasn’t even some obscure or rare designer label—just a common brand available almost anywhere.

Of course, what Yu Sheng found online differed slightly from the veil in his hands. The general shape was subtly altered, and none of the online images displayed that distinct golden double-circle insignia.

“Seems like someone bought this online and modified it,” Irene analyzed seriously from her perch on Yu Sheng’s arm. “Trimmed the sides and embroidered the symbol onto the forehead. Ah, and it’s pretty expensive, too.”

Yu Sheng didn’t answer immediately, deep in thought.

Irene glanced up. “What are you thinking about?”

With a grave expression, Yu Sheng replied, “I’m trying to figure out what this information means.”

“It means the C-type Buckle definitely isn’t an Entity—Entities don’t go shopping…”

“No, it’s more than that,” Yu Sheng shook his head slowly. “It means she isn’t alone. There’s at least one Human behind her—either an ally or her master.”

Irene tilted her head, puzzled. “Why?”

“Because her claws weren’t made for sewing,” Yu Sheng shot a glance at the little Doll, whose mind always seemed to freeze up at critical moments, “and besides, there’s this symbol here—it obviously means something special…”

Before he could finish speaking, his phone rang loudly.

It was Bai Li Qing, still awake at half-past eleven at night.

Yu Sheng felt a jolt of surprise, but quickly collected himself and lifted the phone to his ear. Before he could even speak, Bai Li Qing’s cold, urgent voice poured from the other end:

“You were attacked by an enemy resembling a black-metal doll? Tall, thin, female-shaped?”

“Yeah, exactly,” Yu Sheng replied immediately, sensing Bai Li Qing knew more about this than she was letting on. He skipped asking why she was still awake. “About Xu Jiali’s height, covered entirely in metal, with a pale face. She fights like she’s dancing, moves so fast you can barely track her, and her weapons are fingernails—each one like a sharp blade. Oh, and she had a head veil. Kind of like…”

“A nun?” Bai Li Qing interrupted.

“…Yeah, a nun. But with the vibe of an evil cultivator,” Yu Sheng agreed, quickly sending over the picture he had taken. “I tore off her head veil; it has this symbol on it. Judging by your reaction, you seem to know who she is?”

A tense silence settled over the call for a few seconds, presumably while Bai Li Qing checked the photo. Yu Sheng heard a sharp, quiet intake of breath.

“You’ve encountered an ‘Artificial Saintess’ from Holy Revere Hermitage.”

Yu Sheng paused for several seconds, vaguely recalling having heard the name ‘Holy Revere Hermitage’ before. He had an impression they belonged to the same category of troublemakers opposed to law-abiding society, though the specifics eluded him.

“Sounds…like something incredibly powerful?” He tested cautiously. “And I guess we shouldn’t normally be running into it?”

“A highly lethal killing machine,” Bai Li Qing’s voice was unusually grave. “They protect important Hermitage assets or key personnel. Normally, it takes an entire squad of fully-armed Deep Divers to handle one. Ordinary fighters, alone or in small groups, have a survival rate of zero. You’re saying it appeared in the ‘Fog’ and attacked you without warning?”

“Yes.” Yu Sheng’s expression hardened instantly. Even without knowing exactly who these “Holy Revere Hermitage” people were, the urgency in Bai Li Qing’s tone made it clear this was far more serious than dealing with those sneaky Angel Cultists from before. The Iron Doll’s emergence meant the situation had escalated dangerously. “We were deep in thick fog, where things started becoming visibly strange—and then that thing jumped us.”

“Did you activate the Frontier communication’s environmental logging?” Bai Li Qing asked suddenly. “Special Affairs Bureau-issued phones are equipped with specialized sensors that can record environmental data.”

“Yeah, turned it on as soon as we stepped out the Door.”

“Good, I’ll have someone pull the logs from the backend immediately,” Bai Li Qing said swiftly, then pressed further. “Where exactly were you when the attack occurred?”

“Near the northern edge of the Old City District, close to the shopping street,” Yu Sheng recalled uncertainly. “But the streets in the fog felt very bizarre, especially as we went deeper. Buildings changed positions, sizes, even directions. Where we fought, the ground in the distance seemed curled upward—I’m not sure how reliable my memory is.”

He paused for a moment, then added, “Also, I confirmed that the fog around the Old City District is connected to the fog at Wanxiang Mall. Even though we didn’t directly walk between them, I could… sense it. This ‘Otherworld’ might cover an extremely large area—possibly even the entirety of Boundary City.”

“Hmm,” Bai Li Qing responded briefly, sounding unsurprised, as if she’d long considered this possibility.

She fell silent for barely two seconds before speaking in a low voice, “Could you come over to the Special Affairs Bureau now? Bring along the ‘sample’ you took from the Artificial Saintess.”

Yu Sheng instinctively glanced up at the clock.

Almost midnight.

“Right now?”

“Sorry, but it’s urgent.”

“Oh, it’s fine,” Yu Sheng hurriedly reassured her, recognizing the sincerity in her voice. “I’ll head over immediately. Wait, are you still at the Bureau yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Wow, that’s rough…”

Bai Li Qing’s voice remained steady, indifferent: “It’s all right. I’m used to it.”

Yu Sheng: “…”

This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation

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