Chapter 35: The Crouching Tigers and Hidden Dragons of the Second Battalion

Li Lin was jolted awake from the depths of his sleep by a shrill, incessant ringing of his phone, accompanied by a sudden, piercing warning from his own spiritual intuition.

As a top-performing agent of the Special Services Bureau, he realized instantly that something was amiss. He snapped into full awareness, launching himself from the bed of his temporary rental unit to the floor. He grabbed the phone from the nightstand while sprinting toward the window that faced the street.

"This is Li Lin," he said rapidly as he answered, simultaneously sitting before the window and pointing a device equipped with complex lens arrays toward the street below. "What’s happening?"

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

While keeping his eyes on the light and shadows refracted through the lens array, Li Lin spared a glance at the laptop monitoring data nearby. He quickly scanned the logs and spoke fast: "Monitoring data is perfectly normal. There was only a very minor energy fluctuation at one o’clock in the morning—just a normal, periodic 'surge' of the Boundary Zone..."

"...Xu Jiali has already departed and should be arriving at your location shortly," Song Cheng said in a low voice. "Keep the block under surveillance, but even if you observe something, do not leave your post. Report it immediately—remember, until Xu Jiali is in position, you are absolutely forbidden from leaving the safehouse alone!"

"Huh? Oh, right, understood!" Li Lin paused, quickly agreeing, then couldn't help but ask, "What exactly is going on?"

"...The Boundary Zone is experiencing large-scale space-time displacement and resetting of unknown cause, occurring every five to ten minutes."

Ignoring Li Lin’s gasp of surprise, Song Cheng hung up the phone. He took a deep breath and looked up at the massive screen at the far end of the command hall.

The screen displayed a floor map of the entire "Boundary City." Beyond the map, a three-dimensional structure built from countless curves and symbols was visible, along with a deluge of rapidly refreshing monitoring data and remote surveillance signals.

The vast command hall was brightly lit. Agents in black uniforms stood at various terminals, eyes fixed on their screens. From time to time, others entered or exited through side doors, relaying reports from other departments or delivering more bad news.

"There have been a few minor space-time displacement phenomena over the last two days, but never on this scale or with such frequency," a female agent in a black professional suit whispered behind Song Cheng. "The space-time structure of the Boundary Zone is unique, and things like this have happened before, which is why the initial alert level was low..."

"It looks more like a probe before some kind of large-scale operation," another voice chimed in from the side. "Now 'they' have formally 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. Still unable to confirm precise coordinates... Attempting to trace the source!"

Song Cheng’s brows knit tightly. He said nothing, simply counting numbers in his mind.

A dozen seconds later, he heard the follow-up report:

"Rift closed! Trace failed! Space-time structure restored!"

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

The intervals were not particularly stable, but generally within ten minutes. Each duration was also not perfectly precise, but never exceeded thirty seconds. It felt artificial, but... what was the point of this? And more importantly... who could pull off such an outrageous feat?!

"Rift generation detected! Pointing toward White Dragon-4c. Unable to confirm precise coordinates. Attempting to trace the source..."

"Rift closed! Trace failed..."

Song Cheng’s brow furrowed deeper. Just then, a faint buzzing sound interrupted his thoughts, and a moment later, a screen beside him lit up.

A woman who appeared to be under thirty, with dignified features and a cold temperament, appeared on the screen.

She wore a white suit, her long, greyish-white hair tied in a loose ponytail at the nape of her neck. Her eyes were a peculiar, pale grey, with extremely light pupils, giving her an overall impression of... a lack of color.

The moment he saw her, Song Cheng’s posture visibly stiffened, and a somewhat awkward, bitter smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

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

"What is the situation now?" the woman—the Director—interrupted, her voice cold and calm.

"Rifts are still constantly generating and disappearing. We still cannot trace the source, but for now, we can conclude that the phenomenon is harmless to the Boundary Zone itself—the space-time structure has not been damaged."

"Not damaged?"

"Yes. Although those rifts are temporarily classified as 'space-time displacements,' they only resemble them on the surface. What exactly those things are... it's hard to say," Song Cheng said with a wry smile. "Every time they generate, it doesn't feel like a true tearing of space-time, but rather..."

He struggled for a moment, recalling the description given by the technical experts, before continuing: "It feels as if that was the original structure of space-time—the moment a rift generates, it’s as if a stable passage to the distance had existed there all along. And when it disappears, it’s as if it had never appeared at all. No shockwaves, no catastrophic collapse, and so far, we haven't received a single report of casualties."

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

Song Cheng didn't speak either, waiting patiently.

"Has there been any change at that 'special location' you had under surveillance?"

"No, it is currently the most 'peaceful' place in the entire Boundary City—peaceful like a black hole," Song Cheng sighed. "That is precisely what is most abnormal. Everyone knows there must be a problem there, but the biggest problem is that we can't see any problem at all. I have already sent the second team's best deep-divers there, and I’ve arranged for two additional monitoring groups to approach that street from different angles..."

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

"...It’s hard to say," Song Cheng thought for a moment before speaking cautiously. "At first, I thought it was some kind of attack, but now it seems like they are just constantly opening and closing one rift after another. Almost a whole night has passed, and they haven't disturbed anyone..."

"Could it be a new 'Dark Angel' phenomenon?"

"I don't think so. When Dark Angels appear, it is always accompanied by large-scale extra-dimensional instability and widespread damage to the current world. It wouldn't be this 'harmless'," Song Cheng immediately shook his head. "Besides, we haven't received any reports about those angel cultists lately. If a new Dark Angel had truly appeared, those cultists wouldn't be this quiet."

"If it’s not a Dark Angel, then that’s a relief."

"Indeed, as long as it's not a Dark Angel, it's fine," Song Cheng sighed. "But then again, if this is 'human' work, then... what kind of 'person' would it be? Why would they go to such lengths to create such a stir..."

The second half of his sentence was a mumble to himself. The grey-haired woman on the screen pondered for a few seconds before breaking the silence—

"The world is vast, and there are still many races and ancient entities we have yet to encounter," she said softly. Despite her young appearance, her words inadvertently carried a sense of weariness. "And our universe is still young; many 'theorems' and 'laws' have yet to be formed... Learn to adapt, Song. Our job has never been about dealing with the 'known'."

"...I understand."

The grey-haired woman nodded. Then, as if sensing something, she suddenly looked toward a certain direction—her pale, colorless eyes froze for an instant, and then she quietly broke the silence: "It has calmed down."

Song Cheng looked up at the hall.

There were no new reports of rift generation.

...

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

A giant nearly two meters tall ducked his head to squeeze into the rental unit, dragging a massive black trunk behind him that perfectly matched his towering stature.

"Your place is really cramped," the giant said, looking back at Li Lin who was standing by the door. "Even tighter than the landing pod I rode the day before yesterday."

Li Lin rolled his eyes: "Still more spacious than that piece-of-junk vehicle of yours—you were able to drive it all the way from the Bureau, so don't complain about my place."

The giant chuckled, pushing his heavy trunk to the wall before collapsing onto the sofa in the living room, letting out a long sigh of satisfaction.

"Fine, fine, at least it's a place fit for humans—this sofa is much more comfortable than the hard rocks and scorching sand of Aimein-IX."

Li Lin looked at the giant before him with a toothache.

Mr. Xu Jiali—the most excellent and senior deep-diver of the Special Services Bureau’s Second Action Team.

He found it very difficult to deal with this "tough guy."

The primary reason for his discomfort was that on his first day in the team, after seeing the name "Xu Jiali" on the personnel roster, Li Lin had gone around asking about the person. Then, at the welcome party, a six-foot-six giant walked over, slapped Li Lin on the shoulder, and introduced himself as Xu Jiali. The introduction was so deafening that even now, Li Lin would still flinch whenever he saw the man.

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

How did that saying go? The Second Action Team of the Special Services Bureau... it really is a place where hidden dragons and crouching tigers reside...