Regardless of whether he was comfortable with him or not, Li Lin had to admit that Xu Jiali was indeed the best deep diver he had ever seen—at this time, having a very capable guy come to support him at least showed that the bureau was still relatively considerate of him as a newcomer.
The premise was that he had to be able to tolerate this strong man's big mouth and bragging personality, especially after he came back from every mission.
"Let me tell you, I really ran into something strange on this mission," the strong man on the sofa took a bottle of water from the coffee table next to him and said casually as he unscrewed it. "I caught that angel cultist who had infiltrated Amein. I finally cornered him in the no-man's land, but just as I was fighting, I looked up, and guess what?"
Li Lin rolled his eyes. "You big mouth, can you talk about this outside?"
"I can. I've reported it to the bureau, and this part of the intelligence has been assessed as being disclosable to you," Xu Jiali waved his hand and continued talking regardless of whether Li Lin wanted to listen or not. "I looked up, and holy crap! There was a person standing right there! Do you know what he looked like? He was wearing a shirt and pants, standing in the toxic hot wind of Amein-IX. Oh, and there was a door frame next to him. I was so shocked at that moment—I was about to kill that angel cultist in the next second, but I was so shocked that I let him catch his breath. But fortunately, my skills were superior in the end…"
Li Lin waved his hand impatiently, and while walking to his monitoring equipment in front of the window, he said casually, "Alright, alright, every story ends with you being superior in skills. Can't you think of a more novel way to turn things around?"
"But I am indeed superior in skills," the strong man stared and watched Li Lin's actions. "Hey, wait, aren't you surprised? I saw a person in the toxic hot wind of Amein-IX! He wasn't even wearing power armor! The captain isn't that fierce!"
"Last time you also saw a person who suddenly appeared in the acid rain of Tata-V and wasn't wearing protective clothing—it was a professor from the 'Academy' who came out to collect materials," Li Lin said without turning his head. "There is no shortage of strange guys in this world, not to mention that you will have all kinds of illusions after deep diving too many times. I've heard you tell similar horror stories eight hundred times. Now I don't even believe a single punctuation mark. When you're in a shuttle on the starport orbit and see a person standing outside the porthole flying with you, then you can come and tell me. At least it sounds a bit innovative."
"I've seen it," the strong man grinned and sat on Li Lin's bed. "It was a Daoist priest from Qianfeng Spirit Mountain. Damn, I was about to accelerate, and he even held a mirror and pointed it at my monitor, saying he wanted to overtake me… overtake my ass. If he's so capable, he can enter a warp with his physical body…"
Li Lin's hands finally couldn't help but stop. He turned his head and looked at Xu (the strong) Jia (man) Li sitting next to him. After a long time, he sighed, "Your daily life when you're on special field missions is really colorful."
"Why don't you get a deep diving license too? Maybe you can go on a special field mission with me next time," the strong man instigated. "What's so good about being in the borderland? It's dangerous, troublesome, and you're responsible for everything you do."
Li Lin thought for a moment and shook his head. "There's always a shortage of manpower here in the borderland. Someone has to guard this biggest 'hub.' And seriously, I don't think wearing power armor to fight angel cultists on a wasteland planet is any safer than staying in the borderland to deal with Otherworlds. Besides… don't you still have to deal with 'Otherworlds' when you're on special field missions?"
"That's different. The density of Otherworlds outside is not so high. It's not like the borderland, where seven out of twenty bus stops are Otherworlds…"
Li Lin looked back at Xu Jiali and wanted to say that 99.99% of people could only see the thirteen normal bus stops under normal circumstances. But when he thought that this strong man's file said that he had mistakenly entered an Otherworld "platform" at the age of twelve and had survived alone on the "platform" for a full six years, and then became a deep diver after completing psychological correction because he couldn't escape the pursuit of the Otherworld, he finally didn't say the words in his heart.
There were two types of front-line combat personnel in the Special Operations Bureau. One was those who came up through the normal training and assessment process, and the other was those who were fished out of Otherworlds.
Don't show off your profound knowledge in front of people who have experienced trauma—even if they don't care about it at all.
Li Lin lowered his head and focused on checking the various parameters recorded by the equipment.
The strong man on the side seemed a little bored. He was a thorough combatant, and he was here mainly as a supplement to the combat force. He was not very interested in "staking out" and other work.
"The bureau is in a mess now," he said suddenly after being bored for a while. "The captains of several action brigades have been called up to work overtime. I heard that even the director has gone."
"I know," Li Lin said without looking up. "This is the borderland, after all."
"Is this kind of thing common in the borderland?" the strong man scratched his hair. "Have there been similar 'abnormal phenomena' before? I've been on special field missions all year round, so I don't know much…"
"If you're talking about the spatial dislocation phenomenon tonight, it has never happened before. But if you're talking about 'abnormal phenomena' themselves, then the borderland has never been short of them. This is… the borderland, after all."
"Alright, the charming borderland. I love this place to death," the strong man stretched his arms and shoulders, lay back on Li Lin's bed, and the heavy body made the poor single bed creak. "Those who want to destroy this world and those who want to protect this world both love this place to death—fortunately, I don't have to be on duty at the bureau. I heard that the captain and the others work overtime every day."
Li Lin didn't answer him, just focused on the task of monitoring and recording.
And just then, the sudden ringing of his phone broke the silence in the room.
Li Lin glanced at the phone screen and immediately picked it up to answer, "This is Li Lin… yes, huh? Ah, okay, I understand."
The strong man sat up from the bed and looked at Li Lin's different expression with curiosity. "What's the matter?"
Li Lin's expression was strange. He looked up at the quiet night sky outside the window.
"The bureau just called. The rift phenomenon… has stopped."
The strong man was stunned when he heard this.
"It stopped?" he stared. "It just stopped? No follow-up attack, no angel cultists or anything? Not even an Otherworld appeared?"
"No, it just stopped. Now all the monitoring nodes in the entire borderland are quiet."
"Then didn't I just work a night shift for nothing?"
"It's not for nothing—and you have to continue to work. The people at the bureau haven't rested either," Li Lin shook his phone. "Everyone will continue to maintain surveillance to see if the force that created the rift phenomenon has any follow-up actions. You go to sleep in the next room first. I'll call you up to replace me in six hours."
"Okay," the strong man immediately got up. This time, he didn't say a word of nonsense. "Wake me up directly if anything happens."
Li Lin nodded, and his gaze turned to the night sky outside the window again.
"Another sleepless night…" he muttered softly.
…
Yu Sheng slept very soundly in the latter half of the night.
After successfully replicating a "door" leading to a distant time and space, he firmly remembered that feeling, and knew how to control the so-called "spiritual guidance," how to give it a specific "frequency" when opening the door, so that the door would stably lead to the designated location.
He felt that most things in this world could be attributed to "the first time is strange, the second time is familiar."
And after that, he had been practicing and strengthening the process of opening the door, successfully replicating all kinds of passages until he was exhausted.
Sleep after exhaustion was always particularly sound. He felt that he had not slept so soundly for many years.
But he was a little regretful. In this good night's sleep, he did not dream of that fox—he didn't even dream.
It seemed that the dream with Hu Li was not stably generated.
This made Yu Sheng feel a little uneasy and a little urgent in his heart.
After waking up in the morning, he told Irene the situation.
"It's okay, don't think too much. That fox has been living in the Otherworld for so many years, so she won't be in trouble in just one or two days," this time, Irene didn't spew trash talk, but instead seriously comforted Yu Sheng. "Dreams are inherently unstable. Maybe you'll see her again in the next dream?"
"I hope so," Yu Sheng said casually, picking up a piece of meat from the table and putting it in his bowl.
This was still the meat cut from that "local specialty." He had eaten it for three consecutive meals, and he hadn't finished it yet, nor was he tired of it.
It was just that he could no longer feel any physical enhancement from this "eating." It seemed that the effect of this thing on him had reached its limit.
But in any case, its taste was still good.
"What are your plans after eating?" Irene's voice came from the side. "Continue to practice 'opening the door'? Or try to replicate the passage leading to the 'valley'?"
"I'll go out and buy something first. After I come back, I'll start trying to build a path to the valley. This may take a long time to try. I don't remember the 'feeling' at that time very well," Yu Sheng said, suddenly noticing the hesitant expression on Irene's face. "Hmm? Do you have any ideas?"
Irene stared at him. The little doll seemed to be hesitating. After a few seconds, she finally said, "…First, spare half a day for me."
Yu Sheng was stunned. He rarely saw such a solemn look on this doll's face.
"Spare half a day for you… what for?"
"Make a body for me," Irene said calmly and firmly.