parentshiftbook Chapter 662 Another Dimension and the Treasure Vault
Chapter 662 Another Dimension and the Treasure Vault
Chapter 662 Another Dimension and the Treasure Vault
The gates of the Fog City Mental Hospital were opened before the psychic guild's convoy arrived.
Dirk's Shadow Serpent Thread slipped through the crack in the door and silently pried open the latch.
A dozen or so people jumped out of the car, their steps quick but not panicked, and quickly formed three attack teams in front of the gate.
The chairman stood at the front, with two headquarters supporters on his left and right, and Harding and Dirk on the rear flanks.
The other elite troops dispersed to their pre-assigned positions, bringing every exit of the building under surveillance.
However, when the group actually entered the lobby of the mental hospital, everyone was stunned for a moment.
There was no eerie or terrifying scene as I had imagined.
The lobby floor was covered with light-colored, non-slip tiles, which were very clean and reflected the soft white light from the overhead fluorescent lights.
The walls are a warm beige color, with several brightly colored landscape paintings hanging on them, depicting the harbor of the foggy city and a distant lighthouse.
Behind the reception desk, a slogan reads "Care for the soul, protect life," with rounded and cute lettering and a smiling cartoon heart drawn next to it.
Nurses would occasionally bring patients past here, and they would all look surprised when they saw them.
According to the elites of the Psychic Association, since this place has become the lair of a cult, even if it is not a scene of devastation with ruins everywhere, it should at least be a desolate place with no one around.
But what we see here—doesn't look like an invasion at all.
Some of the association's elite members even became agitated upon seeing this scene, suspecting it was a hoax staged by cultists and instinctively wanting to launch an attack.
Fortunately, the association president was knowledgeable and experienced, and waved his hand to stop them from taking further action.
The nurse on duty at the front desk saw a group of people in dark blue uniforms with serious expressions rush in, and the pens in her hands fell onto the table.
She opened her mouth as if to say something, but then noticed that the badge on the chest of the old man standing at the front was larger than anyone she had seen in the association's brochure.
"This—sir, may I ask who you are—" The nurse's voice trembled slightly, but she still tried her best to maintain professional politeness.
The president did not answer her question. Instead, he took out a document with the official seal of the Psychic Association headquarters from inside his uniform and placed it on the front desk. His movements were unhurried, as if he were handling a routine matter.
"Based on the emergency authorization from the association headquarters, this building needs to be evacuated immediately. All personnel, including patients, nurses, doctors, and support staff, must evacuate to the designated safe area within fifteen minutes."
The nurse glanced down at the document, her pupils contracting slightly.
Her hands began to tremble, but she forced herself to calm down within seconds, picked up the phone on the table, and pressed the button to broadcast the message to the entire hospital.
"Attention all personnel! Attention all personnel! All departments, please activate your emergency evacuation plans immediately. I repeat, all departments, please activate your emergency evacuation plans immediately. This is not a drill! This is not a drill!"
The broadcast echoed through the building, the tone steady, but the pace twice as fast as usual.
The elites began their operation the moment the broadcast started.
Harding led a team quickly through the corridors, checking on patients and medical staff in each room.
While using sharp eyes to identify any possible remnants of cult members, they guided them away through the nearest safe passage.
Dirk and another team headed straight for the underground floors, setting up Shadow Serpent threads at every stairwell and doorway to ensure that no suspicious individuals would escape during the evacuation.
The president and two headquarters support staff stood in the center of the hall, their eyes fixed on the staircase directly in front of them.
The stairs are very ordinary.
Marble steps, brass handrails, and walls painted the same beige as the lobby.
There are twelve steps from the first floor to the second floor—no, thirteen.
The president's gaze lingered for a moment on the thirteenth step, then swept over it again.
One, two, three — eleven, twelve, thirteen.
Level 13.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"A prophet," he muttered.
The prophet stood two steps behind him.
He was a man whose exact age was hard to discern. He was thin, pale-faced, and wore a gray trench coat without any markings. The collar was turned up, obscuring half of his face.
His eyes were an almost transparent gray, with no focus in the pupils, as if he were looking at some dimension of the world that no one else could see.
"Found it." The prophet's voice was soft, as if coming from a great distance. "The entrance to that alternate dimension is on this step. It's the extra step that the steps represent. It's called 'the Step,' and it's a highly dangerous anomaly."
Dirk hurried back from the direction of the basement, a thin layer of sweat on his forehead.
He paused for a moment when he heard the word "steps".
"Steps? You mean those—one extra step?"
The president nodded.
He had heard of this kind of strange phenomenon, an anomaly that existed on staircases.
This thing could appear on any staircase.
Originally there were only twelve steps, but it will quietly appear at the thirteenth step.
It blends perfectly with the surrounding steps; its material, color, and wear are exactly the same as the other steps, and you can't even tell the difference by touching it.
And this strange triggering mechanism is also quite unique.
Anyone who carefully counts the steps down from the first step will find that they have counted one step too many.
When you step onto this suddenly added level, you will lose your footing and fall directly from the real world into a supernatural space, from which you can never return.
Actually, triggering this strange phenomenon isn't that simple, and most people wouldn't have the time to count the number of steps.
However, some children like to do this and occasionally get caught.
Therefore, although this strange and destructive power is not strong, the impact it causes is significant.
The president turned around and glanced at the elites behind him.
"The Prophet and Hardin's third group will remain at the entrance. The rest of you will establish a blockade outside as planned. No one may enter without my order."
The president turned to the two support staff from headquarters.
The two support staff members, a man and a woman, did not speak, but simply nodded slightly.
The three of them turned their gaze back to the thirteenth step.
The president took the first step.
He walked slowly, not fast at all.
Then the second level, the third level—he was silently counting in his mind as he passed the twelfth level.
The thirteenth level was right beneath his feet.
"Thirteen----"
He stepped on it.
In that instant, the surface of the marble steps rippled like water.
The center of the steps looked as if it had been pressed into a pit by some force. The pit grew deeper and deeper until it eventually became a vertical, endless passage.
Two headquarters support staff followed behind the chairman, and the three of them stepped into the passage at the same time.
Their figures disappeared the moment they entered the passage, and the surface of the steps returned to its original state.
No one noticed that before the president took that step, an invisible figure was already close behind him.
Using the Tai Xu Step to conceal himself, his figure became so illusory that he left no shadow. His breathing, heartbeat, body temperature, and even fluctuations in consciousness were compressed to a minimum.
He followed behind the president, almost face to face.
But neither the president nor the two catastrophic psychics noticed his presence.
Jemin followed them into the passage.
After a brief feeling of falling, a hazy space unfolded before Jemin's eyes.
The interior of the space is neither completely dark nor bright, but rather has an ambiguous brightness, like that between dusk and dawn.
It was enough to make one see the surrounding environment clearly, but it was impossible to say where the light came from.
The ground beneath my feet was gray, and it felt like a substance somewhere between a solid and a liquid. Stepping on it would cause me to sink slightly, but it wouldn't leave any footprints.
There was no ceiling visible above, only endless gray stretching into the distance.
The space contains countless steps and rooms.
These steps are suspended in the air.
They are randomly distributed in various locations in space, some underfoot, some overhead, and some faintly visible in the distance.
Each step extends in a different direction, with no end in sight.
The room is also not working properly.
The walls are semi-transparent, allowing you to see the outline of the room, but not what's inside.
Some rooms are as big as a warehouse, while others are as small as a coffin. They float in the air like steps, arranged without any pattern.
As soon as everyone entered, they heard a faint murmur.
The sound was not loud, but it sounded like many people were talking in hushed tones in the distance.
He spoke very fast, but I couldn't understand a single word.
The sounds came from all directions at the same time.
Jemin frowned slightly.
He discovered that the murmur possessed a peculiar power, seemingly a kind of eerie attack.
If someone subconsciously tries to hear what it's saying clearly, the sound will quickly amplify in their ears.
From whispers to growls, from growls to screams, until the sound leaves people dazed, confused, and unable to make judgments.
An ordinary person would lose consciousness within seconds of such an attack.
But the three people walking in front of Jieming were not ordinary people.
The female support staff member on the left was the first to react, letting out a cold snort without hesitation.
The cold snort came from her nose, and a force was released at the same time.
It seems that her strangeness is also a sound-related kind of strangeness.
Wherever the sound waves passed, the murmurs seemed to be covered by an invisible hand, instantly falling silent.
The two strange forces of the same type annihilated and canceled each other out the moment they came into contact.
The female support staff did not stop and continued walking forward.
Taking advantage of this opening, the male support on the right used his strange senses to lock onto a certain direction.
His body leaned slightly forward, and then he shot out like an arrow released from a bow.
The president followed behind the male supporter, his steps steady and unhurried.
He didn't immediately unleash his strangeness.
His eeriness, like Harding's, is a storm-like eeriness, unsuitable for use in such a confined space.
The violent wind and rain could damage the fragile structure here and may also trigger other unknown dangers.
The three figures quickly disappeared into the interplay of light and shadow on the steps and in the room.
Jemin stood on the gray ground behind them, watching their figures gradually disappear into the distance.
Under the influence of the Tai Xu Step, his figure gradually emerged from the state of being "unnoticed," like a painting changing from transparent to opaque.
Standing on the gray ground, whispers lingered around Jemin, but dared not approach, as if aware of Jemin's terror.
Jemin first surveyed his surroundings, then activated his All-Seeing Eye.
Golden light shone deep within his pupils, and the surrounding gray space became transparent in his eyes.
Those strange structures floating in the air were peeled away layer by layer in the vision of the all-seeing eye.
Then he saw the eerie whispers hidden in every corner of this space.
It has no fixed shape, like constantly twisting smoke, curled up under the steps, in the mezzanine of the room, and in the cracks of the gray floor.
Judging from the distribution of power and the symbiotic relationship, this eerie murmur is not the master of this space, but rather a resident.
In the real world, it can blend into the rules, making it difficult to capture.
However, in this alternate space created by the "steps," the rules are incomplete; they cannot be integrated and can only hide in this semi-solid form.
Jemin's lips curled into a smile.
This thing is practically within easy reach.
He extended his right hand, fingers spread, palm facing down.
His spiritual energy surged from his body, rapidly weaving into a massive sealing array in the greyish-white air.
The magic circle was over twenty meters in diameter, covering a large area above Jemin's head.
Blue rune lines spread out in the void like a spider web, each line precisely locking onto a part of the eerie whispers in this space.
The eerie whisper sensed danger.
It darted out of its hiding place, trying to escape in a more distant direction.
However, it cannot integrate into the rules of the other dimension, so it can only run and hide like an ordinary animal.
The light from the sealing array suddenly contracted inward.
The blue runes, like a gathering fishing net, captured all the whispering, eerie power in this space.
The translucent, smoke-like body shrank continuously under the pressure of the runes, transforming from a column of smoke several centimeters long into a solid bead the size of a thumb, and then from a bead into a crystal the size of a grain of rice.
Jemin compressed the magic circle to its limit, and the final form of the crystal was a particle smaller than a sesame seed, emitting a pale gray light, which floated above his palm.
Jemin took out a glass test tube from his inner cave and put the pale gray particles into it.
After sealing the test tubes and putting them in his pocket, Jemin looked up, his gaze sweeping over the still-uncleaned steps and rooms deeper into the space.
The chairman and the two supporters have already gone far away.
Their spiritual imprints are still moving, penetrating deeper and deeper into the core area of this alternate dimension.
However, Jemin doesn't plan to go with them for the time being.
After all, his purpose in coming here was never to fight for the association, but rather to collect materials.
In this alternate dimension, besides the powerful beings who were attracted away by the three leaders, there are also a large number of strange creatures like the Whispering Ghost, which are not high-level but have special characteristics.
They are hidden in every corner, unable to escape this sealed space.
This was an open treasure trove for Jemin.
Jemin turned around and walked in the opposite direction from the chairman.
His steps were light, even leisurely.
The Eye of All Use remained on, and the Fate System operated at low power.
Whenever he walks through an area, his all-seeing eye automatically scans the surrounding space and marks all the hidden anomalies.
Then, the sealing array unfolded, contracted, and yielded its harvest.
One, two, three.
Danger level, danger level, hazard level.
As his harvest increased, Jemin's smile grew wider and wider.