Dimensional Hotel

"The quality is insufficient."

Yu Sheng flipped open the old book on the shelf and saw only these large words on the yellowed pages.

He was stunned for a moment, then instinctively turned to the next page, only to see the same words again: The quality is insufficient.

After a slight hesitation, he continued flipping forward, finally confirming that every page of this book contained only the same repetitive content, with that phrase appearing repeatedly—

The quality is insufficient, the quality is insufficient, the quality is insufficient...

The dark, rigid fonts seemed as if they were carved onto the paper with a knife, carrying some kind of unsettling force. Perhaps it was an illusion, but Yu Sheng even felt a certain obsessive and desperate tone emanating from the pages, something... that permeated across the book, even across this old bookstore, through the entire dark alley to seep into him, bringing despair and suffocation.

Little Red Riding Hood immediately noticed the strange expression on Yu Sheng's face. After administering herself a dose of inhibitor, she leaned over cautiously and took a look at the book's contents, revealing the same bewildered expression as Yu Sheng.

"...What does this mean?" the young girl muttered to herself.

"You don't know either?" Yu Sheng looked at Little Red Riding Hood in surprise, raising the old book in his hand. "Has this ever happened before?"

"I've never seen it, and the publicly shared data from other investigators also didn't mention that books in the old bookstore would show this phrase, plus it doesn't match the 'format'," Little Red Riding Hood said immediately, "Normally, the contents of these books have context, with a fabricated source of information, and the recorded content is specific events—not... so inexplicable."

She hesitated for a few seconds when saying the last sentence, ultimately only able to use "inexplicable" to describe the contents of the book in Yu Sheng's hands.

Yu Sheng furrowed his brow, and after a brief thought, he directly raised his hand to draw another book from the shelf, quickly flipping it open.

The same words eagerly squeezed into his view—the quality is insufficient.

Yu Sheng casually tossed this book onto the counter and then pulled several more books from the shelf to verify, only to find that every old book had identical contents regardless of its appearance!

The yellowed pages merely repeated the phrase "the quality is insufficient" over and over in every book! On every page!

"Something's wrong; changes have indeed occurred in the dark alley, and it doesn't match the records," Little Red Riding Hood's tone became serious, "But why did these changes suddenly happen when it was once just an ordinary exotic realm? The moment we arrived today..."

Yu Sheng had already cautiously halted further attempts to take books from the shelf. While remaining vigilant for any subtle movements around him, he placed the last old book back in its place as several bold thoughts quickly surfaced: "Is it our arrival that triggered these changes? Or because we discovered that post from three years ago? Or perhaps..."

Little Red Riding Hood turned: "Or because what?"

"Or because... Marin found the records left by Erin years ago in the deep layer of the garden network?" Yu Sheng said slowly, his expression growing more serious. The accumulated knowledge and experience from repeatedly dealing with Dark Angels now seemed to come alive in his mind, reminding him of Hu Li's past theory about "everything being information," "I feel like this information resonates, spontaneously gathering."

Mid-sentence, he suddenly paused, furrowing his brow, remembering a conversation he recently had with Hu Li about the "information" related to the Omen Goddess, noting how it seemed alive, even actively approaching those connected to Erin.

The shadows beyond the curtain pursued those attempting to seek the truth or accidentally touched upon it.

Yu Sheng raised his head, looking around the old bookstore, at those towering shelves, the mottled, dim ceiling, and the "rotting knowledge" continually seeping from the melting books.

In his eyes, everything here suddenly seemed to have a feeling of "being alive," as if transforming into a massive creature's infiltrating limb, with a certain purpose, a certain intention, shaking its tendrils in an attempt to communicate with him.

"The Wandering Mage" summoned a magic light ball and, along with the other three members of the adventurer team, thoroughly checked every corner of the old bookstore. These summoned creatures, whose behavior and movements often appeared awkward, seemed particularly professional and reliable while completing their tasks "within the set range."

"The Rogue" suddenly seemed to discover something; he tapped the wall beside the bookshelf with the hilt of his short sword, reporting to the King: "Your Majesty, there's something unusual here."

The King immediately jumped onto his head, looking at the area where the bookshelf met the wall.

Some lines, difficult to notice without careful observation, faintly seeped from the plastering—small, gray-black patterns initially resembled ordinary mold spots, but upon closer examination revealed their complexity and patterns, which were incompatible with the style of the old bookstore itself.

"...I guess the public records about the 'dark alley' certainly don't mention these things," Yu Sheng muttered.

"It felt like it was seeping in from outside," Little Red Riding Hood shared her first impression of the patterns she saw, "Some sort of... intrusion?"

Yu Sheng stared at the wall, "What could be outside this wall? Has anyone tried 'breaking through' these structures in the Dark Alley?"

Little Red Riding Hood and the King exchanged glances.

"It seems no one has done that before, but theoretically, the 'boundary' of the Dark Alley is the buildings on both sides, nothing would be beyond the boundary — if you climb onto the roof, you can see that there's only a gray haze outside; jumping out would only bring you back to the same place," the King explained, then paused and added, "I've climbed up there before."

When Cat Cat says this, it sounds quite authoritative.

But Yu Sheng was still eager to give it a try.

"How about trying to dig up this wall?" He began urging his teammates, "Even a small hole will do... to have a look at where these patterns are seeping in from. If it's tricky, I can call Luna over."

As soon as he started to urge, the King leaped onto the "Young Swordsman's" idea: "Alright, make a hole."

Cat Cat's curiosity is seven times that of humans — when spurred by the Idea King of the Boundary Land, it doubles again.

Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth as if wanting to caution the two to be more careful, but thinking about the King's almost omnipotent abilities and Yu Sheng's strong execution power (mainly the latter), she swallowed her words that were already at her throat, knowing even if she stopped the King, Yu Sheng would surely summon Luna to poke through that wall. So she had no choice but to stand aside, watching intently as the Idea King led Cat Cat in their escapade.

The Young Swordsman raised his Village Sword, without hesitation, thrusting it towards the wall.

Sparks flew.

A bright light burst forth between the seemingly old and fragile concrete wall and the physically substantial long sword, accompanied by the sound of metal clashing.

Yu Sheng saw this scene, opening his mouth, contemplating whether to call Luna over, but before he did, he saw the village girl priest of the adventurer team step forward a bit and pat the Young Swordsman's shoulder.

Then the team's Wandering Mage and the Stealthy One also stepped up, clenched fists to cheer the Swordsman.

Yu Sheng wasn't quite sure what was going on, but he faintly heard them mumbling about friendship, journey, bonds, and stuff like that. The next second, a glow emanated from the young man's body; then the Village Sword also began to glow, resembling a Light Saber. The Young Swordsman then shouted, "For everyone in the village" — not knowing where the village he mentioned was — followed by a "whump," and the glowing Village Sword pierced through the old bookstore's wall as easily as a hot knife through butter.

Yu Sheng was astounded, "… the power of friendship and bonds!"

And then the Light Saber of friendship and bonds began to fly up and down, dismantling the load-bearing wall.

Yu Sheng realized it was the bookstore's "load-bearing wall" only when the entire structure began to shake and tremble violently.

It might even be this space's "load-bearing wall."

A series of cracking sounds came from deep within the wall; the ground underfoot started to shake continuously, the tall bookshelves on both sides creaked under the strain, with old books marked "lacking quality" cascading like torrents from the shelves, pages flew wildly, the words scattered in terror all over the ground, crawling frantically along the floor and walls, black bold letters climbed everywhere, some even crawled to the bookstore's doorway, scrambling to escape into the street outside, melting into the small puddles at the entrance, turning into smudges that spread over the stone pavement.

"I should have stopped you two—" Little Red Riding Hood exclaimed, grabbing the King's scruff and running outside, while shouting back at Yu Sheng, "Don't just stand there! The reality of this layer is collapsing!"

The King's adventurer team also quickly ran out, the young swordsman holding the Village Sword was shouting hot-bloodedly about "dreams", "everyone's future", and sentences like that, which ended with the elder sister Wandering Mage throwing a fireball at his head.

Yu Sheng too began to move towards the door, but he couldn't help but turn back, looking at the big hole just opened by the Swordsman.

The bookshelves on both sides coughed violently, dusty old books peeled off the shelves like flaking flesh scales, continuing to fall, rotting knowledge formed into a flowing mini waterfall, scouring the now pitted floor, letters falling from the books scrambled for higher ground, the walls crowded with "lacking quality" inscriptions, with text pushing and shoving among themselves, shaking vigorously, emitting numerous small, headache-inducing screeches.

And across that big hole was a gray murky mist, faintly many pitch-black lines extended from an unknown place, intertwining at the "Dark Alley's" boundary.

However, just as Yu Sheng was about to approach for a closer look, the big hole abruptly vanished, as if it had never appeared.