Alien Hotel.

Chapter 493 First Exploration of the Dark Alley
In the eastern part of Jiecheng, in Qinghe District, next to the entrance of an unremarkable old street.

Little Red Riding Hood emerged from the shadows of a nearby building and saw Yu Sheng waiting at the intersection.

"Are you all alone today?" The girl looked around and asked with some surprise when she found that Yu Sheng was the only one standing at the intersection.

“They stayed behind to watch the house—after all, they were just here to check on this ‘dark alley’ today, so I can come alone,” Yu Sheng said casually. “Besides, if there’s an emergency, I can just open the door and call them over anytime.”

He paused, then looked at Little Red Riding Hood: "How's it going on your end? Have you gotten in touch with the person who posted the message?"

“We’ve found out that the person in question is an independent investigator named ‘Sun Chen,’ who doesn’t belong to any spirit detective organization and lives in the North Stone Gate District, but we haven’t been able to contact him yet,” Little Red Riding Hood said. “However, we should have results soon—it won’t affect our operation today anyway.”

Yu Sheng nodded.

Little Red Riding Hood has been investigating the person who posted on the border communications three years ago about witnessing a strange tower. The progress is going smoothly, but even so, Yu Sheng is unwilling to just wait at home. So he decided to come to Qinghe District in Dongcheng today to investigate the details of the "dark alley" mentioned in the post. For this, he also called on the experienced Little Red Riding Hood. After all, exploring other worlds is different from fighting Dark Angels. The latter can usually be done by brute force (dragging the corpse over counts), but the former is a delicate task that requires a lot of experience and skill.

The sky was gradually darkening, and dusk was fast approaching.

Yu Sheng looked up at the sky, recalling the publicly available information he had gathered before his departure—

The "Dark Alley" is a typical time-limited type of alien world, and in terms of scale it can be classified as a "country" - although it is just an infinitely repeating alley, it meets the characteristic of "a civilized settlement containing multiple orderly buildings" - the entrance of the Dark Alley is located between two buildings near the entrance of the old street in Qinghe District, and it is open at dusk every day.

This "dusk period" is not a precise time, but rather the entrance to the otherworld will be activated whenever the sky meets the "dusk" condition. As the sky gets darker, the activity level and "pass probability" of the entrance will also increase, reaching their peak when the sky is darkest. The peak will last for several minutes to more than ten minutes, and then suddenly close when night falls.

According to the information, the darker the sky, the better the "luck" will be after entering the dark alley, and the easier it will be to judge the "safe exit" at the crossroads at the end of the alley. However, if the sky is too dark, the dark alley may generate physical "cats" in advance, which will increase the danger of activities in the alien world. The trade-offs need to be carefully judged.

Yu Sheng himself didn't have any criteria for judgment; he just wanted to get back before his family's bunch of rascals demolished the house.

"Shall we go in now?" He turned to the girl beside him, seeking the expert's opinion.

"Wait a minute, I've called a helper this time," Little Red Riding Hood said, swiping on her phone. "They'll be here soon."

"A helper?" Yu Sheng was taken aback, and just as he was about to ask, a swift shadow swept across the rooftop at the edge of his field of vision and landed lightly on the ground not far away.

It's a tabby cat.

The kitten swaggered up to Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood, looked around to make sure no one was nearby, then scratched its neck with its paw and complained in a deep, steady voice like a documentary narrator: "It took a little longer to process the last case—the client provided too many cat notes."

"The 'helper' you mentioned is actually the King?" Yu Sheng looked at Little Red Riding Hood in surprise, then quickly realized, "Uh, to deal with the 'cat' in the alley?"

“That’s right,” Little Red Riding Hood said with a smug look. “Normally, spirit detectives have to find a cat food can before they can explore the ‘dark alley’, but we ‘Fairy Tale’ are no ordinary organization. The King is very good at dealing with the ‘dark alley’.”

“The entities in the ‘dark alley’—the cats—possess the characteristics of living beings,” the king shook his head, a human-like smug expression appearing on his cat-like face. “Entities that possess both living and animal characteristics will, to some extent, imitate the habits of their ‘prototypes.’ This is why cat food generated in the dark alley can be used to bribe those entity cats—since it can be bribed, it can also be used to communicate and intimidate to some extent.”

Yu Sheng: "...This works?!"

"Humans, exploring other realms requires flexibility," the tabby cat said smugly, then strode towards the old street. "You're an expert at fighting 'angels,' but you have a lot to learn about spirit detective work..."

Yu Sheng's eyes twitched slightly at the sight of the tabby cat's arrogant demeanor, but he quickly shook his head in relief—that's just how cats are.

He followed behind the King and Little Red Riding Hood.

There were quite a few pedestrians near the entrance of the old street, but after walking a short distance in, the number of pedestrians in a certain direction became noticeably sparse. Yu Sheng could clearly feel that the flow of people in front of him was being "guided" by an invisible force, bypassing several old buildings.

After walking a little further, he unsurprisingly saw the "node" device set up by the Secret Service—a high-tech obelisk with a style that was obviously different from the surroundings, standing out abruptly in an open space, and everyone around him subconsciously ignored the entire area.

Little Red Riding Hood went up to the node device with practiced ease and completed the entrance registration. The King then jumped onto the obelisk and pressed his paw on it.

The obelisk then emitted a confirmation sound. Yu Sheng was beyond words; after all, it was such a blessed and beautiful place…

Led by Little Red Riding Hood, he arrived at the entrance to the "dark alley".

Between two old, dilapidated two-story buildings, there is a narrow space that can only accommodate two people side by side. It is only a few meters deep, and at the end is a cement wall covered with moss. Some graffiti that seems to have seeped into the cement covers the wall. The messy and dirty lines seem to be outlining twisted and crooked shops, as well as abstract and ferocious cats.

Among the graffiti, a line of words emitting a faint glow stood out:

"Remember the rules of safe exploration and avoid reckless acts that result in injury or death – Secret Service announcement."

It looks very professional.

“When you get close to that wall, stay still for at least fifteen seconds,” Little Red Riding Hood reminded him. “When you feel the wind blowing from the concrete wall, don’t turn around, just back away from here…”

Following Little Red Riding Hood's instructions, Yu Sheng, the two of them, and the cat arrived at the wall. Then, as the wind blew, they all retreated, maintaining their positions facing the wall until they reached the outside.

The wall suddenly magnified in Yu Sheng's eyes, as if it had been chasing after him and "squeezed" out from between the two buildings, then expanded to both sides until it blocked his entire field of vision.

"We've entered the 'dark alley'."

Little Red Riding Hood's voice came from the side.

Yu Sheng turned his head.

The old street is gone. The once spacious street and the small square at the street entrance have been turned into a narrow alley only four or five meters wide. On both sides of the alley are tightly closed doors, and some doors have old signs that look very old, with rough printing and faded colors. The words on the signs are blurred and illuminated by dim lights from who knows where, making them look even more... strange and gloomy.

The sky was overcast, and the twilight seemed to be frozen above the two rows of old houses. A damp and chilly atmosphere permeated the alley. The ground paved with variegated bricks was wet, and shallow puddles could be seen everywhere, reflecting the crooked shapes of the houses on both sides.

A sense of alienation, different from the real world, spread from the bottom of his heart. Yu Sheng took a deep breath in the oppressive, dimly lit alley and shook his head, muttering, "Staying in this place for too long can easily cause rheumatism."

“That’s very healthy,” Little Red Riding Hood glanced at him. “Most people here don’t live long enough to get rheumatism.”

While the two were talking, the king looked around at the situation in the dark alley, then jumped to a relatively dry spot and swung his paw.

A four-person adventurer party emerged from thin air, dressed in costumes that perfectly fit the stereotypes of their respective professions. This time, the group consisted of a young swordsman from the countryside (wielding the best sword in the village), a village girl priestess, a wandering mage older sister who seemed to carry many stories, and a stealthy assassin completely shrouded in a black cloak.

Incidentally, the young swordsman wielding the village sword and the village priestess in white robes carrying a wooden stick are childhood sweethearts. After their adventure, they were supposed to return to the village to get married—but because the cat is so willful, their adventure has never ended and continues to this day.

The "King" nimbly leaped onto the wandering mage and sat on his shoulder.

Now, the wandering monk not only carries many stories on his back, but also the burden of his cat.

“Let’s not rush to the crossroads,” Little Red Riding Hood said. “Let’s check the entire ‘alley’ first, making sure there are any changes that are different from what’s in the data, such as other exits. If we don’t find anything, we’ll deliberately choose a ‘dangerous path’ at the crossroads and enter the next loop of the alley. According to that post, the person entered the tower space while being chased by a ‘cat.’ Let’s try to reconstruct that process as much as possible…”

“I have a question,” Yu Sheng raised his hand, “Aren’t intersections random? What if you accidentally enter an emergency exit? How can you be sure you’ll enter a dangerous path?”

“The wolf can make a rough judgment,” Little Red Riding Hood said, stroking the air with her hand. A huge shadow wolf slowly materialized beneath her hand. “If the wolf is also unsure, then let the magician summoned by the king cast a great prophecy spell. The accuracy rate is over 90%. In short, try to explore using methods that conform to the rules of the alleyways. Unless there are special circumstances, try not to use ‘doors’ to traverse the alleyways between different levels. We need to recreate the ‘process’ mentioned in that post as much as possible to increase the probability of the tower space appearing.”

Just as Yu Sheng was about to say that he had another new idea, he suddenly felt embarrassed when he heard Little Red Riding Hood's final reminder. He smiled awkwardly and said, "I didn't say I was going to open the door."

"Do I need to tell you?" The girl put her hands on her hips. "You create a portal for every five steps or more. Last time I heard from Eileen that you opened a door between your bedroom and living room to watch TV, and you even used the portal to steal her remote control..."

Yu Sheng: "Cough cough..."

(End of this chapter)