Chapter 1 The Mysterious Space

According to Hesperiana, the "mysterious space" was discovered after a small collapse at the quarry. As a region producing excellent building stone, this mountainous area had been mined by the Hesperiana family for over half a century. The various experts hired by the family had long conducted comprehensive exploration and mapping of the entire production area (mainly because Hesperiana had always been obsessed with digging up treasures from underground). So, in theory, if there were any mine shafts or natural caves underground, they should have been discovered long ago. However, after the recent small collapse, a cavern that shouldn't have existed appeared in the corner of the quarry.

The cavern was extremely deep, leading to a vast space at the end. If this thing had really been hidden underground from the beginning, Hesperiana would definitely strangle every geologist she'd ever hired—at least, she'd intend to in her mind.

The cave was first discovered by two human workers. Under the foreman's orders, they went to inspect the equipment damage and rock formation cracking after the collapse. A newly emerged rock wall crack, obviously caused by the collapse, aroused the curiosity of these two daredevils. No one could say for sure how they thought of drilling in to take a look instead of going back to report. Perhaps the few bags of marijuana found in their dormitory could explain it—in short, the two workers, with their adventurous spirits high, drilled into the rock wall crack and found a wide-open cave inside.

The exit at the end of the cave led to an ancient city.

They may have seen something else in that cave, or the ancient city may have contained toxic gases or radioactive energy fields left over from the mythical era. Anyway, the two workers disappeared for a whole day and night, and they didn't climb back to the residential area until dusk the next day. One of them had completely gone mad, and the other was somewhere between madness and semi-madness, babbling nonsense.

The supervisors from the Hesperiana family stationed in the area didn't receive the news until a day later, by which time rumors had spread throughout the quarry. The unfortunate foreman was immediately dismissed for failing to report the personnel disappearance within twenty-four hours. Then, the supervisor made contact with the two surviving workers. Fifteen minutes after that contact, the events that had transpired were sent to Hesperiana's desk.

Subsequently, vampires from the upper echelons of the family directly sealed off the entire quarry.

Before entering the cave, Hao Ren and his party first met with several parties involved in the incident under the leadership of Hesperiana—including humans and non-humans. The meeting took place in the mining area office. There were five people in front of Hao Ren. Two of them were locals, stocky, dark-skinned, and with thick hair, but with dull expressions and nonsensical babbling, obviously the two workers who first discovered the cave. There was also a half-old man in a suit, with white hair and the demeanor of an elderly gentleman. The aura he exuded was like a human. He was the area supervisor set up here by the Hesperiana family. Standing at the back was a young couple, a handsome man and a beautiful woman, dressed in casual clothes. Added to their extremely young appearance, they looked like the least likely personnel to be managers—but in fact, before Hesperiana and Hao Ren's party arrived, they were the highest-ranking figures here: they were the personnel sent by the Hesperiana family to deal with the incident.

However, now that the family's patriarch had personally arrived, this incident had obviously exceeded the authority of these two special envoys.

Apart from the two workers who could no longer communicate properly, the three people who entered the office showed great reverence to Hesperiana. They respectfully saluted and paid their respects, and then bowed respectfully to Hao Ren and his party, who were standing with Hesperiana (and by the way, gave a look of admiration to Vivian, who looked almost exactly like Hesperiana). The little bat spirit interrupted their troublesome routine and asked simply and neatly, "What's the situation in the mining area now?"

The supervisor cautiously glanced at the male vampire beside him. Obviously, he couldn't interrupt without his superior speaking. The vampire realized this and nodded: "Patriarch, the mining area has been sealed off according to your instructions, but the workers' emotional problems are becoming more and more obvious—the reason we gave is that Francisco and David may have been infected by bacteria in the cave, and those who came into contact with them later may also be infected, so no one is allowed to leave until the risks are ruled out, but this can't be maintained for too long."

Francisco and David were the names of the two unfortunate workers.

Hesperiana pinched her brow and turned to look at Hao Ren: "Hey, do you have that kind of pen that lights up when you press it? And can make people lose their memory by shining it in their eyes or something?"

Hao Ren said with a straight face: "We are a formal functional department, we don't do these crooked things—and are you going to bear the copyright issues?"

"It's really worrying me to death," the little bat spirit frowned. "The person in charge here is really a waste. He made such a small matter known to everyone, and you can't even kill people to silence them these days... tsk, difficult..."

Of course, Hao Ren knew what the little bat spirit was worried about, so he casually said, "It's simple. After we finish the investigation inside, we'll blow up the connection between the alternate dimension and the real world, or simply blow up the entire alternate dimension. Then you can let anyone investigate. Anyway, they won't see anything except a stone cave. You can also specifically send people to spread more sensational stories nearby. Then no one will believe the original rumors."

Hesperiana felt that it made sense when she heard it, and after thinking about it carefully, she became happy: "If you say so, then there really won't be any future troubles... Ah, that's right, if I operate it well, maybe I can do a sightseeing project here. After the quarry is mined out, I can continue to make money by selling tickets—that someone, Pelo, later on, you investigate whether the tourism potential of this place is great..."

The "area supervisor" called Pelo, who looked like a butler with his white hair, seemed to have long understood the eccentricities of this powerful vampire patriarch. After hearing this order, his expression didn't even change. He nodded and agreed—anyway, it was doubtful that Hesperiana would even remember this idea herself two days later.

And Hao Ren and his party had faces full of "this little bat spirit's business talent is simply full"—except for Lolly, this one-and-a-half-year-old queen hadn't understood what Hesperiana was doing from beginning to end. She was just curious about everything in this place and was busy observing everywhere at this time.

Vivian knocked on the table, drawing Hesperiana's attention back: "You can figure out what to do with the quarry yourself later. Let us see the two workers now."

The two mentally disordered workers had actually lost the ability to act independently. They were carried into the office. From the outside, there were no visible wounds on their bodies. It was said that after examination, no organic damage to their nervous systems was found, obviously the cause of their mental abnormalities was more complicated. The worker named Francisco was in a more serious condition. At this moment, he had completely lost the ability to communicate verbally. Most of the time, he stared at the ceiling with wide eyes, constantly muttering unrecognizable sounds. Even taking out the data terminal as a translator couldn't figure out what he was muttering, while the worker named David was in a slightly better condition.

A slightly better condition meant that at least the sound of his muttering was a little louder than Francisco's, and at least a few words could be understood when he muttered.

"...Cave... mist... man-eating... massacre... monster..."

This was what the data terminal finally translated after trying hard to distinguish for a long time.

"Their condition is more serious than before," the young female vampire explained. "At first, these two humans showed strong emotional reactions, shouting and struggling violently, but slowly they became like this. They look quiet on the surface, but their thinking ability is deteriorating in a straight line, and their physical strength is also losing inexplicably. Neither drug treatment nor magical stimulation has any effect."

Vivian frowned and carefully checked the condition of the two workers: "It looks like they have been cursed... or have suffered trauma to their souls. By the way, you two little guys should have been into that alternate dimension, right? Is there anything there that can cause this result?"

The two young vampires looked at each other, and then the male vampire spoke: "We only observed the periphery and didn't dare to go deep—the entire alternate dimension is shrouded in a strange light red light curtain. After entering, there will be a strong sense of crisis. The warning magic props we carry with us have been warning us ever since we entered the alternate dimension, but we can't determine where the threat comes from. Rose and I didn't feel like we were being attacked, but after staying in the alternate dimension for a while, Rose's skin began to dry out and burn, and I also began to feel constantly weakening, so we had to turn back immediately."

Hao Ren glanced at the two young vampires: "Are you sure you didn't feel any attacks during the whole process?"

The two vampires nodded repeatedly, and Hesperiana also said: "These two guys are the most honest in my family, and even the most dishonest guys can't lie in front of me."

The two vampires nodded even harder.

"It seems that there is a problem with the overall environment in the alternate dimension, perhaps an energy field covering the entire space, and this energy field exceeds conventional detection methods, so that as long as you are in it, you will be harmed and it is difficult to detect," Izhaks also bent down beside the two human victims to check, while saying his own guess. "In my hometown, many powerful curses can cause this effect."

"Can these two be saved?" Hesperiana asked—although these two humans were just two of the most inconspicuous members of a small branch of her huge family, and even the kind of bottom-level workers who didn't even know of the existence of the Hesperiana family, she couldn't help but ask.

"Don't worry, they won't die," Hao Ren smiled confidently. "They definitely won't survive anywhere else, but have you forgotten my medical high technology? I can save you even if the grass on the grave is half a meter high. I have a medical pod in my portable space—I'll put these two in it to treat them later, and we'll go to that 'alternate dimension' to see."