Chapter 64: Watch Out for Clipping
“This place is…”
Lu Zheng looked at the unfamiliar scene before him, bewildered.
He clearly remembered setting the coordinates for the entrance to Yi Ning’s base.
So why was he now standing in the middle of a flat concrete road?
Where was Yi Ning’s base?
Lu Zheng surveyed his surroundings.
The road he stood on wasn’t particularly wide—barely enough for two cars to drive side by side. On both sides of the road, European-style streetlamps resembling medieval kerosene lamps were neatly lined along the sidewalks. Beyond the sidewalks stretched flower beds that extended as far as the eye could see.
How did he end up in another place?
Could he have entered the wrong coordinates?
Lu Zheng scratched his head in confusion, pulled out his phone, and opened a navigation app.
Skillfully, he tapped the search bar and selected “Dr. Alien’s Evil Research Base” from his search history.
The app instantly displayed the location of Yi Ning’s base.
And the marker representing his own location was right next to it.
The details at the bottom of the screen even said he was less than 100 meters from the base.
Looked like he hadn’t gone the wrong way.
Lu Zheng looked left and right.
But apart from the concrete sign behind him and the seemingly endless road ahead, there was nothing.
Not a trace of anything that screamed “Dr. Alien.”
Lu Zheng thought for a moment, then walked around to the front of the sign.
Dr. Alien’s Evil Hot Spring Center.
Okay.
Dr. Alien aesthetic: confirmed!
“When did that girl switch to running a hot spring?”
Lu Zheng started to complain.
“But she really is something.”
He glanced at the surrounding facilities and couldn’t help but be impressed.
None of this was here this morning.
From the time he left to now, it had only been around four hours—and Yi Ning had managed to whip up all this on her own.
Though she made absurd evil inventions every weekday, their outrageous functions often felt too unrealistic to deliver a true sense of impact. By comparison, these expansive facilities were genuinely impressive.
What a waste of talent for her to be in an evil organization.
Lu Zheng felt a twinge of regret.
But in the end, this was Yi Ning’s own choice, so he didn’t dwell on it.
Lu Zheng peeked past the sign, eyeing the faint mist ahead, and began walking deeper into the road.
Possibly due to budget considerations, Yi Ning had built her base in a pretty remote location. Aside from the “tap-tap” of his footsteps, there was no sound at all on the road.
As the mist thickened with each step forward, an eerie feeling crept over him.
Was Yi Ning’s theme today some kind of haunted hot spring house?
He perked up a bit and quickened his pace.
The deeper he went, the thicker the fog became.
Eventually, Lu Zheng couldn’t even see the road beneath his feet anymore. Everything in his field of vision was just white mist.
Could he have taken the wrong path?
The sheer weirdness of the situation set off alarms in Lu Zheng’s head.
“Am I going to end up back at the gate to the sound of a ‘Yahaha’ laugh or something?”
He curled his lips, though no smile could be seen on his face.
Fortunately, that guess didn’t come true.
Just as he reached the designated coordinates, the fog surrounding him instantly dispersed.
Looking up, he saw a vintage wooden building not far ahead.
On the sign above the door were the same words as on the earlier concrete sign—
Dr. Alien’s Evil Hot Spring Center.
The concrete road extended to a small square in front of the hot spring center.
The square was ringed with neatly arranged flower beds, and Lu Zheng’s car was parked right beside one—almost flush against it.
A series of Chinese-style stone steps connected the hot spring center and the square, with numerous plants growing along the sides of the stairs.
Lu Zheng looked around and was struck with a sense of discomfort.
The entire square felt oddly… off-center.
The glass revolving door to the hot spring center wasn’t in the middle of the staircase—it was clearly offset to the right.
Not quite East, not quite West. Not quite modern, not quite vintage. The entire scene had a distinctly disjointed style.
Who designed this absurdly mismatched layout?
Lu Zheng couldn’t help but feel grateful that he wasn’t a perfectionist. Otherwise, this kind of view might have made it hard for him to even move.
Could this be Yi Ning’s trap for today?
The thought popped into his head unbidden.
If she had built something like a “Super Invincible OCD Inducer,” Lu Zheng was certain he’d suffer a stroke on the spot from the stylistic dissonance.
He took a deep breath, adjusted his mood, and braced himself to avoid passing out from the chaos-inducing aesthetic.
“Let’s see what kind of trick you’re playing today.”
Lu Zheng strode toward the hot spring center.
Halfway there, something in his peripheral vision caught his eye—it was his car.
Yi Ning had parked it so close to the flower bed—was there any damage?
Lu Zheng turned around.
With that thought in mind, he circled around to where the car met the flower bed and examined it carefully.
Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any scratches or issues.
He breathed a sigh of relief and resumed his walk toward Yi Ning’s hot spring center.
Clack.
His foot suddenly hit something.
He looked down.
It was a strange, entirely green machine composed of a dumbbell-shaped object and a support base.
The top of the dumbbell-shaped part flickered a few times, then went dark.
That kick of his might’ve broken it.
Lu Zheng’s expression turned a bit awkward.
He bent down, intending to pick up the odd machine.
In the next second, the scene around him changed instantly.
One corner of the previously pristine square reverted to the appearance of the open ground outside Yi Ning’s original base.
Lu Zheng looked around, narrowing his eyes.
That corner of the square had abruptly vanished, blending into the old base’s empty lot.
“Was this thing responsible?”
He picked up the machine, studied it carefully, and pressed a button.
The missing part of the square reappeared.
He pressed the button again.
That corner of the square turned back into part of Yi Ning’s base. A table appeared beneath Lu Zheng’s feet, and he was now standing right in the center of it—like he had clipped into it.
Lu Zheng looked down at the table he was now perfectly “clipping” through, then reached out with his free hand to touch it.
It felt like a mirage—nothing there.
“A projection, huh?”
Lu Zheng examined the device in his hand, then restored the corner to the square version and set the machine aside where it wouldn’t get in the way.
He followed the path, climbed the steps, and arrived at the glass revolving door.
Looking at the offset entrance, then back at his tightly parked car, Lu Zheng’s thoughts suddenly clicked.
No wonder Yi Ning had designed the entire scene to be offset to one side.