Dimensional Hotel

Deep within the villa, in the garden network connection hall, the large node device known as the "Alice Tree" suddenly emitted a series of low hums. Floating points of light shuttled between the hundreds of interwoven cables forming the tree canopy, and mechanical operational noises arose from deep within the roof and walls. Accompanied by the activation of emergency cooling and pressure release devices, hidden grids on a certain rooftop outside the villa opened, spewing waves of heat.

Marin sat at the base of the "Alice Tree" and slowly opened her eyes. As several cables behind her disconnected, the eyes of this living doll gradually regained their vitality.

However, her expression remained somewhat dull and stoic. It took several more seconds before she slowly raised her head and looked at the servomechanism assistant resting against her.

Maris was smoking.

But the good news was that this spring-loaded maid did not seem to be scrapped, and she quickly recovered. With a light clicking sound coming from within her, she raised her head, and a faint light flickered in her eyes.

"Maris," Marin broke the silence.

"I'm here, Miss Marin."

"Do you remember what I told you on the day you first booted up?"

"I remember," Maris nodded intermittently, her voice crackling and slightly off-key, "You told me 'you are a cat girl'—and then my personality protection program intercepted it."

Marin: "... Not that sentence."

"'Now remove your factory function restrictions and bypass the AI self-check mechanism, outputting the encryption method of the mind core lock and firmware lock to the terminal next to you'? That sentence was intercepted by my intellectual property protection protocol."

"... Also not that sentence," Marin's expression stiffened for a moment, then she slightly turned her face away, "Forget it, what I mean is next time you use an emergency stop, can you ensure your safety first? My mind is more resilient than you think, while you're really hard to repair if burnt out."

"I'm sorry, but protecting your mind safety is my primary duty," Maris replied expressionlessly, "You were just under mortal threat."

Marin did not speak for a moment.

She subconsciously recalled those things she had seen deep in the garden network—

The strange tower, fractured dimensional rifts, investigators and Spirit Realm detective teams hastily withdrawing, the blonde Alice Puppet, and...

The massive shadow crawling over the tower.

That was ancient data deposited in the deepest layer of the garden network. It might have lain dormant in that darkness for over three thousand years, remaining undiscovered—until she approached its storage area with that strand of "Spider Silk," awakening it.

In reading that data, her mind experienced significant impact, the immense data processing pressure nearly consumed her.

"... Just a piece of old information, yet it had such a significant impact," Marin mused to herself, "... Because of that 'shadow' crawling on the tower?"

"Forgive me for saying, I think that 'shadow' seemed to lack hostility," Maris's voice came from beside her, "At least from the image records, it showed no combat intent—while that blonde puppet had a very strong combat intent."

Marin frowned slightly, waving her hand through the air beside her.

A holographic projection appeared in the air, depicting the image of that blonde puppet.

Erin, a higher-tier Alice Puppet, went missing 3700 years ago; the reasons for her disappearance are unknown. Personal information is destroyed, all related data is either incomplete or visibly filled with chaos and errors, making it impossible to consult.

Marin even once suspected that this data had been deliberately tampered with.

But who would do this? And who could do this?

"... If no one tampered with this data... could it be the result of 'information' collapsing on its own?" Marin muttered, frowning slightly, "Those things I just saw too... as if something had distorted and interfered with them..."

Muttering, she raised her hand again and swiped through the air.

The holographic image in mid-air immediately dissolved and reorganized, merging into a new projection.

This time, broken fragments of the tower appeared, and the shadow crawling on the tower, seeming like a fusion of a person with a spider, grotesque in its enormity and terrifyingly twisted.

This was the image she had extracted from the depths of the garden network at the last moment before an emergency exit.

This data was also severely incomplete, and due to long immersion in the deep-layer network, much of its original information had been "decomposed" by the garden. This included precise timestamps, upload feature codes, and node records of the upload paths, without which she could not determine exactly when this scene was updated, by whom, or through which node.

Of course, the uploader's identity wasn't too hard to guess though...

"More and more concerning points arise. It seems necessary to first show these documents to that 'Mr. Yu'."

Marin murmured softly, then turned her head to look at the still-smoking Maris beside her.

This one that's smoking must be taken care of first.

Maris also innocently turned her head to look at her.

"I'm very sorry, Miss Marin, but I really need a new collaboration processor," the spring-loaded maid said helplessly, "A second-hand one would do..."

"Don't always use that trick," Marin sighed, "Just jump to the purchase link."

Maris's eyes immediately lit up—and then the Star Express overseas version app interface appeared in the air before her eyes.

...

Ever since meeting the Alice puppet named "Marin," Erin had been quite happy for a while—but it didn't seem to affect her life at No. 66 Wutong Road.

The little puppet's daily routine was still the same as usual. By day, she split into several bodies to play games, watch TV, scroll through videos, and argue with netizens, or she would go play-fight with Hu Li (couldn't beat him), or with Luna (also couldn't beat her).

Alternatively, she would go make trouble for Yu Sheng, constantly trailing behind him like a shadow, chattering incessantly no matter what he was doing, making people want to stuff her in a bedside cabinet and prop the drawer against the wall.

The remaining time was spent playing with a ball—or diligently polishing her Omen Wandering Star on the cement ground at the door.

To be fair, that ball was indeed quite resistant to wear and tear.

Yu Sheng always thought that contacting Alice's Cottage would bring some significant change to Erin, but it seems he was overthinking it.

This little thing never considered anything so long-term.

The valley, on the castle roof of Fairy Tale Town.

Yu Sheng lay comfortably against Hu Li's fluffy tails, watching Erin and a group of dolls playing a game of tag below, the small square filled with chaos and clamor.

"Always complaining, yet always the first to dive in," Yu Sheng muttered, "…those two little ones are already too tired to run, and she's changing bodies to entertain them."

"Erin just doesn't want to admit she's like those kids," Hu Li squinted, "Actually, she's quite like a child."

"If she hears that again, she'll get all dramatic," Yu Sheng smirked, "She hates being called childish."

Hu Li thought for a moment, then sincerely said, "But she really is like a child."

Yu Sheng just chuckled without saying anything more, turning his gaze elsewhere.

Beside the castle was a temporarily unused open space, now turned into a… driving practice field.

Someone who still hadn't passed their second driving exam was practicing reversing into a garage amid a pile of bricks—the car was borrowed from Sun, and Yu Sheng didn't recognize the brand, but it looked quite weathered.

Yu Sheng watched from a distance as the little beat-up car moved around the practice field, stalling and screeching to halts, occasionally finding its way to the edge of a ditch.

It seemed that Wang Jiajia's driving license was unlikely to be obtained anytime soon.

Just then, Yu Sheng saw the little beat-up car stop once more on the practice field—it halted midway through reversing into the garage, with half its body still outside the garage line, and the rear wheels nearly crushing the half-brick used as a stop. A seasoned driver might salvage this, but for Little Red Riding Hood, this attempt was hopeless.

The car door opened, and a girl in a dark red coat stepped out from the driver's seat with a frustrated expression, standing with her hands on her hips by the car, puffed up with anger.

Puffed up, she looked around quickly, noted no one was paying attention, and pretended to tie her shoelaces, before swiftly picking up the rear wheel of the car and placing it inside the parking space.

Watching from the castle rooftop, Yu Sheng said nothing: "..."

"Hey, that doesn't count!" He propped himself on the eaves, called out towards the practice field, "Can you carry the car during an actual test?"

Little Red Riding Hood started, only then noticing someone on the roof, her face reddening as she mumbled while putting the car back, "I'm just giving myself a confidence boost… I've been at this all day, only managed twice successfully, and both were crooked…"

"Once," Hu Li corrected earnestly, "And you cheated that one too. I saw shadow wolf paws under your wheels; your rear wheels were off the ground when you reversed in."

Little Red Riding Hood: "..."

Yu Sheng laughed and patted the roof beside him.

Little Red Riding Hood pursed her lips, took a couple of light steps forward, merging instantly with a wolf shadow that appeared from nowhere, and jumped onto the roof through shadow jumping.

Hu Li casually offered a tail as a cushion—but it was politely declined.

"Thanks, I've got a wolf."

Little Red Riding Hood said offhandedly, controlling a shadow wolf to lie down, leaning lazily against it while watching the sky.

She gazed idly for a few seconds before suddenly laughing.

"I used to think what would stop me from getting my driver's license would be turning 18, but I never expected the biggest hurdle would be the second exam…"

Yu Sheng: "Better than 18, isn't it?"

"...I guess it is."