Dimensional Hotel

Yu Sheng leisurely basked in the sun on the rooftop of the castle with Little Red Riding Hood (even though there was no sun in this place), while Hu Li was already dozing off beside them at some point—the demon fox girl stuffed a pile of tails behind Yu Sheng, curled up herself, clutching the big tail she usually used to store food, and snored softly under the daylight, a faint smile on her face.

"She's so carefree..." Yu Sheng turned his head to glance at the fox girl sleeping soundly against him, scratching the fuzzy area behind her ears, "Just like that, she's full and the world is at peace."

"There's someone even more carefree down in the valley." Little Red Riding Hood leaned against the Shadow Wolf she summoned, lounging on the rooftop while speaking slowly.

Yu Sheng lifted an eyelid: "Who? The long-haired princess?"

"The golden-haired one? She can't be carefree, she has plenty to worry about, like the assignments due when school starts," Little Red Riding Hood squinted her eyes, "I meant that snake."

Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow: "The Snake Princess? Didn't she return to Qianfeng Ling Mountain yesterday?"

"She's back again; she can open that door by herself now, so she roams back and forth between the valley and the Spirit Mountain like a visitor, eating everywhere," Little Red Riding Hood yawned, "She should be picking wild berries over by the Black Forest right now; when she's full, she'll swim along the river to the town to play with the King, and once it gets dark, she goes to sleep in the small grove to the north, living leisurely like a protected species."

Yu Sheng was just listening casually, but he suddenly felt a bit surprised: "She plays with the King? Wasn't she being scolded all the time for always crawling on the King's cat tree?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what she plays."

Yu Sheng: "…?"

"Don't ask me, I don't know what she's thinking either, the King is so annoyed now—I've never seen anyone who could pester him to the point of having no temper."

Yu Sheng blinked, but just as he was about to say something else, a series of vibrations from his phone interrupted his actions.

When he took out his phone, it turned out Border Communication was frantically pushing messages; upon opening it, they were all sent by that Alice Puppet named Marin—a large amount of video data, along with explanatory notes.

He read them one by one, and as he got to the latter parts, he suddenly sat up.

Suspected "Erin's" last battle records against external enemies... the colossal shadow crouched on the mysterious Broken Tower... the blonde figure charging towards the Tower...

"This is data I found in the depths of the Garden Network," Marin sent another message, "The data is severely damaged, unable to trace the upload path, but it can be confirmed that it was uploaded by 'Erin' 3,700 years ago moments before she duelled a mysterious enemy—the footage extends to the moment she charges to the top of the Tower, after which the record is cut off.

"It's currently unclear whether there are more records in the Garden Network... My exploration this time triggered the Cleaner program, which might temporarily prohibit me from submerging again, and Maris encountered some issues while diving into the network with me, so her condition is poor now... We probably won't be able to look for more information in the Deep Layer Network for a while.

"One more detail, while operating in the Deep Layer Network, I noticed my Mind being entangled by a 'Spider Silk'..."

Yu Sheng looked at the messages from the living doll, then went back to carefully review the video data after Marin's secondary processing and sent to Border Communication, frowning gradually.

After a long while, he sent a message to Marin: "…Why is that 'Erin' holding a frying pan?"

He quickly received a reply: "That's the standard weapon of our Alice Puppets."

Yu Sheng: "…?"

"The reasoning behind this is very complicated," Marin's message had a seemingly tangled tone, "Fully explaining it might require 2,590,000 words…"

Upon seeing this, Yu Sheng promptly stated no further explanation was needed—after all, there were enough bizarre things in this world for him.

Of course, another important reason for his response was that Little Red Riding Hood leaned over to take a look and whispered to him—

"What's so strange about it? The top expert of Qianfeng Ling Mountain went into battle with a brick, and your Hu Li can launch her tail, at least a frying pan has a handle, doesn't it resemble a 'weapon' more than a Fox Carrot Missile?"

Yu Sheng felt that Little Red Riding Hood made sense, undeniably a mind fresh from completing high school finals.

Then he continued to delve into the materials sent by Marin, while sneaking a peek towards the small square.

Erin was still running wildly with a bunch of dollheads, Teacher Su along with several Fairy Tales "parents" maintained some semblance of order at the edge of the square, while Yun Qingzi sat happily on a stool by the roadside watching the children play, a plate of sunflower seeds by his side—naturally, since the old man was now in a Spiritual Body form, unable to eat, his method was grabbing them in a handful, instantly refining them...

Very high-end and impressive.

Yu Sheng stared at the little dolls shrieking in the small square for a long time, then looked back at the phone screen and the blonde figure holding a frying pan charging towards the "Outer God," flipping back and forth several times... but ultimately did not superimpose them.

But judging from the end of the video, the commendable boldness and reckless demeanor indeed seemed somewhat similar.

The main issue is the lack of quality.

"So this is your style from the beginning..."

Little Red Riding Hood heard Yu Sheng's mumbling, but her attention was clearly captivated by the images on the phone screen. The girl frowned slightly, looking at the images captured from the video, and suddenly reached out to stop Yu Sheng from flipping through them: "Wait, let me see."

Yu Sheng glanced at Little Red Riding Hood in surprise and handed over the phone: "You..."

He watched as Little Red Riding Hood zoomed in on one of the images, examining the details with a serious expression.

It was a scene captured from Marin's perspective as she looked down from the top of the Tower. In the slightly distorted edges of the scene, the broken spiral staircase and the seemingly gravity-defying floating floors were clearly visible, along with the dull-colored, intricately carved wall structures next to the staircase.

"This looks familiar."

Yu Sheng was taken aback: "Familiar... Do you know this place? Have you been there?!"

"I haven't been there, but I remember seeing a photo similar to this somewhere," Little Red Riding Hood said, furrowing her brows as if trying to recall something, "I think it was a few years ago, in a Border Communication post... Wait, let me find it!"

As she spoke, she took out her phone, opened Border Communication, and started quickly searching her favorites, mumbling to herself amidst all the cluttered pages: "I remember that post had quite a discussion, and I saved it... why is there so much junk..."

Yu Sheng looked at her in bewilderment, craning his neck for a glance, feeling dizzy and unable to resist saying: "...You never clean out your favorites? And you save everything?"

While frantically scrolling through her phone screen, Little Red Riding Hood didn't lift her head: "These are just in case they come in handy, saving them doesn't take any effort..."

"That may be so, saving doesn't take effort, but finding something in there could kill you—at least remember the keywords, right? How about searching for it?"

Little Red Riding Hood: "I searched, this is already filtered with keywords."

Yu Sheng was filled with awe and fell silent.

Yet, watching the girl sweat profusely while digging through her browsing history from years ago, he suddenly found it amusing.

Normally, Little Red Riding Hood gave off an impression of calmness, reliability, and intelligence; in fairy tales, she's the most prestigious "guardian," but in reality, she also has this kind of clumsy, even childlike side.

Of course, that can't be said now, she's already eighteen and had to retake the driving test part two twice.

"Ah, this is it!"

Little Red Riding Hood's excited voice interrupted Yu Sheng's stray thoughts, and he quickly reined in his wandering mind, stretching his neck to look at the content displayed on her phone.

It was a post seeking help and sharing information.

The original poster had uploaded an image to the Border Communication's discussion board, depicting a scene looking up inside the Tower from a broken section of the staircase—it was clear it was taken in haste, with severely shaky edges.

It matched a frame from Marin's video exactly!

"It's this place!"

Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood spoke in unison.

Then their eyes simultaneously turned to the explanation under the post—

"...I inadvertently entered this place while carrying out an investigation assignment in the 'Dark Alley,' at the time avoiding capture by a physical 'cat'... Fog suddenly appeared within the alley, and an unrecorded fork appeared at the end of the alley, leading to a bizarre area with a Tower standing...

"I cannot determine if this bizarre area is still part of the 'Dark Alley'; it could very likely be another Exotic Realm due to the visible 'fault line' features at the boundary of this space, and there is no physical path directly leading back to the 'Dark Alley.'

"I recorded many images of the Tower's interior and exterior, but for some reason, most of the photos were damaged upon my return to the real world, covered by strange shadows or something like thread, rendering them unreadable—only this photo remained, though I can't recall when I took it...

"Note: the photo capture might have been triggered accidentally, suspicion arises that it's related to the Tower's 'mechanism,' perhaps erasing all conscious recording actions, though unconscious or scheduled capturing might bypass this mechanism.

"Now I'm posting this photo, seeking any clues related to this Tower... I can't remember how I left this tower, but it has appeared in my dreams every day for the past ten days.

"I suspect a part of me is still trapped in that tower."