Chapter 483 "Eileen"
Yu Sheng was resonating with what Marlene had said about the "terrifying darkness" and subconsciously looked up at the door at the end of the corridor on the second floor.
He was not sure how the living doll in front of him could sense and judge the "unknown components" in Irene's body, but one thing was obvious: this real Alice doll could see through Irene's situation more clearly than ordinary people - professional matters should be left to professionals, and now a long-standing problem has finally been solved.
The good news is that Irene is indeed an "Alice doll" and her sisters, her memories, and her "hometown" are all real.
The bad news is… not all.
Now Yu Sheng is almost certain that the "terrifying darkness" in her body comes from the "goddess of omen" whose origin is unknown.
"Is there any information about the name 'Goddess of Omen' in the records of your 'Alice Cottage'?" He raised his head and broke the silence with a serious expression.
Marlene immediately realized, "...Is this the source of the 'darkness'?"
Yu Sheng nodded slightly.
Marlene didn't speak for a moment, her eyes suddenly becoming somewhat empty. She stood there motionless, a barely perceptible humming coming from within her body. After a moment, she "woke up" again, frowning slightly and shaking her head. "There's no record of this in the Matrix network."
But she quickly added, "We can't rule out the possibility that this information is stored in a local database on some remote node. If it poses a risk of memetic contamination, the relevant data will be automatically intercepted by the 'Coffin' system at the point of publication. I've already issued a wide-area inquiry on the Garden Network to see if any other sisters have come into contact with intelligence suspected of being related to this, but there has been no response yet."
Yu Sheng was not very clear about the internal situation of this puppet organization, but from Marlene's few words, he could judge their professionalism and caution in this regard, so he naturally did not say much, but just raised another question.
"Are there any other dolls named 'Erin'? Are there any missing? Are there any that look like my Erin?"
Marlene nodded immediately: "This is exactly the other reason why I visited you today."
As she spoke, she casually pulled out a silver-gray metal rod and gently stroked its surface. The metal rod quickly unfolded into a screen of light. As the images on the screen changed, she explained, "'Erin' is not an uncommon name in Alice's Cabin, and three of them are indeed missing. Here is their information..."
Yu Sheng leaned over and saw the images on the screen scrolling. Three missing dolls named "Eileen" entered his field of vision.
The first one wasn’t it, the second one wasn’t it either—but the third one made his eyes freeze instantly.
"Hold on—that's it."
A doll girl with long golden hair and an expressionless face stood in the picture. She looked very similar to the broken doll that Yu Sheng had seen in the vision of the temple ruins.
"I've seen this face in a vision of ruins!" he said quickly.
"Are you sure it's this person?" Marlene asked with a hint of surprise in her tone.
Yu Sheng took the light screen and examined it carefully again. After all, compared to the doll he had seen before, the doll in the ID photo looked less fragmented and had a slightly different appearance. After comparing it repeatedly for a few seconds, he nodded. "That's it. Speaking of which, her expression is very cold... It's completely different from the temperament of my current 'Eileen'."
Marlene said casually, "This is what the ID photo looks like."
Yu Sheng thought for a moment and said, "...That's not necessarily true. The photo on Irene's ID card looks like it's about to explode. It was really hard to hold her down on the sofa when I took her ID photo."
Marlene: “…”
"Ahem," Yu Sheng coughed twice and pointed at "Eileen" on the screen. "When did this person disappear?"
"...Three thousand seven hundred years," Marlene said, her expression becoming serious. "That's why I was a little surprised just now. If it really is her, then investigating this matter will probably be even more difficult."
Three thousand seven hundred years ago!!
Hearing Marlene's answer, Yu Sheng couldn't hide his surprise - this time span far exceeded his expectations.
In other words, if the little thing at home right now really was the missing "Erin" mentioned in the file, and if the scene of mutual destruction in the dark ruins really happened so long ago... then by the time he opened the room at the end of the corridor, Erin had been trapped in that painting for three thousand seven hundred years?!
Yu Sheng turned back to look at the door at the end of the corridor. Marlene quickly noticed his movements and asked curiously, "Is that the room where you first discovered 'Eileen'?"
Yu Sheng nodded and took the living doll directly to the end of the corridor. After pushing the door to confirm the situation inside, he took her into this strange empty room.
"Irene's 'oil painting' was originally hung right here," Yu Sheng pointed at the opposite wall. "After the painting was taken down, the room changed. When I pushed the door open for the second time, the spot where the painting was hung had become this mirror..."
He briefly explained the situation in the room and what had happened to Marlene. Curious, she approached the mirror. Seeing this, Yu Sheng quickly warned her, "Don't touch that thing—it's very unstable and can sometimes lead to dangerous dimensions. I'm telling you, this whole room is incredibly strange..."
Marlene withdrew her hand as she was persuaded, but she still showed a subtle expression when she heard the second half of Yu Sheng's words, and couldn't help but glance at the corridor outside the room.
The corridor was hazy, with cracks of varying sizes extending from the floor to the ceiling. Projections from various time and space coordinates were chaotically reflected in every corner of the house. The entire building was filled with incomprehensible, indescribable distortions and anomalies, as if every inch of it existed simultaneously in various parts of the universe.
But the owner of No. 66 Wutong Road said that the room at the end of the corridor on the second floor is very strange.
Is there anything weird about this whole house?
…
Irene once again sneaked under the coffee table, used her height advantage to crawl under the sofa, and quietly moved behind the clockwork doll standing next to the sofa.
Maryse turned her head helplessly and looked at the dwarf who was standing on tiptoe behind her but couldn't reach her waist at all.
"Miss Irene, my clockwork key won't fit on you..."
Irene put her hands on her hips and looked up, not at all embarrassed by being caught in the act. Instead, she spoke confidently, "Are you really using clockwork as a power source?"
"That's not motivation," Maryse shook her head. "My winder key is simply because of the mistress's personal taste and hobbies—when she's bored, she comes over and plays with it."
"Oh..." Irene nodded blankly, then suddenly asked curiously, "Does Marlene have a clockwork key herself?"
"Of course there are," Maryse explained in a serious tone. Perhaps convinced that the little dwarf in front of her was also a special type of Alice doll, she showed great patience with Erin's inquiries. "Alice dolls all have their own clockwork keys."
Irene blinked. "Is it also for decoration?"
"No, the Alice doll's winder key is a vital accessory that can enhance its strength or protect itself in an emergency. That's what Miss Marlene said."
Irene thought about it and scratched her head: "I don't have any."
She turned around and showed Maryse her back—though her clothes meant nothing could be seen, she clearly hadn't considered the details. "This body is temporary! When I find my Alice Key, I'll reconnect to the garden network and recreate my original body. Then I'll have my own clockwork key!"
Maryse was stunned for a moment, as if she wasn't used to the rhythm of communicating with this "Mini Alice Doll". She could only perfunctorily say, "Well, I hope you can successfully retrieve the secret key."
The next second, she heard Irene say, "Does the secret key look like a clockwork key?"
Maryse: “…”
Finally, it was the fox on the sofa who spoke up to relieve the clockwork puppet's embarrassment: "That's definitely different! The secret key sounds similar to a password, and the clockwork key is turned..."
"Yes, really?" Erin scratched her head again and turned to look at Maryse. "...Ah, and you're not an Alice doll, right?"
"I'm the all-purpose servo-type personal assistant Miss Marlene bought," Maris said, bowing slightly. "It's manufactured by Algrade-Universe United Industries, and specially customized for Alice's Cottage. It has many functions tailored specifically for the Alice doll, fully adapting to and meeting the various needs of the living doll in daily life and work..."
Irene's eyes immediately lit up: "Oh, for example?"
"For example, maintaining and cleaning the ball joints, helping the hostess create and direct other lower-level work puppets, taking care of daily life, and telling jokes."
"It sounds like... nothing." Irene rolled her eyes and waved her hand. "I have Yu Sheng—though he doesn't tell jokes."
After saying this, the little doll seemed to suddenly lose interest in Maryse. It turned around and climbed onto the sofa again, sat cross-legged on the cushion and began to drawl out its tone: "Ah - why hasn't Yusheng come back yet... Yusheng! Yusheng! Yusheng - I'm bored!!"
As a result, she had just yelled halfway when she heard Yu Sheng's hurried footsteps on the stairs, and he muttered helplessly: "I heard it, I heard it, stop calling me like a ghost all day long."
Irene looked up and saw Yusheng and Malin coming down the stairs. She immediately became happy again, jumped off the sofa and ran towards the stairs, chirping as she ran: "Hey, Yusheng, let me tell you, Alice dolls have keys! You can drill a hole in my back later. Malin said her key was installed later. She can spin it for fun when she's bored. After spinning it, it activates the hidden energy source. I have to bring a power bank with me when I go out. How long does my phone watch last..."
Marlene stopped abruptly halfway up the stairs. The puppet lady was stunned. After a moment, she looked at Yu Sheng and blurted out, "...Is her logic always like this?"
Yu Sheng sighed: "It's always like this. Today's symptoms are relatively mild..."
(End of this chapter)
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