Chapter 570 Repairing the Body
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Yu Sheng would have found it hard to imagine that the border region of the border area would look like this, let alone imagine that among these fragmented, desolate floating islands, boulders and aurora borealis, there would stand such a mysterious mansion full of Gothic atmosphere - plus there are a bunch of faceless dolls walking around in the garden next to it, so when he first saw it, words like "witch's house" and "cursed mansion" would subconsciously pop into his mind.
Judging from this art style, Yu Sheng figured that if this thing were put into a game, it would be a dungeon that could only be opened after level 40. Especially the two holes on the roof of the mansion, which looked extremely imposing and had a dark, destructive, and mysterious aura—he wondered what the original design concept was.
Yu Sheng carried Eileen on his back, followed by Hu Li and Luna. The four of them looked up together, staring blankly at the two large holes in the roof to the side, so much so that they didn't even bother to greet Marlene.
Two seconds later, Marlene finally couldn't hold back anymore and turned her head away somewhat awkwardly: "There's a reason for that..."
Yu Sheng blinked, looking at the living doll in front of him.
Maris sighed beside her: "It's related to that battle before..."
Yu Sheng was even more confused: "Before? The battlefield was also within the border city area before, and it even reached the border?"
“No, not at all,” Marlene adjusted her expression, seemingly trying to distract the guests from staring at the large hole in the roof, “but those spatial rifts above Boundary City once extended to the suburbs. At the time, we couldn’t determine the extent of those rifts, so…”
She paused somewhat awkwardly at this point, and Maris quickly added, "So the mistress decided to activate the Sky Island Engine and take an emergency evasive maneuver."
Hu Li asked curiously, "...And then what?"
“Our neighbor’s castle is the castle of the Hermits of Barmossa—they’ve also decided to take an emergency break.”
Yu Sheng and the others: "..."
Then Eileen craned her neck and looked around.
Marlene: "No need to look anymore, their main castle building collapsed, and they've gone back to repair it."
Whether it was my imagination or not, the living puppet seemed a little smug when it said this—it even covered up the embarrassment from before.
Yu Sheng listened with a shocked expression. It was the first time he had ever heard of a building rear-ending another. Moreover, after the fierce battle, most of the boundary city had been protected intact by the Spirit Fox System, but the two embassies outside the battlefield had been attacked—what kind of traitors were these?!
“Ahem, let’s go inside first,” Marlene coughed, interrupting the somewhat awkward topic, and turned to the side in an inviting gesture. “The wing buildings will be repaired soon, and that area mainly consists of the observation deck and space laboratory. The doll printing room was unaffected and will not affect today’s repair plan.”
Upon hearing this, Yu Sheng immediately realized what was happening and quickly followed behind the other person.
They passed through the main hall of the mansion, and then, led by Marlene and Marys, walked down a long corridor adorned with numerous oil paintings. Along the way, Yu Sheng saw many low-level dolls at work, as well as "servo robots" like Marys—only clearly of a lower level and seemingly lacking the lively intelligence of Marys.
A Gothic mansion filled with a mysterious atmosphere, a living doll and a wind-up maid to guide the way, a deep and long corridor, ancient oil paintings, and faceless dolls and mechanical servants everywhere.
Yu Sheng thought this place was indeed very suitable for opening a themed horror house—no modifications were needed, just turn off the lights and set up a ticket seller at the entrance.
Then, the group arrived at the depths of the mansion and came to a place called the "Doll Printing Room".
The lights in the secret room came on, and Yu Sheng saw a large number of incomprehensible control devices and servo units arranged on both sides of the room. A huge "water tank" was placed on a platform in the center of the room, and silver-gray nanomachines were slowly surging in the water tank. A holographic projection in front of the water tank displayed dazzling data charts.
Yu Sheng, who had just walked in from the "Witch's Mansion," was a little bewildered by the scene in the room.
"...Isn't there something wrong with this art style?"
Marlene replied matter-of-factly, "No, that's how the doll printing room is."
Yu Sheng: "..."
He racked his brains for a while, but still couldn't figure out how to explain his astonishment to the living doll in front of him, so he simply gave up trying to explain.
Marlene then instructed the clockwork maid to adjust the parameters of the "printing device," and pointed to an alloy platform on the side of the sink: "Put Eileen's original body here, I'll check its condition first."
Hu Li nodded, walked over and with a "clang" (voiceover) pulled off his storage tail. He then shook it vigorously above the platform, and a pile of fragments began to fall onto the platform with a clatter.
Maris, who was busy working by the nano pool, saw this scene and her computer crashed.
Even the usually elegant and composed Marlene was instantly dumbfounded, and after two or three seconds she turned her head and asked, "Isn't there something wrong with this style?"
Yu Sheng felt that this sentence sounded familiar...
However, since she was an envoy sent by Alice's House, Marlene had seen all sorts of strange and unusual creatures in this universe. She was only surprised for a moment before she went over and easily restarted the clockwork maid who was in a malfunction. Then she and Yu Sheng arrived at the pile of doll remains.
The living doll silently watched the dead doll on the platform.
Eileen's body visibly tensed up.
Yu Sheng was also a little nervous because of the little doll. Seeing that Marlene hadn't spoken for a while, he cautiously asked, "...Isn't it a little too fragmented?"
Marlene opened her mouth, then forced out a sentence: "...A little."
Then she held back for a few more seconds, but finally couldn't help but say, "I did hear you say before that Eileen's original body was shattered by the Goddess of Omens, but you didn't say it was smashed to pieces!"
Upon hearing this, Yu Sheng quickly tried to smooth things over: "You can't say that. Look, there are still many large pieces. The limbs, torso, and head all have relatively complete structures. It's just that there are more fragments that fell off near the broken ends..."
“Theoretically, it shouldn’t be this broken… Even if the Alice doll disintegrates, it will retain most of its complete joint structure. Both the old and new generation bodies have a high degree of ‘toughness’,” Marlene frowned. “…It can only be said that the power of the ‘Other God’ is too strong. It seems to have exceeded the damage control limit of this body.”
Eileen, while tugging at Yu Sheng's hair, looked nervously at Marlene: "Then, can it still be fixed?"
Marlene thought about it carefully and nodded: "...Okay, but it may require more computing power and nanomachines. I need to completely reshape those shattered structures. Don't worry, that's not a problem—I have already stockpiled enough materials in advance."
Upon hearing this, Yu Sheng immediately breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good, as long as it can be repaired."
Eileen breathed a sigh of relief, but then thought of something else: "Oh, right, I remember you mentioned something called 'Alice's Key' before, but... I still can't remember it."
“It’s alright. Once you find the original body, you don’t need to worry about the key anymore. As long as you can activate this body, you will naturally regain your ‘key’,” Marlene waved her hand. “And I see you’ve also found your frying pan—with it, your chances of reconnecting to the Garden Network will be greatly increased.”
Eileen listened with a mixture of understanding and confusion. Although she didn't grasp the underlying principles, it was clearly a good thing, so she smiled happily.
Marlene then looked at the wind-up maid in front of the pool: "Marilyn, are you ready?"
"Yes, Miss Marlene—the nanomachines are ready."
A slight mechanical friction sound and a machine humming notification came from beneath the alloy platform.
Yu Sheng watched as the platform slowly rose, then was taken over by a complex set of robotic arms and sent to the airspace above the central "water tank." The silver-gray nanomachines began to surge, and the platform, piled with the remains of the dolls, descended and gradually sank into the viscous metallic "solution."
The doll's remains were completely submerged by the nanobots, and the various devices in the room began to hum. The parameters on the holographic projection in front of the sink kept updating, and the outline of a complete doll body reappeared—blue blocks representing the repair progress began to fill in the outline.
Maris pulled a cable from the side of her ear and connected it directly to the control panel, monitoring all system parameters and reporting the current situation simultaneously:
"Original body identification sequence read... Matching pool alignment... Alternate sequence number 85 is available."
"Importing base blueprint... Printing missing skeleton and critical structures."
"Repairing Alice's key, rewriting..."
"Starting to print missing skin..."
Hu Li stared wide-eyed at Yu Sheng, grabbing his arm with one hand and wagging his tail, his face filled with amazement: "Wow... Eileen, the process of how your body was created is much cooler than the previous ones! At least it looks pretty professional!"
Even Luna, who usually doesn't get along with Eileen, nodded in agreement: "Yeah, that's right."
Eileen was still tightly holding the handle of her frying pan with one arm, while grabbing Yu Sheng's head with the other: "Of course, I'm amazing!"
The little doll was so nervous that its body started to tremble.
Yu Sheng was afraid she would drop the pot on his feet.
Just as he was about to ask Marlene how long the repair process would take, the buzzing of the various devices around him began to gradually subside.
The whole process was faster than he had expected—and it seemed to go exceptionally smoothly.
The alloy platform that had been submerged in the water tank rose up again.
A blonde doll dressed in a Western-style dress lies quietly on the platform, its body intact, its eyes closed, as if asleep.
The doll printing room was very quiet.
Even Eileen, who is usually the most boisterous, quieted down at this moment.
Yu Sheng slowly walked to the platform and looked at the blonde doll lying on it—it actually had the same face as Eileen, but with different hair color and body shape, making it look very different from the familiar image in his memory.
The little doll jumped off Yu Sheng's shoulder, landed on the platform, stood beside her original body, stared at her face for a long time, and then looked up: "I, I told you, I'm 1.67 meters tall..."
“Hmm, you’re 1.67 meters tall,” Yu Sheng laughed, reaching out to pat the little doll’s head. “Now try going back to your new body.”
"Okay, okay!"
Eileen nodded nervously, placed the frying pan on the counter, then walked over and placed her hand on the forehead of her original body, beginning to try to directly transfer her consciousness.
A few seconds later, nothing happened.
She stood there blankly for a long time before turning her head and staring at Yu Sheng: "Yu Sheng, no, no reaction..."
(End of this chapter)
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