Chapter 575 Shrinkage
The mysterious data "black box" occupying a vast memory space, the abnormal calculation tasks that are constantly being carried out at the bottom of the mind, and the disturbed mental threads—Yu Sheng never expected that behind that seemingly confused, uncultured, and constantly nagging little doll, there were actually so many perplexing mysteries hidden, and all of this happened after the Boundary Bridge crisis had been resolved.
Even though the final fusion with the Goddess of Omens has been completed, why is such a huge mystery left behind? What exactly is inside that massive data structure?
Even Marlene couldn't give an answer.
But one thing is certain—Eileen said that after she rubbed a bunch of mass-produced husks, she felt her mind became a little "sharper"... and that's true.
Yu Sheng truthfully told the living doll lady in front of him about the situation.
Marlene nodded immediately upon hearing this: "That makes perfect sense."
As soon as she said it, she suddenly felt a little awkward—when did she become able to naturally consider the idea that "an Alice doll would become smarter after making four mass-produced bodies for herself" as a reasonable thing?
She frowned, puzzled, but a glance at Yu Sheng instantly dispelled her doubts—oh well, what exists has its reason, especially when it's related to a "hotel." These people used blood, clay, and superglue to repair the Alice doll; what could she say? She could only accept and submit to reality…
Yu Sheng didn't notice Marlene's change in expression. He just pondered and stroked his chin as he said, "Back then, I was worried that the Goddess of Omens would 'go out of control' with Eileen, so I had her stop expanding the puppet army. But now the threat of Omens has been eliminated, and it seems that the more mass-produced bodies she creates, the less mental stress she can reduce. So we can let her continue to make mass-produced puppets. But then we'll have to find a bigger place for those mass-produced puppets in the valley... The Nexus is almost full."
At this point, Yu Sheng waved his hand. These were things he would have to consider later, and there was no need to tell Marlene too much. However, another question suddenly popped into his head: "With such a large amount of 'abnormal data,' can Eileen still access the 'Garden Network' smoothly? She's been thinking about this a lot..."
“Marilyn has completed the initial testing and guidance, and I think there are no problems,” Marlene’s fingers brushed across the holographic projection in mid-air, and the demonstration model in the projection then returned to its dazzling array of graphs and data streams. “The anomalous data structure in her memory space is encased in an extremely robust ‘shell’ that will not interact with the outside world at all. Later, I will have Marlene build an additional security barrier outside that encapsulation shell to further ensure that it won’t malfunction…”
She paused for a moment, exhaled softly, and smiled gently.
"Rest assured, I know what 'going home' means to a lost doll. As long as it doesn't harm the Garden Network, I will do my best to bring Eileen back to us. 'Alice's Hut' has always tried its best to help every sister who wants to go home, no matter how much she has changed or how many things she has forgotten."
Yu Sheng sensed sincerity in the words of the living doll lady, but looking at her gentle and polite smile, he couldn't help but feel uneasy. He suddenly remembered something—it was true that Eileen longed to return to "Alice's Cottage," but her hasty attempt to reconnect to the garden network wasn't necessarily just about rejoining her people…
Because of her recent overly aggressive online arguments with idiots, her social media and gaming accounts are practically on a ban cycle—given this, Yu Sheng strongly suspects that Eileen may have her own unique understanding and demands regarding Garden Network…
...Holy crap, if I think about it this way, bringing Eileen into the Garden Network would probably shock the entire universe of Alice dolls.
Do you have any further questions?
Marlene's gentle voice came from the other end, and Yu Sheng immediately stopped his wild thoughts. He looked up at the elegant Alice doll in front of him, and after a long time, he still couldn't bring himself to say the sentence, "Eileen's quality may bring another kind of pollution to the Garden Network."
As an ancient organization with a long history and having witnessed all sorts of things throughout the universe, the Alice dolls shouldn't be so shocked by the appearance of a fully automated, roving troll on the internet... right?
"Ahem, well, I have no further questions for now," Yu Sheng coughed twice to cover his embarrassment, then glanced at the holographic projection beside him, "Has Eileen's examination finished?"
Marlene nodded: "We could have finished much earlier. We only spent extra time trying to figure out the 'abnormal data' in her memory."
“Alright,” Yu Sheng stood up from the tea table, “we should go pick her up now—Eileen isn’t a very patient person, and if we delay any longer she’ll start to get suspicious.”
The group left the lounge, but before returning to the "doll printing room," Yu Sheng stopped again in the corridor.
"Regarding those 'abnormal data,' we can only maintain the status quo for now, but..."
“I understand,” Marlene nodded gently after saying this. “Maintaining the status quo is just a temporary measure. Sooner or later we will have to figure out exactly what that thing is. Marlene and I will continue to analyze that mysterious ‘data package’ to see if we can find a way to crack its shell. In addition, I will also post a request for help on the Garden Network to see if any other sisters can think of a solution.”
She paused, then looked into Yu Sheng's eyes: "Before that, are you planning to tell Eileen the truth?"
Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then nodded seriously: "...I still need to tell her."
"Aren't you worried that she will..."
“She’ll worry and overthink things, but she’ll quickly accept it and return to normal. As long as she knows that I and the others are helping her find a solution, that’s fine,” Yu Sheng said. “In comparison, if Eileen finds out one day that we’ve been keeping such a big thing from her, she’ll be even more upset.”
Marlene pondered, "Is that her personality...?"
“Mmm,” Hu Li nodded repeatedly from the side, “Eileen is actually very simple. Just don’t lie to her. Otherwise, she can recover quickly no matter what happens.”
Luna: "Yes, that's right."
The door to the doll printing room opened.
Yu Sheng followed Marlene into the room and immediately saw the blonde doll sitting idly on the platform—Eileen still had the data cable in her mouth, maintaining the same motionless posture as before, but her expression was somewhat resigned to her fate, clearly she had had enough of sitting there.
Her 66.6-centimeter-tall frame was circling around Marys, muttering to herself as she went:
"When will it be finished? When will it be over? Was that space I just went to the Garden Network? When can I go there by myself...? Were those shadows that greeted me other sisters? How do I get their contact information? If I want to invite people to play games together, can I just use the Garden Network to find people? Do the other Alice dolls go on the Border Communications Forum? By the way, where did you buy that wind-up key on your back...? Which way does it turn? Can I turn it? If not, never mind, Yu Sheng said I can't touch other people's things... When will it be finished?"
Yu Sheng had only been inside for a short while when he felt his brain was about to boil. When he looked at Mary's face, he never expected to see such a lifeless expression on a robot's face.
Fortunately, Eileen finally saw Yu Sheng push the door open and come in.
"Ah! Yu Sheng!" The little doll's eyes lit up instantly, and she ran over and climbed onto Yu Sheng's shoulder with practiced ease. "Yu Sheng, let me tell you, Marys is so boring. She won't let me touch her wind-up mechanism, she always has a stern face when she talks, and she won't tell me how the test results went... But the Garden Network is really interesting! She took me for a walk around the Upper Network, and there were so many people there! They were all Alice dolls! I even greeted them..."
The little doll chattered on and on, then started reaching out to ruffle Yu Sheng's hair, its lively energy leaving Marlene, who was standing next to it, completely bewildered.
“The checkup is over,” Yu Sheng said with a smile to Eileen as he skillfully dealt with the little claws scratching at his head. “Your body is fine, but there’s something ‘special’ about your mind after merging with the Goddess of Omens. Let’s talk about it when we get home.”
Eileen immediately perked up: "Okay!"
Then the blonde girl on the platform quickly spat out the data cable she was holding in her mouth, jumped to the ground, and walked towards Yu Sheng.
Yu Sheng smiled and extended his hand to her.
The next second, blonde Eileen shrank by a few centimeters.
At first, no one reacted, except Luna who tilted her head in confusion. But soon, the blonde doll's body shrank by more than ten centimeters under everyone's gaze—such a big change obviously could not escape anyone's eyes, and even Eileen herself stopped in confusion.
She tilted her head and noticed that her perspective was changing.
In the blink of an eye, she was only a little over a meter tall.
"...Holy crap!" The little doll (blonde) finally reacted, letting out a scream as she lunged at Yu Sheng, "Yu...Yu Sheng! I'm shrinking, holy crap—"
A petite body bumped into Yu Sheng, then slid down and clung to his leg like an octopus, with an ease and familiarity etched into his muscle memory.
Yu Sheng looked down and saw a small blond head staring at him with wide eyes, looking completely bewildered.
Yu Sheng was stunned. Even without a ruler at hand, he was certain that the little thing hanging on his leg was 66.6 centimeters tall.
"Wait... what's going on?!" Even he was dumbfounded. "It was fine just now, how could it shrink after taking just a few steps?!"
Eileen stared wide-eyed at Yu Sheng, then at the silly fox and C-shaped button beside her, lowered her head to gather her emotions, and then burst into tears.
(End of this chapter)
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