As soon as Marin uttered the word "sister," Yu Sheng immediately noticed Erin's tense body relaxing a little—the living doll's relief was visible to the naked eye.

It seems this little thing isn't completely heartless.

From an inconspicuous angle, Marin slightly turned her head towards Yu Sheng, and the two exchanged a quick glance.

Erin had already stood up, excitedly grabbing the hand of the living doll in front of her: "Really! Sister! I've always said I'm an Alice Puppet, I've been an Alice Puppet my whole life, and yet people don't believe me—it's always your own kind that gets you!"

Marin was being shaken like a spin-dryer by the little dwarf in front of her, quickly grabbing her own wrist with her other hand as she spoke: "Calm down, calm down, my wrist isn't sturdy..."

"Oh, oh, I forgot," Erin quickly released the other's hand upon realizing, watching the other inspecting their hand joints yet couldn't resist babbling, "Your hand really needs some fixing, oh, why don't you have Yu Sheng make you a new one—let me tell you, my body is mixed with Spiritual Fox Mysterious Iron and Exotic Building Materials, usually charged with 220 volts, in emergencies I can even feed off those immortal's lightning tribulations..."

Marin seemed to be stunned again.

But this time her daze was very brief, returning to her senses in less than half a second, observing Erin while casually saying: "That's very sturdy... Can you let me see the painting behind you?"

"The painting?" Erin was taken aback, instinctively turning her head to look at Yu Sheng, seeing him nod subtly before turning around to take down the painting frame from her back, struggling to lift it with both hands and handing it to the living doll opposite her, "Hey, alright... be careful, I'm synced with this painting on perception, when Yu Sheng threw me down from the second floor back then..."

This little thing holds quite a grudge.

Marin didn't say a word, just carefully examining the ancient and elegant painting in front of her, her gaze falling on the stuffed teddy bear sitting on the chair in the painting.

"What's the deal with this bear?"

"I don't know either, since I have memories it's been sealed with me in the painting," Erin scratched her head, "only vaguely remember it seemed to have some sense a long, long time ago, but later couldn't communicate anymore—when I was in the painting with it, it would occasionally giggle mindlessly, but once I came out it quieted down a lot."

Marin slightly frowned, fingers gently brushing over the painting's rough surface.

Erin seemed to have thought of something, suddenly showing a bit of unease, watching the adult doll's expression as she quietly reaffirmed: "I really am an Alice Puppet, right?"

"...Without a doubt," Marin smiled, eyes on the little doll's direction yet the focus seemingly not entirely on Erin, "you are part of the Alice Puppet, just that a 'change' has occurred unexpectedly."

"Can it still be fixed?" Erin quickly asked, then paused, raising her hand to gesture at herself, "You see, I'm like this now, only so tall, can only use these temporary shells—Yu Sheng has thought of many ways, but couldn't solve this. Do you think my situation can be helped if going back to the Alice Garden? Why don't you take me back to have a look?"

Marin's actions abruptly paused, looking up at the little doll: "Take you back to Alice Garden?"

"Yes, Alice Puppets all come from the 'Garden', getting into trouble outside they still return there to reshape their shells, that's what I remember..."

"Alice Matrix Network—code name 'Garden'," Marin's expression became serious, staring into the little doll's eyes, "'Garden' isn't a place you can 'return' to in a physical sense, it can only be linked through an Alice Secret Key and broadcast nodes throughout the Universe... Do you mean for me to help you reconnect to the network?"

Erin's expression froze.

She stood on the coffee table, dazed for quite a while, then slowly lifted her hand to scratch her head, muttering quietly after a long pause: "Is, is that so?"

She turned her head, blankly staring at Yu Sheng: "Yu Sheng, is it like that?"

Yu Sheng didn't respond with the usual "how would I know," instead wrapping his arm around Erin and lifting her off the coffee table, placing her on his lap: "Seems to be just a technical detail that's a bit off."

He looked up again: "Miss Marin, can you help her reconnect to that network?"

"...It's difficult, judging by Erin's appearance, she should have already forgotten her 'Alice Secret Key', this key is recorded directly in the soul at the moment of our birth and is uniquely bound from birth to death, even between sister Alice Puppets there is no permission to interfere or read another's key, plus..."

Yu Sheng and Erin spoke in unison: "Plus?"

"Moreover, hundreds of years ago, the Alice Mother closed its direct connection with the 'Garden', now the authentication rules of the Garden Matrix are even stricter than before."

"Alice Mother... is what Erin usually refers to as the 'Puppet Progenitor', one of the Ancient Saints?" Yu Sheng was suddenly unable to hide his shock, "She shut down the connection with the Garden? Why?"

Even Erin who was in a daze suddenly reacted, the little doll nearly bouncing up: "Something happened to the Puppet Progenitor?!"

"No, the Puppet Progenitor is fine, still regularly sending peace signals, it's just her and other Ancient Saints are now at the borders of the perceivable universe—we don't know the exact circumstances but the Ancient Saints should be carrying out a very important task, hence severed most of the links with 'within the borders'."

Erin seemed slightly relieved, dragging out an "oh" but immediately furrowed her brow: "Once again unknown situation... that Ironclad Expression says the same. What exactly have the Ancient Saints gone to do—doesn't anyone wonder?"

"The boundary of the known universe—what happens there shouldn't carelessly be transmitted 'inside'," Marin said immediately with a serious expression. "Information beyond the system boundary poses high risks to the system; any information from that side may have meme pollution—a term called 'super system event' refers to this kind of incident."

Erin scratched her head again.

This knowledge had completely exceeded her ability to process.

Yu Sheng felt a furry tail poking his arm, and Hu Li leaned closer, whispering, "… Weren't Alice Puppets supposed to be kindergarten correspondence courses?"

Yu Sheng maintained a stern expression, thinking to himself that Erin's special situation obviously couldn't be judged by common sense, but after holding back for a long time, he still blurted out, "Maybe it's the difference between a big class and a small class."

It seemed Erin didn't notice what Yu Sheng and Hu Li were whispering about.

She sat down on Yu Sheng's leg, her little eyebrows furrowed, as if still trying hard to think.

She seemed to be attempting to comb through her memory, looking for details about the "Garden," or recalling what her "Alice Secret Key" was. She thought for a long time and mumbled to herself, "Did I really remember wrong? Why can't I recall anything..."

Then she looked up again, gazing at the large puppet opposite her.

"Then... what about Alice's Cottage? Did it also go to the border with the Puppet Progenitor? What about the other sisters? I clearly remember... well, even if I remembered wrong, how do people reconstruct their bodies when needed? People often have body damages..."

"The Doll Printing Room," Marin replied. "Every external outpost will have one, and I have one on my side too—when Alice Puppets suffer fatal injuries, indeed, they return to the 'Garden,' but that is to upload consciousness to the matrix network, and then regenerate through the Doll Printing Room. Conditions permitting, it's possible to skip the uploading process and directly disassemble and transfer the body to the printing slot for repair. I previously... anyway, in a certain sense, your memory isn't entirely wrong, but should only have some discrepancies, mixing up the concept of 'Garden' and 'Reconstructing'."

Erin listened in a muddled manner, understood in a muddled manner, and after a while finally roughly understood what the other person was saying: "So, that 'Doll Printing Room' you mentioned..."

"The prerequisite for using it is to connect to the 'Garden'," Marin said calmly, looking into the eyes of the little puppet.

Erin visibly became dejected.

Hu Li leaned over and picked up another Erin from the sofa, wrapping the little puppet with her tail.

"At least you finally contacted other sisters," she said to Erin, "Your greatest goal was to contact the organization, wasn't it? Now the organization is found, and the situation of the Puppet Progenitor is confirmed. You can also talk to Miss Marin if anything happens—it's just that the body can't recover for the moment, but you have two regiment's worth of body, and haven't you already gotten used to it?"

Erin was stunned by Hu Li's rapid-fire statements, hesitating after a few seconds to look up: "Is, is that so?"

"Definitely."

Hu Li smiled gently and vigorously rubbed the puppet's head in her arms.

The little guy was rubbed dizzy: "Silly fox, don't fool me. I'm telling you..."

Hu Li didn't speak, just sneaked a glance at Yu Sheng, her big ears on her head twitching.

Yu Sheng smoothly tucked the other Erin on his leg into Hu Li's pile of tails, then naturally stood up: "Oh right, Miss Marin, I have a few other technical details to inquire about, regarding deep space navigation..."

"Of course." Marin smiled faintly, nodding quite naturally, then stood up.

Yu Sheng directly took this living doll upstairs.

"...Is it really an Alice Puppet?"

Looking back at the direction of the stairs, Yu Sheng asked straight to the point.

"Yes," Marin nodded lightly, "I'm not just comforting or appeasing her."

Yu Sheng caught the implication of her words: "...How much truth?"

"About half."

"And the other half?"

"It's terrifying darkness."

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