When the Cleaner program appeared for the third time and began repeatedly scanning her, Marin could finally confirm—something was not quite right.

The gray-white light image circulated in the surrounding darkness like a continuously wriggling, transforming mechanical snake, repeatedly scanning Marin's Mind body characteristics. The entire scanning process lasted about twenty seconds—a very normal operational procedure. Afterward, it seemed to have found nothing unusual and, like the two previous Cleaners, it turned and left, disappearing into the boundless chaos of the Deep Layer of the garden network.

Marin did not dare to act rashly, cautiously remaining in place.

But apart from the Cleaner program repeatedly coming to scan, it seemed that nothing else happened—her Mind body was not attacked, and she did not receive any risk warnings from the "Garden" system.

"Maris." In the darkness, she cautiously called her servo assistant.

"I'm here." A calm voice came from the dim light cluster.

"Check our connection environment."

"Checking... connection environment is normal, 'Alice Tree' pollution index is zero, all nodes in the garden network are unobstructed."

"From your perspective, is my Mind body running with any issues?"

"No issues at all, Miss Marlin, your Mind body is very healthy."

"But the Cleaners are repeatedly scanning me," Marin said with a hint of perplexity in her voice, "they seem to think I have a problem."

"Maybe there's a slight issue with the Cleaner program?" Maris analyzed, "After all, the Deep Layer network is very old, the Cleaner program has been operating here for a considerable long time..."

"This kind of thing has never happened before," Marin shook her head, "and besides, the Cleaner program has been iteratively updating, theoretically, there shouldn't be such repeated misjudgments."

As she spoke, she lowered her head, carefully observing her shell—this was not her body in the real world, but the projection of her Mind body in the garden network, from a certain perspective, this was her soul form as the "Alice Puppet."

Marin suddenly furrowed her brow.

It seemed she had discovered something, raised her hand to examine closely.

A faintly discernible fine thread was wrapped around her right wrist, fluttering in the chaotic network space, extending into the depths of nothingness.

"What is this thing..."

The living doll furrowed her brow, cautiously pinching the thread with her left hand, finding it as insubstantial as nothing, yet resilient when pulled twice, the part wrapped around her wrist was very solid, even seeming to have melded with her joint, impossible to remove.

The thin, black thread reminded her of Spider Silk.

Maris's light cluster immediately moved closer.

"It's said that Alice Puppets blessed with the highest level can observe the threads of the soul like the Puppet Progenitor, Miss Marlin, you..."

"It's not that," Marin shook her head before the other could finish, her expression unusually grave on her face, "it's something else, not sure when it attached. Could it be related to that little..."

Her words were cut short by the sudden appearance of another gray-white light image not far away: the Cleaner program appeared again.

Marin stood tensely in the dark, watching the light image approach, scan, then leave again seemingly very confused.

"It's scanning this thing," she finally understood, her eyes widening slightly as she looked at the black thread wrapped around her wrist, "the Cleaner program recognizes it as an intrusion, but for some reason, it hasn't triggered any further alerts."

Maris's light cluster flickered slowly in the dark: "...Why would such a phenomenon occur?"

"I don't know, the Cleaner program is usually very stringent, logically, once sensing an intrusion, even the Mind body of a higher puppet would be immediately expelled..." Marin's brow furrowed, her gaze fixed on the black thread wrapped around her wrist, "unless..."

"Unless?"

"Unless someone tampered with the Cleaner program in advance," Marin said gravely, "or, this 'Spider Silk' information characteristic sunk into this layer many years ago and was listed as exempt by the Cleaners."

Maris's light cluster flickered rapidly twice: "...Who could achieve such a thing?"

"...Perhaps, a puppet that went missing three thousand seven hundred years ago?"

Marin said softly, raising her hand to observe the direction in which the thread swayed.

She found that no matter how she adjusted her position, the "Spider Silk" extending from her wrist always pointed in the same direction.

After a slight hesitation, she headed in the direction the "Spider Silk" indicated.

Out of caution, whenever the Cleaner program approached, she and Maris would immediately stop, continuing only after the Cleaner had completed its meaningless scan.

They "walked" for a long time, even exceeding the generally recommended safe time limit.

"Miss Marlin, I must remind you, we are already in 'over-limit submersion,'" Maris's light cluster began to nag, "The data sedimentation area in the Deep Layer of the garden network will burden your Mind body greatly; even a higher puppet should not operate in this layer for long. The program imprint I accepted requires me to remind you every five minutes from now on..."

"Okay, received your reminder," Marin did not stop at all, instead, she sped up the processing and retrieval of surrounding information. She could feel her body in reality heating up, but so far all connection ports remained normal, "Help me watch the surroundings, if abnormal signals appear, notify me right away—but don't move by yourself."

"Okay, Miss Marin."

Fragments of debris appeared in the field of vision.

Marin slowed her steps and saw various sizes of pale fragments, drifting like deep-sea plankton in the chaos, continuously colliding and recombining.

These were useless data structures fallen from the upper network, being decomposed and reorganized at this layer. Some of their code might become part of the next iteration of the Cleaner.

A broken puppet arm drifted from the darkness, rolling slowly in the field of vision.

Marin frowned and stepped forward to inspect.

"Is it what you're looking for?" Maris's voice sounded from the side.

"No," Marin shook her head, "just a careless sister who accidentally fell centuries ago—she evacuated safely, this is just a residual image."

She let go of the puppet arm and looked again at the black spider silk on her wrist.

The spider silk was slowly dissipating—it was time-limited. After entering this network layer, the information carried by this spider silk had been decomposed by the "garden", and now it was at the brink of disappearing.

Marin had noticed this earlier, which is why she didn't follow Maris's advice to retreat immediately, as she was worried she wouldn't have this clue the next time she came in.

—Although this spider silk might be related to that little doll calling herself "Erin", from the little one's confused behavior, Marin suspected the trace was left unintentionally, and it might be a one-time thing.

"It should be right here..."

Marin frowned, looking at the spot almost transparent to the point of being indistinguishable that the spider silk was pointing to, only to find a chaotic shadow, much like the "void" areas of the Deep Layer network.

The spider silk completely dissipated.

But just before it vanished entirely, Marin noticed something floating in that chaotic shadow.

Without hesitation, she rushed forward, reaching towards the floating light and shadow—

In an instant, countless chaotic light and shadow scenes surged into her mind like a rogue tide, memories not belonging to her whistled through her mind!

She saw the ancient Tower, with fragmented tower structures floating in chaotic dimensional rifts, gigantic shadows sweeping past window slits of tilted spires, bathed in starlight at night;

She saw the scenery outside the Tower, a time-space rift slowly closing, investigators and Spirit Realm detectives hastily retreating, with lifeless bodies scattered around;

She also saw a blond figure, an Alice Puppet—the blond doll stood among the investigators and Spirit Realm detectives, facing the opposite direction of their retreat, looking up at the top of the Tower.

Marin felt her vision being drawn by some invisible force, forced to overlap with the gaze of that blond puppet, gradually turning towards where "she" was watching—she sensed immense danger, a chilling and destructive aura almost melting her Mind, converging and brewing at the Tower's top.

She subconsciously resisted this force, yet still uncontrollably turned her head, looking towards the top of the Tower.

Beyond layers of broken floors and walls, between spiral staircases twisted and intertwined like chaotic thorns, a scarlet gaze looked down.

"We can make a deal."

Marin felt she heard only a massive noise, but amidst the booming noise, she clearly understood the message conveyed by that scarlet gaze.

She was stunned, and immediately, another voice came from the direction of the blond puppet—

"Deal with your grandpa!"

Marin was taken aback, feeling her vision suddenly regain freedom, and instinctively looked back.

She saw the blond puppet raise a hand, a cold, menacing frying pan appeared in her hand, and in the next second, she marched towards the Tower.

Marin: "...?"

Noise roared from the Tower: "No, I mean we can discuss..."

"Discuss with your grandpa!"

"There might be a misunderstanding, those people accidentally hit on..."

"Misunderstand with your grandpa!"

The blond puppet shouted full of energy, stepping boldly into the air, her skirt fluttering, hair flying, the frying pan in her hand raised high, a golden light rushed towards the top of the Tower—

"Eat my pan, you big jerk!"

"Boom!"

The world changed color, thunder roared.

Before Marin lost consciousness, she had one thought: "No, sister... so brave?"

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