After finishing the grilled fish, Lingdang had a brief episode of the "Old World Nightmare Syndrome" again. This time it was even shorter, and she woke up on her own without anyone's help.
The fox girl's half-ready Clearing Mind Spell (enhanced version) wasn't used.
She looked a bit disappointed.
Now, Lingdang is nestled in the large deck chair Xu Jiali brought over, enjoying the breeze in the valley and fell into a deep sleep.
"Judging by the situation, she should be almost recovered," Xu Jiali said, placing another stool next to the deck chair and watching the sleeping cat-eared girl, "at most, one or two more episodes and it'll be over."
"Has she ever had this illness before?" Yu Sheng casually asked.
"No, her spiritual energy power has always been stable. This is the first time, and I don't know what's causing it," Xu Jiali shook her head, "Besides, the incidence of this syndrome is very low now. Most spiritual ability users may not experience it once in their lifetime."
Yu Sheng nodded thoughtfully, and Lingdang seemed to have heard the commotion around her in her sleep. Her pointed cat ears twitched twice and she muttered while half-asleep, "Don't touch my can... not even the boss..."
Lingdang seemed to really need rest; she probably hasn't slept well these past few days. So Yu Sheng decided not to disturb her further and left the riverside with Hu Li and the others.
"Savior, do you want some grilled fish?" The fox girl approached with half of her uneaten grilled fish, smiling with crescent eyes.
Yu Sheng quickly waved his hand, "I really can't eat anymore, I've been eating with you all morning."
"Oh, then I'll eat it all myself!"
Hu Li swiftly finished the grilled fish and then looked up at Yu Sheng, who seemed to be pondering something, and thought for a moment, "Savior, are you going to message Baili Qing?"
Yu Sheng hesitated for a second, "… I won't this time. If there's really something up, she should reach out to me."
Perched on his shoulder, Erin suddenly perked up, "Oh my! I must thank your ancestors on behalf of Baili Qing's ancestors!"
Even Luna, who was daydreaming along the way, nodded in agreement, "Yeah, right."
Yu Sheng: "… You guys are a bit excessive, aren't you? She's the Special Service Director, why does it feel like I'm exploiting an employee…"
Erin blinked her eyes, looking ready to retort, but just as she was about to speak, she suddenly paused, tilting her head as if hearing something.
A moment later, she snapped back excitedly, gripping Yu Sheng's hair, "Yu Sheng, Yu Sheng! Marin sent a message! She's coming to install broadband in my Puppet City!"
"Broadband..." for a second, Yu Sheng didn't get it, but quickly realized, "Oh, that Garden Network node device? So soon!"
As he spoke, he directly opened a large door, which led right to the open space in front of No. 66 Wutong Road.
The familiar black luxury car was already parked on the open ground, followed by a van with the logo of Xingjie Transport (Interstellar Express Transport Company) printed on the side.
At this moment, Marin was getting out of that black luxury car, and saw the newly opened portal and Yu Sheng with his group standing at the entrance.
She paused for a moment, instinctively glanced back at the van she brought along, then looked back at Yu Sheng, just as she was about to say something, Yu Sheng closed the portal. Then he opened it again with force, creating a door plus large enough for the van to drive through directly.
On the other side was the scenery of Erin's Puppet City.
Yu Sheng: "Just drive through, there's plenty of space on the other side."
Marin was full of admiration, "This ability is really convenient."
Then both vehicles drove through the door opened by Yu Sheng, arriving directly in front of the Puppet City by the Black Forest.
When the vehicles came to a stop, the spring-loaded maid Maris opened the side compartment of the van.
Several faceless low-level puppet attendants jumped out of the van first, and Yu Sheng then curiously moved to the front of the van to take a peek inside.
He didn't see the expected complex equipment, nor were there any components that he could associate with the "Alice Tree." Inside the van was just a square silver-gray cube, with blue light gliding along its edges and a fine light flow inside it, giving the metallic object an incredible transparency.
"… This is the Alice Tree?" Yu Sheng asked in surprise, turning his head.
"This is its form before 'unfolding'—you'll soon understand,"
Marin smiled but didn't elaborate further, while beside her, Maris was already directing the puppet attendants to unload the cube from the van.
The cube was placed on a small anti-gravity transport platform, floating about a dozen centimeters off the ground with a gentle humming sound.
The installation site for the Alice Tree had already been designated on a piece of open ground next to the antique shop in Puppet City. Erin had already cleared a path from the city gate into the city and had specially lit the street lamps along the way to indicate the route.
The house is about to receive a "large item," and the little things seemed particularly excited, even specially arranging for a large group of idle mass-produced puppets to play the role of curious onlookers in the city.
From a distance, Yu Sheng could see many little heads poking out from the doors and windows on either side of the street, along with mass-produced puppets waving colorful little flags standing by the roadside.
When Maris and her attendants transported the Alice Tree components into the city center, a large group of mass-produced puppets emerged from who knows where, each holding a fireworks tube almost as tall as themselves—Yu Sheng saw this and didn't even have time to stop them before hearing a series of bangs, with the mass-produced puppets tumbling all over the place…
Colorful confetti flew, Erin dolls crawled chaotically on the ground, red-eyed little dwarfs waved flags by the roadside, and heads with dead fish eyes poked out from the windows of nearby buildings—truth be told, Yu Sheng knew Erin had good intentions, but it would have been better if she hadn't tried.
The scene was slightly departed from the world of the living, but it was already extremely eerie.
Even the spring-loaded maid Maris, a servo robot, found the scene a bit unsettling, checking her warranty terms multiple times along the way, while Malin glanced at Erin several times before finally speaking up, "Sister, are you interested in a planet-level theme park project with a puppet horror theme?"
Erin looked delighted, "Sure, sure."
Yu Sheng let out a long sigh, "What a great idea, can you just let me have some peace of mind, we don't have enough people for you to wreak havoc on..."
Hu Li's eyes lit up halfway through hearing the conversation, "Dessert? What dessert?"
Even Luna sighed this time…
Maris quietly approached her mistress, looking at the seemingly unreliable bunch in front of her, and couldn't help but mutter, "Miss Malin, can this really connect with the Lost Home?"
"Well, they've made the connection anyway," Malin's tone carried a hint of resignation, "From a symbolic standpoint, maybe they are exactly the kind of people who can establish a connection with the Lost Home."
"...I don't understand."
"It means the Lost Home might also be a place with unique talents and spirits."
Maris seemed to ponder this, but it didn't delay her work; after the Alice Tree components were delivered to the target location, she began directing the puppet attendants to unload the silver-grey cube.
Yu Sheng watched as this spring-loaded maid pulled a cable from the back of her neck and connected it directly to a recess on the surface of the cube.
A faint humming sound emanated from the cube, and Maris's eyes quickly became covered with a layer of faint light, the brilliance in her eyes flickered, then vents on her back suddenly opened, emitting hot air.
Marin saw this and quietly muttered, "I really might need to upgrade her cooling system again..."
Meanwhile, under Maris's activation and adjustment, the silver-grey cube swiftly underwent changes.
Yu Sheng saw its edges begin to "melt."
Soon, the entire surface of the cube started to wriggle, the low humming turned into the strange sound of a viscous substance flowing and shaping, with the lights that had been moving across the surface and interior of the cube dimming and dispersing quickly.
Maris disconnected the cable.
The moment the cable was removed, the cube "collapsed."
It transformed into a wriggling silver-grey "sludge," a rapidly differentiating and reassembling cluster of nanoparticles.
Then, the Alice Tree "grew" out of this heap of silver-grey "sludge."
First, a large framework of crisscrossed structures appeared, followed by cables and branches of unknown function running through the framework, like flesh growing among bones, forming a peculiar "tree" that seemed both plant-like and mechanical, rising from the ground in a few minutes, towering in front of everyone.
It was much smaller compared to the "tree" in Malin's mansion, but in Erin's Puppet City, it was still a giant towering over houses.
Enough to provide rest for many mass-produced Erin dolls under the tree.
The little puppets ran under the tree, looking up, necks craning further and further, as if about to tip themselves over.
"Wow..." she exclaimed in a tiny voice, then, eyes filled with excitement, turned to Yu Sheng, "There's a tree in C-type Buckle City, now there's one in my city too!"
Yu Sheng: "?"
Honestly, most of the time, he couldn't understand the subtle competitiveness of this little thing. Is this something to compete for?
Yu Sheng shook his head, turning to Marin, "So what next? Just 'plant' the tree here? How does it 'connect' to the antique shop next door, run a line over?"
"No need," Malin said with a smile, "The Alice Tree will automatically match with any information sources in range pointing to the Garden Network and Alice Puppet, adapting upon initial activation."
Yu Sheng listened in wonder, marveling, "This thing is really convenient…"
Comments