Accompanied by the last few rhythmic humming sounds, the giant "Alice Tree" that seemed to have grown mechanically completed the final step of self-inspection.
It was fully awakened and had completed all environmental setups.
A large group of production puppets began clapping at nearby intersections, while some puppets waved small flags from the rooftops with great effort. A few waved so hard that they fell off the rooftops; three fell into the ditch, and two got stuck in the trees.
The fox girl grabbed the iron rod she had used to barbecue earlier, went over to poke down the two dangling production puppets from the trees, and then went to rescue those unlucky ones who had fallen into the ditch. Marin, meanwhile, had somehow pulled out a data terminal, standing under the Alice Tree, observing the data with an increasingly amazed expression.
Yu Sheng saw this and displayed a curious expression: "How is it? Did the Alice Tree recognize this pile of stuff Erin made herself?"
"Not only recognized it," Marin said, unable to hide the surprise in her tone, "I've never seen such a high waveform compatibility... The data processing speed of small terminals originally cannot be compared to standard Alice Trees, but now this small tree is operating at a speed close to a medium node, as if..."
She hesitated for a moment before finding the right words: "As if this tree was originally designed to take root here..."
"So can we now contact the Lost Home?" the fox girl sauntered over, with several production puppets hanging from her big tail, looking like a Christmas tree. "How does it work?"
"...I'm not sure, Erin might need to try," Marin said, her gaze falling on the pile of Erin's golden-haired essence, "You go near the 'tree', connect to the Garden Network, and then call Lady Alice using the encrypted channel 1. If channel 1 doesn't respond, switch to channel 6—these two channels are specifically for communications with the highest nodes."
"Got it." Erin immediately walked over, but halfway there remembered something and waved to a nearby spot.
A dusty, somewhat messy stone orb immediately rushed over from the street corner, orbiting around her head.
Marin was taken aback: "…What is this thing?"
"It's Erin's satellite," Luna said, speaking slowly.
Hu Li added: "She uses it to go through walls."
Marin: "…When was this setting added?"
"Better stop adding things," Yu Sheng finally waved his hand, saying as he moved forward to take the stone orb away from Erin's head, "You'd better not carry this, it's not from the same system as your Garden Network, it might scramble the signal."
Erin thought it over, agreeing with Yu Sheng's thought.
Then she went to the base of the Alice Tree, sat down on it, leaned against the trunk, and closed her eyes.
The elegant town, the mechanical fantasy style tree, the clear sky among the tree canopy, and the golden-haired puppet closing her eyes and leaning against the tree—this scene suddenly made Yu Sheng feel a sense of melancholy—
This little thing is so much nicer when she doesn't talk...
Then after a little while, Hu Li finally couldn't resist poking Luna's arm: "Did she fall asleep?"
Just as she said this, Erin suddenly opened her eyes.
"Silly fox, which of your eyes saw me sleeping? I'm networking immersively here!"
Yu Sheng immediately stepped forward: "How's it, how's it? Did you make contact?"
"No," Erin looked a bit disappointed, "I called in the network as Marin instructed for ages, but only noise came back..."
She then suspiciously looked up at Marin: "Hey, sister, this thing you brought isn't broken, right? I remember your nano-swarm doesn't stick..."
If Marin had lungs, she would be about to faint: "…"
"This part is over, this part is over," Yu Sheng hurriedly intervened, diverting the attention of the little puppet, "The equipment definitely isn't broken, Marin just tested it, and you can use it to connect to the Garden Network—that in itself shows there's no problem! Communication issues might be from the Lost Home side..."
"Maybe they're busy on that side and can't connect?" Hu Li speculated, "Anyway, we've increased the node strength here, they might have already received the signal, so let's wait—Erin, leave a production machine here, and shout online from time to time."
Erin thought it over and found it reasonable.
So a dazed production puppet jumped down from Hu Li's tail, walked to the base of the Alice Tree, lay in place against the trunk, pretending to be crashed.
Yu Sheng looked at this scene, then glanced at the production puppet still sitting dumbly in the open space at the antique shop in the distance, suddenly felt that maybe they should put some signboards in conspicuous places in the valley—to tell passersby that if they see production puppets mysteriously crashed in place, don't move them rashly, they might not need help, perhaps Erin deliberately placed them as cameras, touching them might get you bitten...
…
At the same time, in the Boundary City Center, inside the Council Tower.
With somewhat distorted, somewhat strange notification sounds, the elevator chamber began to descend. Baili Qing stood in the chamber, face as heavy as water, seemingly deep in thought.
Numbers on the elevator display screen/holographic projection/magic illusion kept jumping, the chamber sometimes showing a silvery-white metal structure, sometimes covered with strange crystal clusters, sometimes revealing a stone platform covered with runes—as if traversing different times and spaces every moment, constantly changing its "setting" and "perception filter."
A pair of virtual eyes floated down from the chamber walls, hovering beside Baili Qing, even though they were just eyes, they showed a somewhat tense appearance.
"Sis...sis, do I really have to go too? Didn't we agree not to bring me..."
"No choice, I just left and the council leader specifically asked to see your current state—he also said if you don't see him, he'll come looking for you."
"…"
Baili Xue suddenly fell silent.
But her silence did not last long.
"Still going down, still going down, sister, I'm getting nervous—hey, do you think Kant and the Director might have already died down there?"
Baili Qing looked expressionless: "Why don't you wait until we arrive and say that to their faces?"
Baili Xue instantly fell silent again.
The elevator floor indicator quickly showed it had reached floor 0—the speed remained unchanged, continuing its rapid descent.
A somewhat distorted chime rang in their ears, as several voices overlapped:
"Elevator/platform… descending/returning/backward… Critical layer… Reaching/fault pit bottom…"
Accompanied by the elevator's final announcement, the cabin finally experienced a jolt of deceleration, as Baili Qing and Baili Xue arrived at the "deepest floor" accessible by this elevator.
The flickering magical projection showed symbols in constant change, no longer displaying any recognizable numbers.
The elevator doors opened, and Baili Qing stepped out of the cabin.
A boundless dark space unfolded before her eyes.
Before her lay fragmented ground, the torn earth transformed into countless shattered, floating islands, with streams of light traversing through the darkness, occasionally illuminating the distance. In the visible range, one could see some suspicious shadows standing on the broken ground—like remnants of buildings, yet also resembling twisted, malformed giant skeletons.
Some even looked like human figures stretched to the brink of breaking.
At first glance, this place might remind one of the Special Service Bureau Headquarters Building's unique floor N-level, yet it was drastically different from N-level.
N-level was merely extremely quiet and lonely, but here, the space was filled with an atmosphere of disorder and unease. Those shadows, sometimes illuminated by the streams of light, seemed ready to come alive at any moment, turning into creatures crawling upward along this dark abyss.
Baili Xue was already clinging to Baili Qing, shivering at her stomach area.
She never used to be like this.
"Good, stay close like this, don't leave my side," Baili Qing nodded, speaking as she walked forward, "If you see anything suspicious greeting you, close your eyes immediately."
"Okay... okay!"
Baili Qing walked a stretch of fractured stone path, and fine silver scales had unknowingly appeared on her cheeks and arms, her eyes beginning to show the dragon-like vertical pupils.
After walking a bit further, two figures finally appeared in her view.
One was a middle-aged man in a suit jacket, the other an old man with a hunchback.
Kant and the "Director."
Yet their current appearance differed from how they looked in the Council Tower.
Kant's skin had an unusual dark red hue, his eyes glowed with a magma-like shimmer, and his previously sparse hair had grown unusually dense, even reducing that signature fatigue in his face.
The Director's appearance had little change, except he leaned on a thick cane, his back still hunched, his face still aged, yet his eyes appeared extraordinarily bright.
Baili Qing came before them, and Kant grinned, showing a smile: "Ah, the Colorless Dragon has arrived."
Tiny sparks spewed from the corners of his mouth, and the air around bore the scent of sulfur.
"Handling the nightmare syndrome report delayed me a bit," Baili Qing remarked casually, "How's the situation?"
"Just confirmed that a stable rift has formed," the Director nodded, raising the thick cane to point at the edge of the broken ground, "Below here."
"Bad news."
Baili Qing spoke indifferently, while leaning forward to take a look down.
Initially, all she saw was darkness, and even with dragon-like superior vision, she couldn't discern anything from it.
But through mere two or three seconds of "observation," her "cognition" established a connection with the darkness, and she began to "detect" the existence of a rift.
Like solidified lightning, a twisted faint light structure floated in the abyss below. The edges of the solidified light appeared slightly trembling and blurred, as if ready to expand or have something crawl out at any moment.
"When I last checked, it wasn't like this," Kant said slowly beside, his voice low and accompanied by the crackling of flames, "There was only a very unstable rift at the time, and it wasn't located here."
Baili Qing turned back: "So, there's possibly going to be a second stable rift forming anytime soon?"
Kant spread his hands.
"...Well, even worse news."
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