Alien Hotel.

Chapter 482 Yes or No
As soon as Marlene uttered the word "sister," Yu Sheng immediately noticed that Eileen's tense body relaxed a little—the little doll's relaxation was visible to the naked eye.

It seems this little thing isn't entirely heartless.

From an inconspicuous angle, Marlene turned her head slightly toward Yu Sheng, and the two quickly exchanged glances.

Eileen had already stood up and excitedly grabbed the hand of the live doll in front of her: "Really! Girl! I told you I was the Alice doll. I've been the Alice doll my whole life, but people never believed me. It's true that family understands family!"

Marlene was being shaken around like a dryer by the little guy in front of her. She quickly grabbed her wrist with her other hand and said, "Calm down, calm down, my wrist isn't strong..."

"Oh, I forgot," Eileen quickly released the other's hand, and seeing him examining his hand joints, she couldn't help but start nagging again, "Your hand really needs some work done, or you could ask Yu Sheng to make you a new one—let me tell you, my body was made from spirit fox iron mixed with exotic building materials, it normally charges at 220, and in emergencies it can even catch the lightning tribulations of those gods..."

Marlene seemed stunned again.

But this time she only stayed there for a short time, less than half a second before she came to her senses. While observing Eileen, she casually said, "That's very sturdy... Can I see the painting behind you?"

"A painting?" Eileen was taken aback, but immediately turned to look at Yu Sheng. Seeing him nod slightly, she turned around and took the picture frame off her back, laboriously holding it out with both hands to the living doll opposite her. "Hey, okay... be careful, I'm in sync with this painting. Yu Sheng threw me off the second floor back then..."

This little thing is quite vengeful.

Marlene didn't speak, but carefully examined the simple and elegant oil painting in front of her, her gaze falling on the plush teddy bear sitting in the chair in the painting.

What's going on with this bear?

“I don’t know either. It’s been sealed inside the painting with me as long as I can remember,” Eileen scratched her head. “I only vaguely remember that it seemed to have some sense a long, long time ago, but it couldn’t communicate anymore. When I was in the painting with it, it would giggle from time to time, but it became much quieter after I came out of the painting.”

Marlene frowned slightly, her fingers lightly brushing across the rough surface of the oil painting.

Eileen, lost in thought, suddenly looked a little uneasy. While observing the giant doll's expression, she whispered and confirmed again, "I really am the Alice doll, right?"

“…Without a doubt,” Marlene smiled, her gaze fixed on the little doll, but her focus seemed not entirely on Eileen, “you are a member of the Alice dolls, only that some unexpected changes have occurred.”

"Is there any hope for treatment?" Eileen asked quickly, then paused, pointing to herself as she explained, "Look, I'm only this tall now, so I can only use these temporary bodies—Yu Sheng has tried many methods, but he just can't solve this. Do you think there might be a solution if I go back to Alice Garden? Why don't you take me back to see him?"

Marlene suddenly stopped and looked up at the little doll: "Shall I take you back to Alice Garden?"

“Yes, Alice dolls all come from the ‘garden,’ right?” Eileen nodded vigorously. “If something happens outside, they go back there to have their bodies rebuilt, that’s how I remember it…”

“The Alice Matrix Network—codenamed ‘The Garden’,” Marlene’s expression turned serious as she looked into the little doll’s eyes. “‘The Garden’ is not a place you can physically ‘go back’ to. It can only be linked through the Alice Key and broadcast nodes that are spread throughout the universe… Do you mean you want me to help you reconnect to the network?”

Eileen froze.

She stood on the coffee table for a long while, then slowly scratched her head, finally muttering softly, "Yes, is that so?"

She turned her head and stared blankly at Yu Sheng: "Yu Sheng, is that so?"

Instead of replying to the little one with "How would I know?" as usual, Yu Sheng reached out and picked Eileen up from the coffee table, placing her on his lap: "It seems there was just a slight error in the technical details."

As he spoke, he looked up again: "Miss Marlene, could you help her reconnect to that network?"

"...It's difficult. Judging from Eileen's appearance, she has probably forgotten her 'Alice Key.' This thing is directly recorded in our souls at the moment of our birth, and it is uniquely bound from birth to death. Even sisters who are both Alice dolls do not have the authority to interfere with or read each other's keys, and besides..."

Yu Sheng and Eileen said in unison, "Besides?"

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

"The Alice Mother... is that the 'Ancestor of the Dolls' that Eileen usually talks about, one of the ancient Holy Spirits?" Yu Sheng couldn't hide his astonishment. "She shut down the connection with the Garden? Why?"

Even Eileen, who had been in a daze, suddenly realized what was happening, and the little doll practically jumped up: "The ancestor of dolls is in trouble?!"

"No, the Ancestor of the Dolls is fine. She still sends out peace signals regularly. It's just that she and the other ancient spirits are currently at the edge of the knowable universe. We don't know the specifics, but the ancient spirits are probably carrying out a very important mission, so they have severed most of their connections with the 'inner world'."

Eileen seemed slightly relieved, letting out a drawn-out "Oh," but then frowned again: "Why is it always 'the situation is unclear'... Even that expressionless guy said so. What on earth is the Ancient Holy Spirit doing—isn't anyone curious?"

“The boundaries of the knowable universe—things that happen there can’t be easily transmitted back to the ‘inside’,” Marlene said immediately with a serious expression. “Intelligence outside the system’s boundaries poses a high risk to the system. Any information coming from there could be contaminated with memes—there’s a term called ‘supersystem event,’ which refers to this kind of incident.” Eileen scratched her head again.

This knowledge was completely beyond her ability to process.

Yu Sheng felt a fluffy tail poke his arm. Hu Li leaned over and whispered, "...Didn't they say that Alice dolls are all kindergarten correspondence courses?"

Yu Sheng kept a straight face, thinking to himself that Eileen's special situation could not be judged by common sense, but after a long time he still blurted out: "It may be the difference between the senior class and the junior class."

Eileen seemed completely oblivious to what Yu Sheng and Hu Li were whispering about.

She sat down on Yu Sheng's lap, her small brows furrowed, as if she was still trying to think.

She seemed to be trying to sort through her memories, searching for details about the "garden" or recalling what her "Alice's Key" was. She pondered for a long time, then muttered to herself, "Did I really remember wrong? Why can't I remember anything..."

Then she looked up at the large doll opposite her.

"Then... what about Alice's Cottage? Did it also go to the border with the Ancestor of Dolls? What about the other sisters? I clearly remember... well, even if I'm wrong, what happens when everyone needs their bodies reconstructed? Usually, someone's body is damaged..."

“The doll printing room,” Marlene replied, “every outpost has one, and I have one too. When the Alice doll suffers a fatal injury, it does return to the ‘Garden,’ but that involves uploading its consciousness to the Matrix network and then reshaping it through the doll printing room. If conditions allow, the uploading process may be skipped, and the body may be disassembled and sent directly to the printing tank for repair. I’ve done that before… Anyway, in a sense, your memory isn’t entirely wrong, but rather there’s been some discrepancy, a misunderstanding of the concepts of ‘Garden’ and ‘reshaping.’”

Eileen listened in a daze, trying to understand, and after a while finally grasped what the other person was saying: "Then, then that 'doll printing room' you mentioned..."

“The prerequisite for using it is to connect it to the ‘garden’,” Marlene said calmly, looking into the little doll’s eyes.

Eileen visibly became frustrated.

Hu Li came over, picked up another Eileen from the sofa, and wrapped the little doll in her tail.

"At least you've finally made contact with the other sisters," she said to Eileen. "Your biggest goal was to contact the organization, and now that you've found it and confirmed the situation of the Doll Ancestor, you can talk to Miss Marlene about anything else. It's just that your body won't recover for a while, but you now have the bodies of two troupes, and you've already gotten used to this, haven't you?"

Eileen was taken aback by Hu Li's string of words, and after a few seconds she hesitated before looking up: "Is...is that so?"

"Definitely."

Hu Li smiled gently and reached out to vigorously rub the head of the doll in his arms.

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

Hu Li didn't speak, but turned her head slightly and winked at Yu Sheng, her big ears twitching.

Yu Sheng then casually tucked the other Eileen from his lap into the husky's pile of tails, and then stood up naturally: "By the way, Miss Marlene, I have some other technical details I'd like to ask you about, regarding deep space travel..."

“Of course.” Marlene nodded naturally with a faint smile and then stood up.

Yu Sheng took the live puppet directly up to the second floor.

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

Looking back at the direction of the stairs, Yu Sheng asked directly.

“Yes,” Marlene nodded gently, “I wasn’t doing it entirely to comfort or reassure her.”

Yu Sheng understood the unspoken meaning in the other person's words: "...How many percent?"

About half.

"What about the other half?"

"It was a terrifying darkness."

(End of this chapter)