Alien Hotel.

Chapter 483 "Eileen"

Yu Sheng felt a pang of sympathy for Marlene's description of "terrifying darkness," and subconsciously looked up at the door at the end of the second-floor corridor.

He wasn't sure how the living doll in front of him could perceive and judge those "unknown components" in Eileen's body, but one thing was clear: this real Alice doll did see through Eileen's situation better than the average person—professional matters should be left to professionals, and now a long-standing problem had finally been solved.

The good news is that Eileen is indeed an "Alice doll," and her sisters, her memories, and her "hometown" are all real.

The bad news is... not entirely.

Yu Sheng is now almost certain that the "terrifying darkness" within her body comes from that "goddess of omens" whose origins are unknown.

"Is there any information about the title 'Goddess of Omens' in the records of your 'Alice's Hut'?" He looked up, breaking the silence with a serious expression.

Marlene immediately realized: "...This is the source of that 'darkness'?"

Yu Sheng nodded slightly.

Marlene didn't speak for a moment, but her eyes suddenly became somewhat vacant. She stood motionless in place, and an imperceptible buzzing sound came from her body. After a while, she "woke up" again, frowned slightly, and shook her head: "There is no record of this in the matrix network."

However, she quickly added, "But we cannot rule out the possibility that this information is stored in a local database on some remote node—if there is a risk of meme contamination, the relevant data will be automatically intercepted by the 'Coffin' system at the place of publication. I have already issued a wide-area inquiry on the Garden Network to see if any other sisters have come into contact with information that may be related to it, but there has been no response yet."

Yu Sheng wasn't very clear about the internal workings of this puppet organization, but from Marlene's few words, he could tell that they were professional and cautious in this regard, so he didn't say much, but instead brought up another question.

Are there any other dolls named 'Eileen'? Are any of them missing? Are there any that look a lot like my Eileen?

Marlene nodded immediately: "That is precisely another reason why I visited you today."

As she spoke, she casually took out a silver-gray metal rod, lightly stroked its surface, and the metal rod quickly unfolded into a light screen—as the images on the light screen changed, she explained, "'Eileen' is not a very rare name in Alice's Hut, and there are indeed three whose whereabouts are unknown. Here is their information..."

Yu Sheng leaned closer and saw the images scrolling on the screen, with three missing dolls named "Eileen" coming into his view.

The first one wasn't it, the second one wasn't it either—but the third one made his eyes freeze instantly.

"Wait a minute—this is it."

A doll-like girl with long blonde hair and an expressionless face stands in the picture, looking very similar to the broken doll that Yu Sheng saw in the illusion of the temple ruins.

“I’ve seen this face in a vision of ruins!” he said quickly.

"Are you sure it's this person?" Marlene asked, her voice tinged with surprise.

Yu Sheng took the light screen and examined it carefully again—after all, compared to the appearance he had seen before, the doll in the ID photo now looked less fragmented, and its appearance was somewhat different—after comparing it repeatedly for a few seconds, he nodded: "This is it. By the way, her expression is very indifferent... completely different from my current 'Eileen'."

Marlene casually remarked, "This is what a passport photo looks like."

Yu Sheng thought for a moment: "...That's not necessarily true. The photo on Eileen's ID card looks like it's about to jump up. It was quite a struggle to pin her down on the sofa when we were taking her ID photo."

Marlene: "..."

"Ahem," Yu Sheng coughed twice, pointing to "Eileen" on the screen, "When did this person go missing?"

“…Three thousand seven hundred years,” Marlene said, her expression turning serious. “That’s why I was a little surprised just now—if it really is her, then this matter will probably be even more difficult to investigate.”

Three thousand seven hundred years ago!
Upon hearing Marlene's reply, Yu Sheng could not hide his astonishment—the time span far exceeded his expectations.

In other words, if the little one in the house is indeed the missing "Eileen" from this document, and if the scene of suspected mutual destruction in the dark ruins really happened in the distant past... then by the time I opened the room at the end of the corridor, Eileen had been sealed inside that painting for 3,700 years?!
Yu Sheng turned back to look at the door at the end of the corridor. Marlene quickly noticed his movement and asked curiously, "Is that the room where you first found 'Eileen'?"

Yu Sheng nodded and led the living doll to the end of the corridor. After checking the situation inside, he led her into the eerie empty room.

“Eileen’s ‘oil painting’ used to hang right here,” Yu Sheng pointed to the opposite wall. “After the painting was taken down, the room changed. When I came in the second time, the place where the painting used to hang was this mirror…”

He briefly explained the situation in the room and what had happened to Marlene, who then curiously approached the mirror. Upon seeing this, Yu Sheng quickly warned her, "Don't touch that thing—that mirror is very unstable and sometimes leads to very dangerous dimensions. I'm telling you, this whole room is very eerie..." Marlene listened to his advice and withdrew her hand, but when she heard the second half of Yu Sheng's sentence, she still showed a subtle expression and couldn't help but glance at the corridor outside the room.

The corridor was hazy and indistinct, with cracks of all sizes extending from the floor to the ceiling. Projections from various spacetime coordinates were distorted and reflected in every corner of the building. The entire structure was filled with incomprehensible and indescribable distortions and anomalies, as if every inch of its space simultaneously existed in various parts of the entire universe.

But the owner of No. 66 Wutong Road said that the room at the end of the corridor on the second floor was very eerie.

Is there anything eerie about this whole house?
……

Erin stealthily jumped under the coffee table again, using her height advantage to slip under the sofa and silently sneak behind the wind-up doll standing next to it.

Mary turned her head with a bit of helplessness, looking at the short man behind her who was trying his best to stand on tiptoe but couldn't reach her waist at all.

“Miss Eileen, my wind-up key won’t fit on you…”

Eileen stood with her hands on her hips, looking up at the sky, showing no embarrassment at being caught red-handed. Instead, she asked confidently, "So you really use a wind-up key for power?"

“That’s not the motivation,” Maris shook her head. “My wind-up key is just a personal hobby and aesthetic choice of the mistress—she’ll come over and twist it when she’s bored.”

“Oh…” Eileen nodded blankly, then suddenly asked curiously, “Does Marlene have her own wind-up key?”

“Of course there are,” Maris explained methodically. Perhaps convinced that the little girl in front of her was also a special type of Alice doll, she showed great patience with Irene’s endless questions. “Alice dolls all have their own wind-up keys.”

Eileen blinked: "Is it also for decoration?"

"No, the Alice doll's wind-up key is a crucial accessory, capable of enhancing its power or protecting itself in emergencies—that's what Miss Marlene said."

Eileen thought for a moment, then scratched her head: "I don't have any."

She turned around to show Marys her back—clothes obviously obscure the view, but she clearly hadn't thought about those details: "This body of mine is temporary! Once I find my Alice Key, I'll reconnect to the Garden Network and recreate my original body. Then I'll have my wind-up key too!"

Maris paused, seemingly a little unaccustomed to the rhythm of communicating with this "mini Alice doll," and could only reply perfunctorily, "Well then, I look forward to you successfully finding the key."

The next second, she heard Eileen blurt out, "Does the key look the same as a wind-up key?"

Maris: "..."

Finally, it was the fox on the sofa who spoke up, relieving the wind-up doll's embarrassment: "Of course it's different! A key sounds like a password, and a wind-up key is turned..."

"Yes, really?" Eileen scratched her head again, then turned to look at Maris: "...Oh, and also, you're not an Alice doll, right?"

“I am the all-in-one servo personal assistant purchased by Miss Marlene,” Marise bowed slightly. “Made by Alglade-Global United Industries, this is a custom-made model for Alice’s House. Many of its functions are tailor-made for the Alice doll, fully adapting to and meeting the various needs of a living doll’s daily life and work…”

Eileen's eyes lit up immediately: "Oh, like what?"

"For example, the maintenance and cleaning of ball joints, helping the mistress create and direct other lower-level dolls, managing daily life, and telling corny jokes."

"It doesn't sound like... anything special?" Eileen's eyes darted around, and she waved her hand. "I have Yu Sheng—although he doesn't tell corny jokes."

After saying that, the little doll seemed to suddenly lose interest in Marys, turned around and climbed back onto the sofa, sat cross-legged on the cushion, and began to drawl out, "Ah—why isn't Yu Sheng back yet... Yu Sheng! Yu Sheng! Yu Sheng—I'm bored!!"

She had barely finished her rant when Yu Sheng's hurried footsteps and helpless muttering came from the stairs: "I heard you, I heard you, stop calling me like I'm summoning a ghost."

Eileen looked up and saw Yu Sheng and Marlene coming down the stairs. She immediately perked up, jumped off the sofa, and ran towards the stairs, chattering away as she went: "Hey Yu Sheng, let me tell you, Alice dolls all have keys! Can you drill a hole in my back too? Marlene said her key was installed later, so she can spin it around when she's bored. Spinning it activates a hidden energy source. I'll have to carry a power bank with me from now on. How long does my smartwatch's battery last…?"

Marlene stopped abruptly halfway down the stairs. The doll-like woman looked bewildered, and after a long pause, she looked at Yu Sheng and blurted out, "...Has her logic always been like this?"

Yu Sheng sighed: "It's always been like this; today's symptoms are considered relatively mild..."

(End of this chapter)