Alien Hotel.

Chapter 492 The Tranquil Water

Eileen happily waved her stone ball, showing it off to the two people on the castle roof—though she didn't know what was so great about it, she just felt inexplicably happy.

I'm happy to have sunshine, happy to see green grass, happy to hear many sounds around me, happy to have someone waiting for me in the distance, happy to receive a response to my actions... all of these are things to be happy about.

Yu Sheng and Hu Li jumped down from the castle. Eileen easily climbed onto Yu Sheng's shoulder, then let go of the Ominous Wanderer's hand, letting it continue to circle around her head.

But suddenly, Yu Sheng frowned and turned to look at the stone ball floating next to the little doll's head.

He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that the stone ball's rotation seemed to pause for a moment when he turned his gaze to it.

Eileen grabbed Yu Sheng's hair haphazardly: "What's wrong?"

“This ball… seemed to be making a buzzing sound just now,” Yu Sheng frowned. “Didn’t you hear it?”

“No,” Eileen shook her head, “this thing has been perfectly quiet.”

Yu Sheng stared at the ominous star for a while, then finally looked away. After thinking for a moment, he spoke, "Eileen."

"Ok?"

"Marlene sent some data from the depths of the 'Garden' network. It's about... 'you.' Specifically, it's the last memory you uploaded before you lost contact with Alice's Hut. Would you like to take a look?"

Eileen paused for a moment, then nodded vigorously without hesitation: "Okay, okay! I want to see!"

The little doll's answer was as expected.

Information about the "blonde Eileen," as well as the subsequent investigations into the mysterious tower, the Goddess of Omens, and even the "Black Star," could not be kept from Eileen, and besides, Yu Sheng himself had no intention of keeping it from the little doll.

He knew very well that even though Eileen usually seemed careless and indifferent to many things, she also had a perceptive side, her own thoughts and personality. If he kept her too "protected" from the truth, things might become even more difficult to handle if something was actually discovered one day.

On the other hand, after learning so much information about the Goddess of Omens and seeing the "normal" Alice doll like Marlene, Eileen, though seemingly unchanged, must have thought of some possibilities—spending every day with this little doll, Yu Sheng could still sense that the little thing was spending more and more time in a daze each day.

Outside the fairytale town, along the riverbank.

The sky was bright and clear, a gentle breeze was blowing, and the riverbank was very quiet at this time. Yu Sheng sat on a large rock on the bank, while Eileen sat cross-legged on his lap. The little doll held a cell phone that was a bit too big for her and was looking at the information that Marlene had sent her.

She watched it several times, then paused the video and pointed at the blonde figure from behind.

"this is me?"

“After screening, the only one who might match,” Yu Sheng said slowly, “all other dolls named ‘Eileen’ have been ruled out.”

“My hair isn’t like this,” Eileen said, tugging at her hair. “And my face doesn’t look quite the same either… My face is rounder! It looks so good!”

“Yes, yes, it looks great—but after being sealed for 3,700 years, and with the memory and spirit interfering with each other, it’s very possible that your appearance has changed,” Yu Sheng said, pinching the little doll’s cheek as he carefully considered each word. “Besides, I’ve modified your body, and you know that things I modify will change to some extent.”

“Yes, yes…” Eileen muttered, clearly wavering for a moment. Then she quickly ignored the detail and suddenly remembered something else. “Ah, you said you saw a broken blonde doll in the mirror on the second floor… could it be…”

Yu Sheng took a deep breath. He knew Eileen would realize what was going on, so he simply nodded calmly and said, "Yes, it's basically confirmed now. It is you."

Eileen didn't say anything for a moment, just stared at her phone for a few seconds, then looked up at Yu Sheng with all her might. Her eyes seemed very big, and her scarlet pupils seemed to be gleaming, reflecting the high and deep sky in their depths.

“…Wow,” she blinked, lowered her head again, and seemed lost in thought for a moment before breaking the silence, “It seems my body is pretty badly damaged. Maybe I’ll have to fight my way back to it?”

Hu Li came over from the side and looked at Eileen very seriously: "I'll put it together with you."

“Then you have to wash your hands before you start scrambling—just licking your fingers won’t do, you eat all sorts of random things every day,” Eileen said immediately with great force. After thinking for a moment, she added, “You also have to comb your tail first, so that no fur gets mixed into my body and it will irritate me.”

Hu Li narrowed her eyes and nodded repeatedly, "Mhm."

The two of them seriously discussed the matter of "assembling the doll" in the future, ignoring Yu Sheng's slightly subtle expression, and Eileen continued to focus her attention on her phone.

"...Actually, he looks kind of cool from this angle," she seemed to accept something quickly, nodding at the blond figure in the picture, but then she was puzzled, "By the way, what's with this frying pan? Why did I carry a frying pan when I fought the enemy back then?"

“Marlene said this is your Alice dolls’ ‘standard weapon’—don’t look at me like that, I don’t know how to explain it either, your sister said the reason behind it is complicated…”

"Really?" The little doll looked at Yu Sheng suspiciously, and after a long while, finally looked away. "I don't remember anything at all. Sigh, amnesia is such a hassle..."

The image on the phone finally lingered on the dome of the tower. Beyond the shattered dome lay a vast shadow, seemingly crawling out of the chaotic depths of space, or even from another world, existing outside of dimensions.

Even though this was footage that Marlene had "processed," even just looking at the blurry outline, Yu Sheng could still feel the astonishing power emanating from that shadow through the screen. An Outer God? An Other God? Or perhaps…

Dark Angel.

Yu Sheng couldn't help but recall what Baili Qing had once told him about the Special Operations Bureau's "criteria for judging Dark Angels." Apart from characteristics that were difficult to judge directly from video footage, such as "coming from outside the world," "not being killed by conventional forces," and "operating in a way that is beyond reason and logic," the most important remaining criterion was—a "holiness" that could not be described in words but would be naturally felt when one witnessed it.

Once the idea popped into his head, it seemed to come alive and lingered in his mind. He couldn't help but observe the details of the enormous shadow in the picture again and again, as if trying to find the decisive evidence from this blurry frame of the picture to determine whether the behemoth was or was not the Dark Angel.

Eileen placed her phone on her lap and zoomed in on the image with her finger until the two crimson glows of the shadowy head almost filled the entire screen.

Then she closed the entire interface.

"Here you go." The little doll tilted its head back, held the phone in both hands, and handed it to Yu Sheng.

"What are your thoughts after reading this?" Yu Sheng asked casually as he took the phone.

“I was pretty impressive back then,” Eileen thought for a moment, then looked up and said, “and I definitely looked to be 1.67 meters tall!”

Yu Sheng: "That's all you could think of?"

Eileen then thought about it carefully again.

"I want to go back and watch TV!"

"Don't you have three bodies left at home?"

"Two are playing games, and another is arguing with an idiot. We're too busy!"

Yu Sheng: "..."

He looked at the little doll on his lap, and the little doll looked up at him, its scarlet eyes clear as a mirror, without any shadows.

"Okay, let's go back and watch TV."

"Good!"

……

Looking at the documents that had just been handed to her, Baili Qing's brows furrowed slightly, almost imperceptibly.

After a long while, she looked up at Song Cheng and asked, "What else did that 'Alice Envoy' say?"

"She wanted to make further contact with Yu Sheng and Eileen, and she also hoped that the Secret Service could assist her in investigating the situation of that 'tower' - the materials she sent us contained a large number of video clips of investigators withdrawing from the vicinity of the tower. Although the images were blurry and chaotic, the investigators were indeed wearing the clothing of a city-state at the border of classical times."

“The classical era…” Baili Qing’s gaze swept across the computer screen, which showed a scene of many investigators and spirit detectives evacuating from the strange, broken tower. “If this image really comes from 3,700 years ago—when the Special Operations Bureau had not yet been established and everything in the border region was in unprecedented chaos—we would probably find it very difficult to investigate anything from such a distant history.”

“The Alice envoy said she was aware of the situation, so she was just making a request, hoping for a result, but accepting it if there was no result—those were her exact words.”

“Hmm…” Baili Qing pondered for a moment, then nodded gently. “I understand. Tell her that we will do our best to provide assistance. All matters concerning the ‘ominous sign’ are now on the Secret Service’s list of top priorities.”

Song Cheng nodded: "Okay."

Then he hesitated for a moment: "Also..."

Bai Liqing looked at him calmly: "Speak your mind."

"Regarding the 'individual' that last appeared at the top of the tower," Song Cheng carefully chose his words, "based on various characteristics, it doesn't seem like an ordinary 'entity' generated in another realm. And according to the information we currently have, if this thing really came from 'outside,' then the small doll in No. 66 Wutong Road is very likely..."

He didn't continue speaking, but just looked at the bureau chief in front of him with a solemn expression.

Baili Qing remained silent for a moment, simply gazing at her subordinate across from her. Just as Song Cheng began to feel awkward, she suddenly broke the silence: "Which do you think is more dangerous, the Dark Angel or Yu Sheng?"

Song Cheng opened his mouth, but then hesitated for a moment.

“They are all dangerous, but fortunately, the one who is more dangerous now thinks he is a human being—so, whatever you do, don’t wake him up,” Baili Qing said calmly. “The same principle applies to that doll.”

"Yes, I understand."

(End of this chapter)