Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 571: Sis, Your Glue Doesn’t Stick

Although Erin is usually timid and loud, always making a fuss over nothing, this was the first time Yu Sheng saw such an expression on the little thing’s face... panic.

The golden-haired puppet lying on the platform remained completely still, eyes closed with no sign of life. Erin’s attempts at control yielded no response, and even after several more tries, the result was the same.

"This shouldn’t be happening..." Even Marin was somewhat perplexed. "The repair process went smoothly. Even if the consciousness reconnection failed, Maris should have at least received an error signal... Is something missing?"

Yu Sheng frowned as he stood nearby, suddenly thinking of something: "Wait, do we need to bring that painting of yours?"

Erin was momentarily taken aback, looking puzzled: "That shouldn’t be the case... When I activated those mass-produced puppets before, I could transfer consciousness directly without relying on the oil painting. Even those makeshift mass-produced bodies could work, so why is this original body having ’contact issues’?"

"Let’s just give it a try," Yu Sheng said, opening a small door next to him, leading directly to the living room of No. 66 Wutong Road. "Given your chaotic situation, who knows which part is causing the bug to get stuck."

On the other side of the door, Erin (puppet version) unstrapped the painting from her back and handed it over. Yu Sheng took the oil painting and gave it to Erin (Mysterious Iron) on the platform. Marin looked at this scene, somewhat dazed, but before she could speak, Erin placed the oil painting next to the head of the golden-haired body on the platform’s edge.

Seeing the frame wasn’t stable, Hu Li kindly took a box of canned yellow peaches from her tail to support the back of the painting.

The professionally trained living doll lady looked bewildered: "...There’s no such step in the Alice Puppet revival process..."

Yu Sheng waved it off: "We have our own company culture at our travel agency—besides, with things being such a mess, we’ve got to adapt on the fly."

As he spoke, his gaze also fell on the oil painting.

Inside the dark frame, a high-backed chair covered in red velvet stood lonely in the darkness, and the chair was empty— the teddy bear once sealed in the painting with Erin was gone.

The small puppet, who had already learned the truth about the teddy bear from Yu Sheng after the incident, was somewhat sentimental seeing this: "I used to think that bear was dopey, but now the painting looks empty, it’s quite hard to get used to..."

Just after saying this, she pondered for a moment and mumbled under her breath: "Should we place three ritual candles in front of the painting?"

Marin beside her: "...Huh?"

But Yu Sheng agreed enthusiastically, nodding while fetching candles from the house’s basement and placing them on the platform: "Makes sense, this way it seems more rigorous."

Marin: "...Huh?"

"Silly fox, you light the candles!" Erin ran over, adjusted the candle positions, and waved to Hu Li, "You’ve got some strong flame energy, just be careful not to singe my hair."

Hu Li responded with an "Oh", went over and rubbed her large tail, sparking a flame at the tip—she then carefully lit the three high-end ritual candles, previously ’borrowed’ from the Special Service Bureau.

Following Erin’s instruction, Yu Sheng dripped ritual essential oil and spices into the candle flames.

Luna stood watching from a distance. Although she knew nothing about alchemy and couldn’t offer effective advice, the Holy Lady still made an effort to participate by bowing three times from afar.

Marin could no longer muster an "Huh"—the professionally trained, standard living doll lady had never seen such a scene. Watching Erin and Yu Sheng busily working beside the platform, placing candles in front of the painting and sprinkling spices, it looked akin to an evil ritual site. Finally, after a long pause, she managed to speak: "My puppet printing room... My nano-printing pool... No, isn’t what you’re doing somewhat chaotic?"

But before she could finish the word "chaotic", she swallowed it back.

Because she saw thin black threads suddenly emerging from the frame’s dark edges, piling up like spider silk, growing like crazy hair, flowing shadows quickly gathering around the golden-haired body, and in the next second, the previously unresponsive golden-haired body began to subtly stir—its chest gently rising and falling, eyelids trembling, life signs emerging, consciousness awakening within.

This scene seemed somewhat strange, but a report came from Maris monitoring the entire system: the awakening process had successfully initiated—

"Shell awakening detected, safety verification... passed."

Marin: "...Huh?!"

In the next second, the golden-haired puppet lying on the platform slowly opened its eyes.

Yu Sheng immediately leaned in, alongside the standing Erin, looking at the lying Erin. He saw her clear blue eyes gaze blankly at the ceiling, seemingly still in a daze, but they soon focused, staring at him dumbfounded.

Yu Sheng looked at the golden-haired blue-eyed pretty girl in front of him, feeling briefly that this face seemed somewhat... unfamiliar.

The golden-haired girl blinked, suddenly pointed at Yu Sheng, and a wide grin broke out on her face: "Yu Sheng, you have a really long nose hair!"

Then, quick as a flash, he reached out and poked Yu Sheng’s nostril.

Yu Sheng let out a yelp and jumped up—now that was familiar.

Everyone gathered around, while Erin sat up from the platform. She looked down at her own body, slowly moving her seemingly stiff hands, as if she couldn’t quite believe she’d returned to her original shell.

Hu Li shook her ears, feeling as if she heard a faint rustling and creaking sound.

"The body...really isn’t listening," said the little doll standing on the platform, frowning—she had originally tried making this expression with that golden-haired shell but found it difficult to do. "I feel so heavy all over, and...all the joints except the arms are stiff, it’s like my body is going to fall apart."

Tiny cracks appeared on the hands and feet of the golden-haired doll. She lifted her head to look at Yu Sheng, but her neck tilted slowly at an unexpected angle.

"Yu Sheng, I’m not feeling so good..."

The doll’s arm drooped down, her neck began to bend backward, and her body leaned to the side.

"No way, I’m really falling apart, damn it!"

The golden-haired doll and the little doll standing on the platform exclaimed simultaneously. Immediately, loud friction and creaking noises became clear to everyone—Luna was the fastest; almost instantaneously, she dashed over as a blur, supporting the golden-haired doll’s back before it fell, laying the body on the platform, and in the next second, with a series of cracking sounds, the golden-haired doll turned into a heap of scattered remains.

The good news was that this time, it didn’t shatter completely—she only fractured at several major joints, breaking into a few larger pieces.

The bad news was that the surfaces of the broken limbs were still covered with countless tiny cracks, as if they could crumble again after another hit.

"Erin, no, unreliable."

Luna somehow had returned behind Yu Sheng, while the Holy Lady looked at the pile of shattered golden-haired doll on the platform, shook her head, and stammered.

The room suddenly fell silent. The harrowing sight of the doll falling apart was somewhat shocking, but even more unsettling was that the dismantled golden-haired doll was still "alive"—Erin’s consciousness was still linked to this body. Her head rolled to Yu Sheng’s feet, blinking, looking hard in Marin’s direction: "Sis, what’s going on! Why did it suddenly fall apart! Sis, your glue isn’t sticking—"

At this point, not even Yu Sheng and the others understood, while even Marin was confused—the whole situation had already gone beyond her comprehension when those three candles were stuck in front of the painting. Fortunately, the Alice Puppet inherently had instability in certain joints, so Erin’s dismemberment scene, though impactful, wasn’t so terrifying to her. After holding back for a few seconds, she still managed to say, "That’s not glue, those are nanomachines..."

Erin: "Sis, your nanomachines aren’t sticking!"

The golden-haired doll’s head muttered as other parts of its body started moving again. Yu Sheng watched as one of its arms detached from the torso, awkwardly crawling on the platform with a few fingers, then fell off the edge halfway and was caught by Hu Li, who placed it back onto the platform.

On the other side, little Erin came to push her own head, nudging the golden-haired head toward the neck area, muttering as she pushed, "This isn’t round, not easy to push..."

Yu Sheng, watching from the side, felt goosebumps; even with his resilience, he found the scene somewhat absurd: "I’m telling you, this is a little creepy!"

Erin pretended not to hear him, she continued pushing her head, turning her face over, as another arm on the platform chaotically crawled and waved at Yu Sheng: "Yu Sheng, Yu Sheng, maybe we should try some Primitive Alchemy instead..."

Yu Sheng didn’t immediately catch on: "Huh?"

"I’ve linked to this body, which means the consciousness transfer process is fine, but the body still falls apart. I think the main reason is the hardware isn’t fixed right," Erin (head) pondered, seemingly using all her wisdom in this contemplation, "Marin’s glue doesn’t stick..."

Marin weakly explained again: "That’s nanomachines."

"Marin’s nanomachines aren’t sticking..."

Yu Sheng understood; Erin was asking him to find some "sticky" materials.

Well, that’s simple; it’s a traditional skill of the travel agency.

"Alright, let’s try some Primitive Alchemy then," Yu Sheng nodded, but hesitated a bit before proceeding, glancing at Marin, "Don’t mind if we try another approach right here? Mainly because Erin’s body might not be suitable for moving again, breaking further would be hard to reassemble."

Looking at the six-way split Erin on the platform, then at the unfathomable "Angel Hunter" in front of her, Marin nodded reflexively in her confusion.

And then she saw the "Artificial Saintess," usually quiet, elegant, and serene, suddenly rush up and stab Yu Sheng’s arm with one swift motion.

Marin: "...?!"