Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 580: Modular Puppet

A strange feeling spread from the depths of his heart, as if his consciousness had instantly crossed a far-off time-space beyond words, drawn and sent to the border of the Universe. However, before Yu Sheng could confirm what this feeling was all about, he saw all the starlight in his vision begin to tremble violently, and the illusion of the big ship fell into countless chaotic ripples.

He instinctively took half a step back and saw the fissure before him disperse amidst the vibrations—pure white Crystal Branches filled the space left by the dissipating fissure, while new fissures began to brew again in the gaps between the branches.

Yu Sheng opened his eyes, his consciousness instantly experiencing a lengthy journey, returning once more to the courtyard.

The towering Crystal Giant Tree still stood before him, countless tiny time-space fissures hidden within its canopy flickered and floated among light and shadows, continuing to grow slowly.

Beside him, Luna instantly sensed something, stepped forward two paces: "Are you okay? What happened?"

"...Seems like I saw something extraordinary," Yu Sheng rubbed his forehead, paused before slowly speaking, "Luna, did the tree change at all just now? During my ’absent-mindedness’."

Luna immediately shook her head: "No."

"Is that so..."

Yu Sheng said thoughtfully, again looking up at the Crystal Tree before him, looking at its massive canopy that shielded the entire courtyard, and the subtle streams of light hidden within.

The characteristic of the World Bridge... connecting time and space... knowledge rushing into the mind... was that scene truly from the border of the Universe?

"Luna, you and the Knights pay close attention to this tree’s growth, especially those time-space fissures growing in the canopy—if there are any changes, let me know promptly."

"Understood."

Yu Sheng nodded, and then his consciousness slowly withdrew from this Soul Wilderness.

However, just as he prepared to sleep a bit more, a "bang" sound from the real world directly startled him awake.

It sounded like something exploded.

Yu Sheng opened his eyes, instantly sat up from the bed, saw daylight flooding through the window, time perhaps already past noon, four neatly arranged Alice Puppet boxes in the corner of the wall, while the blond Erin who was originally sleeping on the bed was nowhere to be seen.

As an ominous feeling just rose from his heart, he heard a "plop" sound from the master bedroom’s bathroom, like something dropped to the ground, and within a few seconds, the bathroom door was cautiously pushed open, blond Erin sneaked out from inside like a thief, only to look up and make eye contact with Yu Sheng, who was sitting on the bed.

The little puppet with a golden exploding hairstyle, her hair frizzed like the tail of a Hu Li in winter, her little face was smudged black, with only two sapphire blue eyes shining brightly on her dark face.

Noticing Yu Sheng sitting on the bed, the little puppet trying to sneak out immediately stopped, blinked twice, awkwardly grinned: "Hey, hey... Good morning, Yu Sheng."

Yu Sheng saw Erin’s black face showing two rows of little white teeth, while speaking a puff of blue smoke even came out.

"...What are you doing?"

He asked expressionlessly.

Erin pointed to herself: "This body can’t charge electricity~"

Yu Sheng’s eye twitched, turned to press the lamp on the bedside table, but it didn’t light up.

The circuit has tripped.

"You went to tamper with the electric switch early in the morning?!"

Upon hearing this, Erin immediately put her hands on her hips, justified: "It’s already noon now!"

When people are truly speechless, they tend to laugh instead; at this moment, Yu Sheng found the situation amusing. He looked at Erin, with a blackened little face and an explosive hairstyle, pursed his lips and climbed out of bed, stepped forward, picked up the little puppet by the collar, muttering as he made his way to the bathroom: "Didn’t I say to wait for me to wake up before we study your shrinking problem? And you’re not afraid of damaging this original body you finally got back? You are, after all, someone over three thousand seven hundred years old, can’t you be more stable?"

Erin probably acknowledged she was at fault, even being reprimanded while picked up by the collar didn’t anger her, she even turned to Yu Sheng and flashed two rows of little white teeth while snickering, meanwhile, the four Alice Puppet boxes in the corner were also pushed open from the inside, four Erins neatly followed Yu Sheng, ready to line up for face washing.

Upon seeing this situation, Yu Sheng couldn’t even muster any anger, he could only put the blond Erin on the wash basin, then while turning on the faucet and adjusting water temperature, he said: "Wait a moment, I’ll run you some hot water, your face is all black, and we need to find a way to tame that hair... Oh wait, no, the power’s out, no hot water—make do with cold water."

Erin laughingly agreed, noticing Yu Sheng wasn’t angry, quickly regained her courage, she raised her hand and swayed her head a bit, "pop" pulled off her head and handed it to Yu Sheng: "Here, it’s easier to wash this way."

Yu Sheng was still running the water, completely unaware of what the little creature was doing beside the basin, he only saw the puppet cradling her head and handing it over the next second—then he froze, took two or three seconds before realizing what he just saw, shouted out loud: "What the hell!?"

Erin immediately revealed a successful prank expression, hugging her head laughing uncontrollably: "Ah hahaha, really gave you a scare—"

At this moment, Yu Sheng was completely unsettled, after all, seeing a three-part puppet holding her head sitting on a basin grinning and shaking early in the morning (although now it’s noon) isn’t good for anyone’s mental state. He restrained his urge to throw Erin out of the lavatory, held down the little creature’s body: "Stop laughing! Stop shaking! Explain first, what’s going on?!"

Erin placed her head by the side of the pool, and the other four bodies were gathered around Yu Sheng’s feet, chattering:

"Discovered it when I woke up!"

"At first, I was also startled."

"When I stretched my neck while yawning, it felt like it could come off..."

"And it really came off!"

Yu Sheng’s head buzzed, confirming several times the headless puppet body sitting by the pool, then looked at the golden-haired head placed next to the body, and saw that the head was blinking at him. After holding back for a few seconds, he spoke: "Can you put it back on?"

"I can," the golden-haired head said, winking hard to the side, "and it’s not just the head."

Yu Sheng: "What do you mean...?"

He barely finished the question when he saw the small puppet by the pool twist her arm, and then both arms fell off and started crawling across the sink counter.

They crawled cheerfully.

Yu Sheng was dumbfounded, and a gasp was about to escape when he saw Erin lean back: "The legs can come off too, look, look—"

Then Erin started crawling all over the pool, the puppet was everywhere.

Yu Sheng had to admit that although, ever since Erin came out of that painting, he would see the puppet doing some tricks every day, this was still the most shocking morning routine he’d witnessed so far.

When Erin’s left hand crawled past under his nose for the third time, Yu Sheng couldn’t bear it any longer. He quickly gathered up the scattered pieces of the small puppet (that’s the only way to describe it), grabbed one of her arms with one hand and her torso with the other, and after rolling up his sleeves, he examined the joint structures, confirming after a long look that there were no signs of damage.

"Can everything be put back perfectly?"

"Yes."

"Does it hurt?"

"Not at all."

"...What’s the principle behind this?"

"Hahaha, Yu Sheng, it’s finally your turn to ask this question!!"

"Don’t interrupt," Yu Sheng said as he set down Erin’s body and furrowed his brows, "How can this be... Wasn’t everything fixed and put together back then? Moreover..." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Isn’t it possible that ball joints are originally meant to be detachable," Erin laid on the pool claiming confidently, "And didn’t Marin say, that authentic Alice Puppets have certain joints that are not sturdy, it’s a blessing left by the Ancient Saints..."

Yu Sheng: "But they said ’certain’ joints— not every single joint!"

"That shows I’m very authentic," Erin actually boasted, "My three thousand seven hundred years of aged traditional authentic Alice Puppet..."

Yu Sheng felt unexpectedly tired by this careless little thing, opened his mouth a few times and finally said: "So can you put yourself back together? Don’t make someone help every time, I’m telling you, this is way more awkward than combing your hair..."

Before he finished speaking, he heard Erin confidently reply, "I can."

Then the pile of puppet parts on the sink began to rapidly reassemble itself— Yu Sheng saw fine threads appear between those freely moving limbs, not the black spider silk he was familiar with, but rather fine, pale golden threads that emitted a faint glow— the threads guided the limbs, completing the reconstruction of the entire body in seconds.

The head was the only thing left to be reattached because Erin was still waiting for Yu Sheng to wash it.

Yu Sheng blinked, the golden threads seemed to linger in his vision, leaving a faint glow at the edge of his sight, until the small puppet waved a hand to make him react: "Wait a minute, just what were those threads?"

"I don’t know either," Erin raised her hand as if to scratch her head but ended up scratching thin air, then picked up her head, cradled it, and scratched, "I just found out about these ’threads’ this body releases while I was bored and dismantling it after waking up, they’re different from others, the color has changed, they can glow, and they can help reassemble the body. Although I haven’t figured out any other functions... Anyway, it just happened naturally, like instinct."

"Bored and dismantling it..." Yu Sheng was almost choked by Erin’s wording, but at least he could finally confirm that the scattered state wasn’t because she broke again, but because she had really developed a new ability.

Thinking of this, Yu Sheng couldn’t help but stroke his chin and look at the small puppet sitting on the pool cradling her head with an unusually serious expression.

Erin’s "original shell" seemed even more... strange than he imagined, so it indeed seemed necessary to study it properly.