Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 585: Visiting the "Garden

Deep in the valley, the small town remains as it always does.

In front of a cottage near the castle, a gold-haired Arglede Elf is leaning against a small tree with arms folded, gazing absentmindedly towards the distant mountains.

The sky above is just right, with sparse clouds in the clear sky, and a row of glittering lights can be seen from the direction of the hillside—it is Yun Qingzi trying to teach the mass-produced puppets in the valley the art of Sword Flight.

Occasionally, ethereal and pleasant singing can be heard nearby, it’s the mermaid humming, mixed with the sound of splashing water as she practices her swimming skills in the pond behind her house—sometimes the singing suddenly stops with a brief exclamation, indicating that she has submerged again.

A golden cluster of "Wind Rolling Grass" jumped down from the high walls of the castle nearby, a face with a bright smile emerging from the fluttering golden hair: "Alice! Let’s go to the river to catch fish!"

"Not going." Luo lazily waved her hand, then adjusted to a more slouched position against the trunk, looking as if she’s burnt out on life.

She had changed out of her own tattered silver-white long dress, now wearing a black dress and jacket sent by the Special Service Bureau, which, paired with her current melancholic air, made her appear utterly disheartened.

The long-haired princess didn’t mind being rejected; she gathered her hair to ankle length and swaggered over, sitting on the swing frame next to Luo, swaying in mid-air: "How about picking mushrooms in the forest? I can give you a pass. Let me tell you, there’s a type of light blue, long-stemmed mushroom over there, eat it and you can see little elves..."

"The valley is filled with little elves, why bother eating mushrooms?" Luo sighed, her peripheral vision catching sight of several mass-produced puppets carrying large baskets filled with vegetables for the cafeteria, racing past the intersection with their short legs, prompting another sigh as she glanced sidelong at the golden-haired girl beside her, "So, are you the one monitoring me today?"

"Why so pessimistic? There’s no monitoring or anything like that," the long-haired princess tilted her head, "Let me tell you, nobody really manages you here, my brother said as long as you don’t run outside, you can roam freely around the town anyway. It’s not like you can defeat anyone here; the most you could do is bully preschoolers. But even among the preschoolers, at least two puppets accompany them—you wouldn’t be able to beat them either."

"...Well thank him for his trust," Luo’s lips twitched but followed with yet another sigh, "Forget it, thinking of losing everything makes me lack the motivation to move... And based on my understanding of the Special Service Bureau and Baili Qing, the best outcome I can expect is long-term captivity, likely in a place more oppressive than here. I might as well prepare myself for loneliness and boredom."

Upon hearing this, the long-haired princess’s eyes started darting around, and the next moment she stepped forward and pulled Luo’s arm: "Then you need to seize the time to enjoy! If you truly end up locked away for life, by then you’ll want a place to catch fish but won’t be able to, then it’ll be too late to regret... Come on, let’s go, let’s go!"

Admittedly, most people couldn’t keep up with the long-haired princess’s energy, especially someone like Luo who was deeply consumed by melancholy. She instinctively resisted a bit on the spot, but after two tugs of her arm, she couldn’t escape the long-haired princess’s demon-tearing strength—after all, she was just a scientist, even after transforming herself with mechanical structures for convenience in screwing bolts and brushing test tubes, it was unsurprising to be dragged away out of town.

The long-haired princess didn’t even notice Luo’s resistance.

But after just a few steps being dragged, Luo suddenly felt a shiver, followed by an involuntary quiver.

This time, her shiver was felt by the long-haired princess.

"What’s wrong? Caught a chill?"

"No, I don’t know," Luo shivered again, feeling inexplicably like her Spiritual Intuition was warning her, yet after scanning her surroundings, she saw no threats in sight, "it feels like I’m being schemed against—last time I felt this way was dealing with Baili Qing."

"What do you have to be schemed against, your space station has already been worried away by my brother," the long-haired princess, adept at soothing, gestured nonchalantly, "it’s just you’ve been idle for too long and have weakened. Later I’ll teach you to stew mushrooms in fish soup..."

Luo: "..."

She wanted to say more, but the long-haired princess drew her close, and her remaining words dissolved into the wind.

...

Garden Network, Upper Consciousness Access Layer.

Amidst the bustling virtual city simulated by network data, two figures are walking down a quaint, nostalgic old street.

A figure with golden hair draped over her shoulders, wearing a black gothic dress, another figure in a blue maid uniform, with a decorative spring key on her back slowly turning.

Erin, under Maris’s guidance, is once again entering the Garden Network. Unlike the "test connection" in the puppet printing room, this time she truly entered the "prosperous area" of the network.

Maris raised her hand, introducing the scene to the guest beside her: "This is the ’Assembly Hall’ in the Garden Network—there are many similar assembly halls, mostly distributed in the upper network, where Alice Puppets rest, gather, or exchange information... Miss Erin, are you listening?"

The blond puppet next to her was at this moment engrossed in examining her own arms and legs, delayed by two or three seconds before realizing and quickly nodding: "Oh, oh, listening, listening, it’s the Assembly Hall, right? After eating here, we go out to hunt Ancient Dragons, right..."

Maris stopped, looking somewhat helplessly at the blond puppet: "Miss Erin, there are no Ancient Dragons in the Garden Network, nor are there Dark Giants and small monsters that can be collected into balls—the upper network is a very safe and stable place, mainly used for communication and rest."

Yet the blond puppet in front of her clearly wasn’t listening—Erin was once again enthusiastically examining her hands and feet, then bounced in place, happily saying to Maris: "Hey, I’m normal height here! Look, I’m 1.67 meters..."

Maris, though a bit helpless, patiently explained: "You are acting in the Garden Network as a ’Mind Body’, and the ’appearance’ of a Mind Body is not affected by physical condition, only showing the original form of an Alice Puppet."

"Oh, oh, that’s good, I like this setting," Erin immediately beamed with joy. Since suffering "shrinkage" in the puppet printing room, she finally found a bit of solace regarding her height in the Garden Network, but then she raised another question, "Wait, what about you, Maris? You’re not an Alice Puppet..."

"I’m using a simulated mind—to assist the owner, our series of servo robots have added a large number of adaptation extension modules for the Garden Network. You can check the Universal Union Industry’s official website for related information. By ordering extension modules through the Universal APP, you can enjoy ten years of unlimited exchanges and free insurance..."

But Erin’s attention had shifted again, not hearing the advertisement Maris was giving—she was wide-eyed, looking around, filled with curiosity, observing this "assembly hall" in the network space.

The place looked like a rather large city, yet its style was different from any city she had seen, like Boundary City or Mo City. The buildings in sight were mostly crowded and towering, with mottled outer walls seemingly eroded by sea breeze and sharp black rooftops. Massive steam pipes intertwined above the districts, and iron pillars on both sides of the roads had gas street lamps with a quaint style, steam-powered vehicles drove through the streets, and the shops on both sides of the old street had bright windows, under warm lights were goods she couldn’t quite figure the use of.

In the farther distance, one could see the city’s center with towering inner walls and large church-like buildings, huge steam pipes rising from the city center occasionally spewed out white airwaves, and under the melodious sound of steam whistles, the steam slowly merged into the simulated sky generated by the Garden Network.

There was a magical atmosphere in the city—warm and peaceful, evoking an inexplicable feeling of nostalgia among the visitors, puppets and various attendants led by puppets came and went on the streets, and puppets operated those street-facing shops with unclear purposes.

Erin widened her eyes looking at this place, trying to recall what Maris had introduced to her just now.

"...Does everyone operate in the upper network? Also, I remember when you first brought me in, everything around was so blurry, I couldn’t see any of this..."

"Eighty percent of access occurs in the upper network, which is the most secure and stable. The mid-network is a maintenance layer, depending on the situation, the Mind of an Alice Puppet might also exchange information in the mid-network, or call additional computing power to complete its tasks—below that is the deep network, but it is very dangerous, even the Mistress must be fully prepared for protection to make a brief dive into the deep layer.

"The deep network is where all dangerous and ancient data fragments settle, along with invasive pollutants dismantled and exiled by the upper and mid-networks. Cleaner programs periodically clean the deep layer and attack those Alice Puppets who are not adequately protected and accidentally contaminated. I strongly advise a beginner like you to stay away from that layer."

"Oh..." Erin scratched her head, not sure if she really understood, but her attention quickly shifted again, "What’s that over there? Why do some sisters have to bend down and nod or bow when passing by that place?"

Maris looked up, following Erin’s pointing direction, and saw a shop located at the corner of the street.

The shop seemed ancient and old in style, adorned with decorations themed around antiquities and crafts. The wide display windows exuded warm lights, faintly revealing the not-so-tidy shelves inside, with antique vases and various sundries placed randomly on them.

In terms of style, this store was similar to other street-facing shops along that street.

But unlike the surrounding open shops, the corner shop’s door was closed, with a hazy light screen blocking the entrance. Erin squinted to see, noticing a few words floating around on the light screen:

"I’ve gone out with the Captain~ See you all later~"