Fortunately, the virus Alisa had spread this time was purely for machines and harmless to humans... Well, even if it were harmful, it would not have done anything to her anyway.
It would have been even less useful against Liu Bai. Corruption depended on scale too. Even if it really got through, at most it would have been an incurable case of ringworm, not fatal cancer.
"...I did my best."
After retrieving the virus from those dolls, the completely pinned-down Alisa simply lay flat.
She had tried hard to keep it under control.
"But come to think of it, even without the virus, these dolls would still prey on their owner, right...? It feels like that's just how they were programmed."
"...Hm? Did the connection just come online?"
Herta suddenly felt her link with the dolls return.
The next moment, Herta opened her eyes and immediately felt a massive weight pressing down from above.
"What is going on--!?"
Had she become the bottom layer of a human pyramid?
"Ah, is that Ms. Herta? Could you help? The dolls went berserk."
"...Berserk?"
Herta was clearly a little bewildered.
"Why would they go berserk? Wait, I'll issue an order first."
The dolls' eyes dimmed for a moment. Then, one after another, the dolls piled on top of Alisa climbed down.
Then, Herta linked herself to the most voluptuous doll.
"Tell me. What exactly happened?"
Herta raised a brow and glanced at her box. Dolls were still being manufactured inside it—yet as their creator, she spotted the problem at once.
"Basically..."
Alisa timidly explained what had just happened.
"..."
After hearing the whole story, Herta's first reaction was to stare Alisa up and down.
"W-What is it?"
Alisa sensed something bad coming.
"...You might be able to go fight the Iron Tomb."