By the third time the scavenger program appeared and began repeatedly scanning her, Marlene could finally confirm that something was wrong.
The gray-white light and shadow swam through the surrounding darkness like a constantly writhing, transforming serpentine mechanism, repeatedly scanning Marlene's mental entity signatures. The entire scan lasted about twenty seconds—a perfectly normal procedure. Afterward, seemingly having found nothing unusual, it turned and left like the previous two scavengers, vanishing into the boundless chaos deep within the Garden Network.
Marlene didn't dare move rashly and cautiously remained where she was.
But aside from the scavenger program repeatedly coming over to scan her, nothing else seemed to be happening. Her mental entity hadn't been attacked, nor had she received any risk warnings from the "Garden" system.
"Maris." In the darkness, she cautiously called for her Servo Assistant.
"I'm here." A calm voice came from the dim ball of light.
"Check our connection environment."
"Checking... Connection environment normal. 'Alice Tree' contamination index is zero. All nodes of the Garden Network are unobstructed."
"From your perspective, is there anything wrong with my mental entity's operation?"
"No problems at all, Miss Marlene. Your mental entity is extremely healthy."
"But the scavenger keeps scanning me." Marlene's voice carried a trace of confusion. "It seems to think there's something wrong with me."
"Perhaps there's a minor problem with the scavenger program?" Maris analyzed. "After all, the deep network is extremely ancient, and the scavenger program has been operating here for a very long time..."
"This has never happened before." Marlene shook her head. "Besides, the scavenger program has been constantly iterating and updating. In theory, it shouldn't repeatedly make this kind of false judgment."
As she spoke, she lowered her head and carefully examined her shell. This wasn't her body in the real world, but rather