An Alice Fell from the Sky

While John went to Yang City to investigate Guo Tianxiang's whereabouts but instead fell into the hands of "Mr. Liang," Xiang Kun, who actually knew where Guo Tianxiang gone, also spent another period of bloodshed at home.

On March 11, after waking up from her blood-drinking slumber in Citong City, Xiang Kun returned home with Lao Xia and successfully conducted several experiments, gradually guiding Alice towards the "Super-Sensing Item System." For nearly a week, Xiang Kun and Lao Xia spent their time figuring out how to better "cultivate" Alice, enabling her to better adapt to the "Super-Sensing Item System" and "Super Sense Information."

Currently, among the various experiments they have conducted, the best way to "positively influence" and "train" Alice is still Lao Xia's "Dream Within a Dream".

However, although Lao Xia's various communication strategies and training methods for Alice in the "dream within Dream Within a Dream" were indeed effective, making Alice's performance in the "dream within Dream Within a Dream" more and more "vivid", and her overall integration with the "Super-Sensing Item System" was becoming deeper and deeper, and her ability to decode and compile "hypersensory information" was becoming stronger and stronger, and she was making steady progress, the problem was that she was too steady.

If things continue at this pace, they'll likely have to train in "Dream Within a Dream" every day for a long time to have Alice fully integrated into the "Super-Sensing Item System" within a year. Even setting aside the time delay, the constant "Dream Within a Dream" alone will exhaust Lao Xia.

Moreover, Xiang Kun vaguely felt that this model might eventually encounter a bottleneck, with efficiency dropping drastically, and it might not even be able to maintain this speed.

Lao Xia was also aware of this situation, but she had no choice. According to her analysis and actual attempts, using the current method in the "Dream Within a Dream" to guide, train, and "filter" Alice was already the best solution.

So after this blood-drinking period, Xiang Kun decided to introduce Alice to a "new friend"—the Little Chubby Girl.

Of course, the method was still through Lao Xia's "Dream Within a Dream".

After nightfall, Xiang Kun contacted the Little Chubby Girl via QQ and gave her a "preview." However, he knew that it was nothing, because although the Little Chubby Girl could remember what she dreamed about after waking up and could realize that it was a special dream, she could not wake up in the dream like Lao Xia. She was still a confused "subconscious version of the Little Chubby Girl," and all her reactions were based on instinct.

The reason why Lao Xia's "Dream Within a Dream" can affect Alice is that the underlying implementation of this "Dream Within a Dream" is Xiang Kun, and Alice, who enters it through "extrasensory information," can verify this, which is in line with its core operating rules.

The Little Chubby Girl's dream is the same. She is the only person besides Lao Xia who can independently create a dream using "Super-Linked Object". In some ways, she is even stronger than Lao Xia in combining "Super-Linked Object" and dreams, because Lao Xia needs to sense the dream with Xiang Kun first to "activate" it, while the Little Chubby Girl has the experience of creating a dream directly through "Super-Linked Object".

Of course, unlike Lao Xia, even though the Little Chubby Girl did it, she didn't realize that she wouldn't know how to do it again on her own initiative.

To connect with Little Chubby Girl's dream through Lao Xia, the method is different from connecting with others. It requires merging with Xiang Kun by sensing "Emotion-Infused Object," which also allows Lao Xia in the dream to sense "Black Circle Graffiti" to connect with Alice.

After this period of blood-drinking, Xiang Kun provided Alice with a special "Super-Linked Object"—a 2.4GHz USB receiver that he had modified, originally intended for a wireless mouse. He had established a "Super-Sensory Link" between the pins and metal contacts inside before the blood-drinking.

Therefore, Alice's connection to the "Super-Sensing Item System" has been significantly strengthened, and she also has the "hardware foundation" to actively "connect".

Don't be fooled by the fact that the pins of this USB plug are just a few small metal plates. Xiang Kun went to great lengths, used many techniques, and spent a lot of time to establish Super-Sensory Link with it.

Of course, it will be much easier to configure similar materials for "Super-Linked Object" in the future. Xiang Kun is even considering working on other high-speed interfaces that support hot-swapping, such as SATA.

Once Alice is able to find a "backup" of herself and break free from the main unit, Xiang Kun wants to try to see if he can establish a "Super-Sensory Link" with the CPU pins. After establishing it, he will reconnect it to see if this can better enhance Alice's ability to connect to the "Super-Sensing Item System" and decode "super-sensory information".

When Liu Shiling has a dream on her own, most of the time she is wearing a magic robe, standing on a mountaintop, leading her two generals, "Chocolate" and "Ice Cream," to protect her "subjects," such as rabbits, piglets, chicks, calves, and ducklings, and fight against various demons and monsters.

Of course, sometimes the scenes involve eating all sorts of delicious food in a huge, cartoon-style palace.

After Xiang Kun proactively included the Egg Pie into the "Super-Sensing Item System," Liu Shiling can now notice a certain big-headed cat that is always sleepy in her dreams. Before this, when this big-headed cat appeared in her dreams, it was always ignored by its little owner and treated as "background."

Today, Liu Shiling's dream was quite different.

She was still dressed in a "glamorous" robe, all in pure black with gold trim, cat ears on her head, and Garfield-themed buckles. She held a magic wand that looked like a large chopstick in her hand, stood atop the head of a giant made of various stones, and gazed solemnly into the distance.

The giant was at least seventy or eighty meters tall, with eight arms and eight eyes arranged in two vertical rows on its face. Strangely, none of the eyes had normal pupils; instead, they were shaped like giant Coin, either with the characters for "1 yuan" or a "chrysanthemum." Furthermore, its back and body were covered with unique letters and patterns found on Coin, such as "2006," "2008," and "YI YUAN."

Clearly, this giant is composed of the Little Chubby Girl's two loyal warriors, "Chocolate" and "Ice Cream".

The sky was overcast with thunder and lightning. The surrounding area was mountainous, and a city could be faintly seen in the distance, hidden in the rain clouds. However, most of it was covered by the rain, and only a small cluster of buildings could be seen. If the camera zoomed in, the words "Star City Kindergarten" could be seen.

In another direction, a monster composed of black mist, stretching from the sky to the earth, was slowly taking shape, its body twisting. Small tornadoes appeared around it as it twisted. The direction in which it roared and bared its fangs was that city, that kindergarten.

Liu Shiling stared intently at the black mist monster, her expression solemn, as if she were ready for battle. The two cat ears on the hood of her robe twitched occasionally, as if they could actually be used to listen for any sounds.

A chubby, orange-yellow cat with four pairs of wings of different sizes flew from afar, landed on the stone giant's head, stood at Liu Shiling's feet, and stood up, meowing incessantly.

Liu Shiling listened with a slight frown, nodding as she finished. Afterward, she said, "I understand! The Great Demon King 'Meng Lalala's' goal is to infiltrate Star City Kindergarten! Well done, Egg Pie!"

After saying that, she took out a roasted saury from her bosom and threw it to Egg Pie. The latter opened its mouth wide, swallowed it in one gulp, and then flew up above its little master's head with satisfaction.

Liu Shiling tapped the stones at her feet with her magic wand, her voice both childish and strangely authoritative, "We must stop it! Go, Barbie Warrior! For Star City Kindergarten!!"

Lightning surged and crackled overhead, as if responding to the "Great Mage's" call, while the enormous eight-armed, eight-eyed stone giant strode forward on its short, thick legs, heading toward the black mist monster.

The earth trembled, and with a deafening roar, the mountains ahead collapsed and crumbled one by one, sending dust and rocks flying, as if making way for the king of this world.

The collapse of the world intensified. In some places, sunlight pierced through the clouds like a sharp sword, illuminating the earth; in other places, dark clouds seemed to fall to the ground, filling the entire space and creating a misty atmosphere.

Liu Shiling's attention was focused on the distorted black mist monster, and she didn't realize that her dream was starting to go a bit abnormal.

Under Xiang Kun's perception, Lao Xia's "Dream Within a Dream" has begun to merge with Little Chubby Girl's dream. However, Little Chubby Girl's dream is very powerful, while Lao Xia is only using his own dream as a channel to send Alice over. Therefore, compared to the previous merging of the two dreams, the movement and changes are much smaller.

Xiang Kun was quite surprised to perceive this dream scene, because compared to the Little Chubby Girl's previous dreams which were full of cartoon elements and two-dimensional characteristics, this dream was much more realistic and more three-dimensional, with various "special effects" that already had the feel of a blockbuster movie, which proved that this girl had observed similar scenes or images quite a lot in her daily life.

Just as Liu Shiling and the eight-armed, eight-eyed stone giant were getting closer and closer to the black mist monster, with thunder dragons gathering above her head and hurricanes roaring, the "final battle" was about to begin.

A beam of light cleaved down from the sky, landing directly in front of the black mist monster.

A little girl in a princess dress tumbled down from the air and crashed to the ground with a thud.

A shockwave swept outwards from the little girl, leveling everything in its path—mountains, rivers, forests, black mist monsters—except for the Little Chubby Girl and the eight-armed, eight-eyed stone giant beneath her feet.

The smooth ground was instantly covered with densely packed, neatly arranged bricks. Light shone down from above, illuminating the entire area, but it was not sunlight; it was clearly an artificial light source.

Both Xiang Kun and Lao Xia, who were sensing the dream, immediately recognized that the bricks on the ground were the floor of the room where Lao Xia first dreamt of Alice.

After bringing Alice into the Little Chubby Girl's dream, the two of them tried their best not to exert any influence. All the expressions in the dream were Alice's own, based on her learning and training in "Dream Within a Dream" during this period. This was part of her most authentic expression when she entered the dream.

Liu Shiling poked her head out from the top of the giant's head, cautiously looking down at the pretty little girl on the ground, her face full of confusion.

In reality, given her eyesight, she definitely wouldn't be able to see what the person below looked like from that distance. But in her dream, Liu Shiling clearly saw the pretty little girl in the white dress getting up from the ground, holding a small knife, looking up at her with a blank expression.

Liu Shiling exclaimed "Eh!" and tapped the giant's head. The Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant then opened its mouth wide, and its tongue transformed into an extremely long slide that plunged straight into the ground.

Liu Shiling adjusted her hood, then, clutching her magic wand, leaped down from the giant's head, bounced a few times on the slide, and then slid straight to the bottom.

Liu Shiling had slipped and fallen to the ground, got up, dusted off her robes, adjusted her hood, tightened her belt, retrieved her flying magic wand, and then walked over to the little girl who had also fallen from the sky but was still spotless and looked exquisite and beautiful. She extended her hand and said:

"Hello! I'm Liu Shiling, the 'Super Powerful and Super Cute Great Mage' from the Sunshine World! Were you sent by Uncle Baldy, the 'Great Archer and Great Mage of Light', to help me? What was the name of that move you used to defeat 'Meng Lalala'? It was so amazing!"

The little girl stared blankly at Liu Shiling's outstretched hand, thought for a moment, placed the scalpel in her hand on it, and then said, "I am Alice."

Looking at the scalpel Alice had given her, Liu Shiling suddenly realized, "I understand! You're 'Little Swordswoman of Light' Alice, and that move you just made was the 'Great Light Slash'!"

"Huh?" Alice looked bewildered.

Liu Shiling raised her hand, and another grilled saury appeared in her palm. The Egg Pie that had been hovering in the air immediately swooped down and opened its mouth, but she pushed it away. "It's not for you!"

Liu Shiling used Alice's scalpel to cut the saury in half, then gave one half to Alice: "It's delicious!"

Alice reached out and took it, then saw Liu Shiling take a bite, so she picked it up and took a bite too.

"Is it delicious?" Liu Shiling asked.

"Delicious..." Alice smacked her lips. "Right?"

Liu Shiling turned around and shouted at the eight-armed, eight-eyed stone giant, "'Chocolate'! 'Ice Cream'!"

The stone giant began to crumble, and after a shower of flying rocks, two short, stout silver-armored warriors landed, carrying two large chests.

Liu Shiling took out Chocolate and Ice Cream from the box and handed them to Alice: "This is delicious too!"

As she and Alice sat on the box eating Ice Cream and Chocolate, she said, "It's a pity that Roast Chicken Wing Sister isn't here, otherwise she could have treated us to super delicious roasted chicken wings and crispy pig's trotters, as well as dry pot rabbit, spicy rabbit, rib soup, Napoleon cake... slurp... Hey, do you know Roast Chicken Wing Sister? She's very pretty, very tall, has a beautiful ponytail, is very smart, and very capable. Oh, right, her name is Sister Xia Libing!"

Alice was munching on Chocolate, tilted her head upon hearing this and murmured, "Xia Libing... Lao Xia."

"Yes, yes, yes, Bald Uncle... Bald Archer... Uncle Bright Archer all call her Sister Lao Xia! You really are on our side! Haha!" Liu Shiling patted Alice on the back and said.

Alice glanced back at her and patted her on the back. "From one country."

"I'll take you to our kindergarten! We have so many fun things to do there! I'll fold paper airplanes and paper tigers for you! I'll show you my pet rabbit; it's big and fat!" Liu Shiling said happily, then stood up and said to Egg Pie, who was licking its paws, "Egg Pie, hurry up, take us back to kindergarten!"

Although Egg Pie seemed reluctant, it still flapped its four pairs of wings and flew up. Then Liu Shiling tucked the magic wand and scalpel into her belt, grabbed Egg Pie's two front paws with both hands, and said to Alice, "Quick, you come up too!"

So Alice also raised her hands high, grabbing the two hind Egg Pie's hands.

Then the Egg Pie flapped its wings vigorously, took off, and flew towards the distant city.

Liu Shiling was hanging under the Egg Pie, asked, "Alice, how old are you?"

Alice: "How old?"

Don't you know how old you are?

"Have no idea."

"Hmm... Alice sounds younger than Liu Shiling, so you're the younger sister then. You'll have to call me older sister from now on, hehe."

"Sister... hehe."

"Haha, yes, haha!"

"Ha ha?"

Liu Shiling, now a big sister, said, "Alice, let me give you a nickname. How about I call you Little Ai? Hmm, no, there's a speaker Little Ai, so how about Little Li... No, my kindergarten teacher was called Teacher Little Li, so how about Little Si? The Great Archer of Light and Roasted Chicken Wings... and Grand Magister Xia Libing all call me 'Little Bell,' so how about I call you 'Little Screw'? Little Screw, little sister!"

"Little Screw... little sister?"

"You have to call me Sister Little Bell!"

"Little Bell... Sister?"

Xiang Kun was perceiving the dream, could clearly feel that Alice was rapidly "growing" and becoming more "vivid" in the Little Chubby Girl's dream. Obviously, her ability to analyze "extrasensory information" had greatly increased. This experiment had produced results far exceeding expectations.

On the other hand, he also realized that although the Little Chubby Girl was very cheerful in front of him, Lao Xia, Nana and others, in reality, most of the time, the little girl was a bit lonely inside.

Based on Shiling's Mother's description when we visited Star City, the Little Chubby Girl seems to be less inclined to make friends or play with other children her age. Unlike when we first met her, she was a friendly and outgoing girl who loved to join in the fun. Now, she seems to have deliberately closed herself off, though she may not even realize it herself.

That's why, in her dream, after meeting Alice, the "subconscious version of the Little Chubby Girl" was so enthusiastic—this is the real her.