Chapter 588: Super Permissions?

The Star Scholars, who had been holed up in the computer room for days, were finally coaxed into going to the break room, temporarily resolving the crisis of "interstellar friends dropping dead on the construction site." After leaving the computer room, Mo Ran first went to inspect the progress of the dome repair in the Fissure Laboratory, ensuring that Blackstone Space Station's self-healing could continue at maximum efficiency.

Then she dismissed her attendants and began pondering how to report Master Alwin and the others' findings as concisely as possible—

And while she was at it, she wondered when the True Lord's so-called "true Blackstone Space Station expert" would arrive…

At the same time, Yu Sheng and Aileen were still at the "Alice Embassy" on the border.

He had brought the little puppet there first to apologize, and second to see what state the servo robot was in after being infected by the shake-to-open-ad malware.

But by the time he and Aileen arrived, Marin had already completed the first round of emergency treatment on Marys—the living doll had successfully disabled the jump-to-ad function on her maid and greatly improved the latter's symptom of "stop after every step."

Now Marys stopped after every two steps.

Yu Sheng pressed the little puppet's head down to apologize to Marys and her mistress. Good news: the little puppet was actually cooperative. She might be loud, reckless, and shameless, but even she knew when she was in the wrong.

Marin, however, didn't seem to mind much.

"It's not a big deal, actually," the living doll said with a smile. "Marys always had some issues like this. I'm kind of used to it."

Yu Sheng glanced to the side. The clockwork maid was lying obediently on the maintenance bench. The decorative oversized clockwork key and part of her back panel had been removed and set aside, with several cables connected near her chest and neck, linked to a data terminal for reflashing.

"Does she usually also stop after every step?" Yu Sheng asked curiously.

Marin sighed. "…She usually also constantly pops up ads."

The moment she said that, Marys, who had been staring blankly with several cables plugged into her, immediately turned her head: "You only need to purchase the basic membership package, and this unit can reduce three-quarters of the ad push notifications, while also providing personalized push services based on your daily browsing data. Recharge now and enjoy…"

Marin sighed again.

Yu Sheng didn't say anything else, but he suddenly felt that daily life in this "Alice Embassy" was quite colorful as well.

Then he received an interstellar long-distance call from Mo Ran at Blackstone Space Station.

Blackstone Station itself was still in a damaged state, and Yu Sheng had only placed a limited "instinct" on that station, solely to ensure its self-healing ran at maximum efficiency. He didn't monitor Blackstone Station in real time, so when Mo Ran suddenly called to tell him that Blackstone Station had once "fallen out" of this world and briefly become a living thing outside the world, he was completely stunned.

Yu Sheng knew that a group of "Star Scholars" had been holed up in the station's data center for the past few days, but he hadn't expected those experts to dig up such a big secret in just a few days! What could he say? As expected of Luo's kin, the famously psychic species of the universe—these "cosmic long-ears" were really suited for digging up little secrets among the stars…

Aileen was sitting on Marys's maintenance bench at the time, tilting her head up to watch Yu Sheng's face change color while he was on the phone. She immediately got curious. "What's up?"

"Mo Ran found something incredible," Yu Sheng said, roughly explaining the situation to the little puppet, then rubbed his chin. "I was planning to tell Luo about Blackstone Station in a couple of days, but now it looks like her 'vacation' is going to end early."

Aileen immediately jumped off the maintenance bench, skillfully grabbed Yu Sheng's clothes, and climbed up to his shoulder, babbling as she went: "Then get on with it. Rapunzel has already been dragging Luo to fish in the river outside the town, and they're planning to steal fruit from the Snake Lady's nest. If you wait two more days, that pointy-ear is going to be completely ruined by Rapunzel into a layabout, and then they'll both be big golden retrievers…"

Yu Sheng hastily said goodbye to Marin. A door opened directly into the fairytale town in the valley, and as the illusory door dissipated into nothing, the "Maintenance Room" fell silent again.

Marys, lying on the maintenance bench, blinked and stared at the spot where the door had vanished. After a while, she turned somewhat sluggishly to look at her mistress sitting nearby.

Marin was also looking at the clockwork maid on the bench.

"…How did you end up loaded with all that junk?" Marin finally couldn't help asking.

Marys answered honestly, "Miss Aileen said an accelerator could increase the win rate…"

"No, that's not what I'm asking," Marin interrupted. "I mean, how did she bypass your permission authentication and the Garden Network's own security protocols?"

Marys's eyes instantly went blank. A faint hum sounded from inside her body, and above the data terminal next to the maintenance bench, the holographic projection showing the "Garden Network Simulation Connection" status flickered for a moment.

"I… don't know," the clockwork maid said hesitantly. "None of the security protocols took effect. And Miss Aileen learned to call and rewrite various simulation interfaces at an astonishing speed, and even… seemed to ignore the compatibility issues between the Garden Network and other external networks. But based on my observations, Miss Aileen herself seems unaware of any of this. She's acting entirely on instinct."

Marin frowned deeply.

"Did the security defense mechanisms of the 'Assembly Ground' not react either?"

"No reaction—because Miss Aileen didn't cause any damage to the Garden Network, not even the slightest," Marys shook her head. "Although many of her instinctual operations violated security protocols, in terms of results, apart from installing a set of ad plug-ins on me, she never crossed any security boundaries… Perhaps that too is one of her 'instincts.'"

Marin didn't speak for a while. She took the data terminal from the side and began rapidly operating it.

She was retrieving the Garden Network's access logs from Marys's memory bank—which also included Aileen's activity records on the network.

"…Did you pass by 'Alice's House'?"

"Yes, we stopped there briefly. I introduced the background and current status of that access node to Miss Aileen."

Marin looked up from the data terminal. "Did you know that she accessed several remote ports of Alice's House?"

The clockwork maid on the bench was instantly surprised and unconsciously propped herself up halfway—but quickly shuddered and lay back down.

The aftereffects of the shake-to-open weren't over yet.

"That doesn't make sense," Marys said quickly. "We only stopped briefly outside the barrier at the time. 'Alice's House' was closed as usual. Miss Aileen didn't perform any access behavior. She didn't even approach the entrance."

"But the system logs show that she communicated several times with the 'Antique Shop.' Although each was very brief and transmitted no valid data, the communication process did exist."

Marys blinked. "…I, don't understand."

Marin remained silent, deep in thought. After a long while, she put down the data terminal and broke the silence softly. "Her permissions are very high—extremely high. There is a special set of access codes in her 'Alice Key' that can bypass the Garden Network's security protocols, and your simulated mind is based on the 'General Base' authorized by the Garden Network to the Astral Union, so she can easily bypass all your permission authentications as well."

Marys thought for a moment and then put on a serious expression. "Then I guess I need to be more careful when 'playing games' with Miss Aileen in the future. She always lets instinct override reason…"

Marin felt like she had heard something strange, but she didn't pay it much mind. Instead, she suddenly looked very seriously into the clockwork maid's eyes, a thoughtful expression on her face.

Marys felt a sudden tension from her mistress's gaze. "…M, Marin?"

"Your basic rewriting permissions are currently in a bypassed state, right?" Marin suddenly said.

The clockwork maid involuntarily squirmed. "Y-yes, it seems so. What are you going to do?"

Marin suddenly smiled and leaned a little closer to the maintenance bench.

The clockwork maid visibly tensed. "Miss Marin, please allow me to remind you, the user agreement…"

Marin: "You are a catgirl."

Marys: "…"

Marin: "…No reaction?"

"Personality protection program triggered. Detected rewriting behavior that violates the basic user agreement. 127th warning. For your data security and user experience, please do not privately rewrite the basic personality settings of the servo robot. If rewriting is necessary, please purchase the 'Advanced Development Expansion Pack' specially designed by the Astral Union for developers. Buy now and enjoy a 15% discount. You can purchase on any platform…"

Marin: "…?"

After the basic permissions were bypassed, what was left at the very bottom of the mind core was still a goddamn ad?!

***

A gentle breeze blew, carrying the fragrance of grass and trees. Soft daylight illuminated the riverbank beside the woods. A small campfire crackled, baking the caramelized scent of cooked food.

Several sticks were stuck in the muddy ground beside the campfire, with fish and shrimp caught from the river, fruit stolen from the snake demon's nest, and mushrooms foraged from the Black Forest threaded on them.

The big golden retriever and the little golden retriever were curled up in a patch of weeds, gnawing on freshly roasted mushrooms.

Age-wise, Luo was much older than Rapunzel. Hair-volume-wise, Rapunzel was much bigger than Luo.

But that didn't stop the two from calling each other sisters—all thanks to the power of roasted mushrooms.

"It's so nice," Luo mumbled with a mouthful of mushroom. "I'm going to be a scholar when I grow up, a great scholar, like a Star Scholar… After graduation, I'll…"

"I can't graduate anymore. I'm already seventeen, but I've saved up a lot of money, enough to buy everyone—oh no no no, Big Brother saved me," Rapunzel looked up at the sky, mumbling along. One moment she was dejected, the next happy, then she got downcast again. "But I still have to worry about graduation. Why is math so hard…"

"What's so hard about math? Isn't it just a matter of using your brain?" Luo glanced at the blurry golden banana beside her and took another bite of her roasted rock. "I'll tutor you later. I'm good at math. I… I don't want to work! I don't want to work! Those two recruiters were frauds—"

The golden elf seemed to remember something sad and started yelling. That startled Rapunzel, who slapped her on the back. "You idiot, you're off work now. Big Brother brought you back—right, Big Brother? Big Brother, when did you dye your hair… oh, it's Aileen. Aileen, when did you dye your hair?"

Family troublemaker dragging an alien tech warlord to eat wild mushrooms from the Black Forest until she lost consciousness.jpg.

When Yu Sheng and Aileen returned to the valley through the door, this was the first scene they saw.