Rhodes Island does not exist.

Thank you segment.

Thank you to everyone who recreated the adorable swimsuit-clad Tamamo from Syracuse for your support and for the virtual gifts and monthly passes.

Chapter 203, Part 202: rabbithole

"—Are you a guest?"

The voice rang out from the throne.

It was an incredibly delicate voice, the kind only a young child could produce, carrying an innate quality that was difficult to imitate.

The two fell into silence.

"What should we do?" Skadi glared at the Doctor, conveying her thoughts through her actions.

"I don't know either." The doctor shook his head slightly, expressing his opinion.

But that's all that can be done with eyes and body language.

Overly complex discussions and plans cannot be simulated in such a simple way.

Even so, neither of them dared to speak casually.

Who knows if this is some kind of weird trap?

Seeing that the two remained silent, the voice from the throne sounded again.

"That's strange, there was definitely a sound."

The tone and timbre were so childlike that it almost made you believe the voice belonged to a child.

But this is impossible.

After all, this is Rhodes Island.

However impossible it may seem, the two of them couldn't continue pretending to be mute.

"Let me do it."

The doctor leaned close to Skadi's ear and whispered the message in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz, "If anything goes wrong, I at least have a second chance, so let me do it."

“…Be careful.” Skadi understood the reason, but she didn’t really want all of this to happen, so she could only say softly, “Don’t treat your life as a consumable.”

But the doctor shook his head.

"Here, life is a consumable."

Then, he raised his gaze to the top of the small throne—the majestic Mountain of Dolls.

There is no doubt that the sound came from the pile of toys, which is in line with children's playful nature.

However, it should be noted that playing is not a privilege reserved for children; after all, humans love to play until they die.

"sorry for disturbance."

The doctor cleared his throat and spoke in the direction from which the sound came.

"Guest, are you a guest?"

The young voice replied to the doctor almost instantly, filled with undisguised excitement and barely suppressed urgency.

It was as if that person had been waiting for a long time.

But how long exactly?

no one knows.

After all, the Doctor had already come to realize a fact to some extent—that time was meaningless on Rhodes Island.

However, even if the scale is meaningless, the feeling of time passing in one's heart will not change.

Unless you lose your memory.

Just like the PhD himself.

So, this strange person who can only be heard but never seen is probably the same. The doctor thought to himself, and then replied to her.

“Yes, I am a guest.” His voice carried toward the Doll Mountain.

"Ah—ah! It's a guest, it's a guest!"

His young voice was filled with an indescribable excitement.

"Oh my god, I can't dress like this to entertain guests, please wait a moment!" Then, the excitement turned into panic.

"No need to rush," the doctor said, trying to ease the atmosphere she was creating.

"How can that be!" Her delicate voice was like snowflakes in early spring. "You're the second guest I've ever met... no, the first, the very first guest! You must be treated with the utmost hospitality!"

"Is he second or first...?" the professor muttered to himself.

"I...I don't know...sob...I can't remember, let's just say I was the first customer!" she called out nonchalantly. "Wait for me a little longer, I'll be right there!"

"Can you hear me even when I'm speaking so softly..." the doctor muttered in an even softer voice than before.

“Of course! I’m the owner here, I know everything that happens here.” She laughed happily.

To be honest, the doctor felt that the truthfulness of this statement was questionable, because if she really knew, she couldn't possibly not know that they had entered this place.

But she did have the right to know – the cameras covering the entire sixth floor were the best proof.

The doctor decided to put the matter aside for the time being and instead said something else to her.

"By the way, I didn't come alone, there are two of us."

"What?! Two guests at once?! This is so wonderful, waaaaah... I need to prepare properly..."

Excited voices resounded.

This added another layer of doubt to the doctor's previous question.

It's highly unlikely that she doesn't know how many of them there are. Leaving aside her earlier claim of being omniscient, the sheer number of surveillance cameras covering the entire wall makes it impossible for her not to know.

"Hey!" Skadi nudged his shoulder with her elbow, her tone slightly annoyed. "You said you could come here."

"Didn't I go alone?" The doctor chuckled. "You can't keep hiding forever; she'll come out sooner or later."

"It sounds like I deliberately hid in the background." Skadi pondered her words, feeling that something was off about them.

Then, after thinking for a moment, she said to the doctor, "How do you know that the creature is female?"

“The voice, and the setting.” The doctor gestured toward the tea party venue. “These factors combined make it hard not to think it’s a woman.”

“That’s a stereotype.” Skadi shook her head. “If you acted like that in public, you’d be criticized.”

"We'll talk about it outside," the doctor shrugged. "Once we're out, you can criticize me however you want."

“…But speaking of which,” Skadi suddenly fell silent, “why did we even go out in the first place?”

"Don't you want to go out?" the doctor asked back.

“No…it’s nothing.” Skadi shook her head. “Just pretend I didn’t ask that question.”

On the other side, on a mountain of plush toys, some small toys were rolling down with a slight sway, bouncing and hitting the edge of the throne before scattering at the feet of the Doctor and Skadi.

"By the way, you mentioned before that you've encountered a few anomalies that possess independent thinking abilities and can converse. Is this one similar to the one we're facing now?" Skadi stared at the towering peak ahead, then, as if remembering something, asked the Doctor.

"It seems about the same for now, but..."

Thinking of Exia and those unknown phantoms in the Hall of Midnight, and looking at the lavender limbs coiled around his hand, the Doctor couldn't help but sigh and shake his head.

"I have a bad feeling about this weirdness."

“Then I’m ready to retaliate at any time.” Upon hearing this, Skadi immediately gripped the hilt of her sword, looking as if a formidable enemy was imminent.

"No, no, no, no." The doctor waved his hand. "What I meant by a bad feeling wasn't that, but rather..."

"But?"

"I don't know why, but I always feel that these strange things are related to my past self."

Chapter 204 Two hundred and three, ownnenton

With a tremor in the fluffy mountain, the world's格局 (geju, a concept encompassing both structure and layout) was reshaped.

A mountain collapsed.

Seawater overflowed.

The world collapsed.

Everything changes.

Of course, none of the above happened.

As the fluffy mountain trembled, a slender little hand appeared before everyone.

The doctor was surprised.

Because it was a normal, human hand. Unlike any of the strange things he had encountered before.

It can only be said that behaving normally amidst numerous anomalies may sometimes be an anomaly in itself.

But is one little hand really enough? Of course not.

Then the second hand broke through the thick layer of fur, bursting out from the mountain's body and exposed to the frozen air.

Up to this point, the strangely exposed body still appeared normal.

"No, I'm sorry!" a small voice called out. "When I was sleeping in here, I accidentally buried myself too deep, so it's a little difficult to get out now."

Her tone remained light and leisurely, as if she were in a flower-viewing pavilion on a spring outing, not some hellish abyss.

“Your hand is already showing,” the doctor replied, going along with her tone.

"Hey, don't talk like that, it's disgusting." But Skadi, who was standing next to her, looked like she was about to vomit. "And what kind of talk is that? Giving birth?"

"I didn't mean that at all; it's just that your imagination is too vivid," the doctor said casually.

"Anyway, don't mimic her speech," Skadi clicked her tongue.

"I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting, guests." The woman's voice was full of apology. "It's all my fault for wasting your precious time waiting for me. Otherwise, we would probably all be finished with our tea party and happily reunited with our families by now."

“What is she saying…?” Skadi was stunned.

"I don't know, but I've had a vague feeling about it since just now." The doctor frowned slightly, and the brain cells in his skull vibrated like popping candy. "It's like she didn't think before she spoke."

In other words, they weren't thinking.

“Aren’t all weird things like this?” Skadi didn’t understand.

“No.” The doctor shook his head. “What you’re talking about is being brainless, having nothing under the skull. What I’m talking about is having a brain but not using it, or having it wired incorrectly.”

"what!"

Just as the two were talking, the body with two arms suddenly burst out of the furry mountain.

The doctor, who had been staring in the direction of the fluffy mountain the whole time, naturally saw this scene at first glance.

But after he saw it, he chose to remain silent.

After seeing those two arms, he thought the strange creature in front of him might look like a normal person.

Now he realizes he was wrong.

The person in front of me... no, the creature in front of me does indeed have a human-like form, and also has two arms and two legs, and only a head on its neck.

However, apart from a mouth, there was nothing on its head.

"I feel like I've seen this design somewhere before," the doctor thought to himself.

Her short, black hair fell along her cheekbones and over her shoulders. Her small body exuded an air of wanting to be protected. A long white veil covered her entire body, making her look like a little maidservant before a god.

—But all she has on her face is her mouth.

A huge mouth usurped the space that should have belonged to other organs, and stood in an excessively large proportion across that tender little face, completely destroying the pure atmosphere that the whole body exuded, and repeatedly trampling on it.

"Hello, guests!"

The first thing she did after climbing out of the mountain was to excitedly leap high into the air and wave her hands at the Doctor and Skadi.

"Hello, hello..." Although he was somewhat startled by her appearance, the doctor was not surprised because he had been familiar with strange things like lavender beforehand, and even waved to her naturally.

"I'll be right down. We can't miss a tea party when entertaining guests, or my friends will hang me up and whip me for neglecting them!"

She lifted the hem of her white tulle skirt and charged down the ramp made of countless plush toys like a raging bull.

Watching the toys dancing in the air because of her footsteps, the doctor suddenly realized something.