Atticverse

Snow suddenly come by outside the window, falling in drifts between the towering buildings.

Flying motorboats, cars shuttled between the intricate flyovers, carriageways, tail lights cut a colored halo, splitting the shadows of the city's corners, rendering Avalon at the beginning of the night into a neon city of light.

Merry stood at the window looking out at the city in the night, sullen.

When she was a child, she loved the nights of Avalon, the dreamlike neon colors in the void, the intricate style of cars and motorboats hovering between the buildings ... the dreamlike beauty that overwhelmed people.

After moving to a new home, Merry was even happier.

Merry's new home, the house she now lives in, is located in the middle of the city of Avalon. After the original old buildings were demolished, the residential area was rebuilt and is the tallest building in the city, from the highest floor, you can see everything in Avalon. At night, Merry was very happy to see the bright lights of the city unfold before her eyes like sparkling stars.

Later, her father's business became busier and busier, and he almost never came home, leaving Merry in an empty room with a beautiful view out the window, with only the robot butler as her companion.

The robot butler was already equipped when the building was built, and Merry's father reprogramme their house butler, whether in the bedroom or other rooms, the robot butler is everywhere, its tentacles, like human nerves, hidden in the walls, everywhere.

Over time, Merry became bored.

The world outside the window, underneath the neon light, hides an unseen darkness.

The room inside the window, the ubiquitous robot butler, is also annoying.

It seems that everything is under the control of others, and everything is a false existence hidden from the world. Behind the city, in that hidden dark corner, someone is brewing a huge conspiracy unknown to the people. There is a tentacle in the darkness that quietly reaches out to the poor people living at the bottom of the buildings and keeps sucking their blood.

"Is my father back?" Merry asked to the empty room.

"Miss Merry, the chairman is on his way and is expected to arrive home in fifteen minutes." A mechanical voice answered from the empty room, the voice of the robot butler.

"How long will he be back for?" Merry glanced at the meal on the table then asked.

"The chairman is back to take care of some business, only fifteen minutes."

"Taking care of things?" Mary snapped to herself.

"Yes."

Merry looked around the room alertly, and felt ridiculous that she and her father, who had been so close at one time, were now so much like strangers.

She both wanted her father to come back and for the two of them to sit down and have a real family meal together, and felt that every time her father appeared, the disappointment in her heart accumulated deeper.

In the room with the lights off, an orange light was on at the doorway leading to Dao's room.

Dao is a small tree that Merry found by chance when she followed her father on a trip to the Eastern continent. Because of its good growth and resemblance to a small person, it attracted Merry's attention, so she begged her father to buy it and bring it home. Merry will always remember the look in the hooded woman's eyes when she took Dao away - a mixture of reluctance and helplessness, as if she was frightened and worried.

Soon after returning home, Dao had grown considerably. Avalon had hardly seen any greenery, so Merry babied it very much.

One day, when Merry was talking to herself, Dao suddenly followed Merry's example and spoke in a manner that startled her.

But when she calmed down, Merry got excited - finally she had someone to keep her company! From that time on, Merry named him Dao, and from that time on, Dao's "strange things" were unstoppable, and now Dao is a small tree man who can talk and walk like a human.

Merry did not think that when her mother left and her father was so busy that he almost forgot about her daughter, Dao became a family member to keep her company. Over time, compared to her father who seldom came home, Merry felt that Dao was the closest family member.

Merry's father had the drones analyzed and tested by various means, and all the tests showed that Dao was just an ordinary tree. No one could explain why a tree could talk and walk.

The special existence of Dao soon spread throughout the high-end laboratories of Avalon, and everyone wanted to own this tree man.

Merry was reluctant to let anyone else take Dao.

When negotiations failed, some people tried to steal it, which happened several times before.

"Replenishment mode?" Mary muttered to herself.

Dao's room was usually lit with a green light, life mode, which was designed to keep Dao in the most comfortable environment. Now with the orange light on, it was in recharge mode, allowing Dao to take in more energy than usual to allow him to leave the room for an extended period of time.

Merry did not plan to take Dao out today ...

Merry popped up from the window like she suddenly thought of something.

"How long before my father arrives home?"

"Miss Merry, the chairman is expected to arrive home in five minutes."

Merry quickly opened Dao's room, but the house was empty and Dao was nowhere to be seen.

"Dao, where are you?"

No one answered.

"Dao come out!"

Seeing that Mary was a bit anxious, Dao came out of the closet unhurriedly: "No manners! You don't even know how to knock when you enter someone's room!" Dao paced around the room with narrowed eyes while counting Merry.

"What are you doing hiding in the closet?"

"It's all because of your crappy housekeeper! I'm dying and I keep forcing those N and P's down my throat, it's awful!" Dao continued to complain.

"Do you know what my father is up to?" Merry asked, rushing to the robot butler.

"Forget it, whatever. Dao, come with me!"

"No, I'm not going anywhere. It's not a good day to go out!" Dao leisurely sitting aside to watch Merry anxiously packing things.

"If you don't go, it will be too late, my father will sell you!" Merry could see her father's intentions early on, he had been approached before and had not relented, the fundamental reason was simply that the price was not right, Merry knew in her heart that as soon as someone offered the right price, her father would sell Dao immediately - after all, he was a businessman.

"What!?" Dao shouted with a raised voice, "Aren't we family! How can someone sell his own family! Where is the conscience, where is the justice of God!" With a pompous look, Dao squatted on the ground holding his head and howling in pain. If any strangers get to see this, they really thought how much he would actually cared about Merry's father selling him.

In fact, he didn't like Merry's father at all and often poked him in the face of both father and daughter, sarcastic in a sinister way.

"Are you leaving or not?" Merry grew a black face.

"Let's go." Dao immediately stood up and patted the dust off his body. Go up to the door.

Dao twisted the doorknob, looked back at Merry, and shake his head with a gloomy expression.

"Open the door!" Merry rushed forward angrily and kicked the door.

"Miss Merry, the chairman has instructed that you are not allowed to take your potted plants out today." The robot butler replied.

"WAIT! WAIT! A potted plant? Who are you calling a potted plant?" Dao questioned, somewhat confused about the potted plant.

Didn't want to spend more time arguing about this, Merry dragged Dao to the window, opened a window on the far left side of the window.

"Wait, I obviously all locked ..."

"This window broke long ago, you can't lock it." Merry has long been aware of this window control system problems, so they used a knife to cut it off with the robot butler link, the two of them now have a chance to escape. Out of this window, over the side parapet, next to the balcony is Merry's absolute territory! This is when the house moved, Merry begged her father to leave a piece of her own little world, not controlled by the robot butler. The balcony is parked with the small motorboat that Merry used to hang out daily.

"Miss Merry, you really can't leave!"

"Shut up! Old thing!" Merry scolded the robot butler as she went over the window.

"I just sound old, I'm only five years old." The robot butler was now also learning to talk back.

Merry didn't bother. Her family lived on the 300th floor of the building, and the wind blew under her feet like an abyss.

One person and one tree, carefully climbing on the window, step by step to move. Two or three meters away, this moment seems incredibly distant. It was good that both of them finally made it to the balcony without any danger.

"Phew! What a fright!" Dao said, wiping his "sweat" on the forehead - but with his climbing ability, climbing on such a building, as smoothly as ...

Merry quickly launched the motorboat, motorboat slowly rose, before leaving the balcony, behind the sound of the door has been opened - Merry's father has returned.

"Merry! Come back!" Father yelled at Merry as soon as he entered the door. Apparently the robot butler had already reported to him that Merry was going to run away with Dao.

Merry glanced back at her father, whose angry face was full of reproach, and Merry felt as if her father is a stranger to her.

She asked her father, "You gave me up for business, for money, and now you're taking away even my last family member?"

Merry did not wait for her father's answer, and resolutely drove the motorboat, sailing into the bright neon lights of the city. Her eyes were filled with tears, almost ready to burst. She was so engrossed in her grief that she didn't notice Dao behind her, is also with eyes red.

The word "family member" filled Dao's heart with warmth.