Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

The horror movie was supposed to end abruptly by having the captain certified, with the unfortunate dead being resurrected by the Golden Scripture of the Sun—to be honest, Alice did have this plan at the beginning of the movie. This was because she didn't deliberately hide the information about the captain certification that Zhang Jie had told her before his death, but instead directly revealed it to the other members of the Central Continent Team. Perhaps not only her, but the others might have had similar thoughts.

'Since you can't die no matter how recklessly you act in this horror movie, why not make a scene?'—This kind of thought probably crossed the minds of everyone in the know. And this information may have played a significant role in how things turned out the way they are now.

Of course, it's only one factor among many.

“Okay, I’ll report this to your brother.” Alice responded after a long pause. A few seconds later, she asked two more questions: “Your brother is also in the Reincarnation Space, so… is he as strong as you?”

“Perhaps he is even stronger.” The main personality Zhao Yingkong sighed and replied, “Brother Zhuikong’s talent and ability are all above mine. He can even forcibly suppress his instincts and keep his gene lock at a very low level… However, that must have been in the past.”

“Since he’s already entered the Main God Space, he must be in despair. And I can guess the reason for his despair: of the survivors of the ‘Empty Project,’ only the two of us remain, and our relationship has always been better than that of the other brothers and sisters. So, in the real world, he must have been secretly observing my alternate personality all along…”

Alice blinked: "So, you mean your alternate personality entering the Main God Space caused his despair?"

“Although I also think this statement is a bit…too self-centered, it’s the most likely development.” Zhao Yingkong’s eyelids twitched, and her cheeks flushed slightly. “My brother…is a very focused, persistent, and calm person. And the more focused a person is, the more easily they can fall into obsession under certain circumstances. And after the collapse of ‘Plan Kong’ and I, the only one of the two remaining, fell into a deep sleep, he might very well see taking care of my alternate personality as a responsibility he must bear…”

She shook her head vigorously, skipping over the subsequent... inferences involving personal feelings and giving the result directly.

"In short, Brother Zhuikong will definitely enter the Main God Space after me. But this period won't be very long, so he will most likely appear in a reincarnation team in another continent. Based on his usual preferences and the areas he usually stays in, he is most likely to enter the Main God Space in the Americas, that is, in either East America or the Arctic."

"As long as he doesn't suppress his instincts, he can easily reach the fourth stage. But no matter what, he can't overcome his inner demons, so when you encounter him, you will inevitably be ambushed by him. To survive in front of him, you would at least need to unlock the third stage gene lock, or fully master multiple AA-level or even S-level enhancements—but that's the situation for people who don't know him at all. As for me, I know some of his irreparable weaknesses."

Zhao Yingkong made a gesture as if she were crushing something. Her eyes suddenly turned extremely fierce.

“A proud person like him won’t listen to anyone unless he’s thoroughly taught a lesson. So, I’ll tell you his weaknesses, and when you encounter him… give him a good beating for me.” With that, she flicked her finger lightly in the air, unleashing an invisible wave. She then used a concealment technique powerful enough to withstand the gaze of a fourth-tier expert—though completely unnecessary, she did it instinctively. For the next period, she recounted to Alice how to defeat Zhao Zhuikong.

a long time.

The methods of concealing intelligence lost their effectiveness over time. Meanwhile, Zhao Yingkong's targeted presentation was also coming to an end.

“…You really are…” Alice’s lips twitched. “A sister who cares about her brother.”

“He deserves to be beaten for not cherishing his brother. He chose to come to the Main God Space, so he has to bear the consequences himself,” Zhao Yingkong replied nonchalantly. “Anyway, a fourth-tier cultivator isn’t that easy to die from. It’s good for him to calm down. Besides… this way of calming down will also let him know my existence and stance. That way… at least it will make things easier for everyone in the team during group battles.”

“I think it would be difficult to lose this time…” Alice murmured softly. “Alright, I understand the general situation. Anyway, according to your request, if I’m still alive and you haven’t successfully resurrected by then, I’ll help you deal with your poor ‘Brother Zhui Kong.’ But I think it’s better if you do it yourself. Although the situation is bad right now, you… might not die.”

"I hope so." Zhao Yingkong, the main personality, sighed softly, then changed the subject. "Let's not talk about that. Your army should be almost fully built up by now. Shouldn't we move on to the next step? Let's make it clear first, don't ask me to do anything that requires too much brainpower. Although my brain will be greatly liberated after reaching the third stage, I really don't want to put my computing power into these kinds of plans and schemes—just tell me where to attack and to what extent."

"...Did you catch Zheng Zha's infection?"

"It's just to save you trouble." Zhao Ying gave her a blank look. "You know, I need to focus my energy and concentrate my mind on the plans ahead—that's one of the prerequisites for our cooperation. I don't think you'll forget that so quickly."

“...Of course not.” Alice looked away.

She calculated the time and then pulled up a light screen made of optical signals next to her to observe the expansion progress of the mechanical legion.

Her legion… or rather, the productivity she had orchestrated, did not disappoint her. With the three industrial zones in North America fully transformed and utilized, the mechanical legions, crafted with futuristic technology, were being mass-produced at a slightly faster pace than she had anticipated. Machines produced machines, steel forged steel. As interference towers targeting the angels were built and rapidly covering the entirety of North America, her production bases experienced no malfunctions or accidents.

There was no shortage of workers, materials, technology, or production lines. Therefore, any product could be mass-produced in a very short time. And when she examined the statistics screen in front of her, focusing on the column marked 'Total number of combat units usable within twelve hours,' she saw a set of numbers that satisfied her.

Sixty combat dolls.

Strategic suppression units – 447.

Tactical suppression units – 6,779.

Basic combat units: 1,549,300.

“That’s enough,” Alice said softly. “It’s time to move the plan to the next stage.”

..................................................................

Alice conquered North America in twelve hours. While she was suppressing various resistance forces throughout North America and beginning to mass-produce mechanical legions, she also dispatched an elite force to fight in South America.

South America, a continent rich in resources but technologically barren. Seventy percent of this land is covered by forests and mountains, while the remaining thirty percent is home to nearly four hundred million people—who primarily rely on agriculture and basic industry for their livelihood. Sports are decent, but education is abysmal. The entire continent is essentially a raw material extraction machine for European and American countries, and their domestic armed forces are, naturally, quite weak.

There are indeed brave and fierce people, but those are merely warlords, and warlords are not nations—even the most powerful civilization on this planet couldn't withstand Alice's army and information overload for more than twelve hours. And when the same situation befell South America, their performance was naturally even worse.

—The mechanical legion advanced at a speed equal to the fall of the South American countries. Alice dispatched her army at noon on the third day, and by nightfall she had conquered the entire Americas.

And it was precisely for this reason that, when the fourth day arrived and the problems of Zhao Yingkong and Qi Tengyi were initially resolved, Alice was able to draw upon a large amount of resources from South America to expand her military strength. Although the industry there was only at a basic level, in Alice's eyes, the entire industrialization of Earth's civilization was merely at a basic level. She only needed resources, technology, workers, and industrial mother machines, which she could handle herself. And it was precisely for this reason that, as she prepared for the next phase of her plan, the abundant resources of South America provided her with crucial assistance—sixty percent of the legion's troops were thus created ahead of schedule, giving her some extra time in this phase.

She wouldn't waste this hard-won extra time. So, when she realized her forces had reached the target line, she didn't hesitate to move the plan to the next stage.

—Conquer the European continent.

Continental Europe.

If we only consider military strength, then continental Europe is nothing more than a—no, a bunch of salted fish—compared to North America. Defeating them is a foregone conclusion; the difficulty lies in controlling them.

Controlling North America by replacing high-ranking officials was already a major headache for Alice, because she had to ensure that the key imposters wouldn't suddenly develop their own will and rebel against the legion, dealing a heavy blow to her plans when she least expected it. Therefore, she had to expend a great deal of energy directly monitoring every imposter in a key position, eliminating the possibility of them going out of control. This approach was manageable in North America, where there was only one voice, but in the multi-nation continent of Europe, simply monitoring the imposters would exhaust her entire energy, naturally causing the subsequent stages of her plan to fail.

She wouldn't allow that to happen, so naturally she had to choose another strategy.

And the name of this strategy is—donning a disguise and fighting head-on.

At six o'clock in the morning of the fourth day, the mechanical legion launched its first offensive. At the same time, the world's communication networks, which had been out of control for dozens of hours, suddenly and unilaterally resumed operation. All television screens displayed the image of the President of North America, followed by a fifteen-minute declaration of war.

The Americans first took responsibility for the previous communication disruptions, then, using some completely irrelevant pretext, launched into a five-minute unilateral attack on the European nations. Just as things calmed down, the puppet president, a master of acting, suddenly changed his tune, declaring war on nearly a hundred countries, large and small, across Europe simultaneously.

The restoration of communications was one-sided, so the only thing the European powers could do in the face of this inexplicable declaration of war by the Americans was remain silent. While the dozens of hours of communication disruption allowed many major powers to react and rebuild their networks using more traditional methods, the inability to use intelligent systems threw transportation into chaos.

In other words, even if the European nations knew of the impending North American invasion, they wouldn't be able to quickly mobilize their forces and establish a defensive line. The only consequence of this was that the North American navy, carrying thousands of armed robots, would cross the Atlantic unscathed and launch a full-scale attack on the European nations.

Alice's plan aimed to avoid casualties, which is why she chose to wage war under the guise of North America. Even if some Awakened Ones in the governments of the European nations knew their true intentions, they couldn't spread the information due to the communication blackout and the United States' unilateral declaration of war. This meant she could kill fewer people—for the civilian population of Europe, being ruled by robots meant the extinction of civilization. But being ruled by the Americans wouldn't be unbearably bad.

Therefore, the people of this continent quickly grasped the truth that 'no resistance, no death.' They soon calmed down under the suppression of a robot army mixed with a small number of loyal former U.S. soldiers, and the cities quickly returned to peace after the patriots and resistance forces were swiftly eliminated.

At eight o'clock on the morning of the fourth day, the British were suppressed.

At ten o'clock in the morning, France, Germany, and Austria accepted rule.

At 11:30 a.m., the Mediterranean was under control, and the mechanical legion began its attack on Egypt and Russia.

At exactly twelve o'clock, about four-fifths of Europe was completely suppressed. The battle quickly turned into a small-scale counterinsurgency. About twenty minutes later, the counterinsurgency was declared over, and the machine army controlled almost the entire continent, beginning to move into major industrial areas to start the next phase of mass production.

At one o'clock, Zhao Yingkong arrived at the outskirts of Italy.

The next phase of the plan then began. Under Alice's will, over 1,300 intercontinental nuclear-armed missiles were launched from various covert launch sites or underwater nuclear submarines. The target: the Vatican, the seat of the Holy See.

I'm taking a day off for my birthday...

Ah… this week's updates have been truly disastrous. But today, I feel like I really can't… well, I won't go into the details. Anyway, it's my birthday on June 16th, and I have a lot of personal things to do today, so I'm a bit tired. Ugh… I just wanted to get a good night's sleep tonight _(:з」∠)_

In short, I'll be taking a break tonight, but updates will resume as normal tomorrow and the day after.

By the way, I'm planning to set an alarm for midnight to go do a free pull on the NPC, see if any of my favorite Servants will do me the honor _(:з」∠)_

By the way, I'd like to ask for your votes, and maybe even some feedback on my racket playing (I feel too embarrassed to say this).

Chapter 71 The Light in the Papacy

After sweeping across North and South America and invading Western and Northern Europe, Alice was certain that there were no supernatural forces in this world other than angels and the Awakened. Furthermore, mechanical science here was not advanced; the technological limits mortals could control only reached nuclear fission—there were many other miscellaneous theories, but they were just theories, probably still thousands of years away from practical application.

The Awakened Ones are derivatives of angels, so angels can be seen as the only supernatural force existing in this world. If angels have a stronghold or nest on Earth, then they must be related to the Holy See.

Perhaps the Moses, Abraham, and Jacob of this world were all enlightened beings who had encountered angels. They received pessimistic predictions about the future from the angels, and thus they made angels the core of their faith, building a comprehensive papal power on this foundation. And perhaps this is why the founders of these religions are often called prophets.

A prophet is someone who foresees good or bad fortune. Ancient religious sages often possessed this power. Their abilities were often limited to predicting disasters—no, if they could predict disasters, they could predict good fortune. Because in ancient times, days without disasters signified luck and peace.

They possessed such power, and this power propelled them to build this powerful and complex religious force—based on Alice's understanding of angels as 'divinely created weapons'. Since such a convenient entity as the Papacy existed, the angels wouldn't consider it useless trash—their operational logic dictated that they would appropriately and fully utilize all available resources within the bounds of the rules. In other words, that was the Papacy's value to them.

The possibility was slim, but it was enough to justify Alice's decision to unleash nuclear fire upon the Holy See. This was a rare strategic point that could intervene with the angels, and she wouldn't easily give up even the slightest possibility. After all, angels, being pure energy, highly mobile, and with remarkably cunning logic—their slipperiness surpassed that of most 'fish' she knew!

[But that's just an excuse.] Alice thought to herself. [It's a displaced anger stemming from weakness. It's actually a manifestation of cowardice and immaturity. But...]

She recalled a small country she had used as a warning to others when she subdued the nations of Earth in the Transformers universe… She would never admit that it was a random target. Because the word "Papal States" was, to her, quite… 'memorable'.

[The Vatican, those guys really gave me a hard time during the witch hunt... That wretched mathematical weapon, that wretched 'music box,' that wretched first-generation information jamming device built around mathematically constructed diagrams and using musical scales and sound waves as its carriers!]

"If it weren't for this, how could there have been witch hunts hundreds of years ago!? While I have no prejudice against the Church's magic, for you bastards..."

[I don't hate you at all, I have no prejudice against you, and I don't want to blow you all up or burn you all into elementary particles!!!]

Her heart was in turmoil, filled with conflict. If the timing and setting hadn't been so inappropriate, she probably would have unleashed a Hadouken right there on the spot!

So you've finally met your match! You bastards!

Although this isn't the same world... so what!

She hovered in the airspace about thirty kilometers from the Vatican. Her expression shifted rapidly due to intense emotional fluctuations. This obvious abnormality drew the attention of her companions—Zhao Yingkong, the main personality also suspended in mid-air, looked at her with suspicion.

"Your emotions are very unstable. Has something unexpected happened? Your scattered brainwaves are as conspicuous to me as a lighthouse in the dark."

“No, it’s nothing.” Alice’s face darkened, and her eyes twitched slightly. “It’s just some despicable emotion that bursts forth from the bottom of my heart, something like the wail of a defeated dog. The thought of projecting the negative emotions of an enemy that I couldn’t fight in my original world onto my counterpart in another world is disgusting to me.”

“But you still think that way.” The main personality, Zhao Yingkong, looked past her, towards the ballistic missile approaching from about a thousand kilometers away at the edge of her field of vision—it would take several minutes for the warhead carrying the nuclear bomb to reach here—then she shifted her gaze, sweeping it over the outline of the Papacy dozens of kilometers away, pausing briefly on the decorations atop the Papal Palace. “This is inconsistent with your previous behavior, at least it differs from the conclusions I reached based on my previous observations.”

"It's not that despicable?"

“I’m not that insecure.” Zhao Yingkong, the main personality, turned her gaze back to Alice. “Even in the previous reincarnation, you would have directly and decisively crushed this situation without hesitation. Instead of burdening yourself with psychological pressure and being sentimental like a spoiled teenager.”

"Did you waste those hundreds of years?"

Alice lowered her eyes and gave a soft 'humph' through her nose. "You're right, I have the same thoughts. My thoughts... for some reason, have become chaotic, manifesting as excessive insecurity and anxiety. But strangely, I can't suppress these emotions well right now. It's as if... the reason they surface from my heart is because I've subconsciously made a decision, as if I must bring them to the surface and express them fully—they are my true inner thoughts."

“I don’t think this is normal. Perhaps you should quickly examine your mental state and get a psychological analysis to see if you’ve been interfered with. The nuclear missile will arrive here in two minutes at most; you’d better not mess things up at the last minute.” Zhao Yingkong calculated the time and the ballistic missile’s flight speed. Although a smile was on her cool face, it was devoid of warmth. “Our agreement doesn’t cover breach of contract. Once I determine that you can no longer be a partner for cooperation, then the cooperation will end there, and I will handle the remaining issues myself.”

Alice closed her eyes and gently pressed two fingers of her right hand against her brow. Almost visibly, the scattered aura around her dissipated rapidly, measured in seconds. A cold and capable aura returned to her as she focused her mind, and within a hundred seconds, it almost coalesced into one.

She opened her eyes, and a tangible glimmer flickered in her azure pupils.

“It failed.” Her tone was calm, her expression serene. “That is indeed my true feeling.”

Zhao Yingkong, the main personality, raised her eyebrows slightly. She was about to speak when Alice immediately uttered a "but," which choked her words.

"However, I figured out the true meaning of these feelings."

"what?"

“This isn’t just idle speculation; it’s a hint, a warning my subconscious has gathered after absorbing a lot of information I hadn’t paid attention to, and it’s projected onto the surface of my consciousness. It’s a manifestation of my sixth sense.” She gently clenched her fist, and the blue veins on the back of her fair and delicate hand bulged. “My heart is telling me about all the situations I might encounter in the future.”

"Hate the house because of the crow?"

“It’s highly likely, but not entirely. I suspect it’s possible…” Alice looked up, watching dozens of intercontinental ballistic missiles hurtling towards the Vatican from afar, their alternating trajectories tracing the sky several kilometers away, hurtling towards the Vatican's location—the first wave to arrive. The rest would arrive within minutes, then use the fireworks of 21st-century civilization to reduce the tiny Vatican to dust.

—If they can do it.

Alice watched the missile's exhaust plume disappear into the distance, the pale, swirling web of hot steam trails forming a vast, white net across the sky. She sighed softly and uttered the possibility she had conjured in her mind: "...It's a case of hating the crow because of the dog."

The entire world fell into an instant of absolute silence. A pure and dazzling light suddenly shone from afar. The next moment, her voice was drowned out by the endless roar and surge of light. Several layers of protective shields suddenly unfolded before her. A dozen seconds later, the first wave of impact arrived.

The mountains were leveled in an instant; the terrifying shockwave ripped clods of earth from the mountainsides, and the next wave of impact crushed those clods into fragments in mid-air. The storm intensified, and the fragments immediately broke into even smaller pieces until the soil's structure decomposed, the molecular framework forcibly torn apart by intense heat, radiation, and violent particle turbulence—calcium carbonate became carbon dioxide and calcium, silicates became metallic particles and elemental silicon. These torn molecular bonds released vast amounts of heat, which in turn propelled the storm to even greater heights.

A towering column of clouds suddenly rose into the sky, obscuring the sky above the location of the Vatican. The next moment, a second wave of ballistic missiles loaded with nuclear warheads struck, this time carrying ten times the number of nuclear warheads as the first.