Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

She tilted her head and gave an analogy. "In other words, you might be mentally disabled for anywhere from half an hour to three days, unable to take care of yourself. This time varies from person to person, it might be longer or shorter. Of course, as long as you reach an area where ritual magic can be performed, this problem can be solved immediately, but by then... well, it's pretty much like all the suffering you endured during that time was for nothing."

The tyrant's cheek twitched, and a bead of cold sweat even trickled down the forehead of the strong Russian man. "Uh, I'm not really interested in being mentally challenged... How much does 'extremely painful' mean?"

"Kick the wall with your little toe until it breaks." Alice tilted her head slightly, and as she saw the relaxed expression on the Overlord's face, she added half a sentence: "...that pain will be multiplied a hundredfold. Because I need to replace seventy percent of your muscles and bones, rebuild forty percent of your nervous system, and implant about one kilogram of implants."

"...Are there any other paths we can choose?" The Overlord sighed softly. "Alright, probably not, then I'll..."

He seemed to have made up his mind, but the next second, his resolve began to waver.

“No, actually, there is.” Alice shook her head, then nodded, and snapped her fingers. Two of the small dolls beside her floated forward slightly. Their eyes gleamed with a detective and scanning light. “I can design a force-feedback powered armor suit based on your physique. This will give you ample leeway when dealing with conventional firepower in this era, while the various fire control auxiliary systems will help you effectively control various powerful weapons. However, the necessary materials will have to wait for Patsy to return, and this armor will be slightly ineffective against certain unconventional attacks.”

“Personally, I would recommend this kind of enhancement for you, because your role is a close-to-mid-range heavy firepower user. And in the current world, the most likely combat mission you will undertake is sitting in a spaceship equipped with the resurrection altar, controlling a heavy particle cannon to clear out the mobs.” Alice tilted her head slightly and said, “Close combat is actually not very important for you, at least not until we reach the pyramid of Anubis. At the same time, you will have a shield to absorb almost all external attacks while you are in the spaceship, so a set of high-tech equipment that helps you control heavy firepower is suitable for you right now.”

"Do you want to choose this method of enhancement?" Alice asked.

"Firearms and steel are definitely more suitable for me." Overlord paused for a moment, then chuckled. "I'll choose the second enhancement method... but can the two be combined? Can I choose both?"

Alice raised an eyebrow.

“Yes,” she said, flicking her fingers lightly. The two small puppets that had stepped forward nimbly flew to the Overlord's side, measuring various biological data and collecting samples of his blood, skin, nails, keratin, and many other things. This data was then rapidly gathered in Alice's mind, and she began to construct a corresponding enhancement plan.

Her gaze immediately shifted to Ming Yanwei.

“I’ll choose both,” Ming Yanwei said before she could ask. “I can resist.”

“This is difficult.” Alice frowned slightly. “People’s physiques differ. Although you have gained several years of combat memories, the Overlord is far stronger than you, and your body probably cannot withstand the same level of modification. Moreover…”

“I’ve unlocked the gene lock.” Ming Yanwei’s words shut her down completely.

And so her persuasion came to an abrupt end.

“Before I died, as I watched the bullet hurtle towards my forehead, I felt something, a slowing of time, as if I could easily dodge the bullet if I wanted to. And now I can reactivate it…” She stretched out a hand, her fist lightly clenched. Her eyes seemed to glaze over for a moment—then quickly returned to normal. “If nothing unexpected happens, this should be the genetic lock you mentioned earlier. I think this should be proof that I was able to survive.”

"…………"

Alice stared at her, remaining silent for over ten seconds. Only when the atmosphere became awkward, and even as Ba Wang was about to break the silence with a lame joke, did she finally take a deep breath and mutter softly, as if complaining.

"I really don't know whether to say I'm envious or jealous... You bunch of chosen ones who can unlock your genetic locks at will are really something... Oh well." She let out a soft breath and quickly sorted out the excess emotions that had surfaced in her mind.

"Then, both of you, please grit your teeth."

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

Twenty minutes later...

As Zheng Zha listlessly walked out of the makeshift camp, following a faint scream to Alice's temporary workshop, he saw two pitiful human bodies wrapped like mummies, suspended in the air by thin puppet strings. The air was thick with the stench of blood, and he could almost hear the terrifying echoes of some small animal's dying howls. In the center of the workshop, Alice was making final adjustments to a pair of unremarkable pistols.

"What is it?" Alice asked without turning her head.

“Uh, Margot Lloyd, what’s this…”

"We don't have enough materials, so for now we can only make Chu Xuan's dual pistols. We'll talk about the rest later." She manipulated the little puppet to carve many tiny patterns into the inner layer of the guns, and a satisfied smile appeared on her lips as she watched them shimmer with a faint light.

"Ahem, that's not what I meant." Zheng Zha coughed awkwardly, then pointed to the two 'dried seals' hanging in the cave. "I meant those two..."

"It's just a necessary step in human enhancement; it's beneficial to them." Alice glanced at him, then naturally changed the subject after putting her dual pistols back into her pocket. "You seem to have something to say to me?"

“…You noticed.” Zheng Zha gave her a complicated look, smiled, and found a place to sit down. “There is something I do want to say. It's mainly about O'Connor and Evelyn… Is there a way to bring them back to normal? I remember you mentioned before that you had a past life or something…”

“You are the same person in your past life and this life, Zheng Zha.” Alice shook her head and looked at him. “Stop dreaming such impossible dreams. Your past life has awakened, but your essence will not change. You are still you, it’s just that your vast past has crushed your insignificant present. There is no such thing as normal or abnormal.”

“You don’t need to worry too much. They may not become our enemies. As long as…” Alice gently clenched her fist. “…they don’t get too deeply corrupted.”

"That knowledge from other realms?" Zheng Zha raised an eyebrow and asked, "You mean those celestial ghosts and earth ghosts? It is indeed a bit uncomfortable to be around them, but I feel... it's not that serious."

“That’s because I rewrote the spell, and what I summoned was a corrupted version.” Alice rolled her eyes at him, annoyed. “I would never release the original. Without sufficient precautions, I wouldn’t even bother to recall it in my mind. Those things… would drive people crazy.”

“I don’t know if O’Connor and the others have gone mad. I only know that ordinary people go mad after seeing them. And if someone doesn’t go mad after coming into contact with them, and then continues to have contact with them for a long time afterward… even if it’s a modified or degraded version that I’ve corrected, they might become… something.”

She walked towards Zheng Zha, her serious face and imposing aura causing Zheng Zha to instinctively back away. However, she approached Zheng Zha and spoke her next words in an unprecedentedly serious tone.

“In my world, there was a group of things that had long been in contact with them, and even dominated a part of them… that founded a school of thought. They called themselves idealistic mages, claiming to have mastered ‘truth’ and the path to eternity. We materialistic mages fought them for a very long time, so long that they suddenly disappeared, and the scholars of the mechanical way unknowingly grew to the point where they could put a knife to our throats before it was over.”

"We... Patchouli and I have absolutely no chance of peaceful coexisting with those guys. Because we can't understand each other, we can't even coexist... If O'Connor and the others' corruption is still mild, then it's fine, we can still save them with some effort. But if the corruption is very deep, so deep that they have become a part of them... become that bunch of scum of the idealist faction, then I will act immediately and completely wipe them from this world, leaving not a single atom behind."

"...Then you shouldn't have taught Saito those things in the first place."

"That's different. That knowledge has been revised. And the Supreme God cleansed away the unsafe things afterward... And I don't discriminate against knowledge. I only discriminate against those scum who have been corrupted by knowledge and become some kind of weird thing. They are even more hateful than the dogs of the Church. At least the dogs of the Church, after capturing witches, will only torture them and then hang or burn them, instead of turning them into...something."

Her voice was filled with a terrifying flame, scorching, burning, and unsettling. Even Zheng Zha, who had spontaneously activated the third stage of his genetic lock, felt a chill run down his spine and his heart pounded uncontrollably. His instincts told him to end the conversation quickly, but he couldn't suppress his curiosity at that moment.

"What is a mind-based mage like?" he couldn't help but ask.

"You want to know?" Alice smiled sweetly. That smile sent a chill down his spine, and made him regret his words. However, before he could change his mind, the smile vanished, and the girl before him returned to the expression she had when she first brought up the topic.

“I can’t understand those idealistic lunatics, so I can’t explain it to you.” She shook her head gently. “At least I can’t do it, nor can I understand, the idea of ​​taking thousands of babies out of their mothers’ wombs a month before birth and shredding them, just to hear that ‘purest cry’.”

"They weren't even doing experiments, or making materials; they just wanted to hear!"

Section 10. Shut up! You're just playing with your power!

One hour later...

Patchouli returned precisely on time from the designated colonial town in a machine that looked like a gyroplane (Osprey), but was actually more than five times its size. It was clear the machine had been crudely modified, with obvious signs of welding and fusion in many places. But regardless, an hour was an hour, and she timed it perfectly.

Since she arrived on time, the others naturally did as well. When the rotors on both sides of the aircraft flipped upwards, hovering at a height of about twenty meters in the air using the powerful thrust provided by the engines instead of the anti-gravity field commonly used by witches, the rest of the people present had basically completed the simple tasks that Chu Xuan had assigned them and gathered together.

The enhanced Overlord and Ming Yanwei naturally had nothing to say, as they had spent the previous hour and fifty-five minutes gritting their teeth to ensure they wouldn't faint from the excruciating pain—Alice wouldn't let them faint either. And naturally, although the enhancement process went very smoothly, and the two were currently full of energy and had inexhaustible strength, they didn't even have the energy to speak.

Physical excitement doesn't necessarily offset mental fatigue, does it? All they can do is climb onto the gyroplane without bothering others, and then find a comfortable spot to calm their restless nerves.

Since the newcomers were of no use, the task of moving the altar could only be assigned to the most muscular person. At Chu Xuan's signal, Zheng, despite having a cold face since returning with Alice and the others, still mustered his strong arms and carried the heavy resurrection altar onto the gyroplane.

So everyone took their places.

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

“I’m sorry, although I received several signals, the results of my long-range mental scans were all less than ideal—it was just ordinary water flow and geological changes; there were no ruins nearby.” Sitting in the cockpit of the gyroplane, Zhang Jie leaned against the altar and made an apologetic gesture. “Perhaps O’Connor and the others haven’t reached their destination yet. Perhaps we need to wait a while longer.”

"Chu Xuan, should we keep waiting?" Zheng Zha clenched his fists, propped his chin up, and looked serious. "If possible, I want to find O'Connor and Evelyn as quickly as possible... I remember you said before that if we didn't find them within an hour, we had another strategy."

He asked in a low voice, his tone full of seriousness. And Chu Xuan certainly did not disappoint him.

“No need to wait any longer, let’s go straight there.” Chu Xuan raised his terminal, highlighting several points on the Nile River basin map displayed on the screen. “In the past hour, I’ve consulted some local Egyptian historical records, combined with geographical clues revealed in the film and other small details, so I can roughly deduce these possible locations. And since Zhang Jie has already proven his mental abilities in the previous reconnaissance, then—”

He handed the terminal to Zhang Jie. "Scan these areas."

"Why can't we just say it directly?" Zhang Jie's lips twitched as he took the terminal. "If I had known you could calculate it, I wouldn't have had to waste my energy scanning... that would have been exhausting."

“But I hadn’t figured it out yet at that time,” Chu Xuan replied calmly. “Besides, I also need to test the breadth and accuracy of your mental scan. And I’ll give you something to do.”

“…” Zhang Jie raised an eyebrow, but ultimately said nothing. He gently rubbed his temples, closed his eyes, and pondered for about a minute.

“Found it, this should be the place.” He pointed to a point marked on the map, about four hundred kilometers away from the Reincarnators. “My mental scan was hampered here; something is hindering us.”

Is there a way to overcome those obstacles?

"It's difficult." Zhang Jie closed his eyes, veins bulging on his forehead. A few seconds later, he opened his eyes and shook his head.

“It’s alright, it’s only natural that the location where the treasure is stored is protected by magic.” Chu Xuan nodded and transmitted the coordinates to Patchouli, who was in charge of piloting. “How long will it take to get here? Can we get there within two hours?”

“It won’t take that long, just an hour and a half.” Patchouli looked up at the sun, which was already gradually setting—the Reincarnators landed in the afternoon when they arrived in this era. “We can get there before nightfall, or perhaps around dusk.”

She thought for a moment and then added a sentence.

"If I'm in a hurry, I can force the Grand Library to be upgraded... Although the repair work is not yet complete and many functions are unusable, if I'm just in a hurry, using the Grand Library can shorten the time to about half an hour."

“There’s no need,” Chu Xuan replied. “There are two possibilities. First, the ruins haven’t been excavated yet, and we can directly obtain the Scorpion King’s bracelet from there and proceed with the second part of the story step by step. Second, O’Connor and the others have already obtained the bracelet, and because Evelyn is the guardian of the relic, they won’t trigger the trap even if they take the bracelet—the latter is a bit more troublesome, but I have a strategy prepared. And either way, it doesn’t make much difference whether we arrive early or late.”

"I see." Patchouli turned back with satisfaction and continued to operate her gyroplane. Meanwhile, the two dried seals gradually recovered from the mental blow. Overlord was slightly weaker, currently still at the level where it needed to fold origami cranes to gradually master its enhanced power. Ming Yanwei, however, had quickly mastered her body by unlocking her genetic lock, and was currently being given energy-restoring fluids while Zheng Zha pulled her aside to discuss various aspects of unlocking the genetic lock.

—They are in good condition.

Because they were in good condition, Alice had to speed up the preparations for the subsequent enhancements. Under her will and skillful manipulation of her ten fingers, the little puppets floating around her quickly sprang into action, picking up tools such as screwdrivers, welding torches, and cutting machines to form a small workbench. As the metal blocks and electronic components that Patchouli had specially collected were transported over by the little puppets and placed into the workbench, the two enormous power armors gradually took on a basic framework.

Zhang Jie found a place to sit down not far from her.

"You have something to say?" Alice asked Zhang Jie, diverting a little of her mental processing time while keeping an eye on the armor's production progress.

"Hmm." Zhang Jie nodded, took out a cigarette from his pocket, and lit it. "You don't mind, do you?"

"do not mind."

He chuckled at this, took a deep drag, and exhaled a neat smoke ring. His second breath pierced the smoke ring like a sword, and then, like Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, he used his telekinesis to shape all the smoke, transforming it into a small boat that floated out of the gyroplane window.

"This feeling of being free, of being alive... is wonderful. I originally thought that would be my life forever. I thought I would be a servant to the God of God until I died. But I never expected that your plan would actually succeed." He stubbed out his cigarette, not letting a single wisp of smoke drift towards Alice.

"Thank you, Alice Margotrovid. You saved my life."

“It’s just a fair trade.” Alice lowered her eyes. “You’ve done what you promised, and I will do what I promised. It’s an equal exchange, don’t take it to heart.”

"..." Zhang Jie paused for a few seconds, seemingly surprised by Alice's answer. After a long while, he chuckled softly. He nodded and said, "Okay, that's indeed a fair trade. So next time you want to trade, just ask, and I guarantee I'll treat you fairly, young and old."

"Hmm... But before that, let's offer some after-sales service first—Alice, your body and soul don't seem to be very compatible. Would you like a mental expert to provide some advice?"

The girl's fingers trembled slightly; a tiny circuit had malfunctioned. She simply picked up her knife again, modifying the faulty circuit to create a new one with a different effect—without looking up, she replied, "I exchanged for the Breaker's Physique, then my physical body disintegrated in the Final Destination world. Now I'm a Soul of Obsession, and the God says it takes 16,000 reward points to resolve my problem… Do you understand what a Soul of Obsession is?"

Zhang Jie's brows furrowed slightly, then relaxed.

"A soul fixated on something... I've seen this exchange at the Supreme God's. Ordinary reincarnators can't enhance this, not even those with a Breaker's physique. Unless that reincarnator possesses..."

"Permissions?" Alice asked.

"...You know?" Zhang Jie's fingers trembled slightly when Alice uttered the word 'authority,' and his gaze sharpened instantly. He immediately used his telekinesis to create a soundproof circle around the two of them, even using his telekinesis to disrupt the air that served as the medium for sound transmission, preventing the sound waves carrying the word 'authority' from reaching the third pair of ears inside the spacecraft.

Alice glanced at him with some surprise, seemingly wondering why he was making such a fuss. But she ultimately suppressed her doubts and continued, "When I was strengthening myself, the main god told me I lacked sufficient authority. Then I asked it what authority was, and it still told me I lacked sufficient authority. Do you know what authority is?"

“…I used to know, but I don’t know now.” Zhang Jie smiled bitterly and shook his head slightly. “You must have some special item related to the obsessive soul…whatever it is. You must be holding that item to see the ‘Breaker’ enhancement, and it is precisely because you are holding that the God told you that you do not have enough authority when you asked the God a question.”

He gently rubbed his forehead and said with a hint of distress, "Under normal circumstances, the Supreme God would never mention the word 'authority' at all. Let alone use a hint like 'insufficient authority' to answer your trap question about 'what is authority'... Ah, my head hurts so much."

"In short, don't worry about this kind of thing for now, at least not until Zheng Zha reaches the fourth tier or you yourself achieve the Demon King rank. These two words are too heavy... To come into contact with them, you need great luck, great fortune, great wisdom, and great power. Because only in this way can you live and possibly enjoy the benefits they bring. But right now... our entire team combined could be crushed by these two words."

"Let me tell you about obsessive souls instead."

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

There's one more period later.

Section 11. My favorite animal is the lively seal.

Obsession with the soul.

The Obsessive Soul is actually a... very bizarre enhancement system. Although it bears the name of a soul, it is completely different from those vengeful ghosts and spirits that fear fire, holy light, peach wood swords, black dog blood, and might even fear sunlight. Because of all these weaknesses, the Obsessive Soul has none of them.