Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

[My condition isn't quite right; perhaps I should take a risk...]

She decided to give Mingyanwei another chance.

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

Ming Yanwei sneezed suddenly, reaching up to touch her nose. The surrounding survivors cast worried and concerned glances at her. She then waved her free hand, indicating that she was alright.

Something feels a little strange...

No, actually it's always been strange...

She thought to herself as she walked towards the door. Along the way, the survivors she encountered bowed and greeted her, and the distinctive smell of blood and medicine from the makeshift shelter filled her nostrils—even a casual glance revealed at least seven or eight wounded men with broken limbs lying in beds, enduring pain and groaning softly. Even with the efforts of the medical students she had rescued along the way, their lives remained precarious.

They are still struggling to survive.

“Ms. Ming, we need more medicine, and we’re running low on food.” A middle-aged doctor, whose face looked somewhat pale, leaned close to her and whispered in her ear as she walked out of the shelter. “People are very uneasy, and we need something to boost morale.”

“I know,” Ming Yanwei nodded. “I’ll go right now.”

"...Thank you for your hard work." The doctor rubbed his hands together, seemingly hesitant. "Please be quick, some people won't last much longer. And the shelter... is actually quite vulnerable without you here."

Ming Yanwei didn't answer. She just walked straight out, slowly making her way to the front door, then pushed it open and went outside.

As the door behind her closed tightly, the cold night wind blew against her face.

It was quiet all around, which was normal; the monsters had all been killed to the point of being unable to resurrect, so naturally it was quiet. Even though the doctor in the shelter repeatedly emphasized that it would be very dangerous without her, she knew very well that she could stay outside for a whole day without any accidents happening to her.

Ming Yanwei tried to bite off her own tongue.

Naturally, she failed; her body's instincts prevented her from engaging in such self-harm. Because there were people she needed to save, she couldn't die there—even if she wanted to.

【hateful.】

Even if it's all an illusion, does this feeling of being bound still exist?

She looked up at the hazy, cold moon in the night sky. The moon had looked just like this when she arrived in this dimension two days ago. And now, two days later, the celestial landscape remained unchanged.

Time here doesn't flow, or rather, it doesn't flow relative to time. Although clocks still tick, and dead people or monsters don't suddenly revive a few hours later, the past remains the past, and time and space fixed at 2 AM will forever remain 2 AM.

The dawn of the next day will never come, and those who died long ago will forever remain just phantoms.

"I know." She pressed her hand against the chest area of ​​her armor and breathed softly.

[Upon arriving at this place, I knew everyone was dead; saving them would be pointless. My most important task was to explore the surrounding area, or perhaps learn from the previous level and use brute force to find the entrance to the next level—or at least, after rescuing those people, have them pave the way for me; that way, at least they would have served some purpose. But…]

Why can't I control myself?

She knew what she was doing, and she knew how serious her mistake was—she couldn't even remember the names of anyone in the shelter. It wasn't that she couldn't, but that she didn't want to; she didn't actually want to have anything to do with them at all. Yet, even as she tried her best to control herself, her body moved unconsciously.

I don't want to kill anyone.

Don't want to hurt anyone.

They wanted to save people.

I want to save more people.

She felt like a machine with its own will; even though her thoughts were free, she was bound by some kind of 'programmed rules,' pushed to do things she didn't want to do—she didn't deny that her experience as a priestess in the Ju-on 2 world had indeed had some impact on her, and the desire to be expected and needed by others deep within her was real. But she wasn't a fool who didn't know what was important…at least she knew what her priorities were.

This can't go on...

She thought to herself, but when she came to her senses, she found herself standing at the entrance of a large private hospital—she had already eliminated the surrounding undead and mutated creatures. All she had to do was walk in, open the display window, and take the common medicines.

Yes, it was that simple. So simple that she had no reason to delay or change her strategy—she could only give a helpless bitter smile, letting the impulse surging within her drive her to take these actions she didn't really want to do.

Ming Yanwei quickly obtained what she needed. There were no surprises, no missing medicines, and no monsters suddenly appeared to stop her. Everything went smoothly, as if she were the chosen one. And when her work was finished, her heart urged her to move on to the next goal.

She had no choice but to leave, unable to stay. Even though she was extremely unwilling, she couldn't stop herself—until she saw a mirror reflecting her image.

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

My doll grudge is finally complete...

I hate shrine religion...

Section Twenty-Nine: Fish! What a huge fish!

A person's shadow is reflected in the mirror, and the light from the mirror is reflected in the person's eyes. In the instant that gaze and light intersect, an infinite path is constructed between the eyes and the mirror. The mirror reflects the mirror, the eyes reflect the eyes, and in this reflection formed by the superposition of infinite reflections, a path leading to the void is opened.

When Ming Yanwei came to her senses, she found herself standing in a strangely familiar room. The familiar furnishings, the familiar furniture, the familiar cold wind from the high-rise building, and the faint sounds of noise coming from outside the window. She turned her head and, unsurprisingly, saw a half-cut group photo on the wall behind her. In the photo, she was smiling radiantly, but the engagement ring that she had deliberately displayed in the photo was particularly glaring.

There's no mistake, this is Ming Yanwei's house in the real world. And there's absolutely no way she could be there right now.

“Peeping into other people’s minds is nothing to be proud of, and it’s meaningless to me now.” Ming Yanwei gently closed her eyes, her fingertips trembling slightly as she rested her hands on the back of the sofa. “Whoever you are, please stop immediately, or else…”

"Otherwise what?"

She opened her eyes abruptly, and Alice's figure appeared on the sofa opposite her the instant she opened her eyes.

"Miss Alice?"

“Yes, it’s me. I came specifically to check on your progress.” Alice nodded and asked, “I thought you had understood what I meant, knew your situation, and were working hard to delve deeper into this distorted spacetime and demonstrate your worth. But now it seems my guess was wrong?”

“I understand what you mean, Miss Alice.” Ming Yanwei lowered her eyes and let out a soft breath. The tense muscles in her body quietly relaxed. “I know what you want me to do. You want me to take the bait to the deepest part of this distorted space, and then lure that outsider so that you can take care of it.”

"...Now that you know, why not do it?"

"Because there are many people there waiting for me to rescue them."

No, that's not right! I don't want to save them at all! That's not what I want to say! No! I should... I should tell you the truth! Miss Alice!

“What the hell?” Alice frowned deeply. “You should know that those are just illusions. They all died two years ago. What’s there now are just remnants of information, echoes of time. They’re not even souls, just mere remnants of the past, like something out of a virtual movie. They don’t have the attribute of ‘being able to be saved’ at all.”

Ming Yanwei was speechless.

Miss Alice has become so terrifying... Damn it, why can't I speak? Why can't I react at all? Damn it! My body, move!

The archer's heart was in turmoil, but outwardly he remained silent.

Silence means confrontation.

“I thought you wouldn’t be bothered by such trivial matters. Or perhaps I misjudged you, and deep down you actually have a very strong 'saintly' tendency, the kind that takes even a movie seriously?” Alice rose from the sofa, her hard leather boots making a series of crisp cracking sounds on the floor. She approached Ming Yanwei, looking up at the female archer who was almost a head taller than her with a scrutinizing gaze.

Although the witch was petite, her gaze carried a tangible pressure. Under Alice's gaze, Ming Yanwei instinctively stumbled backward, accompanied by a clattering sound. Bottles and jars in the house were knocked all over the floor by Ming Yanwei's fall—her legs went weak and she couldn't help but sit down on the ground, exuding a weak feeling of 'don't bully me'.

Alice stood in front of her, looking down at her.

“You disappoint me, Ming Yanwei. I resurrected you hoping to fill this leaky team with a competent scout and mid-range support, not to simply send a goddess statue into the ranks to save everyone.” A faint but sharp light flickered in Alice’s eyes, a light that seemed to pierce through Ming Yanwei’s body—this was a mental detection technique used to check if the other party had been mentally corrupted. However, when—the message that everything was normal returned—Alice’s expression became even more unpleasant.

Ming Yanwei's spirit contains only this one mark she left behind; nothing else.

So what does this mean?

A born saint, unable to bear the sight of others suffering. No, this is likely an acquired quality, probably due to excessive interference in her previous world of memories. Whatever the truth, it means this person has lost all potential.

[I really don't know how this guy grew to the third, or even the critical fourth stage, of unlocking the genetic lock without my prediction records.] Alice thought to herself, sighing melancholy.

[Could it be that I'm the one who made her think like that?]

She gritted her teeth, but in the next moment, Alice's pupils suddenly shrank to a tiny dot.

Wait, why... can't it be me?

This sudden realization and understanding shocked her thinking, reverberating violently deep within her heart like a landslide and a tsunami.

She suddenly noticed many things that weren't quite right.

First of all, I have already laid down a bait called Ming Yanwei and made preparations, so why go through the trouble of splitting off a wisp of my spirit after laying down the bait? It is indeed a feasible deployment strategy to break through space with lightning, but doing this itself increases the possibility of exposure.

Secondly, she was a witch, a witch who had survived a witch hunt. How could she possibly still possess such extravagant things as conscience and compassion... Well, perhaps she still had a little. But in any case, it couldn't possibly be enough to want to force out the monsters hiding in the no-man's-land within seven days, so that more people on this island could survive. Because—

“It was ‘me’ who suggested to Patchouli that we compile the Book of Revelation…” she murmured, her previously strong aura turning into despair in an instant. “Even the most hypocritical murderer wouldn’t call an ambulance while stabbing someone half to death.”

Ming Yanwei looked at the 'Miss Alice' in front of her with suspicion, watching her suddenly change from fierce and aggressive to dejected and slumped on the sofa. She felt that some kind of restraint in her heart was fading, and at the same time, a feeling of doubt rose in her heart.

"Miss Alice, what's wrong?" she asked in confusion, trying to stand up by supporting herself with her hands.

Alice, who was slumped on the sofa, suddenly spoke at this moment.

“One last point of doubt.” She held up a finger. “When exactly did ‘I’ learn to separate my spirit from my soul body? I’ve only been an obsessive soul for less than a week, and I haven’t even figured out the basics. How could ‘I’ have managed to create such an advanced technique as a split spirit… Alice is the kind of person who never acts unless she’s 90% sure…”

"What are you talking about, Miss Alice?" Ming Yanwei tried to walk towards her.

At that moment, time and space around them suddenly froze. Like an old photograph, everything turned yellowish and faded. And at the edge of that faded color, the world began to crumble inch by inch from the outside in.

Ming Yanwei's form was frozen in mid-air, her soul aura rapidly dissipating, drawn by some force and carried away to some unknown place. What remained was only a slowly crumbling, disintegrating shell.

Ming Yanwei had already left, moved aside by a pre-prepared backup plan made by someone who was truly watching her.

Meanwhile, the mental space constructed by the mirror and Ming Yanwei's gaze was quietly collapsing. The power of time and space was eroding this place, gradually casting the tentacles of outsiders into this small cage.

The fish has taken the bait.

Because 'she' was the real bait. When she finally couldn't bear her own mental distortion any longer and broke free from the secure engine core to try and contact Mingyanwei, 'she' was exposed to the outsider's gaze. And from the beginning, there was no 'messenger' or 'multi-layered time and space' setting. Those were merely chains used to bind 'her' mind, to ensure she wouldn't deviate from the witch's plan.

She looked up at the empty shell that remained of Ming Yanwei, and the patches of color on her body began to crumble little by little. The contours of her pretty face gradually became smooth, like melting wax. Just like a piece of cheese placed in a frying pan.

She is not Alice; she is merely a spiritual hybrid with Alice's appearance and some of her memories as a disguise. She is essentially just "bait," a coordinate, a remnant of the Ju-on 2 world after its destruction. And it is precisely because her world has been destroyed by Patchouli that she repulses all acts of destruction and killing.

Furthermore, she could only reject acts of destruction and killing, as these were beneficial to her in completing her mission. As for hatred and revenge... the witches did not allow her to have such emotions.

In the past, 'she' was called 'Alaya'. She was the last remaining consciousness in the entire Ju-on world. 'She' existed because of the continuation of humanity, and when only a fragment of a soul's memory remained in that entire world, the only place 'she' could reside was there—'she' was actually the fragment of memory injected into Ming Yanwei when she was resurrected. And only when Ming Yanwei, a reincarnator with some Ju-on native identity, received 'her' could 'she' exist as 'Alaya'.

To lure out-of-world star gods, one can only use the planetary soul Gaia or the human mother soul Alaya. The witches had foreseen this situation when they resurrected Mingyanwei. And now, her mission and life have come to an end.

She looked up at the sky, at the appearance of the outsider gradually materializing in the heavens. In just a few seconds, the outsider would arrive and devour her, and the moment she fulfilled her role as bait would be the moment of the outsider's death.

Everything is irreversible now.

“I truly envy you, Ms. Ming Yanwei,” she whispered. “So, for you, it was all just an interesting dream. You were never in any danger from the start, and there was no bait on you at all. Because the real bait was me.”

"That lightning strike that crossed the spatial barrier... so it was a mechanism to awaken me from your armor's core. Yes, I was inside your armor's core from the very beginning; the lightning strike was just an alarm. Sooner or later, with false memories implanted in me, I couldn't help but leave the core. No wonder I... was so stupid!"

The next moment, the outsider's power shattered space, tearing her to pieces. Immediately afterward, seven-colored light covered the sky.

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

Ming Yanwei suddenly opened her eyes and found herself strapped to a hospital bed inside a gyroplane, her entire body covered in bandages and casts. Although she felt no pain, she couldn't move an inch.

"You're awake?" Alice's voice came from beside her.

She turned her head and saw the latter setting down a blood-stained scalpel. Beside the scalpel was a tray filled with strange, unrecognizable things that looked like biological tissue. And looking at them for even a moment made her head ache—so she looked away and gazed at the blonde girl sitting opposite her.

The same tall boots, the same blonde hair, the same sky-blue eyes and gothic dress, and the same petite figure that was almost a head shorter than her.

Alice is still the same Alice. But she seems somewhat different from the one we just saw.