Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

He shuddered violently, turned and ran to the black mage who was barely clinging to life, then pulled out a potion and forced it down his throat. His hands and body trembled violently, but he managed to suppress his urge to run away and didn't abandon the others. He slammed his fist on his temple, forcefully reactivating the mental links of the group's psychic members!

[Xue Ling'er! Quickly call the captain! He's coming right now! We can't hold on much longer! The Central Plains Team... there's a monster in the Central Plains Team!!!]

He roared at the mental link in his mind, but received no reply. The little girl who would chatter endlessly for hours on end with just a word was silent, and the entire link was as still as a stagnant pool.

A sudden realization dawned on him, but despair followed.

"So that's how it is..." he muttered to himself, the last vestige of fighting spirit he had mustered suddenly crumbling. At the same time, a deadly arrow was aimed at his head.

'Whoosh—'

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

The female scientist named Rose must not be killed; the rest are irrelevant.

Rewind a little bit, while the Southern Flame Continent team's raiding squad was still on its way, Zhang Jie was leisurely strolling through the mental world of Xue Ling'er, a psychic from the Southern Flame Continent team. His physical body moved beyond reality, while his mind appeared in the realm of illusion. He traversed the distance of half a warship in a few steps, and his ethereal form had already arrived inside the room where Xue Ling'er and the others were.

Xue Ling'er believed she had manipulated Zhang Jie's mind through remote mental interference, unaware that she was the one being manipulated. And not only her, but also her two companions who were guarding her were not immune. When they presumptuously connected to Zhang Jie's mind, what they saw was not reality.

Because Zhang Jie had woven a dream, a dream identical to the starship in reality. They had long since fallen asleep, but they were unaware of this dream and believed themselves to still be awake. And when Zhang Jie cracked the mental communication from the raiding squad and wove a reply based on Xue Ling'er's subconscious reaction, the handling of the Nan Yan Zhou team reached the point of deciding how many of these three should be killed.

The psychic must die, or at least be firmly controlled. Because if she lives, she has the potential to cause chaos. After all, the greatest force in this galactic world is a group of mortals, and these mortals control this powerful fleet—no one can guarantee she won't suddenly lose her mind and control a warship's commander, unleashing a volley that blows their own ship to smithereens in a subsequent battle. Even if doing so would invite relentless retaliation from the Central Continent Team, casualties are inevitable before that happens.

Veteran players might be able to survive the gunfire in space, but newcomers are doomed. In team battles, the loss of even one person is an extremely significant blow.

My teammate's life is precious, far more precious than all of your lives combined.

【so……】

Zhang Jie thought to himself, and the next moment he arrived in Xue Ling'er's dream from reality—he didn't intend to kill them all one by one in the real world while they were trapped in the dream. That would be a waste, a waste of reward points and time. Destroying their physical bodies before they were deeply immersed in the dream would only cause them to wake up prematurely, and for a reincarnator who had strengthened their mental power, the survival of the physical body was not crucial.

They need to sink into deeper dreams, deeper nightmares.

But the nightmare began when Zhang Jie came to their side.

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

Xue Ling'er shivered violently. Although she wasn't cold, her hands and feet were still icy, and her heart was pounding terribly. Even after immediately entering the state of activating the first-tier gene lock, this terrible feeling didn't subside much.

"What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" Aya, who was taking care of her, asked softly, bending down to gently stroke her forehead. "You seem a little cold."

"It's nothing, just a little... Ugh, damn it!" Xue Ling'er shook her head, avoiding Aya's hand. She suddenly jumped up and stomped her foot on the ground in frustration. "I almost completely broke through Zhang Jie's mental defenses! But this distraction means I have to start all over again... Luckily, he didn't notice me, and Richard and the others' mental shields weren't broken either."

She let out a heavy sigh and tapped her forehead. A unique mental health check was quickly completed, and when she received the conclusion that 'everything is normal, just occasional nervous twitches during puberty,' her brows relaxed slightly.

She was still somewhat wary—though it wasn't very useful.

Just as she was about to intervene mentally again, aiming to cripple the opponent's mental power user before the rest of the Nan Yan Zhou team could act, Aya, who was beside her, suddenly asked, "I'm a little curious, little sister Xue Ling'er, what exactly do you mental power users mean by 'breaking through the mental defenses'? Could you tell me about it sometime?"

"That's not what we're talking about now..." Xue Ling'er glared at her angrily. However, after failing to subdue the mental infiltration once, she could only sigh helplessly, knowing that it would take a lot of time to deal with the mental user again, and that she would never be able to catch up in time.

"Alright, I might as well tell you." She jumped onto Aya's lap and began to explain: "The so-called mental defense is actually something similar to psychological suggestion. Of course, the mental defense of a mental power user is much more sophisticated than ordinary psychological suggestion, but the principle is the same."

"We will construct a fully safe house as envisioned, set traps and arrange guards outside. Our own deep consciousness will remain inside the safe house and never come out. Our daily conversations and actions will only use the external, superficial consciousness, unlike the crude psychological tricks used by ordinary people. The psychological defenses of mental beings possess real power."

She gave an example.

“Take Zhang Jie from the Zhongzhou team for example. His mental defenses are like a military camp. He himself is in the command room, and the scattered thoughts he has fortifies the camp into bunkers, soldiers, and other defensive measures. If I want to defeat him head-on, my mind will become a large army to attack his camp. The stronger my mental energy, the stronger that army will be, and when I break through his camp, his mind will be under my control.”

"But you don't intend to defeat him head-on, do you?"

“Yes, no.” Xue Ling’er nodded. “Breaking through the mental defenses doesn’t require clearing all the obstacles. I just need to get my soldiers into the absolutely safe room where his deep consciousness resides. And once I choose the strategy of covert infiltration, my mind will become a spy, gradually infiltrating the defenses through the gaps. As long as his soldiers don’t discover my spy, he won’t notice my intrusion… Ugh, we were almost at the edge of the command post, just a little bit more!”

Xue Ling'er sighed heavily—such an action was rather comical for someone her age.

"It's okay, you'll definitely succeed next time. If all else fails, you can be a little more forceful." Aya gently stroked Xue Ling'er's hair. Then, seemingly casually, she asked, "But your mental defenses should change, right? After all, people's thoughts can change too."

“Yes, that’s true.” Xue Ling’er nodded. “While the core of one’s mental defenses is fixed, their outward appearance changes depending on the location. For example, if I currently believe this place is the safest, then my mental defenses will resemble this room. And my thoughts will…”

Her explanation came to an abrupt end.

As if realizing something, the girl's petite body trembled violently. Large tears welled up and swirled in her eyes.

Then, slowly, laboriously, little by little, she turned her head toward Aya.

She saw it...

Section 15. Third Kind of Contact

She saw nothing.

There was no one, no sofa with people sitting on it, no floor supporting the sofa, no starship hull maintaining order on the ground, and not even the endless starry sky carrying the starship—the moment she turned around, all she saw was a vast expanse of white.

It was a pure white expanse, and this pale color instantly obscured her vision.

Her feet slipped, and her legs, which had been resting on Aya's knees, fell to the ground. She braced herself with her hands, but instead of the usual lounge carpet, she touched a cold, flat surface. As she struggled to her feet, clutching her knees, all other colors and textures vanished from her vision, leaving only a monotonous white that stretched from her eyes to the horizon!

White, pure white. White ground, white sky, and nothing else remains. The ground is flat, the sky is cloudless. There is no discernible light source, no audible sound; even when one pushes their vision and perception to the limit, all that can be seen is pure white.

"It's just a poorly made illusion... I'll get out of here in no time!" Xue Ling'er gritted her teeth, trying her best to psychologically despise everything she was facing. She knew she had fallen into a deadly attack by hostile mental beings. The enemy had a huge advantage, and she was completely unaware of the situation. If her heart gave in, her ego would be completely annihilated.

We cannot admit defeat, but simply refusing to admit defeat is not enough.

Time does flow much slower in the mental world than outside, but even if it is much slower, there is a limit.

[The psychic on the other side is too strong! Damn it, they're clearly a weaker team than us! Why did this happen? Neos had everything planned out...]

Her pupils contracted sharply as a bad thought suddenly surfaced in her mind.

Could it be that Neos guessed wrong...? No! Impossible!

"I have to find a way out of here, or the others might be in danger." She tried to calm herself down and search for a way out—she tried to release her mental energy, but even when she reached the limit of her mental scanning range, she couldn't see the boundary. Then she mustered her mental power and turned it into a sharp blade to slash at the ground, but the pure white earth was indestructible.

Endless and insurmountable, this pure white world bestowed upon her boundless silence and solitude.

In solitude, despair gradually takes root.

This is the world of the mind, where one need not worry about breathing or thirst, nor about illness or injury. One can live here forever if one does not wish to. However, eternal life without possessions is also the most painful torment in the world, and this perpetual torment transcends even the concept of pain itself.

An hour later, Xue Ling'er decided to head in any direction until she found the boundary of this world. She firmly believed that this world of the mind must have an end. And the end was the flaw; once she found the flaw, she could leave.

She kept walking, for a whole day.

Starting the next day, she began tearing off pieces of her own clothing as landmarks. A week later, it was her hair and nails.

She continued walking, and walked for a month.

From the first month onwards, she began to speak loudly, pretending that she had friends traveling with her.

Another half month passed, and she began to use the mental energy she had saved up to break through the world barrier to create false illusions around herself.

Another half month passed, and she fell into silence due to exhaustion.

This wasn't the illusionary realm used for witch trials; there was nowhere for her to recuperate. Having lost even the ability to imagine, she could only silently continue her journey into the distance.

One day, two days, three days.

January, February, March.

One year, two years, three years.

Time passed little by little, but the end of the world she knew never appeared.

She kept walking and walking and walking, until she herself no longer knew why she was walking, no longer remembered who she was, or why she was still blindly moving forward in one direction. And as time continued to pass, she lost even the ability to think.

Finally, one day, she stopped and stood still.

And her time had come to an end.

Zhang Jie blinked. He glanced at the second hand on his watch, which had completed more than half a circle. He then raised his hand and casually punched Aya's head, smashing it open. He then hoisted the unconscious Rose and the now-blank Xue Ling'er onto his shoulder and turned to leave. He didn't know if what he did was right, but he was at least certain that this psychic wouldn't pose any threat to him in this world.

He heard the voice of the supreme god in his head.

—'Kill one member of the Southern Flame Continent team whose gene lock has not been unlocked, obtain one C-level side quest, reward 2000 points'

—'One Reincarnator from the Southern Flame Continent team was killed, giving the Central Continent team a one-point lead.'

Good, only one person died.

Just as he was about to kill Xue Ling'er, he received a communication from Chu Xuan via an implant—in the communication, Chu Xuan asked him to spare the life of the mental power user of the Nan Yan team as much as possible, it didn't matter if he couldn't do it, but if he succeeded, then all her powers would be nullified.

Zhang Jie had no objections; after all, team battles and mutual slaughter were to be expected. While turning the opponent's mental user into a blank slate was somewhat cruel, it was better than death. The former had the chance to receive one-on-one rehabilitation from the best psychologist in the entire multiverse, while the latter could only wait for a resurrection item.

[Fine, anyway, the Supreme God's full-body restoration will allow her to awaken completely unharmed... if she still has the chance to go back and undergo full-body restoration.]

Zhang Jie thought to himself, carrying the two unconscious women, one large and one small, out of the passage. As he walked along the road, another scoring notification rang in his ears.

— Zhongzhou team has added another point.

"Looks like everyone's progressing well." Zhang Jie clicked his tongue, having no doubt that his team could win this team battle. If it weren't for the Senzhou team still needing to be dealt with, this cycle world could probably be over today. And even with the external enemy forcing them to hold back, his team would still have an absolute advantage.

We will definitely win.

The key question is how long it will take to win, and how long it will take to make the Nan Yan Zhou team admit defeat and surrender.

Zhang Jie had previously made a small bet with Zheng Zha. The bet was simple: to drink a ton of baijiu (Chinese liquor) without taking a breath. Zheng Zha bet that the battle would last more than half an hour, while Zhang Jie bet that the Nan Yan Zhou team would concede defeat within half an hour.

There are less than five minutes left since the start of the battle, and the Nan Yan team has already lost three members. They've lost a crucial member of the team's mental strength and a solid mainstay in close combat. If the third person is also an important figure in the Nan Yan team and not just some insignificant nobody, then Zhang Jie can prepare his wine barrels and cameras and wait to watch the show.

So... which side achieved the victory?

He narrowed his eyes, and his mental energy scan quietly spread outwards.

The next second, he opened his mouth in surprise.

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

Minutes earlier, in the void outside the ship. When Alice emerged from the ship's hull and released all her energy and presence into the outer void, she clearly sensed a being on the other side of the warship, at the same energy level as her.

She gazed at it from afar, and it responded accordingly. The dissipated energy collided in space, creating barely perceptible ripples in the void—even though the two had not yet met face to face, their auras were completely locked onto each other in this collision, with no possibility of escape.

It's a lock-on, but not a precise aim. Both sides can only get a general location of the other; the real battle depends on their respective skills.

She felt the other person's presence was rapidly fading...

It seems the captain of the Southern Flame Continent team is quite capable.

Alice thought to herself, then gently patted her shoulder. Shanghai and Penglai, now equipped with space combat gear, silently appeared behind her. Communication with the Great Library was also established instantly. While large-scale inter-satellite communication interference occurred, the main cannons, already prepared, shifted their elevation angle slightly.

In space, attempting to accurately capture two aggregates of matter with a volume not exceeding seventy cubic decimeters and a mass not exceeding fifty kilograms using instruments is nothing short of a pipe dream. Just as civilian radar can detect a flock of birds but cannot pinpoint a single individual bird, the human body is impossible for a starship's radar to detect. The only way to see these two individuals is through a porthole with the naked eye.

Therefore, Alice instantly took control of the warship's operating system and closed all the portholes. With communication jamming activated, and other starships unable to detect their presence via remote instruments, a suitable battlefield was successfully created.

This is good, very good.

Alice thought to herself that she knew the enemy wouldn't target the starship beneath their feet, and neither would she. Therefore, moving the battlefield a little further away would be a more suitable option.