Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Yes, Zheng Zha had said something similar in the world of "Death Comes," when he was wielding the power of the Human Emperor during the ritual of the mythological re-creation. At that time, he was influenced by the will of all living beings, gaining their power while also being assimilated by their vast array of thoughts, thus willingly shouldering the responsibilities of the Human Emperor. However, that was Zheng Zha, while Cheng Xiao…

...He's just holding the position of a cult leader now.

[Strange. While faith contamination is a normal phenomenon, this is, after all, a world of memories, where many fundamental parameters should be incomplete. Contamination shouldn't exist on this scale at all… Have I made a mistake somewhere? Or has something gone wrong?]

Alice's pupils contracted slightly, a sudden realization dawning on her. She roughly understood why she had constructed this simulated world of memories while simultaneously shielding herself from some of her own. However, just as those fragmented thoughts were about to surface from the depths of her consciousness and coalesce into a complete concept, she controlled her will to immediately halt the process!

“Alright.” Alice glanced at Cheng Xiao, who looked conflicted, and said softly. “I already know your problem, and I also have a solution.”

"Those believers who died of exhaustion were indeed because of me. I created too many tethered puppets and consumed too much converted faith energy, and the current number of believers in this city can no longer keep up with the current development needs."

"...What are you planning to do?"

“Expansion,” Alice gave a decisive answer. “Since productivity can’t keep up, then expand productivity. Since resources are lacking, then acquire resources. Anyway, there are plenty of rebels in this world; the Path of Peace won’t be an exception. And while the empire hasn’t yet oppressed the people to the point where they can’t survive…”

But I think the poor people of this world should be able to easily choose between the hardship of a life of toil and toil, and the divine covenant of a life where they don't need to work and can be provided for simply by praying.

"Is there anything I can do?" Cheng Xiao asked.

“You don’t need to do anything, or rather, you can do whatever you want,” Alice replied calmly. “I’ll take care of the war and the killing. The only thing you need to do is stay alive.”

She didn't give Cheng Xiao a chance to refute, and Cheng Xiao didn't refute either.

Just three hours later, a rebel army calling itself the Anning Road officially appeared within the empire's borders. Through an incredible rate of troop deployment, they captured several large and medium-sized cities!

However, the Empire ignored this suddenly rising rebel army. Because on the very day Alice took action, the southern region, which occupied one-fifth of the Empire's territory, lost all contact before nightfall!

Section 33. Don't randomly press the skip button.

The Empire reacted quickly… or rather, any regime would react quickly in this situation. After all, this wasn't some small-time skirmish by a bunch of ragtag rural rebels, nor was it a few low-level assassination groups that were somewhat capable but mostly brainless. This was the entire Southern Territory, one-fifth of the Empire's landmass, and it was completely wiped out in the interval of a routine communication, without even managing to send out an alarm!

If they could easily subdue the entire southern border enemy in a few hours, then the situation in the east, west, and north would likely be no different. And since all four borders of the empire crumble at the slightest touch, the most crucial core area of ​​the imperial capital is naturally also in grave danger.

This is a major event, a matter of life and death.

This is not a rebellion, because if rebels were so well-organized and powerful that they could silently swallow up the entire Southern Territory within hours without a single leak... then they would be residing in the imperial palace or the Temple of Heaven where the emperor abdicated. Since it is not a rebellion, nor some kind of bizarre coup, then there is only one possible explanation.

A terrible thing has happened in the Southern Territory, and the force behind it is undoubtedly powerful... and malicious.

and so……

Almost five minutes after the news reached the capital, the capital's upper echelons, which had been rife with deals, betrayals, conspiracies, and killings, fell silent in a very short time. And once those powerful figures verified the authenticity of the intelligence through their reliable channels, a simple, rudimentary, yet sufficiently solid temporary alliance was quickly formed.

The Grand General, who adhered to ancestral precepts and never interfered in politics, along with his military officers and the ministers who controlled the court and numerous civil officials, reached a consensus. Given the uncertain situation and the looming crisis, all factors detrimental to stability had to be eliminated before they could have negative consequences—the Imperial Guard began mobilization, factional infighting among civil officials temporarily ceased, and a powerful elite force was assembled, ready to strike immediately upon the arrival of General Esdeath, who had declared her early return from the North several days prior, and her battle-hardened army in the capital.

Prior to this, the capital was completely blockaded by the Imperial Guard. Simultaneously, the eastern, western, and northern borders were mobilized immediately after being communicated via a secret artifact, sealing off their borders and dispatching elite troops to the centrally administered region to defend the emperor. Before they arrived at the core of the capital and offered the emperor the services they and their ancestors had sworn to provide for the empire, numerous major cities belonging to the central region received direct orders from the capital to assemble their forces and immediately march towards the southern border in order to gather some information about it.

Clearly, this reflects the importance the empire's upper echelons place on it. Those foolish officials often become remarkably astute when their own survival and the fullness of their coffers are at stake. Under their impetus, many major cities in the central region have dispatched the majority of their city defense forces, peasant soldiers, and even conscripts. They will advance towards the southern border in the shortest possible time—although their combat strength and equipment are less than promising, they possess at least one advantage: their sheer numbers.

After all, the empire's high command wasn't like Alice, a witch accustomed to vigorously developing productivity and always striving to maximize the efficiency of human resources. To them, these city garrison troops, peasant soldiers, and conscripts were merely a waste of food and weapons even if they survived—the greatest role these ragtag troops could play was to buy time with their own flesh and blood before the truly elite forces could assemble. And if they could delay the advance of that unknown enemy in the south while also obtaining some important intelligence, that would be the best possible outcome.

Therefore, the cities in the central region were quickly emptied of their troops. The more elite units were transferred to the capital to serve as auxiliary forces for the Imperial Guard, while the majority, the less capable ones, were sent haphazardly southward like whipped goats. And then…

The Southern Territory swallowed them whole, like a deep swamp engulfing a panicked flock of sheep. In the blink of an eye, the surface of the entire swamp returned to calm, without leaving a trace of a single wool.

They vanished, vanished without a trace. And as they disappeared, the truly elite, seasoned, battle-hardened Imperial spies, who had infiltrated this motley crew of homeless, ragtag soldiers, tasked with gathering intelligence while these cannon fodder drew enemy fire, also vanished without a sound. This included even two Imperial Arms users and over a dozen wielders of Imperial Arms (degraded versions of Imperial Arms, but still powerful). And the only message they managed to transmit before their disappearance, through a precious treasure, contained only one word.

--insect.

The powerful figures in the capital were unsure of the true meaning of the character "虫" (insect). But this didn't stop them from making guesses. These unfounded speculations deepened their fear and suspicion, leading them to further redeploy soldiers from cities in the central region—they knew this would cripple the defenses of surrounding cities, but they didn't care.

And it was precisely for this reason that when Alice led her legion into battle, her troops did not encounter much resistance or obstruction. After all, the problem lay in the southern border, while she was located east of the capital.

Her expansion was therefore largely unhindered.

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

One day later...

The imperial high command seems to have abandoned all cities except those on the southern defense line. They've mobilized their forces, continuously pouring them into the Imperial Guard to deal with the strange region expanding northward from the south—a region that seems to grow ever more expansive every minute—and so far, they still haven't figured out the truth behind the southern events. Unable to find the enemy, unable to confront their adversary, and unable to devise a solution, no matter how many men or soldiers they send south, their only fate is to vanish without a trace. Not even a hair remains.

They were terrified.

Fear, however, is contagious.

In just one day, Alice's puppet army easily conquered ten cities east of the capital. Some were large, some small, some rich in resources, some poor in land. But without exception, none of them wasted much of Alice's time. The last two cities didn't even put up any resistance; they simply opened their gates, welcoming her to bring order to their cities.

As a result, the area covered by the Way of Peace expanded significantly, the number of believers increased dramatically, and resource production rose in tandem. Imperial officials, overwhelmed and anxious by the strange events in the south, as well as the lower classes who had long suffered under imperial oppression (though not to the point of starvation), readily accepted the doctrines of the Way of Peace. They quickly succumbed to the sway of persuasive speeches and tangible benefits, becoming devout followers of the Way of Peace and joining the covenant between humans and gods established by Alice.

The witch's power was enhanced.

As she leveled up, more skeletal puppets were created—thanks to those fools in the capital, the production rate of puppets couldn't keep up with the growth in the number of land and faith-powered energy banks. Of course, this was also because she slightly slowed down the expansion of the legion to avoid some unfortunate production accidents. Regardless of the truth, much time was cleared up, allowing Alice to more steadily plan and strategize for the next step.

[First, it's certain that this Cheng Xiao-branded Anning Dao leader won't be causing me trouble anytime soon. While large-scale ceremonies inevitably affect the participants' thinking, given Cheng Xiao's abilities... even if he wore a yellow robe, he wouldn't be seen as a prince. So that's a good thing; at least I don't need to waste time on such pointless questions.]

The girl thought with satisfaction as she sat in the enclosed room arranged for her, examining the leverage she now possessed—a large army. Although the enemy they encountered in their first battle was so weak that it failed to demonstrate their strength, they were still a large army.

The most basic combat unit was equipped with assault rifles, riot shields, full-body armor, and 97,330 armed wire golems with 1,200 hunting rounds for large predators.

The slightly stronger combat units consisted of 21,000 heavily armored golems equipped with flamethrowers, compound poison canisters, heavy armor, and rapid deployment spray devices.

Alice tested their combat capabilities, adjusted some details, and wrote a suitable control framework to ensure they could coordinate to a certain extent. On this basis, she also prepared the heavy artillery arrays and armored vehicles necessary for a large-scale army for these early armed puppets. Combined with some forcibly tamed, world-specific, extra-large dangerous creatures as meat shields, she believed that this army, even if thrown into World War II, could play a decisive or game-changing role on any battlefield. Here, the only variable they needed to worry about was the Imperial Arms users.

Imperial Guardian.

In this world, the existence of Teigu users transforms wars between nations and peoples from the desperate struggle of soldiers into a contest between the strong—soldiers remain effective, but their role is diminished by the immense power of the Teigu users. This is why the nation's leadership is less concerned with troop losses but overly sensitive to the deaths of Teigu users—ten thousand elite warriors might be able to overwhelm most moderately skilled Teigu users on the battlefield. However, outside the open battlefield, Teigu users often embody the strength of a hundred thousand troops.

Alice has no intention of correcting the world's customs, but she feels it is necessary for her to adapt to them.

She reached out and summoned the Imperial Arm, the Shadow Scythe, from her shadow. Based on her research of this Imperial Arm over this period, she was fairly certain that the scythe was a large-scale light interference device. It could distort surrounding light, thus achieving invisibility and stealth. Entering the shadow was actually a small-scale spatial folding created by this device operating at full power… essentially, it was a product of the same category as Shanghai and Penglai, who often hid in her shadow.

This is a good weapon, but in Alice's hands, its greater purpose is as an observation instrument. With this large black scythe, Alice can easily interfere with cellular-level bioengineering. Although the current results aren't ideal, she believes she can solve the problem by investing time and effort.

Moreover, through this sickle, I also...

【……never mind.】

The girl shook her head, banishing a rather inappropriate thought from her mind. Some things are only useful at the right time, and thinking about them before that only adds to the trouble.

Instead of worrying about this, let's think about the meeting later.

She thought to herself, and stood up from her room. The numerous light screens around her, displaying complex data on the city's current construction status, resource allocation, talent placement, and military situation, all went out silently in an instant. In their place, a hand-drawn sketch appeared in her mind.

Those were a group of Imperial Arms users, and also the people she would need to meet later.

Originally an elite assassination squad affiliated with the Southern Rebellion Army of the Empire, they operated primarily around the capital. Despite their less-than-stellar intelligence, this group of formidable Imperial Arms users remained a low-tier, third-rate urban legend despite their numerous exploits around the capital. They were less of a rebel army and more of a collection of idealists with differing motives. Nevertheless, their power was undeniable.

They shouldn't have come here. After all, although they were only nominally affiliated, they were still, in name, subordinates of the southern rebel army. Even if Anning Road and the southern rebel army had some kind of secret agreement to jointly launch an uprising, they still shouldn't have arrived here on their own when the timing was inappropriate.

However, they came.

Not only did they arrive, but they also claimed to have brought secret intelligence from the south—Alice was too lazy to figure out how the southern rebels had spread the news. But she was genuinely interested in the content of the information. So, while the imposter leader of the Anning Path was touring around to ensure the smooth operation of the Covenant between Man and God, Alice took on this task and assigned a meeting time to the group of Imperial Arms users.

She doesn't need to wait long. Because right now, she's the one who needs to be waited for.

A few minutes later, she met the group of people she had only seen in sketches in a makeshift meeting room—men and women, dressed in different clothes, but all exuding an aura of power. She smiled, nodded slightly to the group, and gave a self-introduction.

"It's an honor to meet you all, I am..."

—Her opening remarks came to an abrupt end.

Because a tall woman with messy golden hair, a strange belt, and five fingers that swelled up like beast claws had pounced on her, swinging her sharp claws down with an indomitable and tragic momentum!

"Arya—!"

Chapter Thirty-Four: The Tango Ghost and the Decisive One

Meanwhile, in the command center of the USS Ud Cloy.

The ground-based operations forces have returned to the bridge. Following closely behind is the expeditionary patrol fleet's operation to purge, inactivate, destroy, and exterminate the entire Tango Ghost Planet.

The cleanup operation was simple: saturation bombardment with macro-cannons and large-scale release of incendiary agents. These methods were perfectly suited for a planet like Tango Ghost Star, which lacked oceans and water resources, meaning its temperature was difficult to regulate spontaneously. As crimson streaks of fire fell from the sky, tiny sparks ignited on the vast and barren insectoid planet, like tiny colonies of dyed bacteria blooming in a petri dish, slowly but steadily expanding outwards.

Sparks, sparks that can be seen with the naked eye from the starship.

Zooming in on the Earth's surface reveals burning clouds covering hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of square kilometers—the atmosphere is ignited, the ground is torn apart by electromagnetically accelerated macro-cannons, and as the Earth's crust trembles and the fissures expand, endless boiling lava and steam surge from the shattered crust, shooting into the surface and transforming into burning cloud barriers.

A conventional nuclear explosion here is nothing more than an insignificant firecracker. Under the bombardment of the macro-cannons originating from high orbit, each strike shaking the continental shelf, mountains began to collapse in whole swathes, basins began to shatter, and highly toxic atmosphere and chaotic material streams sealed beneath the earth's crust spewed outwards along with the formation of volcanoes. Within seconds, even the volcanoes themselves were destroyed by the macro-cannons, bursting forth even hotter streams of fire from the relatively intact surrounding land.

The insects' deaths became insignificant; once the crust was completely torn apart, the boiling magma in the asthenosphere was enough to kill any creature that could coexist with humans in a matter of seconds. Although the insects' shells were hard, they were not very fire-resistant, and even if they were, their not-fully-sealed outer armor could not stop the magma that swept in like a tsunami.

They are easily submerged and boiled. No matter how sharp their cries or how piercing their claws, the molten lava flows directly into their bodies through the cracks in their shells. In just a few seconds, the intense heat from within will roast them into bloated crabs—their shells are stretched open and crushed by the bloated, white flesh cooked at high temperatures, then quickly soften, shrivel, carbonize, and sink into the lava, turning into meaningless organic residue.

Some flying insects tried to escape, flapping their wings with all their might as they soared into the sky. However, their fleshy wings, lacking the energy to propel them, could not break through the troposphere. As another round of bombardment rained down, and burning clouds spread outwards, they, like mosquitoes caught in an electric griddle, plummeted from the sky, sparks and smoke billowing, crashing onto the ground among the swarms of insects emerging from their burrows and fleeing in all directions. Another volcanic eruption quickly engulfed all these insects.

Even the most heat-resistant warrior bugs and flying bugs fared the same way, not to mention the tank bugs, plasma bugs, and the few cerebrates that managed to escape. When the ground was completely torn apart, looking from space like a bursting tea egg, their enormous numbers, along with their densely packed limbs and claws, sank into the inferno and became part of the thick soup of organic matter.

With the purge complete, the subsequent annihilation was a natural next step. When the strata torn apart by the macro-cannon reached and crossed a critical point, a massive chain reaction occurred. Flames, earthquakes, storms, and ubiquitous high-temperature heat spread to every corner of the planet with a scale visible even in space. In just a few minutes, the entire Tango Ghost Star was transformed into a crimson sphere of fire.

The magma, with temperatures ranging from 700 to 1200 degrees Celsius, quickly filled the entire surface of the planet without the obstruction of oceans. Along with the magma came a highly toxic atmosphere, sulfur, arsenic, and other harmful substances… Perhaps some life could still survive in such extreme heat, but their numbers and scale would be extremely limited. When the planet's atmosphere was completely destroyed by such massive geological changes, high-energy rays and turbulent particle flows from space cleansed the planet, which had reverted to its primordial state. Even the most resilient life forms were quickly and efficiently destroyed by this destructive force, and the star finally transformed into a boiling, lifeless, dead planet.

Inactivation procedure complete.

After this second step was accomplished, under Patchouli's will, the third step of destruction was initiated—an annihilation bomb, with magnetic confinement as its core container and containing one kilogram of anti-hydrogen atoms, was filled into a super-large bunker-buster torpedo in the main guns of the capital battleship. When the De Croy reached the Tango Ghost Star, where it had been repeatedly bombarded by the macro cannons, forcibly breaking open a crack that reached the asthenosphere, accompanied by a slight tremor that made the entire ship shake, an exceptionally thick line of fire extended from the center of the fleet toward the ground, and then touched the surface a minute later.

The surface of Tango Ghost Star trembled slightly, then quickly turned into an earthquake, which in turn became a violent tremor. Visible ripples, actually formed from rolling waves of lava thousands of meters high, spread outward from the impact point of the bunker-buster torpedoes in Patchouli's eyes in the starship's command room. They swept across the entire planet in a very short time, and then... a faint light burst forth from underground, spreading outward.

The light gradually intensified, transforming from faint threads emerging from the earth into a net covering the entire planet. This dense net of light grew increasingly brilliant and dazzling with each passing second, and when the critical point of radiance was crossed, and all the readings on the monitoring instruments reached their peak, the entire planet was completely enveloped in a dense white light!

And then all the white light disappeared completely a second later.

When observers regained their sight, all that remained in the original location of Tango Ghost Star was a fragment of aggregate that barely maintained its spherical shape. There were about a million of them, and each fragment was a gray-black boulder comparable to a large island—the escaping magma cooled rapidly in the cosmic cold and then became part of these giant rocks.

The gravitational field has collapsed, and the massive boulders formed from stellar debris will be scattered at cosmic velocity over the next few thousand years—they might be swallowed by the star, captured by other planets, becoming rings or small satellites. They might remain in the orbit of Tango Ghost Star, forming an asteroid belt covering its entire path, or they might simply drift helplessly into the void, wandering the universe until the end of time.

Their fates are unknown and will never be the same. But in any case, the planet Tango Ghost will cease to exist. No one will remember how many creatures once inhabited it, no one will care about its records, terrain, minerals, or history—everything belonging to this planet will be completely forgotten in a short time. Neither the Arachnids nor the Human Federation will pay attention to it or remember it. Until its last trace is completely wiped away by the erosion of time.

This is the fourth step: extinction.

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

—'The Reincarnation Squad of Central Plains successfully destroyed the 'Tango Ghost' on the insect planet. All members received 10000 reward points and one A-rank side quest.'

Patchouli nodded, watching the constantly collapsing debris of the planet outside the porthole and the high-speed object warnings flashing on the screen beside her. A warp command, bursting forth from the depths of her mind, was immediately transmitted through the communication network to all units of the hunting fleet and executed instantly.

The leap begins.

Time and space were thus distorted and warped. But soon, these slight changes quietly faded away, and everything around returned to normal.

Patchouli let out a soft breath.

Very well, this phase of the mission is complete. Ghost Tango Star no longer exists, and the plot of the first movie has been completely rendered useless. The Senzhou team's landing location is also destined to have no further connection to Ghost Tango. The only places they can be teleported to, places that allow them to quickly access the remaining storylines, are now only two.

Korenda, and the Earth.