Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

This operation seems to be going to be much more difficult than expected... Hopefully, the results will be correspondingly better. While I don't expect to completely suppress my inner demons this time, I at least need to prevent them from getting in the way.

So... um?

Alice's brow twitched slightly. She clearly sensed signs of disturbance on a certain barrier surrounding the Dollhouse, near the main entrance—she instantly recognized the aura of the person who had activated it. She also understood why they had come.

"They've come so quickly," Alice muttered. She waved her hand, and Shanghai and Penglai, understanding her will, fluttered their tiny transparent wings to prepare black tea and snacks for the guests. She herself opened her wardrobe and changed into a brand-new outfit, the same style as the blue and white dress she had worn before, but untouched by the ravages of war.

She moved quickly, and the little dolls were just as nimble. As she descended the spiral staircase outside the bedroom, her gaze naturally swept over the visitor who was already seated at the coffee table in the living room through the open front door. That cascading, radiant golden hair still made her raise an eyebrow.

Long golden hair, a purple parasol, a folding fan of unknown material, a specially decorated dress resembling a Taoist robe, and a puffy hat that seems very inexplicable but is surprisingly popular among many in Gensokyo—all these features combined point to one person, or rather, a living being that looks like a person.

“Purple, I thought you would come later, or have Blue come to me directly.” Alice came down the stairs and poured a cup of black tea for herself and the visitor across the tea table. “Or is it that you have so much free time lately that you have to do everything yourself?”

“You have no choice but to come.” The visitor raised her folding fan, her dark golden eyes narrowing into slits. She ignored the cup of tea that was pushed in front of her and directly answered Alice’s question: “You have already crossed that threshold. Blue is no longer suitable to handle this kind of issue, so I had no choice but to send her to the Scarlet Devil Mansion and take charge of your side myself.”

“You seem quite confident?” Alice picked up her tea and took a small sip. “But you are old, Purple. Your teeth are decaying, your claws are dull, your eyes are no longer sharp, and your hands and feet are no longer nimble. Your era has ended, unless you cross the line like I have.”

"But do you still have a trace of blood in your body that can boil?"

"Even an old dog will bare its claws to defend its only remaining burrow. Even if its teeth are rotten and its claws dull, it will still leave a mark on its enemies, even in death." — The exquisite folding fan snapped open, obscuring most of the visitor's face. In the shadow cast by that face, something seemed to wriggle silently. And many more shadows in the living room began to sway slightly.

“...How will you know if you don’t try?” She stared intently at Alice.

Alice's fingers trembled slightly. She took a deep breath, and the temperature around her seemed to drop sharply, large patches of frost spreading across the ground, which quickly pressed against the writhing shadows!

An ominous aura churned and surged in the air.

[Purple.] Alice's trembling fingers suddenly stopped, a subtle thought quietly surfacing in her subconscious. [Can we... talk normally?]

[Alice.] The visitor's will remained steadfast, as firm as a rock. [You're making such a pretentious statement, of course I'll play along.]

The girl's forehead twitched involuntarily.

"...Who told you to use the front door! You usually just peek through the crack in my bedroom door. I thought you were going to bring up some important national affairs! Playing the part is tiring, you jerk!"

"I'm getting old, can't I move around a bit and walk more?"

【You! You have no respect for your elders!】—Alice stared intently at the visitor before her.

"Since you know I'm old, you'd better respect me properly!"—Her opponent met her gaze without backing down.

Their gazes met in mid-air, the point of contact seeming to crack the very fabric of space. As the tension grew, both were trapped on the ladder, unable to move. One, carrying a dustpan, and the other, holding a mop, began sweeping away the water stains and frost that had formed on them.

Alice: [...]

Yukari Yakumo: [...]

"Alright, back to the point." Yukari Yakumo snapped her folding fan shut. She picked up the cup of red tea in front of her and drank more than half of it in one gulp. "What's the deal with you and Patchouli coming back this time? Just the two of you is one thing, and I could pretend not to see a couple of tourists mixed in. But what's with this huge group of people? You're making things very difficult for me."

“It’s simple, they came to help.” Alice refilled Yukari Yakumo’s half-empty teacup. “Are they mostly alright now?”

"Yes, I've modified the operation of the Great Barrier. They should now be teleported to the pre-marked locations in several areas. Most are concentrated in the Human Village and Scarlet Devil Mansion areas. I've placed the other two extraordinary beings besides you at the Hakurei Shrine and the Sunflower Field, respectively. Reimu and Kazama should be able to take good care of them." Yukari Yakumo raised an eyebrow slightly, her gaze lingering briefly on Alice's slightly off expression.

"What's wrong? Is there something inappropriate? Reimu is a good girl, and Kazama has been cultivating himself for over a hundred years and hasn't seriously fought anyone... I think you must have already explained the precautions for Gensokyo to them before bringing them here. There shouldn't be any problems, right?"

"...Uh, I guess it'll be fine." Alice's lips twitched. She decided to put the matter aside for now—after all, even if something went wrong, it wouldn't be her problem, and there was no need to meddle.

"I hope so." Yukari narrowed her eyes slightly, a vague feeling of unease creeping over her, as if she were being told she'd have to work overtime. But she quickly dismissed these distracting thoughts and focused on the important matter at hand. "What do you mean by 'help'? Gensokyo is doing just fine right now; it doesn't need any extra staff. Besides, I don't think they'd be of any help."

“I meant to call them to help you run away,” Alice replied irritably.

Zi's ​​pupils contracted sharply—she regained her composure in an instant, then let out a small sigh of relief. "Phew... You scared me half to death, but if it were you, guessing my plan wouldn't be a problem. After all, I didn't really intend to hide it from you in the first place, and it's been going on for quite a while... You don't agree?"

Alice knew what Yakumo Yukari was referring to. It was a plan, a plan that had been in the works since the founding of Gensokyo. After a thousand years, the plan had finally reached its final stages. Many residents of Gensokyo were tacitly aware of it and had even contributed to it. The plan itself was actually quite brief.

That is—to use Gensokyo as a boat to escape this world.

Alice lowered her eyes.

In a world where humanity flourishes, non-humans are essentially left with no way to survive—they are either enslaved and domesticated as pets or livestock for food, or slaughtered to become ancient creature illustrations in historical records or specimens in museums. Mortals offer non-humans only these two paths, and the choice rests with the mortals themselves.

Whether you die standing up or kneeling, in the end, you'll still die.

A direct confrontation is impossible, because the flourishing of humanity has become an unstoppable trend, and those who try to stop it will only be crushed into dust. Joining in is equally impossible, because mortals have never been able to tolerate other species sharing the glory of being at the top of the food chain with them.

'Those who are not of our kind will surely have different hearts; those who are different, we shall kill.'—This saying is considered a golden rule in many worlds, but in this world, it is exemplified to the fullest. Outsiders on this planet have already wiped out all non-human intelligent life except for Gensokyo, the refuge it is meant to be. And given their level of technological advancement, discovering Gensokyo and breaking the Great Barrier will happen sooner or later. And when that time comes…

“I know you want to develop Gensokyo into an independent world, and then detach Gensokyo from this world before outsiders discover and break the Great Barrier of Fantasy, thus escaping this place forever. But that won’t work,” Alice said softly. “You know, I discovered something while I was working ‘outside’.”

"That is what is called 'the flourishing of humanity'... not some isolated event that only happens in one or two worlds."

"The alien race has nowhere to escape."

Section 9. This road is a bit slippery.

Zi put down her folding fan, propped her chin up with her hands, and gazed at Alice. She was finally completely serious, and all subjective emotions vanished from her golden eyes. She no longer treated this conversation as an insignificant chatter as before.

“I need evidence, decisive evidence.” Purple spoke slowly and clearly. “The plan to escape this world has been in the works for over a thousand years since the founding of Gensokyo. It cannot be drastically changed by just a few words from you, Alice. Not only me, but the other youkai sages also need evidence.”

Alice blinked. She felt the atmosphere in the living room suddenly change. Several wills, some familiar, some unfamiliar, but all incredibly powerful, easily penetrated the simple defensive barrier of the dollhouse and entered the living room. Their identities were, of course, obvious.

—The actual administrators of Gensokyo are several youkai sages who created this miniature world. Yukari Yakumo is the one who is responsible for maintaining the daily operation of the barrier and appears most frequently. Obviously, they acted immediately after Alice returned to Gensokyo, giving her only a few moments to roll around in bed before coming to visit.

"It seems everyone takes this matter quite seriously." Alice smiled. "That's good, at least I don't have to spend time visiting each of them individually."

"You were originally one of us, and Gensokyo was originally yours too," Yukari replied irritably. "Alright, let's get back to the point—our plan is to continue perfecting the barrier, using 'anomalies' to detect and fix any loopholes. Once Gensokyo's operating rules are perfected to a certain extent, we will use some long-prepared methods to separate this miniature world from the universe, and then use Gensokyo as a vessel to infiltrate the void and travel to the distant beyond to rebuild a new home—Alice. We don't believe there are any loopholes in our plan. And since you have different opinions on this plan, then please provide sufficient and convincing evidence."

“Evidence…” Alice nodded slightly. “Since you want evidence, then I will give you evidence. But before that, I want to confirm one thing.”

She stretched out her hand, and the scepter of control suddenly appeared in her hand.

"Is the stability of this spatial structure sufficient? Can it withstand the full eruption of extraordinary power?" she said softly, as a layer of translucent flames quietly appeared around her. Black cracks, like spider webs, burst from the edges of her fingers that held the staff of control, while the surging energy within her body remained dormant.

"Wait a moment." Zi gently closed her eyes, then opened them. An invisible wave immediately expanded outward from the toe of her right foot. The wave easily extinguished the flames surrounding Alice and smoothed the cracks in her fingertips. In those few seconds, the spatial structure of the entire dollhouse strengthened more than tenfold. Presumably, even if a super-giant forced collider covering a hundred square kilometers were to be deployed here, it would not be able to shake the spatial structure in the slightest.

"It's okay now."

"Hmm." Alice nodded in satisfaction. However, the topic did not immediately turn to the so-called 'evidence'.

“Zi, you should know that I am an information mage. Before the rise of mechanical technology among mortals and the elimination of us from their ranks, it was we mages, sorcerers, shamans, and Qi practitioners who ended the era of your demons ruling the earth. So I think you should be very clear about the principle behind my abilities.”

“Of course I know. I participated in the war a thousand years ago.” Zi glanced at her, seemingly displeased with her habit of keeping things mysterious until the last minute. “Your source of power lies in information, in civilization. The more prosperous your civilization, the stronger you are; the purer your information, the more power you can unleash. Back then, demons who wanted to kill information mages basically had to find ways to disrupt the information environment on the battlefield or lure the mages to areas with scarce information. What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”

“No problem, in fact, you know more than I thought. But that’s fine, it saves me the time of explaining things to you.” Alice shrugged and continued, “Information mages can only unleash their full power when information is plentiful. When information is scarce, they’re like a gun without bullets, a fish without water, or a chicken without rice—useless. Moreover, this information must be from human civilization. Information from alien races or other worlds can still be used, but the efficiency will be greatly reduced, and it will take a lot of time to analyze.”

"...You mean information magic can't work in other worlds or on alien planets?" Zi's brows furrowed, then slowly relaxed. "No, that's obvious...you mean information magic can be used as a testing agency?"

“Correct.” Alice snapped her fingers with her other hand. “I told you before that I went to a place that could be called ‘infinity.’ I can’t reveal the specific details, but I can tell you some information that is within my capabilities and does not constitute a leak—I’ve been to a truly different world, to a dead star where humanity has been wiped out. And when I arrived there and achieved transcendence there, I saw the secrets hidden in the cracks of the world.”

She gripped the staff tightly, and boundless energy burst forth—in the blink of an eye, the staff's power connected with the wills of Purple and the other sage demons, sharing them with Alice's extraordinary vision in that extremely short moment!

In that instant, everyone present saw a vast river hidden in the void. It was history, mythology, time, and epic history. All the information and records of humankind since the invention of fire were swirling and leaping within this vast river, and as the river flowed upstream, it led to an endless, boundless ocean!

It was a vast sea, a blood-red sea connecting countless long rivers!

"This...this is!?"

"This is a message, and also destiny, the destiny of mortals in the blood." Alice released her control staff, and the boundless, seemingly all-encompassing phantom of the sea quietly faded away. "I don't know where it came from or why it was born. I only know that it connects to any world I can observe, and this must be the reason for the great prosperity of humanity."

She sighed softly. "This endless sea of ​​destiny erodes and interferes with every world I observe. It is a vast collection and a crucial hub, connecting and resonating with countless human worlds. This causes any world with humanity to shift towards the same historical script under the influence of this resonance of destiny—perhaps there will be differences in different worlds due to different energy levels, but the outcome will not change."

"Mortals will rule and dominate everything. And all other races... will perish."

"They really aren't leaving us any way out." Zi clutched her head, looking like she had a terrible headache. Her expression subtly changed, while several wills in the hall also rippled in the void.

She picked up the folding fan on the table, opened it with a 'poof' and covered her face.

"Sorry, Alice, we need to discuss this internally." Purple's slightly distorted voice came from behind the fan.

"Go ahead." Alice made a 'whatever' gesture. She leaned back slightly against the spacious chair, and Shanghai and Penglai, who had been busy cleaning, fluttered their wings and flew to her side to serve her fresh tea and snacks.

Alice waited for a full five minutes.

Within those five minutes, she clearly sensed several forces lurking above the great barrier of Gensokyo interacting violently. It was like an argument, an experiment, a verification, an analysis—she knew what they were doing, and she knew what conclusion they would reach.

Five minutes later, Zi closed the folding fan.

"So you've come to a conclusion?" Alice took a small sip of her black tea.

"Yes, we've reached a conclusion." Zi nodded, pushed back her chair, and stood up.

"What is it?" Alice asked.

Before she could finish speaking, Zi jumped up and grabbed her leg, shouting, "Help!"

Alice's lips twitched, and her body stiffened abruptly.

"Purple!" The girl angrily tried to pull her legs away from where they were being held so tightly. "Have you no shame!"

"What's the use of a face! You can't eat it!" Zi stared back defiantly. "Help me! Or I'll cry!"

"How old are you?! Go ahead and cry if you dare!"

"Waaaaaaahh ...

"..." Alice was speechless with anger.

She took a deep breath, intending to use the quantum tunneling effect to escape, but found that space itself had been solidified. Clearly, a reliable answer was necessary to resolve the situation. She felt a surge of frustration; from Yukari Yakumo's nonchalant attitude, she knew she couldn't expect to gain much advantage.

That's why I hate doing business with these old fogies... Can't you have some shame, put on a bit of airs, and let me make some demands so my wallet can legitimately get a little fuller? Making it like this just puts me in an awkward position!

"Alright, alright, I came back this time to help out." The girl rubbed her forehead, a wave of indescribable helplessness washing over her. "Stop pretending, Zi! After all these years, do you think I don't know what kind of person you are!"

The next moment, the guy who was really good at sucking up to powerful figures suddenly disappeared. Then, someone whose real name was Yakumo Yukari reappeared with an elegant demeanor on the previously empty chair. She gracefully picked up a cup of black tea and took a small sip.

Alice sighed heavily.

She was too lazy to say anything more, so she went straight to the point and began to tell Zi about her plan.

"Luck is a very perceptive thing; it's impossible to deceive it. And given that it's already been determined that humanity will flourish in many worlds, escaping to other worlds becomes meaningless. Moreover, Gensokyo may not be able to hold out until the rules are perfected enough for escape. After all, you, Yukari, know better than I how fast outsiders' technology is developing—the Great Barrier may not be able to remain hidden forever."

“Hmm.” Zi nodded somewhat melancholy. “That’s true. The outside world is developing extremely fast, and they seem to be entering a period of technological explosion. When you first disappeared, they were still in the stage of colonizing the solar system. However, in such a short time, they have already begun to develop other star systems and explore other star systems in the third arm.”

“So we must hurry,” Alice said. “Confrontation is not an option, and escape is also difficult. So, the only choice is to join them. I know that you, Zi, had a plan to forge mortal bodies and then abandon all your demonic power to reincarnate into the human world with your memories intact, but that is not advisable. Because you can deceive the detection methods of outsiders, but you cannot deceive that blood-red Sea of ​​Destiny. Sooner or later, all reincarnated people will be exposed for various reasons, and in the end, they will all die.”

Zi opened her mouth, but after a while she closed it with a bitter smile.

“I know…” she said softly, repeating herself. “I know.”

"But how do we do that?"

“It’s actually quite simple.” Alice held up one finger. “While luck is hard to deceive, that doesn’t mean there’s no way to integrate into it. I’ve come to a conclusion through experiments in certain places. Even if it’s an anomaly, as long as it fights wholeheartedly for humanity and clearly recognizes this, then the luck of mortals will favor it—even if it doesn’t see itself as human, as long as its stance is correct, then in the luck of mortals, it is human.”

"Of course, this favor is not so easy to obtain. The more prosperous a world is, the more it requires to pay the price. In this world where humanity is flourishing, Gensokyo has become the only variable. Perhaps only by wiping out all the outcasts here can we possibly create a recognized 'human'."

"In other words, the price to pay in a desolate world is very low, right?" Zi Wei narrowed her eyes. "Then our escape plan might not be..."