Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

"No problem, Chu Xuan will keep a close eye on them. He will make sure that no matter how long they stay in that so-called 'Two Elements Dust Array,' the final decisive moment will be when Zhao Zhuikong completes the ritual three days later. In Chu Xuan and my plan, we need them to take some risks for us, so the timing needs to be carefully managed."

“Oh…” Zheng Zha nodded as if he understood, although he still didn’t understand what Alice and Chu Xuan were planning to do—and he was too lazy to find out—but that didn’t stop him from getting the message that ‘the current situation is very good and everything is under control.’

Everything has been arranged.

"Then..." Zheng Mouzha hesitated for a moment, then asked again, somewhat uncertainly, "Are we just going to wait here for the next three days?"

“No, I told you I had something to do in half an hour when we met earlier. And I don’t remember using a pronoun specifically referring to myself at the time.” Alice glanced at him and continued, “We need to use these three days to go to Mordor and deal with the Dark Lord who only has one eye.”

“Oh…” Zheng Zha nodded, looking as if he had just realized something.

"……What did you say?"

Section 49. Open the door! Check the electricity meter!

"Do I need to repeat myself a third time to kill Sauron?" Alice replied calmly. "You should still remember the main quest that brought us to this cycle of reincarnation—Sauron and the One Ring. We have to deal with those two things eventually."

“Oh…” Zheng Zha’s throat moved. “That’s true… I almost forgot we still have a main quest. So what should we do? Just rush over and kill Sauron? Didn’t you and Chu Xuan say before that doing so might affect the plot and lead to the fate of those Valar gods? And is the One Ring still in Frodo’s hands?”

“You’re right, we’re going straight to Sauron.” Alice nodded. “Right now, the Ringwraiths are basically all trapped in the Tower of Babel world. The other three Reincarnation teams, except for the East Blue team, have all been eliminated, and we’ve only been in this world for a day… to be precise, a little over a day. Now is the perfect time to make a major move without worrying about external interference.”

"We can leave the Ring for now and let it remain with Frodo. Dealing with Sauron and dealing with the Ring are two different phases of the mission. We only need to complete one of them and keep the possibility of the Ring being destroyed in Mount Doom alive."

Alice made a light gesture.

"You should remember the Lord God's message very well: only by keeping the Ring for seventy-two hours or destroying it can this world end. Killing Sauron is more like an Easter egg—but in order to prevent the Lord God's message from awakening the Celestials prematurely, it would be the right strategy to leave Sauron alive until the three-day deadline is over before killing him."

"Of course, this is only part of it. From the mission report from the Supreme God, you should be able to easily see that destroying the Ring and taking it and keeping it are two completely different levels of difficulty. Destroying the Ring only takes an instant, while taking it and keeping it takes seventy-two hours. So the answer is naturally very simple. The Ring itself is something important, and it can still play a significant role after leaving the cycle of reincarnation. And these seventy-two hours are the test we need to face to take it."

"So we have to take out the other reincarnation teams before that?"

“That’s not the case.” Alice shook her head slightly. “The difficulty of a horror movie should be judged by the elements inherent in the world itself, not by the variables of the Reincarnation Team. To obtain the ring, we will need to deal with the threats posed by the world itself. And Vera will be our most likely enemy.”

"How do you think I determined that the Order of the Ring, the War of the Fellowship, was underway, and that the destruction of the One Ring was the critical point for the Valar's arrival?" Alice shrugged. "All those previous tests were to ensure this conjecture was correct, and now it seems this plan is working without any problems."

"Uh... wait a minute." Zheng Zha's eyes widened belatedly, his mouth agape like a carp emerging from water. "You mean... we still have to deal with those Vera after all? Then weren't you afraid of all those tests you did before..." He racked his brains, trying to find a suitable word from the few drops of ink in his stomach. "...out of control?"

"Have you ever played computer games? Any kind?" Alice checked the time and snapped her fingers. Their forms vanished from the Tower of Babel world, reappearing in the outskirts of Lake-town in reality. She landed lightly on a flat patch of land, with Zheng Zha close behind.

"No matter what type of game you play, the enemies you face in the game are basically weak and fragile at the beginning. Of course, there are some exceptions, but there is no need to make extra considerations because of them."

"The same goes for the Valar gods. They don't directly observe this world, but rather use a somewhat rigid system to monitor and manage it. They only allocate different levels of attention depending on the situation, much like the demon kings or villains in games. They project their power onto this world in progressively more difficult ways."

"So, this is going to be an RPG game?"

“If we eliminate the other reincarnation teams before dealing with the One Ring, this is what will happen.” Alice nodded. She stomped on the ground, and some of the earth's particles rapidly transformed, combined, and formed the shape she needed—a simple yet swift flying machine was created, carrying the two of them rapidly toward Mordor.

“You might think this is stupid, but it’s actually a pretty effective strategy—especially if your computing power can keep up. If we just proceed with the defense of the Ring step by step, we might have an easy time at first, dealing with some dragons or white wizards. However, as the battle intensifies and we reveal more and more information, the strategies the Valar will adopt will change in many different ways.”

"If we're lucky, the gods will stop investing their power in us and just give us the Ring without any further effort, allowing us to directly access the God Realm. But if we're unlucky, they'll gather all the power that extraordinary beings can accumulate and then deliver a devastating blow to us with overwhelming force."

"...You don't want to encounter that kind of thing, do you?"

"Uh, we can..."

"Blocking the crater of Mount Doom, and if you can't win, just throw the Ring into the volcano?" Alice tilted her head slightly, glancing sideways as she posed a casual question. "That's what you're thinking, isn't it?"

"I don't think there's anything wrong with doing this," Zheng Zha replied earnestly. "Even if the Ring is powerful and valuable, we don't need to risk the entire team suffering significant losses to obtain it. Success would be great, but if it's impossible, I don't think we should be too greedy. After all, we are reincarnators, and we have plenty of opportunities to gain benefits. This time, the team battle alone has already provided enough to make us rich, so there's really no need..."

"If there were fewer than three participating Reincarnation Squads in this team battle when you said that, I might agree with you. But unfortunately, not now." Alice replied calmly, piloting her makeshift flying vehicle. The light and shadow on both sides flashed past her vision, and the distance to Mordor was rapidly shortening. She would arrive at her destination in just a few minutes.

"The end of the war is drawing ever closer, and the element that will trigger it is that someone is about to reach the fifth rank—meaning that someone in the entire cycle of reincarnation has already reached the fourth rank. The possibility of the Demon Team Reincarnators is very high, and a war between us and them is probably inevitable."

She gently moved her fingers.

"A group of early-stage fourth-tier fighters can at most fight a mid-stage fourth-tier fighter. Ex has already proven the gap between early and mid-stage fourth-tier fighters. If we use analogy to measure the strength of high-stage fourth-tier fighters, then with our current combat power, even with the addition of Sirin and Zhao Zhuikong, we probably wouldn't last more than a few seconds."

“We must seize every opportunity, and this ‘Lord of the Rings’ is the opportunity that the Supreme God has arranged for us.” Alice looked at Zheng Zha, staring at him for several seconds. “Do you know what you’re still lacking to reach the fourth stage of the Gene Lock?”

"Uh...inner demons?"

“To be precise, it’s about triggering inner demons and the way you construct and perfect your own inner light.” Alice continued piloting her simple spaceship. “Although I’m reluctant to admit it, your progress in the genetic lock system is actually the highest among all of us right now. Inner demons aren’t insurmountable for you, because you’ve already encountered them once and successfully retreated from them.”

"You mean my cellular wills?" Zheng Zha felt a chill run down his spine as he recalled the countless 'Zheng Zha's' he had seen deep within his mind. "That wasn't exactly a pleasant experience, and... well, I don't think I completely defeated them last time, did I?"

He still remembers the helplessness and weakness he felt at that moment, unable to do anything. Even though he eventually managed to regain his strength, return to reality, and advance to the fourth rank, that unforgettable memory remained deep in his heart.

“You are now in control of this body, so you are the ultimate victor. If they were truly a threat to you, you would have been devoured last time.” Alice sighed softly. “Should I say that a smooth mind has both advantages and disadvantages… Even though your inner demons no longer pose a problem, this kind of thinking might create other obstacles in the future.”

"...Huh?" The person was struck dumb.

“Just kidding.” Alice waved her hand. “Actually, what you lack right now is only experience and time, because you already have your path and your convictions. Unlike me, I’m half-baked in both. In short, if I gave you enough resources for a secluded period of ten or twenty thousand years, you probably wouldn’t even realize the existence of inner demons and would be able to smoothly advance to the Fourth Middle School. Unfortunately, we don’t have that many resources, and all the reincarnators lack experience and time.”

"If you want to reach the fourth tier, you can only rely on luck. And it's not just you—me, Zhao Yingkong, Zhao Zhuikong, and Xilin all need luck to advance from our current stage to a higher level in a short time. Extending this to others, the situation of the other reincarnation teams is actually not much different from ours. They all have fourth-tier experts, but their level is only at the initial stage. Considering the special characteristics of this world and the main god's mission arrangements, I think even you should be able to guess the main god's intentions."

She paused, and seeing that Zheng Zha didn't respond, she continued.

"The main god caused multiple reincarnation teams to engage in a team battle in one world in order to squeeze out as much potential as possible from the reincarnators other than the strongest, in the hope that all teams would be able to develop to their limits by the end of the war. As for the fourth-tier, the reward points and side quests of the team battle are not very tempting - at least not worth risking your life for."

Having said all that, even Zheng Zha understood what she was trying to say—he couldn't help but gasp, like a protagonist in some exaggerated movie, and subconsciously lowered his voice.

"Is it The Lord of the Rings?"

“There’s no need to be so careful, but the One Ring is indeed very important.” Alice nodded and replied, “The Supreme God has crammed over a dozen of us fourth-tier and near-fourth-tier beings onto such a small stage. If the bait he offers isn’t tempting, we simply won’t fight. And from my analysis of Sauron’s intelligence over this period of time, his flawed fourth-tier being is the Light of the Soul.”

Just as she finished speaking, a thunderclap suddenly resounded in the sky! Azure lightning fell from the heavens and struck a high slope about three kilometers outside their field of vision.

“Don’t worry,” she waved to Zheng Zha, whose muscles had suddenly tensed. “Our conversation right now is impossible for any living being other than you and me to perceive. And for those who could perceive it, keeping it a secret would be pointless… Now let’s get back to our previous topic.”

"The One Ring should be some kind of variant of Sauron's inner light. The other similar thing I've encountered before is a divine essence, or rather, a civilization's innate weapon—that's why I made my earlier judgment. And whether it's you, me, the others in the team, or members of other reincarnation teams, as long as we obtain the One Ring, advancing to Gene Lock IV is not a certainty, but at least about 70-80% certain. Therefore, Sauron must die, and we must obtain the One Ring."

"...So we can't back down." Zheng Zha closed his eyes and slowly exhaled from his chest. "This little thing, this treasure...it's actually so important. Then why..." He subconsciously glanced at the location of the Tower of Babel world.

“Taking the Ring from Frodo before taking action could have unpredictable consequences. We don’t need to take that risk. Besides, the other Reincarnation teams might get in the way.” Alice glanced at the time again. “I think you now fully understand my purpose. We are destined to clash with the Valar, so rather than revealing too much information and handing the initiative to them when they shift their attention, it’s better for us to control everything from the beginning.”

"Alright, let's take the first step."

She turned her head, and across from the now-stopped aircraft was Mordor.

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

The power went out at night, it was awful! I spent four hours updating at the internet cafe, it felt like I was about to die...

I was thinking of casually starting another project, but I guess I'll pass... I simply don't have the time to do more... _(:з」∠)_

Chapter 50 The Silly Witch, Part 3

Mordor, the easternmost part of this continent.

This world is one of the few that doesn't support reckless transmigrators from the Celestial Empire claiming "I come from the Far East." This is because, in this world, on this Central Plains continent, the saying "Easterners are generally not good people" may not be entirely accurate, but it holds about 80-90% of the truth. As for whether some unfortunate souls will prematurely end their transmigration journey because of this... that's not something the current reincarnators in this world need to worry about.

Alice wasn't really concerned with such trivial matters, but she planned to deal with this little problem during the upcoming operations. After all, no matter how this battle ultimately ended—there would probably be no need for the name Mordor to continue existing in this world.

She stood in the airspace about thirty kilometers outside the Black Gate of Mordor, watching the black mist and dark clouds churning in the sky thirty kilometers away—she could vaguely see countless powerful and evil monsters lurking behind the Black Gate, and an endless army of strange dragons and shadowy ghosts marching—Sauron had foreseen their arrival, or perhaps not. But whichever the outcome, Mordor was prepared for war.

She gazed at the black tower and the fiery eyes atop it. She could even sense a hint of solemnity and apprehension in those sweeping, tangible gazes. It was clear that Sauron took the impending War of the Ring very seriously—she didn't know exactly how much information the Celestials had revealed about the plot of The Lord of the Rings, but she was certain it was far more than zero.

Sauron isn't entirely unaware of the future; at the very least, it remains wary and vigilant towards the Fellowship of the Ring. The protagonists of the original story, under these circumstances, clearly have no chance of escaping unscathed. Therefore, Chu Xuan's plan to capture the Fellowship might actually be a good thing for them.

But it was all meaningless; at least, the safety of the Fellowship of the Ring was irrelevant at this moment. Alice didn't care about them; she only cared about how much of an advantage she could gain in the battle ahead.

She reached out, intending to summon the Staff of Domination, but froze slightly after receiving no response. She then remembered that her current body was a flesh-and-blood form that had unlocked its fourth-tier genetic lock, not the obsessive soul body of a Demon King-level being she usually used. The iconic Staff of Domination was naturally in the hands of her other body; she was currently unable to wield those familiar powers.

But it wasn't a big deal; she simply closed her eyes and calmed herself down.

[It's been so long since I used it, I almost forgot how to use my past abilities. Fourth-tier gene interference... Hmm, although I have plenty of theory and experience, I still need to do it in practice to ensure everything goes smoothly.] She glanced at Zheng Zha, and while he was still completely bewildered, she read a portion of Zheng Zha's fourth-tier gene optimization plan and loaded it onto herself. The magic furnace in her heart then began to operate, transforming this mortal body into a non-human state in a very short time.

Creating a flying machine and modifying a physical body are two completely different things. The former only requires microscopic manipulation, while the latter requires direct manipulation of a single gene segment. Although neither is particularly difficult for Alice, well… let's skip that. She simply overlooked it.

Stripping away the soul and power structure always has some side effects, doesn't it?

After she calmed herself down and gently exhaled, her condition returned to a state of relative well-being.

The magic reactor is working properly. The combat units are working properly. The gene construction is working properly.

This was excellent; her physical abilities instantly surpassed her previous record. While her original body wasn't incapable of fighting, its combat style, dominated by magic cannons and large-scale rituals, clearly hindered the realization of the close-combat dream inherent in every wizard's heart. But now, she felt she could tear apart one or two immature fourth-tier beginners with her bare hands, just like Zheng Zha.

[This... well, it's not entirely a bad thing, a new attempt, a new experience. At least I won't cause any more trouble later. Hmm, compared to these insignificant details, the fact that I can read Sauron's emotions means that his will, at least for now, isn't completely unified. Although this might be a trap, that possibility is definitely not very high.]

Perhaps this can be considered a gain?

Alice pondered, a jumble of thoughts flashing through her mind before settling away. Her hesitation even struck Zheng Zha as odd—the usually quick-thinking man almost wanted to advise her to halt the operation. However, just as he was about to speak, he saw Alice suddenly open her eyes, her pupils gleaming like jewels.

“Margot Royd…”

“I’m fine, nothing’s wrong.” Alice stretched out her hand, interrupting Zheng Zha’s next words with a gesture completely out of character for a superhuman being. “I just mentally rehearsed the battle plan… My strategy is simple: I’ll unleash a large-scale celestial spell to bombard the entire Mordor, and then no matter how Sauron responds, as long as it doesn’t suddenly unleash combat power surpassing the fourth level and comparable to Ex’s on a continental scale, you can just go and chop it down.”

"You fight Sauron. If you can defeat him, spare his life. If you can't, wait for me to come and support you. While you're fighting, I'll take care of all the grunts and non-grunts besides Sauron. That's all. I think it should be quite simple. Do you have any other additions or new plans?"

“No, not at all…” Zheng Zha opened his mouth, then immediately realized something was wrong.

[What a joke! Margot Lloyd never needed to rehearse before battle when she was planning her strategies! And this crude plan, which even I could prepare, plus the fact that she spent so much time babbling on the way here instead of just telling me what to do as usual… Damn! This would be a 6,000-word article… no, 8,000 words long! Margot Lloyd was never this indecisive before!]

[Something's definitely wrong with her. Let me simulate her thought process—damn! Her thought process is still exactly what she just said. Wait! I can actually reasonably simulate Margot Lloyd's thought process... No, I can't let her rush in recklessly like this. I have to think of a way to calm her down!]

[Should I warn her directly? No…doing so might get me into trouble later. The intelligence of a wise person when they act foolishly is like a woman gaining weight – absolutely untouchable! Especially now that she has a physical body, her weight has increased so much from nothing, both are major red flags – so it's probably better to let her realize this and correct it herself…but how can I do that?]

Zheng Zha's expression remained unchanged, but his brain was working at an unprecedentedly high speed. He quickly deduced numerous plans and then swiftly discarded them. After about a second and a half had passed in the outside world, just as Alice was about to make her next move, he finally managed to squeeze out a useful sentence.

[Alter! Alter from the East China Sea team! She just mentioned the East China Sea team but didn't say his name or how to deal with him. This means these overthinking guys definitely have something planned on this Alter!]

“Wait, Margot Lloyd,” Zheng Zha suddenly raised his hand, feigning a curious expression. “If we just crash into her like that, what about Altair from the East China Sea team? Weren’t you guys trying to track her down? If she suddenly shows up and causes trouble, wouldn’t we be in a very passive position?”

“Don’t worry about her, I have a way of dealing with that guy…” Alice said casually. Then, she suddenly stopped talking.

What should we respond to? How should we respond?

It felt like a piece of his brain was missing. He should have prepared a plan for this, but when the moment came, his mind went completely blank. He felt as if he had completely forgotten about Altair, casting her to the back of his mind. Even now…

Alice rubbed her head vigorously, looking at Zheng Zha with a look that surprised even herself. Zheng Zha seemed to be saying, "I don't care, I didn't do anything, you don't need to praise me." Suddenly, she felt an urge to punch that stupid face, but she firmly suppressed the urge.

[This is stupid... no, I'm probably even stupider now, so never mind.]

[But... what exactly was my plan for dealing with Altair? I should have thought it all out beforehand... Never mind, I refuse to believe I didn't prepare a contingency plan for this situation while I was sober. And I wasted a lot of time talking to Zheng Zha just now... could that also be something I prepared while I was sober? Wait, how many pieces of myself have I cut myself into?]

【Ahhhh, whatever! Let's just get through this for now, and deal with the rest later!】

After finishing her thoughts, Alice coughed and cleared her throat.

"Yes, thanks for reminding me. I'm a little out of sorts this time, but our plan remains unchanged. First of all, I..."

She was speaking when Zhang Jie's voice suddenly rang out in their minds via telepathic communication. At the same time, coordinates indicating Zhang Jie's location appeared in their minds through a link—it wasn't too far away, and he was rapidly approaching Mordor.

Zhang Jie: [Sorry, I was a little slow getting here, just a couple of seconds... I think I'm not late. And Alice, the setup you asked me to prepare is all done. It's ready to go anytime... When do we start?]