Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

In Isengard, she once said with a relaxed smile, "This is nothing more than multiple body manipulation. Consider it an introductory course for a puppeteer."

Introductory course.

The so-called "introduction to a system" basically refers to the underlying knowledge of that system, meaning that this knowledge is very common and very important. Since Alice is very familiar with the operation of this multiple-body system, it means that she knew in advance the possible side effects of her splitting it up and the corresponding countermeasures. In other words... everything she is doing now, and everything that will affect her, is within her initial expectations.

So, what impact will Margot Royd's becoming less intelligent have on herself?

"Yes." Zheng Zha lowered his eyes and stopped in front of the factory where Alice was. The automatic door in front of him slowly opened, and he slowed his pace and walked in.

The biggest impact is that I won't be as intimidated by her intelligence as I used to be. Subconsciously, I'd seen her as a terrifying figure. But after witnessing her blunders yesterday, at least for now, I'll see her as a non-threatening equal... Some previously suppressed thoughts are resurfacing within me.

"Then..." Chu Xuan's voice rang in his ears.

—Your teammates care a lot about your mental health, Zheng Zha.

[Extraordinary beings...possess the ability to infect and assimilate life forms of lower levels than themselves. So it turns out I'm not the only one influencing others. Even I am...]

He quickly shook his head, suppressing the vague thought.

Alice was right at the edge of his field of vision.

Chapter 55 - I'm about to unleash my power!

When Zheng Zha saw Alice, a part of Alice's will was returning from afar, bringing with it lost wisdom and an interesting story back into her body.

That's quite an interesting story. A lonely celestial body, through an accident, gave birth to a bewildered will, which then wandered aimlessly through the void of the universe. After billions of years, this will arrived at some remote corner of the third spiral arm of the Milky Way, and, sensing a planet constantly releasing a large amount of information, subconsciously approached that tiny place.

That tiny place was called Earth by the life forms on the planet's surface. And this bewildered will originated from the distant constellation Aquila. When a message with a miraculous structure emanated from the Earth's surface and was captured and absorbed by this will, this bewildered thought entity gained a self.

This is a miracle that even the flawless Symphony of Fate, played on sand and gravel falling from a mountaintop, cannot describe. And it happened in that cold, vast universe. For the first time in billions of years, a star soul with its own will was born in the entire world, and it defined itself by the message that awakened it from chaos, thus giving itself an independent form.

Its name is Altair, derived from the constellation Aquila, and it is the only extraordinary life form existing in that entire universe.

The person who released that message was Setsuna Shimazaki, a student artist skilled in creating doujinshi (fan-made comics). He was just a small, humble, and ordinary mortal.

An ordinary mortal, she possessed no power to control society. On the contrary, with her limited abilities, she was merely manipulated and tormented by society. The reason she was able to release that exceptionally strong and special message was precisely because her heart and soul had been damaged and worn down by the defamation of her creations. When she chose to disappear from society, her will burst forth with a brilliant light that would shine only once in her life.

Yes, she created Altair. She took an image from a video game called "Eternal War, Colossal Celestials" and used it as a basis to create a fan-made character called "Altair." While she was suffering from online bullying and accusations of plagiarism, a truly bewildered will originating from the constellation Aquila, representing and governing a star, was revived because of this setting information.

She created it.

But when it came to its senses, she had already vanished from the world.

Thus, the first thing this star spirit named Altair learned in this world was hatred. But before venting this hatred, she wanted to try to bring her deceased creator back to the world—she failed, or rather, she never succeeded from the beginning, because when she descended to the surface, the body of this person named Shimazaki Setsuna did not exist on the earth.

Mortals on Earth could not possibly accomplish such a thing. Even if bones were reduced to ashes, traces of large molecular clusters would still remain within the ash. After conducting various investigations and gathering all sorts of intelligence, Altair finally concluded that her creator had been taken from this world by some unknown force.

This means her creator is still alive, and it also means this world is of no value to her. She is Star Soul, born with unparalleled immense power and the terrifying ability to make her wishes come true. When she realized the truth and could not find the source of that unknown power no matter what she did, she decided to use her own methods to overcome the barriers between worlds.

First, she found a guiding light—crossing worlds requires precise coordinates or a spacetime axis, and since neither is available, she could only make wishes using objects with strong karmic connections—her creator, before falling into despair, had a close friend who was also an artist. That artist wore a pair of glasses, and the original owner of those glasses was Shimazaki Setsuna, which also embodied Shimazaki Setsuna's desire to create.

But that wasn't enough. As a Star Soul, she could certainly tear apart the outer shell between worlds with extraordinary power. But with just these glasses, it was impossible to accurately pinpoint a specific world. And finding objects with deeper ties was simply out of the question. Helpless, she decided to recreate a 'Shimazaki Setsuna' and use the artist 'herself' to summon herself. And to carry out this ritual, she created a grand stage.

Based on the thoughts of mortals, she created several illusory characters of varying forms. Their powers were mostly causal and temporal. The purpose of creating them was to bring Shimazaki Setsuna's former confidante, the painter, to the center of this stage. Using the power she had bestowed upon them within her prepared power system, she would reconstruct a form identical to the deceased Shimazaki Setsuna—after all, that confidante was the person in the world who understood Shimazaki Setsuna best and knew every stage of her emotional journey from hope to despair. If she could drive the mortal world to its doom under the rules set by Altair, these mortals, unable to find a way to resist, would surely resort to 'creating Shimazaki Setsuna and defeating her in spirit through her creator' as their last resort.

She was in no hurry, for she knew that there was no flow of time and space between worlds. Thus, under her covert manipulation, the entire mortal realm danced like puppets because of her and her deliberately created constructs—she orchestrated a grand spectacle of heroes battling the Demon King, and then she, the Demon King, easily defeated all the heroes with her power under her rules. And when she pushed the mortal realm to its limits, she finally encountered a replica of her creator within the 'world within a world' she had deliberately created for inter-world travel.

With all the necessary elements gathered, and with the 'world within a world' as her ark, and Shimazaki Setsuna's glasses and perfect replicas as her guiding lights, her next world-crossing journey was no longer difficult. As the winner who had controlled everything from beginning to end and ultimately triumphed, she generously gave the mortal world a dignified departure, granting them a seemingly respectable happy ending. After all, she had already programmed it so that shortly after her departure, the fantastical characters created using her wish-granting abilities would disappear for various plausible reasons. The mortal world, which lacked supernatural powers to begin with, would revert to its original state, and those caught up in her ritual would not suffer any change in fate—except perhaps for the unfortunate souls who died young.

And so, the world returned to its original state. Those authors who had borrowed character designs from her creations, except for one unfortunate individual, all gained immense popularity and rose through the ranks. The boy who had once been her creator's only confidant but had abandoned Shimazaki Setsuna at a crucial moment received no benefit and, because of a fantasy character she had deliberately preserved, would be subjected to surveillance and persecution. Meanwhile, Altair crossed the barriers between worlds and came to the side of those she valued—

Then she saw Setsuna Shimazaki, dragged there by the main god while lying on the tracks, his body badly injured, and abandoned by the East Blue Team. The story then entered a new chapter that Alice knew.

(A special note from Jiuyuan-chan: The above are all personal additions and personal interpretations of REC, a series that started strong but ended weakly and had a nonsensical plot. Please do not take them too seriously; just treat them as an alternate universe.)

“An interesting story, and this story—has some value.” A smile played on Alice’s lips. She certainly wouldn’t waste a day or two listening to Altair’s story. During those two days, her deliberately differentiated ego—used to align with instinct and maximize the use of the Gene Lock’s power through mental liberation—gathered enough information on Gene Lock application, largely compensating for her lack of experience in operating the Gene Lock after regaining her physical body. Meanwhile, her ego, through conversations with Altair, deciphered and analyzed a portion of his power. At the same time, she drew lessons from Altair’s experience to find a path forward.

The essence of information magic lies in the application of energy and concepts. Energy is not currently lacking, but conceptual problems have been causing Alice prolonged distress. The ritual magic that once aided her is now largely useless because maintaining the concepts of those rituals can no longer keep up with the intensity of her battles. While Altair's method of 'forcibly creating characters from other people's works' is unreliable and lacks power, its subtle variations in operation have indeed given her considerable inspiration.

A world within a world, stories and legends within a world—she had long harbored the idea of ​​fusing the many worlds she had created into reality within herself, creating a self-contained realm to obtain a powerful enough conceptual source that wouldn't require rituals for deliberate correction. However, due to insufficient resources and a lack of implementation plan, this plan had been shelved. Now, the information she obtained from Altair has finally provided her with a feasible solution.

But before that, first of all...

She tilted her head and looked at Zheng Zha, who had been staring at her from the doorway for fifteen seconds.

"If you have something to say, just say it. How much longer do you plan to stay there?"

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

To save her precarious perfect attendance record, the adorable Jiuyuan-chan has decided to temporarily enter "two-chapter beast" mode. The suspension date is undetermined, but she should maintain this for the rest of the month and finish this volume by the end of the month. So, what choices do you, the readers, have next…?

1. Feeding by patting (actually, referral tickets or anything else will do)

2. Encourage participation (Jiuyuan-chan is happy whenever she sees a post with a comment)

3. Just passing by, quietly making an appearance (gurgle...)

IV. Sorry, I didn't see this part. I'm a fan of letting things accumulate (sob sob sob...)

Chapter 56: The Girl is in Preparation...

"Ahem, Margot Lloyd." Zheng Zha coughed awkwardly twice. He had just planned to tease Alice while she was in a daze. But he didn't expect that just as he had this idea, when he saw Alice, he saw that familiar fire of wisdom in her eyes.

"You're back." — And so, all of Zheng's plans came to an end.

“To be precise, I’ve always been here,” Alice corrected. “It’s just that my methods and logic are slightly different. I’m still me, nothing has changed. And I remember I didn’t hold back when I was dealing with Sauron. So I think there’s no problem.”

"Ahem, I don't have that..." Zheng Zha scratched his head. "Anyway, it's what you know... you know what I mean. But the weather's really nice today, hahaha."

What are you so nervous about?

“I didn’t—” Zheng Zha tilted his head slightly, avoiding looking into those pure sky-blue eyes. Suddenly, he had a flash of inspiration and tried to find a topic to deflect the awkward situation. “By the way, how’s that guy Soren? I remember coming over and punching him a few times after the bombardment ended. He should be alright—I hope he’s okay.”

“It’s fine, you don’t need to worry about it.” Alice reached out and pulled a dark, smooth sphere from the void. Anyone who has read the Lord of the Rings will know that this is the famous Crystal of Knowledge, and in the very center of the crystal, a blurry, dark human figure floats like a dead fish.

"Although the energy is reduced to less than one hundred millionth of its original strength, the structure of the soul remains largely intact. Just as I predicted, the One Ring is indeed Sauron's Light of the Soul. No wonder Sauron collapsed after having his finger cut off in the original story, and no wonder that any mortal or elf who carries the One Ring, or even just gazes upon it, is quickly corrupted and infected by it, resulting in both physical and mental distortions. Now it seems that it truly is the Light of the Soul—in this world, it should be considered a phenomenon of divine corruption."

"Sauron will not die before the One Ring is destroyed. But in other words, once we possess the Ring, we will have to fight against Sauron's inner light, which is its true and all-out power. If it were just a matter of taking it, it would be fine. As long as we return to the realm of the gods, the gods will naturally help us deal with Sauron's will and turn the Ring into an ordinary blank divine entity, or an energy converter. But unfortunately, we will not enjoy such treatment."

"Uh... so the fire from Doomsday Volcano?" Zheng Zha asked tentatively. "That... should be able to help us a lot."

“I’m still researching Mount Doom; the detailed report isn’t out yet.” Alice shook her head slightly, a hint of confusion in her eyes. A light screen unfolded around her, and then a massive amount of data poured down like a tide. “In the original work, Mount Doom is also known as Orodooin, said to be a source of fire containing great power. Sauron was able to draw power from it because he forged the One Ring there, but according to this principle, throwing the Ring into Mount Doom would only reforge it, or even recharge it… Could it be that Sauron in the original work was overwhelmed by the power?”

"In short, let's set aside the lava from Mount Doom for now. I'm not sure what effect it will have on the One Ring, and the research isn't progressing fast enough for the time being. But it's not a big deal, really. You've fought Sauron, so you should know its true strength. Keep up the good work, you can beat it."

“Oh…” Zheng Zha nodded. Then, in the next second, he immediately realized something. “Wait! Margot Lloyd, you mean I have to fight a fully-powered Sauron alone!?”

"How many fingers can a ring be worn on?" Alice asked.

"One."

“That’s it.” Alice made an apologetic gesture, then comforted Zheng Zha for a couple more minutes. “Don’t worry too much. Even if Sauron, who has lost his physical body and is now just a materialized spiritual light, fights with all his might, he definitely can’t match the peak of a fully formed, perfect body and spirit. At best, he’s only at the mid-to-late stage of the early fourth rank. Fighting him will only take a bit of effort, time, and mental strain. He won’t die, and he won’t even be seriously injured. After all, even Sauron at his peak was only at the upper-middle level among the Valar, and we still have to deal with a large group of Valar gods who are all at the mid-fourth rank, and some of them might even be at the early fourth rank. We don’t need to worry too much about a minor character like Sauron.”

"I always feel like you're going to screw me over badly..."

“I won’t betray you,” Alice said earnestly. “I will make a plan, write down the pros and cons, and provide the optimal solution that I have deduced. Whether or not to implement it is entirely up to your own will—I won’t betray you.”

"Really? But why did you turn your face away?" Zheng Zha asked, still somewhat doubtful.

“That’s because I still have a lot of projects to handle.” Alice reached out and pulled out more light screens to show her face. “Research on the Doomsday Volcano, analysis of Sauron’s power, and some miscellaneous tasks all need my attention. And these things must be roughly completed before Zhao Zhuikong’s ritual is finished. Even if it’s delayed, Chu Xuan won’t give me much time.”

"Is...is that so?" Zheng Zha grinned sheepishly. "I thought..."

“Unless there’s something special, you’re free to do as you please.” Alice stopped looking at him and began studying the information reports floating in front of her. “For example, there are two unusual coordinates in the sky and underground. I suspect that might be some kind of spatial rift or an external demiplane. It’s very likely that they are the Valar’s ​​hiding places or treasure vaults.”

[In the prediction log, Zheng Zha, who had reached the mid-stage of the fourth tier, once used his free time to solo run through Lord of the Rings near the end of the battle, although the record wasn't detailed. But in that Lord of the Rings world, gods and demons resided in two demiplanes, one in the sky and one underground, and could only leave for a limited time... This information might not apply to this world. However, the abnormal fluctuations in space definitely exist... It's good to be careful.]

Alice pondered for a moment, then gave the order to leave.

Only now does Zheng Zha realize why he ended up in this place.

“Well, Margot Lloyd, I actually have something to do.”

"explain."

"It's about those robots outside with orc brains. You're implying something..."

“You’re overthinking it,” Alice interrupted him immediately. “I didn’t imply anything to you, nor did I intend to. Those projects outside are just to speed up my research on Mount Doom, and have no other purpose.”

Even if you do, don't say it out loud! Thinking about this kind of thing will cause problems, okay?!

Do I really want to tell you bluntly that you might become... a reincarnation?!

"Uh... is that so?" Zheng Zha scratched his head, feeling a little embarrassed. He had unexpectedly used his brain but hadn't expected such a response. He couldn't help but feel frustrated and seriously doubted whether he should continue thinking about it.

“Okay, then maybe I’m overthinking it.” Zheng Zha rubbed his temples and took a deep breath. “But since that’s the case, I do want to discuss those robots outside with you. Although those orcs deserved to die, isn’t it a bit too cruel to take their heads and make them into bio-computers? If it’s not necessary, then…”

“They’ll all be disposed of after the Doomsday Volcano project is finished,” Alice replied without turning around. “Any other questions? You’re seriously impacting my work efficiency.”

"Uh... I still have..."

"If there's nothing else, please turn left upon exiting."

"...There are some things I want to..."

"Please turn left upon exiting."

"……ask"

"Turn left."

Zheng Zha's lips twitched, his shoulders slumped, and he turned and walked out the door. Then…

...He turned right and left.

Chapter 57 Genesis - Rebellion

Zheng Zha had to turn left after making a half-circle to the right, because he suddenly realized that Alice hadn't told him the exact locations of those two special coordinates at all. The mental link was broken, and when he subconsciously turned around to go back and ask Alice, he awkwardly saw that Alice had placed a floating signpost on the left side of the exit from the black tower.

[That jerk! Can't he even consider my feelings?!]

Zheng Zha felt a surge of anger. He couldn't help but miss the Alice of the past—before Chu Xuan's resurrection, Alice, though always causing trouble, was quite considerate of others' feelings. She also spoke with great finesse, never making anyone feel embarrassed or awkward. However, after the end of Final Destination 2, or rather, after Chu Xuan's resurrection, everything changed!

She is no longer the kind witch who would prepare a way out for herself!

You'll get what's coming to you one day!

"Instead of continuing to make fun of me in your mind, you should go and scout those two coordinates for me. It's up to you whether it's in the sky or on the ground. Of course, if you're not interested in either, you can go back to Isengard or go to the valley to ask Chu Xuan for help." — Alice's voice suddenly rang in his ears.

"You, you, you, don't talk nonsense!" Zheng Zha was startled and shouted, "I didn't make fun of you, Margot Lloyd! I just didn't know where to go and didn't react for a moment!"

He took a deep breath, and the explosive power around him instantly formed a pair of enormous crimson wings of light behind him. With a sudden flap of the wings, they vanished into the distance.