Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

"That's true... but if I don't exchange for the vampire count and high-level internal energy, where will I get the energy from? Cultivating on my own is too slow. The main god hasn't given us that much time."

“You can exchange for skills,” Alice replied. “Summoning a swarm of vampire bats, awakening the undead, controlling gargoyles, bat-like flight, mist-like levitation… these skills can all increase your blood energy. They will also diversify your meager attack methods. The same goes for internal energy; you can exchange for light footwork, fist wind, and breathing techniques. Right now, you can hardly exert your combat power except for [Fusion], and while that self-destructive burst move is powerful, it's useless without energy.”

"Although the vampire exchange provided by the Supreme God is very different from what I know, and also somewhat different from the demonized blood energy you currently possess, some basic things are still common. I found out about the vampire's advancement ritual and the methods for gathering internal energy from the Supreme God. If we are well prepared, I can even try to exchange a large amount of ritual blood and many qi-replenishing medicinal supplements from the Supreme God to forcibly advance your rank. Anyway, with the gene lock, there is no need to worry about the problem of an unstable foundation."

Her explanation naturally placed her in a position of command and allocation. Her gaze then swept over the others, and she casually projected rows of plans into the air using a Shanghai-themed humanoid projection.

She looked at Zhang Heng, who had seemed somewhat uneasy from the start, and soothed him with a smile.

“Your enhancements don’t need adjustment. The enhancements Xiao Honglu arranged for you are very suitable. If other side quests are not enough, I can pay for them.”

"Zero, I can spend some time analyzing the structural manufacturing model of your Gauss sniper rifle. While it may not necessarily increase firepower, increasing the rate of fire is no problem. At least it can reduce the previous seven or eight seconds per shot to two or three seconds per shot. Moreover, as a sniper, your physical body is too fragile, and you really need a set of defensive equipment or bloodline enhancement. I will give you a list later, and you can choose for yourself."

"Zhan Lan is suited for mental enhancement. I previously looked up some information, and then added the statements I obtained from the Indian team. It turns out that mental ability users are a crucial component of the team. Of course, it is also necessary to combine it with some other bloodlines to enhance self-defense capabilities. For example, enhancement from the Three-Eyed Clan, or the Eldar, Protoss, etc. You can consider it yourself, there's no need to rush to decide."

“And then there’s Saito Hajime.” Alice paused. “How much of what I taught you do you remember?”

“I’m sorry.” Saito shook his head sadly. “I don’t remember anything at all, Miss Alice. Those things… disappeared completely from my mind after the main god repaired it, and no matter how hard I try… I can’t recall a single thing.”

“That would be perfect.” Alice smiled happily, then explained to Saito in surprise, “Knowing those things wouldn’t do you any good, and although it might just be a misperception, I don’t think the Supreme God approves of anyone touching those things. Forgetting them is the best outcome.”

“However, your soul and thought patterns have changed. So I think it’s possible to enhance some less dangerous secondary enhancements. For example, this—Mystic Scholar.”

"A Grade B enhancement, rated 86. Your spirit can be mutated and partially released into the world. You can then draw immense power from it to fight, even transforming your mutated spirit into semi-physical tentacles to attack enemies or reposition yourself. You are also given the skill Sacrifice Blade, a mental blade similar to telekinesis, highly effective against non-humanoid enemies. If it weren't for the prerequisite of possessing a special mutated spirit, I would even think this should be Grade A."

Her gaze then shifted from the thoughtful Saito Hajime to the remaining people.

Author's Note:

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

The enhanced version of Saito Hajime's Mystic Scholar is based on the game Darkest Dungeon. It's a pretty hardcore game, which I really like. So I enhanced it a bit. Interested viewers can give it a try; it's quite fun.

My script is definitely not going to follow the original story exactly, neither in terms of enhancements nor plot. Of course, I'll still go to some worlds, like Final Destination... but I'll absolutely not go to Resident Evil. At least Alice won't go... There's one Alice from the natives, and two Alices from the Middle-earth demons. Describing three Alices in person would make my head explode.

Section Twelve: These days, even catching fish is difficult.

“Zhao Yingkong, your situation is a bit special. I have some guesses, but this may involve your privacy. Should I say it now?” Alice asked, looking at Zhao Yingkong.

Zhao Yingkong's suspected dual personality was not revealed to the others in Hamunaptra. Later, during the Cairo descent operation, Zhao Yingkong was separated from the others due to an accident in the air when the battlefield was assigned. Apart from Alice, no one else witnessed Zhao Yingkong's actual combat performance. They only knew that she killed the Indian team's psychic who had unlocked the genetic lock, and that she herself was almost unharmed.

Zhao Yingkong lowered her eyes.

"Let me think about it some more," the assassin girl said softly, her hands clenched into fists on the table, the taut veins faintly visible on the smooth, white backs of her hands. Even the most oblivious person could tell she was currently in a critical moment of internal struggle, and wouldn't dare say anything more to her.

“Sakura-ko…” Zheng Zha looked at her with some hesitation, but his tone was as sincere as ever. “If there’s anything we can help you with, just let us know. We’re teammates, and anyone would be happy to help you.”

“I know…” Zhao Yingkong bit her lower lip hard, barely managing to utter a few words through clenched teeth. “Let me… think about it, I’ll tell everyone later.”

Zhan Lan, standing nearby, also hugged Zhao Yingkong with heartache. Meanwhile, Shanghai and Penglai took the opportunity to quietly escape, flying back behind Alice from under the table, hiding most of their bodies and only peeking out from under Alice's shoulder to observe the Zhongzhou team members.

"Alright then, I won't go into too much detail about your matter. However, I have prepared some corresponding enhancements."

She waved her hand, and the light screen floating above the dining table changed shape. On one side were two overlapping shadows, and on the other side was a burning flame.

"Both enhancements are B-rank, and both have the potential for further upgrades. The one on the left is Double Illusion. After enhancement, you can extract a portion of your 'hidden' mental power and create an unconscious phantom puppet that you can 'completely control.' Because it is formed from mental power, it can pass through walls at will, become invisible, and transform into the appearance of other people. It is arguably the best stealth operator. The skill that comes with the enhancement is Phantom Exchange, which allows you to exchange your position with the puppet within a range of several kilometers by paying stamina and energy."

"Of course, this is only a B-level enhancement. When you upgrade to the AA-level Advanced Dual Phantom, you can even use a skill called Shadow Possession, which allows you to merge your phantom puppet with yourself, thus temporarily possessing the phantom's stealth and shapeshifting properties, while unleashing powerful strength. However, each time you use this move, your phantom puppet will be weakened to an extremely low level, requiring time to replenish its mental energy to recover... I think you should know what I mean."

"The second enhancement is 'Fueling Embers,' which ignites your soul, transforming it into a peculiar flame. The fuel is your will; all your impure thoughts are fed into it as fuel. As long as the flame remains, you will possess a degree of immortality and gain the talent to freely manipulate fire and shadow. Subsequent enhancements include the A-rank 'Burning Lord of Cinder,' the S-rank 'Incarnation of the First Flame,' and so on—all enhancements that further purify your will. Of course, choosing this path might alter your assassin's way. While your survival and direct combat abilities improve, your stealth and stealth capabilities will be somewhat inferior to 'Double Illusion.'"

"Both options are enhancements that are very suitable for your current situation. Separation or fusion, the choice is up to you." She looked at Zhao Yingkong, who was deep in thought, glanced at Zheng Zha and the others who were confused, and finally focused on Xiao Honglu, who had obviously guessed the secret Zhao Yingkong was hiding.

"Finally, it's you, Xiao Honglu. As a wise man, I think you should have made some preparations for your future career path. So I won't..."

“What wise man?” Xiao Honglu smiled bitterly, a small tuft of hair falling from between his fingers that draped over the armrest of his chair. “From the very beginning until now, haven’t you been the one who has calculated everything flawlessly? All my plans have become worthless, and all my preparations have been in vain!”

He had truly given up on himself.

“Then you’re wrong, Xiao Honglu.” Alice’s disappointed gaze finally found another target after Zheng Zha. “I’m not exactly smart, and I only have a smattering of knowledge about planning and scheming. Analyzing and combining existing things is my area of ​​expertise, but when it comes to scheming and plotting… my level is actually quite abysmal.”

The atmosphere at the dinner table suddenly became a little awkward.

Aside from Patchouli squeezing her hand with a hint of sympathy, the others looked at her with expressions that said, "Keep rambling, I'm taking it seriously." However, she wasn't angry; instead, she earnestly began to explain to Xiao Honglu.

“Do you know, Xiao Honglu, as a wise man, the biggest thing you lack right now is not strategic planning, nor intellectual improvement. It is the way to acquire information, and the self-awareness of being a reincarnator.”

"You're no longer an ordinary person, yet you still act like one, only seeing with your eyes and hearing with your ears... You say I'm infallible in the Legend of Gods and Demons, but do you know how I did it?"

Alice sighed softly—she felt she was sighing more and more often lately. “I used magic to collect optical and acoustic data around Hamunaptra and constructed a real-time, updated 3D map. So, as soon as the Indiana team appears, I know where they are, their appearance, their approximate enhancements, their status, and their level of danger. Although that Indiana woman tricked me, the general pattern of the others' actions is clear at a glance. With this strategy in mind, victory is inevitable.”

"The final battle was the same. I gathered as much intelligence as possible about both sides. It was obvious who was superior and who was inferior, where there was a chance of victory and where there was a dead end. In the end, I only needed to do a little elimination to find the optimal strategy. But that doesn't mean I'm particularly smart."

“Even the reinforcement allocation just now was the same. Xiao Honglu… I saw you studying the main god’s exchange system when I returned to my room yesterday. But you are already a member of the reincarnation team, a veteran who has survived a horror movie, yet you are still using that inefficient method of searching one by one… perhaps using some tricks. I am really very saddened by this.”

She pointed to her head, then to the Shanghai-style human figure behind her.

"What I do is unlock the genetic lock, let the main god show me the catalog of the major categories I need. At the same time, I transmit this data to the database in Shanghai, where it analyzes and organizes it, and then makes several different plans based on the experience I gained from Zhang Jie and the Indian team. All that's left is to adapt those plans to the needs of the parties involved, and then spend a few seconds with the main god to verify their feasibility."

Her lecture left the twelve-year-old boy blushing, muttering under his breath and hanging his head, unable to utter a word. But clearly, the conversation had been effective; the boy would soon find a suitable method of self-improvement and become a truly qualified sage.

Alice felt utterly exhausted and couldn't be bothered with Zheng Zha, Zhan Lan, and the others, who had that stupid look on their faces as if to say, "I might be a fake veteran reincarnator." Instead, she picked up a glass of water from the table, gulped it down, moistened her throat, and began to move on to the next topic.

"Therefore, obtaining information is extremely important. And I have some extremely important intelligence to share with you now."

Her expression turned serious.

"Within the Main God Space, there is also a special reincarnation squad called the Demon Team."

Author's Note:

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

Zhao Yingkong has two enhancement options. One is the Double Illusion from Overlord, though I've made many modifications... The other is the well-known Linking the Flame.

Section Thirteen: The break is over.

About half an hour later...

Zheng Zha's face was ashen, but his clenched fists trembled slightly. There was no fear in his eyes, but obvious unease appeared on the faces of the others.

The Demon Team… only the most promising individuals, those who unlocked their genetic potential in the first three horror films, were copied into this reincarnation team. This team also experienced a total annihilation, thus creating a time gap between several horror worlds. And more importantly… Chu Xuan was among them.

Zheng Zha knew what kind of person Chu Xuan was. He was absolutely rational, absolutely ruthless, a humanoid monster who calculated everyone, including himself, as pawns. Even with Xiao Honglu and Alice, who claimed to be clueless about strategy, the Zhongzhou team didn't have much of a chance of winning.

Moreover, there's another clone of Alice over there. This clone of Alice has unlocked the third stage of her genetic lock, but her combat power only ranks third.

Zheng Zha knew very well that he couldn't beat Alice—the Alice from the Central Plains team. Of course, if it were an encounter battle, and the distance was close enough from the start, that would be a different story, but a witch fighting him in close combat... that kind of thing could probably only happen in the arena.

They couldn't even defeat those at the first tier, let alone those at the third tier. Moreover, it's said that the Demon Team has two members whose combat power surpasses even that. Judging from Alice's tone, those two are most likely clones of Zheng Zha and Chu Xuan.

...It was a nightmare. Compared to that, the fact that Alice came from a different world than them was a trivial matter—it's obvious that if there really were magicians of Alice's caliber in reality, there would be plenty of news about them.

However, Zheng Zha now wished he could go back to bed and get a good night's sleep to forget all this trouble. But clearly, as the team leader, he couldn't escape now—he had to appease the others first.

“…Margot Lloyd.” His voice was heavy, causing a look of worry to appear on Lori’s face as she sat in his lap. “Do you have a strategy?”

“Of course we have a strategy,” Alice nodded. “First, revive Chu Xuan from our Zhongzhou team, at least to even out the potential of both sides. Then…”

"This won't do." Zheng Zha waved his hand forcefully, and a blade of air was shot out from the air on the dining table. If Alice hadn't reacted in time, the plates and cups would probably have been flying all over the floor.

“I disagree with reviving Chu Xuan. He… is too ruthless. Human lives mean nothing to him. I even suspect that he would deliberately send someone to their death if they were injured and unable to fight. And such a thing… I absolutely do not agree with.”

“Is that so…” Alice lowered her eyes. “Since you’re unwilling, then there’s nothing I can do. The Book of the Sun has already been handed over to you, and I have no way to revive reincarnation team members I haven’t met. So let’s put this proposal on hold for now and move on to the next step.”

"If Chu Xuan isn't resurrected, Zhang Jie will have to be resurrected eventually. Although we have to wait until the next horror movie is over before we can resurrect him, there are some preparatory works that need to be done."

"What kind of work?" Zheng Zha was quite interested in reviving Zhang Jie. He raised his eyebrows and leaned forward slightly. "This guy still owes me a huge debt, and I can't let it go without settling things with him properly."

“The Altar of Resurrection.” Alice made a gesture, and the projection on the dining table immediately showed the shape of an altar. “When I controlled Hamunaptra to collide with the pupa, I deliberately detached the main control tower, and with the last few preparatory measures I took, the Altar of Resurrection and the male and female protagonists should all land safely and successfully.”

"The reward points consumed when the Sun Scripture resurrects fallen team members through that altar will be greatly reduced. Therefore, we must take control of the altar and place it in a safe location... or simply bring it back to the Main God Space."

"Wait? Why bring it back to the Main God Space?" Zheng Zha asked in confusion. "That altar weighs at least tens of tons; even a storage ring can't hold it!"

“That woman from the Indian team might still be alive. We only corrected 70%, and we can’t be sure she was erased by the main god,” Xiao Honglu interjected. Alice nodded and continued to add to the explanation.

"Indeed, I can't be sure if the woman from the Indiana team is dead, nor can I be sure if she'll return to the horror movie if she isn't. I also can't be sure if the two reincarnation teams that went through the team battle returned to the same world or two different parallel universes when they returned to the horror movie."

Alice let out a soft breath. She clearly saw the expressions of horror on the other people's faces. That woman, that terrible, sacred, and beautiful woman…

“If something goes wrong, those who entered the Legend of Gods and Demons will likely not have a good ending. So bringing the altar back is the best option. This task is entrusted to you, Captain.” Alice said seriously, “Please leave the scriptures behind, and then exchange a day to try it out. I will prepare mental protection for you and arrange the follow-up…”

"Wait, wait a minute! You were just about to talk about the aftermath, weren't you? You definitely meant to say that! Hey, what are the others saying? Are you just going to watch like this?!" Zheng Zha's face turned pale as he looked at the others for help.

Oh, I'm so sorry, I can't save you. You can go in peace now.

The others all silently turned their faces away. Maybe it's better to go die alone... anyway, this guy's tough, he shouldn't die... right?

"Then it's decided."

"Hey! I haven't agreed yet!"

"Then Zhao Yingkong and Saito will go?" Alice tilted her head slightly. "Don't worry about not having a container of a sufficient size. Patchouli is very skilled at using barriers... or rather, spatial folding. At least making a temporary space bag won't be a problem."

Patchouli smiled and bowed slightly.

"Fine, I'll go..." Zheng Zha muttered irritably. "One day I'll be tricked to death by you bunch of brain-mutated geniuses..."

"Then I will prepare the vampire and inner strength upgrade ceremony for you. Remember to communicate with the protagonist more. If possible, try to see if you can unlock the plot of The Mummy II. Of course, I didn't ask you to do this task alone. You just need to find the Death Bracelet that triggers the plot, and don't worry about the rest."

Alice turned her head away.

"Next are Zhao Yingkong and Saito Hajime. After you've redeemed the enhancements, please go to the world of Resident Evil and see if you can bring back anything of value. For example, the original fluids of the T-virus or G-virus. If you can't find anything, that's okay. The enemies in Resident Evil aren't very strong. As long as you protect yourselves, use those biological weapons to refine your newly redeemed enhancements."

"Zhan Lan and Zero, as a sniper and a psychic, you two need to work closely together. Just like the steel needle man and their psychic from the Indian team... Although those two died quickly, long-range sniping guided by psychic power can definitely have unexpected effects."

"Finally, Zhang Heng and Xiao Honglu... well, I won't interfere further." Alice glanced at the brat. "You arranged Zhang Heng's spirit exchange, so you'll be in charge. Of course, as a wise man, you must have suitable training methods, so I won't meddle any further."

"Margot Lloyd, you still say you don't know how to strategize!" Zheng Zha felt like he was about to go crazy. "You've already taken on everything that the captain and the strategist should be doing!"

"Ah...sorry." Alice gently rubbed her temples. "I accidentally worried too much...why don't you take over?"

Zheng Zha immediately ceased his activities.

“Okay, what you said makes sense. It’s fine to leave it like this. But…” Zheng Zha looked at her with some confusion. “Everyone else has already been assigned tasks, what are you two doing?”

“Let’s go improve our combat strength.” Alice shrugged. “Patch and I need to go to my real world. We’ll go there to increase our power and, at the same time, settle some karmic debts.”

Author's Note:

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

Alright, let's move on to World Two, the mutated Transformers. This time it's actually Double Seven's honeymoon vacation... so it's impossible to bring anyone else along. Besides, this wave of enhancement interludes has dragged on for too long; if I keep writing, it might ramble on for tens of thousands of words...