Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Leon and Claire opened their eyes abruptly, and then the feeling of nausea filled their brains.

Don't think about it, don't look at it, don't recall it, don't try to understand it.

They clutched the railing, vomiting large amounts of clear water into the sea. Their bodies convulsed violently like electrocuted fish, all the organs inside their bodies, including their brains, twisting and contorting.

That's something humans can't access, something humans can't understand.

That thing appeared on human land, and that thing devoured the nation where humans lived.

Both were panting. Looking at each other, all they could see in each other's eyes was a face of horror, fear, paleness, and bloodlessness. Leon was a brave policeman, and Claire was a fearless and resolute young woman. They possessed the courage to face a horde of zombies without flinching. But that didn't mean they were qualified to confront beings of that level head-on.

As if they were of one mind, neither of them spoke of what had just happened.

Leon took a deep breath. Although he didn't know how the two of them had survived... since they were already alive, there was no need to think about so many random things. Instead, they should focus their attention on things that were more important. For example, where exactly was this place?

He didn't turn around immediately, but he clearly heard the normal conversation of people behind him. He recognized that they were speaking Chinese, a foreign language he knew somewhat but wasn't very familiar with. He carefully shifted his gaze and saw a tower standing on the edge of the coastline at the end of his line of sight.

This is another tower, one with a similar significance to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, another city landmark. People in the East call it the 'Oriental Pearl,' which means… Shanghai.

The two of them felt a sense of prosperity here.

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

This kind of plot can't be split into two parts... so let's just call it a combined story... roughly.

And today's update for "The Witch Wars" is out! I'm going to update daily... OAO

Section 30: Sociological Experiment Report: East Asia

Even in his wildest dreams, Lyon never imagined that a city or a country would develop at such a rocket-like speed and in such a manner. In his memory, the Far Eastern country he knew was a powerful, but not extremely powerful, and advanced, ancient nation that had only emerged from isolation a little over a decade ago, yet still had much to learn.

He knew that country had been applying to host the Olympics and join the World Trade Organization. To achieve these goals of aligning with the international community and gaining more development opportunities, that country had paid significant sums to other major powers—especially the European nations represented by the United States. Furthermore, it found itself in a somewhat...restrained position on the international stage.

Western countries need it, for the cheap labor and dumping markets it can provide. But they are also wary of it because of its enormous size and development potential; if left unchecked, it will one day threaten the dominance of the current world hegemon, the United States, over human society.

There is only one crown, and no one else can sleep soundly beside one's bed. According to Lyon's thinking, perhaps in another year or two, the United States, where he lives, will use multiple sanctions—economic, military, and political—to suppress this nation, to make it regress, to make it stagnate, to plunge it into chaos. Lyon, as an elite member of the elite, is aware of this, but he has no intention of making any valuable or meaningless move against this trend.

After all, first and foremost, he is an American. A patriotic American. Secondly, he is a nobody, and even if he wanted to do something, he was powerless to do so.

(This was before 9/11, so Lyon had this idea.)

However, he now felt he should perhaps throw all those old ideas in his head into the trash. Because right before his eyes, the country he was watching... was undergoing a transformation.

Yes, it's like a pawn in chess moving to the bottom tier and instantly transforming into the most powerful queen according to the rules. This country, and the city he saw, was developing at an incredible pace.

He watched a skyscraper rise from the ground in thirty seconds, and a road be paved and immediately open to traffic in two minutes. The speed was astonishing, almost like using an accelerator in a computer game; buildings seemed to materialize effortlessly with a single command. But this was reality, not a game. There were no engineers in reality capable of constructing projects so quickly… He even began to doubt if he was dreaming.

However, his heart told him that this was not a dream.

He walked alongside Claire, and for some reason, the people of this country seemed to completely ignore them, as if they didn't exist. This allowed him to easily walk up to an engineer and watch how he built a tall building on an empty plot of land.

He understood what the other person was saying using his not-so-fluent Chinese.

"I want to build a 100-story building here, with four basement levels and a wavy, seaweed-like curve on the exterior. I haven't figured out the specific interior layout yet, but let's just build it up first... Oh, and it needs to have a glass curtain wall on the outside."

The moment he finished speaking, the approximately one-hectare area before him began to writhe and deform. The soil turned into stones, growing from the ground towards the sky like proliferating life forms. Lyon bet that before today, no construction company in the world could have produced such a conscientious project; there wasn't a single air bubble in the cement, and the steel bars were straight and smooth, without a single flaw. In less than a minute, this hundred-story building, which seemed to have sprung from the ground, had formed the streamlined shape the engineers desired, and its exterior was covered with a full-coverage glass curtain wall.

"The curtain wall must be one-way transparent, so that you can't see inside from the outside. At the same time, there must be a main entrance that is ten meters wide, and the main hall must be 1,000 square meters. The floor must be paved with natural marble with a pattern that connects to form a dragon. There must also be sixteen of the latest Otis elevators... um, sixteen comfortable and luxurious elevators that meet my aesthetic standards."

As soon as the words left his mouth, a ten-meter-wide automatic door appeared at the base of the wave-shaped building. The door opened automatically as the engineer approached, revealing a magnificently decorated hall inside. Dragon patterns emerged from a single, uncut block of natural marble, and the surrounding shelves displayed precious flowers and antiques—the engineer showed no displeasure upon seeing them; clearly, the building was a recreation of his vision.

He walked to the sixteenth elevator at the far end of the hall, and Leon and Claire followed silently. When all three were inside the technologically advanced elevator, perfectly matching the style of the building's lobby, the engineer pressed the button for the hundredth floor. The elevator then quietly began to operate.

"I want to see outside; I want to turn this elevator into a sightseeing elevator."

Part of the elevator's exterior wall became transparent, revealing the view outside to the passengers.

"This is too fast. If we slow down, the view won't be good either. Let's make the whole building transparent."

The elevator slowed down, and the entire building, following the engineer's words, changed its material and visibly transformed into a glass skyscraper—the entire city was then revealed to Lyon and Claire.

Buildings were erected, then abandoned, and remodeled. Roads were constructed on the ground, in the air, and underwater, only to be quickly overtaken and intersected by roads designed by others. Hungry people could summon delicacies—even those served at state banquets—with just a word or a glance, and these delicacies would appear before them, delicacies that could not be served without limit. Clothing and decorations were the same; with just a command and a few seconds, all the world's luxuries could be freely chosen.

There is nothing left between people except communication. Class, status, wealth, even kinship and lineage have become useless. Because everyone here has everything, and everyone can get anything they want, as long as they can think of it.

Anyone can lay cement slabs, but only professional engineers can design intricate structures.

Here, the only things that matter are knowledge, skills, and experience. However, this unlimited supply of resources also diminishes the value of skills and experience—since there are unlimited resources, you can always succeed in learning whatever you want by trying again and again.

After a while, the engineer arrived at the top floor of the transparent building. He set up a Hawaiian-style outdoor swimming pool over 300 meters in the air, preparing out-of-season coconut palms and fresh oranges for his own enjoyment. A bottle of '82 Lafite was only fit for washing his feet here. After setting up these luxuries, he lay down on a pure rosewood armchair, closed his eyes, and began to enjoy his afternoon nap.

The top of the building fell silent.

However, in other areas of the city, more buildings were erected, and not just buildings, but also airships, floating islands, and even aerial platforms that were forcibly propelled into the sky by powerful engines, which soon decorated the clear sky with a colorful appearance.

This country is no longer one that can be understood by ordinary standards. It is rapidly transforming in an unpredictable direction, with everyone possessing unlimited resources and the ability to use them freely. And now, perhaps the only thing that can restrain them is time.

Lyon stood on the edge of the hundredth-floor rooftop, gazing at the city that was changing every second, lost in thought for a long time.

"Claire, do you know what I want to do most right now?"

"what?"

“I want to immigrate.” A hard-to-describe expression appeared on Lyon’s face. “I just don’t know if anyone here can still provide the necessary paperwork. If I could become like them, I’d pay any price.”

“…Me too. But I think we probably can’t find their office now. And even if we could, we probably couldn’t afford it.” Claire returned the smile with a wry smile. “Besides, even if we immigrated… we might not be able to acquire the same abilities as them. I don’t think this technology is controllable.”

“In fact, no one is in control at all. This country no longer needs laws, classes, officials, or oversight.” Leon shook his head. He had just witnessed someone fall from a building, but the ground turned into a soft shield upon impact. And so far, he hadn't observed a single person being crushed or trampled by the proliferation of buildings due to this unbridled production and construction. No one was injured, not even a single traffic accident had occurred. Everyone was having a great time here.

Yes, we had a lot of fun.

This place is like a mythical paradise on earth, where everyone is a god, and the gods play a game of building blocks on this land. They create and destroy things at will according to their own desires and preferences, and no rules or laws can restrain them.

No, it's not that there are no rules to govern them; besides time and imagination, there's something else here that can. And that thing sent chills down his spine.

"Have you noticed? The scope of their creation... does not cross their borders. No, not borders. The furthest area they have altered is the sea, yet they have not crossed the ocean."

"Does this mean their influence is limited to their own territory?" Claire chuckled somewhat dryly, unconsciously switching back to "they" from "them" in her speech. "Honestly, this is actually a relief, although I do envy this kind of carefree lifestyle... but I think it would be more meaningful to create something through one's own hard work."

“People who wash clothes by hand can’t necessarily accuse people who use washing machines of laziness. Giving up and never having had something are two completely different concepts.” Lyon’s gaze shifted from the seaside. “But that’s not what I’m worried about. What I’m worried about is… this country, with over a billion people.”

"uh-huh?"

“And their land is only a mere ten million square kilometers,” Lyon said slowly. “Do you think a country with such a large population, after acquiring power that shouldn’t even be in the hands of mortals, might feel that its current territory is… a little too small?”

"...They no longer need the form of a state. I think it's impossible for them to organize an army anymore..."

Lyon pursed his lips, refraining from uttering anything unpleasant. Ah, yes, those now inhabiting this land were no longer a group of people, but a group of gods—perhaps without divine power, but possessing divine authority. There was no hierarchy among gods, no question of subordination. But what brought a group together was not merely rule and domination; shared ideals and dreams could also forge a new community.

And in this land full of visionaries... there has never been a shortage of beliefs and ideas that can bring a group of people together.

He took a deep breath and looked up at the sky.

"Although I don't know who you are, since you've brought us here, you must want us to see something. I've already seen the threat that the people of this land pose to the world. But that's not enough. And if I'm not mistaken, then please take us to the place we need to understand."

The next moment, before Claire could ask him in confusion, "What are you doing?", their vision changed drastically.

When they were able to see clearly again, they found themselves in a completely different city from the chaotic coastal city they had just been in.

This is a disciplined city, an orderly city, a steel metropolis that maintains a fixed architectural layout and relentlessly expands outwards. Countless massive and complex factories roar to life, and countless cutting-edge, futuristic research centers operate with disciplined efficiency. Scholars gather together, designing products in five minutes that might not have been conceived in five years before, and then discarding them in the next five minutes. Meanwhile, creations with performance far superior to those of previous generations immediately appear on the blueprints.

This is an industrial city, a large military factory, and a research center that was not even ranked a day ago, but now leaves all the world's mechanical research institutions far behind. Within this steel city that combines all these functions, countless weapons and equipment are developed and rapidly upgraded.

Lyon saw an aircraft far superior to America's most advanced F-22 fighter jet. It was faster, more maneuverable, and every parameter he could discern with the naked eye far surpassed the national weapon he had seen in 1997. He knew very well that no American pilot could fly a plane at supersonic speeds like figure skating and emerge unscathed, while here he saw at least a hundred of those advanced aircraft, whose names he couldn't recognize, dancing the tango... or rather, performing a lion dance, at several times the speed of sound in near-air.

And it wasn't just airplanes; he also saw even more powerful tanks. Five-wheeled steel behemoths, capable of withstanding cluster bomb blasts and maintaining their own mobility, raced through the complex mountainous jungle at 70 mph. Their new main guns were like machine guns, firing at a rate of 350 rounds per minute, penetrating armor, blasting explosives, and incendiary devices in one fell swoop—this was because older tanks used as targets were blasted into tens of thousands of fist-sized pieces of iron in a single second. The type of ammunition was no longer important.

As with airplanes and tanks, the equipment worn by soldiers naturally evolved from ordinary combat uniforms to exoskeletons, and then from exoskeletons to powered armor. Leon didn't even bother to study the specific parameters of this powered armor, because he saw a flying aircraft carrier rise from underground and complete its optical stealth before his very eyes.

The United States could no longer defeat this country. And when he and Claire, using their ability to remain unnoticed by anyone or any machine, arrived at what looked like a war lab, and saw the high-resolution American satellite images that revealed even flies, he abandoned even despair.

There's no point in fighting something you can't win. Under the watchful eye of this global intelligence system, even attempting to divert trouble eastward, getting those monsters in Western Europe to share America's burdens, is destined to be a laughable joke. And he figured it wouldn't be long before he saw the red flag planted on Capitol Hill.

If they can expand the scope of their use of that power by expanding their territory, then soon the world will only have one country left... no, perhaps just one nation.

If they cannot expand their influence by increasing their territory, then this land will become a divine kingdom, and everyone else in the world will become slaves. Even if they don't need slaves at all, they will not tolerate a group of reptiles using the resources that belong to them, the gods.

The inexperienced young policeman was plunged into despair. For a fleeting moment, he even considered using his ability to conceal himself to kill every Asian he could see to ensure world peace and that people from other countries could live as human beings instead of turning to ashes like ants. However, he knew he could do nothing, because Claire, who was even more radical than him, had already done so, only to be teleported elsewhere the instant she made her move.

He could only watch and understand. And when he was sent on his new journey, he no longer believed there was any hope of victory.

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

Today is also a two-in-one OAO

And "The Witch Wars" was also updated today, continuing the daily update schedule OAO

And there's something I really apologize for; I misspelled someone's name when I recommended a book before... I'm recommending it again here _(:з」∠)_

"Eastern Redemption: The Endless Tomorrow"... I think I didn't make a typo this time _(:з」∠)_

Section 31 Sociological Experiment... Experiment my foot!

When the two protagonists' gazes shifted again, paused, and the world returned to its normal state, both of them fell into a deep silence.

Silence, silence. It neither erupted in silence nor perished in silence.

Was everything I witnessed a dream or reality? I don't know.

Was what I witnessed the past or the future? I don't know.

They didn't know, didn't want to know, and couldn't decide whether they could choose to know later—this journey was too bizarre for them, so bizarre that they had no doubt that upon returning to the real world, they would immediately be admitted to a mental hospital and sent to the intensive care unit. Because what they saw in those two foreign lands was not just change, but also a profound malice hidden beneath that change.

Yes, malice. Some evil will is driving things from behind the scenes, twisting the two pillars of the civilized world into a distorted and bizarre form. It's more obvious in Western Europe; that malice has directly distorted the forms of everyone, gathering the millions of people living on the land into one. It may have created an unclean god, but it's more likely that what appears there is an absolute, twisted monster—it may be powerful, it may be evil, but both its power and evil are so obvious that they inspire fear.

It was like a ferocious dragon, with sharp claws and teeth, solid scales, and a gaping maw spewing sulfur and fire. Everyone could see its terror and be wary of it, but if the remaining people joined forces, the final outcome would be uncertain.

Justice may not always prevail over evil. But as long as justice exists, the struggle against evil will never end.

However, unlike the overt malice of Western Europe, the malice of East Asia was more subtle. If the former was an evil dragon, then the latter was a cunning serpent. While bestowing 'endlessness' upon the inhabitants of East Asia, it also endowed them with endless 'desire' and 'ambition'—people are never satisfied with their wealth; many are destined to seek more. And this desire for 'more' will ignite conflict and war.

This is an internal evil, a yearning and greed born from the depths of the human heart. Having acquired 'endless' resources, East Asians can no longer fight alongside other ethnic groups. Even if they could, their allies could not. They will become enemies of the world—though they already have been.

Western Europe and East Asia, the two poles of the civilized world, have collapsed. The malice that drove everything from the shadows showed no mercy or choice to these two civilizations. It simply shaped them according to its own will, twisting them into its desired form for its amusement or to achieve some other purpose. The will of those whose civilizations were twisted was entirely outside its consideration.

[One, or rather a group of, evil gods. Descend upon, or awaken from, our world. And arbitrarily adjust and rewrite everything in the existing world according to their own will. Civilization is their toy, and all living beings are their pawns. They do as they please, they are unscrupulous, because in this world... they have no enemies.]

A clear concept emerged in their ears, and they believed it without a doubt. It was like a mother's whisper at her crib, penetrating their very hearts, and they felt no resistance to it.

They understood the true nature of that malice: it was evil, an evil that was incredibly powerful and utterly abhorrent, yet meticulously concealed. And this evil required one or more hands to confront it or others. In a daze, the two understood why they were there, and then shouldered the responsibility that came with that understanding.

—We are those who have been chosen by Heaven.

—May the world use our hands to eradicate evil!