Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Patchouli didn't voice the remaining half of her sentence—that the same trick that forced Luo Ye to compromise could also force her to do the same. Of course, it's more likely that Alice and Luo Ye would both refuse to budge, preferring to perish together rather than watch the other gloat—after all, the battle of inner demons hadn't begun, and dying here would only cost a resurrection item. It wasn't a big deal.

Alice tilted her head slightly, neither affirming nor objecting.

"...It seems I have no other choice but to fight you with all my might." Patchouli took a deep breath and slowly, bit by bit, said, "No conditions are needed, no contracts are needed. As long as I defeat you, what happens afterward is not up to you—is this one of the reasons you're forcing yourself? Are you willing to pay such a huge price to maintain your unchanging nature amidst change?"

“How can I possibly attack you with my full strength if you don’t go all out?” Alice replied.

"But what if I can't beat you even if I use all my strength?" Patchouli asked again based on her answer.

Alice then tilted her head slightly, looking at a high platform about fifty meters behind her. A purple-haired character holding a glass of iced juice was looking innocently at the two people in the tense standoff.

"Uh... well, I just happened to be sitting here?" The purple-haired girl carefully stood up from the platform, looking like she was about to leave with a 'sorry to bother you, I'll get lost' expression. However, before she could run away, Alice's voice reached her ears first, penetrating the soundproof barrier she had deliberately created.

"I think it's necessary for us to have a certain level of understanding as partners who will be spending a lot of time together in the future. And now is a golden opportunity for us to have a good fight here without holding back. Afterwards, we will naturally know each other inside and out."

“Sorry, I don’t think it’s necessary.” Miss Celine raised her hand in surrender. “If you want to fight, then I’ll give up. Trust me, I’m a professional runner, and you definitely can’t catch me if I don’t want to fight. I don’t want to do any unnecessary physical activity or get involved in your mess. Just treat me like I’m invisible, like I don’t exist—if you’re unhappy about being rejected, just ignore me. Anyway, I’m leaving.”

She tore open a space to leave, but unfortunately, she couldn't. A thin shadow from the side fell beneath her feet, freezing the space around her. She then felt deep remorse for her shameful act of watching the spectacle.

Zhao Yingkong's figure appeared at the source of the shadow.

"I'm sorry, Sister Xilin." There was a strange, suffocating quality to Zhao Yingkong's voice. "I'd like to have a good talk with you about 'Brother'."

She turned her head and easily spotted Zhao Zhuikong, who was quite frightened by the chilling "Big Brother," standing on the street about a hundred meters away from Zhao Yingkong with a wry smile. Although she didn't know what had happened, she had a bad feeling that something was about to happen to her.

“I’m sorry, Celine. My sister… wants to talk to you. And I think it’s necessary, since we’ll be seeing each other all the time…”

Celine knew she probably couldn't run anymore, and she probably couldn't run across North America either.

"...Then what are you doing here? As a referee?" she retorted irritably. They entered a state of readiness.

Zhao Zhuikong then turned his gaze to Alice.

"No, I'm just here to have a chat with someone who shares a certain language with me."

Section 42. What I mean is, everyone here...

In most cases, battles between extraordinary beings take only two forms. First, there is a strength-defense relationship or a power imbalance between the two sides. The battle will end in a very short time with one side having an overwhelming advantage. Second, there is no strength-defense relationship or power imbalance between the two sides, in which case a protracted and arduous war awaits.

After all, in most cases, extraordinary beings are often stronger in offense than defense. And extraordinary beings with a gene-lock system as their core have developed survivability to an extreme. Unless their enemies possess far too much secret information, or fabricate weaknesses that they shouldn't have, then in battles between beings of the same level, those with a gene-lock system will find it very difficult to kill their enemies.

Zheng Zha's battle with Alice should have been categorized as the first type, because Alice countered him far too severely—there was a significant disadvantage in intelligence, preparation, abilities, and strategy. In a true life-or-death battle, he probably wouldn't have lasted three seconds before Alice easily defeated him. The reason he lasted so long was largely because Alice intentionally held back before he exerted his full strength. And obviously, once Alice stopped holding back, a swift and decisive defeat awaited him.

Very well, so special cases are excluded now. The remaining reincarnators are undeniably all in a pre-battle state with no obvious counter-relationships, no significant power disparities, and little information leaked from them. Without exception, they are all in a precarious situation where their shields are stronger than their spears—stronger than their own spears, and even stronger than their opponents' spears. And even if the battle were to change to two against one or three against one, this absurd balance of power would remain unchanged.

Patchouli couldn't defeat Alice, Zhao Yingkong couldn't handle Sirin, and Zhao Zhuikong, this unlucky fellow who was sometimes involved in the battle between witches and sometimes embroiled in the conflict between his sister and colleagues, decided from the start to put in the effort but not put in the work—he made a lot of noise and his moves were impressive; he was a master at dismantling maps, but when it came to beating people up, he was a complete mess. His survival instinct told him that he would be unlucky no matter which side he helped, and if he didn't help either side, he would be punished by both sides afterward.

Therefore, the best outcome for him was to maintain this stalemate. The interpersonal relationships among these people were quite complex, and even if it dragged on, a real fight wouldn't break out. As long as he could stall until these women were all tired and fed up, or until their exchange time was up, they could happily end the battle or return to the Main God Space. And naturally, under his covert arrangements based on this strategy, even though Patchouli truly used her full strength, and Sirin had truly had enough of Zhao Yingkong's repeated offenses, the battle remained at a stalemate.

There may have been an element of Alice's intention in this, or it may have been a simple coincidence. But in any case, it is an undeniable fact that the five extraordinary beings who have unlocked the fourth stage of their genetic locks have reached a dynamic equilibrium in their battle. None of them can defeat the others, and none of them can resolve the situation, unless another power equivalent to the fourth stage intervenes in the battle at a speed that no one can react to. Otherwise, the battle situation will not change.

In this context, North America naturally became an unfortunate collateral damage in the aftermath of the extraordinary battle. Raccoon City vaporized within fifteen seconds of the engagement, and five minutes later, the entire state where Raccoon City was located had turned to dust. An hour later, more than a quarter of the mass of the North American continent had completely disappeared from the planet, and three hours later, the battle had ignited the atmosphere, with the combat zone extending from the Earth's surface to the lunar region.

Twelve hours later, the moon began to disintegrate and was captured by Earth's gravity, beginning its descent into the atmosphere. The first wave of lunar impact struck the Earth's surface in a rather unseemly manner during the thirteenth hour.

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

Thirteen hours.

Zheng Zha has been trapped inside the Iron Star in Antarctica for thirteen hours. During this time, he has been constantly battling the extreme heat and pressure of the star's core. However, after thirteen hours of trying, he has still failed.

Failure, failure after failure. The energy drawn from the earth's veins was firmly sealed within his body by the iron star forged by Alice, and now he was completely unable to manipulate this enormous amount of pure heat as easily as he had on the outside. This closed 'earth' and 'sky' separated him from the other world, just as Alice had said, and without the assistance of the world's will, this enormous energy was no longer an aid to him, but rather a heavy burden on him, Zheng.

A burden. He wanted to relinquish these burdens, but he couldn't. Because, conceptually, the Iron Star, now isolated from the outside world, was no different from a closed, nascent world, and he and the otherworldly energy within him were clearly unwelcome guests in this nascent world—he couldn't expel this alien energy from his body, because this nascent world, both conceptually and physically, refused to let that otherworldly energy escape its cage. And at this moment, as both a prisoner and a cage, he was naturally suffering greatly.

He couldn't use much power; even with the mimicry of the Light of the Mind, he couldn't free himself from this bondage. This was because he had to devote a large portion of his mental and physical control to suppressing the unstable thermal energy within his body. More importantly—he didn't actually want to expel this massive, uncontrollable energy from his body.

This is my responsibility, my obligation. It is the weapon entrusted to me by the world of Resident Evil, a tool, and a promise. And since I have accepted the covenant to save the world, I should not easily betray it.

The thought crossed his mind—he had held firm to this belief thirteen hours earlier, when the energy that had lost the world's soothing influence first damaged his internal organs and body. And now, although thirteen hours had passed and the structures within his body had been reconstructed thousands upon thousands of times by the violent energy, the determination he had made at that very beginning remained unchanged.

He still wants to save the world, he still wants to help the innocent in this world. He still firmly believes in his path and that everything he does is just. The only problem that needs to be solved now is that the power he possesses is not enough to support the might of his justice.

I knew Margot Lloyd was strong, but I didn't know she was this strong. In fact, my defeat was already sealed the moment she made her move, even before I began to exert all my strength—after all, although I started the war, she had anticipated my reaction and made preparations beforehand.

It's not unfair that I lost to her.

He mentally rehearsed the battle scenario again and again, only to be met with a result that deeply disappointed him each time. He realized with great distress that unless he restructured his power system before the battle and unleashed his full strength at the outset, his chances of victory were destined to be zero percent. Even if he foresaw everything from the beginning, made thorough preparations, arranged suitable terrain and positions, and used every means at his disposal—his chances of winning would still not exceed one percent.

Fighting a hundred battles doesn't guarantee a win, and even the one victory doesn't rule out the possibility of miscalculation—after all, Alice might not have truly used her full strength; at the end of the battle, more than half of the eight demons she summoned hadn't even made a move… It's truly regrettable to draw such a conclusion. Even so, he didn't want to stop his fight.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with helping others.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with being a good person.

My path and principles are not problematic; the problem lies only in my own abilities.

But... what should I do? Whether I can defeat Margot Lloyd is not important, because she is my comrade, the first person I need to protect before helping the innocent—whether she needs this protection or not—but even if I disregard the outcome of the battle, I must resolve the problems within myself.

He pondered, struggled, his thoughts churning like the tides.

My path is not wrong, but it certainly has flaws. A flawed philosophy means my power will also have weaknesses. Even if Margot Lloyd doesn't have the intelligence advantage, this irreparable weakness within me will become the opportunity for her to defeat me… But what exactly is it?

What am I missing? What am I lacking? What are there that I should have done but haven't done, what are there that I shouldn't have thought about but haven't considered?

He pondered deeply, but ultimately received only silence. Neither he nor this nascent world, neither the external heat and pressure nor the internal turmoil and damage, could offer him a wordless answer at this moment.

He could do nothing, and couldn't even understand why he couldn't do anything. This deep-seated torment tormented him, making him depressed and frantic—yet the situation showed no signs of improvement. He felt like a rabbit stuffed into a bellows, facing certain death from both ends, trapped with no way out and no hope of survival—he knew he should do something immediately. Yet he also knew he could do nothing.

Because a full thirteen hours had passed. And within those thirteen hours, even Zheng himself dared not give a verifiable upper limit to what Alice and her allies could accomplish—perhaps by the time he emerged, the entire Earth would have become a dead star, perhaps even Earth itself would no longer exist, or perhaps the outer Earth would have ushered in a new era—

—Who knows? After all, that thing has the means to repair and restore a damaged, dead star, as well as the power to turn a healthy celestial body into dust. The worst-case scenario is that she directly activates the stellar extraction tower to drain the sun, and then lets this plane, which is only the size of the solar system, fall into permanent silence in cold and dysfunction.

Are you planning to give up?

……No.

...But what should we do?

His mind was gradually clouded by confusion, and his thoughts increasingly stagnated. The out-of-control energy within his body boiled again, and then the damaged biological tissues simultaneously began to repair themselves thanks to the extraordinary self-repairing ability of his life form. Meanwhile, the endless heat and pressure from the outside world still firmly bound him within this star core, preventing him from escaping.

His eyes saw no hope, his mind held no prospect. In this silence, his soul sank deeper and deeper... deeper and deeper, into an abyss he himself did not know what it was. Yet, even in the darkest depths of the abyss, when he looked up, he saw no light.

Something unknown was gestating within him, slowly emerging from the shadows, from the void, from the depths of that unfathomable abyss. It was formless and shapeless, without trace or boundary, yet it truly existed within this unfathomable abyss of his heart. And from the invisible, it extended what might have been tentacles, gently and silently caressing Zheng Zha's cheek.

Zheng Zha was unaware, or perhaps he knew but acted as if nothing had happened. All his energy was focused on figuring out what his deficiency truly was, and how he could possibly salvage this seemingly insurmountable defeat… Yet the more he pondered, the deeper he sank into the abyss. And he remained oblivious to his predicament.

You can't build a car by working in isolation. The less reference points you have, the easier it is to drive your thinking into a dead end.

Without a sound, black lines quietly crept across his body, limbs, and cheeks—they might not actually be black, since color has no purpose in this abyss of the heart. However, lack of purpose does not mean lack of meaning, for the reason they took this form was precisely because Zheng Zha harbored such thoughts deep within his heart.

He believed he should sink into the mire, be consumed and devoured by the dark, decaying substance. And so, a dark, decaying substance appeared, one he himself was unaware of. He believed his path forward was correct but hopeless, and thus he could not find even a glimmer of light in the depths of his heart.

Soon, the patterns and nets that emerged from nothingness climbed up to his eyes.

—A familiar voice suddenly rang in his ears.

"Brother Zheng Zha?"

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

Thinking about finishing this volume at the end of the month OAO

Chapter 43: They are all outstanding talents of our time!

The abyss of darkness within Zheng Zha's heart instantly turned pure white, the formless and shapeless darkness vanished completely, and the landscape before his eyes instantly regained its normal colors—he was very familiar with that voice, and for a rather long period of time in the past, he had fought alongside the owner of that voice on the same front. Although times had changed, and those once relied-upon companions could no longer be his support in desperate situations as they had when they were both weak, that voice… he still remembered it very clearly.

"Zhan Lan".

He slowly turned his head, looking intently at the intellectual girl with a wide forehead and glasses who had appeared in the depths of his heart (not in a lyrical way), for reasons he didn't know when or why. He noticed that the surrounding scenery seemed to have some subtle adjustments besides changing from black to white, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what those details were.

"...How did you get here?" Zheng Zha asked in confusion. The moment Zhan Lan appeared, he recognized her as the real deal without a doubt. But unlike the Zhan Lan he usually saw, this one gave him a feeling of nostalgia, as if he had returned to the first time he entered the Resident Evil world and first met Zhan Lan on that train.

Yes, that's it! Because long after the world of Final Destination ended, and after Zhan Lan gradually mastered the various enhanced abilities of the Eldar prophet, she rarely wore those gold-rimmed glasses with hundreds of degrees of brightness anymore. The woman appearing before him now seemed more like an old relic retrieved from his memories, his deepest perception of the individual 'Zhan Lan'.

She is an illusion, but unlike a true illusion, this illusion contains the true will of Zhan Lan within it.

"Have I always been like this in your eyes?" The Zhan Lan with her past immature image didn't directly answer his question. Instead, she followed his gaze and examined herself—a knowing smile appeared on her lips when she noticed she was wearing the office lady outfit she'd worn when she first arrived in the God's Space. Then she adjusted her glasses—she simply took them off and put them in her pocket. "Weak, immature, lacking in initiative. Just like when you first entered the God's Space, needing protection from others?"

"I……"

"Don't rush to deny it. This is the depths of your heart, the very core of your soul. Everything you're familiar with and value will appear here according to your own standards. Whatever you believe a person should be, that's the image that will appear here. So even if you try to hypnotize yourself into changing your inner thoughts now, it's too late." Zhan Lan raised a finger, stopping Zheng Zha before he could come up with an excuse. Then, she slowly opened her mouth and answered the question Zheng Zha had raised earlier.

"As for why I came here, I think you already have the answer in your heart. And I can tell you with certainty that the truth is just as you imagined." Zhan Lan replied with a smile, and the moment she spoke, countless puppet lines appeared in this pure white world, hanging down from the sky. Many broken puppets collapsed helplessly to the ground, while those that were not destroyed performed various deformed and twisted movements under the control of the lines—a pair of blurry, slender, giant female hands floated quietly in the distant sky, and among the thousands of puppet lines hanging down, several were even connected to Zhan Lan and Zheng Zha.

“If Miss Alice knew that you viewed her this way, she would be very sad.” Zhan Lan gently picked up a puppet string attached to her body, then forcefully cut it in two and watched it vanish into nothingness. “But I think she already knew, so she should no longer be sad.”

"..." Zheng Zha's lips twitched, as if he wanted to deny something he didn't want to admit. But he knew he couldn't lie here, and in the end, he could only sigh. "...Isn't that how it is? She's a puppeteer who interferes with fate and adjusts the future. Except for herself...no, including herself, everything is treated as a puppet and manipulated by her. Whether it's you, or me, or the others in the team...aren't we all entangled in the puppet strings between her fingers?"

"Looks like she didn't beat you hard enough." Zhan Lan shook her head slightly, glanced at the doll that had rolled to her feet, and gently kicked it away. "She has always wanted everyone to forge their own path and has always tried to give everyone a chance to advance. She has paid a high price and spent a lot of energy for this—you and I have both witnessed this, and you should know her character very well."

“That’s why I think so,” Zheng Zha replied, his tone resolute and his eyes firm. “This is still manipulation. Whether it’s out of good intentions or malice, she is subtly and consciously influencing everyone in the team to change in the direction she expects—she wants everyone to ‘change,’ but this ‘change’ itself is the result of her interference.”

“She does mean well; she does hope everyone will forge their own path. But the truth is, not everyone wants to forge their own path—well, even if that's wrong, not everyone wants to move as fast as she has planned. Not everyone wants to follow the pace she presupposes.” Zheng Zha gently flexed his ten fingers, his tone sincere. “Margot Lloyd has helped me a lot, and I'm very grateful to her. She has also helped many others in the team, and perhaps they are as grateful to her as I am. But my view will not change—she is a puppeteer; all she can see are puppets.”

"So that's why you seemed so surprised when I appeared, and with a hint of displeasure amidst that surprise?" Zhan Lan gazed at him, her eyes calm and unwavering. "Because this is the depths of your soul, and you don't want any external force to intrude upon it... Even if my appearance hadn't caused your mind to be tainted by some indescribable things... the dissatisfaction stemming from this invasion of privacy and interference with your soul still lingers?"

“…Yes.” Zheng Zha replied, “Your appearance helped me a lot, and perhaps even saved my life. I am very grateful. Margot Royd anticipated that I would be in this predicament, so she arranged for you to come here and lend me a helping hand at a crucial moment. I am equally grateful. Both of these gratitudes are enough for me to step forward when you are in danger, even if it means my own destruction. But the feeling of disgust caused by interference…still remains.”

"Is that so? No wonder Miss Alice is so good to you, yet you always seem to go against her in strange ways." Zhan Lan shook her head slightly, her gaze still gentle and unwavering, but a peculiar smile played on her lips. She approached Zheng Zha and whispered in his ear in a light, yet seemingly penetrating tone.

"So, have you ever thought about this... You're so focused on saving others, protecting the innocent people we've dragged into this mess? They don't actually need your help or your protection. You're just forcing your goodwill on them, regardless of whether they need it or not?"

"This is different!" Zheng Zha shouted almost reflexively, as if he had been stung by a highly venomous bee. "I just... I just!"

“What’s the difference?” Zhan Lan tilted her head slightly, pressing closer. “You also want to interfere with their future and destiny, and you also don’t intend to ask for their opinions beforehand. And just as you said, not everyone wants to follow Miss Alice’s pace, not everyone wants to keep moving forward. Similarly, not everyone wants to be ‘saved’ in the way you’ve prepared.”

“You…” Zheng Zha took a deep breath, trying hard to suppress his agitated emotions. “Your words are very misleading, but Zhan Lan, that’s just fallacy. Or rather, it’s just a principle that doesn’t mean much to me… Because I want to save people, I want to help others, for myself, for my path, for my personal psychological satisfaction. My desire to save them has nothing to do with those being saved. I don’t need their support, nor do I need their praise. I’m just doing what I think is right, and everything else is meaningless!”

"Then why were you so agitated just now?" Zhan Lan asked calmly.

“That’s because, no matter what, it’s always upsetting to have your good deeds denied by others,” Zheng Zha replied. Then he emphasized, “Especially when it’s my companions who are denying me.”

"But I didn't deny you. I just expressed your thoughts, some of the subtle thoughts hidden deep in your heart. After all, you are currently at the deepest level of your heart, where everything you hide in your heart is laid bare."

“…You are not Zhan Lan.” Zheng Zha squeezed out these words through his teeth.

“I am,” Zhan Lan replied. “You should know very well that I am Zhan Lan, the Zhan Lan you know, the Zhan Lan you understand. Your heart and body are conveying the truth to you, and you should know that there is no pretense after you know this truth.”

“But there’s one more thing you haven’t said.” He closed his eyes, then opened them, and suddenly reached out and grabbed Zhan Lan’s neck. “You didn’t say whether you are the Zhan Lan who has descended into this world with us right now, the one with the Reincarnation Watch, the one certified by the God. You are not her… Although you are Zhan Lan, you are not her. Because you are just a memory, a perception, hidden in my heart… You are not a living person at all.”

"And the more crucial point is that you haven't admitted that you were sent here by Margot Lloyd. You just induced me to reveal that conjecture, and then tried to fool me with your ambiguous attitude! Because this is the Abyss of the Heart, and no one but me can come to this Abyss of the Heart, and you are my inner demon!"

The next moment, the human body bearing Zhan Lan's image suddenly transformed into a massive amount of black smoke and dissipated. Along with it vanished, the pure white that had previously filled his vision also vanished. The initial dark abyss reappeared in his field of vision and was discerned and perceived by him, while the eerie, ribbon-like or silken things that had grown from the shadows had already wrapped around his neck!