Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

“…I always feel that the team has changed from before.” Xiao Honglu murmured. He paused, and a huge, frost-covered dragon beast roared and rose from beneath his feet. Opposite him, Zhan Lan, whose body was wrapped in lightning-like spiritual energy, stood steadily in the air like a drifting leaf.

“This is a good thing.” Zhan Lan blinked, her eyes blazing with azure psionic flames. Fragments of this land’s past appeared clearly in her vision, then were rapidly filtered and summarized by her brain. By the time she finished speaking, she had already reviewed enough data to form a small mountain. And then immediately another small mountain appeared.

"Because we are different now."

Section 4. The Most Recent Auxiliary Dungeon

When a powerful team begins to operate under the guidance of a clear will, the power it can exert will inevitably be enormous.

Within the first second of the mission's commencement, the mental link was established. The mental network began to cover the planet.

Twelve seconds after the mission began, the main control engine in the planetary cockpit was confirmed. Patchouli took over five seconds later.

Sixty-two seconds after the mission began, the satellite detection system was transported to the appropriate perigee and apogee. Thirty seconds later, the space debris remaining in orbit was largely cleared, and the surface detection system became operational. The nanobot swarm was then deployed in large numbers.

One hundred and thirty-three seconds after the mission began, all planetary engines and their associated underground cities were marked on each Reincarnator's terminal. At the same time, the underground structural maps began to be uploaded, with the crustal portion expected to be completed within three minutes, followed by the asthenosphere and upper mantle.

Two hundred and one seconds after the mission began, the planet's surface had been completely surveyed. Including the dark side facing away from the sun, not a single native life form longer than one millimeter was found on the entire planet. All machinery ceased operation, and the AI ​​systems were completely deactivated. It could be confirmed that this planet had become a dead star with the potential for terraforming.

Two hundred and fifty-four seconds after the mission began, basic atmospheric data was confirmed, and historical information collected from the main control room was processed and uploaded. The Soul Recall Project was put on the agenda, and the main control room engines began to operate again. The largest black peak on Earth, directly facing the sun, began to burn again. Robots descended from the Great Library established temporary bases and production lines at the main control room and the God's teleportation point, respectively, and expanded outwards at a speed of fifteen meters per second.

Three hundred seconds into the mission, several geographically or historically significant locations, as well as planetary engine-attached dungeons, were identified and passed on to the second team. They would then take over this responsibility, searching these identified dungeons while the first team explored geologically, structurally, or spatially unstable and dangerous areas. They would also upload the information they gathered immediately.

Three hundred and thirty-five seconds after the mission began, Overlord arrived at the nearest marker. Based on the distribution of residual heat in the latest retrieved data, this should be the area where the last extinguished planetary engine was located—namely, Hainan Province, formerly part of an East Asian country, the site of the Meilan Planetary Engine and its associated underground city.

He found the entrance to the dungeon at the 340th second.

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

The sky was a strange color, like clear glass. From the ground, one could clearly see the distant stars in space, and the dim orange sun hung far at the edge of the sky. Then, some unpleasant cosmic rays broke through the air, staining the already defunct atmosphere with a splash of color while casting deadly colorless light onto the ground.

Because of this colorless light, the edges of the earth appear subtly distorted from any angle. Layer upon layer of obstructive fog, manifested by extraterrestrial radiation, swirls around the tens of thousands of black peaks at the edge of the earth. Just like the thin mist that permeates the cemetery, it is unsettling.

Ah, yes, a cemetery. These tens of thousands of planetary engines are now ten thousand tombs of varying sizes. They contain not only countless humans, but also the entirety of a vanished human civilization. Everything beautiful, ugly, kind, and evil slumbers in these interconnected dead zones. No one can escape, nothing can escape. Millions of years of civilization, beginning in the primordial era, fall silent at this moment; beneath the frost, only darkness and eternal loss remain.

Loss and darkness...

A chaotic cloud of gas enveloped the Overlord, gliding at over three times the speed of sound to the skies above the underground city. Because of the extreme cold, nitrogen and oxygen had frozen, so this gas consisted of helium and neon, which wouldn't liquefy at -250 degrees Celsius. These gases ensured the speed while also providing insulation against the extreme cold, allowing the Overlord to move freely even at -220 degrees Celsius.

"Chelsey, put me down."

The chaotic current of air gently lowered him from the sky, transforming into a soft, semi-transparent, full-body protective armor just before he touched the ground—his studies in the worlds of Lord of the Rings and Resident Evil had finally yielded some results. When the Overlord successfully reached the wall of the third-order limit, the analysis of Gaia Foundation was nearly complete; the accompanying Chelsea could freely transform into any known substance with a complete molecular formula. In terms of small-scale interference, the precision of this technology was even slightly higher than the nanobots in Patchouli's hands—if Patchouli hadn't invested more than ten percent of her computing power each time.

There is indeed a vast gap between the third and fourth tiers, but that's not the focus right now.

After landing, the Overlord waved his hand forward, expelling some of the solid nitrogen and oxygen condensed on the ground. This revealed an elevator portal leading underground—clearly, someone had recently emerged from underground, bringing with them a large amount of mixed air from the affiliated underground city. This air had accumulated at the elevator entrance, turning into frozen frost. He threw a heat source at the elevator entrance, and the sealed elevator shaft began to thaw.

“That person must have come up and never intended to come down. A desperate act of self-destruction? Ha, if that person had had a little more backbone, perhaps the outcome wouldn't be like this.” His gaze shifted slightly, immediately noticing a heavy protective suit frozen near the elevator entrance. The helmet had rolled to one side, with no signs of damage to the surface or seams. Clearly, this was protective gear that had been deliberately activated, and the mass of crimson substance frozen to dust inside the suit must have been its original owner.

The crimson snow, the empty clothes—everything they represented was instantly understood by the Overlord. He even roughly guessed the identity of the deceased and the reason for their suicide, but there were still some questions that needed to be confirmed.

"Composite carbon fiber, honeycomb multi-layer structure. And some special plastics and specially modified cold-resistant alloys... The production level is not very high, probably around the military level of 2050. The built-in air conditioning and circulation system is interesting, but the battery compartment is empty... It's handled very cleanly, a professional."

The Overlord's fingers gently pressed against the neck connection of the protective suit. The inert gas at the tip of his fingers transformed into hundreds of fine probes upon contact with the surface of the suit. These probes easily analyzed the internal structure and operating system of the protective suit and uploaded the data to the already constructed database. After extracting all valuable information, they quietly restored the data and removed a metal plate containing the data from the chest area of ​​the suit.

The surface of the metal piece bore a name and a number. The name appeared somewhat blurred, as if someone had deliberately erased the character representing the surname. However, this did not hinder the Overlord. With just a glance, he reconstructed the metal piece's original appearance from the distribution of the patterns. After a few more glances, he easily deciphered the coded data, transferred it, and rewrote it.

"Liu Ping, male, born in 2019, formerly a private in the Fourth Guard Regiment directly under the Earth Main Control Room. He later retired and was transferred to the Meilan Underground City, where he serves as a secondary engine maintenance engineer until now." — This information quickly appeared in Ba Wang's mind, and he immediately organized and summarized it, obtaining the conclusion he needed. If nothing unexpected happened, this person before him had a rather complex background. If he were still alive, he would definitely play a significant role in the mission he was carrying out. However… being dead doesn't necessarily mean he's useless.

Many things that living beings can do are not particularly difficult for inanimate objects. And for the Overlord, who is already very close to the limits of the extraordinary and has a considerable understanding of magic and spirit, the word "very" can be completely removed. He wasted no time, and a ritual immediately began.

He plucked a small clump, weighing nearly five grams, from the crimson snowflake, and in return, he built a small grave for the maintenance engineer who had chosen to perish in the cold wind, erecting an ice monument engraved with his name. Although if the team later chose to perform a resurrection ritual, this guy would certainly be part of the resurrection, at least for now, the Overlord intended to give him a grave befitting his status.

What identity? A human identity. As the most likely last person to die on this planet, he was entitled to a tombstone inscribed with his name and a burial plot for his final resting place—and right after the Overlord finished this act of kindness, Chelsea, who was responsible for analyzing the crimson snow during the ceremony, also gave her answer.

[A complete genetic structure has been detected; common parameters such as iris, fingerprint, and voiceprint have been deduced.]

[Permissions are being compiled...]

[Overlord, we should now be able to easily fool most traps or defensive devices that aren't being controlled by advanced AI behind the scenes.]

A reliable voice sounded, and the Overlord nodded in acknowledgment. At that moment, the elevator's defrosting process was complete. He quickly floated into the elevator and physically closed the open doors. A portion of Chelsea then detached from him, carrying some energy, to activate the elevator's independent motor. Then began a rapid descent lasting approximately fifteen seconds.

The underground city was about 500 meters below the surface. With a crisp sound beneath his feet, an insulated exchange door opened on the other side of the elevator. The air temperature quickly rose from -220 degrees Celsius, enough to freeze the air solid, to a maximum of -70 degrees Celsius, barely enough to counteract carbon dioxide. But when he pried open the insulated door, weighing several tons, and actually stepped into the Meilan underground city, the temperature had risen again to around -30 degrees Celsius.

Chelsea deactivated her armor and detached from him, falling to the side and reverting to her original form as a girl wearing rabbit ears. She went straight to the secondary power supply room, and after a few operations, the quiet and dark underground city of Melan once again came to life with lights.

Dim lighting, shadows and light, and the long-dead steel behemoths lie dormant here. Countless empty machine tools are haphazardly placed in the various production units. The living quarters, meant to house the living, are also silent. Even the once-functional assistant robot is gone. Even with light, this underground city seems deeper than the darkest night.

But it is not important.

"It should last about ten minutes. We need to get to the core area and restart the planetary engines here before then to maintain the sunlight and activate some important equipment. Or should we just go and investigate directly, putting the engines aside for now?"

The girl spoke softly, as if the atmosphere here meant nothing to her. Her tone was light and cheerful, but also contained a hint of anticipation for the unknown and a sense of eagerness to try. She suddenly pressed her forehead, and a holographic map was projected in front of her.

"Correction, we can maintain this for fifteen minutes now. I've also just shared the general infrastructure map of the underground city from the data network, as well as some modification records within this affiliated underground city. Approximately thirty units of nanobots are approaching this way, and I've assigned them the task of rebuilding the surveillance system and providing secondary generator power. Therefore, we have much more time."

“It’s not that there’s an abundance, but rather a decrease.” The Overlord shook his head, surveying the brightly lit yet dark and silent underground city before him. His words seemed to echo with an unsettling, low resonance in the empty Meilan underground city. This caused him to raise an eyebrow slightly.

"Now that Patchouli's swarm of nanobots is approaching, our mission will become meaningless within fifteen minutes once they begin to expand. This is a push, Patchouli's test of our mission progress. If we can handle things here before the swarm arrives, she will acknowledge our capabilities while saving the computing power needed to control the nanobots. So we must act quickly."

"Chelsey, devise a nine-minute route that ends at the core area. We need to conduct a preliminary survey of the underground city within those nine minutes and restart the engine at the tenth minute. Now."

His will was immediately satisfied. The next moment, a red line, like a ball of yarn, was projected onto the city's architectural projection before him. Then, just before he could act, a message suddenly reached his ear and stopped him.

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

Seventh single, Anastasia, GET!

Section 5: Lingering Memories

It was a faint voice. A small, weak, almost illusory cry. An ordinary person would probably have taken it as a hallucination, but the Overlord wouldn't... nor would any reincarnator who had unlocked the third-tier genetic lock. He instantly and accurately detected the unusual message and immediately uploaded it to the isolated area of ​​the already deployed mental network.

Overlord: [I've discovered something strange; this is an unresolved sample.]

A few seconds later, he received a reply.

Alice: [Analyzed. This sample exhibits characteristics of an inactive message aggregate. In short, it's the residual thought of living beings residing in that underground city. It poses no threat. I'll send you a thought model; Overlord, you can try to crack it using a third-order gene lock and simulate its frequency. This way, you can directly read the history of the nearby area through the sample... Or should I send an auxiliary robot over?]

BaWang: [No need, I can handle it. No need to change anyone else's schedule.]

He interrupted the communication, turned his head, and saw his own limbs and upper body sitting on a machine, looking at him with their heads tilted. A pair of slender legs wearing stockings were dangling in the air, kicking and twitching, one hand was pressing on the top of the machine, and the other hand was spinning an unopened lollipop.

“The frequency is already tuned, and the connection can be established at any time. I’ve also slightly adjusted the route; we’ll reach the core engine within seven minutes.” Chelsea’s lollipop, which she was spinning, suddenly stopped. “As for which option to choose, that’s up to you. I’m just responsible for making the preparations.”

"...Thank you for your hard work." The Overlord nodded, took a deep breath, and his already robust body suddenly swelled up three times its normal size as if it had been inflated. Visible streams of energy clearly appeared on his body, forming a protective barrier. He then closed his eyes and composed himself.

"Please help me with the link."

The next moment, all his senses began to shift simultaneously. He knew perfectly well that he hadn't left the Meilan Underground City, yet everything he saw upon opening his eyes was rapidly changing. The frozen ground melted and became clean again. The dim underground city instantly brightened, and the stagnant machines began to operate. He seemed to hear the voices of many people talking, and in an instant, this 'seeming' became 'certainty'. One after another, dead people emerged from rooms with only one entrance, and their lives began to unfold in reverse before his eyes.

Then, everything stabilized again. The reversed timeline functioned normally, and a slightly noisy yet vibrant dungeon appeared in his field of vision.

The nameless machine Chelsea was riding on began to rumble and chug. Then she gracefully leaped off the heavy alloy shell. In a flash, she was beside the Overlord. And it was at this moment that the Overlord exhaled the breath he had just inhaled and began to survey this unfamiliar world before him.

—September 5, 2051 AD, 6:00 AM.

The nearest electronic clock displayed a line of numbers, and he had seen the year 2054 in the same place before he went back in time. In other words, what he was seeing now was the scene of Meilan Underground City three years ago—he reached out, and the red snow that had been plucked transformed into a tracking line through some kind of ritual, and then that line pointed to a tall, thin man in his thirties in the crowd.

He was an ordinary Asian man, with average looks and nothing particularly special about his clothes. He blended into the crowd like a grain of sand in the Gobi Desert. Perhaps he could be of some value when necessary, but at least normally, he was an insignificant cog in the machine.

A cacophony of voices filled the air. Asians, Blacks, Whites—people from all over the world—chatted freely in the underground city's main hall, speaking in Chinese or English. Most wore identical clothing, their faces bearing the same uniform melancholy and hopelessness. Some who looked like itinerant vendors pushed carts laden with grilled mushrooms and roasted rat meat, offering bullets as payment.

Paying with guns and ammunition usually only indicates that the official administrative system has completely collapsed. Near the mobile barbecue stall, there's a blatantly openly owned gun shop. Pistols, automatic rifles, protective suits, gleaming infantry knives, and offensive grenades are displayed openly in the shop. Someone even completed a two-gun deal right in front of Overlord and Chelsea, and no one commented on it.

Overlord looked around and, besides the vendors selling kebabs and guns, he saw some juggling performances, people playing mahjong and cards, vendors trading strange powders and alcohol, and some fixed or mobile stalls selling bizarre injections. Each stall had a considerable number of potential or active customers in front of or around it. Further away from these vendors, at the edge of the square, several soldiers encased in exoskeletons stood haphazardly on guard duty, chatting idly while their gazes casually swept across various parts of the market.

Without a doubt, this was an independent underground city that had broken free from the control of the official government. Furthermore, its rulers showed no concern for internal rebellion and allowed armed forces to circulate freely among the people. Clearly, there were irreconcilable hostile forces outside the underground city. Combined with the surface temperature that would reach -220 degrees Celsius three years later, the two people present instantly understood the true situation.

At least three years ago, the political system on this planet collapsed. The various dungeons fought their own battles, while their resource reserves dwindled day by day. In this light, it was only natural that the native civilization of this wandering planet would have been wiped out before the reincarnators arrived.

“How amazing.” Chelsea pursed her lips, floating behind the Overlord like a ghost, seemingly defying Earth’s gravity. “Even though we’re still three years in the future, my sight, hearing, smell, touch…” She stuck out her small, bright red tongue and lightly touched the air. “Even my sense of smell is perfectly restored. It’s as if I’ve traveled back three years. Is this Alice’s trick?”

"Overlord, did you often train in spaces like this before?"

“A few times, but not many,” the Overlord replied, walking straight towards the inconspicuous man in the crowd. He simply passed right through those who tried to stop him. “Moreover, this is very different from Alice’s world of memories. With that mental model, we can at most watch a holographic, free-viewpoint movie. It can’t compare to her ability to interact with everything in her world of memories.”

"Information magic is truly amazing. How did Alice and Patchouli manage to develop such a strange yet powerful system?" The girl pursed her lips, looking puzzled. She mimicked the Overlord's movements, passing through a worker like a shadow, and then even went further, passing through a working power unit.

The Overlord shook his head slightly and did not reply.

Chelsea's question was also his question, and he had tried to verify it long ago. However, the final result was not ideal—he simply couldn't learn the essential parts of the information magic system, even after paying some reward points and participating in side quests to exchange for low- to mid-level wizard enhancements from the main god. In the end, all he had were a few simple spells that were almost identical to ordinary wizard enhancements—fireball, information missile, chain lightning, levitation, and the like—and even then, he initially knew only how to use them but not why they worked.

He tried to analyze it, but he failed. Even now, having reached the third tier, he still failed. He could learn the incantations, rituals, and many secret arts of the spellcasting system of information magic with Alice's tacit approval. But even though he had become a qualified information mage in Alice's eyes, he still couldn't manipulate the information and energy in the atmosphere as freely as Alice did when she first entered the cycle of reincarnation—he couldn't even see those subtle energy changes with his naked eye like she could—and constructing a world of memories was naturally beyond his grasp.

Was he too stupid? No. After unlocking the third stage of his genetic potential, his mental abilities were completely liberated. He even had the leisure to earn twenty-three doctoral degrees in various disciplines, ranging from applied physics to genetic engineering, under an alias, even in the world of Resident Evil. And the actual learning process that Kampavsky used was only a mere three days.

However, he still couldn't grasp the true essence of information magic. He also knew that even now, having unlocked the third-tier gene lock and strengthened his AA-grade top-tier werewolf bloodline, even with Chelsea's help, he'd only be a 50/50 match against Alice from the later stages of Legend of the Condor Heroes. And if he encountered Alice who had resurrected him—then perhaps ending his own life would be a slightly more dignified way to die.

Very headache.

It wasn't just him who was troubled; Alice Margot Lloyd, who had been grooming him as a potential combatant since his resurrection, was also facing a headache. Even before the world of Resident Evil unfolded, she had to admit that the Overlord's level in information magic was at best only comparable to the average level of those dead wizards in the Gensokyo world who were ruined by the Apocalypse—in his hands, the enhancement of a formal wizard was not much different from the enhancement of a high-level werewolf.

If there are little difference, then it is mediocrity.

Since mediocrity is the only option, there's no need to continue down this path.

Thus, during the trials of the biohazard crisis, Alice granted Overlord the freedom to act independently and arrange enhancement plans at will. It was from that moment that Overlord rediscovered its sense of belonging within this team.

It wasn't a good ending, but for the Overlord, it wasn't necessarily bad either. Alice may not have gained an apprentice to inherit her path, but the Central Continent team gained a valuable core member. And after the Resident Evil trial world ended, this core member had even greater potential.

—I wonder if this potential can be transformed into actual power.

The image of the overlord flashed through his mind. Once he had cleared away all these distracting thoughts, the ordinary man named Liu Ping was now just a step away. He watched this man, presumably an engineer, chatting idly with his colleague about the underground city's fuel reserves. And within seconds, he veered the conversation to an entirely unrelated topic.

He seems like an ordinary person, and doesn't seem to have any special value.

"Is there something wrong with this person? Should I conduct a detailed analysis of him and try to intervene in these records?" Chelsea asked considerately, floating to the top of the engineer, her finger pointing at the poor fellow's head. A faint electric light flickered at her fingertips, as if she might strike the skull of someone who had been cursed for eight lifetimes at any moment.

“That’s possible, but there’s no need to interfere.” Overlord shook his head. “Since that message records an event from three years ago, it means that something important and far-reaching happened here three years ago, so much so that it would leave behind lingering thoughts even after the world was destroyed. I chose this person as the insertion point because he survived to the end, so we only need to follow his perspective to have a high probability of obtaining information that is useful to us.”

He followed the engineer named Liu Ping, then gestured for his own body to follow as well, remaining alert to their surroundings. The conversation between the engineer and his colleague ended a short time later due to some inappropriate rhetoric. He then parted ways with his colleagues and went alone to a less busy stall to buy something.

He seemed to want to buy a voodoo doll.

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

This layout is based on the underground station layout of the Ukrainian Metro series. After some thought, it seems that if underground settlements lost government control, they would most likely become like those in the Metro series. However, since there are no rail connections and no threat of mutant beasts, the biggest enemies would usually come from other settlements on the surface.

And Metro is a really fun game, whether it's Dawn, 2033, or Exodus, they're all pretty good. I even started a Metro project on a forum before... but unfortunately, I abandoned it _(:з」∠)_

Section 6: History and Voodoo Dolls