Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

"The voodoo doll is crudely made and of low quality. The materials and concept are appalling. It is a piece of garbage that is not even worthy of being called an inferior product, made by an outsider who knows nothing about curses."

On the far side of the Earth, Alice manipulated gravity to slowly pull a base buried deep underground from beneath the permafrost. Her gaze easily pierced through the composite material shell several kilometers thick, taking in the entire internal structure of this base, which covered more than three hundred kilometers.

Structure, analysis complete.

From the remaining information on the bricks, stones, and iron blocks, she gradually pieced together the history of the base.

This is an underground base with over fifty years of history. It was built during the Brake Era—an era that stopped the Earth's rotation, reshaped the oceans, and caused them to engulf most of the continents—by a group of wealthy individuals who refused to enter the underground city. They were dissidents of the World Government at the time, or rather, the 'tenth dissident.' Even after the Brake Era ended, these dissidents who survived in this underground base thanks to its geothermal network and giant reactors did not rejoin the World Government.

Because they were dissidents, belonging to a third faction that did not belong to either the Wandering Earth faction or the Spaceship faction. While the former two firmly believed that the sun was about to explode and the end of the world was imminent, they scoffed at the conclusions calculated by the world's best astronomers—they did not believe in the end of the world, and they thought the sun's explosion was just a simple lie.

Ah…that’s right. They were a group of beneficiaries from the era before the World Government was established, when various great powers each ruled their own territories. They were an aggregation of ancient families, hidden conglomerates, and their representatives. When the World Government became the World Government, these people, along with their power, were swept out by the newly established authoritarian institution—after all, the transfer of power is always accompanied by personnel changes. Just as 3.5 billion people were abandoned during the Brake Era, they were precisely the group that got neither the spoils nor the benefits when the World Government was established.

Therefore, they firmly believed in their ideals, and their supporters—the abandoned civilians they sheltered and protected during the era of the brakes—also firmly believed that the end of the world was a lie. Because the former were deprived of political power and the latter were deprived of the right to live, no matter how much evidence the scientists presented or how detailed their reasoning, they remained united and steadfast in their beliefs.

Therefore, from the moment Earth set sail, this planet was left with an ever-present, inexhaustible rebel force. They launched attacks time and again, only to be purged, yet a lingering, unquenchable tension remained. Even when the World Government deliberately sent a meteorite to strike the far side of Earth as it crossed the asteroid belt, it failed to completely eradicate them, because these dissidents also included top-tier technological talent, and they had made ample preparations for the asteroid's approach.

Alice traversed the entire secret base—covering over 300 miles, isolated from the sun, and essentially a modern-day Epang Palace—in ten seconds. She retrieved vast and detailed data from various hidden locations and compared it with the official world history being continuously uploaded to the planetary main control engine by Patchouli into the mental network. A bizarre yet plausible historical timeline was quickly pieced together, and she then meticulously corrected the details.

The rebels were ultimately no match for the World Government, but they eventually triumphed over it.

Following the Jupiter Gravity Well event, with the destruction of the Navigator space station and the numerous damages caused by the Jupiter impact, Earth had to slow down after escaping Jupiter's gravitational pull, gliding at a constant speed through space while repairing the damaged infrastructure and planetary engines. This gave the rebels an opportunity to operate. After all, while the World Government, located on Earth's sides, suffered heavy losses due to the Jupiter impact, the rebels, hiding at the far side of Earth and having even weathered the asteroid belt, suffered relatively little damage.

So the rebels seized this opportunity. Under the command of their leader at the time—a woman named Ye Wenjie—the rebels did not launch a direct attack during the post-disaster reconstruction. Instead, they dispersed their loyal core members and infiltrated the reconstruction workers. With an absolutely fanatical work ethic, they occupied many important mid-level positions in the underground city over several years.

Ah…yes, that’s exactly it. They were united by a shared belief, and they were unwavering in the correctness of their ideals. After decades of confrontation, the alliance formed by the defeated vested interests had long since evolved into a resilient force akin to a religion. They didn’t believe in God or the government, but they genuinely believed they were saving the world and fighting against the evil forces that were deceiving the masses. And when they channeled this fanaticism into the Earth government’s post-disaster reconstruction projects, their rise to power was a natural consequence.

Ye Wenjie was a shrewd leader. Instead of promoting her subordinates to higher positions, she kept them in the middle and lower ranks, serving as exemplars and role models for national salvation while simultaneously expanding her influence among the uninformed masses. Their movements were slow but cautious. In less than a few years, this group of fanatical rebels became renowned as 'righteous elder brothers' and 'reliable elder sisters' within various rescue teams. They were incorruptible, refused bribes, worked diligently, and, having gained trust, secretly spread the message that the sun explosion was a lie throughout the underground city in various ways.

So, on a day when the appointed time was ripe, the rebels launched a full-scale, deadly attack on the World Government. Unlike previous acts of terrorism, Ye Wenjie had her subordinates incite the residents of an underground city to organize themselves and question the World Government. Then, while the World Government attempted to suppress the riot, she mobilized the remaining rebel forces hidden within the government army, changing the order from 'suppression' to 'annihilation'.

Clearly, the government wasn't stupid. When news of the pacification of an underground city spread, the World Government immediately launched an internal investigation, targeting the rebel group led by Ye Wenjie. However, Ye Wenjie had anticipated this—years before any of her operations began, she had preemptively revealed her identity as the rebel leader, letting the whole world know. Then, before the government could issue a clarification, she delivered a passionate speech on the solar fraud theory via global communications, culminating in a suicide pact with a group of equally exposed high-ranking rebels.

She died, but the plans she laid out before her death executed flawlessly. The Gravity Well incident had already severely damaged the government's authority, and the fact that the underground cities had been wiped out further diminished their trust. And when the rebel leader and other high-ranking officials, whose identities were known to all, self-destructed first, the World Government's belated efforts to clarify the situation were naturally largely ineffective—perhaps given time, they could have successfully reversed everything. But unfortunately, Ye Wenjie's plan before her death didn't give them any time to struggle.

Those hidden among the ignorant masses unleashed their influence, successfully instigating the largest rebellion in history at a time when the World Government's credibility was at its weakest. The sparks ignited by tens of thousands of rebel leaders set fire to the plains formed by hundreds of millions of ignorant people. The resulting fire ultimately destroyed everything the World Government owned.

The World Government lost the hearts and minds of its people—even though they possessed the truth, they still lost the hearts and minds of their people. And along with this loss of hearts and minds, years of arduous reconstruction had rendered their army incapable of its former fighting strength and will to fight. Thus, they were defeated, and the true rebels seized control of the engine and banished all government officials and the top scholars who served them to the snowy plains.

The rebels succeeded. They replaced the World Government and became the new rulers.

But the rebels failed because the sun actually exploded right in front of them.

They were strong because of their beliefs, and they were also weak because of their beliefs. When the truth they believed in revealed that everything was false, these poor, hateful, and pathetic creatures collapsed in an instant. The world's first and second rulers perished on the same day, leaving billions of ignorant people lost and directionless.

This is the end.

But after it all ended, another story awaited this planet. The story of a woman named 'Cheng Xin', who came from an unknown place but possessed an innate, powerful charisma.

“I really didn’t expect these two worldviews to merge in this way. But to encounter those two troublemakers, Ye Wenjie and Cheng Xin, even if the solar explosion makes it unlikely to attract the Trisolarans’ attention… the native civilization of this planet is truly pathetic.” Alice gently rubbed her forehead, her form appearing inside the desolate base as she read history, strolling casually. The base had long been abandoned due to the cooling, and the last person she found to have died had passed away three years ago. When she arrived at the last dead body, she found a voodoo doll covered in needles next to the corpse.

A lowly curse... no, a mere artifact. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't even warrant Alice's attention. Yet now, the note on the back of the voodoo doll, with the words 'Cheng Xin' written in red ink, made her raise an eyebrow slightly.

It's only natural that Cheng Xin would be disliked. Before arriving, Alice had read the entire Three-Body Problem series. Although the third chapter, which dealt with the cosmic war, was mostly glossed over, she was well aware of just how hateful and detestable Cheng Xin was. Perhaps from another perspective, she could offer some excuses, but that's unimportant, because Alice wasn't there to vindicate or vindicate a character. She noticed the name because Cheng Xin was an important historical figure after the World Government and the rebels had all perished.

She was chosen. Though the rebels' faith had crumbled, the power they now held became their motivation to live. Undoubtedly, those who truly believed they were saving the world immediately opened their protective suits and rushed into the snowfield to commit suicide as atonement the moment the sun exploded. Ye Wenjie's scheme was exposed by those who didn't really want to die, and thus, all the sins seemed to have found a scapegoat.

The World Government members who had frozen to death were brought back, and the people built graves and erected monuments for them. Then, the rebel leaders who had revealed their identities were cast into kneeling statues and placed before the graves of the dead. Even so, the regime that ruled the planet afterward was still a rebel force, because someone always had to step in and take charge. After venting their pent-up anger on the chosen culprits, the people had to move on. After all, no matter how much these 'foolish majority' denied it, they were still among the traitors.

Since they're all traitors, there's no need to be overly meticulous. After some procrastination, a scapegoat-style leader was chosen as a transitional figure. During his term, he accomplished nothing, simply continuing all the previous world government's policies and oscillating between feigning illness and genuine illness, giving everyone a buffer period and allowing everyone to save face.

And when that betrayal was forgotten by most people… or rather, pretended to be forgotten, the ruler naturally abdicated due to illness. In his place, while the predecessor was idle and official and unofficial organizations across the country did nothing but try to maintain order, a woman named Cheng Xin rose from obscurity and gained immense popularity in a very short time.

She seemed to possess an innate charisma, as if born to be a leader. A few casual words were enough to gain someone's trust, a few simple gestures or a smile were enough to make her the center of any circle. Chaotic crowds returned to order with her arrival, and bandits and private militias, born of chaos, laid down their missiles and rifles at her words. She was like a goddess in the mortal world; wherever she went, peace followed.

This may be the first time in human history that military might has been defeated by a pretty face. And once she naturally became the ruler, no one expressed any dissatisfaction with her policies—at least not initially.

And so, she ruled the world for over a decade. Then, after skillfully extinguishing the last glimmer of hope for Earth's survival, she took the world's last and only ark and set sail for the stars, leaving behind a desolate, icy wasteland for billions of abandoned souls.

Just as she did in the original Three-Body Problem story, she left with only one hope, leaving behind only despair and death. Those who betrayed her were betrayed by her, and all the previous praise and love for her turned into curses and insults.

Alice carefully examined the voodoo doll in her hands. In the history she had read, this voodoo doll had been made by an ordinary craftsman. Because at that time, items used to curse Cheng Xin were among the most sought-after commodities in the world. The craftsman might have harbored some resentment when making it, but that resentment would certainly not have been channeled into an ordinary commodity.

"It's just an ordinary doll, nothing to worry about," Alice thought to herself. But she also knew perfectly well that supernatural beings couldn't possibly be hallucinating. Since she had noticed this doll, it meant it must have some hidden, significant meaning—she frowned, pondering whether to continue investigating any inconsistencies in the voodoo doll or to first check other locations in the base. Suddenly, her mental communication device rang.

"Guys, I've made a discovery." Overlord's slightly weary voice rang out in the mental network. "I found a voodoo doll. There seems to be something wrong with this thing..."

"Perhaps there are other secrets behind the destruction of the native civilization on this planet."

Chapter Seven: A Sudden Change, A Trap

A few minutes later, in the underground city attached to Meilan.

As the Overlord carried a tattered voodoo doll to the center of the dungeon, and Chelsea, accompanying him, went to light up the planetary engine's power unit, the extraordinary beings in the group also turned their gazes in his direction.

A swarm of silvery-white nanobots descended from the ceiling, revealing Patchouli's form.

A phantom shadow stretched out from the shadows, revealing Zhao Yingkong's figure.

Space twisted and folded, and some dust and iron filings floated up and formed the shape of Zhao Zhuikong.

A nearby display screen flickered, and a projection-mode Alice emerged from the broken light screen.

Finally, a drop of blood, enveloped in energy, hurtled through the air at approximately forty times the speed of sound. Before crashing through the protective shell of the attached underground city, it dissipated its kinetic energy and burrowed through a crack in the ground, slipping into the underground city through a ventilation shaft. Then, in front of a group of avatars, it transformed into a ten-centimeter-tall chibi version of Zheng Zha.

"Good, everyone's here." Except for Xilin, who had already flown to an unknown location in outer space and was temporarily unreachable, the other members of the Central Continent team were also directly monitoring this area through mental links. Everyone looked at Overlord, waiting for him to reveal his discoveries and findings.

"I used the analytical method Alice provided to access a historical record from three years ago." The Overlord didn't keep them in suspense, stating his discovery directly. "Then I discovered that the last person to die in this underground city bought a voodoo doll that cursed Cheng Xin three years ago. And then..."

With a clang, the engine started, and the entire underground city's power system switched. A light even brighter than when the backup power was activated enveloped the platform in the city center. Zhao Yingkong's shadow avatar trembled slightly, then quickly recovered with a subtle adjustment—no one interrupted; everyone watched him quietly, waiting for him to continue.

“…I saw this voodoo doll kill everyone in the dungeon after the person who bought it fell asleep.” He frowned, seemingly unsure of himself as he tried to organize his thoughts. “Perhaps that’s not entirely accurate…the specifics are a bit complicated, but I think it did kill everyone…or do something to the people here.”

"Are you sure?" Patchouli's avatar raised her hand, her delicate fingertips turning silvery-white upon touching the air and transforming into numerous intricate instruments of varying sizes. Strange, crystalline patterns appeared in her eyes, and a tangible gaze, composed of a combination of rays and visible light, swept across the surroundings, vaguely revealing many blurry human figures throughout the hall.

“Many people have died here, and their causes and times of death are all different.” Patchouli’s gaze lingered on the blurry human figures one by one. “Their records before their deaths are clearly visible to me; I can even read their last thoughts—the most frequent being ‘despair,’ followed by ‘cold’ and ‘loneliness.’ If you move the timeline forward, there are indeed a few murders. But if everyone in the entire dungeon were wiped out, then such a thing would definitely exist in the records. Perhaps, Overlord, you actually…”

“Patch,” Alice said softly, glancing at her companion with a hint of confusion.

Patchouli immediately shut her mouth—as if she had suddenly realized something was happening to her. The words she was about to say remained stuck in her throat.

"I'm sorry." Patchouli, in her avatar form, made a breathing gesture. "The aftereffects of unlocking the fourth stage of the gene lock suddenly flared up. My emotions are a little unstable right now, and my thought process is somewhat skewed—Overlord, what I just said to you was a fallacy, don't take it to heart."

The Overlord smiled but didn't answer. He simply raised the voodoo doll in his hand and made a gesture of offering it. "Hearing is believing, seeing is believing. Although I have half Russian blood, I've always thought this Chinese proverb makes a lot of sense—at least in most cases. What I can see through calculations, you can certainly see too. So, let's verify it."

Before the words were even finished, the ten-centimeter-tall chibi version of Zheng Zha jumped up, trying to grab the voodoo doll. But before he could, Alice's physical projection grabbed him by the back of his collar and put him aside, then took the doll from Ba Wang's hands.

“Patch and I are the experts in this area, but Patty isn’t feeling well right now, so I’ll do it,” Alice said. Ignoring the protests of the chibi version of Zheng Zha, she began her actions on her own. As she spoke, her true form, located at the rebel base on the far side of Earth, was also examining another voodoo doll in her hand. Thus, she simultaneously imbued the two dolls, which were completely different in size and craftsmanship, with her computational power and conducted a comprehensive observation. The next moment, her field of vision was immediately divided into two completely different parts.

She saw a scene from three years ago in the Meilan Underground City, where an engineer named Liu Ping bought an ordinary-looking cursed doll from a vendor. She watched him inject the doll with needles, watched him gnash his teeth at the scarlet characters for 'Cheng Xin'. She watched him return to his private lounge, toss the voodoo doll onto his bed, and fall asleep. Then… she saw the voodoo doll wake up after Liu Ping had fallen asleep.

Everything unfolded exactly as the Overlord had predicted. While Liu Ping slept, the voodoo doll killed everyone in the dungeon. Its method was direct and eerie; like a black bird, it silently floated up from beside the bed, pushed open the door, drifted into the corridor, and the people it encountered collapsed upon seeing it, as if some invisible force had been ripped from their bodies. The entire process was clean and efficient, without the slightest hesitation.

It took it about fifteen minutes to circle the entire dungeon, and everyone in the dungeon died within those fifteen minutes... no, it's hard to say whether that counts as death. Because their bodies were still alive after encountering the doll. It's just that something invisible but important was taken away and transferred somewhere else.

She didn't know what that 'thing' was. Although she had a general idea, the evidence was still insufficient to confirm it completely. Just as she was about to pull herself back to reality and look for more evidence, the flying doll flew back to Liu Ping's bedside, then collapsed, showing no further signs of abnormality.

When Liu Ping awoke, the once desolate underground city returned to its original state. Those who had been drained of something seemed oblivious as they rose and resumed their previous routines. It was as if nothing had happened, and Liu Ping, at the center of the vortex, noticed nothing amiss.

Alice blinked. The record she had glimpsed on this side of the avatar was undoubtedly a tremendous gain. However, when her true self on the other side of the Earth simultaneously read through another voodoo doll, she found nothing inside—no, she should say, she found absolutely nothing!

The voodoo doll on the far side of the Earth was just an ordinary voodoo doll. From its creation until the death of its last owner, it underwent no supernatural changes. It didn't move, it didn't float on its own, and it ended its life as a mere handicraft that didn't even qualify as a low-grade curse artifact. Even when Alice dissected every single atom inside the doll, she found nothing unusual.

Perhaps this really is just an ordinary voodoo doll—Alice thought to herself.

However, the next moment, her main body on the other side of the earth raised her foot and stomped down. With a shockwave, all 6,331 voodoo dolls with Cheng Xin's name on them, as well as other paintings and ornaments with Cheng Xin's face or name, were simultaneously blasted out from every corner of the rebel base by the impact and flew right in front of her!

Analysis begins.

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

Five minutes later, Alice's physical projection, located in the underground city affiliated with Meilan, expressionlessly removed her hand from the voodoo doll. Then she took a soft breath.

“What the Overlord said is true. This voodoo doll does indeed contain records of what it did to everyone in this dungeon.” She carefully chose her words, organizing them appropriately. “I can’t determine whether it was murder or not yet, because I need to do some verification first…”

She looked at Zhao Yingkong, threw a ball of energy at him, and asked.

"This is a spell... Please activate the ability of the 'Houtu' position on your body. I... want to see how many surviving souls there are in this world."

Her request was immediately granted. Then, a few dozen seconds later, Zhao Yingkong gave her some very bad news. There were fewer than a thousand observable souls on this planet. And without exception, these souls were among the last to die in the past few weeks. Furthermore, they were completely unaware of the strange events occurring on this planet.

No one knew the voodoo dolls would come to life, no one knew those dolls would drain the souls of the living. Alice slowly exhaled, and as the faces of the others turned grim, she shared all the information she had gathered with everyone present.

“In my observation, this voodoo doll absorbed the souls of everyone in this base three years ago. Then, during those three years, the mortals in this base died ‘naturally’ for various reasons, without showing any abnormalities in the process of dying.”

"However, this seems to be an isolated case. Because I didn't find any similar phenomena in any other areas besides this base—I discovered a rebel base on the far side of the earth, and none of the voodoo dolls or cursed objects related to Cheng Xin showed any similar reaction. And in other places..."

Alice turned her head and glanced at Patchouli.

“The nanobot swarm has taken control of 344 planetary engines and their associated underground cities,” Patchouli replied immediately. “I just used some computing power to investigate. Again, there were no similar phenomena. Based on the conclusions we can draw so far, only this voodoo doll in this base has shown an anomaly, while other areas are completely unaffected.”

“But the souls of mortals on this planet have indeed disappeared,” Zhao Yingkong continued. “I just conducted a second investigation, and it’s not just the souls of mortals that have disappeared. Apart from their souls, the souls of livestock, birds, and all the intelligent souls on this planet capable of giving rise to civilization have also almost completely vanished. The only ones left are those who died in the last few weeks. And there’s nothing unusual about them.”

With a deafening boom, Zheng Zha's main body, propelled by the exhaust plumes of the planetary engine, crashed into the platform. He casually merged the ten-centimeter-tall chibi version of himself into his body. His gaze swept over the others one by one. "Could it be that the person who touched the voodoo doll is the problem? Examine the observable souls and find out if they touched any voodoo dolls or other cursed items in their previous lives. Perhaps we can find some clues."

His gaze finally settled on Alice's avatar.

"And Margot Lloyd. You should be quite skilled in cursed domains, didn't you notice anything unusual?"

“I’m sorry, no.” Alice shook her head, somewhat puzzled, as both her main body and avatar examined the two different voodoo dolls. “I didn’t sense anything unusual about this voodoo doll. Whether it’s this voodoo doll with the record of resurrection, or any other handcrafted enchanted objects… to me they all seem no different from ordinary plush toys. There’s no mechanism for absorbing souls, no autonomous spells or AI, and the internal structure doesn’t constitute any energy cycle. I can’t even track where those souls went…”

“Those souls are fine.” Chu Xuan’s voice suddenly came from an activated speaker. “The problem lies with the objects of their curses. Even if Cheng Xin is unpopular, her cursed dolls shouldn’t be scattered all over the world—she has a problem, a serious problem. And as far as I know, she seems to have left Earth several years ago in a spaceship, but because the satellite system and fleet were destroyed back in the Jupiter era, no one on Earth knows her whereabouts?”

His words abruptly stopped. At that moment, Zhao Zhuikong's avatar, who had been observing and idly observing, suddenly contorted. A ferocious expression appeared on his previously calm face.

“Cirin…” he forced out a line of words through clenched teeth. “She hasn’t contacted me since she went into space!”

Section 8. The Moon?

Meanwhile, sometime in space, about six light-minutes away from Earth, Celine carefully tore through a spatial structure exhibiting unusual interference and completed her teleportation. The moment the teleportation ended, she took out a small cell phone, somewhat like a PHS phone, and sent a text message. She received a reply after silently counting down the seconds.

Sirin: [I traced the teleportation trails to their destination. As I told you before, some energy entities were transported to outer space several months ago using some kind of teleportation method. Their current location should be approximately six light-minutes above the plane of the solar system. The specific spatial coordinates are *＃%*%. I am now conducting the next phase of my investigation.]

Zhao Zhuikong: [Be careful, don't cause trouble.]

She gently pressed her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. Good, this was indeed Zhao Zhuikong's tone, and the display on the communication screen was normal. Everything was proceeding as she had predicted without any problems.

Then... the gaze shifts.

This is outer space, and anyone with a modicum of common sense knows that the nine planets of our solar system are all located within the ecliptic plane, with a deviation of no more than twenty degrees. Below the ecliptic plane lies Proxima Centauri, the final destination of the Wandering Earth, located 4.3 light-years from our solar system. Above the ecliptic plane lies a vast expanse of space.

The so-called cosmic wilderness refers to a place where there is nothing. It is vast and empty, with the nearest observable galaxy nearly a hundred light-years away. After all, while the solar system is a flat plane, the Milky Way, which carries the solar system, is also a flat system resembling a freshly fried egg. The solar system is located in the relatively remote weak region of the third spiral arm, and directly above this weak region lies an even more vast and pure void.

Perhaps there is dark matter there, perhaps not. Perhaps there is civilization there, perhaps not. Sirin's spatial location and her abilities dictate that all she can see is a celestial system with a faint star and a vast, expansive wilderness. Standing here, the sun seems to be beneath her feet—in fact, even at a distance of six light-minutes, she can barely clearly observe the wandering Earth between Jupiter and Saturn. And obviously, living or inanimate objects located on Earth would also find it difficult to accurately pinpoint her location in this region of space.