Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

“And as you just said, a mere shoddy No. 4 Middle School is nothing—you should go and prepare for the meeting now,” she said, gesturing to end the conversation.

Section 20: Traders

The meeting itself was unremarkable. The entire process consisted of Zheng Zha, as the supreme leader, giving a few opening remarks and distributing some shareable data to the participating scholars. The scholars would then learn of the Trisolaran civilization's existence and understand Earth's irreconcilable conflict with it. Following this, a research institution, authorized by the World Government to freely access the vast majority of the planet's resources, would be established and put into operation with Chu Xuan as its head.

The meeting's content was unremarkable, and Zheng Zha wasn't one to read from a prepared script. The meeting itself was largely meaningless, more of a notification than a formal meeting. Zheng Zha's participation merely served to make the research institution public and legitimate; the actual implementation would depend on Chu Xuan's methods.

Could Chu Xuan possibly fail at this? Obviously not. And since he can do it easily, and he's also interested in doing it, there's no need for the other reincarnators to bother him.

Alice withdrew most of her attention from the meeting, leaving less than one ten-thousandth of the computational workload to focus on the meeting venue and the surrounding area. In doing so, she also diverted a small portion of her will from the massive data processing and activated a temporary avatar within the Black Moon.

Ah, yes, she is a transcendent being. Her computational power is sufficient to maintain the operation of society on the planet while simultaneously managing numerous public and private scientific research projects, and she could easily continue this process for thousands of years without sleep. But this does not mean she is immune to fatigue—her body may not, but her mind is still lacking.

"After all, I haven't overcome my inner demons yet... or as Chang'e would say, I haven't been able to bring my mind to an ideal state."

Her avatar rose from a stasis pod, stretched her limbs slightly, and the long-lost sense of touch returned as she felt grounded and grasped objects—because she didn't intend to use this body for combat, she was merely using a biomimetic vessel not much different from an ordinary flesh-and-blood body. As long as she didn't unlock the genetic potential of this body, its stats wouldn't be much stronger than those of a genuine, frail young girl.

The feeling of being ordinary... well, just the theoretical feeling of being ordinary. For her, diverting her computational power to control this body was not much different from remotely controlling a puppet while sitting in front of a computer screen. She wouldn't become stronger because of it, nor would she become weaker. The so-called mortal sensations were merely processed information obtained after forcibly blocking most of her higher senses. However, even so, she knew that with a single thought, everything would return to normal.

Once you become a transcendent being, the difficulty of falling from this level is just as high as the difficulty of climbing up. And once the mind begins to transform, there is basically no possibility of returning to the past—Alice gently moved her fingers, then carefully jumped and ran with her feet off the ground, self-deceivingly satisfied with her body's reaction that there was no way she could possibly experience any discomfort, and then casually pushed open the door and went to the outside of the stasis chamber placement area.

This is Black Moon, the gravitational balancing mechanism of the Wandering Star, the area where space observation components and numerous cutting-edge experimental devices are housed and used. And naturally, no one else but Alice would be here.

There were no people, no animals, no plants, but the entire Black Moon contained wide corridors and constructed cities that people could walk through. Alice planned to gradually transfer control of the entire Black Moon to the wise and elite of Earth's civilization over the next ten to fifteen years. She would leave only the publicly known highest authority and a few hidden backdoors as a precaution—but that was something for later; at least for now, there could be no one here.

The ritual of reincarnation has its limits. While reincarnators may have the ability to create history from nothing, they merely set the parameters at the beginning and then artificially modify them during the process. The memories and knowledge possessed by humankind depend on the natural outcomes of historical evolution, not on the wisdom and heart of every mortal being held in the hands of reincarnators.

In other words, she could only apply her knowledge to the evolving history. How many mortals could truly grasp it depended on the course of history and the inherent qualities of those souls. And judging from the earliest results, the completion of this project could only be described as 'not unsatisfactory'.

—Double negation, an ambiguous term.

After the mortals and wise men on Earth completed the reshaping of this entire world, they were able to analyze some of the rewritten Cybertronian technology. They had a thorough understanding of some of it, but there was still another huge part, like an iceberg beneath the sea, that they had not yet mastered. In terms of practical application, it might be much better than the Wandering Earth worldview, but it was not much stronger than the Earth civilization in the late 21st century in the Three-Body worldview.

To simplify this conclusion, it means that this civilization simply hasn't been able to naturally evolve, in the course of history, to produce even a single engineer capable of modulating or maintaining the Star Trek system within the Black Moon. Even the most intelligent among them currently possess only enough knowledge to perform menial tasks here.

Does Alice need handymen? No. Does the Cruiser Star need handymen? Perhaps. The end result is that all the capable intellectuals on Earth are thrown into Chu Xuan's hands. And once his team achieves some results under his leadership, some elite members will likely emerge, qualified to serve as engineers rather than mere laborers on Black Moon.

"Perhaps I overestimated those wise men, perhaps I had too many expectations or too much fear of them." Alice strolled through the vast, constructed city, watching the numerous gray nano-streams responsible for daily maintenance drifting across the streets. Despite being a futuristic metropolis, it felt as gloomy as a ghostly death zone—she frowned, and with a casual wave of her hand, the surface of a large, smooth, mirror-like building displayed a live broadcast of the World Conference, currently in the final stages of announcing the list of successful candidates.

Unsurprisingly, she saw Luo Ji, the original protagonist of The Three-Body Problem, with a shocked and incredulous expression on his face on the screen—clearly, he was also on Chu Xuan's list of selected talents. After all, he was not only the former protagonist but also a truly talented and brilliant scholar. And perhaps he could create new miracles in this new era.

Maybe yes, maybe no.

Alice was uncertain, and in her uncertainty, she also pondered whether her strategy was flawed—ah, yes, these heroes and outstanding figures who have made their mark on history certainly each had their own unique strengths, and some of them were even unmatched in their time—but were these ancient people necessarily superior to modern people? Could they repeat what the Out of Control Apocalypse had done?

Alice wasn't sure, but she felt the answer was probably no. The reason the Out of Control Apocalypse was able to elevate civilization to a level possessing multiple superhuman strengths within a few centuries was because, within the system of information magic, knowledge was both power and a real power capable of directly interfering with reality. But this world... was not like that.

Even if the world were restructured, Archimedes would still be a small old man who could be killed by a Roman soldier with a single blow. Knowledge can guide power, but it cannot be directly converted into power. This obstacle will undoubtedly make the leap in Earth's technological level less than satisfactory.

After all, a technological explosion requires certain prerequisites. First, there needs to be a massive accumulation of existing knowledge, where quantitative change leads to qualitative change. Second, there needs to be the direct intervention of external knowledge systems, where complementary strengths and weaknesses create a chemical reaction. As things stand, the rewritten Cybertronian knowledge hasn't broken free from the framework of existing knowledge systems in this universe, making the possibility of triggering a superhuman leap that could lead to a civilizational explosion extremely slim.

However, information systems are a different matter.

Should I open this power to them? So that the wisdom of these sages can be transformed into real power?

The girl's fingers twitched gently. She had repeated the same thoughts countless times during the previous world reconstruction period, and naturally, she could not achieve any results this time either.

In the past, I would have undoubtedly chosen to pass on this knowledge without hesitation. Because, ensuring my own safety, passing on the knowledge of information magic was my duty. But now… is there any point in doing so?

“This is meaningful.” A voice suddenly appeared beside Alice, and then the voice instantly transformed into a human form. “I don’t mind information magic spreading in this world. They can’t learn it anyway. Even if they try their best, they will only get a little bit of insignificant stuff in the end—watching mortals despair because of their stupidity is one of my few pleasures, so you may as well do it.”

“Chang’e.” Alice frowned slightly. The screen in her field of vision went out—Luo Ji had chosen to abstain as in the original story, but this time he was ruthlessly suppressed—and a scholarly woman dressed in an elegant office lady outfit was reflected on the smooth wall. Even with just a casual glance, she could clearly sense the charm that was a mixture of intellect and beauty.

"Why aren't you staying in the stands? What are you doing here?"

"Correction: I am Cheng Xin now, not Chang'e. This is very important, don't get it wrong. I am now a senior researcher in the aerospace field at Xinghuan Group. It is perfectly reasonable for me to appear in the Black Moon, which represents the pinnacle of Earth's aerospace technology."

"...Anyway, I can't control you. Go wherever you want. But this is still my territory, and since you just mentioned that the civilization of this world can't learn information magic... then perhaps you've already made a decision and plan to use this message as the ticket for 'Cheng Xin' to appear here at this point in time?"

"I thought you'd beat around the bush a bit, but I didn't expect you to be so direct?"

“Well, that’s fine then.” Cheng Xin reached out and conjured a slightly blooming datura flower from thin air. She held it to her nose and sniffed it gently, then casually tossed it aside. The moment the flower touched the steel ground, it changed the texture of the ground. Soil, grass, and flowers replaced the steel roadbed, and in the blink of an eye, it rapidly spread into the distance.

Green belts appeared within the steel-constructed city, quickly extending to its outer edges and blending seamlessly with its original structure, as if the steel city had planned its urban greenery from the very beginning. The air became fresher, the light softer, and the faint sounds of birdsong and insect chirps drifted by—Alice's gaze shifted, and she indeed saw, in the green belt, naturally born birds.

The nanite swarm responsible for maintaining the city writhed in the air, ignoring the instructions that the gray streams, which were supposed to have eroded and destroyed the green belts as soon as they appeared. However, when Alice retrieved and verified their source code, she discovered that, in the nanite swarm's judgment, the entire constructed city was supposed to look exactly like this!

"...What are you trying to say?"

“I don’t want to express anything,” Cheng Xin replied with a smile. “I will naturally do what I want to do. I will naturally answer the questions I want to answer. Because I can do it, I will do it. I wanted to come here, so I came, and I don’t think there is any need to answer your questions.”

"Perhaps you don't know the answer either." Alice glanced at Cheng Xin, knowing that there was no need for her to be sharp or humble at this moment. It was meaningless and worthless. If Chang'e wanted to start a war, the battle was already over; and if Chang'e didn't want to start a war, then saying or doing anything was ultimately harmless.

Then, the next moment, she found herself on Earth.

Or to be more precise, it was on the observation deck of the World Government's meeting place, on the Earth's central axis. He was currently on the edge of the observation deck's railing, while everyone below, including Zheng Zha and Chu Xuan in the center of the meeting hall, was completely unaware of this teleportation.

“One secret for another,” Cheng Xin said with a smile. “Tell me about that man named Chu Xuan.”

"Then I will tell you the secret hidden in the magic of information."

Chapter Twenty-One: The Deceitful One

"If you want to know something, just look for yourself. Why waste your time coming here?"

“I want to see it too, but I can’t.” Cheng Xin gestured towards where Chu Xuan was. “The man standing there is just a vessel, a puppet on strings, while his true will is hidden in some unknown area that I cannot reach. Although I want to see it, I can’t see it at all.”

"There are many other people here besides him."

"That won't work either. You and your captain are already close to an ideal state of mind. According to you reincarnators, you are on the verge of overcoming your inner demons and mastering a personalized spiritual light. If I get involved at this point, I might actually become a catalyst for your advancement, and then I'll be in a very difficult position to handle."

"Your Daoist partner, um... companion? I can't easily read the mind of that Hypatia's disciple and her descendants because of karmic entanglements. Although it's not impossible to force it, the timing isn't right. Right now, I can't afford to make any mistakes in matters of karma and destiny, so I can't do anything about her."

“Deep within the souls of those two assassins are troublesome creatures; letting them out to cause trouble is hardly a good thing.”

"The only price I have to pay during the reading process is within my current tolerance range, but little Sirin doesn't have much reliable information in her head. She knows nothing about that man. Even if I read her mind and search through her memories, the results I get in the end are almost nothing."

“Look,” Cheng Xin spread her hands, making a very ladylike gesture of helplessness, “you two are absolutely incompatible opponents to me. So now I have no choice but to communicate with you in this fair exchange way: you give me secrets, and I return secrets to you. Don’t you think that’s fair?”

"...Is this a demonstration?"—Alice easily saw through Cheng Xin's unspoken meaning. She actually had the ability to interfere with or even manipulate the will and memories of every reincarnator in the Central State Team, but the only reason she hadn't done so until now was because she was running out of money. Or to put it bluntly, she was afraid to act rashly.

The rat is from the Zhongzhou team, but what the weapon is remains unknown.

"You can think of it that way."

“You could think of it that way…” Alice shook her head slightly and sighed softly. “It sounds so true, but from ancient times to the present, has there ever been a single word that can be believed by you idealistic spellcasters?”

“Of course not a single word.” Cheng Xin smiled and gave a decisive answer without hesitation: “Idealistic spellcasters feed on their minds, words are blades, oaths are traps, and spoken words are like spilled water, which can be taken back into the basin at any time, or even never been spilled in the first place. If you completely believe what I say, then you probably deserve to die. Of course, including this sentence, you cannot believe any of the words I say.”

"I may tell the truth, I may lie, and I may mix the truth with the lies. I may harm others for my own benefit, or I may harm myself for the benefit of others; the possibility of harming both myself and others, or benefiting both myself and others, exists. Therefore, every word I say could be the truth or a lie, and every action I take could be the truth or a lie. The only exception is..."

"So the only way is to find your creed, is that it?"

“That’s true, but it might not be. It’s very possible that the flaws in the idealistic system have already been filled by the Yaochi School, and the so-called tenets may no longer exist. So…” She pursed her lips and smiled softly. “I am indeed proposing a deal, but my purpose may not be this deal. Even if the deal is completed, I may not give the right result, or I may not give a reply at all.”

"...So, did you say all that just to make fun of me?"

"Yes, I came here specifically to make fun of you." Cheng Xin tilted her head sharply, looking like a Barbie doll with its neck broken. "Just like you've always been trying to make fun of me, of course I'll get a little revenge. As for whether this revenge will end on a 'small scale' or whether I'll just wipe you all out here, I have no idea."

"........."

"Don't you find this interesting? You completely distrust every word I say, and I don't believe anything you do either. Do you think I can't guess that you have another hidden method of communication, and that you've made another arrangement behind the scenes using memory-blocking methods?"

"........."

"You think you've escaped the script, but the chain of suspicion remains. You think you've changed the theme, but the wall-facing continues. The chain of suspicion between Earth and the Trisolaran civilization has become the chain of suspicion between you and me. Luo Ji's wall-facing and breaking the wall has become the wall-facing of the reincarnators and the breaking the wall of the travelers—nothing in this world has changed, everything is operating according to the same pattern."

"...Then why are you continuing? Since you've guessed so much, why not get the results beforehand?"

“I already said it, because it’s very interesting.” Cheng Xin’s fingers gently crossed, forming a tower shape like Alice often did. “I am Cheng Xin. I don’t kill people, nor do I kill aliens. But when necessary, I will make a judgment on this civilization beneath my feet, this star system I inhabit, and even this universe I come into contact with. I am the wallbreaker of the Reincarnators and the wallbreaker of the universe. And everything you have done may seem like defiance, but objectively speaking, you are still fulfilling your promise and helping me to perfect the script.”

"The Wandering Stars haven't escaped the Three-Body Problem's scope. No matter how grand your plans are, they're ultimately just different people doing similar things. It's just that the protagonist has been changed from Luo Ji to the Central Plains Team compared to the original story—in the original, he exhausted all his efforts and energy, but in the end, he only managed to extend Earth's life by a few decades before 'Cheng Xin' took action. And you're doing similar things to him, so naturally you'll face a similar ending."

"Luo Ji can't save Earth, and you can't beat me. So, what reason do I have to end this interesting game prematurely? I've said it from the beginning: my goal is to fully enjoy this life as Cheng Xin—of course, you might not believe me, but that doesn't matter, I don't care. After all, everything you've done hasn't deviated from my expectations. Or do you think you can give me a surprise?"

She winked mischievously. “Whether you believe it or not, the deal we made earlier still stands. I can see that even if that man named Chu Xuan isn’t the core of your ‘Wallfacer Project,’ he’s still an important part of it. I know you’re probably completely unaware of the whole plan right now, but if you’re willing to tell me about him, I’ll reward you with the future of information magic.”

"That's it. The fun is over. Now let's get back to the original topic—what do you plan to choose?"

“…This is my choice.” A clear light suddenly burst forth from Alice’s eyes, and as her will unfolded, the entire surrounding airspace fell into stillness under her will.

Time stopped flowing. She bypassed the compilation process of the Book of Revelation and directly used the 'Satan's Gaze' chapter, covering this current space-time.

And the next moment.

"Primordial Chaos - Creation of Heaven and Earth!" Zheng Zha, who broke through the void, suddenly appeared behind Cheng Xin. His essence, energy, spirit, blood, soul, and heart all erupted. The destructive torrent caused by his blade strikes Cheng Xin directly from behind, tearing her body into completely disintegrated particles in an instant.

She died. She died without resistance—or at least appeared to be dead.

Soul and body were completely shattered. Even with thorough preparation and all-out effort, Alice had no way to kill these fundamental particles, or even quark slurries, which had disintegrated into rays or particle beams, again at this level. How could something that was already beyond dead be killed again? It had already been broken down into quarks and energy turbulence. How could it be shattered even further?

This is impossible, it's impossible no matter what.

Even so, her voice still echoed from the void—without origin, without medium, without waveform; those voices appeared directly in Alice's mind as if they were hallucinations.

“You materialistic fools just love to get to the bottom of everything. You think there’s some kind of ‘scientific’ system that can explain everything you see, hear, and touch. If chemistry can’t solve it, you use mathematics; if mathematics can’t solve it, you use quantum mechanics… You always think you can solve everything and that everything can be incorporated into a logical system.”

"Therefore you will be corrupted whenever you encounter Outer Gods, because you always try to understand them, to define them, and to fabricate logic for them. Therefore, you are always schemed against and betrayed by mortals, because you do not know that ignorance is the stable truth."

"Ah...actually, you probably wouldn't believe me even if I told you all this, since you'd definitely think I was trying to shake your resolve. But, Alice Margotrovid—a disciple of Philippians Aurelius Deofras Bombasz von Hohenheim—the Moon Goddess of the Jade Pool has a question for you."

"With your materialistic approach of seeking truth and inquiry, how can you possibly unlock the light of the soul?"

The next moment, everything in Alice's eyes turned upside down. She found herself still standing on the Black Moon outside Earth, controlling that puppet avatar that possessed no abilities. Her true self hadn't consumed any additional computing power or energy. The time on her wrist was still the same as when she first met Cheng Xin.

She turned her head, and the live broadcast of the World Government Joint Conference appeared before her eyes. Then she heard Luo Ji's surprised and bewildered voice when he was announced as a member of the research team.

"You've got it wrong! You must have gotten it wrong! I'm just an ordinary university professor, how could I possibly be given such an important responsibility?! I want to go back, this isn't a place for me!"

Within the light screen, Luo Ji's voice was exceptionally clear. Following the direction of his gaze, the exact location of Zheng Zha and Chu Xuan could be found, and immediately a group of guards appeared beside Luo Ji at Zheng Zha's signal to help him regain his composure—Alice was not surprised by Luo Ji's situation, because the attack on Luo Ji, and even the pro-foreign organization that attacked him, was something she had created and arranged herself while compiling history.

For Alice, Luo Ji was merely a pawn. She only glanced at him for a fleeting moment before ignoring him. The next instant, she contacted Zheng Zha and received the conclusion that 'nothing had happened.'

"An illusion?" Alice gently bit her lip, feeling the slight pain from the stimulation of her nerves. "They say they can't touch a mind that's close to an ideal state, but they've actually cast me into an illusion... No, perhaps it's not an illusion, so it's some kind of trick involving spacetime interference?"

She examined herself; none of the numerous spells and treasures she had used to deal with the spacetime distortions had worked. Nothing on her had been consumed, and no equipment had been worn out. Her body and mind appeared perfectly normal, yet the words and deeds of Chang'e were clearly displayed in her mind.

She examined her brain sulci structure, but couldn't find the dates when those memories were generated in the database that identified this period in the memory area. She then examined her cellular tissue; the frequency of metabolism and telomere wear all matched previous records and were consistent with the control group.

It's not an illusion. If it were, there would inevitably be residual effects or traces in the brain and mind. It's not time travel. If it were, the body's metabolic rate and the wear and tear on intracellular organs would be abnormal. Since it's neither, the conclusion is quite simple.

"Information interference, information interference several times stronger than my operational level. She fabricated a history for me and directly accessed my senses. It was as if I really did those things... It's not me who's changed, but the information I receive. Could this be considered another kind of dimensional reduction attack, completely different from the technological level of this universe?"

She shook her head, not really wanting to think about it.