Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Yes, she didn't want to think. She didn't want to ponder either this matter or the question Chang'e had previously raised through information interference. Because even without thinking, she knew that neither science nor materialism could solve everything, especially not the "Light of the Mind" that rendered theories like the conservation of energy worthless!

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Wall Hit Someone!

Chang'e was right; materialistic principles cannot unlock the light of the soul.

But why should I try to solve it?

Alice's thoughts shifted, and the avatar she was currently controlling immediately ceased operation, its scattered computational power returning to its original form within the Black Moon. She extended her fingers, spread them open, and as she brought her five fingers together, a pure, attribute-less spiritual light burst forth from her eyes.

But why should I think about it? The materialist way of things, from the very beginning, was not about seeking answers and arrogantly trying to control all phenomena. I know my place very well, and I know what I'm doing very well. Chang'e's words are completely meaningless to me; they can't possibly sway my heart.

Or perhaps...

Alice was slightly taken aback, and the pure light of her soul enveloped her body.

A conclusion derived from the information quietly appeared in her mind. She pondered it repeatedly and confirmed it, and soon arrived at a positive conclusion.

So that's how it is. All that trouble Chang'e went through was essentially a test, an assessment. She deliberately presented herself as unfathomable, seemingly mad. It was, in essence, a test, or rather, a misleading of herself. On one hand, she claimed that mind-reading required a huge price, which she was unwilling to pay; on the other hand, she used information interference to directly trick herself into acting, and then suppressed herself through a method similar to time reversal. Everything she did was simply to emphasize a fact she repeatedly stated.

"As expected, you bunch of idealistic lunatics. You can't believe a single word you say..." Alice pursed her lips slightly, having already made a rough estimate of Chang'e's purpose and beliefs. Besides that, she had also confirmed something very important.

[Chang'e, you can't read my mind at all. Even if you pay a huge price, you can't, and you dare not. Because I have already acquired the most basic light of the soul, and deep within my heart lies a great secret that you cannot touch. You've been putting on an act from beginning to end!]

Alice thought to herself, but her expression and the way her body processed the information remained unchanged. However, just then, she quietly heard a voice she had spoken to just half a minute earlier.

—【Really? That's what you think. That's a shame.】

The sound nearly stopped her heart, but she managed to control her heartbeat before it could, and the light of her mind continued to cover her. She then restored her brain memories and soul structure to what they were ten seconds earlier, and then repeated the conclusion she had just reached in her mind.

—【Really? That's what you think. That's a shame.】

【I see.】

Alice gently closed her eyes, then opened them. When she opened them, she held in her hand the Staff of Domination, which she hadn't used in a long time—she had poured her soul into it, and then used the purifying properties of this innate weapon of civilization to examine herself.

She found, with little effort, a well-hidden information structure clinging to her soul's obsession, like a chameleon on a rock. It was like a part of her body, a part of her soul, interfering with her perception, influencing her judgment, yet revealing no flaws whatsoever.

It's not AI, because AI's autonomous will would interfere with the thought process and be easily detected. Since it lacks intelligence, it's simply a dead object emphasizing concealment. Its function is to operate when Chang'e activates it, directly creating completely undetectable illusions at the soul level!

Chang'e wasn't as strong as she appeared! She just made herself seem that strong!

That informational structure operated covertly, sending out a message that was completely suppressed by the preemptively revealed light of her clear mind—Alice wasn't afraid that this suppression would alert Chang'e prematurely. Because, judging from Chang'e's previous actions and words, in her own script, Alice should now be revealing the light of her mind out of doubt!

All her previous efforts were ultimately for that one last sentence she uttered before leaving. She wanted to instill distrust in me regarding the Light of the Mind, to make me doubt, to deter me from taking the risk in this world to become a true Fourth Order. Because if I did that, that fabricated information structure would be exposed, and everything she had done would be in vain!

The girl's mind raced as she pondered and tried to decipher the complex information structure—however, after several seconds of trying, she had to admit that she was temporarily unable to work with it; Chang'e's skill in information manipulation was indeed a cut above hers. But this didn't mean she was completely helpless against the information structure.

Time, let's go back in time.

The 'Satan's Gaze' from the Outer Codex Styx Ritual unfolded once more. After understanding the manipulation of gravity, the differences between time acceleration, deceleration, stopping, and reversal were not significant. Having learned of Sirin's frequent manipulation of the timeline, she had prepared contingency plans in advance—although limited funds and technology prevented her from reversing Zheng Zha's overwhelming attack, she was confident she could handle a concealed information structure appropriately.

Soon, the information structure settled down, becoming stable and without any abnormalities. Alice then secretly breathed a small sigh of relief and shifted her attention to other areas.

Chang'e made a mistake—no, a mistake any psychic would make. She shouldn't have used information manipulation to reverse everything at the last moment, attempting to incite Alice's distrust of the Light of the Mind while simultaneously redirecting her attention towards information manipulation. Perhaps she hoped a materialistic inheritor would degenerate into an idealistic being like herself due to the pursuit of power. But it must be said, she overdid it.

[I harbor secrets within my heart: information about Shen Qi, information about future predictions. This even includes the plot hole of Gu Yu Jun's reincarnation—a trap that would be impossible for ordinary extraordinary beings to escape. The reason Patchi and I are still alive and well after knowing all this is because of Shen Qi's intervention. Even so, we dare not openly reveal this information to anyone other than Chu Xuan.]

She couldn't read my mind, because if she knew these secrets, she would have been finished long ago, or everything she read would have been erased, revealing her secrets. But she didn't.

She wanted to demonstrate the power of idealism, creating an image of invincibility—if she hadn't done that, I might have actually believed her. But now…

Alice narrowed her eyes and pondered for a moment.

Chang'e's disguise has been broken, so can we now try to defeat her?

No, it's not possible.

Even though she wasn't as powerful as she appeared, she still possessed true strength equivalent to, or even higher than, a fourth-tier mid-level, fourth-tier high-level, approaching or even surpassing that of Axe at her peak. Alice's thoughts retraced, and some facts that she hadn't noticed before but could now perceive as unusual appeared before her eyes.

Years ago, Chang'e's feat of plucking the sun was indeed impressive, making her seem invincible. But before she could even make her move, she struck first, splitting the Great Library in two!

Why did she split the Great Library in two before taking action? Why waste her energy on something pointless? That giant hand, capable of turning everything to dust with a single press of a light-second, why waste time on such a trivial matter? Alice hadn't understood it before, never even considering it that way. But now she guessed an answer—she had to do it; otherwise, she couldn't interfere with the Central Continent Team's reincarnators. Because her remote information manipulation abilities weren't enough to silently breach the Great Library's information defenses from a distance of several light-seconds!

In other words, Chang'e's true strength was merely severing the Great Library from a few light-seconds away—she was still very strong, overwhelmingly so even now. But she wasn't as strong as she appeared, to the point of causing everyone to despair!

"Ah... I've finally caught you red-handed, Chang'e. You can't read my mind or Zheng Zha's mind at all, and you can't even do that to Patchi and Zhao Yingkong... You insist your words are unreliable, that you only refrained from action because you were worried about some trouble. But in reality, that's just misleading. You've simply prepared a not-so-rigid lie, and then tried to use overwhelming power to prove its truthfulness."

—【Really? That's what you think. That's a shame.】

[Tsk, this ambiguous, deliberately designed to scare people with its trigger-based comments. Looks like I'll have to go back a few more times. But it's confirmed now: you can't read our minds yet you want to create the illusion of mind control; you have the power to defeat all of us now yet you use an exaggerated kind of power as a disguise—this only shows that while your power is immense, it's indeed something you can't fully utilize. Deception disguised as reality, reality disguised as deception, a constant interplay of illusion and reality… it seems you're truly at a crucial juncture. This might be the only truth you've ever spoken.]

The girl let out a soft sigh, the greatly depleted spiritual light dissipated, and she returned to her original state. Her mind showed no unusual fluctuations, nor did she question the spiritual light as Chang'e had envisioned. Moreover, this message was transmitted into the hidden void by that secret message structure.

To feign reality while making it real, and to make reality feigned, one doesn't necessarily have to go all the way. Now is not the time to confront Chang'e head-on, because her strength is still overwhelmingly superior, and her motives have not yet been fully exposed.

So, before that...

Alice's gaze shifted, inadvertently sweeping across a screen of light that appeared in the corner of her field of vision.

—She roughly understood when they had fallen for the trap.

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

The overlord stared at the voodoo doll in his hand, his attention gradually shifting from the doll's material to the stitches, then to the thread, and finally to the pattern on the thread. He examined it from top to bottom and inside to outside for five minutes, then turned the doll over and carefully looked at the note on its back.

The note was written in red ink with the words 'Cheng Xin'. The force applied was moderate, neither too light nor too heavy, just as the Overlord had seen in the historical recap—it was merely a crude doll sold by an ordinary craftsman to earn a living. It didn't bear any deep resentment sufficient to form a curse, nor did it utilize any special materials or techniques—it was simply an ordinary voodoo doll, a voodoo doll cursing Cheng Xin.

On this planet, which has been reshaped once, it is probably the only man-made object left over from the previous era. Logically, it should have been recycled and reshaped along with everything else on the planet's surface. But the Overlord preserved it, and without any objection.

Is this voodoo doll useful? — Probably not.

The Overlord himself didn't know why he did it; perhaps it was just a whim, or perhaps there was no reason at all. But in any case, the fact remains that the voodoo doll was preserved, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, it will likely continue to exist.

Why were there so many Cheng Xin voodoo dolls on Earth in the previous era? — I don't know.

Do these voodoo dolls, scattered throughout every dungeon and every base, have any effect on that guy? — I don't know.

The Overlord shook his head and stuffed the voodoo doll into his storage container. He casually pressed a communication button on the table, picked up a bottle of vodka, and chugged it down in one gulp. After moistening his throat, he felt he had replenished the water he had drunk that morning.

“General Kampavsky, there is a meeting you need to chair in an hour.” A light screen popped up on the table in front of him, showing a young officer bowing slightly to him. “It’s an operation report about extraterrestrial exploration. We are about to reach Saturn’s gravitational field, and the newly formed ‘Star Trek Research and Development’ team will land in Saturn’s outer rings with the fleet.”

"Understood, go and prepare." Overlord nodded, indicating that he understood. After spending some time with Chelsea, he had gained some experience in role-playing. Just a casual remark from him exuded an aura of authority and oppression that spread across the screen to the other side, and the young officer couldn't help but stand up straighter and salute him.

"Understood, sir." The light screen closed silently.

As it closed, the Overlord turned his gaze toward the side of the light barrier.

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

It's almost the end of the month, and I haven't done the monthly reporting...

I'm thinking of writing about fallen leaves...

Chapter Twenty-Three: Humans and Beasts

Chelsea was leaning against the alloy wall by the door, wearing headphones as usual and chewing on a lollipop. When Ba Wang's gaze turned to her, she casually made a greeting gesture.

"How's it like being a general? You seem a bit strange."

"It's just a dream, a pipe dream. I did dream of becoming a general before, but now that I'm actually sitting in this position, I feel like it's a complete waste of time." The Overlord took out an exquisite God-brand cigar from his storage item, lit it, and took a deep drag. The smoke he exhaled transformed into birds and beasts around him that looked like living creatures.

"Worldly status is nothing more than the aggregation of power and wealth. But the power I wield as a Reincarnator is far more noble than such wealth and power. It is indeed very satisfying to have thousands die with a single word. But a Reincarnator is a creature that can kill thousands with a single word. So once the novelty wears off, it's nothing special."

Ba Wang flicked the cigar ash off his fingers. "If I had a choice, I wouldn't want to attend that Saturn landing conference at all. But now I have responsibilities, so I have no choice but to do my job well."

“Worldly power and money—you talk as if you’re not part of the world.” Chelsea tossed her hair, her usual attire transformed into a simple women’s suit. Her public identity in this new world was the bodyguard and clerk of General Kampavsky. As she finished changing, the door beside her opened, and she walked out of the office with the Overlord, slightly behind him.

Outside the door, a large, one-way light-transmitting corridor brought the landscape outside the command center into their view. It was a rather vast, low-rise urban area, though "low-rise" was only relative. The two were currently atop a gigantic tower, three thousand meters high, located in the heart of the city, while the surrounding buildings formed a regular, disc-like shape.

The Overlord had seen such cities before, before the world was reshaped. They were large architectural complexes called 'Nest Cities' built by powerful regimes in Alice's mother world. Their purpose was to concentrate an excessive population in a relatively narrow area, while simultaneously allowing this area to develop suitable industries or manufacturing industries while still meeting the needs of its residents.

There was no other way; the new world was too crowded. And Earth was only so small. During the reincarnation ritual, Alice directly re-edited all the souls and reshaped their bodies. This resulted in a population exceeding 60 billion.

Six hundred billion—a staggering figure that makes the per capita land area appalling. Part of the reason the Reincarnators orchestrated the war against the Winged People was to address this massive population problem. Driven by Alice, the war against the Winged People lasted a long time, during which time Earth's mortals developed the technology for underground bases.

What was once an underground base is now a hive city. After all, fresh air is a pleasant thing. Alice and Patchouli, as historians, certainly didn't mind making the lives of the mortals on this planet more difficult to enhance their fighting power and obedience. But they also had to consider the opinions of their companions.

"You seem somewhat dissatisfied with this?" Chelsea asked, following the Overlord's gaze to look at the Nest City. Her words did not specify whether her dissatisfaction was directed at the 'Nest City' or the 'current situation'.

The two walked along the corridor, seeing many busy officers and soldiers along the way. When they saw the Overlord, they all stopped what they were doing and saluted him, and the Overlord responded appropriately to each of them. Several staff officers carrying documents had somehow followed behind the two, and soon the following group was joined by several armed guards wearing lightweight exoskeletons.

The Overlord ignored them. He knew these were the officers who followed him, 'General Kampavsky.' They were one of the symbols of his power, and each of them possessed unwavering loyalty, willing to shed their last drop of blood for him—a sentiment he knew perfectly well was merely a memory etched into their minds by historical records. In the officers' perceptions, and in all the information and memories they could find, he, the general, was the mentor who had single-handedly promoted them from the lower ranks and nurtured them. Yet, in reality, he had only seen their faces five minutes before the world began to function.

The Overlord disliked this feeling, and he also knew that many others besides himself didn't like it either. Apart from the six extraordinary beings who couldn't be viewed from a normal perspective, most of the other reincarnators chose identities with somewhat narrow interpersonal relationships after the world was reshaped.

Xiao Honglu's identity is that of an arrogant and conceited genius senior researcher. Lingdian became 'Ghost'—a name he himself chose for his elite covert operations unit. Zhang Heng and the others also found positions that didn't require much networking. Aside from himself, only Zhan Lan chose to stand in public.

“I do have some complaints, but I know it’s pointless,” the Overlord said, his voice and the sonic and visual signals produced by his lip movements subtly distorted. Even though the officers were only two steps behind him, they couldn’t see him or hear him. In their view, General Kampavsky and Captain Chelsea were simply walking straight ahead without looking to the side. Apart from the occasional nod, they did absolutely nothing.

Chelsea tilted her head slightly, waiting for him to say what he was about to say.

His gaze swept across the city, lingering briefly on the enormous cylinders emitting white mist—the industrial capabilities that the reincarnators had envisioned for this world, or rather, the world's normal development, represented the mature stage of fusion technology. Fusion reactors were already commonplace and miniaturized. While it wasn't yet possible to have a nuclear reactor for every person, heavy element engines the size of a bucket were already widespread. A single unit, the size of a normal parking space, could easily power a multi-level urban area with millions of people.

For the mortals of this world, water supply is far more troublesome than electricity. A near-infinite energy supply cannot provide a sufficient quantity of resources for survival. For this reason, a gigantic recycling system covers the entire city within this nest city. All discarded organic and inorganic matter is recycled, and those enormous cylinders serve as processing workshops for this recycled material.

The Overlord had never drunk this water, nor did he have the inclination to. Even if the recycled materials were purer than natural products in terms of measured values, in this new world dominated by reincarnators, he would only enjoy God-brand cigars and vodka.

"Everyone has their own place. And everyone should use their talents in their own place. I know very well that every soul in this world is able to be reborn because of the blessings of us reincarnators. But even so, this distorted world still makes me uncomfortable."

“I think this is actually quite good.” Chelsea tilted her head in confusion. “We gave them life, we gave them shelter, we made sure that everyone here could worry about making a living instead of worrying about their lives. Compared to the cannibalistic empire I used to live in, this place is like paradise.”

"I know, so I was just thinking about it casually," the Overlord replied. He paused briefly at the end of the corridor, and then an automatic door requiring verification opened. He stepped into the elevator behind the door, and his destination was set as the rooftop on the outermost side of the top floor of the tower.

"We have given this civilization a lot, and these gifts, in essence, are just one composite thing—we have given them the right to live and the direction and means to strive for it. But the way we give them this gift is essentially based on domination and manipulation. We have certainly given them a second chance at life, but haven't we also deprived them of their right to die freely?"

The elevator doors opened, revealing a massive wing-shaped aircraft perched atop the tower. Ground crew had already completed all the necessary pre-flight procedures. The aircraft's hatch opened as Overlord and his entourage stepped onto the rooftop, and everyone entered in an orderly fashion.

“Your Majesty, I think you’ve been reading too many books about the Eastern Continent lately. Not only do you speak like a refined Eastern scholar, but you’ve also become as sluggish as them.” Chelsea had already checked and arranged the general’s seat for him, and then made a few hand gestures to settle the accompanying officers. After doing all this, she sat down steadily next to His Majesty, casually opening a document that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

"I remember you should have broken free from Captain Zheng Zha's Dao Erosion a long time ago. And Captain Zheng Zha was able to suppress the Dao Erosion phenomenon after the end of the last world. But why did you just give me the feeling of a Mary Sue acting out?" She tilted her head slightly, a simple gesture, but her face showed an expression of determination to get an answer. "The right to die freely? Huh? Whoever invented that term must be out of their mind!"

“That’s what I said,” the Overlord replied.

"That's why I said you're out of your mind. Kampavsky, we are reincarnators, not philanthropic ambassadors. We don't need to explain our actions to the civilizations of this world. Because to us, they are essentially just props—in my view, the mortals of this world are already living very happily. Even if they are about to face misfortune, that is their responsibility to bear. And what you just did was like those idiots in disaster movies who, when the whole world is about to be plunged into catastrophe, still clamor for humanity and human rights!"

Overlord's expression stiffened for a moment. "I know you slacked off during the world's reshaping by playing a computer game that was native to this world. What was it called? Frostpunk?"

"So you think it's right to stick to an eight-hour workday when everyone is freezing to death?"

“I don’t think so.” Overlord shook his head. “I think it’s wrong. We’re about to lose our lives, so it’s foolish to worry about the eight-hour workday. But… but the settings in this game do have something in common with my current thinking.”

"Do you remember that key dialogue about humanity in the original Three-Body Problem?" He turned his head to look at Chelsea, but his gaze actually passed through her, and at the same time, through the cabin window behind her—his gaze was looking down at the earth, and in his eyes, the huge Nest City looked like a freshly baked pancake.

The bread is the hive, and the sesame seeds on it are the many spires within that hive. The countless people and buildings within that hive are the fluffy structure beneath the bread. With just one bite, the aroma, the texture, and the feeling of fullness will follow.