Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

When Sirin met Luo Ye again, the former Herrscher of the Void almost couldn't help but smile. The person before her, still wearing that exquisite suit and black-rimmed glasses, with ordinary looks but who had recently caused her immense pressure, was clearly in dire straits. Even with her glasses, light makeup, and information filtering effects, she couldn't hide the large bruise around her left eye!

That must have been a very heavy punch, very, very heavy. As for who delivered that punch, so that Luo Ye couldn't even erase the remaining traces... there's absolutely no need to investigate that further.

As agreed beforehand, the meeting place was on a flight at the airport. Sirin was taking this flight to the final stop of her journey, Milan, where an air force base had been established two years prior—a location situated at 110 degrees east longitude and 20 degrees north latitude on a world map. Before the "Cruising Star" scenario began, it was a picturesque tourist island. And now, though times have changed, the scenic area remains a scenic area.

Xilin had naturally booked first class, and Luo Ye's seat was right next to her, a side seat across the aisle. Due to some unseen interference, the first class cabin, which should have been full, was now nearly empty, with only a handful of passengers. And they all seemed to have become withdrawn after boarding, leaving the area around Xilin and Luo Ye quite empty.

The flight attendants' usual safety procedures had ended minutes earlier, and this classic giant aircraft wasn't known for its speed. Normally, it should have been slowly flying across the Earth's surface for an hour before leisurely arriving at Melanie's airport from Frankfurt, where Celine had previously been.

An hour is a long time, enough for two complete strangers to become acquainted in a suitable setting. That was how it was supposed to go, but unfortunately, a small mishap occurred…

"Sister Sirin, this isn't right." The white-haired, red-eyed girl tugged at Sirin's sleeve. Unlike her previous attire, she was now adorned in an exquisite and gorgeous Gothic dress. The deep red outer garment accentuated a bewitching allure, creating a stark contrast with her pure and holy face.

Miss Sirin... she's got some fun.

Luo Ye rubbed her head, smiled, and shook her head. "It's okay, I just bumped into a steel plate when I went out. It looks exaggerated, don't worry about it."

She subtly shifted her gaze from one of them to the other, Xilin, as she began to talk.

"Both of you are dressed quite unusually. Are you planning to attend an expo in Meilan?" As she said this, she casually arranged a scenic expo for the local authorities in Meilan, smoothing over any causal connection. Before she could finish her sentence, her bag already contained the necessary documents and tickets. "I am Luo Ye, Luo as in Luoshui, Ye as in leaf. If I'm not mistaken, perhaps we share the same goal?"

Xilin raised an eyebrow slightly, and the next moment, all the tricks Luo Ye had pulled in Meilan were fully revealed by her detection methods. She didn't know what tactics Luo Ye had used, but despite such a large reality correction, the global swarm of nanobots hadn't detected anything amiss. Everything seemed to happen naturally, without even the slightest flaw.

“That’s quite a coincidence.” Xilin nodded, pressed the ticket that had appeared out of thin air in her pocket, and then reached out her hand to Luo Ye. “It is said that the marine animals and underwater coral forests of Meilan are the best in the world, and I happen to be planning to see them recently. In addition, scenic expos are quite rare, so it wouldn’t hurt to broaden my horizons.”

Her hand clasped Luo Ye's hand.

"Cirin. A northerner, from the area near the Arctic Circle."

“This is Theresa!” the girl next to her chimed in at just the right moment.

"It's an honor to meet you both." Luo Ye gently shook Xi Lin's hand, and the knuckles that Xi Lin had silently crushed into powder by her childish tantrum instantly returned to normal. "Meilan's seascape is world-famous, and I think we'll definitely have a great time this time."

"Whether it's fun or not doesn't matter, the most important thing is safety." Xilin nodded seriously, her fingers twitching slightly. When she crushed Luo Ye's finger bone just now, Luo Ye also teleported her finger bone to another dimension through her skin and flesh. "It is said that the people in the Meilan area are fierce. I don't care, but if Theresa is frightened, I'll have to give her a good talking to."

“I think you can rest assured. Meilan is a very safe place. As long as you don’t do anything reckless, there shouldn’t be any problems—any problems that you think are problems.”

She said this. Just then, a distant flash of lightning and thunder sounded outside the airplane window.

It seems a typhoon is coming.

Chapter Thirty-Five: I Am the Man Chosen One (Part Four)

The plan has reached its final stage; in a few days, this story world will come to an end.

Inside the core control room of the Dark Moon, Alice opened her tightly closed eyes amidst an endless array of light screens. As the pre-programmed control system went into operation, all the light screens around her went out one by one, like lights that had been turned off. Soon, only she, suspended in mid-air, remained in the entire control room. Everything else was a pure, empty white.

Two years have passed. Those mortals who couldn't even understand the manual for the Dark Moon Control System two years ago have grown considerably. Although they are still some distance from deciphering the March System and completing its reconstruction, they are perfectly capable of simply operating the system and using it to monitor and adjust the many minute changes on the surface.

Two years of effort had finally paid off. With the plan nearing completion, delegating some less important lower-level authority to the scholars we had painstakingly trained was a good option—in fact, Alice's apprentices had already taken over most of the Darkmoon system two months ago. However, until just now, every instruction issued by these junior scholars had been reviewed and adjusted by Alice before taking effect.

After all, she also had to be wary of Chang'e planting a hidden hand among the operators—this was almost inevitable—if these hidden hands made trouble at some crucial moment, causing the original plan to deviate slightly, then there would be no shortage of trouble afterwards.

Hmm, troublesome.

After all, the person she loved was a transcendent being who started with sophisticated information magic. Although her mind wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, she could always prepare seventeen or eighteen backup plans in advance if she foresaw the possibility of errors. As long as it wasn't a core element of the plan—such as the core principle of its operation—that had a serious problem, she was confident she could salvage the situation before it became irreparable.

[There shouldn't be any mistakes. Even if I really ran into a major disaster and messed things up this time, at least Chu Xuan will cover for me. Now it's certain that Chang'e can't read the minds of extraordinary beings with the ability to mimic mental light. So she couldn't possibly guess that I would still have the spare capacity to modify the Earth's core while consuming a lot of computing power—even if she were lucky enough to figure it out, she couldn't possibly understand the function of those institutions without sufficient information.]

Alice gently rubbed her head. For the past two years—no, even earlier—she had only devoted a portion of her computational power to engineering projects within the solar system. The rest was used to interfere with the Trisolaran civilization's sophons. Ah, yes, she had analyzed the Trisolaran technology and, using it as a springboard, projected her will directly into the Trisolaran civilization using quantum communication knowledge acquired from Star Wars and the Cybertronians—the Trisolaran fleet's actions were her doing. And the Trisolaran fleet's light-speed travel technology was also her creation.

The Trisolaran system still exists because the Trisolaran civilization only initiated warp drive, enabling its fleet to reach the speed of light, after its fleet had moved far away from the inner regions of the system. The distance from the Trisolaran system to Earth is a full 4.2 light-years, so it is clear that Alice had already initiated this plan long before the world was reconstructed.

Therefore, the World Government was able to make contact with the Sophons two years ago and with the Droplet Probes a few months ago. This is because both of them utilize warp drive technology. And the development and application of this technology have always been under Alice's control.

Her gaze swept across the deep, dark space beyond the observation window, and in an instant, it seemed as if she were looking across tens of thousands of light-minutes at the deep boundary outside the solar system—she had accurately captured the contrail effect of the light-speed spaceship. In a few days at most, the Trisolaran civilization would collide with Earth at the edge of Pluto.

The war will escalate to close combat because the Trisolaran civilization needs some of the warp drive technology stored within Earth, which Alice deliberately leaked. To achieve this, they cannot use overly powerful high-tech weapons, and weak long-range strikes or communication jamming cannot penetrate the gravitational well constructed by the March System—given their current technological reserves, fleet suppression and a landing on Earth are the best strategies. After all, this era is different from the Earth in the original story, which had been corrupted and eroded for decades; the people of this Earth will not be subdued by a mere technological gap.

Moreover, this might not be such a significant technological gap. The technology of the 'Winged People' derived from Cybertron would in no way be inferior to that of a low-level cosmic civilization that can't even manage a star. Although Earthlings haven't fully mastered it, even at their current level, they are barely capable of putting up a fight.

However, Earth's civilization cannot last long... While it may catch up technologically, Earthlings haven't developed dedicated weapons to combat the Trisolarans. Just as many 21st-century guns are less powerful than 20th-century weapons, excessive power would be counterproductive against humans. The same applies to dealing with the Trisolarans.

Earth's weapons are designed for human use. Even if I corrected history, creating scenarios to combat the 'Winged People' posing as an external enemy in order to enhance Earthlings' combat experience against resilient beings, it's still ultimately a fabrication. Corrected memories, while effective, are far inferior to real-world warfare experience—Earthlings are not ready, but the Trisolaran civilization is already prepared.

Alice blinked, taking in the twinkling stars in the dark depths of the sky.

The Trisolaran civilization never ceased its probes of Earth from the moment it embarked on its journey. Although most of the sophons and droplet probes were captured by Alice, some were intentionally released to solidify the Trisolaran civilization's resolve to invade. By summarizing the intelligence gathered from these escapees, the Trisolarans developed many highly effective weapons targeting Earthlings. For example, there were directional mental waves that, while merely a loud noise to the Trisolarans who relied on consciousness communication, could kill large numbers of primates in an instant.

With these special weapons and the powerful fleet of the Trisolaran civilization, they were fully confident that they could capture and modify the wandering star before the extraterrestrial civilizations that followed the Dark Forest Law could 'clean up' this place.

After all, it would take time for those extraterrestrial civilizations' 'cleaning' devices to reach this place. And according to the Trisolaran civilization's observations, the nearest cleansing device to the solar system is a light-year away.

"They're wrong. The nearest cleaning device is less than a few light-minutes from the solar system. That's precisely what I discovered during my two years of celestial travels." — In Alice's eyes, the dim starlight cast several barely perceptible, blurry shadows on the outer edge of the solar system. These were the 'cleaning' devices she had detected and secretly moved to this vicinity. And beyond these devices, many more similar things stretched from one end of her line of sight to the other.

The interstellar civilizations of this universe have deployed numerous cleaning devices in deep space. Some are active, some are passive. But whether active or passive, to maintain secrecy, they do not establish stable communication links with their home planet. This gives Alice room to maneuver—searching for these modified objects bearing traces of civilization is not difficult for her, an information mage. However, this still consumed nearly seven long years of her life, from before the world's reconstruction until now.

All preparations are now in place. Earth's civilization is no match for the Trisolaran civilization... perhaps it could win, but that's irrelevant. Once the war begins, Chang'e, as Cheng Xin, will definitely push for Earth's defeat. As soon as she makes a move, I can use conceptual connections to activate 'Chang'e Flying to the Moon,' forcibly fixing her in space. At that point, the entire Earth will be directly transported to the Trisolaran star system. And once the cleanup device is activated, it will be difficult for the Trisolaran civilization to even leave a trace.

[The March System will be sacrificed, but it's worthwhile. I've already transferred the relevant data and trained backup personnel to Earth's interior. Once the transfer is complete and our mission is finished, I will initiate Earth's second long-distance jump—to a lonely star two thousand light-years away, where there are no extraterrestrial civilizations' cleanup devices, and the forty-nine resource satellites outside Earth are more than enough for Earth's civilization to rebuild the March System. Having done this much, I should consider myself to have done my utmost. As for whether Earth's civilization can rise from the ashes… that's their own battle.]

Alice closed her eyes and began the final calculations. She incorporated every variable she could think of into her calculations, and considered every point where she suspected there might be loopholes.

The worst-case scenario is that Chang'e has somehow seen through the entire plan, rendering the Apocalypse inactive or ineffective, and the situation has deteriorated to the point where even Chu Xuan can't handle it. If this happens, then all they can do is decisively self-destruct and return to the Main God Space. After all, no matter how powerful Chang'e is, she can't chase them to the Main God Space; this mission is essentially a failure.

This is the worst possible outcome, and there are only three factors that could lead to it.

First, Chang'e is more powerful than expected; she couldn't possibly be trapped by the apocalypse of flying to the moon—this is impossible, as Alice has already verified that Chang'e's strength isn't as great as she appears. Even if her judgment is wrong, the heavy karmic ties between Chang'e and the Moon Palace are more than enough to entangle her here—the apocalypse capable of sealing off the Valar couldn't have been useless after such a long period of preparation. After all, Chang'e could never be a saint.

Secondly, the possibility that Chang'e didn't intervene in the battle between Earth and Trisolaran civilizations, and didn't even enter the battlefield, is very low. If she, as 'Cheng Xin,' remained indifferent at this crucial plot point, then her role would be a complete failure, and even the entire Trisolaran-related script would collapse—different people telling the same story, if Cheng Xin doesn't intervene in the conflict between Earth and Trisolaris, it's equivalent to her character being rendered useless. The chain of suspicion between the reincarnators and Chang'e would break down, and everything she had done before would become worthless.

Third, it's highly likely that Chang'e learned of the reincarnators' plans through special channels and made preparations in advance. After all, she's a traveler who has traversed countless worlds. It's perfectly normal for her to possess various secret techniques or wondrous artifacts. The possibility that she foresaw risks or forcibly escaped traps through these unpredictable means is not zero—if this is the case, then unless Alice knows Chang'e's trump cards beforehand, she'll be helpless. Regardless of whether or not she takes action, and whatever action she takes, the outcome will not change in the slightest.

Thus, the accounting is complete.

The possibility of failure is not entirely nonexistent, but the factors leading to this possibility have either been proven false, or even if guessed, there are no countermeasures to be found. Given this outcome, it's pointless to dwell on these possibilities—the probability of success is greater than failure, and if failure occurs, one can simply retreat. All variables have been exhausted; this is the best choice.

[There shouldn't be any loopholes...] Alice thought, rubbing her overworked brain.

[But in reality, it's hard to say. After all, my plans have malfunctioned more than once or twice. There are always subtle details I haven't noticed, or rather, even if I did notice them, I couldn't handle them well, so that even if we win, we have to pay a heavy price. Oh well, although I made many arrangements for this operation, in the previous decision, I decided to let Chu Xuan make his own plans—]

After all, we've been teammates for so long, he naturally understands me. With his abilities, he should be able to easily see through most of my plans and make corresponding adjustments. Perhaps, my plan doesn't even need to be executed; Chu Xuan alone can secure victory in this war with the resources he mobilizes.

【So……】

She glanced at Earth, and the thought that had previously surfaced in her mind—to check if there were any oversights in the various arrangements before the final battle—was quietly suppressed. Instead, a new goal took its place.

Gray Moon, Chu Xuan.

Chu Xuan has been preparing for this for two years, during which time his research team has achieved considerable results. Perhaps now is the right time to visit him; a trip there might yield some reassuring information.

[And... I remember the protagonist of the original story, Luo Ji, who was once highly regarded by many in the team. He should be above Gray Moon now.]

She made her decision, and her teleportation coordinates immediately began to change.

Chapter Thirty-Six: I Am the Man Chosen by Heaven (Part Five)

The distance between the Dark Moon and the Gray Moon was not far; a mere tens of thousands of kilometers was hardly an obstacle that could hinder teleportation. The instant Alice's form disappeared in the Dark Moon, she reappeared in the Gray Moon. The landing point was the research center where Luo Ji was located.

Cheng Xin will arrive at this research center soon—a fact she knows about, but not by her own arrangement. It's likely at the behest of Chang'e, that role-playing fanatic. After all, the March System is currently humanity's most powerful countermeasure against the Trisolaran civilization. If Chang'e doesn't want to use extraordinary power to disrupt her game, then her most likely course of action is to seize partial control of the March System at a crucial moment through some coincidence, and then choose humanitarianism at that critical juncture.

As expected. This is just like Cheng Xin in the original novel, who chose to sit and wait for death in the face of the Trisolaran civilization's powerful attack after taking over the Swordholder switch—different people telling similar stories. As long as she completes this operation, the entire Three-Body scenario will smoothly come to an end.

The reincarnators wouldn't interfere, as it was unnecessary and pointless. It was always better to anticipate an action than to guess at the improvisation of a higher, more extraordinary being. Therefore, 'Cheng Xin's' moon landing would be unimpeded, and her acquisition of power—however comical and unbelievable—would go unchecked. And before she arrived, Alice could still make her way in the Gray Moon.

"Center for Cosmic Sociology Research." Alice glanced at the huge sign above the building's entrance—cleaning robots had kept the research center impeccably clean. Every corner was spotless, the air was free of particles, and there was no debris or dust on the ground. Even the cleanest buildings of the 21st century weren't as clean as this. Yet, even so, she could still clearly sense the gloom and despondency permeating the atmosphere.

A research center that stores waste; a research center whose only value lies in providing opportunities for Luo Ji when he is ambitious, and a springboard for Cheng Xin to gain power when she takes action—Cheng Xin's schedule is somewhat delayed, and there is still a short time before she arrives here. Luo Ji, on the other hand, has been here for two whole years.

"Did I really ruin him?" Alice raised an eyebrow slightly, walking through the research center, which was practically deserted, as if it were her own backyard. Since she didn't want to be seen, there was no chance the people here would notice her, and she didn't see any need to interact with these useless people.

She arrived at the door of Luo Ji's office. It was a long corridor with only one door. On either side of the door and opposite it were solid, unadjustable iron walls, and when she pushed open Luo Ji's office door, her action went unnoticed by anyone.

Including Luo Ji, because Luo Ji was already asleep.

Alice's raised eyebrows slowly furrowed. Luo Ji's unconsciousness was not what she had expected—no, she hadn't checked the surveillance footage beforehand. She only had a premonition that Luo Ji was awake before she arrived, but she didn't expect to find the man slumped over his desk, fast asleep.

Is it an illusion? Impossible. Extraordinary life forms that have unlocked the fourth level of genetic locks cannot possibly experience illusions. Then…

Alice snapped her fingers, and an invisible wave of information swept over Luo Ji.

"...He was asleep when I arrived at the research center? Could that be?" Alice's first thought was that something was amiss. But in an instant, she began to read through all the information naturally left behind by Luo Ji's actions in the previous half hour. She saw every heartbeat, every red blood cell flowing in his veins, and every oxygen exchange value within those cells. Then she had to admit that Luo Ji had already been in a state of severe fatigue before she arrived, his body and mind severely worn down. And when she reached the entrance of the research center, the accumulated fatigue had just reached the threshold for activating the body's self-protective mechanisms.

No problem—but she felt that the very absence of a problem might itself be a problem.

So she continued to trace back Luo Ji's physiological information, all the way back to the moment when the man's spirit began to be depleted from its peak state—and then, perception unfolded.

Twenty-four hours earlier, Luo Ji was in his own residence when two prostitutes were welcomed into his home.

Twelve hours ago, Luo Ji woke up from his exhaustion. He stared at his blank personal terminal for five minutes, seemingly trying to find something interesting in the screen that had no information at all. Alice had read his brainwave records from that time and derived the conclusion that, "It's been almost a month, I should go to the research center and show my face."

Eleven hours ago, Luo Ji arrived at the research center. He walked straight to his office without turning or greeting anyone, then stood there for five minutes, lost in thought—Alice's brainwave readings indicated, 'What should I do later? Going back directly seems a bit foolish; I'll just look through some files and make it seem like it.'

Five minutes later, he entered the office, sat down in a rather unseemly posture, and retrieved a large number of paper files to read. He spent the entire day reading them.

Alice also synchronized her visual information with Luo Ji and read through the information Luo Ji had spent a day reviewing—information, not files. Because after flipping through personnel files for ten minutes and looking at planning reports for fifteen minutes, Luo Ji abandoned them and instead focused his attention on the vast amount of information available through the network system—he was essentially using the research center's enormous bandwidth to indulge in some escapades! He even spent a full three hours playing seventeen or eighteen rounds of the virtual reality game "Greedy Purple Moon"!

Gan!

Alice deactivated her sensory synchronization, and with a glance, the screen of the large interactive terminal next to Luo Ji lit up. A physical light projected, revealing a paused, realistic game interface with over three hours of gameplay time marked in the corner. Alice, still unwilling to give up, meticulously examined the game's progress logs and data flow, analyzing every single byte, even tracing Luo Ji's interactions within the game to find other real players and analyzing their brains along the network cable. Then, it turned out that everything she had done was completely unnecessary.

This man actually played games here for ten hours straight, completely exhausting himself. Considering his life records from the previous two years, the likelihood of him doing this is quite high.

There's no need to pay too much attention to this man anymore.

Alice shook her head slightly, abandoning her plan to carefully read Luo Ji's soul from beginning to end. While doing so would minimize errors, such a method, tantamount to endless torture, was still a bit excessive for an innocent ordinary person.

Am I being too suspicious? I have limited time, yet I've wasted so much time on such an insignificant person.

Even if Luo Ji has problems, how would that hinder my overall plan? Only Chang'e, and only Chang'e, could tamper with him. If Chang'e is fully aware of everything, then everything we do is in vain. And if Chang'e has only a vague understanding of our plan, or even no understanding at all, then it won't affect the outcome… We can't expect this guy to be a crucial mole, sabotaging the Apocalypse while it's in operation, can we?

[...it seems there really is such a possibility.]

Alice rubbed her head and thought for a few seconds. She finally decided to leave some detection measures here—in fact, Luo Ji had always had these things around him, and all she did was test the stability of these surveillance systems and add some new components.

She checked one last time and ultimately chose to leave silently.

One second, two seconds, three seconds—half a minute later, her avatar briefly appeared here. Luo Ji, however, remained asleep.

Five minutes later, her avatar appeared again. And what she saw was still a sleeping man.

"Perhaps I really am worrying too much," Alice thought. This time, she finally shifted most of her focus away from this place. Leaving only a few small contingency plans in reserve, she completely left, turning her energy to another, more important goal—meeting Chu Xuan.

However, immediately after she left, something like ripples spread and expanded in Luo Ji's room. All her precautions were ignored. For at the edge of the area covered by the ripples, Luo Ye's form faintly appeared.