Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Following the Dragon's Demise, a new type of orc emerged, possessing even greater physical strength. These individuals could unlock higher levels of 'Blood Damage' and quickly recover, returning to battle as super-elite beings. Some of them became even stronger during the full moon, while others could induce pseudo-supernatural forces through physical phenomena. These orcs could be roughly considered to possess B to BB-level enhancements and have partially unlocked the third-tier genetic lock; even in the cycle of reincarnation, they were far from being mere cannon fodder.

To deal with an enemy of this caliber, a supernatural civilization of the early 21st century would be utterly helpless, resorting to heavy artillery bombardment and mushroom cultivation as last resorts. Clearly, the mortal civilization in this world, given its current state, is already incredibly fortunate to have reached the level of the 15th century. Not to mention the orcs possess even greater combat power than these elite individuals. If it weren't for the war between the orcs and the Tsukuyomi race, and the fact that the fairies, with their support, hadn't deployed most of their elite forces to outer space, the mortals, whose living space overlapped with that of the orcs, would have faced annihilation.

No, in fact, their annihilation has already arrived.

The reason why so much space was spent describing the current situation of the orc race is because an unfortunate message has been conveyed to the reincarnators in the underground cavern through the Eye of Patchouli. When the members of the Central Continent team turned their gaze away because of Patchouli's words, the purple-toned witch calmly announced an urgent intelligence.

"Of the fifteen coordinates, four showed the gathering of orc troops. I suspect this might be a purge operation. It also confirms that at least those four locations are indeed human settlements," the girl said calmly. She then made a gesture, changing the color of four of the fifteen coordinates to a deep black.

"This seems a bit of a coincidence." Xiao Honglu pinched a strand of hair from his forehead. "We've only just arrived in this world, and the mortals are already being purged... Could it be that the main god has added difficulties for us?"

Patchouli remained silent, but she silently transferred a translated internal orc document into the mental network activated by Zhang Jie. The document had been released twenty-four hours earlier, at which time the orc royal court had issued orders to clear the surrounding areas and clarify the boundaries of the territory.

Six hours earlier, approximately thirty coordinates had been provided from a special institution within the Orcish Royal Court known as the Witch's Agency. Several of these were false alarms, and about twenty were lairs of wild beasts and roaming demons. Unfortunately, the four mortal settlements were among them—or at least appeared to be so, with their danger level specifically marked as 'medium-low'.

"This doesn't seem like something is pulling the strings behind the scenes. It's very likely just a coincidence, a coincidence where the main god increases the difficulty for us, or rather, creates an opportunity. The mortals in this world aren't worth the fifteen races deliberately fighting against and suppressing. Perhaps in the orcs' understanding, so-called mortals are nothing more than some kind of small to medium-sized bipedal wild animal." Zhang Jie, who rarely spoke, took a drag of his cigarette and chuckled. "This is the first time I've seen something like this. Humans have fallen so low that they don't even have the right to be observed. This has never happened in previous reincarnation worlds, haha."

"What are we waiting for? Let's go over there and teach those jerks who look down on us a lesson!"

Patchouli turned her head and glanced at Chu Xuan.

The latter did not respond verbally, but simply pushed up his non-prescription glasses quietly.

Could it be interference from the Dragon Spirits, a small-scale skew to the world line as a test? Considering that Dragon Break was able to pull multiple world lines here, it's not impossible that after our arrival, Zheng Zha's rampage on that side attracted the Dragon Spirits' attention, leading to changes in the past and some kind of test before our arrival...

Patchouli pondered this in her heart, but she didn't utter a single word. Words aren't always effective. Since she had entrusted the position of strategist to Chu Xuan in the Starship Troopers world, she naturally wouldn't utter any unnecessary words here, but rather trusted that Chu Xuan would consider this aspect and make an appropriate response.

She only waited two seconds.

"Splitting operations." A cold glint flashed in Chu Xuan's glasses. "Patchouli is in charge of building infrastructure here, ensuring a well-defended base is established as quickly as possible. The rest of us will split into four teams, starting from here, going here, here, and here, before regrouping." He stretched out his hand and drew a neat line of plan on the terrain map that floated in front of him.

"We must remain as secretive as possible, so adequate camouflage is essential for this operation. Luo Gandao, your mech is too conspicuous, so you'll stay here for now. Besides you, Zhan Lan and Zhang Jie, each of you will lead a team. Use your mental energy to create cover and go to rescue the two points here. Zhao Yingkong will be in charge of transportation, getting the troop members to suitable locations, while you will be responsible for the evacuation of the mortals at the last point. Before that, deploy me to the coordinates of the third point, and after you've finished there, transport the personnel back one by one."

"Does anyone have any objections?" He glanced at Ba Wang, Ling Dian, and Zhang Heng, who were standing consciously behind Zhang Jie, as well as Xiao Honglu, Cheng Xiao, and Ming Yanwei, who were acting with Zhan Lan. He nodded.

"Then, let's begin."

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

Alice felt her brain throbbing violently; this unexpected turn of events sent a chill down her spine. She was forced to abruptly halt her research on Israphar's head and postpone her analysis of the artifact known as the Dragon's Scale, which was in reality a complex, confined fragment of spacetime. Instead, she directed her mental energy to an unexpected area.

Was there anything we overlooked?

Is something wrong?

I corrected myself and checked, but no matter what I did, the final result was that my reasoning was flawless. Since I wasn't the one who was wrong, combining that with a small detail from before, the final answer became quite obvious.

[The changes... have they really been that significant? Or perhaps...]

“Uh, well… Margot Lloyd. Actually, I think…” The guy, completely oblivious to the situation, scratched his head. His tone was hesitant, but his words were firm as he replied, “I might not be suited to be some kind of human emperor. Leading those people who have nothing to do with me and giving them protection isn’t something I want to do. Compared to things like ruling and protecting others that require a lot of brainpower… perhaps I’m more suited to pioneering and enterprising work?”

"………………" Alice rubbed her head.

"The mortals of this world are suffering terribly. They are in dire straits and on the verge of death. Many are dying innocently right now due to various natural disasters and external calamities. Perhaps disease and famine force them to kill the elderly and disabled in their tribes or use them as food." The witch said calmly, "I'm not saying this to persuade you. I just want to ask you what your opinion is on this."

“…I have no opinion.” Zheng Zha thought for a moment, then a puzzled and slightly bitter smile appeared on his lips: “Although I also feel strange, after listening to you, I feel as if I were sitting in my apartment watching TV many years ago, watching planes crash into the World Trade Center, watching the US military bombing Iraq, and countless displaced people… It seems like I feel a sense of empathy, but in reality… I don’t feel anything.”

He thought for a moment, then added, “If it were someone from my own world who was being treated like this, I would probably be furious. If it were someone from a different world, but with a similar culture and appearance as if from a parallel universe, I would also be furious. But before that, I think I need to gather enough information to ensure that protecting those guys doesn’t affect the team’s interests and that my actions are in line with my sense of justice… that’s about it.”

"What is your sense of justice?" Alice continued to press.

"…………" Zheng Zha opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but it got stuck in his throat.

So Alice made a 'that's enough' gesture.

“Understood,” Alice lowered her head, thought for a few seconds, and then let out a soft breath. “It was my oversight before, Zheng Zha. I apologize for that. The position of Human Emperor is indeed a burden for you. You are not a selfless devotee with a heart full of great compassion. You should have found your own path now and are working hard to put it into practice. Under these circumstances, continuing to try to reach the position of Human Emperor will only weaken our team’s overall strength, which would be a loss.”

"We need to set up a new plan."

"Uh... if it's too much trouble, I don't think it's impossible." Zheng Zha rubbed his head.

“No, you can’t.” Alice shook her head slightly. “Besides, resetting the plan wouldn’t be a difficult task for me, but for now—”

The next moment, a bird's cooing rang out beside her. The ever-present messenger had silently appeared beside her and delivered the information as she handed over the note as payment.

Alice rubbed her forehead again. She suddenly tilted her head and looked at Zheng Zha.

"Zheng Zha, which do you think is the most annoying: orcs, vampires, or dragons?"

"……what?"

“A new plan has been drawn up, and Chu Xuan has a contingency plan to deal with your situation. They will still take action and go to human settlements to take in the local native mortals. The work of activating the divine essence will be handled by other candidates, and you will not need to bear this karma again.”

"Then, we have other plans—the main force of the Skywing race should have already tracked us to the place where we fought their kin. Although I destroyed the local communication infrastructure, it's hard to say whether I left any traces. After considering the Skywing race's behavior patterns, their most likely course of action is to launch a surprise attack on the Vampire race's territory and announce what happened here to attract the attention of the Dragon Spirit race—the chances of being hindered are slim, and it can be considered a foregone conclusion. To make the situation more favorable for us, we need to find a way to gain some initiative."

"Disguise yourself as a vampire and attack the dragon race. Or disguise yourself as a dragon race and attack the settlements of other races—Chu Xuan has already given us a list. If you choose the latter, then the royal court of the orc race and several large settlements of the fairy race are suitable targets. The former is more recommended. In any case, we need to stir up the waters even more before Patchi is ready."

“Well, I haven’t said this to you in a long time, Captain Zheng Zha.” Alice tilted her head slightly and asked, “You can have both, but you have to choose one of them no matter what.”

"What's your choice?"

Section 8 World War Situation

To Alice's surprise, Zheng Zha did not answer her question immediately. Instead, he waited for several seconds before continuing the conversation with another question.

"So what if I pretend to be a vampire? So what if I pretend to be a dragon spirit?"

Alice raised an eyebrow.

"You possess a mutated, top-tier vampire bloodline, which would make you one of the highest-ranking vampires in any world. If you choose to disguise yourself as a vampire, you can reduce a lot of work in terms of disguise. After all, since the Dragon Break, the Great Lords born among the vampires have become increasingly powerful, so it's not surprising that an anomaly has emerged."

Alice reached out and conjured a light screen in the air.

"The first vampire lord to be born was named Shalltear, Shalltear Bradford. Her strength... was actually just average. She crushed a Skywing combat squad with a few secret treasures she possessed, and then a few days later, she was beheaded by Skywing avengers who came to take revenge. To this day, her head is still hanging on the wall of the central hall of the Skywing royal city, Abant Hem."

"The vampire race could very well have been wiped out. In fact, the vampire capital was completely destroyed in that battle, and a quarter of its population was wiped out. It was on the verge of collapse. However, when the Winged Race dispersed its legions to sweep through several of the vampire race's auxiliary cities, three powerful warriors with distinct fighting styles emerged from the other three auxiliary cities. Each of them was several times stronger than the first Grand Lord."

Three figures appeared on the light screen: two women and one man. One of the women had obvious Caucasian features, while the other was of East Asian descent. The remaining man was clearly from Wallachia, and his eagle-like gaze made Zheng Zha subconsciously adopt a defensive posture, even through the light screen.

"The male's name is Alucard, which is clearly 'Dracula' spelled backwards. His fighting style is mainly characterized by a vitality so strong that even extraordinary beings would find it absurd, and melee combat abilities comparable to an adamantite golem. In this respect, he does have some similarities to you, Zheng Zha. But this should only be a small part of his strength, because in Israphal's memories, the surviving Skywing races who participated in the battle against him considered him the greatest threat."

"Two women. The first woman's name is Evangeline, and her surname seems to be included, but it's uncertain. Her main strength lies in her powerful manipulation of dark and freezing magic. She is a mage with considerable experience. Judging from her current combat strength, she is comparable to Patchouli when she set up her position. That is, her offensive capabilities have reached an extraordinary level, while her defense and survivability are slightly lacking, but she can still hold out for a period of time."

"And the other female vampire lord's name is Kaguya Sayo." Alice clapped her hands, and the image on the screen changed to a sailor-uniformed girl with long black hair, wielding a knight's lance in one hand and a samurai sword in the other, hacking dozens of mid-ranking Skywing vampires to pieces on a battlefield. "Sailor uniform, twin tails, the half-body armor she's wearing, and the incongruous gun and sword... Among the vampires, her fighting skills are the most powerful. She might even be able to cut through the wind and clouds. Combined with the life-draining characteristics exhibited by vampires, she could perhaps be considered an assassin on the battlefield."

"Warriors, sorcerers, assassins. Western Europe, Eastern Europe, East Asia—these three are the strongest among the vampire lords, representing three completely unrelated paths of cultivation. Besides these three, there are nearly ten other vampire lords who are a level weaker, but still capable of defeating a Skywing combat squad. If we don't include the War Lords who are not part of the regular ranks, the war between the Skywings and the vampires is probably only a 30/70 split... at most."

Alice shrugged.

"So you see, the power system of vampires has become so chaotic that if you jump out now and claim to be a newly born vampire lord, even they might believe you. Therefore, in the two plus one strategy I gave you, vampires are not our primary target. After all, it's rather easy for us to leverage their power."

"And this is why I judged that the Skywing Race would inevitably wage war against the Vampire Race after discovering your traces. Although they are already at war, the Skywing Race and the Vampire Race are in a strange state of peace because the Lord of War is busy fighting in the outer space. A newly emerging powerful ruler will inevitably arouse the Skywing Race's vigilance, and according to my analysis of their decision-makers, she will definitely choose to strike first, regardless of which side we belong to, to weaken the Vampire Race's power first. And at most, it will be weakened, but annihilation is absolutely impossible."

“I see…” Zheng Zha nodded. “In other words, if I launch an attack on the Dragon Spirits as a vampire, regardless of success or failure, the Skywing Race’s pretext for war will be destroyed. However, it is a fact that the vampires will be weakened, and it is also a fact that their relationship with the Dragon Spirits will deteriorate. But the Dragon Spirits will only be targeting us, which will lead to an alliance between the vampires and other races. This is the so-called alliance of the weak against the strong, and the war situation on the surface will become increasingly chaotic. And the more trouble we cause on our side, the smoother Chu Xuan’s development will be… Is that right?”

“That’s partly true, but this level is about enough for the current situation.” Alice nodded and continued, “Choosing this path is advantageous for the team’s overall situation, but for you and me, who are out fighting, it’s just a tough job. Because the Dragon Spirits are very strong, extremely strong… even the average ones are manageable, but each of the North Wind Lord’s follower dragons can easily overpower hundreds of Skywinged creatures, their combat strength. And the North Wind Lord, who descended with the Dragon Break, has clashed with the War Lord several times in the outer space. Perhaps this is why the War God doesn’t allow his own clan to initiate war against the Dragon Spirits. After all, the Skywinged creatures, the only ones who don’t benefit from the Dragon Break, are indeed falling behind the times.”

“It sounds a bit like the Celestials team…” Zheng Zha said subconsciously.

"The Celestial Team?" Alice blinked, but skipped the topic before Zheng Zha could explain, though he looked confused. "Anyway, choosing this path means we'll definitely have to confront the Dragon Spirits. I've confirmed they have the ability to interfere with the timeline, but this ability is ineffective against undiscovered reincarnators until they find each of us individually. We'll have to take down at least one of the North Wind Lord's follower dragons, and then we'll attract a lot of firepower... Do you know Luo Ye?"

"You know her... Huh?" Zheng Zha almost didn't react. A flash of inspiration seemed to pass through his mind when he heard that word. Then, that inspiration vanished instantly. "What are you talking about? Margot Lloyd."

"It's nothing." Alice shook her head, brushing the topic aside with a smile. "Anyway, this is how things develop if you choose the path of a vampire. And then the next step is the strategy of disguising yourself as a dragon spirit."

Alice stretched out her hand, and a faint light appeared in her palm. "This is a treasure extracted from the bodies of those three Skywing races. They call it the 'Dragon's Scale,' a fragment of power extracted from the remains of one of the three former kings of the Dragon Essence race. I spent a little time analyzing it and was somewhat surprised to find that it actually matches your genetic structure quite well."

Fragments of the predicted events flashed through Alice's mind. She recalled that if the events unfolded as predicted, after the world of Deathly Hallows ended, there should have been Alien, Resident Evil 2, and then a simplified, heavily modified adventure film called Jurassic Park. Zheng Zha was supposed to bathe in dragon blood in that movie to compensate for his physical weaknesses and gain the potential to further develop his self-created skill 'Explosion'. Even his later 'Hidden Dragon Transformation' might have been inspired by the blood bath he received at that moment.

Now, however, time has passed, and fate has taken a roundabout turn. Zheng Zha has long since grown to a level where ordinary dragon blood is no longer worthy of him, and he has fully developed the explosion and destruction system, even beginning to touch upon the 'primordial world'. Yet, in this unexpected world, another true dragon power, capable of aiding him, has come before him.

"I've already broken through the protective measures on the outside of this fragment of power. Although the Lord of War is at a higher level than me, he still lacks some knowledge and expertise. Although it was quite troublesome to work with, it's no longer a problem now—if you agree, I can implant it into your body. While this won't grant you the ability to interfere with the past and future, or even summon your past self from different points in time to fight, like the Dragon Spirit in the data, it will at least give you a great deal of resistance to such interference, allowing you to experience the bonus effect of the Light of the Mind in advance."

The ball of light at her fingertips spun around.

"Of course, after implanting this, it's not appropriate to directly contact the dragon spirits. That could easily turn into a terrible situation where we get ganged up on and beaten by the dragons, so we have to find other races to be the easy targets."

"The Beastmen are the most recommended because they are relatively weak. Even their strongest super-elite individuals are only around the fourth rank. Their king... or the head priestess might have some unexpected power. But they are not very strong, and their main force is fighting the Tsukuyomi in the deep space. This will make our offensive, at least in the early stages, very smooth—I don't have much information about the top combat power of the Beastmen. The only information I have is that the head priestess of the Beastmen is a fox, which might be related to Tamamo-no-Mae."

"The Fairy race is another option. They are an allied race with the Beastmen, and their main battlefield is in outer space. Similarly, if we wage war against the Fairy race, we will definitely provoke a joint attack from both the Beastmen and the Fairy race. Although I will eventually guide this into a war between the allied forces of these two races and the Dragon Fairy race. But before that, we need to draw their firepower—the Fairy race's strongest fighter is their queen. She is said to be a visitor from another timeline who was born after the Dragon Break. In the Skywing race's files, she is called Arisa the Peaceful—I really can't find any data on this, but I guess the Fairy race's war direction is related to dreams."

"In short, that's the conclusion. Is there anything else you'd like to know?" Alice concluded the conversation with a question.

She had thought that Zheng Zha's problem was over.

“There are indeed still some problems.” Zheng Zha’s actions were once again unexpected—or rather, partially unexpected.

"In our conversation just now, Margot, you mainly talked about the five races: Dragon Spirits, Skywings, Vampires, Orcs, and Elves. You only briefly mentioned Tsukuyomi and Goblins. What about the other races, and what is their situation in battle?"

Alliston paused for a moment.

"Other races... to be honest, you're not really suited to know this kind of information right now. But since you have the desire to learn about them, then I'll have a good chat with you."

"From weakest to strongest, the first is the weakest marine species... Unfortunately, there are basically no seas left on the surface of this planet, and marine species have the characteristic of being unable to leave the ocean. They didn't make any moves during the Dragon Break, so we can ignore them for now."

"Let's skip the Beastmen; they've allied with the Fairies and are fighting the Moonlit Sages in space. As for the Skywings, there's not much information about the Moonlit Sages here. We don't need to worry about them for now."

"Above that are the demon species. These deformed and mutated creatures are creations of the fantasy species 'Demon King'. But after the Dragon Break, they seem to have become the 'Mother of All Beasts'... In short, they are a bunch of wild monsters that fight with everyone and don't have any complete tribes or clusters. But their individual soldier quality is very strong and their reproductive ability should not be underestimated."

"Above that are the Machine Race, which can be seen as a runaway mechanical catastrophe. Unlike the Demon Race, they don't fight anyone, but once attacked, they will launch a full-scale counterattack. They don't seem to have changed much in Dragon Break, but their numbers and size have increased many times over. They are currently active in outer space, wandering around aimlessly. Now is not the time to pay attention to them."

"The forest elves and goblins represent the magical and mechanical civilizations, respectively. They are sworn enemies and are currently waging a mass war in outer space. It is said that half of the Skywing race's fighting force has also been drawn into their war, and it is now divided into two separate battlefields with the battle between the Moonlit Orcs and the Fairies."

"Leaving aside Skywing and Dragon Essence, the Titans were previously known as the Giants. Although powerful, they weren't really worth paying much attention to back then. However, after Dragon Break, several Titans emerged who were ridiculously strong, even capable of wrestling with gods, or perhaps they were simply true gods from another world."

"They are Ymir, the progenitor of frost, a colossus that is an enemy of many fantasy species and wrestles with the dragon spirit species."

"Qua, the giant who chases the sun, a powerful figure who participates in the war against the Lord of War."

"And finally, the Titan of Time, the colossus suspected of being connected to Dragonbreak—Koloros."

Section 9 Animal Traps

"Kua?" Zheng Zha interjected, "It's Kuafu, not Kuafu?"

“Yes, it’s just Kua, not Kuafu.” Alice nodded. “Although it feels a bit strange, it’s definitely not the Kuafu you heard about in mythology, but Kua, just one word. According to Israphar’s memory, it’s very similar to the giant who chased the sun in mythology, but it’s hard to say exactly what the situation is.”

Alice tilted her head slightly. "In short, Ymir the giant is the ancestor of giants in Norse mythology. Chronos the god of time is a Titan in Greek mythology, and his status is not much different from Ymir's. As for the last one, not considering him as a powerful being on par with the former two... I think that's a bit unreasonable."

“However, we don’t really need to worry about the Titans for now. They exist on a plane too far away from us, and even if we wanted to do something, we are powerless to do so.” She added, “At least for now.”

"Can't you beat them?" Zheng Zha asked, his grip on the crimson broadsword tightening unconsciously.

"It's not a question of whether we can win or not, it's a question of whether it's necessary to fight." Alice shook her head in denial, and then changed the subject.

"Alright, that concludes the information on the Titans. Next up is the Elf race. To be honest, this race is rather peculiar, because we are actually dealing with them all the time in this world. But they may not possess a complete individual or an independent mode of thinking."

Alice reached out, tearing through space, and plucked a wisp of black ash from the outside—the ash showed signs of trying to burn her skin as it landed on her fingertips. However, after gathering enough information, this little thing, which posed no threat to powerful life forms, was no longer a cause for the witch's particular vigilance.