Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

"Rikku...? A mortal who can maneuver between three extraordinary beings and still achieve some results... doesn't seem like an ordinary person at all. Considering the usual habits of the main god and the general environment of the human race, the protagonist of this game No Game No Life Zero world must be one of the mortals... If we take this terrible battle situation as an example, the possibility of this guy being the protagonist is very high."

"Anyway, there's nothing important to do next... so let's go take a look over there."

She nodded, then lifted her foot towards Zhao Yingkong's current location.

Behind her, the little devil, having finished his report, saw that she was about to leave, and his body quietly faded away, preparing to blend into her shadow as before.

however--

“Just stay in your physical form, little devil,” Alice said without turning her head. “You must be getting bored staying in the Great Library all the time. This time, I’m giving you special permission to move around freely, just don’t stray too far from me.”

Chapter Thirty: Old Acquaintances Who Have Never Met

The servants of the Lord of Time resemble a collection of transparent rhombuses pieced together. Some parts are crystalline, others are planar. By the divine power bestowed upon them by the Lord of Time, these strange creatures, composed of crystals and planes, can freely traverse between two and three dimensions, moving freely within the realms of real and imaginary numbers.

They never participate in battles, for the Lord of Time does not need them to fight for him. Ever since the Dragon Break—a number known only to a select few—was completed thirty-four years and one hundred and twenty-five days ago, and the Lord of Time crossed the boundary and descended upon this world, there have been few adversaries in the entire cosmos who can rival Him.

The Lord of War might be considered one, but before the five spins of the Star of Disbod, He had already fallen at a disadvantage in his clash with the Lord of Time. A white wing, representing a part of His life and soul essence, was torn off and shattered by the Lord of Time himself, which also meant that the power of war would gradually be subjugated by Time.

Of course, victory may come late. After all, the collision of primordial forces in the universe is a long process. Moreover, the two kin of the Lord of Time, Ymir and Quwa, the Lord of the North Wind among the Dragon Elves, the Lord of Rest among the Fairies, and the Mother of All Demons among the Fantasy race could all become variables in the battle. But no matter how the battle develops, the servants of the Lord of Time have no doubt that their master will seize the final crown.

Indeed, is there anything in this world that can compare to time? Just as the immense power of the Lord of War originates from the very concept of 'war,' as long as war exists, He can grow ever stronger. The source of the Lord of Time's power in this single universe is the 'operation and flow of time.' War will eventually come to an end, but time will never cease.

After all, time and space are the foundation of the universe; without time, the universe would cease to exist. The only spatial ruler who can conceptually rival the Lord of Time, Ismir the North Wind Dragon, is inherently hostile to Ymir due to overlapping conceptual domains, and simultaneously, along with the Sunchaser 'Kwa', is at war with the Lord of War. By the time things are sorted out there, the final outcome should already be in place.

Therefore, no matter how fierce the war in the starry sky may be, the temple of the Lord of Time—a crystalline palace whose physical location lies within folded space and whose projection point falls on the edge of the universe—remains peaceful and tranquil. One of His humanoid avatars sits atop the temple, playing a game of chess with himself on an open platform surrounded by emptiness on five sides, a game with no clear winner. His servants, meanwhile, drift orderly within His palace, exercising His powers and tirelessly mending the gaps and imperfections in the flow of time within this universe since the Dragon's Demise.

After all, He is a god, and gods have responsibilities. Those who are unwilling to bear responsibilities but want to gain power are called immortals, and if an immortal wants to be equal to a god in power and authority, then he must bear tribulations.

And it was precisely because of this that when Alice and Zheng Zha fought against the Winged Races, when Alucard's fortress opened, and when Zheng Zha went missing for some unknown reason, the spacetime disturbances they caused were clearly reflected in the eyes of the servants of the Lord of Time within this desolate cosmic court.

This is hardly a rare occurrence. After all, in this war-torn world, the interference of spacetime by powerful beings is a common phenomenon, occurring at least thirty times a day. The servants of the Lord of Time simply record and archive these events as usual, and encourage the universe's self-repairing forces to fill the spacetime structures damaged by the abuse of these abilities.

They will not do anything extra, because the Lord of Time has not ordered them to do anything superfluous.

And they don't see anything wrong with this kind of life. Because this is how they have lived since the time they were created.

until now.

When a humanoid shadow quietly appeared on the opposite side of the Lord of Time's chessboard, gradually transforming from illusion into reality, all sentient beings within the Court of Time ceased to move.

"The appointed time is approaching, according to the covenant made an era ago. You have surrendered your own soul essence concerning time to me, so that I may command an era. In return, you and your friends are allowed to depart from my world."

The avatar of the Lord of Time appears as a male, but upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that He is actually a human form constructed from billions of clocks pieced together. The sounds of the hour, minute, and second hands turning intertwine and distort observable radiation and light, ultimately allowing sentient beings to perceive a figure that appears to be male.

The chessboard before Him seemed to be in a dead end, and the rules of the board were also strange. Playing against oneself would not normally result in a winner, but an apple that seemed to have flown in from nowhere was deeply embedded in the chessboard, thus throwing the balance of the game, which was originally absolutely evenly matched, out of control.

On the opposite side of the chessboard, the shadowy figure gradually materialized. It was a beautiful young woman with ankle-length purple hair. Her features were exquisite, her posture graceful, and her dark golden eyes held slanted, cross-shaped pupils. She wore a magnificent outfit of pale purple and dark gold.

When she opened her eyes, slanted crosses appeared in the eyes of all the still servants within the Court of Time. The next moment, these servants, with their exquisitely geometric forms, abruptly disintegrated and deteriorated, transforming from perfect structures into clumps of twisted, dark purple-blue mud. Countless tentacles, claws, mouthparts, and arthropod-like structures appeared one by one on their new forms, distorting the surrounding space like tearing rags. This chaos lasted only a moment; the next instant, they scattered to every corner of the Court of Time, disappearing into the shadowy rifts and vanishing without a trace.

The girl's eyes brightened, and her scattered gaze regained its focus and solidity. A chaotic memory spanning an entire era churned and reorganized within her mind, being edited, deleted, and reordered. After an unknown amount of time, the useless things were discarded, and her memories returned to a world from an era before.

A fleeting glimpse of a wristwatch seemed to appear on her wrist, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared, like an unstable illusion. She looked up, gazing at the opposite side of the chessboard, where the image of the Lord of Time found its counterpart in her memory.

"Kororos..." The girl's voice was initially hoarse and shrill, like a rough, unused grinding wheel. But as her tone quickly shifted to a melodious and clear one, her thoughts and intellect finally began to function again.

“My name… is Sirin. I am… a reincarnator from the Arctic team.”

The illusory image of the watch on her wrist flickered again, and once again failed to form a stable structure and vanished into nothingness.

She shook her head.

“No, not entirely. I am a part of Sirin that was severed in the world of ‘Spartacus 300’. I am half of her, her other side of her soul. And according to the previous agreement, I was to serve Kororos for an era… 129,600 years… Has that time already passed?”

A complex timer appeared before her, its hands pointing precisely to the last day. But this last day was not yet over; there was still a short time before the agreed-upon time arrived.

A short period of time—it could be seconds, minutes, days, or tens of thousands of years. To the Lord of Time, time has no meaning whatsoever. But for the living beings who have made a pact with the Lord of Time, the agreed-upon time could be a fleeting moment or an eternity.

However, the Lord of Time reached out and turned the pointer to the final boundary.

"There's something I need you to do."

"Even if I wanted to object, it wouldn't really make much of a difference, would it?" The girl shook her head, looking at the Lord of Time's fingers still resting on the timer, and sighed as she replied, "Just tell me what the mission is, but don't try to push your luck. And don't try to change the concept of 'inch' to 'foot'!"

"There are other people like you on this planet, wearing the same watches as you, and from the same place."

"...A reincarnator? What do you mean? My era is hundreds of thousands of years past." The girl's sigh turned into wariness. "My partner isn't here. Don't think I'll extend our stay any longer!"

"Your destiny is there; how you handle it is up to you. I am about to depart, for this world no longer holds any value for me. The outside apple has disrupted the balance of this world, and you can decide who the foolish one will be crushed by the apple."

"...Could you please speak like a human being? I'm illiterate and can't understand you."

The girl's lips twitched.

And the next moment.

She saw an enormous clock rushing towards her!

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

'Boom—!'

With a deafening crash as mechanical parts shattered, a demonic creature that looked like a clock come to life was smashed into a mangled mess by Zheng Zha's punch. The enclosed space, piled high with bones, fell into a temporary calm with the death of the last demonic creature in sight. The exhausted fellow could finally stop, catch his breath, and await the next battle—a battle that might or might not come.

How long have I been here?

Zheng Zha couldn't remember clearly, but it must have been a very, very long time ago. He remembered breaking into a demon's lair, hacking his way from the entrance to the bottom of the cave, and when he reached the last high-ranking demon that looked like a mirror and delivered a million-ton slash, the radiance reflected from the mirror shards transported him to another world.

It wasn't a hallucination, absolutely not. Zheng, who frequently visited the world of memories, knew very well the characteristics and loopholes of a fantasy world, and also possessed numerous emergency measures to deal with such situations. However, after he spent a few seconds verifying the reality of this world, war ensued.

Those were demonic creatures, as numerous as the ocean tides, their numbers countless. They surged in from all directions, bringing disaster and war.

Clearly, these demons are not beings that can be communicated with normally. Even though they vary in strength and size, order and emotions seem to be completely foreign to them. They do not understand fear, nor do they know how to retreat or make strategic maneuvers; they only endlessly launch attacks on the only outsider in this abnormal world.

One after another, in groups and in groups.

At first, Zheng Zha used various powerful moves in combat, attempting to directly destroy the ground and tear apart the spatial structure in hopes of inflicting a fundamental and direct blow on this place that was clearly an alternate dimension. However, after several attempts, he had to abandon this tempting idea, because he discovered that the spatial structure where he was located was even stronger and more self-repairing than the outside world of Disbod.

The theory of another world was thus rejected; he must have been transported by some powerful teleportation method to a place unrelated to Disbote. He had tried to brave the surging tide of demons to reach the heavens, but discovered that the ground beneath his feet was not the spherical surface a celestial body should have. And when he penetrated the earth, going a thousand kilometers deeper, he still couldn't find the lava that should be present in the asthenosphere.

[Either this is an absurdly large celestial body, with a diameter measured in light-years—but if so, the gravitational parameters and surface environment would seem somewhat unusual.]

If this isn't the surface of a celestial body, then the place I've arrived at is likely a strangely structured space with a flat, round sky—a realm that should be naturally formed rather than created by extraordinary life. And since it's natural and I was able to be brought in, I should definitely be able to find a way out.

With this in mind, Zheng Zha began his war, a war fought entirely by himself. He completely disregarded the useful and all-powerful messenger, the Gugu, without even a second thought. His strategy was to cleanse the world, and then he was certain he could find his way out.

It's a crude idea, but it might not be useless. After all, once all the demons are wiped out, there won't be any fools hindering his exploration. Moreover—

[I came here to cause trouble for the demon race anyway. Isn't it a good thing to have so many monsters to kill? Plus, there are reward points from the main god to collect!]

Thus began the long, tedious, but lucrative task of racking up points. The main god was inflexible; even as he became more adept and skilled at killing, the reward points continued to roll. From the initial exhilaration to the mid-game boredom, and then to the mechanical, perfunctory actions of the later stages, the number of demons this giant gorilla had killed had gradually equaled the number of times he had eaten rice. And when he finally defeated the last one, the reward point count before his eyes made him dizzy.

—Current reward points: 2,497,751

This is how it's displayed on the Reincarnation Watch.

This number made someone feel like they were living in a dream. So much so that they subconsciously raised their hand and pinched their cheek hard.

—【It didn't hurt at all.】

He instinctively pinched it again.

He felt as if he could hear the ticking of a clock.

Chapter Thirty-One: Thinking Too Much Makes You Age Faster

What is the greatest distance in the world?

For ordinary young people, the greatest distance is the distance between their salary and their vacation.

For artistic youths, the greatest distance is the distance between birds and fish.

For Zheng Mouzha, who is neither an ordinary youth nor an artistic youth, the greatest distance in the world is "I look at the balance on my wristwatch, but the balance is slipping away from me".

As he heard the ticking of the clock, all the work he had previously accomplished and its results began to reverse at a visible speed. With the rewind of light and the repetition of events, everything he had done was striding backward, returning to the past.

Perhaps this description is a bit complicated... so let's put it simply: when Zheng Zha heard the clock ticking, the time of the entire world began to rewind to the past.

Retrospection, in this context, refers to looking back into the past while retaining one's own will.

He saw the shattered demonic creatures reassemble, their blood flowed back, their bones reformed, and their shattered soul structures return to normal operation. He felt the energy he had consumed begin to flow back, his own portion returning to his body and stabilizing, while the portion he had drawn from the outside world returned to the outside and dissipated into the universe.

Physical strength was recovering, and mental energy was returning, but the price was that the number on the wristwatch was regressing at a rate ten times faster than it had increased. From 2.49 million to 2.48 million, then from 2.47 million, 2.46 million…

Zheng Zha didn't react at first, but when the first three digits became 230, he realized what had happened. And what followed was a fit of rage.

[**Hey! I've worked so hard for so long, and now you want to wipe it all out and start over?!**]

His anger surged, followed by a surge of energy that seemed poised to crash into the crimson greatsword and unleash a devastating slash! However, his thoughts were one thing, but whether his body could obey him was another. Even though he had pushed his will to its limit, the energy within his body was still flowing backward!

When the reward points reached two million, someone's eyes widened in fury, and his hair stood on end.

When the reward points reached 1.5 million, the person gritted his teeth, his blood vessels boiling as if they were about to burst.

When the reward points reached one million, the person's expression became blank, and their gaze became vacant.

When the reward points reach 100,000, a person's thinking no longer operates in a complex way.

The anger hadn't dissipated; instead, it had accumulated and transformed into a power of grief and indignation. Although he didn't know who had orchestrated this, Zheng was already prepared to unleash a full-force attack on the first person who appeared before him, once he regained his mobility!

Even if Margot Lloyd appeared before me, I would still cut her down!

[The bonus points from the labor union, ahhhhhh!!!]

He watched silently, his teeth clenched. He watched the horde of demons that had attacked retreat, watched the land shattered by his arrival rebuild itself. He watched that very first moment when he landed in this airspace. He was prepared and resolute to unleash his full power, to harness his will, to control his body, and to strike with all his might. And then…

Time continues to flow backward.

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

Alice found herself strangely lost. Alone… oh, with the little devil following behind, she walked slowly across the vast wasteland. She was about two thousand kilometers away from the hidden human settlement where Zhao Yingkong was. And she didn't seem to be in a hurry to reach that mortal community.

It's a strange feeling, a very unfamiliar feeling.

When she decided to temporarily set aside the object of what she might have been obsessed with and suppress the desire for control that was constantly washing over the depths of her soul, she found that she couldn't think of anything to do for the time being.

She had finished what she needed to do. Originally, she had anticipated that dealing with the vampires alone would take her a long time. The war in this world was estimated to be undecided for a year or two, and she had initially thought she might spend several months on the vampires.

After all, corrupting, controlling, and transforming a powerful race is not something that can be accomplished overnight. However, she hadn't expected the Lord of War to directly wipe out the vast majority of the vampires, leaving only the remnants of his vengeful spirit. In this way, she could skip the complicated process of 'ascending the throne' and 'proclaiming the way of power' among the vampires, and instead directly initiate a ritual to cultivate a Lord of Vengeance who could significantly influence the course of the war.

This saved her a lot of time. And if it weren't for Remilia's capriciousness after being activated, Alucard and his Dead River, who were only looking for a successor, would have inevitably unleashed their full power during the battle, thus suffering a swift defeat and completing the transfer of power. Now, even if it and its companions have become wary, it probably won't be long before a victor emerges.

Maybe a month, at most two months.

The time wasn't long, but it wasn't short either. At least for Patchouli, who was located in the Great Hollow Base, this time was more than enough for her to develop the underground base into a massive metropolis with hundreds of millions of people, and to generate a powerful enough concept to create a human ruler out of nothing.

This will be another pawn that the Reincarnators can use after the Lord of Avengers clashes with the Lord of War. Patchouli will undoubtedly be able to use this opportunity to unlock her genetic lock and directly reach the fourth tier. And with the help of the artificial god, the Lord of Humanity, the Reincarnators, who have been hiding in the shadows, will also have the right to wage war against all races in this world.