Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

“We’ve found a ship,” he repeated, emphasizing. “A brand new ship, unmanned, drifting with the current toward the Isle of Mist.”

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

Meanwhile, somewhere in the ocean.

While Janan, disguised as Felicia Corrie, was astonished by the unmanned vessel that had never appeared in her predictions, two unexpected guests arrived on a deserted island hundreds of nautical miles away.

A handsome young white man, dressed in Gothic aristocratic attire, was surrounded by a faint aura of blood.

A man with his eyes closed, whose race was unclear, caused ripples in the space around him as he walked.

They appeared here after passing through the spatial barrier. The moment they appeared, their bodies were covered with numerous injuries, some minor and some severe, which healed rapidly at a visible speed. The instant they appeared, a ring of blood energy and a ring of mental shockwaves spread outward from the two of them, annihilating all living and dead things on the deserted island.

Trees withered in an instant, and birds and beasts perished in a flash. Withered tree stumps were shattered into dust, and rocky mountains or hills were crushed into gravel by telekinesis.

Perhaps in a second, perhaps less, this verdant island standing in the middle of the sea was transformed into a smooth, flat mound. Everything above their footing was leveled, and then all the fish and shellfish within two kilometers of the island's outer edge disintegrated into decaying, dead blood.

The injuries and torn clothing on the two people were restored at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"The spatial structure of this world is really unstable. This is the first time I've taken such a terrible teleportation route," the white youth muttered under his breath. He waved his hand forcefully, and a burst of air swept up all the remaining dust and debris on the island, transforming it into a water tornado with a radius of about three meters that rushed into the distance. The floating corpses and blood in the sea were also completely dispersed, restoring their clear vision.

"How's it going, Julian? Has that guy caught up yet?" the young man asked his companion, whose eyeballs were clearly moving beneath his tightly closed eyes.

An invisible spiritual wave then extended outwards.

“We’ve had good luck this time, Reinhardt.” The man with his eyes closed seemed to relax his brow slightly. “That guy who called himself Gant Odim didn’t catch up. We’ve shaken him off this time.”

"Phew...that's good." Reinhardt breathed a sigh of relief, a relaxed expression immediately appearing on his face. "Looks like that guy's afraid of us, ha, ha...well, let's spare his life for now. There's no need to bother with this kind of madman who attacks us the moment we arrive. We'll deal with him later when we have time... Julian, where is this?"

“North of the Skellige Islands,” Julian replied, then added, “It’s far from the Duchy of Toussaint, where we were before, perhaps half a continent away. Neither Gant Odim nor that old vampire should be able to find us anytime soon. We can relax a bit.”

“I’ll suck that old vampire dry sooner or later!” Reinhardt muttered under his breath, then shook his head slightly. “Forget it, I don’t want to go back to that damned Toussaint again. A bunch of weirdos, the Shadow Elder, the Lady of the Lake… Ugh, just thinking about that woman soaking in the lake gives me a headache! I didn’t even kill her Arthur, so why did she go crazy and start biting me the moment we met!”

"Really? Don't forget where you got the red dragon blood in your veins." Julian replied calmly, "Legends can reflect each other, so it's not impossible that there's a female Arthur in another world. I thought you had a clear enough understanding when you attacked that woman. It seems I was overthinking it?"

"You talk as if you're completely innocent, Julian. Don't think I don't know how much you value that scabbard. If you hadn't been secretly pulling the strings, I wouldn't be so intolerant of having three Reincarnators in this team."

“But she can’t tolerate the two of us, can she?” Yurian turned his gaze away, looking towards the distant sea. “Alright, there’s no need to dwell on the past. The West Sea team only had two people in the past, and it will only need two people in the future. This is a decision we made unanimously. There’s no need to waste any more time on dead people. Rather than dwelling on this meaningless past, I think we might have other things to do.”

He raised his chin slightly.

"My mental power tells me that there is a strange, unmanned ship in the sea about two hundred nautical miles away from us in a straight line."

“If you’re not planning to stay here any longer, I suggest you go explore there. I have a feeling we’ll… find something quite interesting there.”

Chapter 47: Alice, No Longer Divided into Quintessential Pieces

Two hundred nautical miles isn't far, and for Zhan Lan, the distance wasn't too troublesome. After gaining that inexplicable 'precognition' ability, she discovered that she possessed an unimaginable comprehension of the 'magic' of this world—no, it shouldn't be called comprehension, but rather a sense of familiarity. She could easily learn, master, and develop any spell that appeared in her 'precognition' to the limits that this world could tolerate.

Because of this, I'm increasingly inclined to believe that I haven't developed the ability to 'predict' things, but rather that I'm somehow repeating the stories of this world over and over again. It's like playing a game many times; muscles develop memory and acquire an instinct called 'memory.'

[However, after each reincarnation, my brain cells and body structure reset to the same state, so my muscle memory becomes this 'déjà vu' that feels like a premonition—ah, the more I think about it, the more I feel that this kind of reasoning is true.]

But if this is true, my teammates, my wise companions who built the prison of the Saint Hunter, what reason could they have given me to be cast into this endlessly cycling world, forcing me to witness its destruction time and time again?

She had already mastered the third-stage gene lock, but whether she had reached the limit of this stage was unknown, since this was not actually her real body. She had tried to use her third-stage mind simulation ability to imitate her teammates, but the results were unsatisfactory.

Simulating Zheng Zha is worthless. Simulating Alice makes me feel like I have schizophrenia. Simulating Patchouli results in insufficient information and utter chaos. Simulating Chu Xuan only presents an endless, vast starry sky that could almost burn my brain to ashes in an instant.

Xiao Honglu's approach is a relatively suitable solution, but thinking in Xiao Honglu's way leads to the conclusion that being content with the status quo and striving to improve oneself is the most appropriate course of action. Because in this scheme involving sages, it's not his place to interfere; he only needs to avoid causing trouble for the wise men.

Zhan Lan followed this conclusion. So, although she never quite figured out whether she had cycled the world countless times or gained the ability to foresee the future, she still accumulated the resources she could theoretically reach—she befriended powerful digital figures in this world and forged life-or-death friendships with them. She mastered enough benefits and secrets to maintain mutually beneficial relationships with the digital rulers of the land, relationships that would be effective when the time was right. All of this was to be used at the crucial plot point of the Misty Island, or at a specific time later.

Therefore, that is precisely why.

“I’ll handle that ship. We’re just one step away from saving Ciri. We can’t afford to spread our forces too thin at this point.” – She used this slightly assertive statement to persuade them as she descended from the lighthouse and received information about the unmanned ship from her witch allies.

It's simple. The people she's brought here are among the world's most elite witchers and sorceresses. And without exception, they all have some kind of familial or vested interest in the girl named Ciri. They care about Ciri and are willing to risk their lives for her under her guidance. But beyond that, it's difficult for her to persuade them to do anything else.

—And she doesn’t need her allies to do anything extra.

Thus, the persuasion process ended. Geralt Garonne, the White Wolf who had killed Ciri multiple times in the 'prediction,' cautiously feigned a willingness to help. However, upon learning that she planned to open a portal and land directly on the unmanned ship, he shut his mouth before speaking—everyone knew he was afraid of portals, and since he, Ciri's adoptive father, had decided to stay, his allies, whom Ciri had managed to recruit, naturally chose to temporarily halt their advance.

After all, nobody thought there was anything noteworthy about this unmanned boat—it didn't even unleash any magical reaction.

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

Zhan Lan stepped onto the deck of the unmanned ship. The short-range teleportation barrier silently closed behind her, and she felt no discomfort. Realizing this, she knew very well that she was now among the most powerful mortal spellcasters in this world. And she would become even stronger after unlocking her genetic potential.

The magic system of this world isn't particularly superior, inferior to information magic, and even less so than the magic network and arcane systems commonly found in the exchanges of the main gods. It also suffers from the severe weakness of being heavily countered by anti-magic metals, an alloy not uncommon in this world. But that weakness doesn't exist for her. The privileges of the Hunter's Cage are one thing, but she only needs to activate her genetic lock to calculate the interference frequency and cast the correct spell. She feels that if she goes all out, unleashing a tsunami and a volcano to destroy a coastal city shouldn't be a problem. And she can cast such spells repeatedly without interruption.

This should be some kind of A-level enhancement, or more accurately, something greater than A-level but not quite AA-level, a magical enhancement that she has completely mastered. This is also the source of her confidence to board this unmanned ship alone, because if even she can't handle this place, then anyone else coming here would just be throwing their lives away.

She blinked, carefully and cautiously beginning to examine the ship's layout. She sensed a familiar gaze watching her through magical effects; it must be the sorceress she knew, assisting her with remote monitoring. Using a trick she'd learned from information magic, she easily shared the sorceress's vision, allowing her to simultaneously monitor the ship from six directions outside its hull while standing on the deck.

The ship was new, very new. Just as the sorceress Yennefer, who discovered it, had said, it was as new as if it had just rolled off the assembly line. It must have only sailed once; there were no barnacles or sea maggots on its hull. Apart from that, the many items on the deck were all remarkably sparse.

[There was no sense of life, no living person had ever lived on this ship—] She found not a single human footprint on the deck, and she noticed that every knot in the ropes used to secure the sails was exactly the same.

She reached out, her fingertips forming an invisible magical protective layer. Her fingers traced the railing along the ship's side, and she was slightly surprised to find that the texture of every joint was perfectly identical.

This is a seagoing vessel built independently by a single craftsman, and it may have had only one operator.

This ship was built without relying on any magical craftsmanship; it was a nautical artifact created entirely by hand.

[...Do mortals in this world exist who can achieve such precision? It's unlikely. Could this be something related to local deities, or even reincarnators?]

A sense of unease crept into Zhan Lan's mind. She subconsciously added several more layers of protection to herself, and then sent a secret message to her companions hundreds of nautical miles away: "Prepare for fire support." She realized that something seemed wrong, but for a moment she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

Her thoughts raced slightly, and before she knew it, she had unlocked the third stage of her genetic lock. The magical system she had acquired from this world provided her with a massive amount of magic power to maintain the unlocked state. However, she soon discovered that she couldn't gather any more information from this top deck.

She had no choice but to go down, and the door was right in front of her. But the door leading to the lower level gave her a very uneasy feeling.

[What a pity, if only I were still using my original body, able to unleash my full potential and utilize all those protective gear I have...]

"...Never mind, what am I thinking? Why don't I just think about how all my other companions are here? With Miss Alice and the others here, I don't even need to think; I can just follow orders."

[...I need to be able to stand on my own even when no one else is around.]

Her thoughts raced again, and her feet had already descended the stairs. Once inside the ship, she discovered that its sealing was comparable to that of a 21st-century steel warship. Despite being made of ordinary wood, there was none of the dampness and humidity commonly found in seagoing vessels!

Humans simply couldn't achieve this level of precision. Even the most skilled worker couldn't accomplish such a micrometer-level engineering feat by hand, covering an entire ship. Judging from the grain of the wood, the entire ship must have been built from the same batch of trees. And this wood wasn't even dried; from felling to completion, it took less than a week!

[If a reincarnator created this ship, then they must have at least unlocked the third stage of their genetic lock... no, perhaps even surpassed mine, approaching or reaching the fourth stage, to be able to do something like this without relying on any supernatural power.]

[If it's a native deity, then there's no need to calculate it either... I definitely can't defeat them anyway. However, if it's just a matter of using tools or divine power, then it's not impossible to do it.]

So, should we stop exploring? Continuing might introduce even more uncertainties.

Her 'precognition' ability didn't activate; she didn't gain any déjà vu or additional information on this ship. She hesitated for a moment, then took another step forward.

The ship's hull wasn't large; eight separate rooms were visible. A straight passageway ran from bow to stern, separating them, with four doors on the left and four on the right. Each door was tightly closed, resembling, from a magical perspective, a large, etched, recessed tree.

The door was tightly shut, but it wasn't impossible to open it if one wanted to. Zhan Lan first looked at the door closest to her, which didn't seem to have any special features from the outside. She took a deep breath, focused intently, and cautiously pressed her finger against the door panel.

She was prepared to retaliate in different ways depending on the situation. If a monster attacked from behind the door, she would use magic to fight back. If there were traps on the door, she would use weapons to resist. If the door itself was just a decoy that triggered some other mechanism, then she would activate all her buffs and use a full-scale attack to cleanse the cabin, even if it might not be very effective, at least she would put up a fight.

then……

With a creak, the door opened without any obstruction. There were no traps, no monsters; everything was so quiet it seemed like a silent mockery, a mockery of her oversensitivity and her insistence on her own way.

Am I overthinking this?

Zhan Lan thought to herself, and breathed a slight sigh of relief. She continued to cautiously enter the room. Her eyes scanned every detail of the cabin with the utmost sensitivity, taking in everything she saw.

There seemed to be nothing particularly noteworthy here, only a simple alchemy platform, some potions, a few dolls, and some basic furniture such as tables, chairs, and beds. The purpose of the potions was unclear and might require testing, but the dolls were crafted to a high level, likely by a master craftsman.

This doesn't seem unusual; it's quite normal to find dolls and alchemical machines on a ship. There's no need to make a fuss about it.

As Zhan Lan pondered, her gaze shifted further. She saw a sleeping blonde beauty on the bed next to the alchemy table, and instinctively covered her with the slightly disheveled thin blanket.

[It makes perfect sense for a sleeping puppeteer to be on a ship. Hmm... there doesn't seem to be anything of interest in this cabin. Perhaps I should look elsewhere.]

Her brain quickly reached a conclusion, and she felt it was absolutely correct. Nothing unusual, nothing distorted. However, just as she was about to leave—

'Boom!' A heavy object fell onto the ship's deck!

It was the sound of footsteps, the sound of one, no, two people who had come uninvited, just like her!

[It's the West Sea Team! They've spotted me! But how is this possible!? The timing is definitely wrong!]

"Aha! Let me see what's here? A sorceress? A native rat. Julian, your hunch was right; sorceresses never act alone. We're in for some fun."

She heard the man's laughter, felt the pressure from a higher level of life, and sensed an invisible gaze piercing through the deck and watching her body!

And the next moment—

She noticed that the sleeping girl's eyelids seemed to twitch.

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

Meanwhile, on the other side of the tree, in a world observed by a certain painter, a god who had just seized divine power and successfully ascended to the throne collapsed the instant he gained authority. A massive amount of divine power shattered the world's outer shell, flowing outwards and surging towards an endless sea of ​​energy, heading straight for a certain place within it.

The artist continued to paint.

Section 48: From Four to Three

At some point...

Things are like another branch of a tree...

In a certain world...

Someone was muttering to themselves in the withered temple courtyard.

"Patch, do you know what the biggest difference is between us and other extraordinary beings?"

"You're not going to answer? Fine, actually the answer is quite simple—perhaps it's because our paths are different, or perhaps it's because information magic has altered our form of existence. When we exist in a complete material world, we can disassemble ourselves and reassemble ourselves more easily than others, like copying and pasting a program. Simply rewriting doesn't affect our own integrity."

"Ah, that's right, we are different from others. For us, computing power is the most important parameter. Which part of the split off counts as the main body depends on the distribution ratio of computing power. The more computing power, the more intelligent and perceptive we are; the less computing power, the more ignorant and stupid we are. And for me, who once saw that cheap mother, I can even arbitrarily decide the location of the main body within a complete space under suitable circumstances."

"Yes, that's right. In a world, there can only be one Alice who is real, and the rest are all puppets controlled and influenced by the original. Or, using the word 'puppet' is a bit harsh... you can call them clones if you want. But even if the name is changed, the essence will not change."

Do you agree with this view, Patchouli?

"Oh, I'm sorry. I had completely forgotten that you actually left here quite a while ago and haven't been staying here since."

Alice, who could perhaps be considered the true original at this moment, raised her eyebrows. The empty seat opposite her, which should have been occupied, had been vacant for twenty-five years.

For twenty-five years, she has been sitting here in vain.

Twenty-five years ago, Alice, a clone of the Demon Team, made a thirty-year pact with her across countless worlds. The agreed timeframe was thirty years of time in this world. After thirty years have passed, the clone, who did not descend at full power, will truly make her move, perhaps thus initiating a team battle between the Central Continent Team and the Demon Team.

Team battle...

A team fight is unlikely because it's not the right time yet. Neither the Central Continent team nor the Demon team has reached its full potential. There's no irreconcilable conflict between the two teams, and the Supreme God wouldn't allow the two strongest teams in the cycle of reincarnation to suffer irreparable losses at this point. Therefore, there won't be a true team fight.

While a full-scale team battle might not occur, small-scale skirmishes are possible. The Central Continent Team and the Demon Team may not clash head-on, but the other Reincarnation Teams may not be content to work quietly until the end of this world.