Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

The Central Continent team is very strong, perhaps the second strongest below the Demons. However, when they appear in the true fourth tier, the Indian Continent and Forest Continent teams are formidable challengers. A simulated Light of the Mind is ultimately inferior to a complete, personalized Light of the Mind; untapped potential will eventually diminish in value before being transformed into actual power.

Those two reincarnation teams should be nearing their limits, but the Central Continent team isn't. So, when the Central Continent team touches the threshold of the mid-fourth tier in this world, about to experience a comprehensive leap in level, this world will also be the last chance for those two secondary teams, and the Celestial God team, which has almost been reduced to a filler level, to fight.

This is a calamity for humanity, an unavoidable obstacle for the Central Continent Team. That's why Patchouli left twenty-five years ago after realizing everything that was happening in this world. Because she also had her own path to follow.

Does Alice know where Patchouli went? Does she understand what she did?

Of course she knew, of course she understood.

With the privileges granted by the Sacred Hunting Ritual, even sitting in the desolate temple within this border world, she could discern everything about the Manifestation Tree and the Sea of ​​Energy. Having stayed here for so long and pondered for so long, she had a general grasp of Chu Xuan's thoughts and plans. She could clearly see the eight branches of the Manifestation Tree floating in the Sea of ​​Energy and knew the roles they should play.

"Chang'e's struggle in the primordial era was intentional on his part. He deliberately left a flaw, allowing Chang'e to escape some of his power in order to construct this energy sea-event tree system. The eight branches represent eight fruits, and these fruits are actually the foundation for our Zhongzhou team members to achieve enlightenment."

"The arrival of the other reincarnators was within his expectations. They were laborers, tools to help us clear out the infiltrators of the Saint Legion mixed in with these endless fragmented worlds. After clearing out the infiltrators in each fragmented world, the Saint Hunting Cage would trigger a mechanism to start merging the fragments. Then the newly merged large fragmented world would run the script again until the next cycle of world merging begins."

Why did the reincarnators of the Central Continent Team acquire false identities? Because it was for the protection of the Hunting Saint Ritual, a deception by the wise men of these world fragments—fragments of the power of the primordial Chang'e. By concealing their identities, the Central Continent Team reincarnators would not be viewed with hostility by the world or its infiltrators. Instead, the newly arrived reincarnators from other teams would become their targets.

In this way, the reincarnators of the Central Continent Team only need to reap the benefits, accumulating resources through repeated world restructuring cycles using their fabricated identities, and absorbing the purified essence of saintly power during world fusion. The arduous tasks are left to other reincarnators and some cleaning devices in the Saint Hunting Ritual. This is why the Supreme God still 'favors' other reincarnation teams even after the Central Continent Team has done the vast majority of the work. Because this is the plan of the wise ones, the Central Continent Team's gains will only increase rather than decrease.

After all, the Sacred Hunting Ritual is incredibly powerful. Powerful enough to confuse the minds and wills of beings at the fourth-tier high level and below, causing them to forget their own identities and repeat the script they believed to be being executed for the first time. And all these plans were arranged smoothly until the demon team displayed unexpected power and authority, at which point some errors occurred.

“But that’s normal, after all, the Demon Team is supposed to be that strong. Only Chu Xuan could have outmaneuvered him.” Alice picked up the coffee pot from the table and poured herself a cup of fragrant, rich coffee. “The Demon Team is destined to be a variable, just as our Central Continent Team will be a variable for the Demon Team.”

The demons made the choice that best served their own interests upon their descent. They decisively activated their authority, preventing themselves from immediately landing in the Sacred Hunt ritual and instead arriving at some other location. The landing site has a 50% chance of being on the outer edge of the Virgo Supercluster, and a 50% chance of being in some higher-dimensional region of this universe.

Their landing point wasn't important; what mattered was that they had escaped the control of the Hunting Saint's Cage. Unlike the other four reincarnation teams, they wouldn't have ended up doing hard labor for the Central Continent Team. However, escaping the Hunting Saint's Ritual also meant they could no longer benefit from it. And the Demon Team would definitely not stand idly by and watch the Central Continent Team swallow this unimaginably huge bonus.

Chu Xuan's original intention with his Heavenly Origin Move was to lure them in, since he was genuinely weak at the time, making it the only possible opportunity for his clones to exploit. However, the demon team was more composed than expected, only sending two insignificant, dead avatars to cause trouble, while the other minor characters started to jump around.

"So they intervened. My clone and I descended into the Hunter Saint's Cage in the form of avatars. In fact, it was the clone Chu Xuan's way of breaking the deadlock or a declaration of war—the Hunter Saint's Ritual cannot be broken, and they cannot possibly have such a powerful item that can rival the level of a saint. In any case, the Primordial Chang'e and her army are doomed. But they may have some means, some kind of technique or secret treasure that can greatly damage us, or even make us lose everything. But they will also have to pay a corresponding price."

What exactly is that method? Nobody knows. But if the Demon Team could use it without burden or at low cost, they would have done so long ago. This creates a rather awkward situation of mutual deterrence. The arrival of the clone Alice and her ultimatum to themselves actually represent the Demon Team's pressure and intimidation of the Central Continent Team—they are forcing the Central Continent Team to end the Holy Hunting Ceremony early and relinquish their benefits to other reincarnation teams. Otherwise, no one will get anything.

It's a boring approach, but it works.

According to Chu Xuan's original plan, as long as the Saint Hunting Ceremony was completed, all the Zhongzhou team reincarnators who had reached the initial stage of the Fourth Middle School could naturally enter the Fourth Middle School. He was too lazy to follow the traditional methods of 'fighting inner demons' or 'destruction before construction, defeat before success'—no, he didn't want to gamble on the uncertainty of breaking through inner demons. His plan was to use all the resources of a saint and her legion as provisions, and to forcibly build up the Light of the Soul for the entire reincarnation team through excessive resources, proving the Dao by force!

He was almost successful—if it weren't for the interference of the Demon Team, success would have come naturally in about a few hundred thousand years. But now, the wise men of the Central Continent Team had to settle for second best and forcibly pluck the fruit before it was ripe.

what a pity.

Alice poured herself a second cup of coffee and sipped it slowly. She could clearly see the eight fruits, all of them on the verge of ripening. Except for a few, most had to be picked before they were fully mature.

The fruit that Sirin possessed was the most ripe and fullest; without a doubt, this was divine favor, something that could only be envied. Even if everyone else failed, she was destined to succeed, and the branch she belonged to, like a tree, didn't require other reincarnators to tend it or do hard labor.

The branch of the Tree of Events she belongs to is another world with a similar 'Collapse' worldview to her homeland. Currently, she serves as both the Chief Valkyrie and the Captain on a floating mothership called the Hyperion. The Chief Valkyrie is her disguise, where she spends her days engaging in yuri (lesbian) relationships with a modified version of Theresa Apocalypse. The Captain role represents her self-reconstructing Time Authority, which inexplicably halted its transformation at the last moment.

"The possibility is pretty much just one thing—the Time God who seized her temporal authority released another part of her. So the reshaping of authority was forcibly interrupted. And since that Time God was able to appear in this universe with her temporal authority, then this must not be an ordinary fourth-order high-level... I see, so it's some saint who wants to play chess with my cheap mother. Because the chips in his hand are about to expire, he can't wait to throw them out in an attempt to break even?"

"...It's really ugly."

Alice in her true form shook her head and prepared a third cup of coffee for herself.

The best fruit is in Sirin's hands. The next best is in Zheng Zha's place, a place with low magic and low science that's practically a vacation-like Game of Thrones experience. This fruit is relatively small because Zheng Zha was already just one step away from success. So, a little more or less doesn't matter, and the smallest fruit ripens the fastest.

Further down lies Zhao Zhuikong's Type-Moon world. He himself cleared it out over ten thousand times, while the Celestial Weaklings, who were placed near him but never encountered him, were dealt with millions of times in the cycle of reincarnation. Of course, what the Celestials did is unimportant; they only thought they had done it once and at most received a small reward. The time for reckoning will come when Zhao Zhuikong returns to the Type-Moon world.

Zhang Jie, Ba Wang, and Ling Dian live in the world of the Assassin's Creed game series. There's not much to say about that; there aren't any particularly powerful enemies, and the number of infiltrators in the Primordial Legion is small. They've played the game millions of times without realizing it, and even with early settlements, they should still be able to accumulate at least a basic level.

The world Xiao Honglu and Zhan Lan live in is The Witcher 3, and the poor West, a weakling, is doing all the hard work. Zhan Lan is alright, at least she's always been working hard. But Xiao Honglu has played Gwent for millions of cycles. Presumably, his card-playing skills when he left the game were at an extraordinary level, but considering that the Three-Eyed Clan (Yu-Gi-Oh!) he enhanced is a card-playing ability—so perhaps it's not bad.

Patchouli's world is a completely different card game universe. Her name is Shadowverse, and she constantly shifts between various protagonists. Her latest disguise is as a fairy user named Arisa. And then… oh, she went to do something boring.

Then, Zhao Yingkong led the remaining few "salted fish" (those who couldn't keep up with the first tier and were about to fall into the second tier) into the pan-American comic book worldviews—DC and Marvel. These two chaotic worldviews clashed in a chaotic manner, creating utter chaos. Meanwhile, the reincarnators from the Central Continent team watched from a safe distance as this tangled mess of characters did chaotic things. The most power fragments fell here, and so did the most infiltrators from the Saint Legion. To deal with them, the most powerful teams, the Senzhou and Yinzhou teams, were deployed to the Marvel and DC worlds respectively. And then—utter chaos ensued.

The natives' self-perceived 'multiverse' has been rebooted over a million times. The number of world fusions and reconstructions is countless. Perhaps by chance, perhaps by inevitability, these two reincarnation teams have obtained the greatest benefits besides the Central Continent team. And in the near future, a fierce battle is likely to ensue.

Thus, seven of the eight branches of the Event Tree were confirmed, leaving the last one hidden in obscurity. That branch could only be observed through the authority granted by the Hunting Saint Ritual. And the name of that branch was 'No Game No Life Zero'!

Alice put down her third cup of coffee.

That branch originally belonged to her, just as Chu Xuan occupied the top of the ritual and Luo Ye occupied the base of the ritual. She also originally had a branch of the phenomenal tree for advancement, and she planned to use this branch to make the lower layer of the box to remove the flaws in herself—she originally intended to do so, but unfortunately, before she could do so, someone took it upon themselves to do something unnecessary.

Shen Qi—she didn't intend to utter that name. Because if she did, that guy would definitely appear right beside her. Because of that guy's unilateral actions, she, or rather the past selves of the entire Zhongzhou team, had been pulled from the multiverse timeline and stuffed into this era. However, that cheapskate mother simply did what she had always planned to do!

"I originally planned to build the fifth layer of the box, but it doesn't involve the time dimension, so I can't change the past, and the only thing I can make up for is my own shortcomings. But now... oh well, anyway, the overall plan won't change."

Alice, in her true form, shook her head and stood up from her seat.

There must be a reason why Shenqi took action, and the most likely explanation now is that the Devil Team's trump card of mutual destruction is related to her. Her actions might be seen as some kind of compensation, but it's hard to say how many additional purposes are involved.

However, a direct confrontation with the Demon Team is not far off. Using past lives to establish one's path may not be the smartest approach, but it is indeed the way to maximize profits before reaping unripe fruit.

So……

Her gaze finally settled, falling upon the fragment of her will that had broken free from the worldview of A Song of Ice and Fire and was now projecting itself onto the worldview of The Witcher 3.

"When farmers have to harvest their fruits early, birds that peck at pests but also covet the fruit must be eliminated beforehand."

The next moment, the body transformed.

The five categories differentiate into four categories, and the four categories are then reduced to three.

The hardworking and meritorious Xihai team will soon be able to get another job that is more suitable for them.

Section 49. Those Who Crave Favor

While the original Alice was being transferred, in an observatory plane exactly five years along the timeline of this desolate world, the clone of Alice, across time and space, finished three cups of coffee with her original self. Her location was also a desolate, lonely temple, and like the original, she had no companion sitting beside her.

“It’s taking longer than expected, but still within the range. That way, the situation won’t escalate to the worst possible outcome,” the clone Alice said softly, controlling the world she was in as it continued to approach the target anchored twenty-five years ago. In just five more years relative to her own time flow, this world would collide with the target. And at that time, a sufficiently clear signal firework would light up with the world’s impact, allowing the Virgo Supercluster outside the Sacred Hunt ritual to observe the radiance.

"Aren't you going to do anything?"—A gentle voice rang out, and a person appeared in the previously empty seat. A clone of Patchouli, dressed slightly disheveled, suddenly appeared beside her, picking up a cup of black tea from the coffee cup. "Alice, now may not be the best time for the final battle, but watching everything unfold isn't in your nature."

"It's meaningless, there's no need to do it. Patchouli," the clone Alice replied calmly, smoothing out the wrinkles in her partner's clothes. A curse powerful enough to collapse a continent was easily channeled from that tiny wrinkle, causing the entire continent outside their temple to tremble.

—The rivers and seas overturned, the mountains collapsed, and huge fissures appeared out of nowhere, tearing the earth into incomplete pieces. Countless living beings screamed and fell into chaos, dying amidst natural disasters and man-made calamities.

A powerful mortal empire was destroyed, and neither gods nor kings could help it. Wise men tried their best to use the knowledge they had gained from exploring the world to resist this sudden natural disaster, but in the end, they only added a few fresh corpses to the path of thwarting the calamity.

The clone Patchouli simply sipped her black tea and comfortably closed her eyes.

"Was your interaction with Luo Ye pleasant?" The clone Alice looked at her fingers. A bloodstain appeared at the fingertip from smoothing out a wrinkle. A strange fluid, not of this world, rolled on the surface of the wound, regenerating and condensing several times before barely healing. "A curse of unchanging nature... Is Luo Ye getting closer and closer to her limit?"

“Not pleasant at all!” The clone Patchouli pouted slightly, somewhat dissatisfied. “I just wanted to play around with her casually, but this girl went berserk and started hitting me randomly. If this keeps going, my face might be scratched up after ten thousand years… Even though we’ve reached this level, she still fights like a shrew, which is nothing like you, Alice. She’s not elegant at all.”

“Yes, yes, she’s not elegant at all.” The clone Alice nodded, her tone deliberately dismissive. “So you don’t need to care about her, because she’s nothing like me, and I’m nothing like her. I won’t get angry or jealous because of her. Whatever you do won’t affect me.”

"...Alice, you're just giving me the runaround again."

“This perfunctory behavior is meaningless, Patchouli,” the clone Alice replied. “What we do here is irrelevant, since we’ve always been under the watchful eye of the real Chu Xuan. Your…playing with Luo Ye won’t affect his plans in any way. If it had even the slightest effect, you wouldn’t have been able to see her.”

"We, or rather the avatar we are currently using, have exhausted all the value we possessed the moment we descended. The real Chu Xuan knows of our existence and the significance of our descent. So what remains is a game between our Chu Xuan and her Chu Xuan, and the two of us... can just treat ourselves as tourists for now."

“But the Central Plains team backed down.” The clone Patchouli tilted her head, resting it on a shoulder that wasn’t hers. Her soft cheeks flushed slightly from the touch. “Can’t we make more?”

"To be precise, it was just a consensus reached. They took a step back, and we gave way. It's neither a win nor a loss. After all, the overall situation is in their hands, and the real Chu Xuan is watching here. Even our Chu Xuan has no leverage. Their early harvesting was just because they had an alternative plan to make up for their losses, while we, who made them back down, must have paid a heavy price outside of the ceremony."

"After all, it was supplies provided by a saint and her legion. Simple intimidation is simply not enough to make Chu Xuan back down. Although the details of the deal are unclear, it seems that some blood will have to be shed..."

The clone Patchouli suddenly yawned, leaned on the clone Alice's shoulder, and closed her eyes.

"Alice, I'm tired."

The clone Alice abruptly stopped speaking. She raised a finger and gently stroked the purple-haired witch's soft hair. "...If you're tired, get some sleep."

"Hmm." The cloned witch, who had recently waged a long war with Luo Ye, wrinkled her nose and made a purring sound like a kitten. Soon, the entire temple fell back into the silence it had maintained for the previous twenty-five years.

a long time.

It was as if a dreamlike whisper echoed.

"If you really don't want to do anything, why do you care so much?"

“I didn’t care.” The clone Alice raised her hand and poured herself a fourth cup of coffee. “I was just a little jealous.”

"Jealous that your nominal mother treats your true self better?"

"No, there's no need to pay attention to Shinki's opinion. She is truly eternal, without the need for a short-lived species to inherit her own ideals and traditions. Offspring are no more important to her than a painting."

“In her eyes, I am a defective product, an unfinished product. And no matter which one, I am essentially just a tool and pawn that can be replaced at will. Whether useful or not, I will eventually be discarded. So I don’t need to care about her thoughts, because it’s meaningless.”

"Then you are..."

The clone Alice moved the fourth cup of coffee to the table, and the dark brown liquid turned into a thin line falling to the ground as the coffee cup tilted.

The next moment, clear springs gushed forth from the continental fissures outside the temple, and all the souls that had died earlier cheered as they returned to their bodies, healed by the inexplicable miracle. The cracks in the earth visibly closed up, and the collapsed buildings and fortresses were restored to their original state as if a video had been rewound. The sky cleared, and soft light bathed the earth.

The collapsed mortal empire was rebuilt in an instant, and the resurrected and survivors knelt and chanted the names of their gods. Perhaps a new theocratic state would replace the old mortal empire, or perhaps the original state would transform into a new nation that worshipped miracles. But in reality, whatever choices they made, the true God never cared.

“I’m jealous of her,” the clone Alice said calmly.

"I'm jealous of her because when I touched the depths of my heart, I realized that Luo Ye chose her, not me."

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

Alice opened her eyes, sensing the convergence of several different types of thoughts and memories. The reconfirmation of her original body had no impact on her fusion. In an instant, she returned to the maximum life level that a fourth-tier early stage cultivator could possess. There was even more resources that were almost overflowing, but before wasting them, she forcibly filled them into her inner abyss to nurture the already considerable spiritual light that could potentially converge at any moment.

She sensed the outer edge of the world; the extraordinary war that had lasted for millennia had quietly ended. The clone Patchouli was long gone. And Luo Ye was nowhere to be found… no, she knew where Luo Ye had gone. She knew Luo Ye had returned to the Bloodborne dream world of the base, restarting his admiral career in the bubbles to heal his weary soul. And she also knew that she had better pretend she hadn't seen anything.

Luo Ye already knew everything, or at least enough for her. Therefore, there was no need to pressure her before she made her final decision—the battle between inner demons could only be initiated by the inner demons themselves. Before taking that necessary step, Alice didn't think she needed to disturb an ostrich burying its head in the sand.

"I don't need your sacrifice, Luo Ye. As long as my past self succeeds, I can skip the inner demon stage like the clone Zheng Zha in the prediction record and directly prove my path through force. There might be flaws, but I don't care. And after I complete my advancement, we can discuss your stance."

Alice's gaze returned to the material world, and only then did she realize that the handcrafted ship her clone had created had been dismantled down to its planks. Except for the area where she had placed a mental interference barrier, all the wooden structures had been broken down into finger-sized fragments.

My own boat was destroyed, while the remaining part drifted on the sea. The cause of this was a collision that occurred approximately thirty seconds earlier.

So she removed the shielding from the room and turned her gaze to the timeline thirty seconds earlier.

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

Thirty seconds ago...

Thunder and sparks rained down suddenly, abruptly silencing the man's arrogant laughter. A series of impacts and explosions followed, accompanied by furious curses erupting from the upper deck.

"Long-range spell coverage?! Damn it, this native was prepared! Julian, where are her accomplices?"

A sword flash tinged with crimson flames swept across, instantly cleaving the not-so-large handcrafted ship in two. Reinhardt, his wings outstretched as if burning with fire, scanned the area and, before immediately spotting the enemy, gave a low, commanding shout to his companions.

He didn't find Zhan Lan, but he knew she was nearby.

A dozen meters to his side, Yurian, who had deployed a protective barrier above his head to block all spells descending from the sky, wore a clear expression of displeasure. His tightly closed eyes showed no intention of opening, but his eyebrows twitched slightly.

“They’re well hidden, Reinhardt… Captain.” He emphasized the word ‘Captain’ slightly. “There’s heavy interference nearby; it’ll take some time to locate them.”

“If you can’t even handle this small matter, then you can go look for it slowly.” A greatsword forged from flames appeared in Reinhardt’s hand, and the next moment he crashed into the ship, which had been cleaved in two, like a meteor. Flowing flames spewed out from every crack in the hull, shattering the ship and scorching the ocean, while a blurry phantom flashed by in the boiling steam.

"Aha, found you." He completely ignored Julian, whose complexion had worsened, and suddenly appeared where the phantom had been. His feet lightly touched the water's surface, followed by a semi-circular slash covering a 270-degree fan!