Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

"What about the Chaldean celestial sphere?"

"—Dr. Xiao is working hard. However… it's very difficult. The main structure has been severely eroded, although they can still barely locate the seventh singularity. But the spirit particle transfer function has already…"

"..."

She sat up from her hospital bed.

"I'm going to find that Mr. Matou."

"Director?"

She raised her hand and waved it, stopping Mustard and Roman from doing so.

“I need to go find him and persuade him to bring Fujimaru and Mashu back. It’s my duty as the director.”

"But spirit particle transfer is no longer possible; we can only locate it now..."

“That’s enough.” She straightened her clothes and gestured for Akuta to lead the way. “The Spirit Transfer not working is simply because the framework is broken or the data flow is not smooth. But, you know, the secrets of Chaldea are far more numerous than you can imagine.”

"Since we can't bring them back, we'll just go there. At worst, we'll use Chaldea as a ship and sail to the Seventh Singularity to pick them up! But no matter what, I will never give up while there's still hope!"

Chapter 71 The Way of the Hunt

It is difficult to persuade a stranger with simple, grand principles.

However, if the other party already had similar plans in mind, then it is not difficult to do such a thing.

Earth is now shrouded in chaotic disorder, making it impossible to gain any advantage on this land. If the other party shares a similar stance with the Magic King, then no matter how hard one tries, it will be futile. However, if the other party is on a different side from the Magic King, then there is a possibility of winning them over.

With this thought in mind, Olga Marie pushed open the door to meet the man who called himself Matou Shinji. On the way from the sanatorium to here, when Akuta Hinako led her here, she had already confirmed that Chaldea no longer existed, becoming a composite building merged with Seraphine and Homurahara Academy. And she knew she had no way out.

She had to convince that man, she had to find a way to get him to agree to the plan of using Chaldea as a vessel to sail to the Seventh Singularity to complete the restoration of humanity. This was her duty as the head of the Department of Astrophysics and the director of Chaldea, and it was the only useful thing she could do, and had to do, for Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash Kyrielight, as their direct superior.

Olga Marie thought this way, and her stance was firm and resolute—she knew that Chaldea possessed the core components and supporting measures for imaginary number stealth. And in this present state of chaos on Earth's surface, traveling from this era to a point in the past via imaginary number stealth was not impossible—and this technology itself was an extremely valuable commodity.

She possessed more than just a surge of enthusiasm; as she stood before the door, she had already mentally prepared a lengthy and earnest speech, brimming with persuasive emotion. She knew she could do it, and she had to. And then—

Her courage and passion came to an abrupt halt when the door opened and the figure behind it came into view.

In the young man sitting upright in his wheelchair, she saw a deep, dark abyss looming ahead.

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

About ten minutes later...

Watching the young girl who called herself the director of Chaldea walk away with trembling steps to the end of the corridor, Zhao Zhuikong, who had remained silent for the previous ten minutes, simply watching this stubborn girl's performance, gently picked up a glass of cold water from the coffee table beside his wheelchair and brought it to his lips—at his level, he was too lazy to bother with any rare and precious medicines to put on a show; after all, it was nothing more than a composite aggregate of matter and energy, and to him, its essence was not much different from plain water.

He took a small sip, set down the cup, and as he looked away, his gaze briefly swept over the imaginary navigation device Olga Marie had left behind. He tilted his head back slightly, feeling the soft touch on the back of his head as he asked softly.

"Sakura, what do you think?"

"Brother, are you referring to the person, or the proposal she put forward?" Zhao Yingkong replied calmly, pushing the wheelchair as always. Her hands slid off the handles and gently rested on Zhao Zhuikong's shoulders. "Or perhaps both, brother?"

“Naturally, it’s both.” Zhao Zhuikong said without changing his expression.

He really didn't need to change his expression. Because Zhao Yingkong didn't do anything unnecessary, but simply answered his question in a very ordinary way.

"The plan is mediocre, but as a mortal, it's the best solution she could think of. After all, she couldn't possibly have guessed that the most crucial enemy would be the Demon King instead of the Magic King. And she couldn't have imagined that the so-called restoration of human reason was just a pure joke for us, or even for themselves."

"You're being too demanding of her. The ability to find a way out of adversity and steadfastly pursue one's goals is a precious quality. It's the same for us."

"But wasn't it you, brother, who was being demanding of her?" Zhao Yingkong tilted her head slightly and asked, "Wasn't it you who scared her so much that she could barely speak? Wasn't it you who made her stumble and stammer out incoherent lines while trying to suppress the trembling of her legs and the incontinence between her legs? I thought it was you who had that kind of interest, brother, or perhaps you have a special fondness for girls like that?"

Zhao Zhuikong's lips twitched.

"Stop making fun of me, Sakura. This is just a necessary test." He shook his head helplessly. "Mortals have shown courage and determination, but that alone is not enough to motivate true gods like you and me, reincarnators like us. My observation of her is just a small test. If her performance can give me even a little pleasure, then I can treat this as an equal exchange, rather than a one-sided act of charity or pity."

"—So this is indeed your interest, brother?" Zhao Yingkong tilted her head to the other side.

“Seeing my prey panic and then regain its fighting spirit amidst fear and anger is indeed something I'm interested in,” Zhao Zhuikong admitted directly this time, without avoiding the topic. “This is also my way of hunting. It's part of my philosophy. I can't go against it without a reason, and its manifestation certainly pleases me.”

"So, brother, you've taken her as your prey. Hmm, looking closely, she is indeed quite a beauty." An exclamation mark appeared on Zhao Yingkong's forehead—not a figure of speech, but a real one. Her will distorted the propagation of light, shaping it into a three-dimensional exclamation mark, which then floated and blinked beside her forehead.

—It looks like a task briefing icon.

Zhao Zhuikong was no longer in the mood to even twitch his lips. He held his forehead with one hand and couldn't help but sigh.

"...Sakura, if you have any opinions about me, I think we can speak frankly. There's no need to keep veering into this strange direction like this—I admit that I did do some flirtatious things during that boring time in the Event Tree System...but those things are settled now, aren't they?"

He glanced at his empty left trouser leg—he could, of course, regenerate it at any time, and even if he didn't, this damage, which was only equivalent to trimming a fingernail to an ordinary person, wouldn't affect his combat ability in any way—but he didn't regenerate it. Instead, he obediently stayed in this wheelchair for such a long time to appease the anger of his irritable sister, who had inexplicably gone mad—and he felt he had done enough.

He'd had enough! He'd made up his mind that if this brat continued her unreasonable behavior, he'd teach her a lesson in manly anger!

Then he felt his younger sister lean down, and he felt the warm breath coming from her red lips near his ear.

"Are you angry, dear brother, or is Sakura being too nosy?"

"........."

"........."

Zhao Zhuikong took a soft breath.

Okay, what kind of man gets angry at a little girl? A real man should know how to bend and stretch!

"How could that be? I would never be angry with you, Sakura. You can worry about whatever you want. I just want to give you some advice: having too many worries isn't good for your sleep..." he stammered, a smile on his face, all traces of his former manly demeanor gone. And then...

"Then why did you go to fight the captain of the Indian team without telling me, brother?"

In just a moment, with just a single sentence, the ambiguous atmosphere that had been lingering in the conference hall, even filled with a sour, rotten stench reminiscent of rotten dog food, came to an abrupt end.

The embarrassment, doting, embarrassment, and indulgence on Zhao Zhuikong's face silently faded away. As he rose from his wheelchair and his feet touched the ground, the appearance belonging to [Shinji Matou] disappeared—he returned to the appearance that Zhao Zhuikong, the reincarnator, should have, and his tone was no longer filled with the fervent emotions of the mortal world as before.

"Did Xilin tell you?" He turned his head, his gaze sweeping over Zhao Yingkong, who had also reverted to her original appearance. Having shed his disguise, his somewhat frantic, rational thought process incorporated information from the surrounding area, and then, fifteen minutes ago, he accurately captured a slightly bright starlight.

“…It really is her.” He snorted. “Yes, my killing intent couldn’t have escaped Sirin’s notice. And all she had to do was glance this way, and you could basically draw a conclusion. Tsk, this unlucky wretch who’s just causing me trouble, can’t she just be a lazy bum?”

“You admit it, brother.” Zhao Yingkong said calmly, “I will naturally repay Sesshouin Kihara for taking care of me in the world of Gods and Demons. I don’t need you to overstep your bounds—you’re meddling too much, brother.”

“If it were just about being an older brother, then I would indeed be meddling too much. But in my eyes, only that unlucky girl, Xilin, is my pure, carefree younger sister. As for you, Zhao Yingkong—” A pure, expressionless smile appeared on his lips, stiffer than a forced one.

"—You should know my feelings for you. I won't be indecisive like those herbivorous men in anime and novels. Because I've never seen you as a little sister—to me, you hold a place in my heart as a 'lover' and a 'partner.' And whether you agree or not has nothing to do with it, because my view of you will not change."

"Will you agree, Sakura? Or—" He took a step forward and stood in front of Zhao Sakura, trapping her both physically and psychologically. "—You're planning to refuse?"

Zhao Yingkong did not answer. Just as he had predicted, just as he had expected, she did not answer—she simply turned her head slightly to look at a certain spot on the ground. At the same time, her hands unconsciously began toying with the short dagger made from the leg bone of a true god.

In a sense, this can be considered a default response.

However, Zhao Zhuikong was not satisfied with such a victory—his path did not allow him to stop there.

“So.” He took another step forward and lifted Zhao Yingkong up in his arms, placing her on his lap amidst her screams and playful punches. “As your lover, your partner, I cannot bear to do nothing when I know that the crazy woman who hurt me is nearby.”

His eyes held a myriad of images, some even overflowing and projecting onto every corner of the small conference hall—numerous parallel worlds or twin universes, numbering at least one hundred thousand. In each of these areas, an avatar of Zhao Zhuikong descended, relentlessly hunting down certain mutated evil beings from beyond the realm!

Some are bodhisattvas from beyond the realm, sometimes they are the sudden transformation of an innocent girl, and sometimes their incarnations delve into the spiritual world to watch the protagonists in the story defeat the demonic bodhisattvas or the nascent form of the third beast according to the script. If everything goes smoothly, they do not interfere. But if the evil thing that should be destroyed shows any abnormality, they will immediately use thunderous means to deliver a devastating blow to it.

Most of the time, he's in time because he's almost always pinpointed to that specific moment. But in the rare instances where he misses out, when the evil from beyond the realm has already infused its will into the world, corrupting the land into its own external Buddhist kingdom, he transforms into a leader or savior, leading a resistance army to join forces with the mysteriously appearing Star Knowing Heaven, fighting the external ruler until the end of the world!

Sesshouin Kiara and Ex descended together, but there's a reason why only Ex has appeared. Unlike Ex, who headlong into the Dao-Contending Platform, Sesshouin Kiara's approach was to start with parallel worlds. After occupying enough parallel worlds, she continuously projected her expanded concepts onto this main online world, which serves as both the Dao-Contending Platform and the pan-human history—and the reason she hasn't succeeded is precisely because she simply can't determine a winner in the wars of those numerous parallel online worlds with Zhao Zhuikong!

The fact that so many reincarnators descended and each had their own role, yet Yu Ji, a descendant of Gaia, only reacted to Zhao Zhuikong, was not entirely without reason. It was precisely because Zhao Zhuikong's continuous battles with Sesshouin Kihara, who frequently committed acts of world destruction and treated the will of planets like candy, had transformed into scattered concepts and projected onto many parallel Earths, including the main timeline, that the Gaia's pan-consciousness in this world saw him as a lifeline and wanted to grasp at him!

Every outcome has its cause, and now cause and effect are connected.

A little shyly, Zhao Yingkong jumped off his lap and delivered a powerful, pink punch to his head that could turn the moon into a mooncake.

But he didn't care. He just tilted his head slightly, completely dissipating the simple force and casually tossing it onto the forehead of a certain online Bodhisattva he was blocking.

"Then it's settled. Sakura, you can come with me to deal with that crazy woman, but don't even think about excluding me from this. And..."

He glanced at the door that had suddenly sprung up on the wall, and at the people emerging from each door, such as 'Dr. Xiao,' 'Miss Zhan,' 'Mr. Cheng,' and 'Engineer Kampasky.' A subtle smile returned to his lips.

“I don’t care about Alice’s plans, because Alice’s plans will definitely run into problems. Her way is the way of change, and a plan that is executed perfectly from beginning to end without any issues is incompatible with her philosophy—she will definitely run into problems, or at least create some. And I suspect that she is already in trouble.”

“Ah, that’s exactly what Sister Alice would do.” The little boy doctor, now transformed into Xiao Honglu, raised an eyebrow and casually conjured up two rows of sofas and a conference table for everyone to sit down. “But Sister Alice won’t mess things up. Her plans are indeed destined to fail, but her failures usually only lead to success in another way. Past experiences have proven this, and I don’t think there will be any surprises this time.”

“So it seems we’ve reached a consensus on the point that there’s no need to follow Alice’s plan.” Zhao Zhuikong nodded gracefully, and the next moment, he moved the imaginary navigator left behind by Olga Marie to the top of the conference table.

“I’m planning a hunt,” he said casually.

"Let's go together to hunt down the true god."

Chapter 72 - Thousand Knowledge

“True gods are very difficult to kill. Especially true gods among the Reincarnators,” Zhan Lan said slowly, her delicate pointed ears twitching slightly. “Alice shared relevant data. Once a true god constructs a time loop and becomes a worm-like creature that can freely travel within its own timeline, then even those of the same level cannot kill a true god among the Reincarnators.”

"Because we have no way to trace back to the Reincarnator's origin world across a bunch of individual universes. And if we can't erase them at the starting point of their origin world, then even if we successfully kill that Reincarnation God here, what we've ultimately destroyed is only one of their timelines—they can always reconnect the broken lines, and I think you should be well aware of this common sense, Zhao Zhuikong."

"Or are you planning to hunt down the native true gods of this universe? Those UOs, the true forms of god-kings, star souls, and the like. They have an essence similar to the light of the mind, but their actual combat power is just that of mid-to-high-level extraordinary wild animals?" Zhan Lan's fingers lightly rested on the table, forming a triangular tower. "Those kinds of things can only be our prey; there's no need for you to go to such lengths to hold a seminar."

Zhao Zhuikong's gaze shifted slightly. He could clearly grasp Zhan Lan's current level of life—all the cells in this woman who had walked the path of the Spirit Clan's prophet were activated, and the combined will of those trillions of cells had been easily dismantled and scattered by her, using them as a foundation to construct a dreamscape of power that she could use at any time. She had completely controlled her body, suppressed the restlessness within her heart, and even on her body surface, faint micron-sized Dao erosion phenomena were constantly forming and disappearing.

Zhan Lan has already unlocked the fourth-tier gene lock—this is only natural. The resources provided by the Dao Struggle platform allow even a True God like Patchouli to leap directly from the initial stage to the peak, so a seasoned reincarnation practitioner like Zhan Lan, with her abundant experience, can naturally climb to her limit with ease.

—And it wasn't just her; almost everyone else was in the same state. Apart from the shameless Cheng, who was still stuck in the late stage of the third tier, Xiao Honglu and Bawang had both unlocked the fourth-tier gene lock and completely stabilized this unstable power realm that was extremely prone to going out of control and mutating.

Xiao Honglu might still be somewhat uncertain, as he seemed to intend to guide his own spiritual light and create a divine form before advancing to the Fourth Middle School. Meanwhile, the Overlord had completely discarded the erosion from information magic and purified his power. From Zhao Zhuikong's perspective, this burly Russian man was now practically a winter wolf straight out of mythology!

They had become powerful figures, figures that Zhao Zhuikong would have valued even without encountering Xilin or joining the Central Continent Team. They were comrades who could fight alongside him, not mere cannon fodder he could easily dismiss. And their will rightfully deserved respect—otherwise, he wouldn't have convened this meeting; he would have simply taken matters into his own hands and done what he wanted.

His lips parted slightly, but before he could speak, Zhao Yingkong, who had already sat down beside him, spoke first.

“There is a true god who can serve as a target.” Her tone returned to its usual peacefulness. “Its combat power is strong, but its foundation will be very weak. Although it is a reincarnator, there is a high chance that its time loop will fail to be successfully constructed. Because its situation is special.”

"Oh?" Numerous lights flashed in Xiao Honglu's eyes, intelligence gathered from the surveillance cameras he'd deployed to various singularities and neighboring timelines while impersonating Dr. Xiao of Chaldea. Although Sirin had completely smoothed over these historical distortions, she wouldn't deliberately erase even the methods of her comrades—

These intelligence sources immediately converged in his mind, and were pieced together based on Zhao Yingkong's words as clues. Another intelligence supply from Zhan Lan provided more evidence, which led him to quickly reach a conclusion.

"So that's it..." Xiao Honglu chuckled. He shared his discovery with Ba Wang and Diu Ren Cheng. "Brother Zhao, you've set your sights on a nearly ripe egg just because you want to eat roast chicken. But don't forget there are foxes and weasels lurking around, eyeing it... Be careful, or you'll end up with nothing."

"Hunting is a two-way street. A hunter must be prepared to become prey at any time," Zhao Zhuikong replied with a light laugh. "Besides, things always need a bit of challenge. It's hard to go far if you just follow the wise men's plans step by step from beginning to end... Even if you do go far, aren't you prepared to take some risks?"

"The habits formed over so many years of living on the edge are not something that can be easily forgotten." The Overlord chuckled and snapped his fingers. Chelsea, who had been a passerby for countless years and had accompanied him through countless years, gracefully emerged from his shadow and then split into four, transforming into the appearances of Xiao Honglu and the other three.

—It's not that extraordinary beings can't leave a few avatars in some remote corner as backup while fully focused on their task. The problem is that among the reincarnators present, besides a group of true gods and extraordinary beings, there's also a shameful fellow. This action was taken to save face for him and to give him a little push. And clearly, this subtle encouragement wasn't without effect.

Cheng Xiao's face flushed slightly, a blush that even his extensive combat experience and muscle control couldn't completely suppress. He groaned twice, covering his head, but didn't utter the even more embarrassing words, "I'll stay here, you guys go hunting."

He knew very well that he had fallen far behind. Although the main reason might be that his companions were moving too fast, reasons were reasons, and reality was reality. Even if it meant cheating, he knew that if he couldn't take this crucial step in this world, he probably wouldn't have any more opportunities in the future. And for someone as far behind as him to overtake others, he had to take risks.

He made up his mind, and then silently returned to his normal self.

The others clearly observed his determination, and the discussion moved in the next direction.

The four avatars left through the portal that grew out of the wall, just as they had arrived. They would return to their original positions, managing the new facility on behalf of the reincarnators, while continuing to exert their influence here.

Xiao Honglu coughed lightly.