Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

“The essence of the Abyss is the blood of the multiverse, a space and medium between individual universes. And when you are at the outermost edge, the form the multiverse presents actually depends on your perception.” Luo Ye’s voice rang in Alice’s ears. “You seem to understand the multiverse as an enlarged single universe. That’s not exactly a wrong perception, just a little one-sided.”

Alice turned her head and saw Luo Ye floating quietly beside her, her left hand still tightly gripping Luo Ye's right palm. She reached out her other hand, raising her fingers to touch one of the billions of points of light, only to find that all her powers and abilities had vanished, even the simple act of reaching out felt like an insurmountable weight!

【This is…】—Alice found herself unable to speak. No, it was because the medium had been stripped away, thus losing the channel for sound transmission! And with all enhancements negated, she couldn't even express her thoughts through energy vibrations!

This is different from before!

However, Luo Ye was still able to know what she knew and thought, and quickly provided an answer.

"It's just a matter of incompatibility in the rules. All enhancements are denied within the Abyss of Death. Even genetic locks and obsessive souls are severely suppressed here. To move around within the Abyss of Death, a life level of Saint or Quasi-Saint is a necessary prerequisite," Luo Ye patiently explained.

“You used to operate only on the inner side, where you were more easily influenced by the physical rules of your own universe. But this is the surface, and the surface is different from the inner side. Of course, it's even more different from the deep side.”

“I am different from you. The Abyss is my home, so I can move freely within it. But even so, I cannot exert any power within the Abyss. However, this is not important, since the Abyss is not a place for war. At least not for you or for us.”

"And what you need to do now is to gain the ability to move freely in this abyss of death."

Alice blinked.

"What should I do?" she wondered to herself.

“It’s very simple. As I just said, the appearance of the multiverse depends on the observer’s perception. So you just need to adjust your perception a little.” Luo Ye stretched out her hand, brushing across the void before her, causing colorless ripples to spread outwards from her fingertips. “You can’t speak or move because you perceive the multiverse as an enlarged starry sky. You see individual universes as stars, and the surface of the Abyss as outer space. As a mortal without supernatural powers, you naturally cannot speak or move in outer space.”

The next moment, the vast starry sky before Alice's eyes began to shift rapidly with the colorless ripples that swept across Luo Ye's fingers. It was as if a thick curtain had been peeled away; the starry sky and darkness quickly faded away in the distorted light and shadow, while air and gravity followed in quick succession!

Alice's feet touched the ground, and before her stood an infinitely tall, spiraling tower. Each level of the tower had countless portals, all of which were tightly shut, letting in not a single ray of light!

"For transcendent species, correcting their own understanding is a necessary prerequisite for contacting the multiverse. However, under normal circumstances, they are not even qualified to contact the Abyss of Death, but instead randomly project their power outside of a single universe. Whether they can succeed or not, they themselves do not know—but this does not really hinder them much. The more they try, the more likely they are to find the knack. And if they cannot find it... Hmph."

Luo Ye helped Alice down to an unnamed floor in the middle of the Infinite Tower.

—Her hand was still holding Alice's hand.

“You see, I perceive the Abyss of Death as a tower, and the many individual universes as portals within that tower. In my understanding, the multiverse is a closed structure. Gravity and air are not mandatory, but they offer considerable room for manipulation. And on this basis, even mortals can survive in the gaps between these universes.”

Alice opened her mouth—she found herself regaining the ability to breathe and move. Her fingers twitched, and the sensation of contact with the air was so clear.

“If I weren’t a reincarnator…” she asked instinctively.

“If you weren’t a reincarnator or my sister, you would have died just now,” Luo Ye replied. “Because you think the multiverse is an enlarged space. And if a mortal enters space without protection, they will die instantly from the double blow of depressurization and hypothermia—and the Abyss of Death is a place where you can’t bring any items in.”

“There are actually quite a few unlucky people like this, as numerous as the stars in the sky. For example—” She pointed to a sculpture on the edge of a doorway beside her—a majestic statue of a war god, holding a spear high, his beard and hair bristling, his overflowing fighting spirit seemingly wanting to cut through the invisible barrier in front of him—her finger moved down, touching the surface of the statue.

"Like it, a god-king who unified a single universe. Its name… I don't know yet. This god-king survived the epochal calamity after crossing that infinite one-in-a-million probability, thus transcending the level of a true god. However, after becoming a transcendent species, it didn't linger in its source world for a few epochs to properly explore its power, but instead impatiently left its source world before the next epoch began. And so—"

"—Its perception killed it. Because its source world was a cluster of space bubbles, a structure of planes and stars. Therefore, it perceived the multiverse as a void barrier, like the outer membrane of a crystal wall system. Thus, when it took that first step, it turned into a dead stone statue, just like those mortals in its source world who stepped onto the 'outer membrane of a crystal wall system'."

"...Just like Flora?"

“It’s much more serious than Flora’s.” Luo Ye raised his finger, and the next moment, the statue of the God of War turned into sand that kept disintegrating into nothingness. “Because even now, its name doesn’t echo in my mind.”

The statue completely collapsed and disappeared.

"What a pity, I was hoping to try and save its life." Luo Ye shook her head.

"This is a common way for wild transcendent species to die. After all, a large portion of the transcendent species in the multiverse survived the epochal cataclysm by sheer luck or by taking shortcuts. They are often eager to leave the 'cage that has bound them for countless years' rather than at least leaving their mark in the new era before taking any action. Then, the rules of the Abyss and their own cognitive limitations will easily bury them."

She took Alice's hand, gesturing for the latter to continue forward with her.

"However, this situation will not happen to you, because the Reincarnators have the protection of the main god, and the Reincarnators' footprints that are spread across the multiverse are also a good backup and anchor point - the reason I told you this is to give you a way of thinking about how a true god kills a transcendent species. Before you take that step, if you want to kill some native transcendent species, then this method is a good way to win - although with me here, you probably don't need to go to such great lengths."

“Information gap,” Alice said softly.

“Yes, intelligence is very important. More important than strength, experience, intuition, or even luck.” Luo Ye nodded and led her forward. “Those who are not of the Transcendent race are not qualified to come into contact with—or even perceive—the Abyss of Death. And even if one becomes of the Transcendent race, if one steps into the Abyss of Death without proper preparation, the only result will be to be forever trapped within it.”

They continued forward, encountering many more stone sculptures of the dead with varying expressions. Some were humanoid, others beasts or insects. But many more presented bizarre shapes—they even saw a stone fortress that looked like countless faces pieced together, occupying a considerable space in the corridor of this infinitely tall tower.

"That was a civilization beyond this kind, whose universe did not support the use of energy too actively. So they developed mechanical science to its extreme. They even created mechanical gods with most of the power of true gods and controlled them firmly. When the great epoch approached, they transformed all the individuals in their civilization into mechanical gods and merged them into one."

“What a pity.” Luo Ye shook his head. “Just like all newly born transcendent species, when they stepped into the Abyss of Death, they automatically perceived it as the most terrifying place they could imagine and prepared to accept the test—which is only natural. After all, intelligent beings who have overcome countless obstacles to finally reach this point are always filled with the fighting spirit and ambition to challenge the unknown. But they never expected that this ambition and fighting spirit would become their death warrant.”

"What... happened to them?" Alice asked.

Luo Ye tapped her fingers on the fortress.

"They believed that the universe was filled with void storms and the concept of negating all cosmic rules was lost—so they encountered them the moment they left the universe. And they were quite 'surprised' to find that the ultimate crystallization of their science lost all its effectiveness after leaving the source world."

Luo Ye shrugged.

"The more ambitious you are, the worse your fate will be. Those who are not ambitious enough will not even make it to this point. And even those cautious ones who left their mark in the new era, even if they are reborn in the source world, they cannot... can hardly bring back the memories of their encounters in the Abyss of Death. And this means that they can only try again and again."

“An era, and another. One attempt, and another—and in the end, even the transcendent species themselves will face despair. Although they may not die, they will be trapped in their own source world, possessing power that surpasses all others but living like prisoners. And this is the native transcendent species that a reincarnator like you, Alice, is most likely to encounter.”

She tilted her head and looked at Alice.

"Now, do you know how precious the identity of a Reincarnator is, and what kind of opportunity a Returnee from the Abyss signifies?" she said with a light laugh. "All Reincarnators can be considered half-transcendent beings, and even under the protection of the Supreme God, this greatest tribulation will be easily overcome as if stepping on a small stone. And if, on top of that, one can also possess the experience of returning from the Abyss..."

"Phew, you should now know why I'm so sure that your clone can definitely become a transcendent being. And it's not just you; those two Patchouli also have similar potential. Of course, whether they can turn that potential into actual power is another matter, but I think neither you nor your clone will let her fight alone?"

“…I’m definitely jealous now that I’m a clone.” Alice rubbed her forehead, but didn’t deny what Luo Ye said at all. “Very jealous, just like when I was able to take Patchi away from the Source World, while she could only leave with the Original Apocalypse and the Puppet Army.”

“Of course, after all, I chose you.” Luo Ye nodded slightly. “After all, there is a fundamental difference between you and her. You are the origin, you are the original, you are the finished product, while she is inferior to you in all areas. But more importantly, the main god may have a pact with Shen Qi, but he cannot interfere with the mother. Therefore, it is naturally impossible for a clone of Luo Ye to appear.”

Alice remained silent.

She wasn't quite sure how to answer the question, and she felt it best not to delve too deeply into the topic. Although she really wanted to go back to her personal space and share these experiences with Patchouli, and snuggle up to her, before that…

"Are we there yet?" she asked.

“Arrived? We arrived a long time ago.” Luo Ye smiled and shook his head. “There is no conventional concept of distance in the multiverse. In fact, the first door we encountered when we landed was the world where Flora is. And even now, the door closest to you is still the world where Flora is.”

Alice turned her head to look at the door beside her. She remembered that she had crossed at least two thousand doors of different sizes during her previous journey.

"I simply wanted to tell you some information about the multiverse. I've recorded all the information from those wreckage. Although I haven't been able to recall the name of even one of them yet, this knowledge might serve as a nice gift for Patchouli?"

"After all, she is the Celestial One of Knowledge, and recording some knowledge lost in the Abyss of Death would benefit her ascension. And..."

She reached out and touched another door beside her.

"Time is meaningless here; Flora's matter isn't actually urgent. Before that..."

"...How about we try it out first?"

Section 5: The First Solution for Beginners

Just as Luo Ye said, the door was merely her perception, while the door's essence was a brand new, single universe—when she stepped through the open door and led Alice inside, countless intertwined timelines presented Alice's eyes with all the records of this world from the beginning of creation to the end of all things.

She felt her power once more; the life level of a true god, and the corresponding authority, returned to her hands. Her gaze swept across the screen, instantly revealing every detail within this scripted universe, whose total timeline was only about a century.

"This is a relatively small universe. Although the number of parallel world lines is still infinite, the script meme stipulates that the material scope of this universe is limited to the solar system, and the evolution time is only about a hundred years." Luo Ye explained to her, reaching out to adjust the timeline of the universe in front of them to the very beginning.

And so, all things ceased to exist.

In the very first second when time gained meaning, the materialized solar system was born from nothingness, skipping all the preliminary steps of astronomical theory and directly operating to the point in time 4.6 billion years after the solar system's birth. A modern Earth civilization at the end of the 20th century emerged fully, filling in all the missing historical details as if it had truly existed for millions of years.

Then, the still world was put on play.

The crowd began to stir, people busy with their lives and businesses. Birds sang merrily in the woods, and sunlight shone through the clouds, the golden earth symbolizing the revival of all things.

Luo Ye and Alice landed lightly on the roof of a hospital in the middle of a large city. From the middle of the building, one could faintly hear busy and orderly footsteps. From the words carried on the wind, it was not hard to guess that a newborn was about to be born into this world.

"A timeline of only a hundred years means that it is almost impossible for a transcendent species, a true god, or an extraordinary life form to appear in this universe... The last point is slightly debatable. But that's not important. The key point is that there will be no unexpected variables in this single universe, which also means that it is very suitable for newcomers like you to practice."

Luo Ye said softly, her voice echoing in Alice's cochlea: "You haven't entered the material universe yet, so you can only be an observer for now. And just like on the circular table in the lunar world, even if you took a shortcut, your influence on this universe is actually quite limited since your life level hasn't reached beyond the realm of species."

"Without my amplification, you can only move a few atoms or small molecules at most—so, have you decided where to start interfering?"

Alice didn't answer, but simply reached out to touch a pale green leaf at her feet—the leaf withered and turned to ash the instant she touched it.

"Interfering with molecular structure, attempting to create light element fusion using non-metallic elements? Good idea, but it might be a bit too difficult for beginners."

She watched with a smile as Alice reached out to touch the second leaf, which then crumbled into ashes. But as Alice reached for the third, a sudden, inexplicable gust of wind swept across the hospital rooftop, banishing all the falling leaves from Alice's path!

—In Alice's previous calculations, there shouldn't have been such a strong wind at this time and place!

"This is... corrective force?" Alice frowned.

“Yes, where there is interference, there is naturally correction.” Luo Ye reached out and patted her shoulder. “Actually, the word ‘inhibition force’ might be more accurate. However, considering the issue of word repetition, the word ‘corrective force’ is more appropriate for now. This gust of wind is the corrective force triggered by the script meme, because your third interference can indeed generate a chain reaction of light element fusion, thus using that leaf to have a significant impact on the living things in this city.”

“The script meme will not allow this to happen, just like how reincarnators often encounter all sorts of difficulties and obstacles when carrying out the main god’s tasks. So you have to follow the script.”

"What if I use force exceeding the limit of the corrective force to make the change?"

"Then this timeline will be abandoned. After the end of the era, nothing will remain, and everything you do here will be in vain. Unless you go directly to the original world of this scenario to operate." Luo Ye shrugged. "But usually, such an original world is either the lair of a transcendent species that has been operating for many eras, or the dojo of some quasi-saint or even saint—or do you want to experience in advance the overwhelming power of transcendent species compared to true gods?"

"Didn't you say that the indigenous transcendent race is on the same level as the reincarnated true god..."

"Being on the same level means being able to make comparisons, just like humans and ants are actually on the 'carbon-based life' level. But the specific differences in strength and intelligence... I think I don't need to elaborate?"

"I see." Alice nodded slightly, but doubts remained. "Then what should I do to be considered valuable?"

"Hmph, wanting everything you do to have value—that's what Flora, no, Alt, wished for me back then. Although I could tell you directly, I think it's better for you to figure it out yourself." Luo Ye chuckled and made a 'next step' gesture.

"Skipping the beginner's course and going straight to the difficult answers is not a good idea. Lacking the necessary growth experience could lead to trouble later on. How about we start with the most basic topic and try to resolve the interference of corrective forces to make corrections to this world?"

Her voice was soft, but Alice felt that her words carried great weight. And since they made sense, she should naturally listen to them. As Alice agreed, the timeline of this world immediately began to operate, and the true form of the protagonist, who was at the center of the script and ran through the entire story, appeared before Alice's eyes.

It was a baby boy, a boy whose birth signified the beginning of the story, born right in the hospital maternity ward at Alice's feet. He had Japanese origins, and his name was—Kirigaya Kazuto.

It was a very ordinary name, and the boy didn't display any amazing talent or genius in his youth. He just lived an ordinary life, from an average family, with average social skills. He didn't know any influential friends, nor did he encounter any extraordinary adventures on the street or at home. He had a younger sister, and his relationship with her was rather awkward. This ordinary life continued until one day he became a second-year junior high school student.

Second year of junior high school, a typical "chuunibyou" (adolescent delusions of grandeur) age. In this era when teenagers' fantasies can supersede reality, he encounters an immersive virtual reality game called "Sword Art Online." And thus, the dramatic main storyline begins—

Alice pressed the pause button.

Then the world stopped functioning, and everything in the world froze at the moment when Kirito, the protagonist, was about to put on the infiltration device.

"The technological development of this world is very abnormal. When the protagonist, Kirigaya Kazuto, was born, the overall scientific research level of this world was only at the level of a normal, magic-free world in the late 20th century. However, during the fourteen years he grew up, almost all of the world's scientific research resources were invested in social welfare and the development of virtual worlds. As a result, when the world's first stealth game, which was basically a flawless product when it was born, was able to be accessed by Kirigaya Kazuto, a middle school student with no background, and he was even able to afford to buy the stealth helmet..."

“…This isn’t normal; it doesn’t conform to a normal model of social development. So,” Alice turned her head to look at Luo Ye, “can I interpret this as a breakthrough point, for example—a conflict between the world itself and the script meme, something like that?”

“You’re very perceptive, Alice,” Luo Ye said with a smile and clapping. “However, there are still some flaws.”

"What conflicts with script memes is not the world itself, because the existence of script memes is the cornerstone that maintains the operation of the world. After all, without the laws of nature, and without script memes to support humanity, all the multiverses would only end in self-destruction. So, what actually conflicts with script memes is humanity."

Alice frowned.

"What's the difference between this and thinking that the gazebo is too in the way of rain protection, so you'd rather be freely rained on than have something pressing down on your head and therefore want to tear it down?"

“There’s nothing we can do about it; it’s just the nature of humanity itself.” Luo Ye shrugged. “Humans must be the protagonists, and only humans are the protagonists. That’s the essence of humanity. Anyone who isn’t part of ‘humanity’ will face backlash afterward, whether they are protectors or assistants. If it weren’t for this domineering and self-centered characteristic, where would the idea of ​​humanity fighting against heaven have come from back then? But that’s not the point. The point is that there is a conflict between humanity and the script meme.”

She stretched out her hand and gestured to indicate the length of the timeline, which was only a hundred years long.

"The script meme determines that the lifespan of this universe is only so long, but humanity is not content with just that. Because life yearns for continuation, and mortals yearn to become eternal protagonists. Therefore, even if the resources of this universe are so scarce that even the true gods cannot sustain it, humanity's inherent desire for continuation will force the civilization of this world to seek a way out. And this way out is the virtual world."

"By stacking boxes on top of boxes, we can extend a finite amount of time indefinitely..." Alice nodded. "But in that case, the supply of energy and the efficiency of transportation become insurmountable challenges..."

"Therefore, humanity will ultimately fail, and script memes will ultimately emerge victorious."