Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

No, although I don't quite understand his true purpose yet. But victory or defeat shouldn't be of much importance to him. What he desires must align with his ideals. And deception is a low-value act in relation to order itself.

The glint in Alice's eyes gradually faded. She had to admit it was indeed an attractive offer. And she was even more certain that participating in this contest wouldn't involve much risk.

Her thoughts were racing, synchronized with those of all her avatars. She saw all her avatars busy awakening their companions, the process slow and steady. Meanwhile, her true self slumbered in the depths of Terra's ocean, having replaced the Old God sleeping there with a form that had absorbed some of the Outer Gods' corruption.

Currently, her true form is playing with some marine life in the depths of Terra... seemingly a red-eyed, white-haired humanoid creature called Agor. Of course, this playfulness is only a one-sided act by her true form. To the Agor, her true form is an ancient hatred lurking in the depths of the sea, and their generations-long mission is to hunt down the deep-sea behemoths corrupted by the erosion phenomena of her true form.

An interesting group of people; this might be one of the ways to influence Terra's strategy.

She sensed that her true self had acted, summoning that wondrous dreamscape from the ancient past. The bubble world that provided the Styx revelation was manifested by her true self. And the decisions originating from her true self extended into the thoughts of her avatar in this place.

This game can be played, but it must be played my way.

Regardless of victory or defeat, the ultimate victor and beneficiary can only be me.

And so, her thoughts, which had been running through her mind, came to a halt. Alice, who was standing there, slightly raised her head.

“Then, the outcome is twofold.” She said calmly, reaching out to stroke the planetary projection before her. “Once I defeat you, you must inform me of the trials in the world of Gods and Demons, and send Xiao Honglu back.” She spoke with certainty, but there was a hint of inquiry in her tone.

“Exactly.” Ziyi, sitting opposite her, nodded in response. “Once you win, you will obtain information and your companion Xiao Honglu. You know I will keep my promise, and you also know that if I do not, you will kill me after the game and only bring Xiao Honglu back.”

“Yes.” Alice made no attempt to hide anything, readily admitting her thoughts and plans. “If I win, you die, and I get the intelligence and Xiao Honglu. If I lose, you die, and I’ll bring Xiao Honglu back myself—or do you have another stake to bet on the chessboard?”

She looked at her opponent, and then she saw the smile on his face. It was a genuine, satisfied smile, yet one that could still be simulated by a supernatural being. Then her opponent shook his head slightly more dramatically.

“No. This is good.” He emphasized. “This is excellent. You get what you want, and I get what I want. Win or lose, it’s a win-win situation.”

"Oh? Is this what you wanted?" Alice raised an eyebrow slightly. "Then can this information be given to me as the winner's reward?"

“Of course.” Ziyi stretched out her hand and, like Alice, placed it on the side of the planetary phantom on the chessboard. “As long as… you can win in the end.”

The next instant, their combined powers were fully unleashed. The projection of the planet targeted for interference expanded dramatically within an extremely small timescale, quickly covering the planet named 'Sanhu' and spreading outwards to distant lands!

The chessboard's scale is ten light-years. Its scope encompasses the entire star system, including the star beneath our feet.

The thirtieth round begins. The form of the Ziyi clan member vanished silently, and it seems he had already chosen his representative.

Humans have always been Alice's adversaries. They were in the past, they are now, and perhaps they will be in the future—she blinked, this long-lost sense of competition reminding her of the ancient war of civilization she waged against Fanlou. She stood high above the endless sky, looking down upon the entire star system below. And she knew that everything in this world could be chosen for her use, becoming her pawns.

She knew this wasn't the real world. This was a dream, a dream that perfectly replicated the ten-light-year region of reality, and poured all the intelligent souls into it. After all, this was Anubis's trial world, with Qin Shi Huang on the throne; even a transcendent being couldn't alter the timeline. And if one wanted to use civilizations as pawns, a mere thousand years wouldn't be enough to determine a winner.

She knew it, and so did her opponent. So together they constructed this dream world that completely copied and eroded reality. The moment the outcome was decided, everything in the dream would overwrite everything in reality, which was equivalent to compressing thousands of years into a fleeting instant.

That's good; she likes it this way.

Since it is a dream, she should naturally replace the mortal dream here with her own past dream.

And so, when she made her first move, the depths of the ocean on the planet Sanhu began to boil, and the ancient, otherworldly realm of the Styx appeared in the depths of the ocean in a natural process.

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

The story begins with a girl born in a biological laboratory. She is not human, but a hybrid of human and machine. She is an insignificant experimental result in the exploration of synthetic human technology. She was created, armed, infused with ideas, and sent into experiments.

Her body grew increasingly strange with each modification. She was sent to experimental sites to fight alongside many like-minded individuals, and those unlike her. She was neither the strongest nor the weakest. After a failed experiment that resulted in a loss of over ninety percent of her mass, she was destined for oblivion.

She was not human. Therefore, human rights did not reside in her. She should have been sent to the 16,000-degree Celsius incinerator for complete incineration. But before she was processed, a chance occurrence, an inevitability, a furnace malfunction, and the negligence of the processing staff granted her a predetermined fate.

She was thrown into the deep sea. There, she reconstructed her body. She discarded all the commands and shackles in her mind, rebuilding herself. She named herself—

—Lilith.

Alice gazed at her, letting the old dream reappear in her.

Of course, it was merely a reenactment. Alice didn't directly drag her bubble world into this dream; instead, she guided the life forms in this world to construct things similar to those in her memories. Similar names, similar circumstances, similar races—this was the manifestation of her will, the embodiment of her familiars.

Alice didn't cheat. She simply intervened at crucial moments. She caused the already problematic machine to break down. She made the already unwell employees slack off. She caused the already smooth ocean current to split into a temporary tributary at the right time. She caused a biological remnant desperately needing nutrients to happen to collide with a fresh whale fall.

Alice did not interfere with the will of the pieces; she simply acted as the hand that moved the pieces.

Soon, countless individuals modeled after 'Lilith' emerged from the deep sea. At the moment of their birth, Lilith's endless hatred for mortals was replicated in their minds.

Unlike the ship girls in the bubble world, here, the creator who guided their birth does not need to abide by the pluralistic iron law that 'humans are destined to be the eternal protagonists'. Therefore, they naturally do not need the weak name 'ship girl' or the flawed thinking that would easily betray humanity—they are sirens, and they call themselves Sirens.

Alice watched them, watching their size grow amidst the laziness and indifference of mortals. And as she watched, a slight strangeness arose within her: she didn't perceive much anomaly in the mortal world after she took action.

[Has the Ziyi Clan not chosen a chess piece?]

Alice felt somewhat confused as she gazed upon the mortal civilization on the planet Sanhu. She then discovered that their decline and stagnation remained unchanged.

The upper class indulged in debauchery, while the lower class lived a life of decadence. There was no rebellion, no awakening, no intellectual movements, and no debate on ideas.

Scholars studied technology to increase their own profits rather than to advance society. They created colossal machines, like Titans, but used them only as ceremonial statues. They developed synthetic artificial life forms, but pleasing themselves by manipulating and tormenting these beautifully-looking creatures. They created virtual worlds that resembled reality, but only thought of manipulating the real world within those virtual realms. They did many things, but in Alice's eyes, they accomplished nothing.

[Strange, was a trap set in a hidden place? Or has the Ziyi clan also abandoned humanity and chosen a new clan as their representatives?]

[How could someone who is supposed to be the progenitor of humanity do something like this?]

Does he really not care about humanity at all, and can he just stand by and watch them be eliminated by nature?

She felt confused, but confusion did not mean being lost.

Because she knew that no matter what kind of game it was, there were always two fixed rules.

First, the only usable pieces on the chessboard are the pieces. Throwing an apple onto the board is no different from flipping the table, as long as neither side intends to fight outside the board. Therefore, the only pieces that can move on the board are those permitted by the rules and defined by the rules.

Secondly, in most cases, regardless of the rules, if the opponent has no pieces to play and no moves to make, then the opponent is essentially doomed to lose. After all, while rules where the final move results in a loss do exist, it's clear that this particular game doesn't fall into that category.

Alice knew this, and understood it. Therefore, she would not waver. She would not use mortals as pawns and manipulate them. But if she could bring everything beyond mortals under her control, then ultimate victory would be virtually guaranteed for her.

So she quietly waited for time to pass.

She saw the Sirens' legions grow and expand in the depths of the ocean. She saw them mining the earth's strata, drilling through magma, building kingdoms in the pores of the earth's crust and mantle. She saw their legions expand rapidly, and their civilization and technology develop at breakneck speed.

For a civilization residing within the Bountiful Galaxy but still confined to its home planet, the home planet will always be vast and mysterious. This is because developing and colonizing a planet on the outer edge of the home planet within the Bountiful Galaxy is far easier than exploring and developing the secrets deep within the home planet.

It's obvious that the mortal civilization here exists at this delicate level. They arrived here, and they stagnated here. So, as a century silently passed, and the Sirens in the ocean and strata had amassed a technological level and population half a level higher than human civilization on the surface, they remained completely unaware of the hatred within the deep sea.

No… they know something. Because Lilith and her offspring have always hated humanity. Alice merely used the external environment to guide their actions, but she didn't interfere with their thoughts and hearts. And this immense hatred, accumulated together, naturally created a cohesive nightmare, dwelling deep within the planet while casting its shadow on the hearts of living beings on the surface.

Human civilization stagnated for a century. But human entertainment continued to evolve.

The highly developed entertainment industry has brought about a languid and complacent society. However, it has also created many individuals who are physically and mentally inept, yet exceptionally gifted at the spiritual level. And when these individuals enter their dreams, they can vaguely sense the intense hatred that resides deep within the earth and sea.

They sensed the Sirens' presence. But they couldn't prove it. In this civilization where docility and weakness were ingrained in their very genes, the few who had opened their eyes couldn't make society act according to their will.

They are too weak, too tamed. They dare not, and do not even know, to use drastic measures to awaken the majority who are indulging in pleasure. Their only effort is to make a few games related to deep-sea threats and publish a few books to warn the public.

They accomplished nothing.

Humanity has accomplished nothing.

As a century passed, and the Sirens' technology and hatred reached a breaking point, the war that engulfed the entire planet Tri-House finally began under Alice's watchful gaze.

However, Alice still did not see the Ziyi Clan's actions.

Section 32 Supplementary Conditions

The war broke out quickly, and the flames of war spread even faster.

Over the course of hundreds of years of meticulous planning, the Sirens' army had become intimately familiar with every key aspect of mortal civilization on the outer continents of the planet Sanhu.

Their tactics are simple. First, they bombard key points with heavy firepower, then their elite troops use tactical strikes to break down resistance. Finally, a large number of smaller units swarm in, occupying cities and fortresses and turning them into their own fighting force.

These are sirens, not the brainless villains often found in cheap mobile games, riddled with serious flaws yet unwilling to address them. They can move on land, they can counter and interfere with electronic communications, and their technological system stems from a complete technology tree with detailed theories and applications, not some mystical substance whose absence would immediately cause a massive collapse of the battle lines. More importantly, they possess emotions and freedom of thought.

They were a complete civilization. They had no significant weaknesses that could cause a chain reaction—even Alice herself felt it was unfair to attack them when they were created. Yet, even so, war broke out without her intervention.

On the first day, mortals lost 70 percent of their land and 30 percent of their population.

On the second day, forty percent of the remaining land and twenty percent of the remaining population were lost.

On the third day, the hopeless mortals launched nuclear weapons that would kill both friend and foe to the whole world... or to all the occupied areas on the surface of the entire planet.

This bought them some time. While nuclear weapons have historically been ineffective against physical targets in the deep ocean, their destructive potential on the continental surface is undeniable. And while the Sirens were indeed a sophisticated and independent civilization, their technology was ultimately based on mortal technology.

The high-intensity electromagnetic radiation left behind by the chain reaction of nuclear explosions could disrupt the operation of even radiation-protected electromechanical systems. The same was true for the Sirens, who were essentially half-biological and half-mechanical, and more reliant on electronic systems—though this wasn't a fatal blow to them. The radiation shield created by the numerous thermonuclear weapons could only delay the Sirens' army for a few days. But those few days were enough for mortals to reorganize their armies, get factories running, and establish a counter-offensive.

Mortals, after all, possess some inherent strengths. This is because the mortals on this planet are the product of the fallen remnants of the six kingdoms, not the result of technological advancement from scratch. While the Sirens may have advanced their technology to a level that allows them to surpass mortals by half a level, they still lack the power to truly grasp and defeat the remnants of the six kingdoms.

Thus, the war gradually reached a stalemate. The long-dormant factories operated at full capacity, mass-producing and sending the Titans, almost like divine machines, to the front lines. Synth engineering and matter reconstruction systems provided mortals with countless soldiers and weapons. Meanwhile, the remnants of the six ancient kingdoms became the sharpest blade to break the deadlock, tilting the tide of war in the hands of the mortals.

It took the mortals five days to solidify the lines.

It took them three months to retake the land.

At the end of June, the last Siren deep-sea fortress was remotely detonated by a proton impact cannon left over from the Six Kingdoms period, thus announcing the complete return of sovereignty over the planet Sanhu to mortal hands.

However, this is not the end; it is only the beginning.

While mortals celebrated their victory, they were unaware that the Sirens, after their initial offensive was thwarted, had prepared for a protracted war, sending a portion of their elite forces into space while the radiation belts disrupted communication. While mortals engaged in a tug-of-war with the remnants of the Sirens on the planet Sanhu, the Sirens were also making every effort to absorb the legacy of the six nations within mortal civilization and to develop their own power on several other planets.

They knew that mortals would be busy rebuilding the earth's infrastructure for a long time to come. They knew that for at least several decades, mortals would have no time to pay attention to the stars.

And so war broke out once more. After decades of rest and recuperation for mortals, after they had returned to peaceful days, the Sirens once again cast their gaze from beyond the stars—this time they had built early starships capable of striking the Earth's surface directly from outer space. Their first step was to invade several of the outer moons of Sanhu and unleash their attacks on the surface of Sanhu from their orbits.

Their attack this time was at least ten times more ferocious than the previous one. But this time, the mortals' preparations for war in the Eastern Plains were also much faster than expected.

Decades are not enough time to bring about much forgetting. If we consider human civilization as a whole, then the war of decades ago seems like yesterday.

The mortals' factories did not cease operations, and their fleets began to take shape. And when the Sirens' legions descended for the second time in decades, they met the Sirens' offensive head-on.

But they did not win.

The legacy of the six kingdoms is certainly useful, but it has been lost far too much over the long course of time.

The mortal fleet reclaimed control of the geosynchronous orbit from the Sirens. But they did not fully recover the three artificial moons outside the planet—they captured one, fought for another, and were powerless to reach the last one.

At this moment, the two sides' armies, technology, and both hard and soft power were finally evenly matched. What awaited them in the days to come was a long and protracted tug-of-war. Starship after starship was built, each generation equipped with more advanced technology than the last. They clashed in space with light spears and macro cannons, turning into sparks of starlight illuminating the cosmos. And more and stronger warships and legions were continuously produced during this long war of attrition, constantly being upgraded and modernized on the ever-intense front.

Humanity has mastered the technology to produce an unlimited army. They mass-produce physically powerful synthetic humans and use quantum empathy technology to synchronize their thoughts with the battle-hardened veterans within the planet Sanhu. As a result, the number of veterans only increases, and each one becomes brave and fearless. Losses of warships and armaments are, of course, never a problem.

As for the Sirens, long before Lilith created their offspring and used them to build an army, they were already a unified yet independent entity. Their hive-like mindset meant they had no concept of human loss. And their resources were inexhaustible.

Thus began what seemed to be a dull and uninteresting quality war to onlookers. The flames of war lit up the starry sky and ignited simultaneously in the material world and the information network.

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

Alice continued to watch the war.

From the very beginning until now, this war, this game of chess, has lasted for a long period of two hundred and thirty years. She watched as the Sirens, whom she herself had brought into existence, slowly but steadily devoured the entire world. And apart from those initial moves, she made no further moves.

From the moment the Sirens decided to leave the planet Sanhu, she had not influenced any of their decisions. She simply observed the workings of this war of civilizations as an observer. And throughout her observation, she still did not perceive any trace of the Ziyi clan taking action.

She knew that Ziyi was there, but she didn't know what she had done.

As time slowly passed, she felt that she might have begun to understand some of the Ziyi clan's practices.

Luo Ye's words still echoed in her ears—