Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

—'Go for a walk, go and see human civilization.'

—'You don't actually think that Hu Hai is the only one in this entire starry sky worth your attention, do you?'

She gazed upon them, upon the Sirens, upon the mortals. Yet, even as two hundred and thirty years silently passed, and she took in all the changes and changes, she still did not believe that this civilization was worthy of her attention.

Yes, whether it's human civilization or Siren civilization, it's all the same to her.

Because she could see the ending from the very beginning. Because she had already captured all the variables. Because even if she did nothing, she could easily determine every stage and every subtle development of these two civilizations.

After all, everything has a cause and an effect. And since she already knew all the causes on this closed chessboard, the outcome of everything was naturally within her grasp and calculation.

She knew how things would turn out if she let things run their course. She also knew what kind of subsequent changes would occur if she intervened. This entire expanse of starry sky, covering ten light-years, was like an open book to her, and she knew she could freely flip through it and examine every part of it.

Perhaps this is how the Ziyi clan is trying to defeat me?

Because what I seek is change, and on this fixed chessboard, unless he makes a move, no change will occur that aligns with my principles.

The result of this is that one day I will overturn everything I've set up, even breaking the rules of the chessboard, just to seek the changes I desire?

“Wishful thinking.” — That’s what Alice wanted to say. But she knew herself, she knew every subtle shift in her own thoughts. She knew very well how much she loathed a story with a predetermined ending. She also knew when she would turn that loathing into actual intervention.

That won't be long; it's the foreseeable future, not too far off. Although it's a future measured in kos even within this closed game of chess, for the person she loves and her opponent, even without using the power of time travel, that future is as 'distant' as tomorrow.

So she lowered her eyes, and her will immediately gave way.

She still did not intend to break the rules or actively utilize forces outside the chessboard. However, she planned to follow Luo Ye's advice and experience this civilized world more deeply and personally.

She arrived at the most intense front lines of the battlefield...

A blazing starry sky filled her eyes. She saw colossal steel warships clashing on an astronomical scale. She saw entire fleets tearing at the Sirens' legions in close combat amidst the glow of short-range teleportation. She saw mortal warriors, clad in mechanized hulls, roar as they jumped into the Sirens' arrays and then vanished into flames in space. She saw besieged warships firing at full power, using their own mass as weapons in a final, desperate struggle.

She watched it all unfold. All that effort, bloodshed, struggle, and sacrifice, which might have stirred her emotions in the past, now held no value for her. And she knew this wasn't just because she had become a transcendent being, but also because she understood the insignificance of mortals' contributions in this war.

What dies is only the body, and there are as many bodies as you can get.

When the war reached a stalemate and the battle lines were far from the home planet of the Three Houses, the mortal armies had already suffered minimal casualties.

In the past, I would have been moved by the heroic acts and great sacrifices of ordinary people. Now, although I am no longer as easily swayed as before, doubts still linger in my heart.

I wonder, did my past self truly feel moved by the act itself, or by the price paid for it?

She reached out and gently touched a bridge bolt that had fallen out in the vacuum. The next moment, her body was transported to the interior of a large factory in a mortal civilization.

There was nothing interesting in the factory; it couldn't compare to the intellectual achievements that could be processed in a single instant by the factory's own computing power. Even the largest production base couldn't distract her.

She continued to step outward, past the roaring machinery, past the complex buildings, past the bustling crowds.

Then she stopped at the top of the city and looked down.

Over two hundred years ago, this was a decadent technological civilization. The lower classes lived in a state of hedonism, while the upper classes indulged in extravagance and debauchery. The mediocre masses, dominated by both material and spiritual desires, lived like sheep, paying no attention to anything beyond entertainment and pleasure. However, the sheep of the lower classes could not create the wolves of the upper classes. On the contrary, the weak lower classes only produced a pack of sheepdogs who were more like guardians than rulers. And the minds of these sheepdogs were filled with nothing but another form of entertainment and pleasure.

—More than two hundred years later, continuous wars have shattered the monopoly of the upper and lower classes. Abandoned national and racial ideologies have been revived. The dominant factors buried in sound, light, food, and water have been completely discarded. And everyone in the entire civilization is united as one, striving from birth to fight the Sirens with all their might.

Ordinary people crawl and work like ants. Children are born with the mission of learning knowledge and combat skills. Youth take discipline, obedience, and war skills as their duty. The elderly guide the progress of civilization with wisdom and experience, and on the eve of their physical limits, they dedicate their souls to the central brain of civilization, becoming a small part of that vast computing power.

Everything proceeds smoothly and methodically. Every hour, every moment. Thousands are born, and no one cheers. Every day, every hour. Thousands die, and no one mourns. Society operates like a well-wound machine. And every individual within it makes a tremendous sacrifice.

Despite the sacrifice, Alice remained unmoved. Her gaze remained cold and calm.

In the past, even if I weren't moved, I would have felt gratified. But now...

"Feeling moved and relieved are both vague judgments based on incomplete information. They are the essence of irrational emotions," Alice answered herself softly. She turned her head to look behind her: "But I will not be bound by such emotions now. Your attempt is futile. I will not be soft-hearted just because I see a civilization struggling to survive entirely on its own."

There was no one behind her.

But she knew someone was there.

Section Thirty-Three: Rejection

Under her gaze, Ziyi's outline became clear, like a poorly projected image – he still had Xiao Honglu's appearance, and his expression remained as composed as ever.

“I’ve seen this child’s memories. You once stood on the side of mortals, thought for mortals, and fought for mortals. But now you’ve changed into this. Don’t you feel tired? Don’t you feel…”

"...Have you forgotten your original aspirations?"

"I don't have any such thing as a 'original intention.' Even if I did, it would definitely not be about protecting humanity." Alice snorted coldly, glancing at the guy who dared to expose himself to her. She knew that if she wanted to, defeating this ancient ancestor, whose life level was only comparable to hers and who was also burdened by Xiao Honglu, would only take a moment. But she restrained herself for the time being, not acting rashly on the eve of victory.

She knew she was going to win, because Ziyi had already appeared before her. Since her opponent's appearance was inevitable, or rather, the act of appearing was essentially making a move, and once she made that move, she was certain to win.

"And your appearance has revealed quite a bit of information. I thought you were so disillusioned with the mortal race that you didn't want to care about them at all, and that you didn't care about their life or death." Alice tilted her head slightly. "But I didn't expect that your attitude was just an act. They are not without importance in your heart."

Ziyi didn't answer, but his gaze shifted slightly downwards to Alice's fingers—he was staring at the seven-colored flower she was holding. The flower bud seemed ready to bloom at any moment.

What will happen if that bud blooms?

Nothing will happen, because Alice won't break the rules. The flower in her hand doesn't belong to this dream, but to the reality outside of it. When the flower blooms, nothing will happen in the dream. Nothing will change on the chessboard.

However, this flower will bloom and spread in reality outside of dreams, and in a very short time, it will transform the entire Sanhu Star and the surrounding star system into the same kind of flower.

Nothing living thing dies; they simply change. All the trees, all the birds, all the fish, all the bacteria and organic matter aggregates change. They will all rewrite the final result as a sea of ​​flowers after the game ends. And the result will be that mortals will no longer be mortals, and all the societies, orders, and classes deduced in the game will cease to exist in an instant.

Then, the new things will replace the old things.

"You don't care whether humanity lives or perpetuates. You only care whether humanity follows the society, rules, order, and hierarchy you have established before it disappears... That's all you care about. Because this is your way, your essence, the core of your philosophy. That's why you say you don't agree with the ancient philosophy, yet you still follow him to participate in the creation war against Gaia. Because although your philosophies are completely different, your goals are largely the same."

Alice continued.

“Your path is the operation of the system of society, rules, order, and class. And your obsession, I suspect, is that you want this system to exist only among mortals… You want to reduce all races to barbarians, you want all races other than humans to live in ignorance forever.” She gazed at the Ziyi Clan and asked, “Am I right?”

“Your thinking is very erratic,” her opponent replied, practically writing “What are you guessing?” on his face.

“A leap? Not necessarily.” Alice shook her head slightly. “I’ve been thinking about why you insisted on inviting me to start this game, but then remained silent during it. Until you showed up, I thought this was your way of defeating me, because you have Xiao Honglu’s memories, you know my philosophy is change, and a stagnant world means no change to me… I will be unable to resist breaking the rules, I will overturn the chessboard, I will lose, and then after losing, I will kill you and take Xiao Honglu back into the ranks.”

"Can't I do that?" A bitter smile, not entirely undisguised, flickered in Ziyi's eyes. "Perhaps that's exactly what I wanted to achieve?"

“Ah, that’s right. That possibility does exist. If you truly don’t care about humanity, don’t care about their destruction, and just want to play a game of chess with me, then that possibility does exist. But, just now…” Alice stretched out her hand, displaying the seven-colored flower. “You revealed yourself, so all the previous calculations have to be scrapped and started over.”

She let the flowers in her hand dissipate like smoke.

“You care about these mortals not because of their survival, but because of their ‘identity’ as mortals, and the society and order they constitute. Therefore, I suspect that your obsession, the thing that is preventing you from attaining enlightenment, is related to this. At the same time, I know that you have significant interests in this game.”

Her eyes darted about, capturing the myriad details of the conflicts between the Sirens and the mortal realm on this closed chessboard. Ah… yes, she hadn't actually propelled the Sirens' actions much, but her shadow still lingered in several major shifts in their power—in previous games, she had repeatedly brought the mortals to the brink of destruction. Sometimes physically, sometimes mentally, but each time, Ziyi remained unmoved.

So she collected this information and summarized it. Ultimately, she arrived at some general conclusions.

That conclusion led her, just seconds earlier, to create a flower outside the chessboard that would only take effect after the game was over.

She knew that if her guess was correct, then the Ziyi Clan would inevitably take action, just as she herself could not go against her own principles, creating something unchanging and unaffected by her own obsessions. If her probing actions contradicted the Ziyi Clan's beliefs, then the Ziyi Clan would very likely intervene.

And then, she succeeded.

She verified her conjecture and reached a conclusion.

"You have interests at stake, and your interests are at odds with mine—knowing this, I deduced from the current situation. And my conclusion is that I will not be able to suppress my own beliefs during the long wait. In the end, I will lose this game that I could not have lost in the first place by flipping the table or breaking the rules."

She knew she would win. Because she was 'change'. A closed system, no matter how complex, as long as it's functioning, will capture and analyze all its 'changes'—so she would definitely win. Whether it's chess, cards, or any other competition. As long as the system is closed and her side has a chance of winning, she will inevitably find a sure-fire way to victory.

She knew she would lose. Because 'change' was herself. She couldn't tolerate stagnation, couldn't tolerate a system where all variables were under her control. Just as she knew that even if her strategy was sound, she would still create problems. When her opponent stalled by not making a move, she would inevitably act against the rules out of a desire for 'change'.

However, once she violates the rules, the rules established by the embodiment of the concept of "human rules" in this "game of human affairs," then the phenomenon of Dao erosion will silently spread to her.

“From the very beginning, this game was a trap.” Alice stared coldly at him, causing the bitter smile in his eyes to spread across his face. “I will lose this final game, and then I will kill you in the reality outside the game. I will win, but the residual Dao Erosion you leave behind will affect me…”

Alice flexed her fingers, preparing for battle.

"You know my identity, and you know more than you show. The phrase 'daughter of Gaia' was one of your manipulative tactics. The twenty-nine easy yet inevitable chess games, and the many true pieces of information you revealed during those games, were another scheme. All of this was so that I wouldn't feel anything amiss when I killed you, and wouldn't notice the Dao Erosion phenomenon you left on me before your death."

“You know who I am, you know my duty. You know I am the scales, and I should stand in the most impartial position to judge the future of humanity and all races after the awakening of Zea. But you, with that slight phenomenon of Dao erosion, want to sway my judgment, to make me slightly biased towards mortals when fulfilling my duty!”

The moment she finished speaking, the vast rooftop fell into a long silence.

Silence, silence.

The bitterness on Ziyi's face gradually faded, replaced by a wild smile on his youthful face.

"Haha, haha—as expected of you, as expected of Sister Alice. I originally thought that after being awakened from my slumber, I could at least contribute something to the world. But I never imagined that the final step to success would be so far away!"

His eyes widened, and his arrogant smile turned into a question.

"You were so full of humanity in the past, so why are you now unwilling to share that compassion with your former kin? You clearly had pity on the fate of mortals in the previous world, so why have you now swallowed all those precious qualities?!"

“Because I have redefined myself and readjusted my perspective,” Alice replied calmly. “What you consider precious means nothing to me. I am now a being beyond life, operating on the concept of ‘change.’ To me at this moment, everything that changes, develops, and progresses is good. Everything else falls into two categories: bad and unnecessary.”

"Those so-called beautiful and precious qualities of yours. Those compassion, tolerance, mercy... they are just neutral words to me that have no influence. If you want me to agree with them, if you want me to value them, they will only do so if they can prove that their very existence means 'change'!"

Her fingertips brushed across the earth, leaving a massive mark on the celestial body. She was no longer affected by the Ziyi Clan's Dao Erosion. Because she hadn't cheated, but had deliberately ended the game!

"Just like this planet, just like this civilization. No matter how much the mortals on it risk their lives, no matter how united they are, to me, who knows all the causes, it is just a book with a fixed ending. They have no change, no potential beyond my control, so they are meaningless to me."

"Didn't you see through this precisely, which is why you deliberately invited me to play the game of civilization, waiting for me to become unable to tolerate their unchanging nature and thus willingly surrender? All of this was clearly within your calculations, so what's the point of yelling at me now?"

"...You could have been a better person."

"What is 'good' is up to me to decide. What you consider 'good' has no value to me."

"Then, the situation can only develop in a way that's bad for both of us," Ziyi said calmly, a hint of regret in her voice. "What a pity, I originally wanted to..."

Before he could finish speaking, his form disintegrated and crumbled, transforming into a plant of the same size as the seven-colored flower that Alice had scattered seconds earlier. He reformed himself in the next moment, only to collapse again. He then abandoned his current body and possessed one of the billions of mortals on the chessboard!

Countless ferocious armies emerged, gathering in groups and surging towards Alice like a tidal wave, armed with discipline and order.

Then, in an instant, they all died. Flesh and blood, bones and armor, guns and cannons—all transformed into seven-colored flowers. And these seven-colored flowers were interconnected, forming a vast net with threads like those of a puppet.

A vast net stretched out into the real world beyond the dream realm.

And so, the dream became reality. This world, spanning ten light-years in radius, transformed into an endless sea of ​​flowers at the moment the illusion and reality overlapped.

The sea of ​​flowers withered and died, the branches died, the petals decayed, and then a pervasive vortex, spanning ten light-years, began to swirl. It gathered and collected all the remnants that had tried to escape by decaying and turning to ash, ultimately converging at the tip of Alice's outstretched finger!

And so, all the fragments were pieced together to form the shape of the Black Robe Clan. And Alice's hand pierced right through her heart!

“I told you before, you can’t beat me.” Alice pulled her hand away, along with the Ziyi Clan’s conceptual heart. “I can kill you in an instant.”

She snapped her fingers, and in an instant, all the mortals who had died due to the parasitism of the Ziyi Clan and her own interference were reborn—their flesh and blood restored, their souls returned to their bodies. And they didn't even know that they had ever faced the end.

So she crushed the heart.

And the resurrected past life thus fell into eternal slumber once more.

he died.

They accomplished nothing, achieved nothing. At most, they merely delayed Alice's avatar's death by giving her a little more calculation power and time.

His remaining remains were molded into a new form under Alice's will—the instant the sleeping Xiao Honglu was forged from nothingness. A playing card with a little devil printed on it landed on her fingertips.

She let the playing card fall.

The next moment, Xiao Honglu opened his eyes and reached out to grab the playing cards.