Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

(You're right, I've changed my mind.) — Alice replied indifferently to herself. She had no interest in the complicated expressions on the other people's faces, nor did she care to think about what Qi Tengyi had come into contact with. The relevant memories had been completely erased from her brain, and she would do the same to Patchouli when she met her.

However, what needs to be done now is to complete the current conversation.

(I admit that Zheng Zha has greater potential than me, and there is room for him to develop leadership and decisiveness. Considering the previous agreement with Zhang Jie and my usual way of doing things, it wouldn't hurt to hand over the captain's authority... But I overlooked one point: power, no matter how small, cannot be obtained by bestowing it.)

(At this moment, I am stronger and more capable than him, possessing better coping skills and methods. In terms of manpower allocation and strategic planning, I don't believe my level is inferior to his. Of course, the most crucial point is that he hasn't demonstrated sufficient magnanimity—the magnanimity to make me regard him as a leader and obey his orders.)

"Capacity...an interesting word." Qi Tengyi's voice seemed to contain a hint of amusement. "You remind me of a certain pervert; he also loves to use the word 'capacity.' Perhaps you two will find common ground in the future."

(...You've revealed too much information; clearing your memory afterward will be very troublesome.)

Why erase memories? Isn't acquiring unknown knowledge a pleasant thing? I thought you witches were all filled with a desire to explore the unknown. Was my assumption wrong?

(...You've revealed even more information. Okay, I can tell you definitively that your reasoning is wrong. Magicians with an overly strong thirst for knowledge are long gone, leaving not even ashes. When it comes to certain knowledge that shouldn't be touched, ignorance is actually a blessing. But I doubt you'll listen; you're already deeply involved.)

Yes, I'm already deeply involved. And whatever the outcome, at least my life will end with understanding.

(How pitiful. You know a lot, but you haven't transformed that knowledge into wisdom. Let me give you some advice, a fact that I learned at great cost.)

(Under an absolute disparity in strength, the weak have no freedom. No physical freedom, nor spiritual freedom, because the thoughts and ideas of the weak, every change in their minds, every fluctuation in their souls, are under the observation of the strong. The past experiences and future possibilities of the weak are laid out before the strong like a clearly written document, and they are not even aware that their own thoughts have been altered beyond recognition.)

(Recognize your current position, Qi Tengyi.)

Alice cut off the communication.

She gently wiped her nose, and with a stinging pain in her brain, certain information she shouldn't have known was instantly erased from her mind. The brain's circuitry quickly reflects this to the soul, thoroughly cleansing any remaining fragments of information.

That wretched guy, he always manages to do things that make both sides unhappy.

Her gaze flickered towards Qi Tengyi through the deflection of the optical signal. As she looked at his thoughtful, expressionless face, she couldn't help but feel a surge of anger welling up from the depths of her heart.

The situation worsened further. Although she couldn't remember what information she had learned during the conversation, the threat level of this world had clearly increased. And if she were to deliberately downplay her presence at this point, pushing Zheng Zha to demonstrate his leadership potential and thus grant him captaincy—then the Central Continent Team would likely face total annihilation in the next eleven days.

In other words, both he and Patchouli could die.

She flicked her finger lightly, and the already somewhat radical plan took an even more extreme turn—undoubtedly, she had to seize control in this harsh environment. And the way to gain control without disrupting team unity was naturally through victory after victory.

A low building beneath her feet was hit by artillery fire—with her bullet-dodging skills, even with a large group of newcomers as a burden, she could easily control the gravity field to avoid the artillery fire falling from the sky. Although shrapnel and thermobaric shells were troublesome, they were still within her control.

What she was worried about were other things.

[Five seconds remaining until contact with enemy armored forces, four, three, two—]

Just as she had predicted, this unit was unaffected by the barrage of bullets. Clearly, they were true veterans; even the destruction of the city less than 500 meters away had not shaken their morale. Looking at the tanks and armored vehicles lining the streets, and the cluster of armed helicopters hovering in the air, issuing commands and holding their ground, even Alice couldn't help but frown slightly.

We need to hinder their firing as much as possible. If we can delay them until here, then there will definitely be comments on the screen.

She narrowed her eyes slightly, sensing that high-precision radar waves from multiple locations within the infantry formations on the ground were sweeping across the area where she and her companions were located. Although the camouflage in Shanghai had successfully deceived them, it had undoubtedly consumed the little puppet's computing power.

Weakening Shanghai is weakening her, and now that the weakening of her has begun, the Grim Reaper of this world should make his move.

The first group to run into problems were the newcomers.

Whether out of fear or acrophobia, as Alice carefully used the anti-gravity field to envelop the Central Continent Team members and carry them over the army, the young delinquent among the new recruits suddenly screamed in terror. As if she had lost her mind, she gesticulated wildly, babbling incoherently and throwing her belongings around haphazardly.

[Calculation in progress.]

A gravitational field silently descended, and the newcomer who had just been shouting immediately clutched her throat, unable to breathe. A light blow to the back of her head caused her to lose consciousness. Her voice and any debris were also obscured by the force field, not escaping through the shielding area at all.

However, this undoubtedly further increased Shanghai's computing power. And it was precisely for this reason that when several rocket vehicles two hundred meters away suddenly opened fire, and roughly a whole load of rockets came hurtling towards them, Alice could only turn her gaze to Zheng Zha, who looked resigned to his fate.

"Now it's your turn to perform, please."

Author's Note:

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My eyes hurt from updating so much.

Chapter Twenty-Four: I Hate Holidays

The shield worked very well. When Zheng Zha, looking dejected, broke free of the protective barrier, activated his gene lock, and gathered the two mixed energies into the Ghost Head Greatsword, he could clearly feel the passage of time between his fingers slow down in an instant.

The training in the world of Ju-on was certainly not in vain. Zheng Zha was now able to fully control the two completely opposite types of energy: innate true qi and demonized blood energy. Of course, the immense power resulting from their collision and annihilation within his body was still beyond his control. However, through long battles, he had discovered another method: drawing a tiny amount of blood energy from his brain and true qi from his dantian, and then letting them intertwine and rub against each other in the middle dantian—around the center of his chest. Instead of complete annihilation, the resulting energy fluctuations also allowed his various abilities to rise to a higher level. While it couldn't compare to the 'explosion' that could only be barely controlled by unlocking two gene locks, it was far superior to simple 'fusion'.

[This state has the potential to go even further. Compared to the crude combination of 'explosion,' this technique of fusing two different types of energies condensed into threads in a double helix manner would undoubtedly possess far greater power. But my body can't withstand it. To attempt that now would be suicidal... Hmm, then let's call this state 'secondary explosion.']

He gripped the demon-headed greatsword, which was infused with energy and in a 'fused' state. Although he had not yet broken the sound barrier in his current state—and his physical strength was insufficient to support him in a prolonged battle in a supersonic environment—the enhanced perception from the energy vibrations was enough for him to accurately grasp the trajectory of the missile, which had only deviated from the rocket vehicle by a few dozen meters.

With a single slash, a sea of ​​fire engulfs everything.

With a deafening boom, the first few rockets shattered instantly. The shockwave from the violent explosion unmistakably altered the trajectories of the other missiles. In that very blink of an eye, the anti-gravity barrier, which had concealed their presence, carried the rest of the Central Continent Team out of the missile's blast radius.

The already dim night sky was tinged with orange-red once more. At the same time, the artillery fire in the distance suddenly changed direction, and the crimson lines of fire falling from the sky rapidly converged on Zheng Zha's location.

He suddenly felt a throbbing sensation in his head.

[Tsk... This technique is far too mentally taxing. To perfectly manipulate these two extremely subtle forces requires an extraordinary amount of energy... With only the first-tier gene lock activated, one can only maintain it for about four or five minutes before experiencing a splitting headache, and then one can forget about using this technique for at least several hours.]

[As expected, Margot Lloyd was right to tell me to use my brain more. Not being smart enough prevents me from using even advanced skills... I need to find a way to become smarter.]

[...But how can one become smarter? Hmm...enhance intelligence through the Supreme God?]

Zheng Zha thought to himself, but his men didn't stop moving in the slightest. The moment he was exposed, the American soldiers on the ground roared and turned their guns to fire at him, completely ignoring the barrage of fire raining down on their encampment. Perhaps they had already disregarded life and death, only thinking of burying the Zhongzhou team here—but it was all in vain.

Ordinary bullets liquefied and disintegrated upon contact with the aura formed by the blood energy surrounding Zheng Zha, while heavy firepower that could affect him couldn't keep up with his near-sonic flight speed. The only thing he needed to be careful of were the stray bullets that wouldn't normally pose a threat to him—however, after Zhan Lan's mental energy connected with him, even these 'accidental' stray bullets couldn't harm him in the slightest.

He moved through the hail of bullets, his crimson wings fluttering, slicing through the American lines like sharp scalpels. Armed helicopters and anti-aircraft guns were his primary targets. These steel constructs, built with early 21st-century metallurgical techniques, offered virtually no resistance against the 'fused' demon-headed broadsword.

And those armed personnel are even more out of the question.

Even so, the American troops still accomplished their mission of 'delaying the Central State Team'—or at least a portion of the Central State Team members. Dozens of seconds later, artillery fire rained down from the sky, turning the entire urban area into an inferno.

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

Zheng Zha is alright. Zhan Lan did play a role after all, preventing me from doing useless work.

Alice raised her hand and switched the trigger-activated shield on Zheng Zha to automatic mode. She turned her head slightly and saw that Zhan Lan, who was floating not far away, had a dazzling white light bursting from her eyes. Both she and the psionic energy in her heart had entered a state of near overload and full power.

Alice was actually quite worried about Zhan Lan. Not the kind of 'worry' mixed with other emotions, but rather a worry that this woman, whose spirit race bloodline had been enhanced, might cause her trouble at a crucial moment.

In the world of Ju-on's memories, Zhan Lan is the only one among the people of Zhongzhou who, due to the significant loss of her memories, considers herself a native of the region—she believes her name is Shinozaki Lan, and that she has a daughter named Shinozaki Sachiko whom she raised for several months. After Alice shatters her beautiful dream, she shows no sign of distress, as if the events in her memory world were merely a highly realistic film, having no impact on the real world.

[If her enhanced bloodline wasn't that of a Spirit Race prophet, I might actually have believed it.]

However, after enhancing her bloodline, she became noticeably more sentimental. Her feelings for Zheng Zha also changed from initially being "neither competing nor taking, keeping him only as a memory in her heart" to actively approaching him when the atmosphere was right, even making some flirtatious gestures. I don't believe she had no resentment about what happened before.

Her brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

[Patch, Saito Hajime, Zhan Lan... and Zhang Heng, if you can barely count him. Add to that these seventeen challenging characters, and the fact that there's clearly some kind of mutated story world... ugh... seriously, how come all this crap is happening at once?]

[I'm really having a run of bad luck. This situation is much more troublesome than back in The Mummy – the rituals of the Church's Angel series can't be performed. The most powerful Apocalypse can't be used either… and the Final Destination universe makes it inconvenient for me to prepare Apocalypse. It's hard to even flip the table…]

This is absolutely terrible luck.

She gently pressed her temples, and in the brief moment of this thought, she had already controlled the shielding barrier to escape the range of the artillery fire. After a short while, the radiance in Zhan Lan's eyes gradually subsided, and the American artillery barrage was nearing its end.

Chapter 25 - I have to stay up late to update because of the holiday _(:з」∠)_

The city crumbled and was destroyed in the flames. Though the lines of fire falling from the sky were sparse, the destructive power of modern artillery meant that a single shot could easily level thousands of square meters of land. High-rise buildings, skyscrapers, bridges, streets, schools, hospitals… and countless innocent civilians who had suffered within the city—all were reduced to ashes after the first volley of fire.

A second round of artillery fire was naturally out of the question—after leaving the artillery's range, Alice took advantage of the gap in the clouds in the sky that had not yet healed to unleash a second Great Spell towards the artillery position.

This time, no one survived.

From the highest-ranking commanders to the most ordinary privates, every American soldier on the position lost their lives within seconds. Directional message waves projected from orbiting satellites directly generated tiny yet deadly flames and frosts within their bodies, causing them all to die from internal organ necrosis.

Everything quieted down.

Apart from the raging flames burning in the distant city and the hissing sound of the flames flickering in the night wind, the entire world returned to the silence that the dead of night should have. Even the cries and pleas for help from the survivors in the ruins became barely audible—of course, this was related to Alice's actions of cutting off some of the sound signals.

At this moment, the group was silently hovering over a plain about two kilometers from the city ruins. Nearby was a farm, and its inhabitants clearly didn't live permanently in the suburbs. If it weren't for the Grim Reaper lurking in the shadows, the people of Zhongzhou might have settled on this farm later.

Of course, this possibility doesn't exist in this world. Alice, now completely serious, would never touch these 'accidentally' objects that happen to appear before her and happen to perfectly suit her current needs.

She gently pressed the back of her neck—two consecutive physical memory erasures were a significant blow to her brain. Although she had her own secret techniques for dealing with this situation, the throbbing pain from inside her skull still hindered her thinking.

It's alright, I can still bear it. After all, as a witch, she always has to face all sorts of strange and unexpected situations, especially someone like her who lives relatively long compared to mortals. The genetic mutations caused by the daily loss of control over her longevity technique have already caused her a lot of physical suffering over the years. And her two hundred years of being cursed have long since made her accustomed to the pain of soul disintegration and repair.

“Zhao has already left the city and should arrive here soon.” Alice looked at the others and spoke before they could. “Unfortunately, although Zhao successfully captured a high-ranking officer, the officer refused to cooperate and reveal any information to us. In addition, the power of the artillery barrage was too great. In order to ensure his own safe escape, Zhao had to use some methods unique to assassins to obtain information.”

"Well... to sum it up, there are no more prisoners. But Zhao will arrive here within five minutes with her spoils and join us. From her tone, I can tell that this intelligence doesn't seem to be very helpful to us."

Alice looked at Zhan Lan, who had gradually calmed down and returned to her usual calm state.

"How long will it take for Zheng Zha to return here?"—Her words contained no doubt that Zheng Zha would survive. Because it was simply a matter of course.

"Hmm... Ah." Zhan Lan nodded and replied, "The captain was slightly injured, but it's nothing serious. It's just a blunt force injury caused by being hit by falling rocks. He'll be back here in a few minutes at most."

She unconsciously emphasized the word 'captain' by a tiny bit—just a tiny bit, a difference that ordinary people and seasoned veterans wouldn't even notice. But this difference would become exceptionally clear to Alice.

“It’s alright, you’ve already activated the mental link anyway, so we can discuss things whether he’s here or not,” Alice replied quickly. Without waiting for Zhan Lan’s reply, she revealed another piece of information that had to be taken seriously. “We must move as soon as possible. The effects of the wind pillars will soon fade from this world. The heavy rain will soon fall again, and those Awakeners must have prepared other strategies after their artillery position failed. We must take advantage of this gap to leave this place.”

“Other strategies? Why?” Xiao Honglu asked.

“Because Zheng Zha wasn’t shot,” Alice replied. “Since the Americans used the Awakeners to foresee our arrival and launched such a massive attack, it means they’ve entered a state of complete hostility, with no possibility of holding back—this rainstorm was artificial, and their weapons are the type that’s unfavorable to my spellcasting. In other words, the Awakeners foresaw some of my combat methods. So, as the main combat force, the possibility that Zheng Zha’s combat methods were predicted is also very high… but clearly, they weren’t.”

“I once visited a world where aliens invaded Earth. The US military there immediately replaced the equipment of its troops with special armor-piercing rounds to counter the aliens’ armor after making contact with them. If the enemy can predict Zheng Zha’s fighting methods, they will probably prepare countermeasures in advance.”

"However, it turned out they couldn't do it, so I can prove that these Awakeners couldn't predict the details of 'otherworldly things that don't belong to this world.' So their strategy sealed my spellcasting ability, but it was forcibly broken when I took out the talisman from my homeland—I think this is because information magic also has fertile ground for development in this world, and is a kind of scientific phenomenon that the civilization of this world can understand. But that talisman... won't work."

"Then what's the point?" Zhan Lan shook her head. "It doesn't help the current situation at all. Even if you're right, what does that have to do with our need to leave quickly?"

“Wrong, this is actually very helpful to our current situation.” Alice immediately rejected her point of view: “The inability to understand things from other lands means that our subsequent plans will have a lot of room for maneuver. It represents the limitations of Death and proves part of its nature. At the same time…”

Alice looked at her calmly, her eyes filled with utmost seriousness.

"...This proves that this is our first time in this world, rather than that we have already reincarnated dozens of times."

"What do you think prophecy is...?"

Author's Note:

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I'm going to die _(:з」∠)_

Section 26 Alice's Inference

Prophecy isn't some mystical or supernatural thing; its essence is the prediction of future events based on existing information. And regardless of the type of prophecy, it requires sufficient intelligence and information as a foundation.

—At least that's how it is within the system of information magic.