Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

But that's all in the past. They...they are no longer the companions who fought alongside me.

Alice withdrew her hand, examining the war weapons that bore the same form as the dolls she had created in the past. Her fingers trembled slightly, and the magical threads extending from within her body connected seamlessly to the army of dolls suspended in the gravitational field.

It felt exactly the same as before, without any difference or change—perhaps because the database contained such detailed records of those dolls that these dolls, made with entirely new materials and techniques, had the same feel as their predecessors.

—But it could also just be a memory illusion.

—No, it's just an illusion.

Alice gently shook her head. She felt a weight on her shoulders, a weight unique to Shanghai and Penglai. She knew they were there, and she knew they were gently stroking her hair, trying to comfort her in their own way.

At least you're still here with me...

The girl sighed, and with a flick of her fingers, the twenty-three dolls slumbering within the gravity field simultaneously opened their eyes. They quickly formed ranks, equipped themselves with weapons and armor, and under the command of Shanghai and Penglai, split into several different groups, hovering around Alice. Accompanied by the vibrations of magic lines, the dolls swiftly performed various maneuvers, constructing different types of magical runes in appropriate formations.

They were both fragmented individuals and a unified whole. Surrounded by them, Alice's combat abilities quickly recovered to near their peak. And if you take into account the gene lock, new enhancements, and items, her actual level was even slightly higher.

but……

[It still needs more refinement. Although it has a similar feel, the performance changes are real. The actual precision of the controls may have decreased. But the maximum performance that can be extracted may also have changed. And, there are some other issues...]

She suddenly raised her hand.

The puppets' movements suddenly stopped, as if frozen in mid-air, like a movie that had been paused.

The response time is fast. However, AI is not yet mature.

[As expected, without a copy of the original AI, only intense battles can restore it to its former level. After all, for a puppeteer, perfect control is only the foundation; true mastery lies in complete understanding.]

Alice shook her head. She opened her mouth, about to ask the imp to prepare a training ground to adapt to these new weapons of war. However, a communication signal coming from outside the Great Library made her frown slightly.

She abruptly turned her head to look at the little devil and asked.

"During my absence... did Patchouli send any troops down there?"

“The Great Library did not deploy any troops after taking off, Master Alice,” the imp replied earnestly. “Should I list Master Patchouli’s various actions?”

“No need.” Alice waved her hand, but her brows furrowed slightly. “I’m just a little curious as to why there’s a Legion-specific communication signal being relayed from the satellite network. After all, I remember I was supposed to block the communication network in North America, so it shouldn’t be… Ah, I see.”

She breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's alright, just a false alarm. I completely forgot I had placed a chess piece on the ground. Sure enough, destroying the brain to erase memories has huge side effects. Tsk... Damn Saito Hajime, you've really gotten me into trouble."

She lightly tapped her toes on the floor of the Grand Library, and a distorted optical signal was projected onto the floor, transforming the doll workshop floor into a special one-way transparent mirror. Her gaze then pierced through the Grand Library without obstruction, taking in the western hemisphere in the night.

She looked at the swirling cloud formation that covered a third of the Americas.

"The information is incomplete. So it is because the magnetic field was disturbed by the discharge phenomenon within the cumulonimbus clouds? Then... Little devil, allocate 10% of the Great Library's energy to me."

Alice stretched her hand out towards the ground.

“I have used Sanae’s talisman, so the aura of Yasaka remains on the earth. The god of Yasaka is the god of snakes, so I will focus on strengthening the concept of snakes.”

With her words and commands, a massive surge of magic, like a tidal wave, erupted from the magic furnace of the Great Library, creating a huge vortex in the sky!

Information magic has two fundamental elements: magic power and concept; neither can be lacking. When both magic power and concept are sufficient, the power of magic can be maximized!

"It is now night in the Western Hemisphere, the gap between the 'first sun' falling and the 'second sun' rising. Thus, a serpent of wind should descend upon the world, its form being a hurricane, and its name being 'Iecott'!"

The next moment, the vortex of magic stirred up a colossal wind serpent in the lower atmosphere. A distance of thousands of kilometers was not far at the speed of energy projection. Almost visible to the naked eye, the cloud vortex covering the Americas churned like boiling water. A small force propelled a great force, a small breeze stirred a great wind, and above the city where Alice had released the talisman, the swirling wind serpent created a massive void!

A hurricane has arrived; it's an artificial hurricane created by magic.

At the heart of the hurricane lay a calm eye. The disrupted communications were quickly restored, allowing Alice's will to be successfully projected onto the earth.

The instant the communication was restored, amidst the ruins of the city, a mechanical hound buried in a collapsed building slowly pushed away the rubble pressing down on it.

Section 38. Guidance and Suggestion

Alice had already implemented some contingency plans for unforeseen circumstances since the villa was attacked and the American reconnaissance team was unexpectedly discovered. The robotic hunting dog that was once used to demonstrate to Zheng Zha was one of them.

—TX-0, Mechanical Dog. 1.42 meters long, 0.8 meters high, constructed of lightweight composite alloy, weighing 30 kilograms. Maximum speed is 55 kilometers per hour. Its primary weapon is a ray cannon, and its secondary weapon is a Tesla coil capable of releasing a strong electric current, particularly effective against unarmored or lightly armored enemies.

Naturally, this weapon is ineffective against overly powerful enemies; even a few fully armed soldiers could potentially take it down using the terrain. After all, it's merely a basic unit within the mechanical legion, akin to a lowly cannon fodder in a real-time strategy game. Alice left it behind as a casual pawn, not expecting it to be of much use.

This is a perfect example of being prepared. If Alice hadn't remembered this, it would have been nothing more than a surveillance device. After all, at that time, information about Death was extremely scarce. Various speculations remained unconfirmed, and problems both internal and external to the team existed; the witches couldn't actually do much.

But now...

The hurricane created using Erecotl, the wind god from Aztec mythology, can be sustained for a while. During this time, I can directly intervene from the Great Library to the ground.

[Seriously... Patches raised the Great Library way too high. At a straight-line distance of a thousand kilometers, the spellcasting delay will be extremely severe; the only way to forcefully interfere is with radio signals. Hmm... if all else fails, we'll just prepare a ramming metal rod. The Cybertronian macro cannon hasn't reappeared inside the Great Library yet... but if we're only targeting the ruins of a city, the firepower is more than enough.]

"Well then... let's see what surprises this seemingly insignificant move I've made will bring me."

Alice lowered her eyes. The twenty-five dolls that had been hovering around her, except for those from Shanghai and Penglai, all quietly landed on the ground after their levitation ended. Her will then connected with the main control system within the Great Library. A moment later, a faint light emanated from the sensors of the mechanical hound that was repairing itself amidst the ruins.

—Completed simultaneously.

Signals captured by the robotic dog's sensors were projected onto Alice's retina via satellite network, transforming into a display screen resembling a real-time user interface. She closed her eyes, shutting out external interference from the Grand Library, and focused her attention on the information flow transmitted by the robotic dog. When the communication channel was established through the clear sky above the eye of the hurricane, the robotic dog, which had been somewhat stiff due to joint injuries, immediately became agile. With a slight twist of its steel body, it leaped out of the razed ruins of the villa.

[With my main body in the Great Library, its defensive barrier activated, and information filtering in place, even if this mechanical dog were blasted into molecules, it wouldn't affect my main body in the slightest. Therefore, even if Death exists, it won't divert its attention to this mechanical dog.]

However... this could be used as bait, or misleading information.

Alice pondered. She knew perfectly well the odds that a mechanical dog, not particularly strong, could survive a city-wide barrage of artillery fire and project its communications signals via satellite to the Great Library, a thousand kilometers above, when a third of North America was covered by cumulonimbus clouds. However, since this had already happened, there must be a deeper meaning behind it.

The possibility exists that 'Death,' or rather, those beings resembling angels, are behind this. However, the probability is relatively low because they cannot interfere with themselves within the Great Library using a mechanical dog. Nor can they directly interfere with the Great Library, which is a thousand kilometers away—if they could, this storyline would already have ended with the complete annihilation of the Central Continent Team. Therefore, they cannot. Since they cannot, the likelihood of them being the ones to act is very low.

So, besides them, who else could it be...?

Alice took a deep breath and manipulated the mechanical dog to climb onto a building ruin. She switched the optical sensor to thermal sensing and scanned the city in all directions.

—In the dim night sky, patches of red dotted the scene.

The robotic dog's head sensors twitched slightly. Although the heavy rain had largely extinguished the flames that had engulfed the city, some energy facilities, such as gas stations, were still burning fiercely. The entire city had been shattered by the long-range artillery fire of the US military. Survivors existed, but their numbers were not large.

The shockwave from artillery shells is extremely lethal, especially in a complex urban area like this. Buildings collapsed, and survivors, already buried, faced subsequent second and third waves of bombardment. Clearly, there are likely no survivors in the central part of the city.

However, in the low-lying area on the other side, there were many survivors... no, not just survivors, but also many American infantrymen. They were likely remnants of those three armored divisions, as well as combat personnel sent later to clear the battlefield. Hmm... perhaps they might have some value.

The internal chipset of the machine was operating at high speed under the influence of microcurrents. Soon, an area with an exceptionally high density of thermal signals, representing a person, was marked. The steel casing, controlled by the chips, immediately adjusted its orientation and rapidly moved towards that location.

It was incredibly fast, maintaining a speed of nearly fifty kilometers per hour even amidst the ruins of this city filled with rubble. Under Alice's remote control, it nimbly leaped across the tops of the rubble. Like a shadow, it swiftly traversed the broken and scattered streets, leaping from broken streetlights to damaged bridges, easily escaping the edge of the city where the villa ruins were located within minutes. It entered the exceptionally devastated city center.

[You have to cross the city to get there]

The machine's four legs moved nimbly, like a dancer on ice, traversing the central urban area sealed off by post-rain smoke and murky steam. Its thermal vision switched to ultrasonic feedback, and with the help of the atmospheric vortex around the hurricane's eye, it encountered little hindrance as it passed through the city center.

[Will the hurricane affect the town where Zheng Zha and his friends are?]

No, no, the Wind Serpent is still under my control. Besides, such a large-scale celestial event should be a good obstacle for the US military. At least those guys can get a good night's sleep tonight… I hope my previous arrangements will be effective. Zhan Lan, influenced by her Spirit Clan bloodline, plus all that mess from the Curse of the Grim… if I don't let her release her pent-up emotions, she'll definitely cause me a huge mess later. I don't want to have a headache then.

Alice thought to herself as she subtly interfered with the movement of the Wind Serpent, slightly adjusting the massive cloud vortex in the sky towards her desired direction—after being distracted by spying on the military network, she was pleased to learn that the US military was now in complete disarray thanks to her actions. Looking at the chaotic jumble of orders and movements on the electronic communications, a smile involuntarily crept onto her lips.

[As expected, the natural disaster I personally triggered couldn't have been predicted by those Awakeners. This is because it's not the original order of this world; it has disrupted the original script of this realm. The strength of the 'Grim Reaper' has decreased once again, but it seems that the world-ending crisis six days... five days from now is indeed going to happen. Seriously, isn't this just giving me an even bigger headache?]

She sighed softly, shook her head, and casually pulled those complicated thoughts from her mind. She focused her attention once again on controlling the mechanical dog. With the information disturbance, she drew a small wisp of the Wind Serpent's power from the sky, transforming it into a gust of wind that enveloped the mechanical dog as it moved forward.

The speed increased even further.

The howling wind did not disturb her. The mechanical dog she controlled rapidly approached the designated target, and the closer it got, the clearer her thoughts became.

Low-probability events can be considered as non-existent.

Death cannot influence me through the mechanical dog; the limit it can reach is to guide my behavior.

— Bait is needed to lure them.

There's no doubt that I was already in the game the moment I received that message from the mechanical dog. But being in the game also has its advantages. For example…

They can swallow the bait that is offered to them.

【arrive.】

The mechanical dog stopped abruptly, and the vortex of wind surrounding its body vanished silently. It landed quietly on a hill formed by collapsed buildings, surveying a mixed army in its field of vision.

[Two main battle tanks, six infantry fighting vehicles, and thirty-five soldiers equipped with light and heavy firepower; they also constructed a defensive position using the ruins of existing buildings.]

[It's about holding firm... Why hold firm? There shouldn't be anything like that here...]

[…I see. They must have acquired something important and are now waiting for airlift to take it away. Then, the attack helicopters shouldn't be this slow… Is it a hurricane?]

[The coincidences are too much; they even foresaw the hurricane I set up... If this is the work of 'Death,' all my previous deductions need to be recalculated. And indeed...]

"...This is all your doing."

The next moment, a high-energy ray shot out from the mechanical dog's back cannon, its crimson trail, created by the Tyndall effect, extending all the way to the bottom of the more intact tank of the two. Immediately following was a violent explosion caused by the ammunition's secondary detonation!

'Boom—'

Crimson flames erupted from the gun barrel and other gaps, ripping the massive tank turret off its turret and triggering a second explosion mid-air. The flying debris and powerful shockwave instantly killed the crew and several nearby soldiers. The American counterattack followed immediately.

"Enemy attack!" With the sergeant's shout, a barrage of machine gun fire, trailing streaks of light, swept towards the hill where the mechanical dog was hiding half a second later. The second tank, which had not been destroyed, immediately swerved its turret, and a high-explosive shell instantly tore the top of the hill, composed of building ruins, into hundreds of pieces of varying sizes!

However, the mechanical dog had already avoided the gun barrel. It slid swiftly down the ruined hill, and the second firing line accurately hit the main body of the tank the instant the second tank fired. The sturdy reactive armor was easily penetrated, and the highly penetrating ray cannon easily killed the gunner and commander inside the main battle tank.

[Excluding the highest priority targets...]

A barrage of bullets rained down, and with a few sharp thuds, several minor external structures were easily pierced by the vehicle-mounted machine gun. This slightly slowed the mechanical dog's movement, but in that instant of vulnerability, two rockets struck!

[Loss to the right leg on the back...]

Alice raised an eyebrow and, without hesitation, overloaded the mechanical dog's power system, sacrificing its lifespan for a brief burst of power. In an instant, the mechanical dog flew over the soldiers' fortified position and landed directly where the first tank had been destroyed. Then... crimson blood splattered in the air.

Kicks, rams, smashes—even without the use of ray cannons, the immense kinetic energy generated by the overloaded power system could still be a deadly weapon. After all, flesh and blood can never match the strength of steel, and once the distance advantage was lost, the infantry fighting vehicles could hardly exert their true advantage. The battle almost turned into a one-sided massacre; within a dozen seconds, all the soldiers in the trenches were dead. The six infantry fighting vehicles were also easily destroyed, leaving only wreckage.

No one fled, but resistance was futile. Inside the second main battle tank, Alice found a tightly sealed briefcase—the soldier guarding it had tried to activate the self-destruct mechanism inside in his final moments. However, the mechanical dogs controlled by Alice were faster, stopping the brave soldier's life before the high explosives inside the briefcase could detonate.

The battle is over. The enemy is completely wiped out, and the mechanical dog can probably remain active for another ten minutes or so while incapacitated. That ten minutes is more than enough time for Alice to remotely decode the briefcase and retrieve its contents.

Then, what appeared before her eyes was a newspaper. A newspaper that seemed to be written in a casual style, with countless arcane symbols written on both sides. Alice couldn't fully decipher their meaning, but she knew that these runes could protect the newspaper from the rain and keep it intact.

[...It's meaningless. I recognize the handwriting...it's just a useless exercise sheet. Was it accidentally lost during the earlier retreat?]

She raised an eyebrow, but the next moment, a headline in the newspaper caught her attention.

Section 39: I Have a Plan

"Massachusetts, MIT." Alice read part of the headline, her brow furrowing slightly. Her communication link with the mechanical hound had broken down after reading the newspaper due to the information overload contained in the rune string. She immediately issued a self-destruct command from the Great Library, and seconds later, a small burst of fire from the vortex of wind was projected onto the Great Library, a thousand kilometers above the ground.

Massachusetts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Upon seeing the strings of runes, she knew it must be Saito Hajime's work. Within the entire Central Continent team, only he possessed this knowledge; the others hadn't even fully mastered their own enhancement abilities. The reason she noticed the title was because she discerned order within the vast array of runes, and the title itself was surrounded by that order.