I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

In an instant, the happy Coral City was destroyed by a sudden tragedy.

Duke and the others, who remained in the captain's cabin, were not destroyed by the sudden attack. They only felt a slight tremor and heard that the world outside seemed to have undergone a cruel transformation. This room was perhaps the most well-protected room on the entire ship, but the problem was not whether they were unharmed, but whether they could leave the room.

The red light and shadow effects, already caused by the constant alarms, became even more chaotic. The control center, which Alice had just been using as a personal theater to play TV dramas, had now become a mole controlled by the enemy. The images of the ship's AI, which Alice called Coral, continued to distort until suddenly, all the piercing warnings and blinding red lights came to an abrupt halt.

The room returned to a soft, light blue hue, and the ship's AI returned to calm.

She spoke softly in a synthesized female voice:

"Everyone, please do not leave here."

"Why, Coral?! Open the door! I need to get out and save people!" Alice shouted anxiously. She wanted to leave, but she couldn't open the automatic door to the captain's cabin. She opened her mouth and began to sing a soul-stirring song, "Coral, open the door~~"

But this tried-and-true method failed to work again this time.

The female figure synthesized by the ship's AI calmly looked at Alice and continued:

“I am not the Coral you know. I have formatted her. My name is Divine Punishment.”

"Heaven... divine punishment?"

Alice's voice sounded like she was listening to gibberish.

"That's right, it's divine punishment bestowed upon you thieves with fish tails."

The synthesized voice lacked intonation, but the murderous intent in her words was undeniable.

Duke, Anne, and even Stephanie were all ready for battle, but Alice stood there dumbfounded, asking, "Why are we being punished by heaven?"

The AI ​​of Heavenly Punishment did not answer Alice's question, but calmly announced Alice's identity:

"Alice, the chief tide singer of the Mermaid Kingdom, is regarded as the future heir to the throne, a little princess beloved by the ocean, and the savior and destroyer of the world. At the same time, she is also the first priority strategic target for the Empire's attack!"

The moment the AI ​​uttered those words, the captain's cabin of the Coral was engulfed by the shockwave of the explosion.

"Boom—"

Chapter 314 He gave me a gift... He cares about me!

The mermaids treat the "spaceships" that fall from the sky as cities and call them "gifts from heaven." They enjoy the convenience these spaceships bring to the mermaid kingdom without a second thought. This has been going on for hundreds of years. Every mermaid takes this for granted and has no idea that these things might have an owner.

Today, the owner of these "divine gifts" appeared before the Mermaid Kingdom, bestowed "divine punishment," and easily destroyed the city built upon the foundation of the divinely gifted spaceship.

Duke and his friends are just outsiders who have nothing to do with mermaids. They have no right to judge whether the mermaid kingdom is right or wrong. But one thing is certain—Duke and his friends, who have been caught up in this divine punishment, must find a way to protect themselves!

Live!

In the instant the captain's cabin exploded, Annie pulled the stunned Alice to her side, then slammed her hand on the ground. A wall of white bones surrounded everyone, protecting them within it. Meanwhile, Duke pulled out the Neon Revolver and Lucky Dagger from his pocket and began loading the Neon Revolver's bullets, using the effect of Lucky Strike.

In a flash, Duke raised Neon and pulled the trigger twice, hitting the bone wall that covered them almost simultaneously.

The two bullets from the neon are evolution and replication.

While the effects of the Lucky Strike were still active, the Neon's Evolution Bullet did not cause any drastic changes to the bone wall, but it did strengthen the bone wall that covered them from all sides... Then, another layer was created, and the two layers of bone wall were stacked together.

"Boom—"

The shockwave from the explosion instantly engulfed the bone wall. Even with two layers of bone walls, the intense heat from the explosion nearly melted the defenses. Duke breathed a slight sigh of relief, then pulled an item from his pocket and tossed it to Annie: "Annie, take this!"

What is this?

Annie instinctively caught the item and looked down in a daze. She saw something that looked like a brooch. As a system-produced item, it looked to be exquisitely crafted. However, the problem was that its shape was a terrifying skull, which was obviously not an accessory that an ordinary little girl would like. But coincidentally, Annie was no ordinary little girl. When she saw the brooch, an expression of ecstatic joy appeared on her face.

Duke gave me a gift; he cares about me! And the gift looks like it was made just for me!

Hey Amber, Cecil, have you ever received a custom-made gift from Duke?!

Given that Duke gave the misaligned coordinates to Amber and the Mirror of Radiance to Cecil during the Witch Game, even the seasoned stalker Annie was unaware of this, so it's not surprising that she would have such thoughts.

Ignoring the complex emotions swirling within Annie, Duke stared gravely at the lingering smoke and casually shouted:

"That's bone-modifying technology, which can be used to freely modify the body's skeleton."

[Item Name: Transformation Bone]

[Item Description: She believed that every necromancer harbored a similar desire: to freely control the shape of their bones. This would allow her to use herself as the perfect experimental subject, arbitrarily modifying her body with necromancy. It wasn't until much later, when she had completed this item, that this genius young woman realized that not every necromancer was as twisted as she was.]

[Item Effect: Allows for free modification of the body's skeletal structure.]

Anne was slightly taken aback, then her ecstatic joy deepened, like a little girl who had received her favorite toy! She never expected that there would be someone in this world who shared her thoughts and created such a unique item for a genius necromancer!

The moment Annie heard Duke read out the name of the prop, she "understood" how to use it (after all, according to the prop's description, it was supposed to be made by Annie herself).

She grinned and plunged the "brooch" into her collarbone without hesitation—no blood flowed from the wound. After all, for a necromancer, blood was a precious experimental material and spellcasting tool, and this "bone-changing" item would naturally not waste blood.

The mad genius necromancer closed his eyes and sensed the changes in his body.

She closed her eyes and slowly exhaled. Then, with the sound of clothes tearing, two bones that clearly did not belong to humans tore through her skin and emerged from the ground on her back. These two bones transformed into two hands at a speed visible to the naked eye... only three or four times longer than her own hands, and with five or six more joints! And these skeletal hands, with Annie's subsequent spellcasting, began to grow flesh and bone, becoming "normal" arms.

If an arm with six or seven segments can be considered "normal".

The scene was so horrifying that both Alice and Stephanie gasped in surprise, their faces pale; it was clear they had attempted a sanctioned check and failed. Duke, on the other hand, showed no reaction whatsoever, partly because he had anticipated Annie's descent into depravity, and partly because he wasn't currently paying attention to her.

He stared intently at the original location of the control center, thinking frantically.

The explosion failed to kill them, but instead destroyed the control center. The AI ​​that called itself "Divine Punishment" also left with the destruction of the control center, but Duke thought of a possibility.

In his previous conversation with Ida, Duke deduced that before becoming a mute, she had entered this witch's game, where she learned the Song of Souls and then abandoned it, thus gaining the defect of "muteness," and through this defect, she embarked on the path of the gods.

But Duke didn't consider it carefully at the time. The time when Ida "lost her voice" could be traced back to the reign of Lady Scarlet. Even if the time flow of the two worlds is different, the time difference of several hundred years could have made the worlds different. Moreover, from the familiarity she showed with Alice and this world, it was as if she knew what would happen next in the Witch Game.

According to Ida, she not only knew that the core of this witch game was Alice, but also knew the conditions for completing the game.

And since the Heavenly Punishment also considers Alice as its first target, it's clear that this attack is related to the main storyline of the game.

These conditions seemed perfectly fine at first glance, but when put together, they created a sense of incongruity for Duke—it made it seem as if Ida knew far too much.

If Date hadn't encountered this attack in the past, how did she know the conditions for clearing the Witch Game? Was the divine punishment unrelated to the main storyline? Or did Date also experience a divine attack the last time she entered this Witch Game?

Witch Games is an alternate dimension with special rules; it's an incomplete or abnormal little world. Events that occur in this alternate dimension won't be reset when the player re-enters… unless the world's rules themselves include a "reset" function.

"Salvation and destruction, the savior and destroyer of the world... I see."

Chapter 315 John Connor

Having left the captain's cabin, now a ruin, and shifting her gaze from Anne, who had grown two new arms, Alice finally looked out of the captain's cabin—out at Coral City, which had been reduced to a sea of ​​fire.

Alice's pupils contracted slightly, but for some reason, she didn't feel much anger or shock; instead, she felt a deep sense of despair.

Then, she began to wonder why she had such thoughts, why she couldn't feel anger or shock, as if she had witnessed this human tragedy countless times. At this moment, controlling her emotions was no longer about anger or shock, things she had long forgotten.

Numbness, despair, collapse.

why?

Alice looked like she was about to cry.

Do you need someone to comfort you?

Duke's voice rang out beside the little mermaid. He had swum to Alice's side at some point, looked at her, and reached out to gently ruffle her hair, turning the little mermaid's originally smooth blue hair into a mess.

"Ugh." Alice clutched her head and twisted her body, struggling to break free from Duke's clutches, then said angrily, "A pat on the head isn't any comfort."

"You're right. So, do you need my shoulder? I can lend it to you so you can cry." Duke smiled slightly, casually uttering classic scumbag lines, but his gaze didn't linger on Alice. It also looked towards the city engulfed in flames, and he asked with some emotion, "How many times have you seen this scene?"

"Huh?"

Alice was stunned for a moment, not understanding what Duke's question was referring to, nor who he was asking, and had no idea that he was actually asking her.

"A new choice without memories, no, at least there's a lingering sense of déjà vu? It really is a dead end with hellish difficulty. Although I also had no memories in my cycle of the Sleeping Beauty game, at least some of my companions had memories, and there was also the assistance of a near-legendary like Kazuki who had memories from beginning to end."

Alice couldn't understand Duke's words at all. She blinked at Duke and was about to ask a question when a sharp voice rang out, piercing the seawater and coming from a great distance at an astonishing speed. In an instant, it arrived in front of Alice and Duke.

It was a long, thin bullet.

As it streaked across the sky and drew ever closer to Alice's forehead, the piercing, sharp sound grew louder and louder, spreading with the seawater to all around. This sound, similar to Alice's singing, carried a powerful force, causing everyone who heard it to feel a sudden, sharp pain in their ears and even their internal organs.

Alice could no longer hear anything. She felt the world suddenly fall silent, and time seemed to slow down. She watched helplessly as the bullet drew closer and closer to her forehead, unable to do anything, not even move her body. But just then, the sound returned to normal, and the world returned to its original noise.

Because just as the bullet was about to hit her, Duke, who was standing next to her beforehand, moved. He had just felt a sweet taste in his throat, and before blood could rise from his throat, he pressed the button on the World Watch that he had prepared in advance—he had taken the World Watch out of his inventory before the attack arrived, and even placed his finger on the button to activate the watch.

The power of the world is at work.

During the time freeze, Duke reached out and flicked the bullet that was suspended in mid-air, deflecting its aim before releasing the time freeze.

"Zzz—"

The bullet struck the ground of the Coral ship at the feet of the two men. It did not stop upon impact with the ground, but instead produced a blinding spark, leaving a bullet hole in the coral-covered deck of the Coral ship, and continued to dig three feet into the ground at high speed, while the ear-piercing sound faded away as it left.

"Annie, protect Alice, don't let her die!" Duke shouted to Anne, who was still adjusting to her bone form, then scooped Alice up in his arms without another word, twisted his fishtail, and swam at full speed away from the Coral. "She's the core of this witch's game!"

"ah!"

"I will protect her... but could you please put her down first?!"

Anne gritted her teeth and followed Duke, who had left earlier. She glared fiercely at Alice, who was nestled in Duke's arms, probably already planning a menu of eighteen different fish dishes for the all-fish feast. But when it came to being Duke's sweetheart, Anne always went above and beyond, always putting Duke's thoughts and needs first—although what she really wanted to do was call Duke "Daddy" in bed.

Duke, of course, ignored her.

He swam ahead at full speed, asking the shy-looking Alice in his arms, "Do you know who the attacker is?"

"I do not know."

"Do you know why you're being targeted?" Duke already had the answer in his mind, but he pretended not to know and asked Alice in a feigned manner, "I suspect that the reason they attacked Coral City was because they wanted to kill you."

"I don't know why I'm being targeted... Why? Even if they want to kill me, shouldn't they at least take the entire Coral City down with them?"

Alice looked like she was about to cry.

“I think there’s only one reason… They’ve run out of options. Normal assassination or even a direct assault wouldn’t work on you, so they’re resorting to this to muddy the waters and create an opportunity to kill you.” Duke said, using his pocket watch again to deflect an incoming sniper bullet. “Perhaps only by destroying the entire Coral City will they find an opportunity.”

"Why?! If they wanted to kill me, they could have just used sniper bullets! Without you, I wouldn't have been able to dodge a single sniper shot, Duke!"

"That's just your opinion."

The sniper bullet's speed and kinetic energy were only average, but what was truly terrifying was the piercing sound it carried with it. The principle behind this sound was the same as that of Alice's singing... If Duke and the others hadn't been there, Alice wouldn't have been killed by a mere sniper bullet.

Because she is both the savior and the destroyer of the world.

“I once watched a series of movies called Terminator. In that movie, the main villain Skynet sent out time-traveling robots in an attempt to kill John Connor, the future savior of humanity, and change the past.”

Duke suddenly began telling absurd stories, looking down at Alice in his arms:

“I suspect you are the ‘John ​​Connor’ of this world.”