Chapter 339: Version 3.0, the Interweaving of Alice and Bai Fu
Alice sat alone in the ruins left behind by the explosion.
Shellfire swept past above her head.
At this moment, she was completely immersed in those interwoven fragments of memory.
What she saw was actually very blurry. She needed to work hard to piece them together in her mind to roughly sort out the threads.
Yet every single one of those fragments was stating one fact: that she was the legendary God of the Ethereal Realm. The reason she had turned from the God of the Ethereal Realm into what she was now was in order to seek a way to break the game.
But what game was it exactly?
Alice held her head.
Whenever she tried to think about this question, her head throbbed uncontrollably with pain.
This was not a symptom caused by memory loss. She knew clearly that there was a lock deep within her consciousness—one that had sealed away many crucial things.
“Was it me who locked myself, or did someone else place this lock on me?”
Alice did not know.
Right now, everything only felt unreal to her.
In the twenty-plus years of her life, she had never thought of herself as different from anyone else, even though those strange Undying Ones always liked to circle around her, saying that she was special and that she would surely achieve great things in the future.
Special?
Aside from a personality that was a bit unusual, she really never felt there was anything extraordinary about herself.
But...
“Those Undying Ones actually weren’t wrong!”
Alice was shocked.
She wanted to doubt those fragments of memory in her mind.
Yet at the same time, along with those memories came a massive surge of Psionic and Dark Energies flowing through her body, merging almost perfectly.
As far as she knew, not even a Transcendent-rank Psionic Priest could achieve such a thing, but she had mastered it with ease... Was she truly the God of the Ethereal Realm?
Alice shook her head vigorously.
There was a problem. A huge problem.
How did the Undying Ones notice her peculiarity in the first place? What was the true nature of the Undying Ones? Was their arrival a blessing or a disaster for this world? They...
Pa!
Just as Alice felt like her head was about to burst into flames, a hand suddenly smacked heavily onto her back.
“Alice, what are you sitting here for? Do you have a death wish? Hurry and escape with me!”
“Ah?”
Alice jerked her head up, only to see that the one who had struck her was a Deputy Commander of the Shadow Legion. It was this very Deputy Commander who had led her into the Shadow Legion, the revolutionary army.
“I...”
Alice had just begun to explain when the Deputy Commander grabbed her sleeve and dragged her toward the last still-intact spaceport in the distance.
“Forget it, forget it! This isn’t the time for idle talk. Let’s get out of here. Every moment we delay, the chance of dying rises by another ten percent.”
The Deputy Commander moved like the wind, cursing as he ran.
“Damn it! How the hell did those Starborn find our hiding place? Don’t tell me we’ve got a traitor in our ranks!”
Before he could finish cursing, the sky above, already dyed crimson by turbulent energy, suddenly cracked open to reveal a massive fireball a hundred meters wide descending.
“Shit!”
The Deputy Commander’s face changed drastically.
It was the signature move of the Meteor Sovereign of the Supernova Warband—【Falling Sky Lava】.
A single 【Falling Sky Lava】 could easily shatter a star. This was absolutely not something Disaster-rank beings like him and Alice could resist.
“Run!”
The Deputy Commander shouted, trying to throw Alice away.
He would not survive, but he could at least find a way to preserve Alice’s life.
For some reason, Alice was terrifyingly popular among the Undying Ones. If she survived, then with her and the Undying Ones’ efforts, the Shadow Legion might still have a chance to be reborn.
Yet things developed completely beyond his expectations.
When he flung her with all his strength, Alice did not move at all.
“You... What are you doing?”
Before the Deputy Commander’s horrified eyes, Alice took a few steps forward.
She raised her right hand diagonally upward.
Her five fingers spread open.
Through the gaps between her fingers, she saw molten lava boiling as it plummeted from the heavens, as though someone had shot down the sun. The stench of the apocalypse almost overflowed into her nostrils.
“Run! Run now!”
The Deputy Commander roared in fury.
What kind of heroics was this? This was an attack from a Sovereign! What could a Disaster-rank like her, just like him, use to withstand it?
But Alice was unmoved.
In the glow of the molten fire, her hair shimmered like flowing liquid gold. Her fingertips traced through the air, leaving behind star-like specks of ghostly blue light.
The next second, the entire sky rang with the crisp sound of glass shattering.
“Dimensional Rift!”
Boom!
As though someone had drawn a blade across a sheet of silk, a massive blue fissure tore open right beneath the falling lava.
The crimson torrent of flame slammed into the rift, but instead of producing a deafening roar, it vanished without even a whimper—completely swallowed up.
Not only the firefall, but the molten core that followed met the same fate.
Devoured.
Devoured entirely.
Until every trace of firelight was gone, the blue rift slowly closed, vanishing altogether.
Clang.
The Deputy Commander’s saber slipped from his trembling hand, crashing onto the ground.
“This... What just happened?”
Alice stared at her own hands.
So, this was the power she possessed?
Just by recalling a few fragments of memory, her strength had leapt from Disaster-rank to Sovereign, and she had easily banished another Sovereign’s attack into another dimension.
When she fully burned, how dazzling would her brilliance be?
“There’s actually still a living Sovereign?”
At this moment, in the sky, the assailants from the Three Universal Civilizations stared in shock at Alice standing on the ground.
Not long after, one Sovereign stepped forward.
“I’ll deal with her.”
With that, he rushed straight down.
But before he could even reach Alice, an accident occurred.
Space trembled.
The energy detectors shook.
His body and soul both shivered involuntarily.
“This power... it’s approaching too fast, too strong! Not even Lord Devouring Fist’s energy fluctuations were this terrifying. It’s a top Psionicist of the Initial Protocol! Retreat! Retreat immediately!”
Amid cries of panic, the fleets of the Three Universal Civilizations abandoned everything else, fleeing at their fastest speed.
In the end, only one slower-reacting ship failed to escape.
“Courting death!”
The core figure of the Initial Protocol, 【Heart-Eroding】, appeared suddenly. A ghastly white light flared in his right eye, and in an instant, countless thorns surged around the ship. They easily pierced through the hull, devouring everyone inside.
“Lord Heart-Eroding!”
Recognizing the familiar face, the Deputy Commander exhaled in relief. He rushed forward, forcing a smile uglier than a crying ghost.
How could he not feel grief?
Though the assailants were driven away, half of the Shadow Legion had been wiped out.
Heart-Eroding swept his gaze across the nearly ruined sub-base, his brows furrowing slightly.
Sacrifices were inevitable, but this time, the losses were far too great.
“First, tally the casualties. The Leader will be here in person soon.”
“Yes.”
Everyone began clearing the ruins after the battle, Alice among them.
The cleanup lasted half an hour. Afterward, the Deputy Commander found Alice.
“Alice, did you advance to Sovereign already?”
Alice hesitated for a moment but did not reveal her true identity. “Something like that. Deputy Commander, you look rather excited. Did something good happen?”
The Deputy Commander whispered mysteriously, “You’d never guess Bai Fu’s true identity!”
“Huh?”
Alice froze. Why had the topic suddenly jumped to Bai Fu?
The Deputy Commander continued, “I just heard this from Lord Heart-Eroding.”
He described in detail how the Leader had led a group to besiege Bai Fu, and afterward, how they had unanimously concluded that Bai Fu was the God of the Ethereal Realm.
“Although there were a few twists, Bai Fu finally died in the end. Hahaha! Without Bai Fu’s guidance, the potential of the Three Universal Civilizations will plummet!”
As he spoke, he went on praising the Leader’s brilliance and might, completely unaware that Alice was dumbfounded.
What? Bai Fu was the God of the Ethereal Realm? Then who was she?
Half an hour earlier, Alice had been convinced she herself was the God of the Ethereal Realm. But now...
She began to doubt her memories again.
Though she was special now, compared to Bai Fu, she seemed utterly ordinary.
To put it simply—if a random passerby were asked whether she or Bai Fu was the God of the Ethereal Realm, she believed all one hundred of them would pick Bai Fu. In fact, she thought the same herself.
But if Bai Fu was the God of the Ethereal Realm, then what were her memories?
“That’s right!”
Alice suddenly realized something.
When those memory fragments awakened, wasn’t it at the exact moment Bai Fu was killed?
Could it be that the reason she awakened those fragments was not because her head had been struck by mental shock, but because Bai Fu had died?
It was possible.
The more she thought about it, the more possible it seemed!
So...
“My memories actually came from Bai Fu!”
“Good. Then the real question is, why did Bai Fu’s memories appear in my mind after her death?”
“Could it be that Bai Fu and I share some special connection?”
“For example... what if I was actually created by Bai Fu?”
Boom.
A clap of thunder echoed in her mind.
Alice froze in place.
Everyone knew the Undying Ones shared a deep bond with Bai Fu. Now that they were so close to her, could it be because she was Bai Fu’s creation?
“They approach me because, in essence, they’re approaching Bai Fu? I remember clearly, they always compared me to Bai Fu. Normally, who would bother comparing me to her? We’re not even on the same level. Could I even match a strand of Bai Fu’s hair? Obviously not.”
“In that case, the lock in my mind must have been set by Bai Fu herself. The memories it sealed are likely of her creating me.”
“Who would have thought... I was actually an Artificial Human.”
Bitterness curved Alice’s lips.
She wasn’t devastated.
She was only lost.
Bai Fu had created her and, before her death, passed her own memories to her. What exactly did she want her to do?
No, she had to figure this out!
Alice had always been someone active, brimming with initiative.
Once her resolve was set, the first thing she planned was to enter the Ethereal Realm—to investigate the place where Bai Fu had died. Perhaps she could discover something there.
……
While Alice explored the Ethereal Realm, Bai Fu was busily gulping down all sorts of supplies to dispel the debuffs on her body, while also checking her quest rewards.
After putting on a show with the Three Universal Civilizations, she had pocketed 1.5 billion XP and received a new quest.
The new quest was titled 【Path of Fusion】. Its requirement was to find a method to fully merge Psionic Energy and Dark Energy. The reward was 50 billion XP and an Analysis Card*1.
The Analysis Card was a very special item. It could be used to analyze a chosen target—including but not limited to items, equipment, and knowledge. The result was that the user would master whatever was analyzed.
“From the description, doesn’t this mean I could even steal the method of crafting a Cosmic Treasure?”
What a treasure!
Bai Fu was elated.
At once, she felt the losses from this action were acceptable.
Hehe, after resting a while longer and letting her body recover, she could join forces with Lufas to give the Initial Protocol a huge surprise.
Closing her quest interface, Bai Fu sent word to the high command of the Three Universal Civilizations, assuring them she was alive and well. They did not need to panic or make a fuss for now. They should first wait and see how the Initial Protocol would act before responding.
“Rest assured, after those two times at the Holy City of the Apostles, we already have ample experience dealing with this.”
That evening, with nothing better to do, Bai Fu opened the game community and suddenly found that the officials had posted a new announcement: the preview for Version 3.0.
【Version 3.0: The Interweaving of Light and Dark】
【Light—Alice】
【Dark—Bai Fu】
“Hmph, Alice? Isn’t she the protagonist of that revolutionary army storyline? She first emerged in Version 2.1, and now she’s become one of the many ‘protagonists,’ with popularity second only to mine—praised as my rival.”
“This is too much! Why is she Light and I’m Dark? Am I not white? Am I not white?!”
Bai Fu clicked open the detailed version notes, her face full of exasperation.