Chapter 47: Alice's Shattered Spirit

Mo Yu knocked Alice unconscious, stuffed her into a suitcase, and put it in the trunk of the car. He decided to stall for a little while before taking Alice to the lighthouse to see what kind of scheme she was plotting.

Should any uncontrollable factors arise, he would simply rewind time, drive straight into the cave, and detonate the C-4 explosives loaded in the car. He refused to believe that wouldn't blow her to smithereens.

Beneath the lighthouse.

Mo Yu put away his phone.

Ilse said nothing, simply eating continuously, adopting the posture of a ghost determined to be well-fed even in death.

After completing the inventory scan, Alpha trotted back to Mo Yu's side, lay down, and reported the full manifest.

Once that was done, Alpha suddenly issued a warning: "Station Master, your behavior poses a serious risk. According to safety protocols, Alpha does not recommend bringing monsters aboard the space station."

Mo Yu replied, "I know what I'm doing."

He could not explain his underlying motive.

The legendary page of the Monster Compendium.

The temptation of the mere word 'Legendary' alone was enough to make him take the risk.

Ilse had already lost her ability to resist.

Alice had fallen into a state of unconsciousness.

Yet the interface provided no prompt.

Mo Yu was uncertain how this capture would be judged.

If he could bring both of them back to the space station, they could be immediately transferred to the containment chamber. That was the crystallization of human high technology, featuring a special force field designed specifically for sealing monsters. According to records, no matter the type of monster, once locked inside, it would be permanently sealed.

After Alpha's breathing light flickered a few times, it issued another warning: "According to the Human Renaissance Code, half-breed offspring are not granted citizenship recognition. Station Master, it is recommended to supplement your supplies with male balloon kits."

"Pfft."

Mo Yu spat out a mouthful of his drink, kicked Alpha away with one foot, and cursed, "Shut the hell up!"

When Alpha crawled back over, Mo Yu instructed it once more: "Alpha, when there is one minute left until the return countdown, force a shutdown and mechanically cut the power."

Alpha replied, "Station Master, Alpha's core resides within the space station. Shutting down Alpha-dog's physical shell is ineffective. Human reproductive drive is an instinct, and Alpha respects this; you need not deliberately avoid Alpha."

"Just do as I say!"

"Understood, Station Master."

Mo Yu felt a dull ache in his groin.

How was he supposed to explain that he was worried about the missing Penitence? Cutting the power was meant to sever the connection between Alpha-dog and the space station's main computing core; a complete and total separation of the two was required.

He glanced at Ilse.

The latter seemed oblivious, still stuffing her face.

Time ticked away.

One hour remained until the return countdown.

Mo Yu stood up and stretched his limbs.

The operation began.

An off-road vehicle drove in from afar, stopping in an open space a hundred meters away from the lighthouse.

The door opened, a mirror-image clone stepped out, retrieved the suitcase from the trunk, walked to the base of the lighthouse, and then vanished.

Mo Yu stepped forward.

Yet before he could even draw close, the suitcase exploded!

Alice floated into the air, her body radiating an eerie red glow as a terrifying oppressive aura spread outward.

Mo Yu immediately drew his pistol, aimed it at Ilse's head, and shouted from a distance: "Stop! Or I'll kill her right now."

"Then go ahead and shoot!"

Alice answered. A blurred field enveloped her entire body in pitch-black darkness, through which only a pair of glowing red eyes could be vaguely discerned. Her voice carried a frantic quality, emitting sounds that were halfway between weeping and laughter, like a curse echoing in one's ears.

Mo Yu's pupils constricted.

Something was wrong.

Alice's condition was deeply abnormal.

She did not care about Ilse's life or death at all!

Alice continued speaking, her voice severely distorted—sometimes close, sometimes distant, utterly surreal: "The moment she dies, the seed will bloom and tear you to shreds in the very next second! Whoever destroys my work must die, no matter who they are."

"Hey, hey, hey! Isn't she your perfect creation, your absolute favorite? Don't you want to save her?"

"She is no longer perfect."

"Would you believe me if I said I didn't touch her?"

"It doesn't matter. Regardless of the truth, in my heart, she is no longer flawless, nor does she deserve my love."

Alice delivered the most despairing answer possible.

Clearly.

Her inner conviction had shattered, and she had gone completely mad.

Surrounded by a red glow, terrifying psychic energy burst forth from her body, forming a distorted force field that instantaneously impacted the space within a radius of several thousand meters as a zero-gravity field began to expand.

Everything slowly drifted upward.

This power was extraordinary.

"You are the first fellow to force me to take the demonization reagent, and the first human to die by my hands. Consider it an honor."

Alice's voice drifted over.

Mo Yu felt himself locked in place by a terrifying psychic force field, unable to move. Dragged by a brutal force, he flew a hundred meters forward and arrived right in front of Alice.

He had to admit.

Pressuring her with Ilse had been the wrong move.

This rabbit had completely lost her mind!

She no longer cared about Ilse and was coming straight for him.

Mo Yu's brain raced at full speed.

He could not think of a flawless way to break the deadlock.

Alice had ingested some kind of drug, and the power unleashed by it was terrifying; the spread of her psychic energy alone could create a zero-gravity zone with a radius of a kilometer.

At this tier of power, C-4 explosives could not kill her.

Her previous unconsciousness had clearly been an act.

The reason she had suddenly thrown a tantrum was most likely because she had discovered Ilse and Alpha, confirmed Mo Yu as the prime body, and thus decisively made her move.

Furthermore, there was one more crucial piece of information.

Something was implanted inside Ilse—something akin to a self-destruct bomb that would trigger upon her death.

Mo Yu suddenly understood why the interface had remained silent all this time.

They both had trump cards up their sleeves.

Could it be that he had no choice but to abandon Alice and capture only Ilse to take her back?

He was unwilling to accept this.

Yet there was no other way to break the situation.

Mo Yu sighed.

Just as he was about to give up and prepare to rewind time.

Alpha flew over, slamming squarely into Alice's waist and sending her hurtling backward.

Alice steadied herself in mid-air, fixed her gaze on Alpha, and let out an angry shriek.

The next second, centered on Alpha, a ten-meter radius utterly caved inward, forming a bottomless crater. Bizarrely, however, Alpha and the ground beneath its feet remained completely unscathed.

Alice's psychic force field had failed.

"Detected that the Station Master is facing a life-threatening crisis. Self-destruct sequence initi—ini-ini-ini-i... i... i..."

Alpha emitted a string of mechanical static as its body crackled with spitting electric currents.

Then.

Mo Yu witnessed a scene he would never forget.

A dazzling beam of white light erupted from Alpha's dog-like head, moving with such blinding speed that Alice had no time to react before being entirely engulfed by the white pillar of light.

Mo Yu instinctively shielded his eyes.

He felt the force binding him vanish.

The psychic force field dissipated.

Everything that had been suspended in the air plummeted, crashing down onto the ground in a clatter.

The lighthouse fell silent.

Mo Yu climbed up from the ground and cautiously surveyed the battlefield.

Alice lay on the ground, unconscious. Strangely, her clothes were intact, and no visible wounds could be seen on her body.

Alpha maintained its previous posture, motionless.

Mo Yu stepped forward to inspect.

Alice was truly knocked out, having even coughed up a large mouthful of blood. Her face was pale, and she had presumably suffered severe internal injuries.

Alpha could not be powered on.

Upon inspection, he found that the battery was completely drained.

That was a specialized nuclear-powered battery. Although it had been in use for a long time, lasting another few decades should have been effortless, yet it had been drained dry in a single instant.

Mo Yu stood up.

He looked left and right, scratching his head.

This... truly was an unexpected good end.

He was certain of one thing.

Penitence hadn't been lost; it had genuinely fused with Alpha, and in a remarkably wondrous way. When Alpha triggered its self-destruct mechanism, it had somehow converted the energy and fired a terrifying beam instead.

This was deeply unsettling to think about.

Some force had prevented Alpha's self-destruction, converted all the energy into an attack, and blasted it out in one go?

Certain entities possessed a will to survive.

Mo Yu decided to bring Alpha back and conduct a detailed inspection using the space station's specialized equipment.

Now, he could prepare for the return.

He dragged the trying-to-escape Ilse back, gave her a sound smack on her backside, and then headed down to the basement to organize the supplies, stacking them into a cube shape as much as possible.

With about five minutes left until the return countdown.

Mo Yu felt some anomalies; his body was flickering unstably.

The world was rejecting him.

He sat atop Alpha, wrapping his left arm around the struggling Ilse while holding the unconscious Alice with his right. The three of them clung tightly together, surrounded by mountains of stacked supplies.

As the countdown reached zero, space began to twist slightly, multiplying the bizarre phenomena.

Ilse bit Mo Yu's shoulder, struggling feebly.

Centered on Mo Yu, an invisible force field compressed inward, forming a whirlpool that sucked in everything around it, shrinking until it completely vanished into annihilation.