Alice and Gold Glitter

After the cake fight, everyone quickly washed up and changed clothes, then continued chatting and playing games inside.

"Gold Glitter" slipped out of the house, ready to find somewhere to play on its own. Anyway, inside the house, with Alice's all-around "navigation" and the help of Xiang Kun and others, Little Apple didn't need its "guide bird" for the time being.

When it stayed inside, Yang the Third, Xia Tianhuo, and Tang Baona, Chu Xiaoting, and others who were influenced by them would try every means to pet it, and they would even get exclusive, high-quality bird food from Little Apple to lure it over to be petted.

After they succeeded a few times at first, "Gold Glitter" realized something was wrong. These bird meals were originally its own; Little Apple would feed it when it wanted to eat. Why should it be petted now just for food?

It doesn't like being petted.

It's not a cat!

So "Gold Glitter" slipped out, intending to find some underlings to play with in the nearby Chongyun Mountain.

For it, living in Chongyun Village is indeed much better than living in the city. There are so many other creatures it can command, the air is fresh, and the environment is fantastic.

Of course, "Gold Glitter" is also a responsible bird. It knows what its "job" is. It must take good care of Little Apple and act as a powerful "guide bird" to demonstrate its value, especially when Alice is about to take over its role. It certainly didn't do all that for the delicious bird meals that Little Apple makes. Well, definitely not entirely!

"Gold Glitter" flew a distance and landed on the roof of a residential building near Chongyun Mountain. It puffed out its chest, ready to chirp a few times to attract some nearby birds to come and play together.

It had already scouted the place; no one lived there, so it was perfect for playing.

Just as the bird's beak opened slightly, about to speak, "Gold Glitter" suddenly noticed a figure beside it. Alice, dressed in a white princess dress, was sitting on the edge of the rooftop, her legs dangling and swaying slightly.

The "Gold Glitter" bird paused slightly, leaned back a bit, thinking this was Alice's "territory," and hopped aside, flapping its wings to find another place to play.

But as soon as it took flight, it saw Alice waving at it.

Knowing it couldn't pretend it hadn't seen Alice, who was fully aware of its state, "Gold Glitter" reluctantly returned to the rooftop, though it was now more than a meter away from Alice.

But Alice shifted her position, slowly moved closer to it, and then placed her hand on its back.

"Gold Glitter" hung its head, somewhat helplessly. Why did it learn bad things instead of good ones?

To be honest, even now, Gold Glitter still can't quite figure out what kind of being Alice is. She joined much later than him, but... she's too powerful, and she's everywhere, which is especially terrifying!

Alice stroked Gold Glitter's back with one hand and pointed southeast of the village with the other. She didn't say anything, but the meaning she wanted to convey was accurately transmitted to Gold Glitter's consciousness through the "Super-Sensing Item System".

So Gold Glitter took flight, flapping its wings, and flew in the direction Alice had pointed.

After showing off her "birthday gift" to Lao Xia, Alice restored the village's streetlights, so the area covered by the village roads is now brightly lit again.

But on the edge of the village, in the southeast direction, where there are fewer buildings, it was still pitch black.

There are several construction sites over there. Because construction is still ongoing everywhere and the roads haven't been paved yet for some reason, neither streetlights nor surveillance cameras have been installed.

Of course, because that place was quite far away, Xiang Kun did not extend the deployment of "Super-Linked Object" there.

However, Alice's "eyes" are not limited to the surveillance and "Super-Linked Object" they set up. In fact, as long as there is a network, a signal, and relevant terminal electronic devices, Alice can exert influence.

Just like at this very moment, Alice knew that on that dark construction site, two men were furtively loading building materials onto a small truck.

They weren't from this construction site; they were petty thieves who came to steal materials.

Alice marks everyone who enters Chongyun Village using their mobile phones or other electronic devices to ascertain their identity and other information. These two petty thieves who were stealing materials from the construction site caught her attention as soon as they entered the village because they directly explained their plans and what they were going to do via WeChat.

Even at night, the construction site of Xiang Kun's Research Base was always lit, and sometimes they would work through the night. Regardless of day or night, at least one of the Liu Gaoshang and Liu Zhengyi, would stay to watch over the site, so naturally no one dared to touch the building materials. Other construction sites within the surveillance range were also a cause for concern, but this particular site was not only outside the surveillance range, but also lacked workers due to the construction schedule. The old man watching the site had gone back to his son's house in the village, and even a large yellow dog had been drugged with sedatives stolen from a pet store.

Alice's current ability to acquire information is terrifying, and she also has a certain ability to influence remotely. In this world where everyone is connected to the internet and there are electronic devices everywhere, she can directly or indirectly intervene in many things without even using "Super-Linked Object". Therefore, Xiang Kun made a request to her: in order to have a substantial impact on the real world, she must receive a mission instruction. The only exception is Chongyun Village, because she has a permanent mission - to monitor and protect Chongyun Village.

So when Alice discovered that the two thieves were about to steal from the construction site in Chongyun Village, she was quite excited and prepared to intervene directly.

She didn't report to Xiang Kun first because it was within her scope of duty. Although it wasn't within the monitoring and "Super-Linked Object" area, it was under the administrative jurisdiction of Chongyun Village, and it was Alice's territory to guard!

Everything on this construction site! All the dogs in this village! They're all under Alice's protection!

Of course, Xiang Kun would know when she was about to actually carry out the operation, but she believed that the boss would definitely praise her then!

However, to influence those two petty thieves, the cell phones on their bodies alone are not enough; it is still necessary to deploy "Super-Linked Object".

As for the method of deployment... Alice set her sights on "Gold Glitter," whose two anklets carry a total of twenty "Super-Linked Object," forming a mobile "Super-Link Object Matrix."

Actually, she didn't need to manifest to direct or notify "Gold Glitter," but she felt that communicating through manifestation made her seem more "human."

Moreover, when she appeared, both Xiang Kun and Lao Xia realized that she was announcing to them – I'm about to do something amazing!

So when "Gold Glitter" fluttered its wings as instructed and landed near the construction site, Alice began to exert her influence according to plan.

At the construction site, after loading some building materials onto the cargo bed of a small truck, the short-haired man wearing glasses got into the driver's seat. After his companion got in, he started the car and prepared to leave.

But after trying several times with the car key in hand, the car still wouldn't start and failed to respond.

"Holy crap, bro, the car broke down at this hour?" the young man in the passenger seat said anxiously.

The short-haired, bespectacled man frowned and said, "What's the panic!" With that, he got out of the car, opened the hood, and used his phone as a flashlight to check.

"Could the battery be faulty?" the passenger asked as he got out of the car.

"It shouldn't be. The battery was just replaced recently, there's no reason for it to be broken now. It's probably a bad connection." The short-haired man with glasses shook his head.

"What can we do now? The car broke down here, and we won't be able to explain ourselves."

"It'll be fixed, it shouldn't be a big problem."

"Sigh... I wonder how much this junk is worth. By the way, do you know that bald guy in the village? He's the guest Liu Caifu invited. He's the one who funded that construction site not far from the village entrance, supposedly for some kind of research facility. He also paid for some of the roads, security cameras, and streetlights in our village. Why would a stranger come to our village and invest so much money? What's his motive? Could it be... that there's some treasure hidden under that construction site?"

"Even if they've hidden treasure, it's none of our business. You wouldn't dare try to steal it, would you?"

"That bald guy must be really rich. He's always seen with a tall, beautiful woman everywhere he goes. She's gorgeous, tsk tsk, I wonder if she's his secretary. Oh, by the way, the other day that bald guy brought some guests to the village, and he also brought a golden bird with him. It was so beautiful, I've never seen a bird like that before. It looked really valuable. Bro, let's find a chance to catch that bird sometime, we'll definitely make a lot of money from it."

"How can we catch them? There are surveillance cameras everywhere in the village now. Even if we do catch them, can they escape?"

"No, brother, you don't know, I heard that their bird is actually free-range. It runs around all day, sometimes even flying into Chongyun Mountain, but it always comes back at mealtimes. It's incredibly intelligent. We can catch it when it flies into the mountains. Even if we get caught, no one can accuse us of stealing a bird! Once we catch it, we can find a buyer in another province and sell it. Who would know it was us? That bird can't talk!"

The short-haired, bespectacled man looked up and thought for a moment before saying, "Hmm, I'll look into it later. You should call Lao Zhao first; I need to ask him how to fix this car. It doesn't seem to be a wiring problem."

His companion responded with an "okay," took out his phone, started dialing, and then held the phone to his ear.

After the call connected, the short-haired, bespectacled man, Zhengyi School was inspecting the engine compartment, was about to speak when he heard a soft female voice on the other end, "Hello, this is the 110 emergency call center..."

The short-haired, bespectacled man's hair stood on end, and he almost jumped up. He immediately pulled away from the phone in his companion's hand and looked back at him in horror.

"What's wrong?" His companion asked, quite surprised by his behavior.

"Why... why did you call 110?" the short-haired, bespectacled man asked nervously.

"Why did you call 110? I didn't call 110. Didn't you tell me to call Lao Zhao?" His companion said, looking completely bewildered. He instinctively picked up the phone and held it to his ear. After hearing the question from the other end, he exclaimed "Holy crap!" and quickly hung up.

He checked his call history and found that he had indeed dialed 110.

"Holy crap! This wasn't me who called! What the hell?! I clearly called Lao Zhao!" He frantically and angrily examined his phone, exclaiming, "What kind of damn phone is this?!"

The short-haired, bespectacled man shone his phone's light on his companion, looking somewhat suspicious, and walked over, saying, "Let me see your phone."

Taking the phone from his companion, the short-haired, bespectacled man looked down and was startled by a sinister face on the screen. He almost threw the phone away, but upon closer inspection, he realized that the phone's front-facing camera had been turned on at some point, reflecting his own face under the light of his own phone next to him.

He manually exited the camera and was about to open the call history when the phone switched back to the front camera mode. In this mode, his face looked very strange in the lens, with an extremely pointed chin, huge eyes, and a blurry and dark surrounding environment. His face was deathly pale, as if the beauty filter had malfunctioned. He looked like he was smiling, but he was clearly not smiling!

Feeling uneasy, the short-haired, bespectacled man quickly tossed the phone back to his companion. "There's something wrong with your phone!"

Then he picked up his phone, turned off the flashlight, and prepared to call Lao Zhao himself.

But as soon as he turned on his phone screen, a murky object of unknown origin fell onto it. He touched it with his finger and smelled it. "This is... bird poop?"

The next instant, bird droppings rained down from the sky. Although each clump was small, it seemed as if they were being "air-attacked," all concentrated around him and his companions.

After being hit several times on their faces, glasses, and bodies, the short-haired, bespectacled man and his companion quickly ran back to the car. Immediately afterwards, several clumps of bird droppings landed on the windshield and roof, as if the bird had been chasing after them.

By the light of the moon and stars, they noticed that many birds were flying around in the sky, in flocks.

But these birds merely flapped their wings and flew without uttering a single cry, making it impossible to discern their species. They resembled a nocturnal army, eerily chilling.

"This place... this place is strange," the passenger in the front seat said nervously, craning his neck and looking through the windshield at the flocks of birds flying erratically in the sky.

The short-haired, bespectacled man, who had been quite rational, now looked panicked and agreed with his companion's assessment. After the bird droppings had settled, he said, "Let's go, let's get out of here first. Leave the car here and go borrow a motorcycle to go back to town and find a repair shop."

After saying that, the short-haired man with glasses got out of the car first and strode towards the exit.

But he stopped after only a few steps. His companion, who was chasing after him, almost bumped into him. Just as he was about to ask why, he looked up at the exit ahead and immediately understood why he had stopped.

The construction site didn't have a gate at the exit; it was just a large gap in the middle of a makeshift wall. At that moment, a little girl, who appeared to be wearing a skirt, stood in that gap, facing them.

Because they were facing away from the light from Chongyun Village in the distance, they couldn't see the little girl's face clearly.

But the flock of birds that had just been scattering droppings in the air now landed on the walls on both sides of the gap, densely packed together, without making a sound, which looked extremely eerie.

"Little sister, you..." the short-haired, bespectacled man asked, mustering his courage.

But as soon as he opened his mouth, the little girl at the opening vanished—yes, she disappeared right before their eyes.

"Holy crap! Bro, we can't stay here! Forget the car, let's run!" his companion said, wanting to run, but then hesitated, remembering that the little girl had appeared right at the gap.

In that moment of hesitation, the bird that had landed on the wall flapped its wings again and flew towards them, while the little girl's figure reappeared, away from the gap, but a few meters closer to them.

Both of them were startled and turned back to the car, gripping the door tightly.

As soon as I got in the car, my companion in the passenger seat's phone beeped again. "Hello, this is the 110 emergency call center, may I ask...?"

His companion noticed that the phone had dialed 110 again sometime during the call, but this time he didn't hang up immediately. Instead, he looked up at the short-haired, bespectacled man.

The latter looked ahead but didn't see the little girl. After hesitating for a moment, he nodded to his companion.

"Um... I want to turn myself in. I'm in Chongyun Village, yes, that Chongyun Village. We were stealing... just some construction materials. No one was hurt, and there's nobody around... We're still at the scene; our car broke down, and we're trapped here. There are... lots of birds, and a girl... no, not a girl, but... Anyway, you need to send someone right away!!"