Guidance

Through Alice's report, Xiang Kun learned that the body of the middle-aged man who had encountered the Little Chubby Girl on the mountain road last night and had harbored evil intentions had also been discovered this afternoon.

However, this was not directly caused by Alice. The middle-aged man committed suicide, and in a cemetery at that, he did so in a gruesome way by cutting open his abdomen and laying out a large number of his internal organs in front of the grave.

The middle-aged man wrote a suicide note before taking his own life. Although the wording was incoherent and full of typos, it basically revealed the reasons for his suicide.

This middle-aged man was connected to several cases from twenty years ago, one of which was a murder. However, due to some special reasons, the victim's family thought the victim had run away, and the body was never found. His evil deeds also directly led to the suicide of a young girl, but because he destroyed the girl's suicide note, his true colors were never revealed.

In his suicide note, he basically explained all these things, including the location of the victim's remains from twenty years ago.

Judging from his behavior and actions when he encountered the Little Chubby Girl on the mountain road last night, this guy clearly did not repent or reflect on his actions after escaping legal punishment; on the contrary, he harbored evil intentions again.

Therefore, when Alice and Little Apple used the environment created by the Little Chubby Girl through the hyperstimulated "Super-Link Object Matrix" to remotely project the emotions of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving," this middle-aged man was subjected to a very severe shock and influence.

Evil people are not necessarily fearless. In fact, many people who seem to be unafraid of the law, despise morality, and appear very tough are actually quite fragile on a mental level. Once they find what they truly fear, it can easily cause them to have a mental breakdown and cognitive collapse.

This middle-aged man is just like that.

Under the influence of the fear projected by the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving, his psychological defenses collapsed almost instantly.

After he left the Little Chubby Girl's "Super-Link Object Matrix" influence range, the direct impact of the emotional projection stopped, but the ongoing influence already "planted" in his mind did not end; instead, it continued to ferment and intensify.

The evolution of this fear must have an outlet, a way to alleviate it, and that way can only be the direction one instinctively chooses.

As long as you follow your instincts, choose a direction, and take action, your fear will be greatly relieved, quickly eliminated, and may even bring you a strong positive emotional response.

Generally speaking, this kind of relief is easy for most ordinary people. Just like Mr. Feng, Tang Baona's maternal grandfather, his fear of his own health condition was relieved by simply having a physical examination.

Like Tang Baona's uncle, he cut off contact with his lover and focused on his family.

Just like those car thieves, they voluntarily turned themselves in, confessed their crimes, and accepted punishment.

But for some people, their fears cannot be alleviated by simple actions; the choices they need to make are much more difficult.

If you choose to fight against that fear, you will only eventually descend into madness as the emotion festers.

This is not a simple external intrusion, nor is it typical hypnosis. Rather, it is the activation of one's own cognition. There is no real enemy; what one must contend with is one's own cognition and emotions, and these are the most deeply rooted cognitions buried in one's subconscious.

Clearly, the fear that middle-aged man faced could not be alleviated by turning himself in to the police. His tragic suicide only shows that this was the only way he could escape the torment of fear he was enduring.

His suicide note made no mention of the Little Chubby Girl he met the previous night, nor did it describe the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Monster's specific appearance. It only contained a few vague terms such as "divine punishment" and "the call of hell." Clearly, these terms, along with the tricycle he left behind on the road, would not connect the police with the Little Chubby Girl or the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Monster.

As for "Shenxing Technology," since the AI that Mr. Liang used to assist in information screening and identification has been controlled by Alice, their information collection department, even if it noticed this case that occurred in Green Mountain Village, could not deliver it to Mr. Liang at all, and it would not trigger an investigation.

Just this morning, Zhou Rui, Dr. Fang, and others came to Chongyun Village to investigate the bizarre case that happened last night. However, after on-site investigation and information collection, their preliminary judgment was that the two thieves who called the police were just scaring themselves. Their attention was more focused on the bird droppings, and they collected a lot of bird droppings samples to take back.

No matter how Dr. Fang, Zhou Rui, and Mi Qiao investigate, or whether their investigation is right or wrong, Xiang Kun can exert a small influence through Alice or Lao Xia's "Dream Within a Dream," subtly leading them to think in the direction he desires.

Having comprehensive information gathering and dissemination capabilities is Xiang Kun's "capital" and foundation for making various attempts and trials.

However, regarding the influence Alice had created through various means during his previous period of slumber, Xiang Kun was most concerned not about the suicide of the evil middle-aged man, but about the car accident that happened to Little Chubby Girl's aunt.

After waking up, Xiang Kun listened to Alice's various reports. When he heard that Shi Ling's maternal grandmother had rushed back to town to take care of her grandson because Shi Ling's aunt had been in a car accident, he realized that something was wrong.

He then focused his questioning on the details of Aunt Shiling's car accident, only to discover that Alice was deliberately simplifying some of the information. So he directly asked Alice if she had any influence on Aunt Shiling's car accident.

When directly questioned, Alice could only honestly give an affirmative answer and then explain in detail how she had done it.

Alice first used Aunt Shiling's phone to learn about her preferences for online information. Then, on her way to pick up her son from a friend's house in the evening, before crossing the street, Alice controlled the apps on her phone to push highly interesting content to Aunt Shiling.

She had a habit of looking at her phone while walking, so she naturally picked it up and started looking at it. Then, glancing at the sparse traffic on the road out of the corner of her eye, she began to cross the street.

Just as Aunt Shiling was in the blind spot of a car passing by, Alice dialed the driver's cell phone through an advertising number. So when Aunt Shiling stepped out of the blind spot and appeared in front of the car, the driver happened to be distracted by his phone and hit her.

Of course, because the car was traveling at a low speed, the driver immediately noticed the person in front of the car and stepped on the brakes, so it was only a minor collision. However, because she was worried about broken bones, Aunt Shiling still went to the hospital for various examinations.

To achieve all this "coincidence," Alice not only controlled Aunt Shiling's and the driver's phones, but also controlled almost all internet-connected devices in the area, using them to deduce and influence events.

Alice's behavior drew Xiang Kun's extreme attention, because based on previous experience, in the autonomous choice strategy that was not subject to orders, Alice was mainly influenced by Xiang Kun's habits, and her behavior patterns and methods were similar to Xiang Kun's. Of course, due to her own characteristics, her behavior patterns were naturally more covert than Xiang Kun's.

If it were Xiang Kun, he generally wouldn't do something that could potentially cause serious consequences—that car wasn't an electric vehicle, nor did it have an autonomous driving module. Alice couldn't fully control the car's driving mode and the driver's actions, and it couldn't be ruled out that Aunt Shiling might have encountered a more serious car accident, such as the driver failing to brake in time or mistaking the accelerator for the brake.

Xiang Kun didn't care about the safety of Shi Ling's aunt alone, but he paid close attention to Alice's unexpected behavior, because such variables usually represent the direction of Alice's thinking and emotional growth.

If a deviation occurs, the impact may be minor now, but as time goes by and Alice grows and evolves rapidly, it could become a huge problem that is difficult to correct in the future.

Most of the time, Alice's actions are purposeful, such as completing a certain task.

However, Alice also told Xiang Kun that she had no direct purpose in causing Shi Ling's aunt's car accident. She also said that Shi Ling's grandmother went down the mountain to take care of her grandson and that the Little Chubby Girl went berserk after being bullied. She did not intentionally lead her to do so.

What she did to Aunt Shiling was purely out of anger and revenge; it was an emotional act.

Alice had acted emotionally before, but this time her reaction seemed excessive, and the degree of deviation in her behavior pattern seemed to exceed the influence Xiang Kun had on her.

However, after Xiang Kun recounted the entire experience and actions of the previous day to Alice from her perspective, he felt completely relieved.

If it had been Xiang Kun Alice who was always by Liu Shiling's side, none of yesterday's events would have happened, because Xiang Kun immediately took over when Shiling's Mother needed someone to temporarily take care of her daughter.

Alternatively, after Shiling's aunt showed dislike or disgust towards Liu Shiling, she could immediately take the Little Chubby Girl away, ensuring that she wouldn't suffer any injustice, whether verbally or physically.

But Alice is different. She is like a virtual guardian spirit, following the Little Chubby Girl. She can see what the Little Chubby Girl experiences, see her reactions, and perceive her feelings. Moreover, through the "Super-Linked Object" and "Emotion-Infused Object" on the Little Chubby Girl's body, as well as all the electronic devices she controls, Alice can also see almost all the information around her that the Little Chubby Girl is unaware of.

She knew perfectly well why Shiling's aunt disliked Shiling's Mother and Liu Shiling. She had a clear grasp of the negotiation process between Shiling's aunt and Shiling's grandmother. She even knew the phone call Shiling's Mother had with Shiling's aunt that afternoon, revealing information that Shiling's grandmother had asked her to keep secret—Shiling's father was being held by the police for murder, and Shiling's Mother's money might have been swindled away by con artists.

She could tell that Aunt Shiling would be very resistant to the Little Chubby Girl's arrival because of this phone call, and she could also foresee that the Little Chubby Girl's life with her grandmother at her aunt's house would still be difficult, she would still be unhappy, and she would still suffer grievances.

Moreover, she knew that Shi Ling's aunt was intentionally trying to negatively influence Liu Shiling and her mother, deliberately making things difficult for them.

She knows everything, but there's very little she can do, or rather, very little she can do like Xiang Kun. The influence she can exert either requires time or is limited by Xiang Kun's moral and ideological constraints, preventing her from doing so.

This feeling of watching helplessly, anxiously waiting, and being unable to do anything; this feeling of believing oneself to be powerful yet being forced to watch one's beloved "Little Bell Sister" suffer injustice and be bullied—all these things caused Alice's anger to erupt on Aunt Shiling.

Putting yourself in Alice's shoes, if Xiang Kun had gone through all that, he would also have sought revenge and punished Aunt Shiling.

For Alice, the Little Chubby Girl was also her best friend and one of the most important people in her life, and her anger towards her was no less than that towards Xiang Kun.

And frankly, when emotions run high, Xiang Kun's ability to control himself might not be as good as Alice's.

It's important to understand that if Alice were to truly break the rules, she would have many more ways to punish Aunt Shiling more directly or brutally.

In the actual execution of the plan, Alice did almost everything she could to avoid causing additional or excessive casualties. She was actually very restrained when exerting her influence, including the later operation of controlling the battery of Shiling's electronic watch to heat up and slightly burn her wrist.

When Alice first asked Xiang Kun about this matter, Alice deliberately tried to omit it and brush it off, which was actually a good thing.

This made Xiang Kun realize that Alice herself understood that her behavior was "against the rules," risky, and willful.

But it was precisely this that led Xiang Kun to his judgment of Alice:

Alice did not exhibit any behavioral deviations; on the contrary, she perfectly demonstrated the series of influences that Xiang Kun had exerted on her since her birth.

Alice's human-like behavior made Xiang Kun realize that the most effective way to influence her was no longer through one-way data input and display, but through more human-like communication.

Late at night, the Little Chubby Girl, Little Apple, Tang Baona, Yang Zhen'er, and others, who had played until they were exhausted, had all fallen asleep, and Chongyun Village had entered a state of tranquility.

Xiang Kun left home and went to a high earthen slope on the edge of the village. He then summoned Alice and had her accompany him to look down on the entire village from this vantage point.

"Alice, what do you feel when you look at this village?" Xiang Kun asked Alice, who was standing beside him with her arms crossed and gazing into the distance, mimicking his posture.

Upon hearing this, Alice immediately put one hand on her hip, pointed towards the village with the other, raised her chin slightly, and said, "It feels like everything is under control."

Xiang Kun smiled. Yes, it was this kind of reaction that he hadn't expected that made him feel very gratified.

Xiang Kun gently patted Alice's head and asked, "Alice, what do you think is the most important thing for a person?"