So You're the Forest Lord?

The CCTV video Joel saw at the restaurant in Willow City was Alice's "work".

The characters John and Alice in the video, as well as other details such as the food on the table, were all created by Alice.

If it were a human to create "special effects," it would require a lot of effort and high technical skills. Relatively speaking, "face swapping" is the easiest and most realistic method. At least one person would have to "play" John before the collected "John face" is swapped in. Alice's image is similar and requires a human to play the role—because Alice's physical form cannot be filmed.

However, Alice actually has her own way of "editing" digital video footage. Unlike humans who need to operate at the visual level, she can directly edit and create at a deeper level according to the desired effect. She has both human learning and cognitive abilities and the convenience of program operation, producing videos and pictures that are so realistic that they blend perfectly into the background and deceive the human eye. She does this very quickly.

Of course, this ability didn't just emerge when Joel entered the country; rather, it was something Alice had already prepared for after Xiang Kun had assigned her a long-term mission.

However, currently, not everyone's image can be perfectly created quickly and seamlessly by digital devices and integrated into the background; a large amount of information must be collected in advance.

John happened to be her primary target, so she could not only forge surveillance footage but also directly replace Joel's face in the photos taken with his phone.

As for getting Alice to appear in the real-time monitoring, that's a very simple operation.

In the future, as Alice collects enough information, she will be able to create more and more "virtual reality images" in real time, which can then be deeply applied in the VR and AR fields they will be investing in.

As for helping Xiang Kun "disappear" in the surveillance footage, or even "change his appearance" in the footage, those are just basic operations.

Of course, besides videos and images, Alice also exerted targeted influence and guidance on Joel in many other ways.

Joel felt he was hypnotized and suggested, but in reality, everything he saw was objectively "true," and the suggestions he received were "open and aboveboard."

Just like the life insurance advertisement on the large screen in the square that he saw at the restaurant entrance, it was Alice modified it and blatantly displayed it in public.

Because apart from Joel, practically no one would notice the English advertising slogan that was already drowned out by the surrounding noise, and even if they did, they wouldn't think much of it—only Joel would realize that the sentence was almost exactly the same as what he had said to John.

The original plan was to attract Joel's attention and then subtly suggest that he visit the travel agency mentioned by the woman in the advertisement. There would be a corresponding plan to subtly suggest that Joel go to Wushu Mountain. The reason for choosing Wushu Mountain instead of Chongyun Mountain was twofold: firstly, Wushu Mountain is a more well-known 5A-level scenic area, making it easier and more reasonable to make the suggestion; secondly, it left room for maneuver.

Of course, Joel didn't go to the travel agency, and Alice had a series of follow-up influences, including making fake advertising calls to passersby and guiding their voices and reactions.

Alice manipulates the billboards within Joel's line of sight, altering seemingly normal advertising voices into highly suggestive and guiding statements.

Much of the information was specifically arranged based on John's perception of Joel in his dream.

It's like when you're in the living room reading a novel on your phone, and the TV is playing commercials that you don't pay attention to. As long as the sound isn't too loud, you can ignore it and temporarily block it out. But if the TV suddenly calls out the name of your long-time crush, you'll usually react unless you're completely engrossed in your novel.

Then you look up and realize that although the pronunciation is that of the goddess's name, it's actually just two normal words in a sentence and has nothing to do with the person you like, so you continue reading your book.

But then, time and again, the goddess's name kept being "mentioned" on TV in various ways, and you finally couldn't bear to read the novel anymore. You started to think: Could it be that heaven is also hinting that I should confess to the goddess? Are we actually a match made in heaven?

For Joel, the specifics differed, but the patterns of influence and implications were roughly the same.

The key is to take into account all possible directions of Joel's suspicions, try to guess his thought process, and guide him accordingly.

Of course, these were not arranged by Alice herself. Xiang Kun and Lao Xia were always guiding and "strategically planning" from the sidelines, while the specific "tactical implementation" was left to Alice.

Xiang Kun organized the information from John's dream and the information Alice found to build a preliminary cognitive model of Joel's behavior. This model was then used to predict Joel's behavior, and the model was further refined based on more feedback.

Moreover, he also has Lao Xia immediate judgments are equally valuable as his cognitive model.

Lao Xia is quite meticulous. Given limited information about the target, she is unlikely to make a hasty decision. So when she first learned that Joel had entered the country and was speculating about his whereabouts, digging holes and planting clues everywhere, she mainly Xiang Kun and Alice to do so.

After Joel falls into the "trap," based on his specific reaction and the various visual images transmitted back by Alice from the city and inside the car, Lao Xia will analyze and judge the situation and then give his own opinion.

When Joel was recklessly preparing to go directly to Peng City, Lao Xia suggested that Alice send an email to Joel's contact email address in John's name, asking him to go to Peng City. She even made the content of the email look fake.

According to Lao Xia, this is to make "going to Peng City" a similar option to "going to Wushu Mountain," and let Joel choose.

In comparison, although going to Peng City seemed much more reliable and was Joel's original plan, going to Wushu Mountain posed less of an external threat to him.

Based on Lao Xia's observation, Joel's character is essentially cowardly, timid, and a bully who preys on the weak. Given a safer option, he will definitely choose the safer one.

Sure enough, after receiving the email that was clearly suspicious and arriving in Peng City, Joel immediately found a car and got back on the highway after exiting it, heading towards Wushu Mountain.

Of course, even without Lao Xia's idea, Xiang Kun and Alice had a series of backup plans arranged in Peng City. There were many interconnected pitfalls, which would be much more troublesome, and the final observation site might even have to be changed.

Seeing Joel enter the Chongyun Mountain Region on the surveillance footage, Xiang Kun breathed a sigh of relief. After his usual praise of Alice, he gave her some instructions:

"The rest is up to you. In short, don't let him leave Chongyun Mountain. Try to keep his activity within the area we've designated, from C-23 to C-29. Don't let him have it too easy; put some psychological pressure on him, but don't give him specific combat objectives, and don't let him fall into complete despair. Try to get him into the phase of disintegration as quickly as possible. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Alice understands! No problem! I'll arrange everything perfectly! Don't worry, boss!" Alice's request for assistance hadn't been approved, so she could only turn up the volume of the speakers and reply crisply.

Xiang Kun naturally had no doubt about this. In Chongyun Mountain, Alice was like someone swimming on their own hard drive, with too many tricks up her sleeve.

After Joel ventured deeper into the forest, the cameras that were unable to capture him stopped. Alice then offered to project a simulated video, displaying her observations through her extrasensory perception directly on the screen. She would then use the environmental footage she had previously collected from various locations in Chongyun Mountain to create a simulated "surveillance video" that appeared to be real.

It does look quite impressive. Someone unaware of the situation might even think it's a live video feed from a drone in the sky, and that it can change angles and zoom in for closer observation.

However, because Alice's animation was too elaborate, the video stuttered. Xiang Kun then told her to simply use simple cartoon illustrations to mark the positions. After all, everyone knew it was fake, so smoothness and less lag were the key.

So the real-time monitoring turned into: in a forest with a "Little Chubby Girl style", a blond little person with a "Little Chubby Girl style" who looks like Colonel Sanders moves through the forest.

Alice continued her explanation, "He's standing still now, seems a bit lost, probably doesn't know where to go! Boss, let's give him a hint! Oh right, boss, you told me to arrange it myself, so I'll arrange it for him!"

Then a square-shaped object lit up near the blonde figure's leg on the screen. The figure picked it up, and Alice explained, "I lit up his phone and took a picture of him! After taking the picture, I changed it to John's face! Oh my gosh, he was startled! He got nervous! All his muscles tensed, his pupils dilated, he seemed unable to believe it, so he took a few more pictures, and I changed it again! He stared blankly, seemingly starting to question his existence, hey, I changed it back! He looked left and right, still questioning his existence..."

Alice spoke with great enthusiasm and excitement, sometimes even using that distinctive way of speaking that the Little Chubby Girl had recently developed when she performed crosstalk—a Xiangchu accent mixed with a Tianjin accent—making it sound like she was doing a solo stand-up comedy routine.

However, Xiang Kun and Lao Xia in front of the monitor were both expressionless and unresponsive. Lao Xia genuinely didn't get it, while Xiang Kun was simply tired of listening. Alice's passion could be maintained 24 hours a day, and she had been in this state throughout the process of digging a hole for Joel.

In the beginning, every time Joel stumbled into a "pit," Alice would manifest herself and then dance around in front of him and Lao Xia, showing off her accomplishment.

So now, whenever he hears Alice's excited voice, he automatically imagines a little girl, resembling Little Lao Xia, waving her arms and shouting, which is so loud it's giving him a headache. But he can't very well suppress her joy, because she really does behave quite well...

"Oh dear? He looks like he's going to run away? That's impossible! In Alice's Forest, no one can escape! No one!"

Alice continued her enthusiastic explanation, and then in the cartoon forest, a little girl in a white dress with a "Little Chubby Girl style" suddenly appeared not far from the blond old man, swayed for a moment, and then disappeared again.

"The evil Bloodline demon is hunting down the righteous Alice, but he... can't catch her! He searches and searches, but he can't find her. Is he going to run away again? We can't let her escape! The righteous Alice appears! Whoosh!!"

Not only is the visual style "Little Chubby Girl," but even Alice's narration has been "Little Chubby Girl- ized."

Xiang Kun couldn't help but think that if he brought the Little Chubby Girl along, she would probably be super happy and super engaged when she saw Alice's "live explanation," and would probably wish she could use the five- Coin matrix to send lightning to help her "Little Screw sister" with a lightning strike.

However, he immediately dismissed the idea, because if that were the case, Alice would be extremely excited and would definitely cause all sorts of trouble to show off in front of her Little Bell sister.

Xiang Kun glanced at Xia Libing beside him. Lao Xia's eyes were wide open, seemingly focused on Joel's situation on the screen. But Xiang Kun knew that Lao Xia was probably using more energy to analyze Alice than Joel —after all, the latter had already fully entered the state of enlightenment, and the real experimental observation would require Xiang Kun to enter the "Hyper-Sensory State".

However, through the analysis of sensory information, Xiang Kun knew that at this time, Lao Xia had already started to feel sleepy and would soon be unable to stay awake and fall asleep.

He then looked at the cartoon blond old man on the screen and said, "Alice, speed things up."

Hurry up and break this old vampire down. He quickly collected the extrasensory information so that Lao Xia could go to sleep in peace.

"Alright, boss!"

"I'm going to use the ultimate move I learned from Lao Xia!"

"Fog! Fog! Thick fog! Thick fog is coming!~~"

Deep within Chongyun Mountain, Joel naturally couldn't hear Alice's loud, childish cry of "The fog is rising!", but he did witness firsthand how clouds of fog suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of him.

Then this eerie-looking mist quickly spread around him, completely obscuring his vision.

Joel was utterly astonished. There was clearly something wrong with the fog; was it just another hallucination?

What convinced him even more that it was a hallucination was that the fog actually smelled like barbecue!

Joel swung his arms and rushed forward, but he couldn't dispel the fog or get out of the fog. Instead, he lost his footing, fell, rolled several times on the ground, and finally stopped after hitting a tree.

Joel didn't know was that if someone were looking down from high above, they would see an even more bizarre sight than what he had seen in the fog—a cloud of fog that seemed to be alive, constantly moving through the forest.

And within that mist was Joel.

The fog enveloped an area of about seven or eight meters around Joel, moving with him and completely obscuring his vision, effectively "sticking" him to it.

After Lao Xia conjured the fog to obscure the environment more than a month ago, Alice simultaneously gained the ability to conjure objects—she naturally inherited Lao Xia's ability to conjure items, including pork knuckles, cakes, Ice Cream, and so on.

Joel's emotions grew increasingly agitated in the fog, but he still retained some rationality. Even though his vision and sense of smell were affected, he still had the "prosthetic tissue fluid" he had arranged to be placed in various locations along the way to help anchor his position.

So after he fell, he didn't get up. Instead, he lay down by the tree, pressed his head against the ground, and tried to sense the "prosthetic limb" he had prepared beforehand.

However, what he didn't know was that as the fog rose, a large number of ants scurried out from all over Chongyun Mountain. Some had wings and swarmed like bees, while others darted out of the soil and gathered together in dense swarms. Then they rushed towards the various locations where Joel had arranged "prosthetic tissue fluid" along his way into the mountain.

The plants that were parasitized with "prosthetic tissue fluid" looked no different or changed at first glance, but when the ant colony approached and began to gnaw at them, they immediately shook their branches as if in pain, and corrosive liquid was sprayed out from the small flower-shaped "organs" that emerged from the top.

Large swarms of ants died in the smoke, but their companions continued to rush forward, relentlessly attacking the plants that Joel called "prosthetics," clinging to them, and gnawing away.

Joel is known as the "Forest Lord" because of the "prosthetic" plants he has placed there, which allow him to detect others in advance and plot against them.

Even with his sight and smell obscured by the fog, he could still orient himself and identify enemies using his pre-arranged and ubiquitous "prosthetics."

However, now, as his "prosthetic limb" is attacked by the omnipresent ant swarm, he finally feels despair.

He knew that the invisible hand had truly grasped him completely, leaving him nowhere to escape.

But what's even more terrifying is that he still doesn't know who his enemy or opponent is. In all his sensory methods, he hasn't found a single "Bloodline," "Blood Beast," or "vampire plant" around him, or even a single creature that's even remotely recognizable!

Just as he was sinking into despair, a little girl's voice rang out. "I heard you're called 'Forest Lord'?"