Wanting a Pat

The equipment Yunhuo had spent a fortune on had once again found a real use.

He turned the zoom ring as far as it would go.

The image tightened inch by inch.

The camera peeled back the layers of silver-white light, revealing what lay inside.

The livestream fell silent for half a second.

Then it exploded.

[Holy shit! An arrow!]

Yunhuo's first reaction was to look down and check whether his equipment was broken.

An arrow?

The chat went completely wild.

[What the hell? At the speed that arrow's flying, it should have melted, no matter what metal it's made of.]

[So physics doesn't exist anymore?]

[Forget melting. What's with that speed? I recorded the screen and went through it frame by frame. No known aircraft can reach that speed. Even our fastest, most advanced spaceship has been beaten.]

[You're all missing the point! Isn't the real question why the arrow is giving off silver-white light??]

That message was like a bucket of cold water thrown into a pot of boiling oil.

Silver-white.

The chat suddenly slowed for a moment.

As if everyone had stopped typing at once.

[Wait. Silver-white.]

[...Everyone, that makes me think of the Moonlight Clan.]

[The Moonlight Clan is white or silver-white from head to toe, and aloof as hell.]

[Yeah, that's the color. Exactly the same.]

[So is this a Moonlight Clan weapon? Doesn't it seem a little out of place? Don't they all just use blades to hack people down? When did they switch to archery?]

[Maybe the Moon God himself used it, lol.]

The Star-Moon Arrow had been flying straight ahead.

Suddenly, it slammed to a halt in midair.

Then it turned and shot straight toward Yunhuo's spaceship!

[Holy shit! Why is it coming this way!]

[D-d-d-did it notice us?]

[Obviously! It turned around, didn't it!]

[Who just said "lol"?! Come out and take your beating!]

After leisurely circling the spaceship a few times, the Star-Moon Arrow stopped in front of Yunhuo.

With a few meters of space and a pane of glass between them, Yunhuo faced off against an arrow.

Under normal circumstances, the scene would have had him laughing himself to death.

A grown man in a spaceship, at the Zerg border, staring down an arrow.

But he couldn't laugh.

What... does it want?

Before he could figure it out, the Star-Moon Arrow casually flicked its tail, and the spaceship shook violently twice, as though an invisible hand had slapped it.

Then a line of text appeared in the air.

[My name is Star-Moon Arrow. You're lucky!]

Then the Star-Moon Arrow turned and left, darting far away in the blink of an eye.

Its speed was even more astonishing than when it had arrived.

The Star-Moon Arrow had been carrying the hopes of Lord Moon God.

But just as it was flying freely through the wind and clouds, it spotted a line of text along the way!

That little broken-down ship had dared to make jokes about its creator, Lord Moon God, who dwelt high above the nine heavens.

—Blasphemy!

This was blasphemy!

So the Star-Moon Arrow twisted its shaft, made a turn, and headed straight for the spaceship.

As a god's creation, it was proud to its core and would brook no offense.

It had intended to teach those people spouting nonsense a lesson.

To show them what they should say.

And what they shouldn't.

However, just as the Star-Moon Arrow was about to use its power and teach that metal shell a lesson, it suddenly heard Lord Moon God say:

"Pay them no mind."

Forget it.

Holding in a bellyful of anger, the Star-Moon Arrow reluctantly flicked its tail and let the spaceship go.

Hmph, those guys were lucky.

They had encountered a god's mercy today.

But the Star-Moon Arrow still needed an outlet for the anger in its heart.

So it broke past its own limits.

A boom rang out in the void.

It suddenly accelerated, stretching into a streak of light as it plunged straight into the Zerg's stronghold.

The scene that followed could only be described one way.

—Utter devastation.

Those densely packed Zerg.

The moment they came into even slight contact with the Star-Moon Arrow's frost-clear silver-white light, they were like snow falling into a blazing furnace.

They melted away before they could even struggle.

[Holy shit, did everyone see that? The arrow became a spirit. It can even write.]

[Star-Moon Arrow? Doesn't anyone think that name is a little sensitive?]

[Wait, are you kidding me? The Zerg are gone just like that?]

[Isn't this too strange? How did the Zerg, who've plagued us for tens of thousands of years, just disappear like that?]

[I'd call the Star-Moon Arrow the strongest divine arrow in history.]

[Holy shit, is this the time to argue about that? Where did the Star-Moon Arrow even come from? If someone shot it, how powerful must that person be?]

[That's practically a god.]

At the sight of the word "god," the chat fell silent again.

After a few quiet seconds.

[Do you think it could be... that one?]

[Which one?]

[Are you playing dumb?]

[Not bad.]

Wuma Xiu glanced indifferently at the stretch of void that had been wiped clean, then beckoned with his hand.

The next instant, the streak of silver-white light reversed direction and obediently flew back.

[Wow, host, you're amazing.]

The system's voice was full of amazement. It really hadn't expected things could be handled this way.

The insect emperor, for all its might, had been finished off by a single arrow without even seeing its host's face.

Not a trace remained.

There was no need to worry about troublesome things like his identity being exposed.

But why did the Moon God's power suit its host so well? Originally, these cards required role-playing progress to be unlocked before the Moon God's power could be unlocked.

But this time, for some reason, it couldn't see its host's role-playing progress at all. It had thought he had merely put on an empty shell, but to its surprise, its host wielded the Moon God's power as effortlessly as his own limbs.

The system poked its head out of the coffin, feeling for a moment that it had been truly lucky to bind itself to its host.

Perhaps it could still survive this time.

Wuma Xiu hadn't thought nearly as much as the system had. He had simply been too lazy to do it himself.

The Star-Moon Arrow flew back.

It circled Wuma Xiu again and again, like a little beast eager to claim credit. Its silver-white light left a delicate trail, drawing messy, joyful circles in the air.

[Star-Moon Arrow]: Lord Moon God, was I impressive?

Wuma Xiu watched it, the corners of his lips moving almost imperceptibly.

"Impressive."

[Star-Moon Arrow]: Then can I have a reward?

[Star-Moon Arrow]: ᡴ⁽˶ᵔᴗᵔ˶⁾ꪫ

Wuma Xiu's gaze lingered for a moment on the emoticon that had appeared out of thin air.

"What reward do you want?"

The Star-Moon Arrow's tip suddenly rose, pointing straight up, while its fletched end obediently drooped downward. Its whole shaft swayed slightly, as though it were trying to contain some anticipation.

"I want a pat."

Its voice softened.

There was a hint of bashful pleading in it.

Just a moment ago, the Star-Moon Arrow had been fighting its way through the swarm of insects, turning the battlefield upside down.

Now it hovered before Wuma Xiu, all its sharpness tucked away.

"As a reward, of course you can."