Chapter Summaries

A grotesque [Cup]-attribute entity descended from Midnight, driving much of the Federation’s life mad and beginning to invade Cloud City. Xu Zhi let it take control of the Black Fog while waiting for the Federation’s counterattack to reach it.

• A blood-red and black entity emerged from Midnight, and its arrival mentally corrupted more than half of the Federation’s living creatures.
• The entity singled out Xu Zhi, whose [Authority] allowed her to endure its mental assault as voices from its many heads coveted her eyes.
• The entity used its eyes and blood to invade Cloud City’s Black Fog and project Midnight across the city.
• As Midnight spread through Cloud City and the black sun filled with blood, Xu Zhi lit her lantern and waited for the Federation’s counterattack.

As Midnight manifested in Cloud City, the giant absorbed the Black Fog to recover while suffering backlash that destroyed many of the heads and eyes covering Its body. The barrier between Cloud City and the Federation vanished, exposing residents to the black sun as Zhong Lingfan ordered the city’s Lamp Attribute Cores used to sustain the failing defensive formation.

• Xu Zhi watched the giant absorb the Black Fog and realized its damaged heads and eyes were taking the harm caused by forcing Midnight into reality.
• As Midnight grew more solid, the giant’s eyes and heads burst under the strain, unleashing mental contamination that Xu Zhi dispersed with her [Moth] energy.
• Xu Zhi noticed Midnight had fewer tombstones and suspected the giant had sacrificed both the dead and sleeping extraordinary creatures to revive itself.
• Midnight descended into the world, and the backlash tore away nearly a quarter of the giant’s heads.
• The giant’s Black Fog vortex thinned Cloud City’s mist and removed the barrier to the Federation, revealing the black sun to the city’s residents.
• After the defensive formation began consuming energy at triple its previous rate, Zhong Lingfan ordered every Lamp Attribute Core投入 into it while relying on Xu Zhi as her hoped-for counterattack.

The Federation launched a desperate nuclear strike against the enormous figure in Cloud City, using two supernatural warheads infused with [Lamp]-attribute energy. Xu Zhi and the others survived inside Little Aberration’s protective cages, but the blast ravaged Cloud City, and Xu Zhi doubted it had killed It.

• After Cloud City connected to the Federation, the Federation’s superhumans saw Its enormous figure appear and prepared to attack.
• The Federation sent its strategic bombers on a suicide mission with a nuclear warhead, and the pilots encouraged one another as they flew toward Cloud City.
• Xu Zhi discovered the approaching aircraft with the [Eye of Secrets] and had Little Aberration enclose her, Zhong Lingfan, and the others in protective tree cages.
• The bombers dropped their warhead accurately on It, but Its mental contamination overwhelmed the pilots before the bomb exploded.
• The nuclear blast tore through Cloud City, rupturing Xu Zhi’s eardrums and causing radiation injuries that healed quickly; she hoped It had been hurt but did not believe the strike could kill it.

Xu Zhi used [Eye of Secrets] to assess Him and learned that He was gravely wounded by Midnight, with the Federation’s nuclear attack tipping their struggle against Him. He pulled away Cloud City’s [Lamp] energy and accelerated the Federation array until it consumed all life on Federation soil, filling the black-sun [Cup] to overflowing.

• Xu Zhi saw that Zhong Lingfan and the others had survived the nuclear blast under Little Aberration’s protection and then looked at Him.
• Xu Zhi endured the information and backlash from viewing Him and realized His injuries came mainly from Midnight, while the Federation’s nuclear bomb had pushed Him into a disadvantage.
• Xu Zhi noticed Midnight soil beginning to give way to the ruined city as He urgently struggled to resist Midnight’s backlash.
• He withdrew the [Lamp] attribute extraordinary energy from Cloud City, worsening His injuries while strengthening the Federation array’s pull.
• The array stripped away the flesh, blood, souls, and bones of every remaining life on Federation soil, and the black-sun [Cup] filled to overflowing.

As the apocalypse overwhelmed the Federation, Xu Zhi learned that its people had been confined from questioning what lay beyond their world. She realized It had long prepared to challenge that confinement, but Narrator revealed that It was not the challenger.

• In a Federation safehouse, survivors despaired over the unstoppable monster, and one man killed himself, only for his corpse not to be carried away as fresh flesh and blood.
• The remaining survivors argued about whether bombing Cloud City had been a mistake and wondered if anything had existed before the Federation.
• When the black sun overflowed, Xu Zhi's Game Console displayed a warning, and Narrator asked why the Federation was the Federation and what lay beyond it.
• Xu Zhi struggled against a mental barrier, then recognized that the Federation's people had been prevented from questioning their world's history and boundaries.
• Xu Zhi asked whether It had planned to break the confinement, and Narrator confirmed that It had prepared for the challenge but was not the challenger.

Xu Zhi pieced together that the Federation had no history because it was a new world, and that ordinary humans there were expendable. As Cloud City lay in ruins, she learned the Narrator only wanted her to live, though she would have to take His place to uncover the truth and survive.

• Xu Zhi questioned the Narrator about the Federation’s origins and realized the world extended beyond it, while the Federation itself had no past.
• Xu Zhi concluded that the Federation’s people were ordinary humans who could be sacrificed, and the Narrator agreed they had been unlucky to be born there.
• Xu Zhi asked whether the Narrator wanted to do what He was doing, and it said it only wanted her to live but would help if she had to act.
• Xu Zhi accepted that she had to take His place, while the Narrator told her to wait for the right moment.
• Little Aberration withdrew its damaged shelter, and Xu Zhi saw Cloud City reduced to ruins with the instigator still standing above them.

Xu Zhi watched Him use a vast blood-red formation and the black sun to heal, then bring Midnight down over Cloud City as dark clouds gathered overhead. She realized the clouds might bring the thunder her cloak was meant to withstand.

• He drew the thirteen pillars of light into a blood-red formation, which appeared behind Him and linked Him to the black sun.
• He used the black sun’s energy to heal his wounds, and the hostile voices in Xu Zhi’s mind returned.
• He urgently brought Midnight down over Cloud City as thunder sounded and dark clouds gathered.
• Xu Zhi saw blood-filled trenches crossing Midnight and suspected its presence protected Him from the gathering threat.
• Xu Zhi remembered Narrator’s warning that her special human-skin cloak could withstand some thunder.

As It drained the Federation of life and energy, Zhong Lingfan abandoned outsiders to preserve Cloud City, while the rising ocean and ruined Midnight left no refuge. When It began pulling the black sun down to find a door, the Game Console warned Xu Zhi to survive until the door appeared and act when It approached.

• Xu Zhi put on a cloak as It resumed gathering extraordinary energy and draining the land.
• The formation consumed life and energy across the Federation, and Zhong Lingfan reduced its burden by abandoning people who had entered Cloud City from outside.
• The abandoned people died almost immediately, while Cloud City's residents feared they might be abandoned next if the formation continued to fail.
• The ocean rose and flooded the Federation as the blood in Midnight consumed the tombstones and gathered around It.
• It drew the black sun downward while searching for a door, and the Game Console told Xu Zhi to survive until the door appeared and act when It approached.

Xu Zhi learned that the falling black sun was an immense mass of energy meant to break open a way out of the Federation, which was a prison built to contain Him. The Narrator revealed the Observer's existence and drew its attention, setting up a conflict between it and Him as the sun continued to fall.

• The Narrator told Xu Zhi that it could no longer replenish its power and explained that the black sun was not a real sun, while the Federation lay on the moon's far side.
• The Narrator explained that the falling mass would strike every corner of the Federation to find a weak point and open a door outside.
• Xu Zhi realized that the Federation was a prison created to contain Him and learned that its extraordinary energy and rules had been necessary to keep Him alive.
• The Narrator revealed that the Observer watched the Federation, and a lightning strike targeted Xu Zhi after it spoke the Observer's name.
• The Narrator explained that the Observer would search for whoever knew of it, revealing that it had deliberately drawn the Observer's attention to provoke a fight with Him.

As the Black Sun fell and the world’s rules dissolved, the Narrator spoke directly to Xu Zhi and told her to recall her Familiars. It instructed her to merge with them and grow stronger before the sun struck the earth and the rift appeared.

• After Xu Zhi mentioned the [Observer], lightning searched Cloud City, and It abandoned Its disguise to pull the Black Sun down.
• The falling sun and lightning tore apart the world as the survivors faced earthquakes, floods, thinning air, and collapsing buildings.
• The Narrator told Xu Zhi that the damaged rules were allowing Its wounds to heal and warned that the coming impact and rift would create an opportunity.
• Xu Zhi recalled her other Familiars, and the Narrator instructed her to merge with them to increase her strength.

Xu Zhi fused with her four Familiars, gaining greater strength and access to their abilities without raising her extraordinary level. With the sun’s fall approaching, the Narrator ordered Little Aberration to devour Yu Shenwei and absorb the true foundation fragment inside her.

• Xu Zhi learned that fusion would let her use her Familiars’ traits and abilities, and the Narrator warned that Nightmare’s traits alone would not let her hit Him.
• The Narrator guided Xu Zhi through fusing with her four Familiars, strengthening her body and giving her access to Nightmare’s incorporeality and Xiao Zhen’s [Instant Death].
• Xu Zhi asked whether the fusion bypassed her extraordinary level limit, and the Narrator said she could survive the sun’s fall because this world’s damaged rules prevented attribute conflicts.
• The Narrator instructed Little Aberration to devour Yu Shenwei and absorb the true foundation fragment within her, explaining that there was no more time to keep her alive.

As the Watcher battled the Black Sun, Xu Zhi waited for the moment to strike the severely wounded entity before the world shattered. The Narrator reassured her that she had come this far through her own strength and revealed that everything buried in Midnight had arrived from outside this world.

• The Watcher struck the entity with lightning, suppressing its regeneration and forcing it to choose between healing and gathering energy from the sun.
• The entity charged at the Watcher’s thunderclouds to try to destroy it before exhausting its strength.
• The Narrator told Xu Zhi that the entity would survive but be gravely wounded, giving her a chance to deliver a fatal blow as the Black Sun struck the Federation’s land.
• Xu Zhi watched the few survivors gathered in the small array and admitted she felt regret at the thought of being left alone.
• The Narrator told Xu Zhi that she would have done well even without its help and revealed that everything buried in Midnight had come from outside this world.

The Narrator revealed that it was formed from dormant Lamp fragments drawn to Xu Zhi, whom it called the world's true protagonist. As the Black Sun swallowed Xu Zhi, she followed the Narrator's instruction and began absorbing the cores in her warehouse.

• The Narrator explained that it was made from Lamp fragments scattered outside Midnight and had gained consciousness after being drawn to Xu Zhi.
• The Narrator told Xu Zhi that the world existed for her birth and that she was more special than Him.
• The Black Sun descended, shattering the ground and drawing nearby debris and people upward as its Cup aura overwhelmed the area.
• The Narrator instructed Xu Zhi to absorb all the cores in the warehouse when the Black Sun hit her.
• The Black Sun swallowed Xu Zhi and the ground beneath her, leaving her numb and barely conscious as she used the game console to draw a massive number of cores into her body.

Xu Zhi forced herself to absorb supernatural energy until [Cup] erupted through the world, destroying her body and threatening to erase her consciousness. As He and the [Observer] fought over a widening crack to the outside, [Lamp] kept Xu Zhi anchored in the blast, where her mental and physical attributes began to grow.

• Xu Zhi continued absorbing supernatural energy beyond her body's limits, triggering a surge that scattered her [Moth]-attribute energy and nearly drained her.
• A violent explosion of [Cup]-attribute energy swept through Xu Zhi and began dissolving her body and the world.
• He used the raging energy to force open a crack, while the [Observer] attacked him as its remaining power dwindled.
• [Lamp] appeared in Xu Zhi's mind and anchored her with pale yellow threads, using her stockpiled cores to repeatedly restore her body and preserve her consciousness.
• Xu Zhi's mental and physical attributes grew rapidly as she endured the ongoing impact.

After the explosion, Xu Zhi recovered as [Lamp] and [Moth] energy flowed into her, helping her fuse with the dormant fragment and [Authority]. With the path to advancement appearing again, she used the Eye of Secrets and saw the shattered [Embodiment of Rules] falling into the sea.

• Pale golden threads from the shattered Game Console entered Xu Zhi and helped her survive the explosion’s aftermath.
• Xu Zhi regained awareness and learned from the Narrator that the explosion had only just ended.
• As [Lamp] and [Moth] energy entered her body, Xu Zhi healed and felt her strength and rank rising.
• Xu Zhi’s dormant fragment stirred, fused with [Authority], and let her sense a chance to break through despite the severed path.
• At the Narrator’s urging, Xu Zhi used the Eye of Secrets and saw shattered golden Rules falling from the sky into the sea.

Xu Zhi used the golden fragments of shattered rules to temporarily raise her supernatural level and discovered that the being imprisoned as Him was actually a living Archbishop. The Narrator warned her to hide her origins after escaping, and Xu Zhi prepared to kill the Archbishop and leave the prison.

• Xu Zhi used [Authority] to absorb a golden fragment, which guided her supernatural energy into a temporary, unstable advancement.
• Xu Zhi looked at Him and the [Observer] and saw a cracked scarlet Archbishop Stairway hidden inside Him.
• The Narrator realized that Him was an Archbishop who had never truly fallen and had been disguised as Him in the Federation prison.
• The Narrator warned Xu Zhi that Him was still alive, likely had plans in the outside world, and could see her as a threat if he learned she had escaped.
• Xu Zhi agreed to conceal where she came from and focused on killing the Archbishop and escaping.

Xu Zhi learned that Zhong Lingfan had sacrificed herself and the other survivors to leave [Severing] in her blade, then accepted the dead Federation's hopes and reclaimed her [Lamp] attribute. As the Game Console and its Narrator merged back into her, Xu Zhi faced the [Observer] alone.

• Xu Zhi discovered that Zhong Lingfan and the others had died to power a sacrificial formation that preserved [Severing] in her blade.
• Xu Zhi recognized the vanished Federation as her homeland and accepted the responsibility of living on as its last survivor.
• The Narrator revealed that the Game Console had formed from Xu Zhi's discarded [Lamp] attribute and other [Lamp] fragments.
• The Game Console broke apart and returned its power to Xu Zhi, while the Narrator lost its voice and self-awareness.
• The Game Console dissolved into [Lamp] energy and a glowing ginkgo leaf that merged into Xu Zhi as the [Observer] prepared to act.

Xu Zhi faced the nameless Archbishop in a final battle as the [Cup] energy dwindled and the rift threatened to close. The [Observer] prepared to mark whoever escaped, while Xu Zhi launched a golden saber strike at Him.

• The [Observer] moved to the rift and prepared to leave dormant lightning scars on anyone who escaped, alerting its creators.
• Xu Zhi and the Archbishop were left without a way to replenish their power, and Xu Zhi waited in peak condition to fight Him.
• Xu Zhi charged at the Archbishop, blaming Him for Game Console's disappearance as the [Cup] energy and the rift's expansion faded.
• The Archbishop struck Xu Zhi with an invisible hammer, but she healed quickly and used Black Cat's traits to become intangible.
• Xu Zhi gathered [Lamp] energy into her black blade and launched a golden crescent slash at the Archbishop.

Xu Zhi fought the enormous being, using Lamp-powered crescents and her saber to wound it while planting a hidden branch in its body. The battle continued as the being struck her with delayed, offset attacks, and Xu Zhi began considering how to overcome the limits of her vision.

• The being caught Xu Zhi’s golden crescent in its hand, suffering a deep wound before crushing the attack.
• Xu Zhi blocked its sweeping palm with her saber, then used another crescent to halt its strike and cut open its chest.
• As the wound began to heal, a tiny black branch leaped from Xu Zhi and fused into the being’s flesh unnoticed.
• The being hit Xu Zhi with a delayed, offset attack, sending her flying and disrupting her extraordinary energy.
• Xu Zhi realized that tracking the being’s abilities left her vulnerable to unseen attacks and suddenly came up with an idea about having more eyes.

Xu Zhi used Familiar tattoos to improve her vision and endured a devastating blow from It while setting up her counterattack. With Little Aberration parasitizing Its body, she disrupted Its power with [Authority], but It broke off one of the parasitic spikes and hurled it at her.

• Xu Zhi moved her Familiar tattoos across her body and used them as eyes for a wider field of vision.
• Xu Zhi blocked Its descending fist with her left arm and pierced Its hand with her blade, but the blow crippled her arm and injured her internally.
• A sprout from Little Aberration appeared on Its chest, signaling Xu Zhi to activate the [Authority] energy she had planted inside It.
• Xu Zhi disrupted Its control of its powers for two seconds, allowing Little Aberration to spread roots through Its heart and limbs.
• It tried to pull out the parasitic spikes, then snapped one off and launched it at Xu Zhi.