Chapter Summaries

Xu Zhi spent over a week feeding cores to her Familiars, greatly raising their levels while carefully managing the Little Aberration’s hunger and pain. With one black fruit left, she decided to feed it to the Little Aberration despite not knowing what would happen.

• Xu Zhi learned that the strange manifestation in her eyes was a normal sign of powerful extraordinary beings, then continued feeding cores to her Familiars.
• Little One reached level 27, Doggie reached level 22, and Xiao Zhen reached level 24 as Xu Zhi used up most of her basic cores.
• Xu Zhi struggled to manage the Little Aberration’s hunger and pain, and it reached level 18 with 21 mental power and a rapidly growing Agony trait.
• After Xiao Zhen found three black fruits, Xu Zhi decided to give one to the Little Aberration, though neither she nor Narrator knew what would happen.

Xu Zhi discovered that feeding a Black Fruit had changed her Aberration’s color and deepened its connection to Midnight, then agreed to investigate a missing search team. She set out with Xiao Zhen to find the team and planned to reassure the residents by bringing them back publicly.

• Xu Zhi sent Zhong Lingfan a letter asking her to recruit residents and prepare a survival handbook, and Zhong Lingfan agreed to finish it within a week.
• After eating a Black Fruit, Xu Zhi’s Aberration turned black, and its status panel revealed no evolution points despite its strange, irreversible change.
• Zhong Lingfan told Xu Zhi that a team sent to contact living people had gone missing without sending word or returning.
• Xu Zhi accepted the search request, called Xiao Zhen back, and set out with Xiao Zhen and the Aberration toward the team’s last known location.
• Before leaving, Xu Zhi asked Zhong Lingfan to steady the residents and make sure everyone saw the search team when they returned.

Xu Zhi followed a woman who was luring people to a suspicious gathering place, hoping to find the missing residents. She discovered the woman was a Fanatic and entered a freezing residential complex, where the Fanatics led her toward their central building.

• Shen Jinwen gave Xu Zhi basic driving lessons, and Xu Zhi drove to the place where the residents had vanished while Xiao Zhen searched from above.
• Xu Zhi sensed someone watching her and pretended to pick the lock on a convenience store to draw them out.
• A woman approached Xu Zhi and invited her to a gathering place, and Xu Zhi used [Eye of Secrets] to identify her as a Fanatic.
• The woman led Xu Zhi into a residential complex where the temperature dropped sharply, then brought her to the central building.
• A black-eyed man and the woman remarked that something might be wrong with Xu Zhi's head, while Xu Zhi complained and soothed the Aberration in her pocket.

Xu Zhi was taken to a rooftop where Fanatics prepared a blood ritual, but she broke free and fought back with Xiao Zhen. The ritual began draining blood from everyone except Xu Zhi, and she faced a Fanatic whose wounds healed as the ritual empowered him.

• Xu Zhi was brought to a rooftop, where she saw a blood ritual pattern and three unconscious supernatural beings tied up nearby.
• The Fanatics blindfolded and bound Xu Zhi, and she overheard that they needed one more person for the ritual.
• Xu Zhi snapped her bonds, called for Xiao Zhen, and Xiao Zhen killed the Fanatic standing closest to her.
• The Fanatics began the ritual by pouring red liquid onto the array, and a crimson beam rose as Xu Zhi resisted the mental contamination.
• The ritual drained the blood of the captives and Fanatics, killing the three supernatural beings, while Xu Zhi and the commanding man remained alive.
• Xu Zhi and Xiao Zhen attacked the man, but the array healed his wounds and empowered him through red threads connected to his heart.

Xu Zhi’s Aberration parasitized the ritualist, devoured his energy, and evolved into a stronger Familiar with a new ability. Though its agitation made it attack Xiao Zhen and threaten Xu Zhi, she discovered it still responded to her commands and offered it her blood.

• When Xu Zhi tried to flee, the Aberration leaped from her pocket, burrowed into the ritualist’s heart, and began consuming his blood and energy.
• Xu Zhi ordered Xiao Zhen to break the ritualist’s hand while the Aberration rapidly leveled up and entered metamorphosis.
• The Aberration’s growth severed the ritual’s energy lines, killed the ritualist, and awakened its Parasitic Seed ability.
• The agitated Aberration lunged at Xiao Zhen, but Xu Zhi stayed nearby because the game warned her not to let it leave her side.
• Xu Zhi approached the Aberration and found it would threaten her but not attack; she ordered it to stay still and offered it her blood.

Xu Zhi rescued survivors after punishing the Little Aberration for losing control, then decided to search Cloud City for more survivors and investigate the Fanatics’ ritual. Before leaving on her tour of the city, she planned to choose a new Familiar.

• Xu Zhi fed the Little Aberration her blood and a high-level [Lamp] Attribute Core to suppress its [Agitation], then scolded and kicked it for acting without permission.
• Xu Zhi used Xiao Zhen to find around fifteen survivors stranded on rooftops and had the Little Aberration carry them downstairs.
• Xu Zhi asked Zhong Lingfan to bring a convoy for the survivors and to make clear that Xu Zhi had rescued them from the Fanatics.
• Xu Zhi told Zhong Lingfan she would spend one or two months searching Cloud City for survivors and rational Fanatics while investigating the failed ritual.
• Xu Zhi summoned her Familiars and prepared to leave, deciding to choose a new Familiar first.

Xu Zhi learned that she needed a special Lantern before she could enter Midnight, then set out to gather its materials and found a wary group of survivors. The chapter left her suspecting that something was wrong with the people and their unmutated dogs.

• Xu Zhi learned that her next Familiar selection would come later and that she was close to entering Midnight, but first needed a Lantern to shelter her there.
• Xu Zhi unlocked the Lantern blueprint by investing ten high-level Lamp Attribute Cores and learned that it required branches from a level 25 Aberration, two Moths, snakeskin, a bird feather, and spider web.
• Xu Zhi set out in her car with her Familiars to search for the Lantern materials and new people, while the Narrator told her she still had to enter a house at night.
• On the third morning, Xiao Zhen spotted living people outside a villa near Cloud City's northern outskirts, and Xu Zhi drove over to meet them.
• Xu Zhi saw a short-haired girl with several unmutated mongrels and greeted the group, but their unusually tense reaction to her questions made her suspect something was wrong.

Xu Zhi confronted a family hiding the truth about a relative who had become a Fanatic. She found him restrained but partly lucid, with eyes that showed an unusual, incomplete transformation, and asked why he had retained his sanity.

• Xu Zhi questioned a group of survivors, and Xiao Zhen and Doggie disarmed and intimidated them after they aimed a rifle at her.
• The short-haired girl admitted that her cousin had killed someone and gone mad, and that the family had tied him up at home.
• Xu Zhi followed the girl to a room where her cousin was chained to a bed and saw that his eyes were only partly transformed.
• The cousin asked what had happened, and Xu Zhi asked him why he could retain his sanity.

Xu Zhi questioned Qin Qin and her brother about his bouts of madness, learning that he heard an irresistible call urging him toward a great goal. She promised them safer shelter and help developing Qin Qin’s purification ability, then prepared to send them to the Old Residential District and inform Zhong Lingfan.

• Xu Zhi discovered that Qin Qin had the [Heart] attribute and could use a purification ability to temporarily help her [cup] brother remain rational.
• Xu Zhi offered the siblings shelter and help in exchange for answering her questions, and gave Qin Qin two [Heart] Attribute Cores as a gesture of good faith.
• Qin Qin’s brother described a compelling goal and an indescribable voice calling to him and others whenever he lost his reason.
• Xu Zhi confirmed that he was cooperating honestly, promised to honor her offer, and asked them to pack while she wrote a letter to Zhong Lingfan.

Xu Zhi discovered a Mutated Spider nest while driving and set its webbing ablaze to obtain better-quality spider silk. She and her Familiars fought off the swarm, finding the spiders weaker than expected as the battle continued.

• Xu Zhi sent Xiao Zhen to escort the group to the Old Residential District, then continued driving around the edge of the Third Ring.
• Xu Zhi noticed spider silk covering the car and learned from the Game Console that better-quality silk lay deeper in the area.
• Xu Zhi cleared the silk around her car with Little Aberration, set the surrounding webs on fire, and drew the Mutated Spiders out of their nest.
• Dozens of Mutated Spiders charged Xu Zhi, and her [Eye of Secrets] revealed that they all had the [Opening] attribute.
• Xu Zhi ordered Little One and Doggie to fight while Little Aberration guarded her, then used her Tang saber to kill spiders that got through.

Xu Zhi killed a nest of Mutated Spiders, collected their silk and eggs, and devised a plan to raise Mutated Animals as a hunting ground for Transcendents. As she continued through Cloud City, she found and sent surviving Transcendents to the Old Residential District, but discovered that only a little over a hundred sane people remained after she had crossed nearly a third of the Third Ring.

• Xu Zhi and her Familiars killed more than a thousand Mutated Spiders and gathered their Attribute Cores and usable spider silk.
• Xu Zhi found over three thousand spider eggs and decided to raise them in a supervised hunting ground for the Old Residential District’s Transcendents.
• Xu Zhi continued traveling, collecting other Mutated Animal eggs and using her Familiars to escort surviving Transcendents to the Old Residential District.
• Xu Zhi realized that after traveling nearly a third of the Third Ring, she had found only a little over a hundred living people who retained their sanity.

After her car ran out of gas, Xu Zhi met a rational Fanatic who offered to help her find fuel in exchange for information about a survivor settlement. He led her to his injured childhood friend, and Xu Zhi began removing the girl's bandages to inspect her eyes.

• Xu Zhi searched parked cars for gasoline and met a young man whose heart showed the red flame of a rational Fanatic.
• The young man offered to help her find fuel and asked about a survivor settlement, claiming his injured friend needed a doctor.
• Xu Zhi agreed to meet the friend, confident she could handle any danger and that Xiao Zhen would soon return.
• The young man led Xu Zhi to a house, where she found a bandaged girl whose heart also showed a red flame.
• Xu Zhi questioned the young man's story, then approached the girl and began unwrapping the bandages over her eyes.

Xu Zhi discovered that a boy had not gouged out his injured companion’s eyes and learned that they had escaped from a gathering of [Cup] believers. The boy explained the believers’ hierarchy and revealed that an Acolyte was trying to repair a flawed ritual, but he could not explain what the believers worshipped.

• Xu Zhi saw that the girl’s eyes had been gouged out and questioned the boy, who denied doing it.
• The boy attacked Xu Zhi, but a black shadow struck him down; Xu Zhi gave him a [Cup] Attribute Core to heal so she could question him.
• The boy told Xu Zhi that he and the girl had escaped and that few living people remained across the sealed region.
• The boy explained that believers had an instinctive hierarchy, with mindless believers at the bottom and an Acolyte above believers like him.
• The boy said the Acolyte was trying to repair flaws in a ritual, but he could not explain what the believers worshipped.

Xu Zhi learned that the cult planned to sacrifice believers to create a bishop and needed a saintess’s heart to build an Archbishop. After sparing the boy for now, she used the Game Console to craft a pair of supernatural eyes from his eyeballs, moths, her blood, and Cup Attribute Cores.

• The boy told Xu Zhi that the Acolyte planned to create the first bishop by sacrificing superhumans and believers, and that he had fled because he resented being chosen as a sacrifice instead of a bishop candidate.
• The boy explained that the girl was a rare saintess whose body preserved her heart, which the cult needed to create an Archbishop.
• Xu Zhi learned that the boy did not know an Archbishop’s abilities, took the hideout’s location from him, and decided not to kill him yet.
• Xu Zhi sent the boy outside and asked the Game Console how to craft a pair of eyes from her two moths.
• Xu Zhi took the boy’s eyes and used them with her blood and ten Cup Attribute Cores to craft a red pair of Moth’s Eyes.

Xu Zhi tested whether she could influence Cup believer Cup by replacing her eyes with Moth-made eyeballs and feeding her a Cup Attribute Core. The girl developed a severe rejection reaction, and Xu Zhi tried giving her blood to help her body accept the eyes.

• Xu Zhi discussed her plan with Narrator, which explained that Archbishops were powerful Cup followers and that Xu Zhi could not currently contend with one.
• Xu Zhi placed the Moth-made eyeballs in the girl's empty sockets and fed her a Cup Attribute Core.
• Red veins connected the eyeballs to the girl, but she began twitching and bleeding from her seven orifices.
• Narrator identified the symptoms as a rejection reaction and suggested Xu Zhi give the girl some of her blood.
• Xu Zhi cut her palm and forced blood into the unconscious girl's mouth.

Xu Zhi healed the Saintess with her blood and decided to help the eyeless boy gather strength and fight for the position of Archbishop. The boy agreed to cooperate, while Xu Zhi took custody of the unconscious Saintess.

• The Saintess's convulsions stopped after Xu Zhi fed her blood, and she opened her eyes before falling asleep under the moth's influence.
• Xu Zhi asked the eyeless boy about his plan to become Archbishop, and he explained that he would gather strength by hunting believers and collecting cores.
• Xu Zhi offered to lead the boy to low-ranking believers and help him defeat his pursuers, and he agreed to cooperate.
• Xu Zhi said the Saintess would remain in her care, and Little One enlarged itself and curled its tail around the sleeping girl.

Xu Zhi traveled through the Third Ring with the blind Huo Ze and the Saintess while killing the [Cup] believers pursuing them and collecting their cores. After a week, she fed the Saintess her blood and tried to wake her to see whether the Moth had weakened her faith.

• Huo Ze introduced himself and Yu Shenwei to Xu Zhi, who gave him cloth to cover his empty eye sockets.
• Huo Ze explained that he was a traitor among the [Cup] believers, and Xu Zhi drove the group through the Third Ring while killing the believers they encountered.
• Xu Zhi approved Zhong Lingfan’s plan to pay managers with a small number of cores and grant them privileges in the Old Residential District.
• After nearly a week on the road, Xu Zhi lodged the group in an empty house and fed five [Cup] Attribute Cores to the Aberration.
• Xu Zhi fed the Saintess some of her blood and tried to wake her, checking whether the Moth had affected her faith.

Xu Zhi tried to ease Yu Shenwei’s suffering and weaken her resistance to changing faith, while the injured girl remained torn between her beliefs and her need for relief. The next day, Xu Zhi fed a Black Fruit to the Aberration, which gained a mysterious Transformation ability, and she drew a duplicate Strength trait for Little One.

• Yu Shenwei awoke in pain and struggled between hostility toward Xu Zhi and an inexplicable sense of closeness to her.
• Xu Zhi offered to restore Yu Shenwei’s organs and urged her to listen, but Yu Shenwei continued resisting because she feared betraying her faith.
• Xu Zhi decided to keep helping Yu Shenwei through her physical and emotional suffering.
• Xiao Zhen found a Black Fruit, and Xu Zhi fed it to the Aberration while telling Huo Ze she would stay inside.
• The Aberration reached level 26 and gained the Transformation ability, which Xu Zhi learned would develop in an unknown, irreversible way.
• Xu Zhi drew a trait for Little One but received a duplicate Strength trait with no compensation.

Xu Zhi forged a Lantern using a branch from the Little Aberration and learned that its light gained different effects from different Attribute Cores. She prepared to use a high-level Lamp core to briefly explore Midnight, despite the danger.

• Xu Zhi tested the Little Aberration’s branch and discovered she could break it easily, while Narrator explained that only she could harm Aberrations so readily.
• Xu Zhi spent 50 Forge Attribute Cores and successfully forged a Lantern on her first attempt.
• Xu Zhi inspected the Lantern and learned that different Attribute Cores produced distinct effects within its light.
• Narrator told Xu Zhi to use a high-level Lamp Attribute Core to enter Midnight and warned her not to stay longer than ten minutes.
• Xu Zhi accepted the risks and planned to profit by trading with the outside world after her exploration.

Xu Zhi entered Midnight with Little Aberration and Little One, carrying a Lantern and following Narrator’s warnings. She found a strange forest where Cloud City had vanished, encountered a Black Cat that spoke into her mind, and left it unanswered.

• Xu Zhi learned that the Lantern’s light reached only one meter, so she left Doggie and Xiao Zhen at home and brought Little Aberration and Little One.
• Xu Zhi loaded ten high-tier [Lamp] Attribute Cores into the Lantern and set out after Narrator warned her not to use the Eye of Secrets, answer sounds, or stray from her path.
• Xu Zhi stepped through her door into a strange forest beneath a pale moon, and found that Cloud City had disappeared behind her.
• Xu Zhi spotted a Black Cat that moved through smoke and endured severe dizziness after looking at it.
• The Black Cat spoke into Xu Zhi’s mind, asked how she had entered Midnight, and called her delicious, while Xu Zhi stayed silent.