Late-Night Snack, Mo Chou's Monologue

The finest ingredients often needed only the simplest preparation.

Mo Zhen's cooking was far from top-notch, but he was pretty good at making home-style meals.

Even before their mother passed away, he had often helped her in the kitchen. He knew a little of everything, from washing vegetables to picking them over.

After their mother was gone, Mo Zhen and Bai Zhixia were the only ones in the family who could cook. Whenever they were busy or came down with a fever or some other illness,

everyone else could only order takeout or make do with instant noodles. They were so bad at cooking that even frying an egg turned into a fight with the oil because they hadn't dried the water out of the pan.

By the time Mo Xiaochuan led Bai Xiaoxiao downstairs, Mo Zhen had already reheated the beef he had stewed earlier.

Each of the three bowls of noodles was topped with a golden fried egg, its yolk glistening and perfectly runny.

Paired with the tender tomato and beef soup he had stewed in advance, it made a perfect late-night snack to soothe the soul and ease away fatigue.

"Finished your baths?"

Hearing them come downstairs, Mo Zhen divided the beef from the pot evenly among the bowls and carried them to the table without looking up.

"Go ahead and eat. I'll wash the pot."

People who cooked often liked to wash the pot as soon as they finished cooking, while it was still hot. Otherwise, it was harder to clean once it cooled.

"Long live big brother!"

Mo Xiaochuan couldn't wait any longer. He had been starving for ages, and he picked up his chopsticks and took a big bite of fried egg.

Bai Xiaoxiao, on the other hand, didn't touch her chopsticks. Her gaze remained fixed on her older brother's back, a lingering look in her eyes.

Only after Mo Zhen had scrubbed the pot, wiped down the stove and sat down to eat did she ask, pretending to be casual:

"Your eyes... Xiaochuan told me."

"It's just a little effect of Compound Nine. It doesn't count as a side effect." Mo Zhen leisurely took a spoonful of noodle soup.

"In fact, thanks to it, I don't even need glasses anymore, so don't worry about me."

"I... I wasn't worried about you!" Bai Xiaoxiao's ears turned red as she vehemently denied it.

She immediately lowered her head and ate her noodles in small bites. Before long, she had finished every last noodle and only then began to drink the beef soup.

She had a little habit when she ate: she liked to save the tastiest things for last, like the tender tomato and beef soup in this bowl.

Mo Zhen took advantage of this brief time together to look at Bai Xiaoxiao's personal panel.

[Name: Bai Xiaoxiao.]

[Second identity: Magical Girl Morning Star.]

[Affection: "??"]

[Danger level: E+ rank.]

[Strength: E+ rank.]

[Speed: E+ rank.]

[Defense: E+ rank.]

[Magic power: E+ rank.]

[Charm: A+ rank.]

[Ability: Magic Cursed Technique (unknown, awaiting awakening).]

In the vast majority of cases, every magical girl had only one Magic Cursed Technique. It was either a Magic Crest secretly passed down in a magical family or an innate ability.

But compared to those things,

Mo Zhen was more concerned about Bai Xiaoxiao's affection for him. Why was it marked with question marks, "??"? Could there be something else behind it?

After they had eaten their fill, Mo Zhen was clearing away the bowls and chopsticks when Bai Xiaoxiao suddenly came over without a word.

She picked them up. "It's my turn to wash the dishes today."

With that, she turned and carried the bowls to the sink, put on gloves and an apron, stepped onto a little stool, and began scrubbing the dishes with the utmost seriousness, working up a lather.

Mo Zhen said nothing at the sight. He turned and went back upstairs to wash up and rest.

A lot had happened today, and he was tired.

Lying in bed, Mo Zhen found it hard to imagine that a day ago he had still been an ordinary person, and now he had become a... magical girl.

But there was nothing he could do about it. After all, the Raising System was from a game he had made himself.

He gently closed his eyes and let his consciousness sink into the Domain of the Heart.

To make practicing more convenient, Mo Zhen would transform directly into witch form after entering the Domain of the Heart, switching to the identity of "Magical Girl Hell."

The diligent witch began watering and fertilizing the Tree of Calamity in her domain.

The fertilizer was, naturally, the Grief Seed obtained from the Frenzied Dancing Witch incident.

After she buried it beneath the tree, her Tree of Calamity grew several centimeters taller at a speed visible to the naked eye.

[The Tree of Calamity belonging to the cutest, cutest, cutest witch in the entire universe.]

[Growth index: 50 points.]

[When the Tree of Calamity's growth index reaches 100 points, it will enter the next stage, and your soul will be strong enough to accommodate a second villain ability.]

In plain English: unlock a second skill slot.

Standing nearby, Mo Zhen rubbed her chin. Out of habit as a developer, she really wanted to type on a keyboard and bring up the backend to take a look, but she couldn't.

It was a terrible feeling.

"...Forget it. This is already pretty good." She gently tucked a strand of long gray hair behind her ear and stroked the sapling's trunk.

After all, the game code hadn't even been finished before she was reborn. It had been a half-finished product, so it was only natural for changes to appear now that the system had completed itself.

As veteran programmers liked to say, if the code runs, that's good enough. Don't go messing with it.

So she had better not mess around with it now. If she crashed the system, the loss really wouldn't be worth it.

It was the only thing she had to rely on.

Three in the morning.

After brushing her teeth, Bai Xiaoxiao also got into bed and took out her phone to set an alarm, so she wouldn't oversleep and miss school the next morning.

Mo Xiaochuan, meanwhile, had long been fast asleep in his room.

Three thirty in the morning.

A man in a silver-gray battle suit descended from the sky, landing softly in the family's backyard, his cape swaying gently behind him.

He pressed a button on his wristwatch, and his nano battle suit was automatically stored inside it.

The man touched the watch face, a hint of nostalgia and affection in his eyes. His wife had picked out this old watch for him.

After returning to the house, Mo Chou was passing through the living room when he noticed that the dining room's pendant light was still on. A note lay quietly on top of a food container.

Mo Chou picked up the note. The neat handwriting on it was Mo Zhen's, and it looked a lot like his mother Bai Qiushi's.

"There's beef soup and noodles in the container."

At the sight, Mo Chou's expression softened a little. He sat down silently, opened the insulated container, and ate every last bit of the noodles and beef.

The noodles had gone a little soggy, but to Mo Chou, they tasted better than any delicacy.

He actually knew why Mo Zhen had secretly injected himself with Compound Nine. As such, what he felt was less blame than guilt.

Mo Chou knew that Mo Zhen had been strong-willed since he was little. But if possible, he also hoped Mo Zhen would talk to him more, or act spoiled with him like other children on Earth.

After all, Mo Zhen was still just a child, while he was his father.

Yet even now, Mo Chou still couldn't get past an obstacle in his heart. It concerned his greatest secret,

the secret that caused him the most pain.

Though he was publicly known as a superhero, codenamed "Beyonder," Mo Chou was not an Earthling.

He came from a planet that took pride in conquest and war: the Huotexium Empire.

One hundred and twenty years ago, before Mo Chou arrived on Earth, the grand marshal of the Huo Star Empire had entrusted him with an important mission.

His mission was to have children on Earth, infiltrate and observe Earth's defense systems, and finally, when the Huotexium Empire's fleet arrived...

work with them from within to completely conquer this race with such potential, born with super factors just like them!

After that, the Huotexium Empire would rise again, and the entire universe would burn and boil because of them!

And tremble in fear of them!

The empire's orders had long been stamped indelibly into Mo Chou's mind, and after arriving on Earth, he had indeed carried them out.

To make it easier to test the differences between the upper and lower limits of Earthlings, he had also adopted two human children, Mo Jin'an and Bai Zhixia, one after the other.

But as it happened, Mo Chou himself was the one who went astray.

He truly fell in love with his human wife, Bai Qiushi.

And in the very end, Bai Qiushi died because of him.

Yes, Mo Chou was certain that Bai Qiushi had died because of him.

He believed the empire might have sent more than one Huo Star native to Earth as an infiltrator.

So after the empire noticed that something was wrong with him, they chose to get rid of Bai Qiushi as a warning that he must remain loyal to the empire forever.

It was because of this that Mo Chou didn't dare truly face his children. He felt that he had caused Bai Qiushi's death and failed to protect her.

He had failed his children.

Lost in thought, Mo Chou found himself outside Mo Zhen's room. He took a deep breath and gently pushed the door open.

Inside, the boy lay on his side beneath the covers, fast asleep.

Mo Chou raised a hand and gently stroked his head. Feeling the warmth against his palm, he was filled with complicated feelings and heartache.

After a while, he tucked Mo Zhen's blanket around him, turned, and left.

The next morning:

When Mo Zhen got up, Bai Xiaoxiao and Mo Xiaochuan were still sound asleep in bed.

Hair a mess and yawning, he washed up and went downstairs to make breakfast for the family.

To his surprise, Mo Chou was already up. He stood in the kitchen with a copy of "Family Breakfast," staring at his watch and earnestly timing the eggs he was boiling.

"Uh... Dad, our stove actually has a timer. Just set it for ten minutes to boil the eggs. You don't need to keep watching it."

Mo Zhen reminded him.

Hearing this, Mo Chou awkwardly put down the book. "Really? I never knew."

"They look about done. You can take them out now."

Mo Zhen reminded him.

He went over to the water dispenser to get himself some water.

Mo Chou looked around but couldn't find anything to fish the eggs out with. So he raised his hand and, moving at extreme speed, plucked the eggs from the scalding water and placed them in a bowl without a change of expression.

By the time Mo Zhen had finished getting his water, Mo Chou had turned off the stove. "I'll go wake Xiaoxiao and the others."

He turned and went upstairs.

Outside Mo Xiaochuan's room, Mo Chou knocked on the door.

Mo Xiaochuan's sleepy voice came from inside. "Let me sleep a little longer, big brother..."

"It's me."

Mo Chou had barely spoken

when Mo Xiaochuan immediately sat up in bed. "I'm getting up right now!"

Mo Chou then went to Bai Xiaoxiao's room. She was also lying in bed, and only after he knocked three times did the little one's groggy voice come from inside.

"Mmm... I'm waking up."