Chapter 23: “Do You Want to Join Us?”
At 5 a.m., after assigning tasks to her two Familiars, Xu Zhi once again opened her inventory and clicked on the stack of [Cup] attribute cores. A selection screen popped up.
[Would you like a brief overview of this attribute?]
Xu Zhi clicked “Yes,” and soon, knowledge about the [Cup] attribute appeared on the screen.
[Cup: The Principle of Fertility and Feasting]
[It encompasses sensory desire, reproduction, temptation, pain, blood, and craving. Its focus lies in the satisfaction of desire, thus giving rise to thirst, hunger, and similar impulses. It often embodies inhumane aspirations and irresistible allure, sometimes veering toward greed, intoxication, dizzying fragrances, and mental pleasure.]
“…Doesn’t sound like anything good.”
Compared to the chaos and self-centeredness of [Moth], [Cup] seemed even more frenzied and malevolent.
After reading the brief overview, Xu Zhi had some understanding of why those cultists behaved the way they did. They were merely prisoners of their desires, unable to suppress the influence of [Cup], reduced to mindless husks.
As for the rational man with glasses, he too was a [Cup] familiar, but he had better self-control, not wholly consumed by desire. Still, his actions clearly centered around satisfying the cravings in his heart.
“But it seems like those with the Cup attribute are somewhat different from others…”
Xu Zhi hadn’t yet met many other ability-users, but from what she’d seen so far, at least other attributes didn’t manifest with such obvious external signs, nor did they naturally gather together like [Cup] familiars did.
Whether there were similar hierarchies or “group consciousness” among others remained to be seen—Xu Zhi figured she’d need to encounter more ability-users to know for sure.
One thing she did know: she had no intention of submitting to anyone more powerful than herself.
The more she learned, the more Xu Zhi realized how little she actually knew—and the more curious she became. Clearly, she still had a long road ahead when it came to understanding ability-user powers.
“Hopefully I’ll run into some living abilities this time.”
With that thought, Xu Zhi opened the Spirit Body interface and dropped four [Cup] cores into the coin slot, then clicked Confirm.
[You have inserted: 4 Cores]
[Spirit Body duration: 20 minutes]
[Randomly generating attributes…]
[Generation complete]
[Spirit Body
Spirit: 200
Body: 100
Traits: Bloodthirst Lv2, Craving Lv3]
Xu Zhi frowned at the unexpected stats—200 Spirit from just 4 cores?
And it even came with two traits. She recognized [Bloodthirst], but [Craving] gave her a very bad feeling.
Still, there was no turning back now—the game never gave her a chance to regret.
[Searching for random drop location…]
[Drop successful.]
In the next instant, Xu Zhi’s vision went black. She knew that when she opened her eyes again, she would be inside the Spirit Body.
She didn’t act immediately. Instead, she first tried to sense her surroundings—sounds, temperature, anything—but nothing came through. Apparently, she couldn’t “cheat” that way.
Left with no other choice, she opened her eyes and fully embodied the Spirit Body.
During her two seconds of invincibility, Xu Zhi quickly scanned her surroundings. Thankfully, this time she wasn’t dumped somewhere extremely dangerous.
She was in a narrow alley, shrouded in dense fog, though her vision remained surprisingly sharp—much sharper than in her real body.
In addition to the visual clarity, Xu Zhi felt a vague, persistent restlessness stirring in her thoughts. She wanted to do something—but didn’t know what. She just had a strong sense that she shouldn’t be standing still.
This inexplicable agitation left her uneasy. Fortunately, her long-term illness had taught her how to suppress her emotions, so she was able to forcefully bury that restlessness and keep it from affecting her.
“Is this the influence of the Cup?”
That was the only logical explanation.
She could now somewhat understand those cultists. Maybe their minds were overwhelmed by stronger, uncontrollable impulses—rendering them impulsive, irritable, and incapable of rational thought.
Not staying idle, Xu Zhi began walking once she’d suppressed the feeling.
She had no idea where she was—Cloud City was big, with plenty of places unfamiliar to her.
Xu Zhi picked a direction and began searching the ground for black fruits. She didn’t bother hiding her tracks. After all, this body only lasted 20 minutes—being too cautious would just slow her down. And besides, she wanted to test if anyone would notice her.
The 100 points in Body seemed to be just a base level. Xu Zhi felt this body was much freer than her real one—like the shackles once binding her were gone. But beyond that, it wasn’t particularly strong. It lacked power, defense, and stamina—probably no better than a slightly frail, sedentary person.
Like someone who would struggle climbing five flights of stairs.
Since the black fog’s arrival, Xu Zhi’s luck had generally been good—aside from being abandoned by her family. Though now, she no longer saw that as a matter of bad luck.
And her luck seemed to hold—less than 10 minutes in, she encountered other survivors.
Or rather, they found her. It was likely they’d been watching her for a while, confirming she wasn’t a cultist before revealing themselves.
The person was cautious—they didn’t rush up, but called out from a distance:
“Hey, you there—can you hear me?”
One of Xu Zhi’s goals was to see what other ability-users were like in the city. Naturally, she replied. The fact that this person didn’t charge at her and kept a safe distance was enough proof that they weren’t some deranged cultist.
Xu Zhi answered that she could hear, and stayed where she was—this was just a Spirit Body with no harvest yet, so she felt no pressure and didn’t mind showing friendliness.
What surprised her was what happened next. After a brief pause—perhaps after discussing something—the person asked her a very familiar question:
“Are you alone? Do you want to join us?”
“…Huh?”
Xu Zhi blinked in confusion at the question.
From the other side, a voice came through—sounding like someone getting scolded. Probably the one who asked the question was being reprimanded by their teammate.
Then came a slightly steadier, middle-aged male voice:
“Sorry about that. She can be a little reckless.”
Xu Zhi paused. “Uh… it’s no big deal.”
“But are we really going to just keep shouting like this?”
Shouting back and forth like this felt… kind of weird, honestly.
Isn’t it [Chalice] instead of [Cup]?