Chapter 125: The Vanishing Midnight
Ever since discovering that the arcade machine was under maintenance, countless possibilities swirled through Xu Zhi’s mind.
Some were bad. Some were good.
The bad: maybe the arcade machine was finally revealing its true nature — that it had lured her into the city center on purpose, that it too coveted the “treasure.”
The good: perhaps it was genuinely undergoing maintenance, or had a reason it had to maintain itself — but wouldn’t harm her.
Xu Zhi didn’t know which to believe. Good or bad, it was unclear. But regardless, her familiars were acting normal, and the cloak hadn’t failed. If she wanted to, she could leave the city center immediately.
But Xu Zhi chose to stay.
At this point, she wanted to see what would happen after the treasure appeared. Would the arcade machine still continue its “maintenance”? Would something change? Would it… reveal its true purpose?
Everything had started with this arcade machine. Now, it felt like the perfect opportunity to discern its true allegiance. Even though it had always helped her and she trusted it, deep down, its secrecy and unknown origin had always cast a shadow in her heart.
Rational thoughts raced through Xu Zhi’s mind — she should leave immediately, initiate her backup plan, stop taking risks. This place was clearly too dangerous, and she was very likely to die.
But what if she left and the machine stayed in maintenance indefinitely?
Round and round her thoughts spun, until finally, the girl’s grey eyes — symbols of her [Moth] attribute — flickered with determination.
She chose to stay. And to fight for it.
Taking risks? That was nothing new. She should have died long ago — every day she’d lived past that was already a miracle. If she feared danger, if she could do nothing without the help of this mysterious “cheat code,” then she had no reason to go on living.
She could trust the arcade machine, draw knowledge and power — even shortcuts — from it. But she must also be able to walk on her own.
Decision made, Xu Zhi put the now-decorative arcade machine back into her jacket pocket and tested whether the storage function still worked.
As expected, the storage was disabled too.
Fortunately, she had the habit of keeping a few [Moth] attribute cores on her — just in case. Now, aside from her familiar and about twenty such cores, she had no other supplies.
But for the moment, those would suffice.
Once her thoughts were settled, the time reached midnight — the threshold of darkness.
But—The moon rose.
Xu Zhi almost uncontrollably walked to the window, eyes wide as she stared out at the full moon.
So close. So close. It hung directly above the city square.
Bright and clear — yet it looked like a reflection on water, shimmering with unreal ripples.
“…How?”
Xu Zhi couldn’t make sense of it.
Was what she was seeing even real?
Silver moonlight bathed everything. The mutated creatures in the square soaked in the glow, staring hungrily at the moon — yet none moved, none attempted to snatch it down.
Her Little Aberration crawled out of her pocket, tugging urgently at her sleeve — urging her to step outside and bask in the moonlight too.
Xu Zhi hesitated for a moment, unsure whether to obey. But not for long. Lips pressed together, she walked to the door, gripping the handle tightly. Her pale knuckles and tensed fingers betrayed the unease in her heart — but she opened the door anyway.
Since entering the city center, everything had changed. Even the machine she trusted had become unstable. So now, she had to trust her own judgment.
She believed — midnight had vanished.
No, perhaps it hadn’t vanished… it simply had never come. What had appeared here, was this dreamlike full moon.
Creak — the door opened.
Xu Zhi had used a bit too much strength, and the sound was loud — but it didn’t disturb the moonlit creatures at all. They didn’t move. Not even a twitch.
“Just as I thought…”
Beyond the door lay exactly what she’d seen from the window.
The moon. And the monsters gazing up at it, obsessed and greedy.
This moon was nothing like the dead, pale, lifeless moon of the true midnight. This one — suspended above the plaza — was bright, serene, even comforting.
As the moonlight pierced the mist and fell upon Xu Zhi, she felt the strange energy she had absorbed during the day now flowing steadily from the moon into her body — like a fine, glowing thread.
“Damn. How is this even real?”
No wonder the monsters wouldn’t leave this place!
But… despite their obvious longing for the moon, none of them tried to approach or seize it. Xu Zhi didn’t believe it was because they were “humble.” After watching closely for a while, she realized — this moon didn’t seem real.
It felt more like a projection.
Yet even a projection could radiate such massive power — how powerful must the real thing be?
Her little creature had fully emerged from her pocket now, standing on her shoulder, drinking in the moonlight. Its golden patterns glowed faintly with each breath.
But the moon’s projection didn’t last long — around half an hour later, it began to blur and finally vanished into the air.
Xu Zhi returned to her room afterward. She focused inward — in just ten minutes of standing in the moonlight (not even at the closest point), she had absorbed as much transcendental energy as she usually gained from consuming thirty high-grade [Moth] attribute cores.
If the Federation found out about this? They’d probably go mad with envy.
In the following days, Xu Zhi saw the same full moon appear each midnight.
But over those days of observation, she finally understood why the narrator had told her to act “as soon as possible.”
The moon… was sinking.
The first night she saw it, it hovered twenty meters above the plaza. Three days later, it had dropped ten meters.
Another two or three days, and it would touch the ground.
What would happen then?
And the closer the moon came to the ground, the more energy it released.
The nearer, the greater the gain — this was now confirmed.
Knowing that these monsters didn’t normally feast like this every night, Xu Zhi felt oddly reassured.
Time passed quickly. Two more days went by. The next midnight, the moon would finally touch the earth.
Xu Zhi could no longer suppress her urge — before the night arrived, she quietly slipped into the frontmost circle of monsters.
She should have just made the monsters fight each other by troll attacking them