Chapter 25: [The Game Is Upgrading]
After finishing her conversation with Yan Songlin, Xu Zhi didn’t have much time left. She wasn’t sure whether her spirit vessel would vanish or become a corpse once her consciousness left it, but she certainly didn’t want to “log off” in front of those two.
So, she said her goodbyes and quickly found an empty house to hide in, waiting for the spirit vessel’s time to run out.
Her last experience with a spirit vessel had ended abruptly, so she didn’t know what it felt like when the time expired naturally. Now she finally knew: it was like her soul being pulled away. Her consciousness flickered briefly, and just before returning to her original body, she saw the vessel dissolve into ash, burned away by invisible fire.
“…So that’s how it works.”
The next moment, her awareness returned to her body.
Xu Zhi opened her eyes, once again feeling the “heaviness” of her real body—but her mind was sharper than ever. The constant, inexplicable agitation was gone, and her thoughts seemed faster and clearer.
If she had to choose, she preferred this state.
Checking the time, it was still not yet 6 a.m., so she picked up her game device with anticipation, eager to see whether her two familiars had found anything.
Sure enough, she soon saw Gouzi suddenly stop in place, sniffing the air like it had picked up a scent. Then, as if going mad, it dashed southeast. At a narrow corner surrounded by trash, Gouzi shoved aside the debris and uncovered a “treasure.”
It was a roughly one-meter-tall, bush-like black plant. Calling it a plant wasn’t quite right—it looked lifeless. The branches were entirely black, like stone, with no leaves. A few small black fruits were sparsely growing on its many twisted limbs.
Xu Zhi did a rough count: four fruits.
[Unbelievable.]
[Your luck really isn’t like that of an ordinary person—astonishing.]
[Maybe luck is one of your innate talents.]
The narrator issued three consecutive lines of awe, highlighting how rare Gouzi’s find was.
Xu Zhi had Gouzi pluck the four fruits. As the last one was picked, the entire “shrub” crumbled like stone and vanished into the soil.
Suddenly, a thought struck Xu Zhi.
If the weakest branches only bore a single fruit, and this bush bore four, could there be black trees out there?
And how many fruits would those bear?
She still didn’t know exactly what these fruits were, but she had her suspicions.
She had never seen these fruits during the day—only at dawn, just after midnight had passed. That’s when, according to the narrator, the powers scattered across reality returned to the void. That’s when she could find black fruits.
These fruits contained immense energy, so Xu Zhi guessed they were related to the incomprehensible things that appeared at midnight—perhaps remnants of their presence. And since they disappeared after some time, they could only be harvested at dawn.
Of course, it was all just speculation. While she felt 80% confident she was right, the current world was far too unpredictable for her to be sure of anything.
Over the next hour, her two familiars didn’t find anything else, but Xu Zhi was already satisfied with the four fruits.
After recalling Yi and Gouzi, she didn’t send them back out right away. She was about to try something bold.
With her familiars at her side, Xu Zhi felt safer. She told them, “Stay close. Don’t wander.”
Then, she took one of the black fruits from her inventory, and without hesitation, ate it.
It had almost no flavor—like a tasteless blueberry.
But the moment she swallowed it, a searing heat erupted inside her body. Her vision doubled, and a faint noise like flapping wings echoed in her ears.
In the distance, it seemed like a candlelight appeared. Moths from her visions crossed into reality, and Xu Zhi could no longer tell what was real and what was illusion. She felt as if she was one of those moths, drawn to throw herself into the flame once more.
It wasn’t an illusion—she could feel her body burning.
But she hadn’t even touched the distant flame.
In her dazed state, Xu Zhi suddenly wondered: Do moths reborn from fire?
She shook her head and muttered like someone unhinged, “No…”
Only phoenixes are reborn from fire. Moths just burn and die.
And she wasn’t a phoenix—she was just a moth.
Caught in this delusion, Xu Zhi became increasingly convinced that she was a moth, destined to sacrifice herself in the flames.
Something felt wrong.
“Woof! Woof!”
Two barks rang out like bells in her ears. The moths around her seemed to blur, and Xu Zhi’s mind began to return. She started questioning her identity.
“I haven’t even reached the flame—why is it so hot?”
“Am I really a moth? Why haven’t I flown? Where are my wings?”
Xu Zhi’s mind seemed broken, her thoughts spiraling in strange directions.
But when her scrambled brain linked those questions together, and she felt the pain of being burned, she suddenly understood.
And she spoke with certainty:
“I’m not the moth.”
“I’m the burning flame.”
However bizarre her reasoning, the moment she said it, everything around her seemed to freeze. Her sense of self rapidly returned, and she fully regained clarity.
The burning sensation faded. Xu Zhi realized her memory was fuzzy—she couldn’t quite recall what had happened between eating the fruit and waking up.
She vaguely remembered nearly losing control—and that it was Gouzi’s barking that pulled her back.
…That’s probably how it went, right?
Either way, the Gouzi had saved the day. He deserved a good treat.
Xu Zhi picked up her game device, planning to take out the remaining black fruits and share them with Yi and Gouzi—but to her surprise, new text appeared on the screen:
[The game is upgrading]
[Estimated time remaining: 2 hours]
“…The game can upgrade?”
Xu Zhi stared in astonishment.
This game can upgrade???
“But why did it suddenly start upgrading?”
