Chapter 357: Arrival
When she picked up the game console, the pitch-black screen suddenly lit up.
A pixelated moth appeared on the screen. Its wings fluttered only once before the display abruptly turned into garbled code—then just as quickly returned to normal.
A line of white text on a black pixel background appeared.
[You seem very tired.]
The girl lounging on the sofa chuckled lightly when she saw the words.
“Seems so.”
She replied.
[You can rest here a while longer.]
“What happens if I rest a while longer?”
Xu Zhi asked.
[Nothing will happen.]
[You should take a shower and change your clothes.]
“Mm… forget it. I’ll just get soaked again once I go out.”
Xu Zhi let out a small sigh.
The console seemed to fall silent for a moment.
[You’re not the type who enjoys hardship. You’re already exhausted. If you leave and keep going, you’ll only get more tired.]
Leaning back against the sofa, her legs stretched out casually, Xu Zhi held the console in one hand and propped her cheek with the other. “Then what am I supposed to do?”
“Stay here? What’s the point of staying?”
[You can still succeed in your advancement by staying here.]
“Don’t believe it.”
Xu Zhi shot back immediately.
[.]
[I’m not deceiving you. Having reached this point, you’ve already completed your advancement. You only need to wait for the dream to fade, and you’ll achieve Naming. There’s no need to risk going further.]
Xu Zhi gave the same response.
“Don’t believe it.”
Seeing how firm she was, the console stopped urging her to rest and instead asked:
[Aren’t you angry?]
“Angry?”
Xu Zhi repeated the word, then gave an indifferent smile. “What’s there to be angry about?”
She was perfectly aware that she was inside a dream and could distinguish between what was real and what was false.
Besides, not everything here was entirely false.
[That’s not like the you from before.]
“True enough.” Xu Zhi nodded seriously.
If it were her younger, more impulsive self, the first thing she’d probably do would be to smash this console instead of calmly chatting with it.
[Are you really going out?]
“What, is there some reason I absolutely have to stay?”
Xu Zhi asked in return.
[The road outside won’t be easy. You won’t be able to take anything with you anymore. You’ll have to face it on your own.]
It was clearly referring to the fact that she wouldn’t even be able to bring the Lamp. But Xu Zhi raised an eyebrow in surprise. “If I can’t take anything, then why did you tell me to shower and change clothes?”
“That’s just mean.”
[.]
[.That’s not what I meant—the clothes you can still wear!]
Seeing this line, Xu Zhi suddenly burst out laughing.
[Stop joking around.]
[If you’re leaving, then go now.]
“Mm, alright.”
Xu Zhi nodded and made as if to toss the console back onto the coffee table. But at that moment, another line of text rapidly appeared on the screen.
[If I say I have a way for you to take me with you—I mean, take me out of here, out of the Great Dream.]
Xu Zhi’s fingers paused. Then, with a sharp motion, she tossed the console back onto the table.
“Don’t believe it.”
[.]
[Alright then.]
The other side seemed completely out of things to say.
As Xu Zhi struggled to get up from the sofa, another line appeared on the old screen.
[Good luck, Xu Zhi.]
After reading it, she headed straight for the door without looking back. “Of course. I’ve always had good luck.”
She saw the footprints she had left on the floor when she came in—heavy and sluggish, just like her body now, which hadn’t recovered at all despite the brief rest.
Of course there was no recovery. This was never a place meant for rest.
Xu Zhi’s mind was clear. She knew the moth that flashed across the screen at the beginning had been a warning, and the fact that she hadn’t regained any strength despite sitting here so long was proof.
After entering the room, only her mind had grown attached to this sense of comfort. Her will had softened along with the plush sofa. Once she sat down, getting up again and opening that door to face the wind and rain once more had become exceedingly difficult.
But Xu Zhi did not cling to this false comfort.
Only when she grasped the doorknob did she hesitate for a brief moment. The next instant, she pushed the door open firmly and stepped out, continuing her journey.
When the door opened, what lay outside was not a hallway, but the mist-shrouded forest once again.
She was no longer standing in front of the hut—she had already passed through it. With just one more step, she would enter a completely new place she had never reached before.
Xu Zhi did not hesitate. She stepped forward decisively. Her decisiveness had already reached a near-mad level—without the slightest hesitation or regret, never wavering. This was not a mindset an ordinary person could possess.
The new path was not easy to walk.
The extraordinary energy she had never exhausted before now surged wildly. With each step, it seemed the forest drained a portion of it away.
That extraordinary energy had become like currency, buying her each step she could take along this road.
And whenever her steps slowed even slightly from fatigue, the ground beneath her would turn into a swamp, dragging her body downward. She had to take the next step immediately to break free.
Moreover, the price she paid differed from others—she had to expend both [Moth] and [Lamp] to move forward.
By the time the extraordinary energy within her was gradually depleted, she had advanced less than a hundred steps along this new path.
Xu Zhi felt dissatisfied. But her energy was already exhausted. It was as if an invisible wall had suddenly appeared before her, blocking her from moving forward.
The ground beneath her feet began to soften, pulling her body downward.
Xu Zhi frowned. She didn’t like this feeling—this helplessness, this passive waiting for an outcome. Nor did she like being dragged down by something unseen.
So she began to struggle.
She tried to force her legs forward again and again, pulling them out of the mire each time they sank in. She kept striking at the invisible barrier before her. Blood began to flow from the points of impact, yet Xu Zhi felt no pain.
Her strength was being overdrawn, her movements sustained purely by will. When she reached a critical threshold, her vision went black. She nearly lost consciousness—but at the very moment she was about to faint, she shook her head violently, forcing her fragile awareness back.
It was this almost stubborn act that made her seem to hear something shatter.
Half her body was already buried in the mud. Yet she used the very last of her strength, overexerting herself to climb upward, dragging herself out of the mire. Her body could no longer stand upright; she could only roll sideways in the direction she intended to go—
And then, she completely ran out of strength.
But it was that single motion that allowed her to break through the invisible restriction and shackles, reaching a place she should never have been able to reach.
A thunderclap exploded across the sky.
A silver-white bolt of lightning, carrying a powerful and mysterious aura, descended from above and struck Xu Zhi directly. In that instant, her vision was overwhelmed by blinding light—she almost felt as though she had gone blind again—followed by intense pain and the sensation of her mind being split open, something forcibly crammed inside.
No-prize guess: what will Xu Zhi’s “Name” be?
