Watching Wei Huan's expression, Mu Zhong felt a sudden wave of relief that the cloak hadn't "shivered in fear." Under Wei Huan's intense hostility, it hadn't displayed any humanoid personality. As a pure magical artifact, it might possess a simple spiritual consciousness, but it clearly lacked the ability to distinguish between a human being dressed or undressed; there was no soul of some lecherous old man "living" inside it.
As Wei Huan watched the cloak float submissively toward him, the cold sharpness in his eyes finally dissipated after reading its detailed description.
[Magic Cloak]
[Grants flight upon being equipped.]
[A blessing from the Stars; also the key to the Gate of the Heavens.]
"Blessing from the Stars," "Blessing from the Titans," "Blessing from the Archmage"—these phrases revealed critical information. The "Titan" blessing leaned toward melee combat, showcasing physical power. The "Archmage" blessing was clearly a buff for the magic system. Meanwhile, "The Stars" was evidently a collective term for many special lifeforms; their reach was vast, covering both melee and ranged blessings, but mostly manifesting as bizarre abilities and resources.
Notes specifying a blessing from a certain source, once confirmed by the system, tended to carry more weight and indicated the item's uniqueness. After all, even among Platinum-grade equipment, only a minority received such footnotes, and low-tier gear never had them.
With a flick of his mind, Wei Huan sent the scythe back into his private space. He grabbed the cloak, rubbing the material between his fingers. "It says it's the key to the Gate of the Heavens. Where is that?"
"No idea. Maybe the next world, or the one after that, or it might appear in the next second. But I'm certain of one thing," Mu Zhong said, moving toward Wei Huan and pulling the quilt over both of them. He looked at the cloak and continued, "It's a key. Only the person wearing it can enter that so-called Gate. Which means it'll be another adventure where the war vehicle can't follow."
Wei Huan nodded. "Indeed. It feels like we're moving from racial warfare toward individual combat. The vehicle was meant to help us survive the initial harsh environments of the Challenge World, but now that we've grown, individual adventures are becoming more frequent."
"Humanity is an individualistic civilization, the opposite of a hive mind. We are independent entities. Together, we can be strong, or we can hinder each other and become weaker—but we have infinite possibilities. Just look at you; once your individual strength reached a certain level, our race stepped out of its predicament."
Wei Huan nodded; it was a fact. His rebirth had saved humanity from the brink of collapse, and he had no intention of being falsely modest. However...
Wei Huan suddenly shook the cloak's epaulettes. The fabric unfurled like a spinning skirt and draped over Mu Zhong, automatically fastening to his shoulders. Mu Zhong felt his body become light. He wobbled for a moment before stabilizing, then looked around in surprise and laughed. "It's very dashing. Though wearing only this is a bit uncivilized."
Wei Huan stared at Mu Zhong's skin, which looked even fairer and more delicate against the cloak. As his gaze drifted downward, his eyes darkened, and black mist began to billow from his body.
"The black flames from the Thought Parasitic Beast possession are very cool. Have I mentioned that?" Mu Zhong remarked, struck by Wei Huan's appearance.
"You have." Wei Huan's hand reached for Mu Zhong's chin, his thumb rubbing the skin with agonizing slowness.
Mu Zhong tilted his head and bit Wei Huan's finger, saying muffy, "But what is this black smoke?"
"I'm taking you for a flight." With those words, Wei Huan cast his 'Magic Mist' and rose into the air, leaving the bed. Behind Mu Zhong, the cloak danced without wind, carrying him upward like a beautiful merman hooked on a line. Wei Huan hooked Mu Zhong's teeth with his finger, pulling him close, then wrapped a long arm around his lean waist and lowered his head, replacing the finger with a kiss.
---
Elder Ju waited in his room for four hours, but Wei Huan and Mu Zhong still hadn't come down. In the plaza below, many people had gathered, surrounding the crew members who had returned from the Dark Beast Plane. In such an exciting moment of shared victory, who could sleep?
An aide asked, "Elder Ju, should I go invite the two captains down?"
Elder Ju shook his head. "Let them rest. they've carried the weight of the world; we can wait as long as necessary."
---
Mu Zhong tidied his messy hair and glanced at the crumpled bed and the chaotic sofa, which bore certain "traces" that shouldn't be there. 'Was that a bit too wild?' he wondered. While they hadn't been intimate during the twenty-four days in the Dark Beast Plane, this had been intense—almost rivaling their first time. No, it had likely surpassed it.
Mu Zhong pressed his aching legs. Given their current physical stats, it was rare for him to be this exhausted. 'Wei Huan is a Summoner; even if his stamina is higher than mine, it shouldn't be to this extent, right? Did he sneak in some muscle training?'
"What is it?" Wei Huan felt Mu Zhong's gaze and looked up.
Mu Zhong ran his fingers through his damp hair and looked at the Pseudo-God chest in Wei Huan's hands. "You're really not in a hurry. If it were me, I would have opened it immediately."
Wei Huan didn't answer, but his look said: 'You're more enticing than the chest.'
Mu Zhong smiled. "It really is a God-grade item. Even a 'Pseudo' one feels different. Ordinary chests open with a touch and disappear in a flash of blinding light—it always felt a bit surreal. This one feels real, heavy. The aura lingering on the material tells a story of a powerful creature's death and the treasure it left behind."
Wei Huan was silent for a few seconds before squeezing out: "You were a very good liberal arts student."
Mu Zhong laughed and leaned against him. "Just open it. What are you studying? I'm dying of curiosity."
"As you said, the material is special—it's made from the corpse of a powerful being. It would be a shame if it vanished upon opening. I want to feel it a bit longer."
Mu Zhong touched it too. The small box felt like it might bite; his fingertips pricked with pain. "Could the material itself be Pseudo-God grade?"
"Maybe. Even long after death, it has this much pressure. I can't imagine how strong it was alive."
"Or maybe we're just too weak."
"Wei Huan." Mu Zhong turned to him. "Is this world real?"
Wei Huan looked at him, puzzled.
"The Challenge World always feels 'data-driven,'" Mu Zhong explained. "Even though the creators try to hide it, that virtual feeling persists. But this chest... it feels more real. What do you think?"
"Perhaps," Wei Huan replied. He didn't seem to care much. "Whether we are carbon-based or digital life, we are alive. The goal of the challenges and our evolution is to lead us out of the cage."
"Are you sure it's a cage? What if, once we leave, they slaughter us like cattle?"
Wei Huan stared at him in silence. Mu Zhong laughed. "Alright, I'm overthinking. You know how it is—liberal arts majors have wandering minds."
"I'm opening it," Wei Huan said.
"Just like that?"
"Just like that."
The box did not disappear. It was a physical container, and inside was a single black-covered book. Wei Huan pulled it out. It was thick, like a dictionary. The cover was pure black, but from the side, a strange shimmering light covered the surface. This light created a sense of spatial misalignment—as if the book was both there and not there. There was no title on the cover. Inside, it was filled with dense, unrecognizable characters—or perhaps mysterious runes.
"Ah!"
"Hiss!"
Mu Zhong suddenly collapsed onto the bed, clutching his eyes and screaming. Fresh blood began to seep from beneath his palms.
"What happened?" Wei Huan was horrified.
"The book... I... can't look at it," Mu Zhong hissed through the pain. "Call Xia Yu, fast!"
Wei Huan sprang from the bed, scooped Mu Zhong up, and made for the door like a whirlwind. Mu Zhong grabbed his shoulder, leaving a bloody handprint. "Put some clothes on me first!"
---
By the time Xia Yu arrived, Mu Zhong's eyes had stopped bleeding. He lay neatly on the bed, looking like his usual composed self. He had even used mental commands to have Wei Huan scrub every trace from the sofa.
"That's how it happened," Wei Huan said, his face cold with worry. "He can see again, but please check him."
Xia Yu held her hands over Mu Zhong's head. A rich light energy flowed into his eyes. Visibly, wisps of black energy were purged and vanished into the air.
"This is..." Wei Huan looked toward the book he had stowed in his private space.
"The energy that harmed Commander Mu is a very dense dark energy," Xia Yu explained. "It's different from what you usually absorb. It's more pure—close to the 'Origin.' In the Kingdom of Heaven, there are seven layers. The higher the layer, the purer the light. If I need a fist-sized amount of light at the first layer to heal him, I'd only need a finger's width at the second layer for the same effect. It's a matter of quality."
"The dark energy that hurt him is at least at the level of the fourth or fifth layer of heaven. Anyone without sufficient power or the wrong attribute would be harmed by touching it. Fortunately, he only looked and didn't 'pursue' the depth of the book, so the damage was accidental and has mostly dissipated."
Xia Yu then looked at the book Wei Huan held. Her eyes flickered with a strange light as she read aloud: "[True · Book of Death], Pseudo-God Grade. Dark Mastery +30, Nether Power +10,000, Mana Recovery +100%. A gift from the Reaper."
She snapped out of it, looking terrified. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Probing another's gear attributes was a grave breach of etiquette, especially for her captain's Pseudo-God gear.
Wei Huan didn't mind. He was focused on one word: "True."
Why "True"? If there was a "True" version, did that mean there were "False" ones? Was everything else they had obtained—rewards, gear, resources—actually "false"? Mu Zhong's "virtualization" theory flashed through his mind again. But as he had told Mu Zhong, he didn't care about his life-form. What mattered was his autonomy. Every "True" item brought him one step closer to the ultimate truth.
The stats were staggering. 30 points of Dark Mastery? He had collected three fragments of the Ring of Morfidi, and they only gave him 3 points total. This book gave 30.
Name: Wei Huan (Artifacts +75% all stats, Title +25%, Badge +10%)
Class: Gatekeeper of the Nether (Sequence 5)
Mana: 28,300
Mana Recovery: 230%
Dark Mastery: +33
Summon Count: 130,000+
With nearly 30,000 Mana and a 230% recovery rate, his passive regeneration almost equaled his consumption in a normal battle. He had truly reached the pinnacle of humanity.
However, his eyes fell on his "Special Status" list.
Special Status:
1. Dark Energy Acceleration...
2. Hunted by Mofidi...
3. Being watched by Him…
4. Being watched by Him...
5. Being watched by Him...
6. Being watched by Him...
Four different entities were now watching him. It seemed the 'Book of Death' had drawn significant attention. 'Not that it matters,' he thought. 'I'm already being hunted by a god-tier beast. What's a few more debts?'
The [True · Book of Death] now floated above his left shoulder, occupying the "off-hand" slot. The Ring of Morfidi (the scythe) sat on his back. Surprisingly, the usually dominant scythe made no move to contest the book, hanging quietly as if in awe of it.
Mu Zhong looked at Wei Huan's stats and sighed, leaning back. "You're becoming less and less human. That endurance is ridiculous... I really need to keep up."