【Heart of the World Medal effect: Allows you to hear the heartbeats of all things, negate all stealth effects, and perceive the location of hidden objects.】
Xu Mo was stunned.
He stared at the notification that had suddenly appeared for several seconds.
Then he looked at Bai Feifei’s Sanity, which had bottomed out at zero, and then at the greyed-out, locked Sanity status bar.
“Holy shit...”
He couldn’t help but swear out loud.
Could this hidden talent actually tank a hit from an Evil God of the Old Days?
When he had used a bug to contain the Crown of Time Lag last time, he already thought Bai Feifei’s hidden talent was god-tier.
This was even more ridiculous. She had used her locked Sanity to power through a willpower trial from an Evil God and actually passed?
That was the “Real World”! Even if it was at its weakest, it was still a Great Old One level existence. Although Xu Mo had joked that it lacked prestige, that was only when comparing it to the Great Old-Timers.
He had encountered Evil Gods before. Back then, even with his strength, he had died instantly several times when he was unprepared.
“What the hell just happened? This is straight-up cheating...” Xu Mo muttered.
Then, he realized he could move.
To be precise, he had taken over Bai Feifei’s body again. Simultaneously, her voice echoed in his mind.
“Remember... what you promised me...”
Before Xu Mo could ask anything, she fell into a deep sleep, as still as if she were dead.
Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump—
As Xu Mo took control of the body, he felt Bai Feifei’s heartbeat.
It was strong, and within that rhythm, a second sound overlapped with it.
It was faint, almost imperceptible, but it was definitely there.
It was the phantom of a void-like heart. It had no physical form, yet it was truly fused with the position of Bai Feifei’s own heart, pulsing rhythmically.
“Is this... the heart of the Real World?”
Xu Mo pressed a hand to his chest, feeling that strange, wondrous throb.
He had obtained a top-tier body part this early in the game?
Bai Feifei! You are my goddess!
In the next second, a powerful surge of emotion followed the heartbeat and flooded his perception.
It wasn’t a voice or text, but a pure emotion.
It contained shock, confusion, and a hint of bewilderment.
It was as if it were saying: How the hell are there two people?!
There was no need to guess the source of this emotion; it was the Heart of the World.
Bai Feifei couldn’t have truly subdued an Evil God like the “Real World.” More likely, the “Real World” was already dead, and this was merely its lingering will.
Xu Mo’s lips curled into a wide grin.
“What’s the matter? Not happy about it?”
The heartbeat paused for a moment.
Xu Mo let out a cold laugh and patted his chest.
“Stop vibrating and let me ask you something.”
The heart ignored him—not that a heart had that kind of function anyway.
The sense of shock remained, as if it still hadn't processed the fact that there were two souls in one body.
“You’re supposed to be an Evil God of the Old Days, even if you’re low on the totem pole. How did you crumble so easily against a girl not even twenty years old?”
Xu Mo didn’t know exactly what Bai Feifei had gone through, but that didn’t stop him from rubbing it in.
“I finally caught you after you hid here for so long! But I really didn’t expect you to be such a pushover. Was it really this simple?”
The heart didn’t respond again, as if the previous emotion had just been an illusion.
Xu Mo stopped talking and opened the character panel to check the data.
【Character: Bai Feifei】
【Character Level: 32】
【Sanity: 1/100 (Locked)】
【Achievement Medals: Killing Machine, Heart of the World】
【Current Abilities: None】
【Containment Object: S-079 Crown of Time Lag】
She didn’t even gain a single level?
But that didn't matter; this was already incredible. He could feel that the heart’s power would likely need to be developed slowly.
For instance, as he controlled the body, the illusory heart began to gradually turn black.
Xu Mo could feel himself forming a link with the abnormal energy of this world. His throat felt slightly itchy, as if some words were about to burst out.
He knew that it was very likely a “Word Soul.”
He wasn't in a hurry. He stood quietly in the fleshy space, pressing his hand firmly over the spot where Bai Feifei’s heart was, feeling the phantom pulse.
His grin widened further. He didn't know if this was the heart influencing his emotions, but he had no desire to stop it.
He looked down at his hands and felt the golden crown lying quietly in his ring.
He quickly reviewed this entire experience in his mind.
He didn’t remember things being like this when he played Old Ones' Awakening before.
When had he ever received this kind of treatment back then?
At the start, almost every faction in Dawn City was against him. Wherever he went, people treated him like a madman.
He was perfectly normal, okay? He just followed a normal player’s logic: kill what needs to be killed, loot what needs to be looted, and take what needs to be taken. Those NPCs just couldn't understand him.
And the result? He got the items, but he was always being hunted, always on the run.
Getting an S-rank Containment Object usually took a massive amount of effort with his old playstyle.
But now?
In just a week, an S-rank Containment Object was in his hands.
The matter of the Black Smoke Coal Mine was resolved, and he had even obtained the heart of an Evil God!?
He knew exactly what these things represented.
With items of this caliber, what else was there to say? In Dawn City, he’d basically be the ultimate boss!
Xu Mo tilted his head back and took a deep breath.
Then, he let out a ferociously wild laugh.
“Hahahaha!”
The laughter echoed in the cavernous heart-space, causing the surrounding fleshy walls to tremble as if another earthquake were imminent.
Where his hand pressed against his heart, black patterns began to spread gradually.
“Never had such a wonderful start.”
“Here it comes.”
As he spoke, Xu Mo’s—or rather, Bai Feifei’s—eyes turned as black as ink. Strands of black air surged out from the heart.
From Xu Mo’s wide-grinning mouth, the Word Soul he had just acquired flowed out naturally.
【The dark night gave me eyes to tear through reality!】
Rate on N.U.
