Chapter Summaries

As the Tree Spirit Prime Star Self-Defense Corps approached, Kaza panicked at the enemy’s powerful BUFFs and fled into Greenleaf Military Base’s sewers to save himself. The countdown ended with the Challengers in chaos after discovering their commander had vanished.

• Kaza judged the Green Vine Civilization too powerful to fight and admitted that he feared dying.
• Kaza decided to hide in the sewers, hoping to survive the Instance and reduce any Star Yuan penalty.
• Divine Firmament finished explaining the enemy BUFFs as the arrival countdown neared its end.
• The Challengers cheered and took up defensive positions, confident in Kaza and their military equipment.
• Kaza’s subordinate discovered he was missing, and the Challengers began searching for their commander.
• The countdown ended as the Tree Spirit Prime Star army approached and Greenleaf Military Base descended into confusion.

The Tree Spirit Prime Star Self-Defense Corps appeared outside Greenleaf Military Base as giant plant bases produced troops, tanks, and aircraft. The Challengers faced a force as numerous as their own and began to panic.

• The Tree Spirit Clan's growable temporary bases sprang up five kilometers from Greenleaf Military Base, and the corps completed its transfer.
• Tree Spirit warriors changed forms and organized into giant warriors, shield troops, machine-gun assault troops, and ranged spore throwers.
• Plant-based adaptive land vehicles and Greenwing aircraft poured from the bases, matching the Challengers' forces in number.
• Divine Firmament transmitted information about the plant vehicles and aircraft, which could adapt their combat states to the environment.
• The two million Challengers saw the Tree Spirit Clan's forces and began to panic.

The Tree Spirit Self-Defense Legion launched its first all-out assault on Greenleaf Military Base, and its plant shells devastated the Challengers while corrosive soil consumed their wreckage and strengthened Tree Spirit Planet. The Challengers rallied without Commander Kaza and counterattacked, but their weapons barely harmed the Tree Spirit forces as the shootout intensified.

• The Tree Spirit Legion attacked Greenleaf Military Base with pollen shells and powerful light rays, destroying Challengers' tanks and fighter jets and killing nearby Challengers.
• Divine Firmament explained that corrosive soil decomposed energy-depleted matter and sent part of it through the plant upgrade network to strengthen Tree Spirit Planet.
• The Challengers panicked and retreated, then urged each other to fight despite Commander Kaza's absence and the threat of being erased if they failed the Instance.
• The Challengers from Libya mounted a counterattack with upgraded tanks and fighter jets, charging the Tree Spirit Legion for Azure Star and their survival.
• The Tree Spirit Legion's weapons cut through the Challengers' equipment, while Challenger shells mostly failed to reach or damage the Tree Spirit forces, whose warriors healed quickly.

The Challengers’ Kaza Military Ordnance malfunctioned and self-destructed before they could damage the Tree Spirit Legion, killing hundreds of thousands of their own people. The surviving Challengers fled toward the military base as the Tree Spirit Self-Defense Legion began its one-sided slaughter, while arena spectators mocked Azure Star’s weapons.

• The Challengers’ attacks barely affected the Tree Spirit Infantry and vehicles, so they frantically pressed the controls on Kaza Military Ordnance.
• The weapons’ panels sparked, tanks exploded in succession, and fighter jets crashed or flew out of control, devastating the Challengers’ positions.
• The Challenger population fell by about 500,000, and Divine Firmament warned them against suicidal behavior.
• The surviving Challengers blamed their lack of experience operating Kaza’s weapons and fled from the remaining equipment toward the military base.
• The Tree Spirit Self-Defense Legion began slaughtering the retreating Challengers as arena spectators criticized Azure Star’s weapons as primitive and ineffective.

The Azure Star leaders realized Kaza had sent his people into battle with fake, copied weapons, while Lin Ye said the Instance had already revealed useful information. At Greenleaf Military Base, the Green Vine forces continued crushing Kaza’s army as Tree Spirit Prime Star absorbed the wreckage.

• George, Arthur, Xi'er, Fulangche, and Singh condemned Kaza after recognizing his weapons and vehicles as copied or modified versions of old Azure Star designs.
• Katerina told the leaders not to pity Kaza’s followers, while Xi'er doubted they could learn anything from the battle before it ended.
• Lin Ye said the Instance had already provided valuable information and promised to explain it after they finished watching.
• At Greenleaf Military Base, the challengers’ aircraft crashed and more than ninety percent of their weapons were destroyed in under ten minutes.
• Tree Spirit Prime Star began absorbing the wreckage from Seed Star 1 as the Tree Spirit Self-Defense Force tightened its encirclement.

The Tree Spirit warriors slaughtered the Azure Star Challengers, leaving fewer than ten thousand trapped in the tree hollow and unable to operate the Instance Command Console. The Tree Spirit Self-Defense Legion then grafted its aircraft into the Ancient Tree Spacefaring Warship, which began its final hunt for the survivors.

• The Tree Spirit warriors killed the Azure Star Challengers with corrosive saliva, crushing strength, and shotgun-like arms as the survivors' numbers rapidly fell.
• Fewer than ten thousand Challengers huddled in the military base's tree hollow and failed to activate the Quantum Universe Spaceship because only Instance commander Kaza had the required console access.
• The remaining Libyans begged Kaza to save them as fear and despair overwhelmed them.
• The Tree Spirit Self-Defense Legion's aircraft intertwined their roots and formed the Ancient Tree Spacefaring Warship.
• The Divine Firmament notified the survivors that the warship was beginning its final hunt and transmitted its basic information to their Instance Backend.

The Green Vine Civilization used its Ancient Tree Aerospace Battleship and Leaf Spirit Life-Acceleration Bomb to turn Greenleaf Military Base into a deadly jungle, killing nearly every Challenger. Kaza was discovered hiding in the sewers and begged for his life by offering to betray Azure Star and reveal information about Lin Ye.

• The Ancient Tree Aerospace Battleship fired a Leaf Spirit Life-Acceleration Bomb that transformed the trees and buildings of Greenleaf Military Base into a mass of murderous vines.
• The Tree Spirit Legion’s attack killed nearly all the Challengers, leaving Kaza as the sole survivor in the Instance.
• Tree Spirit soldiers in Floating Particle Form searched the base, found Kaza in the sewers, and dragged him outside after his sidearm exploded in his hand.
• Surrounded by the Tree Spirit Legion, Kaza begged them not to kill him and offered information about Azure Star, Lin Ye, and the Five Permanent Members Instance.
• Viewers watching the Instance livestream condemned Kaza for betraying his civilization and mocked him for expecting the Green Vine Civilization to spare him.

Kaza begged to surrender, but the Tree Spirit Planet used the Ancient Tree Aerospace Battleship’s Rooting Ritual to torture and kill him while plundering his memories. His death triggered the failure settlement, and Divine Firmament erased all two million Azure Star Challengers, leaving Azure Star’s spectators shaken by the Instance’s total wipeout.

• Kaza offered to submit to the Tree Spirit Star System, but the Ancient Tree Aerospace Battleship revealed that Tree Spirit Planet would transform him regardless.
• The Ancient Tree Aerospace Battleship rooted countless vines into Seed Star 1, bound Kaza, and subjected him to the Rooting Ritual to extract his memories before killing him.
• Divine Firmament declared the Instance challenge failed and imposed a 100,000 Star Yuan penalty on the Azure Star Challengers.
• Divine Firmament announced that all Challengers would be erased because they lacked enough Star Yuan to pay the penalty.
• Divine Firmament reported that two million people had been erased and that the Instance had a 100% erasure rate, leaving Azure Star’s spectators fearing that only Lin Ye could face the Universe Arena.

After Kaza’s disastrous defeat in the Tree Spirit Abyss exposed Azure Star to ridicule and leaked some of its information, Lin Ye reassured the regional leaders that the damage was limited. He ended the meeting by considering what Azure Star could still learn about the Green Vine Civilization before its newbie period ended.

• Alien civilizations mocked Azure Star’s zero completion and clearance rates, and argued over who would attack it after its newbie period.
• The Instance ended, and Divine Firmament reported that Azure Star had lost 15 Star Yuan, triggered a Population Red Line warning, and suffered another leak of core information.
• Lin Ye listened as the regional leaders condemned Kaza for trying to defect, then turned the meeting toward the risks of his extracted memories.
• Katerina and the regional leaders worried that the Green Vine Civilization had gained Azure Star’s secrets, but Lin Ye said Kaza knew little and had seen only outdated technology.
• Fulangche asked whether enemies could deduce Lin Ye’s later weapons from his earlier Instances, and Lin Ye argued that surface knowledge was not enough to counter his technology.
• Xi’er pointed out that Kaza’s defective weapons and limited exploration revealed little about the Tree Spirit Abyss, and Lin Ye agreed while saying the Instance still offered some clues.

Lin Ye lectured the regional heads on how to design Instances for the Universe Arena, using the Tree Spirit Abyss and Heart of the Swarm to explain planetary scale, resource use, and distinctive technological themes. He left them with a closer look at the Tree Spirit Civilization’s weakness: its inward focus and limited ability to travel beyond its planetary network.

• Lin Ye explained that Arena-ready Instances needed planetary-scale maps, fully utilized resources, and a clear technological focus.
• Lin Ye compared the plant-centered Tree Spirit Abyss with the bioengineered Heart of the Swarm, describing their different strengths and battle strategies.
• Xi'er concluded that an Instance’s defining characteristics should shape its design and generate consistent advantages, and Lin Ye affirmed the importance of developing distinct specialties.
• Lin Ye described how he had assigned different research paths to the regional heads, including artificial intelligence for Long Yuan and futurist weapons for Xi'er.
• Lin Ye argued that the Tree Spirit Civilization lacked long-range interstellar travel and relied too heavily on its limited plant neural network to move between planets.

Lin Ye explained the weaknesses of the Green Vine Civilization’s transforming weapons and reassured Azure Star’s regional heads that he would lead their first Universe Arena battle against it. He urged them to build planet-scale Instances by copying Earth Online as a template, and they left the meeting ready to begin work.

• Lin Ye argued that the Green Vine Civilization’s transforming weapons were compromises rather than versatile solutions, and that their slow defeat of Kaza showed they could not strike a planet directly.
• Lin Ye analyzed the Tree Spirit Abyss Instance for the regional heads, who praised his insight into its underlying rules.
• Lin Ye announced that Azure Star would enter the Universe Arena after the regional heads’ one-month novice period, with the Green Vine Civilization as their tentative first target.
• Katerina admitted that the regional heads were struggling to design planet-scale Instances, and Lin Ye told them to use Earth Online as a template instead of starting from scratch.
• Xi'er and Fulangche recognized that copying and modifying certified Instances would help them create their own worlds faster, and the regional heads vowed to begin work immediately.

Lin Ye assigned Katerina to study other civilizations' Instances and Singh to gather points and establish a planet-wide currency. He then tasked Brahma with creating a unified faith to secure Azure Star's loyalty to the Federation.

• Lin Ye told Katerina to organize recordings and records of every civilization's Instance so he could study them before opening his own.
• Lin Ye ordered Singh to collect settlement points, find overlooked reserves, and introduce a Federation-controlled currency for daily life.
• Singh agreed to create a currency using rare metals and encourage residents to exchange their points for it.
• Lin Ye told Brahma that fear of the Universe Arena would fade and asked him to unite Azure Star under a shared religious faith.
• Brahma knelt before Lin Ye and promised to make all of Azure Star submit to the Federation as part of the coming Holy War.

Lin Ye checked Kazi Star and found its population falling amid brutal infighting, though it had contributed Star Yuan to Azure Star. He then returned to his Solar System Instance, where construction and military preparations had advanced substantially.

• Lin Ye checked Kazi Star's status and saw that its population had fallen by 100 million while its number of Instances had increased by 100 million.
• Lin Ye noted that Kazi Star's infighting was likely to stabilize and that the planet had contributed 1,000 Star Yuan to Azure Star.
• Lin Ye entered the Creation Space and saw the Solar System Instance taking shape around its eight planets.
• Lin Ye received updates that 10,000 Space Marines and 10 Psionics had been generated, and Ding Chang had awakened as a Psionic and become the star system's emperor.
• Lin Ye learned that planetary modifications, orbital outposts, and Earth's emergency response platform were progressing, while the Dyson Sphere and Star Destroyer designs neared completion.

Lin Ye saw that Alice had rapidly advanced the Solar System Online projects, including a growing Space Marine force and a nearly completed Star Destroyer. He reviewed the ship’s blueprint and specifications, leaving the story with its construction at 95% completion and Alice’s promise that it could overwhelm enemies in the Universe Arena.

• Lin Ye found more than ten thousand modified Space Marines patrolling the Arctic, while a notification reported that 30,000 new Space Marines were being generated each day.
• Lin Ye saw that Old Ding had become the supreme emperor of Solar System Online after the Firmament War.
• Lin Ye discovered that the Star Destroyer had reached 95% completion and credited Alice for its rapid progress.
• Alice explained that she had used hundreds and thousands of small AIs to help with calculations and showed Lin Ye the latest Star Destroyer blueprint.
• Lin Ye examined the 1,000-meter Star Destroyer's specifications and learned that it could not yet achieve standard sublight flight.

Lin Ye learned that Alice had completed designs for a Star Destroyer Fleet and ordered her to build at least fifty ships, naming the first Blue Star. As he considered how to prepare for future battles and protect his Instance from imitation, he decided to explore beyond the Solar System and create additional star systems, beginning with one inspired by The Three-Body Problem.

• Alice revealed that she had designed an entire Star Destroyer Fleet rather than a single ship and estimated that at least fifty Star Destroyers would make a fleet.
• Lin Ye ordered Alice to begin building the fleet and named its first Star Destroyer Blue Star.
• Lin Ye considered whether to defend his Instance or attack others and concluded that defending would require less effort and better protect the other Challengers.
• Lin Ye considered how other civilizations might study and copy Solar System Online, and weighed creating a separate Instance or expanding the information in the existing one.
• Lin Ye realized he could explore beyond the Solar System and create additional star systems to combine or use as separate Instances, and chose The Three-Body Problem as his inspiration.

Lin Ye began creating a second Instance based on the Trisolaran system, planning to use its civilization alongside Solar System Online. He established the system’s basic framework and began creating Trisolaris and its inhabitants.

• Lin Ye told Alice he planned to create another star system, and she agreed to help despite worrying about the workload.
• Creation Space confirmed it could support a second Instance, with two large star systems near its current capacity.
• Lin Ye entered the Trisolaran system’s details, including its three stars and the planet’s Stable and Chaotic Eras, while omitting Flying Star at Rest.
• Creation Space began generating the Trisolaran system, and Lin Ye chose not to alter its harsh environment.
• Lin Ye instructed Creation Space to create Trisolaris and the Trisolarans who lived there.

Lin Ye supplied Creation Space with biological data to create the Trisolarans on the newly generated Trisolaris. As the first individuals began to form, his second Instance started taking shape.

• Lin Ye generated Trisolaris in Creation Space and left detailed environmental simulations for Alice to handle later.
• Lin Ye told Creation Space to create the Trisolaran species using the biological data he provided.
• Lin Ye described how Trisolarans could reshape their flexible bodies and dehydrate into dormant states to survive harsh conditions.
• Lin Ye explained that Trisolarans reproduced by passing memories and consciousness to offspring, and communicated transparently through brain waves.
• Creation Space began forming Trisolaran individuals on Trisolaris, setting Lin Ye's second Instance in motion.

Lin Ye watched the Creation Space generate the Trisolarans and discovered that they resembled masses of quivering, tentacled salps. With the Three-Body Instance’s planet and species established, he began planning to raise its difficulty by designing advanced technology, starting with the Antimatter Engine.

• Lin Ye watched the Trisolarans take shape and saw that they looked like giant, salp-like worms.
• Lin Ye accepted their appearance and observed as the Trisolarans spread across their planet through alternating Stable Eras and Chaotic Eras.
• Lin Ye decided that the Instance’s framework was in place and that he would add weapons and technology to increase its difficulty.
• Lin Ye chose to begin with the Antimatter Engine and recalled that Dragon Country had studied antimatter engines for propelling large military spacecraft.

Lin Ye began designing an Antimatter Engine for Trisolaris, then asked Creation Space and Alice to develop Sophon technology from the principles he supplied. He left the complex design to their simulations, keeping his limited one-click corrections in reserve for emergencies.

• Lin Ye submitted the Antimatter Engine design without revision, and Creation Space reported a 70% success rate before beginning the formal design.
• Lin Ye explained that Trisolaris needed powerful weapons as well as an Antimatter Engine, and chose Sophons as the first project.
• Lin Ye sent Creation Space his knowledge of Sophons and outlined the four technologies needed to make them, from unfolding protons to reversible dimensional shifts.
• Lin Ye left Creation Space and Alice to run simulations and refine the Sophon design, reserving his limited one-click corrections for urgent problems.

Lin Ye ordered Creation Space to design the Droplet, a devastating Trisolaran probe, after explaining its materials and capabilities. Creation Space began its first generation attempt but warned that its computing power was at its limit, so Lin Ye agreed to make no further designs until the current ones were finished.

• Lin Ye recalled how Sophons could blockade a civilization's fundamental science and decided to finish one before launching his Instance.
• Lin Ye instructed Creation Space to design the Droplet and supplied detailed information about its appearance, Strong Interaction shell, Halo propulsion, speed, and maneuverability.
• Creation Space estimated a success rate above 50 percent and said the first generation attempt would take about three days.
• Creation Space warned that Solar System Online and the Trisolaran civilization Instance had pushed its computing power to its limit.
• Lin Ye agreed to wait and avoid adding new computational burdens until the existing designs were complete.