Chapter Summaries

He Ao studied the Second Laboratory’s records and concluded that the Mysterious Man’s B-Rank Gene Serum research was aimed at creating a special B-Rank item with the purple liquid. After discovering that the project’s researchers had vanished and its records were destroyed, He Ao asked Vianna to investigate the Phoenix system and decided to leave the city.

• He Ao learned that the Second Laboratory had used Jess’s equipment to mass-produce Gene Serum while secretly pursuing B-Rank Gene Serum research.
• He Ao inferred that the Mysterious Man wanted to use the purple liquid, possibly connected to the Hidden Existence, to create a specific B-Rank item.
• News broadcasts revealed that Stars Pharmaceutical had exposed Senator Nide’s alleged crimes.
• He Ao found a researcher’s unsettling manuscript and learned that nineteen core researchers’ files had been removed the previous night, while five others had been recorded as dead.
• He Ao asked Vianna to investigate the Phoenix system, then told Lai En they were leaving the city.

He Ao uncovered how the Mysterious Man planned to complete the B-Rank Gene Serum and left Vetland with DeSanke to meet someone who could help his Senate campaign. DeSanke entered the transport aircraft and met Christos.

• He Ao watched the news outlets and public screens turn against Senator Nide, then asked Eve to investigate the deaths of five Gene Serum researchers.
• He Ao used his madness to understand the damaged research data and learned that the researchers had been sacrificed to enhance the serum; nineteen researchers would let it work for seven minutes.
• He Ao and DeSanke left the city with a Wilderness Hunter as Stars Pharmaceutical and the Huier Mei Medical Consortium fought over Nide's scandal.
• On the journey through the wilderness, He Ao encouraged DeSanke to believe a senator did not have to be backed by a conglomerate.
• He Ao brought DeSanke to the Federation's Sun Chasing Eagle transport aircraft, where DeSanke met Christos.

DeSanke impressed Christos with his critique of conglomerate exploitation and his analysis of Vetland, earning Christos’s support for his Senate campaign. As He Ao investigated the seemingly secure Phoenix voting system, he considered how the election could still be influenced and ended by assuring DeSanke that voters were not truly blind to the truth.

• DeSanke explained to Christos how conglomerates profited from low wages, consumer debt, and hidden interest, then analyzed the hardships faced by Vetland’s scavengers and ordinary workers.
• While DeSanke spoke with Christos through the night, He Ao killed the Shadow Wolves that approached their camp and reviewed information about the Trison Group’s Phoenix voting system.
• He Ao concluded that the Phoenix System’s election results were probably reliable and wondered how the Chess Player would make the next move.
• Christos approved of DeSanke’s ideas and said he would make a good senator before departing for a visit to Vetland.
• DeSanke worried that Christos’s endorsement would not reach Vetland voters because local media favored his opponents, but He Ao assured him that people were not truly blinded.

Boke and Joe Bo saw news that Christos had joined DeSanke’s campaign speech, and they decided to go there despite their doubts that politicians could be trusted. Meanwhile, He Ao finished repairing a magic array and used a large social-media broadcast to spread word of DeSanke’s speech, declaring that the sun had risen.

• Boke showed Joe Bo news of Christos’s visit to Vetland, but Joe Bo questioned whether political leaders could improve their lives.
• Boke and Joe Bo watched streamers promote Nide and Walker, then found a factory worker explaining that he had refused money to endorse Nide and supported DeSanke instead.
• Joe Bo admitted DeSanke seemed different but doubted he would keep his promises if elected.
• Boke received a video showing Christos beside DeSanke at the campaign speech, and Joe Bo put on his coat and agreed to go with him.
• He Ao completed the damaged magic array on a Wooden Box while Hai Xi told him Christos was at DeSanke’s speech.
• Eve reported that 3,071 alternate accounts had broadcast 17,372 messages about the speech, and He Ao said the sun had risen.

He Ao completed a new array that stabilized the Wooden Box’s contents while embedding a Control Array directed at “K,” then learned from Vianna that the Trison Group likely used the Phoenix System for commercial data services. When the box’s energy finished converting, the Mysterious Man tried to awaken, but He Ao drove it back into slumber and found the box empty.

• He Ao used his blood and knowledge of arrays to modify the Wooden Box’s stabilizing array, embedding a Control Array directed at “K” into its contents.
• He Ao watched the growing crowd support DeSanke as Hai Xi protected him after a gunman fired, while Christos left for Eiranser Palace.
• Vianna reported that Trison Group’s commercial data services appeared to use the Phoenix System, and He Ao asked Eve to gather information on those services.
• After the Wooden Box’s glow faded, the Mysterious Man’s shadow and Purple Mist surged toward it, but He Ao’s command repelled them and the presence fell back into deep sleep.
• He Ao opened the Wooden Box and saw that its interior was completely empty.

He Ao visited his parents’ graves and Tini’s grave, borrowed Hai Xi’s wire bracelet, and listened to Vianna’s analysis of a persistent defect in the Phoenix System. As election day voting continued, He Ao’s plan to exploit the defect remained underway while DeSanke gained support and Nide faced renewed scrutiny.

• He Ao met Hai Xi at the cemetery, told her his injuries had healed, and visited his parents’ graves as she reported that DeSanke was resting before more campaign speeches.
• Hai Xi lent He Ao her inherited metal-wire bracelet, and he explained that he planned to use it to retrieve his thrown Bone Axe.
• He Ao visited the graves of Tini and Jess, then listened to Vianna describe a persistent Phoenix System defect that might be triggered through qualifying operations.
• He Ao replied that triggering the defect would not require controlling other people’s devices, and he checked that nine hours had passed since Eve began her operation.
• A workman voted for DeSanke and urged a drunk man to learn about him; the drunk man later selected DeSanke on a voting machine and threw his liquor bottle at Nide’s campaign poster.
• A television report stated that Nide had forcibly purchased 315 houses using funds from the Huier Mei Charity Foundation.

He Ao entered Huier Mei Medical Research Building after hours and discovered mercenaries guarding a blood-patterned ritual space and the missing Second Laboratory researchers. As he fought his way toward the intact room at the back, something powerful attacked him from behind.

• He Ao prepared his Bone Axe and learned that the Psychological Research Institute occupied the building’s top three floors.
• On election day, DeSanke described his hardships as a factory worker and rallied a crowd in the low-turnout districts.
• He Ao entered the building after the staff left and took the elevator to the fifty-seventh floor.
• He Ao killed the armed mercenaries who confronted him and found eighteen missing researchers bound to pillars beneath purple light.
• As He Ao moved toward the room at the back, a powerful attacker struck the ground behind him, and he hurled his axe in response.

He Ao defeated the mutated researchers, rescued the surviving researchers, and destroyed the formation that filled the Second Laboratory with Purple Mist. He then entered a pristine exhibition hall and recognized the doctor connected to his mother and the Mysterious Man from his memories.

• He Ao fought the mutated researchers in the Purple Mist and killed the researcher who had transformed into a powerful monster.
• He Ao freed the nineteen researchers from the formation, then sent the fifteen whose souls remained relatively normal down to the first floor in two elevators.
• He Ao destroyed the formation's final core, causing the Purple Mist to vanish completely.
• He Ao entered the exhibition hall and saw a doctor displaying a photograph of He Ao's mother.
• He Ao's memories of the Mysterious Man became clear, and he faced the doctor with the bone axe in hand.

He Ao confronted Wells Doctor and uncovered how he had manipulated Jess’s family to obtain his father’s research. As the election countdown neared its end, Wells revealed a serum and a ritual meant to welcome a Great Existence back into the world, and He Ao prepared to stop him.

• He Ao tracked Wells Doctor to the rooftop and explained how Wells’s public identity and thought-interference ability had concealed his actions for years.
• He Ao connected Wells to the stolen research hard drive and manuscript, his mother’s mental decline and death, and his knowledge of the family home.
• Wells admitted that Jess’s mother had discovered his attempt to control her and died by suicide to deter him from targeting Jess directly.
• He Ao attacked Wells as Wells reached for a purple-marked console and a tube of unstable purple serum.
• Wells called the coming event a welcome for a Great Existence, while He Ao gripped the Wooden Box with one minute left before the election ended.

He Ao confronted Wells as the Midterm Election countdown reached zero, exposing Wells' plan to use the election and Gene Serum to awaken a Great Existence. The election result was delayed by a Phoenix System malfunction, disrupting the ritual, and Wells began transforming as He Ao prepared to fight him.

• Hai Xi gave DeSanke a throat lozenge as they watched the Midterm Election countdown in the empty venue.
• He Ao deduced that Wells was directing the city's thoughts toward the election result to complete a ritual and bring a Great Existence back from the sea of thought.
• Wells drank the Gene Serum and revealed that he had chosen DeSanke as the ritual's target, expecting He Ao's kindness to help DeSanke win.
• The Phoenix System displayed a vote-verification message instead of announcing a winner, and He Ao explained that Eve had triggered a flaw that delayed the results by ten minutes.
• He Ao linked Wells to Vitran Entertainment Media and explained how its connections exposed Wells' role in his father's misfortune and the ritual.
• Wells fused with the Great Existence's tentacle after the ritual failed, and He Ao raised the Bone Axe as Wells threatened to tear his soul apart.

He Ao used the vessel in the Wooden Box to gain partial control of Wells’s dream and return to a reality-dream overlap where he could fight back. He confronted Wells over the murder of his family and prepared to continue the battle, leaving the mission unresolved.

• Wells trapped He Ao in a nightmare and used its forces to tear at his body and soul, destroying the Bone Axe and Wooden Box.
• He Ao used Hypermemory to break free, then summoned the vessel hidden in the Wooden Box and linked himself to the power sustaining the dream.
• He Ao gained partial control of the dream, forcing it to overlap with reality and restoring his ability to attack Wells.
• Wells transformed into a huge lizard monster and accused He Ao of profaning the god’s vessel, while He Ao crushed the purple light and taunted him.
• He Ao fought Wells with the Bone Axe, accusing him of killing his parents and wife to provoke his anger; Wells said He Ao would soon join them.
• After Wells knocked him into the ground, He Ao rose with the Bone Axe and said his family would rather see Wells first.

He Ao killed Wells’s lizard monster and used the Desire Witch’s ritual to call down devastating purple lightning, driving the Great Existence’s shadow back into the sea of thought. As the mission completed and a return countdown began, Wells’s warning about He Ao’s connection to the Great Existence remained unresolved.

• He Ao dragged Wells’s monster out of the dream, sealed the rooftop in reality, and fought it while Super Memory mapped its attacks.
• He Ao destroyed the monster’s eye and abdominal Energy Convergence Points, then severed its head after it tried to escape into the dream.
• Wells’s soul emerged from the corpse, claimed that the ritual had succeeded, and warned that He Ao would become a servant of the Great Existence.
• As the Great Existence’s tentacles reached for Wells and He Ao, He Ao formed a heart-shaped ritual array and invoked the Desire Witch using his longing for his family.
• The Desire Witch answered, and purple lightning engulfed the Huier Mei Research Building, destroying most of it and forcing the Great Existence’s shadow to retreat.
• The system announced mission completion and began a 90-second countdown to return He Ao to his original world.

Hai Xi recovered Jess's pendant and read his final letter, learning that he had left her his charitable foundation and information about the Ritual Array and Gene Serum. As DeSanke's election unsettled the Huier Mei Medical Consortium, Hai Xi visited Jess's grave while the city anticipated DeSanke's inauguration speech.

• Hai Xi searched the ruins for Jess, and Agent Hu En gave her time to retrieve the twisted pendant before the Federal Bureau of Investigation reclaimed it.
• Hai Xi opened the pendant, found two photographs, and recovered a faintly glimmering metal wire near the building's remains.
• Hai Xi read Jess's email, which left her his foundation, information about the Ritual Array and Gene Serum, and a recommendation letter for returning to school.
• DeSanke won the Vetland senatorial election with 57% of the vote after turnout surged, and news reports explained that new voters from Plant District and Enst District had largely supported him.
• Huier Mei Medical Consortium directors worried that DeSanke's victory could inspire further challenges, learned Wells was dead and Stars Pharmaceutical would not answer, and the Old Man warned that a storm was coming.
• Hai Xi stood at Jess's grave as passersby discussed DeSanke's upcoming inauguration speech and its promised focus on issues affecting them.

Nock, an FBI agent, received files about the struggles of Vetland’s scavengers and the Huier Mei Medical Consortium’s crimes. After the scavengers won citizenship and Jess was publicly remembered, Koles agreed to help the Nolanka Group investigate the Fountain of Youth’s lingering effects.

• Nock opened a personal email containing files about the events in Vetland.
• DeSanke denounced the exploitation of scavengers, and Hai Xi led their campaign to close the Zarot Area until they gained citizenship.
• The Huier Mei Medical Consortium faced an FBI investigation and a stock collapse after materials exposed its illegal experiments and Wells’s attempted Evil God revival.
• The Vitran City Council passed the Scavenger Citizenship Act, and Hai Xi reopened the Zarot Area and established a scavenger cleaning company.
• Visitors honored Jess at Inwit Cemetery, where his gravestone said that he had saved the city and was remembered.
• A Nolanka Group representative recruited imprisoned Professor Koles to guide research into removing Fountain of Youth pollution, and Koles agreed after learning someone else had died.

He Ao reviewed his new Character Card and received the settlement results for the mission, including a four-star comprehensive evaluation and a reward upgrade. The upgrade finished, but the chapter ended before the reward was revealed.

• He Ao discovered the new Deep Sea Glimmer card and concluded that the Hidden Existence had preserved Jess in the deep sea as part of another resurrection plan.
• He Ao received four stars for the Main Mission, three and a half for the Side Mission, and five for the Hidden Mission, earning four Exchange Stars overall.
• The system awarded He Ao the Silent Night Coffin Nailer achievement, which activated during a critical hit and upgraded his mission reward.
• He Ao reflected on his improved Super Memory mastery while waiting for the reward upgrade to finish.
• The system announced that the reward upgrade was complete.

He Ao chose and received the Contaminated Mechanical Core, then shaped it into a ring and tested its effects. After reviewing his attributes and mission progress, he was visited by Li Cheng, who said they needed to meet about opening a relic.

• He Ao compared the three rewards and chose the Contaminated Mechanical Core because its power could be useful in advanced ruins and might carry contamination from a powerful existence.
• He Ao received the Mechanical Core, resisted its whispers, and reshaped it into a ring that could extend tentacle-like connections to machinery.
• He Ao concealed the ring with Vanish Without a Trace and saw that his Super Exchanger Mission progress was 9/12.
• He Ao checked his attributes and found that Super Memory now raised his Physical Fitness by 576 and had reduced the cooldown on modifying a B-class choice to about sixteen days.
• Li Cheng visited He Ao and said they would need to hold an overtime meeting about opening a relic.

He Ao learned that the relic passage would open sooner than expected as strange incidents increased while new Transcendents declined, and the Research Institute planned to search for Hao Yi, suspected of taking the Space-Time Anchor Point. In Alano, He Ao took over Boss’s Dawn Organization territory after Boss disappeared and ended the chapter catching a large fish.

• Li Cheng told the Research Institute’s External Affairs Department that the relic passage would open in about twenty-four hours, could admit Rank C Transcendents, and signaled growing exchanges with the real world.
• He Ao explained that strange incidents could keep increasing even as newly awakened Transcendents declined, and Li Cheng said he would meet Hao Yi while the others searched for him and secured the area.
• Noding told Hu Wen that Boss was missing, and Dawn’s leader offered He Ao control of Boss’s former territories for seventy percent more than Boss had paid.
• He Ao asked Noding to manage the territories without killing people or causing trouble, then considered passing Dawn’s members’ names to the Research Institute.
• He Ao lifted his fishing rod and caught a large fish beneath the moonlight.

He Ao and Enke maintained the cordon on Locke Lun Street while waiting for World Tree’s incoming leader and the opening of the ruins passageway. After learning of powerful, unaccounted-for defectors and several missing C-Class members, He Ao considered how much remained hidden; meanwhile, Li Cheng waited at a restaurant, convinced He Ao would arrive.

• He Ao and Enke discussed Moonlight’s weakened position, World Tree’s attempt to claim influence in Jordan, and the dangerous leader being sent there.
• He Ao and Enke shared liquor and parted on friendly terms after Enke warned him to be wary of the World Tree representative.
• The Military Police Captain told He Ao that powerful defectors had crushed the Jordan Restoration Organization and vanished with its treasures.
• He Ao considered whether the defectors were a secret organization and connected them to three missing Dawn C-Class members and the missing Painter.
• At 10:30, Li Cheng waited alone at Wilent Restaurant and told Jodel he believed He Ao would come.

Li Cheng met He Ao aboard the Verola to negotiate for the Space-Time Anchor Point needed to enter a ruin. He Ao agreed to support the organizations according to what they offered, then isolated Li Cheng from their communications to begin a separate transaction.

• Li Cheng boarded the Verola and met He Ao, who revealed that the Space-Time Anchor Point was in his possession.
• He Ao rejected entry slots and Transcendent Items as payment, requesting access to the organizations' ruin research and intelligence, along with animals and plants containing transcendent power.
• Moonlight, the Research Institute, and World Tree agreed to He Ao's terms after discussing the exchange through Li Cheng's earpiece.
• He Ao said he would allocate more ruin entry slots to whichever organization gave him more, and Li Cheng ended his communications with the others.
• He Ao told Li Cheng they would discuss their transaction separately and engulfed the carriage in shadow.

He Ao showed Li Cheng the Shadowless Sword and explained the Mysterious Shadow’s role in the Allen incident, then negotiated for Li Cheng to use the Research Institute’s Angel-level Extraordinary Item to forge the sword. After Li Cheng agreed to prepare, He Ao left him to arrange the materials and returned to the cave where Boss had hidden the High Tower’s Central Processor.

• He Ao revealed the Shadowless Sword’s power to Li Cheng and explained that it carried the Mysterious Shadow’s influence and was connected to Allen’s mass coma.
• He Ao asked Li Cheng to use the Research Institute’s Angel-level Extraordinary Item to forge the sword in exchange for transcendent knowledge, and Li Cheng agreed to prepare for the operation.
• He Ao explained how gods spread contamination and faith, why the Mysterious Shadow had sought to enter the Main World, and why he believed the world’s coordinates remained hidden.
• He Ao arranged for Li Cheng to leave a list of needed materials at the restaurant and then departed the Verola with the meeting preparations underway.
• He Ao arrived at Ruodan National Park and approached the cave where Boss had stored the High Tower’s Central Processor.