Chapter Summaries

Chen Lin and the people of Newland City State faced a planet phantom and a deadly angelic presence as the exchange with the Ruins World neared its end. He Ao fought through 009-1’s summoned monsters in deep space and reached the suppression field generator, finding the damaged platform and the glowing metal box above it.

• Chen Lin warned the Youth not to look at the spatial phantom after its gaze made nearby monsters swell and explode, then led him toward the settlement.
• He Ao’s avatar identified the emerging planetary phantom as a Ruins Planet and named the spatial phantom as the culprit, then told Li Cheng and the others to wait.
• He Ao’s true body evaded 009-1’s corruption and flew toward the suppression field generator while the angel opened vortices and sent monsters after him.
• He Ao fought through increasingly powerful monsters, including a vine tree that tried to destroy his armor, and used Twisted Order to break free of its attack.
• He Ao reached the ruined metal platform and found a hollow cubic metal box with a faint red glow above it.

He Ao claimed control of the 001 Fragment as K and used the Blood-Moistening Jade Pendant to erase 009-1, saving Newland City State from the angel’s attack. He collected the remains and collapsing powers in the Underground Palace, then reached Kalin and the others and prepared to go home.

• He Ao took the 001 Fragment from its metal box, changed its control pattern to K, and became connected to its power despite 009-1’s assault.
• He Ao used the 001 Fragment’s status and the Blood-Moistening Jade Pendant’s energy to strike 009-1 with a blood-red beam, erasing it as K’s colossal form appeared over Newland City State.
• Moonlight's Rank B and Li Cheng saw the manifestation and identified it as K, while He Ao returned inside the Ruin World and recovered a damaged 009-1 fragment.
• He Ao used the jade pendant to absorb energy from the Carpenter, the withered vine, and monsters, and used Pawn to gather the ownerless powers left by 009-1.
• He Ao reached the First Layer settlement, where Kalin and the others rushed to meet him, and told them, “Let’s go home.”

He Ao returned to Newland City State with the survivors, helped clear the monsters, and recovered from his exhaustion while the Three Great Organizations contained the aftermath. As Li Cheng questioned him about the Angel-level threat and K, a message from Hao Yi arrived.

• He Ao and Kalin emerged from a collapsing doorway with the survivors, and the rescued people offered to find medicine for He Ao.
• He Ao used the Verola and Shadowless Sword to clear monsters across Newland City State, then joined the Three Great Organizations in a final sweep as dawn broke.
• A girl reunited with her father after she and her grandmother left their cellar, while the Forget Sorrow Stone helped ordinary survivors forget the monster attacks.
• He Ao returned to Li Cheng, who gave him a C-class item to ease his mental exhaustion and let him keep the Nutrient Can.
• Li Cheng asked whether K had saved He Ao and whether K was connected to Hao Yi, then received a message from Hao Yi.

He Ao fused 009-1's dormant fragment with Fiya's remains and a large supply of extraordinary flesh to create a powerful doll-like Transcendent Item with Angel-level pressure. After learning its abilities, he scattered Fiya's ashes in her abandoned hometown and received a message from Li Cheng that everything was done.

• He Ao placed 009-1's dormant fragment inside the Iron Coffin and used its Control Arrays, mechanical contamination, and extraordinary animal flesh to make the fragment the core of a new Transcendent Item.
• The coffin's formation spiraled out of control, so He Ao used Order Control to restrain its powers until they settled into a stable form.
• The coffin produced a beautiful, jointed doll with Angel Pressure, Life Exchange, an Unowned Domain, great physical strength, and the ability to fly; He Ao found that he could control it but that it could not travel far from the coffin.
• He Ao scattered Fiya's ashes in her abandoned hometown in the Tiya Empire.
• He Ao received a message from Li Cheng saying, "Everything is done."

Li Cheng helped He Ao secure control of Newland City State by persuading World Tree and Moonlight to accept him as its neutral guardian, with reconstruction funding and support from all three organizations. After the agreement, Li Cheng met He Ao’s mysterious maid and learned that Rank C had seventy-two Talent Sequences.

• Jodel and Norsen argued over who should administer Newland City State, while Li Cheng proposed appointing the neutral Hao Yi as guardian.
• Li Cheng persuaded Jodel and Norsen to consider giving Newland City State to Hao Yi, and the three organizations agreed to provide reconstruction aid, loans, and support teams.
• Norsen realized the agreement had cost Moonlight control of the city as well as money and manpower, and complained that Li Cheng had tricked him.
• Li Cheng visited He Ao on Wenlan Island and sensed that the beautiful girl in a Gothic maid dress was an angel.
• He Ao thanked Li Cheng for his help securing Newland City State and said that Rank C had seventy-two Talent Sequences.

He Ao shared Talent Sequence correspondences and advancement rituals with Li Cheng, then handed Newland over to an organization led by Ke Duo and saw the city honor K as its guardian. Back in Jodan, He Ao examined new exchange-system functions before the Life Simulation Game assigned him the role of Ilo, the Person in the Coffin.

• He Ao told Li Cheng that Rank B and Rank C each had seventy-two Talent Sequences, explained the irregular Rank D-to-Rank C correspondence, and gave him a number sequence that could map them.
• He Ao told Li Cheng that Rank D-to-Rank C advancement required rituals to reduce the risk of madness, and Li Cheng thanked him for sharing the knowledge.
• He Ao completed Newland’s handover, built a Transcendent organization under Ke Duo, and brought Kalin and his companions into it.
• He Ao met a vendor who recognized him as the monster-slayer from a dream, then learned that Newland’s people regarded K as their guardian and that the Little Girl was selling K talismans.
• He Ao returned to Jodan, reviewed the Character Card exchange-system upgrades, and received the role assignment Ilo, the Person in the Coffin.

Ilo, the permanently vegetative son of Novis, relived his childhood and the violent attack that killed his family before being rescued and taken into the Storm Sea. Mercenaries tried to destroy his coffin, but Ilo awakened after they threw it overboard and confronted them aboard their ship.

• Ilo grew up in Winter City, where his parents warned him away from Plastic Medals and his father brought home a wooden plaque that seemed to watch him.
• Ilo fell from an artificial hill, became permanently vegetative, and was kept alive in a life-support coffin while his family's business and fortunes deteriorated.
• Attackers abducted Ilo's mother, killed his parents and elder brother, and sent his coffin into the sea, where someone later fished it out.
• Mercenaries cut into Ilo's coffin aboard a boat in the Storm Sea, but their leader ordered them to throw it overboard.
• After the mercenaries returned toward the cabin, Ilo climbed from the sea, seized the rail, and asked what the bearded man had said he wanted to do.

He Ao escaped the sinking Nutrient Cabin and climbed aboard a vessel in the Storm Sea, where he fought the crew members who tried to kill him. He confronted the White Robed Man responsible for his family’s deaths and openly defied Eternal Radiance.

• He Ao forced air into the Nutrient Cabin, surfaced, and climbed from the sea onto the vessel’s deck.
• Chainsaw Man attacked He Ao and fell overboard, while He Ao turned the Bearded Man’s dagger against him and sent him over the railing as well.
• He Ao saw the Mechanical Man flee toward the cabin and took a spear from the deck; the Mechanical Man then urged the Red-Haired Man to find a Fishing Mecha.
• The White Robed Man emerged and claimed Eternal Radiance would cleanse He Ao, then admitted that He Ao’s parents and elder brother had been purged as demon-controlled puppets.
• He Ao accused Eternal Radiance of working with demons, then declared that he had defiled the god.

He Ao fought the White Robed Man, whose divine armor and growing fanaticism made him a dangerous opponent, while a Mechanical Man and a Fishing 2 Type mech joined the battle. After He Ao used lightning to destroy the mech and shattered the White Robed Man’s armor, the man unleashed a terrifying power from his broken pendant, and a huge tentacle rose from the Storm Sea.

• The White Robed Man attacked He Ao with armor powered by Eternal Radiance, while He Ao recognized the god-given power and the man’s corruption.
• He Ao drew the White Robed Man onto the aft deck and weakened his armor with strikes from his harpoon.
• The Mechanical Man and Fishing 2 Type mech attacked He Ao, but He Ao used a harpoon to disable the mech’s lightning protection and let a lightning strike destroy it.
• He Ao broke the White Robed Man’s armor with another heavy harpoon strike, and the man blamed the destruction on divine punishment.
• The White Robed Man activated the shattered pendant and summoned a huge, twisted tentacle from the Storm Sea.

Amid the storm, He Ao fought the tentacles attacking the vessel and killed Mechanical Man before the sea monster emerged and began dragging the ship underwater. With only one harpoon left, He Ao activated Hyperthymesia and threw it at the monster’s central Energy Convergence Point.

• He Ao climbed above the vessel and used spiritually enhanced harpoons to kill several tentacles while Mechanical Man attacked him with a Laser Cannon.
• He Ao bent a harpoon into a boomerang, forced Mechanical Man out of cover, and killed him with another harpoon through his power battery.
• The enormous octopus-like monster emerged from the sea, restored the tentacles He Ao had killed, and wrapped them around the vessel to drag it underwater.
• The monster attacked He Ao with two tentacles as he moved across the ship, and a strike broke the strip holding his harpoons and knocked him into a cabin.
• He Ao pinned one tentacle with an enhanced harpoon, activated Hyperthymesia, and hurled his last harpoon through the storm.

He Ao defeated the White Robed Man’s octopus monster and escaped the sinking ship, then crossed the Storm Sea and reached land near Winter City. Exhausted but alive, he looked back at the sea and said, “I’m back.”

• He Ao killed the giant octopus monster with a reinforced harpoon, though the ship began sinking and he collapsed from the strain.
• The White Robed Man attacked He Ao, but He Ao caught him, crushed his pendant, and revealed that it had never been a blessing from Eternal Radiance.
• The dying octopus monster seized the White Robed Man and killed him as He Ao escaped in a lifeboat with the damaged Nutrient Cabin lid.
• He Ao rowed through the Storm Sea toward its least dangerous waters, enduring monsters that gathered beneath his leaking lifeboat.
• After crossing into Safe Waters, He Ao smashed an attacking shark-like monster with the Nutrient Cabin lid and landed on a snowy beach.
• He Ao walked through the wilderness until he saw Winter City, then looked back at the sea and said, “I’m back.”

He Ao rescued Vili from an ambush by Eternal Sect mecha pilots and agreed to travel with her back to Winter City. After the two set off in her damaged Fallen Angel, He Ao revealed that he was twelve and finally let himself sleep.

• He Ao watched a camouflaged Hell Apostle ambush Vili's Fallen Angel and realized the attackers were using him as a hostage.
• He Ao destroyed two Hell Apostles by throwing harpoons through their Plasma Cannons, giving Vili the opening to kill the third.
• After Vili emerged from her damaged mecha, He Ao killed a surviving white-robed pilot and took his glowing pendant, which Vili identified as carrying contamination from the Eternal Sect.
• Vili explained that she was fleeing the Eternal Sect after it discovered her organization's secret base, and she invited He Ao to travel with her to Winter City.
• He Ao agreed to accompany Vili in her mecha, told her he was twelve, and closed his eyes to sleep.

He Ao returned with Vili’s convoy and, during the journey to Winter City, entered a dangerous state that let him glimpse deeper truths hidden in the world. He arrived at the city gates weakened, with the radiance and its visions lingering in his memory.

• He Ao and Vili reached a registered trade caravan, where Carrie thanked He Ao for saving Vili and brought Lundante to repair the Fallen Angel Mecha.
• He Ao and Vili rode north toward Winter City while the convoy carrying the damaged mecha split off toward a Wilderness Wanderers Camp.
• As the convoy neared Winter City, He Ao immersed himself in the twisted patterns and crossed into a state that let him glimpse the world’s deeper Truth.
• He Ao saw dazzling light and visions of gardens, villas, food-filled corridors, and dancers before contamination forced him out of the state and left him bleeding and weakened.
• He Ao concluded that the state was an observation ability, then arrived with the convoy at Winter City’s gates.

He Ao entered Winter City with Vili and learned more about the Eternal Sect, its rituals, and the Twilight Society’s failed effort to stop it. He left the convoy in Aka District with K’s mask and contacted Eve while heading toward the place where Ilo’s parents had collapsed.

• Vili used her United Industries identity to persuade the City Defense Army to let the caravan enter Winter City without inspection.
• He Ao guessed that Vili belonged to the Twilight Society, accepted a Smart Bracelet from her, and paid her for it.
• Vili told He Ao that the Eternal Sect demanded offerings from poor believers and held secret rituals where fanatical believers might be taken into the supposed Eternal Kingdom.
• Vili explained that K had inspired the Twilight Society, and He Ao told her that everyone could be K before leaving the caravan with the mask.
• He Ao saved Vili’s contact information, went to the neighborhood where Ilo had last seen his parents collapse, and greeted Eve on her website.

He Ao investigated the scene where Ilo’s parents were attacked and learned that their bodies had been taken away by people in black suits. He returned to Ilo’s home, found no signs of surveillance or a break-in, and unlocked his father’s computer.

• He Ao questioned residents and learned that a convenience store employee had heard people moving things after the gunfire.
• He Ao subdued a gang member, who said people in black suits had carried away all the bodies from the shootout.
• He Ao checked the place where Elder Brother had been attacked and found that no remains had been left there either.
• He Ao traveled to Ilo’s neighborhood, confirmed that no one was watching the house, and entered using Ilo’s fingerprint.
• He Ao opened his father’s computer with Ilo’s birthday as the password.

He Ao investigated the pressure on Novis’s security company, found links to the Winter City Security Federation and Kate, and contacted Garrod, who warned him that Ilo’s family and colleagues were in danger. He armed himself and drove to meet Garrod at the Fish Cake Bar, where armed men were waiting as his vehicle approached.

• He Ao reviewed Novis’s files and concluded that Kate’s campaign against the company might be aimed at Novis himself rather than the company’s ownership.
• Eve found that Novis’s company and Kate’s Snow Wolf Security Company were both council companies of the Winter City Security Federation, while Kate had concealed most information about himself.
• He Ao called five trusted employees and reached Garrod, who said Ilo’s parents and the company had run into trouble and told him to come to the Fish Cake Bar.
• He Ao took new clothes from Ilo’s wardrobe, armed himself with pistols, a submachine gun, and a sniper rifle, then drove toward the bar.
• Garrod waited outside the Fish Cake Bar as armed men watched the street, and the group saw He Ao’s vehicle approaching through the snow.

He Ao returned from the Storm Sea and attacked Garrod’s forces, seeking answers about his family’s deaths and the Security Federation. After killing Garrod, he learned the Eternal Sect planned to take control of the Federation that evening, and he drove toward the Cloud District.

• Garrod’s men surrounded an empty taxi, then He Ao revealed himself in an off-road vehicle and opened fire on them.
• He Ao killed the Eternal Sect priest in golden armor and pursued Garrod into an alley.
• Garrod admitted he had betrayed He Ao’s father to the Eternal Sect, which had sought control of the Security Federation after He Ao’s father obstructed its influence.
• Garrod told He Ao that an Eternal Sect official would hold a banquet at 12 Nocate Street at seven to complete the takeover and might bring He Ao’s family’s bodies.
• Garrod tried to kill He Ao with a grenade, but He Ao shot him; the grenade exploded as He Ao left the alley.
• He Ao got into his off-road vehicle and ordered it to take him to the Cloud District.

He Ao crossed Novitt District into Cloud District and used a hidden passage to reach Vili’s villa, where he discovered a strange painting linked to her father, Skorn. After retrieving his gear, Vili offered him a sword called Guardian, said to have been forged by wizards during the Great Disaster Era.

• He Ao drove through Novitt District, reflected on his Hidden Observer abilities, and entered Cloud District.
• He Ao avoided surveillance outside Pine Street No. 2 and followed Carrie through a concealed underground passage to Vili’s villa.
• He Ao saw the painting Baptism through its frosted display case and told Vili her father had been right to hide it.
• Vili revealed that her father was Skorn, a founder of United Industries who had been assassinated with his wife fourteen years earlier.
• Vili returned He Ao’s metal lid and harpoon, then showed him Guardian, a sword said to have been forged by wizards during the Great Disaster Era.

He Ao studied the Knight Sword and used his ability to understand its ancient reinforcement array, discovering that divine consciousness could strengthen it further. After accepting the sword from Vili, he learned more about the surveillance around her, United Industries, and her parents’ deaths before leaving to pursue his own investigation.

• He Ao grasped the Knight Sword and resisted the twisted desires that surged into his mind as he used his Truth Vision to decipher its patterns.
• He Ao realized the sword’s reinforcement array could be activated and enhanced with divine consciousness, though peeking into Truth weakened his body.
• Vili gave He Ao the Knight Sword as thanks for helping her and refunded its purchase price when he tried to discuss payment.
• He Ao asked Vili about the watchers around her, Vincent’s takeover of United Industries, her parents’ deaths, and the company’s conflict with the Eternal Sect.
• He Ao left Vili in the snowy alley, saying he was going to do what he should do.

He Ao entered Kate’s villa under the cover of an Eternal Radiance pendant and found the body of his deceased elder brother displayed as a collectible. Kate confronted him in the Banquet Hall, where He Ao greeted him as his uncle.

• A man in white learned that Garrod, his men, and a Priest had been killed, then ordered an investigation and prepared for the Security Federation banquet.
• He Ao arrived at the villa on Nocate Street, used an Eternal Radiance pendant to get past the guards, and entered the grounds.
• He Ao went to the Banquet Hall while the man in white learned of the young Priest’s arrival and headed there with a White Robed Man.
• He Ao lifted the curtain on a display case and saw his deceased elder brother’s modified body inside.
• Kate confronted He Ao, who turned with his hand on his Knight Sword and greeted him as Uncle Kate.