Chapter Summaries

Orsaga weighed the Unity Council’s entry requirements and concluded that destroying a High Plane was more achievable than truly killing an abyss lord. He learned that Abyss Princes and vast High Plane consciousnesses such as OAA and Gann were nearly impossible to destroy, which explained why they could safely cooperate with him.

• Orsaga considered the Unity Council’s two paths to entry: killing an abyss lord or destroying enough High Planes.
• He judged abyss lords too difficult to kill because they could flee, hide, and drag battles into near-eternal wars of attrition.
• Orsaga decided that attacking a High Plane offered a better chance of success because its natives were tied to their home plane and had more limited knowledge and immortality.
• He learned that Abyss Princes had never been killed by enemies or themselves, and that their true deaths through the abyssal will erased their associated concepts from the Multiverse.
• Orsaga recognized that High Plane consciousnesses such as OAA and Gann had nearly absolute scale and could suffer only limited losses from attacks at his level.
• He understood that OAA and Gann were willing to cooperate because he could not threaten the foundations of their existence.

Orsaga’s Holy Grail War began, and its power astonished the Primordial World’s powerful beings as golden light selected players and their counterparts across Worldlines. One player recorded his counterpart’s disappearance, then exited the game despite a warning that doing so could eliminate him.

• The Holy Grail activated, filling the skies with threads and cloud scenes showing different Worldlines.
• Powerful beings watched the spectacle and questioned whether their cultivation and schemes could ever match Orsaga’s power.
• Golden light descended from the threads, selecting players and making their counterparts vanish from the cloud scenes.
• A player recorded his counterpart being chosen and received a notice naming him a participant in the first Holy Grail War.
• The player ignored an elimination warning and exited the game, leaving his six counterparts bewildered.

Jiang Hua feared that he might be an AI-created NPC and resolved to survive the Holy Grail War, then drew the Berserker Class and the Swift Strike ability. Elsewhere, another Jiang Hua drew Spellcaster and Mana Burn Ray, whose long casting incantation made him worry that he could only fight through ambushes.

• Jiang Hua watched the countdown and feared he would die if he failed to win the Holy Grail War, despite doubting whether he was human or a simulated NPC.
• Jiang Hua decided he had to win and drew the Berserker Class and the temporary Swift Strike ability, which increased his attack speed with each attack.
• Jiang Hua closed his limited-use map and chose to practice Swift Strike against manageable wild monsters rather than risk a fight with another participant.
• Dozens of kilometers away, another Jiang Hua examined his Spellcaster Class and Mana Burn Ray, whose 312-character incantation and manual aiming made it difficult to use in combat.
• The Spellcaster Jiang Hua decided to avoid revealing himself and rely on ambushes, fearing he would lose a head-on fight against a melee opponent.

Xiao Jun led his growing team to investigate the Other Worldline counterparts and capture one, hoping to show his teammates that the counterparts might be real people rather than Artificial Intelligence AIs. The bound counterpart continued to think he was in a game, but his striking resemblance to one teammate left that participant unsettled.

• Xiao Jun accepted responsibility for his nearly hundred-member team and ordered them to investigate the event and capture a counterpart alive.
• Xiao Jun planned to use the captured counterpart to make his teammates question whether the Other Worldline players were merely Artificial Intelligence AIs.
• Hours later, Xiao Jun's team tied up a counterpart, who calmly assumed he was in a game dungeon and wondered about its rewards.
• Some teammates commented on how convincingly human the counterpart seemed, while others argued over whether he could really come from another worldline.
• A Holy Grail War participant asked the counterpart for his parents' names and address, and the counterpart angrily refused, prompting the participant to remark that even his answers were too alike.

A winning player revealed that the Holy Grail War had granted him 7,550,000 yen, prompting widespread excitement and debate on the game forum. Another victor described trading an insufficient wish to revive his mother for a chance to enter a future Holy Grail War, where he planned to face stronger opponents.

• A player posted that he had won the Holy Grail War and received 7,550,000 yen after wishing for money.
• Forum users reacted with envy and questioned how the event worked, while some doubted the reward was real.
• Another player said he had wished to revive his dead mother, but the Game System told him his wish quota was insufficient.
• The second player exchanged his wish for an opportunity to designate a future Holy Grail War he could join.
• He planned to grow stronger and use the stronger opponents in that future round to earn enough wish quota to revive his mother.

Xiao Jun realized that players from Other Worldlines were using forum posts to make the Holy Grail War’s replacement for losers seem fake, encouraging more players to join. A different-timeline player continued manipulating the forum and planned to conceal outsiders’ identities for as long as possible.

• Game Forum users mostly dismissed claims that losing the Holy Grail War replaced players with counterparts from other Worldlines.
• Xiao Jun recognized the replacement was real and suspected outsiders were muddying the waters to draw more Different Timeline players into the current Worldline.
• Xiao Jun worried that he could not warn other players without being dismissed, and he was unsure whether his status as a Reincarnator made him a local or an outsider.
• A young man watched his automated script post from multiple accounts to steer forum discussions and conceal the Different Timelines.
• The young man believed online troll armies could cover up outsiders whose friends and family noticed their changed identities, and he reviewed his Guess Who I Am mission to hide his origins for rewards.

Xiao Jun’s team carefully pursued a target during the third Holy Grail War, hoping to use their wishes to join cultivation sects. Meanwhile, players had spread beyond the Novice Village, and the game’s conflicts and secrets had grown more intense, though outsiders mostly dismissed them as rumors.

• A man who had been dragged from another Worldline suspected the game’s Production Team was malicious and decided to seek benefits amid the strange actions of human governments.
• After two years in the Primordial World, players had endured countless deaths and finally escaped the Novice Village to explore the wider world.
• The Holy Grail War entered its 777-day third round, while local and outsider players used wishes and disguises to expose or conceal their identities.
• Xiao Jun’s team tracked a target across a barren mountain and avoided rushing into possible traps.
• Xiao Jun explained that three members of his team had been selected for the Holy Grail War, and they hoped to use their wishes to join sects and gain cultivation inheritances.

Xiao Jun prepared his hardened teammates for the Holy Grail War, believing its rewards could help him unlock supernatural powers and use his remembered cultivation methods. Meanwhile, Cadil advanced his technology in the Primordial World, unaware that a colossal metallic figure was watching him from above.

• Xiao Jun judged that his three teammates had grown into elite players after more than two years of training, though they remained outmatched by supernatural creatures.
• Xiao Jun planned to use the Holy Grail War’s rewards to unlock the supernatural module and rely on a faction as temporary protection while he used his remembered cultivation methods.
• Members of Xiao Jun’s large team secretly viewed him as a valuable source of cultivation methods, while other transmigrators and Reincarnators watched the team in turn.
• Cadil, a reconnaissance officer from the Kara Civilization, built scouting devices, tank-like vehicles, and crude electromagnetic weapons as he explored the Primordial World scientifically.
• Cadil considered finding a cultivator to test his technology, unaware that a colossal metal construct with floating light swords was observing him from the clouds.

Black Smoke Sky, a senior God of Refined Gold, surveyed the players and recognized that their potential made them valuable targets to the Primordial World’s factions. He discovered that Cadil’s technology differed fundamentally from the other players’ research, with designs suited to beings with far more than two arms and legs.

• Black Smoke Sky considered the players weak and unruly but saw that their resilience gave them considerable potential as resources.
• He noted that Primordial World factions mostly watched the players rather than approaching them, partly because they feared Crimson King and his hidden backers.
• While inspecting the area, Black Smoke Sky noticed Cadil climbing the Technology Tree and sensed something unusual about his work.
• Black Smoke Sky compared Cadil’s research with other players’ technology, which generally followed human-centered principles.
• Black Smoke Sky concluded that Cadil’s technologies were suited to races with complex bodies and at least ten limbs, not humans.

Black Smoke Sky recognized that Cadil’s technology followed principles unlike those of the other players and secretly attached a Micro Void-Dwelling Bad God Metal Worm to monitor him. He left Cadil unharmed, while Cadil continued developing technology in his cave.

• Black Smoke Sky studied Cadil’s unusual work and suspected he held valuable secrets.
• Black Smoke Sky released a Micro Void-Dwelling Bad God Metal Worm that infiltrated Cadil’s body and monitored him without causing harm.
• Black Smoke Sky decided not to test or trouble Cadil because he was too weak to withstand much.
• Black Smoke Sky departed silently on his vessel.
• Cadil continued reproducing advanced technology, hoping to build cosmic warships and defeat the Primitive Beings.

More than three months after the game began, Xiao Jun’s team had become one of the strongest and best-equipped player groups, but some members were growing restless and eyeing chances to make their own names. Xiao Jun sensed a change in the team and began teaching them useful skills, unaware they planned to use that knowledge before setting out on their own.

• Players joined factions in growing numbers, while black brokers exploited newcomers by sending them to dangerous groups for referral fees; some victims escaped and retaliated against the brokers.
• Xiao Jun’s team gained strength, influence, freedom, and resources through Xiao Jun’s guidance and his artifact-refining and medicine-refining skills.
• Transmigrators and Reincarnators within the team remained dissatisfied because they had yet to find the opportunities they had expected.
• Some transmigrators began coveting treasures and mythological figures they believed would become important in the Primordial World.
• Xiao Jun noticed the team’s atmosphere had changed and taught members artifact refining, medicine refining, and formations, believing he was developing talent for the team.

Cadil had built a heavily fortified underground city filled with automated machinery, industrial facilities, and weapons, including a small stockpile of Three-Phase Thermonuclear Bombs. As he directed the fortress from a metal coffin, he considered building a Central Supercomputer but feared the God of Refined Gold might take control of it.

• Cadil’s ordinary-looking cave concealed a sealed passage leading to a vast underground city protected by a metal shell.
• Cadil equipped the underground fortress with automated machines, industrial facilities, conventional weapons, and hovering war vehicles.
• Cadil produced several Three-Phase Thermonuclear Bombs whose altered effects on Spiritual Qi had drawn unexplained changes in nearby Lifeforms, so he had detonated only one.
• Cadil coordinated the fortress’s facilities from a metal coffin in its most heavily defended chamber, using tens of thousands of cables to transmit his commands.
• Cadil hesitated to build a Central Supercomputer because he suspected the God of Refined Gold could seize control of it.

Cadil agonized over whether to build a Central Supercomputer, unaware that the Gods of Refined Gold had been secretly monitoring him for years. Black Smoke Sky reviewed the gathered information at Xuan Kong Mechanical Capital and learned about the aliens and civilizations in Cadil’s world.

• Cadil weighed the risks of building a Central Supercomputer while the Micro Void-Dwelling Bad God Metal Worms secretly recorded his actions and reported them to Black Smoke Sky.
• The chapter revealed that the Gods of Refined Gold had long been observing Cadil and testing his technology by drawing monsters toward him.
• The Mechanical Supreme had harvested the Primordial World's Chaos-born monsters and used their remains to create Mechanical Guards and build Xuan Kong Mechanical Capital.
• Black Smoke Sky examined the information collected from Cadil and became intrigued by the Kara Civilization and the many races living among the stars in Cadil’s world.

Black Smoke Sky learned that the Real World contained a vast, ancient universe with powerful civilizations and became eager to seize its technological secrets. After he reported his discovery, the Mechanical Supreme ordered him to keep observing until the God of Refined Gold race could launch a full-scale conquest.

• Black Smoke Sky realized that the star sea beyond the Primordial World held greater vitality and stronger forces than he had believed.
• After learning from Cadil about the Real World's technology and its 35.9-billion-year history, Black Smoke Sky suspected it contained valuable secrets.
• Black Smoke Sky reported his discovery to the Mechanical Supreme, ruler of Xuan Kong Mechanical Capital.
• The Mechanical Supreme ordered Black Smoke Sky to continue observing and promised a future assault to enslave the outsiders and seize their gains.

The Mechanical Supreme reflected on his knowledge of the future and worried that events were already diverging from what he remembered. Meanwhile, Orsaga proposed a new way to toy with his chess pieces, prompting another bettor to warn that he might destroy them before the game began.

• The Mechanical Supreme recalled learning about the future and explained why he had cautiously avoided disruptive moves to prevent his race’s predicted defeat.
• The Mechanical Supreme wondered whether small changes had caused a butterfly effect and recognized that even divination could not account for every unexpected factor.
• Orsaga asked another existence what they thought of his plan for his chess pieces.
• The other existence warned that Orsaga might play his pieces to death before they could face the other bettors’ pieces under the game’s rules.

Orsaga persuaded another bettor to manipulate the fates of countless beings for amusement, while Nuwa watched human players in Metaphysics Hong Huang and struggled to understand her concern for them. Fuxi joined her, but Nuwa remained unsure what the humans’ resemblance to Pangu meant.

• Orsaga defended creating hardships for chess pieces as a way to make the wager entertaining, and another bettor decided to try it.
• The bettor plucked translucent threads of fate, subtly changing the lives of countless beings across the world.
• The Jade Emperor watched the fate-altering act and doubted that the cold, detached bettor would find tormenting chess pieces enjoyable.
• In the Primordial World, Nuwa watched players fleeing a Demonic Beast and pondered why the human players drew her attention.
• Fuxi suggested capturing some players for inspection, but Nuwa said she could already see their condition and did not need to capture them.
• Nuwa told Fuxi that the players’ resemblance to Pangu gave her a complicated feeling, as if she had discovered and lost something at once.

Nuwa sensed that the humans appearing in the Primordial World were somehow fated to be with her, though she did not understand why. Meanwhile, Xiao Jun struggled to keep his team together as key members abruptly left to chase implausible opportunities, and he was left trying to calm the remaining players.

• Nuwa felt a deep, inexplicable recognition when she saw the humans, and her premonition filled her with sorrow.
• Xiao Jun recalled how a teammate had left to seek opportunities at Buzhou Mountain despite his warnings about the danger.
• Xiao Jun's other key teammates submitted strange plans to seek Hongjun, the God-Slaying Spear, and beautiful fairies, then left the team.
• Xiao Jun worried that the departures would cause the team to disband and tried to think of a way to stabilize the remaining members.

The chapter explained how Orsaga’s influence drew Xiao Jun’s team into increasingly dangerous events, where surviving their trials could restore their former fortunes. Eighty-eight years later, a player in the Crimson Wind Plains received a call about escalating turmoil in the Real World and agreed to meet the caller there.

• The narration explained that transmigrators and Reincarnators gathered in Xiao Jun’s team, causing its strength to grow as their past Destinies began to affect them.
• Orsaga’s distorted cause and effect drew the Chess Pieces into repeated trials, where enemies and opportunities would find them.
• Eighty-eight years later, a player ate raw prey in the dangerous Crimson Wind Plains.
• The player received a call from a woman who said several countries were under control amid escalating turmoil in the Real World.
• The player agreed to go to the Real World and asked where to meet.

As the Primordial World’s connection with the Real World intensified, ambitious players prepared to challenge established political powers, and Xiao Jun considered whether to take a side. Though he had become a top player, he decided that avoiding unwanted attention was safer while he remained weak in the Primordial World.

• The growing connection between the Primordial World and the Real World caused strange beings and materials to cross over, while players’ bodies began to gain power.
• A powerful player whose negotiations with the authorities failed planned to exploit the coming upheaval and rise in the reshaped hierarchy.
• The player predicted that conflicts between powerful players and political regimes would bring a global reshuffling of power.
• Xiao Jun and his team sensed the rising tension as Xiao Jun neared the Earth Immortal realm and retained near-Lose Immortal strength on Blue Star.
• Xiao Jun weighed whether to side with players or political regimes and decided that avoiding unnecessary Hate Value was best for now.

Xiao Jun’s team voted to occupy a country rather than support an existing government, choosing Cole’s proposed target. Xiao Jun set the invasion for the next day and embraced the plan to make his team the first to openly challenge the other players.

• A four-eyed teammate suggested that Xiao Jun’s team occupy a small country north of his hometown.
• Xiao Jun told the core members to choose between backing a government and seizing a country themselves, and an overwhelming majority voted to occupy one.
• Xiao Jun chose the country Cole had proposed and ordered the team to rest and settle matters involving their relatives and dependents that day.
• When a teammate questioned moving before stronger players had acted, Xiao Jun confirmed the team would be the first to make a major move and test the Real World’s response.
• Xiao Jun’s teammates enthusiastically backed his plan, and some suggested targeting one of the Five Great Powers instead.