Chapter Summaries

As Sekiro drew widespread praise, Torii: Ghost Phantom received poor reviews and disappointed players. Quinn reached Senpou Temple and fought the seemingly unkillable Armored Warrior, whose unusual execution left the streamer, viewers, and Koizumi Kazuo stunned.

• Players shared Sekiro strategies and reacted to footage of Wolf defeating Genichiro in their first encounter, only for Genichiro to arrange a sneak attack that still cost Wolf his arm.
• Review outlets gave Torii: Ghost Phantom mediocre scores, and players criticized its story, combat, side quests, and boss battles while urging its director, Koizumi Kazuo, to learn from Sekiro.
• Quinn entered Senpou Temple and explained on stream that its monks had become Parasitic Entities after experimenting with immortality.
• The Armored Warrior attacked Quinn on the covered bridge, forcing him to dodge and heal through the warrior's powerful strikes.
• Quinn broke the Armored Warrior's posture and performed a Shinobi Execution, but his blade only sparked against the armor and the warrior stood back up.

Koizumi used the Armored Warrior’s apparent invincibility to spread claims that Sekiro had a game-breaking bug, while Zhao Yi and Wang Yong discovered how to defeat the boss by knocking him off the bridge. As outrage surged, Gu Sheng remained confident players would find the solution, and a widely viewed guide abruptly turned the backlash around.

• Koizumi watched Eiki fail to damage or execute the Armored Warrior, then used the players’ frustration to spread claims of a severe Sekiro bug across gaming forums.
• Zhao Yi rejected the bug explanation and fought the Armored Warrior while Wang Yong watched and searched for a solution.
• After Zhao Yi staggered the Armored Warrior near the viewing platform, Wang Yong told him to get behind the boss and kick him toward the unguarded edge.
• Zhao Yi sent the Armored Warrior falling from the platform, earning a Prayer Bead and defeating the boss.
• As Sato warned Gu Sheng that players were demanding an explanation, a no-damage guide for the Armored Warrior appeared on SNG Forum and rapidly drew tens of thousands of replies.

Gu Sheng was surprised by the players’ response to the Armored Warrior, while players explored Shattered Valley, Bodhisattva Valley, and Mortal Journey Village. pew encountered the giant serpent, Eiki defeated the Guardian Ape only for it to resurrect, and Quinn began fighting the Mist Noble.

• Gu Sheng read players’ reactions to discovering the Armored Warrior’s gimmick and saw them praise the boss’s distinctive design.
• pew encountered the giant serpent in Shattered Valley and fled through the gorge as it pursued him.
• Eiki fought the Guardian Ape in Bodhisattva Valley and beheaded it after repeated attempts.
• The Guardian Ape revived behind Eiki, terrifying him with its headless body and severed head.
• Quinn prepared for the Mist Noble in Mortal Journey Village and began the fight with a stealth attack.

Quinn defeated Mist Noble with ease, and players praised Sekiro’s ingenious bosses as Koizumi Kazuo watched his malicious-BUG campaign backfire. At the Divine Realm, Eiki witnessed the Divine Dragon’s awe-inspiring arrival and began the final battle as Wolf sought to sever the curse of immortality.

• Quinn deflected Mist Noble’s attack, struck him down, and executed him, leaving players laughing at the boss’s weakness.
• Players celebrated Sekiro’s varied bosses on the SNG Forum, while Koizumi Kazuo realized his smear campaign had helped make the discussion post a hit.
• Wolf reached the Divine Realm with the materials needed for the Divine Incense and reflected on his journey and the curse of immortality.
• Eiki defeated the small dragon-like creatures and thought the Divine Realm’s final battle was over.
• The Divine Dragon emerged from the clouds in a spectacular display, stunning Eiki and the livestream audience.
• Wolf used Lightning Reversal to wound the Divine Dragon as the climactic battle began and Ashina’s story approached its end.

Wolf defeated Genichiro and the resurrected Sword Saint Isshin Ashina, then sacrificed himself to end Kuro’s immortality. Kuro chose to live as a normal person, and the game’s ending sparked a wave of celebration for Golden Wind.

• Wolf returned to Ashina and met Genichiro in the reed field, where he defeated him in their final duel.
• Genichiro used Open Gate to summon Isshin Ashina, and streamers struggled against the Sword Saint’s three phases and unexpected firearms.
• Wolf defeated Isshin, who praised him before accepting his death, as dawn rose over Ashina.
• Wolf gave Kuro the Dragon Tear and Everblossom, then sacrificed himself with the Immortality Sever to end Kuro’s immortality.
• Emma and Kuro paid respects at Wolf’s grave, and Kuro left determined to live as a normal person.
• The game ended, and Golden Wind received a surge of celebration as players hailed its traveling altar.

Matt Simon gave Sekiro a perfect score, and the game’s popularity surged after its Creative Workshop opened to mods. As Golden Wind wondered why Komeila had gone quiet about its struggling game Torii, Jouetsu Kagemasa told Komeila’s shareholders that the project had been flawlessly planned and its failure made no sense.

• Matt Simon struggled to find words for Sekiro’s many strengths and gave it SNG’s first perfect score in years.
• News coverage and player interest in Sekiro soared, while Torii’s popularity sank toward oblivion.
• Golden Wind opened Sekiro’s Creative Workshop, prompting players to upload thousands of absurd mods.
• Gu Sheng and Lu Bian questioned why Komeila was doing so little to promote Torii despite its poor performance.
• Jouetsu Kagemasa addressed Komeila’s shareholders, insisting Torii’s promotion and strategy had been flawless and its failure made no sense.

Jouetsu Kagemasa faced Komeila’s shareholders over Torii’s disastrous sales and blamed Koizumi Kazuo and Moriya Tetsuya for the project’s failure. He accused Moriya of secretly aiding Golden Wind, then submitted his resignation and asked the shareholders to appoint a successor.

• Jouetsu Kagemasa explained that Torii’s preorders had plunged and its sales had recovered only a fraction of its cost.
• Jouetsu Kagemasa blamed Koizumi Kazuo’s poor gameplay demonstration and Moriya Tetsuya’s resignation for Torii’s failed promotion.
• Jouetsu Kagemasa showed photographs of Moriya Tetsuya meeting Gu Sheng and presented evidence that Moriya had helped Golden Wind.
• Jouetsu Kagemasa played a recording of Gu Sheng and Moriya discussing Golden Wind’s action game and motion-capture needs.
• Jouetsu Kagemasa apologized to the shareholders, accepted primary responsibility, and formally submitted his resignation as president.

Jouetsu Kagemasa kept his position as Komeila’s president by convincing the board to let him remain until retirement. Meanwhile, Yan Sheng visited Golden Wind to propose an exclusive Yiyou sports game, and Gu Sheng pitched extreme sports despite the genre’s tiny audience, a proposal Shen Miaomiao immediately supported.

• Jouetsu Kagemasa offered to resign, but Komeila’s seven major shareholders urged him to stay and hold the company together.
• After the board meeting, Jouetsu Kagemasa privately celebrated retaining control and anticipated an internal struggle over his successor.
• Yan Sheng visited Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao to discuss making an exclusive sports game for Yiyou.
• Yan Sheng proposed a streetball game inspired by Komeila’s Wild Dunk EX, but Gu Sheng suggested a game featuring extreme sports instead.
• Yan Sheng warned that extreme sports had almost no audience or competitions in their world, and Gu Sheng confirmed this after searching online.
• Shen Miaomiao declared that Golden Wind would make the extreme sports game despite the risks.

Shen Miaomiao approved Gu Sheng and Yan Sheng’s extreme sports game project, while Moriya Tetsuya resigned from Komeila and joined Golden Wind after Gu Sheng offered to defend him against accusations of leaking company secrets. The chapter ended with Golden Wind announcing Moriya’s appointment and his promotional plans for the project.

• Shen Miaomiao swiftly approved the extreme sports game project for Yiyou x2, despite Gu Sheng and Yan Sheng’s concerns about its niche audience.
• Moriya Tetsuya left Komeila after refusing to reconcile with the company, while Takasugi Isao voiced his belief in Moriya’s principles.
• Shen Miaomiao mistook Gu Sheng’s late-night video call with Moriya for a romantic call with a mistress, burst into the studio, and apologized after learning who was on the call.
• Moriya explained that Komeila had made him a scapegoat for the failed Torii project, and Gu Sheng offered Golden Wind’s support in fighting any public accusations.
• Moriya accepted Gu Sheng’s offer and proposed using coordinated music-based promotions and extreme sports events to broaden the audience for the Peak Nation project.
• Golden Wind announced that Moriya Tetsuya had joined the company.

Golden Wind’s announcement that Moriya Tetsuya had joined the company sent Komeila’s stock price plunging, and Jouetsu Kagemasa swallowed his anger rather than challenge Gu Sheng publicly. After Moriya became Golden Wind’s deputy director, the company prepared to take its next step onto the international stage with the “Peak Nation” project.

• Will Brown and Jimmy Lawrence learned that Komeila’s Managing Director of Gaming Affairs, Moriya Tetsuya, had joined Golden Wind and rushed to sell their Komeila stock.
• Jouetsu Kagemasa watched Komeila’s stock fall and considered attacking Golden Wind, but Gu Sheng’s conciliatory-yet-threatening post pushed him to keep quiet.
• Komeila publicly wished Moriya well, while media coverage and the company’s other setbacks deepened its humiliating losses.
• Golden Wind’s success with “Sekiro” and Moriya’s recruitment strengthened its position as a rising mid-sized game company.
• Moriya joined Golden Wind as deputy director, and Gu Sheng introduced him to present the “Peak Nation” project plan.

Moriya Tetsuya proposed making Peak Nation stand out with real-world locations, extreme-sports challenges, and music-backed promotional videos, but warned that the plan could cost nearly $100 million. Shen Miaomiao arrived, learned the estimate, and was delighted by the prospect of spending so much.

• Gu Sheng assigned Peak Nation to Steel Chain Fingers Studio while Golden Experience Studio handled updates for PUBG and APEX.
• Moriya Tetsuya proposed the Peak Eight challenges and recreating real-world locations for extreme-sports gameplay.
• Moriya suggested making extensive promotional videos as MVs using licensed popular music.
• Moriya warned that the approach could raise Peak Nation's cost to roughly $80–100 million.
• Shen Miaomiao joined the meeting, heard Moriya's estimate, and welcomed the high spending.

Shen Miaomiao approved Moriya Tetsuya’s plan for Peak Nation and pushed him to raise its budget to one hundred million dollars, while he took her business philosophy as inspiration. After handing out lavish personalized gifts to Golden Wind employees, she gave Gu Sheng a handmade scarf that he discovered was embroidered with her name.

• Shen Miaomiao told Moriya Tetsuya to expand Peak Nation’s budget from his proposed eighty or ninety million dollars to one hundred million, with Gu Sheng supervising.
• Moriya accepted Shen Miaomiao’s directive and gained renewed admiration for her and Golden Wind.
• Shen Miaomiao distributed expensive personalized gifts to employees, including a Dupont lighter for Moriya.
• Gu Sheng complained that Shen Miaomiao had given him a plain scarf while others received costly gifts, and she claimed it was Burberry with its tag removed.
• Gu Sheng discovered that the scarf was handmade and bore a tiny embroidered “Miao,” then folded it carefully and pressed it against his face.

Gu Sheng took Shen Miaomiao on a work trip to scout locations and film material for Peak Nation, while Golden Wind’s silence fueled rumors that it was preparing another strike against Komeila. After the team gathered footage around the world, Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao lingered in Nyingchi, where she asked him to sing “Elopement.”

• Gu Sheng surprised Shen Miaomiao by inviting her on a half-month trip to scout Peak Nation locations, and she eagerly traveled with him.
• Golden Wind’s unexplained silence sparked rumors that it was targeting Komeila again, leaving Jouetsu Kagemasa anxious and ordering his staff to monitor the company.
• Lu Bian surveyed Swallow Cave in Mexico, Da Jiang inspected an avalanche-skiing site in the Alps, and Moriya Tetsuya visited Angel Falls to assess Peak Nation’s extreme-event locations.
• Gu Sheng suffered severe altitude sickness in Shigatse, so Shen Miaomiao collected footage at Everest Base Camp instead.
• Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao stayed in Nyingchi after finishing their filming, and she borrowed a guitar and asked him to sing “Elopement.”

Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao shared a romantic evening in Tibet before Golden Wind broke its month-long silence with a Peak Nation trailer featuring Linkin Park’s “Faint.” The trailer’s reveal stunned pew and his viewers as the chapter ended on their reaction.

• Gu Sheng sang “Elope” for Shen Miaomiao, who asked whether she was like characters from his novel, and he told her she should simply be herself.
• Gu Sheng took a candid Polaroid of Shen Miaomiao, and they joined the guesthouse guests for hotpot and dancing around a bonfire.
• pew and his livestream viewers watched the clock approach midnight while discussing Golden Wind’s prolonged silence and betting on whether the company would post.
• Golden Wind uploaded a video tweet, and pew opened the trailer as his viewers reacted with surprise.
• The Peak Nation trailer revealed Golden Wind’s collaboration with Linkin Park and used “Faint” as a man geared up in a wingsuit and leapt from a plane.

Golden Wind unveiled Peak Nation through a series of extreme-sports trailers featuring expensive licensed songs and real-world locations. Its ultimate trailer, accompanied by Counting Stars and a live appearance by Republic Band, left viewers eager to play the game.

• Pew watched a wingsuit-flying trailer set to Linkin Park, then demanded that Golden Wind take his money immediately.
• Sister Zhou watched a serene skiing trailer set to For ya, where two skiers performed tricks together at sunset.
• Golden Wind released trailers for mountain biking, surfing, free climbing, and parachuting, drawing attention to Peak Nation with major music licenses.
• Golden Wind premiered Peak Nation’s ultimate trailer, featuring Republic Band performing Counting Stars on a mountain peak.
• The ultimate trailer showed cyclists, skiers, parachutists, wingsuit flyers, and climbers tackling real-world locations before revealing Peak Nation’s title.

Shen Miaomiao realized Moriya Tetsuya’s promotion had made Peak Nation unexpectedly popular, so she extended its settlement period and raised its rebate multiplier before heading to a meeting about a Garden Warfare derivative project. Meanwhile, Tencent Bull’s executives struggled to find a way into the international sports sponsorship market until Matt Lager suggested sponsoring extreme sports.

• Shen Miaomiao saw Peak Nation gaining popularity and changed its settlement period to 21 days plus 90 days and its rebate multiplier to one hundred times.
• Shen Miaomiao hurried with Chu Qingzhou to a preliminary meeting about Garden Warfare’s derivative project, while Chu Qingzhou warned her against bragging to industry peers.
• Matt Lager and Xu Zhixing reviewed Tencent Bull’s difficulties finding sponsorship opportunities in established sports and international markets.
• Matt Lager suggested that Tencent Bull sponsor extreme sports, which had no organized events.

Xu Zhixing proposed that Tencent Group explore sponsoring extreme sports, prompting Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao to begin preliminary partnership discussions with Bull. Shen Miaomiao then turned the meeting to Garden Warfare’s derivative project, where Gu Sheng revealed its name: OVERWATCH.

• Xu Zhixing argued that niche extreme sports could attract a substantial global audience and said he could approach his Neon contacts about cooperation.
• Moriya Tetsuya presented Gu Sheng with a can of Bull Drink, and Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao agreed to begin preliminary sponsorship discussions with Tencent Group.
• Shen Miaomiao shifted the meeting to Garden Warfare’s derivative project, while Jiang Yun and Golden Experience’s executives resolved to redeem the studio’s reputation after the game’s Mostly Positive reviews.
• Gu Sheng announced that the Garden Warfare derivative project would be called OVERWATCH.

Shen Miaomiao presented a prepared plan for the Overwatch project, recommending changes to its shooting system while preserving popular modes and prioritizing player choice. Gu Sheng approved her proposals, and Shen unlocked the sub-project and spent 10.03 million yuan to raise its rebate multiplier by 1003x.

• Little Nezha applauded Gu Sheng’s name for the project, and the meeting room joined in before Shen Miaomiao asked to share her ideas.
• Shen Miaomiao proposed switching to a virtual crosshair system, keeping payload and capture-point modes, expanding the maps, and preserving appealing character designs.
• Shen Miaomiao urged the team never to teach players how to play, and the executives applauded her recommendations.
• Gu Sheng approved Shen Miaomiao’s suggestions and said he would bring the proposal to the next meeting.
• Shen Miaomiao unlocked the Overwatch sub-project and used a multiplier purchase voucher to spend 10.03 million yuan for a 1003x rebate multiplier increase.

Wang Laoju streamed Peak Nation by presenting its extreme sports as products from Future Technology, then chose a dangerous Utah downhill race to demonstrate them. He attempted a twisting backflip for a bronze trophy, crashed fatally, and left the viewers stunned.

• Wang Laoju greeted his livestream viewers in a grotesque avatar and introduced Peak Nation as a Future Technology product demonstration.
• Wang Laoju selected a D-class downhill mountain biking course in Utah and arrived at its starting line.
• Wang Laoju surveyed the narrow cliffside track, including its steep slanted paths and a jump across a canyon fissure.
• Wang Laoju rode down the course, using the motion-assist system to stay balanced as he sped along the cliff.
• Wang Laoju attempted a twisting backflip at the cliff’s edge, crashed, and died as the livestream viewers watched in silence.

Octane nearly completed a spectacular double 720 skiing trick in Peak Nation, only to crash into a lone tree just before the finish line. In China, a terminally ill boy named Cat Hero watched the stream and made plans with Dawei to play the game and visit its real-world locations, though Dawei knew Cat Hero might never get to go.

• Octane practiced downhill skiing in Peak Nation and prepared for the Alps challenge by attempting increasingly difficult tricks at high speed.
• Octane landed a 720 backflip spin followed by a 720 flat spin, thrilling his livestream audience.
• Octane crashed into a tree near the finish line, then angrily blamed Gu Sheng and shook his signed prosthetic leg at the camera.
• Supercat posted that he wanted to see the Alps, then chatted with Dawei about leaving the hospital and playing Peak Nation together.
• Dawei realized Cat Hero’s discharge did not mean his terminal illness had improved and feared he might never visit the real locations.