Chapter Summaries

Lu Li commissioned new equipment from Chuchu, then enhanced his Growth Equipment and tested his strengthened abilities with Aizen. When the native world conquest competition was summoned to begin in twenty-four hours, Lu Li still lacked two commissioned pieces, and Chuchu revealed that the space had called her away to mine.

• Lu Li asked Chuchu to make equipment, and after haggling they agreed she would replace his inner armor and pendant while buying back his old equipment.
• Lu Li enhanced three pieces of Growth Equipment in the Reinforcement Hall, and Prison Demon's Final Release became safer to use after he reached a preliminary understanding with the Demon God within it.
• Lu Li went to the training grounds to test his strengthened abilities with Aizen, and two weeks passed.
• Lu Li received a notification that Fat Dragon's Surprise Shop had opened, along with a summons to join a native world conquest competition beginning in twenty-four hours.
• Lu Li worried that his remaining commissioned equipment would not be ready before the competition, and Chuchu sent a message saying the space had summoned her to mine.

Lu Li learned that Chuchu had been assigned to mine in a dangerous high-level Native World, while he was committed to a competition that might include mining contests. He collected the finished Nightmare outer garment from her and learned her destination was Native World No. 60302, leaving him hoping to choose the same world and meet her there.

• Chuchu told Lu Li that the space had assigned her to mine in a high-level Native World despite her being a Tier 4 Supporter, and that she might miss her equipment contract deadline.
• Lu Li explained that he had already agreed to represent End Space in a competition beginning in twenty-four hours, and Chuchu suspected Supporters would also compete over mining.
• Chuchu gave Lu Li the completed Nightmare outer garment, which locked his Charm at -5 and granted defensive and Nightmare-related abilities.
• Chuchu said the other two pieces of equipment remained unfinished because she could not find suitable materials.
• Lu Li asked Chuchu for her destination, learned it was Native World No. 60302, and said he would try to choose that world if he encountered it.
• Chuchu showed Lu Li the popular Life-Preserving Manual, and he discovered its author, Kaka, had once fallen to become a Supporter before rising again.

Lu Li prepared for the original-world competition, gathering supplies and entering with Aizen after reviewing the event rules. The competition involved ten factions, including the unfamiliar Paradise, and Lu Li began teleporting toward an unknown world.

• Lu Li returned the Life-Preserving Manual to Chuchu, promised to find her in her world, and exchanged an S+ evaluation badge for a Talent Advancement Book from Fat Dragon.
• Lu Li used the book to advance his Martial Furnace talent, then reunited with Aizen and discovered that A'Huo had transformed into a panda.
• Lu Li, Aizen, and A'Huo visited Shrimp Meat, who supplied them with a large stash of prepared food and drinks for the mission.
• After the twenty-four-hour preparation period, Lu Li and Aizen began teleporting to an original world for the competition.
• Lu Li read the event rules, learned that Supporters could be coerced into mining for rival factions, and discovered that Paradise was competing alongside the Nine Great Spaces.

Lu Li and Aizen chose Native World No. 60302, a world with an exceptionally high minimum difficulty, and Lu Li selected the identity of the Reincarnated Human King. He arrived on the Continent of Benevolence and encountered a purple-black monster outside his starting house.

• Lu Li found Native World No. 60302, where Chuchu was already present, and chose it with Aizen despite its extreme danger.
• Pantyhose Milk Tea chose a different world, while a contestant from Paradise mocked the other factions for avoiding the hardest choice.
• Lu Li selected the Reincarnated Human King identity after rejecting monstrous roles and bleak human identities, despite its S+ difficulty and evaluation requirements.
• End Space deployed Lu Li to the Continent of Benevolence and warned him not to reveal information about it.
• Lu Li awoke in a decaying house beside a dried corpse, pushed open the door, and saw a purple-black monster staring at him.

Lu Li killed a Nerve Fiend and discovered that his Martial Furnace advancement mission required him to create ten SSS- or higher Martial Arts techniques, forcing him to seek out lost human knowledge. After learning that Aizen was investigating a strange city and staying safe for now, Lu Li explored the ruins of Imhoton Old Civilization City-State and encountered a frightened woman.

• Lu Li resisted the Nerve Fiend’s mental influence, inspected it, and destroyed it with Prison Demon.
• Lu Li examined the first stage of his talent advancement mission and realized he needed to find lost cultivation arts or develop techniques himself.
• Lu Li contacted Aizen, who said he was safe as a ranch manager in a strange, technologically advanced city and would investigate separately.
• Lu Li left the house, killed another Nerve Fiend, and adapted to the world’s restrictions on his power.
• Lu Li explored the ruins of Imhoton Old Civilization City-State and found a woman hiding beneath vines.
• The woman recoiled and pointed her dagger at Lu Li, and he told her he had killed the monster that attacked him.

Lu Li met Emily, who mistook him for a monster, and tried to learn about the human world from her. A Giant Bloodfiend interrupted them, forcing Lu Li to flee with Emily while she warned him about its attacks.

• Lu Li caught Emily after she tried to run, convinced her he was human, and asked her to lead him to an inhabited place.
• Emily refused to reveal her tribe and repeatedly tried to kill herself, but Lu Li eventually released her and walked away.
• A Giant Bloodfiend emerged from the ruins and attacked Lu Li, who was badly injured while blocking its blow.
• Emily explained that killing Nerve Fiends had awakened the Giant Bloodfiend, and Lu Li grabbed her and fled from the pursuing monster.
• The Giant Bloodfiend launched a Nerve Fiend at them; Lu Li protected Emily, suffered a wound, and used Healing Kidō to repair her broken spine.
• Emily warned Lu Li that the Giant Bloodfiend could spray stomach acid, and Lu Li deflected the attack with a flying rock.

Lu Li escaped the Giant Bloodfiend with Emily, then won her trust when she recognized his panda companion A'Huo as a sacred beast. They reached Emily’s tribe at night, where Lu Li sensed a mysterious force concealing and protecting it.

• Lu Li fled the Giant Bloodfiend with Emily and rested, discovering that the murky air made energy recovery difficult and left him physically tired.
• Emily offered Lu Li her treasured bread, and he shared Sweet Cola with her while learning that strangers usually abandoned people to monsters.
• After a blood-water monster attacked Emily by the river, Lu Li prepared to leave, but A'Huo appeared and Emily recognized him as a sacred beast from her tribe’s legends.
• Lu Li took Emily onto A'Huo’s back and rode with her toward her tribe, forty kilometers away.
• At night, they reached the dark basin where Emily’s tribe lived, and Lu Li sensed a mysterious presence that hid the settlement from his perception.

Lu Li returned Emily to her tribe, healed her dying grandfather, and met Ji Hong, the elder of the Human Union Tribe. As the tribe welcomed Lu Li and A'Huo, Lu Li learned that the world contained rare, powerful resources and worried that he still could not contact Chuchu.

• Prost recognized Emily in the jungle, welcomed her back, and escorted her, Lu Li, and A'Huo to the tribe.
• Emily rushed to her grandfather, and Lu Li healed the elder's severe wounds and infection with his ability.
• The tribe members praised A'Huo as a sacred beast and treated Lu Li's healing as a holy miracle.
• The elder introduced himself as Ji Hong of the Human Union Tribe and thanked Lu Li for saving him and Emily.
• Ji Hong showed Lu Li a Boil-Pressure Stone, and Lu Li realized the world's ordinary materials could be exceptionally valuable.
• Lu Li told Ji Hong he wanted to learn about the tribe and worried that he could not reach Chuchu through their communicators.

Lu Li learned about the Human Union Tribe’s history and its hidden survival, then followed Ji Hong to an ancient sacrificial site, where Ji Hong identified him as a Saint Awakened. There, Ji Hong revealed a prophecy about humanity’s doomsday and the return of the Human King.

• Ji Hong told Lu Li that the tribe had survived since the start of the epoch by avoiding outsiders and staying hidden from monsters, and said the Sixth Epoch had lasted 736 years.
• Lu Li observed the tribe’s daily life, including its failed crops and Prost’s successful hunt, while worrying about finding Chuchu and becoming strong enough to survive.
• Emily brought Lu Li to Ji Hong, who led him with A'Huo to an ancient sacrificial site and explained that Lu Li had become the tribe’s benefactor.
• Ji Hong called Lu Li a Saint Awakened, then recited a prophecy about the gods’ madness and humanity’s doomsday, ending with a command to light beacon fires and return the Human King.

Lu Li visited the Gatekeeper with Ji Hong, hoping to learn whether he was the Human King from the prophecy, but he could not pull the sword from the throne. The Gatekeeper gave him a cultivation method based on devouring strange creatures and tasked him with retrieving nine ancient scrolls from human city-states, setting Lu Li on a path to grow stronger.

• Ji Hong led Lu Li into the cave and asked the Gatekeeper whether Lu Li was the reincarnation of the Human King.
• The Gatekeeper told Lu Li to draw the sword, but Lu Li and A'Huo both failed to move it.
• Lu Li asked the Gatekeeper for help protecting the tribe and offered food before preparing to leave.
• The Gatekeeper rose, gave Lu Li an ancient leather scroll, and imprinted a cultivation system into his mind.
• Lu Li learned that the system let people grow stronger by devouring strange creatures and that the Gatekeeper wanted him to retrieve nine scrolls from human city-states.

Lu Li learned the risks of gaining supernatural power and ignored Ji Hong’s warning against visiting a city-state. After improving his cultivation art and witnessing Emily’s seed sprout, he set out, killed a Centipede Gray Scythe, and tried eating its flesh to test the Gatekeeper’s method.

• Lu Li left the hidden grounds with Ji Hong, who warned him that his nephew had returned from a city-state in despair and later committed suicide.
• Lu Li spent several days studying the Gatekeeper’s body-tempering art and fused it into his Grand Chaos Body Tempering Art using the Martial Furnace.
• Emily showed Lu Li a sprouting seed in the fields and said she hoped it might grow into a crop; Lu Li recognized it as a seed from his Golden Bread Tree.
• Lu Li departed for the city-state on A'Huo and fought a Centipede Gray Scythe, using coordinated attacks with A'Huo to kill it.
• Lu Li cut off one of the Centipede Gray Scythe’s legs and began eating its flesh to test whether the Gatekeeper’s method could grant him supernatural power.

Lu Li reached Desire City after absorbing a gray worm aberration and boosting his attributes, then bribed his way past the checkpoint with Lovegrass. He explored the city’s grotesque cyberpunk streets and learned more about its Soul Coin economy before leaving the red-light district.

• Lu Li devoured most of a gray worm aberration and shared its head with A'Huo, who vomited and then fought the worm’s corrupting influence.
• Lu Li and A'Huo overcame the aberration’s power, and their attributes increased as Lu Li rapidly absorbed the worm’s energy.
• Lu Li put A'Huo into Pet Space and entered Desire City by bribing two guards with Lovegrass instead of paying Soul Coins.
• Lu Li learned that Soul Coins came from human souls and that draining them could strip people of their humanity.
• Lu Li walked through Desire City’s body-modification shops and bizarre red-light district, where a fiery woman mistook him for a wealthy customer.

Lu Li visited Desire City's school district, then met Aizen at a ranch and learned that the city’s human society was organized to supply flesh and souls to intelligent anomalies. After hearing how poverty and schooling trapped children in the system, Lu Li resolved to hunt the anomalies himself.

• Lu Li investigated the school district and learned that tuition was prohibitively expensive while newborns could be sold to ranches or drained for Soul Coins.
• Lu Li joined Aizen at Pasture C in District Thirteen and discovered that the ranch’s soulless human bodies were raised as meat for monsters.
• Aizen explained that intelligent anomalies maintained the city-state as a ranch, with some consuming human flesh and others collecting human souls through the Soul Coin economy.
• Aizen described how a boy’s family sacrificed everything for his education, but debt and expulsion ultimately led to his being sold to the ranch.
• Lu Li compared Desire City’s exploitation to the world he had known and declared that humans could eat anomalies too.

Lu Li and Aizen hunted the Marrow Suckers on a building’s top floor in Desire City, killing and devouring all nine before leaving without raising suspicion. Meanwhile, Chuchu struggled with her work for Desire River Company and secretly assembled a mech to protect herself.

• Aizen brought Lu Li and a group of human livestock to a building where Marrow Suckers lived, but they found nine instead of the four Aizen expected.
• The Marrow Suckers began feeding on the humans, and Lu Li killed all nine while Aizen helped contain them.
• Lu Li, Aizen, and A'Huo devoured the Marrow Suckers, then left the building before their delayed delivery could draw suspicion.
• Chuchu returned to her residence after reporting on her mining and weapons-design work, frustrated with life under Desire River Company.
• Chuchu resolved to protect herself by secretly assembling a mech in the warehouse behind her room.

After destroying a Desire River Company facility, Lu Li and Aizen prepared to flee Desire City but uncovered a deeper reason the aberrants had built its brutal society. They learned that aberrants fed on human negative emotions, and the chapter left them with evidence that the city's suffering was deliberately engineered to sustain them.

• Lu Li and Aizen destroyed a Desire River Company building and decided they could no longer return to their ranch hideout.
• Aizen argued that they should leave Desire City rather than try to save its people, while Lu Li remained troubled by humanity’s submission to the aberrants.
• Aizen explained that Desire River Company made its food from slurry excreted by the Soulmeat Wormfiend, which drew energy from the void after receiving Soul Coins.
• Lu Li and Aizen examined stolen company data and discovered the Aias Tactical Squad, a unit of humans who had gained extraordinary abilities through experiments.
• Aizen found that aberrants fed primarily on humanity’s negative emotions, revealing that they had deliberately shaped society to keep humans producing despair and other dark feelings.

Lu Li and Aizen found Chuchu, now a senior manager at Haggis Mines, and reunited with her after she mistook them for the Dream Weaver. Their reunion was interrupted when Aizen spotted the Aias Squad approaching.

• Lu Li and Aizen discovered that Desire River Company had used a cultivation scroll to train the Aias Squad, and they found Chuchu’s records at Haggis Mines.
• Chuchu worked on mining robots at Haggis Mines until Lu Li dragged her into the shadows, prompting her to mistake him for the Dream Weaver and threaten to kill herself.
• Aizen entered, but Chuchu initially took him for another illusion before using her scouting item to confirm Lu Li’s identity.
• Chuchu confronted Lu Li for taking so long to find her, then softened when he explained that he had come to this dangerous world for her.
• Lu Li asked Chuchu about the Dream Weaver, but she refused to explain its effects, and Aizen warned that the Aias Squad was nearby.

Lu Li and Aizen fought Nia’s Aias Squad in the mine, where Chuchu helped bring Nia down before the group escaped the company’s forces. Nia began cooperating and led them toward an underground passage, but Lu Li said they were not leaving the city yet.

• Nia confronted Lu Li and Aizen in the factory mine, and Lu Li attacked after learning the squad wanted to seize their technology.
• Lu Li killed three squad members while Nia’s abnormal defenses let him withstand Lu Li and Aizen’s combined assault.
• Chuchu emerged in her prototype mech and struck Nia with paralyzing weapons, allowing Lu Li to approach him.
• Aizen had Lu Li destroy Nia’s communication devices, then questioned Nia about the company’s final safeguard as company forces closed in.
• Nia directed the group to a subway passage beneath Chuchu’s military factory, and Lu Li carried him there while they fled.
• Nia asked why Lu Li hunted anomalies, and Lu Li explained that he resisted because he refused to sink into depravity; he then told Nia they were not leaving the city.

Lu Li and his companions escaped Desire River Company’s pursuit with Nia’s help, then learned that Nia possessed the cultivation scroll Lu Li had sought. After giving Nia a method for absorbing anomalous power, Lu Li put the group’s next move on hold so they could get Chuchu settled first.

• Nia guided Lu Li, Aizen, and Chuchu through a subway passage, where they fought White Angels that multiplied when cut and could only be destroyed by fire.
• Nia used his company weapon to fire through A'Huo, who swallowed the flames and unleashed a blast that burned away the White Angels.
• After reaching an abandoned industrial park, Lu Li learned Nia had a cultivation scroll and received it from him.
• Lu Li gave Nia a method for absorbing anomalous power and recognized that Nia’s crude talk concealed his desire to resist the anomalies.
• Aizen asked Nia how to reach Commercial City, but Lu Li said they first needed to get Chuchu settled.

Lu Li’s group traveled to the human tribe, where Aizen explained how Desire City and Commercial City profited from Glug Slurry and the resulting medical suffering. They reached Ji Hong’s tribe, and Nia encountered a society where guests received free water, while Chuchu noticed Sunny Star Ore heating the tea.

• Nia asked Lu Li about human tribes outside the cities, and Lu Li warned that the tribe might not welcome him.
• Aizen explained that Commercial City’s cheap Glug Slurry harmed Desire City’s residents while Desire River Company profited from their medical needs and negative emotions.
• Lu Li stopped Nia from smoking premium Lovegrass and made him discard his cigars, telling him to focus his anger on Aberrants.
• The group reached the tribe, where Prost mistook Lu Li’s increasingly dangerous aura for a threat before recognizing him.
• Ji Hong welcomed the visitors and served tea, and Nia was astonished to learn that the tribe did not charge guests for water.
• Chuchu recognized the ore heating the tea as Sunny Star Ore and asked whether a mine was nearby.

Lu Li and his companions questioned the Gatekeeper about the coming end of the era, but learned little beyond his belief that only the Human King could defeat the gods. After leaving the forbidden ground, they visited the ore cave, where Chuchu realized it was far more than an ordinary mining site.

• Ji Hong told Chuchu that the tribe gathered Boil-Pressure Stones from a nearby cave, and Lu Li agreed to take her there after questioning the Gatekeeper.
• The Gatekeeper warned that a curse and the end of the era were approaching, but he knew none of the six city-states' gods and said only the King could defeat them.
• Aizen failed to draw the ancient sword, while the Gatekeeper urged the group to find the Human King; Lu Li rejected the search and urged the Gatekeeper to face the present world.
• Nia told Lu Li that he had no wish to save the world and believed those who submitted to monsters deserved to die.
• At the cave, Chuchu exclaimed that it was not a mining area, while Lu Li found Rare ore scattered across the site.