Chapter Summaries

He-El used a walkie-talkie and an altered voice to trick Somali soldiers into gathering at the cargo hold, then attacked them with an RPG-7 and grenades. Zhang Huihui led the hostages through the residential corridors, and they regrouped with He-El after driving off the remaining soldiers.

• He-El led Zhang Huihui and the others into the residential deck corridors while suppressing soldiers in the cargo hold.
• He-El took weapons and a walkie-talkie, imitated an armed commander, and ordered soldiers from across the ship to gather at the cargo hold.
• He-El fired an RPG-7 into the gathered soldiers, finished off several with his AK47s, and threw grenades at soldiers approaching from other directions.
• He-El used the walkie-talkie to imitate a terrified retreating commander and smashed it after issuing the order.
• Zhang Huihui and her group fought the soldiers they encountered, chased them off, and returned to He-El after running out of bullets.

After driving the Somali pirates from the tanker, He-El helped the survivors seize the bridge and steer away from Somalia while they contacted the national coast guard. He-El armed the ship and set up defenses, but then woke in the sea and wondered if he had returned to the moment he first arrived.

• Zhang Huihui reported that they were out of bullets, and He-El led the group toward the control room to take the tanker.
• He-El and the others reached the bridge, killed two pirates, and had a fisherman steer the tanker away from Somalia.
• The fishermen contacted the national coast guard, and Zhang Huihui stayed on the bridge while He-El searched for the armory.
• He-El found weapons and ammunition, set up machine guns and grenade defenses, then watched the stars from atop the cargo hold.
• He-El suddenly woke choking on seawater and wondered if he had returned to when he first arrived.

He-El realized that time had looped back to the beginning and suspected the universe was trapping him to expose his presence. He killed Bao Mo and two pirates to change the loop’s events, then deliberately attacked the oil tanker and was shot dead.

• He-El woke in the Indian Ocean at the same point as before and reasoned through possible causes of the time loop.
• He-El shouted toward the sky, received no reply, and swam toward the Somali pirates’ oil tanker.
• After the pirates rescued him, He-El took Bao Mo’s knife and killed Bao Mo when he tried to slap him.
• He-El took Bao Mo’s pistol, killed the two other pirates, and stole their rations and speedboat.
• He-El approached the oil tanker, opened fire on its armed soldiers, and was shot full of holes.

He-El tested more than twenty-seven outcomes in the time loop and concluded that only he changed, while the universe showed no sign of noticing him. He then used a laptop to transfer vast sums of money to the Somali pirates, ending with a bet that a United States nuclear-powered aircraft carrier would reach the Indian Ocean within two hours.

• He-El tried different endings, including killing Junior Commander Kundi and other pirates, and discovered that everyone besides him repeated their original actions.
• After at least twenty-seven loops, He-El decided the universe did not change and had not contacted him.
• He-El stopped Bao Mo from handing over a satellite phone and demanded a laptop with internet access instead.
• He-El coded on the laptop and deposited ten million United States dollars into Junior Commander Kundi's account.
• When Junior Commander Kundi demanded more money at gunpoint, He-El began transferring the United States Government's seventy trillion dollars in the Federal Reserve to the pirates' accounts.
• He-El bet that a United States nuclear-powered aircraft carrier would reach the Indian Ocean within two hours.

He-El transferred more than seventy trillion dollars from the Federal Reserve into Somali warlords’ and pirates’ accounts, prompting a U.S. military mobilization toward Somalia. Young Marshal Kundi discovered one hundred billion dollars in his account and, terrified by He-El’s power, demanded to know who he was.

• Diego Garcia’s air and naval bases mobilized as U.S. bombers, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and three nuclear submarines headed toward Somalia.
• The White House discovered that more than seventy trillion dollars had been transferred into Somali accounts and that it could not recover the money.
• Young Marshal Kundi, Yi Bao, and Bao Mo found enormous sums in their accounts, including one hundred billion dollars for Kundi.
• He-El calmly turned to research databases, and Young Marshal Kundi seized his laptop and asked who he was.

He-El repeated the time loop and investigated the world’s 2014 research while earning Young Marshal Kundi’s trust. He found no unusual developments until papers by Samuel Norman suggested that humanity could unlock extraordinary abilities by developing the brain, leaving He-El to suspect the universe was centered on brain development.

• He-El recalled how the United States military had captured him after he demonstrated his ability to access protected networks and move seventy trillion dollars, but the loop continued before they could take him away.
• He-El boarded Young Marshal Kundi’s oil tanker again and used small, frequent transfers to keep Kundi pleased while he searched online for information about the world.
• He-El reviewed 2014 developments in aviation, science, and medicine, finding no major anomaly in the first fields he examined.
• He-El discovered papers by Sorbonne University professor Samuel Norman claiming that humans used less than ten percent of their brain’s potential and that further development could enable control over the body, other people, and matter.
• He-El wondered whether the universe centered on the development of the human brain.

He-El reflected on Lucy’s brain-unlocking universe and how its time loop challenged his understanding of existence. He concluded that the brain created the universe each person experienced, leaving him to consider whether his own foundation was the universe itself.

• He-El stopped typing after remembering Lucy, while Kundi, Yi Bao, and Bao Mo continued receiving their deposits.
• He-El recalled Lucy’s transformation after CPH4 entered her body and considered how the film’s events might have been hallucinations.
• He-El reasoned that the time loop had shown his usual understanding of other universes could not explain the Lucy universe.
• He-El considered how the brain constructs a world from electrical impulses despite never directly experiencing the outside world.
• He-El concluded that the brain was the self and that people created the universe they experienced.

He-El paid Academi Company to rescue him and the hostages from the pirates’ oil tanker, then tested whether he could travel freely between locations. After several cycles brought him back to his starting point, he named Taipei City as his next destination.

• Junior Commander Kundi and armed soldier Bao Mo demanded more money from He-El, while Finance Officer Yi Bao watched expectantly.
• Academi Company’s black-clad troops stormed the room, killed Junior Commander Kundi, Finance Officer Yi Bao, and armed soldier Bao Mo, and protected He-El.
• Jack introduced himself as captain of the special security team, and He-El sent Academi Company the second-tier payment.
• He-El ordered Jack to return the hostages to their countries, then left the tanker with the mercenaries as a United States Navy warship waited nearby.
• He-El tested several destinations and returned to his starting point before choosing Taiwan Province, Taipei City, Jinghua Hotel.

He-El met Lucy in Taipei and offered to be an anchor if she ever lost her purpose, then returned to Jinghua Hotel to wait for her to absorb CPH4. Lucy went to meet Richard, who tried to persuade her to deliver a silver briefcase, and left her with a claim about the first human named Lucy.

• He-El arrived at Songshan Airport and ordered his guards to stay back while he traveled toward Jinghua Hotel.
• He-El spotted Lucy on the street, told her she could find him if she ever needed an anchor, and left without giving her his contact information.
• Lucy felt intrigued by He-El but went on to meet Richard, who asked her to carry a silver briefcase into a hotel.
• Lucy questioned why Richard would not deliver the briefcase himself and said she needed to handle her own responsibilities.
• Richard ignored Lucy's objections and told her that the first human to evolve from an ape had been called Lucy.

Richard forced Lucy to deliver a locked case to Mr. Zhang at a hotel, where armed men seized her after Richard was shot dead. He-El watched the events unfold on the hotel’s surveillance cameras.

• Richard asked Lucy to take a locked case to Mr. Zhang and offered to split the thousand-dollar payment with her.
• Lucy refused to get involved, but Richard handcuffed her to the case and made her enter the hotel.
• Lucy asked the receptionist for Mr. Zhang, who instructed her to stay in place.
• Several men in black suits came out of the elevators as Richard was shot dead outside the hotel.
• The men restrained Lucy and forced her into an elevator while He-El watched through the surveillance cameras.

He-El watched Lucy being captured by Mr. Zhang’s men and considered why the omnipresent Lucy had guided him to witness her human past. After Jack offered to kill gang leaders for him, He-El denied that he treated human lives lightly, leaving Jack to wonder at his motives.

• He-El watched security footage of Lucy being escorted toward Mr. Zhang’s suite and reflected on how she had become an omnipresent existence.
• He-El reviewed Mr. Zhang’s power as the South Korean branch representative of the Four Seas Gang and learned that Mr. Zhang had killed Richard over a drug deal.
• Jack offered to have his teams eliminate gang leaders, suggesting they could handle any retaliation.
• He-El told Jack that he had misunderstood him and denied treating human lives like grass.
• Jack accepted that He-El had not come to protect Lucy and remarked that He-El possessed great love through great lovelessness.

He-El watched Mr. Zhang’s gang confirm the drugs in Lucy’s briefcase, then abduct her for a forced drug-smuggling operation. Jack urged He-El to intervene, but He-El refused, saying Lucy’s future was beyond their control.

• Mr. Zhang interrogated Lucy, had her open the briefcase, and confirmed the blue granules were a potent drug by testing them on an addict.
• Mr. Zhang shot the addict and ordered his men to knock Lucy unconscious after she refused his offer of a job.
• He-El watched the gang take Lucy away, knowing they planned to implant CPH4 in her abdomen so she could smuggle drugs to Europe.
• Jack urged He-El to rescue Lucy before the gang took her out of their reach, but He-El declined and said her future was not theirs to control.

Lucy was forced to carry CPH4 implanted in her abdomen as part of a drug-smuggling operation. After her captors injured her and ruptured the package, the drug transformed her and left her in control of her body as she began accessing more of her brain’s potential.

• Lucy woke after surgery and learned that a package of CPH4 had been stitched into her abdomen.
• The European doctor gave Lucy and three other couriers passports and tickets, warning them not to contact the authorities before they delivered the drug.
• Mr. Zhang’s men took Lucy to a secret room and left her cuffed with two local men until her flight the next morning.
• When one man tried to violate her, Lucy bit his finger, and he kicked her abdomen until the CPH4 package ruptured.
• CPH4 entered Lucy’s body, triggered violent changes, and gave her control of herself as she began advancing toward using 20% of her brain’s potential.

As CPH4 pushed Lucy toward 20% brain capacity, she escaped captivity, killed Mr. Zhang’s guards, and had the remaining drug removed at a hospital. With her emotions fading and her memories laid bare, she decided to find He-El, believing he might explain what was happening to her.

• Lucy trapped her captor’s hand, knocked him unconscious, and used his keys and pistol to escape.
• Lucy shot Mr. Zhang’s five guards, survived a shoulder wound, and stole supplies before leaving the hideout.
• Lucy forced an English-speaking taxi driver to take her to a hospital and displayed an extraordinary awareness of her surroundings and memories.
• Lucy shot a terminally ill patient, then forced a surgeon to remove the leaking CPH4 from her abdomen.
• Lucy called her mother while she still felt emotions, learned about the CPH4, and resolved to find He-El for answers.

After leaving the hospital, Lucy used her enhanced perception and memory to deduce that He-El was at Jinghua Hotel, where he had watched her ordeal. Armed with two pistols, she reached the hotel and learned he was in the 502 luxury suite, leaving her angry and intent on confronting him.

• Lucy realized that the CPH4 in her body had accelerated her cellular development and left her about twenty-four hours to live.
• Lucy reconstructed He-El’s route from her memories and deduced that he had gone to Jinghua Hotel.
• Lucy took a taxi to Jinghua Hotel while checking two pistols, frightening the driver.
• Lucy threatened the receptionist with a pistol and demanded to know where He-El was.
• The receptionist told Lucy that He-El was in the 502 luxury suite, two rooms from where Mr. Zhang’s men had held her.
• Lucy concluded that He-El had watched her all along and treated him as an anchor for her anger and grief.

Lucy confronted He-El at the Jinghua Hotel, where he explained the effects of CPH4 and questioned her unusual energy needs. She realized he had known her future and been waiting for her, and He-El confirmed it.

• Lucy went to Suite 502 at the Jinghua Hotel and entered after He-El’s assistant invited her in.
• Jack and the mercenaries left, and Lucy pointed her TT33 at He-El before he offered her food and explained that her body needed high-energy, high-protein nourishment.
• Lucy said her body conserved energy unusually well and asked whether He-El had known she would change.
• He-El questioned whether Lucy’s lack of hunger meant she had little time left, and Lucy lowered her gun and ate the food.
• Lucy asked whether He-El had known her future, and He-El admitted that he had.

He-El told Lucy that he knew her future because he had come from another universe, while admitting he had only seen the part of her life in which she unlocked her brain's potential. They set out to find the rest of Zhang's CPH4, leaving Jack stunned as He-El dismissed his mercenaries and prepared to face Zhang's armed men with Lucy.

• He-El said he knew Lucy's future and explained that he had come from another universe and had seen part of her life.
• Lucy questioned how He-El could have predicted that CPH4 would seep into her body before it happened.
• He-El told Lucy that she might understand his claims once her brain potential reached 100%, then put aside his own questions about his origins.
• He-El promised to stay beside Lucy as she pursued what she wanted and asked what she planned to do.
• Lucy said she needed to learn where Zhang was transporting the other CPH4.
• He-El told Jack to bring out the weapons, dismissed him and the mercenaries, and left Jack shocked that he and Lucy would face Zhang's armed men alone.

He-El and Lucy attacked Mr. Zhang’s armed gangsters in the hotel, using grenades and gunfire to kill or disable nearly all of them. They entered the presidential suite, where Lucy shot Mr. Zhang in the hand, and he demanded to know who they were.

• Jack offered He-El weapons, and He-El and Lucy took pistols, magazines, and grenades before heading for the gangsters’ floor.
• Lucy threw a grenade into the stairwell, and she and He-El killed two gangsters as they entered it under fire.
• Lucy led the advance, using grenades and precise shots to kill or disable more of Mr. Zhang’s men while He-El covered her.
• The remaining gangsters barricaded themselves in the presidential suite, where Lucy threw in two grenades and shot five men.
• Lucy shot Mr. Zhang through the hand as he tried to resist, and he demanded to know who she and He-El were.

Lucy questioned Mr. Zhang after defeating his gang and used her expanded brain abilities to extract the destinations of the other drug couriers. He-El killed Mr. Zhang and followed Lucy out of the suite.

• Lucy confirmed that no enemies remained and subdued Mr. Zhang, who accused He-El of attacking his gang.
• Lucy asked Mr. Zhang where the other drugs were being transported, then accessed his memories when he refused to answer.
• Lucy discovered that the other couriers were headed to Berlin, Paris, and Rome.
• He-El considered whether killing Mr. Zhang would affect Lucy’s transformation or the time loop, then shot him dead.
• He-El followed Lucy out of the presidential suite.

Lucy searched Professor Samuel Norman’s brain research while He-El drove her toward Taipei Airport, then contacted the professor to explain her rapidly expanding abilities and the danger that her cells might kill her within a day. The professor began to believe her, but Lucy still did not know what to do as she felt her humanity fading.

• He-El told Lucy she could choose her own path, and Lucy began researching brain potential on his laptop.
• Lucy read all 6,734 pages of Professor Samuel Norman’s research and asked He-El whether he could explain her brain, but he said he could not reliably advise her.
• Lucy contacted Professor Samuel Norman and demonstrated her ability to project her image and control electronic devices through electromagnetic waves.
• Lucy told Professor Samuel Norman that her brain had reached 28% development, her cells were multiplying millions of times per second, and she might die within twenty-four hours.
• Lucy described controlling her metabolism and other people’s bodies while losing pain, fear, desire, and her sense of humanity.