Chapter Summaries

Lu Ce fell asleep in Room Nine, and the Despair Emissary invaded his dream with a literary duel but found his attacks had no effect. Meanwhile, Xie Antong gathered Chiyo Eon in Room Three and asked her to act as her kaishakunin if something went wrong.

• Lu Ce fell into a deep sleep when the Despair Emissary arrived in Room Nine, leaving the emissary unsure how to make him despair.
• The Despair Emissary began a literary duel and poured mental attacks into Lu Ce's dream, but they vanished without affecting him.
• The Despair Emissary's own consciousness was scorched by a blazing sensation as he reacted in alarm to Lu Ce's resistance.
• Xie Antong told Chiyo Eon in the public channel to come to Room Three after Chiyo Eon reported gaining two points.
• Xie Antong revealed that Sin was in Room Nine and told the Creator and Perfect Life they could do as they pleased.
• Xie Antong asked Chiyo Eon to stay with her and serve as her kaishakunin by initiating a martial duel if something went wrong.

Xie Antong explained that her plan was complete, while inside Room Nine the Despair Emissary gave up on breaking into Lu Ce’s mind and invoked his Martial room to attack him physically. Lu Ce woke after the Emissary twisted his head and retaliated with a headbutt, leaving the Emissary crashed against the wall.

• Xie Antong told Chiyo Eon that one tiger had been driven into another tiger’s cage and that only the outcome remained.
• The Despair Emissary failed to plant despair in Lu Ce’s crowded, dormant mental world and decided to kill him instead.
• The Despair Emissary activated the Martial character in Room Nine, taking a solid form and beginning a contest he could not withdraw from.
• The Despair Emissary grabbed Lu Ce’s head and twisted it around, but Lu Ce resisted and opened the eyes on his Laziness Mask.
• Lu Ce seized the Emissary’s wrists and slammed his head into the Emissary, sending him crashing into the wall.

Lu Ce’s Wake-up Rage drove him to attack the Despair Emissary with overwhelming force, even as the battle inflicted severe wounds on him. The Despair Emissary questioned whether Lu Ce was also an emissary, and his words stirred alarm among those listening outside.

• Lu Ce awoke in a frenzy and charged the Despair Emissary, who was trapped in a crack in the unstable room.
• Lu Ce accused the Despair Emissary of being tricked into coming there by a woman, then slammed him into the floor and ground his face against it.
• The Despair Emissary’s divine suppression briefly made Lu Ce pause, allowing him to stab Lu Ce in the abdomen, but the God Slayer Medal nullified the pressure.
• The Despair Emissary’s blade exploded inside Lu Ce, blasting a hole in his abdomen and sending him flying.
• Lu Ce resumed his assault, repeatedly smashing the Despair Emissary into the ground and wall as the Despair Emissary asked whether Lu Ce was an emissary too.
• The Despair Emissary’s question caused an uproar among those outside the room.

Lu Ce’s immunity to divine aura convinced the Despair Emissary that Lu Ce was connected to pain, while the Elder Council debated whether he was an emissary or even human. The chapter ended with the Despair Emissary treating Lu Ce as a kindred spirit and declaring that they were meant to be together.

• Lu Ce broke his wrist in a clash with the Despair Emissary, forced it straight, and drank a potion while the two paused their fight.
• The Despair Emissary introduced himself and questioned why Lu Ce could not sense him.
• The Grand Elder told the Elder Council that Chosen Paradise was a paradise for gods, and that gods could choose players to become powerful emissaries.
• The Grand Elder warned that if Lu Ce was an emissary, humanity was truly finished, since becoming an emissary could make joining the gods seem preferable to resisting them.
• Lu Ce approached the Despair Emissary and placed a hand on his shoulder, prompting the emissary to call them kindred spirits and say they were meant to be together.

Lu Ce questioned Despair Emissary about their identity and the gods Despair and Pain while Perfect Life and the Creator watched from hiding. After Despair Emissary asked Lu Ce more questions, Lu Ce insulted them and tore off their head, restarting the fight.

• Despair Emissary lowered their guard and told Lu Ce that Despair and Pain endured beyond ordinary life and death.
• Perfect Life and the Creator watched the pair from concealment and wondered whether Sin and Despair Emissary were allied.
• Lu Ce asked Despair Emissary what they had been before becoming an emissary, but they said they had always been one.
• Despair Emissary questioned Lu Ce about becoming a player and whether Pain was dead.
• Lu Ce called Despair Emissary a dog, then grabbed and tore off their head.

Lu Ce decapitated Despair Emissary, and Perfect Life and the Creator joined forces to attack its separated head and body. After the Hourglass of Life showed that Despair Emissary was far from dying, Lu Ce drew the Extreme Path Battle Axe, leaving it convinced that he truly meant to kill it.

• Lu Ce ripped off Despair Emissary’s head and threw it to the ground, but the Emissary remained alive and tried to reconnect with its body.
• Perfect Life stretched space to separate Despair Emissary’s head from its body, while the Creator bombarded the body with a meteor and other weapons.
• Perfect Life attacked Lu Ce and demanded to know who he was, but Lu Ce said he was himself and met the punch head-on with Despair Emissary’s head caught between their fists.
• Perfect Life retreated after realizing he could not gauge Lu Ce’s strength, while the Creator continued attacking Despair Emissary’s body.
• Lu Ce measured Despair Emissary’s remaining life with the Hourglass of Life and found that it was still far from death.
• Lu Ce drew the Extreme Path Battle Axe, and Despair Emissary accused him of betraying his identity and intending to kill it.

Lu Ce attacked the Despair Emissary with the Extreme Path Battle Axe while the Creator tried to contain a strange black body and Perfect Life pinned down the Emissary's head. After learning that killing another emissary could provoke the gods, Lu Ce decided the conflict was inevitable and struck again, causing Despair's aura to surge as Despair began to wake.

• The Despair Emissary recognized Lu Ce's weapon as a Ruined Divine Weapon, but Lu Ce cut off the tentacles attacking him and saw that the Hourglass of Life was draining faster.
• The Creator briefly exposed a deformed black body beneath a meteorite, then used imagined objects to trap and suppress it again.
• Perfect Life used Yin Yang Hand to pin the Despair Emissary's head down and attacked it with his halberd.
• The Despair Emissary warned Lu Ce that killing an emissary could provoke the gods and wake the sleeping Despair.
• Lu Ce said the declaration of war was bound to happen sooner or later and struck the Despair Emissary with the axe, making Despair's aura intensify as Despair began to wake.

Lu Ce destroyed the Despair Emissary, awakening Despair, whose power overwhelmed the room and left the Creator and Perfect Life struggling. Despair spoke with Lu Ce, while Laziness’s voice explained that Lu Ce felt no pressure because the gap between them was too great.

• Lu Ce stomped on the Despair Emissary and struck its head with his axe until it began to die and warned that something was waking up.
• Perfect Life sensed a terrifying presence growing in the room and urged Lu Ce to reconsider, but Lu Ce struck again as the Laziness Mask’s side effects threatened to shut him down.
• The axe blow plunged the room into darkness, blasted Perfect Life into a wall, and left Lu Ce standing motionless with severe cracks across his body.
• The Creator’s torch went out, a pale blue light appeared, and Despair announced that it had awakened after the Emissary died.
• The pale blue light touched Lu Ce’s mask, cracking it and waking him; Despair addressed him while Perfect Life vomited blood after touching the living Hei on the wall.
• Lu Ce identified the presence as Despair and said it had woken him too, while Laziness explained that Lu Ce felt no pressure because the gap between them was too great.

Despair shut down the livestream and spread despair through the game, incapacitating Perfect Life and the Creator while trapping Xie Antong outside Room Nine. Lu Ce confronted Despair directly and raised his axe, demanding to learn how powerful the being truly was.

• Despair ended the livestream and overwhelmed Perfect Life and the Creator with despair.
• Chiyo Eon and Xie Antong discovered that the livestream had ended, and Xie Antong failed to teleport into Room Nine.
• Lu Ce concluded that Despair had arrived in person and challenged it to explain what it could do to him.
• Despair mocked Lu Ce for believing that his lack of pain and fear of death made him immune to despair.
• Lu Ce raised his battle axe and demanded that Despair show him how big the moon was.

Lu Ce repeatedly struck Despair’s pale-blue orb with the Extreme Path Battle Axe, betting his life to test an answer until Despair admitted he had won and withdrew. Room Nine returned to normal, and Lu Ce collapsed from his injuries as the Creator treated him and Perfect Life wondered what he had learned.

• Lu Ce struck Despair’s orb with the Extreme Path Battle Axe, enduring the backlash while Perfect Life struggled to rise.
• Lu Ce kept attacking despite his shattered body and asked Despair why he was still alive.
• Despair admitted Lu Ce had won the bet, then warned that it would remember him and left the room.
• The darkness and despair vanished from Room Nine as the game system announced an error and recalculated the settlement.
• Lu Ce collapsed, and the Creator poured high-grade potions over him while Perfect Life mistook him for dead.
• Perfect Life asked what Lu Ce had won in the bet, and the Creator suggested he had risked his life to test an answer.

After Sin provoked Despair to test whether the gods could act without limits, Despair withdrew and the game crashed, granting the surviving players a perfect clear. Lu Ce recovered and announced that this was likely the first and last time they would cooperate, warning them about meeting him in another state.

• The Creator explained that Sin had risked his life to test whether Despair could do whatever it pleased, and said Despair's withdrawal gave humanity hope.
• The game announced that it had crashed, awarded perfect-clear evaluations to the four players who caused the crash, and said it would end in ten minutes.
• The rooms expanded and the remaining players, including Chiyo Eon, Xie Antong, and Jiu Tian, gathered with Perfect Life and the Creator.
• Jiu Tian regained clarity, while Xie Antong recognized that Sin had likely survived another brush with death.
• Lu Ce sat up and said the players had achieved a degree of cooperation, but warned that it would probably be their last.
• Lu Ce said he understood what the game's 2.0 was about and warned the others that if they later died to another version of him, they would have deserved it.

After the game ended, Lu Ce upgraded the Sin Mask into the Heart of the Seven Deadly Sins, unlocking every mask's Normal Mode and the power of Overload. The game left him with a cryptic reminder about his stage ranking reward.

• Lu Ce collapsed from exhaustion, and the other players learned that he had faced the god Despair alone.
• The Creator warned that future games would focus on conflict between players, and the group entered their settlement screens as the ten-minute limit approached.
• Lu Ce awoke in the settlement area and confirmed that the Laziness Mask's side effect had left him asleep and unable to control his body.
• Lu Ce used part of his reward quota to promote the A-007 Soul of the Seven Deadly Sins into the S-025 Heart of the Seven Deadly Sins.
• The game prompt said the upgraded item could transform into any form, use any mask's Normal Mode, and explore Overload; it listed Greed and Wrath as overloaded and Pride's Extreme Path Battle Axe as an exclusive weapon.
• The game confirmed that Lu Ce remained first in the Peak Rankings and told him to pay special attention to his stage ranking reward.

Lu Ce learned that he had won first place on the Peak Rankings and anticipated a major reward, while Perfect Life publicly conceded to him. The rankings were finalized, but the promised reward for first place had not yet been revealed.

• Lu Ce reviewed his unusual settlement rewards and noticed that the weapon and Sequence Item lotteries were missing, leaving the Peak Rankings reward as the main mystery.
• Perfect Life announced in public chat that Lu Ce had taken first place, conceded this time, and looked forward to his reward.
• The Dragon Group's Grand Elder told the elders that player-versus-player games were making competition bloodier and warned that the first-place reward might be a poisoned temptation.
• The game finalized the Peak Rankings, placing Sin first and Perfect Life second, then began announcing rewards for players ranked between ten thousand and one thousand.

The game announced escalating rewards for the global rankings, culminating in an offer for first-place player Sin to ascend as an immortal Divine Envoy. Lu Ce refused, forcing the game to replace his reward with a Divine Might Baptism, while Perfect Life learned that he could ascend only by defeating Sin for the top spot.

• Players celebrated and questioned the rewards given to everyone ranked in the top ten thousand.
• Xie Antong discovered that her perfect clear had pushed her to rank 998, earning her a Two Realms Backpack slot and an Adaptive Skill Scroll.
• The game awarded players ranked second through tenth a Divine Might Baptism that raised their attributes and life level, shocking players and veteran leaders.
• The game offered first-place player Sin ascension, immortality, and limitless potential in exchange for becoming a Divine Envoy and enforcer.
• Lu Ce refused ascension and demanded a better reward, so the game substituted the highest-tier Divine Might Baptism and an all-attribute increase.
• The game told Perfect Life that only the world's number one could ascend and that he would have to defeat Sin to claim the opportunity.

Lu Ce rejected the game's offer to ascend as an emissary, drawing shock and admiration from players around the world. He then received his Divine Might Baptism, which remade his body and loosened a restraint deep within his soul.

• Perfect Life asked the game whether becoming an emissary had any drawbacks, and the game replied that it had none compared with his current human identity.
• Players around the world were stunned by Sin's refusal, while Xie Antong worried that Lu Ce intended to pursue power beyond becoming an emissary.
• The Dragon Group's Elder Council welcomed Sin's decision and the Grand Elder said they needed to contact him.
• Lu Ce decided that becoming an emissary would limit his future and chose to undergo the Divine Might Baptism instead.
• Lu Ce's body was taken apart and reassembled in a complete rebirth, and he felt a restraint deep within his soul loosen.

Lu Ce unlocked the Level Two Gene Lock and gained a ten-point increase to every attribute, but the Sloth side effect persisted after the game forced him to leave. Back in the real world, he and the Black Knight crossed the sea from a deserted Pacific island and spotted seawater forming arrows that pointed somewhere ahead.

• Lu Ce broke through the Level Two Gene Lock and felt stronger even before allocating any points.
• The Divine Might Baptism raised all of Lu Ce’s attributes by ten, including Luck and Spirit.
• The game warned Lu Ce that the Sloth side effect remained, so he brought out the Black Knight, his mask, and other items before falling asleep.
• Lu Ce awoke on a deserted Pacific island, summoned the Black Knight, and set off across the sea toward home.
• Lu Ce noticed arrows forming in the seawater, and the Black Knight asked whether someone might be luring him in that direction.

Lu Ce followed an arrow across the sea, expecting to confront an organization that had discovered his identity, but instead arrived for an unexplained interview. He entered a private restaurant room and found Xie Antong waiting for him.

• Lu Ce turned the Black Knight into a metal ball, formed a diving suit from the Misty Cloak, and swam toward the arrow.
• Lu Ce found a reef and met a woman who said they had come to pick him up for an interview.
• The woman led Lu Ce through an underwater passage to a coastal city and brought him to an invitation-only restaurant.
• Lu Ce entered the Delight Yourself room and recognized Xie Antong, who teased him about his swimming.

Lu Ce met Xie Antong after nearly fifty hours of sleep and struggled to speak with her outside their masked identities. Xie Antong explained that she had formed the approved organization Divine Punishment to gather people opposed to him, while hiding her true feelings beneath talk of a grand plan.

• Lu Ce met Xie Antong, who teased him about his appearance and asked what he had been doing at sea.
• Xie Antong told Lu Ce that nearly fifty hours had passed since their game, and realized he had slept through the interval.
• Lu Ce and Xie Antong awkwardly discussed their masks, their past conflict, and the feelings between them.
• Xie Antong offered Lu Ce the A-grade Sequence Item Gate of the Death God, but he changed the subject.
• Xie Antong explained that Divine Punishment had been registered with the Dragon Group and was recruiting people who opposed Lu Ce.
• Xie Antong described her supposed plan to become Lu Ce’s opposing force and bring rival factions under their control, while concealing her genuine feelings for him.

Lu Ce and Xie Antong discussed the voice in her head, their possible cooperation, and the gods’ influence over the game. Xie Antong insisted she was not his enemy, then told him the Dragon Group wanted to meet him.

• Lu Ce recognized that Xie Antong’s pursuit of power was affecting her, and she described the voice that had grown stronger after the Sea Casino and Tokyo.
• Lu Ce said Xie Antong should resist the voice’s influence, then explained that he had never intended to rule the world with her and that she could use the idea to gather allies.
• Xie Antong asked why Lu Ce had rejected the chance to ascend, and he said he would follow only a path of his own choosing.
• Lu Ce declared that gods existed as a conscious power and called divine envoys their dogs; Xie Antong compared his view to Newton’s later theology and questioned whether his goal could succeed.
• Xie Antong said she was not Lu Ce’s enemy and was only using their opposition to strengthen herself.
• Xie Antong told Lu Ce that the Dragon Group had asked her to arrange a meeting with him.

Xie Antong told Lu Ce about the world’s changing views on ascension and gave him the Gate of the Death God. Lu Ce urged her to oppose him openly by using a Divine Punishment announcement to provoke challengers, and she agreed to adjust her mindset and treat him as a true enemy.

• Xie Antong told Lu Ce she had denied knowing him to the veteran players and gave him the Gate of the Death God for protection.
• Xie Antong explained that many people admired Lu Ce for refusing ascension, while some powerful players resented him and might challenge him.
• Lu Ce welcomed the prospect of hostile challengers and told Xie Antong to use a Divine Punishment announcement to light the fuse.
• Xie Antong initially refused, but Lu Ce challenged her to oppose him sincerely.
• Xie Antong admitted she had not truly considered herself Lu Ce’s enemy and decided she could act against him without holding back.