Chapter Summaries

After three years of turning the Gu Family Restaurant into a major success, Zhou Ming planned to return to Shining Star City and build a luxury hotel. The Gu family resisted funding the venture until Zhang Peizhen offered full support if he accepted Gu Naihui, leaving Zhou Ming weighing the proposal.

• Zhou Ming assessed Ge Peng and Sun Yingcai's Kung Pao Chicken, scored them 65 and 70, and urged both apprentices to keep improving.
• Zhou Ming reviewed the restaurant's growth and his finances, then planned to buy land in Shining Star City and build a ten-story hotel.
• Gu Dawei and Gu Naihui objected to Zhou Ming taking the restaurant's money and leaving the Gu family behind, and Gu Dawei insisted the restaurant must never be sold.
• Zhou Ming considered offering the Gu family a share in the new venture, but Zhang Peizhen privately told him the family would fund it if he accepted Gu Naihui as his partner.
• Zhou Ming weighed accepting Zhang Peizhen's proposal against finding another investor or spending years earning the money himself.

Zhou Ming married Gu Naihui after she agreed to let him keep all the restaurant’s earnings, then built and opened Far Moon Restaurant in Shining Star City. The restaurant’s opening drew a strong crowd and brought in 286,000 Credit Points, as Zhou Ming set his sights on growing his food business.

• Zhou Ming said he would accept Gu Naihui only if all money earned from the restaurant belonged to him, and Gu Naihui agreed to take only one unit of money.
• Zhou Ming and Gu Naihui signed a Marriage Agreement and became legally married three days later.
• Zhou Ming spent 26 million Credit Points building and renovating a ten-story restaurant, naming it Far Moon Restaurant.
• Zhou Ming promised the pregnant Gu Naihui and her brother Gu Naifeng that he would build a successful restaurant business and eventually enter the medical field.
• Far Moon Restaurant opened on July 25, served 3,800 customers, and earned 286,000 Credit Points on its first day.

After a competitor stole Far Moon Restaurant’s seasoning formulas and hurt its customer flow, Zhou Ming decided to sell seasonings and teach Far Moon Cuisine to the public. The new company and cooking show quickly gained popularity, launching a culinary craze across District 52.

• Oriental Kitchenware Company used Sun Yingcai to steal Far Moon Restaurant’s seasoning formulas, and its kitchen robots caused customer flow to fall by 30%; Zhou Ming exposed Sun Yingcai, who was punished while Oriental Kitchenware escaped liability.
• Zhou Ming found that robots could imitate his cooking but could not reproduce its spirit, while his own capacity to make high-end dishes limited the restaurant’s earnings.
• Zhou Ming announced plans to establish Far Moon Seasoning Company and broadcast free cooking lessons, explaining that the strategy would increase seasoning sales, raise the restaurant’s profile, and advance a larger plan for the culinary world.
• Gu Naihui, Da Zhuang, Ge Peng, and the other managers objected, but Zhou Ming proceeded with his plans, prompting Gu Naihui to return to the countryside with their children.
• Far Moon Seasoning Company released sixty-eight seasonings within three months, winning a substantial share of the condiment market.
• Zhou Ming partnered with Starry Sky TV Station to launch “God of Cooking Teaches You to Cook,” whose rising ratings helped spark a cooking craze across District 52.

After Zhou Ming’s fame drove Far Moon Restaurant’s growth, he launched the Far Moon Standard to rate restaurants and chefs, recruit affiliates, and train culinary talent. His plan began spreading across District 52, but robot kitchenware companies and robot-dependent restaurants mounted fierce opposition as human-cooked food won customers.

• Zhou Ming introduced the Far Moon Standard, establishing seven restaurant grades and nine chef ranks based on professional assessments.
• Far Moon offered affiliated restaurants free management training, paid chef training, and future access to Far Moon Academy graduates.
• Beginning in June of New Calendar Year 527, Far Moon promoted its plan across District 52 and announced 300 free places for the academy’s first students.
• After Zhou Ming explained the Far Moon Plan on Starry Sky TV, callers and website visitors asked about chef earnings, robot kitchens, and academy enrollment.
• Zhou Ming selected 120 well-funded restaurants, one from each city, and invited their owners to Shining Star City to join the effort.
• As human-cooked food drew customers away from robot kitchens, kitchenware companies and robot-dependent restaurants began fighting the Far Moon faction.

Zhou Ming recalled how he defeated the Machine Alliance by overcoming people’s preference for cheap food and creating a longevity meal plan that made delicious cuisine appealing. Its success disrupted medical life-extension businesses, bringing the Far Moon Alliance into conflict with the Medical Group of District 52.

• The Far Moon Alliance defeated the Machine Alliance after a twenty-year war, and Far Moon Academy’s dean praised Zhou Ming and the generations of heroes who had fought alongside him.
• Zhou Ming reflected that persuading people to spend more on delicious food had been harder than countering the Machine Alliance’s robots, Dark Cuisine, and attacks.
• Gu Naifeng’s research found that regularly eating delicious food added about 3.5 years to a person’s lifespan, so Zhou Ming and a dozen Chef God-ranked juniors developed a longevity meal plan that could extend life by 20 to 25 years.
• The Far Moon Alliance promoted the longevity meal plan with a commercial contrasting a happy family life with a longer but impoverished one.
• Diners flocked to Far Moon restaurants for the longevity meals, while many people canceled planned medical life-extension treatments.
• The Medical Group of District 52 opposed the Far Moon Alliance after the new meals threatened its interests, beginning a more arduous war.

After a Tasteless Virus devastates the culinary world, Far Moon God rallies the Far Moon Alliance to keep fighting and expand into medicine. The Alliance makes progress against the medical conglomerates, but Vitality Technology faces a new struggle to survive in the hostile medical industry.

• The Tasteless Virus spreads throughout District 52, infecting millions and robbing them of their sense of taste.
• Zhou Ming denounces the medical conglomerates, whose virus causes Far Moon restaurants, the Academy, and the culinary world to collapse.
• Far Moon God, also infected, delivers a speech urging chefs to keep fighting and seek a way to create food beyond taste.
• The Far Moon Alliance protects its food business with cheaper foods suited to Tasteless Ones and invests in medical research, but its laboratory cannot restore lost taste.
• Vitality Technology introduces a low-cost Longevity Package that takes more than 30% of the medical conglomerates' clients, prompting them to target the company.
• The taste-destroying influenza strains begin to disappear, but Vitality Technology's future in the medical industry remains uncertain.

Zhou Ming weighed Vitality Technology’s price-cut strategy against the limits imposed on District 52 and planned to build his wealth before leaving the game. He also reflected on his family’s fate in Area 51 and chose to forgo the Upper District for now, focusing instead on gaining an advantage for his next run.

• Zhou Ming decided Vitality Technology could compete with the medical conglomerates by cutting its 20-year life-extension package price in half and gradually developing better treatments.
• Zhou Ming recalled learning that the Upper District was home to nobles who controlled access to advanced life extension, and that entry required 100,000 credits.
• After decades of spending on Vitality Technology, Zhou Ming had just over 5,000 credits in cash flow, and he estimated he had at most twenty years left in the game.
• Zhou Ming remembered that his family’s Tie family had been killed in a Mining Company raid in the Third Mining Area, a tragedy he could neither prevent nor avenge.
• Zhou Ming decided not to enter the Upper District, choosing to save toward one million credits and strengthen his starting position for his next run.

At the end of his life, Zhou Ming divided Vitality Technology and his fortune among his family, Gu Naifeng, and Gu Naihui. After his death, his children discovered the personal gifts he had preserved for them, and Tie Lanxin found the field of flowers he had planted for her.

• As Zhou Ming lay dying, Tie Lanxin and Tie Haowen pressed him about his will, and he told them to find the silver boxes in their old rooms.
• Zhou Ming gave Gu Naifeng half of Vitality Technology and divided the remaining shares among those present, excluding Naihui.
• After sending everyone else away, Zhou Ming left his money to Gu Naihui and died while she held his hand.
• Two days later, Tie Lanxin and Tie Haowen opened their boxes in the old hotel; Tie Haowen found the wooden puppet Zhou Ming had carved for him, while Tie Lanxin found a map.
• The next morning, Tie Lanxin followed the map to a field of Tie Lan Flowers, where Tie Haowen joined her and they realized Zhou Ming had remembered what each of them loved.

Zhou Ming woke from his six-day coma after completing the Money Empire instance and learned how much Su Yuxiang had worried over him. He checked his C-grade evaluation and realized he would have to return to Money Empire and achieve a Perfect Clear to unlock the next stage.

• Zhou Ming awoke in reality after receiving the Knowledge Stream information from his life as Tie Qiang.
• Su Yuxiang told Zhou Ming how his weight had plummeted while he was unconscious and pleaded with him to seek treatment.
• Zhou Ming thanked Su Yuxiang for caring for him and considered developing a Nutrient Cabin to help manage his future comas.
• Zhou Ming went to dinner with Su Yuxiang, impressed her with his culinary knowledge, and resolved to test his cooking skills the next morning.
• Zhou Ming checked the Game Panel, saw his C-grade evaluation, and learned that he needed a Perfect Clear of Money Empire to unlock Galaxy Legend.

After explaining his long comas to Su Qingrong, Zhou Ming sought a way to keep Su Yuxiang from having to care for him while he slept. He used system technology to design a versatile Nutrient Cabin, and the National Space Administration and Ministry of Science and Technology launched a project to develop it.

• At dinner, Su Yuxiang and Song Yaqin praised Zhou Ming’s cooking, and Su Yuxiang recalled his impressive performances on The Brain.
• Su Qingrong worried about Zhou Ming’s prolonged comas and what they would mean for Su Yuxiang, so Zhou Ming explained that they were compensatory sleep caused by mental overexertion.
• Zhou Ming asked Su Qingrong about Nutrient Cabins, and Su Qingrong described the technical challenges and the National Space Administration’s research.
• Zhou Ming used technical materials from the system to write a 150,000-word Practical Nutrient Cabin Design Plan, then showed it to Su Qingrong.
• Su Qingrong sent the plan to the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Space Administration, which classified it as top secret and began discussions with him.
• More than half a month later, the Ministry of Science and Technology approved the Aerospace Nutrient Cabin project, with National Space Administration support and Su Qingrong leading its development team.

Zhou Ming prepared to reenter the Money Empire instance, hoping to climb through its social strata and earn more than fifty million money. He learned that he had to unlock each region by ascending into it, then began the game with a new character card, a map, and extensive supplies.

• Zhou Ming explained to Su Yuxiang that he might remain unconscious for up to fifteen days while playing the instance, and she agreed to arrange care if needed.
• Zhou Ming planned to take a graduate entrance examination to prepare for entering the medical industry, and Su Qingrong offered to make the exam easy for him.
• Zhou Ming realized that he had to complete each region’s ascension challenge before unlocking that region’s characters and maps, so he would have to climb upward from the bottom district again.
• Zhou Ming spent money on an Area 51 map and a Son of Regional Manager Character Card, and brought three hundred Manifestation Treasure Chests into the instance.
• Zhou Ming declared that he would try to earn more than fifty million money, started the game, and matched with the Son of Regional Manager character.

After becoming Fang Zhihong’s eight-year-old son, Zhou Ming used a Slave Drug to control his father and steered district reforms to improve mining output. At ten, he stopped Fang Zhihong from favoring the Fourth Mining Area in a dispute over a titanium mine, leaving his father increasingly obedient despite privately wishing to escape his control.

• Zhou Ming discovered that his new identity was Fang Yuanjie, the second son of Regional Manager Fang Zhihong, and realized he would still need to earn a path to District 52.
• Zhou Ming disguised a Slave Drug injection as a prank with a water gun, then ordered Fang Zhihong to obey him.
• Over the next two years, Zhou Ming directed Fang Zhihong to improve mining safety and lower tool repair prices, helping raise ore production by three percent each year.
• When the Third and Fourth Mining Areas competed for a titanium mine, Zhou Ming ordered Fang Zhihong to split it equally and claim the Third Mining Area had offered the same five million Credit Points.
• Fang Zhihong accepted Zhou Ming’s reasoning and followed his instructions, while privately vowing to find a way to get rid of him.

Zhou Ming led 150 miners through a secret tunnel beneath Area 51, intending to reach a neighboring district and escape the Sky Curtain System. After more than six years of excavation, the group emerged on the surface of District 49, where the miners were stunned to see living plants.

• Tie Tou and Tie Man reassured Hong Yan that their well-paid tunnel-digging job was safer than deep mining, and Tie Er Mei urged her not to worry.
• Zhou Ming sent the recruited miners to dig a 150-kilometer tunnel, concealing his goals of helping relatives relocate and reaching another district for the killing arena and ascension challenge.
• Zhou Ming led the miners through six and a half years of around-the-clock excavation, then ordered them to dig upward after the tunnel passed beyond the Area 51 map.
• Zhou Ming emerged onto District 49’s surface and confirmed that its radiation levels allowed people to live there, while the miners encountered plants for the first time.
• Tie Tou recognized the green growth as plants, and Zhou Ming told the astonished miners they had reached District 49.

Zhou Ming gave Fang Zhihong enough Coins to take his mother and sister to District 52, then resettled more than two hundred people in District 49 and prepared to enter a killing competition. After securing the new settlement and destroying the tunnel, he registered for the Hunger Games.

• Zhou Ming dismissed the other miners, promised the final thirty miners new lives in District 49, and warned them to keep the tunnel secret.
• Fang Zhihong received three Coins as a company reward, and Zhou Ming gave him eight more so he could take Yuan Jiali and Fang Xiaojing to District 52.
• Fang Zhihong, Yuan Jiali, and Fang Xiaojing left for the Gate of Paradise, while Fang Changjie inherited the E7 District manager position.
• Zhou Ming moved Tie Qiang's family, other miners, and their families to District 49, where he dug wells, built a wind power station, and planted sand dates.
• Zhou Ming blew up the tunnel and registered for the Hunger Games at a killing competition registration point in District 49.

After advancing from the Hunger Games, Zhou Ming returned to Heaven's Gate to track down the eighteen attackers from his previous life and recover their hidden money. He eliminated the group, learned where their coins were concealed, and killed the last survivor.

• Zhou Ming declined a homecoming celebration and flew to Heaven's Gate, hoping to find the attackers and gather more money for District 52.
• Zhou Ming used smart glasses to locate the ambushers, then shot down fourteen attackers with freezing needles and several more with tranquilizer darts.
• Zhou Ming tracked down the woman in red and used truth serum to learn that the eighteen attackers were longtime teammates from District 03's War Games and had hidden their coins in a spring.
• Zhou Ming learned the group's money was concealed in a spring ten kilometers from Heaven's Gate, then rejected the woman in red's plea to become his slave and killed her with a poison needle.

After Eastern Hospital confiscated most of Zhou Ming’s coins, he resolved never to let anyone hold them for him again. He tracked down and enslaved veteran Golden Coin Messenger Qian Dalang, built a fortune through a vast exchange scheme, and named Qian Dalang’s newborn son Qian Duoduo.

• Zhou Ming left Eastern Hospital furious that it had kept forty-four of his fifty-four coins and vowed to recover his losses someday.
• Disguised, Zhou Ming forced his way into Qian Dalang’s home and used a gun to make the Golden Coin Messenger hear his business proposal.
• After a private discussion, Zhou Ming gained Qian Dalang as a capable subordinate and slave.
• Over the following months, Zhou Ming and Qian Dalang exchanged coins and Credit Points on a massive scale, ending with fifty marked thousand-denomination coins, five hundred and five single-denomination coins, and five billion Credit Points.
• When Qian Dalang’s son was born, Zhou Ming named the baby Qian Duoduo, and Qian Dalang eagerly accepted the name.

Zhou Ming used his capital and knowledge of future money traders to establish Swift Money House and build a popular online exchange and loan service. As the business grew, he offered to pay Gu Naifeng’s university tuition in exchange for a lifetime of research work at his institute.

• Zhou Ming planned to establish an Honest Bank and explained his exchange, auction, and loan ideas to Qian Dalang, who warned that the plan would fail.
• Zhou Ming hired programmers Zhang Jianlin and Lin Sicong, who built Money Life Network, and opened Swift Honest Electric Company as an underground exchange agency.
• Zhou Ming spent five hundred million Credit Points on GG advertisements, bringing Money Life Network’s registered users above five hundred thousand and attracting customers to Swift Money House.
• Swift Money House began offering loans, helping an elderly customer buy money for life-extension treatment and giving other customers a way to finance urgent needs.
• Gu Naihui and Gu Naifeng sought a loan for his tuition but refused to put their restaurant up as collateral.
• Zhou Ming offered to cover Gu Naifeng’s tuition without collateral if he agreed to work at Zhou Ming’s research institute for the rest of his life, and Gu Naifeng accepted.

Zhou Ming responded to Swift Money House’s growing loan defaults by officially establishing the Thug Gang to collect debts. Li Xiaobo discovered that his contract required him to repay the principal, and the gang began pursuing the other debtors.

• Qian Dalang warned Zhou Ming that borrowers were defaulting, but Zhou Ming decided debts had to be repaid and prepared to enforce the contracts.
• Zhou Ming officially established the Thug Gang with twenty-two surviving recruits trained to follow District 52’s rules and work under his command.
• Li Xiaobo stopped repaying his 70,000-Credit-Point loan after a coworker told him it was illegal usury.
• A suited Thug Gang member confronted Li Xiaobo, who checked his contract and found it required full repayment within half a year with no interest.
• Li Xiaobo resumed repaying his debt, while the Thug Gang warned other defaulters; some paid, others lost in court, and fugitives were exposed after Zhou Ming entered the police system.

Zhou Ming captured notorious criminals and seized their wealth, then took control of Shining Star City's public security system by making Police Chief Renault his slave. He left himself with a protective umbrella for Swift Money House, though he still needed to build influence across the city's other government departments.

• Zhou Ming arrested Du Locke, whose real name was Zhao Haixin, after learning about his decades of scamming women and killing victims.
• After Shen Wanxing and the Xingcai Gang threatened Swift Money House, Zhou Ming's Thug Gang destroyed the gang's headquarters, and Zhou Ming arrested Shen Wanxing and seized his Coins.
• Zhou Ming publicized Shen Wanxing's record of more than a thousand scams, prompting citizens to demand justice and making Zhou Ming a celebrated City Hero and Criminal Nemesis.
• Police Chief Renault summoned Zhou Ming under the pretense of awarding him, but Zhou Ming shot Renault's subordinates and subdued Renault with a tranquilizer needle.
• Zhou Ming made Renault his slave and gained indirect control of Shining Star City's public security system, securing a protective umbrella for Swift Money House.

Wu Yujing recovered from her wounds and insisted on remaining Zhou Ming’s police partner, while Zhou Ming learned that his missing family had been found in Steel Well City. He set out by maglev train with his subordinates to reunite with them.

• Wu Yujing woke in Zhiyuan Hospital after receiving a bionic kidney and recovering from her near-fatal gunshot wound.
• Zhou Ming offered Wu Yujing an office job and a new police robot partner, but she objected and demanded to keep working with him.
• Zhou Ming agreed to let Wu Yujing remain his partner after she tried to leave the hospital bed.
• Police Chief Renault told Zhou Ming that his family had been located in Steel Well City through the public security information system.
• Zhou Ming took several days off and boarded a maglev train to Steel Well City with more than a dozen subordinates.