Chapter Summaries

After six months apart, Zhou Ming brought Lan Mengxin to Hope Fortress and persuaded her to help him confront Long Shengguang, on the condition that her father be spared. Long Shengguang trapped Zhou Ming in a forced Zero-Sum Game, but Zhou Ming entered the game with a hidden confidence as their Show Hand match began.

• Zhou Ming spent six months searching for a way to rescue Lan Mengxin while avoiding Long Shengguang, and he realized how deeply he relied on Lan Mengxin's understanding and companionship.
• Zhou Ming brought Lan Mengxin from Dragon Blue Castle to Hope Fortress, where she saw that he had recreated the castle from her painting and broke down in tears.
• Zhou Ming promised to save Lan Mengxin, and she agreed to help him if he spared Long Shengguang and handed her father over to her.
• Long Shengguang returned to Dragon Blue Castle after winning eighty million in a Zero-Sum Game and learned that Zhou Ming had come to the castle.
• Long Shengguang used his Ultimate Gambler privilege to force Zhou Ming into a Zero-Sum Game, freezing and matching their chips at fifty-five million each.
• Zhou Ming sat down to play Show Hand against Long Shengguang, outwardly nervous but inwardly confident.

Zhou Ming used the effects of the Mind Interference Agent and a carefully planned bluff to defeat Long Shengguang in their twelve-hour Zero-Sum Game. Long Shengguang tried to rely on armed robots after surrendering, but Zhou Ming revealed he had already taken control of the castle and subdued him with Slave Drug.

• Zhou Ming lost and won the early rounds before bluffing Long Shengguang into folding a hand, then won another large pot as the Mind Interference Agent clouded Long Shengguang’s judgment.
• As the drug’s effects faded, Long Shengguang grew more cautious and Zhou Ming’s winnings dwindled; Zhou Ming stalled each round and avoided looking at his hole card to preserve his lead.
• With less than half an hour left, Zhou Ming called Long Shengguang’s ten-million bet and revealed the ten of spades, putting himself twelve and a half million ahead and effectively securing victory.
• Long Shengguang surrendered, and the Golden Coin Device confirmed Zhou Ming’s winnings, but Long Shengguang claimed he could still kill him and reclaim the money.
• Zhou Ming said he had already taken control of Dragon Blue Castle, and the castle’s robots restrained Long Shengguang while Zhou Ming injected him with Slave Drug.

After Zhou Ming freed Lan Mengxin from the explosive chip, she revealed how her father had killed her mother and imprisoned her. Long Shengguang then attacked Zhou Ming, and Lan Mengxin killed him; seven days later, Zhou Ming stopped her from walking into a lake and asked her to marry him.

• Zhou Ming told Lan Mengxin she was free after the Medical Robot removed the explosive chip from her body.
• Lan Mengxin told Zhou Ming that Long Shengguang had killed her mother after they fought over how to use her Soul Perceiver ability.
• Long Shengguang attacked Zhou Ming with a pistol, and Lan Mengxin shot her father to save Zhou Ming.
• Long Shengguang apologized to Lan Mengxin before he died, and she wept beside him.
• Seven days later, Lan Mengxin walked toward a lake, but Zhou Ming pulled her into an embrace and asked her to marry him.

After Long Shengguang’s failed assassination attempt, Zhou Ming learned that powerful gamblers could escape the Slave Drug, but realized Lan Mengxin’s Mind Reader ability deterred challengers. He assessed and secured Long Shengguang’s vast assets, leaving Zhou Ming determined to improve his gambling skills and build his fortune without relying on his wife’s protection.

• Lan Mengxin explained that gamblers could resist the Slave Drug through Mind Seal and Mind Deception, and Zhou Ming realized Long Shengguang had used Mind Deception during the assassination attempt.
• Lan Mengxin reassured Zhou Ming that her ability as a born Mind Reader had kept gamblers from challenging him, and he resolved to become strong enough to protect himself.
• Zhou Ming inventoried Long Shengguang’s holdings, finding 358 million in cash, valuable resources and game-company stakes, and a total fortune of 587.25 million before his own assets.
• Zhou Ming learned how profitable Long Shengguang’s game companies and casino were and decided to manage the businesses while improving his gambling skills.
• After Lan Mengxin identified which of the twenty-three castle executives were cooperative or resentful, Zhou Ming promoted six and used the Slave Drug on the other seventeen to stabilize the businesses.

Three years later, Zhou Ming underwent Brain Domain Enhancement at Wisdom Hospital to break through a gambling-related bottleneck and discovered the dramatic effects of surpassing 50% development. After reaching 59%, he planned further treatments and learned that Gu Naifeng was working on a secret project that could push human brains beyond 90%.

• Zhou Ming checked into Wisdom Hospital for Brain Domain Enhancement after years of gambling left him struggling against top gamblers with more highly developed brains.
• After his development passed 50%, Zhou Ming unlocked the Soul Eye and gained a much clearer grasp of people, problems, and his own weaknesses.
• A month of treatment raised Zhou Ming's Brain Domain Development to 59%, and Doctor Tao praised his potential and suggested further rounds.
• Zhou Ming decided to continue treatment and pursue enhancement at other hospitals until his development exceeded 80%.
• Zhou Ming discovered that Gu Naifeng worked at Wisdom Hospital on the secret God Brain project and asked him to copy its research materials once it succeeded.

Two years later, Zhou Ming defeated Sullivan in a Zero-Sum Game while Lan Mengxin went into labor. He hurried to Hope Fortress afterward and met their newborn boy-girl twins.

• Zhou Ming and Lan Mengxin discussed names for their unborn child and guessed that Lan Mengxin might be carrying twins.
• Sullivan attacked Dragon Blue Castle with more than a hundred aircraft while Lan Mengxin was giving birth, and Zhou Ming challenged him to a Zero-Sum Game.
• Zhou Ming used Mind Deception and careful betting to defeat Sullivan, winning his assets and exposing the Zeroed as his accomplice.
• The Zeroed dragged Sullivan outside, where he saw that his aircraft and men had been destroyed, and Zhou Ming refused his pleas for mercy.
• Zhou Ming reached Hope Fortress and learned that Lan Mengxin had given birth to a girl and a boy, with their daughter born first.

After securing his wealth and eliminating Sullivan, Zhou Ming developed and launched Descend, a betting game where Upper District players controlled combatants in battles fought by Lower District contestants. The first match drew millions of viewers and huge wagers, and Zhou Ming approved the game’s success despite the thousands of deaths it caused.

• Zhou Ming explained how his enhanced brain and careful preparations had let him defeat Sullivan and raise his fortune to 1.478 billion.
• Zhou Ming decided to develop a bloody game with a new mode that let betting players control characters directly.
• Zhou Ming and his planning team created Descend, with battles between 5,000 contestants, treasure chests, and numerous betting options.
• In June of New Calendar Year 582, Descend launched, drawing 5.22 million simultaneous viewers and 4.67 million bettors to its first match.
• Lower District contestants were forced into deadly battles as players controlled Descenders, and nearly 5,000 people died in the match.
• Jones Rui reported that the match had drawn 158 million in wagers, and Zhou Ming praised the team and told them to continue.

Forty years later, Zhou Ming had become the Upper District’s second-richest person as the economy and gaming industry declined, while Ren Lifu prepared for his final chance to win Final Gamble. After seizing the fortunes of the third- through hundredth-ranked wealthy people, Ren Lifu tried to buy the remaining resources but Zhao Yu kept outbidding him, so Ren Lifu sent his Robot Legion to attack District 11.

• Over forty years, Zhou Ming’s fortune grew to 3.367 billion money, making him the second-richest person, while the Upper District’s gaming and casino industries declined.
• Ren Lifu, at age 296, resolved to win Final Gamble before his remaining four years ran out and to take revenge on the two rivals who had defeated him before.
• Ren Lifu zeroed out Lei Yaojin and Wang Shicong, then seized the fortunes of the people ranked fifth through twentieth and dozens of other wealthy people, raising his assets to 10.501 billion money.
• Ren Lifu tried to buy the remaining listed resources, but Zhao Yu repeatedly matched his bids and blocked the purchase.
• Enraged, Ren Lifu sent more than a thousand aircraft carrying one hundred thousand armed robots toward District 11 to kill Zhao Yu.

Zhou Ming and Ren Lifu faced each other in a Final Gamble, where both used their exceptional card-reading abilities through an exhausting match. Zhou Ming won the decisive final hand, and Ren Lifu’s attempt to start the world-destruction program failed, leaving him restrained.

• Ren Lifu initiated a Final Gamble against Zhou Ming, and they chose 19 Points with 3.367 billion at stake.
• The two used their card-reading skills to gain an edge as the match continued for hours, and Ren Lifu gained a small lead.
• Ren Lifu’s innate mind-reading ability disrupted Zhou Ming, but Zhou Ming countered by closing his eyes and placing bets without looking at his cards.
• In the final minutes, Zhou Ming bluffed Ren Lifu into folding a hand, then won the last round with eight points against six.
• Ren Lifu pressed the capsule device to activate his Robot Legion and the world-destruction program, but Zhou Ming revealed the robots had already been cleared out.
• The Zeroed restrained Ren Lifu and stunned him with a high-energy electric gun.

Zhou Ming chose to ascend to the Top District despite Lan Mengxin’s vision that he would die there, and spent six months preparing. He arrived at the mountaintop district determined to face whatever dangers awaited him.

• Lan Mengxin warned Zhou Ming that she had foreseen his death if he entered the Top District, but Zhou Ming decided to go rather than let his assets be reset.
• Zhou Ming spent the next six months preparing for ascension and taking Lan Mengxin on outings, though she remained despondent.
• After negotiations concluded, Zhou Ming submitted his ascension application using the Golden Coin Device.
• Two days later, Zhou Ming boarded a delta-wing aircraft and saw a huge space station in orbit before the plane approached the Top District beneath a dome on a towering mountain.
• Zhou Ming clutched the safety talisman Lan Mengxin had woven and tried to steel himself for the dangers ahead.

Zhou Ming entered the Top District and discovered that its five established masters were Desireless Ones who viewed him as a rival. After the masters began bidding to take his three districts, Zhou Ming faced imminent elimination as the weakest resource holder ahead of the coming reshuffle.

• Zhou Ming entered the Top District, rejected its 100-million-money Longevity Treatment, and moved into a villa beneath the mountain's transparent dome.
• The five masters discussed swatting down the newcomer, then ignored Zhou Ming when he arrived at the Resource Hall and asked for a chair.
• Zhou Ming used Soul Vision and learned that the five masters were Desireless Ones who had suppressed their emotions and desires, leaving him unable to read or easily deal with them.
• Zhou Ming assessed the Top District's rules and realized he was the weakest of its six elders, making him a likely target for elimination during the upcoming reshuffle.
• Someone bid to buy District 50 from Zhou Ming, and bids for District 49 and Area 51 followed soon after.

Zhou Ming learned that the Top District contest ranked participants by both wealth and resource value, leaving him at risk of elimination. He exposed the resource scores of the other Desireless Ones to gain an advantage, but No. 4 refused his final information deal, prompting Zhou Ming to plan another way to make him talk.

• Zhou Ming matched repeated bids on his resources, then targeted Desireless One No. 4 by buying twenty of his resources and discovered No. 4 used the proceeds to pursue the others’ holdings.
• After three days of bidding battles, Zhou Ming figured out that the contest ranked participants by both their Golden Coins and the assessed value of their resources, and realized his low wealth and lack of information put him at risk of elimination.
• Zhou Ming privately offered Desireless Ones No. 4, No. 5, No. 3, and No. 2 information about their rivals’ resources in exchange for money or cooperation.
• With 8 billion Golden Coins in spare funds, Zhou Ming worked with No. 4 to raise bids on No. 1’s resources until he revealed all sixty-three assessed value scores, which No. 2, No. 3, and No. 5 used to acquire valuable resources.
• Zhou Ming repeated the information scheme against No. 2, No. 3, and No. 5, exposing the scores of their resources, then offered No. 4 an exchange of the remaining information.
• No. 4 refused because he already had most of the information, and Zhou Ming decided to find a way to make him confess.

On the day before the reshuffling, Zhou Ming learned how the cycle worked, then killed four Desireless Ones and forced Desireless One No. 4 to reveal resource and project details. The ruler exposed Zhou Ming as a cheater and ordered him captured, but Zhou Ming escaped the base by breaking through its dome and fell from ten thousand meters above the ground.

• Zhou Ming questioned the Desireless Ones about overthrowing the Money Empire and learned that people had only five chances and that the reshuffling was imminent.
• Zhou Ming killed Desireless Ones No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and No. 5, then used the Slave Drug to make Desireless One No. 4 reveal resource valuations and explain the reshuffling projects.
• Desireless One No. 4 began explaining the Garbage District, but a laser killed him as an alarm identified Zhou Ming as a cheater.
• The ruler showed Zhou Ming footage of his actions and said he wanted to study Zhou Ming's ability to produce items from thin air.
• Zhou Ming fought through the guards and security robots, damaged the base dome, and shattered it with a powerful punch that crippled one arm.
• Zhou Ming leapt through the opening and began falling from ten thousand meters above the ground.

After returning to Paradise Island, Zhou Ming faced a total lockdown and led an assault on Wisdom Hospital to obtain the God Brain project’s technical data. His forces reached the seventy-ninth underground level, where they discovered millions of clones and discarded human brains, and Zhou Ming ordered them to keep moving.

• Zhou Ming and Jin Biao escaped pursuing forces in a stealth aircraft and crash-landed near Paradise Island after its batteries ran low.
• The ruler imposed a total blockade on Paradise Island, while Zhou Ming decided he could not defeat the ruler’s forces and would instead seek the God Brain project’s technical data.
• Zhou Ming learned that God Brain treatment had raised a test subject’s Brain Domain Development to 91 percent before causing brain death, and that Gu Naifeng was held deep beneath Wisdom Hospital.
• Zhou Ming mobilized his subordinates, slaves, and robots to attack Wisdom Hospital and descend through its underground levels despite massive enemy reinforcements.
• On the seventy-ninth level, Zhou Ming and his forces found millions of clones in cultivation tanks and human brains preserved in glass jars.
• Zhou Ming urged his forces to run onward toward the final level and find the researchers.

Zhou Ming destroyed the God Brain project and watched Gu Naifeng and many of his loyal companions die as he fought his way out of Wisdom Hospital. As the Ruler’s forces cornered him, Lan Mengxin sacrificed herself and gave him a blue sapphire, and Zhou Ming vowed to return before the order to fire.

• Zhou Ming took 70 percent of the God Brain data from Gu Naifeng, then ordered the God Brain researchers killed and their underground laboratory destroyed.
• Gu Naifeng and Zhou Ming’s companions fell during the retreat, and Gu Naifeng died in Zhou Ming’s arms as Zhou Ming emerged from Wisdom Hospital.
• The Ruler demanded the God Brain data and threatened Lan Mengxin, but she used mental insight to approach Zhou Ming and was shot.
• Lan Mengxin gave Zhou Ming a blue sapphire and died after asking him to remember her.
• Zhou Ming placed the sapphire in his final Manifestation Treasure Chest, vowed to return, and heard the Ruler order his forces to open fire.

After dying in Money Empire, Zhou Ming woke in a hospital and regretted how his impatience and reliance on cheating had ruined his chance to clear the game. Grieving Meng Xin and resolving to approach the instance differently next time, he was discharged, leaving Su Yuxiang stunned by his apology.

• Zhou Ming woke in a hospital, checked his F-rated game results, and realized how much weight he had lost after spending 120 years in Money Empire.
• Zhou Ming reviewed the shortcuts and cheats that had drawn the Ruler's attention and concluded that he had never had a real chance to clear the instance.
• Zhou Ming mourned Meng Xin while holding her heart-shaped sapphire and vowed not to enter the game personally so often after clearing Money Empire.
• Su Yuxiang drove Zhou Ming home after his discharge and complained that his long dreaming episodes had left her terrified and exhausted.
• Zhou Ming apologized to Su Yuxiang as he looked at the sapphire, and she was shocked by his unfamiliar grief.

After recovering from his low mood, Zhou Ming pursued Biomedical Engineering and impressed Professor Zhao Qiyu so deeply that Zhao promised to admit him regardless of his exam score. Zhou Ming then took the graduate entrance exams, leaving the other candidates stunned by how quickly he completed the papers.

• Zhou Ming changed his intended field from Biomedical Molecular Science to Biomedical Engineering, and Su Qingrong arranged for him to meet Professor Zhao Qiyu.
• Zhou Ming and Zhao Qiyu talked for ten hours about medicine and research, after which Zhao invited Zhou to join his team without needing to pass the entrance exam.
• On September 7, Zhou Ming entered the difficult Biomedical Engineering graduate entrance exam alongside eighteen candidates, including Chen Xianxin, Hao Qingqing, and Zhang Wenhai.
• Zhou Ming completed the first exam in just over half an hour and handed in a paper filled with answers that appeared mostly correct, shocking the proctor and candidates.
• Four days later, Zhou Ming again finished the final exam early, while the other candidates had grown numb to his performance.

Zhou Ming traveled to Ao Men to raise money for his business and used his gambling skills to win more than 167 million before every major casino blacklisted him. He returned to Hang City, where Professor Zhao Qiyu told him he had ranked first in the graduate entrance exams and reminded him to attend classes on October 15.

• Zhou Ming exchanged 500,000 for casino chips and chose blackjack, turning his starting capital into 5 million in four hours.
• Zhou Ming moved into San Vaiz Casino’s VIP room, won 37 million, and later defeated the casino’s gambler Xu Baiyin in Show Hand.
• San Vaiz Casino barred Zhou Ming after he won 85 million, and he continued winning at other casinos until they blacklisted him too.
• Zhou Ming totaled more than 167 million in winnings and decided to return to Hang City to fund his business.
• Professor Zhao Qiyu called Zhou Ming after he landed and told him he had scored 775 across eight exams, ranked first, and needed to attend classes on October 15.

Zhou Ming studied the Learning Device’s medical materials and planned to establish research institutions to develop nutrient solutions and medical technology in reality. The system explained how its simulated instances worked and revealed that later real instances would offer fewer cheats, but a costly Space-Time Treasure Chest could bring back their items.

• Zhou Ming reviewed the medical materials on his Learning Devices and decided to prioritize researching High-Energy Nutrient Solution for use during game sessions.
• Zhou Ming planned to recruit researchers and build nutrient-solution and medical research institutions, eventually tackling major diseases and advanced fields such as gene encoding and lifespan extension.
• Zhou Ming asked why Manifestation Treasure Chests and Skill Cards could not be used in reality, and the system explained that his world was an undigitized origin plane while the instances were digitized simulations.
• Zhou Ming realized that the system’s game worlds were not fully real and reconsidered his past actions in the Zhang Ergou instance.
• The system warned that later instances after the level-five instance Galaxy Legend would be real, irreversible, and largely without cheats, then revealed that a Space-Time Treasure Chest could bring back items for 10 billion.
• Zhou Ming decided not to worry about later instances before clearing the level-four Money Empire instance.

Zhou Ming used his gambling winnings and advanced knowledge to establish a research institute in Hangzhou, hiring Song Wenhui to lead its nutritional-liquid work. As the institute prepared to begin research, Su Yuxiang and her parents saw its unusual name, Magic Liquid Research Institute, and questioned whether customers would trust it.

• At dinner, Zhou Ming told Su Yuxiang's parents that he had prepared thirty million yuan for his business, and Song Yaqin offered to help if he needed more funding.
• Zhou Ming registered his company, rented and outfitted three floors in a technology park, and began recruiting managers and research staff.
• Zhou Ming rejected three management applicants, then hired Song Wenhui after tasting the juice he had developed.
• By October 10, Zhou Ming's institute had more than twenty employees and was preparing its laboratory for research and development.
• Su Yuxiang and her parents visited the institute, saw its name on the wall, and questioned whether anyone would buy products from the Magic Liquid Research Institute.