Chapter Summaries

A reckless street racer crashed head-on into Viska, who emerged unharmed while losing her lollipop. Pandora pulled the injured driver from the wreckage, knocked him down, and ordered him to buy Viska a replacement.

• A speeding sports car charged toward Viska as the others calmly debated where it would hit her.
• Viska stood her ground, and the car smashed into her without moving her, though the crash startled her and knocked her lollipop to the ground.
• Pandora pulled her younger sister away, tore open the wrecked car, and dragged the bloodied driver out.
• Sandora joked about making the driver crash into Viska again, and the narrator rapped her on the head.
• Pandora struck the terrified driver down and ordered him to buy Viska a lollipop to replace the one she lost.

Pandora forced the shaken street racer to buy Viska a lollipop, while Sandora accidentally destroyed his brain during an attempt to erase his memories. The man recovered and reported the group’s strength to an unknown organization; back home, Sandora told A Jun that Little Pao Pao had been troubled lately.

• Pandora demanded that the street racer compensate Viska with a lollipop, and the group let the accident unfold rather than stop it.
• Sandora tried to erase the street racer’s memories but burned out his brain, leaving him apparently dead and badly injured.
• The street racer recovered, found a communication device in the wreckage, and told his contacts that the group had overwhelmed their plan.
• A Jun and the others returned to the Living Room, where Little Pao Pao ran downstairs to greet him.
• Sandora told A Jun that Little Pao Pao had been troubled for days and scolded him for neglecting his troops.

Sandora explained that Viska’s recovered data could help restore the Shilin civilization’s fragmented technology, and that Little Pao Pao had been helping decrypt it. She invited A Jun to see a restored manufacturing blueprint for a Pandora Legion warrior.

• Sandora scolded A Jun for neglecting Viska’s activities, while Qian Qian and Little Pao Pao joined in biting him.
• Sandora explained that the Shilin civilization had stored its knowledge across the memory cores of its Apostles, but the Empire’s collapse left its technology in incomplete fragments.
• A Jun realized Viska’s memory core contained a crucial fragment capable of connecting the scattered technical data.
• Sandora revealed that Little Pao Pao had used her supercomputing core to help decrypt and integrate Viska’s data.
• Sandora said the technicians had restored manufacturing data for a mid-level Pandora Legion warrior and suggested they go see it.

The group visited the Empire Research Center, where Viska’s memory-core scans were supplying data for Shilin research, and Siweisi showed them a newly completed Armored Scorpion. Sandora ordered the warrior activated, and the chapter ended as she opened her eyes.

• The group watched Viska undergo a daily memory-core scan, and Siweisi explained that it was harmless and produced vast amounts of data.
• Siweisi led the group to the Third Test Field to show them the research center’s new results.
• Siweisi introduced the Shilin Armored Scorpion, a warrior with a woman’s upper body and a massive mechanical scorpion lower body.
• Sandora and Pandora inspected the Armored Scorpion, and Sandora ordered Siweisi to make her move.
• Siweisi released the Armored Scorpion’s magnetic locks and powered her up, and she opened her eyes.

The narrator witnessed the activation of a new Shilin soldier, an Armored Scorpion named Vega, and learned about her specialized melee weapons and venom-stinger cannon. He ordered Vega to familiarize herself with Shadow City before receiving a mission, since she first needed to learn how the human world worked.

• The newly activated Armored Scorpion saluted the narrator and introduced herself as ready for orders.
• Vega drew two Ship-Slaying Blades, prompting Sandora and the others to discuss her rare melee-focused role.
• Sandora explained that Armored Scorpions excelled at close combat and infiltration, and described the ranged weapons built into Vega's tail.
• The narrator named the soldier Vega and told her to explore Shadow City and learn about the outside world.
• Vega accepted the order to stay in Shadow City until she understood that she could not fire weapons in the street or buy psionic crystals at human gas stations.

Chen Jun and Sandora discussed the Esper Team’s failure to investigate a mysterious smuggling organization and planned to help Lin Xue while testing their new Armored Scorpion. At the Esper Team office, Lin Xue vented about the case, sparred with Ding Ling, and warned her to keep Ding Bai in check around Chen Jun.

• Sandora asked Chen Jun about the mission he had given the Armored Scorpion, and he explained that the Esper Team could not uncover a mysterious group suspected of smuggling.
• Sandora analyzed the case and proposed calling Lin Xue for more information before using the incident to test the Armored Scorpion.
• Lin Xue dismissed the Faceless Man after he reported another dead end and complained to Ding Ling about being called back from her day off.
• Ding Ling teased Lin Xue for arranging for Chen Jun to receive her request for help, and the two friends fought until Lin Xue pinned her.
• Lin Xue told Ding Ling to keep Ding Bai under control around Chen Jun and refused to reveal how powerful Chen Jun’s group was.

A middle-aged man waited alone for Medusa, hoping to learn about her organization’s offer, but she froze him and collected one of his fingers. The Esper Team arrived too late to catch her, though they found the victim still alive.

• The middle-aged man waited in the cold for Medusa, recalling her offer to cooperate with his group of Espers.
• Medusa appeared and asked whether he had come alone, then froze him before he could respond.
• Medusa snapped off one of the frozen man’s fingers, stored it in a vial, and escaped on a red motorcycle.
• The NPC Faceless Man arrived with the Esper Team and said they had missed Medusa again.
• A man in a white coat confirmed the victim was still alive, and medical personnel carried him into the van.

The household realized their idle life had become unbearable, but Lin Xue’s arrival brought a new problem requiring their help. She explained that two previously unrelated matters had suddenly become connected, leaving the situation more troublesome.

• Older Sister proposed that the household find something to do because everyone was bored and growing mold.
• Lilina reminded everyone that they belonged to a powerful organization, while Sandora pointed out that its officers were busy even though the leaders ignored their duties.
• Lin Xue contacted the household and demanded that they open the door for her and Ding Ling.
• The household bet on how loudly Ding Ling would scream when Anweina opened the door, and Qian Qian won the dishwashing wager.
• Lin Xue said two previously unrelated matters had become connected and asked the narrator for help.

Lin Xue explained that a hidden organization was attacking powerful independent Espers and might be linked to the Smuggling Ring, while also evading her prophetic ability. Older Sister agreed that their group would help uncover and destroy the organization, leaving the narrator lamenting that she had accepted too quickly.

• Lin Xue explained that most unaffiliated Espers were weak, though some independent teams included capable members, and joked about an Esper whose only power was regenerating one front tooth.
• Lin Xue revealed that organized attacks had left several independent Espers, including two B-rank members, in vegetative states and said the attacks might be connected to the Smuggling Ring.
• The narrator asked why Lin Xue had not discovered what the Smuggling Ring was smuggling, and Lin Xue attacked him because the ring could temporarily disrupt her ability.
• Ding Ling teased Lin Xue and the narrator about their chemistry, before Older Sister stopped their bickering and summarized the threat.
• Older Sister agreed that their group would help expose and destroy the hidden organization, and the narrator regretted losing his chance to bargain for a reward.

Lin Xue and the others patrolled a crowded shopping district while searching for a meeting place, and Older Sister’s team encountered armed robbers inside a mall. The robbers took control of the shoppers and demanded valuables, while Older Sister restrained Viska and Pandora and told them to pretend to be ordinary people.

• Lin Xue insisted that the meeting place was nearby, while A Jun and the others checked in over their telepathic channel and reported no useful findings.
• Lin Xue worried that the operation could harm ordinary people, and A Jun reassured her that the district was surrounded by Empire Officers and Patrol Teams.
• Viska objected to being paired with Pandora, but Older Sister’s threatening aura made both girls pretend to get along before they resumed fighting when she looked away.
• Gunshots and a robber’s threats panicked the shoppers, and Older Sister held Viska and Pandora back and told them to act like ordinary people.
• A bearded robber and two masked henchmen ordered the shoppers to squat down and hand over their valuables.

Lin Xue recognized the robbery as a diversion, and Older Sister’s unseen intervention caused a string of dangerous accidents that exposed the robbers. Black Snake realized an esper had targeted him and faced Older Sister while the other robbers fled.

• Lin Xue pointed out that the robbery at her family’s shopping center was an implausible choice and likely meant to draw attention before an attack.
• Sandora mobilized teams to monitor the area and block transportation while Older Sister watched the robbers.
• When Black Snake threatened the crowd, his gun exploded, a chandelier fell, and the floor collapsed beneath him without injuring the bystanders.
• Black Snake recognized the accidents as signs that an esper had targeted him and warned his masked accomplices to run.
• The two masked robbers fled in separate directions as the crowd scattered, leaving Black Snake facing Older Sister and the two girls with her.

Older Sister and Qian Qian stopped Black Snake and his two fleeing partners. Qian Qian left one robber crippled and the other temporarily aged, then gave him seventy-two hours to live.

• Older Sister caught Black Snake’s punch, sent him flying, and used her ability to make his muscles cramp when he attacked again.
• The two remaining robbers escaped the mall and headed for an abandoned passageway, where Qian Qian and Little Pao Pao confronted them.
• The robbers attacked with a storm of steel and electricity, but Qian Qian used her time-stopping ability to get behind them and cripple the refined man.
• Qian Qian aged the thin, tall man into a dying old man, then tossed a coin to decide his fate.
• Qian Qian kicked the crippled refined man and told the old man he had gained seventy-two hours of life.

Medusa and Vincent exchanged a component of a mysterious device, but an unseen surveillance eye tracked them after they parted. Vincent was ambushed in a parking lot by the Machine Scorpion and struggled to escape as it pursued him.

• Vincent gave Medusa a small metal component and warned her that an eye could see through his fog.
• Medusa used a ring to make the component glow, while Vincent realized he was being watched after leaving her.
• Vincent's car failed to start, then finally turned on after he tore off its steering wheel.
• The Machine Scorpion attacked Vincent in the parking lot, and he dodged its blades and electromagnetic blast.
• Vincent used his speed to flee, but the Machine Scorpion repeatedly appeared in his path and smashed cars and pillars behind him.

Vega defeated Vincent but stopped pursuing him after her Commander ordered her to return, leaving the badly wounded man alive. Lin Xue celebrated the Esper Team’s first successful result with the narrator, then blamed a certain “big block of Wood” for letting the enemy go.

• Machine Scorpion overwhelmed Vincent, destroyed his short blade, severed his right arm, and knocked him through a door into a storage room.
• Vega located Vincent but stopped to answer her Commander, who ordered her to return before she finished him off.
• Vincent heard Vega leave and realized he had survived, though his injuries and the Esper Team’s search still threatened him.
• Lin Xue returned to her office beneath a KTV and announced that they should celebrate finally getting results.
• Lin Xue condemned a “big block of Wood” for losing his mind and letting the enemy go.

After the Blond Foreigner escaped, Lin Xue questioned Jun’s decision, and Jun explained that Sandora’s plan would confuse hidden organizations and draw them into the open. Lin Xue received the captives’ statements and confirmed that the mysterious allies were not to be investigated, then punished Jun for his broadcast insult before the group left with Vega.

• Jun explained to Lin Xue that releasing the Blond Foreigner would spread confusing intelligence and provoke hidden organizations, then admitted Sandora had suggested the plan.
• A Faceless Man brought Lin Xue the captives’ statements, which indicated that Medusa’s peripheral members were B-rank Espers and had been overwhelmed by a psychic field beyond known abilities.
• Lin Xue ordered her subordinate to keep tracking Medusa but not investigate Jun’s group, whom she identified as allies after direct contact with the organization’s highest level.
• Lin Xue overheard Jun’s insult about her and beat him repeatedly after her subordinate left.
• Sandora praised Vega’s performance, then ordered her back to Shadow City to continue studying.

After Alaya failed to return from her morning flight, the narrator discovered that she had gotten lost on the Moon. Her companions brought her home, where she shed the lunar dust by transforming into light and reappeared clean.

• Qian Qian and the others returned home, and the narrator noticed that Alaya was missing.
• Ding Dang said Alaya had gone for a ride in the stratosphere and had not come back.
• The narrator contacted Alaya telepathically and learned she was lost in a vacuum on the Moon.
• The twin sisters brought Alaya back to the Living Room covered in lunar dust.
• Alaya transformed into golden light, dropped the dust onto the floor, and reappeared sparkling clean.

The narrator described the group’s quiet response to the Esper Team and the new Boundless Love studio before investigating Ding Dang’s recent secrecy. Lilina could only confirm that Ding Dang was conducting experiments in the temple, leaving the purpose of her work unknown.

• Lin Xue reported the capture of two prisoners to her grandfather, Old Master Lin, who grew curious about the narrator’s group and might investigate them.
• Older Sister and Qian Qian opened the Boundless Love studio with help from Empire Officers to take on public-service work.
• Ding Dang spent her days in the World Tree’s temple while divine Primordial Creatures roamed Shadow City, and she vanished whenever asked about her activities.
• The narrator asked Lilina what Ding Dang had been doing, threatening to cut her allowance when Lilina dodged the question.
• Lilina said Ding Dang locked herself in the temple to conduct experiments, sometimes causing explosions, but admitted she knew nothing more.

A mail bomb was delivered to A Jun, but Qian Qian froze its explosion before anyone was hurt. The group then discovered Ding Dang had been secretly experimenting in the Life Temple, though she was still too upset to explain what she had been doing.

• Older Sister brought A Jun a package, and he opened it to find a bomb frozen in the instant of its explosion.
• Qian Qian said the bomb could remain frozen indefinitely, while Sandora ate it and urged the group to deal with the attackers after lunch.
• When Ding Dang failed to appear for lunch, Lilina teleported to the Life Temple and found her as a blackened lump on the Creation Platform.
• A Jun revived Ding Dang by shaking her in a glass of water, then demanded to know what experiments had caused the explosion.
• Ding Dang broke down and shouted that she was an idiot who had failed the Elementary Creation Certificate makeup exam fourteen times.

Ding Dang confessed that she had failed the Elementary Creation Certificate exam fourteen times and was preparing for another attempt with a book of creation experiments. The narrator then visited Lin Xue with Ding Ling and her dog X.O., bringing a time-frozen Mail Bomb and asking the Esper Team for leads on Mysterious Organization A.

• Ding Dang admitted that she had failed the Elementary Creation Certificate makeup exam fourteen times and hoped a borrowed book would help her pass the fifteenth.
• Ding Ling brought her friendly black dog, X.O., to Lin Xue's underground base, where the narrator and his sister met them.
• The narrator showed Lin Xue the Mail Bomb that had been delivered to his headquarters and explained that Qian Qian had stopped time around it after it detonated.
• The narrator said Mysterious Organization A might be responsible and asked Lin Xue whether the Esper Team had found any leads.
• Lin Xue agreed to help and told the narrator to act as her gold-medal enforcer.

Lin Xue told the narrator and Ding Ling that Olympus was behind attacks on Espers and was harvesting their body tissue, then revealed an opportunity to confront Medusa in two days. Elsewhere, the injured Vincent recovered in a hidden Babel Tower safehouse while his colleague dismissed his account of the Armored Scorpion attack.

• Lin Xue explained that Olympus was an international Esper organization led locally by Medusa and linked to attacks and smuggling with another European group.
• Lin Xue revealed that every attacked Esper had lost a small piece of their body, leading her to suspect Olympus was conducting experiments.
• The narrator agreed to tell Qian Qian and the others and prepare to confront Medusa, a senior associate, and their followers in two days.
• In a hidden safehouse, Vincent's colleague mocked his injuries and his account of being attacked by the Armored Scorpion.
• Vincent warned that the Armored Scorpion was powerful enough to require top-tier S-rank Espers or Olympus members to defeat.