Chapter Summaries

Wen Xishu met Horn in the library, where they concluded that the Sinland Fragment had erased the opposite sex and was assimilating its inhabitants, much like the Ark had discarded people in stages. Horn proposed using Judy and Mia to draw out the entity guarding the fragment, and Wen Xishu hurried off with Horn to find them.

• Wen Xishu navigated the bizarre red-light district and library before finding Horn reading Postpartum Care for Sows.
• Horn told Wen Xishu that the world had lost the opposite sex and that their growing acceptance of it reflected increasing synchronization and assimilation.
• Wen Xishu and Horn connected the fragment's discarded concept to the Ark's history of abandoning the elderly, sick, disabled, and other groups.
• Horn speculated that an entity approached people who resisted the fragment and suggested using Judy and Mia to lure it out and learn how to defeat it.
• Wen Xishu agreed to find Judy and Mia, then launched himself forward with Horn in his wheelchair using Limit Break Kick.

Mia and Judy’s recovered memories triggered the Sin Sea Behemoth, and Wen Xishu rescued them while learning that the creature grew stronger as it fought. After Mia’s words summoned another Behemoth, Wen Xishu chose to fight rather than keep fleeing and asked Horn to help him.

• Mia recognized that he and Judy had once been women, but Judy refused to return to the Ark and revealed the abuse he had endured there.
• Mia spoke the word “woman,” causing the Sin Sea Behemoth to appear and attack; its tentacle seized Mia and Judy as Mia repeated that the world had only men.
• Wen Xishu severed the Behemoth’s tentacle with Murder Football and carried Mia and Judy to safety, while Judy’s final word, “Girl,” unlocked Wen Xishu’s memories.
• Horn and Wen Xishu realized Mia’s repeated words had summoned another Behemoth, and Horn proposed abandoning him and running.
• Wen Xishu refused to lose the concept of women and decided to fight the Behemoth, asking Horn to work with him.

Wen Xishu and Horn used the Friendship Controller to defeat the Sin Sea Behemoth’s projection. As they landed, the supposedly defeated creature revealed that it was Sirius, trapped inside the Ark, and begged Wen Xishu to save it.

• Wen Xishu gave Horn the Friendship Controller, and Horn linked with him while they reasoned that the Sin Sea Behemoth was trying to erase Mia’s awareness of women.
• Horn used the controller to move Wen Xishu, Mia, Judy, and himself out of the way of the Behemoth’s tentacles, then directed Wen Xishu’s attacks against the creature.
• Wen Xishu and Horn fought through the Behemoth’s tentacles and swarms of eight-armed monsters, and Wen Xishu’s Murder Football pierced the creature’s main body.
• As Wen Xishu fell, the Behemoth’s voice begged him to go ashore and save it, identifying itself as Sirius and saying it was inside the Ark.
• After landing, Wen Xishu told Horn the creature had only been a projection, and Horn accepted his friendship and agreed to answer his questions.

Wen Xishu and Horn deduced that the Ark, the Sin Sea, and the islands were manifestations of Sirius’s consciousness, where the captain was trying to control him by erasing concepts. After preserving the concept of women, they planned to defeat the pursuing Sin Sea beast again and turn the whole world against the system that was hunting them.

• Wen Xishu told Horn that he had heard a voice from inside the Ark asking for help and naming the imprisoned ability user Sirius.
• Wen Xishu and Horn theorized that the captain had imprisoned Sirius and was using sacrifices and the Sinland Fragments to weaken or control him.
• Wen Xishu and Horn realized that the Ark’s islands and portals were illusions inside Sirius’s consciousness, and that the captain’s method erased concepts from his mind.
• Horn concluded that the Sin Sea beasts attacking the Ark and those appearing in the consciousness world belonged to different forces, and that preserving concepts could help Sirius resist becoming a puppet.
• Wen Xishu and Horn decided to defeat the next Sin Sea beast and then try to turn the entire world into a virus against its error-correction system.

Wen Xishu and Horn teamed up to defeat the Sin Sea Behemoth and spread the word “woman” across the city, disrupting the mental world and stopping the creature. They prepared to deal with the other islanders before returning to the Ark, where Horn planned to oppose the captain and make the Ark Wen Xishu’s ally.

• Horn refused Wen Xishu’s offer to leave the Ark, and they agreed to work together to make it a viable solution.
• Wen Xishu and Horn defeated the evolved Sin Sea Behemoth, then raced to the Media Tower as it began descending again.
• The captain told Lilith that he was stripping concepts from Sirius’s memories so he could control him, and ordered her to test and kill those who retained the concept of women.
• Wen Xishu drew the Sin Sea Behemoth’s attacks while Horn and Judy prepared the city’s broadcast equipment.
• Horn broadcast Mia’s voice saying “woman,” causing the city’s inhabitants and the Behemoth to freeze as the mental world entered a state of system failure.
• Wen Xishu and Horn discussed killing the other islanders before returning to the Ark, and Horn admitted that he wanted to become its master and stop the captain.

Wen Xishu killed Russell, Smith, Elliott, and Jilu on the island, then returned to the Ark with Horn and Judy and helped convince its observers that they had lost the concept of women. The next day, Wen Xishu and Horn planned for Horn to return to the next island while Wen Xishu secretly followed, beginning a major operation to save Sirius and take control of the Ark.

• Wen Xishu killed Russell, Smith, Elliott, and Jilu, while Mia and Judy remained alive on the island.
• Wen Xishu, Horn, and Judy returned to the Ark and convincingly passed Lilith's test about whether they had lost the concept of women.
• Horn and Judy acted like ordinary male roommates during their first night back, satisfying the Ark's surveillance.
• Wen Xishu and Horn discussed Horn applying to join the next island expedition and Wen Xishu sneaking into the Portal with the Controller.
• Wen Xishu told Horn he would help rescue Sirius and make Horn master of the Ark, as the two began their operation.

Wen Xishu and Horn infiltrated the Portal while Horn's planned uprising distracted the Ark's ability users, but the captain believed Sirius was about to become his puppet. On the island, Wen Xishu discovered that an unseen force was compelling him to clean and punishing deviations, and he was ordered to report to a clinic.

• The captain approved Horn's request to go ashore, while Wen Xishu used Horn's map to sneak through the ventilation ducts toward the Portal.
• Horn triggered an uprising among the Ark's lower-level crew, drawing away ability users as Wen Xishu slipped through the Portal and Horn entered the island afterward.
• The captain announced that the Ark had left the Sin Sea and that no one else would be sent ashore, while he celebrated his expected victory over Sirius.
• Wen Xishu awoke from a dream interrupted by a notice about dream violations and suspected that the island's rules were monitoring him.
• Wen Xishu realized that a force was compelling him to clean and making him fear any deviation from its routine.
• After Wen Xishu's actions fell out of sync, the system reported that his butterfly effect variable had exceeded two percent and ordered him to visit the Community Clinic within an hour.

Wen Xishu resisted District 19’s rules, removed a tracking chip, and learned that Horn was hiding in District 14. As law enforcement pursued him and Horn warned him about three powerful ability users, Wen Xishu set out to meet him and search for the missing concept in Sirius’s mental world.

• Wen Xishu rejected the doctor’s recommendation for a Prefrontal Lobotomy, blocked the doctor’s tranquilizer shot, and drove his Butterfly Effect Variable above seven percent.
• The doctor fainted after Wen Xishu demanded to know how to remove the operating manual, and the system dispatched apprehension personnel.
• Horn called Wen Xishu and told him to remove an implant from his arm; Wen Xishu cut open his right wrist and found a chip inside.
• Horn asked Wen Xishu to rescue him from an office building in District 14 and warned that the captain’s three assigned ability users were formidable.
• Wen Xishu escaped the clinic as police approached and raced through the city toward Horn, wondering what Sirius’s ability was.

Wen Xishu crossed the tightly controlled city and met Horn in a sealed publishing-house office, where they reasoned that Sirius’s world suppressed behavior but not thought. Wen Xishu realized he could use that distinction to uncover the hidden resistance they needed.

• Wen Xishu evaded the police while observing the city’s rigid order and its enforcers correcting people whose behavior deviated from the standard.
• Wen Xishu stole an office worker’s access card and reached the abandoned publishing house, where Horn was waiting with a wounded wrist.
• Wen Xishu linked Horn to the Controller, strengthening Horn and enabling his wounds to heal.
• Horn explained that the city resembled Sirius’s mental world, where most people were controlled by the joy drug while creators remained under surveillance.
• Wen Xishu and Horn concluded that behavior was corrected but thoughts survived, and Wen Xishu excitedly claimed he could uncover those hidden thoughts.

Wen Xishu and Horn interrogated two managers and learned about three real events predicted by a banned book, all involving people asserting their own choices. They concluded that the book’s unfulfilled fourth prophecy might break the city’s restraints and decided to pursue it.

• Wen Xishu abducted a television executive and a novelist, but their Code of Conduct Manuals made them faint whenever their fear grew too strong.
• Wen Xishu removed their implants, questioned them, and used Mixed Feelings to extract memories revealing the answer to what was most out of control in the city.
• Wen Xishu told Horn about a banned book whose first three prophecies had come true: a woman choosing whom to love, a boy pursuing his own dream, and a child grieving his grandfather freely.
• Wen Xishu explained that the book’s author, Yin Junchi, had been killed after the first three prophecies, while the fourth remained unfulfilled and might complete a ritual to break the city’s restraints.
• Wen Xishu and Horn decided to seek out the fourth prophecy and make it come true.

Wen Xishu and Horn infiltrated the industrial district’s factory, found Hugo, the child named in Yin Junchi’s fourth prophecy, and received Yin Junchi’s novel. As Hugo’s story revealed that the other prophecy subjects had died, Wen Xishu began reading the book for a way to raise the blue sun, while the enforcers investigated their trail.

• Wen Xishu and Horn decided to fulfill the fourth prophecy by finding the painter who could bring the blue sun, and they disguised themselves as Superiors after visiting a hospital.
• Reno summoned Nicolas and Antoine to investigate the abductions, suspected Horn was involved in a larger plan, and went to check a hospital storeroom despite warnings from the Code of Conduct Manual.
• Wen Xishu and Horn entered the factory with a doctor’s help and reached its rest area, where Wen Xishu called out for Yin Junchi’s surviving student.
• Hugo recognized Wen Xishu’s name, revealed that the woman and boy from the earlier prophecies had died while trying to fulfill the fourth, and gave them Yin Junchi’s novel.
• Wen Xishu began reading My Adventurous Anecdotes, which opened with Yin Junchi’s account of meeting Sirius after leaving the Reverse Seven Apartments.

Wen Xishu recounted how Yin Junchi had tried to use his Might-Building Sequence to free Sirius from Pisces’s control, and how others sacrificed themselves to complete the plan after his death. With Hugo’s blue-sun painting ready, Wen Xishu and Horn set out to project it above the sphere and begin Sirius’s liberation.

• Wen Xishu told Horn how Sirius had recruited Yin Junchi, a Gifted with the Might-Building Sequence, to help create a sanctuary and connect with Sinland.
• Yin Junchi discovered that Pisces controlled Sirius through the Ark’s captain and the Weakness Path, and he entered Sirius’s mental world to restore its inhabitants’ freedom.
• Yin Junchi planned a chain of sacrifices so that a fourth person could raise the blue sun, but he failed after succeeding three times; a woman and a boy later died as further nourishment for the plan, allowing Hugo to complete it.
• Hugo revealed that his blue-sun painting could be projected from a device atop the spherical building, though reaching it would alert the powerful enforcers inside.
• Horn and Wen Xishu agreed to fight their way to the device, and the final stage of the Sirius Liberation Plan began.

Horn and Hugo guided Wen Xishu through the Function Layer, where he defeated waves of Enforcers and cleared a path toward the device controlling the city's projections. At the Administrative Layer, Reno and two Ark ability users arrived to stop them, and Reno used his distance-altering ability to keep Wen Xishu away.

• Horn controlled Wen Xishu as he entered the Function Area, triggering a level-four alert and bringing in Enforcers.
• Wen Xishu slaughtered the Enforcers, destroyed cameras, severed transport pipelines, and led Horn and Hugo across most of the Function Layer.
• Wen Xishu reached the Administrative Layer, triggering a level-five alert and facing more than a hundred Enforcers in the open ground.
• Reno called out Horn, then Antoine and Nicolas arrived to oppose Wen Xishu.
• Wen Xishu charged Reno, but Reno used his ability to increase the distance between them and announced, "Distance, one thousand meters."

Wen Xishu charged a Sequence Ultimate while Horn and Hugo risked their lives to buy him time, and his Super Limit Break Kick killed Antoine, Nicolas, and Reno. They reached the Projection Platform and displayed the blue sun, which awakened a trapped man deep within the Ark and stirred the Sin Sea Beast.

• Reno used Distance of Separation to keep Wen Xishu a thousand meters away, so Horn had Wen Xishu charge a powerful shot while he and Hugo drew Reno’s attention.
• Wen Xishu severed his connection to the Controller and began charging his Sequence Ultimate as Horn and Hugo advanced toward Reno.
• Reno sent Antoine to stop Wen Xishu and seized Horn, but Horn and Wen Xishu warned their opponents that they would lose their freedom when they returned to the Ark.
• Wen Xishu completed Super Limit Break Kick and launched the Murder Football through Antoine, Nicolas, and Reno, saving Horn from being strangled.
• Wen Xishu, Horn, and Hugo reached the Projection Platform, where Hugo displayed the blue sun and caused the city to fall still.
• Deep within the Ark, a trapped man recognized the maze pattern on the blue sun and called out to Pisces, while the Sin Sea Beast surged toward the surface before settling again.

Wen Xishu and Horn awakened Sirius’s free will, but an Invitation Letter revealed that Pisces could use the Time Walker to erase their victory. After realizing future Sirius might help him in the Desire Tower, Wen Xishu activated the letter and began the next stage of his journey.

• Wen Xishu and Horn held off the Enforcers until the blue sun awakened the city’s people, who shouted for freedom without summoning a Sin Sea Behemoth.
• The Enforcers dwindled as some defected, and Horn told Wen Xishu that the city would soon fall into chaos; Wen Xishu received an Invitation Letter about escaping the Ark amid time turbulence and the Time Walker’s corrections.
• Wen Xishu explained the Three Towers to Horn and concluded that Pisces could erase the timeline where Sirius had been saved unless he entered the Desire Tower.
• Horn urged Wen Xishu to leave the dangerous challenge behind and shared a secret so Wen Xishu could recognize him in the past if the timeline was corrected.
• Wen Xishu realized that future Sirius and Horn might help him in the Desire Tower, chose not to fear Pisces, and activated the Invitation Letter.
• Horn remained behind in his wheelchair and said he would see Wen Xishu in the past.

Wen Xishu entered a Desire Tower challenge aboard the Ark, where Scorpio appeared and explained that the run would pit him against Pisces’s plan. He chose to enter the Time Turbulence and rescue Sirius, setting himself against Pisces.

• Jiang Xue told Wen Xishu that the Old Principal had reached floor 97 of the Slaughter Tower and that challengers were struggling with the Tower of Deception Academy.
• The Scorpion Blade consumed five points of Tower Power to activate its Bonfire and summon Scorpio, who warned Wen Xishu that repeated high-difficulty challenges could raise his hidden rating.
• Scorpio explained that Wen Xishu would need to navigate the Time Turbulence and rescue Sirius to disrupt Pisces’s plan, while Load could help him find the right timeline.
• Scorpio revealed that she had killed Ding Dong and said she wanted Wen Xishu to save Sirius, though Sirius might die afterward.
• Wen Xishu agreed to rescue Sirius and opened the storeroom door, officially beginning the challenge.

Wen Xishu set a return point aboard the Ark and met Sirius, who explained how he had swapped places with his future self to help Wen Xishu reach the prison through time turbulence. Sirius opened a path into the Turbulence Zone, and Wen Xishu began his journey to rescue him.

• Wen Xishu set his return point in the cleaning compartment and hid there when Sirius warned him that Von Neumann was approaching.
• Sirius established a link with Wen Xishu through the flesh-covered cabin walls and explained that his present and future selves had switched places.
• Sirius told Wen Xishu to navigate the time turbulence, avoid dangerous beings, and reach his prison within the remaining eleven hours.
• Sirius opened a passage through the rotting flesh toward the Turbulence Zone and warned Wen Xishu to remain hidden and avoid changing the future.
• Wen Xishu entered the Turbulence Zone as his first journey through time began.

Wen Xishu entered two unknown timelines: a seemingly peaceful city that was actually filled with monsters preying on children, and a dark passage crowded with people seeking refuge in Wind City. The chapter ended with him asking a man where the group came from, and the man replying that they were all from the same place.

• Wen Xishu and Sirius admired a peaceful city, but the Compass warned them of danger, and Wen Xishu noticed that no one appeared to be between thirteen and eighteen.
• Wen Xishu disguised himself and discovered that monsters imitated humans and ate children, then followed the Compass to a shopping mall where he found an eye that transported him to another timeline.
• Wen Xishu arrived in a dark underground passage and heard travelers say they were heading to Wind City, which he recognized as the city he ran.
• Wen Xishu asked an East Asian man where he was from, and the man replied that everyone in the passage came from the same place.

Wen Xishu discovered that the survivors approaching Wind City came from the Underground Fortress and learned how its god had become enslaved. He guided a scouting party to Wind City, where his future self spoke to him and revealed that he needed to rescue Sirius.

• Wen Xishu learned that the Underground Fortress’s ritual had created a powerful god from its people, but the god had lost its will and become a slave.
• Wen Xishu urged the survivors to scout the rightmost of six passages, guided by the Compass, and led a group to the surface.
• Wen Xishu and the group reached Wind City, whose bloodred sky and crimson mist frightened the elderly survivors.
• Future Wen Xishu addressed the survivors, said Wind City’s powerful beings were harmless, and privately warned Wen Xishu not to approach because their proximity could cause fission.
• Wen Xishu learned that his future self remembered this encounter, then left for the next escape point after hearing he would meet someone familiar and needed to rescue Sirius.

Wen Xishu found himself trapped in Leo’s Prison during a board-game-like mission, where Nissen explained that their allies were contesting territories against Leo. Albert Napolitano arrived to rescue him, defeated the powerful warden, and freed the prisoners, leaving Wen Xishu asking what kind of mission they were in.

• Wen Xishu arrived in Leo’s Prison and watched inmates melt under its execution effect, then recognized Nissen as a prison guard.
• Nissen told Wen Xishu that he was a game piece in a contest against Leo and explained that his side had to abandon the Prison before allies could stage a jailbreak.
• After Nissen retreated, a powerful Red House woman took over the Prison and began using its random executions.
• Albert Napolitano appeared outside the Prison, defeated the warden in fifteen seconds, and caused the bars to vanish so the prisoners could escape.
• Albert picked up Wen Xishu, recognized which point in time he came from, and heard Wen ask what the mission was and why they were together.