Chapter Summaries

Cheng Tian modified his Combat Vehicles with parts from dismantled mecha as bounty hunters from both factions converged on the Mecha Destruction Factory. The rival squads started fighting at the entrance, while Eileen spotted a floating crystal forming a golden arrow toward the factory.

• Cheng Tian calculated that he could collect several more rare mecha in the instance and feared losing his vehicles if the main storyline failed.
• Cheng Tian installed a Death Drill on the War Elephant Mammoth and moved its Vulcan Cannon to the Mitrold after struggling to adapt mecha parts to other vehicles.
• Earth Federation and Rhea Reformist Army squads received orders to pursue Cheng Tian and landed outside the factory.
• Eileen's squad and Husky's group mistook each other for Cheng Tian's allies or attackers and immediately began fighting at the factory entrance.
• Eileen, secretly considering escape from the Earth Federation, spotted a floating crystal and golden Retribution Arrows pointing toward the factory.

Cheng Tian detected the Female Predator and trapped her inside the factory with help from Eileen. As the Female Predator tried to escape and fight back, a metal Xenomorph hatchling burst from her Gates mech and began assimilating it.

• Cheng Tian used the Crystal Heartscape to spot the battle outside and signaled Eileen to approach the factory.
• Cheng Tian activated the Ten Commandments Radar, detected the cloaked Female Predator, and fired Radar’s Destruction Cannon at her Gates.
• The Female Predator survived the blast by using a Fish Scale Cloak, then tried to retreat but ran into Cheng Tian’s purple Energy Barrier.
• Eileen entered the factory and revealed her connection with Cheng Tian, prompting the Female Predator to realize she might not escape alive.
• The Female Predator opened the Gates cockpit and activated Optical Camouflage as a metal Xenomorph hatchling burst from the mech and began assimilating it.

Eileen’s fear of Aliens triggered a furious attack as Cheng Tian trapped the invisible Female Predator inside Heart Barriers. The two killed the Predator, leaving behind a Bloody Treasure Chest.

• The Female Predator’s larva consumed Gates’s steel body and grew into a Gates Alien with Death Drill components and a napalm-launching mouthpart.
• Eileen saw the Alien and suffered a PTSD response, while Cheng Tian warned her that the Heart Barrier would block attacks until they formed a team.
• Eileen accepted Cheng Tian’s Gray Contract and charged her crossbow with Wind Elements as the Gates Alien tried to drill through the barrier.
• Three beams of Purifying Light destroyed the Gates Alien and scattered Easter Egg Coins, whose pickup exposed the Female Predator’s location.
• Cheng Tian sealed the Female Predator inside Heart Barriers, and Eileen’s Storm Power Strike tore her apart, producing a Bloody Treasure Chest.

Cheng Tian opened Female Predator Hyena’s Bloody Treasure Chest and found a special invitation to a forced Farmer-versus-Power-Thieves battle. The invitation offered him a chance to hunt other Players in a sealed farm dungeon, and he was eager to try it.

• Eileen killed Female Predator Hyena, and the freed Gates Alien gained the chance to become an Alien Queen.
• Cheng Tian and his allies surrounded the Gates Alien, and Eileen finished it off before it could escape.
• Cheng Tian opened Female Predator Hyena’s Bloody Treasure Chest and received a Predator Mask, a Vitality Potion, and a Farmer’s Forced Invitation.
• Cheng Tian learned that the invitation would send a red-named Player and up to four chosen Players into a forced farm-dungeon battle, then became excited to test it.

After Eileen defected to Cheng Tian’s side, Pan Feng spotted their collection of mechs and ordered his allies to retreat. Azrael accepted Eileen into the Resistance Army and assigned Cheng Tian and Eileen a mission to steal the SVA-1000S Helion.

• Wolfman and Zero retreated as the battle ended, while Eileen defected and her mech signal changed to an Opposing Faction unit.
• Pan Feng’s soldiers found Eileen near Cheng Tian’s group of mechs, including the stolen Mitrold and several powerful units.
• Pan Feng warned Xiao Lan and Fierce Tiger that Cheng Tian was nearby with boss-level mechs, then retreated; Wolfman and Zero escaped as well.
• Cheng Tian and Eileen emerged from the factory, and Azrael accepted Eileen into the Resistance Army after Cheng Tian vouched for her.
• Azrael gave Cheng Tian and Eileen a mission to steal the transformable mobile weapon SVA-1000S Helion.

After Azrael learned that three special combat mechs were being transported to the mastermind’s core base, he prepared to intercept the train with Cheng Tian’s help. The chapter left the train wrecked and burning, with Azrael’s forces fighting Helion, Blind Engineer, and Fleetfoot.

• The mastermind reclaimed Helion and two other special mechs after Azrael’s betrayal, and Azrael resolved to seize or destroy them before they returned to the core base.
• Azrael requested Cheng Tian’s help because the interception would pit his forces against the three mechs and their escort.
• Cheng Tian, Eileen, Bazett, and their companions traveled by shuttle toward Azrael’s coordinates after his communication came through amid fierce fighting.
• A transport train derailed and burned thirty kilometers from the core base as Azrael’s Warlock Unit and resistance forces attacked.
• Helion fought alongside the humanoid Blind Engineer and the scorpion-like Fleetfoot.

Cheng Tian and his allies arrived to support Azrael as his group fought the Blood Armor Squad’s advanced mechas. Cheng Tian transformed his Gates LB with the Original Stone Pterosaur into Blazing Sun Winged Gates and took to the sky to pursue Helion.

• Azrael held off Helion, Blind Engineer, and Centipede while refusing to sacrifice his comrades.
• Cheng Tian assigned Bazett to fight Blind Engineer, sent Eileen and Mina to suppress Centipede, and joined Azrael against Helion.
• Helion’s pilot recognized Cheng Tian’s reinforcements and fled upward in helicopter form.
• Cheng Tian used Demon's Concerto to combine Gates LB with the Original Stone Pterosaur, creating Winged Gates.
• Cheng Tian merged with Winged Gates to become Blazing Sun Winged Gates and soared after Helion.

Cheng Tian fused himself with Gates LB and the Original Stone Pterosaur to become Blazing Sun Winged Gates, then defeated Helion by destroying its cockpit and capturing the mech. With the other enemy machines beaten, Azrael led the exhausted team toward the main brain’s base, where the main brain began to overload after Cheng Tian avoided its trap.

• Cheng Tian fused Gates LB, the Original Stone Pterosaur, and himself into Blazing Sun Winged Gates, gaining direct control of the combined body.
• Cheng Tian used Primal Power to boost his speed, then fought Helion in a close-range clash of Laser Swords.
• Helion pierced Blazing Sun Winged Gates’ chest with a Beam Cannon, but Cheng Tian used the opening to smash through Helion’s cockpit with the pterosaur’s beak, killing its pilot.
• Cheng Tian used a Radar to retrieve the captured Helion, while the Blind Engineer and Fleetfoot fell after fighting Cheng Tian’s team.
• Azrael urged the exhausted team to charge the main brain’s base, as the main brain neared program overload because Cheng Tian had not taken its bait.

Cheng Tian and Azrael’s forces breached the Rhea Reformist Army Core Base, discovered its imprisoned Laia civilians and soldier-modification factory, and began rescuing the captives. As Cheng Tian and Eileen accepted a rescue mission, the base shook and rose from the ground as a massive Main Ship Body.

• Cheng Tian’s group and Azrael’s forces blasted open the core base’s gates and drove its defenders back inside.
• The invaders found Laia civilians imprisoned in cells and a factory that modified abducted people into Mechanical Puppet Soldiers.
• Azrael acknowledged his past atrocities and insisted that he had to keep fighting to prevent Rhea from being colonized.
• Azrael’s Warlock Unit and the Gates cut open the cells, triggering a side quest for Cheng Tian and Eileen to rescue the Laia people.
• The imprisoned Laia people distrusted their rescuers, and some tried to escape as Eileen worried about losing her reward money.
• Cheng Tian saw the ground split apart and the core base rise into the air as a massive Main Ship Body.

Cheng Tian and Azrael led the resistance army through the rising spacecraft to destroy the Main Brain and save the Laia people. They reached the Main Brain’s chamber, where Cheng Tian recognized the damaged brain he had destroyed in their earlier computational battle.

• Cheng Tian realized the base was an interstellar shuttle and warned everyone that the Laia people had to get back inside before the rising ship exposed them to lethal conditions.
• Azrael ordered the group to retreat inward, assigned guards to protect the hostages, and led the resistance army through a door he kicked open.
• The Main Mission entered its final stage: the group had to destroy the Main Brain and stop the spacecraft from escaping Laia Star’s gravity.
• Cheng Tian recalled the Main Brain’s final words from the game and considered how the Main Brain might have come into being, then focused on fighting enemy mechs.
• The resistance army advanced through the ship’s open internal doors and found the Main Brain in a chamber with three brains under glass domes, one of them damaged by Cheng Tian.

The Main Brain confronted Cheng Tian and the Resistance, using its Puppet Program to counter Cheng Tian’s Ten Commandments and scramble allied mech controls. Cheng Tian answered with a surprise deployment and transformed his mech, leaving the battle underway.

• The Main Brain focused its hatred on Cheng Tian, whose earlier clash had destroyed one of its auxiliary brains and reduced its computing power.
• The Main Brain launched its twin mechanical arms and sent its guard mechs against the Resistance, while Azrael led the charge and Cheng Tian ordered Radar to fire at full power.
• Cheng Tian tried to infect two enemy mechs with Ten Commandments, but the Main Brain’s Puppet Program intercepted the attack and scrambled the controls of the allied units.
• Cheng Tian rapidly deployed the Mammoth War Elephant, which unleashed its stored electricity, and used Night Parade of a Hundred Demons to trigger a transformation.
• The Book of Ys selected Armor Hero: Fighting Edition, transforming Cheng Tian and his mech into a mechanical oni Martial Artist mech.

Cheng Tian’s mecha transformed into Zero Haogui, a legendary-looking fighter from a fictional series, and he faced the main brain’s dragon-arm attack with a Burning! Hadoken!. The enhanced projectile broke through the enemy’s fireball and defense, leaving its impact on the Twin-headed Dragon Mechanical Arms unresolved.

• Cheng Tian’s Gates LB Type Orange transformed into Zero Haogui under the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons backlash.
• Azrael, the main brain, and Laia soldiers recognized Zero Haogui from the popular series Armor Hero: Full Metal Panic!.
• Cheng Tian fused with Zero Haogui and gathered energy in its palms as the main brain charged the Twin-headed Dragon Mechanical Arms.
• The main brain fired a high-temperature fireball, and Zero Haogui answered with Burning! Hadoken!.
• Demon's Concerto and Retribution Arrow Enhancement strengthened the Burning! Hadoken!, which shattered the fireball and struck the dragon arms as they defended.

Cheng Tian used Zero Haogui and the Guardian Barrier to protect the rebels from the main brain’s overwhelming attacks. After Eileen damaged the main brain and the War Elephant Mammoth reached it, Cheng Tian fused the mammoth with the King of Land Warfare Radar, creating the Bounty Head Mammoth War Chariot, which flipped the main brain over.

• Cheng Tian used Zero Haogui to destroy an enemy Gates and shielded the rebel forces with the Guardian Barrier as the main brain ordered its controlled machines to attack.
• Cheng Tian used a potion to restore his mana and keep the barrier intact long enough for Eileen’s Storm Power Strike to pierce the mechanical arms and damage the main brain’s auxiliary brain.
• The War Elephant Mammoth charged the main brain and tried to overturn it, but it lacked the strength to move the massive mech.
• Cheng Tian fused the King of Land Warfare Radar with the War Elephant Mammoth, creating the Bounty Head Mammoth War Chariot, which flipped the main brain over.

Mammoth flipped the Main Brain’s mech and damaged its right brain, driving the humiliated machine to unleash a miniature black hole. Cheng Tian used Fina’s portable black tower to overwhelm the black hole’s absorption limit, then struck the crashed Main Brain with Zero Haogui.

• Mammoth slammed the Main Brain into the floor, skewering its right auxiliary brain and reducing its maximum HP.
• The Main Brain summoned a miniature black hole to consume everything around it, threatening the base ship and everyone aboard.
• Cheng Tian summoned Fina and ordered her to throw the portable black tower into the black hole.
• The black tower burst the miniature black hole’s absorption limit, causing the Main Brain to crash from a logic conflict.
• Cheng Tian used Zero Haogui to unleash a four-hit combo on the disabled Main Brain.

Cheng Tian and Zero Haogui used the Zero Shura attack to destroy the Main Brain, then Azrael took control of the spacecraft and brought it down. The instance froze upon landing and began displaying Cheng Tian’s settlement screen.

• Cheng Tian activated Soul as Zero Haogui’s duplicates surrounded the Main Brain and battered it from every direction.
• Zero Haogui exposed the Main Brain’s heart and landed thirty consecutive hits, dealing enough damage to nearly empty its health bar.
• Gouki’s machine soul withdrew into Zero Haogui, and Cheng Tian’s accumulated Soul of Steel was depleted.
• Cheng Tian told Azrael to take control, and Azrael brought the spacecraft carrying the Laia people and their group down to the ground.
• The spacecraft landed, the instance froze, and the sky began displaying Cheng Tian’s settlement screen.

Cheng Tian’s group received their settlement after destroying the central computer, with the Rhea factions merging under Azrael and Cheng Tian gaining rewards and mecha. Cheng Tian reviewed his haul and garage repairs, while Bazett asked him how to allocate her Attribute Points.

• The central computer’s destruction led the Rhea Reformist Army and Azrael Resistance Army to merge into the Rhea Principality Revival Army under Azrael.
• Azrael granted Cheng Tian a free mecha shipping service, and the settlement archived his Armor Hero experiences and allowed him to leave the Dungeon at any time.
• Cheng Tian celebrated his Attribute Points, Skill Points, and mecha collection, noting that the Void Garage could repair damaged units over time.
• Cheng Tian checked the garage’s repair limits and realized its seven available parking spaces would help him save money.
• Bazett asked Cheng Tian for advice on how to allocate her Attribute Points.

Cheng Tian helped Bazett strengthen her mana-burning combat skill and considered how she could counter enemies with similar abilities. Eileen debated learning to pilot a mecha, and Cheng Tian suggested several Wind Attribute machines before wondering whether the one best suited to her even had a game adaptation.

• Utan waited for something crucial while Cheng Tian left her Attribute and Skill Point choices alone.
• Bazett invested her Attribute Points in Agility and raised Designated Seal Executor to Lv4, giving her attacks an enhanced MP Burn effect.
• Cheng Tian resolved to test Bazett's skill and find her an ability that could deliver rapid attacks.
• Eileen received an A- settlement and hesitated over whether to learn a mecha-piloting skill for the Elf unit.
• Cheng Tian advised Eileen that ordinary mechas would not support her Wind Attribute shooting skills, then suggested several magical Wind Attribute machines, including the bow-using Wind Madou King.
• Cheng Tian wondered whether the Wind Madou King, The Transformers, had a game adaptation.

After the Main Brain’s defeat, Cheng Tian weighed how to spend his points and examined the rewards from the BOSS chest. He gave the Main Brain’s Heart to Bazett, leaving the others to recognize her as a rival for his attention.

• Cheng Tian debated whether to spend his attribute points on Charm or distribute them among his other attributes, and struggled to choose which skill to upgrade.
• Eileen revealed a Dragon Head Mechanical Arm from the BOSS chest and described the awkward sensation of controlling it through a neural link.
• Cheng Tian opened his BOSS chest and received the Main Brain’s brain and heart, both preserved in jars of nutrient solution.
• Cheng Tian recognized the heart’s combat benefits and decided it could help Bazett withstand damage while using her Counter-Light Sword.
• Cheng Tian placed the Main Brain’s Heart around Bazett’s neck, and the Half-Elf archer and twin sister goddesses realized they had overlooked a formidable rival.

Cheng Tian used the Main Brain's Main Brain to evolve Ten Commandments into Dominator, a skill that could control humanoid creatures and machines and link its targets to Night Parade of a Hundred Demons. The Heroic Spirit Contract also linked Cheng Tian and Bazett’s recovery effects, leaving him as her mana-restoring external brain and her as his health-restoring external heart.

• Cheng Tian used the Main Brain's Main Brain and evolved Ten Commandments into the A-rank skill Dominator.
• Dominator let Cheng Tian sense nearby humanoid creatures and machines, attempt to enslave or puppet them, and chain controlled targets through Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.
• As Cheng Tian considered testing Dominator on a friendly Gates unit, he felt a connection with Bazett and received a notification about their linked recovery effects.
• The Heroic Spirit Contract caused Bazett’s HP recovery to restore Cheng Tian’s health and Cheng Tian’s MP recovery to restore Bazett’s mana, and let him teleport to her or recall her with a Command Spell.
• Fina noticed Bazett after the new link took effect, while Eileen remained unaware.

Cheng Tian left the Armor Hero Dungeon with Eileen and the others after seizing more mecha and pilots, then reviewed his settlement rewards and plans for future Dungeons. He began searching the player market for items and allies tied to three creatures as he prepared to pursue his next goals.

• Cheng Tian captured the Blood Armor Squad and Chosen Squad, seized their mecha, and let the fleeing players escape because his storage was full.
• Azrael took control of the Blood Armor Squad and their combat assets, while a Dimensional Rift appeared in the sky after Cheng Tian's group departed.
• Cheng Tian received the Heart of Jelgard and the Mental Command skill, with Analysis and Supply initially unlocked.
• Cheng Tian organized his collected vehicles and mecha in his HLA, then reviewed his pending quests and Dungeon plans.
• Cheng Tian asked an Auction House contact to search for Fossil Fragments, Combat Mounts, or Contract Servants related to Triceratops, Sabertooth Tiger, and brontosaurus, then headed to the player market.