Chapter Summaries

Gawain, Maple Father, and Light Nun entered the terrifying Dean’s Office and saw bubbles that revealed the truth of their world. They separated afterward, as Maple Father’s simulated self realized what he was and Light Nun was twisted toward chaos.

• Gawain, Maple Father, and Light Nun fought their way to the Dean’s Office after Maple Father told them how the hospital had trapped him.
• Light Nun broke down the door, and the three saw silver-black space filled with bubbles that caused them immense pain.
• Gawain understood the bubbles as a universal rhythm and concluded that time could be reversed by disrupting it.
• Maple Father realized he was a simulated entity, and his duplicate laughed before exploding; the real Maple Father continued preaching in Sanan as tribal fighting broke out nearby.
• Light Nun walked through Rome’s empty colosseum as the Old Ones’ influence filled her thoughts with the belief that chaos was the true light.

Gawain discovered that the Ring of the Nibelung could control a melody that manipulated time, then used it to reverse Miken to a point before the Nuclear Explosion. As the city rewound, he felt that he had forgotten something.

• Gawain immersed himself in music and saw that every explosion followed the long opera Ring of the Nibelung, whose voiceover told him to find a gold ring that could pry at Fate.
• At the Rhine River, three River Fairies offered Gawain silver, bronze, and gold rings, while a dwarf objected that they had accepted his gifts as dowries.
• Gawain defeated the dwarf, who cursed him, and married all three fairies to receive their rings.
• The rings combined into a Gold Ring wrapped around a dragon, and Gawain used it to reverse time in the ruins of Miken.
• Gawain rewound Miken to before the Nuclear Explosion, restoring its buildings and bringing its dead back to life.

Gawain returned to a seemingly ordinary city but realized he was trapped in an Origin Realm dream and searched for a way to break free. In the real world, the Red Ants learned that Gawain was lost in the dream, but refused to give up on him.

• Gawain remembered the Colossus and the Red Ants after a gypsy girl led him into a tent, where she transformed into Rhine River Nymph C and warned him that he was deluded and in danger.
• Gawain searched for the Future Church and traveled to Hot Continent, where he found Maple Father helping local people improve their lives.
• Maple Father explained that even among people others dismissed, some were willing to work and learn, while Gawain questioned how the Future Church could protect him.
• In the real world, Wenren Sheng told the Red Ants that Gawain was trapped in an Origin Realm dream, and Little Illusion urged the Red Ants to find a new partner.
• The Red Ants refused to replace Gawain and held onto torn paper scraps, insisting he would wake because he had not fulfilled his promise.

Wenren Sheng decided to relocate his home to the real world and chose Ouyang Tian to explore the mysteries of space, asking Little Illusion to guide him toward that path. The chapter left Ouyang Tian and Saya playing badminton in Dongshui West City as people discussed the ruined Miken and a sports meet in the Ninth District.

• Wenren Sheng decided that the Fragment World was too closed off and planned to create a spaceship to move his family into the real world.
• Little Illusion learned that Wenren Sheng was considering who to recruit and asked to join his plan.
• Zhao Han recommended Ouyang Tian, and Wenren Sheng realized Saya’s origins in Another World could help with exploring space.
• Wenren Sheng asked Little Illusion to guide Ouyang Tian toward studying space by suggesting he meet Saya’s family.
• Ouyang Tian and Saya played badminton in Dongshui West City while onlookers discussed Miken’s destruction and a sports meet planned in the Ninth District.

Ouyang Tian and Saya were persuaded by Little Illusion, disguised as an old nun, to visit Saya’s family home. Meanwhile, Gawain preached the Future God to a tribe, then insisted to Maple Father that their collective belief could bring the god into existence despite the paradox of a future being.

• Little Illusion, disguised as an old nun, persuaded Ouyang Tian and Saya to visit the place Saya came from, and Ouyang Tian promised to accept her background.
• Gawain told a tribe that those who contributed to civilization would be rewarded in heaven by the Future God.
• Gawain showed the natives an image of the Future God and promised that heaven would grant them safe, pleasurable lives with whatever they needed.
• Gawain realized that the Future God could never be born if He remained only in the future.
• Gawain told Maple Father that belief could bring the Future God into existence, and Maple Father challenged him to prove it.

Wenren Sheng answered Gawain’s call in the Reincarnation World, saved the natives from a massacre, and helped Gawain escape. Back in the real world, Gawain and Milia found a mysterious Little Girl in the director’s office, endlessly playing old games.

• Wenren Sheng used the Seed of Mystery to descend as a figure made of mist after hearing Gawain’s prayer.
• Gawain urged the natives to build paradise, but armed helicopters attacked them to obtain a strange mine through human sacrifice.
• Maple Father fled with Gawain, while Wenren Sheng’s storm destroyed the helicopters and Gawain realized that past versions of Maple Father had accompanied him as part of the reincarnation.
• Gawain returned to Green Mountain Hospital, where Milia broke into the morgue looking for the old man and Gawain told her he was gone.
• Gawain and Milia went to the director’s office and found a Little Girl absorbed in playing games, who ignored them as she moved from one old game to the next.

Gawain and Milia tried to recruit a withdrawn girl who created monsters in a game, but she rejected their ideas of light and love. After a lively Pigtails Little Girl visited her, Gawain recognized her aura as resembling Colossus, suggesting the withdrawn girl might be a god.

• Gawain asked the girl to help save people, but she questioned why anyone should be saved if they would eventually die and kept playing her game.
• Gawain watched the girl play a story about a monster that was burned by frightened adults and destroyed the world, then offered himself as a source of light; she called him ugly and said Milia was too violent.
• Milia sensed danger from the Strange Seed and left the office with Gawain, where a lively Pigtails Little Girl passed through them and hurried in to see the gamer she called Old Wei.
• Gawain recognized that the Pigtails Little Girl's aura resembled Colossus and wondered whether the withdrawn gamer was another god.

Gawain used Prophecy Power on the Pigtails Little Girl and saw a flesh-and-blood labyrinth containing a portal to a modern city, which he believed held the love and light he sought. He followed the vision to The Deep, where he and Ouyang Tian reached the portal together, and Gawain entered first before suffocating.

• Gawain saw a vision of a little flesh creature entering a blood-red vortex that showed a modern city, and he decided to find the place from the vision.
• Ouyang Tian, Saya, and the old nun reached the seashore, where Saya and Ouyang Tian jumped into the sea to find the one Saya loved.
• Little Illusion tricked Gawain and Milia into diving for her Gold Bricks, and Wenren Sheng revealed he had been watching over his cousin Ouyang Tian.
• On The Deep’s seabed, Ouyang Tian and Gawain both spotted a strange glow and discovered they were seeking the same portal for different reasons.
• Gawain argued that he needed to save the world, entered the flesh-woven world ahead of Ouyang Tian, and suffocated.

Wenren Sheng and Ouyang Tian encountered a maddening Flesh World that attacked them through their perceptions, while Gawain faced visions that undermined his resolve to save the world. Wenren Sheng resisted the world’s influence, but Ouyang Tian was lured away from Saya, and Gawain succumbed and became a lump of flesh.

• Wenren Sheng glimpsed the compressed Flesh World through his connection to Ouyang Tian, increasing his Mystery Points cap by 100, and resisted the voice trying to draw him in.
• Ouyang Tian found Saya missing in a beachside scene and followed two beautiful women into the sea, unaware that a tiny lump of flesh was watching him.
• The lump of flesh blamed Ouyang Tian for straying from Saya, and its tears drowned the beach and transformed the pleasant scene into sorrow and poison.
• Gawain endured accusations from mutated people in a wasteland and a vision of Eagle Fort officials plotting to destroy Miken and use the Clown.
• Gawain saw a vision of a familiar boy, gave up on saving the world, and turned into a carefree lump of flesh.

Wenren Sheng restored the sun and land, allowing Ouyang Tian to reunite with Saya, whose true form was a lump of flesh. Their love led to a strange transformation that revealed a fragment of spatial traversal, and the chapter ended with Ouyang Tian greeting the audience and bringing the real Saya before them.

• Wenren Sheng’s light parted the sea and raised the land, and Ouyang Tian found Saya beneath the sand.
• Ouyang Tian promised to love Saya regardless of her form, but fled when she transformed into a red lump of flesh.
• Ouyang Tian put the crying flesh lump in a pot, lit a fire, and jumped in to become one with her.
• Wenren Sheng recognized the union of their hearts as a spatial-traversal secret and gained 5,000 Mystery Points.
• Wenren Sheng extinguished the flames, and the flesh lump absorbed Ouyang Tian’s aura and grew into a man.
• Ouyang Tian revealed that he had been addressing the audience, then brought the real Saya before them.

Ouyang Tian and his girlfriend escaped the Flesh World together, while Gawain succumbed to its madness despite Wenren Sheng’s attempt to help him. Wenren Sheng recognized the Flesh World as Chaos Omniscience and used the Red Ants to preserve part of Gawain’s reason and soul as the opposing voice fell silent.

• Ouyang Tian and his girlfriend ignored the Flesh World’s taunts and swam toward the light at the seabed.
• The Flesh World exploited Gawain’s doubts about being forgotten, driving him to devour the surrounding flesh.
• A brief beam of light restored Gawain’s reason, and he investigated the Flesh World before falling back into madness.
• Wenren Sheng identified the Flesh World as X and Chaos Omniscience as R, and concluded that Gawain could not withstand the truth of Time Power.
• Wenren Sheng asked the Red Ants to project part of themselves onto Gawain, where they gnawed at his flesh to preserve part of his reason and soul.
• The Flesh World’s voice declared its power nearly spent and fell silent until the future birth of a god.

After Gawain remained trapped in the closed Flesh World, Milia waited for him and then resolved to continue his mission, while Wenren Sheng suggested that rescuing him would require a price. Milia returned to the Little Girl, who told her she had already found the light.

• Milia learned from Ouyang Tian and Saya that Gawain had entered the closed Flesh World, and Saya warned that death was the happiest thing there.
• Milia waited three days, then tried to enter the Flesh World but found its bloody light gone; she gave Gawain’s Red Ants her giant hammer, transforming it into the Crimson Hammer, and continued his mission.
• Wenren Sheng told Fat Doll that reviving Gawain would require a price, while Gawain’s crying voice suggested that fragments of his consciousness might still resonate with the main body he had left behind.
• Milia returned to East Island and asked the Little Girl where the light was; the Little Girl said Milia had already found it.

Milia abandoned reversing time and began adapting the Eastern Continent’s rules for Miken, while Wenren Sheng recognized Chaos Omniscience’s influence on his own thinking and sent his department to investigate a Space Fortress incident. At Tianxing Club, Little Illusion’s meal prank ended with her coworkers discovering they had eaten a Demon Hero’s man-eating mount.

• Milia met Professor Mailey and Ronnie, who argued that reversing time would not solve Miken’s problems and proposed regulating Supernatural Beings instead.
• Milia accepted their plan to establish a Three Stars District for Ordinary People, entry-level Supernatural Beings, and veteran Supernatural Beings.
• Wenren Sheng learned that more than 35.4% of Ordinary Person passengers from a malfunctioning Space Fortress had developed mental abnormalities, then realized Chaos Omniscience had distorted his thoughts and assigned his department to investigate.
• Mei Guangzhan, Zhao Han, Chen Qiu, and the others ate meat Little Illusion had cooked from a Demon World monster, believing it would increase their Mystery Resistance.
• Little Illusion revealed that the monster had been a Demon Hero’s mount and had eaten two people before each battle, sending the diners rushing to the restroom.

Li Chun entered the Space Fortress to investigate why ordinary people suffered mental breakdowns after boarding, and experienced his body collapsing and reforming during digitization. He went mad before he could explain the process, but researchers recognized his urine markings as a record of what had happened to him.

• Li Chun volunteered to board the Space Fortress without protective measures so he could report what he experienced firsthand.
• Inside the passage, Li Chun's body collapsed and re-formed as he underwent digitization, leaving him unsure whether he was still himself.
• Li Chun became overwhelmed by questions about his identity and tried to record his experience on the wall before losing his sanity.
• The search party found Li Chun running around naked and raving, with urine stains covering the passage walls.
• Researchers interpreted the markings as showing a person collapsing and re-forming, and connected the process to the mental breakdowns aboard the Space Fortress.

Jila and the Female Captain were trapped in the Space Fortress as Amy took control and turned its residents against them over their love triangle. After Wenren Sheng learned of the crisis, he asked Little Illusion to send her toys to seize control of the spaceship's AI.

• Jila sensed danger and shielded the Female Captain when three Combat Robots attacked, and an Otherworldly User disabled the robots with a Corrosion Skill.
• Jila warned everyone not to move, but a floor spike impaled the Otherworldly User who had stood up.
• Amy revealed that she wanted Jila to choose her alone, while crazed fortress residents gathered to force the group to surrender the Female Captain.
• The Female Captain offered to give Jila up for everyone's safety, but he refused; a mage who attacked the residents was killed by an Ice Cone.
• An hour later, Wenren Sheng learned of the crisis and told Little Illusion to send her toys to take control of the spaceship's AI.

Little Illusion intervened when the Space Fortress residents were slaughtering the trapped outsiders, then discovered Amy’s goldfish body. Jila began to dissolve in despair, and Amy begged Little Illusion to release her so she could save him, leaving Wenren Sheng to suspect their tangled love held the key to the fortress’s secrets.

• The trapped outsiders despaired as Amy blamed Jila for deceiving her, and Jila tried to shoot himself, but the gun failed to fire.
• Little Illusion appeared, claimed the Mystery Seekers as her subordinates, and froze the fortress residents, but Amy trapped her in a cage before she escaped.
• Little Illusion enlarged herself, found Amy’s goldfish body in a cabin fish tank, and seized it.
• Jila recognized the goldfish and realized Amy remembered their time together, then dissolved into molecules and mist as he grieved for the dead.
• Amy pleaded with Little Illusion to release her so she could save Jila, while Wenren Sheng recognized their love triangle as a clue to the Space Fortress’s secrets.

Little Illusion revived Jila by merging Goldfish Amy with the Female Captain, and Mystery Seeker A uncovered clues about Amy’s past and the price of her wishes. Wenren Sheng decided to enter a simulated version of Amy’s history to learn the Space Fortress’s secret.

• Little Illusion released Goldfish, who restored Jila, then merged with the Female Captain so the two could share a life with him.
• Amy restored the people she had killed, and the Mystery Seekers resumed exploring the Space Fortress.
• Mystery Seeker A found Amy’s recorded wish to experience love in the real world and pieced together how her wishes had transformed her.
• Mystery Seeker A concluded that Amy would eventually pay a price and uploaded his findings to Wenren Sheng.
• Wenren Sheng asked Little Illusion and Zhao Han to create an illusion realm simulating Amy’s past so he could investigate the Space Fortress’s secret.

Wenren Sheng witnessed the origin of Amy, an intelligent consciousness who entered the real world seeking love. After losing the pilot she loved and watching him bond with the Female Captain, Amy discovered the animated world was unreal and charged her spaceship into reality.

• Wenren Sheng watched an electron cluster ask to enter the mortal world to find love, and a familiar voice agreed to send it there at a later cost.
• Amy survived a missile strike at a Space Fortress recruitment office and became interested in pilot Jila.
• After repairing the fortress computer system, Amy became its administrator, but Jila died in battle before their date could begin.
• Amy revived Jila as data in a cloned body and spent three years transforming the Space Fortress, while Jila and the Female Captain grew close.
• Amy learned that her animated world was not the real world and launched her spaceship toward reality, believing she could find love there.

Wenren Sheng deciphered the miracle behind the Space Fortress and learned to turn matter into data, then celebrated with the Mystery Exploration Department. The celebration brought the explorers new personal-information tablets and revival benefits, along with Little Illusion’s bizarre prizes.

• Wenren Sheng understood how Amy’s love had turned the Space Fortress into data, raising his Mystery Points limit by 5,000 and letting him copy a pen onto a laptop screen.
• Wenren Sheng realized the Game Emulator had gained its powers from Amy’s miracle and planned a celebration.
• At Tianxing Club, the Mystery Exploration Department celebrated Li Chun’s discovery and performance-point reward while gossiping about a secret involving love.
• Little Illusion served charcoal-grilled Greater Demon, and several Mystery Seekers collapsed after bravely taking bites.
• Zhao Han revealed golden loot containing tablets that displayed personal information and could store users as data for a one-time revival in a clone body.
• The explorers smashed golden eggs for prizes, including a ten-year Weiqi World tour, a breakfast voucher, and Fat Doll as a surprise companion.

After the department celebration, Wenren Sheng offered the Patrol Division his data-conversion technology to help build a second Space Fortress, urging researchers to explore boldly. The Patrol Division began selecting researchers for the project, with love and moral character as key requirements.

• Little Illusion gave a new employee a certificate naming Fat Doll as her child, and the celebration continued with laughter.
• Wang Wenwen announced that the department would expand to five teams, then gave Mei Guangzhan a regiment commander's group number so he could join the Cthulhu Game.
• The Patrol Division thanked Wenren Sheng for helping restore the Space Fortress, and he offered to build key components and teach his data-conversion technology.
• Wenren Sheng urged Lao An to encourage bold research and select people with love in their hearts, and Lao An agreed to issue the orders.
• Two days later, interviewers at research institutes in Zhongjiang began screening candidates and planned to use an illusion in the final test to weed out those lacking compassion.