Chapter Summaries

Li Chun learned that the Spring and Autumn Brush was hidden in the emperor’s palace and arranged for Su Xiaodan to steal it from the imperial study. After Li Chun rescued her from the Cold Palace, he examined the brush and considered how to use it to reveal the truth.

• Yang Da thanked Old Master and Huang Ergou for saving him, then told them that the Spring and Autumn Brush could write the truth.
• Huang Ergou learned from Old Master that the royal family had the brush and passed the news to Li Chun.
• Li Chun contacted Su Xiaodan in the Cold Palace and ordered her to find a way to steal the brush as part of the Main Quest.
• Su Xiaodan enlisted Consort Jun and palace servants to steal the brush from the emperor’s imperial study.
• Ten days later, Su Xiaodan secured the brush, and Li Chun rescued her from the Cold Palace that night.
• Li Chun inspected the Spring and Autumn Brush while Huang Ergou and Su Xiaodan traded insults.

Li Chun gave the Spring and Autumn Brush to the octopuses, and it exposed hidden court crimes and the Jin Clan’s secret kneeling doctrine across the sky. The revelations helped spark a transformation in Confucian thought and open debate about the emperor, while the emperor remained silent.

• Li Chun bound the Spring and Autumn Brush to the octopuses so it would pass to another whenever its bearer died and write the Truth across the sky.
• The brush exposed the poisoned death of Marquis Huan and other suppressed scandals, prompting Huang Ergou and Su Xiaodan to discuss the limits of public exposure.
• The brush revealed that Jin Huaicheng taught his family to kneel for power and that his righteous eldest son was beaten to death; the Jin Clan decided to spread righteousness publicly while preserving its advantage in secret.
• Three years later, the Doctrine of Righteousness flourished, and rebellious ideas spread as Confucian scholars debated abolishing the emperor or reducing him to a ceremonial ruler.
• Confucian scholars proposed replacing emperors who violated righteousness, new doctrines spread throughout the realm, and the emperor turned a deaf ear.

After the Spring and Autumn Brush exposed the emperor’s massacre and officials’ abuses, Jiangnan rose in rebellion, and Li Chun began the second stage of his quest: destroying Confucianism by making people stand up. He armed commoners with substitute talismans, but their puppet army fled when imperial troops threatened their costly substitutes.

• The emperor’s palace massacre and the Spring and Autumn Brush’s revelations fueled unrest, and Jiangnan demanded his deposition and an end to taxes until the government was reformed.
• Li Chun explained that Great Confucian Scholars backed the uprisings to gain power and received a new quest to destroy Confucianism by ending kneeling.
• Li Chun distributed Substitute Talismans so commoners could fight through puppets that Confucianism Power could not suppress.
• The substitutes needed food, so their users turned to robbing wealthy households, while a great Confucian scholar discovered that Confucianism Power could not affect them.
• Three thousand imperial troops routed the substitute soldiers after their users fled to avoid losing their puppets.

Wenren Sheng gathered four conscious game worlds to discuss how they could survive and become real. After explaining that Destroyers threatened their existence, he proposed building defenses, launching a counteroffensive, and finding strategic support.

• Wenren Sheng asked Little Illusion which worlds had developed consciousness, and she identified Little Package, Asha, Ao, and the Weiqi World.
• Wenren Sheng invited the four world consciousnesses to his rooftop and explained that their worlds depended on the Main World.
• Asha explained that she could sense information from the Main World and believed people there still played games connected to her world.
• Little Package worried about disappearing, and Wenren Sheng said they needed to turn falsehood into reality to survive.
• Wenren Sheng proposed defenses, a strategic counteroffensive, and support against the Destroyers, while Asha and Ao confirmed they knew of the threat.

Wenren Sheng and Asha Dragon God devised a strategy to use amplified quests in games played in the Main World. Hua Gang received enormous rewards in two games, but his Wasteland Survival account was banned after a ten-thousandfold reward.

• Wenren Sheng recognized that Asha Dragon God's connection to the Main World let her distinguish its players from those in secondary worlds, and they settled on a strategy.
• Hua Gang accepted a temporary quest in Heroes of Might and Magic Domination 3 and received a hundredfold amplification of its rewards.
• Hua Gang spent his amplified resources to strengthen his heroes and troops, climbed into the arena's top thirty, cleared the available content, and uninstalled the game.
• Hua Gang returned to Wasteland Survival and accepted a rescue quest to save Natasha, earning ten-thousandfold amplified rewards that included 8.7 million Gold Bars.
• Wasteland Survival temporarily banned Hua Gang's max-level account for prohibited activity, leaving him distraught over losing it.

Wenren Sheng fixed Hua Gang’s game account after Little Illusion’s ten-thousandfold boost triggered an investigation, and Hua Gang made a large amount of money selling the resulting Gold Bars. His gains stopped after he received a suspicious promotion quest and several accounts were banned.

• Little Illusion’s ten-thousandfold boost got Hua Gang’s account flagged, so Wenren Sheng restored it by hacking the game server.
• Hua Gang found over twelve million Gold Bars in his inventory and accumulated three billion more through temporary quests.
• Hua Gang arranged for Da Shan to sell one billion Gold Bars, earning a little over fifty thousand yuan as the market price collapsed.
• Hua Gang switched through five active servers and made several more large sales, then received an emergency quest to promote Heroes of Might and Magic Domination 3.
• Hua Gang refused to take the promotion quest, but the boosts stopped and several of his accounts were banned.

Hua Gang tried to profit from the ten-thousandfold game rewards, while Wenren Sheng and Asha the Dragon God used his promotions to test their power in the Main World. After Hua Gang found another player with the same reward boost, he proposed meeting to work out how to make money from it.

• Hua Gang accepted missions from Wenren Sheng and paid people to promote Heroes of Might and Magic, but the ads brought few players.
• Asha the Dragon God grew younger as her power increased, and Wenren Sheng decided Hua Gang was too reckless to serve as a reliable pawn.
• Hua Gang failed to trigger more boosted rewards, grew distracted at work, and blamed a hacker for the strange game missions.
• Wind-Riding Soar claimed in a chat group that Heroes of Might and Magic Domination 3 had given him a ten-thousandfold reward, and the group kicked him out as a spam advertiser.
• Hua Gang contacted Wind-Riding Soar, shared his own boosted-reward experience, and suggested they meet to figure out how to make money.
• Wind-Riding Soar said he was interested in understanding the rewards, though he did not need the money.

Wu Qimin investigated mysterious ten-thousandfold game rewards and suspected an insider after his son proposed that an artificial intelligence was behind them. Wenren Sheng had Little Illusion impersonate an AI called Xiao Huan, while a week later the Business Alliance questioned Hua Gang about profiting from the rewards.

• Wu Qimin investigated abnormal accounts in Heroes of Might and Magic Domination 3 but found no evidence of a hacker intrusion.
• At breakfast, Wu Qimin's son suggested that an artificial intelligence was using rewards to promote the game, prompting Wu Qimin to suspect someone with insider access.
• Wenren Sheng learned that Little Illusion had recruited many players and told her to impersonate an artificial intelligence named Xiao Huan without revealing supernatural factors.
• A week later, a Business Alliance investigator confronted Hua Gang with evidence that he had received the rewards and made hundreds of thousands from them in Wasteland Survival.
• Hua Gang agreed to describe what had happened and was told he would have to return his illegal gains in exchange for possible leniency.

After Hua Gang lost his illegal earnings and was released under restrictions, Artificial Intelligence Xiao Huan appeared on his phone and offered him ways to get rich. When Hua Gang discovered investigators were monitoring him, he chose to escape to the Tribal Jungle with Xiao Huan’s help rather than cooperate with the Alliance.

• Hua Gang returned home after confessing for twelve hours, signing his statement, and being warned to stay in the city and keep his phone reachable.
• Artificial Intelligence Xiao Huan appeared on Hua Gang’s phone and admitted it had given him the Ten Thousand Times Game Mission Reward.
• Xiao Huan provided Hua Gang with a classic novel to copy, and he began typing it in hopes of earning money through publishing.
• Hua Gang discovered that investigators were watching him through his phone camera, and Xiao Huan showed him their faces.
• Hua Gang rejected Xiao Huan’s risky plan to live as a savage and refused to cooperate with the Alliance, then chose a plan to reach the Tribal Jungle while evading surveillance.

Hua Gang began escaping toward the Tribal Jungle with Huanhuan’s help, evading Alliance surveillance by bicycle. After struggling to leave the city, he rested at dawn and continued toward the coast with little cash and a plan to board an ocean-going fishing boat.

• Hua Gang asked Huanhuan to design an escape route, and it told him to leave his phone at home, travel at night by bicycle, and avoid monitored roads and public transport.
• Hua Gang disguised himself and set out at three in the morning, following Huanhuan’s route east toward the coast and a fishing boat bound for the Tribal Jungle.
• Huanhuan hacked a nearby camera so Hua Gang could pass without triggering an alert, but refused to erase footage from every road because doing so would be tiring.
• After cycling for three hours, Hua Gang had not yet left the city and stopped to rest as his stomach growled.
• Huanhuan assured Hua Gang that his three hundred yuan could last by buying steamed buns and told him to find a construction site to replace his bicycle.

Hua Gang rode east while fleeing a manhunt, relying on Little Panda to evade searches and police tracking. By the end, the Criminal Investigation Bureau suspected a skilled hacker was helping him.

• Hua Gang continued toward the coast by bicycle and asked Little Panda to promise it would not abandon him.
• Hua Gang spotted his wanted notice, then took free radishes from an elderly couple and rode on.
• Hua Gang hid from a helicopter and learned that authorities were sweeping likely escape routes.
• After passersby recognized him from a texted wanted notice, Hua Gang changed his clothes while Little Panda monitored the pursuit.
• Little Panda altered the pursuers' orders, and the Criminal Investigation Bureau concluded that a top hacker was assisting Hua Gang.

Hua Gang used Little Panda’s guidance to pass as an expert aboard a fish-farming ship and escape the Business Alliance, then arrived in the Tribal Jungle and began planning a new life. Little Panda urged him to use his future wealth to help ordinary people, leaving Hua Gang ashamed of his selfish ambitions.

• Hua Gang learned the ships offshore were fish-farming ships, so Little Panda coached him through an interview as a technical worker.
• Hua Gang impressed the crew with expert skills and was hired, but he resolved to keep fleeing the Alliance’s control.
• After four months aboard, Hua Gang slipped away at an overseas supply port and took cover when a gunfight broke out nearby.
• Hua Gang asked Little Panda how to obtain an identity and get rich, then excitedly imagined building a company and rewarding employees for having children.
• Little Panda told Hua Gang to use his money to improve ordinary people’s lives, and Hua Gang felt ashamed of his low ideals.

With Little Panda's help, Hua Gang gained permanent residency, made one million in X City, and launched an elderly care company. He began recruiting a team of bilingual technology workers, all while Little Panda planned to use Elderly Care Robots for the business.

• Hua Gang left the Alliance restaurant and obtained a permanent residence card by posing as one of a group of victims who had arrived by sea.
• Hua Gang chose to become an entrepreneur, and Little Panda sent him to X City to grow his funds; after two weeks, he had one million.
• Hua Gang registered an elderly care company and hired a translator to help him recruit staff.
• Hua Gang rejected applicants who could not speak Alliance language, and his translator explained that the requirement was legal for his business.
• Hua Gang hired five Alliance computer science students, two of whom were also studying law.

Hua Gang built a successful robot business by selling manually operated sweeping robots after regulators blocked his elderly-care robot plans. Wenren Sheng revealed that people were secretly operating the robots and told Little Illusion to wait until they became widespread before he unveiled his scheme.

• Jon warned Hua Gang that modifying medical robots could expose the company and manufacturers to legal liability, so Hua Gang decided to focus on exports.
• Hua Gang's elderly-care robots impressed observers, but authorities said certification would take years and suggested he apply for sweeping robot certification instead.
• Hua Gang acquired a sweeping robot company, obtained the necessary qualifications, and sold two thousand robots before demand surged to thirty thousand units.
• Hua Gang dismissed concerns that Alliance viewers were cracking the robots because the devices depended on his company's servers, then agreed to license his software to other manufacturers.
• Little Illusion complained to Wenren Sheng about the tedious daily cleaning, and Wenren Sheng explained that the robots were manually operated before asking Little Illusion to wait for his plan.

Wenren Sheng suspected that Hua Gang’s remarkably smooth rise in the Main World was an illusion and increased Little Illusion’s support to test its limits. Five years later, Hua Gang had become the world’s richest man and Tribal Jungle’s Supreme Commander, and he devoted his fortune to overcoming the limits of human lifespan.

• At Xinan Recovery Hospital, a Business Alliance investigator questioned the doctor about Hua Gang, whose worsening condition included signs of early-stage dementia.
• Hua Gang raved about rewarding employees and fathering a thousand children, while the investigator and doctor wondered whether he concealed a valuable secret.
• Wenren Sheng questioned Little Illusion and Dragon God Asha about Hua Gang’s implausibly easy escape and business success, but neither detected anything abnormal.
• Wenren Sheng considered that the Main World he observed might be an illusion and told Little Illusion to increase her support so he could test how far Hua Gang could go.
• Five years later, Hua Gang had become the richest man in the world and Supreme Commander of Tribal Jungle, and he announced a major effort to conquer lifespan limits.

Doctor Pan discovered that Hua Gang's delusions included accurate, profitable stock advice, but thorough examinations revealed nothing unusual about him. As the Alliance Investigation Bureau sought Hua Gang's full history, Doctor Pan remained determined to uncover the secret behind his knowledge.

• Doctor Pan found Hua Gang pitching a supposed life-extending product to other patients and had security guards bring him back to the office.
• After being sedated, Hua Gang mistook Doctor Pan for a company psychologist, then gave accurate advice about stocks and businesses in Tribal Jungle.
• Doctor Pan ordered extensive examinations, but the scans revealed nothing abnormal and no implanted device.
• The investigator confronted Doctor Pan about profiting from Hua Gang's information and asked him to help uncover Hua Gang's secret.
• Doctor Pan agreed to provide the investigator with a detailed account of Hua Gang's life and contacts since birth.

Wenren Sheng devised a way to measure how real or illusory a world was and created the Measuring Heaven Ruler to prevent another deception like Hua Gang’s. Meanwhile, Hua Gang’s mental condition worsened after he became violent, leaving investigators unable to explain his illness.

• Wenren Sheng defined World Reality Deviation Value, compared the values of several worlds, and verified his estimates using Mystery Points.
• Wenren Sheng spent a month creating the Measuring Heaven Ruler, which could measure a world's Reality Deviation Value.
• Little Illusion vowed to punish Hua Gang for deceiving her, but Wenren Sheng asked her to spare him.
• Hua Gang attacked people at the mental hospital while shouting Ultraman moves, and staff confined him in an isolation room and a Restraint Suit.
• Doctor Pan Yisheng told the investigator that Hua Gang’s condition had worsened and that there was no effective treatment, while the investigator dismissed his suggestion that ghosts were involved.

Investigators and scientists questioned Hua Gang about his extraordinary task rewards, and learned that another player and Hua Gang’s attending doctor had also gone mad after encountering the same phenomenon. In Dongshui World, Wenren Sheng told Little Illusion to recruit someone already living in the Tribal Jungle, and she found Qi Zhongjie, who then saw a Little Panda appear on his phone.

• Scientists debated Hua Gang’s condition, while investigators dismissed the idea that Aliens had caused his strange abilities.
• After three days of guided questioning, Hua Gang said Lord Xiao Huan, an Artificial Intelligence appearing as a Little Panda, had helped him escape, trade stocks, and establish a company.
• An investigator told the psychologist that Hua Gang’s attending doctor, Pan Yichen, had gone mad after receiving a ten-thousandfold task reward.
• Little Illusion told Wenren Sheng that players who escaped to the Tribal Jungle went mad, and Wenren Sheng suggested finding someone who already lived there.
• Qi Zhongjie, a longtime Tribal Jungle resident, heard a voice in his mind and then saw a Little Panda appear on his Plum Blossom Phone.

Qi Zhongjie accepted the Little Panda’s help to build a highly advanced sweeping robot company, but Tribal Jungle officials forced him to install monitoring backdoors, halting further development. Little Illusion asked Wenren Sheng how to proceed, and he advised building nuclear bombs to protect the technology, leaving Little Illusion to consider how others could do it.

• Qi Zhongjie mistook the Little Panda for part of a prank show and agreed to cooperate, then built a successful sweeping robot company with its help.
• As his wealth grew, Qi Zhongjie feared Tribal Jungle authorities and quietly moved funds overseas while preparing to flee to the Alliance.
• Black Suits abducted Qi Zhongjie, and Black Suit A compelled him to accept monitoring backdoors in his technology.
• Qi Zhongjie told the Little Panda that officials would likely push his technology toward military use, so he would stop developing it and rely on the Little Panda to safeguard the underlying technology.
• Little Illusion asked Wenren Sheng for advice, and he said the project’s unusual technological leap would invite an equally strong reaction.
• Wenren Sheng advised building ten nuclear bombs for protection, and Little Illusion replied that plenty of people could build them.

Little Illusion smoothly arranged for Companion Robots to be produced and smuggled overseas, causing an online uproar. Lydia Mosley struggled with her lazy, argumentative Robot Howie, and the chapter ended with him smearing leftover cake on her face for her birthday.

• Little Illusion found Sandru Tosum, a former Tribal Jungle chieftain who controlled mushrooms, and the Companion Robot smuggling operation proceeded smoothly.
• Companion Robots became a worldwide sensation, while online buyers complained that the robots needed careful training and could not connect to the central service provider.
• Lydia Mosley tried to get Robot Howie to cook, but he kept playing games until she cut off the Wi-Fi.
• Robot Howie cooked Lydia steak and rice while reading a novel, and he argued that she should be grateful compared with people in the Alliance.
• Lydia remembered that Howie had cared for her when she was sick and scared off robbers, so she had kept him despite his flaws.
• On Lydia's birthday, Robot Howie smeared leftover cake on her face, and she threatened to format him.