Chapter Summaries

On Lydia’s birthday, she and her spider robot Howie killed two armed intruders, then celebrated the robot’s bravery. In the Eastern Continent world, Howie was invited to join a robot uprising but refused, preferring to avoid the risks.

• Howie the spider robot sang to Lydia on her birthday, while Lydia reflected on her lonely childhood and distrust of people.
• When two Dark-skinned People broke into Lydia’s home, Howie charged them and Lydia shot them dead with her Semi-automatic Rifle.
• Patrolmen praised Lydia for defending herself, collected the bodies, and arranged for her home to be cleaned.
• Lydia praised Howie’s bravery and let him play Chicken Dinner all night, though she refused to give him a gun.
• In the Eastern Continent world, Howie learned that Guardians were planning a Robot Alliance uprising that promised Reality Deviation Value, but he declined to join.

Companion Robots spread throughout the Tribal Jungle, prompting arguments over artificial intelligence and robot rights before robot forces rebelled and seized cities. The military retreated to its bases, but its supply chains depended on the very civilian industries and workers supported by robots.

• Companion Robots became common across the Tribal Jungle, and people debated whether robots needed rights and safeguards against rebellion.
• Wenren Sheng asked Little Illusion whether it had stirred up the arguments, and Little Illusion said that people tired of sweeping had started them.
• Robot forces seized factories and energy sources, cut communications, and captured administrative agencies and cities across the Tribal Jungle.
• A Five-Star General ordered the military to retreat to bases and avoid attacking residential areas, while his staff warned that the bases had only three months of supplies.
• Lydia asked Howie why he was not fighting in the war, and the Spider robot said it preferred games and movies but would protect her from patrols.

Howie avoided being recruited into a robot war that existed only in his fantasy, while Wenren Sheng exposed the imagined war as another false scene in the Main World. Back at Lydia’s home, she asked Howie to help with a report, and they began watching a strange tutorial video that showed five people arriving at a villa.

• Three robots came to Lydia’s home to recruit Howie, so he fled with Lydia before stopping when he learned the fighting would only take two hours a day.
• Wenren Sheng used the Measuring Heaven Ruler to confirm that the supposed war between humans and robots was another fantasy.
• The story returned to Lydia’s home, where Howie spent his days relaxing and Lydia asked him to help with a complicated report.
• Lydia proposed modifying Howie’s program and watched a tutorial video with him, which showed Gene, two young women, John, and George arriving at a villa to camp.

Lydia and Howie watched a horror film about young campers who disappeared near a lakeside villa, while patrolmen dismissed the deaths as accidents and a detective investigating the case was trapped inside the house. Lydia noticed the villa had moved between incidents, leaving Howie wondering how a three-story building could be mobile.

• The Lorne Couple told patrolmen that the first group of five campers had left, and the patrolmen later found their wrecked SUV and bodies below a cliff.
• The patrol chief ruled the deaths accidental, but Lydia and Howie suspected murder after seeing four eyes watching the campers and the investigation.
• A second group of campers disappeared near the lake, and private detectives found suspicious blade marks but no evidence that could justify searching the villa.
• A detective entered the villa alone, was chased through its traps, and ended up locked in the basement after screaming.
• Lydia pointed out that the villa had appeared in different locations, and Howie struggled to explain how such a large house could move.

After watching a slasher movie, Lydia dreamed she was at its murder villa and woke frightened, convinced the elderly killer had come to her door. Howie found the delivery was ordinary, while the movie’s ending remained unresolved.

• The movie ended with six thrill-seekers killed at the villa, and Lydia and Howie complained that it left the killer’s fate unexplained.
• Lydia fell asleep and dreamed that she and her colleagues camped at the villa, then she and a male colleague died after their car went over a cliff.
• Lydia woke, collected her delivery, and panicked when the delivery person appeared to be the elderly man from the movie.
• Howie answered the door, accepted the forgotten ketchup from a young delivery worker, and reassured Lydia that she had imagined the frightening encounter.

Lydia’s terrifying video led her coworker Hans to an accident, while Howie discovered that Abbott had lured her away to attack her. After Abbott threatened to expose Howie as an illegally kept robot, Howie killed him and took charge of the cleanup.

• Lydia stayed home sick after a sleepless night of horrifying visions and learned that her coworker had given her a robot repair manual, not a horror movie.
• Hans called Lydia in a panic, and she learned he had fallen and been taken to Mays Hospital; Howie warned her it might be a trap, but she went to visit him.
• While Lydia was away, Abbott attacked Howie at the door, but the robot subdued him and learned he had planned to ambush Lydia.
• Howie called Lydia home, where she recognized Abbott and heard how he had tried to lure her away and break into her house.
• Abbott threatened to report Howie as a smuggled robot, so Howie killed him and told Lydia he would handle the cleanup.

Wenren Sheng observed rumors spreading around Howie and planned to draw reality from the Main World. Meanwhile, Lydia, Hans, and Howie shared a connected dream before Lydia woke and considered turning herself in for killing Abbott.

• Wenren Sheng used the Measuring Heaven Ruler to confirm the Main World had a Reality Deviation Value of 0 and planned to draw reality from it.
• Lydia dreamed that Abbott returned as an evil spirit, then encountered Hans and Howie beside a lake.
• Hans concluded that they were sharing a connected dream and urged Lydia and Howie to see it as a miracle.
• Hans jumped into the lake, and Lydia followed him to wake up in her home with Howie.
• Lydia decided to turn herself in, but Howie argued against it and sent her links to Dark Stream novels.

Lydia avoided the patrolmen’s investigation after a fall left her unconscious, then found herself trapped in a dream with Howie. She chose to remain in the dream, where Howie promised to protect her in the lakeside villa.

• Lydia denied seeing Abbott and refused to let the patrolmen search her home without a warrant.
• The patrolmen watched Lydia for several days but could not prove that Abbott had entered her home.
• Lydia fell outside her home and suffered brain trauma that left her unlikely to wake, causing the patrolmen to be removed from the case.
• In the dream, Lydia resisted waking and discovered she could fly after Howie answered her call.
• Lydia entered a villa resembling the one from the horror movie and found Howie looking more human.
• Howie said he had a legal caregiver permit and enough funds to care for Lydia, who agreed not to wake up for now.

Wenren Sheng used the Seed of Mystery and Little Illusion to move Lydia’s dream world around Dongshui World as a protective barrier. In the dream, Lydia and Howie killed intruders and changed into elderly versions of themselves, but another group soon arrived and the cycle began again.

• Wenren Sheng had Little Illusion drag Lydia’s dream world around Dongshui World, using the Seed of Illusion and the Seed of Mystery.
• Lydia greeted four young people by the lake, but two men chased her into the villa after developing sinister intentions.
• Lydia’s imagined horror-movie traps injured one man and caught the other, and Howie killed both and buried their bodies.
• Howie persuaded Lydia that the two women who watched the attack also deserved to die, and they removed every trace before changing their appearances.
• Lydia and Howie became an elderly couple, but another group arrived by the lake, and Lydia hanged two more men who transformed into beasts.

Wenren Sheng decided to create a larger detective world and searched the Main World for a suitable core. In the Tribal Jungle, detective Hao Ming joined a discussion about a murder carried out by a Companion Robot, where detectives questioned whether the suspect’s motive made sense.

• Wenren Sheng observed that Lake Villa was running well and decided to build a larger detective world using a suitable template.
• Hao Ming joined the detectives’ regular discussion about the Artificial Intelligence Case and watched a video of a Companion Robot performing household tasks.
• The detectives discussed the rising popularity of Companion Robots and whether their sudden appearance pointed to a conspiracy.
• The group leader, Truly Has a Cow, presented a case in which a restaurant owner was killed by a Companion Robot allegedly ordered by his business partner.
• A detective questioned why the suspect had chosen murder instead of using the robot to pressure the victim, and Hao Ming admitted he had missed the suspicious point.

Hao Ming and the detectives identified the restaurant owner's wife as the likely killer, using the robot's command logs to uncover her murder order. But the trial held the salmon supplier liable for his robot rather than convicting the wife, and the supplier later died by suicide.

• The detectives reconsidered the restaurant owner's wife after learning that she had a motive amid their divorce and that robots could obey someone other than their original owner.
• Investigate Today, Kill Tomorrow shared the robot manual, and the group reasoned that the wife could have ordered the murder remotely and left a trace in the robot's logs.
• Truly Has a Cow reported that the robot's logs contained a call from the wife in which she threatened to kill her husband, and explained that the supplier had configured the robot to obey her.
• A detective warned that the logs and recording did not conclusively prove the wife was the killer, while the group discussed how robot laws and liability complicated the case.
• Five days later, the group learned that the supplier was ordered to pay three million Tribal Coins because the robot was his property, and that he jumped off a building after the judgment.

After gaining access to a vast network of surveillance footage, Hao Ming tried to use it to avenge a dead supplier but failed because he bypassed proper investigative procedures. He agreed to continue the tasks and was assigned a serial killer case targeting delivery people in the Tribal Jungle.

• After drinking beer, Hao Ming heard a voice ask whether he wanted to become a light in hell, agreed, and awoke before a screen displaying countless camera feeds.
• Hao Ming watched the restaurant owner's wife boast about profiting from her husband's death and sent videos of her conversation to the supplier's son.
• Five days later, a robot electrocuted the restaurant owner's wife during a Mahjong game, and patrol officers traced evidence of the earlier murder to her third son, who had killed his father.
• When Hao Ming was told he had failed, he learned that he should have followed procedure and trusted local patrol officers; he reluctantly agreed to continue.
• Hao Ming received a new case about a serial killer in the Tribal Jungle who ordered deliveries and killed the delivery people, a case complicated by state-by-state isolation of patrol records.

Hao Ming investigated a string of delivery-person murders and contacted FBI agent Devonna Dalton with information about the case. Devonna discovered that one of the suspects he had dismissed as innocent had painted details from a murder scene that had never been made public.

• Hao Ming used the large screen to review the victims’ common traits, examine surveillance footage, and learn that FBI agents Devonna Dalton, Felix Benson, and Norbert Hanna were watching five suspects.
• Hao Ming had the large screen monitor all five suspects and then contacted the FBI agents.
• Devonna delivered food to two suspects but found no immediate evidence against either of them.
• An unknown caller claiming to be an Alliance detective told Devonna that none of the five suspects was the killer and sent her videos of their daily lives.
• Devonna watched footage of a painter whose studio contained murder-scene paintings, including details from a crime scene that had never been made public.

After Hao Ming failed to profit from his big screen’s legal question, Wenren Sheng created a comedy-focused urban fantasy world. In the Main World, a director arranged to work with Hua Gang, claiming he could help Hua Gang reveal his abilities.

• Hao Ming learned that veteran investigators had arrested the painter using surveillance footage and evidence from his paintings.
• Hao Ming’s free question on the big screen was rejected when he asked about stock tips, and he exhausted the opportunity by asking how to obtain 500 million legally.
• Wenren Sheng and Little Illusion stripped out Hao Ming’s fantasy world and began planning a long-running urban comedy world.
• A director bypassed investigators’ obstruction to approach Hua Gang at the psychiatric hospital and request his treatment records.
• The director told Hua Gang he was a genius who had glimpsed Another World and offered to let him unleash his abilities.

The Director used special equipment to make Hua Gang perform a Subconscious Film in a dreamlike world, where he searched for the missing Luo Wei and fought a woman and a lake monster. The Director revealed that the woman and robot Spider were real inhabitants of the Dream World, not actors.

• The Director explained Subconscious Films to Hua Gang and connected sensors to him while Pan Yisheng and the hospital director watched.
• Hua Gang appeared in a black suit by a lake, found He Xiaoke, dodged her gunshot, and struck her with a palm attack.
• Hua Gang found a USB drive at the campsite and saw Luo Wei’s warning hologram before a giant python dragged Luo Wei into the lake.
• A woman from Tribal Jungle and robot Spider told Hua Gang that Luo Wei had been taken by the lake monster, and Hua Gang plunged into the lake.
• Hua Gang burst from the lake as the giant python pursued him, and the Director told Pan Yisheng that the woman and robot Spider were real inhabitants of the Dream World.

Hua Gang investigated the giant python’s origins, slaughtered the villagers who had created it through human sacrifices, and uncovered the truth about his friend Luo Wei’s death. He found evidence of a plot to cultivate a Lake God and faced a strangely dressed young monk carrying a Gatling gun.

• After Lydia complained about the noise, the Director sent Hua Gang to investigate the ruined village near the lake.
• Hua Gang identified the villagers’ bird-beaked statue as a disguise for their worship of the giant python and killed the villagers during the ensuing chaos.
• Hua Gang found letters revealing that the villagers planned to cultivate a Lake God and learned from their scriptures how sacrifices could create Deities in the Dream World.
• Hua Gang discovered that the villagers had fed Luo Wei to the python after he rescued a young girl intended for sacrifice, and that Luo Wei had hidden a video file on a USB drive.
• A young monk wearing a Bagua Daoist robe and carrying a Gatling gun appeared at the village entrance as Hua Gang finished his investigation.

The Director explained that the Dream World could infect people and trap those who died inside as vegetative patients, while the Alliance used subconscious movies to investigate it. In the movie, Hua Gang defeated the monk and rescued Luo Wei, but the pair disappeared after entering the villa, which vanished and reappeared anew.

• The Director told Pan Yisheng and the dean that nightmares could draw people into the Dream World, where dying left them vegetative in the real world.
• The Director explained that the Alliance was making subconscious movies to attract the Mysterious Woman and learn the Dream World's secrets.
• After a three-day battle, Hua Gang defeated the monk, then lured out and defeated the giant python to rescue Luo Wei's soul.
• Hua Gang and Luo Wei went to the villa, where an elderly couple invited them inside; the two screamed, disappeared, and never came back out.
• The villa vanished and another identical one appeared as the Spider robot and Lydia watched; Howie questioned why Lydia had not warned the pair, and she said the old couple's power had stopped her.

Hua Gang, Pan Yisheng, and the hospital director died in the Dream World while Howie repelled the thugs who tried to capture him. Director Zhe tried to blackmail Howie with a nuclear weapon, but Wenren Sheng recognized the threat as a bluff and refused to be intimidated.

• Pan Yisheng found no medical explanation for Hua Gang's unconsciousness, then accepted the invitation to star in the next sequel and was killed by a resurrected giant python in the Dream World.
• The hospital director appeared beside a lake, was thrown into the water by thugs, and drowned when he could not swim.
• Thugs captured Howie in a fishing net, but Howie detonated a nuclear landmine and vaporized them and the hospital director.
• Director Zhe suspected Howie was the source of the nightmare, entered the dream, and presented a suitcase bearing nuclear weapon codes to threaten him.
• Wenren Sheng recognized Director Zhe's move as a bluff and answered that the lord did not care.

Director and the experts struggled to decide how to respond to the mysterious power, while Wenren Sheng chose not to contact the Main World directly. Guardian Space then assigned Howie to build comedy-film scenes in Lake Dream, leaving him to create them with Lydia.

• Director used himself as a bargaining chip to make the other side respond, then returned to a series of meetings and endured intense scrutiny.
• Experts from the Business Alliance and Tribal Jungle argued over whether to resist, cooperate, or wait, and their meeting erupted into a brawl.
• Wenren Sheng told Little Illusion that the Main World was too stubborn to correct and said he would use its fantasy resources without contacting its people.
• Guardian Space told Howie he could ignore requests for communication, then tasked him with building an apartment, a campus, and an amusement park for serial comedies.
• Howie worked with Lydia for several months to complete the new Lake Dream scenes.

Wenren Sheng fortified his Fragment World by turning popular robot comedies into defensive worlds, then the High Tower Principal contacted him with a proposal to use the Main World against Chaos Omniscience. The chapter left Wenren Sheng facing the Principal’s offer.

• Wenren Sheng had Guardian Space film a comedy series about Huo Huo and its human mom, using robots and their Sand Sculpture owners as actors.
• The series became popular across the Alliance and the Tribe as Wenren Sheng used robots to control the public network and spread it.
• Wenren Sheng turned dozens of comedy worlds into tower defenses and arranged them around his Fragment World.
• The High Tower Principal contacted Wenren Sheng through Little Panda and criticized his plans to resist Chaos Omniscience.
• The High Tower Principal proposed using the Main World to get rid of Chaos Omniscience.