Chapter Summaries

Big Rat expanded his rat farm by coercing nearby nobles into supplying food, water, and labor, then used rat deliveries to earn favor with the Saintly Order. Ten years later, he had become a regular guest at their banquets, where members secretly hunted rats to level up.

• Big Rat forced a Baron to supply his farm with feed, clean water, and labor, then obtained more nobles’ help using the Great Emperor’s labor requisition documents.
• Big Rat handed over twenty thousand rats and promised a larger future delivery, while arranging an island refuge for his sister and keeping an escape plan in reserve.
• Big Rat delivered sixty thousand rats the following year, driving up local grain and fodder prices and prompting ministers to direct food wasted by the Saintly Hall to his farm.
• Over ten years, Big Rat became a guest of honor among nearly all Saintly Order members, who secretly visited his farm to hunt rats and level up.

Big Rat used his rats to attack a bandit stronghold and expose the bandits’ secret partnership with a member of the Saintly Order. He killed the bandits but spared the captives at his younger sister’s request, while warning that his mercy was rare.

• Big Rat ordered his rats to kill and eat their enemies as he prepared to seize power in the empire.
• Big Rat led the rats against a brutal bandit stronghold, knowing the bandits worked with a member of the Saintly Order to gain experience by killing people.
• The bandits lost their will to fight when Big Rat revealed he knew their secret and fled or begged to join him.
• Big Rat’s rats killed all the bandits, and he released the captives after his younger sister asked him to spare them.
• Big Rat warned the captives that his mercy would rarely appear again and reflected that his sister was his last source of compassion.

Great Emperor Lancelot sent Old Man Ikes and the Saintly Order to defeat Big Rat, but Big Rat outmaneuvered them and overran the Saintly Hall. Its rats then swept across the Lotes Empire, leaving villages and towns devastated.

• After learning that Big Rat’s rats had killed two noble families, Great Emperor Lancelot ordered Old Man Ikes to lead three thousand Saintly Order members against it.
• The empire and the Saintly Order assembled a large army, while Big Rat gathered its rats beside a reservoir and targeted the empire’s supply lines.
• Big Rat led one hundred thousand rats to attack a fortress, taking the bait in the Saintly Order’s plan to lure it into an ambush.
• Old Man Ikes revealed the Saintly Order’s hidden Space Warehouse skill as the group prepared to trap Big Rat at the fortress.
• Big Rat vanished from the fortress and overran the Saintly Hall, then led its elite rats across the Lotes Empire, spreading devastation and driving people from their homes.

Old Man Isk and the Saintly Order struggled to respond to a rat infestation that they feared was a new demon tide, while nobles maneuvered to protect their own fiefs. After a Saintly Order member broke through Level 45 in battle, Great Emperor Lancelot realized he had misunderstood the divine envoy’s gift and vowed to rule as a true Knight.

• Old Man Isk warned the Saintly Order that the rats were using guerrilla tactics and that dividing their forces would play into the enemy’s hands.
• Lott proposed that the Saintly Order spread out to kill the rats, but Isk slapped him and cautioned that high-ranked Red-Eye Rats could overwhelm them in groups.
• The nobles argued over which fiefs should receive troops, and the Saintly Order split its forces to defend favored territories until only three hundred remained in the capital.
• Great Emperor Lancelot approved the troop divisions until he stopped them, recognizing the nobles’ greed as a dangerous weakness.
• News that someone had broken through Level 45 and gained a new skill made Lancelot realize that leveling had no limit and that he had misjudged the divine envoy.
• Lancelot removed his crown, knelt before Yang Weite’s statue, endured ten days and nights of whipping, and vowed to restore the Lotes Empire as a true Knight.

Lancelot led his imperial guard to reclaim cities from the rat plague and organized relief for survivors, while Big Rat prepared to strike at the emperor. Weil questioned her brother’s violence, and Yang Weite and Little Panda discussed whether Lancelot could end the plague.

• Lancelot led his forces into a plague-ravaged city, defeated the rats, rescued civilians, and issued a Relief Order for those whose food had been lost.
• Lancelot recruited more than a hundred warriors and moved on, while his skill-coordinated forces quickly reclaimed a second city.
• Big Rat decided to attack Lancelot’s central army, convinced that the emperor’s death would give him authority over the empire.
• Weil returned to a mountainside palace and wondered whether she had to watch her brother become a Demon God as innocent people suffered.
• Little Panda returned to Yang Weite and told him that Lancelot had awakened; Yang Weite said he would not predict whether the emperor could stop the rat plague.

Fite Lie led his knights against the giant rat, but the swarm stopped their charges and forced them to retreat to Lancelot's camp. After hearing Fite Lie's account, Lancelot appointed him to lead scouts and vowed to settle the blood debt, while recognizing that his own past choices had helped cause the disaster.

• The giant rat defended its slaughter as revenge on the world, and Fite Lie ordered his knights to charge it.
• The rat swarm repelled the knights' repeated attacks, killing several of them, until Fite Lie agreed to retreat and seek the Great Emperor.
• Fite Lie led the survivors through a three-day retreat to Lancelot's camp, where a guard detected and expelled the plague affecting him.
• Fite Lie recounted the giant rat's history and advised Lancelot not to kill it yet, lest the rats disperse and attack freely.
• Lancelot appointed Fite Lie to command a scouting knight unit, and the royal historian wept while recording the account.
• Lancelot vowed to make the giant rat repay the blood debt and blamed his own earlier choices for the catastrophe.

The Big Rat strengthened his rats by breeding smarter survivors, exposing them to humans, and letting them acquire Fel Energy and other powers, while the class users struggled to keep pace. Lancelot confronted his nobles for abandoning the battlefield and forgetting they were Card Players before they became powerful.

• The Big Rat told Weil he would breed stronger rats and use humans to filter for intelligence, then requested another batch of fertile Red-Eye Female Rats.
• Three months later, the Big Rat saw that the rats had gained Fel Energy and other negative powers, copied class-user abilities, and formed their own classes.
• A duke reported the rats’ growing strength to Lancelot and asked for higher abilities, but Lancelot told the class users to return to battle.
• The duke bribed the Great Eunuch and concluded that Lancelot was using battle as a pretext to trick the nobles into fighting.
• When Lancelot set out on campaign, the duke and other class users claimed illness and sent only their summoned creatures.
• Lancelot roared at the nobles for shirking battle and reminded them that they had once been Soldiers and were still Card Players.

Emperor Lancelot led the class holders and Imperial Guard against Big Rat’s powerful rat swarm, then discovered a skill that guided him toward the Fountain of Youth. He charged toward it through the rats, leaving some knights dead and the search still underway.

• Four hundred and thirty-one class holders followed the emperor into battle, but Big Rat’s rats used copied skills to sink them into mud and overwhelm them with a flood.
• The class holders speculated that Big Rat had stolen their powers, while Big Rat mocked them and the Imperial Guard prepared to charge.
• Knight Lancelot fought through the swarm as his guards tried to protect him, and he reached level 46, gaining the skill Fountain of Youth Water.
• The new skill marked a route toward the Fountain of Youth, which ran through the rats’ strongest forces, so Lancelot activated Invincible Holy Light and led the charge.
• Several class holders revived after falling behind, but the knights who were left behind died as the group pressed onward.

Great Emperor Lancelot reached the mountain palace while rats surrounded his battered forces, then discovered that the sleeping puppy named Springwater was the source of the Fountain of Youth. Springwater revealed that she could make him ageless if she regained her strength.

• Big Rat's rats attacked the knights until the surviving thirty percent broke and scattered.
• Great Emperor Lancelot arrived at the mountain palace, captured Weil, and had his troops tend to their horses while they secured the surrounded palace.
• Lancelot questioned the puppy, and it revealed that its name was Springwater and that it did not age.
• Springwater wrote that she could make Lancelot ageless on the condition that she regained her strength.

The Emperor let Weil go and returned Fountain Water to her, while a gray aura inside the palace disabled teleportation and trapped the court. Lancelot reflected on how his earlier mercy had helped bring the Empire to collapse as people fled, plague spread, and imperial authority weakened.

• A Knight reported that the enemy had blocked the mountain road, but a royal guard demonstrated Group Teleportation and reassured the Soldiers.
• A class user warned that a gray aura had appeared in the palace and stopped all teleportation skills, though the Soldiers steadied themselves by carrying out their duties.
• The Emperor asked Weil why her brother had rebelled, and she said the King had once given him everything, just as the Emperor had given her brother everything.
• The Emperor ordered Weil released and returned Fountain Water to her, leaving Weil surprised by his mercy.
• Lancelot reflected that his earlier mercy had helped cause the rebellion and the Empire's collapse, while plague spread and people increasingly ignored the Emperor's authority.

The Emperor survived Big Rat’s attacks and reached level 60, unlocking Reincarnation and discovering he could grow far stronger by being reborn repeatedly. He wanted to begin a new life, but the rampant Rats made survival as an infant uncertain.

• The Emperor reached level 50 while Big Rat mistakenly believed he could eventually trap him to death.
• Weil urged Big Rat to stop fighting, but Big Rat dismissed her and convinced himself the Emperor had allied with the puppy, whom he believed was a Demon God.
• Big Rat ordered his Rats to attack day and night, while the Emperor’s surviving Players lost levels and the Emperor rose to level 60.
• The Emperor unlocked Reincarnation, which let him be reborn as an infant while retaining his Player Template and one-tenth of his physical attributes.
• Knight Lancelot chose to reincarnate, then realized the Rat infestations might leave him unable to survive unless he was born into a noble family.

Wenren Sheng explained that he had deliberately given Emperor Lancelot the power of Reincarnation, while Little Panda learned the Demon Tide World would soon reach its decisive point. Trapped on a mountain with his dwindling forces, Lancelot learned that Es had died defending a grain-producing city and considered resurrecting him.

• Wenren Sheng told Little Panda that Lancelot would become part of the Collector’s collection, and Little Panda realized the Demon Tide World was nearing its end.
• Lancelot assured his professionals that Grand Duke Langske was marching with a large army to relieve them, despite their dwindling experience points and repeated deaths.
• An intelligence officer reported that Es City had fallen and that Governor Es and his family had died defending it.
• Lancelot mourned Es, then asked whether his Reincarnation power could be used on others.
• After learning the rats had eaten Es’s body, Lancelot considered using the Soul Summoning Art to revive him as an undead.

The Emperor used Reincarnation on a fallen Knight Captain, who was reborn with his memories as the child of a shipowner in a port city. Meanwhile, the Grand Duke’s army reached Big Rat’s mountain stronghold but was surrounded, while Big Rat strengthened his rule by making Farmers work for the rats.

• The Emperor told everyone he would revive Es, then secretly used Reincarnation on a Knight’s corpse and saw the Knight Captain reborn aboard a ship.
• The Emperor watched the Knight Captain grow up as the son of an old shipowner in a port city where people lived on ships to evade the rats.
• Half a month later, the Grand Duke led 110,000 soldiers toward the Emperor, but Big Rat’s rats disrupted their supplies and tens of thousands died during the final advance.
• The Grand Duke’s army reached the mountain only to find that Big Rat’s rats had surrounded them.
• Big Rat used Wisdom Rats to capture Farmers and make them cultivate land, and some Farmers began calling the rats kinder lords than human nobles.

The Big Rat explained to Weil how intelligent Blue-Eye Rats managed farmers and how selective breeding could keep them obedient, convincing her that his system could outcompete the emperor. The emperor recognized that the rats threatened his hold over the farmers, but his advisers offered no effective response.

• The Big Rat showed Weil farmers working under Blue-Eye Rat supervision and argued that rat rule had improved their lives and allowed their village to recover.
• Weil warned that rats would eventually become greedy and that they spread disease, but the Big Rat said he could eliminate demanding rats and breed future generations for obedience.
• Weil realized that farmers might accept rat rule because it gave them food, security, and the freedom to raise children, and she predicted that the Big Rat could win unless the emperor adapted.
• An intelligence officer told the emperor about the Big Rat's new Blue-Eye tool rats, and the emperor understood that they threatened the farmers who supported his power.
• The emperor concluded that he needed a new class to replace the nobility, while Grand Duke Langsko proposed denouncing cooperation with rats and the emperor dismissed the idea as useless.

Emperor Lancelot abandoned the idea of using skeletons to govern farmers and realized his Reincarnation ability could motivate capable nobles to serve the empire. The next morning, he reviewed the Grand Duke’s remaining eighty thousand troops at the mountain palace, while recognizing that the army was not his own.

• Lancelot asked Helt whether Soul Summoning Art could raise enough skeletons to govern farmers, but Helt explained that his mana limited the skill.
• Helt reminded Lancelot that his Reincarnation ability could grant a new life, and suggested reserving that blessing for capable, loyal nobles.
• Lancelot concluded that nobles would strive to develop their lands in hopes of receiving Reincarnation, while Blue-Eye Rats lacked the ambition and skills needed to govern humans.
• The next morning, Lancelot summoned the Grand Duke and reviewed his remaining eighty thousand soldiers at the mountain palace.
• Lancelot observed that the army’s morale had recovered with abundant supplies and recognized that it belonged to the Grand Duke, not to him.

The Emperor used a staged miracle of reincarnation to convince much of his besieged army that bravery and loyalty would earn them another life. The soldiers fought off Big Rat’s probing attack, and Big Rat retreated while leaving the Emperor an escape route.

• The Emperor promised reincarnation to the worthy and recounted the honorable deeds of three dead knights to inspire the besieged crowd.
• The Emperor used a Mana Potion to cast a powerful Reincarnation spell, and the gathered people hailed him as God’s chosen ruler.
• Big Rat saw through the Emperor’s deception and ordered the rats to capture him alive to seize the Reincarnation ability.
• Big Rat sent the rats on a probing attack, but the Emperor’s newly devoted soldiers wiped them out.
• Fearing further losses before the demonic tide, Big Rat retreated and left the Emperor a route down the mountain.

Emperor Lancelot escaped a rat trap by using his shadow as a decoy, while Wenren Sheng agreed to arrange a family activity. Little Panda was pulled into the Reincarnation Courtyard, where Jiang Feng found her burning his room to prevent rat germs from spreading.

• Emperor Lancelot's shadow fell into a pit and vanished among the rats while the real Emperor escaped by another route.
• The soldiers celebrated the Emperor's survival, though a Royal Guard worried that Reincarnation could not save everyone who died.
• Li Shuangyue told Wenren Sheng that Wenren De wanted a large family activity, and Wenren Sheng agreed to arrange one.
• Little Panda tried to leave for President Zhao's villa, but its vision went dark and it was transported to the Reincarnation Courtyard.
• Jiang Feng rushed to put out the fire in East Room Number Four and found Little Panda burning the room to sterilize it and prevent rat germs from spreading.

Little Illusion arrived in Reincarnation Courtyard and amazed its residents with her powers, while claiming she could create anything. The gathering ended with Brother Dong recognizing her as the goldfish god he worshipped.

• Little Illusion appeared in Jiang Feng’s room, dispelled her flames, and introduced herself as Dong Four before the neighbors gathered.
• East Number One offered Little Illusion food, and Little Illusion used her powers to draw food from the neighbors’ storage spaces.
• The residents invited Little Illusion to a courtyard gathering, where she warned them not to investigate her and claimed she could make anything they wanted.
• Little Illusion tried to grant East Number One an Elf Bloodline but turned her into a goblin instead, and Brother Dong approved of the result.
• Brother Dong arrived, recognized Little Illusion as his god, and knelt before her; Little Illusion transformed into the gigantic God Statue of Goldfish.

Little Illusion appeared in the Reincarnation Courtyard and offered its frightened residents avatar puppets, hoping to make their dangerous lives easier. The residents began choosing animal forms, while Brother Dong chose a dog and Bei San chose a Little Panda.

• Brother Dong had the courtyard residents kneel before the Goldfish Colossus and recite a prayer, believing Little Illusion could soften the cruelty of reincarnation scenarios.
• Little Illusion emerged from the statue, told the residents they did not need to kneel, and said she was a god's daughter rather than a god.
• Little Illusion offered everyone the ability to use avatar puppets and told them to choose animals like the ones Wenren Sheng used.
• Brother Dong chose a dog, but Little Illusion looked displeased with his choice.
• A resident chose a Little Panda and introduced himself as Bei San, while Jiang Feng of East Number Four regretted not giving his True Name when he had met Little Illusion.

Jiang Feng became a tawny cat puppet and entered the Reincarnation World, where his mission was to stay beside the Female Lead, Xia Wen. After discovering Xia Wen was allergic to cats, he was picked up by the killer, Winter Day, when his mission changed to let him choose her instead.

• Jiang Feng chose a tawny cat, and Little Illusion turned the participants’ animal selections into puppet avatars.
• Jiang Feng transferred his consciousness into the cat and received a prompt to enter the world I Have a Date with a Killer.
• Jiang Feng entered the world as the cat and was assigned to find Xia Wen and remain by her side.
• Xia Wen rejected Jiang Feng because she was allergic to cat fur, and a waiter chased him from the café.
• Winter Day offered to take Jiang Feng home, and his mission changed to let him remain beside the killer.
• Jiang Feng recognized Winter Day as the killer and followed her after she picked him up.