Chapter Summaries

Sun Hang revealed that the Mainframe’s costly prophecy predicted the assault would succeed, while the assault team prepared to enter the crater by drone. The chapter ended with Cheng Ming and the others suspended beneath the drones, waiting for deployment.

• Candle Dragon refused to judge Charles’s battle plan and described himself as a hunter who carried out orders without making subjective decisions.
• Sun Hang revealed that the Mainframe had predicted, “He will succeed,” after its prophecy temporarily disrupted systems across hundreds of cities.
• Chen Jing’s forces gathered ammunition, switched the armored vehicles’ cannons to Overload Mode, and readied twenty-eight assault team members in powered exoskeletons.
• Chen Jing ordered the Giant Harrier drones to deploy the team ten seconds after the final artillery barrage.
• Cheng Ming and four other hunters hung beneath Giant Harrier Heavy Drone Number One as they joked nervously and one began to dry-heave.

Cheng Ming and the other hunters began their airborne assault into the sinkhole, where a mass of mycelial puppets awaited them. As the hunters descended, the puppets leapt up to attack.

• A hunter whose family owned a meat processing plant grew sick at the sight of the puppets, and Cheng Ming stopped him from removing his helmet after he vomited inside it.
• Cheng Ming told the hunter to activate the emergency revival device, which helped him recover from choking and explained that it also administered stimulants and painkillers.
• Chen Jing ordered the artillery barrage to end and the airborne deployment to begin.
• Twenty-eight hunters detached from the Giant Harrier drones and used their exoskeletons' autopilot functions to stabilize their falls.
• Mycelial puppets launched themselves from the charred bodies of their kind and pounced on the descending hunters.

Hunters descended through the crumbling passage toward the cavity at the bottom of the pit, where they hoped to escape the mycelial puppets and reach the cordyceps anomaly. As Number Nine’s exoskeleton signal vanished, Chen Jing and Bai Lingqiu could not tell whether he had died or escaped the impact by using his ability.

• Mycelial puppets swallowed several hunters while the survivors descended through the passage, whose carbonized walls began to crack under pressure.
• Cheng Ming locked a hunter’s mechanical trigger to prevent gunfire from bringing down the passage, then transferred control of the hunter’s exoskeleton when he demanded to free-fall.
• Several hunters reclaimed control of their exoskeletons and shut off their thrusters to descend faster toward the cavity.
• In the command vehicle, Chen Jing learned that the hunters could not safely descend faster, while Bai Lingqiu warned that their equipment restricted their abilities and could not be removed before they left the spore fog.
• A technician reported that Number Nine’s exoskeleton was severely damaged and his vital-sign signal had disappeared; Chen Jing, Bai Lingqiu, and the technician could not determine whether he had died or used his ability to survive.

Cheng Ming and the surviving hunters used the mysterious girl’s plan to survive their fall to the bottom of the pit, where they found the aberration’s spacious nest. They discovered wrecked exoskeletons and signs that some hunters had survived but gone deeper into the cavern, while communications interference left them unreachable.

• The mysterious girl used Cheng Ming to relay a plan to link the hunters together, shut off their thrusters, and restart them just before landing.
• Cheng Ming and the hunters followed the plan and landed at the bottom of the pit, though the impact wrecked their exoskeletons and injured several hunters.
• A technician told Chen Jing that the thrusters had reached nearly three times their rated output without rupturing, and Bai Lingqiu suggested someone might have affected them.
• Cheng Ming directed the mobile hunters to move the injured to a corner and searched the cavern, which Bai Lingqiu identified as the aberration’s nest.
• Cheng Ming found wrecked exoskeletons containing crushed bodies and blood trails leading deeper into the cavern, while Chen Jing learned that communications interference prevented contact with the surviving hunters.

Cheng Ming led the six surviving hunters toward the aberration’s main body, where they encountered and shot down a grotesque monster made from mycelial puppets and a missing hunter. After circling the creature, Cheng Ming realized the aberration was directly above them.

• Cheng Ming advanced with five other hunters toward the area where memetic activity was strongest.
• A cloaked hunter detected a large living creature approaching, though the memetic detector could not register it.
• The hunters spotted a monster assembled from severed mycelial-puppet limbs, with the hunter who had demanded the thrusters be turned off as its torso.
• Cheng Ming gave permission to fire, and Batu Han’s Gatling cannons helped bring the monster down.
• The group took a wide route around the monster and found no sign of the aberration on the ground.
• Cheng Ming looked up and told the others that the aberration’s main body was above them.

The hunters discovered that the enormous creature overhead was a shed shell, while the Anomaly itself had emerged in a roughly human-sized form and was hiding nearby. Cheng Ming urged them to find it before it recovered, then followed the mysterious girl's advice to trust his intuition.

• The hunters saw the Anomaly's massive body suspended above the hollow and feared they had no way to fight it.
• Cheng Ming revealed that the giant body was a shed shell and said the Anomaly's true form was roughly human-sized and weakened after molting.
• Cheng Ming explained that the Anomaly was hiding and would likely grow stronger once it recovered, prompting the hunters to search for it.
• The mysterious girl returned control of Cheng Ming's body and told him to trust his intuition about where the Anomaly was hiding.

Cheng Ming and the Hunters tried to locate the transformed Anomaly by linking Meme detectors, but the Anomaly ambushed the team and killed Batu Han. The creature emerged from its host in a new body modeled on a mysterious individual, and the mysterious girl appeared to confront it.

• Chen Jing's technician explained that linked Meme detectors could locate the Anomaly by distinguishing its stable Meme activity from the weakening activity of its shed shell.
• Cheng Ming ordered the Hunters to set up detectors and kept Batu Han at the center to operate the signal amplifier and support the squad.
• A white object burrowed into a Hunter, and the possessed Hunter shot down the other Hunters with uncanny accuracy.
• Batu Han fired his Gatling Vulcan Cannons, but the Anomaly stopped the bullets and sent them back, killing him and destroying the signal amplifier.
• The Anomaly told Cheng Ming that it had used a fragment of its Meme and the shed shell to create a body based on an unexpected individual, then emerged from its host.
• The mysterious girl appeared before Cheng Ming and told the Anomaly that it should not have taken His form and that it was going to die.

Cheng Ming survived the battle with the aberration after the mysterious girl killed a young man and vanished, leaving him to claim credit for the victory. Chen Jing arrived with the Three Great Families’ forces, secured the corpse, promised Cheng Ming most of the reward, and told him a big shot wanted to meet him.

• The mysterious girl killed the young man, then vanished as the fungal-thread puppets disintegrated and sunlight reached the pit.
• Cheng Ming found a hunter alive, treated him with morphine, and claimed he had killed the aberration himself.
• Cheng Ming fired the rest of his magazine into the split hunter’s corpse to obscure how it had died.
• Chen Jing arrived with mercenaries and researchers, who secured the corpse and began cleaning up and monitoring the aberration’s shell.
• Chen Jing told Cheng Ming he would receive ninety percent of Tianshu Tower’s reward and that a big shot wanted to see him.

Cheng Ming met Sun Hang, who tested him with a mind probe before offering him a dangerous mission to hunt the Sphinx in Egypt. Cheng Ming’s self-deception concealed his secret, and he learned the team would travel there by Low Earth Orbit.

• Cheng Ming boarded Chen Jing’s helicopter and was stunned to find that Sun Hang looked like the young man created by the anomaly in the pit.
• Sun Hang questioned Cheng Ming about his improved strength, and Cheng Ming said it had changed after the Blood Feast.
• Sun Hang probed Cheng Ming’s mind, but a mysterious force made Cheng Ming believe his own lies and kept his secret hidden.
• Cheng Ming asked about the mission and whether he could refuse, and Sun Hang offered to provide his mother with exceptional care if he joined.
• Sun Hang revealed that the mission was to hunt the Sphinx in Egypt, a fallen zone, and said the team would travel by Low Earth Orbit.

Two months later, Sun Hang prepared for Operation Sphinx, which required a risky rocket mission to Egypt, and considered visiting Ouyang Fu to use his ability to overcome the technical challenges. A mysterious pop-up appeared on Sun Hang’s isolated computer, and the Mainframe identified it as a possible Phenomenon-type anomaly.

• Ouyang Fu told a colleague that the uncertain, possibly quicksand-covered landing site made the rocket launch platform difficult to design.
• Sun Hang reviewed the eight Operation Sphinx participants and accepted that Ye Jiu and Jin Hongyi needed a Permafrost Coffin, while Zhong Ling would guide them if they anomalized.
• Sun Hang read Ouyang Fu’s warning that the mission had a sixty percent chance of reaching Egypt and less than a ten percent chance of returning to Xiazhou.
• Sun Hang decided to visit the rocket laboratory and use his wish fulfillment ability to help the mission succeed.
• A strange advertisement appeared on Sun Hang’s isolated computer, and the Mainframe could neither trace nor parse it before assessing it as a possible Phenomenon-type anomaly.

Sun Hang investigated a pop-up that described a Ghost Train at Xiaozhuang Station, which could take riders to the destination associated with their subway card. He obtained a Cairo Metro card and prepared to test whether the train could take him to Egypt.

• Sun Hang ordered his mouse to open the pop-up safely, then read the urban legend about the Ghost Train on Chunming City Subway Line 23.
• Sun Hang had Mainframe research Xiaozhuang Station and watched its surveillance footage, but saw no train appear.
• Sun Hang decided to investigate the Ghost Train himself when it was due to appear six days later.
• A doctor from Shencheng sent Sun Hang his grandfather's unused Cairo Metro card, which Mainframe confirmed still had a functioning chip.
• Sun Hang noted that Chunming City's subway gates could not recognize the card, but a Type A Anomaly might.

Sun Hang and his companions waited at Xiaozhuang Station for the rumored Ghost Train, keeping the station as unchanged as possible to investigate the anomaly. When nothing appeared at 23:23, Sun Hang realized they had not tapped in, and a train began approaching as soon as he used a Cairo Metro card.

• Sun Hang waited at Xiaozhuang Station with Wang Xiyi, Zhong Ling, and Xue Yue for the final train and the possible Ghost Train.
• Sun Hang sent the station staff home and kept the station dark and otherwise unchanged to avoid affecting the Rule-type Anomaly.
• At 23:23, no train appeared, and Wang Xiyi wondered if the urban legend was a prank.
• Sun Hang realized they had not tapped in, ran to the turnstiles, and tapped a Cairo Metro transit card against a sensor.
• The card activated the anomaly: rail sounds and ground tremors began, and dim yellow headlights appeared in the tunnel.

Sun Hang boarded the Ghost Train alone with two anomalous corpses while Wang Xiyi, Zhong Ling, and Xue Yue remained on the platform. Cut off from his companions and the Mainframe, he explored the train and encountered a skeletal passenger.

• Sun Hang ordered Wang Xiyi, Zhong Ling, and Xue Yue to stay behind as the Ghost Train announced its imminent departure.
• Zhong Ling sent two anomalous corpses aboard with Sun Hang, but they began to lose control when the doors shut, so Sun Hang drained the memes from them.
• The Ghost Train departed and severed Sun Hang's connection to the others, his devices, and the Mainframe.
• Sun Hang and the mini Mainframe identified the train itself as the source of its meme reactions, while discussing how anomalous entities were classified.
• Sun Hang walked into the next carriage and found a skeletal passenger in ancient, tattered clothing.

Sun Hang explored the Ghost Train and learned that its passengers were looping projections of people who had once ridden it. The train dropped him in the Egyptian desert near Cairo, where he had to wait until 23:23 to try returning while avoiding the Sand-Sinking Giant Worms.

• Sun Hang discovered that the Ghost Train's passengers were massless projections that ignored him.
• The Mini Mainframe identified the passengers as residual images and said their identities and fates could not be determined.
• The Ghost Train stopped amid desert dunes and forced Sun Hang out before vanishing.
• The Mini Mainframe estimated that Sun Hang was near Cairo, Egypt, based on the time, sunlight, temperature, and magnetic field.
• Sun Hang raised a glass subway turnstile from the sand and found that his Chunming City transit card did not activate it.
• The Mini Mainframe warned Sun Hang that Sand-Sinking Giant Worms would become active after nightfall, while Sun Hang noted he had five and a half hours until 23:23.

Sun Hang explored the quicksand desert around Cairo and learned that Sand-Sinking Giant Worms produced the strange sand as excrement. After witnessing a worm hunt, he discussed with the Mainframe how the creatures were drawn to Anomaly Memes and concluded that they treated other anomalies and infected people as threats.

• Sun Hang used mycelium to keep himself from sinking into the fluid sand, and the Mainframe explained that Sand-Sinking Giant Worms excreted it after consuming whatever they encountered.
• Sun Hang sensed a tremor, and the Mainframe identified a Sand-Sinking Giant Worm moving nearby; Sun Hang concealed himself and watched it leap from the sand and swallow an anomalous bird.
• The Mainframe told Sun Hang that the worms' energy organs resembled fusion reactors and that the creatures hunted partly to seize memes, though there was no proof they absorbed Anomaly Memes.
• The Mainframe recounted how Sand-Sinking Giant Worms changed course toward Nobaria after Anomaly Hunters arrived there and later prioritized Cairo, where Egypt's hunters had gathered.
• Sun Hang suggested the worms were drawn to anomalies and infected people as threats, and the Mainframe said such beings would always arise wherever humans existed.

Sun Hang returned from Egypt’s fallen zone aboard the Ghost Train after spotting what appeared to be a sailboat tracking the Sand-Sinking Giant Worm. He arrived at World Trade Center Station and arranged to meet Wang Xiyi at Tianshu Tower, where he would brief experts on the information he had gathered.

• Sun Hang waited for the Ghost Train and boarded it after it emerged from the shifting dunes.
• As the train departed, Sun Hang spotted a sail with a person-like figure behind the Sand-Sinking Giant Worm and concluded they were tracking it.
• Sun Hang reviewed the footage with the Mainframe, which said the apparent sailor had concealed its aura well enough to avoid the worm.
• After a long journey, the Ghost Train stopped at crowded World Trade Center Station, where Sun Hang realized other passengers could not see him.
• Sun Hang called Wang Xiyi, arranged to meet him at Tianshu Tower, and asked the Mainframe to gather experts on Egypt’s fallen zone and the Sand-Sinking Giant Worm.

At Tianshu Tower, Sun Hang and senior officials discussed the expedition to Egypt and how to protect the infected squad from the Sand-Sinking Giant Worm. The Mainframe confirmed that Pei Zongjun had found a possible lead to change the war’s course, but its chances remained unknown, while Sun Hang privately doubted his own confidence in the mission.

• Professor Cao proposed using the archived Nephthys shielding device to conceal the expedition from the Sand-Sinking Giant Worm, and Wang Xiyi questioned its limits.
• General Liao questioned why Pei Zongjun had formed an expedition to Egypt and warned that the conveniently appearing Ghost Subway might be a trap.
• Professor Cao said he trusted Pei Zongjun, while General Liao realized he was the only meeting attendee without a Tianshu Tower badge.
• Professor Cao asked the Mainframe whether Pei Zongjun had found a lead that could contain the Second Anomaly War and reclaim lost territory, and it said the possibility was real but uncertain.
• Sun Hang privately thought Pei Zongjun had already gone all in and that Sun Hang himself was the one who lacked confidence.

Tianshu Tower’s experts debated whether the sail Sun Hang saw in Egypt belonged to survivors or an anomaly, and Professor Cao argued that people could survive there because the Sand-Sinking Giant Worm had made the zone’s anomaly ecology sparse. The discussion ended when Sun Hang asked whether the Sand-Sinking Giant Worm or the Sphinx was stronger.

• The Tianshu Tower officials debated whether the sail in Sun Hang’s footage was a mirage, a survivor, or a humanoid anomaly.
• Professor Sack argued that survivors could not endure Egypt’s high memetic concentration and that the figure was likely a special infected.
• Professor Cao suggested that the Sand-Sinking Giant Worm had wiped out most anomalies, and Sun Hang said the area’s memetic concentration felt about the same as elsewhere.
• The experts concluded that Egyptian survivors could have adapted and used wind-powered land boats to travel across the sand.
• Sun Hang asked whether the Sand-Sinking Giant Worm or the Sphinx was stronger.

Sun Hang revealed that the Mainframe was built from half of the Sphinx’s brain and asked the Tianshu Tower executives to identify who knew the secret. Ji Yaohua warned that the complete Sphinx brain would demand more computing power than the Mainframe could provide, then explained that its hardware translated the brain’s predictions into human-readable information.

• Sun Hang described the living Sphinx and recognized that several elderly people at the meeting knew the Mainframe’s true nature.
• Ji Yaohua warned Sun Hang not to reveal that the Mainframe was made from an Anomaly’s brain, fearing the consequences.
• Sun Hang asked those who knew the secret to remain, and the Mainframe sent the uninformed executives out of the conference room.
• Ji Yaohua asked whether Pei Zongjun had organized the expedition to retrieve the Sphinx’s remaining half-brain, and Sun Hang confirmed it.
• Ji Yaohua explained that the Mainframe lacked enough computing power to interpret predictions from the complete brain and that its external hardware acted as a transcoder.

The narrator’s low-grade fever had begun occurring during the day and had risen to 37.8, while they had lost half a jin despite resting and not dieting. They returned to the hospital and were scheduled for more tests after being admitted the next day.

• The narrator’s low-grade fever began occurring during the day as well as at night.
• The fever rose from 37.5 to 37.8, and the narrator lost half a jin despite not exercising or dieting for a month.
• The narrator returned to the hospital and was scheduled for another hospitalization that day.
• The narrator expected further tests the next day, likely including a multidisciplinary consultation and bone marrow biopsy.