Recaps

Hao Ren and Nolan fought in the mercenary camp, each discovering that the other possessed abilities that did not fit their apparent identity. After their spar ended in a draw and Nolan’s injured ankle was treated, she asked Hao Ren what had happened during the fight.

• Hao Ren turned off his Rigid Shield and challenged Nolan, but her precise combat skills surprised him.
• Hao Ren and Nolan exchanged increasingly serious attacks as they each questioned whether the other was a natural human.
• Hao Ren instinctively activated his shield when Nolan landed a roundhouse kick, and the impact injured her ankle.
• Nolan declared the match a draw, dismissed the mercenaries, and asked Hao Ren to help her reach a pile of discarded steel.
• The doctor treated Nolan’s fractured ankle with medical nanomachines, and Nolan asked Hao Ren what had happened.

Hao Ren questioned Nolan about her extraordinary fighting skills and gave her Shiton’s diary, which prompted her to hint at a connection to the Sober World. After Nolan left, Hao Ren returned to the barracks and discovered the corpse girl’s eyes had blinked.

• Nolan identified the faint shield Hao Ren had used and rejected his attempt to explain it as Qigong, so he claimed it was experimental protective technology.
• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal assessed Nolan’s combat ability and concluded that her technique and experience were astonishing for someone so young, despite no apparent supernatural powers.
• Hao Ren handed Nolan Shiton’s diary, and she suggested Shiton might have come too close to the Sober World before warning Hao Ren not to discuss the diary.
• Nolan asked Hao Ren what he had done in a previous life, then left after he questioned her about Shiton’s nightmare and the possibility of a true world.
• Hao Ren returned to the barracks with the Data Terminal and saw the corpse girl’s eyes gently blink as he took her out of his portable space.

Hao Ren watched the Data Terminal gradually regain control of the corpse princess’s eyes and other senses, then tried to contact his reconnaissance drone swarm. The swarm connected but failed to find the beacon he had released.

• The Data Terminal reported blurry vision and touch after its senses began recovering, and Hao Ren helped it open its eyelids with tape.
• The Data Terminal learned to blink and described Hao Ren’s appearance through human eyes as a low-quality image.
• The Data Terminal said its hearing and some touch had returned, but confusing signals overwhelmed it as it struggled to adapt to the corpse princess’s body.
• Hao Ren told the Data Terminal to keep pretending to be dead around the mercenaries until it could move again.
• Hao Ren connected to the reconnaissance drone swarm and ordered it to search for the beacon, but the swarm reported that it had found none.

Hao Ren learned that the beacon had failed, so he planned to launch a probe to investigate the planet’s location. At the mercenary base, he heard Gray Fox was considering an escort mission to the dangerous Northern Ring Tower Ruins, where the Data Terminal discovered three Overlord computers remained buried.

• Hao Ren confirmed the beacon could no longer provide navigation data and decided to launch a probe outside the city.
• Carl returned from Zero City with an escort job from the White River Merchant Guild, and Nolan initially refused to send Gray Fox to the Northern Land Ring Tower Ruins.
• Ulanov volunteered for the mission, while Nolan reconsidered after Carl told her the guild’s unusually high payment.
• The Data Terminal told Hao Ren it had learned to move with one leg and searched for information about the Northern Ring Tower.
• The Data Terminal reported that the tower had been the control center during the nanomachine swarm disaster and still contained three Overlord computers.

Hao Ren joined Nolan and Ulanov’s dangerous expedition to the Northern Ring Tower, where Ulanov hoped to find his wife’s remains. Back in his room, Hao Ren discovered that the Corpse Princess Terminal had awakened in a blond girl’s body, though she could barely control it.

• Nolan explained the Northern Ruins’ dangers and offered her mercenaries the choice to join the expedition; Ulanov and Hao Ren volunteered.
• Nolan agreed to take Hao Ren, then set a deadline to finalize the group before their departure the following afternoon.
• Ulanov revealed that his wife had operated the Overlord computer and was trapped inside the sealed Northern Ring Tower during the nanite disaster; he wanted to find her belongings or remains.
• Hao Ren returned to his room and found the Corpse Princess Terminal struggling to control a bloodied blond girl’s body.
• The Corpse Princess Terminal mistook Hao Ren’s offer to examine her body as an advance, and he clarified that he wanted to learn how she had started working.

Hao Ren examined the Data Terminal, now controlling a dead blond girl's body, and helped her practice moving while they planned to hide her from the mercenaries. At dinner, Hao Ren told Ulanov he planned to bury her the next day, leaving Ulanov relieved and still misunderstanding their situation.

• Hao Ren confirmed that the blond girl's body had no heartbeat or body temperature, while the Data Terminal experimented with controlling it.
• The Data Terminal learned to stand and walk, asked how the body obtained energy, and practiced human gestures using Hao Ren as her template.
• Hao Ren planned to take the Data Terminal outside under the pretense of burying her, then hide her in his portable space.
• The Data Terminal returned to her corpse state while Hao Ren went to dinner with Ulanov and found the synthesized food nearly flavorless.
• Hao Ren told Ulanov he planned to bury the girl, and Ulanov said it would be best for both of them.

Hao Ren traveled with Nolan’s Gray Fox convoy toward the Northern Ruins, where White River Merchant Guild researchers sought prewar technology. The convoy reached the Gray River, and the mercenaries prepared to cross into the dangerous area.

• Nolan told Hao Ren that the White River Merchant Guild was probably seeking the Dominator computer and nanomachine research hidden in the Northern Ring Tower.
• Nolan ordered the convoy to switch to autopilot after it passed Old Highway 17.
• Ulanov warned Hao Ren about the agonizing deaths caused by nanomachine swarms and cautioned against approaching dormant swarms.
• The lead vehicle announced that the convoy had reached the Gray River, and Nolan told everyone to bring their electromagnetic sleep devices.
• Hao Ren got out of the vehicle and saw the immense, viscous gray-white river bordered by metallic-looking banks.

Hao Ren learned that the Gray Rivers were remnants of the nanomachine swarm and that his group would cross one after it solidified at dusk. Nolan and Ulanov explained that the swarm had halted its spread on its own, leaving its cause unknown.

• Hao Ren searched the onboard computer and learned that the Northern Ruins were divided by hundreds of Gray Rivers, with the Northern Ring Tower as the group’s destination.
• Nolan explained that the Gray River would harden after dusk, and that electromagnetic hibernation devices had to remain active to keep the swarm dormant.
• Hao Ren asked Nolan how humanity had stopped the swarm, and she said it had halted its spread by itself and formed boundaries around its territory.
• Ulanov described theories that the Overlord computer had controlled the swarm or still operated underground, while the Rangers believed the swarm had evolved intelligence.

Hao Ren’s group crossed Gray River after the nanomachine swarm solidified, while Ulanov and Nolan explained the dangers of the Northern Ruins. As the convoy traveled, Hao Ren heard a warning in his mind that the area would not hold out much longer, but the Data Terminal denied speaking.

• Ulanov told Hao Ren that humanity's survival depended on the nanomachine swarms, which neither responded to humans nor could be controlled.
• Nolan noted that Gray River had solidified, and the mercenaries sent armored cars across its metal-like surface.
• Ulanov explained that the electromagnetic sleeper disguised its users from the swarms and warned Hao Ren not to let its systems fail.
• A White River Merchant Guild researcher explained that airborne nanomachines attacked aircraft after being drawn into their engines, and Nolan ordered the researchers to cooperate.
• Hao Ren dozed in the vehicle and mentally speculated that a Firstborn's tentacle might have caused the disaster, then heard a voice warn him to leave before the place failed.
• Hao Ren asked the Data Terminal about the warning, but it said it had been practicing walking and suggested he had been sleep-talking.

Hao Ren and the mercenaries crossed the nanite-covered Northern Ruins and reached the isolated Northern Ring Tower. Ulanov approached the tower he had not seen in sixty-five years.

• Hao Ren recalled a brief dreamlike voice warning that the world was close to collapse, but the Data Terminal had no record of it.
• The convoy crossed the Gray River and traveled through the melted remains of Old Star Continent City as Ulanov described the devastation.
• Nolan ordered the vehicles to turn off their lights and use ultrasound while passing the Locklington Twin Towers, where bright light could awaken dormant nanomachines.
• The convoy passed through a breach in the barrier into the Northern Ruins' surviving natural terrain and saw the Northern Ring Tower.
• After the road collapsed near the tower, Nolan ordered everyone to continue on foot, and Ulanov strode toward the building.

Hao Ren and Nolan’s group entered the Northern Ring Tower to reach the main control room, where they found signs of the tower’s grim past and a powered locking mechanism. The chapter ended when gunfire erupted in the direction Ulanov and Karl had gone, and Hao Ren ran to investigate after briefly seeing the corridor walls ripple.

• Nolan warned the mercenaries about the tower’s security robots and led the group inside through a shattered gate.
• Ulanov guided the group toward the main control room and examined a worker’s skeleton on the spiral staircase.
• The group reached the control room door, where a researcher discovered that its locking mechanism still had power.
• Ulanov went down a dark corridor, and Nolan sent Karl after him.
• Gunfire sounded from Ulanov and Karl’s direction, so Hao Ren sprinted toward it and saw the corridor walls ripple briefly.

Hao Ren found Ulanov dying from gunshot wounds in a hidden hall, but Ulanov vanished after speaking cryptically about a red vision and an awakening. The corridor changed into an unfamiliar place, where gray-blue-uniformed soldiers attacked Hao Ren and he subdued them without killing them.

• Hao Ren ran through a seemingly endless corridor as gunfire sounded ahead and the mercenaries following him disappeared.
• Hao Ren found Ulanov gravely wounded, and Ulanov said unfamiliar regular troops had attacked him.
• Ulanov's wounds changed from leaking pink fluid to bleeding red blood, and he spoke of a burning world before vanishing.
• Hao Ren left the hall and found the corridor had transformed into an unfamiliar alloy passage.
• Gray-blue-uniformed soldiers opened fire on Hao Ren, who withstood their bullets and beat them down without killing them.

Hao Ren and the Data Terminal discovered that the world had been reset, giving familiar people new identities and leaving them unable to remember him. They continued searching the transformed facility for Nolan, and the chapter ended when Hao Ren spotted a flash of long gray hair.

• Hao Ren questioned a Marine and learned that the facility had become a launch site in the Cardick Mountain Range.
• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal concluded that the world and its people had been reset, though the Terminal's body remained unchanged.
• Hao Ren encountered Karl, who did not recognize him and treated him as an intruder, so Hao Ren knocked him unconscious and hid him in a storeroom.
• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal explored the facility, where Marines, base guards, and armed fighters were clashing.
• Hao Ren spotted a figure with long gray hair.

Hao Ren caught up with Nolan and confirmed that they both remembered the previous cycle, while Nolan explained that the world was changing in repeating cycles. They joined forces and prepared to find a safe place, with Hao Ren giving Nolan a Sentinel Staff for protection.

• Hao Ren called after Nolan, who turned and aimed a rocket launcher at him before lowering it when he proved he remembered her.
• Nolan confirmed that Hao Ren had retained memories from the previous cycle, and Hao Ren asked her to explain the world’s changes.
• The Corpse Princess Terminal approached them, surprising Nolan, and Hao Ren struggled to explain her condition and sentience.
• Nolan urged Hao Ren to follow her somewhere safe and said they needed to survive until the next cycle.
• Hao Ren gave Nolan a Sentinel Staff, showed her how to use it, and watched as she activated its force-field shield.

Hao Ren, Nolan, and the Data Terminal escaped a chaotic mountain facility and hid in a cave as Nolan explained that the world kept resetting and rewriting people’s memories. The chapter left them uncertain about who or what was controlling the world.

• Hao Ren and Nolan avoided fighting soldiers while escaping the facility, and Nolan used the Erem Elf staff to shield herself.
• Hao Ren, Nolan, and the Data Terminal left through a concealed mountainside opening and found a modified off-road vehicle.
• Nolan drove them down the mountainside and explained that memories from her previous cycle mixed with a fabricated history for her current life.
• Hao Ren and Nolan hid the vehicle in a cave, where Nolan said she had experienced countless absurd stages in a world that constantly reset and changed.

Hao Ren questioned Nolan about the world's resets and suspected its population could reveal whether its inhabitants were real. Nolan said the latest cycles repeatedly ended in global catastrophe, suggesting that the nanomachine disaster and similar events were part of a recurring pattern.

• Nolan described how the world repeatedly reset, changing people's identities, societies, geography, and technology, while her own deaths sometimes led to new identities instead of a reset.
• Hao Ren wondered whether the world was an automatically generated simulation and asked whether its population changed between resets.
• Hao Ren reasoned that a stable population would suggest the inhabitants were real, and Nolan said population reports seemed roughly consistent across cycles.
• Hao Ren lamented that his investigation of the nanomachine disaster might have been meaningless, but Nolan said recent resets had all progressed toward global war and apocalypse through different catastrophic failures.

Nolan told Hao Ren that the world’s earliest reincarnations were peaceful, but later cycles increasingly ended in catastrophe. As they considered the world’s controller and the dangers of resisting it, Nolan outlined the current cycle’s political crisis and warned that Gray Fox’s companions might become enemies.

• Nolan recounted that wars and disasters emerged over time, and recent reincarnations had consistently approached a Great Cataclysm.
• Nolan warned Hao Ren that attempts to contact the awakened world had caused her severe brain damage and driven Shiton insane, but Hao Ren remained eager to investigate the world’s defenses.
• Hao Ren proposed that the recurring apocalypse might result from a malfunction rather than a controller’s preference for disaster, and connected the nanomachine swarm to a mysterious voice he had heard in the Northern Ruins.
• Nolan described a world dominated by the Chosen Empire, where an imperial power struggle and a coalition of other nations threatened to spark a major war.
• Nolan explained that she was a paid freedom fighter who had abandoned her employer, then warned Hao Ren that Gray Fox’s companions might be hostile and that they should kill them if necessary.

Hao Ren and the Corpse Princess Terminal learned more about Nolan’s repeated reincarnations and spent the night with her in a cave. After going outside, Hao Ren prepared to investigate how much of the world had been simulated.

• Nolan explained that repeated reincarnations had made her detach from the world, but she regarded Hao Ren and the Corpse Princess Terminal as true companions.
• Nolan confirmed the launch base fighting had ended and said the cave was safe from Imperial Marines as long as they avoided a campfire.
• Nolan gave Hao Ren and the Corpse Princess Terminal food and water, and the Terminal learned its body could not properly eat or drink.
• When Nolan asked the Terminal’s name, it introduced itself as Patian and said she could call it Patti.
• Hao Ren left the cave with the Corpse Princess Terminal, saying he planned to inspect the surroundings and investigate the simulated world’s size.

Hao Ren discovered that the world could only simulate objects it understood, leaving his advanced ship’s systems distorted or unreadable. He launched the Giant Turtle Rock Platform anyway to find the boundary of the world.

• Hao Ren released the Giant Turtle Rock Platform and prepared to fly it toward the stars.
• Hao Ren and the Corpse Princess terminal found that the ship’s psionic displays and monitoring feeds had malfunctioned.
• Hao Ren opened the laboratory and saw its interior warped into an impossible, distorted space.
• Hao Ren tested his service pistol and concluded that the world could reproduce an object’s appearance but not its advanced technology.
• Hao Ren activated the silent ascent procedure, and the ship rose toward the world’s edge.

Hao Ren and the Data Terminal escaped Zom aboard a simulated Giant Turtle Rock Platform to test whether their world had a boundary. As they ventured into space, Hao Ren concluded that the world followed realistic natural laws, and the terminal spotted a possible end ahead.

• Hao Ren piloted the simulated Giant Turtle Rock Platform away from Nolan’s hiding place and deduced that its clumsy operation came from the world’s imperfect simulation.
• Hao Ren explained that his apparent use of a personal dimension and the terminal’s transformation into a dead girl were likely simulated by the program.
• The Data Terminal declared that she considered herself an especially awesome precision tool, and Hao Ren dismissed his concern about her identity.
• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal launched into space and reasoned that the simulated world had to obey realistic natural laws.
• The Data Terminal pointed out a possible boundary in the image from the ship’s external monitor.

Hao Ren and the Corpse Princess Terminal reached the edge of Zom’s virtual universe and discovered its stars were crude, unrendered projections. There, the Terminal regained a weak connection to the outside and transmitted part of the navigation data just as the world began to collapse, leaving them scrambling to escape.

• Hao Ren and the Corpse Princess Terminal examined the artificial stars at the boundary and discussed how the world’s resets might protect a shelter rather than simply imprison humanity.
• Hao Ren agreed to explore farther, and Giant Turtle Rock Platform reached the unrendered edge of the virtual universe without triggering an immediate collapse.
• The Corpse Princess Terminal detected a faint direct-link signal from the reconnaissance drone swarm and began transmitting navigation data.
• As the stars flickered out and darkness spread, the Terminal got part of the data through, and Hao Ren ordered them to leave.

Hao Ren escaped the collapsing edge of the holographic universe and returned to a peaceful, seemingly reset Zom, where he set out to find Nolan. He sent the terminal back to the real world to bring reinforcements and his physical body into the Dream Plane while he continued investigating.

• Hao Ren and the terminal fled the darkening boundary of the holographic universe, and the starfield began to reconstruct as they neared Zom.
• Hao Ren found that Zom had changed into a lush, peaceful world and used the Sentinel Staff's identification signal to locate Nolan.
• Hao Ren landed near a quiet town at dawn and asked the terminal to bring Vivian and the others, the Giant Turtle Rock Platform, and his hibernation pod through the Tanagrus Rift.
• The terminal returned to the real world to carry out Hao Ren's request, while Hao Ren followed Nolan's signal toward the town.

Hao Ren met Nolan in a suddenly peaceful version of the virtual world, where she called it the last beautiful dream. In the real universe, the Data Terminal found the real Zom and warned that it might not last forty-eight hours.

• Hao Ren found Nolan at a school and learned that they had both awakened in the world's abrupt peaceful reset.
• Nolan skipped class and admitted she believed this was probably the last beautiful dream.
• The Data Terminal emerged from Hao Ren's hibernation pod and assembled the others to support him.
• The Terminal took control of the Giant Turtle Rock Platform and followed exploration drones to the real Zom.
• After seeing the planet, the Terminal warned that it might not last forty-eight hours and urged the others to notify Hao Ren.

Nolan told Hao Ren that she could intermittently sense the program controlling their world and had heard that the current cycle might be the last. When Hao Ren learned the real planet Zorm was falling into the sun and had only about forty-eight hours before it collapsed, he left Nolan a communicator and returned to the real world.

• Nolan explained that she retained memories across cycles and sometimes sensed abstract visions or the consciousness of the world's program.
• She revealed that a fragment of the fabricator's thoughts had led her to believe the cycle was ending, though she did not know what would follow.
• The Data Terminal and Lily contacted Hao Ren and showed him that Zorm was burning as it fell toward the sun, with the virtual world's server possibly deep in the crust.
• Hao Ren told Nolan he came from the real world, but she doubted his claim.
• Hao Ren gave Nolan a communicator and asked her to report any signs from the world's backend before vanishing to wake up in the real world.

Hao Ren and his team discovered that real Zom was a dying planet, while humanity lived inside a failing virtual shelter. They landed on the planet’s nightside to search for the shelter, and the team began exploring its scorched surface.

• Hao Ren watched Zom fall toward its sun and concluded that Nolan’s repeating virtual world was likely a shelter powered by a server underground.
• Hao Ren ordered the Giant Turtle Rock Platform to land near the day-night boundary, where the team could work away from direct sunlight.
• Hao Ren chose Lily, Vivian, Izax, and Elizabeth to investigate on foot, while the others remained aboard the ship.
• Roll asked to join the expedition, but Hao Ren warned her about the heat, and she decided to stay behind.
• Hao Ren led the team across the still-soft, magma-scorched ground toward a fissure that the Data Terminal had detected nearby.