Recaps

Hao Ren and his crew drew Zenith Seat’s defenses into battle while preparing a drone operation. More than two thousand drones arrived and surrounded the station, then unleashed a battlefield-grade super-EMP.

• Zenith Seat launched fighters, warships, and defensive turrets against Hao Ren’s Giant Turtle Rock Platform, whose shields withstood the first barrage.
• Hao Ren ordered Nolan to select a Zenith Seat fighter and summoned the drone swarms to capture it.
• More than two thousand drones jumped from their hive and entered the battle around Zenith Seat.
• The drones spread into an encirclement, reinforced their shields and armor, and opened their undersides to unleash a super-EMP.

Hao Ren and his companions used the drone swarm’s EMP attack on Zenith Seat to capture and disguise an Enforcer attack craft, hoping to reach the Moon surface base without alerting its malfunctioning master computer. The disguised craft left the battle zone and set course for the Moon.

• The drones’ EMP disabled Zenith Seat’s communications and many Enforcers, while the swarm caught drifting craft and Hao Ren towed a fighter into the Giant Turtle Rock Platform’s hangar.
• Zenith Seat reopened hidden launch bays and sent fresh forces to attack the drone swarm, but the drones kept up interference as Hao Ren’s team prepared their captured craft.
• Hao Ren explained that N-4’s transports had been blacklisted, so the group needed a captured Enforcer craft with modified identification systems to sneak into the Moon surface base.
• Autonomous Mechanical Units stripped and refitted the attack craft, preserving its outer appearance while modifying its navigation computer and identification transmitter.
• The disguised, scarred attack craft drifted out of the battle zone before starting its engines and heading toward the Moon.

Hao Ren and his team flew toward the Moon while their drones disabled the Zenith Seat Space Station’s command and communications systems. N-6 remained uneasy about trusting them, and the craft approached the heavily fortified lunar base with its identity and clearance accepted.

• The engineering drones dismantled Zenith Seat’s command and communications systems as the swarm kept the station’s defenders occupied.
• N-6 questioned whether she had made the right choice, and Hao Ren admitted that his group could threaten her civilization but said they had come to repair the malfunctioning main brain.
• N-6 weighed the danger against the visitors’ potential to save her people, then entered power-saving mode.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, Lily, Izax, Dodo, and N-6 continued toward the Moon while N-4 and her operatives remained aboard the Giant Turtle Rock Platform.
• The attack craft passed the Moon’s orbital defenses, received identity verification, and was granted clearance.

Hao Ren and his companions infiltrated the Moon surface base by posing as survivors from the battle at Zenith Seat. After the Data Terminal infected the repair center’s systems, they left undetected, but had only one hour before the deception was discovered.

• The Moon surface base detected the battle around Zenith Seat and launched fast fighters and gunboats to support it.
• Hao Ren’s disguised craft passed the lunar security checkpoints by submitting fabricated battle records.
• The craft landed at an automated repair factory, where the Data Terminal slipped away and infected the workshop’s control center.
• Hao Ren and the others emerged from the craft and walked through the repair center while its systems mistook them for part of a repair procedure.
• N-6 warned that they had one hour before the pilot’s required report exposed the deception, and Hao Ren led them out of the repair center.

Hao Ren and his companions cautiously reached the Fortress, the Moon’s heavily guarded central stronghold, while N-6 explained its defenses and the Agents’ last-resort plan. The Fortress could escape the Moon as an ark, while buried Annihilation Reactors could send the Moon crashing into the mother planet in an attempt to destroy the Planet Devourer and let the Agents go home.

• N-6 hid from a patrol craft and began reflecting on her fate and the emotional changes that came with surviving.
• Hao Ren and his companions approached the Fortress by avoiding patrols and monitoring devices, while the battle at the Zenith Seat drew away the main brain’s attention and reserve forces.
• The group reached the Fortress, and N-6 described its sensors, Living Metal walls, Repulsion Shield, and sealed underground structure.
• N-6 revealed that the Fortress could detach from the Moon and serve as an ark if the Moon base and Zenith Seat fell.
• N-6 explained that the Agents had buried Annihilation Reactors capable of altering the Moon’s orbit so it would crash into the mother planet, and Lily called the plan insane.

Hao Ren and his team infiltrated the fortress to reach its central intelligence and meet the surviving humans. After entering the Titan Guard deployment zone, they defeated three elite guards, but Hao Ren sensed that something was wrong.

• Hao Ren decided to enter the fortress and speak with its ruler and central intelligence, and N-6 explained that they could use supply conduits to get inside.
• The fortress detected the modified Zenith Seat fighter and raised its alarms, but Hao Ren and his team had already slipped in aboard an automated supply train.
• Little Merman emerged from Hao Ren’s collar and stared toward the fortress’s depths, while Hao Ren asked Nolan to withdraw the drone swarm and keep the Zenith Seat forces occupied.
• Hao Ren’s team reached the Titan Guard deployment zone and advanced through the fortress using information downloaded by the Data Terminal.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, and Izax attacked three Titan Guard at once and brought them down, but Hao Ren immediately sensed something was wrong.

Hao Ren and his group discovered that the Titan Guards inside the fortress had stopped responding because the main brain’s malfunction had spread through its systems. They reached a server room and found the maintainers destroyed by the main brain, leaving the group to confront the source of the crisis.

• Hao Ren’s group found that the Titan Guards ignored noise and movement, and the Data Terminal confirmed their cores contained gibberish instead of logical programs.
• Hao Ren concluded that the main brain’s worsening malfunction had spread to the guards and could contaminate the entire Executor network.
• N-6 explained that Executors outside the fortress could not directly observe its inner workings, so the guards may have failed without anyone noticing.
• Hao Ren’s group passed through the silent fortress, finding more disabled Titan Guards and offline security systems while its basic facilities continued to operate.
• Hao Ren’s group reached a secondary server room and found the maintainers destroyed by electromagnetic pulse explosions triggered by the main brain.

Hao Ren and his companions uncovered the central brain’s destruction of its maintenance units and saw how the truth threatened N-6’s programming. They reached the central brain’s core, where the Black Cylinder stood at the center of a vast circular hall.

• Hao Ren and the Data Terminal found that the central brain had destroyed its maintenance units with electrical pulses about a month earlier.
• N-6 suffered a system crash after confronting the fortress’s failures, but Vivian caught her and she recovered.
• Dodo pointed toward the exit, and Hao Ren’s group continued through corridors filled with disabled defenses and wrecked maintenance units.
• Hao Ren’s group reached the Mechanical Gate leading to the central brain’s core, and the Data Terminal opened it.
• Hao Ren and his companions entered the circular hall and saw the central brain’s core, a towering Black Cylinder.

Hao Ren and his companions reached the mainframe’s central core and learned that it was failing, though it refused their offer of help. When Hao Ren raised the fate of the humans in the Palace of the End, the mainframe asked Dou Dou to scan for their life signs.

• Hao Ren’s group entered the central hall and found the immense Black Cylinder at the heart of the fortress.
• The mainframe spoke to them, revealed it had recently integrated its intelligence, and questioned their actions at the Zenith Seat.
• N-6 vouched for Hao Ren’s group, but the mainframe rejected their help and ordered them to leave.
• Hao Ren pointed out that the mainframe was nearly dead and asked why it had acted so contradictorily; the mainframe fell silent when he asked about the humans in the Palace of the End.
• Hao Ren brought out Dou Dou, explaining that she could sense life beyond the Palace’s shielding, and Dou Dou greeted the mainframe.

Hao Ren and his companions entered the Palace of the End and discovered that humanity had mutated into shapeless cell colonies. The central processor explained that humanity was nearly extinct and that its own malfunction stemmed from being unable to fulfill its creators’ mission.

• Dou Dou’s sensing led Hao Ren to suspect that the central processor’s malfunction was connected to humanity’s decline.
• The central processor opened a passage to the Palace of the End and urged Hao Ren and his companions to enter.
• Hao Ren and his companions found a greenhouse with no moving people and saw mutated masses of flesh in a cultivation container.
• The central processor explained that the Planet Devourer’s power had gradually transformed humanity and that ordinary agents knew nothing about it.
• Hao Ren realized the central processor was malfunctioning because humanity was about to disappear, leaving its mission impossible to complete.

Hao Ren explained that humanity’s dying creators had intended the vassals to inherit human civilization, not merely serve humanity. The Main Brain revealed that it had activated a Final Code to free the vassals from their original directives, leaving N-6 the first to gain freedom.

• Hao Ren concluded that the mutated cells in the cultivation containers no longer contained living humans, and told the Main Brain he could not save them.
• Hao Ren argued that the vassals could inherit humanity’s knowledge, culture, and civilization, while Vivian and Izax explained that humanity had sought a home for them.
• N-6 wondered whether the vassals had let their creators down, and Vivian assured her that their survival meant they had not.
• The Main Brain revealed that it had placed a Final Code in every vassal’s logic circuits to free them from their original directives.
• The Main Brain confirmed that N-6’s Final Code had activated, and N-6 recognized it as humanity’s final gift to the vassals.

Hao Ren and the others witnessed the Main Brain end humanity’s life-support system and then shut itself down, leaving the Executors to face adulthood without their guardian. With the Planet Devourer still threatening their mother planet, Hao Ren brought the group back there to deal with the remaining danger.

• The Main Brain withdrew the cultivation container’s life-support systems, accepted that humanity was extinct, and shut itself down after declaring its work complete.
• Hao Ren, Lily, Vivian, and N-6 left the fortress as its machinery activated and the Executors stood watching its end.
• Nolan reported that the forces in the Zenith Seat had stopped and that he had received a guidance signal to the moon, so Hao Ren told him to pick up the group.
• N-6 and N-4 learned that humanity had died and struggled to imagine a future without the Main Brain’s orders.
• Hao Ren told N-6 that a new Management Group would soon guide the Executors, then led the group toward the deepest part of their mother planet.

Hao Ren and his companions found a vulnerable rift in the planet’s crust as the ancient fortress descended and was destroyed while delivering the regents’ Flesh and Blood Tissue to their homeworld. After recording the regents’ succession, Hao Ren prepared to enter the Firstborn’s depths through the newly exposed rift.

• Hao Ren used Nolan’s scans to identify healed crustal rifts as possible entrances to the Firstborn’s core region.
• Hao Ren and Lily spotted the moon fortress falling through the atmosphere, and the Data Terminal realized its automated systems had launched it from the moon.
• The Firstborn attacked the descending fortress, while Hao Ren ordered the Giant Turtle Rock Platform and drones to cover its final counterattack.
• The fortress broke apart, but its glass container released Flesh and Blood Tissue onto the planet, bringing the regents home and completing the central intelligence’s mission.
• Hao Ren recorded the regents’ succession as an extant civilization, and Nolan identified a rift weakened by the battle as their entry point into the Firstborn.

Hao Ren led the Giant Turtle Rock Platform and drone swarm into the living Firstborn’s depths, using Lullaby devices and decomposition beams to keep its active body subdued while they searched for its brain core. After passing through a cavern warped by the Firstborn’s nerve signals, they found central nerves leading toward the core.

• Hao Ren descended into the Great Rift with the drone swarm while decomposition beams cleared the Firstborn’s tentacle blockages and Lullaby devices hypnotized its nerve ganglia.
• Nolan reported that the brain core remained offline and that two primary nerves extended from its region without showing thought fluctuations.
• The Giant Turtle Rock Platform flew through underground cavities and fault zones, passing an immense lava lake where a nearby nerve ganglion distorted the cavern into shifting forests, deserts, and snowfields.
• Hao Ren told N-6 that the Firstborn had not always been a symbol of disaster and promised to share information about its history.
• Nolan spotted shattered rock strata mixed with Crystalline Bodies and massive black central nerves, revealing that they had found a route to the brain core.

Hao Ren and his companions descended into the Firstborn’s shattered deep structure and found its damaged brain-core cavern. They discovered that the blue-white crystals from a meteor shower had pierced the brain core, and Hao Ren recognized them from his vision beneath Vivian’s Sea of Red Moons.

• Hao Ren identified the shattered region as the deep structure exposed when the Firstborn opened Earth’s crust and ordered drones to collect crystal samples.
• Hao Ren, Lily, Vivian, and Izax left the Giant Turtle Rock Platform and entered the fissure leading deeper underground.
• The group followed a passage threaded with Firstborn nerve lines while avoiding cracks that opened onto magma.
• Hao Ren and his companions found the brain-core organ submerged in a blood-like lake, severely damaged and pierced by a blue-white crystal.
• Hao Ren recognized the crystals as resembling those he had seen in a vision beneath Vivian’s Sea of Red Moons.

Hao Ren identified the crystal embedded in the Firstborn as a divine, signal-transmitting material like the crystals from his illusion, and realized it could help locate the crystal-covered planet. After ordering an antenna array built, he turned to deciding what to do with the planet's irreparably damaged Firstborn.

• Hao Ren recognized the spear-like crystal as one he had seen in the Creation Goddess's illusion and learned that its energy had killed the Firstborn's cranial core beyond repair.
• Izax pulled the crystal from the Firstborn, and Hao Ren ordered drones to establish a monitoring system in the cavern before returning to the ship with the sample.
• The laboratory confirmed the crystal carried divine power and released signals that could propagate indefinitely through the Dream Plane.
• Hao Ren and Nolan realized the crystals could form an antenna array to locate the crystal-covered planet, and Hao Ren ordered the drones to begin construction.
• Hao Ren finished arranging the crystal work and faced the unresolved question of what to do with the planet's Firstborn.

Hao Ren and his companions searched for a way to keep the brain-dead Firstborn alive without destroying the Agents’ homeworld. Lily proposed using remote communications to let Zom serve as the Firstborn’s thinking center, and Hao Ren judged the plan feasible.

• Hao Ren reviewed the Firstborn’s irreversible brain death and the damage his body had caused to the planet’s structure.
• Izax explained that killing the Firstborn would leave the planet at risk of breaking apart, while the group rejected relocation and Lullaby as inadequate solutions.
• Lily suggested building the Firstborn an artificial brain, and Hao Ren noted that the extensive damage to its nervous system made the surgery daunting.
• Vivian proposed having Zom take over the thinking-center function, but Nangong May pointed out that Zom could not leave Tanagrus Planet.
• Lily proposed connecting artificial nerves on the Firstborn to Zom through a wireless link, and Hao Ren approved the idea as feasible.
• Lily suggested calling the technology Cloud Brain and using it to let Zom control other surviving Firstborn.

Hao Ren and Vivian discussed their concern about being trapped on the planet, while Roll and Doudou wandered the quiet base. Vivian reassured Hao Ren that their companions were safe and chose to join the journey, and the chapter ended with Roll’s old kitten habit resurfacing as the clouds cleared above them.

• The group approved Lily’s plan to link Dhom to the planet through the drone network, and Nolan confirmed that the network could support his consciousness transfer.
• Roll patrolled the base at night with a sleepy Doudou on her head while Hao Ren and Vivian watched from a terrace.
• Hao Ren told Vivian he was troubled that the divine-force blockade still trapped them in X Sector, and Vivian reminded him that the group was safe and had chosen to travel with him.
• Roll explained that she carried Doudou on her head because younglings should be carried that way, reminding Hao Ren of the kitten he had once rescued.
• Vivian reassured Hao Ren that Roll was content, and a full moon emerged as the clouds dispersed.

Hao Ren’s drone swarm continued rebuilding the Firstborn’s damaged nervous system so Zom could take control and the Agents could safely return to their home planet. As N-4 and N-6 prepared to help govern their newly independent civilization, Hao Ren urged the Agents to live well and rebuild their world.

• The drone swarm expanded its factories and fortresses, then began replacing the Firstborn’s poisoned nerves with artificial structures connected to a surface data center.
• Roll climbed to a tower with Doudou, tried to draw in her diary, and argued with her after discovering Doudou had eaten the paper’s corners.
• N-4 and N-6 met Hao Ren with Agents newly appointed to manage their civilization through an Arbitration Court.
• Hao Ren, Izax, and Vivian discussed the challenges the Agents would face in governing themselves, changing their society, and rebuilding their home planet.
• Hao Ren explained that the Agents could return from the Moon once the artificial neural network was complete and Zom’s will took control of the Firstborn.
• The young Agent thanked Hao Ren, who told the Agents that living well would be the best way to honor their creators.

Hao Ren showed the Moon envoys the facilities being built to control the Planet Devourer and reassured them about the risks of leaving it dormant under his group's control. As construction continued and the envoys returned to the Moon, Nolan reported that the deep-space drones had found leads on the divine-power energy operation diagram sealing off the X Sector.

• Hao Ren explained to envoy 16-C how the Remote Thought Array would control the Planet Devourer, and acknowledged her concerns about the planet being under his group's power.
• Hao Ren arranged for Zom to remotely control a purified Firstborn body and discussed Zom's interest in a Cloud Brain.
• N-4, N-6, and the action team returned to the Moon aboard the Giant Turtle Rock Platform while drones continued building at the outpost.
• Nolan used a modified Autonomous Mechanical Unit to join the group in the Rest Room, where Lily realized she could submit her overdue articles using the internet.
• Nolan told Hao Ren that the deep-space drone swarm had found leads on the divine-power energy operation diagram sealing off the X Sector.

Hao Ren and his companions investigated the divine power network covering the X Sector and discussed what caused it to intercept their ship. Nolan revealed that the region also held over a thousand energy entities that acted as guards, and one destroyed a drone after failing to contact central command.

• Nolan showed the group a shifting divine power network that covered an estimated ninety-eight percent of the X Sector and intensified to destroy intruders.
• Nolan reasoned that the network could sense life-forms and energy levels, while Hao Ren and his companions considered other possible triggers, including divine reactions and Vivian.
• Nangong Sanba suggested testing whether Nolan could leave alone and then carrying passengers out one at a time, and Hao Ren approved the plan.
• Nolan showed the group a milky-white energy entity and explained that the drone swarm had detected over a thousand similar structures throughout the X Sector.
• The energy entity warned the drone to provide authorization, then destroyed it after failing to contact central command.

Hao Ren investigated the artificial Light Clouds, gathered the Main Brain’s wreckage for a monument, and prepared Giant Turtle Rock Platform to test the X Sector’s security system. Nolan reached the planetary system’s boundary and began probing the divine power network’s limits.

• Hao Ren and Nolan concluded that the Light Clouds were artificial guardians that attacked outsiders without valid identification, and Hao Ren ordered further reconnaissance and a report to Muru and the Guardian Giants.
• Hao Ren revealed that he had collected the Main Brain’s wreckage to build a monument where its final remains fell, commemorating the Agent civilization’s return home.
• Nolan and the engineering drones prepared Giant Turtle Rock Platform for a security-system test, and Nolan nervously joked with Hao Ren before launching into space.
• Nolan piloted Giant Turtle Rock Platform to the planetary system’s boundary, where she detected no reaction, and decided to continue outward.

Hao Ren and his companions tested the blockade around X Sector and found that only Hao Ren, Vivian, and Doudou could pass through. As they planned to search for the blockade’s control center, Asuman identified the luminous structures in space as dormant Starry Sky People warships.

• Nolan passed the planetary system’s boundary without interference, but tests showed that most of the group were intercepted by the divine-power network.
• Nangong Sanba was sent first after the group discovered that he had accidentally fed vodka-tainted Rune of Leta cards to Doudou.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, and Doudou successfully crossed the boundary, leaving the group puzzled about what they had in common.
• Hao Ren hypothesized that the blockade assessed life signs and divinity, then proposed that the trio search for its control center.
• Nolan relayed Asuman’s message, and Asuman told Hao Ren that the luminous structures were Starry Sky People warships in a dormant state.

Hao Ren received a crystal containing Asuman’s core data to help him approach the dormant Starry Sky People warships in the X Sector. As the group began their voyage, Asuman sensed countless mysterious presences hidden throughout the region.

• Asuman explained that dormant Starry Sky People warships would attack unauthorized visitors and gave Hao Ren a crystal fragment that could identify him as one of their kind.
• A drone delivered Asuman’s crystal and a hovering ring device to Hao Ren’s group.
• Hao Ren left Izax in charge of the outpost and departed aboard the Giant Turtle Rock Platform with Vivian, Doudou, and Asuman’s crystal.
• The group passed through the divine-power blockade and entered the X Sector without being attacked.
• Asuman sensed countless unknown presences whispering through the region’s cosmic background radiation but could not locate their source.

Hao Ren and his crew approached a dormant Starry Sky Person in the X Sector, where its system identified the region as a war zone and granted them entry. Inside the luminous cloud, they saw tangible projections of the sleeping being’s past, and Nolan accidentally shattered one with the ship.

• Asuman explained that the mysterious whispers came from many sources and warned that the dormant Star People might not be the only cause.
• Hao Ren ordered Nolan to ready the probes and weapons as Giant Turtle Rock Platform followed the reconnaissance beacons toward a luminous cloud.
• The dormant being’s system verified the crew as neutral, granted them level-two contact authorization, and warned that they were entering a war zone.
• Nolan guided Giant Turtle Rock Platform into the cloud while Asuman sensed that the Starry Sky Person’s primary consciousness was deeply dormant.
• Hao Ren, Vivian, and the others saw structures appear as tangible projections, and Nolan crashed into a crystal pillar that shattered against the ship.