Chapter Summaries

Lu Xin returned to the convoy in Central City, where the drivers believed his connections had resolved their troubles and celebrated him with a feast. Gao Ting thanked him for reminding her that good people still existed, and he left for Qinggang without collecting the money they owed him.

• Lu Xin brought the convoy's borrowed motorcycles back to Dacheng Hotel, and Sun Gouzi and the veteran drivers mistook his visit to a relative for proof of powerful connections.
• Old Zhou, Little Zhou, and Gao Ting returned from the Guard Department and joined the convoy in celebrating Lu Xin for helping resolve their troubles.
• During the drinking feast, Lu Xin remembered that the borrowed guns he had used in Buffalo Town were likely lost beneath the central building, and he abandoned plans to collect his debt.
• Gao Ting rode Lu Xin away from the hotel and thanked him for showing her that good people still existed on the wilderness.
• After Lu Xin left, Little Zhou remembered that the convoy still owed him money for half a truckload of goods, and Old Zhou said they would send it to him in Qinggang.

On the helicopter ride back to Qinggang, Lu Xin explored the Research Institute’s communicator and found a silent high-level group with a credit exchange and red-envelope features. When a member offered information about the Technological Church for two million, Chen Jing decided to buy it, leaving Lu Xin poised to make contact with the group.

• Chen Jing arranged the return journey by helicopter, and Lu Xin, Gecko, and Chen Jing occupied themselves during the flight.
• Lu Xin examined the communicator’s database and high-level ability-user chat room, then discovered that his 100 credit points could be exchanged for cash.
• Lu Xin sent messages and twenty one-yuan red envelopes to the group, but no one responded until a member offered information about the Technological Church in Water Bay City.
• The member set the price at two million, prompting Lu Xin to lose interest and complain to Chen Jing.
• Chen Jing judged the information might be valuable and told Lu Xin to buy it.

Lu Xin bought information about the Technological Church through the Research Institute’s club, then returned to Qinggang while Chen Jing reported the trip’s findings to the Special Purity Department. The meeting ended with Chen Jing proposing that they bring Lu Xin into the Heavenly Kingdom Plan after learning he was a stable Third Stage ability user.

• Chen Jing explained why Qinggang needed information from the Technological Church and let Lu Xin use her account to pay for it.
• Lu Xin joined the club chat, bought information from Dracula about the disappearance of Water Bay City, and resold copies to other members.
• Lu Xin returned to Qinggang by helicopter and took the subway home after stopping at the Guard Department.
• Chen Jing told the Special Purity Department that the Research Institute had revealed the Abyss secret and that Qinggang might have to face the Queen of Happy Town directly.
• Chen Jing reported that the Research Institute had identified Lu Xin and confirmed he was a stable Third Stage ability user, then asked whether they should include him in the Heavenly Kingdom Plan.

At the third family meeting, Lu Xin discussed the abyssal rift and whether he should take the initiative to confront the threat tied to the pyramid. After his family backed him, he agreed to do the necessary work and take the next step, though what that step entailed remained unclear.

• Lu Xin told his family that he intended to help address the abyssal rift because it was part of his job.
• Father challenged Lu Xin about his past and asked whether he still intended to live as before, while Mom asked if he had already decided.
• Lu Xin admitted he was unsure whether he could win and worried that seeking someone out would make him seem like a bully.
• Mom told Lu Xin that the pyramid existed and that he was already on it, and said his family would support him in dealing with his work.
• Lu Xin agreed to take the step his family believed he should take, and Mom, Father, and Sister supported his decision.

Lu Xin was summoned from Qinggang to Main City for an emergency meeting about preparing to clear the S-class restricted zone Happy Town. He arrived at the Special Pollution Cleanup Department and joined a room full of ability users and technical personnel as Chen Jing entered to begin the meeting.

• Lu Xin planned to visit the orphanage and consider returning to work, but Chen Jing called and ordered him to attend an emergency meeting about Happy Town.
• Lu Xin traveled to the Guard Department, where a helicopter picked him up and flew him to Main City.
• Lu Xin noticed a vast area of tents behind steel fences near Main City's southern coast as he approached by helicopter.
• Lu Xin arrived at the Special Pollution Cleanup Department and joined the meeting, where he recognized the Drunkard, Gecko, and the watchdog among the attendees.
• Chen Jing entered the conference room carrying documents, and everyone straightened up as the meeting was about to begin.

Chen Jing explained Qinggang’s choices for dealing with Happy Town’s Queen and appointed Lu Xin to lead an investigation into the S-rank restricted zone. Lu Xin accepted the responsibility despite doubting his ability to command the people and forces assigned to him.

• Chen Jing distributed confidential documents about Abyss ability users and Vacuum Hometown at a meeting for Qinggang’s ability users.
• Chen Jing told Lu Xin the meeting was forming a task force to handle Happy Town, and Lu Xin handed her a dangerous parasitic cube he had found near Buffalo City.
• Chen Jing said the cube could be kept, studied, or turned in for compensation, and Lu Xin decided to consider his options.
• Chen Jing outlined three possible approaches to the Queen: eliminate it, suppress it, or attempt to communicate with it.
• Chen Jing explained that Qinggang needed to assess its strength, learn more about Happy Town, and prepare with possible Research Institute assistance.
• Chen Jing appointed Lu Xin to lead the investigation, giving him access to ten investigation teams, ability users, and possible support from two thousand soldiers; Lu Xin said he did not know how to manage the mission, and Chen Jing offered to help.

Lu Xin considered candidates for the Happy Town investigation team while Chen Jing organized the broader response to the S-class restricted area. After Chen Jing sent him to visit Kid, he arrived at her residence and saw her preparing to jump from a third-floor window.

• Chen Jing explained that an investigation team would collect perimeter data at Happy Town, while Lu Xin would assess the Pollution Source and choose four ability users to assist him.
• Lu Xin marked Gecko and Drunkard as candidates, then asked whether Kid could join the mission; Chen Jing said Kid could not safely leave the city.
• Chen Jing recommended Troublemaker Kid and the Medium, whose abilities were confidential, and told Lu Xin he could observe them before deciding.
• Chen Jing sent Lu Xin to visit Kid, who had been in low spirits since he left; Lu Xin remembered that he had previously suspended a mission to accompany her.
• Lu Xin rode to Kid's residence, where he saw her appear at a third-floor window and begin waving as if preparing to jump down.

Lu Xin visited Doll at her quiet residence and found that his family had appeared alongside him. After Doll smiled at them, Lu Xin stayed to watch television with her before returning to his work.

• Lu Xin entered Doll’s residence and learned from a service team member that Doll was lonely, not unwell.
• Little Sister, Mom, and Father appeared as Lu Xin entered Doll’s room, where Doll had dressed as if she expected to go out with him.
• Doll removed her mask and smiled, prompting Mom to approve of her as a useful fighter and Little Sister to ask Lu Xin to take her home.
• Lu Xin told Doll he could not take her out and examined her Lego mosaic, saying it would look more like an old captain with a pipe.
• Lu Xin sat beside Doll, turned on an old television series, and told her to watch the monkeys instead of staring at him.

Lu Xin studied the Staircase Theory before falling asleep beside Kid, while Qinggang prepared its operation against Happy Town and its leaders discussed the Heavenly Kingdom Plan. After waking at night, Lu Xin was summoned to speak with Chen Jing.

• Lu Xin searched the Research Institute database for information on the Staircase Theory, then fell asleep on the sofa while Kid settled beside him.
• The service squad spotted Lu Xin and Kid sleeping together and debated whether to alert their superiors, but their leader told them to let the pair rest.
• Chen Jing dismissed most attendees after a briefing on the Abyss Team and asked Drunkard, Gecko, Troublemaker Kid, and the Psychic to stay behind.
• Qinggang sent trucks toward Happy Town to establish an information-gathering point, while Mr. Su and Professor Bai discussed the operation, the Heavenly Kingdom Plan, and their concerns about the north.
• Lu Xin woke after dark with Kid resting on his leg, then received a message that Chen Jing was waiting to speak with him by phone.

Lu Xin learned that the Happy Town observation station’s personnel had died but continued working and communicating normally, and he was sent to investigate. At the Special Purity Department, the team struggled with how to uncover the cause and tell the dead staff what had happened to them.

• Chen Jing told Lu Xin that the Happy Town observation station’s staff were dead, though they had continued their duties and routine calls without realizing it.
• Lu Xin agreed to investigate and left Kid behind despite her preparing to go with him.
• At the Special Purity Department, Lu Xin listened to a routine call in which the dead staff spoke normally with headquarters.
• A young man in a black suit identified the team’s two problems: finding out why the staff had become this way and deciding how to tell them they were dead.

Lu Xin departed for Happy Town to investigate a dangerous pollution event involving dead colleagues. After stopping to refuel in a silent town showing signs of psychic radiation, he continued on and suspected the incident was more serious than a B-class case.

• Chen Jing organized an investigation into the contaminated staff and warned Lu Xin that the unknown pollution could threaten the operation in Happy Town.
• Lu Xin agreed to leave immediately and chose to travel without assistants, while Chen Jing arranged a helicopter and linked him to the department’s information channel.
• Lu Xin and two investigation teams flew toward Happy Town, studying the case and the Seven Steps Theory along the way.
• The helicopter landed in Songshan Tower to refuel, but the town was silent despite its lights, and the pilot received no response over the radio.
• Lu Xin detected psychic radiation deeper in town and chose to refuel without investigating, then leave and notify the department after reaching the sky.
• As the helicopters departed, Lu Xin saw the town’s lights form a smile and concluded that the incident seemed more serious than a simple B-class case.

Lu Xin and the Special Investigation Team flew to the Happy Town observation post, where they found the advance team members were dead but unaware of their condition. Lu Xin sent the helicopter onward and stayed behind to investigate with them.

• The helicopter passed the empty Songshan Town, and Lu Xin's team confirmed that the Information Gathering Unit was waiting near Happy Town.
• The advance team reported that the observation-post staff seemed normal, and the researcher reassured them that Lu Xin could handle the situation.
• Lu Xin directed the helicopter to land at the observation post while the other helicopters met the main force elsewhere.
• The advance team greeted Lu Xin, but he saw that its members had fatal wounds and were covered in blood.
• Lu Xin introduced himself, shook the leader's hand, and sent the helicopter away before agreeing to go to the tents with the dead men.

Lu Xin investigated a camp where the soldiers and observation-point staff were dead but unaware of their deaths, and found signs that they had killed one another. As he sought advice from a researcher, the researcher’s transmission was interrupted by a violent commotion, but he resumed speaking as if nothing had happened.

• Lu Xin questioned the dead soldiers, who could not explain their injuries or recall anything unusual at the observation point.
• Lu Xin inspected the camp and concluded that the soldiers had likely killed one another, with no sign that outsiders had attacked them.
• A researcher advised Lu Xin to determine the victims’ cause of death and investigate why they still acted as if alive.
• Lu Xin visited the observation point and found seven dead staff members in more advanced states of decay than the soldiers.
• While the researcher was advising Lu Xin, a commotion and gunshot interrupted the transmission, but the researcher returned and continued calmly as if nothing had happened.
• Lu Xin asked the researcher why he wanted the dead to be told they were contaminated, and the researcher explained that they might not know it themselves.

Lu Xin learned from Researcher Wang Song that the contamination made the dead believe they were alive, and that exposing the truth might provoke a dangerous reaction. After warning headquarters and keeping the affected groups separated, Lu Xin faced the observation station staff and vanguard to ask what final words they would want carried home if they had died on the mission.

• Researcher Wang Song explained how the contamination distorted the dead people's logic and warned Lu Xin that revealing their deaths could provoke violent resistance.
• Lu Xin asked Wang Song for his location and told him to stay put while Lu Xin investigated.
• Lu Xin reported the contamination of the observation station staff and vanguard to headquarters, warned that Wang Song might also be affected, and urged them to alert the Information Gathering Unit.
• Lu Xin returned to the gathered staff and vanguard, recognized that they were all dead, and asked what final words they would want him to take back if they had died on the mission.

Lu Xin prompted the advance unit and the observation-post personnel to speak their last words, causing them to realize they were already dead. Their panic turned into hatred directed at Lu Xin, leaving him surrounded by the furious dead.

• Lu Xin asked the soldiers and researchers for their last words, and the advance unit's captain spoke first.
• The soldiers and researchers shared their regrets until a young researcher broke down over the thought of his fiancée marrying someone else.
• The people began examining themselves and their companions, discovering wounds and injuries that revealed they were dead.
• As the realization spread, the dead suffered and insisted they were still alive.
• The terrified people blamed Lu Xin for revealing the truth and their fear became hatred toward him.

Lu Xin discovered that the dead people’s hatred caused their mental entities to merge into a powerful monster, while a larger Pollution Field had contaminated the area. The advance unit fought the monster and resisted contamination, and Mom eased their suffering so Lu Xin could continue his work.

• Lu Xin observed the dead people’s mental entities merge and realized their growing monster was connected to a wider Pollution Field.
• Mom confirmed that the field was spreading the Pollution, and Lu Xin prepared to eliminate the fused monster.
• The advance unit fired electric bullets at the corpses, destroying many mental entities, while some soldiers and observation station personnel attacked one another.
• The squad leader told Lu Xin the soldiers had fought because they had come to eliminate the Pollution Source and could not let themselves become one.
• Mom explained that the soldiers’ stronger wills and shorter exposure had delayed their contamination, then used scissors to ease their struggle.
• Mom urged Lu Xin to do his job, and he strode forward.

Lu Xin investigated the deaths at the observation point and discovered that a contamination field had awakened the dead after they killed one another. After learning that the Information Gathering Unit had likely fallen victim to the same disaster, he refused Chen Jing’s order to return and continued the investigation alone.

• Lu Xin questioned the captain and surviving soldiers, learning that they had been contaminated by an area-wide field and that remembering their deaths caused severe pain and risked mutation.
• Lu Xin reviewed the observation-point surveillance tapes and found that eight days earlier, the workers had suddenly killed one another before returning to work as the dead.
• Lu Xin reported the incident, the field’s effects, and its spread of at least thirty li to the Special Purity Department, warning them that the force causing people to kill one another remained unknown.
• The liaison officer told Lu Xin that the investigation team sent to Songshan Town had disappeared and that the Information Gathering Unit had gone silent after gunshots and screams.
• Chen Jing ordered Lu Xin to return, but Lu Xin ended the call and said that being the only living person left meant he was the only one who could do the job.

Lu Xin sought help from Mechanic to understand the vast pollution field, learning that signal stabilizers might be maintaining it and that the field could be transmitting mental power. Though he remained unsure how to find or destroy the devices, the dead captain and four soldiers offered to help him, leaving him no longer feeling alone.

• Lu Xin asked Mom whether she could destroy the pollution field or locate its Pollution Source, but she could do neither because the field's logic was chaotic.
• Lu Xin consulted the club platform, and Mechanic advised him to break the incident into separate questions and consider whether the field was awakening the dead and transmitting mental power.
• Lu Xin recognized that the Queen had awakened corpses in Happy Town before, but concluded that her influence could not explain the distant soldiers' behavior.
• Lu Xin sent Mechanic a photo of a device found by the advance team, and Mechanic identified it as a signal stabilizer that could be maintaining the field and advised destroying the stabilizers.
• Lu Xin paid Mechanic for the advice, then worried that he could not find the devices or handle the enormous threat alone.
• The dead captain and four soldiers offered to help Lu Xin, and he accepted their offer with renewed confidence.

Lu Xin reunited with Researcher Wang Song and the dead members of their teams, then learned how the contamination affected them and helped prepare a way to track it. Wang Song accepted that he was dead and gave Lu Xin his will before Captain Li Jian announced the new mission to destroy the contamination field.

• Lu Xin and Captain Li Jian's soldiers cremated the dead, collected evidence, and drove to meet Researcher Wang Song.
• The two groups startled one another, confirming that people contaminated in different batches could see each other's deaths.
• Lu Xin asked Wang Song to investigate the transmitters, and the group assembled a makeshift laboratory to test them and the collected samples.
• Wang Song identified the devices as signal converters that dispersed mental radiation, while his assistant confirmed the contaminated colleagues were dead but still animated by radiation.
• Wang Song gave Lu Xin his will and explained that accepting death could prevent the dead from becoming Mental Monsters.
• Wang Song prepared an algorithm, and Captain Li Jian radioed the main force the new directive to destroy the contamination field.

Lu Xin and the dead teams destroyed emitters weakening the contamination field around Happy Town, while Researcher Wang Song reasoned about its effects. The people monitoring the field activated a second plan to destroy Lu Xin and warn Qinggang.

• Lu Xin, Sister, Researcher Wang Song, and the soldiers raced through the wilderness, using Wang Song’s tracking program to find and destroy groups of emitters.
• Wang Song explained that the emitters formed a vast ring stabilizing the contamination field, and the teams had already destroyed more than twenty groups.
• Lu Xin concluded that the field’s power was linked to the Queen of Happy Town and resolved to break through it before visiting her.
• At an observation point near Happy Town, a man and his companions watched the emitters disappear and discussed how Lu Xin was cooperating with the dead.
• An old man ordered the group to activate their second plan and destroy Lu Xin as a warning to Qinggang.