Chapter Summaries

Song He and Xiang Xiaotong discussed how microorganisms from Earth might spread through space and whether life could survive on Venus. The delivery truck arrived as Xiang Xiaotong left Song He to oversee the handover and investigate his theory about Venus’s carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere.

• Xiang Xiaotong gave Song He the stamped handover form and said she was exhausted and had made a hospital appointment because her period was late.
• Song He told Xiang Xiaotong that some students questioned whether life could exist beyond Earth, prompting her to explain how microorganisms might have been scattered through the galaxy by the impact that formed the Moon.
• Song He asked whether acid-resistant fungi could survive on Venus, and Xiang Xiaotong pointed to phosphine as a possible sign of life found by earlier probes.
• Song He proposed that fungi might have transformed Venus’s atmosphere in a planetary event resembling Earth’s Great Oxidation Event, and Xiang Xiaotong urged him to search for related research and consider publishing the hypothesis.
• Police cars escorted the delivery truck to the Experiment Building, and Xiang Xiaotong left Song He to handle the handover.

Song He tested the sea monster’s mental arithmetic and used its brain-activity data to develop his Brain-Mimicking Supercomputer framework. Meanwhile, Apple earned thousands of yuan collecting coins at a bank and planned to track which gorillas and monkeys could pay again.

• Song He gave the sea monster arithmetic problems, and it solved both correctly within seconds.
• Ji Tianhe gave Song He a box of the sea monster’s brain-activity data, which Song He took back to his dormitory to analyze.
• Song He recognized a pattern in the data that resembled Dewitt’s matching questions and modified his Brain-Mimicking Supercomputer framework.
• Zhao Yiyi told Song He that Apple had earned more than ten thousand coins, and he joined a video call to see the money being counted at the bank.
• Apple said some gorillas and monkeys might not pay again the next day, so it planned to make a list.

A nighttime explosion at Ruoqiang Base led Song He to learn from Professor Ma that it was a deliberate trap in an intelligence operation. Professor Ma warned him to watch for spies as he prepared to lead his own research, and Song He returned to developing his Brain-Mimicking Programming.

• A weapons-test explosion shook Ruoqiang Base, and Song He received a notice saying the danger had passed without casualties.
• Xie Kefu asked Song He about the blast, mentioned Isaac's claim about propellant at Aerospace Town, and suffered a blow when Song He revealed his higher ranking.
• Song He reported Isaac's claim to Professor Ma, who revealed that Isaac was an undercover agent spreading false information.
• Professor Ma told Song He that the explosion had been deliberate bait to flush out spies and warned him to stay alert as he approached becoming a Project Leader.
• Song He asked about meeting Lao Zhao, then continued testing and correcting his Brain-Mimicking Programming with laboratory detonation data.

Song He and Xiang Xiaotong dealt with Dream City’s chaotic launch and fixed a flood of bizarre bugs, while users rapidly filled the city with businesses, games, and strange exploits. Dream City’s popularity and Interstellar Bank’s assets surged as the chapter ended with the developers facing more reports and two weeks of exhausting repairs.

• Song He and Xiang Xiaotong reached Dream City and encountered overcrowded trains, passengers riding vehicle roofs, and streets blocked by injured users and ambulances.
• Dewitt brought Song He to Rudolph, whose head was trapped in a smart toilet after he had stuck it inside to inspect the contents.
• Song He and Xiang Xiaotong fixed the launch bugs, and Dream City’s website announced the repairs and plans to add Police NPCs and a City Prison.
• Song He and Xiang Xiaotong spent two weeks repairing bugs while users shared stories of profitable businesses, unusual attractions, and games such as "Zombie Tide."
• Dream City attracted intense media attention, and Interstellar Bank’s assets passed ten trillion as its financial products sold out quickly.

Xiang Xiaotong taught the students how the Vacuum Diode enabled radio rectification and how De Forest’s Vacuum Triode amplified signals for long-distance communication. He ended by warning them to protect and commercialize their inventions, offering Chenghuang and Neuron’s support.

• Xiang Xiaotong explained how the Vacuum Diode used electrons to rectify radio waves, and Yang Yu described how different people could turn the same discovery toward different uses.
• Xiang Xiaotong introduced De Forest and showed how adding a grid between the filament and anode transformed a Vacuum Diode into a Vacuum Triode.
• Xiang Xiaotong explained that changing the grid’s voltage controlled the current and amplified signals, allowing telephone communication to reach farther.
• Xiang Xiaotong described De Forest’s weak theoretical foundation and financial struggles, then urged students to protect their inventions and seek help from him or Dean Song.
• The students answered that they understood, as Xiang Xiaotong promised Chenghuang and Neuron would support them in finding buyers and partners.

Song He impressed Ban Jianye with his math competition performance and was urged to study university-level mathematics to pursue a recommendation to a top university. At evening self-study, Liu Lu arrived with test papers, and Song He realized he would have to compete with Ding Yangze for a place on the biology competition team.

• Song He finished the elementary math competition questions quickly and accurately, raising his Mathematics Progress to Bronze Level 06.
• Ban Jianye explained that the harder competition sections required knowledge beyond the high school curriculum and encouraged Song He to study university mathematics.
• Song He agreed to study advanced mathematics after Ban Jianye linked it to his goal of entering a top university.
• At evening self-study, Liu Lu arrived with test papers, and Ding Yangze said he had come to No. 4 High School hoping to join her biology competition team.
• Song He checked his subject rankings and saw that his Biology level was Bronze Level 22, far above his Mathematics level.
• Ding Yangze declared that he would fight for a biology competition spot, then admitted that Song He was a formidable presence in the class.

Song He graduated early from Fields Medal Sprint Class and prepared to join Xiang Xiaotong for a business trip to a chip factory. As he ate breakfast before his March 1 flight, he spotted a familiar figure in the cafeteria.

• Dewitt announced that Song He had completed all the exercises in Sprint Class and graduated early, and Song He thanked his teachers and classmates in a short speech.
• Song He told Xiang Xiaotong that he was ready to work, and she gave him his March 1 flight time and told him to pack for the trip.
• Ding Yangze and Ji Tianhe watched crew-cut keepers transport suitcases full of data sheets from Sea Monster Pavilion and wondered when Song He would return from his classified business trip.
• At a dean-level meeting, the principal found Xi Yanfan in attendance and learned that Xiang Xiaotong and Song He had not said when they would return.
• On March 1, Song He ate breakfast before his flight and stopped in surprise when he saw a familiar figure in the cafeteria.

Song He began studying drone design after Black Glasses connected him with Hive designer Master Ye, who dismissed him as a beginner and warned that the existing drone had little room for improvement. The chapter ended with Song He asking Xie Yuanxun for a turbulence textbook and Xie Yuanxun reacting with unexpected seriousness.

• Black Glasses gave Song He the account of Drone-Making Master Ye and sent the other teams to clear sand from the tarmac.
• The competitors blamed Song He for their defeat and predicted that his two-person team would finish last.
• Song He studied drone-design papers, installed software sent by Master Ye, and asked how quickly the designer could build a prototype from his proposal.
• Master Ye said Song was a beginner, described the extensive testing behind the Hive's drone, and advised him to stop trying to improve it.
• Song He and Xie Yuanxun ate military rations at midnight, then Song He asked Xie Yuanxun to recommend a turbulence textbook, prompting a grave reaction.

Song He and Xiang Xiaotong watched volunteers livestream their trip to the Teacher Bai Store as online discussion focused on the product’s expected price. Their price-setting effort succeeded in making many netizens expect Teacher Bai to cost around 700,000 yuan, and Li Lu arrived at the store.

• Li Lu and the other volunteers livestreamed their Flying Car journey to the Teacher Bai Store, while Song He checked a trending post summarizing the volunteer meeting.
• Song He and Xiang Xiaotong discussed Li Lu’s past attacks on Song He and the volunteers’ nervous reactions to meeting the couple.
• The trending post described the lottery as fair and reported Song He’s estimate that Teacher Bai would cost under 800,000 yuan and might last forty or fifty years.
• Netizens argued over whether a projected price of 700,000 yuan was affordable, with some defending the product as a long-term source of income.
• Song He and Xiang Xiaotong concluded that the online price expectations had been successfully shaped, then Song He enlarged the livestream as Li Lu walked toward the store.

Song He argued that the chameleon worms’ unusual complexity could have arisen through evolution in an ancient, harsher environment rather than through alien design. He then suggested that Earth may have undergone a process like a deleted ecosystem database, leaving the chameleon worms behind as remnants.

• Song He and the child prodigies discussed whether Alienware had designed the chameleon worms, but he questioned why an alien civilization would create such sophisticated organisms merely to act like maggots.
• Song He reminded the child prodigies that evolution could produce complex biological structures over vast stretches of time, then explained that the chameleon worms might have evolved in a once harsh and volatile environment.
• The child prodigies agreed that the worms could have remained excessively complex after their environment became more peaceful, rather than evolving to simplify themselves.
• Song He described how deleting most of an alien-planet database in a game had left minor creatures without their predators and competitors, turning them into the planet’s dominant organisms.
• Song He proposed that Earth may have undergone a similar database deletion, with the chameleon worms surviving as residue that had not been completely erased.

Song He used Brain-Boosting Capsules to improve his problem-solving, pushed himself through math work, and tried to reassure Ban Jianye that he would finish his competition workbook before the exam. The chapter left Song He being taken to the office, where Ban Jianye planned to supervise him through thirty pages of work.

• Song He bought five Brain-Boosting Capsules and noticed a slight improvement in his thinking after swallowing them.
• Song He tried to force Zhao Yiyi to study, and she admitted that his punches helped wake her up when she was sleepy.
• Song He advanced his math level from Bronze Level 90 to Level 93 and worked through the competition workbook up to Page 90.
• Ban Jianye angrily confronted Song He over his slow progress and his continued biology study, insisting that he could not reach the top eighty without finishing more math.
• Song He promised to complete the 300-page workbook before the exam, but Ban Jianye took him to the office to supervise his attempt at thirty pages during evening self-study.

Song He and the others prepared for Dewitt’s brain activation, and Dewitt woke in a sealed room with no memory of how he got there. Deng Puhe and Tang Jiang found him, and Tang Jiang confirmed that by traditional standards Dewitt had died.

• Song He explained how families and company representatives visited people in hibernation, and the group walked to meet Lu Chengen and Deng Puhe.
• Song He assured Deng Puhe that the brain-activation procedure had succeeded in experiments, and Lu Chengen entered the room.
• Dewitt woke in a locked private dining room, recalled collapsing at Mathematics Night, and feared he was dead or losing his mind.
• Tang Jiang called to Dewitt from the adjoining room, and Deng Puhe kicked open the connecting door before embracing his revived friend.
• Dewitt asked how he had reached Fengze Garden, and Tang Jiang said he was dead by traditional standards.

Song He Team continued developing Artificial White Blood Cells while Chenghuang and Neuron expanded their pharmaceutical businesses. Chenghuang later announced its Winter Press Conference after several research teams reported major progress.

• Song He Team identified distinguishing friend from foe, restricting reproduction, and balancing function as the three hurdles to completing Artificial White Blood Cells.
• The second batch of domestic scientist-astronauts returned to the Moon, while Western and Russian-Indian missions also advanced their lunar projects.
• Neuron Company launched the Dream Pill, an Anti-Depression Brain-Computer Interface, and a Brain Blood Vessel Activation Drug, with the Dream Pill later joined by Chenghuang's Short Sleep Pill in a popular joint product.
• Neuron's products captured substantial sales and market share, and six core members received Private Planes, while Chenghuang focused its spending on research, bonuses, and expansion.
• The Stephen King Team, the Grandma Yun Team, and other Chenghuang research teams completed major drug trials or announced promising progress.
• Chenghuang Company announced that its Winter Press Conference was about to begin.

Song He and Xiang Xiaotong tested the Dream Control Helmet, which quickly put two monkeys to sleep and then induced them to run and scream while still dreaming. After Song He adjusted the program, the monkeys stayed asleep as their dream movements intensified, leaving the team ready to attempt a more impressive test.

• Song He explained how the Dream Control Helmet used real-time ultrasound feedback, and it quickly put the two monkeys to sleep.
• Song He and Xiang Xiaotong tried to induce a shallow nightmare, but the monkeys woke up screeching.
• Song He studied the data, modified the program, and ran the helmet again after the monkeys fell asleep.
• The monkeys began walking in their sleep, and Song He and Xiang Xiaotong activated a function that made them sprint and scream without waking.
• Song He called the result a good start and proposed trying something more impressive.

Netizens debated the reported income of hibernation doctors, the future of space cities, and the prospects of Qian University of Science and Technology’s Interstellar Exploration Academy. The discussion ended with disagreement over whether the academy’s admissions scores would soar or its degrees would be less valuable.

• Netizens questioned Song He’s claim that hibernation doctors earned five million a year, and one doctor revealed that bonuses and other pay had brought their income to ten million before tax.
• Netizens discussed how Song He’s plans to build several space cities could benefit suppliers and the aerospace city, while some complained that housing prices had already jumped.
• Netizens argued over whether the Interstellar Exploration Academy’s unusual majors were impractical and its degree less valuable than other Qian University of Science and Technology programs.
• Other netizens predicted the academy’s admissions scores would soar because of Song He and Xiang Xiaotong’s standing.

Song He completed the Math Competition Question Book and broke through to Silver Level 01 with help from the neighboring class’s Knowledge Rebates. With only eighteen hours before the math exam and Leng Xiangwen already at Silver Level 08, he rushed to the library to study university mathematics, where he met Chu Long from Rocket Class 1.

• Elite Class 1’s monitor brought Song He drinks and asked him to share solutions to their math paper, and Song He gladly sent over his explanations.
• Song He received a flood of Knowledge Rebates from students studying his solutions and finished the 300-page Math Competition Question Book.
• Song He’s mathematics level rose to Silver Level 01, but he calculated that he had only eighteen hours to catch up with Leng Xiangwen before the exam.
• Song He sprinted to the library and told the Grade Director that he had already studied Linear Algebra and advanced calculus.
• Song He began studying Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics, then met Chu Long from Rocket Class 1, who offered to help him.

Song He and Kong Gaojie worked through mathematical ideas overnight, but Kong Gaojie fell asleep while Song He developed a major new conjecture. The next morning, Song He proposed they publish it together as the Song-Kong Conjecture, while Kong Gaojie woke with a painful stiff neck.

• Song He and Kong Gaojie discussed knot theory and gauge transformations during a late-night video call, with Song He leading the mathematical reasoning.
• Song He slept for an hour while Kong Gaojie kept calculating, then woke refreshed and explained several new lines of thought.
• Kong Gaojie fell asleep at his desk, so Song He ended the call and continued working alone.
• At four-thirty, Song He wrote down a major conjecture that he believed could attract attention from the topology community.
• Song He messaged Kong Gaojie that he would ask a professor to assess the conjecture and suggested naming it the Song-Kong Conjecture.
• Kong Gaojie woke, read Song He's messages, and discovered that his neck had become painfully stiff.

Song He’s team received and secured the Pearl Millet Sand Fleas at Frontier Technology University, then began an urgent effort to identify them and protect Chenghuang Oasis Company’s contract. After two days of genetic analysis, Song He noticed something alarming in the insects’ genetic data.

• Song He named the newly discovered insect the Pearl Millet Sand Flea and arranged its customs paperwork and controlled transport.
• Song He and the escort officer verified the delivered specimens, and the laboratory sealed itself against any possible escape.
• Song He told the researchers to identify the insects and find a way to control them before the Middle Eastern clients revisited the fields.
• Song He’s team began experiments, and their genetic work confirmed the insects had a light-averse gene already known to the North African team.
• Song He studied the genetic sequences on the Data Wall, spotted something wrong, and Lu Chengen reacted in horror after examining it.

Song He and Xiang Xiaotong tested whether the Sea Monster Lure improved the monkeys’ intelligence using Tower of Hanoi puzzles. After the monkeys performed impressively, Song He ordered further animal experiments and supplies for the Alien Zoo instead of beginning human trials.

• The three monkeys restored five-level Tower of Hanoi puzzles in seventy to seventy-nine seconds, and Song He asked them to try a six-level puzzle.
• Song He challenged Little Fatty to solve a six-level puzzle before the monkeys, and one monkey watched his moves and reasoned backward to copy him.
• Little Fatty finished in eight minutes and twenty seconds, just as the copying monkey completed its own puzzle; the other monkeys finished after eighteen minutes.
• Song He concluded that the Sea Monster Lure had clearly boosted the monkeys’ intelligence, and the researchers celebrated.
• Song He and Xiang Xiaotong reviewed toxicity data showing only mild effects during the months of testing, then Song He postponed human trials and ordered continued animal experiments and supplies for the Alien Zoo.

Song He tried to escape the rivalry between the Biology and Math Teams, but Ye Lianghan discovered he had qualified for both. The meeting introduced a brutal selection process and promised rewards through the Top Student Ranking.

• Song He fled from the Biology Team to the Math Team, then returned to Wu Xiao after finding both groups eager to fight each other.
• Ye Lianghan noticed the Math Team seemed short one student, and Song He revealed he belonged to both teams after sitting with each.
• The students reacted with shock as Song He’s dual-team status generated Resentment Value.
• Ye Lianghan let Song He sit wherever he liked, then explained that students would face repeated exams and could be eliminated for failing to meet standards.
• Ye Lianghan introduced the Top Student Ranking and prepared to show the team rewards on the large screen.