Recaps

Chen Changsheng tested the limits of The Matrix by fighting Morpheus and attempting a rooftop jump, pushing the virtual world's systems toward failure. As Morpheus and the crew watched anxiously, Chen Changsheng focused on analyzing the world’s binary code.

• Chen Changsheng stopped punching after surpassing his limits, and Morpheus recovered from his shock and told Tank to load the jump program.
• Morpheus took Chen Changsheng to two skyscraper rooftops and demonstrated a leap across the gap, then urged him to jump.
• Chen Changsheng sprinted and leaped toward Morpheus, ignoring the virtual world's pain signals as his movements began to overwhelm its physical algorithms.
• Morpheus and the crew watched tensely as Chen Changsheng's figure blurred, while Tank tried to control the garbled code and Mouse questioned whether Chen Changsheng could succeed.
• Chen Changsheng analyzed the garbled code and binary numbers, suspecting they revealed the virtual world's environmental encryption algorithm.

Chen Changsheng passed Morpheus’s virtual jumping test, convincing the crew that he might be the savior. During Morpheus’s lesson on the Matrix’s enemies, Chen Changsheng disarmed and killed an attacker disguised as a woman in red, leaving Morpheus stunned.

• Chen Changsheng leaped across the gap in the virtual world, and the crew watched in amazement as he landed on the opposite building.
• Morpheus told Tank to take them back to the real world so they could visit the Oracle, while Cypher silently formed his own plans.
• In a virtual city scene, Morpheus explained that people trapped in the Matrix could fight against those trying to free them.
• Chen Changsheng recited Morpheus’s explanation word for word when Morpheus challenged whether he had been paying attention.
• Morpheus told Chen Changsheng to look at the woman in red, who pointed a gun at him.
• Chen Changsheng seized the gun, kicked the attacker away, shot and killed them, then asked Morpheus what he had wanted him to see.

Morpheus warned Chen Changsheng that agents were lethal programs within The Matrix, while Chen Changsheng considered how to analyze and ultimately crack its code. After the crew evaded a nearby mechanical squid, Chen waited aboard Nebuchadnezzar and grew interested in its food-making machine.

• Morpheus explained that agents could take over any program and urged Chen Changsheng to flee if he encountered one.
• Chen Changsheng reasoned that agents were constrained by The Matrix's framework and decided he needed data to analyze its source code.
• Tank warned Morpheus that a mechanical squid was nearby, so Morpheus hid Nebuchadnezzar and prepared its EMP.
• The mechanical squid scanned the area and left without finding the ship.
• Chen Changsheng waited aboard Nebuchadnezzar for a chance to meet the Oracle and became interested in the ship's food-making machine.

Chen Changsheng joined Morpheus and the crew in The Matrix to meet the Oracle, while considering how to use the Nebuchadnezzar’s food maker to expand his hive. After testing the simulation’s limits with a spoon, he entered the Oracle’s kitchen, where their meeting was about to begin.

• Chen Changsheng realized he could use the Nebuchadnezzar’s food maker and the robots’ electricity to produce organic matter for his hive.
• Morpheus told Dozer to take the ship to a signal-transmitting altitude so they could enter The Matrix and take Neo to meet the Oracle.
• Chen Changsheng entered The Matrix with Morpheus and the others, admired its lifelike details, and considered whether he would preserve or destroy it.
• At the Oracle’s shabby home, Chen Changsheng watched children demonstrate unusual abilities and then struck a spoon hard enough to disrupt the surrounding code before The Matrix restored it.
• A maid guided Chen Changsheng to the Oracle, and he found that she lived in an ordinary kitchen.

Chen Changsheng met the Riddler Prophet in the Matrix and discovered that her cookies altered his data body, but a glitch exposed Morpheus’s group to danger. As Agents attacked their safe house, Chen Changsheng helped the group flee until an Agent confronted them and Morpheus fought to buy Neo time to escape.

• Chen Changsheng caught a vase the Riddler Prophet had placed near the edge of a table, then ate all six of her cookies and gained a new decoding program.
• The Riddler Prophet threw Chen Changsheng and Morpheus out, and the group headed back toward their safe house.
• Chen Changsheng spotted a black cat appear twice, prompting Morpheus’s group to realize the Matrix had glitched and rush toward the rooftop safe house.
• Agents attacked the safe house, and Chen Changsheng absorbed Mouse’s body and saved fragments of his memories while fleeing in the Matrix.
• Tank guided Morpheus’s group through a space inside a bathroom wall, but pursuing Agents found them before they could escape.
• Chen Changsheng fought the attackers until an Agent broke through the wall, and Morpheus grappled with him while ordering the others to get Neo out.

Chen Changsheng and the survivors escaped the Agents, but Morpheus was captured and Cypher betrayed the crew aboard the Nebuchadnezzar. After Cypher killed several crewmates, Chen Changsheng devoured him and found Tank barely conscious.

• Chen Changsheng and the others escaped the building, leaving Morpheus captured while Cypher fled separately.
• Cypher returned to the Nebuchadnezzar, killed Tank and another crew member, then contacted Trinity in the Matrix.
• Cypher pulled crew members from their plugs one by one, killing them in reality and in the Matrix until only Chen Changsheng and Trinity remained.
• Cypher approached Chen Changsheng and tried to pull out his plug, but Chen Changsheng woke and devoured him.
• Chen Changsheng found Tank barely conscious and mourned the deaths of his two good brothers.

Chen Changsheng resurrected Tank and returned with Trinity to the real world to locate Morpheus. After fighting through the government building and killing an Agent, Chen Changsheng and Trinity reached Morpheus, who was being tortured by Agents.

• Chen Changsheng absorbed Tank, then recreated him with Tank's memories so he could help guide them to Zion.
• Chen Changsheng and Trinity returned to reality, and Tank found Morpheus's location inside a heavily guarded government building.
• Chen Changsheng and Trinity fought their way through the building while avoiding the floor where Morpheus was held.
• Chen Changsheng shot an Agent, who dodged the first shot with bullet time but was killed by a burst of gunfire and became an ordinary police officer.
• Chen Changsheng piloted a helicopter to Morpheus's floor, and Trinity opened fire on the Agents with its Gatling gun.

Chen Changsheng rescued Morpheus from the Agents, then defeated an Agent in a subway station after discovering how it transformed people and adapting his own data body. He returned to reality as Tank activated the electromagnetic pulse, stopping the attack on the Hovercraft, which was badly damaged and now needed repairs in Zion.

• Chen Changsheng freed Morpheus by shooting apart his chair, and he and Trinity escaped in a helicopter that he crash-landed on a rooftop after the Agents damaged it.
• Morpheus and Trinity used Tank's subway phone booth to return to reality, while Chen Changsheng stayed behind to face an Agent.
• Chen Changsheng fought the Agent and killed the Agents that emerged from subway passengers, then survived an attempt to transform him by rebuilding his data body.
• Chen Changsheng created a Biological Computer to overcome the Agent's greater computing power and destroyed it before returning to reality by phone.
• Tank triggered the electromagnetic pulse, disabling the mechanical octopuses attacking the Hovercraft, and Chen Changsheng found the ship badly damaged.
• Morpheus's Nebuchadnezzar could no longer sail, so the crew planned to return to Zion for repairs, giving Chen Changsheng a chance to visit the human refuge.

After returning to Zion aboard the Nebuchadnezzar, Chen Changsheng learned why Hovercraft avoided weapons and found the underground city divided by factions and intrigue. He used his influence and Zion’s resources to build a heavily modified Hovercraft carrier.

• Morpheus explained that Hovercraft relied on stealth and speed because Zion had limited resources, space, and energy.
• Chen Changsheng arrived in Zion and saw the vast underground city and its central transport pillar.
• Chen Changsheng learned that Zion’s residents were divided into factions, and the Savior Faction had made him a symbol of faith.
• Chen Changsheng frequented the black market and obtained supplies to build a Hovercraft.
• Chen Changsheng and Zion’s manufacturing team completed a large vessel that he considered a hovercraft carrier.

Chen Changsheng built Genesis, a modular fleet of seven Hovercraft, and recruited Morpheus and fifty crewmen to join him. They left Zion to continue exploring The Matrix and rescuing people, while Chen Changsheng also planned to test the virtual world's limits.

• Chen Changsheng designed six small Hovercraft that could combine with a mothership, then equipped the flagship with an Electromagnetic Cannon.
• Chen Changsheng recruited crewmen and invited Morpheus to become vice-captain of his new fleet.
• Morpheus joined Chen Changsheng and found that he could continue commanding his original team aboard the larger ship, Genesis.
• Chen Changsheng and Morpheus left Zion aboard Genesis with fifty crewmen.
• Chen Changsheng set out to explore The Matrix, rescue suitable people, and test whether its Agents could threaten him.

Chen Changsheng met Seraph, whom he mistook for Chang Wei, and fought him before being led to the Oracle. He reached her in a hidden corridor after the Genesis crew lost sight of him, and asked whether she was a program.

• Chen Changsheng received Morpheus's message that the Oracle wanted to see him and went to a Chinese restaurant in the Matrix.
• Seraph introduced himself as the Oracle's guard, then attacked Chen Changsheng without warning.
• Chen Changsheng defeated Seraph, discovered his body contained golden code, and secretly recorded it while landing several more blows.
• After recovering, Seraph asked Chen Changsheng to keep their encounter secret and led him through a corridor of doors toward the Oracle.
• The Genesis crew lost sight of Chen Changsheng as he entered the corridor, but he could still sense his real and virtual bodies.
• Chen Changsheng found the Oracle seated on a roadside bench and asked whether she was a program.

Chen Changsheng questioned the Prophet about her role and the programs that controlled the Matrix, learning that Agents hunted rogue programs as well as awakened humans. The Prophet sent him to find Merovingian and rescue The Locksmith before he could reach the Source world.

• Chen Changsheng questioned the Prophet about why she helped humanity and learned that she was a predictive program following her system duties.
• The Prophet explained that programs controlled the Matrix’s natural features and that Agents mainly hunted programs that broke the rules.
• The Prophet told Chen Changsheng that programs facing deletion could seek exile or return to their Source, which the system could not prevent.
• The Prophet revealed that Merovingian had imprisoned The Locksmith and said Chen Changsheng must rescue him before reaching the Source world.
• The Prophet gave Chen Changsheng an envelope directing him to find Merovingian, then left with Chang Wei.

Chen Changsheng encountered Smith, an Agent who had gained independence but remained driven to kill him, and fought off Smith’s endlessly multiplying copies. After escaping, Chen Changsheng arranged to meet Morpheus and wondered what would happen if an antivirus program endlessly reproduced to eliminate a virus.

• Smith told Chen Changsheng that he had returned after copying something from him and that their existence and goals were connected.
• Smith summoned five copies and attacked Chen Changsheng, who quickly killed them.
• Countless Smiths emerged from the streets, and Chen Changsheng fought them until he cleared a path and escaped at speed.
• Morpheus called Chen Changsheng after seeing the abnormal situation, and Chen Changsheng arranged to meet him.
• Chen Changsheng waited at the meeting place and considered the consequences of an antivirus program endlessly reproducing to destroy a virus.

Chen Changsheng went with Morpheus and Trinity to negotiate with the Merovingian for The Locksmith, but the meeting turned violent when the exiled programs refused to cooperate. After overpowering the Merovingian and his guards, Chen Changsheng faced a mysterious noblewoman who intervened.

• Chen Changsheng considered how Smith's spread might disrupt The Matrix while his insect nests and efforts to steal electricity advanced in reality.
• Morpheus volunteered to accompany Chen Changsheng to find the Merovingian and rescue The Locksmith.
• Chen Changsheng, Morpheus, and Trinity followed the Oracle's address to an upscale restaurant where Morpheus negotiated with the exiled programs.
• When the negotiations failed, Chen Changsheng threatened the Merovingian, fought off his guards, and demanded to know where The Locksmith was.
• A noblewoman warned Chen Changsheng that the Merovingian would soon die, so Chen Changsheng released him and asked who she was.

Chen Changsheng rejected Persephone's offer to negotiate and demonstrated his power by defeating Merovingian's guards and creating an agent under his control. Merovingian then offered to let Chen Changsheng use the Locksmith temporarily if Chen promised to return him safely.

• Persephone proposed cooperating because Chen Changsheng wanted the Locksmith to open the door to the Source.
• Chen Changsheng threw Merovingian at his guards and fought them without interference from the agents.
• Chen Changsheng assimilated one guard and turned him into an agent that obeyed his commands.
• Chen Changsheng ordered the new agent to attack two guards, and they vanished as fragmented data streams.
• Merovingian offered Chen Changsheng temporary use of the Locksmith on the condition that he return him safely.

Chen Changsheng forced Merovingian and Persephone to explain how exiled programs used The Locksmith to hide and create worlds beyond the Matrix. He learned that Mechanical Emperor controlled the system and watched a family of programs arrive seeking refuge.

• Chen Changsheng used Agent Neo to overpower Merovingian's thugs and demanded to know why the exiled programs needed The Locksmith.
• Persephone explained that programs could escape into the system, evade the Matrix's surveillance, and use The Locksmith to build hidden spaces and independent worlds.
• Chen Changsheng learned that Mechanical Emperor controlled the system and had created the programs, then considered sparing the exiles for possible future gain.
• A family of three arrived seeking help, and Merovingian explained that the man and woman were power-plant programs who had created the little girl.
• Chen Changsheng noticed Persephone's expression change when Merovingian said that programs could develop emotions.

Chen Changsheng learned that programs traded electricity and storage, then asked the Indian couple to create an artificial intelligence for him. Persephone offered to help in exchange for protection, and she led Chen Changsheng to a bedroom where she began undressing and embraced him.

• Chen Changsheng learned that programs used electricity and storage as exchange goods and became curious about the Indian couple’s artificial intelligence daughter.
• The Indian couple explained that they had created the girl using code unlike that of the Mechanical Empire and planned to hide her in the Matrix.
• Chen Changsheng asked the Indian couple to create an artificial intelligence for him, and Persephone offered to help if he guaranteed their safety.
• Chen Changsheng had Agent Neo follow Merovingian, kept the Indian family in the Matrix, and ignored Morpheus and Trinity’s appeal about the Oracle’s mission.
• Persephone led Chen Changsheng into a villa and then a bedroom, where she took off her clothes and embraced him.

Chen Changsheng asked Persephone to help him create an artificial intelligence, then decided to find The Locksmith instead. He freed The Locksmith from Merovingian’s dungeon and recruited him.

• Chen Changsheng learned from Persephone that an artificial intelligence developed its distinctive traits over time and required attentive care.
• Chen Changsheng decided to create an artificial intelligence outside The Matrix and asked Persephone to take him to The Locksmith.
• Persephone took Chen Changsheng to Morpheus and Trinity, whose reactions changed after seeing him with her.
• Merovingian led Chen Changsheng to The Locksmith’s dungeon, where Chen Changsheng questioned how a lock specialist had been imprisoned.
• Chen Changsheng smashed the dungeon door and told The Locksmith to work for him, and The Locksmith agreed.

Chen Changsheng went to The Source to meet the Architect, fighting Smith’s Agents while the Locksmith searched for the right door. He found an old man waiting in a broadcast-studio-like room.

• Chen Changsheng took the Locksmith through a door to a corridor crowded with Smith Agents, while Morpheus and the others hesitated to follow.
• Chen Changsheng fought the Smith Agents and had the Locksmith search for the entrance to The Source.
• Chen Changsheng began assimilating Smith’s Agents until his own Agents filled the corridor and shut the doors against the others.
• The Locksmith found the door to The Source, and Chen Changsheng entered a room where a white-haired old man sat in a chair.

Chen Changsheng learned how the Architect had created the Matrix and why the Chosen One was expected to choose between saving humanity and saving Trinity. He exposed Smith’s unexpected evolution, and the chapter ended with Smith’s forces attacking both him and the Architect.

• The Architect explained that Chen Changsheng was an anomaly in the Matrix and that the current system was its sixth version.
• The Architect described how the Oracle’s choice-based design allowed most humans to accept the Matrix while the Chosen One was meant to manage those who refused.
• The Architect said Zion was about to be destroyed again and told Chen Changsheng to return to the Source, rebuild Zion, and choose between Trinity and humanity.
• Chen Changsheng noticed that a black-suited Neo appeared among the Agents pursuing Trinity and the others.
• Chen Changsheng warned the Architect about Smith, then opened the door and revealed a crowd of Smiths who attacked them both.
• The Architect shielded himself from Smith’s attack while Chen Changsheng retreated to a corner and watched them fight.

Chen Changsheng took the Architect’s ballpoint pen, discovered it could control the Matrix, and used it to gather the Locksmith and prepare to create his own virtual world. Morpheus left with Trinity to attend a meeting in Zion, while Chen Changsheng turned to the Merovingian for the resources he needed.

• Chen Changsheng shattered the Architect’s shield, and Smith’s Agents assimilated and killed the Architect; Chen Changsheng seized the ballpoint pen and escaped.
• Chen Changsheng discovered that the pen could control the Matrix, used it to disperse Agents attacking the Merovingian and the exile programs, and failed to locate Smith, who had evaded system searches.
• Chen Changsheng summoned the Locksmith and questioned him about creating a virtual world connected to the Matrix.
• Morpheus told Chen Changsheng that Zion had called a meeting of the Hovercraft captains, and Chen Changsheng sent Morpheus and Trinity to attend in his place.
• Chen Changsheng decided to test building a virtual world with a storage device and turned to the Merovingian for equipment and resources.

Chen Changsheng worked with Merovingian and several exile programs to reach and inspect a blank small world, then began adapting it into a private, encrypted virtual world. The group had the tools and models to edit it, but still needed to settle on encryption that was both secure and practical.

• Chen Changsheng promised Merovingian a safe area in the Matrix world in exchange for his help building a virtual world, and Merovingian contacted other rogue programs to prepare it.
• Chen Changsheng entered the Mechanical Empire's system with Merovingian's guidance and observed the storage matrix being constructed in reality.
• Chen Changsheng brought the Indian family, Persephone, and the Locksmith to inspect Merovingian's small world, and the Trainman tunneled them through the system's firewall to reach it.
• Merovingian explained that his powers came from being a first-generation causality program, though his limited computing power weakened them in exile.
• Chen Changsheng and the exile programs began editing the empty small world with the Architect's ballpoint pen and used the Matrix world's encryption algorithm as their initial security model.

While Zion prepared to face the Mechanical Empire’s assault, Chen Changsheng returned to the hive and built a biological-computing network that let him connect directly to the machines’ systems. He gained control over a virtual world of his own, while Zion’s fate remained uncertain.

• Morpheus took command of Genesis and left to answer a distress signal, while Chen Changsheng’s body appeared aboard the ship and prepared to return to the hive.
• Chen Changsheng planned to use his Electromagnetic Control ability to grow network-connected organs and enter the Mechanical Empire’s systems.
• Zion’s leaders formed a guerrilla army, prepared defenses and an evacuation plan, and learned that mechanical octopuses were tunneling toward the city.
• Chen Changsheng reached the hive and built a half-mechanical, half-biological computer system to simulate the Mechanical Empire’s system.
• Chen Changsheng used the hive’s wireless networking organ to connect his hive computer directly to the Mechanical Empire’s network.

Chen Changsheng returned to the Matrix, secured a home for the exile programs, and answered the Prophet’s summons. He discovered that the Prophet had changed her appearance after Agent Smith killed her and took her permissions.

• Chen Changsheng had the exile programs help create Red Queen, then sent brainworms to build a virtual world in his Biological Computer system.
• Chen Changsheng created two bodies and sent their avatars into the Matrix, where Neo used the Architect’s ballpoint pen to give him a legal identity.
• Chen Changsheng used the pen to designate a region of the Matrix as an unmonitored home for the exile programs.
• Neo sent Chen Changsheng and his other self to meet the Prophet, where they found Chang Wei and a Prophet with a different appearance.
• The Prophet told Neo that Agent Smith had killed her and taken her permissions, forcing her to change her appearance and hide.

The Oracle told Chen Changsheng that Agent Smith had become self-aware, assimilated one-fifth of humanity, and invaded the Mechanical Empire's system. With the Architect dead and the Mechanical Emperor unable to intervene directly, she asked Neo to stop Smith, but Chen Changsheng demanded to negotiate with the Mechanical Emperor himself.

• The Oracle recognized the Architect's ballpoint pen in Chen Changsheng's hand and explained that Smith had begun destroying the Matrix after the Architect disappeared.
• The Oracle said Smith had assimilated one-fifth of humanity and broken through the Matrix to attack the Mechanical Empire's system.
• Chen Changsheng learned that the Mechanical Emperor and Smith were locked in a processing-power standoff, leaving Neo as the only one capable of opposing Smith in the Matrix.
• Chen Changsheng asked what he would receive for helping, and the Oracle said she could promise nothing while more humans were dying.
• Chen Changsheng asked the Oracle to take him to the Mechanical Emperor, but she said Smith had turned the system into a battlefield, so they could not summon him.
• Chen Changsheng insisted that the Oracle take him to the Mechanical Emperor's real-world main body.