Chapter Summaries

Su Mo underwent an experiment to explore the frosted-glass vision and discovered a higher-dimensional world behind the wall formed by the authorities. After fusion succeeded, he left the vision with new questions about the door, the game, and the people behind it.

• Yan Xiaqing tested Su Mo and warned that his excessive strength and high blood oxygen were rapidly damaging his bones.
• Yan Xiaqing used the awakening device to induce Su Mo to search his memories for the trigger point, while Su Chan watched.
• Su Mo found a tiny object bearing a blue droplet and saw a golden patterned wall in another dimension.
• Su Mo examined the ocean authority and realized the wall was a door with a single keyhole, then suspected that only one person could claim the key.
• Su Mo triggered fusion to return, and Yan Xiaqing told him the experiment had succeeded.

Su Mo and Yan Xiaqing developed a way to test whether people could load a Mark, while Su Mo discovered that his self-fused Mark was cracked and costly to repair. The tests revealed that only 119 villagers out of more than a thousand had the required anchors, leaving Su Mo to face the consequences of this sharp divide.

• Su Mo inspected his cracked Mark and learned that its human identity could be concealed through a costly targeted modification.
• Yan Xiaqing completed a detection method based on thirteen genetic anchors, and Su Mo began testing people in the Brain Box.
• Lü Kuan and Su Deben failed their matches, while Yan Xiaqing succeeded and confirmed the test mechanism worked.
• Yan Xiaqing, Bai Yiqi, Ouyang Guo, Ai Jianqiang, and Ai Jianfeng were among those tested; four of the first ten people passed overall.
• Su Mo ordered Chen Shen to test the villagers, and only 119 people out of more than a thousand passed, a success rate of about nine percent.

Su Mo confronted the divide created by the imprint tests and used a lottery to distribute two imprint slots, insisting everyone could draw regardless of their results. When Lü Kuan won despite being unable to pass the anchor points, Su Mo refused to let him give the slot away and transformed the virtual meeting room, leaving the group with a defiant question about Heaven’s will.

• The retest confirmed that only 9% of the villagers could load imprints, while Chen Shen and Li Hu described their disappointing results to Su Mo.
• Su Mo promised Chen Shen and Li Hu that he could install imprints on them, then reviewed Lü Kuan’s research notes and saw how Lü Kuan had set aside his own ambitions for the collective.
• Su Mo announced a lottery for two imprint slots and, despite Ouyang Guo’s objection and Su Deben’s advice, made everyone draw, including those with no anchor points.
• Ai Jianfeng drew the first red ball, and Lü Kuan drew the second after Yan Xiaqing and Zhuo Junfan drew black balls.
• Lü Kuan tried to give his slot to Yan Xiaqing, but Su Mo refused, declared himself both their friend and the basin’s lord, and left the virtual meeting room as it shattered into darkness and lightning.

Su Mo successfully fused imprints with Lü Kuan and Ai Jianfeng, giving them real bodies and restoring their senses. He then began interviewing three candidates for an assistant role at the Kindling Exchange, and the chapter ended with him laughing at the game planner’s claim that he could get Freedom City residents to spend their money.

• Su Mo screened 119 villagers and selected three candidates with strong social skills, loyalty, and business-related abilities.
• Su Mo fused an imprint with Lü Kuan, whose apparent screams of pain turned out to be a confused reaction after the painless process succeeded.
• Su Mo gave Lü Kuan and Ai Jianfeng templates that let them leave the Brain Box in transformed bodies, and both men ran outside in excitement.
• Su Deben asked for the next imprint slot and told Su Mo he wanted the Hollow to confront its enemies after winter.
• Chen Shen brought the three candidates to the shelter, where Su Mo interviewed them for an assistant position at the Kindling Exchange.
• The candidates pitched their strengths, and Su Mo burst out laughing when the B-grade game planner said he could get Freedom City residents to spend their spare money.

Su Mo compared three candidates in a thirty-day business simulation to choose an agent for a secret mission in Freedom City. Hao Qiang’s unconventional strategy amassed the most wealth, and Su Mo selected him to lead the initial assault.

• Su Mo began a Virtual Reality business simulation to evaluate He Chengji, Xu Jiu, and Hao Qiang, whose strategies targeted the exchanges, the market, and ordinary civilians respectively.
• He Chengji built alliances with the Ten Great Exchanges and secured authority over the Medical Category, while Xu Jiu’s aggressive tactics violated the rules and left the Kindling Exchange blacklisted.
• Hao Qiang spent most of the simulation gathering information and stockpiling unpopular goods, then spread rumors among refugees to drive up demand and rapidly increase the Kindling Exchange’s wealth.
• At the simulation’s end, Hao Qiang scored 410 wealth points and received a final score of 94, while He Chengji scored 88 and Xu Jiu scored 41.
• Su Mo selected all three candidates but chose Hao Qiang to carry out the initial assault, then ordered the others to keep the mission secret.

As the April 20 disaster approached, Su Mo assigned Hao Qiang to infiltrate Freedom City and reviewed the lowland’s urgent plans for winter. After inspecting construction and planting the precious rice-leaf seeds, Su Mo left the territory’s future dependent on their preparations and the coming spring.

• Su Mo raised Hao Qiang and his brother’s talent benefits to A-Class, then sent Hao Qiang to train with Su Deben before his mission to Freedom City.
• Su Mo rejected calls to rest and outlined three urgent tasks: establish Hao Qiang in Freedom City, investigate the Ancient Treant, and prepare to attack the dwarves’ Black Stone Camp.
• Lü Kuan and Ai Jianfeng took on work involving a Virtual Reality training scenario, battery technology, and preparations for a smelting furnace.
• After a nap, Su Mo surveyed the lowland’s roads, farmland, mining, and statue construction, and noted that its population and food supplies needed to grow.
• Su Mo planted the rice-leaf seeds in Fruit Tree Mountain’s sunniest fertile spot and watered them with Second Generation Psionic Water.

Su Mo oversaw the completion and first pressure test of Hope Village’s earthen boiler room as temperatures began to fall. When the test revealed fluctuating pressure, he discovered a Hot Stone hidden in the pipes and considered upgrading the heating system.

• Su Mo recorded the falling temperatures, the villagers’ food shortages, and his plans to develop Hope Village before Chen Shen told him the boiler room was ready.
• Su Mo went with Chen Shen to the boiler room, where Ai Jianfeng presented the completed heating system and Su Mo unveiled the Heating Room plaque.
• Ai Jianfeng began the pressure test, and the gauges showed stable circulation at 30 percent but fluctuating pressure at 70 percent.
• Su Mo used the System Panel to inspect the boiler room and discovered that a Hot Stone embedded 63.26 meters into the pipes was absorbing and releasing heat.
• Su Mo examined three upgrade options for the boiler room, including an iron boiler, a high-efficiency boiler, and an Alchemy Furnace.

Su Mo chose to pursue an Alchemy Furnace upgrade and discovered that Hot Stone was stabilizing the basin’s new boiler system. The successful test brought warmth to the workers, though its heavy coal consumption threatened the basin’s winter supplies.

• Su Mo decided to upgrade the boiler into an Alchemy Furnace using an upgraded Hot Stone Mine and planned a trip to Freedom City with Hao Qiang to prepare for the coming blizzard.
• Su Mo found Hot Stone beside the pipeline, and Ai Jianfeng and Lü Kuan examined its heat-storage properties and discussed its possible connection to superconductivity.
• Su Mo ordered the team to continue testing, and the boiler ran successfully after water completed fifteen cycles through the pipelines.
• Ai Jianfeng warned Su Mo that the boiler would consume coal too quickly to last through the long winter.
• Su Mo reassured Ai Jianfeng that the workers’ warmth and cooperation mattered more than the basin’s current shortage of resources.

Hope Village began a test run of its heating system, and its residents were moved by the warmth and the support it represented. Su Mo and Hao Qiang then transformed and departed for Freedom City, leaving the village leaders to carry out his instructions and prepare to confront the dwarves.

• Xu Jingming's team received its task reward, including hot-water quotas and radiator time, along with notice that Hope Village's heating system had begun its test run.
• The villagers read Su Mo's message and wept with relief, then hurried back to their rooms to enjoy the newly heated homes.
• Su Mo reassured the others that he would reach Freedom City by morning and told them to complete the tasks he had entrusted to them.
• Su Mo and Hao Qiang transformed into a Rapid Road Lizard and a mechanical Modified Human, then set out together for Freedom City.
• Chen Shen and Lü Kuan agreed to keep Su Mo's departure from Su Chan, while the remaining villagers vowed to keep working and make the dwarves repay what they had stolen.

Su Mo returned to Freedom City with Hao Qiang, evaded a suspicious gate inspection by bribing the guards, and discovered that the Kindling Exchange had been renovated while he was away. After revealing that he had killed Alec and ordering Tena to eliminate the mercenaries who betrayed him, Su Mo learned that the Ten Great Exchanges and the Guard Team were locked in a tense struggle, leaving his exchange at a precarious balance between the two sides.

• Su Mo and Hao Qiang entered Freedom City after Su Mo paid two guards to overlook the suspicious details of Hao Qiang's mark.
• Su Mo returned to the Kindling Exchange, where Tena explained that the Ten Great Exchanges had renovated the shop and courtyard while he was away.
• Su Mo told Tena that the mercenaries had sold out his whereabouts to Alec, whom Su Mo had killed, and ordered Tena to kill the mercenaries.
• Tena reported that the Demon Domain Exchange had briefly cut supplies to the Guard Team, whose members then killed its shopkeeper before supplies resumed under a replacement.
• Su Mo concluded that the Ten Great Exchanges had claimed the Kindling Exchange by renovating it while the Guard Team had asserted its power, placing Su Mo between both factions.

Su Mo and Hao Qiang discussed how to break Freedom City’s stagnant market, deciding to wait for an opportunity to profit by turning merchants against one another. They went with Tena to handle Hao Qiang’s identity and buy mercenaries, reaching the High Wall where the restricted trade was located.

• Tena watched Kindling Exchange’s profits stagnate as the same traders repeatedly bought and sold goods, while the city’s weak economy and absent lord left him discouraged.
• Hao Qiang proposed that war or another external pressure could revive trade, but Su Mo rejected the idea and Hao Qiang suggested waiting for an opportunity to manipulate the market instead.
• Su Mo agreed with Hao Qiang’s plan to wait and use their small, concealed position to influence events when the timing was right.
• Tena reported that trading remained unchanged, and Su Mo proposed buying people at the mercenary trade site and handling Hao Qiang’s identity.
• Su Mo, Hao Qiang, and Tena left through the back door and discovered that the mercenary market was located inside the High Wall.

Su Mo, Tena, and Hao Qiang entered Freedom City’s Inner City and explored its underground mercenary market, where Su Mo studied the city’s slave-trading system and searched for useful people. Hao Qiang then discovered a human captive who claimed to know the location of a settlement of about thirty thousand people within a thousand kilometers southeast of the Wasteland.

• Tena reassured Hao Qiang that his identity issue could be resolved, and the three entered the Inner City using their purple imprint privileges.
• A Fox Race guide explained the Inner City’s mercenary market and its rules, including the trade in other races as information templates and resaleable slaves.
• Tena, Hao Qiang, and Su Mo split up to inspect exchanges; Su Mo searched several shops while Hao Qiang explored the larger ones.
• Hao Qiang found a human captive who offered information about a super-large human settlement if Hao Qiang bought him.
• Hao Qiang told Su Mo that the settlement held around thirty thousand people and lay southeast of the Wasteland.

Su Mo investigated a reported human settlement of thirty thousand people southeast of the depression and used his cover as Haer to pursue the lead. He bought seven mercenaries, including a former fourth-tier professional seeking revenge, and left with them and Hao Qiang after completing their paperwork.

• Su Mo reasoned that the rumored settlement could be hidden in the mountain ranges southeast of the depression and decided to investigate it with Hao Qiang.
• Su Mo posed as Haer and learned that Manager Shi Ren had taken the man who advertised information about the settlement.
• Su Mo chose a shackled former fourth-tier professional who wanted revenge, then followed the man’s advice and bought six more mercenaries for a total of thirty-four thousand Contribution Points.
• Su Mo arranged Hao Qiang’s identity paperwork and paid the required fine while processing the mercenaries’ documents.
• The seven mercenaries arrived at the office with first-tier arm Modified Human templates, and Su Mo told Tena he valued their potential loyalty.

Su Mo returned to the Kindling Exchange with seven new mercenaries and exposed the eighteen employees who had been spying on or sabotaging the business for eleven different forces. After ordering the traitors punished, he was interrupted by the arrival of Steward Shi and another unexpected guest.

• Su Mo learned that Shi Ren might be seeking an alliance with the Wetlands and decided to save twenty thousand Survival Points so he could kill Shi Ren and take his place.
• Su Mo brought seven mercenaries back to the Kindling Exchange, where the treant and the other employees were waiting.
• Su Mo’s mercenaries surrounded the treant, and the group discovered that all eighteen employees had been working for outside forces.
• The employees confessed to spying, stealing, sabotaging goods, planning arson, and even plotting poisonings on behalf of eleven forces.
• Su Mo used his seal to immobilize the traitors and had Tena begin executing them while promising the loyal mercenaries freedom and strength.
• Steward Shi arrived at the exchange with another guest, and Su Mo greeted them warmly.

Su Mo negotiated with Shi Ren, resisted his mental attack, and collected the mercenary marks while preparing to leave Freedom City. Seven days before the blizzard, the Radiant Empire launched a major assault, and Su Mo realized the Demon Soul Race and its enemy might finally fight to determine a victor.

• Shi Ren offered information about a thirty-thousand-person human settlement and promised Su Mo a share of trade profits in exchange for meeting the human Su God, while secretly using a mental ability that Su Mo resisted.
• Su Mo pretended to agree to help Shi Ren arrange a meeting after the blizzard, and Shi Ren left believing his ability had worked.
• The families who had schemed against the Kindling Exchange repaid their debts, giving it ninety-four thousand Contribution Points, and Su Mo secured eighteen green marks.
• Su Mo told Tena he would leave to help the humans and instructed him to cooperate with Hao Qiang, as dark clouds gathered over Freedom City.
• A powerful tremor shook the city as the Radiant Empire attacked, collapsing buildings and setting fires near the city gates and Inner City.
• Su Mo armed himself as residents fled toward the Inner City and concluded that the Demon Soul Race and the Radiant Empire might finally decide a victor.

Su Mo defended the Kindling Exchange from a Radiant Empire squad, captured the survivors, and learned that the attackers had detailed maps of Freedom City’s defenses and resources. After studying the map, he saw an opportunity to loot valuable exchanges amid the chaos and began planning a raid.

• Su Mo ordered his group to secure the Kindling Exchange, protect the back door, and avoid leaving to fight elsewhere.
• A Radiant Empire squad found the back door, broke in, and was ambushed by Su Mo, who killed several attackers before the mercenaries helped overwhelm them.
• The four surviving modified humans surrendered and revealed that the Radiant Empire had mapped Freedom City’s factions, danger levels, and resources.
• Su Mo confirmed the map’s accuracy and saw that the Kindling Exchange was a low-priority target compared with the city’s major exchanges.
• Su Mo considered exploiting the fighting to loot one of the four Outer City exchanges that sold imported goods.

Su Mo burned the Kindling Exchange to hide its valuables and his strength, then disguised himself as a Radiant Empire fighter and waited for an Imported Goods exchange to come under attack. While the two sides fought outside, he slipped in, killed the guards, and stole the entire stock before rejoining the crowd unnoticed.

• Su Mo ordered Tena to move valuable materials into the basement, killed the captives, and set the Kindling Exchange ablaze to conceal what had happened.
• Su Mo abandoned his Haer template, disguised himself as a Radiant Empire fighter, and traveled through the city toward an Imported Goods exchange.
• After discovering the smallest exchange had already been looted, Su Mo waited near a larger shop until the Radiant Empire attackers began their assault.
• Su Mo entered the exchange during the battle, killed the Demon Soul Race guards inside, and packed its Imported Goods into his Storage Space.
• After discarding his own belongings to make room for the remaining goods, Su Mo slipped back outside, leaving the exchange empty without anyone noticing.

Su Mo joined Dyson’s Heaven's Choice squad and guided them through a string of Imported Goods exchanges, harvesting markings while concealing his own plans. Their final raid nearly wiped out the squad, but Su Mo discovered a hidden chest containing more than a hundred high-order templates.

• Modified Humans defeated the Sixth Order Flame Dragon Lizard, and Su Mo joined Dyson’s Heaven's Choice squad under the name Su Chi.
• Su Mo steered the squad away from the Inner City and toward a quiet street, where they captured several exchanges and collected markings.
• Su Mo led Heaven's Choice into a heavily defended antique-style building, where enemies killed or crippled most of the squad and severely wounded Su Mo.
• After the battle, Su Mo and Dyson searched the building and found a concealed chest filled with high-order templates, including a Sixth Order Dwarf Master template and a Fifth Order Harvest Treant template.

Su Mo escaped the burning exchange with stolen templates and materials, but a blast from an eighth-tier Flame Dragon knocked him unconscious near the underground shelter. After waking, he learned the Modified Humans had withdrawn and resolved to return to the Wasteland quickly to prepare for future wars.

• Su Mo realized the Ten Great Exchanges had likely aided the Radiant Empire's invasion and taken templates from their hidden cache before escaping with Dyson and the others.
• Su Mo and his companions burned the exchange, split up to avoid detection, and Su Mo made his injured way toward the Kindling Exchange.
• A series of shock waves from an eighth-tier Flame Dragon struck Freedom City, knocked Su Mo unconscious, and exposed the shelter's second exit.
• The shelter's occupants found Su Mo outside and brought him inside, where Hao Qiang later told him the Modified Humans had withdrawn and that their special potion prevented wounds from healing through template changes.
• After hearing the city remained unstable and recalling the Flame Dragon's power, Su Mo decided to lie low and return to the Wasteland to prepare for war.

After realizing humanity needed to revive its own technology rather than imitate other races, Su Mo used the chaos after the attack to secure purple marks for himself and Tena. He woke in the basement to learn that Freedom City's passage had reopened, leaving him free to return to the Wasteland.

• Su Mo concluded that the other races had chosen specialized development paths and decided humanity should focus on reviving technology.
• Su Mo used Psionic Water to treat his wounds enough to travel, then asked Tena, Xin Yi, and Xin Er to take him to the Inner City for a mark upgrade.
• Shi Ren escorted the group through the wrecked Outer City and vouched for Tena and Su Mo to enter the Inner City.
• Su Mo and Tena upgraded their marks from blue to purple, gaining permission to load Fifth-Order templates.
• Su Mo slept until the afternoon, when Hao Qiang told him the passage out of Freedom City had reopened at noon and all travel restrictions were gone.