Chapter Summaries

Katerina escaped her underground shelter and joined Su Mo’s Tian Yuan Territory, where she eagerly discussed the biological modification research he had sent her. The chapter left her beginning her new life among the Alliance, with her praise of the food earning Xiao Cai Bi a large experience boost.

• Katerina escaped through a collapsed exit during a storm and met Feng Long, who took her by airship toward the Warning Wall.
• Su Mo welcomed Katerina to the camp, and she introduced herself as an Academy researcher specializing in biological genetics and medicine.
• Katerina praised the human modification research materials and learned that their inventor was in Tian Yuan Territory.
• Katerina ate a large meal, praised Xiao Cai Bi’s pan-fried dumplings, and unexpectedly boosted his experience bar.

Su Mo prepared for Hades’s meeting in Clear Harbor as Katerina warned that Hades might attack before his hibernation window closed. On February 1, the system refreshed its missions, including a three-month challenge to become the recognized leader of the West Suburbs Alliance, and Su Mo began considering how the coming winter might help.

• Katerina told Su Mo that Hades had limited time before hibernation became dangerous and might try to eliminate him, and Su Mo promised to be ready for an attack.
• Su Mo returned to the Underground City, where Chen Shen reported that the garment factory was making winter clothes and Su Mo ordered the heating facilities inspected.
• At eight o’clock, Su Mo refreshed the system missions and saw rewards for recruiting residents, expanding the territory, and taking part as a main force in a large war.
• Su Mo read the three-month challenge requiring him to become the West Suburbs Alliance’s trusted leader, with an added technology floor for Tian Yuan Underground City as the reward.
• After seeing guards struggle against the cold, Su Mo considered that the approaching winter might give him an opportunity.

The West Suburbs Alliance arrived in Qinggang New City for Hades’s meeting, and Su Mo explained how trade, labor, and war shaped the shelters’ economies. The group entered the conference room to hear Hades’s plans, while Qinggang Shelter’s officials remained cowed by his recent purge.

• Hunter Tiger, Su Mo, Kevin, and Aldrich traveled with the West Suburbs Alliance’s envoys, while Aldrich weighed Giant City Shelter’s allegiance.
• The administrators inspected the enormous dwarf and lizard corpses beside the Lightning Wall, and Hunter Tiger mocked the South Suburbs officials who watched them.
• Su Mo explained that Qinggang Shelter’s relief meals and infrastructure projects could not sustain wanderers without external profits, while war and trade could bring in resources.
• Kevin concluded that Hades had called the meeting to address the shelters’ lack of external profits, and Su Mo agreed that Hades had studied the West Suburbs Alliance’s operations.
• Lewis escorted the West Suburbs Alliance toward the conference room after Hunter Tiger complained about the lack of refreshments, and Lewis swallowed his anger out of fear of Hades.

Su Mo and the other administrators entered Qinggang Shelter for the second Qinggang Conference after Hades offered to show them captured monsters. Inside, Su Mo inspected the shelter’s practical design and saw how few representatives the West Suburbs Alliance had compared with the other regions.

• Su Mo sampled Qinggang Shelter’s Quicksand Cake and sour drink while Hunter Tiger, Kevin, and Aldrich praised Tian Yuan Territory’s food.
• Su Mo said the West Suburbs Alliance would wait to learn Hades’s attitude and hoped for peaceful cooperation rather than prepare for war.
• Lewis invited the administrators to see captured monsters in the underground prison, and the groups agreed to enter Qinggang Shelter.
• Su Mo and the others passed through Qinggang’s New City and entered its simply designed, forty-level shelter.
• The administrators gathered in the conference room on the thirty-fifth underground floor, where Hunter Tiger lamented the West Suburbs Alliance’s small delegation and Kevin joked that Teacher should lead it.

Hades presented Qinggang Shelter’s interrogation of captured dwarves, revealing that their army had intended to find Tian Yuan Territory and capture Su Mo. The interrogation ended without explaining why the dwarves feared Su Mo, and Hades turned the question toward him.

• Hades arrived late, apologized for the trouble caused by his people, and introduced himself to the city’s administrators.
• Hades showed an interrogation in which a captured dwarf said his force had come to Qinggang City to find Tian Yuan Territory and capture Su Mo.
• The dwarf called Su Mo the strongest among humans and listed several alarming titles, prompting the administrators to laugh off the claims.
• Researchers questioned the dwarf about his people and their plans, but he repeatedly answered that he did not know and died from excessive electrical stimulation.
• The researchers said the dwarves’ brainwave responses confirmed Tian Yuan Territory and Su Mo existed, and Hades asked Su Mo what he thought.

Hades revealed Qinggang Shelter’s city-destroying Eternal Water God and demanded supplies and a military foothold from the West Suburbs Alliance. As the hall pressured Su Mo to answer, he waited for one o’clock, then rose as the ground began to shake and pointed upward, declaring that the disruption was his answer.

• Hades showed the administrators a map of the Eternal Water God and warned that it could disintegrate everything on Qinggang City’s surface, though activating it would leave the surface irradiated for decades.
• Hades asked Hunter Tiger for his strategy, but Hunter Tiger named Su Mo as the founder and representative of the West Suburbs Alliance.
• Su Mo criticized Qinggang Shelter’s recent failures, and Hades demanded thirty percent of the alliance’s trade goods and permission to build a military fortress in its territory.
• Su Mo watched his clock as Hades’ demand left the administrators stunned and fearful.
• At one o’clock, thunderous booms shook the hall and disrupted the screen, and Su Mo stood up, pointed upward, and called the upheaval his answer.

Su Mo used the Energy Stone Bomb to threaten Hades and force an end to the confrontation, leaving Qinggang Shelter’s dominance over the city in question. The West Suburbs Alliance gained recognition, and Su Mo completed his alliance-leader Challenge Task ahead of schedule as he prepared for Hades to cooperate.

• Su Mo showed the conference attendees the destroyed section of Qinggang’s Lightning Wall and warned Hades that another explosion could devastate the shelter.
• Su Mo told Hades that he and Hunter Tiger had witnessed his biological Gene Sequence intensifier attack on the dwarves, then urged him to follow the wasteland’s rules.
• Su Mo left the meeting with Hunter Tiger, Kevin, and Aldrich as the other managers fled and Tang En ordered guards to escort them out.
• In the elevator, Su Mo explained that the bomb would have exploded regardless of Hades’s decision and that a new enemy might make Hades more willing to unite the city.
• Su Mo’s system announced that he had completed the alliance-leader Challenge Task more than 95% ahead of schedule and added Pingtan Shelter, Giant City Shelter, and Horsens Pingtan Shelter to the alliance panel.
• Su Mo predicted that Hades would choose to cooperate rather than attack the West Suburbs Alliance.

Su Mo and Hunter Tiger discussed Qinggang Shelter’s possible cooperation with the West Suburbs Alliance, while Hades reconsidered his hostility toward Su Mo after seeing the alliance’s weapon. Hades sent Tang En to negotiate cooperation with Tian Yuan Shelter and made success the test for Tang En’s future as manager.

• Su Mo questioned whether Hunter Tiger was better suited to command than manage, then reasoned that Hades would soon need to decide whether to remain active or return to sleep.
• Tang En reported that engineers could probably repair the Lightning Wall, but they could not identify how the bomb had been deployed or explain its mysterious fragment.
• Hades reconsidered his plans after hearing that Su Mo might know about the wasteland’s changes and concluded that cooperating with Tian Yuan Shelter was better than fighting it.
• Hades ordered Tang En to negotiate with Tian Yuan Shelter, arguing that Su Mo’s destruction of part of the wall was a warning rather than a declaration of war.
• Hades made successful negotiations Tang En’s chance to prove he could become Qinggang Shelter’s manager, while he planned to study the captured dwarves and their weapons.

After the Great Cooling began, Su Mo returned to Tian Yuan Territory and reviewed the unstable Energy Stone Bomb project and his shelter upgrade reward. He drew a basic activity facility set, chose an underground floor, planned to upgrade the Bronze civilization, and learned that more than eighty thousand people had gathered at the Giant Tree Root relay station.

• Su Mo traded Cold Protection Supplies with his allies, including Hunter Tiger, and warned them to slow construction as freezing rain brought a sharp drop in temperature.
• Su Mo and Su Deben discussed the threat of the Eternal Water God beneath Qinggang City and the limitations of their Energy Stone Bombs.
• Su Mo found that his completed Challenge Task gave him thirty days to claim an additional shelter floor and offered a time-sensitive lottery draw.
• Su Mo drew the basic activity facility set of simple decoration, a bathroom, an activity square, and a kitchen, then selected an underground floor for the reward.
• Su Mo reviewed the remaining Bronze civilization requirement and decided to upgrade before winter fully arrived, despite the unfinished Warning Wall.
• Su Deben told Su Mo that more than eighty thousand people had gathered at the Giant Tree Root relay station and that its manager might soon be overthrown.

Li Cha struggled to keep control of the Giant Tree Root Relay Station as his uncle Xu LeGuo’s gambling debts and a threat to expose a hidden supply cache raised suspicions. When Ma Kasi revealed evidence that Xu LeGuo had colluded with pirates, Li Cha decided to have him imprisoned.

• Li Cha learned that Xu LeGuo owed five thousand Sea Shells at the casino and agreed to pay the debt before ordering Bao Lei to lock his uncle in the Water Prison.
• Xu LeGuo threatened to reveal the location of Li Cha’s hidden supplies, prompting Li Cha to order that no one visit him without permission.
• Ma Kasi told Li Cha that travelers suspected Xu LeGuo of giving pirates the relay station’s defense information and showed him evidence of their contact.
• Li Cha rejected demands that he compensate the travelers and asked Ma Kasi to help put Xu LeGuo in the Water Prison.

Xu LeGuo tried to save himself by offering Bao Lei the location of a secret supply site and proposing that they accuse Li Cha of collaborating with pirates. Bao Lei had him imprisoned while considering the scheme, as the chapter also showed Tian Yuan Territory organizing flood-control work and distributing cold-weather supplies.

• Bao Lei told Xu LeGuo that rumors accused him of selling defense maps to pirates, and Xu LeGuo feared the Relay Station's residents would kill him.
• Xu LeGuo offered Bao Lei a secret supply site worth at least two hundred thousand Sea Shells in exchange for protection, but Bao Lei refused to act unless the supplies could be moved to him.
• Xu LeGuo proposed accusing Li Cha of being the real pirate mole so Bao Lei could become administrator, and Bao Lei considered the possibility of taking control of the Relay Station.
• Bao Lei ordered his soldiers to lock Xu LeGuo in the Water Prison and keep outsiders away from him while he decided what to do.
• As heavy rain and falling temperatures threatened the New Continent, Tian Yuan Territory organized a waterway project from Fishmen Village to the Warning Wall and Su Mo approved free Cold Resistance Supplies.

As winter halted farming in Wasteland Bone Village, the Tian Yuan Territory distributed warm clothes and other relief supplies to its villagers, strengthening their loyalty and showing how disciplined they had become. Xia Zuo realized the supplies could help with a new plan to recruit wanderers in Qinggang City, but he and Ram needed disguises to avoid detection.

• Winter winds froze the fields, leaving more than three hundred Farmer Route players idle and dealing Wasteland Bone Village a severe economic setback.
• Wasteland Bear and Wasteland Wolf organized the villagers into disciplined ranks before distributing the factory’s first Cold Resistance Sets and meals.
• Kun Xi received a complete set of new clothes and changed into it, impressing the villagers and the observing players with its warmth.
• Lao Bu Zheng Jing reflected that the natives’ adaptability made them effective at repetitive work, while Xia Zuo and Ram discussed using the supplies to attract wanderers in Qinggang City.
• Xia Zuo revised his recruitment plan after speaking with Osmon and decided they would need disguises to avoid being recognized in Qinggang Shelter.

Su Mo reviewed Tian Yuan Territory’s growing workload, discussed support for Bao Lei and relations with Pingtan and Qinggang Shelters, then waited for the shelter’s Sixth Floor to become available. After claiming it, he discovered that the new floor came with an elevator shaft and advanced elevator equipment.

• Chen Shen reported the territory’s pending affairs, including Bao Lei’s request for 300 core staff at Giant Tree Root Relay Station.
• Su Mo and Chen Shen discussed borrowing Pingtan Army soldiers for Bao Lei, while Su Mo decided Qinggang Shelter would receive treatment below that of Tian Yuan’s allies.
• Su Mo asked Chen Shen to find him a secretary and spent the morning reviewing and signing official documents.
• After preparing the shelter for an upgrade, Su Mo claimed the Sixth Floor and watched new stairs appear quietly below the fifth floor.
• Su Mo found steel cables in the elevator shaft and identified the new installation as a more advanced forced-drive elevator.

Su Mo explored the newly completed B6 Floor of Tian Yuan Underground City, discovering advanced shower facilities, a kitchen, and a powerful surveillance room. He opened the last door in the Guard Room and was thrilled by what he found, but the chapter ended before revealing it.

• Su Mo registered his biological information at the Alloy Gate and entered the newly opened B6 Floor.
• Su Mo tested the Shower Room’s rain shower, expandable bath, and Supermolecular Rinse, then decided to charge residents to use the facility.
• Su Mo explored the kitchen and found a microwave, Coffee Machine, refrigerator, and bar-style seating.
• Su Mo used the Guard Room’s screen to view distant locations, including the Warning Wall, and learned from Number Zero that the surveillance consumed a large amount of reserve power.
• Su Mo opened the final door in the Guard Room and reacted with wild joy at what was inside.

Su Mo explored B6’s Guard Room and discovered a deployment system that could send people to distant locations once they were linked to Tian Yuan Territory. Its enormous energy cost made the technology impractical for now, so Su Mo began planning how to obtain cheap power and make use of his accumulated trump cards.

• Su Mo found fifty Guard Exoskeletons and three advanced Inspector Exoskeletons, along with blueprints and instructions, and tried on one of the Inspector suits.
• Su Mo entered the final B6 room, found glowing rings containing a substance that vanished and reappeared, and discovered a passage connecting it to the Guard Room’s observation machine.
• Su Mo used the machine’s new Deploy function and identified the Giant Tree Root Sea Area as an available deployment location, while observing it consumed half of the shelter’s stored energy.
• Su Mo learned that deployment required people to establish a Quantum Echo at the destination and would cost about one million kilowatt-hours to send roughly one hundred people.
• Su Mo concluded that the deployment system was too energy-intensive to use until he found a cheap power source, and began planning to use some of his accumulated cards.

Chen Shen and the management team toured the newly revealed B6 Floor, marveling at its elevators and advanced interior. Su Mo introduced them to the bathroom, where Wang Qian discovered its astonishing Scrub function, leaving the group eager to try it.

• Chen Shen and the management team discovered the Shelter Core's passenger and freight elevators and rode the passenger elevator to B6 Floor.
• The team was stunned by B6 Floor's pristine, futuristic design, and Su Mo emerged to welcome them and arrange fresh clothes.
• Su Mo led the group into the bathroom and selected Wang Qian to test one of its cubicles.
• Wang Qian pressed Scrub and was rapidly cleaned by the bathroom's vapor system, emerging transformed and delighted.
• Wang Qian offered two copper coins to try the other functions, while Su Mo invited the others to use the bathroom and kept the Guard Room and Deployment Room secret.

Su Mo prepared Qinggang City to receive the coming migration wave while seeking a solution to the territory’s energy needs. Meanwhile, Hades learned that Tianyuan might possess Qinggang Shelter’s Nuclear Generator production core and sent a delegation to confirm it, as Tang En encountered people wearing Cotton Clothes.

• Su Mo assigned his subordinates plans for the Underground City’s central activity floor, migrant training, the military camp, and its cafeteria.
• Lü Kuan complained that Katerina had filled the research institute with Coolie Lizards and wanted to examine the Brain Boxes, so Su Mo arranged for her to work beside the Breeding Farm.
• Su Mo considered how to secure a million kilowatt-hours of energy and wished the Fusion Energy Tower still worked or that he had a nuclear power generator.
• Hades learned that the signal from Qinggang Shelter’s missing Nuclear Generator production core pointed toward Tianyuan, then ordered Tang En to bring a detector and confirm it during cooperation talks.
• Tang En walked through the cold, deserted Qinggang New City and nearly collided with two people wearing Cotton Clothes.

As Qinggang Shelter struggled to protect surface residents from the cold, Xia Zuo and Ram introduced themselves as merchants from the Wandering Tribe and tried to spread word of their supplies. In Tian Yuan, Su Mo found the village thriving despite winter and encouraged Hu Teng, then planned to visit Pingtan Shelter.

• Tang En learned that Qinggang Shelter lacked usable Cold Resistance Supplies and faced growing illness among its surface residents.
• Xia Zuo and Ram told Tang En they were merchants from the western Wandering Tribe, but Tang En left without learning their true connection to Tian Yuan Shelter.
• Xia Zuo and Ram continued looking for people to tell about their tribe and its Cold Resistance Supplies.
• As the wind weakened on the fourth day of winter, Su Mo toured Hope Village and saw its new river channel and busy food stalls.
• Su Mo bought Hu Teng's Small Steamed Buns, asked about village life, and encouraged him to keep working toward a home in the Underground City.
• Su Mo noted that winter was having little impact on Tian Yuan and decided to visit Pingtan Shelter.

Su Mo discovered that Osmon’s gift was a Winterfall 105 Nuclear Fusion Small Autonomous Electric Energy Converter Manufacturing Core, a powerful Industrial Core he had overlooked in storage. He realized it might be the core stolen during the Marauders’ attack on Qinggang New City and found that it had a dormant signal transmission and reception function.

• Su Mo inspected Hope Village, then prepared to visit Pingtan Shelter and searched his private warehouse for a gift.
• Su Mo found Osmon’s note attached to a heavy object and decided the territory needed an official communication channel with Blue Star residents.
• Su Mo appraised the object and discovered it was a Winterfall 105 Nuclear Fusion Small Autonomous Electric Energy Converter Manufacturing Core.
• Su Mo suspected the core was the Industrial Core stolen from Qinggang Shelter during the Marauders’ invasion.
• Su Mo noticed that the core had a dormant signal transmission and reception function.

Sid and the Qinggang envoy group underwent a humiliating security inspection before heading to Hope Village, where Sid was stunned by Tian Yuan Territory’s development. The chapter left him marveling at the new concrete road as the Lizard Cars sped toward the village.

• Sid brought a larger Qinggang envoy group to Tian Yuan Territory, where Xiao Yang ordered everyone to submit to a personal search.
• Xiao Yang confiscated or rejected many of Sid’s disguised intelligence-gathering devices, though the group kept its signal transceiver, energy reactor, and special storage box.
• Fluttering Moth arrived to take the twelve envoys to Hope Village in four Lizard Cars, and the soldiers were startled to see the domesticated lizards.
• Sid rode along a smooth concrete road and wondered how Tian Yuan Territory had built so much in less than four and a half months.