Recaps

Arthur stopped Charles and Senge’s coup in the command hall, overpowering the armed City Defense Army and Law Cultists with ease. Victor regained control of the forces, while Charles and Senge were taken away, leaving Arthur and Jing Nan alone in the hall.

• Charles claimed the City Lord’s seat and mocked Victor, while Senge and the armed troops held Victor, Jing Nan, Arthur, and the unarmed Fangtoothed Sharks under guard.
• Arthur said one person was enough to defeat the troops, then laughed as nearly two hundred soldiers and Law Cultists were knocked down and disarmed.
• Arthur appeared behind Charles with Senge’s pistol, crushed it, and knocked Charles unconscious; Senge surrendered.
• Arthur left the City Defense Army and Law Cultists for Victor to handle, and Victor retook control with Luo Sen and the Fangtoothed Sharks.
• Victor escorted Charles and Senge away while the troops helped remove the unconscious men, leaving only Arthur and Jing Nan in the hall.

After Arthur stopped Charles’s coup, Jing Nan struggled with her feelings for him and left before he could answer whether he had a lover. Meanwhile, Mark’s team flew toward Medical Collection Point T-69, where Heros revealed that Arthur had anticipated Charles’s coup and arranged to contain him.

• Arthur left the hall with Jing Nan, who asked whether he already had a lover but then hurried away before he could answer.
• Arthur continued toward the Scavengers and reflected that telling Jing Nan about his pregnant Spartan Primarch wife would end her growing feelings for him.
• Mark traveled to Medical Collection Point T-69 with ten elite Scavengers and fifty Praetorian Astartes, leaving the Dust People behind.
• Xue Feng, Haji, Mo Cheng, and Erica urged Mark to claim the City Lord position, and Mark agreed to consider it firmly.
• Heros told the Scavengers that Arthur had expected Charles to launch a coup and had arranged for Jing Nan and Victor to take control of Charles and his followers.

The flight formation landed amid an attack by Earth Roars and Serpent Dogs, while Heros explained his family’s power and lack of interest in taking control of The Cage. Heros sent his bodyguards and Frenzied Mako Sharks to clear the landing zone, and the bodyguards began slaughtering the Earth Roars.

• The chapter explained that 4068’s failure to treat his wound had triggered the Mana Flowers’ Xirang and led it to Captain Mark.
• Heros told Erica and Xue Feng that he and his uncle were superhuman members of the powerful Russell Family, but had no interest in controlling The Cage.
• Captain Mark said securing the medical supplies remained the group’s priority as the pilot warned that the landing zone was under heavy fire.
• The dr-7 Transport Boat landed, and the group saw hundreds of Earth Roars and Serpent Dogs surrounding the flight formation.
• Heros ordered his bodyguards and Frenzied Mako Sharks to attack the Earth Roars while he took on the Serpent Dogs.
• The bodyguards’ Ceramite Armor withstood the Earth Roars’ attacks, and their bolter fire tore through the beasts.

With Heros holding back the Serpent Dogs, the guards and Sharks formed a defensive line and unleashed overwhelming firepower against the Extinction Beasts. Heros slaughtered the fleeing creatures, cleared the landing zone, and told Mark and the others to proceed with their mission.

• The lieutenant ordered the Sharks to form a defensive line and had the snipers fire powerful Gauss rounds at the Extinction Beasts.
• Mark, Mo Cheng, and Xue Feng watched as Heros fought more than a thousand Serpent Dogs alone.
• The Extinction Beasts realized the humans were dangerous and began retreating.
• Heros pursued the fleeing beasts and killed them by destroying their cores, leaving the battlefield cleared.
• Heros returned to the DR-7 and told Mark and the others to enter the collection site.

Erica and the Scavenger Squad reached the T-69 medical collection point, where Heros used his power and the guards’ weapons to defeat the Extinction Beasts hiding below. Heros seized the wounded Calyx Beast and began tearing it apart by hand.

• Erica saw the bloodied ruins and asked Heros if he had caused the destruction alone before Mark ordered the Scavenger Squad to prepare to move.
• Heros ordered the guards to scan the building beneath the Dome Building and learned that flower-bud-shaped anomalies concealed Sting Eels and a Calyx Beast.
• Heros shot the largest flower bud with his Ulu Arrow while the guards fired Bolter Guns at the smaller buds, killing many Sting Eels and badly wounding the Calyx Beast.
• Heros and the guards descended into the hall, followed by Mark and the other Scavenger Squad members using their Gravity Bodies’ thrusters.
• Heros called the struggling Calyx Beast trash, seized it, and began tearing its body apart with his bare hands.

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Calyx Beast is defeated by Heros, who tears off its head and crushes its core, killing it.
• The group discovers a pharmaceutical warehouse and a human storage room filled with cloned children.
• They decide to stick together instead of splitting up, as Heros believes splitting up is dangerous.
• They successfully retrieve all usable drugs, including a special medicine for Morgan and Propyl Thiouracil for Heros.

Character Developments

• Heros demonstrates his immense strength and lack of mercy by easily defeating the Calyx Beast.
• Mark shows concern for his team's safety and suggests splitting up, but Heros refuses.
• Erica shows curiosity and intelligence by deciphering the text on the wall.

Significant Themes

• Power and Strength: Heros's power is emphasized as he effortlessly defeats the Calyx Beast.
• Safety and Caution: Heros's refusal to split up highlights his concern for the group's safety.
• Curiosity and Investigation: Erica's curiosity leads her to decipher the text, revealing the company's illegal activities.

Character Interactions

• Heros and the Calyx Beast: Heros shows no mercy to the Calyx Beast, treating it as a mere 'chicken' to be killed.
• Heros and Mark: Heros and Mark have a difference of opinion on whether to split up, but Heros's decision prevails.
• Erica and Heros: Erica and Heros work together to decipher the text on the wall, showing a brief moment of teamwork.

Arthur had sent Heros to retrieve medicines for City Lord Morgan, but the expedition discovered a storage room full of Mark’s dead childhood clones. After the group returned to the surface, Heros learned that people were nearby and leapt from the aircraft to meet them.

• Heros, Mark, and the others collected medicine, including propanone, and found white mice on their way to the human storage room.
• Mark and the Wilderness Hunters discovered around twenty dead clones of Mark, leaving Mark stunned by the revelation.
• Mark ordered Mo Cheng to bring one clone back to the Lighthouse for Dr. Carrie to study, then left the storage room.
• The group returned to the surface, where the lieutenant reported signs of human activity in ruins to the north.
• The aircraft formation scanned the ruins and detected six human-shaped thermal images, so Heros ordered the planes to hover at three thousand meters.
• Heros jumped from the DR-7 to meet the people below.

Heros jumped from the aircraft into the ruined city and encountered Bai Yuekui and five companions. After they tried to leave without answering his questions, he knocked them unconscious and had the Flying Formation take them back to the lighthouse.

• Heros leaped from the cabin and landed in a city intersection, where he found Mana Flowers but no Extinction Beasts.
• Heros spotted Bai Yuekui and five companions on a nearby rooftop and approached them to ask how they had survived on the surface.
• Bai Yuekui questioned Heros in return, and he warned the group before using Super Speed to knock all six unconscious.
• Heros contacted Second Lieutenant Hott, and the Flying Formation collected him and the unconscious group before returning to the lighthouse.

Arthur welcomed Heros and Mark’s returning group as their transport aircraft landed at the lighthouse with medical supplies and unconscious companions. Mark sent a dead clone resembling his younger self for investigation, while Arthur arranged for the newcomers to be examined and prepared to treat Morgan and the lighthouse’s residents.

• Arthur and Elon waited on the warehouse platform for the returning aircraft, and Elon urged Arthur to continue protecting Mark and Jing Nan.
• Heros and Mark returned with the mission group, medical chests, and several unconscious people.
• Mo Cheng showed Elon a dead clone that looked like a young Mark, and Mark ordered the body taken to Dr. Carrie for investigation.
• Heros told Arthur that the six unconscious newcomers could survive in regions overrun by Extinction Beasts, and Arthur sent them to Dr. Carrie.
• Arthur announced that they would save Morgan and use the medical supplies to treat everyone aboard the lighthouse, and Mark agreed.

After Morgan recovered, Captain Mark took charge of the Lighthouse and prepared to become Lord City Lord. Dr. Carrie’s research revealed that Mark was a super soldier and, by ordinary logic, the clone of a man who had died decades earlier.

• Arthur used medical supplies and special medicine to win the Lighthouse residents’ support for Captain Mark, while Morgan and 9033 recovered after taking their medicine.
• Morgan delayed the Court Session for four days, ordered Carrie not to kill Bai Yuekui and the others, and gave her time to study them and Mark’s young clone.
• During Morgan’s rehabilitation, Captain Mark became acting Lord City Lord and, with Arthur’s help, replaced Charles’s allies with trusted Hunters in key Lighthouse departments.
• At the command hall, Morgan asked Carrie to explain her research after Captain Mark asked about his origins, Hong Kou, and survivors living on the surface.
• Carrie said Mark and the clone had matching blood data and super-soldier traits, concluding that Captain Mark was not an ordinary human and was likely the clone.

Carrie concluded that Nirvana Company likely engineered the apocalypse and that Mark had a special connection to the company. Arthur condemned its plan to sacrifice most of humanity for evolution, then confronted Morgan about what he knew of Mark’s origins.

• Carrie explained that Mark and the unconscious experimental subjects were unusually compatible with enhancement drugs, leading her to suspect that humans and Nirvana Company caused the apocalypse.
• Jing Nan asked whether Mark and the Hunters had been fighting humans, and Carrie said the enemies might once have been human but were no longer so.
• Arthur recalled Nirvana Company’s slogan and angrily argued that it had sought to abandon most of humanity so a few could evolve.
• Arthur told Morgan that they should speak openly, having noticed Morgan stayed calm when Carrie discussed Mark’s origins.

Morgan revealed the Lighthouse’s secret: Tartarus, a living biological computer that once predicted a route leading to Mark as an infant. Arthur connected the Lighthouse’s research to possible government efforts against Nirvana Company and proposed repairing Tartarus to calculate when a passage to his universe would open.

• Morgan confessed that he had known Mark was unusual and had seen the person in Dr. Carrie’s laboratory, then led the group to the Energy and Computing Center.
• The group saw Tartarus, a vast, partly mechanical brain in a glass tank, and Morgan explained that it had once guided the Lighthouse to an infant who became Mark.
• Arthur asked whether Tartarus had crashed after finding Mark, and Morgan confirmed that it could no longer calculate or operate normally.
• Arthur reasoned that the government might have used the Lighthouse’s imprisoned scientists to develop Tartarus, possibly in secret from Nirvana Company.
• Carrie asked about the six people brought back to the Lighthouse, and Morgan confirmed that the white-haired woman had worn Abyssal One armor powered by its wearer’s life essence.
• Arthur said the transit passage to his universe would eventually open and proposed repairing Tartarus to calculate when the survivors could leave their apocalyptic world.

Arthur explained that repairing the Lighthouse’s Tartarus biological computer could reveal when a passage back to his universe would open, and promised to take the Lighthouse’s people with him. After Arthur and Carrie began working on Tartarus, Mark, Ran Bing, and Jing Nan left the core chamber, and Ran Bing and Jing Nan headed to visit the ill 9033.

• Arthur told Mark and the others that Umbrella could calculate when a passage between universes would open if they repaired Tartarus, and offered to take them back to his universe.
• Ran Bing asked whether Arthur’s world still had free love and family relationships, and Arthur assured her that it did.
• Carrie agreed to help Arthur repair Tartarus, and Morgan cleared the core chamber so the two could work in private.
• Morgan ordered the group to keep the passage secret and decided that Charles would remain in prison until it opened.
• Mark, Ran Bing, and Jing Nan walked through the Dust Person district, where residents swarmed Mark and left Ran Bing and Jing Nan to continue toward 9033.
• Ran Bing asked Jing Nan how things were going between her and Arthur.

Jing Nan confided to Ran Bing that she feared Arthur already loved someone else, while Ran Bing encouraged her to ask him directly. After Mark became City Lord and Tartarus predicted that the dimensional passage would reopen within a month, Arthur prepared to share the news but noticed that Jing Nan looked unwell.

• Jing Nan asked Ran Bing what she would do if the dimensional passage opened, and Ran Bing said she hoped to marry Mark.
• Jing Nan told Ran Bing she believed Arthur already had someone he loved, and Ran Bing suggested asking him directly.
• Ran Bing and Jing Nan went to visit 9033, 8925, and 9027.
• Morgan handed the City Lord position to Mark, while Charles became mentally unstable and Vandi, Sharif, and the masked man were taken into custody.
• Arthur and Carrie repaired Tartarus, whose calculation predicted the dimensional passage would open within twenty-five to thirty days before the system permanently crashed.
• Arthur saw Jing Nan's sallow, thinner appearance and realized he had nearly forgotten her psychological manipulation.

Arthur told Jing Nan that he had a lover and had only approached her for information about the Lighthouse, then left when she asked never to see him again. In the Main Universe, a dimensional passage opened near Pluto, and William ordered Serena to send drones through before guiding Fleet Zero into the other universe.

• Arthur admitted to Jing Nan that he had a lover and that he had approached her to gather intelligence about the Lighthouse.
• Jing Nan slapped Arthur, then realized their conversations had focused on the Lighthouse and asked whether he had no feelings for her.
• Arthur apologized for teasing Jing Nan, and she ordered him to leave and said she did not want to see him again before the dimensional passage opened.
• After Arthur left, Jing Nan went to her room and sobbed on her bed.
• Near Pluto, a blue dimensional passage opened before Fleet Zero at noon on March 23, 2051.
• William ordered Serena to send drones through the passage and have the Dreadnought Warship lead the fleet into the other universe.

William brought Umbrella’s Fleet Zero into the The Cage universe and ordered it to approach the Lighthouse. The fleet’s arrival was detected by the Lighthouse, where the shocked personnel feared the enormous targets were Extinction Beasts.

• Serena sent a drone through the traversal channel to establish coordinates in the The Cage universe, then opened a portal for Fleet Zero.
• Carmen led the fleet through the portal, with the Star Killer entering last and William seeing the barren Oya Continent.
• Serena detected the Lighthouse, Wrong Street Canyon, and human-shaped high-level Extinction Beasts, and confirmed that Arthur was aboard the Lighthouse.
• William ordered Fleet Zero to reveal itself and head toward the Lighthouse to meet the surviving humans.
• At the Lighthouse, Jing Nan’s subordinate detected dozens of approaching targets, including one more than twenty kilometers long, prompting alarm that they might be Extinction Beasts.

As Star Killer arrived above the Lighthouse, Mark reassured its residents that they could leave the apocalypse for a new world. Arthur explained that the battleship could hold the entire Lighthouse, which was soon drawn into its hangar.

• Jing Nan ordered her subordinates to notify Mark and stabilize security after learning Fleet Zero had arrived.
• Star Killer blocked the sun, and the Lighthouse's residents panicked at the sight of the enormous spaceship.
• Mark addressed the citizens, promising they could leave the apocalypse and live in a new world, calming most of them.
• Arthur arrived and told Mark that Star Killer could fit the Lighthouse inside its hangar and that he had contacted his father.
• Star Killer opened its hangar and used an emerald-green beam to lift the entire Lighthouse inside, where its anti-gravity system kept it suspended.

The Star Killer took in the lighthouse residents and rescued the survivors of Wrong Street Canyon, subjecting everyone to disinfection and Nanite Serum treatment. With humanity from The Cage universe aboard, the story left Mark and Ran Bing admiring Earth from the ship while the lighthouse and Tartarus brain were discarded.

• Arthur told Mark to send everyone from the lighthouse to the Hangar Deck, where technicians disinfected and treated them before placing some groups in isolation.
• William ordered the lighthouse and its Tartarus brain thrown out of the Star Killer after Serena dismissed the brain as useless and hideous.
• William sent John, ten personal guards, and one hundred Imperial Guards to rescue the survivors of Wrong Street Canyon, defeating the Extinction Beasts and persuading the residents to leave.
• Serena scanned Earth and confirmed that every human in The Cage universe had boarded the Star Killer.
• Arthur, Heros, Mark, Ran Bing, and the lighthouse officials gathered in a guest cabin, where Ran Bing and Mark gazed at Earth as Mo Cheng teased them.

William told Morgan and the others that Earth had no humans left and asked whether they wanted to stay or leave. Mark realized that leaving Earth might mean destroying it, and William confirmed that was what he meant.

• Arthur and Heros waited with the others as William and Ivan arrived with Athena, Serena, Mylon, and six Custodians.
• Heros greeted Athena and Ivan as his parents, and Arthur introduced William to Morgan, Mark, and the rest of the group as his father.
• Erica asked William how old he was, and he said he was in his sixties.
• Morgan asked William why he had invited them, and William explained that scans found no humans on Earth, only Extinction Beasts and Mana Ecology.
• William asked whether the group wanted to stay on Earth or leave, and Mark asked if he meant destroying Earth; William confirmed it.

William offered Morgan and the Lighthouse residents a choice: destroy Earth or erase its Mana Ecology and Extinction Beasts. Morgan chose to preserve Earth while eliminating the threat, and Serena used a Personal Halo to wipe out Mana Ecology and the humanoid Extinction Beasts, leaving the survivors to prepare for life in civilized society.

• William told Morgan, Mark, and the Lighthouse residents he could erase Earth, Mana Ecology, and the Extinction Beasts with one shot.
• Serena confirmed there were no humans left on Earth, and Morgan chose to preserve their former home while asking William to eliminate only Mana Ecology and the Extinction Beasts.
• William ordered Serena to have Fleet Zero activate its Energy Barriers and deploy a Personal Halo.
• Serena stopped the Halo above Earth and released a flash that spread across the Solar System.
• Serena reported that the Halo had eradicated Mana Ecology and the humanoid Extinction Beasts, and William told the Lighthouse residents to look forward to returning to civilized society.

William brought the Lighthouse survivors to the Main Universe, where Umbrella arranged housing, insurance, and accounts for them. While Arthur volunteered to guide the newcomers, Rebecca examined Bai Yuekui and explained the costs of her genetic modifications, leaving William to consider whether Umbrella should study them.

• William instructed Serena to register the guests, arrange their accommodations and benefits, and take everyone back to the Main Universe.
• William welcomed the Lighthouse survivors to their new universe, and Arthur volunteered to explain its anomalies and diverse species to them.
• Athena told Heros to visit Persephone for training, but Ivan persuaded her to let him rest until the following week.
• Bai Yuekui regained consciousness and cooperated with Rebecca's team, explaining that Nirvana's genetic experiments had kept her appearance youthful but made her cells age faster when she exerted herself.
• Rebecca reported that Bai Yuekui's genetic modifications posed high risks and offered little value compared with Umbrella's existing soldiers and psionic agents.

William arranged new lives and assignments for the people brought from The Cage universe, while Arthur helped Mark and the others settle into Umbrella’s society. The chapter ended with the survivors beginning their new lives in Halifax City and Arthur inviting the young fighters to join Umbrella.

• William ordered Serena to help the Lighthouse and Wrong Street Canyon survivors settle in, and told Rebecca to offer Bai Yuekui a new life or help treat her cellular aging if she cooperated with Umbrella.
• William ordered Vandi, Sharif, and Charles’s group to receive memory wipes and false UNSC identities before being sent to fight with Andre’s forces, while Charles was assigned to Dr. 049 as a test subject.
• William told Serena to notify Morgan that Charles would be sent to 049, and Mylon joked about William calling Morgan an old man.
• William closed the transit channel to The Cage universe, and Fleet Zero returned to Earth’s near-orbit before William, Serena, and Heros went to Halifax City.
• Serena’s staff escorted the Lighthouse and Wrong Street Canyon survivors to Halifax City, while Arthur explained Umbrella’s world to Morgan, Mark, and the others.
• Arthur invited Mark, Ran Bing, and the other young fighters to join Umbrella, bought apartments for them, and offered to arrange Mark and Ran Bing’s wedding.

Arthur helped Mark, Ran Bing, and the Ravagers begin settling into their new life by explaining their rooms and benefits, then prepared to return home. In the crowded elevator, Jing Nan followed him downstairs, leaving their relationship uncertain.

• Haji and the other Ravagers cheered Mark and Ran Bing, then Xue Feng said they planned to work for Umbrella.
• Arthur explained that the Ravagers had rooms, documents, bank cards, and money waiting for them, and told Mark to call if he needed help.
• Arthur left the group as Mark and Ran Bing headed to their suite, while Morgan and Victor prepared to share a room.
• Arthur waited for the elevator while Jing Nan watched him, then teased her for trying to shop without her bank card or identity card.
• Jing Nan joined Arthur in a crowded elevator, and they rode down to the first-floor lobby together.

Arthur returned to Russell Manor after agreeing to bring Jing Nan to meet his wife the next morning. At home, William recognized that Arthur wanted advice about Jing Nan and invited him to sit down for a private talk.

• Jing Nan asked to meet Arthur's wife and threatened to tell her that they had gone to Dawn Hall if he refused.
• Arthur agreed to pick Jing Nan up at ten the next morning, then left the lobby with the Ghost Agents.
• Arthur's convoy crossed Halifax City's congested streets and arrived at Russell Manor.
• Arthur greeted Halsey and Carl, then went to find William in the study.
• William guessed Arthur wanted to discuss Jing Nan and invited him to have a man-to-man talk.

William learned about Arthur's history with Jing Nan and proposed making her captain of a new fleet while urging Arthur to take command. After Arthur told Carl about Jing Nan, Carl beat him up, and the next morning Arthur brought Jing Nan to meet her.

• William told Arthur he had noticed Jing Nan's hostile gaze and asked how their conflict began.
• Arthur explained his actions in The Cage and admitted he had feelings for Jing Nan, though he was already with Carl.
• William suggested Jing Nan captain an Athena-class flagship and asked Arthur to command the new fleet; Arthur eventually agreed.
• William advised Arthur to tell Carl about Jing Nan and said their relationship could depend on Jing Nan gaining a longer lifespan.
• Arthur told Carl about Jing Nan after the family banquet, and Carl beat him up over his conduct.
• The next morning, Arthur picked Jing Nan up in his flying boat and took her to meet Carl.