Recaps

Yi Chen had his Gentleman's Attire reinforced with Gentleman's Skin, learned that the Old World existed parallel to his own, and then went with Jin to visit Edmund. They learned Edmund was away handling a disease-related Gentleman Incident at a family-connected weapons factory.

• Mr. Ivan repaired Yi Chen's Gentleman's Attire and raised its Skin Content above 20%, while Yi Chen experienced ancient visions and found the clothing comfortable and responsive.
• Ivan told Yi Chen that the Old World ran parallel to their world and that deepening gray zones could open passages through which it might eventually replace their world.
• Professor Chamberson confirmed Yi Chen had adapted well, while Jin invited him to train together and revealed that his new weapon would take more than half a month to make.
• Yi Chen and Jin visited the Mariano Family estate so Yi Chen could check on Edmund's recovered arm and discuss treatment.
• A butler told Yi Chen that Edmund was away handling a likely disease-related incident at a weapons factory, and Yi Chen offered to help.

Edmund and Dagobert investigated a deadly Iron Disease outbreak at an abandoned Mariano factory in Wendell Town, where firearm-mutant Sick Ones had trapped both Gentleman Squads. Yi Chen arrived and began removing the bullets from Dagobert, using plant tendrils and vitality to treat his injuries.

• A Mariano factory in Wendell Town became the suspected source of an outbreak that killed its workers and a stationed gentleman, so Edmund and Dagobert joined a cooperative mission to investigate.
• The teams cleared the infected and Sick Ones from the town streets but encountered a worse situation inside the factory, where they were separated and wounded.
• Edmund and Dagobert hid in an employee rest room as iron-draining bullets threatened Dagobert’s life; Edmund began removing the bullets himself.
• Yi Chen climbed into the room with a flower-patterned figure and used Plant Root Tendrils to extract Dagobert’s bullets and restore his blood.

Yi Chen and Jin joined Edmund and Dagobert to confront a severe ill-substance that could inhabit firearms and turn its victims into infected corpses. After Jin tested its attacks, Yi Chen said he had a way to break through its defenses.

• Yi Chen and Jin traveled to Wendell Town and found residents transformed into gun-bearing Living Corpses.
• Yi Chen and Jin reached Edmund and Dagobert in the weapons factory, where Edmund explained that a firearm-born ill-substance had badly injured both teams.
• Edmund described how the ill-substance moved between firearms, fired bullets that curved toward targets, and infected victims by draining iron from their blood.
• Jin went outside to test the ill-substance's accuracy and returned after dodging several shots, then asked Yi Chen to help him draw its fire.
• Yi Chen introduced Jin Almeida to Edmund and Dagobert and said he had a plan to break through the ill-substance's defenses.

Yi Chen and Jin cleared the factory’s guns by using Yi Chen to draw their fire and Jin to destroy them. They left the exhibition room’s composite mass of guns in ruins, though the chapter ended before confirming whether the Gun Wielder had been defeated.

• Yi Chen prepared his body to withstand bullets and entered the workshop to draw the guns’ fire while Jin destroyed them.
• Yi Chen identified the diseased object as Gun Wielder—Amis Tiller and noticed it could control only one gun at a time, with a brief gap between shots.
• Jin exploited the gaps to detonate the guns, and Yi Chen dismembered any guns that turned their aim away from him.
• A second Gentleman Squad emerged from hiding and joined Yi Chen and Jin in clearing the factory’s guns.
• The remaining guns in the exhibition section combined into a mass and fired at the entrance, but Yi Chen tossed in flesh cubes that Jin detonated, blasting the composite body apart.

Yi Chen and his companions captured the fleeing diseased firearm wielder, and Jin later lost the Swollen Sac Bag in an arm-wrestling contest with Dagobert. The group returned to Zion, where Jin’s explosive strength damaged her arm but still could not overcome Dagobert’s pure strength.

• Yi Chen spotted the pistol trying to escape and guided Jin toward it after Little Grape’s Mental Shock diverted its shot.
• Jin chased down the weakened firearm creature in the woodland and captured it alive with the Swollen Sac Bag, injuring herself in the process.
• On the carriage ride back to Zion, Edmund learned that Yi Chen and Jin had completed a five-star mission, while Jin asked Dagobert to arm-wrestle.
• Dagobert defeated Jin in their first contest, so Jin wagered the Swollen Sac Bag on a rematch.
• Jin used increasingly powerful Internal Explosion to challenge Dagobert, but her arm burst apart before she could win, and she handed him the bag.

After receiving permission to leave the academy for two hours each week, Zede went out with Yi Chen and met Edmund and his companions at the cafeteria. Edmund opened a sealed case to give Yi Chen a special item, whose diseased aura startled Zede awake.

• Jin's support operation earned no extra rewards, but he handed Edmund the perfectly captured Severe Diseased entity, Amis Tiller, after losing their arm-wrestling match.
• A month later, Zede received permission to leave the academy grounds for two hours each week, and Yi Chen accompanied him on his first outing.
• Zede and Yi Chen took the elevator to the cafeteria, where they met Edmund, the cane-using woman, and the Strongman from the North Territory.
• The cafeteria manager arranged a private room for the group, and Zede ate three expensive meals before falling asleep.
• Edmund unlocked a sealed black wooden case and presented its contents to Yi Chen, releasing a diseased aura that woke Zede and made him crawl over to investigate.

Edmund gave Yi Chen The Body-Breaker, a pathogenized shotgun made from a Sick One, as thanks for helping save his family and complete their mission. Yi Chen accepted the gun and learned how it worked, then agreed to test its power on Teacher Zed before their outing ended.

• Edmund explained that his father, Ilifalait Mariano, had crafted The Body-Breaker from the Sick One and gave it to Yi Chen as a token of thanks.
• Yi Chen took the shotgun, recalled a violent memory from when he was seven, and found that the firearm accepted him as its new master.
• Edmund described the shotgun's corpse ammunition, firing modes, range, and growth potential, and invited Yi Chen to practice at his house.
• Teacher Zed asked Yi Chen to fire the shotgun's spread mode at his body, and Yi Chen agreed to test it.

Yi Chen helped Zede return to the Teaching Building after testing a firearm, then spent a year training and improving his Motorics. The academy’s one-year assessment arrived, and Zede woke Yi Chen to take him to the testing site.

• Yi Chen explained to the cafeteria manager that he and Zede had been testing a new weapon after Zede was torn apart by the firearm’s blast and reassembled himself.
• Edmund and his teammates escorted Zede back to the Teaching Building, and Yi Chen offered to help Julianna recover and invited them to contact him about future missions.
• Zede advised Yi Chen about helping people whose abilities lagged behind his, then praised Edmund’s firearm and began physical sparring with Yi Chen.
• Over the following year, Yi Chen trained consistently, and his Motorics rose to 3 after he dodged a knife during combat practice in Keximani.
• Although Yi Chen was exempt from the academy’s one-year test because of his five-star mission, Chamberson and Zede insisted that he take it.
• Zede woke Yi Chen early and hurried him toward the testing site, while Yi Chen said he had forgotten about the assessment after training late the previous night.

Yi Chen arrived at the academy’s annual test exhausted, and Principal Deslin Baldivia explained that each student would face a Mind Space shaped around their weakest Base Attribute. The test began with students preparing to make contact with Deslin, while Yi Chen remained alert to her formidable presence.

• Zede carried the sleeping Yi Chen to the Swan Hall, where forty New Gentlemen had gathered for the annual test.
• Professor Chamberson reprimanded Zede for bringing Yi Chen in asleep, but Principal Deslin allowed Yi Chen to rest and postponed his test.
• Deslin entered the hall through the ceiling, and Yi Chen woke, recognized her as the Principal, and saluted her.
• Deslin explained that students would enter individual Mind Spaces based on their weakest Base Attribute and pass by waking within three minutes.
• Deslin offered a small gift to anyone who woke within one minute, then invited the students to begin.

At the Principal’s annual assessment, many Gentlemen failed a spiritual test of their weakest attribute and faced expulsion from training. Yi Chen was called last and entered a storm-lit art museum corridor, where ghostly figures knocked on the windows.

• Yi Chen realized the test challenged each student’s weakest attribute in the Mind Space, where resolve could reveal Inner Potential.
• The Principal failed two students and told them their training would end early, while Zede warned Yi Chen that she was dangerous and might target him.
• Julianna woke within a minute and received a feather from the Principal to aid her recovery; Edmund and Dagobert also passed.
• The Principal called Yi Chen forward and abruptly sent his consciousness into a dark art museum corridor during a storm.
• Lightning revealed ghostly figures outside the windows, tapping on the glass in rhythm with the rain.

Yi Chen completed the Principal’s dangerous Mind Space test by combining the gallery’s paintings into an exit, but touching the door pulled him into a deeper Consciousness Space of his own. He was left frightened as black strands spread through his eyes.

• Yi Chen entered the Principal’s realistic Mind Space, where his weapons and plants were unavailable but his body’s fundamental abilities remained.
• Yi Chen discovered that lightning and his focused appreciation could bring paintings to life, then avoided further attacks by keeping his gaze fixed during lightning flashes.
• Yi Chen appreciated the paintings in the first three galleries and combined their images to create a painting titled “Door” on the empty wall in the fourth gallery.
• Yi Chen approached the painted iron door as ghostly arms poured through the shattered window and saw the number 107 appear on its plaque.
• Yi Chen touched the door and fell into an independent Consciousness Space, where his eyes turned completely black as he panicked.

During the Principal’s thought test, Yi Chen’s sealed memories of the orphanage resurfaced, and he relived a violent confrontation with his former teacher. Back in Swan Hall, the Principal embraced him and pulled him out of the memory, leaving him waking in her arms.

• Yi Chen’s attempt to escape from Room 107 was interrupted when an orphanage teacher found him in the corridor.
• After the teacher called for guards, Yi Chen killed both guards and tore a gun from one of their bodies.
• Yi Chen turned on the teacher, but the Principal’s embrace drew him out of the orphanage memory.
• In Swan Hall, Yi Chen attacked Principal Deslin Baldivia while his consciousness remained trapped in the test.
• The Principal stepped into his charge, embraced him, and comforted him until his consciousness returned.

Principal Deslin embraced Yi Chen during his test, calming his mind as his Psyche increased and then inviting him to pursue further training. She gave him a pass to the Power Station and directed him to meet Ludwig Regan, while setting a Psyche goal for him.

• Principal Deslin held Yi Chen for several minutes and used Stellar Energy to calm his mind as Zede watched, ready to intervene if she harmed him.
• Yi Chen’s Psyche increased from 3 to 4, improving his understanding of Old Living Script and diseased matter.
• Deslin praised Yi Chen’s performance in the gallery test and discussed his potential for multiple Limit Breaks and further Psyche training.
• Deslin gave Yi Chen her business card for entry to the Power Station and told him to find electrician Ludwig Regan.
• Deslin told Yi Chen he could apply to visit her office if his Psyche reached 6 within a year, then left through the hall’s roof as the gathered students and teachers watched.

Yi Chen learned about Ludwig Regan from Chamberson and went to the Power Station to find him. He tracked Regan to a dark underground room and found him asleep among metal figurines.

• Chamberson explained that Regan had been chosen by the Purple Letter, trained by Principal Deslin, and later left Zion’s school to work at the Power Station.
• Chamberson advised Yi Chen to prioritize breaking through his physique and intelligence limits, while Zede urged him to choose his own path and offered to accompany him into the Ashen Domain.
• Yi Chen presented Principal Deslin’s Business Card at the Power Station and asked a worker for Regan’s whereabouts.
• The worker told Yi Chen that Regan was home and gave him the address from the employee registry.
• Yi Chen entered Regan’s unlit underground room and found him asleep with a copy of "Nerve Chronicle" and several similar-looking metal girl figurines nearby.

Yi Chen visited Regan to ask about improving his Psyche and discovered Regan’s rare talent and his decision to abandon academy life. As Yi Chen prepared to leave, a half-illusory female corpse appeared behind Regan and spoke of a graveyard.

• Yi Chen cleaned Regan’s apartment and prepared dinner while waiting for him to wake.
• Regan ate the meal, and Yi Chen learned that Regan had Psyche 7 and the Prototyper profession, with an ability to control inorganic matter.
• Regan explained that he had raised his Psyche through focused work on mannequins and Principal Deslin’s guidance, but dropped out to avoid a dangerous expedition into the Gray Domain.
• Yi Chen concluded Regan’s growth could not serve as a model for him and decided to seek Psyche training elsewhere.
• As Yi Chen left, a distorted female voice said “Graveyard,” and he and Little Grape saw a wired, partially decayed corpse floating behind Regan.

Yi Chen uncovered Ludwig Regan’s true purpose at the Power Station: he was trying to restore the consciousness of Fei, whose body had been resurrected through a cemetery. After Fei asked to go with Yi Chen, Regan looked at an old photograph of them together.

• Yi Chen asked Regan about the organization’s cemeteries, prompting Regan to reveal his hidden strength and ask whether Yi Chen could see Fei.
• Yi Chen explained that Principal Deslin had sent him and deduced that Regan had joined the Power Station to restore Fei’s consciousness.
• Regan recounted how he worked for nine years at the Camberlier Grand Graveyard to resurrect Fei’s body from her remaining spine, then brought her to Zion for help rebuilding her consciousness.
• Regan explained that his research had made Fei a half-physical being through the Virtual Grid, but he refused to risk using a relic because it might revive her nightmare memories of the Gray Realm.
• Regan agreed to write Yi Chen notes about perception, and after Yi Chen left, Fei asked Regan to go with him before disappearing.
• Regan retrieved a cigarette case, lit a cigarette with an electric spark, and looked at an old photograph of Fei as a child with a young boy.

Yi Chen and Jin learned from Instructor Baili about a Newborn Passage expedition in a transforming Natural Gray Zone and had eighteen hours to find a third teammate. As they considered candidates, they encountered Regan on the street.

• Yi Chen met Jin in Keximani Orchard and examined her newly forged sword made from the Mutated Holy Fetus Marcos.
• Instructor Baili told Yi Chen and Jin about a Relic Event requiring three-person teams with strong Perception and Old Living Script skills to explore an unrecorded Newborn Passage.
• Yi Chen questioned why the organization was sending competing teams into the dangerous gray zone, and Instructor Baili explained the benefits of competition and having more explorers.
• Instructor Baili gave Yi Chen and Jin eighteen hours to choose a third teammate, so Jin suggested Dukeborg while Yi Chen planned to consult Professor Chamberson.
• A slightly chubby young man wearing glasses called out to Yi Chen, who recognized him as Mr. Regan.

Yi Chen recruited Ludwig Regan, a researcher with extraordinary perception, as the third member of the team investigating a Relic Event. After the team reported its lineup, Principal Deslin received word of Regan's involvement and decided to let the organization handle the matter for now.

• Ludwig Regan accepted Yi Chen's invitation to join the team after reshaping his body and putting his Power Station work on hold.
• Jin sensed a strange danger in Regan but agreed he would be valuable, and the three settled on how to distribute any relics they found.
• Regan handed Yi Chen his Gentleman Certificate and left to gather equipment, while Jin warned Yi Chen that Regan seemed to conceal a ferocity born of killing.
• Instructor Baili reviewed Regan's partially classified records and submitted the team's information to the organization's higher-ups.
• The organization sent the team's document to Principal Deslin, who noted Regan's poor physical condition and sent back a reply telling them to keep busy for now.

Ludwig Regan prepared to enter the Gray Zone with Fei, risking a dangerous neural modification to power his new device. Yi Chen discussed the Relic Event with his mentors and met Jin to prepare their team, leaving them working together through the night.

• Ludwig Regan apologized to Fei for failing to restore her Neural Consciousness and promised to take her into the Gray Zone to seek an ancient relic.
• Regan activated his Exoskeleton Spine, endured its painful neural fusion, and fell asleep in Fei’s embrace as electricity flashed between his eyelids.
• Yi Chen reported to Chamberson, who advised him to bring Twilight Silver Liquid and explained the risks and safeguards of traveling through the tunnel.
• Teacher Zed warned Yi Chen to explore cautiously and not lose his eyes as Zed had.
• Yi Chen visited Jin, who had gathered high-grade Imitation Meat, and proposed discussing the Relic Event while they processed it together.

Yi Chen, Jin, and Regan gathered at Gentleman Hall for the Newborn Passage incident’s squad selection, where seven registered squads competed for three places. Their squad drew number three and would battle last, giving them a chance to observe the other teams first.

• Yi Chen and Jin agreed that Yi Chen would lead their upcoming incident, while Jin promised to follow his suggestions in exchange for using Yi Chen’s body when needed.
• A letter summoned Yi Chen’s squad to a noon selection after seven squads registered for the Newborn Passage incident, which allowed only three squads to participate.
• Yi Chen arrived at Gentleman Hall carrying the still-sleeping Jin and reunited with Regan, whose newly installed device accidentally shocked Yi Chen when he handed over his Gentleman Certificate.
• A supervisor led the squads to an underground arena and announced that lots would pair them for battles, with one squad eliminated by drawing a blank slip.
• Regan’s squad drew number three and would battle last, while the supervisor prohibited weapons and highly lethal spells and called the first pair forward.

Yi Chen, Jin, and Regan faced Charvis's team in the final match for a place in the Relic Event. Professor Chamberson and Instructor Baili arrived to watch, and the match began after the teams sized each other up.

• Yi Chen assessed the experienced teams and led Jin and Regan into the arena for the final team slot.
• Arthur recognized Jin Almeida and warned his teammate about her record and strength.
• Yi Chen asked Jin to avoid using Red Lotus, and she said she would keep the opponents alive.
• Aige brought Professor Chamberson and Instructor Baili to watch, and Charvis learned that William was Chamberson's new student.
• Jin identified Livovich as Keximani's Ashen Man, while Yi Chen observed the armored opponent and noticed Regan seemed uncomfortable.
• Supervisor Aige's interruption ended, and the third match began.

During the third qualification screening match, Ludwig Regan’s overwhelming mental attacks and strange electrical abilities stunned the arena. Charvis’s carefully prepared counterattack failed when Regan’s female corpse companion struck him, leaving Charvis badly injured.

• Supervisor Aige asked Chamberson and Baili for their views on the match, and Baili said Jin’s presence had already decided its outcome but she wanted to observe Regan.
• Charvis began the match by boosting his team’s speed, but Regan’s Mental Shock knocked Balzan and Barry down and left Charvis bleeding and disoriented.
• Charvis recovered with a secret art, targeted Regan, and shattered a Wind Blade on Regan’s electrical pulse before charging in with two stored Secret Arts.
• Charvis used a magical decoy to evade Regan’s Pulse Cannon and attacked from behind with a Storm Sword.
• Regan shouted for Fei to stop, but the female corpse behind him struck Charvis into the arena wall and left him with a charred wound in his chest.

After Yi Chen’s team won the match, the supervisors discussed the team’s potential and stability, while Yi Chen helped Regan endure a painful reaction to his new exoskeletal spine. The three selected teams then boarded special carriages and departed for the Relic Event.

• Aige carried the unconscious Charvis away for medical treatment, and Barry ended his duel with Yi Chen as the match concluded.
• The Stone Mask Supervisor briefed the three victorious teams on their departure for the Relic Event that evening.
• At dinner, Baili learned that Jin was the Principal’s disciple, and Chamberson said William would help keep the team together.
• Regan suffered a severe rejection reaction from the exoskeletal spine embedded in his back, and Yi Chen stabilized it with Plant Root Tendrils and life essence.
• Regan explained the device’s functions and agreed to show Yi Chen the Power Station, then the three selected teams boarded special carriages and departed.

Yi Chen, Regan, and Jin traveled by special G&D carriage toward Yalsto Town to prepare for the Mount Grail Relic Event. After reading about the spreading Gray Zone, its three Rooted Pathogens, and a hidden passage into the Old World, Yi Chen looked out at the moonless sky.

• Yi Chen, Regan, and Jin boarded a special carriage, and the coachman told them they would reach Yalsto Town after three days.
• Yi Chen opened the classified event documents while Jin and Regan looked on.
• The documents described Mount Grail’s expanding Gray Zone, the three Rooted Pathogens, and the Purge team’s discovery of a passage inside the mountain.
• The document stated that the passage led to the shallow Surface Layer of the Old World and had never been traversed by a conscious life-form.
• Regan returned to his berth to silently discuss the event with his imagined girlfriend, Jin went to sleep, and Yi Chen looked out at the hazy evening sky.

Yi Chen and Regan discussed Regan’s neural research during the journey, while Yi Chen helped adjust Regan’s spinal device. At Yalsto Town, Lame Field laid out information about three afflictions near Mount Grail and required each team member to choose one to eradicate before the Watcher would open the passage to the Old World.

• Yi Chen finished his prepared books and shared details about his Student profession and abilities with Regan, omitting some of his secrets.
• Regan explained how pseudo-science-fiction had inspired his work on Fei and revealed that he was a senior researcher backed by the station master.
• Yi Chen examined and treated Regan’s spinal device, reinforcing it to stabilize its neural connections and reduce rejection.
• Yi Chen, Regan, Jin, and the other travelers arrived at Yalsto Town, a way station with facilities for gentlemen and a graveyard beneath Cold Lake.
• Lame Field presented information on Black Pus Syndrome, Gathered Eye Syndrome, and septicemia, then told the travelers to choose an affliction to eradicate near Mount Grail or receive an assignment from him.