Chapter Summaries

After activating his second core ancient corpse and reaching the Open Source Limit, Little Grape joined William and Jin to investigate Dark Moon Tower before their abyss exploration. Peering through its seal, Little Grape saw a figure with silver-white fur and vacant eyes, with dark matter moving in its pupils.

• Freed Rat Citizens fled Rat City or scavenged plague essence, and the greedy ratmen who entered the Plague-bed cave had their eyes torn out by an unseen force.
• Little Grape rose from the pit amid a Giant Eye and green lightning, revealed his unfamiliar face, and reached the Open Source Limit after activating his second core ancient corpse.
• Little Grape traveled to the flesh-slice villa, where William asked him to check whether the Second City Lord remained alive in Dark Moon Tower.
• William, Jin, and Little Grape returned to the deserted Inner City, and Jin discussed obtaining a mount while William urged her not to target the tower's rats before negotiating.
• Little Grape pierced the tower's seal and saw silver-white fur, vacant eyes, and dark matter moving within the pupils.

William opened the sealed Dark Moon Tower with an unusual form of stargazing and entered with Jin and Thirteen to find the ancient city lord. When the city lord’s face was covered by an Abyss Mask, William asked Jin for one minute to assess it before they fought.

• Little Grape showed William a partial image of the silver-haired ratman in the tower, and William concluded the city lord was likely still barely alive and infected by the Abyss.
• William stopped Jin from charging ahead and insisted on taking the lead until they knew whether the city lord had lost control.
• William used stargazing to rotate the jade stones on Dark Moon Tower’s round gate until it opened, while ratmen gathered to watch.
• William ordered the kneeling ratmen to leave, then entered the tower with Jin and Thirteen and found the enormous city lord fused into the wall.
• Hair-thin tentacles emerged from the city lord’s facial wound and formed an Abyss Mask, and William asked Jin to give him one minute before joining him to kill the rat.

William used his Moonification Disease to awaken the Dark Moon Tower’s city lord and help him resist the Abyss Mask. The city lord tore off the mask, destroyed it with a powerful silver beam, and mistook William for Queen Phisney.

• William told Jin to wait while he tried to communicate with the city lord, and Thirteen agreed to stay back.
• The city lord revived under the Abyss Mask, and William floated before him in a pose that resembled the moon and its guardian’s lost beloved.
• The city lord struck Jin aside, but William’s appearance stirred his memories and helped him regain control.
• The city lord ripped the Abyss Mask from his face and annihilated it with a silver beam that pierced the Dark Moon Tower.
• The city lord knelt before William and addressed him as Queen Phisney, saying he had continued guarding her even after the moon fell.

William convinced Price Silvertail that he wanted to be his friend rather than be treated as Queen Phisney’s reincarnation, and Price joined the party to investigate the abyss at Dark Nest Mine. Price then donned his old silver Tumor Knight armor and asked Jin about the Venerable Lord.

• Price insisted that William was Queen Phisney’s reincarnation because he had witnessed the moon’s fall and now saw a newborn moon within William.
• William and Yi Chen argued over whether William should use Price’s devotion to educate him, and Yi Chen warned William to mind his own business.
• William introduced himself as William Berens and offered Price friendship, and Price accepted before agreeing to join the group’s investigation of the abyss at Dark Nest Mine.
• Price noticed Jin’s Tumor Knight armor, then ran to the tower and returned wearing his own silver armor forged through Metal Cancerization.
• Price asked Jin how the Venerable Lord was doing, and Jin told him that she was still beautiful and young.

After Price woke from hibernation, William took him and Jin to a Black Roundworm Company Dining Car so Price could eat and recover. Price offered to pay for the meal and revealed his vast wealth as they arrived at the luxurious restaurant inside a remodeled World Black Tick.

• Price left the tower and felt his hollow, decaying body rumble with hunger.
• William warned Price that Rat City's plague-related food was unsuitable and took him to a Black Roundworm Train.
• On the train, attendants massaged William, Jin, and Price, while William struggled with the Dining Car's high prices.
• Price offered to pay, revealed he still had seven figures in Ancient Coins, and described his former mining fortune and commercial network.
• The train reached Dining Car No. 7, where a World Black Tick carried it into its remodeled, human-style restaurant interior.

William, Jin, Price, and Thirteen began their exploration of the Tenth Abyss after dining together and learning about Price’s past in Rat City. They reached the Black Curtain that enclosed the Extreme Dark Zone, where treasure hunters had gathered, and prepared to cross into the dangerous area.

• William used the elaborate meal to restore Price’s strength and invited him to join the circus, and Price said he was likely no longer bound by the Tumor Knight registry.
• The team set out for the Tenth Abyss, and Price described how Dark Nest Mine had helped Rat City prosper before the city lost a war.
• The group discovered the Black Curtain, which Thirteen identified as the boundary of the Extreme Dark Zone and warned could isolate entrants and disrupt space.
• Thirteen explained that her candlelight could keep the team together as they crossed the curtain, while Jin’s Cancer Cells stirred with excitement.
• The team spotted numerous tents and Sick Ones near the curtain, and Thirteen concluded that treasure hunters had gathered around a relatively new Extreme Dark Zone.

William's group prepared to enter the Extreme Dark Zone, where Thirteen's candle would provide their light and William's chains would keep them connected. They crossed the Black Curtain together, while William privately considered entering the abyss alone.

• William noticed that the hunters near the Black Curtain had been touched by Abyssal Aura, but he refused Price's suggestion to kill them.
• Jin crushed four men who tried to join the group and hurled them away by detonating her arm, which quickly regenerated.
• Thirteen lit her candle, then adjusted its intense illumination to cover the team within a five-meter radius.
• William told Little Grape that he might enter the abyss alone, though he would decide whether Thirteen should accompany him based on the situation.
• William linked himself, Jin, and Price with the monastery's barbed iron chains, and the group crossed the Black Curtain into the Extreme Dark Zone.

William led Jin, Price, and Candle Puppet Thirteen through the Curtain into the Extreme Dark Zone, where the Abyss began changing his body and a strange creature attacked them. After William explained the danger of Malignant Disease, a far more threatening carriage emerged from the darkness.

• William allowed the Curtain’s tendrils to invade his body and led the group into the isolated Extreme Dark Zone.
• Thirteen’s Skull Candle revealed a Darkstone path, and Jin blasted an underground-swimming mouth creature out of the ground.
• William identified the mouth as a mutated Sick One that could teleport anyone it swallowed, and Price killed it with his silver-coated claw.
• William examined the filamentation spreading through his fingers and discussed how prolonged Abyss exposure caused mutations.
• A headless-horse carriage arrived, carrying a tendril-covered coachman, and opened its door before the group.

As the coachman escorted William and his companions toward the Abysmer Settlement, Thirteen explained how the Evil Sun’s fall created the Extreme Dark Zones and why the Old World sought to control the Abysses. The coachman laughed at the idea that William could gain recognition from the Tenth Abyss.

• The coachman invited William, Price Silvertail, Jin, and Thirteen to ride to the Abysmer Settlement, and William accepted despite Jin suggesting they kill the coachman.
• Thirteen extinguished his Skull Candle, and the group boarded the carriage, relying on its Black Candle’s Darklight to see through the darkness.
• The coachman cleaned the Evil Sun’s afterglow from his body while Thirteen began explaining the Extreme Dark Zone and the Abyss to the others.
• Thirteen explained that after the Evil Sun fell, malignant diseases grew in isolated Pitch-Black Spaces, forming Extreme Dark Zones and Abysses that threatened the Old World.
• Thirteen described controlling an Abyss or infecting another world as the Old World’s two strategies, and said William’s attempt to gain the Tenth Abyss’s recognition could help everyone.
• The coachman overheard Thirteen’s remarks about William and laughed.

The coachman explained the Tenth Abyss’s Face Condensation, Pilgrimage Path, and Audience, and William decided to pursue them alone. He left Jin, Price, and Thirteen to explore the Extreme Dark Zone together while he continued toward the Abysmer Settlement.

• The coachman revealed that he had failed the Tenth Abyss’s process and explained that Face Condensation was required to enter the Pilgrimage Path.
• The coachman described how pilgrims who failed the Audience could become Abyss Emissaries, while no one had completed all three stages.
• William learned that Jin and Price could not join his pilgrimage, and that the group would face attacks from Abysmers if they explored outside the settlement.
• William told Jin and Price to explore with Thirteen while he underwent Face Condensation and the pilgrimage alone.
• Jin praised Thirteen, drew her close, and teased her about her unusual body and ability to kill.

William and his companions reached the Abysmer Settlement, where he learned more about the Tenth Abyss and its guardian, Black Treant, Lord Carimus. He entered alone and began praying at the Great Tree Plaza to pursue Face Condensation.

• Price described how the Tenth Abyss replicated and enhanced a person's most prominent traits, while William decided to let the Abyssal Substance spread through his body and brain before attempting Face Condensation.
• William and his companions arrived at the Abysmer Settlement, where the coachman identified Black Treant, Lord Carimus, as the Abyss Guardian and warned that outsiders would be treated as intruders.
• William told Jin, Thirteen, and Price to wait for him or return to Rat City, and Jin urged him to continue into the settlement.
• William hurried through the settlement to the Great Tree Plaza, sat among the kneeling Abysmers, and joined their prayers.

While waiting beneath the Black Treant, William used Phobia and outrageous behavior to drive most of the Abysmers away. The Abyss Guardian recognized him and invited him inside to practice Face Condensation in a better place.

• William observed the chaotic crowd beneath the great tree and decided to use the wait to practice socializing.
• William dressed and posed extravagantly, then loudly asked the Abysmers to teach him Face Condensation.
• William approached several Abysmers, frightening them into fleeing, and an old woman decapitated him to make him stop.
• William continued his bizarre performance until his growing Phobia drove nearly all the Abysmers from the square.
• The Abyss Guardian lowered its head, praised William for attracting its attention, and opened a gap in its roots for him to enter.

William rejected Lord Carimus’s invitation and began condensing an Abyss Mask using the virus cultivated from his many illnesses. As his mask formed, Yi Chen forcibly implanted an unfamiliar memory into his mind.

• The Abyssal Substance people watched as Lord Carimus invited William into the Tree Hollow, but William stayed seated and called him a failure.
• William told Lord Carimus to stop talking so he could begin Face Condensation, and asked Little Grape to guard him with the Evil Sun if Carimus interfered.
• William filtered out the world around him as the Epileptic Brain guided the Abyss Virus, which had copied genes and traits from his illnesses.
• Fine, intricate threads emerged across William’s face as he began weaving them into an Abyss Mask.
• Yi Chen interrupted the process by forcing a memory about a fire, firefighters, and carrying a computer downstairs into William’s mind.

William recovered Yi Chen’s sealed memories of killing, which revealed how Director Cao had trained him to execute other children and taught him to cover his eyes to suppress guilt. The memories shaped William’s Face Condensation into a palm covering his eyes, and its completion unleashed a killing intent that drove the other powerhouses away.

• Yi Chen remembered Director Cao making him kill his restrained roommate at age four, then covering his eyes to hide the execution.
• Director Cao had Yi Chen execute more children, and he learned to kill efficiently while using the gesture of covering his eyes to shut out guilt and the dead.
• A classmate once covered Yi Chen’s eyes as a game, and he instinctively killed her with a blow to the neck.
• Back beneath the great tree, William completed Face Condensation with a mask shaped like a palm covering his eyes.
• William’s killing intent forced the other powerhouses to scatter, leaving him alone with the great tree.

After completing Face Condensation, William and Yi Chen set out on the Pilgrimage Path toward the Tenth Abyss, where losing focus or letting the mask cover his head would doom him. Yi Chen took control and began a brutal ritual of devotion, slowly advancing into the darkness as the Abyssal Aura grew stronger.

• After three days of stillness, William rose with a palm-shaped Abyss Mask and spoke with Yi Chen, whose consciousness now coexisted with his.
• William asked Lord Carimus to open the Pilgrimage Path, and Lord Carimus explained its demands and the risk of becoming an Abyss slave.
• William entered the root passage and gave Yi Chen control, trusting him to guide them through the Pilgrimage.
• Yi Chen emerged into the darkness, removed his clothes, and began performing Three Bows and Nine Kowtows toward the Abyss.
• Yi Chen shattered his face and mangled his hands with each kowtow, advancing less than thirty meters in an hour as the Abyssal Aura intensified.

Yi Chen completed a grueling pilgrimage that brought William to the Tenth Abyss, revealing that Yi Chen’s worship centered on a mysterious statue. William descended through the living Abyss to its lowest level, but a door appeared and carried his mask away before the Abyss could take it.

• Yi Chen performed an enhanced series of bows and kowtows, drawing the Tenth Abyss closer while blocking William from retaking control.
• William’s consciousness was pulled into a black room, where he saw the veiled divine statue Yi Chen worshiped and learned the pilgrimage was nearly complete.
• William took control of Yi Chen’s ruined body, recognized the Tenth Abyss ahead, and stepped into its living maw without hesitation.
• As William fell through the Abyss, it stripped away his body until only his hand-shaped mask remained, which reached the lowest level.
• The True Form of the Tenth Abyss approached William’s mask, but a door appeared beneath it and the mask fell through and vanished.

William chose to enter the unknown pathway before meeting the Tenth Abyss, hoping to restore his body and improve his chances of negotiating. He reached the Pathway Vestibule, learned that his advancement would involve Silver Turbidity and Composition, and was led to a pool of Original Plague Silver Liquid.

• William opened the black door in his consciousness and left the Tenth Abyss before facing it.
• William followed the unknown pathway to a door that led into a pure-white room with 108 pathway doors.
• A white-suited servant welcomed William to the Pathway Vestibule and explained the two stages of advancement: Silver Turbidity and Composition.
• The servant told William that his Black Door represented Order and that completing his advancement would give the door a form reflecting his disease.
• William followed the servant to a bathhouse, where he saw a pool of silver liquid that stirred his instinct to evolve.

William entered the Transfer Station’s glandular zone to begin Silver Turbidity, choosing to witness the real immersion despite its disturbing appearance. As his Deep Abyss Mask touched the silver liquid, it rapidly began rebuilding his body and consumed a quarter of the reservoir, alarming the Sick Servant.

• William asked the Sick Servant about the Original Plague Silver Liquid and confirmed that his real body would be immersed alongside his consciousness.
• William chose to view the real Transfer Station and saw the living flesh-brick chamber, the silver-liquid reservoir, and the cellular Sick Servant.
• The Sick Servant explained that Little Grape and Yellow Skin were isolated in an interlayer, and William refused its recommendation to advance within his more comfortable consciousness.
• The Sick Servant lowered William’s Deep Abyss Mask into the silver liquid and withdrew his temporary Sensory System.
• The silver liquid rapidly gathered around William’s mask and began forming a skull, brain, and blood vessels, prompting the Sick Servant to summon the Milkers as the reservoir drained.

William used the Abyss Mask and Mad Brain to collect and transcribe the Ancient Gene fragments in the silver fluid, then matched them against the genes of his diseases. After two months, he told the stunned Sick Servants that he had built a complete Gene Bank, leaving his advancement still to come.

• William’s mask absorbed silver tadpoles and reconstructed his body while collecting Ancient Gene fragments from the silver fluid.
• William returned to the Mad Brain’s library, copied and catalogued the gene fragments, and matched them against the genes of his diseases.
• The Sick Servant monitoring William noticed thorn-like fuzz reading the silver fluid on his skin and watched him remain in the pool for weeks.
• William completed the Gene Bank after two months in the silver fluid, and the Sick Servants and Milkers questioned him when he returned to awareness.
• William told them he had recorded all the gene fragments, stunning them with his accomplishment.

William negotiated with the gland district’s Sick Servants over the Gene Bank he had copied, then began the final stage of Silver Turbidity: gene grafting. He planned to rebuild the order of his body before activating his illnesses, and his preparations left the observers wondering whether he meant to imitate The First Dead or kill himself.

• William argued that the gland district had not forbidden copying the Gene Bank and demanded compensation for surrendering or erasing his memories.
• The Sick Servants admitted their rules were unclear and offered to help his later composition match his illnesses by more than eighty percent.
• William chose to sign a Soul Contract rather than allow the Milkers to erase his memories, and the copied Gene Bank data was sealed against sharing.
• William concluded that he needed to reconstruct his body’s order before connecting and activating his gene fragments, or risk becoming a mass of failed sludge.
• William floated above the pool in a cross-like pose, used Dead Person Makeup, and grew an umbilical cord into the silver liquid.
• The Sick Servants recognized William’s posture as that of The First Dead and wondered whether he planned to commit suicide.