Chapter Summaries

After Lainey was reborn, she gave Yi Chen the Black Umbilical Cord, which restored his left arm and revealed itself as a valuable relic. Lainey disappeared, leaving Yi Chen questioning the difference between humans and Sick Ones before Jin called him back to Zion.

• Lainey emerged from the pit reborn in a new humanoid form and embraced Yi Chen before telling him she felt a pull toward somewhere far away.
• Lainey gave Yi Chen the Black Umbilical Cord, and touching it pulled his consciousness into a vision of a vast black-mud landscape beneath a colossal Goat Skull.
• Yi Chen returned to his body as the cord wrapped around his injured left arm, fully restoring it and revealing its relic properties, including regeneration and the ability to enable a Limit Break.
• Lainey disappeared, and Yi Chen wondered whether creating an Open Source Patient had been wrong and whether Sick Ones belonged to a new age.
• Jin found Yi Chen and urged him to return to Zion; Yi Chen concealed the Black Umbilical Cord and climbed out of the pit.

After returning from the forest, Yi Chen concealed the Black Umbilical Cord and reported the mission’s success to Instructor Baili Herta. He left the office asking Baili to teach him movement techniques.

• Yi Chen guided the Black Umbilical Cord toward his plant heart, and it began reshaping the heart while offering healing benefits.
• Yi Chen and Jin returned with Little Pei and the Avian Aberrations, and Mr. Wilmer learned that their teammates had died.
• At Zion City Gate, the flock underwent examinations, and Baili Herta said the mission report and rewards would be handled soon.
• Yi Chen presented Baili with the Village Chief’s finger and Granny Chicken’s finger, and Baili chose Granny Chicken’s as her reward.
• Baili asked Yi Chen what he wanted in return, and he requested instruction in movement techniques.

Yi Chen failed to learn movement techniques from Baili, who gave him a Keximani pass and tested whether he had concealed anything about his mission. After secretly stabilizing his heart to hide his lie, Yi Chen met Professor Chamberson and Mr. Ivan, revealed the living relic he had obtained, and received their help keeping the Lost Holy Fetus secret.

• Baili examined Yi Chen's unusual body, refused to teach him movement techniques, and told him to seek Zede's guidance.
• Baili gave Yi Chen an unconditional Keximani pass and discussed Jin's personality and plans for a relic mission.
• Baili pressured Yi Chen about his account of the investigation, and Yi Chen concealed the truth with help from the Plant Root Tendrils in his heart.
• Yi Chen parted from Jin, contacted Professor Chamberson, and met him and Mr. Ivan at the Nameless Tailor Shop.
• Yi Chen revealed the Black Umbilical Cord and described his role in helping the Sick One open its source, including the truth he had hidden from Baili.
• Chamberson told Yi Chen to keep the relic secret and promised to interfere in the Gentleman Hall's inquiries, while Ivan praised him.

Yi Chen and Jin received major rewards for stopping the Newborn Gray Domain, and Yi Chen gave Jin his treasury choice. At the First Gentleman’s manor, Alexis Jin Claude examined Yi Chen’s reconstructed heart, then healed him and gave him extra Gentleman’s Skin, while Yi Chen noticed that he seemed markedly older.

• Supervisor Aige trusted Yi Chen’s account of the incidents and helped finalize the evaluation, which was announced at Gentleman Hall two days later.
• Aige awarded Yi Chen and Jin 8,000 Silver Coins each, a Mission Point, a treasury choice, and an opportunity to meet the First Gentleman; Yi Chen gave Jin his treasury choice, and she declined the meeting in exchange for ordinary skin.
• Professor Chamberson and Aige escorted Yi Chen to Divine Skin Manor, where Aige privately warned Chamberson that Yi Chen’s accomplishments might attract Divine Skin’s attention.
• Alexis Jin Claude asked Yi Chen about the vision he had experienced while fighting the Sacred Fetus and inspected his reconstructed heart; the Black Flesh Ball explained how it had been restored.
• Alexis Jin Claude healed Yi Chen’s chest wound and gave him a 15 × 15 centimeter piece of Gentleman’s Skin as compensation, and Yi Chen left sensing that the First Gentleman had aged considerably.

Chamberson explained the origins and dangers of Gentleman's Skin, then revealed that the First Gentleman had chosen Yi Chen as a potential successor. Yi Chen went to the Tailor Shop to upgrade his clothing, while Jin warned him that using the large piece of First Gentleman's Skin was dangerous.

• After leaving Divine Skin Manor, Chamberson explained that excessive Skin Content could make clothing develop a consciousness and devour its wearer, citing the Charles Family Incident.
• Chamberson told Yi Chen that Gentleman's Skin was a controllable pathogen derived from the First Gentleman, and that the manor's clergy collected skin growing along the chains restraining him.
• Yi Chen realized that only the First Gentleman could safely wear clothing with 100% Skin Content, and Chamberson said the First Gentleman had chosen him as a candidate.
• Chamberson reassured Yi Chen that he would protect Yi Chen's right to choose his own future and encouraged him to use his skin to develop his abilities.
• At the Nameless Tailor Shop, Yi Chen met Jin, who warned him that using the large piece of skin to increase his Skin Content was dangerous.

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.