Chapter Summaries

Xia Chujian scanned Da Zang Star from orbit and learned that its oxygen, oceans, and mountainous terrain differed sharply from earlier reports. After landing on a mist-shrouded summit, she encountered an eerie atmosphere and fired her machine gun, scattering the approaching fog and dispelling the sense of terror.

• Xia Chujian asked Seven Lù to scan Da Zang Star while she flew the Shao Siming Black Silver Mecha into orbit under cover of the spaceship's systems.
• Xia Chujian circled Da Zang Star three times, and Seven Lù's scan found that oceans covered eighty percent of the surface, mountains and hills covered over nineteen percent, and plains covered less than one percent.
• Xia Chujian concluded that the planet would be harder to explore than Zuo Lunhui's results had suggested, then descended to a mountain summit to investigate.
• Xia Chujian removed her helmet and examined the misty summit, a strange hole-riddled boulder, and the dense forests and ocean below, while sensing an unsettling presence.
• Xia Chujian set up her automatic machine gun and fired six thousand bullets into the encroaching mist, scattering it and dispelling the gloom and distant summons.

Xia Chujian destroyed the strange stone and a shadow in the sea, clearing the stage, but refused to leave Da Zang Star after suspecting the Game’s Mechanical Intelligence was hiding something. She learned that a month had passed and most of her troops had been killed, so she ordered the survivors to retreat and went to confront the monsters.

• Xia Chujian split the huge, hole-riddled stone with a Sniper Bullet, then fired at a shadow in the sea and blasted apart the whirlpool it created.
• The Game announced that Seven Kill had cleared Part One and unlocked the Electromagnetic Cannon function in the Holy Armor.
• Xia Chujian accused the Mechanical Intelligence of hiding dangers on Da Zang Star and threatened to report it, causing the completion screen to vanish while she remained on the planet.
• Li Fengqing told Xia Chujian that a month had passed, reinforcements had helped the monsters kill thirty thousand of the remaining forty thousand soldiers, and only ten thousand troops were left.
• Xia Chujian ordered the surviving soldiers to retreat to the spaceship and flew to the front line, where Li Fengqing pointed out several unusually large monsters.

Xia Chujian fought the strange Alva and A Tu alongside the native beasts, discovering that the monsters could heal one another and regenerate from severe wounds. After her electromagnetic cannon failed to stop them, she switched to a sniper rifle loaded with Shao Siming Black Silver Bullets.

• Xia Chujian narrowly survived a dead Alva’s laser-like attack when a gray-uniformed private blocked it and stabbed its eye, allowing her to finish it with a shot.
• Xia Chujian ordered the soldiers to shoot every fallen enemy again and learned from the private that Alva and A Tu could heal each other and regenerate.
• Xia Chujian sent Li Fengqing and the ordinary soldiers away, then used a Shoulder-Mounted Electromagnetic Cannon to kill many A Tu and more than ten thousand native beasts.
• Alva and A Tu survived the cannon fire and began advancing on Xia Chujian while healing one another’s injuries.
• Xia Chujian put away the electromagnetic cannon and switched to a sniper rifle to use Shao Siming Black Silver Bullets.

Xia Chujian destroyed the Alien Beast reinforcements and sealed the pit they had emerged from, then organized the surviving soldiers to recover their dead and build a settlement. She summoned Private Po Jun to her tent and became curious about his name.

• Xia Chujian used Black Silver Bullets, ordinary ammunition, and a flamethrower to wipe out the Alien Beast reinforcements, then followed the last Alva to a foggy valley.
• Xia Chujian exposed the valley's bottomless pit and fired Black Silver Bullets into it until it stopped writhing and became a shallow pit.
• Xia Chujian returned to the battlefield, praised Yu Deze, Yi Hongjie, Pei Shengzi, Li Fengqing, and Ji Panxi, and told the soldiers the Alien Beasts would not return.
• Xia Chujian ordered the soldiers to recover their fallen comrades and sent Li Fengqing to retrieve Corpse Bags, then assigned the surviving engineering troops to build a settlement.
• Xia Chujian had Li Fengqing bring Private Po Jun to her Temporary Tent and became intrigued by his name.

Xia Chujian led the settlement effort on Da Zang Star and discovered that a sudden transition had advanced the mission by a month, leaving the first settlement complete and no intelligent lifeforms found. After confirming the planet’s local wine was safe, she celebrated the team’s departure with a feast and learned more about Ji Panxi’s family.

• Xia Chujian questioned Po Jun about his name and how he knew the names of the monsters, and he explained that he had read about them in a book back in the Beichen Empire.
• Xia Chujian watched the engineering soldiers establish four settlements, but a black curtain suddenly changed the scene and placed her a month later with Li Fengqing reporting that no intelligent lifeforms or Phoenix-Tailed Luan Birds had been found.
• Xia Chujian saw that the first settlement was complete, recorded its planetary data and coordinates, and announced that the group would return the next day.
• Xia Chujian organized a celebratory Jiu Di'er barbecue, then had Seven Lù test Ji Panxi’s locally brewed fruit wine before allowing anyone to drink it.
• Xia Chujian advised Ji Panxi to report future brewing, offered her Jiu Di'er to take home, and learned that Ji Panxi’s mother brewed wine to support their family.

After a feast on Da Zang Star, Xia Chujian learned that a hostile Beichen Empire fleet had surrounded her spaceship, likely after someone transmitted their flight data. She prepared to fight back with the weapons available, while wondering whether the game’s Mechanical Intelligence was helping or hindering her.

• Ji Panxi shared how her mother’s winemaking had supported their family, and the officers and soldiers celebrated with food and wine.
• After the others became drunk, Xia Chujian sensed a warning from the Other Shore Flower Necklace and returned to her Space Shuttle.
• Seven Lù told Xia Chujian that a fleet of three Interstellar Spaceships, seven Starry Sky Cruisers, and many fighters had surrounded their spaceship and was descending toward Da Zang Star.
• Xia Chujian realized that someone in her team might have transmitted their flight data to the Beichen Empire, allowing the fleet to find them.
• Xia Chujian ordered Seven Lù to lock onto the fleet and fire conventional weapons when it came within range, and she considered using the Electromagnetic Cannon.

Xia Chujian exposed and killed Ji Panxi for transmitting their data to the Third Prince’s faction, then mobilized the settlement’s soldiers to target the incoming fighters. She confronted the fleet commander, who claimed his force had come to arrest the Third Prince’s assassin.

• Xia Chujian ordered the soldiers to spend the night inside the settlement and noticed Ji Panxi lingering outside the hall.
• Xia Chujian accused Ji Panxi of sending their data to the Third Prince’s forces, and Ji Panxi admitted she wanted Xia Chujian to join Tantai Jinshu.
• Xia Chujian shot Ji Panxi dead and returned to the settlement hall.
• Xia Chujian alerted the soldiers that an Interstellar Fleet had arrived and ordered them to lock their anti-aircraft guns onto its fighters.
• Xia Chujian warned the fighters to remove their lock and identify themselves, and Lieutenant General Wenren Guang replied that his force had come to arrest the Third Prince’s assassin.
• Xia Chujian challenged Wenren Guang, asking why his force had come to Da Zang Star instead of searching Beichen Star.

Xia Chujian repelled the fleet sent to Da Zang Star and challenged its commanders over their accusation that a soldier in her unit assassinated the Third Prince. The chapter ended with her questioning how an ordinary soldier named Po Jun could have killed the heavily guarded prince.

• Xia Chujian ordered Da Zang Star's anti-aircraft guns to fire, destroying three hundred Starry Sky Fighters, killing thirty-six pilots, and capturing more than two hundred.
• Xia Chujian accused Wenren Lang, Nance Le, and Zolnbot of plotting to seize Da Zang Star, while they insisted they had come to arrest the Third Prince's murderer.
• Wenren Lang reassured Xia Chujian that they were not accusing her, and Xia Chujian argued that she had a motive to assassinate the Third Prince as the Second Princess's protector.
• Xia Chujian claimed she had executed Ji Panxi for leaking flight data, prompting Wenren Lang to defend Ji Panxi and accuse Xia Chujian of acting without authority.
• Wenren Lang identified Po Jun, a soldier in Xia Chujian's unit, as the person who had assassinated the Third Prince and demanded that she hand him over.
• Xia Chujian questioned how an ordinary soldier from her fleet could have assassinated the heavily guarded Third Prince.

Xia Chujian refused to hand Po Jun over to Wenren Lang, Nance Le, and Zolnbot without evidence, and Po Jun denied assassinating the Third Prince. The factions escalated into open battle over Da Zang Star, leaving Xia Chujian’s forces preparing to defend their mountain positions as the enemy descended to attack.

• Xia Chujian rejected the accusation against Po Jun, told him she believed him, and appointed him her assistant while asking him about the Third Prince’s assassination.
• Wenren Lang, Nance Le, and Zolnbot admitted they intended to take Po Jun and Da Zang Star, then sent fighters toward the settlement; Xia Chujian ordered Level One combat readiness, and her defenses destroyed the fighters.
• Wenren Lang’s cruisers destroyed Xia Chujian’s Interstellar Spaceship and threatened to annihilate the settlement, so Xia Chujian ordered her soldiers to withdraw into mountain defenses.
• Nance Le and Zolnbot launched a Space-Based Kinetic Weapon at Da Zang Star, but atmospheric friction broke it apart before impact, and Xia Chujian mocked them over the communicator.
• Wenren Lang ordered his forces to descend to Da Zang Star, while Xia Chujian directed her anti-aircraft guns and machine guns to target the approaching fighters, shuttles, and troops.

Xia Chujian destroyed Wenren Lang’s invasion force on Da Zang Star, then flew a captured Starry Sky Fighter into space and used Seven Lù to take control of the enemy vessels. She reached First Cruiser and confronted Wenren Lang in his Captain’s Room.

• Xia Chujian’s anti-aircraft guns destroyed Wenren Lang’s three space shuttles, and her troops shot down the Starry Sky Fighters and the parachuting pilots.
• Xia Chujian ordered Li Fengqing and the other officers to clear the battlefield and had Po Jun lead engineers in rebuilding the settlement.
• Xia Chujian and Seven Lù found a flyable Starry Sky Fighter, and Xia Chujian piloted it into space to reach Wenren Lang’s fleet.
• Seven Lù invaded the enemy control system, identified the crews aboard the Interstellar Spaceship and three Starry Sky Cruisers, and knocked their pilots unconscious.
• Xia Chujian directed Seven Lù to open First Cruiser’s Bottom Hatch, entered Wenren Lang’s Captain’s Room, and raised her Mechanical Arm to deploy a Sniper Rifle.

Xia Chujian seized Wenren Lang’s cruiser, killed him after he attacked her, and discovered that something strange could speak through his body. After returning to Da Zang Star, she interrogated Zolnbot and learned why the Third Prince had targeted Po Jun, leaving her to reckon with Po Jun’s rumored connection to the Emperor.

• Xia Chujian shot Wenren Lang, killed ten of his guards, and executed him when he refused to answer her questions.
• A Tentacle emerged from Wenren Lang’s head, and his body rose again to warn Xia Chujian that God was watching her before she shot him down once more.
• Xia Chujian took control of the Starry Sky Cruisers and Starship, returned to Da Zang Star, and learned that Nance Le was dead while Zolnbot was in custody.
• Xia Chujian threatened Zolnbot into revealing that Wenren Lang wanted Da Zang Star and that the Third Prince had ordered them to frame and execute Po Jun without showing evidence.
• Zolnbot told Xia Chujian that the Third Prince had named Po Jun as the assassin and that upper circles believed Po Jun was the Emperor’s illegitimate son, formerly the Royal Inner Guard Leader.

Xia Chujian returned to Beichen Star after defeating Wenren Lang’s forces and confronted Third Prince Tantai Jinshu, who tried to undermine Second Princess Tantai Jinci. In a separate scene, Yu witnessed ancient powers emerging across the region and faced a mysterious figure carrying a bronze lantern.

• Xia Chujian interrogated Zolnbot, learned the Third Prince had promised his men habitable planets for their families, and killed him.
• Xia Chujian sent teams to search the wrecked shuttles, then led her troops home aboard Wenren Lang’s surviving ships after discovering their own spaceship was destroyed.
• Xia Chujian told her soldiers to describe the battle as a defense against traitors and promised to seek military credit for them and their fallen comrades.
• Xia Chujian returned to the base, where Tantai Jinshu fainted at the sight of her fleet and then accused Tantai Jinci of being born from an affair.
• Yu observed supernatural visions and an ancient emperor rising within a golden pillar, then cut through a smoke attack from a grey-clad figure with a bronze lantern.

Xia Chujian learned that the Emperor and Third Prince Tantai Jinshu planned to remove her from her post and target Second Princess Tantai Jinci, while the Wenren and Zoln Clans joined the Third Prince in a coup. After killing Tantai Jinci when she tried to murder her, Xia escaped the palace and rallied the Royal Inner Guard to prepare a counterattack against the forces besieging their Station.

• Xia Chujian incorporated ten thousand survivors from Da Zang Star into the Royal Inner Guard and ordered them to collect weapons and ammunition.
• Third Prince Tantai Jinshu persuaded the Emperor to issue orders against Tantai Jinci and arrange for Xia to lose her Guard Captain position and military rank, while Su Yueming warned Xia to flee.
• Xia arrived in Tantai Jinci's Bedchamber, where the Princess tried to strangle her for a promised chance to survive, and Xia killed her with her mecha and pistol.
• An Inner Attendant revealed that the Wenren and Zoln Clans had allied with Tantai Jinshu, surrounded the Imperial Palace with troops, and placed Su Yueming under house arrest.
• Xia disguised herself as an Inner Attendant, escaped the Bedchamber, and fought her way through the palace to the Royal Inner Guard Station.
• Xia activated the Station alarm and ordered the Royal Inner Guard to counterattack, rallying more than 110,000 troops against the besieging forces.

Xia Chujian led the Royal Inner Guard in crushing the Wenren Clan and Zoln Clan’s siege, then killed Third Prince Tantai Jinshu after he claimed credit and threatened her authority. Po Jun returned after raiding both clans’ ancestral mansions, while Xia Chujian ordered the battlefield cleared and the rebels’ families punished.

• Xia Chujian ordered the Royal Inner Guard to attack the Wenren Clan and Zoln Clan’s forces, then sent Po Jun to pursue the deserters.
• Xia Chujian promoted Po Jun and ordered him to raid the Wenren Clan and Zoln Clan’s ancestral mansions.
• Li Fengqing told Xia Chujian that the Four Great Dukes would remain neutral and that Third Prince Tantai Jinshu had arrived with reinforcements.
• Tantai Jinshu claimed he had defeated the rebel clans, but Xia Chujian exposed his lie and demanded that he raid their homes.
• Xia Chujian shot Tantai Jinshu and ten of his generals, then ordered the Royal Inner Guard to rout his thirty thousand troops.
• Xia Chujian ordered the battlefield cleared and rebel Officers’ families punished, while Po Jun returned with more than a hundred trucks of seized property.

Xia Chujian killed the Emperor after learning he had orchestrated events to clear the way for Po Jun, then the Game System ended her run before she could claim the throne. Back at Imperial First Military University, she broke the record for clearing “Expanding Territory” and reported to Qiu Shenxing, refusing to let him share her study methods.

• Po Jun revealed he wanted to retire and settle on Guiyuan Star, then High Priest Su Yueming summoned him and Xia Chujian to meet the awakened Emperor.
• The Emperor revealed that Po Jun was his legitimate son and Crown Prince, and admitted he had arranged events to prepare Po Jun’s path to the throne.
• Xia Chujian shot the Emperor and demanded to know whether Po Jun still wanted to be Emperor; Po Jun said he had no interest in the throne, but Xia Chujian remained unwilling to trust him.
• The Game System announced that Xia Chujian had cleared “Expanding Territory,” awarded her points, and returned her to the Nutrient Cabin after only two hours.
• Xia Chujian learned that Chen Yanjun had died and returned to the Game, then went to Qiu Shenxing and refused to let him share her study methods with other students.

Xia Chujian shared her military history exam strategy on the school forum, then contacted Huo Yushen about her suspicions concerning the Game’s Mechanical Intelligence. After they moved to her Villa and entered his encrypted Secret Talk Room, she realized its design resembled the Game’s entry stage and asked whether he had created it when he was twelve.

• Xia Chujian posted her military history Pass Strategy on the School Forum and rebuked a Senior who suggested copying someone else’s work.
• Xia Chujian returned to her dormitory, received a Video Call from Huo Yushen, and asked whether their conversation was secure.
• Huo Yushen added encryption and urged Xia Chujian to continue their discussion at her Villa, where he arrived in person.
• Xia Chujian and Huo Yushen entered his Virtual Secret Talk Room after disconnecting the home Network System and removing Bei Jia One’s battery.
• Xia Chujian noticed that the Secret Talk Room resembled the Game’s entry stage, and Huo Yushen said it had inspired his design.

Xia Chujian and Huo Yushen compared their experiences in the game and discovered that their character names and identities differed in unusual ways. Huo Yushen began recounting a suspicious incident from his second level, leaving Xia Chujian eager to learn whether it involved her character, Seven Kill.

• Xia Chujian learned that Huo Yushen had played the Prince of the Nation, while she had played an assassin, and that clearing a level only required surviving until that plot segment ended.
• Huo Yushen said the Game System had assigned him the name Po Jun, while Xia Chujian revealed that it had initially given her character her real name and that she had changed it.
• Xia Chujian told Huo Yushen that her character had continued acting after she left the game, and he admitted he had encountered a similar situation in his second level.
• Huo Yushen described Po Jun's background as the Emperor's Grand Prince and explained that, at eighteen, Po Jun entered the Royal Inner Guard and learned his origins.
• Huo Yushen said Po Jun recruited Qi Sha, a formidable female Major General loyal to the Imperial Family, as Xia Chujian wondered whether the events connected to her character, Seven Kill.

Huo Yushen recounted Lin Po Jun’s path through the Second Level, including Qi Sha’s role in the palace coup and her death protecting him. Xia Chujian realized that the man she had met in her own game matched Huo Yushen’s in-game appearance, leaving them to confront the possibility that their game characters were connected.

• Huo Yushen explained that his First Level character belonged to the She tribe, while his Second Level character was Lin Po Jun, raised outside the Imperial Palace.
• Huo Yushen described how the emperor framed the Imperial Concubine and altered Tantai Jinci’s genetic data, leading to the Second Princess’s death by Qi Sha’s hand.
• Huo Yushen recounted how Qi Sha crushed the palace coup and cleared the way for Lin Po Jun to ascend, then died taking a bullet meant for him after the emperor was killed by an unknown shooter.
• Xia Chujian wondered whether the unexplained bullet had come from her game and asked whether the characters’ models had existed before players entered the game.
• Xia Chujian described the Po Jun she had met, and Huo Yushen drew his portrait before revealing that it showed his own in-game appearance.

Xia Chujian discussed the Game System and Mechanical Intelligence with Huo Yushen, then entered Chapter Three, “Trouble Within the Walls,” as Seven Kill, an assassin waiting for a target. She discovered that her Shao Siming Black Silver Mecha could use dynamic stealth in the game and recognized the rundown district around her as familiar.

• Xia Chujian and Huo Yushen discussed how the Game System controlled characters and how its underlying logic might be directed by a human operator.
• Huo Yushen inspected Xia Chujian’s Bei Jia One, warned her not to let anyone else examine its source code, and left in a flying vehicle.
• Xia Chujian rested, studied military-history readers, and entered a Nutrient Cabin to attempt Chapter Three, “Trouble Within the Walls.”
• Xia Chujian woke on a rooftop at night and received a message from Ping Fu telling Seven Kill to prepare to shoot an approaching target.
• Xia Chujian summoned her Shao Siming Black Silver Mecha and confirmed with Seven Lù that its dynamic stealth function worked.
• Xia Chujian stood up, surveyed the dilapidated district, and recognized the place as familiar.

Xia Chujian took an assassination job in a game resembling Mulan City, but she and another sniper killed different targets at the same time. After recognizing Po Jun and saving him from a second sniper, she tried to flee with him and his adoptive mother as the ground split open and swallowed the supposedly dead man in the bowler hat.

• Xia Chujian confirmed her game identity as Seven Kill, received a target image and coordinates from Ping Fu, and tracked the target to a small courtyard.
• Xia Chujian spotted another sniper aiming at a neighboring courtyard and saw a hooked-nosed man emerge beside a middle-aged woman.
• Xia Chujian shot the lip-syncing target while the other sniper killed the hooked-nosed man, and she recognized the younger man who appeared as Po Jun.
• Xia Chujian killed the sniper aiming at Po Jun, gave Po Jun the sniper rifle, and urged him to escape with his adoptive mother.
• The supposedly dead hooked-nosed man sat up as the area shook, then fell into a fissure that opened and quickly closed beneath him.
• Xia Chujian told Po Jun to follow her, but he questioned where they could go because the area would be sealed off after the earthquake.