Chapter Summaries

After sealing Inez Star Seeker and reclaiming the Construct Network, Anvis used the battle’s spoils to break through to Rank 8. Elsewhere, Gray Mist failed to break through the Ceiling Wall and remained between Rank 8 and Ninth Rank.

• Anvis reflected on Inez Star Seeker’s near-fatal attack, reclaimed the Construct Network’s authority, and saw the contaminated users’ Threads of Fate return to normal.
• Anvis placed Circle of Truth cards on the sleeping Ninth Rank Professionals and left the battlefield to make one last haul before the Construct Network collapsed.
• The power converted from sealing the Speaker reached Anvis’s main body, and he broke through to Rank 8, approaching Eighth Rank Mid.
• Anvis discovered that his Rank 8 Illusory Light Ice Domain let him appear instantly anywhere within its mist.
• Star and Gray Mist concluded that Gray Mist had failed to break through the Ceiling Wall and remained between Rank 8 and Ninth Rank.

Xing recalled why the Federal Speaker had pursued his plan despite its risks, while Gray Mist explained that he would temporarily lead the Door in the Pupil and then disband it. As the Ninth Rank Professionals awoke to find Circle of Truth cards on themselves, they realized the organization had intervened and the Federal Speaker was missing.

• Xing remembered that the Federal Speaker had refused to abandon his plan because he wanted to reach the real world beyond the false sky.
• Gray Mist revealed that the Federal Speaker had appointed him to lead the Door in the Pupil, and he planned to disband it temporarily because its members would not trust them.
• Gray Mist sensed that Mirror had broken through to become an Eighth Rank Prophet.
• After the Sleepy Snow dispersed, investigators found the Ninth Rank Professionals asleep with Circle of Truth cards, and major powers began questioning the organization's role in the Federal Speaker's disappearance.
• Mark of the Crown of Thorns awoke, recognized the Circle of Truth's strength, and returned to the Saint Messiah Empire to warn the Pope.
• The other Ninth Rank Professionals awoke and realized the Circle of Truth had intervened, while the former opponents set aside their conflict because the Federal Speaker had schemed against them all.

After the Circle of Truth destroyed the Speaker’s array, the surviving Ninth Ranks suspected it had found a way beyond the Ninth Rank and reconsidered their stance toward it. Anvis advanced to Eighth Rank and prepared to return home, while Landon woke from a bizarre dream.

• Crystal Door Bayer argued that the Circle of Truth had found the secret to surpassing the Ninth Rank, and other Ninth Ranks agreed to treat it as a major threat and possible ally.
• The Web of Fate shifted as the Ninth Ranks reconsidered the Circle of Truth, fulfilling Anvis’s plan to draw attention to the group.
• Anvis received more than one hundred thousand units of Fate Feedback and advanced to become an Eighth Rank Prophet.
• Anvis left his hidden base at dawn and decided to return to Moonrise Fortress.
• Landon woke on the battlefield after dreaming that Lia was a boy who married him and built a strange family with him.

Landon concealed Dark Crow’s presence after waking from the dream, while the Circle of Truth’s intervention reshaped the continent’s political balance. Anvis visited Madam Mandel in Maires Kingdom, where he shared rare magical refreshments as the factions prepared for what came next.

• Landon told Leo that he had passed out after seeing the strange phenomenon, and Leo left with him while pondering how to contact the Circle of Truth.
• News of the Circle of Truth’s Eternal Gold Cards spread, prompting factions to reassess the organization and Ninth Ranks to seek its members.
• The Federation’s war subsided as the Three Great Kingdoms and the Resistance Organizations consolidated their territories, while the remaining Eighth Rank Prophets turned against one another.
• Anvis visited Madam Mandel at Black Rose Castle, where she mocked his precarious status and he offered to share magical desserts and Crystal Nuts.

Anvis exposed Madam Mandel’s attempts to drug and seduce him while learning that she had traded Freya’s younger brother to Shute. Meanwhile, Raphael’s Black Ring Merchant Guild prospered during the Federation’s arms race, and the Angel Series constructs neared widespread deployment.

• Madam Mandel approved a plan to search for the Circle of Truth and told Anvis that Freya’s younger brother had been sent away to reunite with his family.
• Madam Mandel offered Anvis a Black Collar and invited him to comfort her, but Anvis revealed that he recognized the hallucinogen in her tea and resisted its effects.
• Anvis continued teasing Madam Mandel as his Man in the Mirror Avatar, while Raphael oversaw the Black Ring Merchant Guild amid rising demand for military supplies.
• The Black Ring Merchant Guild earned a reputation for selling affordable Magic Constructs, and Raphael became known as the Wingless Angel.
• The guild introduced its Angel Series, and Angel Type I and Type II were widely adopted by Federation armies and were soon to enter official use.

After returning to the Gloria Empire, Anvis reunited with his family and recounted how he had escaped the Door in the Pupil’s base. He examined Fiona’s Stellar Disk and considered the dangers that still threatened his family, while the disk’s transformation remained incomplete.

• Fiona eagerly followed Anvis around Moonrise Fortress, and Duke Carlot reduced her lessons so the siblings could spend more time together.
• Duke Carlot and Duchess Elena gathered their children for a family banquet, where Raymond asked Anvis about his time in the Federation.
• Anvis explained that the Circle of Truth’s raid on a Door in the Pupil base had given him a chance to escape, then described his time in the Silver Moon Kingdom and his work with the Embers Organization.
• Duke Carlot asked whether Anvis had learned anything that could reveal the Circle of Truth’s identities, and Anvis said he had not.
• After the banquet, Anvis studied Fiona’s Stellar Disk and assessed the remaining threats from the Star Gazer and the Door in the Pupil.

Anvis discovered that Yanile Bishop had survived the Saint Plan Ritual, awakened as a Ninth Rank Holy Knight, and become the Pope’s student, making him a possible spy but an uncertain risk. He then received Duke Carlot’s permission to return to Pamir Academy, while his parents accepted his decision despite the dangers.

• Anvis replenished the unexpected Twisted Seed and learned that it belonged to Yanile Bishop, who had survived the Saint Plan Ritual and reached the ninth rank.
• Anvis decided to observe Yanile rather than risk exposing himself, hoping the new Pope’s student would provide information about the Saint Plan.
• Anvis asked Duke Carlot for permission to return to Pamir Academy, citing its cover and opportunities for his plans.
• Duke Carlot approved Anvis’s return, and Duchess Elena voiced concern about the dangers while the Duke agreed to support their son’s choice.

Anvis returned to Pamir Academy, resumed contact with friends, and investigated a mysterious fragment Claire had sent from the Lost Desert. Unable to identify it or locate Claire, he left his research to attend Nancy’s advanced Mystic-type class, where she began explaining the dangers of the Limited Wish Spell.

• Anvis arrived at Pamir Academy and received a new Identity Plate and five thousand Credit Points in compensation for the earlier attack.
• Anvis restored his former residence and received visits and letters from acquaintances, including souvenirs and a strange fragment from Claire.
• The Old Days Secret Scripture flickered near the fragment, but Anvis could not identify it, so he ordered the family to search for Claire and began analyzing the fragment.
• After half a month, Anvis’s analysis was only halfway complete, and the family had learned that Claire had entered the Lost Desert alone and vanished.
• Anvis attended Nancy’s advanced Mystic-type class, where she taught that wish magic could fulfill requests through ordinary means and warned that a Dragon might retaliate.

Anvis attended Nancy’s lesson on the Limited Wish Spell and learned how its wishes and equivalent prices worked. He wished to learn where the person who took the Magic Image was, and the spell warned that fulfilling it would plague him with strangeness.

• Nancy explained that the Seventh Rank Limited Wish Spell granted one wish per person, with a price that rose according to the wish’s impact.
• Nancy completed the ritual and told the students that they could accept or reject the price revealed for each wish.
• The brown-haired student wished for fifty thousand Gold Coins and accepted the price that anything he did with them would go wrong.
• A female student rejected the price of making her next important magic experiment certain to fail, while other students also weighed their wishes and prices.
• Anvis wished to know the current location of the person who took the Magic Image, and Nancy revealed the price: he would be plagued by strangeness.

Anvis learned that Claire was in a ruin in the Dream World and sensed a strange presence watching him from the Abyss. After class, Beiqi discussed his ideas for a treasure-making ritual and reported progress on his Dragon Slime experiments, which Anvis thought the Outsiders might like.

• Nancy showed Anvis an image of Claire walking toward a Stone Palace in a Dream World ruin, while a strange presence in the Abyss watched him.
• Anvis declined Nancy's offer of help and used a magic ring to suppress the chill from the presence.
• After the wish spell class ended, Beiqi proposed turning excrement into gemstones, and Anvis threatened to blacklist him and his gemstones.
• Beiqi told Anvis that he had created Dragon Slime subjects by fusing a Special Life Fragment with ordinary slimes.
• Anvis said the Outsiders should like Beiqi's Dragon Slimes.

Anvis negotiated with Beiqi to acquire the Dragon Slime cultivation method and future products for his commercial ventures. After the deal, Anvis considered expanding the slimes’ traits and reproduction, while the Mysteries Society’s rapid growth prompted others to suspect he understood Outsider behavior.

• Anvis offered Beiqi funding in exchange for exclusive rights to the Dragon Slime project, and Beiqi accepted after Anvis raised the offer to five hundred thousand Gold Coins.
• Anvis and Beiqi signed a contract, and Beiqi gave Anvis a Crystal Ball containing his cultivation process and Experiment Log.
• Beiqi told Anvis that he had experimented with a Winged Human Mother and planned to test specimens from other races with his new funding.
• Anvis left to use the Dragon Slimes as a signature product for his affiliated shops and considered strengthening their reproduction abilities.
• The Mysteries Society had grown into a high-level faction, leading others to suspect Anvis had grasped patterns in Outsider behavior.

Anvis studied the slime samples Beiqi delivered and discovered that Dragon Slimes could inherit traits from their mothers while reproducing through division. He began breeding Slime Girls in nutrient tanks for the Mysteries Society and prepared to test the ordinary-looking slimes next.

• Anvis brought Beiqi's slime samples to his Underground Lab and found five Slime Girls among them.
• Anvis analyzed the samples and learned that Dragon Slimes inherited some of their mother's traits as they divided.
• Anvis put the five Slime Girls into nutrient tanks to mass-produce them for the Mysteries Society's faction-exclusive item list.
• Anvis turned to the other five slimes and considered testing them with his two female Cursed Plutonium Dragons.

Anvis tested whether Dragon Slimes could reproduce inside Cursed Plutonium Dragons, but the Slimes failed under the dragons’ powerful Cursed Force Field. He began a new experiment using dragon tissue in cultivation tanks, then released Slime Girls for exchange through the Mysteries Society, drawing the Players’ attention.

• Anvis released his three Seventh Rank Cursed Plutonium Dragons in the Laboratory and tested Dragon Slimes against them.
• The first Slime dissolved in the Cursed Force Field, and the second burst apart despite being able to absorb it.
• Anvis collected tissue samples from two female dragons, combined them with Slimes, and started cultivating them in cursed Nutrient Solution for about a week.
• Several days later, Anvis listed five hundred Slime Girls for exchange, and Players noticed that they were not wearing the Lament Set.
• Last Dragonborn and his former teammates discussed the Slime Girls’ price and appearance while watching a peddler during their mission in Gloria’s Royal Capital.

White Light Esports investigated a Hidden Quest about the missing King Selection Sword and tracked a peddler making a secret handoff. Last Dragonborn and Tiramisu lost the mysterious recipient but used Last Dragonborn’s new power to locate his real body nearby.

• Nyarlathotep explained that Slime Girls could not reproduce by division, while the team prepared to investigate a quest concerning the King Selection Sword.
• Rabbit Ji spotted the peddler entering an alley and meeting an unidentified person, so Nyarlathotep sent Last Dragonborn and Tiramisu to follow the stranger.
• Last Dragonborn and Tiramisu watched the peddler hand a small box to a figure in a blue robe, then discovered the figure was a phantom.
• Rabbit Ji warned them that guards were approaching, and Last Dragonborn and Tiramisu fled to another alley.
• Last Dragonborn revealed that his glowing left eye had marked the stranger’s aura and could sense his direction, while Tiramisu suggested crawling through a hole in a wall to take a shortcut.

Oben, Kidd, and Yali used a charred remnant and an ancient map to prepare a spell that could locate the King Selection Sword or the laboratories linked to it. As they discussed selling their information to one of the Empire’s Four Great Families, Yali detected two Fourth Rank pursuers approaching their hideout.

• Kidd questioned whether they should keep searching for the King Selection Sword, since their growing number of watchers made the information dangerous to hold.
• Oben explained that the charred stone was a melted device from a damaged laboratory and that it could help track the sword or its former owner’s other laboratories.
• The group’s information came from an Expedition Team that had found and looted the laboratory before news of its discovery leaked.
• Yali proposed selling accurate information to one of the Empire’s Four Great Families, while Kidd worried that they might seize the group and search their souls.
• Yali detected an elf mage and a Beast-man assassin, both Fourth Rank, approaching the hideout.

Oben's group captured Last Dragonborn and ordered him to contact Anvis, suspecting the Olivenndis were connected to the King Selection Sword. Anvis answered the call while planning construction projects to employ Players in Carlas Province.

• Oben recognized Last Dragonborn and a Half-Cat Person as the two Fourth Rank intruders and asked Kidd to capture them alive.
• Last Dragonborn pleaded for his life, revealed he worked for Anvis Olivenndi, and offered to sign a magic contract.
• Oben gave Last Dragonborn three days to contact Anvis, and Last Dragonborn guessed their interest concerned the King Selection Sword.
• Kidd's reaction confirmed Last Dragonborn's suspicion, and Oben warned him before ordering him to use the Crystal Ball.
• Anvis answered the call as he planned a new city and construction work for Players in Carlas Province.

Anvis learned from a blue-robed mage that recently discovered coordinates might lead to the King Selection Sword and paid for the information after arranging to verify it. Duke Carlot and his wife revealed that the sword could awaken Emperor Gloria’s vanished Golem legion, and Carlot left the matter in Anvis’s hands.

• The Last Dragonborn introduced the blue-robed mage Oben, who offered coordinates connected to the King Selection Sword for one and a half million Gold Coins.
• Anvis demanded reliable proof, then agreed to have the Olyvendi Family contact Oben and discuss the information.
• Anvis recalled the sword’s history and its reappearance less than a year away in his previous life, then paid for the coordinates and sent an Avatar to investigate them.
• Duke Carlot and his wife explained that a wielder recognized by the King Selection Sword could awaken Emperor Gloria’s formidable Golem legion, though the coordinates might be a trap.
• Duke Carlot entrusted the matter to Anvis as a chance for him to practice handling affairs.

A hidden leader learned that Anvis had obtained intelligence about the King Selection Sword and decided to let him be drawn into the plot, while Anvis remained unaware and continued his quiet life at Pamir Academy. Harvey sought more Slime Girls, and Anvis reflected on the unusual slime experiments requested by Evan.

• A black-robed secret guard reported that Anvis, rather than Evan Olivenndi, had obtained the intelligence, and the young leader decided not to approach Evan or interfere further.
• The young leader recalled Anvis's talent and strength, criticized the Door in the Pupil, and entered a secret chamber to examine the King Selection Sword.
• Anvis returned to Pamir Academy and chose to keep his main body low-profile while developing the Player faction and enjoying academy life.
• Harvey caught up with Anvis after class, apparently to order another Slime Girl, as Anvis recalled that Harvey had supplied life fragments for custom slimes.
• Anvis remembered that Evan had requested tentacled slimes capable of impregnating a host body, a request that had shocked him.

Harvey told Anvis he had fallen in love with an actress and asked for help arranging a chance to meet her. After agreeing to help, Anvis met Ninth Prince Lanno, who asked about the Overlapping Zones appearing across the Empire.

• Harvey confessed that he had fallen in love with an actress he saw at the Gloria Grand Theater and asked Anvis to arrange a private meeting.
• Anvis checked Harvey for signs of charm magic or potions, found no clear evidence, and remained suspicious that something was wrong.
• Anvis agreed to accompany Harvey to the opera in two days and create an opportunity for him to meet the actress.
• Harvey left, and Anvis went to Eternal Gold Box 16 at the High Tower Restaurant to meet Ninth Prince Lanno.
• Prince Lanno asked Anvis whether he had heard about the Overlapping Zones appearing throughout the Empire.

Anvis learned Prince Lanno’s account of the Federation upheaval and the Overlapping Zones, while recognizing that his own past actions had helped trigger the events behind them. After leaving Lanno, the story shifted to a Player-built city near Dusk Song Forest, where Players worked in a Construct Factory.

• Prince Lanno told Anvis that the Overlapping Zones appeared after a terrifying foreign entity nearly descended upon the Federation and affected the Dream World’s rules.
• Anvis privately connected the upheaval and the game’s Ver2.0 update to his influence on events involving the Star Gazer, the Speaker, and Ma'eilimu.
• Anvis played the role of someone newly informed, listened to Lanno’s warning about the Circle of Truth, and said he was unlikely to be their first target.
• Anvis left after lunch, while Lanno watched him depart and wondered about something.
• At a Player-built city beside Dusk Song Forest, Fish Deer Horse Cow complained about working in a factory both in real life and in the game, and Butter Toast Cat teased him about the game’s faster passage of time.