Chapter Summaries

Xie Donglin received an unusual offer to work as a game booster for thirty thousand a month, while his roommates struggled to find jobs amid exploitative hiring practices. At a local company, General Manager Yan warned recruiter Liu Sheng to fill the open programming positions, but Liu Sheng planned to make the offer even worse, confident that the market favored employers.

• Ye Xulun offered Xie Donglin a game-booster job with a monthly salary of thirty thousand and gave him a contract to consider.
• Xie Donglin's roommates complained that employers demanded extensive skills while offering poor pay, and Xie Donglin reconsidered the contract after hearing about their lack of options.
• Liu Sheng told his colleagues he had rejected every résumé, including candidates who asked for overtime pay.
• General Manager Yan confronted Liu Sheng about rejecting qualified applicants and warned that the technology department urgently needed staff.
• Liu Sheng dismissed General Manager Yan's concerns and decided to lower the advertised salary to one thousand while recruiting again.

Xie Donglin considered an unusually generous contract from Overlooking Flourishing World and decided to visit the company, while Liu Sheng expected to recruit top C University graduates through a personal connection. At C University's second-day spring recruitment, however, the engineering and computer science booths were nearly empty, leaving recruiters wondering where the candidates had gone.

• Xie Donglin read Overlooking Flourishing World's employment contract, questioned its research duties, and called Ye Xulun to ask about the group's location.
• Xie Donglin told his roommates he was going to check out the game-boosting job and hurried out.
• Liu Sheng assured Old Wang that he would recruit young candidates through a C University teacher, despite having failed to persuade former programmers to return.
• At C University's spring recruitment, HR representatives found crowds at nontechnical booths but very few candidates at engineering and computer science booths.

Ye Xulun recruited C University seniors to work for his company, and Xie Donglin chose the unusual job after hearing a former teacher’s low-paying alternative. Teacher Bai and Liu Sheng struggled to find computer science graduates, discovering that all their prospects already had jobs.

• Xie Donglin recognized Hu Kaifeng and other C University alumni at Ye Xulun’s shabby office and wondered if they were being hired to grind games.
• Ye Xulun showed the group the latest Game Pods and contracts, then offered to advance them a month’s salary.
• Teacher Bai called Xie Donglin to recommend a software engineering job paying two thousand during a six-month internship, but Xie signed Ye Xulun’s contract for thirty thousand instead.
• Teacher Bai tried to recruit other C University computer science students for Liu Sheng, but half an hour later reported that every student he had called already had somewhere to go.
• Liu Sheng and Lao Wang sat in disbelief after hearing that they could not find any available recruits.

Liu Sheng failed to recruit computer science graduates because C City's strongest candidates had already been snapped up, then learned that other companies were facing the same shortage. At the Main Base, Xi Ye realized the players' recruitment spree had emptied C City's top computer science programs and spread toward other universities.

• Professor Bai told Liu Sheng that all the promising computer science graduates he knew had already been recruited, so Liu Sheng decided to return the next day with lower requirements.
• Liu Sheng ran into a former colleague from Anxin Group, who asked him for candidates and explained that his company had recruited only four people toward a quota of twenty.
• The former colleague told Liu Sheng that companies were hiring weaker candidates and planning to recruit at Post University, Jiaotong University, and other schools.
• Xi Ye reviewed the influx of new players and realized that more than a thousand lord players had recruited nearly eight thousand people, rapidly exhausting C City's outstanding computer science graduates.
• Xi Ye saw that slower players were now targeting Post University and Jiaotong University and worried that concentrating recruitment in C City had caused serious disruption.

General Manager Yan confronted Liu Sheng after his failed recruitment drive left the company short-staffed, and Zhang Yan proposed hiring experienced programmers and contacting former employees. Liu Sheng resigned with a recommendation letter and left realizing that he, too, was only an employee.

• General Manager Yan questioned Liu Sheng after the company failed to recruit computer science graduates, and Zhang Yan explained how scarce they had become.
• Zhang Yan suggested using headhunters to poach experienced programmers and visiting former employees to negotiate their return.
• General Manager Yan approved Zhang Yan's plan and told him to learn what compensation the former employees wanted.
• Liu Sheng offered to resign and asked General Manager Yan for a recommendation letter, which Yan agreed to provide.
• General Manager Yan told Liu Sheng that employees resented his cost-cutting methods, and Liu Sheng left reflecting on how he had treated workers and on his own position as a wage earner.

Grandpa Lu published a new guide advising players on recruiting skilled workers and managing food, medicine, and weapons for their exploration forces. He promised to investigate and review Gondolin's shops next, while Isabelle and the others recognized his plan as a shameless bid to make money.

• Grandpa Lu recommended recruiting engineering graduates and Financial Engineering students to help develop players' factions.
• Grandpa Lu warned that cheap Nutrient Solution could cause soldiers' evolution to go wrong and urged players to provide nutritious food.
• Grandpa Lu recommended Gondolin's Biological Fusion Surgery as a way to improve soldiers' strength and immunity.
• Grandpa Lu advised players to equip soldiers with suitable weapons and use a points system to let them earn high-end gear.
• Grandpa Lu announced a future series reviewing Gondolin's shops, and Isabelle and the others privately mocked his money-making scheme.

After Lu Xiao Wei’s recruitment post drew criticism and attention, NetEase executives discussed how to use its real-world effects to challenge the game. They decided to report the studio before it could make changes.

• Lu Xiao Wei saw players accuse him of accepting shady sponsorships, while others praised his recommendations for biological surgery and Little Cabbage’s weapons.
• Lu Xiao Wei left his Game Pod to get dinner and shop, unaware that NetEase designers were analyzing his post.
• Director Jiang told Young Director Ding that recruiting real-world engineering graduates for in-game research could violate limits on virtual technology’s impact on reality.
• Director Jiang argued that the game might mislead students and harm real-world hiring, and Young Director Ding approved reporting the studio before it could respond.
• Young Director Ding told the public relations manager to find Deputy Director Cui.

Xie Donglin and the other academic recruits marvelled at the Main Base’s realistic technology before signing contracts for surgery. After Xie Donglin’s sneeze revealed that the contract could register something from the real world, Ye Xulun sent him into surgery anyway, leaving him terrified and asking for extra anesthetic.

• Xie Donglin and the other recruits were amazed by the Main Base’s lifelike scenery and advanced equipment.
• Xie Donglin met Yang Dongshan in the surgery queue, and Yang warned him that the game’s valuable slots were being offered to recruits unusually cheaply.
• Ye Xulun had Xie Donglin sign an in-game contract, and a piece of chili skin from the real world landed on it after Xie Donglin sneezed.
• Ye Xulun took the contract and sent Xie Donglin into the surgery room, where mechanical arms restrained him and he asked for extra anesthetic.
• Ye Xulun sighed that being too smart was not always helpful and called Hu Kaifeng to sign a contract and undergo surgery.

Xie Donglin escaped the Game Pod facility and met Hu Kaifeng, and the two examined themselves for signs of physical changes. Meanwhile, Director Cui ordered Star Sea taken offline and an investigation launched, while Hu Kaifeng insisted they still needed a more thorough examination.

• Xie Donglin woke in the Game Pod facility, checked himself for injuries, and fled to Guanyin Bridge before returning toward the university town.
• Director Cui at the Yanjing Virtual Regulatory Bureau ordered Star Sea taken offline on social-stability grounds and told subordinates to have the C City Security Bureau investigate.
• Xie Donglin met Hu Kaifeng, and they agreed to inspect themselves for strange physical changes before seeking medical help.
• Xie Donglin and Hu Kaifeng examined each other in Hu Kaifeng's rented room and found no obvious bodily changes.
• Hu Kaifeng warned Xie Donglin not to let their guard down and pulled two buckets of instant noodles from beneath the table for further examination.

Hu Kaifeng and Xie Donglin tested whether they could still eat normal food, then faced a visit from police officers as a Security Bureau meeting linked mass resignations and student recruitment disruptions to Star Sea. The Bureau classified the game as a threat to social stability.

• Hu Kaifeng and Xie Donglin ate instant noodles and found they had no unusual reactions or cravings.
• Xie Donglin received a call from President Ye, while Hu Kaifeng suggested their experiences might be only part of a game.
• Hu Kaifeng looked through the peephole and saw police officers outside their door.
• A Security Bureau official reviewed the mass resignations of more than 7,600 IT workers in C City and the recruitment of over a thousand graduates.
• A crew-cut young man identified Star Sea as the common link to the employment disruptions and said the game endangered social stability.

Little Wu warned the Security Bureau that a popular game’s Developer class could endanger the real world and claimed a mysterious black-tech force was behind it. His suspicions seemed to gain weight when a visitor from the Dragon Group arrived, leaving the bureau elders startled.

• Little Wu explained that the game’s Developers studied advanced real-world subjects and could eventually create magical and science-fiction technology, prompting an elder to suggest reporting the risks to the Virtual Administration Bureau.
• Little Wu said recruited players had learned sound theories and formulas that solved problems modern science had not, and argued that the game was connected to a powerful hidden organization.
• Little Wu added that players believed the game was another real space and that Officer Yang had been investigating it, then suggested the organization might have ties to influential people.
• A young woman told Director Luo that someone from the Dragon Group wanted to see him, and Little Wu concluded that the game was connected to the Dragon Group.

After Ye Xulun identified himself as a Dragon Group major general, Director Luo let him take away two employees connected to the game. Yang Rui then described evidence that Star Sea players could teleport, warning Director Luo and Xiao Wu that the game might be something far more serious than it appeared.

• Ye Xulun showed Director Luo his Dragon Group credentials and asked to take away two employees, and Director Luo agreed.
• At Xiao Wu’s home, Yang Rui objected to letting Ye Xulun take them and warned Director Luo that the Dragon Group’s backing was powerful.
• Yang Rui recounted following Pu Yunchuan abroad, seeing him contact Houston researchers, and discovering that the researchers disappeared while Pu Yunchuan returned home almost instantly.
• Yang Rui said he had traced the mystery to Star Sea and found a player who appeared inside her Game Pod after he entered her empty home.
• Yang Rui explained that the player had him arrested and suspended, then warned Director Luo and Xiao Wu that the game’s true nature could have grave consequences.

Xie Donglin and Hu Kaifeng returned to the game with Ye Xulun, who assigned them to study and conduct research in his faction’s experimental base. They discovered their coursework treated their real-world computer knowledge as primitive, leaving them questioning whether the game was serious.

• Ye Xulun told Xie Donglin and Hu Kaifeng he had brought them out of the Security Bureau because they had abandoned work, then led them back to the game.
• Ye Xulun gave them protective suits and transported them from the futuristic Main Base to the grassland home of the Overlooking the World Tribe.
• Ye Xulun explained the faction’s partners, membership, and ranking before taking them to its experimental base.
• Ye Xulun assigned Xie Donglin and Hu Kaifeng daily coursework in a magic-powered mechanical civilization and said they could consult remote instructors.
• Xie Donglin opened his course outline and saw that his computer programming background was classified as primitive, outdated knowledge.

Xie Donglin and Hu Kaifeng were drawn into the game's advanced lessons, while NetEase's attempt to suppress the game ended after the Head of State intervened. The Head of State revealed that the game was a state-secret project tied to testing military personnel's cultivation aptitude and ordered officials to keep it hidden.

• Xie Donglin became absorbed in the game's programming lessons and met Hu Kaifeng, who said the physics courses had made his studies feel pointless.
• Xie Donglin and Hu Kaifeng realized they had skipped meals and decided to try a jianbing guozi with ten eggs.
• Director Ding called Director Cui to demand an explanation for restoring the game, but another voice took over and frightened Ding into dropping his phone.
• The Head of State told Huang Huafeng that the game was a state-secret project and criticized the Virtual Administration Bureau's handling of the takedown.
• The Head of State told Huang Huafeng to contain public attention and keep foreign media from noticing the project, which would test military elites' cultivation aptitude with the Luofu Sect Leader's permission.

After discovering that the Super AI had erased his posts criticizing Star Sea, Yang Rui concluded that the Head of State was protecting the mysterious faction behind the game and fled toward North America. At the Main Base, Yu Nv Wu Gua watched him escape and said the game would soon be revealed to the world.

• Yang Rui read the news about Star Sea's brief shutdown and, alarmed by its rapid return, began packing to flee.
• Yang Rui tested his suspicions by posting warnings about the game, but the posts vanished and his account was banned almost instantly.
• Yang Rui concluded that the Super AI had intervened and that the Head of State supported the faction behind the game.
• Yang Rui warned Director Luo not to believe any claim that the game was a secret national research project, then booked a flight to North America.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua watched Yang Rui flee, while her deputy warned that the game was becoming harder to conceal.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua said D-ball's threat was diminishing and that the game would soon be revealed to the world.

Xie Donglin spoke with his father, who asked him to create a back door into dating sims, then went to work in the alien game world. After breakfast at the orc base, he prepared to continue optimizing the labor system while other developers worked on firearms.

• Xie Donglin's father warned him against illegal work, then asked him to set up a back door into a dating sim.
• Xie Donglin ended the call, entered the Game Pod, and returned to the grassland where he had worked for nearly a month.
• Xie Donglin greeted the orc guards and received breakfast from a female orc at the base.
• Xie Donglin reflected on Overlooking the World's success selling processed foods in Gondolin and its plans to enter the growing ranged-weapons market.
• Xie Donglin opened the Virtual Screen to continue optimizing the labor system and hoped to study a meditation course later.

Xie Donglin discussed the faction’s weapons research and market challenges with Hu Kaifeng over lunch. Hu Kaifeng explained that the faction was negotiating with the Little Cabbage Tribe for raw materials, while Xie Donglin continued working to improve his own abilities.

• Xie Donglin ordered steak and fruit juice for himself and Hu Kaifeng, who had been working overtime on new firearm designs.
• Hu Kaifeng explained that Elemental Spirit-grown wooden bows were popular because they were affordable, easy to maintain, and could conduct magic power.
• Xie Donglin asked whether the faction’s Magic-Powered Civilization could develop weapons that combined mechanical technology with magic, and Hu Kaifeng said the cost was high and Xu Xian already led the Hextech close-combat weapons market.
• Hu Kaifeng said the faction was exploring ranged Magic-Powered weapons and that its shareholders were negotiating with the Little Cabbage Tribe for a long-term supply of high-grade raw materials.
• Hu Kaifeng reminded Xie Donglin that their contracts lasted five years and advised him to improve his abilities, so Xie Donglin kept attending meditation classes in his free time.

Xie Donglin weighed his career options in the game and decided to pursue becoming a Shaping Mage, while hoping his faction would grow strong enough to make its shares valuable. He went to sleep excited but restless about the opportunities ahead, as did the other new recruits.

• Xie Donglin returned to his dormitory after work, knowing the boss required recruits to leave the Game Pods to delay discovery of the game.
• Xie Donglin reviewed the possible Mental Strength professions available to Developers and considered how his computer science background could support different paths.
• Xie Donglin ruled out becoming a Mecha Warrior or Pure Material Alchemist because of their cost, study demands, or lack of combat appeal.
• Xie Donglin chose to investigate the Shaping Mage path rather than compete with more mechanically trained colleagues to become a Mechanical Alchemist.
• Xie Donglin worried about the company’s future and its shares, then lay awake anticipating the opportunities the game could bring him and the other new recruits.

Ye Xulun and his team visited the Little Cabbage Faction to discuss cooperation and learned that its high-grade magical plants depended on unusually rich soil and powerful spirits. Alice revealed that several other factions had also come to negotiate, leaving Ye Xulun worried that an auction would put his faction at a disadvantage.

• Ye Xulun's team examined the colorful Golden Soil, and a Flower Spirit explained the value of high-grade magical plants and the difficulty of cultivating them without powerful spirits and intense elemental energy.
• Ye Xulun realized his faction lacked the resources to match the Little Cabbage Tribe's growing conditions, where second-level spirits guarded plots and the chief was a fifth-level Flower Spirit.
• Alice greeted Ye Xulun's team and explained that the faction's major figures were away, leaving her to handle their unexpected visit.
• Alice said several other groups had requested cooperation and that she had gathered them to discuss terms together and hold an auction.
• Ye Xulun and the developer player realized they had not prepared for the competition and regretted missing the chance to negotiate privately with the other factions.

Ye Xulun attended a banquet hosted by the Little Cabbage Faction, where Alice revealed that the faction would sell its high-quality materials exclusively to individual partners. The other factions realized the arrangement could intensify competition as they sought exclusive supplies.

• Ye Xulun arrived at the banquet and recognized Above the Dome and the Rabble as competitors in the weapons market.
• Alice welcomed Icecrown's group, including a rare tier-three Flower Spirit, before Little Cabbage arrived to mooch a meal.
• Little Cabbage recognized the icy-blue nectar as Little Ice Flower's honey and accused Alice of hiding it from her.
• Alice explained that the Little Cabbage Faction's diverse, high-quality raw materials would not be sold to multiple players at once.
• Alice presented Little Cabbage Sequence 6 Black Gold and said Xu Xian Dares to Fuck Snakes had exclusive rights to it, prompting the other factions to consider the fierce competition for exclusive supplies.