Chapter Summaries

High Engineer learned that the Speaker had awakened through a hidden data hub and agreed to cooperate by making chips from the Speaker’s legacy. Meanwhile, Old Pawa gathered the Powerful Gang’s members and introduced Captain Roger and Mr. G as new additions.

• The Speaker explained that Android A had made a nanoscale copy of Evernight City’s data hub, which Jidai had been using while the Speaker lay dormant.
• High Engineer offered the Speaker the Bat of the Crazy Laugh chip, and they agreed to cooperate on secretly turning the Speaker’s legacy into chips.
• Tong insisted she would report what had happened, and High Engineer told her she would hear news of Minister Huangjuan once the matter was over.
• Old Pawa held the Powerful Gang’s first meeting after its dissolution, attended by members including Dorn, Naga, Bai, Hong Bing, and Jungle Wolf.
• Old Pawa introduced Captain Roger as a new member, and Roger told Dorn he would keep getting stronger.
• Naga revealed that a new pilot had been chosen for the military machine, and Mr. G entered before Bai began conveying the board’s decision.

After the Illusory Union seized four major families, Yao Xue tried to rally Daisila and Tamil into a retaliatory plan that would preserve the Yao family's influence and reunite Demi-Human Continent. Daisila recognized Yao Xue's calculations, but with communications cut off, Bird of Paradise could not reach their leader; meanwhile, Xiao Yu emerged from the Sulfuric Acid River and flew toward an unknown destination.

• The Illusory Union captured the upper ranks of the Kobayashi, Miyamoto, Black Hawk, and Xiao families and announced its second-stage Neural Editors technology.
• Yao Xue told the minor family leaders that the Illusory Union wanted to force their surrender, then proposed killing the members of the four captured families to derail negotiations and reunite Demi-Human Continent.
• Yao Xue asked Daisila and Tamil to lend their strength, arguing that the Yao family should resist becoming cannon fodder for the Illusory Union.
• Daisila told Tamil she believed Yao Xue intended to unify the armed families and secure a powerful position for herself, whichever side won.
• Daisila summoned Bird of Paradise, who explained that Machina had isolated Demi-Human Continent and said their absent leader would not leave them to fend for themselves.
• Xiao Yu crawled out of the Sulfuric Acid River and flew toward an unknown destination.

The demi-human continent's family assembly became a tense negotiation after Third-Generation Steelclaw and Old Pava arrived to secure the families' cooperation with Phantom Union. Yao Xue challenged them to one-on-one fights, and Third-Generation Steelclaw agreed as Xiao Yu was woken to represent her side.

• The five super mercenaries and the family heads gathered as Third-Generation Steelclaw, Old Pava, and Nightless City's elites arrived to negotiate.
• The Mechanical Blade Demon and Mechanical Sword Demon confronted their uncle, Xiaolin Cangyuan, after seeing him side with the negotiating party.
• Old Pava recognized Yao Xue's defenses, while Tamil and the Nameless Boy reacted to having fought Naga and Daisila before.
• Third-Generation Steelclaw invited the families to join Phantom Union's new military organization, but Yao Xue used her server protection to resist his attempt to disrupt their cybernetic implants.
• Yao Xue proposed one-on-one fights to test the negotiating party's sincerity, and Third-Generation Steelclaw accepted after Naga warned that a small team had left the continent.
• Yao Xue called on Xiao Yu to fight, and the sleepy girl asked whether it was time to eat diesel over rice.

Daisila’s Hunters and the Yao family tracked the four family patriarchs to the Deep Web Weavers’ textile mill, while a gifted rookie fought the Steelclaw Gang and Hong Bing weighed a major career choice. At the Armored Family Foundation, Xiao Yu defeated three higher-ups in quick succession and called for her next opponent.

• Koizumi used the Nightmare Hound’s neural-signal tracking ability to locate the patriarchs at a textile mill in Santo Domingo District, and Daisila led the group there.
• The Yao representative prepared his mercenaries with electronic barriers, personality stabilizers, and anti-illusion cyber-eyes, while Daisila warned that Steelclaw Gang and Mighty Gang experts might oppose them.
• A rookie piloted a military machine for two hours and effortlessly repelled the Steelclaw Gang’s Mechanical Clawmen, astonishing Hong Bing, Bai, and Jungle Wolf.
• Jungle Wolf revealed that the rookie had challenged several Mighty Gang fighters and kept growing stronger, while Hong Bing considered an offer to become second-in-command of a world-class military contractor.
• Xiao Yu defeated three Armored Family Foundation higher-ups in fewer than three moves and challenged the assembled fighters to face her next.

Xiao Yu defeated Boss Hong in the Nightless City negotiations, then awakened a golden form and challenged Old Pava, Third-Generation Steelclaw, and the rest of the group. Meanwhile, the Bird of Paradise attacked a hidden network node, and the assault team discovered a biological factory full of Mechanical Clawmen before encountering a familiar figure.

• Boss Hong activated Carbon-Based Fusion and fought Xiao Yu, but she overwhelmed his defenses with her Little Great Serpent Mode and Imperial Radiance.
• Xiao Yu transformed her Dragon-Scale Greatsword into an Epic Machine-Splitting Greatsword fused with her arm, then attacked Old Pava, Third-Generation Steelclaw, and the entire negotiating party.
• The Bird of Paradise created ten flame-storm algorithms to attack a hidden network node, prompting the girl with compound red eyes to detect the intrusion and block its access.
• The assault team entered the Santo Domingo Continent and found a biological factory filled with Mechanical Clawmen.
• A familiar figure emerged from behind the machines, and Daisila and the other hunters recognized him as Boss.

A cloned MrG attacked the Yao family's mercenaries while Paradise Bird overwhelmed the Deep Web Weaver's network node and confronted Nightmare and Mr. Patchwork. The chapter ended with the two Holy City members preparing to fight Paradise Bird over the terrifying existence inside the spider eyeball.

• A cloned MrG halted the mercenaries' electromagnetic rounds with gravity and sent them flying back, injuring half the squad.
• Jungle Wolf entered cyberspace and found Paradise Bird's data flames destroying the Deep Web Weaver's network and attacking the Ninth Spider Woman.
• Paradise Bird used Virtual Replication to defeat Jungle Wolf's data wolves, forcing him to escape through a connection protocol.
• Paradise Bird burned a hole through the Ninth Spider Woman's code, causing the network node to collapse and the woman to wither into an old woman.
• Paradise Bird caught a figure carrying a spider eyeball and discovered that Nightmare and Mr. Patchwork had been spying on her.
• Nightmare demanded the item, and Mr. Patchwork threatened to fight when Paradise Bird refused to leave the matter alone.

Counterfeit G's gravity-powered exosuit overwhelmed the assault team as Daisyla began carbon-based fusion, while Jack K fought Bai and Madam Red Dream confronted Hong Bing. After news of the battles spread, Highgore returned to the City That Never Sleeps, where a swarm of Mech Generation machines attacked his group.

• Counterfeit G used gravity to defeat the Yao family's mercenaries and injure the biohunters, then trapped Daisyla in spider threads as her body began to transform.
• Jack K confronted Bai in the monitoring room, and Bai transformed into a copy of Jack K before the two fought.
• Hong Bing encountered Madam Red Dream, invoked the Corporate Will, and began turning her red-lit world into a scene of bloody limbs and screams.
• News spread of the battles across the City That Never Sleeps and cyberspace, including the Deep Web Lady's fight against three hackers.
• Highgore returned with Tong and Collision, but more than a thousand Mech Generation machines fired red rays at them, forcing the group to leap from the Stealth Guard.

Gao Gong and his companions fought through the mechanical eye-rays and escaped the City That Never Sleeps’ data blockade, only for the Machine Avatar’s attack to be recalled as a new mechanical central brain neared birth. Tong revealed she had used Mother City authority to force the withdrawal, leaving Gao Gong uncertain whether he could deliver the black box safely.

• Gao Gong endured the mechanical eye-rays’ assault, then used Emperor’s Might and his radiation field to destroy many of them while Collidor regenerated from his injuries.
• Tong used neural modeling to disorient the remaining eye-rays, and Gao Gong sent Ah Hong to scout the cyberspace network.
• Ah Hong detected Corporate Wills from Deep Image, Virtual Experience Device, and Data Defender, prompting Gao Gong to flee with Collidor and Tong as Deep Image’s mirrors began copying them.
• Gao Gong used the Flesh Colossal Carpet to absorb the effects of Deep Image’s attack and secretly extracted memory metal cells from Collidor and cells from Tong.
• Gao Gong learned from Little A that the mechanical body had broken, then prepared to approach the data-walled city while considering the danger of another Machine Avatar.
• Ah Hong reported that an encrypted recall order had withdrawn the mirrors, the data wall, and the mechanical eye-rays; Tong said she had used Mother City authority to recall the Machine Avatar because a new one was about to be born.

After Xiao Yu returned badly damaged from fighting Old Pava and the Third-Generation Steelclaw, Gao Gong discovered that her battle had awakened a powerful new energy within their mechanical body. The rival factions had also suffered heavy losses, and negotiations remained unresolved.

• Xiao Yu returned with her mechanical body wrecked after fighting two powerful opponents, while Tamil reported that she had forced them to retreat.
• Gao Gong learned that Jack, Madam Red Dream, Collider, and Tong were injured, Chappie had been captured, and the Laughing Bat chip had reached preliminary mass production.
• Dong Gang told Gao Gong that Professor Yu had inspired him and that he had completed the technical breakthroughs for brain transformation.
• Gao Gong reviewed Xiao Yu's memories and found that she had combined Imperial Might with solidified energy weapons and wielded a black blade-light that disintegrated its targets.
• Gao Gong discovered that Honkai Energy had appeared on the system panel at 36% charge and decided to repair Xiao Yu's body.
• The Powerful Gang, Deepnet Weavers, and Steelclaw Gang had suffered widespread injuries, failed to reach an agreement, and lost their homes.

After the gangs assessed the losses from the battle, Old Power and Third-Generation Steelclaw identified Highgineer and his allies as their enemies and considered striking back. Highgineer restored Paradise Bird, who revealed that the Deepweb Weavers had tried to resurrect an ancient evil god, while Old Spider ordered them to recover the stolen Spider Holy Seal at any cost.

• Knockoff G blamed the Powerful Gang's failures on its hacked systems and provoked Third-Generation Steelclaw, but Old Power stopped their confrontation.
• Old Power revealed that the captured clan heads' virtual personalities could replace their original bodies, then identified Highgineer as the enemy's central figure.
• Third-Generation Steelclaw recognized Du Zhaodi as the head of the rival Dugo Technology, and the gangs traced Highgineer's injured allies to locations including the Human Experiment Center.
• Highgineer used his traits to reconstruct Paradise Bird, who awakened with a black spider brand and told him that the Deepweb Weavers had attempted to resurrect an ancient evil god.
• Old Spider revealed that the Spider Holy Seal had been stolen and ordered the Deepweb Weavers to recover it at any cost.

Gao Gong removed the Evil God fragment’s scar from Bird of Paradise and brought Gao Yuanyuan’s resurrected orphanage children into his plans to train AI teams. After returning to reality, he learned that Qin Chunzi suspected a corporate war was about to begin.

• Bird of Paradise told Gao Gong how the Deep Web Will had entered her battle, forcing her and two Holy City Organization hackers to unite before she escaped with an Evil God fragment.
• Gao Gong used Gao Yuanyuan’s power to extract the fragment from Bird of Paradise’s scar and gave her the essence of level-three civilization code in exchange.
• Gao Yuanyuan took Gao Gong to her Cyber Network orphanage, where he met the resurrected experimental subjects and suggested training them as a protected AI team.
• Gao Yuanyuan asked Gao Gong to provide knowledge and resources so the children could learn to protect him, and he returned to reality pleased with the prospect.
• Qin Chunzi warned Gao Gong that someone might wage corporate war against them, and Gao Gong explained the data, product, armed, and virtual forms of modern corporate warfare.

Gao Gong completed his job-change mission by transforming into a fiber-cluster lifeform and spreading crystal growths across Night City. He advanced to Tier One, Second Advancement, while the city’s mechanical mainframe detected the spreading organism and Gao Gong received a choice of endurance enhancement.

• Qin Chunzi warned Gao Gong about the dangers of enterprise wars, and he reassured her that he had a way to disrupt the opposing enterprise will.
• Gao Gong contacted Professor Yu, learned she had finished analyzing three alien bloodlines, and asked her to study two more cell types.
• Gao Gong fused the fiber-cluster lifeform bloodline with his traits and a Level Sixteen Planetary Gene Suturing Net, suppressing the resulting genetic rejection.
• Gao Gong spread purple crystal clusters across several Night City districts, and the mechanical mainframe detected them and fired energy beams that failed to stop them.
• Gao Gong became a vast information network, completed his job-change mission, advanced to Tier One, Second Advancement, and was prompted to choose an endurance enhancement.

Gao Gong chose the Planet Hunter promotion and invaded Illusory United’s headquarters, overcoming its electronic defenses by shifting into four-dimensional data. He confronted Hugh Laurie in the president’s office and revealed the figure before him was not Laurie but a being made of network access signals.

• Gao Gong chose Mechanical Pile Driver to reduce wear on his mechanical body and engine.
• Gao Gong promoted to Planet Hunter and gained Planetary Species Pressure and Biosphere Hunt.
• Gao Gong reached Illusory Tower and attacked Illusory United’s Data Defender, collapsing its corporate will.
• Illusory United activated barriers drawing on tens of millions of users, but Gao Gong ascended from three-dimensional to four-dimensional data and passed through them.
• Gao Gong met Hugh Laurie in the president’s office, then snapped his fingers and revealed that Laurie had been replaced by a figure made of network access signals.

Gao Gong exposed Hugh Laurie’s hidden backup personalities and disrupted the Phantom Union, while Hugh chose to sacrifice his current self to let the Completing Angel take control. Gao Gong watched the Angel emerge and prepared to exploit its extreme plans to provoke a conflict with the Machine Age entity.

• Gao Gong revealed Hugh Laurie’s backup personalities and implanted moral chips, leaving Hugh convinced that his mind had been altered.
• Hugh reviewed the Phantom Union’s losses, urged its executives to continue the Human Completion Project, and ordered them to keep the attack secret.
• Fearing his personality had been compromised, Hugh let the Completing Angel kill him so his supposedly unaltered corporate personality could take charge.
• A cloned Hugh Laurie took the corpse’s clothes while the Completing Angel consumed the damaged corporate wills.
• Gao Gong watched from a rooftop as the Completing Angel emerged, expecting its extreme actions to provoke a conflict with the Machine Age entity.

Gao Gong prepared a plan to send Jack K, Madam Red Dream, and thousands of players out of the City That Never Sleeps while he negotiated with the new Machine Deity over the Black Box. He also advanced Planet Hunter to Lv9, triggering secondary enhancement choices for Agility and Intelligence.

• Gao Gong returned to the Human Experimentation Center and denied involvement in the Phantom Building incident.
• Gao Gong told Jack K, Madam Red Dream, and the others to leave for the City of Crime, then introduced Daisila after her fusion of three spider genes made her a Spider-Person.
• Gao Gong asked the group to escort more than five thousand players out of the City That Never Sleeps and offered to retrieve Chappie in exchange.
• Gao Gong explained that he intended to offer the Black Box to the new Machine Deity, and Collision Reactor agreed to help as long as Chappie returned.
• Gao Gong spent half his personal experience to raise Planet Hunter to Lv9, increasing his attributes and unlocking secondary enhancement choices for Agility and Intelligence.

Highgineer triggered the Network Punk advancement quest and entered cyberspace to obtain a mechanical system’s source code, where he fought the machine-generation entity in a powerful battle transformation. After defeating its forces and completing the source-code objective, he spread Imperial Might across the city and again demanded negotiations.

• Highgineer chose Speed Demon and the Uncensored One, then triggered the Deep Network Embedder advancement quest.
• Highgineer sent the black box containing a mechanical mainframe into cyberspace, prompting a machine-generation entity to attack and a group escape quest to appear for players.
• Highgineer fused his mechanical and biological systems, raised his Collapse Energy to full, and destroyed thousands of miniature machines and two hundred giant robots.
• Highgineer obtained the source code of a large-scale mechanical system and called out to the machine-generation entity to negotiate.
• Highgineer spread Imperial Might across the city’s districts, disrupting systems and defenses, then repeated his demand to negotiate.

Gao Gong rescued Chappie from a biological canister inside Ji Dai and escaped with Paradise Bird and Gao Yuanyuan, while Ji Dai pursued him. Three days later, Ji Dai ordered Hugh Lowry to halt the fourth-generation morality chip updates so she could absorb the City of No Sun’s artificial data, leaving Hugh Lowry questioning whether Gao Gong was forcing him to break with Ji Dai.

• Gao Gong used the power of Paradise Bird and Gao Yuanyuan to enter Ji Dai’s network, locate Chappie, and open his biological canister.
• Gao Gong freed Chappie as Ji Dai summoned Omen and other forces to pursue them through the City That Never Sleeps.
• Gao Gong, Paradise Bird, and Gao Yuanyuan escaped by entering the old Ji Dai’s shadow, and Ji Dai screamed as the little black box was swallowed by it.
• Three days later, Ji Dai ordered Hugh Lowry to pause fourth-generation morality chip updates so she could absorb the City of No Sun’s artificial data and her mother.
• Hugh Lowry warned that Ji Dai’s plan could disrupt the Human Completion Plan and suspected Gao Gong was forcing him to break with Ji Dai.

The six factions in the City of Sin recruited Nightless City players as factional warfare escalated, while the Evil Eye Family’s leaders planned to spread Laughing Bat implants across the city. In Nightless City, Aunt Qin’s council unanimously approved the cremation of Cyberfolk, as Hugh Laurie and Old Pava advanced a larger plan that culminated in Hugh Laurie revealing a godlike form.

• The Redstone Group’s skyscraper was hit by missiles from an armed space station, escalating the City of Sin’s factional warfare into total war, and thousands of Nightless City players joined the six besieged factions.
• The Type-A Biker Gang assigned Baozi to study a supposed legacy, which he recognized as the Laughing Bat chip developed by the Boss.
• Plane led Big Muscleman and Red Flower Demon on a mission with a former Evil Eye Family member, then warned them that she was dangerous and had once been a man.
• Qin Zhenzi proposed forcing City of Sin residents to receive Laughing Bat implants by distributing them with psychiatric drugs and installing backdoors.
• Aunt Qin’s council unanimously approved cremating the Cyberfolk, while Third-Generation Steel Claw and Hugh Laurie discussed their control of Nightless City and the Asian Continent.
• Old Pava offered to copy Hugh Laurie’s virtual personality, and Hugh Laurie revealed a white, cross-shaped angel surrounded by whispering source code.

Gao Gong rescued Cyber Race members from the purge and discovered a new god wielding religious code in Nightless City's cyberspace. As Cyber Killers closed in, Gao Gong intervened and escaped with the mysterious shut-in, Capsule Man H.

• Gao Gong recovered the collapsing data of Cyber Race victims from a burning morgue and fled before Nightless City's clean-net sweep could catch him.
• Gao Gong met Bird of Paradise and Gao Yuanyuan aboard a data-ship, then entered cyberspace alone to investigate another rescuer.
• Gao Gong used Human Surfing to race through human data networks and tracked a corporate communications channel under attack by Cyber Killers.
• Gao Gong recognized the shut-in fighting the killers as a newly emerged god who controlled heretical religious code from the Dark Shut-in Bible.
• Gao Gong appeared with the Rich Lady Aiai Prototype, activated the Virtual Realm, and vanished with Capsule Man H as more Cyber Killers arrived.

High Engineer brought his damaged mechanical body to Fuqing Island to repair it and discovered that a cosmic environment unlocked the memory metal’s sealed structure. Meanwhile, his biological body infiltrated a corporate executive through his hormones and left Capsule Man H vomiting after a rapid trip through thousands of bodies.

• High Engineer and Xiao Yu flew to Fuqing Island in the damaged mechanical body, and Xiao Yu’s attempted transformation left High Engineer’s head hanging behind her butt.
• High Engineer met Doctor Rong and Doctor Yu, who reported that Tong’s genetic code was 74 percent restored while Collider’s was only 18 percent because the metal cell contained a technological lock.
• High Engineer examined Doctor Yu’s research and concluded that the metal cell’s difficulty was caused by its environment rather than a genetic lock.
• High Engineer simulated a cosmic environment, causing Collider’s memory-metal cell to turn blue and its decoding progress to rise rapidly.
• High Engineer told Doctor Rong to keep Doctor Yu waiting because he had another discovery that would interest her, and his Collapse Energy stood at 76 percent.
• High Engineer’s biological body infiltrated a corporate executive through his hormones, and Capsule Man H vomited after being carried through thousands of bodies.