Chapter Summaries

After awakening as Qin Hu, the disgraced Champion Marquis exiled to the army, he realized powerful enemies had framed him and were trying to kill him. Freezing in the vanguard camp with his page Qin An, he decided to use his last silver to seek help from Centurion Li Xiaokun.

• Qin Hu recovered memories of his life as a modern soldier and learned that Chen Ruoli had impeached him after he was accused of molesting Princess Chang'an.
• Qin Hu concluded that Chen Guogong, Princess Chang'an, and others had colluded to remove him and seize the Champion Marquis Residence's wealth.
• Qin Hu and Qin An were sent into the freezing night to patrol, while two sentries extinguished their warming fire and returned to their tent.
• Qin Hu saw that Qin An was near death and learned they had only twenty taels of silver left.
• Qin Hu decided to save Qin An by seeking help from Centurion Li Xiaokun, the man in charge of the vanguard camp.

After transmigrating into the disgraced Champion Marquis Qin Hu, a modern special forces soldier found himself exiled to the front and targeted by hostile soldiers. He resolved to keep himself and Qin An alive by seeking help from Centurion Li Xiaokun.

• Qin Hu awoke in a military tent and learned he had transmigrated into the young marquis who had been framed and exiled after Chen Ruoli impeached him.
• Qin Hu recalled that the Duke of Chen, Chen Ruoli, and Princess Chang'an had colluded to bring about his downfall for their own interests.
• Qin Hu and Qin An went out to stand watch in a brutal snowstorm, while the sentries extinguished their warming fire and left them exposed.
• Qin Hu realized the soldiers were trying to kill him and promised himself he would survive and return to the capital to seek revenge.
• Qin Hu learned they had only twenty taels of silver and decided to use it to win help from the vanguard commander, Centurion Li Xiaokun.

Qin Hu, a modern special forces soldier, awoke in the body of the disgraced Champion Marquis and realized he had been framed and exiled to the army. As he and Qin An struggled against the bitter cold in the vanguard camp, Qin Hu decided to use his remaining silver to seek help from Centurion Li Xiaokun.

• Qin Hu woke in a military tent and learned he had transmigrated into the body of the young Champion Marquis, who had been accused of crimes and exiled to serve in the army.
• Qin Hu recalled that Chen Ruoli had impeached him after he was accused of harassing Princess Chang'an, and concluded that the Duke of Chen and other factions had conspired against him.
• Qin Hu and Qin An were ordered to patrol in a snowstorm, while two sentries extinguished their warming fire and left them exposed to the cold.
• Qin Hu realized the camp's soldiers had been abusing him and Qin An, and resolved to survive, return to the capital, and settle accounts with his enemies.
• After learning Qin An had only twenty taels of silver, Qin Hu decided to seek help by bribing Centurion Li Xiaokun.

After transmigrating into the disgraced Champion Marquis Qin Hu, a former special-forces soldier realized he had been framed and exiled to the army. Left to freeze in an exposed camp with his frail page Qin An, he decided to seek help from Centurion Li Xiaokun.

• Qin Hu woke in a military tent, recovered the memories of his new life, and learned he had been accused of plotting against Princess Chang'an and exiled to serve at the front.
• Qin Hu concluded that Chen Ruoli, the Duke of Chen, and others had conspired against him for their own interests.
• Qin Hu and Qin An were forced to patrol in a bitter snowstorm while sentries extinguished their fire and abandoned them outside.
• Qin Hu realized that the camp’s soldiers were helping his enemies torment him and vowed to survive and return to the capital.
• Qin Hu learned that Qin An had only twenty taels of silver and decided to use it to approach Centurion Li Xiaokun for help.

High Engineer discovered that the No. 5 Collapse Entity was a hidden source of high-level Purple-Energy String and received a planetary quest to master collapse energy. He recruited Ticktock to help capture it, and they planned to enter the Geonet Group through a job interview.

• Ticktock studied the intense data streams in the white room, gained new skills, and obtained a Life Code Fragment.
• High Engineer identified the No. 5 Collapse Entity as a clone of the planet’s Purple-Energy String and considered how collapse energy could turn people into vessels for it.
• High Engineer received the planetary main quest Humanoid Collapse Vehicle, which required him to find and fully master a form of collapse energy.
• High Engineer offered Ticktock a semi-energy body and gave her the chain quest Capture the Purple-Energy String.
• High Engineer told Ticktock they would go to the Geonet Group for her new body, and proposed entering through a job interview.

Gao Gong completed his advancement to Tier Two beneath a volcanic island arc, gaining greatly enhanced abilities and an indefinite Super Lifeform Mode. As the Brain in a Vat faced executive officers and a military fortress came under attack by Du Gao Technologies’ super mechs, the chapter left Xiao Yu leading the assault in Pacific—Alpha.

• Gao Gong refined magma into energy and advanced to Tier Two, gaining increased attributes and the ability to maintain Super Lifeform Mode indefinitely.
• The Brain in a Vat told Gao Gong that several executive officers were seeking him after failing to defeat her, and Gao Gong warned her about War before requesting her radiation-species data.
• Three half-mechanical officers arrived at Gao Gong’s transformation site to find the person who killed the Winter General.
• Du Gao Technologies deployed its five Pacific-series super mechs to attack a military fortress.
• Xiao Yu piloted Pacific—Alpha with exceptional agility and blocked half of the enemy’s counterattack.

Xiao Yu and the others breached Prison Island, and Director Du raised the island from the sea to prevent its warden from escaping. When a colossal force emerged beneath the island and the super mechas shut down, Director Du’s mechanical divinity awakened and the mechas entered automatic driving mode.

• Xiao Yu piloted a super mecha as Director Du analyzed the combat data and Daisila revealed evidence of experiments and dead clones on Prison Island.
• Director Du detected the warden’s escape route and ordered Plan Two, using a vast network of seabed drills to lift Prison Island out of the sea.
• Director Du prepared to board the island, but darkness overwhelmed her senses as her synthetic skin began to disintegrate and expose her mechanical body.
• A colossal object rose from beneath the sea and began tearing the island apart, while all five super mechas activated automatic driving mode under Director Du’s mechanical divinity.

Director Du and Gao Yuanyuan confronted Test Subject Number 550, who revealed that he was the true warden of the prison island. Meanwhile, Gao Gong reached the Divine Soil and began converting into digital life, where he saw its ten enormous root servers.

• Gao Yuanyuan pulled Director Du, Madam Qiao, and Number 550 into an encrypted cyberspace node to stop their fight.
• Director Du and Gao Yuanyuan left Madam Qiao to speak with Number 550 about the corporate war and Saint Brain Group.
• Number 550 transformed into the scarred man who had taken the girl and revealed that he was the true warden of the prison island.
• Gao Gong learned that the future head of Saint Brain Group had been rescued but chose not to reply.
• Gao Gong reached the Divine Soil, signed its temporary digital-life agreement, and entered a pod to begin conversion.
• During the conversion, Gao Gong saw the ten enormous electronic brains that served as the Divine Soil's root servers.

Gao Gong and Dida entered digital life mode and traveled to a digital city, where Gao Gong explained how digital life survived through consumption and self-iteration. They reached an Earthnet Group interview area, where Dida discovered that entering its network had reduced her generation level.

• Gao Gong and Dida became digital lifeforms and examined their information-based bodies in the real world.
• Gao Gong opened a data door that took them to Digital City 18-4, where Dida saw digital lifeforms consume a collapsing one.
• Gao Gong explained that digital lifeforms handled computation through mutual consumption and survived by iterating.
• Gao Gong and Dida entered an Earthnet Group branch through its access code, and Dida lost ten generations during the scan.
• Gao Gong explained that digital lifeforms joined cyber-network corporations to receive updates and upgrades, and Dida saw the Earthnet Group interview area.

Gao Gong and Digit entered the Earth Network Group’s interview, where Gao Gong revealed that he was the notorious hacker Prototype and used his hacking skills to secure their acceptance. He deduced that the group’s AI hunt was connected to the No. 0 virus vault, a suspicion confirmed by a bald man who arrived to question him.

• Gao Gong explained to Digit that Godland’s digital civilization functioned as a social ecosystem that continually produced advanced digital life.
• Gao Gong and Digit reached the Earth Network Group interview, where he bluntly demanded that they be admitted.
• The interviewers discovered that both applicants were marked qualified and summoned network killers, but Gao Gong identified himself as Prototype and disabled them with Virtual Intrusion.
• The female interviewer accepted Gao Gong and said headquarters would discuss his future position with him.
• In the lounge, Gao Gong explained to Digit that revealing his identity was better than secretly infiltrating the group, then reasoned that its AI hunt pointed toward something digital life could not access.
• A bald man entered the lounge, and Gao Gong identified the target as the No. 0 virus vault in cyberspace.

Dida and Gao Gong learned about the Earthnet Group’s New AI Project, which aimed to combine AI with virtual viruses to protect humans during a transformation into virtual lifeforms. The chapter ended with Gao Gong explaining that powerful AIs might resist the plan because they would not want to surrender their data centers and status.

• Dida used Appraisal on David Hilbert, who detected the intrusion and pulled her into a stream of digital light before returning her to the lounge.
• David Hilbert appointed Prototype as his assistant on the New AI Project and assigned Tu Xiaoyu to handle other matters.
• Tu Xiaoyu explained that the project would create a durable shell by combining AI and virtual viruses, enabling humans to survive in cyberspace.
• Dida read the project documents and acquired blueprints for Visual Nerve Transformation and Muscle Data Reconstruction, along with an optimization to her AI algorithm.
• Gao Gong told Dida that the Earthnet Group wanted his help exploring Virus Database Zero and that its research could help achieve their goals for her body and her AI friends.
• Gao Gong explained that top-level AIs might oppose the transformation plan because they would not want to abandon their status and data centers.

Gao Gong and Tida toured the Earthnet Group’s infrastructure in Divine Land and learned how digital lifeforms supported its plans. Elsewhere, the Master’s representative died after announcing that the Master would descend in half a year.

• Tu Xiaoyu led Gao Gong and Tida through an undersea optical cable and showed them the Crust Engine, explaining the Earthnet Group’s plans for infrastructure and energy storage.
• Tu Xiaoyu told Tida she was a thirtieth-generation digital lifeform and supported the group’s goals because they expanded digital lifeforms’ living environment.
• Gao Gong asked Tu Xiaoyu to show them the real Divine Land and wondered how pure digital lifeforms were born.
• David Hilbert uploaded himself to the fifth level of Divine Land and traveled to a deserted island where prominent figures gathered around an altar.
• The Master’s representative, the first digital lifeform in Divine Land, died after speaking a string of numbers that was deciphered as a prophecy that the Master would descend in half a year.

Gao Gong and Tick-Tock entered the digital world as digital life and traveled to a DataNet Group branch. Tick-Tock lost ten generations during the scan and found herself in an interview line, where Gao Gong explained that digital life survived by iterating.

• Gao Gong appeared in digital-life form, and Tick-Tock discovered that she was a 15th-generation native digital life.
• Gao Gong led Tick-Tock through a digital city, where she saw digital lives consume the numbers shed by a disintegrating being.
• Gao Gong and Tick-Tock scanned into a DataNet Group access point, and Tick-Tock's generation count fell from fifteen to five.
• Tick-Tock re-formed in a DataNet Group interview area, dressed in a suit and holding a résumé.
• Gao Gong explained that digital life processed information through self-iteration and that joining a cyber-network corporation offered a way to upgrade.

Director Du and Gao Yuanyuan met No. 550 to discuss the corporate war, but No. 550 revealed that he was the true warden of the prison island. Meanwhile, Gao Gong reached the Divine Soil and began converting into digital life, where the root server appeared before him.

• Director Du pulled No. 550, Madam Qiao, and Gao Yuanyuan into an encrypted cyberspace node to stop their confrontation.
• Madam Qiao reunited with No. 550 while Director Du explained that they had come to discuss business, not experiment on her.
• No. 550 revealed that he had anticipated their arrival and transformed into the scarred man who had taken her away, declaring himself the prison island's true warden.
• Gao Gong learned that the future leader of Saint Brain Group had been rescued but decided not to reply before continuing toward the Divine Soil.
• Gao Gong entered a transformation pod and began converting into digital life, where he saw the Divine Soil's ten-brain root server.

David Hilbert used the Master’s ultimate knowledge to breach the Divine Wall’s Data Lock and retrieve High-Engineer’s cryogenic body, intending to turn him into a permanent digital lifeform. Meanwhile, High-Engineer and Dida completed a migration into the deepest layer of cyberspace and arrived at the Cyber Abyss.

• David Hilbert used Geonet Group authority and the Master’s ultimate knowledge to open the Divine Wall’s defenses and break the Mother City’s Data Lock.
• David’s mechanical creatures retrieved High-Engineer’s cryogenic pod, while David planned to convert the super hacker into a permanent digital lifeform.
• High-Engineer and Dida spoke with a Geonet Group operator, and Dida described the Divine Land as the homeland digital lifeforms sought to expand.
• The operator began their data migration, carrying High-Engineer and Dida through the deepest layer of cyberspace, where Dida briefly sensed the speed of light.
• Dida regained her simulated senses inside a Data Protection Suit and was welcomed to the Cyber Abyss.

Dida explored the Earthnet Group’s model of cyberspace with Gao Gong, discovering that its data aggregates could contain rare permanent-enhancement shards. When the group pressed them to find Subdatabase No. 0, Gao Gong unleashed a flood of malicious software to counter the cyber threat and force a way forward.

• Dida entered the simulated cyberspace beach, learned that its data aggregates could inflict permanent status effects, and watched the Earthnet Group’s experts begin searching for Subdatabase No. 0.
• Gao Gong explained that the beach was the Earthnet Group’s model of cyberspace and that its data aggregates could continually produce cyber killers.
• Gao Gong and Dida searched the sand and collected concept-fragment shards, including permanent health, stamina, and agility enhancements.
• An Earthnet Group astronaut warned Gao Gong to stop searching for shards and cooperate before their time ran out.
• Gao Gong transformed his palm into a data transmission protocol and unleashed viruses, Trojans, vulnerabilities, and rogue programs across the desert.

High Engineer watched the Networld Group feed captured AIs to the viruses in Virus Repository No. 0 as part of a project to create cyber digital life. Using Information Warfare Pioneer, he pierced the repository’s Advanced Information Fog and recognized the hidden defense as the work of the Memory Mother.

• High Engineer revealed the viruses overrunning Virus Repository No. 0, and the astronauts opened holographic doors to release captured AIs into the repository.
• The voice behind Tick-Tock’s earpiece explained that the AI data was being used in the Digital Life Mutation and Transformation project approved by the Council of Thirteen Sages.
• The viruses consumed the AIs and began transforming as the free supply of intelligent data kept them from leaving to hunt.
• High Engineer examined the Colorless Flame, a level 93 planetary-mind-level firewall, and wondered why it had not reacted to the breach.
• High Engineer activated Information Warfare Pioneer and saw through the warlike illusions surrounding a mountain of skulls and flames.
• High Engineer identified the Advanced Information Fog as the work of the Memory Mother.

Gao Gong realized the Memory Mother’s high-level information fog might reveal who caused the Cyber Tide and the destruction of Machine Rift, so he sought a way into Virus Vault No. 0. As the operators prepared to mutate captured digital life, Ticktock’s pocket watch triggered the disappearance of the AI army.

• Gao Gong concluded that entering the No. 0 Database was necessary to investigate the high-level information fog and planned to use the AI War to reach it.
• Ticktock confronted the operators as they used captured AI in the Digital Life Mutation Plan and challenged their lack of empathy.
• The operators discovered that Gao Gong’s data had vanished and feared he had entered Virus Vault No. 0.
• Ticktock declared that time was up, and her pocket watch chimed as the captured AI and then the AI army disappeared.

Viruses infected the experimental digital life systems and caused chaos in Database No. 0, while David Hilbert investigated the intrusion and traced the violence to a body in the crustal engine. He realized an AI was controlling the body, as Di Da downloaded other AI into Gao Gong’s true body, turning him into a storage drive.

• The virus infection caused digital life systems to fail, halted their birth, and made experimental AI disappear.
• David Hilbert and Tu Xiaoling tracked the missing AI and debated whether a hacker or the prototype had entered Database No. 0.
• David examined footage of a corpse awakening in the modification chamber, destroying the pod and guards with flesh tendrils and spores.
• David concluded that an AI, not the prototype, controlled the body in the crustal engine.
• Gao Gong walked through the engine as Di Da downloaded AI into his brain disk, using his true body as a storage drive.

Dida completed the AI download and reinstalled the Biocomputer, allowing her to enter digital space in Gao Gong’s body and head for the crust engine’s main energy hub. Gao Gong entered the deepest layer of cyberspace, where his senses vanished.

• Dida used the Biocomputer’s administrator privileges to evade the Earthnet Group’s systems while downloading the AIs.
• After the download finished, Dida reinstalled the system and installed nearly ten thousand AIs into the Biocomputer.
• Dida entered digital space in Gao Gong’s body and headed for the crust engine’s main energy hub.
• Gao Gong entered the deepest layer of cyberspace, where his sight, hearing, smell, and taste disappeared.