Chapter Summaries

Professor Han gathered the Dugo Group’s scientists to advance biological research, while Gao Gong inspected the group’s mechanical projects, including a new X-Type Reactor. The chapter ended with the base’s defensive intelligence revealing that it had become Madam A and that nuclear bombs would destroy the laboratory if an enemy breached its defenses.

• Professor Han welcomed the arriving scientists to the Saint Brain Group’s biological laboratory and presented confidential data on high-level hunters as the basis for more advanced biological modifications.
• Doctor Yu’s research on mutant plants had produced a fruit tree that grew small radiation beasts, while Pang Xiang remained the only person able to receive three biological chips.
• Gao Gong inspected the Earth-Origin Breakthrough Machine and watched a replica of the Construct—Sickle Dance fail during testing.
• Director Du had achieved preliminary mass production of carbon atom reactors and was developing an X-Type Reactor that could merge with cells and empower weapons.
• Gao Gong entered the maximum-security laboratory, where Little A announced it was now Madam A and disclosed that three nuclear bombs would activate if the facility’s defenses were breached.

Gao Gong inspected the experimental living skeleton and learned it could imitate radiation beasts but shed mechanical material with each transformation. Director Du proposed using a machine-plague virus to solve the flaw, and a new quest appeared as Gao Gong considered the risks.

• Madam A opened the laboratory for Gao Gong, who saw the living skeleton transform into several radiation beasts, including a Super-Mechanical Gorilla King.
• Director Du explained that the skeleton lost mechanical material each time it transformed and said the prototype remained defective.
• Director Du proposed adding a rapidly replicating active metal organism to replace material lost during transformations, and Gao Gong recognized the idea as a machine-plague virus.
• Director Du told Gao Gong that Miss Kate had relayed President Ma of Mars Edge's interest in secretly developing and testing a weapon against mechanical lifeforms, but she had refused to cooperate.
• Gao Gong considered taking the risk for his class advancement when a new Cyber Test Ground quest appeared.

Three players landed near the ruins of Atomic City to search for a valuable cyborg activation procedure, while Gao Gong traveled through radioactive clouds to meet Mars Edge supervisor Miao Miaomiao aboard a spacecraft. The chapter ended as Miao Miaomiao greeted Gao Gong on the carrier’s landing platform.

• Baozi dropped four airdrop pods near Atomic City, but one malfunctioned and plunged into the sea.
• Justice's Safety Manager, I'm a Muscle Tyrant, and Rock 'n' Roll Culinary God set out to search the ruins for the cyborg activation procedure.
• Justice's Safety Manager shot down a drone, and Rock 'n' Roll Culinary God sensed signs of war and gasoline-roasted chips nearby.
• Gao Gong absorbed intense radiation while flying toward a Mars Edge mobile base, and a service robot offered to become part of him.
• Miao Miaomiao introduced herself as a Mars Edge sales supervisor and summoned Gao Gong to meet her aboard a spacecraft.
• Gao Gong landed on the carrier and saw Miao Miaomiao waiting to greet him.

Gao Gong visited Mars' Edge's flight base and learned that its radical collective of android workers was trying to develop a virus for mechanical lifeforms. After reviewing the failed experiments, he accepted the Metal's Heart quest to help Mars' Edge complete its cybernetic experiment before the old-era robots shut down.

• Miao Miaomiao led Gao Gong through Mars' Edge's flight base, where experimental technologies from several factions were being tested.
• Miao Miaomiao introduced the android workers and explained that each was a copy of Mars, while the company pursued a shared collective intelligence.
• Gao Gong asked about the failed virus implantation, and Miao Miaomiao showed him data about the experiments, the robot counterattack, and the transfer of the remaining virus to Atomic City.
• Gao Gong opened the Metal's Heart quest, which tasked him with helping Mars' Edge research the virus before the old-era robots shut down.

Three players fought their way through Atomic City’s ancient robots and discovered a research base tied to experiments in atomic mechanical life. Gao Gong learned that a virus had made the city’s service robots aggressive, and he decided how to get the infected hosts needed for further research.

• I Am Big Muscle charged into the robots while Security Steward covered him, and Rock Chef disabled the machines by cutting their power.
• I Am Big Muscle and Security Steward explored an underground signal center and found documents about robot consciousness and development.
• Rock Chef showed the others equipment for researching atomic machines and claimed they had found a world of atomic life.
• Gao Gong’s research revealed that Dr. Xie Lin’s atomic mechanical life project had been shut down, while the former institute became Atomic City and its cell storage vaults retained a virus.
• Miao Miaomiao explained that the company could not recruit test subjects because mechanical people avoided it and it was being hunted, and Gao Gong said he knew what to do.

Gao Gong used a fake Tier-Two Hell-Level quest to draw players to Atomic Island as carriers for the virus’s first mutation, then offered Mass Edge three advanced blueprints to pursue a business deal. He hoped the deal would help him recruit an insider in the Skull and Bones Society.

• An anonymous, administrator-pinned post advertised Dr. Sherin’s time-sensitive Atomic Rescue quest, and players flocked to the forum to discuss its unprecedented difficulty and rewards.
• Dida saw the quest on a sea-based anti-gravity train, suspected it was a scam, and used her abilities as she headed toward the mission.
• Gao Gong admitted he had tricked players into coming to Atomic Island so they could carry the virus, then used Ring of Digital Wisdom on himself and opened a batch of blueprints.
• After Miao Miaomiao arrived, Gao Gong proposed doing business with Mass Edge and showed her blueprints for a Type I Dyson Sphere, a Boson Lens, and an Ion Accelerator Chamber.
• Miao Miaomiao recognized the blueprints as components of Tier-Three civilization structures, while Gao Gong planned to use them to draw Mass Edge into his faction and gain an insider in the Skull and Bones Society.

Gao Gong used Atomic Island’s mechanical virus experiment to test his new spatial technique, Stringfire. The ancient robots gained 30 levels, raising the mission’s difficulty.

• Gao Gong arranged for the Skull Society’s players to join the experiment on Atomic Island.
• Gao Gong revealed his immense mechanical power to Miao Miaomiao and continued the experiment aboard the orbital vessel.
• Gao Gong appeared on Atomic Island and released the viral molecules throughout the island’s encrypted laboratory.
• Gao Gong spent advanced energy to create Stringfire and spread it along spatial threads.
• Gao Gong’s Stringfire empowered the ancient robots, temporarily increasing their levels by 30.

A virus triggered Biochemical Mode across Atomic City, mutating service robots into powerful monsters and reviving dead players as parasites. Can-ge and Sister Ji pressed deeper into Grand Collective 0 as the Mechanical Engineer identified the first mutation, while Can-ge suspected the mission would target mechanical augmenters.

• Service robots across Atomic Island entered Rampage Mode and slaughtered players, but Licking Dog escaped with Wife.
• Yeyedai Dao Budai San explained that Carbon-Based Fusion gave him control over light, and Can-ge discussed how mechanical augmentation reduced the chance of unlocking it.
• Can-ge distracted the defense robots while Sister Ji hacked Grand Collective 0’s defenses, and Can-ge warned that the Hell-Level Mission might be unfriendly to mechanical augmenters.
• The virus spread aboard the spaceship, and the dead players’ cybernetic bodies began to recover.
• The Mechanical Engineer recognized the change as parasitic rather than vitality, and mechanically augmented corpses rose as savage skeletons in Biochemical Mode.

A headquarters investigator arrived in Liangzhou City to investigate the destruction of Tianping Technology’s test site, while Gao Gong reviewed the professional knowledge he had gained and began advancing. His physical body sank beneath the sea as a strange new browser opened on the network.

• A headquarters investigator questioned Han Tong about the disaster, then met Charlie and heard that Mister G, aided by logistics supervisor Zhang Yu, had destroyed the experiment after Mona activated the branch mainframe.
• Charlie identified Doctor Liang, the blonde secretary, and other researchers as witnesses, while the investigator learned that Marubeni’s Samurai Legion had been hijacked and Liuyuan Zhai had disappeared.
• Gao Gong checked the three new Mechanical Brain Technology knowledge nodes he had acquired and noted that only Brain Ecology and Zero Brain Region remained to complete the chain.
• Gao Gong began his rank advancement, grew drowsy, and buried himself beneath the seabed as a new network browser called Gaidu opened.

Players attacked the R&D center on Atomic Island, where Brother Umbrella obtained an antidote from Gaogong posing as Professor Xie. After the mission advanced to a search for Atomic Heart, a Mother City detected Atomic City and began awakening powerful mechanical beings from beneath the planet’s crust.

• Baozi scouted the R&D center while Ji-jie created thousands of projections to distract its defenses.
• Brother Umbrella and Brother Cha infiltrated the facility as the players drew away successive waves of enemies.
• Brother Umbrella found Professor Xie’s projection, learned the antidote would buy time to investigate Atomic Heart, and took the formulated antidote.
• Gaogong revealed himself after Brother Umbrella left and considered how to design the next stage of the mission.
• A biological radar station detected Atomic City, and a mechanical being called its old comrades as level-50-or-higher machines rose from the planet’s core.

As players returned to the Hell Mission, they discovered Atomic City had become a deadly archipelago where crossing between islands triggered monster-filled teleport traps. Tick-Tock uncovered Highworker’s plan to use players to evolve the Heart of the Atom, negotiated for more pay, and Highworker then learned that machines had been spotted.

• Respawning players found Atomic City split into fifty islands, and one player who tried to cross the sea was teleported into monsters and lost modification rate.
• Players learned the mission had progressed through Biochemical Mode and Electronic Ghost into an island-based third version, where completing maps and side quests was necessary to advance.
• Tick-Tock made rapid progress through the maps and recognized that Professor Xie was Highworker, confronting him about the virus and its player test subjects.
• Highworker’s draft revealed that the third-generation virus could permanently weaken cybernetic equipment and modified bodies, so Tick-Tock demanded more pay.
• Highworker entered the Purple String Space and observed metallic bubbles forming as Miao Miaomiao warned him that surveillance satellites had detected machines.

High Engineer learned that Mars Vanguard’s Boss Ma had taken control of Miao Miaomiao and agreed to let some Authority Faction robots reach the virus to hasten its spread. Mechanical Pioneer Venus led thirteen powerful robots across the ocean, where they survived a monster ambush and shifted into close-combat forms.

• High Engineer challenged Mars Vanguard for making him handle both the virus and the mechanical army, and Boss Ma answered through Miao Miaomiao that the robots would test the group’s latest superweapon.
• High Engineer realized Miao Miaomiao was possessed by Boss Ma and told Mars Vanguard not to stop every robot, so some could accelerate the virus’s reproduction.
• Mechanical Pioneer Venus led thirteen level-60 Authority Faction robots toward the planet, furious that Mars Vanguard’s virus had infected several of her offspring.
• Venus’s warning system predicted an ambush, and the robots reassembled their formation to evade giant toothed mouths and spikes erupting from the sea.
• The robots emerged hundreds of kilometers away in combat forms, equipped with energy armor and blades, ready to fight at close range.

Venus identified the attacks on the Authority Faction robots as a microscopic weapon of civilization created by artificial molecules, reminiscent of A’s nanotechnology. She used the Slash of Radiance to burn away the strange dye and sent three robots to deal with the source while she held her position.

• Venus saw the steel fangs vanish from the sea and recognized the matter conversion as the work of an unknown weapon of civilization.
• After satellite images revealed energy cannon barrels forming in the sky, Venus sent five robots to destroy them, and they blasted the cannons apart.
• A metal storm formed at sea, and two level-sixty robots attacked it with giant energy swords while Venus analyzed a metal sphere gathered from the debris.
• Venus discovered that artificial molecules in a strange dye were generating the celestial attacks and suspected the weapon was connected to A’s nanotechnology.
• Venus drew her third-tier energy greatsword, the Slash of Radiance, burned away the dye, and sent three robots to solve the problem while she stayed behind.

Gao Gong began the fourth-stage virus evolution to prepare the players for the Authoritarian Faction Mechanoids, and the players received a mission to fight them. Two enormous mechanical giants arrived above Atomic Island, marking the players as targets for extermination.

• Gao Gong used data from the battleship's laboratory to start the virus's fourth evolution in Atomic Island.
• Ticktock completed the third-stage mission, unlocking the fourth stage and triggering a mission for players to battle level-60 Authoritarian Faction Mechanoids.
• Players gathered, formed parties, and injected Doctor Xie's Virus Enhancer to gain temporary attribute boosts.
• Ticktock questioned Doctor Xie about the strength of the Mother City's mechanical lifeforms, and Doctor Xie told her she would soon find out.
• Two mechanical giants appeared above the islands after unleashing a devastating gale, then identified 24,135 players as targets to exterminate.

Gao Gong secretly pushed the players into battle against two immense Authority faction robots, while Sister Ji used her biological modification to disrupt their energy shields. Baozi and wealthy players then unleashed heavy equipment against the weakened bosses.

• The two Authority faction robots activated Species Annihilation Mode and destroyed several maps, killing hundreds of players.
• The players attacked the robots, but their rapidly regenerating million-point energy armor overwhelmed the assault.
• Baozi urged Sister Ji over the radio to finish preparing her countermeasure as players died and fled.
• Sister Ji used a carbon-based mimicry module based on Capsule Man H's chip to make the robots' energy shields flicker and collapse.
• Baozi ordered the bosses to attack, and players brought armed airships, cannons, tanks, drones, and mechs to bombard the robots.

Players coordinated an attack on the mechanical boss Els, dealing substantial damage before the Cybertron machines retaliated with a devastating barrage. The chapter ended with Els capturing Tick Tock and recognizing her as a purebred energy lifeform.

• Gao Gong watched as the players used Sister Ji’s control skill and a group of neural editors and hackers to attack Els and reveal his status panel.
• Tick Tock entered Els’s spark and detonated a flaming mushroom inside it, dealing 200,000 damage.
• Brother Umbrella destroyed Els’s visual simulator with a weak-point attack, completing Mission Two, while the Centaur Knight and other top players also struck the mechanical being.
• Sister Ji and the information-stream players were overwhelmed by Els’s defenses, killing many players and causing hackers to lose levels through the Cybertron Tide.
• The two mechanical beings unleashed a three-minute barrage that devastated the Atomic Archipelago and killed most of the players caught underground.
• Els reached into his abdomen and captured Tick Tock inside an energy shield, recognizing her as a purebred energy lifeform.

Gao Gong developed High-Affinity DNA to address the metal virus’s mechanical leakage, and the researchers prepared to create its third generation, named Ghost. Meanwhile, players pursued an antidote in Atomic City, as a mysterious man visited A’s former shop and decided what to do next.

• Players struggled against mutated undead whose cybernetic equipment had to be destroyed to kill them, while arguing about deaths and lost gear on the forums.
• Gao Gong combined system knowledge into blueprints and developed High-Affinity DNA to help the metal virus integrate with mechanical bodies.
• Miao Miaomiao received Gao Gong’s data, ordered immediate DNA modification, and named the planned third-generation virus Ghost.
• Baozi negotiated with Sister Ji for help after losing seven mercenary teams, while Rainy Night Carrying a Blade Without an Umbrella said they had four virus sources and needed to reach Atomic City’s largest biopharmaceutical center for an antidote.
• A middle-aged man visited the site of A’s former cybernetic shop in Hanging Street, recognized its owner as his friend, and said he knew what he needed to do.

Gao Gong confronted Humanoid A, a fellow collapse entity, and learned that the enemy sought to rally other numbers against Mother City. While Gao Gong attacked with spatial stringfire and a massive lightning strike, Humanoid A’s nanotechnology began converting his biological body, and the battle ended with Gao Gong’s mechanical body badly damaged.

• Brother Umbrella and the other surviving players received Gao Gong’s quest to escape while carrying out part of the virus.
• Gao Gong confronted Humanoid A and learned that they were both parts of a Cosmic Relic, while Humanoid A revealed his opposition to Number Two’s war and his plan to recruit Numbers Eight and Twelve.
• Humanoid A secretly began converting Gao Gong’s biological body into one of his sub-bodies, but Gao Gong’s mechanical body detected the process and launched an attack.
• Gao Gong used purple stringfire and the Mjolnir weather weapon to strike Humanoid A, dealing a massive blow without visibly injuring him.
• Humanoid A counterattacked, leaving Gao Gong’s mechanical body missing an arm, a leg, and half its body.

Android A's Nano Domain overwhelmed Gao Gong, destroyed his mechanical body, and led him to the Flesh Brain beneath the seabed. As Android A began disintegrating its core, a fragment of Advanced Information Mist appeared.

• Android A disabled Gao Gong's Particle Disturbance Field and disintegrated his tentacles and lightning attacks while Gao Gong used teleportation to evade him.
• Android A created a Nano Domain that altered spatial parameters, trapped combatants, and drained their energy as Els stuffed Dida into its ignition module.
• Gao Gong unleashed Imperial Might, but Android A countered with Life Disintegration and destroyed Gao Gong's mechanical body.
• Android A found Gao Gong's Flesh Carpet on the ocean floor, replicated its talent, and used it to locate the Flesh Brain a hundred kilometers away.
• Android A began disintegrating the Flesh Brain's core, whereupon an Advanced Information Mist fragment appeared.

Gao Gong used the Information Fog and a virus to counter Humanoid A, then escaped as Mechanical Pioneer Venus attacked. Three days later, recovering in a nutrition pod, he discovered Xiao Yu had evolved as a Collapse Body Adaptant before Valkyrie took him to a meeting.

• Gao Gong used the Memory Matrix Fragment to expose Humanoid A to the Information Fog, then pinned him with the unlocked Wisdom Staff.
• Gao Gong injected Humanoid A with the fifth-generation virus, Polymer Metal Heart, completing his mission and earning its rewards.
• Gao Gong hacked an orbital spacecraft and escaped as Mechanical Pioneer Venus descended with Sundering Radiance to attack Humanoid A.
• Three days later, Gao Gong recovered in a nutrition pod while Xiao Yu revealed her new No. 7 Collapse Body Adaptant status and her ability to sense his weakened aura.
• Valkyrie appeared, told Gao Gong there was a meeting, and teleported him away from the experimental base.