Chapter Summaries

After eating the Little Fishman, Feng Yu learned that he had encountered Du Danping on a mission tied to the Glorious Realm, a powerful realm that resisted contamination before its destruction. Lu Ban identified and sold the Little Fishman’s dagger, then he and Feng Yu prepared to retrieve the Weird Amusement Park and go home.

• Feng Yu ate the Little Fishman and sampled his memories, discovering that he had met Du Danping during a Glorious Realm mission.
• Feng Yu told Lu Ban that the Glorious Realm had resisted contamination, ruled other realms, and left scattered ruins and items behind after its destruction.
• Lu Ban considered traveling to the Glorious Realm’s past to learn how it controlled Pure Fire and find a way to curb contamination.
• Lu Ban identified the dagger as Touch of Pain, a contaminated stone that spread contamination and drove victims toward madness.
• Lu Ban listed Touch of Pain for sale in the Silence Department Store, and he and Feng Yu decided to retrieve the Weird Amusement Park and go home.

After leaving Feng Yu's body, Lu Ban inspected the evolved Weird Amusement Park and completed his Career Development Task, earning 50,000 Silence Points. As he finished dinner with Feng Yu, his second-stage task began with a mysterious Soul Calling scenario.

• Lu Ban discovered that the Weird Amusement Park had gained a water park and reached Ascension grade, increasing its suggested price to 8,888,888 Silence Points.
• Lu Ban considered how the park’s Time Worm could trap moviegoers in endless viewings and how strange objects might be combined into mutated items.
• Lu Ban completed his Career Development Task with 150% exploration and received 50,000 Silence Points.
• Feng Yu served Lu Ban a quick dinner, and Lu Ban thought about promoting fishman products across foreign realms.
• Lu Ban saw the second-stage task begin, then read the Soul Calling description and a question about a child who seemed to become an old man after being called back.

Lu Ban chose a wasteland mission involving a swarm of insects after examining several mission prompts. The mission required him to find the Queen, survive, and obtain Du Danping’s Melody Fragment, and he prepared to go alone.

• Lu Ban considered the Soul Calling and Deep Sea mission prompts, while Feng Yu explained how pollution could reshape life and civilizations.
• Lu Ban rejected the Deep Sea mission and selected the wasteland mission about the insects.
• After Lu Ban ate the dry-pot cabbage, the mission changed to require him to find the Queen, survive, and obtain Du Danping’s Melody Fragment.
• Lu Ban guessed he would protect insect researchers, locate the Queen, and possibly kill her to obtain her Heart of the Swarm.
• Lu Ban decided to enter the mission alone and hoped Trist was all right.

Lu Ban learned that destroying the Wasteland’s insect swarm required eliminating every insect and taking the Heart of the Swarm from the final survivor before it could reproduce. He bought a cursed kitten to control the insects, but it briefly suppressed its own effect to escape his obsessive petting.

• Lu Ban asked Feng Yu how to exterminate the Wasteland’s giant insects, and she explained that the Heart of the Swarm was the shared will of the entire swarm rather than a physical heart.
• Lu Ban considered using the Queen Insect’s Egg to create a swarm but rejected the idea because it could devastate other domains.
• Lu Ban concluded that he needed to gather the entire swarm and capture its final insect before it reproduced.
• Lu Ban bought Cat Poisoning from the Silence Department Store, and its charm immediately made him obsess over petting the kitten.
• The kitten scratched Lu Ban before temporarily suppressing its own effect and going limp, leaving Lu Ban to realize what had happened.

Lu Ban prepared a cat whose mind-altering influence could lure the Wasteland’s bug swarm, then entered The Silent Land and arrived in the desert with his teammates. After receiving a mission to find the bug queen, survive, and obtain Du Danping’s Melody Fragment, he asked his companions about Halloween.

• Lu Ban sealed the mind-bewitching cat inside nested jars and explained how it could draw the Wasteland’s unified bug swarm together.
• Lu Ban prepared supplies and equipment, then entered The Silent Land by tasting the illusory food at his tea table.
• Lu Ban arrived in the Wasteland and met Frostheart, Shana, and Singer as they set out across the desert.
• The Silent Land assigned Lu Ban objectives to find the bug queen, survive, and obtain Du Danping’s Melody Fragment.
• Lu Ban asked his unfamiliar companions whether they knew about Halloween and described it as a festival that brought happiness.

Lu Ban learned about Utopia’s democratic government and its researchers’ effort to find the source of insect swarms. Frostheart revealed that her group planned to investigate ruins that might contain a swarm’s nest, leaving Lu Ban worried that their expedition would attract a massive swarm.

• Singer explained Utopia’s parliamentary democracy to Shana, while Frostheart described other forms of government among the city-states.
• Lu Ban and Shana ate insect-based food, and Singer explained how ordinary insects differed from destructive insect swarms.
• Frostheart told Lu Ban that Utopia’s scholars searched for swarm nests and believed that killing a queen could destroy a swarm.
• Lu Ban suggested that a swarm might have multiple queens or function as one entity, prompting Frostheart to reconsider how it communicated.
• Frostheart said her group would investigate ruins nearly a hundred kilometers northeast and capture nearby insects, and Lu Ban worried that the insects could summon the swarm.

Lu Ban traveled with Frostheart, Shana, and Singer across the desert, where the group hunted a giant worm to replenish their water. After harvesting enough ice from its body for a week's supply, they continued onward, leaving the rest to the desert's creatures.

• Lu Ban decided to investigate the Swarm alongside the researchers because they lacked specific information, and he worried their curiosity might put them in danger.
• Frostheart used a vibrating black pillar to lure a giant sand worm out of the ground.
• Shana attacked the worm at incredible speed while Singer's song worsened its wound.
• Frostheart froze the worm by thrusting her hand into its wound, suffering mild frostbite in the process.
• Frostheart explained that the worms stored clean water in their bodies, and the group harvested enough ice for a week's supply.
• Frostheart left the remaining water to sink into the desert for other creatures.

Lu Ban and Frostheart investigated a well-preserved, windowless complex in the desert and found machines still cleaning its streets. They discovered a model labeled “Future City Sales Office,” leaving the nature of the site and its inhabitants uncertain.

• Frostheart told Lu Ban why she had wanted to study and eradicate the insect swarm, and he reflected on the Wasteland’s destruction.
• Four days after setting out, Lu Ban, Frostheart, Singer, and Shana reached the small, unusually intact ruins, and Lu Ban noticed their windowless buildings.
• Lu Ban and Frostheart rode to the ruins while Singer and Shana stayed back, then entered through the main gate to investigate.
• Lu Ban and Frostheart watched a robot vacuum clean the street, and Lu Ban explained that it was a machine.
• Lu Ban and Frostheart entered the service hall and found a miniature model of the complex beside a sign reading “Future City Sales Office.”

Lu Ban and Frostheart explored an abandoned sales office and learned about the advanced, house-centered society that had existed before the Wasteland. When they entered one of its homes, Frostheart encountered a vivid vision of a living natural world.

• Lu Ban explained to Frostheart that people in the past had to buy houses and often spent their lives paying for them.
• Lu Ban read brochures and newspapers describing high-tech homes and a society where access to natural landscapes cost money.
• Lu Ban found access cards, and he and Frostheart used one to enter a building in the cleaned residential area.
• Lu Ban sensed a floral fragrance inside the building, then opened a door to a fresh breeze and birdsong.
• Frostheart saw a lush landscape with animals, a little deer, and a girl in white lying beside it.

Lu Ban and Frostheart explored Future City's Ecological Park and met Lin, a robot who revealed that the city had no current residents. They left to investigate the restaurant for food, while Lin remained behind in the park.

• Frostheart marveled at the park's lifelike plants, animals, and stream while Lu Ban woke an unconscious girl and revived her with the Silver Pen Last Words.
• Lu Ban discovered the girl was a robot, and she introduced herself as Lin, guardian of Future City's Ecological Park.
• Lin explained that the park's animals and plants were robotic imitations and said the city's current resident count was zero.
• After Lin mentioned the restaurant in Building A3, Lu Ban and Frostheart decided to search it for food before calling Singer and Shana.
• Lu Ban and Frostheart left the Ecological Park, and Lin continued bowing to them.

Lu Ban and Frostheart explored Future City's commercial street and residential buildings, finding spoiled food, decayed belongings, and signs that the residents had left in a hurry. They returned to the Ecological Park with Singer and Shana, where Lin promised the commercial street would reopen when supply personnel arrived.

• Lu Ban and Frostheart found that the commercial street's food ingredients had spoiled and received coupons from a noodle shop that could not fulfill their order.
• Frostheart searched the bookstore for Old Era books but found only tablets with dead screens.
• Lu Ban returned to the Ecological Park with Singer and Shana, and Lin invited them to the park's free evening program.
• Lu Ban explored the cramped residential rooms with the others and concluded that residents may have fled to a shelter ahead of a disaster.
• Lin told Lu Ban that supply personnel would arrive soon and the commercial street would reopen.

Lu Ban followed the robots to their charging room, where Robot Girl Lin introduced the sleeping machines and explained how they had served Future City. Lin remained certain the residents would return and invited Lu Ban to a year-end bonfire and a special performance, while he left her belief unchallenged.

• Lu Ban followed the robots into the Ecological Park’s maintenance room and found many machines powerless or damaged.
• Robot Girl Lin described the robots’ former jobs and told Lu Ban that they would awaken when everything returned to normal.
• Lin said the year-end bonfire would take place in two days and admitted she had lied about Lu Ban being the 6,666th visitor.
• Lu Ban asked what Lin would think if the world and its people had been gone for hundreds of years, but she said her response manual did not cover that situation.
• Lin invited Lu Ban to watch a special performance in the Ecological Park.

Lu Ban, Frostheart, and the others watched Lin present “Cradle,” a program recounting the planet’s history and humanity’s hopes for Future City. The presentation ended with the group confronting the world’s ruin, while Lu Ban noticed an Industrial Park nearby that might be worth exploring.

• Lu Ban joined Frostheart and the others in the Ecological Park as Lin prepared a special program.
• Lin’s presentation traced the planet’s formation, the rise of life, and humanity’s development through wars and disasters.
• Lin showed Future City and described its promise of supporting research and providing a home for humanity, expressing her faith that people would overcome their suffering.
• After the program, Frostheart and the others sat in silence, shaken by the contrast between the past’s prosperity and the present desolation.
• Lu Ban noticed an Industrial Park in the presentation and wondered whether the group should explore it.

Lu Ban and the others learned that the Industrial Park might help restore power, then traveled there to investigate. The chapter ended with Lu Ban and Frostheart preparing to explore the deserted-looking complex.

• Lin told Lu Ban that the Industrial Park lay seven kilometers north and might be able to send a vehicle if they restored contact.
• Lu Ban asked Lin for records about the Industrial Park and decided they would go there the next day to investigate its power supply.
• That night, Lin told Lu Ban she believed humanity would return, and he invited her to consider joining them when they left.
• At dawn, Lu Ban and the others departed the Ecological Park on the Camel Insect while Lin bowed farewell.
• At noon, the group reached the Industrial Park, where Lu Ban saw an enormous empty frame and damaged buildings but no sign of the insect swarm.
• Lu Ban decided that he and Frostheart would enter the Industrial Park to explore.

Lu Ban explored an abandoned rocket research facility and found a notebook and tablet that revealed the researchers had discovered a way to send rockets across a bridge between spaces. The recordings ended with one researcher making the method public after his daughter died and officials stalled over who would escape.

• Lu Ban and Frostheart entered the abandoned city and concluded that insect swarms had not recently reached it because metal remained untouched.
• Lu Ban used the Silver Pen's Last Words to stabilize a building and preserve a notebook and tablet inside.
• Lu Ban restored the tablet and discovered photographs of a researcher’s family, research materials, and images of a rocket on the launch platform.
• Lu Ban listened to recordings explaining that the researchers had found a way to move a rocket between spaces by constructing a bridge and using the potential energy difference.
• The researcher recorded that his daughter, Tingting, had died and that officials were delaying the evacuation while arguing over who could board the ship.
• The researcher made the bridge-building method public, hoping humanity would use it to survive.

Lu Ban and Frostheart explored an underground research institute and found evidence that human experiments with radioactive ore had caused the Crystallization Sickness. They then reached the rocket launch site's command center and discovered records of a worldwide disaster, leaving the origins and full scale of the calamity unresolved.

• Lu Ban and Frostheart listened to a researcher's recording and searched the compound for more records.
• Lu Ban led Frostheart into the underground biological research institute, where they found documents about radioactive ore and human experiments.
• Lu Ban concluded that humans had caused the Crystallization Sickness, and Frostheart struggled to accept that humanity might also have caused the swarm.
• Lu Ban and Frostheart reached the command center and found a report listing numerous global disasters.

Lu Ban read the Alliance’s three secret plans to preserve civilization and learned that each had been compromised by contamination or failed through human error. A final report described the disasters caused by the plans, but hinted that humanity had found a way to preserve the world.

• Lu Ban read about the aerospace, human modification, and digital civilization plans, each facing severe obstacles and being carried out in secret.
• Lu Ban concluded that the first plan had brought the swarm, the second had spread Crystallization Sickness, and the third had not preserved human consciousness.
• Frostheart sank against the equipment and questioned whether the plans to save the world had been distorted by madness, including the methods they used now.
• Lu Ban found a final report stating that the Bridge Plan brought monsters through a wormhole, the serum caused rapid aging and death, and uploaded consciousnesses collapsed.
• Lu Ban read that the civilization database sparked disputes over which cultures to preserve, then reached the report’s claim that humanity had found a way to preserve the world.

Frostheart read a report describing Professor Tang’s plan to preserve humanity by fusing people with monsters and uploading their consciousnesses, and she recoiled at the calm certainty of its author. Lu Ban saw the transformations as a desperate means of civilization’s survival, leaving the question of what humanity had become unresolved.

• Frostheart read that Professor Tang had proposed fusing humans with monsters and using uploaded consciousnesses to create beings able to survive the changing world.
• The report’s author described the successful experiments and a plan to send more than one hundred thousand modified people across the bridge to attract monsters and spread human consciousness.
• Frostheart recognized that the report’s writer believed the plan was salvation, despite having abandoned ordinary human values, and felt more despair as she considered her own goal of exterminating the swarms.
• Frostheart questioned whether preserving human purity was nobler than surviving through transformation, while Lu Ban declined to judge the choice and viewed it as civilization’s effort to endure contamination.

Lu Ban and Frostheart discovered that humanity had willingly begun transforming into the Swarm and devouring people to preserve resources before traveling to new worlds. Frostheart collapsed after realizing the Swarm had been trying to save the remaining humans, while Lu Ban continued searching for the Heart of the Swarm and found the Industrial Park’s Incubation Chamber on its structural diagram.

• Lu Ban read reports describing human experiments that merged people with monsters and the researchers’ plans to upload human consciousnesses.
• Lu Ban found a later report explaining that new humans had agreed to devour old humans to limit resource use before beginning a great expedition to new worlds.
• Frostheart realized that the Swarm had been trying to carry the patients with Crystallization Sickness to the stars, and she collapsed under the revelation.
• Lu Ban remained determined to obtain the Heart of the Swarm and found the Incubation Chamber marked on the Industrial Park’s structural diagram.

Lu Ban calmed Frostheart and sent her to find Singer and the others while he investigated the Incubation Chamber. There, he found a recording of the first consciousness upload, which ended with a sludge-like monster emerging from a container and crawling onto a convulsing woman.

• Frostheart lost hope after concluding that the Crystallization Sickness patients were humanity's obsolete deadweight, so Lu Ban used Last Words to calm her.
• Lu Ban sent Frostheart to find Singer and the others, then headed to the Incubation Chamber.
• Lu Ban considered the swarm, the Crystallization Sickness patients, and the robots to be the Wasteland's three factions.
• Lu Ban found a surviving computer in the Incubation Chamber and opened an experimental-record video.
• The video showed a woman undergoing the first consciousness upload before a sludge-like monster emerged from a metal container and crawled onto her.