Chapter Summaries

Lu Ban discovered that sludge monsters devoured humans and absorbed their consciousness, raising the possibility that Old Era research and the Wasteland’s destruction were part of a larger conspiracy. He left the ruins with Frostheart and the others, while Frostheart resolved to search the Industrial Park for a way to contain the insect swarm.

• Lu Ban watched recordings of sludge monsters consuming people, transforming into insects, and escaping, then concluded that similar creatures appeared across several domains and might absorb their victims’ memories and thoughts.
• Lu Ban considered that consciousness uploading and other Old Era projects might have been deceptions that helped bring about the Wasteland’s destruction.
• Lu Ban and the three Wasteland natives returned to Future City, where Robot Girl Lin learned the Industrial Park’s power could not be restored and proposed welcoming the new year with a bonfire.
• Frostheart told Lu Ban they needed to report their discoveries and admitted she did not know whether to bring Lin and the other robots back to the city-state.
• Frostheart decided they would return to the Industrial Park to seek a way to seal the insect swarm and declared that even obsolete defective products had the right to survive.

Lu Ban and Frostheart investigated the Industrial Park for surviving paper records while Robot Girl refused to leave the stream because she needed charging equipment and hoped the city’s people would return. Frostheart and Singer discovered a glowing distortion beneath the rocket launch platform, suggesting the ruins held an unexplained secret.

• Robot Girl refused Frostheart’s offer to return to the city, explaining that she and the other robots followed three rules: protect humans, obey human orders, and protect themselves.
• Lu Ban, Frostheart, Singer, and their companions rode Camel Insects to the Industrial Park to search for records they could bring home.
• Lu Ban found few surviving documents and used Last Words to repair old posted papers before printing them.
• Frostheart questioned why the rocket launch platform had escaped complete destruction by the Insect Swarm and went with Singer to investigate it.
• Frostheart and Singer descended beneath the platform and found a vast hall containing a glowing distortion that warped the air like a lens.

Frostheart and Singer discovered a wormhole that she believed the swarm needed others to open and maintain, and Frostheart concluded that destroying it could stop future invasions. After a sandstorm battered the Industrial Park, they spotted the swarm’s scouts approaching from the desert.

• Singer accidentally dropped her tablet into the wormhole, and Frostheart identified it as a possible bridge to the swarm’s world.
• Frostheart reasoned that the swarm could not create bridges by itself and decided that destroying the wormholes might stop new swarms from entering their world.
• Frostheart and Singer returned to the rocket launch platform, but a powerful sandstorm forced them to take shelter.
• After the storm passed, Frostheart checked that the building where Lu Ban and Shana were staying still stood.
• Singer pointed out a patch of black contamination on the horizon, and Frostheart recognized the swarm’s outermost scouts.

Frostheart and Singer discovered that the swarm had found them, and Lu Ban chose to stay behind and lure it toward the wormhole so he could destroy it. He shot Frostheart and the others out of the ruins to keep them safe, leaving himself to face the approaching swarm.

• Frostheart and Singer saw the swarm approaching and ran to warn Lu Ban and Shana.
• Frostheart froze an injured insect scout, and the swarm surged toward the industrial ruins.
• Frostheart told Lu Ban that she had found a wormhole, and Lu Ban said it had to be destroyed before the swarm could reach this world.
• Lu Ban drew Silver Pen's Last Words and shot his companions beyond the ruins, insisting he would still attend the New Year's Eve bonfire.

Lu Ban summoned a thunderstorm to hold back the insect swarm and entered the wormhole beneath the rocket launch platform. On the other side, he discovered the colossal Old Ones, the source of the Mud Monsters, before his mind was destroyed by the sight.

• Lu Ban used the radio to summon a thunderstorm that struck the Industrial Park and killed or scattered some of the insects.
• Frostheart and the others watched the storm, while Lin sensed the extreme weather near the Industrial Park and worried about them.
• Lu Ban opened the cat food can, then left the kitten and the insect queen’s projection above the wormhole as he went downstairs.
• Lu Ban thrust his crowbar into the wormhole and crossed onto a barren planet made of steel, where he struggled to breathe.
• Lu Ban saw the colossal Old Ones surrounded by Mud Monsters and orbiting planets, realized it was their mother body, and his brain exploded.

Frostheart, Singer, and Shana fled toward Future City as a massive insect swarm surrounded them, and Frostheart chose to lead the swarm toward the city to escape. The city’s robots charged out to protect them, and Frostheart saw a young girl standing atop the tallest building.

• Frostheart saw that a sandstorm had swallowed Future City while an enormous insect swarm closed in around her, Singer, and Shana.
• Singer argued that the three had to escape through Future City, and Frostheart drove the Camel Insect toward it despite the danger to its robots.
• The swarm chased them, and Singer’s song and Frostheart’s punch barely slowed the insects as they nearly reached the Camel Insect.
• Future City’s robots rushed out to form a steel wall between the swarm and the three, fighting despite their lack of power and the insects’ overwhelming numbers.
• Frostheart watched the robots sacrifice themselves and spotted a young girl standing atop Future City’s tallest building.

Lin and the robots of Future City sacrificed themselves to defend Frostheart and the others from the insect swarm, upholding their oath to protect humans. The swarm overwhelmed the city as rain began to fall and Lin’s consciousness faded.

• Lin apologized to the robots and warned the approaching swarm to stop harming humans, then led the robots of Future City into a rescue operation.
• Lin used the robots’ communications network to tell them that humans had returned and that they would kindle flames for humanity.
• The robots burned materials from Future City to form a fiery defense line, while Lin’s calculations overloaded her processor.
• Frostheart argued that the robots’ oath was merely a human-imposed restraint, but Lin said their promise gave their existence meaning.
• The swarm broke through the defense line as Frostheart and the others entered Future City, and Lin used her remaining power to lead the robots in a final defense.
• Rain fell for the first time in a hundred years as the swarm engulfed Future City and Lin’s consciousness faded.

Lu Ban awoke on a metal planet transformed into a many-eyed, tentacled monster after gazing upon an Old One, and learned about the being and its origins. As he wondered how to turn back, several insect swarms arrived, and the white-dressed girl approached him with a gigantic egg-bearing insect.

• Lu Ban examined his mutated body and observed that an Old One was trapped in orbit around a star.
• Lu Ban learned that the Old One’s residue had spawned monsters across many realms and that the being sought to absorb and merge with all life.
• Lu Ban wondered how to reverse his mutation and decided to ask Feng Yu for help.
• A massive swarm of insects emerged from a wormhole, and several pale, black-eyed people appeared beside Lu Ban.
• The white-dressed girl approached Lu Ban with a huge insect whose abdomen curled toward him, making him fear he was about to be forcibly drained.

Lu Ban played the suona to repel the insect queen, awakening a response between two Old Ones that destroyed the surrounding insects and collapsed the wormholes. As his route home closed, he threw a golden die and triggered All In, but rolled a critical failure.

• Lu Ban fled the insect queen, discovered his crowbar had melted, and realized his suona had survived the Old One’s pollution.
• Lu Ban played the suona as the insect queen and her swarm surrounded him, and the queen froze in fear.
• The suona connected Lu Ban to a distant Great Being, causing the bound Old One to react and wreak havoc among the surrounding planets.
• A distant star answered the call, and the ensuing muttering and roar turned the insect swarms into particles and collapsed the wormholes.
• Lu Ban drifted toward the closing wormhole, threw a golden die, and activated All In, but the luck check ended in a critical failure.

After a great failure annihilated the surrounding star system, Lu Ban’s body was destroyed and his soul drifted toward an Old One. A Melody Fragment pulled him away from the deity, sending him through strange cosmic visions before he lost consciousness.

• The great failure destroyed the wormholes and everything within the star system, while Lu Ban’s consciousness fused with what remained of his body.
• Lu Ban received the Twisted Heart of the Swarm after merging with the Queen’s shattered remains, but his mission to survive remained incomplete.
• As Lu Ban drifted toward the Old One, he found Du Danping’s Melody Fragment, which purified his soul and soothed his mind.
• The Melody Fragment resonated with a melody from a distant alien realm and pulled Lu Ban away from the Old One.
• Lu Ban witnessed visions of strange lights, vast palaces, and a flute melody echoing through the universe before losing consciousness.

Frostheart woke amid the rain-soaked ruins of Future City and found Lin gravely damaged after the swarm’s attack. As Lin’s power failed, she revealed she had known humanity would not return and urged Frostheart to live on; Lin then fell silent.

• Feng Yu sensed a disturbance in time, realized an overwhelming existence might be involved, and vanished from Lu Ban's house.
• Frostheart woke in the ruined Future City after the explosion and found Shana and Singer unconscious but breathing.
• Frostheart remembered the swarm’s attack and made her way through the storm to find Lin badly damaged.
• Lin woke briefly, asked whether Frostheart and her companions were safe, and celebrated that they had protected humanity.
• Lin admitted she had long suspected humanity would never return, thanked Frostheart for proving other humans remained, and asked her to live well.
• Lin wiped Frostheart’s tears, told her the world’s future belonged to her, and fell silent.

Lu Ban woke as a mass of slime after Feng Yu rescued him, and she began reshaping him inside her body. While Qin Tiantian misunderstood Feng Yu’s mention of a due date as Lu Ban being born, Frostheart, Shana, and Singer returned to Utopia, where Plato asked Mr. Du about the threats they had encountered.

• Lu Ban woke at home as a basin of slime, and Feng Yu said she was considering how to reshape him with the fewest side effects.
• Feng Yu swallowed Lu Ban and his basin, and he began changing inside her before falling asleep again.
• Qin Tiantian asked Feng Yu when Lu Ban would return, then misread her reply about the due date and concluded that Lu Ban was going to be born.
• Frostheart, Shana, and Singer returned to Utopia, where Plato asked Mr. Du what he made of their report about the rain, storms, insects, and Old Era Humans.

Lu Ban woke after Feng Yu gave birth to him, having returned from the Wasteland with his body and abilities restored. After the system settled his quest and granted rewards, he inspected what had survived and discovered a new attraction in the Weird Amusement Park.

• Lu Ban dreamed of an ordinary life before a faceless, tentacled girl wrapped around him and drew him into darkness.
• Lu Ban crawled out of Feng Yu and recovered, while Feng Yu congratulated him on being born and explained that the process was her racial talent.
• Lu Ban received the system’s quest settlement, including 250,000 Silence Points, the item Whom the Swarm Soars For, and the skill Melt.
• Lu Ban checked his surviving abilities and possessions, realizing Feng Yu had likely reunited his soul with his past body and that his suona had become part of him.
• Lu Ban examined the Weird Amusement Park and noticed it now contained what appeared to be a botanical garden.

Feng Yu explained that she had restored Lu Ban to an earlier state using a method from her species, then warned him that his encounters with higher beings had made him an Anchor Point. Lu Ban realized that their attention could both endanger him and help him resist contamination, and he prepared to study his next Career Development Task.

• Lu Ban asked Feng Yu how she had brought him back, and she explained that she had reversed what happened to him using a method similar to a Time Worm.
• Feng Yu explained that higher beings could leave an Anchor Point on someone, letting their influence spread through that person’s civilization.
• Lu Ban realized that the mark he had left on the world could make its people his believers and that he had also become an Anchor Point for Great Beings.
• Feng Yu warned that the beings’ attention could attract other Old Ones, repel some Great Beings, or make others want to kill Lu Ban.
• Feng Yu said the attention could also help Lu Ban resist contamination, and Lu Ban prepared to study his next Career Development Task.

After considering how difficult it would be to influence people through his work, Lu Ban decided to rely on his art rather than manipulation. He tested his new Melting ability, discovered he could split apart and reassemble himself, and planned to investigate the Weird Amusement Park next.

• Lu Ban read the system task requiring him to influence the values and worldview of the masses, and worried that changing people through movies would be difficult.
• Lu Ban reviewed the footage from the wasteland and realized the scenes involving the Old Ones had been omitted because of their mental contamination.
• Lu Ban used his new Melting ability in the bathroom, liquefying himself and sending part of himself into the sewer.
• Lu Ban emerged onto the grass in his residential complex and frightened a dog and its owner before drawing himself back together.
• Lu Ban discovered that he could split himself, sense his surroundings, travel through sludge, and dissolve physical injuries, then planned to investigate the Weird Amusement Park.

Liu Huajian, a writer of Ruined City fan works, dismissed rumors of a mysterious amusement park until he found one beside Ling River. He entered its empty Ecological Park, where a guide named Lin welcomed him.

• Liu Huajian grew frustrated with fan works that misrepresented Ruined City and with a popular video claiming Trist was the mastermind.
• He visited the area near Ruined Capital Town to gather inspiration and spotted an amusement park emerging from the fog by Ling River.
• Liu Huajian bought a ticket from a yellow-clad staff member and entered the empty amusement park, where he saw a Teddy Bear holding a balloon.
• Liu Huajian chose the Ecological Park and found a barefoot girl in a white dress feeding a fawn.
• The girl introduced herself as Lin and welcomed Liu Huajian as his guide.

After leaving the Ecological Park, Liu Huajian found himself at the Ling River with no memory of how he got there. Lu Ban reflected on Lin’s existence in the Amusement Park and decided to make a disaster film about the Wasteland’s destruction, then gave the project materials to Silent Media.

• Liu Huajian left the Ecological Park and found himself beside the Ling River, unable to recall what had happened.
• Lu Ban visited Lin and recognized that she was a contaminated fragment of the past, preserved inside the Amusement Park.
• Lu Ban changed the Amusement Park’s layout to give the Ecological Park its own area, and Lin spoke of longing for the original sky.
• Lu Ban decided to make a disaster film showing the Wasteland’s destruction through many people’s perspectives, with everyone as a protagonist.
• Lu Ban sent the film materials and tasks to Silent Media, and Bai Qiquan watched the effects and asked whether the film contained a devastating twist.

Wellington discovered a hidden Ecological Park where Lin showed him a peaceful world of plants and animals, but it vanished when he left. Days later, he learned that others had also encountered Lin, and a third person found the park’s door appear beside his workplace.

• Wellington entered the Ecological Park on his way home and listened to Lin explain its plants and animals.
• Wellington left near dawn, discovered only minutes had passed, and found no trace of the park on the street.
• Days later, Wellington heard a coworker describe seeing Lin and asked whether the girl had been named Lin.
• The coworker said he had seen the park beside their company, while another person dismissed their story.
• After buying coffee, the third person saw the Ecological Park appear between two shops and entered to find Lin waiting inside.

Reports of a mysterious Ecological Park and its little girl spread across forums and social media, turning her into an urban legend. Meanwhile, Lu Ban announced a new work, which was revealed at midnight on May 1 to be a disaster movie.

• Forum users shared stories of encountering the Ecological Park and its little girl, and reports from China and abroad made the claims seem credible.
• Lu Ban posted a cryptic May 1 message on The Silence Project's Weibo account, prompting speculation about his new work.
• Media outlets compared Lu Ban with famous directors, while Lu Ban ignored the debate and focused on his ambitions.
• At midnight on May 1, The Silence Project uploaded a short trailer that revealed Lu Ban's new work was a disaster movie.

Wellington and a colleague studied the Permian-Triassic mass extinction and worried that natural disasters could threaten the world again. After watching a frightening trailer for Lu Ban’s volcanic-disaster film, Wellington realized the eruption was only on screen and wondered at the coincidence.

• Wellington and a colleague studied the Permian-Triassic extinction at the library and discussed recent storms and volcanic activity.
• Wellington asked a wilderness-survival chat channel how to survive a nearby supervolcano eruption, but an expert dismissed the concern and redirected the conversation to zombies.
• Wellington watched a Silent Media trailer for Lu Ban’s film, which showed news reports and footage of a catastrophic volcanic eruption.
• Wellington felt immersed in the disaster until the video ended and revealed the title, The End.
• Wellington looked around the peaceful library and wondered why Lu Ban’s film happened to be about a volcanic eruption.