Chapter Summaries

Lin Yu questioned Conception about his attack and learned that Conception believed the Death game was entertainment watched by a higher existence. Conception warned that Order’s Supreme Evolution operation was destined to fail, leaving Lin Yu to grapple with the revelation.

• Lin Yu confronted Conception about kidnapping Ren Gu and interfering with Order, and Conception claimed rock and roll made him oppose order.
• Conception revealed that he knew Order had come to investigate Supreme Evolution’s technology, and Lin Yu explained that Order sought a way to avert the coming catastrophe.
• After checking his communicator, Conception privately warned Lin Yu that Order’s operation was destined to fail and asked what Lin Yu thought the Death game really was.
• Conception argued that the game’s events were watched for entertainment and that their world was a reality show controlled by a higher existence he called the God of Fun.

Lin Yu questioned Conception about his belief that they were characters in an anime, and Conception explained how he used his supposed camera sense to read the attention of unseen observers. Conception left Lin Yu with a warning about the dangers of being a popular character, while Lin Yu objected to his description of Xiao Nian.

• Lin Yu learned that Conception had been deliberately performing for invisible cameras and had trained himself to sense when they were watching.
• Conception said Xiao Nian and Good Night had come under attack at the Universal Trade Association building, while the cameras were focused on him and Lin Yu.
• Conception explained that he cooperated with the cameras because popularity and coolness could bring powerful abilities, but excessive attention could lead to a dramatic death.
• Conception argued that the death game’s dynamic difficulty adjustment was how unseen beings interfered with events inside the Ten Realms and their instances.
• Conception warned Lin Yu that his charisma and story potential could make him a target for a sacrificial plotline, then called Xiao Nian a fan-favorite tsundere girl.
• Lin Yu protested Conception’s description of Xiao Nian.

Lin Yu questioned Conception about why he had kidnapped Ren Gu and obstructed the Order’s operation. Conception revealed that he believed Supreme Evolution held a clue left by the previous version’s strongest Player, and Lin Yu insisted he was not an irrelevant character.

• Lin Yu asked Conception how he knew Xiao Nian was a tsundere, and Conception explained that he judged people by their character archetypes.
• Conception said he had cultivated a comic-relief persona and staged stunts in the Death game to gain benefits and avoid desperate situations.
• Conception revealed that he had stopped the Order’s operation because he believed the final trial was not meant to be resolved yet and that doing so would trigger a greater crisis.
• Conception told Lin Yu that Supreme Evolution had ties to the previous version’s strongest Player, whom he suspected was the absolute protagonist of the first five seasons.
• Conception said Supreme Evolution likely held an important clue left by that Player, and Lin Yu answered that he was not an irrelevant character.

Lin Yu convinced Conception to stop opposing the group and join their operation against the Inner City, while Conception staged a dramatic musical performance. Elsewhere, Good Night was bitten and thrown into the air by the transformed Alchemy Monster in Jo Solence's office.

• Conception dismissed Lin Yu's claim that the Previous Version's protagonist was his sister until Lin Yu explained that she was his biological older sister from Jiang City.
• Lin Yu argued that his sister's personal storyline made Conception's assumptions about Supreme Evolution incomplete, and Conception worried that leaving abruptly would trigger another crisis.
• Lin Yu proposed that Conception change roles and help the group after being persuaded by them, and Conception agreed to join their side for the operation.
• Conception returned to the stage and began a dramatic bass performance, intending to draw the camera back to him.
• Good Night was bitten from behind by the Alchemy Monster in Jo Solence's private office and hurled into the air.

Xiao Nian, Jo Solence, and Good Night fought off the stuffed beasts attacking them in Jo Solence’s office while waiting for reinforcements. Jo dismissed the attackers as little threat, but a gray raccoon appeared at Good Night’s feet and bit his ankle.

• Xiao Nian dismembered the stuffed beasts, while Jo Solence detonated them with alchemical energy and Good Night struggled against the surrounding attackers.
• Jo Solence said her collection held over five hundred specimens and that her family would send support once they learned of the attack.
• Xiao Nian counted twenty-seven destroyed specimens and agreed that the attackers had not yet shown methods capable of threatening Jo Solence.
• A gray raccoon bit Good Night’s ankle and made a throat-slitting gesture at him.

Good Night was incapacitated by a raccoon assassin, and Xiao Nian unleashed her overloaded alchemical power to reach him. She was stopped by Darcy Mostan, who introduced herself as the President of the Animal Protection Association.

• Good Night discovered that the raccoon had injected him with a drug, then collapsed before he could warn Xiao Nian and Jo Solence.
• Xiao Nian told Jo Solence she would fight without holding back, and Jo urged her to prioritize rescuing Good Night.
• Xiao Nian activated [Theseus's Self] and blasted a path through the ferocious beast specimens toward Good Night.
• Xiao Nian cut down the remaining beasts in her way and approached Good Night as her body neared its limits.
• Darcy Mostan, a red-haired masked girl in white robes, appeared and introduced herself as the President of the Animal Protection Association.

Xiao Nian confronted the masked woman calling herself Darcy Mostan, who had incapacitated Good Night and attacked Jo Solence’s office. Darcy disabled the alchemical prosthetics in both of Xiao Nian’s arms, and Xiao Nian concluded that Darcy’s real target was her.

• Xiao Nian confirmed that Good Night was alive and thanked Darcy for sparing him, but said she would still fight to protect Jo Solence.
• Darcy’s alchemical protection stopped Xiao Nian’s blades, then Darcy forcibly shut down the prosthetics in Xiao Nian’s left arm.
• Darcy explained that she knew the design and implantation history of Xiao Nian’s alchemical components, then shut down the prosthetics in her right arm as well.
• Xiao Nian reasoned that Darcy could disable her because she knew her unusually well, and suspected Jo Solence had only been a smokescreen.

Xiao Nian exposed Darcy Mostan’s true target and revived her disabled Alchemy components to resume their fight. Their clash ended with Xiao Nian cracking Darcy’s silver mask, revealing her black eye.

• The masked girl admitted Jo Solence was a smokescreen and that she had targeted Xiao Nian, while also admitting she had sent beasts after Jo out of personal rivalry.
• Xiao Nian rejected the claim that a companion had betrayed her and reactivated her Alchemy components with Theseus’s Self, making them part of herself.
• Xiao Nian attacked Darcy Mostan’s hands to prevent her from interfering with the Alchemy components, and the two fought at close range.
• Darcy revealed a metal claw apparatus from her sleeve and struck Xiao Nian, who recognized the device as likely handmade.
• Xiao Nian caught the claw’s chain in her teeth and headbutted Darcy, cracking her mask and exposing her black eye.

Xiao Nian fought Nightless Sky Fire Apricot while trying to uncover the identity of the young assassin. When Nightless Sky Fire Apricot summoned armed raccoons, Xiao Nian ignited the alchemical waste fluid with Supreme Alchemy, setting the enclosed space ablaze.

• Xiao Nian and Nightless Sky Fire Apricot traded blows, and their conversation revealed that the assassin was a young woman whose voice-changing device had been damaged.
• Xiao Nian guessed several possible identities for Nightless Sky Fire Apricot, but the assassin dismissed them and broke Xiao Nian’s wrist.
• Nightless Sky Fire Apricot blew a whistle and summoned seventy or eighty raccoons armed with alchemical firearms.
• The raccoons fired tranquilizer darts and needles, forcing Xiao Nian to use her shield and leaving her weakened.
• Xiao Nian ignited the alchemical waste fluid with Supreme Alchemy, prompting Nightless Sky Fire Apricot and the raccoons to retreat as flames engulfed the enclosed space.

Xiao Nian turned the sealed facility’s accumulated alchemy energy into a room-wide inferno to fight Nightless Sky Fire Apricot. After sending Jo Solence and Good Night to safety with a black scroll, she faced Nightless Sky Fire Apricot’s charge.

• Xiao Nian used Universal creation energy and the reversed effect of Theseus's Self to ignite the alchemy energy throughout the sealed room.
• Nightless Sky Fire Apricot warned that Jo Solence and Good Night would die in the fire, but Xiao Nian said she could protect them.
• Xiao Nian burned a black scroll, and ghostly hands dragged Jo Solence and Good Night away into another space.
• Nightless Sky Fire Apricot let Xiao Nian rescue them, then removed her robe and charged through the flames at Xiao Nian.

Xiao Nian and Nightless Sky Fire Apricot continued fighting in a burning, poison-filled enclosure as alchemical turbulence pushed their equipment toward failure. Nightless Sky Fire Apricot decided she needed to escape safely, but used her own Supreme Alchemy to shatter Xiao Nian’s blade and send her flying.

• Xiao Nian and Nightless Sky Fire Apricot fought amid spreading flames, collapsing floorboards, rampaging specimens, and increasingly dangerous alchemical reactions.
• Nightless Sky Fire Apricot realized she had taken the fight too far and began searching for a way to retreat without either of them dying.
• Nightless Sky Fire Apricot concluded that she could not safely face Xiao Nian’s Supreme Alchemy without using her own.
• Nightless Sky Fire Apricot activated Life Spectrum Supreme Alchemy: Energy Infusion Enhancement, shattering Xiao Nian’s alchemy blade with a palm strike.
• Xiao Nian accused Nightless Sky Fire Apricot of being Gredo Mercury as the strike sent her flying backward.

Nightless Sky Fire Apricot defeated Xiao Nian by flooding her with life alchemical energy, leaving her temporarily unable to fight while healing her injuries. Xiao Nian deduced Nightless Sky Fire Apricot’s identity, and she admitted she had sneaked out before a tea ceremony lesson.

• Nightless Sky Fire Apricot struck Xiao Nian with Supreme Alchemy, overloading her alchemical components and temporarily shutting down her bodily functions while repairing her injuries.
• Nightless Sky Fire Apricot put out the fires around the office while Xiao Nian gradually absorbed the life energy and asked why she had been spared.
• Xiao Nian concluded that Nightless Sky Fire Apricot was not Gredo Mercury and identified her as a member of the Nightless Sky Family.
• Nightless Sky Fire Apricot dropped her disguise and admitted Xiao Nian had guessed correctly, though she said her clothes were only unchanged because she had sneaked out before a tea ceremony lesson.

Xiao Nian learned that Nightless Sky Fire Apricot had attacked her and Jo Solence as part of a test arranged by Schreiber, but chose not to report her. After Nightless Sky Fire Apricot left, Xiao Nian freed Jo Solence and Good Night from the Shadow Cage.

• Nightless Sky Fire Apricot admitted she was connected to the Nightless Sky Family and had been testing Xiao Nian, while Xiao Nian explained why she would not report her.
• Xiao Nian deduced that Schreiber had arranged the trial through Nightless Sky Fire Apricot, and she and Nightless Sky Fire Apricot agreed that she would report the attacker as a Supreme Evolution Remnant.
• Nightless Sky Fire Apricot left through a gap in the floor, and Xiao Nian wondered how Schreiber had persuaded her to help.
• Xiao Nian released Jo Solence and Good Night from the Shadow Cage, and Jo Solence thanked her for saving her again while Good Night remained asleep.

After Nightless Sky Fire Apricot withdrew, Xiao Nian and Good Night recovered while Jo Solence confronted the Universal Trade Association supervisors about the attack. Jo’s brother Jin Solence arrived and revealed that he had ordered the company’s response to the assassination attempt.

• The medical team treated Jo Solence and Good Night, while Xiao Nian’s injuries and alchemical components had already healed.
• Xiao Nian told Good Night that Schreiber had arranged for a Nightless Sky Family expert to test her, but they would publicly blame the attack on the Remnants of 'Supreme Evolution.'
• The Universal Trade Association supervisors knelt before Jo Solence and apologized for failing to protect her.
• Jo Solence credited Countess Arase Nian with saving her and ordered the Security Department to prepare a press conference and operations against the force behind the attack.
• The Security Department supervisor said the press conference’s contents had already been decided by someone above him.
• Jin Solence entered and told Jo Solence that he had made the decision.

Jin Solence arrived after the attempt on Jo Solence’s life and announced that the public culprit would be Supreme Evolution’s remnants, while privately allowing Jo to pursue the real culprit. Conception and Lin Yu then finished a staged performance agreeing to investigate the truth about Supreme Evolution, and Jin revealed an old rumor about its surviving successor.

• Jin Solence thanked Xiao Nian for saving Jo Solence and explained that he was preparing to cooperate with someone rather than start a war.
• Jin Solence gave Jo Solence permission to pursue the culprit privately but said the official explanation would blame Supreme Evolution’s remnants.
• Jo Solence revealed that Supreme Evolution’s remnants really had attempted to assassinate her, stunning Jin Solence.
• Jin Solence told Xiao Nian the old rumor that Supreme Evolution’s Creator had left a successor who would return to take revenge on the Three Great Corporations.
• Conception performed a speech pledging to help Lin Yu uncover the truth about Supreme Evolution, then admitted the performance had been planned with him.

After Conception’s exhausting performance, he offered to back up Lin Yu’s team if they encountered a dangerous opponent. He suggested that the long-dead Creator might reappear to defend Supreme Evolution’s legacy, leaving Lin Yu wondering whether Conception’s dramatic predictions could be right.

• Conception said his performance had left him mentally exhausted and invited Lin Yu to get food with him, but Lin Yu declined.
• Conception promised to act as the Protagonist Team’s strongest outside backup if they faced enemies they could not handle.
• Conception warned Lin Yu that the Death game might send powerful opponents against them, including the Creator, Supreme Evolution’s long-dead founder.
• Conception speculated that Schreiber might have been the First Generation Freud in disguise when he claimed Freud’s legacy on Mist Island.
• Lin Yu began to wonder whether Conception’s unusual intuition was accurate.

Conception told Lin Yu several rumors that the Creator had survived and might return, while Lin Yu privately remained certain that Nightless Sky Yong Lian had ensured the Creator’s downfall. Lin Yu agreed to watch for clues during their investigation of Supreme Evolution and gave the hungry Conception a voucher for a meal.

• Conception argued that the Creator was more likely than Freud to appear in a dramatic return-from-the-dead plot.
• Conception shared rumors that the Creator had escaped, been imprisoned, hidden in the Great Wilderness, or been secretly kept alive by his followers.
• Lin Yu concluded that Nightless Sky Yong Lian would not have allowed the Creator to survive, but agreed to look for information while investigating Supreme Evolution.
• Conception explained that, as an unregistered resident, he usually traded performances for food.
• Lin Yu gave Conception an Asset Points voucher, and Conception announced he would eat at the best restaurant in the Inner City.

Lin Yu freed Ren Gu after Conception left, and the two discussed how they might use Conception’s help while continuing their investigation. At another site, Yin Lan, Paper Kite, and Loquat Candy realized the records they had collected could help the organization understand the Three Great Corporations’ strategies during the transfer of power.

• Lin Yu untied Ren Gu after Conception had gone, and Ren Gu praised Lin Yu for persuading Conception to help their operation.
• Ren Gu and Lin Yu agreed that Conception might be useful in a crisis, though his unusual outlook and unregistered status limited his value to the investigation.
• Lin Yu dismissed the possibility that the Creator could return but warned that a Second-Generation Creator might lead the Remnants of Supreme Evolution.
• Yin Lan, Paper Kite, and Loquat Candy ate barbecue at an Outsourced Research Institute and worried that they had found no direct clues about Supreme Evolution.
• Loquat Candy explained that the team’s collected site records could help the organization analyze the Three Great Corporations’ strategies and prepare for changes in the Barren Realm.

Loquat Candy and his companions questioned a research laboratory manager who suspected their rapid inspections were tied to a major shift involving Supreme Evolution. The manager shared Viscount Patman’s theory that the Truth Company might use Artificial Humans technology to recreate a controllable Creator and rehabilitate Supreme Evolution, then asked what the inspections were seeking.

• After reviewing the laboratory inventory, Loquat Candy, Yin Lan, and Paper Kite prepared to leave, but the manager asked them to stay.
• The manager tried to bribe Yin Lan for information about Universal Trade Association plans concerning Supreme Evolution, but she refused.
• Loquat Candy learned the manager’s watch had been given to him by Viscount Patman’s son and suggested the manager ask his schoolmate for information.
• The manager explained that the inspection permits had been approved unusually quickly and said Viscount Patman wanted to know whether he was in the way of the people behind the inspection team.
• The manager proposed that the Truth Company might be arranging President Paris’s quiet departure and planning to recreate a controllable Creator with Artificial Humans technology.
• The manager asked whether the inspections were searching for the Creator’s genetic traits or evidence that the Truth Company had used them illegally.

Order's teams compared intelligence about Supreme Evolution, Authority technology, and growing tensions between the Solence and Nightless Sky families. Schreiber joined their meeting and said President Paris had been framed, though the case might still connect to Supreme Evolution.

• Ren Gu, Lin Yu, and Loquat Candy compared their teams' findings, including attacks by Conception and the Nightless Sky Family and their discovery of undocumented, highly secure facilities.
• Xiao Nian reported that she and Good Night had secured Jo Solence's support and met Jin Solence, who seemed eager to blame their attackers on Supreme Evolution.
• Loquat Candy shared rumors that the Three Great Corporations might restart Supreme Evolution and that the Nightless Sky Family intended to resurrect the Creator; Ren Gu kept Authority technology as the operation's main priority.
• Schreiber arrived and said the rumor about President Paris killing Rainbow Light and Tennyson was false because Paris had been framed, though the case could still relate to Supreme Evolution.
• Good Night and Paper Kite objected to Schreiber joining the meeting because he had arranged the attack on them, while Xiao Nian said she had no objection.