Chapter Summaries

The Origin Vanguard learned that the Creator’s relics had gone offline across the continent, and Mosna explained that mortals must reactivate them through their own knowledge. King Osiris then declared a holy expedition against the White Devils, while secretly sending Sky Warriors to find Chuchut and learn the Craftsman God’s intentions.

• Huft, General Bhopal, and Cleric Berdinos learned that the Sanghai Empire’s Creator relics and communications network had stopped working, leaving the Origin Vanguard as its only operational sun ship.
• Mosna told the Sanghai leaders that Lady Eden’s temporary program kept the Origin Vanguard running and that they could reclaim the Creator’s relics by restoring them with their own skills.
• Berdinos accepted the Creator’s trial and prepared to return to Ptolemy with Huft and General Bhopal.
• King Osiris sacrificed a captive and announced that the Feathered Serpent had called on the Aztecs to drive the White Devils into the sea.
• King Osiris ordered the Aztec warriors to march north and secretly sent Sky Warriors to find Chuchut and discover the Craftsman God’s intentions.

Murphy prepared to rebuild the Creation Sites’ network with Mosna and Lady Rose, while Alpha Company released a preview of the upcoming “Creator’s Legacy” DLC set in the Sanghai Empire. The chapter ended with Loyal Brother and Sister Cement recognizing that their new access to Creator technology could advance a similar project in their own world.

• Murphy gave Mosna a jeweled insignia and asked her to restore the Creation Sites’ systems while training Lady Rose to build a new data network.
• Murphy announced that he would take the next steps in the Sanghai Empire, where the Creation Engine could provide a platform for Eden and Rose’s network.
• A-Cha and other players watched Alpha Company’s DLC preview, which showed advanced Creator technology, a ruined city, and a journey into the Sanghai Empire’s desert.
• Loyal Brother watched the preview and became concerned that Alpha Company was revealing the Creator technology tree.
• Sister Cement told Loyal Brother that she had joined Mosna’s Creation Site Maintenance Team, gained access to encrypted Creator archives, and received exoskeleton blueprints.
• Sister Cement reported that Miss Sharon had recruited her to maintain Penny Eleven, and she and Loyal Brother discussed how the new opportunities might affect a similar project back home.

Experts in another world examined technical documents recreated from the players’ discoveries, confirmed that the technology appeared far beyond their own, and were recruited into a secret project. The chapter ended with an expert demanding a helmet so he could see the Gundam technology for himself.

• Officials brought experts from multiple fields to a safe house and asked them to assess the technical documents’ authenticity.
• The experts recognized that the blueprints described technology generations ahead of their own, while Old Ma revealed that his student Lin led a classified research team.
• An official told the experts that opening their top-secret envelopes would enroll them in a project overseen by a senior leader, and they accepted after seeing the materials.
• Old Ma and the other experts studied unedited images and footage of the solar ship, speculating that its engine used a mobile cold-fusion reactor.
• A mechanical expert in the neighboring room rejected the Gundam blueprints as impossible, then demanded to sign the agreements and receive a helmet because he was a fan of the game.

Murphy and Loyalty arranged for 127 experts from Blue Star to enter Transia, where they would study the Creator’s technology and support cooperation between the two worlds. The first group arrived at R-9 Base and set out to see a Sanghai sun ship, but Horse Lord’s encounter with Mosna’s mechanical intelligence immediately revealed how much they still had to learn.

• Murphy agreed to let vetted experts enter the game, while telling Triss that he planned to recruit the Mechanicus and later deal with Luna in the elven kingdom.
• Loyalty received 127 helmets, arranged for the experts to join the Explorers guild, and learned that Old Qin would serve as Transia’s diplomatic ambassador.
• The first experts arrived at R-9 Base, where Horse Lord, Tea When Free, I Want to Pilot a Sun Ship, and The Nation Can Rest Easy prepared to travel to Chardo Port.
• On the airship, Mosna questioned Horse Lord about digital-rate research and explained that she was a mechanical intelligence with her own will.
• Horse Lord called his colleagues over in excitement after realizing Mosna was a genuine mechanical life-form.

Murphy brought foreign experts to the Sangha Empire aboard the sunship while explaining that he had personally disabled the Creator’s relics. He promised Crown Prince Khufu that the Sangha people would own any relics they managed to reactivate, including the Creation Engine, and left him a divine contract to sign.

• Mosna answered the foreign experts’ questions aboard the airship while Tea and Mengha discussed the dangers and costs of war.
• Sheron prepared the visitors to pose as followers of the Creator and arranged tours of Chardo Port’s facilities and Murphy’s armor.
• Murphy secretly joined the group and led the visitors aboard the sunship, the Origin Vanguard.
• Murphy told Khufu that he had formatted most of the Creator’s relics himself and asked whether the prince hated him.
• Khufu said he did not hate Murphy because the Pharaoh regarded the crisis as a trial and an opportunity for the Sangha people.
• Murphy promised Khufu that the Sangha would own any Creator’s relics they reactivated and gave him a contract to sign before the Pharaoh’s birthday banquet.

Murphy’s guests studied the Sanghai sun ship and recognized its solar engine as an advanced artificial sun, prompting the Sanghai Empire to invite them to the royal city. Murphy then revealed that the Creator had promised ownership of any sun ship they could repair, giving the big shots a chance to obtain one for further study.

• While Murphy met with Crown Prince Khufu, Sanghai officers allowed the foreign guests to inspect the sun ship despite their espionage-like observations.
• Horse Lord Ma and the other big shots entered the solar engine module, where a scientific officer made its operating interior visible.
• Horse Lord Ma and the others identified the engine as an advanced artificial sun, and the scientific officer urged the Sanghai Empire to invite them to help uncover its secrets.
• At Chardo Port, Murphy handed Horse Lord Ma Crown Prince Khufu’s invitation to visit the Sanghai Empire for an exchange.
• Murphy told the big shots that they could claim any sun ship they managed to restart, and asked whether they wanted one to study.

Loyalty Bro learned that the Sanghai Empire’s grounded sunships used advanced cold fusion, prompting a national operation to gain access to one and study its technology. As the research institute prepared to go into lockdown, Mengha told Master Qin that Alpha Corporation might be able to preserve players’ lives in Transia after death, and Qin ordered him to keep the possibility secret.

• Old Ma told Loyalty Bro that the Creator’s oracle might let the players obtain a grounded Sanghai sunship, whose cold-fusion engine could advance Transia’s technology.
• Loyalty Bro agreed to report the opportunity to Master Qin and said the guild would help rally players if needed.
• Loyalty Bro and other players attended a classified research institute meeting, where Master Qin outlined the Sunship Operation and ordered technical preparations alongside diplomatic efforts in the Sanghai Empire.
• Master Qin announced that the institute would become the operation’s temporary base and go into lockdown at midnight the following day.
• Mengha told Master Qin that Sister Cement believed Alpha Corporation might continue players’ lives in Transia after death, and Qin ordered him to keep the possibility secret.

The players' rewards funded a black-market sale, while the expelled Mechanicus began relocating to Transia. After Wu Ma commissioned a crude bipedal mech from them, the Unfallen Pride Guild showed it off, and Loyalty Bro decided to join the Mechanicus.

• The Halfling lords rewarded the players, and Madam Taylor used a black-market trade fair to sell weapons, exoskeletons, and walking machines to them.
• Wu Ma asked a Mechanicus mechanic why the Halflings did not build piloted bipedal robots, and the mechanic explained that materials and money were the main obstacles.
• Wu Ma showed the mechanic a player-made blueprint and hired the Mechanicus to build a moving mech, signing a contract for delivery in two days.
• The Mechanicus built a crude wasteland mech, and Little Ashina bought three before accidentally triggering its overload mode and crashing it into a wall.
• Loyalty Bro watched the mishap and decided to find Sage Marvin and join the Mechanicus.

Mechanical Grand Sage Marvin reluctantly faced the Transian engineers who wanted to join the Mechanicus, then accepted them after they demonstrated their willingness to replace their flesh with machinery. He left the chapter listening as Medieval Evangelion proposed connecting him with Crow to explain the foreigners’ vision for the Mechanicus.

• Marvin prepared to leave Chardo Port and told his followers that the Mechanicus would have to seek its future elsewhere in Transia.
• When Transian engineers occupied the reception room, Marvin rushed in and disarmed the bomb Loyalist had nearly taken apart.
• Loyalist and Medieval Evangelion praised Marvin’s prosthetics and offered the Mechanicus an arms factory and access to Base R-9.
• Marvin refused to accept the foreigners unless they abandoned their reliance on flesh, so Loyalist cut off his own arm and the other engineers began replacing theirs with prosthetics.
• Marvin agreed to let the engineers join the Mechanicus, and Medieval Evangelion offered to connect him with Crow to discuss their proposed creed.

Minx promised that he and other halfling mechanics would fight against his former mentor, Old Bach, and Murphy brought him Old Bach’s mechanical cane to investigate. Minx uncovered a hidden Creator device and agreed to study it and help upgrade the Otherworlders’ communications system, while Murphy requested a vast stockpile of weapons.

• Minx returned to his laboratory after meetings about Chardo Port’s defenses and considered building a halfling military that included residents of the outer districts.
• Murphy confronted Minx about his loyalty to Old Bach, and Minx promised that he, Little Bach, and Old Flywheel would join Murphy against their mentor.
• Murphy gave Minx Old Bach’s mechanical cane, and Minx opened it to reveal a hovering calculating orb containing a simulated photonic computer.
• Murphy asked Minx to use the orb’s knowledge to upgrade the Otherworlders’ communications system, and Minx agreed to study it and provide the Mechanics’ Church with a copy.
• Minx offered to help manufacture weapons for Murphy’s forces, and Murphy requested a hundred thousand rifles, twenty million bullets, and large reserves of explosives and Iron Fist missiles.

At Chardo Port, the Fire Demon Saint Lord, Full Insurance Semi, Three-and-Five Dou, and other players competed against an elven angler, escalating their fishing contest with spells and gadgets. Three-and-Five Dou hauled an unconscious Atlantean merfolk from the water, and her decay-marked wounds suggested she was infected with the same corruption as the tainted gnolls.

• The Fire Demon Saint Lord and other players encountered an elven angler while looking for a place to fish.
• Full Insurance Semi shared his homemade bait with the elf, who gave him pearl coral fragments in return.
• The anglers cheated against one another with spells, a fish attractor, and other devices as their fishing contest escalated.
• Three-and-Five Dou hooked a huge creature, and the anglers joined forces to pull it from the water.
• Three-and-Five Dou emerged with an unconscious Atlantean merfolk whose wounded tail bore sores resembling those on tainted gnolls, prompting the players to call for a doctor.

Sanwudou and the other fishermen discovered that the mermaid they caught was a wounded priestess carrying warnings about a Dagon cult threat. Murphy prepared Transia for an expanding war and appointed Sanwudou her temporary keeper as the chapter ended.

• Duke Triss diagnosed the mermaid with hyperspace contamination, and the fishermen earned a hidden achievement while Sanwudou received the title "Merfolk Angler."
• Murphy purified the mermaid, who woke and warned that Dagon's fishmen were nesting beneath Lake Shulpus and threatening the northern coast and inland waterways.
• Triss identified the mermaid as a traveling priestess of Triton and explained that Sanwudou might face the merfolk's lasting grudge for hurting her.
• Murphy ordered Adele to alert Mirian and Kudel, prepare defenses, and mobilize propaganda as he planned to meet Grand Duke Edward about refugees from Cato.
• Professor Malcolm reported that fishmen had cut off the Pioneer Legion and helped the Gnoll-Biters besiege it, with Marshal Loren among the trapped troops; the Steam Lords requested Transia's support.
• Murphy ordered Adele to coordinate Transia's response, requested a meeting with Colonel Ron, and appointed Sanwudou the mermaid's temporary keeper.

Caterina woke in the Transian Embassy and revealed that the Great Rock Temple needed help fighting the Deep Ones near Cato's coast. Murphy agreed to send reinforcements under a fin-based bounty system, while Colonel Ron prepared to lead the Blackflame Mercenary Company north to relieve Brigadier General Fraser.

• Caterina woke in San Wu Dou's care, argued with him over how he had caught her, and accidentally fainted after changing her tail into bare legs.
• San Wu Dou helped Caterina dress and recover, learned her name and that her sisters were stationed near Cato's coastline, and agreed to escort her to Murphy.
• Murphy told Colonel Ron to lead the Blackflame Mercenary Company north by airship to reach Marshal Loren's encircled forces and deliver a private letter to Brigadier General Fraser.
• Murphy offered Ron's mercenaries weapons, armor, compensation, and discounted prosthetic upgrades, and assured him they would not be drawn into a future war between their countries.
• Caterina asked Murphy to help the Great Rock Temple fight the Deep Ones, and Murphy accepted with a bounty of one merit point for every fifty fishmen fins collected.

Murphy arranged a reward pool for a major war quest after learning about the merfolk kingdom and the ghost ships threatening its waters. The players received the quest to fight the Cult of Dagon and aid the merfolk, while Meow Brother began plotting how to claim a rare ghost-ship reward.

• Murphy learned from Katerina about Atlantis, the merfolk’s resources, and their efforts to seal dangerous ghost ships; she also revealed that Captain Pablo’s ship was part of his soul.
• Murphy persuaded Katerina to offer ghost ships as rewards, then sent the drunken mermaid away with Sanwudou.
• Full Coverage Half-Truck returned with rare seafood from his elven fishing friend and heard that the Big Bird Squad planned to attack a gnoll fortress.
• Murphy’s special Feast of the Mad Fish quest appeared, calling players to defeat Dagon fishmen and rescue the Colossal Reef Temple’s merfolk priestesses.
• Full Coverage Half-Truck and Meow Brother condemned Marshal Loren, while Meow Brother focused on obtaining one of the scarce ghost-ship rewards and considered forming guild alliances.

Murphy oversaw the Explorers’ study of Creator technology and arranged for Mosna to mentor Penny before joining the players’ expedition to aid the merfolk. After Katerina impressed the players with her mermaid form, Murphy decided to develop merfolk into Transia’s underwater forces.

• Players reacted to the Feast of the Frenzied Fish quest, while Murphy was pleased that few showed interest in supporting Marshal Loren.
• Murphy visited the mechanical laboratory, where Mosna reported that the Explorers were learning quickly and asked whether she could teach them energy-storage technology; Murphy approved it as a reward for completing their training.
• Murphy asked Mosna to create a data-sharing program for Penny and mentor her, then gave Mosna Monica’s combat lightsaber.
• At Chardo Port, Katerina thanked the players for answering the Great Rock Temple’s call and demonstrated her transformation into a mermaid, delighting the onlookers.
• As he boarded the airship with Necessary Evil, Murphy decided to develop the merfolk into Transia’s next generation of underwater troops.

Old Qin equipped the heroes with Chardo Port’s new PPSh-41 replicas before their expedition, while Murphy reassured Little Ashina that Transia could become a home for her someday. At a besieged merfolk outpost near Kato, reinforcements arrived by sea, and the defenders learned that an airship squadron was due in two hours.

• Old Qin received Chardo Port’s weapons shipment and ordered the players to replace their Blood Eagle Claws with PPSh-41s, pistols, and other supplies.
• Niu Niu and A-Cha welcomed their new weapons as the players prepared to depart aboard the airships.
• Little Ashina asked Murphy whether her soul could come to this world if she died in the other one, and Murphy promised to help build a home where she could find happiness.
• Merfolk Wanderers at an island lighthouse near Kato faced another assault by Dagon’s corrupted sea folk while waiting for support.
• A fleet led by the Plunderer attacked the besiegers, and a message from Katerina warned that an airship squadron from Chardo Port would arrive in two hours.
• The wounded mermaid officer ordered Sister Mo’er to gather the Stormripper sorceresses and help dispel the storm before the airships arrived.

Old Qin’s force used Tritan’s blessing and Triss’s storm route to launch an airborne assault on the island, where the merfolk were losing ground to Dagon’s fishmen. After airship 013 crashed in a blaze, the players and Dragon Riders seized the lighthouse high ground and joined the merfolk’s counterattack.

• Soymilk Whitepour and Serak Fanta reported that the storm was too dangerous to enter, while Five-Spoked Wheel warned that the merfolk were trapped at the lighthouse.
• Three Jin Sweet Potato Liquor delivered Murphy’s order for an airborne assault, and Triss explained that Tritan would protect the landing force for only twenty-five minutes.
• Triss and the Scarlet Witch opened a passage through the storm, and Soymilk Whitepour led eight airships toward the island.
• The players jumped from the airships as the vampires provided aerial fire support, but lightning struck airship 013 and Serak Fanta crashed it into the shore.
• Mad Shark landed among the fishmen and fought through them as the players and five Dragon Riders drove the enemy from the lighthouse high ground.
• The Avenger Tidal Hunter commander rallied the merfolk to advance alongside their Transian allies.

Three-Five Dou rescued Caterina from the crashing airship, but they were ambushed by Dagon’s Abyssal Chosen and the storm-raising Dagon Spawn. After Three-Five Dou died protecting Caterina, Prototype 11 arrived to confront the monster.

• Three-Five Dou used his exoskeleton to carry Caterina toward the battlefield, but lightning disabled his flight pack and they crashed among Dagon fishmen.
• Caterina fought beside Three-Five Dou with water spells and identified the attackers as Dagon’s Abyssal Chosen, warning that a Dagon Spawn was nearby.
• A shadow-fish dragged Three-Five Dou into a corrupting illusion, but Caterina’s Torrent Trident helped him break free.
• Three-Five Dou protected Caterina with Avalon’s divine barrier, then charged the Dagon Spawn and died after wounding it.
• Caterina took up Three-Five Dou’s warhammer as the Dagon Spawn approached, but Prototype 11 arrived in a blaze of fire and targeted the monster.

Murphy helped the merfolk repel Dagon’s murlocs and learned that killing a Chosen only transferred Dagon’s power to a new vessel. After Penny defeated the island’s Chosen and the storm cleared, Murphy purified the corrupted merfolk and unlocked progress toward making their race available to players.

• Murphy and Triss discussed how murloc clans produced successive Chosen of Dagon, and Triss explained that killing a Chosen could lead to another one emerging quickly.
• Penny defeated Dagon’s Chosen, then reported that its divine power had transferred through a memetic replacement process; Murphy burned the remains and marked the new vessel as a future target.
• The storm subsided, and Katerina led Murphy and Triss to the lighthouse, where injured merfolk were suffering from murloc corruption.
• At the merfolk commander Dena’s request, Murphy used the Omega Program to purify her and the other afflicted sisters, restoring their appearance and preventing them from turning into murlocs.
• Murphy’s purification raised merfolk template collection progress to 20%, bringing the race closer to becoming selectable by players.

After the battle, Murphy and Triss negotiated with the mermaids about rewards and a joint campaign against the Dagon cult. They returned to the airship and found an unconscious, bound dragon girl in Murphy’s bed, left there by his partner in crime.

• Players discussed mermaids and Tidal Hunters before gathering Dagon fishman fins for military merit.
• Nikita learned that Murphy’s warriors had restored corrupted mermaids and met Triss, whose past friendship with Nikita’s mother embarrassed her and Murphy.
• Murphy and Lady Dena agreed that the Great Rock Temple would honor his bounty and that their forces would plan an attack on the fishmen’s lair.
• Nikita set a new rate of thirty fishman fins per military merit after hearing about Murphy’s bounty.
• Murphy and Triss found a bound, unconscious dragon girl in his bed with a note saying his partner in crime had left her there.