Chapter Summaries

Berdinos tried to reach the Sun Colossus while Murphy and the wounded Parom fought across the Holy City of Origin. Murphy rallied the players and Sanghai forces against Parom, while the Origin Vanguard arrived to help attack the colossus and requested Eden’s remote control.

• Berdinos moved toward the Sun Colossus, but the badly wounded Parom crashed in front of him and offered to hold off Murphy so Berdinos could continue his plan.
• Liji told Murphy that Mannis had been gravely wounded fighting Parom, and Murphy prepared to face the scarab demigod as it charged him toward the city wall.
• Murphy called on Transian warriors and Sanghai soldiers to attack Parom, while Eden’s solar bombardment revealed its health bar and the players rushed into battle.
• Khufu urged the Sanghai soldiers to reject Parom’s claim to their faith, and Fuli’er’s arrow—fired by Babu Luo—helped rally them to the attack.
• The Sunship struck the Sun Colossus, letting Penny and Birdie enter and continue destroying its sacred power sources.
• The Origin Vanguard arrived and requested that Eden remotely operate its ship in a joint flight, while reporting that a mysterious passenger had offered to help fight the colossus.

The Origin Vanguard reached the Origin Holy City and joined the battle, while Priest Paffy entered the Blazing Sun Titan to awaken the sacred remains and judge its rebellion. The Titan turned on Berdinos as he tried to force it to open the way to the underground energy bay.

• Eden took control of the modified Origin Vanguard, and General Bhopal ordered its crew to fire on the Blazing Sun Titan and help the Dead Moon Titan.
• A flaming skeleton introduced himself as Priest Paffy and told Penny, Bertie, and Adele that he could awaken the sacred remains inside the Titan.
• Adele approved Paffy's plan, and he sent Penny, Bertie, and Adele away before beginning the ritual to summon the sages' judgment.
• Berdinos ordered the Blazing Sun Titan to break open the passage to the underground energy bay, but Khufu confronted him and demanded that he surrender.
• The Titan struck at Berdinos instead, and Priest Paffy declared that the Blazing Sun had found him wanting.

The Sun Giant crushed Berdinos while Murphy and Hathor rescued Khufu from the collapsing ruins, and the Dead Moon Giant helped the players defeat Parom. Before he died, Berdinos learned the truth of Sanghai’s pact with the Creator, and Murphy urged Khufu to revive the Sun’s Path as Fuli’er prepared to rule the empire.

• Fuli’er halted the Dead Moon Giant as the Sun Giant crushed Berdinos, while Khufu fell through the collapsing ruins.
• Murphy caught Khufu and Hathor teleported him to safety; the Dead Moon Giant then struck Parom as the players attacked.
• Triss advised Fuli’er to reserve the giant’s power for emergencies, and Fuli’er offered the foreigners treasure and a role in resolving the empire’s unrest.
• Khufu questioned the dying Berdinos, who asked that his remains be scattered in the desert and apologized that they could not become family.
• Murphy told Berdinos that the people of Sanghai had made a pact with the Creator, and Berdinos warned him not to trust the elves before dying.
• After Parom died, Murphy urged Khufu to announce the revival of the Sun’s Path.

Players celebrated Parom’s defeat, and Niu Niu discovered that the Black Iron player who stole the final blow was her grandfather, Niu Daxia. While the group found Parom’s viable egg and Murphy linked it to forbidden Creation Engine research, players received a dungeon survey and found an item that could let them join the Netherworld.

• Niu Daxia bragged about killing Parom, and Niu Niu recognized him as her grandfather and alerted Sister Pomegranate and the others.
• Sister Pomegranate and Meow Brother gave Niu Daxia a demigod insect limb, while Giant Shark, Niu Niu, and A-Lin gave him armor.
• Terranova discovered Parom’s viable egg, and Murphy confirmed that it needed a hatching device in Transia before it could be taken to the Sangha Empire.
• Murphy told Triss that Parom and Hades were biological weapons created by the Mystery Department, and he planned to explain the related history to Triss, Freya, and Khufu.
• Players received a survey calling the dungeon’s difficulty into question, and Meow Brother and Old Qu dismissed the fight as easy.
• Jie Chong found a class-change item that could let players join the Netherworld as warlords under the ancient king.

Murphy led Fleur, Khufu, and the others into the Creation Engine and showed them evidence of the Sanghai ancestors’ imprisonment and the Creator’s kindness toward them. Philetus apologized to the siblings and asked to enter the Creator’s promised home, but Murphy said the World Furnace key was still missing, and Lord Paine warned that recovering it might not be so simple.

• Players valued the Underworld Lord badges they had found, while Sanghai soldiers and players worked through the aftermath of the battle and repaired powered armor.
• Murphy brought Fleur, Khufu, Triss, Grand Duchess Hathor, Lord Paine, and Hogg into the Creation Engine and began descending toward the World Furnace.
• The group watched footage showing elves experimenting on the Sanghai ancestors, who escaped with captive creatures including the larvae of Parom, Hades, and the sandstorm worms.
• Footage of the Creator comforting a Sanghai girl moved Khufu and Fleur, who accepted the Creator’s affection as proof that their people had a special place in the Creator’s eyes.
• Philetus apologized to Khufu and Fleur, then asked Murphy to let him enter the Creator’s promised home; Murphy said he still needed the World Furnace key.
• Murphy said King Quirion could obtain the key after recovering his ancient memories, but Lord Paine warned that Murphy was being too optimistic.

Murphy learned that obtaining the Origin Key from King Quirion might be difficult, so he arranged defenses for the Creation Engine while preparing to visit the elven kingdom. At the World Furnace, he confirmed it could provide infinite energy and asked Lady Rose to migrate the True Otherworld player database so they could establish global Wi-Fi.

• Triss and Lord Payn warned Murphy that King Quirion might refuse to surrender the elves’ Origin Key because it could secure their people’s future power.
• Murphy suspected the Dusk’s Source faction was seeking the Origin Key and had already disabled remote restarting of the Creation Engine.
• Lord Payn declined to guard the Creation Engine, while Duke Hathor volunteered and hinted that the Secret Blood clan could not become servants of Chaos.
• Murphy assigned Lord Payn, Duke Hathor, the Sangha Empire’s knights, Eris, and Liji to protect the site, then set out with the group toward the World Furnace.
• Murphy inspected the Planetary Genesis Device and learned that the World Furnace could supply infinite energy, though its output was limited by his administrator permissions.
• Murphy asked Lady Rose to migrate the True Otherworld player database so they could set up global Wi-Fi.

Murphy restarted the Origin Sanctuary’s Creation Engine, removed restrictions on the Scepter of God, and learned that a World-Ender Directive could erase the entire world if Chaos overwhelmed it. He helped Rose establish the World's Web on the Engine’s database, where she discovered clues about Murphy’s mysterious existence and launched the network’s first functions, leaving Transia poised to become its proving ground.

• Murphy restarted the Creation Engine and found that the World Transformation project was only 27% complete, with damaged conduits set to be repaired by newly manufactured machines.
• Murphy removed the Eden District Management Committee’s restrictions on the Scepter of God and revealed to the Lord Supreme of Paine that the Creation Engine could destroy the world if Chaos corruption exceeded 90%.
• Murphy prepared a database partition for Rose’s data divine kingdom, and Rose connected to it using the Creator’s encoding standards.
• Rose analyzed the algorithm running on Murphy and suggested that a separate original version of him might contain the Creator’s greatest treasure.
• Rose launched the World's Web’s initial functions, including encrypted communication and downloadable data divine arts, and Murphy proposed using Transia to test the network.

Ruyi joined the newly established Super Hacker Order after Lady Rose launched the World Wide Web, which let users download programs to restart Creator relics. Rose made Ruyi a prospective chosen and the server’s first chosen player, triggering a new faith-system mode.

• Ruyi received an invitation to join the Super Hacker Order and traveled to Bertie with her specialized computation orb.
• Loyalty Bro and Ruyi discussed the players’ plans to repair Creator relics and raise their Creation Points.
• Bertie announced the World Wide Web and opened its basic data divine arts to users with computation orbs.
• Loyalty Bro downloaded a simple restart program and activated a Creator shield generator, earning Creation Points.
• Ruyi joined the Super Hacker Order, and Rose recognized her as a prospective chosen and awarded her the title Pioneer of the Webway.
• The system announced Ruyi as the server’s first chosen player and revealed that the Contest of the Chosen would soon open.

Ruyi became a prospective Chosen One and demonstrated the power of Lady Rose’s data-based divine programs, while Uncle Ma traced their coding to research on the Creator’s knowledge. Murphy negotiated a Chaos-monitoring security protocol with Rose in exchange for help against the Abyssal Sisterhood, then entered the Underworld in a dream to claim the Creator’s promised prizes.

• Ruyi received a flood of attention after becoming a prospective Chosen One and showed the players advanced divine programs she could access.
• Ruyi restarted a Sentinel Cannon with her mind and defeated Loyalty Bro by stripping his buffs and overwhelming him with information.
• Uncle Ma recognized that Lady Rose’s divine programs used the coding logic developed through research into the Creator’s knowledge.
• Murphy and Lady Rose agreed to use data-based divine programs to detect Chaos and alert Murphy, while Rose asked him to deal with the Abyssal Sisterhood.
• Rose explained that she was using Sariv Shadowblade to prevent his final sacrifice from benefiting someone else, and Murphy went to sleep to meet her in the Underworld.
• Murphy arrived at the Underworld’s gray sea and found Tutmose II, High Priest Bayek, and a Sanghai supercar waiting with the Creator’s promised prizes ahead.

Murphy traveled to the Underworld and learned that the Creator had arranged for it to become a shadow of the material world, extending its cycle of life and death across the world. He accepted the Underworld’s authority and gained a new system feature that turned completed life-and-death cycles into manpower.

• Murphy met Thutmose II, Bayek, and Madam Bome, who escorted him through the Underworld to the Ancient Kings’ council chamber.
• Bayek and Madam Bome explained how the Underworld’s cycle of death and rebirth supported the growth of the Sangha Empire and that its will wanted to extend this blessing to every corner of the world.
• The twelve Ancient Kings welcomed Murphy at the black pyramid, where he touched the ebony idol and agreed to spread the Underworld’s reach and enlist the dead against Chaos.
• The Underworld’s will revealed that it was a projection covering a shift until the cycle of life and death was established, and demanded that Murphy take over its burden.
• Murphy accepted the transfer, unlocking the Underworld Law feature and adding the Underworld as a subordinate force that generated manpower from completed cycles of death and birth.

Murphy took control of the Netherworld and learned how to expand its reach before Chaos threatened the world. After Netherworld Consciousness departed, Murphy claimed a powerful divine armor that strengthened his defenses and could counter lethal attacks.

• Murphy completed the handover of authority and set the Shadow of the World plan in motion as the Netherworld celebrated.
• Netherworld Consciousness explained that Murphy must nurture the cycle of life and death, revealed Lady Constance had arranged preparations in the past, and clarified that Murphy could command only the dead in the Land of Origin and Kallam for now.
• Murphy learned that Spirit Towers and Netherworld Gates could establish Netherworld exclaves more quickly, including in Transia, using black ebony stones.
• Netherworld Consciousness gave Murphy a modified reward and departed, leaving a chest inside the Netherworld's black pyramid.
• Murphy opened the chest and equipped the divine Mind Armor / Spirit-Snatching Edge, gaining powerful mental protection, heightened Perception, a fear aura, and deadly Netherworld counterattacks.

Murphy examined his new authority as the Will of the Underworld, rejected an immediate death tide, and decided to use the dead’s power against Luna’s faction later. He persuaded Hades to join the Borderland Pact and began helping him ascend to godhood.

• Murphy read the Will of the Underworld’s rights, restrictions, and powers, then declined a prompt to unleash a death tide across the Plantagenet Kingdom.
• Murphy considered naming Twilight the Underworld’s Mortal Enemy, but chose to wait and planned to turn the dead against Luna for enslaving them.
• Murphy told Bayek that Hades should keep the artificial divine spark and become a Desert God of Death to strengthen the Sangha Empire and the Borderland Pact.
• Hades told Murphy he wanted to find the Department of Mysteries scientist who had tortured him and Parom, and Murphy promised the scientist would be his to punish.
• Hades agreed to join the Borderland Pact, and Murphy activated the artificial divine spark as the Ancient Kings watched his ascension begin.

Murphy helped Hades bind Artificial Divine Spark No. 7, and Hades earned a super-genius rating after Murphy drew death energy from the Sanghai and Kalem Underworlds. The Sentinel Legion's Grand Strategist approved Hades's ascension immediately, leaving Murphy stunned that the process required neither his planned meeting nor a résumé.

• Murphy offered Hades another authentication attempt and promised to draw on the Kalem Underworld's death energy if Hades agreed to try again.
• Murphy contacted the Kalem Underworld, and the Dragon Emperor agreed to assist in exchange for Murphy's promise to provide an equal-rank divine spark in the future.
• Murphy activated his Will of the Underworld authority and sent a massive death-energy tide from the Sanghai and Kalem Underworlds into Hades.
• Hades imitated the honored one's battle technique, using the energy tide to exceed the divine spark's detection threshold by 240% and earn a super-genius rating.
• Artificial Divine Spark No. 7 received the Sentinel Legion Grand Strategist's identification code and began binding with Hades before Murphy could speak to the strategist.

Hades gained Artificial Divine Authority No. 7, became the Plague Lord, and prepared to fight Chaos after establishing his power in the Sea of Sand. Murphy decoded the Creator’s blueprints and planned a visit to the Kingdom of Castile, while the chapter ended with the Scholar investigating a strange code and Parom living as a barbarian in the snowy north.

• Miss Flinders approved Hades’s application, and Artificial Divine Authority No. 7 transformed him into the Plague Lord and bound him to the subspace battlefield.
• Murphy urged Hades to reveal himself, appoint a mortal champion, and legitimize Queen Fuli’er before leaving to fight Chaos.
• Hades named Nephthys his eternal chosen one, crowned Fuli’er queen, and entered the subspace battlefield.
• Murphy decoded the Creator’s data storage device, copied three blueprints, and told Rose to safeguard them before planning a trip to the Kingdom of Castile.
• The Scholar investigated an identification code sent from the captured Sentinel body while preparing to extract information from Miss Flinders.
• Parom watched Hades depart, regretted his past choices, and asked his snow mastiff for food.

Hades’s ascension transformed the political and religious landscape, and Murphy prepared to travel to Castile while planning how to grow stronger before dusk arrived. The chapter ended with Murphy checking the death loop’s latest yield and reacting to the number of recruits.

• Hades’s ascension led a rebel family to surrender to Frier, giving her control of nine oases and nearly two million people.
• Murphy tested his enhanced perception on Triss and explained how his new abilities and Genesis Energy might help him become stronger.
• Triss warned Murphy that concentrated Genesis Energy could destroy him, but Murphy believed his connection to the Creator gave him special protection.
• Adele delivered the version 3.1 plot document and Frier’s invitation, and Murphy said he would travel to Castile to deal with the Genesis Engine’s key.
• Murphy checked the death loop’s results and exclaimed that it had produced twenty-five recruits.

Murphy reviewed the player-slot gains from the Underworld and the development team’s quests for the ongoing rebellion storyline. He and Triss planned future versions, ending with Murphy proposing a Path of Power talent tree as the signature gameplay for version 3.1.

• Murphy estimated that the Underworld’s expanding life-and-death cycles could eventually provide hundreds of player helmets each day, and he decided to prioritize Explorers’ Guild leaders while reserving the rest.
• Murphy reviewed the development team’s quests, rejected Hogg’s Sandstorm Worm hunt proposal, then accepted it after Triss explained how hunters could lure the worms.
• Adele, Femis, Mirian, and Professor Malcolm presented quests about the Underworld pyramids, Sangha rebel families, Queen Freya’s coronation, and the mystery of King John.
• Triss outlined a version schedule that placed the public beta after version 4.0 and the final battle with Twilight in version 5.0.
• Murphy proposed building version 3.1 around a Path of Power talent tree using powers and Paths associated with various gods and factions.

Murphy traveled toward the Elven Kingdom with a varied group of companions while Qin proposed a mechanized campaign to help the Sangha Empire crush the rebellion. The chapter left Kudel agreeing to Qin’s plan and preparing to lead a parallel offensive.

• Murphy rejected Queen’s offer to send Prince Khufu with him and set out for the Elven Kingdom with Princess Chuchute, players, and other travelers.
• Biqi and Liwen were discovered hiding aboard the Origin Vanguard II after their clandestine trip, while several players joined Murphy for sightseeing, personal goals, or a secret mission.
• Qin urged General Kudel to divide the Empire’s forces and attack three rebel families at once, despite their much larger armies.
• Qin revealed his poor health and said the campaign would be his last major battle in the game, then outlined a plan using the Dead Moon Colossus, the Sun Barge, airships, power armor, and vehicles.
• Kudel agreed to give Qin fifteen days to attack the Pilrigs and pressure the other rebel families while Kudel led the remaining forces against two others.

Grandpa Qin organized the player army’s march toward the eastern coast while an elite vanguard launched an assault on a rebel oasis. The vanguard captured its pharaoh alive, and the main force prepared to fight sandstorm worms along the way.

• Grandpa Qin took command, assigned guilds and unaffiliated players to roles, and sent two thousand elite players ahead aboard the Millennial Quicksand to attack rebel oases.
• Nefertari worried that damage to the Dead Moon Colossus and her new responsibilities as High Priestess would cause trouble, but A Feng suggested filling church posts with her grandmother’s mummy dancers, prompting Nefertari to contact her grandmother.
• Old Qing Veteran briefed the vanguard on its mission to seize six Pirig family oases, then ordered the first airdrop against a rebel city.
• The players’ landing pods struck before the city’s troops had assembled, and the militia and pharaoh’s guards began to rout under the vanguard’s assault.
• Great Shark blasted into the bunker, stopped the oasis pharaoh from drinking poison, and captured him alive after scolding him for ruining his shoe.

The Qing Dynasty Veteran’s vanguard captured the pharaohs of six small oases in rapid air raids, and Dai Xi Hu Hu found an ancient suit of power armor in one pharaoh’s treasury. As Niu Niu considered acquiring the armor to win his grandfather’s blessing, Pharaoh Pilig learned of the attacks and prepared his forces while his chamberlain began considering a move to Her Majesty Fuli’er’s side.

• The Qing Dynasty Veteran led the vanguard through six small oases, capturing their pharaohs and seizing their main cities in swift assaults.
• Dai Xi Hu Hu smashed into a captured pharaoh’s treasury and discovered an ancient, unusable suit of power armor.
• Niu Niu told A-Cha that he wanted the power armor as a meeting gift for his grandfather, hoping it would help him gain approval for Amber.
• Pharaoh Pilig learned that the Sun Ship had captured the rulers of his six outlying oases and ordered his forces to prepare for battle.
• Pharaoh Pilig approved distributing the Lord of Original Sin’s drugs and expanding recruitment to the outer-city commoners.
• Pilig’s chamberlain left the palace thinking that he could prove his worth by preparing to serve Her Majesty Fuli’er.

Lord Qin’s forces rapidly attacked Pirig’s Great Oasis with airships, artillery, and mechanized troops, breaking through two fortresses and routing the Netherworld Army without losing a player. The army reached its second defensive line, but its huge expenditure of explosives and ammunition left Prince Khufu scrambling to arrange supplies.

• Lord Qin ordered forty-two armed airships, Dragon Riders, artillery, and mechanized troops to assault the first fortress, while Selak Fanta raised concerns about incendiary bombs and Soy Milk Spilled rebuked him.
• The airships and artillery bombarded the fortress, and power-armored troops and Dragon Riders cleared the city; players received merit points for breaching the defensive line without casualties.
• Lord Qin sent bomber squadrons to attack a force of more than fifty thousand Netherworld troops, and the players advanced through the burned battlefield without suffering losses.
• Lord Qin’s army broke through the second fortification by evening after two hours of fighting, but it had used all its explosives and more than half its planned shells.
• Prince Khufu cursed at the army’s ammunition consumption and ordered Moonlight Holy City’s production lines diverted to manufacturing incendiary bombs, then invited the Netherworld Army commander to observe the battle.