Chapter Summaries

Murphy approved Alpha Corporation’s plan for an Otherworld presence and explained that an open beta would be reserved for an extreme crisis, while preparing elite player reinforcements for the front. As 30,000 new players entered Transia, Invincible Tyrannosaurus Car No. 2 arrived at the Locust Great Wall amid battle and reunited with her brother.

• Murphy heard Old Qin’s report of the Locust Great Wall’s costly victory and agreed that steel armor and other equipment needed to reach the front quickly.
• Murphy approved Alpha Corporation’s proposed presence in the Otherworld and said an open beta would only be launched if a world-threatening invasion demanded a vast reserve of warriors.
• Murphy gave Old Qin an activation device for 8,000 Hell Divers and agreed to provide another 10,000 deployment slots.
• Invincible Tyrannosaurus Car No. 2 received a headset, selected a half-elf character, and logged in at New Recruit Camp No. 114 near the Locust Great Wall.
• As insects attacked the camp, Tyrannosaurus Car rescued his sister from the chaos and supplied her with beginner’s gear.
• Bro took command of the new recruits and told them to prepare for an attack on Abyssal City that evening.

Old Qin reorganized the chaotic influx of thirty thousand new players into support roles and prepared them for a forced march toward Abyss City, where Maxim coordinated the coming assault. As the players entered the tunnels and reinforcements gathered outside the city, the Order faction's counterattack was set to begin.

• Old Qin found that reckless newcomers had suffered heavy casualties, then assigned the survivors to battlefield aid, logistics, and driving duties before ordering them to march toward Abyss City.
• Chief of Staff 003 reported that forty thousand Sin Dwarves had reached the tunnels, and Old Qin instructed the Brass Dwarves to preserve their last army while veterans organized the players.
• Cheche No. 2 received a Blood Vulture Claw, a sniper rifle, Burning Gold bullets, and a Midnight Amulet from her brother before joining the column entering the ratman tunnels.
• Maxim learned that insects had occupied every level of Abyss City while goatmen held the bottom levels, and he prepared squads to destroy the nests during the assault.
• Tritan Logistics brought dragoons, steel bears, and armed airships through astral rifts as Bole and Liji provided battlefield blessings, and Maxim announced the Order faction's counterattack.

Cheche survived her squad’s clash with an elite bug and received an exoskeleton from Loud and Clear after the Abyssal City hive was breached. Maxim and Murphy confirmed that the swarm had collected dragon remains, and Murphy summoned Fraser to prepare for dragon bugs on the main battlefield.

• Cheche and her four squadmates fought off an elite bug, sacrificing themselves so she could kill it and raise their squad into the top three hundred.
• Loud and Clear told Cheche to take his stored combat exoskeleton, and she put it on before heading toward the second level after the hive breach.
• Maxim reported finding dragon bones and a dissolved giant dragon in the hive, warning Murphy that the swarm might already have sent dragon genes elsewhere.
• Murphy said the swarm’s limited biomass and the scorched-earth strategy would delay dragon bugs, but Maxim urged preparations for their arrival.
• Murphy contacted Fraser on Paradise Island and ordered him to report to General Qin, while stopping at Base R-9 to accelerate research into dragon organs.

Fenris Ironfist’s slavers entered the burning first level of Abyss City and found Transian players had nearly cleared it, while the Brass Dwarves’ King Without Land led his followers into the battle below. During the players’ rest, Pavolman’s team agreed to protect Carcar on the dangerous third level, and the chapter ended with players reacting to a survey that might prompt the developers to raise the difficulty.

• Fenris Ironfist led his crew through the silent, burning first level and joined the Transians in killing an isolated elite bug.
• Fenris learned that the Transians had broken through the second-level hive and that the King Without Land had taken the Pious Legion down to fight.
• Pavolman met Carcar and the veterans advising her, who warned that the third level held a stronger hive and urged her to join a team.
• Ge Bao and the other veterans equipped Pavolman with weapons and arranged for Carcar to join his squad.
• Pavolman found a survey about the newbies’ combat experience, and his team panicked at the possibility that the developers would increase the difficulty.

Murphy and Triss discussed the coming dragon bugs and the King Without Land as Shani secretly observed the swarm’s new dragon-gene larvae on the Abyss’s fourth layer. Murphy ordered Shani to leave the larvae alive and capture a gene courier, while the hive lord prepared for the swarm’s next stage of evolution.

• Murphy rejected sending knights to Abyss City and discussed the King Without Land’s devotion to Gaia with Triss.
• Murphy and Triss discussed helping the Midnight Twins ascend after dealing with the Madblood Clan and supporting Rose against the Shadow Elves.
• Dragon-gene eggs hatched in the fourth-layer hive, producing larvae with abilities such as dragonfire as the hive lord anticipated the rise of swarm lords.
• Shani watched the hatchlings while awaiting Murphy’s orders, and Murphy told her to warn the goatfolk and target a gene courier instead of killing the larvae.
• Shani left the hive undetected after agreeing to capture a gene courier alive.

Shani and Adele turned the goatfolk trapped beneath Abyssal City’s shrinking barrier against their leader and toward the approaching allied army. On the third level, a flying legendary dragon-insect devastated players with dragonfire, and Car-Car Girl proposed using its attacks to burn through the swarm.

• Adele announced that reinforcements led by Boll had reached the third level, while Shani killed the goatfolk commander who challenged them.
• Shani and Adele persuaded the goatfolk curse-casters to overthrow their leader, hold the defensive line, and fight for the army’s arrival.
• Meow Brother identified the Locust Plague Lord as a lesser legendary dragon-insect and angrily blamed players who had rated the challenge “Very Easy.”
• Little Ashina warned players to retreat when the Swarm Lord took flight and killed everyone below Silver rank with dragonfire.
• Car-Car Girl suggested luring the Swarm Lord into burning its own swarm to reduce the insects’ biomass, and volunteered to test the idea.

Cheche and the dragon-slaying squad used a flying dragon insect’s fire to farm battle points, rising to the top of Abyss City’s leaderboard before the nest master’s death sent the third-level swarm into a frenzy. As veterans fought to secure the levels, Sister Shiliu recruited the demon, and Cheche’s brother rescued her and prepared to take her to the fourth level.

• The fae and the demon organized two groups to lure the flying dragon insect into breathing fire on the swarm while they advanced between safe zones.
• Cheche drew the flying dragon insect’s attention, and the groups’ tactics helped the dragon-slaying squad climb to the top of Abyss City’s kill leaderboard.
• Chenlong and the Undying Pride Guild attacked the nest master, while Meow Brother urged other teams to aid the newbies; Happy Bang revealed that a third swarm lord was trapped between levels.
• Chenlong’s group killed the nest master, triggering a frenzy that devastated the third level and wiped out most of the dragon-slaying squad.
• Sister Shiliu rescued the demon from the swarm and invited her to join the Silvermoon Group, while Cheche’s older brother saved Cheche and planned to take her to the fourth level.

The veteran players and Holy Blood Battle Group launched an assault on Abyssal City’s main hive while several players prepared to break through to Golden rank. Squadron Leader Lion Beast killed a dragon-armored beetle swarm lord with a spectacular rising slash and became the first Golden-rank player, though he logged off immediately afterward.

• The veteran players reached the fourth level, where they found nine legendary swarm lords and a formidable army guarding the main hive.
• Happy Stick and the guild leaders agreed to draw swarm lords toward the perimeter while the Holy Blood Battle Group attacked the hive, and they discussed their plans to reach Golden rank.
• Maxim led the Holy Blood Battle Group’s assault as Squadron Leader Lion Beast engaged a dragon-armored beetle swarm lord with Niu Niu’s help.
• Squadron Leader Lion Beast used Victory Wine and his mechanical katana’s burst mode to deliver a rising slash that killed the swarm lord in one strike.
• The battle’s announcement named Squadron Leader Lion Beast the first Golden-rank player, and he logged off after Niu Niu congratulated him.

Bancho Leomon became the first player to reach the Golden realm, while Maxim’s Sanguine Host crushed the insect nest and recovered specimens for research. After the battle, Maxim gave the Sin Dwarves responsibility for defending Abyss City and told them to send a representative on Murphy’s Gray Expedition in exchange for help reclaiming Sin Fortress.

• Bancho Leomon’s breakthrough triggered a server-wide announcement, and Cat Bro, Sister Pomegranate, Master Yang, and Teacher Li reacted while fighting on the battlefield.
• Maxim defeated the Nestmaster, killed the insects guarding the hatchery, and ordered dragon-insect eggs and gene messengers preserved for study.
• The Sanguine Host held its defensive line as the nest’s last insect lord was killed by Little Ashina, and the dwarven envoys arrived after the battle was nearly won.
• Maxim told Fenris Ironfist and Old Loren that the Sin Dwarves would take charge of Abyss City’s defenses while the Sanguine Host withdrew and foreign warriors would use the city’s lower levels as respawn points.
• Maxim ordered the Sin Dwarves to send someone on the Gray Expedition, with their Genesis Artifact serving as payment for Murphy’s promised help reclaiming Sin Fortress.

Murphy prepared to leave for the Gray Desert as the coalition completed the Locust Wall’s defenses and planned to use the Storm Spire against the swarm. Vydia offered an alliance against the High Priest’s forces while keeping its loyalties open, and warned Murphy not to trust Constance’s resurrection plan.

• Murphy explained that the Northerners would activate the Storm Spire to unleash a polar storm against the locust swarm, and appointed the Wolf Lady its guardian.
• Murphy gave Old Qin Origin Blood and left him in charge of the Locust Wall’s defenses while he prepared to travel to the Eternal Rift.
• Murphy packed for the Gray Expedition, which would take him and the otherworldly heroes through underground passages to meet the Venerable’s force at Fort of Sin.
• Vydia appeared to Murphy and proposed that they join forces against the High Priest’s servants advancing toward the Heart of the World.
• Vydia offered to help the Aztecs and said it would decide at the Heart of the World whether to betray Meredin in exchange for access to the Pool of Truth.
• Vydia warned Murphy that Constance might replace him if she resurrected, then vanished before Murphy could respond.

Murphy led a small player expedition into the Eternal Rift to help Lolth address the Shadow Elves’ collapse and bring the ratmen over to their side. After learning that several Shadow Elf families had been destroyed or turned to Chaos, he chose to visit Majeva City first and promised the ratmen would become allies.

• Murphy left the Locust Great Wall with Triss, Adele, and two thousand players, while Tritan warned that a strange psionic tide had blocked portals into the Eternal Rift.
• Murphy and his companions entered the ravine and met Villance and Lolth’s followers, who reported that only seven Shadow Elf families remained and at least half had sided with Chaos.
• Villance explained that House Pamiu had fallen to ratmen, House Driol had been expelled, Houses Alcandis and Mora had been destroyed by dragonfire, and Lolth’s followers had destroyed House Bodel after its matriarch performed a corruption ritual.
• Murphy declined to go to the Super Hackers’ base and instead announced that he would visit Majeva City to deliver the Black God’s message to the ratmen.

Vilanth explained the Eternal Rift’s political crisis as Murphy’s expedition traveled toward Mejewa City, where Adele was returning to her birthplace. Murphy learned that the Shadow Matriarch Drusilia might be central to the coming upheaval, then prepared to help Black Servantson unite the city’s ratmen through the power of the Great Maw Rat.

• Vilanth told Murphy that the Shadow Elves had abandoned ratman-ravaged territory and were destabilized by the Lady of the Abyss’s silence, family rivalries, and pressure from advancing locusts.
• Vilanth described Drusilia’s influence over the Shadow Elves, her daughters’ rule of three families, and the reforms that had given men more authority in the Dabrelia family.
• Murphy, Triss, Adele, and Vilanth discussed the Shadow Matriarch’s uncertain position and the Sisterhood of the Abyss’s resistance to reform.
• The expedition reached Mejewa City, and Adele looked toward her birthplace as Murphy’s army approached.
• Black Servantson reported that the city’s ratman warlords were willing to witness the Black God’s power, and Murphy ordered the expedition to enter and proclaim the Great Maw Rat.

Murphy entered Mejewa with the players and Villanse’s Weaver Maidens, then used the Great Eater Rat’s promise of knowledge to confront the ratman warlords about their hunger and infighting. After Star-Soul Eagle revealed that the jerky was processed insect meat, Black Servant urged the warlords to accept the cooking skill as the Black God’s blessing.

• Murphy and the players entered rat-infested Mejewa, where Villanse and the Weaver Maidens reacted angrily to the desecrated Shadow Elf statues.
• Triss used her powers to make ratman sentries fight among themselves, and Black Servant led Murphy’s group through the city to the Spider Temple.
• Manus Plagueclaw challenged Murphy’s claim that the Great Eater Rat had freed the ratmen, then described how hunger drove them to eat one another.
• Murphy told the warlords that the Great Eater Rat’s first blessing was knowledge that could feed them, and he gave them jerky to taste.
• Star-Soul Eagle explained that the jerky was cured worker-insect leg meat, and Black Servant declared that ratmen could turn locusts into food by learning to cook.

Murphy and his allies used Black Servant Mori’s claim that the Great Eater Rat could make insects into food to persuade the ratmen of Mejava to hunt bugs and join the fight against the locust plague. After the chefs prepared a feast from the insects, the hungry ratmen embraced the Great Eater Rat as their god, leaving Murphy with a potential new ally against the swarm.

• Black Servant Mori declared that the Great Eater Rat had revealed recipes for insects, and Manus Plagueclaw challenged him to prove it.
• Soul-Eagle claimed that the Great Eater Rat’s holy feast required soldier and elite insects, prompting the ratman warlords to go catch them.
• Murphy tasted Soul-Eagle’s insect jerky, approved it, and ordered him to prepare the feast with Black Servant Mori and his three elder relatives.
• The chefs cooked twenty-three insect dishes, and the ratmen who tried them discovered that the bugs could be made into delicious food.
• Black Servant Mori led the ratmen in praising the Great Eater Rat, and the warlords joined in before everyone devoured the feast.

Murphy planned to use food and faith to draw the ratmen into war against the swarm, then went to find Adele in the ruins beneath Mejeva City. There, Adele encountered the lingering ghost of her father, Hydra, and Murphy prepared to face the legendary Swordmaster with her.

• Ratmen learned to prepare insect meat and craft armor from insect shells while Murphy and Triss discussed using nutrient paste to win the warlords over and send their forces into the Eternal Rift.
• Murphy and Triss worried that the Sovereign might deliberately lose at Sin Bastion and agreed that Lily needed to return to his side.
• Triss told Murphy that Adele had gone to the collapsed arena, where she might find a fissure into the Underdark, and warned him that Adele's Gold-rank bloodline could make her frenzy.
• Murphy found Adele speaking to her dead father at his grave and pulled her away when he sensed lingering Chaos in the ruins.
• An armored ghost bearing a blade like Adele's Shadowfang appeared and blocked their exit, and Murphy drew Long Night's Guardian to fight Hydra.

Adele fought and defeated the arena-bound remnant of her father, Truman, finding peace with her past and awakening the transcendent Golden Law Night Song Shadowguard. As Murphy carried her away, he promised to shape a future shadow-elven god of death in Truman’s image and give Truman and Sarif a chance to reconcile.

• Adele asked Murphy to let her face Truman’s spirit alone, and Murphy withdrew to the stands as the remnant saluted him.
• Adele battled the remnant with her own swordsmanship, while Murphy realized it adapted its strength to each challenger and imagined turning its duels into paid training.
• Adele fought on, showing the remnant how she had grown and made peace with her parents, and shattered its spirit blade with Blackshadow Fang.
• Adele awakened the Golden Law Night Song Shadowguard, then collapsed and imagined Truman and Mona blessing her relationship with Murphy.
• Murphy comforted the exhausted Adele and carried her out of the arena, then promised the shadow elves that Truman would inspire their future god of death and asked the remnant to answer the Witherer’s call when needed.

Murphy opened the Mejewa Arena while Blackfurs used the players’ food and protection to build influence among the ratmen. On the way to Podel City, Murphy and Adele met Salivuk attacking a neutral city, and Salivuk invited them to join his planned strike against the Abyssal Sisterhood in Shadowdeep City.

• Blackfurs charged players food to enter the Mejewa Arena, then used the provisions to win over ratmen commanders and strengthen his position in Mejewa Hive City.
• Murphy traveled toward Shadowdeep City with Triss, Adele, and Vilance, and theorized that Prince White was the father of Lady Drusilia’s three daughters.
• Villance noted that Lady Drusilia’s daughters wore black veils and sent word to operatives in Shadowdeep City to investigate and arrange a meeting.
• Murphy and Adele diverted to a neutral city under attack by Salivuk and his dragon, Apollis, where Salivuk was burning the city and killing its defenders.
• Salivuk invited Murphy and Adele to join his attack on the Abyssal Sisterhood in Shadowdeep City, but said the Twilight Contract prevented him from explaining his plan and pointed Murphy toward a location where he could learn more.

Murphy and Rose’s followers prepared to move against the Abyssal Sisterhood in Gloomshadow City while Murphy went to investigate a hidden sanctuary. There he discovered the Sisterhood had captured missing dwarves and was conducting Chaos-related experiments, and he prepared to break in and rescue Badler Frostwind.

• Murphy told Adele that Sarif had asked for help dismantling the Abyssal Sisterhood and headed to Bodell’s main city to meet Rose’s followers.
• Vिलance showed Murphy that Rose’s companions were gathering in Gloomshadow City, where the Sisterhood’s leaders would soon convene, and Murphy organized preparations to control the city and fend off the insect horde.
• Bertie and Penny suspected Sarif had given Murphy information about a hidden Abyssal sanctuary, then detected Chaos agents inside it.
• Murphy stopped Penny and Bertie from attacking, ordered them to watch the sanctuary’s exits, and had Bertie scan for life signs.
• Bertie identified Badler Frostwind and other missing dwarves inside the sanctuary, along with evidence of dangerous Chaos experiments, so Murphy drew Nightwatch and prepared to break in.

Murphy rescued Balder and other prisoners from an Abyssal Sanctum, where the Abyssal Sisterhood had been experimenting with Chaos and plotting to corrupt the insect swarm. He freed the captives to fight back and offered the tortured Moon Elf a chance to live and become a warrior against Chaos.

• Balder shouted at his captors and learned from the goatfolk and Moon Elf that the Abyssal Sisters were implanting Chaos organs in prisoners and preparing to corrupt the insect swarm.
• The prisoners revealed that the Sisters hoped to corrupt a hive master and infect the swarm, turning the unborn Scale Father into a Chaos evil god.
• Murphy arrived with severed heads as Blood Lords attacked the sanctum, then freed the prisoners and urged them to take revenge on the remaining Sisters.
• Balder led the freed dwarves into battle while the goatfolk and other able prisoners followed.
• Murphy healed the Moon Elf with his blood and offered her a future as a champion in the Star Realm Army, and she agreed to follow his path.

Murphy uncovered the Abyssal Sisterhood’s plan to corrupt the locust swarm and seize control of Shadow Elf society, then learned that Drusilia was in immediate danger. He summoned allies to Deep Shadow City to protect her and her unborn child.

• Baldr and the Frost Dwarves slaughtered the Abyssal Sisters in the Abyssal Sanctuary, while Murphy sent the rescued moon elf to Boder City for treatment.
• Murphy found Chaos runes sustaining grotesquely modified test subjects, and Pipi Snake explained that the Abyssal Sisterhood had inherited corrupted biological knowledge from Perona’s Occult Scholars.
• Penny captured the sanctuary’s thirteenth High Priestess, and Murphy let the Blood Lords extract her secrets after she resisted questioning.
• Lady Oksana revealed that the Abyssal Sisters planned to corrupt the locust swarm with Shou’s power, seize Deep Shadow City, and turn the Shadow Elves toward Chaos.
• Oksana warned that the ninth and seventeenth High Priestesses intended to corrupt pregnant Drusilia with a potion, so Murphy called for Triss, Adele, Vilanser, and Saliph to intervene.