Chapter Summaries

Han Su learned that his Spiritual Penetration had left him exhausted and considered how its power differed from his other openings. Meanwhile, Song Chushi decided to investigate Han Su’s situation at the Disaster Management Bureau and help him directly.

• Zhang Chiguo warned Han Su to be cautious around Song Chushi and advised him to recover while staying clear of Strange Bird Investigator.
• Han Su recognized that Spiritual Penetration through his right hand let Mental Power seep into reality, though the opening was tiny and he felt less weakened than expected.
• Song Chushi told the voice in the Silver Briefcase that Han Su was innocent and deserved a gift and assistance after being drawn into the Disaster Management Bureau.
• The Silver Briefcase reported that Han Su was running errands as a reserve sacrificial pawn and that his suspected enemies had not acted while Song Chushi remained near Qinggang City.
• Song Chushi decided to go into the city, obtain a detailed file on Han Su, and try to help him himself.

The Strange Bird Investigator planned to exploit Han Su’s suspected secret to gain leverage and secure an independent investigator position, while Han Su learned how investigator licenses were inherited. The chapter left Han Su considering whether the Strange Bird Investigator’s death could bring him a license.

• The Strange Bird Investigator speculated that Han Su knew something valuable and decided to bring him in for a private meeting after Zhang Chiguo left the base.
• Han Su treated Doctor, Black Tiger, and Miss Crow to breakfast to repay them for giving honest reports about the previous day’s incident.
• Doctor and Miss Crow explained that investigator licenses were scarce and could be inherited by a qualified assistant when an investigator died.
• Han Su realized that as the Strange Bird Investigator’s assistant, he might inherit the investigator’s license if the Strange Bird Investigator died.

Han Su avoided being taken for a mental examination by using a priority mission to pursue Song Chushi as protection against the Strange Bird Investigator. The base then issued an emergency order mobilizing investigators and executioners to hunt Song Chushi.

• Han Su learned from Miss Crow that the strange images he saw during Spiritual Penetration were her childhood memories, while she avoided discussing them further.
• The Strange Bird Investigator's assistant arrived with armed security personnel and ordered Han Su to attend a mental-state examination.
• Han Su showed the assistant an approved B1-level mission to track Song Chushi, which took precedence over the Strange Bird Investigator's order and forced the assistant to back down.
• The Strange Bird Investigator learned over the radio that his plan had failed and angrily left his room.
• Alarms sounded in the dining hall, and the Bureau ordered all available investigators and relevant executioners to report for an A-level pursuit of Song Chushi.

After Song Chushi entered Qinggang City, Han Su realized Song might be inviting him to meet and set out with Miss Crow, Black Tiger, and Doctor. As the Bureau mobilized to capture Song, he escaped the encirclement and headed toward Baishui Street after uncovering a hidden investigation.

• An A4-class emergency mission ordered agents to capture Song Chushi, and Han Su recognized him on the surveillance feed at the wonton shop.
• Han Su decided to meet Song Chushi, and Miss Crow, Black Tiger, and Doctor chose to go with him.
• Song Chushi finished his meal, left before the armed forces arrived, and took a taxi while asking his Briefcase for mission files.
• After reading the files, Song Chushi ordered the driver to take him to Baishui Street and forced him onward at gunpoint.
• Miss Li arrived at the empty wonton shop, ordered the city’s surveillance and traffic systems activated, and asked the higher-ups to unlock one of Miss Ai’s locks.

The Strange Bird Investigator and Han Su independently realized that Song Chushi’s movements followed the route of the door connected to the crystal plague investigation, and both headed to Beidi Street. The Strange Bird Investigator spotted Song Chushi there but hesitated to approach him.

• The Strange Bird Investigator recognized that Song Chushi’s sightings overlapped with locations he had investigated and decided to go to Beidi Street.
• Han Su compared Song Chushi’s alerts with the Strange Bird Investigator’s mission records, inferred that Song Chushi was heading toward West City, and also chose Beidi Street.
• The Strange Bird Investigator reached Beidi Street and confirmed his suspicion when electronic signals in the area failed.
• Song Chushi arrived by taxi, sat outside a cake shop with his silver briefcase, and was recognized by the Strange Bird Investigator, who wondered whether to approach him.

Han Su traced the Crystal Plague investigation to Beidi Street, where Song Chushi revealed the hidden contamination and entered the door inside a cake shop. Strange Bird Investigator followed him through, leaving Han Su and his companions facing the frozen plague victims outside.

• Han Su read the mission files and learned that the Crystal Skull organization was behind a plague that altered its victims' bodies and minds.
• Han Su realized Song Chushi had visited the same locations Strange Bird Investigator had been investigating, and arrived with Doctor, Black Tiger, and Miss Crow at Beidi Street.
• Song Chushi snapped his fingers, revealing that many pedestrians had blurred faces, and Han Su explained that the Crystal Plague's vectors had been activated.
• Miss Crow urged the group to leave and report the contamination, but Song Chushi entered the cake shop as the blurred pedestrians froze and turned toward it.
• Mr. Strange Bird appeared and followed Song Chushi through the cake shop door.

Han Su charged through a street crowded with infected to reach the door, while Doctor persuaded the others to hold their position. Miss Crow used a Spell to create a shadow that knocked down the infected and cleared a path for Han Su, who entered the door.

• Han Su told the others to stay outside and went toward the door, but a mass of infected rushed at him.
• Black Tiger helped clear the way, reasoning that they could avoid infection by defeating each attacker quickly.
• Han Su’s Cross Copper Scar burned, and he seized an infected person to use as a shield as he pushed through the crowd.
• Doctor stopped Miss Crow from following Han Su and urged the team to defend the door instead.
• Miss Crow cast a Spell that summoned a vast shadow, knocking down the infected and opening a path for Han Su.
• Han Su used the cleared path to reach the door and step through it.

Han Su entered the strange space behind the cake-shop door, fought off Crystal Plague infectees, and discovered that the corpse inside was spreading contamination. As the corpse’s shadows attacked and threatened to assimilate him, Han Su invoked Divine Decree against it.

• Han Su entered the space and found a decayed corpse lying within a strange symbol, while Song Chushi and the Strange Bird Investigator were nowhere in sight.
• Han Su switched to Investigator Battle Mode and used his Briefcase and stun baton to defeat the infectees who rushed him.
• Miss Crow held off the infectees outside the doorway while Black Tiger watched and the Doctor marveled at her power.
• After the corpse turned toward him, Han Su sensed it release a force that filled his mind with a suffocating presence and sent twisted shadows lunging at him.
• Han Su used his Mental Power to resist the contamination, then turned toward the Crystal Skull and chanted, “Divine Decree!”

Han Su used the Spell to unleash the power of the Giant's Eye, suppressing the Crystal Plague and revealing that the corpse was infected by a Crystal Skull. After the Spell drained his Mental Power, he glimpsed a vast network of connected Crystal Skulls and drew the attention of a woman linked to one of them.

• Han Su recited the Spell, causing his right eye to unleash power that erased the blurry shadows and suppressed the Crystal Plague.
• Han Su saw that the corpse had been infected by a Crystal Skull and watched its flesh and crystal-coated bones decay under his gaze.
• The plague-infected surrounding Miss Crow and the others stopped attacking as the shadows controlling them faded.
• Han Su heard the words "Mechanical Fragment" in his mind, then suffered severe dizziness as the Spell depleted his Mental Power.
• Han Su tried to strike the Crystal Skull, but its light showed him a vast pyramid of connected skulls and a woman who sensed him through their connection.
• The woman declared that nonbelievers must not gaze upon the divine realm and caused the Crystal Skull near Han Su to glow.

Han Su suppressed the Crystal Skull’s invasion, severed its connection to the other skulls, and discovered that his mind contained centuries of memories scattered across tangled Life Paths. As the skull shattered, he began reading the information released from its collapsing will.

• The Crystal Skull’s will attacked Han Su through his gloved right hand, but he stopped the invasion and recited the Spell again.
• Han Su’s Mental Power stripped the skull’s colors away and destroyed its connection to the other Crystal Skulls, cutting off the will’s support.
• The skull’s remaining will entered Han Su’s mind, became lost among his branching memories, and realized that he was not human.
• Han Su understood that his mind held centuries of accumulated experience across many Life Paths, allowing his Mental Power to recover by drawing on other stretches of memory.
• Han Su shattered the Crystal Skull and, despite Miss Crow’s warning, delved into the thought fragments its collapsing will released.

Han Su searched the memories of a Crystal Skull follower and discovered that the organization had sent a mental plague to Qinggang City to find a Mechanical Fragment, under the direction of a woman from his childhood. As the world inside the door collapsed, he saw Mr. Strange Bird shoot at Song Chushi.

• Han Su read the dead follower’s memories and learned he had joined the Crystal Skull organization after seeing its artifact.
• Han Su found a memory of a woman in a black qipao ordering Mr. Peng to spread a plague in Qinggang City and search for a Mechanical Fragment.
• Han Su recognized the woman as the one who had cared for him before he turned ten and memorized a photograph of the Mechanical Fragment.
• At a manor near Qinggang City, a veiled woman saw the crystal skull cracking and realized a position in the organization’s pyramid of faith had gone dark.
• The world inside the door began to collapse, revealing Song Chushi and Mr. Strange Bird, who fired a bullet toward Song Chushi’s forehead.

Song Chushi froze time in the Cake Shop, killed Mr. Strange Bird, and warned Han Su that a spying entity in Azure Harbor was nearing its awakening. He left Han Su with a chance to investigate the missing secret, provided he earned investigator status and kept the warning to himself.

• Mr. Strange Bird entered the Cake Shop and shot at Song Chushi, but the bullet and the tentacle from his case stopped in midair as Song Chushi’s dust froze time.
• Song Chushi told Han Su that the Disaster Management Bureau had arrived too late and asked whether he remembered what the Crystal Skull’s people had been searching for.
• Song Chushi warned Han Su that an entity in Azure Harbor could spy on everyone, urged him to earn his investigator’s license, and taught him to check a glass of water for ripples before investigating secrets.
• Song Chushi took Mr. Strange Bird’s gun and shot him, then left the shop as time resumed and Mr. Strange Bird’s body collapsed.

Song Chushi confronted Qinggang’s armed investigators, delivered a warning to Mr. Number Five, and vanished into an empty alley. His message freed Han Su from a strange mental pressure and helped him remember that the Crystal Skull was searching for a Mechanical Part shown at a science museum ten years earlier.

• Song Chushi faced Ms. Red Trench Coat and the investigators, said he had returned to see whether Qinggang had changed, and warned that it could not stop what was descending into reality.
• An investigator tried to recite a Spell, saw a terrifying shadow, and fainted before Song Chushi walked into an alley and disappeared.
• Song Chushi told Han Su that the monster would complete its transformation in half a month and that the Crystal Skull was looking for a mechanical creation.
• Han Su recalled seeing the Mechanical Part advertised before the Kidnapping Case, when his class visited the science museum ten years earlier.
• Ms. Red Trench Coat sent armed personnel into the empty alley, and another figure emerged from the Cake Shop asking them to inspect something he had picked up.

Han Su recovered a Crystal Skull that had lost its contaminating properties and claimed the team had stopped the Crystal Plague under Mr. Strange Bird’s leadership. After Mr. Strange Bird was found dead in the Cake Shop, the Red Trench Coat woman warned Han Su that he would need to explain how he had solved the B-class incident.

• Han Su set down the Crystal Skull as armed responders threatened him, and the Red Trench Coat woman picked it up after confirming it was no longer contaminating.
• Han Su said he and Mr. Strange Bird had pursued Song Chushi while he handled the Crystal Plague mission, crediting Crow, Doctor, Black Tiger, and other team members for helping.
• The flaxen-haired assistant verified that the Crystal Skull was tied to Mr. Strange Bird’s B-class investigation, while Strange Bird’s assistant claimed the investigator had planned and led the operation.
• Han Su agreed with the assistant’s account, then told the Red Trench Coat woman that Mr. Strange Bird had sacrificed himself to stop the mental plague.
• Responders found Mr. Strange Bird dead in the Cake Shop with a gunshot wound to the forehead, apparently from his own Service Pistol.
• The Red Trench Coat woman found no signs that Han Su had fired a gun and warned him that he would have to explain how he solved the B-class incident.

Han Su wrote a report claiming credit for resolving the B-class incident, while Qinggang officials debated how to present Song Chushi’s intrusion as a victory. Miss Ai rated the field operative codenamed Butcher S, prompting suspicion and questions about his origins.

• Han Su submitted a polished report to Miss Ai that omitted his hidden powers and credited his mentor, weapons, combat skills, and the field team’s blockade.
• Ms. Red Trench Coat argued that Qinggang had detected and driven off Song Chushi while stopping him from reaching the Crystal Plague’s secondary source.
• The conference leader ordered her account included in the briefing but warned that Qinggang’s security and classified information needed better protection.
• Zhang Chiguo announced that Miss Ai had rated a field operative S after he resolved the B-class plague, and Ms. Red Trench Coat identified him as Butcher.
• An official questioned Butcher’s report and called for an investigation, but Zhang Chiguo said Miss Ai had approved it.
• A hoarse speaker challenged the room to remember where Butcher came from by looking at his file.

The Disaster Management Bureau debated whether Han Su deserved an investigator's license despite suspicions about his past and his connection to Song Chushi. The senior leadership decided to give him another chance to prove himself, and Miss Ai raised his initial rating without specifying the new grade.

• A Bureau member accused Han Su of having suspicious ties to Song Chushi and argued that he should be denied an investigator's license or imprisoned.
• Zhang Chiguo demanded evidence and defended Han Su's right to fair treatment under Bureau rules, pointing to his S-class assessment and his mentor's death.
• A senior black silhouette supported rewarding Han Su according to procedure and suggested that keeping him close would make him easier to monitor.
• Another senior figure criticized the investigators' failures and argued that proven Executors deserved rewards amid the Tidal Wave.
• The leading figure concluded that Han Su's past matter was settled but withheld the license for now, deciding to give him another chance to prove himself.
• Han Su received Miss Ai's notice that his initial rating had been raised, but he wondered why she had not stated the new grade.

Zhang Chiguo warned Han Su about the dangers of mysterious powers and explained the Disaster Management Bureau’s assignment tiers and ranks. He revealed that Song Chushi had once been an Independent Investigator, then told Han Su that his promotion to Investigator had been approved.

• Secretary Cui brought Han Su to meet Zhang Chiguo, who scolded him for taking reckless risks during the assignment.
• Zhang Chiguo warned Han Su that Song Chushi was dangerously obsessed with saving his younger sister and might sacrifice others to do so.
• Zhang Chiguo explained the Bureau’s assignment tiers, from routine E-class work to A-class threats, and described the authority tied to its ranks.
• Han Su learned that Song Chushi had become an Independent Investigator unusually quickly and was more powerful than the Bureau’s current Independent Investigators.
• Zhang Chiguo told Han Su that his promotion to Investigator had been approved.

Han Su learned that his investigator's license depended on subduing the Ghost Truck, while he could begin mysterious power training ahead of schedule. At Training Room C1, Red Trench Coat tested his Spiritual Penetration and introduced him to the Disaster Management Bureau's Zero Sequence Cipher Incantations.

• Zhang Chiguo told Han Su that his S-rank assessment had opened a path to an investigator's license, but he had to subdue the Ghost Truck to earn it.
• Zhang Chiguo advised Han Su to ignore the difficult task and focus on training in mysterious power, but Han Su kept the opportunity in mind because he needed protection before a monster transformed.
• Miss Crow brought Han Su to Training Room C1, where Red Trench Coat questioned his connection to Zhang Chiguo and began his training.
• Red Trench Coat tested Han Su's Spiritual Penetration, warned him that he lacked basic experience, and suggested Weiwei help him practice.
• Red Trench Coat showed Han Su the eleven Zero Sequence Cipher Incantations authorized for beginners and explained that they were basic spells of unknown origin.

Red Trench Coat explained the five Zero Sequence Cipher Incantations and taught Han Su and Miss Crow the first spell, which could extract a person’s existence from reality. Han Su learned the incantation on his first try, leaving him able to use the spell.

• Red Trench Coat explained that the Disaster Management Bureau, Mysterious Followers, and people born with mysterious power each gained it in different ways, and said Miss Crow had been contaminated since birth.
• Red Trench Coat described the five Zero Sequence spells, including the extraction spell Han Su had chosen to learn.
• Red Trench Coat demonstrated the extraction spell and explained that it could make others unaware of her presence, then taught Han Su and Miss Crow how to recite it.
• Han Su recited, “[I will enter the abyss!],” and learned the Cipher Incantation smoothly.

Han Su trained at the Disaster Management Bureau to use an incantation that lowered his presence, while Ms. Red Trench Coat asked whether he would claim the investigator’s license tied to the Ghost Truck. He left to rest before the expected Blink, and Ms. Red Trench Coat reported that she had found no unusual traits in him besides his strong will to survive.

• Han Su learned that reciting the incantation slightly displaced him from reality and practiced it under Ms. Red Trench Coat’s supervision.
• Ms. Red Trench Coat explained that the incantation worked best when its user avoided drawing attention, especially from people with high Mental Activity.
• Over ten days, Han Su practiced the incantation, adapted to Spiritual Penetration in his right hand, and studied other incantations shown by Zero Sequence.
• Ms. Red Trench Coat asked whether Han Su wanted Strange Bird Investigator’s license and explained that the Ghost Truck could be sealed by using someone as bait.
• Han Su said he might try dealing with the Ghost Truck after a few days, but left the base to rest before the expected Blink and abduction.
• Ms. Red Trench Coat called someone and reported that Han Su had left, that he seemed talented but otherwise ordinary, and that his will to survive was unusually strong.