Chapter Summaries

The players contained a sample bearing an [Eternal Night Erosion Mark] and discovered that a fragment from the Old Altar could activate it. Their investigation of the altar uncovered a living flesh tunnel beneath Old Black Rock City, and [Tian Ce] ordered the team to descend.

• The Star Spirit engineers sealed the sample and its contaminated rock, and the evacuation team carried it back to New Black Rock City.
• [Ci Beili] named the mark in the sample [Eternal Night Erosion Mark] and its suppressing mark [White Extinguishing Seal], then ordered the retrieval of Fragment Number Three from the Old Altar.
• The Old Altar fragment activated the [Eternal Night Erosion Mark] from a distance, so [Ci Beili] recorded that it could activate the mark.
• [Tian Ce] led an investigation to the underground altar base in Old Black Rock City, where [Hannibal] found fresh, living flesh in a crack.
• The team lifted the fractured altar base and revealed a living tunnel of flesh leading underground, and [Tian Ce] ordered them to widen the entrance and descend.

The investigation team followed the active Shadow Psionic Energy beneath the Old Altar and fought through its Tier Two Stitching Guards. They uncovered a flesh conduit drawing power from outside the old city, and the Star Spirit commander suppressed its pull while the team retreated.

• [Tian Ce] led the team down the active side passage to find out whether the altar was being sustained remotely.
• The players fought the Darkspirit Stitching Guards, and [Steel Bastion] sacrificed himself to hold one back as the team advanced.
• [Hannibal] and [Bi Ren Liang Mou] held apart the contracting flesh and blackstone, exposing a conduit that began dragging down the marketplace foundations.
• The Tier Three Star Spirit commander used [Gravity Anchoring] to suppress the conduit’s higher-level force, and the players withdrew beyond the Star Rune’s range.
• [Data Maniac] confirmed that power was arriving from outside the old city, and [Hannibal] told Lao Ci that the connection had nearly pulled away the marketplace.

The joint force severed a branch passage beneath Black Rock Old City, weakening the Eternal Night Erosion Marks on the Old Altar fragments and samples. The team discovered other active routes remained underground and sent an investigation team toward Shadow City to inspect another node.

• [Tian Ce] coordinated the assault on the passage’s outer layer while the Third-Order Commander held its inner conduit in place.
• The players wedged the breach open with shields and beast bones, then destroyed its exposed outer anchor points and withdrew.
• The Third-Order Commander used [Gravity Anchoring] to tear apart the unprotected conduit, severing the connection and damaging the old city ruins and the Exchange.
• [Ci Beili] observed that the altar fragments weakened before the samples’ black patterns stopped expanding, while warning that the network was not fully disabled or purified.
• [Hannibal] noticed other passages and flowing Corrosion Marks exposed behind the severed route.
• [Tian Ce] chose the ruins of Shadow City as the next site, and a Tier Two investigation team left with another sealed fragment.

Tian Ce's team followed the sealed fragment's signal into Shadow City and discovered a group of people living beneath the ruins. After defeating the Darkling scouts guarding the sinkhole, they prepared to rescue the survivors below.

• The sealed fragment reacted as Tian Ce's team reached Shadow City, and their investigation revealed signs of a long-term community beneath the ruins.
• The fragment lit up near a collapsed plaza sinkhole, drawing Darkling scouts out of hiding.
• Data Maniac, Thunder King, Vanguard Across the Realm, Brute Force Yields Miracles, and Dragon Fighting in the Wild subdued the scouts while Cloud Pomelo protected the rear.
• One scout jumped down the well to warn those below, and the Mind Network revealed many frightened, injured survivors, including children.
• Tian Ce stopped his team from pursuing the scout and ordered them to rescue the people beneath Shadow City.

Tian Ce and the investigation team found a desperate community of refugees surviving around the Echo Sacrificial Well and learned that the Well-Sealing Squad took people from exposed nodes. As the well began surging and a fragment heated up, Luoxin warned that the squad had arrived.

• Tian Ce’s team descended into the shelter, disarmed the defenders, and protected the refugees while Thunder King destroyed Luoxin’s bone lamp and Data Maniac broke the concealment layer.
• Luoxin identified the place as the Echo Sacrificial Well and explained that its failing light and heat kept hundreds of refugees alive.
• Luoxin told the team that the Well-Sealing Squad sealed exposed wells, took able workers away, and left others to be buried, using the Ash Prayer Corridor to transport people underground.
• The well’s gray light began churning, a Star Spirit engineer reported that the fragment was heating up, and Luoxin heard scraping from above and said the squad had arrived.

Tian Ce’s squad defeated the Well-Sealing Squad and stopped the priest from destroying the ritual well, but his final act exposed the Ash Prayer Corridor, an underground route into the enemy heartland. Tian Ce chose to secure the shelter and its living intelligence before pursuing the route.

• Tian Ce assigned his squad to protect the refugees, block the well, disrupt the priest, and hold the center as the Well-Sealing Squad attacked.
• Thunder King trapped the shadow-moving grunts, Data Maniac severed the priest’s control of the Stitching Guards, and Brute Force Yields Miracles and Dragon Fighting in the Wild broke the enemy’s assault.
• The priest tried to awaken and destroy the well, but Hannibal restrained the living Flesh Wall, Bi Ren Liang Mou braced the collapsing shelter, and Vanguard Across the Realm cut off the priest’s hand.
• The priest forced the ritual markings to activate, exposing the Ash Prayer Corridor and confirming that Shadow City’s old node remained linked to the underground network.
• Tian Ce’s squad killed the priest and the remaining grunts, then secured the shelter while Tian Ce ordered his team to prepare before pursuing through the corridor.

The players fought Dark Spirit forces trying to drag refugees away as sacrifices, while Tian Ce’s team defeated a Tier Three Warlord and seized a transfer car. The Silence Transfer Well kept running, and an Eleventh Rank presence began rising from below.

• At Ash Prayer Corridor’s outer entrance, the Well-Sealing Squad used Shadow Chains to seize Dark Spirit refugees, and players fought to free them.
• Tian Ce linked his team through the Mind Network and ordered them to secure the transfer car before its winch carried it deeper underground.
• Brute Force Yields Miracles held the Warlord in place while Data Maniac, Thunder King, Dragon Fighting in the Wild, Cloud Pomelo, and Vanguard Across the Realm coordinated their attack.
• Vanguard Across the Realm destroyed the Warlord’s Shadow Core, and Tian Ce took a dispatch board showing that the old nodes funneled toward the Silence Transfer Well.
• The team found captured Darklings, a sealed crate, and an escort token, but the well shifted into overloaded operation as a force carrying an Eleventh Rank echo surged upward.

The players disrupted the altar’s energy supply and stopped the Tier Five pressure from the Omen of Eternal Night avatar from overwhelming them. With enemy reinforcements approaching the blocked corridor, [Tian Ce] prepared an ambush.

• Gu Yuan sensed the awakened avatar’s Tier Six true body and hesitated to intervene, while its pressure surged toward the players through the well.
• [Tian Ce] ordered the core group to retreat and assigned them to protect the captives, disrupt the rail and power supply, and block the corridor with the overturned Spell Shuttle.
• [Hannibal], [Bi Ren Liang Mou], and the other players dismantled the altar’s supporting structures, cutting off its energy supply and weakening the avatar’s pressure.
• A remotely controlled Darkling captive lunged at [Cloud Pomelo], and [Vanguard Across the Realm] killed him while she kept the other captives alive.
• The pressure retreated into the Silence Transfer Well, and the participating players received experience rewards and recovered the command board’s inscription map from a replay.
• A Star Spirit engineer warned that reinforcements were approaching to repair the hub, so [Tian Ce] ordered the players to prepare an ambush.

Tian Ce’s team ambushed Darkling reinforcements while they repaired the teleportation formation, then learned they could enter the Silence Transfer Well by posing as living sacrifices. As the monster below demanded the sacrifices, the players began choosing a suicide squad and preparing their disguises.

• Tian Ce ordered the players to hide their prisoners and stage the battlefield as a massacre so the Darkling formation masters would repair the broken lines.
• The Darkling mages restored most of the formation, and Thunder King, Tian Ce, Data Maniac, Vanguard Across the Realm, and the other players ambushed and defeated them.
• Data Maniac interrogated a surviving formation master and learned that the formation checked for an authorized Transport Token and living sacrifices, but not their identities.
• A player proposed disguising the team as sacrifices, and Tian Ce approved the plan while keeping a formation expert prisoner to complete the final line.
• A communication rune in a prisoner’s flesh relayed the monster’s demand for sacrifices, prompting players to volunteer for the dangerous infiltration.

Tian Ce and the players sacrificed themselves to destroy the Omen of Eternal Night’s descent altar, then escaped its contamination when Gu Yuan severed their dimensional connections. Their victory buried the route to the Silence Transfer Well, but an earthquake cracked open a sealed box left in the ruins.

• Tian Ce led seven players and two Dark Spirit Race prisoners through the teleportation array to attack the altar beneath the Silence Transfer Well.
• The priest exposed the players’ disguise, and the group sacrificed themselves to disrupt his casting and locate the altar’s Psychic Power hub.
• Vanguard Across the Realm broke through the hub’s defenses, and Thunder King destroyed the altar with a lightning blast.
• Gu Yuan severed the players’ dimensional projections before the contamination could reach their Blue Star bodies, while Bi Ren Liang Mou and Hannibal destroyed the outer teleportation array and collapsed the passage.
• The eight players respawned, received rewards, and kept recordings of the underground terrain, the Tier Five avatar, and the Tier Three priest.
• An earthquake damaged the seal on Tian Ce’s abandoned black box, and its lid opened slightly as pale light seeped out.

Tom Pie, a mutated player serving as the Calamity of Extinction’s Kinfolk, hunted parasites inside Titan while secretly helping Titan by clearing lesions. After reaching Level 26, he suppressed his growing hunger and continued toward another target as Gu Yuan watched without intervening.

• Tom Pie accepted quests to devour a Calamity Kin and clear a lesion, then fought and killed the Level 27 monster despite its poisonous mist and bites.
• Tom Pie absorbed the monster’s remains, tried and failed to exploit a quest loophole by eating his own flesh, and reached Level 26 after clearing the lesion.
• Tom Pie resisted the contamination-driven urge to eat Titan’s healthy liver tissue and attack Titan’s main body.
• Gu Yuan observed Tom Pie and kept the Evil God’s contamination confined to his game body, allowing him to continue clearing lesions.
• The quest panel revealed another Calamity Kin’s location, and Tom Pie hid his ultimate hunt-Titan quest and headed toward the next target.

Muhammad quit Steel Bastion after realizing the guild was stealing most of his wages, then farmed monsters alone and sold the materials for a better profit. He paid his rent and his mother's medicine, defied the supervisor's threats, and returned to the game to continue training on his own.

• Muhammad saw that Steel Bastion had deducted most of his pay and ordered him to cover Young Master Raja's quota, so he left the guild and abandoned its equipment.
• Muhammad hunted weaker monsters alone using a careful, repetitive combat routine, reached LV25, and collected materials for himself.
• Muhammad sold the materials through the public trading zone for more than twice his former day's wages and paid his rent and his mother's medicine fees.
• The supervisor confronted Muhammad and demanded that he sign a contract for double the quota, but Muhammad refused and returned to the gaming pod.
• Muhammad bought a battered Bone Shield and resumed his solo monster farming, while Gu Yuan observed his disciplined approach.

After destroying the High-Level Descent Nexus, the players received experience, Bio-Energy, and knowledge for analyzing a basic Psionic Teleportation Matrix. As the Darklings pulled back toward their remaining outposts, Great Wall No. 1 ordered a raid, but the Fried Chicken and Beer Squad discovered armed guards waiting to ambush them.

• The eight players respawned, checked that their real-world bodies were safe, and received mission rewards for destroying the nexus.
• Tian Ce and Data Maniac received Basic Psionic Teleportation Matrix Analysis, which Data Maniac recognized as a manual for building teleportation arrays.
• Tian Ce sent the terrain map, monster footage, and teleportation knowledge to Ci Beili and Great Wall No. 1.
• Elder Twilight Star reported that the Darklings were abandoning their outer defenses, and Great Wall No. 1 ordered nearby squads to seize three outposts and recover supplies.
• The Fried Chicken and Beer Squad approached an apparently empty outpost, but Lin Ziye spotted a glowing teleportation array and more than a dozen armed Darkling guards waiting nearby.

Lin Ziye’s squad stopped Darkling guards from destroying a teleportation array until Great Wall No. 1’s forces arrived, allowing the players to seize the outpost and its supplies. The Dark Spirit High Priest then ordered a retreat from more outer regions to gather troops and sacrifices for a greater descent.

• Shadow discovered fourteen Tier 2 guards preparing to destroy the teleportation array, so Lin Ziye redirected the squad to defend it.
• Shadow severed the hand of a guard holding a crystal while Redemption’s Silent Domain suppressed the other guards’ Psychic Power.
• Life in the World drew the melee guards’ attacks as Happy Fat Otaku shielded the team and Lin Ziye used Wind Track to help them disrupt the ambush.
• Great Wall No. 1 arrived with reinforcements, secured the array and warehouse, and learned that the other two outposts had also been taken.
• Elder Twilight Star recognized that the preserved array and supplies would aid the Blue Star Scientific Research Team, while Great Wall No. 1 ordered scouts to track the Darklings’ retreat.
• The Dark Spirit High Priest ordered his forces to abandon more outer regions and gather troops, supplies, and sacrifices in the heartland.

Eagle Kingdom’s factions tried to seize Dragon Kingdom’s equipment shipment despite Supreme Commander Donnie’s orders, and Dragon Kingdom’s small escort team effortlessly defeated them. Dragon Kingdom canceled the delivery and transferred the equipment quota elsewhere, leaving Donnie watching Eagle Kingdom’s divisions deepen.

• Donnie ordered Eagle Kingdom’s leaders to stop reckless power-leveling operations and protect Dragon Kingdom’s equipment delivery, but faction operatives secretly delayed his order.
• Consortium mercenaries, military personnel, and local armed forces surrounded Dragon Kingdom’s delivery warehouse to seize the shipment for themselves.
• Dragon Kingdom’s field captain warned the three factions, then his team quickly subdued them without damaging the equipment.
• Donnie watched the failed seizure on surveillance as Eagle Kingdom’s leaders blamed one another and argued over responsibility.
• Dragon Kingdom canceled the delivery, reassigned Eagle Kingdom’s equipment quota to other nations, and drove the shipment away.
• Eagle Kingdom’s factions traded public accusations, while Donnie stood alone watching Dragon Kingdom’s convoy leave.

Great Wall No. 1 and the players turned a Shadow City transfer outpost into an ambush site, intercepting three Darkling escort teams and learning where the retreating forces were gathering. With the teleportation hub's location revealed, Great Wall No. 1 ordered the players to launch a direct assault.

• When a one-way teleportation brought prisoners, supplies, and six guards to the outpost, Great Wall No. 1 hid the players and they ambushed and killed the guards.
• Luoxin identified the prisoners as sacrifices bound for Omen of Eternal Night, and Great Wall No. 1 ordered them detained while the players kept the array receiving.
• The players ambushed and defeated two more escort teams, with Shadow, Lin Ziye, Redemption, Life in the World, and Happy Fat Otaku stopping the third team's captain from escaping.
• After the Darklings cut power to the array, the Star Spirit mage and the researchers used its final coordinates and prisoner accounts to locate a large teleportation hub.
• Great Wall No. 1 ordered the players to clear the outpost's supplies, leave a garrison, and attack the hub with the main forces on S1.

The players launched the [Starcore Implosion Bomb] at Shadow City's main teleportation array, sacrificing [Ci Beili] and many others to devastate the Darklings' defenses. The blast destroyed the gateway and the players' three captured outposts, ending the battle for Shadow City.

• [Great Wall No. 1] halted the players' advance after a Tier Three guard's attack wiped out the vanguard and revealed a Tier Four Darkling archmage defending the array.
• [Ci Beili] explained that the [Starcore Implosion Bomb] had to be pushed into the active teleportation array and detonated at close range, despite the explosion also destroying three captured outposts.
• [Great Wall No. 1] ordered the players to escort [Hannibal] and [Bi Ren Liang Mou] as they pushed the [Skeleton Leviathan] and its bomb through the Darkling guards.
• When the Tier Four Darkling archmage tried to throw the bomb away, a Tier Four Star Spirit held him back, leaving the case at the center of the array.
• [Ci Beili] stayed beside the damaged bomb and detonated it, vaporizing himself and hundreds of players, killing more than ten Tier Three guards, and badly injuring the archmage.
• The explosion destroyed the teleportation array and the three outposts, while the returning players received experience and Bio-Energy; the battle for Shadow City was declared over.

Vanguard Across the Realm completed his Flesh Sequence and reached Tier Two after the squad defeated a Lesion in Gu Yuan’s right lung. Gu Yuan then opened a new area near the spinal cord, sending players to investigate and restore neural conduction.

• Vanguard Across the Realm helped the squad destroy a Lesion in Gu Yuan’s right lung, reached level forty-nine, and spent his potential points to complete his Flesh Sequence.
• Vanguard Across the Realm shared his panel, and Data Maniac explained how potential points were awarded and how players could develop their sequences.
• Tian Ce said grinding in the lung would not raise Titan’s awakening level, while news from Companion Star S-1 confirmed that Shadow City remained in ruins and a second Starcore Implosion Bomb could not be made.
• Vanguard Across the Realm passed Neural and Flesh Sequence tests at the Transcendental Alliance base, prompting researchers to revise training plans for level-forty-nine players.
• Gu Yuan opened a portal to a dark, inactive neural region near the spinal cord, and players received a mission to investigate the interruption and restore the connection to the Titan Divine Body.

Peak Seven entered the darkened neural region of Gu Yuan’s lung, where Aklay Neural Mistforms disrupted their senses and coordination. After defeating one, the scouts discovered that Gu Yuan himself had burned the spinal tissue ahead to block an earlier invading will, though he could not remember where it came from.

• Peak Seven’s scouts crossed the Neuron portal and began attacking one another after gray-purple mist scrambled their commands and perceptions.
• Tian Ce cut the Mind Network, switched the team to numbered orders, and coordinated defensive measures while Thunder King’s pulses and Data Maniac’s Psionic Vision revealed an Aklay Neural Mistform.
• Vanguard Across the Realm killed the exposed mistform and disabled its core, ending the local interference as other Aklay fled deeper into the neural tissue.
• Data Maniac found a vast stretch of Titan neural tissue burned to charcoal and identified the lingering Psychic Power as belonging to the Titan Sequence.
• Gu Yuan recalled that he had ordered the spinal segment burned to stop an unfamiliar will from reaching his brain, but he still could not remember the will’s origin.

The players carefully investigated the charred spinal cord and discovered that an unknown will had repeatedly ordered a passage to the brain to be opened. Gu Yuan established a safe receiving point that restored perception beyond the lockdown, but the same command continued to arrive from below.

• [Someone on the History Book] warned [Tian Ce] that the charred neural tissue was a valuable historical remnant, and the system prohibited players from destroying the lockdown zone.
• [Tian Ce] organized a cautious investigation as [Thunder King] sent a steady current through the tissue and [Someone on the History Book] activated [Historical Echo].
• Five Aklay neural mist bodies attacked while the players read the traces, and [Vanguard Across the Realm] killed them after [Data Maniac] marked their cores.
• [Someone on the History Book] saw that an unfamiliar command was taking over severed nerves and repeating, “Open the passage to the brain,” before Gu Yuan cut off the Historical Echo to protect the players.
• Gu Yuan created a one-way receiving point at the lockdown’s edge, restoring the players’ perception beyond it and unlocking a new map and a historical record for [Someone on the History Book].
• [Data Maniac] silenced the hall when the receiving point trembled and intercepted the command, “Open the passage to the brain,” from below.