Chapter Summaries

Tang Yu went alone to the abandoned gymnasium to rescue Karuizawa Kei, where Ryuen forced him to fight a crowd before an audience of students. As Tang Yu neared collapse, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka arrived and demanded that Ryuen release her.

• Tang Yu bought Combat Prediction and Adrenaline Surge, then went to the old gymnasium after receiving Ryuen's threat and Karuizawa's photo.
• Tang Yu discovered Ryuen had gathered about thirty hostile students and spectators, including members of Class D, and Ryuen ordered him to endure ten minutes of fighting to free Karuizawa.
• Tang Yu fought off several attackers but was beaten down as his stamina ran low and Adrenaline Surge began to wear off.
• Ayanokoji Kiyotaka entered the gymnasium, told Ryuen to release Karuizawa, and began removing his uniform.

Ayanokoji defeated Ryuen's attackers and Horikita Manabu intervened, while Tang Yu and Karuizawa recovered from the trap and grew closer. Tsukishiro continued watching them, and Ayanokoji later warned Tang Yu that Tsukishiro had accelerated the White Room plan, which involved them both.

• Ayanokoji defeated Ryuen's students in the Gymnasium, and Horikita Manabu ordered those involved to face disciplinary action.
• Tang Yu learned that Karuizawa had been threatened with fake photos and that Ryuen had used her to lure him into a trap; he also unlocked the Combat Emotion Resonance ability.
• Karuizawa kissed Tang Yu, while Tsukishiro watched them from a rooftop before disappearing.
• Tang Yu recorded what he had learned, then Ayanokoji visited and warned him that Tsukishiro had accelerated the White Room plan, calling Tang Yu an unexpected variable.

Tang Yu and Class D faced Tsukishiro’s mental interference during the Debate Tournament on meritocracy-based education. Karuizawa overcame his attack with a personal speech that won the audience’s sincere support, but Tsukishiro escalated his mental waves against the debaters.

• Tang Yu arrived at school with Karuizawa, Horikita Suzune, and Hirata Yosuke, then learned Tsukishiro Shuhei would be judging the tournament.
• As Horikita delivered Class D’s opening statement, Tsukishiro used rhythmic finger taps to spread mental interference through the audience, which Tang Yu tried to counter with his abilities.
• Tsukishiro’s interference made Hirata lose his words, but Tang Yu used Group Emotion Resonance to help him recover and continue his argument.
• When the audience jeered at Karuizawa, Tang Yu linked their consciousnesses, and she steadied herself to speak about her past, resilience, and the meaning of strength.
• Karuizawa’s speech moved the audience to sincere applause, while Tsukishiro’s mental wave intensity rose to 70 percent and targeted Class D’s debaters directly.

Tang Yu overcame Tsukishiro Shuhei’s mental interference with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka’s help and led Class D to victory in the debate tournament. Ayanokoji revealed his White Room origins and warned Tang Yu that Tsukishiro had begun a more extreme move, just as Tang Yu was summoned to the principal’s office.

• Ayanokoji reduced the cost of Tsukishiro’s mental interference, allowing Tang Yu to deliver his closing speech and help Class D win the debate tournament.
• After the ceremony, Ayanokoji told Tang Yu that he had escaped the White Room and could resist and mimic mental abilities.
• Ayanokoji warned Tang Yu that Tsukishiro was targeting Karuizawa Kei and revealed that Ryuen was being coerced with a nanocontroller.
• Ayanokoji gave Tang Yu a list of potential allies and urged him not to meet the school officials alone.
• The system announced an emergency school board meeting, and Tang Yu was summoned to the principal’s office with a new temporary Group Consciousness Link ability.

Tang Yu and Horikita Manabu resisted Tsukishiro Shuhei’s mental attack during a school hearing, while Ayanokoji Kiyotaka exposed Tsukishiro with a medical report. After Tsukishiro was suspended, Ayanokoji revealed that the White Room sought Tang Yu and Karuizawa Kei as experimental materials, leaving them at risk of further retaliation.

• Tang Yu entered a hearing where the principal and School Board questioned him about recent campus incidents, and Tsukishiro Shuhei used a mental attack to push for invasive tests.
• Tang Yu linked his consciousness with Horikita Manabu, who challenged the proposed examination on procedural grounds and questioned Tsukishiro’s surveillance of Karuizawa Kei.
• Horikita Manabu confronted Tsukishiro about his apparent influence over the Debate Tournament audience, but Tsukishiro launched a stronger mental attack before Ayanokoji Kiyotaka interrupted with a medical report.
• The principal suspended Tsukishiro pending investigation after the report implicated him in the White Room, and Tsukishiro threatened to obtain samples from Tang Yu and Karuizawa Kei.
• Ayanokoji told Tang Yu that the White Room cultivated superhuman beings and that Tsukishiro wanted Tang Yu’s and Karuizawa Kei’s abilities as research materials.

Tang Yu learned more about Tsukishiro’s threats and gained Ayanokoji’s help, then discovered Ryuen was willing to join forces against him. The chapter ended with Tsukishiro surveilling Tang Yu and Karuizawa as Tang Yu prepared to investigate the White Room further.

• Ayanokoji gave Tang Yu an encrypted pager, warned him that Tsukishiro targeted people his targets cared about, and said he wanted to see how far Class D could go.
• Tang Yu reunited with Karuizawa at Class D’s celebration and learned from Horikita that Tsukishiro’s influence had made her thoughts feel blurry.
• Ryuen showed Tang Yu a device Tsukishiro had implanted in him and offered to work together, warning that Tsukishiro could manipulate people’s thoughts and memories and was especially interested in Karuizawa.
• Tang Yu warned Karuizawa that Tsukishiro was dangerous, and she kissed him on the cheek before a system alert revealed Tsukishiro watching them from a rooftop.
• Tang Yu returned to his apartment, reviewed the clues, and saw that his main quest was to thwart the White Room’s conspiracy and contact Ayanokoji.

Tang Yu used his new cyberwarfare skills to uncover Tsukishiro's digital defenses, then raced to Karuizawa's dormitory after learning she was in danger. After rescuing her from two attackers and repairing damage to her memories, he and Karuizawa fled as pursuers stormed the room.

• Tang Yu spent 80,000 Emotion Points to gain top-tier cyberwarfare skills, traced Tsukishiro's command source, and escaped a malware attack by isolating his devices.
• Tang Yu received confirmation from Ayanokoji that Tsukishiro was a seventh-generation biological and quantum hybrid dependent on a central node, then got a threat targeting Karuizawa.
• Tang Yu rushed to Karuizawa's dormitory, broke in, and found her under the influence of a neural interferer while the school infirmary doctor and his assistant tried to take her.
• Tang Yu used Memory Projection to frighten the attackers, incapacitated them, and spent 25,000 points to restore Karuizawa's damaged memories.
• Tang Yu discovered that the attackers had livestreamed the room, and he and Karuizawa rushed toward the bathroom as pursuers broke into the dormitory.
• Tang Yu made a rope from the shower curtain and tied it to a drainpipe so they could climb down the sheer wall in the rain.

Tang Yu escaped the school with Karuizawa and reached Ayanokoji’s safe house, where they learned how to locate and attack Tsukishiro’s Hive. With 31 hours until Tsukishiro’s next synchronization, they began planning an infiltration together.

• Tang Yu caught Karuizawa when the shower curtain tore, and they escaped the guards by hiding in the bushes and slipping off campus.
• Tang Yu brought Karuizawa to Ayanokoji’s safe house, where she cried over Tsukishiro targeting her transformation.
• Tang Yu found Ayanokoji’s video, which revealed the Seventh Hive’s location, Tsukishiro’s connection to its server, and the defenses protecting it.
• Karuizawa insisted on helping Tang Yu infiltrate the Hive, and he agreed on the condition that she follow his instructions.
• Tang Yu began reviewing Ayanokoji’s hacking tools and mapping the Hive as Tsukishiro continued searching for them.

Tang Yu infiltrated the White Room-Hive7 facility to hack Tsukishiro’s central server, with Karuizawa watching from outside. Tsukishiro detected him and revealed his fusion of human brain and quantum computer as Tang Yu’s hack reached 65 percent.

• Tang Yu used his remaining Emotion Points to activate Environmental Vision and locate the guards, security systems, and underground server room while Karuizawa monitored the facility.
• Tang Yu bypassed the laser grid, incapacitated a guard, and entered the Hive through a maintenance passage.
• Tang Yu crawled through the ventilation system, found the server room, and connected his modified phone to a backup network port.
• Tsukishiro’s autonomous defense detected Tang Yu’s hack, and Tsukishiro awakened the core, locked the security door, and trapped Tang Yu inside with it.
• Tsukishiro revealed a human brain fused with a quantum computer and called Ayanokoji a failed product while Tang Yu continued hacking against the counterattack.

Tang Yu and Karuizawa destroyed Tsukishiro’s Hive node and uncovered encrypted data about Project Elysium. They escaped with Ayanokoji’s help, but a tracking program implanted in Tang Yu left the White Room’s pursuit imminent.

• Tang Yu endured Tsukishiro’s mental attack and connected his consciousness to the network through his Neural Interface.
• Karuizawa joined Tang Yu in the digital battle, and their connection helped him destroy Tsukishiro’s core and reveal data about Project Elysium.
• Ayanokoji rescued Tang Yu and Karuizawa, downloaded the remaining intelligence, and warned them that Tang Yu had been implanted with a tracking program.
• Ayanokoji gave Tang Yu a safe-house address and told him to avoid electronic devices for 72 hours before separating from the pair.
• Tang Yu and Karuizawa drove away from Tokyo Bay as the System warned that White Room pursuers could detect Tang Yu within 48–72 hours.