Chapter Summaries

Meng Qing refused to investigate a blue-haired wight reported near the original Atlantis ruins, choosing instead to focus on training and obtaining the potion. The wight returned to Mauritania, massacred a military base while searching for the Splitters, and destroyed a camera after realizing Computer was watching.

• Meng Qing realized he needed seven more games to gather enough Index for the potion and continued training to strengthen his body and Mental Power.
• A Hand of the Serpent member showed Meng Qing footage of a blue-haired figure freezing a desert and attacking Lord Abel’s team, but Meng Qing refused to help.
• The footage left behind in Meng Qing’s gym played a message from the wight saying he would soon return to Sequence 009.
• The wight reached a military base in Mauritania, killed the soldiers and a weapons clerk, and demanded to know where the Splitters were.
• Computer analyzed camera footage of the wight’s apparently instantaneous movements, and the wight noticed Computer watching and crushed the camera.

Sequence 009 learned that the Otherworlder had returned and prepared to confront him, while continuing to lead Chaos Splitter’s violent campaigns. He armed himself with his second Absolute Trait weapon, the Spear of Longinus, to welcome the Otherworlder.

• Sequence 009 heard from Sequence 020 that the Otherworlder had returned and appeared to have evolved.
• Sequence 009 mocked animal-rights campaigners, shot a man, and ate part of his corpse as police arrived.
• The Clown, the Centaur, the Sword Forger, and Rulong appeared at the scene as Sequence 009 prepared to fight the arriving forces.
• The chapter described Chaos Splitter’s forces and how the Otherworlder had swept through nearly thirteen of their military zones in Africa.
• Sequence 009 retrieved the Spear of Longinus from his armory to use against the Otherworlder.

The Frost King waited in a frozen African desert for 009, who arrived armed with the Spear of Longinus and tested his defenses. The Frost King appeared to teleport and somehow made 009 stab himself in the head, leaving his new abilities unexplained.

• The Frost King waited among frozen Chaos Splitter soldiers for 009 after advancing his Sequence.
• 009 attacked with the Spear of Longinus, whose Absolute Pierce could pierce any target it struck, but the Frost King stopped the spear without touching it.
• 009 taunted the Frost King about the old man and the girl, but the Frost King remained calm and nearly fell asleep.
• 009 lunged at the Frost King, who flickered behind him and then returned to his throne, making 009 question whether he had teleported.
• The Spear of Longinus suddenly stabbed through 009's head while he held it, but he felt nothing and the Frost King never moved from his throne.

Sequence 009 fought the Frost King and deduced that his evolved power involved time, but the Frost King repeatedly countered his attacks. The Frost King then summoned the frozen monsters and stopped a nuclear warhead in midair, leaving Sequence 009 unnerved by an unseen presence.

• Sequence 009 realized that the Frost King's teleportation and his own strange movement through the sky were connected to a black handprint on his chest.
• Sequence 009 pierced space to create a black hole, but the Frost King sealed it with a raised hand.
• The Frost King summoned more than a hundred frozen Chaos Splitter soldiers, who charged at Sequence 009.
• Sequence 009 called in a nuclear strike, but the Frost King stopped the warhead in midair without stopping its timer.
• Sequence 009 saw a massive handprint appear on the warhead and sensed something invisible standing before him.

Frost King’s unstable ability let him freeze the world around him, but his prolonged sleeplessness left him too exhausted to finish off 009. After Frost King disappeared, 009 connected his power to the rumored Dreamland and wondered whether people reached it through dreams.

• 009 struggled to understand Frost King’s apparent ability to freeze time and concluded that it might be related to the Dreamland.
• Frost King remembered Chen Ye’s warning not to sleep for a month and focused on killing 009, whom he believed deserved to die.
• Frost King froze the ice field, attacked 009 with repeated strikes, and took the Spear of Longinus, but 009’s brain regenerated and he tried to call the computer.
• Frost King’s exhaustion overwhelmed him, so he dropped the spear and staggered away as time resumed and the surrounding monsters fell asleep.
• 009 recalled the rumor that the Dreamland could grant wishes and wondered whether dreaming was the way to reach it.

Frost King struggled through shifting hallucinations on an unfamiliar city street, collapsed, and woke amid visions of monsters and a bloodied girl. After attacking the figures he saw, he was struck by a winged man, then came to on the road as emergency responders examined him after a traffic accident.

• Frost King staggered through a city as his surroundings flickered between realities, and a girl pulled him out of the path of a turning pickup truck.
• Frost King hallucinated a monster attack, then collapsed from exhaustion before he could reach safety.
• Frost King woke in a vision of an abandoned city surrounded by corpses, saw a furry creature fight a centipede-like monster, and then returned to the street with the girl alive beside him.
• Frost King vomited a living centipede-like worm, struck at the girl and an old man he recognized from his visions, and attacked a giant eye in the sky.
• A greatsword transformed into a white-haired, insect-winged man who kicked Frost King across the road, ending the visions.
• Traffic police and emergency responders arrived after witnesses reported Frost King standing in the road, and the responders found him apparently unharmed.

Frost King’s unstable consciousness made him experience a series of events in the Spirit World, where his Absolute Freeze affected time and let him overpower the authorities trying to detain him. Chen Ye revealed that he had deliberately kept Frost King’s mind unstable as an experiment to complete his fourth-tier power.

• Frost King woke after being hit by a pickup truck and gave the emergency responders the name Mo Yan.
• The United Nations Security Bureau tried to take Frost King into custody, but his unseen power lifted the agents into the air and broke his handcuffs.
• Frost King drove back the Nine-Tailed Fox Task Force and vanished into the sky.
• Chen Ye explained that Frost King’s encounters with the girl and the old cosmonaut had occurred in his Spirit World, while onlookers had only seen him struck by the truck.
• Chen Ye revealed that he had deceived Frost King into staying awake so his consciousness would keep shifting between worlds and his fourth-tier power would become complete.

Qin Leng reviewed evidence of the Frost King's ability and considered the growing threat from Sequence 009 while preparing successors for Nine-Tailed Fox. A report on a mysterious organization called Black Queen left its origins and aims unknown.

• Qin Leng concluded that the Frost King had an unseen ability beyond the third tier, after comparing recordings from Africa and Asia.
• Qin Leng considered reports about Chaos Split's Containment Objects and worried that Sequence 009 remained unresolved as his own awakening pushed him toward ascension.
• Qin Leng reviewed eleven prospective leaders who had joined the O5 Council and considered dividing his potion among ten trusted people, despite the risks.
• Qin Leng noted that the Hand of the Serpent and Chaos Split remained out of reach, leaving the conflict at a stalemate.
• Qin Leng read a report identifying the Black Queen as a new organization whose representative could communicate with the Library of 024 and had ties to Cain.

A secret group traded the Hand of the Serpent a temporary Ghoul Book for a diamond, demonstrating the book’s power by raising a corpse as a ghoul. A month later, Meng Qing entered his fifth Game Space match as D-Class Personnel and learned that two angels might make this round a God Slaying Bureau.

• The Hand of the Serpent exchanged a diamond taken from the Chaos Splitter for the Black Queen’s Ghoul Book, which the K-masked man said had to be returned within six months.
• The K-masked man used the Ghoul Book to raise a murdered man as a controllable ghoul and offered to include it in the deal.
• Lord Cain ordered the Hand of the Serpent member to stop haggling, and both sides completed the exchange.
• A month later, Meng Qing entered his fifth Game Space match as D-Class Personnel with seventeen thousand points.
• As the D-Class group rushed toward the Light Containment Zone, Meng Qing met the Monster Commander, who warned that Sequence 001 and Sequence 023 might be angels and suggested finding an electric cannon or using nukes to kill them.

Meng Qing and Number Bro tried to gather circuit boards to detonate the facility’s nuke before the angels awakened. Number Bro reached the surface with two boards and rallied Nine-Tailed Fox, while Meng Qing remained underground as the angels moved toward him.

• After Sequence 008 attacked the Light Containment Zone and D-Class Personnel joined it, Meng Qing and Number Bro took mithril crossbows from the armory and decided to seek circuit boards instead of fighting.
• Meng Qing and Number Bro split up to search the facility, and Meng Qing found a radio marked as containing a memetic hazard but took it without playing it.
• Nine-Tailed Fox arrived, and Number Bro came up the elevator with three researchers, seven guards, more than ten D-Class Personnel, and two circuit boards.
• Number Bro ordered the group to find the last circuit board, guard the elevator, and keep the monsters from reaching the surface while they prepared to detonate the nuke.
• The angels awakened and headed toward the second floor, and Meng Qing shot a bone from his hand with his Bone Bullet Handgun ability after a little guy spotted him.

Meng Qing survived below the facility while the monsters wiped out the Nine-Tailed Foxes and then discovered that a radio transformed the dead players into birds. The birds merged around him into a powerful Eagle Form creature, which began fighting the monsters.

• The monster team protected the evolving angel while Sequence 001 infiltrated the human side, and the two angels defeated the Nine-Tailed Foxes before the game ended.
• Meng Qing remained alive on the lowest level, where he had outmaneuvered more than ten Sequence 008-1 instances.
• The monsters found Meng Qing, who realized the human side had been wiped out and activated a nearby radio.
• The radio turned Meng Qing into a giant bird and revived the dead players as birds, which merged into a single Eagle Form creature.
• The bird creature punched Sequence 008 apart and fought both angels to a standstill.

Meng Qing and the other players won a bizarre match as flamingos, then Meng Qing saved enough points to meet the organizer and receive a potion. After Chen Ye assigned three potions and recorded new sequences, he noticed Qin Leng had created another development and added Sequence 031: Ten Man Group.

• The flamingo players defeated Sequence 001, survived the monsters’ nuclear blast, and won the match with thirty-four flamingos remaining.
• Meng Qing received his settlement rewards, ignored a caller, and spent the next two months saving points until he had fifty thousand and one.
• Meng Qing met Number Bro and another player in a pitch-black space, where Chen Ye asked them to state their desires.
• Meng Qing asked for power, the other player asked for money, and Number Bro asked for wisdom; Chen Ye chose God's Blood Sequence, Gambler, and Liar Eater for them.
• The three players drank their potions and were permanently removed from the game, while Chen Ye recorded Meng Qing as the new Sequence 006 and added Sequences 029 and 030.
• Chen Ye noticed Qin Leng's actions and added Number 031: Ten Man Group to the stone tablet.

Qin Leng organized the ten potion recipients as the Ten Heavenly Stems and directed the O5 Council to find and manage Awakened Ones across Eurasia. As governments began investigating the phenomenon, a blood-screening effort was underway at a high school in northeastern China.

• Qin Leng named the ten people who received the potion the Ten Heavenly Stems, assigned them five elemental teams, and kept their abilities secret while they adapted for future operations against the Chaos Splitter.
• Qin Leng ordered the O5 Council to expand its search for Awakened Ones and recruit them, warning that their growing Mental Power could expose them to danger.
• Qin Leng told the council not to oppose other governments gathering Awakened Ones and planned to notify governments worldwide in two months.
• Qin Leng explained that Awakened Ones could emerge among humans, animals, plants, and hostile organizations, and that the potion recipients were likely to awaken as well.
• Students at an elite high school in northeastern China lined up for blood tests while discussing the screenings and a fighter jet that passed overhead.

After a potion pushed Meng Qing’s Mental Power to the fourth tier, he saw monsters in the red mist while hiding his ability from them. He learned that a group was searching for the Rabbit Talisman and set out to test his new power by pursuing it.

• Meng Qing saw enormous monsters through the mist, then gave his candied hawthorn to the boy who had thanked him for returning his sketchbook.
• The boy casually dodged a monster thrown toward him, and Meng Qing left without questioning the coincidence.
• Meng Qing spotted a black-haired man with a strange furry creature in a café and recognized the man as an oni.
• Han Jian told Meng Qing that the Hand of the Serpent was searching for the Rabbit Talisman.
• Meng Qing remembered that the talismans had fallen into the surface world after Sea King was exiled, then decided to pursue the Rabbit Talisman and test his potion’s abilities.

Meng Qing confronted the Rabbit Talisman’s speedster and the pursuing Chaos Splitters, revealing that his ability closely matched Chen Ye’s Puppet Master ability. He killed Dunn Smith with the Demon Blade and left the Rabbit Talisman’s fate unresolved.

• A speedster explained that his second uncle had sent him a rabbit-imprinted stone that granted speed, then vanished, and that multiple groups had pursued him.
• Meng Qing trapped the speedster between Silk Threads and demanded the Rabbit Talisman, while armed men in green uniforms closed in and claimed the rabbit belonged to them.
• Meng Qing used invisible puppets to pin the attackers down, and the narration noted that his ability was almost identical to Chen Ye’s Puppet Master ability.
• Dunn Smith broke free, described his combat skills and Ghoul Cell-enhanced strength, and advanced on Meng Qing.
• Meng Qing revealed the Demon Blade and beheaded Dunn Smith with a single slash.

Meng Qing battled Arthur Morgan while the Rabbit Talisman bearer tried to escape, but Nightmare's Absolute Darkness carried him away. Several days later, Fan Ye explained the Containment Objects and Nine-Tailed Fox's work to the recovered man and his second uncle, while making clear that neither would join the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches team.

• Meng Qing fought Arthur Morgan, whose enhanced strength and skill let him cut through Meng Qing's Silk Threads and pressure him with flying knives.
• Meng Qing unleashed a powerful whirlwind and attacked Arthur with the Demon Blade, while Arthur realized Meng Qing could use magic.
• As Meng Qing and Arthur clashed, the Rabbit Talisman bearer escaped his restraints but found Hand of the Serpent members blocking his path.
• Nightmare enveloped the street in Absolute Darkness, and the Rabbit Talisman bearer vanished when the darkness lifted.
• Several days later, Fan Ye brought the man to Nine-Tailed Fox headquarters, where Fan Ye explained that the Rabbit Talisman was a Containment Object and that he and his second uncle would have to cooperate with the organization.

Arthur gained the Absolute Traits of Absolute Pierce and Absolute Sever, while Sequence 009 received Black Arrow as a potion and lost its ability to split things. As Nine-Tailed Fox deployed the Twelve Earthly Branches, Jia Wood and Ji Earth helped capture Chaos Splitter members after a battle in London.

• Arthur completed his second evolution, gaining Absolute Pierce and Absolute Sever but losing some range in his sword-transferring ability.
• Chen Ye gave Sequence 009 a potion made from Black Arrow, which caused it to lose its splitting ability and gain Absolute Hit when firing itself.
• Nine-Tailed Fox organized five recovered talismans into the Twelve Earthly Branches and deployed the Ten Heavenly Stems into combat.
• Chaos Splitter recovered the Rat and Horse talismans, destroyed London Bridge, and launched missiles while fleeing Nine-Tailed Fox.
• Jia Wood and Ji Earth stopped the Chaos Splitter vehicles with their phantoms, allowing Nine-Tailed Fox forces to arrest the members.

Jia Wood and Ren Water trained together while an instructor worried that the Ten Heavenly Stems’ personalities matched their destinies too perfectly. Meanwhile, the Chaos Splitter learned that the Wight was heading for the North Pole and mobilized to protect the Mother Coffin and Child Coffin.

• Jia Wood gave Ren Water his dinner and encouraged him after they discussed training and Jia Wood’s unusually easy mission.
• An instructor reflected that the Ten Heavenly Stems’ personalities and birth charts matched their destinies, and wondered whether Qin Leng had chosen them deliberately.
• The Priest warned Arthur and the Sword Forger that the Wight had gone to the North Pole, where the Chaos Splitter’s Mother Coffin and Child Coffin were hidden.
• Sequence 009 ordered a large-scale expedition to the North Pole with one hundred thousand men and Happy Birthday.

The Nine-Tailed Fox and Hand of the Serpent learned that Chaos Splitter had sent a large force to the North Pole and debated whether the suspicious message was a trap. Meng Qing refused to join the expedition, but after encountering Yang Lin, he received memories and a plea from Chu Yang to save the boy, so he decided to teach him self-defense.

• The Nine-Tailed Fox and Hand of the Serpent intercepted Chaos Splitter's coded message and suspected it might be a trap, but saw the possible presence of Sequence 009 as an opportunity.
• Cain and Abel argued over whether the Hand of the Serpent should travel to the North Pole by sea or air, and Meng Qing used a vote to assign each of them a different route while opting out himself.
• Meng Qing returned to Asia intending to avoid trouble and keep his identity hidden from Qin Leng.
• Meng Qing met Yang Lin drawing a five-star red flag and learned the boy wanted to become a police officer.
• Meng Qing received fragmented memories of Chu Yang and heard a phantom plead with him to save someone; he suspected the plea concerned Yang Lin.
• Meng Qing decided to teach Yang Lin a few moves so the boy could protect himself.

A month after Chaos Splitter reached the North Pole, the Frost King faced Sequence 009, whose new ability let him seize opponents and launch them toward the sun. Qin Leng intervened by sending both of them to another world, leaving Nightmare wondering whether Sequence 009 had really been so easy to deal with.

• Chaos Splitter arrived at the fallen iceberg base and found it surrounded by wraiths, while the Frost King discovered that sleeping had weakened his connection to the Tengu.
• The Frost King attacked Arthur and asked where Sequence 009 was, but he kept evading Arthur’s throwing knife.
• Sequence 009 struck with a missile, grabbed the Frost King, and used his Absolute Hit ability and Immortal-Binding Rope to launch them toward the sun.
• The Frost King repeatedly stopped time but could not escape Sequence 009’s Absolute Indestructibility and grip.
• Qin Leng seized Sequence 009 and the Frost King and sent them to another world.
• Nightmare asked Qin Leng whether Sequence 009 had really been that easy to deal with.