Chapter Summaries

Lee Stein unveiled his five-meter Medium Assault Armor and used it to perform a devastating meteor-like dive into the Hound Organization’s town on Skull Island. The impact destroyed the town and sent the island’s wildlife fleeing in terror.

• Lee Stein deployed the Medium Assault Armor, impressing Tony Stark and prompting Tony to order an anti-Pandora armor project.
• Lee Stein launched the armor into a headfirst dive, while Tony Stark chased after him and warned him not to split the island.
• The Hound Organization spotted the descending mech, opened fire, and gathered more than a hundred Modal Hounds to raise an earthen barrier.
• The Medium Assault Armor pierced the barrier and crashed into the town, demolishing it and triggering massive waves, rockslides, and destruction across the area.
• Skull Island’s dinosaurs and other animals panicked and fled as the impact shook the island.

Lee Stein and Tony Stark surveyed the destruction after Lee’s attack on the native settlement and recovered from the impact. Lee exposed his identity to the surviving Yu Le Angus, killed him, and had Max retrieve Dilu Modar’s corpse for study.

• Otto Gunther and the anti-whale players reacted to the distant explosion, with the players suspecting Merchant had used a nuke.
• Tony Stark found Lee Stein emerging from the sea inside the Medium Assault Armor and checked that he was unharmed.
• Lee told Tony that his armor needed repairs and agreed to trade its shock-absorption blueprints for the Mark Armor’s system.
• Lee identified the dead attackers as members of the group that had framed Obadiah and finished off the surviving Hound members.
• Yu Le Angus recognized Lee Stein as Lord Jack, and Lee snapped his neck after Yu’s shocked outburst.
• Max brought Lee Dilu Modar’s mangled corpse so Lee could study the Modal Hound’s telekinesis.

Li Si discovered that the Star Core controlled Skull Island’s spatial barrier and devised a metal controller that could move it while providing a live map of the island. After restoring the barrier, he ordered Pandora to prepare a base centered on the mine cavern.

• Li Si sent Max away with Dilu Modar’s corpse and directed Tony Stark to explore Skull Island while he examined the Star Core.
• Li Si appraised the Star Core and found that the system valued it at 5,000 Achievement Points but could not identify its other properties.
• Li Si had Pandora reopen the mine tunnel, returned the Star Core to its original position, and restored Skull Island’s spatial barrier.
• Li Si encased the Star Core in a metal controller that could shift it and used its live map function to observe the island, including Tony Stark relieving himself.
• Li Si ordered Pandora to arrange power, draft a base layout, and prepare Engineering Robots while Doctor Otto and the others were told to sail south.

Li Si finalized plans to turn Skull Island into a floating research and defense base, then examined Tony Stark’s Iron Man armor after Tony crashed into the island’s invisible barrier. The chapter ended with Li Si learning that Tony’s sophisticated shock-absorption system relied on Jarvis and enormous computing power.

• Pandora presented Li Si with a 3D blueprint for a mobile Skull Island base equipped with research facilities, propulsion, and defenses.
• Tony Stark crashed headfirst into the ground after his network connection failed and he struck the island’s invisible barrier.
• Li Si pulled Tony out of the crater, and Tony let him scan the Mark Armor’s shock-absorption system.
• Li Si discovered the armor used countless hydraulic components controlled by Jarvis to distribute and dissipate impacts, requiring immense processing power.

Li Si persuaded Tony Stark to support Stein Group’s wireless power grid and framed it as part of protecting Earth from threats beyond the planet. After securing their agreement, Li Si completed preparations for the Skull Island base and left King Kong there as an experimental subject.

• Li Si showed Tony Stark the wireless power grid plan and argued that Stein Group’s technology would make physical power grids obsolete.
• Li Si warned Tony Stark about Asgard, the Heavenly Palace, and other civilizations beyond Earth, prompting Tony to offer Stark Group’s support in exchange for control authority.
• Li Si refused Tony’s request for equal control and agreed to give him only second-priority authority for his personal use.
• The transport ship reached Skull Island, where Engineering Robots unloaded materials and Pandora left behind an intelligent subprogram to coordinate construction.
• Li Si departed after the scouting ships withdrew, leaving King Kong on Skull Island to become an experimental subject.

Li Si logged out of Earth OL to protect his vulnerable real-world body and found himself weak and starving. After eating emergency Federation bills, he recovered enough to plan to find proper food.

• Li Si told Tony Stark he would keep Skull Island as a research base and might let him examine its spatial technology later.
• Li Si asked Max to keep people away for two days, then logged out of the game.
• Li Si woke in his game pod with a sluggish mind and intense hunger, and complained that the pod lacked technology to maintain his body.
• Li Si found his emergency rations expired, so he ate fifteen fresh ten-dollar Federation bills, which were edible compressed biscuits.
• Li Si felt less nauseated and decided to get proper food after his stomach recovered.

Li Si planned ways to protect himself in reality, including building a weak AI, modifying his house, and making serums, but realized his limited funds ruled out much of the equipment he wanted. He decided to wait for the game update and profit from Players, which he expected to bring more Players and make in-game resources valuable in reality.

• Li Si retrieved his laptop and planned to build a weak AI system to monitor his home and gather information about Three Rivers City.
• Li Si listed surveillance, defensive weapons, robot housekeepers, and Lizard serums as ways to improve his safety and health.
• Li Si realized his savings were not enough for the robots and custom equipment, so he removed the robots from his plan.
• Li Si decided to wait for the game update before fleecing Players and converting in-game resources into real profits.

Li Si programmed a fuzzy speech-recognition module for an intelligent system at Corner Cafe, typing so quickly that he disturbed the regulars. After seeing Li Si compile and run the program without errors, a plaid-shirted programmer asked him to teach the technique, but Li Si said it came from practice.

• Li Si typed rapidly at Corner Cafe, disrupting the quiet and frustrating the regulars.
• A plaid-shirted man confronted Li Si and assumed he was copying documents until he saw the programming environment on Li Si's laptop.
• Li Si compiled and ran his program successfully, leaving the plaid-shirted programmer stunned.
• Li Si apologized for the noise and explained that he was writing a fuzzy speech-recognition module for an intelligent system.
• The plaid-shirted man asked Li Si how to write over ten thousand words an hour, and Li Si told him to practice on his own.

Lee Stein waited at a coffee shop for Fang Yuan’s boss so he could negotiate short-term access to her biology lab, hoping to make Regeneration Serum and transformation serum. Fang Yuan eventually got her agreement, and Lee Stein prepared to meet her.

• A plaid-shirted man left after buying Lee Stein coffee, and the customers’ attention distracted Lee from coding.
• Lee Stein called Fang Yuan to ask when his boss would arrive and request her contact information.
• Fang Yuan admitted he had been pulled into the lab and had not told his boss about Lee Stein’s request.
• Lee Stein reflected on his strained ties to Fang Yuan and explained why he needed a biology lab with suitable equipment.
• Fang Yuan called back to say his boss had agreed to meet and discuss renting the lab, and Lee Stein thanked him.

Li Si visited Fang Yuan at Liu Biopharmaceuticals to discuss renting the laboratory, got lost in the office building, and reconnected with Sun Yue and Fang Yuan. Fang Yuan noticed Li Si’s newfound confidence, but their banter restored their familiar closeness as they headed onward.

• Li Si arrived at Nine Confluence Building and wandered the twenty-first floor looking for Liu Biopharmaceuticals, but could not find it or reach Fang Yuan by phone.
• Sun Yue recognized Li Si as the “Speed-over-Ten-Thousand god,” gave him directions, and was wounded by Li Si’s jokes about hair before Li Si received Fang Yuan’s call.
• Fang Yuan came to fetch Li Si, and the two left together after Li Si thanked Sun Yue.
• Fang Yuan asked whether Li Si knew Sun Yue and remarked that Li Si seemed much more confident and imposing than before.
• Li Si joked with Fang Yuan about education, grace, and good looks until Fang Yuan felt reassured by his old friend’s familiar manner.

Li Si visited Liu Biopharmaceuticals with Fang Yuan to inspect its small, well-equipped laboratory and learn about Liu Qin’s research. After hearing that she was developing stem-cell-based T-cell immunotherapy, Li Si judged the project’s approach limited and waited as Liu Qin continued working.

• Fang Yuan led Li Si through the corridors to Liu Biopharmaceuticals’ cramped laboratory.
• Li Si saw Liu Qin working and formed a poor impression after she reprimanded Fang Yuan for bringing him in without sterile clothing.
• Fang Yuan told Li Si that Liu Qin was researching chimeric modification of stem-cell gene fragments to produce tumor-fighting T-cells.
• Li Si recognized the research as a variation on T-cell immunotherapy and thought allogeneic T-cell engineering would have greater value.
• Fang Yuan was surprised that Li Si understood the research, and Li Si mocked his unconvincing reaction.

Li Si criticized Liu Qin’s gene-splicing experiment and offered to demonstrate a better method in exchange for two days’ use of her laboratory. Liu Qin accepted, and Li Si began preparing a serum while Fang Yuan watched in shock.

• Li Si told Liu Qin her crude splicing method would keep failing because she had not removed the foreign organism’s redundant genes.
• Liu Qin focused on Li Si’s claim that the redundant genes could be removed and asked whether he could do it.
• Li Si proposed using the laboratory for two days to make a gene-splicing serum while Liu Qin observed.
• Liu Qin agreed to the deal and invited Li Si to use the laboratory.
• Li Si took a small lizard from his pocket, cut off its head, and expertly began operating the laboratory equipment.

Li Si used human and lizard genetic samples to create the Regeneration Serum through a complex cross-species gene fusion process, leaving Fang Yuan amazed and Liu Qin transfixed by his work. After several hours, he finished the serum and continued working on the more complex transformation serum.

• Li Si assembled genetic fragments from the lizard and his own body while Fang Yuan watched in disbelief.
• Liu Qin studied Li Si’s scattered calculations and realized he was performing mature cross-species gene fusion, but she did not interrupt him.
• Li Si judged Liu Qin’s character favorably but decided against recruiting her to his research.
• Li Si worked for several hours, took Fang Yuan, Liu Qin, and the others out for a meal, then returned alone to the laboratory.
• Li Si finished producing the Regeneration Serum around midnight and began working on the transformation serum.

Li Si finished creating Vis and used it to control construction robots as they began turning his home into a heavily fortified base. He launched the Stein Trading Network to connect real-world Players with his in-game Personal Store, but it had no visitors yet, so he planned to log in after a good night's rest and build its reputation.

• Li Si tested Vis, rebooted its logic and voice modules after it crashed on his joke, and ordered it to take over the construction machines.
• Vis began renovating Li Si's home with surveillance equipment, concealed firearms, and retractable alloy-steel armor.
• Li Si launched the Stein Trading Network, a real-world trading platform linked to his Personal Store through the Entrepreneur Template.
• Li Si noted that the website had no visitors and decided to rest before logging into the game the next day.

Nearly a year after his previous life, Li Si returned to Old Man Zhang’s restaurant and overheard a player boasting about him, whom he silently vowed to punish. When Earth OL reopened after its update, Li Si welcomed the newly unlocked dungeons and learned that the game’s time ratio had increased to five-to-one, a change that would draw millions away from reality.

• Li Si visited Old Man Zhang’s restaurant, where Old Man Zhang eventually recognized him after initially failing to do so.
• Li Si overheard a group of young people discussing Merchant Lee Stein, and he recognized the short, chubby man who had been boasting about him.
• Li Si exercised the next morning and logged into Earth OL as its servers reopened after a day-long update.
• Li Si read that the update unlocked dungeons, increased the time ratio to 1:5, changed new-player benefits, and capped registrations at ten million.
• Li Si recalled how the game’s increased immersion would pull people from reality and eventually make some treat the real world like a game.

After returning to the transport ship, Li Si used Pandora’s virtual space and accelerated consciousness to test whether Marvel Earth was real. His stable vital signs convinced him that the two worlds truly had different rates of time, and that his friends on Marvel Earth were not fictional.

• Pandora welcomed Li Si back and told him the ship would reach New York soon, Tony Stark had left, and Gwen hoped he would contact her.
• Li Si greeted Max and the others, ate a meal Pandora prepared, and asked her to create a virtual space with accelerated consciousness.
• Pandora simulated the Stein Tower lobby and increased Li Si’s consciousness acceleration until he reached six times normal speed.
• Li Si checked his stable vital signs and concluded that Earth OL’s time acceleration reflected a genuine difference in time between worlds, confirming that Marvel Earth was real.
• Li Si admitted he had needed proof because he could not accept that Max, Gwen, and Tony Stark were fake.

Lee realized that Pandora could not keep fooling Ivan Vanko with repeated staged revenge attempts, so he decided to confront him and force him to focus on research. After entering the synchronized virtual scene, Lee became unsettled by its realism and wondered whether his own rebirth might be another deception.

• Lee learned that Ivan Vanko had rebuilt his armor and was preparing another revenge attempt against Tony Stark.
• Lee inspected Vanko's new armor and concluded that hatred was distracting him from technological research.
• Lee ordered Pandora to synchronize him with Ivan Vanko in spacetime so he could knock sense into him.
• Lee found himself in a realistic lobby scene, where virtual employees and Max greeted him.
• Lee asked Pandora to reduce the virtual people's interactions with him, then questioned whether his own rebirth could be part of a similar scheme.

Lee confronted Ivan Vanko on a bridge after Pandora tracked his movements, and Ivan attacked believing Tony Stark was too far away to help. Lee assembled the Multi-Function Combat Platform into a towering Medium Assault Armor and overwhelmed Ivan with a relentless barrage.

• Lee ordered Pandora to materialize the Multi-Function Combat Platform and locate Ivan Vanko, then flew out to meet him.
• Ivan Vanko changed course toward Lee, and the two descended onto a bridge, sending panicked passersby fleeing.
• Ivan Vanko told Lee that Tony Stark was in the Middle East and attacked with his energy whips.
• Lee dodged Ivan Vanko's attack and assembled the floating components into a huge Medium Assault Armor.
• Lee's Medium Assault Armor battered Ivan Vanko with successive heavy attacks as he struggled to evade them.

Ivan Vanko returned to the night of his death and joined Hydra again, then discovered the Mechanical Overlord System had revived him and bound itself to him. After learning he could earn points by contributing knowledge, he drew advanced wireless power technology and considered testing the system’s item delivery.

• Ivan Vanko woke in the alley where Lee Stein had killed him and realized he had returned to the past.
• Ivan followed the Hydra agent to the snowy mountain base and concealed his familiarity with it while settling into the laboratory.
• The Mechanical Overlord System completed its binding, and Red Queen told Ivan that the system had revived him by reversing the timeline.
• Ivan learned that the system traded points for knowledge and could offer technology, revival permissions, and cross-dimensional deliveries.
• Ivan uploaded common knowledge, earned one thousand points, and drew the Glory Type III Wireless Power Base technical data.
• Ivan examined the advanced wireless power technology and decided to test the system’s delivery of physical items.

Lee Stein secretly manipulated Ivan Vanko into believing he had awakened a system, planning to guide his research and use him to advance the Stein Group’s projects. Lee returned to Stein Tower, where his colleagues joked about the women flirting with them.

• Lee told Pandora to unlock technical data and mysterious items for Ivan Vanko over time, steer him toward improving the mech suits and satellites, and add Cybertron technical assistance to the system’s prizes.
• Lee encouraged Ivan Vanko to work hard, then left the virtual space without Ivan noticing him.
• Lee woke aboard his ship, which had docked while he was in virtual space, and Pandora took him and his entourage back to Stein Tower in Bumblebee.
• Lee arrived at Stein Tower and teased Max and the other department heads about the women who had flirted with them.
• Curt Connors called the women dispensable proteins, Otto Gunther asked for more research funding, and Samuel Sterns suggested studying human reproduction.