Chapter Summaries

The Covenant's Executive Officers hunted A-49 in the Dark World, but the battle yielded no Dark Nucleus. Bayerdians learned of the hunt and, concerned by the Covenant's plans, assigned a real-world task to a confident Zero Knight.

• The Covenant's Executive Officers trapped A-49 in an electromagnetic information prison and attacked it with Arc Light, Fallen flames, and machines.
• A-49 survived the first blast and charged at the Covenant's aged young-looking member, whose machines self-destructed to stop it.
• The Covenant's researchers lamented that A-49 had produced no Dark Nucleus, while the aged member collected energy in a transparent sphere and praised an unnamed young man.
• Bayerdians learned that the Covenant had hunted another A-rank Number and told Yag Nagaen and Klausel that its frequent hunts served a deeper purpose.
• Bayerdians declined to start a war and said he needed one of them to handle an important matter in the real world.
• A confident white-haired Zero Knight volunteered to take on Bayerdians's assignment.

Fang Ran, Tang Bing, and Osphia fled through a British town while the Covenant’s Faceless Men searched for them. Fang Ran hid Tang Bing from a pursuer and found shelter in a building, where they entered a room marked “Gou Qi.”

• Fang Ran and Tang Bing escaped into town while Osphia distracted their pursuers with Tu Er, and Osphia explained that the Faceless Men were equipped with Arcane Machinery.
• Fang Ran carried the exhausted Tang Bing through the streets as they searched for a way to leave England and avoid surveillance.
• Fang Ran spotted a Faceless Man approaching and hid with Tang Bing inside mascot costumes until it passed.
• Fang Ran carried Tang Bing across town, jumped onto a building’s second-floor corridor, and entered the room marked “Gou Qi.”

Fang Ran and Tang Bing escaped their pursuers and broke into a room in Bath, where a kindhearted Chinese woman hid them and offered to help them leave England. The chapter left them with a route to Heathrow and the question of whether they had enough money for the journey.

• Fang Ran carried Tang Bing into an unlit building in Bath, where they discovered a woman in the room.
• Fang Ran and Tang Bing prepared to flee when someone knocked, but the woman reassured Ms. Andrew that nothing was wrong and kept their presence secret.
• Fang Ran told the woman that he and Tang Bing needed to leave England that night but could not access travel information.
• The woman offered to help and explained that they could take a train to Paddington Station, then the Heathrow Express to catch a flight to France.
• The woman checked the schedule and warned Fang Ran and Tang Bing that the fastest trains and flights would be expensive.

Fang Ran, Tang Bing, and Osphia escaped Bath by train after Gou Qi helped them learn how to leave the town. As they headed toward London, Fang Ran reflected on what he wanted to do, and sensed the breath of a card before it awakened.

• Gou Qi told Fang Ran and Tang Bing how to reach London from Bath by train.
• Osphia arrived at Gou Qi’s room, took Tang Bing, and hurried Fang Ran and Tang Bing out through the window.
• Fang Ran thanked Gou Qi, learned her name, and jumped from the second-floor window after calling himself a righteous champion.
• Fang Ran, Tang Bing, and Osphia rode on the rear of a train toward London, where Fang Ran said he was glad to have companions.
• Osphia said she wanted to protect her land and stop the Covenant’s conspiracy, then asked whether Fang Ran would return to Huaxia or get involved.
• Fang Ran gave no clear answer, and on the train roof he sensed the breath of a card before it awakened.

Fang Ran and Osphia fled toward Leesbury Reservoir while drawing the Faceless Men away from Tang Bing, but their escape turned into a desperate fight as a powerful Puppet formed. The chapter ended with Ignat and Alchemist Hormonculus appearing beside the A-rank monster, trapping Fang Ran and Osphia in a worsening situation.

• Fang Ran sent Tang Bing toward Heathrow Airport and reunited with Osphia outside London.
• Fang Ran and Osphia fled across Coenbrook toward Leesbury Reservoir while dozens of Faceless Men pursued them.
• Osphia fought off the pursuers with elemental magic as she and Fang Ran tried to buy time for Tang Bing to board her flight.
• The damaged Faceless Men collapsed into flesh that gathered into a Puppet whose aura surpassed B-rank.
• A barrier sealed off the area, and Ignat struck Osphia with a mercury bullet despite her activating White Wings.
• Alchemist Hormonculus, Nevernight Palace's twelfth Zero Knight, appeared beside Ignat and the fully formed Puppet, which radiated an A-rank aura.

Fang Ran and Osphia were cornered by Harmon, Ignat, and their army until White Night intervened. Harmon revealed why he had betrayed Nevernight Palace, and Alberesili stripped him of his Zero Knight title before summoning the White Night mech.

• Harmon strengthened the Faceless Men and demanded that Fang Ran reveal where he had hidden the Dark Energy Crystal.
• As the giant Puppets and Ignat attacked Fang Ran and Osphia, Fang Ran chose to stand his ground and prepared to summon Gluttony.
• A blazing white figure struck back the enemies and saved Fang Ran and Osphia; Osphia identified him as the Tenth Zero Knight, White Night - Alberesili.
• Alberesili asked Harmon why he had betrayed Nevernight Palace, and Harmon admitted that his obsession with alchemy had overcome his loyalty to Her Highness.
• Harmon’s Zero Knight cloak burned away, and Alberesili declared him an enemy and summoned the White Night mech.

Fang Ran and Osphia fought to escape a deadly ambush after White Night was bound, and Fang Ran chose to reach for Osphia despite the danger. Gluttony swallowed them and the spatial seal, allowing them to teleport onto the plane that had already taken off.

• Eru Beishili deployed White Night and fought Harmon, Ignat, and the alchemy Magic Puppets while Fang Ran and Osphia prepared to escape.
• Tang Bing boarded the flight to Paris and sent the spatial signal Osphia was waiting for.
• A deadly aura appeared, and enormous threads bound White Night while Ignat and the Magic Puppets closed in on Fang Ran and Osphia.
• Osphia hesitated to leave Fang Ran behind, allowing Ignat to block her Divine Art Coordinate with a spatial seal.
• Fang Ran rushed to Osphia and reached for her, and she grasped his hand.
• Fang Ran used Gluttony to swallow himself and Osphia along with the spatial seal, and they teleported onto the departing plane.

Fang Ran and Osphia escaped the sealed battlefield and ended up together in a cramped airplane restroom on their way to Paris. After confronting their guilt and injuries, they began to treat each other as companions, and Osphia joined Fang Ran on his journey to the next stop.

• Fang Ran fell onto Osphia when they arrived aboard the plane, and Osphia explained that his ability had broken the spatial seal while she tried to activate the Divine Art Coordinate.
• Fang Ran told Osphia he did not blame her for wanting to escape alone, and he admitted that he had rescued her for reasons he considered childish.
• Osphia asked why Fang Ran had come to save her, and he said they were even before she offered to help treat his worsening injuries.
• Osphia examined Fang Ran's ribs and arm, while Fang Ran used Forced Calm to suppress his thoughts about her and received the card The Voice.
• Fang Ran started asking whether Osphia had been hostile because of the end of the C-Rank battle, but she made him stop by hurting him.

Fang Ran and Osphia escaped the battlefield as Dead Line and the Demoness appeared, forcing Eru Beishili to consider how to prevent their clash from endangering the nearby town. In the Dark World, the planners learned that the London operation had failed and ordered the experiment to proceed with one node missing.

• Fang Ran and Osphia vanished from the battlefield, and Eru Beishili freed White Night from its restraints.
• Dead Line appeared but did not pursue Eru Beishili, while the Demoness emerged and confronted her with her Puppets.
• Eru Beishili recognized the danger of a battle between the two A-rank Upper Tiers and focused on stopping it from reaching the nearby town.
• A young man aboard the Dark World's warship learned that the Dark Energy Crystal had been taken and the intruders had escaped England.
• The young man ordered the experiment to proceed with one node missing and sent Francis and their new allies to capture the escapees.

Fang Ran organized a punishment game with Meng Lang, Gou Yu, and Xia Yao, hoping to make Gou Yu wear a backless sweater, but the game instead led to embarrassing punishments and a bizarre dream. He woke up in the bathroom after dreaming that Meng Lang appeared in the outfit.

• Fang Ran proposed a party game in which players guessed the words on their foreheads and drew punishments, secretly filling the box with notes about wearing a backless sweater.
• Xia Yao joined the game, and Meng Lang tricked Fang Ran into saying his forbidden word; Fang Ran drew a punishment that made him hug Meng Lang.
• Fang Ran caught Meng Lang saying an exclamation written on his headband and drew a punishment requiring them to play the Pocky game.
• Gou Yu drew a transfer slip, and as the spinner turned, Fang Ran imagined an intimate scene with Xia Yao before the scene shifted to Meng Lang wearing a backless sweater.
• Fang Ran jolted awake from his deep-sleep dream and hit his head on the bathroom cabinet.

Qing Ning searched London for the missing Night Bureau members after the Yellow Mist sealed the Simulation Scenario, but she could neither locate nor contact them. Just as she sensed a strange fluctuation, the story shifted to a Huaxia girl arriving in France and rushing to the restroom.

• A week after the Observation Room fell, Qing Ning used electromagnetic waves to search for the Night Bureau in London, where the Yellow Mist blocked visibility, communication, and energy sensing.
• Qing Ning rested in an empty building and worried about Ye Sheng, Night Crow, Cheng Zi, and the other separated members.
• Qing Ning went back outside and sensed a faint, strange fluctuation in the Yellow Mist.
• The story shifted to Charles de Gaulle Airport, where a Huaxia girl arrived on a midnight flight from England and hurried to the restroom.

After escaping to Paris, Fang Ran and Osphia reassured Tang Bing that she was no longer being targeted and offered to help her reach safety. They began planning their next move, only to realize they had no working phones, local currency, or command of French.

• Fang Ran and Osphia teleported to Tang Bing on the airport rooftop after she accidentally sent them to a women's restroom.
• Osphia told Tang Bing she was safe from the people who had pursued them and promised to help her return to Huaxia or London.
• Tang Bing said she was frightened to be alone and asked for time to decide where to go.
• Fang Ran agreed to find temporary lodging in Paris, but learned that Tang Bing's phone was dead and Osphia's devices could be tracked.
• Tang Bing explained that France used euros and French, leaving Fang Ran overwhelmed by their predicament and the familiar feeling of starting over.

In Paris, Fang Ran and Tang Bing caught a burglar, and Fang Ran gave the stolen cash he found to Tang Bing. Osphia’s remark about his obvious emotions made Fang Ran reflect on how he had changed since his adventure in London.

• Fang Ran and Tang Bing heard a burglary in Département 93, and Fang Ran knocked out the robber as he fled.
• Fang Ran returned the stolen wallet to the victim and found more than a hundred Euros on the robber.
• Tang Bing joked that Fang Ran’s powers brought good financial luck, and Fang Ran gave her the cash to keep.
• Osphia accepted Fang Ran’s actions and pointed out that he had rushed to help with unusually obvious emotion.
• Fang Ran looked back at the unconscious robber and quietly reflected on his emotional change since London.

Tang Bing, Fang Ran, and Osphia took shelter in a hotel in Seine-Saint-Denis after their dangerous journey. As they rested, Fang Ran confronted the reason he had chosen to help others, while the Demoness comforted him in a dream.

• Tang Bing reached a hotel alone in the early morning, checked in, and reunited with Fang Ran and Osphia in her room.
• Osphia inspected the room for hidden cameras, while Tang Bing accidentally revealed a stun gun, a box of Jissbon, and the sleeping La Meow in her backpack.
• After Osphia noted the room's thin walls, the three settled in for the night, each occupied with different thoughts.
• Osphia remembered Fang Ran risking himself to save her and lay awake, while Fang Ran wondered what kind of person he should become and admitted he had acted from a sense of justice.
• Fang Ran drifted to sleep and dreamed of the Demoness reassuring him that she would always support him, whatever he chose to do.

Fang Ran, Tang Bing, and Osphia explored Paris, where Fang Ran stopped a group of thieves from robbing a woman and drew attention to their group. As they continued on, Klim spotted someone who reminded him of the black-clad figure he had met on the icebreaker.

• Fang Ran woke at the inn after recovering from his injuries, while Osphia explained that Tang Bing was suffering from muscle fatigue after her long run.
• Fang Ran, Tang Bing, and Osphia walked through Paris’s 18th arrondissement, where Tang Bing warned him about the area’s pickpockets and other dangers.
• Fang Ran caught a man stealing a woman’s wallet at a bus stop and injured the thief and one of his accomplices before Tang Bing pulled him away.
• Osphia told Fang Ran to discuss it with her before acting rashly next time, since she still had her abilities.
• Klim, riding through Paris in a limousine, saw someone who reminded him of the black-clad figure he had encountered on the icebreaker.

Fang Ran and Osphia weighed how to respond to the Covenant’s plans after escaping England, and agreed that resolving the Royal Court crisis was their best move. They planned to break the Simulation Scenario’s seal by seeking help from its creators, Dr. Schmidt Ailanpointan and Clotilde.

• Osphia warned Fang Ran that the Covenant and its allies were dangerous and that their current strength made direct confrontation unwise.
• Osphia argued that they should focus on the Royal Court’s fall, since Colossus’s betrayal had left most of Europe’s official participants unaware of the crisis.
• Osphia said Lady Herschel Lin Hua could be trusted to verify the betrayal and reclaim the Royal Court if they broke the Simulation Scenario’s seal.
• Osphia explained that Clotilde might bypass the seal’s authorization, but she also named the Scenario’s other creator, Dr. Schmidt Ailanpointan, as someone they could seek out.

Fang Ran and Osphia planned to find Doctor Schmidt and discussed a way to rescue people trapped in the Simulation Scenario using a Divine Art coordinate. Fang Ran tried to reach the Night Bureau members through the coordinate, but Osphia suddenly warned him that they were being watched.

• Osphia said finding Doctor Schmidt could help lift the Simulation Scenario's lockdown, rescue Lady Herschel, and reclaim control of the Royal Court.
• Osphia explained that she had placed an Aether Spirit coordinate inside the scenario and could use it to pull someone into the real world if they noticed it.
• Osphia gave Fang Ran a pendant and told him to call out to Night Bureau members with whom he shared a strong connection.
• Fang Ran thought of the Night Bureau members and sensed the bonds connecting him to them as he tried to reach them through the pendant.
• Osphia linked arms with Fang Ran and warned him through the Wind Spirit that someone was watching them.

Fang Ran and Osphia lured the Wanderers pursuing them into Montmorency Forest and defeated their C-Rank ambush, only to be attacked by the B-Rank Wanderer Beast Calamity. As they were separated and cornered, the Divine Art Coordinate pendant activated and Tang Bing appeared amid cyan lightning.

• Osphia detected nearby participants and identified them as Wanderers pursuing the Covenant's wanted targets, so she and Fang Ran led Tang Bing toward a hotel alone and headed for Montmorency Forest.
• Fang Ran and Osphia incapacitated seven or eight hostile men in Paris, including the three Black Thieves who had attacked them earlier.
• A group of C-Rank Wanderers ambushed Fang Ran and Osphia in the forest, but Fang Ran used Gluttony while Osphia revealed her white-winged Technological Framework and defeated them.
• Beast Calamity, a B-Rank Wanderer, launched a surprise attack with Mechanical Beasts and separated Fang Ran from Osphia, preventing them from reaching each other to use the Divine Art Coordinate pendant.
• The pendant activated during the fight, and Tang Bing appeared beside Fang Ran wreathed in cyan lightning.

Fang Ran and Osphia were rescued from Beast Calamity by Qing Ning, who arrived through the Divine Art Coordinate. After Fang Ran discovered that some powers from the Simulation Scenario had returned with her, the group subdued an information broker named Luther and prepared to leave the forest.

• Qing Ning appeared in a flash of azure lightning, disrupted the Mechanical Beasts, and forced Beast Calamity to retreat.
• Fang Ran and Osphia realized that activating the Divine Art Coordinate had brought Qing Ning to them, while Hugin, Munin, and Fang Ran’s Runes had also returned.
• Fang Ran detected a concealed man nearby and exposed his claim that he was an innocent bystander as a lie.
• The man introduced himself as Luther, an information broker who had eavesdropped on the battle, and Osphia insisted that they keep him under control.
• Qing Ning electrocuted Luther unconscious, and Fang Ran said he would explain what had happened as they left the forest.

Fang Ran explained the Covenant’s European plot and his situation to Qing Ning as they traveled through Paris, where she revealed she had been drawn out of the Simulation Scenario by her desire to help him. After they reached a hotel to meet their junior teammate, Osphia reflected on the Night Bureau’s bonds and what set it apart from European organizations.

• Fang Ran told Qing Ning that the Covenant’s plan involved Dark Energy Crystals and Royal Court traitors, while Osphia explained that Colossus had sealed the Simulation Scenario to stop Lord Herschel and seize control of the Royal Court.
• Fang Ran said he had lost access to his abilities after being teleported to London and explained that Covenant bounties had brought the Wanderers pursuing them.
• Qing Ning recounted sensing Fang Ran was in trouble and being teleported out of the scenario after deciding to help him; Fang Ran was moved by her answer that Night Bureau companions naturally helped one another.
• Osphia drove the group to a Paris hotel, where Fang Ran identified the unconscious information broker they had brought and said a junior teammate should be waiting below.
• Qing Ning cut the hotel lights and jumped to a balcony, while Fang Ran and Osphia discussed how his connection with her reflected the Night Bureau’s companionship.
• After Fang Ran left the rooftop, Osphia considered how the Night Bureau’s members were connected as companions rather than through rank and benefits.