Chapter Summaries

Smuggling rings across the Solar System bribed, blackmailed, and attacked officials to flood Mercury and other planets with weapons. Supervisor Zhou overcame widespread corruption and tightened Space Elevator inspections, but gun prices kept falling despite the sharp decline in smuggled weapons.

• Lu Hong, Ma Zhen, and other smuggling leaders seized on Fuxi’s low prices and launched a major effort to move guns and ammunition through bribery, kidnapping, blackmail, and violence.
• Smugglers infiltrated Space Elevators, mineral refineries, and Security Bureau operations across the Solar System, causing weapons to flood Mercury and prices to drop by more than 30%.
• Supervisor Zhou proposed an independent inspection team, but his deputies unanimously opposed the plan, leading him to suspect that they were compromised.
• When Xiao Lan asked Supervisor Zhou to help her brother’s stopped shipment, he rejected her and ordered his guards to deal with her.
• Supervisor Zhou forced inspections through, sending five colleagues to prison, having more than a hundred subordinates shot, dismissing over a thousand Space Elevator staff, and surviving repeated assassination attempts.
• Supervisor Zhou learned that weapons entering through the Space Elevators had fallen to less than one-tenth of their former level, but he was stunned when prices continued to fall.

Supervisor Zhou learned that weapons prices kept falling as smugglers shifted from the Space Elevator to dangerous private landing ships. The Security Bureau destroyed smuggling ships and arrested hundreds, but the chapter ended with rifle prices dropping further despite its intensified crackdown.

• Supervisor Zhou learned that smugglers had begun using modified landing ships to bring weapons from space directly to Mercury.
• A frightened pilot launched from Mercury’s dark side and joined other landing ships collecting weapons from the Lone Courage.
• One landing ship caught fire after the Security Bureau opened fire, while the pilot delivered his cargo safely to the smugglers.
• The smugglers transported the cargo container into a base complex, and the pilot collected his payment.
• Supervisor Zhou heard that the Guard Team had destroyed thirty-six ships and arrested more than six hundred smugglers, but rifle prices had fallen by another fifty.

Facing a worsening gun-smuggling crisis, Deputy Captain Liu Kai proposed buying firearms at above-market prices to reduce the weapons held by the public and create an opening to crush the Rebels. Captain Wolf approved the plan, and Liu Kai ordered Guard officials across the planets to prepare its rapid rollout.

• Supervisor Zhou gave up on solving Mercury’s smuggling crisis alone and sent a request for help to Earth Guard headquarters.
• Liu Kai considered asking the Ita garrison to intervene but decided instead to propose an open, high-priced firearm buyback.
• Liu Kai told Captain Wolf that the buyback would drain the limited supply of guns, raise prices, and weaken the Rebel organizations’ access to weapons.
• Wolf approved Liu Kai’s request for five hundred billion in funding and warned him that this was his last chance.
• Liu Kai convened Guard officials across the planets and ordered them to prepare the buyback within six months while continuing the crackdown on smuggling.

Han Yang learned that the Security Bureau planned to stabilize society by encouraging people to sell their firearms, then use the freed-up forces against the Rebels. He restarted Jade God Star Base’s Weapons Center and launched a massive arms-production and shipping effort, as the confiscation program was officially announced.

• Han Yang recognized the Security Bureau’s firearms buyback plan as an open scheme to strengthen its control and target the Rebels.
• Han Yang unsealed the Weapons Center at Jade God Star Base and ordered its warehouses of weapons and ammunition sent to the Inner Solar System.
• Han Yang assigned Hope No. 1, Hope No. 2, Hope No. 3, and Hope No. 4 to deliver arms, with future shipments scheduled every four months.
• Han Yang restarted full-capacity production and coordinated robots, spacecraft, and aircraft to keep manufacturing and cargo operations running simultaneously.
• Hope No. 4 departed with its newly loaded cargo, while Hope No. 1 sent its cargo containers toward the Solar System’s planets.
• Security Bureaus across the regions officially announced the confiscation program to the public.

The Earth Guard launched a high-priced campaign to confiscate illegal firearms, and Liu Kai used changing purchase prices to draw out gun owners and smugglers. After the Fire Wolf Gang refused to surrender its last guns, the Hunting Dog Gang killed its leaders and seized the weapons to turn them in for cash.

• Security Bureaus across the Solar System advertised cash purchases of illegal firearms, and Lu Hong tested the offer by sending an addict to surrender a gun.
• After the addict received 2,700 credits without registration, crowds rushed to collection points, and millions of firearms were surrendered over the following days.
• As collections declined, Liu Kai rejected a proposal to raise prices and instead lowered the standard rifle price to 2,650 credits, prompting a brief surge in surrendering guns.
• Liu Kai expected other people to seize firearms from owners who refused to hand them in and deliver the weapons to collection points for cash.
• The Fire Wolf Gang boss said his gang would keep its final hundred guns, but the Hunting Dog Gang shot the Fire Wolf Gang's leaders and took the guns to surrender them.

Lu Hong’s smuggling ring moved successive enormous shipments from Fuxi onto the planets, while Liu Kai’s Security Bureau bought back the guns until its 500-billion budget ran out. The halted buybacks sparked chaos, and Han Yang wondered how the Guard Team’s funding had been exhausted so early.

• Fuxi sent a shipment of 500,000 rifles, 100,000 pistols, and 200 million rounds of ammunition, prompting Lu Hong and smugglers across the planets to rush it in despite heavy losses.
• Liu Kai ordered collection points to keep buying guns, but after three months the turn-ins fell and he concluded that Fuxi’s production had reached its limit.
• Fuxi sent another shipment, three times larger than the previous one, and Lu Hong mobilized his smugglers while Liu Kai struggled to explain the arms dealer’s seemingly endless supply.
• Four months later, Fuxi sent yet another 1.5-million-gun shipment, and Liu Kai’s 500-billion budget ran out as people waited for payment at the collection points.
• The Security Bureau stopped buying guns, causing public unrest, while Han Yang questioned why the Guard Team’s budget had been exhausted before his fourth ship arrived.

Han Yang learned that corruption and arms smuggling had undermined the Security Bureaus’ gun-confiscation campaign, while Liu Kai tried to shift blame for the Guard Team’s failure onto Revival Group. As a government investigator exposed the harsh conditions facing workers and the poor, Han Yang attended the hearing and saw an opportunity to bring Liu Kai down.

• Han Yang discovered that officials had repeatedly recycled confiscated weapons to siphon funds, so he slashed prices and flooded the planets with the fourth shipment’s arms.
• Wolf told Liu Kai he would lose his position and go to prison, but Liu Kai persuaded him to make Revival Group share blame for the Guard Team’s failure.
• Wei Liang investigated Venus, met an injured former mine worker in the slums, and visited Revival Mall before concluding that the Pluto Development Strategy needed reforms to ease the poor’s burdens.
• Wei Liang submitted his report and attended the hearing, where Han Yang recognized him as an Illuminati connection.
• Liu Kai admitted at the hearing that he bore primary responsibility for failing to suppress the Rebels, and Han Yang resolved to use the occasion to eliminate him.

At an inquiry into the Guard Team’s failure to suppress the Rebels, Liu Kai accused Han Yang and the Revival Group of obstructing the campaign, but Wei Liang argued that Revival Mall’s low prices kept millions from joining the Rebels. Han Yang’s final remarks helped turn the blame back onto Liu Kai, whose position and chances of survival collapsed.

• Liu Kai admitted his failures, then accused Han Yang of refusing to raise Revival Mall prices and using his connections to block the request.
• Liu Kai suggested Han Yang had protected Revival Mall’s reputation among the poor for hidden reasons, prompting the Counselor to warn him against reckless accusations.
• Wei Liang challenged Liu Kai and presented research showing that nearly one hundred million people across seven planets relied on Revival Mall’s cheap goods.
• Wei Liang argued that raising prices would drive more people into the Rebels and that the Revival Group had eased pressure on the Guard Team by reducing poverty and unrest.
• Liu Kai admitted he had been too stupid to consider the social consequences, while Han Yang told the meeting that he had kept full control of the Revival Group to preserve its low-price strategy.

Han Yang secured Liu Kai’s downfall and was promised a reward for Revival Group’s contributions to the Pluto Development Strategy. He used the resulting access to Ita Ion Thruster technology to accelerate his research, ending with Jade God Star Base building its first spaceship.

• Han Yang accused Liu Kai of retaliating against Revival Group, and Liu Kai’s former subordinates testified against him; the adviser ruled Liu Kai primarily responsible and Captain Wolf secondarily responsible.
• The adviser promised to report Han Yang’s contributions to Governor Malendin, and Liu Kai later died by suicide in prison.
• At Jade God Star Base, Han Yang tested a seventh-generation Ion Thruster whose thrust exceeded the first generation’s by more than a hundred times.
• You Jun arranged a meeting between Han Yang and Minister Trino, who offered Revival Group a contract to produce low-power Ion Thrusters with a 30% profit margin.
• Han Yang began building a factory and secretly gathered technical knowledge from Ita engineers training his recruited human engineers.
• Five months later, the factory entered construction, while Han Yang’s advanced research at Jade God Star Base produced its first spaceship.

Han Yang tested Newborn, a spacecraft he had built at Jade God Star Base, by launching it from Makemake and inspecting its systems. The test succeeded, but its chemical fuel ran out quickly, leaving Han Yang to prioritize fusion reactors, chips, and further ion-thruster development.

• Han Yang sent Newborn’s engines a command to accelerate away from Makemake.
• After nearly five days, Newborn escaped Makemake’s gravity and entered a solar orbit before Han Yang had it towed back to the laboratory.
• Han Yang inspected Newborn and found its systems working properly, but its methane and oxygen fuel tanks were empty.
• Han Yang concluded that chemical fuel was too inefficient and noted that Makemake lacked the materials needed for fission power.
• Han Yang set fusion reactors, chip technology, and ion thrusters as his main research priorities, with materials, chemical industry, and controllers also needing development.

Han Yang continued developing Jade God Star Base alone while Ita officials met in Capital City to decide how to handle growing human rebellions. Governor Malendin presented a choice between harsher exploitation and a conciliatory retreat, and Rotterit urged the officials to prioritize resource extraction before the Electrical Disaster struck.

• Han Yang’s work on Jade God Star Base illustrated how he had become a civilization of one.
• Governor Malendin opened a meeting of Ita leaders to set policy toward humanity, with no humans invited.
• Captain Wolf reported that rebellions were spreading and that restoring control would require greatly expanding the Guard Team, while even containing the unrest would require additional forces.
• Malendin outlined a plan to intensify repression and exploitation or to ease pressure on humans at the cost of delaying the Pluto Development Strategy.
• Rotterit supported harsher exploitation, arguing that the approaching Electrical Disaster made timely resource shipments essential to the survival of the Ita civilization.

Solar System officials debated how to suppress the rebellion and agreed to intensify crackdowns and exploitation while keeping the Pluto Development Strategy on schedule. After Wang Qing revealed he might be assigned to lead suppression efforts, Han Yang resolved to show that the authorities underestimated the Resistance Army and his ability to supply weapons.

• Rotterit urged mass arrests and killings, but Malentin rejected indiscriminate violence and defended the conciliatory colonial policy.
• Trino proposed strengthening the Guard Team and increasing exploitation, and senior officials debated before adopting the first plan with harsher crackdowns and exploitation.
• The Governor's Mansion issued orders strengthening the Guard Team and placing key facilities under Ita Fleet military control.
• Members of the Society of Light debated the response, with Wang Qing supporting the crackdown and revealing that he might be appointed to lead suppression on a planet.
• After ending the meeting, Han Yang resolved to answer the authorities' confidence with a major move from the Jade God Star Base.

Han Yang rapidly developed and mass-produced intelligent weapons suited to Rebel guerrilla warfare, then shipped the first large stockpiles toward the inner Solar System. Wang Qing announced that he would take charge of the Mercury Guard Hall and fight the Rebels there.

• Han Yang ordered tens of thousands of robots to develop compact, precise weapons for guerrilla fighting, including Micro Missiles and Micro Drones.
• Han Yang expanded Jade God Star Base’s chip production and converted most old firearms assembly lines to produce Intelligent Weapons.
• Han Yang’s industrial system developed first-generation weapons in two months and completed sixty thousand tons of them six months later.
• Hope No. 1 and the following Hope spaceships arrived at Jade God Star Base to transport the growing weapons stockpile toward the inner Solar System.
• Wang Qing announced that he would serve as director of the Mercury Guard Hall and work to suppress Rebel forces.

Wang Qing took charge of suppressing the Rebel forces on Mercury, while Governor Malendin’s officials discussed intensifying Pluto’s labor exploitation. Han Yang responded to the crackdowns by distributing more weapons, and the chapter left Ma Qingnan’s Restore Earth Organization learning that new equipment had reached the black market.

• Wang Qing chose Mercury for his new post, and Han Yang expected him to challenge the Restore Earth Organization and other Rebel forces.
• The Governor's Mansion strengthened the Security Bureau and Guard Team, and Wang Qing prioritized protecting Revival Mall before launching a sweeping crackdown on Mercury.
• The Guard Team’s campaigns weakened the Resistance Army across the planets, while Rotterit demanded harsher exploitation and Trino reported millions of laborers had died on Pluto.
• Han Yang arranged another smuggling distribution of weapons from the Hope No. 1 Spaceship, sending new cargo toward Mercury for Rebel organizations to acquire.
• At the Restore Earth Organization’s temporary headquarters, Ma Qingnan heard from an intelligence officer that large amounts of new equipment had appeared on the black market.

Ma Qingnan bought Pangu’s cheap new weapons, enabling the Resistance Army and other groups across the Solar System to launch a devastating counterattack against the Guard Team. Wang Qing blamed the arms dealer for the renewed chaos and vowed to crush the Rebels after Commander Rotterit inspected Mercury in three months.

• Ma Qingnan ordered the Rebels to buy Micro Missiles and train with them before launching major battles.
• Hu Lin’s patrol was destroyed by Micro Drones, while Rebels used Micro Missiles to defeat guards at the 229-5 Electronics Factory and free its workers before demolishing the factory.
• Resistance groups and other armed organizations across Mercury and the Solar System used the new weapons to attack the Guard Team and one another, inflicting heavy casualties.
• Wang Qing blamed the arms dealer for destabilizing the Solar System and, after Han Yang urged him to stay calm, vowed to wipe out the Rebels after Commander Rotterit’s inspection.

Han Yang learned that Rotterit would inspect Mercury and ordered the Restore Earth Organization to attack him and destroy the Mercury One Space Elevator. As Rotterit arrived amid a staged Rebel assault, he called for harsher suppression, but a nearby explosion disrupted his speech.

• Han Yang inferred that Rotterit planned to use unrest on Mercury to justify a harsher crackdown and ordered the Rebels to destroy the Mercury One Space Elevator and, if possible, kill him.
• Ma Qingnan received the order, gathered the organization's senior members, and secretly mobilized them for the attack.
• Three months later, Rotterit arrived at Mercury Port One under heavy guard as Wang Qing and other officials welcomed him.
• When gunfire erupted outside the terminal, Wang Qing said he had sent a mobile unit to respond, and Rotterit praised his handling of the disturbance.
• A captured terminal worker was revealed as a mole who had sabotaged the energy section, and Rotterit used the attack to call for wiping out the Rebels.
• As Wang Qing listened to Rotterit's speech, another explosion erupted nearby.

Wang Qing witnessed Rebel spies assassinate Rotterit during an attack on Mercury, and the Ita officials on Earth confirmed the death and discussed retaliation. Wolf explained the operation’s scale and the Rebels’ sacrifices, leaving the Ita officials confronting the strength of humanity’s resistance.

• Wang Qing noticed a Guard Team member shoot a Micro Missile at Rotterit, who died despite the Ita warriors shielding him.
• The guard killed himself before Wang Qing could capture him, and a soldier sacrificed himself trying to protect Rotterit from Mercury’s atmosphere.
• Malentin announced Rotterit’s assassination and the damage to the Mercury One Space Elevator at a meeting of Ita officials on Earth.
• Wolf detailed how the Rebels used feints, planted spies, and a final attack, reporting that 158 connected spies had been uncovered and the assault force had suffered heavy losses.
• The Ita officials demanded retaliation, then fell silent as Wolf described the Rebels’ preparation for capture and death.

After Rotterit’s death, Ita officials abandoned forced suppression in favor of concessions while vowing revenge. The news reached Ceres and gave Chu Feng’s exhausted fighters renewed hope in their struggle.

• Malentin proposed easing Ita suppression of humanity, and the officials approved the change while demanding retaliation for Rotterit.
• News that Rotterit had been killed by Rebels spread across the Solar System, as Governor Malendin promised a severe crackdown.
• At a hidden Ceres base, Chu Feng worried that his exhausted fighters were losing hope after their costly prison raid.
• Xiao Qi showed Chu Feng the cached report of Rotterit’s death, and Chu Feng announced the news to the fighters.
• Chu Feng celebrated the Mercury Rebels’ success and told the fighters their struggle had meaning.

News of Rotterit's assassination inspired Resistance Army fighters and civilians across the Solar System, even as the Ita launched a sweeping crackdown. After the crackdown subsided, Han Yang learned that Wang Qing faced dismissal and possible imprisonment over the assassination and resolved to help him.

• Ceres fighters and people across the Solar System celebrated Rotterit's death, and many civilians joined Resistance Army organizations.
• Han Yang credited Ma Qingnan with the assassination and expected the Ita's harsh policies to change after their crackdown.
• The Ita launched a months-long campaign against the Rebels, arresting and executing over a million people before the campaign subsided.
• Han Yang asked Wei Liang about Wang Qing's case and learned that Wang Qing would likely be dismissed and imprisoned for inadequate security and dereliction of duty.
• Han Yang concluded that the Ita had found Wang Qing only minimally responsible and vowed not to let him sink, saying their cause needed him.

Han Yang rallied his comrades to find a way to save Wang Qing, then attended a commendation conference that he recognized as a prelude to a major policy shift. Governor Malendin praised humanity’s contributions, while Han Yang concealed his anger at the degrading arrangements imposed on the human attendees.

• Han Yang persuaded Wei Liang and the others that they had to save Wang Qing, and they agreed to pool their connections and keep looking for a solution.
• Han Yang received an invitation to a commendation conference hosted by the Governor's Mansion and recognized it as a sign of an impending policy shift.
• At the conference, Han Yang saw that humans would wear spacesuits and be separated from the central aisle by glass, though the other attendees showed no objection.
• Han Yang loudly cheered for Governor Malendin and pretended to be moved as Malendin praised humanity’s sacrifices and achievements under the Pluto Development Strategy.