Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Glimmerfire”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Habakkuk flees alone across open terrain at extraordinary speed, with electricity sparking around his legs and his movement creating powerful wind and afterimages.
• Basim, a hidden attacker and user of shadow-based powers, tests Habakkuk rather than killing him immediately. He throws knives and creates enormous shadow claws to block and redirect the fleeing youth.
• Habakkuk’s speed and agility impress Basim. He dodges attacks, performs an impossible midair turn, deflects a blade with his armored bracer, and even creates a temporary psychic platform to perform a “double jump.”
• Basim realizes that Habakkuk’s power is consuming his life force: his hair turns gray, and his face becomes pale and slack as he continues forcing his body to move.
• Habakkuk eventually loses control while airborne. Basim overwhelms him with weapons and shadow restraints, binding his body and inspecting his mouth for hidden devices or implants.
• Basim removes Habakkuk’s protective armor and reveals that he intends to torture rather than kill him. He lights a controlled black flame above Habakkuk’s head, claiming it will not physically harm him but will burn until the following dawn unless Habakkuk gives up.
• Before Basim can finish explaining his plan, an arrow passes through his shadowy form. He immediately disappears after locating the attacker.
• The attacker is revealed to be a powerful Skeleton Archer accompanied by countless eerie “Glimmerfires” glowing through the mist.

Character Developments

• Habakkuk demonstrates exceptional speed, reflexes, resilience, and improvisational skill. His willingness to push himself beyond his limits, however, causes severe physical deterioration and suggests that his powers consume his lifespan or vitality.
• Basim is established as a patient, highly perceptive, and sadistic hunter. He studies his opponent’s abilities before striking and displays both ruthless cruelty and hints of personal grief, especially when he compares Habakkuk’s age to that of his deceased child.
• The Skeleton Archer is introduced as a dangerous new presence. Its calm, precise attack is enough to interrupt Basim, while the vast number of Glimmerfires implies a major threat or supernatural event.

Significant Themes

• Power at the cost of life: Habakkuk’s incredible speed comes with visible aging and exhaustion, emphasizing the danger of relying on supernatural abilities.
• Predator and prey: Basim manipulates the battlefield like a hunter controlling an animal’s escape routes, while Habakkuk relies on instinct and desperation to survive.
• Cruelty and psychological torment: Basim chooses prolonged suffering over a quick death, using fear and uncertainty as weapons.
• Youth, mortality, and loss: Basim’s comments about his dead child contrast Habakkuk’s youthful energy with the hunter’s age and grief.
• Escalating supernatural danger: The arrival of the Skeleton Archer and the mass of Glimmerfires shifts the conflict from a personal pursuit to a larger, unexplained threat.

Character Interactions

• Habakkuk vs. Basim: Their confrontation is primarily a battle of speed against shadow manipulation. Basim observes and counters Habakkuk’s movements, while Habakkuk repeatedly evades attacks through athletic skill and supernatural agility.
• Basim and Habakkuk after the capture: Basim treats Habakkuk as both an experiment and a prisoner, inspecting him and threatening him with the black flame. Habakkuk struggles helplessly but cannot respond because his mouth is sealed by shadows.
• Basim vs. the Skeleton Archer: The Archer interrupts Basim’s torture with a precise arrow. Basim avoids the attack and vanishes, recognizing the new opponent as a serious danger.
• Habakkuk and the Glimmerfires: Though Habakkuk does not directly interact with them, their appearance transforms his situation and leaves both him and Basim confronted by an even more ominous force.

Key plot points and events

• Basim probes through the mist with his soul perception and discovers that the hills are packed with undead: skeletons, zombies, ghosts, gargoyles, Corpse Witches, Death Knights, and even undead dragons. The scale and strength of the forces increase deeper into the fog.
• A powerful Corpse Witch detects Basim’s gaze and addresses him as a living intruder. At the same time, the clouds begin to churn and an unnatural breeze rises across the Black Wastes.
• A vast force associated with Death stirs, washing over the area and causing signs of decay in the land and in living beings. Li Yun alone is absent from its perception, though his body also appears to begin crumbling.
• The phenomenon abruptly ends, leaving everyone as if waking from a dream. Old Li senses that something strange interrupted his movements while fighting a skeleton.
• Li Yun dismisses the event as a “sleepyhead” briefly looking at ants. When Old Li questions who he is, Li Yun puts on his glasses and returns to his familiar, unremarkable appearance. He urges the group to return to camp before the storm.

Character developments and interactions

• Basim shifts from routine concern about the prisoners to alarm as he realizes the mist hides an immense, organized undead presence. His probing draws the attention of a dangerous being.
• Li Yun displays extraordinary perception and composure, recognizing that the immense presence has not fully crossed over and may be around the Tenth Tier. His glasses appear to conceal or alter his identity and presence; without them, his companions struggle to recognize him.
• Old Li shows keen combat instincts, reacting to an inexplicable interruption and questioning Li Yun’s identity after seeing his unmasked appearance.
• Fang Yishu recognizes that Li Yun’s glasses may be supernatural, building on her earlier awareness that something about him is unusual. The girls are briefly flustered by his appearance.
• The group’s exchange contrasts the scale of the supernatural danger with Li Yun’s casual explanation and practical suggestion to head back.

Significant themes

• Hidden scale and danger: The seemingly ordinary mist conceals an enormous undead world and threats far beyond the group’s immediate surroundings.
• Perception and concealment: Soul sight, ordinary senses, and supernatural awareness reveal different realities; Li Yun can remain unseen even by a force that perceives life, death, and time.
• The indifference of cosmic forces: Death’s influence affects the world as a natural consequence, not because it deliberately targets ordinary people.
• Ordinary behavior amid the uncanny: Li Yun’s calm, everyday comments and concern about bringing in the laundry sharply undercut the apocalyptic events unfolding around him.

Chapter Summary: “Unexpected”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The chapter opens in a bleak, death-ridden landscape where daylight is obscured by dense gray clouds. He Qiu is treating a serious bite wound inside a shared outpost camp.
• He Qiu’s injury came from a severed undead head after his team defeated a Second Tier Rotten Corpse. The wound has been infected with Corpse Poison and is rapidly turning black.
• He cuts into the wound himself to remove the corrupted flesh while Du Qifeng restrains his leg. Lu Yansheng pours expensive “Consecrated Holy Water” over it, successfully stopping the spread of the poison.
• The team discusses the high price of the Holy Water and its seller, Di Wanxin, a powerful Third Tier user and Red-Robed Bishop who has turned the scarce healing resource into a profitable business.
• Although He Qiu is weakened and in pain, he prepares to continue operating with the group rather than withdraw from the dangerous area.
• Before he can properly recover, warning gongs sound throughout the camp. Watchtowers report that something enormous is approaching.
• The ground begins to shake, followed by the thunderous sound of countless synchronized footsteps. A massive army of Death Knights on skeletal warhorses appears on the horizon.
• The undead cavalry charges toward the outpost at terrifying speed. Before He Qiu can react or warn the others, the horde crashes into the camp and knocks him unconscious.

Character Developments

• He Qiu is shown as resilient and self-reliant. Despite severe pain and the danger of amputation or poisoning, he personally cuts open his wound and remains determined to continue the mission. His confidence is undermined when the Death Knight army appears, revealing the overwhelming scale of the threat.
• Du Qifeng demonstrates loyalty and practical courage by physically restraining He Qiu during treatment and immediately responding to the emergency.
• Lu Yansheng contributes medical support by administering the Holy Water, reinforcing his role as a dependable teammate despite the group’s lack of a dedicated healer.
• The team as a whole is portrayed as experienced enough to fight powerful undead, but still vulnerable to both unexpected injuries and overwhelming enemy forces.
• Di Wanxin, though absent, is characterized through conversation as an influential and capable Third Tier user who has successfully monopolized an essential healing resource.

Significant Themes

• Survival in a hostile world: Even routine missions and minor mistakes can lead to deadly consequences.
• The cost of limited resources: Healing, food, water, and Holy Water are all scarce and expensive, forcing users to balance safety against economic loss.
• Strength and vulnerability: The team has advanced in rank and defeated powerful enemies, yet their abilities are insignificant against the massive Death Knight horde.
• Human cooperation: The outpost and the team rely on international cooperation, shared defenses, and mutual aid to survive.
• Unexpected catastrophe: The chapter emphasizes how quickly danger can escalate, shifting from a painful but manageable injury to an apocalyptic assault without warning.

Character Interactions

• He Qiu relies on Du Qifeng to restrain him while he treats himself, showing trust built through long-term companionship.
• Du Qifeng and Lu Yansheng work together to administer the Holy Water and bandage the wound.
• The other team members discuss Di Wanxin’s business and the practical difficulties of surviving without a healer.
• When the warning sounds, the group reacts instinctively and cooperatively, arming themselves and rushing outside.
• Their shared response to the Death Knight charge highlights both their unity and their helplessness in the face of an overwhelming force.

Chapter Summary: “Death Began Its Charge!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• A massive force of high-tier undead suddenly emerges from the Cemetery District and begins sweeping across the forward camps.
• The undead army consists largely of Death Knights riding skeletal warhorses, moving in tightly organized formations through a supernatural gray mist.
• Their charge destroys camps, defenses, tents, and personnel almost instantly. Even powerful advanced items and heavily fortified positions prove ineffective.
• Survivors scattered throughout the wilderness live only because the undead focus on larger camps and do not bother pursuing isolated individuals.
• Li Ce detects the approaching undead through his enhanced perception and rushes to warn the camp’s leaders.
• He initially calls for the outposts to retreat, then realizes there is no time and urges everyone to scatter into the wilderness instead.
• The leadership quickly begins evacuating important personnel and resources from the starting area near the Newcomer Arrival Point.
• Unable to contact the outside world directly, Li Ce sends recorded footage and livestreams to warn others.
• Li Ce investigates the recent death of a prominent “special user” and identifies two corpses nearby: a Third Tier American user and the likely Shadow Man.
• While observing the bodies, Li Ce notices the undead gathering in formation. He becomes one of the first people to recognize that the seemingly dormant undead are about to launch an attack.
• Despite the warning, the retreat is largely futile. The Death Knights rapidly overrun nearly every significant outpost, killing hundreds and erasing life signatures wherever they pass.

Character Developments

• Li Ce demonstrates sharp perception, decisiveness, and responsibility. He immediately recognizes the scale of the threat and abandons ordinary evacuation plans when he understands that the undead are moving too quickly.
• His normally analytical observation turns into urgent action, showing that even a composed and capable leader can be shaken by the undead army’s overwhelming power.
• Elder Ning and the other camp leaders respond seriously to Li Ce’s warning, trusting his judgment and quickly organizing a dispersal.
• The deaths of the unidentified Shadow Man and the young American user emphasize the vulnerability of even powerful extraordinary individuals.
• The unnamed survivors are portrayed as helpless witnesses, forced to rely on concealment and luck rather than resistance.

Significant Themes

• Overwhelming and impersonal destruction: The undead do not fight with emotion or strategy visible to the survivors; they simply advance and crush everything in their path.
• The insignificance of individual strength: Advanced weapons, defenses, and powerful users become meaningless before the Death Knights’ charge.
• Survival through retreat and dispersion: When victory is impossible, abandoning territory and scattering becomes the only rational response.
• The terror of inevitability: The undead are compared to a natural disaster or an unstoppable tide, creating the sense that death cannot be negotiated with or delayed.
• The limits of preparation and control: The camps had established defenses and systems for communication, yet the speed of the attack renders them nearly useless.
• Death as an impersonal force: The Death Knights show no anger, excitement, or conscious cruelty. Their destruction is frightening precisely because it seems automatic and indifferent.

Character Interactions

• Li Ce urgently confronts the decision-makers in the central tent, first demanding a retreat and then insisting on immediate dispersal.
• Elder Ning questions Li Ce about what he has seen, prompting Li Ce to explain the scale and speed of the threat.
• The leaders accept his warning without hesitation and cooperate in spreading the information and arranging evacuation.
• Li Ce works with colleagues to record and transmit evidence of the undead attack, attempting to warn people outside the immediate danger zone.
• His observations of the two corpses connect the earlier mysterious deaths to the arrival of the undead forces, suggesting a larger and more dangerous development.

Chapter Summary: “Changes and Threats”

Key Plot Points and Events

• A massive undead cavalry assault devastates the Cemetery District. Nearly all outlying watchposts and camps are destroyed by powerful undead units believed to be Death Knights.
• An estimated 70–80% of users and newcomers are killed, including most people recovering in the camps. Fewer than 3,000 survive near the initial arrival point.
• The Death Knights’ attack causes more than physical casualties: victims suffer mental shock, disorientation, and severe spiritual depletion, leaving many unable to return to missions for days.
• The attack appears to spare the main newcomer camp, allowing a number of exhausted survivors to reach it. The Death Knights then abruptly disappear, leaving behind blood- and frost-stained hoofprints.
• Officials hold an emergency meeting to determine whether the assault was an isolated incident, a triggered event, or a recurring “Monster Siege”-type phenomenon. They must also decide how many users can safely be deployed when newcomers log in the next day.
• The officials struggle between withdrawing to avoid another catastrophe and exploiting the sudden opening created by the mass deaths before rival countries seize control of the Cemetery District.
• At the surviving camp, Li Yun uses a phoenix-like tail feather to ignite the otherwise nearly unburnable black shrubs. The fire provides warmth and helps counteract the land’s harmful necrotic energy.
• Li Yun observes that invisible black smoke—accumulated necrotic aura—is leaving the survivors’ bodies as they warm themselves. He believes the fire will help the injured endure until they can withdraw the next morning.
• Li Jiye asks Li Yun about his earlier comment regarding “not putting all your eggs in one basket.” Li Yun explains that risk should be distributed, suggesting that authorities may shift some investment from the Cemetery District to the Newcomer Trial in Tokyo.

Character Developments

• Li Yun is portrayed as calm, observant, and significantly more capable than an ordinary First Tier user. He successfully carries or assists several exhausted people while escaping the Death Knights, then remains composed amid the panic. His phoenix feather and knowledge of necrotic energy reveal unusual resources and expertise.
• Li Jiye is badly injured and physically exhausted, but remains capable of fighting and clearing a path during the escape. He becomes more reflective after the disaster and seeks Li Yun’s strategic perspective.
• The two female teammates and other survivors are shown as traumatized and depleted, relying on Li Yun and the camp’s temporary safety to recover.
• The officials and researchers recognize that their earlier assumptions were inadequate. They become more cautious about treating the mission world as a predictable game, but remain divided between prudence and the need to compete for strategic advantages.
• The survivors as a group shift from active exploration and reward-seeking to defensive survival, recognizing that remaining alive is more important than immediate gains.

Significant Themes

• Risk versus reward: The chapter stresses that greater benefits in the mission world inevitably involve greater danger. The officials must decide whether pursuing territory is worth risking another total wipeout.
• The danger of treating reality as a game: Although gaming and fantasy references help predict events, the scale of death and psychological damage demonstrates that the world cannot be treated like an ordinary immersive game.
• Strategic diversification: Li Yun’s “not putting all your eggs in one basket” reflects the need to spread resources and avoid concentrating personnel in one vulnerable area.
• Uncertainty and imperfect knowledge: No one can determine whether the Death Knight assault was random, triggered, or periodic, making planning extremely difficult.
• Survival and recovery: The camp becomes a temporary refuge where warmth, rest, and withdrawal matter more than exploration or rewards.
• Hidden environmental threats: The necrotic aura weakens living beings gradually, showing that danger comes not only from visible monsters but also from the land itself.

Character Interactions

• During the emergency meeting, officials, researchers, cultural specialists, and field inspectors debate the meaning of the attack and the next deployment strategy, but no consensus is reached.
• At the camp, survivors are wary of Li Yun’s group, especially because of the valuable phoenix feather, yet no one dares challenge them after witnessing their escape and combat ability.
• Li Yun orders his exhausted companions to warm themselves and quietly monitors their condition, acting as a practical protector.
• Li Jiye attempts to keep himself awake and starts a conversation with Li Yun to understand the strategic lesson behind the disaster.
• Li Yun responds by explaining risk distribution and warning that concentrating resources in one area may be as dangerous as scattering them across multiple threats.

Chapter Summary: “Sand Scorpion and the Wine Cabinet”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Basim awakens after being nearly killed by the Corpse Witch, or by the immense entity whose attention briefly manifested through her. He is buried in warm sand with pipes allowing him to breathe, following his usual method of protecting his body while offline.
• His experience of death was unlike anything he had previously endured: his consciousness was nearly erased by an overwhelming, endless darkness.
• At the brink of death, Basim perceives a layer of spiritual “mist” within his soul, similar to that found in other users. Something hidden within the mist extracts and preserves a part of his soul, freezing his rationality and allowing him to survive.
• Basim emerges from the sand crying and laughing, overwhelmed by the realization that he has briefly glimpsed an existence of unimaginable magnitude. The encounter gives him unprecedented spiritual clarity and helps him fully reclaim himself.
• Without realizing it, Basim stabilizes his foundation at the Fourth Tier and advances another half-step.
• The system informs him that he triggered a Reality Instant-Death Mechanism. To survive, he sacrificed his Level-Two User Privileges and all remaining Universal Points, reducing him to a Level-One Main God User. He is warned that returning to the trial world may cause further consequences.
• Elsewhere, Klud Laval reacts furiously after suffering repeated deaths and severe losses. He destroys expensive wine and champagne in his room while ordering his butler to bring out more from the wine cabinet.
• Klud eventually regains enough composure to prepare to meet his father. He recognizes that the trial world has undergone a major upheaval and that his allies and collaborators may have suffered heavy losses.
• Klud concludes that the current chaos may determine who retains power in the larger struggle, making immediate action necessary.

Character Developments

• Basim confronts genuine death and returns with a much deeper understanding of his own soul and insignificance. His survival strengthens his spiritual clarity and advances his cultivation, but the price is devastating: he loses his higher user status and accumulated points.
• Basim’s old image of himself as someone who had already “died once” is challenged. His earlier battlefield trauma is revealed as far less profound than this encounter with the supernatural force behind the Corpse Witch.
• Klud Laval is shown as emotionally unstable under extreme pressure. His rage and destructive behavior reveal his fear and helplessness, but his training as a mage and heir to a financial empire eventually restores his strategic thinking.
• Klud shifts from personal panic to political calculation, recognizing that the losses caused by the upheaval may create an opportunity to eliminate rivals.

Significant Themes

• Death and survival: Death is portrayed not simply as physical destruction, but as the dissolution of identity and consciousness. Basim survives by preserving a fragment of rationality within his soul.
• Human smallness before cosmic power: Basim’s fleeting glimpse of an incomprehensibly powerful existence leaves him awed and despairing. The gap between finite beings and true infinity is presented as nearly impossible to overcome.
• Power and sacrifice: Survival comes at a steep cost. Basim preserves himself but loses his privileges and wealth, showing that advancement in this world requires irreversible sacrifices.
• Trauma and recovery: Both Basim and Klud experience overwhelming psychological shocks. Basim processes his trauma through tears, awe, and spiritual insight, while Klud initially responds with rage before forcing himself back into rationality.
• Political opportunism: Klud’s reaction demonstrates how personal catastrophe is inseparable from broader factional struggles. The trial world’s upheaval may redistribute power among the surviving players.

Character Interactions

• Basim has no direct conversation with others after awakening; his main interaction is with the system, which informs him of the cost of his survival and warns him against attracting further attention.
• Klud interacts with his butler, who carefully manages the situation, reports to him, and reminds him of his father’s summons.
• The butler’s cautious behavior contrasts with Klud’s volatility, while Klud’s decision to meet his father shows him moving from emotional collapse toward strategic action.

Summary of “Losses and Gains”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Before the dangers of the mission world were fully understood, capitalist factions recognized its commercial potential. They considered building permanent camps, service industries, trading systems, medical networks, and paid “safe zones” for mission participants.
• These plans were abruptly destroyed when native death knights attacked and flattened several camps. Unlike accidents caused by user abilities, the death knights demonstrated that the mission world itself contained unpredictable hostile factors.
• The failed investments created financial and political conflict among the corporations involved. Klud Laval, as a member of a corporate family, is forced to abandon his meditation and take responsibility for evaluating the losses and negotiating benefits for his family.
• At the same time, Li Yun and the Main God assess the gains made by an observation target: an old soldier with the Shadow Fiend Hero Bloodline. Through extensive hunting in a compatible mission world, he has absorbed more than twenty Third- and Fourth-Tier spirit entities.
• The target has developed a spirit-based domination system that replaces his former method of consuming residual souls. His energy level has stabilized above the mid-Fourth Tier, his energy system has become more stable, and his spiritual dissipation has decreased.
• Despite these gains, his increasing power intensifies his rejection by the real-world environment. Simulations suggest he has roughly a twenty percent chance of reaching the Fifth Tier if supplied with enough spirituality, but his likely limit is the Peak Fourth Tier, with only a small possibility of briefly reaching the Early Fifth Tier.
• The Main God explains that the material universe cannot easily sustain highly concentrated anomalous energy. Excessive power naturally dissipates, loses stability, or forces the enhanced individual to degenerate or die.

Character Developments

• Klud Laval becomes increasingly irritated by the consequences of failed corporate planning. His position forces him to sacrifice personal cultivation time and manage the fallout, reinforcing his role as both a privileged heir and an unwilling corporate representative.
• The observation target grows considerably stronger and more stable. His new spirit-based energy cycle represents a major advancement, although it also brings him closer to the environmental limits that may eventually halt or destroy him.
• Li Yun continues to observe and analyze the target rather than intervening directly. His questions show a growing interest in understanding the fundamental nature and limitations of enhancement systems.
• The Main God provides a broader theoretical explanation of the universe, presenting enhancements as higher-dimensional “anchoring” rather than completely self-contained powers.

Character Interactions

• Klud’s internal conflict centers on the tension between corporate expectations and his desire to preserve his own meditation and advancement.
• Li Yun and the Main God engage in a philosophical and scientific discussion about whether enhanced beings can truly exist stably within the material universe.
• Li Yun challenges the Main God’s initial explanation by comparing enhancements to unstable matter or energy. The Main God refines the metaphor, explaining that enhanced abilities are projections or “silhouettes” of a more complete higher-dimensional source.
• The Main God’s final analogy compares users to shadows cast by three-dimensional objects onto a two-dimensional surface: the abilities appear to exist within the world’s rules, but their true source lies beyond those rules.

Significant Themes

• Losses accompanying gains: Commercial expansion, power, and advancement all carry corresponding costs—destroyed investments, lost resources, environmental rejection, and potential death.
• Limits of exploitation: The corporations try to turn the mission world into a stable profit-making infrastructure, but unpredictable native forces reveal that not everything can be controlled or commodified.
• Environmental incompatibility: The chapter emphasizes that powerful beings may be unable to survive in a world whose material conditions cannot support them, much like oversized organisms in an environment lacking sufficient oxygen or food.
• Entropy and dissipation: High-energy or highly concentrated structures naturally tend toward lower-energy, more stable states. This physical principle limits the long-term growth of enhanced individuals.
• Higher-dimensional existence: Enhancement abilities are portrayed as external anchors or projections from a greater reality. Users are not fully independent sources of their powers; to develop further, they must draw closer to the complete source beyond the ordinary world.
• Ambiguity and paradox: The closing reflection suggests that many phenomena are simultaneously real and unreal, rational and irrational—existing within ordinary rules while also transcending them.

Chapter Summary: “Then Wouldn't These Means Be for Nothing?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Yun and the Main God analyze the results of a supernatural “test,” concluding that in the resource-poor real world, ordinary supernatural beings can generally only reach the Peak Fourth Tier to Early Fifth Tier.
• Advancement beyond this point is severely restricted because reality provides insufficient energy and causes constant supernatural dissipation. Systems with abilities such as the Immaculate Immortal Body or techniques for sealing energy loss may progress further, but even they remain limited by the barren environment.
• Li Yun explains that his own unusually powerful spiritual state is not a normal benchmark. His strength produces phenomena such as spontaneous electrical discharges and forces him to suppress parts of himself to exist peacefully in reality.
• Because Li Yun needs a more typical subject for experimentation, he selected Mr. Basim, a talented Fourth-Tier user, as an unwitting “pioneer.”
• Li Yun subtly influenced Basim’s circumstances by allowing him to enter a mission world rich in souls. Once Basim abandoned his moral reluctance to consume souls, he rapidly stabilized his Fourth-Tier foundation and advanced toward the Mid-to-Late Fourth Tier through the construction of Necromastery.
• Basim’s growth attracted the attention of a terrifying Tenth-Tier death-domain Demigod, the “landlord” of the mission world. The Main God had to rescue Basim, paying a small price in privileges and resources.
• Basim’s development confirmed the projected limit for ordinary supernatural beings in reality: around the boundary between the Fourth and Fifth Tiers.
• Li Yun compares supernatural advancement to humans “stealing” from heaven and earth, which naturally results in heaven and earth reclaiming energy through calamities and limitations.
• The chapter ends with Li Yun ordering the Main God to prepare a preliminary plan. He argues that if people gain powerful means but remain forced to submit to the same restrictive environment, then those means are meaningless.

Character Developments

• Li Yun: Reveals greater awareness of his own abnormality and accepts that his strength makes him an unreliable experimental standard. Though he claims to remain “only a mortal,” his perspective becomes increasingly detached and godlike. He also shifts from passive observation toward strategic planning, suggesting that he intends to challenge the limits imposed by reality.
• The Main God: Acts as both Li Yun’s analytical partner and the protector of the experimental subject. It demonstrates a more optimistic view of potential advancement and willingly spends resources to rescue Basim.
• Mr. Basim: Develops from a morally restrained but unstable Fourth-Tier user into a powerful and more self-possessed supernatural being. By accepting soul consumption, he clarifies his identity, strengthens his foundation, and makes major progress in Necromastery. His success also proves that he has unusual potential, though his advancement exposes him to dangers far beyond his current level.

Significant Themes

• Environmental limitations on power: Strength is not determined solely by talent or technique; the surrounding world must possess enough energy to sustain advancement.
• The cost of supernatural growth: Powerful beings consume resources from reality, and reality responds by imposing dissipation, instability, or destructive “tribulations.”
• Morality versus survival: Basim’s decision to consume souls represents the painful compromise between ethical principles and the need to survive and grow.
• Observation and experimentation: Li Yun treats Basim as a test subject while also recognizing his individuality and rewarding him enough to justify the risks imposed on him.
• The meaning of power: The conclusion questions whether extraordinary abilities have any value if their users remain unable to overcome the world’s restrictions.
• Humanity challenging natural order: Li Yun suggests that supernatural cultivation is inherently an attempt to exceed common sense and reshape the relationship between living beings and the world.

Character Interactions

• Li Yun and the Main God engage in a philosophical and scientific discussion about the nature of the dream, supernatural limits, and the possibility of godhood.
• The Main God encourages Li Yun to consider becoming a true god, but Li Yun rejects this, insisting that he wants to remain himself.
• Li Yun explains how he manipulated Basim’s circumstances, while the Main God acknowledges Basim’s usefulness as an experimental subject.
• The Main God rescues Basim after his growth attracts the attention of the Tenth-Tier death Demigod, demonstrating cooperation between the two higher beings.
• Their final exchange shifts from analysis to preparation: Li Yun urges the Main God to plan for a future in which supernatural beings no longer merely endure reality’s restrictions, but possess the means to overcome them.

Chapter Summary: “An ‘Exception’ That Might Not Be an Exception”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Yun reflects on the difficulty of transcendence and eternal existence. Since all things are constantly changing, achieving anything truly permanent requires resisting the laws of the universe, other people, and oneself.
• He considers possible “contingency plans” involving the Main God, though he recognizes that its current resources are insufficient for his more ambitious ideas. For now, he chooses to wait patiently.
• The official website connected to the Main God has become increasingly public. Once a mysterious system available only to a select few, it is now open for applications and has become an “open secret” in modern society.
• A university student from a poor rural family is selected as an applicant and enters the relatively stable [Cemetery] trial world. After repeated attempts and learning from previous deaths, he forms a capable team and nearly completes the trial.
• While his team rests at their camp, an undead knight unexpectedly attacks. The entire team is killed, destroying what the student viewed as his family’s only chance to escape poverty and pay for his mother’s illness.
• Overwhelmed by guilt and despair, the student livestreams himself from the roof of his dormitory, threatening suicide. He explains his family’s struggles and blames himself for wasting their only opportunity.
• The livestream spreads rapidly online. Viewers, bystanders, school personnel, and media record the incident, while some cruel spectators mock and provoke him.
• University leaders, police, staff, and the student’s family intervene. They break into the rooftop area, communicate with him, offer him a graduate-school recommendation and scholarship, and have his mother speak to him. He eventually climbs down safely.
• Despite the successful rescue, Director Shen Taiguang remains deeply worried. He recognizes that the incident may be an isolated tragedy—but could also reveal a much broader and more dangerous social problem.

Character Developments

• Li Yun demonstrates philosophical insight and patience. He accepts that meaningful transformation is inherently difficult and avoids rushing the Main God before it has sufficient resources.
• The university student shifts from hopeful determination to crushing despair after losing his team. His breakdown reveals how heavily he had invested his family’s future in the supernatural selection system.
• Shen Taiguang appears responsible and pragmatic, relieved that the student survives but immediately concerned about the wider implications. His anxiety suggests that he understands the incident may recur.
• University officials and the student’s mother show practical compassion, using both emotional support and concrete promises to persuade him to live.
• Online spectators reveal the dangerous cruelty of crowds, with some spreading information and concern while others treat the crisis as entertainment or ridicule.

Significant Themes

• Change and transcendence: Li Yun’s reflections establish that all existence is defined by flux, making permanence and transcendence extraordinarily difficult.
• The cost of opportunity: The Main God’s trials offer ordinary people a chance to change their lives, but failure can carry devastating emotional and material consequences.
• Hope becoming pressure: What should be an opportunity becomes a burden when the student believes his family’s survival depends entirely on success.
• Public exposure and spectacle: Social media transforms a private mental-health crisis into mass entertainment, magnifying both support and cruelty.
• Individual tragedy versus systemic danger: The student’s suicide attempt may be treated as an isolated event, but Shen recognizes it could signal widespread instability as more people enter the trials.
• Unequal social conditions: The chapter emphasizes how poverty, illness, education, and family obligations shape people’s willingness to risk their lives for extraordinary opportunities.

Character Interactions

• Li Yun’s thoughts are primarily directed toward the Main God, with his joking request for contingency plans revealing an ongoing relationship of cautious cooperation.
• The student interacts with online viewers and the crowd below, turning his personal grief into a public confession and inadvertently exposing the social consequences of the trials.
• School officials, police, and security personnel coordinate to control the crisis and prevent further harm.
• The student’s mother provides the emotional breakthrough that helps him abandon his suicide attempt.
• Shen Taiguang discusses the incident with his subordinate, moving from relief over the rescue to concern that the event may represent the beginning of a larger pattern.

Chapter Summary: “My Opening Method Had to Be Wrong!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Director Shen Taiguang recognizes that the seemingly isolated deaths of newcomer visitors may reflect a larger reality involving extraordinary forces. He pays particular attention because ordinary assumptions cannot be applied to events connected to the Main God system.
• The Death Knights’ sudden massacre devastates many newcomer visitors. While most Main God Users merely suffer recoverable losses, newcomers lose what may have been their only chance to become users.
• Some newcomers survive by retreating into nearby “safe areas,” creating widespread anger and resentment among those who were killed. Online users demand an investigation, the identification of a culprit, and compensation from the Main God Website, but receive no response.
• Domestic authorities label the incident an “accident,” suppress information, issue limited reassurances, and arrest several foreign agents accused of exploiting the unrest. However, the authorities cannot truly challenge the Main God system or restore the lost opportunities.
• The chapter then shifts to Wu Shaoyou, a chubby college student who successfully completes the Newcomer Trial after three attempts, earning ten hunting points and becoming a Main God User. He receives no Newcomer Blind Box.
• After gaining experience in the dangerous undead trial world, Wu travels to Tokyo seeking better opportunities. This decision unintentionally saves him from being trampled by the Death Knights during the recent disaster.
• In Tokyo, Wu awakens to discover that he has been transformed into a Shocker Combatant, apparently one of the expendable soldiers from a tokusatsu-style organization. His body remains almost entirely recognizable, but his physical strength, stamina, metabolism, and explosive power have been dramatically enhanced.
• Wu hides in an alley while two Shocker agents search for him. They identify him as “Combatant No. 3714” and demand that he surrender, claiming he has broken free of brainwashing. They offer to return him for “secondary processing” so he can continue serving the organization.
• The chapter ends as the pursuers close in and warn Wu that this is his final chance to give up.

Character Developments

• Shen Taiguang: Demonstrates strategic insight and caution. He understands that the newcomer disaster may be part of a broader pattern and that supernatural events require methods beyond ordinary logic.
• Wu Shaoyou: Develops from an inexperienced, somewhat lucky college student into a legitimate Main God User. His survival instincts, caution, and growing physical abilities are emphasized, but he remains frightened and confused by his sudden transformation into a Shocker Combatant.
• The Shocker agents: Presented as calm, disciplined, and frighteningly controlled. Their language suggests that Wu was previously brainwashed and that the organization intends to reclaim and recondition him.

Significant Themes

• Inequality and resentment: Survivors and victims react differently to the disaster, but anger intensifies because some newcomers escaped while others lost everything.
• Powerlessness before higher forces: Neither ordinary citizens, officials, nor even Main God Users can demand justice or compensation from the Main God system.
• The randomness of fate: Wu survives the massacre largely because of his decision to travel to Tokyo, only to face a new and equally dangerous predicament.
• Transformation and identity: Wu’s body has become vastly stronger, but he does not understand his new role or whether he remains fully in control of his life.
• Institutional control: The Shocker organization’s brainwashing and “secondary processing” reveal a system that treats individuals as replaceable tools.

Character Interactions

• Public reaction centers on demands for answers and compensation, while authorities respond with censorship, official explanations, and arrests.
• Wu’s “godfather” and roommate previously helped him gain enough experience to complete the Newcomer Trial.
• The Shocker agents confront Wu directly, insisting that he is still their property and attempting to persuade him to surrender rather than fight.
• The encounter establishes the chapter’s cliffhanger: Wu must decide how to respond to the organization that claims ownership over his transformed identity.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Wu Shaoyou recalls disturbing fragments of his body’s past: forced injections, experiments in cultivation tanks, sensory conditioning, and brainwashing by Shocker.
• He realizes that his body had been modified into a Shocker combatant and that, without his return and awakening of consciousness, it would have remained a mindless puppet.
• Two Shocker agents track him down and identify his behavior as a malfunction or rebellion. They plan to capture him and return him to the Doctor for “repair.”
• When Wu Shaoyou tries to escape, the agents reveal their enhanced strength and speed. His own dormant combat abilities activate under mortal danger, allowing him to repel both attackers.
• After confirming that he is resisting, the agents authorize lethal force and shift instantly from ordinary office workers into ruthless combatants, even changing into black, skin-tight battle suits.
• The two agents launch a coordinated attack from above and below. Wu Shaoyou instinctively counters the low strike but hesitates while consciously thinking through his response.
• One agent lands a powerful blow on his head, knocking him down and leaving him dazed. Wu Shaoyou realizes that his body is physically equal to theirs, but his ordinary human thought process interferes with its implanted combat instincts.

Character Developments

• Wu Shaoyou: Learns more about the horrific experiments performed on his body and becomes increasingly enraged at Shocker’s exploitation of him. His survival instincts and modified physical abilities begin to awaken, but he struggles to control them. He recognizes that his greatest weakness is not his body, but his hesitation and lack of combat experience.
• The Shocker agents: Initially appear like mundane, weary office workers, but instantly reveal themselves as highly trained, enhanced enforcers when Wu Shaoyou resists. Their obedience to Shocker’s procedures shows their dehumanized, bureaucratic mindset.

Significant Themes

• Loss and recovery of identity: Wu Shaoyou’s body was designed to function as a weapon without an independent will, making his restored consciousness an act of rebellion.
• Institutional cruelty: The clinical language of “secondary processing,” “malfunction,” and “repair” contrasts with the brutal reality of experimentation, brainwashing, and forced transformation.
• Instinct versus conscious thought: Wu Shaoyou’s body can react with extraordinary speed and skill, but his civilian mindset disrupts those instincts.
• Dehumanization and dark humor: The agents treat the capture and “repair” of a modified human as routine office work, while Wu Shaoyou’s sarcastic observations expose the absurdity and horror of the situation.

Character Interactions

• The agents speak to Wu Shaoyou as a defective tool rather than a person, agreeing without hesitation to retrieve or kill him.
• Wu Shaoyou resists their attempts to capture him, surprising them with the strength of his awakened body.
• Their encounter escalates from pursuit to direct combat after the agents adopt their battle forms.
• The fight demonstrates the contrast between the agents’ trained coordination and Wu Shaoyou’s raw, instinctive abilities, with his hesitation ultimately allowing one of them to land a decisive blow.

Chapter Summary: Diary of a Madman

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Wu Shaoyou, a chubby college student with a combat-modified body, is badly injured while being attacked by two transformed Shocker combatants.
• Although his enhanced instincts help him partially evade a devastating punch, he suffers severe bleeding and concussion symptoms. The attackers deliberately wait for him to weaken before closing in.
• Just as one combatant is about to seize him, a mysterious, rugged man appears at the entrance of the alley.
• The newcomer displays disgust toward the combatants, referring to them as “artificial rejects” and suggesting that they consume humans.
• He activates a damaged transformation belt containing a black crystal and announces, “Amazon.”
• A violent burst of heat and pressure erupts from the belt, instantly hurling both combatants away. One crashes into a wall, while the other lands near Wu Shaoyou; both appear to be incapacitated.
• The newcomer transforms into a crimson, heavily armored Amazon-like monster surrounded by heat and an overwhelming predatory aura.
• After casually defeating the two combatants, the transformed figure inspects one of their bodies and determines that it is neither human nor Amazon, but merely “low-grade meat.”
• He then approaches Wu Shaoyou, discovers that he is genuinely human, and reacts with surprise.

2. Character Developments

• Wu Shaoyou: His enhanced body gives him powerful reflexes and pain suppression, but these abilities cannot fully protect him from severe physical trauma. He is reduced from a desperate fighter to a terrified observer, emphasizing his vulnerability against stronger beings.
• The two Shocker combatants: Initially confident and in control, they become visibly frightened when the newcomer appears. Their immediate attack fails completely, revealing the enormous gap between their strength and his.
• The mysterious newcomer: He is introduced as an exhausted, ragged, seemingly blind or visually impaired man, but his behavior reveals extreme confidence, physical power, and predatory instincts. His transformation identifies him as an Amazon or Amazon-like entity. He treats the combatants as vermin and displays little emotional reaction to killing them.

3. Significant Themes

• Power imbalance and helplessness: Wu Shaoyou’s enhanced abilities are still insufficient against the transformed enemies, and the newcomer defeats those same enemies effortlessly.
• Humanity versus artificial life: The newcomer classifies beings by biological type—human, Amazon, or artificial “reject”—raising questions about identity, purity, and what qualifies as human.
• Predation and dehumanization: The language of “food,” “meat,” and “stench” presents the characters within a brutal survival hierarchy. Humans and transformed beings are viewed as prey, predators, or inferior organisms.
• Transformation and monstrosity: The apparent vagrant becomes a terrifying armored creature, suggesting that monstrous appearances do not necessarily correspond to moral roles; the transformed figure is more dangerous than the attackers but also protects or at least spares Wu Shaoyou.
• Casual violence: The newcomer’s effortless destruction of the combatants makes violence seem routine and reinforces the alien, horrifying nature of his worldview.

4. Character Interactions

• The two combatants corner and psychologically pressure Wu Shaoyou, waiting for his concussion and injuries to worsen before attacking again.
• The newcomer interrupts the confrontation, insulting and dismissing the combatants rather than treating them as serious opponents.
• The combatants abandon their attack on Wu Shaoyou and jointly charge the newcomer, but his transformation defeats them instantly.
• After examining one fallen combatant, the transformed newcomer turns his attention to Wu Shaoyou, sniffs him, and recognizes him as human—ending the chapter with an ominous question about what he may do next.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Wu Shaoyou, badly injured and wearing a large head bandage, eats ramen with Jin Takayama after being rescued from two pursuers.
• Because their Main God–provided identities are unusable, Wu Shaoyou treats Jin to a meal as repayment for saving his life.
• Jin orders enormous portions of chashu ramen and casually takes the meat and eggs from Wu’s bowls, leaving him mostly bean sprouts and natto.
• Wu, still hungry from his injuries and possessing the enhanced body of a former Shocker combatant, orders additional ramen and side dishes.
• Jin refuses cooked food and requests fresh eggs. He cracks a dozen raw eggs against his battered transformation belt and drinks them directly, shocking Wu.
• A new middle-aged man in a suit arrives and appears to know Jin. He introduces himself as Shinji Kaminaga and orders ramen, setting up a significant new interaction.

Character developments

• Wu Shaoyou demonstrates resourcefulness and caution. Rather than abandoning Jin, he invents excuses involving amnesia, homelessness, and being hunted so he can remain near him and learn more about this strange world.
• Wu also reveals his genre awareness, recognizing that Jin is likely connected to a Kamen Rider or Super Sentai setting. However, because he does not know Kamen Rider Amazons, he cannot confidently identify Jin.
• His fear and uncertainty increase as he observes Jin’s inhuman appearance, predatory gaze, bizarre appetite, and unsettling behavior.
• Jin Takayama is shown as both terrifying and oddly mundane: he can effortlessly destroy opponents, yet behaves like a starving drifter in a ramen shop. His extreme hunger and need for raw protein strongly suggest his nonhuman or transformed nature.
• Shinji Kaminaga is introduced as a composed, ordinary-looking office worker who seems familiar with Jin and immediately takes interest in Wu.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus identity: Jin looks monstrous and behaves unnervingly, yet may still be regarded as human, challenging Wu’s assumptions about heroes and monsters.
• Humanity and monstrosity: Wu reflects on the shared origins of Kamen Riders and monsters, while Jin’s predatory behavior blurs the boundary between the two.
• Adaptation in an unfamiliar world: The travelers lack proper identities and must improvise relationships, explanations, and sources of safety.
• Comic relief amid danger: The absurd ramen-shop scene and Jin’s raw-egg consumption contrast sharply with the violence and horror surrounding the characters.
• Observation and deduction: Wu relies on genre knowledge and careful scrutiny to determine who Jin might be and what kind of world he has entered.

Character interactions

• Wu attempts to repay Jin through hospitality, but Jin treats the meal as an opportunity to consume nearly all the meat himself.
• Wu is intimidated by Jin yet continues trying to stay close to him, hoping to use him as protection and a guide.
• Jin barely engages socially, communicating mostly through his food demands and unsettling actions.
• Shinji’s arrival changes the atmosphere: unlike the chaotic Jin, he is calm and formal, suggesting that he may understand Jin’s condition and have information about Wu’s situation.

Chapter Summary: “Adapting to Local Customs and… a Warning”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Wu Shaoyou, a college student, eats ramen while discreetly listening to a tense conversation among several dangerous or supernatural figures.
• Alien Mephilas arrives uninvited and takes two oranges from Wu’s bag, forcing the young man—who is apparently expected to pay—to tolerate the intrusion.
• The diners include Dr. Jin Takayama, a mysterious, perpetually hungry man; Shinji Kaminaga, now a Metropolitan Police Department section chief; and Mephilas, who appears to be exploiting local customs for his own purposes.
• Takayama explains that he recently disappeared to eliminate “bears” hiding in Aokigahara Jukai, implying that the creatures were dangerous supernatural or biological entities.
• Mephilas comments on humanity’s potential to become weapons, provoking Kaminaga to order him to state his purpose or leave.
• Mephilas warns Kaminaga not to interfere with a child’s choices or tamper with the Beta Capsule. He implies that the device may come from a higher or unknown authority rather than Ultraman.
• He further warns that the “Worms” and “Natives,” biological weapons capable of imitating humans, make Kaminaga’s position morally and politically precarious.
• Before leaving—or rather, while staying to eat—Mephilas gives Kaminaga a second warning: stop investigating the case involving Tomie Kawakami, because it is beyond what Kaminaga can handle in his current human state.

Character Developments

• Wu Shaoyou remains frightened and socially powerless, recognizing Mephilas from Shin Ultraman and understanding that he is surrounded by major supernatural figures. His silent observation establishes him as an outsider witnessing events beyond his control.
• Alien Mephilas presents himself as a polite, ordinary middle-aged man adapting to Japanese customs, but his theft, veiled threats, manipulation, and ambiguous loyalties reveal him as calculating and dangerous. His playful behavior masks serious knowledge about the Beta Capsule, the child, the Worms, the Natives, and Tomie Kawakami.
• Shinji Kaminaga has become a high-ranking police official after losing his Ultraman identity when Lipiah departed. Despite being human again, he remains authoritative, suspicious, and willing to confront Mephilas directly.
• Dr. Jin Takayama is portrayed as exhausted, nearly lifeless, and unnaturally hungry. His work eliminating hidden “bears” suggests he is involved in dangerous supernatural cleanup operations.
• The unnamed child connected to the Beta Capsule becomes more important through Mephilas’s warning, suggesting that the child possesses unusual agency or power.

Significant Themes

• Adapting to local customs: Mephilas’s ramen ritual, tea drinking, and comments about “when in Rome” humorously contrast with his alien nature and predatory behavior.
• Hidden identities and infiltration: The chapter emphasizes that aliens, biological weapons, and other entities can appear completely human, making appearances unreliable.
• Power after transformation: Kaminaga’s loss of Ultraman status leaves him vulnerable, forcing him to operate through human institutions while confronting threats far beyond ordinary police authority.
• Moral ambiguity and political danger: Mephilas is neither a straightforward ally nor enemy. His warnings may be genuine, but they also serve his own interests.
• The limits of human control: The Beta Capsule, the child’s decisions, the Worms, the Natives, and Tomie Kawakami all represent forces that Kaminaga cannot safely control or understand.
• Food and politeness as social camouflage: The casual ramen setting and ritualized manners conceal an intense exchange of threats, secrets, and power struggles.

Character Interactions

• Mephilas and Wu Shaoyou: Mephilas casually steals Wu’s oranges, reinforcing Wu’s helplessness and Mephilas’s shameless opportunism.
• Mephilas and Kaminaga: Their conversation is outwardly civil but openly adversarial. Kaminaga tries to control the meeting, while Mephilas responds with teasing, implied threats, and warnings about Kaminaga’s reduced power.
• Mephilas and Takayama: Mephilas studies Takayama’s abnormal hunger with fascination, viewing his condition as evidence of humanity’s capacity to become weaponized. Takayama largely ignores him.
• Mephilas and the unnamed child: Though the child is absent, Mephilas’s warnings indicate strong interest in the child’s value and choices, while insisting that others should not interfere.
• Kaminaga and the supernatural world: Kaminaga attempts to investigate and contain threats such as the Beta Capsule and Tomie Kawakami, but Mephilas makes clear that his current human status severely limits his ability to do so.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• During a meal, Wu Shaoyou realizes that the apparently friendly diner across from him is actually Mephilas, disguised as “Kio Hiden.” Mephilas gives him an absurd business card identifying himself as a Tokyo “Special Incident Observation Consultant” and an air-conditioning salesman.
• Mephilas notices unusual aspects of Wu and asks whether he knows “Zoffy,” suggesting that he may recognize connections between different worlds or versions of Ultraman-related figures. His question leaves the others suspicious and reinforces that he is far more perceptive than he appears.
• After Mephilas leaves, Wu attempts to leave with Fukuzawa Yukichi, but Shinji Kaminaga stops him. Kaminaga reveals that he knows Wu is a conscious Shocker combatant but does not automatically consider him an enemy.
• Kaminaga explains that, compared with the demons and monsters now threatening Tokyo, Shocker may represent a relatively lesser evil. Although Shocker brainwashes and modifies people to pursue world domination, it generally does not openly eat humans, target children, or seek to destroy the world outright.
• Kaminaga discloses that many former Shocker members who escaped brainwashing have mysteriously disappeared. He also says that “Watch Faces” have appeared in the city and may contain traces connected to Wu’s missing seniors.
• He mentions that some Watch Faces may also be connected to Amazon, provoking a violent reaction from Jin Takayama. The normally silent, disheveled vagrant reveals a terrifying predatory aura, hinting at his past as a trained biology doctor and his connection to Amazon.
• Kaminaga recruits Wu and Jin as temporary assistants for his investigative team, citing severe understaffing and the growing danger posed by “Parasites.”
• He describes Tokyo’s worsening nighttime conditions: shops close early, residents avoid one another, public infrastructure is repeatedly destroyed, and people can no longer tell whether those around them are human.
• The chapter ends with Kaminaga describing the city’s transformation into a modern “Night Parade of One Hundred Demons,” where nighttime Tokyo belongs to monsters and ghosts rather than ordinary people.

Character Developments

• Wu Shaoyou: Becomes increasingly frightened and suspicious after recognizing Mephilas. Though he appears harmless and somewhat foolish, he is revealed to possess important knowledge through his Shocker affiliation and possible connections to the missing senior members.
• Mephilas/Kio Hiden: Demonstrates sharp observational skills and awareness of cross-world anomalies. His polite, humorous salesman persona masks a dangerous and highly intelligent alien presence.
• Shinji Kaminaga: Emerges as a pragmatic investigator willing to cooperate with morally compromised groups when larger threats endanger humanity. His exhaustion and bitterness reveal the psychological burden of protecting Tokyo.
• Jin Takayama: His previously apathetic exterior cracks when Amazon is mentioned. His sudden savage reaction reveals a violent, traumatic past and suggests that his abilities or identity are closely tied to Amazon.
• Fukuzawa Yukichi: Remains largely in the background, but his presence alongside Wu shows that Wu is not entirely isolated despite his fear.
• Shocker: Is recontextualized as a flawed but comparatively restrained faction. Rather than being treated as the absolute embodiment of evil, it is positioned as an organization that may sometimes oppose threats even worse than itself.

Significant Themes

• Moral ambiguity: The chapter challenges the simple division between heroes and villains. Shocker’s desire for world domination appears almost moderate compared with monsters that consume people or threaten the planet.
• Cooperation against greater threats: Kaminaga’s willingness to recruit a Shocker combatant reflects the necessity of alliances between enemies when humanity faces supernatural dangers.
• Hidden identities and uncertain humanity: Mephilas’s disguise, the Watch Faces, Parasites, and the fear that anyone nearby may be nonhuman all contribute to a world where appearances cannot be trusted.
• Urban horror and social collapse: Tokyo’s emptying streets, damaged lights, closed shops, and frightened citizens show how supernatural violence is reshaping everyday life.
• Light versus darkness: The damaged streetlights and creatures that seem to fear or hate illumination symbolize the loss of safety and the encroachment of hidden horrors.
• Trauma and suppressed violence: Jin’s reaction to Amazon suggests that past identities and painful experiences remain buried beneath his current numbness.

Important Character Interactions

• Wu and Mephilas: Their meal is superficially polite but psychologically threatening. Mephilas singles Wu out, gives him a business card, and probes him with the question about Zoffy.
• Wu and Shinji: Shinji tests Wu’s loyalty and mental state before deciding that his Shocker identity is not an immediate threat. He then offers Wu a position on his team.
• Shinji and Jin: Shinji attempts to recruit both men and understands that Jin’s connection to Amazon is significant. Jin’s reaction demonstrates the danger beneath his withdrawn personality.
• Shinji and Shocker: Through his explanation of Shocker, Shinji establishes a pragmatic relationship with the organization: he distrusts it, but recognizes that it may still belong to the broader human camp.
• The group and the changing city: Their conversation ties the personal mysteries surrounding Wu, Mephilas, Watch Faces, and Amazon to the larger crisis transforming Tokyo after dark.

Plot points and events

• In a city where nighttime dangers have grown so severe that police patrols have been canceled, Jin Takayama leads Shinji Kaminaga and Wu Shaoyou to a bloodied roadside after detecting the scent of blood.
• They find a man brutally disemboweled. Kaminaga decides there is no point calling for help until morning, while Takayama examines the corpse and concludes that several attackers surrounded and killed the victim. The wounds suggest the killers were not simply hunting for food.
• Takayama finds a blood-soaked note directing someone to retrieve a belt fragment from locker H36 in Building C and deliver it to a research institute. The fragment came from the Kurodake Ruins, where numerous excavation workers recently died in an incident authorities suspect involved nonhuman creatures.
• Kaminaga contacts someone, and later that night the group travels in an armored car to the institute. There, Wu sees the item in an evidence box and receives a special-item notification identifying it as a severely damaged fragment of Daguva’s petrified belt, containing some residual power.

Character developments and interactions

• Takayama displays sharp senses and practical experience: he tracks the blood, studies the scene, and identifies signs of a coordinated attack.
• Kaminaga shows authority and urgency once the note connects the murder to the Kurodake incident. His decision to investigate further contrasts with his earlier acceptance that the victim cannot be saved.
• Wu Shaoyou is visibly shaken by the corpse and increasingly unsettled by the escalating strangeness. His question about “hunting games” reflects his suspicion that the world’s dangers are becoming organized.
• Takayama’s findings prompt Kaminaga to explain the Kurodake deaths, while Wu reacts with alarm to the possibility of coordinated threats. At the institute, the belt fragment’s significance becomes immediately personal to Wu through the notification.

Significant themes

• A fragile human order: People survive partly because many monsters act alone and keep one another in check; cooperative creatures threaten that balance.
• Escalating, organized danger: The evidence points beyond ordinary predation toward coordinated attackers and a wider connection to the Kurodake disaster.
• The supernatural entering official life: Police authority, forensic evidence, research institutes, and special-item systems all intersect with ancient nonhuman powers.
• Unease and adaptation: The characters must confront horrors that are increasingly difficult to explain or manage.

Summary of “Targets and Costs”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Nakata Kaito discovers a powerful item in a special instance dungeon modeled after Tokyo: the Kuuga Control Watchhead (Growing Form), based on Kamen Rider Kuuga.
• The item is classified as an Item/Concept Armament and can be removed from the mission world only by paying 2,000 Universal Points and one Rare Grade Exchange Card.
• Kaito immediately contacts his master, Kujo Duoyanmu, and excitedly presents the discovery.
• Duoyanmu recognizes the item’s exceptional value but realizes that the Rare Grade Exchange Card will be extremely difficult to obtain because such cards cannot be traded or transferred.
• Rather than abandoning the opportunity, Duoyanmu tells Kaito to preserve the item while he attempts to gather the required resources.
• Duoyanmu then prepares to leave his residence. Through makeup, clothing, and a bodily transformation ability, he restores his public appearance from a youthful form to that of an elderly man.
• His transformation is connected to his incomplete exchange for the Japanese folklore figure Rainmaking Little Monk, which grants him control over his body’s water absorption and physical appearance.
• Despite being a powerful First Tier enhanced individual, Duoyanmu remains constrained by the need to maintain a socially acceptable identity and conceal his abilities.

Character Developments

• Nakata Kaito is shown as loyal, energetic, and highly valuable to Duoyanmu. His discovery demonstrates both his usefulness and his dedication to his master.
• Kujo Duoyanmu is revealed to be an experienced and influential Main God User with significant resources, political connections, and supernatural abilities. He is pragmatic enough to focus on the item’s extraction cost rather than simply celebrating its discovery.
• Duoyanmu’s transformation highlights the burden of his power: although he has regained a youthful appearance, he must disguise himself as an elderly man to function safely in society.
• The passage also establishes Duoyanmu’s conflicted attitude toward worldly obligations. He possesses great power but remains tied to politics, secrecy, social expectations, and resource-gathering.

Significant Themes

• Power versus cost: Even highly valuable supernatural items are limited by enormous exchange requirements. Access to power depends not only on discovery but also on scarce resources.
• Loyalty and exploitation: The relationship between Duoyanmu and Kaito reflects a feudal-style master-retainer system. Kaito was effectively raised and controlled by Duoyanmu’s family, yet has also gained status and opportunity through his service.
• Modern feudalism and class hierarchy: The political family preserves old feudal structures beneath modern institutions, using adopted or recruited children as retainers, specialists, and agents.
• Identity and concealment: Duoyanmu’s ability to alter his appearance reflects the broader need for powerful individuals to hide their supernatural nature and manage their public identities.
• The tension between extraordinary power and mundane obligations: Even a superhuman must worry about appearances, politics, social rules, and practical logistics.

Character Interactions

• Kaito abruptly interrupts the medical staff and contacts Duoyanmu because he considers the discovery urgent and confidential.
• When Duoyanmu arrives, Kaito eagerly shows him the Watchhead’s information. Their exchange demonstrates Kaito’s excitement and Duoyanmu’s more cautious, calculating response.
• Duoyanmu protects Kaito’s enthusiasm by promising to seek the necessary resources rather than immediately emphasizing how unlikely success may be.
• Their relationship is affectionate but hierarchical: Kaito is deeply loyal to Duoyanmu, while Duoyanmu treats him as both a trusted retainer and an important asset.
• Duoyanmu’s assistants and stylists obey him respectfully, reinforcing his authority and the household’s rigid internal structure.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Kujo Duoyanmu’s three-car convoy leaves an elite Tokyo villa district and heads toward Mufan Residence.
• The convoy is stopped by a large protest centered on the Main God Website’s Application Draw, which grants ordinary people chances to enter supernatural worlds.
• Protesters accuse the government and ward offices of corruption and unfairness, claiming that ordinary citizens rarely receive slots despite the daily draws.
• A new religious movement, the Church of the Main God, has emerged. Its followers mark their foreheads with a white-orb symbol and believe that extreme devotion or prayer will improve their chances of being selected.
• Kujo observes the protesters, especially a desperate salaryman repeatedly striking his head against the pavement while displaying a sign claiming he has prayed for thirty days.
• He recognizes the anger and desperation beneath the demonstrations, comparing them to the suffering of people he encountered early in his political career. He worries that the public resentment could ignite into something more dangerous.
• Kujo orders his secretary to collect more information but decides not to remain at the protest, emphasizing that real power lies in private negotiations rather than public demonstrations.
• Meanwhile, a post on the Main God Forum draws attention to the Tokyo district’s dangerous newcomer trial. The poster claims that, despite the mission world’s high mortality rate and poor “setting,” valuable supernatural items may be obtainable cheaply.
• The poster recounts finding a Watch Face—an extraordinary item—inside a trash can near a convenience store in Ikebukuro, where an unconscious person had hidden it among the garbage.

Character Developments

• Kujo Duoyanmu is portrayed as an experienced, calculating political leader with strong instincts for social instability. Though he dismisses the protesters’ methods, he recognizes the genuine desperation driving them.
• His priorities have shifted away from conventional politics toward obtaining a valuable supernatural “slot” or item, suggesting that the Main God system has become more important to him than ordinary political influence.
• Kujo’s secretary remains observant and responsive, explaining the Church of the Main God and its beliefs as soon as he notices Kujo’s interest.
• The forum poster is revealed as a resourceful and opportunistic newcomer or undocumented participant. Despite being forced to scavenge for food, he turns his misfortune into a major discovery by finding the Watch Face.

Significant Themes

• Public desperation and social unrest: The Application Draw has transformed supernatural opportunity from a distant rumor into something ordinary people actively compete for, intensifying anger over perceived inequality.
• Religion and exploitation: The Church of the Main God shows how people convert uncertainty and hope into religious devotion, especially when they believe prayer can influence an arbitrary system.
• Political instinct versus supernatural change: Kujo understands traditional power structures, but the Main God system is creating forces that may escape government control.
• The value hidden in the ordinary: The Watch Face’s discovery in a trash can reinforces the chapter’s irony that extraordinary power may be concealed in filthy, overlooked places.
• Chance and inequality: The random draw appears theoretically fair, yet its outcomes create suspicion, fanaticism, and resentment among those left behind.

Character Interactions

• Kujo commands the driver to stop despite the secretary’s security concerns, insisting on hearing the protesters’ demands firsthand.
• The secretary explains the Church of the Main God when Kujo notices the forehead symbol worn by demonstrators.
• Kujo internally contrasts the protesters’ anger with the suffering of people he encountered during his early political career, deepening his understanding of their motives.
• On the forum, the anonymous poster indirectly engages the wider user community by presenting the Watch Face discovery as evidence that valuable items can be found in unexpected places.

Key plot points and events

• In the dangerous Tokyo District, some trial participants keep searching for powerful “Easter eggs” rather than retreating to the safer Cemetery District. Scattered Ridewatches—fragments of the shattered Grand Zi-O Ridewatch—may let their finders briefly access powerful Rider forms.
• At a research institute, Shinji Kaminaga tells colleagues Jin Takayama and a third man that a Kawasaki industrial park’s substation was attacked. Surveillance shows a humanoid figure deliberately disabling safety systems before touching high-voltage equipment.
• The figure survives the shock and transforms: its white, stag-beetle-like shell turns red and then black, while its horns grow into halberd-like crests. It appears to be drawing power from the electricity.
• The chubby young man recognizes the figure as Kamen Rider Kuuga. He believes it has begun in Growing Form and is recklessly absorbing electricity to evolve toward Rising Mighty, a process associated with Kuuga’s Amadam Stone.
• Because the figure’s actions do not fit the cautious Yusuke Godai, the young man suspects its wearer is either an outsider influenced by him—or a Main God User.

Character developments and interactions

• The chubby young man reveals his deep knowledge of Kamen Rider and reacts to Kuuga’s transformation with intense excitement. His recognition gives the scene’s mystery a possible explanation.
• Shinji Kaminaga handles the report seriously and asks Takayama and the young man to investigate.
• Jin Takayama raises the possibility that the attacker is connected to Elbon Cells; Kaminaga says the development center has ruled that out.
• The two colleagues and the young man study the footage together, but only the young man understands what the transformation may signify.

Significant themes

• Risk versus survival: The chapter contrasts hiding in safety with seeking extraordinary power, while emphasizing the danger involved.
• Power and its cost: Ridewatches offer trial access to immense strength, and Kuuga’s evolution may likewise require a hazardous sacrifice—in this case, enduring high-voltage electricity.
• Knowledge as an advantage: Familiarity with fictional Rider lore helps the young man interpret events that the authorities cannot explain.
• Outsiders and uncertainty: The attacker’s identity remains unknown, raising the possibility that otherworldly participants are influencing the city.

Key plot points and events

• After surviving a night of electrocution, Luo Chuanyi hides in an abandoned riverside work shed, wearing an oversized stolen hoodie because his own clothes were destroyed when he grabbed a live wire.
• His body is healing, but the broken Main Rider Ridewatch has fused into him as a warm, pulsing belt. He fears deactivating it could leave him stuck in Kuuga’s vulnerable Growing Form, so he keeps it active.
• The belt’s destructive urge helps suppress his troubling thoughts about Tomie Kawakami, whose image is becoming clearer in his memory.
• Luo recalls fleeing an alley after discovering several inhuman creatures feeding on a corpse. The encounter reinforces how dangerous this world is.
• As night falls, he ventures out for food and information, avoiding alleys. A woman calls to him—and he recognizes her as Tomie, the creature he has been trying not to think about.

Character developments

• Luo is frightened, exhausted, and struggling to adapt, but practical concerns—food, water, survival, and mission rewards—push him back into danger.
• He remains wary of the Ridewatch and its effects, yet relies on its power and on the aggressive impulse it brings.
• Tomie is introduced as an alluring but unmistakably demonic presence who has tracked Luo down.

Significant themes

• Survival in a hostile world: Ordinary city life hides constant supernatural danger.
• Power and risk: Luo’s transformation offers protection, but its uncertain effects and destructive urges make it difficult to trust.
• Fear and denial: He tries to suppress his thoughts of Tomie, only to face her directly.
• The uncanny beneath the familiar: The city resembles Luo’s remembered reality, but monsters make it profoundly unsafe.

Character interactions

• Luo has no meaningful contact with others during the chapter; his recollections of the corpse-eaters deepen his isolation.
• The chapter ends with Tomie addressing him and reminding him that he escaped her once before. Luo responds with a crude, panicked insult, setting up their confrontation.