Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• The Main God warns Li Yun that local authorities have identified him as a likely second-round user and are on their way to question him.
• Detective Hu Dingjun arrives with two younger officers. After inspecting the quiet courtyard, he concludes Li is home and recognizes him from the investigation file.
• Li calmly hosts the visitors with tea. Under questioning, he admits he is a second-round user and demonstrates a small electrical discharge, describing his power as useful for minor shocks and drawing dust.
• Hu asks whether Li has a spare slot and encourages him to use the authorities’ channel for any future transactions. Li says he already gave his spare slot away. Hu also offers him secure accommodation among other users, but Li declines.
• As the visit ends, Hu drinks his tea last. Its intense bitterness gives way to an uncanny stillness that briefly empties his mind. He then finishes the cup and leaves with no clear memory of the effect—only a strong impression that the tea was excellent.
• After the visitors depart, Li asks why Hu broke out of the mental state he had induced. The Main God suggests Li has underestimated how extraordinary the tea is to ordinary people.

Character developments

• Li Yun remains composed and hospitable under official scrutiny. He answers selectively, reveals only limited information, and refuses both recruitment into a secure base and pressure over future dealings. His casual use of a mental suggestion—and his apparent lack of awareness of the tea’s unusual effect—shows how detached he is from ordinary people’s experience.
• Hu Dingjun displays a practiced detective’s caution and perceptiveness, but the tea disrupts his concentration and briefly overrides his thoughts. His final, incomplete recollection leaves him unaware of what happened.
• The two junior officers are less guarded than Hu: they relax quickly and drink their tea without his suspicion.
• The Main God provides timely intelligence and dry commentary, while also correcting Li’s assumptions about the tea.

Significant themes

• Hidden identity and strategic appearance: Li’s constructed persona lets him blend into the authorities’ search, like a pearl hidden among ordinary grains.
• Power and restraint: Though capable and unusual, Li avoids confrontation, shares little, and prefers a quiet life.
• The limits of perception: Hu’s investigative skill cannot protect him from an influence he does not recognize; ordinary experiences can conceal extraordinary effects.
• Truth versus deception: Li insists he has not lied, yet his hospitality and controlled disclosures still leave the visitors with an incomplete understanding.
• Otherness and unequal experience: What seems like ordinary tea to Li has a profound, almost spiritual effect on Hu.

Character interactions

• Hu approaches Li cautiously, using records and past testimony to build rapport and test his reliability. Li responds politely but maintains firm boundaries.
• Hu’s requests are framed as advice rather than orders; Li’s calm refusals preserve the cordial tone without yielding.
• The tea subtly alters the balance of the meeting, affecting the visitors without their understanding and allowing Li to end the encounter on his own terms.
• Afterward, Li and the Main God exchange a dry, familiar critique of his handling of the visitors and the tea.

Chapter Summary: “Training and Rehabilitation Training”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Fang Yishu uses her developing spiritual perception as a form of training. She expands her consciousness through the walls of the apartment building, perceiving objects as dull shapes and living beings as colorful energy patterns.
• Her ability is still limited: she can sense people and roughly observe them, but must concentrate intensely to distinguish details. The effort strains her like a drawn bowstring, and she can only maintain the perception for a short time.
• During training, Fang observes:
  • A boastful livestreamer promoting CS skins and investments while secretly picking his toes.
  • A woman named Xue’er counting money from prostitution and angrily arguing with an elderly caller about an old boyfriend who still cares for her. After the call, Xue’er breaks down crying.
• Fang withdraws her consciousness once she reaches her limit. Ning Yu notices that she has trained for less than ten minutes and questions her progress.
• Fang has decided not to take a leave of absence from college, partly because doing so might draw suspicion. Instead, she and Ning Yu continue living in a rented apartment near campus, which serves as a discreet base.
• Elsewhere, Chen Ruiping struggles with a dangerous new ability gained after the previous Main God mission. By concentrating, he can manipulate the air around him into invisible cutting edges.
• Unable to control the power, Chen accidentally slices through a ceiling, a cabinet, a tomato, and even the table beneath it. He retreats to a secluded outdoor corner and begins a self-imposed “rehabilitation” program to practice restraint.
• Chen repeatedly senses that something is watching him. Unbeknownst to him, an observer is monitoring him with an infrared device.
• The observer reports that Chen’s abnormal reactions are non-accidental and likely identify him as Chen Jingqiu, a high-priority search target. Authorities are beginning investigations into unusually capable users, not merely the special First-Test Users.

Character Developments

• Fang Yishu: Becomes more skilled and deliberate in using her spiritual perception. She recognizes that concentration itself is training and gains a clearer understanding of her ability: energy and consciousness appear as “color,” while lifeless matter remains gray and difficult to penetrate. Despite exhaustion, she maintains a practical and teasing attitude.
• Ning Yu: Acts as Fang’s close companion and grounding influence. She monitors Fang’s training, challenges her impatience, and helps keep their situation from appearing suspicious.
• Chen Ruiping: Shifts from an ordinary, somewhat muddled former delivery worker into someone possessing a potentially lethal supernatural ability. His lack of control makes him fearful and isolated, forcing him to abandon normal life and undergo cautious rehabilitation.
• Xue’er: Is revealed to be emotionally wounded beneath her aggressive exterior. Her anger toward her former relationship and family-like caller masks grief, regret, and loneliness.
• The authorities/observers: Expand their attention beyond the most obvious special users, suggesting a systematic effort to identify and track people who display unusual abilities.

Significant Themes

• Training through restraint: Both Fang and Chen improve by practicing controlled use of their powers rather than seeking sudden breakthroughs.
• The danger of uncontrolled ability: Chen’s power is useful but immediately hazardous, showing how supernatural talent can become a threat to its wielder and surroundings.
• Seeing beneath appearances: Fang’s perception reveals the energetic difference between lifeless matter and living consciousness, while her observations also expose hidden emotional pain in strangers.
• Isolation and vulnerability: Chen hides in secluded places, and Xue’er’s breakdown shows the private suffering concealed behind anger and bravado.
• Surveillance and rising danger: The emergence of organized monitoring indicates that users with supernatural abilities are becoming targets, increasing the pressure on Fang, Chen, and others to remain inconspicuous.
• Ordinary life alongside the extraordinary: College routines, roommates, livestreams, money disputes, and personal relationships continue alongside increasingly dangerous supernatural developments.

Character Interactions

• Fang and Ning Yu maintain a familiar, teasing friendship. Ning Yu questions Fang’s short training sessions, while Fang jokes about the unrealistic expectation of mastering supernatural techniques immediately.
• Xue’er argues with an older parental figure who urges her to reconsider her past relationship and abandon prostitution. Her harsh rejection gives way to silent emotional collapse.
• Chen has no direct interaction with the observers, but their surveillance creates an unseen conflict: he senses their attention without understanding its source.
• The chapter’s parallel structure contrasts Fang’s deliberate, controlled training with Chen’s fearful attempts to prevent his uncontrolled ability from harming others.

Chapter Summary: “Late-Night News”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The White House holds a crowded, internationally watched press conference led by spokesperson Quincy Wallington.
• Wallington announces that people in multiple countries have been entering interconnected, shared dreams during sleep. The phenomenon:
  • Has affected at least hundreds of thousands of people.
  • Repeats unpredictably among different individuals.
  • Has caused serious disruption to ordinary life.
  • Cannot be explained by current science and is officially described as potentially “supernatural.”
• Citizens are advised to report symptoms to federal hospitals for evaluation and treatment.
• The United States claims that the phenomenon originated at East University nearly a month earlier.
• It further alleges that Raymond Mortimer, a British citizen involved in the original incident, is being secretly detained there.
• The American government condemns East University for violating human rights and international law, while demanding access for an international scientific expedition.
• The press conference frames the supernatural phenomenon as a matter affecting all humanity and as a potential source of major scientific discoveries.
• In China, college students Wu Shaoyou and Wang Lei watch the translated livestream at four in the morning. They become intensely excited by the official confirmation of supernatural phenomena.
• Their roommate, Li Anshan, suddenly appears after secretly watching part of the broadcast and jokingly complains that they watched such major news without him.

Character Developments

• Quincy Wallington: Presents himself as polished but unconventional, using humor at the beginning before adopting a serious, authoritative tone. He acts as the mouthpiece for the United States’ public narrative and political demands.
• Wu Shaoyou and Wang Lei: Shift from casual online curiosity to intense excitement and fascination. Their interest in earlier mysterious videos and a “Truth Exchange Group” is validated by the government’s announcement.
• Li Anshan: Reveals himself as observant and socially playful. Though initially absent, he has followed enough of the broadcast to understand its importance and teases his roommates for excluding him.

Significant Themes

• The supernatural entering public reality: What was previously rumor, online speculation, or mysterious footage is now acknowledged by a major government.
• Information, media, and political power: The press conference demonstrates how governments shape public understanding of extraordinary events through official statements, accusations, and carefully staged imagery.
• International conflict and competition: The United States presents scientific investigation as a humanitarian necessity while also pressuring East University and criticizing its alleged detention of Raymond Mortimer.
• Curiosity and mass fascination: Ordinary people, especially online communities and young students, are captivated by the possibility that supernatural phenomena are real.
• The tension between science and the unexplained: Scientists are eager to study the phenomenon, but existing theories cannot account for it.

Character Interactions

• Wallington addresses reporters with a mixture of humor and solemnity, guiding them from disbelief toward alarm and political outrage.
• Wu Shaoyou and Wang Lei watch and discuss the broadcast together, reinforcing each other’s excitement over the word “supernatural.”
• Li Anshan interrupts their private excitement by placing a hand on each of them and jokingly accusing them of watching major news without inviting him, ending the chapter on a light, familiar roommate interaction.

Chapter Summary: “The News from Outside”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Du Qifeng, a college student and veteran Main God user who has survived four missions, watches a widely circulated video of a White House press conference.
• The American spokesperson, Quincy Wallington, publicly mentions “collective dreams” and supernatural phenomena, causing a worldwide surge of online discussion.
• Foreign websites, social media, and forums suddenly release translations, analyses, supposed leaks, declassified documents, and historical records concerning the Main God Platform and its users.
• Du studies the material carefully, noticing that much of it repeatedly highlights the first round of missions and the “initial users” from a particular region.
• He concludes that the flood of information is not merely public education. Someone powerful is deliberately directing attention toward the first-round users, effectively exposing them and placing them in danger.
• Du downloads as much evidence as possible, intending to sort genuine information from possible traps or fabricated material.
• While researching, he discovers that reports of foreign users and supernatural incidents had existed since the second mission, when foreign tourists first entered the Main God Platform, but had been largely ignored or erased.
• He realizes that extensive censorship had suppressed these developments internationally, perhaps even more thoroughly than domestically. The recent press conference has caused the suppressed information to resurface explosively.
• He also observes that regions such as Russia, Southeast Asia, and parts of Europe and Asia preserved more traces of the earlier discussions than other places.

Character Development

• Du Qifeng is shown as cautious, analytical, and increasingly experienced. His four missions have transformed him from an ordinary student into someone capable of recognizing hidden agendas and evaluating large-scale information operations.
• He demonstrates initiative by accessing foreign websites, overcoming language barriers, downloading evidence, and comparing sources instead of accepting official narratives.
• His suspicion and strategic thinking deepen when he identifies the deliberate focus on the initial users.
• He Qiu and Zheng Defa are established indirectly as former teammates who now cooperate with authorities but protect Du’s identity and information.
• He Qiu’s experiences have made him highly secretive and wary, while Zheng’s earlier bond with Du leads him to preserve Du’s anonymity.

Significant Themes

• Information control and censorship: Governments and institutions have suppressed reports of the Main God Platform and supernatural events, shaping public understanding through silence.
• Truth emerging through digital networks: Once official restraints weaken, buried evidence spreads rapidly through social media, translations, reposts, and online investigations.
• Manipulation and hidden agendas: The apparent release of information may be an intentional operation designed to expose or target the initial users.
• Surveillance and vulnerability: Even users who remain hidden can be endangered when their collective history becomes a subject of international attention.
• Global reaction to the supernatural: The Main God Platform is no longer a concealed local anomaly; its effects are becoming an international crisis.
• Difficulty of discerning truth: Genuine records, speculation, absurd interpretations, and deliberate misinformation all circulate together.

Character Interactions

• Du’s former teammates, Zheng Defa and He Qiu, have chosen not to reveal his identity to authorities, preserving a connection based on loyalty and shared survival.
• The chapter mainly portrays Du interacting with online communities, foreign reports, and public information rather than through direct face-to-face encounters.
• Online users argue fiercely over the White House statement, while researchers, governments, hackers, and anonymous posters collectively shape the emerging narrative.
• The interactions between official statements and public reactions show the growing conflict between institutional secrecy and uncontrolled global information sharing.

Chapter Summary: “Online Traces”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The exposure of previously leaked posts about the “abnormal coma” phenomenon causes a massive surge of online activity worldwide, particularly in Russian forums and other niche communities.
• Earlier reports and cries for help—once mocked as delusions or signs of mental instability—are revisited, translated, and analyzed alongside timelines and official White House statements.
• Online forums become flooded with supposed accounts of shared dream experiences. However, Du Qifeng recognizes that most are ordinary dreams, hallucinations, or misunderstandings rather than genuine encounters with the Main God or participation in the Newcomer Trial.
• Conspiracy theories spread rapidly. Some users claim the incident is an American biological or psychological weapons operation, while others accuse the Eastern Country of developing dream-control technology.
• Domestic public platforms remain relatively calm due to censorship and moderation, but private chat groups and underground forums are packed with users discussing the phenomenon. Banned groups are repeatedly recreated, creating a guerrilla-like information network.
• Old posts from people who had previously noticed abnormal events become celebrated as prophetic “god-tier” posts. Young users enthusiastically search for clues, opportunities, or potential recruiters.
• Public attention ultimately centers on September 15th, only two or three days away, when the truth is expected to become clearer. Although foreign countries reveal information first, domestic news is portrayed as more trustworthy and reassuring.

Character Developments

• Du Qifeng observes the online chaos with growing amusement and skepticism. As an actual First-Test User, he can distinguish genuine Main God-related experiences from exaggerated rumors and ordinary dreams.
• His previous missions have given him two invitation slots, but he becomes increasingly hesitant to use them on his parents. He is not concerned about losing the slots; rather, he fears that his parents could enter a dangerous trial—such as one involving zombies—and die.
• His concern for his parents reveals a strong protective instinct and deep filial affection. He is willing to risk himself but cannot bear the thought of exposing them to danger.
• Du Qifeng also feels frustrated by his limited financial strength. Powerful Main God items could protect his parents, but they are far beyond his current means, so he decides to wait and search for safer options.

Significant Themes

• Truth versus misinformation: Genuine evidence is buried beneath rumors, conspiracy theories, emotional reactions, and fabricated personal accounts.
• The power of the internet: Online communities rapidly transform old ridicule into praise, turning obscure posts into evidence and amplifying both useful information and mass hysteria.
• Public fear and anticipation: The population experiences a mixture of curiosity, anxiety, excitement, and helplessness while waiting for confirmation.
• Censorship and underground communication: Domestic users move discussions into private groups, which repeatedly re-form after being banned.
• Responsibility and family protection: Du Qifeng’s dilemma emphasizes the moral burden of possessing access to extraordinary power while being unable to guarantee others’ safety.
• Human opportunism: Young users seek fame, recruitment, or access to the Main God system, hoping their enthusiasm will attract someone capable of offering them an opportunity.
• Conspiracy as a social reflex: When faced with an incomprehensible event, people quickly assign blame to rival nations or imagined technological schemes.

Character Interactions

• Du Qifeng’s most important interactions are indirect: he studies the reactions of online users and compares their claims with his own experience as a real participant.
• The internet community interacts collectively through arguments, translations, timeline analyses, “archeological” examinations of old posts, and the creation and recreation of banned chat groups.
• Young users seek recognition and potential mentors, while moderators attempt to control the flood of unreliable information by threatening permanent bans.
• Du Qifeng mentally contrasts his own knowledge with the ignorance of ordinary netizens, reinforcing his isolated position as someone who understands the Main God phenomenon but cannot openly reveal the truth.

Chapter summary

On September 14, Li Yun receives an invitation from the Special Affairs Investigation Bureau. Qian Yisheng, an affable bureau representative, delivers it in person, accompanied by police officer Hu Dingjun. The invitation asks Li to attend a gathering of civilian “users” at the Shu Capital International Convention Center at 7:30 the next morning to watch a live broadcast of a press conference in Upper Capital. Li accepts without hesitation and asks only about preparations and dress; Qian tells him to dress neatly and says a car will collect him at 6:30.
After the visit, Li recognizes the invitation as a second round of screening and reflects that the authorities are being cautious. In their car, Qian asks Hu what he thought of Li. Hu considers Li’s calm, poised behavior consistent with the possibility that users’ experiences “in there” have changed them. Qian remains uneasy: Li’s composure and quiet authority seem unlike the introverted, unremarkable former employee described in his file. He privately compares Li’s presence to that of a senior official he once met and raises Li’s provisional assessment by one level.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Yun is courteous and cooperative, but his measured manner suggests confidence and authority beneath an easygoing exterior. He understands that the invitation is also an evaluation.
• Qian Yisheng is professionally warm and tactful, while carefully observing the people he visits. Li’s demeanor unsettles him, prompting him to reassess Li as a potentially significant figure.
• Hu Dingjun offers a more reassuring interpretation: users’ experiences may naturally alter their personalities and behavior.
• Li and Qian maintain a polite exchange, while Qian and Hu discuss Li candidly after leaving, revealing the Bureau’s ongoing assessment of users.

Significant themes

• Surveillance and screening: An apparently simple invitation doubles as an assessment of its recipients.
• Transformation through experience: The story suggests that life “in there” may reshape users’ personalities and social behavior.
• Appearance versus underlying authority: Li seems approachable, yet his composure conveys an influence that Qian finds difficult to explain.
• Uncertainty and caution: Both the authorities and the characters are trying to interpret unfamiliar people and events without knowing the full picture.

Plot points and events

• Li Yun is driven in a black sedan to a large venue for a news-viewing event. The carefully arranged, one-car-per-guest transport gives the gathering a formal, important air.
• After checking in, he enters a crowded hall and recognizes many attendees as Main God Users he had previously observed from afar when he was a manager. Most appear to be from the second or third batch.
• The event is not merely a chance for guests to watch: they are also exposed to one another’s scrutiny.
• A middle-aged man in a Zhongshan suit secretly probes Li Yun with mental power. Li Yun repels the attempt, and a warning from an unknown visitor reminds the man not to overreach. He realizes Li Yun is far more skilled and backs off.
• A young woman, Miss Fang, uses a subtler method—mental “ripples”—to detect others. Li Yun blocks her probe and lightly calls her out. Rather than retreat, she begins walking toward him.

Character developments

• Li Yun remains composed and observant, concealing his awareness of the hall’s surveillance and its attendees. His control over mental abilities is demonstrated through his effortless defenses.
• The middle-aged man is curious but inexperienced in probing stronger people. After being rebuffed, he becomes cautious and accepts the chance to withdraw without further conflict.
• Miss Fang shows greater promise and refinement than the middle-aged man, though her abilities still seem newly developed and somewhat unpolished. Her decision to approach Li Yun suggests confidence or a desire to engage despite being detected.

Significant themes

• Observation and being observed: The gathering creates a two-way spectacle in which guests watch the event while also scrutinizing one another.
• Power and restraint: Li Yun’s quiet mastery contrasts with the others’ attempts to test their abilities; discretion and self-control help prevent conflict.
• Public formality and hidden tension: The solemn venue and polite procedures conceal a constant contest of awareness and mental strength.

Character interactions

• Li Yun politely parts from his military-trained driver and follows the venue staff’s instructions.
• He silently repels the middle-aged man’s direct mental probe; an unseen warning helps the man recognize the danger and back down.
• Li Yun blocks Miss Fang’s indirect probe and addresses her with a mild rebuke. She responds by approaching him rather than avoiding him.

Chapter Summary: “Glasses? Eyes?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Yun recognizes the approaching girl as Fang Yishu, who has come to the gathering as a guest and is wearing similar nonprescription glasses.
• Fang admits that she had been experimenting with her newly learned abilities by observing the unusual people at the event. Li Yun subtly warns her to be more careful, since the occasion is crowded and sensitive.
• Curious about Li Yun’s concealed appearance, Fang asks to see him without his glasses.
• Li Yun agrees and removes them, revealing striking bluish eyes and an unexpectedly refined, otherworldly presence. Fang is momentarily captivated and instinctively moves closer.
• A sudden pain between Fang’s brows breaks her trance, prompting Li Yun to put the glasses back on. His ordinary, reserved appearance immediately returns.
• Li Yun explains that the eyes can reflect the soul, particularly for mental-type Enhanced individuals, but emphasizes that true transformation must come from oneself rather than imitation of others.
• Fang apologizes for her forward request and retreats to find her seat, visibly embarrassed and flustered.
• After she leaves, Li Yun reflects that she probably failed to absorb his advice and turns his attention toward another interesting person or occurrence nearby.

Character Developments

• Li Yun: Remains calm, restrained, and difficult to read. He demonstrates unusual eyes and an imposing hidden nature beneath his mundane appearance. His cryptic advice reveals experience or insight into mental-type abilities and personal transformation.
• Fang Yishu: Shows herself to be curious, impulsive, and inexperienced with her abilities. Her fascination with Li Yun grows, but she becomes increasingly embarrassed by her boldness and by the powerful effect his eyes have on her.

Significant Themes

• Appearance versus reality: Li Yun’s glasses conceal a striking and possibly supernatural aspect of his identity, emphasizing the gap between his ordinary exterior and true nature.
• The eyes as windows to the soul: The chapter explores how eyes reveal inner qualities, especially among mental-type Enhanced individuals.
• Individuality and self-transformation: Li Yun stresses that observing or imitating others cannot replace developing one’s own identity and abilities.
• Curiosity and restraint: Fang’s youthful curiosity contrasts with Li Yun’s controlled reserve, creating both humor and tension.

Character Interactions

• Fang approaches Li Yun with playful awkwardness after realizing he noticed her experimenting with her powers.
• Li Yun responds politely but distantly, subtly warning her without openly reprimanding her.
• When Fang asks to see his eyes, Li Yun grants the request as a reward for her discernment, briefly allowing her to glimpse his unusual nature.
• His philosophical explanation leaves Fang embarrassed and somewhat overwhelmed, while Li Yun remains detached and observant as she departs.

Chapter Summary: “Connections and Observation”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Autonomous God has shifted from large-scale recruitment to scattered, random selection. With only slightly over one million official users worldwide, Main God users remain rare and difficult for authorities to identify.
• More than a thousand users gather at a convention center for a viewing event. Because they are pioneers with unusual abilities and experiences, the authorities have arranged an elaborate reception and are quietly monitoring them.
• Before the event begins, guests are not directed to their seats. Instead, they use the opportunity to observe one another, exchange business cards, and establish connections.
• Li Yun is approached by several people, including Yu Chengyuan and a man known as Boss Yan. Both make brief introductions and exchange contact information before moving on to other potential contacts.
• The attendees efficiently network with one another, recognizing that other Main God users represent valuable resources and possible regional allies. Young or inexperienced-looking guests become especially popular targets for aggressive socializing.
• Li Yun, despite not having business cards, uses his prior experience as an office worker to navigate the crowd. His quiet, neutral demeanor and black clothing help him avoid becoming an obvious target while still making him a familiar presence.
• In a monitoring room, officials observe the crowd through concealed cameras. An elderly supervisor notices that a gold-watch-wearing guest is behaving unnaturally and suspects he is under mental influence.
• The authorities order an assessment team to cross-check the man’s records and place both him and the person interacting with him under temporary risk tracking.
• The officials conclude that the guests are highly perceptive and difficult to evaluate. They decide to continue observing them and seat them earlier than planned.

Character Developments

• Li Yun: Demonstrates restraint, social awareness, and adaptability. Although he lacks formal preparation, he successfully blends into the crowd and avoids being exploited by more aggressive networkers. His former office experience proves unexpectedly useful.
• Yu Chengyuan: Presents himself as polite and approachable, but his quick exchange with Li Yun reveals a deliberate effort to collect information and expand his network.
• Boss Yan: Appears friendly and sociable, participating in the same calculated networking process as the other attendees.
• The elderly monitoring official: Shows sharp observational skills and caution. He quickly identifies physical and behavioral signs suggesting that someone may be using abnormal mental influence.
• The gathered users: They are portrayed as socially intelligent, opportunistic, and aware of the advantages of being among the earliest users of the Autonomous God.

Significant Themes

• Networking as power: The chapter presents relationships and information exchange as major resources for people who have gained an early advantage.
• Observation and concealment: Both the users and the authorities are constantly studying one another. The guests hide their abilities and intentions, while officials use surveillance to assess potential threats.
• Social manipulation: Polite conversation and business-card exchanges mask strategic motives. Even apparently casual introductions are attempts to gather information or secure future alliances.
• Rarity and privilege: Main God users are uncommon, making the gathering an unusually valuable social and political opportunity.
• Uncertainty and hidden danger: The suspected mental influence demonstrates that some attendees may possess abilities beyond ordinary understanding and may not respect the event’s rules.

Character Interactions

• Li Yun has a formal but guarded exchange with Yu Chengyuan, accepting his business card without showing excessive enthusiasm.
• Boss Yan approaches Li Yun with exaggerated familiarity, following the same pattern of brief pleasantries and contact exchange.
• Guests compete to approach socially inexperienced or younger attendees, sometimes colliding in their attempts to secure contacts.
• Li Yun observes these interactions while remaining cautious and inconspicuous.
• In the monitoring room, officials discuss the guests’ behavior and coordinate with an assessment team to investigate the gold-watch-wearing man and the person speaking with him.
• The authorities ultimately treat the entire gathering as both a social event and a live behavioral assessment, recognizing that the users’ interactions may reveal more than direct questioning would.

Chapter Summary: “News Conference”

Key Plot Points and Events

• A highly anticipated global livestream begins at 9:00 p.m., replacing regular television news and drawing enormous public attention. People gather in streets, restaurants, homes, and a formal viewing venue, sensing that the announcement will be important.
• An elderly senior academician publicly confirms that the strange incidents spreading online are real. Authorities have verified the existence of a supernatural phenomenon known as the “Main God Game.”
• The phenomenon resembles the fictional “Main God Space” found in popular literature and media. Selected individuals, called “Main God Users” or “tourists,” periodically enter other worlds through dreams or sleep. These worlds appear to contain fantastical elements and may be alien dimensions, information projections, or realities connected to a larger multiverse.
• The announcement causes widespread shock and excitement. Viewers, reporters, and ordinary citizens react with shouting, frantic photography, emotional outbursts, and speculation about the phenomenon’s origins.
• The academician explains that there may be at least 800,000 Main God Users worldwide. Most are selected randomly, while experienced users can obtain invitation slots to recruit others. Some countries are already attempting to acquire these slots through immigration and visa policies.
• He emphasizes that the phenomenon brings both opportunities and dangers, and that even scientists do not yet understand its purpose, mechanism, or origin. Humanity must accept the reality and proceed cautiously.
• The press conference refuses to take live questions, promising that further information will be released through official online materials.
• Authorities deny that any particular nation possesses a special class of users, claiming that some citizens merely encountered the phenomenon earlier and contributed to humanity’s understanding of it.
• The government also addresses British citizen Raymond Mortimer, claiming that he collapsed from an acute brain-related illness and is being treated under humanitarian principles. His unexplained brain shadows and repeated unconscious states are presented as medical anomalies rather than evidence of Main God activity.
• China rejects a proposed multinational scientific expedition, stating that foreign institutions cannot become involved before the phenomenon’s effects are understood. It also denies persecuting domestic users and promises to protect social order.

Character Developments

• Li Yun remains unusually calm compared with the excited crowd. His prior knowledge of the Main God phenomenon makes the public revelation less surprising to him, and his detached attitude causes him to stand out among the guests.
• Li Yun recognizes the government’s explanation of Raymond Mortimer’s condition as a carefully worded half-truth. He understands that the “shadows” in Mortimer’s brain and his unconscious states likely reflect Main God User activity, and he smiles faintly at the authorities’ ability to remain technically truthful while concealing the real situation.
• Wu Shaoyou reacts with uncontrolled enthusiasm, shouting that the official announcement confirms his earlier belief that the person seen fleeing in a video was a transmigrator.
• Wang Lei and Li Anshan are excited but more cautious. They restrain Wu Shaoyou and warn him that the announcement still does not explain whether the phenomenon involves overlapping dimensions, alien intervention, or some larger multiverse signal.
• Du Qifeng watches from home with his worried parents, who examine him for injuries. He uses the broadcast to confirm to them that the strange changes he previously described are real.
• Old Shen, a rough-looking nouveau riche man seated near Li Yun, becomes exhilarated upon hearing that there are only around 800,000 users worldwide. He considers his own selection extraordinary luck and tries to share his excitement with Li, who responds only briefly and remains focused on the broadcast.
• The elderly academician establishes himself as a calm, credible public representative. Despite the reporters’ disorder and emotional hostility, he maintains a measured tone and presents the official account without losing composure.

Significant Themes

• Public revelation and loss of secrecy: The Main God Game moves from rumor and private knowledge into acknowledged global reality, permanently changing society.
• Truth versus controlled disclosure: The authorities reveal enough information to validate the phenomenon while withholding key details and disguising sensitive cases, especially Raymond Mortimer’s condition.
• Humanity confronting the unknown: Scientists and governments admit that they do not understand the phenomenon, emphasizing the uncertainty and risks of entering unexplored realities.
• Opportunity and danger: The limited number of users makes participation appear extraordinarily valuable, but the announcement repeatedly warns that the phenomenon is dangerous and unpredictable.
• Mass psychology and social contagion: Public anxiety, excitement, greed, suspicion, and nationalism spread rapidly through crowds and media networks.
• Government authority and international conflict: The refusal to permit foreign scientific involvement and the discussion of user recruitment reveal emerging geopolitical competition over access to the Main God Game.
• The collapse of ordinary reality: Fictional concepts such as transmigration and alternate worlds are confirmed as real, forcing people to reconsider the boundaries between imagination, science, and reality.

Important Character Interactions

• Wu Shaoyou excitedly shares his interpretation of the announcement, while Wang Lei and Li Anshan restrain him and urge skepticism.
• Du Qifeng’s parents express concern by physically checking him, while Du uses the broadcast to validate what he had previously told them.
• Old Shen attempts to bond with Li Yun over the rarity and value of being a Main God User, but Li’s restrained response highlights the difference between ordinary excitement and the perspective of someone already familiar with the truth.
• Li Yun silently interprets the government’s statement about Raymond Mortimer, recognizing the gap between the official explanation and the actual implications.
• Reporters and spectators collectively challenge the orderly structure of the conference through shouting, emotional questioning, and political accusations, but the academician refuses to be destabilized.

Chapter Summary: “Cold Water and the News”

Key Plot Points and Events

• As conflict threatens to erupt over the newly revealed “First-Test Users” and the Main God Space, authorities release two forms of news coverage:
  • An external press conference, surrounded by aggressive reporters.
  • A controlled “internal version” for domestic viewers, featuring a military-police official.
• The official highlights numerous dangers connected to the Newcomer Trial and the buying or selling of user positions:
  • Police arrests involving the sale of user information.
  • Victims losing their savings to scams.
  • Participants suffering mental breakdowns.
  • Violent disputes, marital conflicts, clan warfare, assassinations, and foreign incidents caused by competition over trial spots.
• Li Yun recognizes the strategy as “praising it first, then suppressing it.” The authorities cannot realistically ban information about the Main God Space, so they use real tragedies to reduce public excitement, discourage reckless behavior, and make regulation easier.
• After the broadcast, more than a thousand invited “guests” attend a lengthy official briefing and training session. The authorities explain that:
  • Users may legally participate in social and commercial activities.
  • Most related activities must be registered and supervised.
  • Important or dangerous “foreign objects” will receive special review and government oversight.
  • The authorities subtly encourage users to surrender spare trial positions and offer suggestions.
  • The underlying principle is “stability above all.”
• Li Yun returns home with a newly issued set of “User-Related Guidelines.” He realizes that the ceremony and public announcements are gradually legitimizing users, shifting them from suspicious figures on the fringes of society into people with a more publicly accepted status.
• Once home, the Main God informs Li Yun that three university students are pooling their money to purchase supposed insider information about increasing their chances of being selected.
• One of them is Li Anshan, the second son of Li Yun’s uncle and someone Li Yun helped care for when he was young.
• The students plan to spend nearly fifteen thousand yuan—combining their living expenses and money earned from escorting knife shipments—to buy the information.
• Concerned but reluctant to intervene directly, Li Yun orders the Main God to cut off their internet access. However, because Li Anshan is family and genuinely wants the opportunity, he allows him to undergo the trial.
• Li Yun instructs the Main God to make the trial more difficult, prevent serious injury, and allow the normal process to determine whether Li Anshan is suitable. If he fails, Li Anshan should be returned to ordinary life and made to focus on his studies.

Character Developments

• Li Yun: Demonstrates his growing understanding of government strategy and the broader social consequences of the Main God Space. Though usually detached and pragmatic, he reveals genuine concern for Li Anshan. He balances family affection with caution, deciding to give Anshan a fair opportunity while refusing to protect him from every consequence.
• Li Anshan: Is introduced as impulsive, naïve, and excited by the possibility of entering the Main God Space. His willingness to risk his living expenses on unverified “inside information” shows both recklessness and ambition.
• The Main God: Continues monitoring human activity and brings Li Yun information it considers relevant. Its willingness to involve Li Anshan shows an awareness of Li Yun’s personal relationships, while its role remains analytical and detached.
• Government officials: Present themselves as firm and responsible while adopting a pragmatic policy of regulation rather than outright prohibition. Their actions reveal an attempt to control public fear, greed, and instability.

Significant Themes

• Managing public hysteria: Authorities use frightening examples to cool the public’s enthusiasm without denying the existence or potential value of the Main God Space.
• Legitimization through regulation: Users are gradually transformed from unofficial, suspicious figures into a recognized social group subject to registration and oversight.
• Stability versus freedom: The government allows users to profit and participate in society, but only within a supervised framework designed to prevent unrest.
• The dangers of opportunity: The chance to gain extraordinary power or wealth encourages scams, violence, irrational decisions, and family conflict.
• Family responsibility and controlled intervention: Li Yun’s decision regarding Li Anshan reflects his conflict between protecting a relative and allowing him to face a meaningful test independently.
• Information as power: Insider knowledge becomes a valuable and dangerous commodity, attracting fraudsters and desperate buyers.

Character Interactions

• The military official addresses the public indirectly, using reports of disasters and violence to warn users against reckless transactions.
• Government presenters interact with the assembled guests in a formal but coercive setting, providing information while clearly expecting compliance.
• The Main God reports Li Anshan’s activities to Li Yun, deliberately exploiting its awareness of their family connection.
• Li Yun responds to the Main God with irritation and helpless affection, ordering it to stop the scam while modifying the instructions to give Li Anshan a chance.
• His final decision establishes a balance: Li Anshan will not be shielded from difficulty, but neither will he be allowed to suffer irreversible harm.

Summary: “A Strange Newcomer Trial”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Three college students—Li Anshan, Wang Lei, and Wu Shaoyou—attempt to purchase valuable insider information through an online enthusiast group. After negotiating the price down from fifty thousand, their laptop suddenly loses connection just before payment.
• When they regain access, the seller’s account, their chat history, and the entire group have disappeared. The students realize they were likely scammed and are devastated, especially Li Anshan, who had planned to contribute money earned from dangerous “knife runs” and escort work.
• Despite their disappointment, the three continue searching for alternatives throughout the day before going to sleep early.
• Li Anshan awakens in an unfamiliar room surrounded by roughly twenty unconscious or confused strangers. A supernatural white barrier encloses the group, suggesting they have been transported somewhere outside the normal world.
• The newcomers include people of different ages, nationalities, and backgrounds. Some panic, while others excitedly recognize the situation as resembling the “Main God Space” from fiction.
• A jaded middle-aged man identifies himself as their guide and explains that they are participants in a Main God Game Newcomer Trial. He reveals that the trial takes place in the world of Resident Evil.
• The participants receive an internal “manual” and a floating mission screen. Their main objective is simply to survive as long as possible. Their rewards will depend on their survival performance, with newcomer rewards doubled and no explicit penalty for failure.
• They are warned not to reveal information about the Main God platform to characters from the Resident Evil world. Because of the world’s unusually high potential difficulty, all participants receive temporary advanced resistance to viral infection.
• The guide’s exhausted, bitter attitude and the alarming wording of the mission cause Li Anshan and several others to realize that the trial may be far more dangerous than it initially appears.

Character Developments

• Li Anshan: Initially crushed by the apparent scam, he quickly shifts into alertness and curiosity after awakening in the strange environment. His excitement at seeing supernatural phenomena is tempered by growing unease once he learns the nature of the trial.
• Wu Shaoyou: Reacts most emotionally to the online fraud, angrily consuming a cola after the deal collapses. His persistence is shown when he continues searching for information even after the others begin losing hope.
• Wang Lei: Handles the failed transaction more calmly than Wu Shaoyou, though he remains demoralized and continues investigating alongside his friends.
• The middle-aged guide: Appears cynical, exhausted, and emotionally numb. His attitude implies extensive experience with the Main God Game and suggests that the newcomer trial has a grim history or unusually high mortality rate.
• The other participants: Display a range of reactions—panic, disbelief, excitement, suspicion, and fear—establishing them as an inexperienced and diverse group forced into the same crisis.

Significant Themes

• False hope and betrayal: The students’ excitement over obtaining insider information collapses when the seller and group vanish, emphasizing the danger of trusting anonymous online sources.
• Transition from ordinary life to supernatural danger: The chapter abruptly moves from dormitory frustrations to a life-threatening alternate world, highlighting how quickly the characters’ circumstances change.
• Survival as the ultimate reward: The trial explicitly frames continued existence as more important than money or victory, reinforcing the bleak survival-horror setting.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: The participants possess partial information about the Main God Game and Resident Evil, but their lack of practical experience leaves them vulnerable.
• Foreboding and hidden danger: The guide’s defeated demeanor, the high difficulty rating, and the absence of failure penalties paradoxically suggest that surviving may be extremely difficult.

Character Interactions

• Li Anshan, Wang Lei, and Wu Shaoyou share the disappointment of the failed online deal and support one another by continuing the search for alternatives and bringing food.
• Wu Shaoyou expresses the group’s anger openly, while Wang Lei and Li Anshan respond more quietly and practically.
• Upon awakening, Li Anshan is accidentally injured when a nearby fat man rolls onto him, creating an unpleasant but darkly comic introduction to the new environment.
• The confused newcomers look to one another for guidance, with some calling for experienced participants.
• The guide dismisses their panic and directs them to search their own minds for the information provided by the Main God system, establishing his superior knowledge and detached attitude.
• The participants collectively react to the barrier, the mission information, and the guide’s warnings, forming the first uneasy social dynamic of the trial.

Chapter Summary: “Time to Survive...”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The survivors realize that the transparent barrier surrounding them is a real, invisible protective wall rather than an illusion. Both the veteran and Li Anshan test it, discovering that it cannot be breached.
• Li Anshan recognizes the barrier as the Main God’s protection from the novel he remembers, but becomes suspicious when the guide appears unfamiliar with it. This suggests that the current situation differs from the version he knows.
• Once everyone is awake and the guide has explained the situation, the barrier suddenly disappears, signaling that the scenario has officially begun.
• The group discovers from a newspaper that they are in Raccoon City, apparently within a Resident Evil setting. However, the environment is far more horrifying than expected.
• Outside, rain causes scattered flesh and corpses to swell, merge, and transform into grotesque monsters covered in eyes, mouths, claws, wings, teeth, and other unnatural body parts. The creatures attack and consume one another.
• Terrified, the group hides and minimizes all movement, realizing that these monsters are vastly more horrifying than ordinary zombies.
• The building begins shaking. From the windows, the survivors see a ruined, abandoned city and witness a gigantic battle in the distance.
• A colossal azure sword descends from the heavens, apparently wielded by an immensely powerful combatant. Opposing it is a gigantic winged humanoid creature that creates a massive defensive barrier with red spears.
• The chapter ends with Li Anshan and the veteran stunned by the impossible sight of what appears to be an EVA-like giant fighting in the middle of Resident Evil.

Character Developments

• Li Anshan becomes increasingly alert and suspicious. His knowledge of the novel allows him to recognize the protective barrier and notice that events are deviating from what he expected, but he is still overwhelmed by the reality of the situation.
• The veteran is irritable and withdrawn, but his immediate testing of the barrier shows practical awareness. Even he is visibly shaken by the monsters and the distant supernatural battle.
• The guide appears confused and frightened rather than fully informed. His attempt to hide from the creatures undermines any impression that he has complete control or knowledge of the scenario.
• The other survivors move from curiosity to terror. Several openly panic, speculate about their deaths, or deny that the situation is real. Despite their fear, they instinctively cooperate by staying silent and concealed.

Significant Themes

• Loss of safety: The disappearance of the barrier marks the transition from preparation to genuine survival, exposing the characters to immediate danger.
• Uncertainty and altered expectations: Li Anshan’s familiarity with the source material is undermined as the world proves different and far more extreme than expected.
• Cosmic and biological horror: The mutating flesh-creatures combine grotesque body horror with an apparent violation of natural laws.
• Human helplessness: The survivors are reduced to hiding and observing while beings of unimaginable scale and power battle outside.
• Genre collision: The chapter deliberately blends Resident Evil’s infection horror with giant-mecha or supernatural warfare, creating an unpredictable and absurdly dangerous scenario.

Character Interactions

• The veteran and Li Anshan independently test the barrier, briefly sharing a practical response to their confusion.
• Li Anshan observes the veteran and guide closely, using their reactions to judge that something is wrong with the situation.
• The group questions one another about their location and the nature of the virus, revealing their differing levels of fear and understanding.
• The survivors collectively respond to the monsters by silencing themselves and hiding, forming an instinctive but fragile cooperation.
• Li Anshan and the veteran share the chapter’s final moment of stunned disbelief when they witness the giant winged combatant, with Li Anshan voicing the central question: why is an EVA-like being present in Resident Evil?

Plot and events

• Li Anshan and other spectators watch a colossal, transformed Unit-01 battle a descending cyan sword strike. The EVA’s white radiance, horn, luminous wings, and twin halos signal that it has completed the “Fruit of Life” and “Fruit of Knowledge” and begun ascending.
• Unit-01 uses the Lance of Longinus, the Spear of Cassius, and powerful AT fields to resist the attack. The impacts shake the ruins, while the barriers repeatedly crack and reform; even the spears begin to split and bleed.
• Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” rises around the battlefield. As Unit-01’s power grows, the zombies and ordinary spectators begin dissolving into pale, viscous LCL. Li Anshan recognizes what is happening and frantically asks his guide whether the mission’s promise means they will survive death.
• The guide confirms they are turning into LCL too. Li and the guide panic as their bodies soften, their speech falters, and they feel themselves being drawn toward a vast, merging presence.
• The cyan blade finally breaks through Unit-01’s defenses, nearly cutting the EVA in half. Unit-01 becomes a mindless, roaring beast, while a gigantic, ten-winged Kabbalistic Tree spreads across the sky, enveloping the battlefield in a vast “ocean of life” or Eden.
• Two mysterious voices interrupt the sacred chorus with opposing-sounding declarations: “Primordial Chaos: Creation of Heaven and Earth!” and “Primal Darkness: End of the Universe!” A wave of darkness surges in and swallows the Tree; the chapter ends mid-confrontation.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Anshan shifts from stunned observation to urgent, practical terror once he realizes he and the others may dissolve into LCL. He confronts the guide and insists that they try anything that could save them.
• The guide, initially grim and knowledgeable about the EVA, quickly becomes frightened when Li identifies the threat. Their exchange turns the cosmic catastrophe into an immediate human crisis.
• Unit-01 progresses from a powerful defender to an apparently berserk, nearly destroyed creature as its transformation continues.
• The two unidentified speakers introduce a new force—or forces—capable of challenging the Tree and the ascending EVA.

Significant themes

• The boundary between individuals: AT fields embody the barriers separating hearts, and the battle makes those boundaries literal and fragile.
• Life, death, and transformation: LCL represents life’s primordial source, but for the spectators, returning to it feels like a terrifying loss of self.
• Power and loss of control: Unit-01’s ascension brings immense power but strips away apparent reason, raising the danger for everyone nearby.
• Cosmic opposition and uncertainty: The Tree’s expansive force is abruptly met by primordial darkness, leaving the outcome—and the identity of the combatants—unresolved.

Chapter Summary: “Changes and… Suspected Third Tier?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• A devastating battle takes place in a ruined wasteland between two powerful, nearly identical bespectacled men, each armed with a pistol. Their supernatural artifacts—a bronze bell and a jade disc—allow them to analyze and rewind causality.
• The men investigate a mysterious anomaly: unfamiliar figures appeared in the world without existing in its “script.” They conclude that the intruders are likely human visitors from outside the current multiverse or reality system, possibly connected to an external force resembling the Main God.
• Their investigation is disrupted by an ongoing battle nearby. A fighter attempts to escape a massive black sphere of flames, which is collapsing into something resembling a black hole. The battle appears to be a desperate fight in which only one combatant can survive.
• A confused post appears on the Main God Forum describing a supposedly ordinary newcomer mission that unexpectedly became a four-star-difficulty scenario. The post claims that two scarred men were fighting in a Resident Evil world, but other users dismiss it as nonsense.
• Society continues to experience increasing upheaval as supernatural abilities and Main God-related phenomena become more visible. Superpowered individuals, religious movements, doomsday believers, anti-superhuman extremists, and new organizations claiming to represent “higher humanity” all begin appearing worldwide.
• He Qiu reads internal news at the classified base where the First-Test Users are being held. He focuses on the case of Eugene Hope, a young man from Massachusetts who has publicly announced his candidacy for governor while displaying water-based powers.
• Eugene is confirmed to be at least Second Tier and is suspected of having reached the Third Tier, alarming He Qiu and highlighting how quickly some newer Users are advancing.
• He Qiu reflects on his own stagnation. After four missions, he remains at First Tier, has accumulated only a few hundred Universal Points, and has abandoned slow real-world cultivation in favor of saving for more powerful rewards. The news motivates him to risk everything in his next mission.

Character Developments

• The two identical bespectacled men are established as highly analytical and detached observers. They use their artifacts to inspect causality and identify anomalies but remain emotionally unaffected by the destruction around them.
• He Qiu becomes increasingly anxious and discouraged about his position. His ordinary life has been completely disrupted by the Main God Game, his parents are indirectly affected, and he feels left behind by other Users. His frustration ultimately strengthens his resolve to take greater risks.
• Eugene Hope emerges as a confident and publicity-minded superhuman. By displaying his abilities openly and entering politics, he represents the growing normalization and politicization of supernatural powers.
• The public is shown reacting with a mixture of awe, opportunism, fear, religious fanaticism, and violence toward the emergence of Users and supernatural phenomena.

Significant Themes

• Reality and external intervention: The “script,” altered causality, and visitors from outside the world suggest that the setting is being affected by forces beyond its established system.
• Social disruption caused by supernatural power: Governments, religions, markets, morality, and ideas of human identity are all destabilized as supernatural abilities become public.
• Inequality and competition: The suspected rise of Eugene Hope to Third Tier contrasts sharply with He Qiu’s slow progress, emphasizing differences in talent, resources, and opportunity.
• The loss of ordinary life: He Qiu’s former hopes of a stable career and family life have been replaced by confinement, uncertainty, and the constant danger of missions.
• Human responses to the unknown: The chapter presents both noble and absurd reactions—hero worship, persecution, political ambition, cult formation, conspiracy theories, exploitation, and attempts to escape Earth.
• Desperation and survival: The black-hole-like battle and He Qiu’s decision to risk himself in the next mission reinforce the idea that advancement may require extreme danger.

Character Interactions

• The two identical men coordinate their artifacts seamlessly, with one using the bronze bell and the other the jade disc to investigate the anomaly. Their brief dialogue reveals their shared analytical perspective and mutual understanding.
• The men ignore the distant combatants, treating the deadly battle as secondary to their investigation.
• Eugene Hope interacts with the gathered public by making a political appeal, while spectators respond with excitement, flirtation, admiration, and envy.
• He Qiu does not directly interact with Eugene, but the news of Eugene’s success creates a powerful indirect contrast between them, prompting He Qiu to reassess his own progress and prepare for a more dangerous future mission.

Chapter Summary: “Sewers and ‘Illegal Discharge’”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After several days of torrential rain, Linchuan City’s underground sewer system remains dangerously overloaded.
• Veteran drainage worker Yu Yan enters the sewers alone to inspect flood pressure points because his apprentice, Little Zhang, is at the hospital with his sick child.
• A police officer, Li Ce, accompanies him to investigate a separate case. Together, they inspect drainage zones and notice an unusual scraping sound coming from a branch pipe.
• The two follow the sound into the narrower pipe, where they discover a strange sour-sweet odor and gray-white, foamy, sticky material floating in the wastewater. Yu Yan assumes it may be the result of illegal chemical dumping.
• Farther inside, they find the pipe walls covered in brown, resin-like gelatin that appears to ripple or “breathe,” resembling the interior of a living organism.
• When Yu Yan probes the substance, it releases yellow-green liquid that violently corrodes his metal rod, revealing that it is strongly acidic.
• They then discover large cocoon-like structures embedded in the pipe wall. One has split open, while another appears to contain a living, curled, many-limbed creature with features resembling both a fish and a spider.
• Li Ce recognizes the horrifying scene as resembling an alien creature, ending the chapter on a cliffhanger.

Character Developments

• Yu Yan is established as an experienced, practical, and dutiful sewer worker. Despite the danger and unpleasant conditions, he prioritizes his professional responsibilities and enters the branch pipe first.
• His familiarity with the sewer system gives him confidence, but the alien substance and acidic fluid push him beyond anything he has encountered before.
• Li Ce is shown to be observant, cautious, and physically alert. He detects the strange noise before Yu Yan, notices the danger in the resin, and takes the lead in signaling silence and investigating the discovery.
• Li Ce’s apparent familiarity with horror or science-fiction imagery allows him to identify the implications of the cocoon and its contents, transforming the situation from suspected pollution to a possible biological threat.

Significant Themes

• The hidden dangers beneath ordinary city life: The sewers are portrayed as the city’s “veins,” concealing dangers that the surface population knows nothing about.
• Human infrastructure versus the unknown: A system built for drainage and flood control has become the habitat or entry point for something unnatural.
• Professional duty and bravery: Yu Yan’s willingness to investigate suspected illegal dumping reflects his sense of responsibility, even when the environment is dangerous.
• The familiar becoming monstrous: Ordinary sewage, chemical waste, and maintenance work gradually give way to imagery of living tunnels, acidic blood, eggs, and alien organisms.
• Environmental corruption: The initial suspicion of illegal chemical discharge suggests human pollution, but the discoveries imply that the threat may be far stranger and more dangerous than industrial waste.

Character Interactions

• Yu Yan and Li Ce work as an uneasy but effective temporary team. Yu Yan provides practical sewer knowledge, while Li Ce contributes sharper hearing, caution, and investigative instincts.
• Yu Yan repeatedly warns Li Ce to watch his footing and stay safe, treating him like an inexperienced companion despite Li Ce’s police role.
• Li Ce follows Yu Yan into the branch pipe rather than waiting outside, showing both concern and courage.
• Their cooperation becomes increasingly tense as the strange substance and cocooned creature reveal that they are facing an unknown biological menace rather than ordinary illegal dumping.

Chapter Summary: “Two-Star Difficulty”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ce enters his first mission as a Level-Two Main God User after receiving a Rare Grade evaluation. Because Level-Two users have a shorter cooldown period and new privileges, he likely cannot reunite with his former teammates without deliberately delaying his next mission.
• He selects the newly available two-star, low-difficulty mission [Return Disaster], expecting to assess how challenging it will be.
• Instead of appearing in an obviously dangerous setting, Li Ce awakens inside a police station in Linchuan City. The Main God has provided him with a complete local identity: a recently transferred junior police leader, including an official photograph, documents, and acquaintances who recognize him.
• The mission concerns a mysterious spacecraft that broke apart while “returning” from beyond the heavens in 2012. Its main wreckage supposedly landed in wilderness near Linchuan City, but the mission gives little information about its location or condition.
• His objectives are to survive for ten days and achieve an Exploration Score of five. The warning that the wreckage may be difficult to find prompts Li Ce to investigate indirectly rather than immediately searching the wilderness.
• Realizing that his police position grants access to case files, Li Ce examines recent reports and discovers an unusual rise in disappearances among young and middle-aged adults in the city’s southwestern outskirts.
• He identifies a geographic pattern among the disappearances and follows the trail toward the sewer system, where he and an older companion, Old Yu/Yu Yan, encounter an Alien.
• The creature attacks with a powerful, spear-like tail. Li Ce reacts quickly, pulling Old Yu out of the way before the tail smashes into the concrete wall.
• They flee through the sewage tunnels while the Alien watches them from the ceiling. Its corrosive saliva, claws, speed, armored body, and predatory nature demonstrate that it is an extremely dangerous threat.
• As they run, Li Ce’s body begins instinctively refining its movements. His developing Sith Apprentice survival instincts activate under the threat of death, improving his coordination and physical efficiency.

Character Developments

• Li Ce demonstrates careful reasoning and restraint. Rather than rushing into the wilderness, he deduces why the Main God gave him a police identity and uses official records to uncover the mystery.
• He shows strong investigative ability by connecting the recent disappearances to a particular area and correctly suspecting the sewer network.
• His physical capabilities and reflexes are far beyond those of an ordinary person, allowing him to save Old Yu from the Alien’s first strike.
• The encounter reveals that Li Ce’s Sith training is beginning to produce practical effects. His survival instincts emerge naturally under extreme danger, improving his balance, breathing, footwork, and overall movement.
• Old Yu/Yu Yan functions as Li Ce’s companion and fellow investigator. He is physically less capable and depends on Li Ce’s warning and guidance during the attack, but continues fleeing alongside him.

Significant Themes

• Intelligence over recklessness: Li Ce survives the early stage of the mission by analyzing the clues and using his assigned identity strategically instead of acting impulsively.
• Hidden danger beneath normality: The modern, seemingly stable city conceals a deadly extraterrestrial threat beneath its sewer system.
• The usefulness of imposed identities: The Main God’s artificial background is not merely cosmetic; it provides Li Ce with access and opportunities essential to solving the mission.
• Survival and adaptation: The Alien represents a highly evolved predator, while Li Ce begins adapting in response through instinctive physical improvement.
• Uncertainty and exploration: The vague mission briefing forces Li Ce to interpret incomplete information, while the spacecraft and its possible survivors or organisms remain largely unexplained.

Character Interactions

• Li Ce interacts with police personnel who treat him as a familiar junior leader, reinforcing the realism of his constructed identity.
• He investigates the disappearance cases independently because he lacks real authority or manpower despite his official position.
• In the sewer, Li Ce and Old Yu work together under pressure. Li Ce notices the danger first, pulls Old Yu away from the Alien’s attack, orders him to run, and leads the escape.
• Their frantic flight contrasts Li Ce’s analytical behavior earlier: once the Alien appears, communication becomes minimal and survival takes priority.

Chapter Summary: “Sith Apprentice and the Chase”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ce had previously survived an altered A Chinese Ghost Story world, earning a Rare Grade evaluation and exchange card.
• While browsing the Main God’s exchange list, he discovered Midi-chlorian Assimilation, a rare newcomer-only enhancement based on the Star Wars Force.
• Despite its high cost—500 Universal Points and a Rare Grade card—Li Ce borrowed points and purchased it, choosing the Sith/dark-side path.
• The enhancement initially raised his midi-chlorian index to twelve, granting him limited access to several Force abilities, including:
  • Mental illusions
  • Telekinesis
  • Temperature manipulation
  • Electrical discharge
• Although these abilities were weak and difficult to use effectively, Li Ce recognized their enormous long-term potential.
• During a chase through a sewer tunnel, Li Ce and Old Yu were pursued by a dangerous alien creature.
• Unable to fight it directly because he lacked a lightsaber or suitable weapon, Li Ce attempted to delay it while escaping.
• Predicting that the creature would attack with its inner tongue-jaws, he threw an iron rod to disrupt its strike.
• At the same moment, Li Ce used a Sith-style Force Choke, causing the creature’s jaws to clamp shut and sever its own tongue.
• The attack badly wounded the alien, whose acidic blood sprayed across the tunnel and began corroding the surroundings.
• Li Ce suffered minor bleeding from his nose but successfully created an opening for himself and Old Yu to flee deeper into the tunnels.

Character Development

• Li Ce develops from a survivor relying primarily on physical improvisation into an emerging Force-user with genuine combat potential.
• His decision to purchase the enhancement shows his willingness to take financial and personal risks for long-term power.
• Though still inexperienced, he begins to inherit the instincts and combat knowledge of a Sith Apprentice, including the ability to identify weaknesses and exploit brief openings.
• Li Ce also recognizes the enhancement’s limitations: he can use many abilities, but none with great mastery. This awareness motivates his desire for a proper weapon, especially a lightsaber.
• His battle against the alien demonstrates growing confidence, tactical creativity, and a willingness to trust his unnatural combat instincts.
• Old Yu remains primarily a companion and escape partner in this passage, dependent on Li Ce’s abilities for survival.

Significant Themes

• Potential versus immediate power: The midi-chlorian enhancement is weak at first but offers nearly limitless growth, emphasizing the value of long-term potential.
• The cost of power: Li Ce must borrow points and endure physical strain, showing that advancement comes with debt and risk.
• Adaptability and combat intelligence: Victory comes not from overwhelming strength but from predicting the alien’s behavior and exploiting a precise moment.
• Dark-side identity: Choosing the Sith path influences Li Ce’s instincts, abilities, and combat style, suggesting that power is tied to ideology and temperament.
• Improvisation under pressure: Ordinary objects and limited Force techniques become effective when combined with careful observation and tactical timing.

Character Interactions

• Li Ce privately borrows Universal Points from a companion to afford the enhancement, revealing both his resourcefulness and financial dependence on others.
• He fights alongside and protects Old Yu during the pursuit, grabbing him and leading him through the sewer.
• Li Ce’s interaction with the alien is a battle of instinct and prediction rather than direct confrontation. He anticipates its tongue attack, uses the iron rod as a distraction, and then applies Force Choke to cripple it.
• Their escape succeeds because Li Ce creates an opening through strategy rather than defeating the creature outright.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ce and Old Yu realize they cannot outrun the Alien and decide to hide in an abandoned maintenance room.
• As they approach the locked iron door, Li Ce throws a hollow metal rod at the pursuing creature to slow it down.
• The Alien avoids the attack, demonstrating its extraordinary speed, agility, and intelligence.
• The creature attacks from above with its tail spike, but Li Ce’s instinctive combat reflexes allow him to evade the strike.
• Old Yu unlocks the maintenance-room door just in time, and both men rush inside and bolt it shut.
• The Alien repeatedly slams into the door, deforming it with its tail. Although the steel briefly holds, the men soon realize the creature is using its acidic blood to corrode the barrier.
• Searching the cramped room, Old Yu and Li Ce uncover a concealed vertical maintenance shaft.
• Since remaining in the room would leave them trapped, they decide to descend through the shaft using a rusted ladder. Old Yu goes first, followed immediately by Li Ce, while the Alien continues attacking the door.

2. Character Developments

• Li Ce becomes increasingly reliant on an unexplained combat instinct or mental ability. He reacts almost automatically in moments of danger, successfully dodging the Alien’s tail and protecting their escape.
• He also shows courage and decisiveness by confronting the creature, throwing the metal rod, and taking the lead in assessing the danger.
• Old Yu demonstrates practical knowledge of the underground facilities, remembering the maintenance room and recognizing the hidden passage as their only possible escape route.
• Despite fear and trembling, Old Yu remains resourceful and acts quickly—unlocking the door, securing the bolt, searching for supplies, and testing the ladder before descending.
• The Alien proves highly adaptive. It learns from previous attacks, avoids Li Ce’s weapon, uses its tail effectively, and exploits its corrosive blood to overcome the locked door.

3. Significant Themes

• Survival under pressure: The men must make rapid decisions with limited options as every temporary refuge becomes unsafe.
• Human vulnerability versus monstrous power: The Alien’s speed, strength, agility, and acid make direct combat nearly impossible, forcing the humans to depend on wit and improvisation.
• Adaptation and intelligence: Both sides adjust to one another’s tactics—the Alien learns to evade attacks, while Li Ce and Old Yu search for unconventional escape routes.
• Instinct and hidden power: Li Ce’s mysterious combat intuition repeatedly saves him, suggesting that he possesses abilities or instincts beyond those of an ordinary human.
• Temporary safety and entrapment: The maintenance room initially appears to offer protection, but quickly becomes a trap, emphasizing that safety is only provisional.

4. Character Interactions

• Li Ce and Old Yu cooperate closely despite their panic, dividing responsibilities naturally: Li Ce delays the Alien while Old Yu opens and secures the door.
• Old Yu’s knowledge of the underground structure guides their escape, while Li Ce’s heightened reflexes protect them during the attack.
• Their shared fear strengthens their urgency and dependence on one another.
• The Alien’s pursuit functions as an escalating contest between hunter and prey: it observes, adapts, and patiently waits for the men’s defenses to fail.

Summary: “Truth and Side Quest”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Li Ce and Yu Yan descend through a dangerous, deteriorating shaft using a single flashlight to conserve power. The passage is icy, unstable, and coated with moss and slime.
• At the bottom, they enter an abandoned drainage channel filled with thick sludge and a strong smell of blood and rust, suggesting that the area may be connected to Alien activity.
• The tunnel eventually branches into a maze of old pipes. Yu Yan uses his knowledge of underground drainage systems to choose possible routes toward an exit, though both recognize that the abandoned network may no longer follow familiar patterns.
• Yu Yan nearly falls after stepping on something in the sludge. They discover the remains of a human corpse, horribly mutilated and partially eaten.
• Li Ce uses the Force to investigate the surrounding area. His heightened perception reveals a vast underground cavern functioning as an established Alien breeding ground.
• The cavern contains a gelatinous hive, numerous cocoons, empty shells, newly emerged Facehuggers, and many human captives awaiting implantation. Several Aliens fight over the remains of a large animal, while a larger gray Alien appears to sense Li Ce’s distant observation.
• Realizing that an Alien Queen must be nearby, Li Ce immediately ends his Force perception and orders Yu Yan to retreat to the pipe junction so they can find another route.
• The Main God then reveals that Li Ce has triggered a side quest, “Alien Disaster.” The mission explains that the wreckage of the Nostromo has arrived in the 2012 world instead of its original 2120 setting. Ripley survived, but an unusual Alien embryo remains inside her and is gestating.
• Li Ce is given five days to kill the Alien Queen born from Ripley’s genes and eliminate all related Aliens. Accepting the quest will raise the world’s difficulty to Three Stars/Low, but it offers a reward of 10,000–100,000 Universal Points.
• Li Ce reacts with disbelief and anger at being forced into a battle against an entire Alien species, especially because the creatures originated from a future setting unrelated to the current mission world.

Character Development

• Li Ce: Demonstrates growing confidence and competence as a Force-sensitive, using the Force not merely in combat but as a tool for reconnaissance. However, his limited First Tier strength causes dizziness and exhaustion, reminding him that his abilities remain restricted. He also shows tactical judgment by refusing to investigate the hive directly and prioritizing retreat. His shock and resentment toward the Main God reveal how little control he has over the dangerous missions imposed on him.
• Yu Yan: Continues to act as the experienced, cautious guide. He conserves their resources, navigates the drainage system based on professional knowledge, and follows Li Ce’s commands without argument once the danger becomes clear. Their cooperation indicates increasing trust between them.

Significant Themes

• Survival and resource management: The shared flashlight, unstable ladder, sludge-filled tunnels, and need to retreat all emphasize the importance of conserving supplies and making cautious decisions.
• The unknown and hidden horror: The dark maze and silent tunnels create tension before the discovery of the corpse and the hive. The greatest threat remains largely unseen, making Li Ce’s Force perception especially valuable.
• Knowledge versus helplessness: Li Ce gains crucial information through the Force, but learning the truth exposes him to a much larger danger than expected. Awareness does not eliminate vulnerability.
• Fate and intervention: The side quest frames the Alien outbreak as a disaster that has entered the wrong timeline. Li Ce is now challenged to “rewrite” the planet’s fate, placing him in opposition to an apparently predetermined catastrophe.
• Manipulation and lack of agency: The Main God changes the mission’s difficulty and imposes an enormous new objective without warning, leaving Li Ce angry at being dragged into a conflict beyond his original expectations.

Character Interactions

• Li Ce and Yu Yan move cautiously together through the tunnels, relying on mutual support when Yu Yan slips.
• Li Ce prevents Yu Yan from speaking or acting recklessly after they find the corpse, showing that he has assumed a protective and tactical role.
• Yu Yan trusts Li Ce’s unexplained warning about the danger ahead and follows his order to retreat.
• Their partnership is defined by restrained communication, shared fear, and practical cooperation as they attempt to survive the Alien-infested underground network.