Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “What Do You Call This, a Sunroom?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Illumi brings Bai Zhu into the Zoldyck family’s enormous indoor “activity area,” which is actually a highly controlled sunroom containing lawns, streams, gardens, bridges, multiple climates, hidden cameras, concealed security systems, and retractable partitions.
• Bai Zhu realizes that the space is designed not only for Alluka’s freedom but also for containment and emergency control. Numerous butlers monitor the area, while Illumi remains cautious and keeps himself near the entrance.
• Inside a vine-covered playhouse, Killua plays with Alluka, while Milluki protects his collectibles and carries the young Kalluto on his back. Their interactions reveal a surprisingly affectionate and ordinary sibling dynamic beneath the family’s frightening reputation.
• Despite this apparent harmony, the family members maintain a clear distance from Alluka. Milluki instinctively retreats when Bai Zhu approaches, and Illumi refuses to enter the playhouse.
• Bai Zhu’s system suddenly identifies Alluka as a “high-risk unknown will” and warns him not to accept any requests from her.
• Killua introduces Bai Zhu to Alluka, explaining that he forced open the Zoldyck estate’s seven doors and uses a strange Hainawa technique. Alluka begins observing Bai Zhu closely.
• Alluka’s expression changes from cheerful to empty, and the system warns that she is attempting to establish a request connection. As she asks Bai Zhu what he wants, Illumi urgently tells him not to answer.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu remains skeptical and sarcastic, mocking the Zoldycks’ extravagant security arrangements and questioning their fear of Alluka. However, the system warning makes him recognize that Alluka poses a genuine supernatural danger.
• Illumi is shown as unusually wary and protective. He maintains a safe distance from Alluka, refuses to enter the playhouse, and immediately intervenes when Bai Zhu risks responding to her request.
• Killua behaves naturally and affectionately with his siblings, enthusiastically playing with Alluka and introducing Bai Zhu. His casual attitude suggests that he does not fully share the fear surrounding Alluka.
• Milluki appears irritable but caring. Although he values his collectibles, he tolerates Killua’s rough play and gently handles Kalluto, revealing a softer side beneath his usual unpleasantness.
• Kalluto is portrayed as a very young child who clings to Milluki and pulls his hair, contributing to the family’s unexpectedly domestic atmosphere.
• Alluka initially appears cheerful and childlike, but her demeanor becomes eerily vacant when she notices Bai Zhu. Her ability to make dangerous requests is emphasized through the system’s warnings.

Significant Themes

• Freedom versus containment: Alluka is technically not locked away, yet the activity area is constructed like a beautiful, hidden prison, reflecting the Zoldycks’ inability to separate care from control.
• Family affection beneath violence: The siblings play, argue, and care for one another in ordinary ways, challenging the family’s reputation as entirely cold and heartless.
• Fear of the unknown: Bai Zhu initially treats the family’s precautions as excessive, but Alluka’s presence confirms that their fear is based on a real and dangerous power.
• Appearance versus reality: The sunroom looks peaceful and natural, while its hidden cameras, partitions, guarded pathways, and tense occupants reveal an environment built around constant threat management.
• The danger of language and requests: Alluka’s question is not a simple conversation starter; it may initiate a supernatural contract. The chapter highlights how a seemingly innocent interaction can become deadly.

Important Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu repeatedly jokes about the extravagant sunroom and Illumi’s fear, while Illumi answers literally and unemotionally.
• Bai Zhu observes Milluki and Kalluto’s playful interaction, then challenges Milluki and Illumi for treating Alluka like a threat.
• Killua and Alluka play together comfortably, contrasting with the adults’ and older siblings’ caution.
• Killua introduces Bai Zhu to Alluka, unintentionally bringing him into the dangerous interaction.
• Alluka addresses Bai Zhu directly with a request-related question, prompting the system’s strongest warning and Illumi’s command that he remain silent.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Alluka transforms into Nanika, triggering an immediate evacuation. Illumi, Milluki, Kalluto, and the nearby butlers retreat, while Killua stays behind to protect Alluka.
• Bai Zhu cautiously approaches Nanika despite warnings from his system not to accept requests or make wishes.
• Nanika repeatedly asks Bai Zhu to “make a wish,” but he refuses, wary of the hidden cost of her power.
• Bai Zhu reveals that he knows Nanika’s name. Killua is shocked because he believes only he knows it and aggressively questions Bai Zhu’s source of information.
• Bai Zhu uses his Reiatsu to resist Nanika’s mysterious power and explains that both he and Nanika contain forces that do not belong to the world’s normal system.
• Rather than making a formal wish, Bai Zhu asks Nanika for a “favor between friends”: destroy the surveillance devices monitoring their conversation without harming anyone.
• Nanika agrees but interprets the request broadly, destroying every camera, recording device, control system, backup line, and isolation mechanism in the sunroom.
• The underground monitoring room loses all eighty-seven screens, prompting a security lockdown and alarm throughout the Zoldyck estate.
• Illumi listens in with a changed expression, while Killua demands to know Bai Zhu’s intentions. Bai Zhu responds only by telling him to be quiet.

Character developments

• Bai Zhu demonstrates caution, confidence, and unusual familiarity with Nanika’s nature. He refuses to exploit her wish-granting power and instead seeks to establish trust and friendship.
• Killua becomes fiercely protective of Nanika and deeply suspicious of Bai Zhu. His shock over Bai Zhu knowing the name “Nanika” reveals how personal and secret his bond with her is.
• Nanika displays a more flexible personality when speaking with Bai Zhu. Unlike her usual repetitive behavior, she asks questions, responds to his reasoning, and accepts his attempt at friendship.
• Illumi and Milluki reveal their fear of Nanika’s transformation through their immediate retreat. Milluki’s decision to save expensive figurines adds a comic contrast to the danger.
• The Zoldyck butlers and security staff are shown to rely on extensive surveillance and containment systems, all of which prove useless against Nanika’s power.

Significant themes

• The danger and cost of wishes: Bai Zhu’s refusal reflects the theme that seemingly free power always carries consequences.
• Trust versus control: Bai Zhu tries to interact with Nanika as a person rather than treating her as a weapon or supernatural tool.
• Otherness and shared identity: Bai Zhu recognizes that both he and Nanika possess forces outside the world’s normal rules, creating a basis for mutual understanding.
• Surveillance and privacy: The destruction of the estate’s monitoring network symbolizes Bai Zhu’s demand for a private, genuine conversation.
• Family fear and isolation: Although Nanika belongs to the Zoldyck family, most of them fear and contain her rather than connect with her emotionally.

Character interactions

• Bai Zhu and Nanika develop an unusual rapport, with Bai Zhu speaking to her calmly and directly.
• Killua acts as Nanika’s protector, repeatedly intervening whenever Bai Zhu approaches or makes a suspicious request.
• Bai Zhu and Killua exchange sarcastic, tense dialogue, showing mutual distrust but also a willingness to remain near Nanika.
• Bai Zhu’s request to destroy the surveillance equipment becomes the first apparent favor Nanika grants him, strengthening their connection while alarming everyone else.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• After the surveillance cameras are destroyed, the Zoldyck estate quickly seals off the sunroom with mechanical partitions. Killua moves Nanika away from Bai Zhu and becomes highly suspicious of him.
• Bai Zhu insists that he did not make a wish or command Nanika. He claims he merely asked whether Nanika could help, suggesting that the request was voluntary rather than an exploitation of its rules.
• Killua questions how Bai Zhu knows Nanika’s name and why Nanika obeyed him despite their first meeting. Bai Zhu refuses to reveal the true source of his knowledge, only saying that he knows more than Killua does.
• Bai Zhu repeatedly assures Killua that he does not intend to control, experiment on, or exploit Nanika. His stated purpose is simply to become acquainted with it, though Killua remains unconvinced.
• Bai Zhu asks whether Nanika can see the “thing” inside his body. When Nanika looks past Bai Zhu rather than at him, the hidden system interface in Bai Zhu’s vision reacts violently.
• The system identifies Nanika as a “high-risk unknown will” and warns Bai Zhu not to accept any requests from it. This confirms that Nanika can perceive the system’s presence.
• Nanika reaches toward the invisible system, but Killua stops it. After observing the empty space for some time, Nanika confirms that “it” has been watching Bai Zhu all along.
• As the family’s security forces approach, the chapter ends with the revelation that the system is not merely an internal interface: Nanika can detect and possibly interact with it.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu: Remains calm, sarcastic, and evasive while carefully testing Nanika’s abilities. He shows genuine caution about both Nanika and the system, prioritizing survival over heroism. His question reveals that he suspects the system may possess independent awareness.
• Killua: Becomes increasingly defensive and protective of Nanika. He interprets Bai Zhu’s knowledge and unusual interaction with Nanika as potential threats, confronting him physically when necessary. His protectiveness overrides his usual restraint.
• Nanika: Shifts from quiet observation to actively perceiving something invisible within or near Bai Zhu. Its attention appears to be focused on the system rather than Bai Zhu himself, suggesting abilities beyond ordinary wish fulfillment.
• The System: Is revealed to possess a form of will or agency. Its warnings become more urgent when Nanika notices it, implying that it regards Nanika as a serious danger.

Significant Themes

• Trust and suspicion: Bai Zhu asks Killua to trust his stated intentions, but his secrecy makes trust nearly impossible.
• Control versus consent: The dialogue emphasizes the difference between giving Nanika an order and politely asking for help, raising questions about whether Nanika’s actions are truly voluntary.
• Protection and fear: Killua’s hostility comes from his desire to protect Nanika, while Bai Zhu’s caution stems from fear of losing control or being killed.
• Hidden consciousness: The chapter challenges the idea that Bai Zhu’s system is merely a tool or interface, suggesting that it may be an independent entity capable of being observed.
• The limits of perception: Nanika can see something that is invisible even to Killua and apparently exists outside normal physical reality.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Killua engage in a tense verbal battle, with Bai Zhu using humor and evasive logic while Killua demands direct answers.
• Killua physically positions himself between Bai Zhu and Nanika, reinforcing his role as Nanika’s protector.
• Bai Zhu deliberately tests Killua’s reactions and Nanika’s abilities without directly attacking either of them.
• Nanika’s silent interaction with the system changes the balance of power: Bai Zhu, previously probing Nanika, realizes that Nanika may be capable of examining him—and the hidden entity within him—in return.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Nanika reveals that it can see the mysterious system-like presence inside Bai Zhu, describing its appearance as a “bird.” This confirms that the system is an external, observable entity rather than something only Bai Zhu can perceive.
• Bai Zhu reflects on the strange reactions of the Red-Black Core, the Chimera Ruins, and other Dark Continent-related entities. He suspects the system may itself have originated from the Dark Continent, rather than being a gift specifically granted to transmigrators.
• Bai Zhu questions Nanika about the system and learns that it is not the same kind of being as Nanika. Nanika explains that its power is the opposite of hers, suggesting the two entities are fundamentally different.
• Nanika says it once saw something similar to Bai Zhu’s system following another person in a distant place, but trying to remember causes her severe physical and mental pain.
• Bai Zhu stops questioning her, prioritizing her well-being over satisfying his curiosity.
• After Nanika becomes overwhelmed, she shifts back into Alluka’s ordinary state and falls into Killua’s arms, complaining of a headache.
• The chapter ends when Illumi and several butlers forcibly open the sealed passage and enter the wisteria house. After checking that Alluka is safe, Illumi confronts Bai Zhu with the question, “What did you say?”

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu: Becomes increasingly suspicious of the system’s origins and recognizes that it may be connected to the Dark Continent. Although he remains sarcastic and evasive with Killua, he shows genuine consideration toward Nanika by allowing her to stop when recalling the past becomes painful. His definition of friendship reveals that he values honesty, mutual aid, personal freedom, and respect for boundaries.
• Nanika: Begins forming an emotional bond with Bai Zhu and accepts his proposal that they become friends. Her fragmented memory suggests a deeper connection between the system and unknown Dark Continent phenomena. Her distress also demonstrates the danger of forcing her to access those memories.
• Killua: Continues to act protectively toward Nanika and distrusts Bai Zhu’s motives. However, he recognizes that Bai Zhu genuinely stops when Nanika is suffering, creating a small degree of respect or uncertainty toward him.
• Alluka: Briefly returns after Nanika’s exhaustion and experiences the physical consequences of the memory attempt, showing the close link between her and Nanika.
• Illumi: Re-enters the scene with recording equipment and immediately focuses on the condition of Alluka and Bai Zhu, implying that he may have overheard or recorded the conversation.

Significant Themes

• The nature of friendship: Bai Zhu explains friendship as companionship without coercion, mutual help without forced sacrifice, and the freedom to separate and reunite without ending the relationship.
• Consent and boundaries: The chapter contrasts curiosity with compassion. Bai Zhu wants answers but refuses to continue when Nanika is visibly suffering.
• Uncertainty about the system: The system is presented as potentially dangerous and independent, possibly linked to the Dark Continent rather than being a benevolent supernatural aid.
• Trust and suspicion: Bai Zhu and Killua remain antagonistic and suspicious of each other, but Nanika’s acceptance of Bai Zhu creates a fragile connection between them.
• Identity and duality: Nanika and Alluka’s shifting states, as well as the contrast between Nanika’s power and the system’s opposing energy, reinforce the chapter’s focus on hidden identities and opposing forces.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Killua exchange sarcastic insults about the Zoldyck family, the lodging contract, and each other’s behavior, maintaining their comedic rivalry.
• Bai Zhu deliberately speaks to Nanika as an equal rather than treating her as a dangerous tool or an ignorant child.
• Killua attempts to protect Nanika and initially challenges Bai Zhu’s attempts to befriend her, but he ultimately allows the conversation to continue.
• Nanika asks whether friends leave, prompting Bai Zhu to explain that separation does not necessarily end friendship.
• When Nanika’s memories begin causing pain, Bai Zhu tells her to stop and reassures her that she does not have to answer.
• Illumi’s arrival abruptly interrupts the fragile moment and reintroduces external pressure and danger.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• After remote surveillance in the Vine House fails, Illumi arrives with mechanical recording and isolation equipment to investigate.
• He confirms that Killua and Alluka are unharmed, then confronts Bai Zhu about having Alluka destroy the surveillance devices.
• Illumi suspects Bai Zhu is hiding something about his conversation with Alluka/Nanika. Bai Zhu refuses to explain, claiming he cannot help control or experiment on Alluka’s mysterious power.
• To protect Bai Zhu, Killua invents the story that Bai Zhu told Alluka about wanting to become the “Evil-Eyed Demon King.”
• Bai Zhu elaborates this into an absurd childhood story about founding the Evil-Eyed Demon King Gang to fight a pack of stray dogs, ultimately losing his breakfast but preserving the gang’s honor.
• The joke develops into an imaginary gang:
  • Bai Zhu becomes leader.
  • Killua accepts the role of deputy leader.
  • Alluka joins as the Third Seat.
  • Kalluto expresses interest in joining.
  • Milluki is targeted as the gang’s financier, but angrily refuses.
• Killua jokingly labels Milluki’s refusal as grounds for declaring him a hostile gang.
• Illumi realizes Killua is actively helping Bai Zhu conceal the truth. Although he cannot uncover the conversation, he becomes more concerned about Killua’s new loyalty and willingness to protect Bai Zhu.
• Illumi leaves, and Milluki announces that dinner with the family is about to begin.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu: Demonstrates quick thinking and social manipulation by turning Killua’s improvised lie into an elaborate, ridiculous story. He uses humor to deflect Illumi’s interrogation and create a playful bond with Alluka and Killua.
• Killua: Takes a significant step in protecting Bai Zhu, deliberately lying to Illumi despite the danger. He quickly embraces the gang role and begins cooperating with Bai Zhu’s playful scheme, showing increased independence and loyalty.
• Alluka/Nanika: Responds positively to Bai Zhu’s friendly, person-centered treatment. Alluka becomes engaged in the gang game and voluntarily joins, suggesting growing comfort and trust.
• Illumi: Remains analytical and suspicious. He correctly notices that Bai Zhu and Killua are concealing something, but cannot force the truth from them. His concern shifts toward Killua’s developing alliance with Bai Zhu.
• Milluki: Serves as a comic obstacle, fiercely protecting his money and collectibles while reacting indignantly to being treated as the gang’s source of funding.
• Kalluto: Shows sympathy toward the new gang and casually considers joining, particularly to protect or manage the toys.

Significant Themes

• Trust and human connection: Bai Zhu’s willingness to treat Alluka as a person rather than merely as a dangerous ability allows Alluka to relax and connect with him.
• Protection through deception: Killua’s lie shields Bai Zhu from Illumi and reveals his growing willingness to defy family expectations.
• Humor as resistance: The exaggerated gang story transforms a dangerous interrogation into a playful scene, allowing the characters to evade control and build camaraderie.
• Family control versus personal choice: Illumi’s surveillance and questioning contrast with Killua, Alluka, and Bai Zhu forming relationships based on voluntary trust.
• Found family and belonging: The imaginary gang gives the children playful roles and a shared identity, symbolizing their emerging solidarity.

Character Interactions

• Illumi and Bai Zhu: Their exchange is tense and suspicious, with Illumi probing for information and Bai Zhu responding through sarcasm, evasiveness, and fabricated stories.
• Bai Zhu and Killua: They cooperate in concealing the truth, though Killua’s sudden lie catches Bai Zhu off guard. Their banter becomes increasingly playful as they assign gang roles.
• Bai Zhu and Alluka: Bai Zhu engages Alluka warmly and playfully, encouraging her participation and helping her feel included.
• Killua and Alluka: Killua protects Alluka physically and socially, immediately supporting her place in the gang.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki: Bai Zhu attempts to recruit Milluki as a financial backer, provoking Milluki’s outrage.
• Kalluto and Milluki: Kalluto sides with the gang and suggests joining, while Milluki defensively guards his possessions.
• Illumi and the group: Illumi observes the growing alliance without intervening, ultimately leaving once it becomes clear that further questioning will yield no answers.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Milluki informs Bai Zhu that the Zoldyck family is holding a formal dinner, attended by Silva, Kikyo, and the children. Bai Zhu becomes increasingly nervous, interpreting the event as similar to “meeting the parents.”
• Milluki guides Bai Zhu to a seat directly beside Silva, despite Bai Zhu’s attempts to sit with Killua. The seating arrangement makes Bai Zhu suspect that the family has a particular interest in him.
• During dinner, Milluki describes the rare and dangerous origins—and enormous prices—of the dishes. Bai Zhu is overwhelmed by the extravagance and worries that eating the food is morally questionable.
• Silva attempts to converse with Bai Zhu about ruins but struggles to maintain the conversation. Kikyo takes over and questions Bai Zhu about his relationship with Milluki and their past expeditions.
• Bai Zhu explains that Milluki was useful during their adventures, providing equipment and intelligence and returning to help others rather than abandoning them. His teasing also reveals growing familiarity and camaraderie between them.
• Kikyo discusses Killua’s rebellious childhood, prompting an argument across the long dining table. Bai Zhu realizes the distance between the seats helps prevent the family from physically fighting.
• When Bai Zhu chokes on a fish bone, Silva silently offers him water and asks whether he likes the food. This small act of concern further makes Bai Zhu feel as though he is being welcomed into the family.
• Kikyo orders the remaining desserts sent to Milluki’s room because Bai Zhu likes them, intensifying his impression that the dinner was effectively an introduction to the family.
• After dinner, Bai Zhu encounters Killua and Alluka waiting outside Milluki’s room. Alluka wants to participate in the group’s “first activity,” while Killua forces Bai Zhu into the room. Milluki protests, but Killua kicks the door open and declares that nobody will be sleeping that night.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu: Becomes increasingly self-conscious and anxious about fitting into the Zoldyck family. His nervousness is expressed through repeatedly adjusting his clothes, worrying about gifts, and interpreting ordinary family gestures as signs of parental evaluation. Despite this, he remains blunt, humorous, and willing to defend Milluki.
• Milluki: Acts as Bai Zhu’s guide and social handler during the dinner. His teasing and detailed food commentary show his usual eccentricity, while his arguments with Bai Zhu reveal a comfortable, sibling-like friendship. He is also embarrassed when Bai Zhu praises his usefulness and bravery.
• Silva: Though intimidating and reserved, he makes repeated attempts to interact with Bai Zhu and quietly assists him when he chokes. His limited but genuine effort suggests cautious acceptance.
• Kikyo: Takes the lead in questioning Bai Zhu and carefully examines his relationship with Milluki. Her decision to send Bai Zhu the desserts suggests she is curious about him and may already be treating him as a welcome guest.
• Killua: Remains sarcastic and independent, but actively seeks Bai Zhu’s company by waiting outside Milluki’s room and dragging him into the night’s activities.
• Alluka: Enthusiastically embraces Bai Zhu as “Boss” and wants to participate in the group’s plans, reinforcing her attachment to him.

Significant Themes

• Family acceptance: The dinner functions as an informal test and introduction, but the Zoldycks’ awkward hospitality gradually makes Bai Zhu feel included.
• Found family and belonging: Bai Zhu’s relationship with Milluki, Killua, and Alluka increasingly resembles that of a close family or gang rather than a casual acquaintance group.
• Social awkwardness: The chapter humorously contrasts Bai Zhu’s anxiety about etiquette with the Zoldycks’ unusual communication style and dysfunctional family dynamics.
• Affection beneath intimidation: Silva’s quiet assistance, Kikyo’s questioning, and the children’s insistence on spending time with Bai Zhu reveal care beneath the family’s frightening reputation.
• Humor as intimacy: Teasing, arguments, and blunt remarks serve as signs of comfort and trust between the characters.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Milluki bicker constantly, using insults and sarcasm to express familiarity.
• Bai Zhu and Silva have a strained but sincere first interaction, with Silva making awkward attempts at conversation and offering practical help.
• Kikyo questions Bai Zhu about Milluki, prompting Bai Zhu to acknowledge Milluki’s loyalty and usefulness.
• Kikyo and Killua argue across the table about his childhood behavior and seating arrangement.
• Alluka openly seeks Bai Zhu’s attention, while Killua physically pulls him into Milluki’s room, showing that both children want him involved in their activities.
• The chapter ends with Bai Zhu fully drawn into the Zoldyck family’s chaotic social life.

Chapter Summary: “Turn Off Your Family’s Surveillance First”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Killua and Alluka burst into Milluki’s room, turning the late-night meeting into a playful pillow fight with Bai Zhu. Alluka eagerly asks to join the gang, while Killua is informally recognized as its vice boss.
• Bai Zhu assigns Killua and Alluka a “mission” to check whether Kalluto is sleeping properly, getting them out of the room so he can speak privately with Milluki.
• Before discussing serious matters, Bai Zhu discovers that Milluki’s room contains several surveillance devices planted by the family. Milluki reluctantly disables them.
• Bai Zhu asks about the family’s interest in Alluka. Milluki explains that they want to know whether Alluka’s other personality, Nanika, can be stabilized or weaponized.
• Bai Zhu insists that Nanika is not a tool or parasite but another personality deserving respect, freedom, and humane treatment. He warns that trying to control or exploit her will cause greater danger.
• Bai Zhu asks Milluki to look after Alluka if the family eventually confines her—bringing her food, games, and outside contact, and treating her as family rather than something dangerous.
• He specifically warns Milluki not to tell Illumi, believing Illumi’s desire to control everything would lead him to exploit Nanika’s wish-granting rules.
• Bai Zhu teases Milluki about the dysfunctional and unusual upbringing of the Zoldyck siblings, suggesting their mother may be responsible. Milluki angrily silences him, threatening to reveal Bai Zhu’s hidden snacks to Killua.
• The conversation shifts to a black memory card left behind by Pariston. Milluki prepares an isolated, offline computer system to examine it.
• Just as Bai Zhu hands over the card, Milluki notices a nearly invisible scratch on its casing. A faint, unmistakable malice emanates from the damaged area, suggesting the card may be dangerous or deliberately booby-trapped.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu acts as both playful gang leader and serious protector. He demonstrates strong concern for Alluka and Nanika, opposing the Zoldyck family’s attempts to control them. His willingness to confront Milluki and criticize Illumi shows growing confidence within the family.
• Killua remains protective of Alluka, keeping her close and monitoring her behavior even while participating in the gang’s childish games. His informal acceptance of the vice-boss role hints at his attachment to Bai Zhu’s group.
• Alluka is energetic, affectionate, and eager to belong. She enthusiastically seeks a position in the gang and enjoys the freedom and companionship Bai Zhu provides.
• Milluki initially appears reluctant and defensive, but he cooperates with Bai Zhu, disables the surveillance, and seriously considers helping Alluka. His technical expertise is emphasized through his careful handling of the memory card.
• Illumi does not appear directly, but he is portrayed as the greatest potential threat to Nanika because of his controlling nature and likely interest in exploiting her powers.

Significant Themes

• Freedom versus control: The central conflict concerns whether Nanika will be treated as a person with autonomy or as a weapon to be controlled.
• Family surveillance and secrecy: The Zoldyck household is shown as invasive and distrustful, with even private conversations monitored.
• Humanizing the “dangerous” other: Bai Zhu challenges the family’s fear of Nanika by insisting that she deserves respect and emotional care.
• Found family and belonging: The gang provides Alluka with companionship, play, and a sense of inclusion that contrasts with the family’s restrictive treatment.
• Hidden danger and paranoia: The suspicious memory card and the disabled surveillance devices reinforce the chapter’s atmosphere of concealed threats.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Killua bond through teasing and physical play, though Killua remains suspicious of Bai Zhu.
• Alluka openly admires Bai Zhu and tries to earn a greater role in the gang, while Killua acts as her protective escort.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki move from comic banter to a candid discussion about Alluka, Nanika, and Illumi’s intentions.
• Their argument about the Zoldyck family’s dysfunction ends in humorous mutual blackmail, easing the tension.
• Milluki’s professional reaction to the memory card establishes him as a capable technical ally, while the card’s malicious aura abruptly restores the chapter’s ominous mood.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu and Milluki decode a memory card sent by Pariston. The first file describes D1, an experimental drug that removes inhibitions, increases confidence and impulsiveness, and can cause Nen abilities to mutate beyond their normal limits.
• Images linked to successful experiments show black crystal fragments, the same material Bai Zhu previously saw in the Oasis ruins.
• Milluki uncovers hidden data beneath the drug report: black-market transaction records, experimental-site coordinates, and repeated references to someone called “General.”
• A deeper file identifies Zaiyilo, an apparently ordinary NGL citizen who secretly controls the country’s land divisions, population movements, military deployments, and underground trade. Pariston suggests that Zaiyilo may be NGL’s true ruler.
• The files reveal that the Creation Society has established a presence throughout NGL. Its followers use the region’s isolation to conceal experiments, recruit or disappear people, and protect ancient ruins.
• Missing-person records connect local disappearances to D1 experiments and “ancient ruins restoration” projects.
• Bai Zhu’s system map suddenly identifies the exact location of a Soul King’s Pen component. It overlaps with both a Creation Society-sealed ruin and the original discovery site of D1 samples.
• A deleted experiment report reveals that D1 was initially designed not as a combat enhancer, but to test whether ordinary humans could survive the influence of Nen. The subjects’ changes suggest their bodies were temporarily rewritten by an external power.
• A hidden photograph shows an ancient underground black Stone Gate covered with Creation Society symbols. Pariston leaves a final message: “Good luck.”
• Bai Zhu concludes that Pariston deliberately arranged for them to uncover the information and intends to investigate NGL. He asks Milluki to accompany him, but Milluki refuses because NGL bans electronic equipment.
• Determined to bring Milluki’s technical resources anyway, Bai Zhu calls Old Jiang and asks him to smuggle equipment into NGL.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu connects the D1 experiments, the Creation Society, Zaiyilo, the sealed ruin, and the Soul King’s Pen component into a single conspiracy. He becomes increasingly determined to enter NGL and meet Zaiyilo, believing Zaiyilo could become an important ally.
• Milluki demonstrates his exceptional hacking and technical abilities by decoding multiple layers of Pariston’s data. Despite his curiosity, he remains cautious and refuses to enter NGL without his equipment.
• Pariston emerges as a manipulative strategist who anticipated Bai Zhu’s investigation and appears to be using him to probe the secrets beneath NGL.
• Zaiyilo is recontextualized from an ordinary citizen into the hidden political and military power behind NGL.
• Old Jiang is introduced as someone capable of helping Bai Zhu bypass NGL’s restrictions.

Significant Themes

• Manipulation and hidden agendas: Pariston’s information is carefully staged, leaving Bai Zhu uncertain whether he is being aided or exploited.
• Scientific experimentation and the misuse of Nen: D1 represents attempts to force human bodies to interact with supernatural power, raising questions about the cost of artificially enhancing Nen.
• Secrecy and control: NGL’s isolation and anti-modern ideology serve as a cover for political domination, illegal experimentation, and religious activity.
• Convergence of clues and fate: The overlapping map markers suggest that the drug experiments, Creation Society ruins, and the Soul King’s Pen are all connected to one central mystery.
• Pragmatism versus caution: Bai Zhu embraces the danger for the sake of knowledge and potential alliances, while Milluki prioritizes survival and the practical need for technology.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Milluki work together to decode Pariston’s files, with Milluki providing the technical expertise and Bai Zhu interpreting the larger implications.
• Their discussion contrasts Bai Zhu’s curiosity and ambition with Milluki’s skepticism and self-preservation.
• Pariston communicates indirectly through the files and photograph, manipulating both characters without appearing in person.
• Bai Zhu tries to persuade Milluki to join the NGL expedition, but Milluki refuses, prompting Bai Zhu to seek outside help from Old Jiang.

Chapter Summary: “The Boss Has Left”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu arranges with Gela Jiang to smuggle terminals, reconnaissance equipment, repair tools, and some weapons into the Republic of Lokario, with the ultimate goal of reaching NGL. Gela warns that NGL’s border security is strict and that he still needs equipment and people.
• Although Bai Zhu repeatedly hints that Milluki should accompany him, Milluki firmly refuses, citing NGL’s hostility toward technology, poor communications, border inspections, and the severe reduction in his own effectiveness without his equipment.
• During his stay at the Zoldyck estate, Bai Zhu enjoys the luxurious hospitality, orders large quantities of food for the journey, and secretly studies the estate’s security arrangements.
• The Evil-Eyed Demon King Gang continues operating within the household:
  • Killua secretly develops coded signals and maps patrol routes.
  • Kalluto acts as an intelligence officer, reporting household information—including dessert availability.
  • Alluka repeatedly asks when the group will go on an expedition.
• Piyu reports that several NGL-linked drug-smuggling groups have been captured, though the prisoners either died mysteriously or attacked themselves. She urges Bai Zhu to arrive in Lokario within three days.
• After Gela confirms that a border route is available, Bai Zhu decides to leave for Lokario the next morning.
• Despite Milluki’s refusal, Bai Zhu sneaks into his room through a spare entrance while Milluki is distracted by gaming. He steals Milluki’s entire equipment backpack, including his terminal, reconnaissance devices, tools, and tracking equipment. To ensure Milluki will pursue him, Bai Zhu also takes three of Milluki’s prized limited-edition figures.
• Killua catches Bai Zhu leaving but helps him evade a surveillance camera. The household staff notice the theft, but Silva orders them not to stop Bai Zhu.
• Bai Zhu departs by airship with the equipment and numerous boxed meals. Killua, Alluka, and Kalluto see him off. He promises Alluka that they will undertake a real expedition together in the future.
• Two hours after Bai Zhu’s departure, Milluki discovers the theft and erupts in fury, shouting that Bai Zhu is a thief.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu: Demonstrates his manipulative, resourceful, and mischievous nature. He respects Milluki’s refusal outwardly but secretly engineers a situation that will force Milluki to become involved. His preparations show practical foresight, while his food orders and theft of Milluki’s figures add comic selfishness to his planning. He also shows genuine affection toward Alluka by making and honoring a promise about their future expedition.
• Milluki: Remains highly protective of his technology, possessions, and personal comfort. His detailed objections to traveling to NGL reveal both intelligence and self-awareness, but his attachment to his equipment and figures makes him vulnerable to Bai Zhu’s scheme. His final outrage confirms how personally he takes the theft.
• Killua: Becomes increasingly invested in the gang despite denying his role as vice boss. His coded signals, route map, and assistance with Bai Zhu’s escape show practical leadership and a mischievous willingness to undermine Milluki.
• Alluka: Is enthusiastic about adventure and treats the gang as a meaningful social group. Her repeated questions and request for a pinky promise reveal her attachment to Bai Zhu and her fear that he might forget her.
• Kalluto: Functions as a diligent, literal-minded intelligence officer, treating household details such as new desserts as valid gang information.
• Silva: Shows detached tolerance toward Bai Zhu’s behavior, deciding not to interfere even after learning about the stolen equipment and figures.

Significant Themes

• Found family and belonging: The gang gives the children a shared identity and purpose, strengthening their bonds beyond ordinary family roles.
• Adventure versus comfort: Bai Zhu’s departure contrasts with the luxurious safety of the Zoldyck estate and Alluka’s longing to see the outside world.
• Manipulation and trust: Bai Zhu’s “persuasion” of Milluki is deceptive, but it is also rooted in his confidence that Milluki will ultimately follow because of his attachment to his equipment.
• Technology versus isolation: Milluki’s dependence on modern devices clashes with NGL’s rejection of technology, emphasizing how unfamiliar environments can undermine a person’s usual strengths.
• Playful criminality and loyalty: Theft, secret routes, coded signals, and surveillance are treated as gang activities, blending comedy with genuine cooperation and affection.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Gela Jiang exchange sarcastic, informal banter while arranging the smuggling operation.
• Bai Zhu repeatedly teases Milluki about joining the expedition, while Milluki defensively lists every reason he should stay home.
• Bai Zhu and Killua develop a conspiratorial partnership: Killua mocks Bai Zhu’s theft but still helps him escape.
• Kalluto reports intelligence to Bai Zhu, and Bai Zhu rewards him, reinforcing the gang’s internal hierarchy.
• Alluka seeks reassurance from Bai Zhu, culminating in their pinky promise to go on an expedition together.
• Silva and the butlers observe Bai Zhu’s behavior without intervening, treating the theft as an amusing inconvenience rather than a serious threat.
• Milluki’s delayed discovery of the theft produces the chapter’s comic climax, ending with his furious accusation as Bai Zhu is already safely airborne.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Milluki discovers that Bai Zhu has taken valuable equipment, including a particularly important item he had hidden in a carefully protected box. Furious, he orders an immediate airship departure to the Republic of Lokario.
• The Zoldyck household, especially Illumi and the butlers, calmly accommodates Milluki’s departure. Their preparations—including extra fuel and advance entry permits—suggest they anticipated that he would chase Bai Zhu and possibly continue toward NGL.
• Milluki insists he will return the same day and claims he is merely pursuing a thief, but Illumi quietly prepares for a much longer and more dangerous journey.
• In Lokario, Bai Zhu, Gela Jiang, and Piyu organize an operation to transport equipment toward NGL. Their supplies include terminals, reconnaissance drones, energy modules, repair kits, modified surfboards, and water tanks.
• Bai Zhu explains that the equipment will be moved along the coast of the Mittel Federation and secretly delivered into western NGL through an unguarded coastline.
• Piyu reports that three Hunter Association investigation teams have recently disappeared near NGL. Their routes point toward the same mountain, and one local guide appears to have had his memories tampered with. This confirms that Pariston’s information is dangerous but largely accurate.
• Bai Zhu deliberately allows Milluki to track the stolen equipment, confident that Milluki will pursue it because of his personal attachment to what was taken.
• After landing in Lokario, Milluki rushes through entry procedures and follows the signals toward the coast. He encounters Bai Zhu and Piyu at the airport, where Bai Zhu taunts him and attempts to leave.
• Milluki attacks, but Bai Zhu avoids him and uses a binding technique, Bakudō #4: Hainawa, to restrain him with a Light Rope. Milluki tears free and continues chasing him while bystanders begin filming.
• Piyu records the confrontation and jokingly demands payment to delete the footage. The chapter ends with Milluki angrily accusing Bai Zhu of betraying the family after enjoying their hospitality for more than ten days.

Character Developments

• Milluki becomes intensely emotional and impulsive when his possessions—and possibly the valuable item’s deeper significance—are threatened. His usual comfort and attachment to home give way to determination, anger, and physical aggression.
• Illumi remains detached and observant, but subtly supports Milluki’s pursuit by arranging fuel, permits, and contingency plans. His calm behavior suggests he understands Milluki better than Milluki realizes.
• Bai Zhu is revealed as calculating and manipulative. He intentionally uses Milluki’s attachment to the stolen item to draw him toward NGL, treating the pursuit as part of a larger plan.
• Piyu acts as both an intelligence specialist and an amused observer. She contributes crucial information about the missing investigation teams while documenting Milluki’s humiliation.
• Gela Jiang is practical but increasingly distrustful of Bai Zhu’s methods. He recognizes the plan as cruel and calls Bai Zhu “vicious,” while still helping execute it.

Significant Themes

• Manipulation and emotional leverage: Bai Zhu exploits Milluki’s attachment to the stolen object to control his movements and force him into the NGL operation.
• Family dynamics and hidden understanding: The Zoldycks respond to Milluki’s outburst with surprising efficiency, showing that they know his behavior well and may have anticipated the entire pursuit.
• Trust and betrayal: Milluki sees Bai Zhu’s actions as a personal betrayal after hosting him generously, while Bai Zhu views their relationship in strategic rather than emotional terms.
• Danger beneath comedy: The airport chase and filming create a comic tone, but the missing Hunter teams, memory tampering, and NGL route point toward a much more serious and threatening mystery.
• Surveillance and information control: Tracking signals, investigation reports, manipulated memories, and Piyu’s recording all emphasize the importance—and danger—of controlling information.

Character Interactions

• Milluki and Illumi clash over Milluki’s impulsive departure, though Illumi’s preparations reveal quiet cooperation.
• Bai Zhu and Gela Jiang discuss the logistics of infiltrating NGL, with Gela questioning Bai Zhu’s ruthless plan.
• Piyu provides intelligence that reinforces the danger surrounding the northern NGL mountains.
• Milluki and Bai Zhu engage in a chaotic physical confrontation at the airport, with Bai Zhu evading and restraining him rather than fighting directly.
• Piyu heightens Milluki’s frustration by filming the encounter and teasing him about paying for deletion.

Chapter Summary: “Going Back Now Is Still in Time”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu admits he took Milluki’s collectible figures and technical equipment without permission, insisting he merely “borrowed” them and left a note.
• He offers Milluki two choices: join the mission to NGL and eventually recover everything, or return home immediately. The equipment and figures have already been given to Gela Jiang for examination.
• Milluki becomes furious, especially after learning that all of his figures—including his prized collectibles—are with Gela Jiang.
• Piyu persuades him to accept the Association’s commission by showing him a rare, valuable, limited-edition figure from The Transforming Girl, numbered 007. Milluki carefully verifies its authenticity and agrees to the mission once the figure is listed as compensation for any damaged equipment.
• Shortly afterward, Gela Jiang reports that the largest box containing Milluki’s possessions fell into the sea. Although it was recovered and only slightly wet, Milluki attacks Bai Zhu in rage. Piyu humorously photographs the confrontation.
• The group travels by amphibious ship toward NGL. Milluki is mainly motivated by the desire to reclaim his possessions and is even willing to abandon the mission until reassured about compensation.
• Upon reaching NGL’s inspection zone, Milluki sees the strict regulations: electronic devices are banned, metal tools must be declared, synthetic clothing is prohibited, and even dental fillings may be inspected.
• Seeing phones, weapons, cameras, and other confiscated goods being destroyed, Milluki decides to leave. Piyu further warns that his terminal and energy modules will likely be confiscated, making him question whether entering NGL is worthwhile.

Character Developments

• Milluki is shown as highly possessive, materialistic, and emotionally attached to his figures and equipment. His professional identity as a technician competes with his personal obsession with collectibles. Though initially resistant to the mission, the promise of official compensation convinces him to accept.
• Bai Zhu remains carefree, manipulative, and teasing. He treats stealing Milluki’s belongings as a harmless favor and repeatedly minimizes the danger or inconvenience caused, provoking Milluki while trying to keep him involved.
• Piyu acts as the practical negotiator. She uses the valuable figure and the Association’s contract to secure Milluki’s cooperation, while also observing and playfully documenting the conflict between him and Bai Zhu.
• Gela Jiang functions as the technician handling Milluki’s equipment. His accidental drop of the box into the sea intensifies Milluki’s anxiety, though the items are ultimately recovered.
• Milluki’s butler unintentionally worsens the situation by asking whether his master is still going home, prompting Milluki to reaffirm that he has accepted the mission.

Significant Themes

• Materialism and motivation: Milluki’s willingness to undertake a dangerous mission depends less on duty than on recovering or replacing his prized possessions.
• Friendship and boundary violations: Bai Zhu’s claim that theft is acceptable between friends creates a humorous but genuine conflict over trust, ownership, and personal limits.
• Modern technology versus traditional ideals: NGL’s prohibition of electronics and industrial goods reflects its commitment to “natural living,” while the use of scanners, hunting dogs, and inspection technology exposes the contradiction in that philosophy.
• Bureaucracy and compensation: Official contracts and financial guarantees transform Milluki’s reluctance into professional cooperation, showing how formal systems can override personal objections.
• The temptation to turn back: The chapter repeatedly emphasizes that retreat remains possible, as Milluki continually considers abandoning the mission when the risks to his possessions become clear.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Milluki engage in a comic struggle over the stolen—or “borrowed”—equipment, with Milluki repeatedly threatening violence.
• Piyu mediates the dispute by presenting Milluki with an attractive reward and formal compensation.
• Gela Jiang’s phone call creates another burst of conflict when he reveals that Milluki’s belongings fell into the sea.
• At NGL’s border, Bai Zhu tries to reassure Milluki, while Milluki points out the absurdity of NGL’s regulations and insists that returning is still possible.
• The chapter ends with Milluki on the verge of abandoning the mission after realizing that his terminal and technical equipment cannot legally enter NGL.

Chapter Summary: “New Members”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Piyu informs Milluki that his contract for the figures is already active. Breaking it would require compensation equal to three times their market value, prompting Milluki to examine the breach clauses.
• Their entry into NGL is delayed because two Association members are joining the investigation: Knov and his disciple.
• Bai Zhu becomes concerned that Pariston’s plans, the D1 drug data, and the Creation Society’s ruins could attract too many people and make the mission difficult to control.
• Piyu investigates NGL’s border records and discovers that more than three hundred supposed “ecological volunteers” entered the country, while only eleven officially departed. The departure records are suspicious, and the signatures used by many team leaders match false identities connected to the Creation Society.
• Bai Zhu studies the movement of the Soul King’s Pen component on his system map. Although the location changes nightly, its movements repeatedly point toward a village northwest of the Natu Mountain Range, suggesting the component—or someone carrying it—is hidden there.
• Knov and his young disciple arrive. Knov explains that the Association has received the D1 experiment data and wants him to evaluate the risk of Nen abnormalities and possible spread of the drug.
• Knov demonstrates his “Fourth Dimensional Apartment,” an enormous independent storage space. The group places their equipment, phones, and industrial goods inside it before entering NGL with only documents and cash.
• After an extensive inspection, Bai Zhu, Piyu, Milluki, Knov, and Knov’s disciple officially cross into NGL. Bai Zhu’s system immediately recognizes the area as a special restricted zone and reveals new exploration and investigation markers.
• Meanwhile, an unknown observer in the forest sees them enter and sends a message to a general, reporting that “Pariston’s people have entered.”

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu becomes increasingly cautious and strategic. He recognizes that the investigation is no longer a small operation and begins mapping the Soul King’s Pen component’s movements to identify its likely location.
• Piyu proves herself resourceful and analytical by uncovering forged identities, matching handwriting patterns, and exposing the suspicious disappearance of most ecological volunteers.
• Milluki remains focused on his equipment and figures. He is impressed—and bitterly jealous—of Knov’s storage ability, realizing that his own Nen development was far less practical.
• Knov enters as a professional Association investigator with a broader mandate than transportation. His mission now includes assessing the D1 drug’s potential danger and Nen-related effects.
• Knov’s disciple is introduced as observant and reserved. She immediately studies Bai Zhu closely but avoids explaining her interest.
• Pariston’s influence continues to shape events indirectly. His leaked information has drawn the Association’s attention and apparently alerted hostile forces already operating inside NGL.

Significant Themes

• Escalating danger and loss of control: The investigation expands as more powerful organizations and individuals become involved, threatening the group’s ability to manage the situation.
• Hidden identities and deception: False volunteer groups, forged signatures, and missing departure records suggest a large-scale secret operation within NGL.
• Information as a weapon: Pariston’s disclosure of the D1 data changes the mission’s political and investigative stakes.
• Preparation versus improvisation: Milluki’s missing equipment and Bai Zhu’s changing plans contrast with Knov’s highly practical Nen ability, emphasizing how quickly circumstances can render preparations obsolete.
• Boundaries and restricted spaces: Physical borders, Knov’s dimensional apartment, and NGL’s sealed territory all reinforce the chapter’s focus on access, containment, and hidden worlds.
• Surveillance and uncertainty: The group is entering NGL while being watched, and the final report confirms that their arrival has already been noticed.

Character Interactions

• Piyu and Milluki argue over the contract and compensation, with Milluki reluctantly accepting that the agreement is binding.
• Piyu and Bai Zhu discuss the danger of allowing additional investigators into the mission, revealing their shared concern about Pariston’s interference.
• Milluki reacts with envy and frustration when Knov demonstrates his massive storage space; Bai Zhu mocks and consoles him about his lost equipment.
• Piyu works collaboratively with Bai Zhu while investigating the border records, providing the evidence that links the ecological volunteers to the Creation Society.
• Knov formally establishes his authority and mission, while Milluki immediately questions him about the practical uses of his Nen.
• Knov’s disciple silently scrutinizes Bai Zhu, creating an unresolved tension between them.
• The chapter ends with the group entering NGL under the observation of unknown agents, signaling that their investigation has begun under hostile surveillance.

Chapter Summary: “Don’t Let Loyalty Destroy You”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu, Milluki, Piyu, Knov, and Palm enter NGL through a wooden checkpoint and travel toward Tamu Village, where they plan to stay in volunteer cabins.
• The group discusses NGL’s isolation from modern technology and the difficulties of living without phones, electricity, or prepared food. Milluki complains throughout the journey because he was forcibly brought there and must carry luggage.
• At a fork in the road, Knov detects three people secretly following them. Palm uses her crystal-ball ability, Lonely Deep-Sea Fish, to reveal the watchers’ positions and track their movements.
• Piyu orders the group to capture the sentries alive so they can determine which NGL faction they belong to. Avoiding casualties is important because the villages cooperate closely and would become suspicious if outsiders attacked immediately.
• Knov continues down the main road with Piyu and Palm while Bai Zhu circles around to ambush the watchers. Milluki is left carrying the luggage.
• The three sentries are revealed to be highly organized local patrolmen equipped with binoculars, writing materials, carrier pigeons, bird feed, and bone whistles.
• Bai Zhu disables all three using Bakudō #4, Hainawa and Hadō #1, Thrust. He prevents one man from releasing a carrier pigeon, stops another from blowing a warning whistle, and captures the third as he attempts to flee.
• Bai Zhu discovers that one sentry has a concealed black wax suicide pill, which he removes before it can be used.
• The unfinished message intended for transmission reads: “The target has entered the country. Pariston’s intelligence was correct.”
• Bai Zhu confronts the prisoners, realizing that their operation was timed specifically to coincide with his arrival. He demands to know who the target is and accuses them of already knowing when he would enter NGL.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu remains observant, sarcastic, and confident. He mocks Milluki but also demonstrates strong tactical ability, quickly analyzing the sentries’ equipment and neutralizing them without unnecessary violence.
• Milluki is portrayed as physically unenthusiastic and resentful, contrasting with Bai Zhu’s combat effectiveness. His technical pride emerges when he defends his reconnaissance machines against Palm’s tracking ability.
• Piyu shows strategic restraint and political awareness. Her insistence on taking the sentries alive reflects her understanding of NGL’s social structure and the need to avoid provoking local communities.
• Knov acts as a calm and capable leader. He detects the patrol before anyone else and delegates responsibilities efficiently.
• Palm is quiet and withdrawn, communicating mostly through gestures. Despite her reserved nature, her ability provides crucial intelligence and allows the group to understand the enemy’s formation.
• The sentries are revealed to be disciplined, trained, and loyal enough to carry suicide pills, suggesting that the group behind them is organized and possibly dangerous.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty versus self-preservation: The hidden suicide pill demonstrates how unquestioning loyalty can destroy an individual. Bai Zhu’s reference to “Don’t let loyalty destroy you” becomes the chapter’s central warning.
• Surveillance and counter-surveillance: Palm’s supernatural tracking, Knov’s detection, and the sentries’ human observation network create a contest between competing intelligence systems.
• Technology versus traditional methods: The group’s modern or supernatural abilities are contrasted with NGL’s carrier pigeons, bone whistles, handwritten messages, and human patrols.
• Outsiders entering a closed society: NGL’s isolation makes the group’s arrival politically sensitive. Even a small clash could alert entire villages and make future travel more difficult.
• Appearance and concealment: The protagonists are traveling in local clothing, while the sentries are also disguised as ordinary NGL residents. Both sides rely on hiding their identities and intentions.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Milluki exchange sarcastic insults about stamina, luggage, and their respective reconnaissance abilities, establishing a competitive and antagonistic but familiar relationship.
• Bai Zhu attempts to engage Palm about her ability, but she retreats behind Knov, emphasizing her discomfort with direct interaction. Knov bluntly explains that she is withdrawn.
• Piyu gives Bai Zhu and Knov clear instructions, while Knov organizes the group’s movement and assigns Bai Zhu to capture the patrol.
• During the confrontation, Bai Zhu taunts the sentries and prevents them from signaling for help or killing themselves.
• The chapter ends with Bai Zhu turning the sentries’ own message against them, forcing them to confront the fact that their mission—and perhaps their target—has been exposed.

Chapter Summary: “A Strange Village”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu and Piyu capture three sentries who were monitoring outsiders and had sent a coded message. The men initially refuse—or are unable—to speak, so Bai Zhu brings them into Knov’s Fourth Dimensional Apartment for interrogation.
• Milluki conducts a methodical investigation, recording the sentries’ possessions, clothing, shoe soles, and written notes before questioning them. The mud on their shoes exposes inconsistencies in their claim that they received their orders only the previous night.
• Gela Jiang reports from the west coast that NGL contains strange villages populated exclusively by adult men. The villages lack children, elderly residents, cooking smoke, and apparently genuine crops. Sealed barrels of unknown supplies arrive daily, while the population continues to grow without increased food deliveries.
• The villages are heavily guarded, behave like fortified camps, and their residents frequently become aggressive over minor matters.
• Milluki also verifies that three shockproof cases transported by Gela Jiang remain undamaged, revealing his intense concern for the valuable contents and his irritation at Bai Zhu’s careless behavior.
• The sentries reveal that they report to a general and that each village has its own superior. They were ordered to confirm Bai Zhu’s arrival in Lokaliou and signal their commanders. A separate action team has already entered the mountains with orders to take Bai Zhu alive and deliver him to a mysterious “door” in the north.
• The map shows four villages positioned around the northern mountains, blocking routes toward a marked ruin. The group concludes that the villages are connected to D1 and may serve as facilities for guarding, training, and drug experimentation.
• Milluki theorizes that outsiders—possibly kidnapped people or travelers—are forced to take drugs, become dependent or mentally degraded, and are eventually transformed into suicide squads.
• Despite the danger, Bai Zhu considers the discovery of the ruin a positive development, since it confirms that the enemy knows about and has already used it.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu remains reckless, sarcastic, and physically confident, but becomes more serious when hearing about the abnormal villages and their likely connection to D1. He also realizes that he himself is the target of a planned capture operation.
• Piyu acts as the practical counterbalance to Bai Zhu, criticizing his careless interrogation methods and helping interpret the evidence and map.
• Milluki demonstrates a highly disciplined, technical approach to interrogation and evidence collection. His concern for the shockproof cases reveals both his professionalism and his attachment to the valuable figures inside. His hostile banter with Bai Zhu continues, suggesting familiarity and ongoing resentment.
• Knov remains calm and efficient, using his ability to conceal the group and contain the prisoners. He focuses on understanding the strategic importance of the mysterious northern door.
• Gela Jiang provides crucial reconnaissance, identifying the villages’ unusual structures, supply system, and defensive nature.

Significant Themes

• Deception and hidden operations: The villages appear ordinary from a distance but conceal military or experimental functions.
• Human experimentation and exploitation: The suspected use of drugs to create dependent, controllable suicide squads emphasizes the brutality of D1’s operations.
• Evidence versus appearances: Physical clues, such as dried mud and unchanged food deliveries, reveal inconsistencies that surface-level observation would miss.
• Entrapment and surveillance: Bai Zhu’s presence has been anticipated, and the enemy is actively guiding him toward a specific destination.
• Dark humor amid danger: Bai Zhu and Milluki’s sarcastic exchanges provide comic relief while highlighting their contrasting personalities.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu’s crude treatment of the sentries clashes with Piyu’s practical criticism and Milluki’s formal interrogation procedures.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki trade insults over torture, equipment, and the shockproof cases, showing an antagonistic but familiar relationship.
• Piyu and Knov work with Milluki to interpret the statements and map, gradually connecting the villages to D1’s broader plans.
• Gela Jiang’s phone report expands the group’s understanding of the threat, while Milluki’s interruption emphasizes his control over both the mission’s equipment and investigative process.

Chapter Summary: “Where Did the Creation Society Hide?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu, Milluki, Piyu, and Knov analyze evidence connected to the Creation Society’s activities near Stone Gate.
• They conclude the markings around the gate are not religious symbols but long-term records of people moving through and using the area. The site may contain an altar, an experimental facility, or both.
• Over three hundred tourists have disappeared in the region. Their similarities—especially their blood types—suggest they were deliberately selected as test subjects rather than abducted randomly.
• Bai Zhu theorizes that nearby villages served as holding sites. Victims were restrained, drugged with D1, and made dependent on it so they could not escape. The villages likely functioned as recruitment, screening, and containment centers.
• The Creation Society did not simply conceal a headquarters; it embedded itself into the local system, using NGL’s political environment and seemingly legitimate organizations as cover.
• Missing-person records reveal coordinated methods: standardized stories, handwriting, and entry channels. Victims were separated and processed through different parts of the organization without understanding the full operation.
• Milluki produces a tiny carved bone fragment found among interrogation materials. Piyu identifies it as a Creation Society “witness token,” an object sometimes implanted inside members’ bodies.
• This suggests the captured men who claimed to serve the general may actually have been connected to the Creation Society.
• Bai Zhu and Piyu infer that the Society may have infiltrated the general’s inner circle. The general may have exchanged protection for drugs and human subjects, creating a mutually beneficial alliance.
• The group suspects the Society is luring Bai Zhu to Stone Gate because its work on the ruins has reached a bottleneck and they need his connection to the site.
• Before they can decide whether to continue interrogations or seek Gela Jiang, Palm detects something through her crystal ball: the bound lookout is being used to observe them.
• The bone fragment suddenly moves inside Knov’s supposedly sealed alternate space, raising the possibility that the group has already been infiltrated.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu becomes increasingly focused on reconstructing the Creation Society’s entire system rather than merely locating its headquarters. He recognizes that the Society’s greatest strength is its ability to blend into existing institutions and processes.
• Piyu demonstrates expertise in the Society’s symbols, witness tokens, and operational methods. Her deductions consistently reinforce Bai Zhu’s theory and reveal her familiarity with previous Creation Society incidents.
• Milluki remains sarcastic and skeptical, but his humor gives way to genuine alarm when he learns that children may have been taken and that the Society may have infiltrated the general’s personnel.
• Knov contributes a detached, methodical perspective, identifying the Stone Gate markings as evidence of long-term site management and noticing inconsistencies in the victim demographics.
• Palm, previously silent, suddenly becomes crucial. Her ability reveals that the group is being watched through the lookout, turning the investigation into an immediate security threat.

Significant Themes

• Hidden systems versus hidden locations: The Creation Society’s concealment does not depend on a secret headquarters alone; it has merged with local communities, drug networks, political structures, and legitimate organizations.
• Institutional corruption and complicity: The general’s possible cooperation with the Society suggests that power structures may enable atrocities when both sides benefit.
• Human beings as resources: Missing people are selected according to biological compatibility and treated as experimental material rather than individuals.
• Surveillance and infiltration: The group believes itself protected inside Knov’s ability, yet the Society may still be observing them, suggesting that no barrier is completely secure.
• Incomplete knowledge: Victims and operatives are deliberately isolated from the full chain of operations, allowing the Society to remain invisible even while operating on a large scale.
• Drug dependence as control: D1 is used not merely as a substance but as a mechanism to trap, regulate, and transport people.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Milluki debate the meaning of the clean surroundings and the likelihood that the Society planned its operation in advance.
• Piyu challenges Milluki’s assumptions and helps translate physical evidence into an operational theory.
• Knov supports Piyu’s interpretation of the Stone Gate and adds a broader logistical perspective.
• Bai Zhu, Piyu, and Knov collectively reconstruct the village-based trafficking and experimentation network.
• Milluki’s discovery of the bone fragment shifts the discussion from regional operations to possible infiltration of the general’s inner circle.
• Palm interrupts the group’s strategic debate with a warning that someone is viewing them through the captive lookout.
• The chapter ends with the entire group confronted by the possibility that their supposedly secure meeting space has already been penetrated.

Chapter Summary: “Meet Up with Old Jiang First”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu discovers that the bone fragment reacts specifically when he touches it. Palm’s crystal ball reveals that this allows the Creation Society to observe the group through the eyes of its hidden believers or sentries.
• Knov explains that the bone fragment is likely a Nen medium designed to activate when it contacts Bai Zhu—or something connected to him. The Creation Society may have anticipated that the group would find it after capturing its three agents.
• The group determines that the medium only reveals the area immediately around it, not their exact location. Knov isolates the fragment in a separate room rather than destroying it, fearing that damaging it could alert the enemy or alter its Nen.
• The incident convinces Bai Zhu that the Creation Society may still be active nearby and capable of monitoring large areas through distributed believers and hidden media. The group realizes they do not understand how the society recruits or operates; its influence could be concealed in ordinary activities such as medicine, labor, or daily contact with villagers.
• Rather than continue through Tamu Village along the planned route, Bai Zhu orders the group to travel west through a dry riverbed. The route offers lower terrain and cover from observation, while also allowing them to rendezvous with Gela “Old Jiang” Jiang.
• Knov creates several temporary entrances along the riverbed for movement through his Fourth Dimensional Apartment, though he clarifies that he can only connect locations he has physically visited.
• After a long journey, Gela Jiang arrives by surfboard, transporting six sealed crates through the river. The equipment is inspected and stored in Knov’s dimensional apartment.
• With Milluki organizing the supplies, Bai Zhu sits with Old Jiang and asks him to report what he observed on the way.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu: Becomes more cautious and strategically decisive after realizing he may be linked to the Creation Society’s surveillance medium. He identifies the danger of following the original route and takes command of the group’s movement. His casual teasing and willingness to joke also help relieve tension.
• Knov: Demonstrates careful expertise, recognizing the bone fragment’s Nen properties and preventing Milluki from destroying it recklessly. He contributes practical support by establishing escape and transport entrances.
• Palm: Reacts strongly to the renewed sense of being watched and remains uneasy around Bai Zhu, hiding behind Knov when Bai Zhu tries to thank her.
• Milluki: Shows both technical competence and impulsiveness. He wants to dismantle the bone fragment immediately but is stopped by Knov. He also takes responsibility for checking and organizing the delivered equipment.
• Piyu: Helps assess the travel route and logistical concerns, serving as a practical counterpoint to Bai Zhu’s strategic decisions.
• Gela “Old Jiang” Jiang: Reappears as a fast and reliable transporter, delivering important supplies by surfboard and water manipulation. His arrival strengthens the group’s logistical position.

Significant Themes

• Surveillance and hidden influence: The Creation Society’s threat is not limited to visible agents; it may operate through ordinary people and concealed Nen devices.
• Uncertainty and incomplete knowledge: The group understands the bone fragment’s immediate function but still lacks evidence about the society’s full network, recruitment methods, and location.
• Adaptability and strategic caution: Bai Zhu’s decision to abandon the planned route emphasizes the need to change plans when hidden dangers are discovered.
• Technology and supernatural ability working together: Knov’s spatial Nen, Palm’s divination, Milluki’s equipment, and Old Jiang’s water-based transport combine to support the investigation.
• Tension balanced by camaraderie: The group’s anxiety is eased by Bai Zhu and Milluki’s comedic bickering, while their cooperation demonstrates growing trust and teamwork.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Knov analyze why the bone fragment responds to Bai Zhu and what the Creation Society may be able to see.
• Knov restrains Milluki from destroying the fragment, highlighting the contrast between Milluki’s impulsiveness and Knov’s caution.
• Bai Zhu attempts to thank Palm, but her discomfort causes her to retreat behind Knov. Milluki mocks Bai Zhu’s awkwardness, leading to playful physical bickering.
• The group debates whether Tamu Village itself is compromised before agreeing to avoid it.
• Old Jiang and Milluki clash humorously when Milluki prioritizes inspecting the cargo over greeting him, though Milluki’s careful inventory check shows his professionalism.
• The chapter ends with Bai Zhu asking Old Jiang for intelligence about the route, shifting the focus from logistics back to the wider investigation.

Chapter Summary: “A Village Without Women or Children”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Gela Jiang and Bai Zhu discuss their observations of the surrounding villages. Although the land appears fertile, most villagers live in poverty because of poor farming methods, dependence on weather, and limited cultivation.
• Gela reveals that some disasters may be deliberately manufactured. He discovered Nen residue in locusts, suggesting that the Creation Society breeds and controls them to destroy crops.
• The Creation Society appears to manipulate communities by rewarding believers with food and favorable conditions while inflicting disasters on nonbelievers, using hunger and fear to enforce conversion.
• Milluki uses Mechanical Dragonflies to scout a secluded basin containing several heavily guarded villages. The settlement has no visible fields, livestock, roads, or ordinary means of food production, raising questions about how thousands of people survive.
• The scouts observe men transporting a struggling person on a covered stretcher into an underground passage. Guarded wells connect to railway tracks leading into the mountain, suggesting a hidden underground facility or transportation system.
• The group decides to enter openly rather than continue observing from the woods. Piyu presents official documents from the Republic of Lokario and the Hunter Association, identifying the party as ecological investigators.
• Bai Zhu, Piyu, and Milluki enter the village while Gela Jiang, Knov, and Palm remain outside as support.
• The villagers claim that all women, children, and elderly people have temporarily left for Daughter’s Festival or returned to their maternal homes. However, the explanation becomes suspicious when the guide admits that older people were supposedly sent away because they were not useful.
• The village is highly controlled and regimented: men perform assigned labor, guards monitor entrances, and residents return to their individual houses at mealtimes.
• The investigators find no women or children anywhere in the village. When they request to stay overnight, the guide suddenly asks for instant noodles, fried chicken, and cola—foods he should not know about if the village survives only on potatoes, cassava, and occasional meat.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu becomes increasingly suspicious and analytical. He notices the villagers’ extreme poverty, recognizes the danger of the Creation Society’s methods, and quickly identifies inconsistencies in the village’s explanations.
• Gela Jiang demonstrates practical field experience and a willingness to investigate conditions directly. His discovery of Nen-tainted locusts provides important evidence of deliberate manipulation.
• Milluki serves as the group’s technological scout and comic relief. Despite complaining about the poor food, he effectively operates the Mechanical Dragonflies and maps the village’s defenses and underground routes.
• Piyu takes the role of formal leader and negotiator. She prepares official documentation in advance, chooses a direct approach, and carefully questions the villagers while remaining outwardly professional.
• The village guide initially appears hospitable but becomes visibly uneasy when questioned about the absent women, children, and elderly. His sudden requests for modern processed food expose possible outside contact or hidden information.

Significant Themes

• Manipulation through hunger and fear: The Creation Society uses food distribution and engineered disasters to make people dependent on its ideology.
• Poverty and exploitation: The villagers’ lack of tools, food, and agricultural resources makes them vulnerable to control.
• Surveillance and imprisonment: Guards, fences, checkpoints, and underground routes create the atmosphere of a labor camp or concealed compound rather than a normal village.
• Truth beneath official explanations: The repeated claims about festivals and family visits fail to explain the complete absence of women, children, and elderly people.
• Modern influence in an isolated society: References to instant noodles, fried chicken, and cola suggest that the village is connected to a larger organization or supplied through hidden channels.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Gela Jiang exchange skeptical observations about the villages and the Creation Society’s methods.
• Milluki interrupts their discussion by stealing their grilled fish, creating comic tension while also contributing crucial reconnaissance.
• Bai Zhu teases Milluki into approaching the village, while Milluki worries about confronting the heavily armed men.
• Piyu repeatedly mediates between the two, keeping the group focused and urging them to act before nightfall.
• Inside the village, Piyu conducts the official questioning, while Bai Zhu observes the poor food and the guide’s reactions.
• The chapter ends with Piyu directly challenging the guide’s inconsistent knowledge of outside foods, leaving the village’s true purpose and the fate of its missing residents as major mysteries.

Chapter Summary: “Time to Take the Medicine”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Piyu persuades the village guide to talk by offering him snacks and cola. He identifies himself as Shak, a porter from the southern Mittel Federation who mysteriously awoke in the village.
• Shak explains that villagers become physically ill when they try to leave or skip their daily medicine. Taking the medicine relieves their symptoms, creating a powerful dependency.
• A villager attacks Shak over the snacks, triggering a brutal fight. Bai Zhu intervenes with Bakudo #4: Hainawa, restraining both men.
• During the fight, one villager is impaled in the arm by a wooden spike. After eating scattered chip crumbs, however, he appears to forget the fight and continues working as though nothing happened.
• Shak also loses all memory of the confrontation, confirming that the medicine affects the villagers’ minds as well as their bodies.
• That night, Piyu, Milluki, and Bai Zhu analyze the village. They conclude that the inhabitants are drug-dependent and may no longer be fully human, though they have not yet developed the more advanced mutations previously observed by Gela Jiang.
• Milluki reveals that the village’s three wells connect to underground tunnels. His spiders have found tracks leading below, suggesting that the wells conceal the drug storage area and may be used to transport people or supplies.
• The chapter ends when Shak appears with a bowl of cloudy liquid and calmly tells the outsiders that it is time for them to take the medicine, implying that the villagers intend to force them into the same dependency.

Character Developments

• Piyu becomes more investigative and strategic, using food as a bribe and carefully recording Shak’s testimony. She recognizes the connection between the medicine and the villagers’ behavior.
• Milluki demonstrates his practical resourcefulness and investigative abilities. He supplies the snacks, analyzes the situation, and discovers the underground tunnel system through his spiders.
• Bai Zhu acts as the group’s protector, stopping the fight and treating the injured villager. His observations lead him to conclude that the medicine has severely damaged the villagers’ humanity and memories.
• Shak is revealed to be both a victim and an enforcer of the village’s system. Although initially cooperative, his dependence on the medicine causes him to defend the supply and later deliver it to the outsiders without apparent malice.
• The villagers are shown to be physically aggressive, mentally impaired, and controlled by their need for the drug.

Significant Themes

• Addiction and loss of autonomy: The medicine controls the villagers by making them sick when they attempt to leave or stop taking it.
• Dehumanization: The villagers’ violence, emotional numbness, and memory loss suggest that prolonged drug use has stripped away their humanity.
• Control through dependency: The village requires no guards because the medicine itself prevents escape.
• Memory and identity: The villagers forget violent incidents almost immediately, raising questions about how much of their original selves remains.
• Hidden systems of oppression: The peaceful appearance of the village conceals an underground network and an organized method of distributing the drug.

Character Interactions

• Piyu and Milluki cooperate in questioning Shak, with Milluki advising her on what information to obtain.
• Shak’s interaction with the villagers reveals how fiercely they compete for the drug-laced food and how addiction has destroyed normal social bonds.
• Bai Zhu intervenes when Shak and another villager fight, then attempts to care for the injured man despite the villagers’ indifference.
• Piyu, Milluki, and Bai Zhu privately compare their observations and formulate a theory about the village’s medicine and underground tunnels.
• Shak’s final visit changes the outsiders’ position from investigators to potential victims, as he presents them with the village’s medicine and expects them to take it.

Chapter Summary: “A Bowl of Filthy Water”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Shak arrives at Bai Zhu’s lodging carrying a bowl of muddy water and repeatedly says, “It’s time to take your medicine.” He appears unresponsive and moves like a sleepwalker.
• Bai Zhu, Piyu, and Milluki suspect Shak may be dangerous and quietly prepare to defend themselves. Bai Zhu takes the bowl while Milluki positions himself to attack if necessary.
• They investigate the water and the village using Milluki’s Mechanical Spiders. Several villagers are observed standing motionless beneath their houses or near wells, suggesting that the entire community is under the influence of the same condition.
• Bai Zhu’s group discovers footprints leading toward the well and notices that their surveillance equipment suffered a precise seven-minute gap. This raises the possibility of hidden activity beneath or near the wells.
• At dawn, the villagers form a silent line and pass a single bowl of muddy well water from person to person, each drinking before returning home. The group realizes this ritual occurs regularly.
• Knov’s laboratory report reveals that the “medicine” contains no D1 drug, toxins, or Nen residue—only mud, insect eggs, and fecal contamination. Shak had unknowingly delivered ordinary, polluted well water.
• Piyu concludes that the villagers have become so dependent on the drug that they can no longer distinguish medicine from water. Their bodies automatically seek out and consume something associated with the drug’s effects, even after their conscious memories have faded.
• Bai Zhu’s group decides the village contains no further useful information and prepares to leave.
• Before they can depart, a copper bell rings. The villagers abruptly stop working and gather at the entrance, suggesting a coordinated signal or command.
• A convoy of armed vehicles arrives, accompanied by more than twenty armed guards. Although NGL supposedly bans modern technology, the convoy openly uses vehicles and firearms, implying that the rules are selectively enforced.
• Bai Zhu recognizes the convoy’s symbol as identical to the marking on the mysterious bone fragment. He orders the others to hide their equipment and conceals them among the villagers as the convoy blocks the road.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu remains cautious and tactical. He hides his Zanpakuto, tests Shak’s responsiveness, arranges surveillance, and avoids drinking the contaminated water. His recognition of the convoy’s insignia shows that he is beginning to connect the village’s drug trade to the larger mystery surrounding the missing people.
• Piyu demonstrates strong observational and analytical skills. She studies the footprints, tracks the villagers’ behavior, compares records, and correctly identifies the villagers’ compulsive behavior as the result of drug dependence and altered memory.
• Milluki acts as the group’s technical specialist and lookout. He operates the Mechanical Spiders, Beetle, and Dragonfly, analyzes the surveillance gap, and receives Knov’s test results. His skepticism helps the group avoid jumping to conclusions about the wells.
• Shak is revealed to be deeply conditioned by the drug. He delivers water mechanically, later forgets that he brought Bai Zhu “medicine,” and behaves like the other villagers. His loss of memory emphasizes how completely the addiction has damaged him.
• The villagers are shown to have surrendered much of their conscious agency. They perform work, drink from the well, and respond to bells in coordinated, almost programmed ways.

Significant Themes

• Drug addiction and loss of agency: The villagers’ bodies continue seeking the drug’s gratification even when their memories and reasoning have deteriorated.
• Manipulation and exploitation: The villagers appear trapped in a system that uses their dependence, while outsiders with modern weapons operate beyond NGL’s restrictions.
• Appearance versus reality: The “medicine” is only filthy water, and apparently ordinary villagers may be controlled or conditioned participants in a larger operation.
• Surveillance and uncertainty: The missing seven minutes of footage suggest that the village contains hidden forces or technology, reinforcing the group’s inability to trust what they observe.
• The hypocrisy of authority: NGL’s supposed ban on modern industrial products is contradicted by the armed convoy, implying that powerful groups are exempt from the rules imposed on ordinary people.
• Loss of identity and memory: Shak’s inability to remember the previous night reflects the broader destruction caused by D1 and hints at the fate of the missing people.

Important Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu tests Shak with questions and gestures, confirming that Shak is not responding normally.
• Milluki silently protects Bai Zhu and Piyu from the eaves, ready to kill Shak if he attacks.
• Bai Zhu, Piyu, and Milluki debate whether the villagers are guarding the area, sleepwalking, or suffering from drug-induced brain damage.
• Piyu and Milluki combine physical evidence, surveillance, and laboratory results to explain the villagers’ behavior.
• Bai Zhu jokes about the “medicine” and considers having Old Jiang carry him if he becomes ill, providing brief relief from the tension.
• When the convoy arrives, Bai Zhu takes command, hides the group’s equipment, and pulls Milluki and Piyu into the crowd to prevent them from being identified.

Chapter Summary: “The Whole Village Stomps Toes”

Key Plot Points and Events

• A mercenary convoy arrives at the village to distribute food and the drug D1, presented in packets of three pills.
• The villagers ignore the food and become increasingly desperate for the medicine. When distribution begins, the crowd turns violent, forcing the mercenaries to use batons, tranquilizers, and protective gear.
• Bai Zhu attempts to approach the medicine chest while disguised as a villager. A mercenary notices that his appearance does not match the photograph on the roster, but a sudden riot allows Bai Zhu to escape with a packet of D1.
• Piyu records observations in her notebook, while Milluki sends Mechanical Spiders under the truck to copy vehicle records and monitor communications.
• The villagers consume the drug immediately. The effects include manic laughter, compulsive eating, convulsions, hallucinations, reduced pain sensitivity, self-mutilation, and violent aggression.
• A bizarre “toe-stomping” game spreads through the crowd, causing widespread injuries and bloodshed. The mercenaries observe and record the reactions rather than intervening.
• Seven villagers displaying the most extreme symptoms are selected as “qualified specimens.” They are tranquilized, restrained, muzzled, and loaded onto the truck. Two villagers die, while nineteen show aggressive behavior.
• Milluki intercepts a transmission revealing that this is the village’s twelfth screening round. The selected subjects will be sent north for the General, and a gate is expected to open in five days.
• Bai Zhu, Piyu, and Milluki escape into the forest after the convoy departs, carrying the stolen drug sample and the intelligence gathered from the vehicle.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu remains cautious and resourceful. He successfully steals a D1 packet, confirms his suspicions about the tunnel and the transport operation, and avoids exposing his disguise when nearly identified.
• Piyu acts as an observer and recorder, documenting the drug’s effects and coordinating with Bai Zhu through discreet signals.
• Milluki demonstrates his technical abilities by using Mechanical Spiders to collect route data and tap into the convoy’s communications. His frightened, sarcastic reactions provide brief relief amid the horror.
• Shak becomes an example of D1’s effects: after taking the drug, he exhibits manic laughter, hallucinations, and reckless behavior, joining the violence with another villager.
• The villagers are portrayed as desperate, addicted, and psychologically altered, with their need for medicine overwhelming their concern for food, safety, or one another.

Significant Themes

• Exploitation and dehumanization: The villagers are treated as experimental subjects. The mercenaries record symptoms, assign numbers, and select the most useful victims without concern for deaths or suffering.
• Addiction and desperation: The villagers’ frantic struggle for D1 shows how deprivation and dependence can destroy judgment and social order.
• Institutional cruelty: The convoy operates systematically, conducting repeated screenings and transporting “qualified specimens” for a larger military or scientific purpose.
• Observation versus intervention: Bai Zhu, Piyu, and Milluki document the atrocity while trying to remain hidden, whereas the mercenaries observe clinically and refuse to help.
• Loss of humanity: The villagers’ violent “game,” self-mutilation, and consumption of inedible objects show how the drug reduces people to instinctive, uncontrollable behavior.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu is nearly exposed by a mercenary checking his identity, but the riot interrupts the confrontation and gives him a chance to escape.
• Piyu and Bai Zhu silently communicate about the stolen drug sample.
• Milluki quietly shares the vehicle data and intercepted transmission with Bai Zhu, confirming the convoy’s larger operation.
• Shak and another villager become temporarily united through their drug-induced excitement, laughing and embracing before joining the chaos.
• The mercenaries interact with the villagers through force and classification, beating, tranquilizing, documenting, and selecting them as specimens rather than treating them as people.