Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary

Plot and Events

• Liu Zheng confronts a shop owner who is prepared to shoot him because Cow-Horse defaced his porn magazines with comments and drawings.
• Liu Zheng exploits their shared hatred of Cow-Horse, listing its numerous abuses: extortion, taking unfair shares of profits, violence, and manipulating subordinates through small favors.
• Convinced that Liu Zheng is also a victim, the owner lowers his gun and allows him to leave—but refuses to sell him porn magazines out of wounded pride.
• The owner offers Liu Zheng a deal: he can buy magazines only after writing a collection of insults over Cow-Horse’s body. The “Swearword Compendium” turns out to be a magical item whose insults adapt to the target’s race, but Liu Zheng realizes using it on Cow-Horse could provoke a lethal conflict and refuses.
• Liu Zheng continues bargaining, offering to help the owner with future problems. The owner proposes a dangerous task: using Liu Zheng’s consciousness to break the information lock on a batch of books.
• Worried about mental damage, Liu Zheng negotiates the right to withdraw if the attempt becomes dangerous. He then emphasizes how many influential people and organizations depend on him, warning that his death would cause serious trouble for the owner.
• The owner becomes increasingly alarmed when Liu Zheng mentions Cow-Horse’s money, the Ultimate Flavor Group, Doctor Nile, and especially a politically connected female friend who expects him at a salon ball.
• Terrified of provoking Liu Zheng’s network, the owner abandons his hostility, offers him a grilled sausage, and attempts to placate him. Liu Zheng mockingly demands a sausage made entirely of starch.

Character Development

• Liu Zheng demonstrates exceptional improvisation, manipulation, and confidence. Rather than fighting, he turns himself into a fellow victim of Cow-Horse and uses exaggerated claims about his connections to gain leverage.
• He also shows caution and practical intelligence by refusing to use the Swearword Compendium, recognizing that its magical insults could trigger an irreversible battle with Cow-Horse.
• The owner shifts from violent suspicion to reluctant sympathy, then to fear and appeasement. His hatred of Cow-Horse is intense, but he is also pragmatic and unwilling to risk angering Liu Zheng’s allies.
• Cow-Horse, though absent, is characterized as exploitative, shameless, manipulative, and prone to humiliating both enemies and subordinates.

Themes

• Manipulation and negotiation: Social intelligence and strategic deception are more effective than violence.
• Power through connections: Liu Zheng’s influence is portrayed as a network of obligations and relationships, giving him leverage even when he appears vulnerable.
• Humor amid danger: Threats of shooting, magical curses, and mental destruction are repeatedly undercut by absurd bargaining over porn magazines and sausages.
• The consequences of pride and resentment: The owner’s wounded dignity drives his hatred of Cow-Horse, while Liu Zheng exploits that emotional vulnerability.
• Identity and racial loyalty: Liu Zheng considers Cow-Horse’s strong attachment to its own kind, suggesting that species identity is an important source of pride and conflict.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and the owner bond over their shared victimization by Cow-Horse, though Liu Zheng knowingly exaggerates his complaints.
• The owner tests Liu Zheng’s sincerity, refuses his requests, and eventually tries to buy his favor with food.
• Liu Zheng repeatedly turns the owner’s threats into negotiations, ending the encounter with a deliberately insulting demand for a meatless “sausage.”

Chapter Summary: “Surrounded by Bikinis Doesn't Necessarily Mean Heaven”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng visits the newsstand and receives a free corn sausage from the shopkeeper. The sausage has no item description, suggesting it is worthless even by the standards of this strange world.
• He enters the newsstand while keeping the Chew Toy in hand for protection. The shopkeeper threatens him repeatedly with a double-barreled shotgun, though neither seems eager to start a mutually fatal confrontation.
• Inside, the newsstand is far larger than it appears, resembling a bookstore filled with bizarre books, magazines, posters, and uncensored advertisements.
• Liu Zheng sees an obscene “Starfish Fish” product and becomes deeply uncomfortable. The shopkeeper explains that it is a popular, dual-purpose sexual device.
• Liu discovers that the shopkeeper’s body is essentially a giant Pure Meat Sausage, leading him to suspect that the sausage he was first offered may have come from the shopkeeper himself. He is relieved that he chose a corn sausage instead.
• The shopkeeper gives Liu a box of books stored in oil-paper covers. The books can be played through a DVD player, allowing Liu to “read” them through a strange form of black technology.
• The shopkeeper offers rewards based on how many books Liu completes:
  • Magazines after one book
  • A discount after three
  • Normally unavailable products after five
  • A “great treasure” if Liu finishes them all
• Liu insists on inspecting the final reward. The shopkeeper reveals a partially destroyed training disc from the Public Security Bureau, which supposedly contains at least one offensive skill.
• Liu accepts the disc because he lacks offensive abilities and recognizes the Bureau’s formidable reputation.
• The shopkeeper inserts the first book into the DVD player. A surreal media-company opening sequence plays, and the title characters fly out of the screen and strike Liu in the forehead.
• Liu awakens inside a virtual plaza surrounded by Roman columns and southwestern-style stilt houses. Energetic music begins, forcing him to dance uncontrollably.
• More than a dozen bikini-clad creatures appear. Rather than attractive women, they are grotesque Bikini Gu Insects, combining features of poisonous insects, reptiles, worms, spiders, toads, and other creatures.
• As the creatures surround Liu, the song begins with the lyrics, “Fake cigarettes, fake liquor, fake friends, fake friends.” The Gu Insects attack him below the belt, ending the chapter on a comic and humiliating cliffhanger.

Character Development

• Liu Zheng remains suspicious, opportunistic, and shamelessly self-interested. He negotiates his rewards before beginning the task and refuses to trust the shopkeeper without inspecting the promised treasure.
• His survival instincts are evident in his decision to carry the Chew Toy, question every offer, and conserve his strength by making the shopkeeper operate the DVD player.
• Despite his crude humor and morally questionable past, Liu shows a strong instinct for self-preservation and recognizes his current weakness: he needs more offensive skills.
• The shopkeeper is established as cynical, aggressive, and well-informed about Metropolis and its residents. He insults Liu repeatedly but still cooperates with him because the transaction is mutually beneficial.
• The shopkeeper’s bizarre sausage-like anatomy reinforces that even apparently ordinary merchants in Metropolis may be fundamentally nonhuman.

Significant Themes

• The absurdity and danger of Metropolis: Everyday activities such as eating, shopping, and reading are transformed into grotesque or life-threatening experiences.
• Appearance versus reality: The shop’s posters, products, inhabitants, and even the “bikini” dancers mock conventional ideas of beauty and pleasure.
• Survival through suspicion and negotiation: Liu’s paranoia is treated as a defining human trait, but it also protects him in a world where every offer may conceal danger.
• Humor amid horror: Sexual jokes, grotesque imagery, and physical violence are combined to create dark slapstick comedy.
• Human identity in an inhuman society: The shopkeeper argues that only unconventional people can survive in Metropolis, forcing Liu to acknowledge his own extremity and moral ambiguity.

Character Interactions

• Liu and the shopkeeper constantly trade threats, insults, and sarcastic remarks, yet neither is willing to break the practical arrangement between them.
• The shopkeeper mocks Liu’s supposed conservatism and lack of courage, while Liu criticizes the shopkeeper’s products and bizarre anatomy.
• Their bargaining over the books, rewards, and Public Security Bureau disc reveals a relationship built on distrust but also reluctant cooperation.
• The chapter ends with Liu having no control over his body and being attacked by the grotesque Bikini Gu Insects, turning the earlier discussion of bizarre entertainment into a literal assault.

Chapter Summary: “So I Was a Dog”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng endures a horrifying mental and physical assault from the Bikini Gu Insects, whose grotesque song accompanies their repeated destruction and regeneration of his body.
• A gigantic faceless figure attacks him, transforming him into a white Xiasi Hound. In this dog form, Liu Zheng becomes driven by fear and instinct, desperately searching for his “master” at a stilted house.
• The apparent master is revealed to be a decayed mummy infested with Gu Insects. Just as Liu Zheng is about to embrace her, the system announces that his Sanity Decline Immunity has succeeded, breaking the illusion.
• He narrowly escapes another attack from the giant and rushes into the stilted house, where he returns to his tentacled human form and finds himself back in the shop.
• The shop owner is shocked that Liu Zheng has successfully broken every lock and questions whether his abilities come from the Black Goat’s Young bloodline. Liu Zheng insists that his strength is self-earned.
• Liu Zheng receives a Damaged Public Security Bureau Temporary Worker Skill Training Disc, which grants one random offensive skill but cannot be removed from the instance. He considers ways to maximize his Luck before using it.
• He rejects the shop owner’s offer to read suspicious magazines for free, believing that “free” things in Metropolis always carry dangerous hidden costs.
• Liu Zheng and the shop owner exchange insults and jokes, repeatedly comparing Liu Zheng to Cow-Horse. Liu Zheng exaggerates his role in the morning explosion to pressure the shop owner into helping him choose a suitable item.
• The shop owner agrees to select a durable “toy” for Liu Zheng, who immediately asks for one with especially high durability.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Demonstrates extraordinary willpower, resisting pain, hallucination, and sanity-corrupting effects. His successful resistance shows that his abilities come from accumulated experience and mental endurance rather than merely inherited bloodlines. He remains cautious, opportunistic, shamelessly humorous, and highly suspicious of anything offered for free.
• Shop Owner: Continues to act hostile and contemptuous toward Liu Zheng, but gradually shows amusement and grudging respect for his boldness and accomplishments. His attitude softens enough for him to help Liu Zheng choose equipment.
• Cow-Horse: Does not appear directly, but remains an important point of comparison and support. Liu Zheng’s concern about Cow-Horse’s ability to absorb further karmic consequences influences his decision not to use the Black Koi recklessly.

Significant Themes

• Sanity and identity: The transformation into a dog represents the threat of losing human consciousness and being reduced to instinct. Liu Zheng’s system immunity allows him to reclaim his identity.
• Endurance through suffering: Liu Zheng survives by relying on the willpower built through repeated bodily destruction and regeneration.
• The danger of free offers: Metropolis operates by hidden costs and traps; Liu Zheng understands that apparently generous deals may demand something worse than money.
• Luck and risk: Liu Zheng weighs the benefits of using the skill disc against the uncertainty of its random result, while considering ways to improve his Luck.
• Human ingenuity versus inherited power: Liu Zheng rejects the idea that his strength depends on a bloodline, emphasizing his own choices and survival experience.
• Dark humor amid horror: Grotesque violence, sexualized torment, and supernatural danger are repeatedly undercut by Liu Zheng’s sarcastic remarks and his bickering with the shop owner.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng interacts with the hallucinated “master,” revealing his instinctive longing for protection before recognizing the trap.
• His conversation with the shop owner is antagonistic but cooperative: the two insult one another while negotiating over the skill disc, information, magazines, and equipment.
• Liu Zheng uses his claim about destroying an entire street to impress and manipulate the shop owner, who responds with unexpected approval and renewed willingness to help.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng visits the shopkeeper to purchase five magazines, two photo books, and an unusually durable “mummy” device for a repair job. He pays 2,500 after a discount and receives lubricant as a bonus, despite the shopkeeper’s crude assumptions about its use.
• Liu leaves without inspecting the goods, trusting that the shopkeeper will remain accessible and threatening him with the fate of Sunshine Pet Store if he is cheated.
• At Rose Street, Liu finds the French Plane Tree waiting for its “bird.” A massive Guhuo Bird arrives, possessing a woman’s head and body, enormous bird claws, and a wingspan of several meters.
• The Guhuo Bird attempts to seize Liu, but the French Plane Tree violently knocks it away with its roots and reprimands it for trying to take someone without permission.
• The bird reports information to the tree concerning a monitored border line. The French Plane Tree then feeds it by throwing rat corpses into the air, which the bird swallows whole.
• After sending the Guhuo Bird away, the French Plane Tree explains that it has been using the bird to watch the border. It confirms that it intends to cross the border illegally once it has recovered from its weakened state and evolved into a Phoenix.
• The chapter ends with Liu asking why the tree wants to cross the border.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains resourceful, irreverent, and increasingly desensitized to the grotesque nature of Metropolis. He calmly observes the monstrous bird and even considers whether his current disguise-enhancing abilities might allow him to fight it.
• He also demonstrates growing confidence in dealing with dangerous entities, casually negotiating with the shopkeeper and threatening consequences if betrayed.
• The French Plane Tree shows a protective or possessive attitude toward Liu by stopping the Guhuo Bird from eating him, though it insists this is based on its own rules rather than kindness. It also reveals a secret plan to escape its current confinement.
• The tree appears more powerful and proactive than it usually admits, using its roots to seal conversations, enforce discipline, gather intelligence, and hunt food.
• The Guhuo Bird is established as both dangerous and subordinate to the tree. It is predatory toward Liu but obedient when disciplined, and it serves as the tree’s scout.

Significant Themes

• Trust and secrecy: Liu’s Growth Ring Pact obligates him to keep the tree’s intelligence secret, while the tree takes additional precautions by sealing the area with roots.
• Power and hierarchy: The tree controls the Guhuo Bird despite its immense size and strength, demonstrating the rigid dominance structure among Metropolis’s supernatural beings.
• Evolution and escape: The tree’s goal of becoming a Phoenix suggests transformation as a means of overcoming weakness, confinement, and the Restaurant’s authority.
• Desensitization to horror: Liu’s calm reaction to the grotesque bird, corpses, and bizarre merchandise shows how thoroughly Metropolis has altered his sense of normality.
• Predation and control: The Guhuo Bird steals and raises children according to legend, while the tree controls its movements and feeding, reinforcing the chapter’s recurring imagery of beings hunting or dominating one another.

Character Interactions

• Liu and the shopkeeper exchange sarcastic insults and crude jokes while completing the transaction, revealing their familiar but antagonistic business relationship.
• The French Plane Tree reprimands the Guhuo Bird for attacking Liu and makes clear that it may only take what the tree permits.
• The tree and Guhuo Bird communicate through repeated cries and gestures, with the bird acting as an informant and receiving rat corpses as food.
• Liu remains openly hostile toward the bird after its attempted attack, responding to its flirtatious glance with an obscene gesture.
• Liu and the French Plane Tree negotiate confidentiality, with Liu agreeing not to reveal the tree’s information before learning about its plan to cross the border and evolve into a Phoenix.

Chapter Summary: Dare Pet This Lady and I'll Twist Your Head Off

Key Plot Points and Events

• French Plane Tree explains that becoming a true Rainbow Phoenix requires cultivating five virtues: virtue, propriety, righteousness, trust, and benevolence. Because Metropolis is dominated by villains, completing this cultivation will be extremely difficult.
• Liu Zheng promises to ask Red Pig about crossing Metropolis’s borders, since Red Pig has attempted it before. However, he decides he must first become strong enough to protect himself.
• French Plane Tree trades Liu Zheng a Silver Finger, a single-use item that grants a random cheat. It is weaker than the Golden Finger, but Liu Zheng believes it may help him deal with the powerful Nile Doctor.
• Liu Zheng visits the Sewer and meets Fisherman, who has returned battered from fishing in the dangerous Wastewater River. Fisherman lends Liu Zheng a magical fishing net that can shrink the fish it catches.
• Fisherman reveals that the Sewer is especially dangerous at this time and implies that even powerful beings such as himself and Sha-chan cannot remain together in one area for long because the Sewer itself reacts to their strength.
• Liu Zheng leaves the fishing net and the Silver Finger with French Plane Tree for safekeeping before visiting the Mummy Clinic.
• At the clinic, Liu Zheng gives Sphinx dried fish made by his Calico Cat companion. Sphinx initially treats this as payment for entry, but then offers him a chance to participate in her Riddle Curse game.
• The rules state that the loser may be cursed, potentially losing much of their power or dying. Liu Zheng negotiates the risk so that an incorrect answer will cost him only half his “flesh.”
• To ensure fairness, Liu Zheng summons Red Dragonfly to act as judge. He also opportunistically invites Red Dragonfly to host a future cooking contest between Bloodstained Restaurant’s Kitchen and another competitor.
• Red Dragonfly establishes the Metropolis Strongest Riddler Contest: the contestants alternate riddles, have three minutes to answer, and lose if they answer incorrectly or exceed the time limit. The stakes are one use of the Riddle Curse and half of the loser’s flesh.
• A coin toss determines that Sphinx will ask the first riddle. The chapter ends as she prepares to pose her question.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng becomes increasingly strategic and opportunistic. He seeks tools and allies before confronting stronger enemies, obtains the Silver Finger, secures Fisherman’s net, and cleverly turns Sphinx’s challenge into a potentially useful weapon.
• French Plane Tree shows concern about her difficult evolution into a Rainbow Phoenix and remains willing to trade valuable items, though she demands compensation and protection for storing Liu Zheng’s belongings.
• Fisherman is shown to be powerful but not invulnerable. His battered condition emphasizes the Sewer’s danger, while his willingness to lend Liu Zheng the magical net reflects their relationship and Liu Zheng’s status as his lifesaver.
• Sphinx remains suspicious, proud, and hostile toward humans, especially regarding physical affection. However, Liu Zheng’s gift of dried fish softens her attitude enough for her to offer him a valuable riddle-based ability.
• Red Dragonfly enthusiastically embraces the role of referee and is easily drawn into Liu Zheng’s contests. His admiration for Liu Zheng continues to grow.

Significant Themes

• Strength and preparation: Liu Zheng recognizes that cleverness alone is insufficient and gathers items, information, and allies before confronting dangerous opponents.
• Rules as power: The chapter repeatedly emphasizes contests, trades, contracts, and clearly defined rules. Liu Zheng exploits these structures to reduce danger and gain advantages.
• Trust and mutual benefit: Relationships in Metropolis are largely transactional, yet Liu Zheng builds cooperation through favors, gifts, and past assistance.
• Freedom versus power: Fisherman’s comments suggest that both strong and weak beings have limited freedom in Metropolis, where the environment and authorities constrain everyone.
• Humor amid danger: Threats of death, curses, and bodily harm are mixed with absurd situations, such as a magical fishing net, a referee dragonfly, and Liu Zheng’s attempt to use dried fish as a social offering.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and French Plane Tree: They negotiate for the Silver Finger, with French Plane Tree criticizing Liu Zheng’s willingness to use rare treasures. He later leaves his possessions in her care.
• Liu Zheng and Fisherman: Their banter reflects familiarity and mutual leverage. Fisherman insults Liu Zheng but still lends him an extremely valuable net.
• Liu Zheng and Sphinx: Liu Zheng uses dried fish to gain entry and then accepts Sphinx’s dangerous riddle challenge after negotiating the penalty.
• Liu Zheng and Red Dragonfly: Liu Zheng summons Red Dragonfly as a referee while also recruiting him for a future cooking contest. Red Dragonfly eagerly accepts both roles.
• Sphinx and Red Dragonfly: Red Dragonfly formalizes Sphinx’s challenge into an official contest, transforming a potentially chaotic encounter into a structured competition.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng competes against the Sphinx in a riddle match. He initially overthinks a question about how a Black male long-distance runner could achieve the best performance of his career, but correctly answers the joke response: when he learns his girlfriend is pregnant.
• When it is Liu Zheng’s turn to ask a question, the rules prevent him from asking about a topic outside the Sphinx’s knowledge. He instead asks which American president had the greatest imagination. The Sphinx answers Franklin Roosevelt, but Liu Zheng’s intended punchline—John F. Kennedy—is declared correct.
• Red Dragonfly awards Liu Zheng another gold champion’s medal, bringing his total to two. He learns that collecting ten medals may raise his citizen rank from Third-Class to Second-Class, potentially freeing Cow-Horse and his wife from the household registration tax.
• As his prize, the Sphinx grants Liu Zheng the Riddle Curse. She activates it by carving mysterious words into his palate with her barbed tongue. To use the ability, Liu Zheng must point at a target and shout “Androsphinx.”
• After the contest, the Sphinx sends Liu Zheng flying into Nile Doctor’s clinic. Liu jokes that the attack was her way of showing affection, but Nile Doctor sees through him.
• Liu offers Nile Doctor and Sesha a possible source of protection: Sewer and the Fire Mage. In exchange for helping Sewer with his hemorrhoids using the Silver Finger, Nile Doctor could gain their protection and potentially relocate the clinic to the Sewer.
• Nile Doctor accepts despite the danger. He asks Liu to care for Sesha if he dies, but Liu cannot promise to remain in Metropolis. He does promise to help restore Sesha’s sanity and find her a protector.
• Nile Doctor offers to examine Liu as payment. He insists Liu is ill, leading Liu to suddenly ask whether the doctor can cure his ALS.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates quick thinking, humor, and strategic adaptability. Though he initially distrusts the Sphinx, he successfully wins the match and acquires a powerful new ability.
• His concern for Cow-Horse and his wife reveals that Liu is thinking beyond personal gain; he wants his medal collection to improve their lives as well.
• Liu continues to use flirtatious teasing and food as ways to provoke or charm the Sphinx, but she remains resistant and hostile.
• The Sphinx is shown to be abrasive, competitive, and deeply distrustful of all races rather than humans alone. Despite her disgust, she fulfills the rules of the contest and grants Liu the Riddle Curse.
• Nile Doctor reveals his willingness to risk his own safety for Sesha’s future. His guarded attitude softens enough for him to accept Liu’s plan and request help for Sesha.
• Sesha, though absent from the chapter, becomes central to Nile Doctor’s decisions and Liu’s promise to help her regain her sanity.
• Red Dragonfly remains fair and professional, helping Liu only within the rules and rewarding his victory.

Significant Themes

• Ingenuity versus overthinking: Liu wins by abandoning overly literal reasoning and recognizing the riddles’ absurd, joke-based logic.
• Trust and cooperation: Liu’s proposal offers mutual protection among dangerous figures, showing how survival in Metropolis depends on alliances.
• Responsibility and loyalty: Nile Doctor’s concern for Sesha and Liu’s promise to help her emphasize obligations that extend beyond immediate self-interest.
• Humor amid danger: Grotesque and threatening situations—such as the Sphinx’s prize and the clinic’s dangers—are treated through comedy and sarcasm.
• Illness and vulnerability: The final revelation that Liu may have ALS sharply shifts the tone, suggesting that beneath his confidence and supernatural abilities, he faces a serious personal condition.

Character Interactions

• Liu and the Sphinx engage in constant verbal sparring, with Liu teasing her about being a cat and attempting to win her over with fish.
• Red Dragonfly acts as referee, correcting the contest, announcing Liu’s victory, and explaining the potential significance of the medals.
• Liu negotiates with Nile Doctor by offering a dangerous but promising alliance with Sewer and the Fire Mage.
• Nile Doctor and Liu establish a tentative agreement: Liu will help protect Sesha, while Nile Doctor may examine Liu and possibly address his ALS.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng asks Nile Doctor about ALS, but learns the doctor cannot cure it. Instead, Nile Doctor offers to treat Liu Zheng’s Irritability by turning it into a beneficial condition: while enraged, Liu Zheng would gain greatly increased strength and be able to ignore his body’s normal protective limits.
• Nile Doctor explains that Sesha’s intelligence is deteriorating, though he accepts that her survival and ability to care for herself are more important than restoring her former brilliance.
• Liu Zheng agrees to search for a mysterious local specialty: a plant resembling a brain. Nile Doctor has little information about it because the patient who mentioned it disappeared, presumably after dying.
• Nile Doctor leads Liu Zheng to a strange calcite jar whose “lid” is the severed, mutilated head of one of his former concubines. Her tongue has been removed, and her head has been magically altered to serve as the jar’s opening.
• Nile Doctor reveals that the woman had an affair with a guard and was punished because the guard might otherwise have stolen Nile Doctor’s genitals. Liu Zheng’s sympathy disappears after hearing this justification.
• The two discuss the Bloodstained Restaurant and the betrayal of the Descendants of Ra. A former priest betrayed his people by transforming them into Mummies for the Restaurant and gaining employment there.
• Nile Doctor offers Liu Zheng an upgraded resurrection reward—Ra’s Grace, capable of restoring him even if his flesh has been completely consumed—if he kills the traitor. Liu Zheng agrees only to keep the task in mind, recognizing how dangerous it would be.
• Liu Zheng opens the woman’s head and discovers that the apparent blood is actually honey beer mixed with some of her tissue. Nile Doctor’s prank briefly irritates him.
• Liu Zheng climbs into the jar and seals it by stretching the woman’s head over his own. He can still see outside, though imperfectly, and speaks using the woman’s voice. The chapter ends as Nile Doctor prepares to enter.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to display his unusual pragmatism and emotional resilience. He willingly accepts Irritability as a combat enhancement because his regenerative abilities make the physical risks largely irrelevant.
• His moral sensitivity briefly surfaces when he sees the concubine’s mutilation, but Nile Doctor’s explanation causes him to withdraw his sympathy, showing how Metropolis has influenced his standards.
• Liu Zheng also demonstrates caution: although Ra’s Grace is highly desirable, he refuses to commit impulsively to killing the traitor.
• Nile Doctor is revealed as both a skilled but limited healer and a deeply cruel, eccentric figure. He cares about Sesha’s survival, mourns her decline, and remains determined to avenge the Descendants of Ra, yet he treats others—including his former concubine—as objects of punishment and amusement.
• Sesha does not appear directly, but her deteriorating intelligence and Nile Doctor’s lingering concern for her deepen his characterization.

Significant Themes

• Humanity in a monstrous world: Liu Zheng’s Irritability is framed not only as a flaw but as something that helps preserve his humanity.
• Moral relativism and desensitization: Cruel punishments, murder, mutilation, and cannibalism are ordinary in Metropolis, forcing Liu Zheng to constantly adjust his moral reactions.
• Survival versus intelligence: Nile Doctor suggests that excessive intelligence and sensitivity are liabilities in Metropolis, while merely surviving and retaining basic independence may be the best possible outcome.
• Betrayal and revenge: The traitor’s actions embody the destruction of communal loyalty for personal advancement, while Nile Doctor’s long-term desire for revenge contrasts with Liu Zheng’s more calculating pragmatism.
• The grotesque and the absurd: Horrific imagery is repeatedly undercut by dark humor, such as the “blood” being honey beer and the bizarre act of wearing a woman’s head as a lid.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor develop a transactional but increasingly familiar relationship. Nile Doctor offers treatments, information, and rewards, while Liu Zheng provides assistance and potential future violence.
• Their conversation reveals contrasting personalities: Nile Doctor is vindictive, theatrical, and prone to cruel jokes, whereas Liu Zheng responds with blunt practicality and surprisingly little shock.
• Liu Zheng challenges Nile Doctor’s treatment of the concubine and questions the fate of the Descendants of Ra, prompting Nile Doctor to reveal the betrayal that motivates him.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng literally placing the woman’s head over his own, turning their grotesque medical arrangement into the setup for Nile Doctor’s next procedure.

Chapter Summary

• Key events: Nile Doctor performs a bizarre procedure on Liu Zheng inside a stone jar. Using a golden ritual knife, he removes Liu’s kidneys and coats them—and eventually all of Liu’s internal organs—with a medicinal substance produced by crushing a sacred scarab. The scarab is repeatedly fed honey beer to restore its strength. Liu’s organs are left uniformly yellow-brown, making him joke that he is being turned into a mummy.
• Nile Doctor explains that Liu could become a Half-Mummy by having his brain treated as well, but Liu rejects the idea because Half-Mummies have inferior disease resistance, declining intelligence, and must obey the priest who created them.
• As the final step, Nile Doctor extracts a small amount of his own brain matter, containing black flames, and places it in Liu’s brain. The system converts this into the temporary status “Rage Incarnate.”
• Rage Incarnate increases Liu’s strength when he becomes angry, but proportionally reduces his constitution. Liu is pleased with the additional power and leaves the clinic.
• Before departing, Liu blackmails Nile Doctor into selling him two cups of honey beer. He gives one cup to the Sphinx, which initially suspects poison but quickly drinks it all and clearly enjoys it.

Character developments

• Liu Zheng: Endures the painful and absurd procedure with sarcasm and resentment, especially toward Nile Doctor’s careless surgical behavior. He remains pragmatic, rejecting the Half-Mummy transformation despite its longevity because of its severe drawbacks. He also demonstrates manipulative humor by threatening to set Sesha up with an attractive lesbian rival in order to obtain honey beer.
• Nile Doctor: Is established as an eccentric, forgetful, and unsettling healer. He casually removes and replaces Liu’s organs, uses a sacred scarab as a medical tool, and views dangerous transformations as ordinary treatment. His own physical and mental weakness becomes apparent after sacrificing some of his brain matter.
• The Sphinx: Initially distrustful and proud, but its resistance collapses when tempted by the honey beer. Its enjoyment of the drink provides a humorous contrast to its suspicious attitude.

Significant themes

• Grotesque humor and absurd medical fantasy: Surgery, organ removal, and brain extraction are treated comically rather than seriously.
• Longevity versus loss of self: The Half-Mummy concept presents immortality as undesirable if it requires obedience, declining intelligence, and loss of autonomy.
• Power through anger: Liu gains strength from rage, but the accompanying decline in constitution suggests that power comes with a physical cost.
• Manipulation and bargaining: Liu uses threats and Nile Doctor’s personal concerns to secure what he wants.
• Humanizing monsters and gods: The supposedly sacred scarab behaves like a living patient, while the intimidating Sphinx is reduced to eagerly licking up beer.

Character interactions

• Liu and Nile Doctor trade insults throughout the procedure, with Liu enduring the doctor’s incompetence while threatening revenge afterward.
• Nile Doctor’s discussion of Cow-Horse’s treatment reassures Liu that he is not being uniquely mistreated.
• Liu bargains aggressively with Nile Doctor for honey beer, exploiting the doctor’s fear of Sesha being romantically pursued.
• Liu leaves a cup of beer for the Sphinx, whose suspicion gives way to greedy enjoyment.

Chapter Summary: “Is Your Life Really That Cheap?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng returns to West River Center and finds it unusually deserted.
• A bespectacled office worker, Yu Huanshui, ambushes Liu Zheng with a fountain pen, hoping to kill him and earn a promotion.
• Liu easily restrains and brutalizes Yu, demanding to know why he attacked.
• Yu reveals that his director offered members of their department a promotion for killing Liu. The reward is revenge for Wang Manni, who had been an undercover agent planted by the director.
• Liu learns that the director’s bounty appears to limit the strength of those sent after him, probably because it violates some rule.
• Although Yu initially offers money to save his life, Liu rejects his small offers and instead recruits him as a potential future subordinate or partner.
• Liu promises to help Yu become a manager, possibly by tricking his manager into ordering from Bad-Luck Coffee and arranging a forced delivery.
• Yu pays Liu 20,000 as compensation for the attempted ambush. Liu then helps him acquire coffee and desserts for a client, suggesting Hell Dragonfly Spicy Soup as another possible bribe or favor.
• The two exchange contact information and part ways.
• Liu returns to the building to look for the missing cleaner. The security guard tells him she has been reassigned as a waitress on the eleventh floor, an exclusive entertainment area accessible to managers and above.
• The chapter ends ominously when the guard hints that the cleaner’s new workplace involves disturbing forms of entertainment.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to display overwhelming combat ability, cruelty, and confidence. He casually defeats Yu but also demonstrates practical intelligence by recognizing Yu’s ambition and turning a would-be assassin into a useful contact.
• Liu’s relationship-building is transactional but increasingly strategic. He offers protection, business advice, connections, and career advancement in exchange for future loyalty.
• Yu Huanshui is introduced as weak, frightened, and desperate after three years of stagnation as a specialist. His lack of education, talent, and connections has left him trapped at the bottom of the company hierarchy.
• Despite his fear, Yu reveals a strong desire for advancement and is willing to risk his life for the chance to become a manager. His alliance with Liu gives him a possible path upward.
• The cleaner becomes more mysterious through her reassignment to the eleventh floor, suggesting she may be caught in a dangerous or exploitative system.
• The security guard remains detached and cynical, offering information without concern for the people involved.

Significant Themes

• The cheapness of life in Metropolis: Yu’s life is literally treated as something that can be bought, sold, or exchanged for money and promotion.
• Corporate exploitation and hierarchy: Employees compete violently for advancement, while undercover agents, managers, and low-ranking workers are treated as disposable assets.
• Ambition and desperation: Yu’s willingness to kill—and potentially die—for a promotion illustrates how thoroughly the corporate system controls people’s aspirations.
• Power through networks: Liu’s greatest advantage is not only physical strength but also his ability to create alliances, use connections, and manipulate business relationships.
• Violence as commerce: Murder, protection, promotions, favors, and even food purchases are all part of the same transactional economy.
• Dark humor and grotesque absurdity: Liu’s mockery of Yu’s cliché plea about having a wife and children, his concern about cleaning up blood, and the bizarre office-world setting reinforce the chapter’s satirical tone.

Character Interactions

• Liu dominates his confrontation with Yu, alternating threats, mockery, and calculated negotiation.
• Yu shifts from attacker to terrified bargaining partner, then cautiously accepts Liu’s offer of assistance.
• Liu treats Yu as both a source of money and a potential business associate, establishing a relationship based on mutual benefit rather than trust.
• Liu and the security guard exchange information about the cleaner, revealing the sinister nature of the eleventh floor and setting up a likely future conflict.

Chapter Summary: “Killing Once, Saving Once”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng learns that the cleaner he previously received insecticide from has been transferred to the forbidden eleventh floor. Although workers sent there usually die or remain incapacitated, one person has survived for eight years.
• The security guard explains that no one transferred to the eleventh floor has ever returned, and resignation is effectively impossible. He mocks Liu Zheng for caring about the cleaner, since their transaction was already complete.
• Liu Zheng insists on helping her, declaring, “I kill once, and I save once.” He is willing to spend nearly all his remaining money to ease his conscience because she helped him.
• When the guard refuses to assist, Liu Zheng theatrically threatens him with the Boning Knife. The guard effortlessly bends the weapon with one finger, proving his overwhelming strength.
• Liu Zheng cleverly reframes the confrontation: if the guard subdues him in self-defense, Liu can compensate him financially and gain his cooperation. Amused by Liu’s persistence, the guard offers a solution.
• The guard will place a meal order for someone on the eleventh floor, allowing Liu to enter legitimately as a delivery worker. However, Liu must kill the person who ordered the meal.
• Before leaving, the guard gives Liu a special item, Ultimate Euthanasia, a pill that grants painless, true death when the user genuinely longs for release. Liu stores it in his system space.
• The guard allows Liu through the turnstile and reveals that he has worked there for eight years, raising questions about his own connection to the building and the eleventh floor.
• Liu returns to the elevator attendant and gives her an iced Americano and chiffon cake. He questions her about access to the eleventh floor and learns that both elevators can reach it, though most people use hers.
• Liu uses a staged distraction involving two stacks of cash to test and manipulate the attendant. He then asks whether he could bring a tank-sized vehicle to the eleventh floor for a heavy delivery, implying that he is preparing equipment or a vehicle for the rescue mission.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates strong loyalty, compassion, and personal responsibility. Even though the cleaner’s fate is technically unrelated to him, he refuses to ignore her situation.
• His statement about killing once and saving once reveals a personal moral code: he accepts that he has taken a life, but feels compelled to save another in return.
• Liu also shows increasing cunning. Rather than relying solely on force, he uses negotiation, psychological pressure, money, and deception to secure access.
• The security guard is revealed to be far stronger and more experienced than an ordinary employee. His ability to bend the Boning Knife with a finger establishes him as someone Liu cannot overpower.
• Despite his cynical and mocking attitude, the guard eventually helps Liu, suggesting that he may respect Liu’s determination. His past as an editor—whose authors all went on hiatus—adds comic relief and personality.
• The elevator attendant remains mysterious and somewhat easy to manipulate. She accepts Liu’s gifts and appears conflicted by the money, indicating possible greed or financial desperation.

Significant Themes

• Moral responsibility and redemption: Liu feels responsible for the cleaner because she helped him, even though their exchange was completed fairly. His desire to “save once” may be an attempt to balance his own violence.
• The value and limits of money: Money can influence employees and create opportunities, but it cannot directly overcome the supernatural rules of the building.
• Compassion versus practicality: The guard views Liu’s concern as foolish, while Liu argues that buying peace of mind is worthwhile, even if it is not logically necessary.
• Life and death: The eleventh floor represents a fate worse than ordinary death, while the euthanasia pill offers painless release. The chapter questions whether prolonged survival under horrific conditions can truly be called living.
• Cunning over brute force: Liu repeatedly turns disadvantageous situations into opportunities through bluffing, bargaining, and manipulation.

Character Interactions

• Liu and the security guard clash verbally over whether Liu should care about the cleaner. Their argument develops into a test of strength, which Liu loses, but his ingenuity earns him the guard’s cooperation.
• Their conversation also reveals mutual characterization: the guard is cynical and sardonic, while Liu is stubborn, morally driven, and willing to take risks.
• Liu’s interaction with the elevator attendant is more subtle. He charms her with food and drinks, tests her honesty with cash, and gathers information about reaching the eleventh floor.
• By the chapter’s end, Liu has secured a possible route into the eleventh floor, obtained a potentially important death-related item, and begun preparing for a dangerous mission to kill one person and rescue another.

Chapter Summary: “Can You Get a Grip on My Handle?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng arrives at the elevator intending to reach the fourth floor and confront Wang Manni. He intimidates the elevator operator with his boning knife, demanding that she take him upstairs and suggesting that a small amount of blood will make his threats believable.
• He announces that he has used up the insecticide bottle he previously employed to threaten the elevator operator and jokingly claims he has returned to deliver the empty bottle.
• On the fourth floor, Liu Zheng enters Room 403, where the employees react with fear, disgust, hatred, and curiosity. He orders them back to work and announces that Bad-Luck Coffee will provide everyone with coffee and dessert, earning cheers and praise for Wang Manni.
• A busty employee escorts Liu Zheng to Wang Manni’s office while flirtatiously pressing against him. Liu Zheng dismisses her before entering, warning that remaining with him could cause trouble for her.
• Wang Manni welcomes Liu Zheng and serves him a special tea that permanently increases Constitution by one point. Liu Zheng drinks it but refuses the rest of the tin because the effect cannot be repeated.
• Liu Zheng questions Wang Manni about the mysterious Eleventh Floor. She explains that it is a management-only relaxation facility operated by property management, partly funded by the company, and offering highly open—implied to be sexually explicit—services. Senior managers visit frequently, while lower-ranking managers have limited access.
• Liu Zheng encourages Wang Manni to consider taking power if the company’s current management dies. She admits she wants to try despite lacking confidence.
• Immediately afterward, Liu Zheng attacks and appears to kill or severely injure Wang Manni by stabbing her through the stomach and driving her through the office door.
• He publicly frames the assault as punishment for refusing delivery from the Bloodstained Restaurant, then leaves the terrified employees behind.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to present himself as calm, playful, and “innocent” while behaving with extreme violence and intimidation. He demonstrates increasing confidence in manipulating both employees and managers, using gifts, threats, and sudden brutality to control situations.
• Wang Manni has risen from employee to manager and now possesses greater status and access to valuable resources. She proves cautious and politically aware but is also ambitious; after Liu Zheng challenges her, she accepts the possibility of seizing power.
• The elevator operator remains terrified of Liu Zheng and recognizes that his threats are genuine. Her brief suggestion that she could become his “woman” is rejected, reinforcing Liu Zheng’s preference for alliances and practical cooperation over romantic attachment.
• The female employee initially flirts with Liu Zheng but quickly realizes the danger of being associated with him. His warning prompts her to retreat, showing that she is perceptive enough to protect herself.
• The office employees remain intimidated by Liu Zheng but are willing to praise him and Wang Manni when rewarded with food. Their reactions reveal how fear and self-interest govern behavior in the workplace.

Significant Themes

• Power through fear and performance: Liu Zheng uses theatrical threats, exaggerated politeness, and public violence to establish dominance.
• Ambition and opportunism: Wang Manni’s promotion and willingness to consider replacing dead superiors reflect the ruthless competition within the Metropolis.
• Transactional relationships: Liu Zheng rejects romantic framing and instead values friends, partners, leverage, and mutually useful cooperation.
• Corruption and exploitation: The Eleventh Floor symbolizes the hidden privileges and morally corrupt relaxation practices available to management.
• Violence as communication: Liu Zheng’s attack is not merely personal; he stages it as a message to the entire office and as a warning against rejecting the Bloodstained Restaurant.
• Appearance versus reality: Liu Zheng maintains an “innocent” image while acting like a calculated psychopath, while Wang Manni’s elegant office and attractive presentation conceal her grotesque insect-like nature.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng intimidates and injures the elevator operator while still speaking to her in a falsely gentle, encouraging manner.
• He rewards the office workers with promised coffee and desserts, temporarily transforming their fear into enthusiasm.
• The busty employee attempts to gain favor through flirtation, but Liu Zheng dismisses her to prevent her from becoming implicated.
• Wang Manni and Liu Zheng engage in a tense negotiation disguised as tea and hospitality. He extracts information about the Eleventh Floor and tests her ambition.
• Their conversation shifts from political strategy to domination when Liu Zheng proposes that she seize power after the current management dies. Once she agrees to try, he abruptly attacks her, turning their apparent alliance into a violent demonstration of control.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng calls Fisherman to ask for an advance on the reward Sewer owes him for treating its “hemorrhoids.” He claims to have found a highly skilled doctor and another restorative item similar to the one he used previously.
• When Fisherman refuses, Liu Zheng threatens to abandon Sea Woman to the garbage-processing station, sever all their mutual obligations, and potentially become enemies. His unusually aggressive attitude comes from guilt over the cleaner’s capture and suffering.
• Fisherman agrees to negotiate. Liu Zheng asks for help locating Shelter and Red Ghost. Fisherman soon reports that Sewer found Shelter but clashed with Red Ghost, causing Sewer to cancel the reward and threaten Liu Zheng if the treatment fails.
• Red Ghost agrees to meet Liu Zheng at their previous location near Rose Street. Before entering Sewer, Liu Zheng asks French Plane Tree for another explosive device to destroy the office building where the cleaner is imprisoned. The tree refuses, but Liu Zheng promises to trade six bottles of liquor for similar assistance later.
• Liu Zheng enters Sewer and finds Red Ghost waiting. Red Ghost leads him to the children’s shelter, where Liu Zheng fulfills his promise by bringing coffee, juice, desserts, and Netherworld Cow Fresh Milk.
• The children enthusiastically receive the gifts, and Red Ghost reveals that the milk will allow them to sleep peacefully for a month.
• Red Ghost explains that it had originally planned to compensate Liu Zheng and erase his memories of the shelter, but his continued presence has become more beneficial than dangerous. It then asks why he urgently sought it out.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng becomes more forceful and confrontational. His concern for the captive cleaner pushes him beyond his previous strategy of cautious negotiation, showing that he is willing to risk alliances and his own safety to rescue someone.
• He also demonstrates increasing influence: he can pressure Fisherman, negotiate with Sewer indirectly, bargain with French Plane Tree, and maintain a relationship with Red Ghost.
• Fisherman remains wary of Liu Zheng’s recklessness but recognizes his potential danger and ultimately agrees to help him.
• French Plane Tree continues to mock Liu Zheng and distrust his sentimentality, yet it is willing to negotiate with him. Liu Zheng’s promise to save even the tree if it were imprisoned reveals a growing bond between them.
• Red Ghost views Liu Zheng with increasing respect and curiosity. Its attitude shifts from seeing him as a potential threat to recognizing him as a valuable ally.
• The children remain disciplined and polite under Red Ghost’s care, but their excitement over the gifts reveals their deprivation and affection for Liu Zheng.
• Galiya and Paul react differently to Liu Zheng—Galiya warmly welcomes him, while Paul remains resentful, suggesting unresolved personal feelings.

Significant Themes

• Moral responsibility and compassion: Liu Zheng refuses to treat the cleaner’s suffering as merely the result of a completed transaction. He believes helping others is worthwhile even when they are not his kind or when there is no direct reward.
• Resistance against exploitation: Liu Zheng realizes that people in Metropolis are being treated as entertainment by powerful forces and decides to “give them an eye-opening show” rather than quietly endure abuse.
• Trust and reciprocal obligation: The chapter explores alliances built through favors, bargains, and shared risk. Liu Zheng’s relationships with Fisherman, French Plane Tree, and Red Ghost are becoming more personal despite beginning as transactions.
• Humanity in a corrupt world: Liu Zheng’s empathy contrasts with the cynical behavior of others who would sell out their own kind. His willingness to help even a nonhuman companion highlights his broader moral principles.
• Power and growth: Liu Zheng’s rapid rise is acknowledged by Red Ghost. He is no longer merely surviving in Metropolis; he is beginning to influence dangerous entities and challenge established powers.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Fisherman: Their negotiation reveals tension, mutual distrust, and reluctant cooperation. Liu Zheng successfully pressures Fisherman by threatening to end their alliance.
• Liu Zheng and French Plane Tree: Their banter mixes insults, bargaining, and hidden concern. The tree criticizes his sentimentality, while Liu Zheng insists he would rescue it if necessary.
• Liu Zheng and Red Ghost: Their meeting is marked by growing mutual respect. Liu Zheng brings gifts to the children, reinforcing their relationship, while Red Ghost acknowledges that he has become more useful than threatening.
• Liu Zheng and the children: The children eagerly surround him but remain respectful, showing that Red Ghost has taught them discipline. His gifts bring them rare happiness.
• Liu Zheng and Red Ghost’s children: Galiya welcomes him warmly, while Paul’s resentment hints at earlier conflict or jealousy.

Chapter Summary: “Comrade, Go Blow Those Pests’ Heads Apart”

Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng decides to rescue a cleaner who previously helped him, despite Metropolis’s rule that completed trades create no further obligations.
• He asks Red Ghost for a tank crew. Red Ghost agrees, explaining that its soldiers can operate any tank, but refuses to provide ammunition directly because doing so would violate City Hall’s agreement and expose Liu Zheng to investigation.
• Red Ghost searches its warehouse and gives Liu Zheng:
  • A Special Operations Team Cluster Shock Grenade, capable of stunning living creatures within a one-kilometer radius.
  • A DV camera, asking Liu Zheng to record the extermination because the Shelter’s children enjoy watching such events.
  • Four gold-star medals that can awaken a group of soldiers. They are summoned by saying, “Comrade, it’s time to blow those harmful pests’ heads apart.”
• While waiting, Liu Zheng plays Gomoku with the Shelter children and defeats them repeatedly, showing both his competitive nature and his lingering connection to ordinary human life.
• Red Ghost suggests Liu Zheng become a teacher at the Shelter, but he refuses, recognizing that prolonged exposure could drive him insane and turn him into something less human.
• Liu Zheng returns to the Restaurant with a large haul of fish and distributes gifts and supplies:
  • Fish and a toy to Ottawa in Customer Service.
  • More fish to Napoleon in the Kitchen.
  • Money to Cow-Horse to purchase six bottles of liquor.
• Cow-Horse initially suspects Liu Zheng is planning trouble, but allows him to proceed after learning that the target is an office building whose owner is hostile toward the Restaurant’s boss. Destroying it could even earn Liu Zheng a reward, provided he does not damage the Restaurant’s reputation.
• Liu Zheng exchanges an All-Insect Banquet with Tailor Spider and receives a Weaver Lady’s Molted Shell, which grants him traits identical to hers for one hour.
• Cow-Horse returns with the requested alcohol and a Deep-Sea Bursting Multi-Headed Abalone, which restores stamina and temporarily places the user in a seawater environment—an item clearly suited to Liu Zheng’s enhanced aquatic abilities.
• With his allies, equipment, supplies, and special items prepared, Liu Zheng calls the delivery service and begins arranging the rescue operation.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates loyalty and gratitude by risking himself to save someone who once helped him. His willingness to confront dangerous forces shows a growing personal code that goes beyond Metropolis’s transactional rules.
• He remains playful and competitive with the Shelter children, but understands that staying there too long would damage his sanity and humanity.
• His planning ability becomes more apparent as he gathers specialized allies, equipment, and synergistic items for the coming assault.
• Red Ghost reveals both its strong military resources and its limitations under City Hall’s rules. Despite its apparent dementia and inhuman nature, it displays affection for the children and admiration for Liu Zheng’s humanity.
• Cow-Horse acts as a suspicious but dependable ally. Though it criticizes Liu Zheng’s recklessness, it helps obtain crucial supplies and appears to support his plan.
• Tailor Spider, revealed through the item description to be “Weaver Lady,” continues to trade valuable items with Liu Zheng, strengthening their cooperative relationship.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty versus transactional morality: Liu Zheng rejects the idea that a completed exchange ends all responsibility, choosing to repay kindness through personal loyalty.
• Humanity amid monstrosity: Liu Zheng is surrounded by ghosts, monsters, and abnormal beings, yet his compassion, gratitude, and concern for the children mark him as still fundamentally human.
• Violence as spectacle: Red Ghost’s request to record the extermination for the children highlights the disturbing normalization of warfare and brutality within this world.
• Rules, power, and loopholes: City Hall’s restrictions prevent Red Ghost from directly supplying ammunition, but Liu Zheng finds indirect ways to assemble the resources he needs.
• Preparation and cooperation: Success depends not only on Liu Zheng’s strength but also on his network of allies and the careful combination of specialized items.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Red Ghost discuss loyalty, responsibility, and the limits imposed by City Hall. Their exchange also reveals mutual respect, particularly when Liu Zheng resists Red Ghost’s ominous influence.
• Liu Zheng plays with the Shelter children, teasing them while also entertaining them, though his overwhelming skill leaves them frustrated.
• Cow-Horse questions Liu Zheng’s motives and warns him against endangering himself or the Restaurant, but ultimately helps him gather supplies.
• Liu Zheng trades with Tailor Spider, maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship and receiving a powerful transformation item.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng coordinating the final stage of his operation, signaling that the rescue and confrontation are about to begin.

Chapter Summary: “I Love War, Gentlemen”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng contacts Big White Goose to prepare for an operation against enemies he jokingly calls “bugs in suits and ties.”
• Big White Goose agrees to disguise him as a clown. It paints Liu Zheng’s face, pierces one of his tentacles, and uses its own blood to create a grotesque, exaggerated clown appearance, complete with living eyebrows.
• After the disguise is complete, Liu Zheng activates the Lucky Clown Card, apparently fulfilling its condition.
• Big White Goose warns Liu Zheng not to act recklessly, reminding him that patience and survival would allow him to grow stronger. Liu Zheng rejects this advice, insisting that “ten thousand years is too long” and that opportunities must be seized immediately.
• Liu Zheng uses a skill disc and obtains the passive skill Interrogation Master, which greatly improves his interrogation ability.
• Ghost Hand delivers a new order and accepts coffee and dried fish from Liu Zheng, reinforcing its increasingly familiar relationship with him.
• The new delivery is for Chen Xiaoxue on the eleventh floor of Tower E in West River Center. The order is a fish-head milkshake with a two-hour time limit.
• Before leaving, Cow-Horse throws Liu Zheng the Memorial Medal, then tells him to stop disturbing its rehabilitation.
• Liu Zheng rents a tank, recruits a four-person crew, and buys all eight available Goblin Bombs. He negotiates a fifty-percent discount by offering access to special silk from the Weaver Lady’s relatives.
• The driver offers Liu Zheng an additional weapon or feature: the tank can record the number of enemy deaths using their blood. The driver admits he simply enjoys war, ending the chapter with a manic laugh.

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng becomes increasingly committed to immediate, dangerous action. Although he understands the risks and has been warned about the fate of impatient people such as Li, he deliberately chooses to proceed.
• His confidence and ruthlessness are evident in his plan to attack a large enemy force, his purchase of heavy weapons, and his willingness to spend nearly all his money.
• Liu Zheng also displays practical adaptability. He trusts Big White Goose with his disguise, selects a useful interrogation skill, negotiates with the driver, and maintains his unusual ability to befriend strange creatures.
• Big White Goose is shown as both grotesquely talented and surprisingly perceptive. Its clown makeup is highly skilled, but it also recognizes Liu Zheng’s dangerous impatience and tries to dissuade him.
• Cow-Horse remains sarcastic and irritable but shows genuine concern for Liu Zheng. It warns him that Big White Goose is difficult to understand and provides him with the Memorial Medal before departure.
• Ghost Hand appears increasingly comfortable around Liu Zheng, accepting food and drink despite initially pretending to dislike the coffee.
• The driver is revealed to have an enthusiastic, almost bloodthirsty fascination with warfare. His offer to mark kills on the tank suggests that violence and battle are personally meaningful to him.

3. Significant Themes

• Impatience versus long-term growth: Big White Goose argues that Liu Zheng should survive and grow stronger, while Liu Zheng believes opportunities must be seized immediately. Their exchange highlights the chapter’s central tension between caution and decisive action.
• War as entertainment and identity: The driver’s delight in battle turns warfare into a form of recreation. The title reflects this darkly comic attitude, presenting violence through absurd enthusiasm.
• Transformation and disguise: Liu Zheng’s clown makeup symbolizes his willingness to adopt an unnatural or ridiculous persona in order to accomplish his goals. The clown image also blends humor with menace.
• Trust and companionship: Despite constant insults and sarcasm, Liu Zheng, Cow-Horse, Big White Goose, and even Ghost Hand display a developing network of mutual assistance.
• Absurdity amid danger: The grotesque makeup, sentient eyebrows, coffee-drinking monsters, and tank warfare create a comedic surface over increasingly serious preparations for mass violence.

4. Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Big White Goose share a playful but respectful relationship. They exchange jokes about eating “bugs,” coffee, and joining the Delivery Department, while Big White Goose ultimately gives Liu Zheng sincere advice.
• Cow-Horse frequently protests Liu Zheng’s behavior and Big White Goose’s comments, but its warnings and gift of the Memorial Medal reveal concern beneath its hostility.
• Liu Zheng treats Ghost Hand almost like a pet, feeding it coffee and dried fish. Cow-Horse notices this and mocks him for it.
• Liu Zheng negotiates with the driver over the tank, crew, Goblin Bombs, and discounts. Their conversation establishes a shared enthusiasm for large-scale conflict, though Liu Zheng remains focused on practical objectives while the driver is motivated by his love of war.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng leaving the break room fully equipped for his mission, disguised as a clown and preparing to wage a potentially massive battle.

Chapter Summary: Remnants of the Old Era and War in the New Era

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng exits the Delivery Passage and discovers an enormous, battle-scarred tank waiting for him. The vehicle is a modified VK4503(H), an old-era prototype that its driver affectionately calls “Kitty.”
• The tank’s driver proudly explains that Kitty has been personally upgraded and outperforms later models. He insists that any crew using it must pass his inspection.
• Liu Zheng summons the four tanker spirits contained in the Gold Star Medals. They manifest as the elite crew sent by Red Ghost, led by Commander Maria.
• A bitter rivalry immediately emerges between Maria’s crew and Kitty’s driver. Maria recognizes the tank as connected to the old Guard Army, while the driver identifies her crew as remnants of another former faction. Their ideological and personal hostility nearly leads to a duel.
• Liu Zheng intervenes, reminding them that their purpose is to fight their enemies, not each other. He persuades the driver to let Maria’s crew operate Kitty, arguing that experienced rivals are preferable to an incompetent replacement crew.
• Inside the tank, the driver provides special ammunition:
  • Goblin Bombs, which must be loaded rapidly and used in groups.
  • Hell Broth, a powerful green shell intended for emergencies or battlefield clearing, but dangerous enough that the crew must remain inside the tank until its effect ends.
• The driver disappears after entrusting Kitty to Liu Zheng and the crew, leaving behind his unresolved conflict with Maria.
• Maria and the other crew members quickly take their positions. Liu Zheng is assigned as the internal machine-gunner, operating both the anti-aircraft and heavy machine guns through a modified periscope system.
• Once prepared, the crew asks Liu Zheng to identify the enemy. He points to the office building on the map, ordering the tank toward its target.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng grows into his role as commander. Rather than controlling tactical decisions himself, he wisely delegates battlefield command to Maria while retaining strategic authority. He also successfully mediates the conflict between the driver and Maria.
• Commander Maria is revealed to be a woman and an experienced, highly disciplined tanker. She is proud, blunt, and ideologically committed to preserving the legacy of her erased faction.
• The Tank Driver/Major is fiercely attached to Kitty, treating it as both child and lover. His pride, eccentricity, and hostility toward Maria reveal deep-rooted resentment from past wars, though he ultimately prioritizes the mission.
• The four summoned crew members function as a unified elite unit, immediately demonstrating professionalism and familiarity with armored warfare.

Significant Themes

• Remnants of history: Both the tank driver and Maria’s crew are survivors—or supernatural remnants—of forgotten factions from the old era. Their existence reflects how current powers have built themselves on erased histories.
• Memory versus erasure: The driver believes their causes have vanished completely, while Maria insists that foundational ideas cannot truly be destroyed and may someday return.
• Ideological decay: The driver condemns the modern world as a struggle between “beasts” and “carrion,” suggesting that the noble causes of the past have been replaced by meaningless conflict.
• War as identity: Despite the collapse of their old causes, both characters remain defined by warfare. The driver longs for a “glorious war,” while Maria continues to defend her faction’s ideals.
• Technology and sorcery: Kitty represents an unusual fusion of old military technology with newer magical or supernatural systems, suggesting the chapter’s broader blending of eras and disciplines.
• Command and cooperation: Liu Zheng’s role emphasizes strategic leadership, restraint, and the ability to unite powerful but hostile allies.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and the driver: Liu Zheng admires Kitty and earns the driver’s cooperation by respecting the tank and negotiating tactfully.
• Maria and the driver: Their hostile exchange exposes an old factional rivalry. They trade insults over their origins, military strength, and even the tank’s name before nearly fighting.
• Liu Zheng and Maria: He establishes a clear command structure, leaving tactical decisions to her while ensuring she follows the larger mission. Their handshake marks a temporary alliance.
• Maria and her crew: She leads efficiently, assigning roles and preparing the tank without hesitation.
• Liu Zheng and the crew: The crew accepts him as strategic commander and trains him in operating the tank’s internal machine guns, marking his transition from passenger to active combatant.

Chapter Summary: “Kill as Many as You Want”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng visits French Plane Tree on Rose Street before beginning his assault on West River Center.
• French Plane Tree is initially terrified by the approaching tank, but relaxes when it realizes Liu Zheng is inside.
• Liu Zheng delivers the six bottles of liquor he promised in exchange for the Oathbound Life-Guarding Ring, a single-use item that creates an extremely powerful defensive field for ten minutes at the cost of a shattered heart.
• Impressed and slightly unsettled by Liu Zheng’s rapid growth, French Plane Tree gives him the ring and watches him depart.
• Liu Zheng and the tank reach the office building. His arrival causes widespread panic among the white-collar workers, who scatter at the sight of the tank and its cannon.
• The tank smashes through the building’s glass entrance and surrounding pillars. With the security guard’s cooperation, Liu Zheng enters the elevator lobby and forces the tank into an elevator.
• Liu Zheng brutally intimidates the elevator attendant, injuring her until she presses the button for the Eleventh Floor. He then gives her directions to a Mummy Clinic, implying that she may still be saved.
• The tank reaches the jungle-like Eleventh Floor, where Liu Zheng discovers evidence that the insect executives have abandoned even the pretense of humanity.
• The crew finds a dead female waiter tied to a tree and being sexually violated by a giant hornet.
• Enraged, Commander Maria orders the hornet destroyed. The tank’s cannon and autocannon obliterate both the insect and the tree, along with the woman’s corpse.
• Maria regrets killing the hornet before interrogating it, but Liu Zheng dismisses the concern, declaring that there are plenty of insects to capture or kill.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng displays growing confidence, cruelty, and tactical boldness. He treats the tank as a weapon of intimidation as much as destruction, deliberately threatening civilians to clear his path.
• His increased strength is noticed by French Plane Tree, who remembers when Liu Zheng was nearly powerless. The tree now regards him with caution but also curiosity about how powerful he may become.
• Liu Zheng’s tentacle-based violence remains casual and calculated. However, his directions to the wounded elevator attendant suggest that, beneath his brutality, he may still possess practical concern or a willingness to preserve useful people.
• Commander Maria demonstrates strict military discipline and decisive leadership. Her anger at the hornet’s abuse of the corpse reveals a strong moral or protective instinct beneath her normally controlled demeanor.
• The tank crew operates with increasing trust and coordination, immediately carrying out Maria’s commands.
• French Plane Tree continues to act arrogantly, but its fear of Liu Zheng shows that the balance of power between them is changing.

Significant Themes

• Rapid evolution and power: Liu Zheng’s transformation from a weak survivor into a heavily armed threat is emphasized through French Plane Tree’s fearful reaction.
• Violence as control: Liu Zheng uses terror, the tank, and calculated cruelty to dominate environments and force others to obey.
• Dehumanization: The insect executives’ discarded clothing and the grotesque treatment of the dead woman suggest their complete rejection of human morality and identity.
• Moral boundaries amid brutality: The crew freely destroys enemies, yet Maria reacts strongly to the hornet’s desecration of the corpse, showing that not all violence is viewed as equally acceptable.
• Protection and sacrifice: The life-guarding ring symbolizes reciprocal loyalty and the exchange of one life or injury for another, while Liu Zheng’s unique nature makes its cost unusually manageable for him.
• Escalation: The operation shifts from infiltration and intimidation to open destruction, with Liu Zheng openly embracing the idea that he can capture or kill as many enemies as necessary.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and French Plane Tree exchange liquor and the protective ring, while their conversation reveals the tree’s increasing wariness of him.
• Liu Zheng commands Commander Maria and the tank crew in a playful but authoritarian manner, encouraging them to use the tank aggressively.
• He terrorizes the elevator attendant into assisting him, then gives her directions to medical help.
• Commander Maria and the driver react emotionally to the hornet’s treatment of the corpse, and Maria orders its immediate destruction.
• Liu Zheng reassures Maria after the attack, reinforcing the group’s ruthless forward momentum.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• The Tiger King Tank advances through the dense jungle, where a swarm of giant insects is devouring the corpse of a male office worker. The insects focus especially on the victim’s exaggerated, cartoon-like face, suggesting it is the true “main course.”
• Liu Zheng orders the tank to attack. Commander Maria directs the crew to fire a high-explosive fragmentation shell, annihilating most of the swarm and destroying the corpse.
• The crew discovers that a huge black cockroach has survived the blast, protected partly by another beetle’s body.
• Although Maria insists that Liu Zheng remain inside, Kasitsin retrieves the injured cockroach and brings it into the tank.
• The cockroach regains enough human intelligence to speak. Liu Zheng interrogates it about the locations of Xiaomei the cleaner and Chen Xiaoxue.
• When the cockroach refuses to cooperate and argues that Liu Zheng violated company rules, Liu tortures it using his boning knife and gunpowder until it finally gives up the information.
• The cockroach reveals that Xiaomei is in one direction and Chen Xiaoxue is in the jungle’s central nest. Liu decides to rescue Xiaomei first because Chen has already survived for eight years.
• The cockroach attempts to buy its freedom, eventually offering one million in compensation. Liu pretends to consider the offer, records the situation with a DV camera, and then loads the cockroach into the tank’s cannon.
• The chapter ends with Liu firing the cockroach from the cannon while presenting the event as a grotesque children’s show called “Cannon versus Mosquito.”

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng is shown as ruthless, theatrical, and darkly humorous. He treats the interrogation as entertainment, using exaggerated politeness and childish showmanship to mask extreme cruelty. He also demonstrates practical judgment by prioritizing Xiaomei’s rescue.
• Commander Maria becomes increasingly impressed—and disturbed—by the Tiger King Tank’s power and modifications. She remains disciplined, protective of the crew, and focused on tactical decisions.
• Kasitsin is portrayed as an exceptionally strong and fearless warrior. Even with only part of his former soul or power remaining, he easily overpowers the surviving cockroach and follows orders without hesitation.
• The black cockroach executive shifts from confident and rule-focused to fearful and desperate. It initially relies on corporate authority and negotiation, but ultimately abandons its principles and offers a fortune to survive.
• The tank crew functions efficiently as a coordinated military unit, with Dimitri driving, Kolobanov firing, and Kasitsin loading and retrieving targets.

3. Significant Themes

• Cruelty and dehumanization: The insects and humans alike are treated as disposable objects, reflecting a world where survival has erased ordinary morality.
• Power and helplessness: The cockroach’s resilience and corporate status cannot protect it once it falls into Liu Zheng’s hands.
• Bureaucracy versus violence: The cockroach invokes rules, complaints, and compensation, but formal systems prove meaningless against direct physical power.
• Dark comedy and spectacle: Liu turns murder and torture into a filmed children’s performance, highlighting the grotesque absurdity of the setting.
• Survival and prioritization: Liu must choose between two endangered people and bases his decision on how long each has already endured.
• Trust in professionals: Maria relies on Kasitsin’s judgment and abilities, reinforcing the tank crew’s military discipline and mutual confidence.

4. Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Maria: Liu gives tactical suggestions, while Maria maintains command authority and rejects his unnecessary attempt to retrieve the cockroach personally.
• Maria and Kasitsin: Maria orders Kasitsin to collect the survivor, trusting his combat ability; he executes the task efficiently.
• Liu Zheng and the cockroach: Their interrogation becomes a battle of wills. The cockroach tries argument, legal threats, and bribery, while Liu responds with mockery, torture, and psychological manipulation.
• Liu Zheng and the camera audience: By addressing imaginary “children,” Liu transforms the violent execution into a performance, emphasizing his disturbing sense of humor.
• The insect swarm and the corpse: The insects’ fixation on the corpse’s face establishes the strange biological or supernatural rules governing the jungle and motivates the tank’s attack.

Chapter Summary: “Liu Zheng: I Want Women, I Want Women!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Cheng Xiaomei is trapped on the Eleventh Floor, immobilized by amber-colored Worm secretions while several wealthy Worms eat hot pot made from human flesh.
• Above the pot hangs Ali, a young cleaner from the Old District who has been mutilated but remains alive. Cheng recalls Ali’s kindness, her difficult background, and how she was sent to the Eleventh Floor after accidentally disturbing a manager.
• Cheng believes she will soon suffer the same fate. Although she fears death, she takes comfort in knowing her family will receive compensation for her death.
• A tank suddenly arrives on the Eleventh Floor. Its occupant asks for directions to the Worms’ “nest” and identifies himself as a deliveryman from Bloodstained Restaurant.
• Cheng recognizes the driver as Liu Zheng, the man she previously helped by giving him insecticide in exchange for coffee. His arrival restores her hope.
• The Worms initially consider killing Liu Zheng to gain valuable visit credits, but they become wary when he reveals that he possesses a Chew Toy capable of summoning a dangerous Tindalos Hound.
• Liu manipulates the Worms through outrageous, vulgar behavior. Pretending to be interested in sexually abusing the two corpses, he pressures them into handing over Ali’s remains and eventually freeing Cheng Xiaomei.
• When Cheng is released and visibly reacts with joy, the Worms realize that she and Liu Zheng are allies.
• The chapter ends with a Polo-Shirt Insect firing a stream of poisonous green venom at Cheng.

Character Developments

• Cheng Xiaomei: Begins the chapter resigned to death, grieving Ali and worrying about her family. Liu Zheng’s arrival revives her will to survive. Her emotional reaction upon being freed exposes her connection to him.
• Ali: Though badly mutilated, she is portrayed as resilient and compassionate. Her earlier attempt to protect Cheng demonstrates her loyalty and courage.
• Liu Zheng: Shows himself to be bold, shameless, manipulative, and highly resourceful. Rather than relying immediately on violence, he uses the Worms’ fear of the Tindalos Hound and their discomfort with his behavior to rescue Cheng.
• The Worms: Their apparent confidence gives way to caution when confronted with Liu Zheng. They are revealed to be selfish, cruel, and motivated by status, rewards, and personal safety, but also vulnerable to intimidation and disgust.

Significant Themes

• Cruelty and exploitation: The Eleventh Floor represents a world where workers and cleaners are disposable, while powerful clients consume and abuse them for entertainment.
• Class inequality: Cheng and Ali suffer because of their low social status, while the Worms enjoy luxury and impunity. Even compensation for workers’ deaths exists mainly to protect the system’s privileged members.
• Hope amid despair: Cheng has accepted death, but Liu Zheng’s arrival demonstrates that unexpected resistance is still possible.
• Deception as survival: Liu Zheng uses performance, bluffing, and psychological manipulation instead of straightforward combat.
• Moral corruption: The Worms’ treatment of human bodies, their attempts to profit from killing Liu, and their casual bargaining over Cheng and Ali reveal a society dominated by exploitation and distorted values.

Character Interactions

• Cheng remembers her warm but one-sided friendship with Ali, including Ali’s attempts to share her poorly cooked food and Cheng’s concern for her.
• Liu Zheng confronts the Worms in a tense negotiation, using the Chew Toy to discourage them from attacking.
• Bracelet Insect repeatedly tries to bargain with Liu Zheng, offering hot pot, money, and access to the corpses in exchange for peace.
• Liu’s exaggerated sexual demands disgust and confuse the Worms, allowing him to pressure them into releasing Cheng.
• Green-Suited Insect frees Cheng but realizes too late that Liu’s behavior was a ruse. Polo-Shirt Insect then attacks Cheng with venom, leaving the scene on a cliffhanger.

Chapter Summary: “Explosions Were the Best Music”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Fart Bug launches a lethal venom attack at Cheng Xiaomei. Commander Maria immediately orders an armor-piercing shell, but the venom melts and neutralizes it.
• Additional streams of venom continue toward Cheng Xiaomei. Liu Zheng uses the Oathbound Life-Guarding Ring to create a heart-shaped defensive force field, sacrificing the ring—and his own heart—to protect her.
• Liu Zheng’s tentacles pull Cheng Xiaomei to safety. Despite his chest being destroyed, he casually assures her that his heart will regenerate.
• Cheng Xiaomei is rescued but is carrying Xiao Li’s corpse. She regrets that Xiao Li did not survive long enough to meet Liu Zheng.
• To prevent enemies from secretly tracking or attacking Cheng Xiaomei, Commander Maria has her and Xiao Li sealed inside an ammunition crate using the loader’s Golden Star Medal. Their bodies are compressed to fit, and they will be released once the tank is safe.
• With the rescue complete, Liu Zheng and the tank crew turn their attention to the surrounding insects. His suppressed anger and “Irritability” are nearing their peak.
• Commander Maria orders the defensive force field deactivated and commands the crew to fire instant-detonation machine-gun rounds and high-explosive shells.
• The tank advances while cannon fire and machine-gun explosions devastate the forest, scattering soil, trees, and insect remains.
• Despite the destruction, the insects survive by hiding beneath a protective layer of foam produced by a distinctive cicada-like bug.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates both caution and self-sacrifice. He refuses Cheng Xiaomei’s request to care for her children, insisting that she must remain responsible for them, but he immediately sacrifices his defensive artifact—and his heart—to save her.
• His ability to regenerate makes severe physical damage routine, but his rapidly rising anger reveals that he is approaching a much more dangerous emotional state.
• Cheng Xiaomei shows vulnerability and growing trust in Liu Zheng. She seeks reassurance from him, feels safe in his arms, and accepts the painful containment procedure without protest for the sake of survival.
• Her grief over Xiao Li’s death highlights her compassion and emotional attachment to those from the Old District.
• Commander Maria remains decisive and militarily disciplined. She balances destructive firepower with the need to avoid harming Cheng Xiaomei, then efficiently directs the tank’s counterattack.
• Fart Bug is weakened after expending four venom attacks, leaving her barely able to stand, though her defensive strategy still protects the insect swarm.
• Xiao Li is confirmed dead, becoming a symbol of the casualties caused by the hostile environment and the injustice of the Old District.

Significant Themes

• Sacrifice and protection: Liu Zheng’s destruction of his own heart emphasizes the lengths he will go to protect others, even while maintaining his blunt, emotionally detached manner.
• Survival through trust: Cheng Xiaomei willingly follows Liu Zheng and Maria’s instructions, accepting extreme discomfort because she trusts their judgment.
• The contrast between vulnerability and overwhelming force: The delicate heart-shaped barrier protects Cheng Xiaomei, while the tank’s artillery unleashes spectacular destruction.
• War as spectacle: The chapter presents explosions as a grotesque “concert,” combining beauty, rhythm, and devastation.
• Adaptation and defense: The insects survive overwhelming firepower through a specialized foam defense, showing that brute force alone may not be enough.
• Grief amid violence: Even during the rescue and bombardment, Cheng Xiaomei’s thoughts remain focused on Xiao Li’s death and the unfairness of her fate.

Important Character Interactions

• Cheng Xiaomei silently asks Liu Zheng to care for her children; he understands but refuses, believing she must survive to raise them herself.
• Liu Zheng comforts Cheng Xiaomei after rescuing her, while she responds by clinging to him and seeking safety.
• Cheng Xiaomei mournfully interacts with Xiao Li’s corpse, recognizing that Xiao Li died before Liu Zheng could arrive.
• Liu Zheng consults Commander Maria about protecting Cheng Xiaomei from hidden enemy devices, and Maria provides a practical but painful solution.
• Commander Maria coordinates closely with the tank crew, directing the driver, loader, and gunner in a disciplined assault.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng and the crew confronting the insects, whose foam-producing cicada appears to be the key to their survival.

Chapter Summary: “Give the Red Warriors a Little Goblin Surprise”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The tank crew continues bombarding the bug forces. Repeated shells destroy the crater and kill nearly all the insects hiding beneath their foam shield.
• Bracelet Insect survives by hiding among the charred remains. It escapes and emits an ultra-high-frequency signal intended to detonate the parasite inside Cheng Xiaomei and kill the tank crew.
• Before the signal can achieve its purpose, the tank targets Bracelet Insect. A modified high-explosive shell catches and destroys it, along with nearby vegetation.
• With their leaders dead, the remaining bugs retreat. Liu Zheng refuses to pursue them, prioritizing the mission of reaching the insect nest and delivering takeout to Chen Xiaoxue.
• The tank advances recklessly through the jungle, destroying obstacles and stray bugs with abundant ammunition.
• The crew reaches the insect base: a massive Mycelial Mat covered in holes, sleeping bugs, and an enormous Insect Tower at its center.
• Their bombardment fails because the entire swarm creates a powerful sonic barrier that blocks and absorbs the shells’ explosions.
• Commander Maria suggests investigating at close range, but Liu Zheng rejects the dangerous plan. Instead, he proposes using the experimental Goblin Shells.
• Three Goblin Shells are fired. Each contains a tiny green goblin piloting a miniature aircraft. The goblins gather, communicate mysteriously, and wait for a signal.
• After Liu Zheng guesses that they are waiting for a starting command, the crew fires a normal shell as a signal. The three Goblin Shells then charge toward the Insect Tower.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates increasing confidence and battlefield judgment. He effectively uses the anti-aircraft gun despite his lack of experience, chooses not to pursue fleeing enemies, and prioritizes the mission’s main objective.
• Commander Maria remains aggressive, disciplined, and disdainful toward the bugs, but she also acknowledges Liu Zheng’s caution and accepts his tactical decisions.
• Kasitsin and Kolobanov continue performing their loading and gunnery duties reliably, even while handling the bizarre Goblin Shells.
• The tank crew shows a mixture of professionalism and bewilderment when confronted with the strange green pilots. Their brief guilt over sending the goblins to their deaths is overridden by their military discipline.
• Bracelet Insect is revealed to be calculating and resourceful, having prepared multiple escape and attack methods, but it ultimately underestimates the tank’s advanced weaponry.

Significant Themes

• Caution versus aggression: Liu Zheng balances the crew’s overwhelming firepower with careful decision-making, refusing to risk the mission for unnecessary pursuit or close combat.
• Technology overcoming biology: The bugs’ sophisticated defenses, including the sonic barrier, are impressive, but the tank’s black technology, magic enhancements, and experimental weapons provide unexpected counters.
• Absurdity in warfare: The grim battle is repeatedly undercut by comedic elements, especially the Goblin Shells’ bizarre appearance, behavior, and apparent enthusiasm for combat.
• Teamwork and trust: Liu Zheng, Maria, and the tank crew rely on one another despite uncertainty, combining military experience with unconventional ideas.
• The limits of brute force: Even limitless ammunition cannot immediately defeat the swarm’s sonic barrier, forcing the crew to experiment rather than simply increase their firepower.

Character Interactions

• Maria and Liu Zheng maintain a respectful but argumentative command dynamic: she favors direct action, while he emphasizes caution and strategic priorities.
• Maria praises Liu Zheng’s decision to protect Cheng Xiaomei, recognizing the wisdom behind his caution.
• The crew reacts collectively to the Goblin Shells, sharing confusion about their purpose and behavior.
• Liu Zheng proposes interpreting the goblins’ gesture as a request for a starting signal, and Maria supports the idea by ordering Kolobanov to fire.
• Once the signal is given, the Goblin Shells launch their attack on the Insect Tower, ending the chapter on a suspenseful and comedic cliffhanger.