Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Bring Down the Damn Metropolis”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng learns that the Dragon Egg costs 1.4 million total. Gray Shopkeeper covers the remaining 700,000 on Yuan Bao’er’s tab, leaving Liu grateful but indebted.
• Gray Shopkeeper warns that openly carrying the Dragon Egg could attract dangerous attention. Liu confirms he can store it safely using his system.
• The egg is delivered in a safe by Hu Liu, a member of the Hu Family who works for Gray Shopkeeper’s faction. Gray explains the cooperation and occasional employment between Metropolis’s five major families.
• The egg is revealed to be a dead-fetus green dragon egg. Liu’s system identifies it as a “Cursed Green Dragon Fur Egg,” which could increase his physical abilities and potentially grant a green-dragon bloodline.
• However, consuming it would trigger the “Egg Thief” status, making chromatic dragons hostile and green dragons mortal enemies. The dragon bloodline also conflicts with Liu’s existing Black Goat’s Young bloodline, making use dangerous. Liu decides not to eat it.
• Liu travels to the secretive Healing Bee Pharmacy to have Diyega recreated from an old medicine jar.
• Healing Bee initially attempts to recruit Liu into supplying human drug-test subjects. Liu refuses, unwilling to exploit the already oppressed prostitutes of Pink Kingdom, even when Healing Bee offers increasing payments and discounted medicine.
• When Healing Bee refuses to return the medicine jar, Liu threatens the pharmacy with the Three-Shaku Mirror, which contains the dark side of “Killer Bro.” Healing Bee recognizes the weapon’s aura and quickly becomes frightened and cooperative.
• Healing Bee agrees to reproduce the medicine. He explains that the drug primarily treats depression rather than pain or hallucinations. Liu requests that an unpleasant-tasting additive be included, likely to discourage misuse or make the medicine harder to consume casually.
• Liu orders twenty jars for 10,000 total and instructs Healing Bee to keep producing more. Since Liu cannot wait three hours, he plans to send a Minotaur subordinate to collect the medicine.
• The chapter ends with Liu choosing “Heavenly King covers Earthly Tiger” as the password, only for Healing Bee to ask for the expected follow-up line.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Demonstrates increasing confidence, resourcefulness, and intimidation. He uses the system’s storage function to handle the Dragon Egg, rejects an exploitative business arrangement on moral grounds, and responds aggressively when Healing Bee attempts to cheat him. His resurrection through Ra’s Grace has made him less cautious and more willing to assert himself.
• Gray Shopkeeper: Shows continued cooperation with Liu by extending Yuan Bao’er’s credit and arranging secure delivery of the Dragon Egg. He also provides useful information about dragons and the relationships among the five families.
• Healing Bee: Is established as unscrupulous, profit-driven, and willing to use vulnerable people as drug-test subjects. However, he is also cowardly when confronted by a stronger threat and readily changes his attitude after Liu invokes Killer Bro’s power.
• Hu Liu: Appears briefly as a young Hu Family member working for Gray Shopkeeper, illustrating the complex labor and alliance networks among Metropolis’s major families.
• Nile Doctor and Sesha: Their conditions are updated indirectly. Nile Doctor is doing well, while Sesha’s intelligence is improving thanks to Liu’s help.
• Killer Bro/Sha-chan: Though absent, his reputation and the terrifying power of his dark side give Liu leverage over Healing Bee.

Significant Themes

• Moral resistance in a corrupt society: Liu refuses to exploit drug-test subjects despite the financial benefits, highlighting his remaining ethical boundaries in Metropolis.
• Power determines fairness: Healing Bee bullies weaker people but immediately submits when Liu demonstrates greater power, reinforcing the chapter’s depiction of Metropolis as a place where intimidation often replaces law.
• Debt and favors: Liu’s unpaid balance to Yuan Bao’er and Gray Shopkeeper’s assistance show how relationships in Metropolis operate through credit, obligation, and future repayment.
• Identity and bloodline conflict: The Dragon Egg’s incompatible green-dragon bloodline raises questions about Liu’s existing Black Goat’s Young lineage and the dangers of forced transformation.
• Survival through calculated ruthlessness: Liu combines negotiation, moral judgment, system abilities, and threats to achieve his goals without directly resorting to violence.
• Corruption versus rebuilding: Liu’s comment about bringing down Metropolis suggests broader revolutionary ambitions. He is willing to work within the city’s brutal systems temporarily, but he ultimately wants to overturn them.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Gray Shopkeeper: Their transaction strengthens their cooperative relationship. Gray provides financial flexibility and secure handling of the Dragon Egg, while Liu treats him respectfully.
• Liu Zheng and Hu Liu: Their brief interaction reveals the cross-family employment arrangements within Metropolis.
• Liu Zheng and Healing Bee: Their conversation shifts from potential business partners to adversaries when Healing Bee demands vulnerable test subjects and withholds Liu’s medicine jar. Liu’s threats expose Healing Bee’s fear of stronger powers and force him into cooperation.
• Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor: Although Nile is absent, Liu invokes his name to gain access to Healing Bee and mentions helping Nile obtain patients and improve Sesha’s condition.
• Liu Zheng and Killer Bro: Liu exploits Killer Bro’s terrifying reputation, using the dark side sealed within the Three-Shaku Mirror as psychological leverage rather than actually summoning him.

Chapter Summary: “Treating Friends with the Warmth of Spring”

Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng corrects Niu Daji’s misunderstanding about a pharmacy code phrase, explaining that the contact only needs to hear the first line and provide the medicine. His irritation leads the driver to comment on his developing leadership style.
• The driver criticizes Liu Zheng for giving unclear instructions, while Liu Zheng privately reflects on the difficulties of managing nonhuman subordinates.
• At Jiahe New Residence, Liu Zheng speaks with the triangular-eyed security guard, Sheng Lao’da. He helps Sheng Lao’da and his brother choose new names: Sheng Xing and Sheng Meng.
• Sheng Lao’da gives Liu Zheng information about Manager Huang, describing him as exploitative and lecherous but manageable. He also reveals that the brothers are strong enough to kill Huang if they acted together.
• Liu Zheng visits the property management center to deliver food to Manager Huang. The receptionist attempts to delay or obstruct him, but her nervous behavior leads Liu Zheng to deduce that she is having an affair with Huang.
• Liu confronts Huang and forces his way into the office. Huang initially refuses to accept the delivery and transforms into a huge, threatening giant.
• Liu counters with a powerful laser pointer, warning that he could destroy the property management center. Rather than fight, he persuades Huang by offering access to the pleasures and recovery services of the Blissful Bathhouse and other establishments.
• Liu also threatens Huang indirectly over the affair, making clear that accepting the delivery is safer than resisting. Huang eventually returns to normal, accepts the food, and signs for it.
• Liu leaves after warning the receptionist not to enter Huang’s office if Huang does not come out. Back at the Bloodstained Restaurant, he receives a call from Mountain Ogre, who confirms that a Female Cow-Horse teacher at a tutoring center has enemies plotting against her.

Character Development

• Liu Zheng demonstrates increasing confidence and authority. He manages his subordinates, investigates situations quickly, and uses intimidation, negotiation, blackmail, and humor according to circumstances.
• He also shows generosity and practicality by helping Sheng Lao’da and his brother choose meaningful new names.
• The driver acts as a blunt adviser, teaching Liu Zheng that leadership requires both authority and precise instructions.
• Sheng Lao’da shows trust in Liu Zheng by asking him to name the brothers, reflecting Liu’s growing influence among the residents and workers around him.
• Manager Huang shifts from arrogance and aggression to fear and cooperation when confronted with Liu’s superior weapon and leverage.
• The receptionist moves from passive resistance to gratitude after Liu protects her by discouraging her from returning to Huang’s office.

Significant Themes

• Leadership and authority: Liu Zheng learns that effective leadership requires clarity, controlled anger, and the ability to exploit weaknesses without losing command.
• Power through leverage rather than force: Although Liu can fight, he often wins by combining threats, evidence, negotiation, and social connections.
• Appearance versus character: The seemingly respectable Manager Huang is revealed to be corrupt and predatory, while Liu’s bizarre appearance does not prevent him from acting intelligently and fairly.
• Friendship and intimidation: Liu presents himself as someone who treats friends generously but punishes enemies harshly, using hospitality and threats as two sides of the same strategy.
• Identity and renewal: Renaming Sheng Lao’da and his brother symbolizes the possibility of creating better futures and escaping the limitations of their old identities.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Niu Daji’s exchange highlights the Minotaur’s overly literal nature and Liu’s growing impatience as a leader.
• Liu and the driver engage in sarcastic but instructive banter about leadership and Liu’s treatment of subordinates.
• Liu and Sheng Lao’da have a cooperative, respectful conversation in which Liu provides both practical advice and personal assistance.
• Liu’s confrontation with the receptionist and Manager Huang illustrates his ability to read people and manipulate tense situations.
• His interaction with Huang moves from open hostility to uneasy cooperation, with Liu using the laser pointer, the affair, and promises of luxury services to secure the delivery.
• The chapter ends by connecting Liu’s delivery work to a new investigation, as Mountain Ogre reports that the Female Cow-Horse teacher is being targeted by hostile individuals.

Chapter Summary: “Wait, You’re Really Giving It to Me?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Mountain Ogre explains the conflict between Female Cow-Horse and another teacher. The rival teacher had previously mistreated a student, labeling them unintelligent, while the student improved dramatically after transferring to Female Cow-Horse’s class. Embarrassed and resentful, the rival teacher used their connections to undermine Female Cow-Horse and eventually poached her top student.
• Liu Zheng asks Mountain Ogre for the rival teacher’s details, apparently intending to intervene, but Mountain Ogre refuses to provide them until Liu returns his repaired hat.
• Liu visits the Delivery Passage and reports that he has found an apothecary capable of reproducing a valuable medicine. He also arranged for an unpleasant flavor to be added because of its addictive qualities. He offers psychological support to the mysterious entity, even suggesting that it tell him about things it wants to eat, destroy, or kill.
• In response, the Delivery Passage gives Liu a lump of Flesh Bone, a rare and powerful substance worth roughly a hundred portions of ordinary Flesh.
• Cow-Horse immediately detects the Flesh Bone and demands it. Liu initially plans to save or auction it, but ultimately gives it to Cow-Horse because of their relationship and Cow-Horse’s need to recover from injuries.
• Cow-Horse reveals that it cannot obtain more Flesh Bone from Oink because Oink’s reserves must be surrendered to the organization. It suggests that the Delivery Passage itself may be able to provide Liu with more Flesh.
• White-Feather Chicken arrives and notices that Cow-Horse has eaten Flesh Bone. The discussion turns to Liu’s unauthorized sale of Restaurant-owned Flesh. White-Feather Chicken warns him that such Flesh may only be sold to the Kitchen in the future.
• Liu reveals that he used the proceeds to purchase a Dragon Egg. Both Cow-Horse and White-Feather Chicken try to acquire it, but Liu stops them by claiming that the Restaurant’s boss wants it. Their immediate fear of the boss confirms the Dragon Egg’s importance.
• White-Feather Chicken gives Liu a cosplay outfit, fulfilling part of a previous agreement. Liu promises to help with White-Feather Chicken’s plan immediately.
• Liu summons Big White Goose to tailor the outfit to White-Feather Chicken’s appearance. Their meeting becomes a humorous reunion between current and former departmental leaders.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to balance numerous responsibilities while using clever bargaining, deception, and verbal manipulation to get what he wants. Despite his schemes, he shows genuine loyalty toward Cow-Horse and readily gives up the Flesh Bone when Cow-Horse needs it.
• Liu also demonstrates increasing resourcefulness. He trades Restaurant resources, acquires rare items, coordinates several allies, and prepares an elaborate plan involving a laser pointer, the Three-Shaku Mirror, and the cosplay outfit.
• Cow-Horse reveals a greedy but emotionally dependent side. It aggressively demands the Flesh Bone, yet its relationship with Liu is strong enough that Liu trusts it with a valuable resource. Cow-Horse is also proud of the Delivery Department and views Liu’s achievements as evidence of its own leadership.
• White-Feather Chicken is shown to be observant, possessive of Kitchen resources, and highly competitive with Cow-Horse. It is envious of Liu’s luck and achievements but still cooperates with him to fulfill its own objective.
• Big White Goose maintains a formal, composed personality but participates in the chapter’s teasing exchanges. Its past leadership of the Customer Service Department becomes a source of playful commentary.
• Mountain Ogre acts as an information broker, using Liu’s repaired hat as leverage to obtain what it wants.

Significant Themes

• Mutual obligation and loyalty: Liu’s gift of the Flesh Bone reflects the complicated but genuine bond between him and Cow-Horse. Their relationship is based on favors, shared danger, and practical dependence rather than sentimental expressions.
• Resource scarcity and negotiation: Rare materials such as Flesh, Flesh Bone, and the Dragon Egg have immense value, turning nearly every interaction into a bargaining contest.
• Power and institutional hierarchy: The characters constantly reference bosses, departmental authority, Restaurant property, and organizational rules. Even powerful individuals become cautious when the boss’s interests are invoked.
• Manipulation and rhetoric: Liu repeatedly uses technicalities, flattery, and carefully chosen words to evade blame or redirect conversations. His exaggerated declaration of loyalty parodies bureaucratic praise while successfully silencing suspicion.
• Competition and professional rivalry: The teacher conflict mirrors the rivalry among the Restaurant departments. Characters compete over performance, resources, status, and access to exceptional employees.
• Appearance and identity: The cosplay outfit and plan to imitate or disguise White-Feather Chicken suggest that performance, disguise, and social roles will be important in the upcoming operation.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Cow-Horse bicker over the Flesh Bone, with Cow-Horse shamelessly demanding it and Liu teasing it about relying on Oink. Despite the arguing, Liu gives it the item without serious hesitation.
• Cow-Horse and White-Feather Chicken continue their competitive hostility, each claiming that their department deserves greater recognition and access to Liu’s abilities.
• White-Feather Chicken confronts Liu over selling Flesh, while Liu deflects the accusation by explaining that he needed money to buy the Dragon Egg.
• Liu manipulates both Cow-Horse and White-Feather Chicken by invoking the boss’s ownership of the Dragon Egg, preventing them from taking it.
• Liu and White-Feather Chicken establish the next stage of their cooperation, while Big White Goose is brought in to tailor the disguise.
• The chapter ends with all three departments’ representatives exchanging sarcastic praise of Liu’s talent for flattery, reinforcing the humorous camaraderie beneath their rivalry.

Chapter Summary: “Boss, Does It Know About Us?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Big White Goose completes a cosplay outfit modeled after White-Feather Chicken, using its exceptional makeup skills to make the disguise convincing.
• White-Feather Chicken lends Liu Zheng a dangerous Perfect-quality kitchen knife called Anger. The weapon makes its user increasingly irritable and can eventually unseal into the powerful “Seven Sins: Wrath” form.
• Liu Zheng negotiates with White-Feather Chicken to delay his assigned assassination for three days. He plans to use the target’s Grievance Sarira and Shuffled Dice to win a lottery jackpot in front of him before killing him, maximizing the target’s despair.
• Big White Goose gives Liu Zheng a jar of nutrient fluid that temporarily boosts a cosplay outfit to the original’s strength. The enhancement lasts no more than three minutes and destroys the outfit afterward.
• Big White Goose hints that it may accompany Liu Zheng on his next overseas mission. Liu Zheng suspects it knows about the group’s covert plans, prompting him and Cow-Horse to discuss whether it has discovered their conspiracy.
• Cow-Horse suggests that if necessary, he, Liu Zheng, and Britannia could set a trap for Big White Goose, though he mocks Liu Zheng for assuming he is included in the plan. They decide not to act against Goose immediately because Britannia’s political position in the Customer Service Department remains important.
• Liu Zheng contacts Wang Manni and learns that roughly half of the enemy company’s executives are present at Bright Center, but the chairman is absent. Since the main target is missing, Liu Zheng abandons the opportunity to attack.
• He instead accepts a delivery order for Chopped-Feet Fish Head, a bizarre dish that restores stamina and increases explosive leg strength. He travels toward Bright Center, stopping first at Silk-Coiling Cave to deliver worms to Box Weaver-Spider.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng becomes more calculating and opportunistic. He willingly accepts dangerous equipment and plans to combine psychological humiliation with assassination. He also remains alert to possible betrayal from Big White Goose.
• White-Feather Chicken shows a grudging but significant investment in Liu Zheng by lending him a powerful weapon and allowing him extra time to complete the commission. Its threats remain severe, but its willingness to negotiate suggests growing respect or interest.
• Big White Goose reinforces its image as a helpful senior figure while behaving ambiguously. Its offer to accompany Liu Zheng may be genuine support, but its probing questions make Liu Zheng suspect it knows more than it admits.
• Cow-Horse remains cynical, combative, and politically aware. He recognizes Britannia’s importance and understands that removing Big White Goose carelessly could destabilize the Customer Service Department.
• Box Weaver-Spider maintains her proud, easily irritated personality but becomes friendlier once Liu Zheng brings her valuable worms.

Significant Themes

• Trust and hidden motives: Acts of generosity are never taken at face value. Liu Zheng appreciates Big White Goose’s assistance while simultaneously wondering whether it is spying on him.
• Political maneuvering and power balance: The conflict is not simply physical; control of the Customer Service Department and the relationship between Britannia, Ottawa, and Big White Goose are crucial strategic concerns.
• Temporary power and calculated sacrifice: The nutrient fluid offers tremendous short-term strength at the cost of destroying the cosplay outfit, emphasizing the need to use limited resources at the decisive moment.
• Humor amid danger: Threats of slaughter, grotesque food, and assassination plans are repeatedly undercut by sarcastic banter, especially between Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse.
• Manipulation and psychological warfare: Liu Zheng wants to defeat his enemy emotionally as well as physically by winning a jackpot before carrying out the killing.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and White-Feather Chicken exchange insults and negotiate over the knife, commission deadline, and lottery prize.
• Liu Zheng and Big White Goose engage in polite, exaggerated mutual flattery while both conceal their real suspicions.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse argue humorously about Cow-Horse’s weight, fitness, and usefulness in the conspiracy, while also discussing the danger posed by Big White Goose.
• Liu Zheng coordinates with Wang Manni to investigate the enemy company and arrange an explosive attack, but cancels when the chairman is absent.
• Liu Zheng resumes his relationship with Box Weaver-Spider by delivering worms, turning her initial annoyance into reluctant hospitality.

Chapter Summary

Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng confronts the Box Weaver-Spider in Silk-Coiling Cave, initially provoking it by claiming he can obtain more mutated office-building bugs for trade.
• The spider threatens him and even suggests calling the police, but Liu Zheng counters with bluffs about his connections to public-security authorities. Their hostility gradually shifts into a tense business negotiation.
• Liu Zheng uses the Weaver Lady’s gift of a Yarn Ball to prove his connection to the Weaver-Spider Clan and persuade the Box Weaver-Spider to cooperate.
• In exchange for future deliveries of fresh, high-quality bugs, the spider gives Liu Zheng another Yarn Ball. It explains that the yarn can completely cocoon and conceal a weakened target, rendering them unable to move, think, or be detected.
• Liu Zheng also obtains two strands of Spirit Silk to repair the damaged clothing of two friends. He negotiates the payment terms from 500,000 to an 800,000 deduction in exchange for office-building bugs, signing a written contract with the spider.
• Outside the cave, Liu Zheng activates the Weaver Lady’s tracking Yarn Ball. It leads him and the tank through Metropolis to a strange alley that the tank cannot enter.
• Liu Zheng enters alone and follows the yarn into a hidden, Black-Market-like district. After knocking on an unmarked room, he claims to have been referred there.
• The occupant ambushes him immediately. A Human-Headed Spider attacks with unusually powerful, spear-like forelimbs and poisonous webs.
• Liu Zheng loses a tentacle, regenerates it, and battles the spider with the Cleaver and Rusty Blade. The enemy’s body is extremely tough, and its “spider legs” are revealed to be artificial or weapon-like spears.
• To awaken the full power of his Rusty Blade, Liu Zheng deliberately endures severe injuries and poison. His anger triggers the system’s condition, unlocking “Anger” as “Seven Sins: Wrath.”
• The Rusty Blade sheds its rust, revealing azure-gold dragon scales and transforming into a powerful horizontal saber-like weapon. Liu Zheng ends the chapter exhilarated by the weapon’s evolution.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng becomes more confident and aggressive in negotiations. He relies on intimidation, deception, legal loopholes, and calculated bargaining rather than brute force alone.
• He demonstrates growing familiarity with supernatural commerce and faction politics, particularly the Weaver-Spider Clan’s relationships and monopolistic abilities.
• His combat style becomes increasingly reckless and pain-tolerant. He deliberately sacrifices flesh and accepts poison to satisfy the conditions for unlocking Wrath.
• The Box Weaver-Spider shifts from hostile gatekeeper to reluctant business partner. It remains proud, temperamental, and protective of its craft, but recognizes Liu Zheng as a valuable and unusually well-connected customer.
• The Human-Headed Spider is introduced as a dangerous ambusher with exceptional physical strength, poisonous attacks, and weaponized limbs, immediately providing Liu Zheng with a serious challenge.
• The tank driver continues to act cryptically and pragmatically, refusing to enter the alley and insisting that certain places can only be accessed by Liu Zheng.

Significant Themes

• Commerce amid danger: Even supernatural beings treat violence, favors, contracts, and resources as parts of business negotiations.
• Manipulation and mutual benefit: Liu Zheng wins cooperation not through trust alone, but by identifying the spider’s interests and presenting himself as a profitable long-term partner.
• Power through suffering: Liu Zheng’s advancement depends on enduring pain and deliberately pushing himself toward emotional and physical extremes.
• Transformation and hidden potential: The Rusty Blade’s evolution reflects Liu Zheng’s own progression, with anger and brutality becoming sources of new power.
• Law and absurd bureaucracy: References to police, taxation, contracts, and legal responsibility create a comic contrast with the bizarre supernatural setting.
• Predator and prey reversals: Liu Zheng, normally the ambusher, is caught off guard and forced to experience vulnerability, intensifying his rage and determination.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and the Box Weaver-Spider trade threats, insults, and bargaining tactics before settling into an uneasy commercial alliance.
• Liu Zheng invokes the Weaver Lady’s favor to establish credibility, while the Box Weaver-Spider warns that failure to deliver suitable bugs could lead to the Weaver-Spider Clan blacklisting him.
• Their contract negotiation highlights their opposing personalities: Liu Zheng is opportunistic and argumentative, while the spider is proud, possessive, and protective of its artisan status.
• Liu Zheng and the tank driver exchange terse, sarcastic remarks during the pursuit of the Yarn Ball, with the driver refusing to enter the mysterious alley.
• Liu Zheng’s encounter with the Human-Headed Spider is immediately adversarial. The spider attacks without warning, forcing him into a brutal close-quarters fight that culminates in the awakening of Wrath and the Dragon-Scale Blade.

Chapter Summary: “Bloodstained Restaurant Ruins”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng acquires Seven Sins: Wrath, a perfect-quality kitchen knife that increases its attack power with his anger, strengthens the enemy’s “ingredient grade,” and allows him to transform into a Wrath Demon by spending Sanity Value.
• He immediately uses it against the Human-Headed Spider. After blocking its attack, the spider pierces his heart and abdomen and tears out his heart and intestines.
• Thanks to his abnormal Black Goat-derived vitality and regeneration, Liu Zheng remains standing and retaliates brutally. His rage greatly enhances the weapon, allowing him to cut through the spider’s spear-like legs and flesh.
• Liu Zheng kills the spider by severing its head, then continues hacking the corpse into minced meat while still consumed by Wrath. Once his anger fades, the weapon returns to its rusty form.
• He realizes that the knife’s rage-enhancing effect also increases the enemy’s ingredient grade, but his uncontrolled attack has ruined most of the spider’s body and greatly reduced its value. He salvages only one spinneret, hoping to sell it to Weaver Lady or White-Feather Chicken.
• Liu Zheng notices an abandoned house near the ruined Black Market and senses that it contains something important, but wisely decides not to investigate.
• After leaving the concealed ruin, he discusses the location with the driver. The driver explains that the Black Market’s ruins retain varying functions, rules, and dangers, while City Hall generally avoids interfering with abandoned or still-operating areas. Liu Zheng briefly considers investigating ruins connected to the Bloodstained Restaurant but abandons the idea after being warned of their instability.
• At Rose Street, the French Plane Tree complains that Liu Zheng has not brought it alcohol. It also reveals that Bird has noticed a decrease in the Border Management Bureau’s patrols, caused by the Bureau’s current shortage of personnel.
• Liu Zheng then visits the Fisherman in the Sewer and tells him about the powerful Grudge Fish, whose flesh can raise an ordinary soul’s strength by an entire tier or restore a damaged soul’s health and memories.
• The Fisherman is annoyed that Liu Zheng knew about this treasure before him and kicks him into the Sewer River to catch one.
• Equipped with the Heart of the Ocean, Liu Zheng survives the river’s corrosive, viscous waters and uses bait made from liquor, Worm Flesh, and cat droppings.
• A terrifying Grudge Fish appears, radiating overwhelming soul power. Although Liu Zheng recognizes that he would be at a disadvantage in a direct fight, the fish ignores him and devours the bait.
• The system announces that Liu Zheng has triggered the “Chumming Immortal” state and will receive a random blessing, ending the chapter on a cliffhanger.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates extreme resilience, surviving catastrophic injuries and using pain and anger to fuel his combat strength.
• His battle style becomes even more savage and excessive under the influence of Seven Sins: Wrath. Once clearheaded, he regrets destroying the spider’s valuable body, showing that his practical merchant instincts remain beneath his violent impulses.
• He continues to balance recklessness with caution: although he is attracted to dangerous opportunities, he ultimately avoids entering the suspicious ruins.
• Liu Zheng’s network of relationships expands through information exchange. He maintains connections with the driver, French Plane Tree, Fisherman, and other strange residents of the Metropolis.
• The driver is characterized as both concerned and entertained by Liu Zheng’s tendency to seek danger.
• The French Plane Tree has grown more arrogant, now calling itself a duke, but remains dependent on Liu Zheng for alcohol.
• The Fisherman’s irritation reveals both pride in his role as Sewer spokesperson and uncertainty about the Sewer’s hidden history.

Significant Themes

• Anger as power and liability: Liu Zheng’s rage makes him vastly stronger, but it also causes him to destroy valuable resources and lose control of his actions.
• Risk versus reward: Dangerous ruins, hidden treasures, and powerful entities offer major opportunities, yet their unstable rules make them potentially more deadly than ordinary threats.
• Survival and regeneration: Liu Zheng’s ability to endure impossible injuries reinforces his abnormal nature and gives him confidence in confronting monsters far stronger than himself.
• Information and alliances: Knowledge is treated as a form of power. Liu Zheng’s progress depends on trading information and maintaining relationships with powerful, eccentric figures.
• The decay of institutions: The decline of the Border Management Bureau and the abandoned Black Market ruins suggest that the Metropolis is under strain, with authorities unable to control every danger.
• Consumption and transformation: The chapter repeatedly links eating, ingredients, and power—through the spider’s body, Grudge Fish, and Liu Zheng’s “Chumming Immortal” blessing.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and the Human-Headed Spider: Their encounter is a vicious reversal of predator and prey. The spider expects its usual killing technique to work, but Liu Zheng survives and humiliates it before killing it.
• Liu Zheng and the driver: They exchange sarcastic remarks about Liu Zheng’s injuries and his attraction to danger. The driver both discourages and subtly encourages his risk-taking for entertainment.
• Liu Zheng and the French Plane Tree: Their relationship is an ongoing mix of bargaining, insults, and reluctant indulgence. The tree demands alcohol, while Liu Zheng tolerates its arrogance because it is one of his fixed shops.
• Liu Zheng and the Fisherman: The Fisherman resents Liu Zheng’s superior knowledge but still relies on him to locate the Grudge Fish. Their interaction ends with the Fisherman forcibly sending Liu Zheng into the Sewer River.
• Liu Zheng and the Grudge Fish: The fish recognizes Liu Zheng’s danger but is primarily attracted to the bait. Its appearance establishes it as a powerful and mysterious entity rather than an immediate enemy.

Chapter Summary: “The Round God Sect Came Knocking”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng remembers his Chumming Immortal blessing, which grants a random effect after each chumming attempt. His new blessing is “Fish Caught in the Crossfire,” allowing his attacks to deal 30% splash damage to nearby enemies.
• The Grudge Fish becomes intoxicated and transforms into a glowing, fish-shaped ball. Liu Zheng cannot safely extract it himself, so he calls on the Fisherman for help.
• After a comedic exchange, the Fisherman fishes both the Grudge Fish and Liu Zheng out of the river. He restrains the Grudge Fish with one of his fingernails, preventing it from waking or escaping for one month.
• The Fisherman gives Liu Zheng a specially bred cream strawberry fish to deliver to Sea Woman. His concern about being unable to protect Sea Woman from the Round God Sect reveals his emotional vulnerability as a father.
• Liu Zheng returns to the tank and chooses to visit the “Die Happily” Funeral Home rather than Du Kang Liquor Shop, deciding to postpone the more dangerous liquor-shop mission.
• Before he can leave, the Round God Sect surrounds the tank with black circles and an invisible barrier. Their representative, Garcia, appears and demands the bodies of their followers and the return of the Round God Cult Token.
• Liu Zheng returns the token, but Garcia then asks him to die. Liu Zheng responds with his usual sarcasm and refuses.
• Liu Zheng orders the driver to ram Garcia, but the driver explains that the tank cannot attack an enemy powerful enough to threaten Restaurant property. Garcia’s mask has changed from one circle to four semicircles, indicating that he has advanced in rank and strength.
• The chapter ends as the driver tells Liu Zheng that he has two choices, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng gains a valuable permanent combat ability through his new blessing, significantly improving his effectiveness against groups of enemies.
• His resourcefulness and shameless humor remain central to his character. He manipulates the Fisherman through flattery, jokes, and emotional pressure while still genuinely helping with the Grudge Fish.
• Liu Zheng also shows loyalty toward Sea Woman by agreeing to deliver the Fisherman’s gift and offering to help protect her.
• The Fisherman is portrayed as irritable and violent but deeply caring. His sadness over being unable to defend Sea Woman exposes his paternal affection and sense of helplessness.
• Garcia returns as a more powerful and threatening antagonist. His calm politeness contrasts with his willingness to demand Liu Zheng’s death, showing the fanaticism and determination of the Round God Sect.
• The driver demonstrates that his primary responsibility is protecting the Restaurant and its property, even if that prevents him from directly supporting Liu Zheng in battle.

Significant Themes

• Power and escalation: Liu Zheng obtains a new ability, but Garcia has advanced even more rapidly, emphasizing the constant competition among powerful figures.
• Family and parental responsibility: The Fisherman’s concern for Sea Woman highlights the sacrifices and limitations involved in trying to protect family.
• Humor as defiance: Liu Zheng uses sarcasm and provocative banter to resist intimidation, even when facing a stronger enemy.
• Rules and limitations: The Restaurant’s protective rules prevent the driver from attacking Garcia, demonstrating that supernatural power is constrained by institutional or system-like laws.
• Cult loyalty and fanaticism: Garcia’s demand to recover the followers’ bodies and avenge their deaths reflects the Round God Sect’s unity and devotion to its mysterious lord.
• Identity and appearance: The exchange about gender, physical form, and “attachment to appearances” reflects the setting’s fluid supernatural identities while also serving as comic banter.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and the Fisherman: Their relationship is antagonistic but familiar, resembling a hostile father-in-law and son-in-law dynamic. They trade insults, threaten one another, and still cooperate when necessary.
• Liu Zheng and Sea Woman: Although Sea Woman does not appear directly, Liu Zheng’s willingness to carry the Fisherman’s gift and defend her indicates growing involvement in her family affairs.
• Liu Zheng and Garcia: Their confrontation is defined by verbal sparring. Garcia remains polite and formal, while Liu Zheng mocks his cult, rejects his threats, and challenges his authority.
• Liu Zheng and the driver: The driver acts as both transportation and a source of tactical information. His refusal to ram Garcia forces Liu Zheng to confront the enemy’s increased power.
• Garcia and the Round God Sect: Garcia’s actions show that he acts on behalf of the sect’s followers and their mysterious “lord,” treating their deaths and the recovery of the cult token as matters of religious duty.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng is trapped inside the Bloodstained Restaurant delivery vehicle while Garcia seals the area with divine power. The driver explains that Liu can either wait out the delivery timer or leave and fight Garcia.
• Unable to contact 4399 because Garcia has blocked communications, Liu considers several strategies: using the Delivery Slip to escape, negotiating, or revealing his strongest weapons and killing Garcia.
• Liu taunts Garcia over his followers’ deaths and tries to convince him that the real culprit was Sha-chan, not Liu. Garcia insists that Liu is still an accomplice and intends to kill him after dealing with the other culprit.
• Liu proposes cooperation, offering to help Garcia escape the city district. Their conversation reveals that the Bloodstained Restaurant commissioned the Mermaid Princess’s capture through intermediaries, while Garcia’s group served as the “black gloves”—the expendable agents who carried out the dirty work.
• Garcia explains the history of the Three-Eyed Race. Although they were peaceful and contributed greatly to Metropolis, City Hall exterminated them after labeling them dangerous because their bloodlines preserved forbidden knowledge.
• Liu and Garcia debate City Hall’s authoritarian efficiency and morality. Liu defends order, even under flawed institutions, while Garcia condemns City Hall’s willingness to sacrifice an entire race for convenience.
• Liu presents three escape plans:
  1. Garcia hides in a delivery vehicle leaving the city, using Liu’s Public Security connections.
  2. Garcia hides in a grave at the Cemetery until the search dies down.
  3. Liu takes Garcia through the Sewer to an outlet leading to the sea.
• Garcia rejects or doubts all three plans, especially the sea route, since the Deep Sea Empire is pursuing them over the Mermaid Princess.
• Garcia proposes placing a restriction on Liu as insurance, promising to remove it after escaping. Liu mocks the idea, leading to a tense exchange.
• When Garcia claims even the Delivery Slip may not guarantee Liu’s escape, Liu suddenly gets an idea and asks whether Garcia has heard of a “staff technique that falls from the heavens,” hinting at a new tactic or supernatural weapon.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains outwardly playful and sarcastic but is calculating and increasingly serious about killing Garcia before he becomes a long-term threat. He weighs escape, negotiation, deception, and the use of multiple trump cards.
• Liu demonstrates greater strategic confidence, exploiting his connections to City Hall and the Public Security Division while concealing how much he truly knows.
• His attitude toward City Hall is pragmatic rather than idealistic: he recognizes its cruelty but believes flawed order is preferable to chaos.
• Garcia is shown to be powerful, patient, suspicious, and politically aware. Rather than attacking immediately, he seals the area and waits, confident that Liu has limited options.
• Garcia’s hostility is complicated by his willingness to negotiate and his clear desire to survive. His anger toward City Hall stems from the genocide of the Three-Eyed Race, making his allegiance to the Round God Sect more understandable.
• The conversation reveals Garcia as both a fugitive and a victim of systemic oppression, though he still justifies criminal actions as necessary work performed for more powerful organizations.

Significant Themes

• Survival versus morality: Both men justify their actions as necessary responses to oppressive systems or limited choices.
• Institutional violence and scapegoating: City Hall’s extermination of the Three-Eyed Race illustrates how bureaucratic institutions can label minorities as threats and sacrifice them for administrative convenience.
• Order versus freedom: Liu argues that even imperfect authority is preferable to disorder, while Garcia believes City Hall’s order is fundamentally unjust.
• Power and dependency: The Bloodstained Restaurant and its clients use groups like Garcia’s as disposable intermediaries, raising questions about who is truly responsible for wrongdoing.
• Negotiation as psychological warfare: Liu and Garcia use sarcasm, provocation, partial truths, and competing escape proposals to test each other’s weaknesses.
• Control and trust: Garcia’s proposed restriction reflects his inability to trust Liu, while Liu rejects any arrangement that places him at Garcia’s mercy.

Character Interactions

• Liu and the driver discuss the limited choices created by Garcia’s divine barrier.
• Liu and Garcia engage in a prolonged verbal duel, alternating between threats, mockery, negotiation, and reluctant mutual recognition.
• Liu challenges Garcia’s claim to moral superiority by emphasizing that the Restaurant and its patrons bear responsibility for the Mermaid Princess’s capture.
• Garcia questions Liu’s willingness to serve City Hall despite understanding its corruption.
• Their exchange about the Three-Eyed Race briefly creates common ground, as both acknowledge the cruelty and inefficiency of bureaucracy.
• Despite their antagonism, they recognize each other’s intelligence and resourcefulness. The chapter ends with Liu apparently preparing to turn the negotiation—or Garcia’s own confidence—into a new counterattack.

Chapter Summary: The Sphinx: If I’d Known, I Wouldn’t Have Eaten Those Dried Fish

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng attempts to summon Captain Dragonfly while trapped beneath Garcia’s divine barrier, but his voice cannot pass through the layers of black circular restrictions.
• He instead summons the Sphinx’s phantom through their connection. The Sphinx links its consciousness to him, allowing telepathic communication, though it angrily complains that Liu Zheng manipulated it by feeding it dried fish and giving it a Yarn Ball.
• The Sphinx tries to break the barrier by shouting a summoning command and firing golden hieroglyphs at the black circles. The attempt severely injures it, causing it to vomit worms and pieces of its own organs.
• With assistance from the Nile Doctor, the Sphinx absorbs the power contained in the Sacred Scripture Tablet. Its subsequent attacks weaken the barrier enough to create a temporary opening.
• The Sphinx sacrifices even more of its power, ultimately consuming the tablet and using its inscriptions to destroy part of the restriction. This allows Captain Dragonfly to descend into the area.
• Liu Zheng introduces Captain Dragonfly to Garcia as Metropolis’s impartial referee. Garcia immediately attacks, transforming the black circles into blood-red ones and firing deadly beams.
• Liu hides inside the tank, redirecting the attack toward Captain Dragonfly. Captain Dragonfly blocks the assault with its cape, then retaliates with explosive attacks.
• Garcia absorbs Captain Dragonfly’s fire attack using his “All Things Are Rings” ability, revealing that he is far more powerful than an ordinary contestant.
• Captain Dragonfly transforms into Judge Robot Captain Dragonfly, gaining a more imposing mechanical form and announcing its intention to punish Garcia.
• The battle escalates: Captain Dragonfly destroys Garcia’s blood-created ringworms with lightning, while Garcia invokes the forbidden spell “Void Maw,” summoning a gigantic spatial maw that swallows Captain Dragonfly.
• The driver explains that Void Maw damages spatial barriers and can attract dangerous void creatures. Garcia’s use of it adds another serious crime to his already extensive record.
• Liu and the driver discuss the relationship between gods, their believers, and Metropolis. Gods avoid personally descending because City Hall could retaliate, though Metropolis remains too valuable a source of resources and opportunities to abandon.
• The chapter ends as another disturbance emerges in the void, suggesting that Void Maw’s effects—or the battle itself—have created a new threat.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains resourceful and opportunistic. He relies on the Sphinx to break the barrier while pretending to worry about its safety, yet privately admits he would likely exploit the same opportunity again. He also demonstrates tactical cowardice by hiding in the tank and allowing Captain Dragonfly to take the redirected attack.
• The Sphinx shows both loyalty and resentment toward Liu. Although it complains about being manipulated, it risks severe injury to help him and proves willing to sacrifice the Sacred Scripture Tablet and much of its own body to summon Captain Dragonfly.
• Captain Dragonfly appears stronger after leveling up and becomes increasingly enthusiastic about fighting Garcia. Its commitment to fairness applies primarily to formal matches, while outside them it eagerly punishes Garcia for attacking a referee.
• Garcia reveals greater power and versatility than expected. He can manipulate blood, convert circles into rings, absorb attacks, and use the forbidden Void Maw spell. His desperation and hesitation before invoking Void Maw suggest that even he recognizes its danger.
• The Nile Doctor demonstrates trust in the Sphinx by immediately providing the Sacred Scripture Tablet without questioning its request.
• The driver/Colonel serves as a knowledgeable observer, explaining the danger of Void Maw and the political relationship between Metropolis, City Hall, and the gods.

Significant Themes

• Exploitation and reluctant cooperation: Liu’s survival depends on the Sphinx, but their partnership is built on manipulation, irritation, and mutual usefulness rather than pure trust.
• Power and sacrifice: Breaking the divine barrier requires the Sphinx to sacrifice its health, the Sacred Scripture Tablet, and potentially part of its life force.
• Law versus independent authority: Captain Dragonfly claims to represent Metropolis’s own fairness rather than City Hall, raising questions about whether true impartiality can exist in a city dominated by divine and political powers.
• Escalation and forbidden power: Both sides continually reveal stronger abilities, culminating in Garcia’s use of Void Maw, a spell powerful enough to destabilize space itself.
• Metropolis as a strategic crossroads: The discussion emphasizes that Metropolis is dangerous but indispensable, functioning as a center of resources, divine influence, and interspecies competition.
• Humor amid danger: Liu’s complaints about his scalp, dried fish, and the Yarn Ball contrast with the Sphinx’s grotesque injuries and the deadly magical battle.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu and the Sphinx communicate telepathically, bickering over Liu’s manipulation and the Sphinx’s painful attempt to help him.
• The Nile Doctor cooperates with the Sphinx by supplying the Sacred Scripture Tablet.
• Liu and Captain Dragonfly exchange exaggerated compliments, establishing a familiar and somewhat comedic relationship.
• Garcia challenges Captain Dragonfly’s legitimacy, while Captain Dragonfly responds by treating Garcia as a rule-breaking contestant deserving punishment.
• Liu and the driver observe the battle and discuss the limits of divine power, the danger of Void Maw, and why gods continue engaging with Metropolis despite its risks.
• Captain Dragonfly and Garcia engage in a rapidly escalating duel, with each countering the other’s attacks until Garcia uses Void Maw to swallow the referee.

Chapter Summary: The Worth of Captain Dragonfly

Key Plot Points and Events

• Captain Dragonfly escapes the Void Maw by using its ultrasonic attack and physically forcing the creature’s jaws open. It seals the spatial wound with a piece of its own armor and repels the Void Maw.
• Angered by Garcia’s defiance, Captain Dragonfly attacks him with its enormous Giant Palm. Garcia activates Endless Renewal, transforming his body into countless black ring worms that absorb and neutralize the mechanical hand.
• Garcia counterattacks by creating a giant fist of black ring worms. Captain Dragonfly destroys it with Supreme Sanction, summoning lightning dragonflies that reduce the attack to ash.
• As Captain Dragonfly prepares to strike Garcia again, Garcia exploits the competition’s rules. He argues that, since he was not previously a contestant, his attack on the referee could not have violated the rules. He then formally enters the competition and challenges Liu Zheng.
• Garcia proposes competing in occult knowledge, believing his Three-Eyed Race heritage gives him an overwhelming advantage. Liu Zheng objects, so Captain Dragonfly chooses the event itself.
• Using its Revolving Beacon, Captain Dragonfly randomly selects “Appraising Treasures” as the contest.
• The rules prohibit extraordinary abilities, extraordinary items, outside assistance, and interference. Contestants must alternately present extraordinary items for the opponent to identify; the first failed appraisal loses.
• The contest begins with Liu Zheng. He selects a fused laser pointer that Garcia successfully identifies as two extraordinary items combined into one, originally associated with two spiritually manifested cats and capable of a powerful single-use piercing attack.
• Garcia then presents a triangular arrowhead: the Slime-Slaying Arrow. Liu Zheng secretly uses his system to identify it as a fine-quality, single-use weapon that deals increased damage to Slimes and may instantly kill one by striking a vital point.
• The chapter ends as Liu Zheng’s time expires and Captain Dragonfly demands his appraisal.

Character Developments

• Garcia demonstrates exceptional intelligence, adaptability, and survival instinct. Rather than continue a losing battle against Captain Dragonfly, he manipulates the rules to transform the conflict into a formal competition.
• His fear of death remains central to his behavior. It prevents him from completing the fourth semicircle of Iron Mask, but it also drives his clever attempts to find a safer path to survival.
• Liu Zheng remains sarcastic and competitive, mocking Garcia and resisting Captain Dragonfly’s decisions. He also shows restraint and deception by concealing his system’s appraisal ability.
• Liu’s system provides him with a decisive hidden advantage, allowing him to identify items regardless of their obscurity.
• Captain Dragonfly is shown to be both powerful and rigidly devoted to its role as referee. Although it appears personally hostile toward Garcia, it insists that its decisions are impartial and rule-based.

Significant Themes

• Rules as weapons: Garcia survives by interpreting the competition’s rules creatively, showing that clever reasoning can be as powerful as direct strength.
• Knowledge versus force: The chapter contrasts Captain Dragonfly’s overwhelming mechanical power, Garcia’s occult knowledge, and Liu Zheng’s concealed system advantage.
• Survival and self-preservation: Garcia’s fear of death shapes both his hesitation and his strategic brilliance.
• Fairness and impartiality: The contest repeatedly raises questions about whether Captain Dragonfly can truly remain neutral, especially because of its familiarity with Liu Zheng.
• Concealed advantages: Both contestants hide important strengths—Garcia possesses inherited Three-Eyed Race knowledge, while Liu Zheng secretly relies on his appraisal system.

Character Interactions

• Captain Dragonfly and Garcia move from direct combat into a tense verbal and legalistic confrontation over the rules.
• Garcia and Liu Zheng trade insults and argue over who should choose the contest, while each tries to exploit the other’s weaknesses.
• Captain Dragonfly acts as both opponent and arbiter, enforcing rules while openly displaying greater irritation toward Garcia.
• Liu Zheng’s secret system gives him an advantage over Garcia, but he must maintain a worried appearance so that Garcia does not discover the truth.

Chapter Summary: “Divine Monster Ettolrahc”

Plot Points and Major Events

• Liu Zheng successfully appraises Garcia’s hidden item as a Slime-Slaying Arrow, correctly identifying its single-use nature, bonus damage against Slimes, instant-death effect, and the creator’s goal of eradicating Slimes.
• Garcia accuses Liu Zheng of cheating, but Captain Dragonfly finds no evidence and allows the match to continue.
• For the next appraisal, Liu Zheng gives Garcia the mysterious walnut. Garcia determines that it contains something, was hidden inside a powerful creature’s refrigerated corpse, and cannot be opened without risking damage to its contents—but he fails to identify what is inside. Captain Dragonfly therefore declares his appraisal unsuccessful.
• Liu Zheng wins the match and receives a Gold Champion Medal, his third. The medal grants preferential treatment, and collecting ten will produce a much greater reward that can be transferred to a legally recognized family member. Liu Zheng decides he will eventually give the reward to Cow-Horse by becoming its adoptive father.
• Captain Dragonfly reveals that the actual winner’s prize is a random extraordinary item taken from the loser. Before the prize can be awarded, Garcia escapes and activates his final plan.
• Garcia sacrifices his own bloodline inheritance—and effectively the future of the entire Three-Eyed Race—to gain divine power from Round God. He teleports away the Hound and its driver, traps Liu Zheng and Captain Dragonfly inside a restricted area, and summons the terrifying divine monster Ettolrahc.
• Garcia struggles to control Ettolrahc, whose destructive nature makes it dangerous even to Round God’s followers. After using more of his bloodline as a sacrifice and invoking the monster’s true name, Garcia forces it to attack Liu Zheng and Captain Dragonfly.
• Captain Dragonfly chooses to protect Liu Zheng rather than allow the match to end in murder. It pierces its own chest and unleashes “Captain Dragonfly’s Great Tragedy,” breaking Garcia’s confinement spell. The attack causes Garcia severe backlash.
• As Captain Dragonfly prepares to fight Ettolrahc, the monster decides to devour both opponents. Its mouth contains not normal flesh but an abyss filled with distortion.
• Captain Dragonfly attacks the monster’s nose, and the collision damages space itself, sending Liu Zheng flying. When Liu Zheng strikes the ground, he finally understands the fleeting insight he gained from sensing the monster’s mouth: “Emptiness. Distortion.”

Character Development

• Liu Zheng demonstrates exceptional appraisal ability, defeating Garcia despite the item’s complexity. He also shows growing resourcefulness, relying on his collection of perfect-quality equipment when Garcia’s control spell limits what he can use.
• Liu Zheng’s relationship with Cow-Horse becomes more affectionate and protective. His plan to transfer the ten-medal reward to Cow-Horse shows that he views it as family, even joking about adopting it.
• Garcia becomes increasingly desperate and ruthless after losing. His willingness to sacrifice the Three-Eyed Race’s inherited bloodline for power reveals that his pride and hatred outweigh his responsibility to his people.
• Garcia’s final transformation into a demigod does not make him fully secure; he remains fearful of Ettolrahc and must use additional sacrifices to control it.
• Captain Dragonfly reveals a strong sense of justice and personal sacrifice. Although it longs to become an independent entity, it refuses to abandon Liu Zheng or violate its duty as referee. Its willingness to die rather than allow an illegal killing gives the character tragic nobility.
• Ettolrahc is established as a powerful, unstable, and almost incomprehensible divine monster. Despite its absurd appearance, its aura and abilities inspire instinctive terror.

Significant Themes

• Justice versus manipulation: Captain Dragonfly’s decisions emphasize that fairness must operate within rules and evidence, while Garcia attempts to force victory through divine power.
• Sacrifice and responsibility: Garcia sacrifices his race’s future for revenge, whereas Captain Dragonfly sacrifices itself to uphold its duty and protect a contestant.
• Identity and family: Liu Zheng’s plan to become Cow-Horse’s adoptive father highlights that legal or chosen relationships can matter as much as blood ties.
• Power and its costs: Divine strength requires severe payment. Garcia’s power destroys his own people’s inheritance and threatens to consume him, while Captain Dragonfly’s ultimate technique damages its own existence.
• The limits of control: Garcia summons Ettolrahc but cannot truly command it without repeated sacrifices. The monster represents forces that exceed mortal understanding.
• Emptiness and distortion: Liu Zheng’s final insight suggests that Ettolrahc’s power is connected to void-like space manipulation, setting up the next stage of the conflict.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Garcia’s appraisal contest shifts from formal competition to open hostility.
• Captain Dragonfly acts as both judge and protector, rejecting Garcia’s protests while later risking its life to save Liu Zheng.
• Garcia’s relationship with Round God is shown as transactional: he sacrifices his race’s inheritance in exchange for divine power.
• Captain Dragonfly and Liu Zheng share a brief but meaningful exchange before the battle, with the referee promising to create an opening for Liu Zheng to escape.
• Liu Zheng’s observation of Ettolrahc’s mouth leads to a crucial conceptual breakthrough about emptiness and distortion, potentially giving him a way to resist or understand the monster.

Chapter Summary: “Settlement Instance? (First Update)”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng recalls Captain Dragonfly’s advice to eliminate “Unnamable” entities and decides to join Dragonfly against the Ettolrahc monster.
• Transforming into a White-Feather Chicken, Liu Zheng attacks with the Rusty Blade and Cleaver. His initial strike is easily repelled, leaving him injured and revealing the enormous difference in strength between him and the monster.
• Ettolrahc severely wounds Captain Dragonfly and prepares to kill it with a drilling tentacle and a constricting blue tendril. Dragonfly urges Liu Zheng to flee, but Liu Zheng refuses to abandon the battle or let Dragonfly claim the victory alone.
• Liu Zheng forcibly unseals the Rusty Blade using the Head Chef’s blood. The weapon becomes the Dragon-Scale Blade, and Liu enters the “Rage Incarnate” state through temporary madness. His fire-infused attacks are powerful enough to threaten the monster.
• Ettolrahc attacks with multicolored projectiles, but Liu counters with “Vacuum Spherical Chicken,” creating a vacuum that neutralizes the barrage. He then strikes at the monster’s head.
• The monster reveals a little girl inside its flower-like body. Her bites cause corresponding wounds to appear on Liu, nearly destroying his wing and making him drop the blade. Liu recovers the weapon with his talons and beak.
• Liu uses nutrient fluid, but it cannot heal the deeper damage. Instead, it reconnects him to the White-Feather Chicken at the Bloodstained Restaurant, allowing the Head Chef to intervene through the cosplay outfit.
• The White-Feather Chicken joins Liu remotely. Together they enlarge the vacuum field, shrink Ettolrahc to fish-like size, and butcher it with the technique “Butcher’s Cow-Horse.” The monster’s flesh is collected as valuable ingredients.
• Ettolrahc retaliates by biting its lollipop, causing itself to vanish and reappear elsewhere with its wounds healed. The White-Feather Chicken senses danger, cuts the connection, and leaves Liu falling helplessly as the cosplay outfit collapses into mud.
• The monster binds Liu with black rings and begins transforming him into candy before sucking him toward its mouth. A system restriction prevents Liu from using most items, since only legendary-quality items can function fully under the enemy’s control.
• Liu discovers that his status ability remains usable and considers activating Ra’s Grace or settling the dungeon. The monster also captures Captain Dragonfly, leaving both characters apparently close to death.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates reckless courage and competitiveness. Despite being badly outmatched, he refuses to retreat and insists on fighting alongside Captain Dragonfly.
• His anger triggers his “Rage Incarnate” state, showing that temporary madness can serve as a source of strength rather than merely a liability.
• Liu becomes increasingly dependent on the White-Feather Chicken’s inherited skills and eventually entrusts his body to the Head Chef’s instincts.
• He experiences a sharp emotional reversal: after briefly becoming stronger than ever, he is suddenly stripped of his abilities and left nearly powerless, producing feelings of emptiness, relief, and despair.
• The White-Feather Chicken reveals its exceptional culinary and combat abilities, especially in slaughtering and processing powerful monsters. It also displays practical greed by immediately recognizing Ettolrahc’s flesh as a potentially valuable ingredient.
• Captain Dragonfly remains willing to sacrifice itself, using its self-destruct potential and urging Liu Zheng to escape, but Liu’s intervention prevents it from facing the monster alone.
• Ettolrahc is shown to be childish, malicious, and deceptively intelligent. Beneath its playful appearance, it possesses terrifying powers, adaptive defenses, and a strong desire to experience the human world.

Significant Themes

• Courage versus survival: Liu Zheng repeatedly chooses danger over retreat, even when rational survival would demand escape.
• Madness as liberation: In the oppressive Metropolis, Liu views temporary madness as a welcome release from fear and restraint.
• The value of cooperation and connection: Liu’s bond with the White-Feather Chicken allows him to access power that he could never produce alone.
• Power and vulnerability: The battle emphasizes how quickly strength can be gained and lost, leaving Liu to confront his dependence on borrowed abilities and equipment.
• Consumption and transformation: The monster turns enemies into candy and treats living beings as snacks, while the White-Feather Chicken processes the monster itself as food. Both sides reduce life to something consumable.
• Forbidden technology and higher powers: The discussion of cosplay outfits highlights the danger of copying abilities and suggests that powerful unseen forces regulate what technologies may spread.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Captain Dragonfly develop a competitive but cooperative relationship. Liu refuses Dragonfly’s command to run and frames the battle as a contest over who will kill the monster first.
• Liu directly taunts Ettolrahc, provoking its anger and contributing to the escalation of the fight.
• The White-Feather Chicken communicates indirectly with Liu through the cosplay outfit, effectively taking over the battle and combining its skills with his.
• The White-Feather Chicken treats the defeated monster as a butchered ingredient rather than merely an enemy, revealing its professional detachment and culinary priorities.
• Ettolrahc retaliates against both Liu and Captain Dragonfly, binding them simultaneously and turning the pair’s cooperation into a shared struggle for survival.

Summary

• Plot/events: No narrative events occur. The author announces that they are eating their first meal of the day and plan to resume writing afterward. The next chapter will be posted sometime before dawn, though the exact time is unknown.
• Character development: No fictional characters are present or developed. The author briefly shares a personal update about their routine and writing plans.
• Themes: The passage emphasizes the ongoing writing process, patience, and the uncertainty of publication timing.
• Character interactions: There is no fictional interaction, but the author directly addresses readers, reassuring them that they do not need to wait for the update and can read it whenever convenient the following day.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng reflects that he could technically end the mission. He has survived beyond the required time, completed numerous events, gathered valuable rewards, learned new skills, earned major achievements, and gained recognition across Metropolis.
• Despite the dangers and increasingly powerful enemies, Liu Zheng refuses to settle the instance. He remains determined to fulfill his promises, protect those who have supported him, and destroy the forces exploiting and harming others.
• Inspired by revolutionary songs and ideals of workers’ unity, Liu Zheng calls upon the spirits of the Ace Tank Crew: Commander Maria, Kasitsin, Kolobanov, and Dimitri.
• The crew members join him one final time, gripping his tentacles and helping melt away the black circle restraining or corrupting him. Liu prepares to confront the monster using the Three-Shaku Mirror and laser pointer.
• Commander Maria stops Liu from attacking directly, insisting that his role is to survive and grow stronger. The crew instead requests support from headquarters through Kasitsin’s radio.
• Red Ghost responds, and the four crew members merge into a single blazing figure. Their combined form initially becomes Paul, a child soldier, who then transforms into an older, battle-worn young man.
• The monster attacks with a multicolored beam. Liu uses the Three-Shaku Mirror to summon Sha-chan’s clone, who splits the beam apart with his axe. The clone is then destroyed into candy-like fragments.
• Paul advances through the monster’s barrage of glowing bullets, which the flames surrounding him dissolve. He fires a German lieutenant’s pistol, merging with the bullet as it strikes the monster.
• The flames ignite the monster and sever its connection to the evil god’s power through the Divine Power Chains. Unable to escape or resist, the monster burns to ash.
• Garcia attempts to flee through a reincarnation portal, but Liu immediately fires the laser pointer and vaporizes over half of his body, mocking his escape attempt.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Demonstrates renewed resolve and a willingness to sacrifice his safety for his commitments. He rejects the pragmatic option of ending the mission and embraces the role of a revolutionary protector who intends to purge Metropolis of its “parasites.”
• Commander Maria and the Ace Tank Crew: Their remaining spirits make a final sacrifice to support Liu. They shift from individual comrades into a unified force, emphasizing their enduring loyalty and collective identity.
• Paul: Revealed as a young soldier willing to fight despite his age. His transformation into an older, battle-hardened figure symbolizes the loss of innocence and the way war turns children into soldiers. He completes the crew’s final attack and dies fighting.
• Sha-chan’s clone: Briefly serves as Liu’s shield, protecting the Ace Tank Crew by cutting apart the monster’s attack before being destroyed.
• The monster: Its confidence and overwhelming power collapse once the Ace Tank Crew’s flames sever its divine connection. It becomes helpless, trapped, and ultimately destroyed.
• Garcia: Shows his instinct for survival by attempting to escape through reincarnation, but Liu prevents him from fleeing and severely wounds him.

Significant Themes

• Duty over self-preservation: Liu’s refusal to settle reflects his belief that survival alone is insufficient when promises remain unfulfilled and innocent people still need protection.
• Revolution and class struggle: The workers’ song and Liu’s declaration against parasites frame the conflict as a rebellion against exploitative powers and oppressive elites.
• Comradeship and collective sacrifice: The Ace Tank Crew’s final union demonstrates the strength of loyalty, solidarity, and shared purpose even after death.
• The transformation caused by war: Paul’s change from a child into a hardened young soldier highlights how conflict destroys childhood but can also create extraordinary courage.
• Hope through resistance: The crew’s fading flames resemble the last light before dawn, suggesting that sacrifice can empower those who continue the struggle.
• Defiance against fate and authority: Liu challenges both the monster and the larger divine forces supporting it, refusing to accept that powerful beings are untouchable.

Character Interactions

• Liu speaks with the spirits of the Ace Tank Crew and asks them to charge with him once more.
• Maria affectionately but firmly stops Liu from risking himself, tells him to live and grow stronger, and shares a final kiss before rejoining her comrades.
• Kasitsin contacts Red Ghost, establishing headquarters’ support for the crew’s final assault.
• Liu is shocked when Paul appears, and Paul explains that although he was once a child, he is now a soldier.
• Sha-chan’s clone intervenes between Liu’s allies and the monster, protecting them from its beam.
• Paul directly confronts and destroys the monster by merging with his fired bullet.
• Liu interrupts Garcia’s attempted escape, using the laser pointer to attack him and making clear that he will not allow his enemies to evade judgment.

Chapter Summary: “Cleaning Up the Battlefield”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After Garcia’s defeat, Liu Zheng helps Captain Dragonfly recover from the battle. Dragonfly dismisses their armored form and coughs up broken sugar cubes and transformed ringworms.
• Although the competition was interrupted, Captain Dragonfly explains that it has not officially ended. As referee, they can still award Liu Zheng a prize taken from Garcia, along with an additional reward for helping protect the referee.
• Dragonfly reveals that their ability can extract hidden items from Garcia’s corpse, allowing Liu Zheng to search the body without wasting concealed loot. Since Dragonfly’s power system is incompatible with most items, they let Liu Zheng keep everything.
• Concerned that Garcia might be pretending to be dead, Liu Zheng asks for confirmation. Captain Dragonfly uses “Captain Dragonfly’s Lightning Fist” to strike the corpse with a powerful bolt of lightning, ensuring Garcia is completely dead—though this may damage his belongings.
• Liu Zheng cautiously approaches the charred corpse, keeping Captain Dragonfly between himself and Garcia in case of a trap. Their banter continues, showing how familiar and comfortable they have become.
• Liu Zheng removes Garcia’s Iron Mask and extracts the red third eye from the Three-Eyed Race contestant’s forehead.
• The third eye is revealed to be a Perfect-quality, single-use item that grants Spirit and Perception, may provide Spirit Sight or Three-Eyed Race bloodline abilities, and greatly enhances eye-related powers. However, its bloodline effects conflict dangerously with Liu Zheng’s existing Black Goat’s Young bloodline.
• Liu Zheng rejects the item’s more dangerous effects, particularly the possibility of gaining forbidden knowledge or permanent Spirit Sight, but recognizes the value of its enhancement ability.
• He also examines Garcia’s Iron Mask, discovering that it is merely a Fine-quality, invalid miscellaneous item with no current effect.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng beginning a more thorough search through Garcia’s charred remains.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates increased caution and pragmatism. Despite joking with Dragonfly, he remains alert to the possibility of Garcia reviving or setting a trap.
• He shows a stronger understanding of his own limitations, rejecting tempting abilities that could expose him to dangerous knowledge, unwanted bloodline changes, or supernatural observation.
• Liu Zheng also reveals his willingness to accept rewards after suffering major losses in the battle, including the loss of several important companions.
• Captain Dragonfly becomes more openly cooperative and trusting toward Liu Zheng. Their decision to share information and relinquish the loot reflects the comradeship formed through surviving the battle together.
• Dragonfly also maintains their authoritative role as referee, using overwhelming force to guarantee Garcia’s death and uphold the competition’s rules.

Significant Themes

• Comradeship forged through danger: Liu Zheng and Dragonfly’s relationship shifts from formal contestant-and-referee to genuine battlefield comrades, expressed through mutual trust, assistance, and teasing.
• Power versus risk: The third eye offers tremendous potential, but its benefits come with severe dangers. The chapter emphasizes that powerful abilities are not automatically worth obtaining.
• Knowledge as a threat: The third eye’s warning—“The more you know, the less you know. The more you see, the more you are seen”—highlights the dangers of forbidden knowledge, supernatural perception, and attracting the attention of unseen forces.
• Pragmatism over sentiment: Liu Zheng mourns the friends lost in battle but quickly returns to practical concerns such as securing loot, verifying Garcia’s death, and assessing useful items.
• The aftermath of conflict: Rather than ending with the victory itself, the chapter focuses on searching the battlefield, recovering resources, and dealing with the consequences of combat.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Captain Dragonfly exchange sarcastic remarks about hugs, prizes, human expressions, and Dragonfly’s desire to hit him, showing their newly informal relationship.
• Dragonfly offers Liu Zheng valuable information and the entirety of the recovered loot, while Liu Zheng accepts without unnecessary modesty.
• Their argument over whether Garcia is truly dead combines humor with genuine caution, ending in Dragonfly’s excessively thorough lightning strike.
• Liu Zheng’s respectful yet wary treatment of Dragonfly reflects both trust and his continued instinct for self-preservation.

Chapter Summary: Captain Dragonfly’s Extra Reward

Key Plot Points and Events

• After defeating Garcia and breaking apart the charcoal containing his remains, Liu Zheng discovers three items:
  • Quirky Teleportation Ring: A fine-quality ring that randomly teleports its user ten meters in one of four directions, with three uses per dungeon.
  • Blank Black Talisman Paper: Fine-quality paper made from Ten-Thousand-Year Yinwood, useful for creating talismans.
  • Mermaid Princess’s First Tear: A single-use item that permanently grants Water Element Affinity and may be used to create a highly prized aphrodisiac.
• Liu Zheng stores all three items in his system inventory, intending to potentially trade the teleportation ring or consult Nile Doctor about the mermaid’s tear.
• Captain Dragonfly offers Liu Zheng an additional reward for helping maintain the competition. He may:
  1. Redraw one item,
  2. Restrict the lottery to a chosen item type, or
  3. Draw two items with random negative effects.
• Liu Zheng chooses to restrict the reward pool to equipment, considering equipment more reliable and permanently useful than miscellaneous or single-use items.
• He draws the Reaper’s Register, a perfect-quality piece of equipment that generates dungeon-specific kill lists. Completing them grants rewards such as attribute increases, Hell Points, or items.
• The register must be used at least once in every dungeon, cannot be conventionally removed after being equipped, and threatens to summon the Reaper if its requirements are ignored.
• The system clarifies that the kill list will not contradict dungeon missions or target teammates, though its silence regarding teammates encountered during a dungeon alarms Liu Zheng.
• Despite recognizing the equipment as dangerous, Liu Zheng keeps it in his inventory rather than equipping it. He ends the chapter by spitting on Garcia’s ashes.

Character Development

• Liu Zheng demonstrates increasing caution and strategic judgment. He quickly rejects the reward involving negative effects and carefully weighs the risks of the redraw option before selecting equipment.
• His reactions show his pragmatic personality: he values useful permanent abilities but remains suspicious of items with hidden conditions.
• His disgust toward Garcia and the sinister nature of the Reaper’s Register reinforce Liu Zheng’s hostility toward cult-related forces.

Significant Themes

• Power versus risk: Strong abilities often come with dangerous flaws, such as the ring’s random teleportation or the register’s forced kill lists.
• The cost of rewards: Even bonus prizes can function as traps, requiring users to accept long-term consequences.
• Strategic decision-making: Liu Zheng succeeds by evaluating reliability and potential danger rather than choosing the most immediately attractive option.
• Systemic control and coercion: The Reaper’s Register represents a loss of freedom, turning equipment into an obligation enforced by supernatural punishment.
• Moral uncertainty: The possibility of kill lists involving unexpected dungeon acquaintances raises questions about loyalty, survival, and the limits of obedience.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Captain Dragonfly: Captain Dragonfly acknowledges Liu Zheng’s contribution and offers him a special reward. Their exchange highlights Liu Zheng’s ability to negotiate the dungeon’s systems intelligently.
• Liu Zheng and the system: Liu Zheng consults the system about possible conflicts between the kill list and dungeon missions or teammates. The system gives only a partial answer, increasing the register’s ambiguity.
• Liu Zheng and Garcia: Though Garcia is already reduced to ashes, Liu Zheng’s contempt is expressed through his final act of spitting on the remains.

Chapter Summary: “Legendary Deliveryman and Champion Deliveryman”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After defeating Garcia, the former chief priest of the Round God Sect, Liu Zheng reminds Captain Dragonfly that their competition had a promised reward.
• Although Captain Dragonfly initially believed the challenge was merely for show, he awards Liu Zheng another Gold Champion Medal because Liu won fairly and had also aided him.
• This brings Liu Zheng’s total to four Champion Medals. He learns that the mysterious Legendary Deliveryman once collected nine medals in a single week but never had the opportunity to earn the tenth.
• Captain Dragonfly explains that the Legendary Deliveryman was extremely powerful but unpredictable, alternating between good and evil actions. His instability made him dangerous and prevented him from completing the collection.
• Because Liu Zheng’s competition against the referee technically challenged the ideals behind the competition system, the authorities will give the Bloodstained Restaurant Deliverymen additional attention and opportunities. If Liu collects ten Gold Champion Medals, he will earn the title “Champion Deliveryman.”
• Captain Dragonfly departs after destroying the weakened divine power barrier.
• Liu Zheng contacts 4399 and reports Garcia’s death, giving the location of the body.
• He then argues with the French Plane Tree, who had observed the battle but did not intervene. The tree explains that he sensed only that the Growth Ring Pact had been severed and assumed Liu Zheng was facing an overwhelming threat.
• The French Plane Tree asks to eat Garcia’s head, but Liu Zheng refuses, warning that Garcia is a City Hall target and that the Sanitation Bureau could punish the tree severely.
• Their banter reveals the tree’s arrogance but also his fear of official authority.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to display his shameless opportunism and talent for exploiting loopholes. He confidently claims the competition reward and turns a dangerous battle into another step toward collecting medals.
• He is increasingly recognized as resembling the Legendary Deliveryman, though Captain Dragonfly sees Liu Zheng as more predictable and therefore less troubling.
• Captain Dragonfly becomes more favorable toward Liu Zheng because Liu fed him, accepted his gifts, and saved his life. He rewards Liu generously despite recognizing that Liu’s actions challenge the competition’s intended principles.
• The Legendary Deliveryman is further characterized as powerful, unstable, and morally unpredictable. His reputation serves as both a warning and a possible parallel to Liu Zheng’s future.
• The French Plane Tree maintains his proud “neighborhood boss” persona but is shown to be highly concerned with his reputation and fearful of the Sanitation Bureau. His relationship with Liu Zheng remains antagonistic yet familiar, built around insults, dependence, and mutual usefulness.
• 4399 responds efficiently to Liu Zheng’s report, suggesting that the organization is prepared to handle Garcia’s corpse and the aftermath.

Significant Themes

• Recognition and ambition: Liu Zheng’s pursuit of Champion Medals transforms competition victories into a personal goal and a future title.
• Order versus unpredictability: The contrast between Liu Zheng and the Legendary Deliveryman highlights the danger of power without consistency or moral predictability.
• Exploiting rules and institutions: Liu Zheng repeatedly bends formal systems to his advantage, while Captain Dragonfly acknowledges that such behavior can still be rewarded if it does not directly violate the rules.
• Authority and vulnerability: The French Plane Tree may dominate his local territory, but official institutions such as City Hall and the Sanitation Bureau possess far greater power.
• Comedic relationships amid danger: Serious events—Garcia’s death, divine barriers, and institutional punishment—are undercut by Liu Zheng’s teasing and the tree’s absurd vanity.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Captain Dragonfly interact through negotiation and playful exploitation. Liu insists on receiving the reward, while Captain Dragonfly reluctantly honors his claim and encourages him to pursue ten medals.
• Captain Dragonfly compares Liu Zheng with the Legendary Deliveryman, establishing Liu’s emerging reputation.
• Liu Zheng and the French Plane Tree trade insults about the tree’s dependence on Liu, his embarrassing dietary habits, and his self-appointed status as a noble ruler.
• Their argument over Garcia’s corpse shows both their casual familiarity and the limits of the tree’s courage when confronted by official authority.

Chapter Summary: “Another Faction Comes to Steal the Credit”

Key Plot Points and Events

• A black government sedan arrives after Liu Zheng kills the wanted criminal Garcia. Realizing the newcomers are not 4399 and 8848, Liu hides Garcia’s head in the Legendary Delivery Box and flees toward a manhole.
• A government agent from Criminal Investigation Division One pursues him. The agent identifies himself as a member of the Public Security Division and attacks with a miniature pistol capable of firing devastating high-heat laser rounds.
• Liu protects himself with the Dragon-Fishing Rod, which absorbs the heat ray. He then uses his enhanced goat-hoof kick to launch the manhole cover away and escape into the Sewer.
• The pursuer, later identified as Ma Kui, captain of a Major Crimes Group squad and a member of the Mixed-Blood Faction, chooses not to enter the Sewer. He leaves with a threat to Liu.
• Liu contacts Fisherman and Sha-chan for assistance. Fisherman reveals a specially bred archerfish hybrid, the “Golden Anti-Aircraft Cannon,” which fires swordfish swords instead of water.
• Before a confrontation occurs, 4399 contacts Liu. Liu meets 4399 and 8848 through a different manhole, maintaining his usual caution.
• The body of Garcia has been removed, apparently by the rival faction, but Liu retained Garcia’s head and Iron Mask. These items, combined with 4399’s ability to sense the aura of the Round God, are sufficient to prove Garcia’s identity.
• 4399 explains the Mixed-Blood Faction’s ideology: they seek to improve humanity through interbreeding with other races and create a superior “New Humanity.”
• Liu learns that the faction considers itself superior to pure-blooded humans and supports treating humans as pets. He also learns that there is no formal Pure-Blood Faction, though human-only marriage advocates are broadly associated with that position.
• Liu discusses joining the Pet-Rejection Faction but is advised to remain an outside affiliate because of his sensitive identity. He immediately attempts to negotiate compensation for his losses.
• Instead of reimbursement for his destroyed or expended items, Liu asks for a temporary skill-training disc. 8848 agrees to find a suitable one and begins searching the government vehicle.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Demonstrates extreme caution, decisiveness, and tactical creativity. He refuses to trust unknown officials, escapes through the Sewer, preserves evidence of Garcia’s identity, and uses humor and shameless bargaining to secure benefits. He also recognizes that improving his personal abilities is important because he relies heavily on powerful items.
• Ma Kui: Introduced as a highly capable and ruthless government investigator. He is impressed by Liu’s willingness to injure himself to resist interrogation but remains confident and professional. His decision not to enter the Sewer shows that even powerful City Hall officials respect the dangers of Metropolis’s landmarks.
• 4399: Acts as Liu’s reliable faction representative and explains the political structure and ideology of the Mixed-Blood Faction. He remains calm and expressionless but appears to value Liu’s contributions.
• 8848: Becomes increasingly familiar and affectionate toward Liu, jokingly mocking his caution while also treating him like a younger brother. He helps negotiate compensation and agrees to find Liu a skill-training disc.
• Fisherman: Reveals another bizarre and powerful aquatic creation, reinforcing his eccentricity and resourcefulness. His willingness to kill Ma Kui rather than merely delay him shows his more aggressive approach.
• Sha-chan: Appears alongside Fisherman as part of Liu’s support network, though she has little direct action in the chapter.

Significant Themes

• Factional rivalry and political opportunism: The chapter highlights how different City Hall factions compete to claim credit for major accomplishments, even attempting to seize evidence and bodies after Liu’s victory.
• Identity, bloodline, and superiority: The Mixed-Blood Faction’s ideology raises questions about whether humanity should preserve its identity or transform itself through interbreeding. Their belief in racial superiority parallels historical and fictional supremacist movements.
• Distrust of institutions: Liu’s refusal to blindly trust official employees reflects the dangerous and factional nature of City Hall. Official status does not guarantee cooperation or safety.
• Adaptation and survival: Liu relies on quick thinking, unusual equipment, and knowledge accumulated from his childhood to survive overwhelming threats.
• Power versus vulnerability: Despite possessing formidable items and hybrid abilities, Liu still seeks ways to strengthen himself directly, recognizing that dependence on equipment leaves him exposed.
• Humor amid danger: Liu’s bargaining, Fisherman’s absurd fish weapons, and the banter with 4399 and 8848 lighten an otherwise tense confrontation.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Ma Kui: Their brief confrontation establishes mutual recognition. Ma Kui sees Liu as ruthless and dangerous, while Liu treats Ma Kui as a potential credit-stealing enemy rather than a legitimate ally.
• Liu Zheng and Fisherman: Liu asks Fisherman for support, and Fisherman offers a lethal solution using the Golden Anti-Aircraft Cannon. Their exchange also showcases Fisherman’s strange humor.
• Liu Zheng, 4399, and 8848: The trio discusses Garcia’s evidence, the Mixed-Blood Faction, and the possibility of Liu joining the Pet-Rejection Faction. Their interaction shows growing trust and camaraderie.
• Liu Zheng and 8848: Liu skillfully turns his losses into a request for compensation, while 8848 complains about his manipulative behavior but ultimately agrees to help him obtain a training skill.
• Liu Zheng and 4399: 4399 provides crucial political information and acknowledges that Liu’s hybrid bloodline would attract the Mixed-Blood Faction’s interest, while also warning him about the consequences of their ideology.

Chapter Summary: “Shark-Tech Overlord Missile”

Key Plot Points and Events

• 8848 gives Liu Zheng two highly restricted skill-training discs: Iron Block and Witness, warning him that they must not fall into outside hands.
• Liu Zheng immediately uses both discs and gains:
  • Iron Block: Continuously consumes stamina to greatly increase physical strength.
  • Witness: Uses eye contact to mentally intimidate an enemy, though failure causes mental backlash and triggers a five-minute cooldown.
• The skills are especially valuable to Liu Zheng because his ability to store extra stamina makes Iron Block particularly compatible with him.
• Liu Zheng decides to use the political credit from his recent achievements to help Silver Wolf obtain a deputy section chief position. 4399 explains that Silver Wolf may be safer joining the Border Management Bureau rather than competing within the Market Supervision Bureau, which is controlled by powerful nonhuman factions.
• The impending resignation of the Market Supervision Bureau’s director, a powerful Primordial Time Dragon, is revealed to be creating a major political struggle. A Long-Lived Species clan leader competing with Silver Wolf may eventually become the new director and could make Silver Wolf’s position dangerous.
• Liu Zheng also asks about Ace, learning that Ace is the son of an official Planeswalker. Although Ace’s father has been absent for more than two centuries, his status still protects Ace and gives him an unusually smooth career path.
• Liu Zheng asks 8848 and 4399 to help him kill an enemy during the upcoming mission outside the border. After confirming that the enemy’s presence would reduce the mission’s chance of success, they agree to arrange it.
• 8848 and 4399 offer Liu Zheng transportation in their official vehicle. Liu Zheng first meets Wang Manni, who delivers a combination case containing a strange shark-themed missile.
• The item is identified as the Shark-Tech Overlord Missile, a single-use weapon that explodes upon striking an obstacle.
• The missile’s three red teeth are part of a special activation condition: painting all its teeth red triples its power and range but causes it to lock onto Liu Zheng himself.
• Liu Zheng realizes the missile belongs to the same bizarre Goblin-made series as the Goblin Bomb and ends the chapter debating whether to activate its enhanced but dangerous mode.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng gains two powerful combat skills and becomes more confident in his growing abilities and political influence.
• He demonstrates loyalty and strategic generosity by using his political credit to support Silver Wolf rather than pursuing benefits solely for himself.
• Liu Zheng continues balancing sincerity with secrecy. He openly asks for help killing an enemy but conceals his ability to resist memory suppression and his near-successful attempt to cross the border.
• His relationship with 8848 and 4399 develops into a mutually beneficial alliance. He recognizes their support while also understanding that they value him politically and professionally.
• 8848 and 4399 show increasing trust in Liu Zheng, offering him political assistance, transportation, and help with his enemy. Their willingness to call him “family” reflects their growing alliance, though Liu Zheng remains cautious about their true limits.
• Silver Wolf is revealed to be facing significant political danger despite his potential promotion.
• Ace is revealed to possess influential inherited status through his father, explaining his rapid advancement within City Hall.
• Wang Manni becomes increasingly impressed by Liu Zheng’s unusual connections and status, viewing his access to a City Hall vehicle as impressive and even glamorous.

Significant Themes

• Power and political factionalism: Promotions and careers depend not only on ability but also on factional control, inherited status, and institutional alliances.
• Mutual benefit and calculated loyalty: Liu Zheng, 8848, and 4399 help one another while remaining aware that their relationship is based partly on shared interests.
• Inherited privilege versus earned advancement: Ace’s protected position contrasts with figures such as Silver Wolf, who rose from temporary worker through personal effort.
• Risk and temptation: The missile’s enhanced mode promises overwhelming power but threatens Liu Zheng directly, embodying the danger of pursuing greater strength without fully controlling its consequences.
• Secrecy and trust: Liu Zheng must decide what to reveal to his allies, since certain truths about his abilities could immediately transform cooperation into hostility.
• Absurdity within dangerous systems: The chapter mixes serious political maneuvering and lethal weapons with comedic bureaucratic language, strange item descriptions, and the ridiculous Goblin technology.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and 8848/4399: They exchange gifts, discuss promotions and political conditions, negotiate assistance with Liu Zheng’s enemy, and reinforce their alliance through humor and mutual praise.
• Liu Zheng and Silver Wolf: Although Silver Wolf is absent, Liu Zheng’s decision to support him shows concern for his future and willingness to intervene politically on his behalf.
• Liu Zheng and Wang Manni: Their meeting is friendly and lightly flirtatious. Wang Manni admires Liu Zheng’s status, while he enjoys her praise but quickly regains his composure.
• Liu Zheng and the unseen enemy: Liu Zheng begins arranging a safer, more convenient way to eliminate this enemy during the border mission, potentially conserving his own resources.
• Liu Zheng and the missile: The final conflict is internal: he must choose between using a normal missile and activating its vastly stronger mode, knowing the enhanced weapon will target him.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng decides to use a Shark-Tech Overlord Missile against the Insect Tower, reasoning that destroying everything will maximize his earnings.
• Wang Manni gives him Anti-Explosion Chewing Gum, which creates a blastproof bubble. Liu Zheng accepts it and prepares to paint the missile red.
• Wang Manni leaves excitedly in her Beetle. 8848 teases Liu Zheng about his relationship with her, while Liu insists they are only friends.
• During the trip, 4399 warns Liu Zheng not to awaken the Three-Eyed Race bloodline, advising him to avoid taking on too many bloodlines. Liu agrees to rely on the Black Goat’s Young bloodline instead.
• The Border Management Bureau vehicle arrives at Bright Center, attracting attention because of the Bureau’s intimidating authority. 4399 formally drops Liu Zheng off.
• Liu enters the building as a deliveryman from the Bloodstained Restaurant. The security guard becomes frightened by his identity, but Liu uses cash and the threat of involving multiple government bureaus to gain entry.
• Liu manipulates the guard into accepting a bribe, tricks him into not checking the registration book, offers him free entertainment for his family, and then suddenly stabs him in the shoulder with the Rusty Blade. He casually tells the guard to get a tetanus shot.
• At the elevator lobby, Liu intimidates a group of office workers with his Serrated Cleaver. When one muscular employee challenges him, Liu uses money to turn the group against the man. He then gives the cash to the muscular worker, transforming a confrontation into an uneasy alliance.
• In the elevator, Liu chats with the young elevator attendant. He learns that she is sixteen, knows Jennifer, and has heard positive stories about Liu from the elevator attendants’ group chat.
• Liu explains his personal view that people in Metropolis fall into three categories: friends, strangers, and enemies. He asks the attendant to become his friend, but she playfully asks what benefit she would receive.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to display a mixture of ruthlessness, generosity, manipulation, and absurd humor. He treats violence and bribery as practical tools but also shows genuine loyalty toward people he considers friends, such as Jennifer.
• His self-image remains comically self-righteous. He insists that others misunderstand his “purity and lofty integrity,” even while exploiting prejudice, threatening people, and stabbing a security guard.
• Liu’s willingness to help or reward others is revealed to be conditional but sincere: he offers the guard benefits for his family and gives the muscular office worker money after intimidating him.
• Wang Manni appears increasingly fond of Liu, becoming excited after their interaction, while Liu avoids acknowledging any romantic implications.
• 8848 acts as a teasing observer, openly pointing out the possible attraction between Liu and Wang Manni.
• 4399 functions as a mentor or supervisor, giving Liu restrained but important guidance about bloodline development.
• The security guard changes from fearful and defensive to submissive after receiving money and facing Liu’s threats, though he is ultimately subjected to Liu’s unpredictable violence.
• The muscular office worker shifts from confidence to caution, then becomes cooperative after Liu combines intimidation with generosity.
• The elevator attendant initially acts hostile toward Liu because of workplace prejudice against Bloodstained Restaurant Deliverymen, but her attitude softens as she becomes amused and curious about him.

Significant Themes

• Prejudice and social labeling: Liu’s reflection that “prejudice in people’s hearts is a mountain” is illustrated by the building’s suspicion of Bloodstained Restaurant workers and fear of the Border Management Bureau.
• Power and authority: People respond less to morality than to perceived institutional power. The guard is terrified by Liu’s connections to government agencies, while office workers are influenced by threats and money.
• Manipulation versus genuine connection: Liu frequently controls situations through fear, bribery, or psychological pressure, yet he also seeks authentic friendships and protects people he values.
• Class inequality: The guard’s modest lifestyle and inability to afford leisure highlight the gap between ordinary workers and more powerful figures. Liu’s offer to entertain the guard’s family reveals both his generosity and his awareness of this inequality.
• Identity and chosen relationships: Liu reduces social relationships to friends, strangers, and enemies, suggesting that personal loyalty matters more to him than formal status or occupation.
• Humor amid violence: The chapter repeatedly contrasts brutal actions—threats, coercion, and stabbing—with casual jokes, flirtation, and absurd dialogue.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Wang Manni share a warm exchange involving the anti-explosion gum, while 8848 interprets their behavior romantically.
• Liu and 4399 have a quiet but meaningful exchange about bloodline restraint, showing Liu’s respect for 4399’s judgment.
• Liu dominates the security guard through intimidation, bribery, and physical violence, but also offers him an unexpectedly generous reward for his family.
• Liu confronts the office workers, defeats their resistance through a combination of threat and money, and earns the muscular worker’s reluctant respect.
• Liu and the elevator attendant develop a playful, flirtatious rapport. Their conversation moves from jokes and workplace gossip to a more serious discussion of friendship, ending with her teasing challenge about what she would gain by accepting him.