Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng negotiates with the elevator attendant, who says she wants something other than money. He offers to arrange makeup lessons with his friends at Yakuza Sento and suggests that she consider working there instead.
• The elevator attendant agrees to become his “friend,” but insists on being different from Jennifer. She unexpectedly kisses Liu Zheng’s tentacle, proudly claiming a distinction Jennifer never made.
• To maintain the appearance of following the building’s rules, Liu Zheng stabs the elevator attendant in the abdomen and kicks her hand. He directs her to Imhotep Clinic for treatment, while she convincingly acts terrified and injured.
• Liu Zheng arrives on Bright Center’s Eleventh Floor, a jungle resembling the one at West River Center. He remembers the companions who died there and enters the jungle with anger and grief still burning beneath the surface.
• He equips the Scrying False Eye, which reveals colored traces indicating hidden or significant objects. Investigating a red trace, he lifts a stone and narrowly blocks a bone arrow.
• Beneath the stone, he finds the corpse of Neil, a human-insect child, along with a message asking someone to remove and properly bury the body. In exchange, Neil’s mother promises her “final inheritance.”
• Liu Zheng swears while holding Neil’s hand that he will take the body out and bury it. This triggers a powerful mental attack from the dead child’s mother or another spirit connected to the floor.
• Liu Zheng uses the Legendary Deliveryman’s After-Sex Cigarette to boost his Mental attribute and enters a mental world filled with the voices of the Eleventh Floor’s dead victims.
• He confronts and forcibly captures a horrifying half-human, half-insect woman wearing a red headscarf. She had attempted to possess him with the aid of numerous resentful spirits.
• Through intimidation and his Interrogation Master skill, Liu Zheng compels her to reveal her identity and history. She introduces herself as Yulaba, a Voodoo Cult witch who became trapped on the Eleventh Floor after being framed and sent there as punishment.
• Yulaba explains that she survived by using Voodoo sorcery, made a Worm fall in love with her through a Love Doll, and became pregnant with its child. She begins describing how their situation eventually deteriorated, but the chapter ends before she reveals what happened.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to show a mixture of ruthlessness, strategic intelligence, and unexpected compassion. He performs violence when necessary to maintain his cover but also offers the elevator attendant employment and genuinely intends to help her improve her situation.
• His grief over his former companions remains unresolved. Returning to the Eleventh Floor reawakens his anger toward the insects and the environment that killed them.
• Liu Zheng demonstrates increased confidence in using unusual equipment, quickly identifying the Scrying False Eye and mental-enhancement item as useful tools.
• He also reveals a willingness to honor promises to the dead, agreeing to bury Neil despite the danger involved.
• The elevator attendant becomes more assertive and playful, flirting with Liu Zheng and establishing her individuality. Although frightened by the required stabbing, she cooperates effectively and proves capable of convincing acting.
• Yulaba is revealed to be both dangerous and pitiable. She is a powerful Voodoo practitioner and survivor, but her story suggests exploitation, persecution, and a desperate attempt to protect herself and her child.

Significant Themes

• Half-spoken intentions and ambiguity: The chapter’s title is reflected in the indirect negotiations between Liu Zheng and the elevator attendant, as well as Yulaba’s ghostly manipulation and incomplete confession.
• Survival through performance: Liu Zheng and the elevator attendant must act out roles to satisfy the building’s rules, while Yulaba used possession, deception, and supernatural tricks to survive.
• Compassion amid brutality: Violence is commonplace, yet Liu Zheng repeatedly shows concern for vulnerable figures, including the elevator attendant and Neil.
• Death, burial, and remembrance: Neil’s corpse and the voices of the dead emphasize the importance of giving victims dignity and allowing them to “go home.”
• Trauma and lingering anger: Liu Zheng’s return to the jungle reveals that his rage over past deaths has never disappeared, only been suppressed.
• Human and nonhuman relationships: Neil’s mixed nature and Yulaba’s relationship with the Worm complicate the distinction between human, monster, victim, and aggressor.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and the elevator attendant develop a teasing but transactional friendship, combining flirtation, manipulation, and mutual cooperation.
• Liu Zheng treats the attendant gently in conversation but must injure her for appearances, creating a sharp contrast between personal concern and survival strategy.
• Liu Zheng interacts with Neil through a solemn promise, establishing a moral obligation that leads him into the mental confrontation.
• Liu Zheng and Yulaba’s encounter begins as an attempted possession but quickly becomes an interrogation. He dominates the mental space, while Yulaba shifts from threatening spirit to frightened, resentful captive.
• Yulaba’s account introduces her emotional bond with the Worm, suggesting that even relationships between humans and aberrant creatures can involve affection, dependence, and tragedy.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Yulaba, the ghostly mother who previously tried to possess Liu Zheng, agrees to sacrifice herself so that her child, Neil, can be taken away and buried. She summons Baron Samedi, a skeletal voodoo deity, using a black doll and her own blood.
• Baron Samedi gathers the resentful spirits scattered throughout the jungle and seals them into the doll. He then places the doll inside Yulaba’s head, apparently transforming her sacrifice into a weapon.
• Returning to the Eleventh Floor, Liu Zheng discovers that Neil’s spine has become the Insect-Killing Voodoo Dagger. The weapon deals greatly increased damage to Aberrant Insects, but it cannot be removed until an insect is killed and continuously drains Liu Zheng’s Mental attribute.
• Neil’s remaining ghost points northeast, guiding Liu Zheng toward potential insect targets. Liu Zheng stores Neil’s remains in the Legendary Delivery Box and follows the ghost.
• Liu Zheng finds a badly injured, elegant-looking woman who has been infected by insects. She cuts away parasitic flesh from her breast, revealing her toughness and desperation.
• The woman initially assumes Liu Zheng is there to attack her, but he explains that he was led to her by Neil. She recognizes Neil and Yulaba, revealing that she and Yulaba were once close friends.
• The woman claims Yulaba betrayed her and caused her to be sent to the Eleventh Floor. Although Yulaba later protected her and pretended to remain her friend, an insect eventually revealed the betrayal.
• Liu Zheng and the woman engage in a hostile, sarcastic argument. She challenges him to kill her or help her escape, while he mocks her self-pity and threatens her with various punishments.
• The chapter ends with the woman emotionally breaking down. She declares that her life is already ruined and that Liu Zheng may do whatever he wants to her, while Liu Zheng condemns her habit of lashing out at those weaker than herself.

Character Developments

Liu Zheng

He remains pragmatic, sarcastic, and morally selective. Although angry at Yulaba’s attempted possession, he still honors his promise to deal with Neil’s remains. He gains a powerful but dangerous weapon and begins searching for insects to activate it. His confrontation with the injured woman also reveals a strong personal belief: weakness does not excuse cruelty, self-pity, or mistreating others.

Yulaba

Her final actions show a mixture of maternal devotion, guilt, manipulation, and ruthlessness. She sacrifices herself for Neil while also using the resentful spirits and Baron Samedi to create a weapon for Liu Zheng. Her relationship with the injured woman suggests a history of betrayal and complicated loyalties.

Neil

Though only a partial ghost remains, Neil continues to guide Liu Zheng. His body has been sacrificed to create the dagger, emphasizing the tragic cost of preserving or transforming him.

The injured woman

She is physically mutilated and infected but demonstrates considerable endurance by removing the parasitic flesh herself. Emotionally, however, she is bitter, defensive, and consumed by betrayal. Her bravado masks hopelessness and a belief that she has no future outside the Eleventh Floor.

Significant Themes

• Sacrifice and the cost of survival: Yulaba gives up her soul and Neil loses part of his ghostly form so that he can be carried away and turned into a weapon.
• Power and responsibility: Liu Zheng repeatedly distinguishes between having power and using it responsibly. He refuses to excuse cruelty simply because someone is suffering.
• Betrayal and resentment: The injured woman’s hatred of Yulaba shows how betrayal can overshadow past friendship and even make death seem comforting.
• Despair versus resistance: The woman has nearly surrendered to despair, while Liu Zheng insists that pain and resentment can become motivation rather than excuses for surrender.
• Dark humor amid horror: The chapter balances disturbing imagery—possession, mutilation, parasites, and soul sacrifice—with Liu Zheng’s deliveryman jokes, threats, and sarcastic exchanges.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Yulaba: Their relationship shifts from hostility to reluctant cooperation. Liu Zheng remains furious at her attempted possession but honors his promise to care for Neil.
• Yulaba and Baron Samedi: Yulaba invokes the skeletal deity to collect the resentful spirits and create the Insect-Killing Voodoo Dagger. Baron Samedi acts as an impersonal supernatural force, carrying out the ritual without concern for Liu Zheng.
• Liu Zheng and Neil: Liu Zheng treats Neil’s ghost with irreverent humor, but he also protects the child’s remains and follows his guidance.
• Liu Zheng and the injured woman: Their first meeting is confrontational and verbally aggressive. She expects exploitation or death, while Liu Zheng challenges her defensiveness and self-destructive attitude. Their exchange suggests that she may become an unwilling ally, though trust has not yet formed.
• The injured woman and Yulaba: Their former friendship has become bitter enmity. The woman believes Yulaba betrayed her, while Yulaba’s later actions imply that their relationship may have been more complicated than the woman understands.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng confronts a severely mutilated woman from the Eleventh Floor. He removes the grotesque growths and worm infestations covering her body, harvesting the worms as valuable ingredients for the Box Weaver-Spider.
• Although the woman asks Liu Zheng to kill her, he instead offers her a chance to escape her past by working at the Blissful Bathhouse on Bathhouse Street. He promises to heal her injuries, restore her body as much as possible, and conceal her identity.
• Liu Zheng forces her to accept through threats and violence, then questions her about Water Forty-Three, the company manager he must locate to complete his delivery.
• The woman leads him to “Thong,” a strange tree where several Aberrant Insects are being serviced by waiters. There, Liu Zheng discovers Water Forty-Three.
• Water Forty-Three reveals himself to be an undercover agent. He traps the other Worms with adhesive mucus, but cannot kill them because his aphid-based body is weak in combat. Liu Zheng executes them with the Dragon-Scale Blade and Insect-Killing Voodoo Dagger, increasing the dagger’s damage bonus to 250%.
• Liu Zheng and Water Forty-Three formally introduce themselves and agree to delay the delivery confirmation until after Water Forty-Three completes his mission. Water Forty-Three leads Liu Zheng toward the Insect Nest.
• Liu Zheng leaves the woman and the frightened waiters behind, ordering them to bury themselves and wait for him.
• During the journey, Water Forty-Three warns Liu Zheng that the company chairman has unexpectedly arrived, accompanied by bodyguards hired from the Black Market.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to display ruthless pragmatism. He treats the woman’s parasites as resources, uses intimidation to prevent her from giving up, and kills the Aberrant Insects efficiently. Despite his brutality, he offers the woman a genuine opportunity to survive and rebuild her life.
• The woman shifts from suicidal resignation and constant mockery to reluctant cooperation. Her despair comes from the shame and social consequences of what happened to her on the Eleventh Floor, but Liu Zheng’s offer rekindles her survival instinct.
• Water Forty-Three is revealed as an undercover company agent rather than an ordinary manager. He is clever and cautious, using his aphid-derived mucus abilities to immobilize enemies, though he openly admits his lack of combat strength.
• Liu Zheng and Water Forty-Three establish a cooperative relationship based on mutual usefulness. Liu Zheng reassures Water Forty-Three about his weakness, while Water Forty-Three provides valuable knowledge of the Eleventh Floor.

Significant Themes

• Survival versus despair: The woman believes death is preferable to continuing with her ruined reputation, while Liu Zheng insists that survival remains possible outside the city.
• Identity and transformation: Humans have become Aberrant Insects, and characters conceal or redefine themselves through disguises, undercover roles, and new forms.
• Pragmatism and exploitation: Liu Zheng sees enemies, parasites, and corpses as resources, emphasizing the chapter’s harsh world where survival depends on extracting value from everything.
• Trust and deception: Water Forty-Three’s undercover identity highlights the uncertainty of alliances. Even apparently relaxed companions may be enemies or informants.
• Power through items: Liu Zheng’s effectiveness comes largely from special equipment, especially the Legendary Disguise and Insect-Killing Voodoo Dagger, rather than innate strength.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and the woman engage in a hostile exchange marked by sarcasm, threats, and physical coercion, but this gradually becomes a transactional rescue arrangement.
• The woman provides essential information about Water Forty-Three and the Eleventh Floor, while Liu Zheng offers her protection and a new life.
• Water Forty-Three betrays the Aberrant Insects around him, immobilizing them while claiming, “Sorry, I’m undercover.”
• Liu Zheng and Water Forty-Three bond through professional introductions and mutual acknowledgment of their limitations.
• The chapter ends with the two moving toward the Insect Nest together, facing the added danger of the chairman and his Black Market bodyguards.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng and Water Forty-Three discuss the formidable nature of Black Market bodyguards, with Liu joking about surviving so many dangerous situations that death no longer frightens him.
• Water Forty-Three explains why it became an undercover agent. Its former company manipulated its promotion, controls its family, and has poisoned it, requiring regular access to an antidote. If it succeeds, it will become deputy director and receive money and housing; if it dies, its family will receive compensation and certain benefits.
• Water Forty-Three admits that it has no real choice because of its contractual obligations, the threat to its family, and the company’s control over its life.
• Liu offers to help protect Water Forty-Three’s family if possible, though he cannot make a firm promise because he does not know where they are being held.
• The pair arrive at the Insect Nest, where they find the chairman’s Black Market bodyguard: a flamboyantly dressed Doppler Swordsman armed with an enormous two-handed sword. The bodyguard ignores them as long as the chairman is not endangered.
• Liu deliberately kills a Worm to draw out the surrounding Aberrant Insects. Only a small swarm appears, but the insects specialize in ranged attacks, using poison needles, toxic powder, acid, and fireballs.
• Water Forty-Three activates a Deflection Field Generator to block ranged and elemental attacks and gives Liu a second one. It then coats itself in defensive mucus, demonstrating that it is prepared to fight rather than remain a burden.
• Liu attacks the airborne swarm by throwing the Dragon-Scale Blade, Insect-Killing Dagger, and Serrated Cleaver. The weapons tear through the insects, severing wings and limbs and killing many of them.
• Using the Bucking Kick skill, Liu launches himself into the air for a second attack. The insects adapt by scattering into a formation, surrounding him beyond his weapons’ reach.
• The chapter ends with Water Forty-Three calling out a direction—“Three o’clock!”—warning Liu of the next threat or opening.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains irreverent and humorous even in extreme danger, but his conversation with Water Forty-Three reveals a more compassionate and responsible side. He recognizes the moral complexity of the company’s exploitation and agrees to help if he can.
• Liu also displays growing confidence in his combat abilities. He creatively uses his weapons, physical attributes, and skills to fight an airborne swarm, though he is briefly caught off guard by the insects’ tactical intelligence.
• Water Forty-Three is portrayed as capable, resourceful, and deeply trapped. Despite being treated as expendable by its company, it possesses useful combat knowledge and equipment, including the Deflection Field Generators.
• Water Forty-Three’s willingness to fight beside Liu rather than hide shows increasing trust and determination. Its request that Liu protect its family exposes its vulnerability and desperation.
• The relationship between Liu and Water Forty-Three develops from practical cooperation into tentative friendship and mutual reliance.

Significant Themes

• Exploitation and coercion: Water Forty-Three’s employment contract, poison, and hostage family illustrate how corporations exercise control through debt, obligation, and threats.
• Moral ambiguity: Liu acknowledges that neither side is entirely innocent and that many actions in the Metropolis exist in a gray area between legality and morality.
• Trust and mutual aid: Despite their different affiliations, Liu and Water Forty-Three begin helping one another based on personal loyalty rather than corporate interests.
• Adaptability in combat: The battle emphasizes the need to adjust tactics quickly. Liu’s initial attacks succeed, but the insects learn from them and change formation.
• Humor amid danger: Liu’s crude jokes and casual attitude serve as a coping mechanism, contrasting with Water Forty-Three’s grim circumstances.

Character Interactions

• Liu teases Water Forty-Three and questions its motives, while Water Forty-Three responds honestly and gradually reveals its tragic circumstances.
• Water Forty-Three admires Liu’s survival instinct and later asks for his help, signaling trust.
• Liu agrees to assist but remains realistic about what he can and cannot accomplish.
• During the battle, they coordinate effectively: Water Forty-Three provides ranged defense and tactical support, while Liu handles close combat and attacks the swarm.
• Their cooperation is tested when the insects scatter into a formation, leaving Liu dependent on Water Forty-Three’s warning and battlefield awareness.

Chapter Summary: “Did Someone Just Shower Me with Money?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng and Water Forty-Three continue fighting the Aberrant Insect swarm. Water Forty-Three calls out enemy positions while Liu Zheng uses slime, his three blades, and the Insect-Killing Dagger to destroy the insects efficiently.
• Liu Zheng’s dagger reaches a 500% damage bonus after killing enough insects. He also collects the horn-like appendages of a large insect, intending to sell or use them as valuable ingredients.
• After the swarm is defeated, Liu Zheng notices the Doppler Swordsman calmly grooming himself instead of helping, increasing Liu Zheng’s suspicion of him.
• Water Forty-Three admits he is prepared to die if necessary. He reveals that his undercover work has caused his girlfriend to be imprisoned and separated him from his infant daughter, Jasmine Johnson.
• Liu Zheng promises to protect Jasmine and threatens to destroy the company if it refuses to help her, giving Water Forty-Three a rare moment of comfort.
• As Liu Zheng and Water Forty-Three approach the Doppler Swordsman, Doppler destroys a blue glass device and awakens the Stag Beetle, the chairman they were targeting.
• The Stag Beetle emerges from an insect tunnel and confronts Water Forty-Three, immediately recognizing him as a former employee and identifying his betrayal.
• Water Forty-Three asks the chairman to commit suicide and requests that Liu Zheng leave the body intact if he does. The Stag Beetle refuses and correctly deduces that Green Shade Culture arranged the attack.
• The Stag Beetle offers money to whoever reveals how his itinerary was discovered. Liu Zheng explains that he simply happened to take advantage of an opening in his schedule.
• Surprisingly, the Stag Beetle believes him and orders Doppler to reward Liu Zheng. Doppler attacks Liu Zheng with a sound- or rhythm-based technique that crushes his heart and makes him vomit blood.
• Despite this, Doppler gives Liu Zheng the money, angrily throwing it into his face after the Stag Beetle refuses to let him kill him for an additional reward.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates increasing combat efficiency and confidence. His “Three-Sword Style” proves genuinely useful, and his Insect-Killing Dagger becomes dramatically more powerful. He remains greedy and opportunistic but also shows genuine loyalty by promising to protect Water Forty-Three’s daughter.
• Water Forty-Three is revealed to be emotionally exhausted and nearly suicidal after years of undercover work. His love for his daughter, Jasmine, exposes the humanity beneath his hardened resolve. He continues to accept death as a possible escape but begins receiving emotional support from Liu Zheng.
• Doppler Swordsman is established as arrogant, theatrical, and highly dangerous. He is a cheap but effective mercenary whose loyalty is controlled by contracts and payment. His casual attack demonstrates that he could easily kill Liu Zheng if permitted.
• The Stag Beetle appears pragmatic, intelligent, and remarkably calm under threat. He remembers employee details, quickly identifies the likely traitor organization, and accepts Liu Zheng’s explanation without unnecessary suspicion. Despite being targeted, he retains authority and businesslike composure.
• Jasmine Johnson, though not present, becomes an important emotional motivation for Liu Zheng and Water Forty-Three.

Significant Themes

• Human cost of corporate systems: Water Forty-Three’s company provides stability and benefits but treats employees and families as assets to be controlled, forcing him into a life of deception.
• Loyalty, betrayal, and obligation: Water Forty-Three betrays the chairman under orders, while Liu Zheng voluntarily chooses to protect Water’s daughter. The chapter contrasts coerced loyalty with personal loyalty.
• Death as escape: Water Forty-Three sees death as relief from his prolonged suffering, while Liu Zheng tries to redirect him toward responsibility and hope.
• Money and mercenary morality: Nearly every relationship is mediated through payment, contracts, and practical benefit. The Stag Beetle’s attempt to buy information and Doppler’s frustration over lost killing fees reinforce this theme.
• Appearance versus substance: Doppler acts refined and theatrical but behaves ruthlessly; Liu Zheng jokes about stylish swordsmanship while using it effectively. The chapter repeatedly contrasts performance, status, and actual ability.
• Unexpected compassion: Liu Zheng’s crude humor masks a willingness to help Water Forty-Three and his family, suggesting a developing moral side beneath his greed.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Water Forty-Three: Their partnership deepens from tactical cooperation into personal trust. Liu Zheng supports Water during his emotional crisis and promises to protect Jasmine.
• Water Forty-Three and the Stag Beetle: Their confrontation is restrained but tense. The Stag Beetle recognizes Water’s betrayal, while Water refuses to reveal who commissioned the attack and asks him to die with dignity.
• Liu Zheng and the Stag Beetle: They exchange a brief, surprisingly respectful conversation about how Liu Zheng found him. The chairman accepts Liu Zheng’s honesty and rewards him.
• Doppler and the Stag Beetle: Their employer-mercenary relationship is marked by irritation and negotiation. Doppler wants permission to kill Liu Zheng and keep the money, but the Stag Beetle firmly refuses.
• Doppler and Liu Zheng: Doppler humiliates and injures Liu Zheng with his mysterious rhythmic attack, then throws the promised payment at him, emphasizing both his danger and his mercenary nature.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng confronts Stag Beetle, also known as President Lin, while Doppler and Water Forty-Three are present. Although Liu Zheng considers several ways to kill Doppler, he remains calm and refuses to attack through a trap.
• Stag Beetle reveals that Greenfield Culture hired Liu Zheng to kill him for five million, then offers Liu double that amount to spare him, additional money to eliminate Greenfield Culture, and a lucrative security-consultant position.
• Water Forty-Three confirms Stag Beetle’s reputation for honoring his promises, but Liu Zheng still refuses. He explains that his reputation and personal principles are worth more than money, and that he cannot abandon the commitments that have sustained him.
• Stag Beetle orders Doppler to kill Liu Zheng and Water Forty-Three, offering increasingly high bonuses: triple pay within five minutes, five times the reward within three minutes, and ten times the reward within one minute.
• Doppler launches a sudden attack using blinding sword light and powerful wind. Liu Zheng is temporarily blinded but survives through instinct, martial skill, and Water Forty-Three’s warning.
• Liu Zheng and Doppler exchange several close attacks. Liu Zheng’s physical strength and four tentacles allow him to withstand Doppler’s blows, counterattack, and pierce Doppler’s scalp with the Insect-Killing Voodoo Dagger.
• Doppler realizes that Liu Zheng has experience fighting an expert in two-handed swordsmanship. He becomes fixated on learning the expert’s identity because he hunts powerful two-handed sword users to absorb their strength.
• Doppler uses Sword Dance: Fire Tornado, combining sword-generated wind with flames to create a devastating flaming vortex.
• Liu Zheng considers several powerful items and abilities that could defeat Doppler, including the Dragon-Fishing Rod, Wrath Demon transformation, and the Witness skill. Rather than immediately using his strongest attacks, he notices the nearby Insect Tower and realizes Greenfield Culture may value Stag Beetle’s death more than the destruction of his company’s management.
• Liu Zheng tricks Doppler by claiming the unknown swordsman’s name is “Chopin.” When Doppler’s attention briefly falters, Liu Zheng successfully activates Witness, winning their mental confrontation.
• Taking advantage of Doppler’s paralysis, Liu Zheng prepares a blood-red shark-shaped missile. He activates a Blastproof Bubble for protection and presses the missile’s launch button, ending the chapter on a cliffhanger.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates strong principles and professional integrity. Although Stag Beetle’s offer would make him extremely wealthy, Liu Zheng refuses because his word and reputation are more important than profit.
• Liu Zheng also shows increasing tactical sophistication. He combines brute strength, martial arts, deceptive dialogue, battlefield observation, and psychological manipulation rather than relying only on his weapons.
• Stag Beetle/President Lin is portrayed as wealthy, confident, calculating, and highly persuasive. He tries to solve the conflict through negotiation, but quickly shifts to using Doppler when Liu Zheng refuses his offer.
• Doppler is shown as arrogant, violent, greedy, and strangely obsessive about two-handed swordsmanship. His fixation reveals that he kills strong sword users as part of his cultivation method.
• Water Forty-Three remains loyal and dependable. He validates Stag Beetle’s credibility but supports Liu Zheng’s decision and provides crucial battlefield warnings during the fight.
• Liu Zheng’s combat ability develops through adaptation. Although he admits he is not a true swordsmanship expert, his experience against skilled opponents enables him to anticipate Doppler’s movements.

Significant Themes

• Integrity versus wealth: Liu Zheng rejects an enormous financial reward because personal credibility and commitment matter more to him than social status or luxury.
• Professional loyalty and reputation: Both Stag Beetle and Liu Zheng emphasize that a person’s word has value. Their conflict is partly a clash between two individuals who take their promises seriously.
• Strategy over raw power: Liu Zheng survives Doppler’s superior techniques by reading his opponent, exploiting distractions, and choosing the right moment to use Witness.
• Corporate rivalry and mercenary violence: The confrontation reflects the ruthless competition between Greenfield Culture and Stag Beetle’s company, where assassinations and financial incentives are treated as business transactions.
• Pride and obsession: Doppler’s confidence and obsession with defeating sword experts make him dangerous but also vulnerable to psychological manipulation.
• Preparation and concealed power: Liu Zheng has numerous devastating abilities and items available, but deliberately withholds them until he identifies the most advantageous moment.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Stag Beetle engage in a tense but oddly respectful negotiation, recognizing each other’s intelligence and credibility even while remaining enemies.
• Water Forty-Three silently confirms Stag Beetle’s honesty, reinforcing the seriousness of the offer, but Liu Zheng still refuses.
• Stag Beetle treats Doppler as a hired weapon, negotiating his payment as though ordering a business service. Doppler, in turn, complains about the terms but accepts the challenge.
• Liu Zheng and Doppler trade insults throughout the fight. Their banter masks a serious contest of skill, with Doppler probing Liu Zheng for information and Liu Zheng deliberately provoking him.
• Liu Zheng exploits Doppler’s interest in the mysterious swordsman “Chopin” to create the opening needed for Witness.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng acting decisively and independently, launching a powerful missile while attempting to protect himself and possibly Water Forty-Three.

Chapter Summary: “Business Bought with Lives Was Non-Negotiable”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng deploys the Shark-Tech Overlord Missile, a powerful Goblin-series weapon. A small green creature emerges from the missile and activates it by striking the shark’s head with a wrench.
• The resulting explosion obliterates the Eleventh Floor, including the Mycelial Mat and Insect Tower. Liu Zheng survives but suffers severe injuries, while Doppler appears to have been destroyed.
• Water Forty-Three also survives, though it is badly wounded and has far weaker recovery abilities than Liu Zheng.
• Doppler unexpectedly returns, revealing that he used a supernatural ability to survive. Severely injured and nearly naked, he attempts to finish Liu Zheng and demands information about the “expert two-handed swordsman” supposedly behind him.
• Liu Zheng reveals that Oink of the Black Market—known as the Heaven Butcher—is his superior’s superior and once paid a thousand portions of “Flesh” to secure Liu Zheng’s passage out of the country. This frightens Doppler, who realizes Liu Zheng has powerful connections.
• Liu Zheng and Doppler engage in close combat. Liu blocks Doppler’s sword and stabs him, but realizes the target may not be Doppler’s true body.
• Doppler launches a hidden attack with an invisible duplicate, severing Liu Zheng’s leg. Before Doppler can kill him, Water Forty-Three uses its last strength to launch an aphid carrying explosive slime.
• A mysterious blurred young man appears and embraces Doppler, immobilizing him. Liu Zheng then hacks repeatedly at Doppler’s slime-covered body until he is presumably dead.
• Liu Zheng approaches Stag Beetle, who has survived under his damaged hat. Stag Beetle asks whether there is still room to negotiate, but Liu insists that deals involving people’s lives cannot be negotiated.
• Stag Beetle accepts his fate and asks Liu to protect his wife and daughter after his death. Liu agrees to relocate them to the Sewer, where he has connections through Fisherman, his future father-in-law.
• Stag Beetle gives Liu a Portable Mini Vault containing roughly two million in currency, along with a family photograph and address. The wallet also serves as proof that Liu has been entrusted with the family’s protection.
• The chapter ends when Stag Beetle announces that he has one final request, leaving the outcome unresolved.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates exceptional endurance, tactical awareness, and dark humor. He survives catastrophic injuries, anticipates Doppler’s fake death, and remains focused on completing his task despite losing a leg.
• Liu’s connections to powerful Black Market figures become clearer, establishing that he is more influential and protected than he initially appears.
• His refusal to accept payment for a deal involving Water Forty-Three’s life reveals a firm moral boundary beneath his cynical and comedic exterior.
• Doppler is shown to be an experienced and dangerous supernatural fighter. His ability to survive the explosion and use invisible duplicates makes him a formidable opponent, though his arrogance and greed contribute to his defeat.
• Water Forty-Three proves its loyalty and courage by sacrificing its remaining strength to save Liu. Its aphid attack is decisive, despite leaving it almost completely drained.
• Stag Beetle shifts from a calculating corporate negotiator to a desperate father concerned about his family’s survival. He acknowledges his failure to balance his career with his family and attempts to secure their future before dying.

Significant Themes

• The value of life versus money: Liu’s statement that business bought with lives is non-negotiable establishes the chapter’s central moral principle. Financial compensation cannot erase the cost of killing or sacrificing people.
• Loyalty and sacrifice: Water Forty-Three risks everything to save Liu, while Stag Beetle uses his remaining resources to protect his family.
• Survival and resilience: The characters repeatedly endure devastating injuries, emphasizing the brutal world they inhabit and the importance of adaptability.
• Corporate ruthlessness: Greenfield Culture’s willingness to eliminate both competitors and infiltrators shows how business interests are intertwined with violence and murder.
• Family and regret: Stag Beetle’s remorse over neglecting his wife and daughter contrasts with his former focus on career and profit.
• Humor amid violence: Liu’s jokes about the missile, Doppler’s naked appearance, and the Portable Mini Vault provide comic relief without diminishing the chapter’s brutality.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Doppler: Their battle is a contest of experience, supernatural abilities, deception, and physical resilience. Both recognize the other as dangerous, but Liu ultimately outmaneuvers Doppler.
• Liu Zheng and Water Forty-Three: Although Liu initially tells Water Forty-Three to lie still and wait to die, he later relies on its sacrifice. Their cooperation shows an understated but genuine partnership.
• Liu Zheng and Stag Beetle: Their negotiation reflects opposing values. Stag Beetle thinks in terms of payment and contracts, while Liu refuses to place a price on lives. They eventually reach an agreement based on protecting Stag Beetle’s family rather than saving Stag Beetle himself.
• Stag Beetle and his family: Though they do not appear directly, the photograph and Stag Beetle’s regret reveal an emotionally distant family relationship and his desire to make amends before death.
• The mysterious young man and Doppler: The young man’s brief intervention immobilizes Doppler, suggesting that Liu’s side has other powerful and unexplained allies.

Chapter Summary: “Liu Zheng, You Big Scumbag!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Stag Beetle asks Liu Zheng to sabotage Greenfield Culture again, offering to arrange a managerial promotion for Liu’s friend if she transfers to its family’s company. Liu refuses because the promise is vague and he does not want to endanger his friend.
• Stag Beetle instead gives Liu a Universal Key as advance payment. Liu recognizes that the key carries a hidden bloodline curse that would cause devastating misfortune to anyone else who used it. Realizing Stag Beetle is trying to trick him, Liu kills it brutally with the Insect-Killing Dagger and Dragon-Scale Blade.
• He stores Stag Beetle’s horns as proof of completing the commission and potentially as auction goods.
• Liu retrieves Water Forty-Three’s molted shell. The item description reveals its symbolic connection to Water Forty-Three’s humanity and suffering. Liu decides to return it to Water’s family as a substitute for his remains.
• Returning to the site of the explosion, Liu discovers that the mentally unstable woman he had encountered has died, along with other innocent workers and bystanders. Feeling guilty despite never having promised to save her, he stabs himself and offers the wound as compensation.
• The dead woman and the other victims appear as black ghosts. Rather than attacking Liu, they merge into the woman’s spirit and leave a black mark on his Insect-Killing Voodoo Dagger. The dagger begins its ascension toward Perfect quality, gaining progress toward stronger damage against Aberrant Insects.
• Liu leaves the ruined building and encounters the elevator attendant again. Their playful argument ends with Liu promising a kiss, kissing her forehead, and fleeing before she can react, prompting her to call him “a big scumbag.”
• In the lobby, the old security guard attacks Liu and threatens to delay him until the building’s alarm response arrives. Liu defeats him, though he deliberately makes the violence look like part of a staged performance and tells the guard to seek treatment.
• After escaping Bright Center, Liu contacts Wang Manni. He demands that Green Shade Culture hand over Water Forty-Three’s parents, girlfriend, and daughter. He threatens to kill company executives or destroy their buildings if any family member is missing.
• When the company dismisses his demand as interference in an internal matter, Liu threatens to use his credit with City Hall to launch a joint operation against Green Shade Culture. The company then requests an in-person meeting.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains suspicious, pragmatic, and ruthless, immediately detecting Stag Beetle’s cursed gift and killing it rather than accepting a dangerous bargain. However, his treatment of Water Forty-Three’s shell and his reaction to the woman’s death reveal a strong sense of responsibility and guilt beneath his bravado.
• He continues to balance compassion with self-preservation. He regrets being unable to save innocent people but recognizes that he lacks the time and power to protect everyone.
• Liu’s humorous, shameless behavior—especially his escape after kissing the elevator attendant—contrasts with his increasingly serious willingness to threaten powerful organizations.
• Stag Beetle is exposed as manipulative and untrustworthy. Its attempt to conceal the curse on the Universal Key leads directly to its death.
• The elevator attendant grows more comfortable teasing and flirting with Liu, though she remains suspicious of his tendency to flee from emotional situations.
• Wang Manni acts as Liu’s intermediary with Green Shade Culture and responds quickly to his threats, suggesting that she takes both his power and his willingness to act seriously.
• Water Forty-Three’s family becomes the focus of Liu’s attempt to honor the dead undercover agent and prevent the company from silencing his relatives.

Significant Themes

• Trust and deception: Liu refuses vague promises and uncovers the hidden curse in Stag Beetle’s gift, emphasizing the danger of accepting apparently valuable bargains.
• Guilt and responsibility: Although Liu cannot save everyone, he still seeks symbolic compensation for the dead and tries to protect Water Forty-Three’s family.
• Humanity amid violence: The remains and ghosts of the victims remind Liu that his destructive actions have consequences beyond his intended targets.
• Justice versus revenge: Liu’s threats against Green Shade Culture are motivated partly by justice for Water Forty-Three, but his language and methods increasingly resemble personal vengeance.
• Humor as emotional armor: Liu uses absurd jokes, flirtation, and exaggerated acting to mask discomfort, guilt, and vulnerability.
• Power and intimidation: By invoking City Hall and threatening corporate destruction, Liu shifts from a delivery worker completing a commission to an independent force capable of challenging major organizations.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Stag Beetle: Their negotiation becomes a test of deception. Liu sees through Stag Beetle’s cursed Universal Key and kills it without mercy.
• Liu Zheng and the ghosts: Liu acknowledges the victims’ deaths and accepts their transformation of his dagger as a form of judgment, remembrance, or reluctant forgiveness.
• Liu Zheng and the elevator attendant: Their flirtatious banter shows mutual familiarity. Liu’s forehead kiss is affectionate but evasive, reinforcing his reputation as a “scumbag.”
• Liu Zheng and the security guard: The guard tries to intimidate him, but Liu mocks his theatrics and defeats him while maintaining his own performative style.
• Liu Zheng and Wang Manni: Wang serves as his communication channel with Green Shade Culture. Liu uses her to deliver escalating threats, while she efficiently relays them to the company.
• Liu Zheng and Green Shade Culture: Their conflict escalates from a demand for the safe return of Water Forty-Three’s family to the prospect of a direct confrontation with the company. The chapter ends with the company agreeing to meet Liu in person.

Chapter Summary

Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng arranges an in-person negotiation with his company regarding his compensation and insists that it take place on Rose Street rather than at the company. He asks Wang Manni not to attend personally, sending a deputy instead so she will not be caught between the two sides.
• After confirming the meeting arrangements, Liu checks on the medicine Niu Daji obtained from Healing Bee. The medicine is verified as genuine and potent, though Healing Bee keeps one jar for research.
• Niu Daji reports that the Sphinx is still undergoing surgery and needs a large amount of “Flesh” to recover. Liu gives him instructions to locate and protect a mother and daughter connected to a man Liu killed, honoring the dead man’s request to keep his family safe.
• Liu delivers the medicine to the Delivery Passage. The Passage consumes the medicine and, after some negotiation, gives him a smaller “Flesh Bone” to help heal the Sphinx.
• Cow-Horse immediately notices the Flesh Bone and jokingly accuses Liu of having found another boss outside. Liu explains that it is for the injured Sphinx, then recounts the battle against Garcia and the monster Ettolrah.
• Liu emphasizes that his victory was a collective effort involving the Sphinx, Captain Dragonfly, White-Feather Chicken, the vehicle team, and Paul.
• White-Feather Chicken arrives after sensing the Flesh Bone. They demand it as compensation for saving Liu’s Rusty Blade, “Anger,” during the battle. Liu initially objects, but Cow-Horse identifies the demand as a form of extortion.
• A heated argument erupts between Cow-Horse and White-Feather Chicken, escalating into another challenge to duel. Liu interrupts and begins proposing a way to change the terms of their wager.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates strategic caution by using intermediaries in the company negotiation, avoiding unnecessary personal conflict while still maintaining control. He also acts responsibly toward his subordinates and allies, arranging medicine for the Sphinx and protection for the family of a man he killed.
• Niu Daji continues to show devotion and eagerness to serve Liu, even behaving comically—running on all fours to appear hardworking. His admiration for Liu is extreme, though he carries out difficult assignments without hesitation.
• The Sphinx is revealed to have suffered serious injuries after helping Liu break through the Divine Power Barrier, reinforcing its loyalty and importance to him.
• Cow-Horse remains boastful, suspicious, and combative, but also shows concern for Liu’s safety and recognition of the dangers he faced. Their past ambition has shifted toward valuing a quieter, more secure life.
• White-Feather Chicken appears opportunistic and proud, using their contribution to Liu’s survival as justification for demanding the Flesh Bone. They also remain highly sensitive to insults and eager to challenge Cow-Horse.
• Liu Zheng’s relationships with his allies are shown to be based on mutual favors, humor, intimidation, and loyalty rather than formal authority alone.

Significant Themes

• Reciprocity and negotiation: Nearly every relationship operates through exchanges—medicine, favors, protection, compensation, or “appearance fees.” Even friendship is expressed through bargaining and teasing.
• Collective victory and interdependence: Liu rejects the idea that he defeated Garcia alone, crediting the entire network of allies whose combined actions made victory possible.
• Loyalty and responsibility: Liu protects the Sphinx and takes responsibility for the family of a man he killed, suggesting that power carries obligations beyond immediate survival.
• Violence and humor: Serious threats, death, and injury are repeatedly undercut by absurd jokes and insults, creating a darkly comic tone.
• Status and authority: Characters constantly test who is in charge—Cow-Horse jokes about Liu finding another boss, while White-Feather Chicken and Cow-Horse compete over departmental and personal superiority.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Wang Manni cooperate professionally, with Liu protecting her from a difficult negotiation.
• Liu and Niu Daji interact as commander and devoted subordinate, mixing practical instructions with affectionate mockery.
• Liu negotiates directly with the Delivery Passage, treating it almost like an addicted but unreliable partner.
• Liu and Cow-Horse share a teasing mentor-brother dynamic; Cow-Horse claims seniority while Liu gently mocks their reluctance to fight.
• White-Feather Chicken and Cow-Horse immediately resume their rivalry, trading insults and challenging each other to fight.
• Liu attempts to mediate between them, pointing out that their proposed wager would unfairly benefit Britannia and the Customer Service Department. The chapter ends as he prepares to explain a better arrangement.

Chapter Summary: “Get Ready, I’m Accelerating”

Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng manipulates Cow-Horse and White-Feather Chicken into recognizing the Customer Service Department as their common threat. By joking about the departments becoming a hierarchy of “grandfather, father, and grandson,” he prevents them from insulting or undermining one another.
• White-Feather Chicken threatens to replace the Kitchen’s staff meals with Salmon’s cat litter and Shark Dagger’s foul urine. Cow-Horse immediately surrenders, ending the argument.
• White-Feather Chicken explains how the remaining proceeds from the monster flesh will be divided after rent for “Anger” and its intervention fee. Liu Zheng chooses an expensive food item for the Sphinx, honoring its contribution, and asks for twelve bottles of liquor.
• Although White-Feather Chicken refuses to sell him more alcohol directly, it offers to arrange access to Du Kang Liquor Shop. The shop requires customers to pay with “beautiful dreams,” which can cause depression, mental decline, memory loss, or even death. Nightmares can also be used, but the shop may impose terrifying ones on customers who lack suitable dreams.
• White-Feather Chicken leaves after receiving dried fish, while Liu Zheng privately celebrates keeping “Anger,” a powerful weapon that greatly improves his ordinary attacks and allows him to transform into the Wrath Demon.
• Cow-Horse demands a share of Liu Zheng’s earnings from the recent mission. Liu Zheng reluctantly gives it two payments of 100,000, while pretending he made little profit.
• Ghost Hand arrives with a delivery order and demands food. After rejecting Aberrant Insect flesh, it accepts dried fish, then painfully hammers Liu Zheng’s hoof in thanks or amusement. Cow-Horse mocks him afterward.
• Liu Zheng receives a delivery order for William at Green Shade Culture on Rose Street: one serving of Blazing Ice Cube, to be delivered within an hour.
• He eats the previous meal, Stomping Fish Head, and gains increased leg explosive power. The Blazing Ice Cube is revealed to temporarily raise Mental by three points for one hour.
• Liu Zheng asks the driver, Colonel, to rent a sports car. Colonel brings out a rare Koenigsegg One:1 from his private collection.
• During the drive, Liu Zheng reveals that he did not escape from Captain Dragonfly but killed the Divine Monster directly. Colonel is impressed and frustrated that he missed the battle. Liu Zheng teases him about lacking anti-teleportation technology, prompting Colonel to consider improving his forces.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng enthusiastically standing in the speeding car as Colonel accelerates, turning the delivery trip into a thrilling ride.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates clever negotiation, shameless humor, financial caution, and loyalty. He ensures the Sphinx is rewarded, preserves his relationship with White-Feather Chicken, and keeps control of his valuable weapon. His confidence also grows after defeating Captain Dragonfly.
• Cow-Horse remains greedy, domineering, and dependent on Liu Zheng’s earnings, but it also shows its influence as the Delivery Department’s superior. Its familiarity with White-Feather Chicken allows it to understand the political tensions between departments.
• White-Feather Chicken is shown to be practical, intimidating, and fair-minded. Despite its harsh threats, it calculates Liu Zheng’s share of the monster flesh and helps him obtain valuable food and alcohol.
• Colonel is revealed to be a thrill-seeking soldier who values combat and dislikes missing important battles. Liu Zheng’s provocation motivates him to consider developing countermeasures against teleportation.
• Ghost Hand continues to behave strangely and mischievously, demanding hospitality and inflicting pain on Liu Zheng in an unsettling but seemingly playful interaction.

Significant Themes

• Power and hierarchy: The “grandfather, father, and grandson” analogy exposes how titles and relationships can alter political standing between departments.
• Survival in Metropolis: White-Feather Chicken emphasizes that Metropolis is ruled by competition, exploitation, and violence; weakness leads to enslavement or being eaten.
• The cost of desire: Du Kang Liquor Shop’s dream-based payment system shows that valuable goods in this world require dangerous personal sacrifices.
• Loyalty and reciprocity: Liu Zheng compensates the Sphinx, shares money with Cow-Horse, and maintains alliances through gifts, food, and favors.
• Humor amid danger: Threats involving disgusting food, aggressive bargaining, and reckless driving contrast with the deadly battles and supernatural hazards surrounding the characters.
• Growing confidence: Liu Zheng increasingly acts like an established power, openly boasting about his victory and embracing dangerous excitement rather than merely reacting to events.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng mediates the dispute between Cow-Horse and White-Feather Chicken by reframing their rivalry as a shared political problem.
• White-Feather Chicken intimidates Cow-Horse into surrendering, then trades information and favors with Liu Zheng over food, liquor, and payment.
• Cow-Horse extorts Liu Zheng for a share of his earnings, reinforcing their unequal but familiar relationship.
• Ghost Hand demands food, hurts Liu Zheng, and leaves while Cow-Horse laughs at his victimization.
• Liu Zheng and Colonel bond through their shared appetite for danger. Liu Zheng provokes Colonel over missed combat opportunities, and Colonel responds by accelerating the car dramatically.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng returns to the clinic after a dangerous confrontation that left the Sphinx severely injured. He finds it alive and gives it a “Flesh Bone” from the Legendary Delivery Box, which immediately excites and begins helping its recovery.
• The Sphinx suspects Liu Zheng is trying to manipulate it with food, but reluctantly accepts the Flesh Bone. Liu also promises it a more substantial “main course” in the future.
• The Nile Doctor reprimands Liu Zheng for nearly killing the clinic’s guardian. Liu explains that he broke through a divine barrier, killed an evil god’s bishop, and apparently destroyed a Divine Monster. The doctor is shocked, since Divine Monsters are powerful beings closely connected to major deities and are nearly impossible for mortals to defeat.
• The Nile Doctor reveals that the prostitutes Liu Zheng previously brought from the Pink Kingdom are suffering from hidden injuries and supernatural contamination. His Sacred Scarabs can convert sewer semi-solids into medicinal substances capable of treating them.
• Because the Nile Doctor cannot leave the clinic while the Sphinx is incapacitated, Liu Zheng is forced to return to the Sewer to collect the needed materials. He privately resolves to obtain permission to travel freely through the Sewer and eventually make Niu Daji handle such tasks.
• Liu Zheng then travels to the “Die Happy” Funeral Home to arrange funeral services for the old man he has accepted as his godfather.
• At the funeral home, a calculating, overly enthusiastic manager introduces Liu to the establishment’s cemetery plots and bizarre afterlife services. The funeral home has an agreement with the Cemetery, offers elaborate burial “communities,” and provides both living and Dead concierges.
• The manager advertises unusual funeral packages such as “Eighteen Escorts,” “Eighteen Touches,” “Eighteen Arhats,” and “Sister Blossoms.” Liu becomes increasingly bewildered by the absurd and unsettling services.
• The chapter ends as a woman called “Sister Blossoms” is brought out for Liu to inspect.

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains irreverent, opportunistic, and humorous even after surviving a deadly battle. He demonstrates concern for the Sphinx and the injured prostitutes, though he is reluctant to undertake the dangerous work needed to help them.
• His recent battle has elevated his apparent power and importance: he has defeated an evil god’s bishop and a Divine Monster, accomplishments that even the Nile Doctor finds nearly unbelievable.
• The Sphinx is shown to be proud and suspicious but also highly vulnerable to the Flesh Bone’s temptation. Its playful hostility toward Liu reveals a familiar, almost domestic relationship between them.
• The Nile Doctor shifts from anger to curiosity and then to practical concern. Although he is not willing to treat the prostitutes for free, he possesses the means to save them and relies on Liu to gather the necessary materials.
• Niu Daji, though absent, becomes the target of Liu Zheng’s future plans to delegate unpleasant Sewer-related work.
• The funeral-home manager is established as a slick, manipulative salesman who disguises bizarre and morbid products in polished commercial language.

3. Significant Themes

• Power and consequences: Liu Zheng’s growing strength brings danger and responsibility, particularly as his actions have injured allies and attracted the attention of powerful beings.
• Compassion versus helplessness: Liu feels unable to dismiss the prostitutes’ suffering as mere fate, yet he lacks the means to solve their problems directly. His eventual decision to help shows reluctant but genuine compassion.
• Absurdity and dark humor: Serious matters—Divine Monsters, bodily injury, death, and supernatural exploitation—are repeatedly undercut by jokes, exaggerated sales pitches, and ridiculous service packages.
• Death as commerce: The funeral home treats burial and the afterlife like a luxury real-estate and entertainment business, satirizing consumerism and the commercialization of death.
• Social responsibility and exploitation: The prostitutes’ injuries reflect the abuse and hidden costs of their profession, while the funeral home’s services suggest that even death can be packaged and sold for profit.

4. Character Interactions

• Liu and the Sphinx exchange sarcastic insults, with Liu teasing it using the Flesh Bone and the Sphinx resisting while clearly wanting it.
• The Nile Doctor scolds Liu for damaging the Sphinx, but their argument becomes a practical discussion about Liu’s recent battle and the treatment of the prostitutes.
• Liu and the Nile Doctor also maintain a transactional but familiar relationship: the doctor forgives Liu’s debt, while Liu is pressured into dangerous errands on the clinic’s behalf.
• Liu jokes with the driver about being thrown into the car, preserving the chapter’s comedic tone before they travel to the funeral home.
• At the funeral home, Liu challenges the manager’s exaggerated sales language with skeptical questions, while the manager responds with increasingly elaborate explanations designed to sell the funeral packages.

Chapter Summary: “The Residents of Metropolis Are So Rude!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng visits a Funeral Home to purchase burial companions and an Underworld Residence for his deceased godfather.
• The manager shows him two versions of “Sister Blossoms”:
  • A standard model using stillborn twin fetuses implanted in a living surrogate mother.
  • An advanced model in which flower seeds grow inside a corpse and can become customized half-living, half-dead companions.
• Liu Zheng is disgusted by the grotesque commercialization of bodies and death. He rejects the advanced products and instead purchases the cheaper “Beggar-Edition Sister Blossoms,” along with an “Eighteen Beauties Edition” of Eighteen Escorts.
• He buys a large duplex Underworld Residence for one million, negotiating a small discount through his City Hall connections. He pays a generous deposit and effectively hires the bald manager to host the funeral.
• Leaving the Funeral Home, Liu Zheng reflects bitterly on the pervasive corruption and filth of Metropolis. His driver argues that although the city is terrible, the alternative society might not have been better.
• At Bad-Luck Coffee, Liu Zheng negotiates with the general manager over a deer corpse. He has obtained only the deer’s heart from the Sewer, rather than the complete corpse originally discussed.
• The manager initially offers only two hundred thousand based on the heart’s weight, but Liu Zheng aggressively rejects the valuation and threatens to destroy Bad-Luck Coffee’s branches. He invokes his dangerous reputation and connections to powerful figures.
• The manager, recognizing Liu’s volatility, raises the offer to three million and agrees to a fifteen-percent discount on coffee and desserts for a thousand people. The order is to be delivered to Rose Street near a manhole, presumably for people at the Shelter.
• After the negotiation, an employee physically throws Liu Zheng out of the shop. He sarcastically concludes that Metropolis’s residents are exceptionally rude and orders his driver to take him to Silk-Coiling Cave.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Displays strong moral disgust toward the Funeral Home’s exploitation of corpses, fetuses, and surrogate mothers, despite participating in the city’s abnormal economy. He continues to rely on intimidation, sarcasm, and his reputation to force favorable deals. His threats are partly performative but reveal his growing power, confidence, and volatility under pressure. He also shows generosity by arranging food and coffee for a thousand people at the Shelter.
• The bald Funeral Home manager: Presents horrific commercial practices as respectable, ethical, and customer-oriented. He is skilled at disguising exploitation behind contracts, “voluntary” participation, and customer service language. He quickly recognizes Liu’s social connections and adjusts the price accordingly.
• The surrogate mother: Briefly insists that she volunteered for the procedure, complicating Liu’s suspicion that the workers may be coerced. Her presence highlights how Metropolis normalizes bodily sacrifice.
• Bad-Luck Coffee’s general manager: Begins aggressively defending the original terms but becomes exasperated rather than frightened by Liu’s threats. He ultimately compromises to preserve the business relationship.
• The driver: Acts as a cynical conversational partner, challenging Liu’s condemnation of Metropolis while accepting its violence and corruption as unavoidable.

Significant Themes

• Commodification of death and the body: Corpses, fetuses, souls, memories, and even personalities are treated as customizable commercial products.
• Moral hypocrisy: The Funeral Home claims to respect life while profiting from shortened lifespans, permanent infertility, dead infants, and corpse-based experimentation.
• Violence as negotiation: In Metropolis, ordinary bargaining is mixed with threats of murder, destruction, and retaliation. Reputation and fear matter more than formal contracts.
• Corruption and social connections: Liu’s relationships with City Hall officials, the Gravekeeper, and other powerful figures directly affect prices and treatment.
• Alienation and disgust: Liu is repelled by the city’s practices but remains entangled in them, suggesting that survival requires participation in a fundamentally corrupt system.
• Dark humor and absurdity: Grotesque horrors are presented through cheerful sales language, while Liu’s explosive threats and the manager’s irritated responses create a satirical contrast.

Character Interactions

• Liu questions the Funeral Home manager about the origins, risks, and ethics of the Sister Blossoms products, repeatedly exposing the gap between the manager’s polished explanations and the disturbing reality.
• Liu and the manager engage in a tense but ultimately successful commercial negotiation, with Liu using family connections, tips, and implied influence to secure favorable terms.
• Liu and his driver debate whether Metropolis could ever have been improved, revealing their shared cynicism but differing perspectives.
• Liu and the Bad-Luck Coffee manager clash over the value of the deer’s heart. Their negotiation escalates into mutual insults and threats before ending in a reluctant agreement.
• The final interaction with the Coffee employees ends violently, reinforcing the chapter’s central idea that even routine transactions in Metropolis are governed by hostility and force.

Chapter Summary: “The Delivery Has Arrived”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng delivers another batch of Aberrant Insect meat to Box Weaver-Spider at Silk-Coiling Cave.
• Box Weaver-Spider initially tries to eat the meat in darkness, but Liu Zheng insists that it turn on the lights before he hands over the food. Once illuminated, the cave contains an extravagant crystal chandelier.
• The upgraded meat, cut with the Rusty Blade—an item connected to Seven Sins: Wrath—is even more delicious than Liu Zheng’s previous deliveries. Box Weaver-Spider eagerly consumes it and agrees that Liu Zheng is its best supplier.
• Liu Zheng proposes that Box Weaver-Spider provide storage equipment so he can transport larger quantities of meat. They negotiate a trade: Liu Zheng gives a portable treasury and 200,000 currency, while Box Weaver-Spider gives him a storage pouch and Spirit Silk.
• The storage item, the Headless Mandarin Ducks Pouch, can hold ten cubic meters of goods and can be taken out of the dungeon, but the user must personally bear the stored items’ weight. More dangerously, intimate contact with a person causes the pouch’s contents to be destroyed and permanently reduces its capacity.
• Liu Zheng asks whether the pouch can be repaired. Box Weaver-Spider explains that its brother, Craft Weaver-Spider, might be able to fix it, but he disappeared after traveling to the sea to pursue a hermit crab he loved.
• Box Weaver-Spider gives Liu Zheng a Yarn Ball that can help locate Craft Weaver-Spider within three kilometers. It also promises that helping find him would earn Liu Zheng the Weaver-Spider Clan’s favor, access to valuable Spirit Silk, and stronger support from Bloodstained Restaurant.
• Liu Zheng declines to take on the dangerous sea expedition for now, though he keeps the Yarn Ball.
• As a token of friendship, Box Weaver-Spider gives Liu Zheng the Super-Premium Long Johns, which strengthen his lower limbs and may increase all his attributes when his groin is attacked.
• After confirming with the system that self-inflicted attacks count, Liu Zheng immediately puts them on despite their humiliating design.
• Box Weaver-Spider demands a return gift. Liu Zheng gives it the Quirky Teleportation Ring, prompting a joke that he is trying to replace the spider quickly.
• Their exchange ends with mutual teasing. Box Weaver-Spider ejects Liu Zheng from the cave, and he returns to his driver.
• Liu Zheng orders the driver to take him to Rose Street. The driver accelerates dramatically, spinning the sports car toward their destination.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to show himself as calculating, opportunistic, and willing to tolerate embarrassment for practical benefits. He turns the food delivery into a profitable negotiation and secures equipment that can help him in future dungeons.
• He also demonstrates confidence and adaptability by immediately accepting the strange long johns once he learns they can improve his attributes.
• Liu Zheng and Box Weaver-Spider’s relationship develops from a simple supplier-customer arrangement into a genuine, if sarcastic, friendship.
• Box Weaver-Spider becomes more trusting of Liu Zheng, acknowledging him as a friend and giving him valuable gifts. However, it remains stingy, proud, and fond of mocking him.
• The revelation about Craft Weaver-Spider introduces a new possible ally and quest, while also showing the unusual emotional lives and eccentric customs of the Weaver-Spider Clan.

Significant Themes

• Trade and mutual dependence: Liu Zheng’s food deliveries give him leverage, while Box Weaver-Spider’s specialized goods and connections make it valuable to him.
• Friendship expressed through exchange: Both characters use gifts and favors to formalize their relationship, though their exchanges are filtered through sarcasm and bargaining.
• Risk versus reward: The storage pouch offers valuable capacity but carries severe physical and emotional restrictions. Likewise, the long johns offer attribute boosts at the cost of humiliation and potential pain.
• The absurdity of the Metropolis: Romantic relationships between supernatural beings, bizarre equipment descriptions, and eccentric social customs create a world where grotesque and ridiculous events are treated as ordinary.
• Pragmatism over dignity: Liu Zheng repeatedly accepts awkward or dangerous conditions if the potential benefits improve his survival and strength.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng pressures Box Weaver-Spider to turn on the lights before completing the food exchange, establishing their usual pattern of playful confrontation.
• Their negotiation over storage equipment shows mutual bargaining: Liu Zheng seeks greater delivery capacity, while Box Weaver-Spider tries to retain its exclusive supplier.
• Box Weaver-Spider attempts to recruit Liu Zheng to help find Craft Weaver-Spider by describing the rewards, but Liu Zheng refuses because the danger and uncertainty are too great.
• Their friendship becomes explicit when Box Weaver-Spider gives Liu Zheng the long johns and demands a return gift.
• The two exchange insults about the equipment, friendship, and gift-giving before Box Weaver-Spider humorously throws Liu Zheng out.
• Liu Zheng’s interaction with the driver continues the chapter’s comedic tone, as the driver treats his repeated ejection from the cave as a normal feature of life in Metropolis.

Chapter Summary: “Hold a Grudge in Defeat, Settle Scores in Victory”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng arrives at Rose Street in a Koenigsegg One:1 driven recklessly by a company representative. Despite his superhuman abilities, he becomes violently carsick and vomits upon arrival.
• Green Shade Culture confirms that Liu Zheng completed his commission, including killing Stag Beetle, and agrees to pay him seven million.
• The company offers him seven million in company shares, guaranteed not to lose value for three years, in exchange for ceasing all actions against the company. Liu rejects this because he does not intend to remain in the Metropolis for two years.
• When Liu says he needs immediate money, the company offers an interest-free seven-million loan, with the shares serving as collateral if he cannot repay it. He rejects borrowing money and insists on cash, which he carefully inspects before accepting.
• Liu then negotiates for the safety of Water Forty-Three’s family. Green Shade Culture refuses to release them completely but agrees not to harm them while keeping them under supervision.
• The company initially demands three to ten years of supervision, then reduces the period to at least two years when Liu objects. He considers this unacceptable because he may leave the Metropolis before then and cannot guarantee the family’s safety after his departure.
• Liu devises a compromise: 500,000 of his seven million in equity will be transferred to Water Forty-Three’s family, while the family’s promised compensation will be given to Liu. He argues that the family’s financial stake in the company will make them cooperate rather than oppose it.
• The company agrees. Liu receives 500,000 in cash compensation, while his equity and loan amounts are each reduced to 6.5 million.
• The contracts are printed using a magically enlarged portable printer. Liu carefully reviews and signs the loan and equity agreements, completing the negotiation.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains suspicious, pragmatic, and highly resistant to being manipulated. He refuses an apparently lucrative long-term investment because he values immediate freedom and liquidity over potential future profit.
• His reputation for holding grudges becomes a major bargaining tool. He makes it clear that if Green Shade Culture harms Water Forty-Three’s family after he leaves, he will remember and retaliate against the company.
• Liu demonstrates strong negotiation skills and strategic thinking. Rather than accepting the company’s proposed restrictions, he creates a financial arrangement that aligns the family’s interests with Green Shade Culture’s survival.
• His concern for Water Forty-Three’s family is genuine, though he expresses it through calculated business logic rather than emotional appeals.
• The deputy director acts as a cautious intermediary between Liu and Green Shade Culture. It repeatedly pauses to consult the company, showing that Liu’s demands are serious enough to require approval from higher management.
• The deputy director also reveals that Green Shade Culture fears Liu’s abilities and influence. The company wants to bind him to its interests because it cannot safely treat him as an ordinary contractor.

Significant Themes

• Immediate survival versus long-term gain: Liu chooses cash over shares and refuses a loan because future prosperity means little if he cannot remain in the Metropolis long enough to benefit.
• Trust and suspicion: Liu carefully checks the money and contracts, reflecting the dangerous and deceptive nature of the Metropolis.
• Leverage and mutual dependence: Green Shade Culture tries to control Liu through money, while Liu uses his reputation and knowledge of its vulnerability to force concessions.
• Grudges and consequences: The chapter’s central idea is that Liu remembers betrayal and settles accounts when he gains the advantage. His memory becomes a form of power.
• Turning enemies into stakeholders: By giving Water Forty-Three’s family company equity, Liu transforms them from potential victims or opponents into people with a financial reason to protect the company.
• Corporate self-interest: Green Shade Culture’s apparent generosity is motivated by fear of Liu and a desire to protect its future plans, especially its expected expansion and possible public listing.

Character Interactions

• Liu’s teasing and physical joking with the deputy director—such as wiping vomit onto its suit and making suggestive remarks about its magical printer command—contrast with the seriousness of their negotiations.
• The deputy director remains polite and professional despite Liu’s rudeness, recognizing that Liu is addressing the company through it rather than personally attacking it.
• Their negotiations gradually create a relationship of mutual dependence. By the end, both jokingly call each other “family,” reflecting the company’s attempt to bind Liu to its interests and Liu’s successful extraction of concessions.
• Liu and Green Shade Culture remain neither allies nor outright enemies. They cooperate because their interests temporarily overlap, but Liu’s warning makes clear that any future betrayal could lead to open retaliation.

Chapter Summary: “Silver Wolf’s Troubles”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng meets Water Forty-Three’s widow, parents, and infant daughter, Shuisheng, after Water Forty-Three’s death.
• He verifies their identities and explains that Water Forty-Three died helping him defeat the Doppler Swordsman.
• Liu Zheng arranges Water Forty-Three’s promised compensation:
  • The 500,000 payment is converted into company shares.
  • He gives the family 10,000 for the current month.
  • The remaining 490,000 is placed with Nile Doctor at Imhotep Clinic, where the family must collect it together each month.
• Concerned that the family might separate or misuse the money, Liu Zheng offers them a choice:
  1. Stay in the city and manage their affairs independently.
  2. Move to Bathhouse Street, where his acquaintance can protect and support them.
• The widow chooses Bathhouse Street, prioritizing the safety of her child and family. Liu Zheng arranges for the Seasoning Quartet to escort them.
• Liu Zheng learns from Niu Daji that another family connected to his investigation refuses to be sent into the Sewer and has reacted violently. He orders Niu Daji to observe them but not interfere.
• A large Bad-Luck Coffee delivery arrives, costing 300,000. Liu Zheng refuses to pay an additional 30% labor casualty fee to have the goods carried into the Sewer, leaving him with the problem of transporting the supplies himself.
• His frustration turns into an idea: he realizes he may be able to recruit others to move the goods for him, possibly without payment.
• The narrative then shifts to City Hall and the Food Business Management Office, introducing Silver Wolf, the acting deputy captain of an enforcement squad.
• Silver Wolf has risen from an Underground Beast Arena fighter to a respected City Hall official through years of sacrifice and hard work. However, his promotion prospects are threatened by a better-connected rival whose uncle holds influence within City Hall.
• As Silver Wolf struggles with this political setback, his trusted subordinate Liechang informs him that the rival—or another important visitor—has arrived.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates responsibility and practical compassion by honoring Water Forty-Three’s final request and protecting his family’s compensation. His precautions also reveal his distrust of human weakness and the dangers of Metropolis.
• Water Forty-Three’s widow becomes the effective head of her household after her husband’s death. Though frightened and grieving, she makes a decisive choice to leave the city for the safety of her family.
• Water Forty-Three’s parents accept the widow’s authority, showing their trust in her judgment.
• Niu Daji proves resourceful by using Liu Zheng’s methods to enter a restricted residential complex, though his report also reveals that the family there is hostile and unwilling to accept help.
• Silver Wolf is established as disciplined, capable, and ambitious. His rise has required endurance and sacrifice, but he now faces the painful realization that merit may not overcome connections and institutional favoritism.
• Liechang is shown as Silver Wolf’s loyal subordinate and fellow veteran of the Underground Beast Arena.

Significant Themes

• Responsibility and honoring the dead: Water Forty-Three’s sacrifice creates an obligation Liu Zheng takes seriously.
• Protection versus personal choice: Liu Zheng tries to safeguard the widow and child, but he cannot force other people to accept protection.
• The dangers of money and human weakness: Liu Zheng structures the compensation to prevent it from being stolen, misused, or divided.
• Bureaucracy and corruption: Silver Wolf’s career illustrates how political connections and family influence can outweigh hard work and ability.
• Power and hierarchy: City Hall is portrayed as an overwhelming institution dominated by the Supreme Speaker, whose authority surpasses even powerful supernatural beings.
• Practical ingenuity: Liu Zheng repeatedly turns inconveniences into opportunities, especially when he begins considering unconventional labor for transporting the delivery.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng speaks respectfully but firmly with Water Forty-Three’s family, balancing condolences with practical instructions.
• He negotiates with the widow rather than simply imposing a solution, allowing her to choose the safer relocation plan.
• His threatening instructions to the Seasoning Quartet are deliberately harsh but reveal his concern for the pregnant woman and her family.
• Liu Zheng gives Niu Daji clear operational orders: observe the hostile family, report developments, and avoid unnecessary interference.
• His exchange with the Bad-Luck Coffee employee highlights the commercial dangers of the Sewer and Liu Zheng’s unwillingness to pay an excessive transport fee.
• At City Hall, Silver Wolf’s relationship with Liechang contrasts with the political rivalry threatening his career: he has loyalty from his subordinates but lacks the institutional connections his opponent possesses.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Shanyi, the acting deputy captain of Enforcement Team One, enters Silver Wolf’s office with two identical Dog-Seal Clan subordinates and distributes coffee and desserts to the staff.
• Her generosity wins immediate praise from the team, but Silver Wolf remains openly hostile toward her. He knows that her pleasant, generous public image conceals a history of cowardice, credit-stealing, and ruthlessness.
• Silver Wolf pressures Liechang to accept the free refreshments. Liechang takes extra desserts, insults Bai Shanyi’s two loyal subordinates, and provokes an argument that exposes the tension between Silver Wolf’s faction and Bai Shanyi.
• Bai Shanyi and Silver Wolf engage in a bitter verbal confrontation. She defends her political maneuvering, arguing that cultivating relationships with powerful leaders and claiming credit are necessary parts of leadership.
• Silver Wolf counters that Bai Shanyi takes far more credit than she deserves, while he performs most of the actual work and shares credit with his subordinates.
• Bai Shanyi retaliates by bringing up the “Broom Spirit incident.” She reminds Silver Wolf that Broom Spirit, a loyal subordinate who once saved his life, was sent undercover to the Hundred Thousand Mountains after offending someone powerful and has been missing for nearly two years.
• Her accusation deeply affects Silver Wolf, who crushes his coffee cup in anger. She argues that a leader’s duty is to shield and protect those who depend on them—something she claims Silver Wolf failed to do.
• Before the confrontation can escalate, Silver Wolf receives a call from Liu Zheng. Liu reveals that he has destroyed the Round God Sect.
• Silver Wolf immediately activates a soundproof barrier to prevent the office from overhearing the conversation. He orders Liechang to kill Bai Shanyi if she attempts to enter the barrier, demonstrating the seriousness of the information and the depth of his hostility toward her.

Character Developments

• Silver Wolf: Revealed as principled, hardworking, and protective of his reputation for fairness, but also deeply burdened by guilt over Broom Spirit’s fate. His calm exterior breaks when Bai Shanyi reminds him of that failure. He is also shown to be cautious and strategically minded, immediately isolating Liu Zheng’s call as confidential.
• Bai Shanyi: Presents herself as generous and socially skilled, using gifts and flattery to win loyalty. Beneath this facade, she is manipulative, politically ambitious, and willing to exploit subordinates. However, she demonstrates genuine insight into institutional power and accurately identifies Silver Wolf’s vulnerability.
• Liechang: Acts crude and provocative, but his behavior is calculated and fiercely loyal to Silver Wolf. He refuses to accept Bai Shanyi’s goodwill without Silver Wolf’s permission, then deliberately antagonizes her subordinates. His willingness to kill on Silver Wolf’s command highlights his dangerous devotion.
• Bai Shanyi’s Dog-Seal subordinates: Their unquestioning loyalty to Bai Shanyi is emphasized. They defend her aggressively but are easily frustrated by Liechang’s insults.
• Liu Zheng: Appears briefly but delivers major news: he has eliminated the Round God Sect, suggesting that events beyond the office are rapidly advancing.

Significant Themes

• The difference between genuine leadership and political performance: Silver Wolf values labor, responsibility, and sharing credit, while Bai Shanyi emphasizes networking, influence, and controlling how achievements are presented.
• Loyalty and betrayal: Both leaders claim to protect their subordinates, but their methods differ. The chapter questions whether loyalty matters if a leader cannot shield followers from political consequences.
• Credit, power, and institutional corruption: The argument reveals a workplace where leaders compete for recognition, exploit temporary workers, and manipulate superiors.
• The burden of leadership: Bai Shanyi’s attack on Silver Wolf suggests that leadership is measured not only by personal effort but also by whether one can protect those who serve under them.
• Hidden vulnerability beneath hostility: Silver Wolf and Bai Shanyi trade insults, but the conflict becomes serious when Broom Spirit’s disappearance is mentioned, exposing Silver Wolf’s unresolved guilt.
• Information as power: Liu Zheng’s revelation and Silver Wolf’s immediate use of a soundproof barrier emphasize the importance and danger of secret knowledge.

Important Character Interactions

• Silver Wolf and Bai Shanyi: Their hostile exchange forms the chapter’s central conflict. They understand each other’s flaws and deliberately target one another’s weaknesses.
• Silver Wolf and Liechang: Their relationship is built on trust and hierarchy. Liechang follows Silver Wolf’s orders immediately, even when asked to accept something from an enemy.
• Liechang and the Dog-Seal twins: Their quarrel is comic on the surface but reflects the larger rivalry between Bai Shanyi’s loyal faction and Silver Wolf’s group.
• Bai Shanyi and her subordinates: Her gift-giving reinforces her ability to cultivate personal loyalty, while their readiness to obey and defend her shows the strength of her influence.
• Silver Wolf and Liu Zheng: Liu’s call shifts the chapter from office rivalry to larger, potentially dangerous developments, with the destruction of the Round God Sect serving as a major cliffhanger.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng tells Silver Wolf that he and his allies have destroyed the Round God Sect, killing both its bishop, Garcia, and its powerful Divine Monster, Ettolrahc. Silver Wolf recognizes the claim as credible because both targets were notorious enemies of City Hall.
• Liu Zheng reveals that he arranged for Silver Wolf to receive part of the credit. This should be enough to secure Silver Wolf’s promotion to deputy unit chief.
• However, Liu warns that the Market Supervision Department’s minister, the Primordial Time Dragon, may resign. If Yu Shengjin, the rival Bai Ethnicity clan chief, takes over, Silver Wolf could remain trapped under an antagonistic superior.
• Liu offers an alternative: Silver Wolf could transfer to the Border Management Bureau, serve as acting unit chief while holding deputy-unit-chief rank, and earn a formal promotion after completing several missions.
• Liu also asks Silver Wolf to help him borrow Flymen from the Sanitation Bureau. He needs to move a thousand takeout meals into the Sewer and excavate sewage in search of valuable materials.
• Silver Wolf agrees to connect Liu with Black Skeleton, a sanitation official. Black Skeleton readily offers the Flymen, who enjoy eating sewage and drinking urine, and says he also has a personal matter to discuss with Liu.
• Liu further asks Silver Wolf to lead his subordinates around West River Center merely to make their presence known and intimidate potential opponents. Silver Wolf agrees.
• After ending the call, Silver Wolf orders Enforcement Team Two to leave with it. When a subordinate questions the unauthorized mobilization, Silver Wolf forcefully reasserts its authority.
• Silver Wolf confronts Bai Shanyi at the doorway. When she refuses to move, Liechang knocks aside her two Dog-Seal Clan guards, while Silver Wolf uses overwhelming predator-like pressure to frighten her into stepping aside.
• Silver Wolf leaves triumphantly, reaffirming its determination to rise from its lowly origins and climb steadily toward the top.

Character Developments

• Silver Wolf: Gains a major opportunity for advancement and must choose between a safer deputy-unit-chief promotion in its current department or a more powerful but riskier path toward becoming a full unit chief in the Border Management Bureau. Its pride, ambition, and confidence grow as it realizes Liu Zheng’s support may provide the patronage it previously lacked. It also firmly establishes its authority over its team and humiliates Bai Shanyi, proving that its arena-honed strength remains formidable.
• Liu Zheng: Demonstrates increasing influence and resourcefulness. His destruction of the Round God Sect gives him significant political capital, which he uses to help Silver Wolf. He also treats Silver Wolf as genuine family and makes practical use of its official connections.
• Bai Shanyi: Is shown as socially powerful but physically and psychologically outmatched. Her attempt to provoke or obstruct Silver Wolf collapses when she is overwhelmed by its presence and forced to retreat.
• Liechang: Shows loyalty to Silver Wolf by volunteering to follow it if it transfers departments. Though comically overweight from constantly eating at the Food Management Office, he values Silver Wolf’s protection more than his comfortable position.
• Black Skeleton: Confirms his friendly relationship with Liu Zheng and willingly provides assistance, while hinting that he has an important personal request to make.

Significant Themes

• Ambition and upward mobility: Silver Wolf’s central goal is to overcome its origins and advance step by step through a rigid bureaucratic hierarchy.
• Power versus status: The chapter contrasts formal rank with actual authority. Becoming a unit chief would give Silver Wolf far greater control than merely holding deputy rank.
• Patronage and political maneuvering: Promotions depend not only on ability but also on powerful allies, departmental politics, and the distribution of credit.
• Loyalty and chosen family: Liu Zheng’s support transforms their relationship from an inconvenient family connection into genuine mutual trust. Silver Wolf also accepts Liechang’s loyalty and promises to bring him along.
• Humiliation and dominance: The confrontation with Bai Shanyi emphasizes the difference between inherited social privilege and earned strength.
• The value hidden in filth: Liu Zheng’s willingness to work in the Sewer reflects the recurring idea that unpleasant or despised places may contain enormous opportunities and resources.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Silver Wolf: Liu offers Silver Wolf both promotion-related advice and practical support, while Silver Wolf agrees to help him obtain Flymen and display official backing at West River Center.
• Silver Wolf and Liechang: Their exchange is comic but affectionate. Liechang praises Silver Wolf and asks to follow it, and Silver Wolf promises to take him if possible.
• Silver Wolf and Bai Shanyi: Their hostile encounter ends with Silver Wolf asserting physical and psychological dominance, forcing Bai Shanyi to move aside.
• Silver Wolf and Enforcement Team Two: Silver Wolf suppresses resistance within the team and reinforces its command authority through intimidation and a display of confidence.
• Liu Zheng and Black Skeleton: Their warm, informal conversation shows an established friendship. Black Skeleton agrees to lend Flymen and hints at a separate matter he wants to discuss in person.

Chapter Summary: A Dead Ex-Husband Is the Best Ex-Husband

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng worries about why the Sanitation Department wants to meet him. He considers whether it concerns either the Sewer’s Red Ghost or the French Plane Tree’s possible evolution into a Phoenix, which could be viewed as public property defecting from City Hall.
• Black Skeleton arrives with Flymen to collect a large delivery of Bad-Luck Coffee. Liu Zheng generously gives him extra boxes, strengthening their friendly relationship.
• The two smoke Sanitation Department cigarettes together. Black Skeleton humorously lights Liu Zheng’s cigarette with the ghostfire in his eye socket and reveals that he recently transplanted eyebrows.
• During their private conversation, Black Skeleton asks Liu Zheng for help obtaining two high-quality skins and a skilled makeup artist for his twin daughters, who belong to the Painted-Skin Clan.
• Black Skeleton explains that Painted-Skin girls traditionally select new skins and makeup around the age of twelve, after which their appearance becomes fixed. His daughters are preparing for an important centennial Painted-Skin Contest.
• The contest’s winner earns access to the “Dragon-Eye Touch,” which grants extraordinary abilities. Black Skeleton wants his daughters to have the best possible chance of winning.
• Liu Zheng learns that Black Skeleton’s Sanitation Department has long monitored the Bloodstained Restaurant and considers it a source of evil, especially because of its connection to the Round God Sect. Nevertheless, Black Skeleton is willing to ask Liu Zheng to obtain materials from the Restaurant’s Kitchen because his concern as a father overrides his professional hostility.
• Black Skeleton has already prepared backup skins and hired a famous makeup artist, but he hopes Liu Zheng can secure better options through the Restaurant.
• Liu Zheng raises a serious concern: Black Skeleton’s wife’s ex-husband—the girls’ biological father—is still alive and might reclaim their affection or interfere with the contest.
• Black Skeleton coldly declares that he will kill the ex-husband as soon as Liu Zheng brings him good news about the skins and makeup.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to use humor, generosity, and social connections to build alliances throughout Metropolis. He presents himself as approachable while carefully analyzing political and personal situations.
• He also shows increasing emotional insight. Rather than merely joking about Black Skeleton’s family, he recognizes the possible threat posed by the biological father and warns Black Skeleton sincerely.
• Black Skeleton is revealed as a devoted and affectionate father. He proudly discusses his wife and children, enjoys their affection, and wants to secure the best future possible for his daughters.
• Beneath his warm, humorous exterior, Black Skeleton remains ruthless and dangerous. His willingness to eliminate the girls’ biological father demonstrates how far he will go to protect his position as their father and help them succeed.
• Black Skeleton’s identity becomes more complex: he is both a Sanitation Department employee who opposes the Bloodstained Restaurant and a desperate parent willing to rely on it for his children’s benefit.

Significant Themes

• Family versus blood ties: The chapter questions whether parental love comes from biology or from the person who raises and cares for a child. Black Skeleton believes his role as the girls’ actual father may be threatened by their biological parent.
• Love and moral compromise: Black Skeleton’s affection for his daughters leads him to seek help from an organization he considers evil, revealing how personal loyalty can override professional principles.
• Public duty versus private life: His statement that “work is work, and life is life” highlights the tension between institutional enemies and personal relationships.
• Social connections and reciprocity: Liu Zheng’s gifts, favors, and networking continue to create opportunities. Relationships in Metropolis are built through exchanges of trust, resources, and mutual assistance.
• Appearance and identity: The Painted-Skin tradition makes physical appearance central to social status, identity, and destiny, while the contest turns beauty and presentation into a path toward supernatural power.
• Humor alongside menace: Domestic jokes, cigarette antics, and family anecdotes contrast sharply with the final threat of murder, emphasizing the chapter’s blend of comedy and danger.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Black Skeleton tease one another comfortably, demonstrating their growing friendship.
• Liu Zheng gains Black Skeleton’s trust by sharing coffee, smoking with him, and agreeing to investigate the skins and makeup.
• Black Skeleton reveals personal family information and the stakes of the Painted-Skin Contest, showing that he regards Liu Zheng as someone close enough to ask for help.
• Their conversation shifts from playful banter to serious advice when Liu Zheng warns about the ex-husband.
• The chapter ends with Black Skeleton’s chilling promise to kill the biological father, establishing a potentially violent next step in his plan.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Black Skeleton shows Liu Zheng a rare Black Goat Kid subspecies called Dark Algae, a black, carnivorous algae-like creature living in a coastal sea. It possesses over ten times the vitality of ordinary Black Goat Kids and contains a powerful life-energy “heart.”
• Black Skeleton suggests that eating the Dark Algae’s core could greatly increase Liu Zheng’s strength, possibly allowing him to ascend. Liu Zheng is tempted despite his reluctance to travel.
• They plan to reach the coast using Liu Zheng’s Koenigsegg. Black Skeleton explains that a local fish may be Dark Algae’s natural predator, and Liu Zheng considers obtaining some for Fisherman to study.
• Fly Head reports that the delivery supplies have been moved into the Sewer. Liu Zheng descends to inspect them and discusses organizing a gathering for Sea Woman and the other children.
• Liu Zheng persuades Fisherman to prepare the Sewer for the gathering, including arranging furniture, decorations, attractive fish, and grilled food. Fisherman reluctantly agrees to help.
• Liu Zheng asks Fisherman to contact the Sewer so he can visit Red Ghost. When asked about his progress with the Gravekeeper, Liu Zheng reveals that he must rob a tomb in order to learn about the escaped will he is pursuing.
• The Sewer directs him to Red Ghost’s Shelter. Liu Zheng arrives with food and drinks for the children.
• He informs the children that Paul has been lost, explaining that Paul sacrificed himself completely for Liu Zheng. The children mourn him, while Lida insists that Paul merely went where he was meant to go.
• Liu Zheng teases Lida by messing up her hair, provoking a fierce chase through the classroom. The children enthusiastically divide themselves into teams and cheer them on until Red Ghost intervenes.
• After restoring order, Red Ghost reflects that Liu Zheng’s interference has disturbed their peaceful life, but also acknowledges that it was necessary. He thanks Liu Zheng for giving the dead soldiers another chance to act with glory.
• Red Ghost then asks Liu Zheng directly: “So where exactly did you come from, outsider?”

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains practical and somewhat homebound, but his desire for greater strength makes him consider the dangerous trip to hunt Dark Algae. He continues balancing serious supernatural missions with ordinary concerns such as delivery time, travel costs, and food.
• His relationship with Black Skeleton is casual and brotherly. Black Skeleton jokes about Liu Zheng’s appearance and past while offering useful information and assistance.
• Liu Zheng shows growing responsibility toward the children of the Shelter. He is deeply affected by Paul’s final sacrifice, even though he believes he did not deserve such devotion.
• Black Skeleton reveals a bitter, humorous personality shaped by unpleasant memories of both life and death. Despite his cynicism, he actively helps Liu Zheng investigate Dark Algae.
• Fisherman is portrayed as an overprotective but caring father. He worries about Sea Woman, resents Liu Zheng’s influence, and nevertheless agrees to help create a welcoming environment for her.
• Lida maintains a disciplined, adult-like military persona, but Liu Zheng easily exposes her childish side by teasing her. Her violent reaction and later resentment create a playful contrast with her formal speech.
• Red Ghost becomes more openly appreciative of Liu Zheng. Though he recognizes that Liu Zheng has disrupted the Shelter’s peace, he also understands that Liu Zheng gave the dead soldiers purpose and honor. His final question suggests growing curiosity and suspicion about Liu Zheng’s true origins.
• Paul’s absence is emphasized as a major emotional loss. His sacrifice demonstrates his loyalty to Liu Zheng and gives the chapter a bittersweet emotional center.

Significant Themes

• Sacrifice and honor: Paul’s final death and Red Ghost’s reflections emphasize how the dead can still achieve dignity and glory through sacrifice.
• The value of purpose after death: Red Ghost rejects the idea that the soldiers should merely remain passive remnants in the Shelter; meaningful action gives their continued existence significance.
• Found family and parental care: Liu Zheng, Fisherman, Red Ghost, and the children form an unconventional network of guardianship and affection.
• Comedy amid grief and danger: Discussions of deadly creatures, lost comrades, and supernatural missions are repeatedly mixed with jokes, teasing, food, and domestic concerns.
• Identity and origins: Red Ghost’s closing question shifts the chapter toward the mystery of Liu Zheng’s background and why he is such an unusual “outsider.”
• Humanity in monstrous forms: Although many characters are supernatural or physically grotesque, they display loyalty, grief, affection, jealousy, and parental concern.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Black Skeleton discuss Dark Algae, with Black Skeleton acting as both informant and teasing companion.
• Liu Zheng and Fisherman argue over Sea Woman’s social life, revealing Fisherman’s protectiveness and Liu Zheng’s desire to help her connect with others.
• Liu Zheng comforts or acknowledges the children after Paul’s disappearance, while Lida responds with stoic military language.
• Liu Zheng and Lida engage in a playful but chaotic chase, showing their increasingly familiar relationship.
• Red Ghost reprimands both Liu Zheng and Lida, then sincerely thanks Liu Zheng for helping the soldiers regain their honor.
• The chapter ends with Red Ghost confronting Liu Zheng about his mysterious identity, creating a serious emotional and narrative turning point.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Red Ghost confronts Liu Zheng in Shelter, revealing that it can detect the system’s influence on him and has temporarily blocked his ability to settle the current instance.
• It demands to know Liu Zheng’s purpose in Metropolis, threatening either exile, permanent confinement in Shelter, or punishment if he lies.
• Liu Zheng explains that he entered Metropolis unwillingly through the Hell Game. Once an ordinary man suffering from ALS, he endured horrific transformations and sacrifices simply to survive. He claims he has no grand purpose beyond continuing to live.
• He explains that he remains in Metropolis because he has unfinished obligations, especially toward Cow-Horse, Dai Lego, and several other allies:
  • Helping Cow-Horse escape Bloodstained Restaurant.
  • Securing legal status, education, and citizenship for Cow-Horse’s child.
  • Resolving Cow-Horse’s wife’s work problems.
  • Helping Dai Lego evolve and, if necessary, escape the country.
  • Assisting various other people who have supported him.
• Red Ghost questions why an outsider would care so much about Metropolis’s inhabitants. Liu Zheng answers that people are people, that mutual assistance benefits everyone, and that repaying those who helped him gives him happiness.
• Accepting his answer, Red Ghost gives him three choices: leave Metropolis, remain in Metropolis, or stay in Shelter. Liu Zheng immediately chooses to remain in Metropolis.
• Red Ghost uses a hammer and sickle to extract and destroy an unstable mass of nonhuman power connected to Liu Zheng’s Flesh Rebirth ability. It warns that repeatedly using power granted by a dangerous deity may allow that deity—or City Hall—to claim or kill him.
• Liu Zheng raises the danger of Dark Algae and his desire to absorb its power to grow stronger. Red Ghost confirms that doing so could provoke another divine oracle and agrees to discuss the matter after Liu Zheng brings back its repaired coat.
• Red Ghost creates a fragment of Liu Zheng’s essence and takes it as a means of monitoring him. It warns him not to betray its trust and promises to intervene personally if he “goes bad.”
• The essence will be returned when Liu Zheng leaves Metropolis, provided he says “Tovarishch” beforehand. Red Ghost also gains the ability to sense when Liu Zheng visits Sewer and contact or summon him.
• Red Ghost abruptly sends Liu Zheng back to Sewer with a punch. He discovers a visible, painful fist mark that even Flesh Rebirth cannot heal.
• Back with Fisherman, Liu Zheng arranges for the Flymen to deliver materials to Imhotep Clinic. He also proposes gathering enough people to lure Sea Woman out, using the plan to persuade Fisherman to cooperate.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Demonstrates growing loyalty, responsibility, and emotional attachment to the people of Metropolis. Though he continues to describe survival as his only goal, his long list of obligations shows that he has developed a strong moral conscience and a sense of community. He remains irreverent and opportunistic, using humor and shameless bargaining even when facing powerful beings, but he also accepts limits when necessary.
• Red Ghost: Reveals itself as suspicious and severe but not cruel. It values life, recognizes Liu Zheng’s efforts, and offers him a genuine chance to remain in Metropolis. Its decision to monitor him reflects both distrust and a protective investment in his future.
• Fisherman: Continues to act as Liu Zheng’s skeptical, irritable associate. He criticizes Liu Zheng’s recklessness but still engages with his plans and threats, suggesting a begrudging partnership.
• Cow-Horse and Dai Lego: Although absent, their importance to Liu Zheng is emphasized through the debts he intends to repay.

Significant Themes

• Survival versus purpose: Liu Zheng insists that survival is his only purpose, yet his actions reveal that relationships and obligations have given his life meaning.
• Reciprocity and community: The chapter presents helping others as both moral repayment and practical cooperation. Liu Zheng views shared interests as a reason for outsiders and locals to support one another.
• Trust and accountability: Red Ghost grants Liu Zheng freedom but places a fragment of his essence under supervision, symbolizing conditional trust and the consequences of betrayal.
• The danger of power: Flesh Rebirth offers Liu Zheng essential strength but gradually connects him to a dangerous deity. Power is portrayed as both a survival tool and a potential path to corruption or destruction.
• Happiness amid horror: Despite Metropolis’s violence and grotesque conditions, Liu Zheng argues that happiness remains worthwhile—even for immortals—and Red Ghost quietly admits that it, too, values happiness.
• Identity and humanity: Liu Zheng’s transformation into a “neither-human-nor-ghost” being contrasts with his continuing concern for others, suggesting that humanity is defined more by choices and relationships than by physical form.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Red Ghost: Their conversation shifts from interrogation to negotiation and mutual recognition. Red Ghost tests Liu Zheng’s motives, while Liu Zheng answers honestly and uses humor to maintain his independence. Their relationship becomes one of wary trust, with Red Ghost acting as both judge and protector.
• Liu Zheng and his allies: His plans to repay Cow-Horse, Dai Lego, and others show that his relationships are based on gratitude, loyalty, and shared survival rather than simple self-interest.
• Liu Zheng and Fisherman: Their banter combines annoyance, threats, and cooperation. Liu Zheng exploits Fisherman’s interest in Sea Woman to secure assistance, while Fisherman remains wary of his schemes.