Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng reveals to Fisherman that he killed a former Special Operations Team member, prompting Criminal Investigation Division One to retaliate because Liu Zheng previously failed to share credit for destroying the Round God Sect.
• Criminal Investigation Division One arrests Sphinx and confiscates Liu Zheng’s car, apparently using Sphinx to pressure Liu Zheng into surrendering or cooperating.
• Liu Zheng asks Ace for help rescuing Sphinx. Ace explains that intervening directly could worsen tensions between Criminal Investigation Division One and the Logistics Office, so he proposes an exchange instead: Liu Zheng should capture a wanted criminal and trade that person for Sphinx.
• Ace gives Liu Zheng information on Naho, a Kunyang wanted for murdering an entire family and other citizens. Naho is believed to be hiding in the Black Market, a place the Public Security Bureau has been unable to search openly.
• Naho’s Psychic Power allows him to shift between spiritual and physical forms and alter flesh, but his abilities are limited to a few defensive and escape techniques. Liu Zheng considers using his own connections and unconventional methods to find him.
• Ace then introduces a second target, Wangcai, a House Elf accused of betraying his master’s family and burning down their home.
• Liu Zheng notices that Wangcai’s apparently fine clothing includes a moldy foot mat sewn onto the back, suggesting his master intentionally prevented the clothing from completing the ritual that would grant Wangcai freedom.
• The details of Wangcai’s case raise doubts about the official story. Since his masters treated him kindly, investigators suspect mind control, supernatural manipulation, or another culprit framing Wangcai.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates initiative, strategic thinking, and a willingness to use unconventional methods against official institutions. Although he jokes and acts casually, he is genuinely concerned about Sphinx and determined to protect his allies.
• He also shows sharp observational and deductive skills by interpreting Wangcai’s clothing and inferring the likely relationship between the House Elf and his master.
• Fisherman continues to support Liu Zheng despite being frustrated by his reckless behavior. Their relationship resembles that of a reluctant mentor and troublesome but capable subordinate.
• Ace proves knowledgeable about the city’s criminal underworld, supernatural races, and wanted criminals. His enthusiasm for creating a tabletop role-playing game gives his exposition a humorous tone, while his caution shows that he understands the political risks of helping Liu Zheng.
• Sphinx remains absent but becomes the central leverage point in the conflict, as Criminal Investigation Division One uses him to pressure Liu Zheng.
• Wangcai is presented as a mysterious figure whose apparent guilt conflicts with the known loyalty and social conditioning of House Elves.

Significant Themes

• Conflict between justice and institutional politics: Criminal Investigation Division One appears more interested in punishing Liu Zheng and reclaiming credit than in pursuing justice.
• Unofficial justice and alternative methods: Because the Public Security Bureau cannot solve every case, Liu Zheng may be able to succeed through his Sewer contacts, street knowledge, and freedom from bureaucratic restrictions.
• Loyalty and coercion: The House Elf contract raises questions about whether obedience is genuine loyalty when it is deeply ingrained through supernatural control.
• Appearances versus reality: Naho’s harmless-looking limitations may conceal his danger, while Wangcai’s criminal appearance may hide manipulation or coercion.
• World-building and social hierarchy: The descriptions of races, citizens’ classes, deities, and supernatural abilities reveal a complex society shaped by species, contracts, political status, and institutional power.
• Humor amid danger: Liu Zheng and Ace’s discussion of tabletop games and fantasy races lightens the increasingly serious situation while also expanding the setting.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Fisherman speak as trusted allies, with Fisherman annoyed by Liu Zheng’s tendency to cause trouble but still committed to protecting him.
• Liu Zheng and Ace negotiate indirectly: Liu Zheng asks for help, while Ace offers a risky but practical plan that protects both Sphinx and his own career.
• Their conversation also reveals mutual respect, especially when Liu Zheng identifies the significance of Wangcai’s clothing and Ace praises his investigative ability.
• Liu Zheng’s discussion of Dungeons & Dragons creates a playful connection with Ace, who is excited by the idea of developing a tabletop game based on Metropolis’s races and supernatural systems.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng facing a difficult choice: pursue Naho, investigate Wangcai’s suspicious case, or find another way to save Sphinx before Criminal Investigation Division One harms him.

Chapter Summary: “Liu Zheng: That’s Right, I’m a Shit-Stirrer”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng learns that Criminal Investigation Division One is searching for Wangcai in the Old District and may be deliberately withholding effort or information.
• Ace advises Liu Zheng to seek a more direct solution to the conflict surrounding the arrest of the Sphinx and the investigation into Liu Zheng’s killing of a former Special Operations Team member.
• Liu Zheng contacts 4399, explaining that Division One is attempting to seize jurisdiction over the case because of resentment over Liu Zheng’s previous destruction of the Primordial God Cult.
• 4399 confirms that the situation is legally complicated: Division One may question Liu Zheng and the Sphinx, even though the Office Administration ultimately has authority over the former Special Operations Team member.
• After Liu Zheng insists that he and 4399 are on the same side, 4399 gives him a dangerous plan: raid and destroy a trading company secretly used by Division One to sell confiscated contraband and evidence, while detaining its personnel for later negotiations.
• Liu Zheng recruits Silver Wolf to lead a team from Market Supervision. He plans to portray the raid as an enforcement action against illegal food and goods, while using the detained employees and seized merchandise as leverage.
• He asks White-Feather Chicken for illegal or noncompliant food to plant as evidence. White-Feather Chicken supplies the goods and restores Liu Zheng’s stamina by feeding him a disgusting assortment of bizarre creatures and substances.
• Liu Zheng also contacts his driver, whose car was confiscated by Division One. Rather than simply demanding its return, Liu Zheng asks him to pressure Division One and complicate the situation further.
• The driver agrees to help retrieve the car and arrives on an advanced sidecar motorcycle. Liu Zheng rides with him toward the next stage of the confrontation.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng becomes openly aggressive and calculating. Normally polite and accommodating, he interrupts 4399 and makes clear that he is genuinely angry. He embraces his role as a provocateur, deliberately involving multiple factions to overwhelm Division One politically and legally.
• 4399 is forced to confront the seriousness of Liu Zheng’s loyalty and desperation. Though cautious about organizational consequences, he ultimately supports Liu Zheng and provides a practical counterattack.
• Silver Wolf grows more familiar and cooperative with Liu Zheng, agreeing to personally lead a team despite the questionable nature of the plan.
• White-Feather Chicken remains abrasive but proves dependable. Its willingness to provide contraband and restore Liu Zheng’s stamina demonstrates practical loyalty beneath its hostile attitude.
• The driver reveals that, despite his limited status as a remnant soul, he still possesses influence and a willingness to help Liu Zheng. His dramatic personality and military-style confidence contrast with Liu Zheng’s more improvisational scheming.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty versus organizational duty: Liu Zheng asks 4399 whether they are truly allies, placing personal trust above bureaucratic boundaries.
• Manipulation of institutions: Rather than fighting Division One directly, Liu Zheng exploits conflicts among the Public Security Bureau, Office Administration, Market Supervision, City Hall, and other factions.
• Moral and legal ambiguity: Liu Zheng’s plan involves planting evidence, raiding a corrupt organization, and detaining officials, blurring the line between justice and criminal retaliation.
• Power through chaos: Liu Zheng’s strategy is to make the situation so politically complicated that Division One cannot act freely.
• Friendship expressed through antagonism: Several characters insult, tease, or complain about Liu Zheng while still helping him, suggesting that harsh interactions function as a form of camaraderie.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Ace: Ace gives Liu Zheng a discreet hint that another, more effective solution may exist.
• Liu Zheng and 4399: Their conversation shifts from formal cooperation to a deeply personal pledge of mutual loyalty. Liu Zheng promises to rescue 4399 in the future just as he expects 4399 to help him now.
• Liu Zheng and Silver Wolf: Liu Zheng recruits Silver Wolf by framing the operation as food-law enforcement. Their increasingly casual “brother-in-law” relationship makes Silver Wolf more willing to participate.
• Liu Zheng and White-Feather Chicken: Liu Zheng asks for contraband and stamina-restoring food. White-Feather Chicken responds harshly but provides both without demanding payment.
• Liu Zheng and the driver: Their exchange is sarcastic and combative, but the driver ultimately agrees to pressure Division One and personally transports Liu Zheng to recover the confiscated vehicle.

Chapter Summary: “Delivering Nima’s Ashes to Nendie for Rice”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After reaching the city, Liu Zheng refuses the driver’s gift of a single-use, perfect-quality Miniature Gustav Railway Cannon. The driver disappears with the stealth motorcycle, while Liu Zheng considers renting it in the future for covert operations.
• Liu Zheng arrives at Xingzhen Trading Company, a luxurious storefront that he recognizes as a front for Criminal Investigation Division One. He intends to expose or seize the organization’s illicit goods.
• He meets Silver Wolf and Liechang, a fat dog introduced as Silver Wolf’s sixth brother. Their humorous first meeting quickly establishes a strange mutual camaraderie.
• Liu Zheng enters the company alone to make his confrontation appear legitimate. A suspicious Werewolf clerk mistakes him for a deliveryman and transforms, destroying his own expensive clothes.
• Liu Zheng throws down gold bars, first as apparent compensation and then as a bribe, but the Werewolf remains suspicious. Liu eventually angrily explains that he wants to buy contraband from the company because it serves as Criminal Investigation Division One’s “white glove.”
• The company’s Goblin boss recognizes Liu Zheng as the new Deliveryman from the Bloodstained Restaurant and immediately attempts to alert Criminal Investigation Division One.
• Liu throws the Insect-Killing Voodoo Dagger at the fleeing Goblin boss. The dagger does not receive its usual bonus against the Goblin, but it still knocks him unconscious.
• The Werewolf attacks Liu in a berserk state. Although the Werewolf’s innate racial power temporarily surpasses Liu’s strength enhancement, Liu defeats him by combining his tentacle techniques, Iron Block, Strength Amplifier, Bucking Kick, and Citizen Walking Shoes. He kicks the Werewolf into a wall.
• Three more fighters emerge to protect the boss. Liu confronts an Iron-Masked fighter with crocodile-like scales and rat-like fingers.
• The Iron-Masked fighter uses Blood Magic: Corrupt Blood Fang, believing the spell will rot Liu’s blood after the fang merely touches his skin. Liu’s Iron Block prevents the fang from penetrating deeply.
• While the Iron Mask celebrates, Liu reveals that the fighter has already been cut in half by his simultaneous tentacle thrust and Cleaver slash.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues developing confidence, tactical creativity, and combat versatility. He refuses unnecessary gifts, prefers reliable allies, and combines multiple abilities rather than relying on brute force alone.
• His growing reputation is evident when the Goblin boss recognizes him as the Bloodstained Restaurant’s new Deliveryman. Liu is no longer treated as an unknown outsider.
• Liu also demonstrates a sharper, more confrontational attitude. His patience with the Werewolf’s suspicion eventually collapses into profanity, but he remains calculating enough to use bribery and deception before resorting to violence.
• Silver Wolf acts as the responsible organizer of the group, restraining the unreliable pairing of Liu Zheng and Liechang and personally overseeing the operation.
• Liechang is introduced as a comic but potentially useful ally. His immediate rapport with Liu suggests that the two share similar eccentric personalities.
• The Werewolf clerk, Gene, is portrayed as aggressive, distrustful, and overly suspicious, though his combat ability is considerable. His berserk power briefly outmatches Liu’s Rage Incarnate.
• The Goblin merchant boss is shown to be cowardly and deeply connected to Criminal Investigation Division One, fleeing and calling for reinforcements as soon as Liu’s identity is revealed.

Significant Themes

• Confronting institutional corruption: Xingzhen Trading Company represents the criminal organization’s hidden commercial network, and Liu intends to challenge it directly.
• Appearance versus reality: The company presents itself as an ordinary trading business, while its true function is to sell confiscated or illicit goods for Criminal Investigation Division One.
• Improvisation and adaptability: Liu succeeds by combining deception, bribery, physical combat, equipment, and multiple skills instead of depending on a single overwhelming attack.
• Reputation and recognition: Liu’s identity as the new Deliveryman has begun to spread, making him a known threat within Metropolis.
• Comedy amid violence: Absurd misunderstandings—such as the Werewolf assuming every interaction involves food delivery—contrast with the brutal fights and criminal conspiracy.
• Innate power versus acquired strength: The Werewolf’s natural racial abilities are stronger than Liu’s later-acquired enhancements, but Liu compensates through superior technique, equipment, and versatility.

Character Interactions

• The driver teasingly offers Liu a devastating artillery weapon, but Liu rejects it out of concern that the driver may be setting him up for danger.
• Liu and Liechang immediately bond through playful insults and an awkward handshake, while Silver Wolf attempts to keep them disciplined.
• Liu and the Werewolf clerk engage in an escalating exchange of suspicion, bribery, insults, and misunderstanding before fighting.
• The Goblin boss recognizes Liu and panics, prompting the first direct attack.
• During the battle, Liu mocks the Werewolf’s reliance on berserk power and later outmaneuvers the Iron-Masked fighter’s confidence in his blood magic.
• The chapter ends with Liu standing over the defeated Iron Mask, while the larger confrontation with Criminal Investigation Division One is only beginning.

Chapter Summary: “City Hall Was in Complete Chaos”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng defeats Iron Mask, a Nosferatu vampire and senior employee of the trading company. Despite being cut in half, Iron Mask regenerates and attacks with a corrosive Blood Net, but Liu Zheng’s Cleaver effortlessly destroys it. Iron Mask threatens retaliation from the Nosferatu Clan, yet Liu Zheng decapitates him without hesitation.
• Liu Zheng claims authority from City Hall’s Market Supervision Department, using his family brooch as supposed proof. He orders the remaining employees to surrender and intimidates them into revealing that the other workers are away purchasing stock.
• When a half-orc employee attempts to contact his superiors, Liu Zheng severs his hand and threatens him with torture in the Sewer. A human employee immediately surrenders and confesses.
• Silver Wolf arrives with officers from the Market Supervision Bureau’s Law Enforcement Brigade. They formally announce a search of the trading company for illegal food products.
• Liu Zheng and Liechang bring the Goblin business owner downstairs. Liu Zheng’s hidden insulated box is presented as evidence. A food detector identifies its contents as “Extremely high” danger level, prompting a full search.
• The authorities uncover large quantities of illegal food products, stolen goods, evidence, and protected animals. Among them is an Astral Dragon Rhinoceros, whose injury or possession carries exceptionally severe penalties.
• Silver Wolf explains that the discovery could trigger conflict between multiple government departments, particularly Criminal Investigation Division One, the Biological Management Bureau, and the Market Supervision Department.
• Liu Zheng reports the seizure to 4399, suggesting that the protected animals be turned over to a contact in the Biological Management Bureau to strengthen their faction and increase pressure on Criminal Investigation Division One. 4399 agrees.
• The evidence and Goblin boss are divided between the Market Supervision Department and Liu Zheng’s allies. 8848 and 4399 arrive in a black van to collect their share and warn that Criminal Investigation Division One will likely retaliate.

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates overwhelming combat ability, casually defeating a regenerating vampire and controlling the surviving employees through intimidation. He also shows increasing skill in exploiting bureaucratic authority and interdepartmental rivalries.
• Iron Mask is revealed to be a grotesque Nosferatu vampire. His confidence in the protection of his clan collapses when Liu Zheng ignores the threat and kills him.
• The half-orc employee proves opportunistic but fearful. His attempt to summon help results in the loss of his hand and leaves him unable to resist.
• The human employee is revealed to have prior experience with arrest and quickly surrenders, providing information to avoid further punishment.
• Silver Wolf acts as a capable and pragmatic law-enforcement leader. He recognizes the political value of the seizure and is willing to exploit the resulting dispute with Criminal Investigation Division One.
• Liechang is portrayed as physically intimidating and brutally effective during the interrogation of the Goblin boss.
• 4399 initially worries that adding another department will make the factional struggle too complicated, but ultimately supports Liu Zheng’s plan because greater chaos will weaken their enemies.
• 8848 appears practical and self-interested but loyal to Liu Zheng’s network. He acknowledges the danger of retaliation and prepares defensive measures.

3. Significant Themes

• Power overriding formal authority: Liu Zheng’s strength allows him to ignore threats from powerful clans and manipulate official institutions, showing that practical power matters more than legal procedure.
• Bureaucratic warfare and factional politics: The raid is not merely a law-enforcement action; it becomes a weapon in the struggle among City Hall departments and competing factions.
• Calculated chaos: Liu Zheng and 4399 deliberately widen the conflict by involving the Biological Management Bureau, hoping to overwhelm Criminal Investigation Division One with lawsuits, investigations, and competing jurisdictions.
• Fear and coercion as tools: Liu Zheng secures cooperation through threats, violence, and psychological pressure rather than conventional interrogation.
• Absurdity and dark humor: The chapter mixes gruesome violence with comedic details, such as Liu Zheng describing corrosive blood as “skincare,” kicking Iron Mask’s head like a football, and joking about arrest procedures and bribes.
• Political value of evidence: Illegal goods and protected animals are important not only as criminal evidence but also as leverage in larger institutional conflicts.

4. Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Iron Mask clash directly, with Iron Mask relying on regeneration, blood magic, and clan protection while Liu Zheng responds with overwhelming force.
• Liu Zheng intimidates the half-orc and human employees, alternating false reassurance with sudden violence to force their cooperation.
• Liu Zheng works with Silver Wolf and the Market Supervision officers, presenting himself as an ally while quietly steering the raid toward his own faction’s interests.
• Liechang assists Liu Zheng by dragging in the Goblin boss and helping intimidate him during questioning.
• Liu Zheng and Silver Wolf discuss how the seized evidence could create conflict among government departments; their conversation highlights their growing cooperation.
• Liu Zheng consults 4399, persuading him that involving the Biological Management Bureau will make Criminal Investigation Division One’s situation worse.
• Liu Zheng maintains a friendly relationship with 8848, exchanging jokes about profits and future entertainment, while 8848 warns him that the raid will provoke retaliation.
• By the end of the chapter, Liu Zheng’s actions have transformed a local raid into a widening political crisis involving at least six factions or departments.

Chapter Summary: The Hearse Really Drifted This Time

Key Plot Points and Events

• After the Xingzhen Trading Company’s downfall, Liu Zheng realizes Criminal Investigation Division One is likely searching for him. To avoid escalating the conflict or endangering his allies, he hides in the Delivery Department’s break room.
• He returns the sealed insulated box to White-Feather Chicken without opening it, earning a brief exchange about his unusual resurrection abilities and his desire to work in the Kitchen for free food.
• A waiter from the Night Parade Bathhouse informs Liu Zheng that he has found the Breath Regulation Method. Liu Zheng postpones collecting it because Bathhouse Street is probably being watched.
• 4399 later tells Liu Zheng that Criminal Investigation Division One has released the people they detained and that the dispute has been temporarily settled. The Pet-Rejection Faction must surrender two internal examination positions as compensation.
• One of the positions is personally given up by Deputy Director Xuanyuan, a major figure in the Pet-Rejection Faction and a controversial human supremacist. Liu Zheng learns that Xuanyuan supports the faction despite its internal disputes over pure-blooded human supremacy.
• Liu Zheng receives the faction’s procurement quotas, totaling more than fifty million, and prepares to resume his activities.
• The driver informs him that his previous vehicle requires one million in repairs and has been impounded. Instead, Liu Zheng rents a powerful hearse with special defensive and speed-enhancing abilities. The vehicle can be strengthened by the power of the deceased or by Netherworld Power.
• Liu Zheng drives the hearse to the clinic to check on Nile Doctor and the others. The Sphinx is unharmed due to its protection under the Metropolis Species Protection Act.
• At the clinic, Liu Zheng encounters a green Minotaur claiming to be Niu Daji, but Liu Zheng does not recognize him because of his drastic change in appearance.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains cautious but restless. He understands the political danger posed by Criminal Investigation Division One, yet he becomes increasingly frustrated by being forced into hiding and unable to complete his work.
• His shameless, opportunistic humor continues to define him, particularly in his attempts to gain access to the Kitchen, obtain free food, and exploit the hearse’s potential connection to the Cemetery.
• Liu Zheng also shows loyalty toward his allies by worrying about the Nile Doctor, Cow-Horse, and others being targeted because of him.
• White-Feather Chicken maintains its sarcastic, authoritative attitude while showing familiarity with Liu Zheng’s personality and habits.
• 4399 acts as Liu Zheng’s source of political and organizational information, explaining the settlement with Criminal Investigation Division One and the faction’s internal disputes.
• Deputy Director Xuanyuan is introduced indirectly as a principled but controversial leader willing to sacrifice his own examination slot for the organization.
• The Sphinx reveals that its protected status helped prevent it from being tortured or punished severely. Its hostile banter with Liu Zheng masks mutual concern.
• Niu Daji appears transformed into a completely green Minotaur, creating an immediate mystery about what happened to him.

Significant Themes

• Power struggles between factions and authorities: The conflict with Criminal Investigation Division One is resolved through political negotiation rather than direct victory, showing how institutional power operates in Metropolis.
• The cost of protection and compromise: Liu Zheng’s faction must surrender valuable promotion opportunities to avoid further retaliation, emphasizing that survival often requires accepting losses.
• Identity and prejudice: The discussion of pure-blooded human supremacy highlights racial hierarchy, factional ideology, and the absurdity of human dominance in a city populated by many species.
• Freedom versus restriction: Liu Zheng’s forced confinement frustrates him because it prevents him from working, traveling, and pursuing his own plans.
• Absurdity and dark humor: The chapter contrasts serious political conflict with comic situations, such as Liu Zheng hiding in a break room, negotiating over soup ingredients, and renting a hearse as a specialized vehicle.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and White-Feather Chicken trade sarcastic remarks about the sealed box, soup-making, Salmon, the Kitchen, and Liu Zheng’s supposed devotion to the Delivery Department.
• Liu Zheng and 4399 discuss the settlement, Deputy Director Xuanyuan, human supremacist ideology, and the organization’s procurement plans.
• Liu Zheng negotiates with the driver over repair costs and the rental of the hearse, revealing their familiar pattern of threats, bargaining, and teasing.
• Liu Zheng jokes with the Sphinx about being tortured, while the Sphinx explains its legal protection and angrily rejects his sarcasm.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng confronting the unfamiliar green Minotaur who insists he is Niu Daji, setting up a new mystery.

Liu Zheng checked on Nile Doctor’s family, arranged for them to establish a clinic at Morrison Elementary School, and brought Nephili to the Cemetery to seek help from the Gravekeeper. After Liu Zheng delivered seven powerful flames, the Gravekeeper praised him and offered an extra reward.

• Liu Zheng learned that Abao was recovering, accepted Yaksha’s Unfixed Shadow, and arranged for Niu Daji to retrieve an item from the Night Parade Bathhouse.
• Liu Zheng brought Nile Doctor pink bandages and persuaded him to set up an infirmary at Morrison Elementary School, where he and his family could find refuge.
• Liu Zheng proposed taking the confused Nephili to the Gravekeeper, and Nile Doctor agreed to bring Sesha and Nephili along as a family.
• Liu Zheng presented the Gravekeeper with seven gathered flames, which the Gravekeeper consumed before praising Liu Zheng and offering him an extra reward.

Chapter Summary

Plot and key events

• Liu Zheng brings Nephili to the Gravekeeper for treatment. The Gravekeeper determines that Nephili’s soul fluctuation is too weak and orders Thin Horse to bury him in a livelier cemetery. Nephili may need anywhere from one day to ten years to recover.
• To ensure the family can be contacted, the Gravekeeper gives Liu Zheng a shell casing that will allow Thin Horse to locate its holder. Liu Zheng entrusts it to the Nile Doctor.
• Liu Zheng asks to refuel his hearse with the Cemetery’s dense Netherworld Aura. The Gravekeeper charges him 100,000, and Liu Zheng also purchases an A-Rank Grave-Sweeping Package for Cemetery 10086.
• The hearse absorbs the Cemetery’s aura and transforms dramatically, gaining a bone-covered body, a Bone Dragon hood ornament, and greatly increased speed. Liu Zheng, however, suffers from the Cemetery’s supernatural cold and must rely on the Nile Doctor’s Sunfire to warm himself.
• Liu Zheng visits Red Pig’s grave and offers an extravagant A-Rank grave-sweeping meal. He returns Red Pig’s pilot jacket and recounts how Red Pig’s doppelganger helped save him. Their conversation turns comedic when Liu Zheng jokingly demands “gag money.”
• Back at the clinic, Niu Daji gives Liu Zheng a manual obtained from an attendant. The system offers him a choice: cultivate the manual normally or convert it into a one-use item that grants a related skill. Liu Zheng postpones the decision briefly, then chooses the item conversion method.
• To increase his luck, Liu Zheng consumes Ebisu’s Giant Taiyaki and activates his Lucky Clown Card before using the manual. He obtains the passive skill Kun Inhalation, Peng Exhalation, which doubles his movement speed while inhaling underwater and grants flight when exhaling in the air.
• Excited to test the skill, Liu Zheng announces that he is about to “ascend to heaven in broad daylight,” leaving Niu Daji stunned.

Character developments

• Liu Zheng continues to display his opportunistic, shameless, and humorous personality. He boldly negotiates with the Gravekeeper, treats supernatural services as transactions, and uses luck-enhancing items strategically before activating the manual.
• He also shows growing power and resourcefulness: his strengthened body allows him to consume the enormous taiyaki, and his hearse becomes significantly more powerful after absorbing Netherworld Aura.
• Nephili is revealed to be in a weakened spiritual condition, requiring burial and extended recovery rather than conventional medical treatment.
• The Nile Doctor remains cautious and respectful toward powerful undead authorities, but he also acts protectively by using the Sun Disk’s Sunfire to warm Liu Zheng. His knowledge of divine hierarchies contrasts with Liu Zheng’s casual jokes.
• Red Pig recognizes that Liu Zheng’s joking attitude signals his improved mood and strength. Red Pig’s final encouragement shows genuine gratitude toward Liu Zheng.
• Niu Daji continues to function as Liu Zheng’s assistant and messenger, but his confusion at Liu Zheng’s declaration highlights how unpredictable his boss is.

Major themes

• Strength and survival: Characters rely on unusual powers, bargains, and supernatural resources to survive and grow stronger.
• Death and the afterlife: The Cemetery, Netherworld Aura, soul frequencies, burial, and grave-sweeping rituals emphasize a world where death is an active, structured realm.
• Humor amid danger: Liu Zheng’s jokes and shameless bargaining lighten otherwise intimidating encounters with powerful beings.
• Luck and strategy: Liu Zheng carefully combines multiple luck-related effects before using the manual, showing how planning and exploitation of game-like mechanics complement raw strength.
• Relationships and gratitude: His elaborate offering to Red Pig and his concern for Nephili reveal that, beneath his comic behavior, Liu Zheng values those who help him.

Important interactions

• Liu Zheng and the Gravekeeper negotiate Nephili’s treatment, hearse refueling, and the purchase of a grave-sweeping package.
• The Nile Doctor contrasts Liu Zheng’s irreverence with his own solemn respect for supernatural authority, while still helping Liu Zheng recover from the Cemetery’s deadly cold.
• Liu Zheng and Red Pig share a teasing but sincere exchange centered on Red Pig’s past assistance.
• Liu Zheng and the system interact over the manual’s appraisal, culminating in the acquisition of his new flight-related skill.

Liu Zheng tested his new Peng Breath skill, arranged restaurant supplies for the Ultimate Flavor Group, and took Abao’s Tiger Soul Fragment to visit the swordsmith O Yegan. After forcing O Yegan to admit who he was and handing over the fragment for inspection, Liu Zheng revealed that he had recently attacked the Public Security Bureau.

• Liu Zheng used Peng Breath to fly about five hundred meters, concluding it was useful for support but too slow and vulnerable for combat.
• Liu Zheng sent Niu Daji to buy restaurant supplies for the Ultimate Flavor Group and told Guokou Tangzi the supplies would be delivered to the Yakuza Sento.
• Liu Zheng borrowed Abao’s Tiger Soul Fragment from Nile Doctor, overcame its mental challenge with Sunfire, and drove to O Yegan’s workshop in Baijia Alley.
• Liu Zheng forced O Yegan to acknowledge his identity by pounding on the door, then showed him the Tiger Soul Fragment and handed it through the door for study.
• Liu Zheng told O Yegan that he had trashed the Public Security Bureau, killed its people, and confiscated their belongings.

Liu Zheng visited O Yegan to barter for the Seven Sins weapon Sloth, offering several rare artifacts and materials. After agreeing on the trade, O Yegan noticed Liu Zheng’s killing aura seal and proposed a new sword-forging idea that Liu Zheng enthusiastically helped develop.

• O Yegan let Liu Zheng into his home, where Liu Zheng met Oye Rong and explained that he had come to buy Sloth.
• O Yegan recognized Liu Zheng as the collector who had challenged Peacock, then agreed to barter with him rather than sell Sloth outright.
• Liu Zheng offered the Tiger Soul Fragment and taiyi essence gold, but O Yegan rejected them as insufficient.
• O Yegan eagerly accepted Liu Zheng’s Dragon-Fishing Rod, Hell Before One’s Eyes, Insect-Killing Voodoo Dagger, Killing Stone Fragment, and cold jade items in exchange for Sloth.
• O Yegan noticed Liu Zheng’s killing aura seal and asked whether he had been told to transfer its killing aura and resentment into a weapon.
• O Yegan proposed using an Ice-Snow Illuminating Heart to control a weapon of the frenzied Killing Dao, and Liu Zheng suggested the names Snow-Drinking Mad Blade and Iceheart Formula.

Liu Zheng visited O Yegan, acquired the knife Sloth, and arranged for O Yegan to forge a blade using his body. After returning to the clinic, he negotiated with Panda over Taiyi Essence Gold and called Ace about Panda’s identity and the settlement with Criminal Investigation Division One.

• Liu Zheng persuaded O Yegan to make a goose-feather saber from his body and negotiated the right to buy it when it was finished.
• O Yegan gave Liu Zheng the knife Sloth, whose effects included preserving ingredients, weakening targets’ fighting spirit, and transforming its wielder into a Sloth Demon for one second.
• Oye Rong told Liu Zheng that sword energy inside her body kept her from going out freely, and she asked him to introduce her to two female authors; Liu Zheng agreed and worried about explaining the request to Novelist.
• Panda demanded its divine weapon back, refused to give Liu Zheng Taiyi Essence Gold without compensation, and asked him to find an artifact smith to repair its two flags.
• Liu Zheng called Ace, who praised him for making Criminal Investigation Division One accept a settlement that included two internal exam slots, then Liu Zheng suspected Ace wanted a favor.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng contacts Ace to help secure citizenship for Abao, an orphaned Iron-Eating Beast from the Hundred Thousand Mountains. Ace explains that rare species can receive preferential treatment if the Biological Management Bureau issues a rare-species certificate.
• Ace agrees to handle Abao’s household registration once the certificate is obtained, but asks Liu Zheng for help with a different problem: completing a galgame and winning the affection of the character Yumiko.
• Liu Zheng agrees to help Ace play the game, arranging to meet at the clinic and warning Ace not to provoke the Sphinx.
• Liu Zheng then contacts 4399, who brings Old Li, a scarred Biological Management Bureau employee, to the clinic.
• Old Li identifies Abao as an atavistic Iron-Eating Beast and issues him a rare-species certificate, granting him official recognition and potentially improving his standing with Metropolis’s authorities.
• Liu Zheng asks Old Li about Abao’s kind. Old Li reveals that more than three hundred Pandas once lived in Metropolis, but decades earlier they all inexplicably reverted into Iron-Eating Beasts and slaughtered one another.
• The entire population was wiped out before authorities arrived. The official investigation found no clear cause, while the official responsible for managing the Pandas was later executed for poaching and exploiting rare animals.
• Liu Zheng suspects the massacre was not accidental and points out that too many suspicious coincidences suggest a hidden conspiracy.
• Old Li admits that reopening the case would be politically dangerous and that most officials would rather avoid responsibility. Liu Zheng therefore asks him to take them to the preserved crime scene.

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates resourcefulness and loyalty. He uses his connections and negotiates skillfully to protect Abao, while also showing genuine concern for Abao’s origins and the destruction of his species.
• Abao gains legal recognition through the rare-species certificate, but learning that his entire kind may have been deliberately exterminated leaves him deeply upset and angry.
• Ace is portrayed as socially powerful but comically helpless in romance and gaming. He views Liu Zheng as a galgame expert and eagerly seeks his help winning Yumiko’s affection.
• Old Li appears friendly, experienced, and pragmatic. Although he dislikes openly challenging the bureaucracy, he recognizes the injustice surrounding the Panda massacre and hints that he might investigate if circumstances were different.
• 4399 continues acting as a reliable intermediary, arranging contact with the Biological Management Bureau and delivering the necessary resources.

3. Significant Themes

• Bureaucracy and citizenship: Metropolis’s rigid citizen-ranking system determines access to rights and recognition, making official documentation essential even for exceptional individuals.
• Loyalty and responsibility: Liu Zheng feels obligated to help Abao uncover the truth because Abao has risked his life for him.
• Institutional corruption and avoidance of responsibility: The Panda massacre was likely concealed or neglected because reopening the investigation would implicate officials and create political trouble.
• Mystery and conspiracy: The synchronized transformation and slaughter of the Pandas, combined with the crimes of the official in charge, strongly imply deliberate manipulation.
• Humor amid darker events: The absurd discussion of galgames, Ace’s dramatic pleas, and Panda’s awkward identification photo contrast with the serious revelation about the destruction of his species.

4. Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Ace share a joking but mutually beneficial relationship: Liu Zheng helps Ace with his galgame while Ace promises to help Abao obtain citizenship.
• Liu Zheng treats Panda protectively, comforting him during the certification process and responding sympathetically to his grief.
• Old Li interacts warmly with Liu Zheng but casually handles Panda, teasing him about his photograph and recognizing his unusual lineage immediately.
• Liu Zheng and Old Li speak frankly about the Panda massacre. Their conversation shifts from routine paperwork to a serious discussion of corruption, institutional cowardice, and the possibility of a hidden perpetrator.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng choosing investigation over resignation, asking Old Li to show them the crime scene.

Chapter Summary: “Liu Zheng: Sonny Mudhead!”

Plot and Key Events

• Liu Zheng successfully obtains a rare-species certificate for Abao through 4399 and Old Li. 4399 pays Old Li for the favor and gives Liu Zheng his contact information.
• The Sphinx reveals that it also possesses a rare-species certificate, explaining why it can openly stay outside Liu Zheng’s clinic without being seized by the Biological Management Bureau.
• Panda becomes depressed after learning that its entire species has been wiped out. Liu Zheng advises everyone to leave Panda alone to process its grief.
• The Nile Doctor sympathizes with Panda, comparing its loneliness to his own experience after the destruction of Ra’s Lineage. He observes that Panda has neither a surviving loved one nor a clear enemy to blame.
• Liu Zheng sends Ace a photograph of Abao’s rare-species certificate. In return, Ace provides Abao’s citizen ID.
• The Nile Doctor questions why Liu Zheng continues working at Bloodstained Restaurant despite his growing influence and connections. Liu Zheng explains that the more useful he becomes, the less likely the Restaurant and its employees are to let him leave. He also suspects that becoming too powerful could eventually make him a liability.
• Liu Zheng and the Nile Doctor play Senet until the Sphinx interrupts them. Ace arrives with expensive crab-based cat food for the Sphinx, which pretends to dislike it but eagerly accepts it.
• Ace asks Liu Zheng to help him complete an ending in a difficult romance game involving Yumiko. Liu Zheng agrees, though he warns that he cannot guarantee success and must return to the Restaurant afterward.
• Ace connects the game console directly to Liu Zheng’s temple, allowing him to enter the game despite lacking the ability to project mental power or separate his Yin Spirit.
• Inside the game, Liu Zheng repeatedly attempts to answer Yumiko’s dialogue correctly. Every response causes her affection to decrease, leading to multiple immediate game overs.
• His approaches include romantic sincerity, domineering confidence, casual friendliness, emotional detachment, and finally irritation. None work, and Liu Zheng becomes increasingly competitive and furious.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng angrily demanding to know why Yumiko is thanking him, determined to clear the game no matter how much time it takes.

Character Development

• Liu Zheng demonstrates increasing influence and competence, successfully handling the rare-species certificate matter. However, he also recognizes that his usefulness has made him indispensable—and potentially trapped—within the Bloodstained Restaurant.
• He shows compassion toward Panda by understanding that grief cannot always be comforted immediately. His own orphaned past also connects him emotionally to Panda’s loneliness.
• Liu Zheng’s competitive and stubborn side emerges during the romance game. His frustration quickly turns into determination, transforming a casual favor into a personal challenge.
• Panda withdraws into meditation after confronting the extinction of its species, revealing deep grief and isolation.
• The Nile Doctor displays empathy toward Panda because of his own experience with genocide and loss. His relationship with Liu Zheng remains teasing but supportive.
• The Sphinx continues to act proud and irritable while secretly enjoying kindness and gifts. Its reaction to the cat food highlights its contradictory, tsundere personality.
• Ace is eager, flattering, and somewhat mischievous. He relies on Liu Zheng’s practical abilities and is delighted when Liu Zheng becomes invested in the game.

Significant Themes

• Loneliness and extinction: Panda’s situation emphasizes the devastation of losing an entire people, especially when there is no one left to love or blame.
• Indispensability and entrapment: Liu Zheng’s success increases his value but reduces his freedom, suggesting that power and influence can become another form of bondage.
• Grief and shared trauma: The Nile Doctor recognizes Panda’s pain through his own history, creating an emotional connection between otherwise different characters.
• Tsundere behavior and miscommunication: The Sphinx and Yumiko both conceal or contradict their true feelings, making affection difficult to interpret.
• Absurdity and comedy: Serious themes of loss and exploitation are balanced by humorous interactions, especially the Sphinx’s food obsession and Liu Zheng’s disastrous attempts at romance.
• Persistence and competitiveness: Liu Zheng refuses to accept repeated failure, turning the game into a test of pride and endurance.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Old Li/4399: They negotiate the certificate arrangement, with 4399 backing Liu Zheng and ensuring the transaction succeeds.
• Liu Zheng and the Sphinx: Their relationship is marked by teasing, mock threats, and familiarity. Liu Zheng jokes about the Sphinx’s obedience, while it responds defensively.
• Liu Zheng and Panda: Liu Zheng gives Panda emotional space rather than forcing comfort, showing an understanding of its grief.
• Liu Zheng and the Nile Doctor: They discuss fate, orphanhood, loss, and Liu Zheng’s future while maintaining a playful rivalry through Senet.
• Liu Zheng, Ace, and the Sphinx: Ace brings the Sphinx special food, and Liu Zheng helps interpret its reluctant acceptance as typical tsundere behavior.
• Liu Zheng and Ace: Ace treats Liu Zheng as a trusted problem-solver and asks him to complete the romance game. Their interaction becomes increasingly comic as Liu Zheng fails repeatedly but refuses to quit.
• Liu Zheng and Yumiko: Their game-based relationship is defined by constant miscommunication. Every attempted personality—sweet, dominant, casual, indifferent, or angry—causes Yumiko’s affection to fall, creating the chapter’s central comedic conflict.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng carefully navigates a conversation with Yumiko, trying to increase her affection without triggering her unpredictable reactions. By speaking ambiguously about their relationship and mentioning the possibility of being lovers, he raises her favorability to two hearts.
• When heavy rain begins, Liu Zheng avoids directly asking Yumiko either to stay or leave, fearing both choices could offend her.
• Yumiko reminds him about their plans for the following day, but before he has to explain that he has forgotten them, Liu Zheng pretends to become dizzy and weak.
• He uses his supposed poor health to appeal to Yumiko’s attraction to weakness. She reassures him that she accepts him as he is and even feels more comfortable around him when he appears helpless.
• Yumiko reveals that she has taught herself medicine and proposes bloodletting therapy for his “cold.” She produces a scalpel, claiming to practice Western medicine.
• In the first attempt, Liu Zheng refuses to let her use the scalpel. Yumiko becomes disappointed, causing his favorability to drop from two hearts to zero.
• With Ace’s help, Liu Zheng restarts the game and repeats the scenario. This time, he agrees to the treatment, raising Yumiko’s affection to four hearts.
• Yumiko then attempts to cut his throat, instantly killing him and ending the game. Ace explains that Liu Zheng triggered a dangerous “stabbing scene” unusually early.
• On another restart, Liu Zheng agrees again but offers his ring finger instead of his neck. Yumiko severely cuts the finger, exposing bone, but leaves him alive.
• Liu Zheng pretends to be grateful and tells Yumiko that he feels better, while privately cursing her and resolving to avoid being treated by her again.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Becomes increasingly strategic and manipulative as he studies Yumiko’s personality and experiments with different emotional approaches. He recognizes that she is both a tsundere and attracted to weak, dependent men. Although terrified by her behavior, he maintains a polite, grateful façade to preserve her affection.
• Yumiko: Shows a mixture of romantic sensitivity, insecurity, possessiveness, and disturbing medical incompetence. She wants Liu Zheng to trust and depend on her, becoming hurt when he refuses her treatment. Her apparent tenderness is paired with alarming violence.
• Ace: Acts as Liu Zheng’s game assistant and commentator. He provides information about the game’s affection system and is impressed by Liu Zheng’s rapid progress, even when that progress leads to accidental death.

Significant Themes

• Manipulation and emotional performance: Liu Zheng deliberately pretends to be weak and sick because he understands that Yumiko is drawn to vulnerability.
• Unpredictability in relationships: The chapter portrays romance as a dangerous trial-and-error process in which seemingly reasonable choices can cause affection to rise, collapse, or result in death.
• The gap between appearance and reality: Yumiko appears caring and supportive, but her “treatment” reveals a frighteningly violent side.
• Game-like romance and consequences: Affection is measured through hearts, while mistakes lead to resets and death, turning courtship into a literal survival challenge.
• Fear disguised as gratitude: Liu Zheng repeatedly hides his terror and resentment behind politeness, demonstrating how completely he must suppress his true feelings to survive.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Yumiko engage in flirtatious but tense dialogue about friendship, love, illness, and trust.
• Yumiko comforts Liu Zheng when he pretends to collapse, while he encourages her dependence on and concern for him.
• Their interaction over bloodletting becomes the chapter’s central conflict: Yumiko interprets treatment as an act of care, while Liu Zheng sees it as a potential execution.
• Liu Zheng and Ace discuss the failed attempts between resets, with Ace offering gameplay context and Liu Zheng adapting his strategy based on each outcome.

Chapter Summary: “So Great, Now You Don't Have a Mom Just Like Me”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng asks to examine Yumiko’s unusually sharp knife, which she admits she stole from a hospital cabinet.
• He tricks her by pretending to see a UFO, then uses the scalpel to slash her throat in revenge for her earlier violence toward him. The game warns him that excessive violence could result in a permanent ban, but he ignores it.
• After Ace explains that Yumiko is only a game character, Liu Zheng restarts the scenario, determined to clear the game through manipulation rather than violence.
• He adopts a weak, emotionally dependent persona, gaining Yumiko’s sympathy and affection. He rests on her lap and persuades her to take him on a spontaneous drive to the beach during a violent storm.
• The first act ends, and Liu Zheng saves the game before entering the next act.
• During the drive, Liu Zheng lies across Yumiko’s lap while she drives, narrowly avoiding being stabbed when she mistakes his movement for a threat.
• Yumiko reveals that she brought a scalpel “to cut fruit,” along with an enormous durian and coconuts, reinforcing how bizarre and dangerous she is.
• She drives recklessly through the rain, following sarcastic advice from her instructor about accelerating through traffic lights.
• The car hits someone on the highway. The victim appears to be embedded in the vehicle, but Yumiko immediately recognizes her as Liu Zheng’s mother.
• Instead of showing panic, Yumiko calmly suggests calling the police because Liu Zheng’s mother is probably dead. Liu Zheng pretends to be devastated and begs Yumiko not to leave him.
• Yumiko comforts him, then remarks cheerfully that he now has no mother, just like her.

Character Development

• Liu Zheng: His anger toward Yumiko remains intense, but he becomes more strategic after restarting the game. Rather than attacking her, he performs vulnerability and dependence to increase her affection. His orphaned background also makes her maternal care emotionally meaningful to him, despite his awareness that she is dangerous.
• Yumiko: She continues to display a disturbing mixture of affection, violence, childishness, and emotional detachment. She is easily manipulated by Liu Zheng’s apparent weakness, yet remains alarmingly casual about dangerous driving, murder, and possible imprisonment.
• Ace: Ace acts as a calm, experienced contrast to Liu Zheng. He views the game rationally, tolerates its absurdity, and explains that previous experience with even stranger game characters helped him develop patience.
• Liu Zheng and Ace: Their conversation highlights Liu Zheng’s impulsive temper compared with Ace’s restraint and gaming discipline. Ace accepts Liu Zheng’s violent outburst because Yumiko is fictional, while Liu Zheng remains surprised by Ace’s lack of anger.

Significant Themes

• Manipulation and performance: Liu Zheng treats the game like a psychological battle, using helplessness, emotional dependence, and romantic language to control Yumiko’s behavior.
• Reality versus fiction: Although Yumiko is a game character, the virtual world feels realistic enough to evoke genuine emotions in Liu Zheng, particularly his longing for maternal affection.
• Absurdity and dark comedy: The chapter repeatedly presents horrifying events—stabbing, reckless driving, and running over Liu Zheng’s mother—as ordinary or humorous situations.
• Dangerous affection: Yumiko’s tenderness is inseparable from violence and instability. Her comforting behavior can shift instantly into lethal danger.
• Loneliness and family: Liu Zheng’s orphanhood makes Yumiko’s lap pillow and nurturing gestures unusually appealing, while the discovery of his “mother” creates a bizarre bond between him and Yumiko through shared loss.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Yumiko interact through a false romantic dynamic, with Liu Zheng pretending to be fragile and devoted while secretly trying to survive and clear the game.
• Yumiko responds positively to his vulnerability, increasing his affection score and treating him in a maternal, doting manner.
• Liu Zheng and Ace discuss the game’s absurdity, the limits of player violence, and the different strategies needed to handle bizarre protagonists.
• After the accident, Yumiko comforts Liu Zheng over his mother’s apparent death, but her cheerful remark about them now being alike reveals her unsettling emotional detachment.

After rage-quitting the game, Liu Zheng talked with Ace about joining the Public Security Bureau and helping protect him, then arranged to unleash the infuriating game on their friends. He left for O Yegan’s Sword-forging Workshop, where O Yegan hurried him into a locked room to seize a fleeting moment of inspiration.

• Liu Zheng killed himself in the game after cursing Yumiko, and Ace arranged for him to get another console.
• Ace told Liu Zheng he wanted to rely on him for protection, and Liu Zheng promised to help as long as he was alive.
• Liu Zheng gave Ace the ID number of Green Vest JJ577 and asked him to help the officer if he seemed decent.
• Liu Zheng had Nile Doctor try the game, and Nile Doctor became furious; Liu Zheng then asked Ace to order dozens of copies for their friends.
• O Yegan summoned Liu Zheng to the Sword-forging Workshop, explained his weapon grading system, and unlocked a small door with sword energy.

O Yegan used the Seven Treasure Wisdom Sword to sever Liu Zheng’s tentacles and remove some of the sinister power in his bloodline, then had him grind the severed flesh for a weapon he planned to forge. Liu Zheng left the workshop after teasing Oye Rong, who discovered he had cut off a few strands of her hair.

• O Yegan showed Liu Zheng his spotless private workshop and explained that the Blood Sea Millstone refined flesh and blood into vital essence.
• O Yegan questioned Liu Zheng about the two writers he had introduced to Oye Rong, then prepared the Seven Treasure Wisdom Sword.
• O Yegan cut off Liu Zheng’s four tentacles, removing some of his Black Goat’s Young bloodline and the murderous aura sealed within them, but warned that further cuts could damage his mind.
• Liu Zheng used the Serrated Cleaver to place his tentacles on the Flesh Grinder and laboriously ground them into bloody slurry for O Yegan’s weapon-forging work.
• Liu Zheng left the workshop and joked with Oye Rong before secretly tugging out a few strands of her hair and fleeing.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng returns from vacation and reports back to Cow-Horse, who tells him that Si Xue wants him to bring her a late-night snack.
• Si Xue gives no specific food request, leaving Liu Zheng and White-Feather Chicken to decide what to prepare. After recalling Si Xue’s apparent fondness for simple foods such as roasted sweet potatoes and grilled corn, Liu Zheng chooses to make a specialty from his hometown: spicy hot pot.
• Liu Zheng provides an elaborate recipe involving several broths, spices, seasonings, and numerous ingredients, including tofu, vegetables, meat, offal, duck blood, and other hot-pot items. He also asks for poppy husks to be added.
• White-Feather Chicken cooks the broth while Liu Zheng and the Calico Cat prepare the ingredients. They load everything onto a two-tiered cart.
• Before leaving, Liu Zheng gives White-Feather Chicken the fruit knife Sloth. In return, White-Feather Chicken lends him the knife Anger, explaining that it will reclaim it once it gathers the other six weapons.
• Liu Zheng takes the food to Si Xue’s office, which has transformed into the Heart-of-the-Lake Island setting. Si Xue creates an ice path across the lake so he can transport the cart to her island.
• Si Xue criticizes Liu Zheng for causing trouble during his vacation, including complaints from the Public Security Bureau and Office Administration. Liu Zheng responds with exaggerated loyalty and attempts to appease her with the meal.
• While Si Xue fishes, Liu Zheng cooks the spicy hot pot using one of her small flames. Si Xue notices his tentacles and orders him to add them to the dish. Liu Zheng cuts up all four tentacles, even using Anger in his mouth for the final one.
• Si Xue catches a strange semi-translucent object resembling flesh and stone. She identifies it as “Flesh of Sight” and orders Liu Zheng to cut it up and add it to the hot pot.
• Liu Zheng recognizes the object as possibly being connected to the mysterious Miniature Man’s friend, creating a new point of intrigue.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to act as a good-natured but frequently exploited errand-runner. He willingly follows Cow-Horse’s and Si Xue’s orders, though he complains about always being forced into labor.
• His resourcefulness is highlighted when he invents the spicy hot-pot meal without knowing Si Xue’s preferences. He also shows considerable tolerance and loyalty by sacrificing his regenerating tentacles for the dish.
• Si Xue appears tired and aloof but maintains close control over Liu Zheng. Her threats are delivered casually, yet she demonstrates a playful or possessive interest in him by making him prepare food and threatening to eat him if it tastes bad.
• Si Xue’s behavior also reveals her immense power: she creates an ice bridge, produces fire effortlessly, and catches bizarre supernatural objects while fishing.
• White-Feather Chicken remains practical, guarded, and unwilling to accept responsibility for Liu Zheng’s choices. Despite its irritation, it cooperates in preparing the meal and lends Liu Zheng Anger.
• The Calico Cat continues to be cheerful and affectionate toward Liu Zheng, climbing onto his shoulder and happily working alongside him.
• Liu Zheng’s relationship with White-Feather Chicken develops through the exchange of Sloth and Anger, suggesting growing cooperation but also leaving open the possibility of future conflict over the seven weapons.

Significant Themes

• Obedience and power dynamics: Liu Zheng’s repeated willingness to follow orders contrasts with the overwhelming authority of Cow-Horse, White-Feather Chicken, and especially Si Xue.
• Humor through danger and absurdity: Ordinary domestic tasks—preparing a late-night snack, pushing a food cart, and cooking—are mixed with threats of being eaten, supernatural ingredients, and chopping off one’s own tentacles.
• Food as social connection and self-preservation: Liu Zheng uses cooking to repair his relationship with Si Xue and avoid punishment, while the meal also becomes a bizarre demonstration of trust and sacrifice.
• Otherworldly normality: The characters treat supernatural phenomena—living weapons, ice paths, regenerative limbs, and mythical flesh—as routine parts of daily life.
• Unresolved mysteries: The Flesh of Sight may be tied to the Miniature Man’s friend, hinting at a broader supernatural storyline.

Character Interactions

• Cow-Horse teases Liu Zheng and directs him to report to Si Xue, while nearly revealing its hidden betting activities.
• Liu Zheng and White-Feather Chicken cooperate under mutual reluctance, with the chicken forcing him to take responsibility for choosing the meal.
• Liu Zheng and the Calico Cat work together warmly, though the cat also casually orders him around.
• Liu Zheng and Si Xue engage in a familiar but unequal exchange: he uses exaggerated formal language and flattery, while she responds with threats, criticism, and commands.
• Si Xue’s decision to make Liu Zheng cook his own tentacles illustrates both her ruthless humor and the strange intimacy of their relationship.
• The chapter ends with Si Xue’s catch potentially linking the current meal to the unresolved mystery of the Miniature Man’s companion.

Chapter Summary: “Si Xue: If You Want to Suck, Then Suck”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng reveals to Si Xue that he knows someone connected to a professor at Municipal First University who is also related to the Flesh of Sight.
• Si Xue offers him a piece of Flesh of Sight, but demands a “price”: Liu Zheng must swim naked across Spirit Treasure Lake and back.
• Using Enhanced Heart of the Ocean and Kun Inhalation, Peng Exhalation, Liu Zheng crosses the lake at extraordinary speed without being attacked by its spirit creatures.
• He receives the Flesh of Sight and discovers that, if completely consumed, it permanently improves recovery ability and grants the powerful skill Flesh Clone, allowing him to create a duplicate once per instance.
• Liu Zheng decides he will first tell his friend about obtaining it rather than secretly keeping or giving it away. He explains that honesty is essential between friends, though relationships may naturally change over time.
• Si Xue warns him about the Cemetery and its Gravekeeper. She explains that the Gravekeeper is not an independent person but an existence shaped by the Cemetery, which possesses the souls and bodies of the entire Metropolis.
• During their late-night meal, black water suddenly leaks from Si Xue’s body and contaminates the spicy hotpot, turning the broth black.
• Liu Zheng offers to absorb the black water despite receiving no reward. Si Xue agrees, amused by the prospect of watching him suffer, and he begins sucking the substance from her finger.

Character Development

• Liu Zheng demonstrates loyalty and gratitude toward Si Xue. Although he has opportunities to transfer to City Hall, he prefers remaining under her because she treats him fairly, the Restaurant gives him unusual freedom, and he feels indebted to its employees.
• He shows a mature but pragmatic view of relationships: friendship matters in the present, but he accepts that people and bonds can change. He is willing to protect friends while they remain friends, but will not cling to relationships after they collapse.
• Liu Zheng also reveals his resourcefulness and willingness to endure humiliation or danger for valuable opportunities. He immediately accepts Si Xue’s unusual challenge to obtain the Flesh of Sight.
• Si Xue continues to tease and manipulate Liu Zheng, but her actions also reveal trust and approval. She gives him an extremely valuable item, warns him about the Cemetery, and shares information about powerful entities.
• Si Xue’s hostility toward Peacock remains evident when she jokes that Liu Zheng should use Peacock wings in the next meal instead of chicken wings.
• The Gravekeeper is characterized as a potentially tragic and dangerous figure: although it appears to change people, Si Xue implies that the Cemetery itself may be creating or controlling its identity.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty versus obligation: Liu Zheng’s decision to remain at the Restaurant is based not only on comfort and authority but also on his debts and relationships with other employees.
• Change and impermanence: Liu Zheng accepts that friendships, loyalties, and identities can change. Si Xue counters that long-lived beings eventually lose ordinary friendships, becoming enemies or acquaintances bound by old grudges and favors.
• Power and identity: The Flesh of Sight consists of fragments of one larger existence, blurring the distinction between individuality and shared origin. Similarly, the Cemetery may create different “people” from the same underlying power.
• Freedom versus institutional control: The Restaurant offers Liu Zheng privileges despite lacking formal authority, while the Cemetery represents a deeper, inescapable form of control over souls and bodies.
• Humor amid danger: The chapter mixes cosmic horror and serious warnings with comic exchanges about nudity, food, workplace loyalty, and Liu Zheng’s exaggerated flattery.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Si Xue engage in a teasing but respectful boss-subordinate relationship. He repeatedly flatters her and affirms his loyalty, while she mocks his flattery and tests his sincerity.
• Their exchange about City Hall establishes that Liu Zheng considers Si Xue’s orders binding even if she eventually loses her position.
• Si Xue tests Liu Zheng’s motives by asking whether he will keep or share the Flesh of Sight. His answer emphasizes honesty toward friends.
• While eating, Liu Zheng serves Si Xue carefully and apologizes for forgetting her hatred of Peacock, reinforcing their playful but hierarchical dynamic.
• Their conversation about the Gravekeeper shifts from banter to genuine warning, showing that Si Xue is willing to protect or advise Liu Zheng.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng voluntarily enduring the dangerous black water to please Si Xue, while she openly enjoys watching him suffer.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng undergoes a terrifying spiritual and physical transformation after inhaling a strange fragrance. His body becomes a constantly changing ecosystem in which cells kill and consume one another, while his consciousness cycles through countless forms of life, death, cooking, and consumption.
• During this ordeal, he hears Buddhist chanting and unconsciously recites the Heart Sutra mantra. A wheel of Buddhist light briefly appears behind his head, suggesting that he may have achieved sudden enlightenment or revealed an extraordinary Buddha-nature.
• Si Xue becomes concerned that Liu Zheng might be claimed by the Buddhist Order. To test or eliminate the corruption within him, she summons the Three-Five Evil-Slaying Sword and strikes him with sword qi, but the attack is absorbed.
• A Daoist scripture begins competing with the Buddhist chanting in Liu Zheng’s mind. Overwhelmed by the noise and suffering, Liu Zheng erupts in anger, summons a gigantic flaming saber, and slashes through his spiritual world, cutting it in half and destroying the visions.
• Liu Zheng awakens vomiting charred pieces of flesh. Each piece appears vaguely humanoid or animal-like, and his body shrinks until he is only the size of a monk macaque.
• Si Xue explains that Liu Zheng may have lost a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity to become an arhat because her intervention disrupted his enlightenment. Liu Zheng is unconcerned, saying he would hesitate even before accepting bodhisattva status.
• Liu Zheng becomes interested in Si Xue’s Three-Five Evil-Slaying Sword, preferring its appearance and prestige to his usual sabers. Si Xue reveals that it is a legendary ritual weapon associated with Zhang Daoling and the Five Pecks of Rice Sect, but the sword has been damaged or contaminated.
• Liu Zheng volunteers to take the sword to its previous owner, the craftsman connected to the Seven Treasure Wisdom Sword, for repairs. He secretly hopes this may lead to a powerful custom weapon made from his flesh. Si Xue sees through his ulterior motives but gives him the sword anyway.
• Liu Zheng delivers a package to Si Xue: a Legendary Delivery Box copy of braised peacock meat. Si Xue happily accepts it, while Liu Zheng refuses to eat it because doing so could worsen his relationship with Peacock.
• He returns to the break room, sleeps, and wakes the next morning—his eleventh day in Metropolis. Cow-Horse helps him retrieve breakfast, then steals the meal for itself. Liu Zheng contacts Jinzi and orders a feast, marking the end of his vacation and his return to work.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Experiences a near-total collapse of body and identity, but survives through rage and instinct. His resistance to Buddhist enlightenment shows his independent, irreverent personality. He remains opportunistic, seeking both practical benefits and future favors, yet he also shows caution by refusing to eat Peacock meat and preserving the possibility of reconciliation.
• Si Xue: Displays both concern and possessiveness toward Liu Zheng, especially regarding the Buddhist Order’s possible influence over him. She acts decisively by using the evil-slaying sword, but also recognizes Liu Zheng’s rare potential. Her exchanges with him retain their sarcastic boss-subordinate dynamic.
• Cow-Horse: Continues to behave as Liu Zheng’s enormous, demanding superior. It reveals unexpected pride in its education and songwriting, while selfishly taking Liu Zheng’s breakfast.
• Jinzi: Remains helpful and accommodating, immediately agreeing to prepare food for Liu Zheng when he returns to work.

Significant Themes

• Identity and transformation: Liu Zheng’s body and consciousness dissolve into endless cycles of creation, consumption, death, and rebirth, questioning what remains of a person when the self is completely fragmented.
• Competing spiritual paths: Buddhist enlightenment and Daoist cultivation appear side by side, not as peaceful teachings but as overwhelming forces competing for influence over Liu Zheng.
• Enlightenment versus individuality: Liu Zheng rejects the prestige of becoming an arhat or bodhisattva, valuing his autonomy and practical goals more than spiritual elevation.
• Power, ownership, and loyalty: Si Xue’s fear that the Buddhist Order might “steal” Liu Zheng reflects the possessive relationships surrounding him. His favor-based dealings also show how loyalty and protection function as practical currency.
• Comedy amid horror: The chapter contrasts grotesque body horror and existential terror with absurd jokes, food-related complaints, workplace exploitation, and Liu Zheng’s vanity about swords.
• Self-interest and restraint: Liu Zheng constantly seeks advantages, but he also knows when restraint is wise—particularly in refusing the peacock meat to avoid creating a personal feud with Peacock.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Si Xue: Their relationship remains teasing but transactional. Si Xue tests and protects him, while Liu Zheng flatters her, negotiates for favors, and accepts dangerous assignments for possible future rewards.
• Liu Zheng and the Buddhist/Daoist voices: Though the voices are not conventional characters, their competing chants provoke Liu Zheng’s fury and ultimately trigger his destruction of the spiritual realm.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse: Their interaction is that of an exhausted subordinate and an inconsiderate boss. Cow-Horse assists him physically but immediately takes advantage of him by confiscating his breakfast.
• Liu Zheng and Jinzi: Their relationship is cooperative and familiar. Jinzi readily supports his return to work by preparing a meal in advance.

Chapter Summary: “First Order Back from Vacation”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng finally receives his first delivery order after returning from vacation: white-boiled elephant penis for Manager Huang in Room 6037 of Northgold Building.
• Nervous after his recent conflict with the Public Security Bureau, Liu asks Cow-Horse to lend him the Memorial Medal, a protective item. Cow-Horse agrees only after being paid.
• Before leaving, Liu feeds braised peacock meat to the Delivery Passage, which gives him a small piece of its flesh. Eating it restores his strength and temporarily shrinks him to the size of an elementary-school child.
• He stops at Yakuza Sento, where Jinzi enthusiastically embraces him and provides a private room and a large meal. The food restores him to his normal size.
• Liu reaches Northgold Building thirty minutes after the delivery deadline. The skyscraper belongs to People’s Bank and houses major financial institutions, making it dangerous territory controlled by powerful Long-Lived Species.
• Rather than force his way inside, Liu contacts 4399 and Yuan Bao’er for information. Yuan helps him obtain the number of Manager Zhong of Big Golden Hair Trust, a company located inside the building.
• Liu claims he needs a ten-million-unit collateral loan, offering his purchasing credit at Du Kang Liquor Shop as security. He arranges to meet Manager Zhong immediately.
• Manager Zhong, an aberrant Golden Beetle, comes downstairs and suspects Liu is using the loan application as an excuse to enter the building.
• Liu openly admits that both motives are genuine. He shows proof of one hundred million in Du Kang purchasing credit, including funds intended for City Hall, and displays the Memorial Medal.
• He subtly threatens Manager Zhong: if the delivery fails, Liu may survive, but he will remember the trust company and tell City Hall that its money was nearly lost. The chapter ends with Liu pressuring Zhong to cooperate.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains opportunistic and irreverent, but he is more cautious after his confrontation with the authorities. Instead of recklessly entering Northgold Building, he gathers intelligence and creates a plausible strategy.
• His ability to use the Delivery Passage’s flesh shows both his resourcefulness and his willingness to exploit unusual resources to recover his strength.
• Liu’s social network has expanded: he relies on Cow-Horse, 4399, Yuan Bao’er, and his contacts at Yakuza Sento to solve problems.
• Cow-Horse continues to act as a sarcastic but useful superior, charging Liu for access to the protective Memorial Medal.
• Jinzi displays intense affection and a playful, maternal attitude toward Liu, while also helping provide food and shelter.
• Yuan Bao’er and Secretary Li support Liu by supplying useful business connections.
• Manager Zhong shifts from polite professionalism to suspicion and nervousness after realizing Liu may be manipulating the loan process to gain entry to Northgold Building.

Significant Themes

• Resourcefulness over brute force: Liu succeeds by combining contacts, deception, and negotiation rather than directly challenging a dangerous institution.
• Power through information and reputation: Knowledge of Northgold Building’s affiliations and Liu’s connections to City Hall give him leverage.
• Mutual exploitation: Nearly every interaction involves bargaining—Cow-Horse demands payment, the Delivery Passage trades food for flesh, and Liu turns a financial service into a means of access.
• Bluffing and calculated intimidation: Liu’s loan proposal is partly genuine but also a strategic ruse, allowing him to pressure Manager Zhong without openly attacking him.
• Recovery and adaptation: Liu replenishes his strength through food and supernatural resources, emphasizing his continued adjustment to the dangerous world around him.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Cow-Horse exchange insults while negotiating the Memorial Medal, highlighting their familiar, antagonistic relationship.
• Liu treats the Delivery Passage almost like a living ally, feeding it peacock meat and receiving valuable flesh in return.
• Jinzi’s affectionate teasing contrasts with Liu’s impatience and hunger, reinforcing their playful but intimate dynamic.
• Liu consults 4399 and Yuan Bao’er, demonstrating his growing dependence on alliances rather than solitary action.
• His conversation with Manager Zhong becomes a psychological contest: Zhong attempts to verify Liu’s intentions, while Liu openly acknowledges his plan and uses City Hall’s money, Du Kang credit, and the Memorial Medal to force Zhong to take him seriously.