Chapter Summaries

Mark expanded his game business with Panda Chat and Payne Games, then bought a private jet to collect Sunlight Value more quickly. He began flying toward the sun and called Rosalie from the plane.

• Mark bundled Panda Chat with Stardew Valley and Myth of Heroes, helping the new game pass one million downloads in three days.
• Mark bought a small game company for $1.2 million, renamed it Payne Games, and handed it the operation of both games.
• Mark spent $8 million on a private jet and crew, then told Rosalie he would be away for over half a month to handle company matters.
• Mark instructed pilot Dalton Lawrence to fly toward the sun while avoiding thunderstorms.
• Mark boarded his plane and gained Sunlight Value rapidly as it cruised above the clouds.
• Mark used Panda Chat to video call Rosalie, while the app continued gaining praise from users.

Mark monitored his companies during a flight to Polynesia, then learned that a suspicious man had been surveilling his home and likely had ties to the Latin Gang. His attempt to use evidence of the gang’s crimes to prompt police action failed when nearby police stations ignored it.

• Mark told Rosalie he was handling company matters, then learned from Silas Knight that Myth of Heroes had 1.5 million users and Panda Chat had 3.16 million registered users.
• Mark’s plane landed in Polynesia to refuel, and he checked that his Sunlight Value had risen to 2127 during the flight.
• Alice showed Mark drone footage of a young man repeatedly watching his house, and Mark suspected the Latin Gang was investigating the Li Qianhuan sisters.
• Mark hacked into businesses and surveillance systems in Latin Gang territory, gathered evidence of the gang’s crimes, and sent it to nearby police stations.
• Nearby police stations ignored Mark’s evidence, leading him to conclude that many local officers had been bribed by the Latin Gang.

Mark used S.H.I.E.L.D.’s pursuit to expose the Latin Gang’s crimes, then escaped their hackers with Alice’s help. He flew to Tokyo, while Nick Fury ordered Coulson to investigate the gang and Mark’s connection to it.

• S.H.I.E.L.D.’s three hackers traced Mark, but he redirected them into the Latin Gang’s territory and gave them evidence of the gang’s crimes.
• Mark ordered Alice to overwhelm the hackers with disguised data packets, and they lost his trail.
• Nick Fury sent the Latin Gang evidence to the Los Angeles police and told Phil Coulson to investigate the gang and its recent conflicts.
• Mark arrived in Tokyo and checked that he had accumulated 4,267 Sunlight Value toward upgrading Super Brain.
• Tony Stark asked JARVIS about Mark and learned that he had left Los Angeles for Japan.

Mark’s plan forced the Latin Gang to suspend its attack on his family after Tony Stark warned Joe Morgan and police raids hit the gang’s businesses. After the plane’s world tour continued, Mark gathered enough Sunlight Value to upgrade Super Brain, unlocking greatly accelerated thinking.

• Tony Stark ordered JARVIS to warn the Latin Gang to stop targeting Mark’s family.
• Joe Morgan learned police had raided several Latin Gang businesses, then received JARVIS’s warning and suspended the planned raid on Mark’s house.
• Mark learned that police had arrested dozens of Latin Gang members and that the gang’s watchers had withdrawn.
• After more than ten days of travel, Mark gathered 51,200 Sunlight Value and upgraded Super Brain aboard the plane.
• Mark discovered his thoughts had accelerated so much that the world appeared to move in slow motion, and his status showed Super Brain at LV10.

Mark unlocked and upgraded Super Physique, gaining strength, speed, and endurance comparable to an ordinary adult. After a long vacation flight, he returned to Los Angeles and caught a flight attendant who fell from the boarding stairs.

• Mark collected 1,000 Sunlight Value while flying to the Maldives and spent it to upgrade Super Physique to Level 1.
• Mark tested his enhanced strength by lifting the foot of a double bed in his hotel room.
• Mark ran with a blonde woman and soon outran her and his two bodyguards, confirming his increased speed and endurance.
• After more than ten days of travel, Mark returned to Los Angeles, doubled the flight crew's bonuses, and gave them another week off.
• Mark caught a flight attendant as she fell down the boarding stairs, astonishing the crew before leaving the airport with his bodyguards.

After returning to Hollywood, Mark reunited with Rosalie at the celebration party for Speed Killer and overheard director Louis Gordon say he had injected Lucas Kane with a drug that enhanced his abilities. Tony Stark learned Mark was at the party and decided to go there, while Mark wondered what the drug was.

• Mark tested his Level 5 Super Physique, whose strength and toughness had greatly increased, then traveled with his bodyguards to the Intercontinental Hotel.
• Rosalie welcomed Mark at the hotel and introduced him to her friends and to director Louis Gordon, Lucas Kane, and Adela Evans at the party.
• Mark overheard Louis say he had injected Lucas with an expensive drug that boosted his strength and reaction speed, and wondered whether it had dangerous side effects.
• JARVIS told Tony Stark that Speed Killer was a film Stark Industries had invested in, and Tony decided to visit the party.

At a hotel gathering, Tony Stark encountered Rosalie and Mark while Lucas grew increasingly jealous and lost control after drinking. Mark got Rosalie outside as Lucas rampaged through the lobby and turned toward Tony Stark.

• Tony Stark arrived at the Intercontinental Hotel and spotted Rosalie and Mark, feeling an inexplicable connection to Mark.
• Tony Stark greeted the guests, and Adela embraced him while Lucas watched jealously.
• Lucas drank repeatedly, became feverish and bloodshot, and attacked a nearby actor.
• Lucas went berserk, injuring people in the lobby as Mark led Rosalie outside to safety.
• Lucas noticed Tony Stark fleeing with his bodyguards and Adela close beside him.

Lucas attacked Tony Stark in the hotel lobby, and Mark intervened to save him. After Mark subdued Lucas, Lucas exploded, leaving the lobby covered in blood and fragments.

• Lucas charged after Tony Stark and killed the two bodyguards who tried to stop him.
• Mark ordered Alice to cut the hotel's power so he could act without exposing his abilities.
• Lucas found Tony Stark in the darkness, swept Adela aside, and grabbed Tony by the shoulder.
• Mark crushed Lucas's wrist and struck him repeatedly until Lucas lost consciousness.
• Mark sensed Lucas's body heating up, threw him away, and Lucas exploded before hitting the ground.
• Mark returned to Rosalie as Alice restored the lights, and Rosalie asked whether he had left her side.

After Lucas’s rampage, Mark returned to the hotel lobby with Rosalie and helped the survivors while Tony Stark discovered that Mark had saved him. Mark overheard director Louis confess that Lucas had been injected with an experimental medicine sold by Killian, revealing that Killian had already begun testing Extremis.

• Mark led Rosalie back to the lobby, where Michael and the bodyguards began helping the injured.
• Tony Stark checked on his bodyguards, reviewed JARVIS’s footage, and realized that Mark had saved him.
• Mark decided he would need electromagnetic interference devices to prevent future fights from being recorded.
• Mark overheard Louis tell a caller that Lucas had died after being injected with the caller’s medicine.
• Louis threatened to expose Killian if the police traced the medicine to him, and Mark identified the caller as Aldrich Killian.

After the police investigated the deaths at the Intercontinental Hotel, Mark revealed his mutant strength to Rosalie and disclosed that Li Qianhuan was a mutant too. The chapter ended with Mark testing Li Qianhuan’s improved plasma control and praising its potential to cause serious harm.

• Police questioned Rosalie and the other witnesses, collected Lucas and the six victims’ bodies, and warned everyone to remain in Los Angeles.
• Rosalie returned home with Mark and questioned him about going back into the hotel lobby.
• Mark explained mutants to Rosalie and proved his strength by lifting her bed with one hand.
• Mark told Rosalie that Li Qianhuan was a mutant and invited her to demonstrate her ability.
• Li Qianhuan formed plasma patterns, then raised the plasma’s temperature until it sparked in her hand.
• Mark let the plasma strike his hand and judged that its heat could cause considerable damage if Li Qianhuan sustained it.

Mark reassured Rosalie about keeping his and Li Qianhuan’s mutant identities secret, then investigated Aldrich Killian and discovered the dangerous Extremis experiments behind Future Pharma. After learning Killian was desperate for funding, Mark called him and confronted him over the deaths caused by the virus, leaving Killian in tears and convinced Mark that his conscience remained intact.

• Mark warned Rosalie not to reveal that he and Li Qianhuan were Mutants, and she agreed to keep their identities secret.
• Mark searched for Aldrich Killian and hacked into Future Pharma’s database, uncovering Killian’s secret animal laboratory and Extremis enhancement experiments.
• Mark learned that Killian and Maya Hansen lacked funding and decided to acquire Future Pharma and recruit them, using his twelve million dollars.
• Mark called Killian anonymously and confronted him with the deaths and injuries caused by the Extremis virus he had sold.
• Killian broke down, apologized, and admitted responsibility, and Mark decided that Killian had not completely lost his conscience.

Mark offered to invest in Killian’s Future Pharma on the condition that he took control and halted human-enhancement research until the Extremis virus was safe for medical use. Killian agreed under threat of exposure, but Mark caught him trying to move the secret laboratory and forced him to shut it down.

• Mark offered Killian ten million dollars for a fifty-one percent stake in Future Pharma and demanded that Killian close his North Carolina laboratory and focus on medical applications with Maya Hansen.
• Killian questioned Mark’s motives and objected to postponing human enhancement research, but accepted the conditions after Mark promised at least ten billion dollars for that research in ten years and threatened him with prison.
• Mark told Alice to monitor Killian, while Killian secretly contacted a construction crew to move the laboratory and disconnected its network.
• Alice monitored Killian’s calls through a communications base station, allowing Mark to interrupt his call to the crew and warn him that he would go to prison if he disobeyed.
• Killian abandoned his plan to move the laboratory and chose to shut it down completely.

Mark secured control of Advanced Idea Mechanics while leaving Killian and Maya Hansen to focus on Extremis research, then used his time away from school to build and test a powerful Electromagnetic Gun. After proving it could pierce thick alloy steel with little recoil, he let Faith try it.

• Mark invested ten million dollars for 51 percent of Advanced Idea Mechanics, hired a CEO and financial director, and had Alice monitor the company's network and employees.
• Mark went to school with Li Qianle, completed his assessment perfectly, and received three weeks of extended leave.
• Mark modified his Electric Shock Gun into a Multistage Electromagnetic Gun and pierced a five-centimeter alloy steel plate from thirty meters away.
• Faith tested the Electromagnetic Gun and joined the bodyguards in marveling at its power and low recoil.

Mark upgraded the bodyguards’ weapons and built Electromagnetic Pulse Glasses to conceal his face and disable nearby electronics. Dalton then told him that Tony Stark had gifted him a Falcon G-V, and Mark completed the transfer at the airport.

• Faith asked Mark to modify Electromagnetic Guns for the bodyguards, and she arranged approval through Global Security Company.
• Mark modified four Electromagnetic Guns and designed and built Electromagnetic Pulse Glasses to obscure his face and destroy nearby electronic devices.
• Mark tested the glasses with Rosalie, Li Qianhuan, Faith, and the bodyguards, who could not see his face clearly.
• Dalton told Mark that someone had gifted him a Falcon G-V and asked him to come to the airport to sign for it.
• Mark suspected Tony Stark had given him the aircraft in return for rescuing him, then completed the transfer and boarded it with Dalton.

Mark outfitted the Falcon G-V with a workshop and used its high-altitude flight to rapidly collect Sunlight Value. Meanwhile, Obadiah urged Tony Stark to return to New York for a military contract signing, and Tony watched footage of Mark working aboard the plane.

• Mark toured the Falcon G-V and ordered equipment for its office, which he planned to turn into a workshop.
• After the crew returned from vacation, Mark flew the Falcon G-V and rapidly gained Sunlight Value at high altitude.
• Obadiah called Tony Stark about missing a board meeting and told him to return to New York in three days to sign a military procurement agreement.
• Tony agreed to return, then asked JARVIS what Mark had been doing.
• JARVIS showed Tony footage of Mark soldering electronics in the plane's workshop, and Tony felt a strong kinship with him.

Mark monitored Killian after the police publicly attributed Lucas’s death to a manic episode and suicide, then warned Killian not to pursue any hidden plans. He reviewed Payne Games’ growth while considering how to improve surveillance of Killian.

• Mark built twelve miniature Fly Monitors with surveillance, tracking, eavesdropping, and attack functions while traveling by plane.
• The Los Angeles Police Department announced that Lucas had suffered an acute manic episode and died by suicide, temporarily closing the case in public.
• Alice told Mark that Killian behaved normally at work but disconnected his home network and avoided communication devices at home.
• Mark arranged for the plane to stop for maintenance in Texas and decided to intensify surveillance of Killian using Fly Monitors.
• Mark called Killian, warned him against crooked plans, and threatened to give evidence to the police if he acted against him; Killian panicked and threw away his phone.
• Mark checked Payne Games’ results and found that Myth of Heroes had 3.5 million users and over $100,000 in daily profits, while Panda Chat had surpassed four million registered users.

After upgrading his Super Physique, Mark surveilled Killian and discovered he was secretly trying to sell Extremis research to Trask Industries to regain control of Future Pharmaceuticals. Mark anesthetized Killian and headed to his villa, leaving his next move unresolved.

• Mark upgraded his Super Physique to level six, gaining greater strength, durability, and sharper senses.
• Mark sent three Fly Monitors to watch Killian at his villa and prepared to choose between anesthetic and VX based on what he uncovered.
• Killian read rejection letters from major corporations, then decided to send Trask Industries a USB drive containing Extremis research data.
• A Fly Monitor injected Killian with anesthetic, and he collapsed unconscious at his desk.
• Mark left the hotel and headed for Killian's villa.

Mark implanted a surveillance and explosive capsule in Killian’s neck, forcing him to submit to Mark’s control. After Mark left Los Angeles, a masked figure appeared beside Joe Morgan’s bed, and Joe suspected Madame Gao had sent them.

• Mark broke into Killian’s villa, cut his neck, and implanted a capsule containing a signal transceiver and a miniature explosive.
• Mark called Killian and warned him not to remove the capsule or enter an area with signal jamming, leaving Killian terrified and powerless.
• The next morning, Mark saw news that Tony Stark had returned to New York.
• A shadowy figure entered Joe Morgan’s bedroom in the Oakland slums, and Joe dismissed his guards before asking whether Madame Gao had sent them.

Joe Morgan mobilized the Latin Gang to seize the item Li Zhan left behind, targeting the Payne Family and the Qianhuan sisters. Mark learned of the threat and turned his plane back toward Los Angeles, but the gangs launched their operation before he arrived.

• Joe Morgan agreed to Madame Gao’s order to find Li Zhan’s item and gathered Latin Gang leaders to plan another move against the Payne Family.
• Joe Morgan ordered Athel to investigate the family and contact Wyatt of the Iron Blood Gang for help.
• Alice warned Mark that Latin Gang members were watching his house and gathering armed men, so he told her to keep Li Qianhuan and Qianle safe.
• Mark ordered Dalton to turn their plane around and head back to Los Angeles.
• The Latin Gang sent a convoy of over a hundred vehicles into Clem District, and Wyatt arrived with sixty Iron Blood Gang members to support them.

Joe Morgan led the Latin Gang in a siege on Mark’s home while Mark was still two hours from Los Angeles. As the defenders were overwhelmed, Li Qianhuan instinctively unleashed powerful plasma to save Li Qianle, then prepared to fight on as Michael ordered an evacuation.

• Joe Morgan ordered Wyatt and other gang members to seal off the Clem District’s entrances before leading nearly five hundred fighters to Mark’s home.
• Michael and his five bodyguards defended the property while Li Qianhuan fired from the balcony and Li Qianle hid inside.
• The gang broke into the courtyard, and Li Qianhuan killed an intruder who tried to seize Li Qianle.
• When two more gang members threatened her sister and Li Qianhuan’s gun ran out of ammunition, she instinctively blasted them apart with plasma.
• Li Qianhuan returned to the balcony and gathered plasma as Michael told everyone to prepare to evacuate.