Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Lin Ye, owner of the unusual shop Origin, is stuck on the system’s first mission: recruit a beautiful woman as an attendant within twenty-four hours.
• Ning Rongrong, a young lady from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, bursts into the shop after storming away from home. She wants to hide from the elders searching for her and offers Lin Ye money to let her stay.
• Lin Ye instead persuades her to sign a trial attendant contract, warning that her pursuers may soon arrive. Her recruitment completes the mission.
• The system awards Lin Ye a copy of the VR game Cyberpunk 2077, installs it on the shop’s terminals, and sets strict prices.
• Though outraged by the high cost, Ning Rongrong pays to try the game. Wearing the headset, she is transported to the dazzling, futuristic world of Night City and is left speechless.

Character developments

• Lin Ye shifts from anxious frustration to excitement when a suitable recruit appears. He uses quick thinking—and Ning Rongrong’s desire to evade her family—to secure the contract and launch his shop’s first game.
• Ning Rongrong is introduced as proud, impulsive, and accustomed to wealth and special treatment. Her anger at the elders gives way to curiosity and wonder when she experiences the game.

Significant themes

• Technology and wonder: The VR game’s futuristic world contrasts sharply with Douluo Continent, presenting an experience beyond anything Ning Rongrong has seen.
• Persuasion and self-interest: Lin Ye frames employment as a way for Ning Rongrong to hide, while she agrees mainly to escape her pursuers and satisfy her curiosity.
• Wealth and value: Ning Rongrong can afford the steep fee, but her reaction shows how extraordinary the price is by local standards.

Character interactions

• Lin Ye and the system have a comically unequal relationship: the system imposes ambitious tasks, while Lin Ye worries about how to fulfill them.
• Lin Ye manipulates Ning Rongrong’s situation into a recruitment opportunity, balancing polite assurances with firm rules.
• Ning Rongrong challenges Lin Ye over the price, but her curiosity ultimately wins, and his guidance introduces her to Night City.

Plot points and events

• Ning Rongrong begins Cyberpunk 2077 by customizing her character, V. She accidentally randomizes the facial cyberware, is horrified by the result, and quickly resets it. Confused by the unfamiliar attributes, she arbitrarily maxes out Cool before confirming her choices.
• She awakens in Night City beside Jackie Welles and is stunned by the city’s scale, grime, and technology, which make even the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect seem modest by comparison.
• Jackie takes her to rescue a kidnapped woman from a Scavenger hideout. Inside, Ning encounters a gruesome scene of violence and is handed a pistol.
• When an armed Scavenger attacks, Ning instinctively tries to summon her Martial Soul and Soul Power. Nothing happens. She is shot, overwhelmed by pain and fear, and killed.
• Ning wakes in the internet café, tears off the headset, and discovers she is physically unharmed. Lin Ye explains that it was only the beginner tutorial and asks whether she still thinks the 298 Gold Soul Coins were too expensive.

Character developments

• Ning’s initial vanity and confidence give way to curiosity during character creation, then to shock and fear in Night City.
• Her reliance on her Martial Soul becomes painfully apparent when it fails, leaving her without the powers and protection she expects.
• The simulated death strips away her haughty composure and exposes her vulnerability. She finishes the chapter frightened and shaken, rather than self-assured.

Significant themes

• Culture shock: Night City’s scale, technology, and brutality overwhelm Ning’s familiar ideas of wealth and power.
• Powerlessness and adaptation: Her Soul Master abilities do not work in this world, forcing her to confront how unprepared she is.
• The reality of virtual danger: Though the experience is a game, its vivid pain and fear make the threat feel real to her.
• Class and privilege: Ning’s sheltered upbringing leaves her poorly equipped for violence and hardship.

Character interactions

• Ning and Jackie: Jackie is upbeat and reassuring, but his confidence contrasts with Ning’s inexperience; she struggles to follow his instructions and act under fire.
• Ning and Lin Ye: Lin Ye remains calm while she panics, offers her a tissue, and gently teases her about the cost of the game and her new job.

Plot points and events

• Ning Rongrong storms toward the exit after being killed in the game, calling it a scam and torture.
• Lin Ye provokes her pride, suggesting she lacks grit and mentioning a powerful “hidden weapon” from Night City. Curiosity and wounded pride bring her back.
• He explains that Night City has neither Soul Power nor Martial Souls, and introduces the Kinetic Pistol: a gun that requires no cultivation or special talent.
• Rongrong re-enters the simulation. Although frightened when the Scavenger charges, she follows Lin Ye’s instructions, aims, and fires—though she shuts her eyes.
• Aim assist guides the shot into the Scavenger’s jaw, killing him. Rongrong realizes she defeated a formidable foe without using Soul Power.
• She becomes thrilled by the pistol’s potential, especially for the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, whose descendants traditionally lack combat ability. Back in the café, she calls the experience a bargain and eagerly asks to learn more.

Character development

• Ning Rongrong shifts from humiliation, anger, and fear to confidence and fascination. Her pride makes her return, while her first victory opens her mind to a weapon that could overcome her sect’s limitations.
• Lin Ye remains calm and teasing, using provocation to keep Rongrong engaged. He acts as both instructor and guide, steadying her during the encounter.

Character interactions

• Lin Ye challenges Rongrong’s courage, prompting her to reconsider leaving.
• He explains the pistol and coaches her through the fight; his voice helps calm her, though she ignores his warning not to close her eyes.
• Afterward, Rongrong’s attitude toward Lin Ye and his “illusion” reverses: she goes from threatening to burn down the café to treating the headset as precious and enthusiastically seeking more instruction.

Significant themes

• Pride and perseverance: Rongrong’s wounded pride pushes her past fear and an initial defeat.
• Technology versus cultivation: The pistol works without Soul Power, challenging the assumptions of Douluo society.
• Empowerment and access: A weapon requiring neither cultivation nor innate talent could give noncombatants—especially members of a support sect—the ability to defend themselves.
• Changing judgment through experience: Rongrong dismisses the game as a scam until she succeeds, illustrating the “Actually, It’s Great” rule.

Key plot points and events

• During a rescue mission in Night City, Ning Rongrong’s beginner protection and Lin Ye’s coaching help her and Jackie defeat the Scavengers holding Sandra captive. Her cautious mission quickly turns into a chaotic, mostly blind shooting spree.
• Trauma Team arrives in a heavily armed aero car, stabilizes Sandra, and takes her away. Their intimidating equipment and firepower astonish Ning Rongrong, who had assumed support specialists were physically vulnerable.
• Jackie takes Ning Rongrong to Viktor’s clinic. Viktor installs a Kiroshi optical eye and a personal link interface, enhancing her vision and connecting her weapon directly to her nervous system.
• Ning Rongrong realizes that cyberware resembles Douluo Continent’s soul bones—especially rare external soul bones—except it can be purchased and installed without hunting soul beasts.
• Lin Ye tells her about more powerful implants, including the Sandevistan and Mantis Blades, and explains that extensive mechanical replacements can turn people into formidable combatants.
• Alarmed by how easily cyberware and guns could undermine the status of soul masters, Ning Rongrong offers the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect’s wealth to obtain the technology. Lin Ye refuses direct sales, citing the café’s rules, but hints that good service could earn her staff benefits. She eagerly agrees to clean and serve customers.

Character developments

• Ning Rongrong grows more confident with firearms, though her poor accuracy and forgotten safety still make her clumsy. Her understanding of Night City—and of what makes someone powerful—changes dramatically.
• Her initial fear of cyberware gives way to amazement, then ambition: she sees its potential both as a threat to soul-master society and as something she wants for herself.
• Lin Ye remains calm and in control, guiding Ning Rongrong’s discoveries while using her eagerness to bargain for her cooperation.
• Jackie acts as Ning Rongrong’s field partner and guide, while Viktor introduces her to Night City’s body-modification technology.

Significant themes

• Technology versus cultivation: Cyberware offers power without soul-power training, challenging the foundations of Douluo society.
• Changing social hierarchies: Guns and implants could let ordinary people threaten even highly trained soul masters.
• Power and wealth: Ning Rongrong assumes her family’s fortune can secure the technology, but Lin Ye’s rules limit what money alone can buy.
• Culture shock: Night City’s heavily armed medical responders and mechanical enhancements repeatedly overturn Ning Rongrong’s assumptions.

Character interactions

• Lin Ye coaches Ning Rongrong through combat and later explains cyberware in terms she understands: mechanical soul bones.
• Jackie supports her during the rescue and brings her to Viktor.
• Viktor’s procedures frighten Ning Rongrong at first, but their results leave her fascinated.
• Ning Rongrong tries to persuade Lin Ye to sell her weapons and implants; he instead offers the possibility of staff benefits in exchange for chores, which she accepts without hesitation.

Key plot points and events

• Ning Rongrong earns more playtime at Lin Ye’s Internet Cafe by cleaning, then returns to Cyberpunk 2077 with four hours remaining.
• Following Lin Ye’s advice, she has been earning money by hunting Scavengers for NCPD bounties. With enough cash, she visits Vic’s clinic and buys Mantis Blades.
• Though disturbed by the surgery, she quickly delights in her new blades and tests them at an abandoned factory, attacking a group of Maelstrom thugs.
• The fight becomes a slaughter: Ning Rongrong’s speed and cutting power overwhelm the gang, and she revels in the experience of close combat.
• When her session ends, she begs Lin Ye for more time, calling the blades an unmatched “External Soul Bone” and imagining replacing her body with mechanical upgrades. Lin Ye refuses, citing the six-hour daily limit.
• As Ning Rongrong protests, an exhausted young woman enters and asks to rent a room, setting up the next encounter.

Character developments

• Ning Rongrong shifts from a support-oriented girl frustrated by her limitations into an exhilarated close-combat fighter. The Mantis Blades give her a taste of independence and direct power, but her excitement also approaches dangerous obsession.
• Lin Ye remains calm and firm, enforcing the cafe’s rules despite Ning Rongrong’s pleading.
• Vic is accommodating and professional, fitting the cyberware while warning her about its danger.

Significant themes

• Power and identity: Ning Rongrong experiences a form of strength unlike her traditional support abilities.
• Technology versus traditional cultivation: Cyberware provides speed and cutting power that she compares favorably with powerful soul-master techniques.
• The thrill—and danger—of power: Her transformation from disgust to delight, followed by bloodshed and talk of replacing her bones, hints at cyberpsychosis and the costs of unchecked enhancement.
• Limits and restraint: Lin Ye’s playtime cap interrupts Ning Rongrong’s escalating fixation.

Character interactions

• Ning Rongrong flatters Lin Ye with chores to earn access, then argues with him when he refuses extra playtime.
• She negotiates with Vic for Mantis Blades; he questions whether she can handle them but proceeds with the installation.
• She faces the Maelstrom gang alone, turning their initial mockery into panic.
• The chapter closes with the unnamed young woman’s request to Lin Ye, introducing a new character just as Ning Rongrong’s game session ends.

Plot points and events

• Zhu Zhuqing, badly wounded and pursued by three assassins, takes refuge in Lin Ye’s Internet Cafe. Ning Rongrong recognizes that she is near death.
• The assassins break the shop’s glass door and attack. Their leader, a four-ring Soul Ancestor, unleashes his Martial Soul and targets both girls.
• Ning Rongrong faces them without fear, buoyed by her recent experience fighting cyberpsychos in the game Night City.
• When the leader’s attack nearly reaches her, the cafe’s Absolute Defense Field activates. It seals the assassins’ Soul Power and disables their Martial Souls and Soul Rings.
• Lin Ye ejects the helpless attackers and warns them that anyone seeking revenge must follow his rules—and pay. They flee.
• Once the shop is safe, Lin Ye offers injured Zhu Zhuqing a first-aid kit and employment contract, suggesting she work as a cashier and experience another world.

Character developments

• Zhu Zhuqing shifts from despair to hope after witnessing Lin Ye’s seemingly godlike power. She becomes intensely curious about his identity.
• Ning Rongrong is newly confident and dismissive of danger, showing how her experience in the game has changed her sense of capability. She also boasts about Lin Ye’s strength.
• Lin Ye remains calm and business-minded throughout the crisis, treating the attackers’ violence chiefly as a threat to his shop and its property. He turns the rescue into a job offer.

Significant themes

• The cafe’s rules and power: Lin Ye’s shop protects itself absolutely, making ordinary combat strength irrelevant inside.
• Gaming’s influence: Ning Rongrong’s virtual-world experience has altered her confidence in real-life danger.
• Safety as a transaction: Lin Ye helps Zhu Zhuqing, but immediately frames the rescue and property damage in terms of compensation and employment.
• Power and mystery: Lin Ye’s effortless defeat of three Soul Ancestors leaves Zhu Zhuqing wondering whether he is a hidden, legendary figure.

Character interactions

• Ning Rongrong offers Zhu Zhuqing brief reassurance, then confronts the assassins and later reassures her by praising Lin Ye.
• Lin Ye’s warning and forceful ejection of the assassins establishes that he will protect the cafe, but only on his terms.
• Lin Ye approaches Zhu Zhuqing as a potential employee, pairing practical aid with an invitation to work—and to visit another world.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Ye uses a miraculous injector to heal Zhu Zhuqing’s wounds, then offers her a cashier job so she can work off the medical bill; the sole trainee-attendant position is already filled by Ning Rongrong.
• Zhu Zhuqing refuses at first, insisting she must reach Shrek Academy to find her fiancé, Dai Mubai, and confront their shared fate.
• Ning Rongrong interprets Zhu Zhuqing’s desperation as a desire for strength and independence. She brings Zhu to a gaming station and asks Lin Ye to launch Cyberpunk 2077, charging the session to her own account.
• In Night City, Zhu is stunned by the unfamiliar technology but quickly proves adept at stealth and combat. Guided by Ning, she builds her character around agility and durability.
• Zhu obtains a Sandevistan implant in the game and experiences its time-slowing effect, using it to kill three thugs with a katana. The experience convinces her that strength—not dependence on Dai Mubai—is the way forward.
• Zhu returns to the real world, signs the cashier contract, and asks to work hard in exchange for two extra hours of play each day.

Character developments

• Zhu Zhuqing shifts from wounded and uncertain, with her hopes fixed on Dai Mubai, to resolute and self-reliant. Her combat instincts and quick adaptation become clear.
• Ning Rongrong takes on the role of enthusiastic mentor and recruiter. She applies Lin Ye’s lesson about self-reliance while eagerly imagining the two girls growing powerful together.
• Lin Ye remains a pragmatic, accommodating shop owner, healing Zhu and arranging her employment and game access.

Significant themes

• Self-reliance over dependence: Zhu abandons the hope that Dai Mubai will rescue or support her.
• Power and possibility: The game’s technology offers Zhu a new model of strength that challenges what she thought possible through Martial Souls and Soul Power.
• Work, debt, and dignity: Zhu accepts a cashier job to repay her debt, while the title underscores the respect due to the shop’s staff.
• Female solidarity: Ning welcomes Zhu, coaches her, and imagines them facing danger together.

Character interactions

• Lin Ye sets the terms of Zhu’s employment after saving her.
• Ning Rongrong bluntly identifies Zhu’s need for strength, then guides her through the game and encourages her to give up on Dai Mubai.
• Zhu initially responds with reserve, but Ning’s advice and the Sandevistan experience alter her outlook; she ultimately chooses to stay and work for Lin Ye.

Key plot points and events

• Zhu Zhuqing has officially become the cafe’s first cashier. Though she takes the job seriously, she is eager to return to Cyberpunk 2077 and earn money for a better Sandevistan.
• Her recruitment triggers the cafe’s upgrade to Level 2. The shop doubles in size and gains a life-support area stocked with special braised beef noodles and iced cola, which restore Spiritual Power and Soul Power.
• Lin Ye offers Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing a meal after their work in Night City. Both are astonished by the food’s taste and its restorative effects.
• Ning Rongrong tries to buy noodles to take home to her father, but Lin Ye insists that food must be consumed on the premises.
• Restored and energized, Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing rush back into the game to take on more jobs. Outside, Xue Qinghe—secretly Qian Renxue—smells the food and decides to investigate the cafe.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhu Zhuqing proves disciplined and observant as a cashier, but her excitement about the game reveals a newly discovered passion for speed and combat. She is determined to save for a top-grade Sandevistan.
• Ning Rongrong remains playful and impulsive, encouraging Zhu Zhuqing to game with her and enthusiastically imagining them as a mercenary team. The restorative food also makes her eager to bring supplies to her family.
• Lin Ye maintains firm business rules while treating his employees to the cafe’s new products. He watches their gaming enthusiasm with bemusement.
• Xue Qinghe/Qian Renxue is introduced as a potential new visitor, drawn in by the cafe’s aroma.

Significant themes

• Technology and fantasy collide: The cafe’s cyberpunk games and modern food have extraordinary effects in a world of martial souls and healing pills.
• Work, play, and temptation: Zhu Zhuqing’s new job contrasts with her eagerness to return to Night City.
• Novelty and commerce: The cafe’s upgrade creates valuable new offerings, while Lin Ye’s rules keep their benefits tied to the shop.
• Shared excitement: Food and gaming bring the characters together, turning the cafe into a lively hub.

Chapter Summary

• Qian Renxue visits the Origin Internet Cafe with Royal Guards, expecting an ordinary shop. Its unusual décor and powerful food aroma quickly unsettle her. When a guard tries to intimidate Lin Ye, an invisible force instantly suppresses his Soul Power, revealing that the cafe is no normal establishment.
• She discovers familiar figures working and playing there: Zhu Zhuqing serves noodles, while Ning Rongrong is absorbed in a game. Qian Renxue is shocked to see the sheltered young noble behaving so casually—and Zhu Zhuqing working as a waitress.
• The noodles restore Qian Renxue’s strength. After paying five Gold Soul Coins, she finds that her Spiritual Power and Seraphim Soul Power recover rapidly, like they would after consuming a precious Soul Pill. Her suspicion turns to curiosity about the cafe’s offerings.
• Lin Ye explains that the noodles are merely a bonus: customers can enter another “real world” through the cafe’s game for an hourly fee and a separate unlocking charge. Hoping to discover the secret behind the shop, Qian Renxue pays and tries it.
• The game reveals her true face and asks her to create a character. Used to concealing herself as the male crown prince Xue Qinghe, she briefly reflects on how rarely she can exist as herself. She enters a futuristic city filled with towering buildings, flying vehicles, and people with extensive mechanical implants.
• Repulsed by the apparent replacement of human bodies with machinery, Qian Renxue assumes her Seraphim powers will let her deal with the city’s criminals. But she cannot summon her Martial Soul or Soul Power. Thugs shoot her in the leg, forcing her to confront pain, vulnerability, and helplessness for the first time.

Character Development and Interactions

• Qian Renxue shifts from aristocratic confidence and suspicion to fascination, then shock and fear. The game also offers a rare moment in which she considers being free of the “Xue Qinghe” disguise.
• Lin Ye remains relaxed and matter-of-fact, enforcing the cafe’s rules and introducing its services without being impressed by Qian Renxue’s rank.
• The Guard Captain attempts to assert the crown prince’s authority but is silenced by the cafe’s mysterious power; he remains wary of the noodles and offers to test them for poison.
• Zhu Zhuqing and Ning Rongrong reveal that the cafe has drawn in prominent young women from outside. Their casual presence contrasts sharply with Qian Renxue’s formal expectations.

Significant Themes

• Power and vulnerability: Qian Renxue’s status and supernatural strength prove useless in the game’s unfamiliar world.
• Identity and freedom: Her secret life as Xue Qinghe contrasts with the possibility of experiencing life as herself.
• Clashing worldviews: Her reverence for the natural body and spiritual purity is challenged by a society that embraces cybernetic modification.
• The unknown and the limits of certainty: The cafe’s food and virtual world suggest powers and realities beyond what Qian Renxue understands.

Plot points and events

• Qian Renxue’s first run through Night City ends in a shocking death: street thugs shoot her, and a shotgun strike kills her after her martial training proves useless against cyberware-enhanced bodies.
• She wakes in the Origin Internet Cafe, shaken by her first real experience of helplessness and death. Determined not to accept defeat, she re-enters the game and studies its rules instead of relying on her Martial Soul.
• During a Scavenger raid, she uses cover and a pistol to kill an attacker with a single shot. The ease and lethality of the weapon alarm her, especially because it could threaten Soul Masters if brought to Douluo Continent.
• Jackie suggests she visit the ripperdoc Viktor for cyberware. Qian Renxue initially considers implants a desecration of her supposedly sacred body, but repeated failures without them force her to accept the procedure.
• Viktor installs a Kiroshi Optical Eye and Smart Link. The implants enhance her vision, identify threats, and greatly reduce weapon recoil, leaving her astonished by their power.

Character development

• Qian Renxue moves from arrogant confidence in her bloodline and martial training to humility and adaptability. After her first defeat, she learns to observe, take cover, and use weapons strategically.
• Her refusal to install cyberware reveals her pride and reverence for her body, but necessity ultimately overcomes that resistance. Her final reaction suggests she may come to value the technology she once despised.
• Despite her ambition, she shows moral disgust at the Scavengers’ abuse of their victim, revealing a compassionate streak beneath her ruthless exterior.

Character interactions

• Qian Renxue angrily orders her Guard Captain to stand down when he mistakes her distress for an attack.
• Jackie supports her in the game, gives her a pistol, praises her first successful kill, and introduces her to Viktor.
• Viktor matter-of-factly implants the cyberware that transforms her capabilities.
• Watching Ning Rongrong and another player enjoy the game intensifies Qian Renxue’s competitive desire to prove herself.

Significant themes

• Power and vulnerability: In Night City, noble status, talent, and supernatural ability mean little without practical survival skills.
• Technology versus the body: Cyberware challenges Qian Renxue’s belief that natural, “pure” flesh is superior.
• Adaptation and learning: Her progress comes from understanding unfamiliar rules rather than relying on old strengths.
• The changing nature of warfare: Her experience with firearms makes her question whether technology could overturn the balance of power on Douluo Continent.

Plot and events

• Qian Renxue emerges from a session in Cyberpunk, exhilarated by the power of cybernetic upgrades. She briefly fantasizes about using real implants to attack Bibi Dong, then reins herself in.
• Her guard captain assumes the experience harmed her and threatens to shut down the Internet Cafe. Qian Renxue stops him, insists she is fine, and tries to resume her composed crown-prince persona.
• Ning Rongrong teases Qian Renxue for looking shaken and jokes about her beginner struggles in Night City. Qian Renxue tries to rebuke Rongrong by invoking her father, but Rongrong boasts that she is now Watson District’s top female assassin.
• Fired up by Rongrong’s progress, Qian Renxue tries to buy ten more hours of play. Zhu Zhuqing refuses: the cafe’s anti-addiction rules cap customers at six hours per day.
• Accepting that she cannot override the rules, Qian Renxue buys braised-beef noodles and cola, enjoys them, and leaves determined to return the next day. Lin Ye observes that her enthusiasm may help the cafe reach level three and unlock another game.

Character developments and interactions

• Qian Renxue shifts from dismissing the game as an illusion to becoming intensely invested in it. Her competitive pride is stirred by Rongrong’s gaming achievements, though she remains outwardly courteous and controlled.
• Ning Rongrong flaunts her in-game success and treats gaming status as more important than social rank, playfully provoking Qian Renxue.
• Zhu Zhuqing calmly enforces the cafe’s rules despite Qian Renxue’s rank, demonstrating the establishment’s authority and her own firmness.
• The guard captain is protective but powerless in the cafe, while Lin Ye is pleased by the growing popularity of his business.

Significant themes

• Gaming as an addictive escape: Qian Renxue is captivated by the game’s empowering experience and immediately wants to keep playing.
• Status overturned by new rules: Nobility and political authority carry little weight inside the cafe, where customers are bound by the same regulations.
• Technology versus cultivation: Qian Renxue marvels that cybernetic upgrades offer a dramatic increase in power without years of training.
• Competition and ambition: Rongrong’s progress spurs Qian Renxue to return and improve herself.

Key plot points and events

• The crown prince, Xue Qinghe, has become a regular at Origin Internet Cafe, visiting daily for noodles, Cola, and long gaming sessions. His unusual habit has sparked gossip among Heaven Dou’s nobility.
• Dugu Yan’s Jade Phosphorous Serpent poison flares up during training, leaving her in severe pain and frustrated that even her grandfather, Poison Douluo, cannot cure it. She leaves the academy to clear her head.
• Hearing rumors about the cafe’s strange “illusions,” high prices, and influence over the crown prince, Dugu Yan visits intending to expose a scam.
• At the cafe, she finds Xue Qinghe gaming and bantering with Ning Rongrong—an unexpectedly casual scene between two highly privileged figures.
• Dugu Yan buys a Cola to test whether it is poisonous. Its gentle energy suppresses her serpent poison and instantly relieves her pain.
• Overjoyed, she tries to buy a hundred bottles to take to her grandfather. Owner Lin Ye refuses, explaining that food and drinks may only be consumed on the premises.

Character developments and interactions

• Dugu Yan shifts from skeptical, combative visitor to a desperate and grateful customer after discovering the Cola’s effect. Her long-standing suffering makes the relief emotionally overwhelming.
• Xue Qinghe and Ning Rongrong appear relaxed and familiar with one another as they trade insults while gaming, surprising Dugu Yan.
• Yu Tianheng shows concern for Dugu Yan, but she pushes him away, emphasizing her irritability and desire to face her troubles alone.
• Lin Ye remains casual and firm about the cafe’s rules, even when Dugu Yan offers a pile of money.
• Zhu Zhuqing handles the counter and serves Dugu Yan the Cola.

Significant themes

• Unexpected healing and hope: A seemingly ordinary drink succeeds where a renowned expert could not, offering Dugu Yan relief from a seemingly incurable condition.
• Skepticism versus experience: Dugu Yan dismisses the cafe’s rumors until she experiences its effects herself.
• The cafe’s strange influence: Its games and products draw powerful nobles into unfamiliar, informal behavior.
• Limits and rules: Even extraordinary demand and wealth do not override the shop’s no-takeout policy.

Key plot points and events

• Dugu Yan is furious when Lin Ye refuses to let her take the shop’s Cola away. Ning Rongrong warns her not to cause trouble, and Yan—after recalling that the drink suppressed her poison—decides to try the shop’s virtual experience instead.
• Wearing a headset at Computer Four, Yan finds herself in Night City. Unable to use her Soul Power or summon her Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul, she is beaten by Maelstrom gang members.
• She uses a starter chemical grenade to kill the attackers. Its potent poison makes her realize that Night City’s technology can rival the lethal power of her own serpent venom.
• At Viktor’s Clinic, Yan examines Cyberware, especially the Metabolic Editor, which can turn poison damage into healing. She recognizes that such technology could end the Dugu family’s hereditary poison backlash.
• After her funds run out, Yan urgently asks Lin Ye how to bring the Metabolic Editor into the real world, offering the Dugu family’s treasures, her grandfather’s service, or her own.

Character developments

• Dugu Yan shifts from entitled anger to wary curiosity, then to astonishment and desperation. Discovering a possible cure for her family’s condition overwhelms her and gives her a powerful new goal.
• Ning Rongrong remains provocative and amused, but her warning reinforces that even powerful customers must follow the shop’s rules.
• Lin Ye stays firm about the shop’s rules, while his establishment’s technology continues to astonish its visitors.

Significant themes

• Technology versus martial power: In Night City, Yan’s Soul Power is useless, while a simple chemical weapon proves devastating.
• A possible escape from inherited suffering: The Metabolic Editor offers a technological answer to the Dugu family’s generations-long poison problem.
• Limits of privilege and power: Yan’s status and wealth cannot override the shop’s rules—or protect her inside the unfamiliar virtual world.

Character interactions

• Yan clashes with Ning Rongrong over her attempt to take the Cola, but Rongrong’s warning helps persuade her to comply.
• In Night City, Yan is attacked by Maelstrom members and survives by using the grenade provided with her starter equipment.
• At Viktor’s Clinic, Yan studies Cyberware and connects its effects to her family’s condition.
• She ends by pleading with Lin Ye to make the Metabolic Editor available in reality, offering increasingly personal and valuable rewards.

Key plot points and events

• Dugu Yan returns to Cyberpunk 2077 after Lin Ye explains that the only way to earn technology rewards—possibly a cure for her and her grandfather—is to play through the story.
• Immersed as V, she experiences the excitement of Night City’s heist: riding through the city with Jackie, infiltrating Arasaka’s hotel, and escaping after Saburo Arasaka’s death.
• Jackie is gravely wounded while protecting V and dies after giving her the Relic chip. Dugu Yan is devastated by the loss.
• After reaching the rendezvous point, V is betrayed and shot by fixer Dexter DeShawn. The Relic revives her, but it also introduces Johnny Silverhand into her mind.
• Dugu Yan recognizes a parallel between V’s fatal chip and her own deadly Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison. Just as V fights to survive, she must find a cure for herself.
• At a pivotal moment, the game’s anti-addiction system ends her session. She accepts the interruption quietly, changed by the experience.

Character developments

• Dugu Yan moves from treating the game as a means to obtain a cure to fully identifying with V. Her grief over Jackie and shock at betrayal give way to determination to survive and uncover the truth.
• Jackie Welles is shown as loyal and generous, protecting V even though he knows her only as a fellow mercenary. His death profoundly affects Dugu Yan.
• Dexter DeShawn reveals himself as self-serving, abandoning V when the job goes wrong.
• Johnny Silverhand enters V’s mind through the Relic, setting up a new conflict over control of her body.

Significant themes

• Mortality and survival: V’s failing body mirrors Dugu Yan’s struggle against her poison.
• Class and genuine kindness: Jackie treats V as an equal, unlike people in Dugu Yan’s world whose regard is shaped by her status.
• Betrayal and trust: The contrast between Jackie’s loyalty and Dexter’s betrayal exposes the danger and uncertainty of Night City.
• Empathy through experience: Playing V’s story helps Dugu Yan understand lives far removed from her privileged position—and reframes what “adventure” means.

Character interactions

• Lin Ye and Dugu Yan: Lin Ye directs her toward the game as her only route to rewards; Dugu Yan accepts his terms and returns to play.
• Dugu Yan/V and Jackie: Their partnership deepens through the heist, and his sacrifice makes his death especially painful.
• Dugu Yan/V and Dexter: His betrayal confronts her with a harsher kind of self-interest than she expected.
• V and Johnny: The Relic places Johnny inside V’s mind, creating an uneasy struggle that Dugu Yan resolves to face.

Key plot points and events

• Dugu Yan reflects on her intense experience in Night City, while Ning Rongrong, Qian Renxue, Zhu Zhuqing, and Dugu Yan are all forcibly logged out after reaching the cafe’s six-hour play limit.
• They discover that Lin Ye is still playing. He explains—without embarrassment—that the limit applies only to customers and employees, not the owner.
• The women watch Lin Ye clear a gang hideout through quickhacks: he incapacitates a sniper and makes several gang members shoot themselves, all without using a weapon or leaving the entrance.
• Lin Ye says he has played Night City many times and has tried many combat styles. Now he plays for the scenery, exploration, and enjoyment rather than character upgrades or killing.
• His talk of a “higher state of mind” and the “romance of a second playthrough” impresses the women. Ning Rongrong decides she wants to become a netrunner, prompting Dugu Yan to tease her and spar verbally.

Character developments

• Lin Ye reveals his expertise with the game and his preference for exploration and experimentation over conventional combat. He also hints at having visited Night City in a previous life, though he quickly avoids explaining.
• Ning Rongrong remains competitive and impulsive, but becomes fascinated by netrunning and eager to try it.
• Qian Renxue is intrigued by Lin Ye’s unexplained knowledge and apparent familiarity with Night City.
• Zhu Zhuqing quietly admires his skill and resolves to improve her stealth.
• Dugu Yan remains deeply affected by her earlier story experience and is impressed by Lin Ye, while still teasing Ning Rongrong.

Significant themes

• The contrast between novice players’ struggle to survive and an expert’s effortless mastery.
• Gaming as more than progression or combat: exploration, atmosphere, and personal enjoyment can be rewards in themselves.
• Lin Ye’s mysterious past and the possibility that Night City has a real connection to another world.
• The play limit highlights the women’s dependence on the game—and Lin Ye’s privileged position as its owner.

Character interactions

• The women bond over their frustration at being logged out and confront Lin Ye about his exemption.
• Lin Ye casually demonstrates his power, leaving them stunned and prompting each to interpret his claims through her own interests.
• Ning Rongrong’s enthusiasm for netrunning clashes playfully with Dugu Yan’s skepticism, ending the chapter in familiar bickering.

Chapter Summary

• Dugu Yan returns home cured—for now. After visiting Origin Internet Cafe, she comes back energetic and healthy. Dugu Bo discovers that the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison threatening her has been suppressed, held in check by an unfamiliar life-giving energy. Yan explains that a bottle of Cola temporarily controls the poison, though its effects last only a day.
• Yan reveals her proposed permanent cure. Inspired by the cyberpunk game Night City, she believes the poison can be overcome through “Mechanical Ascension”: replacing vulnerable organs with metal cyberware, such as Metabolic Editors and Toxin Extractors. She excitedly proposes that she and her grandfather eventually have their livers and other organs replaced.
• Dugu Bo misunderstands the technology. Alarmed by Yan’s talk of removing organs, metal hearts, artificial eyes, and blades concealed in the arms, he assumes the cafe is a dangerous cult that has manipulated her. He resolves to attack it that night, while Yan insists that it is simply advanced technology and tries to explain the game.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Dugu Yan has gained hope and enthusiasm after discovering a temporary way to control her poison—and a supposed long-term solution. Her confidence in the cafe’s cyberpunk ideas clashes with her grandfather’s traditional worldview.
• Dugu Bo shifts from anxious relief at Yan’s recovery to horror and fury. His fierce love for her makes him protective, but his misunderstanding turns that concern into a threat against the cafe.
• Their exchange is both affectionate and comic: Yan tries to educate Bo about cyberware, while Bo interprets her descriptions as evidence that someone intends to mutilate her.

Significant Themes

• Tradition versus technological change: Dugu Bo’s established knowledge cannot make sense of the strange technology Yan has encountered.
• Hope and desperation: The poison’s temporary suppression offers the family hope after years of helplessness, even though Yan’s proposed cure remains untested.
• Miscommunication and generational conflict: The same cyberware that Yan sees as a practical cure sounds like horrific bodily mutilation to Bo.

Key plot points and events

• Dugu Bo arrives at the Origin Internet Café, convinced it is an evil cult that has manipulated his granddaughter, Dugu Yan. He attacks the entrance, but his Soul Power is harmlessly absorbed.
• Inside, the café’s defense system detects his hostile intent and crushes him instantly. His Martial Soul and all nine Soul Rings are destroyed, leaving him physically weaker than an unawakened child.
• Zhu Zhuqing charges him for dirtying the floor and causing a disturbance. Lin Ye explains that no one may fight in the café, regardless of their power.
• Dugu Yan arrives, scolds her grandfather for attacking the shop, and makes him drink cola. The drink suppresses his Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison and eases damage to his meridians, astonishing him.

Character developments

• Dugu Bo shifts from confident aggressor to helpless, bewildered captive. Despite his defeat, his first instinct is still to protect Dugu Yan. The cola’s effects challenge his certainty about what is possible.
• Dugu Yan shows confidence in the café and pride in its benefits, contrasting with her grandfather’s suspicion and old-fashioned assumptions.
• Lin Ye remains calm and matter-of-fact, treating even a Titled Douluo as subject to the café’s rules.
• Zhu Zhuqing carries out her cashier duties coolly, even as a powerful newcomer lies at her feet.

Significant themes

• Power has limits: The café’s defenses effortlessly override the continent’s strongest conventional fighters.
• Tradition versus change: Dugu Bo’s rigid beliefs clash with Dugu Yan’s conviction that the world has changed.
• Unexpected healing and possibility: An ordinary-looking drink provides relief from a condition considered nearly incurable.
• Rules and equality: Inside the café, status and strength offer no exemption from its rules or its consequences.

Character interactions

• Dugu Bo’s hostility toward Lin Ye and the café is immediately undercut by the café’s defense system.
• Zhu Zhuqing treats Dugu Bo’s arrival as a billing matter, while Lin Ye calmly lays out the café’s no-fighting rule.
• Dugu Yan reprimands her grandfather, then forces him to try the cola; his astonished reaction validates her faith in the café.

Plot points

• Dugu Bo rejects Dugu Yan’s claims that Night City’s technology is real, insisting the black drink must be a rare medicine and the game an illusion. He orders her to leave and offers to buy the drink’s recipe.
• Dugu Yan refuses, determined to obtain the game’s “Metabolic Editor” and prove its value. She pays for a machine and starts playing.
• Dugu Bo stays to watch, initially promising to expose the game’s flaws. As Dugu Yan encounters firearms, poison gas, and a powerful mechanical enemy, his skepticism gives way to fascination.
• After an hour, Dugu Bo is eagerly coaching her from behind the screen. Ning Rongrong tells him to stop shouting and let players concentrate. He turns away, still fighting the urge to try the game himself.

Character developments and interactions

• Dugu Yan shows growing independence, defying her grandfather and acting on her own judgment.
• Dugu Bo clings to his pride and disbelief, but the game’s combat and technology steadily captivate him. He remains reluctant to admit it—or to play—despite his obvious excitement.
• Lin Ye lightly teases Dugu Bo and invites him to try a machine, which the Poison Douluo firmly refuses.
• Ning Rongrong bluntly rebukes Dugu Bo for disrupting her game.

Significant themes

• Pride versus curiosity: Dugu Bo’s stubborn denial clashes with his growing interest.
• Tradition versus technology: He tries to explain unfamiliar cybernetic weapons and effects through the magical framework he understands.
• Independence and persuasion: Dugu Yan’s resolve challenges her grandfather’s authority, while direct experience begins changing his mind.

Plot points and events

• Dugu Yan’s six-hour play session ends when the anti-addiction system disconnects her. Dugu Bo protests, then pretends he is relieved and takes her home, claiming he will make her better pills.
• Later that night, Dugu Bo sneaks back into the closed Internet Cafe disguised in a black robe. He says he is investigating the game’s safety for Yan Yan, though Lin Ye quickly sees through his excuse.
• Dugu Bo pays to play, creates a grizzled, scarred avatar, and invests heavily in Body and Reflexes. In Night City, he is amazed by the realistic rain and discovers that he has no Soul Power.
• Relying on his combat instincts and Snake Shadow Tracing Step, he defeats three gunmen with a rusty iron pipe. Thrilled by the raw fight, he declares that he can conquer the city without advanced weapons.
• His confidence ends when a heavily armed Maelstrom enemy kills him with a shotgun and grenade. Back in the cafe, Dugu Bo angrily demands more playtime so he can fight the “tin-plated monster” again.

Character development

• Dugu Bo shifts from dismissing the game as a cheap illusion to becoming absorbed in its challenge. His pride and concern for Yan Yan give way to a genuine hunger for the excitement of combat—and, after his defeat, to an equally genuine desire for revenge.
• Dugu Yan accepts the playtime limit and leaves, while Dugu Bo’s dramatic promises about pills do little to hide his disappointment at having to stop watching.
• Lin Ye playfully recognizes Dugu Bo’s disguise and lets him save face by accepting his “safety inspection” explanation.
• Zhu Zhuqing remains composed, though even her icy demeanor briefly cracks at Dugu Bo’s conspicuous attempt to protect his dignity.

Themes

• The chapter humorously contrasts pride with temptation: Dugu Bo insists the game is beneath him, then sneaks back to play.
• It explores adaptation and limits: his real-world status and Soul Power mean little in Night City, where skill helps but cannot overcome superior technology and firepower.
• The game offers renewed excitement for someone accustomed to effortless victories, while the anti-addiction rules and his defeat remind him that access and success are not entirely under his control.

Character interactions

• Dugu Bo tries to reassure Yan Yan and maintain his dignity in front of her, then secretly asks Lin Ye and Zhu Zhuqing to keep his visit secret.
• Lin Ye teases Dugu Bo but cooperates with his request, while Zhu Zhuqing silently witnesses the contrast between his lofty claims and his eagerness to play.
• In Night City, Dugu Bo’s bold confidence is tested by the armed thugs and ultimately crushed by the Maelstrom elite’s overwhelming firepower.

Plot points and events

• At the Origin Internet Cafe, Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan play a futuristic shooter, while Zhu Zhuqing works behind the counter. Dugu Bo has become an enthusiastic gamer, and Zhu charges customers for food—and for shouting.
• Dai Mubai storms in with Tang San, intending to rescue Zhu Zhuqing from what he believes is a shady shop where she has been imprisoned and forced to serve.
• Dai is shocked to find Zhu working willingly. She rejects his judgment, condemning him for abandoning his responsibilities and womanizing in Suotuo City. Dai, enraged, attacks Lin Ye.
• Tang San also attacks, throwing poisoned hidden weapons at Lin Ye. The cafe’s Absolute Defense Field nullifies Dai’s Soul Power, leaves him kneeling, and turns Tang’s weapons to dust while sealing his abilities.
• Ning Rongrong angrily scolds the intruders for interrupting her game and mocks Tang San’s weapons as primitive. Dugu Bo then warns the two young men that Lin Ye spared them and introduces himself.

Character developments

• Zhu Zhuqing shows newfound confidence and self-respect. She sees honest work as more dignified than Dai’s cowardice and refuses to let him claim authority over her.
• Dai Mubai is exposed as hypocritical: he calls Zhu’s work humiliating while having fled his own challenges and indulged in affairs. His aggression quickly collapses when the cafe’s defenses strip away his power.
• Tang San, initially sure of his hidden-weapon skills, is shaken by their effortless destruction and by technology he cannot understand.
• Ning Rongrong is fiercely protective of the cafe’s peace and openly contemptuous of the outsiders’ assumptions.
• Dugu Bo’s gaming obsession provides comic contrast to his formidable reputation; he remains confident in Lin Ye’s power.

Significant themes

• Dignity through choice and honest work: Zhu’s independence contrasts with Dai’s belief that status determines what is beneath her.
• Hypocrisy and responsibility: Dai condemns Zhu while avoiding his own duties.
• Power and unfamiliar technology: Tang’s confidence in his world’s techniques falters when confronted with the cafe’s superior defenses and futuristic weapons.
• The cafe as a place of disruption: Its strange environment overturns the visitors’ expectations and renders their usual power ineffective.

Character interactions

• Zhu and Dai confront the truth of their relationship: she rejects his possessiveness, while he responds with anger rather than understanding.
• Dai and Tang both attack Lin Ye, but the defense field neutralizes them without Lin Ye needing to fight.
• Ning Rongrong humiliates Tang by comparing his hidden weapons unfavorably to modern firearms.
• Dugu Bo reinforces Lin Ye’s authority, leaving Dai and Tang to face how outmatched they are.