Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Su Yi gathers matter and energy to form a miniature black hole that radiates pure destruction—power Dr. Kafu recognizes as the long-lost Eye of Destruction.
• Su Yi reveals his Myriad Heavens Tribulation-Annihilating Blade, newly strengthened by the Watchful Elder’s rank and Nightmare power. He explains that he has kept Dr. Kafu alive because the newborn world can serve as the final tempering fire for the weapon.
• Bound by chains infused with destructive power, Dr. Kafu can only watch as Su Yi cleaves open the world’s barrier. The breach cannot heal, and the world’s accumulated Psychic Energy pours out. Emma and Dora absorb and stabilize it while Iron Pot leads his forces inside.
• At a forward outpost, Redstone envoy Kavelyn learns that her fleet’s trusted spy has sent footage of Su Yi’s display. Shocked by his power and the destruction of the world, she wonders how much he has concealed.

Character developments

• Su Yi demonstrates both overwhelming strength and careful strategy: he uses Dr. Kafu and the newborn world to advance his weapon, while arranging for the spectacle to reach Kavelyn and draw her faction into his influence.
• Dr. Kafu shifts from arrogant certainty to terror and despair. The destruction of the world he spent millennia creating devastates him more than the prospect of his own death.
• Kavelyn loses her confidence after seeing the footage and begins to reassess Su Yi as a far more dangerous and resourceful opponent than she expected.
• Iron Pot carries out Su Yi’s orders, while Veteran Palu serves as a carefully placed double agent, recording the event for transmission to the Redstone Empire.

Character interactions

• Su Yi taunts Dr. Kafu, presents the blade, and forces him to witness the destruction of the world he considers his child.
• Iron Pot and Veteran Palu coordinate to document the event, enabling Su Yi to use it as both intimidation and political bait.
• Kavelyn receives the footage from Clint and reacts with alarm, recognizing that Su Yi’s display could reshape the balance between their factions.

Significant themes

• Destruction and creation: Su Yi’s pure destructive power contrasts with the usual cycle in which black holes also contribute to renewal.
• Power as spectacle and persuasion: Su Yi turns a display of force into a strategic message intended to influence the Redstone Empire.
• Creation and attachment: Dr. Kafu’s despair shows how deeply he identifies with the world he helped bring into being.
• Betrayal and manipulation: Double agents, planted intelligence, and staged opportunities make information warfare as important as military strength.

Key plot points and events

• Su Yi’s forces reinforce the front line, where Fun God and the Players have held off the Nightmare Hunters despite heavy losses. News that Su Yi has destroyed part of the enemy’s pocket world shocks the attackers and turns the battle.
• Dream Terror Academy’s leaders abandon their failed project. Dean Thomas reveals their next target: the Primordial Empire, where they intend to exploit a conflict involving the Elf and Frost Empires and seize the Elf Empire’s pocket world.
• Iron Pot’s forces surround the retreating Nightmare Hunters. Guang Xuelian curses them with horrific, reality-warping afflictions, helping the Players defeat them. The survivors’ leaders are captured, and the severed heads of Sanctuary of the Heart members are recovered and restored.
• The Players find Dream Terror Academy’s headquarters already abandoned. Meanwhile, its fleet is fleeing along another route, beyond the reach of Iron Pillar’s insufficient ships.
• Su Yi contacts Kavelyn and displays the Annihilation Blade. Its power astonishes her, and he tempts her with the prospect of becoming empress of the Redstone Empire. She agrees to demonstrate the true strength of her fleet by pursuing the escaping enemy.

Character developments and interactions

• Fun God, Hu Laobiao, and the Players shift from desperate defenders to triumphant taunting once the enemy realizes its world is being destroyed.
• Guang Xuelian reveals a terrifying side: her compassion can restore the rescued captives, while her anger makes curses manifest. Iron Pot’s admiration for her grows.
• Dean Thomas remains composed amid the crisis, quickly abandoning the failed operation and redirecting his faction toward a far larger scheme.
• Kavelyn moves from cautious ally to a visibly tempted potential partner. The Annihilation Blade convinces her that the old imperial power structure may be overcome, while Su Yi’s promise appeals to her ambition.

Significant themes

• Power and temptation: Su Yi uses the blade’s overwhelming force—and the promise of political advancement—to win Kavelyn’s cooperation.
• The cost of exploitation: Dream Terror Academy’s pursuit of nightmare power leaves victims mutilated and reduced to tools.
• Compassion and vengeance: Guang Xuelian’s restorative kindness and devastating curses show two sides of her power.
• Escalating conflict: The academy’s retreat does not end the danger; its plans now threaten the Primordial Empire.

Key plot points

• After realizing Su Yi possesses the Divine Authority of Destruction—the force that once devastated half of space—Kavelyn sees a chance to resist Nightmare’s influence and remake the Redstone Empire.
• She orders the fleet to combat readiness and cuts contact with the Empire’s liaison office. When two guards expose her apparent defection, she subdues them with spirit serpents; two Nightmare-corrupted guards then attack, but Clint kills them with World Stone daggers.
• Clint explains that the younger faction secretly commissioned the daggers to counter Nightmare. Kavelyn reveals that the court already knows about their weapons and schemes, thanks to its chief mage’s ability to track World Stones.
• Kavelyn nevertheless takes command. Her fleet expands from a seemingly small caravan into a force rivaling two Planet-Busting fleets, pursues the Dream Terror Academy fleet, and destroys it completely. Its defenses neutralize Nightmare attacks, while its weapons kill the crews and prevent escape. More than fifty million people are wiped out in under five hours.
• Afterward, Kavelyn contacts Su Yi and reports success. Su Yi praises her fleet and says his own operation has gone unusually well, then invites her to help with a larger plan.

Character developments and interactions

• Kavelyn shifts from cautious court maneuvering to open action. Though motivated by a desire for a joyful world, she rejects Nightmare’s ruinous influence and is also driven by ambition. She does not simply join the younger faction: she considers its members inexperienced and intends to pursue her own goals.
• Clint initially questions Kavelyn’s sudden orders, but Leo Stowe’s warning helps him recognize the moment to commit. He kills the Nightmare-controlled guards and reveals the younger faction’s countermeasures.
• Su Yi remains an influential ally, whose power and plans encourage Kavelyn’s decision. Their final exchange suggests their cooperation is about to deepen.
• Kavelyn and the younger faction form a tentative alignment, but she makes clear that she will not be subordinate to them. She and Clint also confront the fact that the court has been monitoring their preparations.

Significant themes

• Resistance to corruption: Kavelyn opposes Nightmare not out of conventional loyalty, but because its power would extinguish all life and joy.
• Ambition and political distrust: Alliances are provisional; Kavelyn protects her own agenda, while the court spies on factions within the Empire.
• Power and overwhelming violence: The Redstone fleet’s technological and magical superiority turns the battle into a one-sided massacre.
• Freedom versus control: Kavelyn wants a brighter future, yet her coercive methods and pursuit of power complicate that ideal.

Key plot points

• Kavelyn probes Su Yi about the powerful weapon he claims could turn the invasion of the Redstone Empire around. She avoids committing to a bargain until they meet in person, but his promise leaves her intrigued—and willing to risk something substantial.
• With Dream Terror Academy’s withdrawal and the Redstone Empire attacking its fleet, Su Yi helps clear the Fallen God Abyss of the academy’s remaining forces. He also uses the Annihilation Blade to shatter a newly formed world, beginning a process that will further temper the weapon.
• Su Yi brings Emma and Dora to a store of immense Psychic Energy left by the Void Emperor. The sisters enter cocoons and begin evolving, drawing the attention of the Twins of Pleasure.
• The Twins reveal that they hope Emma and Dora will inherit their Divine Authority and Thrones, freeing them from the suffering caused by their malformed ascension. They grant the sisters further Boons and even divide off parts of their own Authority.
• In gratitude, the elder Twin tells Su Yi that the Void Emperor’s Authority Vessel is hidden at the heart of the Abyss. The Sacred Will, Soul Dominator, and Nightmare Pioneer all want it so they can claim supremacy and absorb one another. She urges Su Yi to find it before they learn he controls the region.
• Using Unity and Destruction, Su Yi digs through the Psychic Energy to locate the core. Inside a vast, withered heart, he discovers an Ancient Bronze Gate and realizes the Void Emperor hid his Authority Vessel within it, sacrificing his own body to conceal it.

Character developments and interactions

• Kavelyn remains politically cautious, masking her interest in Su Yi’s offer while considering a more personal and consequential deal.
• Su Yi shows growing confidence and power: he communicates directly with Deities, guides Emma and Dora’s development, and acts quickly on the Twins’ intelligence.
• Emma and Dora advance toward becoming successors worthy of the Twins’ Authority. Their transformation also makes them powerful enough to absorb the Psychic Energy disasters caused by Su Yi’s excavation.
• The Twins of Pleasure shift from distant observers to hopeful allies. Their gratitude and willingness to surrender part of their own Authority underscore their desire to be released from their curse.
• Su Yi and the elder Twin share a candid exchange: she reveals the hidden stakes, while he assures her that the sisters’ growth is part of a path toward the Twins’ eventual freedom.

Significant themes

• Inheritance and release: Emma and Dora’s rise may free the Twins from an eternal burden.
• Sacrifice and concealment: The Void Emperor sacrificed his body and hid his most precious power to keep it from rival Deities.
• Power and rivalry: The Authority Vessel could reshape the struggle among the three ancient gods.
• Trust amid ambition: Kavelyn’s guarded negotiation contrasts with the more direct alliance forming between Su Yi and the Twins.

Key plot points

• At the fifth Ancient Bronze Gate, Su Yi meets the Golden Saint King, who mourns the Void Emperor. He reveals that they were once bitter rivals because their powers over souls conflicted.
• Su Yi asks how the Ancient Gods could have lost the Great Cataclysm without the Dreamwalker directly intervening. The Golden Saint King explains that the first warning sign came from within him—not from the Goddess of Black Cinders, whose incident began the Second Great Cataclysm.
• The Ancient Entropy Human Emperor had become the object of humanity’s—and other intelligent beings’—immense faith. Their hopes, fears, and selfish wishes accumulated in him, eventually giving rise to nightmare power within his golden authority.
• To resist corruption, he divided his will into 150,000 Consciousness Fragments, but the Empire’s unchecked power and internal divisions made the crisis worse. People turned against one another and prayed for their rivals’ destruction.
• Seeking a solution, the Emperor consulted the Mist Sage, a time-traveling sage who had witnessed many worlds and eras. Su Yi realizes the shocking truth: the Emperor and the Mist Sage deliberately unleashed the Second Great Cataclysm.
• The Emperor says he does not regret it. They believed the alternative was the corruption of the entire Empire, the Emperor’s transformation into a second Dreamwalker, and the erasure of humanity as a distinct people.

Character developments and interactions

• Su Yi pieces together the connection between faith and nightmare power, then reacts with horror when the Emperor confirms his deduction. He struggles to judge the choice to trigger the Cataclysm.
• The Golden Saint King reveals himself as the Ancient Entropy Human Emperor’s preserved Golden Authority. Beneath his pride, he shows grief for the Void Emperor and regretful sorrow about the burden of ruling, but remains unwavering that the Cataclysm was necessary.
• Their conversation shifts from Su Yi questioning the Emperor’s past relationships to a candid exchange about the origins of the Cataclysm and the terrible choice behind it.

Significant themes

• Faith’s double edge: Collective belief can empower a protector, but also transmit the full range of believers’ selfishness, fear, and hatred.
• Power and corruption: An empire’s dominance and peace can breed arrogance, social fracture, and destructive excess.
• Sacrifice and moral ambiguity: The Cataclysm was a deliberate atrocity framed as the only way to preserve humanity from a worse fate.
• The unreliability of history: Public records conceal the true motives and actions of celebrated figures.

Key plot points and events

• Su Yi learns that the Golden Saint King—the Ancient Entropy Human Emperor—triggered the second Great Cataclysm to prevent Nightmare from erasing humanity itself. Though his decision killed countless people, Su Yi cannot easily condemn the desperate choice.
• The Golden Saint King advises Su Yi to steady his convictions, warning that hesitation could be fatal when he bears the hopes of so many. He declines to explain the wider plan in full.
• He gives Su Yi the Deceiver of Yore’s Mirror of Secrets, which can conceal the Void Emperor’s condensed core within layers of illusion and history. Removing the core will also let Su Yi absorb the fifth ancient Bronze Gate without provoking the Deities into conflict.
• The Golden Saint King confirms that Su Yi’s arrival and many major events were anticipated. The Mist Sage brought him to this world, though the conspirators expected him to be only a key—not the force driving their plan.
• The fifth Bronze Gate awakens after the core is removed, devouring the Void Emperor’s remains and releasing Unity’s Divine Authority. Its power flows into Su Yi, while a giant in bronze armor appears above the Supreme Heaven.

Character development and interactions

• Su Yi admits his ordinary flaws, selfish wishes, and doubts about being worthy of saving the universe. He has feared that he would need to become a flawless, selfless Hero to lead.
• The Golden Saint King reassures him that his ordinariness is precisely his strength: he can represent ordinary people and shape a future they can inhabit, without becoming a slave to power or an extreme idealist.
• The Emperor reflects on his own failure and the dangers of concentrating humanity’s hopes in a single Hero or Deity. He hopes Su Yi will allow people to shape the future themselves.
• Su Yi’s doubts lift. He accepts his nature and, with renewed ease and confidence, promises to build a world where people can keep growing and challenging those in power.

Significant themes

• The cost of survival: Leaders may face impossible choices, and their motives do not erase the suffering those choices cause.
• Ordinary humanity as a strength: Imperfection can guard against rigid idealism and unchecked authority.
• Shared hope and responsibility: A healthier future should not depend on one person bearing everyone’s dreams.
• Hope over perfection: The world may retain conflict and flaws, but these need not lead to hopelessness or species-wide destruction.

Key plot points and events

• Su Yi absorbs the fifth Ancient Bronze Gate, gaining three major abilities:
  • A vast connection to the universe’s Dragon Veins, which he can temporarily draw into his power.
  • Much greater control over his True God body, allowing him to bring it into the Material Universe through will alone and confront Void Abyss deities directly.
  • The ability to sense and open countless doors through space and time, approaching the Unity Divine Authority’s power over time.
• He discovers lesser Time Hounds, beings that guard the doors of time and hunt those who tamper with it. They gather to him, obey his commands, and become linked to his consciousness.
• The Golden Saint King departs. Su Yi absorbs the Void Emperor’s body and power, strengthening his control over souls, space, and death. He forms a soul-bound Divine Artifact called the Void Incarnation, which protects his soul, can fight as a powerful incarnation, and lets him wield the Void Emperor’s core against the three deities.
• Su Yi tests the artifact’s power, destroying the ancient underground space, then returns to find that the Psychic Energy in the Fallen God Abyss has diminished.
• Emma and Dora emerge from their Psychic Energy fruits as Quasi-Gods, their birth witnessed and recorded by Great Sage Bell, the Players, and their allies.

Character developments and interactions

• Su Yi’s growing mastery makes him far more capable of acting directly in the Material Universe. His discovery of the Time Hounds also gives him potential agents within the currents of time.
• Great Sage Bell celebrates the birth of the Quasi-Gods as a reward for his loyalty and eagerly organizes its documentation.
• Iron Root, Iron Pot, Fun God, and Hu Laobiao reflect on how much their lives have changed. They now hold influence and purpose in this world, and each expresses enthusiasm for its opportunities.
• Emma and Dora’s transformation fulfills the group’s hopes, though the two newly emerged Quasi-Gods appear to embody sharply contrasting forces.

Significant themes

• Power and connection: Su Yi’s new strength comes through links to the universe, its hidden pathways, and its ancient powers—not simply through greater force.
• Time, history, and persistence: The Time Hounds’ resilience illustrates that destroying a record does not erase the events preserved across time and space.
• Transformation and belonging: The Players see themselves as more than outsiders or insignificant figures; they have become agents of change in the universe.
• Complementary opposites: Emma’s pure, calming Psychic Energy and Dora’s forceful, desire-stirring influence seem opposed, yet their powers form a balanced cycle.

Key plot points and events

• Great Sage Bell warns that Emma and Dora’s opposing divine authorities are dangerously merging, threatening to cancel each other out and fuse the sisters’ bodies and souls.
• Dr. Anxiety of the Heat Death Research Institute appears and unleashes a mutated embryo. Its nightmare power traps the Players and corrupts the sisters’ merging energies, while devastating most of the group.
• Su Yi arrives when Bathing Emperor calls for help. Though Dr. Anxiety’s bizarre, meme-powered books sever him from the universe’s normal laws, Su Yi destroys the embryo’s influence and separates Emma and Dora.
• Dr. Anxiety claims the sisters’ divine authorities are ruined. Su Yi restores them with sacred-patterned Psychic Energy drawn from the Void Emperor’s remains.
• Dr. Anxiety attempts to escape, but the Time Hounds drag him back and immobilize him. The Players recognize them as beings associated with time and Unity’s power.
• Su Yi identifies Dr. Anxiety’s faction as the Soulless—once powerful rebels, now apparently serving the Dreamwalkers. Dr. Anxiety rejects the accusation and insists that nightmare power and destruction are necessary for the universe’s rebirth.

Character developments and interactions

• Su Yi demonstrates greater strength and confidence, saving the sisters, restoring their authorities, and confronting Dr. Anxiety. He openly admits that luck and allies helped him, turning the accusation into a pointed rebuke.
• Emma and Dora nearly lose themselves in the dangerous fusion of their powers, but Su Yi’s intervention separates and stabilizes them.
• Dr. Anxiety shifts from smug confidence to frustration when Su Yi disrupts his plan and the Time Hounds prevent his escape. Even captured, he remains defiant and committed to his destructive ideology.
• The Players are initially helpless against Dr. Anxiety’s attack, then rally around Su Yi. Their shock at the Time Hounds and the revelation about the Soulless gives way to suspicion and debate.
• Great Sage Bell recognizes the danger early, while Bathing Emperor’s desperate call brings Su Yi to the scene.

Significant themes

• Power and corruption: Unchecked, incompatible power can destroy or merge its bearers.
• Rescue through cooperation: Su Yi’s success depends partly on knowledge and resources gained through others.
• Identity and betrayal: The revelation that the Soulless may now serve the Dreamwalkers overturns the Players’ understanding of the past.
• Competing visions of renewal: Dr. Anxiety argues that destruction is required for rebirth, while Su Yi acts to preserve and restore life.

Plot points and events

• Dr. Anxiety argues that the Players cannot judge the Soulless because they are safe in another world and cannot die. His claim shocks them: they wonder whether he knows they are Players or even that their world is a game.
• Su Yi has anticipated that some people may learn the Players’ identities, but wants to keep them from discovering that this universe is real, which would make their actions morally harder. The Deceiver of Yore intervenes when Dr. Anxiety starts revealing more, leaving the Players unaware of the truth.
• Su Yi captures Dr. Anxiety, strips away his Nightmare power and Soulless traits, and confronts him in private. Dr. Anxiety accuses Su Yi of betraying the Ancient Entropy Human Emperor and the Mist Sage’s expectations.
• Su Yi rejects the goal of creating a perfect world. He accepts his own ordinary flaws and argues that forcing perfection would produce extremism. Instead, he wants to protect everyone’s chance to live and allow a future shaped by conflict, progress, and change.
• As Dr. Anxiety is erased, Su Yi declares that people who betrayed their own souls will have no place in that future. Dr. Anxiety dies insisting that the Dreamwalker will prevail and the world’s end is inevitable.
• Kavelyn, a Redstone Empire envoy, appears after witnessing Su Yi’s speech. She asks about the chance he promised to let her “set everything off,” offering significant concessions if the opportunity is worthwhile. Su Yi reveals a mist-filled mirror and identifies its contents as the Detonator of the Fourth Great Cataclysm.

Character developments and interactions

• The Players initially mock Dr. Anxiety’s worldview, then are rattled by his knowledge of their other-world existence. They ultimately accept Su Yi’s reassurance and return to their duties.
• Su Yi shows confidence in his own imperfect nature and clarifies that his aim is not utopia, but a world where people can live and grow. His calm, informal demeanor also contrasts with his immense power.
• Dr. Anxiety is exposed as an absolutist driven by despair and a demand for perfection. His anger and certainty collapse into disbelief as Su Yi defeats him, though he dies clinging to his apocalyptic convictions.
• Kavelyn proves far more powerful than her official profile suggests: Su Yi senses that she is close to Deityhood and that her core authority is connected to life. She is direct and pragmatic in approaching him.
• Su Yi and Kavelyn’s first in-person meeting mixes mutual appraisal with negotiation: he openly admires her appearance, while she focuses on the offer and the dangerous object he reveals.

Significant themes

• Perfection versus human complexity: Su Yi rejects the idea that all conflict, injustice, and tragedy can be eliminated by force.
• A future built through struggle: His vision is an imperfect but vibrant age in which ordinary people can rise, change society, and make progress.
• Knowledge and moral responsibility: Su Yi deliberately shields the Players from learning the world is real because that knowledge could transform their choices.
• Despair and betrayal: Dr. Anxiety’s path reflects how idealism, when combined with hopelessness and the pursuit of absolute solutions, can turn destructive.

Key plot points and events

• Su Yi tells Kavelyn that he controls the trigger for the Fourth Great Cataclysm. Rather than destroying all humanity, he intends to use it to bring down a decaying empire and let a new faction rise from its ruins.
• Kavelyn recognizes the enormous risks and asks what she would gain. Su Yi offers protection and enough nourishment for her to become a true God-Human, retaining human desires while gaining divine power.
• Kavelyn reveals her deepest ambition: to give birth naturally. Su Yi infers that she has a close connection to the Mother of Immortality, one of the Six Ancient Righteous Gods. Kavelyn asks for a month to consider her response.
• Meanwhile, the Ten Pioneers discuss whether their world is real. Some hope to remain with the people they love; others caution that the game may merely be breaking the fourth wall. Winter does not join in because she already believes she has confirmed the world is real.
• Winter discovers she is pregnant by Su Yi. She hopes the child will strengthen her bond to this universe and help her remain there if the game connection is ever shut down.
• A scan reveals that the fetus is extraordinary: it has a perfectly rectangular head and a body formed as a spinning vortex. Winter sends Su Yi the news, and he rushes through a portal to her, overjoyed and eager to see the child.

Character developments

• Su Yi shows confidence in his ability to direct a world-shaping catastrophe, but leaves Kavelyn room to make her own decision. He is also delighted by Winter’s pregnancy and accepts that their child may be anything but ordinary.
• Kavelyn is ambitious and cautious, weighing Su Yi’s offer against the danger and uncertainty of the cataclysm. Her wish to experience natural childbirth reveals a deeply personal longing beneath her political role.
• Winter moves from uncertainty about her future in this world to renewed hope through her pregnancy. Her commitment to Su Yi and her belief that the universe is real are stronger than those of the other Players.
• The Ten Pioneers are divided between emotional attachment to their lives and relationships in this world and skepticism about whether it is truly real.

Significant themes

• Catastrophe and renewal: Su Yi envisions a controlled apocalypse that destroys an old order so a new one can emerge.
• Reality, belonging, and permanence: The Players question whether their world is real, while Winter’s relationship and pregnancy make her desire to remain there urgent.
• Birth and transformation: Kavelyn longs for natural motherhood, while Winter’s bizarre pregnancy suggests that life born from divine beings may be radically unlike ordinary human life.
• Love amid the extraordinary: Su Yi and Winter’s affection persists even as their powers and potential offspring exceed human norms.

Character interactions

• Su Yi and Kavelyn negotiate directly: she challenges his proposal, tests his promises about having children, and ultimately asks for time to decide.
• The Ten Pioneers use their private chat to exchange information and debate the nature of their world, while reinforcing their friendships and commitments to their partners.
• Winter shares her pregnancy news privately with Su Yi. He responds with exuberant affection, and she shows him the scan so they can confront the strange appearance of their child together.

Key events

• Su Yi reassures Winter that their unborn child’s strange, abstract appearance is a sign of powerful divine inheritance—not a problem. He jokes that future children could take any form, and the pregnancy also confirms that his divine nature has not made him infertile.
• Su Yi tells Winter about the Fallen God Abyss, Kavelyn’s faction, and his plans. Winter then reveals that she and the others suspect he knows their world of origin.
• Su Yi admits that he is not a player: he and the others were transmigrated from Earth, though different missions led them down different paths. He learned the truth about himself only recently.
• Winter accepts his confession, trusting that his affection and years of protecting them are genuine. She asks whether the game might end and whether she can remain with him; Su Yi cannot promise the game will last, but vows to keep her by his side.
• They agree to tell the Ten Pioneers that the world is real while keeping Su Yi’s identity as a fellow Earthling private. They fear that revealing the truth to all players could make them emotionally hesitant in battle, weakening their willingness to take risks.
• Winter tells the group that the world is real and that Su Yi has confirmed it. The others react with excitement, then celebrate again when she announces her pregnancy. They agree to keep the revelation from the wider player community.

Character developments and interactions

• Su Yi is relieved by Winter’s pregnancy and opens up about his origins and concerns. He credits Winter’s intelligence work and leadership with helping him unite the players, and expresses deep gratitude for her support.
• Winter moves from concern about the baby to excitement, then demonstrates her trust in Su Yi by accepting his past and his motives. She also takes responsibility for managing what the group learns.
• The Ten Pioneers respond with joy at learning that the world and its inhabitants are real. Their jokes about staying with loved ones, marrying powerful women, and having children reveal how emotionally invested they have become.
• Su Yi and Winter’s affectionate exchange strengthens their partnership: she reassures him that they are no longer separate, while he promises to protect their future together.

Significant themes

• Trust and honesty: Su Yi risks Winter’s suspicion by revealing his true identity; her faith in their shared history allows them to move forward.
• Reality and attachment: Confirmation that the world is real transforms the players’ relationships with its inhabitants and makes the possibility of staying there meaningful.
• Duty versus compassion: Su Yi and Winter decide that most players should remain unaware for now, since emotional attachment could undermine their effectiveness in the coming fight.
• Family and belonging: The pregnancy—and the group’s enthusiastic response—makes the players’ desire to build lasting lives in this world more concrete.

Plot points and events

• After returning from the Void, Su Yi explains that the players were brought to this world by the Mist Sage as special helpers. Iron Root and his brothers deflect speculation about the players’ origins, and the group accepts the explanation as part of the game’s setting.
• Su Yi leaves a Doppelganger to guard Emma and Dora, who are transforming into Quasi-Gods, and searches for other members of the Heat Death Research Institute. He considers the Institute a far more dangerous threat than the other hostile groups.
• Su Yi opens a Teleportation Gate for the Light Empire’s forces. Millions of elite players, Human Emperor Heavenly Soldiers, support troops, the Void Abyssal Legion, and specialized units arrive. They quickly overwhelm the Death Cult and begin clearing the Living Devourers, while technical crews establish faster routes for future reinforcements.
• The campaign suffers a sudden setback when Wheelchair freezes during a decisive attack and is killed. His lapse disrupts the assault and frustrates players hoping to earn points.
• Winter cannot reach Wheelchair, so she contacts Big Watermelon. Big Watermelon reveals that Wheelchair is critically ill in real life: an infection has caused multiple organ failure, and he is in intensive care.
• Winter tells Big Watermelon that Earth’s technology may not be enough to save him, but promises to investigate whether the players’ world offers an alternative. She asks Su Yi for help.
• Su Yi consults the Mist Sage. The safeguards between Earth and the game world prevent Wheelchair’s soul from crossing over, even if he dies while wearing his headset. Su Yi learns that he could theoretically use his Divine Authority to reconstruct Wheelchair’s soul—but questions whether the result would truly be the same person.

Character developments

• Su Yi shifts from battlefield command to confronting a deeply personal, ethically difficult problem. He is also increasingly alert to the Heat Death Research Institute’s threat.
• Winter shows concern for Wheelchair both as a trusted officer and a friend. She acts quickly, comforts Big Watermelon, and searches for a way to save him.
• Big Watermelon is devastated by Wheelchair’s condition and turns to Winter for help.
• Wheelchair is revealed to be paralyzed from the neck down in real life, yet disciplined and dependable in the game. His sudden in-game failure is explained by his medical crisis.
• The Mist Sage clarifies the strict barrier between Earth and the game world, while revealing that it may later be reopened after the Dreamwalker is defeated.

Significant themes

• The boundary between game and reality: Players’ lives and deaths in the real world can affect the events and relationships within the game.
• Identity and resurrection: Reconstructing Wheelchair’s soul might preserve his memories or personality, but whether that person would truly be Wheelchair remains uncertain.
• Loyalty and community: Winter’s and Big Watermelon’s response reflects the bonds formed among players, beyond their military roles or competition.
• Power and responsibility: Su Yi’s abilities may offer a way forward, but using them to recreate a person raises serious questions about consent, continuity, and what makes someone themselves.

Character interactions

• Iron Root and his brothers steer the players away from uncovering the truth about the Mist Sage and the players’ origins.
• Winter contacts Big Watermelon after noticing Wheelchair’s unusual silence; Big Watermelon’s distress prompts Winter to promise help.
• Winter then appeals to Su Yi, who consults the Mist Sage about the limits of intervening across worlds.
• The Mist Sage’s final warning leaves Su Yi facing not just whether he can reconstruct Wheelchair, but whether Wheelchair’s loved ones would accept the result.

There is no plot or character development in this brief chapter. The narrator says they are traveling back from their hometown and expect to arrive home after 10 p.m., so they are taking the day off.

• Key events: The narrator begins the journey home and announces a day off because of the late arrival.
• Character development: None; the narrator shares a practical update.
• Themes: Travel, rest, and setting reasonable expectations.
• Interactions: None.

Key plot points

• Su Yi asks the Mist Sage how to keep Wheelchair from vanishing after death. He admits that saving Wheelchair matters to him—not only because of Wheelchair’s service to the Light Empire, but because they fought together and Wheelchair once helped him.
• The Mist Sage proposes using Su Yi’s authority over the fifth Bronze Gate to open a special passage. Wheelchair’s soul could merge with a Time Hound, allowing his consciousness and memories to cross into the game universe.
• The plan requires a helmet to capture Wheelchair’s brainwaves and activate his will and memories. Su Yi explains the idea to Winter, who contacts Big Watermelon while concealing the full truth behind the supposed “Virtual Plan.”
• Big Watermelon tells Wheelchair’s grieving parents that the game company can preserve a version of their son in the game. She argues that the game has given him a meaningful second life and that he would want to remain in the world where he became a hero.
• His parents agree to try. Big Watermelon and a doctor place the helmet on Wheelchair as she wishes him freedom in the game world.

Character developments and interactions

• Su Yi shows how deeply he values Wheelchair, recalling their bond and acting decisively to find a way to preserve him.
• The Mist Sage reveals a compassionate workaround to the rules he created. After Su Yi leaves, the Deceiver of Yore appears and says they have found the coordinates needed to bring someone home; the Sage responds with longing.
• Winter trusts Su Yi’s plan, quickly grasps the soul-and-memory explanation, and carefully recruits Big Watermelon without exposing the secret.
• Big Watermelon moves from shock and uncertainty to determined advocacy, reassuring Wheelchair’s parents and helping them accept the plan.
• Wheelchair’s parents begin in grief and disbelief but choose to trust Big Watermelon and give their son the chance to continue in the game.

Significant themes

• Memory, identity, and survival: The proposed fusion raises the possibility that a person’s consciousness and memories can persist beyond bodily death.
• Companionship and loyalty: Su Yi’s effort is rooted in friendship and gratitude, while Big Watermelon and Wheelchair’s parents unite around their love for him.
• A second life through virtual worlds: The game is portrayed as a genuine source of purpose and fulfillment for Wheelchair, not merely an escape.
• Hope amid grief: The plan offers comfort, though it also leaves an underlying question about whether a preserved consciousness is truly the same person.

Plot and key events

• Su Yi realizes the Time Hounds could help guard the pathways through time. Using his Divine Authority of Unity and Binary Magic, he reshapes one and gives it the ability to merge with a human.
• He prepares the experiment for Wheelchair, hoping it will let him retain his time-related powers in the real world and become a capable ally against those who tamper with time. Su Yi emphasizes that Wheelchair must choose freely, since the merger is untested and would cost him his Player status.
• Wheelchair wakes in a featureless white space after losing consciousness. Winter explains that his real body is critically ill and he is in a coma; he believes he is dying and begins saying goodbye to Big Watermelon and his parents.
• Winter tells him the game world is real and that he can still have a chance at life. Su Yi arrives and offers him the dangerous, uncertain merger: Wheelchair would become a native of this universe, travel through time, and hunt the Time Thieves.
• After hearing the risks—including possible separation from his loved ones and eternal loneliness—Wheelchair accepts, saying he acts not from obligation or desperation but because he trusts Su Yi. Su Yi forms the Time Hound and code into a radiant doorway, inviting him to begin.

Character developments and interactions

• Su Yi acts as a careful but hopeful benefactor: he prepares a bold plan, refuses to pressure Wheelchair, and is deeply moved by Wheelchair’s trust.
• Wheelchair moves from resignation about his impending death to renewed hope, then makes a deliberate, resolute choice despite the personal cost.
• Winter treats Wheelchair with compassion and honesty, delivers the truth about his condition, and helps him understand his options.
• Wheelchair expresses gratitude to Winter, Su Yi, Big Watermelon, and his parents. His bond with Su Yi is affirmed through trust rather than indebtedness.

Significant themes

• Choice and sacrifice: A possible new life comes with profound, freely accepted losses and uncertainty.
• Trust and gratitude: Wheelchair’s decision rests on faith in Su Yi, while Su Yi sees that trust as the greatest reward for his care.
• Mortality and hope: Wheelchair faces the likely end of his real life, but the truth about the game world opens a new possibility.
• Identity and belonging: The transformation may give Wheelchair purpose and power, but it will also make him no longer an Earthling or a Player.

Key plot points and events

• Wheelchair enters the radiant doorway and relives his life amid a disorienting storm of memories and time. A mysterious dog appears throughout his childhood and later merges with him during the accident that originally changed his fate.
• As Wheelchair’s identity begins to dissolve, a familiar voice urges him to hold on to his memories and resolve. Recognizing himself as Chen Jianghe—and remembering Su Yi as “Godfather”—he regains his sense of self and masters the time storm.
• He reaches an immense bronze-armored giant of light, who welcomes him and declares him the universe’s first Time Pursuer: a human–Time Hound fusion. His memories return, and he thanks Su Yi.
• Wheelchair appears in the laboratory transformed, though he can revert to his familiar appearance. His new abilities let him travel through time and space, attack targets through their memories and existence, survive destruction by restoring himself through time, and wield time as a weapon. He is effectively immune to conventional attacks and can threaten even True Gods.
• Wheelchair reports sensing a time thief marked by Nightmare’s power. Su Yi suspects the Heat Death Research Institute and plans to compare information after Wheelchair reunites with his parents.
• Su Yi explains that he cannot track time travelers as keenly as Time Hounds can, while the Hounds themselves are poor hunters: the Soulless have learned to evade them, and the Hounds usually remain in their territories unless instinct alerts them.

Character developments and interactions

• Wheelchair/Chen Jianghe undergoes a profound transformation, nearly losing himself before reclaiming his identity through memory, loyalty, and determination. His bond with Su Yi remains central, and his reunion with his parents is arranged.
• Su Yi acts as Wheelchair’s guide and mentor, welcoming his transformation but showing surprise at the strength of the resulting abilities. He directs Wheelchair to be honest about being real rather than pretending to be game data.
• Winter examines Wheelchair’s attributes and is astonished by their power. She also asks Su Yi how his own abilities compare.
• Big Watermelon brings Wheelchair’s parents to the game and waits with them, offering reassurance despite her own uncertainty.

Significant themes

• Identity and memory: Wheelchair survives the erosion of time by holding on to the experiences and relationships that define him.
• Transformation through trials: Enduring the time storm turns him into a being far more powerful than either he or Su Yi expected.
• Found family and loyalty: Su Yi’s encouragement and Wheelchair’s recognition of him as “Godfather” help anchor Wheelchair through the crisis.
• Power and its limits: Wheelchair gains extraordinary freedom over time, while Su Yi acknowledges that even divine authority does not grant him the Time Hounds’ particular sensitivity.

• Wheelchair’s return: Wheelchair’s parents and Big Watermelon reunite with him in a convincing digital body, which preserves his memories, voice, mannerisms, and personality. Though his real-world body has died, his loved ones accept the person before them as Wheelchair. Su Yi and Winter explain privately to Big Watermelon that Wheelchair is truly himself, and ask her to keep the secret from his parents and other Players until they decide to reveal it. Overjoyed, she agrees.
• Players learn of his death: Winter announces that Wheelchair died in the real world and that the game company has preserved a simulation of him. Players grieve, and those who had criticized him when he stopped moving feel guilty. They regard the preserved likeness as a fitting tribute to an important commander.
• A clue in the temporal barrier: Wheelchair returns to duty as Su Yi’s first Time Pursuer and searches the temporal turbulence. He finds a hidden, writhing Nightmare Root near the Imperial Center. Su Yi destroys it and uses his Divine Authority to trace its origin, revealing two conspirators—a monkey and an octopus—discussing the Light Empire’s defenses, the death of Anxiety, and their plan to obtain the World Furnace.
• The enemy’s concern: The conspirators reveal that Unity’s Divine Authority is gathering again through Su Yi and Winter’s child, who may inherit the power Su Yi cannot absorb. They consider killing Winter but judge themselves unable to overcome the Golden Saint King’s protection. They intend instead to acquire the Creation Furnace, held by Open-Heaven Manor, and forge a means to break through that protection. The pair detect Su Yi and Wheelchair observing them and attack with Nightmare Roots, but Su Yi destroys the roots.
• Wheelchair’s new mission: Su Yi suspects the Root was a marker and identifies Open-Heaven Manor as the likely target. Since one of his Doppelgangers is already traveling with Yellow Book toward the Flame Dragon Dynasty—and must pass the manor—Su Yi sends Wheelchair there ahead of them. Wheelchair is to detect temporal interference, protect key people, and help the Doppelganger gather enough power to establish a Teleportation Gate so Su Yi can send reinforcements. Eager to serve, Wheelchair departs immediately.
• Broader developments: Su Yi continues consolidating the Light Empire, overseeing the transport of Psychic Energy, rebuilding the star sector, and eliminating Demigods.
  Character developments and themes: Wheelchair moves from loss and apparent death into a renewed purpose as a trusted agent. Big Watermelon’s love and relief deepen her loyalty to Su Yi, while Wheelchair’s parents respond to him through memory and affection rather than concern over whether he is a data body. The chapter explores identity, grief, and the continuity of a person beyond the body, alongside secrecy, family legacy, and the looming threat posed by the child’s inherited power.

Key plot points

• As the Southern Heaven Alliance expands around the Chaos Egg, Nightmare contamination spreads across the Primordial Empire. Dream Terror Academy’s sleeper agents and allied factions are active again.
• Dean Thomas arrives at Emperor Haotian’s palace, where mass torture and sacrifice reveal the emperor’s descent into cruelty. With Dream Terror Academy’s help, Haotian seized power and used Nightmare forces to destroy rival dynasties.
• Haotian wants to find his cousin, Lu Qingyan, and sacrifice the five million members of two officials’ clans. Chancellor Zhang and Tutor Chen refuse to reveal her location.
• Thomas probes the officials’ memories and finds Lu Qingyan sealed inside a small crystal. She is protected not by ordinary matter but by a span of time.
• Thomas uses an octopus-like Nightmare power to break the temporal seal, killing nearby attendants in the process. Lu Qingyan awakens in Haotian’s palace and recognizes that the rescue plan has failed.
• Elsewhere, Wheelchair senses the temporal disturbance, recognizes the octopus’s signature, and sets off for the Primordial Empire.

Character developments and interactions

• Emperor Haotian (Wu Hao) is revealed as a depraved, Nightmare-controlled ruler who treats people as sacrifices and covets his own cousin. He relies on Thomas to locate and free her.
• Thomas acts as Haotian’s willing accomplice, extracting memories and breaking the seal. His power and connection to Dreamwalker’s forces are made clear.
• Chancellor Zhang and Tutor Chen remain defiant despite torture and the threat to their clans, protecting Lu Qingyan’s whereabouts as long as they can.
• Lu Qingyan awakens frightened but composed, understanding that her hiding place has been exposed.
• Wheelchair responds to the disturbance and moves toward the unfolding crisis.

Significant themes

• Corruption through power: Haotian’s rule turns the palace and state into instruments of violence, indulgence, and sacrifice.
• Loyalty and resistance: The officials endure torture rather than betray their families or Lu Qingyan.
• Manipulation and conspiracy: Dream Terror Academy helped engineer Haotian’s rise and the destruction of his rivals.
• Time as protection and danger: Lu Qingyan’s temporal seal shields her, but breaking it exposes her—and unleashes lethal power.

Key plot points and events

• Lu Qingyan, last major survivor of the Lu Family after Emperor Wang Hao’s purge, confronts him in the imperial palace. She unleashes her power, preferring death to being captured, but Headmaster Thomas suppresses her with Nightmare-forged chains that drain her life and spiritual energy.
• Just as Wang Hao moves to assault her, a mysterious armored warrior named Wheelchair arrives through a gray portal. His power drains Wang Hao’s lifespan, restores Lu Qingyan, and ages her chains into ash.
• Thomas transforms into a monstrous black oak and attacks. Wheelchair defeats him with phantom versions of his past selves, then escapes with Lu Qingyan through another portal.
• In the Space-Time Turbulence, Wheelchair identifies himself as an envoy of the Light Empire, sent by his “Godfather”—a powerful figure who is also teacher to the Human Emperor’s Holy Son. He says he has a mission in the Primordial Empire and needs Lu Qingyan and her faction’s help.
• Wheelchair chooses Heavenly Sword Pavilion as their next destination despite Lu Qingyan warning that Nightmare forces and cultists are besieging it. He replies that his Godfather is there.

Character developments

• Lu Qingyan is revealed as a determined survivor of a nearly exterminated noble family. Though calm and seemingly emotionless, she remains defiant and willing to die rather than submit. After Wheelchair rescues her, she cautiously opens herself to cooperation.
• Wang Hao is exposed as a dependent, cruel puppet whose power comes from Dream Terror Academy and Nightmare influence. Wheelchair’s attack leaves him aged and terrified.
• Thomas proves formidable with Nightmare power, but his confidence is shaken by Wheelchair’s time-based abilities; he recognizes the intruder as resembling a Time Hound.
• Wheelchair is introduced as a composed, highly intelligent fighter with extraordinary control over time and space. His mysterious origins and connection to powerful figures make him a potential ally.

Significant themes

• Resistance against tyranny: Lu Qingyan’s survival and defiance stand against Wang Hao’s purge and abuse of power.
• Corruption through Nightmare power: Thomas and Wang Hao rely on Nightmare forces, which Lu Qingyan condemns as a corrupting path toward enslavement.
• Time as power: Wheelchair’s abilities manipulate lifespan, age, memory, and past selves, overwhelming conventional attacks.
• Alliance amid crisis: Lu Qingyan’s willingness to cooperate reflects the need for factions to unite against the Nightmare threat.

Character interactions

• Wang Hao taunts Lu Qingyan and attempts to dominate her; she answers with icy contempt and refuses to yield.
• Thomas restrains Lu Qingyan on Wang Hao’s behalf, but Wheelchair intervenes before Wang Hao can harm her.
• Wheelchair rescues Lu Qingyan, then explains his mission. She questions his unfamiliar titles but trusts his link to the Human Emperor’s Holy Son.
• Lu Qingyan warns him that Heavenly Sword Pavilion is under siege; Wheelchair remains confident because his Godfather is there.

Key plot points and events

• Lu Qingyan tells Wheelchair that Heavenly Court Mountain has lost contact with its immortal Queen Mother and has sealed itself off amid the Empire-wide turmoil.
• Wheelchair explains the broader crisis: the Returning Heart Dynasty is preparing to fight the Southern Heaven Alliance, while the Flame Dragon Dynasty—hampered by its ailing Grand Chancellor—has withdrawn to defend its territory and signed a nonaggression pact with the Returning Heart Dynasty.
• Heavenly Sword Pavilion and Open-Heaven Manor are a strategic flashpoint. Nightmare’s followers, infiltrated over centuries, have sabotaged the Pavilion’s defenses and weakened the Primordial Fire’s influence with sacrificial rites. Open-Heaven Manor has sealed itself inside its strongest stronghold, leaving its people trapped and the surrounding region under enemy control.
• Su Yi, Wen Xuan, and their companions are stranded outside the Pavilion with rescued soldiers and smiths. Their attempts to contact the manor have failed and exposed them to pursuit; they have little fighting strength beyond Wen Xuan.
• Lu Qingyan says she can contact Open-Heaven Manor, but insists on first learning who Wheelchair and his allies really are. Wheelchair accepts her caution and trusts that Su Yi can win her over.
• As the group considers its next move, Huang Tianhan offers to lead a diversion so Wen Xuan can take the smiths to the Sword Tomb. A veteran smith rejects the plan: the smiths chose to stay behind to protect the Sword Tomb and Creation Furnace, and will not endanger the manor merely to save themselves.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Qingyan remains wary despite Wheelchair saving her. She is candid about her limits and refuses to give access to her contact without first establishing trust.
• Wheelchair is calm and practical, focusing on how to help Su Yi while respecting Lu Qingyan’s suspicion. His confidence in his godfather’s ability to persuade others is unwavering.
• Su Yi and Wen Xuan are forced to operate cautiously after repeated contact attempts draw enemy attention. Wen Xuan’s knowledge of the region and memory-manipulation powers have helped them survive, but the enemy may have a comparable expert.
• Huang Tianhan is willing to risk himself to protect the group, while the veteran smiths demonstrate a strong sense of duty and loyalty: they will not put the Sword Tomb or Creation Furnace at risk for their own safety.

Significant themes

• Trust under pressure: Lu Qingyan’s guardedness reflects the danger of accepting help without knowing its motives.
• Duty and sacrifice: The smiths prioritize protecting their institution over personal survival.
• Infiltration and betrayal: Nightmare’s long-term agents have undermined defenses from within, turning a fortified refuge into a crisis point.
• War’s wider costs: Political fragmentation, unreliable communications, and competing defensive strategies leave even powerful factions vulnerable.