Chapter Summaries

Li Wei brought a young mermaid, whom he called a Water Sprite, back to his hotel and tried to care for her while figuring out where to take her. He received an anonymous invitation to meet that evening and learned that someone had left a clothing item for him in the hotel laundry room.

• Li Wei watched the mermaid explore the bathtub and recalled the local legends about Water Sprites and their humanlike intelligence and beautiful voices.
• Li Wei explained that he had rescued the mermaid from an iron tank after she nodded that she understood him and wanted to leave, and he learned she ate fruit and vegetables but could not speak or write.
• Li Wei considered where to release the mermaid, warned her away from the hot faucet, and watched her settle underwater to blow bubbles.
• A maid delivered Li Wei an anonymous letter inviting him to a meeting that evening and told him to collect an item of clothing from laundry room 217.
• Li Wei suspected the invitation came from the people who had previously tried to use force against him and decided to investigate the clothing item first.

Li Wei learned that the Three Great Families were preparing a major event in Casablanca, likely an auction, and rejected the Ravens’ offer to work together. The Three Great Families offered him money to leave or a case to investigate if he stayed, and he made his decision with the little mermaid’s safety in mind.

• Li Wei visited the laundry room, where a maid revealed that the Ravens wanted him to save Casablanca and said the Three Great Families were preparing a grand event.
• Li Wei dismissed the Ravens as unreliable and concluded the Three Great Families’ event was probably an auction featuring the little mermaid.
• Li Wei met a Three Great Families’ messenger in the municipal park, where the men presented the intruders responsible for the attack on The Explorer’s editorial office.
• The enforcers shot the bound intruders, and the messenger offered Li Wei a train ticket and five thousand pounds to leave Casablanca or a case to investigate if he stayed.
• Li Wei considered the danger to the little mermaid and made his decision.

Li Wei discovered that the little mermaid could listen to conversations through the city’s water pipes and used her ability to uncover the Three Great Families’ plans for him and an upcoming gang auction. After learning that the auction might involve a coercive Blessing and attract gang bosses from across the Empire, he prepared to pinpoint the conspirators’ location and rethink his next move.

• Li Wei returned to the hotel and discovered that the little mermaid could transmit distant conversations through water.
• Li Wei asked the little mermaid to scan the city, and she let him hear voices from across its water network.
• Li Wei overheard the office worker and another man discuss sending him away before the auction and making him obey with a Blessing.
• Li Wei inferred that the Blessing might control people and that the auction could be intended to bring gang bosses under the Three Great Families’ influence.
• Li Wei considered returning to Fog City to plan, then asked the little mermaid to pinpoint the speakers’ location.

Li Wei infiltrated a castle linked to the Three Great Families and discovered two vampires plotting to find someone whose soul had returned to Casablanca. He suspected the vampires were searching for the brain in a can and decided to smash it when he got back.

• Li Wei used his Doll Bird to scout the castle and saw two red soul lights deep underground.
• Li Wei sent his Doll Cat into the castle, followed three suspicious men through a hidden stone door, and discovered two figures inside ancient coffins.
• A vampire woman ordered her followers to remove obstacles to a plan and find her beloved, whose presence she sensed in the city.
• Li Wei overheard the woman’s orders and wondered whether her beloved was the brain in a can.
• As dawn approached, Li Wei decided to smash the brain when he returned.

Li Wei escaped Casablanca and reported the Three Great Families’ suspected vampire leader and planned underground auction to the Old Butler. The Old Butler arrived in Crodo with Edward Draco’s file, which revealed that Draco had married a princess.

• Li Wei flew out of Casablanca with the Little Mermaid, left her and the canned brain hidden in a river near Crodo, and entered the city.
• Li Wei met Henry and contacted the Old Butler to report the suspected vampire, the Three Great Families, and their upcoming underground auction.
• Li Wei asked the Old Butler to investigate Edward Draco’s family and find maps of Casablanca’s old royal passages for a raid.
• The Old Butler came to Crodo because the Royal Family would not allow the secret maps to leave, and he brought Li Wei information about Edward Draco.
• Li Wei learned from the file that Edward Draco had married a princess.

Li Wei learned that Edward Draco had likely turned Princess Sonal into a vampire before disappearing, and he considered whether she might still be alive. Meanwhile, he and the Old Butler planned an assault on Casablanca, while Li Wei prepared to show them an unusual new companion.

• Li Wei pieced together how Edward Draco cured Princess Sonal by turning her into a vampire and concluded she might have gone into hiding after Edward vanished.
• Li Wei, the Old Butler, and Henry planned to attack the auction in Casablanca’s opera house, using a secret passage and airship support to seize the attendees and open the city to their army.
• The Old Butler ordered the forces to kill anyone who resisted, and Henry volunteered to lead the assault on the opera house.
• Li Wei chose to remain aboard the airship so he could respond to events and keep watch for the lovesick vampire.
• The Old Butler asked Li Wei about the interesting little fellow he had found, and Li Wei promised it would be an eye-opener.

Li Wei and the Old Butler met the Little Mermaid, a Water Sprite, and Li Wei decided to bring her to Fog City while he investigated how people could coexist with emerging fantasy species. That night, Li Wei directed an Imperial operation against Casablanca from an Airship as troops entered the city through a secret passage.

• Li Wei introduced the Old Butler to the Little Mermaid, who was wary at first but warmed to him.
• The Old Butler worried that mysterious beings appearing in the world would change human life, while Li Wei said people would adapt and handle problems as they came.
• The Little Mermaid retrieved the brain in a can for Li Wei, then reluctantly let him leave after he promised to return for her.
• Li Wei told the Old Butler he planned to bring the young Little Mermaid to Fog City and study how to interact with fantasy species.
• At night, Li Wei used Soul Sight aboard an Airship to watch crowds entering Casablanca and confirmed with Henry that soldiers were advancing through the secret passage.
• Li Wei directed the Imperial assault from above, relying on Steam Mech Troopers and mechs while his Knight Doll remained at the Great Salt Lake to deal with the Three Great Families' leaders.

Anthony and Imperial forces launched a surprise assault on Casablanca during the gangs’ auction, overwhelming the Opera House and its guards. The Three Great Families’ leaders tried to escape, but one was killed by a silver-armored knight as the fighting continued.

• Anthony and his agents killed the guards at Casablanca’s gate and opened it for the Imperial forces.
• Hundreds of Mechs and soldiers charged into the city while Anthony finished securing the gate.
• At the Opera House auction, the leaders of the Three Great Families discussed the missing detective and dismissed the threat of an attack.
• A Knight Mech crashed through the Opera House ceiling as Steam Mech Troopers entered through the windows and ordered the crowd to surrender.
• The leaders of the Three Great Families fled, and the burly man transformed into a bat to fight the pursuing troopers.
• A silver-armored knight shot an explosive round into the burly man’s mouth, killing him, then continued onward.

Li Wei killed the three vampire bosses at the Opera House, but the system still did not recognize them as the mission’s targets. At the Old Castle, destroying the Brain in a Jar provoked a citywide scream and activated a quest to eliminate two blood descendants.

• The Silver-Armored Knight killed the bespectacled vampire with its flamethrower, and Li Wei controlled the attack from his chair.
• The disguised man in the suit stayed among the soldiers outside the Opera House, but the Silver-Armored Knight exposed and killed him.
• Li Wei confirmed that all three Opera House bosses were dead, then ordered Henry to bring a squad to the Old Castle.
• Li Wei rejected a direct assault and Anthony’s suggestion to bomb the Old Castle, then used the Brain in a Jar to lure out the vampire.
• Li Wei shot and destroyed the brain, triggering a shrill scream across the city and the quest to eliminate the two blood descendants.

Li Wei and his Knight Mechs fought a high-tier vampire whose flesh spread through the castle and whose ultrasonic attack incapacitated everyone but him. Li Wei destroyed her with a summoned silver-armored knight, and the system confirmed the mission was complete.

• After Li Wei killed the Brain, two red lights merged and a torrent of crimson light surged through the castle as the ground began to shake.
• Li Wei ordered everyone to retreat, signaled the Airship for aerial bombardment, and watched flesh filled with shrieking people pour from the castle windows.
• Li Wei and the Knight Mechs attacked the flesh with incendiary bombs and flamethrowers, burning it back as the vampire emerged from the Tower.
• The vampire unleashed an ultrasonic attack that felled Henry, Anthony, the soldiers, and the mechs, but Li Wei resisted it and saw his bullets blocked by flesh shields.
• Li Wei blinded the vampire with an illumination flare, used [Shifting Positions] to send a silver-armored knight through the Clock Tower and into her back, then detonated the knight and destroyed her.
• The system announced that Li Wei had completed the mission.

After Li Wei’s Casablanca raid, the Queen used the opportunity to tighten central control by expanding and reorganizing the Empire’s police force. Li Wei recovered from the operation, chose the Demon Hunter class skill, and planned to pick up Little Mermaid.

• News of Li Wei’s capture of the Empire’s underworld leaders spread, and the Queen launched a second phase targeting regional gangs through investigations led by police from elsewhere.
• The Queen ordered police expansion and specialization to weaken local lords and strengthen the central government, while Li Wei returned from their overnight conference exhausted.
• Li Wei slept through the day as police sealed off Casablanca and arrested members of the Three Great Families; he also confirmed the old castle’s contents had been destroyed.
• Li Wei reviewed his quest rewards and chose the Demon Hunter class over Blood Descendant.
• Li Wei acquired the Demon-Hunting Flying Knife, tested it by embedding it in a pillar, and decided to pick up Little Mermaid.

Li Wei gave the Little Mermaid a way to travel through the Tower’s water-filled walls, named her Muse, and asked Adele to teach her to speak. Later, he advised newly promoted Assistant Commissioner Lestrade on police evidence gathering and sent him to recruit anthropologists, while the Empire’s judicial reforms remained underway.

• Li Wei remodeled the Tower with water walls and pools so the Little Mermaid could move through it, and his household welcomed her as a family member.
• Li Wei asked Adele to teach the Little Mermaid to speak and named her Muse.
• After reflecting on the cost of his recent adventures, Li Wei fell asleep and woke when Alice and the puppy came to him.
• Lestrade visited Li Wei to ask how police could use scientific methods to gather evidence and revealed that he had been promoted to Assistant Commissioner.
• Li Wei advised Lestrade to recruit anthropologists from the Royal Academy of Medicine to examine crime scenes, then congratulated him with a bottle of wine.

Lestrade visited Professor Henry to recruit him to help the police use footprintology, but Henry refused because he believed his research was not ready for criminal investigations. After Lestrade reported back, Li Wei proposed testing the method together at an unsolved crime scene.

• Lestrade visited Professor Henry at the Royal Academy of Medicine and asked to apply his footprint research to criminal investigations.
• Professor Henry objected that his research covered bare footprints and was not yet reliable for prints made by people wearing shoes.
• Henry angrily refused to endorse the method and sent Lestrade away.
• Lestrade reported Henry's concerns to Li Wei, who proposed finding an unsolved case with footprints and inviting Henry to examine the scene with him.

Li Wei showed Professor Henry how footprint analysis could help police narrow a suspect pool, then proposed giving unclaimed bodies to the Royal Academy of Medicine for study. The police arrested Charlotte Chris’s killer, whose age and height matched Henry’s assessment, and Li Wei suggested Henry compare the killer’s walk with the footprints.

• Lestrade brought Li Wei and Professor Henry to the scene where typist Charlotte Chris had been stabbed, and Henry estimated the killer’s height and age from bloody footprints.
• Li Wei explained that investigators would combine Henry’s estimate with evidence about the victim’s relationships to narrow the suspects, and Henry revised the killer’s likely age to 20–23.
• Li Wei suggested that the police donate unclaimed bodies to the Royal Academy of Medicine’s anthropology department, an idea Henry supported.
• An officer reported that police had arrested one of Charlotte’s two boyfriends, a 22-year-old man who was 180 centimeters tall and had killed her over her relationship with another man.
• Lestrade noted that the arrested killer matched Henry’s assessment, and Li Wei suggested that Henry have him walk so he could compare his gait with the footprints.

Li Wei’s judicial reforms advanced through a partnership between the Fog City police and the Royal Academy of Medicine, while the Empire debated whether to ally with Francis as war approached. As the investigative tour passed to the Home Office, Li Wei stayed home and asked Erin to make miniature cockroach-like dolls.

• Professor Henry agreed to a partnership with the Fog City police, and they publicly announced that scholars would assist with more scientific investigations.
• Li Wei reflected on his limited role in domestic reform as Parliament debated whether the Empire should support Francis against Kront and the Sasha Alliance.
• The Home Office took charge of the nationwide gang-case investigation, with Military Intelligence Section Seven checking for supernatural involvement, while Li Wei stayed home.
• Li Wei recalled that the affair had begun with the Brain in a Jar and remained unable to find the alien that had tried to buy it.
• Li Wei asked Erin to make miniature flying creatures resembling cockroaches, and Erin reluctantly agreed.

Li Wei discovered that Muse could only communicate by singing and began teaching her songs before an urgent call from Kia reported a monster in the mountains. The call cut off after Kia screamed, and Li Wei prepared to leave immediately to help her.

• Li Wei sang “Yesterday Once More” for Alice, Adele, Erin, and Muse.
• Muse joined in with clear lyrics, and Li Wei learned she could sing words but could not speak them normally.
• Li Wei sang more songs for Muse and considered teaching her useful songs for communication.
• Kia called Li Wei Detective Agency and cried for help, mentioning Grandpa, the mountains, and a monster before screaming and losing the connection.
• Li Wei told Erin to pack his things because he was leaving at once.

After learning that monsters had attacked Dr. Franco’s expedition on Yellowleaf Mountain and captured Dr. Franco and Kia, Li Wei rushed there with Henry and a rescue force. A wounded platoon leader identified the attackers as flying creatures that controlled lightning and ice, and Li Wei recognized them as the Alien Fiends he had been searching for before setting out to find their cave.

• Military Intelligence Section Seven told Li Wei that Dr. Franco and Kia had joined an expedition to investigate earthquakes and unidentified signals on Yellowleaf Mountain, and the Queen ordered their rescue.
• Li Wei and Henry flew to Yellowleaf Mountain aboard the Kingfisher with thirty Steam Mech Troopers while Steel City troops prepared to rendezvous with them.
• Li Wei used Searchlights and Soul Sight to locate several wounded soldiers, then learned from Platoon Leader Morris that monsters had captured Dr. Franco and Kia.
• Morris reported that a local guide had led the expedition into a monster nest, where flying giant beetles attacked with lightning and freezing mist and destroyed the escorting mechs.
• Li Wei recognized the creatures as the Alien Fiends described by the Brain in a Jar and ordered his forces to follow Morris to their cave.

In the Yellowleaf Mountains, Kia and her grandfather, Dr. Franco, investigated an unexplained radio signal detected by his machine. After a frightened Kia was startled by a kitten, the soldiers discovered it could bite through tough jerky with surprising strength.

• Kia learned that Dr. Franco had brought an expedition into the Yellowleaf Mountains to trace an unusual radio signal detected by his Electromagnetic Wave Detector.
• Kia examined the signal readings with Dr. Franco but still could not decode the repeating transmission.
• Kia stepped away from camp and screamed when a kitten sprang out of the bushes and pounced on her.
• The soldiers found Kia holding a skinny kitten and offered it nutritional powder, which it refused.
• A soldier gave the kitten jerky, and it bit through the tough meat in one bite before the expedition prepared to move out.

Kia and her expedition encountered a mysterious force in the mountains, and she later awoke captive in a cave with her grandfather, Dr. Franco. As a disguised monster prepared to take their brains, Buck revealed extraordinary abilities and fought to protect them, but a gunshot struck the monster at the chapter’s end.

• A rhythmic, earthquake-like rumbling shook the mountains for nearly two hours, and Kia noticed Buck trembling in her arms.
• Dr. Franco argued with the platoon leader about exploring a suspected transmitter, but Kia scolded him and their guide offered a route to the site.
• Kia’s memories broke into fragments, and she woke strapped to a chair in a cave beside Dr. Franco.
• A strange man told Kia he would save her dying grandfather by transferring their brains into metal cylinders, then began preparing Dr. Franco for the procedure.
• Buck attacked the man, who shed his disguise and revealed a monstrous form; Buck blocked its lightning with raised earth but was eventually struck down.
• A gunshot rang out and a bullet punched through the monster’s head.

Li Wei fought alien monsters in a cavern while Henry evacuated the injured Dr. Franco and Kia. Left behind by a quest that required him to annihilate the enemy, Li Wei attacked the aliens’ cube until reinforcements arrived in several mechs.

• Li Wei ordered Henry to rescue Dr. Franco and Kia while the Steam Mech Troopers used explosive rounds to fight the aliens, whose lightning attacks killed several troopers.
• Henry reported that Kia was safe but Dr. Franco was badly injured, so Li Wei ordered them to withdraw and take Dr. Franco to Steel City for treatment.
• After the others left, Li Wei stayed because the quest required him to annihilate the enemy and he believed the aliens were guarding a large cube in the cavern.
• Li Wei dodged the aliens’ lightning and used [Shifting Positions] to escape their freezing mist, then shot the tanks on the monsters’ backs and froze nearby aliens with the released gas.
• Several mechs entered the cavern and attacked the aliens with flamethrowers and heavy cannons.