Chapter Summaries

Grete went to the real world to confront Belial, the Demon Emperor of sloth, whom he believed had left an old scar in his past. Belial exposed that he knew Grete’s plans and ordered him to lead the way back to the sandbox world.

• Cheng Yu read his script and realized that some of its passages had become incomprehensible, though the play still seemed to be following his plan.
• Grete followed the scent of original sin through the city and encountered Belial sitting on a bench.
• Belial questioned Grete about the world and noted that Grete had recognized its unusual merging universes and rapid development.
• Belial ordered Grete to lead him to the low-dimensional world, then grabbed him and revealed that the abyssal will had told him everything.
• Belial released Grete and called the attack a joke, while Grete said he hoped to return the same joke someday.

Vax Corporation uncovered a pitch-black gate beneath the West District slums after deciphering a drawing from the Godslayer Organization. Qiu Ji and Cheng Yu questioned the gate’s origins, while Belial and Grete arrived at the excavation site and Grete recognized it from His Eminence’s place.

• Vax Corporation deciphered a seized paper describing ancient ruins beneath the West District slums and approved an excavation.
• Vax Corporation bought the slums and spent two hundred days digging until its workers uncovered a towering pitch-black gate.
• Qiu Ji found the gate in Sandbox World No. 4 and wondered whether it had appeared during the world’s development.
• Cheng Yu examined the gate and his script, and Yog hinted that the gate was tied to the return of Cheng Yu’s physical body.
• Cheng Yu used the Black Quill to write changes into the script and traded barbs with System about tempting fate.
• Belial and Grete arrived at the gate, and Grete recalled seeing it at His Eminence’s place.

The chapter presented reference material on Nyarlathotep’s origins and many forms, then introduced Shub-Niggurath’s origins, appearance, avatars, and worship. It left off with an account of how Shub-Niggurath transformed worthy worshippers into her immortal kin.

• The account traced Nyarlathotep from Lovecraft’s early stories to later writers’ titles and interpretations of him as a messenger of the Outer Gods.
• The chapter described Nyarlathotep’s major forms, including the Black Man, the Haunter of the Dark, the Faceless God, and the Darkness Dweller.
• The text introduced Shub-Niggurath as an Outer God associated with fertility, life, and the Dark Young, and recounted her appearances in Lovecraft’s stories and correspondence.
• The chapter outlined Shub-Niggurath’s cloudlike appearance and described her avatars, including the Keeper of the Moon-Lens, He Who Walks Behind Rows, and the Great God Pan.
• The account described Shub-Niggurath’s cults, rituals, and summons, ending with her transformation of worthy worshippers into immortal blessed kin.

Vax Corporation began researching the Black Door as the New Moon Government ordered A Big Old Sow’s players to sabotage the facility, while Shen Qing secretly used the attack to pressure Morris into handing over technology. Shen Qing captured the players and negotiated with Morris, but an explosion at the Black Door interrupted their deal.

• Alanna sent Vira and Fat Jack to monitor Vax Corporation’s Black Door research facility, while the New Moon Government tasked A Big Old Sow’s players with sabotaging it.
• Shen Qing warned Morris about the players’ planned attack, but Morris dismissed the threat.
• A Big Old Sow’s team used electromagnetic bombs and repeated respawns to breach Vax Corporation’s defenses, destroy equipment, and infect the facility’s main computer.
• Shen Qing captured the players with Laser Chains and told Morris he had been right about the danger, securing Morris’s promise to provide technology and equipment.
• A Big Old Sow asked Shen Qing whether he worked for the authorities, and Shen Qing agreed to share credit for the operation.
• A tremendous explosion erupted at the Black Door.

Fat Jack sabotaged Vax Corporation’s Black Door experiment, causing the door to open and a monster to enter the laboratory. Shen Qing escaped with Morris, who realized the Board of Directors would likely seek to exploit the new world beyond the door despite its dangers.

• Fat Jack sent a hacked mechanical soldier into the Black Door laboratory and made it explode, opening a crack in the door.
• The Black Door opened, and a grotesque monster emerged and attacked the researchers while Belial and Grete entered the Inner World unnoticed.
• Shen Qing grabbed Morris and escaped the laboratory as the monster pursued them.
• Shen Qing told Morris that the door had opened, and Morris concluded that a new world lay beyond it.
• Morris warned Shen Qing that the Board of Directors might pursue the new world, backed by the company’s powerful weapons.

Cheng Yu and Miss Puppet left the Ancient Tower to investigate the monster rampage, and Yog followed them. As the Vax Corporation prepared to bombard the slums, Morris and Shen Qing escaped, while Fat Jack and Vira clashed over the organization’s willingness to sacrifice residents.

• Cheng Yu and Miss Puppet left the Ancient Tower to investigate the unexpected monster, and Yog later left to see the situation for himself.
• Morris blamed Fat Jack for the research institute breach when he reported the crisis to the Vax Corporation chairman, who ordered him to leave and authorized a response.
• The Vax Corporation warned slum residents to evacuate in one minute before blanketing the district with fire, while players looted and Morris and Shen Qing escaped.
• Fat Jack argued that the monsters would help keep the organization hidden, and Vira condemned his willingness to sacrifice the slum residents.
• Fat Jack told Vira that dirty methods were sometimes necessary and that he would handle them, leaving her stunned.

Fat Jack and Vira escaped through the Black Door as Vax Corporation prepared to destroy the slums, while Cheng Yu learned that Grete had found the Demon Emperor Belial inside. The bombs leveled the slums, leaving the Black Door untouched.

• Fat Jack used a large robot to carry Vira through the monster-filled institute and into the Black Door.
• Cheng Yu asked Miss Puppet about the Black Door, and she explained that it led to the mirror side of the world, where monsters were aggregates of negative information.
• Miss Puppet decrypted Grete's message: he had found Belial, an avatar of the Demon Emperor of Sloth, and the two had already entered the door.
• Cheng Yu and Miss Puppet went through the Black Door, followed shortly afterward by Fat Jack and Vira.
• Vax Corporation dropped low-yield explosive bombs on the slums, destroying every building while the Black Door remained unharmed.

After the monsters grew stronger and spread beyond the Slums, Shen Qing persuaded Vax Corporation’s board to contain them and study their near-immortality. Vax established a walled “Livestock Farm,” and its researchers confirmed the monsters’ tissue had limitless vitality but found its genes nearly impossible to decipher.

• The surviving monster fragments fed on corpses, regenerated, and overwhelmed Vax Corporation’s Mechanical Soldiers as the creatures spread beyond the Slums.
• Shen Qing proposed sacrificing part of the West District to contain the monsters and investigate their abilities, promising Vax Corporation immense power if it could reproduce their near-immortality.
• The board approved Shen Qing’s plan, while the overweight middle-aged man said Mr. Gu had delegated company decisions to him unless the company faced destruction.
• Vax deployed advanced weapons and built the Long Wall, whose ion energy and Radio-Frequency Pulse Oscillation Devices kept the monsters away and enclosed them in a “Livestock Farm.”
• The Underground Laboratory found that monster tissue had limitless vitality but no coherent genetic structure, prompting the board to demand rapid research without asking how many residents remained trapped inside.

Cheng Yu and the others entered a strange cyberpunk world ruled by the God Emperor, who invited them to find him in a game. Belial suspected a powerful being had arranged the challenge and considered drawing on the Abyss to drag the world into its domain.

• The God Emperor welcomed the outsiders, warned them against attacking the residents, and offered a reward to anyone who found him.
• The God Emperor privately promised Belial a way to advance to Mythic if he found him.
• The group arrived in a city beneath a blood-red sun, where monstrous, mechanically augmented residents filled the streets and Cheng Yu recognized the great door's pattern as the Door Seal emblem.
• Belial wondered whether the Abyssal Will had arranged his discovery of the world, while Grete said its environment suited demons.
• Belial seized a passing resident and searched its soul, found only gibberish, and speculated that the God Emperor might be a Holy Spirit or Mythic.
• Belial considered using the Abyss's authority to pull part of it into the world and drag the world into the Abyss.

Belial abandoned the idea of destroying part of the Abyss and set out with Grete to investigate the mysterious Divine Emperor. Meanwhile, Cheng Yu obtained a newspaper with Miss Puppet’s help and learned that the Divine Emperor had opened a gateway to the Otherworld.

• Belial decided not to bring down part of the Abyss and chose to search for clues about the Divine Emperor instead.
• Miss Puppet paid the Wrinkle Monster with a sheet of her facial skin, then used a prepared information program to subdue it and obtain a newspaper for Cheng Yu.
• Miss Puppet deciphered the newspaper’s writing and uploaded information about the script to the Legion’s Database.
• Cheng Yu read a headline announcing that the Divine Emperor had opened a gateway to an undeveloped Otherworld, and concluded that the Divine Emperor likely belonged to this world’s ruling class.

Cheng Yu’s attempt to ask for directions to the God Emperor triggered a hidden mechanism that exposed his group to a monster, while Miss Puppet’s ally defeated the attacker. Meanwhile, Fat Jack and Vira found an unverified online claim that the God Emperor had once visited their world, leaving his identity and the trail to him uncertain.

• Cheng Yu asked a stitched monster where the God Emperor lived, and the monster attacked him with living stitches and small creatures.
• Miss Puppet sent the metal wrinkled monster to fight the stitched monster, and armband-wearing monsters eventually took the attacker away.
• Miss Puppet told Cheng Yu that his question had triggered a mechanism that revealed their identities, and Cheng Yu decided not to repeat the test soon.
• Cheng Yu planned to seek out a place with a high concentration of information.
• Fat Jack used a networked machine with Vira’s help and found a post claiming the God Emperor had entered their world through something like a game.
• Vira and Fat Jack questioned the post’s reliability and could not determine when the God Emperor had visited or how famous he had been.

Yog discussed a hidden plan with a shadowy figure, revealed that his true self had set an inevitable future in motion, and left the figure to act out a role. Elsewhere, Cheng Yu and Miss Puppet listened as Dermot campaigned for leadership in a new world opened by the God Emperor.

• Yog confronted the shadowy figure about exploiting his loophole and said he was interested in the figure’s plan.
• Yog revealed that his true self had set out and anchored an inevitable future despite the threat Shub posed.
• Yog severed the shadowy figure’s connection to its avatar and told it to maintain a convincing performance.
• The shadowy figure decided to stay in character and became intrigued by the avatar’s search for the God Emperor and its participants.
• Miss Puppet held Cheng Yu at a crossroads as Dermot urged the crowd to vote for him, and Cheng Yu recognized him as a story NPC.

Cheng Yu used Miss Puppet’s energy to disguise himself and questioned Thousand-Eyed Dermot about Eternal Night City’s government and the God Emperor. He learned that everyone sees the God Emperor differently, but Dermot’s position might give him a way to meet the ruler.

• Cheng Yu asked Miss Puppet to modify his heart so he could use her energy, then transformed himself into the appearance he had used to fool Shui Feifei.
• Cheng Yu introduced himself to Dermot as Yuri Constantine and pretended to be a newcomer from a remote place.
• Dermot explained Eternal Night City’s government, including Congress, the Cabinet, and the status of Disciples of the Divine Emperor.
• Cheng Yu learned that Dermot was a Disciple of the Divine Emperor, a Cabinet member, and had met the God Emperor during the Divine Emperor Trial.
• Dermot said the God Emperor looked different to everyone, and Cheng Yu decided Dermot could help him find a way to meet the ruler.

Grete and Belial examined the monsters in the park for clues about the God Emperor, while Grete reflected on the Abyss’s history and the gulf between Holy Spirits and Mythic beings. The chapter ended with Grete thinking of His Eminence, who had freed him from the Abyssal Will’s control and dwarfed even that Mythic power.

• Grete crushed an armband-wearing monster and reported to Belial that he could find no coherent information in the monsters’ memories.
• Belial explained that the monsters’ gender distinctions and the God Emperor’s reactions suggested the God Emperor was male.
• Grete recalled how an Abyssal invasion of the Pantheon led to the deaths and disappearance of powerful demons, prompting the Abyssal Will to declare the Pantheon its eternal enemy.
• Grete concluded that Holy Spirits could perceive the Mythic rank, but the Abyss’s Demon Emperors remained devoted to the Abyssal Will without understanding the true gap in power.
• Grete remembered that His Eminence had removed his shackles and that even the Abyssal Will was merely a plaything in His Eminence’s hands.

Vax Corporation used the Black Door’s monsters to develop genes that could slow aging and extend human lifespan, despite a side effect of aggression. As the corporation’s chairman considered how that side effect might be useful, someone returned from beyond the Door.

• The New Moon Government and several corporations pressured Vax Corporation to share its Black Door research, while the company stalled.
• Vax Corporation’s researchers decoded monster genes and found that injections could delay aging and promote new cell growth.
• A test subject became irritable and aggressive after the injection, and attempts to suppress the behavior through a frontal lobotomy produced extreme results.
• The chairman decided the aggression might still be useful and told the researcher to continue working on reducing it.
• Someone returned from beyond the Door, drawing the attention of every faction, including Vax Corporation.

A Du returned to Sandbox World No. 4 after accepting the God Emperor’s secret role of misleading the other players, and began considering how to exploit the soldiers who arrived at the Street Racers’ corpses. Meanwhile, Fat Jack, Vira, and Cheng Yu pursued clues about the game as they learned that the God Emperor’s Trial was already making headlines.

• A Du escaped the Street Racers by entering the phantom Black Door, where the God Emperor tasked him with fabricating misleading clues and offered him a mysterious reward if he succeeded.
• A Du accepted the role, returned to Sandbox World No. 4 with the ability to speak its inhabitants’ language, and saw soldiers arrive at the Street Racers’ corpses.
• Fat Jack told Vira that they might not be the only participants and suggested the God Emperor himself could be involved in their game.
• Cheng Yu and Miss Puppet joined the Dermot Supporters Club, and Dermot told Cheng Yu that the God Emperor’s game was also called the Divine Emperor’s Trial.
• Cheng Yu wondered how Dermot knew about the game, then spotted a furtive human-looking figure and cursed.

Cheng Yu helped Dermot prepare a speaking platform while wondering about a human stranger, as players in the world beyond the Door discussed the God Emperor’s game and Shui Feifei shared a clue. The clue appeared in Cheng Yu’s script, leaving him and Miss Puppet to consider what it meant.

• Cheng Yu spotted a human stranger who fled from Dermot, then helped Dermot set up a speaking platform in Crossroads.
• Players trapped beyond the Door formed a chatroom and discussed the God Emperor’s rules after one player was repeatedly chased by monsters for breaking them.
• Shui Feifei revealed that she had completed a restocking task for Many Fingers and received a clue describing the God Emperor as a competitive “person.”
• Cheng Yu received Shui Feifei’s clue through his script and wondered how she had found a quest so quickly when he had worked for Dermot without receiving one.

Miss Puppet deduced that the God Emperor might be a human player and that quests from Divine Emperor’s Disciples could provide reliable clues. She concluded Cheng Yu needed to take part in Dermot’s Cabinet election to trigger his quest, and she hinted she had found another way to seek clues.

• Miss Puppet reasoned that the God Emperor could be a competitive human who had joined the game as a player.
• Miss Puppet compared the reliable clue from Many-Fingers’s task with the low-reliability clue from the Newsstand Hag and recommended staying close to Dermot.
• Miss Puppet deduced that quests were triggered by actions related to a clue provider’s profession, so Cheng Yu would need to wait for the Cabinet election to trigger Dermot’s quest.
• Cheng Yu promised Dermot he would help him become Prime Minister, and Dermot began explaining his opponents.
• Miss Puppet told Cheng Yu she had found another direction for seeking clues in the game.

Cheng Yu and Miss Puppet investigated the Divine Emperor Trial and the God Emperor’s Disciples in Eternal Night City. Miss Puppet deduced that the Disciples’ organ-themed titles might reveal the God Emperor’s appearance when the Cabinet members gathered, giving Cheng Yu a new lead to pursue through Dermot.

• Cheng Yu and Miss Puppet held a banner at Dermot’s speech, where Dermot announced that the Divine Emperor Trial was about to begin and that few Disciple places remained.
• Dermot told Cheng Yu that the Prime Minister was {Faceless} Feis and named the Cabinet members: {Thousand Eyes} Dermot, {Hundred Ears} Yil, {Ten Noses} Nurs, and {Ten Thousand Mouths} Morse.
• Miss Puppet deduced that the Disciples’ titles represented body parts and that the Cabinet members’ combined appearances might reveal the God Emperor’s face.
• Miss Puppet reasoned that Dermot’s expressive eyeballs reflected the God Emperor’s eyes, whose appearance changed over time.
• Cheng Yu decided to stay close to Dermot and wait for the Cabinet to gather so Miss Puppet could investigate further.

In Eternal Night City, Yog confronted a dark figure about secretly changing clues in Cheng Yu's game and demanded the missing fragment of Cheng Yu's name. The dark figure returned it and received permission to meddle with the game as long as he did not break it, while Yog looked forward to the journey ahead.

• A dark figure complained that Cheng Yu and Miss Puppet had uncovered the intended solution, and Yog told him to follow the avatar's original plan.
• Yog revealed that the dark figure had secretly altered clues, then showed him a book that made him excited about new possibilities.
• Yog demanded the missing fragment of Cheng Yu's name, and the dark figure produced a tiny white dot that expanded to reveal a naked young man identical to Cheng Yu.
• Yog said Cheng Yu was useful to him, then allowed the dark figure to do as he pleased with the game as long as he did not break it.
• The dark figure cackled as he devised a plan, while Yog called the ending dull but said he would enjoy the journey.