Chapter Summaries

Dile and his team began an infiltration mission with Balchik General Julie, who supplied badges to protect them from Meme Bomb contamination. As they approached Shatla territory, they learned they would have to solve the ship’s infiltration problem themselves, while Dile worried about the dangers facing Kashi Star.

• Julie gave Dile and his teammates Anti-Meme Contamination Devices and said she would join their operation.
• Dile and the others boarded a captured Shatla Ship and discussed how Shatla might detect the vessel.
• Julie admitted Balchik could not bypass Shatla’s monitoring network, leaving the infiltration problem to Dile’s team.
• Cheng Yu learned from the System that the badges contained Meme Seeds that subtly inclined wearers toward Balchik while helping prevent Meme Bomb contamination.
• Dile worried that his ability might fail against Shatla and thought about the danger facing Kashi Star as its Qualification War approached.

Yog sent Grete to greet Mephitican, who had arrived with a demon army on Belial’s orders. Grete destroyed the army, then vanished with Mephitican while Belial waited for her report and studied the cracks in his shackles.

• Yog ordered Grete to greet Mephitican outside the Small Heavens without letting her take the stage yet.
• Mephitican arrived with her demon army and a planet-sized palace, then ordered her attendants to open a passage.
• Grete engulfed the demons in black flames and confronted Mephitican outside the spatial rift.
• Mephitican wondered whether Grete had come on the Abyssal Will’s orders, and the two avoided discussing their missions.
• Grete teleported away with Mephitican, while Belial waited for her news and contemplated the cracks in his shackles.

Cheng Yu watched the vast Shatla-Balchik front line and assessed the political interests driving the war. He concluded that the Legion stood apart from the giants’ maneuvering, pursuing his own goal of taking their authority fragments.

• Cheng Yu saw a mage-like old man destroy a planet before a cyberpunk-equipped attacker killed him on the front line.
• Cheng Yu considered the scale of the war and identified Shatla’s aim of weakening Balchik while recovering losses, and Balchik’s strategy of prolonging the conflict until its enemies’ costs became unbearable.
• Cheng Yu reasoned that the Pan Chabuko Alliance could struggle to sustain a prolonged war, while the Vax Corporation and other giants were unlikely to clash with Balchik directly.
• Cheng Yu recognized that Dile and the others were stationed on a pivotal battlefield where their actions could influence the giants’ next moves.
• Cheng Yu compared the Small Heavens’ political struggles with those he had witnessed in his previous world, then dismissed them as a mental exercise and focused on claiming the giants’ authority fragments.

Dile used True Illusion to guide the ship carrying Cheng Yu and the others through the Shatla Occupied Zone, fooling the Demonic Web’s investigator into believing their connections were normal. After the successful check, Cheng Yu learned how Dile’s ability had worked and turned his attention to the people aboard.

• Dile maintained a detailed illusion as the ship passed through the Shatla Occupied Zone under Shatla’s scans.
• Julie and the others feared the Demonic Web check, while Cheng Yu considered how Shatla’s network made the nation difficult to infiltrate.
• The Demonic Web announced that its check was complete and directed the ship to Hangar 5239 through the Fifth Portal.
• Cheng Yu learned from the system that Dile had not evaded the probe; True Illusion had made the investigator see normal information despite their lack of Demonic Web connections.
• Cheng Yu reflected that he had been ready to intervene, then looked toward the others, including the female general from Balchik.

Cheng Yu and the others saw Shatla’s Hall of Truth, a strategic armament serving as a Demonic Web node, and learned that their escort mission involved Balchik’s powerful Myriad Forms-Class Meme Bomb. The group trusted Julie’s confidence in the weapon, while Cheng Yu learned that the Legion’s Nebula-Class Computer could suppress even Balchik’s more dangerous Uncontrollable-Class weapons.

• Cheng Yu examined Shatla’s lavish Hall of Truth and saw its silver-rank guards and arriving Shatla Ships.
• Julie explained that the Hall of Truth was Shatla’s top-tier strategic armament and could function as a Demonic Web node.
• Tang Lan challenged Julie over the group’s lack of intelligence about the Hall, and Dile suggested that Julie trusted their own trump card.
• Julie revealed that the group was escorting a Myriad Forms-Class Meme Bomb, and Bennett shared information about Balchik’s weapons with the group.
• Cheng Yu learned that Balchik’s rare Uncontrollable-Class weapons could be countered by the Legion’s Nebula-Class Computer and computational matrix.

Dile and the Azure Dragon Study Group sent the Balchik People's Meme Bomb toward the Hall of Truth, gambling that it could suppress the Shatla stronghold. The bomb contaminated the Demonic Web node, and as the Hall of Truth began emitting the Light of Truth, Shatla soldiers outside underwent horrific transformations.

• Dile said the group had to gamble on the Meme Bomb suppressing the Hall of Truth, while Julie warned that its power was unknown.
• Cheng Yu proposed wrapping the bomb in Dile's True Illusion and using Shinra Tensei to send it close to the Hall of Truth.
• Dile concealed the stone-like bomb with True Illusion, and Cheng Yu repelled it toward the Hall of Truth.
• Julie activated the bomb, which disintegrated and sent an indescribable fluctuation across the universe.
• The Node Spirit reported severe contamination of the Demonic Web node and failed suppression, so Joyce authorized the Hall of Truth to emit the Light of Truth.
• Shatla soldiers outside the Hall of Truth collapsed in agony as their bodies began transforming, while the Hall radiated light.

A Myriad Forms-Class Meme Bomb turned Shatla soldiers into giant rats and sent their forces into chaos, but the Hall of Truth’s Light of Truth contained the contamination only temporarily. Joyce sacrificed the temporary Demonic Web to force the contamination into physical form, revealing an enormous monster Cheng Yu called the Great Horned Rat.

• The Meme Bomb transformed Shatla soldiers into giant rats, who attacked one another and threw their command headquarters into chaos.
• Tang Lan declared the mission accomplished, but Julie warned that the danger had not passed when the Hall of Truth began emitting light.
• The Light of Truth dispersed Shatla’s cannon blasts and suppressed the rats’ mutations, but the contamination persisted beyond its reach.
• The system told Cheng Yu that Dile’s ability had resisted the Light of Truth, which surpassed an ordinary Gold Five-Star in energy.
• Joyce ordered the sacrifice of the temporary Demonic Web to rewrite the star sector’s rules and force the contamination to take physical form.
• The Light of Truth vanished, and an enormous horned, gray-furred monster appeared across more than half the galaxy; Cheng Yu dubbed it the Great Horned Rat.

The Great Horned Rat descended after the Hall of Truth sacrificed the temporary demonic web, leaving Shatla's forces weakened and unable to stop his rampage. Joyce accepted the loss of the battle and ordered the activation of the Seekers of the End as a counterattack against Balchik.

• Julie realized the Hall of Truth's sacrifice of the demonic web had cost Shatla half its fighting strength, while Dile and the others arranged their extraction.
• The Great Horned Rat became solid, and Shatla's combat units opened fire as Dile and the others escaped aboard an inconspicuous spacecraft.
• The Hall of Truth Core blasted away half the Great Horned Rat's head, but he regenerated, slaughtered Shatla soldiers, and destroyed warships with his claws.
• The Node Spirit warned Joyce that the Great Horned Rat was becoming physically anchored, and his immense gravity began dragging Shatla forces toward him.
• Joyce concluded that Shatla had lost the battle, ordered the front lines to retreat, and commanded the activation of the Seekers of the End.

Joyce Pierre ordered Shatla’s forces to retreat and sacrificed the Hall of Truth in a forbidden attack against the Great Horned Rat. The attack opened a rift that swallowed the Rat and exposed the Lost Kingdom, while Shen Qing appeared and began trying to close the breach as a chilling prophecy sounded.

• Joyce teleported the leaders aboard a flagship and resolved to preserve Shatla’s fighting strength.
• Joyce activated the Seekers of the End and ordered the army to retreat from the Great Horned Rat.
• The Hall of Truth transformed into a spindle and struck the Rat, shattering the space around it and opening a rift.
• The rift swallowed the Great Horned Rat and revealed monsters surrounding a chaos-colored giant beyond it.
• Shen Qing appeared, recognized the Lost Kingdom, and began forcing the rift shut as cuts appeared across his body.
• A whisper recounted a shadow that descended upon Nass and preyed on mortal souls.

Shen Qing closed the rift at Shatla’s frontline, and the Starry Sky Hunter King warned Joyce that the war needed new restrictions before leaving. Shatla withdrew under Balchik’s offensive, but the Five Houses’ assault settled into a stalemate that preserved the Giants’ balance of power.

• Cheng Yu and the system identified a passage as coming from the dangerous Chronicles of Nasse, whose spells could contact the Supreme Mother Goddess, but the system told him to carry on as usual.
• Shen Qing closed the rift, and the Starry Sky Hunter King told Joyce he would not clean up another mess and that the war needed additional restrictions.
• Joyce’s forces retreated in good order as Balchik launched an all-out offensive, preserving most of Shatla’s fighting strength.
• Shatla’s route to Balchik was disrupted, forcing Playa’s and the Kabonebog Church’s follow-up forces to take a detour through the Pan Chabuko Alliance.
• Balchik reached a weapons-purchasing agreement with the Vax Corporation, while Henry and the other Giants had little incentive to let the war escalate.
• The opening campaign ended without a decisive victory, leaving the Star Sea’s balance of power and the war’s status quo intact.

Five years after helping Balchik defeat Shatla's Expeditionary Force, the Azure Dragon Study Group returned to Kashi Star for the Star Sea Grand Competition final. Cheng Yu reflected on the bonds he had formed with the group and feared that their coming farewell could turn them into enemies.

• Dile and the others earned honorary ranks from Balchik and built a fearsome reputation through successful missions, including assassinating the Kabonebog Church's Ascetics.
• The war between Balchik and the other Five Giants settled into a profitable stalemate, while the Mechanicus became a major supplier of advanced energy crystals.
• The Azure Dragon Study Group reached the top hundred of the Star Sea Grand Competition three years earlier and advanced to the final as most opponents forfeited against them.
• Dile and the others returned to Kashi Star before the final, where Dile went shopping with the two girls and Bennett left on his own errand.
• Cheng Yu recalled unlocking the Decryptor Stage Two achievement and realized that his close bond with the group might soon end in a farewell that left them enemies.

Cheng Yu traveled to Star Sea City with his friends for the Star Sea Grand Competition finals, where he reflected on parting and resolved to say a proper goodbye. The ceremony became the setting for six powerful leaders to confront Bennett, intending to stop his efforts to reform Balchik’s Warlord Alliance.

• Cheng Yu decided not to visit Big Shot before leaving and reflected on how immortality made parting inevitable.
• Ning Qing, Dile, and Bennett checked on Cheng Yu during their journey, and he reassured them that he was all right.
• Cheng Yu and his companions arrived at Star Sea City for the finals, where Shen Qing was introduced as a special guest.
• Shen Qing and five other leaders unleashed their power, freezing the surrounding moment as they confronted Bennett.
• The seven strongest combatants gathered to make Bennett disappear, fearing his reforms would unite Balchik’s warlords and disrupt their plans for the Lost Kingdom.

Bennett McAdam engineered a crisis on Kashi Star to test whether an external threat could unite a divided society, then used his disappearance and the war to push reforms through Balchik. He realized the other Five Giants had discovered his plans and wanted him gone to preserve the Star Sea’s balance of power.

• After Fabian explained that external pressure could help reform Balchik, Bennett chose to act and later declared that Balchik needed to change.
• Bennett shaped Kashi Star’s history, introduced a basic source of meme contamination, and watched its people unite when visitors from the stars arrived.
• Convinced the experiment had succeeded, Bennett disappeared to provoke a crisis in Balchik, while Fabian used wartime rules to remove disloyal warlords.
• The Mechanicus’s rise brought the Star Sea Alliance Conference forward, and Bennett’s absence confirmed rumors that he had gone missing.
• Bennett concluded that the other Five Giants had detected his reform efforts and were forcing him to disappear to preserve the Star Sea’s equilibrium.

Shen Qing confronted Bennett over Balchik’s reforms, but their domains reached a stalemate. Bennett threatened to release Balchik’s Meme Formula Repository across the Star Sea if his domain was broken, leaving Shen Qing without support from the other Limit-Breakers.

• Shen Qing asked Bennett to stop Balchik’s reforms, but Bennett said they were nearly complete and mocked Shen Qing’s demand.
• Shen Qing and Bennett clashed with their domains, and neither could overcome the other.
• Shen Qing asked the other Limit-Breakers to intervene, but they stayed silent.
• Bennett revealed that he carried Balchik’s Meme Formula Repository and threatened to unleash its Meme Contamination if his domain shattered.
• The other Limit-Breakers hesitated to help Shen Qing, who realized Bennett could keep him tied up for thousands of years.

Cheng Yu weighed whether to save Bennett, his friend, while considering the Legion’s readiness to challenge the Star Sea’s Giants. When Cheng Yu stepped into the domain created by six Legendaries, Shen Qing recognized the same dread he had felt before the World-Destroying God and wondered if Cheng Yu was that god.

• Cheng Yu decided he wanted to defeat Bennett through strength rather than tricks, hoping his friend might survive.
• Cheng Yu considered the Legion’s preparations and planned to use the next Star Sea Conference to declare its refusal to follow the Star Sea’s rules.
• Cheng Yu disregarded the six Legendaries’ domain, astonishing Bennett and Shen Qing.
• Shen Qing recalled feeling the same dread before the World-Destroying God and the Creator God, then wondered whether Cheng Yu was the World-Destroying God.

Cheng Yu intervened when the Five Giants’ Limit-Breakers moved to capture Bennett, asking them to end the confrontation and claiming he was unaffiliated with the Lost Kingdom. When they refused to back down, Cheng Yu prepared to use the Big Shot’s Aura and confronted them with a galaxy-like glass orb.

• Shen Qing feared that the World-Destroying God’s appearance meant the Lost Kingdom might descend upon the Star Sea.
• Bennett and Cheng Yu recognized each other, and Cheng Yu introduced himself as Yuri Constantine, also known as Cheng Yu.
• Cheng Yu asked the assembled Limit-Breakers to spare Bennett, but Matthew mocked him and urged the others to attack.
• Bennett stood beside Cheng Yu as the Five Giants’ Limit-Breakers prepared to act, while Shen Qing remained wary and hesitant.
• Cheng Yu checked with the System about using the Big Shot’s Aura, then warned the Limit-Breakers that the farce was over and formed a galaxy-like glass orb.

Cheng Yu used the Big Shot’s Aura to overwhelm the six Limit-Breakers, shatter their Special Domain, and expose their actions to the Star Sea. After the Limit-Breakers recovered, Cheng Yu prepared to make things clear and part ways with the Azure Dragon Study Group.

• Cheng Yu shattered the Glass Ball and unleashed the Big Shot’s Aura, destroying most of the Limit-Breakers’ Rule Bodies and severely injuring them.
• The Aura faded, and the Limit-Breakers discovered that their Special Domain had been destroyed and that their identities were visible on the giant screens.
• Cheng Yu projected memories of Shen Qing and the others inside the Special Domain, revealing their actions to the Star Sea and shattering the competition’s livestream records.
• The injured Limit-Breakers and Shen Qing stood up but were afraid to challenge Cheng Yu or leave before he addressed them.
• Cheng Yu turned his attention to clarifying matters and separating from the Azure Dragon Study Group.

After the Azure Dragon Study Group won the tournament, Cheng Yu told Bennett and the others about the Legion and refused to help Bennett lead Balchik because their missions would eventually put them on opposing sides. Cheng Yu left his friends behind, accepting that he would have to continue alone.

• The Azure Dragon Study Group's opponents forfeited after learning Bennett was Balchik's Commander-in-Chief, and the crowd left the venue while continuing to watch the livestream.
• At a hot pot restaurant, Bennett admitted that Kashi Star's spiritual energy revival and many historical events had been part of his social experiment, while Cheng Yu claimed his strength was only that of a True God.
• Bennett asked Cheng Yu, Dile, Ning Qing, and Tang Lan to help him lead Balchik, and everyone except Cheng Yu agreed.
• Cheng Yu told the group about the Legion and asked Bennett to surrender Balchik's Creator Godhead Fragment, but Bennett refused and accepted that they might meet on a battlefield.
• Dile challenged Cheng Yu over choosing his mission over their friendship, but Bennett defended him, and he and Cheng Yu toasted to achieving their goals.
• Cheng Yu left without looking back, and the System tried to comfort him before they exchanged insults and he admitted that he had always been alone.

Cheng Yu reviewed the RTX Destroyer Legion’s completed preparations and ordered it to begin the first stage of its plan against Balchik. At a Star Sea Assembly convened to discuss the Giant War and sanctions, Jane learned that the Mechanicus had been chosen as the giants’ target.

• The Legion’s Wisdom units reported that its industrial and strategic infrastructure was largely complete, but its energy and material reserves were running low.
• Cheng Yu ordered the Legion to enter combat readiness and begin taking all of Balchik in one Star Sea day.
• The Star Sea Assembly was called at the Balchik Warlord Alliance Commander-in-Chief’s proposal to discuss the Giant War and related matters.
• Jane encountered Ralph in the assembly’s waiting hall, where he mocked the Mechanicus for not being a giant and Jane calmly dismissed his taunts.
• Ralph revealed that the giants planned to sanction the Mechanicus for profiting from the Giant War, and the ambassadors were called into the chamber.

At the Star Sea Alliance assembly, the Council imposed severe sanctions on the Mechanicus, and Jane denounced the Alliance before declaring war in the name of the RTX Destroyer Legion. His speech ended as an explosion engulfed the assembly hall.

• Bennett McAdam apologized for the Giant War and announced the Six Giants’ ceasefire.
• Sid accused the Mechanicus of profiteering and announced sanctions, including opening the B3397 Star Sector, surrendering its war profits, and handing over technologies of mass destruction.
• Jane challenged the ambassadors to approve the sanctions, then condemned the Star Sea Alliance as exploitative.
• Jane declared that the RTX Destroyer Legion would wage war on every member of the Star Sea Alliance and proclaimed the era of Starsea Heavenly Punishment.
• Jane’s glass head blazed red, and a tremendous explosion engulfed the assembly hall.