Chapter Summaries

Cheng Yu devastated a world while forcibly analyzing its rules, believing its inhabitants had named him Heaven's Mandate's World Destroyer. Ten Legendaries arrived to confront him, and after learning they called themselves True Gods, Cheng Yu agreed to talk with their leader.

• Cheng Yu erased the world's defenders, crippled its consciousness, and learned that its God Lord had vanished a thousand years earlier after warning of Outer Demons.
• Cheng Yu unleashed his Domain and Legendary true form, then began refining the world as its stars and continents crumbled.
• Cheng Yu destroyed nearly all life in the world before ten Legendaries attacked from beyond its shattered barrier.
• The Legendaries' leader, a beautiful woman, offered to guarantee Cheng Yu a satisfactory answer and urged him to let go of the grudge against her companion.
• Cheng Yu considered the Legendaries' title of True Gods and the Pantheon's possible attention, then told the woman they should talk.

Cheng Yu learned about the Pantheon and the dangers facing True Gods in the Myriad Heavens Sea while a woman tried to recruit him into her group. Fearing that joining a faction would expose his secrets, he declined and chose to remain alone.

• The woman explained that the Pantheon governed the Myriad Heavens Sea and that its True Gods were free to fight but often formed teams for protection.
• Cheng Yu reflected on the Pantheon's enemies and realized that, despite his knowledge, he lacked allies and backing of his own.
• The woman invited Cheng Yu to join her group, saying that being alone in the sea of worlds was dangerous.
• Cheng Yu questioned why the Pantheon assumed every True God belonged to it, and the woman said a High God could uncover a True God's secrets.
• Cheng Yu decided that joining would risk exposing his identity and declined the woman's invitation.

Cheng Yu investigated the peculiar world where he had assumed the identity of Marquis Constantine, learning about its supernatural society and the limits imposed on his power. A lavish, illusion-filled dinner on the train revealed the extravagant comforts available to the world’s elite.

• Cheng Yu considered the world’s shifting rules, its Epic power behind the scenes, and why he had accepted the woman’s offer to explore it quietly.
• Cheng Yu pieced together the world’s industrial-era society, its city-states and supernatural pathways, and his position as Marquis Constantine of Frederick City.
• Cheng Yu recalled that the Constantine family controlled the Magician pathway and operated much of the Fresta Confederation’s railway network.
• A maid served Cheng Yu an elaborate fantasy-themed dinner and explained that the dessert’s chocolate wand contained a map to the Elf Tavern.
• Cheng Yu sensed that the dinner’s music, scenery, and fragrances were illusions, then decided to taste the food.

Cheng Yu noticed that several passengers on his train had been replaced by unfamiliar consciousnesses and listened as they communicated through a team channel. The newcomers recognized the world as the Crimson Moon script and planned to regroup at the next station, while Cheng Yu began investigating their origins.

• Cheng Yu maintained a five-kilometer domain around himself and detected changes in the consciousnesses of several train passengers.
• A girl in a blue dress awakened to discover she was inhabiting a female body and complained to her team through a mental channel.
• The team members shared their train locations, joked about one man being trapped beneath a large woman, and agreed to stay put until the next station.
• Brother Blue warned the team to keep a low profile in the Crimson Moon script and told them to regroup after reaching the next station.
• Cheng Yu inferred that the team had descended into other worlds before and had encountered more advanced technological civilizations, then became curious about them.

Cheng Yu returned to Constantine City, where his soldiers and attendants welcomed him. At the station, a group of newcomers compared their assigned identities and Brother Blue shared that the city’s ruler was a powerful key NPC.

• Cheng Yu arrived in Constantine City and was escorted away by William, his maid, and mage-soldiers.
• Old Wu used an item to control the wife of the city’s leather-shoe tycoon and planned to gain influence through the merchant.
• Brother Blue warned Old Wu that Cheng Yu was a seventh-tier magician and a key NPC in the Crimson Moon Script.
• Old Bai joined Brother Blue and the others, and they gathered in a private tavern room to compare their identities.
• Old Wu, Xiao Lin, Brother Blue, and the others described their roles, while Old Bai revealed he was a merchant’s daughter and a lord’s fiancée.
• Brother Blue began sharing verified confidential information about the Crimson Moon Script.

Brother Lan outlined his group’s plans to contact Marquis Constantine before the Crimson Moon and assigned each Intruder a way to gather intelligence or build influence. Meanwhile, Cheng Yu finished extrapolating the Spell Devourer profession and all the other Profession Books available at the Marquis’s Residence to the ninth tier.

• Brother Lan explained the Crimson Moon’s history, the Night Watchers’ importance, and Marquis Constantine’s extraordinary strength.
• Brother Lan told the group to seek the marquis’s trust and obtain the Night Watcher profession, with other paths as fallbacks.
• Brother Lan assigned Xiao Lin, Old Wu, Old Bai, and the remaining Intruders to gather information and increase their standing through their identities.
• Cheng Yu extrapolated the final four tiers of the Spell Devourer profession and set its Profession Book aside.
• Cheng Yu learned that the residence held only a little over thirty Profession Books, then extrapolated all of them to the ninth tier.

Cheng Yu studied the principles behind alchemical creations and sought more Profession Books to develop a new profession. Meanwhile, William approved Doyle Lind as a prospective guard and took him to meet the marquis.

• Cheng Yu asked William to gather as many Profession Books as possible so he could complete profession paths and find their common foundation.
• Cheng Yu declined two alchemical companions, and a maid transformed his bedroom into a snowy mountain scene for his studies.
• Cheng Yu reflected on the Alchemical Treasure Tree, whose creations came from Duke Raymond’s Alchemist profession, and continued reverse-engineering its supernatural pathway.
• William interviewed Doyle Lind, confirmed that Doyle Harvey was his father, and approved him as a guard pending the marquis’s consent.
• William took Doyle Lind to meet the marquis, and Doyle said his father was pleased that he would follow in his footsteps.

Xiao Lin, posing as Doyle Lind, met Cheng Yu after William brought him to the Marquis's Residence to join the personal guard. Cheng Yu heard reports of rising disappearances and a foreign slave bought by Viscount Blake two Magic Months earlier, but refused to order an investigation.

• Xiao Lin worried about entering the dangerous Crimson Moon storyline, then steadied himself before meeting the city-state's ruler.
• William brought Xiao Lin to Cheng Yu, who accepted him for the personal guard and told William to follow the usual procedures.
• Cheng Yu privately recognized Xiao Lin and asked his maid about unusual rumors.
• The maid reported increased missing-person cases in the Lower City and said Viscount Blake had bought a beautiful foreign girl with pale purple skin and red eyes.
• Cheng Yu learned Blake bought the girl about two Magic Months before the disappearances began, then declined to have anyone investigate the connection.

Xiao Lin and the Marquis’s Residence guards investigated the disappearances in the Lower City, and Xiao Lin was lured by a strange girl before his teammate revealed her monstrous appearance. The investigation reached its first confrontation, with the culprit exposed but not yet captured.

• Old William ordered the ten new residence guards to solve the Lower City disappearances within ten days or leave their posts.
• Xiao Lin’s team reviewed the reports, divided into pairs, and set out to catch the culprit by using a decoy.
• Xiao Lin exchanged updates with his teammates, learning about rumors of a foreign-race captive and restrictions on going out after sunset.
• Xiao Lin encountered a sobbing girl in a burlap cloak, and she grabbed his trouser leg to beg for help.
• The girl’s charm overwhelmed Xiao Lin, but his taciturn teammate moved him to a rooftop and showed him that she was a fanged, red-eyed monster.

Xiao Lin and Spencer captured a mutated ghoul and brought it to Marquis Constantine's residence, where Xiao Lin used an Appraisal Card to uncover secrets about the household. Cheng Yu secretly analyzed a rule thread from the ghoul before a supreme power interrupted him, leaving him intrigued by the storyline.

• Xiao Lin and Spencer chased the monster through the city, and Spencer pinned it down while Xiao Lin stopped its bone-whip attack and cut off its claws and tail.
• Cheng Yu thanked Xiao Lin and Spencer, sent them to rest, and had the bound monster taken to the Laboratory.
• Xiao Lin used Brother Blue's Appraisal Card to learn that the monster was a mutated ghoul whose modification should not have appeared at this point in the story.
• Xiao Lin appraised Spencer, William, and Minian, discovering Minian was a powerful Magician, but the card revealed nothing about Cheng Yu.
• Cheng Yu extracted a pale red rule thread from the ghoul and began analyzing it, but withdrew when a supreme power descended.
• Cheng Yu dissected the ghoul's corpse and smiled over the fragments of information he had gathered.

Cheng Yu used his cousin’s complaint about Viscount Blake and a female slave to investigate the world’s predetermined storyline and summon those involved. After the Black Market Merchant proved unavailable, Blake arrived with the bundled slave and declared he would dispose of her, but his wife’s scream stopped him as Cheng Yu turned his attention to the girl.

• Brother Blue and Xiao Lin discussed the Modified Ghoul and whether the Night Races had been active before the crimson moon storyline.
• Cheng Yu reflected on evidence that the world was a fixed story read by the Intruders and decided to probe its hidden rules.
• Cheng Yu asked his maid to find the Black Market Merchant and summon Viscount Blake with his female slave.
• The maid reported that the Black Market Merchant had disappeared ten days earlier, and Viscount Blake arrived with the bundled girl.
• Blake said he would dispose of the girl and reached for his Ceremonial Sword, but Viscountess Blake’s scream stopped him as Cheng Yu watched the slave.

Cheng Yu took Caroline, a beautiful foreign-race woman whose charm seemed to affect those around her, into his residence after Viscount Blake handed her over in exchange for a valuable Profession Book. Xiao Lin and Brother Blue’s group suspected Caroline was connected to the captured ghoul and prepared for unrest at the Marquis’s Residence, while Cheng Yu warned Minian to focus on her duties.

• Caroline prostrated herself before Cheng Yu, and Viscount Blake offered her to him as a pet in exchange for a fifth-tier Elemental Envoy Profession Book.
• Cheng Yu ordered a maid to clean and dress Caroline before bringing her to his room that night.
• Xiao Lin noticed a fellow guard acting as though bewitched by Caroline and suspected her charm resembled the ghoul’s influence; his mental-resistance ring protected him.
• Minian warned Cheng Yu that Caroline was dangerous, but he told her to do her job and not concern herself with his aims.
• Brother Blue told Xiao Lin to side with Cheng Yu if unrest broke out and directed the others to prepare for riots and strengthen their resources.

Cheng Yu learned that Caroline had infiltrated Constantine City for the Revelation Council and uncovered the dark races’ plans. Unable to alter the world’s main plot, he created a hidden quest to persuade player intruders to protect Marquis Yuri and pursue a tenth-tier supernatural pathway.

• Caroline tried to stab Cheng Yu with a black bone dagger, but he knocked her unconscious and read her information before abandoning further attempts to control her when the world consciousness took notice.
• Cheng Yu learned that the Revelation Council had sent Caroline to control him and use Constantine City as a base for its plans involving Moon Beasts and the dark races.
• Cheng Yu discovered that he could study the world’s rules without attracting the world consciousness’s attention, but he could not interfere with the main plot.
• Cheng Yu devised a side quest for the incoming players, portraying Marquis Yuri as a genius targeted by the world consciousness and promising a tenth-tier supernatural pathway as a reward.
• Cheng Yu named the quest “Hidden quest: Save Marquis Yuri” and planned to use its Gold One-Star-equivalent reward to entice the players.

Xiao Lin grew suspicious that Caroline’s arrival had changed the Marquis’s Residence and discovered a maid was a hollow doll attacking him. In Marquis Yuri’s bedroom, Cheng Yu questioned Caroline about her objective while she continued trying to take control of the residence.

• Xiao Lin noticed Spencer acting strangely and showing no interest in hearing news about Minian, which convinced him that something was wrong in the residence.
• Xiao Lin found a seductive maid waiting in his room, felt his protective ring heat up, and cut her down with his Sabre.
• Xiao Lin saw that the maid was hollow inside and feared that other residents might also be hollow dolls.
• A sound came from Xiao Lin’s roof as Cheng Yu and Caroline remained trapped together in the Marquis’s bedroom.
• Cheng Yu asked Caroline what she hoped to accomplish, but she refused to explain and turned her attention to eliminating the residence’s normal people.

Xiao Lin reunited with William, who revealed that a powerful supernatural monster had taken over the residence and imprisoned Marquis Yuri. William gathered the remaining uncharmed High-Rank Supernaturals to rescue the marquis during the coming Moon Tide, while Xiao Lin and his teammates received a hidden quest promising a tenth-tier supernatural pathway.

• Xiao Lin heard a noise on the roof and prepared for a possible attack before William appeared in unusual black gear.
• William told Xiao Lin and the others that the foreign slave girl was a powerful monster, Marquis Yuri was alive, and the residence's people had mostly lost themselves.
• William explained that the group would wait for the Moon Tide in seven days to rescue the marquis, and the assembled supernaturals agreed to follow his orders.
• Xiao Lin received a hidden quest to rescue Marquis Yuri, with a tenth-tier supernatural pathway as its reward.
• Brother Blue, Old Bai, Old Wu, and the other teammates reacted with excitement to the quest reward.
• Cheng Yu assigned the quest through William and watched the foreign girl, feeling he understood Big Shot's calmness.

During the red Moon Tide, William led Constantine City's transcendents in an assault on the Marquis's Residence to rescue Marquis Yuri, while Cheng Yu revealed he had secretly arranged for the attack. The battle reached the residence's interior, where William urged his team onward toward the marquis.

• Over seven days, the Upper District was sealed off, and official transcendents suppressed clashes as rumors spread that Marquis Yuri was trapped in his residence.
• William briefed the gathered transcendents, saying he would lead an elite squad through a secret passage while the others drew out the monsters, and he promised Duke Raymond's reinforcements would arrive by morning.
• As the red-tinged twin moon rose, the people inside the Marquis's Residence transformed into monsters, and Caroline told Cheng Yu that her era was beginning.
• An explosion and the sounds of battle outside revealed that Constantine City's transcendents had attacked; Caroline realized Cheng Yu had sent word despite the residence's restrictions.
• Xiao Lin fought alongside William, who killed a monstrous guard before directing the team to push toward the marquis instead of getting bogged down fighting.

Brother Blue realized the Crimson Moon was the climax of the Moon Tide, which had arrived earlier than expected, while Xiao Lin held off the mutated Spencer with a stat-equalizing item. William’s group reached the Marquis’s bedroom as Caroline remained powerless and the supposedly trapped Marquis began to rise.

• Xiao Lin stayed behind with two teammates to hold the passage while William led the others toward the Marquis’s bedroom.
• Brother Blue learned from Old Wu that the red moon appeared every year during the Moon Tide and realized the Crimson Moon marked the plot’s climax, not its beginning.
• Old Wu reported that the Middle City had descended into chaos and that he and Old Bai were trying to restore order from the Shoe King’s estate.
• Xiao Lin fought off the monsters with a bronze trial card in reserve as Spencer appeared, mutated and stronger than before.
• Xiao Lin hit Spencer with the Power of Equalization, weakening Spencer while boosting his own strength.
• Caroline remained unable to use her supernatural power as the fighting outside the bedroom stopped, and the Marquis began to rise.

Cheng Yu killed Caroline, deceived William about his condition, and sent him back to rescue Xiao Lin. Xiao Lin’s trial-card power ran out at the hidden passage, but William caught him and the Marquis rescue quest was completed.

• Cheng Yu killed Caroline, crushed her soul for information about the world, and pretended to be badly injured when William arrived.
• William’s group found Xiao Lin holding back monsters, and Cheng Yu praised him before sending William back to help him.
• Xiao Lin used a Bronze Three-Star Trial Card to fight the monsters, but retreated when his temporary power began to fade.
• Xiao Lin’s power ran out just before he reached the hidden passage, leaving him unable to move as monsters closed in.
• William caught Xiao Lin at the passage entrance, and the system announced that the hidden quest to rescue Marquis Yuri was complete.