Chapter Summaries

Ke Meng returned to Dust City and used a newly created flame skill to burn the ruined city center to the ground. The bell tolled, and the city abruptly returned to its former state, leaving Ke Meng surrounded by the restored buildings and Humanoid Dust figures.

• Players traced the Humanoid Dust to the Sky Island and learned that a high-level, well-equipped team would be needed to hunt there.
• Ke Meng checked on affairs in reality, returned to the game, and teleported to Dust City.
• Ke Meng burned the Clock Tower with Flickering Fingertip Flame, and the blaze spread through the city center, destroying the Humanoid Dust figures there.
• Ke Meng created and named the powerful new skill Endless Flame, which borrowed energy from the void to keep burning.
• As the bell tolled, Ke Meng sensed the changes around him, and the sky turned blood-red as the city and its buildings reappeared intact and the blaze went out.

Ke Meng burned through Lonely Island to gain experience, then returned to reality and wrote a book on cultivating spirituality through worldly experience. He finished a manuscript whose supernatural aura made it suitable only for seasoned practitioners.

• Ke Meng destroyed Lonely Island’s clock tower and burned its monsters, gaining experience despite the city’s repeated restoration.
• Ke Meng stayed in R’lyeh to rest and continued cautiously seeking a way to undo the historical seal.
• Ke Meng returned to reality, noticed how detached he had become from ordinary life, and decided to write a book about spirituality.
• Ke Meng used the Data Master Disc and a Power-Leveling Puppet to produce a manuscript explaining spiritual cultivation and its challenges.
• Ke Meng found that the manuscript’s supernatural aura made it unsuitable for beginners and restricted it to practitioners with at least a year of grounding in spirituality.

Ke Meng brought his spiritually compelling manuscript to the Investigation Bureau, where Director Wu recognized its uncanny pull and helped organize a controlled reading test. The first session began under strict safeguards, but the test readers were so absorbed that one soon asked to continue, and Ke Meng refused.

• Ke Meng showed Director Wu his manuscript, and Director Wu described how its rich knowledge drew him into reading.
• Ke Meng named the book “Worldly Spiritual Cultivation Studies” and agreed with Director Wu to test it before deciding how to distribute it.
• Director Wu organized fifteen test readers from Headquarters, other cities, and Whale City, with Ke Meng overseeing the sessions.
• Director Wu set reading limits and required participants to record their condition and impressions after each session.
• The fifteen readers became absorbed in the first page, and when one asked for the second page after twenty minutes, Ke Meng refused.

Ke Meng left the safe but psychologically potent Worldly Spiritual Cultivation Studies with the Investigation Bureau and continued leveling in Dust City while considering a second forbidden zone. On Orange Star, two hundred players reached Sky Island to investigate, where they encountered humanoid dust figures and unknowingly contracted the dust curse.

• Ke Meng controlled the testers’ reading of Worldly Spiritual Cultivation Studies, then handed the manuscript to the Investigation Bureau, which classified it as highly dangerous and established strict access procedures.
• Ke Meng spent a month burning Dust City but gained only three levels, so he considered exploring a second forbidden zone while avoiding the R'lyeh Forbidden Zone.
• Two hundred level-820 players used a tornado and ground-based magic to break through the thunderclouds and reach Sky Island, while Nara and Nina watched without interfering.
• The players began recording Sky Island and encountered humanoid dust figures, unaware that all two hundred had contracted the dust curse.
• The players destroyed the figures with fireballs and wondered why they had no level indicators.

An Orange Star vanguard expedition reached Dust City, where the Broken Clock Tower's chimes transformed the city and unleashed dust figures that killed the players. After they revived and were killed again, Blood on the Blade warned the guild to escape, leaving the team seeking powerful NPCs to break the curse.

• The expedition ignored the indestructible dust figures following them and used items to clear Mental Pollution as they advanced through Dust City.
• The players reached the Broken Clock Tower, whose second chime changed the sky to blood red and brought faceless dust figures into the streets.
• Ke Meng arrived in Dust City, saw the dust figures kill two hundred players, and burned the city with the Endless Flame before teleporting to another forbidden zone.
• Blood on the Blade and the other players revived repeatedly but were killed by dust figures, so he warned them not to revive in place.
• The guild players revived and teleported away from Sky Island, and their think tank advised them to seek powerful NPCs to destroy the curse.

Ke Meng set Sky Island ablaze while players struggled to survive a curse that killed them repeatedly, and they learned they would need to investigate its source in Dust City. In a second forbidden zone, Ke Meng defeated a Light Elemental General’s attack and followed him into the Light Element Kingdom to seek valuable resources.

• Ke Meng’s fire engulfed Sky Island, while the players below kept dying and reviving as the Humanoid Dust pursued them.
• Blood on the Blade repeatedly asked an archmage how to break the curse, but the mentor said the players’ immortality meant they would have to become strong enough to destroy it themselves.
• The players learned they needed to search Dust City’s historical records for the curse’s source, though a Curse Master warned they lacked the strength to break it.
• Ke Meng entered a second forbidden zone, where a Level 999 Light Elemental General attacked him and Ke Meng crushed the general’s blade without being harmed.
• Ke Meng persuaded the Light Elemental General to make amends, then followed him into the Light Element Kingdom.

Ke Meng met the Grand Elder of the light elements, who shared his vision of the kingdom's future and gave him a portion of an Elder God's memories. Ke Meng stored the unknown divine item and remained in the Light Element Kingdom Territory, while the Grand Elder considered whether to reveal more divine items in exchange for learning about Ke Meng's spatial power.

• The Grand Elder welcomed Ke Meng and used Synesthesia to glimpse something unusual about him, then invited him to the Elemental Palace.
• The Grand Elder described a vision of adventurers becoming Godslayers and the Light Element Kingdom being destroyed, but said Ke Meng's fate differed from theirs.
• The Grand Elder gave Ke Meng a sphere containing a portion of an Elder God's memories, which Ke Meng stored in his Spatial Backpack without touching it.
• The Grand Elder asked Ke Meng to explain his undetectable spatial power, and Ke Meng offered to consider it if the Grand Elder provided another Divine Item.
• Ke Meng stayed in the city and sampled the glowing food of the Light Element Kingdom Territory.

Ke Meng investigated the Grand Elder’s Elder God memories and learned they were contained in a divine book powerful enough to overwhelm him. After the Grand Elder warned him of its dangers, Ke Meng stored the book away, intending to study it carefully.

• Ke Meng used Synesthesia to observe the Grand Elder and his staff, discovering that the staff contained the power of annihilation from a dead god.
• Ke Meng concluded that he would need to access the Elder God memories indirectly through Cthulhu, while the Grand Elder sensed the terrifying gaze watching him.
• The next day, Ke Meng returned to the Light Element Kingdom, where the Grand Elder revealed that he had dreamed of a god watching him.
• The Grand Elder unsealed the Elder God memories, revealing an ancient book of incantations concerning life, death, gods, magic, history, and the future.
• Ke Meng stored the divine book in his Spatial Backpack, and the Grand Elder warned him to avoid reading it closely or letting its divinity assimilate him.

Ke Meng studied mind magic for a month and developed a method to split off a personality to shield himself before reading the Elder God's memories. In reality, Chen Momo set out to take Whale Special University's entrance exam while Ke Meng remained at home.

• Ke Meng gave up on using wild-zone fires to level up and turned his attention to the Elder God's memories in his Spatial Backpack.
• Ke Meng decided to develop his own mind magic rather than seek out the Mind Magic Master NPC in Gray Castle Main City.
• Ke Meng spent a month studying how brains, memories, and spirituality shaped personalities, and worked on creating a blank personality he could later absorb or erase.
• Ke Meng discovered that a soul could not split its own personality without a body, though mind magic could affect personalities through spirituality.
• Chen Momo left home with her mother to take Whale Special University's entrance exam and glanced at Ke Meng's house as they passed.

Chen Momo prepared to take Special University’s special exam while a radio broadcast described how supernatural power was helping advance technology. Ke Meng returned to the Mortal World and joined investigators at the ceremony for the first controlled nuclear fusion reactor, as its ignition countdown began.

• Mrs. Chen urged Chen Momo to abandon the special exam, but Chen Momo insisted she wanted to move forward.
• A radio interview explained that supernatural power had helped make Koi Continent’s first controlled nuclear fusion reactor possible and wished exam applicants success.
• Ke Meng returned to the Mortal World, accepted the invitation to the ignition ceremony, and told the Investigation Bureau’s group chat he would attend.
• Ke Meng planned to rest before reading the Elder God Memory Orb because the Grand Elder had said it could change fate.
• Ke Meng met the Director-General, Director Lei, Director Wu, Old Shi, Di Ping, Luo Yuan, the Bandaged Man, and other investigators at the ignition center.
• The hall’s loudspeakers began the countdown to the reactor’s ignition.

Ke Meng watched a successful fusion test, visited Special University’s entrance assessments, and returned to the Game World to examine the Nameless Book with a specially prepared secondary personality. The book’s immense spirituality struck his mind as he opened its first page.

• Ke Meng witnessed the fusion reactor ignite successfully and discussed humanity’s future powers with the Director-General.
• Ke Meng visited Special University, watched the entrance assessments, and noticed Chen Momo building a ring from blocks.
• Ke Meng returned to the real world, finished the day, and went back to the Game World to study the Nameless Book.
• Ke Meng activated a concealing Magic Circle, switched to his secondary personality, and opened the Nameless Book.
• The Nameless Book released spirituality far beyond Ke Meng’s own and battered his mind.

Ke Meng used Cthulhu’s power to endure and digest the Nameless Book’s dangerous knowledge, discovering that it offered a path to godhood through necromancy. After several days of reading, he began planning how to strengthen his soul’s resistance before advancing further.

• Ke Meng read the Nameless Book, then returned to R'lyeh, where his primary personality used Cthulhu’s power to purge its harmful effects and absorb its knowledge.
• Ke Meng saw visions of the dead, many bearing faces he had used as disguises with Faceless, and deduced that the book contained vast necromantic knowledge.
• Ke Meng repeatedly split off a secondary personality to read the book and used Cthulhu’s power to digest each session’s knowledge.
• After five days, Ke Meng’s ability to learn necromancy had increased dramatically, and he recognized the Nameless Book as a pathway to godhood for Necromancer Players.
• Ke Meng reasoned that Cthulhu’s support had removed the book’s greatest danger to him, then began considering how to raise his soul’s resistance.

Ke Meng studied the Necronomicon to strengthen his resistances and grew more powerful by absorbing energy from dead monsters. When level 900 player Colin encountered him, Ke Meng’s blackened aura convinced Colin that A Meng had become impossible to challenge, and Colin fled.

• Ke Meng set aside reading the Elder God's memories and studied necromancy to improve his resistances and pursue resurrection.
• Players reached higher levels and spread meme infection skills that targeted wild monsters and rapidly earned experience.
• Ke Meng studied the deaths of wild monsters and used Death Magic to absorb some of their returning energy, gradually raising his resistances.
• Colin unleashed a meme infection skill in the wilderness and sensed an oppressive figure on the horizon.
• Colin recognized the figure as A Meng, abandoned his preparations to challenge him, and teleported away with his companion.
• Ke Meng watched them leave and realized he was becoming an observer, while his spirituality had turned completely black.

Colin encountered Ke Meng in Gray Castle Main City and warned the guild and the Scientific Research General Institute that Ke Meng had become a forbidden existence. Ke Meng tested his newfound perception and learned that he had grown strong enough to match Nara and Nina, who came to investigate his path to godhood.

• Colin was overwhelmed by terror after seeing Ke Meng and posted updated danger coordinates in the guild chat before logging out.
• Colin sent his recorded footage and a warning to the Central Institute, then accepted sedation after reporting that Ke Meng must not be known or looked upon.
• Ke Meng observed that his leaking spirituality let him perceive nearby beings and drive away players and wild monsters.
• Nara and Nina arrived to see Ke Meng and asked to inspect his divine object.
• Ke Meng used his spiritual rain to assess Nara and Nina and realized that his strength was evenly matched with theirs.
• Nara and Nina recognized that Ke Meng had exceeded their expectations, partly because he had brought power from Blue Star into the Game World.

Ke Meng negotiated with Nara and Nina over his debt and promised to let them read the Necronomicon after he finished examining the Elder God Memory Orb. He secured their agreement to monitor him through marks he placed on them, then prepared to read the orb inside a guarded cave.

• Ke Meng acknowledged that he owed Nara and Nina a favor and agreed to lend them the Necronomicon after he finished reading something.
• Ke Meng fled through the Void, and Nara and Nina pursued him in their Space Bubble.
• Ke Meng agreed that Nara and Nina could read the book but refused to let them take it away.
• Ke Meng returned to the Game World and entered a cave while Nara and Nina monitored its surroundings.
• Ke Meng placed marks on Nara and Nina, sealed the cave against their entry, and retrieved the Necronomicon and Elder God Memory Orb.
• The orb's dazzling light filled the cave as Ke Meng prepared to read it.

Ke Meng survived a hundred million years of Elder God memories in a single second by shutting off his senses with his Meditation Method, then used the Necronomicon to awaken his mortal soul. He invited Nara and Nina to examine the book and introduced it as a nameless volume containing primordial knowledge.

• Ke Meng entered the Elder God Memory and witnessed a Void Traveler drain a planet before memories of the Elder God overwhelmed him.
• Ke Meng used his Meditation Method to shut off his senses, and his primary personality later sorted through the memories after the timed hypnosis spell activated.
• Ke Meng returned to the game, examined the unchanged Necronomicon, and concluded that it had helped him awaken within the god's memories.
• Ke Meng prepared a water escape route, opened the Cave, and invited Nara and Nina inside.
• Ke Meng presented the Necronomicon as a nameless book of ancient knowledge, and Nara and Nina immediately believed him.

Ke Meng let Nara and Nina read the Necronomicon, then escaped when they tried to take it. He went to the Light Element Kingdom to question the Grand Elder about the book, only to learn that the Grand Elder had died and no successor could wield his staff.

• Ke Meng let Nara and Nina read the Necronomicon and sensed that they were learning about Nya, though he saw different text himself.
• After the twins finished reading, Ke Meng activated the Cave’s Magic Circles and escaped beneath the shallow pool while they destroyed the Cave.
• Ke Meng examined the Necronomicon, found that its text still concerned death, and decided to seek the Grand Elder in the Light Element Kingdom.
• A patroller told Ke Meng that the Grand Elder had died of old age and led him to the cemetery after Ke Meng asked to see the body.
• The patrol captain explained that the Grand Elder had refused resurrection and that no one could inherit the Elder Divine Staff.

Ke Meng used Synesthesia to explore the Light Element Grand Elder’s gravestone and the Elder God Memory, uncovering clues about the Necronomicon and a battle possibly connected to Cthulhu. He left with a premonition of his own death and a glimpse of a possible way to survive the memory without going mad.

• Ke Meng touched the Grand Elder’s gravestone and saw that a mysterious figure hidden in gray fog had given him the Necronomicon.
• Ke Meng amplified his spirituality inside the cemetery, reaching power close to a true god and frightening the powerful beings throughout the Land of Light.
• Ke Meng touched the locals’ Divine Staff and saw that the Elder God Memory could drive him mad, but also that he might survive it and change his fate.
• Ke Meng examined the Elder God Memory and discovered that the devouring Elder God had fought an indistinct, powerful opponent in a battle he suspected was connected to Cthulhu.
• Ke Meng learned that the battle ended without either side killing the other, but the memory revealed nothing about who had sealed Cthulhu.

After learning from the elder god’s memory that divine power depended on understanding the world, Ke Meng began observing Blue Star and studying how its laws shaped life and supernatural effects. His investigations led him to Whale Special University, where he entered a class to examine the side effects of Special Items and the boundary between life and death.

• Ke Meng concluded that understanding the world could help him escape or devour Cthulhu, then logged off and suppressed his transformed spirituality.
• Ke Meng walked around Blue Star, observing ordinary people and analyzing how Special Item side effects accumulated and interacted.
• Ke Meng went to Whale Special University and allowed the president to accompany him to a class on Special Items.
• Ke Meng entered a spatially expanded classroom, intending to study the effects of Special Items on the human body.
• Ke Meng reflected on his Lifeline Between Life and Death spell, which could kill a target by pulling its lifeline toward death.

Ke Meng observed how Special Items affected people’s lifelines and advised Teacher Yin on cultivating spirituality. He later warned the Investigation Bureau that accumulated side effects could conflict decades later, then resumed studying the laws of Blue Star and the Virtual Game.

• Ke Meng watched students use Special Items and saw their lifelines sway briefly before settling again.
• Ke Meng advised Teacher Yin to cultivate spirituality by learning about her students and their hometowns, prompting her stalled spirituality to grow.
• Ke Meng examined his own lifeline and recognized that an old injury from the virtual Time Pocket Watch still twisted it despite his resurrection.
• Ke Meng sent the Investigation Bureau a paper about conflicts between chronic injuries caused by Special Item side effects and recommended limits on investigators’ years of item use.
• Ke Meng traveled around the world by day and studied the laws of the Virtual Game at night.