Chapter Summaries

After Rui developed a low-side-effect drug that temporarily improved physical fitness, Jonas offered it to the Arbitration Bureau as Dennis Dupont’s disappearance brought scrutiny to the Alt Corporation. Carroll warned Jonas about the Federation’s likely response, but he proposed a partnership and said he wanted her friendship.

• Jonas left the hospital with Miss Esnie and received a call from Rui, who reported a new drug with minimal side effects and was offered a bonus and time off.
• Mister celebrated Dennis Dupont’s disappearance, expecting the Arbitration Bureau to blame Jonas and damage the Alt Corporation.
• Carroll Sigrid met with Jonas and warned that the Federation might treat him as a scapegoat despite the lack of evidence tying him to Dennis Dupont’s disappearance.
• Jonas told Carroll that the Alt Corporation had developed a Temporary Body Drug that improved physical fitness by about sixty percent, with roughly three days of negligible fatigue afterward.
• Carroll asked what the Arbitration Bureau would need to pay to partner on the drug, and Jonas said he wanted Carroll Sigrid’s friendship.

Carroll and Jonas agreed to cooperate, with Jonas directing the Arbitration Bureau’s attention toward the Wetting Conglomerate. As the board fractured and the Nathen Conglomerate joined the pressure campaign, Jonas refused Mister’s offer of damaging information in exchange for his life.

• Jonas offered Carroll a lead tying the Wetting Conglomerate’s Board of Directors to Dennis Dupont’s disappearance, and Carroll agreed to consider it while warning Jonas to keep Alt Corporation out of trouble.
• After Carroll left, Jonas reflected on his plan to reclaim control of the Wetting Conglomerate, and Chelsea offered to help him while teasing him about his arrangement with Carroll.
• Mister failed to unite the Wetting Conglomerate’s directors against the Arbitration Bureau, and the bureau barred him from exercising authority as the conglomerate’s stock collapsed.
• The Nathen Conglomerate announced sanctions against the Wetting Conglomerate, and Alt Corporation joined the pressure campaign.
• Mister offered Jonas damaging information about the board in exchange for his life, but Jonas rejected the deal and ended the call.

Jonas rejected several marketing proposals for the Physical Enhancement Drug: Youth Edition and considered Miss Esnie before settling on Beigong Ling as a potential spokesperson. At the Star of Dawn, Amau Sueko warned Beigong Ling that Jonas’s growing power threatened their organization, but Beigong Ling remained confident they would prevail.

• The Arbitration Bureau’s restrictions on Mister boosted its public prestige, while Carol welcomed the bureau’s cooperation with Jonas.
• Jonas reviewed Eiffel’s proposed promotional spokespeople and questioned whether internet celebrities would appeal to the drug’s intended audience.
• Jonas considered asking Miss Esnie to promote the drug, then thought of Beigong Ling as an ideal candidate.
• Amau Sueko inferred that Jonas had engineered the Wetting Conglomerate’s crisis and worried that he would soon gain control of it.
• Amau Sueko told Beigong Ling that the Star of Dawn lacked the power to check Jonas’s growth, and Beigong Ling insisted they would win in the end.

Beigong Ling relocated the Star of Dawn’s base and prepared to grow its strength, but Jonas Wetting contacted her with a supposed gift. He left her flustered with an advertising robot and recorded her reaction for the Alt Corporation’s promotion.

• Beigong Ling moved the Star of Dawn to a new base and reconsidered her cautious strategy as the Alt Corporation rose and her Kinetic Rifle neared production.
• Jonas Wetting called Beigong Ling and claimed he wanted to give her a gift, prompting her to brace for an attack.
• A metal sphere crashed through Beigong Ling’s window and projected an advertisement for the Alt Corporation’s Physical Enhancement Drug: Youth Edition.
• Beigong Ling realized Jonas had tricked her and cursed at the advertising robot after he ended the call.
• Jonas watched drone footage of Beigong Ling’s reaction and decided to use it as promotional material, planning to send her a box of the product.

Beigong Ling discovered that Jonas had found the Star of Dawn’s new base and used footage of her to advertise the Alt Corporation’s Physical Enhancement Drug. The advertisement went viral, and Beigong Ling abruptly ended a meeting rather than face questions about it.

• Beigong Ling ordered the Star of Dawn’s security team to search the base for surveillance devices after Jonas infiltrated it, while Amau Sueko suspected there was a mole in the organization.
• Jonas gave the footage of Beigong Ling’s encounter with the metal sphere to Miss Eiffel, who recognized that he planned to use it in an advertisement.
• The Alt Corporation launched its Physical Enhancement Drug with an advertisement featuring Beigong Ling, and the video went viral after the company confirmed the footage was real.
• Beigong Ling’s expressions became popular reaction images as online discussion spread across District 25 and reached the Helios District.
• During a Star of Dawn meeting, Beigong Ling cut off a security member’s question about the advertisement, adjourned the meeting, and angrily cursed Jonas in private.

Jonas’s shameless campaign with Beigong Ling’s reaction memes boosted Alt Corporation’s Physical Enhancement Drug sales while the Arbitration Bureau arranged protection and bought back valuable intelligence. After settling the Dennis Dupont affair, Jonas visited Nora, whose fascination with his ruby necklace left her asking to see it despite knowing he would demand something in return.

• Jonas’s Beigong Ling memes fueled online speculation about the Star of Dawn’s silence, while the advertisement drove the drug’s first-day sales sharply upward.
• Carol offered Arbitration Bureau protection, and Jonas requested a forty-person Special Task Force and a ten-person Tactical Mecha squad.
• Jonas sold the Peacekeeping Forces the information recovered from the Star of Dawn’s attack on downtown Helios District.
• Nora reflected on how much she had settled into life at Alt Corporation before Jonas visited to offer her a bonus for her work on the Dennis Dupont affair.
• Nora spotted Jonas’s ruby necklace and, after he began to leave, asked to look at it; Jonas agreed but said she would have to pay a price.

Jonas learned that the hidden power behind Angus District was tied to the vanished Smith Family and ordered the investigation paused while his people tried to infiltrate the Void Realm Church. In Nillnis District, the Church Saintess condemned bound young people as unworthy of the New Country, and her followers brutally killed them as a ritual of atonement.

• Eiffel told Jonas that Iris traced online censorship of Smith Family theories to Angus District, suggesting its secret ruler was the family's heir.
• Jonas suspected the Void Realm Church had existed in District 25 for decades and ordered the Angus District investigation suspended while his agents sought to infiltrate the Church.
• The chapter revealed that the Void Realm Church had rapidly expanded in the Slums and that the Peacekeeping Forces had driven its strongholds out of wealthier districts.
• In Nillnis District, the Saintess declared several bound young people unworthy of becoming citizens of the New Country and had them thrown before the congregation.
• The Church followers mutilated and killed the young people, treating their bloodshed as purification and atonement.

Afanisi ordered a warning to Charlie Smith and demanded that two infiltrators from Alt District be sent back, suspecting Jonas Wetting was behind them. During a ritual, the master of the Void Realm told her to find the qualified one, who was their only hope of descending; meanwhile, Jonas received a box from Nillnis District and recognized the Void Realm Church's retaliatory gesture as a challenge.

• Afanisi learned that most of the infiltrators came from Angus District and warned Charlie Smith to stop interfering with the Void Realm Church.
• Tanyas reported that two infiltrators were from Alt District, and Afanisi ordered their corpses sent back because she suspected Jonas Wetting.
• Afanisi performed a ritual and spoke with the master of the Void Realm, who told her to find the qualified one and serve him as her master.
• Jonas received a black-cloth-wrapped box from Nillnis District and realized the Void Realm Church had responded to his attempt to plant infiltrators.
• Jonas decided he was intrigued by Afanisi's forceful response and wondered how long she would hold out against him.

Jonas decided to retaliate against the Void Realm Church and seek support from the Peacekeeping Forces, beginning with a meeting with Yucas. After taking her out from the Alt Corporation, he arrived somewhere that surprised her, leaving its purpose unrevealed.

• Jonas concluded that factional infighting might be limiting the Void Realm Church and told Eiffel he planned to retaliate, though he was not ready to act yet.
• Jonas asked about Yucas and decided to use a move against the Void Realm Church to settle accounts with the Peacekeeping Forces.
• Yucas reflected that the Alt Corporation's Psionic Energy Department focused on helping ordinary people, despite her suspicions about Jonas.
• Jonas summoned Yucas to his office at eight that evening and invited her to go out with him.
• Yucas nervously followed Jonas into his car, expecting him to take her to a hotel, but froze when they arrived at an unexpected destination.

Jonas showed Yucas the children abandoned by parents who joined the Void Realm Church and warned her that psionic energy could corrupt those who used it. He then announced that Alt Corporation would declare war on the church, and Yucas chose to remain loyal to him.

• Jonas brought Yucas to see children whose families had been torn apart by the Void Realm Church and explained that psionic energy could corrupt the heart.
• Yucas understood why Jonas had warned her to be cautious around psionic energy and suspected he had brought her there for a deeper reason.
• Jonas condemned the authorities for refusing to risk a conflict with the Void Realm Church to protect the children.
• Jonas told Yucas that Alt Corporation would declare war on the Void Realm Church because it had a responsibility to Alt District.
• Jonas asked whether Yucas would still follow him, and she promised to remain loyal.

Jonas gained Yucas's trust by revealing that he knew she used an alias, while letting her believe he had mistaken her past. Yucas chose not to tell the Peacekeeping Forces about the Alt Corporation's impending war with the Void Realm Church, and Jonas returned to find Eiffel waiting for him, jealous and eager to punish him.

• Jonas told Yucas he was willing to trust her, after guessing that she had come to District 25 under an assumed name because she had offended someone powerful.
• Yucas decided not to report the Alt Corporation's plan to declare war on the Void Realm Church to the Peacekeeping Forces.
• Jonas returned to the Alt Corporation and estimated that his efforts had brought him closer to winning Yucas over.
• Eiffel told Jonas that she had missed him, then grew jealous when he said he had been keeping someone else company.
• Eiffel pulled Jonas close, kissed him fiercely, and pinned him beneath her as she asked how many Structural Transformations District 25 had undergone; the answer was seven.

Jonas Wetting used the Alt Conglomerate to turn public opinion against the Void Realm Church while waiting for it to make the first move. At an Alt Corporation product launch, an assassin attacked Jonas backstage, but Jonas effortlessly subdued him.

• A leaked video exposed the Void Realm Church's atrocities, and Jonas Wetting amplified public outrage with Alt Conglomerate sanctions and a public condemnation.
• Eiffel asked when Jonas would act against the church, but Jonas said he was waiting for a spark.
• Carol offered private assistance from the Arbitration Bureau, and Jonas suspected Federation officials were protecting the church.
• Jonas staged an Alt Corporation product launch and noticed a hooded man watching him with malice.
• The man attacked Jonas with a knife backstage, but Jonas twisted his wrist and restrained him, saying he had been caught.

Jonas Wetting turned an assassination attempt by the Void Realm Church into a staged attack that fueled public backlash, then sent Afanisi Omido’s severed head as a mocking gift. Afanisi, already strained by the church’s internal conflicts, faced Jonas’s provocation with barely contained fury.

• Jonas lured the Void Realm Church fanatic Omido into an attack, killed him, and had Miss Esnie help dispose of the body.
• Jonas’s staged attack became public news, and District 25 residents increasingly condemned and reported the Void Realm Church.
• Jonas told Miss Eiffel to send the Void Realm Church a gift instead of cooperating with the Peacekeeping Forces.
• Afanisi learned Omido’s assassination attempt had failed and ordered a subordinate to seek atonement, while privately planning to deal with Jonas after resolving the church’s internal conflicts.
• Tanyas delivered a box from the Alt District, and Afanisi found Omido’s modified severed head playing a mocking message from Jonas.

Jonas provoked Afanisi by revealing that he had helped expose the Void Realm Church’s crimes and had planted a mole inside it, then survived her apparent retaliation. Back at Alt Corporation, he considered the Saintess’s power before Miss Celine called and announced she was coming to see him.

• Jonas told Afanisi that he had been behind the recent footage scandal and challenged her to find the mole he had hidden inside the Void Realm Church.
• Afanisi vowed to hunt down the mole and destroy Jonas’s forces, but the mechanized head exploded before Tanyas could stop it.
• Afanisi remained unharmed by the blast, while Tanyas was thrown into the wall and the room was wrecked.
• Jonas watched the footage at Alt Corporation and concluded that Afanisi had deflected the shock wave with an advanced ability, making her power important to investigate.
• Miss Celine sent Jonas an overwrought message, then called him and said she was on her way to Alt Corporation.

Celine visited Jonas and told him about strange markings and a dream involving a tentacled warship, a white-haired girl, and a possible Divine Oracle, which Jonas linked to the Void Realm Church. After asking for a reward, Celine wondered if she could save it for later.

• Celine challenged Jonas and demanded her sister's share, but surrendered after less than an hour.
• Celine showed Jonas a strange pattern that had appeared on her arm and described having unusual dreams.
• Celine recalled a tentacled warship, a throne, and a little white-haired girl from her dream.
• Jonas recognized the pattern as connected to the Void Realm Church and asked Celine to tell him if she remembered more.
• Celine asked Jonas for a reward for the information, then asked if she could save it for later.

Jonas Wetting prepared to pressure the Void Realm Church while considering the struggling Destiny Organization. After the Alt Conglomerate suddenly attacked and devastated the organization, Aungus shot Tem and declared he would side with Jonas.

• Jonas ordered Eiffel to keep turning public opinion against the Void Realm Church and organize an anti-cult event after learning the church had gone quiet and moved its base.
• Eiffel reported that the Destiny Organization had lost influence and was squeezed by the Alt Conglomerate and the Star of Dawn.
• Aungus rejected Tem’s proposal to join the Star of Dawn, hoping the conflict between the Alt Conglomerate and the Void Realm Church would give the Destiny Organization time to recover.
• The Alt Conglomerate attacked the Destiny Organization with two Tactical Mecha squads, destroying more than half its bases in two nights.
• Tem grabbed Aungus and announced he would take his people to the Star of Dawn, so Aungus shot him and declared that he would side with Jonas Wetting.

Jonas arranged to absorb Aungus’s Destiny Organization into the Alt Conglomerate while concealing the deal, and offered to help resolve its internal crisis in exchange for a staged performance. As Beigong Ling’s purge of suspected infiltrators left Amau Sueko tormented by the deaths, an anonymous message praised her as a capable leader.

• Aungus offered to bring the Destiny Organization under the Alt Conglomerate while retaining some autonomy and secrecy, and Jonas proposed a show to address the organization’s divided factions.
• Alt Conglomerate pressure drove many Destiny Organization members toward the Star of Dawn, where infiltrators among the newcomers stole information and carried out suicide attacks.
• Beigong Ling ordered an indiscriminate purge of the supposed former Destiny Organization members, while Amau Sueko urged her to let them leave instead.
• Amau Sueko reconsidered, joined the operation, and issued the purge order; the Star of Dawn killed the targeted group in less than three hours.
• After a sleepless night haunted by guilt, Amau Sueko received an anonymous message congratulating her on becoming a capable leader.

After the Star of Dawn executed most of the Destiny Organization defectors, Aungus led the remaining members to surrender to the Alt Conglomerate, which publicly declared the organization eradicated while absorbing its members into the Security Department. Jonas and Eiffel discussed the aftermath and flirted, and the chapter ended with Jonas unexpectedly visiting Iris at the Information Security Department.

• The Star of Dawn executed 134 of the 136 former Destiny Organization members who had joined it, and footage of the purge convinced the remaining members not to defect there.
• Aungus urged the Destiny Organization to accept the Alt Conglomerate's offer, and its members surrendered rather than face further losses.
• The Alt Conglomerate announced that the Destiny Organization had been eradicated, while Jonas privately confirmed that its members had joined the Security Department.
• Jonas told Eiffel that she was one of the most important people in his life, and she offered him strawberry-flavored lipstick before headbutting him when he declined.
• Eiffel's Information Security Department work had improved the conglomerate's operations, while Iris continued recovering and thought fondly of Jonas's visits.
• Jonas unexpectedly entered Iris's office as she touched the mark left by her Sex Doll chip.

Jonas visited Iris as she recovered, then prepared the Alt Corporation for an expected attack from the Void Realm Church. At the church’s new base, Afanisi completed a frightening communion with the void realm and set out to punish the Alt Corporation’s people.

• Jonas visited Iris in the Recovery Room, reassured her that he would keep visiting after her discharge, and told her to find him once she had fully recovered.
• Jonas kept Iris company with games before leaving, and Iris privately looked forward to seeing him again.
• Jonas used the Alt Corporation’s growing public support to prepare for the Void Realm Church’s likely attack, while Aungus sought a way to prove the Destiny Organization’s worth.
• Afanisi prayed before a grotesque divine statue as black halos appeared around her, frightening Tanyas with the possibility that she had lost control of her mind.
• Afanisi dismissed Tanyas’s fear and declared that it was time for the sinners who had blasphemed against the void realm to pay.

Afanisi empowered the Void Realm Church’s Holy Adjudicators with Black Ring and sent Tanyas to lead them against the Alt Conglomerate. The church instead struck the Peacekeeping Forces first, wiping out their troops and revealing the combat power of its Psionics as the Peacekeeping Forces prepared to send an elite squad.

• Afanisi told Tanyas that the Void Realm’s gift would last seven days and ordered her to lead the Holy Tribunal Squad against the enemy in Alt District.
• Afanisi used Black Ring to subject the Holy Adjudicators to intense pain and then bolster their strength, before Tanyas promised to bring back the sinner’s head.
• Afanisi concluded that Black Ring was a team-supporting blessing and believed the Holy Adjudicators could defeat the Alt Conglomerate without her personal intervention.
• The Void Realm Church attacked the Peacekeeping Forces, and its forces wiped out the reinforcements sent to Alt District within hours.
• Frontline footage showed just over twenty Holy Adjudicators annihilating the armed forces stationed in Sterlt District, prompting the Peacekeeping Forces to prepare their core squad with Arbitration Bureau weaponry.