Chapter Summaries

Jonas anticipated that Mister would retaliate after losing control of the Nanomedical Machines project, and a news report accusing Alt Corporation of fraud confirmed his suspicions. He traced the leak to researcher Bart Black, whose gambling debts had driven him to hand core data to Mister, and confronted him at gunpoint.

• Jonas told Eiffel that the project's profits had offset Alt Corporation's losses but warned that Mister's faction would soon become an obstacle.
• A news broadcast claimed Nanomedical Machines' core data had leaked and questioned whether its treatment was a scam.
• Jonas concluded that a project insider with access to the data must have leaked it to Mister and prepared to act against the mole.
• Jonas identified Bart Black as the likely culprit because he was the only original researcher and had access to the core data.
• Bart Black's gambling debts had left him unable to refuse when Mister demanded the data, so he copied and handed it over.
• Jonas confronted Bart Black at the Earlis Research Zone and pressed a gun against his head.

After the nanomedical machines project passed its final test, Jonas Wetting confronted Bart Black at the researchers’ celebration over stolen laboratory data. Jonas held Bart at gunpoint and asked whether he had any last words for his family.

• Bart Black celebrated the successful project and considered inviting a junior researcher to join his casino referral scheme.
• Jonas Wetting and Esnie stormed into the laboratory, and Esnie aimed her gun at Bart Black.
• Jonas showed Bart a photograph of his wife, Seniel Manti, and child, Herry Black, and threatened his family.
• Jonas played a recording of Bart admitting he had copied Earlis laboratory data in exchange for credit points.
• Jonas took Esnie’s gun, pressed it to Bart’s head, and asked what last words he wanted passed on to his family.

Jonas forced Bart Black to pass falsified Nanomedical Machines data to Mr. Mister, triggering a public scandal for Alt Corporation. As the forums condemned the company, Jonas watched and planned to reveal his evidence after the controversy grew further.

• Jonas threatened Bart Black with harm to his family and made him choose between paying Alt Corporation 2.3 million credit points or delivering false information to Mr. Mister.
• Jonas warned the researchers to keep quiet, while Miss Iris monitored their Communicator accounts for leaks.
• Bart Black sent the falsified data to Mr. Mister, who spread it across major forums and accused the Nanomedical Machines of containing a component resembling a Sex Doll chip.
• Mr. Mister believed the leaked data offered a chance to make Jonas pay and provoke a crisis for Alt Corporation.
• Jonas watched the backlash with Eiffel and said he would wait for the scandal to grow before presenting his evidence.

After public opinion turned against Alt Corporation over the Nanomedical Machines incident, Jonas prepared a counterattack by submitting the original data to the Arbitration Bureau. The Bureau declared the accusations fabricated, reversing the online backlash and leaving the public to switch sides.

• A prominent tech figure argued that suspicious code had been forcibly inserted, but netizens called him a "nano simp" until he deleted his post.
• Jonas learned that several partners wanted to withdraw their investments, but he used the falling share price to buy back his shares.
• Chelsea offered Jonas help, but he refused and told Eiffel to prepare the original data for the Arbitration Bureau.
• On the fourth day, the Arbitration Bureau released a notice and blurry data image declaring that claims of code overlap with Sex Doll chips were rumors.
• Public opinion reversed, and many former "nano haters" became "nano simps."

Jonas’s strategy forced the Wetting Conglomerate to pay Alt Corporation damages, cementing their separation as he pursued control of the board. Meanwhile, Beigong Ling recruited Amau Sueko to help change District 25, and Jonas watched their rebel faction take shape before turning his attention back to the Wetting board.

• The Arbitration Bureau ordered the Wetting Conglomerate to compensate Alt Corporation, while companies that had attacked Alt Corporation also suffered losses.
• Miss Chelsea arranged to meet Jonas under the pretext of visiting Shigure Ryoko, who realized Chelsea had gone to a hotel with him and considered swearing allegiance to Jonas.
• Amau Sueko decided to leave Beigong Ling’s home, but Beigong Ling asked her to reveal her real name and help change District 25.
• After Amau Sueko revealed her identity, Beigong Ling explained her plan to overthrow the existing system, and Amau agreed to help her.
• Jonas watched the two form the beginnings of a rebel faction, then decided to accelerate Alt Corporation’s expansion and deal with the Wetting Conglomerate’s board members.

Jonas’s success with the Nanomedical Machines project brought him fame and led him to offer shares to the Nathen Conglomerate, while Chelsea misread his business decision as a personal gesture. During their treatment session, Chelsea took the lead and pinned Jonas beneath her.

• Jonas praised an employee during a Times Yearbook interview, but named Esnie instead of Miss Eiffel, leaving Miss Eiffel furious.
• Jonas transferred some Nanomedical Machines shares to the Nathen Conglomerate, and Chelsea believed he was responding to her earlier offer of help.
• Chelsea met Jonas for another treatment session and asked whether he needed the Nathen Conglomerate to intervene.
• Jonas pointed out that Chelsea’s aftereffects had not returned and teased her about wanting the treatment for its own sake.
• Chelsea wore a qipao, pinned Jonas beneath her, and told him she would handle the treatment herself.

Jonas assessed the leverage he had gained over the Wetting Conglomerate and investigated Celine’s rapidly developing psionic abilities. The chapter ended with Miss Esnie sneezing at the office, troubled by things that kept going missing.

• Jonas considered how Eudora Rui and Itra’s separation kept them cautious and loyal while Rui submitted research materials to the Alt Corporation.
• Celine demonstrated precise control over water with her psionic energy, which Jonas estimated had reached level 2.
• Jonas visited Celine to verify her progress, and she teased him by suggesting a suggestive use for her power.
• Celine revealed that she was wearing Jonas’s oversized T-shirt, which she had stolen from her sister.
• Miss Esnie sneezed at the office and worried about the items that had recently gone missing.

Jonas visited Miss Celine to investigate her abnormal psionic energy, but their encounter turned into a physical contest that left her unconscious. He then experienced a strange vision in which a white-haired girl told him he would become the new eligible candidate.

• Miss Celine tried to seduce Jonas, who insisted he had come to discuss her abnormal psionic energy.
• Celine used her psionic power to pin Jonas down, and he picked her up before the two began a physical contest.
• After more than an hour, Celine begged Jonas to stop and eventually lost consciousness before he could ask about her psionic energy.
• A glowing pattern appeared on Celine's forearm and overwhelmed Jonas with strange information and murmuring voices.
• Jonas saw a tentacled palace in space and heard a white-haired girl tell him he would become the new eligible candidate.
• The vision vanished, and Jonas found himself back beside the still-mumbling Miss Celine.

Jonas tried to put his strange vision of a starry sky and colossal beast out of his mind, then gave Celine his shirt after she begged to keep it. More than ten days later, a floating cup showed him that the incident had not been a hallucination.

• Jonas recovered from the vision and found Celine seemingly unaffected by it.
• Celine asked Jonas to keep going and pleaded to keep his shirt, and Jonas eventually let her have it.
• After noticing no changes to his body, Jonas decided the vision had probably been a stress-induced hallucination and avoided thinking about the void realm, Zerg, and Ascendants.
• More than ten days later, Jonas saw a cup floating before him while his hands were empty.

Jonas awakened a powerful telekinetic force linked to the Void Realm and suspected that the girl among the stars had chosen him as an agent. As District 25 endured abnormal heat and growing unrest, the sun vanished for twenty-four hours, marking the beginning of the Psionic Tide.

• Jonas tested his newly awakened force, which seemed to place him at mid-stage psionic level two with telekinetic abilities.
• Jonas concluded that the girl connected to the Void Realm had gifted him power and might need his help, leaving him room to negotiate.
• Jonas realized his awakening could mean that a new version had begun in District 25.
• Abnormal heat overwhelmed the Slums' medical services, while end-of-the-world rumors and the Void Cult spread through District 25.
• The authorities calmed public fears by explaining that the changes were ordinary weather, but the next day the sun vanished for twenty-four hours.
• Later generations named the day-long darkness the Psionic Tide.

Jonas learned that the Void Realm Church had rapidly expanded after the sun disappeared, but chose not to investigate it directly while its goals and backers remained unknown. After discussing the church with Miss Eiffel, he teased her about dressing up for him, and she lost out to Miss Esnie’s direct message.

• Jonas considered how the early persecution of psionics could become an opportunity to expand his power.
• Miss Eiffel reported that the Void Realm Church recruited from the Slums and that its saintess was a young woman who appeared in a modified nun’s habit.
• Jonas recognized that the saintess might be the mysterious woman from the story and warned Miss Eiffel against probing the church before they understood its aims.
• Jonas noticed Miss Eiffel’s efforts to look attractive, and she denied dressing up for him while blushing.
• Miss Esnie sent Jonas the direct message, “I want it again♥,” leaving Miss Eiffel defeated.

Jonas told Eiffel to secure the Aberrants’ information for the Alt Conglomerate, while keeping the Psionic Tide’s significance from her. In Lloyd District, Borden Ricass discovered his fire-manipulating ability, left his gang behind, and received an invitation to interview for a Wetting Conglomerate research program.

• Eiffel gave Jonas files on the Aberrants, and Jonas told her to store their information in the Alt Conglomerate’s database with the highest security clearance.
• Jonas told Eiffel that the Aberrants had no direct connection to the Void Realm Church and that they could change the world.
• Borden Ricass discovered he could manipulate naturally occurring flames after the sun disappeared and returned.
• Ricass mastered his ability, left his gang, and dismissed his old friend Jones’s concerns about his future.
• Ricass received an email inviting him to interview for the Wetting Conglomerate’s research program at the Alt Corporation.

Jonas arranged a secret recruitment session for newly awakened psionic users, though Miss Eiffel warned him against bringing them into Alt Corporation. The candidates gathered with hidden motives, and after Ricass’s confrontation with a hooded psionic user, Jonas began the recruitment by sealing the room and plunging it into darkness.

• Miss Eiffel warned Jonas not to bring the screened psionic users into Alt Corporation’s inner circle, but Jonas said she would soon understand his intentions.
• Ricass attended Alt Corporation’s recruitment session for the tempting compensation and taunted a hooded candidate who refused to show their face.
• The hooded candidate dodged Ricass, struck him in the stomach, and warned him against acting rashly as flames spread across his clothes.
• Ricass extinguished the flames and returned to his seat while the other candidates waited in silence for several hours.
• Jonas entered, apologized for the wait, and announced that the recruitment would begin.
• The doors shut, the windows sealed, and the room went dark.

Nora Rockefeller, the elusive thief known as Nightingale, attended Jonas’s recruitment meeting to learn why her body had changed and discovered that Jonas had trapped the attendees. When a former mercenary charged at Jonas, Esnie subdued him, revealing the force guarding the room.

• Nora Rockefeller, posing as Noka Fish, came to investigate the changes that let her merge with shadows after the sun vanished.
• Nora suspected Jonas knew about the bodily changes affecting her and other anomalous individuals, so she attended the Alt Corporation’s recruitment meeting.
• Jonas told the gathered recruits that they had come to understand what had happened to them and announced that they were trapped.
• A mercenary-looking man charged at Jonas to protect himself, but Esnie appeared and slammed him to the floor.

Jonas explained that the captives’ new abilities came from their own potential and invited them to join the Wetting Conglomerate’s research program. When the captives began to weaken, Nora tried to escape and take Jonas hostage, but he stopped her with his psionic energy.

• Jonas told the captives that their changes were an evolution caused by psionic energy, not a gift from another being.
• Nora questioned Jonas about the source of their powers, and he said they had always possessed that potential.
• Jonas reminded the captives of the Wetting Conglomerate’s research invitation and hinted that their participation would soon begin.
• The captives’ limbs weakened, and Nora realized Jonas intended to use them as research material.
• Nora vanished into the shadows and attacked Jonas with a dagger, but he froze her and dropped her to the floor.
• Jonas told Nora, “This is how you use psionic energy, girl.”

Jonas subdued Nora Rockefeller, a psionic assassin known as Nightingale, and decided to keep her because her ability could serve his plans. Nora woke in a hospital room and warily asked Jonas what he intended to do with her.

• Jonas revealed that he could use psionic energy, disarmed Nora, and helped Esnie incapacitate the other psionic users.
• Jonas ordered the captured psionic users sent to the research department, but had Nora taken separately to a hospital room.
• Jonas considered Nora’s infiltration ability and potential value to his plans for a covert organization.
• Nora woke, recognized Jonas Wetting, and asked him warily what he wanted to do.

Jonas warned Nora that psionic energy magnified psychological flaws and could drive its users toward madness. After a gemstone triggered Nora’s greed and made her lose control, she realized her awakening could eventually leave her ruled by desire.

• Nora confronted Jonas and questioned whether she could trust him after witnessing his actions.
• Jonas revealed that he knew Nora’s real identity and explained the dangers of awakening psionic energy.
• Jonas showed Nora a gemstone, and its luster overwhelmed her with greed and a desire to possess it.
• Nora used her shadow ability to try to take the gemstone, but Jonas restrained her until she regained control.
• Nora recognized her reaction as a magnified psychological flaw and feared that growing psionic energy could make her a slave to desire.

Jonas persuaded Nora to join Alt Corporation as head of its new Special Intelligence Department, using her need for treatment and their mutual interests to secure her agreement. He then turned his attention to Yucas, who had discovered that Jonas was holding the missing Earth Gang leader, Itra.

• Nora recognized that she depended on Jonas for treatment and asked what he wanted from her.
• Jonas offered Nora the department head position in Alt Corporation's Special Intelligence Department, and she signed the employment contract.
• Jonas explained that Nora would initially be the department's sole member while he assessed her loyalty.
• Jonas left the hospital and planned to use a catalyst to advance his plans involving Yucas.
• Yucas remained assigned to investigate Jonas and learned that the woman he was keeping captive was Itra, the missing leader of the Earth Gang.

Yucas suspected Jonas was connected to the upheaval in Vordell District and accepted his invitation to dinner so she could investigate the Alt Corporation under her real identity. At the corporation, Jonas made Itra rehearse a scene while she wore a bunny-girl outfit and Collar, and she knelt at his command.

• Yucas decided to investigate Jonas's possible role in the Vordell District upheaval after seeing the missing Earth Gang leader at the Alt Corporation.
• Jonas called Yucas at the contact address for Yucas Amili and invited her to dinner on Sunday as an apology.
• Yucas accepted Jonas's invitation, intending to use her real identity to investigate the Alt Corporation.
• Jonas had Itra wear a bunny-girl outfit and Collar and told her to rehearse a scene.
• Itra clenched her fists, then knelt down at Jonas's command.

Yucas met Jonas to discuss his knowledge of Psionics and agreed to a private intelligence exchange with him. When she later returned to sign a confidentiality agreement, she discovered Jonas had Itra, the missing leader of the Earth Gang, on a leash.

• Jonas invited Yucas to lunch, apologized for using her during the cruise ship incident, and renewed his offer to help solve the Peacekeeping Forces' armament problem; Yucas declined.
• After hearing a report about anomalous attacks in District 25, Jonas questioned Yucas about the Peacekeeping Forces' Psionics research and revealed his knowledge of the Void Realm and the psionic tide.
• Yucas asked Jonas how Psionics drew power from the Void Realm and why they went mad, then agreed to exchange intelligence with him privately.
• Yucas returned to Alt Corporation to sign a confidentiality agreement and overheard Jonas address Miss Itra inside his office.
• Yucas peered through the door and saw Itra, the missing leader of the Earth Gang, kneeling with a collar and leash held by Jonas.