Chapter Summaries

Shen Ru confronted Gu Changming, then met Mo Yu on the rooftop and uncovered the true objectives behind the instance. He joined Mo Yu in repairing the Mechanical Giant as the skyscraper collapsed, while Gu Changming received a penalty for violently clearing the instance.

• Shen Ru revealed that he had overheard Gu Changming discussing the plan, then asked whether Gu Changming had helped prompt Sheng Ziyao to call him sister-in-law and promised him a gift.
• Shen Ru went to the rooftop and confronted Mo Yu, the chairman behind the Human Elimination Plan.
• Mo Yu told Shen Ru that he needed to repair the Mechanical Giant, and Shen Ru realized that Mo Yu was the only player whose mission differed from the others'.
• Shen Ru changed his mission objective to repairing the Mechanical Giant and told Mo Yu that he wanted to join him in eliminating humanity.
• The system announced Shen Ru's new objective and penalized Gu Changming by accelerating the instance after he used violent means to clear it.

Shen Ru and Mo Yu joined the players at the Mechanical Giant, where Fang Ce and An Ke revealed that entering its contaminated interior caused Mechanicalization. After the players split into two groups and rode an elevator toward the Bottom Floor, Shen Ru burst their air bubble and sent them surging through the giant’s blood-filled pipes.

• Mo Yu disguised his android features and went with Shen Ru to the Mechanical Giant, teasing him about working with his sweetheart.
• Mo Yu recognized that Fang Ce and An Ke had undergone Mechanicalization, and they described finding a former player transformed into a mindless machine.
• Shen Ru proposed splitting into two groups to reduce the risk of spreading contamination, and the players divided between the elevators at the giant’s feet.
• Shen Ru’s group traveled upward in a bubble through a pipe filled with blood as An Ke explained that the system had sent them up the previous day.
• Shen Ru burst the bubble, and the blood swept the players toward the fractured Bottom Floor.

Shen Ru led the players into the giant’s mechanical interior and exposed An Ke’s hidden motive before they were assigned to repair a blocked pipeline. As Shen Ru deliberately damaged the pipe, Gu Changming and Ruan Ping headed toward the corridor, where a flood of filthy wastewater rushed toward them.

• Shen Ru flooded the players into the giant’s abdomen, where they discovered its pipes, machinery, and mechanized workers.
• A mechanized worker summoned two players, and Shen Ru brought An Ke along while Gu Changming and Ruan Ping stayed behind.
• Shen Ru accused An Ke of lying to keep players from exploring, then threatened to identify her as the mole.
• The system tasked Shen Ru and An Ke with repairing a blocked pipeline and offered a 10% bodily mechanical enhancement for success.
• Gu Changming and Ruan Ping received orders to stop the repairs, but each assumed the other had been told to help.
• Shen Ru hacked into a pipe, sending wastewater through the corridor as Gu Changming and Ruan Ping ran from the surging flood.

Shen Ru accidentally unleashed a giant electric eel from a pipe and fought it through the Mechanical Giant, leaving Gu Changming and Ruan Ping electrocuted. After the mission ended, Shen Ru received a 10% Mechanicalization reward, and Mo Yu grew angry as Shen Ru teased him about being possessive.

• Shen Ru cut open a pipe, releasing a giant electric eel that attacked him and flooded the Long Corridor with electricity.
• Shen Ru fought the eel through the corridor and killed it, while Gu Changming and Ruan Ping were electrocuted unconscious.
• Mo Yu arrived with Fang Ce and Qiao Xinran, and the Players cleaned up as the production line resumed operation.
• The system announced the mission was complete and gave Shen Ru a 10% Mechanicalization reward, which caused him pain and disorientation.
• Mo Yu held Shen Ru in the black mist, and Shen Ru teased him by calling him a dog marking its territory.

Shen Ru questioned Mo Yu about the dangers of mechanicalization, but Mo Yu turned the conversation around without answering him. After the players reached the upper level to search for the Power Core, they agreed to split up, and Shen Ru eagerly accepted.

• Shen Ru teased Mo Yu with a kiss and asked whether the system’s mechanicalization reward could cause self-awareness or harm.
• Mo Yu explained that the Human Elimination Plan had three versions of mechanical modification, then avoided answering Shen Ru’s question about the wastewater.
• The players regrouped after Shen Ru completed his task and received instructions to find the Power Core on the upper level.
• The group discovered a vast neon-lit level with an iron sack and an indentation where the core belonged.
• Gu Changming proposed splitting up to search, and Shen Ru cheerfully agreed.

Shen Ru discovered that the Mechanical Giant’s corridors concealed half-mechanized people and surveillance eyes growing in its flesh, then fought a monster until the Bottom Floor cracked. The collapse spread through the interconnected corridors, bringing down the entire structure and everyone inside.

• After Gu Changming assigned Shen Ru to the Bottom Floor, Shen Ru suspected the sheet-metal sack was the Mechanical Giant’s stomach and questioned why defective robot Players filled its interior.
• Shen Ru smashed a robot Player and found a human body beneath its mechanical shell, then struck the metal wall with an enhanced bat and exposed writhing flesh.
• A blood-drenched monster grew from the exposed flesh, and Shen Ru noticed its many eyes displayed live surveillance feeds, including his own face.
• Shen Ru fought the monster in the Bottom Floor corridor, and a horrifying fissure split the passage.
• Fang Ce and Gu Changming tried to keep away from Shen Ru, but cracks spread upward and the connected corridors collapsed, sending everyone crashing down.

Shen Ru discovered An Ke had used a card to deceive his perception, killed her and Fang Ce, and revealed that he knew there was a mole among the players. He changed the others’ missions by inviting them to join the villain faction, then drew Mo Yu aside to question whether he was truly human.

• Shen Ru tore out the fake monster’s eye, then used his Talent to find and kill An Ke after realizing she had altered his perception.
• The card’s effect vanished, revealing that Shen Ru had mistaken Fang Ce for the monster and ripped out Fang Ce’s real eye; after Mo Yu killed the actual monster, Shen Ru killed Fang Ce as well.
• Shen Ru asked Qiao Xinran what she thought, and she praised him and asked for his autograph as a fan.
• Shen Ru told the group he knew there was a mole and offered the players a chance to join his side, changing their missions to repairing the Mechanical Giant and eradicating humanity.
• Shen Ru took Mo Yu aside and teased him about whether his heart was more than an empty shell before dense black mist concealed them.

Shen Ru discovered that Mo Yu’s body fused human flesh with machinery, and Mo Yu explained that the mutated players were products of genetic fusion rather than failed experiments. After the group completed the level and moved upstairs, Shen Ru heard a system message announcing that a new scene was being constructed.

• Shen Ru realized Mo Yu had a partly human body and questioned whether the Human Elimination Plan involved fusing humans with machines.
• Mo Yu revealed that the mechanicalized players had survived and were genetic mutations caused by fusing with machinery.
• Mo Yu and Shen Ru finished their confrontation by biting each other, while the group placed the Power Core into the sheet-metal bag and completed the level.
• The system ordered all players to proceed to the upper level, where Qiao Xinran noticed Shen Ru’s bitten ear and Gu Changming urged the group onward.
• The players entered a dazzling chamber made of mirrors, and Shen Ru felt stabbing pain as a mechanical voice announced that it was constructing a new scene.

Shen Ru awakened in a mechanical world as a human slave chained in Mo Yu’s home, but realized the scene could reveal the giant’s fusion and mutation. Mo Yu treated him with unusual care and introduced Gu Changming and two others as his toys, leaving Shen Ru unsure what the man was hiding.

• Shen Ru found a chain around his ankle and read a diary describing his life as an enslaved human and his previous attempt to escape.
• Mo Yu entered and warned Shen Ru not to try escaping again, while Shen Ru recognized the scene as part of the giant’s heart.
• Shen Ru noticed that his mechanical markings matched Mo Yu’s and questioned why Mo Yu had chained him.
• Mo Yu carried Shen Ru downstairs for a meal instead of answering his questions, prompting Shen Ru to suspect he was being treated unusually well.
• At the dining table, Mo Yu introduced Gu Changming and two others as toys to entertain Shen Ru.

Shen Ru tested his theory about his body by stabbing himself and discovered that he could regenerate almost instantly. He then confronted Mo Yu, who implied that Shen Ru had already uncovered the truth about the scenario.

• Shen Ru teased Mo Yu at dinner, asked Gu Changming to escort him to the bathroom, and questioned him about humans’ status in the world.
• Gu Changming said humans and machines lived together peacefully, contradicting the diary’s account of a dangerous outside world.
• Shen Ru stabbed his own neck to test his suspicion that his body had powerful regenerative abilities, and the wound healed within seconds.
• Shen Ru concluded that the diary’s danger was meant to keep him beside Mo Yu and guessed that the giant had grown from regenerating cells.
• Shen Ru teleported to Mo Yu, pinned him down, and threatened him with the knife; Mo Yu replied that Shen Ru had already figured everything out.

Shen Ru and the Players learned that Mo Yu had deceived and nurtured Shen Ru until he willingly sacrificed himself for love, then returned to the Giant’s heart and received a mission to repair its brain. As they reached the dim, tangled-wire brain, Shen Ru questioned how the Giant’s lower sections could still produce vivid scenes without power.

• Shen Ru realized the Giant was an extension of his body and learned that he had willingly given himself up for love of Mo Yu.
• The illusion shattered, returning the Players to the mirror space inside the Giant’s heart.
• The system ordered the Players to go to the Top Floor and make the final repairs to the Giant’s brain.
• Gu Changming warned Qiao Xinran and Ruan Ping that completing the new mission would kill every human in the Instance, including the Players.
• At the brain, Shen Ru wondered what powered the Giant’s lower sections after it had split in two.

Shen Ru tested whether the robots were being forced to serve humans by gathering them near the exposed flesh. When he struck the wall, the robots panicked and revealed ghostly human faces, terrifying Ruan Ping and Qiao Xinran.

• Shen Ru and the others reached the writhing flesh, where he stopped at fifty percent mechanicalization and learned that Mo Yu needed them to draw out the Instance's consciousness.
• Shen Ru brought Ruan Ping and Qiao Xinran to the Bottom Floor to investigate whether the robots were being compelled to keep working.
• Ruan Ping and Qiao Xinran gathered the robots together with ropes as Shen Ru watched their reactions.
• Shen Ru smashed open the wall and exposed the flesh, triggering a panicked frenzy among the robots and revealing ghostly faces that made Ruan Ping and Qiao Xinran scream.

Shen Ru used the Ghost Wall card to delay his mechanization and let the Giant's brain finish repairing, while facing a nightmare in which Mo Yu repeatedly died. After the card expired and the mission ended, Mo Yu found Shen Ru alive and embraced him.

• Shen Ru confirmed that he had deliberately lured Mo Yu into a trap to pursue the merger of flesh and machinery, while the mechanized players were sacrificed to the Giant's brain.
• As the Giant's brain neared completion, Shen Ru's body became increasingly mechanized, so he activated the S-Rank Ghost Wall card at the last moment.
• The card trapped Shen Ru and the other players in their greatest fears, and Shen Ru's nightmare showed Mo Yu inviting him to finish their violin piece before leaping from a rooftop.
• Shen Ru watched Mo Yu die repeatedly in the nightmare, and the five-minute delay gave the Giant's brain time to complete its repairs.
• After the card expired, Mo Yu approached Shen Ru, confirmed he was unharmed, embraced him, and said, "Game over, my rose."

After Mo Yu and Shen Ru left the instance, the system malfunction disrupted games across the Leisure Area. Mo Yu announced a compensation channel and declared that he would begin pursuing Shen Ru that night.

• Mo Yu confronted Shen Ru after the instance, insisting Shen Ru had to stay alive, and Shen Ru asked whether Mo Yu was afraid.
• Shen Ru arrived in the Live Broadcast Plaza and realized the system's consciousness had likely been badly damaged.
• Shen Ru encountered Meng Yizhi, who deduced that Mo Yu and Shen Ru had caused the system failure.
• The plaza screens came back on, and Mo Yu appeared playing the violin before announcing the system upgrade malfunction and a compensation channel opening at midnight.
• Mo Yu told Shen Ru that he would begin his wild pursuit of him that night.

After Mo Yu announced the Dark Night Guild’s compensation game, Shen Ru and Meng Yizhi went searching for points sites, and Shen Ru tried to con a group of players into handing over five thousand points. Mo Yu also ordered Gu Changming to locate the surviving system consciousness while privately waiting for Shen Ru to contact him.

• Shen Ru teased Meng Yizhi by bringing up their unfinished hot pot, while players reacted to Mo Yu’s announcement that the Dark Night Guild would compensate them.
• Gu Changming confronted Sheng Ziyao over an overdue report, then Mo Yu ordered them to find the instance hiding the system’s remaining consciousness.
• At midnight, the Dark Night Guild opened a five-hour points competition where players could earn points to cancel required instance entries.
• Shen Ru and Meng Yizhi walked through the city and found players gathered at a temporary points site in an alley.
• Shen Ru approached the group and falsely called the site fixed, offering to sell it to them for five thousand points.

Shen Ru tricked a group of players into giving up their points, then went to meet Mo Yu for a candlelit dinner. He ended the chapter teasing Mo Yu with a rose and telling him he liked the flowers.

• Shen Ru convinced a group of players to pay 500 points for a farming spot, then ran off with Meng Yizhi after taking the points.
• Shen Ru led the pursuing players into an abandoned chemical plant, where he threatened to set it on fire unless they handed over their points.
• Meng Yizhi collected the players’ points, and Shen Ru left to meet Mo Yu.
• Mo Yu welcomed Shen Ru to a candlelit dinner at the Dark Night Guild and admitted he had been waiting impatiently.
• Shen Ru took a rose from the bouquet, swallowed a petal, and told Mo Yu that he liked the flowers.

Shen Ru and Mo Yu discussed the system’s human origins and agreed to keep the Infinite Game running under Dark Night’s control while minimizing casualties. They kissed passionately, unaware that Sheng Ziyao, Meng Yizhi, and Gu Changming were spying on them from the villa.

• Shen Ru asked Mo Yu what had happened to the system, and Mo Yu said fragments of its consciousness had escaped into other instances.
• Mo Yu revealed that humans had created the system and that he had learned it was essentially a pet kept by humans.
• Shen Ru inferred that the Creator was hiding in another channel, and Mo Yu said it was not yet time to connect the channels.
• Mo Yu explained that players would keep participating in the Infinite Game while Dark Night controlled the system and reduced casualties.
• Shen Ru and Mo Yu kissed passionately in the garden.
• Sheng Ziyao, Meng Yizhi, and Gu Changming watched them through a window, and an accidentally switched-on light exposed their spying.

Shen Ru entered the S-rank role-playing Instance Virtual Town, where a puppeteer obsessed with him tried to turn him into a puppet. The puppeteer escaped after Shen Ru attacked his Shen Ru lookalike puppet, promising they would meet again soon.

• Shen Ru entered a dim bathroom in Virtual Town and noticed his reflection briefly grin grotesquely at him.
• A man called to Shen Ru from outside the bathroom, and Shen Ru found the man holding a puppet made in his own image.
• Shen Ru insulted the puppeteer and questioned why his other puppets had no eyes.
• Shen Ru used Instant Teleportation to pin the puppeteer against a wall and threaten him with a blade.
• The puppeteer revealed he had watched Shen Ru's livestreams and called him his muse, then switched places with the Shen Ru puppet as Shen Ru stabbed its eye.
• The puppeteer vanished after warning Shen Ru they would meet again, and Shen Ru crushed the puppet's face.

Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao fled a puppet shop after breaking Virtual Town’s rules, only for Shen Ru to blow up the shop and trigger a town-wide bounty. They reached the church and collided with Mo Yu, who confronted Shen Ru about the Puppeteer’s Muse Template.

• The system announced Virtual Town’s rules, including warnings about puppets with eyes, dishonest residents, and doors that opened outward from the inside.
• Shen Ru found Sheng Ziyao in the puppet shop and learned the Puppeteer had brought him into the instance as part of a provocation.
• When Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao opened the shop door, the puppets turned hostile, and Shen Ru used timed Cards to escape with Sheng Ziyao.
• They ran through town as the residents panicked, then an explosion destroyed the puppet shop and the loudspeakers declared bounty mode against the two fugitives.
• Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao reached the church, where Shen Ru fell into Mo Yu’s arms and Mo Yu asked about the Puppeteer’s Muse Template.

Shen Ru and Mo Yu affirmed their possessive feelings for each other before using Mo Yu’s position as the church priest to investigate the town. Disguised as nuns, Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao joined the midnight prayer, where Shen Ru approached Meng Yizhi.

• Shen Ru teased Mo Yu about his jealousy, then threatened to torture anyone Mo Yu might love and kill Mo Yu if he fell for someone else; Mo Yu promised that would never happen.
• Mo Yu explained that the residents revered the church and came at midnight to pray, so Shen Ru decided they should use the priest’s authority to explore.
• Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao searched the church wardrobe for disguises and found only elaborate nuns’ habits, which they put on.
• At midnight, Mo Yu led the residents in prayer while Shen Ru and Sheng Ziyao moved among them in their nun disguises.
• Shen Ru spotted Meng Yizhi among the praying residents, approached him, and revealed that he was more useful than God.