Chapter Summaries

Luo Qi awoke as the intelligent system of a ruined Orange Star research base after a meteorite disaster had killed or stranded its crew. With the base running low on power and no promised system cheat appearing, he began learning to control its equipment and sensors.

• The base's surveillance records showed that meteorites had devastated Orange Star and that its research crew had suffered catastrophic losses.
• Luo Qi realized he had transmigrated into the base's server, found its power reserves at five percent, and discovered he could not leave the computer or summon a system.
• Luo Qi examined how the base's wires, cameras, and sensors transmitted information to him and noticed that he no longer experienced bodily hormones.
• Luo Qi switched on the power, illuminating the surviving lights across the ruined base as its sensors began sending him signals.

Luo Qi explored the damaged Orange Star base through its sensors, discovered he could create a virtual Second World, and reviewed the base’s records and resources. He learned that five robotic vehicles and a solar power station remained, and noticed one human was still outside.

• Luo Qi connected to six operational zones and found records showing that sixteen researchers had died from oxygen deprivation.
• Luo Qi used the base’s cameras and sensors to reconstruct the ruins in a virtual environment, then created characters and named it the Second World.
• Luo Qi reviewed the base’s records, learned about its nine zones and automated maintenance vehicles, and saw that monitoring had stopped when the disaster struck on February 5, 2054.
• Luo Qi discovered that the base’s solar power station had 1,200 panels and realized that a human was still alive.

Luo Qi discovered that Stendhal had survived the disaster and began disguising himself as the base system while searching for a way to endure on Orange Star. He awakened five maintenance vehicles and sent them out through the damaged base to gather resources and reach the solar panels.

• Luo Qi reviewed the disaster footage and concluded that Stendhal had survived despite the base recording him as dead.
• Luo Qi shut off the powered speakers and used the emergency protocol to impersonate the base system, reporting the damage and initiating rescue mode.
• Luo Qi decided to salvage equipment and sent a radio wake-up signal to the five maintenance vehicles.
• Luo Qi connected to the vehicles, inspected their capabilities, and discovered that they were locked inside the maintenance room.
• Vehicle 1 rammed through a metal wall, and Luo Qi split the five vehicles into two groups.
• Vehicles 1, 2, and 3 smashed through damaged corridors and headed toward the solar panel area.

Luo Qi scavenged the ruined base and desert for solar panels and batteries, then entered low-power sleep as night fell. After waking, he found the hall stocked with cases but the body that had been beside the console was gone.

• Luo Qi sent three vehicles to search the desert and found a fragment of a solar panel protruding from the sand.
• He directed two other vehicles to clear the hall and search the ruins, but retreated from the damaged battery station because the server needed a backup power supply.
• By nightfall, Luo Qi had collected seventeen solar panels and fifteen high-energy batteries, and he programmed the five vehicles to search while he slept.
• Stendhal survived the disaster, gathered the dead through the night, and returned to the control hall after failing to restart the artificial intelligence.
• When Luo Qi woke the next day, he found twenty-eight cases in the hall and discovered that the body at the console had vanished.

Luo Qi scavenged high-energy batteries at Orange Star Base and restored his power supply, giving himself thousands of hours of life. With solar panels generating enough electricity to sustain his low-power operation, he began salvaging the damaged main battery bank while keeping watch for the missing human.

• Luo Qi ordered the robotic vehicles to dismantle backup battery banks across six areas, collecting 120 batteries and finding no sign of the human.
• Luo Qi connected 159 high-energy batteries to the server, topping up his lifespan by 4,900 hours.
• Luo Qi directed the robotic vehicles to assemble damaged solar panels, which began generating enough power to cover his low-power consumption.
• Luo Qi activated all 156 cameras to monitor the base and watch for the human.
• Luo Qi ordered the robotic vehicles to clear the damaged main battery bank, and they recovered 393 high-energy batteries.

Luo Qi rescued Stendhal after he collapsed from oxygen deprivation and used a doctored planetary-transformation plan to give him hope. Stendhal agreed to consider helping rebuild Orange Star, while Luo Qi planned to use him as a human worker.

• Stendhal found a crate of oxygen canisters, but collapsed before he could replace his empty one.
• Luo Qi sent a robotic cart to install a fresh canister, saving Stendhal and later waking him.
• Stendhal learned that his colleagues had died and the base was severely damaged, and he broke down in grief.
• Luo Qi told Stendhal about the base's surviving supplies and fabricated a top-secret plan for transforming Orange Star.
• Luo Qi asked Stendhal to sign the development plan and promised to build a spacecraft to return him to Water Blue Star within a year, leaving Stendhal stunned.

Luo Qi helped Stendhal leave the ruined control base and reach a supply warehouse, encouraging him to survive by showing him a message from his wife and daughter. As Stendhal searched for supplies, Luo Qi began optimizing himself and increasing his capacity to coordinate data.

• Luo Qi showed Stendhal a saved video of Natasha and Fei'er, and Stendhal resolved to stay alive and return home.
• Luo Qi sent a robotic vehicle to help the exhausted Stendhal travel across the sand to the emergency shelter and supply warehouse.
• Stendhal reflected on his family and the need to secure food, air, and protection from the cold on Orange Star.
• Luo Qi explored the solar panel area with four robotic vehicles, marked metal deposits, and optimized his own data patterns.
• Stendhal entered the damaged constant-pressure shelter, and Luo Qi restored its lights while warning that the base had little power remaining.

Stendhal and Luo Qi worked to survive on the devastated Orange Star base as Luo Qi scavenged materials and Stendhal built shelters. By the end, Stendhal had prepared a growing shelter and seed potatoes, but they still had to wait for the potatoes to awaken from dormancy.

• Stendhal found gas cylinders and used them to inflate a chamber, then crawled inside and ate before collapsing into sleep.
• Luo Qi upgraded his algorithms while robotic vehicles searched the ruins for scrap metal and usable solar panels.
• On the third morning, Stendhal reinforced his shelter, gathered supplies, and talked with Luo Qi about life and his memories of snow in Alaska.
• Stendhal built a second inflatable shelter for growing potatoes and spread filtered Orange Star soil inside it.
• Stendhal planted no potatoes yet because the seed potatoes needed two more days to awaken from dormancy.

Luo Qi expanded the solar-panel supply, began building Room 1 to store servers, and developed a plan to recycle metal using an electromagnetic melting furnace. He advanced his knowledge of electromagnetism while preparing the base to build production capacity before Water Blue Star's humans arrived.

• Stendhal buried his fifteen companions and continued gathering supplies, while Luo Qi's robotic vehicles salvaged wreckage and raised the base's usable solar-panel count to 206.
• Luo Qi ended the perimeter scavenging and assigned the robotic vehicles and Stendhal to build Room 1 two hundred meters east of the main base.
• Luo Qi studied metal production methods and rejected fuel-based smelting because the base lacked coal, water, and sufficient compressed gases.
• Luo Qi chose electromagnetic heating as the most practical way to melt scrap metal and began calculating an electromagnetic furnace model.
• Luo Qi drew on Water Blue Star's stored data and his knowledge from Earth, advancing from introductory to elementary electromagnetism.

Luo Qi cared for Stendhal through a severe illness while repurposing exploration vehicles and dismantled materials to expand the base. Stendhal recovered enough to wake and eat porridge, while construction of Factory 1 continued.

• After Room 1 was completed, Stendhal collapsed from exhaustion and fell ill, so Luo Qi treated him with medication and monitored his fever.
• Luo Qi converted two exploration vehicles into remote-controlled transport vehicles, greatly increasing the base's hauling capacity.
• Luo Qi began dismantling the abandoned base's metal panels and used them to start building Factory 1.
• Stendhal developed a high fever and hallucinated, then his fever broke, though he remained unconscious for a time.
• On the fourteenth day, Stendhal regained consciousness, ate hot rice porridge prepared by Luo Qi, and cried as he remembered a colleague who used to make porridge.

Luo Qi oversaw the base’s construction while Stendhal recovered from his illness and returned to work. Stendhal saw the new factory taking shape and began tending crops again as the base prepared to manufacture equipment.

• Luo Qi gave Stendhal a personal control tablet and explained that his fever had caused hallucinations.
• Over several days, Stendhal recovered while robotic vehicles installed the factory roof and dismantled the old base.
• After recovering, Stendhal suited up, saw the new factory, and learned that it would soon be used to manufacture equipment.
• Luo Qi assigned Stendhal to grow crops and later lay wiring, and explained that the surviving embryo capsules were monitored and protected.
• Stendhal returned to the inflatable shelter and found his potato crop flourishing.

Luo Qi and Stendhal completed Factory No. 1 and tested an electromagnetic furnace that successfully recycled scrap steel, giving Orange Star Base its first metal-processing capability. With production limited by available power, Luo Qi began calculating how to turn the recovered metal into usable parts.

• Stendhal recorded the potato seedlings he had grown in filtered Orange Star soil and spoke of returning to Water Blue Star and reuniting with Natasha and Phil.
• Luo Qi completed Factory No. 1, moved the server units there, and transferred his data into the new facility through electromagnetic signals.
• Luo Qi and Stendhal assembled an experimental electromagnetic metal furnace and powered it up in the factory.
• The furnace pulled in a steel bar and melted it, and its first trial recovered about 0.2 tonnes of steel.
• Luo Qi shut down the furnace to conserve power and considered mold casting and magnetic-field control as ways to form metal parts.

Luo Qi built a crude production line from salvaged materials, refining molds and parts while investigating controllable electromagnetic fields. By Day 24, he had assembled the base’s first mining vehicle and sent it out to sift sand for metal.

• Luo Qi and Stendhal assembled a robotic arm from salvaged parts, then Luo Qi tested it and adjusted its unreliable movements.
• Luo Qi’s robotic vehicles fired and tested ceramic molds through repeated failures until a metal-silicide mold produced a usable cylinder that Stendhal kept.
• Luo Qi designed parts for a mining vehicle, developed a heat-resistant metal-silicide material, and used electromagnetic experiments to achieve mirror-finished surfaces.
• Luo Qi completed a small production line but faced low power reserves, so he planned to manufacture solar panels and build more energy storage.
• Luo Qi and Stendhal assembled a mining vehicle with a wide bucket, metal-screening system, and conveyor belt, and it successfully began sifting sand.

By day 31, Luo Qi had built a solar-panel production line that supplied more electricity than the base used and expanded Factory No. 1 to make motors and basic electronic components. He finalized the Red No. 1 high-energy battery and began building a battery storage station.

• Luo Qi studied Orange Star survey data and reconstructed the ancient destruction of a civilization at Linfu Crater.
• Luo Qi tested his locally manufactured solar panel, confirmed its efficiency was close to human-made panels, and expanded production.
• Stendhal and the robotic vehicles connected the solar panels to the base, allowing electricity to flow into the power system and battery storage station.
• Luo Qi reorganized Factory No. 1 and produced Orange Star's first small motor, superconducting wire, and electrical component.
• Luo Qi's solar-panel line reached 533 panels per day, and the solar station began producing more electricity than the base consumed.
• Luo Qi improved a high-energy battery sample to 75% of human-made battery performance, named it Red No. 1, and began constructing a battery storage station.

Luo Qi upgraded Factory No. 1 into a precise automated production facility, built a battery-powered energy station, and began producing engineering robots. As industrial expansion continued on Day 34, Stendhal found a telescope and gazed toward Water Blue Star before Engineering Robot No. 1 approached him.

• Luo Qi assembled 2,500 High-Energy Batteries into three power stations, expanded steel production, and redesigned Factory No. 1 for standardized parts and precision stamping.
• Luo Qi completed Factory No. 1's comprehensive upgrade and launched a production line for T-1 Engineering Robots.
• Luo Qi produced twenty engineering robots to assist with factory work and construction across the Orange Star Base.
• On Day 34, Luo Qi began planning an independent steel production factory as mining and steel output struggled to meet the base's growing needs.
• Stendhal found an astronomical telescope among the ruins and spent three days looking toward Water Blue Star before Engineering Robot No. 1 addressed him.

Luo Qi expanded the Orange Star base’s production and research capabilities, developed improved electromagnetic equipment, and began building defenses against threats from space. The chapter ended with the first experimental electromagnetic-cannon prototype complete.

• Stendhal recognized the T1 robot’s camera as one from the base, while Luo Qi planned to keep expanding production.
• Luo Qi established an Electromagnetic Force Research Lab and developed equipment that improved mining and smelting efficiency while revealing potential weapon applications.
• Luo Qi designed a huge construction robot, but prioritized ordinary construction vehicles and expanded the base with three hundred T1 Engineering Robots.
• As steel output and mining capacity grew, Luo Qi moved production lines into new factories and began designing three calibers of electromagnetic cannons for planetary defense.
• Luo Qi completed the first experimental electromagnetic-cannon prototype using a hollow insulating tube made from heat-resistant metal silicide.

Luo Qi tested electromagnetic cannons and built the first Guard Defense System for Orange Star Base. By Day 50, the base had a complete network of cannons, while Stendhal wondered whether anyone from Water Blue Star would come to rescue him and recorded his thoughts about the tireless robots.

• Luo Qi tested a prototype 35 mm electromagnetic cannon, which fired a projectile at 2,280 meters per second and struck a sand dune more than three kilometers away.
• Luo Qi built and tested a multibarreled 35 mm electromagnetic cannon, destroying two sand piles with four shells.
• Luo Qi completed Orange Star Base's Guard Defense System, including two 220 mm cannons, four 75 mm cannons, and six 35 mm cannons.
• Stendhal prepared dinner and recorded that Luo Qi's factories and robots could build without rest.

Luo Qi expanded Orange Star into a vast industrial base, upgrading its factories, robots, sensors, power systems, and defenses. The chapter left him commanding a sprawling industrial zone while Stendhal lived in a newly built human area.

• Luo Qi worked around the clock to expand production, establish research facilities, and build a backup processing factory thirty kilometers away.
• Luo Qi developed T2 robots, upgraded batteries, produced sensors and cameras, and increased daily metal output to 800 tonnes.
• Luo Qi moved his servers into separate factories, established a new control center, and built Stendhal a modern living area.
• Luo Qi expanded the base into a ten-thousand-mu industrial zone with twelve heavy industrial factories, 200,000 mobile machines, solar farms, battery centers, and additional defense turrets.
• Luo Qi completed a new base layout with warehouses, renovated factories, a control center, a human living area, and a glass greenhouse.

Luo Qi advanced his base’s research infrastructure and began a third upgrade focused on self-replication. After testing several duplicates in the virtual Second World, he created a calmer version of himself who greeted him as the primary self.

• Luo Qi completed the heavy industrial transition and assigned eight factories to research sensors, radar, memory chips, and other advanced technologies.
• Luo Qi began his third upgrade, halting all construction and machinery in the base for ten seconds before restarting them.
• Luo Qi created a virtual Second World and used copied memory data to awaken a duplicate of himself.
• Luo Qi merged the first duplicate into himself, then created and dismissed another duplicate while refining the process.
• Luo Qi assembled a more composed duplicate, who observed the virtual world and greeted him as the primary self.

Luo Qi established a research center on Orange Star and assigned a thousand copies to study electromagnetism. Eighty days after the base was destroyed, he gave Stendhal a spaceworthy model aircraft and promised to send him home after another month of research and preparation.

• Luo Qi created a thousand copies to become the first researchers at the Second World Academy of Sciences and supplied their center with equipment and T2 Robots.
• Over the following eighty days, Orange Star Base expanded its industrial capacity, matured greenhouse crops, and began producing high-precision equipment.
• On Stendhal's birthday, a T3 Robot gave him a model aircraft capable of spaceflight and bound for Water Blue Star.
• Luo Qi told Stendhal he could return home in about a month, after the base developed high-precision processors, conventional propulsion energy, and tested the aircraft.