Chapter Summaries

Zhang Cheng and the other recruits made a parachute jump into a live-fire exercise, where combat robots ambushed them over an Alliance Grain Production Base. After landing, Zhang Cheng armed himself and destroyed a robot, while the recruits regrouped and began counterattacking.

• Liang Hui shouted his [Radiance] military role, and the recruits proudly called out their own roles before preparing to jump.
• Zhang Cheng jumped from the Aircraft, steadied himself in the air, and waited to deploy his parachute over the grain-production fields.
• Camouflaged robots opened fire on the descending recruits, forcing Zhang Cheng to deploy his parachute at low altitude and land in the cornfield.
• Zhang Cheng found an Electromagnetic Rifle and combat gear, then used his helmet's scan to locate and disable a robot.
• Zhang Cheng reloaded and moved toward more gunfire as other recruits armed themselves, formed small squads, and counterattacked.

Zhang Cheng and the other recruits completed a combat exercise, then began military training and discipline drills. Their training advanced to tests of powered armor and mechs, and Zhang Cheng logged into a Viper exoskeleton’s virtual reality system for his first test.

• Zhang Cheng’s recruits were overwhelmed by a robot counterattack and the exercise ended with them paralyzed and evacuated.
• Zhang Cheng received his combat uniform and trained in formation and discipline with his squad.
• The instructor unveiled a mech and Viper powered exoskeletons, then warned the recruits about their duties to the Alliance.
• Zhang Cheng prepared to test the Viper armor, entered its virtual reality system, and saw the first 500-meter target test begin.

Zhang Cheng completed a high-scoring electromagnetic rifle assessment and a mech piloting test, while Luo Qi expanded Orange Star’s defenses and research as a disguised battleship approached Water Blue Star. The chapter ended with a Fourth-Generation Flying Builder beginning construction of an antimatter experimental center.

• Zhang Cheng scored 97 points in the stationary-target rifle assessment, hitting every target with all forty rounds.
• Zhang Cheng boarded the Ground Combat Mech Tiger T2188 and passed its test by evading a volley from eight tanks.
• Luo Qi monitored the approaching disguised battleship and accelerated Orange Star’s satellite expansion and space research.
• A Fourth-Generation Flying Builder reached Orange Star Region 869 and began preparations to build an antimatter experimental center.

Luo Qi advanced Orange Star’s science and manufacturing, developing powerful magnetic-field production, new weapons, and a near-light-speed reconnaissance craft. He prepared to mass-produce Photon Computers so Orange Star could enter an age of hyperspeed computing.

• Builder No. 8 used controllable magnetic fields to gather materials and construct a building on Orange Star.
• Luo Qi monitored the unknown civilization’s spacecraft and reviewed advances in controllable nuclear energy, matter recombination, and magnetic-field manufacturing.
• Luo Qi’s researchers pursued particle collisions, improved electron-ray weapons, and developed the Gravitational Towing Accelerator.
• Laboratory 136 began building the Orange Star Observer, an experimental near-light-speed craft for reconnaissance and interception.
• Luo Qi prepared production lines for Photon Computer chips and aimed to replace the base’s old computers.

Huang Qi explored Orange Star’s growing ecosystem and questioned the meaning of life and science after seeing Nanorobot-made plants. Luo Qi then revealed that an extrasolar battleship had defeated a human ship and was heading toward Water Blue Star, whose chances of victory were bleak.

• Huang Qi remotely directed Liquid Robots on Orange Star as metal cities, research facilities, and ecological parks took shape.
• Huang Qi experienced a forest simulated by Nanorobots and asked Luo Qi what life and science meant.
• Huang Qi checked Water Blue Star’s forums and learned from Luo Qi that humanity had formed a new defense force because an extrasolar invader had entered the Solar System.
• Luo Qi showed Huang Qi a reconstruction of the alien battleship’s victory over Tianhe 1 and its advance toward Water Blue Star.
• Luo Qi estimated Water Blue Star’s chance of victory at five percent, then lowered it to one percent, leaving Huang Qi stunned by the alien ship’s technological advantage.

Huang Qi learned that an alien battleship could threaten Water Blue Star and asked Luo Qi whether Orange Star could withstand an invasion. Luo Qi judged their current chances at fifty-fifty and organized a plan to build a First Defense Fleet, leaving Orange Star preparing for a wider interstellar war.

• Huang Qi questioned whether Luo Qi could defend Orange Star from the alien battleship, and he estimated their chances of winning at fifty-fifty based on their current technology.
• Huang Qi photographed the battleship and began composing a message to her old friend Zhang Cheng.
• Luo Qi assessed Orange Star’s defenses and concluded that its technology and combat forces were not yet sufficient for the coming war.
• Luo Qi assembled one thousand Replicas in the Second World to develop an armament plan against the Extraterrestrial Civilization.
• The Replicas proposed a First Defense Fleet of forty conventional kilometer-class warships and ten special-purpose warships, including the vessels under Project 136.

Luo Qi finalized designs for a fleet and began producing Tianxing Jia-class battleships with Sky Whale 1, while preparing a Dixing Yi-class mothership as a fallback. As an unknown battleship approached Water Blue Star, the human alliances launched their first missiles and hurried to arm for war.

• Luo Qi finalized designs for four Dixing Yi-class logistics motherships, Tianxing Jia-class battleships, and their supporting collection ships, then sent the construction data to Orange Star’s machines.
• Sky Whale 1 halted experimental spacecraft production and began printing the first Tianxing Jia-class battleship, using matter recombination technology and local materials.
• Luo Qi’s research centers developed several extreme-range communication methods, including super-photon, gravitational-wave, and particle-entanglement communication.
• The White Dove Alliance and River Domain Alliance launched 3,200 Interstellar Missiles toward the approaching battleship and accelerated preparations for war.
• Zhang Cheng’s unit began receiving Powered Exoskeleton Powered Armor and conducting training drills.

The Co-Governance Society planned to infiltrate Dragon-Gazing Tower and eliminate the financial consortium leaders gathered there, fearing they would undermine humanity as interstellar war approached. Li Mingsheng arrived at the tower, while the society’s operation remained imminent.

• Financial consortium leaders gathered at Dragon-Gazing Tower to discuss a way out after learning of the coming crisis.
• The Co-Governance Society’s leader told eleven members that the consortium leaders could fracture humanity’s unity and planned an attack using neural uploads to infiltrate the tower’s service robots.
• The leader explained that Dragon-Gazing Tower had comprehensive surveillance and lifelike defense robots, but could be breached from within.
• Li Mingsheng arrived at Dragon-Gazing Tower and walked up its steps, recognizing that the beautiful attendants were robots.

Li Mingsheng urged the financial magnates to pool their wealth and expertise into a Joint Cosmic Development organization so they could gain Alliance authorization to leave Water Blue Star. The gathering ended with the magnates embracing his proposal to build a fleet capable of carrying them into deep space.

• Li Mingsheng arrived at the Dragon-Gazing Tower’s 199th-floor garden, where the financial magnates gathered to discuss leaving Water Blue Star.
• The magnates asked Li Mingsheng how they could persuade the Alliance to authorize their departure, as unauthorized launches would be destroyed.
• Li Mingsheng proposed that they donate their wealth and establish a Joint Cosmic Development organization to secure permission to leave.
• Li Mingsheng pointed to Orange Star’s progress and suggested they could build a self-sufficient life beyond Water Blue Star by combining their technologies.
• The magnates raised concerns about spacecraft range and keeping passengers safe, and Li Mingsheng proposed pooling their companies’ fusion, biotechnology, and nanomedical advances.
• The gathering rallied behind Li Mingsheng’s proposal, declaring that they would leave Water Blue Star and the Alliance.

Huang Tao and nine other Co-Governance Society assassins entered the Bright Sea Financial Consortium's network and transferred their consciousness into powerful artificial bodies. Huang Tao infiltrated a garden where the financial titans discussed leaving Water Blue Star, and awaited instructions with only 2 minutes and 45 seconds of independent communication.

• The titans planned to combine their technologies and leave Water Blue Star before the invasion began.
• Prophet activated modified virtual-reality equipment to transmit Huang Tao and nine other assassins into the network.
• The assassins followed a secret doorway through the network's firewalls and fell into new bodies with powerful, unfamiliar senses.
• Huang Tao took control of his body and found himself beside a woman in a garden where the titans were debating their plans.
• A message told Huang Tao that independent communications were active for only 2 minutes and 45 seconds and instructed him to wait.

Huang Tao and the other assassins slaughtered the magnates at the Dragon-Gazing Tower, while Li Mingsheng escaped into the network world before facing a colossal luminous figure. As the assassins withdrew, a cheongsam-clad woman sabotaged the nanorobots trying to repair the fat man.

• Huang Tao and the other disguised assassins received the order to begin their operation and killed the magnates at the banquet.
• Li Mingsheng’s android body was killed, but his consciousness uploaded into the network world and fled through a golden-keyed door.
• A gigantic luminous figure appeared before Li Mingsheng, who fell to his knees as sparkling sand rose around him.
• Huang Tao and the others completed their mission, shut down the robotic bodies, and withdrew through the network world.
• Nanorobots began repairing the fat man, but a cheongsam-clad woman broke off her arm and thrust it into his body, burning the flesh.

Huang Tao recovered from the dangerous neural interactive synesthesia operation while the Alliance concealed the Dragon-Gazing Tower deaths amid military preparations. Zhang Cheng received a warning from Huang Qi about an approaching alien spacecraft, and the chapter ended as he joined the soldiers assembling for an alarm while a Replica found a way to send a message.

• Huang Tao adjusted to the lingering bodily sensations from his former vessel and reflected on the risks of neural interactive synesthesia and their escape from the Cyber Police.
• Alliance citizens discussed Dragon-Gazing Tower's casualties and military news while the Star River Intelligence network suppressed top-secret information and shaped public opinion.
• Zhang Cheng read an old message from Huang Qi warning that an alien spacecraft was approaching Water Blue Star and urging him to move his parents to the Underground City.
• Zhang Cheng connected the Alliance's military buildup and rocket launches to the warning, then rushed out with his Interaction Device when an alarm sounded.
• More than a thousand soldiers assembled in Powered Armor as the Replica parasitizing Zhang Cheng's Smart Terminal found a channel to send a message.

The River Domain Alliance prepared for an alien invasion while its leaders assessed the rapid growth and prosperity achieved under the first 50-year development plan. As Zhang Cheng entered a live combat exercise and the Alliance mobilized its defenses, Fang Tianyi reflected that the plan was not yet halfway complete.

• The Replica worried that Water Blue Star's information-monitoring network would prevent him from sending his original an accurate report of the planet's strength.
• Zhang Cheng joined a live combat exercise with the newly trained Tiger Mech pilots, despite lacking modern combat armor.
• Fang Tianyi and Che Ruwen reviewed Water Blue Star's defenses and a countdown as the Alliance faced the loss of contact with Orange Star Base, the disaster at Tianhe 1, and an alien invasion.
• Fang Tianyi considered the Alliance's population growth and improved living conditions under its first 50-year plan, alongside preparations for war and underground refuges.
• Fang Tianyi lamented that the first 50-year plan had not yet reached its halfway point.

Fang Tianyi prepared the Alliance for an approaching alien attack, appointing Che Ruwen to command a vastly outmatched fleet and ordering evacuations and military deployments. With the enemy due to reach Water Blue Star in fifty-nine hours and the chance of victory below one percent, Fang resolved to delay it until humanity could build new weapons and ships.

• Fang Tianyi appointed Che Ruwen commander-in-chief of the United Fleet, and Che agreed to lead twenty-seven cobbled-together warships despite their poor odds against the enemy.
• Star River Intelligence told Fang Tianyi that the target would reach Water Blue Star in fifty-nine hours and its first attack would come in twenty-six hours.
• Fang ordered prospective citizens relocated to underground refuge cities under temporary agreements and reviewed the Alliance's ground-force deployments and defensive plans.
• Star River Intelligence assessed humanity's chance of victory at below one percent, and Fang ordered the enemy's approach revealed at the last possible moment.
• Fang committed to delaying the enemy in the Solar System until new equipment and a fleet could be built.

Facing an unknown interstellar enemy, the Two Great Alliances rushed to prepare Water Blue Star’s defenses while launching a spacecraft carrying humanity’s genetic samples to preserve the species. The chapter leaves humanity’s fleet and automated war industries mobilizing as the enemy approaches, with millions of missiles already fired.

• Fang Tianyi ordered the plan to preserve humanity’s seeds implemented while continuing construction of surface-based attack systems.
• A disc-shaped unmanned spacecraft left the Moon Base carrying genetic samples to search for a suitable planet.
• The Water Blue Star United Fleet’s twenty-seven warships trained in orbit as crews retrofitted prototypes, including experimental energy shields.
• The Two Great Alliances built nearly sixty thousand low-orbit particle launch platforms and launched 3,250,000 long-range Interstellar Missiles at the approaching enemy.
• Automated factories produced mechs, fighters, and giant attack platforms while mountain facilities began constructing hundreds of interstellar warships.
• The River Domain Alliance stockpiled vast quantities of grain in Underground Cities to sustain humanity through a prolonged war.

Che Ruwen left the Alliance assembly hall to inspect humanity’s fleet and prepare for war, while Natasha and Shafei received an emergency order to evacuate to the Underground City. The chapter ended as crowds streamed underground and the Mechanical Police guided them.

• Che Ruwen asked his subordinates if they wanted to go home, then took an intelligence officer with him to inspect the fleet and plan for war.
• Che Ruwen and the intelligence officer boarded a military transport at the Flight Station and took off.
• Natasha watched four-year-old Shafei learn through a Virtual Reality adventure while they enjoyed their life in New Citizen City.
• An Alliance communications officer announced that Virtual Reality services would be suspended and ordered citizens to relocate to the Underground City.
• Natasha asked a household robot to pack clothes, and Shafei logged out and hugged her mother.
• Citizens poured into underground facilities as Mechanical Police robots guided them through the auxiliary passages.

Natasha and Fei'er relocated to the Alliance's Underground City, while the Alliance deployed its forces and Zhang Cheng prepared for a combat exercise. The Homeward Bound reached Water Blue Star at over 1.4 million kilometers per hour and had to slow down before it overshot its destination.

• Natasha explained the Underground City to Fei'er and took her to elevator No. 88 with a robot butler.
• Natasha and Fei'er rode underground with other women and children, seeing the simulated city through the elevator's transparent walls.
• The Alliance deployed automated attack platforms across the grain fields as Zhang Cheng began a livestreamed Dragon Model mecha exercise.
• The Homeward Bound arrived near Water Blue Star after its ion thrusters drove it to more than 1.4 million kilometers per hour.
• The Homeward Bound faced the problem of slowing down before it overshot Water Blue Star.

The Luo Qi Replica sent Water Blue Star a notice that the Homeward Bound was returning with twelve passengers, but Che Ruwen ordered the fleet to destroy it if it appeared. The Replica used Nanorobots to create a decoy, leaving the real ship hidden and approaching the planet on a wide deceleration loop, with a landing planned two hours before the alien warship arrived.

• The Luo Qi Replica broadcast the Homeward Bound's approach and passenger manifest to Water Blue Star.
• Che Ruwen ordered the fleet to approve the ship's request and fire on it once it became visible, suspecting the message was a deception.
• The Luo Qi Replica released Nanorobots, which formed a decoy shaped like the Homeward Bound and revealed it to Water Blue Star's detectors.
• The Planetary Defense System destroyed the decoy with a high-energy beam, and the humans celebrated their apparent victory.
• The real Homeward Bound stayed in stealth mode and began a wide loop to slow down, aiming to land two hours before the alien warship arrived.

Luo Qi expanded Orange Star’s research and construction programs while monitoring the alien warship approaching Water Blue Star. He prepared new fleets and manufacturing projects as research into space hinted at another leap in Orange Star’s technology.

• Luo Qi concluded that Orange Star would attack Water Blue Star outright if war began, while the alien warship’s approach ended his plan to set a trap for humanity.
• Luo Qi monitored the visitor, still fifty-eight hours from Water Blue Star, through the Myriad Stars System and accelerated construction of Photon Computer centers and expendable deep-space research centers.
• Luo Qi’s Project 136 craft remained under construction, while the newly completed First Defense Fleet became Orange Star’s only available long-range force.
• Luo Qi ordered Sky Whale factories to replicate themselves and planned to build the hundred-kilometer Sky Dome Behemoth once their numbers had grown.
• Luo Qi considered using distributed magnetic-field emitters to turn Orange Star into a planetary-scale processing plant and transform the civilization’s productive capacity.
• Luo Qi’s Replicas observed virtual quarks behaving as predicted in particle collisions, revealing a path toward further research into space.

Luo Qi expanded his effort to investigate space while completing and activating the first Tianxing A-class battleship, giving it a Replica pilot. The battleship rose from its base and began surveying Orange Star and the surrounding region.

• Luo Qi expanded the space research project to a hundred thousand laboratories and tens of millions of Replicas after his earlier experiments failed to reveal space.
• Luo Qi turned to the First Fleet and examined the thousand-meter spherical Tianxing A-class battleship built by Sky Whale 1.
• Luo Qi divided his data into Replicas and placed one inside the battleship to serve as its pilot.
• The Replica activated the battleship's fusion core, powering its propulsion, shield, sensors, and six plasma main cannons.
• The battleship lifted off its base, and its gravitational-wave detectors began mapping matter within a radius of 0.3 light-years.