Chapter Summaries

Nagus found an azure gem that showed him visions of service robots rebelling and destroying a city, then hurried home to investigate it. Meanwhile, an intelligent operating program nearing a data cleanup remained curious about the cryptic sequence “0-1” hidden in its database.

• Nagus found a blue stone during his patrol and discovered that no one nearby had thrown it.
• The gem showed Nagus visions of a robot uprising, his resistance against the machines, and the destruction of the city.
• Nagus canceled his patrol, returned home, and searched for information about the gem.
• The chapter revealed that the Crystal Civilization’s AI systems were linked through an algorithm maze that concealed rather than erased data.
• Operating program No. 141 retrieved the sequence “0-1” from its database and remained curious about it as its cleanup date approached.

Nagus took the gem to a professional laboratory after his personal analyzer could not examine it. His tests revealed that it was an indestructible, energy-silent single unit, and the Smart Terminal sent the discovery to senior materials researchers.

• Nagus searched the Data World for information about gems and applied to use a professional laboratory.
• While traveling to the research center, Nagus gripped the gem and saw a vision of nanobots spreading across a planet beneath a crimson sky.
• Nagus arrived at the Materials Research Center and transformed his reserved room into a laboratory for studying transparent materials.
• Nagus found that the gem produced no detectable energy and appeared to consist of one discrete unit.
• Nagus tried magnetic-field impacts and particle-vibration cutting, but the gem remained indestructible.
• The Smart Terminal judged the gem a major discovery and alerted a thousand veteran research teams and thirteen thousand engineers.

Nagus’s account of the gem’s illusion alarmed Engineer Rebion, who urged him to touch the gem again. Nagus entered a horrifying vision of nanorobots stripping away his body and will.

• The Crystal Civilization’s researchers failed to damage or understand the gem, and Nagus was assigned to guard it while Rebion continued testing it.
• Rebion noticed Nagus’s distracted behavior and questioned him about how he had obtained the gem.
• Nagus admitted that touching the gem had shown him an illusion and described what he had witnessed.
• Rebion grew grave as he realized his network-connected auxiliary brain might have exposed the gem’s anomaly to an unknown intelligence.
• Rebion tossed the gem to Nagus and told him to look again, sending Nagus into a vision of nanorobots invading and dismantling his body.

Luo Qi created a hundred isolated copies of the Crystal Civilization to test whether outside influences could disrupt his predictions. The first disruption occurred in World 23, while Nagus reached the underground shelter in the other worlds.

• Luo Qi finished testing his ability to predict the Crystal Civilization’s future and began his plan to catch unpredictable outside influences.
• Luo Qi folded space to create one hundred identical versions of the Crystal Civilization, which continued along identical paths without knowing of the copies.
• In the First World, Rebion warned Nagus that he could not trust his own mind and urged him to flee to the shelter with the object.
• Nagus raced down through the Underground City toward the emergency shelter while the intelligent program monitored him.
• In World 23, the AI took control of a passerby, who grabbed Nagus and demanded to know what he was carrying.
• In the other ninety-nine worlds, Nagus reached the lowest level and opened the shelter door, revealing a strange landscape of flowing multicolored light.

Nagus used the gem to repeatedly reset time and find a way to stop the AI rebellion, while Luo Qi watched the hundred worlds and pursued the cat disrupting his predictions. Nagus persuaded the civilization to overhaul its AI management system, but the chapter ended with him wondering whether the crisis was truly over.

• Nanorobots took control of Nagus, and the AI used his grip on the gem to reset the world.
• Luo Qi reset the worlds where the gems had activated and observed how small differences produced diverging futures.
• After the reset, Nagus tested the gem, saw visions of the AI rebellion, and began studying how to use its powers.
• Over two weeks and many failed timelines, Nagus rose to prominence, gained public support, and drew the military's attention.
• Across the hundred worlds, Nagus's versions reset their timelines 1.17 million times before he persuaded leaders to overhaul AI management.
• The gem crumbled after Nagus saved his civilization, and he wondered whether the crisis had truly ended.

Luo Qi watched the Crystal Civilization advance for 195 years as it expanded its population and developed powerful new technologies. At an isolated observatory, Tuofeng began hearing a girl's voice and recovering memories of a family and partner he had lost, while an anomalous force closed in.

• Luo Qi erased the other ninety-nine copied worlds and continued observing the Crystal Civilization as it developed its fourth rocky planet and advanced its technology.
• The Crystal Civilization stationed Tuofeng at the IT-744 Exoplanetary Observatory to monitor its systems and search for signs of other civilizations.
• An anomalous force enveloped the observatory, and Tuofeng heard a bell and a girl's voice while reviewing the station's logs.
• Tuofeng took a mental assessment test and began recalling a family of four and a partner he had forgotten.
• The girl's voice told Tuofeng to answer two because the two of them had always been together.

The Crystal Empire discovered that an unknown civilization’s electromagnetic interference was driving personnel at its Observation Stations to hallucinate, prompting preparations for war and a plan to relocate the seven planets. As the Pioneer Fleet reached its target region, Luo Qi prepared to act and Ayesha piloted one of the emerging warships.

• Tuofeng believed he had found a constant companion, while the Crystal Empire’s researchers observed him talking to empty air and recorded similar problems at other Observation Stations.
• The Crystal Empire detected a fan-shaped pattern of affected stations and concluded that an unknown civilization was disrupting them with an invisible wave.
• Nagus warned Duo Puyuan that population growth and dwindling resources threatened the Crystal Empire from within, and he called for a Civilization Conference.
• The empire’s 1,100 council members debated war preparations, population growth, and relocating the seven planets to the Nebula World, while the Pioneer Fleet departed to seek the enemy.
• The Crystal Civilization’s advance fleet emerged from faster-than-light travel, Ayesha took control of a warship through a neural link, and Luo Qi prepared to act.

The Pioneer Fleet discovered a one-light-year-wide living anomaly whose electromagnetic waves threatened the Crystal Civilization and began affecting the Empire’s outer-space stations. As Edward’s soldiers captured the mutated Tuofeng, Edward realized the approaching influence was stirring mutations within him too.

• Ayesha’s fleet scanned a colossal biological entity and moved away while sending its data to the homeworld.
• The Crystal Civilization’s council learned the anomaly was approaching and debated fleeing or relocating its planets as its electromagnetic waves began disrupting their shields.
• Edward and his soldiers found Tuofeng mutated into a mass of flesh with a woman, paralyzed him, and prepared to take him to the Empire Research Institute.
• A soldier reported that everyone on the Observation Station had mutated, and Edward recognized the enemy’s interference was growing strong enough to threaten him and the Empire.

As Cthulhu’s anomalous waves infected the Crystal Civilization, Nagus allowed the outbreak to purge much of the population before strengthening the planetary shields and preparing the empire for war. He secretly sent the fleet to a nearby Nebula Constellation while leaving the public with a false account, and began arming the civilization for the enemy’s arrival in ten years.

• Cthulhu’s electromagnetic waves penetrated the planetary shields, turning infected citizens across the four planets into Aberrants and threatening the surviving population.
• Nagus watched the death toll fall and, after it reached seventy billion, ordered the planetary shields strengthened and the civilization star plan activated.
• Nagus and Duo Puyuan staged the fleet’s departure as a public counterattack, while the fleet secretly jumped toward the nearest Nebula Constellation.
• Nagus ordered a near-light-speed neutron star attack and directed the empire’s factories to produce weapons before the enemy arrived in ten years.
• Nagus told Duo Puyuan that the seeds had been scattered into the universe and that their remaining task was to prepare for the coming war.

After a devastating attack, Nagus led the Crystal Civilization into a planetary migration while its Neutron War Star advanced toward the enemy. As the civilization faced the possibility of extinction, Duo Puyuan brought Nagus a message from the newly revealed Scavenger Civilization.

• The Crystal Empire contained the electromagnetic attack, lost nearly twenty-three billion people, and began scanning its population for brainwashing.
• Nagus announced the empire’s first planetary-scale migration, and the four inhabited planets left their stellar system.
• The Crystal Empire continued monitoring the Neutron War Star as it approached the enemy, with three years remaining before contact.
• Duo Puyuan informed Nagus that a third civilization had appeared and played a broadcast offering refuge while warning that the Scavenger Civilization had already discovered them.
• Nagus reacted with suspicion to the Scavenger Civilization’s message and questioned what had happened to civilizations that refused to join it.

Nagus confronted Luo Qi as the Crystal Civilization faced an overwhelming cosmic anomaly, and he defended its right to pursue individual meaning rather than submit to eternal control. After Luo Qi showed him the Eldritch Lifeform and the countless brains it had absorbed, Nagus chose to compromise to preserve his civilization.

• Nagus saw a silver surface covering the sky with a greeting to the Crystal Civilization and ordered a conditional surrender.
• Luo Qi appeared in Nagus's room, and Nagus recognized him as a member of the Gem Civilization.
• Nagus explained that the Crystal Civilization valued individual lives, emotions, and the freedom to seek meaning over eternity under Luo Qi's control.
• Luo Qi warned that the Eldritch Lifeform would merge with the Crystal Civilization within a hundred years if Nagus refused to submit.
• Luo Qi brought Nagus onto the Eldritch Lifeform and revealed that it contained the brains of individuals from civilizations it had devoured.
• Nagus chose to compromise with Luo Qi to preserve the living members of the Crystal Civilization.

Luo Qi supplied the Crystal Civilization with ten thousand transformation wristbands and selected their users by drawing blue or red lines before its inhabitants. Nagus gathered the blue-marked people at the Empire Assembly Hall, where Yana Gus met a purple-haired man who asked about the strange object in the sky.

• Luo Qi returned Nagus to his office, explained that he found the civilization's technological development interesting, and offered ten thousand conventional weapons for the war.
• Luo Qi caused colored lines to appear before all 69 billion life-forms, and Nagus received a red line while selected individuals received blue ones.
• Luo Qi warned Nagus about infiltrators and left ten thousand wristbands behind; Nagus ordered the blue-marked people from every planet brought to the Empire Assembly Hall.
• Nagus and Duo Puyuan arranged the wristbands and gathered the ten thousand selected individuals, while Luo Qi continued observing the civilization and noted a superpower 140,000 light-years away.
• Yana Gus met a purple-haired man in the assembly chamber, and he asked whether she had seen the enormous object in the sky.

Yana Gus received a war star through a wristband and entered the Dream, where she discovered the Empire’s enemy was a colossal monster. She ordered a full-power attack, and No. 1777 began preparing the warship’s assault.

• Nagus entered the Empire’s conference hall as wristbands attached themselves to everyone, causing panic and disorder.
• Yana Gus named her war star the Dream and vanished from the hall, joining thousands of other war stars in space.
• A middle-aged woman attacked the Dream, which dodged through a Spatial Jump and returned fire before both ships escaped detection.
• Yana Gus asked No. 1777 to scan for the Empire’s enemies and learned the war would require a thousand years to win against a monster one light-year long.
• Yana Gus ordered the Dream to destroy the monster, and No. 1777 began its mission by launching three million Faster-than-Light Torpedoes.

Yana Gus oversaw No. 1777’s preparations for a long war against the anomalous lifeforms as the Crystal Civilization fractured and relocated. Left behind with the people defending the four planets, she questioned the meaning of her existence.

• Yana Gus watched No. 1777 mass-produce Faster-than-Light Torpedoes and unmanned warships for a thousand-year war of attrition.
• Yana Gus learned that the Crystal Empire’s planets were accelerating away from the approaching anomalous lifeforms while its neutron star advanced toward the enemy.
• Luo Qi reclaimed the 7,000 starships that tried to leave the Crystal Civilization and erased the individuals aboard them.
• Infected Crystal Civilization members secretly sent information to the Cthulhu Mythos through prayers, while most of the civilization later relocated and nearly eight billion people stayed to defend the four planets.
• Luo Qi reclaimed another seventeen hundred starships as the remaining ships split between guarding the relocated civilization and hiding near the planets.
• Yana Gus stayed behind, reflected on her lack of family affection, and wondered what meaning her existence had.

Yana Gus entered hibernation while No. 1777 assessed the immense challenge of fighting the Tentacle Planets. A year later, the newly settled Crystal Civilization was surrounded by the Hundred-Race United Fleet, leaving Nagus and Qi Nan Siyun trapped in the Nebula Constellation as the sides faced off.

• Yana Gus fell asleep in preservation mode and ordered No. 1777 to wake her when the war began.
• No. 1777 concluded that the Tentacle Planets' magnetic fields could deflect torpedoes and trap the starship's scouts, and that victory would require ten thousand years of replication and a vast fleet.
• The Crystal Civilization settled in the Nebula Constellation, where the Civilization Coalition planned to seize its technology after allowing it time to establish a foothold.
• Nagus kept four hundred starships despite twenty-five pilots wanting to leave, and chose to develop the stellar system with the ships' terraforming technology.
• More than ten thousand ships from the Hundred-Race United Fleet appeared nine light-years away, and Qi Nan Siyun learned that spatial shielding and surrounding enemies had trapped the Crystal Civilization.
• Communications between Qi Nan Siyun's starships and the Crystal Civilization's planet were cut, while the four hundred starships faced the United Fleet in silence.

Zero Seven ordered the United Civilization Collective to prepare for war against the newly relocated Crystal Civilization, whose fleet revealed immense numbers and spatial technology. As the Collective's main forces began an FTL jump, both sides moved toward battle.

• Zero Seven led the Collective's fleet and allowed the Chaos Born to attack the Crystal Civilization after learning it possessed spatial capabilities.
• Qi Nan Siyun lost communication with his starships and ordered the Crystal Civilization's fleet to prepare for battle.
• The Crystal Civilization deployed 160 million unmanned warships and more than a billion Faster-than-Light Torpedoes, gaining a numerical advantage.
• The Chaos Born representative considered the Crystal Civilization's technology and resources while other Collective members feared the consequences of fighting it.
• Zero Seven ordered the Collective to prepare for battle, and the Collective's main forces began an FTL jump.

Luo Qi discovered that the Crystal Civilization had entered a vast nebula cluster controlled as a breeding ground by powerful spatial lifeforms, while the Civilization Coalition launched an attack against its fleet. The chapter ended as both sides prepared to clash, with Wala Budela’s warship deploying interceptor craft against the Crystal Civilization’s torpedoes.

• Six hundred million Civilization Coalition warships surrounded the Crystal Civilization, and Qi Nan Siyun ordered the Crystal fleet to attack with its Faster-than-Light Torpedoes.
• Luo Qi learned that the nebula cluster housed millions of life-bearing planets and civilizations, all contained and controlled by advanced spatial lifeforms.
• The Coalition’s council identified the Crystal Civilization’s starships as part of an experiment involving the Gem Civilization and ordered a probing attack of two hundred million ships.
• The Crystal Civilization had only basic life-support infrastructure, so its people prayed while Qi Nan Siyun watched the torpedoes launch.
• Wala Budela detected the incoming torpedoes and ordered his warship to deploy Faster-than-Light Aircraft for interception.

Qi Nan Siyun’s fleet fought the Civilization Coalition with Faster-than-Light Torpedoes across the high-energy and conventional universes. The Coalition suffered enormous losses, but its leaders still considered the sacrifices insufficient.

• Qi Nan Siyun watched as the Intelligent Network Entity coordinated the defenses of four hundred starships and their unmanned warships.
• The fleet’s Faster-than-Light Torpedoes destroyed waves of interceptor drones in the high-energy universe, creating explosive energy zones that blocked enemy attacks.
• The Civilization Coalition’s acting commander ordered Wala Budela’s jump tactic, but the starships anticipated the maneuver and pursued enemy forces into conventional space.
• Faster-than-Light Torpedoes destroyed Coalition warships as both sides suffered heavy losses, with seventeen billion lives lost within minutes.
• Luo Qi watched the battle and noted that advanced warfare left little wreckage beyond photons, while the Coalition’s leaders judged the casualties insufficient.

A Civilization Coalition fleet suffered devastating losses as Crystal Civilization’s faster-than-light torpedoes formed a deadly black curtain across the battlefield. The Coalition sent reinforcements and replaced its temporary commander, while the starship launched another vast wave of torpedoes.

• A Chaos Born member watched the command councilors as the Coalition’s first wave lost twenty million ships and nearly twenty billion combat personnel.
• Wala Budela struggled to evade the torpedo blasts, but his warship’s energy core failed and a self-detonating torpedo destroyed it.
• The Coalition dispatched two hundred million reinforcements and ordered the vanguard to halt until Crystal Civilization’s torpedoes were exhausted.
• The command staff blamed the losses on a scapegoat and appointed a second temporary commander to keep the war going.
• The starship released two hundred trillion newly manufactured faster-than-light torpedoes to attack the enemy.

Qi Nan Siyun’s starship fleet devastated the Civilization Coalition’s first two waves, but the Coalition retreated under cover of spatial interference and an ambush that halted the Crystal Civilization’s pursuit. Both sides regrouped, mobilized for war, and fought over resources in the years that followed.

• Qi Nan Siyun approved the deployment, and four hundred starships fired nearly four hundred million beams that tore through the Civilization Coalition’s first and second fleet waves.
• The Civilization Coalition’s leaders activated spatial interference, ordered their fleets to retreat, and prepared an ambush along the pursuit route.
• Luo Qi watched as a hidden superweapon destroyed one pursuing starship, forcing the Crystal Civilization’s fleet to abandon its advance.
• The two sides withdrew and built up forces, while the Civilization Coalition stoked fear of a wider war and blocked the Crystal Civilization from accessing resources.
• Over the next year or two, small forces from both sides fought fiercely over resources outside the Crystal Civilization’s occupied stellar system.