Recaps

Qin Yiguan discovered that the Starvation Corpses came from Zhiliao’s fantasies, but learned that Zhiliao was actually Zhichun’s dead younger brother, recreated by her Logic Completion Fantasy Syndrome. Zhichun revealed that she controlled the Starvation Corpses and confronted Qin Yiguan after he uncovered her secret.

• Qin Yiguan learned from Zhiliao that Starvation Corpses were creatures imagined to explain hunger, and Dr. House identified Zhiliao’s condition as Logic Completion Fantasy Syndrome.
• Qin Yiguan realized Zhiliao could control the Starvation Corpses and urged him to recall them after hearing they had overrun a relay station town and killed many people.
• Zhiliao explained that he had created the Starvation Corpses to make people hungry because his grandfather, Lao De, was dying and had devoted his life to feeding others.
• Qin Yiguan persuaded Zhiliao to stop hurting people, but noticed the same chain marking on the boy that appeared on the manifested creatures.
• Dr. House revealed that the patient with Logic Completion Fantasy Syndrome was Zhichun, and that Elder Chen’s grandson had died years earlier.
• Zhichun admitted she had created Zhiliao and the strange creatures, declared that only she could control the Starvation Corpses, and warned Qin Yiguan for meddling.

Zhichun attacked Qin Yiguan with strange creatures and tried to kill him, but he survived with help from his Higher Self, Victim. As Qin Yiguan grabbed Zhichun, Lao De sang a farewell song and died, leaving Zhichun weeping over him.

• Zhichun revealed that she planned to cause mass starvation so Logic Completion would bring her grandfather back to life, and attacked Qin Yiguan with Dream Skin and Brain Chisel.
• Dream Skin paralyzed Qin Yiguan, and Brain Chisel struck him down before a Gate Angel carried his apparent corpse toward heaven.
• Qin Yiguan broke free of the illusion, destroyed Dream Skin and Brain Chisel, and told Zhichun that Victim was his Higher Self.
• Qin Yiguan seized Zhichun by the throat, but Lao De began singing a mountain song outside and died as his pipe fell from his hands.
• Zhichun dropped her basket of red love beans, recognized that Lao De was gone, and tearfully called out to her grandfather.

After Lao De died, Qin Yiguan persuaded Zhichun to continue her grandfather’s work, and her song made the starved dead turn into water that nourished new shoots. Qin Yiguan later saw Zhichun pledge to feed the world and realized his staged resurrection had given her a way to bring her grandfather back.

• Lao De died, and the Gate Angel carried his body through the Gate of Heaven while Zhichun grieved.
• Qin Yiguan urged Zhichun to keep farming in her grandfather’s memory and argued that the lives she had saved outweighed those lost to the starved dead.
• Zhichun sang in Shennong Garden, and the starved dead became water that soaked into the earth as shoots emerged.
• The Far Sail Motorcycle Team crossed the now-green desert, and Men Luosha suspected Qin Yiguan had acted behind the scenes.
• Qin Yiguan watched Zhichun promise at Lao De’s memorial to grow enough food for everyone and spotted the Divine Farmer Emperor in the crowd.
• The Metaverse Experimental Zone event ended, raising Qin Yiguan’s Fusion Rate to 70%.

Qin Yiguan remained ravenously hungry after the Starvation Corpses vanished and discovered that he craved a mutated mandrill’s unusual muscle rather than ordinary food or Men Luosha. After eating a small piece, he heard a mysterious voice in his mind and flew away, leaving the Far Sail Motorcycle Team bewildered.

• Qin Yiguan mistook his hunger for a craving for Men Luosha when he remembered seeing her ride her motorcycle.
• Men Luosha spotted Qin Yiguan’s Shadow returning and watched him land in front of the Far Sail Motorcycle Team.
• Qin Yiguan lifted Men Luosha from her motorcycle, then opened its storage compartment and focused on the preserved mutated mandrill inside.
• Qin Yiguan tore a peculiar strip of white muscle from the mandrill and ate it while the riders watched in shock.
• Qin Yiguan heard a deep voice in his mind say “Delicious!”, asked Men Luosha if the bite would affect the sale, and flew away in the Shadow.
• Tie Liang puzzled over Qin Yiguan’s behavior, and Men Luosha turned her displeasure on him.

Qin Yiguan learned that Starvation Corpse had been displaced from Zhichun’s mind and had taken refuge in his, offering him power in exchange for food and demanding that he become its slave. When Starvation Corpse saw the powerful figures in Qin Yiguan’s consciousness, it realized he might have twelve Higher Selves, and Qin Yiguan told it that it could only be his dog.

• Qin Yiguan confronted the voice in his mind and recognized it as Starvation Corpse.
• Starvation Corpse explained that Zhichun had created it and that it had been replaced in her mind by Victim.
• Starvation Corpse revealed that it had gathered in Qin Yiguan’s mind through their connection and promised him power if he fed it white meat from mutated creatures.
• Starvation Corpse demanded that Qin Yiguan kneel, call it master, and find food for it.
• Starvation Corpse saw powerful figures in Qin Yiguan’s consciousness and wondered if they were twelve Higher Selves.
• Qin Yiguan declared that Starvation Corpse could only be his dog.

Qin Yiguan traveled deeper into the Experimental Zone while Starvation Corpse rested in his consciousness. Calls from Wulong Baiyan and Clam brought news of the Otherworld Alliance and a new game, leaving Qin Yiguan curious about Metaverse games for the first time.

• Starvation Corpse asked Qin Yiguan to let it sleep, and Qin Yiguan continued flying through the desolate Experimental Zone aboard the Shadow.
• NST Wulong Baiyan complained that the Otherworld Alliance had defeated all seventy-two Underworld gangs and asked Qin Yiguan where Jingye Meinan had gone.
• Qin Yiguan kept Meinan's whereabouts to himself and privately reflected on Wulong Baiyan's troubles with Daxiu.
• Taotie Gala called Qin Yiguan and asked why he would not let him join Hall 157.
• Clam invited Qin Yiguan to play Breath of the Mute and explained how popular games had become independent Metaverse worlds.
• Clam described the living worlds of League of Legends and Genshin Impact, and Qin Yiguan realized he had never played a Metaverse game.

Qin Yiguan discovered a huge restricted building in the Experimental Zone and encountered a black humanoid mecha that attacked the Shadow. Meanwhile, Clam entered the game Breath of the Mute, where an event revealed a Mute Demon overpowering a mecha, leaving Clam dismissing it as beneath his notice.

• Clam urged Qin Yiguan to try Breath of the Mute, boasting that he ranked sixth in combat power and was known as Emperor Wuxing.
• Qin Yiguan detected a massive metal building 400 kilometers away and noticed unmanned probes warning him away from the restricted area.
• A black, three-meter humanoid mecha raced toward the Shadow, leaped into the air, and swung an energy blade at it.
• Taotie Gala put on his game helmet and entered Breath of the Mute as Clam, then climbed into his famous Wuxing mecha.
• Clam viewed an event showing a Mute Demon defeat a mecha in combat and dismissed the A2-level threat as unworthy of his attention.

Qin Yiguan discovered that the guard mechs were remotely controlled and that the barren land held traces of past battles, then fought off an attacking mech. The mech’s destruction revealed another empty cockpit, while its player respawned and alerted other players to the threat.

• Qin Yiguan found that the destroyed mech contained a self-destructing control core instead of a pilot, and he spotted wreckage and old blood across the land.
• Qin Yiguan sent God's Abandoned to hide the Shadow and continued toward the enormous building on foot, watched by surveillance probes.
• More than a hundred mechs converged on Qin Yiguan, and a crab-like mech erupted from underground to confront him.
• Qin Yiguan kicked over the crab mech, tore off its drill claws, and used them to disable it before finding another remote-control core in its cockpit.
• The crab mech’s player respawned in Breath of the Mute, reported the Mute Demon’s attack on Human Base No. ED02, and saw the Thousand-Handed Demon arrive.

Qin Yiguan infiltrated a mecha warehouse and discovered that the players in Breath of the Mute were remotely controlling real mechas while mistaking people for Mute Demons. He suspected the game was being used to make players kill real people, and wondered what the company behind it was trying to achieve.

• Qin Yiguan hid inside the giant mecha as it returned to the warehouse and entered the base unnoticed.
• Qin Yiguan saw the warehouse synchronizing players’ mecha upgrades, paint jobs, and missions with real machines.
• Qin Yiguan recognized a Chinese-style mecha marked “Wuxing” and connected it to Little Clam’s game, Breath of the Mute.
• God's Abandoned translated a pilot’s distorted speech, helping Qin Yiguan realize that the pilots mistook him for a Mute Demon and could not see him as he really was.
• Qin Yiguan concluded that the players were unknowingly killing real people and protecting the warehouse, then recalled the Otherworld Alliance as a possible clue to the game company’s goal.

Taotie Clam accepted an SSS-grade mission to assassinate a Mute Demon designer, while Qin Yiguan discovered the mission was tied to a real-world test site and followed Emperor Wuxing there. The chapter ended as the mecha lunged at Taotie Clam’s father, Taotie Mitian.

• Qin Yiguan watched Emperor Wuxing accept a special-grade assassination mission and prepare to leave its hangar.
• Taotie Clam accepted an SSS-grade mission offering 128 X-SD special-grade modification kits, despite the risk of losing his mecha.
• Taotie Clam briefly saw Qin Yiguan flicker in and out of his base, then launched Emperor Wuxing toward the Mute Demon World.
• Qin Yiguan grabbed Emperor Wuxing as it left the warehouse, rode its unmanned transport aircraft, and arrived at a Chinese military mecha testing center.
• Qin Yiguan recognized the slick-haired man at the test site as Taotie Clam’s father, Taotie Mitian, just as Emperor Wuxing attacked him.

Taotie Mitian rejected his son Taotie Clam as a Divine Mech Six pilot and chose You Long instead, despite Clam’s strong test scores. You Long appeared disciplined but privately revealed that he had sabotaged Clam and looked down on the other pilots.

• Deputy Commander Zhao told Taotie Mitian that Taotie Clam had performed exceptionally in the Divine Mech Six pilot selection.
• Taotie Mitian argued that Clam lacked the ability and resilience needed to pilot Divine Mech Six, despite his strong statistics.
• Taotie Mitian named You Long as the better candidate, citing his exceptional test results.
• You Long saluted Taotie Mitian while privately insulting the other pilots and boasting about his plans to pursue two female pilots.
• You Long revealed that he had tricked Taotie Clam into drinking a nerve-depressing agent, which eliminated him from the test.

Taotie Mitian used the arrival of an assassin mech to test Divine Mech Six, while Taotie Clam fought the Mute Demons in a mission and Qin Yiguan jumped from a transport craft. The test ended with You Long overpowering the Wuxing, as officials arrived to watch.

• A golden assassin mech attacked Taotie Mitian, who blocked its spear with his glasses’ plasma shield and identified it as a junkyard mech.
• Taotie Mitian sent You Long to fetch Divine Mech Six while Taotie Clam charged a bespectacled Mute Demon mechanical designer.
• A dark-green Mute Demon mech caught Clam’s spear, kicked the Wuxing backward, and stood guard over the designer.
• Taotie Mitian ordered You Long to capture the enemy pilot alive, and You Long said one minute would be enough.
• Qin Yiguan jumped from a transport craft 400 meters above the ground, despite realizing he could not fly.
• Divine Mech Six struck the Wuxing into a warehouse, and Taotie Mitian later told arriving officials that it had destroyed the attacker with one punch.

Taotie Clam piloted the battered Wuxing to defeat You Long’s Divine Mech Six by studying its flaws and exploiting its movements. After Clam moved to finish the quest, Qin Yiguan revived, spoke through a cracked language pack, and claimed the Mute Demon was Clam’s father.

• Taotie Clam repeatedly got knocked down by You Long’s Divine Mech Six while observing its habits, weaknesses, and declining performance.
• Taotie Clam dodged the Divine Mech Six’s laser blade, broke its right arm by striking a mechanical flaw, and used the Wuxing’s altered arm to hit its energy reactor.
• Taotie Clam retrieved the golden spear and pierced the disabled Divine Mech Six’s head, impressing Taotie Mitian with his piloting skill.
• Taotie Clam approached a surviving Mute Demon to complete the quest, but another Mute Demon fell to its death and then revived as Qin Yiguan.
• Qin Yiguan told Taotie Clam he could not kill the Mute Demon because it was Clam’s father, prompting Taotie Gala to erupt in anger.

Qin Yiguan tried to stop Taotie Clam from attacking Taotie Mitian, but Clam’s game system convinced him the humans were enemies. Qin Yiguan escaped a fatal strike by using the Boundless One to vanish into a vortex, while news arrived that five assassin mechs were attacking government and military leaders.

• Qin Yiguan told Taotie Clam that he was piloting the Wuxing in reality and was attacking his father, Taotie Mitian, but Clam’s system restored its disguise and made him attack again.
• Qin Yiguan caught the Wuxing’s spear, but Clam continued pressing the attack and swung a blade-tipped kick at him.
• As the world around him flickered between the mech base and a swamp, Qin Yiguan saw the Boundless One and entered its vortex, vanishing before the Wuxing’s blade struck.
• A communications officer told Taotie Mitian that five assassin mechs had appeared and killed three senior officials, and the higher-ups had ordered an interception.

Qin Yiguan and Taotie Clam learned that assassination missions in Breath of the Mute threatened real-world leaders, so they split up to stop them and investigate the game's creators. Meanwhile, Taotie Mitian watched a golden mech defeat a black-winged attacker and realized the battered Wuxing mech belonged to his son.

• Qin Yiguan explained Breath of the Mute to Taotie Clam, who discovered that the top five mechs had received special-grade assassination missions.
• Taotie Clam decided to stop the assassins and revealed that he had five hidden mechs designed to counter the top-ranked pilots, while Qin Yiguan set out to find Breath of the Mute's designer.
• Taotie Mitian watched a black-winged mech destroy Divine Machine Four, then saw a golden mech defeat the attacker with a particle grid and drill.
• Taotie Mitian recognized the golden mech as Wuxing and recalled his son's childhood dream of strengthening the nation through armament.

Qin Yiguan bypassed the invisible barrier around Breath of the Mute’s official fortress and endured a shifting maze of collapsing blocks and distorted space. After God's Abandoned was disrupted and Qin fell into the abyss, he found himself before a young man on a throne who welcomed him to his world.

• Qin Yiguan climbed to the official fortress and used the Boundless One’s paper figure images to pass through its invisible barrier.
• The fortress appeared to kill Qin Yiguan with a black mecha and annihilation beam, but he saw through the visual disguise and continued inside.
• Qin Yiguan crossed collapsing blocks in a dark abyss, leaping between them as space and orientation repeatedly shifted.
• God's Abandoned tried to explain how to escape, but its speech turned to gibberish as an abnormal interference disrupted it.
• Qin Yiguan fell into the abyss and reappeared before a young man seated on a throne, who welcomed him to his world.

Qin Yiguan met Breath of the Mute’s creator, who proposed a partnership to expand the game and control powerful people in reality. Qin rejected the creator’s plan and killed him, leaving the game’s future uncertain.

• The boy revealed that he had developed, operated, and administered Breath of the Mute, and recognized Qin Yiguan as someone who could enter without authorization.
• The boy asked Qin Yiguan to bring influential people into Breath of the Mute so he could control them and create Mechanical Proxies of them in reality.
• The boy said he wanted everyone to abandon the Gemini Metaverse and live in Breath of the Mute, arguing that the Gemini Superbrain would not interfere.
• The boy offered Qin Yiguan the highest administrative authority, making him second only to the boy.
• Qin Yiguan rejected the offer and lunged at the boy, breaking his neck and killing him.

Qin Yiguan saw through the boy on the throne’s illusion, escaped “Breath of the Mute,” and traced the boy’s real body to a ghost city in the Metaverse. As the boy prepared to destroy the Mute Demon World, Qin Yiguan headed toward the suspected hideout to confront him.

• The boy imprisoned Qin Yiguan and showed him an illusion of three years in which “Breath of the Mute” spread across the world and the boy ruled humanity.
• Qin Yiguan realized the rain and snow’s thirty-two-second cycles revealed that only 21.3 minutes had passed in reality, then escaped using the Boundless One.
• Qin Yiguan asked God's Abandoned to find places in the Metaverse where rain and snow alternated, and learned of three Personal Brain exclusion zones.
• Clam warned Qin Yiguan that the Mute's intelligent brain was sending superheavy transport mechas to destroy the Mute Demon World, and Qin Yiguan ordered him to stop them.
• Qin Yiguan recognized ghost pipe in one photograph and identified the third ghost city as the boy’s hiding place before the Shadow arrived.

Taotie Clam used a self-destructing Wuxing mech to destroy the Vine Thorn, while Taotie Mitian learned that resonance generators threatened Core Earth. Clam reassured his father that Yiguan was pursuing the mastermind as Clam dealt with the killer mechs.

• Taotie Clam used Wuxing Four's high-voltage discharge to paralyze the Vine Thorn, then destroyed both mechs in a one-for-one explosion.
• Taotie Clam respawned, lost eighteen piloting levels, and hurried to activate his next countermeasure mech.
• Taotie Mitian recalled how Taotie Clam had asked him for advice about keeping particle thrusters running amid an eighty-million-volt discharge.
• An assistant reported that more than a hundred heavy mechs had installed resonance generators in B5 Sector, and Taotie Mitian realized they could collapse Core Earth's structures.
• Taotie Mitian received Taotie Clam's message that Clam was fighting the killer mechs while Yiguan searched for the mastermind.

Qin Yiguan searched an abandoned city beneath violent, unnatural storms for the person controlling Breath of the Mute. He climbed a precarious staircase and found a strange boy asleep in a ruined room, wondering if he was the boy on the throne.

• Qin Yiguan arrived in a remote, storm-covered region and entered an abandoned city beneath the darkest clouds.
• God's Abandoned explained the hexagonal air bubbles as violent atmospheric phenomena, while the shifting winds brought snow, freezing rain, and the scent of an Indian pipe.
• Qin Yiguan concluded that Breath of the Mute's hidden controller was in the city and searched for a large structure that could house the game's servers.
• Qin Yiguan recognized a ruined building's long staircase from the route to Breath of the Mute's official fortress and climbed to its remaining room.
• Qin Yiguan entered the filthy room and found a strange, enormous-headed boy asleep, then wondered whether he was the boy on the throne.

Qin Yiguan discovered that Aoke, the boy on the throne, had created Breath of the Mute using his unusual brain. Aoke revealed that his network secretly controlled a vast mecha force and thousands of players.

• Aoke woke up in his ruined room and confirmed to Qin Yiguan that he was the boy on the throne.
• Aoke explained that a childhood assault had caused his head to swell and triggered savant syndrome.
• Aoke described how he encoded thoughts as binary through his neurons and used dark matter energy to extend his network across 120 million square kilometers.
• Aoke revealed that he had created Breath of the Mute, hacked mecha and helmet factories, and killed the people working there.
• Aoke disclosed that his network controlled 1,240 mecha manufacturing plants, 78 storage centers, and 137,833 players.

Qin Yiguan stalled Aoke while God's Abandoned analyzed the brain code behind the Breath of the Mute network. Aoke escaped into a giant mecha, and Qin Yiguan fought off the surrounding machines as God's Abandoned sought more data.

• Qin Yiguan questioned Aoke about the ruined city and learned that Aoke wanted to expand the Breath of the Mute network by killing people to raise his Fusion Rate.
• Aoke revealed he had been stalling for time, and heavy mechas descended to surround Qin Yiguan's location.
• A giant mecha seized Aoke and carried him into its cockpit while Qin Yiguan asked God's Abandoned how much longer its analysis would take.
• God's Abandoned explained that it had captured Aoke's brain code and needed him to issue more commands, so it ordered Qin Yiguan to fight the mechas.
• Qin Yiguan battled through the mechas' weapons, but a black mecha struck his shoulder with a giant axe, and a figure called Guardian appeared to block the blow.

Qin Yiguan joined forces with the badly wounded Black Calamity to unleash [Gestalt Collapse] against Aoke’s mechs. The abandoned town and the mechs transformed into demons and beasts, leaving Qin Yiguan watching a chaotic battle while fear continued to overwhelm him.

• Qin Yiguan surveyed the approaching mechs and concluded that God's Abandoned needed more data from Aoke.
• Black Calamity appeared badly injured and offered to help Qin Yiguan in exchange for help later.
• Black Calamity merged with Qin Yiguan, intensifying the fear he felt as [Gestalt Collapse] began.
• Qin Yiguan's power transformed the abandoned town's buildings, trees, and debris into monsters that attacked the mechs.
• Aoke sent stronger control signals as the mechs fought the monsters, but their night-vision images became incomprehensible.
• Qin Yiguan watched the battle as the mechs themselves transformed into beasts and primitive weapons, while the darkness and fear persisted.

Qin Yiguan killed Aoke after taking the Breath of the Mute, but Aoke sent his consciousness skyward, drawing the attention of a being from a parallel Metaverse. Jiaolong’s unfinished tattoo gave Qin Yiguan the power to seal the rift, and Aoke delivered one final message before dying.

• Black Calamity warned Qin Yiguan not to call out to the vast network of neurons, while God's Abandoned reported that the plan was done.
• Aoke lost contact with the network in his mind as his mecha transformed into a living creature, and Qin Yiguan entered its flesh and killed him.
• Aoke released binary code from his dying body, and a mechanical hand emerged from a sky rift to absorb it and offer him service.
• The being in the sky struck Qin Yiguan through the heart, but Qin Yiguan revived and Jiaolong’s tattoo spread across his back.
• Qin Yiguan used the tattoo’s vines to stitch the rift shut, severing part of the mechanical hand, while Aoke said, “I will never forget you.”

Qin Yiguan defeated Aoke and used Black Calamity to restore the battlefield, then saw the vast hidden mech network Aoke had built. God's Abandoned began taking control of the factories and network, while Qin designed it a new body.

• Qin Yiguan kicked Aoke's remains away and inspected the giant metal finger left on the battlefield.
• Qin Yiguan released Black Calamity, which ended the monsters' rampage and restored the city and mechs to their original forms.
• God's Abandoned showed Qin Yiguan the hidden network of factories, storage centers, mechs, aircraft, and players beneath the Experimental Zone.
• God's Abandoned explained that its signal-gathering devices would make the Breath of the Mute an independent system, and factory-built devices began joining together in the sky.
• Qin Yiguan drew a design for a new portable brain and told God's Abandoned to use Aoke's factories to make its new body.
• God's Abandoned deleted its own designs and silently accepted Qin Yiguan's design.