Recaps

Zhan Shi revealed that Ou Country’s twenty-nine contestants could synchronize their consciousnesses to create a shared artificial “higher self,” then sent them into battle against Qin Yiguan. Qin answered by materializing six enormous, black “Infinities,” leaving the arena stunned.

• Zhan Shi explained that the Ou Country squad could merge its members’ consciousnesses and raise their combined Fusion Rate to 107%.
• The twenty-nine Ou Country contestants formed a thirty-meter-tall shared “higher self,” and Zhan Shi ordered them into the arena.
• Han Ming and Long Huicheng realized Qin Yiguan might be China’s only contestant with a “higher self” and called on him to show the nation’s strength.
• Qin Yiguan turned back toward Jiu Zhengxuan, then manifested six hundred-meter-tall black figures: Black Calamity, Child, Boundless One, Plunderer, Dream General, and Slaughterer.

Qin Yiguan revealed six towering Higher Selves, terrifying Ou Country’s team and shocking the international audience. He forced the twenty-nine contestants to sleep, exposing Ou Country’s horrific experiments, while Zhan Shi realized Qin had entered his dream before.

• Qin Yiguan manifested six enormous figures behind him, stunning the crowd and prompting the host to praise China’s unofficial personnel.
• Zhan Shi fled to the Chinese observation room and begged Long Huicheng and Luo Lingjie to stop Qin, but Long said Qin did not take orders from him.
• Qin Yiguan used Dream General to put all twenty-nine Ou Country contestants to sleep.
• The contestants’ dreams revealed that Ou Country had cloned 1,200 villagers and repeatedly subjected them to massacres to increase the youths’ Fusion Rates.
• Long Huicheng confronted Zhan Shi about the experiments, and Zhan Shi recognized Qin as the person who had invaded his dream.

Qin Yiguan wiped out the Ou Country team and their linked bodies, then revealed that his power exceeded the limits of ordinary higher selves and left after finding a set of coordinates. With Qin gone, Jiu Zhengxuan agreed to face the remaining teams from Great Britain, Germany, and Austria.

• Qin Yiguan's Slaughterer killed the Ou Country youths by destroying their shared higher self, and Infinity Linkage also killed their cultivated bodies in a distant secret base.
• Qin removed 26 wristbands and told the host that his manifestations were beings beyond higher selves and that his fusion rate belonged to a different category.
• After Long Huicheng said Qin had found coordinates, Qin formed neural-network wings and flew away from the competition.
• The leaders of Great Britain, Germany, and Austria decided they still wanted to fight Jiu Zhengxuan, despite fearing Qin's possible return.
• Long Huicheng urged the remaining countries to end the competition, but Jiu Zhengxuan volunteered to fight and Long agreed to prepare a battle plan.

Jiu Zhengxuan overcame his nerves and revealed his immense power during his match against the British team, proving himself and the Youth Order Squad before the world. As he introduced himself to the audience, Qin Yiguan watched from the Shadow and congratulated him.

• Long Huicheng encouraged Jiu Zhengxuan before the match, while all thirteen British contestants entered the arena to fight him together.
• Jiu Zhengxuan spoke about his isolation, fear of rejection, and desire to prove his loyalty, justice, and strength to the world.
• Jiu Zhengxuan's forehead gem released black matter that formed a gigantic Higher Self resembling him, shocking the observers.
• Jiu Zhengxuan's Higher Self sent thirteen black spikes toward the British contestants, knocking them down without killing them.
• Jiu Zhengxuan introduced himself as captain of the Youth Order Squad and described its vow to pursue criminals without harming innocent civilians.
• Qin Yiguan watched the match from the Shadow and congratulated Jiu Zhengxuan on achieving what he had long wanted.

Xiao Ning saved the 89 members of China’s Reality Enhancement squads from the destruction of Azure Sword No. 0 and led them to pursue the robot’s controller. She revealed her abilities, including Ning World, and the group continued racing across the wasteland toward their target.

• Xiao Ning used Ning World to move the 89 squad members out of Azure Sword No. 0’s destruction, and they realized someone had tried to kill them.
• Xiao Ning argued that a mole in the China Armament Research Center meant the squads could not rely on superiors or backup, and Hui and the Primordial Squad pledged to follow her.
• Xiao Ning explained that Supersenses let her track the robot’s network signal, while Ning World let her transform reality according to her own perceptions and move the group vast distances.
• Xiao Ning teleported the group repeatedly across the wasteland as they pursued the robot’s control center, and Building 12-1 told them he came from the same Rust City neighborhood as Xiao Ning.
• Hui welcomed Building 12-1 after learning he had once lived in Rust City No. 03, where residents with brain disorders had become known as Super Castoffs.

Qin Yiguan hurried toward Xiao Ning after she went out of contact, while Xiao Ning led her team to a remote factory and realized an unknown extra person was among them. She watched the team from a distance, trying to identify the possible infiltrator before they attacked.

• Qin Yiguan checked Xiao Ning's tracked coordinates and urged God's Abandoned to make the Shadow go faster because she had missed her promised return time.
• Eleven hours earlier, Xiao Ning led eighty-nine team members deep into the Experimental Zone, where Primordial-11 concealed the group and Xiao Ning teleported them closer to a technological complex.
• Xiao Ning told Hui to observe the factory rather than attack immediately, citing her brother Yiguan's advice to gather information before acting.
• Hui admitted to a teammate that he liked Xiao Ning, then blushed and ordered Dragon Claw to resume watching the enemy.
• Xiao Ning suspected a traitor might be hiding among the squad and realized that ninety people were present despite only eighty-nine being expected.
• Unable to contact headquarters or trust Building 12-1, Xiao Ning tried to identify the extra person among the team.

Xiao Ning discovered a countdown and signs of disaster inside the base, then led the Reality Enhancement Squads to attack it. The base’s buildings shifted, and a robot detected the concealed group and fired a devastating beam at them.

• Qin Yiguan failed to contact Xiao Ning and feared a mole had trapped her team after Azure Sword No. 0 was destroyed.
• Xiao Ning saw a countdown above the base, while Primordial-9 used Color Synesthesia to reveal that spreading gray signaled an approaching disaster.
• Xiao Ning ordered the eighty-nine squad members to form groups of three and attack the base, keeping watch for the suspected mole.
• Xiao Ning teleported the concealed group close to the base, where the hemispherical buildings rapidly rearranged themselves.
• A silver robot detected the group despite their Concealment and fired a powerful beam that swallowed Xiao Ning and the others.

Qin Yiguan reached the white buildings and found the robot guarding them destroyed, along with signs of a costly battle. In a flashback, Xiao Ning’s squad had defeated the robot; Dragon Lake then suggested the buildings could tear open space and provide access to another dimension.

• Qin Yiguan arrived at the white buildings, found the robot already destroyed, and had the Shadow collect its remains.
• Qin Yiguan followed dried blood and severed limbs toward the silent buildings, wondering where Xiao Ning and the others had gone.
• Nine hours earlier, Xiao Ning’s squad had destroyed the robot after a twenty-minute fight, during which Hui lost an arm protecting her.
• Xiao Ning examined the smooth, entrance-free buildings and wondered whether they were a teleportation device.
• Dragon Lake explained that the buildings’ reflective surfaces might create an extreme energy field capable of tearing open space.

Xiao Ning recognized the white hemispheres as a mechanism controlled by a formation and led her team through repeated attempts until they activated it. As the team was transported to a new place, Qin Yiguan found a straw figure Xiao Ning had left behind and realized she had used ancient formations to open the entrance.

• Qin Yiguan stopped trying to lift a white hemisphere when he noticed a straw figure near a clod of earth.
• Xiao Ning reasoned that the hemispheres formed a teleportation entrance and assigned her 89 team members positions to recreate an ancient formation.
• Xiao Ning directed the team through many formations while they searched for the correct arrangement and kept watch for a hidden ghost among them.
• Xiao Ning identified the Notch-Shaped Formation, and its beam of light transported the team away from the desert.
• Qin Yiguan recognized the straw figure as Xiao Ning's old trophy, remembered their games and her study of ancient formations, then put the figure in his pocket and surveyed the hemispheres.

The Reality Enhancement Squad entered a garden-like second layer of the Notch-Shaped Formation, where touching plants triggered instant attacks that sliced through their bodies. After Xiao Ning guided the wounded squad into formation, the garden began to disappear, but the straw figure she had left as a clue for Brother Yiguan was erased too.

• The squad arrived in a peaceful-looking garden, though Xiao Ning saw it as a cracked, smoke-filled wasteland.
• When squad members moved or brushed against plants, invisible attacks cut them, and Xiao Ning warned them to stay still and identified the garden as a second Notch-Shaped Formation.
• Xiao Ning directed the squad to move carefully into assigned positions, and they endured two hours of attacks that left them badly wounded.
• A blue ring appeared beneath the squad, and the garden turned into code that vanished, signaling their imminent teleportation.
• Hui told Xiao Ning that the straw figure she had left for Brother Yiguan had also been erased, and Xiao Ning realized he would not know there was a second layer.

Qin Yiguan used the white buildings to solve the formation that had transported Xiao Ning and the Reality Enhancement Squad, arriving in a garden. Xiao Ning and her team crossed a dark underground tunnel, while she worried that Qin Yiguan did not know about the lethal danger waiting in the garden.

• Qin Yiguan recalled the Eight Trigrams Formation and used the Plunderer’s nerve network to rearrange the white buildings.
• After trying several formations, Qin Yiguan arranged the Notch-Shaped Formation and was transported to a garden of purple datura flowers.
• Xiao Ning told Hui that she had left a clue for her brother, and Hui asked to meet him after the mission.
• Xiao Ning explained that the Squad had been transported thousands of kilometers and that they were walking through a deep tunnel toward its exit.
• Xiao Ning realized Qin Yiguan did not know the garden held a lethal attack, because she had learned about the two-layered Notch-Shaped Formation from a book read to her by Teacher Qing.

The Reality Enhancement Squad and Xiao Ning arrived in a vast factory filled with unfinished silver robots and began preparing to destroy it. A blue light left the humans moving almost imperceptibly slowly, while an unfinished robot remained fast and attacked Xiao Ning.

• A beam of blue light transported the 89 members of the Reality Enhancement Squad and Xiao Ning into a huge shaft lined with compartments containing countless robots.
• The squad saw that the robots were unfinished and realized they needed to destroy the factory before the robots were completed.
• The squad members scattered to attack, but Dragon Claw and the others began moving and speaking extremely slowly.
• Dragon Lake explained that the blue light had likely damaged their DNA, leaving them frozen in place rather than slowing time itself.
• An unfinished robot broke out of its compartment, rushed to Xiao Ning, and swung a blade at her neck.

Qin Yiguan reached Kedar after breaking the Notch-Shaped Formation and learned from its ruler, Shalumen, that Kedar supplied advanced weapons to foreign powers. Two hours earlier, Hui had sacrificed himself to save Xiao Ning by using Radiance to melt the robot attacking her.

• Hui broke free of cellular freezing, lost his remaining hand while redirecting the robot's blade, and shielded Xiao Ning from harm.
• Hui unleashed Radiance and melted the unfinished robot, but became fused to its body and collapsed, bleeding.
• Qin Yiguan met Shalumen and learned that Kedar was a hidden country known as the Curtain.
• Shalumen admitted Kedar sold advanced weapons abroad to obtain supplies and protect the country from destruction.
• Shalumen invited Qin Yiguan to stay in Kedar and offered him a flower basket from a young woman.

Hui died from blood loss while the unknown radiation froze everyone in the underground space. Xiao Ning remained trapped between waiting for her brother and using Ning World’s complete form, which would kill everyone except her.

• Dragon Claw and Dragon Lake tried to reach the wounded Hui, but the radiation froze them in place.
• Xiao Ning realized that Ning World’s complete form could break the deadlock, but it would kill everyone except her.
• Hui spoke to Xiao Ning about his blind girlfriend and told her he had mistaken her for the woman he loved.
• Hui died after two hours of blood loss, and Xiao Ning wept as she remained frozen beside him.
• Xiao Ning wondered whether her brother would arrive before the countdown ended and thought she would have only one path left if he did not.

Qin Yiguan saw through Shalumen’s technological illusion and killed him and his ally, then reached the underground space as Xiao Ning unleashed the Ning World to fight the robots. He stopped a robot from attacking Xiao Ning and put her to sleep, causing the Ning World to recede and freeing the team.

• Qin Yiguan exposed the Curtain illusion and discovered the real Shalumen and the woman inside a heavily armored aircraft.
• Qin Yiguan tore through the aircraft’s armor and killed Shalumen and the woman.
• As robots awakened and Hui weakened, Xiao Ning broke free of cellular freezing and released the Ning World, which began turning the team and robots into black hemp rope.
• A robot prepared to fire at Xiao Ning, but Qin Yiguan arrived and destroyed it before the attack could land.
• Qin Yiguan used the Infinity Dream General to put Xiao Ning to sleep, causing the Ning World to fade and the team to regain movement.

Qin Yiguan rescued Xiao Ning and the Reality Enhancement Squad from the underground facility, then stayed behind to fight the robots as the squad escaped. On the transport bound for the China Military Department Research Center, Xiao Ning noticed something unsettling about the squad medic but dismissed her suspicion.

• Qin Yiguan appeared and told Dragon Claw to evacuate Xiao Ning and the others while he stayed to fight.
• Qin Yiguan destroyed robots with his enhanced strength and the pale-blue armor surrounding him.
• The Reality Enhancement Squad escaped to the surface, where Dragon Lake recognized the destroyed pool as the machine that had released cell-freezing radiation.
• The squad boarded the AKI transport bound for the China Military Department Research Center, and Xiao Ning woke during the flight.
• The squad medic examined Xiao Ning and offered nutrient injections to everyone, while Xiao Ning sensed something strange about her before dismissing the feeling.

Xiao Ning exposed the medic as the mole after realizing the aircraft massacre had been a simulation created by Qin Yiguan’s Plunderer. The medic revealed that her power came from a mental illness called Disappointment-Induced Isolation Disorder.

• Dragon Claw and the other 88 team members aboard the aircraft collapsed after the medic injected them with Bad Blood Agent P58-1.
• The medic revealed herself as the mole, but suddenly found herself in the Gobi Desert facing an unharmed Xiao Ning.
• Xiao Ning recalled how Qin Yiguan had advised her to look for someone who moved between groups, then use Plunderer to expose the suspect.
• Xiao Ning explained that Qin Yiguan’s Plunderer had simulated the events on the aircraft and targeted the medic alone.
• The medic asked how Xiao Ning had identified her and disclosed that her ability was a mental illness called Disappointment-Induced Isolation Disorder.

The team doctor revealed Kedar’s suffering and his role in a plot to eliminate young people with Reality Enhancement for the god who supplied Kedar with weapons. As Kedar’s forces surrounded Xiao Ning, she used the complete form of Ning World to transform them and the team doctor into hemp rope.

• The team doctor explained that Kedar’s people had been taken abroad for experiments and turned into war machines, leaving him with Disappointment-Induced Isolation Disorder and the abilities Consciousness Deception and Consciousness Tampering.
• The team doctor said Kedar’s god had supplied technology and ordered his followers to eliminate young people with Reality Enhancement around the world.
• The team doctor revealed that his account had also been meant to buy time and that Kedar’s combat forces had surrounded Xiao Ning and the others.
• Kedar’s tanks, aircraft, and soldiers lost power and transformed into heaps of black hemp rope as Xiao Ning used Ning World.
• The team doctor recognized Ning World’s complete form, warned that the god would punish Xiao Ning, and then turned into hemp rope himself.

Xiao Ning shut down Ning World and returned with the rescued Chinese squads, while Jiu Zhengxuan’s victory at the international competition led to the squads’ triumphant reappearance. Long Huicheng welcomed them to the China Armament Research Center, then encountered Zhao Fengying aboard the Azure Sword.

• Xiao Ning calmed herself and shut down Ning World before the returning AKI aircraft arrived, trusting Qin Yiguan to keep fighting below.
• Jiu Zhengxuan defeated the remaining contestants without killing them, and Mu Yun declared that China’s contestants had proved everything.
• Long Huicheng invited Jiu Zhengxuan and the Youth Order Squad to join the China Armament Research Center, and Jiu Zhengxuan accepted.
• Dragon Lake reported that all 89 members of China’s three youth Reality Enhancement squads had returned; Hui gave a thumbs-up, and Queen Ning said Qin Yiguan had rescued them and helped expose the traitor.
• Long Huicheng welcomed the returning squads and called them to the China Armament Center for a report, while Zhan Shi protested that their return was impossible.
• Long Huicheng boarded the Azure Sword, where Zhao Fengying recognized him, complained about his smoke, and ordered him to put it out.

Qin Yiguan fought his way through the robots in the shaft, but a half-metal man calling himself a god overwhelmed him and shattered his neck. Meanwhile, bracelets worn by contestants from Great Britain, Germany, and Austria detonated, destroying the He Shi Bi and devastating the area below.

• Long Huicheng and the others discussed Qin Yiguan's fight against the robots and the report that a god had appeared in the Curtain.
• Qin Yiguan tore through most of the robots in the shaft and charged the cloaked figure near the exit.
• The cloaked figure revealed himself as a half-metal man, suppressed Black Calamity and Qin Yiguan's Starvation Corpse transformation, and crushed Qin Yiguan's neck until his bones shattered.
• Xiao Ning worried that the god might be real, while Long Huicheng doubted it could defeat Qin Yiguan.
• A contestant's glowing bracelet triggered explosions in the resting rooms of Great Britain, Germany, and Austria, destroying the He Shi Bi and crushing the shops and people below.
• Long Huicheng saw the destruction from the Azure Sword and demanded to know what had happened.

Qin Yiguan survived the short-haired man's attack by severing his own head and fleeing, but the man pursued him into another multiverse. Meanwhile, the Gemini Superbrain announced the fourth update to the Gemini Metaverse, which would bring the arrival of an envoy.

• The Smiling Face Cane severed Qin Yiguan's head, and his body and head fell separately into the shaft before he reattached them and escaped.
• The short-haired man smashed through the escape passage and Lucifer, then blasted after Qin Yiguan across the Gobi Desert.
• Qin Yiguan used the Boundless One to flee into another multiverse, but the short-haired man followed him through a golden triangle.
• After the He Shi Bi crash, the Gemini Superbrain appeared as a giant silver face above the Metaverse residents.
• The Gemini Superbrain announced that the fourth update would take place on May 25, 2123, and bring the arrival of the envoy.

FILE1-1 and FILE1-2 materialized as human women in Mirage City and learned from ATO that they had to protect a boy codenamed Zero from assassins sent by the Super Lord Organization. Armed with new weapons and limited, vulnerable bodies, they set out to prevent the end of the world.

• FILE1-1 and FILE1-2 appeared at the riverside docks in newly created human bodies, while a dockworker watched them from behind a container.
• FILE1-1 and FILE1-2 discussed their strange physical sensations and questioned why the Gemini Superbrain had materialized them.
• ATO told FILE1-1 and FILE1-2 that the world's danger came from the other master of the Gemini Metaverse, not from human conflict.
• ATO identified Zero as the key to the battle and instructed the women to protect him from being killed.
• FILE1-1 transformed her box into a silver spear, and FILE1-2 transformed hers into an electric whip; ATO warned that the Super Lord Organization had sent materialized assassins after Zero.

The two women arrived too late to protect Zero and found Iron Man's corpse scattered across the prairie. They had believed Zero's chance of defeating the Super Lord Organization member was zero, and the discovery left them feeling disbelief.

• The short-haired woman marked the dockworker and promised that she and the long-haired woman would return to spend the night with him, then they vanished to continue their mission.
• Iron Man told Qin Yiguan that he was a manifestation of the Gemini Superbrain and attacked him with destructive golden energy.
• Qin Yiguan's spatial contractions failed against Iron Man, and Iron Man's blast sent him crashing into a strange blue-glowing device before engulfing him.
• The two women reached the scorched prairie and concluded that Zero was dead, while discussing whether their delay with the dockworker had cost them the chance to save him.
• The women found Iron Man's body scattered across the grass, and the long-haired woman said she felt disbelief.

Qin Yiguan used the beast tide machines to turn Iron Man’s attack against him and learned that two rival organizations were fighting over him. The Awakening Organization’s agents revealed that they could read his thoughts and identified him as Zero, though he knew himself as Qin Yiguan.

• Qin Yiguan lured Iron Man into attacking four beast tide machines, triggering a swarm of enhanced digital beasts that tore Iron Man apart.
• Qin Yiguan confirmed Iron Man was dead, then spotted two approaching women and hid among the weeds.
• FILE1-1 and FILE1-2 examined Iron Man’s corpse and explained that they belonged to the Awakening Organization, while Iron Man had served the Super Lord Organization.
• The women told Qin Yiguan that the Gemini Superbrain led the Awakening Organization, while Liu Yuan led the Super Lord Organization, drawing him into their conflict.
• Qin Yiguan realized the women could hear his thoughts, and they confirmed it by revealing his real name and its meaning.

Qin Yiguan learned that Iron Man’s surviving program still targeted Zero, then watched it take control of God’s Abandoned and the Shadow. God’s Abandoned’s portable superbrain went dark, leaving Qin Yiguan calling its name.

• Two women told Qin Yiguan they knew nothing about why he was caught in the conflict between Liu Yuan and the Gemini Brain, and warned that Iron Man’s surviving program still meant danger for Zero.
• Qin Yiguan said his portable superbrain had been studying Iron Man’s robots, then returned to Multiverse No. 0573 with the two women.
• God’s Abandoned arrived in the Shadow with a dismantled robot, but the robot’s chip activated and began overriding God’s Abandoned.
• God’s Abandoned told Qin Yiguan it was being controlled and might be formatted, then sent him a farewell message before the Shadow shot into the sky under another program’s control.
• The portable superbrain fell dark at Qin Yiguan’s feet, and he called out to God’s Abandoned in a trembling voice.