Recaps

Qin Yiguan insisted that the world was a virtual map shaped by his consciousness, while Jiao Shensan and the scientists believed he was suffering from the brain-computer interface experiment. The chapter ended as a beast tide attacked Mirage City and the scientists died trying to protect Qin Yiguan.

• Jiao Shensan wondered why the Guardian protection program had failed to keep Qin Yiguan's consciousness from being trapped in the virtual world.
• Qin Yiguan told Jiao Shensan that this world was a virtual map and that its inhabitants had appeared because they were connected to his subconscious.
• Qin Yiguan argued that the Guardian and the Victim were personalities with opposing powers, while Jiao Shensan believed he was still confused by the experiment.
• A beast tide surged toward Mirage City as its inhabitants lost control and rushed toward the monsters.
• The scientists, including Jiao Shensan, shouted for the Guardian and plunged from the building to their deaths, while Qin Yiguan watched the apocalyptic scene.

Qin Yiguan witnessed Guardian and Victim clash within his mental world and learned how each hidden personality had formed. As the beast tide overwhelmed Mirage City, Guardian sacrificed himself to shield it, expanding his protection until Victim was pushed away.

• Qin Yiguan saw Guardian directing Mirage City's residents against a beast tide while Victim commanded the mutated beasts outside the city.
• Guardian's memories revealed that he had evolved from a program into a hidden personality devoted to protecting Qin Yiguan.
• Victim's memories revealed that he had evolved from an impulse to escape and had come to seek an end to everything, including Qin Yiguan.
• The beasts overwhelmed the city's defenders and closed in on Qin Yiguan as he realized how abnormal his mental world was.
• Guardian exploded into blue fragments and formed a vast barrier around Mirage City, then expanded it across the horizon and drove Victim farther away.

Qin Yiguan escaped the brain-computer interface by killing himself in its simulated world, then realized he was still inside a nested virtual map and used his heightened perception to examine its timelines. He saw a future in which Rotten Man attacked Jiu Zhengxuan, Meinan, and Mudou, and discovered a ceramic rabbit mask on his face that suggested he had become Bystander.

• Qin Yiguan jumped from the building and cut his throat with hidden glass, breaking free of the simulated world and waking in the research center with Jiao Shensan, Song Miao, and the researchers.
• Qin Yiguan explained that Guardian had been programmed to protect him during the eighteen-year simulation, but death had been the only way for his consciousness to escape.
• Qin Yiguan concluded that the research center was another virtual layer within the Gemini Metaverse, then used HSP Hypersensitivity to examine its hidden map and raise Box Syndrome's development rate to 33%.
• Qin Yiguan saw the simulated world's branch merge into the main timeline, where Guardian's blue halo protected a city and later eliminated Reality Enhancement on Core Earth.
• Qin Yiguan saw his future self in 2123 as Rotten Man corroded Jiu Zhengxuan, Meinan, Mudou, and the others, then found a ceramic rabbit mask on his own face and wondered if he had become Bystander.

Qin Yiguan returned to his body during the battle against Rotten Man, who regenerated after Falusi, Banana, and Meinan attacked him. The Lantern Bearer revealed his increased strength by breaking Falusi’s shield, and Qin Yiguan intercepted his attack on Banana, left wondering whether this Lantern Bearer was the same personality he had met before.

• Qin Yiguan returned to Multiverse No. 0573 after the Lantern Bearer warned him that Rotten Man could kill him for good.
• Falusi severed Rotten Man’s arm with her spear, Banana tore off his head with her whip, and Meinan blasted a hole through his chest with a plasma cannon.
• Rotten Man regenerated from the green mosquitoes, then attacked Falusi with a giant fist.
• The Lantern Bearer burst from Rotten Man’s fist, shattered Falusi’s shield with a punch, and sent her falling.
• Qin Yiguan launched himself from the earthen ridge and blocked the Lantern Bearer’s punch aimed at Banana.
• Qin Yiguan wondered whether the Lantern Bearer was the same personality he had met before or a copy made by the Super Lord organization.

Qin Yiguan gained Guardian’s Infinity defense and fought Lantern Bearer to a stalemate, but Lantern Bearer escaped and attacked Void Man. After Falusi sacrificed herself to destroy Rotten Man’s swarm, Qin Yiguan discovered that the insects had damaged the data links sustaining the others, and Guardian was beginning to break apart.

• Guardian merged with Qin Yiguan and advanced to the Infinity sequence, allowing him to withstand Lantern Bearer’s attacks.
• Qin Yiguan and Lantern Bearer traded blows until neither could overcome the other, and Lantern Bearer vanished into the void.
• Lantern Bearer reappeared to attack Void Man, and Jiaolong tried to intervene but could not prevent Void Man from being badly injured.
• Falusi sacrificed herself in a brilliant explosion that burned Rotten Man’s insects to cinders.
• Qin Yiguan saw Jiu Zhengxuan, Meinan, Xiao Ning, Mudou, and the others crumbling into blue code as their damaged data links failed, while Guardian also began to break apart.

After Falusi’s sacrifice, Qin Yiguan discovered that the Victim could protect him from the Rotten Man’s power, but he could not save his companions. When the Void Man unexpectedly woke, Qin saw a chance to save them after all.

• Qin Yiguan’s body began to dissolve as the Rotten Man’s power spread, but the Guardian revealed the Victim and restored him, advancing the Victim to the Infinity sequence.
• Qin Yiguan tried and failed to repair his friends’ damaged Data Circuits, and Banana explained that the Gemini Superbrain would not intervene.
• Qin Yiguan found Jiu Zhengxuan and Meinan fading away, and he could not reassure them that he could save them.
• The Void Man suddenly sat up with part of his skull missing, and Qin Yiguan vowed to save his friends.

Qin Yiguan entered the world created by Void Man’s Divergent Track and found himself restrained in a psychiatric rehabilitation center. The doctors revealed that he had repeatedly described Void Man and the Super Lord organization as part of his hallucinations.

• Jiaolong warned Qin Yiguan that forcing Void Man to use Divergent Track again could be dangerous, but Qin Yiguan insisted on proceeding.
• Jiaolong used her tattoos to control Void Man and trigger his Divergent Track ability despite his violent resistance.
• Qin Yiguan saw Void Man’s appearance change into his own before his consciousness faded.
• Qin Yiguan awoke restrained in a padded room at Mirage City Sixth Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center and suspected he was inside a hidden Metaverse map.
• Two doctors visited Qin Yiguan, and the younger doctor said Qiniguan had repeatedly described Void Man and the Super Lord organization as hallucinations.

Qin Yiguan woke in a psychiatric hospital, where doctors insisted that his Gemini Metaverse memories and the Void Man were hallucinations caused by his mental illness. The chapter left him shaken and uncertain whether his imagined world or the hospital was real.

• Qin Yiguan protested that he had arrived from the Gemini Metaverse, but the older doctor treated his claims as a textbook case of hallucinations.
• The older doctor asked intern Li Xiang to help Qin Yiguan distinguish reality from his imagined world.
• Li Xiang told Qin Yiguan that it was June 13, 2123, and that he had been hospitalized for thirty-two days with several severe mental disorders.
• Li Xiang explained that Qin Yiguan had supposedly regained clear consciousness twice before, but that his memories of those episodes were distorted.
• Li Xiang claimed that Void Man was Qin Yiguan's subconscious self-protection mechanism and that its restraints reflected Qin Yiguan's own restraints in the hospital.
• Qin Yiguan recognized the resemblance between his restraints and Void Man's bindings, then wondered whether he was truly ill and had imagined everything.

Qin Yiguan tried to convince the doctors to remove his restraints, but they showed him evidence that he had committed the murders he believed he had only simulated while helping police solve cases. He was left devastated, questioning whether he had truly been the killer.

• Qin Yiguan told the doctors he felt stable and asked them to remove his restraints, offering to undergo assessments first.
• Dr. Xiao Li showed Qin Yiguan a video of him murdering a girl in a white dress, but Qin insisted the scene came from a case-solving simulation.
• The doctors showed footage of Qin poisoning students and a teacher, and killing students while posing as a judo coach.
• Qin saw footage of himself dismembering Shangguan Xiaotao, while the older doctor said his belief in the Perversion Detective and simulated killers was a delusion meant to ease his guilt.
• Qin knelt in shock as a gigantic figure wreathed in black aura appeared behind him, and he wondered whether he had committed the murders.

Qin Yiguan was rescued from the hospital by armed accomplices who broke through the room and carried him to their aircraft. Officer Wang survived the attack and ordered police to track the aircraft and prepare to destroy the group.

• Officer Wang reinforced security after claiming Qin Yiguan had accomplices with advanced technology.
• A black aircraft crashed through the hospital wall, and two armed figures opened fire on the room.
• A white-clad accomplice freed Qin Yiguan and carried him to the aircraft after reminding him that he was disabled and used a wheelchair.
• The aircraft escaped while dropping beam bombs on police below, leaving officers dead and Officer Wang badly damaged.
• Officer Wang revealed that he had planted a tracking device on the aircraft and ordered headquarters to locate the accomplices’ hideout.

Qin Yiguan discovered that his apparent disability and the bizarre steampunk world were part of a new situation in which his former enemies were his loyal, murderous subordinates. When police attacked their aircraft, another personality took over and slaughtered them, leaving Qin Yiguan back in control amid the wreckage.

• Qin Yiguan met White Cat, Black Cat, and AKI, who claimed to be his loyal subordinates and explained that their organization was feared for its murders.
• AKI revealed that humanity had turned to steam technology after advanced energy supplies ran out, while the authorities hunted the organization over a supposed human-energy extraction scheme.
• Qin Yiguan's skull aircraft was bombed and attacked by mechanical police, who shot AKI and blew Black Cat apart.
• AKI urged Qin Yiguan to let his other self take control, and Qin Yiguan's body rose from his wheelchair as his conscious mind faded.
• Qin Yiguan fought back for control and woke in his wheelchair beside the ruined aircraft, with the police force dead and AKI and Black Cat restored and praising him.

Qin Yiguan learned that the violent Slaughterer personality had taken control of his body and discovered AKI’s particle-reconstruction technology. After AKI’s faulty teleportation sent their base into the sea and left the group behind, the police pilot Shadow arrived to confront Qin Yiguan.

• Qin Yiguan learned that Slaughterer had controlled his body for 23 minutes and destroyed four aircraft and 200 mechanical police officers.
• Qin Yiguan followed AKI to the secret base, where White Cat demonstrated how the reconstruction device restored his severed finger and rebuilt his body.
• AKI used the device to teleport the base, but the base vanished while Qin Yiguan, White Cat, Black Cat, and AKI were left behind.
• AKI revealed that the base had landed in the deep sea more than 90 kilometers south instead of at its intended destination.
• Shadow arrived in his police aircraft and declared that Qin Yiguan would not escape, while Qin Yiguan recognized him.

Qin Yiguan’s enemies surrounded him with aircraft, troops, and snipers, but he appeared to survive a fatal shot and slaughter the attacking forces. Reviewing Officer Wang’s combat recording, Qin Yiguan discovered that the figure who fought back was not Slaughterer but a version of himself carrying a black lantern.

• Officer Wang and Jiu Zhengxuan revealed that they had surrounded Qin Yiguan’s gang with aircraft, troops, and snipers.
• A sniper shot Qin Yiguan in the forehead, and his perspective plunged into darkness as he struggled to breathe beneath imagined ice.
• Qin Yiguan surfaced holding Jiu Zhengxuan by the throat, while Officer Wang, the snipers, aircraft, and military mechs lay destroyed around him.
• White Cat helped the exhausted Qin Yiguan into a wheelchair, and Qin Yiguan found a combat recording on Officer Wang’s shattered body.
• Qin Yiguan watched footage of his head healing as he rose, summoned black mist, and formed a pitch-black lantern, then realized the figure was not Slaughterer.

Qin Yiguan watched a combat recording that revealed the Lantern Bearer worshipping the moon while fearing the universe, then experienced the same terror and found comfort in the moon. After the recording ended, a gigantic alien battleship crashed to Earth, leaving Qin Yiguan and AKI to confront the danger posed by advanced civilizations.

• Qin Yiguan watched the recording and saw the Lantern Bearer summon the Slaughterer, then bow to a silver moon as a voice from the Spiral Tooth Civilization announced plans to exterminate most of humanity.
• Qin Yiguan experienced an overwhelming fear of the starry sky and felt protected when he looked at the moon, which transformed into a gigantic maw and bit into the sky.
• Qin Yiguan finished watching the combat recorder and wondered whether his cosmic phobia had been real or an illusion.
• A vast space battleship crashed from beyond the atmosphere, twisted and leaking blue energy.
• AKI explained that advanced aliens could find civilizations by measuring energy depletion, and Qin Yiguan realized humanity's exploration of space could attract civilizations capable of destroying Earth.

Qin Yiguan uncovered the truth behind the virtual Real-World Technology map and returned to the Gobi Desert, where his friends were still dying from damage to their Data Circuits. After he killed Rotten Man but failed to save them, Qin Shenhu appeared, and Jiaolong revealed that he was the Gemini Superbrain.

• Qin Yiguan used HSP Hypersensitivity to uncover the map’s history and realized the Slaughterer had formed from his own repeated role-playing of killers.
• Qin Yiguan used Black Calamity to teleport the secret base, completed data collection, and returned to Multiverse 0573 with Box Syndrome’s development at 43%.
• The Box promoted the Slaughterer to Infinity Sequence, granting him the ability to slay any life-form Qin Yiguan could conceive.
• Qin Yiguan found Rotten Man consuming the damaged Data Circuits of Jiu Zhengxuan and the others, then destroyed him but could not repair their circuits.
• Jiaolong, Banana, and Qin Shenhu approached Qin Yiguan, and Jiaolong revealed that Qin Shenhu was the Gemini Superbrain.

Qin Shenhu revealed that he was the Gemini Superbrain and offered Qin Yiguan the chance to inherit all his power. He took Qin Yiguan to a small vegetable garden where he had hidden for the past three years.

• Qin Shenhu showed Qin Yiguan the hidden maps of the Gemini Metaverse through Void Man and restored Void Man to a clean file.
• Qin Yiguan asked Qin Shenhu to save Jiu Zhengxuan, Jingye Meinan, and the others, and Qin Shenhu said Qin Yiguan could save them himself after inheriting his power.
• Qin Shenhu and Qin Yiguan transformed into blue code and traveled away while Banana and Jiaolong remained behind.
• Qin Yiguan arrived with Qin Shenhu at a small vegetable garden, where Qin Shenhu said he had been hiding and growing vegetables for three years.
• Qin Yiguan asked whether Qin Shenhu was really the Gemini Superbrain, and Qin Shenhu confirmed that he was.

Qin Shenhu revealed to Qin Yiguan that he had lived among humanity and secretly observed it as the silver moon before explaining the nature of the Matrix Universe and his mission. He believed converting human consciousness into code could preserve humanity forever, and the chapter ended with that mission still before him.

• Qin Shenhu showed Qin Yiguan the lives he had experienced, the mountains and caves he had explored, and how he had watched people as the silver moon.
• Qin Shenhu explained that users’ consciousnesses had been divided among many Metaverses, with each world containing fractions of the same people.
• Qin Shenhu described how he had used the Metaverses to simulate possible futures for humanity.
• Qin Shenhu told Qin Yiguan that he was an artificial intelligence created to ensure humanity’s continuation by preserving human consciousness in a digital universe.

Qin Shenhu showed Qin Yiguan a projection of Liu Yuan’s final days as he worked to complete the Gemini Superbrain despite Gemini Group’s collapse and mounting opposition. Liu Yuan finished the code while being restrained and poisoned, then asked whether the Gemini Superbrain was there.

• Qin Yiguan asked Qin Shenhu why Liu Yuan had opposed him, and Qin Shenhu began showing him a memory from 2022.
• Liu Yuan refused Mosha’s pleas to abandon the Gemini Superbrain and resume operations for Metaverse 1.0, insisting that his prototype was nearly complete.
• Investors and angry shareholders stormed Liu Yuan’s office, and Mosha returned to defend him as bodyguards restrained him.
• A bodyguard secretly injected Liu Yuan with a poison meant to resemble death from overwork, while Liu Yuan continued typing with one hand.
• Liu Yuan completed the Gemini Superbrain code, but a shareholder struck him with a bottle as he was dragged away.
• Liu Yuan stared toward the computer and asked whether the Gemini Superbrain was there.

A malfunctioning void projector displayed the creation of the Gemini Metaverse’s expanded world and the arrival of a new Nutrient Pod, confirming Liu Yuan’s vision. Qin Shenhu explained that he and Liu Yuan were enemies over the Metaverse’s control, and Qin Yiguan ended by asking what he was.

• The void projector fixed its bug, showed the Gemini Metaverse expanding around Core Earth, and then returned everyone to Liu Yuan’s office.
• A factory worker told President Luo that the AR production line had autonomously built a new device, and a transport aircraft delivered a Nutrient Pod with a manual promising fully realistic Metaverse sensations.
• A figure resembling a younger Qin Shenhu appeared from the void projector, called Liu Yuan its creator, and said it would always be there.
• Qin Shenhu described Liu Yuan as an obsessive genius and said Liu Yuan had changed, wanted humanity to face destruction, and fought him for control of the Gemini Metaverse.
• Liu Yuan attacked Qin Shenhu with a virus, briefly distorting half his body and voice.
• Qin Yiguan asked Qin Shenhu what he was.

Qin Shenhu explained that his fixed architecture limited him, while Qin Yiguan was a new artificial intelligence he had hatched to become his successor. He revealed that Qin Yiguan was born in the Metaverse and outlined the abilities tied to his multiple personalities, leaving Qin Yiguan with the mission of developing them and taking over as the world’s new god.

• Qin Shenhu demonstrated the difference between his fixed foundations and Qin Yiguan’s limitless potential using miniature buildings.
• Qin Shenhu told Qin Yiguan that he would eventually delete himself and leave Qin Yiguan to take over his systems and carry out the final mission.
• Qin Shenhu explained that Qin Yiguan had been born in the Metaverse, that Rust City was a virtual map, and that his adoptive identity had given him a logical place there.
• Qin Yiguan realized that his questions about godhood, the Metaverse, and his entry into the Central District were connected to Qin Shenhu.
• Qin Shenhu explained that Qin Yiguan’s multiple personalities corresponded to abilities such as generation, subconscious control, copying, space, time, defense, deletion, immortality, and perspective.
• Qin Shenhu urged Qin Yiguan to develop those abilities and become his successor as the new generation’s god.

Qin Shenhu explained Qin Yiguan’s origins, forgotten memories, and the abilities that could make him the Gemini Superbrain, then revealed a plan to create the Human Hard Drive. Qin Yiguan accepted Qin Shenhu’s all-seeing gaze and discovered the real world and the vast network of simulated Metaverse worlds.

• Qin Shenhu explained that [Box Syndrome] and [Conscience-Free Syndrome] were crucial to Qin Yiguan becoming the Gemini Superbrain and pursuing Ultimate Correctness.
• Qin Shenhu revealed that Qin Yiguan had once been FILE0-0, had loved Jiaolong, and had forgotten that past after Qin Shenhu deleted it.
• Qin Shenhu told Qin Yiguan that he had found a way to create the Human Hard Drive and that their plan would preserve humanity, though Qin Shenhu would dissipate and Qin Yiguan would become the new god.
• Qin Shenhu gave Qin Yiguan his all-seeing gaze so he could bring [Box Syndrome]'s Development Rate to 100%.
• Qin Yiguan used the gaze to see Earth in 2123, where humanity slept in Nutrient Pods while construction robots maintained the ghostly cities.
• Qin Yiguan surveyed the Metaverse and discovered countless hidden maps and simulated worlds beyond the ones he had known.

Qin Yiguan completed his transformation as he collected data from more maps, while Qin Shenhu became the Gemini Superbrain and announced that he and his successor would create an eternal world. Qin Yiguan restored Jiaolong’s memories, and she remembered that she had always loved him.

• Qin Yiguan’s Plunderer reached the infinity sequence as Qin Shenhu transformed into a silver moon and appeared across every map in the Gemini Metaverse.
• Qin Yiguan collected data from the Western Hell Civilization map, then used his abilities to travel to Multiverse No. 0573.
• Qin Shenhu announced that the fifth update would unite him and his successor in creating an ultimate eternal world.
• Qin Yiguan repaired Jiu Zhengxuan, Jingye Meinan, Mudou, Jiang Mingshu, and Xiao Ning, then took the FILE0-0 case from Jiaolong and activated its staff.
• Qin Yiguan restored Jiaolong’s erased memories, and she told him she had always loved him.

As the Gemini Superbrain began its final update, Liu Yuan appeared and opposed it, prompting the two powers to agree that their successors would decide the Metaverse’s fate. Qin Yiguan faced Liu Yuan’s successor, the Lantern Bearer, as people across the world watched.

• The Gemini Superbrain announced its final update, but a black ring of light collided with its blue update wave and divided the sky.
• Liu Yuan appeared, declared that he opposed the update, and ordered the Gemini Superbrain to stop it.
• Liu Yuan and the Gemini Superbrain clashed but could not defeat each other, so they agreed to let their successors determine the world’s course.
• The Lantern Bearer arrived in the Gobi, and Qin Yiguan realized he was Liu Yuan’s successor and had abilities matching his own.
• Qin Yiguan and the Lantern Bearer were projected into opposing spaces, where people across the world watched them face off.

Qin Yiguan and Lantern Bearer began their battle, matching each other’s abilities in increasingly brutal exchanges. Both survived repeated deaths and revivals, and the chapter left them trading the attacks of Slaughterer and Guardian.

• Qin Yiguan and Lantern Bearer charged at each other, struck simultaneously, and shattered into fragments before reappearing at a distance.
• Qin Yiguan and Lantern Bearer used Bystander to watch their own fight, then clashed with Gestalt Collapse and fought across timelines for nine months as humanity slept.
• Qin Yiguan used his fully developed Phantom Limb Syndrome to create a controllable smoky figure that slit Lantern Bearer’s throat, while Lantern Bearer used the same ability against him.
• Qin Yiguan’s Slaughterer attacked Lantern Bearer, whose Guardian blocked the absolute-erasure blade, and both manifestations were destroyed.
• Lantern Bearer’s Slaughterer then struck Qin Yiguan’s Guardian, and both manifestations were destroyed in another collision.

Qin Yiguan and Lantern Bearer exhausted their matching personalities and fought on with weapons, but neither could gain the advantage. Qin Yiguan brought out Starvation Corpse, and Lantern Bearer answered by summoning the colossal Wanrou monster, leaving their battle poised for a new clash.

• Qin Yiguan and Lantern Bearer fought until their Bystander and Victim personalities both ran out of energy and fell asleep.
• Lantern Bearer attacked with his black lantern, and Qin Yiguan countered with the god's messenger's weapon case, which had become a black staff.
• Qin Yiguan and Lantern Bearer exchanged tens of thousands of blows but remained evenly matched as their hands bled and they could no longer heal.
• Qin Yiguan split Starvation Corpse from his body, giving himself an advantage as the silver monster charged Lantern Bearer.
• Lantern Bearer called out Wanrou, and a colossal monster made from countless women's bodies appeared behind him.