Recaps

Jiao Shensan explained his motives to Qin Yiguan, left him two mysterious objects, and then killed himself as Jiu Zhengxuan fought through the fortress toward the conference room. Meanwhile, Jingye Meinan and Chen Mudou waited in a storage room and bantered about Qin Yiguan’s mission.

• Jiao Shensan told Qin Yiguan that he had opposed those in power who tried to control people and gave him an information strip and a piece of Kentablack.
• Jiao Shensan burned through his own heart and brain with two patches, killing himself in front of Qin Yiguan.
• Qin Yiguan realized Jiu Zhengxuan was breaking through the fortress’s security doors, and then heard him pounding on the conference room door.
• In a locked storage room, Jingye Meinan told Chen Mudou he would acknowledge Qin Yiguan as boss if he hurt or killed the Research Society’s chief scientist.
• Jingye Meinan inspected Chen Mudou’s covered appearance and flirted with her while they waited for Qin Yiguan.

Jingye Meinan’s pheromone ability failed to affect Chen Mudou, who rushed to Qin Yiguan after alarms sounded. She recorded Qin’s mission report beside Jiao Shensan’s corpse, while Qin noticed the conference-room door had been smashed open by someone with extraordinary strength.

• Jingye Meinan increased his Opposite-Sex Resonance, but Chen Mudou rejected him and threatened him with her folder.
• Alarms sounded through the aerial fortress, and Chen Mudou ran toward Qin Yiguan despite Jingye Meinan urging her to flee.
• Jingye Meinan followed Chen Mudou into the conference room, where they found Qin Yiguan beside Jiao Shensan’s mangled corpse.
• Chen Mudou summoned a virtual keyboard and Personal Brain to record that Qin had killed the target and to document the mission.
• Qin Yiguan noticed the shattered alloy door was twenty centimeters thick and wondered which of the two newcomers had broken it.

Qin Yiguan used Jiao Shensan’s Liquid Black Hole to plunge the conference room and corridor into total darkness, then tried to escape with Chen Mudou and Jingye Meinan. Jiu Zhengxuan tracked him through the darkness and fought him fiercely, leaving both men locked in combat as Wei Hu and Huo Shuang struggled to act.

• Jiao Shensan’s Liquid Black Hole activated and spread absolute darkness through the conference room and corridor.
• Qin Yiguan grabbed the information chip and Liquid Black Hole, then told Chen Mudou and Jingye Meinan to flee toward the corridor they had come from.
• Jiu Zhengxuan sensed Qin Yiguan in the darkness and struck him, but Qin Yiguan countered with a judo throw.
• Jiu Zhengxuan tracked Qin Yiguan again, and the two exchanged combat techniques before separating with injuries.
• Wei Hu and Huo Shuang failed to navigate the darkness or produce light, and Wei Hu marveled at the fighters’ ability to keep fighting.

Qin Yiguan escaped after an unknown force knocked Jiu Zhengxuan aside, but Doctor Jiao Shensan’s body was confirmed dead. Jiu Zhengxuan faced his father’s anger, while the youth in the white suit stood by Jiao Shensan’s corpse, consumed by rage.

• Jiu Zhengxuan was struck by an unseen force, giving Qin Yiguan a chance to flee through the darkness.
• Huo Shuang and Wei Hu helped Jiu Zhengxuan recover, and he led them to check on Doctor Jiao.
• Research Society scholars concluded that Doctor Jiao’s brain and heart had suffered catastrophic damage, while security reported that the surveillance system had been disabled.
• A Mechanical Proxy confirmed that Doctor Jiao’s physical body was dead.
• Lu Zun learned of Doctor Jiao’s death and berated Jiu Zhengxuan, who apologized.
• The youth in the white suit stood before Jiao Shensan’s corpse and erupted in anger.

Qin Yiguan escaped the Experimental Zone after Doctor Jiao Shensan’s apparent death, then faced Jiu Zhengxuan’s accusation in Core Earth. The Research Society denied the reports, but Qin Yiguan realized the man at the press conference was not the Jiao Shensan he had seen.

• Qin Yiguan used the liquid black hole’s darkness to conceal the Three-Legged Cat’s escape as transport ship YZ-018 exploded.
• Chen Mudou volunteered to report back to the gang and collect the reward, while Qin Yiguan wondered which of her and Jingye Meinan had displayed extraordinary strength.
• Jiu Zhengxuan recognized Qin Yiguan as resembling the killer and threatened to have his movements compared with the posture he remembered.
• Taotie Clam played a report saying Jiao Shensan had been attacked and his original body had died, prompting Jiu Zhengxuan to accuse Qin Yiguan.
• The Research Society’s press conference showed a healthy Jiao Shensan denying the reports, but Qin Yiguan noticed that the man looked younger and had a different demeanor from the Jiao Shensan he had seen.

Qin Yiguan decoded Jiao Shensan’s information sheet in complete darkness and memorized seven coordinates across the B5 and B6 Sectors. Jiu Zhengxuan’s attempt to identify him as the killer failed, while Qin revealed that he had deliberately lured Jiu into a false lead so he could investigate Jiao Shensan’s truth undisturbed.

• Qin Yiguan endured a day of classes accompanied by a girl’s sobbing and hoped Teacher Qing would return the next day.
• Qin Yiguan used darkness to activate Jiao Shensan’s information sheet and memorized seven coordinates in the B5 and B6 Sectors.
• Jiu Zhengxuan secretly arranged for Section Chief Jing’s team to capture Qin Yiguan’s physical data and compare it with the figure he remembered.
• The comparison showed only 0.69% similarity, convincing Jiu Zhengxuan that Qin Yiguan was not the figure he had seen.
• Qin Yiguan revealed that he had baited Jiu Zhengxuan into following him to Vortex Cloud City, and he imitated a killer’s habitual gesture to conceal his identity.

Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan flew to the city of True in the rebuilt Three-Legged Cat, escaping pursuit by the Youth Order Squad. At the city gate, Qin Yiguan discovered that True was a sprawling district filled with streetwalkers and discreet visitors, while Jingye Meinan hinted that appearances could be misleading.

• Jingye Meinan arrived in the upgraded Three-Legged Cat, which his engineer girlfriends had repaired and modified.
• Jiu Zhengxuan sent Wei Hu and the Youth Order Squad after Qin Yiguan in a newly assembled aircraft.
• Jingye Meinan activated another modification, and the Three-Legged Cat accelerated away at eighty-three percent of the speed of light.
• Qin Yiguan gave Jingye Meinan the coordinates B5,6324/0619, and they reached the city of True.
• Qin Yiguan saw the scantily dressed women and concealed visitors in True, then realized what the city's little pink lights meant.
• Jingye Meinan told Qin Yiguan that appearances in True could be misleading.

Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan entered the True City of the World’s high-level player zone and used Meinan’s VIP status to get into Jasmine Osmanthus House. There, Qin Yiguan discovered that the coordinates left by the Research Society’s chief, Jiao Shensan, led to the young waiter serving them: Jiao Shensan in his younger years.

• A trench-coat salesman and Jingye Meinan explained the city’s memory-based adult entertainment and its indulgent culture to Qin Yiguan.
• An attendant denied Qin Yiguan entry to Jasmine Osmanthus House because he lacked the required Sweat Points, but Meinan’s level-forty-seven VIP status secured them admission.
• A waiter showed Qin Yiguan and Meinan the club’s digital-human technology and described the Metaverse’s immersive adult entertainment.
• Qin Yiguan reached the coordinates Jiao Shensan had left and realized the clue referred to a fat man with another fat man in a private room.
• Qin Yiguan learned that their young waiter was named Jiao Shensan and was the deceased chief in his younger years.

Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan met a 28-year-old waiter named Jiao Shensan, who denied any connection to the Research Society chief of the same name. After seeing the waiter treat a dead digital human with care, Qin watched another customer shoot Jiao Shensan in the head.

• Jiao Shensan said he had lived in the True City of the World since infancy and had worked at the Jasmine Osmanthus House for 11 years.
• Qin considered the apparent links between the young waiter and the older Dr. Jiao Shensan but could not explain how they could share the same name.
• A VIP strangled a digital woman to death, and Jiao Shensan arranged her body, covered it, and prayed before making it vanish with a wall control.
• Qin spotted the serial number RFE265789 on the woman's foot and realized it identified her as a digital human.
• Jiao Shensan confronted an armed customer about the establishment's rules and property damage, and the customer shot his head apart.

Qin Yiguan killed the deputy leader of Tomorrow Silkworm after finding him responsible for Jiao Shensan’s death, then discovered a clue on the waiter’s foot and investigated his room. The Metaverse Government collected Jiao Shensan’s remains to restore his data, revealing that the waiter had been Dr. Jiao Shensan.

• Qin Yiguan used a candlestick and martial arts strikes to kill the fat deputy leader, while telling Jingye Meinan that the VIP’s death would be blamed on him.
• Qin Yiguan found the marking “AE235” on Jiao Shensan’s foot and said, “May you rest in peace.”
• Qin Yiguan evaded the gang members surrounding Jasmine Osmanthus House and searched Jiao Shensan’s dorm room, finding extensive books and evidence that the waiter had studied quantum physics.
• Agents from the Information Management Bureau arrived, threatened Tomorrow Silkworm’s underlings, and meticulously collected Jiao Shensan’s remains.
• The B5 Sector bureau director assured a superior that Dr. Jiao Shensan’s data would be restored.

Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan followed clues about Jiao Shensan to the City of Gluttony, where the supposedly resurrected scientist appeared as the Gluttony King. As Jiao Shensan died again during a public eating spectacle, Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan were left facing another bizarre death.

• Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan escaped the True City of the World through a secret passage, and Qin Yiguan used an information chip to head for the next coordinates.
• Jiu Zhengxuan and the Youth Order Squad arrived too late to catch them, while Huo Shuang argued that Qin Yiguan was too depraved to merit further investigation.
• Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan reached the City of Gluttony and saw an announcement that Jiao Shensan, the Gluttony King, would dine at the northern plaza.
• The crowd watched Jiao Shensan consume vast quantities of food, and Jingye Meinan explained how the wealthy could experience food with vastly enhanced taste sensations.
• Jiao Shensan choked, fell from the platform, and died, prompting Qin Yiguan to accuse Jingye Meinan of causing the second death.

Qin Yiguan forced Jingye Meinan to use Opposite-Sex Resonance to clear the crowd so he could inspect Gluttony King Jiao Shensan’s corpse. He found signs of poisoning and recognized the killer as Poison Master, whose memories left him recalling her students with a loving smile.

• Qin Yiguan learned that Gluttony King Jiao Shensan had earned his fortune through neuroscience and medical breakthroughs.
• Qin Yiguan pressured Jingye Meinan into using Opposite-Sex Resonance to draw the crowd away from the corpse.
• Qin Yiguan used the Three-Legged Cat to spread Jingye Meinan’s pheromones and pushed through the frenzied crowd to reach Jiao Shensan.
• Qin Yiguan found fresh ulcers in Jiao Shensan’s mouth and concluded that he had been poisoned.
• Qin Yiguan recognized Poison Master and recalled her past poisoning, her diary, and the students she had protected.

Qin Yiguan examined Gluttony Jiao Shensan’s corpse and identified radiation poisoning from polonium, then discovered the body was a Digital Human. Section Chief Shi’s men detained Qin Yiguan, who was left locked inside a prisoner transport aircraft after trying to learn what they wanted from the corpse.

• Qin Yiguan found signs of acute radiation sickness on Gluttony Jiao Shensan and concluded that polonium had poisoned him through ingestion, inhalation, or a wound.
• Men in black arrived and ordered Qin Yiguan away from the corpse, while Section Chief Shi presented his electronic ID and claimed authority over the team.
• Qin Yiguan uncovered the code AE230 on Gluttony Jiao Shensan’s foot and declared that he was a Digital Human.
• Section Chief Shi ordered his men to restrain Qin Yiguan, who speculated that they had come to retrieve the neuroscience knowledge in Jiao Shensan’s brain and the waiter’s body.
• Section Chief Shi gave Qin Yiguan no answers, and his men locked Qin Yiguan inside a sturdy aircraft used to transport prisoners.

Qin Yiguan confronted Shi Long, who revealed his petrification ability and attacked him after accusing him of murdering Gluttony Jiao Shensan. As Shi Long and his men moved to finish him, a childlike personality took over Qin Yiguan and destroyed them all.

• Shi Long broke into the room and revealed his Flesh Petrification Reality Enhancement, then claimed Qin Yiguan had killed Gluttony Jiao Shensan and tried to arrest him.
• Qin Yiguan attacked Shi Long and discovered lead gloves, accusing him of being the real murderer who killed Gluttony Jiao Shensan.
• Shi Long overpowered Qin Yiguan, while God's Abandoned explained that Qin Yiguan's low Fusion Rate left him outmatched.
• Shi Long hurled Qin Yiguan into the ruins and prepared to finish him, but Qin Yiguan rose with cream from Jiao Shensan's 64-Degree Sweet on his hand.
• A childlike personality took control of Qin Yiguan and used spatial force to blow Shi Long and the men in black apart.

Qin Yiguan relived a memory of his hypnosis session and realized that eating 64-degree candy had brought out another personality when he was near death. After leaving the City of Gluttony with two hard drives tied to Jiao Shensan, he bought more candy as bait, while Dr. Jiao Shensan struggled to understand research documents and demanded that his data be sent.

• Qin Yiguan watched his hypnotized self eat candy while Dr. House warned You Minglan not to interrupt him because he was on high alert.
• Qin Yiguan woke amid the ruins of the City of Gluttony, where he saw Jingye Meinan held by men and realized Guardian had not appeared before his other personality surfaced.
• Qin Yiguan searched an aircraft and a nearby safe, finding hard drives labeled with Jiao Shensan’s brain and nerve medicine research and quantum physics research.
• Qin Yiguan spent 80,000 yuan on three pieces of 20-degree candy and carried them in an inner pocket before leaving the City of Gluttony.
• Dr. Jiao Shensan failed to understand the research documents and angrily demanded his data from a contact over his communicator.

Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan found the young Jiao Shensan asleep beneath layers of nested Metaverse simulations and discovered mechanical blueprints 30,001 layers deep. As they watched, an older Jiao Shensan appeared inside the simulation, carrying a dagger toward his younger self.

• Jingye Meinan complained to Qin Yiguan about his humiliating assignment and urged him to kill Jiao Shensan directly.
• Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan followed the information chip's coordinates to a slum house and found the young Jiao Shensan asleep in a Neural Helmet.
• Jingye Meinan opened successive Metaverse layers, finding Jiao Shensan lying motionless in each one.
• Qin Yiguan told Jingye Meinan to continue until they found Jiao Shensan's research, and at layer 30,001 they saw mechanical blueprints.
• A dark figure entered the deepest simulation with a dagger, and Qin Yiguan recognized him as Jiao Shensan at around thirty years old.

Qin Yiguan watched Envious Jiao Shensan stab the young Jiao Shensan inside the Metaverse, threatening to trigger a chain reaction that would kill him. God's Abandoned entered the virtual world, killed the attacker, and collected data from both Jiao Shensans.

• Qin Yiguan realized that the thirty-year-old Jiao Shensan embodied envy and had stabbed the young Jiao Shensan out of jealousy.
• Jingye Meinan warned Qin Yiguan that the young Jiao Shensan's death across the Metaverse layers could spread until it killed him in reality.
• God's Abandoned entered the 30,001st Metaverse layer as a black-clad figure and cut the thirty-year-old Jiao Shensan in half.
• God's Abandoned collected both Jiao Shensans' corpses and the mechanical design documents.
• Qin Yiguan received data packets containing the young Jiao Shensan's mechanical design knowledge and the older Jiao Shensan's programming knowledge.

A powerful leader sent Group 60 to recover the Jiao Shensan data and kill 001, the boy believed to be sabotaging his plans. The group recovered two Jiao Shensan corpses, but 001 had hijacked their consciousnesses, leaving the leader to intensify Meng Jihe’s torture in hopes of finding him.

• A burly leader watched footage of 001 killing Information Management Bureau members and ordered Group 60 to recover the Jiao Shensan data and kill 001 on sight.
• Section Chief Wu led two hundred Group 60 members to Jiao Shensan’s residence, where they found his corpse being gnawed by a rat but did not find 001.
• The leader learned that Group 60 had recovered the eighteen-year-old and thirty-year-old Jiao Shensan corpses, both of whom had died before the team arrived.
• The leader questioned Meng Jihe about 001, but Meng Jihe insisted he did not know the boy, so the leader ordered his pain sensitivity raised.
• After the recovered data revealed only trivial details, the leader realized 001 had hijacked the consciousnesses of two Jiao Shensans and ordered Meng Jihe’s pain sensitivity raised three hundredfold.

Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan visited Jiao Shensan’s Source Matter mine to propose a new deposit, where Qin discovered that the mine’s laborers were brutally altered and forced to search for ore. He recognized one of them as his former neighbor Brother Lu, and the chapter ended with a guard threatening Qin at gunpoint.

• Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan told Jiao Shensan’s guards they knew of a new Source Matter deposit and were escorted into the mine.
• Qin Yiguan saw laborers bolted to a steel plate, their mouths sealed and eyes replaced with lenses, as they searched soil for tiny traces of Source Matter.
• A guard claimed the laborers had volunteered under contracts and received a share of the ore they collected.
• Qin Yiguan recognized one of the mutilated laborers as Brother Lu, his former neighbor who had left Rust City with his elderly mother.
• A guard pressed a gun against Qin Yiguan’s back and warned him that Brother Lu belonged to Jiao Shensan.

Qin Yiguan recognized that the greedy mine owner Jiao Shensan was actually his old friend Brother Lu, who had switched faces with his former boss. After Brother Lu died, Qin Yiguan returned his body and his mother’s body to Rust City and buried them together.

• Qin Yiguan questioned Jiao Shensan about his past and recognized him as Brother Lu from his unconscious foot movements.
• Jiao Shensan demanded the location of a nonexistent ore deposit and ordered Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan restrained.
• Information Management Bureau agents killed the man posing as Jiao Shensan, then discovered his corpse was not a Digital Human.
• Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan found the dying laborer who was actually Jiao Shensan, and Jingye Meinan absorbed his corpse after he died.
• Qin Yiguan logged out, leaving Jingye Meinan to escape alone as the Bureau team closed in.
• Qin Yiguan carried Brother Lu and his mother back to Rust City and buried them together.

Qin Yiguan endured Jiu Zhengxuan’s persistent attempts to collect more data at school while Jiu investigated whether Qin could be the masked figure from the Research Society. Jiu discovered the theory of Shadow Syndrome and, after studying it late into the night, startled Auntie Lan by appearing to look like his father, Master Lu.

• Qin Yiguan returned to school, where Jiu Zhengxuan apologized and then repeatedly searched his belongings and pressured him to provide data, claiming they were classmates.
• Qin Yiguan recognized that Jiu was trying to collect data for the Verification Section and gave him the middle finger when Jiu demanded more movement data.
• Jiu Zhengxuan reviewed Qin’s failed movement-data comparison and found information about Shadow Syndrome, a hypothetical condition that could let someone imitate another person completely.
• Auntie Lan entered Jiu Zhengxuan’s study at three in the morning and mistook him for his father, Master Lu, before realizing it was Jiu.
• Jiu Zhengxuan told Auntie Lan he had almost finished studying, and she urged him to rest and regain his strength.

Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan followed the sixth set of coordinates into an underground tunnel, searching for the missing digital Jiao Shensan. They found a mutilated, chained figure who greeted them and promised to tell them about the pride of his life.

• A subordinate reported to the Chief that the bureau had failed to recover Jiao Shensan from the mine, could not make Meng Jihe talk, and had lost track of Pride; the Chief gave Zeming forty-eight hours to resolve the matter.
• Qin Yiguan contacted Jingye Meinan and tricked him into coming to help by claiming an Information Management Bureau agent was transgender, then admitted he had lied.
• Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan entered a wealthy neighborhood at the sixth set of coordinates, but Qin Yiguan hurried them onward because the digital Jiao Shensan was likely hiding.
• Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan descended a deep tunnel, heard a monstrous roar, and found a mutilated figure hanging from chains.
• The chained figure welcomed Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan and said he had kept his mouth so he could tell them about the pride of his life.

Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan met Jiao Shensan, a human stump who identified himself as Pride and explained that his astronomy research concerned time. Jiao began recounting how a woman named Wanrou brought him to this state, leaving Jingye intrigued when he revealed she was already married.

• Jiao Shensan recognized Qin Yiguan and Jingye Meinan, who found him suspended in the cave as a human stump.
• Qin Yiguan asked Jiao what science he studied, and Jiao said he specialized in astronomy.
• Jiao explained that astronomy had first studied time and described how his insights had brought him fame and wealth.
• Qin Yiguan asked what had brought Jiao to his current condition, and Jiao answered that it was a woman.
• Jiao described falling in love with the beautiful Wanrou, then revealed she was already married, prompting Jingye to perk up.

Jiao Shensan explained how he imprisoned Wanrou in the God Clock, repeatedly made her relive childhood and adulthood to gather data, and used it to create a digital version who loved him. He then revealed that memories from different simulated versions of himself had merged across timelines, explaining why he recognized Mr. Qin years before they met.

• Jiao Shensan said he had kidnapped Wanrou by placing her in the God Clock, where time passed 2.6 million times faster than outside.
• Jiao Shensan repeatedly drugged Wanrou and made her relive her life in a virtual world a million times to collect every detail about her.
• Jiao Shensan created a digital Wanrou programmed to love only him and intended to give her the collected memories of the real Wanrou.
• Jiao Shensan told Mr. Qin that memories from his different simulated lives had appeared and merged across timelines.
• Mr. Qin recalled that the sixty-eight-year-old Jiao Shensan had recognized him at their first meeting, saying he had known him for many years.

Qin Yiguan learned that the memories of different Jiao Shensans would converge, then faced the monstrous Digital Human that Wanrou had become. He captured Wanrou and Jiao Shensan with the Information Management Bureau device, leaving him to reflect on whether their bond had been love.

• Jiao Shensan told Qin Yiguan that the older versions of himself would eventually share their memories and urged him to gather them all.
• Jiao Shensan blamed his arrogance for Wanrou’s suffering and revealed that her failed Digital Human still existed.
• Jiao Shensan summoned Wanrou, who appeared as a gigantic composite creature made from countless women’s bodies.
• Jingye Meinan fled from Wanrou, but Qin Yiguan stayed and used the high-tech vacuum cleaner to convert her into data.
• Wanrou’s remaining bodies embraced Jiao Shensan, and the device absorbed them both into nothingness.
• Qin Yiguan stood silently and wondered whether their relationship had been love.