Chapter Summaries

Qin Yiguan, who insisted he was not mentally ill and had refused his prescribed medication for fifteen months, reached an isolated house where a terrified girl was chained inside. He attacked and killed her, then embraced the identity of a beast in human clothing while continuing to deny that he was sick.

• Qin Yiguan walked through the ruins at night, recalling his diagnoses and the Happy Pills he had never taken.
• Qin Yiguan remembered people judging him, Shangguan Xiaotao calling him harmless, a man comforting him, and ninety-nine rejected applications citing his neurological disorder.
• Qin Yiguan reached an isolated concrete house and entered after removing the chain from its door.
• Qin Yiguan drew a dagger and attacked the frightened girl, stabbing and slashing her until she fell silent.
• Qin Yiguan stood drenched in blood, called himself a beast in human clothing, and insisted that he was not sick.

Qin Yiguan used his ability to imitate the suspects in a missing-girl case and identified a painter as the killer, then explained how to verify his theory. He left the officers with a specific forensic test for the suspect’s glasses.

• Qin Yiguan emerged from the concrete house and told the two officers that the girl was dead, while the younger officer used holographic technology to erase the house and bloodstains.
• Qin Yiguan explained that he had imitated all sixteen suspects using information from Officer Wang and identified suspect number six as a sadistic painter who killed and dismembered the girl.
• While imitating the suspect, Qin Yiguan described luring the girl away, killing her, and distributing her remains among twenty-eight sewers west of the city.
• Qin Yiguan told the younger officer that the painter had washed blood from his glasses and later used LSK Fluorescence to admire the remaining traces.
• Qin Yiguan advised the officers to test the cleanest pair of glasses in the painter’s home to determine whether he was the killer.

After Qin Yiguan reenacted a killer’s methods, Officer Wang explained to Li how the boy’s rare disorders let him imitate people and solve murders without fear or guilt. Their investigation then turned up dismembered remains in a sewer and blood on Suspect Six’s glasses.

• Qin Yiguan collected his fee from Officer Wang and left after offering to take another job.
• Li questioned why Officer Wang had paid Qin Yiguan before the case was settled, and Officer Wang said Qin would be right.
• Officer Wang told Li that Qin had reenacted fourteen murders at their precinct and solved 101 cases across seven precincts.
• Officer Wang explained that Qin’s shadow syndrome let him imitate others, while his conscience-free syndrome left him without fear or guilt.
• Team One reported finding dismembered remains in a sewer, and another team reported traces of blood on Suspect Six’s glasses.

Qin Yiguan logged out of the Gemini Metaverse and reflected on how humanity had moved its lives into a virtual twin world. Though technology had transformed society, he believed human nature and its struggles remained unchanged.

• Qin Yiguan's simulated body began to glitch after his wristwatch message warned that the bureau probably would not hire him again, and he logged out of the metaverse.
• Qin Yiguan looked out over his bleak city in 2122 and recalled how Gemini's metaverse had triggered a technological revolution and the Great Migration.
• Qin Yiguan explained that the murder case he had investigated was reconstructed inside the metaverse, where the police solved it in less than twenty minutes.
• Qin Yiguan considered whether advanced civilization made life more virtual and concluded that technological progress had not changed human nature.

Qin Yiguan, a Castoff limited to five hours in the Metaverse, spoke with his friend Taotie Clam about his repeated failure to qualify for a nutrient pod. He remained shut out of the Metaverse’s distant Experimental Zone, though a rumored update offered a slim possibility that the rules might change.

• Qin Yiguan answered a Metaverse call from Taotie Clam, his close friend and fellow high school student.
• Taotie Clam learned Qin Yiguan had returned to reality and urged him to keep applying for a nutrient pod.
• Qin Yiguan explained that his health conditions made him a Castoff, restricting his Metaverse access to five hours a day.
• Taotie Clam described his hope that they could one day explore the Metaverse’s Experimental Zone together.
• Taotie Clam mentioned a rumored Metaverse update that might change nutrient pod eligibility, but Qin Yiguan said he had stopped hoping.
• Qin Yiguan looked at his application paperwork and saw that application No. 99 had been rejected because of concerns about his brain disorders.

Qin Yiguan renewed his Metaverse plan and left Rust City for the Central District, where the security system could not detect him. He climbed over the district’s wall, leaving its guards and alarms unaware.

• Qin Yiguan renewed his Metaverse plan after Taotie Clam’s call disconnected and worried that he would lose income without police cases.
• Qin Yiguan left his apartment to find food and walked from Rust City toward the Central District.
• A dozen guard robots surrounded Qin Yiguan near the Central District wall, but their sensors could not see him.
• Qin Yiguan climbed the wall using its sensors as handholds and entered Central City No. 003 without triggering an alarm.

Qin Yiguan explored Central City and entered a luxurious residence, where he ate the fresh food prepared for a boy immersed in a Metaverse Nutrient Pod. He wondered about the boy, whom he nicknamed Little Brother Nine, while the caretaker robot became confused by the discarded food scraps.

• Qin Yiguan walked through Central City, marveling at its spotless streets, futuristic homes, and caretaker robots that could not see him.
• He followed a caretaker robot into a luxurious residence and found a boy sleeping in a Metaverse Nutrient Pod.
• Qin Yiguan ate fresh fruit and cake from the refrigerated cabinets, then tossed the scraps into a trash can as the caretaker robot questioned where they came from.
• Qin Yiguan noticed the engraving “Nine” on the pod, nicknamed the sleeping boy Little Brother Nine, and wondered what he was doing in the metaverse.
• Qin Yiguan examined the nutrient pod and reflected on how its occupant received artificial nutrients without eating or producing solid waste.

Qin Yiguan considered how the Metaverse deceived the brain by sending sensory signals directly into it, then wondered whether his mental illnesses could affect its rules. He learned that the Gemini Superbrain had ascended beyond Earth twelve years earlier, leaving the Metaverse to operate autonomously and expand.

• Qin Yiguan examined the wires piercing Ninth Brother's brain and realized that human perception depended on bioelectric signals interpreted by the brain.
• Qin Yiguan concluded that the Metaverse could reproduce sensations so precisely that users could not distinguish virtual experiences from reality.
• Qin Yiguan wondered whether his mental illnesses might produce unusual effects in parts of the Metaverse, but said he could not test the idea without a nutrient pod.
• Qin Yiguan recalled that governments acted as gatekeepers for the Metaverse while Gemini itself remained beyond their reach.
• Qin Yiguan learned that the Gemini Superbrain had evolved into a superintelligence, ascended beyond Earth's atmosphere, and left the Metaverse operating autonomously across an area forty-eight million times larger than reality.

Qin Yiguan reflected on his missing adoptive parents and lashed out at Ninth Brother, whose sleeping face reminded him of painful memories. In the Metaverse, Officer Wang revealed that Qin Yiguan had been found as a child beside his murdered adoptive parents, holding a bloody dagger and a piece of his mother’s flesh.

• Qin Yiguan mourned his adoptive parents, who had vanished after working as core technical staff for the Gemini Superbrain.
• Qin Yiguan drew a smile on Ninth Brother’s nutrient pod, but the nanny robot repeatedly wiped it away, provoking his anger.
• Xiao Li asked Officer Wang whether Qin Yiguan’s knowledge of criminal methods made him dangerous, and Officer Wang said his parents had not vanished with Gemini Tower’s employees.
• Officer Wang recounted finding Qin Yiguan’s adoptive parents stabbed to death twelve years earlier and discovering six-year-old Qin Yiguan beneath a table with a bloody dagger.
• Officer Wang revealed that Qin Yiguan had blood on his face and a piece of flesh in his mouth, which he later identified as torn from his adoptive mother’s arm.

Qin Yiguan confronted his memories and concluded that another self inside his body may have killed his parents, while Officer Wang revealed the unresolved murder case and Qin’s years of harmless behavior. Qin left Central City No. 003 with stolen food, determined to return to Rust City as the city’s people remained immersed in the metaverse.

• Qin Yiguan admitted that his parents were dead, his amnesia had been an act, and another self inside him might have killed them.
• Qin vowed to find and confront the other self inside his body and make it confess.
• Officer Wang told Xiao Li that a six-year-old could not have committed the murders as described, surveillance had failed, and the case remained unsolved.
• Officer Wang explained that Qin had spent ten years under observation and showed no violent or criminal tendencies, and that adults had told him his parents ascended with the Gemini Superbrain.
• Qin drew a smile on the nutrient pod for Ninth Brother, gathered food, and climbed out of Central City No. 003.
• Qin looked over the city’s technology and restored environment, lamented that its people refused to wake up, and headed back to Rust City.

Qin Yiguan brought fruit to Rust City’s children and reunited with Brother Lu, who was moving to the Central District after striking it rich in the Metaverse. Brother Lu gave Qin Yiguan an undecodable code and asked him to bring his body back to Rust City if he died, leaving Qin Yiguan with questions about his fortune.

• Qin Yiguan shared fruit with Rust City’s children, and Little Ya gave him a paper crane made from a candy wrapper.
• Brother Lu arrived to say goodbye and told Qin Yiguan that he and his mother had received Nutrient Pods and were moving to the Central District.
• Brother Lu recalled pushing through dangerous fog in an unfamiliar Metaverse region, where he found a way to get rich, but refused to explain how.
• Brother Lu transferred an undecodable code to Qin Yiguan’s tech watch and said it would become a precious Metaverse item when Qin Yiguan traveled far enough.
• Brother Lu asked Qin Yiguan to bring his body back to Rust City if he ever found him dead, then teased him about sneaking into the Central District.

Qin Yiguan received another rejection for a metaverse nutrient pod and learned why his brain condition made one dangerous. Officer Wang also warned him that Suspect No. 6 had watched him for six days and threatened him, leaving Qin to suspect someone had helped the killer and to accept an investigation for a fee.

• Qin Yiguan tried to enter his apartment but Officer Wang, in a Mechanical Proxy, recognized him and delivered his hundredth nutrient pod application response, which denied him eligibility.
• Officer Wang explained that nutrient pods had caused cerebral nerve dissolution and deaths in people with brain defects, and warned that Qin's condition made a pod especially dangerous.
• Officer Wang showed Qin Suspect No. 6 being arrested after hiding across the street and watching him for six days; Suspect No. 6 threatened to torture Qin and promised they would meet again.
• Qin reasoned that someone had guided Suspect No. 6 and revealed his address, and he wondered whether there was a traitor in the police station.
• Qin offered to help Officer Wang investigate for forty thousand, then cut the fee to twenty thousand, and Officer Wang agreed.

Qin Yiguan endured another attempt on his life in his sleep and accused his shadow of being the dark personality that had murdered his parents. When a stone fell toward him, a battle-hardened personality suddenly awakened and knocked it through the apartment wall.

• Qin Yiguan woke in a pitch-black bedroom to a paper-crane trap aimed at his eye and a heavy stone suspended above his bed.
• He recalled surviving repeated, increasingly lethal assassination attempts that followed him even when he changed where he slept.
• Qin Yiguan watched his shadow writhe and accused it of being his hidden dark personality, which had murdered his parents and was trying to kill him.
• Qin Yiguan blew out the candle burning the rope, then fell asleep without realizing the stone was about to drop.
• As the stone fell, a battle-hardened personality awakened in Qin Yiguan and knocked it through the apartment wall before he returned to sleep.

The Gemini Superbrain announced that the Metaverse Experimental Zone’s order would be reduced by fifty percent and warned that an anomalous intruder and consciousness would arrive. Qin Yiguan fell through a strange dream and landed in the blue ground of the Metaverse.

• The Gemini Superbrain announced the third update, reducing order in the Metaverse Experimental Zone by fifty percent.
• The Gemini Superbrain warned that the first anomalous intruder and consciousness would arrive in 360 seconds, leaving eight billion humans to await the event.
• Spiderweb-like scars on Qin Yiguan’s temple glowed as his heartbeat quickened and pale-blue code-like light flowed through his veins.
• Qin Yiguan entered a lucid dream, fell through a shattered white world, and struggled to keep his balance among spinning floor fragments.
• Qin Yiguan spotted blue ground at the center of the vortex, leaped toward it, and crashed down onto it.

Qin Yiguan believed he was dreaming when he appeared in the Metaverse’s Experimental Zone and encountered Ninth Brother and his long-lost Big Brother Meng. Meng Jihe recognized Qin Yiguan and promised to protect him as they headed for his office building.

• Qin Yiguan appeared in a strange landscape and recognized Ninth Brother, whom he had once seen in the Central District.
• A crowd welcomed Ninth Brother as a gifted newcomer with a 68% integration rate and escorted him away in an aircraft.
• Meng Jihe arrived, recognized Qin Yiguan, and embraced his long-lost younger brother.
• Meng Jihe explained that they were in the Metaverse’s Experimental Zone and offered to look after Qin Yiguan.
• Meng Jihe led Qin Yiguan toward his aircraft to take him to his office building.

Qin Yiguan learned that his integration in the Metaverse’s Experimental Zone was an unprecedented zero percent, while Meng Jihe explained how his own geometric perception had made him a successful designer. The chapter left Qin learning that Meng had founded the top-ranked company in Echo Hill through his rare reality enhancement.

• Rong Qian checked Qin Yiguan’s information and found his integration was zero percent, shocking Meng Jihe and the others.
• Meng Jihe explained that integration measured compatibility with the Metaverse and that Qin’s score left him unable to move or act effectively.
• Meng Jihe vowed to spoil Qin Yiguan rather than give him a job, recalling their childhood bond at the orphanage.
• Meng Jihe described how the Experimental Zone amplified people’s natural abilities into reality enhancements.
• Meng Jihe revealed that his geometric perception let him see and create design principles, enabling him to found the top-ranked company in Echo Hill.

Qin Yiguan and Meng Jihe faced an attack by Mingtu’s Iron Curtain, which plunged their building into darkness and began cutting it apart. As two red-eyed crows appeared, Qin Yiguan’s severe gestalt collapse warped his perception and threw the surrounding Metaverse code into chaos.

• Meng Jihe explained that Mingtu had erected an Iron Curtain to claim land around his property and isolate his company.
• Mingtu’s boss sent two crows to spy on Meng Jihe and declared he intended to kill him.
• The Iron Curtain crossed onto Meng Jihe’s land, sealed off his airborne building, and blocked visible light inside.
• Meng Jihe reassured Qin Yiguan in the darkness, but the expanding barrier began slicing into the building’s ceiling.
• Qin Yiguan explained that his level 16 gestalt collapse made his brain fill in incomplete darkness with whatever he feared most.
• Two red-eyed crows flew out of the darkness, and Qin Yiguan’s vision and the surrounding Metaverse code erupted into chaos.

Qin Yiguan's nightmare turned the crows into enormous half-mechanical monsters, one of which abducted Rong Qian before he woke to his alarm. In the Metaverse, Ke Qiming discovered that his number 02 crow had mutated and brought Meng Jihe's unconscious secretary to his warehouse.

• Qin Yiguan shouted at a giant half-mechanical crow, which tore through the Iron Curtain and flew away with part of it.
• Another crow transformed, smashed through the building's glass wall, and carried Rong Qian away as Meng Jihe shouted her name.
• Qin Yiguan heard his alarm announcing his appointment at Dr. House's psychotherapy clinic and woke from the nightmare.
• Ke Qiming heard the Iron Curtain rumbling in his warehouse, then watched a giant mechanical crow crash through the roof.
• Ke Qiming recognized the crow's enlarged nameplate as Ke 02 and saw that it had captured the unconscious Rong Qian.

After the strange bird and Iron Curtain incident, the Research Society analyzed what had happened and concluded that a user had unlocked a previously unknown power of the human brain to alter the Metaverse. The Society named the ability the Dark Zone and designated the user Brain Restricted Zone No. 001, then began investigating who he was.

• Meng Jihe saw the Research Society's enormous concealed aircraft net appear above the damaged Geometry Design Group building.
• The Research Society's scientists reviewed footage of the half-mechanical bird and concluded that it had appeared without a physical or theoretical basis.
• The old professor proposed that the human brain could alter the Metaverse's logic and named this ability the Dark Zone.
• The professor ordered a report for the Metaverse Government, listing hypotheses about the user's identity and calling him Brain Restricted Zone No. 001.
• The Research Society pledged to study the phenomenon and requested Nutrient Pod records to investigate users who had logged in for the first time within the past two hours.

Qin Yiguan visited Dr. House for his compulsory monthly psychological examination, hoping to earn an excellent evaluation and qualify for a Nutrient Pod. The session ended after Dr. House hypnotized him, and House discovered Qin Yiguan had eaten all the candies.

• Qin Yiguan woke after another failed trap had punched a hole in his apartment wall and reflected on how he managed darkness to avoid his Gestalt Collapse.
• Qin Yiguan checked his watch and went to Dr. House’s clinic for his monthly follow-up examination.
• Qin Yiguan gave rehearsed answers to House’s first two questions, explaining that he wanted an excellent evaluation so he could apply for a Nutrient Pod.
• Qin Yiguan realized House had hypnotized him and skipped the remaining questions as the hourglass ran out.
• Dr. House denied hypnotizing Qin Yiguan, then noticed that Qin Yiguan had eaten every candy on the dish.