Chapter Summaries

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After God's Abandoned stopped Aoke's plan and erased Taotie Clam's mission records, Qin Yiguan reunited with Clam and saw him go with Taotie Mitian to discuss piloting Divine Mech Six. The game shifted to new dungeons, while Qin's Fusion Rate rose and Black Calamity asked him for help with its final transformation.

• God's Abandoned halted Aoke's plan, and Qin Yiguan left Aoke's parents undisturbed in the Metaverse while ordering God's Abandoned to erase Taotie Clam's mission records.
• Qin Yiguan told Taotie Clam that most of his past assassination missions had been virtual, and Clam chose to believe him.
• Taotie Clam refused Taotie Mitian's request to talk at first, then walked with him to discuss Divine Mech Six after Taotie Mitian agreed to hear his ideas and let him pilot it.
• God's Abandoned became the new operator of "Breath of the Mute," Emperor Wuxing rose to first in the rankings, and the game replaced most assassination missions with immersive dungeons.
• Qin Yiguan's Fusion Rate reached 80% after the game event ended, and he discovered the Personality Fusion ability.
• Black Calamity told Qin Yiguan that its Fusion Rate had reached 99.99% and asked him to help it through a crisis in exchange for becoming his higher self, so Qin invited it to tell its story.

Black Calamity revealed that another Ghost King was destroying Ghost City and begged Qin Yiguan to help. Qin Yiguan flew toward the city, and the chapter ended as he noticed that its coordinates contained an unfamiliar X.

• Black Calamity told Qin Yiguan that a rival Ghost King had been attacking Ghost City and pleaded for his help.
• Qin Yiguan agreed to go to Ghost City, and Black Calamity gave him directions through the Experimental Zone.
• Bandits attacked the Shadow, but Black Calamity entered their aircraft and slaughtered them, losing more of his body in the process.
• The Shadow traveled 12 million kilometers, and Black Calamity announced that Ghost City was ahead.
• Qin Yiguan spotted Ghost City and noticed that their coordinates contained the letter X.

Qin Yiguan entered the colorless Ghost City, where residents spat at Black Calamity, and questioned why the city existed. He then saw someone who looked like his former partner Officer Wang, only to learn that Wang had died hours earlier and realize the figure below was a burned, uncanny impostor.

• Qin Yiguan entered Ghost City with Black Calamity and saw that its buildings, streets, and residents' belongings were all gray and white.
• Residents spat at Qin Yiguan and Black Calamity as they passed, and Black Calamity said the people had been born in the city.
• Qin Yiguan and Black Calamity went to a luxurious mansion, where Black Calamity's head rested on the dragon throne.
• Qin Yiguan spotted a figure resembling Officer Wang below the mansion and received a message saying Wang had died in the line of duty three hours earlier.
• Qin Yiguan watched the figure turn away and saw that its trench coat exposed a charred body shedding pieces of burned skin.

Qin Yiguan learned that Ghost City was inhabited by the dead and that Black Calamity ruled its 2.4 million residents while an enemy ghost king threatened them. He discovered that he had died too, though Black Calamity said Victim could bring him back to life.

• Black Calamity told Qin Yiguan that Ghost City held 2.4 million dead residents and that he had become its king through [Gestalt Collapse].
• Black Calamity explained that an unseen ghost king had attacked the city for thirteen years, while three golden deities from a Divine Cage once protected it until they stopped appearing two months ago.
• Clam sent Qin Yiguan a mourning message, but Qin Yiguan could not reply, and God's Abandoned had gone lifeless on his shoulder.
• Qin Yiguan realized that he had died and Black Calamity admitted that he could not have entered Ghost City otherwise, but said Victim would revive him.
• Jiu Zhengxuan sent Qin Yiguan a farewell message, and Qin Yiguan found the idea of them becoming friends in their next lives strangely heartwarming.

As night fell over the ghost city, Qin Yiguan watched a red line appear in the sky and realized another ghost king was trying to break through it. The opening tore apart, leaving Qin Yiguan and Black Calamity too terrified to look outside.

• Qin Yiguan watched the ghost city go pitch-black as its residents hid from the approaching other ghost king.
• A red dot appeared above the city, and Qin Yiguan felt his fear intensify while Black Calamity cowered on the throne.
• The red dot stretched into a line, and enormous red hands tore a widening gap in the sky.
• Qin Yiguan crouched by the window as the opening ripped apart and a powerful howl shook the city.
• Qin Yiguan and Black Calamity trembled and refused to look at what had emerged outside.

Qin Yiguan spent the night unconscious in Black Calamity’s mansion while a Ghost King devastated Ghost City. In the morning, he learned that Officer Wang and a hundred thousand residents had died.

• Qin Yiguan cowered from the ghostly cries outside and endured terrifying nightmares about his childhood.
• Qin Yiguan woke after punching Black Calamity’s floating head and learned that the other Ghost King had left.
• Qin Yiguan looked out the window and saw that the city’s sunlight had returned and a residential district had become ruins and gravestones.
• Black Calamity told Qin Yiguan that a hundred thousand residents had died, including Officer Wang.

Qin Yiguan searched Ghost City's mass grave for Officer Wang and struggled with guilt over the people killed by the ghost king. At the city's edge, he met Shitian, a young monk who seemed unfamiliar with the Gemini Metaverse and its technology.

• Qin Yiguan read the tombstones and felt that the dead were strangely familiar, then blamed himself for not confronting the ghost king.
• Qin Yiguan searched the tombstones to the edge of Ghost City but could not find one for Wang Shiwei.
• Qin Yiguan saw Shitian arrive from outside Ghost City and realized the monk had crossed into its territory as a dead man.
• Qin Yiguan noticed the red word “strongest” on Shitian's head and learned that the monk had walked ten thousand li to reach him.
• Shitian asked about the Gemini Metaverse and Qin Yiguan's Personal Brain, then asked whether anyone could log into the Metaverse without a Nutrient Pod.

Qin Yiguan learned how Shitian had grown up in a remote mountain temple and entered the Metaverse for the first time. After discovering that Shitian was alive and had walked into Ghost City, Qin Yiguan told him about the ghost king, and Shitian vowed to help defeat it.

• Shitian told Qin Yiguan that his master had avoided the Metaverse and raised him after finding him as a baby in a cesspit.
• Shitian recounted that his master sent him down the mountain two months earlier, secretly took his food, and left him unable to find his way back.
• Shitian said he entered the Metaverse while meditating in a city and walked across the Gobi for two months before reaching Ghost City.
• Qin Yiguan explained that Ghost City housed the dead and that a mysterious ghost king threatened to destroy it, admitting he was afraid to fight.
• Shitian declared that he would save Ghost City, subdue the ghost king, and help Qin Yiguan.

Qin Yiguan brought the monk Shitian to Black Calamity’s residence to help defeat the Ghost King, but Shitian’s background and training proved absurd. Shitian tried to help Qin Yiguan confront his fear of the coming night, leaving him with a story about surviving five days in a coffin with snakes.

• Qin Yiguan learned that Shitian belonged to a two-member sect called Whole Buddhism, whose master was called “invincible” and whose disciple was called “strongest.”
• Shitian listed chopping firewood, carrying water, cooking, massaging his master, and chanting scriptures as the abilities he had brought into the Metaverse.
• Shitian mistook Black Calamity for a demon, attacked him, then apologized after Qin Yiguan explained that Black Calamity was the city lord and not the Ghost King.
• Black Calamity was moved when Qin Yiguan said he had invited Shitian to help defeat the Ghost King, while Qin Yiguan worried about facing nightfall and his fear.
• Shitian told Qin Yiguan that his master had locked him in a coffin with ten patterned snakes for five days, teaching him that fear came from within.

Qin Yiguan and Shitian questioned Ghost City residents about the previous night, hearing bizarre accounts of several ghosts but learning nothing about the other ghost king. Their search led them to a strange, coffin-shaped building, which Shitian identified as a possible home for an evil ghost.

• Qin Yiguan and Shitian visited a resident who claimed a blue Hair-Eating Ghost had gnawed a bald patch into his head.
• A woman said her husband's shadow had separated from him and tried to sleep with her, and Shitian identified it as a Ghost of Shadows.
• A businessman described a headless horseman chopping up the chickens at his shop, and Qin Yiguan realized the shop was a brothel and spotted hair scattered nearby.
• Qin Yiguan proposed a hidden connection among the residents' stories, but admitted he had deduced nothing about the other ghost king.
• Qin Yiguan and Shitian found a narrow black building shaped like an upright coffin, and Shitian warned that it housed an evil ghost.