Chapter Summaries

Qin Yiguan listened as Plunderer revealed how he escaped the Ring Laboratory and built the undersea world as revenge against Du An. Plunderer planned to keep Du An alive as his empire and descendants were destroyed.

• Plunderer described how he observed the Ring Laboratory scientists to imitate them and bypass their security locks.
• He recounted escaping the laboratory and explained that he later killed Du An because Du An had tortured him.
• Plunderer revealed that he entered the Metaverse, reached the ocean before Du An, and imitated an entire sea and its ecosystem.
• He explained that he created the Tuomen Acuminate Fungus and spread it through the undersea world, where it became his weapon against Du An's descendants.
• Plunderer vowed to make Du An watch his empire crumble and identified himself to Qin Yiguan as Plunderer.

Du An discovered that Shui Luo had no antibodies and began killing residents to search for them as Negative Doppelgängers continued to appear. Beneath the sea, the Plunderer reunited with Qin Yiguan and restored his memories of Du An’s torture, awakening his hatred and new powers.

• Du An found no antibodies in Shui Luo’s blood or body and hallucinated his son accusing him of murder.
• Residents confronted Du An about the new Negative Doppelgängers, and he attacked them to search for antibodies.
• The Plunderer told Qin Yiguan that HSP Hypersensitivity could strengthen Shadow Syndrome by supplying detailed information for imitation.
• The Plunderer merged with Qin Yiguan and restored memories of Du An’s years of torture.
• Qin Yiguan’s hatred surged, and his abilities advanced as Box World activated around him.

Du An sensed a powerful mother organism beneath the ocean and rallied the underwater cities to defend Giant Whale City. As Shui Luo and Shui Man appeared before him, Du An recognized them as the children he had killed and feared that Qin Yiguan was closing in.

• Du An sensed that a more powerful Tuomen Acuminate Fungus had appeared and suspected Qin Yiguan's blood was its source.
• Du An ordered the infected residents and more than ninety underwater cities to converge on Giant Whale City and prepare for battle.
• Du An powered up a device that Doctor Lu had said could kill Qin Yiguan and sent Lu Zhoulang a desperate message asking for help.
• Shui Luo appeared and promised to protect Du An, then Shui Man arrived and offered to help defeat Qin Yiguan.
• Du An screamed that Shui Luo and Shui Man could not be alive because he had killed them both.

Du An relived the agony of being tortured by Qin Yiguan, then awakened among his descendants after the underwater cities were destroyed. Desperate to defeat Qin Yiguan, he forced them into ultimate evolution, only for all of them to become Qin Yiguans.

• Du An woke in the Ring Research Institute and endured a vision of Qin Yiguan repeatedly removing and draining his kidney.
• Du An awakened outside the three-story building, where his descendants told him they had come to protect him.
• The sea creatures carrying the 76 underwater cities collided, destroying the cities and killing hundreds of thousands of residents.
• Du An sent a pheromone command that forced his descendants and other parasitized residents to evolve to their ultimate forms.
• Du An saw that every descendant had transformed into Qin Yiguan, and he recoiled in terror.

Du An injected himself with box jellyfish toxin to resist Qin Yiguan’s illusions, but Qin revealed that the ocean and everything Du An had built were imitations under his control. Du An died of terror as Qin and the Plunderer confronted him.

• Du An injected box jellyfish toxin into his heart and used his heightened senses to dispel the apparent illusions around him.
• Du An attacked Qin Yiguan with a giant transformed arm, but Qin destroyed it and made half the ocean vanish.
• Qin revealed the neural network enclosing the undersea world and reclaimed the sea creatures, cities, and their materials, which crumbled into ash.
• Qin explained that his Plunderer personality had imitated the entire world to torment Du An, and the five-year-old Plunderer appeared above him.
• Du An injected himself with more toxin, panicked at the Plunderer’s appearance, and died when his heart burst.

After Du An was killed, a machine marked “L” attacked Qin Yiguan and Shitian with a force that threatened to tear them apart. Qin Yiguan revealed that the undersea world was a Box World he controlled, rewrote their code, and ended the suppression as the machine shut down.

• Qin Yiguan had tiger sharks tear apart Du An’s corpse after reclaiming the Tuomen Acuminate Fungus, and he accepted a strip of flesh from a shark for Starvation Corpse.
• The machine marked “L” activated and enveloped Qin Yiguan in milky-white light that began to crack his body.
• Shitian summoned his Higher Self, Whole Buddha, to shield Qin Yiguan, but the same attack began cracking Shitian’s body.
• Qin Yiguan revealed that the undersea world was a Box World born in his mind and that he could perceive and control everything within it.
• Qin Yiguan adjusted his and Shitian’s code, overcoming the suppression and causing the “L” machine to smoke and shut down.

Qin Yiguan restored the ocean after killing Du An and investigated the machine marked “L,” learning that it belonged to Lu Zhoulang, a former Gemini Group scientist who had returned to the Metaverse using a vulnerability in the Gemini Superbrain. He suspected Lu Zhoulang had discovered that vulnerability by studying him.

• Qin Yiguan restored the seawater and sea creatures, and the residents left the ocean cities after the Tuomen Acuminate Fungus weakened.
• God's Abandoned dismantled the machine marked “L” but could not explain its sealed, apparently empty metal cube.
• Ying Jiang revealed that his former student Lu Zhoulang had joined the Gemini Group and later worked for a mysterious research institute.
• Ying Jiang recounted how Lu Zhoulang attacked the Gemini Metaverse, was stopped by the Gemini Superbrain, and later discovered a vulnerability by studying a special life-form.
• Qin Yiguan suspected that he was the special life-form Lu Zhoulang had studied.

Old Daoist Ying Dang revealed that Shitian was near death in reality and used his remaining energy to restore him, sacrificing his own consciousness. Shitian learned of his master’s death and mourned him, while Qin Yiguan urged him to remember the old Daoist’s care.

• Old Daoist Ying Dang explained that Shitian’s higher self indicated terminal lucidity and that his body in reality was dying or already dead.
• Old Daoist Ying Dang summoned his consciousness clone, a former Gemini chief scientist, and used its power to send his remaining energy to Shitian.
• Officer Wang told Qin Yiguan that the young monk’s dried corpse had recovered, and Old Daoist Ying Dang confirmed he had transferred energy across Metaverses at the cost of his own life.
• Old Daoist Ying Dang asked Qin Yiguan to tell Shitian that he had abandoned him, then vanished from Qin Yiguan’s communicator.
• Qin Yiguan told Shitian the truth about his master’s sacrifice, and Shitian mourned while recalling their years together.

After the Underwater World event raised Qin Yiguan’s Fusion Rate to 99%, he discovered old scars and a carved letter L beneath his scalp, then resolved to leave with Shitian. Above the sea, a masked woman searched for Qin Yiguan using a virtual machine, failed to find him, and set off to follow his trail.

• Qin Yiguan received notice that the Underwater World event had raised his Fusion Rate to 99%.
• Qin Yiguan cut open his scalp, found old skull fractures and a carved letter L, and angrily scraped at the mark.
• Shitian vowed to fulfill his master’s final wish to clean house and called for Qin Yiguan to come with him.
• A masked woman used a virtual machine to encapsulate the sea and search for Qin Yiguan, but found no matching person among 369 candidates.
• The masked woman ended the search, activated the event, and flew toward the Experimental Zone to follow Qin Yiguan’s trail.

Qin Yiguan left the Shadow to rest and visited Rust City, where he checked on people connected to the Metaverse. Jiu Zhengxuan briefly woke in reality before falling asleep again, then remembered the encounter as a dream in the Metaverse.

• Qin Yiguan woke in Rust City, saw Xiao Ning and Superman in Nutrient Pods, and asked Officer Wang to connect Shitian's body to a nutrient delivery device.
• Qin Yiguan visited Jiu Zhengxuan's house, ate some of his fruit, and teased him about his Fusion Rate and limited experiences in the Metaverse.
• Jiu Zhengxuan struggled to open his eyes and reach for Qin Yiguan, but an unseen force made him fall asleep again.
• Jiu Zhengxuan sat upright in Core Earth and wondered whether his dream of waking in reality and finding Qin Yiguan eating his food had been real.

After Shitian's reckless control-panel spree sent the Shadow crashing into a technological city, Qin Yiguan tried to avoid a fight with the city's armed forces. He discovered the city was inhabited by Digital Humans and revealed markings on his foot to claim he was one of them.

• Shitian accidentally ejected the Shadow's power battery, and the craft crashed into the center of a technological city.
• Qin Yiguan emerged from the damaged Shadow, survived a soldier's beam shot, and tried to explain the crash to the armed forces.
• Qin Yiguan noticed the soldiers' right feet and spotted a code on a baby's foot, leading him to realize the city was for Digital Humans.
• Qin Yiguan simulated black markings on his own foot and told the soldiers he was one of them.

Qin Yiguan and Shitian convinced the guards that they were Digital Humans and were welcomed into Last Paradise by its captain, Ying Hao. After learning about the city and its residents, Qin Yiguan said they planned to leave and seek revenge, and Ying Hao supported them and offered to repair their aircraft.

• Qin Yiguan claimed he and Shitian were Digital Humans, and Shitian exposed the letters on his foot to prove it.
• Ying Hao welcomed Qin Yiguan and Shitian to Last Paradise and explained that its residents were Digital Humans who had come from Metaverse cities to live as they chose.
• Shitian misunderstood Ying Hao's mention of prostitutes, prompting Qin Yiguan to silently accept his explanation.
• Qin Yiguan told Ying Hao that he and Shitian were passing through to avenge Qin Yiguan's master, who had been abused by an evil scientist twelve years earlier.
• Ying Hao supported their decision to leave and offered to have the damaged Shadow restored.

Qin Yiguan toured Last Paradise with Ying Hao and learned how Digital Humans lived in a society where everyone’s necessities were free. At a bar, he witnessed a couple announce that they had created a child from their combined code, leaving him stunned as the crowd celebrated.

• Shitian ran off to explore alone, and Qin Yiguan suspected he had deliberately caused the Shadow’s battery to fail so they would land in Last Paradise.
• Ying Hao showed Qin Yiguan the city and explained that residents shared work and received necessities for free.
• At a bar, Qin Yiguan drank KU-47, discovering it was blue code that Digital Humans could consume.
• A man announced that his wife had given birth to their child, whose code would take shape in seven days.
• The bar’s patrons congratulated the couple and celebrated the new life with more drinks.

Shitian visited Master 563 at his temple in Last Paradise and heard his teachings on tranquility before Master 563 warned him to leave. At the tavern, Qin Yiguan met the human Bishamonten, who used her virtual machine to enclose him and begin comparing his data.

• Shitian met Master 563, a Digital Human monk, and listened as he explained that tranquility meant accepting everything, including death and destruction.
• Master 563 realized Shitian was human and advised him to leave Last Paradise immediately.
• Qin Yiguan watched Bishamonten enter the tavern and learned from Ying Hao that she was a human friend of Last Paradise known as the Battle Angel.
• Bishamonten used her virtual machine to encapsulate Qin Yiguan in a blue box and began a data comparison.

Qin Yiguan confronted Bishamonten in Last Paradise and was trapped inside her virtual machine, where they battled with summoned Silver-Winged Yakshas and manipulated code. Bishamonten overwhelmed him by accessing the critical section, leaving him injured and motionless on the ground.

• Bishamonten's virtual machine failed to identify Qin Yiguan, and he revealed that he intended to capture her and learn Lu Zhoulang's plans.
• Bishamonten encapsulated Qin Yiguan in a virtual battlefield high above Last Paradise.
• Qin Yiguan summoned a Silver-Winged Yaksha, while Bishamonten used code to replicate the warrior and make it fight the original.
• Qin Yiguan filled the darkness with Silver-Winged Yakshas and formed a colossal six-winged figure, but Bishamonten summoned code wings and accessed the critical section.
• Bishamonten grew enormous and crushed the battlefield beneath her palm, making both legions vanish and leaving Qin Yiguan bleeding and motionless.

Bishamonten defeated Qin Yiguan with her virtual machine and tried to erase his memories, but Qin Yiguan had created a simulation of his own. He trapped her in a vast neural network and revealed that he could simulate her simulation.

• Bishamonten confronted the unconscious Qin Yiguan and said she knew he was not the real Qin Yiguan.
• The real Qin Yiguan appeared hundreds of meters away, but Bishamonten located him and struck him down with her virtual machine.
• Bishamonten explained that her teacher was Lu Zhoulang's twin brother, then ordered her virtual machine to erase Qin Yiguan's memories.
• Bishamonten tried to shut down the virtual machine but found herself standing above a vast red neural network instead of returning to the tavern.
• Qin Yiguan appeared in the distance and said he had simulated Bishamonten's simulation before commanding his virtual machine to encapsulate her.

A short-haired girl hid near the mine where Red Glasses’ men forced laborers to work and searched for her missing parents. When Red Glasses threatened Xiaoguang to learn her hiding place, she fled into the Gobi and encountered a weakened old man.

• Red Glasses’ men punished the laborers for failing to meet their source matter ore quota and forced them back to work.
• Red Glasses ordered his men to find the girl, whom he had been hunting since her parents disappeared in a sinkhole two months earlier.
• Red Glasses grabbed Xiaoguang and threatened him until he revealed where the girl was hiding.
• The girl fled the mine and stumbled across the Gobi, where she met an exhausted old man in a white coat.
• The old man asked the girl whether something had happened to her.

Bishamonten recalled how her teacher awakened her powers, saved her parents’ remains and took her in as his student. After Qin Yiguan viewed those memories and awakened her from the virtual machine, he asked about Lu Zhoulang’s strength and why her teacher had faith in him.

• The old man used a silver hair clip to awaken the short-haired girl’s virtual machine, and she used her new powers to defeat Red Glasses and his men, save Xiaoguang, recover her parents’ remains, and free the laborers to choose whether to stay.
• The girl asked the old man to take her in, and he accepted her as his student; she chose the name Bishamonten after the hair clip he had given her.
• Qin Yiguan watched Bishamonten’s memories in the virtual machine, then used the command “activate event” to awaken her from the Encapsulation.
• Bishamonten was shocked that Qin Yiguan could simulate a virtual machine and doubted his identity, while he realized her teacher had sent her to seek help against his younger brother, Lu Zhoulang.
• Qin Yiguan asked Bishamonten how powerful Lu Zhoulang had become and why her teacher knew about him and trusted him.

Bishamonten explained why she doubted Qin Yiguan’s identity and revealed her teacher’s history with Lu Zhoulang and the Gemini Metaverse’s flaw. Qin Yiguan left her under the influence of a drug and learned that Lu Zhoulang’s power came from studying a flaw that could threaten everyone living in the Metaverse.

• Bishamonten said her teacher had known the real Qin Yiguan for years and used his DNA blueprint to conclude that the youth was not him.
• Bishamonten suggested the youth might be a split personality of Qin Yiguan, while Qin Yiguan insisted that he and Bishamonten were allies against Lu Zhoulang.
• Qin Yiguan demanded information about Lu Zhoulang, the Ring Research Institute, and Bishamonten’s teacher, but Bishamonten objected to his interrogation.
• Qin Yiguan noticed Bishamonten secretly creating GHB with her virtual machine and made the drug enter her mouth instead.
• Under the drug’s influence, Bishamonten revealed that her teacher had stolen technology from Lu Zhoulang and gone to face him despite having almost no chance of victory.
• Bishamonten said Lu Zhoulang had discovered a flaw in the Gemini Metaverse twelve years earlier and had studied it ever since, while humanity lived inside the program containing it.

Bishamonten revealed what she knew about Lu Zhoulang, Qin Yiguan, and the Ring Research Institute, leaving Qin Yiguan uncertain how he could uncover the institute’s secrets. Dr. House then invited Qin Yiguan on a house call to a patient at the Ring Research Institute in the real world, and Qin learned that one of his personalities called itself Dream General.

• Bishamonten explained that Lu Zhoulang had students who used the Super Virtual Machine and that Qin Yiguan may have been a research subject at the Ring Research Institute twelve years earlier.
• Bishamonten said Qin Yiguan needed to learn what Lu Zhoulang had discovered about him and the Gemini loophole, but the institute was in the unreachable real world.
• Dr. House contacted Qin Yiguan and said he was visiting a patient connected to the Ring Research Institute who was there now.
• Qin Yiguan woke from his deep sleep in his Rust City apartment, where Dr. House told him they were going to the Ring Research Institute in the real world.
• Dr. House said Qin Yiguan had previously shown intense hatred for the institute during personality switches, and Qin learned that the personality called itself Dream General.