Chapter Summaries

Dr. House and Qin Yiguan reached the abandoned Ring Research Institute, where Qin Yiguan recognized the place he had escaped from as a child. Inside, they found a long-dead employee at his desk, but no explanation for what happened to the institute’s staff.

• Dr. House told Qin Yiguan that Dream General had briefly appeared after Child fell asleep and had claimed to control an enormous dream.
• Dr. House and Qin Yiguan arrived at the Ring Research Institute, and Qin Yiguan’s body carried the Boundless One’s strength into reality long enough for him to jump safely from the aircraft.
• Qin Yiguan recognized the institute as the place where Black Calamity had escaped when he was six and confronted memories of his childhood there.
• Qin Yiguan and Dr. House found the institute’s rooms orderly despite years of neglect, suggesting that its staff had not evacuated in a hurry.
• Qin Yiguan examined a skeleton still seated at a workstation and found no clear sign of poisoning or injury, leaving the fate of the institute’s staff unknown.

Qin Yiguan and Dr. House searched the Ring Research Institute and uncovered Group A’s experiments that trapped a test subject in decades of engineered dreams. The chapter ended with Dr. House’s patient appearing and attacking him, as Qin Yiguan suspected the patient might be Lu Zhoulang.

• Qin Yiguan found the institute’s personnel records and learned that Lu Zhoulang led Group A’s dream research while his older brother worked in equipment management.
• Qin Yiguan and Dr. House entered Group A’s office and read notes describing theories about dreams and warnings that an outside consciousness was invading people’s dreams.
• Qin Yiguan found a diary revealing that Group A had used the Dream Wave device to subject Mouse Pup to approximately 147 years of horrific dreams.
• Qin Yiguan concluded that the institute’s skeletons had died after becoming trapped in their dreams, but realized Lu Zhoulang was not among them.
• Dr. House described his patient’s inability to distinguish dreams from reality, and Qin Yiguan wondered if the patient was Lu Zhoulang.
• Dr. House knocked away a steel spike aimed at his head and declared that his patient had appeared.

Qin Yiguan and Dr. House met Hua Xu, a surviving Ring Research Institute employee who revealed his role in discovering the Gemini Metaverse flaw and creating the Virtual Machine. When Plunderer sensed that someone was attacking Qin Yiguan’s Virtual Machine, Qin went to sleep to enter the Metaverse.

• Qin Yiguan and Dr. House approached Hua Xu, who mistook them for dream invaders before Dr. House calmed him by posing as his psychologist.
• Hua Xu explained that Mouse Pup had spared him because Hua had once shut off Dream Wave, ending Mouse Pup’s nightmares.
• Hua Xu revealed that Mouse Pup’s consciousness had pierced the Gemini Metaverse, creating a flaw that could be used to access and alter its underlying code.
• Hua Xu admitted he built Ame-no-Nuboko to locate the flaw and later created the Virtual Machine from Gemini code for Lu Zhoulang, who had broken his promise to spare Mouse Pup.
• Qin Yiguan sensed through Plunderer that someone was attacking his Virtual Machine, then lay down and forced himself to sleep so he could enter the Metaverse.

Dong Xi arrived at Last Paradise searching for Qin Yiguan and erased every Digital Human in the city when they refused to reveal his whereabouts. He then found Bishamonten trapped in an information cocoon and began attacking it with his Super Virtual Machine.

• Dong Xi showed Ying Hao a giant image of a young man resembling Qin Yiguan and demanded to know where Qin was.
• Ying Hao and the other Digital Humans refused to betray Qin, so Dong Xi used the Super Virtual Machine to dissolve the city’s residents into code, including Ying Hao and Master 563.
• After confirming that no native lifeforms remained in Last Paradise, Dong Xi spotted Bishamonten imprisoned in an information cocoon above the clouds.
• Dong Xi and Bishamonten argued about their search for Qin Yiguan and their teachers’ orders.
• Dong Xi enveloped Bishamonten’s cocoon with his Super Virtual Machine and attacked it with code spikes and ultrathin blades.

Qin Yiguan confronted Dong Xi and demanded to be taken to Dong Xi’s teacher, while Dong Xi used his Super Virtual Machine to evade Qin’s attacks. Dong Xi revealed that his Reality Enhancement let him foresee events five seconds ahead.

• Dong Xi’s Super Virtual Machine failed to overwhelm Qin Yiguan, who appeared before him and filled the area with darkness.
• Qin Yiguan identified himself as Qin Yiguan and told Dong Xi he would not kill him if Dong Xi took him to his teacher.
• Qin Yiguan attacked Dong Xi with claws formed from darkness, but Dong Xi dodged as if he could predict the strikes.
• Qin Yiguan appeared behind Dong Xi, but Dong Xi changed coordinates with his Super Virtual Machine and escaped.
• Dong Xi explained that his Reality Enhancement, Hippocampus Effect Syndrome, let him foresee what would happen five seconds ahead.

Qin Yiguan defeated Dong Xi by using a virtual machine to trick him into believing he had won, but Dong Xi destroyed his own Super Virtual Machine before he could be forced to reveal Lu Zhoulang’s location. Qin Yiguan said he had already found Hua Xu, then discovered that Last Paradise had fallen eerily silent.

• Dong Xi used his Super Virtual Machine and [Hippocampus Effect Syndrome] to dodge the Silver-Winged Yakshas and interrupt Qin Yiguan’s attempt to transform into Lucifer.
• Dong Xi believed he had broken Qin Yiguan’s limbs, but Qin Yiguan had overwritten his perspective with a virtual simulation and secretly injured him instead.
• Qin Yiguan explained his deception to Bishamonten and said he intended to make Dong Xi take him to Lu Zhoulang.
• Dong Xi self-destructed his Super Virtual Machine before Qin Yiguan could question him, and Qin Yiguan revealed that he had already found Hua Xu.
• Bishamonten urged Qin Yiguan to check Last Paradise, and he saw the city below them frozen in silence.

Qin Yiguan explored the deserted Last Paradise and vowed to seek justice for the Digital Humans Lu Zhoulang and his disciple had killed. As Bishamonten explained that only Last Paradise’s leader could use a password to lay the scattered code to rest, a young monk revealed that Master 563 had prepared him to accept loss.

• Qin Yiguan and Bishamonten walked through the empty Last Paradise, where its residents and the tavern’s owner had vanished.
• Qin Yiguan remembered the Digital Human who had celebrated becoming a father and said he was angry that Lu Zhoulang and his disciple had killed the Digital Humans.
• Qin Yiguan told Bishamonten that his own past among the weak had made him empathize with the Digital Humans and that he wanted to get justice for them.
• Bishamonten opened a gap in the clouds and explained that the drifting blue code was the Digital Humans’ destroyed code and that their leader’s deletion password could let them rest.
• A young monk arrived with Master 563’s prayer beads and said Master 563 had taught him to accept birth, death, and disaster in order to find peace.

After the Digital Humans were erased, Qin Yiguan learned Lu Zhoulang’s location and received a vastly upgraded Shadow from his departed friends. He prepared to pursue Lu Zhoulang, reaching a destination only minutes away, and vowed to avenge the Digital Humans.

• Ying Hao revealed that he had known Qin Yiguan was human, called him a friend, and disappeared with the other Digital Humans when the deletion command took effect.
• Shitian condemned the killing of the Digital Humans, while Bishamonten agreed to wait as Qin Yiguan left the Metaverse and woke at the Ring Research Institute.
• Hua Xu gave Qin Yiguan the coordinates of a glitch near which Lu Zhoulang had been hiding, and Dr. House and Hua Xu promised to wait for him.
• Qin Yiguan returned to Last Paradise, where God's Abandoned entered the coordinates and Ying Hao’s engineers’ rebuilt Shadow revealed it had a jump drive.
• The Shadow’s navigation system showed the journey would take twelve minutes and twenty-four seconds, and Qin Yiguan vowed to find Lu Zhoulang and avenge the Digital Humans.

In the Metaverse Experimental Zone, Lu Zhoulang obsessively studied a flaw in the Gemini Metaverse while avoiding sleep because he dreamed that Qin Yiguan repeatedly killed him. After a terrifying dream in which Qin Yiguan attacked him and destroyed his equipment, Lu Zhoulang woke and returned to his research, while Nan Xi promised to protect him.

• Lu Zhoulang ordered Nan Xi to record patterns he observed through his enormous telescope and insisted on investigating the Gemini Metaverse's flaw.
• Nan Xi urged Lu Zhoulang to rest, but Lu Zhoulang said that whenever he slept, he dreamed Qin Yiguan killed him.
• After Lu Zhoulang fell asleep, he dreamed that Qin Yiguan arrived with Bishamonten and a monk, killed Nan Xi, and mutilated Lu Zhoulang before he awoke after 42 seconds.
• Lu Zhoulang declared that his dream had warned him Qin Yiguan was stronger and had found his location, then resumed observing the flaw.
• Nan Xi told Lu Zhoulang that the location was secure and vowed to kill Qin Yiguan if he arrived.

Qin Yiguan brought the Shadow toward the loophole in Lu Zhoulang’s defensive perimeter, where an apparently empty fog began stripping away their senses and bodies. The chapter ended as Bishamonten’s bodysuit dissolved, exposing her body.

• Qin Yiguan and his companions traveled aboard the Shadow at extraordinary speed and stopped ten thousand kilometers from their destination.
• Bishamonten and Shitian detected no technology or living beings in the gray fog, while Qin Yiguan found no danger with his wardrobe’s darkness.
• Qin Yiguan cautiously piloted the Shadow into the fog, where gravity weakened and color began to disappear.
• Bishamonten identified the fog’s effect on their eyesight, while Shitian’s prayer beads crumbled into particles.
• Qin Yiguan, Shitian, and the objects around them began disintegrating, and Qin Yiguan’s thoughts slowed as his body dissolved.
• Bishamonten’s black bodysuit began to disappear.

Qin Yiguan and his team escaped Lu Zhoulang’s force-removing defense using the Shadow’s transition engine, then Qin asked Hua Xu to explain the phenomenon. Hua Xu revealed that Kelunsalin was his creation from eleven years ago and said he would have to think about how to break through it.

• Kelunsalin’s effects caused Bishamonten, the Shadow, and the rest of the team to begin dissipating as their thoughts failed.
• The Shadow’s system forcibly activated its transition engine, reconstructing the craft and its passengers beyond the mist.
• Qin Yiguan returned to the physical world and asked Hua Xu about the defenses surrounding Lu Zhoulang’s hiding place.
• Hua Xu explained that Kelunsalin removed forces, disrupting gravity, friction, biological electricity, and the structures of matter.
• Hua Xu said he would need to think about how to break through Kelunsalin, which he had created eleven years earlier.

Qin Yiguan returned to the Metaverse and found Lu Zhoulang, Bishamonten, and two young students preparing to confront Kelunsalin. As Lu Zhoulang was about to enter the deadly mist alone, Qin Yiguan arrived with a glowing device and offered to lead the way through.

• Qin Yiguan observed Lu Zhoulang and his companions from the Shadow's cabin as they faced Kelunsalin.
• Lu Zhoulang insisted on entering the mist alone, explaining that he felt responsible for his younger brother, Lu Zhoulang, and had pursued him for more than a decade.
• Lu Zhoulang told Bishamonten and his two students to stay behind, then stepped toward the mist.
• Qin Yiguan arrived carrying a blue-glowing device and introduced himself to Lu Zhoulang.
• Qin Yiguan told Lu Zhoulang to follow him through Kelunsalin, while Bishamonten wondered how he had found a way to overcome the defense.

Qin Yiguan used Hua Xu’s Hua Force to restore the abnormal forces in Kelunsalin, then traveled with his companions toward their destination. They were stopped by Nan Xi, one of Lu Zhoulang’s disciples.

• Lu Zhoulang detected that the forces in the mist had become abnormal and urged everyone to escape while he used his Virtual Machine to try to counter them.
• Qin Yiguan activated a blue device called Hua Force, restoring everyone’s senses and stopping the surrounding chaos.
• Qin Yiguan explained that Hua Xu had created Hua Force and scanned it into the Metaverse to help solve Kelunsalin’s problem.
• Bishamonten encapsulated the group in blue code and carried them toward their destination.
• Nan Xi stopped the group, and Bishamonten and the other senior disciples prepared to fight him while Qin Yiguan and Lu Zhoulang went ahead.

Qin Yiguan and his allies reached the center of Kelunsalin, where they confronted Lu Zhoulang’s younger brother and learned he had stolen Hua Xu’s technological achievements. The younger brother revealed that he knew Qin Yiguan was waiting for Dream General to appear, then summoned the Higher Self himself.

• Nan Xi used Super Virtual Machine, Super Encapsulation, but Bishamonten and her two senior brothers repeatedly layered their Virtual Machine Encapsulations to hold him back.
• Qin Yiguan, Lu Zhoulang, and Shitian reached a giant telescope, where Lu Zhoulang’s younger brother pleaded to continue observing Gemini’s flaw before threatening to kill them.
• The younger brother confessed that he wanted to control the Gemini Metaverse, seize the Gemini Superbrain, and kill nine-tenths of the world’s people.
• The younger brother revealed his cruelty toward Shitian’s teacher Ying Jiang and claimed he had spared Lu Zhoulang only because they were brothers.
• Qin Yiguan accused the younger brother of stealing Hua Xu’s achievements, including the discovery of Gemini’s flaw.
• The younger brother guessed Qin Yiguan was waiting for Dream General to appear, then called out Higher Self-Dream General and summoned a gigantic phantom.

Qin Yiguan learned that the Dream General was his childhood personality, shaped by Lu Zhoulang’s experiments and befriended in dreams until it chose Lu Zhoulang as its Higher Self. Lu Zhoulang trapped Qin Yiguan in a nightmare where his abilities no longer worked.

• Lu Zhoulang revealed that the Dream General’s true form was Qin Yiguan as a young child, a separate personality formed through sleep.
• Lu Zhoulang explained that Group A used drugs to induce dreams in Qin Yiguan and that he entered those dreams with the Dream Wave to befriend and guide the Dream General.
• Lu Zhoulang said the Dream General had regarded him as a mentor and friend for over a hundred years before willingly becoming his Higher Self in the Metaverse.
• Furious, Qin Yiguan summoned Black Calamity and used Gestalt Collapse at full power, but the attack had no effect.
• Lu Zhoulang revealed that Qin Yiguan had entered a physical dream after passing through Kelunsalin, where he had lost all his abilities.

Lu Zhoulang revealed that he had befriended a Dream General by entering Qin Yiguan’s dreams, then battled Lu Zhoulang in a clash between their dreams. After losing, Lu Zhoulang urged Qin Yiguan to run, but Qin Yiguan vanished in blue code instead.

• Lu Zhoulang and Qin Yiguan revealed their Dream Generals, and Qin Yiguan repeatedly escaped Lu Zhoulang’s attacks by turning into colored bubbles.
• Bishamonten and her surviving senior brother arrived, wounded after killing Nan Xi, and were stunned to see Lu Zhoulang’s Dream General.
• Lu Zhoulang explained that he had entered Qin Yiguan’s dreams to comfort the tortured Dream General until they became friends.
• Lu Zhoulang and Lu Zhoulang’s Dream Generals collided in a dream battle that lasted four years, ending with Lu Zhoulang’s defeat and severe injuries.
• Lu Zhoulang told Qin Yiguan to run, but Qin Yiguan calmly refused and vanished as blue code.

Qin Yiguan realized that the Ring Research Institute and Hua Xu had been part of a dream, where the sun fell and an alien invasion began. He woke in his Rust City apartment, convinced he had never truly awakened before.

• Qin Yiguan saw the sun fall after Hua Xu's arrow struck it and realized the institute's dream ignored reality's logic.
• Qin Yiguan recognized Hua Xu's badge number as belonging to the skeleton he and Dr. House had found, and concluded Hua Xu had been dead for over a decade.
• Hua Xu summoned fantastical defenses against invaders emerging from the fallen sun as Qin Yiguan's dream world faded.
• An invader crushed Qin Yiguan's heart, and he abruptly woke unharmed in his apartment in Rust City.
• Qin Yiguan opened the curtains, saw the morning sunlight, and realized he had never woken up before.

Qin Yiguan investigated whether the Ring Research Institute and the people from his dream had existed in reality, finding evidence that they had. He then remembered a dream in which he learned he was a dream-born being who could command dreams.

• Qin Yiguan called Dr. House, who said he had not seen him recently and explained he had stopped wearing gold-rimmed glasses years ago.
• Qin Yiguan flew to the Ring Research Institute’s former site and found the building, its contents, and its slogans exactly as they had appeared in his dream.
• Qin Yiguan found a badge identifying a dead employee as Zhao Huaxu, confirming that Hua Xu had been a real member of the institute.
• Qin Yiguan searched the basement equipment room and recognized it as Lu Zhoulang’s office, finding his watch and a switch labeled “Main power control-Dream Wave.”
• Qin Yiguan recalled a dream in which he had been raised in the institute, realized he was a product of dreams, and discovered he could control dreams like a general commanding an army.

Qin Yiguan recalled how he gained control of dreams, killed the members of Group A, and spared three people by giving each a tailored dream. He realized that their repeated dream cycles had shaped their memories of him and the genetic blueprint predictions, leaving them uncertain when they encountered the real Qin Yiguan.

• Qin Yiguan remembered how Group A had tormented him with nightmares until he took control of dreams and trapped the researchers in dreams until they died.
• Qin Yiguan spared Zhao Hua Xu and gave him a science dream in which he invented advanced technologies and fought otherworldly invaders.
• Qin Yiguan recalled how Lu Zhoulang secretly entered Mouse Pup’s dreams to comfort the Dream General, and how Lu Zhoulang received a hero dream.
• Qin Yiguan remembered that Lu Zhoulang’s dream gave him immense strength and ended with him repeatedly losing to Qin Yiguan or dying at his older brother’s hands across ten thousand cycles.
• Qin Yiguan understood that fragments of those cycles had shaped the group’s memories of his changing face, and explained that their genetic blueprint predictions came from past dreams.

Qin Yiguan uncovered the truth behind the intertwined dreams and discovered that the Dream General was his own higher self. After merging with it and gaining control of the dream, he saw Jiaolong and admitted that he still missed her.

• Qin Yiguan found Lu Zhoulang and Lu Zhoulang's real bodies asleep in Nutrient Pods beneath the Ring Research Institute's former site.
• Qin Yiguan realized that the events involving the Lu brothers and Bishamonten had unfolded as dreams controlled by the Dream General, while Hua Xu's dream had guided him toward the truth.
• Qin Yiguan understood that the Dream General had brought him there to reveal the truth and restore a fragment of his memory.
• Qin Yiguan fell asleep, entered the Metaverse, and completed his fusion with Higher Self No. 3, the Dream General, gaining the ability Lucid Dream.
• Qin Yiguan found the dream world frozen and recognized himself as its ruler before seeing Jiaolong and admitting that he still missed her.