Chapter Summaries

Qin Yiguan took control of the dream and confronted Lu Zhoulang about the Gemini Superbrain and his plan to replace it. Lu Zhoulang tried to threaten him, but the dream opened beneath him and he fell into an abyss.

• Qin Yiguan realized Dream General had merged with him and that he could control the dream.
• Lu Zhoulang praised Dream General's ability to shape reality and revealed that he wanted to create a metaverse of his own to replace Gemini.
• Qin Yiguan pointed out that Lu Zhoulang had been kneeling to observe the flaw in the Gemini Superbrain.
• Lu Zhoulang threatened to torture Qin Yiguan, then stepped forward and fell into a bottomless abyss when the earth shattered.

Lu Zhoulang realized Qin Yiguan had kept him trapped in a dream of being strong and that his Dream General was part of the deception. He told Qin Yiguan that the director of the Ring Research Institute was their only level 10 staff member.

• Lu Zhoulang fell into a fissure in a dream, where he was drowned, impaled, and burned before waking beside his brother.
• Lu Zhoulang mistook himself for his brother and repeatedly stabbed himself, then Qin Yiguan explained that the events followed ordinary dream logic.
• Lu Zhoulang understood that he had lived in a dream of being strong and that his Dream General had been Qin Yiguan's trick.
• Lu Zhoulang said someone had already told him the final outcome and revealed that their only level 10 staff member was the director of the Ring Research Institute.

Lu Zhoulang revealed that Qin Yiguan’s adoptive mother was murdered by the Ring Research Institute and that the parents Qin remembered were clones. Qin deduced that the Institute could travel through time and vowed to break its cycle, then killed Lu Zhoulang in a dream and destroyed his body in the Nutrient Pod.

• Lu Zhoulang told Qin Yiguan that his adoptive mother had drowned while searching for him and that the Institute’s director had ordered her death.
• Lu Zhoulang revealed that the director’s project was cloning and that Qin had killed his clone parents when he was six.
• Qin connected the Ring Research Institute’s time gaps, Tuomen Acuminate Fungus, and Starvation Corpse to the Boundless One and concluded that he could travel through time to break the Institute’s cycle.
• Lu Zhoulang warned Qin that the director had prepared a way to counter him and that people around him might be clones or artificial humans.
• Qin snapped Lu Zhoulang’s neck in a dream, then returned to the Institute and hacked apart Lu Zhoulang’s body inside the Nutrient Pod.

Qin Yiguan resolved Lu Zhoulang’s dream and reclaimed the Dream General, then reflected on dreams and the countless parallel Gemini universes. The story shifted to SZ-024, where an oversized-headed commander killed that universe’s Qin Yiguan and ordered the remaining witnesses executed.

• Qin Yiguan told Lu Zhoulang that his dream would endure as long as he upheld justice, reclaimed the Dream General, and let Lu Zhoulang keep using the Virtual Machine.
• Qin Yiguan told Bishamonten that her experience had not been a dream, while she wondered whether they had met in her childhood.
• Lu Zhoulang dismantled and destroyed the enormous telescope that could overturn the world.
• Qin Yiguan considered how dreams might be virtual-world loopholes or realities in parallel universes, then observed the countless Gemini Metaverses.
• In SZ-024, biochemical soldiers killed that universe’s Qin Yiguan, and their big-headed commander ordered the old man and the blond man killed as well.
• The old man activated several advanced technologies, but the commander dismissed them as backward.

Qin Yiguan wondered how to find the Ring Research Institute in the gap in time. The Institute appeared in a primitive era, where its director persuaded the Xiu Tribe to help locate a fireball that had fallen seven days earlier.

• Qin Yiguan reflected on his foster mother's death and the Institute's cloned version of him, but could see no path forward.
• The Ring Research Institute descended from the sky during a ritual performed by thousands of Xiu Tribe members.
• Lu Guang struck a local guard with a device that embedded itself in the man's skull and translated his thoughts into Mandarin.
• The director told Guan Liujue that the visitors were friends of the tribe's ancestor, prompting Guan Liujue and his people to welcome them.
• The director asked Guan Liujue about a fireball that had fallen seven days earlier, and Guan Liujue offered to lead them to the crash site.

After completing the Desire Dream event, Qin Yiguan reached a 100% Fusion Rate and awakened multiple Higher Selves, including Boundless One and Slaughterer. Lu Zhoulang and God's Abandoned pointed him toward exploring beyond the virtual map, where he might find the Ring Research Institute.

• Qin Yiguan's Fusion Rate reached 100%, activating Boundless One as his default Higher Self and revealing that his Time Lag Syndrome development required medication.
• Black Calamity, Plunderer, Dream General, Boundless One, and the little monk's Whole Buddha appeared together, leaving Lu Zhoulang, Bishamonten, and the male student awestruck.
• The system activated Slaughterer as a second Higher Self, but put him into dormancy because Qin Yiguan had not discovered the disease associated with him.
• Qin Yiguan asked the system for a hint about his hidden disease, but received no answer.
• Lu Zhoulang advised Qin Yiguan to keep exploring, explaining that the Virtual Machine came from the Gemini Loophole and that something lay ahead.
• God's Abandoned said the Gemini Superbrain had updated his database because Qin Yiguan had reached 100% Fusion Rate, and Qin Yiguan decided to continue onward.

Qin Yiguan and Shitian crossed an endless white expanse and reached Xianyang, where a scholar revealed that the Gemini Metaverse contained reconstructed versions of every period of human history, all existing side by side. Qin Yiguan learned that the Western Han lay just fifteen kilometers beyond the Qin lands.

• Qin Yiguan walked across the white expanse, and Shitian caught up with him and asked to travel together.
• Qin Yiguan agreed to walk with Shitian, and the pair eventually found a city in the mist.
• Qin Yiguan and Shitian entered Xianyang, where guards welcomed them and the streets were filled with ancient-style markets.
• A scholar told Qin Yiguan that they were in the Qin dynasty in 217 BC, four years after Qin Shihuang unified the six states.
• The scholar explained that the Gemini Superbrain had reconstructed human history in the metaverse, with different dynasties existing simultaneously alongside one another.
• The scholar said the Western Han lay fifteen kilometers east, leaving Qin Yiguan shocked.

Qin Yiguan learned that walking through the Metaverse’s wasteland had carried him backward through history, and discovered Boundless One could take him and Shitian through time. A carving linked the Ring Research Institute to an ancient-era ritual, and Qin Yiguan planned to travel east to reach the time it had appeared.

• Jiang Yizhou explained that the Qin dynasty was a simulated historical setting visible to people with a 100% Fusion Rate, and used an imperial token to stop locals from arresting Qin Yiguan for claiming the Qin surname.
• God's Abandoned revealed that each kilometer Qin Yiguan had walked represented one year backward, placing him in 217 BC, and Jiang Yizhou explained how he had reached the Qin capital using his Reality Enhancement.
• Qin Yiguan realized Boundless One let him bring Shitian through time in the Metaverse, without the CPH4 injection he had previously needed.
• At a carved stone wall, Qin Yiguan spotted the Ring Research Institute depicted above an ancient ritual and learned that the scene came from roughly a thousand years before the Qin dynasty.
• Qin Yiguan concluded that walking a thousand kilometers east could take him to the ancient era when the Ring Research Institute appeared.

Guan Liujue led Director Bo You and the Ring Research Institute to the impact site, where they discovered the expected meteorite was missing. Meanwhile, Qin Yiguan left the Qin Dynasty with Jiang Yizhou and wondered how walking through time determined when he arrived.

• Guan Liujue guided the Ring Research Institute group up the mountain and described the fireball that had struck seven days earlier.
• Director Bo You found the enormous crater empty, though the Institute expected a 112.3-ton meteorite to be there.
• Director Bo You ordered an investigation into what had happened during the past seven days.
• Qin Yiguan walked east out of the Qin Dynasty toward the archaic era as Jiang Yizhou followed him.
• Qin Yiguan asked whether walking too far could send him to the wrong point in time.

Qin Yiguan, Shitian, and Jiang Yizhou traveled through history and survived a meteorite impact at West Ox Horn Mountain. After realizing the meteorite was what the Ring Research Institute sought, Jiang brought Mohist mechanical help to move it before the Institute arrived.

• Jiang Yizhou showed Qin Yiguan Shangqiu and explained how time flowed while they observed the past, then shared the story of the woman he had loved too late.
• Jiang Yizhou took Qin Yiguan and Shitian to the Xia dynasty era, where a falling meteorite struck them and they escaped by traveling seven hours into the future.
• Qin Yiguan and Jiang Yizhou recognized the crater at West Ox Horn Mountain and concluded the meteorite was likely the object sought by the Ring Research Institute.
• Jiang Yizhou offered to help keep the meteorite from the Institute and returned with two enormous Mohist wooden spiders operated by Liu Quan C and Liu Shuan Q.

Jiang Yizhou hid the meteorites in Zhao Kuangyin’s palace in the Song Dynasty while the Ring Research Institute searched for them. Qin Yiguan then met Song Miao, who revealed she would betray the Institute and be killed seven days later in this era.

• Bo You ordered Lu Guang to kill Guan Liujue and throw his body into the sinkhole after Guan promised to search for meteorites.
• Bo You had Lu Guang kill Song Miao, believing she would betray the Ring Research Institute later that day, though it was only eight in the morning.
• The Ring Research Institute launched unmanned aircraft to search the continent for the meteorite, while Bo You suspected someone had hidden it elsewhere.
• Jiang Yizhou told Qin Yiguan he planned to hide the meteorites in Zhao Kuangyin’s imperial palace, and Liu Quan C and Liu Shuan Q transported them with the mechanical spider.
• Jiang Yizhou sensed someone with a time-related ability approaching, and Song Miao arrived beside Qin Yiguan.
• Song Miao told Qin Yiguan she belonged to the Ring Research Institute, would betray it seven days later in this ancient era, and could never see House again.

Song Miao explained that the Ring Research Institute was a time-traveling vessel that needed rare materials and replacement personnel, and she entrusted Qin Yiguan with information to help destroy it. She disappeared after confirming she had truly died, leaving Qin Yiguan to study her files and investigate the institute’s missing senior staff.

• Song Miao told Qin Yiguan that her planned death seven days later was meant to make the Ring Research Institute lower its guard, and entrusted him with a projection device.
• Song Miao explained that House’s words about genuine kindness had helped her recognize the Ring Research Institute’s true nature, then confirmed she had actually died and vanished.
• Qin Yiguan played Song Miao’s recording, which described the Ring Research Institute as a Ship of Theseus traveling through time and explained that it needed rare materials to repair its structure.
• Song Miao revealed that removing the meteorite would delay the institute’s repairs, but Qin Yiguan would need to remove many more materials to destroy it.
• The projection displayed a detailed inventory of the institute’s materials and personnel, including employees from different historical periods and several missing senior staff; Qin Yiguan asked how personnel could be repaired.

Qin Yiguan discovered that Song Miao had joined the Ring Research Institute in 2119, and suspected it had taken her from the river of time. When he tried to contact Dr. House, he found no record of him and set out on an urgent journey.

• Lu Guang told Bo You that Song Miao had died and that the institute needed someone to fill her position.
• In 2119, Bo You recruited Song Miao into the Ring Research Institute as its time coordinate administrator.
• Lu Guang warned Bo You that House could become a powerful threat, and Bo You ordered him to kill House.
• Lu Guang lured House into turning away, then broke his neck.
• Qin Yiguan found Song Miao on the institute's personnel list and suspected the institute had taken her from the river of time.
• Qin Yiguan failed to find Dr. House through the communicator, left the meteorite with Teacher Jiang and Shitian, and set out to travel 3,000 kilometers.

Qin Yiguan intervened as Lu Guang tried to kill House and learned that Lu Guang was tied to Song Miao’s disappearance. After Qin Yiguan mortally wounded Lu Guang, a beam of blue light whisked him away, leaving Qin Yiguan searching the empty distance.

• Qin Yiguan appeared behind Lu Guang, broke both his arms, and tore them off while saving House.
• Qin Yiguan recognized Lu Guang’s Ring Research Society badge and accused him of being connected to Song Miao’s disappearance.
• Lu Guang transformed, charged Qin Yiguan, and claimed he would take credit for killing him.
• Starvation Corpse identified Lu Guang as a delicacy, and Qin Yiguan transformed and tore open Lu Guang’s chest, cutting his heart into four pieces.
• Qin Yiguan kicked Lu Guang away, but a beam of blue light enveloped Lu Guang and made him disappear before Qin Yiguan could finish him.

Qin Yiguan resisted Dr. House’s hypnosis and used his own ability to hypnotize Dr. House, who was desperately seeking news of Song Miao. Qin Yiguan reassured him that Song Miao would return, then asked him to be patient with a future young man surnamed Qin.

• Dr. House tried to hypnotize Qin Yiguan and demanded to know who he was, what had happened, and where Song Miao was.
• Dr. House manifested a partial Higher Self, but Qin Yiguan’s complete Higher Self, Plunderer, nullified the hypnosis and copied Dr. House’s ability.
• Under Qin Yiguan’s hypnosis, Dr. House revealed that Song Miao had been defiled, and Qin Yiguan suppressed his anger.
• Qin Yiguan told Dr. House that Song Miao had been drawn into time, had not forgotten him, and would return.
• Qin Yiguan asked Dr. House to be patient with a future young man surnamed Qin, who would grow into a powerful person, and Dr. House agreed.

Bo You learned that a silver-skinned Qin Yiguan had nearly killed Lu Guang, then recalled how he had recruited Lu Guang by arranging for his father to clone and imprison his sons. The chapter left Bo You facing an unknown timeline as a gap began forming in the Ring Research Institute’s closed-loop emblem.

• Lu Guang returned to the Ring Research Institute gravely wounded and said Qin Yiguan had attacked him as a silver-skinned being with fangs and horns.
• Bo You doubted Lu Guang’s account because he knew Qin Yiguan had no abilities or time-related powers.
• Bo You recalled visiting a Metaverse official forty-two years earlier and offering cloning technology and a plan to raise descendants in darkness in exchange for the fifth son.
• Bo You returned twenty-one years later, found the fifth son in a dark chamber, and renamed Wu Zheng Xuan as Lu Guang.
• Bo You saw that part of the Ring Research Institute’s closed-loop emblem was growing faint while Lu Guang begged him for help.

Lu Guang survived his injuries with the Ring Research Institute’s technology and planned to return to his younger body, while Qin Yiguan enlisted Jiang Yizhou and Shitian to collect materials needed to dismantle the institute. The chapter ended with Qin Yiguan deciding to kill Lu Guang.

• Bo You gave Lu Guang a consciousness enhancement shot and ordered him to travel back twenty-one years and inject his past self with his memories.
• Lu Guang left to return to his younger body and vowed to take revenge on Qin Yiguan and his family.
• In the Song Dynasty palace’s underground icehouse, Jiang Yizhou, Shitian, and Qin Yiguan discussed the stored meteorites and tried Bashu tribute peppers.
• Qin Yiguan asked Jiang Yizhou and Shitian to retrieve more than thirty Ring Research Institute repair materials from different points in time and bring them to the icehouse.
• Qin Yiguan identified Lu Guang on the institute’s employee roster and said he was going to kill him.

Lu Guang returned to the Black Room to take over his former body, only to find that his twenty-one-year-old self had died and Qin Yiguan was waiting for him. As Lu Guang faded from the timeline and succumbed to his wounds, Qin Yiguan began torturing him with the little demons created by Gestalt Collapse.

• Lu Guang traveled back through the Ring Research Institute to the Black Room, where he expected to replace his former self.
• Lu Guang opened the fifth door and found his twenty-one-year-old corpse hanging from the ceiling while his former self sat watching him.
• The youth explained that Lu Guang had returned to take over a new body, but that his former self had already been killed by Qin Yiguan.
• Lu Guang's wounds worsened as the consciousness-enhancing injection wore off, and he collapsed in the doorway.
• The youth used Gestalt Collapse to send little demons after Lu Guang, who could no longer fight back.
• Lu Guang began disappearing from his feet upward, and the youth realized he was both fading from the timeline and dying from his injuries.

Qin Yiguan discovered the identities behind the Lu Zun incident and traveled twenty-one years into the past, where he confronted a young Lu Zun and found a child Jiu Zhengxuan. Meanwhile, Lu Guang’s remains vanished at the Ring Research Institute as Bo You learned that much of the institute’s outer shell had deteriorated.

• Qin Yiguan realized that Zhong Yi was behind the Lu Zun incident, that Lu Zun was Liu Zheng Xuan, and that the dead Lu Guang was Wu Zheng Xuan.
• Qin Yiguan recognized the young Liu Zheng Xuan as Lu Zun, knocked away his beam pistol, and shattered his right leg before leaving him alive.
• Qin Yiguan opened the ninth Black Room and found a child Jiu Zhengxuan, whom he called the light of his life before shutting the door.
• Bo You watched Lu Guang’s returned remains dissipate into time and struck a table in anger.
• A researcher told Bo You that over twenty-two percent of the Ring Research Institute’s outer shell had deteriorated because of material shortages.

Bo You searched for autunite to repair the Ring Research Institute, but discovered that an unknown opponent had already taken it from the past. After learning that an ancient scholar and a bald monk had removed the mineral, he left the site with his researchers, still unsure who was opposing him through time.

• Bo You explained his damaged ship to a boy and repaired the boy’s wooden toy boat.
• A researcher told Bo You that the site’s autunite had been dug up before the Ring Research Institute arrived.
• Bo You concluded that someone was opposing him across time and questioned how Qin Yiguan could be involved in Lu Guang’s death.
• The boy’s parents told Bo You that an ancient scholar and a bald monk had taken the minerals using a wooden machine.
• Bo You warned the parents to take their child away from the radioactive soil, then departed with the researchers aboard the Ring Research Institute.