Chapter Summaries

Qin Yiguan visited a popular tattoo shop, hoping to meet its proprietress, whom he suspected might be a Jiaolong variant. He discovered that the imposing Xiaojiao managed the queue and received number 1036, leaving him waiting to see the mysterious woman inside.

• Qin Yiguan approached the tattoo shop and wondered whether its proprietress was Jiaolong or another Jiaolong variant.
• Xiaojiao emerged from the shop, and Qin Yiguan learned she was the proprietress's assistant.
• Xiaojiao handed out queue tags while the men competed for a chance to get tattooed.
• The honest-looking man explained that he had waited seven days and mistakenly made Qin Yiguan appear to cut in line.
• Qin Yiguan moved to the back, and Xiaojiao marked his tag as number 1036.

Qin Yiguan reached Jiaolong’s tattoo shop and resumed the unfinished consciousness tattoo. During the procedure, Jiaolong pulled Starvation Corpse out of Qin Yiguan’s mind, leaving him unable to return.

• Xiaojiao announced that ticket 1036, held by Qin Yiguan, was the first customer, then knocked out the man holding ticket 001 when he protested.
• Qin Yiguan entered the shop and reunited with Jiaolong, who prepared to continue his consciousness tattoo.
• Jiaolong connected the canvas to Qin Yiguan’s cranial nerves and noticed new things in his consciousness.
• Jiaolong extracted Starvation Corpse from Qin Yiguan’s mind, and Qin Yiguan jokingly introduced her as his mistress.
• Starvation Corpse tried to return to Qin Yiguan’s mind but discovered that he could not get back in.

Jiaolong finished tattooing Satan, the seven demon kings, and seven Pandora’s Boxes onto Qin Yiguan’s Consciousness Drawing Board, but he began coughing up blood before recovering. When the beast tide arrived and the men outside demanded an explanation for his special treatment, Qin Yiguan summoned Satan and the demon kings to face the approaching beasts.

• Jiaolong drew Satan, the seven demon kings, and seven Pandora’s Boxes onto Qin Yiguan’s Consciousness Drawing Board while Qin Yiguan watched her.
• Qin Yiguan began coughing up blood, but his condition quickly improved as Jiaolong completed the final stroke.
• The beast tide appeared beyond the city, and Jiaolong explained that she had opened her tattoo shop to protect the dwindling cities from the beasts.
• The angry men surrounded the shop and demanded an explanation, so Qin Yiguan left and walked to the edge of the city.
• Qin Yiguan materialized Satan and the seven demon kings, then challenged the men to do the same as the demon kings faced the beast tide.

Qin Yiguan used Satan and the seven demon kings to destroy the beast tide and tracked it to a glass sphere that produced enhanced beasts. When he tried to touch the sphere, the Gemini Superbrain appeared and sent him back to Mirage City, leaving the sphere’s purpose and the existence of other production points unresolved.

• Qin Yiguan summoned Satan and the seven demon kings, whose abilities began wiping out the approaching beast tide.
• Qin Yiguan used Time Lag Syndrome to advance through the Beast Zone while Abaddon’s pestilence ability decimated the beasts.
• Lu Zun watched reports of Qin Yiguan’s advance and worried whether he could stop the tide.
• Qin Yiguan found a glowing glass sphere that generated enhanced beasts and suspected more production points lay deeper in the Beast Zone.
• The Gemini Superbrain appeared and declared the sphere off-limits, then sent Qin Yiguan and the demons back to Mirage City.
• The people at Mirage City cheered Qin Yiguan after Satan had killed the remaining beasts in the tide.

Qin Yiguan realized Multiverse No. 012 was doomed to destruction and learned that his worsening condition might be connected to his counterpart there. After Jiaolong left, he went to the Qiangsheng gang’s headquarters, where his ruthless underlings killed a subordinate who had insulted him.

• Qin Yiguan recalled encountering an existence he could not resist and concluded that the humans in Multiverse No. 012 would be wiped out by the beast tide.
• Qin Yiguan coughed up blood and wondered whether his failing body was also undergoing destruction; Jiaolong told him his counterpart in the multiverse held the answer.
• Jiaolong said she would leave Multiverse No. 012 and continue traveling, then returned to her tattoo shop and parted from Qin Yiguan.
• Qin Yiguan went to the Qiangsheng gang’s headquarters, where a man in black failed to recognize him after his change of appearance.
• A young man with gold-rimmed glasses killed the man in black for disrespecting Qin Yiguan, then bowed and apologized to him.

Qin Yiguan used a mistaken identity to enter his counterpart’s underworld office, only to discover that the ruthless boss had been murdered. The Boundless One revealed that the deaths of Qin Yiguan’s multiverse counterparts were causing his inexplicable injuries and could eventually kill him.

• Qin Yiguan told Gold-Rimmed Glasses to take him to the office, using the mistaken identity to seek out his counterpart.
• Gold-Rimmed Glasses led Qin Yiguan through the lavish basement office and recited the histories of its antiques, as the counterpart remained unseen.
• Qin Yiguan found his counterpart’s corpse pinned to the ceiling above the desk, and Gold-Rimmed Glasses realized that the dead man was Brother Guan.
• Qin Yiguan coughed up blood and pieces of his organs as the Boundless One explained that a counterpart’s death injured him and that someone was hunting his counterparts.

Qin Yiguan cared for the children at Boon Orphanage, where he had chosen to work after aging out of the orphanage. Doctor Aoke arrived, attacked him with a blue vapor and an injected substance, and reported Qin Yiguan dead.

• Qin Yiguan praised Wu Daniu's gruesome painting and suggested adding red paint before tidying the art room.
• Qin Yiguan reflected on his seven months as a caregiver and his empathy for the orphanage's mentally ill children.
• Doctor Aoke entered the art room and told Qin Yiguan that he had come to diagnose him.
• Doctor Aoke released blue vapor, weakened Qin Yiguan, and injected his neck with green liquid.
• Doctor Aoke watched Qin Yiguan collapse and reported his death to the Ao Council and Core Aoke.

Core Aoke led the Ao Council, a society of Aoke variants that had conquered multiple multiverses, and promised AKI Aoke revenge on Qin Yiguan. The Council was systematically killing Qin Yiguan variants to reduce his Existence Value to zero, while its members gathered to watch a brutal fight in a universe cleared of its original inhabitants.

• Core Aoke had discovered multiverses as a child, gathered Aoke variants in Multiverse No. 130, and established the Ao Council.
• AKI Aoke told Core Aoke that Qin Yiguan had taken Breath of the Mute and nearly killed him before the String of Jumping rescued him.
• Core Aoke explained that the Council was killing Qin Yiguan variants across multiverses to make Qin Yiguan's Existence Value fall to zero.
• Core Aoke reported that Medical Ao, Metal Ao, Legion Ao, and 732 other members had killed or were assassinating Qin Yiguans.
• Core Aoke invited AKI Aoke to watch as Werewolf Ao faced Muscle Ao before the Council's cheering members.

Qin Yiguan investigated the death of his Underworld counterpart and suspected that Aoke or a multiverse power was behind the attacks. The supposedly dead Underworld Qin Yiguan revived, regenerated his wounds and severed arm, and revealed his Reality Enhancement-Rapid Self-Healing ability.

• Qin Yiguan examined Underworld Qin Yiguan’s corpse and considered whether Aoke or another multiverse enemy was killing his counterparts.
• Qin Yiguan realized that the deaths of his counterparts might explain why he had previously suffered severe injuries and coughed up blood.
• Underworld Qin Yiguan’s fingers twitched, and his heartbeat returned as he began pulling the steel nails from his body.
• Underworld Qin Yiguan cut off his pinned right forearm to free himself, then fell from the ceiling.
• Underworld Qin Yiguan regenerated his wounds and grew a new hand, revealing his Reality Enhancement-Rapid Self-Healing ability before vowing to kill his attacker.

Caregiver Qin Yiguan survived Medical Ao’s attack and reunited with his underworld counterpart, who learned that the Ao Council was targeting them. A wheelchair-using Qin Yiguan from Multiverse 014 arrived with members of the Qin Variants Association, offering help against the Council.

• Qin Yiguan recovered from Medical Ao’s toxins, killed him, and hid his body in a wardrobe before Wu Daniu returned.
• The original Qin Yiguan and his underworld counterpart compared what they knew and agreed to fight the organization targeting them.
• The underworld Qin Yiguan revealed that dreams had shown him counterparts across the multiverse and joined forces with the original.
• A Qin Yiguan from Multiverse 014 arrived in a wheelchair and identified the Ao Council as a major technological power made up of 1.16 million Aoke counterparts.
• The wheelchair-using Qin Yiguan introduced himself as vice president of the Qin Variants Association and offered the two counterparts the organization’s assistance.

Core Aoke brought AKI Aoke to a tiny multiverse where the Ao Council was restricting the universe’s expansion. He explained that the Council had come to harvest Source Matter and promised to show AKI Aoke its use afterward.

• Core Aoke told AKI Aoke that destroying Qin Yiguan was a minor task and introduced the Council’s current mission as retrieval.
• AKI Aoke saw the coordinates of millions of multiverses and reconsidered the scale of his former ambitions.
• Core Aoke explained that the Ao Council had restricted the young multiverse’s expansion and that its inhabitants believed their land was the full extent of reality.
• Core Aoke said the Council was harvesting the fixed quantity of Source Matter deposited in every multiverse.
• Core Aoke promised to explain Source Matter’s purpose after the harvest was complete.

AKI Aoke learned that the Ao Council used Society Ao’s sociology system to make the inhabitants of Multiverse No. 14566 mine Source Matter willingly. After the mine was depleted, Core Aoke destroyed the multiverse by compressing its ocean into a black hole, then invited AKI Aoke to discover what the Council did with the ore.

• AKI Aoke watched the Ao Council transfer 1.5 tons of Source Matter from a warehouse into its spaceship.
• Core Aoke explained that Society Ao had spent five years shaping the inhabitants’ values so they would mine Source Matter and deposit it in a central bank for the Council to collect.
• Core Aoke declared the multiverse’s Source Matter depleted and activated the Gravity Well to compress its ocean through nuclear fusion into a neutron star and then a black hole.
• AKI Aoke noticed a dust-covered youth wearing a chipped white rabbit mask who stared at the invisible spaceship as the black hole destroyed the multiverse and its inhabitants.
• The spaceship escaped through the String of Jumping, and Core Aoke explained that the Council operated millions of such mines and expected new multiverses and Source Matter to form before inviting AKI Aoke to learn what the ore was for.

The vice president led Qin Yiguan and his counterparts along a mysterious golden path, explaining the Qin Variant Association’s search for the Ao Council and showing them other Qin Yiguans across the multiverse. The group continued toward the association’s headquarters, where Caregiver Qin Yiguan spotted a razor-sharp thread at Underworld Qin Yiguan’s neck.

• The vice president said the Qin Variants could defeat the Ao Council but had been unable to locate its main forces, which seemed to be hiding outside the multiverse and physical world.
• Qin Yiguan saw multiversal counterparts including Father Qin Yiguan, a restrained prisoner, a cheerful child, and a Qin Yiguan who slept in a grave.
• Qin Yiguan questioned the vice president about the golden path, the association’s location, and the identity of its president, but the vice president did not give a direct answer.
• Caregiver Qin Yiguan warned the group and held an arm across Underworld Qin Yiguan as a nearly invisible, razor-sharp thread glinted at his neck.

Qin Yiguan and his counterparts learned that the red threads connected to 732 universes where Qin Yiguans faced assassination, and the Qin Variants planned to use those incidents to trace the Ao Council. After waking in Underworld Qin Yiguan’s office, Qin Yiguan was told he had opened the seventh door and that the owner of a dream was the president of the Qin Variant Association.

• The vice president explained that the red threads linked to 732 universes and showed the group an assassination that President Number Four had altered into a simulated success.
• The vice president asked Qin Yiguan, Caregiver Qin Yiguan, and Underworld Qin Yiguan to investigate separate assassination attempts and follow the Aokes back toward the Ao Council.
• Underworld Qin Yiguan tried and failed to open all twelve iron doors, while Qin Yiguan also attempted a door.
• Qin Yiguan and the others each took a red thread connected to a colorful balloon, and a golden light swallowed Qin Yiguan.
• Qin Yiguan woke in Underworld Qin Yiguan’s office as the vice president told him the Qin Variants existed in their counterparts’ dreams and that Qin Yiguan had opened the seventh door.

Qin Yiguan entered the black room in his mind and found several of his childhood personalities gathered around a table. A chair moved beside him, leaving him wondering whether he could finally speak with them and whether his condition was worsening.

• Qin Yiguan recalled opening the fourth door and entering the dim, seemingly boundless black room.
• Qin Yiguan found Child eating candy and watched Child offer a piece to Black Calamity.
• Black Calamity declined the candy and looked toward Dream General, while Qin Yiguan recognized Plunderer and Slaughterer among the gathered personalities.
• Qin Yiguan realized Plunderer’s simulation ability had created the hallucinations protecting the isotopes and considered how the personalities related to him.
• The chair for door number seven slid beside Qin Yiguan, and he wondered whether he could talk to the personalities and whether his condition had worsened.

Qin Yiguan reunited with Underworld Qin Yiguan and Caregiver Qin Yiguan, then learned his Higher Selves had withdrawn their help after he entered the black room. He used Boundless One to take the three of them into the Matrix Universe, where they began their mission to track down the Ao Council.

• Qin Yiguan returned to Underworld Qin Yiguan’s office as Underworld Qin Yiguan and Caregiver Qin Yiguan woke and realized their meeting had been real.
• Caregiver Qin Yiguan accidentally destroyed Underworld Qin Yiguan’s valuable antiques, and Qin Yiguan confirmed that the three of them had received a mission to save their counterparts.
• Qin Yiguan proposed that the three investigate each multiverse together and find the Ao Council headquarters, while Underworld Qin Yiguan asked about his ability.
• Qin Yiguan discovered that his Higher Selves and their abilities were unavailable, but he could still call on Boundless One.
• Qin Yiguan summoned Boundless One, which carried all three into the Matrix Universe and gave him a way to jump between multiverses.

Qin Yiguan, Underworld, and the caregiver followed a red thread into multiverse 017 to track the Ao Council through sniper Aoke. After Aoke entered a blue spatial rift, Qin Yiguan used his enhanced strength to leap after him.

• Qin Yiguan led Underworld and the caregiver into Mirage City in multiverse 017, where sniper Aoke was aiming at a younger Qin Yiguan.
• Aoke fired a beam bullet, and Plunderer's simulation made him believe he had killed his target while the younger Qin Yiguan caught the bullet unharmed.
• Aoke reported his supposed success to the Ao Council and opened a blue spatial rift with a Multiverse Jump String.
• Underworld and the caregiver leaped across the rooftops to pursue Aoke, while Qin Yiguan stayed behind briefly.
• Qin Yiguan crossed the gap between the high-rises with a powerful leap and landed in front of the rift.

Qin Yiguan, Underworld, and the caregiver arrived in multiverse 184, a world of mirrors whose inhabitants were said to be skilled snipers. As the caregiver explained that outsiders could not see the natives in the reflections, an unseen sniper shot Underworld through the head.

• Qin Yiguan noticed his shorts-clad counterpart watching him beside the road, with a Guardian standing behind him, before Underworld pulled him and the caregiver through the shrinking rift.
• The three traveled between worlds and arrived in a landscape covered in mirrors, where reflections surrounded them in every direction.
• The caregiver recognized the mirror world from a dream and recalled that its inhabitants used mirrors to see everywhere around them because they feared blind spots.
• The caregiver said the mirror world’s inhabitants had developed extraordinary sniping skills and that outsiders could not see the natives in the mirrors.
• An armor-piercing round struck Underworld in the forehead, blowing apart the back of his head and knocking him down.

Qin Yiguan and the care worker were trapped in the mirror world under fire from a hidden sniper and attacked by mechanical spiders. Qin Yiguan called on Starvation Corpse for help, but discovered it had transformed into a coy, pink figure.

• The sniper shot Underworld in the head, and Qin Yiguan used his corpse to shield himself and the care worker.
• Qin Yiguan questioned the care worker about his dream as a silent spider robot attacked; Underworld revived briefly before the robot killed him again.
• More mechanical spiders emerged from the mirrors, and Qin Yiguan handed Underworld's corpse to the care worker.
• Qin Yiguan said he could resist the sniper with Starvation Corpse's help and summoned it.
• Starvation Corpse appeared as a pink, curvaceous figure and told Qin Yiguan that switching multiverses had caused its strange transformation.

Qin Yiguan fought through a swarm of mechanical spiders after his Starvation Corpse transformation failed, while a sniper threatened him from afar. Underworld intervened and identified the sniper, then stayed behind to battle the machines as Qin Yiguan prepared to pursue Aoke.

• Qin Yiguan transformed into a pink, muscular version of the Starvation Corpse, but reverted when the Starvation Corpse girl screamed and fled in his mind.
• Qin Yiguan fought off several mechanical spiders by kicking one aside and crashing two others together, while the caregiver refused to reveal any special ability.
• God's Abandoned warned Qin Yiguan that a sniper was firing from behind, and Underworld deflected the energy beam with his cleaver.
• Underworld confronted the caregiver for using his corpse as a shield, then pointed out Aoke, the big-headed sniper crouched atop a mirrored cube.
• Underworld charged the mechanical spiders and began chopping them apart while Qin Yiguan was told to catch Aoke.