Chapter Summaries

Qin Yiguan pursued sniper Aoke through the mirror world, but Aoke killed the caregiver and taunted the group while hiding among reflections. The chapter ended with countless copies of Aoke aiming their rifles at Qin Yiguan.

• Qin Yiguan charged toward Aoke as Underworld fought the mechanical spiders, but Aoke shot Underworld instead of him.
• Qin Yiguan leapt at Aoke and shattered a mirror, discovering that the sniper he had seen was only a reflection.
• Aoke fired again, killing the caregiver while leaving Qin Yiguan and Underworld unharmed.
• Underworld mourned the caregiver and vowed to kill Aoke, who appeared and mocked the group as he explained his advantage in the mirror world.
• Qin Yiguan threw a shard of mirror at Aoke, but Aoke deflected it and vanished among countless reflections.
• Countless images of Aoke took shooting positions and trained their rifles on Qin Yiguan.

Qin Yiguan searched Sniper Aoke’s mirror world while the sniper’s real and reflected forms fired at him. With the caregiver destroying sections of the mirror world, Qin Yiguan finally found Sniper Aoke.

• Sniper Aoke unleashed a barrage of beam rounds, and the King Kong Barbie Starvation Corpse protected Qin Yiguan from the bullets.
• Qin Yiguan realized that Sniper Aoke could change which side held his aiming lens, so he could not identify the real sniper by comparing mirror images.
• Sniper Aoke tricked Qin Yiguan into smashing a mirror and struck him at point-blank range with a sniper cannon.
• The caregiver appeared, stopped a round with a spatial rift, and began folding and destroying sections of the mirror world.
• The caregiver ground the remaining mirror shards into powder while Qin Yiguan searched the shrinking area and announced that he had found Sniper Aoke.

Qin Yiguan, the caregiver, and Underworld exposed how sniper Aoke’s mirror trick worked and captured him alive. They discovered that Aoke had used a Multiverse Jump String to move between screens, leaving the group with a lead in their investigation of the Ao Council.

• Underworld cut through sniper Aoke’s mechanical body and shattered the screen in front of him, while Qin Yiguan, the caregiver, and Underworld surrounded him.
• Qin Yiguan explained that the apparent mirrors were electronic screens showing mostly prerecorded images, and that Aoke had teleported between them using the Multiverse Jump String.
• Qin Yiguan identified a scratch on Aoke’s right arm as the mark that distinguished him from the recordings, and the caregiver revealed that he had compressed the search area by manipulating the screens.
• Underworld pried open Aoke’s mechanical arm and found the String of Jumping, confirming that Aoke had used it to change his landing point between screens.
• Underworld explained that the three of them had divided their roles to locate Aoke, narrow the search, and cut him down before he could escape.

Core Aoke demonstrated an experiment to AIK Aoke, colliding near-light-speed protons with Source Matter to reveal its secret. The five pieces of Source Matter had become a brick, leaving AIK Aoke stunned.

• Core Aoke brought AIK Aoke to a high-security area of the Ao Council warship and explained that he considered him a core member.
• Core Aoke activated a machine that placed five pieces of Source Matter in a spherical chamber.
• Core Aoke explained that the warship’s particle collider accelerated protons to nearly the speed of light and directed them into the Source Matter.
• After the collision, Core Aoke opened the chamber and retrieved the result.
• AIK Aoke saw that the Source Matter had turned into a brick and questioned what had happened.

Qin Yiguan and his companions confronted Sniper Aoke in his warehouse lair, but Sniper Aoke killed himself and the unstable String of Jumping erupted, making them vanish. Meanwhile, Core Aoke revealed the Ao Council’s hidden headquarters, the Aoke Universe, and explained that it was built from Source Matter.

• The Underworld mutilated Sniper Aoke while Qin Yiguan demanded to know where the Ao Council’s headquarters was.
• Sniper Aoke said Qin Yiguan would have to search for it in Hell, then detonated the bomb in his head.
• The String of Jumping erupted and destroyed the warehouse, causing Qin Yiguan, the Underworld, and the caregiver to disappear.
• Core Aoke showed AIK Aoke a small floating landmass and confirmed it was the Ao Council’s headquarters.
• Core Aoke explained that he had built the Aoke Universe from programmable Source Matter and had made himself its god.
• Core Aoke said Source Matter was an easter egg hidden by the Gemini Superbrain, and he alone had solved its collecting and puzzle-solving game.

Core Aoke explained that Source Matter could bring the Metaverse and its creations into the physical world, and he enlisted AKI Aoke to make the Aoke Universe realistic enough to cross over. AKI demanded permission to build and insisted that every Qin Yiguan variant had to die, but Core Aoke was interrupted by news that Sniper Aoke had self-destructed.

• Core Aoke glimpsed a rabbit-masked young man outside the ship, then checked the area and found no sign of an intruder.
• Core Aoke explained that Source Matter converted between virtual code and physical matter and that the Ao Council headquarters existed where the two worlds met.
• Core Aoke revealed that a sufficiently realistic Aoke Universe could descend into the physical world and bring its inhabitants with it.
• AKI Aoke agreed to help build the Aoke Universe but demanded construction permissions.
• Core Aoke promised to kill Qin Yiguan and every variant, then saw a report that Sniper Aoke had self-destructed.

Core Aoke revealed that Sniper Aoke’s self-destruction had sent Qin Yiguan and his companions into a place called Hell. The three fell through ever-shrinking levels of matter as a masked figure watched from the wasteland of Multiverse No. 184.

• Core Aoke told AKI Aoke that the Multiverse Jump String had detonated and sent the three Qin Yiguans into Hell.
• AKI Aoke questioned why Core Aoke had never given him a String of Jumping, and Core Aoke said he trusted him and saw no need to shackle him.
• Underworld, Caregiver, and Qin Yiguan found themselves falling through darkness as their bodies repeatedly shrank.
• The three fell past a huge rocky body and through molecular structures, where giant worms lurked among balls of yarn.
• A black worm opened its mouth to swallow them, but they shrank again and passed through its particle-like body.
• On the wasteland of Multiverse No. 184, a young man in a rabbit mask watched the three Qin Yiguans fall through a speck of dust.

Qin Yiguan, Underworld, and the caregiver kept shrinking after the Ao Council remotely detonated the String of Jumping Sniper Aoke had carried. They feared they were trapped in an endless fall, possibly already inside the Boundless One, and the caregiver warned that escaping might send them into a distant future.

• The three Qin Yiguans plunged into a vast, viscous sea that spun into a whirlpool, then shrank again and found themselves passing between enormous blue droplets.
• The caregiver explained how their surroundings seemed to shift from cosmic vastness to a scale beyond quarks, while Qin Yiguan realized they were still beside Sniper Aoke's corpse and had only become unimaginably small.
• The caregiver told Underworld that he learned science to teach the orphanage's children, and Underworld admitted he was not suited to honest work.
• Qin Yiguan concluded that the Ao Council had remotely detonated Sniper Aoke's String of Jumping and trapped them in an endless shrinking fall.
• When Qin Yiguan called for the Boundless One, the surroundings dimmed, leading him to suspect that the Boundless One had arrived but was now too enormous to perceive.
• The caregiver reasoned that their decreasing weight could let them exceed the speed of light, and warned that returning to the real world might mean arriving centuries or millennia in the future.

Qin Yiguan, Underworld, and the caregiver landed in a monochrome wilderness and met a strange Aoke who claimed to be the real Core Aoke. He explained that the Ao Council’s repeated coups had left him imprisoned, and said he had invented the Multiverse Jump String.

• Qin Yiguan realized that time might be passing outside their fall, and feared he could lose his friends and the lives they had known.
• Underworld cracked jokes about the Ao Council to lift everyone’s spirits, and the three laughed until they hit the ground.
• The trio explored the black-and-gray wilderness and encountered a cloaked, short figure atop a stone pillar.
• Underworld attacked the figure, but creatures from subquark space swallowed the force behind his machete, and the stranger asked them not to fight because they were all prisoners.
• The strange Aoke explained that Ao Council subordinates repeatedly killed and impersonated Core Aoke to seize power, and said he was the real Core Aoke who invented the Multiverse Jump String.

Freak Aoke explained the native life-forms in the sub-quark space and revealed that he could kill Underworld, Qin Yiguan, and the caregiver, but chose not to because they were fellow exiles. In the Aoke Universe, AKI Aoke impressed Core Aoke with a detailed design, then questioned him about the Ao Council’s killings of Qin Yiguan’s isotopes and asked for more access.

• Underworld, Qin Yiguan, and the caregiver dismissed Freak Aoke as useless and considered forcing information out of him.
• Freak Aoke explained that Returners moved displaced objects back and Force Swallowers consumed force, and said he had befriended many native creatures.
• Freak Aoke said he had the power to kill the three but would spare them because they were all exiles far from home.
• AKI Aoke presented Core Aoke with a highly detailed design for a house and courtyard intended to help the Aoke Universe merge with the physical world.
• AKI Aoke asked how many of Qin Yiguan’s isotopes the Ao Council had killed and requested more access to check for himself, but Core Aoke refused and urged him to finish his task.
• AKI Aoke smiled and told Core Aoke he would raise his head as soon as he could.

Freak Aoke explained that the group had entered a microscopic quantum world inside the Metaverse, where he and generations of Core Aokes had been imprisoned after trying and failing to escape. The Core Aokes revealed that they planned to disband the Ao Council if they ever got out.

• Freak Aoke described Subquark Space as a tiny quantum realm with its own ecosystem, modeled on the physical world by the Gemini Superbrain.
• Qin Yiguan asked whether Freak Aoke had tried to escape, and Freak Aoke said he and the others had attempted it countless times.
• Qin Yiguan and the others encountered the 172 Core Aokes from successive generations, who described their past contributions and different modifications.
• The half-bodied 172nd Core Aoke accused Single Horn of betraying and burning him, then ranted about destroying the multiverse before Freak Aoke ordered him dragged away.
• Freak Aoke said many Core Aokes had died and regretted inventing the Multiverse Jump String, while the surviving generations agreed to disband or destroy the Ao Council if they escaped.

The First-Generation Core Aoke tried to recruit Qin Yiguan, Underworld, and the caregiver into his group of former Core Aokes and make himself their leader. When the three refused, they attacked him and the caregiver used his spatial ability to steal the burlwood cane, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• The First-Generation Core Aoke explained that 172 generations of Core Aoke were trapped in Subquark Space and urged Qin Yiguan, Underworld, and the caregiver to join them in escaping and disbanding the Ao Council.
• The First-Generation Core Aoke assigned the three newcomers numbers 173, 174, and 175, and ordered them to serve the other Aoke.
• Qin Yiguan, Underworld, and the caregiver agreed that they would have to defeat the First-Generation Core Aoke before they could establish themselves and search for a way out.
• Underworld charged at the First-Generation Core Aoke as a feint, while the caregiver used his spatial ability to take the burlwood cane.
• The First-Generation Core Aoke stared at his empty hands as Underworld mocked him, and the caregiver admitted they had not planned the attack in advance.

Qin Yiguan and his companions saw Subquark Space transform into a vivid, colorful world before the first-generation Core Aoke summoned a gigantic Ground Mouth to attack them. Starvation Corpse recognized the creature as one of its kind and flew out to speak with it, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• The first-generation Core Aoke explained that his Smiling Face Cane came from the Smiling Face Tree and was not the source of his control over Subquark Space creatures.
• The first-generation Core Aoke struck the ground with his cane, changing the dark landscape into a brilliant, abstract display of colors and patterns.
• The first-generation Core Aoke summoned a colossal creature from beneath the ground and ordered it to teach Qin Yiguan and the others a lesson without killing them.
• Qin Yiguan recognized the creature as a Ground Mouth and wondered whether Zhichun's imagined creatures came from Subquark Space.
• Starvation Corpse told Qin Yiguan that the Ground Mouth was one of its kind and was angry, then flew toward it to speak.

Starvation Corpse transformed into a muscle-bound Barbie and silently connected with the Ground Mouth, which turned against the First-Generation Core Aoke and swallowed him and the other Aoke. Starvation Corpse thanked the Ground Mouth, calling it his family.

• The First-Generation Core Aoke told the others to wait while Qin Yiguan and his companions faced the Ground Mouth.
• Starvation Corpse transformed into a giant, muscle-bound Barbie and blew kisses to Qin Yiguan, Underworld, and the Caregiver.
• Starvation Corpse touched the Ground Mouth's feeler, and the creature calmed as they silently communicated.
• The First-Generation Core Aoke ordered the Ground Mouth to attack, and it resumed thrashing and unleashed a powerful suction.
• The Ground Mouth spared Qin Yiguan and his companions but sucked the First-Generation Core Aoke and more than a hundred Aoke into its mouth.
• Starvation Corpse remained connected to the Ground Mouth and thanked it, calling it his family.

The Ground Mouth spat out the First Generation and more than a hundred Core Aoke, who landed in chewed gum and faced Qin Yiguan. Qin Yiguan took the First Generation’s cane and forced the Core Aoke to submit, then learned their escape plan was stalled because their device needed electricity.

• The First Generation and the other Core Aoke drifted through the Ground Mouth’s belly among enormous real-world objects before a whirlwind carried them back into Subquark Space.
• The Ground Mouth spat the Core Aoke onto a giant piece of chewed gum, where Qin Yiguan, Underworld, and the caregiver confronted them.
• Qin Yiguan summoned the First Generation’s burlwood cane and transformed it into a bracelet on his wrist.
• Qin Yiguan ordered the 172 Core Aoke to kneel, and most submitted; the First Generation knelt after Underworld approached with a machete.
• The First Generation told Qin Yiguan that their device might let them escape Subquark Space, but it could not run without electricity.

Qin Yiguan inspected First Generation’s crude machine, which needed electricity to work, and discovered that ant-like creatures carried real-world electricity in their bellies. First Generation explained how names let him control Subquark Space creatures and revealed that quantum fields could allow someone to enter the Gemini Metaverse without a Nutrient Pod, leaving Qin Yiguan wondering if he had exposed First Generation’s secret.

• First Generation showed Qin Yiguan a hand-built stone machine and explained that it needed electricity, which their world lacked.
• Qin Yiguan realized that the ant-like creatures might carry real-world matter, and the group spotted blue-lit ants marching through the cave.
• First Generation said he could not capture the ants, while Qin Yiguan withheld that Starvation Corpse could communicate with them.
• First Generation revealed that naming creatures let him control them through quantum fields.
• First Generation explained that a strong quantum field could let someone enter the Gemini Metaverse without a Nutrient Pod, and Qin Yiguan suspected he had revealed a secret.

Qin Yiguan named the ants Electricity Bugs, allowing him to control them and collect the electricity in their bellies for the First Generation’s machine. The machine created a glowing reverse-jump string, and the First Generation announced that it had worked.

• Qin Yiguan realized the First Generation could not control the ants because Zhichun had already named them.
• Qin Yiguan called the ants Electricity Bugs, and they turned toward him and followed his request to help.
• The Electricity Bugs carried charged bubbles to the machine’s energy storage box, where the bubbles gathered into a small mountain.
• The First Generation explained how the machine used quantum transitions and discontinuity to create a string that could return everyone to their original worlds.
• The First Generation activated the machine, and a bright, stable string appeared inside the cannon.

Single Horn Aoke recalled how he murdered Core Aoke and seized control of the Ao Council, then learned that his former leader may have survived in a prison. He repeatedly plucked Core Aoke’s String of Jumping to unleash disasters inside the prison, where three Qin Yiguans had also been trapped.

• The current Core Aoke ordered AKI Aoke’s plan to assassinate Qin Yiguan’s isotopes slowed, wanting to leave some enemies to keep AKI in check.
• Single Horn Aoke recalled joining the Ao Council, becoming Core Aoke’s trusted aide, and burning and exiling the former Core Aoke before taking his place.
• Single Horn discovered that detonating the String of Jumping had sent the former Core Aoke to a prison rather than killing him, and learned that three Qin Yiguans had been imprisoned there.
• Single Horn set the prison as his interference target and rapidly plucked Core Aoke’s golden String of Jumping, triggering catastrophic disasters inside the prison.

First Generation’s cannon began converting No. 172 into data, but the current Core Aoke’s String of Jumping triggered a catastrophic lightning storm that threatened the machine and everyone nearby. Qin Yiguan rescued the badly injured Underworld as the lightning began sweeping across the land with apparent intent.

• First Generation asked for a test subject, and No. 172 volunteered to enter the cannon after Qin Yiguan warned Underworld that his healing had limits.
• First Generation activated the crude machine, and No. 172’s body began turning into data as the group expected him to escape the prison.
• First Generation revealed that the current Core Aoke’s String of Jumping had caused a massive catastrophe, and the shaking made the cannon’s energy unstable.
• Underworld ran to the cave entrance to investigate, where a lightning strike sheared away part of the mountain and left him hanging over a vast chasm.
• Qin Yiguan pulled Underworld to safety as he healed his severe injuries, while the lightning storm spread across the land and began moving as though guided.
• A bolt of golden lightning split the mountain hiding the cannon machine in two.

Qin Yiguan and his companions tried to protect the cannon machine and No. 172 from the golden lightning, but the storm overwhelmed them. In the Aoke Universe, Single Horn learned that a Qin Yiguan isotope had been captured and prepared to question him.

• Qin Yiguan summoned Ground Mouth to shield the cave and cannon machine from the golden lightning, but the beast was badly wounded.
• Qin Yiguan told Ground Mouth it did not have to sacrifice itself, and Ground Mouth withdrew underground.
• The caregiver lifted the damaged cannon machine with his space-manipulating ability as Qin Yiguan and Underworld guarded him while they fled through the lightning.
• A thick bolt struck the three companions, sending them flying as the cannon machine cracked and No. 172 screamed; Qin Yiguan then lost consciousness.
• Single Horn hid the golden bowstring when Blue Blood Aoke reported capturing a Qin Yiguan isotope, then ordered him brought in for questioning.