Chapter Summaries

AKI searched Multiverse No. 0573 for his missing parents and attacked the Metaverse Government, while Jiu Zhengxuan and the Youth Order Squad stood against him. Qin Yiguan arrived with Caregiver and Underworld, then threatened AKI with the loss of his parents as AKI attacked him.

• AKI searched the Metaverse for his parents, who had been living in a hidden virtual home, but found no trace of them.
• AKI roared in anger and sent spikes from the black sun through the Government’s weapons, mechas, and aircraft.
• Jiu Zhengxuan and the Youth Order Squad faced the black sun at the ruined front line, with Teacher Qing and Officer Wang joining them.
• Qin Yiguan arrived with Caregiver and Underworld, his counterparts from other multiverses.
• AKI recognized Qin Yiguan and launched a spike at him, but Qin Yiguan warned that AKI would never see his parents again if he harmed him.

AKI discovered that Qin Yiguan had buried his parents in Nutrient Pods and, believing them dead, ordered the Aoke Legion to slaughter Mirage City. As the battle began, the Boundless One brought 118 generations of Core Aoke back to the real world, where they ordered the attacking Aoke isotopes to stop.

• AKI found his parents' Nutrient Pods beneath their tombstones and accused Qin Yiguan of killing and burying them, but Qin Yiguan said they had died naturally.
• AKI mourned his parents, then threatened to make Qin Yiguan suffer the loss of those he wanted to protect.
• AKI ordered the Aoke Legion to kill everyone in Mirage City except Qin Yiguan, and an Aoke isotope killed a member of the Youth Order Squad.
• The Boundless One brought 118 big-headed people, including the First-Generation Core Aoke, to Qin Yiguan's side.
• The First-Generation Core Aoke and other Core Aoke ordered the Aoke isotopes to stop and appealed to specific soldiers from their past.

The former Core Aokes confronted AKI and tried to stop the elite Aokes from serving him, but AKI’s Black Matter technology overwhelmed them. The elite Aokes were briefly sent back to their multiverses, then recalled as AKI killed every former Core Aoke and destroyed the String of Jumping.

• The former Core Aokes revealed themselves to the elite Aokes, and Single Horn accused AKI of replacing generations of Core Aokes.
• Single Horn was shot after an elite Aoke declared his loyalty to AKI, and the First Generation led the former Cores into battle.
• The First Generation activated a machine that pulled the elite Aokes’ Strings of Jumping away and sent them back to their multiverses.
• AKI used Black Matter spikes to kill the former Core Aokes and destroy the giant String of Jumping.
• AKI recalled all the elite Aokes and declared that he had calculated every variable and that the outcome could not change.

Qin Yiguan tried to use the Boundless One to restore his Consciousness Matrix, but his abilities remained gone as AKI destroyed Multiverse No. 0573. After his home universe was consumed, Qin Yiguan entered the Qin Variants’ meeting room, where the vice president said it was time to tell him everything.

• Qin Yiguan asked the Boundless One to restore his Consciousness Matrix, but their fusion did not return his powers.
• AKI’s black matter forces overwhelmed the Youth Order Squad, killing Teacher Qing, Jiu Zhengxuan, Wei Hu, and the Core Aoke.
• Black matter assimilated Multiverse No. 0573, and AKI knelt before his parents’ frozen coffins as his home universe was consumed.
• Qin Yiguan found only the Underworld and the Caregiver still standing amid the destruction, then entered the Qin Variants’ meeting room.
• The vice president appeared in his wheelchair and told the others it was time to tell Qin Yiguan everything.

Qin Yiguan met Wuliang, president of the Qin Variants, and learned his universe’s destruction had appeared in a dream that could still be changed. Wuliang showed him a counterpart’s intervention in Multiverse No. 0573, then revealed that Qin Yiguan was inside his own consciousness.

• Wuliang introduced himself as the president of the Qin Variants and admitted he had slaughtered Multiverse No. 008.
• Wuliang told Qin Yiguan that the vision of his home universe’s destruction had been a dream created by the Dream General, and that he still had a chance to change the outcome.
• Qin Yiguan awoke in Mirage City as the black sun attacked, and a priest counterpart arrived to help him.
• The priest explained that he had gained 220 million followers by using Gestalt Collapse to create and defeat demons, then faced a spike from the black sun without resisting.
• Qin Yiguan returned to the conference room and saw the priest’s intervention frozen inside a balloon showing Multiverse No. 0573.
• The president explained that the Boundless One had paused time and space, and told Qin Yiguan he was inside his own consciousness.

The chairman explained that the Gemini Superbrain was balancing Qin Yiguan’s abilities against data from countless counterparts, and that their deaths could shift him back toward illness and power. As counterparts began sacrificing themselves to restore him, Qin Yiguan learned that a mysterious rabbit-masked version of himself had directed the Qin Variants, leaving him to face the path remaining after every “wrong answer” was eliminated.

• The chairman told Qin Yiguan that the Gemini Superbrain collected outcomes from countless multiverses, and that the resulting benchmark had neutralized Qin Yiguan’s abilities.
• The chairman suggested that if the counterparts who had been cured disappeared, the benchmark could shift and Qin Yiguan could become ill again.
• Back on the battlefield, Qin Yiguan watched the Priest die, then saw his restoration data begin to rise.
• A healthy child counterpart appeared and was killed by AKI, triggering further restoration in Qin Yiguan.
• Prisoner 001 and the Qin Yiguan who liked sleeping in graves appeared as spikes halted before them, and Qin Yiguan returned to the conference room.
• The chairman revealed that a rabbit-masked version of Qin Yiguan had told the Qin Variants to sacrifice themselves, and said their mission was to clear away every wrong answer.

Qin Yiguan watched his isotopes die one by one, restoring parts of his consciousness and abilities while inflicting pain on him. After the boy in pajamas was killed, Qin Yiguan understood why the Qin Variants had chosen a chairman with [Conscience-Free Syndrome].

• Qin Yiguan watched Prisoner 001 and the grave boy die, restoring parts of his Consciousness Matrix and awakening Slaughterer and Victim.
• Dishwasher removed Boss Meng’s cross, declared that he had recovered, and died, restoring more of Qin Yiguan’s consciousness and awakening Black Calamity.
• Qin Yiguan used the power of [Gestalt Collapse] to pull Jiu Zhengxuan away from a Black Matter spike and save him.
• The boy in pajamas made the author uncle vanish, sealed Dream General’s ability, and was killed as his sleep clock shattered.
• Qin Yiguan realized that the Qin Variants had chosen a chairman with [Conscience-Free Syndrome] so someone could carry out their sacrifices without hesitation.

Qin Yiguan learned that his counterparts and their home universes were being erased as wrong answers, and the president and vice president explained that the Forgetter’s quantum nature made observation trigger their collapse. The chapter left Qin Yiguan facing the prospect that he was destined to survive as the sole, most correct version of himself.

• Qin Yiguan saw Underworld and the Caregiver lose awareness as they learned from their respective presidents that the counterparts had to sacrifice themselves.
• Qin Yiguan entered the conference room and begged the president and vice president to stop the sacrifices, insisting that his counterparts were his friends.
• The president showed Qin Yiguan a vision of AKI consuming every multiverse and ending alone, warning that this was the Gemini Metaverse’s fate if no one stopped him.
• Qin Yiguan saw Multiverse No. 1020 and Multiverse No. 999 collapsing, and the president explained that the home universes of his counterparts were also wrong answers.
• The vice president explained that the Forgetter’s quantum nature caused observed wrong answers to be erased, and said Qin Yiguan was destined to be the one who remained.

Qin Yiguan learned that the Gemini Superbrain was destroying multiverses regardless of whether he looked at them, and he watched Underworld and Caregiver disappear with their home universes. Caregiver’s death awakened Child, who appeared in reality to say goodbye.

• The president explained that Qin Yiguan’s gaze had doomed the multiverses he had seen, while the vice president revealed that the Gemini Superbrain had also begun destroying Multiverse 013 with beast tides.
• Qin Yiguan found that Underworld’s home universe had been devastated, and Underworld spoke to him before charging at the enemy and vanishing with his universe.
• The president reported Underworld’s syndromes as Underworld’s body turned to ash, and Qin Yiguan spat blood as his Consciousness Matrix recovered.
• Caregiver said goodbye to Qin Yiguan and disappeared, while the president explained that Caregiver had been a wrong answer despite overcoming his syndromes.
• Child’s awakening surged, and he appeared in reality in tears to say goodbye to Caregiver.

As Qin Yiguan’s counterpart universes collapsed, his Consciousness Matrix and Separation Rate approached completion, and he discovered that the Guardian had sealed Core Earth inside a protected boundary. The Qin Variants were annihilated, leaving Qin Yiguan alone in a single merged multiverse and granting him the Infinity state.

• Qin Yiguan watched Black Matter consume a battlefield as his counterpart universes collapsed and the Consciousness Matrix restoration increased.
• A young Qin Yiguan died without activating the Guardian, and Qin Yiguan began sensing the Guardian’s presence and its barrier around Core Earth.
• Notifications reported the destruction of Qin Yiguan’s event universes and counterparts, raising his Separation Rate to 99%.
• The president told the vice president that he had killed the people in his home universe, then slit the vice president’s throat as a black figure killed him in turn.
• The Qin Variants were completely annihilated, the Consciousness Matrix and Separation Rate reached 100%, and Qin Yiguan entered the Infinity state with only one merged multiverse remaining.

Qin Yiguan returned to the battlefield after the Qin Variants disappeared and used Caregiver’s lollipops to reach Child, who awakened and became Infinity. With AKI still roaring in the distance, Qin Yiguan wondered what Infinity meant.

• Qin Yiguan appeared on the battlefield and found Teacher Qing trapped beneath rubble while Jiu Zhengxuan struggled to free him.
• Qin Yiguan asked Guardian to loosen its protection, and the rubble flew away, freeing Teacher Qing as Snow City of Heavenly Light approached.
• Jiu Zhengxuan formed Reality Enhancement-Black Room, while Qin Yiguan walked toward Child with the leaf-wrapped bundle Caregiver had left him.
• Qin Yiguan showed Child the lollipops’ pictures and asked to be his good friend, then gave him the final lollipop.
• Child accepted the lollipop, awakened to level 100%, and was promoted to Infinity.
• Qin Yiguan looked toward AKI’s black sun and wondered what Infinity meant.

Qin Yiguan discovered that he could read AKI’s settings and summoned the Slaughterer to strike the Black Matter surrounding Snow City of Heavenly Light. The Black Matter shattered, but the Slaughterer went berserk and attacked the elite Aokes as AKI watched.

• Qin Yiguan saw the settings embedded in the Black Matter around Jiu Zhengxuan and realized its supposed sharpness and hardness came from exaggerated properties.
• Qin Yiguan appeared beside Jiu Zhengxuan, then went to Snow City of Heavenly Light and summoned the Slaughterer, asking his brother Underworld to help him break the Black Matter.
• The Slaughterer’s saber passed through the Black Matter at first, but cracks spread across it until the material around the city exploded into powder.
• The Slaughterer charged the elite Aokes, shattered their Black Matter armor, and killed or wounded many of them while the survivors fled.
• The Slaughterer fixed his gaze on the fleeing Aokes, teleported across the battlefield, and brought his saber down on them.

Qin Yiguan used his newly awakened Infinity power to stop AKI’s Black Matter and split open the black sun. After Child neutralized AKI’s final explosive attack, Qin Yiguan tore away the Black Matter controlling piece embedded in AKI’s head, leaving him bleeding and howling.

• AKI sent Black Matter spikes at Qin Yiguan, but Qin Yiguan’s Infinity power froze and bent them before he split the black sun open.
• Qin Yiguan entered the black sun’s core, where AKI stood beside his parents’ coffins and revealed that he had prepared a Pillar of Destruction containing Source Matter from 190,000 multiverses.
• AKI triggered the Pillar of Destruction, but Child trapped its explosion in a shrinking spatial cube until its energy vanished.
• Qin Yiguan grasped the Black Matter fitted against AKI’s scalp and ripped it away, making AKI stumble back, bleed, and howl.

After defeating AKI, Qin Yiguan realized the search for Anti-Source Matter had been an infinite journey orchestrated by the Gemini Superbrain, and that his isotopes had been sacrificed to make his victory possible. AKI died peacefully in a dream, while Jiu Zhengxuan absorbed the Black Matter and Qin Yiguan returned to the world as a solitary, unknown victor.

• Qin Yiguan deciphered the coordinates in Caregiver’s diary as digits of π and concluded that the Anti-Source Matter search had been designed as an infinite, nonrepeating journey that deleted those who overcame their illnesses.
• Overwhelmed by guilt for his isotopes’ deaths, Qin Yiguan put on a ceramic rabbit mask and developed the Bystander personality, which suppressed his grief and self-reproach.
• The rabbit-masked personality revealed that it worked for the Gemini Superbrain and explained that Qin Yiguan’s Infinity power made defeating AKI an inevitable possibility, even though Qin Yiguan had been used like a test subject.
• Qin Yiguan used Dream General to trap AKI in a peaceful dream of living with his healthy parents, and AKI died inside the black sun with a smile.
• Jiu Zhengxuan absorbed the black sun’s Black Matter into his Black Room and gained a Higher Self, while Qin Yiguan’s simulation concealed the battle’s true events from the outside world.

Qin Yiguan woke after a prolonged sleep in 2123 and discovered fungal filaments growing on his body, like those found on people who died in their Nutrient Pods. As military investigators focused on the Black Sun Incident and the missing man in black, Qin Yiguan wondered whether his transformation was connected to becoming Infinity.

• News reports described a massive black sphere appearing over China's B5 Sector before vanishing, and military forces investigated the Black Sun Incident.
• Commander Long ordered Jiu Zhengxuan taken to military headquarters while the investigation continued.
• A technician reported that a young man in black had been filmed near the crash site before mysteriously disappearing.
• Qin Yiguan woke in Rust City after an unusually long sleep and found translucent fungal fuzz growing on his arm and bedsheets.
• Qin Yiguan recalled similar fungal growth on Doctor Jiao Shensan, Boss Meng, and others, and connected it to the deaths of Nutrient Pod users.
• Qin Yiguan considered whether Doctor Jiao, Boss Meng, and the others had become Infinity instead of dying.

Long Huicheng analyzed blurry footage of a boy connected to the Black Sun Incident and ordered a search, then oversaw China’s victory in a simulated war. After leaving the meeting, he was forced to put out his cigarette by cleaner Zhao Fengying.

• Long Huicheng inferred the boy’s age, height, habits, and likely school location from the footage, then ordered his subordinates to find him.
• Long Huicheng reviewed simulated war No. 1256, learned that China had destroyed all of Ou Country’s weapons while retaining 54 percent of its own, and demanded better survival rates next time.
• General Luo explained Long Huicheng’s record of winning 455 simulated wars and revealed that he held China’s first seven-star military honors.
• Cleaner Zhao Fengying confronted Long Huicheng for smoking in the corridor and made him extinguish his cigarette on her mechanical broom.
• A young clerk watched Long Huicheng leave and admired him as a role model.

Qin Yiguan found Rust City empty as its residents entered the Gemini Metaverse permanently, while Long Huicheng agreed to an international contest between Reality Enhancement combat squads. Back at school, Qin Yiguan discovered a murdered student and learned that the victim was Primordial Squad captain Cheng Gao, whose Fusion Rate had recently exceeded ninety percent.

• Qin Yiguan walked through deserted Rust City, realized he might be the last person left in reality, and decided to return to school.
• Long Huicheng learned that Ou Country and several other nations had challenged China to a contest between Reality Enhancement combat squads, and he assigned Han Ming to oversee China's response.
• Qin Yiguan returned to 053 High School and met Jiu Zhengxuan, who teased him with the nickname Little Qin Beast.
• Qin Yiguan and Jiu Zhengxuan found a student’s unusually cleanly severed corpse outside the school’s main building.
• Jiu Zhengxuan identified the victim as Cheng Gao, the Primordial Squad captain Primordial-1, who had three Reality Enhancements and a Fusion Rate above ninety percent.

Qin Yiguan and Jiu Zhengxuan investigated Primordial-1’s death and concluded that the killer had breached the Guardian’s barrier, suggesting a powerful attack and a serious leak of classified information. Instructor Long took control of the scene, excluded Jiu Zhengxuan from the case, and confiscated the wristband he had tried to take.

• Qin Yiguan and Jiu Zhengxuan discussed the secret Reality Enhancer teams and suspected Primordial-1 had been targeted after a leak of classified identities.
• Qin Yiguan noticed a breach in the Guardian’s barrier aimed at the spot where Primordial-1 died and warned Jiu Zhengxuan that the killer could be extremely powerful.
• Instructor Long and a squad in black uniforms cleared the crowd and took control of the crime scene.
• Instructor Long barred Jiu Zhengxuan and Qin Yiguan from the investigation because Jiu Zhengxuan lacked the required clearance.
• Instructor Long made Jiu Zhengxuan surrender the black wristband he had tried to take from the corpse and warned him not to involve himself.
• Instructor Long noticed Qin Yiguan’s Smiling Face Cane and reminded Jiu Zhengxuan not to reveal organizational information to civilians.

After a mysterious killer murdered members of China’s reality enhancement squads, including Primeval-3, Long Huicheng investigated the deaths and the olive leaves left at the scenes. Qin Yiguan concluded that an organized, powerful group was behind the killings and sent Jiu Zhengxuan to investigate as the secret operatives took him to the China Military Department Research Center.

• Qin Yiguan learned that Jiu Zhengxuan’s wristband recorded its wearer’s experiences, but Jiu Zhengxuan lacked clearance to view its contents.
• Shi Li, codename Primeval-3, was killed in the Experimental Zone by a single unseen attack while visiting his father’s enormous Stonehenge attraction.
• Long Huicheng learned that seven other squad members had also been killed, examined the wristband footage, and found an ordinary olive leaf at each scene.
• Long Huicheng moved the remaining members of Primordial, Dragon Scale, and the Tang Dynasty to the Experimental Zone for protection.
• Qin Yiguan told Jiu Zhengxuan that the olive leaf was likely a deliberate signature of a powerful, organized killer and asked him to investigate other murders and Ou Country’s challenge.
• Secret operatives summoned Jiu Zhengxuan to the China Military Department Research Center for the Black Sun Incident investigation, and Qin Yiguan urged him to cooperate.

After Jiu Zhengxuan was taken to a witness protection room at the China Military Department Research Center, Qin Yiguan watched hidden squad members and government agents at 053 High School while trying to evade scrutiny. Jiu Zhengxuan planned how to investigate from confinement, unaware that Zhao Huolong and the Youth Order Squad had followed him to the wrong building.

• Several Youth Order Squad members secretly followed Jiu Zhengxuan from 053 High School, and Zhao Huolong nodded to Qin Yiguan.
• Qin Yiguan spotted two students with black bracelets being escorted away and used the Shadow to track the government aircraft.
• Black-clad agents questioned students about absent classmates, then tried and failed to find Qin Yiguan after he disappeared behind a flower bed.
• Jiu Zhengxuan learned that he was being held in a witness protection room because of the Black Sun Incident and the emergency involving assassinated Reality Enhancement squad members.
• Jiu Zhengxuan considered how to investigate recent deaths and Ou Country's challenge without his abilities or communications equipment.
• Zhao Huolong and the others reached the building where Jiu Zhengxuan was being held and realized it was not the China Military Department Research Center.