Chapter Summaries

Xi Yan prepared to claim unoccupied systems near the Stone People's territory while scientists and diplomats began translating their communications. Meanwhile, three stranded scientists aboard Science Ship One accepted that they would soon die and spent their remaining time studying the crystalline entities and creating written works.

• Xi Yan ordered the Stone People's communications relayed to the Ring World for translation and sent Science Ship Two to search for their borders.
• Xi Yan calculated that Science Ship One's oxygen would run out in fourteen days, leaving its three scientists no time for rescue without a Jump Drive.
• The observer studied the crystalline entities at close range and transmitted records of their behavior to the Academy of Sciences headquarters.
• The analyst researched the crystalline entities using the surviving equipment and produced some useful conclusions.
• The writer composed a farewell letter and several literary works about the stranded scientists' final days, which Xi Yan read.

Xi Yan and the three scientists turned their doomed mission into a patriotic spectacle, urging citizens to work harder before the scientists died aboard Science Ship One. Xi Yan honored their sacrifice as the “Science Ship One Spirit,” and the empire’s resource output rose as citizens worked overtime for Labor Points.

• The Ministry of Culture publicized the three scientists’ resolve, while Xi Yan ended rescue marches and told citizens to work for the empire instead.
• The three scientists addressed the Ring World, urging citizens to repay the Marshal and the empire through hard work.
• After more than ten days of dwindling supplies, Xi Yan and over a hundred thousand citizens watched the scientists die from oxygen loss aboard Science Ship One.
• Xi Yan mourned the dead and praised the three scientists’ sacrifice as the “Science Ship One Spirit.”
• When resource output surged, Xi Yan awarded Labor Points to citizens who had worked overtime.
• Several months passed.

Xi Yan took a day off to play Battlefield: 2200, a remastered game he had overseen, and turned its Ring World combat scenes into a recruitment advertisement for the Imperial Navy. The chapter ended with Xi Yan urging viewers to enlist and become heroes.

• Xi Yan lamented the lack of games on the Thought-Question Learning Platform and recalled how the entertainment industry had declined.
• Xi Yan set aside his government duties to play Battlefield: 2200, a game he had helped bring to release.
• Xi Yan played on the Ring World map and declared that humanity’s survival came at a price as an alien killed his character.
• Xi Yan presented the alien invasion as a possible future threat and called on viewers to join the Imperial Navy.
• Xi Yan appeared in battle scenes fighting aliens and urged people to become heroes and members of the Imperial Navy.

Xi Yan helped film a humorous military recruitment advertisement and considered expanding the navy while pursuing Cybrex research. At Cybrex Alpha University, he offered cigarettes to an old gatekeeper, who revealed that he was a reformist and smoked e-cigarettes.

• Xi Yan praised the recruitment ad after filming it and explained that he had altered the script to make it more entertaining.
• Xi Yan discussed recruiting technical personnel to expand the navy with blue laser frigates, while dismissing the Army as a source of cannon fodder.
• Xi Yan recalled his project to locate the Cybrex War Forge and use Cybrex Warforms against the tough rock people.
• Xi Yan greeted the public as he walked near Cybrex Alpha University and offered the old gatekeeper a pack of Li Qun cigarettes.
• The old gatekeeper accepted the cigarettes but told Xi Yan that he was a reformist who smoked e-cigarettes.

Xi Yan had arranged for elderly people to work in lighter service and security jobs, presenting the policy as a humane way to keep them occupied after leaving production posts. The Empire provided no pensions, leaving the elderly free to keep working while their families’ free supplies covered their basic needs.

• Xi Yan entered Cybrex Alpha University with his guards after saying goodbye to the old reformist.
• Xi Yan employed elderly people as security guards, dormitory supervisors, and workers in service establishments, despite the university’s security machines being able to handle routine oversight.
• Xi Yan’s Empire assigned citizens education and work, provided basic supplies to prime-age workers, and paid labor points for overtime rather than wages.
• The Empire allowed people over a hundred or unable to work to retire without a pension, while those reaching eighty were moved from production posts into lighter service jobs.

Xi Yan reflected on the Empire’s labor and burial policies before visiting a university and honoring his father’s monument. He began an inspection of the Imperial Military Recruitment Office at Cybrex Alpha University.

• Xi Yan’s government expanded work opportunities for the elderly and promoted biological burials, which had been accepted after a propaganda campaign.
• Xi Yan visited a monument to his father, Marshal Xi Lie, and vowed to make the Empire powerful across the stars.
• University administrators and a military officer hurried over to greet Xi Yan during his campus visit.
• Xi Yan told the administrators he would visit regularly and instructed them to continue their normal work.
• Xu Yuejin introduced himself as head of the Imperial Military Recruitment Office and led Xi Yan toward the teaching building to report on its work.

Xi Yan inspected the navy recruitment office at Cybrex Alpha University and discovered that students were eager to enlist. He turned away the university’s top student for a research career, then warned the others that naval service meant risking death as they insisted they were unafraid.

• Xi Yan joked with Imperial Forum users while touring the university with Xu Yuejin.
• Xu Yuejin showed Xi Yan the recruitment office, where many students lined up to enlist.
• Xi Yan asked which students had the best grades and praised a graduate student ranked second at the university.
• Xi Yan told the high-achieving student to pursue research at the Academy of Sciences instead of joining the navy.
• Xi Yan warned the gathered students that they could die fighting dangerous alien life-forms, and a tall male student declared they were not afraid.

Xi Yan warned the students that interstellar war meant meaningful sacrifice and certain death, but the recruits pledged their lives to him because he had freed their families from exploitation and poverty. The chapter ended with the students surrounding him in tearful support.

• Xi Yan told the students that fearlessness alone did not qualify them for war and asked whether they would accept missions that meant certain death.
• A student declared that he would give his life for Xi Yan because the Marshal had freed his family from exploitation and poverty.
• A student from a poor city district pledged his life in gratitude for the free soup and help Xi Yan had given his family.
• More recruits shared stories of their families’ hardship under the old order and praised Xi Yan for driving out their oppressors.
• The students surrounded Xi Yan and pledged their loyalty, moved by gratitude for the better lives he had made possible.

Xi Yan left Cybrex Alpha University after discouraging students from joining the navy, while Beta confronted him about his compassion for the Empire’s people. Still worried about the Ring World’s population shortage, Xi Yan decided to push people to have more children and demanded an update on robot workers.

• Xi Yan escaped a crowd of students, and Beta told him that beneath his ruthless image he cared deeply about humanity and justice.
• Xi Yan urged the students to study and contribute to the Empire through the Academy of Sciences rather than die in the navy, then left the university.
• Beta warned Xi Yan that his contradictory behavior could cause serious psychological harm, and Xi Yan forbade Beta from assessing his mental state.
• Xi Yan turned to the Ring World’s population shortage and decided to raise the cost of contraceptives and sex toys while considering compulsory childbirth.
• Xi Yan called the Academy of Sciences and demanded to know whether his robot workers had been developed.

Xi Yan learned that Synth technology was still in development while Blue Laser and powered exoskeleton upgrades neared military use. He visited an Army base to inspect the new equipment, where Prigozhin prepared to demonstrate an exoskeleton-equipped soldier.

• Mardun promised Xi Yan that Synth technology would be developed within a year and reported that Blue Laser had been developed, with production costs still under study.
• Xi Yan ordered Mardun to coordinate Blue Laser deployment with Military Headquarters and replace the Red Lasers once it was ready.
• Xi Yan considered the search for the Cybrex War Forge and its powerful Cybrex Warform before contacting Prigozhin about the Army's new equipment.
• Xi Yan traveled with his personal guards to an Army base, where Prigozhin showed him a soldier wearing lightweight powered exoskeleton armor and holding an electrically charged katana.

Xi Yan inspected Prigozhin’s exoskeleton armor and learned that the Academy of Sciences had found a suspected Cybrex War Forge. He left the military base to pursue the discovery, eager to produce giant Cybrex Warforms and challenge the Stone People.

• A soldier in lightweight exoskeleton armor demonstrated his speed and agility by slicing through a training dummy and running along a wall.
• Prigozhin showed Xi Yan heavy exoskeleton armor, whose soldier cut a fast-moving drone in half with a heat-glowing katana.
• Xi Yan noticed that the armor designs borrowed from Ghostrunner and Metal Gear, then received an Academy of Sciences report about a suspected Cybrex War Forge in the Cybrex Delta Segment.
• Xi Yan left Prigozhin’s presentation and boarded his spaceship, intending to produce Cybrex Warforms and take on the Stone People.

Xi Yan visited the ruined Delta Segment of the Cybrex Alpha Ring World to inspect the Cybrex War Forge project. The research team had only surveyed the forge’s perimeter, so Xi Yan arranged to send a drone projection inside.

• Xi Yan landed on the Delta Segment and surveyed its ruined metal structures and ancient wreckage.
• Gu Zaiyun introduced himself as leader of the team investigating the Cybrex War Forge and warned that the team had not entered it.
• Xi Yan asked to inspect the forge and agreed to send a drone carrying his projection inside.
• Gu Zaiyun recalled how he had helped Marshal Xi Lie settle and repair the Alpha Section after the fleet arrived at the Ring World.
• Xi Yan praised the history of his predecessors, and Gu Zaiyun said that the present era belonged to him.

Xi Yan and Gu Zaiyun explored a buried chamber beneath the Ring World’s damaged Delta Segment and discovered a vast ancient factory. Xi Yan identified its giant construct as a Cybrex Warform and the facility as the Cybrex War Forge.

• Gu Zaiyun explained that Cybrex Alpha had lost a prolonged war, leaving the Ring World heavily bombarded and the Delta Segment severely damaged.
• Xi Yan and the researchers descended through a passage exposed by the bombardment and opened a large door.
• They entered a huge underground chamber filled with machinery and a towering construct secured on a central platform.
• Xi Yan recognized the construct as a Cybrex Warform and declared the facility to be the Cybrex War Forge.

Xi Yan learned that the Cybrex War Forge was operational and could produce Cybrex Warforms, but required more minerals than the empire could currently supply. He left Gu Zaiyun’s team to study the relic and planned to redirect the empire toward rapid expansion.

• Gu Zaiyun reported that the Cybrex War Forge was intact and that the team had figured out how to activate it without dismantling its machinery.
• Gu Zaiyun explained that the forge required at least ten thousand units of ore and could produce Cybrex Warforms while refining one thousand units of alloys.
• Xi Yan ordered Gu Zaiyun’s team to study how to move the forge to the Alpha Segment and keep it ready for operation.
• The empire log recorded the Cybrex War Forge as a relic discovered in the Ring World’s Delta Segment.
• Xi Yan planned a conference to shift the empire’s priorities toward rapid outward expansion and the seizure of more star systems.

Xi Yan oversaw the empire’s expansion through 2201, including the recovery of Science Ship One and the discovery that the Sacred Tree could help transform other planets. As he worked through the end of the year, Beta announced that an alien empire had established communications with them.

• In early 2201, Xi Yan’s new ships and the Amat Eiro Starport entered service, and the Imperial Navy grew to six corvettes.
• Science Ship Three, a transport ship, and the Imperial Navy recovered Science Ship One’s wreckage in the Issam System and defeated the Red Crystal Shards, though the fleet took damage.
• Xi Yan’s government buried the dead scientists, turned the wreckage into the Forerunner Museum, and established Ancestors' Memorial Day.
• The Plant People farming facility began operating on Amat Eiro II, and researchers found that substances from the Sacred Tree could extend lifespans; Xi Yan distributed them among workers.
• Scientists reported that Sacred Tree branches could gradually transform other planets into Gaia Planets, though the process would take centuries.
• On December 29, as Xi Yan worked in his office, Beta announced that an alien empire had established communications with them.

Xi Yan reviewed the history of first contact with the Alpha Aliens and opened diplomatic communications with the M'tok Union, expecting a friendly trading partner. The M'tok declared that they despised humans, planned to smuggle away their wealth, and were protected by the Celestial Dragon, leaving Xi Yan convinced his civilization was in danger.

• Xi Yan received the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ files on eighteen months of contact with the Alpha Aliens and prepared to speak with them directly.
• The files described the aliens’ rocky bodies, superior technology, and the destruction of one of their science ships by their own fleet.
• Researchers discovered that the Alpha Aliens were highly toxic, and the M'tok grew hostile after humans recovered their corpses.
• Human scientists deciphered the aliens’ vibration-based language and learned that they called themselves the M'tok and governed through a megacorporation.
• Xi Yan greeted the M'tok Union, which replied that it disliked humans, intended to establish smuggling ports, and relied on the Celestial Dragon for protection.
• Xi Yan realized the M'tok were a powerful criminal syndicate rather than peaceful traders and cried out that his civilization was doomed.

Xi Yan panicked after learning that the M'tok Union was a dragon-origin criminal megacorp inhabited by Noxious, Very Strong, Repugnant Stone People, and he struggled to regain his composure. He finally decided to take a walk with Beta and leave work behind for a while.

• Xi Yan sent the M'tok Union a cautious diplomatic reply and decided to hide the location of his Ring World by giving them the Amaterro System as his home system.
• Xi Yan broke down over the threat posed by the Union's Celestial Dragon and criminal smuggling ports, alarming Ailiveer and Yu Shuo.
• Xi Yan searched for a console and shouted about using cheats to kill the Stone People before calming down with Ailiveer clinging to him.
• Beta warned Xi Yan that prolonged overwork was causing his mental strain, and Ailiveer urged him to rest.
• Xi Yan teased Ailiveer, agreed to go for a walk, and asked Beta to accompany him.

Xi Yan brooded over his empire’s weakness and the sacrifice of Science Ship One’s crew before Beta’s advice helped him regain his resolve. He returned to work determined to strengthen humanity and accepted that sacrifice would accompany the empire’s growth.

• Xi Yan wandered through the holiday streets, thinking about how to retaliate against the Stone People and how to acquire more technology for his fragile empire.
• Xi Yan sat by the Science Ship One monument and felt guilty that the brave crew had died for the empire.
• Beta tried to console Xi Yan, then argued that materialist and spiritualist ethics could mean the opposite of what their names suggested.
• Xi Yan agreed that he had been overworked, resolved to set aside an hour each day for games, and headed back to the administration building.
• Xi Yan paused at the monument and declared that he could not lose for humanity.

Xi Yan ordered defenses and intelligence operations against the M'tok Union, then joined diplomats as both sides agreed to establish embassies despite openly acknowledging espionage and smuggling. He left to seek Grand Marshal Bai Fengfeng’s help with a strategy against the Stone People.

• Xi Yan issued decrees to close borders with the M'tok Union, strengthen patrols, produce Sublight Warships, and warn citizens about the alien threat.
• Xi Yan ordered Ashes to requisition Hyperdrive ships and conduct reconnaissance inside the M'tok Union.
• Xi Yan walked to the foreign ministry and found diplomats debating how to communicate with the M'tok Union.
• Xi Yan directed the diplomats to propose mutual embassies, and both sides agreed while the M'tok Union openly mentioned espionage and smuggling.
• Xi Yan told the diplomats to coordinate embassy rules with the Secretariat and left to ask Grand Marshal Bai Fengfeng for help.

Xi Yan negotiated a monthly trade of 300 energy credits with Bai Fengfeng in exchange for technology from the United Nations of Earth. They agreed on resource-output technologies, Starhold construction technology, and basic Torpedo Ship technologies, while Destroyer technology remained off the table.

• Xi Yan complained to Bai Fengfeng that Stone People and a Criminal Enterprise had built a smuggling port in his territory and asked for aid.
• Xi Yan offered to trade energy credits, and Bai Fengfeng was astonished when he promised a steady supply of 300 per month.
• Bai Fengfeng agreed to the trade because the United Nations of Earth needed energy credits to support its expansion and military buildup.
• Xi Yan demanded resource-output technologies, Starhold technology, Torpedo Ship technologies, and Destroyer technology in exchange.
• Bai Fengfeng refused to provide Destroyer technology, and Xi Yan accepted Starhold construction technology and the basic Torpedo Ship technologies instead.