Recaps

Chu Mu, Seele, and Oleg shared a meal in the Upper District, where Gepard and Serval noticed the children were from the Underworld and chose not to expose them. As Seele confronted the waste and inequality around them, she asked Chu Mu to take her back to the Underworld.

• Seele eagerly ate the Upper District food while Chu Mu tried to save some of his meal to bring back, prompting Oleg to order more servings.
• Gepard told Serval he suspected the children were from the Underworld and wanted to uphold the law, but Serval challenged him to protect people rather than lifeless rules.
• Gepard accepted Serval's argument, and he and Serval left a large cake as a gift for Chu Mu, Seele, and Oleg.
• Seele reflected that some nobles were kind, while Chu Mu said oppression still had to be shattered; they shared the cake and packed the rest.
• Seele watched restaurant staff throw away uneaten food, then took Chu Mu's hand and asked to return to the Underworld; Chu Mu agreed and asked Oleg to go with them.

Chu Mu returned to the Orphanage with Xiao Bu’s meal and a large cake to share, and the three of them celebrated with an impromptu cake fight. As Xiao Bu said she liked living with Natasha and the Old Director, Chu Mu resolved that he would not let her stay there forever, privately fearing he could not accompany her on the road ahead.

• Natasha stayed with Xiao Bu outside the Orphanage until Chu Mu returned, and Xiao Bu rushed to embrace him.
• Chu Mu gave Natasha the large cake to share and brought Xiao Bu the meal he had saved for her.
• Natasha joined Chu Mu and Xiao Bu in the classroom, where they shared cake and Chu Mu recalled a hazy memory of a cake fight.
• Natasha smeared cream on Chu Mu’s cheek, and Chu Mu and Xiao Bu teamed up to smear cream on her before she defeated them.
• Xiao Bu told Chu Mu she liked living with Natasha and the Old Director, while Chu Mu resolved not to let her stay there forever and privately feared he could not accompany her.

After returning to the Orphanage, Chu Mu resumed his quiet routine and accepted that no family would adopt him while he was going blind, since he intended to stay until Xiao Bu was adopted. In the Upper District, Kafka arrived on Jarilo-VI to follow Elio’s script and adopt a child, while Silver Wolf prepared her cover identity and detected a Stellaron.

• Families visited the Orphanage to ask about adopting Chu Mu, but withdrew when the Old Director warned them he would soon go blind.
• Chu Mu was content to remain at the Orphanage until Xiao Bu was adopted so he could protect her.
• Kafka spoke with Silver Wolf, who explained that she had prepared Kafka’s identity as a Kliperburg official to get her into the Underworld.
• Silver Wolf detected a Stellaron on Jarilo-VI and wanted to claim it, but Kafka refused because Elio’s script had not mentioned it.
• Kafka took her forged documents and headed for the underground station, stopping to buy coats with Credits that astonished the shop assistant.

Sampo planned an operation to blow up Kliperburg while posing as Bosang, and Chu Mu discovered the plot. Sampo revealed that the Supreme Guardian would visit the Orphanage and that he could still reach the upper level after the passage was sealed, leaving Chu Mu relieved.

• Bosang paid Benny to plant explosives at Kliperburg the day after tomorrow and threatened him against backing out.
• Chu Mu confronted Sampo in the alley with his teacher Natasha, then assured Sampo that she had not overheard his conversation with Benny.
• Sampo said he planned to blow up Kliperburg because the Supreme Guardian would leave at noon the day after tomorrow to choose her successor at the Orphanage in Rivet Town.
• Sampo told Chu Mu that the passage between the upper and lower levels would likely be sealed the evening after tomorrow, but that the closure would not affect his own way up.
• Chu Mu smiled with relief after confirming Sampo could still reach the upper level once the passage was sealed.

Chu Mu weighed whether to send his little sister Xiao Bu to the Upper District through Sampo’s adoption arrangement, knowing his illness left him little time to care for her. He postponed the decision until after the Supreme Guardian’s visit and returned to the Orphanage with Natasha, unaware that someone watched them from a cable car.

• Chu Mu learned that Sampo could arrange for a child to be adopted in the Upper District, where she would be made to resemble a deceased girl.
• Chu Mu considered Xiao Bu’s bleak prospects in the Underworld and decided to tell her about his illness and let her choose whether to leave.
• Sampo offered to arrange the adoption for one thousand Winter City Shields, but Chu Mu asked him to wait two days in case the Supreme Guardian chose Xiao Bu.
• Natasha found Chu Mu and warned him to avoid Sampo, then joked with him as they headed back to the Orphanage.
• A pair of purple eyes watched Chu Mu and Natasha from a cable car as they disappeared down the street.

Kafka arrived in Belobog’s Underworld to find a child from the Xianzhou whom Elio had identified as her target. After killing a gang of vagrants, she found Chu Mu at the orphanage and introduced herself as his mother.

• Kafka told Silver Wolf that she had spotted the Xianzhou child she was meant to adopt and headed for the orphanage.
• Silver Wolf complained that Kafka had made her teleport clothes and teased her about her sudden maternal instincts before ending the call.
• Vagrants ambushed Kafka in an alley, but she shot them dead before they could attack.
• Guard Captain Oleg found the corpses and wondered about the unfamiliar ammunition, fearing the Underworld’s situation would worsen.
• Chu Mu struggled to read by the heating system’s light as his eyesight deteriorated, then met Kafka in the library.
• Kafka told Chu Mu, “Child, I’m your mom!”

Kafka revealed that Chu Mu came from the Xianzhou and carried a seed of the Ambrosial Arbor, making him a high-order Abomination of Abundance who would be killed if he returned. After confessing his recent experiences under Kafka’s influence, Chu Mu learned she intended to adopt him.

• Chu Mu rejected Kafka’s claim that she was his mother, and Kafka introduced herself while identifying him as a child of the Xianzhou.
• Kafka explained that the Xianzhou consisted of six immense starships and that Chu Mu’s left eye contained a seed of the Ambrosial Arbor, making him a target of the Xianzhou.
• Kafka told Chu Mu that the Xianzhou opposed Abundance and warned that returning home would mean certain death for him.
• Chu Mu recounted his recent experiences to Kafka, then realized she had kept him under her influence throughout their conversation.
• Kafka assured Chu Mu that her account of the Xianzhou was true and said she was going to adopt him.

Kafka offered to awaken the power of a Path sealed in Chu Mu’s sea of consciousness, and he used her key to enter it. He rejected an illusion created by Aha and found a Golden Crown, where a voice invited him to enter a kingdom.

• Chu Mu distrusted Kafka’s offer to take him on an interstellar journey, but she told him a gift from a Path lay sealed in his sea of consciousness.
• Kafka gave Chu Mu an ordinary iron key and urged him to use it to open the gift in his mind.
• Chu Mu entered the Sea of Stars and encountered masked performers, a Clockwork Doll, and a box that urged him to open it.
• Chu Mu realized the scene was an illusion by Aha because he was blind, and the performers and Clockwork Doll shattered.
• Chu Mu found a Golden Crown on a platform, and a voice told him to don it and enter a kingdom.

Chu Mu learned that he had become an Emanator of an unknown Path left behind by a fallen, eyeless Aeon, after the Aeon of Abundance had blinded him. With Kafka’s encouragement, he tested his new ability and vanished from the Library into a mental space only the blind could perceive.

• Chu Mu told Kafka that she was the last person he had seen before he lost his sight.
• Chu Mu realized he had awakened as the sole Emanator of an unknown Path whose Aeon had fallen, and suspected Yaoshi had remade him to suit it.
• Kafka told Chu Mu that fate had many threads and that he could still choose his future.
• Chu Mu drew Imaginary Energy from the Path and disappeared from Kafka’s sight and senses.
• Chu Mu explored a black-and-white mental model of the Library that only the eyeless could see.

Chu Mu discovered that his new Path let him reconstruct his surroundings through sound, while Kafka mistook it for the Path of the Hunt and offered to adopt him. Kafka explained that destiny allowed only Chu Mu—not his younger sister—to board the Stellaron Hunters’ ship, and Chu Mu asked for two days to decide.

• Chu Mu used echoes and sounds to map the room, realizing his power came from the Path of the Eyeless and might someday let him reconstruct far more.
• Kafka mistook Chu Mu’s ability for the Path of the Hunt, and Chu Mu kept the truth about the Eyeless Path and the fallen Aeon to himself.
• Kafka tried to persuade Chu Mu to join her family, describing an older brother and a younger sister, while Chu Mu questioned her adoption claims and asked whether his own sister could come too.
• Kafka said destiny allowed only Chu Mu to board the ship, and Chu Mu asked her for two days before deciding.
• After Kafka left, Silver Wolf questioned why Chu Mu’s sister could not join them, and Kafka said Elio had rejected the other futures because they were bad enough to be impossible to choose.

After deciding to leave Jarilo-VI for the Sea of Stars, Chu Mu planned to settle Xiao Bu’s future before negotiating with Kafka. He could no longer see, and the chapter ended as he and Xiao Bu went to meet Kafka, who was posing as an official seeking to adopt him.

• Chu Mu decided to wait for the Supreme Guardian to choose a successor before discussing Xiao Bu’s future and negotiating with Kafka.
• Chu Mu reflected on his worsening illness and his wish to return to the Sea of Stars, while keeping his blindness secret from Xiao Bu.
• Xiao Bu told Chu Mu that a woman was willing to adopt him and tearfully urged him not to refuse another chance because of her.
• Chu Mu took Xiao Bu’s hand and led her to meet the woman.
• In the director’s office, Kafka, calling herself Fuka, claimed she wanted to adopt a child, and the Old Director asked whether her husband would object.

Kafka considered adopting Chu Mu, but he insisted she take Xiao Bu too, causing the adoption to fall through. Natasha discovered that Chu Mu had gone completely blind, and he comforted her while asking her to keep his condition secret.

• Kafka told the Old Director that she was a widowed Silvermane Guards officer and was willing to adopt Chu Mu.
• Chu Mu entered with Xiao Bu and said he would only leave the orphanage if Kafka adopted both of them.
• Kafka explained that she had approval to adopt only one child and left to reconsider, while Natasha stepped out in tears.
• Chu Mu comforted Xiao Bu and told her that promises lasted a lifetime.
• Natasha took Chu Mu aside, removed his eye covering, and learned he could no longer see.
• Chu Mu asked Natasha to keep his blindness secret as Xiao Bu listened from outside the classroom.

Kafka left the Orphanage after telling Silver Wolf that Chu Mu’s little sister looked just like her. Oleg then locked down the Orphanage for an important visitor and grew suspicious of Kafka’s identity and interest in adopting Chu Mu.

• Kafka showed Silver Wolf a photo of Chu Mu’s little sister, and Silver Wolf was shocked by how much the girl resembled her.
• A squad of Silvermane Guards ordered Kafka to leave because the area was being placed under lockdown.
• Oleg told the Old Director that everyone at the Orphanage had to remain inside for two days while they prepared for an important visitor.
• The Old Director explained that Ms. Fuka had sought to adopt Chu Mu, and Oleg questioned whether she was truly an Internal Affairs Officer from Kliperburg.
• Oleg ordered the Orphanage sealed and its key locations guarded, while the children and Silvermane Guards settled into the unusually pleasant watch.

Chu Mu reflected on the Old Director’s selflessness as he hid his blindness while eating with the Orphanage children. After warning Oleg that the Big Shot’s visit might offer an orphan a chance to leave the Underworld, Chu Mu prompted Oleg to rush out and bring Seele back.

• Silvermane Guards shared canned meat with the Orphanage, and Chu Mu remembered the Old Director’s sacrifices and how she had shaped him.
• Xiao Bu silently played along with Chu Mu’s act of blindness and went to get him another serving.
• Oleg sat with Chu Mu, and they joked about food and discussed Seele’s absence.
• Chu Mu questioned whether the Big Shot’s visit was really just a simple visit and hinted that the Orphanage itself held something important.
• Oleg realized the Big Shot might adopt an orphan and hurried off to bring Seele back before she missed the opportunity.

Chu Mu negotiated with Kafka about joining her while trying to secure a place for his little sister, then prepared for the Supreme Guardian’s visit to the Orphanage. The chapter ended as the awaited big shot arrived, with Seele and Xiao Bu beginning to become friends.

• Kafka visited Chu Mu in the Library and learned that Belobog’s Supreme Guardian would come to the Orphanage to choose a successor.
• Chu Mu tried to persuade Kafka to take his little sister with him, but Kafka did not agree and said she would take Chu Mu back if the Supreme Guardian chose him.
• Kafka left after telling Chu Mu that he would come with her the next time they met.
• At the Orphanage, Natasha taught lessons while Oleg kept Seele in her seat, and Seele and Xiao Bu agreed to be friends.
• Hurried footsteps announced the arrival of the big shot.

Cocolia reunited with her uncle, the Chief Stoker, who urged her to improve life in the Underworld and offered her his notes. As she approached the Orphanage, an eerie voice pressed her to follow its promised path to a new world, while she faced Belobog’s dwindling geomarrow and seemingly inevitable collapse.

• The Chief Stoker praised Cocolia for reclaiming power from the nobles and urged her to improve conditions in the Underworld.
• Cocolia told the Chief Stoker she had found a path to a new world where Belobog’s people would be free from cold and hunger.
• As they reached the Orphanage, Cocolia questioned whether her plan was right, and an eerie voice insisted she had no choice but to follow it.
• The voice claimed that people lost in the Fragmentum lived on in a peaceful new world and warned that the Underworld’s geomarrow would run out in ten years.
• Cocolia reflected that Belobog had endured the Eternal Freeze for seven hundred years, had no viable escape or new geomarrow source, and might soon freeze to death.

Cocolia arrived at the Orphanage with Gepard while Natasha and the Old Director were kept in the office and the children were left frightened in their classroom. As Gepard spoke with Oleg outside, Oleg received orders to assemble his troops and join the Underworld Lockdown Mission.

• Cocolia arrived at the Orphanage, dismissed Gepard’s escort, and ordered him to stay by her side as her guard.
• An old butler confined Natasha and the Old Director in the office, refusing to reveal his department or discuss Fuka.
• Oleg found the classroom guarded by elite Silvermane Guards and worried about the crying children, including Seele.
• Gepard apologized to Oleg for the children’s distress and admitted that his sister Serval had stopped him from making a mistake when he treated two orphans to dinner.
• A young soldier delivered Oleg a Silvermane Guards Command dispatch ordering him to assemble his troops and join the Underworld Lockdown Mission.

Cocolia and the Chief Stoker assessed the children for a possible successor, while Chu Mu faced the separation from his little sister Xiao Bu. Xiao Bu was taken away by the Silvermane Guards, and Chu Mu vanished, leaving only her Snow Globe behind.

• Cocolia rejected Chu Mu as a successor despite the Chief Stoker praising his resolve, because he was an alien and blind.
• Cocolia chose a timid-looking girl as her preferred candidate, judging her bright eyes proof of inner strength.
• Silvermane Guards came to take Xiao Bu away, and Chu Mu told her to go with them and promised to wait.
• Xiao Bu left her Snow Globe on the desk and was led out, while she and Chu Mu cried as the door shut between them.
• Seele asked whether Xiao Bu would be safe, and Chu Mu said she had her own destiny before he vanished, leaving the Snow Globe behind.

Chu Mu decided to kill Scott before leaving Jarilo, while Scott forced Kruzer to fight a dangerous opponent under threat to his family. The chapter left Chu Mu heading to the Fight Club as Kruzer faced a fight he was expected to lose.

• Chu Mu met Sampo in Boulder Town and learned that the Kliperburg bombing plan had gone awry after the Supreme Guardian changed her schedule.
• Sampo explained that Scott forced Fight Club champions to lose to a wealthy patron, and Chu Mu said he was going to kill Scott.
• Chu Mu headed for the Fight Club, intending to stop Scott from harming more children and from taking revenge on Seele.
• Scott revealed that he had arranged Kruzer’s string of championship wins to make him the club’s top fighter.
• Scott ordered Kruzer to lose to the mysterious gentleman and threatened Kruzer’s family if he refused.
• Kruzer realized he had no way out and bowed his head without answering.

Chu Mu killed the Upper District noble and Scott at the Fight Club, then took the money from Scott’s safe. Outside, he met Kafka and said he was going to ask a friend to forget him.

• Scott told the noble that he had arranged a match against the Five-Time Champion, and the noble boasted about Upper District blood and Underworld people.
• Chu Mu slit the noble’s throat and taunted him about his supposedly noble blood.
• Scott tried to flee, then revealed the safe’s location and combination before Chu Mu killed him and took the Credits.
• Kafka met Chu Mu outside the Fight Club and teased him about going alone.
• Chu Mu told Kafka he was going to meet a friend and ask him to forget him.

Chu Mu brought Kafka to visit Svarog, and she helped replace his damaged and aging chips so he could escape the ruins. Svarog lifted Chu Mu onto his shoulder as they fulfilled their old promise, though Chu Mu could no longer see the view.

• Chu Mu visited Svarog early and introduced him to Kafka, who jokingly called herself Chu Mu's mother and asked to be added to Svarog's friendly life-form records.
• Kafka received maintenance access and opened Svarog's armor so she could inspect his damaged modules.
• Kafka sent photos of Svarog's chips to Silver Wolf, who found compatible replacements and teleported them over.
• Kafka replaced Svarog's damaged and aging chips while leaving his memory module untouched.
• Svarog powered up, climbed out of the ruins, and lifted Chu Mu onto his shoulder, fulfilling their old promise.

Chu Mu asked Svarog to lock away his memories before leaving, believing he might never return, and Kafka later explained that Svarog’s memories could be restored if they reunited. As Chu Mu and Kafka headed back, an explosion erupted at the Core Furnace Hub while Oleg and Gepard’s troops struggled to contain Underworld residents protesting the closure of the passage to the surface.

• Chu Mu asked Svarog to forget him because he was leaving and could no longer keep their promise to meet; Svarog sealed away his memories instead of deleting them.
• Chu Mu said goodbye to Svarog and left, while Svarog reactivated and went to the mine to protect Belobog’s Underworld without remembering his friend.
• Kafka asked Chu Mu why he had made Svarog forget him, and Chu Mu explained that Svarog would otherwise wait for him with memories that never faded.
• Chu Mu reflected that he had fulfilled three wishes before leaving, then an explosion at the Core Furnace Hub sent fire and smoke toward nearby towns.
• At the Core Furnace Hub, Oleg and Gepard’s troops tried to block the stairway after the cable car was closed, while Underworld residents surged toward them over rumors that the passages would be sealed.
• Oleg recognized familiar Underworld residents in the crowd and wondered why the Supreme Guardian had ordered the blockade.

Cocolia prepared to seal off the Underworld as violence erupted between its residents and the Silvermane Guards, leaving the Chief Stoker to try to prevent a civil war. As Oleg and Natasha stayed behind to search for the missing, blind Chu Mu, the Chief Stoker addressed the Underworld and called for calm.

• Cocolia told the Chief Stoker she planned to seal off the Underworld and ordered him to appease its people within half an hour before she used force.
• A secretary reported bombings in Kliperburg, a murdered noble, and an assault on the Silvermane Guards at the Core Furnace Hub, prompting the Council to authorize a crackdown.
• Natasha searched the crowd for the missing Chu Mu and Xiao Bu; Gepard said Xiao Bu had been taken to the Upper District but had not seen Chu Mu.
• Oleg learned that Chu Mu was blind and left the defensive line to search for him, while Natasha chose to go with him and remain in the Underworld.
• The Chief Stoker appeared on a platform with the Great Code and used the loudspeakers to call for the people to stop.

The Chief Stoker died as the Underworld erupted into chaos, while Cocolia erased Xiao Bu’s memories and remade her as Bronya. Natasha and Oleg founded Wildfire to restore order, and Chu Mu left the Underworld with Silver Wolf.

• The Chief Stoker ordered the Silvermane Guards to retreat and urged the Underworld residents to disperse, but an explosion destroyed the stairs, and he walked into the furnace with the Code and his notebook.
• Cocolia renamed Xiao Bu as Bronya Landau, declared her own daughter, and used an eerie voice to erase the girl’s memories of her brother and the Underworld.
• Natasha and Oleg stopped searching for Chu Mu and decided to organize the Underworld’s residents, using money and Credits left behind by Chu Mu to establish Wildfire.
• A purple-haired woman met Chu Mu at the orphanage, confirmed his description of her supposed family, and teleported away with him as Silver Wolf.

Kafka introduced Chu Mu to Silver Wolf aboard the spaceship and explained the Stellaron Hunters, Elio’s ability to see possible futures, and why she had brought Chu Mu from his planet. Chu Mu learned that the Interastral Peace Corporation had issued a wanted notice for the Hunters, and Kafka kept him aboard despite his wish to leave.

• Chu Mu met Silver Wolf, and she and Kafka revealed that they had both been knowingly playing along with each other’s lies.
• Kafka told Chu Mu that Elio could see countless futures and had sent her to take him from his planet; she said his future remained his to choose.
• Kafka explained that Silver Wolf was on probation, Blade was another Hunter aboard, and she would not yet tell Chu Mu about Stellarons.
• Chu Mu asked about the Stellaron Hunters’ reputation, and Kafka admitted that the Interastral Peace Corporation had a wanted notice out for them.
• Chu Mu tried to pull away and asked if he could get off the ship, but Kafka took his hand again and held on tightly.