Chapter Summaries

On garbage-covered Earth, scavenger Cheng Qi and his robot companion Foolish Boy tried to claim a valuable dump, but a rival attacked them. Foolish Boy saved Cheng Qi at the cost of his own life, leaving Cheng Qi alone.

• Cheng Qi and Foolish Boy prepared to scavenge a fresh garbage shipment on Earth.
• Cheng Qi said he had paid the Scavengers Association to reserve dump 7-12-5, but E Luo arrived with his men and claimed it.
• E Luo launched a missile at Cheng Qi, and Foolish Boy shielded him from the blast.
• Cheng Qi awoke in the garbage abyss and discovered that Foolish Boy's body and memory core had been destroyed.
• Foolish Boy said goodbye to Cheng Qi and went silent.

Cheng Qi used the Crystal Bracer to synthesize discarded B343 nanny robots, upgrading Foolish Boy’s ruined body into an A24 Environment-Adaptive Nanny Robot. When the robot spoke in Foolish Boy’s familiar voice, Cheng Qi realized his companion might still be there.

• Cheng Qi mourned Foolish Boy and discovered that his Crystal Bracer could synthesize similar technological constructs.
• The Crystal Bracer transformed a discarded B343 into a B897 Security Nanny Robot, then combined two B897s into an A24 Environment-Adaptive Nanny Robot.
• Cheng Qi asked the A24 whether it could hear him, but it initially responded like a factory-fresh robot.
• The A24 suddenly broke character and told Cheng Qi to stop touching its chest, sounding just like Foolish Boy.

Cheng Qi discovered that the Standard Template Construct could combine technological junk into powerful equipment, eventually giving him flight shoes that let him soar through the sky. As he celebrated his newfound power, E Luo spotted a distant trail of smoke but dismissed the possibility that anyone had taken off.

• Cheng Qi learned that the Standard Template Construct could not synthesize non-technological items, then used broken exploration shoes as a test.
• Cheng Qi combined the shoes into Exploration Leg Guards, then upgraded them into Jet Turbine-Powered Shoes capable of flight.
• Cheng Qi put on the flight shoes and launched himself into the sky, reveling in flying above the garbage-strewn Earth.
• Cheng Qi imagined using Earth's technological garbage to become the king of the garbage heap.
• E Luo saw a distant trail of smoke from Garbage Mountain 7-12-5, but decided that some electronic junk had probably exploded.

Cheng Qi used the Standard Template Construct to turn nickel-based superalloy into valuable advanced alloys, then contacted Luke Hyena to negotiate his debt. He realized Hyena was hiding how valuable amorphous alloy was and prepared to keep his other materials secret.

• Cheng Qi decided to save a pair of flying shoes for Foolish Boy and examined his stock of nickel-based superalloy.
• The Standard Template Construct synthesized intermetallic compound, amorphous alloy, and high-entropy alloy from Cheng Qi’s materials.
• Luke Hyena demanded repayment of Cheng Qi’s 4,800-credit debt, and Cheng Qi offered intermetallic compound as payment.
• Cheng Qi mentioned amorphous alloy to Luke Hyena, who concealed his excitement and arranged to meet him in three hours.
• Cheng Qi inferred that Luke Hyena wanted to exploit him and kept secret that he had many more pieces of amorphous alloy and high-entropy alloy.

Cheng Qi and Foolish Boy flew to a garbage mountain to scavenge weapons before Cheng Qi’s final showdown with Hyena, but they uncovered surgical gloves instead. The Standard Template Construct transformed them into a failed medical prototype whose uncontrollable gravitational field could prove useful to Cheng Qi.

• Cheng Qi and Foolish Boy set out for B11 Area to search for discarded military equipment before confronting Hyena.
• They found the site buried beneath a massive pile of newer trash and began digging through it.
• Foolish Boy unearthed a box of V-12 Surgical Assist Gloves, which Cheng Qi fed into the Standard Template Construct.
• The construct produced a series of upgraded surgical gloves before generating a failed prototype that could make objects in a wide area levitate.
• Cheng Qi realized the prototype’s gravitational field might be a powerful tool.

Cheng Qi used the Gravitational Field Adjustment Gloves to search the Dane Group’s medical waste and uncovered the remains of the Limit Squad, including eight warriors in X-12 Limit Warrior Exoskeletons. The discovery left him determined to learn what had happened to the heroes.

• Cheng Qi used the Gravitational Field Adjustment Gloves to clear a large basin through the medical waste while Foolish Boy helped sort it.
• Cheng Qi and Foolish Boy found little equipment in the Dane Group waste, until Cheng Qi discovered a sealed fuel tank with something clattering inside.
• Foolish Boy cut open the tank, and Cheng Qi found nearly thirty skeletons, including soldiers bearing Huaxia Interstellar Exploration Team badges.
• Cheng Qi recognized the dead as members of the celebrated Limit Squad and found cut marks on their neck bones, indicating they had been killed before being discarded.
• Cheng Qi collected the soldiers’ nameplates and discovered eight skeletons wearing X-12 Limit Warrior Exoskeletons.

Cheng Qi synthesized the Extreme Eight’s ruined X-12 exoskeletons into increasingly advanced armor, culminating in XXX-01 memory metal armor from a level-two civilization database. The armor bonded painfully with him, and he discovered that it had greatly enhanced his strength, speed, and control.

• Cheng Qi buried the eight skeletons and began synthesizing their ruined X-12 Extreme Warrior exoskeletons.
• Cheng Qi upgraded four X-12s into an X-55 exoskeleton and then fused the next batch into an XX-23 Extreme Warrior Armor.
• Cheng Qi continued synthesizing the remaining equipment, suffered one failed attempt, and produced an XXX-01 memory metal armor.
• The Standard Template Construct revealed that the XXX-01’s technology came from a level-two civilization database.
• The XXX-01 spread over Cheng Qi’s body, pierced the back of his neck, and painfully adjusted his body before completing its initial match.
• Cheng Qi tested the armor by leaping and flipping, then landed with enough force to shake the ground.

Cheng Qi tested the XXX-01 armor and discovered its immense striking power and shape-changing memory metal. After Hyena called to demand his goods, Cheng Qi and Foolish Boy set out to meet him on Bar Street.

• Cheng Qi examined the armor’s specifications and learned its capabilities were limited by his physical condition and genetic sequence.
• Cheng Qi used the armor’s support arms to kick a five-ton wreckage fragment thirty meters into a rubbish heap.
• Cheng Qi shaped the armor’s memory metal into a dagger and then a spear, realizing he could control its form.
• Hyena called Cheng Qi impatiently and threatened not to buy his goods if he was late.
• Cheng Qi told Foolish Boy they had gathered most of their equipment, and they headed to meet Hyena on Bar Street.

Cheng Qi went to Hyena Luke’s bar to settle his debt and sell several pieces of valuable amorphous alloy. Hyena eagerly accepted the goods while secretly preparing to kill him, leaving Cheng Qi surrounded and in danger.

• Cheng Qi passed Hana as she rejected a scavenger who tried to court her and asked him to respect her space.
• Hyena Luke ordered his seven henchmen to block the bar’s exits and prepared an ambush for Cheng Qi.
• Cheng Qi entered the bar and found Old Lin injured and held hostage by Hyena and his enforcers.
• Cheng Qi paid off his loan with intermetallic compound, then offered Hyena a piece of translucent golden amorphous alloy.
• Cheng Qi placed five more pieces of amorphous alloy on the desk, and Hyena decided to kill him after taking the treasure.

Cheng Qi used the XXX-01 Extreme Warrior Armor to defeat Luke Hyena and his men, then forced Hyena to reveal the value of amorphous alloy and the identity of its buyer. He left the burning bar with Old Lin, while Hana watched him go.

• Cheng Qi activated the XXX-01 Extreme Warrior Armor, tore off the chief enforcer’s mechanical arms, and threw a two-ton safe through Luke Hyena’s men.
• Cheng Qi stopped Hyena’s beam pistol and beat him until Hyena admitted amorphous alloy sold for four thousand credit points per gram.
• Cheng Qi questioned Hyena about his buyer, and Hyena revealed that the buyer lived off Earth and could only be contacted through a communicator.
• Cheng Qi left the bar supporting Old Lin as the building erupted in flames and collapsed, while nearby scavengers pretended not to know what had happened.
• Hana watched Cheng Qi disappear down Bar Street, then turned back toward the gray sky.

After selling twenty-three pieces of amorphous alloy, Cheng Qi met the higher-grade human Mo and saw Hana’s attempt to conceive a higher-grade child rejected. The encounter widened Cheng Qi’s understanding of the gulf between scavengers and higher-grade humans, and he ended by asking Mo to trade all his alloy for Gene Catalysis Agent.

• Cheng Qi arranged to sell his amorphous alloy to Mo for credit points, while Foolish Boy brought back Hyena Luke’s safe and the two scavenged food from inside it.
• Cheng Qi and Foolish Boy shared the safe’s preserved beef, spring water, and apple as they discussed hoping for a better life.
• When Mo’s aircraft landed, Cheng Qi saw Hana trying to seduce Mo so she could conceive a child with higher-grade genes, but Mo rejected her and explained her motive.
• Mo told Cheng Qi that Hana was seeking a way off Earth, and Cheng Qi reconsidered his own ambitions after seeing the gulf between their lives and those of higher-grade humans.
• Cheng Qi showed Mo twenty-three pieces of amorphous alloy but kept his high-entropy alloy hidden, then asked to trade for as much Gene Catalysis Agent as the alloy could buy.

Cheng Qi traded his amorphous alloy to Mo for money and learned about dangerous gene catalysts, then received a lead to the Muon Research Institute. Examining the lead alongside a device found in Hyena’s safe, he discovered the device was a broken tracker that might point to the institute.

• Mo weighed Cheng Qi’s alloy at 1,186.3 grams and valued it at 5.016 million credit points.
• Cheng Qi chose failed black-market gene catalysts with a survival rate of 0.8%, and Mo agreed to take the alloy in exchange for the purchase.
• Mo gave Cheng Qi Huo Linzhong’s old business card and said the Muon Research Institute might have left research equipment and findings behind on Earth.
• Hana watched Mo depart, then left the garbage heaps, while Cheng Qi emerged and resolved to climb beyond the class barrier.
• Cheng Qi recognized the symbol on the business card from a black box in Hyena’s safe, dismantled the box, and identified it as a signal tracker with four burned-out chips.

Cheng Qi gave Xiao Qiong half an apple and received her handmade necklace of discarded repair robots, which he repeatedly synthesized to create intelligent microscopic repair sprites for Muon Base's locator. His final synthesis instead produced a giant metal cone that wrecked his table.

• Xiao Qiong visited Cheng Qi while hauling scrap with her three-legged mechanical dog and said she hoped to earn credit points to help her mother.
• Cheng Qi gave Xiao Qiong half an apple, and she returned with a necklace she had spent a year assembling from matching metal beads.
• Cheng Qi recognized the beads as broken small circuit repair robots and used the Standard Template Construct to synthesize increasingly tiny, intelligent repair robots.
• Cheng Qi attempted one final synthesis, but a nearly four-meter metal cone appeared in his shack and smashed his dining table.

Cheng Qi used a Class 2.2 civilization repair cluster to restore the Muon Research Center locator box, which revealed that the center was in the dangerous Land of No Return near Kyoto. He decided to risk traveling there, encouraged by his Extreme Warrior Armor.

• Cheng Qi learned that the repair cluster used a control terminal and nanorepair robots, and watched them repair Foolish Boy's broken finger.
• The nanorepair robots disassembled and restored the century-old Muon Research Center locator box, bringing it back to working order.
• The locator box projected a map that identified the Muon Research Center's location as Kyoto, known to scavengers as the Land of No Return.
• Cheng Qi considered the dangers around Kyoto and the possible value of muon technology, then resolved to take the risk and go there.

Cheng Qi and Foolish Boy survived Crow’s perilous Ground Effect Aircraft ride to the outskirts of the capital and flew toward its center. After they left, Carrion Rats spotted them and summoned their vast colony, revealing why the capital was called the Land of No Return.

• Cheng Qi and Foolish Boy boarded Crow’s battered Ground Effect Aircraft, and scavengers offered Cheng Qi food and water as a gesture of sympathy.
• Crow and his Nanny Robot replaced an engine that fell off during the dangerous flight, and the aircraft eventually reached the capital’s outskirts.
• Cheng Qi and Foolish Boy activated their jet-turbine boots and flew toward the heart of the capital in their protective gear.
• Carrion Rats emerged from the trash heaps and watched the two figures fly away.
• A Carrion Rat signaled for its colony, and tens of millions of Killer Rats answered the warning.

Cheng Qi fought off the Killer Rats while Foolish Boy dug beneath a Starship wreck to reach the Muon Research Center. When a massive Rat Tide approached, Cheng Qi sent nanorepair robots toward the underground facility and jumped into the hole after them, but the rats poured in behind him.

• Cheng Qi killed the first attacking Killer Rat and held the Starship wreck's entrance while Foolish Boy dug for the research center.
• Cheng Qi used his armor and gravitational-field gloves to kill waves of Killer Rats and destroy several white-furred strategists directing the swarm.
• A towering Rat Tide advanced as Foolish Boy fell through the collapsing ground and found the Muon Research Center's alloy door far below.
• Cheng Qi sent nanorepair robots toward the broken door and jumped into the hole, while the Killer Rats streamed after him.

Cheng Qi entered the Muon Research Center after the repaired door recognized him as Authorized Personnel and opened amid an attack by elite Killer Rats. Inside, he encountered Huo Linzhong, the center’s supposedly long-dead chief professor, while his armor detected dangerously low oxygen.

• Cheng Qi landed at the alloy door as giant red-furred Killer Rats surged through the swarm, and the repair robots restored the door while cracking its password.
• The door recognized Cheng Qi as Authorized Personnel and opened, allowing him and Foolish Boy to enter as it crushed a red-furred Killer Rat.
• Cheng Qi killed the severed rat with a blade from his Ultimate Warrior Powered Armor while the repair robots began fixing Foolish Boy’s legs.
• The lights revealed a vast, empty office inside the Muon Research Center, and a silent man in a lab coat introduced himself as Huo Linzhong, the center’s chief professor.
• Cheng Qi questioned how Huo Linzhong could still be alive, and his armor warned that the oxygen level was extremely low.

Cheng Qi followed Huo Linzhong’s recorded projection through the Muon Research Center and learned how the professor’s muon research led him to glimpse the future. The projection brought Cheng Qi to Huo Linzhong’s office, where he found a skeleton seated behind the desk.

• Huo Linzhong’s projection explained muons, the Strong Magnetic-Field Cage breakthrough, and the research team’s years of failure.
• Huo Linzhong recounted an experiment that sent his consciousness to the universe’s original Singularity, where he saw the number 24 and later saw Cheng Qi in the future.
• Huo Linzhong revealed that he had recognized Cheng Qi as a time traveler and set up his access permissions a hundred years earlier.
• Huo Linzhong described how he stayed behind when humanity migrated, vowing not to leave until he developed a practical use for muons.
• Cheng Qi entered Huo Linzhong’s office and saw a skeleton sitting in the chair behind the desk.

Cheng Qi discovered that Huo Linzhong had died in the Muon Research Center after spending decades pursuing muon technology, but his music box preserved stable muons. Cheng Qi used the Crystal Bracer to break the technological blockade and synthesize powerful muon fusion devices, then vowed to realize Huo Linzhong’s dream.

• Cheng Qi found Huo Linzhong’s skeleton at the desk and listened to a recording describing his failed research and request to deliver the music box to his descendants.
• Cheng Qi discovered five muon transistors inside the music box and learned that an advanced civilization had blocked muon technology.
• Cheng Qi synthesized two Muon Fusion Catalytic Reactor Prototypes, each capable of releasing energy equivalent to 500 tons of TNT.
• Cheng Qi continued synthesis and created the more stable First-Generation Muon Fusion Catalytic Reactor, which could release energy equivalent to 1,010 tons of TNT.
• Cheng Qi promised Huo Linzhong that he would make muon technology help human civilization shine across the universe.

Cheng Qi used the First-Generation Muon Catalyst to drive the Killer Rats from the Muon Research Center, then returned to B24 District and headed for the trash shipment that E Luo had stolen from him. At the scavenging site, E Luo recovered a hidden chip from one of his workers and reported the haul to Lord Pig.

• Cheng Qi assembled the Music Box and left the Muon Research Center with Foolish Boy, hoping to honor Professor Huo Linzhong’s final wish.
• Cheng Qi used the First-Generation Muon Catalyst to frighten the Killer Rats into fleeing, then flew away with Foolish Boy and Crow.
• Cheng Qi returned to B24 District and saw the 7-13-5 shipment that E Luo had seized after Cheng Qi paid for its salvage rights.
• One of E Luo’s scavengers hid a JI34 Nan Chip, but E Luo impaled him with a mechanical tentacle, took the chip, and kicked him into the trash.
• E Luo bowed before the white tent and told Lord Pig that they had made an excellent haul and that it was his lucky day.