Chapter Summaries

Ye Lin’s group met Lia, a native Resistance Army member who urged them to shut down a machine controlling people in the Safe Zone. As they prepared to travel with her, Han Yuer asked to join, revealing an ability that could help them.

• Lia introduced herself as a Resistance Army member and said she had been following Ye Lin’s group with an advanced cloaking device.
• A system notification reported that [Transcendence] information had been encountered and total progress had reached 11%.
• Lia confirmed that the Resistance Army opposed the Controllers and said the machine they needed to shut down was hundreds of kilometers away.
• Ye Lin agreed to discuss the details on the way, while He Zheng worried Lia might be a Patroller and An Ke pointed out that Lia had no System Wristwatch.
• Han Yuer asked to join Ye Lin’s group, deduced they were being hunted by the third faction, and revealed her Psionic Hacker ability.

The group traveled toward the Safe Zone in Han Yuer’s cramped vehicle, and she explained why her team lacked combat strength and had lost their veteran leader. Ye Lin pressed Lia for an explanation of the Safe Zone’s crisis, and Lia began to tell the story from the beginning.

• Han Yuer transported the group in her vehicle, and Chen Qing explained that the White Jade Team had spent its points on abilities for solving mysteries rather than combat.
• Ye Lin concluded that the examinations had tested the team’s strengths before forcing them into combat, while He Zheng advised them to spend future points on strength.
• Huang Liang asked whether the White Jade Team had been guided by a veteran, and Han Yuer revealed that she had killed their leader after he tried to rape her and take their points.
• An Ke took Han Yuer’s hand, and Huang Liang apologized as the group reacted to her account.
• Ye Lin asked Lia what had happened in the Safe Zone, and Lia said she had been messaging her rebel army so they could coordinate with the group before offering to explain the situation from the beginning.

Lia told the others how the IJ Group’s founder transformed humanity’s prosperous Solar Age into the Lightless Age by monopolizing resources and charging people for even air and sunlight. She left them with the horror of a world where capital consumed every form of human life and value.

• Lia explained that a wealthy jeweler—or someone rumored to be of royal descent—founded the IJ Group and became known as the Final Producer.
• Lia described how the IJ Group’s technologies ushered in the Solar Age, ending wars and freeing humanity from work and scarcity.
• Lia said the IJ Group killed the Earth Federation’s senior officials, monopolized resources, and began charging people for necessities such as food, water, and air.
• Lia recounted how the Final Producer enclosed the sun in a Dyson Sphere, ushering in the Lightless Age and claiming ownership of human corpses.
• Lia told how her father fought a recycling robot that had processed her grandfather, and the robot killed him by squeezing the air from his body.
• An Ke explained that capital had to keep growing and would devour people when it could no longer expand.

Lia explained that the Final Producer had enslaved humanity through virtual machines, and Ye Lin’s team agreed to help destroy the last machine in Virtual City. After reaching the city’s outskirts, they discovered that the city was an enormous structure hovering beneath a cliff.

• Lia said the Final Producer had used people’s brains as biocomputers and that her resistance had destroyed ninety percent of the virtual machine network.
• Ye Lin and his companions discussed whether Lia’s account fit the examination’s clues and agreed that reaching and shutting down the final machine would be dangerous.
• Ye Lin told the team to follow their plan and assigned An Ke and Chen Qing to watch for approaching threats.
• Four hours later, Ye Lin’s team arrived near Virtual City without encountering any other teams.
• Lia led the group to a cliff, where He Zheng and the others saw a vast, flame-propelled structure hovering beneath it.

Ye Lin’s group followed Lia’s plan to infiltrate the Virtual City through an engine outlet, relying on brief engine shutdowns and identity-disguising sunglasses. As they approached the starship, Han Yuer offered her team’s technical skills, but the group spotted ratman examinees and Rebel Army members ahead.

• Lia revealed chains leading down the cliff and explained that the Rebel Army would briefly shut down an engine so the group could enter through its outlet.
• Ye Lin judged the infiltration plan was genuine and led everyone down to a cave, where they put on sunglasses containing identity-recognition chips.
• Lia explained that Rebel Army contacts were already inside but could not reach the machine because of the city’s security and lack of heavy weapons.
• The group ran beneath the enormous Virtual City, and Han Yuer offered her team’s hacking, signal interception, disguise, and mechanical skills to help locate the machine.
• Ye Lin, An Ke, and Huang Liang noticed three ratman-like examinees and two cloaked Rebel Army members pointing toward a nearby engine.

Ye Lin realized the Rebels’ identity disguises had been compromised, and the Starship’s defenses were killing anyone who approached the Virtual City. The group fled under attack, leaving them wounded and pursued by drones and a mechanical spider.

• Ye Lin questioned Lia about other infiltrators and recognized that the earlier death notifications likely came from the Starship’s defenses.
• The Starship’s laser cannons vaporized the ratmen, and Ye Lin ordered everyone to discard their Identity Recognition Devices and run.
• Ye Lin used Blood Shadow Impact to survive the laser barrage but suffered a severe chest wound, while A Long died protecting Han Yuer.
• Drones and a seven-meter mechanical spider emerged from the Starship as Ye Lin and An Ke led people in separate escapes.
• The survivor count fell to 54, and the system shortened the Demihuman Team’s estimated entry time to two and a half hours.

Ye Lin and the others faced a pursuing mechanical spider and a swarm of drones, while Han Yuer attempted to hack their targeting systems. Her hack briefly turned the machines against one another, giving the group a chance to escape, but she warned that the override would last only three minutes and that many more spiders remained.

• He Zheng carried Chen Qing as he and the others fled from the mechanical spider and its barrage of missiles.
• Han Yuer said she needed ten seconds and a range of one hundred meters to interfere with the machines' target locks, then ran toward the spider.
• Ye Lin protected Han Yuer by crushing incoming missiles with psychokinesis and blocking the spider's autocannon fire with Sonic Shield.
• Chen Qing and Xiao Qi assisted Han Yuer as she scanned the spider and waited for it to enter hacking range.
• Han Yuer hacked the spider and rewrote its recognition program, turning it against the other spiders and redirecting the drones.
• Han Yuer urged everyone to flee, warning that her modification would last at most three minutes and that at least a hundred mechanical spiders were nearby.

After escaping the Mechanical Spiders, Ye Lin reasoned that the group had missed a way to enter the Virtual City without triggering its defenses. The survivor count fell, shortening the Demihuman Team’s arrival time to one hour and twenty-seven minutes, leaving the group under greater pressure to find the solution.

• The group rode the bullet train in silence, and An Ke asked whether they should keep searching for clues or seek the Military Base.
• Huang Liang suggested using the Starship’s weapons against the Demihuman Team, but Ye Lin explained the risks and outlined two possible ways to use the Starship.
• He Zheng proposed having Lia use the glasses on a Demihuman, but Ye Lin pointed out that the third faction had no examination question and that the plan could leave them trapped between enemies.
• Ye Lin reviewed the system’s earlier clues and concluded that the group had not missed information; their mistake was how they tried to enter the Virtual City.
• Ye Lin inferred that someone had previously entered the city, and the system then reported 54 survivors, followed by 51, and moved the Demihuman Team’s entry up to one hour and twenty-seven minutes away.

Ye Lin realized that the Virtual City could be entered by boarding a transport ship carrying supplies from the Safe Zone. He proposed killing every NPC in the Safe Zone to trigger the arrival of new customers and a transport ship, leaving him with a plan to confirm before luring the Demihuman Team to their deaths.

• Aroro pointed out that there were no transport trucks in the Safe Zone, prompting Ye Lin to question Lia about what lay beneath it.
• Lia confirmed that the Safe Zone had no underground city and that the Virtual City was the only place of its kind.
• Ye Lin deduced that transport ships brought food from the Virtual City and that the group could enter by sneaking aboard one.
• Lin Yu warned that deliveries were infrequent, so Ye Lin suggested killing every NPC in the Safe Zone to make the system send new customers and supplies.
• Ye Lin recalled hearing an aircraft when the Echo Demon arrived and decided to confirm his theory before using it to lure the Demihuman Team to their deaths.

Ye Lin’s team entered No. 03 Safe Zone and killed attendants, piling up their bodies to prepare for the transport ship that could take them into Virtual City. As Ye Lin explained the plan to Huang Liang, he began to suspect that the attendants were copies or robots tied to the Service area.

• Ye Lin led Han Yuer’s team into No. 03 Safe Zone and ordered them to kill attendants and pile their bodies in the road.
• An Ke and the others opened fire, while He Zheng obeyed and Chen Qing struggled with the mass killing.
• Han Yuer explained to Chen Qing that the transport ship’s robots would collect the bodies, so intact corpses would make the process faster.
• Huang Liang questioned whether so many attendants had to die, and Ye Lin explained that time was short and hiding among bodies might be the only way for all teams to board.
• Ye Lin told Huang Liang to think of the attendants as robots, then froze as the ideas of robots, copies, and the Service area came together in his mind.

Ye Lin stayed behind while the others boarded a transport ship, planting Psionic Explosives on dormant service workers before teleporting aboard. He revealed he intended to lure the Demihumans into the Virtual City, leaving the group alarmed that they could be trapped between the Demihumans and the threats inside.

• Ye Lin told He Zheng, An Ke, and the others to hide in the corpse pile while he stayed behind to carry out an uncertain task.
• Han Yuer and her companions seized control of the transport ship, and Ye Lin watched from a nearby shop as it prepared to depart.
• After the ship took off, Han Yuer revealed that Ye Lin had asked for their Psionic Explosives, prompting He Zheng to fear Ye Lin had stayed behind to face the Demihumans alone.
• Ye Lin teleported aboard and explained that he had planted explosives on the dormant service workers, which could blow up ordinary people.
• Ye Lin confirmed that he wanted the Demihumans to see the ship and enter the Virtual City, while Lin Yu warned that this could leave them surrounded and unable to escape.

Ye Lin explained his plan to trap the Demihuman Team aboard an explosive transport ship and destroy it with the Starship’s automatic weapons. The transport ship carrying Ye Lin, Lin Yu, Han Yuer, He Zheng, and Chen Qing entered the Starship’s hangar, where they saw over a hundred transport ships.

• Ye Lin told Lin Yu he wanted to control when the Demihumans entered the Virtual City by making them wary of the Starship.
• Lin Yu realized Ye Lin intended to make the Demihumans suspect the ships were traps, but Han Yuer warned that an obvious trap might not fool them.
• Ye Lin proposed loading explosives onto a transport ship and detonating it over the Starship so its automatic laser cannons could attack the Demihumans.
• Han Yuer and Chen Qing pointed out that they could not control the Starship’s weapons, guarantee the Demihumans would board the rigged ship, or tamper with every transport ship.
• Ye Lin reasoned that the Starship’s energy shortage would force the artificial intelligence to send ships along efficient routes, allowing the group to destroy most ships bound for Safe Zone 03 and leave the rigged one.
• The transport ship entered the Starship and arrived in a huge hangar filled with over a hundred transport ships.

Ye Lin’s team entered the Starship hangar and prepared an explosive trap for the Demihumans, while Huang Liang questioned whether destroying the ships could prevent other teams from reaching the Virtual City. An alarm sounded before Ye Lin could investigate, and the group rushed toward the opening door to find a way to silence it.

• Ye Lin’s team discovered that the hangar’s numbered transport ships matched the Safe Zones, confirming Ye Lin’s deductions and earning Han Yuer’s apology.
• Ye Lin reflected that pressure had kept him from recognizing the system’s clues sooner, while An Ke and He Zheng reassured him.
• Ye Lin ordered He Zheng to leave two ships intact so the Demihumans could discover how to summon transport themselves.
• Huang Liang warned Ye Lin that another team might destroy every transport ship and block everyone else from entering the Virtual City.
• The hangar alarm announced unknown intruders, and Ye Lin’s group hurried toward the opening door to shut it down before the Mechanical Spiders attacked.

Ye Lin’s team silenced the Hangar alarm but learned that escaping its identity system would take too long, so they accessed the surveillance feed to track nearby threats. When four mechanized soldiers carrying recognition modules raced toward them, Ye Lin prepared to attack and seize a module.

• Han Yuer stopped the Hangar alarm, but she estimated that cracking its identity recognition system would take at least half an hour.
• Ye Lin had Han Yuer hack the surveillance feed instead, and she spotted four Mechanical Spiders below and four fast-moving soldiers on their level.
• Zhang Qi revealed that the soldiers carried Identity Recognition Modules and offered to block their signals for ten seconds with an Electromagnetic Bomb.
• Ye Lin took Zhang Qi’s Electromagnetic Grenade, drew the Hell Sword, and declared that ten seconds was enough to fight the soldiers.

Ye Lin and his teammates ambushed and swiftly killed four Mechanically Modified Beings, then returned to the Hangar with their weapons and a severed head. When Han Yuer could not locate the machine through the system, Ye Lin realized there might be another way to find it.

• Ye Lin led He Zheng, An Ke, and Huang Liang toward four Mechanically Modified Beings, and they killed them in a rapid coordinated attack.
• Ye Lin noticed the enemies had human-like internal organs, though An Ke had not sensed them as living beings.
• Ye Lin had He Zheng collect the Electromagnetic Rifles and ordered the team back to the Hangar before the Demihumans arrived.
• He Zheng showed a Mechanically Modified Being's head to the surveillance camera, leaving Han Yuer and her teammates stunned by how quickly the fight had ended.
• Han Yuer told Ye Lin that locating the machine could take several hours because the surveillance system had not saved footage of the Rebels.
• Ye Lin recalled Lia's earlier words and realized there might be another way to identify the machine's location.

Ye Lin worked out how to retrace the Rebels’ route to the machine, and Chen Qing located the engine opening they had used. As the group followed their trail, they found propaganda footage depicting brutal exploitation and violence, prompting Lia to smash the screen.

• Ye Lin reasoned that the group could find the machine by locating the engine the Rebels had entered through and retracing their route.
• Han Yuer realized they could identify the entrance by checking which engines had been shut down, and Ye Lin ordered everyone to move.
• Chen Qing found that one engine in Zone 6, -4 had briefly shut down, pinpointing the Rebels’ entry point four hundred meters away.
• Ye Lin’s group found grappling devices left by the Rebels near an elevator on level minus three and continued along their route.
• The group saw footage of a doctor removing a girl’s eye, a mech and tank killing humans, and an officer warning viewers about them.
• Lia hurled a dagger into the screen, shattering it in fury.

Ye Lin and his group learned from Lia how the Final Producer controlled and tortured humanity, and why the Rebels sought to destroy the Control Machine. They followed the Rebels’ trail deeper into the Virtual City, passed Mechanical Spiders by using Identification Modules, and approached a huge alloy gate.

• Ye Lin questioned Lia about the footage and learned that IJ Group’s executives treated humans as disposable property.
• Lia explained that solar storms had briefly freed some people from the Final Producer’s control, and that the Rebels needed to destroy the Control Machine to stop the copied people from enduring endless torment.
• Ye Lin led the group into an elevator after Lia confirmed it had been left by the Rebels.
• The group reached a plaza in the middle of the Virtual City, where Mechanical Spiders scanned them and then turned away after recognizing their Identification Modules.
• Ye Lin’s group followed the Rebels’ trail through several descending areas and spotted an enormous black alloy gate.

Ye Lin and his team found the Virtual City's Control Core, but a powerful barrier kept them from destroying it. With the Demihuman Team due to arrive in thirty seconds and Han Yuer needing half an hour to crack the barrier, Ye Lin chose to detonate the explosives and prepare for battle.

• Ye Lin's group found their identity modules lacked clearance, so he melted through the Alloy Door with Hell Echo while the others blasted it open.
• The team entered the control center and discovered a giant, unstable artificial intelligence projection above the rotating Control Core.
• Lia identified the metal Cube as the Control Core, and a system notification reported that [Transcendence] had reached 31%.
• Ye Lin failed to move or damage the Cube through its barrier, while the system announced that the Demihuman Team would enter in thirty seconds.
• Han Yuer said cracking the barrier would take half an hour, so Ye Lin told her to stay and hack while He Zheng, An Ke, and Huang Liang prepared for battle and he detonated the explosives.

Ye Lin led He Zheng, Zhang Qi, and the others into the Starship to ambush the Demihuman Team, explaining that the enemy would rush inside if the first laser attack failed. After the Demihumans entered the examination and targeted Ye Lin, he assigned roles for the coming fight and prepared the group for battle.

• Ye Lin led the group toward the Hangar and explained why they needed to ambush the Demihumans inside the Starship.
• He Zheng tried to persuade Zhang Qi to stay back, but Zhang Qi insisted he might help by crafting small objects and briefly affecting machines.
• The system announced the Demihuman Team had entered the examination and that the Starshatterer Alliance would enter in ten minutes.
• A silvery streak struck amid the storm clouds, and Ye Lin felt a deadly presence lock onto him as the others sensed the Demihumans' pressure.
• Ye Lin assured the group they could kill the enemy, then ordered Huang Liang to coordinate focused fire, Lin Yu to curse severely injured Demihumans, and An Ke to conceal his control ability until needed.

Ye Lin and his team lured the Demihuman Team onto an explosive-laden transport ship and attacked it with the Starship’s laser cannons. The attack failed to produce any kill notifications, and an advanced third-tier Demihuman crashed into the hangar, forcing Ye Lin to call for everyone to run.

• Ye Lin told He Zheng and Zhang Qi that the Demihumans would stay alert because the Echo Demon was dead and that they had no alternative if the trap failed.
• The second transport ship took off, and Zhang Qi confirmed from its data that the Demihuman Team had boarded.
• Ye Lin detonated explosives beneath the ship as it approached the hangar, and more than twenty-one laser cannons converged on it.
• The team saw no kill notifications after the blast, and Ye Lin realized the Demihuman Team had only one member.
• An advanced third-tier Demihuman punched through two decks and landed in the hangar, and Ye Lin shouted for everyone to run as it charged him.