Chapter Summaries

Joey Crevi and Tony struggled to survive in the lawless Outer City after bandits robbed them, tortured Tony, and took Joey’s seeds. Joey left the next morning with diluted blood to trade for a Foundation Stone, while considering whether to seek power from an evil god.

• Joey harvested mutant potatoes, prepared food, and checked the shack’s defenses while protecting a hidden basement garden of healthy crops.
• More than a dozen bandits broke into the shack, robbed Joey and Tony, and tortured Tony over an old grudge.
• Joey offered his seeds in exchange for Tony’s safety and demanded that the attacker be killed; the leader agreed, then took all the seeds and shattered their Foundation Stone.
• After the bandits left, Joey secretly drew his high-grade blood and planned to trade diluted blood for a Foundation Stone, despite Tony’s objections.
• Joey left for the farmer Udil Beckett the next morning with the diluted blood.

Joey sought a Foundation Stone from Udil Beckett, but Udil stole his blood and had him thrown out. Joey then broke into the farm’s rear courtyard and discovered a group of men led by a familiar bandit leader.

• Joey offered Udil Beckett a tube of unusually potent blood in exchange for a Foundation Stone.
• Udil learned Joey had no more blood, ordered Corey to throw him out, and kept the tube.
• Joey decided to steal a Foundation Stone and entered the farm’s rear courtyard despite Udil’s dust veil.
• Joey used his blood to overcome the veil’s illusions and crept toward a house in the courtyard.
• Joey peered inside and recognized the bandit leader among the men drinking there.

Joey stole seeds from Udir Beckett’s farm and discovered that Udir’s guards had looted and destroyed the culture room. While searching the wasteland for food, Joey found and rescued the injured aristocrat Alyssa Daniel, who asked him to find the person who had been with her in exchange for a Sequence 9 potion formula.

• Joey searched Udir Beckett’s spherical incubator for the Foundation Stone, found only seeds and crops, and stole what he could carry.
• Joey told Old Tony that Udir had deceived them and destroyed their Foundation Stone, but Old Tony warned him that stealing was still wrong.
• Joey returned to the farm and learned that Udir’s guards had looted it and destroyed the culture room, then quietly left the scene.
• Joey found an injured, unconscious girl near the wreckage of an aircraft and carried her away before beasts could reach her.
• The girl identified herself as Alyssa Daniel and asked Joey to find her missing companion, offering a Sequence 9 potion formula in return.

Joey went to help Alisa at the crashed Aircraft and was attacked by a two-headed creature he recognized as a Transcendent who had lost control. After trapping it, he wondered whether Night Demons were also Transcendents who had lost control.

• Joey ignored Old Tony's warning and chose to help Alisa, hoping the Potion formula might help him become a Magician and improve their lives.
• Joey found the crashed Aircraft surrounded by dead beasts and was attacked by a two-headed monster.
• Joey realized the creature was likely a Transcendent who had lost control and lured it toward traps he had prepared.
• Joey impaled the monster on Steel Spikes and trapped it in a poisoned, barbed net.
• Joey compared the trapped creature to a Night Demon and wondered whether Night Demons were Transcendents who had lost control.

After Udil Beckett took the defeated creature from him, Joey salvaged a Foundation Stone and seeds from the crash site and tested prayers to various deities. A prayer invoking Sun Wu shattered the stone, and after bringing the seeds to Alisa, Joey received the formula for the Sequence 9 Fortune Teller Potion.

• Udil Beckett arrived after Joey defeated the out-of-control creature, claimed it, and drove Joey away.
• Joey returned to the crash site, found a large Foundation Stone and a box of undamaged seeds, and took them to his secluded cave.
• Joey’s prayers to several deities produced no response until he began invoking Sun Wu, when the Foundation Stone shattered.
• Joey returned to Old Tony and Alisa with wounds and gave Alisa the seeds, which she identified as a classified crop meant to grow on Black Soil.
• Joey reminded Alisa of her promise, and she gave him the Sequence 9 Fortune Teller Potion formula.

Joey investigated Udir's farm and discovered that Udir was keeping a Mythical Creature captive and using its blood to grow healthy crops. As Joey examined the dying creature, it spoke and told him it remembered him.

• Joey received Silver Laurel stamens for a Fortune Teller potion and buried the shattered Foundation Stone around his hut.
• Joey sneaked into Udir's farm and found the restored culture dishes growing normal plants.
• Joey followed Udir to a hidden cage, where Udir drained blood from the captured Mythical Creature.
• Udir told a figure on an Image Transmission Stone that Alyssa Daniel was dead and the other person had lost control, then beat the creature after the call ended.
• Joey discovered that Udir used the Mythical Creature's blood to nourish the seeds, but he could not understand why the inner city kept this method secret.
• The Mythical Creature spoke to Joey and said it remembered him.

Joey learned that Alisa was a princess and discovered that her behavior suggested she might have memory problems. He decided to become a Beyonder and went to the Adventurers' Guild to seek the Agate Worm saliva he needed, where he heard a group recruiting for Carson Mine.

• Joey questioned the dying human-faced monster, who revealed that Alisa was Princess Alisa Daniel and begged Joey to take her home.
• Joey returned to the cottage and found that Alisa had cooked a lavish meal; after initially scolding her, he apologized and praised her cooking.
• Joey noticed that Alisa behaved like a child, and Old Tony suggested her injuries might have affected her memory.
• Joey and Old Tony discussed how difficult it would be to take Alisa to the inner city, and Joey decided to become a Beyonder first.
• Joey went to the Adventurers' Guild seeking Agate Worm saliva and approached a group recruiting for Carson Mine.

Joey joined Keen’s expedition into the Carson Mine, where the party used him as cannon fodder while searching the deeper tunnels. After vampire bats attacked, Joey realized Keen was likely Awakened and abandoned his plan to slip away, leaving him under close watch.

• Joey joined Keen’s seven-person party to explore the Carson Mine and search for Keen’s missing nephew.
• Keen’s party sent Joey ahead into the deeper tunnels, revealing that they had recruited him to test the path.
• The group entered a freezing cavern and heard strange rustling, then drew their weapons as vampire bats swarmed toward them.
• Keen ordered the party to ignite tar, burning most of the bats before they reached the group.
• Keen warned Katrin to kill Joey if he acted out of line, and Joey changed his plan to escape after suspecting Keen was Awakened.

Joey realized Keen was leading the party into a trap and tried to flee, but Keen revealed himself as a Beyonder and trapped everyone in a sacrificial array. Katrin broke the array’s hold with a silver revolver and revealed herself as a Mechanic of the Survey Corps, declaring Keen under arrest.

• Joey noticed the silver moon laurel reacting as they approached Keen’s destination and grew suspicious of Keen’s motives.
• Joey saw Keen watching him with a dark sneer, shouted for everyone to run, and led several companions into an invisible barrier.
• Keen revealed himself as a Beyonder and began a sacrificial prayer that pinned the party in place.
• Joey opened Katrin’s backpack at her signal, and a silver revolver fired at Keen, weakening his magnetic field.
• Katrin picked up the revolver, identified herself as a Mechanic of the Survey Corps, and told Keen he was under arrest.

Keen revealed himself as a Barrier Master and used a gravitational field to crush the Survey Corps team while preparing them as sacrifices for the Lord of Chaos. As the Agate Worm approached Joey, Joey swallowed the Silver Laurel and began reciting an honorific name, leaving his fate uncertain.

• Keen revealed that he was a Sequence 9 Barrier Master and admitted that he had lured civilians to murder them.
• Keen pinned everyone down with a powerful gravitational field, and his prayers caused victims to burst into blood and disappear into the darkness.
• Katrin escaped the field briefly and fell on Joey, while Keen mocked them as the Agate Worm emerged from the cave.
• Joey shoved Katrin aside, swallowed the Silver Laurel despite its painful effects, and began reciting an honorific name.

Joey invoked Sun Wukong as he faced death in the Carson Silver Mine, and a mysterious power destroyed Keane and saved his consciousness from the Lord of Chaos. Joey found himself in a ruined Heavenly Court, where he discovered a Huaxia inscription beginning, “In the year 1368, crimson descended from the heavens.”

• Joey was overwhelmed by underground whispers as Keane and the Agate Worm attacked him during his attempted advancement.
• Joey recited Sun Wukong’s honorific name, silencing the whispers and causing the Agate Worm to recoil.
• A strange being erupted from Keane, destroyed the Agate Worm, and attacked Joey while muttering about Huaxia and other remnants.
• Joey’s consciousness entered a black sea, where tentacles reached for him until a voice declared that Huaxia had gods and a pillar bearing the name Ruyi Jingu Bang rose from the water.
• Joey’s consciousness traveled up the pillar to the ruined Southern Heavenly Gate and found an inscription that began, “In the year 1368, crimson descended from the heavens.”

Joey learned that he had never left Blue Star and that he had become a Sequence 9 Fortune Teller by sacrificing to himself. After returning from the ruins, he rescued Katrin and went home, where Alisa showed him successful crops and he asked about the next Sequence.

• Joey learned that Blue Star's civilization had fallen during the holy war and accepted that his new life began there.
• The Southern Heavenly Gate entered Joey's body, and he returned to the cave with Katrin, where he found the surrounding mutated life dead.
• Joey discovered that he was a Sequence 9 Fortune Teller whose sacrifices went to himself, and Katrin woke and questioned him about the collapsed Carson Mine and Keen.
• Joey returned home after a day and night, and Clive sensed that he had changed while Joey kept the truth from Old Tony.
• Alisa showed Joey the thriving crops from her first experiments, and Joey asked her for the Potion formula for the next Sequence.

Joey tried to uncover the truth about the Fortune Teller pathway and, Above the Gray Fog, seized mysterious writing from a pillar before losing consciousness. In Ishlandon, Helena Rose’s lightning-marked stone brought her to the gray fog, where she mistook Joey for a divine being.

• Alisa admitted that the Fortune Teller formula was widely known in the Imperial City and that people rarely succeeded with the pathway.
• Joey returned to the shack, then went Above the Gray Fog and used a coin divination to seize strands of writing from a pillar.
• Helena Rose prayed over her family’s lightning-marked stone, which shattered and enveloped her in brilliant light.
• Joey regained consciousness and found Helena at the round table, unable to see him.
• Helena spotted Joey’s hazy figure in the highest seat and bowed, calling herself his loyal believer.

Joey questioned Helena Rothschild after summoning her through the gray fog, then agreed to return her and called himself the Hermit. Helena asked for a blessing to help her endure underground whispers, and Joey instead asked her to report major events about the gods; her account revealed that the world had entered the Third Epoch and was ruled by seven gods.

• Joey asked Helena who she was and where she came from, and she introduced herself as the last Rothschild and a resident of the Duchy of Isamott.
• Helena feared Joey would kill her, but Joey promised to let her return and said she could call him the Hermit.
• Helena asked Joey to bless her advancement on the Arbiter Pathway so she could withstand maddening whispers from underground, offering her soul in return.
• Joey asked Helena to tell him about major events concerning the gods, and he asked whether the sun had risen.
• Helena told Joey that it was the Third Epoch, the sun shone again, and seven gods ruled the world, including the Goddess of Light, formerly Isabella.

Helena became a Sequence 9 Arbiter and chose the rabbit-patterned chair, while Joey discovered the Sequence 8 Fortune-Turner formula. After returning to his body, Joey was questioned by Vade Wisker about Katrin Winter’s disappearance and went home unsure why the sheriff had treated him so gently.

• Joey invited Helena to choose a chair at the gray-fog gathering, and she chose the rabbit-patterned one before returning to the cathedral as a Sequence 9 Arbiter.
• Joey discovered the Sequence 8 Fortune-Turner formula and concluded that leaving Senegal would require greater strength.
• Helena became a sheriff and decided to gather more information about the entity she had met.
• Vade Wisker came to Joey’s home and brought him to the Sheriff's Office to ask about Katrin Winter’s disappearance.
• Joey recounted his meetings with Katrin and emphasized Keen’s heretical identity, then Vade let him go and advised him to contact the sheriff if he faced danger.
• Joey returned home and asked Alisa and Old Tony to help explain why the questioning had been so easy.

Joey and Alisa successfully cultivated a plant that could grow in Senegal’s mutated soil, raising hopes of ending hunger. Their progress was interrupted when Wayne, a Sequence 8 Apostle of Evernight from the Necromancer Sect, arrived and seized Tony Crevi, leaving Joey in danger.

• Alisa and Joey celebrated their success after Alisa developed a plant that could thrive in mutated black soil.
• Katrin Winter escaped her pursuers and warned Vade Wisker that Joey might be in danger.
• Joey cared for his recovering father, Tony Crevi, and welcomed Wayne, who claimed to belong to the Survey Corps.
• Tony recognized Wayne as a follower of the Necromancer Sect and attacked him, but Wayne seized Tony and identified him as a Sequence 9 Beyonder.

Wayne confronted Joey and used a Nightmare Spider to extract his memories, while Joey concealed what had really happened to Keen. Joey overwhelmed the spider through his connection to the gray fog and fed it a fabricated memory, but Wayne shot him as the chapter ended.

• Wayne immobilized Joey, released Tony, and demanded to know where Keen was.
• Joey claimed he had served Keen and described the sacrifice while hiding the events that followed it.
• Wayne revealed a Nightmare Spider that could extract genuine memories and placed it on Joey's head.
• Joey opened his mind to the gray fog, overwhelming the spider, then implanted a fabricated memory.
• Wayne removed the spider and put it back in its bottle, then shot Joey.

After surviving the fire that killed Old Tony, Joey promised not to seek revenge but joined the Survey Corps under Vade Wisker. Vade revealed that contamination from beneath the earth had spread through Senegal after the Sun fell, and that humans from the previous epoch had trapped the region.

• Vade Wisker extinguished the fire and left Joey alone to recover among the ruins of his home.
• Old Tony’s magical paper figure told Joey not to pursue revenge and revealed that Alisa was a Marionette who could survive if her core remained intact; Joey promised to start a new life.
• Joey found Alisa unharmed beneath the wreckage and went to the constabulary the next day.
• Joey admitted to Vade that he had killed Keen and become a Sequence 9 Fortune Teller during Keen’s sacrificial ritual.
• An old Psychiatrist tested Joey and found no taint, after which Vade welcomed him as Officer Cleavey in the Survey Corps.
• Vade told Joey that contamination from beneath the earth had spread through Senegal after the Sun fell and that humans from the previous epoch had trapped the region.

Joey found his home ransacked and Alisa missing, then confronted Udil at Kane Farm, believing Udil had taken her. Udil revealed that Alisa was safe and proposed working together, leaving Joey to ask what Udil wanted.

• Joey returned home, found Alisa missing and their house destroyed, and concluded that Udil had taken her over the seeds called Hope.
• Joey infiltrated Kane Farm, fought off Udil's blood slaves, and allowed them to capture him so he could confront Udil.
• Udil used his Dust Veil Master's hypnosis on Joey and questioned him about the Hope seeds, but Joey pretended to be hypnotized and claimed only one seed had succeeded.
• Joey demanded proof of Udil's good faith, and Udil brought out Alisa, who was unharmed and disguised as a noble.
• Joey confirmed Alisa was safe and asked Udil how he wanted to work together.

Joey secured Udir’s cooperation while leaving Alisa at the farm, then learned that Katrin was a direct descendant of the powerful Winter family. As he settled into a new home, he studied the Fortune Shifter formula and saw a possible way to gain the power needed to pursue his enemies.

• Joey agreed to cooperate with Udir over the seed, leaving Alisa at the farm while warning Udir to keep her safe.
• Udir revealed that he knew Alisa was a noble and planned to use her as a figurehead for a rebellion against Senegal’s aristocracy.
• Joey left Alisa in Udir’s care and went to the Adventurer Bar, where he learned Katrin belonged to the imperial Winter family.
• Joey moved into a row house in the West Borough, where landlady Naomi Jeff openly showed interest in him.
• Joey reviewed what he had learned about Beyonder potions and the Ancient Gods, then found the Fortune Shifter formula on the pillar above the Gray Fog.
• Joey resolved to use the Fortune Shifter’s luck-transfer ability to grow stronger and eventually take revenge on Katrin.