Chapter Summaries

Xia Xu weighed how to pursue brain-control technology and planned to return to Nanya Hospital to find Dong Shasha before the Special Department became involved. Back at the Consulting Company, he caught Tang Youxin studying with the Superbrain Drug and teased her until He Qing walked in and hastily fled.

• Xia Xu decided that Duan Zhiyi was his best lead to the brain-control technology and planned to search Nanya Hospital for Dong Shasha that night.
• Xia Xu considered involving Uncle Luo and the Special Department but wanted to avoid drawing their attention too soon.
• He Qing drove Xia Xu back to the Consulting Company, where Tang Youxin was rapidly studying programming books at the reception counter.
• Xia Xu warned Tang Youxin not to misuse the Superbrain Drug, took her textbook, and scolded her for secretly using the drug despite her claim that she had diluted it.
• Xia Xu teased Tang Youxin about spanking her and being her daddy, prompting He Qing to blurt out a comment and flee.

Xia Xu dressed for an infiltration and entered Nanya Hospital at night to check on Dong Shasha, with Meng Bochao guiding him through the hospital’s surveillance system. He found Dong Shasha and her mother in the intensive care ward.

• Xia Xu put on Uncle Luo’s tactical gear, strapped the Miao Dao to A Tuo, and rode a motorcycle to Nanya Hospital.
• Xia Xu told A Tuo to follow unseen, then contacted Meng Bochao through a wireless earpiece.
• Meng Bochao said he had control of the hospital cameras and would replace the feeds with footage of empty areas.
• Xia Xu entered the hospital and asked Meng Bochao to monitor the live feeds and alert him to suspicious people.
• Xia Xu avoided the night-shift nurses and reached the intensive care floor, where he found Dong Shasha and her mother.

Xia Xu investigated Dong Shasha’s plot fragment and suspected that the mysterious “Thrower” was a superhero protagonist. When a cloaked stranger arrived at Nanya Hospital, Xia Xu confronted him with a drawn bow and confirmed that he was the plot protagonist.

• Xia Xu examined Dong Shasha’s attributes and found a vague plot fragment titled “The Thrower” that revealed nothing beyond events he already knew.
• Xia Xu reasoned that the Thrower was likely a superhero protagonist whose name referred to a throwing ability.
• Meng Bochao warned Xia Xu that a cloaked stranger had entered the hospital and was heading toward the intensive care unit.
• Xia Xu waited beside the stairwell exit and aimed an expanding arrow at the stranger’s forehead when he appeared.
• Xia Xu identified the stranger as the Thrower but kept his bow drawn and ordered him to raise his hands.

Xia Xu discovered that Pan Long had a supernatural ability to add kinetic energy to objects, then came under attack by armed drones at the hospital. He destroyed one drone and fled into the stairwell with Pan Long as more drones approached from above and below.

• Xia Xu examined Pan Long’s attributes and learned that he was a Level 2 protagonist with the ability to add vector kinetic energy to objects.
• Xia Xu considered whether Pan Long’s ability came from special genes and whether other superhuman abilities existed.
• Meng Bochao warned Xia Xu of two armed drones hovering outside the corridor window.
• Xia Xu shot a drone with his Blooming Arrow, destroying it as gunfire shattered the window.
• Xia Xu grabbed Pan Long and ran into the stairwell, where more drones approached from below.

Xia Xu, Pan Long, and A Tuo fought off coordinated armed drones in the hospital corridor. After Xia Xu and A Tuo destroyed the drones attacking from the stairwell and right-side windows, Pan Long brought down the two remaining drones on the left.

• Xia Xu retreated from the stairwell and called on A Tuo as an armed drone approached from the corridor.
• A Tuo crushed the corridor drone, then charged into the stairwell and destroyed the four drones there while evading their gunfire.
• As drones closed in from both sides of the corridor, Xia Xu ordered Pan Long to handle the left and used his Miao Dao to destroy two drones outside the right-hand windows.
• Pan Long used Vector Addition to disrupt the two drones on the left, then guided his throwing knives into them and destroyed them.

After escaping the hospital, Xia Xu discussed Pan Long’s superpower and agreed to work with him to investigate the drone attack. He planned to use the connection to learn more about the plot and possibly recruit Pan Long.

• Xia Xu and Pan Long fled the hospital after Xia Xu collected the destroyed drones, while Meng Bochao erased the surveillance footage and their escape route.
• Pan Long praised Xia Xu’s fighting and revealed that thrown objects became like bullets in his hands.
• Xia Xu joked that his own superpower was being rich and denied wanting to be a superhero.
• Pan Long asked to help investigate the shooting, and Xia Xu agreed to contact him the next day.
• Xia Xu suspected Pan Long had a personal connection to the case and considered using their partnership to learn about the plot and recruit him.

After reviewing Pan Long’s fate profile, Xia Xu concluded that Duan Zhiyi was likely still in Star City and connected to Pan Long’s relationships and movements. He decided to investigate the connections and the briefcase while finding a way to counter the armed drones before the Special Department intervened.

• Xia Xu reviewed the plot information from Pan Long’s fate profile and identified Duan Zhiyi, Dong Changhe, and Pan Long’s parents as people whose backgrounds needed investigating.
• Xia Xu considered the danger posed by the armed drones and concluded that his current weapons and abilities would not protect him from sustained gunfire.
• Xia Xu reasoned that Duan Zhiyi was probably still in Star City because Pan Long’s abilities and the plot’s logic pointed to a local connection.
• Xia Xu decided to begin with Pan Long’s relationships and movements, then investigate the briefcase Pan Long’s father had left behind.
• Xia Xu resolved to find a way to counter the drones and handle the situation before the Special Department intervened, so he could avoid surrendering control or paying for access to Duan Zhiyi’s technology.

Xia Xu visited Pan Long’s rented warehouse and revealed his identity as Academic God Xia. Pan Long welcomed him into the warehouse and showed him the makeshift secret base he had assembled.

• Xia Xu had breakfast at Tang Youxin’s family bun shop, where Tang Zhan charged him twenty yuan for two buns.
• Xia Xu gave He Qing the address Pan Long had provided and went to meet him at a rented warehouse.
• Pan Long recognized Xia Xu as Academic God Xia and relaxed after Xia openly introduced himself.
• Pan Long made tea and showed Xia Xu around the warehouse, including its training area, workbench, computer, and stacks of boxes.

Xia Xu visited Pan Long’s warehouse, where Pan Long showed him his research on superheroes and superpowered people, including Batman and the mysterious martial arts master Xia Xu had portrayed at Ruifeng Supermarket. After assessing Pan Long’s abilities, Xia Xu took him to look for something that could counter armed drones.

• Pan Long showed Xia Xu his collected intelligence on Batman, and Xia Xu confirmed he knew him and promised to introduce them.
• Pan Long shared photographs and rumors about a martial arts master in De City, and Xia Xu realized the pictures showed him at Ruifeng Supermarket.
• Xia Xu corrected Pan Long’s belief that his saber was a Qi Family Saber, explaining that it was a Miao Dao.
• Xia Xu learned that Pan Long’s urge to become a superhero had been inspired by news about Yao Fu and that his Level Two Life Tier included his Vector Addition ability.
• Xia Xu took Pan Long from the warehouse in He Qing’s minivan to find something capable of dealing with armed drones.

Xia Xu visited Huichuang High-Tech with Pan Long to discuss the company's drone-jamming technology, which he hoped to use against Duan Zhiyi's armed drones. He met the startup's owner, Zhou Xiaodong, and the two began their meeting.

• Xia Xu and Pan Long arrived at Huichuang High-Tech, where the receptionist recognized Xia Xu's Star Sea Venture Capital business card and led them to the reception area.
• Pan Long asked whether Xia Xu really owned a company, and Xia Xu joked that his superpower was money.
• Xia Xu examined Huichuang's drone displays and explained that he wanted the company’s technology to counter Duan Zhiyi's armed drones.
• Xia Xu reasoned that jamming the drones would require specialized expertise and resources, so he had asked Meng Bochao to find a company working in the field.
• The receptionist introduced Huichuang's owner, Zhou Xiaodong, who greeted Xia Xu eagerly, and Xia Xu stood to meet him.

Xia Xu visited Zhou Xiaodong at Huichuang High-Tech to acquire counter-drone equipment and ended up agreeing to buy the company. Pan Long watched Xia Xu’s spending and reconsidered what it meant to have a superpower.

• Xia Xu asked Zhou Xiaodong to sell him a Drone Jamming Gun, and Zhou agreed to provide a prototype for its production cost.
• Zhou explained the jamming gun’s capabilities and showed Xia Xu and Pan Long the company’s research workshop.
• Xia Xu bought the spy drone and Justice Guard, along with other counter-drone products Zhou presented.
• Zhou proposed that Xia Xu acquire Huichuang High-Tech, and Xia Xu agreed on the condition of full ownership and Zhou staying to work for him.
• Pan Long watched Xia Xu buy the company and concluded that money might be the real superpower.

Xia Xu acquired Huichuang High-Tech for eight million and secured Zhou Xiaodong’s research team and drone-jamming technology. Back at the Warehouse Base, he questioned Pan Long about investigating Dong Changhe’s shooting after Pan Long failed to recognize Duan Zhiyi.

• Xia Xu decided Huichuang High-Tech’s technical team and Zhou Xiaodong’s talents made the company worth acquiring.
• Xia Xu had Star Sea Venture Capital finalize the full acquisition of Huichuang High-Tech for eight million.
• Zhou Xiaodong examined the recovered Armed Drones and found they lacked anti-jamming technology, confirming his team’s Drone Jamming Gun could disrupt them for now.
• Xia Xu showed Pan Long Duan Zhiyi’s photograph, but Pan Long did not recognize him.
• Xia Xu asked Pan Long why he wanted to investigate Dong Changhe’s shooting and pressed him to tell the truth.

Pan Long told Xia Xu that his missing parents had left behind a photo of his father with Dong Changhe, and Xia Xu brought him and the briefcase to the Consulting Company. Xia Xu assigned his team to find Duan Zhiyi before the drone attacker could harm more people.

• Pan Long explained that he had found a briefcase containing a photo of his father and Dong Changhe, and Xia Xu examined it but found no further clues.
• Xia Xu took Pan Long and the briefcase to the Consulting Company, where He Qing, Yang Bowen, Meng Bochao, and Tang Youxin were waiting.
• Xia Xu teased Tang Youxin about her work attitude and reassured her that she was a full employee by telling her she could earn a bonus.
• Xia Xu told the team that Duan Zhiyi's armed drones had killed several police officers and assigned them to locate him quickly.
• Xia Xu resolved to prevent further casualties, while considering that the Special Department might already have joined the investigation.

Xia Xu’s team examined Pan Long’s parents’ briefcase and found that its only clue, a photo of Pan Long’s father with Dong Changhe, had appeared on an old blog. The blog suggested Pan Long’s father was connected to the Yunfan Group and was trying to cure a woman, possibly Pan Long’s mother, leaving Pan Long uncertain about her health.

• Xia Xu introduced Pan Long to the team, and the members exchanged introductions before turning to the briefcase.
• Yang Bowen, He Qing, and the others found nothing in the briefcase besides a photo of Dong Changhe and Pan Long’s father.
• Meng Bochao reverse-searched the photo and found it on an old blog under the name Sailing Far Away.
• The blog’s final post, published ten years earlier, showed the photo and said the company was getting on track, providing stable research funding, and that the writer would cure her.
• Xia Xu suggested Pan Long’s father might have been a Yunfan Group founder and asked whether the woman he planned to cure was Pan Long’s mother; Pan Long could not recall her being ill.

Xia Xu and his companions discovered that Pan Long’s father’s blog photograph contained a hidden message, and Xia Xu deduced that the original digital file on an old camera could provide the key to decoding it. Pan Long recalled that his family still had the camera and prepared to retrieve it, while Meng Bochao and He Qing faced losing their month’s pay over a bet.

• Meng Bochao found signs of LSB steganography in the blog photograph but could not identify which pixel changes encoded the message.
• Xia Xu suggested that Pan Long’s father must have left a way to decode the image specifically for its intended recipient.
• Xia Xu reasoned that the original digital photograph would be on the camera used to take it and that the camera or a backup was likely kept by Pan Long’s family.
• Pan Long remembered an old digital camera gathering dust in a cupboard at home, and Meng Bochao urged him to retrieve it.
• Xia Xu reminded Meng Bochao and He Qing that they had bet their month’s base pay against his success, and Tang Youxin refused to plead for them.

Xia Xu and the others decoded a long letter Pan Long’s father, Pan Yuanhang, had hidden in a group photo, revealing the history behind the development of brain-control technology and Yunfan Group. The letter left them with a clearer picture of Duan Zhiyi’s motives for shooting Dong Changhe.

• Meng Bochao and the others compared the original group photo with the blog image, decoded the hidden text, and found Pan Yuanhang’s letter to his son.
• Pan Long read his father’s teasing message, and Xia Xu reassured him that it showed how thoughtful his father had been.
• The letter explained that Pan Yuanhang and Duan Zhiyi had developed brain-control technology to give Pan Long’s mother a way to live after her mysterious hereditary illness destroyed her body.
• The letter described how Dong Changhe grew resentful of the company funds spent on the research and, before Yunfan Group’s public listing, diluted Pan Yuanhang’s and Duan Zhiyi’s shares and pushed them out of management.
• Xia Xu suspected that Duan Zhiyi had stayed with the project for years out of devotion to Pan Long’s mother, and that the project’s cancellation had helped drive him to shoot Dong Changhe.

Xia Xu deduced from the altered photo and letter that Pan Yuanhang was probably alive but unable to contact his family freely. He took Pan Long to the address in the letter, where they found an overgrown wasteland at the edge of Square Market.

• Xia Xu explained that the timing of the blog post showed Pan Yuanhang had added the group photo and hidden letter later, suggesting he had survived until then.
• Xia Xu concluded that Pan Yuanhang was likely still alive but under restricted circumstances, while Pan Long hoped the letter's address would lead to his father.
• Xia Xu set out with Pan Long, He Qing, and A Tuo, bringing weapons and equipment in case they encountered danger.
• The group drove to Square Market and followed the address to a slope leading down to an overgrown wasteland with abandoned buildings.

Xia Xu, Pan Long, and He Qing found the sealed entrance to Pan Yuanhang’s hidden passage and learned that children had explored it before. When Pan Long entered the red house at the tunnel’s end, a device recognized him and opened a concealed stairway to a lit basement.

• A boy told Xia Xu, Pan Long, and He Qing that the tunnel had once been open, had been explored by children, and led to an abandoned red house.
• Xia Xu broke through the bricked-up entrance, and He Qing led the group and their dog through the empty underground rooms.
• The group followed the tunnel to the red house, where a synthesized voice announced that verification had succeeded and welcomed Pan Long back.
• A concealed stairway opened in the house’s floor, and lights came on as the group cautiously descended.

Xia Xu and Pan Long searched Pan Yuanhang’s underground workshop for clues about brain-control technology, and Xia Xu discovered homemade smart glasses that appeared connected to another creature’s vision. The glasses revealed a mechanical centipede in the laboratory, leaving Xia Xu startled by how familiar it looked.

• Xia Xu and Pan Long entered the dusty underground workshop, where Xia Xu asked Pan Long to check the computer while he searched the room.
• Xia Xu found homemade smart glasses in a cabinet and suspected they were related to Pan Yuanhang’s brain-control research.
• Xia Xu powered on the glasses, opened an app marked with a brain icon, and saw a dark view that seemed to belong to something else.
• He Qing startled at a mechanical centipede crawling from a cabinet and called for Xia Xu’s help.
• Xia Xu saw the centipede through his own eyes and the glasses’ display, then realized the machine looked familiar.

Xia Xu found a crude mechanical centipede and reasoned that its design and muscle-stimulation technology might connect to Pan Yuanhang’s research into saving Pan Long’s mother. He suspected Andra Group had acquired or exploited that research, leaving Pan Long eager to know whether his father had made the device.

• Xia Xu compared the mechanical centipede to the Centipede Spine on his back and saw similarities in their construction and purpose.
• Xia Xu reasoned that Pan Yuanhang might have developed neural-sensing and muscle-stimulation technology while trying to save Pan Long’s mother.
• Xia Xu suspected Pan Yuanhang’s work had attracted Andra Group and might have contributed to the Centipede Spine.
• Pan Long asked whether his father had made the device, and Xia Xu said its creator was certainly connected to him.