Chapter Summaries

Xiao Guang rewarded Dongyang, Ma Ren, and Kuang Benkuang for helping expand the Hall of Heroes, but a game event soon summoned them to Jack Manor. There, Jack gave nearly a hundred players a hidden main quest to destroy three Red Apple Church branches, setting the players on the path to confront the coming calamity.

• Xiao Guang awarded Dongyang, Ma Ren, and Kuang Benkuang ten million credits each for their contributions to the Guild's expansion.
• Dongyang led Ma Ren and Kuang Benkuang to their gaming pods after Jack's quest notification appeared.
• The players gathered at Jack Manor, where Golov maintained order and punished two players who broke the rules.
• Chen Lun arrived with Froy and told the players that a red calamity threatened the empire and that three Red Apple Church branches remained in the region.
• Chen Lun gave the players a B-rank hidden main quest to destroy the churches in Bingnuo Town, Youdou Town, and Honghua Town, offering experience, gold, a Circus membership token, and a black crystal weapon.

On the train, Chen Lun rewarded Polaris for his progress and let him openly claim the title of Jack Spade’s disciple. He then invited the other Full Members to exchange for items, leaving them ready to shop.

• Polaris visited Chen Lun in his private carriage, and Chen Lun praised his rapid growth as a Beyonder.
• Chen Lun gave Polaris an oil painting of himself and a scroll containing the Serpent Hand magic, then allowed him to identify himself as Jack Spade’s disciple.
• Polaris bought bombs, supplies, ammunition, and fuel using his Gold Pounds and contribution.
• Chen Lun summoned Dongyang and the other Full Members to begin their exchanges, and they entered the carriage.

Chen Lun sold supplies and transcendent knowledge to the guild representatives before leading them to Bingnuo Town, where they found a plague-ravaged settlement and encountered players hunting plague victims. The party paused near the Red Apple Cathedral, unsure whether to proceed as the local players watched them warily.

• Dongyang and the other guild representatives bought supplies and portraits from Chen Lun, competing over limited stock.
• Morning Twilight and Dongyang asked Chen Lun for transcendent knowledge, and Dongyang secured two of the three available Beast Tamer copies while Morning Twilight bought the last one.
• The representatives bought nearly all of Chen Lun's available transcendent knowledge, spending more than fifty thousand Gold Pounds.
• Three days later, Chen Lun led the players from Pyrite City to Bingnuo Town, where they saw the devastation caused by the plague.
• Near the Red Apple Cathedral, Dongyang asked whether the group should go straight to the cathedral, and Chen Lun left the choice to them as local players regarded the newcomers with suspicion.

Dongyang and the other guild players fought their way through the Lost Name Guild’s territory toward the Red Apple Church, which they intended to destroy. They discovered that the Lost Name Guild had joined the Church, and Landun confronted them as they prepared to clash.

• The Lost Name Guild blocked Dongyang’s group from crossing its leveling ground, so Polaris shot one of its players and sparked a fight.
• Dongyang, Morning Twilight, and the others wiped out the attacking Lost Name players with Flintlocks and Mechanical Gloves, then continued through the Plague District.
• Chen Lun assessed the players’ strength and followed behind, intending to use them to weaken the Red Apple Church.
• Dongyang’s group reached the cathedral and found Lost Name Guild members serving as Church Guards alongside Rotting Hounds.
• Landun confronted Dongyang and the other guild leaders, warning them not to cause trouble, while Dongyang sighed at him.

Landun’s Lost Name Guild was driven from the Bingnuo Town church by Dongyang and his allies, who looted the church and set it ablaze. Landun fled to Youdou Town to seek help from Father Aokang and prepare revenge.

• Landun ordered his Lost Name players and Rotting Hounds to attack, but Dongyang, Polaris, Morning Twilight, Doghead Gold, and the others killed them and sent Landun back to the church’s backyard.
• Landun led the surviving guild members out of Bingnuo Town and decided to retreat to Youdou Town to regroup and seek revenge.
• Dongyang gave the church’s looted equipment and money to the players, while Chen Lun used a supernatural fireball to burn down the church.
• Landun arrived at the Youdou Town church with more than forty subordinates and asked to report urgently to Father Aokang.

Chen Lun entered the Red Apple Church and provoked its cleric with a tiny donation as gunfire erupted outside. Dongyang and his allies attacked the church, but the defenders surrounded them, leaving the players to fight their way out.

• Landun reported the attack to Father Aokang, who criticized him for retreating and accepted his offer of more Gold Pounds.
• Chen Lun donated one Copper Crown and questioned whether Lady Rose would resent a small offering, angering the church cleric.
• A bloodied player warned the hall that attackers from Bingnuo Town had reached the church's outer courtyard.
• Dongyang led nearly a hundred players in a flintlock assault, but the armored guards shielded the cleric from the bullets.
• Two more clerics and dozens of armored guards surrounded Dongyang's group while Landun's players blocked their exit.
• Dongyang ordered Morning Twilight, Doghead Gold, and Wangwuji to attack the rear while Hall of Heroes held off the church's front line.

The players fought the Red Apple Church forces as Doghead Gold’s Hercules Cult turned the battle in the rear and Dongyang’s group struggled against armored guards and three Sequence 8 clerics. Morning Twilight joined the main battlefield with Froy’s oil painting and severely injured the clerics’ souls.

• Doghead Gold and five other Hercules Cult members drank potions, transformed into Minotaurs, and crushed the Rotting Hounds and Lost Name Guild players.
• Morning Twilight directed First Dawn’s players to fire from behind the Minotaurs as they overwhelmed the rear battlefield.
• Dongyang and Ma Ren struggled against armored guards and three Sequence 8 clerics, whose palm-mouths devoured bullets and flames.
• Dongyang’s players used fire from their gloves to burn the armored guards, then he threw ten oil paintings at the clerics.
• Golov and Barton’s shadows cut the clerics but failed to defeat them, so Morning Twilight summoned Froy’s painted Blind Girl.
• Froy’s scythe struck the three clerics, leaving them on their knees with severely injured souls.

The players defeated the Church’s clerics and drove back its forces while Chen Lun evacuated the praying townspeople. Father Aokang transformed into a powerful Ghoul, and Polaris stepped forward to face him with Jack’s hidden trump cards as Jack watched from above.

• Polaris killed the three severely wounded clerics after the players used the Circus’s Oil Painting to weaken them.
• Chen Lun hypnotized the townspeople into leaving through the back door and directed them to the Containment Bureau’s base.
• Landun tried to withdraw as the Lost Name Guild’s forces were overwhelmed, but Father Aokang arrived and knocked Doghead Gold aside.
• Dongyang organized a volley of Flintlock fire, but Father Aokang transformed into a Sequence 7 Ghoul and scattered the bullets with a roar.
• Polaris volunteered to hold off Father Aokang while secretly reaching for the Portrait and Scroll Jack had given him.
• Jack watched from the burning Church roof as Father Aokang charged at Polaris.

Polaris and the other players fought Priest Aokang, using a magic scroll to restrain and injure him before he broke free. When Aokang turned the battle against them, Polaris revealed Jack’s supernatural portrait, whose phantom empowered him with a rapid transformation.

• Priest Aokang overwhelmed Polaris and the players’ attacks, while Landun watched from hiding and Su Keying urged the group to seek Jack’s help.
• Polaris used Mr. Jack’s magic scroll to summon a giant white python that knocked Aokang down and restrained him.
• Dongyang and the other players attacked the bound Priest, inflicting wounds before Aokang broke free and blasted them away.
• The white python split into five snakes and continued biting Aokang as Dongyang asked Polaris for another scroll.
• Polaris revealed the supernatural portrait of Jack, and Jack’s phantom emerged and pointed at him, triggering a rapid transformation.

Polaris used Jack’s power to fight Priest Aokang, whose durability made him difficult to defeat. As the power’s time limit ran short, Polaris created an opening for the others to attack with Blue Ink Incendiary Bombs.

• Polaris transformed with five active traits from Jack’s portrait and charged Priest Aokang.
• Polaris dodged around the Priest and repeatedly struck him, while the others watched from a distance.
• Polaris warned the group that Jack’s power was temporary and told them to prepare ranged attacks with Blue Ink Incendiary Bombs.
• Polaris advanced beneath the Priest’s strike, activated an ink bottle, and sent the signal to fire.
• Dongyang and the other supernatural beings threw nine bombs, seven of which hit the Priest.

Polaris and the players drove Father Aokang from Youdou Town but could not kill him; Jack ambushed and burned the fleeing priest. A day later, Chen Lun and the players reached the Red Apple Cathedral in Honghua Town and found that the clergy had withdrawn, though the quest still required the cathedral's destruction.

• Polaris stopped Father Aokang from escaping the burning area, but the priest struck him down and fled as Dongyang and the others gathered around the badly wounded player.
• Dongyang, Su Keying, and Weiyin praised Polaris for helping complete the Youdou Town quest and offered to compensate him for his losses.
• Father Aokang blamed the Blasphemers and plague victims while fleeing through Youdou Town, then Jack caught him with white snakes and burned him alive with supernatural fire.
• One day later, Chen Lun arrived with Dongyang and the players at the Red Apple Cathedral in Honghua Town and said its clergy had withdrawn.
• Morning Twilight and Ma Ren suspected the Red Apple Church had been warned, while the quest panel still showed progress of 2/3.

Chen Lun led Dongyang and the other players into a Red Apple Church cathedral, where Fallen Believers trapped them and attacked. As the players struggled against the monsters, Chen Lun stepped in and began slaughtering them.

• Chen Lun recognized the kneeling believers as dead people controlled by Fruit Maggots and warned the group that the cathedral was a trap.
• A mechanism sealed the cathedral doors and blocked the exit, while the believers rose and attacked the trapped group.
• Dongyang ordered the players to fire, but injured believers mutated into tentacled monsters that overwhelmed the players and fought off the Beyonders.
• Dongyang called for help, and Chen Lun decided the group could not handle the Fallen Believers alone.
• Chen Lun smashed and kicked through the attackers, drawing the Fallen Believers away from the players.

Mr. Jack rescued Dongyang and the other players from the Red Apple Church, helping them complete their mission in Honghua Town. After warning them of the church’s growing threat, Chen Lun headed to Sunflower City, where a Beyonder gravekeeper sensed that trouble was coming.

• Mr. Jack slaughtered the fallen believers, freed Dongyang and the other players from the church, and led them outside.
• The church in Honghua Town burned down, and the players collected their rewards, including a choice of black crystal weapons.
• Chen Lun warned the players about the Red Apple Church and gave them the long-term mission “Hunt the Church” before heading toward Sunflower City.
• At Dawn Cemetery, an aristocratic couple mourned their daughter, while the gravekeeper took his new dog Paul back to the grounds.
• The gravekeeper, a Sequence 9 Tomb Raider, felt uneasy and sensed that something bad might happen.

The gravekeeper left Dawn Cemetery after learning that his mother had died, allowing Paul to wander off with a stuffed rabbit and scatter a Gold Pound near the Baiswall family grave. Meanwhile, Chen Lun traveled toward Sunflower City by train, equipped a powerful Claw Armband, and met a trainee nurse named Lisa.

• A butler told the gravekeeper that his mother had died, and the grieving gravekeeper rushed away from Dawn Cemetery.
• Paul took a stuffed rabbit from a little girl's grave, and the Gold Pound it held rolled near the Baiswall family grave.
• Turner and another man entered the cemetery to rob graves and chose the Baiswall grave after finding the Gold Pound.
• Chen Lun traveled toward Sunflower City by train and replaced his Ghost-Face Badge with a Claw Armband.
• Lisa introduced herself to Chen Lun as a newly graduated medical student heading to Sunflower City for a nursing internship, and Chen Lun gave his name as Jack.

Chen Lun arrived in Sunflower City and discovered that Mr. Bayers’s coffin had been stolen from Dawn Cemetery, with clues pointing to the bodies of two dead grave robbers at Tulip Hospital. There, he encountered Lisa again and used his charm to win her over while pursuing the investigation.

• Chen Lun parted from Lisa at Sunflower City’s train station and headed to Dawn Cemetery.
• Chen Lun learned that Mr. Bayers’s coffin had been stolen and used a dog and a hidden eyeball to inspect the grave.
• Chen Lun overheard officers say that the two grave robbers had died under strange circumstances and that the coffin was still missing.
• Chen Lun’s divination pointed him to the robbers’ bodies at Tulip Hospital.
• Chen Lun found Lisa working at the hospital and pretended he had searched for her because he was deeply drawn to her.

Chen Lun learned from a dead tomb raider that the Red Apple Church had taken Mr. Bayers's coffin, then discovered the Red Rose squad was hiding it in Sunflower City. He left the hospital knowing that recovering Mr. Bayers's true body would be difficult.

• Chen Lun hypnotized Lisa at Tulip Hospital and learned that two bodies were in the underground dissection room.
• Chen Lun summoned the wraith of Turner, who revealed that a monk in scarlet robes with a red rose tattoo had killed him after the coffin incident.
• Chen Lun identified the monk as a member of the Red Apple Church's Red Rose squad and realized the squad likely had Mr. Bayers's true body.
• Chen Lun returned the corpses to their drawers, erased his traces, and left the hospital.
• The Red Rose squad gathered around the coffin in a secret storeroom at the Wordsworth clinic, where they discussed Captain Jerome's divination of the Black Knight's true body's location.

Chen Lun overheard the Rose Team’s plans to use Bayers’s original body to locate the Black Knight and infiltrated their clinic to retrieve it. After his presence was discovered, he struck down a Rose Team member and faced the six others.

• Doctor Wordsworth told the Rose Team that Jerome needed Bayers’s original body and warned them not to damage the coffin because of its curse.
• Chen Lun’s disguised eyeball vanished as a Spade J Playing Card, prompting the Rose Team to search the area around the clinic.
• From a nearby tree, Chen Lun realized the Rose Team was targeting Mr. Bayers and decided to retrieve his original body while Jerome was away.
• A short-haired Rose Team member detected Chen Lun by the scent of his perfume and attacked him, but Chen Lun knocked him into a pit with one punch.
• Chen Lun entered his Extreme State and struck the Rose Team member again, leaving him barely alive before the other six members confronted Chen Lun.

Chen Lun infiltrated Doctor Wordsworth’s clinic and fought the Rose Team members guarding a coffin, overwhelming Wordsworth and the nun despite their attacks. As he tried to store the coffin in his Blood-Poem Ring, a sinister bone nail shot toward his hand.

• The six Rose Team members transformed into Ghouls and attacked Chen Lun, but he vanished into the clinic storeroom.
• Chen Lun ambushed Doctor Wordsworth, wounded him with playing cards and blood currents, and evaded the doctor and the nun while deprived of sight and hearing.
• Chen Lun killed the nun with his black claws and smashed Wordsworth apart with his wings, leaving him badly injured.
• Chen Lun knocked away the Bone-Sculpted Doll and tried to place the coffin in his Blood-Poem Ring.
• A patterned bone nail shot toward Chen Lun’s hand as he touched the coffin.

Chen Lun fought Bone-Sculpting Monk Jerome to escape with the coffin, using the [Cat God Talisman] to wound Jerome and create an opening. Jerome survived the lightning strike, but Chen Lun and the coffin vanished through a hole in the warehouse ceiling, leaving Jerome vowing revenge.

• Jerome confronted Chen Lun in the warehouse and froze his thrown cards and the surrounding area with the Bone-Sculpted Doll’s icy breath.
• Chen Lun attacked Jerome, then used "Escape from the Cage" to teleport behind him while the freezing wind slowed him down.
• Chen Lun tossed a tiny bone fragment containing the [Cat God Talisman] and switched places with a card near the coffin using "Grand Transformation".
• Golden lightning struck Jerome, badly injuring him and cracking the Bone-Sculpted Doll as it absorbed most of the blow.
• Chen Lun and the coffin disappeared from the warehouse, and Jerome swore he would kill Jack with his own hands.

Chen Lun escaped Sunflower City with Mr. Bayers's body and delivered it to him in the ruins near Amber City. Bayers revealed that he had once served the Moon Church and that his beloved Youlan died during a battle with a creature from the Dark World, prompting the conflict that led to his current predicament.

• Chen Lun fled Sunflower City by air after using the Cat God Talisman and carried Mr. Bayers's coffin toward its designated location.
• Chen Lun reached ruins near Amber City, where a black bear approached him and briefly attacked before running away.
• The black bear returned, spoke in Bayers's voice, and explained that his memory had been worsening.
• Chen Lun handed Bayers his real body, and Bayers said he was preparing to fight the Sun Church, the Moon Church, and the Containment Bureau.
• Bayers told Chen Lun that he had served as captain of the Moon Church's Squad Four and that his beloved, Youlan Ogert, had been a Sun Church captain.
• Bayers explained that Youlan was killed by a creature from the Dark World and that Terrence took what remained of her, while the churches refused to return it to him.