Chapter Summaries

Chen Lun decided to seek high-sequence Flesh School mystical substance from Dolly, the “Big Eater,” in Amber City. Meanwhile, Stuarton learned that a nun had been kidnapped, but his informant died before revealing her location, leaving him frightened and scrambling for help.

• Froy told Chen Lun that she was content with her remaining freedom even if she could not regain her sight, and Chen Lun promised he would not let her die.
• Stuarton secretly sent a letter and went to notify the Containment Bureau about the supernatural being suspected of killing Father Carter and destroying the Apple Orchard Prison.
• Old Ham tried to tell Stuarton that someone had kidnapped a nun, then died after coughing up black blood.
• Stuarton suspected the supernatural being had poisoned Ham as a warning and ran back inside the church to recall its guards.
• Chen Lun reviewed possible sources of high-sequence Flesh School mystical substance and chose Dolly, the “Big Eater,” in Amber City as his target.

Chen Lun prepared to leave for Amber City, while the Containment Bureau began watching the Red Apple Church after receiving Stuarton's denunciation. At the cathedral, Stuarton learned that the church would leave the fugitive alone for now and wait for him to lead them to his accomplices.

• Chen Lun decided to set out for Amber City and slipped out of his room, while Froy hoped he would return safely.
• Team Leader Ralph ordered investigators to watch the Red Apple Cathedral without alerting Father Carter.
• Stuarton summoned a bishop through a blood-filled goblet and urged him to come to Jadeite Town.
• The bishop revealed that the stolen sunflower Mysterious Object was linked to a fallen saint and said the church would track the fugitive through his accomplices.
• The bishop told Stuarton to lie low because the Red Apple Church had no Beyonder forces left in Jadeite Town, leaving Stuarton more anxious.

Chen Lun attacked the Red Apple Church and pursued Stuarton after discovering the monk’s men and creatures guarding the church. Stuarton escaped toward the Containment Bureau but struck Chen Lun with the Tongue of Gluttony, leaving him afflicted with extreme hunger and a temporary loss of maximum HP.

• Stuarton found the church guards dead, then saw Chen Lun kill a guard while surrounded by black rats and tried to flee with the Golden Goblet and Hand Crossbow.
• Chen Lun stopped two heavy armored guards’ spear attacks, crushed them, and discovered they were deformed creatures made by the Red Apple Church.
• Stuarton ran toward the Containment Bureau as stray cats gathered around him and Chen Lun caught up.
• Stuarton fired the Tongue of Gluttony at Chen Lun, who was grazed by the bolt and suffered extreme hunger and a temporary reduction in maximum HP.

Chen Lun defeated Stuarton after the monk was possessed by Bishop Newman, then destroyed the Red Apple Church’s communication goblet and examined the hand crossbow. The church marked Chen Lun as an enemy, and he left with the C-grade Tongue of Gluttony and four portions of flesh-faction mysterious substance.

• Stuarton was possessed by Bishop Newman and attacked Chen Lun with enhanced strength and monstrous claws.
• Chen Lun restrained Stuarton, tore off his claws, and killed him with a series of heavy blows.
• Stuarton’s body exploded, but Chen Lun dodged the blast before kicking the beastly head into the river.
• Chen Lun received a warning that the Red Apple Church would hunt him and destroyed the church’s golden goblet to prevent it from tracking him.
• Chen Lun collected the resulting flesh-faction mysterious substance and identified the hand crossbow as the C-grade mysterious object Tongue of Gluttony.

Chen Lun looted the Red Apple Cathedral, defeated Containment Bureau investigators who confronted him, and set the cathedral ablaze as he left. Team leader Ralph decided not to pursue him and ordered the woman’s burial and compensation for her family.

• Chen Lun searched the cathedral, killed its remaining guards and Rotting Hounds, found a secret passage, and collected the church’s valuables.
• Two Containment Bureau investigators confronted Chen Lun, but he knocked them unconscious and took their flintlock pistols.
• Chen Lun carried the dead woman outside, placed two Gold Pounds on her eyelids, and set the cathedral on fire before leaving.
• Ralph arrived after the cathedral burned down and told his investigators not to pursue Chen Lun.
• Ralph ordered an investigator to arrange the woman’s burial through the Moon Church and find her family to provide compensation.

Chen Lun and Froy traveled from Jadeite Town toward Amber City, with Chen Lun determined to find a cure for her before time ran out. Six days into the journey, bandits stopped their carriage, and Walsh explained that a fight began after they demanded to inspect it.

• Chen Lun received the rewards for destroying the Red Apple Church's Jadeite Town branch and set out with Froy and Walsh for Amber City.
• Chen Lun learned the journey would take seven days and promised Froy he would take her traveling after her illness was cured.
• Walsh's escort fought dozens of bandits near Amber City while Chen Lun stayed with Froy in the carriage.
• Chen Lun stepped out to ask Walsh why the fight had started, and Walsh said the bandits had insisted on inspecting the carriage.

Chen Lun killed the bandit leader, accepted a quest to pursue the fleeing bandits, and tracked them to their camp. After learning the bandits planned to recover the powerful iron gauntlets called “Mad Hands,” he faced the burly boss leading a pursuit.

• Walsh warned Chen Lun that the bandits might be human traffickers, and the bandit leader gained the upper hand with his iron gauntlets.
• Chen Lun shot and killed the bandit leader, causing the surviving bandits to flee and triggering a quest to pursue them.
• Chen Lun accepted the quest, asked Walsh and the others to keep the gauntlets, and followed the bandits into the forest.
• A crow helped Chen Lun locate a camp where the bandits held several old men and stored stolen goods.
• The bandits’ boss learned that Chen Lun had a firearm, put on a pair of “Mad Hands,” and ordered his men to catch up with him.

Chen Lun confronted a bandit gang alone and used his twin flintlocks to kill them, completing his quest. He took the bandit leader’s Frenzied Hands, but found the mechanical gauntlets offered him little benefit.

• Chen Lun approached the bandit camp alone and asked the leader where he had gotten his iron gauntlets.
• The bandits mocked Chen Lun, then charged after he drew two flintlocks.
• Chen Lun shot down the underlings and killed the leader with a hidden final shot after pretending to run out of ammunition.
• Chen Lun completed the D-rank quest and received 300 experience points and 500 Copper Crowns.
• Chen Lun examined the Frenzied Hands and decided their impact boost and protection were useless to him.

Chen Lun freed a group of kidnapped craftsmen from the bandit camp and met Alexis, a boastful bard who claimed to have forged a divine weapon. Alexis followed Chen Lun and sang him tales of heroic adventures as they continued on their way.

• Chen Lun freed the craftsmen from their cages, and they explained that the bandits had abducted them to forge something.
• Alexis introduced himself as a great bard and claimed he had stayed with the bandits to gather material, but a craftsman said Alexis had been captured after boasting about forging a divine weapon.
• A hotheaded craftsman beat Alexis in a fight, and the freed craftsmen thanked Chen Lun before leaving.
• Alexis recited an elaborate song about a supposedly divine sword and challenged Chen Lun to a duel, but Chen Lun walked away.
• Alexis caught up with Chen Lun and sang more stories about traveling the world, defeating monsters, and becoming a hero.

Chen Lun and Froy arrived in Amber City and settled in the outer district, where Chen Lun began looking for a place to stay. The chapter left them outside a flower shop at 7 Danton Street, with Chen Lun watching its owner.

• Alexis chased Chen Lun's carriage and called him by his alias, leaving Chen Lun wondering how he knew the name.
• Chen Lun told Froy that they would reach Amber City the next day and reflected on his need to grow stronger before the players arrived.
• Chen Lun and Froy entered Amber City, passing the crowded outer district and its poor residents.
• Chen Lun thanked Walsh for the journey and secretly tipped him two Gold Pounds before leaving with Froy.
• Chen Lun and Froy found a room-rental notice at 7 Danton Street, where Chen Lun looked through the flower shop window at an older woman tending flowers.

Chen Lun and Froy settled into an apartment on No. 7 Denton Street after Mrs. Caroline offered them a reduced rent and meals for Froy. Two men watching them planned to report their arrival to a boss who intended to sell them, while Chen Lun and Froy began adjusting to their new home.

• Chen Lun rented the fourth-floor apartment from Mrs. Caroline and paid twenty Silver Crowns for an initial month.
• Two men across the street recognized Chen Lun and Froy as valuable targets, and one left to alert their boss while the other kept watch.
• Mrs. Caroline introduced Chen Lun to neighbors Connie, Mr. Hood, and the Moriarty siblings as she showed him the apartment.
• Chen Lun accepted Mrs. Caroline's offer to feed Froy breakfast and dinner, agreeing to pay an extra Silver Crown each week.
• Chen Lun told Froy to stay home while he went out to buy supplies, then allowed her to take short walks nearby; Froy agreed to wait for him at home.

Chen Lun was followed by four street thugs, whom he subdued and hypnotized before learning they had no larger scheme. On his way home, he found his neighbor Kent being beaten and plotting to get Connie fired and delivered to the men who had threatened him.

• Chen Lun learned from Mrs. Caroline that his troubled young neighbor was named Kent, then realized he needed legitimate identities for himself and Froy.
• Four thugs followed Chen Lun into a dark alley, where he knocked them down and hypnotized Mack into revealing they had planned to extort him.
• Chen Lun spared the thugs and headed home, warning himself to tell Froy that the neighborhood was unsafe.
• Chen Lun found Kent being beaten by two men who demanded that he bring Connie to the Bird-and-Flower Tavern in exchange for postponing his debt.
• Kent agreed to get Connie fired and force her to go with them, then glared at Chen Lun when he offered help; a passing woman gave Chen Lun a look of disgust.

The Iron Fist Gang targeted Chen Lun and Froy after learning they were outsiders with no connections. As they prepared for breakfast at Mrs. Caroline’s, Chen Lun encountered Connie in the hallway.

• A man from the Iron Fist Gang reported to Boss Gary that Chen Lun and Froy were staying at 7 Danton Street.
• Gary ordered his men to kill Chen Lun and bring Froy to him, warning them not to cause too much trouble.
• Chen Lun checked and packed his Flintlocks and Iron Gauntlets, then gave Froy a Flintlock for protection.
• Chen Lun and Froy met Connie in the hallway after she argued with her father about medicine from the Red Apple Church; she glared at Chen Lun and left.
• Mrs. Caroline welcomed Chen Lun and Froy to breakfast and presented her fish-and-egg rice dish.

Chen Lun spent a quiet day in Amber City, learning about Mrs. Caroline’s losses and observing the Red Apple Church’s sale of fruit nectar. A newspaper reminded him that Councilor Daniel, whom Dolly would eventually kill, was a target protected by a small guild in his past life.

• Mrs. Caroline told Chen Lun and Froy that her husband Henry and son Oliver had died during the empire’s overseas landings, and Froy asked her to teach her to cook to comfort her.
• Chen Lun passed Connie and Kent at a café, while two Iron Fist Gang members discussed whether they could abduct the out-of-town girl and decided to wait.
• Chen Lun watched a Red Apple Church monk preach and sell fruit nectar, which he knew was harmful and addictive despite its healing effects.
• Chen Lun overheard office workers arguing about Councilor Daniel’s tax-cut proposal and remembered that a small guild had protected Daniel in his past life and that Dolly would eventually kill him.

Chen Lun hired Connie to help with the household, while Kent offered Gary a plan to target Froy. The next evening, Chen Lun returned to find Froy missing and encountered Kent on the stairs.

• Chen Lun agreed to hire Connie as a maid for two Silver Crowns a week, and she left grateful for the work.
• Gary confronted Kent over his unpaid debt, and Kent offered to help him get hold of Froy.
• The next evening, Chen Lun returned to No. 7 Denton Street and discovered Froy was missing.
• Chen Lun went outside to ask Mrs. Caroline about Froy and ran into Kent on the stairs.

Chen Lun questioned Kent about Froy and Connie, while Connie took Froy out for drinks and invited her to the opera. The two girls headed toward the Dolphin Opera House by a shortcut, unaware of Kent’s hostile thoughts about them and Chen Lun.

• Chen Lun asked Kent whether he had seen Froy or Connie, and Kent angrily denied seeing either of them.
• Kent blamed Chen Lun for disrupting his efforts with Connie and thought the Iron Fist Gang had already dealt with the two girls.
• Connie and Froy walked through the Outer District with drinks, and Connie reflected on Froy’s wealth and kindness.
• Connie offered Froy two tickets Kent had given her for a performance at the Dolphin Opera House, and Froy agreed to go.
• Connie suggested a shortcut to the opera house, and Froy chose to walk there.

Chen Lun forced Kent to reveal the Iron Fist Gang’s scheme and found a memoir among Kent’s family heirlooms. Meanwhile, Froy fought off the gang’s ambush with her Flintlock, but the attackers armed themselves with Iron Gauntlets and strange firearms.

• Connie and Froy were surrounded by Iron Fist Gang members in a secluded alley, and one man grabbed Connie.
• Chen Lun threatened Kent with a Flintlock, then used the Seashell Necklace to make him reveal that Gary and the Iron Fist Gang had orchestrated a vile scheme.
• Kent offered Chen Lun his family heirloom, a book titled “Record-Keeper Kemberney's Memoirs,” and Chen Lun recognized a possible significance in it.
• Froy shot three gang members as they attacked Connie and her, prompting the remaining men to put on Iron Gauntlets and aim strange firearms at the women.

Chen Lun used his Snake Kiss ability to kill Kent and two Iron Fist Gang members, then accepted a quest to destroy or subdue the gang. As Connie and Froy were taken toward Sewage Flats, a scarlet crossbow bolt struck one of their captors, leaving their fate unresolved.

• Kent fled his home and collapsed into the arms of two Iron Fist Gang members, dead from Snake Kiss wounds on his neck.
• Chen Lun killed Kent's two companions with Snake Kiss and accepted the King of Sewage Flats quest.
• Chen Lun headed toward the Dolphin Opera House and vowed to confront the Iron Fist Gang.
• Iron Fist Gang members escorted Connie and Froy toward Sewage Flats while mocking them and discussing Froy's stolen Flintlock.
• A scarlet crossbow bolt struck one of the gang members, and his wound began widening as if something were devouring him.

Chen Lun attacked the Iron Fist Gang to rescue Connie and Froy, killing several members before they fired a barrage of blunderbusses at him. The dust cleared to reveal him unharmed, while he sent the stray dog that had guided him away.

• A starving man attacked another Iron Fist Gang member, and Chen Lun approached with a Hand Crossbow and shot a leather-jacketed man.
• Chen Lun caught an Iron Fist Gang member’s Mad Hands punch and smashed the man’s face with a single blow.
• Connie and Froy watched from hiding as Chen Lun fought the gang, and Connie cheered him on.
• An Iron Fist Gang member fired a blunderbuss at Chen Lun, and the others joined in with a barrage that shredded his clothes.
• Chen Lun emerged from the dust unharmed and waved the stray dog away after thanking it.

Chen Lun defeated the Iron Fist Gang and sent Connie and Froy home with a stray dog and a crowd of cats. After they left, he examined one of the gang’s homemade flintlocks and wondered if its protective gauntlet had been designed to pair with it.

• Chen Lun survived the gang’s gunfire and killed its members, testing the Tongue of Gluttony’s crimson bolts in the fight.
• Connie checked on Chen Lun, while Froy quietly recovered her Flintlock and hid it behind her back.
• Chen Lun summoned stray cats and had them escort Connie and Froy home with the stray dog.
• After the two girls left, Chen Lun picked up a homemade flintlock and speculated that the Iron Fist Gauntlet was made for using it.