Chapter Summaries

Wei Shan prepared a fear-harvesting operation by rebuilding his life souls, purchasing materials for a teleportation array, and studying how to tailor horror to a world's culture. After consulting Tourist No. 1 and Guide, he traveled to Falling Star World and began exploring it.

• Wei Shan replaced his life souls with dread, dream demon, light shield, and qi eater, then reallocated his attributes toward mental power.
• Wei Shan bought the spatial materials and paid the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce to build a miniature teleportation array, while weighing sustainable ways to harvest shock points in a Minor World.
• Tourist No. 1 advised Wei Shan to base his horror scenarios on the Minor World's own customs and beliefs, and Wei Shan asked Guide for information about the Virtual Runes Legion's world.
• The Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce completed the array, and Wei Shan traveled to the Colorful Mist Coast to activate it.
• Wei Shan arrived high above Falling Star World, formed a Hoverboard, and set out to explore the world and uncover its map.

Wei Shan arrived in ruined New Cassini and used terrifying illusions and force to seize control of the city’s gangs and resources. After killing the Gear Gang’s leader, he renamed the city the City of Terror and demanded that the remaining leaders obey him.

• Wei Shan chose New Cassini as his first test target and found its residents living amid gang rule and the ruins left by the End Dharma Race’s invasion.
• As eight gang leaders argued over the eastern district’s water purification station, Wei Shan subjected them to an illusion of the city’s destruction and returned them to their negotiation table in terror.
• Wei Shan took the water purification station for himself and crushed the Gear Gang’s leader when he attacked.
• Wei Shan claimed New Cassini’s power stations, food bases, and weapon modification projects, then ordered the seven remaining gang leaders to obey him.
• Wei Shan declared that the city would be renamed the City of Terror and asked the gang leaders who was in favor and who was against.

Wei Shan established the Nightmare Trial Grounds in New Cassini and used food and water rewards to draw residents into its challenges, steadily increasing his Shock Point returns. As the operation expanded, he recognized that repeated nightmares lost effectiveness and began planning to involve fellow players and test an agent-based model in another city.

• Wei Shan replaced the clock tower with the Nightmare Trial Grounds and had the gangs announce challenges that rewarded residents with food and clean water.
• An emaciated old man completed a tier-one challenge and returned with rewards, convincing some onlookers that the supplies were real.
• Wei Shan organized repairs to the city's water station, livestock farm, and farmland while residents gradually grew more willing to enter the trials.
• The number of participants surged, the second water pipeline began operating, and Wei Shan's daily returns exceeded 1,500 points of Sacrificial Power.
• Wei Shan realized repeated horror scenes produced fewer Shock Points and considered recruiting fellow players to develop new scenarios and share the work.
• Wei Shan planned to build more Nightmare Entrances and test an agent-based operation in another city with a functioning civil order.

After restoring order in New Cassini, Wei Shan traveled to Neon Harbor to find an agent and discovered that the intact city was sinking into nihilistic indulgence. He activated the Nightmare System for Lex, who prepared to test its horror scenarios on three young customers.

• Wei Shan completed the restoration of New Cassini, reorganized its gangs, and left for Neon Harbor to begin testing agent mode.
• Guide explained that Neon Harbor's residents indulged in thrills because the invasion had destroyed their confidence in the future, despite the city's material security.
• Lex, whose virtual experience venue was failing, activated the Nightmare System after its mysterious prompt appeared on his disconnected console.
• Lex explored the system's horror scenarios and shop, then advertised a new immersive experience to attract customers.
• Three young people entered Lex's venue, and he launched the Silent Deadland scenario for them.

Lex built the Nightmare Experience Hall into a popular attraction by introducing competitive rankings, then exchanged Shock Points for a Body Tempering Pill that transformed his physical abilities. As the crowds kept growing, he began creating a custom horror scenario called Memory Maze.

• Lex collected Shock Points from three frightened visitors and created the Brave Hero Rankings to draw challengers into competing for Courage Value.
• Lex replaced the venue’s sign with Nightmare Experience Hall, and new customers soon spread its reputation across Neon Harbor through forum posts, rankings, and highlight clips.
• As crowds filled the hall, Lex expanded the experience space, hired temporary workers, and paid overdue bills and rent with his earnings.
• Lex exchanged 50,000 Shock Points for a Body Tempering Pill, received a tiny fragment, and gained strength, stamina, sharper senses, and a healthier appearance after consuming it.
• Lex began designing new horror scenes himself, using the Purple Mist to generate his ideas, and ended the evening looking at his custom Memory Maze scene.

Wei Shan inspected New Cassini’s rebuilding, punished the Eight Great Gangs for withholding supplies, and recruited players to expand his Shock Point business in the Falling Star World. His recruitment post sparked discussion about alternative Shock Point methods and the future of Pet Builds, ending with a player proposing the overlooked Divine Artifact Clan as a new source of pets.

• Wei Shan compared Neon Harbor’s agent model with New Cassini’s survival-driven model and returned to New Cassini to oversee its repairs and resource shortages.
• Wei Shan supplied purification items, adapted energy crystals into usable modules, and bought replacement parts to restore New Cassini’s damaged facilities.
• After learning that the Iron Hand Gang had withheld supplies and beaten a resident, Wei Shan crushed a mining machine with psychokinesis to intimidate the Eight Great Gangs into obeying his rules.
• Wei Shan posted on the Player Forum to recruit players for a Summoner Mutual Aid Group, reporting that his two Falling Star World cities were already producing substantial Shock Points.
• Players discussed unconventional ways to generate Shock Points, and Wei Shan decided to recruit capable players while reflecting on the strange suggestions they offered.
• Pet Build players debated how to find stronger pets as Book-Speech Warriors and Soul Beasts became less useful or harder to obtain, until one player suggested the Divine Artifact Clan.

Pet-build players devised a plan to capture a Divine Artifact Clan member by using Di Nian Bully's Pain Tide to give Yang Xiu a convincing aura of despair. At Artifact Valley, Youying approached Yang Xiu and offered to save him, and Yang Xiu accepted its help while secretly signaling his companions that the trap was ready.

• Pet-build players pooled funds to build a teleportation array and planned to lure a Divine Artifact Clan member by giving Yang Xiu a Pain Brand from Di Nian Bully's troops.
• Yang Xiu joined God's Left Leg and the United Warband in battle, where the Wailing Daughters' despair inflicted a Pain Brand on him.
• Yang Xiu traveled through the teleportation array with other pet-build players and waited outside Artifact Valley, acting as a broken and desperate wanderer.
• Youying approached Yang Xiu, healed his hands, and promised to help him escape his suffering.
• Yang Xiu agreed to go with Youying, then told his companions in the Party Voice Channel that the target had taken the bait.

Yang Xiu lured Youying into an ambush at the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range, where the players defeated it and added it to Yang Xiu’s pets. After the capture, Qi Sheng decided to open a taxed pet market in the Trading House, turning player-to-player pet sales into a new source of revenue.

• Yang Xiu pretended to despair over his lost Moonshadow Race kin, persuading Youying to accompany him to the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range in search of survivors.
• Yang Xiu led Youying through a spatial rift to a teleportation point where players had prepared an ambush and stabilized the surrounding space.
• Yang Xiu revealed the trap, and the players used taunts, chains, barriers, and coordinated attacks to overwhelm Youying until it entered a near-death state.
• Yang Xiu applied a control mark and obtained Divine Artifact · Youying as his ninth pet, while players planned to repeat the capture method and build a mutual-aid network.
• Qi Sheng reviewed the capture and decided to add a pet market to the Trading House, where players could trade pets through pet spaces and pay a five-percent tax.

Qi Sheng reviewed the expanding Pet Build community and its new trading systems before turning to Fate Throat’s plan to establish a Fate Gambling City on Dream Island. Fate Throat arrived to negotiate with A Lan and unexpectedly reunited with Ye Ming, who recognized the Fate Master from a pivotal gamble in the past.

• Pet Build players expanded their group hunts, while a Research Enthusiast created the Myriad Spirits Contract to catalog pets and organize captures.
• Qi Sheng launched a pet market restricted to players with Control Life Soul, making pet trading easier and boosting newcomers’ hunting and sacrificial power production.
• Fate Throat secured startup funds and began negotiating with A Lan to establish a Fate Gambling City on Dream Island.
• Ye Ming asked A Lan for discounted resources to support the Mingwu Race’s war, but A Lan refused and argued that both sides benefited from their trade partnership.
• Fate Throat arrived during the negotiations, identified himself to Ye Ming, and reminded him of their past Equivalent Gamble, prompting Ye Ming to recognize and respectfully greet him.

Ye Ming left as Fate Throat and A Lan discussed plans for establishing Fate Gambling City on Dream Island. A Lan proposed building its audience through entertainment and player-supported services, and Fate Throat agreed to pursue a partnership with the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce.

• Ye Ming respectfully departed after Fate Throat arrived to speak with A Lan.
• Fate Throat proposed establishing Fate Gambling City on Dream Island and using the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce's customer traffic to develop it.
• A Lan warned that players could visit but must not gamble, and suggested creating player jobs and services that would benefit the city without taking players' wealth.
• A Lan shared a plan to attract visitors with performances, free food and drinks, explanations, and prize draws before gradually introducing gambling.
• A Lan advised Fate Throat not to use luck-related Life Souls to alter gambling odds during the city's early growth, and Fate Throat accepted his advice.
• A Lan and Fate Throat shook hands and agreed to a successful partnership.

A Lan launched the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce’s player support plan, while Fate Throat studied how to develop Fate Gambling City and discovered that the Youlü Council’s Game Space rule could solve his gambling limitations. He began planning to seize that rule.

• A Lan posted a support plan offering funding and technical assistance to player projects that advanced the Player Faction, drawing widespread praise and applications.
• Fate Throat revised Fate Gambling City’s development plan and realized his quasi-rule imprint could not generate rule-derived energy from high-stakes wagers involving powerful rule tools.
• Fate Throat considered strengthening his imprint by fusing it with another rule, but could not find a suitable solution in the Library or Player Forum.
• Fate Throat found an old forum post describing the Youlü Council’s Game Space rule, which generated energy through games and debt collection.
• Fate Throat decided the Game Space rule could complement his Fate Quasi-Rule and began planning to take it from the Youlü Council.

Fate Throat gathered sacrificial power and intelligence on the Youlü Council before infiltrating its game space as a captured creature. Using Guide’s analysis, he exposed the Council member You'ai’s cheating repeatedly and began claiming rewards, leaving You'ai stunned by his opponent’s confidence.

• Fate Throat threatened to cut off his clansmen’s internet unless they sent him sacrificial power, then asked Guide for updated information about the Youlü Council.
• Fate Throat learned that the Youlü Council’s game space was vulnerable and devised a plan to enter it as a captured creature.
• Fate Throat built a spatial teleportation array, disguised his aura as that of the Nether River Race, and entered the Youlü Council’s game space.
• Fate Throat faced You'ai in a series of games and correctly exposed his hidden rule traps, winning rewards each time.
• Fate Throat dropped his disguise, challenged You'ai to continue the game, and showed no fear of him.

Fate Throat dominated You'ai in a series of games, then deliberately let You'ai win enough rounds to claim victory and receive a Tribal Brand. You'ai suspected a trap and canceled the slaughter operation, while Fate Throat returned to the Colorful Mist Coast space and began planning a longer campaign against the Youlü Council.

• You'ai introduced a simulated war game, and Fate Throat used Brain Overclocking and Eagle-Headed Demon to read his cards and outmaneuver him before deliberately surrendering the round.
• Fate Throat threw the next four rounds as well, giving You'ai five wins and the match victory; You'ai killed him and formed a Tribal Brand.
• You'ai grew suspicious that Fate Throat had used the match to lure the Youlü Council into a trap, so he canceled the slaughter plan and had the Tribal Brand dismantled.
• Fate Throat reappeared at the Resurrection Teleport Point, learned from Guide that no Youlü Council members had followed him, and devised an attrition campaign using rotating Life Soul forms.
• Fate Throat ordered his tribesmen to gather in the Colorful Mist Coast space and threatened to cut off internet access for a week if they failed to arrive within two hours.

Fate Throat used disguised Fate Race players to lure Youlü Council slaughter squads into dangerous regions, then sent a spatial summons that brought elite Fate Race warriors to conquer the Game Space. After the warriors seized its rule, Fate Throat appeared and confronted Ming An over keeping it.

• Fate Throat sent 32 clanspeople into the Game Space to feign difficult wins and natural losses, causing Youlü Council members to disappear after being redirected by Tribal Brands.
• You Xuan investigated the missing squads, fled from the Lord of Bliss's projection, and was captured by the Champion Fighter at the Ancient God Arena.
• The Youlü Council detected the Fate Race players, strengthened its checks, and repeatedly closed the Game Space, but Fate Throat switched to Life Soul disguises and later sent a spatial signal to summon reinforcements.
• Thirty-nine Fate Race elites answered the summons, overwhelmed the Youlü Council, killed its leader, and seized the Game Space rule.
• Fate Throat appeared after the battle and challenged Ming An for holding the rule cube, leaving Ming An's triumph abruptly uncertain.

Fate Throat reunited with Ming An and the Fate Apostles, revealed that he had transcended his predetermined destiny by rebuilding his life around multiple compatible rules, and inspired Ming An to seek the same path. He then turned to the gathered clansmen for help funding his plans, asking about the resources they had saved.

• Ming An handed Fate Throat the game space rule, and Fate Throat explained that settling his clansmen in a Minor World had led him beyond fate’s predetermined course.
• Fate Throat demonstrated that he could transform into several different life forms, then let Ming An sense the five rule-level powers coexisting within his body.
• Ming An realized Fate Throat had become a rule-compatible entity and grew eager to follow his path.
• Fate Throat’s clansmen watched his revelation through a private livestream, celebrating his achievement and anticipating their own player qualifications.
• Fate Throat considered the costs of his plans and asked the thirty-nine clansmen whether they had saved up resources, admitting that he was strapped for resources.

Fate Throat sold the resources he had obtained from Ming An and his clansmen, then spent the proceeds fusing the Game Space Rule with his Fate Rules imprint to create and name the Special Life Soul Fate City. He arranged for Ming An’s group to complete an Earth optimization assessment with Ming Shu, but Ming Shu learned they planned to leave as soon as the test was over.

• Fate Throat listed Ming An’s resources for sale and waited until he had enough sacrificial power to pay for rule fusion.
• Guide fused the Game Space Rule and Fate Rules imprint into a Special Life Soul, which Fate Throat named Fate City.
• Fate Throat helped Ming An and thirty-eight clansmen obtain Earth Alliance citizenship and explained that they would assist with Earth’s optimization project as an assessment.
• Ming An and the other newly arrived clansmen discovered the truth about Earth and the Player Race, while Fate Throat planned to give his original followers future shares of Fate Gambling City’s proceeds.
• Ming An led his clansmen to Ming Shu’s ocean purification site, where they brought supplies and offered to help advance the project.
• Ming An told Ming Shu that his group would leave after completing the Star Network’s test, leaving Ming Shu to continue the work alone.

Qi Sheng reviewed the Player Faction’s regional development and planned to focus the next update on momentum, then received a report about the Earthshaking Coast. There, Ji Chen struggled to build a spatial formation so he could reach the Black Domain and search for Dragonkin, whom Guide confirmed was in the Monster World.

• Qi Sheng reviewed player activity, faction strength, and sacrificial power across the regions, noting the rise of the Stars and Battle-Rust United Warbands and the Colorful Mist Coast’s leading output.
• Qi Sheng examined the Life Soul Database and class rankings, then made momentum the focus of the next update while recognizing that insufficient sacrificial power limited development.
• Guide drew Qi Sheng’s attention to a report from the Earthshaking Coast, where Ji Chen was constructing a spatial formation to reach the Black Domain.
• Ji Chen recalled Dragonkin, his old mentor and friend, and the ambition Dragonkin had shared to climb the highest mountain with its kin.
• Ji Chen asked Guide whether Dragonkin was in the Monster World, and Guide answered yes.

Ji Chen pursued spatial studies so he could reunite with Dragonkin, while leading his guild to capture the Earth Nest node and strengthen its members. After learning that Dragonkin’s people in Cinder Earth Canyon were under attack by the Devouring Race and suffering devastating losses, Ji Chen faced an urgent reason to reach them.

• Ji Chen learned from Guide that Dragonkin and its people lived in Black Domain Land, renewing his determination to meet Dragonkin and show him how much he had grown.
• Ji Chen’s attempt to construct a teleportation array failed, destroying the array and his accumulated spatial materials, so he decided to focus on growing stronger while continuing his studies.
• Ji Chen used Stone-Bone Golems to mine for his guild and then flew to the Earth Nest node to support his teammates in their battle to capture it.
• Ji Chen and the guild fought and revived repeatedly for four days, eventually capturing the level 2 special Spirit Field node, Earth Nest, and celebrating together at Colorful Mist Coast.
• Ji Chen returned to the Emperor Tomb Village Library to study spatial teleportation and asked Guide about Dragonkin, who revealed that the Devouring Race had attacked Cinder Earth Canyon and Dragonkin’s people were defending their Sacrificial Altar amid devastating losses.

Ji Chen learned that Dragonkin’s Dragonwing Race faced near-certain defeat against the Devouring Race, and he sought a way to reach and save his old friend. A Lan arranged a Spatial Teleportation Array and gathered allied warbands, leaving Ji Chen ready to depart for the battlefield with their support.

• Guide told Ji Chen that the Dragonwing Race would likely lose its defenses within five days, while the nearest Teleportation Arrays would leave him too far from Cinder Earth Canyon to arrive in time.
• Ji Chen realized he needed both a way to reach the Black Domain Continent and a force strong enough to fight the Devouring Race, so he asked A Lan of the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce for help.
• A Lan decided that helping Ji Chen would build a valuable future alliance, asked Fate Throat to construct a Spatial Teleportation Array, and recruited Divine King's United Warband and other allied forces.
• Fate Throat completed the array on Dream Island, and A Lan gathered three united legions there while Ji Chen traveled to meet them.
• Ji Chen saw the assembled forces and thanked A Lan for the favor before preparing to leave for Dragonkin's battlefield.

The Dragonwing Race teetered on the brink of extinction as Dragonkin and the Great Dragon Lord fought the Devouring Race’s overwhelming assault. Ji Chen and the Player Legions arrived through a spatial rift, turned the battle around, and summoned colossal Battle Formation avatars to face the Devouring Race’s shadow-handed powerhouses.

• The Devouring Race overwhelmed the Dragonwing defenses, and Dragonkin refused the Great Dragon Lord’s order to retreat, choosing to fight beside his people.
• Dragonkin charged into the Devouring forces, and the Great Dragon Lord joined him as their warriors fell and the defensive line crumbled.
• Ji Chen led the Damage-Soaking Group and other Player Legions through a spatial rift; healing and coordinated attacks halted the Devouring advance and devastated its ranks.
• The Devouring Race’s shadow-handed powerhouses emerged, and Ji Chen told Dragonkin that the real battle was only beginning.
• A million players combined their power into towering Battle Formation avatars, which faced the descending shadow hands as Ji Chen asked Dragonkin if he was impressed.