Chapter Summaries

Lin Yuan entered a memory fragment in the Ancient Battlefield Ruins Instance and found himself fighting a vast horde of chaos monsters in an abandoned city. After the Heartguard Armor shattered, he lost control of the memory owner's body again, leaving the battle's outcome unclear.

• Lin Yuan found a low-grade memory fragment and decided to enter it while Bai Ling stood guard.
• Lin Yuan arrived in an empty, damaged city and realized he was experiencing the memory owner's perspective.
• The memory owner revealed the missing people and objects as chaos monsters, then Lin Yuan regained control and had to fight them.
• Lin Yuan battled the monsters inside a hundred-meter area, using his weapons and Heartguard Armor to withstand their Pollution.
• The Heartguard Armor shattered after Lin Yuan had killed thousands of monsters, and he suddenly lost control of his body again.

Lin Yuan cleared ten low-level memory fragments in the Desert region, earning points and learning that Chaos Monsters had appeared suddenly and alarmed powerful figures in the past. After finishing every White Mist Zone, he planned to seek more memories for information.

• Lin Yuan watched the memory fragment’s owner destroy every Chaos Monster in a city and heard him worry that a supposedly dead entity might revive.
• Lin Yuan received 100 Survival Points and concluded that A-rank energy could protect him from Pollution without consuming his heartguard armor.
• Lin Yuan told Bai Ling they would continue clearing White Mist Zones, and she realized that time passed differently inside memory fragments.
• Lin Yuan and Bai Ling cleared every White Mist Zone in the Desert region in less than a day, finishing ten memory fragments.
• Lin Yuan counted his 1,000 points, stockpiled items, and ten memories, and recognized that useful information came from each fragment’s ending cutscene.

After reviewing memories that hinted at a dangerous revival, Lin Yuan returned to find the base nearly complete and learned that Rose and the others had created unusual turrets by channeling their Transcendent power into the machines. He inspected the defenses and wondered whether the platform concealed a hollow space.

• Lin Yuan concluded that the memory fragments showed one person hunting Chaos Monsters while searching for two others and trying to confirm whether something had revived.
• After clearing ten white fog zones, Lin Yuan decided to recover before exploring higher-level pollution zones and returned to the base.
• Lin Yuan found the fortress built with layered walls, Miniature Turrets, Geomagnetic Traps, production machines, and the Fire Seed at its center.
• Crazy Tiger explained that Rose, Crazy Tiger, Howling Wolf, and Rock Bear had used their Transcendent power with the machines to produce special turrets.
• Lin Yuan praised the experiments, considered the Divine Artisan Forge's role in the strange results, and asked whether the platform was hollow underneath.

The first wave of Ancient War Souls attacked Lin Yuan’s fortress, giving him and Rose’s team a chance to test their defenses. By the sixth hour, the outer wall had collapsed, and they identified weaknesses to address in the fortress design.

• Howling Wolf explained the raised platform’s defenses and retractable support beneath the Fire Seed, and Lin Yuan praised the team’s planning.
• The system announced the start of the Ancient Battlefield Ruins Instance, and the first wave of Ancient War Souls emerged from the sand and marched toward Lin Yuan’s base.
• Lin Yuan observed that the war souls appeared in overwhelming numbers but had no ranged attacks, while the fortress’s Miniature Turrets killed them faster than they could damage the walls.
• After three hours, Lin Yuan noted that the outer wall’s turrets were too sparse and recommended adding more area-attack turrets.
• After six hours, the outer wall collapsed, and Lin Yuan and Howling Wolf’s group recognized that the wall and turret arrangement needed redesigning.

After the first Awakening Period ended, Lin Yuan reviewed the Points Ranking and prepared to explore the Fog Zone while leaving the base in Rose’s care. In the Hills region, Prince and Fei-ge discussed Lin Yuan’s lead and planned to confront him in the Desert once their mobile fortress was ready.

• After the twelve-hour attack ended, Lin Yuan judged the base defenses adequate, gave Rose a Sound-Transmitting Conch, and left Lilia and her Coffin as a safeguard.
• The system awarded every player 100 points and announced that Points Rankings would update after each Awakening Period.
• Lin Yuan opened the ranking and saw Ship Crew Zero in first place with 1,100 points, far ahead of the other crews.
• Prince wondered how Zero had explored the Fog Zone, and Fei-ge suggested Lin Yuan’s ability might let him resist its pollution.
• Fei-ge proposed that Prince’s group head to the Desert region and eliminate Lin Yuan after their mobile fortress was complete.

Prince and Fei-ge planned to attack Lin Yuan after building their fortress, while the Supernova Alliance focused on completing its own stronghold and hoped Lin Yuan would keep Prince occupied. Lin Yuan upgraded Ship Crew Zero’s Fire Seed to level two and went to inspect the change.

• Prince agreed with Fei-ge to finish the fortress in ten days, then head for the Desert Zone to kill Lin Yuan.
• Players across the instance discussed Ship Crew Zero’s first-place ranking and learned that Zero had founded the crew with the Avengers Fleet.
• The Supernova Alliance decided to prioritize stronghold construction and rely on Survival Points, with Foolish Old Man warning that Prince might attack them later.
• Lin Yuan spent 200 points to upgrade Ship Crew Zero’s Fire Seed from level one to level two.
• Rose and the others noticed that the flame lotus had grown larger and gained more petals, and Lin Yuan moved closer to inspect it.

Lin Yuan upgraded his Fire Seed and bought items before entering the Level 2 polluted zone of Minglong City, where he defeated the Chaos Monsters but encountered a giant boss. When their opposing energies formed a black hole, both combatants were drained, and it began drifting toward Lin Yuan as his energy ran out.

• Lin Yuan inspected the upgraded Fire Seed's exchange list and bought two Talisman Conversion Stones and a Memory Aura.
• Lin Yuan left Rose and the others and entered the Level 2 polluted zone of Minglong City.
• Lin Yuan used his cannons to clear the Chaos Monsters, but a giant Chaos Monster appeared instead of a memory fragment.
• Lin Yuan attacked the giant Chaos Monster with the Holy Hall Light Blade, and their clashing energies formed a black hole that drained them both.
• Lin Yuan ran out of energy just before the giant Chaos Monster, and the black hole began drifting toward him.

Lin Yuan used Heart of Molten Fire to survive an energy black hole and kill the giant Chaos Monster, which the system belatedly identified as Minglong City's hidden boss. He received a Heavenly Gate Token and two memory items, then returned to base with Bai Ling to recover and investigate the strange energy black hole later.

• Lin Yuan converted his health into A-rank energy with Heart of Molten Fire and used it to push the energy black hole into the giant Chaos Monster, killing it.
• The system announced that Minglong City had become a level-four pollution zone, then revealed the hidden boss had been eliminated and awarded Lin Yuan the Heavenly Gate Token.
• Lin Yuan suspected the energy black hole had blocked the system's messages during the battle.
• The giant Chaos Monster turned to ash, leaving a Memory Gem and an Intermediate Memory Fragment, which Lin Yuan stored without examining.
• Lin Yuan decided to return to base to recover, and Bai Ling went with him.

Lin Yuan explored the Memory Gem and witnessed Minglong become a Great Chaos Monster, then fought him inside the memory. Lin Yuan discovered that this newly corrupted monster’s energy differed from the one he had fought outside and seemed closely related to his own A-rank energy.

• Lin Yuan returned to the base, approved Rose and the others’ defenses, and ordered Little Black to repair him while he rested.
• Lin Yuan used the Memory Gem and found himself in Minglong City, where the memory’s owner visited the corrupted Minglong.
• Minglong begged his lord to kill him, transformed into a Great Chaos Monster, and attacked Lin Yuan.
• Lin Yuan fought the unusually fast and powerful monster, then drove A-rank energy into one of its tentacles.
• Lin Yuan found that his A-rank energy easily destroyed the monster’s corruption, while its remaining pure Transcendent Energy resembled his own.

After failing the memory challenge against Minglong, Lin Yuan realized that the subtle quality within A-rank energy was the seed of a unique authority. He repeatedly reentered the memory to study that quality, strengthening and condensing his energy while leaving the challenge uncleared.

• Lin Yuan was overwhelmed by Minglong’s tentacles and failed the memory challenge after surviving five minutes.
• Lin Yuan recognized that the energy inside Minglong and himself was A-rank energy, but each carried a distinct quality that marked the seed of a different authority.
• Lin Yuan realized that strengthening this quality would help his energy condense into authority, which would then need more A-rank energy to grow.
• Lin Yuan wondered why his energy had overwhelmed Minglong’s in their direct clash and concluded that his own authority’s quality was stronger.
• Lin Yuan repeatedly entered the memory, struck Minglong, and studied the contrast between their energies; his challenge points stayed unchanged as his A-rank energy grew more condensed.

While Lin Yuan spent ten days refining his A-rank Energy, Ship Crew Zero’s ranking plummeted and other players wrote them off as a one-day wonder. Lin Yuan emerged with energy four times as condensed as before, ready to demonstrate his strength.

• Prince saw Ship Crew Zero earn few points and declared its first-place showing a flash in the pan, while Foolish Old Man dismissed the rankings as entertainment.
• Lin Yuan ignored the chatter and devoted himself to comprehending quality, improving his A-rank Energy as the days passed.
• The fifth wave introduced Elite War Souls and increased Survival Points, but the stronger attacks eliminated many players and exposed the rankings to people outside the instance.
• The Press Club and other players spread reports that Ship Crew Zero had faded, and the crew fell from first place to outside the top ten before dropping off the ranking entirely.
• On the tenth day, Lin Yuan finished his contemplation and found his A-rank Energy four times as condensed, letting him neutralize a skill with one point instead of five.
• Lin Yuan walked out of his room and declared that it was time to show what he could do.

After strengthening his energy, Lin Yuan left his base to clear Pollution Zones across the Instance while Rose and the others guarded the fortress. He arrived with Bai Ling at a Level Four Fog Zone where Yellow Hair and Fei-ge’s group had begun exploring.

• Lin Yuan reached the limit of what he could do to strengthen his energy, making him far stronger but leaving his unique Authority unfed.
• Lin Yuan told Rose and the others he would return before day twenty-five, upgraded the Fire Seed to level three, and delegated exchange permissions before setting out with Healing Water for the base.
• Yellow Hair and Fei-ge’s veteran Players forced a rookie group to leave their Level Four Pollution Zone and discussed clearing Fog Zones before hunting Ship Crew Zero.
• Lin Yuan arrived with Bai Ling at one of the Desert’s two Level Four Fog Zones and set a goal of clearing it in twenty minutes.

Lin Yuan took advantage of Yellow Hair's group drawing away the lesser monsters to kill the pollution zone's boss and leave with its Memory Gem. Hours later, Fei-ge and Yellow Hair reached the center and found the boss missing.

• Bai Ling sensed that Yellow Hair's group had drawn away the ordinary monsters surrounding the boss, and Lin Yuan decided not to attack the veteran players.
• Bai Ling told Lin Yuan that the group's leader carried an ornate cannon resembling Explore the Sea, so Lin Yuan prepared to watch out for it in a future fight.
• Lin Yuan reached the boss with Bai Ling, killed it in seconds with the Holy Hall Light Blade and A-rank Energy, and took its Memory Gem.
• Lin Yuan and Bai Ling left the Fog Zone before the fog fully dispersed, leaving Yellow Hair's group occupied as Lin Yuan moved on to other pollution zones.
• Hours later, Fei-ge and Yellow Hair reached the empty center and wondered where the boss had gone.

Lin Yuan used the approaching Awakening Period to clear pollution zones and Memory Fragments while saving points to support Rose and the others at base. His Ship Crew Zero kept climbing the rankings, leaving Prince and Fei-ge increasingly uneasy as they prepared to travel to the Mountain Range Zone.

• Fei-ge failed to find the thief who had cleared a level-four pollution zone and dismissed Yellow Hair's suggestion that Ship Crew Zero was responsible.
• Lin Yuan decided to focus on level-four pollution zones, clear ordinary Memory Fragments, and save Memory Gems for later.
• Ship Crew Zero rose to around tenth place with over 4,000 points, but Prince and Fei-ge expected its performance to fade and chose not to divert toward the Desert Zone.
• Ship Crew Zero barely changed on the twelfth day's ranking, so Prince ordered the mobile fortress's mountain travel modifications to begin.
• Ship Crew Zero surged another 2,000 points on the thirteenth day and entered the top three, making Prince and Fei-ge uneasy despite calling it another brief bloom.

As Ship Crew Zero continued climbing the leaderboard, Fei-ge turned on Prince after exposing his plan to terminate their crew contract. Fei-ge killed Prince and ordered the fortress back toward the Desert Zone to attack Ship Crew Zero on the twenty-fifth day.

• Ship Crew Zero kept earning points and maintained first place, while Prince and Fei-ge argued over whether to attack the Supernova Alliance or return to the Desert Zone.
• Fei-ge ordered Yellow Hair and the others to attack Prince, accusing him of planning to use a Contract Termination Seal after the crews weakened each other.
• Prince admitted his original plan but claimed his golden barrier could protect him and offered to make peace.
• Fei-ge fired Explore the Sea through Prince's barrier and killed him, then forced Prince's butler to submit.
• Fei-ge ordered the fortress to head for the Desert Zone at full speed and planned to wipe out Ship Crew Zero on the twenty-fifth day.
• Foolish Old Man and the other Supernovas witnessed the attack from their fortress and discussed Prince's death and the veteran players' role as their whetstones.

Lin Yuan returned to the base after clearing every pollution zone he could reach, then tested Memory Aura inside a Memory Gem and gained ten A-rank Transcendent Cores. By checking his other Memory Gems, he realized that changes to his strength carried over only into memories that came later chronologically.

• Foolish Old Man told the Supernovas that Ship Crew Zero was likely to be targeted and revealed he could create a temporary Space Channel to ambush their attackers.
• Lin Yuan returned to the Desert Zone base, praised Rose and the others for defending it, and prepared for the coming fights between players.
• Lin Yuan exchanged a Memory Aura for ten A-rank Transcendent Cores inside a Memory Gem, raising his energy to 1600/1600 before the memory's monsters overwhelmed him.
• Lin Yuan reentered the same Memory Gem and confirmed that his increased energy remained there.
• Lin Yuan checked his other Memory Gems and found that five reflected his increased energy while four did not, leading him to suspect that memories inherited changes according to their chronological order.

Lin Yuan used Memory Aura to uncover the order and contents of the ten Memory Gems, greatly increasing his strength and Ship Crew Zero’s score. The memories revealed the Cataclysm’s origins and a looming battle against its source, which Lin Yuan suspected had ended in defeat.

• Lin Yuan exchanged his remaining Survival Points for Memory Aura, determined the order of the ten Memory Gems, and refined the resulting A-rank energy.
• Lin Yuan cleared the first Memory Gem, earned ten thousand points, and used them to gain enough strength to clear the second.
• Lin Yuan repeated the process until he had cleared all ten Memory Gems, raising Ship Crew Zero’s score by one hundred thousand and securing a commanding lead.
• Lin Yuan learned that the Cataclysm had damaged the world’s rules, allowing Chaos Monsters to appear and pollute its inhabitants.
• Lin Yuan discovered that the Chaos Monsters came from the revived source of the Cataclysm, and that the era’s three strongest powerhouses had planned a decisive battle against it.
• Lin Yuan recognized one of those powerhouses as the Founder of his Sanctum Path and suspected the battle had ended in defeat.

Lin Yuan discovered that the True Heavenly Gate Token would appear in a hidden location after the thirtieth day, then prepared for the twenty-fifth wave’s level-four pollution by revealing his stockpile of countermeasures. Rose and the others realized Lin Yuan had likely cleared every level-four Pollution Zone, leaving the group well equipped for the new threat.

• Lin Yuan connected the Heavenly Gate in the memories to the Fake Heavenly Gate Token and learned that the True Heavenly Gate Token would appear in the Ancient Battlefield Ruins on day thirty.
• Lin Yuan decided to obtain the True Heavenly Gate Token and anticipated that other players might target him after the rankings were released.
• The system announced that the twenty-fifth wave would leave level-four polluted areas and make Battle Souls' attacks carry level-four pollution.
• Rose and the others warned Lin Yuan about the new battlefield bonus, but he produced a large collection of pollution-resistant equipment and supplies.
• Rose and the others inferred that Lin Yuan had cleared every level-four Pollution Zone and recognized that his equipment would protect them from the new threat.

As the Avengers Fleet defended its base during the second-to-last battlefield bonus, Crazy Tiger’s observations led Lin Yuan to suspect that the Battle of the Heavenly Gate had transformed the world and created the current system. When Bai Ling detected the Veteran Players approaching in a mobile fortress, Lin Yuan prepared to intercept their ambush.

• Lin Yuan helped Rose and the Avengers Fleet defend their base, while Rose predicted that only their group, Prince and the Veteran Players, and the Supernova Alliance would survive the day.
• Crazy Tiger pointed out that the equipment names followed Eastern conventions, prompting Lin Yuan to notice that Ancient Era memories and relics differed from the Western style of the current world.
• Lin Yuan connected the stylistic shift to the arrival of the Game System and suspected that the Battle of the Heavenly Gate had caused the world’s transformation.
• Bai Ling detected the Veteran Players approaching from twenty kilometers away in a mobile fortress, and Lin Yuan realized they were targeting his base during the battle souls’ awakening period.
• Lin Yuan told Rose to defend the base and went to meet the Veteran Players.

Lin Yuan discovered that Prince had been killed by Yellow Hair's group, but Prince was actually polluted and escaped the instance after Lin Yuan exposed him. Yellow Hair and Fei-ge then confronted Lin Yuan, and Fei-ge prepared to fire Explore the Sea against Lin Yuan’s own cannon.

• Lin Yuan approached Prince’s Mobile Fortress and found Prince’s apparent corpse tied to a stake inside it.
• Lin Yuan sensed pollution on Prince’s body and attacked it with the Holy Hall Light Blade.
• Prince revealed he was alive, blamed Zero for ruining his plans, and escaped the instance using an item.
• Yellow Hair and Fei-ge spotted Lin Yuan, and Fei-ge aimed Explore the Sea at him.
• Lin Yuan summoned the phantom of his own Dragon-Shaped Cannon, and Fei-ge judged that his Explore the Sea was not fully A-rank.