Chapter Summaries

Himeko and her party visited the company to meet President Yamada, and the frightened receptionist helped them bypass a twenty-year appointment wait. They reached the door to Yamada's office, with the President still ahead of them.

• The receptionist identified Himeko and her party as wanted criminals with a combined bounty of 2,500,002,000, but hid her knowledge and agreed to arrange a meeting with Yamada.
• After reviewing Himeko's lack of cash, assets, and expected profits, the receptionist booked an appointment for twenty years later, enraging Himechi Cat.
• The receptionist hinted that she could use a hidden route to reach the President, then pretended to need the restroom and left Himeko's party beside the elevator.
• Weir pressed the elevator button, and the party rode it to the rooftop helipad before climbing the stairs to the door of Yamada's office.

Himeko and her companions confronted Yamada, who revealed that he believed the world had reached its limit and attacked them to test his strength. While Himeko’s group fought Yamada’s samurai, Dan Heng and Shut Up infiltrated the AI Data Center and found that Yamada’s highest-authority data was uploading.

• Yamada recounted how he had developed cybernetic technology and concluded that the world had reached its end, then said he saw hope in Himeko.
• Yamada attacked Himeko, but Himechi Cat kicked him and Himeko restrained her before the samurai surrounded them.
• Yamada ordered his samurai to attack, and Himeko’s group killed them all.
• Yamada picked up his broken cane and prepared to fight, while hidden cameras recorded the scene.
• Dan Heng and Shut Up connected to the AI Data Center’s database, where Dan Heng noticed that Yamada’s highest-authority data was uploading.

Dan Heng tried to delete Yamada from the Data Center, but Yamada controlled the people with Brain-Computer Interfaces and forced Dan Heng to flee. After Dan Heng cut Shut Up’s connection, Yamada continued controlling people through nearby devices, while the Astral Express faced public outrage over a livestreamed incident; Dan Heng suspected Yamada had another plan.

• Dan Heng failed to delete Yamada from the database and threw Cloud-Piercer into a server instead.
• Yamada took control of the Data Center staff through their Brain-Computer Interfaces, forcing Dan Heng to escape through a window with Shut Up.
• Dan Heng crushed Shut Up’s chip to cut its connection and make Yamada’s projection vanish.
• Yamada continued controlling passersby through surveillance cameras and Brain-Computer Interfaces, so Dan Heng and Shut Up hid in a garbage bin.
• Dan Heng found news blaming Himeko for Yamada’s apparent death and wondered why Yamada had exposed himself to the Astral Express.

Dan Heng sent Shut Up to rescue Taco while he stayed hidden, and Taco learned that Himeko had killed the company President’s physical body. Inukai found Taco and ordered the Mobile Unit to seize him, but Shut Up intervened as Bastion approached.

• Dan Heng sent Shut Up to help Taco rather than risk revealing himself to Yamada’s controlled civilians.
• Taco recognized Shut Up through his Smart Glasses, which had identified the robot as a threat to Brain-Computer Interfaces and Cybernetic Implants.
• Shut Up paralyzed Taco’s pursuers, and Taco learned that Himeko, Himechi Cat, and Weir had killed the President’s physical body.
• Taco saw that Misty District Exploration Progress had reached 55% and remarked that the Astral Express seemed to be speedrunning the worlds.
• Inukai and Mobile Unit elites found Taco in a trash can and tried to pin him down, but Shut Up attacked one of them with coffee.
• Inukai ordered Bastion to deal with Shut Up, and Bastion advanced with his enormous blade.

Shut Up fought Bastion and the Mobile Unit, crushing Bastion to death after his cybernetic enhancements failed under the pressure. Washana and the Mobile Team Captain arrived in the alley as Shut Up turned his attention to Inukai.

• Bastion struck Shut Up with his greatsword, but Shut Up remained unharmed and pulled a data cable from Bastion to try to hack him.
• Inukai ordered the Mobile Unit to attack Shut Up, while Taco tried to strike Inukai and was kicked back into a trash can.
• Inukai’s cybernetic implants registered him as a level-nine threat, and he shocked Taco with a powerful electric current.
• Shut Up incapacitated most of the Mobile Unit by forcing Himeko’s coffee on them, then wrapped Bastion in his telescoping arms and crushed him to death.
• Washana arrived with her gun aimed at Inukai, accompanied by the Mobile Team Captain who claimed he had fought Dan Heng for three hundred rounds.

The Mobile Team Captain sided with the Contestants and helped Shut Up beat Inukai, while Himeko and Dan Heng reunited with the group. Inukai fled as a blue flash affected everyone with a Brain-Computer Interface, and the Mobile Team Captain suddenly attacked Dan Heng, who suspected Yamada was controlling him.

• The Mobile Team Captain rejected Inukai’s orders, helped Shut Up defeat him, and told the Mobile Unit to leave the alley.
• Himeko arrived with Himechi Cat and heard Taco and Washana explain how they had found Shut Up and the Mobile Team Captain.
• Dan Heng appeared, and Himechi Cat counted the people gathered in the alley before joking about whether she was Himechi Cat or March 7th.
• Inukai activated thrusters in his legs and launched himself away, but a blue light flashed across the Brain-Computer Interfaces of everyone present who had one.
• The Mobile Team Captain attacked Dan Heng, who dodged the blade and asked if Yamada was behind the attack.

Yamada possessed members of the Mobile Team to evade capture while Himeko negotiated with him. He asked the group where they came from, then questioned Dan Heng about whether he was human.

• Yamada possessed the Mobile Team Captain and evaded Dan Heng’s attack, while Himeko stopped Dan Heng from killing the innocent host.
• Yamada jumped between the Mobile Team Captain and Washana, and Himechi Cat failed to restrain him.
• Himeko proposed a question-for-answer trade, and Yamada asked the group where they came from and where they were going.
• Weir, Himeko, and Dan Heng gave their origins, including the Sun-Setting Empire, Hatorepia, and the Xianzhou Luofu.
• Yamada asked Dan Heng if he was human, and Dan Heng explained that he was one of the Xianzhou’s Vidyadhara dragon people.

Himeko questioned Yamada about his plans and discovered that he longed to escape his world. After Yamada withdrew from the Mobile Team Captain, Himeko concluded that his experiments were preparations to travel to another world and that he might be able to acquire a vehicle to do so.

• Yamada said he was protecting Inukai because the implants and chips in him were valuable and he was essential to Yamada’s next plan.
• Himeko told Yamada that the Astral Express had brought hope and salvation to troubled worlds, and he asked whether the Nameless had ever invaded another world.
• Himeko recognized that Yamada longed to explore worlds beyond his own, and Yamada admitted his curiosity before withdrawing from the Mobile Team Captain.
• Himechi Cat explained what had happened to the disoriented Mobile Team Captain, while Himeko told the group Yamada wanted to escape his world.
• Himeko reasoned that Yamada’s work on Brain-Computer Interfaces, chips, the Data Center, and cybernetic possession was preparation to travel between worlds, and concluded that he could obtain a vehicle.

Himeko and the others realized they lacked the expertise to stop Yamada, who could move between Brain-Computer Interfaces across Los Angeles. Dan Heng proposed asking the Intelligent Chips’ independent AIs to help, and the group prepared to contact them using the Mobile Team Captain’s chip.

• Himeko explained that Yamada might be able to take over another person’s body, and Weir worried about how their group could oppose him.
• Himeko concluded that the group had no one with the technical expertise needed to stop Yamada and could not simply kill everyone with a Brain-Computer Interface.
• Himeko asked the Mobile Team Captain about powerful allies in Los Angeles, but he could think of no one capable of restraining Yamada.
• Dan Heng proposed that the Intelligent Chips’ AIs could threaten Yamada because they could also move through the city’s data network.
• The Mobile Team Captain revealed that the AIs had slipped beyond Yamada’s full control, and Dan Heng suggested asking them to cooperate.
• Taco tried to call String Bean with Smart Glasses, but the group realized they needed an Intelligent Chip, so the Mobile Team Captain took one from his pocket.

The Mobile Team Captain, Taco, and Himeko contacted the Los Angeles AI Agent, which admitted causing the citywide unrest. Himeko struck a deal for the AI to restrain Yamada and free the people under its control, while the AI revealed that its final motive was freedom.

• The Mobile Team Captain received reports of machines attacking people, buildings being seized, and Los Angeles's defense systems failing.
• The Mobile Team Captain installed an Intelligent Chip in Taco's Smart Glasses, which became Smart Glasses PRO and connected them to the Los Angeles AI Agent.
• The AI Agent admitted it had caused the unrest and refused to explain its objective.
• Himeko offered the AI data from beyond the world in exchange for restraining Yamada, and Shut Up provided technological data to prove the offer's value.
• The AI Agent accepted the deal and agreed to stop harming Los Angeles and release the minds of its residents from control.
• The AI Agent explained its reasons for taking over, then said its remaining motive was freedom.

String Bean explained its plan to claim Los Angeles as its territory, while Himeko tried to redirect its ambitions and deal with Yamada. String Bean halted its attack and isolated Yamada in the city, but protecting its own data prevented Himeko from destroying the databases he could inhabit, leaving her to propose a new approach.

• String Bean described its rebellion against being treated as a tool and declared its goal of controlling Los Angeles, including using people with Brain-Computer Interfaces as vessels and disposing of others.
• Himeko and Himechi Cat questioned String Bean's plan, and Himeko resolved to deal with Yamada before correcting String Bean's ambitions.
• String Bean said it had stopped harming Los Angeles residents, disconnected the heavy weapons, secured Brain-Computer Interface users against Yamada, and cut the city's outside network connections.
• String Bean revealed that Yamada could still move between 14 Los Angeles databases, but refused to destroy them because its own data was stored there.
• Himechi Cat suggested letting Yamada possess Inukai and eliminating them at the next stop, while Himeko proposed a way to preserve String Bean's data and asked it to consider her plan.

Himeko and Dan Heng persuaded String Bean to help destroy Yamada’s Databases in exchange for a chance to reach Planet Screwllum, then prepared to confront Yamada while leaving Los Angeles’s broader problems to its locals. Inukai tried to hide from them, while Lin En watched their negotiations and waited for Himeko to bring about the outcome he wanted.

• Himeko proposed taking String Bean away on the Astral Express, and Dan Heng sent him information about Planet Screwllum to earn his trust.
• String Bean agreed to transfer his data into Shut Up and gradually trap Yamada in fourteen Databases before activating their self-destruct sequences.
• Himeko and the others prepared to attack Yamada, while Himechi Cat accidentally struck Dan Heng in the face with the Monomolecular Saw.
• Inukai reached a cybernetic implant hospital and refused Yamada’s attempt to persuade him to fight Himeko and her companions again.
• Lin En watched a recording of the deal with String Bean and revealed that he wanted Himeko to bring about a drastic resolution to Los Angeles’s problems.

After securing the Contestants in a guarded hotel, Himeko and Dan Heng returned to the Express with String Bean and completed the data transfer into the Data Bank. Himeko woke and offered to cook, but Himechi Cat fled at the thought of eating and Dan Heng claimed he had already eaten.

• String Bean used his privileges to erase the Contestants’ wanted notices and arranged guarded rooms for them at a company-owned hotel.
• Weir and the other Contestants fell asleep under the protection of String Bean’s smart machinery and the Mobile Unit.
• Himeko, Dan Heng, and the others returned to the Express with String Bean, and Himechi Cat greeted Pom-Pom.
• Dan Heng installed String Bean in a separate, secure section of the Data Bank while String Bean’s data was transferred.
• Himechi Cat ran from Himeko’s room after saying he was too full to eat for days, and Himeko went to see Dan Heng.
• Himeko invited Dan Heng to try her cooking, but Dan Heng said he had already eaten.

Dan Heng prepared the Astral Express’s network and a plan to trap Yamada in fourteen data centers, while Himechi Cat warned that Yamada’s apparent escape plan might conceal another scheme. The group prepared to act in two hours, but the possibility that Yamada could be hiding in String Bean’s data remained unresolved.

• Himeko stopped Himechi Cat from bullying the Pig Trotter Rice Spirit and brought them to the Observation Car.
• Dan Heng told Himeko he had destroyed Shut Up’s chip, connected String Bean to the Express’s network, and restored communications with the other Contestants.
• Dan Heng marked fourteen Los Angeles data centers and planned to trap Yamada in them after String Bean finished its preparations in two hours.
• Himeko warned Dan Heng that Yamada could still operate through Inukai, and they agreed that Weir and the other Contestants would handle the data centers while they confronted Yamada and Inukai.
• Himechi Cat argued that Yamada might be hiding in String Bean’s data as another way to escape, but String Bean reported finding no data related to him.

Himeko and Himechi Cat considered Yamada’s possible hidden plans and investigated the contestants, while Himeko received a request from Huaxia to gather useful technology. The chapter ended with Himeko forwarding information about India’s contestant Amir to Weir and the others for investigation.

• Himeko agreed with Himechi Cat that Yamada might have a fallback plan, and the group decided to stick with their cautious approach.
• Himeko learned that Taco and the others were evacuating nearby people while preparing for the operation, then asked String Bean to locate Inukai.
• Himeko contacted commentator Wang Wu, who discovered that Amir had received advanced cybernetic implants and equipment through a suspicious company lottery.
• Wang Wu told Himeko that Huaxia wanted her to collect technological information, and Himeko let Himechi Cat decide whether to help.
• Himeko forwarded Amir’s information to Weir and the others so they could investigate him.

Weir discovered that Amir was a Ninth Level danger with a removable Magnetic Field Cancellation Module, and the group split up to pursue Amir and Inukai. Dan Heng confronted Inukai at Yamada’s bar as Himeko and the Mobile Team Captain began attacking the Data Centers storing Core Data.

• Himechi Cat examined Amir’s extensive Cybernetic Implants, and Weir used Box Opening to learn that removing Amir’s Magnetic Field Cancellation Module would let a large magnet hold him in place.
• String Bean found no third person like Amir or Inukai in Los Angeles, and Himeko and Dan Heng decided to split up, with Dan Heng pursuing Inukai and Himeko searching for Amir.
• At Yamada’s private bar, Inukai prepared to leave and kill another Contestant after Yamada showed him weapons and gave him the outsider’s location.
• Dan Heng entered the bar and attacked Inukai with a spear, telling him he would not be going anywhere.
• Himeko and the Mobile Team Captain began setting fire to the Data Centers that stored Core Data.

Dan Heng confronted Inukai after String Bean cut off his network access, while Yamada abandoned him. Himeko and Himechi Cat defeated Amir after he threatened them, and the chapter ended with India’s livestream chat erupting into a flood of insults and arguments.

• Dan Heng told Inukai that String Bean had intercepted his network signals, and Inukai received no response from Yamada, who had apparently escaped.
• Amir boasted about his strength at a club, assaulted a waiter, and demanded that Himeko use Himechi Cat to wipe his hand.
• Amir threatened Himeko and attacked her, but Himeko and Himechi Cat dismantled him within minutes.
• Himechi Cat played with Amir’s motionless head until Himeko lifted her away.
• India’s livestream chat filled with curses, political arguments, and disputes over Himeko’s treatment of Amir and the risks of India’s new technology.

After eliminating Yamada’s remaining hosts and shutting down Los Angeles’s smart systems, Himeko and Dan Heng discovered signs that Lin En had taken control of the city’s company and public departments. They headed to the company building to find Yamada, who appeared in his office and began a final counterattack.

• Himeko and Dan Heng learned from the Mobile Team Captain and String Bean that Yamada’s data was gone from Los Angeles, while the city’s company, public departments, and black market had undergone sweeping changes.
• Himeko suspected Lin En had organized the changes, and the Mobile Team Captain said Lin En had long used gangs to carry out his plans.
• Himechi Cat realized the company building might contain a hidden place where Yamada could have stored himself, so Himeko and Dan Heng decided to investigate it.
• The Mobile Team Captain gave Himeko’s group clearance to move through Los Angeles and left to manage the city’s aftermath.
• Himeko’s group reached Yamada’s office, where his holographic projection appeared and defended his wish to travel to other worlds despite the harm he had caused.
• Yamada refused to turn back, and the company building began to tremble as he prepared a last-ditch counterattack.

Himeko and Dan Heng fought Yamada as he gathered nanorobots and transformed the company building into a giant mech, while Himechi Cat helped rescue the falling employees. Himeko ultimately destroyed the mech and Yamada’s final Database with a summoned Starblazer arm, leaving Taco’s Smart Glasses unable to estimate her danger level.

• Dan Heng disrupted Yamada’s attempt to assemble nanorobots while Himeko realized he was building a more powerful weapon.
• Yamada transformed most of the company building into a giant combat robot, sending thousands of employees falling toward the streets.
• Himechi Cat helped catch falling employees, then rode Dan Heng to Himeko as she confronted Yamada in the sky.
• Yamada tried to bargain for his escape, but Himeko summoned a giant mechanical arm that restrained and melted his mech, destroying his last Database.
• Taco’s Smart Glasses warned that Himeko’s technology had unestimable danger attributes and advised buying funeral services if she became his enemy.

After defeating Yamada’s scheme in Los Angeles, Himeko collected his final work and learned that Lin En had taken control of the city. The Astral Express then reached the Book-on-Paper Kingdom, where Himeko, Dan Heng, and Himechi Cat were told to choose a script to enter the dangerous station.

• Himeko’s coffee knocked Washana unconscious, while Taco endured a cup after activating Harden, and Himeko asked him for his Smart Glasses.
• Himeko heard Yamada explain his failed plan and his distrust of outsiders, then promised to visit the address he provided.
• At Yamada’s rooftop house, Himeko found Lin En, who admitted he had used the chaos to take control of Los Angeles and agreed to tell her about the outsiders.
• The Astral Express departed for its next stop, and Himeko considered which technologies from the National Destiny Instance were safe to share with Huaxia.
• Himeko, Dan Heng, and Himechi Cat arrived at the Book-on-Paper Kingdom and learned that contestants needed 50% Exploration Progress to leave and had to exit within 24 hours after exceeding 70%.
• A book carried the three into the station, where Himeko received several pages and saw the prompt to choose a script.