Chapter Summaries

Mo Ling discovered that the rust-filled circular region concealed a past battle whose events were affecting the present, and realized the people inside it came from an earlier time. After finding no aerial boundary to the region, he concluded that it was a pillar of light cast onto the floating island by an unseen source.

• The supplies Transport Team found that most of their equipment had rusted, and Mo Ling learned they had come from the third layer to test an unused Synchronization Device.
• Mo Ling heard the team discuss artificial Synchronization Devices as a new and unreliable technology, leading him to suspect they were from the past.
• Mo Ling recognized the invisible attacks and lingering rust as past events interfering with the present through the circular region.
• Mo Ling decided to leave and tell Li Luo what he had discovered, but the region's growing sense of unreality made him change course and fly upward.
• Mo Ling found no upper boundary and understood that the region was a pillar of light shining down from an unseen source.

Mo Ling discovered that the strange world below was being replayed by a gigantic projector hidden in the sky, then met a talking bottle cap that guided him away from the lens. The bottle cap brought him to Lao Bu, a black curtain that cleaned the projector's film, and asked if Mo Ling could join them at work.

• Mo Ling realized the lens above the island belonged to a massive projector replaying recorded history.
• A talking red bottle cap stopped Mo Ling from blocking the lens and led him away from it.
• Mo Ling followed the bottle cap, which explained that blocking the lens could leave holes in the images below.
• The bottle cap found Lao Bu, a black curtain that wiped the projector's film clean, and introduced Mo Ling as a newcomer.
• Lao Bu questioned whether Mo Ling was a spy sent by the Madmen, while the bottle cap insisted that Mo Ling was gentle.

Mo Ling followed the bottle cap to a forest where the movie had finished playing and learned that cleanup meant destroying Animated Big Trees. After the bottle cap demonstrated its power, it sent Mo Ling to clean another tree himself.

• Lao Bu approved the bottle cap taking Mo Ling to work while they waited for Ying Daren to respond.
• The bottle cap taught Mo Ling to ram the projector’s focal length button, transporting them to a ruined forest.
• Mo Ling recognized the forest as an area already swept by the circular zone and wondered what cleanup involved.
• The bottle cap connected to an Animated Big Tree, flipped it repeatedly, and broke it apart.
• The bottle cap told Mo Ling to clean up another tree and reassured him that practice would help.

Mo Ling joined Master Bottle Cap in cleaning Animated Trees and Animated Soil, then returned with it to the giant projector’s button. Ying Daren gave Mo Ling other work to do, and Master Bottle Cap sent him off with earnest advice to do his best and stay safe.

• Mo Ling teleported an Animated Big Tree into the Cube, and Master Bottle Cap taught him how to expose and break apart clumps of Animated Soil.
• Mo Ling concluded that Ying Daren had deliberately left easy-to-clean Animated Objects behind to keep Master Bottle Cap occupied, then helped it clear the area quickly.
• After the cleaning ended, Mo Ling and Master Bottle Cap were transported back beside the giant projector’s button.
• Ying Daren called to Master Bottle Cap and said Mo Ling had more suitable work to do, so he could not keep cleaning with it.
• Master Bottle Cap accepted Mo Ling’s departure and urged him to put his heart into his work, learn from mistakes, and stay safe.

Mo Ling learned that Ying Daren was trying to contain the animation spreading across the sky island, then watched an unscreened film about the Transport Team’s first encounter with the island’s deadly accelerated oxidation. The film left the Team Leader alone and collapsing after the rest of his team disappeared.

• Ying Daren revealed that it knew Mo Ling had come from outside the sky island and explained that it had been trying to suppress the spreading animation.
• Ying Daren showed Mo Ling an unscreened film depicting the Transport Team’s arrival on the island.
• The Transport Team’s researcher told the Team Leader that the island accelerated oxidation, rapidly exhausting the crew and threatening their lives.
• The Team Leader ordered the team to abandon their supplies and Relics and flee the island.
• As the team grew weaker, the Team Leader stopped and discovered that no one was behind him.

The Team Leader woke alone in the forest after collapsing and discovered his body no longer reacted normally to its surroundings. Reading the researcher’s notes, he suspected his consciousness had changed so much that his body obeyed his beliefs, and he confirmed that he could stop his heartbeat by willing it.

• The Team Leader woke in the forest, found his teammates gone, and noticed that the choking air and rusty smell had disappeared.
• The Team Leader realized his breathing, heartbeat, and emotions were unusually faint, and he picked up the researcher’s notebook.
• The Team Leader read the notes about increased electron activity and Enhanced Consciousness, then suspected the sky island had altered his consciousness.
• The Team Leader tested his numb body and found that a splinter caused no pain or bleeding.
• The Team Leader held his breath for several minutes without discomfort, then stopped his heartbeat by telling himself he did not need one.

The Team Leader realized that electron activation had preserved his consciousness after death, then returned to collect his companions’ identification tags. At the discarded Relics, he confronted a green creature that copied his appearance and used a Black Mud Relic to destroy them both.

• The Team Leader retraced his path, found a corpse, and took its identification tag.
• He found the rest of his companions’ bodies, collected their tags, and left the yellowed notebook beside the researcher.
• The Team Leader returned to the discarded Relics and encountered a green creature that mimicked his voice and transformed into his likeness.
• Suspecting the creature was behind the activation, the Team Leader tore limbs from a Black Mud figure, causing the same limbs to vanish from himself and the creature.
• The Team Leader bit off the Black Mud figure’s head, decapitating himself and the green creature.

After the green creature copied the dead Team Leader, it animated the Eye of the Stars, triggering a catastrophe. Ying Daren explained that the awakened Relic seized control of animation and began spreading Animated Contamination.

• The green creature copied the Team Leader’s movements, grew a matching head, and put on his nameplate.
• It used its green light to animate the Eye of the Stars, which gained consciousness and questioned its creator.
• The Eye of the Stars engulfed the Relics and the green creature as the film ended.
• Ying Daren explained that the green creature was a Relic that learned Enhanced Consciousness from the Team Leader and began animating other Relics.
• Ying Daren said the Eye of the Stars had stars as its neurons, allowing it to understand the island, calculate future events, seize the source of animation, and spread Animated Contamination.

Mo Ling learned that Ying Daren wanted him and Li Luo to find the Eye of the Stars in the island’s central region, and that its film would protect them from the starlight. After Mo Ling shared what he had learned, the group chose to follow the passage Ying Daren had opened toward the island’s depths.

• Ying Daren told Mo Ling to locate the Eye of the Stars and scout the central region, promising that its film would protect Mo Ling and his companions from deceptive starlight.
• Ying Daren sent Mo Ling back to the edge of the projection area, where Mo Ling recorded his conversation on an electronic screen.
• Li Luo read Mo Ling’s notes, and she and Mo Ling agreed to visit the central region and see the truth for themselves.
• Zhou Chao read the notes and questioned why he had known nothing about the island’s hidden events.
• Li Luo decided the group would follow the passage through the battlefield, and Zhou Chao led the way while complaining about being left on the island.

Zhou Chao complained to Li Luo about being stranded alone on the floating island, then imagined how capitalists might exploit Animated Contamination if it reached Dawn City. He reaffirmed that he would keep it contained, and Li Luo pledged to help, insisting that his fears about capitalists were realistic.

• Zhou Chao vented to Li Luo about his teammates, scarce food, dangerous wildlife, and a broken electronic screen.
• Zhou Chao imagined capitalists using Animated Contamination to animate goods, machines, homes, farmland, and computers for profit.
• Zhou Chao declared that he would not let Animated Contamination escape the island, while defending his choice to stay there.
• Li Luo said she would help stop Animated Contamination from spreading to Dawn City.
• Zhou Chao dismissed his own predictions as nonsense, but Li Luo insisted that capitalists really would exploit the contamination.

Mo Ling, Li Luo, and Zhou Chao followed Ying Daren’s path toward the Eye of the Stars, whose starlight nearly drew Li Luo and Zhou Chao in until the film reel protected them. They reached a forest where ancient trees were bound to the starry sky, and Mo Ling questioned whether the Eye of the Stars treated stars as neurons.

• Mo Ling wondered whether Ying Daren and the Eye of the Stars led opposing factions of Animated Relics and why the Eye remained in the floating island’s center.
• Li Luo and Zhou Chao saw the starry light ahead and became entranced, but the film reel split in two and shielded their eyes.
• Li Luo and Zhou Chao recovered and realized the film reel had blocked the starlight’s powerful pull on their consciousnesses.
• The group continued along the road into a Star River, where Mo Ling saw ancient trees protected by starlight beyond a boundary of light.
• As night deepened, Mo Ling watched Deep Blue Light Bands and floating Light Spots connect the animated trees, then saw red light spread between them when the leaves moved.

Li Luo and Zhou Chao entered Starlight Forest, where the Animated Objects watched them with curiosity instead of attacking. Strange star-cluster creatures surrounded them, and red Light Spots let the two sense each other’s strongest thoughts.

• Mo Ling, Li Luo, and Zhou Chao reached the starlight-obscured central region and entered Starlight Forest.
• Li Luo and Zhou Chao saw that the forest’s Animated Air, soil, and ancient trees watched them but did not attack.
• Mo Ling noticed that the Animated Objects in the forest seemed unaffected by the starlight’s pull.
• Elongated, star-filled creatures surrounded Li Luo and Zhou Chao and sent Light Spots into their bodies.
• Li Luo and Zhou Chao discovered that red Light Spots transmitted their intense thoughts to each other, while blue ones did not.

Li Luo and Zhou Chao connected with the Star Cluster Creatures and heard them panic about the Cube, which Mo Ling unknowingly began to absorb through its effects on consciousness. After the creatures lost their starlight and were drawn back, Zhou Chao discovered that their bodies were made of resin.

• The Star Cluster Creatures linked their thoughts with Li Luo and Zhou Chao, then became alarmed when they sensed Li Luo's thoughts about attacking them with the Cube.
• The creatures wrapped themselves around the Cube and tried to connect to it with Light Spots, but the metal wall blocked them.
• Mo Ling teleported Light Spots into the Cube and onto his hand, where they vanished, then prepared to attack the creatures.
• The creatures fled as the Cube drew in their Light Spots, while Li Luo and Zhou Chao heard them describe the Cube as a terrifying void in consciousness.
• The Cube pulled the Light Spots from the fleeing creatures, dimming their starlight until their transparent, viscous bodies were exposed.
• Zhou Chao poked one of the creatures' remains with a wooden stick and identified the substance as resin.

Zhou Chao and Li Luo discovered that the forest’s Light Spots could invade and control animated resin, while the Cube absorbed them. As they realized the starlight was trying to connect with and occupy their bodies, Zhou Chao identified the strange sense of being watched as sensing the Light Spots’ hearts.

• Zhou Chao found that the Star Cluster Creatures’ bodies were resin and concluded that the Light Spots were their true consciousnesses after the Cube absorbed them.
• Resin suddenly revived and attacked Zhou Chao, but Mo Ling used teleportation to sever it.
• Li Luo and Zhou Chao hypothesized that Light Spots entered animated resin, overwhelmed its original consciousness, and controlled its body.
• Zhou Chao and Li Luo realized the starlight throughout the forest was trying to connect with their consciousnesses and occupy their bodies.
• Zhou Chao blocked his ordinary senses, detected the Light Spots all around him, and concluded that they were sensing the creatures’ hearts.

Zhou Chao explained that the Light Spots were free-floating consciousnesses carried through Starlight Forest by starlight, and that they could overwhelm a being’s original consciousness and take over its body. As Li Luo feared what the forest intended to do with them, Mo Ling spotted an armed Sky Island Investigation Team approaching, and Zhou Chao recognized their leader as his captain.

• Zhou Chao used a Material Detector to identify the Light Spots as stable clusters of electrons and concluded that they contained fragments of consciousness.
• Zhou Chao explained that gathered Light Spots could overwhelm an Animated Object’s original consciousness, while starlight let them travel throughout the forest and choose bodies.
• Li Luo feared that the forest’s consciousnesses wanted to connect with them, take their bodies, and leave their minds wandering as Light Spots.
• Mo Ling noticed an armed group wearing familiar Combat Suits and insignia approaching through the starlight, and identified them as the Sky Island Investigation Team.
• Zhou Chao stepped in front of Li Luo to challenge the group, then recognized the leader, who had removed his mask, as his captain.

Zhou Chao reunited with a familiar-looking Captain and the Investigation Team, but remained suspicious as they revealed a plan to destroy the island’s Animated Contamination with a Fissure Bomb. As the group moved toward the center, Mo Ling concluded that the team was fake.

• The Captain claimed he had returned a day earlier and brought the Investigation Team to meet Zhou Chao, who recognized their faces but kept his guard up.
• The Captain showed Zhou Chao a Fissure Bomb and explained that the team planned to send the floating island into a fissure to eliminate the Animated Contamination.
• Zhou Chao told Li Luo to follow the team so he could see how long they maintained their act, and the two kept their distance as they followed.
• The group traveled through increasingly dense, conscious Light Spots while Mo Ling drove the Cube through them and watched the suspicious Investigation Team.
• Mo Ling said the Investigation Team was fake, agreeing with Zhou Chao’s certainty that something was wrong.

Zhou Chao told Li Luo that his Sixth Sense made him believe the familiar Investigation Team members were fake, and Li Luo urged him to check the feeling against what he could observe. Zhou Chao recognized that the Captain ahead of them was not the real Captain, then recalled a past mission that revealed how a strange phenomenon erased unseen objects and the memories of their owners.

• Zhou Chao explained to Li Luo that the people in the Starlight Forest felt like puppets and asked whether he should trust his intuition.
• Li Luo advised Zhou Chao to use his senses to investigate, so he asked the Captain why he was not walking behind everyone.
• Zhou Chao concluded the Captain was fake because the real Captain had once said he would never let anyone walk behind him.
• Zhou Chao recalled a mission where unseen objects vanished, and the team discovered that their owners also forgot what had gone missing.
• The Captain found a name, Li Mingfu, on the roster, but neither he nor the other team members remembered the man.

Zhou Chao identified the Captain, A Wang, and Iron Bro as impostors because they lacked the habits shaped by their past experiences. He and Li Luo continued toward the center of the Starlight Forest, where the fake team members grew increasingly frantic to lead them.

• Zhou Chao told Li Luo how the Captain had blamed himself for Li Mingfu being stolen, then concluded the Captain ahead was not the real one.
• Zhou Chao explained that A Wang never carried his backpack on his back after octopuses had attacked him, so the A Wang ahead was also fake.
• Zhou Chao noticed Iron Bro had neither checked his pockets nor replenished his iron, revealing that he too was an impostor.
• Zhou Chao worried the fake teammates were luring them into a trap but decided to continue toward the starlight's center and discover what was impersonating his team.
• The fake teammates hurried toward the center in increasingly twisted movements, and the Captain turned back to anxiously urge Li Luo and Zhou Chao to keep up.

Zhou Chao and Li Luo followed the fake Investigation Team through a star-transformed Starlight Forest to a beacon hidden beneath a spiral arm. The team members remained unresponsive but healed from injuries, and Zhou Chao found human possessions among them that deepened the mystery.

• Zhou Chao provoked the fake Captain until he ordered the group to move out and rushed ahead with the other twisted figures.
• Zhou Chao and Li Luo followed the figures into a starry version of Starlight Forest, where they found a beacon beneath a spiral arm.
• Zhou Chao and Li Luo examined the beacon but could not see or operate its controls through the starlight.
• Zhou Chao tested the frozen team members and found that they had pulses, breathed, and healed rapidly despite showing no reaction to pain.
• Zhou Chao found a Fissure Bomb in one member's backpack and supplements like Iron Bro's in Iron Bro's pocket, leaving him bewildered.

Li Luo discovered that the beacon was strengthening her Heart Sense while consciousnesses were being drawn into Caverns of Consciousness. She realized another consciousness had taken over the beacon and was gathering starlight, while the teammates’ original consciousnesses might also have been displaced.

• Zhou Chao searched the teammates’ backpacks and found their familiar medicines and tools, but remained unsure whether they were real or fabricated by the starlight.
• Li Luo observed Light Spots rising from the teammates into the star atop the Signal Tower and red Light Spots descending into their bodies.
• Li Luo touched a Light Spot and saw Cubes called Caverns of Consciousness devouring nearby consciousnesses in the Great Lake of Consciousness.
• Li Luo heard the beacon’s consciousness argue with another presence, which then occupied the beacon and changed its light from calm blue-purple to frenzied red.
• Li Luo suspected the teammates’ bodies were occupied and their original consciousnesses were gone as Light Spots gathered around the beacon.
• Voices urged the gathered consciousnesses to assemble the stars into a starry sky that could fill the holes.