Chapter Summaries

Zhang Tianyuan attended the founding ceremony of Finch Spacetime’s Fifth Branch, bringing representatives from North America and other Mutual Aid Society branches. Later, Zhou Tao and the other freight-team drivers returned home with rare food and toys, leaving their neighbors astonished by what they had brought back.

• Zhang Tianyuan learned that Instructor Yin had the Cleveland Family trapped in its bunker and told him to stay in San Francisco while bringing Jack to the Fifth Branch’s founding ceremony.
• Instructor Yin gathered Jack, Wu Yisi, and other North American members, and Zhang Tianyuan led them through a Spacetime Tunnel to Finch Spacetime.
• Elder Tan welcomed the arriving branch representatives and held the Fifth Branch’s founding ceremony, where local members applauded enthusiastically.
• Zhou Tao and Xue Liangping returned to their old building with forty-eight other freight-team drivers and were warmly welcomed by their neighbors.
• Zhou Tao and the others opened their backpacks, revealing bags of rare food, toys, and other goods that stunned the building’s residents.

Zhou Tao and the other drivers returned from No. 1 Spacetime with supplies, keeping the Mutual Aid Society and parallel spacetimes secret from their neighbors. Three days later, Elder Tan announced the establishment of the Mutual Aid Society Fifth Branch and the domestic chapter, leaving the people in Zhou Tao’s canteen stunned and the old building head realizing the drivers had transported aid from another spacetime.

• The old building head questioned Zhou Tao about the supplies, and Zhou Tao assured him they had come from a legitimate source.
• Residents noticed the packages bore unfamiliar brands and dates from before the apocalypse, so Zhou Tao distracted them by opening and sharing the food.
• Zhou Tao discovered that his family and their neighbors had planted apple seeds from the gifts, and he reassured his worried wife that their future would improve.
• After several thousand drivers returned from No. 1 Spacetime, rumors about the Mutual Aid Society began to spread, and Zhou Tao and Xue Liangping waited anxiously for official news.
• Elder Tan announced the formation of the Mutual Aid Society Fifth Branch and the domestic chapter, prompting the returned drivers to applaud as the other diners struggled to understand.
• A news report explained that No. 1 Spacetime had supplied aid through the Spacetime Tunnel, and the old building head realized Zhou Tao and the others had transported cargo there.

Zhang Tianyuan learned that the game world had updated to version 2.0, merging all servers and removing the barriers between them, and he ordered an investigation into the changed boundary. After discovering that rare game-world materials could greatly improve technology, he approved their use in a mecha prototype and ordered research across the Mutual Aid Society’s spacetimes as the newly connected servers raised the threat of conflict.

• Zhang Tianyuan saw the game update announcement stating that all servers had merged, spatial restrictions were gone, and a global chat function had opened.
• Zhang Tianyuan traveled to Game Spacetime and ordered Ke Jinjun to investigate the former server boundary.
• Mako Mori reported that Glazed Wood, Radiant Stone, and Meteoric Iron could be smelted into supermaterials suited to mechas, weapons, and other technology.
• Zhang Tianyuan approved using the new materials in a small mecha prototype and said successful designs could later help defeat the giant monsters at the server’s edge.
• Zhang Tianyuan ordered Mako Mori and Ke Jinjun to distribute materials among the spacetimes for rapid research, warning that the merged game world could bring conflict.

After the servers merged, factions across the game world mobilized to invade neighboring territories and establish colonies. Zhang Tianyuan ordered No. 0 Spacetime defended, began planning exploration and communications, and discovered that the world channel now contained seven worlds.

• Howard ordered his troops gathered and invited the Geri Kingdom to cooperate in exploring other servers.
• King Geri accepted the alliance, and both countries mobilized their ships, aircraft, tanks, and mechas for the coming campaigns.
• Zhang Tianyuan ordered Ke Jinjun to defend No. 0 Spacetime’s boundary and destroy any approaching vessels or aircraft.
• A drone crossed the former barrier and found an undeveloped island, while its flight revealed no detected enemy aircraft.
• Zhang Tianyuan and Ke Jinjun discussed exploring beyond their server and using airships as mobile communications relays.
• Zhang Tianyuan opened the system chat and saw that the world channel search had found seven channels.

Zhang Tianyuan discovered Interstellar, a world devastated by a crop blight and famine, and called the Mutual Aid Society's leaders together to discuss entering it. He warned that higher-dimensional future humans might have caused the blight and placed a wormhole near Saturn, and Elder Zhou said the Society needed to prepare its theoretical research before proceeding.

• Zhang Tianyuan found Interstellar as the Society's seventh spacetime and considered its famine, crop blight, and possible higher-dimensional beings.
• Zhang Tianyuan went to Elder Zhou in 2012 Spacetime and called a meeting with the other branch presidents.
• Zhang Tianyuan told the leaders that Interstellar might have widespread famine because a mysterious blight had left corn as its only surviving crop.
• Zhang Tianyuan explained that future humans might have ascended to a higher dimension, caused the blight, and placed a wormhole near Saturn to drive humanity off Earth.
• The leaders recognized that the Mutual Aid Society's goal of saving humanity conflicted with the possible aims of the higher-dimensional beings, and Elder Zhou called for theoretical research before they entered Interstellar.

Zhang Tianyuan coordinated food aid for No. 7 Spacetime and reviewed reports on neighboring servers, including a fleet equipped with unusual mechas. When the fleet prepared to cross the boundary, a hypersonic attack raced toward it.

• Zhang Tianyuan and the representatives agreed to rely on scientists to study whether higher-dimensional humans could interfere with lower-dimensional spacetimes.
• Zhang Tianyuan allocated grain from No. 3 Spacetime and headquarters for famine relief in No. 7 Spacetime, reserving supplies from No. 1 and No. 2 for emergencies, while Sun Deyi promised dried earthworms for five hundred million people for six months.
• Ke Jinjun reported wooden aircraft to the west, a multistage reconnaissance rocket to the north, and a fleet carrying underwater-fighting mechas to the east.
• Zhang Tianyuan ordered the eastern fleet to be tested, while its commander urged the soldiers to cross the boundary and establish a bridgehead for the empire.
• A radar operator detected an object approaching the fleet at five times the speed of sound, and soldiers looked up at the sky as it filled with shooting stars.

Zhang Tianyuan’s forces destroyed a joint fleet, then recovered its warships, aircraft, and mechas for study, discovering that the mechas had extraordinary capabilities attributed to Howard’s divine power. As Howard and King Geri redirected their alliance westward and conflict spread across the game’s servers, Zhang Tianyuan heard that higher-dimensional humans had limited but still immense influence on three-dimensional spacetime.

• Zhang Tianyuan and Ke Jinjun watched modern aircraft bomb the joint fleet, destroying its carrier and stranding its ships while surviving pilots were attacked again as they fled.
• Zhang Tianyuan ordered a battlefield cleanup, and over the following week the Mutual Aid Society recovered the fleet’s ships, aircraft, mechas, and five surviving enhanced mecha pilots for research.
• Mako Mori and researchers found that the hand-operated mechas had astonishing speed, carrying capacity, and defense, prompting Mako Mori to suspend production of a smaller mecha design for revisions.
• King Geri told Howard that the joint fleet had likely perished; after belatedly checking with Andy, Howard confirmed his war-machine count had fallen and agreed to continue their alliance and attack westward.
• Zhang Tianyuan’s forces bombed more fleets as war spread across the game’s servers, while researchers reported that higher-dimensional humans had limited yet immense influence on three-dimensional spacetime.

Zhang Tianyuan learned that higher-dimensional humans could influence Earth only on a vast, difficult-to-control scale, then organized a vanguard mission to No. 7 Spacetime. He unlocked the game's synthesis and enhancement functions and synthesized a City Relocation Stone, leaving the Mutual Aid Society prepared to relocate its base.

• A physicist explained that higher-dimensional humans could affect Earth on a celestial scale but could not precisely control their influence, while their possible fate after the Mutual Aid Society reached No. 7 Spacetime remained uncertain.
• Zhang Tianyuan assigned the First Branch to lead the vanguard mission, chose Instructor Yin to command it, and ordered him to return from Finch Spacetime within two days.
• Zhang Tianyuan hunted level-four monsters in the game world, obtained ten level-four crystals, and unlocked the synthesis and enhancement functions.
• Zhang Tianyuan studied the game's enhancement rules and found that he could use base energy to add random attributes to eligible game-made items.
• Zhang Tianyuan selected the City Relocation Stone recipe, gathered its required materials, and synthesized the item.

Zhang Tianyuan moved the Mutual Aid Society’s main base to Legend Spacetime and sent a vanguard team into Interstellar Spacetime to investigate its famine-stricken, desertified world. The team met a girl who communicated through sign language, and her account began to reveal the world’s history.

• Zhang Tianyuan relocated the Mutual Aid Society’s main base beside the Design Institute in Legend Spacetime and told Tong Wenshi to guard it and keep it waterproof.
• Zhang Tianyuan and Ke Jinjun agreed to delay outside operations until Mako’s new mecha were ready to counter enemy War Machines.
• Zhang Tianyuan led the First Branch’s hundred-person vanguard team through a Spacetime Tunnel into Interstellar Spacetime to assess the danger and contact local authorities.
• Murphy watched a ghost knock books from her shelf, but the book she hoped to show her father stopped moving before it fell.
• Instructor Yin’s convoy crossed the desert and met a thirsty little girl, who accepted water and used sign language to answer questions about the country’s past.

Instructor Yin brought a convoy of mineral water to a famine-stricken city and offered it as a donation, while Murphy questioned her father Cooper about the vanished ghost and the truth of the moon landing. The chapter ended with Cooper admitting that survival had taken priority over reaching for the stars.

• Instructor Yin questioned the little girl about the great war and her schooling as his group approached the city.
• Instructor Yin took his convoy to the police station and told Ma Le that his charitable organization wanted to donate fresh water.
• Ma Le learned that the convoy carried several truckloads of unopened mineral water and agreed to help coordinate the donation.
• Murphy found that the book had stopped moving, then told Cooper that the ghost seemed to have disappeared.
• Murphy asked Cooper whether the moon landing was real, and Cooper affirmed it before saying people first had to stay alive.

Cooper learned that Tom had no chance of attending college and impulsively pulled Murphy out of school, leaving him to fear that both children would be trapped in farming. Meanwhile, Dr. Amelia Brand’s team continued preparing an underground base to become a space station despite stalled work on the gravity equation, while Yuan Heguang agreed to meet Instructor Yin about the organization offering fresh water.

• Cooper took Tom and Murphy to their parent-teacher meeting, where Tom’s grades ruled out college and Murphy’s teacher objected to her sharing old textbooks.
• Cooper argued with the school staff, then decided to pull Murphy out of school and returned home weighed down by thoughts of Tom’s future as a farmer.
• Dr. Amelia Brand explained to a supervisor that the unusual buildings inside the underground base were being built for use after it became a rotating space station.
• Dr. Amelia Brand asked Professor John Brand about the stalled gravity equation, and he told her to find a particular student and bring him to the base.
• Yuan Heguang learned that Instructor Yin’s organization had supplied fresh mineral water and agreed to meet him.
• Instructor Yin and Zheng Xu were escorted into Yuan Heguang’s office.

Zhang Tianyuan revealed the Parallel Spacetime Mutual Aid Society to Yuan Heguang and offered water from the Day After Tomorrow Spacetime’s Antarctic ice. Yuan agreed to cooperate and send scholars to study Saturn’s wormhole, and Zhang ended by asking what had happened in Yuan’s spacetime.

• Instructor Yin told Yuan Heguang that the Mutual Aid Society could provide fresh water and other resources, then explained that it came from parallel spacetimes when Yuan drew a handgun.
• Zhang Tianyuan emerged through a Spacetime Tunnel, introduced himself as the Society’s president, and explained its work across six spacetimes.
• Yuan agreed to send scholars to exchange research on the wormhole near Saturn and asked about the promised water supply.
• Zhang explained that the Day After Tomorrow Spacetime could provide polar ice for a steady water supply, and Yuan agreed that his spacetime would share the project’s costs.
• Zhang outlined a plan to transport and process Antarctic ice, then asked Yuan what had happened in his spacetime.

Yuan Heguang recounted how the wormhole’s discovery led to a brief space race before blight and global food shortages sparked decades of unrest. After learning that Earth’s surviving societies were rebuilding and that North America was researching Saturn’s black hole, Zhang Tianyuan advised Yuan to wait for North America to propose cooperation.

• Yuan Heguang took Zhang Tianyuan, Instructor Yin, and Zheng Xu to the archives and showed them records dating the wormhole’s appearance to 2019.
• Yuan Heguang described how blight began in 2035, food shortages triggered worldwide unrest, and the looting and destruction of supplies devastated Europe and South Asia.
• Zhang Tianyuan learned that the unrest ended in 2057 after Yuan Heguang’s forces crippled opposing navies and air forces, while militaries and many governments collapsed.
• Yuan Heguang explained that his people had retained 1.2 billion people and were trying to rebuild, while monitoring North America’s research into Saturn’s black hole.
• Zhang Tianyuan told Yuan Heguang that habitable planets existed beyond the black hole and advised him to let North America initiate any joint project.

Yuan Heguang agreed to join the Mutual Aid Society after reviewing its charter, and Zhang Tianyuan arranged aid for Interstellar Spacetime. Sun Deyi proposed establishing a rear base on its Earth after its residents evacuated, while the first shipment of supplies arrived to astonish Yuan Heguang’s skeptical colleagues.

• Zheng Xu explained the Mutual Aid Society’s charter, and Yuan Heguang agreed to join and provide a site for wormhole research.
• Zhang Tianyuan promised fifty thousand tons of dried earthworms and farming equipment as aid for Interstellar Spacetime.
• Sun Deyi asked Zhang Tianyuan to let Wandering Spacetime establish a rear base on Interstellar Spacetime’s Earth after its residents left, and Zhang agreed to raise the idea with Yuan Heguang at an appropriate time.
• Yuan Heguang introduced Zhang Tianyuan to several skeptical colleagues and took him to an empty warehouse prepared to receive the aid.
• Zhang Tianyuan opened a Spacetime Tunnel inside the warehouse, and trucks from Wandering Spacetime emerged as Yuan Heguang’s colleagues watched in amazement.

After No. 7 Spacetime received a shipment of dried earthworms, Zhang Tianyuan recruited its dormant aerospace team to help prepare an exploration mission to Saturn’s wormhole. The neglected launch base was restored, and a rocket from another spacetime was assembled for the mission.

• Yuan Heguang and the others watched the convoy unload fifty thousand tons of dried earthworms, then agreed to provide wormhole data for Zhang Tianyuan’s planned probe mission.
• Zhou Kun and Yi Yehua learned that wormhole exploration was restarting and agreed to cooperate with Zhang Tianyuan and his team.
• Zhou Kun showed the visiting experts his rocket designs, while the experts supplied specifications for a ready-made rocket and gathered data about Saturn’s wormhole.
• Black-truck crews arrived at the aerospace base, cleaned and inspected it, and repaired its equipment and launch tower.
• The rocket convoy arrived on the fifth day, the base returned to normal operation by the tenth day, and the assembled rocket reached the launch site on the eleventh.

Zhang Tianyuan and the Mutual Aid Society launched a specially modified rocket carrying a probe toward Saturn, while he watched for signs that their arrival had changed the events of Interstellar Spacetime. The launch alerted NASA, where John Brand and his team discovered the rocket had come from China and wondered how the country had managed it.

• Zhou Kun and Yuan Heguang watched as the rocket was moved to the launch site, where Wandering Spacetime's team prepared it for launch.
• Zhang Tianyuan asked Zhou Kun about recent launches across the ocean and learned that NASA's Saturn mission was delayed because its astronauts lacked training.
• The rocket launched successfully, and Wandering Spacetime's engineers reported that its systems were functioning normally.
• At NASA's underground base, Jody told John Brand that astronaut training delays were holding up the Endurance mission.
• A staff member reported that the Endurance had detected a rocket launch aimed at Saturn, prompting John Brand, Amelia Brand, and the others to investigate.
• The team identified China as the launch site and, remembering the global unrest, asked whether China had reduced its population too.

After a launch deviation, Zhang Tianyuan’s team used a Spacetime Tunnel to redirect and refuel their specially built spaceship toward the wormhole, prompting Professor Brand to seek cooperation with them. The chapter ended by revealing that Professor Brand knew Plan A was impossible and had secretly pinned humanity’s hopes on Plan B.

• Amelia Brand argued that the newcomers could be allies, and Professor Brand sent Jody to assess their launch.
• Jody reported that gravitational distortions had knocked the rocket off course, leaving the observers across the ocean disappointed.
• Zhang Tianyuan’s team explained that they could redirect and continually refuel the ship through a Spacetime Tunnel, then began steering it toward the wormhole.
• Professor Brand asked Jody to contact the newcomers and offer cooperation to save humanity.
• Amelia showed Professor Brand the Population Bomb, and he pretended to believe Plan A could still succeed.
• Professor Brand privately recalled that he had given up on Plan A years earlier and had deceived everyone while relying on Plan B.

Zhang Tianyuan helped Yuan Heguang secure Mutual Aid Society support to revive Interstellar Spacetime’s collapsed industry and food supply. When the space agency across the ocean proposed cooperation, Yuan rejected its request, leaving Jody and Professor Brand surprised by the firm refusal.

• After Zhou Kun left the launch site, Zhang Tianyuan opened a tunnel to the spacecraft, where staff refueled it before it accelerated again.
• At a spacetime conference, Yuan Heguang described Interstellar Spacetime’s famine and industrial collapse, and the branch presidents arranged food, volunteers, and support for restarting production.
• The Mutual Aid Society agreed to make Interstellar Spacetime a future transportation hub, and Yuan Heguang returned home to revive its industry.
• When the space agency across the ocean asked for details of the rocket launch and proposed cooperation, Zhang Tianyuan and the other branch presidents judged its attitude unsuitable for cooperation.
• Yuan Heguang declined the request, and Jody later told Professor Brand that the reply was firm; he also reported that their monitoring had detected the spacecraft accelerating several times.

Professor Brand arranged an international visit to discuss space cooperation and sent Amelia Brand with a backup of Plan B to meet the other country. The delegation landed at a surprisingly busy airport and saw a massive military transport aircraft, leaving Jody wondering how it had been designed.

• Jody explained that the Endurance's acceleration could disrupt its planned route, and Professor Brand proposed visiting the other country for face-to-face talks.
• Professor Brand persuaded former officials to approve the visit and asked Amelia to bring a backup population bomb and explain Plan B.
• Yuan Heguang approved the delegation's visit after consulting experts and informing the Mutual Aid Society.
• Amelia and Jody flew across the Pacific and were astonished to find a busy airport with many planes taking off and landing.
• Chen Jianzhou greeted the delegation, and Jody identified a huge gray aircraft at the airport as a heavy military transport.

Amelia and Jody’s delegation arrived in a city that appeared both run-down and surprisingly active, then visited the modern space base hoping to discuss cooperation on the wormhole mission. Zhou Kun welcomed them, but the itinerary was filled with tours and academic conferences rather than anything directly related to the wormhole.

• Jody and Amelia saw the city’s abandoned buildings and withered crops, while Chen Jianzhou explained that residents were working on repairs and infrastructure restoration.
• Chen Jianzhou told Jody that China might soon launch a crewed wormhole exploration mission, exciting Jody but leaving him uncertain about its timing and details.
• Amelia and Jody saw residents repairing infrastructure and receiving free medical examinations, including X-rays, and reconsidered their assumption that the city was in dire condition.
• Jody and Amelia arrived at the modern space base, where Zhou Kun welcomed them and staff presented an itinerary of tours and academic conferences with no wormhole-related activities.