Chapter Summaries

Immortan Joe’s pursuit of Furiosa’s group was interrupted when he learned the citadel had fallen, forcing him to turn back while the refugees welcomed the Mutual Aid Society. Furiosa and Max continued toward the green place, and the citadel’s attackers prepared to defend their home.

• Immortan Joe and People Eater examined a drone wing, and Kalashnikov urged them to prepare for a technologically advanced enemy instead of pursuing the women.
• Immortan Joe continued after Furiosa, while Kalashnikov waited with his men to follow once the blocked valley entrance was cleared.
• A messenger told Kalashnikov that the citadel had fallen, so Kalashnikov turned his forces around to return and defend it.
• When another messenger reported the citadel’s fall, Immortan Joe abruptly turned his war rig around and abandoned the chase.
• Furiosa warned Max not to lower his guard as they continued toward the green place, while the refugees gathered around Yuri and praised the Mutual Aid Society.

Zhang Tianyuan’s forces freed the fortress and chose it as a temporary base, but Kalashnikov’s convoy and Immortan Joe fled when they saw the Mutual Aid Society’s exoskeleton-equipped soldiers and armored vehicle. The Mutual Aid Society pursued them as Immortan Joe realized he had lost his fortress and had nowhere to go.

• The freed prisoners were taken into custody, where Barry Allen bragged about Bruce’s fearless attacks on armored vehicles.
• Kalashnikov and Brodie the People Eater confirmed that the fortress had been seized and led their convoy to reclaim it.
• Zhang Tianyuan learned the approaching force was Immortan Joe’s convoy and decided to conserve ammunition while making the fortress the refugees’ temporary base.
• Kalashnikov and the People Eater spotted the Mutual Aid Society’s exoskeleton-equipped soldiers and ordered their convoy to retreat.
• Wang Lei sent an armored vehicle after the fleeing convoy, and Immortan Joe turned around and fled after seeing it.
• Immortan Joe caught up with Kalashnikov’s retreating convoy, learned the enemy had arrived, and lamented losing his fortress and home.

Immortan Joe abandoned much of his convoy in a swamp to delay his pursuers, while Furiosa and the escaped women discovered the Vuvalini had dwindled to a few survivors. After Max noticed a drone and sensed the Citadel’s control might have changed, Furiosa agreed to return there.

• Immortan Joe stole reserve gasoline, then drove through the swamp and ordered stranded vehicles and their crews to fend for themselves as the convoy dwindled to five vehicles.
• Furiosa found surviving members of the Vuvalini, but learned their oasis and the once-great tribe had disappeared.
• Furiosa and the other women decided to cross the salt flats on motorcycles, leaving Max and the revived Nux behind.
• Max caught up with Furiosa and urged the women to return to the Citadel, reasoning that Immortan Joe might no longer control it because of a drone.
• Furiosa questioned Max, then agreed to lead the women back to the Citadel.

Furiosa turned the war rig back to confront Immortan Joe, but his convoy retreated when a drone appeared. After meeting a Mutual Aid Society rescue team, Furiosa arranged for Angharad and the other women to receive treatment and decided that she and Max would continue pursuing Immortan Joe.

• Max recognized that Immortan Joe's convoy had only four vehicles, and Furiosa turned the rig around to face them.
• Furiosa and Immortan Joe's forces clashed, and Immortan Joe shot Furiosa and Angharad before a drone made him retreat.
• Max pointed out the drone, and Furiosa pressed on toward three black armored vehicles while Angharad remained critically wounded.
• A Mutual Aid Society rescue team treated Angharad and prepared to take her and the other women to a fortress for surgery.
• Furiosa told the squad leader that she and Max would continue tracking Immortan Joe, then dragged Max toward the war rig.

Furiosa and Max pursued Immortan Joe with the Mutual Aid Society, and Furiosa caught him and beat him after he tried to flee. The soldiers stopped her and took Joe away as Max approached with bandages.

• Max bandaged Furiosa's shoulder, then drove the war rig after Immortan Joe while the Vuvalini stayed behind and Nux followed them.
• Max and the Mutual Aid Society found Joe's abandoned, fuel-less war rigs, and a drone spotted Joe and his remaining men running west.
• Furiosa took Nux's motorcycle and iron rod, then rode ahead toward Immortan Joe.
• Furiosa chased Joe and repeatedly struck him with the iron rod until he gave up and fell to the ground.
• Furiosa continued beating Joe until the Mutual Aid Society soldiers pulled her away, and Max approached with bandages.

After Furiosa and Max were captured, they arrived at the Citadel, where refugees were being examined and Immortan Joe’s prisoners were sent to a camp. As War Boys learned that Joe had stolen their gas and used them as cannon fodder, they turned on him, while Furiosa recovered in the ward and Max applied to reclaim his car.

• Nux saw Immortan Joe defeated and tried to defend him, but soldiers captured them and later caught Kalashnikov and two other fugitives with a drone.
• Max brought the wounded Furiosa to the Citadel, where medical staff took her for surgery and refugees lined up for physical examinations.
• In the prisoner-of-war camp, a former War Boy confronted Immortan Joe over stolen gas, then the War Boys beat Joe and Nux and went after Kalashnikov.
• Furiosa learned that Angharad’s unborn child had died, while Max submitted an application to get his car back and brought Furiosa her mechanical hand.
• A staff member warned Director Wu that a patient experienced visual and auditory hallucinations and sometimes behaved aggressively.

Max collected medication for his hallucinations and told Furiosa that the Mutual Aid Society might be safer than Immortan Joe’s rule. Meanwhile, Zhang Tianyuan learned that radioactive contamination from a drone had rapidly worsened Immortan Joe’s condition and arranged for Doctor Tanaka to treat him.

• Max received a psychologist’s diagnosis and collected prescription medicine from the psychiatric dispensary.
• Max met Furiosa in line, explained his belief that the newcomers were providing international aid, and described the outside world to her.
• Furiosa returned to the ward, reassured the women about the situation, and shared packaged dried earthworms with them.
• Zhang Tianyuan visited the prison camp and learned that Immortan Joe’s condition had worsened after exposure to radioactive material from the No. 3 drone.
• Zhang Tianyuan apologized and assigned Doctor Tanaka to care for Immortan Joe, who continued begging to be killed.

Zhang Tianyuan inspected radiation patients and injured War Boys, ordered treatment and food changes, and began organizing the Citadel’s refugees under Mutual Aid Society oversight. The Society struggled to find trustworthy administrators and concluded that the continent was full of criminals.

• Zhang Tianyuan learned that Kalashnikov and Brodie had inhaled radioactive material, ordered Dr. Tanaka and Director Wu Yisi to treat Kalashnikov, and prescribed a new diet for Brodie.
• The cooking squad decided to serve Brodie live bugs after struggling to meet Zhang Tianyuan’s dietary requirements.
• Zhang Tianyuan approved glucose for the gravely injured Rictus and instructed nurses to bring him to Immortan Joe while his father was conscious.
• Nux watched the War Boys plead for release and remained uncertain about his future after losing faith in the God of the V8 Engine.
• Zhang Tianyuan and the Mutual Aid Society began organizing the refugees, appointing older residents and Immortan Joe’s educated women to management roles while screening former Citadel personnel for criminality.

The Citadel’s new rulers worked to establish farming, governance, and law while Max helped bring the Vulture Tribe under their control. Zhang Tianyuan also monitored the dispute over mass migration and a rapidly expanding power in Game Spacetime, then sought an update on the Mecha Factory.

• Old women began cultivating a new field with inherited seeds and a book on crop cultivation, while Angharad and the other sisters struggled with their new administrative work.
• Zhang Tianyuan arranged guidance for the sisters and literacy education for refugees as the Citadel faced violent crime and planned to expand its territory.
• Max joined Wang Lei’s convoy, helped bring the Vulture Tribe into the Citadel, and saw Furiosa working on road repairs.
• Smith received aid supplies from Asia, while Yuri learned that Ski’s shipment included two fleets and suspected Smith had ordered the same package.
• Zhang Tianyuan considered the unresolved plan to move about a billion people between spacetimes and learned that a silent superpower was rapidly expanding in Game Spacetime.
• Zhang Tianyuan sent the superpower’s coordinates to Ke Jinjun for reconnaissance and went to ask Mako Mori about the Mecha Factory.

Ace lost his empire when the Scourge destroyed his main base, while the black-robed figure searched for the player draining thirty billion energy points each day. Zhang Tianyuan approved plans to study the Private-class mecha and learned that the newly discovered tenth spacetime was called “Moonfall.”

• The Scourge destroyed Ace’s city and main base, leaving him alone as his soldiers and residents scattered.
• A black-robed figure ordered the spaceship to search for the player withdrawing thirty billion energy points daily and chose a new target among 72 main bases.
• Mako Mori’s blueprints enabled the Mecha Factory to produce the first 21-meter Private-class mecha, which outperformed a Hound-class in a test fight.
• Taylor proposed that North American manufacturers study the Private-class’s materials and technology, and Zhang Tianyuan approved the plan.
• Zhang Tianyuan reviewed Ke Jinjun’s report on a ruined superpower’s territory and received notice that the tenth spacetime was named “Moonfall.”

Zhang Tianyuan recalled the plot of Moonfall, in which an artificial moon lost control after the Swarm damaged its core and Brian’s team saved Earth. He considered whether the Moonfall spacetime’s moon could help with the increasingly complicated situation in the game world.

• Zhang Tianyuan remembered how Brian had been disgraced after surviving the Swarm’s attack during a satellite repair mission.
• Houseman discovered that the moon’s orbit was shifting, while Brian and NASA learned that the Swarm threatened Earth and prepared a mission to stop it.
• Brian, his former teammate, and Houseman reached the moon, where the moon’s AI revealed its origins and humanity’s history.
• Brian’s team destroyed the Swarm and saved Earth, while the escaping families were reunited and the rich stepfather sacrificed himself.
• Zhang Tianyuan wondered about the director’s apparent fixation on stepfathers, then considered acquiring the artificial moon for future use.

Zhang Tianyuan briefed the nine branch presidents on Moon Spacetime’s ancient Galactic Humans, the AI threat, and the danger of intervening. The presidents weighed the risk against the need to save billions of people, and Ning Jihua argued that the Mutual Aid Society should act because even a powerful civilization would struggle to cross between spacetimes.

• Zhang Tianyuan gathered the nine branch presidents and warned them that No. 10 Spacetime faced an urgent crisis involving an extraterrestrial civilization.
• Zhang Tianyuan described the Galactic Humans, the machine uprising, the moon’s escape, and the Swarm’s return, revealing that the civilization had used and modified stars for billions of years.
• The presidents asked Sun Deyi about the moon in Wandering Spacetime, and he confirmed it was a natural satellite.
• Elder Zhou recounted how the Maya civilization had predicted the 2012 catastrophe, but the Mutual Aid Society had found no major discoveries in its ruins.
• Zhang Tianyuan explained that intervening could attract the attention of the ancient civilization, while refusing to help would leave billions at risk and might also affect No. 0 Spacetime.
• Ning Jihua urged the Mutual Aid Society to intervene, arguing that the Precursors Civilization’s inability to retaliate across spacetimes showed that crossing between them was difficult.

The Mutual Aid Society approved sending reconnaissance satellites into No. 10 Spacetime to investigate the Moon crisis and possible alien reinforcements. After the satellites entered orbit, they learned the date and realized they had arrived right at the start of the plot.

• Sun Deyi warned that the Swarm might have called reinforcements decades earlier, and Zhang Tianyuan agreed that a signal could already have traveled dozens of light-years.
• Zhang Tianyuan and the other leaders approved a reconnaissance mission to No. 10 Spacetime despite unanswered questions about the Moon crisis and the Swarm.
• A rocket carrying two reconnaissance satellites passed through a Spacetime Tunnel and launched from an ice field.
• Zhang Tianyuan instructed the technical team to access nearby communications satellites and determine the date in No. 10 Spacetime.
• The team reported that it was the 16th, and Zhang Tianyuan realized they had arrived at the plot's starting point.

Zhang Tianyuan found that the moon's orbit had not shifted yet, while space agencies worldwide detected a rocket launched from space and could not identify who had sent it. Chief Engineer Ji Feiyu received an email promising an explanation of the launch and warning of the moon's coming orbital shift.

• Zhang Tianyuan checked worldwide trending news and had the aerospace team measure the Earth-moon distance, confirming that the moon's orbit had not shifted yet.
• A NASA staff member detected a rocket with an incomplete trajectory and confirmed the unusual launch to Director Fowler.
• Space agencies across the world tracked the rocket as it entered an Earth-moon transfer orbit and tried to determine who had launched it.
• Chief Engineer Ji Feiyu and his team investigated the rocket, while foreign counterparts and official agencies denied responsibility for the launch.
• Ji Feiyu received an email titled "An explanation of the air-launched rocket and a warning about the shift in the moon's orbit".

Zhang Tianyuan’s team warned space agencies about the moon’s orbit shifting and investigated the hidden Swarm borehole in the Mare Crisium Basin. When the agencies confirmed that the moon’s orbit had changed, Ji Feiyu realized the warning email had arrived before the event occurred.

• Ji Feiyu read an email claiming an alien weapon was drilling into the moon beneath the Mare Crisium Basin and recalled the dust event from eleven years earlier.
• Zhang Tianyuan’s team accessed NASA’s database but found no record of the Swarm’s borehole, then learned that the site lay in a permanently shadowed region and planned to send lunar rovers.
• Houseman secretly obtained lunar orbital data from a South American monitoring station, and an employee noticed that the moon’s orbit had shifted.
• NASA and the other space agencies verified the orbital change and detected gases escaping from the Mare Crisium Basin, reminding Fowler of Brian’s old account.
• Ji Feiyu confirmed the orbital shift, then found the warning email he had received the previous day and realized it had preceded the event.

Chief Engineer Ji confirmed that an unknown group was launching satellites and lunar rovers through a Spacetime Tunnel, then reported the evidence to security officials. Zhang Tianyuan invited him to visit Wandering Spacetime to discuss the moon’s shifting orbit, and Ji decided to seek authorization before accepting.

• Chief Engineer Ji contacted security and learned that other space-program workers had received emails traced to a commercial satellite.
• The engineers in Wandering Spacetime told Ji to watch their satellite enter lunar orbit and warned that more launches would follow.
• Ji ordered his team to monitor the satellite, and they detected rockets appearing nearby and deploying seven targets, including three lunar rovers.
• Fowler dismissed reports of further lunar activity and continued discussing cooperation with the European Space Agency.
• Ji reported the confirmed signals and rovers to security, while Zhang Tianyuan invited him to Wandering Spacetime to discuss the moon’s orbit.
• Ji asked what accepting the invitation required and decided to seek instructions first.

Chief Engineer Ji led a delegation from No. 10 Spacetime through a spacetime tunnel to meet Zhang Tianyuan and learn how the Mutual Aid Society might stop the moon’s orbit from shifting. After discovering that the Swarm was drilling into the moon and causing the disaster, Zhang Tianyuan revealed they had a plan but asked what Chief Engineer Ji thought of the moon.

• Ding Hongbo’s meeting backed Chief Engineer Ji contacting the people who had sent messages to space personnel, after intelligence found no sign of outside forces.
• Zhang Tianyuan arranged for Chief Engineer Ji and his delegation to travel by helicopter through a spacetime tunnel, and they arrived in the Wandering Spacetime.
• Chief Engineer Ji saw a Planetary Engine and learned that it propelled the Earth before meeting Zhang Tianyuan in the underground city.
• Zhang Tianyuan showed Chief Engineer Ji footage of lunar rovers being destroyed inside a deep hole in Mare Crisium Basin and identified the Swarm as the cause of the moon’s orbital shift.
• Zhang Tianyuan said they had a plan to stop the Swarm, then asked Chief Engineer Ji what he thought of the moon.

Zhang Tianyuan offered Moon Spacetime help with its destabilized moon by transferring Planetary Engines from Wandering Spacetime and coordinating against the Swarm. After hearing the full story, Ding Hongbo met with Zhang Tianyuan, who outlined ways to defeat the Swarm and promised he could give them a different moon.

• Zhang Tianyuan explained that the Moon Expulsion Project’s Planetary Engines could be transferred through Spacetime Tunnels to help stabilize Moon Spacetime’s moon.
• Chief Engineer Ji agreed to seek a powerful electromagnetic pulse bomb prototype from NASA to use against the Swarm.
• Zhang Tianyuan sent Chief Engineer Ji and the delegation back, where Ji reported their successful visit and the proposed cooperation to Ding Hongbo.
• Ding Hongbo traveled to Wandering Spacetime, and Zhang Tianyuan told him about the lunar AI, the Swarm, and humanity’s origins.
• Zhang Tianyuan described options for defeating the Swarm and restoring the moon, then said he could give Moon Spacetime a different moon.

Ding Hongbo weighed his desire to claim the lunar spaceship against the Mutual Aid Society’s offer to replace the moon and the threat of a larger Swarm attack. He agreed that stopping the moon’s orbital crisis had to come first, as coastal disasters were expected within a week.

• Ding Hongbo realized Zhang Tianyuan had seen through his wish to keep the lunar spaceship and said he would support replacing the moon if it benefited their spacetime.
• Zhang Tianyuan explained that replacement would stabilize the moon but require sharing the spaceship’s technology and limiting its use, while promising the Mutual Aid Society’s protection.
• Zhang Tianyuan warned that the Swarm might have signaled nearby allies before attacking, and Ding Hongbo recognized that his spacetime would need the Society’s help against a possible main force.
• Zhang Tianyuan stressed that pushing the moon with Planetary Engines would only buy time and that destroying the Swarm was necessary to resolve the crisis.
• Ding Hongbo agreed to prioritize saving lives, and Zhang Tianyuan noted that severe coastal flooding could begin within a week.

Chief Engineer Ji asked NASA’s Fowler to locate the secret ZX-7 electromagnetic pulse bomb, believing it could help restore the moon’s orbit. Fowler and Director Hutchings learned that the moon would reach Earth’s Roche limit in three weeks and begin breaking apart.

• Chief Engineer Ji assigned the space center team to compare lunar data from the two spacetimes and called his North American contact to obtain Fowler’s number.
• Chief Engineer Ji asked Fowler to find the ZX-7 electromagnetic pulse bomb, and Fowler agreed to make inquiries.
• A staff member told Fowler that the moon would reach its Roche limit in three weeks and begin breaking apart over Earth.
• Director Hutchings rushed to Fowler’s office and demanded to know how Chief Engineer Ji had learned about the secret bomb.
• A staff member showed Hutchings that news of the moon leaving its orbit had spread worldwide, and Fowler revealed that the moon would break apart in three weeks.