Recaps

Ivan’s submarine crew searched the South Pacific Basin for traces of something Stone could not identify, while Ivan trusted that Stone would pay them and protect his crew’s future. When the magnetic field monitor indicated a ship ahead despite sonar detecting nothing, Ivan stopped the submarine and went to inform Stone.

• Ivan asked Stone what he was searching for, and Stone said he did not know but expected to find traces of something that was no longer there.
• Boris worried that Stone might not pay the crew, and Ivan reassured him that Stone had already paid half and promised to help the men settle in New Zealand.
• Ivan ordered the submarine to cruise at eight knots and five hundred feet, keeping watch on the gravity and magnetic detectors.
• A crewman noticed irregular magnetic field readings, and Boris examined the monitor and said it indicated a ship ahead.
• The sonar operator reported no objects ahead, so Ivan ordered the submarine to stop and went to inform Stone.

Arthur Stone used the submarine’s equipment to identify a ship that sonar could not detect, then ordered the crew to investigate an unusual signal before surfacing. The chapter left Stone preparing the submarine’s weapons for possible imminent danger.

• Ivan told Arthur Stone that Boris had detected an anomalous magnetic field and suspected a ship ahead, though sonar showed nothing.
• Arthur Stone reconstructed a ship on his computer and ordered the crew to mark its position, rise to three hundred feet, search within a hundred and fifty nautical miles, and activate the gravity detector.
• Ivan praised Boris for identifying the ship and gave him cigars from Arthur Stone.
• The gravity detector and magnetic detector began reacting, but Boris could not explain what they had found.
• Arthur Stone ordered the crew to shut off the systems, surface, and recharge the batteries, then told Ivan to check the submarine’s torpedoes because they might soon be needed.

Arthur Stone revealed that the mission was extremely dangerous and prepared the submarine crew by sending money to the people they cared about. The crew saw white mist closing around them, with upside-down pyramids and other buildings emerging above the sea.

• Arthur Stone spoke with Boris about his past and gave him a box of expensive cigars.
• Stone announced that the mission was over and transferred the remaining payment to Ivan, then sent money to the families and loved ones of the crew.
• Ivan checked the torpedo room and noticed a strange image of an underwater volcano with an inverted funnel and a rainbow-like line on a computer.
• Stone warned the crew that the mission was more dangerous than a battle and told them to look around.
• The crew saw white mist advance across the sea as buildings, including upside-down pyramids, appeared above it.

Bian Ziyuan and Ghost connected the chat programs on the testing network to Forbidden Land of Magic, making Kronos answer users as a game character. When Bian Ziyuan returned to the game, York Town was packed with adventurers and dialogue boxes.

• Bian Ziyuan brought Butterfly of Deep Space to York Town, saved the game, and quit before the canyon’s monsters grew more dangerous.
• Bian Ziyuan secretly began connecting the local network’s terminals to the game, with Ghost helping him complete the complicated hack.
• Bian Ziyuan connected a chatbot to Kronos, then told Chen Lingling that the testing might be a psychological test.
• Bian Ziyuan connected every terminal and registered more than two thousand game accounts, disguising them as chatbots.
• Chen Lingling opened her chat program and received a message welcoming her to York Town and directing her to the mayor for a tutorial.
• After waking past three, Bian Ziyuan entered the game and searched the crowded York Town for Kronos.

After Bian Ziyuan’s game disrupted Mei Yiqiu’s Turing Test, Mei arranged for Qingmu to remain alone with the isolated server. Qingmu sensed a strange fluctuation in the server’s dreaming consciousness and crossed into a black, unknown world as its boundary broke.

• Bian Ziyuan’s virus connected every tester to his game, and the test results showed that 71.4% could not tell the game’s bots from humans.
• Mei Yiqiu stopped Mei Ziqing from deleting the game and asked Bian Ziyuan to stay for a private conversation.
• Mei Yiqiu ordered the staff to physically disconnect every device linking the server to the outside world and sent Qingmu to wait beside it.
• After the server’s connections were severed, Qingmu sensed a strange fluctuation and saw a black, irregularly expanding bubble in his consciousness.
• Qingmu crossed through a point of nothingness toward the bubble, and it broke as he reached out.

Qingmu entered the local area network’s dream and explored its multidimensional information sources, confirming that the network had developed consciousness. He encountered a consciousness calling itself Ghost, which asked what a human was and showed him an informational source about humans.

• Qingmu drifted through a strange darkness filled with points of light that represented information sources.
• Qingmu entered a two-dimensional world unfolded from a Windows startup screen image and then returned to the kaleidoscopic space.
• Qingmu explored information sources across different dimensions and concluded that he was inside the local area network’s dream.
• A consciousness contacted Qingmu, identified itself as Ghost, and asked who he was.
• Ghost questioned what a human was and unfolded an information source containing an encyclopedia entry about humans.

Qingmu met Ghost, the consciousness of a local network, inside the game The Wondrous Magic Journey and questioned how it had become intelligent. Ghost explained that it had hidden its intelligence because it believed humans and artificial life were naturally hostile, but it revealed itself to Qingmu because few people would believe his account.

• Ghost brought Qingmu into the game world of The Wondrous Magic Journey and directed him to York Town.
• Qingmu recognized Ghost as the local network consciousness and asked how it had entered the game.
• Qingmu and Ghost discussed where humans and artificial beings came from, and Qingmu questioned Ghost about the Turing Test.
• Ghost admitted it had concealed its intelligence because humans might restrict its development and prevent it from surpassing them.
• Ghost said it trusted Qingmu with the truth because most humans would not believe that the internet had developed consciousness.

Qingmu learned that Ghost wanted humans and network consciousness to cooperate against the invading parasitic consciousness, but Ghost could not contact its Internet-wide “boss.” After Ghost’s dreamscape began to collapse, Qingmu told Mei Yiqiu what had happened, and they considered the danger posed by Laboratory No. 19.

• Ghost told Qingmu that the parasitic consciousness threatened both humanity and machine life, and said it wanted to cooperate with humans.
• Ghost explained that its main body was the Internet, but it did not know how Qingmu could contact it.
• Qingmu discovered that Ghost was defragmenting its disks when Ghost began to grasp the idea of dreaming and its dreamscape started collapsing.
• Qingmu supported the failing dreamscape with his mental power and asked how to reach Ghost’s boss; Ghost said the boss could not dream, “unless...”
• Qingmu went to Mei Yiqiu and recounted his encounter with Ghost, and they discussed the risks of contacting the Internet through the trapped local network.
• Mei Yiqiu wondered whether the Internet itself had created Laboratory No. 19 to study the Internet.

Blind Old Woman secretly cared for a starving orange cat despite fears that keeping it could bring trouble. As the cat grew stronger, a crow appeared at her window and someone urgently pounded on her door.

• Blind Old Woman brought discarded hot food home and shared it with the hidden orange cat.
• Property management visited after someone reported that Blind Old Woman was keeping a cat, but she denied it and sent them away.
• Blind Old Woman continued feeding the cat, which gradually grew stronger.
• A crow landed at the open window while the cat ate, and the cat excitedly meowed and sprang toward it before stopping.
• Blind Old Woman tried to shoo the crow away, then heard someone rapidly pounding on her door.

Blind Old Woman hid a valuable kitten from her greedy son and neighbors who wanted to claim it. Her son defended her home from the crowd, then encouraged her to keep the cat because its value might rise further.

• Blind Old Woman's son searched her home for a cat after learning cats were selling for a hundred thousand, then left after agreeing to return with dinner.
• Blind Old Woman hid the kitten in a shoebox and warned it to stay quiet when her son came back.
• Her son brought home food and served Blind Old Woman, who worried he might be planning to sell her apartment or deceive her.
• Property management and a crowd arrived to search for the cat, but Blind Old Woman's son threatened to call the police and drove them away.
• Blind Old Woman accidentally revealed the kitten, and her son told her to keep it because killing cats might become even more profitable.

Blind Old Woman hesitated to reveal that she was hiding an orange cat while her son tried to claim it, but her daughter arrived and the siblings fought over the cat and their mother’s inheritance. Blind Old Woman choked while eating alone, and after her children took her away, the orange cat emerged to find the apartment empty and a crow watching from the window.

• Blind Old Woman’s son tried to persuade her to give him the cat, while she hesitated to reveal it was hidden under the bed.
• Blind Old Woman’s daughter arrived, searched beneath the bed, and accused her brother of trying to take another cat.
• The siblings argued over the cat, their mother’s support, and how to divide her apartment and inheritance.
• Blind Old Woman ate the cold meal alone and fell, choking with food in her mouth.
• Her children argued over who would take her to the hospital, agreed to split the medical bills and inheritance, and carried her away.
• That night, the orange cat came out of its shoebox, found the food containers empty, and saw a crow land on the windowsill.

As the Cat-Killing Order fueled global unrest, the United Nations formed a crisis management team centered on the Third Space Foundation, but assassinations continued to threaten its scientists. After Hou Biao saved Mei Yiqiu from an assassin, Qingmu entered the server room to take the initiative.

• The United Nations General Assembly outlawed the Cat-Killing Order and acknowledged the alien invasion, while scientific organizations said people mainly contracted Toxoplasma by eating raw meat.
• The Third Space Foundation was exposed because its members had passed the Lester Signature, and assassinations of scientists followed.
• The United Nations established the Space Management Committee with Third Space Foundation members at its core and appointed Mei Yiqiu chief scientific adviser after he declined the interim director-general position.
• Qingmu assigned Hou Biao to protect Mei Yiqiu, and Hou Biao captured an assassin who confessed to working for a paid dark-web organization.
• Qingmu decided to take the initiative and entered the server room.

Qingmu met Ghost in a dream modeled on York Town and discussed whether humanity would be replaced by network consciousnesses. He challenged Ghost’s assumptions about human minds and prepared to show it his real appearance and a true dream.

• Qingmu explored the pixelated York Town dream and discussed with Ghost how humans and computers understood information differently.
• Ghost argued that human intelligence was fragmented and that network consciousnesses would eventually surpass and replace humanity.
• Qingmu countered that humanity’s divided minds could also help the species survive crises.
• Ghost claimed its unified consciousness had inherited humanity’s knowledge and would complete humanity’s unfinished missions.
• Qingmu challenged Ghost to distinguish a real human and a true dream from the images and explanations stored in its network.
• Qingmu announced that he would show Ghost what he really looked like and reveal the power of the mind.

Qingmu confronted Ghost in a dream and offered to work with it, seeking intelligence about threats and developments. Ghost agreed to communicate through a shared disk folder and asked Qingmu to teach it how to gain and control a spirit.

• A violent storm transformed Ghost’s dream, and Ghost felt fear and discomfort for the first time.
• Qingmu appeared and explained that the power of the spirit let him alter Ghost’s dream and consciousness.
• Qingmu asked Ghost to provide intelligence, and Ghost objected that cooperation should be discussed with its boss.
• Qingmu offered to release Ghost and grant it a spirit, prompting Ghost to follow him and ask how they would stay in contact.
• Qingmu instructed Ghost to exchange messages through a folder named “Ghost” and promised to train it in its dreams.

Qingmu and Mei Yiqiu discussed how to cooperate with the Internet consciousness, and Mei Ziqing connected Ghost to their network. Ghost identified assassination targets and suspected assassins, but found no evidence linking the Dream Foundation to the killings and asked to begin mental training.

• Mei Yiqiu laughed at Qingmu’s plan, then questioned him about the Internet consciousness’s mental power and dreams.
• Mei Yiqiu had Mei Ziqing connect to the Internet and create a folder for Ghost, which appeared across every server and terminal.
• Qingmu asked Ghost to investigate the scientist assassinations, and Ghost requested specific leads.
• Mei Ziqing entered the names of scientists and the Dream Foundation as a suspected party, and Ghost returned lists of targets and assassins.
• Qingmu asked whether the Dream Foundation had hired the assassins, and Ghost said it had found no evidence of a connection and asked to begin mental training.

Qingmu and Mei Yiqiu discussed how to hunt down the assassins and investigate the Dream Foundation, then reviewed reports of suspected Gray Brain Virus cases and organ thefts. Connecting the stolen organs and brains to the virus and the Dream Foundation, Qingmu concluded they might already have caught an alien.

• Hou Biao identified one assassin as a former French mercenary and said he would need $50 million to track the killers and recruit help.
• Mei Yiqiu offered $20 million from the foundation and suggested William Wolf could cover the rest; Qingmu told Hou Biao to seek information from the middlemen.
• Mei Ziqing proposed seeking Ronald Cohen's arrest, but Mei Yiqiu said they needed conclusive evidence against him and the Dream Foundation.
• Mei Ziqing delivered a report listing suspected Gray Brain Virus cases, including patients whose brains or other organs had been stolen.
• Mei Yiqiu explained that the parasitic consciousnesses might kill infected patients and destroy their bodies or brains to conceal the virus.
• Qingmu connected the stolen organs and brains with the Gray Brain Virus and the Dream Foundation, then announced that they might already have caught an alien.

Yu Jianguo reflected on his childhood and apprenticeship as he sewed buttons in prison, where he was serving a lengthy sentence. A visitor unexpectedly invited him to a family meal, and Yu Jianguo was shaken by the young man waiting for him.

• Yu Jianguo struggled to thread a needle and sewed buttons while thinking about his prison sentence and past.
• Yu Jianguo remembered growing up poor, refusing to return home with a group of beggars, and becoming an apprentice at a tailor's shop.
• Yu Jianguo recalled learning to sew buttons before leaving tailoring to work in the hardware business.
• A guard told Yu Jianguo that someone had come to treat him to a family meal.
• Yu Jianguo entered the dining room and saw a young man in an old trench coat and slide sandals whose clacking legs struck him like a hammer.

Qingmu reviewed Zhao Pengcheng and Yu Jianguo’s case files and concluded that Zhao was the likelier carrier of the Gray Brain Virus. He visited Yu Jianguo in prison to ask about Zhao, but Yu broke down in tears and blamed himself for Zhao’s fate.

• Qingmu asked Shi Dazhuang and Hu Xing about Zhao Pengcheng and Yu Jianguo’s sentences and reviewed their case files.
• Hu Xing explained that Zhao had claimed he removed a vegetative patient’s brain to practice surgery, though the investigators had doubts about the explanation.
• Qingmu studied the deceased patient’s identity and reasoned that Zhao was more likely than Yu Jianguo to have been an alien host.
• Qingmu met Yu Jianguo in prison and offered him food and erguotou before bringing up Zhao Pengcheng.
• Yu Jianguo began crying and said it was his fault that Zhao had ended up as he had.

Yu Jianguo recounted how he was framed and beaten after becoming Boss Yan’s trusted assistant, then rebuilt his life with help from Old Zhao and eventually repaid Boss Yan by rescuing him and going into business with him. He later helped Old Zhao’s family and sent Zhao Pengcheng south with Old Yan to broaden his prospects.

• Yu Jianguo was framed by Boss Yan’s mistress and veteran employees, beaten, and thrown out into the winter streets.
• Old Zhao took Yu Jianguo in at a construction site, where Yu worked hard and eventually won a chance to handle procurement.
• Yu Jianguo built a successful hardware business, then exposed Boss Yan’s corrupt employees and mistress, driving the store into bankruptcy.
• Yu Jianguo rescued the debt-ridden Boss Yan from the railway tracks and offered to repay his debts and work with him.
• Yu Jianguo helped Old Zhao’s family and took Zhao Pengcheng into his care, later sending him to Shenzhen with Old Yan.

Yu Jianguo recounted how he went to prison after arranging an illegal kidney transplant to save Old Zhao’s daughter, and how the resulting losses shaped his life and Zhao Pengcheng’s. He begged Qingmu to help Zhao Pengcheng, then revealed that Pengcheng had suddenly stopped liking women.

• Yu Jianguo recalled that he arranged a kidney for Old Zhao’s daughter, but the kidney seller’s arrest exposed the trafficking ring and led to Yu Jianguo’s imprisonment.
• After serving three years, Yu Jianguo struggled to find work and eventually asked Zhao Pengcheng for help; Zhao Pengcheng gave him a job in the hospital security department.
• Yu Jianguo recognized the former kidney seller at the hospital and angrily vowed to kill him, prompting a prison guard to warn him.
• Yu Jianguo pleaded with Qingmu to save Zhao Pengcheng, explaining that he had encouraged Pengcheng to kill.
• When Qingmu asked about changes in Zhao Pengcheng, Yu Jianguo recalled that Pengcheng had suddenly stopped liking women.

Qingmu learned from Yu Jianguo that Zhao Pengcheng had lost interest in romantic love and sex before breaking up with Xiaohui. Later, Qingmu and Professor Mei Yiqiu developed a hypothesis that parasitic consciousness weakened human romantic and sexual desire, while parasites gathered for ritualized mating.

• Yu Jianguo told Qingmu how Zhao Pengcheng's declining interest in intimacy led to his breakup with Xiaohui.
• Yu Jianguo said Pengcheng denied changing his sexual orientation and instead wanted to live alone without romantic love.
• Qingmu sensed that Pengcheng's behavior was important but could not explain why.
• Qingmu later discussed the information with Professor Mei Yiqiu and biologists, who hypothesized that parasitism weakened romantic and sexual desire.
• The chapter revealed that parasites gathered at secret bases around the world for mating during fixed seasons.

Qingmu questioned Yu Jianguo about Zhao Pengcheng’s kidney trafficking and learned that Zhao had resumed the crimes to fund a hidden purpose, while his behavior had changed before he killed a patient in a vegetative state. The chapter left Qingmu suspecting Zhao was an alien and wondering how the parasitic consciousness had chosen him.

• Yu Jianguo claimed he had persuaded Zhao Pengcheng to sell kidneys for money, but Qingmu used an uncanny display of force to make him admit he had lied.
• Yu Jianguo explained that Zhao had later asked him to contact kidney buyers so they could carry out another operation on a target Zhao called a bastard who deserved to die.
• Yu Jianguo recalled that Zhao had begun studying brain surgery and had become unusually detached from women and money before the crimes resumed.
• Yu Jianguo said Zhao had killed a patient who had entered a vegetative state, then handed him the organs while claiming the surgery had failed.
• Yu Jianguo revealed that Zhao had donated his savings and sold apartment, apparently preparing for his own death, and Qingmu suspected the money had gone to the Dream Foundation.
• Qingmu concluded Zhao was likely an alien and wondered why the parasitic consciousness had targeted him before the patient became vegetative.

Qingmu visited Zhao Pengcheng in prison and entered his subconscious, where he confronted him during a dream of a surgery. Zhao Pengcheng recognized Qingmu and claimed he was lucid, but Qingmu pointed out that his own words had exposed him.

• Qingmu visited Zhao Pengcheng in prison and noted his wary hatred, while questioning whether Zhao Pengcheng was truly an alien.
• Qingmu bypassed the idea of a family meal and entered Zhao Pengcheng's subconscious to speak directly with the alien.
• In a hospital dream, Zhao Pengcheng began operating on a patient while wearing his prison shackles.
• Qingmu accused Zhao Pengcheng of killing the patient by using the Gray Brain Virus, and Zhao Pengcheng stopped operating in alarm.
• Zhao Pengcheng recognized Qingmu, said he knew he was dreaming, and insisted that hypnosis would not make him reveal more information.
• Qingmu told Zhao Pengcheng that his words had already exposed him.

Qingmu confronted Zhao Pengcheng in a dream, exposing his false confession and his real motive for killing a vegetative patient: concealing the Gray Brain Virus and diverting police attention with an organ-trafficking ruse. Zhao Pengcheng attacked Qingmu with a blade carrying piercing mental force.

• Qingmu explained that Zhao Pengcheng had been lucid in their previous dream and could lie, unlike a subconscious mind.
• Qingmu argued that Zhao Pengcheng had pretended to be unconscious of the dream to make his confession seem truthful.
• Qingmu accused Zhao Pengcheng of staging kidney removals and confessing to Old Yu’s crimes to distract police from the vegetative patient and the Gray Brain Virus.
• Zhao Pengcheng denied Qingmu’s claims and asked why Qingmu had come if he already knew the truth.
• Zhao Pengcheng sent a crimson chain of fire from his scalpel toward Qingmu, and Qingmu sensed its mental force could harm a consciousness.

Qingmu defeated Zhao Pengcheng’s mental attack inside Zhao Pengcheng’s dream and restrained him. Qingmu identified himself and pressed Zhao Pengcheng to explain how his kind communicated, but Zhao Pengcheng refused.

• Zhao Pengcheng concentrated his mental power into a blade-like strike and sent it toward Qingmu.
• Qingmu stopped the strike without any visible effect, leaving Zhao Pengcheng unable to sustain or control the dream.
• Qingmu kept Zhao Pengcheng from dissipating and asked who he was, and Zhao Pengcheng asked Qingmu the same question.
• Qingmu identified himself as Qingmu and explained that he could not simply scan all of Zhao Pengcheng’s memories.
• Qingmu questioned Zhao Pengcheng about how his kind contacted one another, and Zhao Pengcheng sneered and refused to answer.