Recaps

Wang Shui left Shino to work with Akihiko Kayaba on developing SAO’s history and systems, while Shino accepted his supplies but demanded updates to confirm he was alive. After ten days of intense work, Wang Shui took leave to visit her, concerned that her growing frustration might put her in danger.

• Wang Shui told Shino he was leaving the front lines to focus on other work, and suggested she team up with Mito.
• Wang Shui transferred materials and 200,000 Cor to Shino, then teleported away and left their party.
• Wang Shui met Akihiko Kayaba in a hidden development room and began studying social-science material to create SAO’s lore.
• Wang Shui wrote a history depicting industrial progress, weapons, and the destruction of elven civilizations, while planning how NPCs would discover the documents.
• Wang Shui and Akihiko Kayaba spent more than ten days preparing lore and game systems, and Wang Shui took leave to check on Shino.

Wang Shui and Akihiko Kayaba released the [The Extinguished Spark] expansion while Wang Shui continued developing SAO and studying under Kayaba. As his work brought him closer to completing his mission, Wang Shui decided he would not return to the dangerous world he came from and would instead stay to learn and grow stronger.

• Wang Shui's black powder recipe spread through artisan NPCs, who began making crude bombs, prompting Kayaba to release the [The Extinguished Spark] update early.
• The expansion introduced firearms and [Sword Skills Blade Bullet], a system that let players charge bullets with sword skill energy and use them to enhance their weapons.
• Wang Shui met Shino for a meal, explained that he had been pulled into hard labor after the black powder incident, and listened to her stories from the front lines.
• Kayaba assigned Wang Shui the expansion's item-entry work while deploying bard-type advanced intelligent NPCs to spread new developments across the floors.
• Wang Shui realized he could create [The World Seed] and complete his mission, but decided he would not return to his old life and would stay in this world to learn everything he could.

Wang Shui and Akihiko Kayaba finalized a major update introducing firearms and blade bullets, then agreed to enter the game as players to test it. Wang Shui reunited with Shino in Zumfut and gave her the newly crafted Famed Gun: Blackwater, which she equipped alongside her silver revolver.

• Akihiko Kayaba completed the final hotfix, and Wang Shui reviewed his changing Awakened attributes and celebrated gaining Comprehensive Computing (Basic).
• Wang Shui persuaded Kayaba to create a level 35 player character named Heathcliff with limited administrator protections, while Wang Shui planned to return with immortality and a better weapon.
• Wang Shui traveled to Zumfut, invited Shino to his party, and asked her to help him complete the elf quest, level up, and repay what she owed him.
• Shino showed Wang Shui her ninth-floor boss drop, Mithril Whisper, and explained how she had become the assault team's only firearms user when she acquired it.
• Wang Shui presented Shino with Famed Gun: Blackwater, and she equipped it with Mithril Whisper to try dual-wielding guns.

After more than a year in SAO, Wang Shui completed research on the Mind Lock with Akihiko Kayaba and advanced his martial arts training before finishing the main storyline and returning to the safe city. The Dream System awarded him points, a transcendence level, and a gold item, then sent his weakened body to a recuperation pod.

• Wang Shui resumed martial arts and firearms training, then studied Fluctlight and artificial intelligence with Akihiko Kayaba.
• Wang Shui and Akihiko Kayaba completed the Mind Lock Computing Cloud Cluster, and Wang Shui saved its data package.
• Wang Shui mastered Foundation of Martial Arts (Beginner), said farewell to Shino and Akihiko Kayaba, and prepared to leave SAO.
• Wang Shui transferred The World Seed data, received confirmation that the main storyline was complete, and chose to return despite his low overall rating.
• The Dream System awarded Wang Shui 5,000 Dream Points, one transcendence level, and Hand of the Hermit (Gold), then placed him in a recuperation pod.

Wang Shui returned from the Sword Art Online mission with new skills, increased attributes, and gold equipment, then reunited with Brother Hei at the repair shop. Brother Hei offered him a lucrative delivery job that required him to meet the terrifying fifth-tier awakener Silvia at Rusty Sword Fortress.

• Wang Shui woke after fifteen days, assessed his gains from the mission, and headed back to the repair shop with the gold-quality Hermit's Hand in his awakener space.
• Wang Shui found Brother Hei drunk in his room, and they discussed his mission, new skills, and the discovery that sufficient attributes were needed to learn skills.
• Brother Hei offered to pay Wang Shui to deliver goods to Rusty Sword Fortress and personally hand them to Silvia.
• Wang Shui panicked when he learned Silvia was a fifth-tier leader of the Penumbra of Destruction, but Brother Hei insisted the delivery route was safe and offered a hundred thousand for the first trip.

Brother Hei assigned Wang Shui to transport valuable equipment to Rusty Sword Fortress, where Silvia’s hunting group was facing a supply blockade. Wang Shui prepared for the dangerous trip by buying armor and alchemy books, then sought an offensive weapon from Dong, who taught him to activate Mystic Cards and paid him for a large blood donation.

• Brother Hei explained that Silvia had been cleared after killing teammates who were colluding with the enemy, but other districts had blocked her hunting group’s supplies, and he ordered Wang Shui to deliver equipment to Rusty Sword Fortress.
• Wang Shui learned he had one week to prepare before transporting a repair bench and industrial printer, and Brother Hei promised advance payment and access to supplies.
• Wang Shui arranged to buy a tier-two Bharal mobile armor and a collection of introductory alchemy books and private notes.
• Wang Shui contacted Dong for a powerful attack option usable by a tier-zero awakener, and Dong taught him how to perceive and activate a Mystic Card despite his phobia.
• Dong gave Wang Shui the green Spell Card Deadly Flying Blades, then drew fifteen hundred milliliters of his blood with divine magic, leaving Wang Shui unconscious.

After recovering from selling blood, Wang Shui received his powered armor and alchemy books, studied modern alchemy, and carried out his first experiment. Puzzled by how his results differed from the books, he visited Old Moran, who asked whether he wanted to return the alchemy notebook.

• Wang Shui collected his powered armor and books, then used an old manual exoskeleton to carry them inside.
• Wang Shui read Old Moran's recommended books and learned the history, principles, and modern foundations of alchemy.
• Wang Shui drew a makeshift alchemical array and used his mental power to compress an alloy nut into a metal ball.
• Wang Shui recorded and compared his experiment with the books, then went to Moran Bookstore to meet Old Moran.
• Old Moran asked Wang Shui whether he had come to return the alchemy notebook.

Wang Shui visited Old Moran to ask about alchemy, and learned that a flawed array and his use of mental power had caused his first experiment to alter the metal. Old Moran explained the dangers and varieties of Knowers, identified Wang Shui as an Arrogant Knower, and lent him a rare book about them, which Wang Shui began reading.

• Wang Shui showed Old Moran his alchemy materials and asked why reshaping metal had changed its properties.
• Old Moran explained that mental power guided alchemy through observation and that Wang Shui’s array needed both ascending and descending triangles.
• Wang Shui successfully reshaped a metal ball into a rod with a complete array, and Old Moran realized he was a Knower.
• Old Moran described several Knower personalities, including the dangerous Hunger and Extreme Lust types, and explained the Dream System’s role in capturing Awakeners.
• Wang Shui asked whether Knower personalities came from the seven sins, and Old Moran lent him a rare book documenting Knowers.

Wang Shui tested the capabilities of his new Daylight · Bharal mobile armor and practiced piloting it in the alley. After ending his morning session, he returned to his workshop to begin physical labor and noticed a familiar iron box among the scrap.

• Wang Shui dressed in his hunting outfit and activated the Daylight · Bharal mobile armor outside his shop.
• Wang Shui connected a tier-three energy coin, checked the armor, and activated its energy shield, combat control, and super-mobility modules.
• Wang Shui dashed through the hundred-meter alley and confirmed the armor and its modules were operating normally.
• Wang Shui practiced maneuvers with video tutorials until his energy-threshold alert ended the session.
• Wang Shui ate nutritional food, put on his mechanical exoskeleton, and began preheating the workshop furnace.
• Wang Shui searched the scrap pile with mechanical tentacles and spotted a familiar iron box.

Wang Shui discovered the Silver Dragon Alloy hidden in Kazan’s lunchbox and studied metal alchemy so he could reshape it. After successfully analyzing the alloy, he transformed it into thirty identical throwing knives, but realized the blades might be too long.

• Wang Shui found the Silver Dragon Alloy engine fragment inside Kazan’s lunchbox and decided to borrow it to make self-defense tools.
• Wang Shui studied introductory alchemy books, consulted Old Moran, and prepared a targeted Reflection Array to analyze the alloy.
• Wang Shui used the Hermit's Hand to inspect the alloy, recorded its structure, and copied the array onto 108 cards.
• Wang Shui activated the array and used its reflected alchemical structure to reshape the alloy into thirty short swords.
• Wang Shui recovered enough to inspect one blade and worried that it was too long.

Wang Shui studied his magic, learned that the Sword Art Online world had disappeared, and prepared himself with new equipment for a supply run. At the eastern gate, he discovered that the mission was not a solo delivery: the Penumbra of Destruction hunting group would escort him to Rusty Sword Fortress.

• Wang Shui practiced controlling the Deadly Flying Blades spell and recreated a Blade Bullet System for his greatsword.
• Wang Shui learned that the Sword Art Online world had vanished after its branch storyline was merged into the fantasy world, leaving him troubled over Shino and Akihiko Kayaba.
• Wang Shui visited an alchemy workshop, where a high-level inscriber gave him the Annihilation Cycle array to strengthen his body and improve its internal functions.
• Wang Shui organized his equipment and prepared for the delivery, suspecting that Brother Hei had arranged for him to transport genuine goods.
• Wang Shui arrived at Iron Edge City's eastern gate and accepted the Simple Supply Transport mission to deliver goods to Silvia, Penumbra of the Moon.
• A tall, thin man told Wang Shui that the hunting group would escort him, though they would not enter Rusty Sword Fortress, and ordered him to drive.

Wang Shui traveled from Iron Edge City toward Rusty Sword Fortress with Brother Tu’s hunting group and his bodyguard, White Cat. When Mutants attacked during the night, the group fought them off and continued along the route, leaving Wang Shui to rest after witnessing his protectors’ abilities.

• Wang Shui confirmed the escort arrangements with Brother Hei, met White Cat, and accepted Brother Tu’s safer, longer route out of Iron Edge City.
• Wang Shui chatted with Brother Tu and the hunting group during the journey, learning that the roads beyond the cities’ limited control could be dangerous.
• After dark, White Cat warned the group of nearby Mutants, and Brother Tu ordered everyone to fight while Wang Shui stayed in the truck.
• White Cat cut down a Mutant, and Brother Tu returned in wolf form after the group defeated the first attackers and retrieved a mutated organ.
• Brother Tu struck the charging Mutants with a huge fist of vegetation as the convoy drove through them, then summoned plant guards so everyone could rest.

Wang Shui delivered supplies to Rusty Sword Fortress, where Lord Mengde attacked him and imprisoned him with Silvia, the captured queen of the Penumbra of the Moon. Wang Shui uncovered the hidden powered armor inside his mission card, but Silvia still faced a tier-five enemy outside and asked him to witness her final dance.

• Wang Shui talked with Brother Tu about his fear of battle and his lack of a class, then rested under the protection of plant sentries.
• White Cat killed a band of highway robbers as the convoy continued to Rusty Sword Fortress, where Wang Shui separated from Brother Tu and delivered the cargo.
• Lord Mengde lured Wang Shui into the castle and hurled him into a prison that prevented contact with the system and drained prisoners’ stamina.
• Wang Shui met Silvia, who explained that the hunting group had imprisoned her while waiting for supplies before fleeing the fortress ahead of a siege.
• Wang Shui realized the mission card contained a hidden item and swallowed it, revealing a backup suit of tier-five powered armor.
• Silvia dismissed the armor as insufficient to defeat the tier-five enemy and asked Wang Shui to witness her final dance.

Wang Shui escaped his hiding place and fought his way out of Rusty Sword Fortress as Silvia battled the invading forces. After Silvia unleashed her power to defeat the enemy’s strongest fighters, Wang Shui saw her fall from the sky.

• Wang Shui equipped his powered armor and left the underground shelter when the enemy attacked Rusty Sword Fortress.
• Silvia joined the battle in silver-gray armor and fought the black-armored enemy while Wang Shui helped kill an attacker and then continued toward the fortress’s outskirts.
• Wang Shui struggled through the shantytown as the battle intensified, and a black medium armor drove Silvia back with its cannon.
• Silvia revealed her face beneath the moonlight, destroyed the medium armor, killed its pilot, and struck down many enemies with pillars of moonlight.
• The surviving enemies fled, Silvia pursued them, and Wang Shui saw her falling from the sky.

After escaping the battlefield, Wang Shui found White Cat seemingly dead and revived her by removing the blade that had killed her. He then met the dying Silvia and copied her soul data into his biological brain before she vanished, leaving her fate uncertain.

• Wang Shui searched the battlefield for a vehicle and found Brother Tu and White Cat dead, then collected their belongings.
• Wang Shui removed the blade from White Cat's chest, causing her energy kittens to return to her and revive her; he carried her away in the armored vehicle.
• Wang Shui hid in the woods with the sleeping White Cat, then returned to where Silvia had fallen and learned that her deputy commander had betrayed her.
• Wang Shui offered Silvia a chance to preserve herself through his soul-conversion mechanism, and she put on the NerveGear.
• Wang Shui copied Silvia's soul data into his biological brain as her body disappeared, then left the battlefield.

Wang Shui revived Silvia as a digital life-form in a probe, but her repeated awakenings revealed the limits and costs of the technology. As they approached Iron Edge City, Wang Shui decided to end his digital contract with Brother Hei rather than return to their former arrangement.

• Silvia awakened as a probe and learned she was the thirty-sixth copy, with memories backed up from her original body's death.
• Wang Shui admitted that he had lied about the soul transcription and explained that the Mind Lock gave him complete control over Silvia.
• Silvia read the records of her previous breakdowns and shut down the probe to be alone.
• Wang Shui reflected on how risking his life had changed his relationship with Brother Hei and considered refusing to return to work for him.
• As Iron Edge City appeared on the map, Wang Shui sent a request to terminate his digital contract.

After leaving White Cat with the armored vehicle in exchange for 200 silver coins, Wang Shui searched for a fantasy world where he could train. Old Moran gave him a pocket watch that unlocked an unknown fantasy world in return for attending an alchemy gathering on his behalf.

• Wang Shui agreed to let White Cat keep the armored vehicle and asked for 200 silver coins to be repaid later.
• Wang Shui sold battlefield resources at the mission square and received over thirty thousand Dream Points.
• Wang Shui visited Moran Bookstore and told Old Moran he felt lost after leaving Brother Hei's employment.
• Old Moran said he was leaving the city and gave Wang Shui a silver pocket watch that opened an unknown fantasy world.
• Old Moran asked Wang Shui to attend a grand gathering in the alchemy community in someone else's place, and Wang Shui considered the offer.

Wang Shui entered the world of Amestris, learned that his main quest was to obtain 32.76 kilograms of the Sage’s Stone, and traveled to Resembool to seek work and land. After renting a map of the outskirts, he set out to inspect available plots.

• Wang Shui received the Philosopher’s Stone quest and questioned Silvia about why the Dream System needed explorers to investigate fantasy worlds.
• Wang Shui explained to Silvia that he knew the fictional world’s background but disliked its author’s prejudices, while still intending to gain power there.
• Wang Shui entered Resembool, introduced himself at a tavern as Sil Via, and asked about local work, housing, and land prices.
• Wang Shui went to the town’s administrative center, rented a map showing plots for sale, and headed out to inspect them.

Wang Shui discussed his habits and need for self-discipline with Silvia, then gave her a way to control his body so she could train him. The chapter ended with Silvia testing his body and judging it extremely weak.

• Wang Shui returned to the hotel after spending the evening chatting with people at a tavern, then began writing and sketching in a notebook.
• Silvia criticized Wang Shui for wasting time and urged him to improve, while Wang Shui admitted that interacting with people helped preserve his sense of self.
• Wang Shui agreed that he needed someone to push him, and Silvia proposed taking control of his body to exercise him when he felt lazy.
• Wang Shui used [Mind Lock] and an alchemical array to connect Silvia to his mind, then patched a missing interface so she could control his body.
• Silvia took control of Wang Shui's body, tested its movement, and told him it was extremely weak compared with the body she had once used.

Wang Shui used alchemy to build a powered exoskeleton and an armored vehicle at his home near Resembool, explaining how both drew on energy from the earth's crust. Silvia inspected the vehicle and asked if she could drive it.

• Wang Shui settled into life in Resembool, working as a freelance engineer while studying and training with Silvia.
• Wang Shui transmuted a mechanical exoskeleton and explained how he adapted it to use the world's alchemical energy.
• Wang Shui spent two hours modifying a transmutation circle and materials to create a Desert Cat Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicle.
• Silvia examined the vehicle's rough interior and limited power system, then asked Wang Shui if she could drive.

Wang Shui showed Hohenheim his experiments using accelerated plant growth and air-derived starch to address hunger, then asked to learn Alkahestry and improve his Alchemy. Hohenheim questioned whether Wang Shui’s goal of ending hunger could ever be achieved.

• Wang Shui visited Hohenheim and demonstrated how he accelerated wheat growth, explaining that the process damaged the soil.
• Wang Shui reused the plant matter and water to grow another wheat crop, then said accelerated growth was his first plan to solve food shortages.
• Wang Shui unrolled a scroll of interconnected Transmutation Circles and used it to turn carbon dioxide from the air into starch, exhausting himself in the process.
• Wang Shui asked Hohenheim to teach him Alkahestry and offer guidance on Alchemy so he could develop a more powerful and stable way to grow crops.
• Hohenheim said that ending hunger was almost impossible because food supplies and population would keep chasing each other and war would continue.

Wang Shui reviewed the limits of his underground wheat factory and pushed it into emergency production to raise capital for expansion. He and Silvia discussed using the grain sale to fund a logistics company and secure loans, while Silvia’s network let her return to Wang Shui from a warehouse ten kilometers away.

• Wang Shui inspected the grain factory and confirmed it could normally produce about 300 tonnes of wheat annually, far short of the country’s needs and his business ambitions.
• Wang Shui switched the factory to maximum production, compressing growth to four hours to produce 270 tonnes of wheat before the equipment and dragon veins needed to rest.
• Wang Shui used a crystal coin to enable remote Alkahestry, and Silvia returned her consciousness from her mechanical body at Resembool No. 1 Warehouse Station.
• Wang Shui explained that he would sell roughly 400 tonnes of wheat for about 220,000, then use the money to buy a small logistics company and obtain a bank loan for expanding production.
• Silvia asked about Wang Shui’s financial plans, and he said finance depended on hard power and could become difficult to escape.

Wang Shui sold wheat to Hawkbali and continued developing his industrial operation around a remote base in the Crater region. He launched new construction and network projects, then ended the day facing another combat-training session with Silvia.

• Wang Shui negotiated a wheat sale with Hawkbali, settling on 570 per unit and promising to supply more than ten times as much after the next harvest.
• Wang Shui explained to Silvia that his Crater base was positioned for concealment, energy, and transport access while remaining outside the Nationwide Transmutation Circle.
• Wang Shui ordered 200 construct robots to begin an underground railway project and directed future grain shipments to an aboveground warehouse for distribution through South City.
• Wang Shui activated the Crater intelligent computer, scheduled a stratospheric loitering drone, and used remote alchemy to create a high-power mobile base station for the drone.
• Silvia insisted Wang Shui continue combat training, and he failed to talk his way out of their evening fight.

Wang Shui trained with Silvia and spent two years living and working alongside her, while his group expanded its business and planted a listening array in a rival company. The chapter left Wang Shui reviewing the group’s collection and production figures as its reach continued to grow.

• Silvia demonstrated the complete Moon Goddess Slash through Wang Shui’s body, then taught him the abilities of her former Moon’s Penumbra class.
• Over the second year, Silvia reflected on her past and came to appreciate her ordinary life and friendship with Wang Shui.
• Wang Shui and Silvia sent a tiny biomimetic spider into a company, where it installed an alchemy array before Wang Shui remotely destroyed it.
• Wang Shui reviewed the group’s agricultural collections and production figures with Dashan.

Wang Shui continued developing his alchemy research and business while Hohenheim prepared to leave his family to investigate human life and death. After helping Hohenheim depart, Wang Shui turned his attention to the military and traveled east toward Ishval.

• Wang Shui and Hohenheim discussed the food factory project, and Hohenheim praised Wang Shui's plan to share its mature technology with the world.
• Five years later, Hohenheim left Trisha and their young sons, and Wang Shui gave him an alchemy-powered car and promised to help look after his family.
• Wang Shui reassured Trisha that she could rely on his businesses and let the boys study in Hohenheim's cleared-out study.
• Wang Shui explained to Silvia that events were beginning and decided it was time to get involved.
• Wang Shui, now a State Alchemist known as the Mirror Alchemy Master, traveled east toward Ishval after cultivating the Dwarf in the Flask's interest in his research into human transmutation.