Recaps

Ed and Hall awakened Great Labyrinth City's Machine Spirit, and Grand Foundry Master Balund and Nuowa tested its awareness and abilities. Great Labyrinth City remembered its creation beginning eighty years earlier and said it could grow stronger with a stable supply of Psionic Energy.

• Ed spread his plant tissue through Great Labyrinth City, then forced Hall to release a Psionic Energy blast.
• The blast awakened a soul within Great Labyrinth City, whose machines began moving and spoke for the first time.
• Balund asked the Machine Spirit whether it could hear him and identify itself and him.
• Great Labyrinth City identified itself and Balund, then said its earliest memory was the activation of the first ore-transporting machine eighty years earlier.
• Nuowa questioned Great Labyrinth City about its reasoning, judgment, duty to protect Graycast Corridor, and strength.
• Great Labyrinth City said it needed time and examples to handle complex problems, would protect Graycast Corridor, and had strength between High Tier Low Grade and mid grade.

Balund made the Great Labyrinth City the Graycast Corridor’s new Grand Foundry Master, using a sealed avatar of Hall as its Psionic Energy source. He gave the Machine Spirit three principles to follow, then asked Gray Gris to serve as Grand Foundry Master in public.

• Balund asked whether the Great Labyrinth City could accept his Psionic Energy inheritance, but Nuowa stopped him and brought Hall’s avatars to the group.
• Balund, Nuowa, and the Great Labyrinth City agreed to seal Hall’s avatar in a coffin made from the Mind Coffin and use him as a steady Psionic Energy source.
• The Great Labyrinth City sealed Hall’s struggling avatar inside the coffin and reported that it felt better with the new energy supply.
• Balund appointed the Great Labyrinth City Grand Foundry Master and instructed it to prioritize humanity, the Graycast Corridor, and its own survival in that order.
• Balund asked Gray Gris to serve as Grand Foundry Master in public.

Gray accepted the task of serving as Grand Foundry Master for at least ten years while the Graycast Corridor adjusted to the Machine Spirit, and Balund retired. Ed offered Balund hope that Aiboke might still be alive, then entered the vines enclosing the first-generation Mind Coffin to speak with him alone.

• Balund told Gray and Nora that Gray would need to remain Grand Foundry Master for at least ten years before revealing the truth about the Great Labyrinth City or stepping down.
• Gray and Nora promised to fulfill their mission, and Balund removed his robe and announced his retirement.
• Balund prepared to press a button on the first-generation Mind Coffin, but Ed questioned whether Aiboke was truly dead.
• Ed told Balund that Aiboke might survive if Ed opened the coffin, and Balund offered to serve Ed in any personal capacity if his brother could be saved.
• Ed wrapped the first-generation Mind Coffin in vines and entered them before they closed, asking to speak with Aiboke alone.

After Ed disappeared into the vines to begin reconstructing Aiboke’s human body, Balund released the Soul Returners from their silence and asked them to keep the day’s events secret for ten years. While they waited, the players discussed psionics with Balund and [Do Some Farm Work] suggested he join the Second Holy See; the chapter ended with Ed beginning his difficult work on Aiboke.

• Ed vanished from the underground space, leaving Balund to release the Soul Returners from their silence and ask them to conceal what happened for ten years.
• [Do Some Farm Work] suggested that Balund join the newly established Second Holy See, and Balund said he might consider it depending on Aiboke’s fate.
• [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] asked Balund for advice about controlling psionic energy after her brother requested the question.
• The two Short-Eared Elves took Marquis Kebola to Corridor Guard headquarters, where his capture promised a prisoner exchange and a bounty for them.
• Ed merged with the vines, confirmed that Aiboke understood his plan, and began analyzing the metal cube to reconstruct Aiboke’s human body.

Ed discovered that Aiboke’s soul had fragmented across the Mind Coffin’s psionic circuits and began reassembling it, explaining that Aiboke would return as a half-plant, half-machine person at Middle Tier. Aiboke agreed after learning his authority over machinery would likely pass mainly to Great Labyrinth City, and Ed’s procedure revealed what was inside the opened mass of vines.

• Ed realized Aiboke’s soul had attached to the Mind Coffin and shattered into three thousand pieces within its psionic circuits.
• Ed told Aiboke he would reshape his soul, leaving him a half-plant, half-machine person whose tier would fall to Middle Tier.
• Aiboke asked whether someone else could inherit his authority, and Ed explained that Great Labyrinth City would likely receive most of the authority over machinery.
• Aiboke accepted the procedure, and Ed reassured him that his success rate was one hundred percent.
• Balund remotely taught [Chocolate Ice Cream Scoop] a formula for releasing psionic energy as [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] relayed the lesson.
• Powerful psionic fluctuations spread, and the enormous ball of vines opened to reveal what was inside.

Ed restored Aiboke in a new body, allowing him and Balund to reunite after decades apart. Balund accepted the invitation to join the Second Holy See, and Ed appointed him and Aiboke as mentors.

• Ed brought Balund to meet Aiboke, whose new body he had built from Aiboke's memories, and explained that Aiboke's abilities had returned to just below high tier.
• Aiboke greeted Balund and described his memories of the decades spent in the Mind Coffin as dreamlike.
• The Soul Returners, elves, Ed, and Balund applauded as the brothers reunited.
• Balund agreed to join the Second Holy See, asking to return to Graycast Corridor if it came under attack.
• Ed appointed Balund as the Second Holy See's Psionic Energy Path Mentor and Aiboke as its Mechanical Path Mentor.

Ed finished preparing Balund and Aiboke to join the Second Holy See, giving them a modified Mind Coffin for their journey through the Wilderness of Chaos. After Ed left, Nuowa promised the Soul Returners he would visit within three months, giving them time to repay their loan.

• Ed explained that the modified Mind Coffin could serve as a mobile fortress and let Aiboke merge with it for a short time to gain high tier low grade power.
• Aiboke tested the machine by fitting his joints into it and transforming it into metal armor, then asked to use it to travel with Balund to the Second Holy See.
• Ed told the brothers that he would be in the Holy City after the end of July, year 909 of the Royal Calendar, and they agreed to make their own travel plans.
• Nuowa formally asked to visit Ed at the Second Holy See, and Ed welcomed him and Liya.
• [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] reminded Nuowa and Liya about the Soul Returners' loan, and Nuowa said he would visit within three months so they could repay him.
• Balund and Aiboke left the Great Library in disguise, while the Soul Returners took King of Fall Resistance, I Guess, to Martial Uncle Gray's repair shop to remove its Blood Corpse ammunition packs.

Gray Gris began his tenure as Grand Foundry Master by ordering a crackdown on underground gambling, while the failed candidate Suolaer Aoermo faced the shadowy figures who had backed him. The Short-Eared Elves left the Great Labyrinth City to investigate trouble at their old grave, and Suolaer accepted one last chance from his patrons.

• The Soul Returners arrived in the Great Labyrinth City, where some chose to vacation, work, or settle, while Ed let them decide their own paths.
• Gray Gris signed Order No. 00001, sending the Corridor Guard to raid underground casinos identified by the Short-Eared Elves, though the illicit money had disappeared.
• Balund and Aiboke said goodbye to Nuowa and Liya as the brothers began their first vacation in eighty years and the elves left to check on their island.
• Suolaer Aoermo explained that he had been watched during the Grand Foundry Master handover and admitted to the figure in the shadows that he had failed.
• The shadowy figure gave Suolaer a sealed test tube of potion and told him the lords would forgive his incompetence only once.

[Do Some Farm Work] exploited a tavern’s free-refill offer by repeatedly drinking its painful motor oil special after turning off pain perception. Meanwhile, Gray’s martial uncle’s shop filled with people congratulating him on Gray’s election, and former gift money returned to the elderly man.

• [Do Some Farm Work] found a tavern offering free refills to anyone who downed its strong motor oil special in one gulp.
• [Do Some Farm Work] endured the liquor’s painful effects, then had Light Blue turn off his pain perception so he could keep drinking.
• [Do Some Farm Work] posted the tavern’s location in the mission group chat, drawing Soul Returners toward the free drinks.
• Gray’s martial uncle’s shop filled with Gray and Nora’s friends and relatives, who congratulated the elderly man and returned the gift money he had recently repaid.
• [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] removed the King of Fall Resistance, I Guess’s Blood Corpse ammunition pack, while Xiaodeng recruited [Chocolate Ice Cream Scoop] to help with work.

While dismantling ammunition packs, [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] questioned why NPCs such as Ed, Seraphina, Willow, and Duma seemed to know things players had taught them. [Chocolate Ice Cream Scoop] explained that NPCs could learn from and imitate players, then suggested asking people with official access for more information.

• [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] told [Chocolate Ice Cream Scoop] that Ed had known about dumplings and their figurative meaning in the Great Labyrinth City.
• [Chocolate Ice Cream Scoop] said Seraphina had learned about finance from players and Willow had become interested in magic from 'Har*y Potter.'
• [Chocolate Ice Cream Scoop] recounted that Duma had started saying either 'I don't understand' or 'Want Want dumplings' when talking with [Zhongde].
• [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] concluded that the NPCs were more natural and distinct than ordinary AI, and [Chocolate Ice Cream Scoop] admitted he did not know why.
• [Chocolate Ice Cream Scoop] told [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] to ask [Dawn Ah], [Backstabbing Expert], and [Evergreen Tree], whom he said were actual official personnel.

Chocolate Ice Cream Scoop told Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop that the southern front was staffed by well-coordinated regular troops, then watched Corridor Guard soldiers tow the dismantled Golden Cup and another fortress through the city. Meanwhile, Gray and Nora explored the Great Labyrinth City library when its machine spirit called Gray over to discuss something.

• Chocolate Ice Cream Scoop explained that regular troops at Duma's had outclassed the players and noticed Dawn Ah and Backstabbing Expert had not logged in for two days.
• Chocolate Ice Cream Scoop and Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop saw more than a hundred Corridor Guard soldiers hauling the dismantled Golden Cup and another fortress through the streets.
• A Corridor Guard officer recognized Chocolate Ice Cream Scoop and wailed that he should pay them back for their Golden Cup.
• The Corridor Guard soldiers continued towing the fortresses toward the Great Library plaza, while Zhongde wondered if they were seeking redress at the palace.
• Gray and Nora explored the Great Labyrinth City library using Balund's instructions for the Grand Foundry Master.
• Great Labyrinth City's machine spirit called out to Gray and said it had something to discuss with him.

Gray and Nora consulted the Great Labyrinth City about four political matters, and learned that Suolaer Aoermo and Grand Artisan Ke'en Lisuo si were plotting against them. Gray proposed measured responses to the first three issues but was unsure how to handle the suspected moles, wondering whether Suolaer was working for the Skeleton Alliance.

• The Great Labyrinth City asked Gray and Nora for advice on investigating the obstruction they faced, dealing with the Golden Cup and the Gray Knight, appeasing Rein Hansen and Luke Osborne, and responding to Suolaer Aoermo and Ke'en Lisuo si.
• The Great Labyrinth City revealed that it had overheard Suolaer Aoermo and Ke'en Lisuo si plotting against Gray and Nora, apparently under orders from outside the Graycast Corridor, and noted a possible problem with Suolaer's body.
• Nora discovered that the Great Labyrinth City could hear conversations throughout its entire body, including those of the people living inside it.
• Gray recommended warning whoever had obstructed them without imposing substantive punishment, repairing the Golden Cup and the Gray Knight and activating their Machine Spirits, and offering Rein Hansen and Luke Osborne new titles and development-planning roles.
• Gray considered the status of Suolaer Aoermo and Ke'en Lisuo si and wondered whether Suolaer was a mole sent by the Skeleton Alliance.

Gray advised the Great Labyrinth City to keep Ke'en Lisuo si occupied and arrange a medical examination for Suolaer Aoermo, then learned why machine spirits welcomed work and thought. The city accepted his help, while its guards delivered Gray’s orders to the Golden Cup and Gray Knight and Gray visited a boy with prosthetic legs.

• Gray advised the Great Labyrinth City to delay confronting Ke'en Lisuo si, assign him duties alongside the other Grand Artisans, and arrange a medical examination for Suolaer Aoermo.
• The Great Labyrinth City explained that machine spirits valued thought and work because these made them feel alive, and Gray offered to help whenever needed.
• The Great Labyrinth City sent elite guards with orders to reorganize the Golden Cup and Gray Knight personnel, question them, and bring their commanders to the Great Library for screening.
• Gray arrived at the home of a boy with prosthetic legs, who recognized him as the Grand Foundry Master.

After the Graycast Corridor mission, players discovered that Nuowa had used psionic energy to keep them from revealing the Great Labyrinth City's secrets, while Ed prepared to publish Noya's update announcement. In Klaf City, [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] taught players how to groom and ride bees.

• Players learned that they lost the ability to discuss the Great Labyrinth City's secrets near NPCs and connected the restriction to Nuowa's request that they keep the matter secret.
• Videos showed Nuowa telling the players to leave the secret to him, leading them to conclude that he had imposed the speech restriction.
• Ed learned of the restriction, accepted that the players should keep an allied faction's secret, and planned to ask Nuowa to lift it when he visited the Second Holy See.
• Noya finished drafting an update announcement, and Ed told her to wait because he was expecting the Swarm Will-Kara.
• In Klaf City, [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] coached players on grooming bees, choosing Worker Bees or Soldier Bees, and increasing their intimacy.

[Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] considered his animal-system build while teaching other Soul Returners, until a vast swarm of bees flew a sliced-up hive overhead. He realized the bees were relocating their hive to land they had prepared nearby, and later the players received an announcement from Noya.

• [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] taught other Soul Returners and weighed whether animal-system injections would affect his relationship with the bees.
• A swarm of more than ten thousand Soldier Bees approached beneath a flying hive carried by Worker Bees and Soldier Bees.
• [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] realized the hive had been cut into slices and was being transported from the southern Sea of Flowers for reassembly.
• [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] connected the move to the land bees had leveled nearby and posted the news on the forum as players recorded the spectacle.
• Noya published an update announcement later that day.

An in-world update announcement confirmed the completion of two quests, expanded the Second Holy See's territory, and strengthened its alliance with the Graycast Corridor. New quests called on Soul Returners to prepare for confrontation with the Holy City and reclaim more of the Wilderness of Chaos.

• The announcement confirmed that Soul Returners completed [Great Adventurer] and [Important Target Escort] with SSS ratings and received their rewards.
• The announcement designated parts of Klaf City as safe zones and announced repeatable underground adventure dungeons and a teleportation destination at the city lord's residence.
• The Second Holy See recognized the Graycast Corridor as an important ally, while the update opened more of its territory to Soul Returner exploration.
• The Second Holy See gained territorial control over Klaf City, the southern Sea of Flowers, and the areas surrounding Stability Anchors.
• The announcement launched [The Only Holy Church], directing Soul Returners to arrest Stained Ones in friendly settlements marked by Xilǐ'er and report intelligence on other settlements to Duma.
• The announcement launched [Divide and Disintegrate], directing Soul Returners to expand safe territory with Stability Anchors and suppress natural disasters using Willow Seretima's secret technique.

Players celebrated the latest World of Disorder update, while Ed reassured Willow about testing her unfinished spellwork in the sparsely populated Wilderness of Chaos. He reassigned her away from teaching so she could focus on golem production and her mother’s Anti-Demonic Tide Spell Model.

• Players read the update announcement and joked about its length and new features.
• Players noticed that Kunjinkao Tangtangtang’s drawings appeared in Xilǐ'er’s city and town labels, then discussed finding him and adding a bard to his party.
• Willow asked Ed whether her partially completed project was ready to use, and Ed argued that any problems should be tested in the Wilderness of Chaos.
• Ed told Willow to hand psionic training supervision to Balund and Aiboke when they arrived, and to focus on alchemical golem production and the Anti-Demonic Tide Spell Model.
• Willow considered arguing when Ed criticized her teaching, but held back because his strength far exceeded hers.

A professor and his team investigated a strange cave in the Amazon, where their drone lost contact after detecting no radiation hazard. The chapter traced the incident to a growing wave of supernatural disturbances following a global aurora, and ended with loggers noticing crown shyness vanish in the rainforest.

• A local guide told the professor and his team that a divine miracle lay ahead, but refused to approach it himself.
• One team member sensed a faint, uncomfortable ringing as they entered the cave, while the others felt little or nothing.
• The team sent a drone ahead, but it crashed and lost its signal after passing around two bends.
• The professor recalled that a global aurora six months earlier had brought blood poison from another world and marked the start of increasingly frequent cross-world incidents.
• The team’s investigation had begun after loggers reported that tree branches in the rainforest had started growing outward and crown shyness had disappeared.

A botany professor and his team investigated an invasive fig species spreading through a tropical rainforest, which the professor recognized as the Aberration plant Strangler Fig from the World of Disorder. He entered a cave beneath the web’s center to inspect a crashed drone, where his radiation counter malfunctioned.

• Loggers found that the rainforest trees had grown ridged bark and interwoven crowns, then discovered that Strangler Figs had wrapped the large trees they wanted to cut.
• The logging operation reported the unknown fig as an invasive species, and tests confirmed it was not a known plant.
• A botany professor used aerial images to locate the web-shaped infestation’s center, where his team found fig branches plunging beneath a hill and a hidden cave.
• The professor recognized the plant sample as the Aberration plant Strangler Fig and took a Geiger counter into the cave while his team stayed in communication.
• The professor found the crashed drone and called out that he was fine, but its warning light flashed and the radiation counter’s screen filled with gray-black static.

The professor discovered that a vine-covered statue in the cave was the source of the rainforest anomaly and explained that destroying or sealing it would stop the spread. Because the local people revered the statue, the team prepared to replace it with a plaster replica, leaving the plan ready to carry out.

• The professor entered the cave’s inner chamber and found that the Strangler Fig vines emerged from the indigenous people’s statue, identifying it as the source of disorder.
• The professor explained that destroying the statue or sealing it from the outside world would make the invasive vines wither, but the team first had to persuade the local people.
• The interpreter agreed to find a way to handle the local people, while the professor reported the problem to his superiors after nearby scanning equipment failed.
• Eight hours later, the team prepared a plaster pillar to replace the statue, and the interpreter said they would explain its disappearance as a miracle that had ended.

A response team replaced a vine-covered idol with a plaster replica, severed its vines, and transported the contained idol to base. The team was sent onward to investigate a bizarre case involving a person whose body had partly become sarira, while the abandoned vines began rapidly withering.

• A team of sculptors made a plaster copy of the idol, and the response team prepared to contain the original.
• The team cut the vines from the idol, sealed it in a corrosion-resistant bag, and flew it back to base.
• [Backstabbing Expert] wondered whether anomalous objects from different settings could be used to contain one another, and the professor said such ideas required careful measurement first.
• The professor told [Dawn Ah] and [Backstabbing Expert] that the team would investigate another incident involving sarira, with half a person’s body transformed into it.
• After the idol was removed, the cave’s vines withered rapidly, and the decay spread outward.

Loggers found signs of unexplained damage in the rainforest, while a recruitment notice drew the attention of the capital’s poor. A wary man named Bruce heard that the Empire was offering auxiliaries food and full-weight copper coins.

• Loggers returned to the rainforest and found many dead trees, while faint cracks appeared along the forest’s edge.
• An imperial messenger posted an auxiliary recruitment notice in the Starlight Empire’s commoners’ district.
• A literate commoner explained that auxiliaries handled support work rather than fighting, prompting the crowd to ask about pay.
• The commoner read that accepted auxiliaries would receive uniforms, shoes, two meals, and twenty full-weight copper coins per day.
• Bruce privately judged the recruitment offer a cheap way to build a force, then looked down when his dog barked.

[Soaring Clouds 3773], a former game studio employee exploring the Starlight Empire with his Vine Dog Bruce, decided to enlist as an auxiliary soldier after spotting a recruitment notice. He planned to turn his military service into a popular video series, and prepared to report to the city gate that afternoon.

• [Soaring Clouds 3773] picked up Bruce and considered joining the imperial army after seeing an auxiliary soldier recruitment notice.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] recalled leaving Soaring Sky Studio to explore World of Disorder and build a video account with firsthand travel content.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] decided to make a series called "The Theocracy's Convict Soldier" about joining the army and rising through military ranks.
• A recruiter announced that prospective auxiliary soldiers should report to the nearest city gate that afternoon.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] returned to his tent, took Tasteless Fruits from Bruce's body, and covered the Vine Dog with a rag.

[Soaring Clouds 3773] prepared to join the Empire's auxiliary forces, while A Luo, the refugee boy who had become his follower, asked to go with him. The chapter ended with [Soaring Clouds 3773] warning that A Luo was too young and might die on the battlefield.

• [Soaring Clouds 3773] gave A Luo a Tasteless Fruit and recalled how the boy had warned him about refugee attacks.
• A Luo told [Soaring Clouds 3773] about the Lord Privy Seal's notice recruiting auxiliaries.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] said he planned to enlist, hoping the opportunity would help him make something of himself.
• A Luo insisted that he should go wherever his big bro went.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] questioned whether A Luo could pass the assessment and warned him about the dangers of battle.

[Soaring Clouds 3773] agreed to let A Luo join the auxiliary troops and waited while he retrieved his symbiotic beast. A Luo began a blood exchange with the armored, capybara-like animal before they headed to the assessment.

• A Luo insisted on joining the auxiliary troops alongside [Soaring Clouds 3773], who eventually told him to suit himself.
• A Luo ran off to retrieve his symbiotic beast and said he needed to perform a blood exchange.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] reflected on how the Empire's people used blood exchange with animals to resist corruption from the Demonic Tide.
• A Luo found his symbiotic beast eating algae in the river, hauled it ashore, and began exchanging blood with it.