Chapter Summaries

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.

[Soaring Clouds 3773] took A Luo to an auxiliary soldier recruitment station after Blood Exchange left the boy dazed and eager to sleep. Once A Luo woke in line, they reached the strength assessment, where recruits had to hold a stone lock until an hourglass ran out.

• A Luo completed Blood Exchange with his Armor-Plated Capybara and immediately became sleepy and listless.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] carried the sleeping A Luo and their symbiotic beasts toward the city gate, reasoning that A Luo needed the capybara’s strength to pass the selection.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] waited in a long recruitment line with A Luo over his shoulder until the boy woke and prepared for the assessment.
• A recruitment officer told [Soaring Clouds 3773], A Luo, and eight other recruits to lift or hold one of two stone locks until the hourglass ran out.

[Soaring Clouds 3773] and A Luo took a five-minute strength test to qualify as auxiliaries. [Soaring Clouds 3773] secretly used Bruce the Vine Dog to help A Luo endure, but the recruiting officer rejected two men who had switched to lighter weights.

• The recruiting officer ordered the ten recruits to hold either a large stone weight for full pay or a small one for half pay.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] lifted the large weight, while A Luo chose the smaller one; two recruits dropped their weights and left.
• Seeing A Luo near exhaustion, [Soaring Clouds 3773] secretly sent Bruce the Vine Dog to ease his pain and lend him strength.
• The remaining eight recruits held their weights until the hourglass ran out after five minutes.
• The recruiting officer dismissed the two men who had switched from large weights to small ones, saying they had failed to judge their own abilities.

[Soaring Clouds 3773] passed the auxiliary soldier recruitment test and was appointed squad leader, then took a whip blow while protecting A Luo from a mounted rider. As the rider questioned his loyalty, [Soaring Clouds 3773] noticed a translucent text box above another rider reading [Practice More If You're Bad].

• The recruiting officer exposed one recruit’s hesitation and sent him away, then passed the five remaining candidates and appointed [Soaring Clouds 3773] their squad leader.
• The five headed toward the tents to collect their uniforms and shoes, but a mounted party whipped a lone recruit who had passed another test.
• A Luo stumbled into the riders’ path when his armor-attaching capybara tripped him, and [Soaring Clouds 3773] rushed in to shield him.
• The lead rider struck [Soaring Clouds 3773] with a whip, and he claimed he protected A Luo because the boy served under him.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] noticed the last rider’s text box, which read [Practice More If You're Bad].

[Soaring Clouds 3773] entered the imperial capital as an auxiliary after meeting [Practice More If You're Bad], and gathered several fellow recruits who began calling him big brother. That night, he realized how harsh auxiliary life was and later compared notes with [Practice More If You're Bad] about their awful rations.

• [Soaring Clouds 3773] encountered [Practice More If You're Bad] among a mounted party, and [Practice More If You're Bad] sent him a friend request before riding into the city.
• A Luo and three other auxiliaries hailed [Soaring Clouds 3773] as big brother after he had taken a lash meant for them.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] welcomed the wounded Enoch into their group, bringing his entourage to five.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] and the other recruits entered the imperial capital, received meager food and basic gear, registered as auxiliaries, and were assigned to a crowded tent.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] messaged [Practice More If You're Bad] after accepting his friend request, complaining about stones in the porridge, and [Practice More If You're Bad] said that was not so bad.

[Soaring Clouds 3773] met [Practice More If You're Bad] outside their camp tents, and the two players caught up on recent events and discussed how [Practice More If You're Bad] had become an Imperial officer. [Practice More If You're Bad] explained that an unfinished Fir City side quest had led him to uncover evidence that the Stained Ones’ experimental base bodies came from the Empire.

• [Practice More If You're Bad] described the contaminated porridge served to Imperial troops, while [Soaring Clouds 3773] said his Vine Dog could grow Tasteless Fruits.
• [Practice More If You're Bad] and [Soaring Clouds 3773] sneaked out of their tents and met in the shadows to talk.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] updated [Practice More If You're Bad] on recent events, including Ed’s planned pilgrimage to the Holy City.
• [Practice More If You're Bad] revealed that the Fir City side quest had continued for months after the main quest ended.
• [Practice More If You're Bad] said the Stained Ones’ experimental base bodies came from the Empire, since the Skeleton Alliance’s inhabitants were all skeletons.