Chapter Summaries

[Practice More If You're Bad] told [Soaring Clouds 3773] how he infiltrated the Empire and joined a noble’s troops. He explained the Empire’s layered military system, leaving [Soaring Clouds 3773] guessing what rank he might eventually reach.

• [Practice More If You're Bad] showed [Soaring Clouds 3773] photos of clothed skeletons carrying a corpse in a crate, which [Soaring Clouds 3773] likened to a sedan chair.
• [Practice More If You're Bad] said [Clear Soup Master] and [Dark Archmage] were scouting near the border while the others headed toward the Empire.
• [Practice More If You're Bad] explained that he filed down his dragon horns and posed as a fire-lizard symbiont to conceal his half-dragon identity.
• [Practice More If You're Bad] recounted how a noble’s recruiting officer brought him into the unit commanded by the noble’s son, now a viscount.
• [Practice More If You're Bad] described how court nobles and their subordinates helped manage the Empire’s soldiers, and [Soaring Clouds 3773] guessed he might become a centurion.

[Practice More If You're Bad] recruited [Soaring Clouds 3773] and his auxiliaries into his growing support unit as the two learned the empire was preparing for an all-out war against the Skeleton Alliance. They named their group the One Heart Society, supposedly to serve the empire loyally.

• [Practice More If You're Bad] explained that he had gained a hundred-man establishment by volunteering to lead auxiliaries and had recruited nearly forty people so far.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] offered his six auxiliaries, and [Practice More If You're Bad] promoted him to fifty-man commander and arranged for his group to move into a nearby tent.
• [Practice More If You're Bad] told [Soaring Clouds 3773] that the empire would fight the Skeleton Alliance in an all-out war, with Luokenuosuos i leading the troops while the emperor was seriously ill.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] considered changing his protagonist plans after recognizing [Practice More If You're Bad]'s experience and competence.
• [Practice More If You're Bad] proposed naming their group the One Heart Society, claiming it would serve the empire loyally, and [Soaring Clouds 3773] found the name suspiciously subtle.

[Soaring Clouds 3773] moved his five subordinates into a better tent after claiming a connection to the auxiliary centurion, prompting the other auxiliaries to spread a salacious rumor about him. He and [Practice More If You're Bad] then discovered the Vine Dog could grow a single-use Temporary Resurrection Tree, opening a way to bring more Soul Returners into the One Heart Society.

• [Soaring Clouds 3773] slept through the noisy morning while his five subordinates gathered around him, then woke near noon and told them to pack for a new tent.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] explained that the auxiliary centurion was from his hometown and had offered them a place nearby, so the five followed him out of their tent.
• Six auxiliaries arrived to take their vacated spot and told the remaining soldiers that the centurion had moved [Soaring Clouds 3773] and his subordinates closer to him.
• The remaining auxiliaries speculated that [Soaring Clouds 3773] had earned the centurion's favor by selling his ass, and the rumor spread through their discussion.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] and [Practice More If You're Bad] discovered that the Vine Dog could switch from growing Tasteless Fruits to producing a single-use Temporary Resurrection Tree every two days.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] and [Practice More If You're Bad] realized the Resurrection Tree could help them return after dying and allow them to bring other Soul Returners into the One Heart Society.

[Clear Soup Master] and [Dark Archmage] crossed the dangerous desert along the Skeleton Alliance border and were captured by skeleton knights after a signal arrow summoned reinforcements. They surrendered and [Clear Soup Master] claimed they were envoys from the Second Holy See, but the knights seemed not to understand him.

• [Practice More If You're Bad] recruited several promising commoners for his father's elite troops near the imperial capital.
• [Clear Soup Master] and [Dark Archmage] struggled through the desert and spotted a skeleton knight following them.
• The skeleton knight fired a signal arrow, and more than twenty skeleton knights gathered around the pair.
• [Clear Soup Master] chose to surrender, and [Dark Archmage] followed after they discussed their investigation.
• [Clear Soup Master] claimed they were envoys from the Second Holy See, while the skeleton knights exchanged puzzled looks.

[Clear Soup Master] and [Dark Archmage] tried to convince a skeleton cavalry unit that they were harmless adventurers worth ransoming. When the skeleton knight did not recognize the Second Holy See, [Clear Soup Master] seized the chance to give it an elaborate introduction.

• [Clear Soup Master] and [Dark Archmage] tried to communicate with the skeletons, but initially could not understand their Psionic Energy speech.
• The game system detected Imperial Common, allowing a tall, finely armored skeleton knight to ask who they were and where the Second Holy See was.
• [Clear Soup Master] claimed they were adventurers from the Second Holy See and suggested the skeletons could ransom them.
• [Clear Soup Master] privately coordinated with [Dark Archmage] to make them seem valuable without appearing too loyal.
• When the skeleton knight admitted it did not know the Second Holy See, [Clear Soup Master] launched into a grand introduction of the church.

[Clear Soup Master] and [Dark Archmage] tried to pass themselves off as adventurers, but a skeleton knight identified them as spies and found a detailed map among their belongings. The knight detained them as suspected spies, though it remained unclear whom they served or what their mission was.

• [Clear Soup Master] described the Second Holy See as a rival religious power, prompting the skeleton knight to suspect the pair were spies reconnoitering the Theocracy’s border.
• [Clear Soup Master] denied being a spy, but the skeleton knight ordered his belongings searched.
• Skeleton soldiers found a detailed, aged map showing parts of the Theocracy and the borders with the Empire and Skeleton Alliance.
• The skeleton knight concluded the pair were spies, though their affiliation and objective were unknown, and decided to hold them until the Sand Capital gave instructions.
• The skeletons restrained [Clear Soup Master] and [Dark Archmage] while leaving a saber at each of their necks.

[A Huan] visited [Ginseng Rooster], who had finished writing a script, while [Clear Soup Master] and [Dark Archmage] were held and interrogated by the Skeleton Alliance. The two prisoners planned to coordinate their answers, but [Clear Soup Master] quickly lost patience and urged them to confess.

• [A Huan] brought lunch to [Ginseng Rooster] at his cabin and asked to see the story he had just completed.
• [Ginseng Rooster] handed [A Huan] the script, which he described as testimony and backstory written by an expert.
• [Clear Soup Master] told [Dark Archmage] that they would follow the prepared account after sending him a screenshot.
• [Clear Soup Master] and [Dark Archmage] chatted through the player system while the Skeleton Alliance interrogated them in separate cells.
• [Clear Soup Master] proposed waiting until the Skeleton Alliance tried a honey trap, then realized the interrogators were skeletons.
• [Clear Soup Master] abruptly urged [Dark Archmage] to confess and complained that the Skeleton Alliance was uninteresting.

[Clear Soup Master] and [Dark Archmage] staged confessions under interrogation, giving the skeletal guards reports that convinced the Essence Knight they were credible. The reports revealed that the spies belonged to a previously unknown species called Soul Returners, leaving the Essence Knight wondering what they were.

• [Clear Soup Master] endured the punisher's whipping, then pretended to break and confessed according to the prepared script.
• [Dark Archmage] also pretended to surrender, but asked to write her confession herself because she had not memorized the script.
• Forty-eight hours later, the skeletons presented the two confessions to the Essence Knight and claimed the spies had no chance to coordinate their stories.
• The Essence Knight compared the reports, judged them credible, and learned that the spies came from the Second Holy See and belonged to a species called Soul Returners.

The Essence Knight read the confessions and learned that the Soul Returners were resurrected soldiers led by Adrian, whose loyalty to Ed and the Second Holy See depended on payment. It realized that the Second Holy See’s impending victory could leave Ed trapped between supporting a costly army and risking the Soul Returners joining his enemies.

• The Essence Knight learned that Soul Returners retained their memories and abilities after resurrection, but Adrian alone could decide whether they qualified to be resurrected again.
• The confessions described the [Adrian Imperial Guard] as Adrian’s elite force, stationed in Valhalla and selected from more than ten thousand Soul Returners.
• The Essence Knight considered how the existence of Adrian and so many Soul Returners could transform the war and wondered why the Skeleton Alliance knew nothing about them.
• The Essence Knight learned that Soul Returners accepted missions for payment, could strike if terms changed, and had grown distrustful as the Second Holy See neared victory.
• The Essence Knight saw that Ed might struggle to keep paying the Soul Returners after the war, but dismissing them could drive them to join the Theocracy’s remnants.

An Essence Knight decided the Skeleton Alliance needed to secure the Soul Returners before the Starlight Empire could recruit them, and sent a report to the alliance's lords. After receiving urgent news of massive supply convoys entering the empire's border fortresses, it questioned the two captured Soul Returners again.

• The Essence Knight concluded the Skeleton Alliance should recruit the Soul Returners and considered sending them elsewhere after the empire was destroyed.
• It read the spies' confessions, learned they had independently sought a fallback employer, and sent a report to the alliance's lords by bone carrier pigeon.
• A skeleton scout reported that enormous supply convoys had been entering the empire's border fortresses for three days, and the Essence Knight ordered the Sand Capital alerted and patrols reinforced.
• Dark Archmage and Clear Soup Master discussed whether their fabricated story had fooled their captors, then were taken from their cells and hung in a larger one.
• The Essence Knight confronted the Soul Returners, and Dark Archmage identified it as the same knight who had arrested them.

The essence knight decided to hire Soul Returners to strengthen its sand fortress’s defenses and made [Clear Soup Master] demonstrate his combat ability. The punisher’s barbed whip closed in on [Clear Soup Master]’s throat, but he kept charging instead of retreating.

• [Clear Soup Master] argued that the surrendered Soul Returners should be released and either killed or given paid work.
• The essence knight planned to hire some Soul Returners to bolster its two hundred skeleton soldiers against the Empire’s approaching forces.
• The essence knight assigned [Clear Soup Master] a sparring test, and a punisher untied him in the dungeon arena.
• [Clear Soup Master] transformed his forearms into thick, bark-covered fists and charged the punisher.
• The punisher accelerated its crystal-barbed whip toward [Clear Soup Master]’s throat, but he did not retreat or change course.

The Essence Knight intervened in the fight between [Clear Soup Master] and the skeleton Punisher, then declared the Punisher the loser and ordered him to train. Impressed by [Clear Soup Master], the Essence Knight said he would hire one hundred warriors like him.

• The Punisher and [Clear Soup Master] exchanged four lethal attacks, but the Essence Knight stopped every blow by throwing two knight's swords between them.
• The Essence Knight inspected the swords and told the Punisher that he had lost, since [Clear Soup Master] would have survived while the Punisher would have died.
• The Essence Knight ordered the chastened Punisher to leave the dungeon and improve his combat skills.
• The Essence Knight praised [Clear Soup Master] and asked how many Soul Returners of comparable strength served under Adrian.
• [Clear Soup Master] claimed there were roughly five thousand warriors like him, or ten thousand by looser standards, and the Essence Knight said he would hire one hundred.

[Clear Soup Master] was killed by the Essence Knight so he could carry a message to Adrian, while [Dark Archmage] stayed behind as the Knight’s guest. After resurrecting in Valhalla, [Clear Soup Master] learned that Son of God Ed had approved his meeting request at the Shattered Castle.

• The Essence Knight beheaded [Clear Soup Master] and named him its messenger to Adrian.
• [Dark Archmage] realized the Knight was testing their connection to Adrian, then urged [Clear Soup Master] to recruit a hundred Soul Returners through Ed.
• The Essence Knight warned [Dark Archmage] that she would die if she left the sandcastle, so she stayed and began recording the terrain.
• The Knight’s people carried [Clear Soup Master]’s remains toward the Sand Capital for his resurrection journey.
• [Clear Soup Master] resurrected in Valhalla and received directions to meet Son of God Ed at the Shattered Castle.

[Clear Soup Master] reported his investigation into the base bodies to Ed, who authorized him to continue the work and organize mercenaries. Ed left recruitment and expenses in [Clear Soup Master]'s hands, while he planned to resume investigating the Empire afterward.

• [Clear Soup Master] met Ed at the Shattered Castle and reported that the Skeleton Alliance had almost no wildlife or plants, leading Ed to suspect the Empire was involved in the base-body trade.
• Ed offered to pause the investigation and settle [Clear Soup Master]'s payment, but [Clear Soup Master] chose to continue searching for the children being used as base bodies.
• Ed promised Gungnir support within the Second Holy See's territory and offered authorization to recruit other Soul Returners for a special operation.
• [Clear Soup Master] recounted the events at the sandcastle, embellishing his story, and asked to recruit a hundred people.
• Ed gave [Clear Soup Master] authorization to form a mercenary organization affiliated with the Adventurers' Guild, with no cut of its earnings but responsibility for its own profits and losses.
• [Clear Soup Master] agreed to handle mercenary recruitment before returning to the Empire, and Ed said operational funds would be transferred to a separate account.

Clear Soup Master began recruiting a hundred strong players for a mercenary company, while Xiexie Huigu secured Ed's approval for Practice More If You're Bad to recruit forty soldiers. Meanwhile, the Skeleton Alliance's leaders assessed the Empire's preparations for a major war and postponed action until they learned more.

• Clear Soup Master left the Shattered Castle and went to the plaza to recruit a hundred capable mercenaries.
• Xiexie Huigu told Ed that Practice More If You're Bad wanted to recruit forty people for the Empire's forces.
• Ed approved the recruitment, provided the players covered their own expenses, then began reviewing player recordings.
• The Skeleton Alliance's council learned that the Empire was openly sending enough supplies to sustain a hundred thousand troops for three months.
• One skeleton urged an immediate attack on the western forts, but the crowned skeleton warned that the Empire likely had strong guards and called for more information.

The skeletal councilors learned that Suolaer Aoermo had failed to become Grand Foundry Master, disrupting their plans to secure Graycast Corridor ships. They revised their invasion strategy, assigning forces to cross the sea while Hard Armor defended against the Empire’s advance.

• Crown told the council that Gray Gris had won the Grand Foundry Master election and that Suolaer Aoermo and Ke'en Lisuo si had proposed assassinating him to transfer his authority to Suolaer.
• The councilors debated assassination and concluded they could still send troops across the sea using ships already acquired, though the journey would take longer and require several trips.
• Crown ordered Hard Armor to retreat westward while establishing defensive lines, instructing him to lose territory without letting his forces break.
• Crown assigned Giant Arms, Divine Wings, and Whale Tail to cross the sea to the Demon Realm, while Crown stayed in the Sand Capital to support either front.

The Skeleton Alliance council debated Suolaer’s assassination plan and decided to use it to distract the Graycast Corridor. They also approved initial funding to test the Soul Returners and left future relations with the Second Holy See dependent on their performance.

• Whale Tail argued that Suolaer’s assassination attempt could destabilize the Graycast Corridor, and Divine Wings volunteered to arrange it.
• Hard Armor raised the question of the Second Holy See and the newly reported Soul Returners, prompting Crown to direct the council to review the third briefing.
• The councilors read that Soul Returners were powerful but impulsive, greedy, and prone to long periods of sleep, and that an Essence Knight had requested funds to hire one hundred of them.
• Hard Armor approved funding for a trial and planned to send trusted subordinates to supervise the troops.
• Hard Armor proposed building relations with the Second Holy See only if the Soul Returners proved elite; otherwise, the Alliance would simply condemn them, and the council agreed.

A public quest requiring only a hundred recruits sparked a large player-run tournament in Valhalla, while Xiexie Huigu recruited for a separate infiltration mission. Ed watched the players and considered whether he could project power into the other world as the Demonic Tide grew stronger.

• Soul Returners held a large-scale PvP tournament in Valhalla to compete for a hundred quest slots, and a half-dragon person won a bout with a drug-fueled charge.
• Ed remembered promising Xiexie Huigu help with recruiting and saw him message friends one by one, while Clear Soup Master had already arranged a recruitment tournament using Ed’s authority.
• Ed watched the Soul Returners in Great Labyrinth City and anticipated that expert players would join the King of Fall Resistance, I Guess, on its return journey.
• Ed turned his attention to the other world, where anomalous incidents were increasing, and wondered whether he could send power across the barrier between worlds.

The professor and his students attended a briefing on escalating aberrations, including a mass outbreak of deformed lambs. Officials announced that another world had agreed to help by granting volunteers limited powers through Psionic Energy, and the teams began selecting candidates.

• A regional official reported that more than ninety percent of over three thousand lambs had been born deformed, with the cause still unknown.
• A man in black announced that the other world attributed the growing aberrations to the Demonic Tide seeping through a weakening barrier between worlds.
• He explained that sending physical aid could hasten the barrier's collapse, so the other world would instead teach volunteers by granting them limited powers through Psionic Energy.
• The man in black asked each team to select three willing volunteers, preferably people with Psionic Energy or plant pathways, and said plant samples would also be included.

The professor submitted himself, [Dawn Ah], and [Backstabbing Expert] as volunteers to receive a power projection from Ed, warning his disciples to report any abnormalities. The experiment began in a secure underground chamber, where the plants grew at extraordinary speed while electronic interference remained faint.

• The professor agreed to submit all three team members as candidates and told [Dawn Ah] and [Backstabbing Expert] to report any abnormalities they sensed.
• Thirty volunteers gathered in an underground chamber and received potted plants selected for the experiment.
• Ed began projecting power from another world, subtly influencing Psionic Energy in the chamber.
• The volunteers’ plants grew rapidly, while specialists monitoring the experiment detected only faint interference.
• Everyone watched closely as the five-minute experiment concluded.