Chapter Summaries

Players used Bruce the Vine Dog to drag Skeleton Men into group attacks while Colin cut through enemies with his greatsword. [Thousand Faces] confronted Colin and attacked him with eight coordinated Skeleton Men.

• [Soaring Clouds 3773] used Bruce to drag an elite Skeleton Man into the players, who overwhelmed it with attacks and killed it.
• [Thousand Faces] sensed that something had changed near the Crystal Cluster Palace as he watched through his eyes.
• [Soaring Clouds 3773] used Bruce as a claw machine to haul another Skeleton Man back, but Colin had already cut it apart with his greatsword.
• More than a dozen elite Skeleton Men charged Colin, and [Thousand Faces] joined the fight by surprising him and calling him [Broken Sword].
• [Thousand Faces] challenged Colin to a duel and sent eight Skeleton Men to attack him in coordinated formation.

Alfonso Lange’s forces grew stronger as the Soul Returners helped train his soldiers and secured victories, while he stayed behind the front lines to manage logistics. After urgent intelligence prompted Luokenuosuos to launch a broad offensive, [Great Wei Boxing Champion] received orders to attack the Great Fortress, leaving Alfonso worried that a major victory could raise his rank above his father’s.

• Alfonso Lange commanded more than ten thousand troops and kept his distance from the front lines while coordinating supplies and personnel for the Soul Returners.
• Soul Returners became officers, trained Imperial soldiers, and helped Alfonso’s camp grow more disciplined as their forces continued winning battles.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] visited Alfonso at night and requested a token of authority to carry urgent intelligence to Luokenuosuos.
• After receiving the report from [Great Wei Boxing Champion], Luokenuosuos decided to attack and issued orders for a major offensive across the front.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] returned with orders for Alfonso’s forces to attack the Great Fortress while Alfonso supported them from the rear.
• Alfonso accepted the plan but worried that the resulting military achievement might raise his rank and authority above his father’s.

After the Skeleton Alliance abandoned the Great Fortress, the Soul Returners discovered an insider’s rune-bone map of the Alliance’s forces, allowing Grand Marshal Luokenuosuos to order a pursuit. Meanwhile, Sailesi reached the Alliance border and felt an unknown force purging impurities from his body, leaving him worried about the Skeleton Men still inside the Alliance.

• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] left Alfonso’s tent and discovered that the viscount had a remarkable talent for logistics planning.
• [Howling Pothos] found the Great Fortress deserted, and the Soul Returners discovered rune-marked finger bones arranged like an outline of the World Tree.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] learned from [Ginseng Rooster] that the bones carried a message, and the Soul Returners used them to reveal the Skeleton Alliance’s troop positions and defenses.
• Luokenuosuos confirmed that the military intelligence was likely genuine and ordered elite units, including Alfonso Lange’s troops, to pursue the retreating Skeleton army.
• Sailesi landed near the Alliance border, felt his exhaustion fade as impurities were expelled from his body, and worried about the effect on Skeleton Men still inside the Alliance.

Sailesi crossed from the Skeleton Alliance into the Theocracy, testing whether the unseen force watching him could read his thoughts before declaring his intention to defect. After encountering a Holy Crusader patrol and admiring its redesigned uniforms, he released the patrol from his control and flew toward the Holy City.

• Sailesi suspected an ultimate councilor was watching him and tested whether it could read his thoughts by silently pledging to submit to the Theocracy, then loudly claiming he would assassinate its Son of God.
• Sailesi crossed the border from the Skeleton Alliance’s desert into the Theocracy’s dense forest and rejoiced at returning.
• A ten-person Holy Crusader patrol confronted Sailesi, who inspected their redesigned robes and crushed a red spider lily.
• Ed’s uniform changes were revealed to have come from designs commissioned from top designers in the other world, after he rejected twelve revisions and chose the first version.
• Sailesi released the patrol from his control, flew into the air, and headed toward the Holy City.

Ed negotiated with the Great Labyrinth City's Machine Spirit for the Graycast Corridor's Territory Secret Pact, agreeing to protect its existing rules and help secure its future. After they settled terms to replace Blood Corpses as fuel and purify the land, the Machine Spirit handed Ed the pact.

• Ed met the Great Labyrinth City's Machine Spirit in the Graycast Corridor to negotiate for its Territory Secret Pact.
• Ed and the Machine Spirit agreed that the Theocracy would aid the Graycast Corridor if the Twin Kings attacked, while Ed would preserve the territory's existing rules.
• Ed offered biological tissue as a safer replacement for Blood Corpses to power the Graycast Corridor's machines and mobile fortresses.
• The Machine Spirit asked Ed to add rules to purify the land, and Ed agreed to help residents expel accumulated toxins.
• The Machine Spirit opened its chest and handed the Graycast Corridor's Territory Secret Pact to Ed.

Ed received the Graycast Corridor's Territory Secret Pact and returned to Valhalla, where Little Green began deciphering it. He then went to the Holy City after hearing Geliwusi might have seen Sailesi, and found Geliwusi facing the crystallized skeleton of Sailesi Richter.

• Ed accepted the Graycast Corridor's mechanical Territory Secret Pact from the Great Labyrinth City and promised to overwrite its rules.
• Ed returned to Valhalla, where Little Green estimated the Pact would take four days to decipher, alter, reshape, and test.
• Ed questioned whether Geliwusi's report of seeing Sailesi was reliable, then went to investigate in the Holy City.
• Geliwusi, now managing a charcoal processing plant, had grown jealous of the honors given to Luxiusi and hoped to earn a cathedral named after himself.
• Geliwusi visited Saint Savini Cathedral and recognized an uninvited crystallized skeleton as Sailesi Richter.

Geliwusi reported Sailesi’s unexpected return to Ed, who found the skeleton mourning Luxiusi and kneeling for punishment. Sailesi claimed he had forgotten his crimes after losing bones in repair operations, and Ed ordered the records brought so Sailesi could learn what he had done before answering questions about the Skeleton Alliance.

• Geliwusi spotted Sailesi in the Holy City and reported his return to Ed through Little Green.
• Geliwusi followed Sailesi through Saint Savini Cathedral to Luxiusi’s burial room, where Sailesi clutched the coffin and wailed.
• Ed arrived, and Sailesi stopped wailing, knelt before him, and awaited punishment.
• Ed and Geliwusi questioned Sailesi, who remembered some events but denied recalling his crimes, including Luxiusi’s death and the Stained Ones Project.
• Sailesi explained that Skeleton Men stored memories in their bones and that two repair operations had cost him memories.
• Ed sent Geliwusi to fetch the records of Sailesi’s crimes and asked Sailesi to explain the Skeleton Alliance’s current situation.

Ed heard Sailesi’s confession, reviewed the record of his crimes, and offered him a choice between execution and enduring punishment. Sailesi chose to atone, and Ed restored his human body before reclaiming Dream of Rebirth.

• Sailesi told Ed how he had used Dream of Rebirth in the Skeleton Alliance and described the mysterious feeling of being watched that had faded after he entered the Theocracy.
• Geliwusi brought Sailesi the case files documenting his crimes, and Sailesi read them before breaking down in tears.
• Ed offered Sailesi execution or imprisonment in a cycle of death, and Sailesi chose to do everything he could to atone.
• Ed ordered Geliwusi to turn the former Holy Crusaders headquarters into a Dungeon with Sailesi as its enemy and to take him into the Wild Hunt when battles arose.
• Ed restored Sailesi’s human body, then pulled Dream of Rebirth from his wrist and absorbed the spider lily into his palm.

Ed assigned new quests and announced a punishing Dungeon built around Sailesi, while Sailesi learned he could use multiple aberrant plants. At the Sand Capital, Ginseng Rooster worried that Colin might abandon the fight if he learned the contest was about domination rather than justice.

• Ed left Sailesi with offspring of [Dream of Rebirth] and Cuiske's [Plundering Weeping Willow], then ordered Geliwusi to explain the Dungeon and return to work.
• Geliwusi explained that the Dungeon would endlessly revive Stained Ones so they could suffer and train Berserkers, and that its inmates would later fight in the Wild Hunt legion.
• Sailesi asked whether he could use multiple kinds of aberrant plants, and Geliwusi said that although the principle forbade it, Ed's actions showed otherwise.
• Ed instructed Noya to issue quests in the Demon Realm and the southern continent, and to announce a Hell-difficulty Dungeon with Sailesi as its likely boss.
• Players speculated that the new boss combined Sailesi's and Cuiske's abilities, while Ginseng Rooster worried that Colin might make peace if he learned the Sand Capital quest was about domination.

[Gill's Cuisine] and [Ginseng Rooster] plotted to keep Colin from learning about the Empire's movements and steer his army away from danger. [Ginseng Rooster] persuaded Colin to move the camp north by claiming the [Whale Tail] Legion's remnants would join them, leaving Colin considering an assault on the Sand Capital.

• [Gill's Cuisine] proposed that [Ginseng Rooster] manipulate the scouts and reports to isolate Colin from outside information and move the army north.
• [Ginseng Rooster] agreed to influence Colin while [Gill's Cuisine] set out to contact [Great Wei Boxing Champion] and alert the Empire.
• [Ginseng Rooster] told the exhausted Colin that fifty thousand remnants of the [Whale Tail] Legion would join them if the army moved closer to the port.
• [Ginseng Rooster] argued that accepting the condition would strengthen their forces and let them attack the Sand Capital before the end of the month.
• Colin listened to [Ginseng Rooster]'s reasoning and considered moving the camp north.

Colin learned that the councilors’ cryptic response meant they would tolerate his campaign only if it ended quickly, while Ginseng Rooster used Colin’s orders to move the Skeleton Man army north. At the imperial command, Great Wei Boxing Champion presented Luokenuosuos with an object and relayed Nuowa’s message that he was still alive.

• Ginseng Rooster explained that Councilors Hard Armor and Nether Crossing would support the attack on the Sand Capital only if it ended before the month’s end, and Colin left affairs to him while recovering.
• Ginseng Rooster issued orders in Colin’s name, and the Skeleton Man army advanced north along the Sand Capital’s outer wall.
• Thousand Faces learned the rebels were heading toward the port and suspected that the Whale Tail Legion remnants had sided with them.
• Great Wei Boxing Champion persuaded Luokenuosuos to consider a southern attack, but the marshal demanded a reason beyond the Son of God’s influence.
• Great Wei Boxing Champion placed an object before Luokenuosuos and delivered Nuowa’s message: “I’m still alive!”

[Great Wei Boxing Champion] used Nuowa’s token to persuade Luokenuosuos to change his marching strategy, then asked about the Green Dragon’s connection to the prince. Luokenuosuos began recounting how he met the astrologer Stral a thousand years earlier.

• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] told Luokenuosuos that Nuowa had sent him with a token, and Luokenuosuos agreed to change his strategy this once.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] asked what relationship Luokenuosuos had with the Empire’s sixth prince, Nuowa, and Luokenuosuos agreed to explain in confidence.
• Luokenuosuos revealed that the token’s emblem meant “Duke Protector of the State.”
• Luokenuosuos recounted how, while traveling a thousand years earlier, he robbed a royal palace treasury and evaded the king’s attempts to track him.
• Luokenuosuos said the young astrologer Stral found him by observing the stars, but questioned him about how he had committed the theft instead of reporting him.

Loxor explained his long history with Stral and why he had stepped in to protect the Empire, while [Great Wei Boxing Champion] learned he would not interfere in a future struggle over the throne. More than half a month later, the Soul Returners’ plans had weakened the Skeleton Alliance and isolated Colin, until [Thousand Faces] received a summons from the Crystal Cluster Palace.

• Loxor recounted meeting Stral, helping him found the Empire, and later giving the Duke Protector of the State Medal to a young prince who was presumed dead.
• Loxor told [Great Wei Boxing Champion] that he had taken human offices to keep the Empire from collapsing, but would not take sides between Nuowa and the current emperor after the war.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] left the command tent with his screen recording as the Empire’s war machine began to move.
• The Soul Returners’ plans kept Colin isolated, relocated the rebels north of the Sand Capital, and coordinated attacks with the One Heart Society while Luokenuosuos treated battles as troop training.
• [Thousand Faces] struggled to defend the Sand Capital amid a shortage of high-level power, then received a summons from the Crystal Cluster Palace on the last day of December in the 909th year of the royal calendar.

Crown revealed that the Crystal Lord was preparing to negotiate peace, while Vlad Țepeș took control of [Thousand Faces]. During the negotiations, the Skeleton Alliance exposed the players’ otherworldly origins and triggered the [Great Rift], breaking the barrier between worlds.

• [Thousand Faces] entered the palace, where Crown revealed his true form and Vlad Țepeș took control of [Thousand Faces]’s body.
• Crown ordered two Skeleton Men to announce peace negotiations, and [Ginseng Rooster] and [Great Wei Boxing Champion] arrived as envoys.
• Crown’s representative asked whether the envoys’ world had also been invaded by the Demonic Tide, and [Ginseng Rooster] asked whether the Skeleton Alliance were transmigrators.
• The Skeleton Man declared that the entire Skeleton Alliance were transmigrators and announced that it was their turn to act.
• The Crystal Cluster Palace turned transparent, and vast numbers of Skeleton Men emerged as fragments of worlds appeared and the envoys lost consciousness.
• The barrier between worlds broke on the final day of 909 in the World of Disorder and 2038 in the real world, an event later called the [Great Rift].

The Lord of Infinite Crystal Clusters’ revival unleashed a Demonic Tide that forced Soul Returners and players across the Skeleton Alliance out of their bodies. The world’s powerhouses contained the first wave, but the revived god began sending out further rhythmic shocks of Psionic Energy.

• The Psionic Energy shock struck the Skeleton Alliance, knocking Soul Returners and players out of their bodies and leaving Colin’s troops incapacitated.
• Luokenuosuos i protected the Empire army with his Poison Fog Domain as Loxor reunited with Nuowa and helped him prepare a mass teleportation spell.
• Nuowa used Vanessa’s spine and the Heart of the Amber Dragon to slow time and teleport nearly a million Empire soldiers and the trapped Machine Spirits back inside the Empire.
• Leo VII raised a barrier along the Empire’s border, while Ed anchored his territory and created Stability Anchors to protect people in the Demon Realm.
• The first wave passed the Twin Kings’ sealed Eternal Domain and did not threaten Samuer, while the world’s other powerhouses defended their territories.
• The Lord of Infinite Crystal Clusters began releasing rhythmic Psionic Energy shocks without hiding its nature.

Ed confronted the Lord of Infinite Crystal Clusters, who proposed taking over a new world temporarily and leaving Ed to fight the Demonic Tide. Ed rejected the bargain and used his giant-tree form to gather the invading rifts, leaving the Lord startled by his attempt to contain them.

• The Lord of Infinite Crystal Clusters unleashed the Demonic Tide across the Skeleton Alliance, while Ed's protection preserved the players' souls and sent them back to the real world.
• Players awoke to emergency alerts and saw signs of the apocalypse, including mutating pets, rampant plant growth, and rifts opening in the sky.
• Ed confronted the Lord, who claimed his people were refugees and offered to leave Ed's universe once they had secured a new home.
• Ed refused the Lord's proposal and transformed into a giant tree whose roots and branches began stitching the rifts closed.
• Ed admitted he could not restore the barrier between universes, but he drew the rifts together to make them easier to deal with, surprising the Lord.

Ed diverted the 999 rifts into remote wilderness and prepared the World of Disorder for the Lord of Infinite Crystal Clusters’ assault, while the real world faced a rapidly escalating crisis. The chapter left Ed battling on multiple fronts as the Floating Corpse Sea appeared to come alive.

• Ed forced the world rifts to converge into 999 portals, redirecting their exits from populated areas to remote wilderness.
• The Lord of Infinite Crystal Clusters crystallized the giant tree’s roots, and Ed and the Lord became locked in a stalemate.
• Ed warned Vlad Țepeș that his alliance with the Demonic Tide could lead to the blood race’s destruction, then withdrew his main consciousness and left Little Green to watch.
• Ed recalled regular army players, suspended Dungeons and charcoal production, mobilized the Wild Hunt Legion, and sent the real world coordinates for all 999 rifts.
• Ed returned to the Root Network to maintain defenses, support allies, and coordinate with the real world as he sensed the Floating Corpse Sea coming alive.
• In the real world, alarms sounded as officials watched the situation worsen beyond their response plans.

As World of Disorder rifts appeared worldwide, Ed helped move them to 999 remote locations and sent guidance through the “tree hole.” The command centers mobilized trained responders as the world’s Aberration began, while Ed’s assistance ended with an offer to recruit more players and fight domains with domains and rules with rules.

• World of Disorder rifts appeared across the world, then vanished as 999 coordinates identifying remote sites appeared on the screen.
• Commanders learned that the rifts came from two separate universes and that Ed could only limit their frequency, while the Demonic Tide’s Aberration would continue regardless of any invasion.
• The command center ordered special trainees and eligible players to prepare for deployment, and officials approved Ed’s request for the highest-level internet interface.
• Ed said the world’s power could help experienced players, offered a recruitment interface, and advised using domains against domains and rules against rules.
• Containment items, experimental plants, and animals began showing signs of Aberration, so commanders kept teams at the base and sent responders to sites around the world.

As officials debated how to respond to the Great Rift, [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] discovered that plants in the real world had become dangerous and used her World of Disorder ability to save her roommate. She learned that the game had become real in other ways too, as [Chocolate Ice Cream Scoop] reported that crystals were coming from a faucet.

• Li Yu asked Professor Li Yinhua to suggest recruiting skilled ordinary players to help, and the professor agreed to leave the decision to the officials.
• Authorities began an emergency meeting to discuss repelling invaders, responding to future rifts, and handling large-scale Aberrations.
• [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] found a tree branch strangling her roommate in their dorm room.
• [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] used her plant-controlling power from World of Disorder to make the branch release her roommate.
• [Chocolate Ice Cream Scoop] called [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] and said that World of Disorder seemed to have become real and that crystals were coming from a faucet.

As the World Rift opened and the Demonic Tide brought Aberrations into the real world, players and officials contained threats in human settlements. Near the rift, human technology and Skeleton Men both struggled to adapt to the other world's rules, leaving the two sides in a tense standoff as each prepared for a decisive battle.

• [Chocolate Ice Cream Scoop] warned [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] to stay safe while helping people threatened by plant Aberrations, and [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] set out to fight the plants.
• Players and officials helped resolve Aberration incidents across cities after Ed gathered the portals and moved them away.
• Human forces approaching the World Rift found that wireless signals, electronics, and eventually guns failed under the other world's rules.
• Skeleton Men routed the first human troops in hand-to-hand combat, but special forces restored their firearms by coating them in Psionic Energy.
• The Skeleton Men and humans both began suffering as they moved away from the rift, so each side pulled back and formed camps while preparing for another battle.
• The Skeleton Men began using Psionic Energy to transform the land and air as the tense ceasefire continued.