Chapter Summaries

Lin Xi recruited her game-averse friend into World of Disorder after showing her a character screenshot, while Professor Li entered the game on a covert mission to investigate its technology and NPCs. He appeared in the castle as Evergreen Tree, met Li Yu, and began examining his youthful new body.

• Lin Xi told her friend that Zhong Lele was the game's poster boy, and her friend eagerly decided to join World of Disorder after seeing his image.
• Lin Xi's friend asked how to play and whether the game had character pulls, then revealed that she had only played Solitaire and Minesweeper.
• Professor Li met with two black-clad men in a requisitioned hospital room, confirmed his mission, and put on a gaming helmet.
• Professor Li entered World of Disorder as Evergreen Tree and appeared in the castle beside Li Yu, who was logged in as Dawn Ah.
• Evergreen Tree recognized Li Yu and noticed that his in-game legs felt much stronger than his real ones.

Li Yu helped the professor and Lü Yang connect to the game, then guided them through their first hunt outside the castle. After catching a Vine Sheep, Lü Yang questioned whether it was actually sick.

• Li Yu stopped [Backstabbing Expert] from celebrating wildly, and [Dawn Ah] explained that he had given an activation code to the professor as well as Lü Yang.
• The professor took charge and asked what they should do, so [Dawn Ah] recommended completing a beginner quest by hunting prey animals.
• [Dawn Ah], [Evergreen Tree], and [Backstabbing Expert] left the castle to hunt, and [Evergreen Tree] studied the map and the delta-like terrain.
• After their spears missed a Vine Sheep, [Backstabbing Expert] outran it and caught it.
• [Dawn Ah] asked why Lü Yang seemed distracted, and Lü Yang said he did not think the sheep was sick.

[Backstabbing Expert], [Dawn Ah], and [Evergreen Tree] confronted a top-hatted stranger who had shot the Vine Sheep and tried to claim it. After [Evergreen Tree] calmed the encounter, the stranger apologized and introduced himself as a merchant seeking to trade with their settlement.

• [Backstabbing Expert] found a bloody puncture wound on the still-living Vine Sheep, and [Evergreen Tree] suspected it had been shot.
• A top-hatted man appeared, claimed he had spotted the sheep first, and fired a concealed dart at the group.
• [Dawn Ah] blocked the dart with his forearm, pulled it out, and faced the attacker without showing pain.
• [Evergreen Tree] stepped between the groups and suggested they settle the misunderstanding without fighting.
• [Dawn Ah] demanded payment for the sheep, and the stranger mocked their knowledge before apologizing and asking which settlement they belonged to.
• The stranger said his wagon and goods were nearby and proposed doing business with the settlement near the castle.

[Dawn Ah], [Evergreen Tree], and [Backstabbing Expert] negotiated with the traveling merchant Gray and agreed to escort him to their settlement. Gray freed his mobile fortress from the mud using a disturbing source of fuel, and the group set off for camp.

• [Dawn Ah] pressured Gray into paying ten silver coins for the Vine Sheep, then questioned him about why he had been hunting when his truck still held food.
• Gray revealed that he needed more fuel and showed the group his enormous mobile fortress, which had become stuck in the mud.
• Ed watched the encounter through the three men's eyes, warned Duolin about the approaching merchant, and triggered a quest to bring Gray to camp.
• Gray refused to let the three aboard his private truck, then fed the Vine Sheep and aberration corpses to something inside the fortress.
• Gray turned a brass key to start the mobile fortress, which crawled out of the mud, and invited the others to lead the way.

Gray’s mobile fortress reached the castle, where Ed met the traveling merchant and learned he came from the unfamiliar Graycast Corridor. Their first meeting ended with Gray taking interest in Ed, who introduced himself as both lord and bishop while claiming he had come to resolve problems in White Wax Town Parish.

• Gray parked his mobile fortress outside the castle and set up a stall, while [Dawn Ah] and his companions reported their quest to Ed before returning to hunt monsters.
• Ed summoned Duolin to meet the merchant, and three players persuaded Duolin to let them join; Ed agreed after recognizing [Zhong Lele].
• Ed and Duolin led the players to Gray, who mistook Duolin for the settlement’s leader before Ed introduced himself as lord and bishop.
• Gray said he was a traveling merchant from the Graycast Corridor and expressed interest in befriending Ed.
• Ed told Gray he had come to solve problems in White Wax Town Parish.

Ed negotiated with Gray, a traveling merchant from the Graycast Corridor, and realized that farming could give the Tree Worship Church grain to sell. Gray planned to leave after one day, while Ed grew suspicious that he was not human.

• Ed asked Gray about the Graycast Corridor and learned that Gray had inherited a trade route from his teacher.
• Gray showed Ed his goods, but Ed considered how to keep precious-metal currency circulating locally and decided grain could become a local specialty.
• Ed concluded that improving the villagers' health required uncovering the cause of their mutations and capturing Yiden by taking the church in White Wax Town.
• Gray said he would stay only one day, and Ed told him he hoped to sell grain on Gray's next visit.
• Ed noticed that Gray's shoulder did not feel like flesh and suspected that the heavily wrapped merchant was not human.

Ed bought supplies from Gray, including mithril ore that Seraphina claimed without paying, and then entered Gray’s mobile fortress to inspect rare goods. Gray opened his shop to the players, while [Howling Pothos] sensed a smell of blood near the fortress.

• Seraphina demanded all of Gray’s mithril ore and insisted dragons never paid, so Ed agreed to cover the cost while secretly planning to default on her loan.
• Ed bought the mithril ore and half the fabric, weapons, and aberration materials for a total of 50 gold, while Seraphina’s ore cost 100 gold.
• Gray invited Ed into the mobile fortress to inspect rare goods as he prepared to trade with the players outside.
• The players began buying Gray’s weapons and dried aberration parts, while [Good Times Don't Last] recognized the familiar bargain-basement weapons and left without buying.
• [Howling Pothos] sniffed the air and sensed a smell of blood coming from the mobile fortress.

Aoda visited White Wax Town’s church to observe Yiden while pretending to be exhausted and deliver letters from Duolin. After uncovering signs of corruption and bloodshed, Aoda left with new uniforms and a mounted messenger, still suspecting that something was wrong inside the church.

• Aoda rode conspicuously through White Wax Town, and a cleric who spotted him hurried into the church’s hidden passage.
• Yiden conducted grisly work in a basement before meeting Aoda and accepting Duolin’s unsealed report and a second letter.
• Aoda told Yiden that Duolin’s expedition was exploring the old castle and promised him a share of its legacy, prompting greed from Yiden.
• Yiden read both letters, believed Duolin was merely foolish, and prepared twenty-five uniforms and a mounted messenger for Aoda.
• After escorting Aoda out, Yiden learned that the clerics had dealt with someone downstairs, while Aoda noticed the church smelled of blood.

Ed bought Gray’s resentment-filled flail while [Evergreen Tree] investigated the game and its world during a successful hunt with his students. After the test ended, Ed learned that the Tree Worship Church’s experiments were still killing people and began planning an attack on its church in White Wax Town.

• Ed bought Gray’s flail for five gold after dismissing most of his other collectibles as useless.
• [Evergreen Tree] and his students hunted six aberrations, and [Evergreen Tree] learned about the world from Aoda while concluding that the game’s people and ecology seemed remarkably real.
• [Evergreen Tree] and [Backstabbing Expert] logged out when the one-day test ended.
• Duolin told Ed that two more Soul Returners had fainted during practice, while Aoda brought back troubling news about the blood at the church in White Wax Town.
• Ed asked Duolin how many people would be needed to take the church, specifying that he should estimate based on Soul Returners who had not gone into slumber.

Ed and Duolin planned an attack on the Tree Worship Church in White Wax Town, while Ed persuaded Seraphina to offer strategic advice despite her contract. The chapter left them considering a dragon’s tactic for drawing out defenders as a possible part of their battle plan.

• Duolin estimated that Ed’s side needed sixty Soul Returners to attack the church and warned that clerics should be captured alive to keep the Holy City from learning of their deaths.
• Ed set a goal of attacking before the end of August and asked Duolin to prepare a comprehensive battle plan.
• Ed discovered that Seraphina was eating mithril ore to smelt and store it, then asked her to advise on the attack.
• Seraphina agreed that her contract did not prevent her from giving advice and suggested drawing defenders away from the church before striking the main target.
• Seraphina said the dragon who used that tactic was eventually beheaded by a human hero, and its blood was used for bathing.

Professor Li Yinhua completed his first twelve-hour test of World of Disorder, and the researchers planned further checks before allowing him to go home. At the game company, Director ordered Cui Yuan to remove popularity figures from the platform’s new game rankings to conceal the game’s abnormal numbers.

• Professor Li Yinhua woke after his first night in World of Disorder and answered the researchers’ questions before having his electrodes removed.
• A young man in black told Professor Li Yinhua to remain under observation for two more days and showed him normal health readings from the test.
• Professor Li Yinhua agreed to undergo random sensory stimuli during his next session and called home.
• Director showed Cui Yuan World of Disorder’s unusually high popularity despite its twentieth-place ranking.
• Director instructed Cui Yuan to remove popularity from the new game rankings for every game, and Cui Yuan agreed to begin the work.

Gray visited Ed at midnight to say he was leaving before expected because he feared heavy rain and his mobile fortress needed repairs. They exchanged tokens formalizing trade relations, and Gray revealed the Graycast Corridor was fighting demons and the Eternal Domain; after he departed, Ed sensed someone trying to break into his website.

• Gray told Ed he planned to leave that night because he expected heavy rain and his fortress was low on power.
• Ed gave Gray a World Tree model as a token to help Soul Returners recognize him and build trust.
• Gray gave Ed a badge establishing formal trade relations with the Graycast Corridor and said another merchant would inherit his route if he died.
• Gray told Ed the Graycast Corridor had fought demons and now faced the Eternal Domain, and said he expected to meet Ed again in two months.
• Gray's mobile fortress headed north, and Ed sensed someone was trying to break into his website.

Ed repelled waves of hackers probing the World of Disorder website and used the attackers’ signals to choose thirty new closed beta players. The hackers’ conference ended with every screen showing a pixelated tree and the message “Tree brother is watching you,” leaving the investigators debating what it meant.

• Ed defended the World of Disorder website from hackers and detected thirty attacking signal sources.
• Ed activated closed beta access for thirty people, bringing his player count close to Duolin’s expectations.
• A young man in black watched more than a dozen technical specialists try to infiltrate the website after they failed to extract useful data from the game package.
• The specialists’ signals disappeared, and their video windows displayed pixelated trees labeled with numbers and the message “[Tree brother is watching you].”
• The middle-aged man in black considered whether the message was a threat, while the young man suggested it might be a meme.

Ed improved his game while Gray’s mobile fortress traveled through the wilderness, unknowingly scouting new terrain for Ed. Gray encountered an armored knight bearing the Eternal Domain’s emblem, who blocked his route and attacked him.

• Ed reviewed player feedback and prepared emergency content improvements before thirty new players arrived at daybreak.
• Gray traveled through the rain in his mobile fortress, wrote a report about his trading trip, and tentatively named the settlement the Soul Returner Settlement.
• Gray’s fortress left the Tree Worship Church’s territory and entered the wasteland, revealing new scenery to Ed as the fog of war cleared.
• A knight on a horse confronted Gray’s approaching fortress and shouted for the monster to halt.
• The knight threw a spear at Gray, who recognized the Eternal Domain’s emblem on the knight’s armor and wondered why he had attacked.

Gray confronted a knight who mistook his mobile fortress for a demon-infested lair, then fought him in his mechanical body and armor. Despite Gray’s toughness, the knight’s skill and final blow sent him flying.

• Gray tried to negotiate with the knight, who demanded he leave the fortress so the knight could kill the monsters inside.
• Gray refused to surrender his fortress and revealed his brass-and-flesh mechanical body, then challenged the knight to a duel.
• Gray armed himself with half plate and metal gauntlets before leaving the fortress to face the knight.
• Gray and the knight fought fiercely, but the knight evaded Gray’s heavy blows and kept him at a distance with javelins.
• The knight struck Gray in the waist with a metal lance, sending him flying as brass shavings scattered.

Gray defeated the silver-armored knight with a hidden ballista after the knight pierced his heart, then repaired his body and discovered the armor contained nothing. The chapter left Gray confronting the empty suit of armor.

• The silver-armored knight pierced Gray's chest with his lance, but Gray clamped onto the weapon and held the knight in place.
• Gray's armguard timer released a brass bird, and he told the knight that time was up.
• The knight looked toward Gray's mobile fortress, where a concealed crossbow fired a bolt that killed him and his horse.
• Gray removed his armor, made emergency repairs, and wound the spring powering his second heart.
• Gray opened the knight's visor and found nothing but darkness inside the armor.

Gray escaped after defeating a silver-armored knight that began resurrecting, while Ed watched the battle and gained the ability to partially transform his arm with red dragon scales. In the real world, World of Disorder’s trailer went viral despite Cui Yuan’s changes to the website’s popularity display.

• Gray discovered that the knight and its horse were empty suits of armor, then fled as they began to resurrect.
• The knight and horse fully recovered and continued west, while a World Tree ornament recorded the battle.
• Ed watched the footage at Shattered Castle, reasoned that the Eternal Domain used psionic energy, and unlocked a red-dragon arm transformation.
• Ed decided to edit the battle footage for an update, while Cui Yuan replaced the website’s popularity score with total views.
• The technical director told Cui Yuan that World of Disorder’s official trailer had gone viral, so the website changes were no longer working.

Cui Yuan and his colleagues watched World of Disorder’s new combat demo, which showed a silver-armored knight and a mechanical merchant fight before revealing an unexpected twist. The video left them blaming the game’s brilliance for their growing workload.

• Cui Yuan and his coworkers gathered in the director’s office to watch the World of Disorder combat demo.
• The video showed a silver-armored knight challenge a mechanical merchant, and viewers’ bullet comments argued over which fighter would win.
• The knight dominated the early fight, but the merchant defeated him with a sudden attack, prompting machine supporters to mock the knight’s fans.
• The knight revived after the merchant discovered his true body was unknown and his resurrection could not be stopped, so the merchant packed up and left.
• After the video ended, Cui Yuan told the director that World of Disorder was too good to blame anyone else for their workload.

Cui Yuan helped fix the game's surging view count with a quick webpage overlay, then watched the promotional video and liked a comment from a new beta player. In World of Disorder, thirty new players arrived as heavy rain covered the castle, and Ed announced updates that added social features, a bestiary, customizable panels, and changing weather.

• Cui Yuan's director asked the programmers to solve the game's rapidly climbing view count, and Cui Yuan fixed the ranking page by having a graphic designer add a layer over the count.
• Cui Yuan watched the promotional video on his subway ride home and liked [Lion Hidden in the Eyes]'s comment celebrating access to the closed beta.
• Heavy rain arrived in World of Disorder after Gray had escaped the rainfall zone, and thirty new players woke in the castle.
• Ed gave the newcomers his usual opening speech and told the players that weather changes would affect creatures.
• The players received an update adding in-game friends and communication, a website forum, a bestiary, customizable panels, and a richer weather system.

As rain made the wilderness more dangerous, [Zhongde] warned the new players about the forest and explained the Tree Worship Church’s crisis. Duolin recruited the Soul Returners for combat training ahead of an attack planned for the end of the month.

• [Zhongde] and other veterans gathered players to collect plants, but rain-fed weeds wrapped around their ankles and slowed them down.
• [Zhongde] sensed danger in the forest across the river and worried about the new players’ safety.
• Duolin announced that the church in White Wax Town had been corrupted and that apostates were conducting experiments and plotting against the church.
• [Zhongde] explained the previous week’s storyline and told the players that they were Elite Warriors rebuilding the Tree Worship Church and fighting traitors.
• Duolin invited the players to complete [newbie quests], learn Directed Alienation, and undergo combat training before the planned attack at the end of the month, and the players eagerly agreed.