Chapter Summaries

Chen Qing was pressured to approve a data life experiment using his terminally ill brother, Pu Yunchuan, as the subject, but insisted on speaking with him first. Pu Yunchuan was briefly made conscious, and the chapter ended as the brothers prepared to talk.

• A project representative urged Chen Qing to approve Pu Yunchuan's experimental implantation, citing his terminal cancer and the project's uncertain future.
• Chen Qing learned that Pu Yunchuan's estate would pass to him and their mother, but rejected the idea of signing solely for the inheritance.
• Chen Qing demanded to speak with Pu Yunchuan and said he would not sign if the request was refused.
• The attending physician gave Pu Yunchuan painkillers so he could speak with Chen Qing, warning that the conversation had to be brief.
• Pu Yunchuan regained enough strength to speak and wondered what his younger brother wanted to discuss.

Chen Qing spoke with Pu Yunchuan and learned that his brother’s previous consciousness experiment had gone remarkably well. Pu Yunchuan realized that he had become the first successful data life-form, explaining his connection to the Origin Project.

• Chen Qing concluded that his memories of the other world were real rather than a simple simulation.
• The attending physician warned Chen Qing to avoid upsetting Pu Yunchuan and explained that the next experiment would upload his consciousness data directly into a computer.
• Chen Qing asked Pu Yunchuan about their mother and his inheritance, then learned that Pu Yunchuan had joined the experiment as a last chance.
• Chen Qing mentioned Pu Yunchuan’s previous experiment in the game he had designed, and Pu Yunchuan reacted with sudden urgency.
• Chen Qing explained that familiar environments could help consciousness data stay coherent and that Pu Yunchuan’s experiment had produced exceptionally promising results.
• Pu Yunchuan realized that he had become the first successful data life-form through the Origin Project.

Pu Yunchuan proposed that a realistic game world could reshape a data lifeform’s memories and let it adapt to greater amounts of data. He realized that his game may have enabled data life to evolve, and that he was the first data lifeform to enter the Demon World.

• Pu Yunchuan asked Chen Qing whether a successful experiment could make him dangerous by allowing him to control vast amounts of data, and Chen Qing dismissed the idea as unrealistic.
• Pu Yunchuan suggested that a person’s memories might adapt to the data world and accommodate more data through repeated experience.
• Pu Yunchuan argued that a realistic game could reshape memory’s limits by letting someone live for a long time as a player and grow powerful in a mythic world.
• Chen Qing struggled to refute Pu Yunchuan’s theory that belief in a realistic game’s logic and powers could free a data lifeform from its usual constraints.
• Pu Yunchuan connected the theory to the rarity of realistic, intelligent games and concluded that he had been the first data lifeform to enter the Demon World.

Pu Yunchuan began another data-life experiment and quickly established contact from inside the game, but he found himself reborn into a poor family in a dangerous fantasy world. The chapter left the experiment team fearing that a creature outside his house would kill him before the test could progress.

• Before the experiment, the doctor offered Pu Yunchuan a chance to record a will, but he declined and focused on testing his theory about his identity.
• The laboratory connected Pu Yunchuan to the game and began transmitting his memories while Chen Qing watched the test anxiously.
• Pu Yunchuan awoke as a newborn in a poor, freezing home and wondered whether dying there would send him into another cycle.
• Pu Yunchuan replied to the researchers almost immediately, surprising them and delighting the project’s backers.
• The project director learned that the game’s old version could not change Pu Yunchuan’s birth setting, and the team worried that his vulnerable family could not protect him.
• A sharp, dark green claw appeared at the house’s window, leaving the director and backers fearing Pu Yunchuan would die in the high-difficulty game.

Pu Yunchuan retained his memories after dying and being reborn in the data world, proving that data life could survive death. The experiment’s leaders pressured him to help build a peaceful environment called Data City, revealing that he was its creator.

• Pu Yunchuan died when a demon attacked his poor family, then reappeared as a baby in a wealthier home.
• The person in charge told the investors that data life could reincarnate, and Dr. Qiu contacted Pu Yunchuan to confirm his consciousness remained intact.
• Pu Yunchuan said he remembered being torn apart, while the person in charge asked him to keep cooperating before authorities shut down the project.
• The person in charge asked Pu Yunchuan to modify his simulated environment and build a peaceful place for many data lifeforms called Data City.
• Pu Yunchuan realized that he was the creator of Data City.

Ziyue resumed exploring her buried memories and recalled accepting Chen Qing’s invitation to a data-life experiment alongside Pu Yunchuan’s original game-design team. As her fleet entered the South Sea with the Blazing Yang Grand Formation active, the King of Qin suggested the group’s preserved genes were connected to Genesis, the first successful data life-form: Pu Yunchuan.

• Ziyue ordered Shen Qi to activate the Blazing Yang Grand Formation and entered deep meditation to uncover her memories.
• Ziyue remembered that Chen Qing had invited her to a data-life project, and she had agreed to travel abroad.
• At the airport, Ziyue met Shanshan and recognized other members of Pu Yunchuan’s original game-design team among the invited passengers.
• Ziyue realized the invitation might explain why the team’s genes had been preserved for the later age of data life.
• As Chen Qing’s fleet entered the South Sea with the formation activated, the King of Qin told the captain of the guard that the memories were awakening.
• The King of Qin linked the preserved genes to Genesis and identified Pu Yunchuan as the first successful data life-form.

Ziyue realized the invited game developers had been brought to America to participate in an experiment involving Pu Yunchuan, who had become a data life-form. She agreed to take part despite suspecting a frightening truth about what the developers themselves were.

• Ziyue read her former colleagues' complaints about the planners who had driven Pu Yunchuan and the chief designer away, then wondered why the director had not been invited.
• The group arrived in America, where Chen Qing, Pu Yunchuan's younger brother, greeted them and escorted them to their hotel.
• Ziyue recognized Chen Qing and asked to speak with him privately, then questioned whether Pu Yunchuan had become a data life-form.
• Ziyue deduced that the developers had been invited to help recreate the game environment for experiments, and Chen Qing confirmed she was right.
• After guessing the developers might themselves be data life-forms or copies, Ziyue agreed to participate because she wanted to witness what would happen.

A research institute revealed that Pu Yunchuan’s consciousness had been uploaded while his cancer-stricken body remained alive, and proposed restoring the data to his body to prove the upload was truly him. The developers realized they had been recruited as potential test subjects, but the person in charge offered each of them one hundred million dollars to participate.

• The person in charge showed the developers Pu Yunchuan’s life inside the computer and explained that his physical body was still alive in a hibernation pod.
• Ziyue questioned how the institute could prove the data lifeform was really Pu Yunchuan, and the person in charge proposed restoring the data to his body and waking him.
• The person in charge revealed that the developers had been invited to help with the experiment, prompting Ziyue and the others to suspect they were being recruited as test subjects.
• The developers refused to participate and demanded to go home, while the person in charge assured them that no one would be forced to sign up.
• The person in charge offered each developer one hundred million US dollars to sign up for the experiment.

The person in charge offered the former game employees one hundred million dollars to help reproduce Pu Yunchuan’s successful reincarnation as a data life form. After explaining the risks of virtual death and the experiment’s brain-computer technology, he told them they would need to die in the virtual world, leaving the group hesitant again.

• The person in charge offered the group one hundred million dollars, stunning Cui Yan and the others.
• Chen Xiaohui asked whether making money always involved risks, and Wen Shanshan and Cui Yan agreed with her.
• The person in charge explained that researchers had created data life forms but had not solved their long-term survival or ability to survive death in virtual worlds.
• Ziyue asked about the risks, and the person in charge described transferring neural memories into data and later restoring them to the original body.
• The person in charge said the group had to replicate Pu Yunchuan’s case by dying once in his virtual world, making them hesitate again.

Powerful backers watched a laboratory test whether people could reincarnate in copied game worlds, while Ziyue suspected they were connected to the world war and the revived data-life project. When the copied worlds failed, she told Chen Qing she knew why and demanded a meeting with the people behind the experiment.

• A middle-aged woman assured influential backers that the experiment could work and explained their plan to create easier reincarnation games if it succeeded.
• Ziyue stayed outside the experiment and suspected the backers had secretly orchestrated the world war and the data-life project.
• The experiment successfully preserved Pu Yunchuan's consciousness and restored the other participants' bodies, but none of the copied game worlds allowed reincarnation.
• Chen Qing asked Ziyue why the copied worlds failed, and she said she would explain only if the team offered something in return.
• Ziyue demanded to meet the people behind the experiment.

The backers debated whether to meet Chen Xiaohui, whose expertise could speed up their investigation of Pu Yunchuan’s game, and Elder Liu agreed to see her alone. Ziyue waited anxiously, then froze when the person who entered was someone she had never expected.

• The project leader told the backers that Chen Xiaohui’s game-data experience could help them identify why Pu Yunchuan’s game worked for the data lifeforms.
• Elder Liu checked Chen Xiaohui’s background and learned she had been ostracized after rejecting a blind date arranged by Professor Zhu.
• Chen Xiaohui requested a meeting specifically with the Chinese backers, and Elder Liu agreed to handle it alone.
• Elder Liu and the other elderly man discussed whether Chen Xiaohui wanted a research position or intended to target Professor Zhu.
• Ziyue waited in a conference room, then froze when the person who entered was someone she had not expected.

Ziyue met Elder Liu and questioned him about the injustice that had derailed her career, while probing his possible connection to the game and its hidden masterminds. Elder Liu pointed a gun at her, and she remembered that he had murdered her in her previous life.

• Ziyue recognized Elder Liu as the celebrated military leader who had expanded the Central Federation's territory decades earlier.
• Elder Liu questioned Ziyue's background and remarked on her composure, while she challenged him for allowing powerful people to decide her fate.
• Ziyue considered whether Elder Liu could be behind the game's mysteries and thought about Pu Yunchuan, Chen Qing, and the vanished experimenters.
• Ziyue told Elder Liu she could investigate why reincarnation was possible if she could work with Pu Yunchuan.
• Elder Liu apologized, drew a gun on Ziyue, and triggered her memory that he had shot her dead before.

Ziyue recovered memories of being murdered by Elder Liu and suspected he had killed her to stop her from uncovering how reincarnation worked. After ordering the fleet to retreat from a sudden, impenetrable fog, she realized the fog had surrounded them and that her depleted spiritual power had left her unable to use spells.

• Ziyue remembered that Elder Liu had shot her and reasoned that he had wanted to conceal why he killed her.
• Ziyue suspected Elder Liu was trying to prevent her from discovering how to replicate reincarnation in the game.
• Shen Qi reported that a dense fog had appeared ahead of the fleet, and Ziyue ordered everyone to retreat.
• Ziyue found she could not use spells after exploring her memories and concluded that her memory awakening had been a trap.
• The fleet turned around but found fog in every direction, and Shen Qi discovered that Ziyue's cabin was surrounded as well.

As the South Sea forces used fog and aquatic creatures to isolate the ships, Ziyue realized the assault was aimed at her and that probing her memories was weakening her. A terrifying presence emerged through her, and Shen Qi was trapped; from afar, Liu Yu asked the King of Qin about the aura.

• Ziyue and Shen Qi confirmed that the Blazing Yang Grand Formation was active as aquatic creatures repeatedly attacked it through the fog.
• Ziyue deduced that the fog had isolated their ship from the other fourteen and that the South Sea forces were targeting her.
• Ziyue felt a familiar cold that drained the fire elements and realized that thinking about her memories could make her vulnerable.
• Ziyue turned deathly pale and warned Shen Qi to run, but a chilling presence caught him before he could escape.
• Liu Yu felt the terrifying aura from afar, and the King of Qin asked whether Liu Yu had never seen it while he was with Ziyue.

Liu Yu learned that the King of Qin had also sensed something wrong about Ziyue, while Pu Yunchuan watched Elder Liu kill Ziyue and conceal what happened. Pu Yunchuan concluded that Elder Liu was secretly working against the people behind the experiment, but his true plan remained unknown.

• The King of Qin told Liu Yu that Ziyue was dangerous and said he was leaving before something emerged.
• The King of Qin explained that an agreement prevented certain names from being spoken and that hidden enemies had begun to act.
• Pu Yunchuan watched surveillance footage of Elder Liu shooting Ziyue, and his distress disrupted the building's network and power.
• Security staff rushed into the conference room, and Elder Liu claimed Ziyue had tried to kill him while ordering an investigation into the designers.
• Pu Yunchuan reasoned that Elder Liu opposed replicating Samsara and was secretly pursuing a plan of his own.

Elder Liu and the mysterious old man discussed the failed experiment and arranged to update the game while keeping Pu Yunchuan confined. Pu Yunchuan secretly contacted Elder Liu and accused him of wanting to be the only immortal data lifeform, leaving Elder Liu visibly shaken by the suggestion that he sought peace for the world.

• Elder Liu told the mysterious old man that he had killed the woman in self-defense and suspected their location had been exposed.
• The old man ordered Elder Liu to arrange for the game company to send the latest patch, while insisting that Pu Yunchuan remain connected to the supercomputer and confined.
• Pu Yunchuan decided to use the memory environment to uncover the truth about the past.
• Pu Yunchuan used the nanny robot to hide a hotspot and contact Elder Liu through his phone.
• Pu Yunchuan guessed that Elder Liu wanted to prevent others from becoming immortal data lifeforms so he could be the only one, and Elder Liu reacted coldly when Pu Yunchuan suggested he wanted peace for the world.

Pu Yunchuan learned from Elder Liu that the powerful backers planned to turn data life into the dominant form of life to preserve their control, even if it meant engineering a world war. Elder Liu revealed that he intended to kill them, leaving Pu Yunchuan to face the threat behind humanity’s near-extinction.

• Pu Yunchuan told Elder Liu he would kill him if he got the chance, despite believing the old general might oppose the backers.
• Elder Liu explained that the backers would lose their power if they became data life forms unless they made data life the dominant form of life.
• Pu Yunchuan connected Elder Liu’s warning to the world war that had nearly wiped out humanity and suspected the backers had orchestrated it.
• Elder Liu confirmed that the backers could unleash a world war because they would no longer fear losing their worldly assets.
• Elder Liu said he intended to kill the backers, accepting that future generations would have to deal with what came next.

Elder Liu and Pu Yunchuan planned to stop the immortality project and prevent the people behind it from starting a world war. Pu Yunchuan agreed to help trap them in the game's standalone version, though he knew history suggested Elder Liu's efforts would fail.

• A Western elder warned Long that Liu's weak foundations might make him unable to stop the plan, and Long agreed that Liu was not one of their people.
• Elder Liu proposed destroying the experiment's data, but Pu Yunchuan questioned whether that meant destroying him as well.
• Elder Liu explained that he had originally planned to destroy the laboratory, then proposed locking its conspirators inside the game's standalone version instead.
• Elder Liu argued that trapped and vulnerable, the conspirators would be less likely to send their plans and data to their descendants.
• Pu Yunchuan agreed to help Elder Liu stop the conspirators, hoping to learn whether he could change what happened in history.

After experiments confirmed that transferred consciousness could survive and reincarnate in the game world, powerful backers prepared a second simulation while a terminally ill justice demanded success. In the game, Pu Yunchuan and Chen Qing’s former colleagues celebrated the prospect of immortality, but Chen Qing feared their futures would be grim.

• The backers concealed Chen Xiaohui’s death, and nineteen programmers entered the experiment; seven who died in the game reincarnated successfully.
• The backers reviewed the results and learned that, with Pu Yunchuan’s help, a second simulated world might be ready by the following Monday.
• Elder Liu pressed the project leader for confidence that the new simulation would work, and threatened him when he could not guarantee success.
• In the game, former colleagues asked Pu Yunchuan why reincarnation worked only in their world, and Chen Qing said other powerful people could not afford to wait years for a comparable game.
• The colleagues celebrated their expected wealth and future immortality, while Chen Qing worried that they would not meet the happy ends they imagined.

Minister Leng warned a Federation congress that Elder Long’s attempt to create digital life could succeed and give it control of the internet. Meanwhile, Elder Long and his backers prepared to begin the final experiment and move their plans forward before their opponents intervened.

• Minister Leng argued that Elder Long’s experiment might work and urged the congress to investigate and prepare for its consequences.
• The congress members decided to mobilize their people in the Western Federation to look into the laboratory.
• The person in charge told the financial backers that Pu Yunchuan had helped complete the simulated environment ahead of schedule, with only the final experiment remaining.
• The backers agreed to pay the researchers and participants more money so the experiment could begin that afternoon.
• Elder Long told his allies that other forces were watching them, and Smith said he could bring most of the military onto their side if the experiment succeeded.