Chapter Summaries

Song Xiaozhu crafted an Employee Backpack, unlocked recipes for a Communicator and Base Manager, and chose a quest to establish a base. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman and her beast watched Liu Family Village from the wilderness.

• Song Xiaozhu made an Employee Backpack and found it could carry up to 2,500 units of Raw Wood Material for Luo Liuzi.
• Song Xiaozhu planned to test the backpacks with Tian Man and Luo Liuzi and later explore outside with Xiao Yunjie.
• Song Xiaozhu spent 200 Quantum Coins to unlock the Communicator and Base Manager recipes, then wondered where she could obtain their materials.
• Xiao He offered Song Xiaozhu a choice between seizing a base and establishing one, and Song Xiaozhu chose to establish a base.
• A woman in the wilderness stroked a large beast and looked toward Liu Family Village, calling it not bad luck.

Song Xiaozhu reviewed the requirements for establishing a base and planned to improve Liu Family Village’s infrastructure. The next morning, she gave Tian Man and Luo Zi employee recipe cards so they could produce raw materials without using Force.

• Song Xiaozhu examined the base quest’s population, shops, warehouses, trade, construction, popular support, and defense goals, then decided she would discuss infrastructure with Xiao Yunjie.
• The next morning, Tian Man and Luo Zi inventoried the shop and noted shortages of tools, steel blades, medicine, timber, and medicinal herbs.
• Song Xiaozhu told Qiu Shuyu that Tian Man and Luo Zi would handle the logging camp while she and Qiu Shuyu took care of other tasks.
• Song Xiaozhu gave Tian Man and Luo Zi recipe cards that let employees remotely use the Synthesizer to make standardized raw wood and medicinal materials without consuming Force.

Song Xiaozhu demonstrated that Employee Backpacks could store large quantities of specific materials, astonishing Luo Zi, Tian Man, and Qiu Shuyu. She postponed sending Luo Liuzi to the logging site until Village Chief Liu and Madam Xiao could arrange an exploration of the area outside.

• Song Xiaozhu gave Luo Zi an Employee Backpack, which revealed a 25-slot storage grid that could hold 100 units in each slot.
• Luo Zi stored [raw wood material] in his backpack, while Tian Man learned that his backpack could only hold [medicinal raw material].
• Qiu Shuyu identified the backpack as a spatial bag, and Song Xiaozhu said it was simply an item.
• Luo Liuzi prepared to go to the logging site, but Song Xiaozhu said she would first consult Village Chief Liu and Madam Xiao and send an exploration team out.
• Before Song Xiaozhu could visit Xiao Yunjie, Xiao Yunjie sent someone to invite her over.

Song Xiaozhu learned that the beast tide had devastated Deer Town after its mayor, Lu Chen, fled with the guards, and she planned to help its survivors settle in Liu Family Village. She then asked Xiao Yunjie about the Scavenger Community, concerned that Old Madam Hu might also have taken her people and fled.

• Song Xiaozhu and Qiu Shuyu visited the Earth Temple, where Bai Jing continued caring for the wounded after staying up all night.
• Xiao Yunjie told Song Xiaozhu that the scouting team had found scattered Polluted Beasts still roaming the area, with Deer Town hit especially hard by the beast tide.
• Xiao Yunjie explained that Lu Chen had fled with Deer Town's guards after the isolation zone collapsed, leaving the town's residents close to destruction.
• Song Xiaozhu asked Xiao Yunjie to arrange for Deer Town's roughly three hundred survivors to move into Liu Family Village, and planned to provide tools and simple meals to help them.
• Song Xiaozhu asked about the Scavenger Community and worried that Old Madam Hu might have fled with her thugs.

Song Xiaozhu learned about the heavy casualties in the Scavenger Community and Deer Town, as well as the logging camp’s survival. She arranged to bring the stranded workers to Liu Family Village and send a squad to collect materials, while questions remained about Mu Qing and the black-clad group.

• Xiao Yunjie told Song Xiaozhu that Cui Jiao had died defending the Scavenger Community and that only around three thousand residents had survived.
• Song Xiaozhu offered to send anti-inflammatory and hemostatic medicine to the Scavenger Community.
• Xiao Yunjie reported that Boss Mu had led the stranded loggers to safety at the logging camp, then left with a group dressed in black who had come from the Fortress.
• Song Xiaozhu asked Xiao Yunjie to accommodate the logging camp’s workers and send a squad with Luo Liuzi and Tian Man to collect Raw Material.
• Song Xiaozhu revealed that she had made limited-capacity backpacks for Luo Liuzi and Tian Man, shocking Xiao Yunjie with the possibility that they could eventually be widely produced.

Song Xiaozhu and Xiao Yunjie met Leina, a Beast Tamer from the Day After Tomorrow Society, who arrived at Liu Family Village with three Polluted Beasts. Leina revealed that the Society sought to liberate Testing Grounds and identified Liu Family Village as the twenty-eighth target that year, leaving Xiao Yunjie asking what a Testing Ground was.

• Song Xiaozhu ordered Xiao Yunjie to expand patrols and watch the Fortress from a distance for departing combat squads.
• Liu Huli reported that a woman had arrived alone with three Polluted Beasts, and Song Xiaozhu and Xiao Yunjie went to meet her.
• Leina introduced herself as a Beast Tamer from the Day After Tomorrow Society, while Xiao Yunjie confirmed that she was a Digger.
• Xiao Tong arrived and shielded Xiao Yunjie and Song Xiaozhu, then joined them as they invited Leina inside to talk.
• Leina said the Day After Tomorrow Society liberated Testing Grounds and that Liu Family Village was the twenty-eighth one slated for liberation that year.
• Leina produced a map, and Xiao Yunjie asked what a Testing Ground was.

Leina revealed that Ink City Fortress was one of Han-Tang Group’s testing grounds, built to study the Heart of the Creator, and explained the Creator’s role in human history. She left Xiao Yunjie and the others with the revelation that the Heart had chosen someone who was already awakened and fighting for its fragments.

• Leina used her watch to show the map of testing grounds and locate Ink City Fortress and Liu Family Village.
• Leina explained that Han-Tang Group had built testing grounds to test the Heart of the Creator, and that Awakening Stones were gifts from the Creator.
• Leina said the Creator had brought about the Dawn Era and helped humanity endure the Great Cataclysm, while Han-Tang Technology sought to control Him.
• Leina explained that the fortress was an empty city, half real and half false, built around a favored one chosen by the Heart of the Creator.
• Leina told Xiao Yunjie that the favored one had already awakened and was fighting for the Creator’s fragments.

Leina revealed that Liu Family Village’s residents were descendants of workers trapped outside Han-Tang Group’s Ink City Testing Ground, and that Fan Cang had left the region. She offered Xiao Yunjie a personal terminal in exchange for Polluted Beast hearts, while Song Xiaozhu remained wary of Leina and recognized how advanced the outside world had become.

• Leina identified Fan Cang as the person who had broken through the isolation belt, and explained that the Day After Tomorrow Society had helped him escape the Testing Ground.
• Leina told Xiao Yunjie, Xiao Tong, and Qiu Shuyu that Han-Tang Group had built Ink City to observe and incubate the Heart of the Creator, and that Liu Family Village’s people were descendants of the workers who built the Testing Ground.
• Leina said Han-Tang Group cared only about the Heart of the Creator and that Fan Cang had left, but warned the villagers that freedom did not guarantee safety.
• Leina offered to sell Xiao Yunjie a personal terminal for five hundred Polluted Beast hearts, explaining that it could be used to buy equipment and trade goods.
• Song Xiaozhu stayed cautious about Leina and inferred from the personal terminal that civilization outside the isolation belt had advanced considerably.

Leina negotiated with Xiao Yunjie for 370 Polluted Beast hearts in exchange for her personal terminal, believing the isolated village had nothing else to offer. After Leina agreed to take the hearts without inspecting them, Xiao Yunjie explained to Xiao Tong that Leina did not know the village possessed Gathering Gloves and could not detect the Awakening Stone Fragments herself.

• Xiao Yunjie told Leina that the village had killed just over three hundred Polluted Beasts and could provide about 370 hearts, many badly damaged.
• Leina said damaged hearts were still usable and agreed to accept 370 of them, while Xiao Yunjie claimed the village had nothing else to trade.
• Xiao Yunjie sent Xiao Tong to help sort the hearts and asked Qiu Shuyu to stay with Leina; Song Xiaozhu remained in the room.
• Away from Leina, Xiao Tong asked Xiao Yunjie why Leina had not inspected the hearts, and Xiao Yunjie explained that Leina believed the villagers could not extract Awakening Stone Fragments.
• Xiao Yunjie reasoned that Leina could not verify the fragments because she was not a Gatherer, and she had no reason to suspect the village had Gathering Gloves.

Xiao Yunjie and Xiao Tong returned with the hearts, and Leina gave Song Xiaozhu a green clover pendant before leaving with the hearts. The group discovered that the personal terminal Leina left was stolen and unusable, but Song Xiaozhu hoped Xiao He could study it; she ended the chapter asking whether formula research and development could produce a usable terminal.

• Leina gave Song Xiaozhu a green clover pendant and handed Xiao Yunjie a personal terminal before leaving with the bags of hearts.
• Song Xiaozhu revealed that the terminal was broken and likely stolen from a dead person, while Xiao Yunjie realized Leina had deceived them.
• Xiao Tong wanted to pursue Leina, but Xiao Yunjie warned him against risking the village and told him to listen and think more.
• Song Xiaozhu asked Xiao Yunjie to strengthen the village patrols in case Leina retaliated after discovering the hearts had no Awakening Stones.
• Song Xiaozhu returned to the shop and asked Xiao He whether formula research and development could help them make their own personal terminal.

Song Xiaozhu began researching a recipe for the discarded personal terminal, while Lu Xiaofang returned home after posing as a Beast Tamer and trading the terminal for 370 Polluted Beast hearts. The chapter left Lu Xiaochu preparing to gather Awakening Stone Fragments from the hearts.

• Xiao He scanned the personal terminal and unlocked Formula Research and Development, which Song Xiaozhu started using her free attempt to research for an hour.
• Song Xiaozhu learned that future Formula Research and Development attempts would cost 100 Quantum Coins, while Random Synthesis attempts would cost 10.
• Lu Xiaofang returned the three rented Polluted Beasts and hurried home with 370 Polluted Beast hearts, expecting to obtain over 200 Awakening Stone Fragments.
• Lu Xiaofang told her sister Lu Xiaochu that she had posed as the Beast Tamer Leina and tricked a village into exchanging the discarded terminal for the hearts.
• Lu Xiaochu recognized the hearts as materials she could process as a Gatherer, while warning Lu Xiaofang to honor the Merchants' code.

Lu Xiaofang and Lu Xiaochu discovered that the Awakening Stone Fragments had already been extracted from the Polluted Beast hearts, while Song Xiaozhu learned the costly requirements for making a personal terminal. After earning leadership value from greeting villagers, Song Xiaozhu went to the Earth Temple to question Bai Jing about the outside world.

• Lu Xiaochu found that the Awakening Stone Fragments had already been extracted from the Polluted Beast hearts, and Lu Xiaofang wondered how anyone in the Testing Ground could have known about them.
• Song Xiaozhu checked the completed personal terminal formula and saw that it required rare materials and had only a 30 percent success rate.
• Song Xiaozhu greeted villagers, gained 6,000 leadership value, and exchanged it for 30 Quantum Coins.
• Song Xiaozhu went to the Earth Temple to speak with Bai Jing about Ink City, Fan Cang, and the woman calling herself Leina.

Song Xiaozhu questioned Bai Jing about the false Leina, Fan Cang, the Creator, and the test sites. Bai Jing confirmed that every All-Purpose Category Awakened, including Song Xiaozhu and Fan Cang, contained a Heart of the Creator, and that the broken barriers had released the test-site subjects into the outside world.

• Song Xiaozhu recounted the events since the isolation barrier broke, and Bai Jing called Leina an impostor.
• Song Xiaozhu reasoned that an authoritative organization such as the Han-Tang Group had likely spread information about Fan Cang and the test sites.
• Bai Jing explained that people believed Awakening Stones came from a Creator, whose nature and purpose remained unknown.
• Bai Jing said different groups sought to control, awaken, worship, or kill the Creator.
• Bai Jing confirmed that Song Xiaozhu, Fan Cang, and the All-Purpose Category Awakened at every test site had Hearts of the Creator, and compared the test sites to fish farms releasing their fish into the sea.

Song Xiaozhu concluded that she opposed Fan Cang’s rushed plan to break the isolation barrier, which had cost nearly ten thousand lives, and resolved to help the Testing Ground’s communities prepare to face the outside world. Meanwhile, Tian Man and Luo Liuzi returned to Liu Family Village with abundant materials and demonstrated how useful Song Xiaozhu’s Employee Backpacks were, leaving the Hunters eager to join the shop.

• Song Xiaozhu asked Bai Jing whether Fan Cang would kill her and whether Bai Jing belonged to the Day After Tomorrow Society; he said he used to be a member, and she left without pressing him about his past.
• Song Xiaozhu considered the violent Growth Quest A choices and concluded that Fan Cang’s plan to destroy the isolation barrier had needlessly killed nearly ten thousand people; she chose to help the communities grow strong enough to face the outside world together.
• Tian Man and Luo Liuzi returned to the village with their exploration team and showed the Hunters how the Employee Backpacks could store gathered materials.
• Luo Liuzi urged the interested Hunters to apply for jobs at Song Xiaozhu’s expanding shop, and the Hunters became eager to transfer from their current roles.
• Luo Liuzi brought back 2,500 units of [Raw Wood Material], while Tian Man collected and sorted [Medicinal Raw Material] from the damaged tree farm.
• Song Xiaozhu heard the commotion and came down from the second floor.

Song Xiaozhu heard Tian Man’s report about the logging site, its survivors, and a vast underground lumber warehouse, then ordered precautions before anyone explored deeper. With supplies from the site, she began setting up automated production, while the mysteries of the isolation zone and the testing ground remained unresolved.

• Luo Liuzi gave Song Xiaozhu 2,500 units of raw wood material, and Tian Man reported that the logging site had survived a beast tide with few casualties.
• Tian Man explained that the logging site’s underground warehouse contained a huge amount of lumber, while its heavy equipment, transport trucks, and Polluted Beast corpses were gone.
• Song Xiaozhu inferred that Fan Cang had taken Mu Qing, the equipment, and the Polluted Beast corpses, and she told Tian Man to ask Madam Xiao to settle the surviving loggers.
• Song Xiaozhu allowed Luo Liuzi to collect more lumber but told Tian Man to arrange patrols and avoid exploring the warehouse further for now.
• Song Xiaozhu considered the dangers and mysteries around the logging site, Deer Town, and the empty city, then used the Workbench’s Automatic Synthesis and Batch Synthesis functions to plan production.

Song Xiaozhu arranged for Old Chen and his wife to deliver supplies to the Scavenger Community while Tian Man set up a long-term deal to collect Crude Oil there. When they arrived, they found the community devastated, and Luo Liuzi’s wounded father demanded to know whether his son was safe in Liu Family Village.

• Song Xiaozhu gave Old Chen and his wife supplies for the Scavenger Community and changed Tian Man’s recipe to produce Crude Oil.
• Tian Man proposed collecting waste from the community’s recycling station, and Song Xiaozhu approved paying for a long-term supply at village recycling rates.
• Tian Man reassured Old Chen that Song Xiaozhu had deliberately arranged for him and his wife to return to the community.
• Tian Man, Old Chen, his wife, and Liu Huli’s guards reached the ruined Scavenger Community and saw collapsed shacks, corpses, and residents in despair.
• Luo Liuzi’s wounded father seized Tian Man and asked whether his son was in Liu Family Village.

Tian Man confronted Luo Zhifu after learning that Luo Liuzi refused to return to his abusive family, then distributed aid to the devastated Scavenger Community. He met Old Madam Hu and Chen San, who asked after Song Xiaozhu and described the community’s losses and isolation.

• Luo Liuzi rejected the idea of bringing his relatives to Liu Family Village and told Tian Man to say he was dead if they asked about him.
• Tian Man told Luo Zhifu that Luo Liuzi had died, but Luo Zhifu tried to use his son’s death to demand compensation from Song Xiaozhu.
• Tian Man punched and beat Luo Zhifu for threatening to extort Song Xiaozhu, then stopped when Old Chen restrained him.
• Tian Man and his group distributed meals, water, and medicine to the starving refugees in the ruined Scavenger Community.
• Tian Man met the injured Old Madam Hu and a shaken Chen San, who asked how Song Xiaozhu and Liu Family Village were doing and reported that the community had run out of supplies and could not reach the Fortress.

Tian Man delivered medicine and Song Xiaozhu’s offer to trade supplies for scrap to the Scavenger Community, securing a food and medicine lifeline for its survivors. Back in Liu Family Village, Song Xiaozhu focused on building a base and gathering Awakening Stone Fragments while preparing the village for new threats.

• Tian Man told Old Madam Hu that Song Xiaozhu would buy scrap at the same prices as Liu Family Village, and Old Madam Hu agreed to trade scrap for food, water, and medicine.
• Old Madam Hu ordered Chen San to take Tian Man to the recycling station, distribute medicine for free, and provide three days of food and water before requiring scrap in exchange.
• Tian Man met Xia Fengshou at the recycling station and reflected that following Song Xiaozhu had been the best decision of his life.
• Song Xiaozhu planned to develop Liu Family Village into a base, considering population, shops, construction, trade, storage, and defenses.
• Song Xiaozhu took on gathering Awakening Stone Fragments herself, extracting them from the opened hearts of Polluted Beasts.

Song Xiaozhu learned that Tian Man’s aid and trade negotiations in the Scavenger Community had earned her 44,600 Leadership Value, which she exchanged for Quantum Coins. She realized that helping the community could bring in far more value, while preparing to send an exploration team into the isolation zone.

• Song Xiaozhu collected 310 Awakening Stone Fragments and told Luo Liuzi to gather yellow [Medicinal Raw Material] in the isolation zone the next day.
• Tian Man returned with 2,500 portions of [Crude Oil] and reported distributing supplies, meeting community leaders, collecting scrap, and arranging a goods supply agreement.
• Song Xiaozhu discovered that transferring the [Crude Oil] Tian Man brought back triggered a surge of Leadership Value from his work in the community.
• Song Xiaozhu praised Tian Man, earning another 2,000 Leadership Value, while Luo Liuzi asked for praise and promised to collect 2,500 portions of yellow [Medicinal Raw Material].
• Song Xiaozhu exchanged Tian Man’s 44,600 Leadership Value for 223 Quantum Coins and considered the Scavenger Community’s potential for earning more.

Song Xiaozhu synthesized a communicator and learned that the Base Manager could control it. She discovered that the Scavenger Community’s residents had been counted toward her Base population, leaving her eager to develop the community and pursue the remaining Base requirements.

• Song Xiaozhu synthesized a communicator from crude oil and iron raw material, then set it to master mode.
• Song Xiaozhu learned that the Base Manager could manage communicators and decided to prioritize synthesizing it despite its high cost.
• Song Xiaozhu discovered that her population had risen to around 2,000, likely because the Scavenger Community’s residents counted toward her Base.
• Song Xiaozhu saw that construction, popular support, and defense values had fallen, while her Leadership Value remained at zero.
• Song Xiaozhu found that trade with the community did not count toward Trade Value and suspected that the locked Infrastructure recipe was a warehouse.