Chapter Summaries

Ren Suo cornered Twins of Adversity in chat software, where she escaped between groups and regained Source Data by exploiting the platform’s users. After finally defeating her, he realized he needed to shorten the hunt and pursuit before she could recover, and asked Ilina whether she could take over the chat server.

• Twins of Adversity kept fleeing between chat groups, so Ren Suo destroyed more than thirty groups to leave her fewer places to escape.
• Void Mask caught Twins of Adversity with Time Barrier and struck her with the Myriad World Scepter, forcing her to leave the server.
• Ilina explained that Twins of Adversity still had 4% Source Data because she had restored energy in chat software, and warned she would use the same escape route again.
• Ren Suo concluded that he needed to raise Ilina’s Source Data and reduce pursuit time to stop Twins of Adversity from recovering.
• Ren Suo asked Ilina whether she could take over the chat server before Twins of Adversity corrupted it.

Ren Suo helped Ilina defeat and absorb the Twins of Adversity, then learned that the sisters had once been tools and that their past memories were erased. As Ren Suo wondered whether other mysterious Spirit Items had origins beyond Earth, a sudden thunderclap accompanied the game's mission-complete message.

• Gu Yueyan and her classmates discussed the Keyboard Warrior's message and the disappearance of their chat groups.
• Gu Yuexuan told Gu Yueyan that Teacher Dong was no longer in Tianjing.
• Ren Suo used Ilina to locate the Twins of Adversity in the messaging software and froze them with the Void Mask.
• Ilina confronted her sister, revealed that she had found a master, and absorbed the Twins of Adversity into herself.
• Ilina told Ren Suo that her memories began when she met him, though she guaranteed she had been born on Earth.
• Ren Suo wondered about the origins of Spirit Items as thunder sounded on a clear day and the game declared the mission complete.

Ren Suo uploaded his extraordinary result for “Infinite Intrusion,” earning Merit Points, a Three-Star Treasure Chest, and the Data Stream ability. After testing the ability and discovering a cockroach infestation in his guest room, he stepped out into a sudden downpour, where someone rang his doorbell.

• Ren Suo rejected restarting “Infinite Intrusion” and uploaded his 85-point mission evaluation, earning 225 Merit Points, a Three-Star Treasure Chest, and the exclusive reward Data Stream.
• Ren Suo equipped Data Stream and used it to inspect himself, learning details about his health and cultivation, then tested it on objects around his home.
• Ren Suo found a cockroach in the neglected guest room and sprayed the room with insecticide before shutting the door.
• Ren Suo noticed the sudden heavy rain and went outside to look for food, then heard his doorbell ring.

Yuffie and Karen prepared to leave London after helping investigate the spiritual vein beneath Big Ben, but a sudden thunderclap brought a torrential downpour. Back in Lianjiang, Gu Yueyan arrived at Ren Suo’s home soaked and convinced Dong Chengling was there, then opened his dark guest room and screamed.

• Meifala thanked Karen for helping investigate Big Ben’s spiritual vein and offered security for her and Yuffie as they prepared to go home.
• A thunderclap sounded over Big Ben, and clear weather abruptly turned into a torrential downpour.
• Gu Yueyan arrived at Ren Suo’s door soaked and insisted on searching his home because she thought Dong Chengling had come to see him.
• Gu Yueyan searched the living room and kitchen, then opened the guest room despite Ren Suo’s warning and screamed when she saw what was inside.

Researchers reported that spiritual energy was rising worldwide as spirit veins opened, while Ren Suo treated the unconscious Gu Yueyan and tried to hide her from visitors. The chapter ended with Dong Chengling arriving at Ren Suo’s dormitory with food, unaware that Gu Yueyan was hidden under his bed and Qiao Muyi was changing in his bathroom.

• Chief Ren learned that rain and rising spiritual energy were spreading from cities where spirit veins had opened, and researchers predicted an awakening tide within days.
• Ren Suo found Gu Yueyan unconscious after she hit her head while fleeing cockroaches, checked her condition with Data Stream, and healed her injury.
• When someone opened Ren Suo’s door, he hid Gu Yueyan beneath his bed and found Qiao Muyi standing in the rain outside.
• Qiao Muyi said she had become vulnerable for special reasons and needed to change into dry clothes because the matter concerned an Awakened Spell, so Ren Suo lent her clothes and let her use his bathroom.
• Dong Chengling called Ren Suo, learned he was in the Teacher Dormitory, and told him she was outside with food.

Ren Suo hid Qiao Muyi in his bedroom while Dong Chengling arrived at his home, unaware of the situation inside. When he opened the door, Dong Chengling revealed a new look and admitted she had changed her style after noticing how Ren Suo looked at the Nine-Tailed Fox.

• Qiao Muyi said her Awakening left her unable to move and asked Ren Suo to hide her from Dong Chengling.
• Ren Suo hid Qiao Muyi's clothes in his bedroom and carried her onto the bed before answering the door.
• Dong Chengling arrived at Ren Suo's home in a new outfit and asked whether he liked it.
• Dong Chengling said she changed her style after noticing Ren Suo's reaction to the Nine-Tailed Fox.

Dong Chengling brought Ren Suo a homemade meal and offered to cook for him and Gu Yueyan regularly to repay his past kindness. As she left, she chased a cockroach into Ren Suo’s bedroom.

• Ren Suo explained that the Countermeasures Bureau had given him a new phone and eagerly ate the meal Dong Chengling brought.
• Dong Chengling said she had cooked the food to repay Ren Suo for treating her to meals, and she offered to cook for him every day.
• Ren Suo suggested inviting Gu Yueyan to join them, and Dong Chengling agreed to ask her.
• Dong Chengling prepared to leave while the rain continued outside.
• Dong Chengling spotted a cockroach, tried to catch it, and chased it into Ren Suo’s bedroom.

Ren Suo hid Qiao Muyi and Gu Yueyan from Dong Chengling, who discovered women’s clothes but accepted his claim that they belonged to his younger sister. After Dong Chengling left, Qiao Muyi recovered from her Awakening and revealed she knew Gu Yueyan was hiding; Ren Suo then noticed the coffee table’s glass corners had been ground smooth.

• Dong Chengling killed a cockroach in Ren Suo’s room and apologized for entering without permission.
• Dong Chengling spotted women’s clothes in a box, and Ren Suo claimed his younger sister had sent them.
• Dong Chengling congratulated Ren Suo on reaching the Second Cycle and asked him to tell Gu Yueyan about lunch the next day before leaving.
• Ren Suo found Qiao Muyi asleep in the wardrobe and Gu Yueyan under the bed, then carried Qiao Muyi to the living room after she woke.
• Qiao Muyi said her Awakened Spell issue had passed, identified Gu Yueyan as a likely newly Awakened student, and went to help her change.
• Ren Suo noticed fine glass fragments and realized all four sharp corners of the coffee table had been ground smooth.

After awakening, Gu Yueyan woke up naked beside Qiao Muyi and mistakenly believed Ren Suo had been transformed into a woman. She watched Ren Nesser’s video about supernatural intrusions with Qiao Muyi, then went with Ren Suo to eat at Dong Chengling’s home.

• Gu Yueyan woke beside Qiao Muyi and wrongly concluded that her awakening had transformed Ren Suo into a woman.
• Ren Suo showed Gu Yueyan and Qiao Muyi Ren Nesser’s video about the supernatural intrusion incidents, including the chat group’s disappearance.
• Qiao Muyi left to return to the Countermeasures Bureau and told Gu Yueyan to keep her visit secret, especially from Dong Chengling.
• Gu Yueyan accused Ren Suo of having ties with other women and refused to eat with him, but she later joined him at Dong Chengling’s home.
• Gu Yueyan ate food cooked by Dong Chengling and felt grateful for the chance.

After learning that Dong Chengling would teach at Heavenly Lotus Academy’s new cultivation university, Ren Suo bought the advanced Head Drop Technique and was promoted to Level 2 Researcher after his reports on in-game intrusions were confirmed. As Ren Suo began a new game, Gu Yuexuan’s team was tasked with tracking Keyboard Warrior, while a girl in a lab coat tried to defend the internal network from them.

• Dong Chengling told Gu Yueyan and Ren Suo that she would return to Lianjiang as a Combat Spells lecturer at Heavenly Lotus Academy’s new university division.
• Ren Suo bought Head Drop Technique on the Law Net Instrument, struggled to cast its complex spell meridians, and hoped university students would learn it.
• The Countermeasures System confirmed Ren Suo’s seventeen reports about in-game intrusions, promoted him to Level 2 Researcher, and let him start discussion threads for Research Points.
• Ren Suo found the internal network’s discussion section under maintenance, then turned on his game console to start a new game.
• Gu Yuexuan told his team to investigate Keyboard Warrior after watching Intrusion, while explaining that Director Gu believed Keyboard Warrior was a data-based paper doll.
• A girl in a lab coat watched data streams on her monitors and vowed to keep Keyboard Warrior out of the internal network territory she controlled.

Ren Suo refreshed the available games and chose Magician Under the World Tree, an action RPG in which he played the last magician tasked with purifying corrupted stages. After defeating a monster in the Ruined Monastery, he faced the choice of redeeming or sacrificing the human it had become.

• Ren Suo refreshed the game selection and chose Magician Under the World Tree, which offered up to 300 Merit Points and had 23 days remaining.
• Ren Suo created a silver-haired magician and entered the Ruined Monastery, where Red Hood explained that he had to sacrifice or redeem its magical creatures to draw out the demon.
• Ren Suo used the Flying Bird Feather and Sword Fragment offerings to help Red Hood defeat a Stitched Monster.
• The monster dissolved into black smoke and left behind a starving man, and Red Hood prompted Ren Suo to choose between redemption and sacrifice.

Ren Suo tested Redemption in Path of Redemption, restoring humanoid monsters to people and raising the mage’s Holy Hand level, but discovered that the redeemed could turn back into monsters. After reloading to avoid an ambush, he learned that satisfying their hunger might prevent them from falling again, though it required sacrificing the mage’s maximum health; Dong Chengling’s call for dinner interrupted him as he considered the cost.

• Ren Suo chose Redemption for a gaunt monster, restoring him to a human and raising the mage’s Holy Hand level, while Red Riding Hood questioned his mercy.
• Ren Suo and Red Riding Hood cleared more than seventy monsters, and Ren Suo redeemed them all to test the saint route.
• After the redeemed humans transformed back into Stitched Monsters and attacked, Ren Suo reloaded his save and stopped Red Riding Hood from pulling more monsters.
• Red Riding Hood explained that satisfying the redeemed humans’ desires could purify them permanently, and the game offered Ren Suo the choice to cut off his own flesh and lose maximum health to feed them.
• Dong Chengling called Ren Suo to dinner, and he reacted to her mention of chicken while weighing the cost of Redemption.

Ren Suo used fried chicken to redeem hungry commoners in Magician Under the World Tree, gaining Holy Light Orb offerings and advancing the magician’s level. After Red Riding Hood taught him two dangerous forbidden arts, outsiders arrived at the monastery, including familiar Xuan Country People.

• Ren Suo played Magician Under the World Tree and used equipped Fried Chicken Sets to feed and redeem seven hungry commoners.
• The commoners rewarded the magician with identical Holy Light Orb offerings, which Ren Suo fused into an orb that could heal and strengthen humans or damage and weaken monsters.
• The magician and Red Riding Hood cleared most of the monastery, and Holy Hand rose to Level 15.
• Red Riding Hood taught the magician Flame Skin Breathing and Finger Iron Chain, whose severe permanent side effects could be treated through trades with the Evil Holy Grail.
• Ren Suo saved the game and cleared the last monsters before the monastery boss appeared, but Red Riding Hood spotted outsiders at the gates.
• Ren Suo saw several Xuan Country People among the newcomers, including familiar faces.

Ren Suo guided the mage and Red Riding Hood as they joined the Xuan Kingdom warriors inside the monastery and fought the Hall Demon. The warriors could not leave the secret realm, and the demon changed its target to them as Ren Suo prepared to use the Profound Monarch Secret Records.

• Ren Suo recognized Yuan Dang among the Xuan Kingdom warriors and used the mage to warn them when the Hall Demon emerged from the monastery pool.
• Red Riding Hood attacked the demon with a flaming axe while the mage healed the injured warriors and learned from Cheng Wenchao that the advance team could neither leave nor contact the outside.
• Red Riding Hood explained that outsiders had to purify the Hall Demon to escape, and the mage and warriors continued fighting as the demon pursued them.
• The Hall Demon switched its target to the warriors, transformed its club into a Blood Scythe, and Ren Suo activated the Profound Monarch Secret Records.

Ren Suo activated the Profound Monarch Secret Records to strengthen the mage during the battle against the Holy Grail Monster, then used the forbidden technique Finger Iron Chain to stop the monster from killing Yuan Dang and the wounded. With the Xuan Kingdom warriors trapped inside the monastery, the fight continued until Zhong Zhou was mortally wounded and a choice appeared over the vortex beneath him.

• Ren Suo used the Profound Monarch Secret Records, greatly boosting the mage’s abilities against the Holy Grail Monster.
• The Holy Grail Monster ignored the mage’s attacks and charged after Yuan Dang and the wounded warriors, so the mage used Finger Iron Chain to bind it for thirty seconds at the cost of his right-hand joints.
• Yuan Dang told the mage that an air wall blocked the exit, and Red Riding Hood explained that the demon controlled the hall.
• Cheng Wenchao struck the monster’s iron-masked head with Sonic Blade, but it quickly regenerated, and the warriors resumed their assault after the monster broke free.
• As the monster rampaged below 40% health, it smashed Zhong Zhou into two pieces, and the mage found a black vortex beneath him with the choices “Redemption” and “Sacrifice.”

Ren Suo’s magician defeated the Hall Demon and redeemed the Iron Maiden, but the magician appeared to have suffered fatal burns. After leaving the stage, Ren Suo fell asleep and woke to Dong Chengling bringing him sweet red bean soy milk.

• Ren Suo used Strong Heart Technique to save Zhong Zhou, then helped the Xuan Kingdom soldiers fight the Hall Demon as it transformed and grew stronger.
• When Cheng Wenchao was in danger, the magician used Finger Iron Chain and Flame Skin Breathing, summoned the Flame Monarch, and helped Red Riding Hood defeat the Hall Demon.
• Ren Suo chose to redeem the Iron Maiden, whose memories revealed how she had given her blood to heal the knight she loved before he killed her in fear.
• The soldiers gathered around the badly burned magician, and Ren Suo had him deliver a message about the Magicians Under the World Tree before leaving the stage.
• Ren Suo saved and shut off the console, fell asleep on the couch, then woke when Dong Chengling brought him red bean soy milk.

Ren Suo discovered that the Goddess of the Luo River Jade Pendant could improve his cultivation aptitude when his game character purified powerful monsters. After testing different routes and learning that each monster only counted once, he decided to continue his Redemption save file, though the magician’s death left him wondering how the story could proceed.

• Ren Suo found that wearing the jade pendant increased his cultivation aptitude temporarily, then used a new game save to test whether his magician could activate its effect.
• Ren Suo discovered that sacrificing minor monsters did not improve his aptitude, and continued the Sacrifice route to investigate its offerings.
• The magician and Red Riding Hood fought the Iron Maiden alongside Cheng Wenchao’s group, and Red Riding Hood used forbidden arts to help defeat the boss before leaving the magician her offerings.
• Ren Suo tested the jade pendant again and concluded that only powerful monsters could pass on its aptitude-enhancing effect, and each monster could activate it only once.
• Ren Suo chose to continue his Redemption save file because Red Riding Hood’s help was more valuable, but worried about how the magician’s death would fit the next trial.

Ren Suo asked his former classmates about Yuan Dang but learned nothing, then returned to the academy with Zhao Huo. Qiao Muyi recruited Dong Chengling and Ren Suo to support the Countermeasures Bureau, while her teasing behavior left Ren Suo confused about their relationship.

• Ren Suo attended Jie Qiansi's barbecue gathering and learned that no one knew where Yuan Dang had gone.
• Li Qingxuan teased Ren Suo about his closeness with Qiao Muyi, and he avoided the topic with Zhao Huo.
• Ren Suo discussed his game and his relationships with Qiao Muyi and Dong Chengling while walking back with Zhao Huo.
• Qiao Muyi invited Dong Chengling to join the Countermeasures Bureau and proposed that she and Ren Suo form a long-distance first aid unit; Ren Suo agreed.
• Qiao Muyi and Dong Chengling both rubbed Ren Suo's head, and Qiao Muyi told him that an appropriate sense of crisis was delicious seasoning and fun.

Ren Suo posted a fabricated account of a world-protecting supernatural faction, then entered the abandoned Imperial Palace game hall, where Federation Practitioners were battling monsters. When Caroline’s forces were overwhelmed, the Magicians intervened and declared their allegiance to the World Tree.

• Ren Suo treated two injured students whose fight had erupted after their exam rankings were announced, and he obtained a One-Star Wind Fury Key.
• Ren Suo considered how to earn more keys, then answered a Task Force question by inventing a heroic faction that would appear to protect the world from evil.
• Ren Suo entered the abandoned Imperial Palace with Red Riding Hood and Lompena and encountered Federation Practitioners led by Caroline and Holy Hand Elaine.
• Caroline’s forces blasted Stitched Monsters with RPGs, but a slain human transformed into another monster and broke through their defensive line.
• The Magicians rescued Caroline from the Stitched Monster, and the Black-haired Magician declared that they served the World Tree and would protect humanity.

The Black-haired Magician healed the Federation Practitioners and learned that purified halls granted Transcendents powerful rewards. After Viktor demanded the magicians share their power and take orders, the magician asserted the World Tree’s independence, and Caroline agreed to fight alongside them.

• The Black-haired Magician redeemed the civilians inside the Stitched Monster and healed the injured Federation Practitioners with offerings.
• Caroline explained that Transcendents entered the hall to become stronger by fighting monsters in previously purified secret realms.
• Viktor demanded that the magicians reveal their power and cooperate under the Federation Watchers’ command.
• The Black-haired Magician bound the Federation Practitioners with Madly Growing Tree Roots and refused to accept a superior-subordinate relationship.
• Caroline restrained Viktor and agreed that the Watchers would fight alongside the magicians.