Chapter Summaries

After waking in the world of the game, Zhou Yu interrupted Dania’s planned self-sacrifice and blocked Aleph One using his access to the game’s mechanics. He left Dania alive in the air and told Sigelica to bring her down so they could eat the cake.

• Zhou Yu woke on a battlefield in a Lahai-Roi Defense Line uniform as Dania prepared to sacrifice herself.
• Zhou Yu struck Dania with a hard baguette and shouted that Sigelica’s strawberry cake still had an unpaid balance.
• Zhou Yu used his player access to block Aleph One, stopping its correction program and ending the threat from the sky.
• Sigelica charged toward Zhou Yu, and he told her to get Dania down while he took time off in lieu.

Zhou Yu interrupted Dania’s sacrifice, then presented Sigelica with a birthday-party and food-week plan focused on keeping Dania alive and well-fed. He led them toward breakfast, leaving Dania curious about the food and Sigelica reluctantly following.

• Zhou Yu disrupted the ritual and caused Dania to drift down, and Sigelica caught her.
• Zhou Yu showed Sigelica an Excel plan for Dania’s birthday and insisted its priority was keeping Dania alive and steadily gaining weight.
• Zhou Yu told Dania that the first task was eating breakfast, and she asked what breakfast was.
• Zhou Yu headed toward the logistics camp to make stew from canned rations and potatoes, while Sigelica followed with Dania.
• Dania’s stomach growled as Zhou Yu reminded Sigelica to bring money for cake tasting.

Zhou Yu shared a meal of expired rations with Dania and Sigelica, showing Dania the comfort of eating for pleasure and persuading Sigelica to prioritize finishing breakfast while the defense line followed his tactical advice. Dania asked for another bowl as the battle continued in the distance.

• Zhou Yu used his knowledge of the military area’s routine to enter a disposal storeroom and take canned meat and potatoes.
• Zhou Yu cooked the rations with Sigelica and Dania, and Dania questioned why he combined the food instead of eating it separately.
• Dania tasted the stew, began crying, and continued eating while Zhou Yu and Sigelica watched.
• When an alarm reported Tacet Discord activity, Sigelica prepared to help, but Zhou Yu told her to order the front line behind point B and finish breakfast with Dania.
• Sigelica relayed Zhou Yu’s order and sat back down, while Dania finished her meal and asked Zhou Yu for another bowl.

Zhou Yu shared a meal with Dania and Sigelica at the Lahai-Roi Defense Line while secretly using his knowledge of the battlefield to help them evade danger. After Dania asked to eat with him again tomorrow, Zhou Yu led them out to walk off their meal.

• Dania and Zhou Yu licked their spoons clean, and Sigelica questioned Dania about it.
• A soldier reported that the Ming-types in defense zone three had slipped into a ravine, and Zhou Yu admitted he had sent them there to take a beating.
• Dania reminded Sigelica to eat her half potato, then blushed when Zhou Yu gave her a napkin to wipe her mouth.
• Zhou Yu hid Dania and Sigelica from the night patrol by positioning a supply crate, and he explained that he knew the patrol's schedule.
• Dania called Zhou Yu by name and asked if they could eat together again tomorrow, and Zhou Yu agreed before leading them away.

Zhou Yu forged a paid sick-leave slip for Dania and used its red stamp to stop Aleph One’s call to sacrifice herself. Dania accepted her thirty days of leave and was finally able to rest.

• Zhou Yu and Sigelica snuck into the Lahai-Roi Defense Line logistics management office while Dania fell asleep after eating.
• Zhou Yu picked the filing cabinet lock and found the personnel leave register and a stamp for logistics supplies approvals.
• Zhou Yu forged a thirty-day paid sick-leave slip for Dania and stamped it with the unauthorized radish stamp.
• As Dania began to resonate with Tacet Discord and respond to Aleph One’s call, Zhou Yu slapped the leave slip onto her forehead.
• Zhou Yu permanently blocked Aleph One’s attempt to reconnect, and Dania’s urge to sacrifice herself vanished.
• Dania asked whether she was on leave, and Zhou Yu confirmed she had thirty days of paid sick leave.

Zhou Yu took Dania and Sigelica on leave to a shopping street, where he bought Dania a strawberry birthday cake at Sigelica’s expense. When Fractsidus reconnaissance Tacet Discords attacked, Zhou Yu stood between the monsters and the girls and told Dania to keep the cake steady.

• Zhou Yu gave Dania an official thirty-day paid sick-leave slip and led her and Sigelica away from the camp.
• At a shopping street, Zhou Yu noticed Dania eyeing roasted sweet potatoes but took her to a dessert shop instead.
• Zhou Yu had Sigelica pay 320 credits for a strawberry cake and gave it to Dania for her birthday.
• Dania hugged the cake box and said softly that someone really did remember her birthday.
• Fractsidus reconnaissance Tacet Discords invaded the street, and Zhou Yu stepped in front of Dania and Sigelica, telling Dania to hold the cake steady.

Zhou Yu protected Sigelica and Dania from Fractsidus Stalking Spiders by trapping one with a sewer grate and smashing it with a brick-hard baguette, sending the others fleeing. After helping the street recover and sharing roasted sweet potatoes, he led the girls toward a ridge to celebrate a birthday beneath the stars.

• Sigelica warned Zhou Yu that the approaching Fractsidus Stalking Spiders were fast and dangerous, while Zhou Yu told Dania to protect the cake box.
• Zhou Yu flipped a sewer grate into a Stalking Spider and beat it apart with his hard baguette.
• The remaining Stalking Spiders fled, and Dania confirmed that the cake box had not tilted.
• The sweet potato seller thanked Zhou Yu for saving the street and gave him three roasted sweet potatoes, which he shared with Sigelica and Dania.
• Zhou Yu proposed celebrating a birthday at a ridge where they could see the stars.

After the attack, Zhou Yu took Dania and Sigelica to a fabric shop so Dania could celebrate her birthday in a dress instead of her combat uniform. Dania let Zhou Yu throw away the armor that had defined her life as a vessel, and she began to see herself as a birthday girl rather than a weapon.

• Zhou Yu led Dania and Sigelica to Sisters' Fabrics to find Dania an outfit for her birthday.
• Dania changed out of her combat suit and put on a light pink cotton dress, while Sigelica told her she looked lovely.
• Zhou Yu paid the proprietress for the dress and carried Dania's combat suit outside.
• Zhou Yu threw the custom-made suit into a public trash can, and Dania said she did not want to know its cost or keep it.
• Zhou Yu returned Dania's roasted sweet potato and called her the birthday girl, and Dania felt she had become someone different.

Zhou Yu took Sigelica and Dania to a rooftop to watch the stars, but Aleph One’s lingering resonance began pulling Dania toward her fate. Zhou Yu blocked the interference with a blaring radio, helping Dania laugh and continue upstairs, where they reached the rooftop beneath a clear night sky.

• Zhou Yu led Sigelica and Dania through an abandoned apartment building toward its rooftop, where Aleph One’s residual resonance weighed on Dania.
• Sigelica recognized that the resonance was calling Dania, its vessel, back to Aleph One as Dania began to lose focus.
• Zhou Yu rejected Aleph One’s mental link and corrective force, then blasted a square-dancing song from an old radio to drown out the resonance.
• Dania laughed at the music, and the divine pressure disappeared after Zhou Yu turned off the radio.
• Zhou Yu led Sigelica and Dania onto the rooftop, where they looked out over the Lahai-Roi Defense Line and the starry sky.

Zhou Yu, Sigelica, and Dania celebrated Dania’s birthday on a rooftop with strawberry cake and roasted sweet potatoes. When a hostile gust threatened their makeshift candle, Zhou Yu shielded it so Dania could make her first wish of her own.

• Zhou Yu set up a makeshift table from oil drums and a plank, then served Dania strawberry cake and roasted sweet potatoes.
• Zhou Yu used a match as a candle, and Sigelica sang Dania a birthday song as the flame burned.
• Aleph One sent a fierce gust toward the table, nearly snuffing out the match.
• Zhou Yu stood between the wind and the flame, shielding it with his body while his uniform whipped in the gust.
• Zhou Yu told Dania to make whatever wish she wanted, and Dania closed her eyes and made her first wish of her own.

Zhou Yu, Sigelica, and Dania shared birthday cake and roasted sweet potato after Dania made a wish to know what they would have for breakfast. Zhou Yu added a trip for baozi to tomorrow’s schedule, and the three ended the night looking forward to meeting at seven.

• Zhou Yu shielded Dania from the wind while she blew out her birthday candle.
• Zhou Yu served Dania cake and roasted sweet potato, and she cried as she ate them.
• Dania revealed that her wish was to know what they would have for breakfast tomorrow.
• Zhou Yu wrote a plan to buy pork and scallion soup baozi at Old Wang's Bun Shop and set their departure for seven.
• Dania offered her last strawberry to Zhou Yu and then Sigelica before eating it herself.

Zhou Yu took Sigelica and Dania out of the Lahai-Roi Defense Line aboard a shabby freight carriage. As they traveled toward the greener streets by the academy, Dania and Sigelica fell asleep, and Zhou Yu promised to take Dania for soup dumplings in the morning.

• Zhou Yu brought Sigelica and Dania aboard a rusty freight carriage carrying crates and caged Gulpuffs.
• Dania admired a Gulpuff before Zhou Yu made her a seat and gave her warm water.
• Sigelica asked Zhou Yu about his past, and he joked about surviving exhausting office work.
• The carriage left the defense line, and Dania watched the landscape grow greener as Zhou Yu described the streets near the academy.
• Dania and Sigelica fell asleep during the ride, and Zhou Yu told Dania to be ready at seven for pork and scallion soup dumplings.

Zhou Yu, Dania, and Sigelica arrived near Flamebearers' Academy, where Zhou Yu bought Dania a birthday breakfast of pork and scallion buns and sweet soy milk on Sigelica's tab. After Dania loved the meal, Zhou Yu proposed sneaking into the academy cafeteria the next day to find sweet-and-sour ribs, leaving Sigelica dreading the disruption to her campus life.

• Zhou Yu, Sigelica, and Dania reached the area around Flamebearers' Academy, and Dania marveled at its peaceful, cheerful streets.
• Zhou Yu ordered buns and sweet soy milk for the group and charged the meal to Sigelica's tab.
• Dania eagerly ate the buns, said they tasted far better than the canned food had promised, and asked whether they could have them again the next morning.
• Zhou Yu announced that they would sneak into the academy cafeteria to find sweet-and-sour ribs, and he told Sigelica they would need her help as an inside contact.
• Sigelica watched Zhou Yu and Dania leave and feared that her peaceful campus life was over.

Zhou Yu led Dania and Sigelica into Flamebearers' Academy by sneaking along a supposed security blind spot, hoping to reach the cafeteria for sweet-and-sour ribs. Dania's belch triggered the alarms, and Professor Moning caught Sigelica for abandoning her internship while Zhou Yu and Dania remained outside.

• Zhou Yu showed Sigelica and Dania a narrow gap in the academy wall and claimed they could evade its scans by sidestepping along it.
• Dania and Sigelica followed Zhou Yu along the wall, with Dania eager to reach Cafeteria No. 3 before the sweet-and-sour ribs ran out.
• Dania belched, setting off the alarms and drawing security teams who identified Zhou Yu and Dania as unknown intruders.
• Sigelica claimed they were testing security, but Professor Moning confronted her with records showing she had missed three days of her internship.
• Professor Moning took Sigelica to the academic affairs office for a disciplinary report, while Zhou Yu stayed behind with Dania, who asked whether they could still get ribs.

Zhou Yu and Dania met Headmistress Lupa, who revealed Dania’s identity as the vessel known as Cradle and offered her refuge at the Flamebearers' Academy. The chapter ended with Zhou Yu asking what conditions came with the offer.

• Lupa stopped the armed security team and told them Zhou Yu and Dania were her invited guests.
• Lupa escorted Zhou Yu and Dania to her office, where Dania happily ate macarons.
• Lupa revealed that Dania was Cradle, a highest-grade vessel, and described the danger posed by the New Federation, Fractsidus, and Aleph One’s will.
• Lupa offered to enroll Dania at the Flamebearers' Academy under the academy charter’s highest protection.
• Zhou Yu asked Lupa what conditions came with her offer.

Zhou Yu negotiated with Principal Lupa for a paid academy job and benefits in exchange for leaving Dania at the school. He warned Lupa not to seek Dania’s memories of Aleph One and the New Federation, then left with Dania and a plate of macarons.

• Dania asked whether going to school included meals, prompting Zhou Yu to present a cost sheet and demand that her tuition and other fees be waived.
• Zhou Yu demanded a paid position with accommodation, insurance, time off, no overtime, and a workplace near the cafeteria.
• Lupa offered Zhou Yu a job as equipment manager and cafeteria food quality supervisor in Logistics Department, Warehouse Three, and he accepted.
• Zhou Yu took Dania and the remaining macarons, then warned Lupa not to pursue Dania’s memories or burden her with more responsibilities.

Zhou Yu enrolled Dania in Flamebearers' Academy's preparatory class and collected her supplies, including a uniform that moved her deeply. After Sigelica emerged from Professor Moning's class in disgrace, Zhou Yu revealed his faculty meal card and led the group toward Cafeteria Three.

• Zhou Yu showed Dania her admission notice and explained that her new student duties included attending classes, eating regularly, and sleeping well.
• Zhou Yu persuaded the logistics warehouse attendant to give Dania extra-soft mattress pads, then collected her supplies and preparatory class uniform.
• Dania tried on the uniform and stared at herself in a mirror, moved to tears as Zhou Yu covered her sniffle by counting their supplies.
• Sigelica stumbled into the warehouse after three hours of Professor Moning's class and complained that she had been made to write a six-thousand-character self-criticism.
• Zhou Yu announced that Dania was Sigelica's junior and that he was now a logistics teacher, then led them toward Cafeteria Three.
• Zhou Yu revealed his gold faculty meal card and teased Sigelica about her reduced cafeteria allowance as they headed to eat.

On the preparatory class’s first day, Sigelica got Dania to class by threatening her cafeteria food, while Dania befriended Linnai with half a roasted sweet potato. Dania stayed awake through Professor Moning’s lecture after Zhou Yu secretly promised her extra ribs, and Moning noticed a brief, unexplained anomaly in the classroom security data.

• Sigelica woke Dania and got her ready for class by warning that lateness would cost her sweet and sour ribs.
• Dania shared half a roasted sweet potato with Linnai, who promised to have her back in the classroom.
• Professor Moning began a lecture on resonance magnetic fields, and Dania started to fall asleep.
• Zhou Yu appeared from a narrow gap by the storage cabinet and passed Dania a note offering extra ribs if she stayed awake.
• Dania shouted “Here!” after reading the note, and Linnai told Sigelica she had seen someone emerge from the cabinet.
• Moning checked the classroom monitoring data and found a brief, inexplicable fluctuation that marked the academy security system’s first error.

Professor Moning pressed Zhou Yu to explain a security-system glitch, but he blamed it on his walking gait and left for the cafeteria before she could take measurements. As Zhou Yu headed to lunch with Dania and Linnai, a concealed disturbance occurred near the landscaping, and Dania said someone had been watching her.

• Moning confronted Zhou Yu about a half-second gap in the academy's security data and demanded an explanation.
• Zhou Yu claimed his left foot's faster start made the surveillance system lag, and Moning began calculating the theory until her simulation device smoked.
• Zhou Yu refused Moning's request to measure him and left for the cafeteria, where Dania joined him and Linnai praised his excuse.
• Linnai showed Dania her flame-red motorcycle, while Zhou Yu's watch briefly displayed an exclamation mark and a splash sounded from the bushes.
• Zhou Yu told Linnai the noise came from sewer maintenance, and Dania said someone had been watching her from the landscaped strip.

Zhou Yu used his new cafeteria supervisor role and a digital scale to stop Auntie Li from shortchanging students and make her serve Dania a proper portion of ribs. As he ate with Dania, a banana-peel icon flashed on his watch while bushes near a red motorcycle rustled.

• Sigelica received only scraps of ribs from Auntie Li, and Dania stepped up to order the same dish.
• Zhou Yu introduced himself as the cafeteria supervisor and cited the rules requiring an eighty-gram serving.
• Zhou Yu weighed Sigelica's scraps, found they weighed only 17.35 grams, and warned Auntie Li of the penalty.
• Zhou Yu made Auntie Li add ribs to Dania's tray until she had a standard portion, prompting cheers from the cafeteria.
• Zhou Yu and Dania sat together, and Dania happily ate the ribs while Zhou Yu drank soup.
• A banana-peel icon flashed on Zhou Yu's watch as bushes near a red motorcycle rustled.