NINE SOLS ARG IS NEAR THE END. PROJECT DAYBREAK ANOUNCMENT?
HOLY SHIT. WE DID IT. Yuuki finally woke up.
I'll talk more about it in the ending post, as with what we discovered in the beta
GUYS I AM SO EXCITED??? What do you think this project Daybreak eventually will be? Will this be a new game?? Or DLC??? MAYBE SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT BUT IN SETTING OF NINE SOLS WORLD???
Anyway, we will know in 1 or 2 weeks.
Thank you for all people who played the beta and contrubuted. It's still active, i remind you, and now apparently you can get the true ending without changing your steam profile name. I still have to reconfirm it tho.
If you didn't play it you still have time!
Was thinking about my oc and decided to try to draw him again, even though it's late.
So, anyways, here's Nightwind, aka Killian Jameson. Ex-Psychonaut, current "bad guy," and probably best known for being the guy whose sister was one of the first great True Psychic Tales heroes, while he did more background spy work.
Nine Sols Treasure Hunt ARG Chronicles. Story Update: The End?
Today, i meet you with some News - Project Daybreak has been concluded and with it ARG has ended. What was it in the end?
Well, i would not lie that i am kind of disappointed it turns out to be just an ARG itself . Not a manga, or DLC or anouncement about new game or any NS-related projects. We have what we have as disappointing as it is.
Sad news aside, we still have story to conclude.
At the end of Yuukimindscape chapter we left with two still open arcs (Yuuki's arc and Shanghai's 9000 arc) and three big questions:
1. What is the End of Xu Fu's journey (last missing pages)
2. How did Wu Hai Min died (Sony Walkman tape)
3. What is Fusang's true goal and intentions
So this is how this post will be structured. It would be divided into 2 big section: Yuuki and Shanghai 9000. With that out of the way let's analyze the ending.
Start of the journey | Ganghwa | Ishi no Hoden | Ryukyu Islands | Yuukimindscape | Project Daybreak: The End
1. Ending: Yuuki Wu
Old Chang give as a promise to keep us updated if Yuuki post anything new. And he kept his promise! He notified us of new post on Yuuki's tumblr page with coordinates.
Coordinates in actuality a Mincraft Server IP adress (hosted on java). Server contains - according to Yuuki himself - last batch of info we need. Yuuki asked us to keep the info secret, but... well. I'll do it partially.
At the time of writing of this post you still can join this server! It would close on October 31st, so you still have time. Don't worry, there will be a back up, so you still probably can access it. Just... be nice and don't ruin things, will ya?
So, what do we find there is a really big map, containig sever points of interest:
-Spawn point with Server Rules and a pond near it, full of puffer fish and turltles.
- Xu Fu house, south of Spawn spot, highest poin near the QR-code. On path to the house you also see a area with QR-code. There are also Player Bullettin Board and an area with what seems to be a QR-code (seen from mini map).
- Mount Yotei - North of the Spawn, you need to go around to access it. The Leap of Faith also can be access through there.
- Jumping down from Mount Yotei will lead you to the Shrine
- East to the Spawn Point is a Village. Continue to go East to reach a forking path. Going to the right result in getting to the Wushan Health Path. Turning to the left will bring you to the Glass Tower. Near it also Fusang three with empty chest behind. Not so far from tower also a strange building - entrance to the Glass Tower- with closed door saying "1/50 returned" (now its 50/50 returned).
- On your way to QR code you will see a hot spring sign. Climb on a mountain with sign and not far from there will be Hot Springs.
Map taken from the youtube video by 侯京 : Red Candle Games Nine Sols ARG：A Tour Of The Peach Colony 01
Actually, right before that there was an area. Players managed to clear it to reveal the QR code. It leads us to coordinates and password to the Dragon Palace under the water. Turns out - the unaccessible entrance Glass Tower required players to successfully clear Dragon Palace to open it up.
Thanks for user tirotw from RCG discord for images
After clearing the Dragon Place players would be put to a test. The final trial happend on October 20th, 2025 in enrance to the Glass Tower. Answering questions correctly led players to the top of the Glass Tower.
There is a video of the event by youtube user Time if you want to see how it went:
Notable finds on our way to the Glass Tower:
- First pages of last Xu Fu scrolls in Xu Fu House
- More pages on path to the Dragon Palace: on the path to the Dragon Palace and inside it.
- In Glass Tower: Letters from Shiro and Yeong-ja
- Hibiscus Tree on Healthy Path
- Leap of Faith contains sign "Go down go down go down" which replicated Yuuki's expirience on mountain in Takasago, Japan.
Not long after event complition Old Chang leaked a link to the Google Drive containing all the info we need to finally solve last three questions. I'm glad they did decide to release this because i didn't have mincraft to go and screenshot all that. Drive contains everything besides notes from Shiro and Yeong-ja.
Here are the notes.
Shiro, Takasago, Japan:
Yeong-ja, Ganghwa, South Korea:
Now, with heartwarming letters from people who helped Yuuki along the way, let uncover the 3 last mysteries left.
1. End of Xu Fu's journey
Last time we only had a last page from damaged scrolls. Now, we have several
As Yuuki asked, i will not reveal pages here. You know where to find them. Start from the bottom of page 12 and read till the end.
Short summary of the end of his journey is: Xu Fu finds Penglai, uses Draconis Anima (Xuanming Vision of Emperor Shuanyuan) to see basically the whole history of his clan -from rise to crumbling of empire. After putting helm away, he discoveres that his men are almost dead. Of his sons only Gi survive. After coming back to Xianyu and tellin the truth about Penglai, he and his son write Chronicles of the Dragon Palace - a cover up story. Some time later, after countless envoys trying to make Xu Fu tell them the secret of immortality he and others establish Fusang Covenant to protect the forbidden technology of Shuaxuyan clan from the world.
Okay, what interesting tit beat we have in the last pages of Xu Fu journey chronicles?
- Connection to Urashima Taro story
What interesting is, that Xu Fu's fate is actually alligned with of the story of Urashima Taro heavily at that point. At the gate to the "Dragon Palace" Xu Fu was guided by turtles. He stays an unknown amount of years in Penglai, with Xuanming Vision strapped to his head and when he finally wakes up it seems like years passed by. In this case his tamatebako became the Dragon Palace itself - by uncovering his mystery, by venturing deep he opened what we in western culture would say - Pandora's box. He and his men changed as a result, exhibiting sympthoms of what can be called extreme aging. They look like living dead, husks. Many of them dead.
As for Urashima Taro story itself, i think in world of the Nine Sols the first itteration of this story was called Chronicles of the Dragon Palace. It does describe a palace full of treasures, for example. We also see it refercened by Wu Hai Min, that palace "full of gold and silver". The retellling probably included another details, that veil the demise itself.
-What is Yuan Wave?
Okay, Xu Fu mentiones in scrolls that: "From afar, peals like thunder rolled one after another. Through what the vision had shown me, I understood: this was the retribution of a thousand years—the lingering evil of the forbidden arts, the Yuan Wave, still punishing the greed of human hearts". I assume what Xu Fi describes is actually Rhizomatic Energy, and probably Rhizomatic energy was what transformed all of this men and killed some of them. Thing is, sypthoms of Rhizomatic energy exposure are scarily similar to sympthoms of extreme radiation exposure - burns (blackened limbs), rapid aging (whitened hair, dry skin), wound infections as result of burns (feastering leg of Xu Fu).
Huh. Seems like Rhizomatic Energy = Radiation all along. So, no Tianhuo infection in the end, just simple old radiation exposure, that led to many men dead.
- Draconis Anima potentially contained memories of hundredes of people, probably lords and princes - Sun Empire heirs. Still, it was called Xuanming Vision of Shuanyuan. Which confirms that it was Draconis Anima Yi gave him back on New Kunlun. It probably was familial heirloom, that might serve as some kinda of a recollection of history of Sun Empire and especially Shuanyuan bloodline.
2. Faith of Wu Hai Min
On drive we find transcript of Wu Hai Min trape, his trip to Yonaguni Monument. His last moments.
He ventures with the group, probably the same group mentioned on Yuuki's site. Recording starts from Day 3 and quickly starts with news of their group loosing some people on their way to the Monument Gate. On day 5 they discover that in actuallity the ruins have nothing useful, just many traps. Some of unlucky team members caught in traps. Their whole expedition - is trapped. After several hours they hear same explosions that Xu Fu heard. It messed up all of their equipment, some people try to return to the surface.
After unkown period Wu Hai Min reports that supplies are gonna end soon. They still traped, and with explosions people are starting to getting sick. "Looks like burns from radiation-but worse". People slowly left to die. Their last hope is Fusang's guardians that might palrol this place, but even Wu Hain Min said - the chance they will appear would be unlikely.
Wu Hai Min is only one who left alive at the point of new recording. Someone risked their life to bring him back scrolls, probably further located in the Monument. He reads them, discovers they are new ones to him. Yet, with his body burning like hell, he only left to wonder why all of this happen - why he founded Fusang, why hide all of this. In agony he blames Xu Fu.
There are hours, maybe minutes left before he would die. He reminice on his life. His career as third-rate schoalr. His lineage. Him ever finding and reading scrolls. His constant hiding and change of identities while he searched for truth. Of his son - who would not stop crying, like his mother was. Admitting he did all of it for them, but none of them ever understood it or appreciated it. He hope his son would grow safely.
His last words are warning:
"Who ever you are - if you are hearing this... you're next. No one gets out."
It lead us to many interesting conclusions:
- Wu Hai Min is dead, 100%. He died in Yonaguni Monument, but since we can't find his body he's probably gone in the abyss.
-What visited his elderly mother might be his ghost. He was not abducted by Fusang from his home.
-Rhizomatic Energy - also known as Yuan Wave - is akin to radiation, just much-much stronger.
- Wu Hai Min never saw a contence of the Draconis Anima
- Xu Fu scrolls found by Yuuki is a familial heirloom, Wu Hai Min mentions it himself. This is also why they are incomplete - as we saw that Shiro Grandmother's ones were also incomplete.
- This also proves the theory that diving group of 30 people mention of Fusang Exposure Site owned by Yuuki was the team that vanished in Yonaguni Monument Ruins.
3. Fusangs true goal
- Fusang was founded by Xu Fu himself confirmed.
Now we know back in the day it was called a Fusang Covenant, probably with modern age transformed into a form of NGO.
Fusang's goal is protection of Sun Empire technologies from the world to avoid any possibilities of technology be used by bad actors. Xu Fu writes this about it: "I walked amid flame and drifting smoke and saw princes and lords grasp for power—empires undone, mountains and rivers sundered, our kin scattered and broken. In the end, Penglai sank beneath a deluge unleashed by those same forbidden arts". So the reason for protection in actuallity lies in humanity itself. Humans are greedy for power, for money, for knowledge. The possibility of this technologies being used by bad actors are still there. It's powerful enough to split mountains and rivers, and according to Xu Fu, even drown entire continents.
So...seems like among these technologies might be a recreation of rhizomatic bombs or canons. We do know that rhizomatic canons used in Turbulent Era were able to split mountains - waporize them even. I also assume that rhizomatic bomb - as we do see with New Kunlun - are able to destroy entire islands.
It probably means that in world of Nine Sols there are used to be island destroyed by such weaponary and sunk deep below. We do know that - for example - Japan archipelago used to be a big massive island but eventually was split. Maybe in the world of Nine Sols such split might be a result of rhizomatic weapon impact. Maybe Yaeyama Islands where part of this sunken island once. Or maybe it was fully destroid. We can only guess, honestly.
Another reason also might be the effect of rhizomatic energy on humans. While we know ways of dealing with radiation, we do not know how strong the rhizomatic waves are. Do we have a way of hadling them, protecting scientinst who will work with it?
Seems like solarians - judging by their use of transmutatonal technology - was naturally able to withstand big amount of radiation. Humans DO NOT.
Maybe, as Yuuki said in his final letter - advance of technology is story that both can bring harm and good, we always should remember that technology can be abused. Especially, if humanity is not ready for it. Do we ever be ready for it?
We three questions out of the way lets talk about Yuuki again. He left a little note for us!
[Yuuki's arc: The End]
Aside from the lore information and many questions that Yuuki asks mostly for himself, then audience he finally says that he is on his path to healing. I planned to say it in dossie, but i can't hide it anymore. Yuuki struggle with DID - a probable response to trauma he recieved in childhood, which lead him to his journey in first place. He still processing, but what is most important - he seeks help. He goes to therapy now.
Steven - his childhood friend - was sponsoured by Fusang to presue career in medicine. Yuuki and Steven finally had a talk and let go of old grudges. Steven is now Yuuki's physician! He even suggested to him to get a pet.
Besided binge-gameing, he was reading mails from Shiro and Yeong-ja. We already was their content. Tho we do get an info about Fusang all this time still helping Shiro's family - since Shiro's dad works in one of companies under Fusangs umbrella.
He asks us to keep info we recieved as a secret but... i firmly believe that its better be open about everything we discover. As a warning for future generation. Fusang gets us covered, i am sure.
Oh, and remember the project N. I. M i mentioned in of of my first posts? Its a felid conservation association. It also offers an adoption options for those who want!
Speaking of cats...
2. Shanghai 9000 and Old Chang
Back to our dynamic duo. While Yuuki was building minecraft world from scrath and stuffing it full of secrets, we patiently waited for moment X - the Project Daybreak decription. After some time even the channel name from unidentified-signal changed to protect-daybreak-ccc
Many people theorized what does CCC meant. Most probable idea was Taiwanese maga site with same name. Alas, now we know its was not true.
When the time has come our old pal Chang came to work but...oh god, i can't believe this we AGAIN lacking the computing power.
Unfortunately any fixes won't help, so Shanghai 9000 gives a command of start recycling resourses. At that point Turbulent Era Event channel were gone
Yet...even that would not proven sufficient. There was no other option left other then for Old Chang to shut down. Old Chang - bot that was with us throughout all of the Turbulent Era event, through all of the ARG - was gonna sacrifice himself for a cause. He left a heartwarming note for us - and shut down forever
The sacrifice of Old Chang did helped with computer power shortage, but not for long. We still needed more. So, we where back to old red candle reaction grind
Yet, this time we were not been able to achive the needed amount of computing power. It was scripted, yes. We only managed to contibute 57% of power.
This time contribution was different tho! By reacting you would give up almost all of your event roles. Depending on how much roles you would have you woud've recieve a special computer role
Screenshot of Einmera's message
The innability to fully supply power lead to the only conclusion of this story - Shanghai 9000 sacrifice.
And looking at this... Project Daybreak might be connected to Chien. All this time - all of this - was Shanghai 9000 quest of bringing back Chien. This is why he needed Azure Database - it probably contained Chien's logs, her personality and data about her.
Maybe the CCC meant something along the lines of "Conscious Cat Chien". Yes. We do know its not will be a original Chien, but its a question that another game long ago tried to answer - SOMA. We will talk about a bit later
Last Message of Shanghai to Chien in a new body, after he finally shut down. Turn on subtitles
After that we had a 24 hours to archive any info, after that all of the ARG related channels would be deleted. RedCandleGames themselves are also left a message for us.
With that - ARG and Nine Sols story is finished. For now. As someone said in the ARG chat - in Taiwanese culture a full moon is a symbol of wholeness and unity, but we do see that moon is waxing gibbous. That means there is still a story to tell.
[ARG: THE END]
[Post-ending ramblings]
Phew, that sure was a ride. I really enjoyed the arg, even tho i joined this year, at the closing arc. It gave us a lot - starting from physical exhibition and ending with a freaking mincraft server! It was exciting to solve puzzles, connect the dots and look for clues. I think even at the end of it i know a bit more, then i've know prior to arg investigation.
While i'm joyous i should be clear. There are 2 elephants in the room we need to adress.
First of all - the dissappointment i think everyone felt, even a little bit. In my opinion RCG kinda broke their own pattern - with ARGs always came an anouncement of something related to the main game. Even if it was small. This time - we got nothing.
Which is fine for me, but thing is not everyone is a target audience of unfiction projects and here just for the thrill of the story. The ending was grand, the hype was big which lead to the...well, people feeling that all of it wasn't worth it. Not all people think like that mind you, but even i expected a big anouncement. DLC for example. Hell, i personally was believing of DLC adding a NewGame+ feature. Metroidvania without NewGame+ is a crime.
This, in my humble, opinion was miscommunication on RCG's part. And thing is...yeah, its kind of complicated. ARG wouldn't be as interesting and hyped up if people expected just a story end. It might not get even as much participants as they wanted since ARG is already very niche thing to be honest. Yet, i felt a little hint would not hurt.
Ofc, RCG can always come back to Nine Sols and they said they have no plance in near future. Near future might be a year or two. Might be more, might be less.
Besides this game's message was always about leaving things as they are and leting things go. No one ever said it would not hurt, would not feel disappointing. For now, we have what we have.
Second of all - Chien's ending.
Okay, it does make me cry, but i can't stop think about what Shanghai 9000 did was not...thematically aligned with game's message. Yet, i must admit it aligns with his personal story. He wanted to find - and save her - no matter what, even if he knew she was mutated.
Geting SOMA'd is not best expirience i might imagine. Especially, when you understand that you'll never able to be true solarian self. You stuck in a body of a house cat, unable to properly communicate, in a new world. In house of "apeman", as a pet. Chien's faith give me chills, especially knowing its essentially a copy of Chiens mind.
Original Chien died long time ago on New Kunlun. Shanghai 9000 just can't cope with it. And can you blame him? That is for you to decide.
And, at last, thank you. Thank you for all those people who continued to read this post and waited for my story updates. Stay tuned for Yuuki's dossie and post about how ARG closed the story of original game. I won't give an exact day, because i need a little rest from writing.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
With another mission where the top agents of the Psychonauts, Diane "Daybreak" Jameson and Killian "Nightwind" Jameson, are sent out to confront a villainous entity, everyone expects another success.
When Killian returns on his own, there's a lot more to think about than any old mission would leave them with.
~
I talk a lot about Nightwind. It’s about time I write about him a little too-- Specifically, him and Truman.
There's three different goals, actually. I'll list them in order of priority, least to greatest.
Their tertiary goal is to track down the people the Psychonauts ignored. Finding those who have hurt others. Sometimes they join the team if they have good reasoning-- Usually they end up on the other side of Mal, Laurel, and Markie's experiments.
The second is to get revenge on those who have hurt them. They all have been hurt pretty badly by others before-- Laurel was bullied for her birthmark, Cynder was always treated as less-than for his way of speaking and his disregard for authority, Vinny was ignored, Mal was used as an experiment, and Harper's father kicked him out. The whole group is allowed to get some pretty big revenge on the worst of the others. This goal also extends to harming the Psychonauts, since they were the ones to disregard Nightwind and his sister, leaving her to die.
The main goal however? To get Daybreak, aka Diane Jameson, back. They heard about chronokinesis and ever since, they've been working to engineer a time machine. All they need is a strong chronokinetic, since they've got the parts together-- putting said person through basically torture just to get their powers to activate, only to use that to go back and save her. This has been Nightwind's goal since the start, and that's one of the main parts of the story that I plan on telling with them.
What are the daybreaks secret lair and based on the hurricane request you made for a-little-trans-magic despite being villains do treat each other well?
Their lair is actually an old warehouse that they renovated for their purposes. It's not exactly the best hideout, but it works. Took a lot of elbow grease for it to be perfect, but now it's good enough. They're not rich or anything, just a bunch of folks who came together to achieve their goals.
Also: They mostly do treat each other well. They're like a family at this point, with some very weird dynamics. The main points of contention are the following:
Markie and Laurel argue almost daily over clothes. However, they're also very ride-or-die with each other.
Laurel looks down on Cynder a lot
Mal kind of freaks out Harper
Cynder doesn't care for being told what to do by Vinny.
They're all just people working together, after all. Even if they are villains, they're a team.
"Project Daybreak" is the alias of a group of multiple enemies of the Psychonauts. The group is known to have approximately six seven members, all of whom are under heavy suspicion for the recent actions taken against the organization. All six seven have files which are listed here in order of danger.
1. Killian Jameson - Alias: "Nightwind."
2. Malekai Practice - Alias: "Malpractice"
3. Markie Penn - Alias: "Nightmare."
4. Cynder Emberly - Alias: "Phoenix."
5. Laurel Kalmia - Alias: "Princess."
6. Harper Lyreson - Alias: "Kid."
UPDATE: 7. Vinny Quest - Alias: "Puppet."
If there is any contact with any member of Project Daybreak, it must be reported to Grand Head Zanotto, Lesser Head Forsythe, or Otto Mentallis.
All requests for file "Project Daybreak" must be approved by two senior agents.
Current personnel known to be targeted by Project Daybreak: Loren Musee and Paris Cardwell.
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