Alistair Tan is a normal college student when the alien cultivator Atavius Meloi lands on Earth, killing over a billion people. As a result of his actions, the Final Frontier Empire decides the best rectification for his wrongdoing is to initiate them into their Empire. This separates Alistair from his girlfriend and friends and forces him to survive on his own.

The Empire instantiates the Pathfinder AI on Earth, a helpful program designed to enhance cultivation. Alistair quickly has to deal with the chaos of society, including orcs that rise up from the ground and start killing indiscriminately. Eventually, he finds a compatriot in Alexandra Lykaios, another loner who had to fend for her own after her previous partners were killed by the Iceman, George Moulin. They team up and manage to defeat the head boss of the orcs, clearing the monster wave of their subregion and completing the second quest.

Along the way, they pick up Donna and Tamia, a mother and daughter who nearly died at the beginning of the initiation, and save Oliver Cambry, a teenage necromancer who was falsely accused of murder by a nefarious local politician.

After finishing off the Orc Prince, they meet the other powers in the region after being recruited by John Desmond, a fire-based cultivator. The New Boston Alliance is a group of the strongest new cultivators in the area, led by Sofia Mostafa, an ice-cold and all-business individual who wields an invisible sword. They first work together defeating ogres in a nearby area, next going to a meeting with Anthony Ricci, the tyrant ruler of his eponymous Empire. His territory is a violent and lawless region where only the strong survive.

While the two groups seem to be coming to an agreement, the third quest suddenly starts. A select group of the most powerful initiates on Earth are selected to join the universe-wide tournament, Felons vs. Fellows, where they take the most powerful recently initiated cultivators below the soulcore stage of development, and put them through a series of trials. Alistair fights his first villain with the help of a group of lesser nobles, led by Kevan Macadeen of the Disputed Shard.

After they succeed, Kevan befriends Alistair, explaining some of the details about the Final Frontier Empire that Alistair had no idea existed, since he came from a nearly Mana-less and Dao-less world before the initiation. Unfortunately, he obtained negative Karma in their fight against the felon, so his bad luck ends with him beat up in jail. He fortuitously survives and makes it to the next stage, where he has to team up with his sister, Anthony, Alexandra, and two English brothers that he knows from the Soulnet, a connective spiritual plane that can tie together realities.

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They squabble amongst themselves but eventually work together, fighting through the trial and making it to the end, where they battle Carmen Romero, world #3, and her team, which includes Sofia. Alistair, Anthony, and Carmen eventually make it through to the next round, a tournament-style bracket where they fight both the felons and initiates.

During this period, Alistair reaches level 30 and undergoes a Heavenly tribulation to form a soulcore. During his tribulation, he travels to a far away plane of existence where he picks up Dev'rox, the ghost of an imp from hell. Dev'rox is an irritable and sarcastic devil on the shoulder, but he means well and they team up.

In the final round of the tournament, the top eight newly initiated cultivators fight against each other, with only one winner to rule them all. It is a close battle, the final three coming down to Xanathar, a robotic humanoid who seeks revenge against the Final Frontier Empire for slaughtering his technologically-based people, Anthony, and Alistair.

Alistair recognizes that Anthony, who has shown a propensity for evil, would become too powerful if he were to win, so he intentionally stops Anthony and lets Xanathar win, drawing Anthony's extreme ire. Anthony promises to kill Alistair and everyone he cares about when they return to Earth.

This comes to fruition when back home, Anthony declares war on the New Boston Alliance, attacking Sofia's territory with abandon. This follows the idea of the fourth Quest, [Territorial Dominance], where empires vie to gain the subregions.

Sofia and Alistair hold no grudges over their temporary animosity during the Felons vs. Fellows, and work together to fight Anthony's numerical advantage. Anthony can somehow employ extremely expensive weapons and summons, which he uses against the now-Northeast Freehold to terrifying success, bombing their most important centers.

In the end, Anthony and Alistair agree to a one-on-one fight, winner-takes-all. After the toughest battle of Alistair's life that has him use every single trick he knows, he comes out victorious, defeating Anthony and taking all of his empire as his own. However, because of the negative Karma he had to take on to win the duel, Sofia dies in an explosion set off by his remaining bombs.

After he wakes up, he learns of this from the Woods, who have come from Europe to help out. They begin the rebuilding process for the Northeast Freehold, and Alistair begins a new day, ready for anything that comes his way.