A man awakens without memories in an endless white world, holding a mysterious paintbrush. He discovers that it can create anything he imagines—and erase it just as easily. He builds a paradise, but his attempt to create another human being ends in tragedy. Overwhelmed by loneliness, he abandons his home and accidentally erases it, leaving himself with nothing. Desperate to escape, he paints a magical portal to a world inhabited by people. The brush loses its power, but the portal remains. With nothing left behind, the Painter steps through.

Emerging into a world of forests and meadows, the Painter discovers that even death cannot kill him. After encounters with wolves and a bear, he learns that his magic brush gradually regains its power. He spends weeks mastering archery before encountering a tribe of primitive humans. Unable to remember his name, he introduces himself as Archer. His ability to create food astonishes the tribe and sparks a confrontation with their chief, but a woman named Anka intervenes. As Archer begins forming his first human connections, a gift of flowers painfully reminds him of the woman he failed to create.

Archer grows close to the Shod tribe but clashes with their customs when they offer him a ten-year-old bride. After a rival tribe attacks, killing the hunters and enslaving the survivors, Archer attempts a rescue using a magically created handgun. He dies in the confrontation and returns a month later to find Anka dead and the enemy tribe shattered. Using his brush, he resurrects her, but her body remains partially decomposed. Four surviving warriors submit to Archer, believing him divine. Determined to rebuild the Shod, he gives Anka a handgun, enabling her to become their new chief.

Archer and Anka rebuild the Shod, introducing tools, education, and new technologies. Seeking faster population growth, Archer creates an intelligent advisor, Sol, and the Crown of Time, allowing him to spend decades in a trance. Under Anka’s leadership, their settlement flourishes into a city of a thousand inhabitants. Archer awakens seventy-two years later, astonished by her achievements. But their reunion reveals a painful truth: Anka feels indebted to him, unable to claim her own life. Archer grants her complete freedom and ownership of her immortality brooch. For the first time, Anka leaves to discover who she is without him.

With Anka gone, Archer assumes leadership of the Shod and announces plans to expand their civilization peacefully. He creates the Glasses of Omniscience, confronts the city's problems, and authorizes temples dedicated to himself and Anka. While restoring the city's water supply, he makes a startling discovery: his magic brush may be alive. Further experiments reveal that erasing matter replenishes the brush's power and that transforming materials is more efficient than creating them. Turning surplus grain into gold, Archer secures funding for his growing nation. Yet amid these achievements, he deeply misses Anka.

Dreaming of exploring other worlds, Archer spends six months mastering combat skills with magically animated training partners. He gives his advisor Sol a humanoid body, only to discover that Sol possesses free will and may eventually leave him. Despite his unease, Archer accepts Sol's independence, and their friendship deepens. By the end of their training, Archer has become an extraordinary warrior, while Sol surpasses even him. Together, they visit the Shod, prepare for their departure, and create a portal to another world. Leaving a letter for Anka, the two companions step through into the unknown.

Archer and Sol arrive in a scorching wasteland, discovering that interdimensional travel has drained the magic brush. After creating a small oasis, they journey across the dried-up sea beneath shimmering auroras. Archer conjures a bicycle and teaches Sol to ride it, but their journey is interrupted by two armed riders mounted on a gigantic bird. A tense confrontation ends peacefully when Archer creates a magical translator. The riders depart, promising to return with their captain. Hours later, an enormous flying warship approaches: the Green Ripper, armed with forty cannons and carrying 160 crew members. Its target is the Painter.

Aboard the Green Ripper, Archer astonishes Captain Glimorsky by creating a monolithic aquameter—an artifact capable of saving the dying world of the Four Crowns. The captain reveals how ancient terraforming experiments awakened colossal underground creatures, triggering centuries of warfare and ultimately draining the planet's oceans. With humanity reduced to a few million survivors, the aquameter offers hope of restoring the biosphere. The warship carries Archer and Sol to Ramman, a magnificent city built upon a floating island. There, the king verifies the artifact's authenticity, orders his fleet assembled, and offers Archer any reward he desires.

Archer asks the King of Ramman for freedom to explore the Four Crowns, while Captain Glimorsky receives a barony. Fearing sabotage by rival kingdoms, Admiral Fenrik secretly sends the Green Ripper to activate the terraforming machine. After a dangerous journey, Archer, Sol, and Glimorsky descend into Arken's Depths, where scientists from Tonki help install the aquameter. The machine begins restoring the planet's water, but Glimorsky orders the scientists executed to prevent anyone from stopping it. Horrified, Archer confronts the moral cost of saving an entire world through the murder of innocent people.

Returning to Ramman, Glimorsky is arrested for desertion until Archer reveals the truth about his secret mission. Rewarded with an admiral's rank and marriage to Princess Tasya, Glimorsky rises into the royal family. Archer establishes an alliance between Ramman and the Shod and creates a rejuvenation serum for the king. Meanwhile, Sol proposes an army of artificial workers and privately asks Archer for a magical wand to create his own society. Despite his fears, Archer agrees. The chapter concludes with grand celebrations, the signing of an interworld alliance, and the joyful ringing of bells throughout Ramman.

Archer and Sol establish a shipbuilding company in Ramman, creating iron workers animated by Sol's magical wand. But Sol discovers that each new life consumes a fragment of his own soul. Despite Archer's concerns, he willingly continues. The artificial workers rapidly master shipbuilding, attracting both admiration and fear. To gain public acceptance, Sol organizes musical parades and concerts, though one parade is violently attacked. An interview with an iron worker named Forty-Two reveals the machines' unsettling lack of human compassion, alongside their conviction that humans and machines can accomplish more together.

King Panfred reveals the tragic history of the Four Crowns: humanity colonized the giants' world, destroyed their ecosystem, and provoked a devastating war that nearly exterminated humanity. Archer wonders whether his magic brush deliberately brought him there to save the planet. As their friendship deepens, they discuss the future of civilization and the decline of monarchy. Panfred considers transforming Ramman into a democracy, even contemplating a staged revolution, but Archer opposes political deception. Preparing to return home, Archer learns that Panfred is willing to provide technology, resources, and even migrants to help develop the Shod.

Sol discovers that his artificial workers can learn independently, then expands their population to 732, exhausting his ability to divide his soul further. Together with Archer, they transform Ramman's shipyard into a powerful industrial and educational center. Their greatest achievement is the Arrow, the world's largest warship, built to strengthen Ramman's position against rival kingdoms. Glimorsky assumes command, while Archer prepares to return home. But a mysterious woman named Kaori approaches Archer with a secret offer. After shaking her hand, he is poisoned and loses consciousness. Awakening in a hospital, he discovers that his magic brush has been stolen.

Determined to recover his stolen brush, Archer joins Ramman's war against Paoriana and Tonki. During a brutal aerial battle, the Arrow is crippled and begins falling. Archer and Sol capture an enemy frigate and sacrifice themselves in a desperate maneuver that saves the flagship. Archer resurrects aboard the Arrow, but Sol is lost. Grieving his companion, Archer continues the campaign as Ramman's fleet bombards Paorian into submission. Both enemy kingdoms eventually surrender unconditionally. Then comes an astonishing revelation: the stolen brush was hidden in Ramman all along. With the war won and his brush recovered, Archer can finally return home.

Reunited with his magic brush, Archer dedicates himself to finding Sol. With Glimorsky's support and the help of Ramman's scientists, he recreates ancient underwater exploration technology. After weeks searching the ocean floor alongside artificial Worker Eighty-Nine, Archer discovers the wreckage of the Rimer Price and retrieves Sol's charred body. Miraculously, Sol is still alive—but his mind has been terribly damaged. Suffering unbearable torment, he begs Archer to destroy him. Archer refuses, promising to find a way to restore his friend. Yet as Sol falls silent, Archer faces the possibility that saving him may prove impossible.

Archer preserves Sol's damaged amulet in a magical container where time stands still, then returns home and reunites with Anka. Together, they seek help from Ramman's scientists. Experiments reveal that heat damaged Sol's mind, while radiation caused his unbearable suffering. Archer creates anti-irinium to eliminate the radiation, but restoring Sol's memories proves impossible. Repairing his deformed amulet will restore normal functioning at the cost of seventy-three years of memories. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts to find another solution, Archer explains the consequences to Sol. With Anka beside him, Sol consents to the procedure, sacrificing his past for a future.

Archer, Anka, and the restored Sol plan their civilization's future, naming their world Ankarian and their nation Trinity. An alliance with Ramman brings advanced technology and rapid development, but neural interfaces mysteriously kill hundreds of Ankarians. Investigations reveal that the devices harvest a substance called the existence factor—apparently the essence of human souls. Sol discovers that this substance can replenish his own soul and enable him to create thousands of artificial beings. Meanwhile, Anka embraces life at Ramman's royal court. Determined to witness his ideal civilization, Archer enters a time-altering sanctuary, leaving centuries to pass outside.

After 430 years, Archer and Anka emerge into a futuristic Trinity populated by a trillion humans and nearly as many artificial people. Reunited with Sol, they discover a prosperous civilization where virtual realities dominate everyday life. Archer meets ordinary citizens, including Ankani, a contented human, and Twelve, an artificial being who finds bliss in existence itself. Yet he questions whether this society is truly ideal, especially when artificial people lack voting rights. Sol reminds him that perfection may be impossible. Seeking deeper understanding, the three companions agree to spend a month living as ordinary citizens.