The chapter opens with a discussion of the situation in Heaven. The chapter's epigraph is a quote from the Book of Job, in which Job says, "I'm afraid I'm not good enough for Heaven. I've got to be good for the world." In other words, he's afraid that he'll never be good enough to live up to his potential as a human being. He's also afraid that if he doesn't rise to the top of the heap, he won't be able to do so for the rest of his life. The scene shifts to the conference hall of the Illustrious Ones. The narrator tells the story of how the Divine Race from 5,000 years ago occupied a large area of the land. The divine race cast a "curse" of death on the dice, followed by a three-death row, and then eventually died. The great tortoiseshell strategy could only defend against the divine race by attacking from afar, but this was too much of a risk. This is why the narrator is making sure that he uses the tortoiseshell technique as often as he can. The more life dice he has, the more negative the dice he can remove. This means that even if he turns the world upside down, he still has to face the "immortal realm." This is the fate that was determined by the moment he was born, and it's something that he can't escape.