Chapter Summaries

Li Changsheng watched the conflict as Positive and Negative explained that she had fused humans with Anomaly power to create test subjects. The confrontation continued when August Desolation appeared in his submarine, and Positive and Negative revealed that she had tested the process on herself first.

• Li Changsheng observed the battle from a distance and noted that four other people were still somewhere in the ruins.
• Positive and Negative identified Two Lives Cycle's abilities and summoned a mutated human test subject from her Pokemon Ball.
• Positive and Negative explained that her experiment let humans use Anomaly power while retaining their original selves.
• August Desolation surfaced in his Player Submarine and accused Positive and Negative of targeting innocent people for her experiments.
• Positive and Negative said August Desolation had little value as a test subject and revealed that her own arm was nothingness because she had been her first test subject.

Positive and Negative awakened a monstrous test subject to delay August Desolation, Two Lives Cycle, and Cloudfall Illusion while she approached the iron gate. The Monster’s speed, strength, and durability turned the fight against them, and Li Changsheng watched from a distance as Positive and Negative reached the gate.

• Positive and Negative argued that volunteers had consented to her dangerous experiments, while August Desolation challenged her claims about the test subjects.
• The Monster awakened and attacked August Desolation, but Two Lives Cycle pulled him out of danger and blocked its strike.
• Positive and Negative ordered the Monster to hold off the others, then headed for the iron gate.
• The Monster teleported in front of Cloudfall Illusion and struck him aside as Positive and Negative reached the gate.
• Li Changsheng watched from a distance and recognized that the Monster’s strength, defense, and mobility could stall the others.

Xiao Ruochen’s history revealed her role in creating the Fallen Players and founding New Humans, before she arrived at the iron gate and found Bai Zhi waiting with the Evil God Figurine. Positive and Negative asked how Bai Zhi had restored the Figurine’s sanity, and the Figurine explained that the dining hall’s survivors had been cursed with eternal life and immortality.

• Xiao Ruochen was revealed to have created the Fallen Players in New Humans through experiments meant to give humans power over Anomalies.
• Xiao Ruochen entered the iron gate and found Bai Zhi grilling skewers while holding the Evil God Figurine hostage.
• Bai Zhi told Positive and Negative to have the being beside her come out, then warned the Figurine not to touch him with her tentacles.
• Positive and Negative asked how Bai Zhi had restored the Figurine’s sanity, saying her soul’s contamination had resisted every method she tried.
• The Evil God Figurine said everyone in the dining hall had suffered a curse of eternal life and immortality since the place was destroyed.

Bai Zhi learned that the ruined dining hall had been pulled into its own distant past, when humans from countless worlds were being fed into it to corrupt it. The Former Shopkeeper did not answer whether the plan succeeded.

• Bai Zhi saw countless humans fall through a black hole in the writhing mass above the ruins, mutate into Hungry Monsters, and attack one another.
• Bai Zhi asked the Former Shopkeeper what the dining hall was and learned they were seeing it as it had looked when it was destroyed long ago.
• The Former Shopkeeper explained that the dining hall’s time power could affect only those within its confines and warned that some Strange Existences could travel into the past to erase someone.
• Bai Zhi asked why humans were being brought into the ruined dining hall, and the Former Shopkeeper said their deaths were meant to pollute it and make it belong to its attackers.
• Bai Zhi connected the plan to the Corpse Bones he had found in a bug-filled corridor, but the Former Shopkeeper did not say whether the attackers had succeeded.

Bai Zhi learned that the dining hall’s occupants had been devoured by a terrifying entity and that the survivors resorted to eating one another. He and Xiao Xiao Bai reached a time-locked vault, where she revealed how the staff had hidden the things that kept them from being contaminated.

• Bai Zhi asked Xiao Xiao Bai about the dining hall’s destruction, and she said an unknown enemy had devoured everyone inside.
• Xiao Xiao Bai explained that the eaten lost their memories, emotions, Sanity, and names, then revealed that the survivors ate one another to endure.
• Bai Zhi and Xiao Xiao Bai reached an enormous iron gate leading to a time zone that existed at only one specific moment.
• Xiao Xiao Bai explained that the dining hall had used the time-locked space to store ingredients that appeared only at particular moments.
• Xiao Xiao Bai revealed that the staff had hidden essential parts of themselves in the vault, making them impossible to contaminate.

Bai Zhi and Xiao Xiao Bai examined the brains preserving the dining hall survivors from the Curse of Eternal Life, and Xiao Xiao Bai explained that removing them would corrupt her. She revealed that several former residents had willingly joined the enemy and become powerful Evil Gods, while the others had once taken drastic measures to prevent anyone from falling.

• Bai Zhi found floating brains beyond the iron door and learned that they protected the dining hall survivors from the Curse of Eternal Life.
• Xiao Xiao Bai explained that the Curse had fused with her soul, and taking back the brains would turn her into an Anomaly.
• Positive and Negative asked why a Diner she had tried to help kept losing its sanity, and Xiao Xiao Bai said it had been pretending to use her to reach the brains.
• Xiao Xiao Bai revealed that only six of the thirteen brains remained because several residents, including the [Rancher], [Orchardist], and [Ferryman], had joined the enemy and become Evil Gods.
• Xiao Xiao Bai said the survivors had once taken extreme measures because they could not risk anyone becoming contaminated.

Xiao Xiao Bai explained that World Guardians once maintained the stability of worlds until a mysterious disaster defeated them, while Bai Zhi considered how a corrupted Guardian might become an Evil God. A tentacled man revealed that he had used Positive and Negative to seek escape from his Nightmare, then declared that he would reclaim what was his despite Xiao Xiao Bai’s refusal.

• Xiao Xiao Bai said each world could produce at most one World Guardian, who protected worlds and handled unexpected threats, and that a sudden disaster destroyed her era’s Guardians.
• Xiao Xiao Bai said she did not know whether Anomalies were man-made, and Bai Zhi decided the question could not yet be investigated.
• Bai Zhi considered whether a corrupted World Guardian could become an Evil God, but recognized that he lacked evidence to confirm the idea.
• Positive and Negative asked whether the dining hall’s Chef had used her to escape its Nightmare, and a tentacled man appeared and said that was what he wanted.
• The man described enduring unending pain after his world was destroyed and begged for release, but Xiao Xiao Bai refused to let him take back what belonged to him.
• The man accepted that Xiao Xiao Bai would not agree and stated that she could not stop him from reclaiming it.

Bai Zhi and the others confronted a former World Guardian who had become an Evil God after enduring endless torment, and he pleaded for release. Xiao Xiao Bai offered him freedom and, after he apologized, accepted his request to eat him.

• Bai Zhi recalled how the Dining Hall’s survivors had endured an invisible Monster and how only thirteen World Guardians had survived by consuming what it stole from them.
• A man who had become an Evil God begged Xiao Xiao Bai to let him go free, arguing that he and the others had already sacrificed enough.
• Positive and Negative insisted that the man keep enduring, while Bai Zhi warned that letting him go would doom hundreds or thousands of worlds.
• Xiao Xiao Bai said she had the right to judge the man and offered to give him freedom, saying he should have come to her before falling into depravity.
• The man apologized and asked Xiao Xiao Bai to eat him.

The former World Guardian remembered his life at the Dining Hall and the endless torment he endured after choosing to remain with its Manager. Xiao Xiao Bai took on his Curse and watched him disappear, then accepted food from Bai Zhi as Positive and Negative approached with a request.

• The man recalled how the Young Girl recruited him to the Dining Hall, where he spent a thousand years working and fell in love with her.
• He remembered the disaster that destroyed the Dining Hall, the Manager's sacrifice, and how he later became a Monster trapped in recurring torment.
• After meeting the Manager again, he agreed to let her take on his burden, and her warmth brought back his memories before he dispersed into Light Spots.
• Xiao Xiao Bai considered her ability to take on injuries and Curses, while Bai Zhi offered her food made from his menu.
• Xiao Xiao Bai accepted the dish, and Positive and Negative came forward to make a serious request.

Xiao Xiao Bai gave Positive and Negative another brain to protect her mind, despite warning her of severe consequences. After the group regrouped in the Dining Hall trial, Fireworks of Romance and Earthly Homeland emerged from hiding and unexpectedly found everyone gathered.

• Positive and Negative insisted that Xiao Xiao Bai give her another brain rather than remove the strange powers inside her, accepting the danger of the procedure.
• Bai Zhi and the others left the Refrigerator and found Cloudfall Illusion, Two Lives Cycle, August Desolation, and Li Changsheng wounded and guarding against them.
• Bai Zhi explained what had happened, and Positive and Negative argued with Cloudfall Illusion and August Desolation about the fight and her actions.
• Fireworks of Romance and Earthly Homeland approached in a jar disguise, believing they needed to locate and defeat a powerful Monster to clear the trial.
• Fireworks of Romance climbed out of the jar, saw everyone staring at her, and crouched down in embarrassment before Earthly Homeland emerged too.

Bai Zhi used the dining hall’s past to infiltrate an Anomaly Kitchen and prepare to interfere with its events. Qian Sui, captured and bound for a monster banquet, was left being force-fed salt by Bai Zhi’s Shadow Person.

• Xiao Xiao Bai sent the group to different points in the dining hall’s past and warned them not to interfere with unrelated events.
• Bai Zhi summoned Shadow Guards, tracked down a Senior Chef in the Anomaly Kitchen, and turned it into a Shadow Person.
• Bai Zhi used the Chef’s Number Plate on a Hanging Painting at the end of the Corridor.
• Qian Sui awoke bound in front of monstrous Diners, with her Spiritual Energy, skills, equipment, and items sealed.
• Bai Zhi’s Shadow Person poured salt into Qian Sui’s mouth while explaining the marinating process to the Diners, and Qian Sui recognized something about the salt jar.

Bai Zhi tried to convince Qian Sui, an Elf captured as an ingredient, to trust him so he could teleport her away. As Qian Sui finally lowered her guard, she recalled how her world had been destroyed and how her mother had sent her beyond it with one plea: survive.

• Qian Sui recognized the seasoning jar Bai Zhi held as her own, though her original jar remained in her Inventory, leaving her confused.
• Bai Zhi realized Qian Sui was the red-haired Elf Loli and decided he needed her trust to teleport her away.
• Bai Zhi argued with the Anomalies about how to cook Qian Sui while force-feeding her salt to signal that she should trust him completely.
• Qian Sui lowered her guard around Bai Zhi after nearly five minutes, gambling that he had come to save her.
• Qian Sui remembered that Evil Gods had destroyed her world and that her mother, the Elf Race's supreme Sage, had sent her and other heirs Outside the World, asking her to survive.

After rescuing Qian Sui, Bai Zhi explained the dining hall’s history and its World Guardian to Fireworks of Romance. The Dungeon ended unexpectedly, leaving Bai Zhi questioning what the mission’s trial truly involved and how the System related to the World Guardian.

• Qian Sui escaped her restraints, drank water, and received a note from Bai Zhi before he vanished back to the kitchen.
• Bai Zhi explained to Fireworks of Romance that the previous Shopkeeper was a World Guardian from an earlier era.
• Bai Zhi concluded that the dining hall had been corrupted and had served as a cradle for seven Evil Gods, and that Fireworks of Romance’s actions had helped expose the danger and save the Players.
• A System Prompt announced that the mission was complete and the Players would be teleported in three minutes.
• Bai Zhi realized the mission’s trial might have concerned the dining hall itself and wondered what connected the System and the World Guardian.

Bai Zhi suspected the dining hall’s Manager might discover that the group had survived the assessment, so he prepared to leave while asking Xiao Xiao Bai about the World Guardians and her situation. Xiao Xiao Bai stayed behind to protect her friends and use her former authority, while Bai Zhi returned to the Station.

• The system announced that Bai Zhi and the others could return to the Station, and Fireworks of Romance lamented losing the chance to make a dish that would have increased her Spiritual Energy cap.
• Bai Zhi reasoned that the dining hall’s Manager might try to silence them if they learned the assessment had been completed successfully.
• Bai Zhi asked Xiao Xiao Bai about surviving World Guardians and the system, and she said some remained but new World Guardians would not appear in the Players’ era.
• Bai Zhi offered Xiao Xiao Bai the Gospel of Truth and asked her to leave, but she refused because she could not leave the dining hall and would not abandon her four Employees.
• Xiao Xiao Bai said she still had work to do using her former authority, and Bai Zhi agreed to visit again before returning to the Station.
• After Bai Zhi disappeared, Xiao Xiao Bai sat against the wall, closed her eyes, and was engulfed by darkness.

Bai Zhi exchanged a Mysterious Stone for a Magic Type and asked the Merchant to cooperate in the coming Large-scale Campaign Quest. With the final Dungeon in the Domain of Delirium expected to open in two to three days, Bai Zhi began planning his preparations and choosing teammates.

• Bai Zhi gave the Merchant a Mysterious Stone and received a jar containing a Magic Type, then asked to discuss cooperation.
• The Merchant said forcibly entering a Dungeon would bring penalties and told Bai Zhi to return tomorrow; he revealed that three Dungeons remained, with the final one opening after two others were cleared.
• Bai Zhi recalled that the final Dungeon was in the Domain of Delirium, whose Core Zone had gone out of control and held indestructible Anomalies.
• Bai Zhi resolved to prepare to seize the crucial Puzzle Card and move the Domain of Delirium into the Shadow World, despite the danger and tight schedule.
• Bai Zhi decided to recruit reliable teammates, considering Dead Zero, March-shi, Between Heaven and Earth's Mountains and Seas, World's End Singer, and Fireworks of Romance.

Bai Zhi returned home from the Inner World and found Xia Wen attempting to cook lunch while the others were elsewhere. He later spoke with Qingyi about the dangerous Final Instance he would enter in two or three days, and she urged him to protect himself.

• Bai Zhi returned home around noon and caught Xia Wen adding half a bag of salt and then sugar to the soup she was cooking.
• Xia Wen asked Bai Zhi who he had brought back, and he explained that Xiao Yi and Qiansè had been leaving together while Qingyi, Anna, Tong, and Tian Huo were by the swimming pool.
• Bai Zhi summoned a Shadow Guard to help with the housework, then went upstairs to shower before lunch.
• Bai Zhi found Qingyi in his room and told her he still planned to enter the Final Instance in two or three days to improve his ranking.
• Qingyi urged Bai Zhi not to risk his safety, and he reassured her before she offered him cotton candy.

Bai Zhi and the others gathered for dinner after Anna and Tong came to fetch him, but Xia Wen’s proud attempt at cooking turned out to be an unpleasant surprise. The chapter ended with Bai Zhi learning that the shredded potato he struggled to swallow was Xia Wen’s specially prepared “Ginger Shredded Potato.”

• Anna and Tong waited outside Bai Zhi’s room to tell him that dinner was ready, and Anna asked whether he had bought cotton candy.
• Bai Zhi promised to buy cotton candy later and went downstairs holding Anna’s and Tong’s hands.
• Xia Wen served dinner in a chef’s hat and proudly claimed her cooking was better than Xiao Yi’s or Qiansè’s.
• Bai Zhi questioned whether the food was safe, while Tian Huo said it was edible.
• Bai Zhi tasted the shredded potato and struggled to swallow it before Xia Wen revealed that she had made Ginger Shredded Potato especially for him.

After lunch, Bai Zhi discovered that Xia Wen was secretly working as an adult illustrator and warned her to keep her computer away from Anna and the others. The chapter left Xia Wen locked in her room, proudly pursuing her illustration work.

• Bai Zhi ordered delivery after Xia Wen’s cooking left her crying at the table.
• Bai Zhi and Xia Wen ate together, and he suspected she had ruined lunch on purpose to get delivery.
• Qingyi, Tong, and Anna went to take an afternoon nap while Bai Zhi declined to join them.
• Xia Wen took her computer into her room and explained that she was working as an illustrator on adult commissions.
• Xia Wen called herself a Soul Artisan and told Bai Zhi she was drawing lewd illustrations rather than doujinshi.
• Bai Zhi locked Xia Wen’s door and warned her to keep her computer away from Anna and the others.

After completing the Renowned Restaurant Dungeon, Bai Zhi reviewed his rewards and examined the Elite Skill Card and Epic Item he had obtained. He could not use the flame-control Skill Card, and the chapter ended with him reacting to the Flower’s system description.

• Bai Zhi received an S-Rank evaluation for the Renowned Restaurant Dungeon, along with experience, Game Coins, points, an Elite Skill Card, and an Origin Coin.
• Bai Zhi examined the Scorching Control Skill Card and learned that it required Flame Affinity, which he did not have.
• Bai Zhi decided he might place the unusable Skill Card in his newly established Player Guild’s Warehouse for others, such as Tian Huo, to exchange for.
• Bai Zhi took out the wilted Flower he had obtained from the Sea of Flowers at the Breeding Farm and checked its system description.
• Bai Zhi reacted with alarm after seeing what kind of Eerie Thing the Flower was.

Bai Zhi stored the dangerous Anomaly [Flower Curse] and began preparing for the Final Instance. At Binhai City's Relevant Department, the Young Girl asked to enter the deadly [Ghost Domain], claiming she was uniquely suited to explore it.

• Bai Zhi examined [Flower Curse], recognized its potential to consume and destroy a city, and stored it in his Inventory.
• Bai Zhi reviewed the allies he needed to contact before the Final Instance and decided to find March-shi first.
• Binhai City had become a major Relevant Department hub after [Heavenly Court] became an [Inner World] and [Noah's Ark] began producing new Players.
• The Young Girl told Zhuge Yun she had made a research breakthrough and requested permission to enter the [Ghost Domain].
• Zhuge Yun refused because no one who entered the Ghost Domain had returned, but the Young Girl insisted she was the best person to explore it.