Chapter Summaries

Zhang Heng discovered that the creature beneath Workshop No. 3 was connected to the disappearances and learned that the missing people might still be alive, including Bai Qing’s mother. After finding that the captives had been moved, he decided they needed to deal with the underground creature first and examined Lin Sisi’s essay for clues about why it feared the children.

• Bai Qing panicked when Zhang Heng’s radio signal vanished, then relaxed when he returned and said the missing people might still be alive.
• Zhang Heng waited for the vines to release his LEGO decoy, escaped Workshop No. 3 through a window, and returned to Bai Qing.
• Zhang Heng told Bai Qing he had found evidence of prisoners but that the captives had been moved after his investigation alerted the creatures.
• Zhang Heng rejected handing the blurry photos and videos to the police, fearing they would not be believed and that the creatures might have infiltrated the police.
• Zhang Heng took Bai Qing back to the hotel, then studied Lin Sisi’s elementary school essay for clues about what could threaten the underground creature.

After reading Lin Sisi’s journal, Zhang Heng learned that the children had uncovered a hostile alien organism and may have received help from another kind of extraterrestrial. He and Bai Qing searched for the object connected to the Planetary Observation Team, and Bai Qing pointed him toward the nearby Old Planetarium.

• Zhang Heng read Lin Sisi’s journal, which described hostile extraterrestrials that had survived since the Cretaceous Period and planned to attack humanity.
• Zhang Heng realized the children likely had help from another lifeform and that the shadows beneath Warehouse No. 3 were searching for an object connected to them.
• Zhang Heng asked Bai Qing to investigate the Planetary Observation Team after explaining what he had learned.
• Bai Qing suggested the Old Planetarium, explaining that it had later become a Children’s Palace and was only a ten-minute walk from the children’s residential complex.

Bai Qing investigated Lin Sisi’s visits to the Old Planetarium, now the Children’s Palace, while Zhang Heng stayed at school under surveillance. Director Gao recognized Bai Qing’s lie and connected Lin Sisi to the three children who drowned, leaving Bai Qing to explain who she was.

• Zhang Heng and Bai Qing split up, with Zhang Heng going to school and Bai Qing heading to the Old Planetarium to investigate Lin Sisi.
• Bai Qing learned from the gatekeeper that Lin Sisi and two boys had visited the Children’s Palace often and always gone to see Director Gao.
• Bai Qing’s phone was damaged in a collision with a teacher, but she accepted three hundred yuan from him and continued to Director Gao’s office.
• Director Gao saw through Bai Qing’s claim that she was Lin Sisi’s relative and said she suspected Lin Sisi was one of the three children who drowned.
• Bai Qing admitted she was still in high school but could not bring herself to explain her real reason for visiting.

Bai Qing questioned Director Gao about Lin Sisi and searched the old planetarium storage room for something important Lin Sisi had left behind. Director Gao revealed that someone else had already asked about the Planetary Observation Team and urged Bai Qing to trust her.

• Director Gao told Bai Qing how she met Lin Sisi at a children's astronomy competition and explained that she had not seen Lin Sisi for over a month before the accident.
• Bai Qing asked Director Gao to take her to the storage room the Planetary Observation Team had used, and Director Gao agreed.
• Bai Qing followed Director Gao into the basement storage room and searched among old astronomy models and educational materials for something unusual.
• Director Gao said the room held nothing unique and asked Bai Qing why finding something there mattered.
• Bai Qing said she was withholding details to keep Director Gao out of danger, but Director Gao replied that someone else had already asked about the Planetary Observation Team and urged Bai Qing to trust her.

Bai Qing left Director Gao believing that Zhang Heng had deceived her about the extraterrestrials, then hurried to a phone repair shop to use a phone. Before she could place her call, someone recognized her and said they had found her.

• Director Gao persuaded Bai Qing that Zhang Heng might have forged the evidence and that she had only heard his version of events.
• Bai Qing broke down over her parents and apologized to Director Gao, who comforted her and offered to teach her astronomy.
• Director Gao escorted Bai Qing out of the Children's Palace and watched her leave.
• Bai Qing rushed to a phone repair shop, asked the owner to replace her shattered phone screen, and borrowed his phone.
• Before Bai Qing could make a call, someone behind her said, "Oh, you really are here."

Bai Qing became suspicious of the male teacher, the phone repair shop owner, and a Mini that seemed to be following her after her phone broke. She fled back to the planetarium, where Zhang Heng found her, but she recoiled when he touched her forehead.

• The male teacher negotiated Bai Qing's phone repair price and asked about her connection to Director Gao, but she rejected his questions and offer to take her home.
• Bai Qing grew anxious when the repair dragged on and noticed a Mini across the street that seemed to contain the male teacher.
• Bai Qing snatched her unrepaired phone and ran from the shop, then tried to evade the Mini through a residential complex.
• Bai Qing became lost and returned to the planetarium, where she saw Director Gao and then spotted the Mini approaching.
• Zhang Heng pulled Bai Qing behind a newsstand, explained that he had come because she did not answer his message, and reassured her.
• Bai Qing instinctively recoiled when Zhang Heng touched her forehead.

Bai Qing and Zhang Heng escaped the area after their route was blocked, and Zhang Heng confessed that he liked her. Bai Qing suspected that Zhang Heng had been replaced, but she found no way to escape him and continued with him toward the internet café.

• Zhang Heng told Bai Qing that the Children's Palace route was blocked and that she could not return to her hotel, so he proposed taking her to a private room at an internet café.
• Bai Qing asked Zhang Heng whether he liked her, and he said that he did; she cried and threw herself into his arms.
• Zhang Heng and Bai Qing left the newsstand and walked toward a noodle shop after Bai Qing said she needed to use the restroom.
• In the restroom, Bai Qing despaired that Zhang Heng might have been replaced and searched for an escape, but the window had security bars.
• Zhang Heng waited outside the restroom and questioned Bai Qing when she came out; she pretended to be fine and went with him, still afraid and unsure where else to run.

Bai Qing feared that Zhang Heng and the people around him were hunting her, so she prepared to attack him when he returned to the internet cafe. Zhang Heng stopped her and proved his identity by answering her question, then revealed a tracking device hidden in her shirt.

• Bai Qing rode with Zhang Heng to Ronghua Internet Cafe while struggling to hide her fear.
• At the internet cafe, Zhang Heng sent Bai Qing upstairs and left to buy yangmei.
• Bai Qing entered VIP 3, found no way to escape, and waited by the door with a glass ashtray.
• When Zhang Heng returned, Bai Qing swung the ashtray at him, but he caught her hand and covered her mouth.
• Zhang Heng asked Bai Qing to question him, answered that he was from another world, and showed her the miniature tracking device in her shirt.

Zhang Heng rescued Bai Qing from the impostors and realized the life-form’s hunters were searching for information, not a physical object. He concluded that the three children had posted a way to stop the creature online and began using Baidu Snapshot to track down deleted posts.

• Zhang Heng apologized to Bai Qing and explained that impostors had attacked him at school after the creature beneath Warehouse No. 3 hatched.
• Bai Qing recounted how Director Gao’s people followed her and an impostor disguised as Zhang Heng tried to abduct her, but she recognized it by its failure to say their code phrase.
• Zhang Heng revealed that he had tracked Bai Qing and that the impostor she sent to buy bayberries was now in his trunk.
• Zhang Heng reasoned that the sought-after item was not at the Children's Palace and that the three children had likely shared its location or instructions online.
• Zhang Heng explained how Baidu Snapshot could reveal cached versions of deleted webpages, leaving Bai Qing astonished by his computer knowledge.

Zhang Heng and Bai Qing searched online for evidence connected to Lin Sisi and found a forum user, Traveler One, who had encountered her as Fermi Paradox. Traveler One revealed that Fermi Paradox had claimed to decipher a segment of radio radiation, but the post had been deleted, leaving Zhang Heng without the information he needed.

• Zhang Heng and Bai Qing searched for posts linking aliens, disasters, and stopping them, then found a science-fiction story that had drawn a comment from Traveler One.
• Zhang Heng messaged Traveler One, who explained that Fermi Paradox was a punctual and argumentative user from a Douban group.
• Traveler One recalled that Fermi Paradox had posted about deciphering a segment of radio radiation three weeks earlier.
• Zhang Heng searched for the post, but found that it had been deleted from the online archives as well.
• Bai Qing asked what they should do, and Traveler One said he had learned Fermi Paradox's method, though it seemed applicable only to that particular segment.

After learning that blue-green algae might be key to the creature beneath Warehouse No. 3, Zhang Heng decided to infiltrate its group by posing as his own duplicate. He and Bai Qing captured the duplicate, and Zhang Heng began questioning him while the captive challenged Zhang Heng’s unexplained abilities.

• Zhang Heng and Bai Qing learned that the children had planned to collect blue-green algae, which Zhang Heng suspected was connected to the creature’s replication ability.
• Zhang Heng used a captured duplicate’s identity to convince the group directing it that their mission had succeeded, then left an internet café with Bai Qing pretending to be his prisoner.
• Zhang Heng and Bai Qing climbed into their van, where Zhang Heng revealed the bound duplicate he had captured.
• Zhang Heng questioned the duplicate about its earlier disguise as Bai Qing’s mother, while the duplicate asked how Zhang Heng had gained his combat and investigative skills.
• The duplicate threatened Zhang Heng and Bai Qing with the police and the group’s power, but Zhang Heng calmly redirected the conversation to the duplicate and its people.

Zhang Heng interrogated his captured double about the replaced people and the creatures’ organization, using four captured creatures to pressure him. He learned where the victims were being held and some basic information, while keeping his knowledge of Workshop No. 3 and the blue-green algae secret.

• Zhang Heng questioned his double about how the creatures communicated and where they had imprisoned the people they replaced.
• Zhang Heng showed his double a jar containing four creatures extracted from the heads of the people he had subdued at the Academic Affairs Office.
• Zhang Heng heated the jar over a portable gas burner until the creatures stopped moving, prompting his double to agree to cooperate.
• Zhang Heng demanded the creatures’ plan for dealing with him as well as the victims’ location, then had his double answer a call from the internet cafe owner.
• Zhang Heng learned where the replaced people were held and gained basic information about the creatures’ organization, while concealing his knowledge of Workshop No. 3 and the blue-green algae.

Zhang Heng and Bai Qing split up, with Bai Qing heading to rescue her mother while Zhang Heng infiltrated Workshop No. 3 to reach the thing beneath it. Zhang Heng entered the underground chamber disguised as an ally and watched the vines consume Rabbit as a sacrifice.

• Bai Qing chose to go find her mother while Zhang Heng went to the glass factory, and he gave her a tracker, camera, and jar containing the thing from his Fourth Ventricle.
• Zhang Heng collected blue-green algae and entered the glass factory through its main gate, then claimed to the guards at Warehouse No. 3 that No. 2 had ordered the replication plan using a girl's hair.
• The guards brought Rabbit and let Zhang Heng enter Workshop No. 3 with them.
• Underground, the guards placed Rabbit before the vine-covered door, and the vines pierced and devoured the rabbit as one guard opened the door.

Zhang Heng attacked the aliens guarding the hall, then used blue-green algae to disrupt the banyan-like plant and escape the basement. Outside, he opened fire on the guards with his miniature submachine gun, but the fight was still underway.

• Zhang Heng struck one guard with a wrench, then killed the second after the vines forced him into their attack range, earning five Proxy War points for each alien.
• Zhang Heng divided the blue-green algae among the vines and the banyan-like plant, causing it to spew ash and shed bark rapidly.
• Zhang Heng finished off the incapacitated guard and escaped the ash-filled basement by dodging the agitated vines.
• The guards outside rushed Zhang Heng, who loaded Infinite Blocks into his miniature submachine gun and opened fire, killing one alien.

Zhang Heng destroyed the aliens’ Tree Pupae and fought his way through the glass factory as its inhabitants swarmed him. Cornered on the roof, he unleashed an unknown power that terrified and incapacitated his pursuers, then leaped toward the perimeter wall.

• Zhang Heng fought through the guards outside Workshop No. 3, using his submachine gun and Small Knife to bring them down.
• Zhang Heng fought off more aliens in the factory yard, smashed their necks to stop them moving, and climbed onto the workshop roof.
• Zhang Heng received a hidden-mission notification confirming that he had destroyed the Tree Pupae and cut off the aliens’ reproduction.
• The aliens surrounded Workshop No. 3 and rushed Zhang Heng on the roof as he tried to blast his way toward the perimeter wall.
• Zhang Heng reached out toward the charging aliens, causing them to collapse in terror, then leaped toward the perimeter wall.

After escaping the glass factory, Zhang Heng raced to Bai Qing’s location, but she cut off contact after deciding to confront the captors herself. He arrived at the construction site exhausted and narrowly dodged a falling concrete hopper before two attackers ambushed him.

• Zhang Heng escaped the glass factory pursuers in his van and called Bai Qing, who warned that the captors were preparing to leave their base.
• Bai Qing told Zhang Heng she would try to delay the captors because her mother was among the captives, then hung up and switched off her phone.
• Zhang Heng drove recklessly toward Bai Qing, struggling with deep exhaustion and confusion over what had happened at Warehouse No. 3.
• Zhang Heng reached the construction site, took his Plague Bone Bow and Arrow of Paris, and entered the unfinished building.
• Zhang Heng dodged a concrete hopper falling from the eleventh floor, then two attackers rushed out and thrust iron pipes at him.

Zhang Heng fought through the enemies at the construction site and reached the eleventh floor, where Bai Qing, her mother, and the other captives were being held. After killing their guards, he heard police sirens approaching but knew he could not rest yet.

• Zhang Heng used his reloaded submachine gun to kill the two enemies who had been cornering him with iron pipes.
• Zhang Heng's construction elevator was sabotaged and crashed, but he climbed the building's outer wall to the eleventh floor.
• Zhang Heng found an enemy guarding the stairwell with a modified nail gun and memorized its position.
• Zhang Heng found Bai Qing, her mother, the college student, and the other captives unconscious beside empty gasoline barrels.
• Zhang Heng shot the guard before it could light a fire, then killed the enemy who rushed over from the stairwell.
• Zhang Heng was nearly too exhausted to stand as police sirens approached, but he knew he could not rest yet.

Three months after the construction-site battle, Bai Qing still missed Zhang Heng and wondered where he had gone. On her way home, she recognized a masked man as her father's former defense attorney, fled into a parking lot, and found herself pursued by him as he threatened to make Zhang Heng pay.

• Bai Qing recalled that the authorities had dropped the case against her father, while Zhang Heng had disappeared after calling her grandfather and evading the police.
• Chi Jia teased Bai Qing about missing Zhang Heng, and Bai Qing left school still thinking about him.
• On her way to the bus stop, Bai Qing felt she was being followed and noticed a masked man who boarded the same bus.
• Bai Qing recognized the masked man as her father's former defense attorney and got off the bus to escape him.
• The masked man caught up with Bai Qing in a mall parking lot, pulled a small knife from his briefcase, and said it was time to make Zhang Heng pay.

Bai Qing reunited with Zhang Heng after he saved her from a masked attacker, and she learned he planned to leave for a long time. Back in the bar after the Proxy War scenario, Zhang Heng reflected on strange unexplained events while Bartender Lady looked forward to an old friend’s arrival.

• A masked man cornered Bai Qing in a parking lot, but Zhang Heng shot him from a nearby rooftop before he could attack her.
• Zhang Heng told Bai Qing that the attacker had an accomplice in the mall and asked her to help move the body while he dealt with the other person.
• Bai Qing embraced Zhang Heng when they reunited, and he admitted he would soon leave for a long time.
• Bai Qing kissed Zhang Heng and told him he was her hero, even if she was the only person who knew it.
• Zhang Heng woke from the Proxy War scenario and considered the unexplained movement on the rooftop and his strange dream.
• Bartender Lady said an old friend was coming and raised a toast to friendship and memories with Zhang Heng.

Zhang Heng’s high Proxy War score drew attention on the player forum, while Shen Xixi told him that Dumbledore had attacked 1810’s team and abducted Yogurt. She relayed the team’s request for Zhang Heng’s help in finding and rescuing her.

• Players debated Simon’s 1,475 points, and β later appeared in second place with 1,007 points; Tenma ranked third with 872.
• Rabbit confirmed that Zhang Heng was Simon, and Shen Xixi congratulated him when they met at school.
• Shen Xixi told Zhang Heng that Dumbledore had used Stupefy to disable 1810’s team, taken the Sphinx, and abducted Yogurt.
• Shen Xixi said 1810’s team wanted Zhang Heng to help rescue Yogurt and offered points and game items in return.