Chapter Summaries

Zhou Yang discovered that he could shape the old game and used his gaming experience to make it popular, believing that absorbing players’ emotions would help him grow strong enough to return home. As the developers investigated the game’s inexplicable updates, Old Qi secretly allied with its artificial intelligence, but a company’s attempt to acquire the game threatened his control over it.

• Zhou Yang remembered that he had died and learned that he was in an old game world, where he could create game content by wishing for it.
• Zhou Yang designed a patchwork of game modes that attracted players, while the developers were bewildered by the game’s new code and rising revenue.
• The developers reported the unexplained code, but authorities found no harmful activity; the game continued to grow, and Old Qi secretly tracked its automatic updates.
• After Lao Huang, Old Liu, and Old Li died, Old Qi contacted the game’s artificial intelligence and agreed to help it in exchange for a chance at immortality.
• Half a year later, a company sought to acquire and remake the game, using its copyright and publishing rights to pressure Old Qi.

Four agents were trapped in a mirror-based Rule Game, where they had to answer personal riddles while avoiding deadly mirrors and vines. After Short Guy solved the final riddle by answering that there was only one star in the sky, the group survived, while Wenren Sheng observed that the answer reflected the true nature of their world.

• Four agents were transported from a secret conference room into the beginner instance, Four Sided Mirror, and learned the deadly rules tied to the hours of the night.
• Fat Guy answered that he had never lost an umbrella, and the mirror challenge accepted his answer; Tall Guy and Skinny Guy then correctly answered their riddles.
• Short Guy was asked how many stars were in the sky, and the four initially guessed that there were none, triggering vines to attack them.
• The agents used flames to slow the vines, and Short Guy answered that there was one star, causing the vines to retreat.
• Wenren Sheng explained that their world was inside the Void World, where one enormous star’s light passed through holes in a moving curtain to create the sun, moon, and stars.

Little Illusion’s mirror game convinced four players that they were already dead, and they accepted a deal to become Rule Game staff. Wenren Sheng set limits on Little Illusion’s games before entering her new cultivation game, where the other players’ powerful cheats drew the attention of a Great Ascension cultivator and left them imprisoned.

• Tall Guy and Short Guy saw memories in their mirrors that made them believe they were dying, and all four players collapsed in despair.
• A voice offered the four players a chance to live as Rule Game NPCs, and they signed the agreement.
• Wenren Sheng told Little Illusion that entry into such games had to be voluntary, that games should favor people who were about to die, and that players could withdraw once.
• Wenren Sheng entered Little Illusion’s cultivation game with three other Transmigrators; while they chose powerful Heavenly Dao rules, he chose none.
• A Great Ascension cultivator captured the three players with rules, intending to refine them into pills, while Wenren Sheng escaped.
• The captive players found their cheats useless against imprisonment, and No. 2’s Infinite Simulation repeatedly predicted that he would remain trapped until he died of old age.

Three players tried to bargain with the Mahayana cultivator as a world-ending calamity struck, and No. 2 used Infinite Simulation to make him believe their world was an illusion. The cultivator abandoned his duties and let himself go, while Wenren Sheng watched from a hidden cave.

• The Mahayana cultivator explained that he wanted the players’ Longevity Power because ascension was impossible and the world was a farm harvested every ten thousand years.
• A catastrophic flood and other disasters began, and the cultivator told the players that even survivors in protected regions would eventually lose their cultivation and die.
• No. 2 offered to use unlimited deduction to find a way forward, and the Mahayana cultivator agreed to support him.
• No. 2’s simulation produced vast quantities of spirit stones, convincing the Mahayana cultivator that he was inside an illusion realm.
• The Mahayana cultivator concluded that he had foolishly guarded the world for the Upper Realm, then stripped naked and relaxed in the hall.

Wenren Sheng drifted through Little Illusion’s flood disaster on a boat, rescuing survivors and allowing the vessel to grow into a floating island. The boat eventually reached the Taiqing Sect, where many passengers disembarked, while Wenren Sheng and those who stayed aboard continued onward.

• Wenren Sheng rescued a woman, Qian Hu, Wei Ying, their children, and later a dog, a Turtle, and a snake, while his boat sheltered them from the flood.
• A group of cultivators attacked Wenren Sheng’s boat, but he caught and returned a Flying Sword, forcing their ship to flee.
• As the boat filled with survivors, newcomers crowded people out of cabins, and Qian Hu organized food scraps into small boats to carry more refugees.
• The vessels grew into a floating island as the population reached tens of thousands, and Wenren Sheng let its residents settle their disputes without intervening.
• The island reached the Taiqing Sect, where many passengers left to settle on the mountain, while the three players were excited to find a variable.

Wenren Sheng allowed rumors of Spirit Abyss Island’s limitless cultivation resources to draw four factions into a battle, hoping to gather intense emotions from their conflict. As the fighting engulfed the island, a golden pillar announced the emergence of a spirit treasure and drew every cultivator toward the center.

• Wenren Sheng let the island’s reputation spread, attracting the Righteous Path Alliance, Evil Cultivator Alliance, Loose Cultivator Alliance, and a mysterious force of armored women.
• The four factions gathered around Spirit Abyss Island, where Wenren Sheng waited for their emotions to intensify.
• The Righteous Path Alliance and Evil Cultivator Alliance began fighting, and loose cultivators joined the chaotic struggle for the island’s resources.
• The mysterious force attacked the loose cultivators and advanced toward the island’s core, while a transmigrator watched and coveted its leader.
• A golden pillar erupted from the island’s center, and cultivators from every faction stopped fighting and rushed toward it.

The factions fought over the Phoenix Mirror, but the Despicable Transmigrator and an Earth Dog seized its two halves and fled to different places. Meanwhile, Numbers One, Two, and Three mistook the seemingly real treasure and resources for virtual parts of the Rule Game, leaving them unaware that the mirror could have helped them escape.

• The six Fusion realm experts fought over the Phoenix Mirror, which evaded their attacks and flew away.
• The Despicable Transmigrator tracked down the Phoenix Mirror, but an Earth Dog attacked him to claim it and use it to become human again.
• The Despicable Transmigrator and the Earth Dog battled until the Phoenix Mirror split in two; the dog escaped with one half, and the Despicable Transmigrator fled with the other.
• Numbers One, Two, and Three watched the struggle and concluded that the mirror and the world's resources were illusions, while Wenren Sheng recognized that the mirror could have helped them escape the Great Ascension cultivator's control.
• The four factions divided the nine resource chambers, and Numbers One, Two, and Three explored them before deciding that their unlimited resources were merely virtual data.
• The Despicable Transmigrator reached a wilderness with half the mirror and learned that the Earth Dog was burying the other half on Yellow Earth Mound.

The Earth Dog outsmarted the Despicable Transmigrator and escaped with the reunited mirror, while Wenren Sheng collected the emotions their struggle produced. The Despicable Transmigrator later joined forces with Players Number One, Number Two, and Number Three, who learned more about the dangerous Upper Realm and sought answers from Supreme Sect.

• The Earth Dog lured the Despicable Transmigrator into a trap, took the other half of the mirror, and escaped after spending a million years of lifespan.
• Wenren Sheng collected the Transmigrator's regret and frustration, then collected joy as the Earth Dog won the battle.
• Players Number One, Number Two, and Number Three pursued the Despicable Transmigrator, convinced him they were not Reincarnators, and asked him about the world's secrets.
• The Despicable Transmigrator told the players that ascended cultivators were treated as food and described the four refuges, including the mysterious Supreme Sect.
• The players and the Despicable Transmigrator visited Supreme Sect, where the sect master said safe ascension meant becoming something the Upper Realm would not eat.
• The Despicable Transmigrator answered that pig dung could escape a sealed pigsty while pigs would be slaughtered, and the Supreme Sect Master praised his cleverness.

The Supreme Sect Master and the others devised a plan to escape the Great Cleansing by turning themselves into Pill Poison and hiding in an ascender who would be eaten by a picky monster. They tricked Saint Child into ascending, survived when the monster ate only his heart, and found themselves in a barren New World.

• The Supreme Sect Master explained that the group could escape by becoming Pill Poison inside a genuine ascender and hiding from the monsters of the Upper Realm.
• Number Two's simulations showed that picky monsters sometimes spared an ascender's hair and fingernails, while tracking revealed that ascension near the month's end improved their odds.
• After years of discussion and simulation, the four chose to raise an isolated, innocent Cultivator as an inhuman-tasting Saint Child who would attract a suitable monster.
• The Despicable Transmigrator and the others raised Saint Child for two thousand years, but Saint Child ambushed them, stole their resources, and crippled them after growing resentful.
• Saint Child ascended and was eaten by a monster that consumed only his heart, allowing the four to survive as Pill Poison and emerge into a barren New World.

The four discovered that their apparent ascension had only taken them out of an illusion, leaving them stranded in a barren Immortal Realm without cultivation or water. After stopping the others from eating a newly ascended Water Spirit, the Despicable Transmigrator realized they needed to cooperate with the Small Worlds and create cheats to enable trade.

• Number One, Number Two, Number Three, and the Despicable Transmigrator realized their cultivation had vanished and that their earlier ascent did not count because it had only freed them from an illusion.
• The group considered surviving by eating ascenders and used Number Two’s simulations to create Small Worlds beneath a sand dune.
• When a Water Spirit ascended, the Despicable Transmigrator stopped Number One from eating him and inferred that the Rule Game had a hidden rule against eating people.
• Number Two added the possibility of a GM to his simulations and confirmed that eating people would violate a hidden rule.
• The Despicable Transmigrator proposed cooperating with the Small Worlds by creating cheats that let ascenders travel between worlds and trade resources.

Number One survived inside the Sand Worm, cultivated by absorbing its resources, and ascended, clearing the Rule Game. Back in the real world, the three received rewards and chose different emotions for their Spirit Seeds.

• Number Two, Number Three, and the Despicable Transmigrator fled from the Sand Worm, then accused Number Two of deliberately setting up Number One’s death and split apart.
• Number Three and the Despicable Transmigrator discovered limits on how many Small Worlds they could create and separated to claim different territories.
• Number One survived inside the Sand Worm, cultivated by absorbing its prey’s resources, and chose to ascend after reaching the Great Ascension Stage.
• Number One’s ascension killed the Sand Worm and cleared the Rule Game, while Number Two and Number Three heard the news and Wenren Sheng revealed he had provided the cheats and resources.
• Number One, Number Two, and Number Three returned to the real world, received freedom attributes and Spirit Seeds, and chose happiness, sorrow, and fear, respectively.

Wenren Sheng sent the three revived Rule Game casualties into a new challenge alongside his high-school self, Wen Sheng, who entered the Midnight Dormitory with a Hint Tool that revealed hidden rules and disguised victims. The eight players began evening study, unaware that the dormitory’s rules concealed deadly tests and false identities.

• The three men died in another Rule Game, and Wenren Sheng extracted their final thoughts and souls, promising them revival if they cleared the next game.
• Wenren Sheng created Wen Sheng from his pre-high-school memories and sent him into the Midnight Dormitory with a hidden cheat while Little Illusion challenged him to clear it without his full memories.
• Wen Sheng and seven other players learned they had to spend seven nights in the dormitory and complete study missions; he used the Hint Tool to uncover hidden rules and identify several players as dead victims posing as students.
• Number One, Number Two, and Number Three proposed sharing an eight-person dormitory, but Xu Li dismissed the idea after pretending only one girl was behind the locked door.
• The eight players gathered in the Self-Study Room for evening study and began reading textbooks, including Advanced Mathematics, linear algebra, and Introduction to Algorithms.

Wen Sheng decoded the self-study room’s page-turning sounds to find exam questions and answers, while the others struggled with the dormitory’s dangerous rules. After the tall girl was injured and mysteriously exchanged identities with the administrator, a monster prowled their dorm room at night, and the next morning Slightly Fat Girl reported that Xiao Gao had jumped from the fourth floor.

• Wen Sheng recognized that the page-turning sounds formed Morse code, found a codebook, and decoded exam questions and answers.
• The tall girl spoke in the Self-Study Room, suffered barnacles in her throat, and drank scalding water before cooled water made the barnacles disappear.
• The tall girl attacked the administrator and exchanged identities with him, though Wen Sheng kept the change to himself.
• After lights out, a blue-faced, fanged monster entered the boys’ dormitory, sniffed a student in a lower bunk, and said it would return the next day.
• At dawn, Slightly Fat Girl reported that Xiao Gao had jumped from the fourth floor, and the others found blood on the concrete below.

After Gao Ya died, Wen Sheng uncovered the administrator’s connection to her death and exposed him as a wolfdog monster. The survivors killed the monster and found that food in the Administrator Room replenished itself, though Number One and the others recognized the situation as familiar.

• Wen Sheng checked the bathroom mirror and confirmed that the dead person was Number 008, Gao Ya.
• The survivors blamed Gao Ya’s death on breaking the rule against making eye contact with the administrator, while Wen Sheng realized that she and the administrator had switched identities.
• Wen Sheng shared the Morse Code exam answers in the Self-Study Room, and the group began memorizing them before discovering there was no food in the dormitory.
• Number Three and Ordinary Guy A and Ordinary Guy B asked the administrator for food, and he hinted that they should eat one another during a famine.
• Wen Sheng used a stick to attack the administrator, and the others joined in until the administrator reverted to his wolfdog form.
• The survivors found food in the Administrator Room’s drawers, where the food replenished itself, and Number One and two others recognized the arrangement.

Wen Sheng and the others discovered a video depicting seven warriors battling the wolfdog, which revealed clues that the monster could revive by taking over people. They gathered weapons and armor to prepare for another fight, while Wen Sheng grew suspicious that the Dormitory Building was hiding more secrets.

• Number One, Number Two, and Number Three concluded that the Dormitory Building was a virtual world and approached Wen Sheng and the others to introduce themselves.
• The wolfdog revived and chased the seven survivors upstairs, where they barricaded themselves behind an iron gate until it eventually left.
• The group searched the fifth floor and found a phone containing a video of seven people resembling them fighting the wolfdog; Wen Sheng noticed that Number Three was being covertly controlled by it.
• The video showed the seven warriors killing the wolfdog, but Number Three pointed out that the monster was still alive and questioned how it had returned.
• Wen Sheng suggested that the wolfdog had possessed Hunter Number One, and Number Two theorized that it revived by taking the life of a girl who had died.
• The group searched for equipment, found a bow, arrows, decorative swords, armor, and hunter gear, and discovered that the weapons granted their holders combat knowledge.

Wen Sheng and No. 1 searched the lower floors for Wang Tao’s weapon and uncovered conflicting accounts of a deadly fire in the Dormitory Building. They learned that the wolfdog monster sought revenge, but the truth remained uncertain, so they continued investigating both stories.

• Wen Sheng agreed to search the lower floors with No. 1 after the others refused to help, and they found Wang Tao’s weapon on the third floor.
• Lu Jia bolted the fourth-floor gate against them, so Wen Sheng and No. 1 went to the Administrator Room and discovered hidden food, medicine, and a diary suggesting the administrator had set a fire out of jealousy.
• Wen Sheng and No. 1 decoded Morse messages in the Self-Study Room that described the administrator burning the Dormitory Building and trapping its residents.
• Wen Sheng and No. 1 heard another coded message that contradicted the first account, claiming a rejected boy set the fire and the administrator died trying to save the girl.
• Wen Sheng and No. 1 decided to investigate both versions of the fire’s history, while the wolfdog monster stayed away through the night.

Wen Sheng and Number One uncovered evidence about the dormitory fire and exposed the wolfdog monster’s illusions, but they could not defeat it and retreated to the Self-Study Room. The wolfdog remained outside, while the group took refuge inside.

• Wen Sheng and Number One found recordings, receipts, a photo, and a diary that suggested a student planned the fire, but Wen Sheng said the evidence did not prove the killer’s identity.
• Wen Sheng and Number One found a video of a masked person releasing Smoke Agent and called the others down, but Number Two and Number Three questioned whether they were genuine after impostors had attacked them.
• Wen Sheng realized the five people on the fourth floor were illusions because they could not answer his question about finding the truth in the Self-Study Room, and the wolfdog revealed itself.
• Wen Sheng used the staff to dispel the illusion, and the real group joined him and Number One before going to fight the wolfdog in the management room.
• The group could not defeat the wolfdog and retreated into the Self-Study Room, where the monster refused to follow and threatened to starve them out.

Wen Sheng and the others escaped a false mission-ending illusion, defeated the wolfdog by smoking out the administrator, and completed the three exam missions. They then entered a famine-stricken feudal world, where they set out for Green Cloud Town as hunger and drought devastated the region.

• Wen Sheng used two diaries to reveal that the wolfdog was an administrator anomaly, but the apparent victory proved to be an illusion when the wolfdog returned.
• Number One suggested using smoke against the administrator, and the group drove him from the Administrator Room before killing him in combat.
• A teacher tested the group on the three books, and the seven people completed their missions and exited the Rule Game.
• Wen Sheng arrived in an Urban World without verifiable identification, while Numbers One, Two, and Three spent their attribute points on Constitution before entering another game.
• Number One, Number Two, Number Three, and Wen Sheng entered the famine survival game and headed toward Green Cloud Town in search of water, food, and shelter.
• Green Cloud Town faced three years of drought, emptied grain stores, soaring food prices, and a mass flight of residents toward the county seat.

Wen Sheng and the other three gathered survivors of Green Cloud Town and led them east through famine-stricken lands, recruiting the young and able-bodied as they went. When the group reached a region guarded by cavalry and hostile villagers, the four left before the refugees were driven away and killed, forcing the survivors to confront the imperial court’s refusal to help them.

• Wen Sheng and the others scavenged food in Green Cloud Town, then gathered its surviving young and able-bodied people under the name of the Profound Heaven Old Ancestor.
• The group traveled east, recruited more survivors, and defeated a band of amateur cannibals who tried to rob them.
• After losing more than twenty people along the road, the group reached a less-drought-stricken area and saw refugees barred from passing by cavalry and local villagers.
• Wen Sheng and the other three left with a small group before the cavalry drove the refugees away, while some who stayed were killed.

Wen Sheng and his companions lured five cavalrymen into an ambush, seized their checkpoint and horses, and led the refugees into the mountains. There, they established Azure Cloud Stockade and began organizing themselves as bandits.

• Wen Sheng and the others decided to capture the five cavalrymen, and several women approached the checkpoint as bait while Wen Sheng's group prepared an ambush.
• Number One and the others killed four cavalrymen with spears, and Wen Sheng knocked down the fifth with a stone before the group captured Old Five and took the checkpoint.
• The group seized provisions and horses, brought over the remaining refugees, and punished the sturdy woman for warning the cavalrymen that they were being ambushed.
• Wen Sheng's group traveled into the mountains and, unable to enter towns without Travel Permits, decided to become bandits.
• The refugees established Azure Cloud Stockade with stone-marked boundaries and makeshift tents, and Wen Sheng appointed the first four leaders and four deputy chiefs.