Chapter Summaries

Wen Sheng and the three players planned to build an organized force in the feudal world, using practical military methods and strong logistics to pursue their mission and grow stronger. After a year and a half of farming, raids, and gathering intelligence, they absorbed the scattered bandits of Azure Cloud Mountain and prepared to expand.

• Wen Sheng and the three players set their goals and agreed to keep their force discreet while winning over people and territory.
• Wen Sheng recited Qi Jiguang’s military works, and the group assigned roles for logistics, combat, liaison, training, and command.
• The group organized raids, established a Logistics Office, traded in salt, and developed mountain farms using underground water, earthworms, and mushrooms.
• Over a year and a half, the group gathered information about Azure Cloud Mountain and built enough food production to support expansion.
• The group absorbed the mountain’s scattered bandit strongholds, enslaving those who refused to join.

Azure Cloud Stockade expanded its Private Salt trade, drawing the attention of He Wuqi and Master Huang, while the Governor dismissed their accusation. After the stockade eliminated He Wuqi and grew to around 3,000 members, a flu outbreak killed many followers, prompting Wen Sheng and the others to accelerate expansion and establish breeding farms under the major households’ cover.

• Azure Cloud Stockade’s Private Salt trade attracted He Wuqi, who sent Butler He to accuse the stockade of plotting rebellion.
• Master Huang helped submit the accusation to the Governor, but the Governor dismissed the bandits as Mountain People seeking to survive.
• After discovering the stockade had absorbed most local bandits, the four sent special action squads to seize the He Family; He Wuqi and several elderly masters were killed, and the others were taken to work in the mines.
• The stockade expanded to around 3,000 core members, then spent three years digging tunnels and stockpiling grain while the Governor ignored the growing group.
• A flu outbreak sickened many people in the stronghold and killed over ten trusted followers, leading Wen Sheng and the others to decide they had to expand.
• The four began sending people down the mountain to establish New Type Breeding Farms with the major households’ protection.

Azure Cloud Mountain expanded its influence through coercion, local alliances, and farms, then overcame its communication limits by developing Wireless Radio. After the Azure Cloud Society coordinated a widespread rebellion, its organized forces defeated two imperial armies and began expanding across the realm.

• Clan Head Liu and the elders agreed to let Azure Cloud Mountain build a Chicken Farm on village wasteland because they feared retaliation.
• Azure Cloud Mountain used threats and profits from its farms to bring hundreds of villages and wealthy households under its control.
• Number One, Number Two, Number Three, and Wen Sheng decided to build Wireless Radio equipment to address communication failures and corruption.
• After a year and a half of development, the Azure Cloud Society successfully sent telegrams hundreds of li away and used daily reports to monitor its branches.
• Two years later, the Azure Cloud Society sent the code “0, 0, 0” to initiate a coordinated rebellion across the realm.
• Azure Cloud Society forces defeated a thirty-thousand-man imperial army, then used Wireless Radio to disrupt the supply lines of a sixty-thousand-man army and forced many soldiers to surrender.

The emperor personally led 120,000 troops into the northwest to crush the rebellion, while the four rebel leaders used Wireless Radio and spies to track his movements and kept their real base at Azure Cloud Mountain hidden. After the emperor reached the disaster zone, starving commoners challenged his claims of providing relief, and his officials remained too frightened to expose the failures behind the revolt.

• The emperor executed the Ministers of War and Revenue by ordering them beaten to death in sacks, then assembled an army and appointed the Crown Prince to oversee the state.
• The four rebel leaders learned the emperor had left the capital with 120,000 men and used Wireless Radio to coordinate intelligence and rebel detachments across the land.
• The emperor's army marched into the northwest and prepared to attack Xiyang Prefecture, where officials reported that more than a hundred thousand rebels had gathered.
• The Righteous Army halted its relief and reconstruction work as the emperor's forces arrived, and its chief urged the people to fight rather than submit.
• The emperor questioned three captured commoners about their rebellion; they said they had received no disaster relief, and he ordered them thrown to their deaths.
• The Vice Minister of Revenue admitted that the court had no money or grain left, while officials concealed how Travel Permit restrictions had trapped starving people in their home areas.

The middle-aged emperor’s siege stalled as Wen Sheng and the other three used Wireless Radio to coordinate attacks on his supply lines, leaving his army short of food. When they ambushed his retreat, the emperor fled north with ten thousand cavalry while the Chapped Army closed in on his remaining troops.

• The middle-aged emperor ordered his 120,000 soldiers to surround and attack the city, but the defenders’ walls and traps inflicted heavy losses.
• Wen Sheng and the other three used Wireless Radio to coordinate Azure Cloud Society forces across the countryside, cutting off the emperor’s supply routes.
• The emperor sent 5,000 cavalry to escort grain, but attackers used nighttime raids and hidden pits to harass them and disrupt the convoys.
• After half a month, the emperor’s army had only ten days of provisions left, so he ordered an attack on another town and prepared to retreat.
• Wen Sheng and the other three learned of the retreat and laid an ambush with 30,000 elite soldiers, but the emperor left 80,000 men behind and fled north with 10,000 cavalry.
• Wen Sheng and the other three avoided a direct battle with the remaining troops and waited for hunger to force them to surrender.

The middle-aged Emperor realized that coordinated rebels had cut off his supplies and that his officials and guards could no longer be trusted. As his army was surrounded near a river crossing, he disguised himself and fled alone, leaving the Emperor's fate uncertain.

• The middle-aged Emperor blamed the Post Station system for the rebels' coordinated attacks and ordered the imperial guard and Embroidered Uniform Guard to take control of it.
• The commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard denounced the Emperor's treatment of his officials and was beaten to death, after which Cao Kun took over and received orders to investigate the rebels' headquarters.
• Boat people spotted the Emperor's forces near X River and alerted the Azure Cloud Society, whose branches used Wireless Radio to report his location to the main altar.
• Wen Sheng and the other three sent five hundred cavalrymen to shadow the Emperor as local communities and officials withheld supplies or watched his army struggle south.
• Thirty thousand troops surrounded the Emperor's exhausted cavalry at a ferry crossing, and many of his men surrendered.
• The middle-aged Emperor changed into beggar's clothes, left a guard as his double, and slipped toward the river to escape as his army collapsed.

The middle-aged emperor fled his guards, who decided to join the Azure Cloud Society rather than risk punishment for losing him. Disguised as a ragged refugee, he tried to cross the river but recognized the boatmen as bandits and ran from them.

• The middle-aged emperor grew suspicious of his guards, slipped away from their camp, and left them unable to find him.
• Old Liu and the other guards feared execution and decided to seek out the Azure Cloud Society, hoping to escape blame by helping capture the emperor.
• The middle-aged emperor disguised himself in torn, dirtied clothes and reached a ferry, where he offered the boatman a Treasure Note that the man rejected.
• Suspicious of the boatman's smile, the middle-aged emperor ran instead of boarding, and the boatman called his second brother to help chase him.
• As the boatmen pursued him, the exhausted emperor recalled his past victories and prayed that destiny would save him again.

The middle-aged emperor traveled incognito through his dynasty and discovered that banditry, restrictive laws, forced labor, and abuse by princes had made the people suffer. The farmers killed him, and six months later the four rebels entered the palace and killed the Empress and her attendants.

• The middle-aged emperor escaped Boat Boss and Second Brother by throwing them his Gold Leaf, then fled toward a county town for protection.
• The gate guards demanded his Travel Permit and chased him as a suspected bandit, forcing him to abandon his exhausted horse and evade checkpoints on foot.
• The Old Man told the emperor that Corvée labor, corrupt officials, and the princes' estates had made life miserable for the villagers.
• The farmers mistook the emperor for a spy and beat him to death, then buried him beneath an earthen slope.
• Six months later, the four rebels confronted the Empress in the Imperial Palace, argued over the people's suffering, and killed her and the palace attendants.

After the four men ended the Great Qing Dynasty in the Famine Rule Game, they returned to reality with increased constitution. Number One, Number Two, and Number Three began acting on their impulses, and the chapter ended with Number Three charging into a restaurant kitchen while Wen Sheng tried to contain the situation.

• The four men discussed how wireless radio and geography might prevent feudal societies from suppressing technological development before the Famine Rule Game ended and sent them back to reality.
• The four spent their Free Attribute Points on constitution, and Wen Sheng’s constitution rose above 10.
• At a teahouse, Number Three demanded ribs, threatened an Old Man who criticized him, and was stopped by Wen Sheng and Number Two.
• Number Three erupted again at a membership-only restaurant, demanded several dishes, and ignored the manager’s warning to leave.
• Number Three charged toward the kitchen as Number One and Number Two defended letting themselves act freely, leaving Wen Sheng speechless.

After Number Three used his influence to shut down the restaurant and the lobby manager died, Wen Sheng and the others entered a 100-day Wilderness Survival Rule Game with 500 newcomers. Number One organized a group of followers to cooperate, while rival groups formed around a survival streamer and among independent newcomers; the chapter ended as the Experienced Ones began planning for water, food, and shelter.

• Number Three threatened the restaurant, had it shut down, and kicked the lobby manager into the path of a truck, sending him into the Rule Game.
• Officials discussed isolating people who returned from the Rule Game after their behavior changed.
• A week later, Wen Sheng and the other four entered the Wilderness Survival instance, where 500 people had to survive for 100 days.
• Number One revealed that the four were Experienced Ones and urged the newcomers to cooperate, while the lobby manager accused them of being Demons and a Wilderness Survival streamer recruited followers.
• The 500 newcomers split into groups, and the Experienced Ones registered their roughly 200 followers and began organizing work and searching for water.

Number One’s Experienced Ones organized their group to find water, food, and shelter, while the Survival Streamer’s team struggled with disorder and dwindling trust. By nightfall, the Experienced Ones had established a system of records, core workers, and contribution-based food distribution, while the streamer’s group lacked enough food and any reliable way to allocate it.

• Number One divided the Experienced Ones into work teams, and his group found a small stream after a morning of searching, then built a reservoir and claimed the upstream section.
• People from the Survival Streamer’s team followed the Experienced Ones to the stream, and about thirty members left the streamer’s group to join Number One’s team.
• Number Two identified mushrooms, discarded those he judged poisonous, and forced selected elderly people to test uncertain ones before leading the group to gather more food.
• Wen Sheng and Number Three organized the making of stone tools and crude raised shelters, while the Survival Streamer’s team argued over how to divide its meager supplies.
• Number One, Number Two, Number Three, and Wen Sheng used selected core members to stop a food dispute and distribute supplies according to recorded contributions, while the streamer’s team remained disorganized and underfed.

The Experienced Ones organized the survivors into a camp, set rules for food and work, and formed a defense team while a group of opportunists watched from nearby. When a man-eating tiger attacked after dark, the organized defenders fought back and crippled it with clubs.

• The Survival Streamer lost most of his followers after failing to organize them, while the lobby manager convinced him to keep away from the Experienced Ones.
• Number One registered the latecomers as second-round followers, assigned extra Contribution Points for the defense team, and organized food and housing; Number Three struck a man who demanded equal shares.
• A group of four or five men decided to wait near the Experienced Ones instead of taking over, while Number One established the camp and the defense team.
• The four ordered the unreasonable old men thrown outside the camp, and Wen Sheng realized they would serve as bait and warning alarms.
• A tiger approached the camp at night, and Number Two stopped a defender from fleeing while Number One ordered the group to hold formation.
• The tiger pounced on an old man, and the defense team struck it with clubs, breaking its leg and leaving it vulnerable to further blows.

After a tiger was killed, Number One divided its meat according to contribution, prioritizing the Guard Team and other core workers. More than a hundred people left in protest, and the chapter ended with some regretting it and being allowed back only at a lower rank with negative Contribution Points, while the rest faced the darkness outside.

• Number One reserved most of the tiger meat for the Guard Team, then rewarded the hardest workers and managers while telling everyone else to accept soup or leave.
• More than a hundred people left in protest, but only a dozen had their names removed from the roster as the remaining group resumed its duties.
• The Guard Team worried that losing so many people would cause trouble, but Wen Sheng argued that the leaders needed to protect their Core Layer rather than yield to everyone’s demands.
• Some of those who had left tried to return, but Number One said they would rejoin as third-round people and start with negative three hundred Contribution Points.
• Some returnees accepted the terms and rejoined, while others left again; those still outside faced the pitch-dark wilderness.

The group that rejected the Experienced Ones’ leadership suffered deaths from venomous snakes and hypothermia, while Number One’s group investigated a missing man and killed the Python that had swallowed him. The survivors returned to the camp, where the four leaders’ authority grew as the group resumed its routine.

• More than thirty people insisted on spending the night apart from the Experienced Ones, but a snakebite and the cold killed two of them by morning.
• Number One organized the camp’s layers and teams, then investigated Old Wang’s disappearance after finding drag marks near a bonfire.
• Wen Sheng identified a trail that led Number One, Number Two, and the Guard Team to a hollow tree where they found a Python with its tail sticking out.
• The group dragged out and killed the Python, recovered Old Wang’s remains, and burned the parasite-infested meat and skin over a fire.
• The returning runaways endured mockery and became more obedient, while some camp members quietly discussed resisting the four leaders later.

After the Naked Strong Man began draining people’s life force across the branch bases, the survivors fled to the Experienced Ones’ Old Base, where Wen Sheng remained confident that the monster could be outlasted. When the man woke after seven days, Wen Sheng demanded the returning survivors repay their overdue food tribute before receiving shelter.

• Number One divided the survivors into five groups to establish branch bases, and the branches gradually stopped paying tribute to the main base.
• A flying Naked Strong Man attacked the branch bases, draining people’s life force and rapidly aging many of them as the survivors fled toward the Experienced Ones.
• The Naked Strong Man consumed people at successive bases, declared himself a wolf and them sheep, and then slept atop a tree after attacking the final branch base.
• Wen Sheng and Numbers One, Two, and Three judged the attacker to be an evil Body Cultivator whose power depended on absorbing human life force, and Wen Sheng said the man would run out of people to consume.
• After the Naked Strong Man slept for seven days, the survivors gathered at the Experienced Ones’ base, where Wen Sheng demanded their overdue food tribute before offering them shelter.

Wen Sheng realized the Rule Game had made him believe his cultivated power was gone, then used it to crush the Naked Strong Man and restore the survivors whose life force had been devoured. He began extracting the abyssal Devouring ability from the man, whose fate remained unresolved.

• The Naked Strong Man demanded that Wen Sheng serve him by gathering living people, but Wen Sheng’s power awakened when he saw through the Rule Game’s deception.
• Wen Sheng summoned Seven-Colored Qi and trapped the Naked Strong Man beneath a hill, while Numbers One, Two, and Three emerged from underground and asked how Wen Sheng had regained his strength.
• Wen Sheng explained that the scenario was an illusion but its people and injuries were real, and Number One compared awakening power to lucid dreaming.
• The Naked Strong Man offered to serve Wen Sheng in exchange for food, and Wen Sheng turned him into gray smoke, returning the drained life force to the survivors.
• Wen Sheng began extracting the abyssal Devouring ability from the gray smoke as the Naked Strong Man cried out for him to stop.

Wen Sheng subdued Hunger after the wilderness survival game, and the four players returned to reality with a small reward and news of strange phenomena in space. Hunger began feeding on the dead, but he later waited near a young woman who appeared ready to jump from a high-rise window.

• Wen Sheng restored Hunger’s essence after imposing rules, then forced him to obey by turning him back into smoke.
• Wen Sheng and Numbers One, Two, and Three survived one hundred days, received one Free Attribute Point, and left the illusion world as the other players celebrated being alive again.
• The four went to Number Two’s manor, where Wen Sheng released Hunger and warned him not to consume the vitality of living people.
• Number One showed Wen Sheng classified space photographs containing strange phenomena, and the group connected the sightings to the arrival of supernatural power.
• Hunger fed in a hospital morgue, then followed the scent of fresh vitality to a young woman standing by an open window on the twenty-eighth floor.

Hunger met Xiao Lin, a nineteen-year-old who had come close to jumping from a building because her family was pressuring her to marry General Manager Liu. She agreed to let Hunger feed on her Qi if he helped her repay her family, but when she offered them his investment tip, they rejected it and insisted she marry.

• Hunger waited for Xiao Lin to jump, then revealed himself and explained that he wanted to eat the Qi on her body.
• Xiao Lin told Hunger that her parents were forcing her to marry General Manager Liu, a wealthy man in his fifties, and agreed to let him eat her Qi if he helped her repay her family.
• Hunger gave Xiao Lin information about an X stock that was about to rise, and she went to her parents with the tip.
• Hunger watched General Manager Liu give Xiao Lin's parents ten million in red envelopes and explain that he wanted to marry her because she resembled his deceased first love.
• Xiao Lin offered her parents the stock information, but they dismissed it and told her to learn to be a wife.
• Xiao Lin refused to marry General Manager Liu and said she still wanted to study.

Lin Meng escaped her parents’ attempt to force her into marriage, built a company with Hunger, and established a nursing home where he fed on the vital energy of people near death. Wen Sheng and the others brought Hunger and Lin Meng into the Rule Game, where their team survived a random-event desert and reached a city that Wen Sheng suspected might be dangerous.

• Lin Meng left her parents, teamed up with Hunger, and used confidential information to build a wealthy company and a nursing home that supplied Hunger with people near death.
• Lin Meng’s parents searched for her after General Manager Liu’s secretary revealed that Liu was deeply in debt and that their plan to gain his assets had backfired.
• Wen Sheng and the other three confronted Hunger, stopped him from exploiting his loophole, and persuaded Lin Meng to join their next Rule Game.
• Wenren Sheng attached a great world to the new Rule Game, and more than a thousand players entered the Random World game in a desert.
• Wen Sheng’s team followed random events, found cactus water, avoided a pack of wolves, and crossed the desert without losing anyone.
• The players rushed toward a city beyond the desert, while Wen Sheng sensed that reaching it might not be a good sign.

Wen Sheng and his companions entered the City of Life, where sellers and restaurants lured people into accumulating debts, while Wen Sheng’s group refused to borrow money. Black-Clothed Men warned the players that unpaid debts would cost them their souls, leaving the crowd uncertain whom to trust.

• Wen Sheng and the other five suspected the city’s slogan concealed traps, then entered and watched an old man persuade players to owe him 9.9 yuan for manuals.
• Wen Sheng’s group refused the manuals, and they passed sellers who offered cheap pills and jobs while warning signs suggested the offers were scams.
• Wen Sheng and his companions found the city was a maze of vendors, and they earned money through honest work instead of eating or shopping on credit.
• Twelve Black-Clothed Men arrived at the desert’s edge and set out to destroy the expanding City of Scams, believing it would otherwise consume people’s souls.
• Black-Clothed Men warned diners that the city’s growing debts would eventually cost them their souls, while vendors accused the warning group of trying to monopolize opportunities.