Recaps

Sun Hang learned that the anomaly Yi 77 had annihilated Baikal City, raising fears that a second large-scale anomaly surge had begun. He headed to the Talent Training Base construction site to help prepare, while an account from the contaminated zone showed how deadly the aftermath had become.

• Sun Hang read the report that Yi 77 had destroyed Baikal City and left behind a severe memetic contamination zone.
• Yang Lian explained that every exploration team sent into the contaminated zone had been infected, and Yang Qi warned that the disaster might mark the start of a second large-scale anomaly surge.
• Sun Hang argued that Eternal Night’s presence might make Tianfu City less likely to suffer another super anomaly attack, and Yang Qi concluded that construction of the Talent Training Base should be accelerated.
• Sun Hang left for the construction site, telling Yang Qi they needed to prepare in case Chunming City became humanity’s last hope.
• Fisherman watched the military camp south of Baikal City and reviewed reports of exploration teams and Hunters dying or transforming in the contaminated zone.

At a military outpost near Lake Baikal, Minister Sergei attacked an Infected fisherman before a gunshot rang out nearby. In Tianfu City, Sun Hang tested Ling Xiao’s remaining emotions and combat ability, then brought him to the underground palace to offer him Anomaly power through a different method.

• Minister Sergei drank vodka, blamed the Anomalies, and tackled the fisherman, who could not overpower him.
• Soldiers dragged Sergei away, and a gunshot sounded from the direction where they had taken him.
• Sun Hang asked Ling Xiao about his emotions, and Ling Xiao said that god and Buddha statues looked unpleasant and that godslaying might make him happy.
• Sun Hang led Ling Xiao into the underground palace and had him fight an armed terracotta soldier, which Ling Xiao failed to defeat.
• Sun Hang explained that humans fought Anomalies using Anomaly power and said he would give Ling Xiao that power through another method.

Sun Hang used the red crystal cube to transform Ling Xiao’s pistol into an Anomaly Equipment he could control. The God-Slaying Spear could erase Anomalies by consuming life force, leaving Sun Hang to warn Ling Xiao to keep its power secret and use it only as a last resort.

• Sun Hang explained how Qualified Users controlled Anomaly Equipment and how unsuitable users could suffer dangerous backlash.
• Sun Hang proposed custom-making an Anomaly for Ling Xiao, who chose the pistol Sun Hang had given him.
• Sun Hang used the red crystal cube and fungal filaments to reforge the pistol, leaving Ling Xiao in severe pain and setting their synchronization rate above sixty percent.
• Sun Hang discovered the new pistol was called the God-Slaying Spear and could strip targets of life force or erase Anomalies’ memes.
• Ling Xiao revealed that he had asked for a gun capable of killing gods and accepted that it required life as ammunition.
• Sun Hang warned Ling Xiao not to use or reveal the weapon’s ability except in a desperate situation.

Sun Hang helped Ling Xiao test a blood-powered short sword that could boost his speed and unleash azure flames, and Ling Xiao named it Chirou. Sun Hang then learned that Ling Xiao’s father had been declared brain-dead and that Jiang Yu had awakened and wanted to see him.

• Sun Hang explained that the God-Slaying Spear could not reliably defeat even one terracotta warrior, then reforged a terracotta warrior’s longsword into a short sword for Ling Xiao.
• Ling Xiao activated the short sword with his blood, used its speed boost and flaming blade to destroy the terracotta warrior’s limbs, and named the sword Chirou.
• Yang Lian called Sun Hang aside and told him that Ling Xiao’s father, Ling Qiang, had been declared brain-dead and that the younger children would be sent to welfare institutions in other regions.
• Sun Hang decided Ling Xiao should be told about his father, and Yang Lian asked him to break the news gently.
• Yang Lian told Sun Hang that Jiang Yu had woken up and wanted to see him.

Sun Hang met the newly recovered Jiang Yu at the institute’s training ground and learned that she had become an Anomaly Hunter trainee after accepting the Tai Sui Meme. Jiang Yu demonstrated her remarkable archery with powerful Special Equipment, while Sun Hang considered how her physical attacks might fare against spirit-type Anomalies.

• Sun Hang met Jiang Yu at the training ground, where she asked whether the meme had placed her under his command, and he explained their relationship and her upcoming training.
• Jiang Yu explained that she had enlisted hoping to help her family repay their debts, and Sun Hang encouraged her to focus on training to fight Anomalies.
• Jiang Yu revealed her archery skill and fired an arrow that pierced a steel target two hundred meters away.
• Song Yarong explained that Jiang Yu’s bow and tungsten-alloy arrows were Special Equipment previously used by a hunter who died after encountering a spirit-type Anomaly.
• Sun Hang reflected on the limits of physical attacks against spirit-type, rule-type, and Phenomenon-type Anomalies, then asked how hunters dealt with spirit-types.

After leaving the institute, Sun Hang visited a resident-run night market in Ya Bei District to find groceries and discovered a dispute involving an old man, a furious husband, and possible anomaly exposure. He began investigating the husband’s claim that Old Chen’s dealings had affected his wife.

• Sun Hang passed a military checkpoint, learned about the barter market in Ya Bei District, and gave cigarettes to the soldiers on duty.
• Sun Hang reached the old Internet Celebrity Night Market and sensed a jumble of negative emotions among the market’s visitors.
• Sun Hang saw several men restraining a bald man who accused Old Chen of stealing his wife and making her act strangely after she returned from his place.
• Sun Hang sensed traces of an anomaly’s aura on both men and suspected the bald man’s wife might have encountered an anomaly or an infected person.
• Sun Hang questioned a bystander, who said the wife had tried to lure customers into a honey trap and described Old Chen as a powerful local figure whose word carried more weight than a Peacekeeper’s.

Sun Hang investigated Xu Dasheng’s claim that his wife had become strange and discovered she was infected with the Anomalization Virus. He found her cocooned in spreading rotten flesh, began assessing her condition, and Yang Qi had not yet answered his message.

• Sun Hang intervened when Old Chen and his men restrained Xu Dasheng, revealed his Hunter License, and ordered Xu Dasheng and Old Chen to take him to Xu Dasheng’s home.
• Xu Dasheng explained that his wife had changed after returning home, and Sun Hang sensed an Anomaly Meme’s aura coming from her bedroom.
• Sun Hang told Xu Dasheng and Old Chen to stay back, identified Xu Dasheng’s wife as infected, and warned that the whole block might be unsafe.
• Sun Hang messaged Yang Qi and forced open the bedroom door, revealing a humanoid figure cocooned in pulsing rotten flesh.
• Sun Hang judged that the infection had crossed a danger threshold, lit the room with a blue flame, and approached the bed to assess the infected woman.

Sun Hang woke in an unknown wilderness after losing his anomalous abilities and realizing he had driven out of Tianfu City into the fallen zone beneath the Eternal Night. He began preparing to survive and find his way back to civilization, but his brightly lit SUV could attract whatever lurked in the darkness.

• Sun Hang escaped an illusion of Anna and found himself alone in his SUV in an empty wilderness.
• Sun Hang read Yang Qi and Wang Xiyi's messages and inferred that he had driven through checkpoints and out of Tianfu City while unconscious.
• Sun Hang discovered that his abilities and monitoring wristband were gone, and that his injury no longer healed.
• Sun Hang resisted an apparent urge to shoot himself and decided to survive and return to human civilization.
• Sun Hang checked the SUV's weapons and supplies, recorded his condition, and drove slowly to explore the surrounding area.

Sun Hang encountered an old woman in the dark wilderness, accepted what appeared to be a rice cake, and discovered in the rearview mirror that she was a flesh-and-blood monster and the food was rotten flesh. He turned the SUV around to question her about the nearest village, but she asked whether he was still hungry.

• Sun Hang stopped his SUV when an old woman emerged from the darkness and wondered whether he was outside a fallen zone.
• The old woman told Sun Hang not to ask questions and offered him a rice cake, which he reluctantly accepted.
• Sun Hang saw the old woman’s monstrous true form in the rearview mirror and recognized the rice cake as a lump of squirming rotten flesh.
• Sun Hang sealed the flesh in a hazardous-items container and turned his SUV around to catch up with the old woman.
• Sun Hang asked where the nearest village was, and the old woman asked if one piece of Erkuai had not been enough.

Sun Hang accepted an old five-jiao banknote from the anomalous old woman, whose reflection shifted between a kind human face and a blood-and-flesh monster. After deciding to follow her, he discovered that even an ordinary compressed biscuit tasted like rotten flesh to him.

• The old woman gave Sun Hang a worn five-jiao banknote and urged him not to go hungry.
• Sun Hang saw the old woman’s reflection change into a monster, while the banknote remained real money in the mirror.
• Sun Hang briefly felt drawn to the warmth of the strange world, then questioned whether he was still resistant to anomalous influence.
• Sun Hang handled the rotten-flesh rice cake cautiously, cleaned his hands, and decided to follow the old woman after eating.
• Sun Hang bit into a compressed biscuit, found it tasted like rotten flesh, and confirmed in the mirror that the chewed crumbs still looked like biscuit.

Sun Hang investigated the vanished old woman and realized her banknote might be used in an Anomaly Market within the fallen region. Following a road sign to Maoyun Town, he reached a guarded settlement, where an elderly sentry let him pass; Sun Hang then noticed the sentry standing motionless beneath the watchtower.

• Sun Hang searched for the vanished old woman, considered whether she was his ancestor or an Anomaly, and checked his reflection with his phone camera.
• Sun Hang inferred that the banknote might be a special currency for an Environment-type Anomaly and recalled an anomalous amusement park where tickets and tokens governed survival.
• Sun Hang drove in the direction the old woman had come from and found a sign pointing toward Maoyun Town.
• Sun Hang searched his offline navigation for Maoyun Town but found no matching location in the Yundian region, then continued toward the settlement.
• A searchlight exposed Sun Hang's car near Maoyun Town, and an elderly sentry questioned him about his destination and money.
• Sun Hang showed the sentry the banknote and drove onward after being allowed through, then saw the sentry standing motionless beneath the watchtower.

Sun Hang entered Maoyun Town and discovered that its inhabitants were starving and its shops sold only broken goods. After a townswoman tried to seize his Erkuai and was dragged into a shop by living darkness, the shopkeeper explained that famine would leave enough food only if enough people starved to death.

• Sun Hang reached Maoyun Town, checked its reflection in a mirror, and entered without his rifle.
• Sun Hang found the townspeople gaunt and the stalls stocked with broken goods, with no food for sale.
• Sun Hang offered his Erkuai to a shopkeeper, and the townspeople gathered when a woman recognized it as food.
• The woman lunged for the Erkuai, and the shop's darkness dragged her inside while the other townspeople fled.
• The shopkeeper told Sun Hang that the town's food supply would be enough only after enough people starved to death.

As the team investigated Sun Hang’s disappearance into the Yundian Fallen Zone, the Old Director tasked Wang Xiyi with collecting Li Junwen, a former Temporary Investigator who had survived four months in the Fallen Zone. Wang Xiyi prepared to negotiate with Li Junwen for his help as a guide, while Yang Qi and Ye Jiu joined her.

• Yang Qi mapped Sun Hang’s likely route into the Yundian Fallen Zone, and Song Yarong reported that several Hengduan Mountains outposts had lost contact or suffered EMP attacks.
• Ye Xuan explained that infected people could develop a condition called “homing,” prompting Wang Xiyi to insist that Sun Hang’s infection readings had not changed.
• The Old Director told Wang Xiyi she would receive an exit permit after collecting Li Junwen, whose file recounted his crimes, escape, and return from four months in the Fallen Zone.
• The Old Director explained that Li Junwen was held at Tianshu Tower and that Wang Xiyi would have to persuade him to guide her into the Fallen Zone.
• Wang Xiyi agreed to travel to Chunming City, and Yang Qi and Ye Jiu volunteered to accompany her.

Wang Xiyi and Yang Qi visited Li Junwen, a survivor of the fallen zone whose severe food-related trauma had left him physically transformed and difficult to communicate with. When Wang Xiyi asked whether he feared being taken back to the fallen zone, Li Junwen’s terror revealed how deeply the thought affected him.

• A Tianshu Tower researcher showed Wang Xiyi, Yang Qi, and Ye Jiu surveillance footage of Li Junwen and explained his extreme hunger, food-hoarding behavior, and history of violence.
• The group watched Li Junwen devour raw meat, and the researcher said that two decades of questioning had yielded no information about his time in the fallen zone.
• Wang Xiyi and Yang Qi entered Li Junwen’s room after he had eaten to speak with him.
• Li Junwen denied remembering his experiences and said he knew his compulsions were abnormal but could not control them.
• Wang Xiyi asked whether Li Junwen feared being taken back to the fallen zone, and terror appeared in his eyes.

Yang Qi and Wang Xiyi questioned Li Junwen about the fallen zone, where he warned that an inexplicable hunger defeated any amount of food. In Maoyun Town, Sun Hang traded Erkuai for coins and hired a shopkeeper to kill everyone on the street, but two little girls survived and confronted the darkened shop.

• Yang Qi persuaded Li Junwen to help them rescue a colleague trapped in the fallen zone, and Li Junwen agreed to talk after reflecting alone.
• Li Junwen warned Yang Qi and Wang Xiyi that hunger was their greatest enemy and insisted that bringing supplies would not help.
• Wang Xiyi suggested the hunger might be a Rule-type Anomaly, causing Li Junwen to panic until researchers restrained and sedated him.
• Sun Hang asked the shopkeeper about prices and learned that money was used for precious food while other goods were traded.
• Sun Hang sold the shopkeeper the Erkuai and paid seven cents for him to kill everyone on the street.
• The townspeople died, but two little girls remained alive and stood behind Sun Hang as the shopkeeper fell silent.

Sun Hang explored the shopkeeper’s room, discovered that the shopkeeper offered food to a headless Buddha that appeared as a skeleton through his phone camera, and destroyed the statue with a gunshot. The shopkeeper ate the Erkuai Sun Hang returned to him, warned that the two girls were food raised by the Town Chief’s family, then died, leaving a rattle drum beneath his body.

• Sun Hang entered the shopkeeper’s room and wedged the doors open with pieces of a bamboo stool as the darkness retreated from the light.
• Sun Hang found Erkuai on an altar before a headless Buddha statue and used his phone camera to reveal a skeleton, rotten flesh, and three bloodstained fingers.
• Sun Hang taunted the statue and shot it, shattering its bones as they began crawling back toward the altar.
• The shopkeeper reappeared as darkness and ate the Erkuai Sun Hang tossed to him, then said the two girls were food raised by the Town Chief’s family.
• The shopkeeper warned Sun Hang not to pursue the girls, died, and left a rattle drum with no ears beneath his body.

Sun Hang investigated the aftermath of the Maoyun Town shopkeeper’s death, while Wang Xiyi and Yang Qi prepared an expedition to find him after discovering Border Outpost 198 had been destroyed. The convoy set out toward Highway 4218, leaving Yin Xiang behind.

• Sun Hang found holes in the dead townspeople that prevented them from digesting food and discovered a Blood Moon in the sky.
• Sun Hang searched the shopkeeper’s house, found a family photograph, and placed it in the remains’ arms before wondering why the Town Chief had not attacked him.
• Wang Xiyi and Yang Qi examined the burned ruins of Border Outpost 198 and agreed that Sun Hang could not have caused the destruction with Dragon Flame.
• Wang Xiyi assembled a convoy of eleven people to enter the fallen zone and bring Sun Hang back.
• Wang Xiyi refused to let Yin Xiang join the expedition, and Yin Xiang accepted that he would remain behind at the outpost.

Wang Xiyi’s team entered the mountains to investigate a fallen zone that might contain a Rule-type Anomaly called “Hunger,” while Sun Hang explored a silent courtyard in town. Sun Hang uncovered a stone body trapped inside its spirit wall, which was still screaming after he shot through the wall.

• Wang Xiyi drove the team toward the fallen zone as she and Ye Jiu discussed the possible “Hunger” Anomaly and the uselessness of their specially prepared food.
• Ye Jiu questioned Ling Xiao and Jiang Yu about their first mission, and Jiang Yu admitted she knew little about Anomaly classifications.
• The convoy passed a military checkpoint and entered the mountains as the Eternal Night crisis strained the Federation’s resources and fueled public panic.
• Sun Hang found a wealthy-looking courtyard, saw its gate and stone lions turn gruesome in his mirror, and forced the gate open with his handgun.
• Sun Hang heard murmuring from the spirit wall, where a stone-colored hand grabbed him before convulsing and screaming.
• Sun Hang shot apart the spirit wall and exposed a stone body with at least eight arms; his mirror showed it as white stone, and its screams faded into groans.

Sun Hang fought a hair-covered supernatural woman in the Zhou family courtyard and discovered that her curse had left him unable to feel pain. After the courtyard trapped him, he used his blood to burn through the gate with blue Dragon Flame, then found the two missing girls watching the blaze.

• A gaunt woman covered in black hair attacked Sun Hang, and he shot her after she repeatedly demanded that he return her son's life.
• Sun Hang found that hair was growing from his wrist wound and cut away the affected flesh, while his attempts to activate the arm ring and summon Tai Sui's mycelium failed.
• The woman's robe absorbed blood and moved toward the main house, but the courtyard then sealed its gate, raised its walls, and filled with hair, forcing Sun Hang toward the house.
• Sun Hang bit into his numb hand and smeared his blood on the gate, burning it away; the pursuing hair caught fire with blue Dragon Flame.
• Sun Hang saw the two missing little girls behind him, and they remarked that the Zhou family had been wiped out and the widow and her child were pitiful.

Sun Hang learned that Maoyun Town was an abandoned quarantine town whose residents had suffered starvation and become people who repeatedly returned from death. Meanwhile, Wang Xiyi, Ye Jiu, Ling Xiao, and Jiang Yu approached the occupied-territory border, where Wang Xiyi described killing a Fallen Hunter who had tried to cross it.

• Two little girls told Sun Hang that the Zhou family’s children had died during a famine, their father had vanished, and their mother had strangled them in despair.
• A little girl retrieved Sun Hang’s stolen fifty-cent note from the severed arm in the shadow wall and explained that the Zhou children died before the Town Chief arrived.
• Sun Hang learned that Maoyun Town had been a quarantine town, isolated to contain people exposed to the Anomalization Virus and later forgotten during the retreat sixty years earlier.
• Wang Xiyi explained to Ye Jiu, Ling Xiao, and Jiang Yu that orange-red markers stood one kilometer from occupied territory and that the border itself had no marker.
• Wang Xiyi said she had killed a Fallen Hunter near a white border marker after he crawled toward occupied territory despite his fatal injuries.

Wang Xiyi and the convoy discussed fallen hunters and her connection to Sun Hang as they entered the fallen zone and found the road blocked by strange vines. Ye Jiu cleared the vines, triggering the emergence of a huge Metal Giant Snake made from industrial scrap, and the group realized it might be connected to Sun Hang’s metal-controlling ability.

• Ye Jiu explained that fallen hunters were usually neutralized only when they endangered public safety, while Wang Xiyi warned that members of the mission might never leave the fallen zone.
• Wang Xiyi admitted that Sun Hang made her feel instinctively close to him, though she could not explain why.
• The convoy entered the fallen zone and stopped before vines blocking the highway; Ye Jiu attacked them with his flaming Wolf Tooth Mace-Spear and cleared a passage.
• The ground shook, and Wang Xiyi, Candle Dragon, and Zhong Ling prepared defenses as a giant metal creature flung Ye Jiu nearly a hundred meters into the air.
• Candle Dragon identified the creature as a possible spirit-type or energy-type Anomaly that gathered metal objects, and noted that Sun Hang could control metal.

The Metal Giant Snake devastated the convoy while Wang Xiyi’s flames failed to damage it effectively. Ye Jiu realized the snake might be unable to leave its underground hole and rushed to attack the ground there, hoping to strike its hidden weakness.

• Wang Xiyi ordered the team to retreat, but the Metal Giant Snake lunged at Ye Jiu and Candle Dragon, and its impact killed Vehicle One’s driver and damaged the convoy.
• Ye Jiu directed the agents to rescue the injured while Candle Dragon shielded them and Wang Xiyi continued fighting the snake.
• Wang Xiyi’s flames melted the snake’s metal body, but the molten metal rejoined it, making it denser and stronger.
• Ye Jiu rejected retreat after reasoning that the snake could catch the team, while Wang Xiyi said she would hold it back.
• Ye Jiu noticed that the snake’s rear stayed underground and concluded that its weakness might be hidden in the hole.
• Wang Xiyi drew the snake’s attention with long-range attacks as Ye Jiu reached the hole and smashed the ground with his Wolf Tooth Mace-Spear.

Ye Jiu, Wang Xiyi, and Candle Dragon destroyed the Metal Giant Snake and found a nameplate bearing Sun Hang’s name, which suggested his ability had infected it. The nameplate pointed toward Sun Hang, but the team chose to cross the Hengduan Mountains by highway first, leaving his location uncertain.

• Wang Xiyi distracted the Metal Giant Snake while Ye Jiu found its weak point and smashed it apart with his Wolf Tooth Mace-Spear.
• Wang Xiyi recovered a glowing metal nameplate from the wreckage, and Ye Jiu recognized the name Sun Hang engraved on it.
• Wang Xiyi and Candle Dragon reasoned that Sun Hang’s ability had infected the nameplate, while Ye Jiu proposed that the red cube or the Fallen Zone had strengthened it.
• Wang Xiyi and Ye Jiu tested the nameplate’s aura and found it grew stronger toward eleven o’clock, indicating Sun Hang was somewhere in that direction.
• Candle Dragon proposed crossing the Hengduan Mountains by Highway 4218 before using the nameplate to locate Sun Hang again.
• Night Fiend assigned Vehicle Three to take the wounded and fallen back to the border outpost while the rest of the team continued in Vehicle Four.

Sun Hang learned that accepting the Town Chief’s food had made him a member of Maoyun Town, where the curse kept people alive but unable to escape hunger or bodily decay. After discovering that the town’s scarce food came from flesh blessed at a monthly sacrifice, he learned the two girls were to offer themselves at the ceremony the next day.

• Sun Hang questioned two little girls and learned that Maoyun Town’s curse prevented its residents from dying, even as they suffered injury and decay.
• Sun Hang saw the girls’ monstrous forms through his phone camera, then discussed their shifting appearances and the town’s library with them.
• The girls told Sun Hang that accepting the Town Chief’s food had made him a town member, and his attempt to eat a biscuit revealed a hole in his throat.
• Sun Hang learned the Town Chief’s blessed food came from human flesh and that the monthly Grand Sacrifice Ceremony made it edible for a limited time.
• The girls revealed that they were reserve food and would offer themselves at the ceremony tomorrow, which Sun Hang asked to witness.

Sun Hang discovered that his perception of his own body differed from the townspeople’s and questioned the Female Anomaly about an earlier outsider. He learned that the outsider was Li Junwen, while the Female Anomaly’s appearance also changed between direct sight and a camera; the reason for these differences remained unknown.

• Sun Hang found that his throat hole appeared to the naked eye but vanished in his phone’s camera, and realized this made him different from Maoyun Town’s residents.
• A headless night watchman warned Sun Hang that breaking curfew could cause the Town Chief to cancel the Grand Sacrifice Ceremony, so Sun Hang returned to the Zhou family courtyard.
• Sun Hang coaxed the Female Anomaly into answering questions and learned that an outsider named Li Junwen had stayed in town for two or three months.
• The Female Anomaly said Li Junwen had not received the first blessing and could die, but after leaving town he could eat without food falling out of him, though he still felt endless hunger.
• Sun Hang viewed the Female Anomaly through his phone and saw a thin, pale woman instead of the mass of hair he saw with his naked eye.