Recaps

Sun Hang returned and defeated Sea Buckthorn Rose’s transformed Huntress with three punches, then persuaded the attackers to surrender by promising they would not be killed. After Suyue surrendered on Sea Buckthorn Rose’s behalf, she asked Sun Hang why Tianshu Tower had joined the treasure hunt, and guessed that the operation might be a trap.

• The transformed Huntress tore open an armored vehicle, killed two hunters, and attacked the driver before Sun Hang appeared behind her.
• Sun Hang struck the transformed Huntress three times, collapsing her transformed state and leaving her badly injured.
• Sun Hang demanded that everyone surrender and revealed that Bone Splitter had funded the attack, showing Old Snake’s pendant as proof that its instigators were dead.
• Suyue identified herself as Sea Buckthorn Rose’s strategist and surrendered after Sun Hang promised Tianshu Tower would not pursue those involved.
• Suyue tried to seduce Sun Hang, then asked why Tianshu Tower had joined the treasure hunt and suggested the operation might be a trap.

Sun Hang explained that the operation was an assessment to recruit experts for a dangerous expedition to Egypt’s fallen zone, not a purge or sacrifice, though his jokes terrified Suyue. After learning his identity, Suyue revealed she was a devoted fan, leaving Sun Hang bewildered.

• Suyue told Sun Hang she suspected the operation was a joint purge by Spring Breeze and Tianshu Tower, and explained that she had been unable to withdraw after fifteen million was transferred to her organization.
• Sun Hang said he was using the operation to assess hunters for a mission, then jokingly told Suyue they would go to hell, prompting her to try to shoot herself when she thought she would be sacrificed.
• Sun Hang stopped Suyue and clarified that he meant an expedition to collect an anomaly sample from Egypt’s fallen zone, with the group traveling by rocket through Low Earth Orbit.
• The female mercenary asked Sun Hang for his codename, and he told her his real name was Sun Hang.
• The female mercenary revealed that Suyue was a devoted fan who had followed reports about Sun Hang, and Sun Hang wondered why she admired him.

Sun Hang and the convoy entered Giant Hill, where buried giant statues could awaken if exposed to certain triggers. When a vehicle became stuck in the sand, Sun Hang tried to lift it but discovered something beneath the sand had caught its wheels.

• Sun Hang’s recruitment of freelance hunters for an Egypt operation drew doubts, and the group agreed to travel together under a temporary non-aggression pact.
• Yang Qiaoxi warned Sun Hang that Giant Hill held sleeping giants and that the convoy had to avoid signals, human breath, warm blood, and leaking abilities.
• The convoy crept through the sand past numerous buried stone giants, and Yang Qiaoxi explained that 144 giants always remained there despite repeated attempts to destroy them.
• A heavy off-road vehicle became stuck in a sand pit, and the convoy asked Sun Hang to help rather than abandon it.
• Sun Hang bent the vehicle’s rear bumper while trying to lift it and realized something beneath the sand had caught the wheels.

Sun Hang and Yang Qiaoxi’s convoy uncovered a buried giant’s finger after it snagged a vehicle, but an argument led to blood spilling into the sandpit and awakening the giant. As the giants across Giant Hill began to rise and attack, Sun Hang wondered whether the route was now blocked for the convoys behind them.

• Sun Hang used Liquid Metal shovels to have two hunters dig around the stranded vehicle and uncover a giant finger hooked around its wheel hub.
• Yang Qiaoxi warned everyone not to touch the apparently sleeping giant, and the group decided to abandon the vehicle rather than saw off its finger.
• A Huntress attacked Yang Qiaoxi, and the resulting scuffle sent a sharp saw into a hunter’s thigh, splashing his blood into the sandpit.
• The blood awakened the giant, whose hand crushed the stranded vehicle and swept down the people left behind as the convoy fled.
• Bronze giants rose throughout Giant Hill, and Sun Hang asked Candle Dragon whether the route was now blocked for the convoys following them.

Sun Hang and his companions escaped the berserk giants of Giant Hill, though their vehicle nearly broke down and a pursuing Dung Beetle was crushed. After Sun Hang repaired their engine with Liquid Metal, Yang Qiaoxi guided them toward Nanhua Town, where a vast fault cliff marked the way and the group headed toward the place where the treasure was hidden.

• Sun Hang drove through Giant Hill while giants attacked, and Yang Qiaoxi explained that the giants could be killed but kept reappearing from beneath the sand.
• Sun Hang and his companions escaped Giant Hill, but a giant crushed the pursuing Dung Beetle and their own vehicle's engine failed shortly afterward.
• Sun Hang restored the engine with Liquid Metal, and Yang Qiaoxi took the wheel despite never having visited Nanhua Town.
• The group followed a towering geological fault that Yang Qiaoxi identified as the route to Nanhua Town.
• Yang Qiaoxi described Nanhua Town as an obscure, half-abandoned place where the treasure had been hidden.

Sun Hang and his companions encountered an ascetic monk on the road to Nanhua Town, who offered to guide them to the object they sought while warning that it could awaken greed, anger, and delusion. Sun Hang left Yang Qiaoxi locked in the vehicle and followed the monk with Candle Dragon and Xue Yue, asking whether the monk was bound to the place by the object.

• Yang Qiaoxi described how a dangerous Hexi Corridor tour ended with an entire group disappearing in a Death Sandstorm.
• Sun Hang's group stopped when an ascetic monk appeared in their path; Xue Yue sensed that he had no negative emotions, and Sun Hang could not read his mind.
• The monk said he had been waiting to guide the group to the object but warned them to abandon their search because it could lead them to ruin.
• Sun Hang contacted Nagano Souya, who could not confirm whether a monk had been part of his father's expedition.
• Sun Hang locked Yang Qiaoxi in the vehicle and went toward Nanhua Town with Candle Dragon and Xue Yue, following the monk.
• The monk said he had forgotten many things and might be unable to leave the area; Sun Hang asked whether the object was the reason.

Sun Hang and Candle Dragon followed the ascetic monk through Nanhua Town’s ruins, learning he had been resurrected by the desire-manifesting anomaly and had guided missing people toward it. After the monk revealed his inability to die, Sun Hang tested the curse by stabbing him in the throat, and the monk recovered and stitched the wound closed.

• The ascetic monk explained that rhythmic steps and taps helped his body retain memories he feared would consume his humanity, and warned Sun Hang and Candle Dragon to abandon their search.
• The monk left a paper-and-wire flower at the spot where his friend had died, while Nagano Souya told Sun Hang that the monk had been killed by a shotgun and explosives years earlier.
• The monk revealed his stitched, fragmented body and admitted that the anomaly had resurrected him as a guide; Candle Dragon connected him to the eighty-five people who had disappeared near Nanhua Town.
• Sun Hang argued that the monk’s apparent safety had encouraged the missing people to pursue the anomaly, then questioned whether the monk still considered himself human.
• Sun Hang stabbed the monk through the throat, and the monk recovered before sewing the wound shut, explaining that he could not be killed.

Sun Hang, Candle Dragon, and Xue Yue followed the ascetic monk from Nanhua Town to its abandoned oilfield, where he revealed that the mine held an Anomaly he had been compelled to lead people toward. The three descended into the sinkhole by elevator, leaving the nature of the Anomaly and what awaited below unknown.

• Sun Hang discussed using the curse to imprison enemies in conscious, undecaying bodies, and Candle Dragon and the ascetic monk reacted to his plan.
• The group crossed Nanhua Town as the ascetic monk explained how the oilfield’s unexpectedly early collapse had emptied the settlement.
• The ascetic monk revealed that Nanhua was first known for a small coal mine, and that a former surveyor had returned to find an Anomaly buried underground.
• Candle Dragon told Sun Hang that eighty-five people had gone missing near Nanhua Town, including several top-tier independent hunters, and the ascetic monk said none had returned after entering the mine.
• The ascetic monk led Sun Hang, Candle Dragon, and Xue Yue to the abandoned oilfield and warned them they could still turn back.
• Sun Hang, Candle Dragon, and Xue Yue entered the working elevator and began descending into the sinkhole.

Sun Hang captured a starving infected man deep in the mine and read his memories, discovering how gambling debts had driven him to accept a dangerous job. The memories ended with him agreeing to enter an uninhabited area for Brother Lei in exchange for a heavily reduced payment.

• Sun Hang, Candle Dragon, and Xue Yue descended into the abandoned mine and sensed an anomaly deeper in the shaft.
• Sun Hang subdued a deranged infected man whose hunger had driven him to attack, then paralyzed him with Tai Sui Hyphae.
• Sun Hang devoured the infected man's meme and began seeing his memories of debt, gambling, and his mother's attempts to contact him.
• The memories revealed that the infected man had gambled away his earnings and lashed out at his mother after she sent him 2.27 yuan.
• Brother Lei offered the desperate hunter a 200,000-yuan job in an uninhabited area, and the man accepted despite Brother Lei taking half as an introduction fee.

Sun Hang explored a hunter’s fading memories of the mission to find two people missing in the Nanhua Town mine. The memory ended when the hunter found a ten-thousand-value gold chip from Dragon City’s largest casino in the tunnel.

• Brother Lei sent the debt-ridden hunter on a dangerous mission to search the mine for Young Master Song’s missing childhood friend, taking half the reward as his fee.
• The hunter overslept, rushed to the north gate, and joined a team of hunters and mercenaries heading to Nanhua Town.
• Sun Hang examined the bound hunter’s memories and noticed that images became blurry near the mine pit, possibly because of the anomaly.
• The hunter entered a deeper tunnel with the Huntress and three mercenaries, where they found a blue circle crossed by an X painted on the wall.
• The hunter spotted a golden casino chip worth ten thousand and secretly picked it up.

The original owner discovered that he alone could see and collect ten-thousand-dollar casino chips scattered through the shaft, amassing eight chips while his companions dismissed him as useless. After the group opened a concealed airtight door near fresh bloodstains, they climbed into a vast rock cavity, where he found a mountain of golden chips.

• The original owner realized the Huntress and mercenaries could not see the chip he had found, then volunteered to take point.
• He repeatedly crouched to collect chips while pretending his worn shoelaces had come undone, gathering six chips before the group found fresh blood on the ground.
• The group discovered a concealed airtight door near the bloodstains, and the original owner spotted another chip wedged beneath its valve.
• The original owner collected an eighth chip, opened the door, and led the others down a fifty-meter metal tunnel.
• The original owner emerged into a vast cavity and saw a mountain of golden chips worth ten thousand bucks each.

Sun Hang learned from a dead hunter’s memories that an Anomaly had appeared as a mountain of golden chips and driven hunters to kill one another. He and Candle Dragon identified it as a possible Type A Anomaly called Desire, which manifested as whatever a person wanted most, but Sun Hang was left wondering whether those desires were real or illusions.

• The original host saw a mountain of golden chips, killed three mercenaries, and chased the Huntress into the tunnel.
• The original host and the Huntress fought in the dark; she died after the dagger in her leg severed a major artery, and he crawled away as his consciousness faded.
• Sun Hang withdrew from the hunter’s memories and realized that the chips had been what the mercenaries desired most, while the gambling addict had seen chips because of his obsession.
• Sun Hang shot the dead hunter, and Candle Dragon explained that the gunshot prevented facial recognition and that DNA testing would require equipment in Dragon City.
• Sun Hang and Candle Dragon concluded that the Nanhua Town treasure was likely a Type A Anomaly that materialized people’s desires, and Sun Hang questioned whether its manifestations were real.

Sun Hang, Candle Dragon, and Xue Yue explored the shaft and encountered the resurrected hunter Blade Whip. Sun Hang realized the Anomaly he called “Desire” could alter reality and possibly resurrect the dead, but wishes could be dangerously distorted; the chapter left him wary of its power to change human civilization.

• Candle Dragon said he would try to make his greatest desire the other half of Sphinx's brain.
• Sun Hang and Candle Dragon identified a faded “No Entry” mark and connected it to Qi Deli and the missing hunters from a search-and-rescue mission.
• Candle Dragon explained that a Death Sandstorm had killed most of the search team's surface survivors and that the mission's employer remained unknown.
• The resurrected Blade Whip attacked Sun Hang, who transformed her metal whip into a spear and pinned her down.
• Sun Hang realized Blade Whip had truly died and suspected that “Desire” had resurrected her by fulfilling her desperate wish to survive.
• Sun Hang recognized that “Desire” could reshape reality, but that poorly defined wishes could produce disastrous results.

Sun Hang, Candle Dragon, and Xue Yue reached the place where the other half of Sphinx's brain was supposed to be, but found only an empty cavity. While Xue Yue and Candle Dragon saw their deepest desires, Sun Hang's desire manifested as a second version of himself, and Candle Dragon noticed that the brain he had envisioned had disappeared.

• Sun Hang restrained the resurrecting Blade Whip with transformed shackles and led Candle Dragon and Xue Yue into the metal tunnel.
• Candle Dragon became trapped by desire, and Xue Yue absorbed the towering shadow formed from his negative emotions.
• Xue Yue described her desire for a safe home and family, while Candle Dragon explained that he had seen what appeared to be a copy of the Mainframe's biological body.
• Sun Hang saw nothing in the cavity despite trying to summon various desires, until another Sun Hang appeared and said his deepest desire was to understand himself.
• The other Sun Hang said he had become another living Sun Hang, and Candle Dragon cried out that the half of Sphinx's brain from his vision had disappeared.

Sun Hang used the Three Monkeys to erase Desire, the copy of himself, and discovered that Desire had been parasitizing a powerful physical Anomaly beneath the sinkhole. As the host began destroying the mine, Sun Hang led Candle Dragon and Xue Yue back to the surface, where they prepared to face the remaining threat.

• Desire challenged Sun Hang to a duel, but Sun Hang revealed that he had hidden the Three Monkeys from Desire, and they erased it.
• Sun Hang explained to Candle Dragon that Desire had been a Type A Anomaly before the cavern began collapsing around them.
• Sun Hang deduced that a Type C Anomaly had hosted Desire and supported the collapsing cavern with iron pillars.
• Sun Hang reinforced the metal tunnel and led Candle Dragon, carrying Xue Yue, toward the surface.
• When rubble blocked their way, Sun Hang formed a giant drill from nearby metal and bored a path through the rock.
• The three reached the surface and found the ascetic monk dead; Sun Hang said Desire's disappearance had freed the tiger ghost that controlled him.

Sun Hang and Candle Dragon faced a gigantic Type E fungus Anomaly emerging from the Nanhua Town mine pit, and Candle Dragon recommended destroying it with missiles. The Mainframe prepared sixty-four Duststorm missiles, leaving Sun Hang to decide whether to give the launch command.

• Sun Hang concluded that Desire had used a false image of the Sphinx's brain and tried to seize his body by killing his self-awareness.
• Sun Hang, Candle Dragon, and the third person retreated as the ground collapsed and a massive flesh worm emerged from the sinkhole.
• Candle Dragon identified the creature as a Type E fungus Anomaly, while Sun Hang recognized that its fungal growth controlled its animal body.
• Candle Dragon explained that the creature had no obvious weak point and proposed a missile strike from Dragon City's City Defense Army.
• The Mainframe calculated that at least five missile hits might destroy the Anomaly and unlocked launch authorization for sixty-four Duststorm missiles.

Sun Hang decided to make the desert anomaly a test for selecting hunters and ordered Tianshu Tower to issue a bounty open to hunters and mercenary organizations. The Mainframe and Candle Dragon described a comparable Hexi Corridor hunt whose costly reward came only after many hunters died.

• Sun Hang stopped the Mainframe from launching missiles and proposed using the anomaly to test prospective hunters.
• Candle Dragon explained that modern weapons could destroy most anomalies, but the exceptional ones Sun Hang had faced could not be handled conventionally.
• Sun Hang ordered the Mainframe to issue an open hunting bounty for the anomaly and asked about comparable rewards.
• The Mainframe described the 4710 mission to hunt Rock Throat, including its guaranteed participation benefits and a top reward of two percent of Yaewan Biotechnology Company's shares.
• Candle Dragon recounted that dozens of hunters died before the surviving top-tier hunters killed Rock Throat, then split the cash value of the shares.

Sun Hang posted a five-billion bounty to recruit hunters for the mission against the giant cordyceps aberration, while Nagano Souya confirmed he would lead his convoy toward Nanhua Town. After a dangerous detour forced the convoy to stop near the flesh-eating ants’ territory, the hunters prepared to cross it.

• Sun Hang set the mission bounty at five billion, added casualty compensation, and offered a personal reward to the top contributor.
• The Mainframe reported that 167 people had accepted the mission and that many more hunters were traveling to Dragon City.
• Nagano Souya asked Sun Hang about the giant aberration and learned that his father’s obsession had been an illusion created by it.
• Nagano Souya said he would lead the remaining convoy to Nanhua Town so White Tiger could fight the aberration.
• Nagano Souya’s convoy stopped 75 kilometers from Nanhua Town after detouring around Giant Hill, and the hunters prepared for the flesh-eating ants.
• A mercenary showed the others how to make a homemade flamethrower from a gasoline-filled bottle.

The convoy debated how to survive crossing carnivorous ant territory, and Nagano Souya offered to lead the way in White Tiger using its energy shield. The convoy began preparing for the crossing, though five vehicles turned back before the journey started.

• Hunters and mercenaries discussed the carnivorous ants’ fire resistance and shared grim accounts of how deadly a crossing could be.
• Nagano Souya offered to clear a path with White Tiger’s energy shield, despite the heavy cost in energy blocks.
• The purple-haired Huntress agreed to follow the plan but warned that she would not rescue vehicles that fell behind.
• Nagano Souya moved White Tiger to the front and announced he would travel at 140 kilometers per hour, giving the convoy one minute to decide whether to continue.
• Three vehicles turned back immediately, and two more withdrew half a minute later.

Nagano Souya led the convoy into the flesh-eating ants’ territory, where the insects erupted from underground holes and overwhelmed the vehicles. As the convoy was destroyed, the accountant prepared to shoot himself while Nagano Souya tried to clear the ants from his truck.

• Nagano Souya activated White Tiger and led the remaining vehicles across the cracked ground in the ants’ territory.
• The flesh-eating ants burst from holes in the ground and rained down on the convoy, clinging to vehicles and eating through metal and glass.
• The accountant tried to use the truck’s mechanical arm to hand Nagano Souya spare ammunition and energy blocks, but the ants disabled its hydraulic system.
• Nagano Souya slowed White Tiger and burned the ants from the truck’s cab, while the accountant warned that the truck was covered underneath too.
• The accountant saw the convoy’s wreckage and the surviving vehicles being swarmed, then raised his pistol to his temple.

Nagano Souya sacrificed the accountant and abandoned the heavy trailer, but flesh-eating ants engulfed the convoy. Candle Dragon and Sun Hang discussed the deadly reality of freelance hunting and whether the dead hunters would have been a liability on their planned trip to Egypt.

• Nagano Souya released the heavy trailer, which overturned and crashed into an armored SUV, killing the accountant and setting the wreckage ablaze.
• The chapter recounted how flesh-eating ant queens were replaced when they died or could no longer function, making attempts to contain or exterminate the colonies ineffective.
• Research reports explained that the ants remained in the Hexi Corridor, while Dr. Carlton continued investigating despite Chang'an cutting funding and the Dragon City Defense Army refusing further support.
• Candle Dragon told Sun Hang that most freelance hunters died or could not qualify to return as registered hunters.
• Sun Hang said hunters unable to handle flesh-eating ants might hold their group back in Egypt, and Candle Dragon replied that the world had always been cruel.

Sun Hang and Candle Dragon studied how the Cordyceps Anomaly parasitized animals and took control of their bodies. After an infected gerbil and scorpion fought, their fungal filaments merged, leaving Sun Hang to suspect the Anomaly was fusing them rather than simply selecting the strongest host.

• Sun Hang examined the Cordyceps Anomaly’s spores and tested their effects on a gerbil and a scorpion.
• The spores corroded both animals and replaced the gerbil’s brain and nervous system, while the scorpion became covered in mycelium.
• The infected scorpion attacked the gerbil, and the gerbil fought back as the fungus learned to control its body.
• The gerbil and scorpion became locked together while fungal filaments invaded both bodies.
• The animals were wrapped in a cotton-like mass as their filaments and memetic frequencies fused into one whole.

Sun Hang and Candle Dragon discussed the hive-minded Cordyceps Anomaly and the dangers of leaving humanity’s fate to the Mainframe. Nagano Souya survived the flesh-eating ants’ attack, but he saw that hunters drawn by a huge bounty were heading toward Nanhua Town.

• Sun Hang watched a clump of fluff return to the giant Cordyceps, and Candle Dragon and the Mainframe discussed how hive-minded Anomalies were classified.
• Candle Dragon described two Tianshu Tower researchers who fought over the naming and date code of a Meme fragment, then urged Sun Hang to spend time with Elder Pei and other leaders because humanity’s fate should remain in human hands.
• Nagano Souya looked back at the smoke rising from the flesh-eating ants’ territory and recalled that White Tiger had estimated his convoy’s survival rate had fallen to one percent, with only him expected to survive.
• Nagano Souya burned ants off two equipment cases and found their inner layers had protected the energy blocks and ammunition.
• Nagano Souya loaded the supplies onto White Tiger and headed toward Nanhua Town, where he saw hunters rushing in response to a huge bounty and feared more would die.

Cheng Ming rode to Chang'an with other Anomaly Hunters and mercenaries who had accepted Tianshu Tower’s enormous bounty. He needed his share to pay for cloned lungs for his mother, whose late-stage cancer was becoming resistant to treatment, and the train carried him toward the mission that might save her.

• Cheng Ming boarded the train and met three hunters who discussed the bounty, their plans for the money, and the risks of the mission.
• The other hunters questioned Cheng Ming about his silence and what he would do with his share, and he said he would save it.
• Cheng Ming read a message from his mother saying her condition seemed to be improving.
• Cheng Ming recalled that his mother had late-stage lung cancer, had only months without a transplant, and needed expensive cultivated lungs.
• Cheng Ming remembered that he had joined the Anomaly Hunters despite his weak abilities because his income and allowance could not cover his mother’s treatment.

Cheng Ming recalled how he became an infected Anomaly Hunter and the limited combat experience he had gained from four missions. While traveling toward the Hexi Corridor, he joined Yu Duo, He Dawei, and Shen Rui in a temporary team, and He Dawei proposed making himself their captain.

• Cheng Ming remembered that his first mission was a false alarm, his second ended with casualties and his own serious injuries, and his last two were easy containment jobs.
• Cheng Ming recalled how an anomalous cactus infected him, killed his colleague, and left him with photosynthesis and above-average Physiological Tolerance.
• Cheng Ming learned that his fellow hunters were Yu Duo, He Dawei, and Shen Rui as they discussed teaming up and following a larger group into the uninhabited zone.
• Cheng Ming agreed to join their team and told them he had spent one year and eight months as a hunter and completed four easy missions.
• After Yu Duo described her three jobs, He Dawei claimed he was the most experienced and asked the others to accept him as team captain.