Recaps

Sun Hang helped the Puppet Master recover from hypoglycemia, then worried about finding food and money while keeping her tracking wristband. As a Fourth-Rank Hunter approached, Tianshu Tower’s control room tried to order him to withdraw.

• Sun Hang found the Puppet Master collapsing from low blood sugar and carried her into a convenience store for help.
• The cashier gave Sun Hang cola and chocolate, and the Puppet Master recovered after drinking the regular cola.
• Sun Hang took the Puppet Master's wristband and urged her to eat, but she pointed out that he had no money.
• The Puppet Master saw a Fourth-Rank Hunter approaching and told Sun Hang she could see what the strange corpse saw.
• Tianshu Tower’s team leader ordered the hunter’s organization to make him withdraw.

Tianshu Tower failed to make Overlord withdraw from the Rank Advancement Trial, and Sun Hang learned about the private hunting company and Overlord’s strength. Sun Hang left the convenience store to face Overlord, who confronted him about abducting the Puppet Master.

• A team leader learned that Overlord refused to withdraw from the trial because he wanted to test Sun Hang, and the subordinate suggested Overlord would take responsibility if the Puppet Master was hurt.
• The Puppet Master told Sun Hang that an anomaly corpse continued to follow her, then identified the approaching masked Hunter as Overlord of the Xiang Clan Anomaly Hunting Company.
• The Puppet Master explained how Ranked Hunters could leave the official system and said Overlord was strong because their joint missions ended within ten minutes.
• Sun Hang learned that Overlord had fans in Chunming City and reflected on how people in border cities viewed Hunters and anomaly disasters differently.
• Sun Hang left the convenience store to avoid putting the clerk at risk, and Overlord stopped nearby and asked whether Sun Hang had abducted the Puppet Master.

Sun Hang fought Overlord in the street, countering his devastating air-compression punches with a shield made from metal and Tai Sui Hyphae. After identifying the limits of Overlord’s ability, Sun Hang caught him off balance, leaving Overlord falling into a vacuum behind him.

• Overlord confronted Sun Hang and demanded that he surrender Puppet Master and withdraw from the trial.
• Overlord burst free from Sun Hang’s hyphae and struck at him, shattering storefront windows with the force of his punch.
• Sun Hang used a metal-and-hyphae shield to absorb Overlord’s second air bullet.
• Sun Hang deduced that Overlord could control solidified air only within half a meter of his body and challenged Overlord’s claim that his attacks were too fast to see.
• Sun Hang trapped Overlord’s feet in iron and removed the air behind him, causing Overlord to lose his balance and fall.

Sun Hang overwhelmed Tyrant in their fight, but Tyrant’s infection progression surged as he lay in the pit. Tyrant transformed into a powerful, out-of-control Hunter and trapped Sun Hang in crushing, solidified air.

• Sun Hang threw Tyrant into the pit while nearby onlookers recognized him from news coverage of the airport mall incident.
• Tianshu Tower staff detected Tyrant’s infection progression rising rapidly and ordered nearby Hunters and response teams to the scene.
• Tyrant’s aura intensified, and Sun Hang warned the onlookers to flee.
• Tyrant emerged transformed and used his ability to crush the air around Sun Hang, causing severe injuries and suffocation.

Sun Hang learned that Tyrant had undergone a memetic mutation and become an anomaly corpse, apparently reacting to Sun Hang as a predator. Candle Dragon arrived to contain him, while the Puppet Master considered whether she could control the newly transformed Ranked Hunter.

• A stronger anomaly corpse ambushed Tyrant, freeing Sun Hang from the air wall and letting him retreat into the convenience store.
• The Puppet Master explained that Tyrant’s meme had mutated, and Candle Dragon arrived to suspend the Rank Advancement Trial and handle him.
• The Puppet Master sensed that Tyrant’s mutation was driven by fear of a predator, and Candle Dragon suggested Sun Hang’s meme may have triggered it.
• Candle Dragon said Tianshu Tower would not hold Sun Hang responsible and noted that the Puppet Master might be able to control Tyrant as Anomaly Equipment.
• Candle Dragon summoned streams of freezing water that reformed after Tyrant struck them and then wrapped around him.

After Sun Hang and Candle Dragon subdued Tyrant, Tianshu Tower suspended the Rank Advancement Trial for three days. Sun Hang kept Puppet Master with him, got cash from Candle Dragon, and left with them after compensating a convenience-store clerk for the cola.

• Tyrant convulsed after water slipped into his mouth, then fell frozen stiff as Tianshu Tower soldiers arrived and took him away.
• A researcher told Sun Hang that the trial was suspended for three days and offered lodging, supplies, and to take Puppet Master back.
• Sun Hang refused to hand over Puppet Master and demanded cash because his account was frozen.
• Candle Dragon explained why the researcher could not use ordinary payment methods and gave Sun Hang a thick wad of cash.
• Candle Dragon invited Sun Hang and Puppet Master to a pub, and Sun Hang paid the convenience-store clerk for the cola before they left.

Sun Hang and the Puppet Master visited Candle Dragon’s tavern, where Sun Hang asked about Candle Dragon’s unusual clothes and inherited Meme. Candle Dragon explained the Candle Dragon bloodline’s lethal inheritance cycle and left Sun Hang with more questions about its origins.

• Candle Dragon brought Sun Hang and the Puppet Master to the Useless tavern and ordered them drinks.
• Candle Dragon revealed that his thick clothes contained the severe cold emitted by his body.
• Candle Dragon told Sun Hang that the Candle Dragon Meme passed through his descendants and killed the older possessor when a new carrier was born.
• Candle Dragon explained that attempts to transfer the Meme to unrelated people had failed and that Tianshu Tower classified the bloodline anomaly as a trait of the Candle Dragon Meme.
• Sun Hang asked how Candle Dragon’s great-great-grandfather had first been infected, but Candle Dragon said he did not know.

Sun Hang discussed the Candle Dragons’ tragic history and Candle Dragon’s interest in historical accounts of aberrations. Candle Dragon proposed that ancient infected helped humanity defeat aberrations and drive them into the Savage Lands.

• Sun Hang told Candle Dragon that he could still defy the fate that had doomed previous Candle Dragons.
• Candle Dragon discussed his reading of the Zizhi Tongjian and speculated that ancient accounts of fierce beasts might describe aberrations.
• The Puppet Master revealed that her name was Zhong Ling, and Candle Dragon explained the origin of his inherited name.
• Candle Dragon demonstrated his cold blue flame and confirmed he had withheld it when fighting Tyrant to preserve the aberrant corpse for Zhong Ling.
• Candle Dragon told Sun Hang that humans and aberrations once lived together and said he believed ancient infected helped humanity win a great war.

Yin Xiang struggled through an exhausting overnight shift sorting old anomaly records at the Tianfu City Anomaly Investigation Bureau. As he complained about Sun Hang and the workload, he saw something flash past the window.

• Candle Dragon asked Sun Hang whether powerful Primal Anomalies could be called gods, and Sun Hang said that he did not believe in religious idols.
• Yin Xiang and the other investigators continued working overtime to sort decades of anomaly records for the Disaster Response Committee.
• Yin Xiang complained that Sun Hang had left for Chunming City while everyone else cleaned up the aftermath of his sighting of a white shadow.
• Yin Xiang saw something flash past the office window and called to the chief in alarm.

Yin Xiang reported seeing a glowing white shadow outside the Investigation Bureau, but surveillance footage showed nothing. After other security officers saw the shadow on Building C’s roof, a hunter explained that some anomalous entities could be seen with the naked eye but not captured by recording equipment.

• Yin Xiang told the team leader he had seen a white, faintly glowing shadow flash past the office window, and the team leader ordered the footage checked and hunters summoned.
• The team leader and investigators reviewed the surveillance footage, which showed no shadow, while Yin Xiang described what he had glimpsed.
• The team leader proposed searching the Investigation Bureau for traces of the entity last seen at Shengshu Securities.
• A security officer reported that he, Du Cheng, and Lou Haoyong had seen the white shadow on Building C’s roof.
• A hunter explained that some anomalous entities could be visible to the naked eye but not to recording equipment.

Wang Xiyi investigated the deaths of two security guards at the Investigation Bureau and suspected the anomalous entity had attacked to steal information from their memories. Meanwhile, Sun Hang learned the first stage of his trial was a pass and pressed Tianshu Tower for details about the second stage, which was due to begin the next day.

• Wang Xiyi found that two security guards had been paralyzed by mucus before an anomalous entity drilled into their heads and sucked out their brains.
• Wang Xiyi told Team Leader Yan that the entity may have extracted information from the guards’ memories, prompting him to recommend protecting senior and confidential personnel.
• A researcher told Sun Hang that Institute One needed the Puppet Master back to adjust Tyrant’s memetic frequency, but Sun Hang demanded another hostage or a better offer.
• The researcher said Tianshu Tower had granted Sun Hang a pass for the first trial stage, unfrozen his Identification Code and account, and scheduled the second stage for the next day.
• Sun Hang learned the second stage would take place outside the city and involve cooperation with other trial participants, then took the researcher’s earpiece and asked Tianshu Tower for more details.

Sun Hang learned that the second phase of the Rank Advancement Trial would take place on a classified deserted island and struggled to reach the hotel Tianshu Tower had booked for him. Four hours before the trial began, a mysterious participant appeared in his room as a projection and introduced himself as Sun Hang’s teammate.

• A Tianshu Tower representative told Sun Hang that the trial site was a classified deserted island three hundred kilometers east of Chunming City, and Candle Dragon said the second phase would be a live-combat exercise.
• After the first phase ended, Sun Hang parted from Candle Dragon and discovered that his hotel was far away in a different sector of Chunming City.
• Sun Hang took a taxi to the nearest access point for Tianshi Sector after learning the cab could not enter it because of its registration restrictions.
• At five in the morning, a pale gray humanoid projection appeared in Sun Hang’s hotel room and said the second phase would begin in four hours.
• The projection explained that it was Sun Hang’s teammate and claimed hunters valued strength over politeness, prompting Sun Hang to ask whether it was strong.

Sun Hang confronted a phantom who urged him to withdraw from the trial, then deduced that the phantom was the hunter’s real body and caught him changing in the empty neighboring room. The hunter fled in fear, leaving Sun Hang amused and still watching him through a fungal eye.

• The phantom criticized Sun Hang’s lack of combat experience and urged him to quit the dangerous second stage of the trial.
• Sun Hang checked the neighboring rooms and accused the phantom of being a naked hunter rather than a projection.
• The phantom retreated through the wall into Room 605, where he reformed as a naked white man and quickly dressed.
• Sun Hang watched the hunter through a fungal eye and reflected on his poor impression of Anglo-Saxons.
• The hunter hurried out without washing and stepped away from Sun Hang’s door as if afraid, prompting Sun Hang to wonder whether he was already scared.

Sun Hang learned that he was in the final batch of hunters taking the Rank Advancement Trial and heard rumors about the second stage. The chapter left him learning that the trial would take place on a sealed island that once housed a Tianshu Tower research institute.

• Sun Hang reasoned that the hunter who could turn his body into a phantom had limits and went to the hotel breakfast buffet.
• Tianshu Tower summoned all hunters who had passed the first stage to Airport K08 for transport to the next stage.
• A young hunter from the Siberian Autonomous Region told Sun Hang that the trial participants were divided into fourteen batches and that Sun Hang's group was the last.
• Sun Hang described the Eternal Night and the anomalous mountain's passage through Tianfu City to the curious hunter.
• The young hunter revealed that the second stage would be on a sealed island three hundred kilometers east of Chunming City, where Tianshu Tower had once researched Artificial Hunters.

Sun Hang learned that the deserted island chosen for the hunters’ second trial was the site of a failed Artificial Hunter research project. Yang Qi revealed that the institute had become the Geng-type Anomaly known as Nameless Island, and the chapter ended with her describing the grim fates of its survivors.

• Sun Hang’s talkative fellow hunter told him that Tianshu Tower had researched Artificial Hunters on the sealed island and criticized the Anglo-Saxon hunters nearby.
• Sun Hang threatened to kill anyone who tried to cause trouble during the trial, then joked that killing people at random was wrong.
• Yang Qi called Sun Hang and told him to find a secluded place before sharing important information about the second trial.
• Yang Qi explained that the island’s institute had conducted the Codename: Sun Chaser project, which explored fusing humans with Anomaly Memes.
• Yang Qi said an unknown force had anomalized the institute and spread across the island, leading Tianshu Tower to classify it as Geng Nineteen: Nameless Island.
• Yang Qi recounted how the eleven people who escaped the island went mad, became infected, or died within a year under suspicious circumstances.

Sun Hang and Yang Qi discussed the curse affecting people who escaped Nameless Island and why Anomaly Hunters might resist it. Yang Qi explained the dangers, history, and objective of the island trial, then urged Sun Hang to leave if the mission became unsafe.

• Sun Hang concluded that the deaths of people who escaped Nameless Island were caused by its curse, while Yang Qi considered whether an anomaly had controlled their wills.
• Sun Hang theorized that hunters’ existing memes might fight off the curse, and Yang Qi questioned his reasoning before acknowledging it could make sense.
• Yang Qi explained that drones rarely returned useful information from the island, communications depended on Signal Flares, and the offshore warship could provide artillery support.
• Sun Hang learned that the mission likely targeted valuable paper documents in the research institute’s basement and that four earlier expeditions had suffered severe losses.
• Yang Qi told Sun Hang to abandon the Rank Advancement Trial and leave Nameless Island if the situation became dangerous.

Sun Hang and the other hunters sailed toward Nameless Island for the second stage of Tianshu Tower’s trial, tasked with investigating its transformation and retrieving abandoned research materials. On the way, Fisherman told the hunters how he had survived an anomalous creature’s attack at sea.

• Tianshu Tower briefed more than 150 hunters on the trial objectives and sent them from Jinggu aboard a modified destroyer carrying thousands of drones.
• The destroyer stopped outside the restricted zone, and Sun Hang and Fisherman boarded the same landing craft.
• Fisherman took the tiller and told Sun Hang and the other hunters that he had once managed fish farms before an anomalous creature attacked his boat.
• Fisherman recounted how he stabbed the creature with a harpoon, then fought it with a dagger and his teeth after losing his ammunition and weapon.

The Hunters landed on Nameless Island and debated how cautiously to explore the route toward the research institute. While some rushed into the forest and others stayed behind to establish a camp, a green Signal Flare suggested the first group had crossed the woods safely.

• The Fisherman recounted how eating an anomaly's flesh had healed his injuries and led to his becoming an Anomaly Hunter.
• Sun Hang and the Hunters landed on Nameless Island's western beach and found no Anomaly Meme readings nearby.
• The Hunters noticed the forest had grown sparser than in photographs and discussed setting up camp before exploring inland.
• Anglo-Saxon and Indian Hunters hurried into the forest, prompting other Hunters to follow them while fewer than fifty stayed on the beach.
• The Fisherman helped erect tents, and a green Signal Flare rose from beyond the forest to signal that the route was safe.

Sun Hang and the hunters were attacked on the shore by the Eight-Headed Serpent, which used poisonous water currents to kill many of them. The survivors escaped into the woods and wondered whether the trial would continue after Yano reported the monster’s arrival to Chunming City.

• A huge wave swept hunters into the sea, and Yano identified the entity as the Eight-Headed Serpent.
• The Eight-Headed Serpent fired water columns that pierced hunters and poisoned others, forcing Sun Hang and the survivors to flee into the woods.
• The hunters debated whether to retrieve supplies from the beach, while the Fisherman explained that a previous fleet operation had failed to kill the monster.
• Yano described the Eight-Headed Serpent’s defenses in water and said the Federation had shelved plans to destroy it because of the risks of nuclear strikes.
• Yano reported the monster’s appearance to the warship by drone and wondered whether the trial would continue.

After the hunters lost most of their supplies and their drones, Sun Hang killed a hostile teammate by throwing him into the Eight-Headed Serpent’s attack. With the group trapped in the woods and unable to retrieve supplies, Sun Hang questioned why the creature had stopped attacking them there.

• The hunters realized that most of their supplies had been lost, and Yano admitted he had used all four drones to send news of the Eight-Headed Serpent.
• A hunter blamed Yano and the Huntress, then tried to punch Sun Hang, who cut off his hand and threw him out of the woods, where the Eight-Headed Serpent killed him.
• Sun Hang asked Yano about contacting the destroyer and asked the hunters whether anyone could retrieve supplies from the beach, but no one volunteered.
• The Huntress suggested searching farther into the woods for other hunters and their supplies, but Sun Hang pointed out that the Eight-Headed Serpent’s decision to stop attacking them was suspicious.

Sun Hang’s group suspected the woods were dangerous after realizing the green signal flares might not have come from people, and he decided they would wait before leaving by the coast rather than venture deeper. When another green flare appeared near the research institute ruins, the hunters kept waiting, unaware that Sun Hang could survive by consuming the dead.

• Sun Hang proposed that the Eight-Headed Serpent had driven the hunters into the woods or that the forest held a more powerful aberration, and he questioned whether the signal flares came from people.
• Sun Hang told the hunters to wait two hours for the drone, then follow the coast, cut trees, and build a canoe instead of going deeper into the woods.
• The Fisherman tried eating bark, spat it out because it tasted foul, and Sun Hang explained that it grew in saline-alkali soil.
• A green signal flare appeared, and Yano used the map to locate it near the valley and the research institute ruins.
• Sun Hang shared half an energy bar with the Fisherman and concealed that the mycelium inside him could turn corpses into nutrients.

As the drone failed to return, the hunters argued over whether to leave Sun Hang and join the group headed for the research institute ruins. Sun Hang stayed with the Fisherman, Yano, and the Huntress, who trusted his composure more than the other hunters, as the group prepared to continue on Nameless Island.

• After the drone failed to return and a third green Signal Flare appeared, several hunters blamed their decision to stay behind and decided to cross the forest to join the others.
• The horned hunter led the departing group, while Sun Hang let everyone choose for themselves and the group promised to leave markers and send word back by drone.
• The Fisherman, Yano, and the Huntress stayed with Sun Hang; the Fisherman distrusted Anglo-Saxon Hunters, and Yano suspected Nameless Island was more dangerous than it seemed.
• Yano explained that his ability let him sense strong emotions and said Sun Hang had seemed to feel nothing when he threw a man out.
• The Huntress said she stayed because the horned hunter had leered at her, and Yano confirmed that Sun Hang did not feel lust toward her.

Sun Hang unexpectedly entered a realistic dream—or consciousness space—while resting in the woods, finding himself inside an Escape Tunnel beneath Nameless Island’s abandoned research facility. After discovering that his abilities did not work there and that he could pass through objects by not perceiving them, he explored the tunnel and reached a sealed door.

• Yano explained that sensing chaotic emotions from anomalous entities could trap him in a dangerous, hallucinatory state.
• While the drone remained missing and Yano’s attempts to contact the warship met only static, Sun Hang grew sleepy and his consciousness was pulled underground.
• Sun Hang found himself in a steel Escape Tunnel and suspected his body remained in the woods while his consciousness had entered a dreamlike space.
• Sun Hang discovered that pain and damage vanished when he stopped perceiving them, and that he could pass through the tunnel wall into a blank space.
• Sun Hang explored the tunnel by counting his steps, climbed a staircase, and found a rusted airtight door.
• After failing to turn the door’s valve, Sun Hang realized he could simply try walking through the door.

Sun Hang explored the research institute’s underground corridors after passing through an airtight door, using his ability to move through walls. He found evidence of a past massacre but no clear answer about what caused it, then entered a seemingly undisturbed military dormitory and tried to identify his location.

• Sun Hang passed through the airtight door and entered a wider corridor lined with rooms.
• Sun Hang found a dead institute worker in a restroom, examined his torn protective suit and empty Nagant revolver, and inferred that a monster had attacked the institute.
• Sun Hang searched the corpse but found no note or evidence of infection, leaving the creature’s fate and the cause of the incident unknown.
• Sun Hang entered a military dormitory containing ammunition and a Siberian Federation helmet but no bodies or signs of a fight.
• Sun Hang recalled that the third underground level held barracks, archives, a boiler room, and warehouses, and hoped he had entered through Escape Tunnel Two.

Sun Hang found Archive Room Six on Nameless Island and retrieved a confidential file by passing through its locked door. The archive triggered sealed memories of the institute, and the report he began reading described direct contact with a Primal Anomaly.

• Sun Hang searched the island's garrison dormitories and identified the route to Escape Tunnel Two.
• Sun Hang bypassed the explosive-protected door to Archive Room Six and took a confidential file from a safe.
• Sun Hang recognized the archive room and the institute as places from memories sealed in his mind, though he questioned how he could have known them.
• Sun Hang read that the file documented a direct contact experiment with a Primal Anomaly in Huang Calendar Year 4603 and wondered whether the experiment took place in the Xiazhou Federation.