Chapter Summaries

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.

Sun Hang questioned the Female Anomaly about Maoyun Town and followed her to its monthly Grand Sacrifice Ceremony, where a strange host performed on the opera stage. As the crowd gathered for the ceremony, an upside-down anomaly recognized the Female Anomaly and discovered that Sun Hang was an outsider.

• Sun Hang questioned the Female Anomaly about the town's abandonment and her children, but she gave fragmented answers and began to cry.
• Night-watch calls raced through all five watches, and the Female Anomaly told Sun Hang that the monthly Grand Sacrifice Ceremony would take place at dawn on the opera stage.
• The Female Anomaly led Sun Hang through a crowd of anomalies to the town square, where a masked, oddly dressed host danced before the townspeople.
• The Female Anomaly explained that the Town Chief would not attend and that the host was in charge of the ceremony.
• An upside-down anomaly mocked the Female Anomaly and Sun Hang, then realized Sun Hang was an outsider and revealed the rotten flesh lodged in his throat.

Sun Hang revealed that his blood frightened the Inverted One, then killed him after he attacked. The old granny explained that Maoyun Town’s sacrifices and supposed blessings were delusions born from famine, and Sun Hang’s banknote changed into a grain coupon stamped “Void.”

• Sun Hang’s bleeding wrist alarmed the Inverted One and the townspeople, and the Inverted One attacked him with a knife.
• Sun Hang beat the Inverted One with his unloaded hunting pistol and killed him with a stomp.
• The townspeople divided up the Inverted One’s corpse as food for the Grand Sacrifice Ceremony.
• The old granny told Sun Hang that Maoyun Town had no Town Chief and that its blessings were imagined to disguise cannibalism.
• The old granny explained that the town’s immortality curse was an obsession, and Sun Hang found that his banknote had become a grain coupon stamped “Void.”

Sun Hang escaped the illusion of Maoyun Town and discovered that Anna had arranged for an aromatherapy bottle to be planted in Yang Qi’s SUV, leading him to suspect she had sent him there to convey a message about his homeland. He was left considering what Anna meant by telling him that Maoyun Town was where he should return.

• The old woman told Sun Hang how Maoyun Town’s residents starved after supplies stopped arriving, until they resorted to eating people.
• Sun Hang rejected the old woman’s claim that Maoyun Town was his homeland, closed his eyes, and saw the town as ruins when he opened them again.
• Sun Hang found unfamiliar fingerprints on Yang Qi’s SUV and recovered an empty aromatherapy bottle from beneath the back seat.
• Sun Hang traced the bottle’s memories and saw Lu Hongming read a letter instructing him to place the bottle in the SUV in exchange for regaining what he had lost and making Sun Hang disappear.
• Sun Hang recognized Anna Dimoshina as the likely author of the letter and recalled the old woman saying that Maoyun Town was his true homeland.

Sun Hang wondered whether he was an anomaly and returned toward Shuzhou, where he reunited with Wang Xiyi’s team. Their discovery of a nameplate marked Elena Dimoshina raised a new question about Anna and her family.

• Sun Hang considered whether he had been born in the Fallen Zone or was an anomaly, and he decided that finding his way back was his priority.
• Wang Xiyi’s team spotted headlights on Highway 4218 and prepared for a possible threat as Sun Hang’s car approached.
• Sun Hang explained to Wang Xiyi that an anomaly had drugged him and coerced a human into framing him.
• Wang Xiyi told Sun Hang that the team had found a nameplate bearing his name inside an anomaly’s core, but Sun Hang showed that his own nameplate was still with him.
• Wang Xiyi retrieved the other nameplate, and Candle Dragon identified its Russian inscription as Elena Dimoshina, a name that reminded Sun Hang of Anna Dimoshina.

Sun Hang and his team returned to Tianfu City under the highest martial law after discovering a nameplate whose memetic frequency nearly matched his own. Instead of heading straight to an emergency meeting, Sun Hang went to confront Lu Hongming, who recognized him and screamed for the door to be shut.

• Candle Dragon identified the nameplate’s memetic frequency as more than 99.999% similar to Sun Hang’s, and Sun Hang ordered Ye Jiu to watch it without interruption.
• The team left the fallen zone and learned from Sentry Post 198 that Tianfu City had summoned them to an emergency meeting.
• Candle Dragon reported that a team of veteran Ranked Hunters had arrived, while Wang Xiyi learned that Tianfu City was under its highest level of martial law.
• Sun Hang left the route to the institute and told Candle Dragon and Ye Jiu to continue without him while Wang Xiyi stayed by the car.
• Sun Hang went to Lu Hongming’s apartment and told Lu Hongming’s son that he had a private matter to discuss with his former colleague.
• Lu Hongming saw Sun Hang, dropped his teacup, and screamed for the door to be closed.