Chapter Summaries

Sun Hang fought an anomaly corpse in an alley, then realized it was controlled by the Puppet Master and that more corpses were waiting nearby. He suspected the Puppet Master was hiding among the mall spectators and turned his attention toward finding her.

• Sun Hang dodged the anomaly corpse’s sudden attack and beat it with fungal threads, but its defenses resisted his blows and attempts to devour it.
• Bystanders called the police and filmed Sun Hang as he slammed the anomaly corpse into the road.
• Two janitors revealed themselves as anomaly corpses by smashing through the mall’s glass wall and joining the fight.
• Sun Hang recognized the corpses as likely belonging to the Puppet Master, a Qualified User Ye Jiu had told him about, and reasoned that other corpses might be lying in ambush.
• Sun Hang decided to target the Puppet Master rather than flee and guessed she was disguised among the mall spectators.

Sun Hang used the Sarira to search the mall crowd’s memories for the Puppet Master, despite the danger of exhausting his spiritual energy. He found a memory linking a young girl to an infected woman in the Anomaly Research Institute and identified the girl in the crowd, but the Puppet Master’s fate remained unresolved.

• Sun Hang realized the Puppet Master was using civilians as cover while anomalous corpses attacked and Tianshu Tower operatives closed in.
• He used the Sarira to strengthen his mind and searched the memories of the spectators in the mall.
• As his spiritual energy rapidly drained, Sun Hang saw memories revealing the spectators’ hidden fears, resentments, and darker impulses.
• He found a little girl’s memory of her infected mother being treated inside a glass enclosure at the Anomaly Research Institute.
• The memory showed the girl and her mother raising matching hands, prompting researchers to test the girl, and Sun Hang recognized her in the crowd.

Sun Hang took the Puppet Master hostage to stop her anomaly corpses and demanded that the Anomaly Cleanup Division let him leave. As the agents debated whether he would hurt her, the chapter left his threat unresolved.

• Sun Hang subdued the Puppet Master and held her hostage, causing the anomaly corpses to stop moving.
• Sun Hang told the Cleanup Division agents that the Puppet Master was a combatant and refused to release her or trust their promise.
• Sun Hang demanded that the agents smash their weapons and clear a path, threatening to break one of the Puppet Master's fingers every ten seconds if they refused.
• The Tianshu Tower control room questioned Sun Hang's character and wondered whether he would follow through on his threat.

Sun Hang took Puppet Master hostage and walked through the military cordon, then asked her to guide him around Chunming City during the trial. He tried to get cash from her frozen bank card, leaving them without money or a place to stay.

• The team leader ordered the operatives to let Sun Hang leave with Puppet Master and not follow him or deploy drones.
• Sun Hang carried Puppet Master out of the mall and crossed four city blocks while soldiers and operatives cleared the way.
• Sun Hang questioned Puppet Master and learned that Tianshu Tower held all the records of her life.
• Sun Hang asked Puppet Master to guide him and help find somewhere to stay during the next week.
• Sun Hang took Puppet Master to a Xiazhou Bank ATM to borrow cash, but her bank card had been frozen too.

Sun Hang fled with the Puppet Master while Tianshu Tower tracked them and waited for an opening to rescue her. After questioning how she controlled Anomaly Remains, he used the delay before their next location update to plan how to obtain money and supplies.

• Tianshu Tower detected the Puppet Master's bank-card access and ordered its team to track Sun Hang without alerting him, waiting for a chance to rescue her.
• Sun Hang took the Puppet Master away from the ATM, knowing Tianshu Tower could identify him while she was with him.
• Sun Hang asked whether the Puppet Master was infected and how she controlled Anomaly Remains, and she said she could control some by feeling and disposed of the rest.
• Sun Hang disabled the location function on the Puppet Master's wristband and waited with her in an alley until the next location update.
• Sun Hang considered how to get money and supplies without drawing Tianshu Tower's attention.

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.