Chapter Summaries

Sun Hang uncovered how the Anglo-Saxon Hunters killed a companion and turned his Curse Shielding ability into amulets to protect themselves while pursuing something beneath the research institute ruins. The group realized the curse already threatened everyone on the island and would become far stronger underground.

• Sun Hang learned from the Huntress's memories that an Anglo-Saxon Hunter proposed amplifying infected people's memetic factors, even though it would kill them or turn them into aberrant husks.
• When the Hunter with Curse Shielding refused to be sacrificed, the deranged Huntress slit his throat and drank his blood.
• The Anglo-Saxon Hunters dismembered their companion and used his body parts to carry his solidified Curse Shielding ability as amulets.
• Sun Hang told Fisherman and Yano Seiichi that the Anglo-Saxon Hunters sought a secret beneath the ruins rather than trial points or Rank Advancement.
• Yano Seiichi warned that the curse affected the whole ruins area, and Sun Hang said it grew far more powerful underground without Curse Shielding.

With the Eight-Headed Serpent threatening Chunming City, Yano Seiichi, the Fisherman, and Sun Hang realized the stranded hunters could not expect a rescue and lacked the supplies to survive for long. The chapter ended as three red flares signaled a request for artillery support, putting the research institute ruins in danger of bombardment.

• Yano Seiichi explained that the Federation would prioritize stopping the Eight-Headed Serpent over rescuing the island’s hunters.
• The Fisherman and Yano Seiichi recognized that most of the hunters were inexperienced and unlikely to form an effective suppression force.
• Sun Hang, Yano Seiichi, and the Fisherman discussed waiting for the Federation while facing dwindling supplies and Huangfu Sha’s urgent need for a blood transfusion.
• The Fisherman offered to give Huangfu Sha his Type O blood.
• Sun Hang and the Fisherman saw three red signal flares requesting artillery support, which would trigger a bombardment of the research institute ruins.

Sun Hang, Yano, and the fisherman fled underground with the unconscious Huangfu Sha as the research institute ruins came under bombardment. Trapped in the tunnels, they followed clues left by earlier hunters and began to suspect the hunters had launched the Signal Flares.

• After two sets of red Signal Flares appeared, Sun Hang decided the group had to hide underground to survive the imminent bombardment.
• The fisherman carried Huangfu Sha while Sun Hang and Yano ran with him to an underground entrance in Zone C.
• They escaped into a sturdier railway tunnel as the bombardment collapsed the passage behind them.
• Yano identified the tunnel as Station C of the underground railway, and Sun Hang proposed checking its exits and investigating where the earlier hunters had gone.
• The fisherman found signs that a locomotive had carried a group of hunters toward the second underground level, then wondered if they had launched the Signal Flares.

Sun Hang and his companions moved Huangfu Sha toward the exit, but Sun Hang chose to follow the Anglo-Saxon Hunters deeper underground to investigate the laboratory connected to his lost memories. On the way, they found a Hunter fused into a wall after his phasing ability apparently failed, and Sun Hang sensed something familiar about him beyond the man’s identity.

• Sun Hang, the Fisherman, and Yano loaded Huangfu Sha into a mine cart and headed toward the exit.
• Sun Hang told the Fisherman to take Huangfu Sha to the surface while he followed the Anglo-Saxon Hunters to learn what they were seeking.
• Sun Hang decided to continue underground because a laboratory from his dream felt familiar and might help uncover the truth behind his amnesia.
• Sun Hang spotted a dead man embedded halfway in a wall and approached him cautiously with a fungal filament.
• Sun Hang recognized the corpse as the Anglo-Saxon Hunter who had entered his hotel room that morning and cut away the part of the body outside the wall.
• Sun Hang explained that the Hunter’s phasing ability had likely failed mid-crossing, then said the familiar sensation came from something other than the dead man’s dissipated Anomaly Meme.

Sun Hang, the Fisherman, and Yano continued exploring the Nameless Island research institute after discovering a way to control meme activation in severed body parts. They left Huangfu Sha near a surface exit and headed for the institute’s core, where they speculated that the Anglo-Saxon Hunters were searching for information about the island’s original culprit.

• Sun Hang gave the Fisherman and Yano the sealed bags containing a severed finger and an eyeball, and they decided to continue together while leaving Huangfu Sha behind once they found an exit.
• The three found a shell-blasted breach to the surface, where the Fisherman sheltered Huangfu Sha and placed a distress beacon in her hand.
• Yano explained that the second basement level contained the institute’s core laboratories and archives, the targets of their trial.
• Sun Hang suggested that the Anglo-Saxon Hunters might be seeking the culprit behind the Nameless Island incident.
• Yano proposed that the Anglo-Saxon Hunters might have obtained lost Siberian Federation intelligence about an anomalous object connected to the incident.

Sun Hang, Fisherman, and Yano investigated the underground facility, discussing how Anglo-Saxon Hunters had obtained Siberian Federation intelligence and the danger they might face below. They continued toward the archive, where Yano hoped to find historical files, and reached an underground training district.

• Sun Hang asked Fisherman about Siberian Federation intelligence, but Fisherman said he knew nothing about the fallen federation.
• Yano questioned how Anglo-Saxon Hunters had obtained information from Saint Petersburg, which had been inaccessible to humans for nearly a century.
• Fisherman suggested capturing a Hunter for interrogation, and Sun Hang warned that the group might already have been wiped out.
• Fisherman and Yano agreed to continue underground with Sun Hang, as Yano still wanted to see the old files.
• The three reached a broad underground district, where Yano identified the white buildings as part of a training zone designed to simulate urban terrain.

Sun Hang, Yano, and the Fisherman discussed why they had found almost no bodies on Nameless Island and considered whether survivors might have gathered in the institute’s safe houses. Their conversation turned to Tianshu Tower’s decision to hold a trial there before the street lights suddenly came on.

• Sun Hang pointed out that they had found no bodies from the island’s past expeditions, and the Fisherman realized the absence was unusual.
• Yano suggested that the missing people might have gathered in safe houses and described their locations and capacities in the institute.
• Sun Hang recalled the institute’s layout without trying and questioned why Tianshu Tower had chosen the island for the trial.
• Yano said Elder Pei, the Tower Master, had approved the trial and explained that most people had never seen him in person because he stayed in a recovery pod.
• The street lights suddenly illuminated section by section, and the Fisherman took a defensive stance and wondered where the electricity came from.

Sun Hang, Yano, and the Fisherman explored a powered training ground in the institute ruins and discovered a message hidden inside an old camera. The note read, “You're finally back,” leaving Sun Hang wondering whether it had been intended for him.

• Yano speculated that survivors or aberrations might have kept the underground training ground powered, while Sun Hang warned that the equipment could not be trusted completely.
• The lights revealed an elaborate mechanical camera system that tracked the three explorers, and Yano explained how its floor sensors and pulleys worked.
• Sun Hang cut the camera loose from its rail and caught it before it hit the ground.
• Sun Hang opened the camera and found a brittle paper strip instead of film.
• Yano read the Russian message on the strip as “You're finally back,” and Sun Hang wondered how its writer could have anticipated his arrival.

Sun Hang followed the red emergency lights after finding two mysterious notes that seemed to address him and hint at his past in the Nameless Island research facility. The Fisherman and Yano accompanied him, and an unfamiliar cloaked hunter suddenly appeared in their path.

• Sun Hang found a note inside the dismantled camera and suspected he had once lived throughout the research facility, though he could not explain his memories.
• A second note told him, “Long time no see. I miss you very much,” and urged him to follow the guidance.
• The overhead lights turned red, and Sun Hang followed them while wondering whether the Anglo-Saxon Hunters had found similar notes.
• The Fisherman and Yano caught up with Sun Hang despite his warning that the trail could be a trap.
• A cloaked hunter appeared ten paces ahead of Sun Hang, the Fisherman, and Yano.

Sun Hang pretended to consider cooperating with the grim hunter so he could expose the hunter’s real position, then killed him and absorbed the residual memes from his corpse. The chapter left Sun Hang reconstructing the grim hunter’s memories to learn what had happened in the ruins.

• The grim hunter offered Sun Hang’s group a share of the ruins’ spoils and warned that Tianshu Tower had withheld information about the danger.
• Sun Hang asked to inspect the artifact creating the projections, and the grim hunter revealed his location by using it again.
• Sun Hang shot the grim hunter on a rooftop, then searched his corpse and explained that the hunter could activate memes in others only under restrictive conditions.
• Sun Hang absorbed most of the corpse’s residual memes, gaining memory fragments that could reveal the sequence of events.

A United States spy named Vera Kurikova sent intelligence from Nameless Island about an Anomaly embryo, but the drift bottle washed ashore near Longkou Port and was only recovered generations later. Sun Hang and the Anglo-Saxon Hunters learned that the embryo had been fully anomalized by a Primal Grade meme without mutating, suggesting the meme could coexist with humans.

• The United States learned about the secret Nameless Island Research Institute but chose not to alert the Xiazhou and Siberian Federations.
• Professor Anatoly Ilyich Pavlov married his student Vera Kurikova and brought her to Nameless Island, unaware that she was a senior United States spy.
• Vera gathered intelligence and sent it in a drift bottle, but a Sea Beast Anomaly diverted the bottle toward Xiazhou's eastern coast the day before the Nameless Island incident.
• A descendant of a United States intelligence officer found the officer's diary, traced the bottle to a fishing village near Longkou Port, and recovered the intelligence from a metal cylinder.
• The descendant decoded the intelligence for Sun Hang and the Anglo-Saxon Hunters, revealing that Nameless Island researchers had found a human embryo carrying a Primal Grade meme that had reached one hundred percent anomalization without causing mutation.

Sun Hang watched the Anglo-Saxon Hunters uncover intelligence about a Primal Grade embryo on Nameless Island and plan to seize it during a Rank Advancement Trial. Their expedition was devastated by escaped Anomalies, and the gloomy Hunter abandoned his allies and sabotaged the elevator as he fled.

• Donald proposed taking the embryo so he could make the United States great again, and the Hunters discussed the possibility of claiming power over humanity.
• The gloomy Hunter said the next Rank Advancement Trial would take place on Nameless Island, and the group reasoned that the island's secrecy meant they might be the only people who knew about the embryo.
• The Hunters agreed to work together until they confirmed the embryo existed, then recruited Indian-descended Anomaly Hunters with false promises of Anomaly Equipment and unclaimed property.
• Sun Hang saw fragmented memories of the Hunters encountering escaped Anomalies on the second underground level and suffering devastating losses.
• Wall-Phasing Bro fled through the rock strata, while the gloomy Hunter abandoned the group and smashed the elevator controller as he escaped.

Sun Hang, the Fisherman, and Yano Seiichi descended to Basement Level Two despite Sun Hang’s warnings about the dangerous anomalies there. The elevator opened onto a gruesome scene, leaving the three facing evidence of a horrific death.

• Sun Hang found out that the escaped Hunter’s team had been wiped out by containment-breach anomalies on Basement Level Two and that a BOSS was rumored to be deeper in the facility.
• The Fisherman and Yano Seiichi insisted on continuing with Sun Hang, citing their resolve as Hunters and the research value of the anomalies.
• Sun Hang used Liquid Metal to bypass the disabled elevator controls and lower the car to Basement Level Two.
• The elevator doors opened beside a corpse with a hollowed-out chest, and the Fisherman cautiously inspected the grisly scene.

Sun Hang and the others encountered Xin Jiushiwu, a Spiritual Anomaly inhabiting a mass of Deep Sea Worm corpses, inside the research institute. After it attacked the elevator, Sun Hang trapped it and used his mycelium to absorb its memetic influence, while his growing familiarity with the institute hinted at memories from over a century ago.

• The Fisherman spotted a blood trail outside the elevator, and Sun Hang sensed Xin Jiushiwu lurking above the entrance.
• Sun Hang threw a hunter's corpse outside, revealing the black mass of worms that he identified as Xin Jiushiwu, a Spiritual Anomaly.
• Xin Jiushiwu charged the elevator, and Sun Hang kicked the Fisherman and Yano out before the Anomaly engulfed him.
• Sun Hang raised the elevator and wedged it between floors, trapping Xin Jiushiwu inside with him.
• Sun Hang's mycelium entangled the worms and began draining their memetic influence, turning the Anomaly's attempted feeding into its own defeat.

Sun Hang killed Xin Jiushiwu by destroying the Deep Sea Worms that had served as its shells, then followed the red fingerprint lights after washing and changing in a researchers’ dormitory. Reviewing his recovered memories, he realized he had observed the institute’s past as a ghost, but had never appeared in it.

• Sun Hang pulled the Deep Sea Worms from his body, killing Xin Jiushiwu and absorbing its memetic imprint, which greatly increased his Blue Bar.
• Sun Hang told the Fisherman and Yano that Xin Jiushiwu had become so accustomed to the Deep Sea Worms that it died with them instead of escaping as a spirit.
• Sun Hang followed the red fingerprint lights with the Fisherman and Yano, stopping at Dormitory No. 4 to wash off the blood and corrosive fluid.
• Sun Hang put on a researcher’s lab coat and noticed that, in his recovered memories of the institute, he had witnessed scenes from the past without appearing in them.

Sun Hang, the Fisherman, and Yano searched the island’s dormitories but found little evidence about the accident or the researchers’ work. As they followed the red fingerprint lights onward, Yano suggested that a shepherd-like Anomaly might have gathered the island’s residents, leaving the mystery unresolved.

• The Fisherman found an old bottle of vodka, opened it, and rejected it after its sour smell put him off.
• Sun Hang, the Fisherman, and Yano searched the dormitories and found orderly rooms, family letters, and books unrelated to Anomaly research.
• Sun Hang could recall only peaceful memories of the island and none from the day of the accident.
• The three left the dormitories and continued along the red fingerprint lights, passing more buildings with little useful information.
• Yano described a folktale about a flute-playing shepherd who lured children away, and proposed that a similar Anomaly might have gathered everyone on Nameless Island.

Sun Hang, Fisherman, and Yano reached a sealed passage into the Nameless Island Research Institute’s laboratory area and prepared to open it despite a powerful aberration waiting beyond. Sun Hang recognized that his infection shared a source with the force behind Xin Jiushiwu, briefly wondered whether he was human, and then found that the thought had been erased from his memory.

• Fisherman, Sun Hang, and Yano reached a two-meter-thick tungsten-alloy airtight door in the rock wall separating the institute’s living and work areas.
• Sun Hang sensed a powerful being behind the door, stronger than Xin Jiushiwu, and the group readied their weapons.
• Sun Hang recalled that his infection and the force that contaminated Xin Jiushiwu came from the same source, and wondered whether he had been infected on Nameless Island.
• Sun Hang briefly questioned whether he was human, but the thought vanished and he could no longer remember what he had just been thinking.
• Sun Hang chose to open the door, and the group prepared as he activated the mechanism and the heavy door began to turn.

Sun Hang, Yano Seiichi, and the Fisherman discovered a contaminated Tumi replica blocking the tunnel, and Yano explained its hallucinogenic effects and history. He began recounting how soldiers investigating the original Tumi massacred its worshippers, only for the dead natives to rise from their blood.

• Sun Hang, Yano Seiichi, and the Fisherman opened the airtight door and found enormous vines surrounding a pulsing crimson flower bud.
• Yano identified the anomaly as Tumi, and Sun Hang concluded that researchers on Nameless Island had made a replica using Tumi's meme.
• Yano explained that Tumi's scent brought pleasure and that the island's indigenous people used its roots and stems to make hallucinogenic incense.
• Yano recounted how soldiers landed on Pratambak during the indigenous tribe's Festival of Joy and decided to burn Tumi.
• The soldiers nearly wiped out the tribe, but the natives they had killed began crawling out of pools of blood.

Yano explained that Tumi reset Pratambak Island and its people to the state they were in at its previous bloom every four years. As the flower bud in the tunnel began to open, Sun Hang wondered what it had recorded the last time it bloomed.

• Yano recounted how soldiers fought the island’s natives, but a later reconnaissance found the island and its people seemingly untouched.
• The gunboats bombarded the festival and burned Pratambak Island, but four years later the major found its jungle and natives restored.
• Yano explained that Tumi recorded its surroundings when it bloomed and reset everything in its domain at the next bloom.
• Yano said three natives taken off the island vanished after four years, while researchers could not verify where they had gone.
• Sun Hang studied the flower bud as its petals began to separate and wondered what it had recorded.

Sun Hang, the Fisherman, and Yano crawled through a tunnel blocked by Tumi vines, whose mysterious recording effects remained poorly understood. As Sun Hang passed a bud, a mouth appeared in his palm and swallowed it, sending a searing sensation through his body.

• Sun Hang questioned Yano about whether Tumi's resets erased effects its recorded subjects caused outside the domain, but Yano had no records addressing it.
• Sun Hang told the Fisherman to clear the vine-blocked tunnel, and the Fisherman reluctantly agreed to lead.
• Sun Hang shot through several vines, and the Fisherman used his Gamma Alloy knife to cut a crawl-sized opening.
• Yano and Sun Hang followed the Fisherman through the vines while avoiding a bud that was about to bloom.
• Sun Hang grabbed the bud as he crawled past, and a mouth appeared in his palm, bit it off, and swallowed it.
• A scorching sensation spread from Sun Hang's hand through his entire body.