Chapter Summaries

Fu Qian visited a crowded bar in the wasteland to make his presence known after ending his cooperation with the Siren Group. He drew the hunters’ attention by mocking their claims of rich rewards and boasting that his departure had caused the expedition’s losses.

• Fu Qian wandered through the desert settlement and decided its hunters had only one real profession.
• Fu Qian entered a 24-hour bar, removed his mask, and confirmed that nobody there seemed to recognize him from the Sin Fire game.
• Nora approached Fu Qian, flirted with him, and invited him to buy her a drink, but he refused.
• Fu Qian questioned whether the wasteland’s rewards were truly rich, provoking anger among the hunters in the bar.
• A man in a leather jacket asked Fu Qian about the Siren Group expedition’s losses, and Fu Qian claimed they had lost him as a powerful ally.
• The leather-jacketed man accused Fu Qian of messing with him, but Fu Qian calmly finished his drink and challenged the man’s assumption.

Fu Qian provoked Felix into a confrontation at the bar and used an empty-chamber trick to humiliate him without firing. Tir stopped the fight, then approached Fu Qian and explained that he had intervened to keep Felix from killing himself.

• Fu Qian pulled a gun on Felix, who dodged when Fu Qian pulled the trigger, only to discover the chamber was empty.
• Nora warned Felix about the cost of starting a fight at the bar, then left without protecting Fu Qian.
• Tir ended the confrontation, and Felix left without making any further threats.
• Fu Qian finished tinkering with his revolver and explained that he had kept one chamber empty to prevent an accidental discharge.
• Tir complimented Fu Qian's weapon, and Fu Qian thanked him for stepping in.
• Tir told Fu Qian he had only stopped Felix from committing suicide.

Fu Qian met Tir, who gave him a card and invited him to visit the Old City, then became lost in a strange monochrome area and fought a real monster. After Fu Qian killed it and the surroundings returned to normal, someone began applauding.

• Tir told Fu Qian he believed Fu Qian was much stronger than he appeared and gave him a card with an Old City address.
• Fu Qian left the show and discovered he was lost after passing the same intersection several times in a monochrome landscape.
• Fu Qian greeted a towering, corpse-like creature, which attacked him with a claw and bone spears.
• Fu Qian dodged the creature and shot it twice in the head, killing it and ending the monochrome scene.
• An unseen person began clapping as the surroundings returned to normal.

Fu Qian survived Ji Yicheng’s deadly test, rejected his invitation to join the Ji Clan, and learned more about what the Siren Group found in the underground ruins. He suspected the ruins were connected to Angel Dungeon and considered how he could conceal it despite the major organizations’ interest.

• After the black-and-white effect dissipated, Ji Yicheng introduced himself and explained that the monster attack had been a greeting that could have killed Fu Qian.
• Ji Yicheng tried to learn what Fu Qian knew and invited him to join the Ji Clan, but Fu Qian said he had already agreed to work with Tir.
• Fu Qian asked about Ji Yicheng’s Gray Descent ability and mentioned Ji Ping, whom Ji Yicheng dismissed as talentless.
• Ji Yicheng revealed that the Siren Group had found a new entrance and a giant mirror in the ruins, and that two of its people had died there.
• Ji Yicheng left after warning Fu Qian that he might no longer have a choice, and Fu Qian wondered whether the ruins were what he sought and how to conceal Angel Dungeon.

Fu Qian visited the Siren Group’s exchange building to learn how its barter system worked and considered buying ammunition. After noticing someone watching him, he left, apparently expecting trouble over his gun.

• After Ji Yicheng left, Fu Qian decided to observe the wasteland and gather information before acting.
• Fu Qian followed a crooked road to the Siren Group’s exchange building, where a tail from earlier kept watch on him.
• An employee explained that customers traded hunting materials for points and could exchange points for weapons, equipment, and supplies.
• Fu Qian learned that the Siren Group offered low buyback prices, and the employee said the Ji Clan’s terms were no better.
• Fu Qian noticed a hostile-looking person watching him after he displayed his gun, then shut the catalog and left.

Fu Qian was ambushed by three wasteland robbers who tried to buy his gun, but he killed their leader and another attacker, then forced the survivors to surrender their weapons. The chapter left him confronting the hammer-wielder and demanding the heavy weapon.

• Fu Qian let three masked robbers corner him in an alley and offer a coin for his gun.
• Fu Qian recognized the hammer as resembling Cross's weapon and suspected the robbers had bought it from the Siren Group.
• The black-masked leader attacked Fu Qian, who killed him with a single elbow strike.
• Fu Qian crushed the iron-masked robber's head, then used the crossbow to pin the hammer-wielder by the thigh.
• The iron-masked robber agreed to surrender, and Fu Qian took the crossbow before turning to demand the hammer from the pinned man.

Fu Qian visited Tir and joined a gathering where longtime residents traded goods and information. He offered the hammer he had taken from Hammer in exchange for details about the Siren Group, then stunned everyone by asking about its exploration of the underground ruins.

• Fu Qian crippled Hammer and took his hammer and crossbow before returning to his room.
• Fu Qian followed Tir's address to the settlement's oldest district and entered Tir's house.
• Fu Qian met Tir's trading companions, including Nora, who recognized the hammer and questioned him about Azim.
• Tir invited Fu Qian to join the group's regular trades of goods and information, and Fu Qian offered the hammer in exchange for information.
• Fu Qian asked the group about the Siren Group's exploration of the underground ruins, leaving everyone stunned.

Fu Qian asked Nora and the others what they knew about the Siren Group's underground ruins exploration, then shared information of his own. The gathering ended with him revealing that someone from the Ji Clan had told him about a mirror and feather-like things in the ruins.

• Fu Qian asked what the group knew about the Siren Group's exploration, and Nora said the ruins were probably near a dangerous swamp southwest of their location.
• Nora accepted the warhammer Fu Qian returned and explained that it had belonged to Cross, who had joined Elina in William's deathmatch games and later sold the weapon while seeking help for his injuries.
• Tir lamented that Cross and Elina had been through a difficult ordeal, and Fu Qian offered to share more about the exploration.
• Fu Qian said the underground ruins contained a mirror and feather-like things, claiming someone from the Ji Clan had told him rather than saying he had seen them himself.

Fu Qian told Tir’s group that Ji Yicheng had tried to recruit him and revealed information about Siren’s operation, raising fears that the expedition was caught in a struggle between Siren and the Ji Clan. After trading a crossbow for unusual bullets, the group learned that someone from Siren had been assassinated.

• Fu Qian told Tir’s group that Ji Yicheng had tried to recruit him, and Nora suspected he had come on the Ji Clan’s behalf.
• Fu Qian clarified that he had rejected Ji Yicheng and accepted Tir’s invitation, then warned the group that Ji Yicheng had shared information about Siren.
• Nora and Tir discussed the risks of being drawn into a conflict between Siren and the Ji Clan, while Fu Qian said they could share the information freely.
• Fu Qian offered a crossbow in exchange for bullets, and a craftsperson showed him forty rounds, including bullets that could cause strange growths in living bodies.
• A burly man entered through a hidden door and announced that someone from Siren had been assassinated.

Kimura reported that LS Luo, a senior Siren Group member who led its explorations, had been found dead, and that Siren suspected the Ji Clan. Fu Qian left the gathering and agreed to go with Gerard and Gary, who had come seeking his help.

• Kimura arrived at Tir's gathering and revealed that LS Luo had been found dead at his residence.
• Kimura said Siren suspected the Ji Clan and warned everyone to avoid trouble as tensions rose.
• Nora confirmed she had seen LS Luo at the swamp during the exploration.
• Fu Qian left the gathering despite Tir and Nora offering him shelter, intending to pursue the Angel Dungeon opportunity.
• Gerard and Gary caught up with Fu Qian and asked him to come with them for help, and he agreed.

Fu Qian met with a Siren Group demigod, who questioned him about his work and the Ji Clan before ordering him back into the exploration. The chapter left Fu Qian at the edge of a vast, foul-smelling swamp with Gerard and the Siren Group.

• Gerard brought Fu Qian to the Siren Group base and escorted him to meet a blue-haired demigod.
• Fu Qian refused to remove his mask and explained that the Siren Group's offer was not worth the risks compared with other opportunities.
• Fu Qian told the demigod that Ji Yicheng knew about the mirror and the feather, leading the demigod to suspect a Ji Clan mole in the Siren Group.
• The demigod offered Fu Qian new terms and said he would join the next exploration, while Gerard took him directly to the swamp.
• Fu Qian surveyed the swamp's strange-colored pools and bloody stench.

Fu Qian traveled with Gerard’s group through the dangerous swamp to an underground ruin, where they met the Siren team waiting at its entrance. There, Fu Qian recognized Elina, who had changed since their last encounter.

• Gerard urged Fu Qian to hurry to the underground ruins, and Fu Qian joined his group as they crossed the swamp on foot.
• Gary spotted a swelling mound and led the group away, but its eruption showered Gary with blood that burned and began to decay his scalp.
• After enduring two more eruptions, Gerard’s group reached a dry pit and entered a passage lined with petrified roots.
• Fu Qian descended through the passage and passed an open Stone Door into a man-made underground ruin.
• Fu Qian spotted Elina among the people resting at the ruin’s entrance and noticed that she seemed more subdued than before.

Fu Qian joined the Siren Group’s exploration of the underground ruins under Sybill’s watch. After crossing a hall with a massive mirror that altered his perception and left him feeling unusually serene, he was assigned to explore with Elina and the others.

• Sybill accepted Fu Qian into the operation and warned that she would kill him if he acted suspiciously.
• Sybill led the group into a hall containing a huge mirror and a pile of gray-white feathers, warning everyone not to look at the mirror or touch the feathers.
• Fu Qian saw his reflection in the mirror as a shifting arrangement of bones and flesh and felt a sudden sense of peace as he crossed the hall.
• After the group reached the passages beyond the hall, Sybill divided them into teams and assigned Fu Qian to explore with Elina and the others.
• Fu Qian noticed that Sybill had become unexpectedly polite and serene when she spoke to him.

Fu Qian, Elina, and a man in a black coat explored a passage in the ruins, where radiant pillars filled them with an overwhelming sense of holiness. Fu Qian resisted the effect by shooting at one of the lights, which detached from its pillar and flew away.

• Fu Qian suspected that looking in a mirror had caused the explorers' strange calm, and he followed Elina and the man in the black coat into their assigned passage.
• The team found a sealed door, and Fu Qian helped the man in the black coat push it open.
• Inside a rectangular hall, lights atop rows of pillars shone brilliantly and drew Elina and the man in the black coat toward them.
• Fu Qian fought the lights' influence and fired his revolver at the nearest pillar, causing its light to fly through the air.

Fu Qian, Elina, and Brother Coat fought a swarm of glowing bugs in the hall, but Elina’s unstable powers caused an explosion that left her unconscious and Brother Coat badly injured. As Brother Coat suggested retreating with a bug corpse, Fu Qian picked up a grayish feather instead.

• Fu Qian shot down a glowing bug, revealing that the lights moving around the pillars were spiked insects.
• Brother Coat pierced an incoming bug with his extending spear while Elina attacked the swarm with arrows of black mist.
• Elina’s arrows suddenly exploded, and Fu Qian kicked her clear before her black mist detonated and wiped out the swarm.
• Fu Qian shot the last surviving bug, then covered the unconscious, nearly out-of-control Elina with his trench coat.
• Brother Coat suggested they retreat and take a bug corpse back, but Fu Qian picked up a grayish feather instead.

Fu Qian found that gray feathers were growing from Brother Coat’s face in the underground ruin, then returned to Sybill with news of Elina and the others. After Kelson joined the rescue party, they went back to the pillar hall, where Fu Qian noticed that the sensation of his mind being purified had stopped.

• Fu Qian saw a gray feather grow out of Brother Coat’s face and picked it up before returning to the mirror hall.
• Sybill questioned Fu Qian about what he had found, and he explained that Elina and the others were alive but unable to move easily.
• Kelson arrived and questioned how Fu Qian had escaped, but calmly accepted Fu Qian’s explanation and reloaded pistol.
• Sybill, Kelson, and the others followed Fu Qian back to the pillar hall, where Elina had awakened and Brother Coat remained in place.
• Fu Qian realized that the feeling of his mind being purified had disappeared during the trip back.

Fu Qian and the others found Elina and Brother Coat alive but badly affected by the mirror, then searched the chamber for clues. Kelson’s destructive test uncovered nothing beyond the bugs, and the group prepared to collect their remains when a distant scream interrupted them.

• Sybill checked on Brother Coat and Elina, while Fu Qian noted that Elina’s mind seemed almost emptied by the mirror.
• Kelson examined the bug corpses and pillars, then unleashed a lightning strike that Sybill stopped with an invisible barrier.
• The lightning destroyed the pillar, but Kelson and Sybill concluded that the chamber held nothing else and planned to have specialists examine the bugs.
• A shrill cry sounded from far away as Sybill and Kelson discussed collecting the bug corpses.

Kelson, Sybill, and Fu Qian investigated a hidden chamber where three members of their team had died after growing feathers, then Kelson ordered the others to retreat and kept Fu Qian with them. After finding nothing in the pool, Kelson demanded that Sybill reveal how much of the ruins remained unexplored, and his threat left their standoff unresolved.

• Kelson and Sybill followed a dying scream to a sunken pool, where they found one dead teammate covered in feathers and two more bodies floating in the liquid.
• Kelson unleashed lightning across the pool, but nothing emerged from the dark liquid.
• Kelson ordered the team to retreat to the ruins' entrance and assigned Fu Qian to keep exploring with him and Sybill because he did not trust Fu Qian.
• After their search of the pool yielded nothing, Kelson asked Sybill how much of the ruins remained unexplored.
• Sybill said she could not know without exploring, and Kelson replied with murderous intent that she knew because he wanted to know.

Fu Qian watched Sybill and Kelson fall into a volatile state and fight until a rising beam revealed a hidden passage. After they returned to calm, Sybill warned that the place affected their emotions, and Kelson told her to go first.

• Sybill rebuked Kelson for his destructive actions, and Kelson attacked her with lightning as she summoned foul water serpents.
• Sybill's serpents wounded Kelson, but Kelson broke free, seized her by the throat, and she surrendered in fear.
• A huge beam rose from the pool, distracting Kelson and revealing a concealed passage high in the wall.
• Sybill returned to her calm demeanor and explained that the place switched them between emotional states, nearly causing them to kill each other.
• Kelson agreed with Sybill's warning, then pointed toward the passage and told her to go first.

Kelson, Sybill, and Fu Qian explored a hidden room in the ruins and found a chained, mummified woman with what appeared to be wings. As Sybill considered whether the winged woman had been imprisoned for her unusual body, Fu Qian suddenly shot her.

• Kelson ordered Sybill and Fu Qian to follow him across the beam to a concealed passage and a distinctive metal door.
• Sybill opened the door, and Kelson sent Fu Qian inside first to investigate the room.
• Fu Qian uncovered a mummified woman who was chained in a kneeling position, and Kelson noticed that she had four limbs resembling arms.
• Fu Qian suggested that the extra limbs were wings and that the woman may have been imprisoned for her unusual features.
• Sybill connected the wings to the feathers found throughout the ruins, and Fu Qian pulled the trigger.