Chapter Summaries

Lu Bai and his group escaped the Administrative Building as Duan Jianhui secretly planted explosives, then took the injured Zhou Zongming to the Third District Shelter for medical care. The building exploded behind them, and Lu Bai recognized that the USB drive might contain Professor Jiang’s research logs, possibly relevant to his objective.

• Liu Yue and the others found the first-floor soldiers dead, and Lu Bai identified Duan Jianhui as the likely killer after discovering explosives planted around the Administrative Building.
• Lu Bai called for Duan Jianhui to come out, but left without finding him; Duan Jianhui stayed hidden and continued setting explosives as the countdown ran short.
• Lieutenant Liu drove Lu Bai’s group and the injured Zhou Zongming toward the military camp, and the Administrative Building exploded behind them.
• Lu Bai fired several shots into the air to clear a path through the crowd, and the group reached the Third District Shelter.
• Lieutenant Liu led the group toward Professor Jiang and the doctors, while Lu Bai realized the USB drive might hold Professor Jiang’s research logs.

Lu Bai handed Professor Jiang the experiment logs and arranged for soldiers to protect him, then used Yaluo’s ability to expose and kill the invisible Duan Jianhui. Yaluo and Fischer tried to seize the Node while Lu Bai was weakened, but Lieutenant Liu and the soldiers arrived, leaving Yaluo and Fischer surrounded.

• Lu Bai gave Professor Jiang the experiment data on the condition that he call in the soldiers, then rested in an empty tent.
• Yaluo used his Iron Chain Link ability to reveal Duan Jianhui, and Lu Bai killed him despite the damage the link caused.
• Yaluo and Fischer attempted to kill the weakened Lu Bai and take the Node, while Yaluo tried to recruit Liu Yue.
• Lieutenant Liu and armed soldiers entered the tent after Lu Bai's signal, and Liu Yue used her ability to switch places with Fischer.
• Yaluo surrendered and linked himself to Lu Bai, hoping to use the connection to bargain.

After the vaccine allowed the settlement to begin restoring order, Lu Bai’s first Deathmatch Showdown ended and he returned to the arena as its top-ranked deathmatcher. He examined his rewards and learned how titles worked.

• Lu Bai recovered while Doctor Yang praised his rapid healing, and he told the researchers that Company Commander Zhou could confirm the vaccine had been tested firsthand.
• A week later, Zhou Zongming had awakened, vaccine research was progressing, and Lu Bai spent his free time injuring the Yaluo while relying on his regeneration to heal.
• Wu Ya found Lu Bai and asked whether he had a girlfriend in his own world; he answered that he had a few before Professor Jiang called to announce the vaccine had passed safety evaluations.
• Lu Bai learned that mass vaccinations could begin, then the system announced that Objective One was complete and ended the Deathmatch Showdown.
• Lu Bai returned to a crowded hall ranked first, with 102 points and rewards including the ability to retain one ability from the match.
• Lu Bai inspected his Data Panel, learned about his three titles and their ratings, and equipped them.

After choosing to keep Flash Time, Lu Bai was mistaken for an idiot by Chen Li and Liang Fuzhong, who believed he had performed poorly in the Deathmatch Showdown. Outside the venue, Fan Ding lured Lu Bai to a secluded restroom, where two other students appeared to confront him.

• After reviewing his rewards, Lu Bai chose to keep the color-grade ability Flash Time instead of Super Regeneration.
• Chen Li asked Lu Bai whether he had placed first, but Liang Fuzhong called him an idiot and directed Chen Li toward another student.
• Chen Li told Lu Bai to work toward the top four hundred, and Liang Fuzhong quietly said he would make up Lu Bai's arena number before sending him away.
• Lu Bai left the venue and encountered Fan Ding, who blamed him for being eliminated and invited him to the bathroom.
• Fan Ding led Lu Bai to a secluded restroom, where two boys emerged and ordered Lu Bai to come over.

Lu Bai confronted Wang Yili and another student, defeating both before taking Fan Ding’s phone. At the school gate, a girl and a young boy led him home, and their conversation suggested that his predecessor had been thrown into the river by delinquents.

• Wang Yili demanded that Lu Bai serve as his lackey and bring him cigarettes, then attacked him.
• Lu Bai dodged Wang Yili’s punch, struck him with a knee, and knocked the second student unconscious with a spinning kick.
• Lu Bai took Fan Ding’s phone and left, while Fan Ding watched in shock.
• Lu Bai reached the school gate and met Lu Ziyi and Lu Qingyan, who took him home.
• Lu Qingyan asked whether some men had pulled Lu Bai from the river the previous day, leading Lu Bai to suspect that his predecessor had been drowned by the delinquents.

Lu Bai returned to the cramped apartment with Lu Ziyi and Lu Yan, then used Fan Ding’s phone to learn that humanity lived underground after an ice age forced people into shelters. He was left suspecting that something about this world was wrong.

• Lu Bai followed Lu Ziyi and Lu Yan home and noticed Lu Ziyi’s resentment when he examined a family photo.
• Lu Ziyi left for work, and Lu Bai borrowed Fan Ding’s phone to search government records about the world.
• Lu Bai discovered that people lived in Underground Cities built to survive a worsening ice age.
• Lu Bai learned that the Deathmatch System had enabled humanity to develop the technology needed for underground shelters, then wondered what was wrong with this world.

Lu Bai researched the Deathmatch System, learning about participant talent, match schedules, and the danger of later rounds, but remained puzzled about why the United Government promoted it. He went out with Lu Qingyan to get food, leaving the mystery unresolved.

• Lu Bai searched online and learned that high talent could give participants an advantage in certain arenas, while the Deathmatch School rejected applicants with talent scores below five.
• Lu Bai learned that matches began every thirty days, with the first three rounds offering beginner protection and later rounds carrying the risk of actual death.
• Lu Bai discovered that participants past the beginner rounds had to compete at least once a year, and wondered what the United Government gained from promoting the system.
• Lu Qingyan asked why Lu Bai was always on his phone, and Lu Bai asked whether he had kept a diary.
• Lu Qingyan realized Lu Bai seemed back to normal and suggested they celebrate by getting fried chicken, so Lu Bai agreed.
• Lu Bai and Lu Qingyan walked through the crowded, tightly packed streets beneath the holographic sky.

Lu Bai took Lu Qingyan out for a free meal, then reflected on how different he seemed from the boy’s memories of his brother. The next morning, as Lu Bai prepared for school, Lu Ziyi returned from her night shift and told him to go.

• Lu Bai and Lu Qingyan visited a fried chicken shop, where they claimed to qualify for a free meal and received synthetic food.
• Lu Qingyan told Lu Bai that he had changed, and Lu Bai joked that perhaps he was not really his brother.
• Lu Bai carried the sleepy Lu Qingyan to bed, then stayed up reading about the Deathmatch System before falling asleep on the sofa.
• Lu Bai woke early and considered why his predecessor had chosen low-ranked Campus 6 despite having a talent score that could have qualified him for a better school.
• Lu Ziyi came home after her night shift and told Lu Bai to get to school.

After returning to school, Lu Bai underwent a psychological assessment and concealed how much he had changed. Liang Fuzhong questioned him about when he regained consciousness and whether his near-drowning had been deliberate, leaving Lu Bai’s motives unresolved.

• Lu Bai walked to school, suspected Fan Ding had sent students to confront him, and decided to improve his quality of life.
• A psychologist questioned Lu Bai about his life, the Deathmatch Arena, and his plans to become a deathmatcher, then noted that he might have multiple personality disorder.
• Lu Bai told Liang Fuzhong that he had regained consciousness during the Deathmatch Showdown.
• Liang Fuzhong asked Lu Bai whether his drowning had been an accident and whether he was guarding himself against someone.

Lu Bai dismissed Liang Fuzhong’s suspicions about his drowning and settled into school life after winning the first round of Deathmatch Showdown. After more than half a month of combat training, he prepared for the second round, which was due to begin the next day.

• Lu Bai told Liang Fuzhong that he could not remember much about his drowning, and Liang offered to help if he suspected anyone.
• Liang asked Lu Bai about his Deathmatch Showdown ranking, but laughed when Lu Bai said he had come in first.
• A teacher warned the students not to restart before completing all three rounds, and the students left to spend their free time as they wished.
• Lu Bai used his talent to learn combat techniques quickly and trained in multiple fighting styles.
• More than half a month later, Lu Bai finished a session in the training hall, where an old man noted that his second round began the next day.

Lu Bai prepared for the second round of Deathmatch Showdown while returning home to share a quiet meal with Lu Ziyi and Lu Qingyan. The next morning, he entered the Multi-purpose Venue for the event, still unaware of where Fan Ding was.

• The gaunt old man told Lu Bai that his class ranked last after the first round and urged him to do well in the second.
• Lu Bai crossed the bridge, saw the young woman in the white dress by the river, and went home.
• Lu Ziyi served dinner to Lu Bai and Lu Qingyan before leaving for her night shift and wishing Lu Bai luck for the next day.
• The next morning, Lu Bai joined the students gathering for the second Deathmatch Showdown and entered the Multi-purpose Venue when his class was called.
• Staff guided Lu Bai to his designated spot after he showed his student ID.

Lu Bai entered the second round of the Deathmatch Showdown and found himself piloting a hot-air balloon with a couple when Wang Ting transformed into a monster and attacked. He used Flash Time to save the man from her first strike, but Wang Ting launched another attack.

• The second round began, and Lu Bai arrived in the arena with the titles Innocent Smile, Decapitation Butcher, and Ultimate Murderer displayed above him.
• Lu Bai opened the Silver Ability Pool and considered choosing between Rapid Thinking, Armory II, and Your Name Is Li Si.
• Lu Bai realized he was a thousand meters in the air in a passenger hot-air balloon with a man and Wang Ting, who rejected the man's marriage proposal.
• Wang Ting's head split open and transformed into a monster, then she attacked the man with a blade-tipped strip of flesh.
• Lu Bai activated Flash Time and pulled the man out of the way, but Wang Ting attacked again.

Lu Bai used Long Fang to kill the monster attacking the hot-air balloon, but a fragment of it took up residence inside Yao Yi. Lu Bai began bringing the damaged balloon down while Yao Yi tried to recover from the ordeal.

• A bone blade severed one of the balloon's cables, so Lu Bai selected Armory II and obtained Long Fang.
• Lu Bai wounded Wang Ting's monster form, then used Flash Time to pierce its heart and split the flesh mass as it tried to take over Yao Yi.
• A smaller piece of the mass attached itself to Yao Yi's chest wound, leaving him alive but with the creature inside him.
• Yao Yi thanked Lu Bai and asked about Long Fang while Lu Bai started landing the balloon.
• Lu Bai told Yao Yi that a cable had snapped and that they needed to land soon.

Lu Bai and Yao Yi reached Jiangyu County after escaping the ravine, while Yao Yi worried about their secrets and the monster inside him. At a scrap recycling shop, Tong Shujuan faced a group of elderly people who wanted to switch bodies with her, until Lu Bai interrupted to ask for directions to a restaurant.

• Lu Bai and Yao Yi followed a country lane toward Jiangyu County, and Lu Bai warned Yao Yi not to call for help because of his dead girlfriend and the monster inside him.
• Lu Bai revealed that he could summon and store Long Fang, while he and Yao Yi heard a truck and realized they were nearing town.
• Tong Shujuan visited her parents at a scrap recycling shop, where her dog barked at the silent elderly people gathered outside.
• Tong Shujuan's parents and the other elderly people discussed switching into younger bodies and closed in on her when she questioned their strange behavior.
• Lu Bai and Yao Yi arrived at the shop, and Lu Bai asked the group whether there were any restaurants nearby.

Lu Bai and Yao Yi encountered Tong Shujuan’s parasitized parents and fought the monsters occupying their bodies. Lu Bai activated Flash Time and began cutting down the Parasitic Beasts while Yao Yi and Tong Shujuan stayed behind cover.

• Tong Shujuan’s mother identified Yao Yi as one of the parasites, while Lu Bai recognized that the old people had been taken over by lumps of flesh.
• Tong Shujuan’s father transformed into a monster and attacked Yao Yi, but Lu Bai cut off its tendril with Long Fang.
• The other old people transformed, and Lu Bai told Tong Shujuan that parasites had occupied her parents’ bodies before pulling her out of danger.
• Lu Bai fought off the monsters’ bone-bladed tendrils while Yao Yi took Tong Shujuan behind discarded appliances.
• Lu Bai activated Flash Time, severed several tendrils, and launched a full-speed attack against the Parasitic Beasts.

Lu Bai killed the remaining Parasitic Organisms, including the ones inhabiting Tong Shujuan’s parents, and Tong Shujuan fainted after watching them die. Police arrested Lu Bai and Yao Yi, but a special-service team took over the scene and began investigating Lu Bai.

• Lu Bai cut down the Parasitic Organisms by targeting their human hosts, then killed the ones inhabiting Tong Shujuan’s mother and father.
• Tong Shujuan screamed and fainted, and Yao Yi caught her before asking Lu Bai what they should do.
• Police arrived at the junkyard, arrested Lu Bai and Yao Yi, and questioned them about the killings.
• Lu Bai suggested that the officers check surveillance footage, while Pu Guangrong ordered a young officer to retrieve it.
• A leather-jacketed man arrived with a special-service team, took over the scene, and scrutinized Lu Bai after his team examined the bodies.

Lu Bai and Yao Yi met Xu Qiang of the Special Affairs Bureau after proving they were not parasitic organisms, and Lu Bai explained how they had killed the monsters. At the hospital, Xu Qiang tried to learn more from them, but a surveillance video and an ID photo left him shocked.

• Xu Qiang confirmed that Lu Bai and Yao Yi were human by checking their hair, then removed their handcuffs and asked how they had defeated the parasitic organisms.
• Xu Qiang explained that the Special Affairs Bureau had been formed to handle the recent parasitic-organism incidents, while Yao Yi urged him to make the danger public.
• Lu Bai said that destroying an infected body killed its parasite and claimed he was good at fighting, though Xu Qiang doubted him.
• Xu Qiang took Lu Bai and Yao Yi to the hospital after learning that Tong Shujuan had woken up, but she was too dazed to answer his questions.
• Xu Qiang asked Lu Bai and Yao Yi to recount everything they knew about the parasites, then received a surveillance video and an ID photo that shocked him.

Xu Qiang recruited Lu Bai into the Special Affairs Bureau after seeing footage of him fighting Parasitic Organisms, and Tong Shujuan asked to join as well. Later, Lu Bai rescued a woman from a monster in Jiangyu County and killed it with a single strike.

• Xu Qiang confronted Lu Bai with a suspicious criminal record, which Lu Bai denied, and invited him to join the Special Affairs Bureau's field operations division.
• Lu Bai accepted Xu Qiang's offer to handle incidents involving Parasitic Organisms.
• Tong Shujuan entered the hospital room and asked Xu Qiang to let her join the bureau too.
• In Jiangyu County, a Parasitic Organism revealed its monstrous face while attacking a woman in an abandoned shop.
• Lu Bai appeared, introduced himself to the monster, dodged its bone blade, and decapitated it with one strike.

After a week of hunting Parasitic Organisms for the Special Affairs Bureau, Lu Bai received a system update revealing every Deathmatch Showdown participant’s location. He found two participants at Jiangyu City First People’s Hospital and began searching the hospital’s surveillance footage.

• Lu Bai killed a Parasitic Organism, rescued a woman, and brushed off Xu Qiang’s request to capture one alive for research.
• After a week of work with the Special Affairs Bureau, Lu Bai learned that the system would reveal all participants’ locations for seven days.
• Lu Bai studied the location map and realized two participants were at the hospital where Yao Yi was staying.
• Lu Bai arrived at the hospital, ordered nearby surveillance footage sent to his phone, and went to the Monitoring Room to search the recordings.
• Lu Bai showed his credentials and began rewinding the hospital cameras while the security guards watched uncertainly.

Lu Bai used hospital surveillance to locate a suspected Deathmatch contestant, then confronted Xiao Ying at Yao Yi’s room and arrested her as a monster. He left the hospital with her in handcuffs, claiming she was a parasitic organism.

• Lu Bai rewound surveillance footage and spotted a masked caregiver whose reaction suggested he was a Deathmatch contestant.
• Lu Bai approached the caregiver in the inpatient corridor, and the frightened tourist confessed that he did not want to be eliminated.
• Lu Bai brought the caregiver to Yao Yi’s room, where Xiao Ying was visiting.
• Xiao Ying briefly threatened Yao Yi with a fruit knife, and Lu Bai accused her of being a monster.
• Lu Bai handcuffed Xiao Ying and led her away, telling her she was a parasitic organism.