Recaps

Xu Huo subdued Ni Tian as a strange presence roamed the art museum at night, knocking on rooms and taking Deng Yu. The survivors found a massive slash through Deng Yu and Big Bear’s room, and Big Bear revealed Deng Yu had damaged a painting before disappearing.

• Xu Huo fought Ni Tian, then shut himself in as a strange scraping sound approached through the corridor.
• The presence knocked once on Octopus Card Bear’s room and broke in, then knocked twice on another door and three times on the leather-clad woman’s door before returning to the exhibition hall.
• The players found Deng Yu missing and a deep, blade-like groove cut through his room, while Big Bear said he had passed out after the door was smashed.
• Xie Man described seeing a shadow as tall as the statue, and the players debated why the presence had targeted particular rooms.
• Big Bear said Deng Yu had taken down a painting the day before and accidentally damaged one of its corners.

Xu Huo investigated the paintings and the monster’s targets while the Players searched for a fake painting. He warned Ni Tian that Big Bear might be dangerous and revealed he knew she was a Cannibal Player, but she asked how he had discovered her identity.

• Pan Siming and the Players found a torn Portrait of an Old Woman, and Xu Huo suggested the monster might target people who had damaged or tried to damage paintings.
• Xu Huo questioned Big Bear about Deng Yu’s disappearance and suspected Deng Yu might have escaped outside the museum.
• Li Weiran asked Xu Huo to work with her to find the fake paintings, but he declined, and the Players began checking paintings one by one.
• Xu Huo sent Ni Tian to inspect the statue, then warned her that sharing a room with Big Bear could put her in danger because Deng Yu had disappeared after rooming with him.
• Xu Huo told Ni Tian that her tattoo had been cleaned off and threatened to expose her as a Cannibal Player; she asked how he had identified her.

Xu Huo reasoned that fake paintings might appear only at night and advised Fan Shiji to search the gallery if the monster came after him. When the monster changed its target, Pan Siming and Big Bear fled toward the gallery, with Big Bear left running alone.

• Xu Huo concluded that living paintings might become fake paintings at night and warned Ni Tian against testing them.
• Fan Shiji asked to stay in Xu Huo's room, but Xu Huo advised him to seek a fake painting in the gallery if the monster pursued him.
• Fan Shiji and several other players changed rooms, while Pan Siming chose the corridor's end room and Big Bear took the room beside him.
• At nine, Xu Huo sent the painted woman under the door as the monster's scraping sound moved through the gallery and down the corridor.
• The monster broke into Big Bear's room and pursued Pan Siming and Big Bear, who fled; Pan Siming reached a room and shut its door while Big Bear ran toward the gallery.

Xu Huo discovered that the museum’s counterfeit paintings were created when Players were absorbed into Living Paintings, and he found the Portrait of a Woman containing Big Bear’s face. He returned to his room with the painting but delayed submitting it, suspecting that completing the first task would trap the Players inside and impose restrictions on later tasks.

• Big Bear reached for a counterfeit painting, but the Monster drove him into the Portrait of a Woman, where he became trapped.
• Xu Huo observed the Monster, recognized that it was the museum’s statue, and searched the exhibition hall for the missing painting.
• Xu Huo found the torn Portrait of a Woman and received a prompt to submit it as a counterfeit painting.
• Xu Huo saw Big Bear’s face inside the painting and inferred that Players became Living Paintings when they tried to take them.
• Xu Huo returned to his room with the painting and chose not to submit it, wary of the consequences for the trapped Players and the next Dungeon task.

Xu Huo submitted a counterfeit painting, unlocking a task to restore another fake as genuine, while the players argued over the disappearance of Big Bear and Pan Siming. Suspecting that Pan Siming had either entered a painting or been killed, Xu Huo secretly sent Ni Tian to search a room for a body.

• Xu Huo submitted the first counterfeit painting and unlocked the task to restore another counterfeit as genuine.
• The players discovered that Big Bear and Pan Siming were missing, and they debated who had left their room and whether the pair had completed the dungeon.
• Lu Gang attacked Li Weiran and the gloomy man, but You Huanhuan calmed him before the standoff escalated.
• Xu Huo reasoned that Pan Siming might be inside a painting or dead, and privately told Ni Tian to look for a body in a room on the left.

Xu Huo investigated the missing paintings and suspected that Pan Siming’s body was hidden in the hall, while tensions among the Players escalated. The body fell from the chandelier, revealing that Pan Siming had been bitten to death and drained of blood.

• Xu Huo searched the exhibition hall for the painted woman and challenged Gao Jun’s accusation that he had left the hall.
• The painted woman pointed Xu Huo toward the chandelier after he asked whether she had seen a body.
• Lu Gang attacked Ni Tian after she entered his room, and Xu Huo intervened when she called for help.
• Xu Huo explained that Ni Tian had been looking for Pan Siming’s body, prompting You Huanhuan to deny killing anyone.
• Pan Siming’s corpse fell from the chandelier, and the gloomy man found bite marks and signs that the killer had drained his blood.

After Pan Siming was found dead, the players narrowed the Cannibal Player suspects to You Huanhuan, Lu Gang, and Fan Shiji. The group fought You Huanhuan and Lu Gang, and Lu Gang turned on You Huanhuan by stabbing her in the abdomen.

• The gloomy man deduced that the Cannibal Player had opened a door in the left-hand corridor and named You Huanhuan, Lu Gang, and Fan Shiji as suspects.
• The gloomy man checked the chandelier and showed the players a video proving no one was hiding there, while Fan Shiji accused You Huanhuan and urged the others to attack her.
• Lu Gang punched the gloomy man, and Xu Huo, Xie Man, and Ni Tian joined the fight against Lu Gang as Li Weiran, Fan Shiji, and the gloomy man confronted You Huanhuan.
• You Huanhuan revealed her strength and attacked Li Weiran, but Fan Shiji's bottle of corrosive liquid badly injured her hand, allowing Li Weiran to knock her back.
• You Huanhuan ordered Lu Gang to kill the others, but Lu Gang stabbed her in the abdomen with a knife.

The Players killed You Huanhuan, but Lu Gang revealed she had not killed Pan Siming and that the real killer was still among them. Their suspicions shifted to Fan Shiji, while Ni Tian warned that Player colors could not reliably identify cannibals.

• You Huanhuan attacked Lu Gang and Gao Jun, but Li Weiran, Fan Shiji, Xu Huo, and the others surrounded and defeated her.
• Lu Gang brutally killed You Huanhuan, then explained that she had cut out his tongue and forced him to pretend to be intellectually impaired.
• Lu Gang showed the Players a video proving You Huanhuan had stayed in her room when Pan Siming was killed, so someone else had been the killer.
• The Players questioned Lu Gang's claims, but his video convinced them that You Huanhuan was not Pan Siming's killer.
• Xie Man and the others turned their suspicion toward Fan Shiji, who claimed to be a White Player, while Ni Tian warned that Player colors did not determine whether someone was a cannibal.

The players argued over Pan Siming’s murder and who had cleared the game, while Gao Jun tried to shift suspicion onto Xu Huo. They agreed to search for the missing painting, and Xu Huo and Gao Jun both focused on the players who had damaged paintings, hoping to create a fake one.

• Li Weiran accused Gao Jun of leaving his room and suggested he was either Pan Siming’s killer or the Hidden One, while Gao Jun denied it and accused Xu Huo.
• The players argued over who might have killed Pan Siming or cleared the game, and the gloomy man proposed putting the murder aside to search for the painting.
• The group split up to look for the painting, with Xie Man joining Xu Huo and Ni Tian.
• Xie Man suggested that paintings damaged during the day might become fake paintings at night, and noted that Li Weiran and Fan Shiji had already damaged two paintings.
• Ni Tian warned Xu Huo that Gao Jun was watching him, and Xu Huo realized that both he and Gao Jun were targeting the players who had damaged paintings.

Xu Huo stole the Sketch and pulled Li Weiran out of it, triggering the dungeon’s second-task announcement and making the players suspect Fan Shiji was Passerby A. As they attacked Fan Shiji, he accused Li Weiran of being the real Passerby A and claimed he had identified the player clearing the dungeon.

• Xu Huo took the Sketch during the blackout, subdued the Hunched Monster inside it, and pulled Li Weiran out of the painting.
• The game announced that Player Passerby A had completed the dungeon’s second task, and Li Weiran attacked Fan Shiji, accusing him of killing Pan Siming.
• The gloomy man, Lu Gang, and Gao Jun joined Li Weiran in attacking Fan Shiji, who escaped their reach by suspending himself from the chandelier with a steel wire.
• Xu Huo illuminated Fan Shiji with his flashlight, and Fan Shiji declared that he knew who was really clearing the dungeon.

Xu Huo and the others fled the awakened Statue Monster after Fan Shiji damaged a painting, while Li Weiran used a sketch to expose Fan Shiji as a replica and complete the first task. The seven surviving players regrouped, but their suspicions and competing progress left the room on the verge of conflict.

• Fan Shiji accused Xu San of being a player who had cleared the dungeon and tried to prove that Silent Umbrella moved, but the gloomy man kicked him into the painting and awakened the Statue Monster.
• Xu Huo led Xie Man and Ni Tian away from the exhibition hall while the monster attacked the other players, and he sent the painted woman up the wall.
• Li Weiran chased Fan Shiji and pushed his leg into the sketch, triggering an announcement that Graveyard Disco had found a replica and completed the first task.
• The players escaped to the corridor, where Lu Gang returned with You Huanhuan's corpse and said a dead person did not count.
• The seven remaining players gathered in a room as Li Weiran warned that the Hidden One and Passerby A were still among them, and Xu Huo assessed their progress and suspicions.

Xu Huo fought the other players and the Statue Monster while trying to complete the Third Task. After capturing Xie Man and Lu Gang in a painting, he confronted Wei Da and asked to see his items.

• Xu Huo killed Li Weiran and put Ni Tian into a Living Painting, but the Picture Frame did not absorb either of them for the Third Task.
• Xie Man climbed a pillar to escape Lu Gang and the gloomy man, but the Statue Monster pulled her into a painting; Lu Gang was sucked in as well.
• The Statue Monster attacked the gloomy man, who escaped to a locked room and let Xu Huo inside when he came knocking.
• Xu Huo showed Wei Da the paintings containing Xie Man and Lu Gang and offered him one if it helped complete the Third Task.
• Wei Da gave Xu Huo all his items and Potions, including an Evolution Potion, and Xu Huo showed great interest in them.

Xu Huo investigated a strange Appraisal Fork result and learned more about the museum’s Living Paintings. He threatened to burn Still Time, forcing the Oil Painting Man to plead with him.

• Xu Huo tested the Appraisal Fork on Wei Da and himself, learning that both were harmless to eat but that he had a history of long-term medication.
• The painted woman told Xu Huo that Memory Thieves could steal memories, then tested the fork herself and bent it while stabbing someone outside.
• Xu Huo met Wei Da in the exhibition hall and explained that Living Paintings swallowed players who touched them at night.
• Xu Huo and Wei Da discussed how Deng Yu and Big Bear had encountered Living Paintings, and Xu Huo confirmed that he had taken Big Bear.
• Xu Huo threatened to burn Still Time with a Lighter, and the Oil Painting Man begged him and Wei Da to talk it out.

Xu Huo interrogated the Oil Painting Man about the third task and rejected his dangerous advice, then tested the idea that players had to paint a new picture. He left a drawing to see whether it would become a painting after nightfall.

• Xu Huo questioned the Oil Painting Man and used Silent Umbrella’s reactions to expose his lies about escaping paintings and completing the third task.
• The Oil Painting Man claimed the Curator had to provide a new painting, but Xu Huo let the painting burn, suspecting the suggestion would endanger whoever tried it.
• Xu Huo reasoned that the task might require players to paint, and Wei Da found pencils and colored pencils hidden in fake flowers.
• Wei Da drew a house, but nothing happened; Xu Huo hung the drawing up to wait until night and kept another blank sheet for himself.
• Xu Huo promised Wei Da two picture frames if he survived and told him that survival depended on his own choices and strength.

Xu Huo escaped the Hundred People Art Museum after his sketch pleased the Curator and transformed the instance. He earned an S Super Rating, advanced to D-class, and used his new bounty privilege to search for tickets to District 014.

• Xu Huo and Wei Da tried to distract the Curator with a drawing, but it smashed the painting; Xie Man then faced the Curator and was turned into a painting.
• Xu Huo sketched a portrait with glasses, hung it in the museum, and escaped with Wei Da and the painted woman; the Curator approved the sketch and transformed the museum.
• Xie Man and Lu Gang emerged from their paintings and left the instance as the museum changed.
• Xu Huo received an S Super Rating for completing three missions and upgrading the instance site to D-class, then advanced to D-class player and received extra privileges.
• Xu Huo submitted a cross-district bounty for tickets to District 014 and learned that seventy-two tickets to D-class instances there were available for trade.

After upgrading, Xu Huo investigated the bounty platform and reviewed the abilities and items he had received. He learned that he was now a D-class player and faced restrictions on using his remaining E-class ticket.

• Xu Huo found a notice linking Blazing Chariot’s suspected death to a Super Player and revealing that Tongue Eater’s account had been terminated.
• Xu Huo tried to buy information about reaching a game sub-district without a Return Ticket, but the game said he could not afford it.
• Xu Huo reviewed his new rewards, including Accident Trigger Constitution, the tracking Screaming Chicken, Eye of Prying, World in the Painting, and Five or Five Open Air Window.
• Xu Huo examined the open-air window and inferred that specialized items could manipulate space beyond the tickets supplied by the game.
• The game notified Xu Huo that he had become a D-class player and warned him about limits on clearing low-level Dungeons and penalties for breaking rules.

After leaving a dungeon, Xu Huo stumbled into a kidnapping and extortion attempt, then met Nie Xuan, who explained how the Special Affairs Bureau had been reorganized. Over drinks, Nie Xuan asked why Xu Huo refused to join the Special Defense Department, and Xu Huo suggested he already knew the reason.

• Xu Huo reviewed his dungeon tickets and left the blank space, then emerged in an alley where kidnappers attacked him.
• Xu Huo fought off the kidnappers, discovered they had a Cannibal Player in a suitcase, and handed the scene over to arriving Special Affairs Personnel.
• Nie Xuan arrived and told Xu Huo that the Special Affairs Bureau had been renamed the 014A Foreign Special Defense Department.
• Xu Huo and Nie Xuan went to a bar, where Nie Xuan revealed that a game item had saved his injured leg.
• Nie Xuan asked why Xu Huo would not join the Special Defense Department despite the country's generous offer and protection, and Xu Huo replied, "You really don't know?"

Xu Huo returned home, found Yu Qingqing had passed the Preliminary Train, and warned her to face herself honestly as a Player. Unable to sleep, he drank a Dream Come True Potion and fell into a dream of a childhood visit with a doctor.

• Xu Huo noticed a man on the subway preparing to stand and warned him to stay seated.
• Xu Huo returned to his apartment and learned that Yu Qingqing had passed the Preliminary Train and chosen the profession of psychological analyst.
• Yu Qingqing rejected her mother's wishes and argued with Xu Huo about her ability to protect herself and her mental state.
• Yu Qingqing asked to stay with Xu Huo, and he let her in despite her bickering with the painted woman.
• Xu Huo drank a Dream Come True Potion and dreamed of a doctor testing a child with mahjong tiles and puzzles.

Xu Huo woke with a headache and realized that his memories of a Doctor and childhood medication might have been tampered with. He joined his companions for a meal, where Zhou Ning told him that friends from their earlier fight with the Holy Sword Society had not returned from a game.

• Xu Huo recalled a dream about a Doctor and a card game, then used the Appraisal Fork and concluded that someone had altered his memories.
• Yu Qingqing told Xu Huo she could train in Ting City, and Yuan Yao invited the group to eat out.
• Xu Huo, Yu Qingqing, Yuan Yao, and the painted woman ate at a Star Hotel, where Yu Qingqing broke Yuan Yao's bank card and he fussed over Lichun.
• Zhou Ning and Hu Wenhu joined them, and Zhou Ning told Xu Huo that her friends from the Holy Sword Society clash had not made it out of the game.

Xu Huo and his companions shared items and discussed the changing treatment of Players in District 014. After the meal, Xu Huo invited Zhou Ning and Hu Wenhu to go elsewhere with him.

• Zhou Ning gave Xu Huo a pair of Degenerated Gloves, and he offered her a D-Grade Hair Growth Potion in return for her gift.
• Zhou Ning told Xu Huo that her Ability had improved and asked for his guidance, so he agreed to spar with her after they ate.
• The restaurant owner waived the group's bill and gave them a prepaid membership card, explaining that his hotels offered Players free meals and lodging.
• Xu Huo and the others discussed growing public support for Players, the risks they still faced, and whether Players should share Dungeon information.
• Xu Huo sent Yuan Yao and the others back and asked Zhou Ning and Hu Wenhu to go somewhere else with him.

Xu Huo fought Zhou Ning in a remote factory district and learned how her Medusa Abilities used vivid imagination to make illusions more real. After he spotted her hiding among the hair serpents and wounded her, Zhou Ning attacked again from above as her pupils began to contract.

• Zhou Ning’s hair serpents surrounded Xu Huo, but he used the Adult Fairy Tale Book to frighten her out of hiding.
• Zhou Ning explained that her Medusa Abilities let her turn her hair into snakes, disguise herself among them, and make their attacks more realistic through imagination.
• Xu Huo tested Zhou Ning’s abilities with the Bright Red Sword, cutting her hair as she tried to evade him among the steel beams.
• Zhou Ning trapped Xu Huo beneath the beams and a cocoon of hair, but he used the Eye of Peeping to notice her hiding place and wounded her with his sword.
• Zhou Ning attacked Xu Huo from above with sharp steel beams as her pupils began to contract.

Xu Huo trained with Zhou Ning to understand how her Hair Serpents Ability altered her body and state of mind. He advised her to practice controlling when she entered and left that state, then departed Ting City for the Airport to handle matters back home.

• Xu Huo stopped Zhou Ning’s attack with the Fairy Tale Book and noticed her snake-like movements, altered pupils, and scaled skin.
• Zhou Ning realized she had been treating her Elderly Medusa profession as if she were truly a snake, though she felt her Ability worked best in that state.
• During their training, Zhou Ning remained in her Ability state even after Xu Huo seriously wounded her, but she stopped when he called out.
• Zhou Ning told Xu Huo that while using her Ability she lost her instinct to retreat from danger, and he advised her to set a training limit and learn to stop at will.
• Xu Huo contacted Hu Wenhu, then left Zhou Ning and headed for the Airport; Zhou Ning watched him go and remarked that he was different from them.

Xu Huo tracked down Professor Lin, the former director of Seventeenth Hospital, and questioned him about who had funded the hospital. Professor Lin could only recall that a businessman surnamed Zhu had hired him, while Xu Huo revealed that the hospital and all related records had disappeared.

• Xu Huo helped an elderly woman carry her groceries into Hongxing Residential Area while asking whether she knew the former director of Seventeenth Hospital.
• The elderly woman and Professor Lin mistook Xu Huo for a loan shark until Xu Huo said he had been a patient at the hospital twenty years earlier.
• Professor Lin recognized Xu Huo and invited him home, where he explained that he had left hospital work after resigning from Seventeenth Hospital.
• Xu Huo asked who had appointed Professor Lin as director, and Professor Lin said a businessman surnamed Zhu had hired him through a secretary.
• Xu Huo told Professor Lin that Seventeenth Hospital had vanished and that records of its patients and transfers were now blank.

Xu Huo questioned Professor Lin about the Seventeenth Hospital and learned that records and a photograph had been altered to erase evidence of it. Professor Lin recalled a dangerous child who may have caused the deaths of other former patients and their families, leaving Xu Huo uncertain whether the children had truly died.

• Professor Lin showed Xu Huo his notebooks and an old photograph, where references to the Seventeenth Hospital and the hospital itself had vanished.
• Xu Huo asked about the other child patients, and Professor Lin learned that four had disappeared or died about ten years earlier, along with most of their families.
• Professor Lin recalled that one child had an antisocial personality, controlled his emotions over time, and may have caused five medication incidents involving staff.
• Professor Lin explained that Chang Bei had hyperthymesia and had warned him that another child was collecting pills to poison him.
• Professor Lin regretted resigning without acting on his suspicions, while Xu Huo wondered whether the children had truly died and said he was still normal.

Xu Huo questioned Professor Lin about Seventeenth Hospital and learned the address of a former female doctor who had worked there. After visiting her at a nursing home, he asked how many doctors had worked at the hospital, leaving his investigation unresolved.

• Professor Lin told Xu Huo that the female doctor in the photograph had been brought to Seventeenth Hospital and gave him her address.
• Xu Huo stopped debt collectors from pressuring Professor Lin and his wife, then gave Professor Lin money and asked him to move somewhere safer.
• Xu Huo visited the former doctor's son, Liao Xu, who said his mother had burned the belongings she brought home from the hospital.
• Xu Huo asked the former doctor how many doctors had worked at Seventeenth Hospital.