Recaps

Xu Huo and a group of players accepted Hong Shi’s offer to sabotage Punishment City in exchange for items, though Xu Huo suspected the operation might be a scam. Two days later, the players gathered and split up to begin the mission, each team having arranged a way to retreat.

• Hong Shi gave the players a plan to destroy devices in Punishment City and offered each of them an advance payment and a later reward.
• Xu Huo took a B-class item, and he and fourteen others stayed at the hotel after Hong Shi left.
• Lei Xiaohe worried about the risks of the operation, while a curly-haired female player encouraged the group to prepare contingencies and stand their ground.
• Xu Huo told the players that Hong Shi was a Mental Evolver and that he sensed a possible scam, but he did not know what was really happening.
• Two days later, all but two of the players arrived, checked the time, and split up toward their assigned destinations.

Xu Huo and Lei Xiaohe infiltrated Punishment City to disable its interference device and open an emergency exit for their allies, but they found the prison nearly empty and its control room inaccessible. After meeting two other intruders, Xu Huo shut down nearby surveillance and one of them cut through a sealed door, setting off an alarm.

• Xu Huo, Lei Xiaohe, and a female Player entered Punishment City disguised as unconscious prisoners, and staff separated the female Player from them.
• Xu Huo and Lei Xiaohe freed themselves, used Protective Suits against possible airborne poison, and planned to locate the interference device before opening the emergency exit.
• The pair found the corridors nearly empty despite the many surveillance devices and saw no prisoners or staff.
• Xu Huo and Lei Xiaohe encountered two Players who claimed they had come from different entrances and were also searching for the control room.
• Xu Huo disabled the nearby surveillance devices, and one of the Players cut down a metal door, triggering an alarm.
• Lei Xiaohe asked the two men who had hired them.

Xu Huo and Chai Sheng became trapped in a sealed underground section of Punishment City, where they discovered degenerated players being held and experimented on. After fighting through several rooms of altered patients, they wondered how Punishment City had gathered so many degenerated players.

• Chai Sheng recognized Xu Huo’s item and said Punishment City’s temporary-worker recruitment was likely a scheme targeting Outer District Players.
• After poison filled the corridors and metal barriers blocked their route, Xu Huo and Chai Sheng entered a malfunctioning doorway, where a cutting net trapped Lei Xiaohe and another man on the other side.
• The corridor carrying Xu Huo and Chai Sheng descended into a sealed underground space that Chai Sheng suspected was a spatial item.
• Xu Huo and Chai Sheng found a severely mutilated bandaged man in an operating room, restrained him when he attacked, and discovered he had become an alien.
• Xu Huo explained that degenerated players could develop animal traits or suffer failing bodily functions, and he and Chai Sheng encountered more altered patients in the following rooms.
• Xu Huo wondered how Punishment City had gathered so many degenerated players.

Xu Huo reunited with the curly-haired female player on Punishment City's underground level and learned about her encounters with a powerful Alien. They discovered three dead teammates in tanks and revived the bitten big man, who insisted an intelligent Alien was nearby.

• Xu Huo was separated from Chai Sheng when a doorway trapped him on the second underground level.
• Xu Huo restrained the curly-haired female player as she attacked him, then waited while she recovered from what she believed was a hallucination.
• The curly-haired female player told Xu Huo about a fast, elusive Alien that had attacked her underground.
• Xu Huo and the curly-haired female player found three dead teammates inside glass tanks.
• A crazed, badly bitten big man attacked Xu Huo, and the two players injected him with Antidote until he recognized them.
• The big man claimed that an intelligent Alien had bitten him and was still nearby.

Xu Huo led the burly man and the curly-haired woman through Punishment City to investigate the smart Aliens, while they discussed how degenerated Players might be turned into experimental subjects. Their broadcast drew out a strange, humanlike Alien, which Xu Huo pinned to the floor.

• The burly man and the curly-haired woman described the fast, elusive Alien and debated whether it was deliberately toying with them.
• Xu Huo led them away from the vats to search for where Punishment City kept its Aliens.
• The burly man explained that some Sub-districts had subjected degenerated Players to brutal experiments, and Xu Huo suggested smart Aliens might be experimental products.
• At a corridor junction, Xu Huo played District 022 news over a Communicator, and the group began hearing faint noises between reports.
• A powerful force of gravity pinned the burly man, the curly-haired woman, and a newly appeared, stitched-looking Alien to the floor.

Xu Huo and his companions fought through Punishment City, destroying the aliens kept in its underground laboratory and killing the players sent to stop them. After Punishment City’s players retreated into the game, Xu Huo dissolved the city and rose through its collapsing dome.

• Xu Huo killed an alien, then led the curly-haired woman and the burly man to a room containing more than thirty alien-filled tanks.
• When the aliens woke and attacked with a piercing scream, the burly man and the curly-haired woman used their Artifacts to kill them.
• A Punishment City player trapped the trio in a wall of solidified air and tried to bind them, but Xu Huo broke through the barrier and dragged him back; the player escaped into the game.
• Punishment City sent players in groups, and Xu Huo killed twelve before the city slowed its attacks.
• Xu Huo dissolved the walls, floor, ceiling, and structure of Punishment City, then rose through its dome as the circular building crumbled.

Xu Huo destroyed Punishment City’s defenses with a sudden tsunami, allowing his allies to escape while devastating the Enforcement Department’s forces. He then confronted Toven Smith, the executive responsible for Punishment City, and began questioning him about the Smith family’s businesses.

• Chai Sheng urged Xu Huo and the others to flee in different directions before more Enforcement Department reinforcements arrived.
• Xu Huo tore open a gap in the sealing barrier and unleashed a huge wave that swept over Punishment City, killing many Players and clearing the way for the others to escape.
• Children found a sign bearing the words “Welcome to the Show” as the Enforcement Department surveyed the wreckage.
• A middle-aged executive at Black Sea Technology Co., Ltd. ordered his staff to cover up the disaster and recover the Players’ bodies.
• Xu Huo entered the executive’s office, identified him as Toven Smith, and forced him to acknowledge that Punishment City belonged to him.
• Xu Huo asked Toven Smith what industries the Smith family operated.

The District Government launched an investigation after Toven Smith’s livestream revelations and a series of public scandals implicated Black Sea Technology and Enforcement Department officials. Xu Huo met Levi and Zhan Erliu, then arranged for Levi to meet someone who could help him find a souvenir.

• The Enforcement Department blamed Punishment City’s collapse on an escaped experimental subject, but underground livestream clips and Toven Smith’s revelations sparked public outrage over Black Sea Technology’s dealings with officials.
• After Toven Smith’s body was found with a “Thanks for watching” sign, more scandals surfaced, and the District Government announced an investigation into the Enforcement Department.
• Another “Thanks for watching” sign appeared at the Enforcement Department as Levi and Zhan Erliu discussed whether the unfolding scandal might be used to redirect public attention toward Outer District Players.
• Levi showed Zhan Erliu Xu Zhi’s “Realtime Hotspot Visit” update, and Xu Huo soon joined them at a nearby restaurant in a new disguise.
• Xu Huo contacted Lei Xiaohe and arranged for Levi to meet a friend who could help him find a souvenir.

After the Punishment City scandal was settled, Xu Huo traveled to District 022’s major transportation hub and learned more about the district’s history and genetic-editing laws. He headed to a sculpture exhibition, where he spotted a woman with a severe skin condition whom Enforcement Department officers had let go.

• The District Government punished local Enforcement Department officials and Black Sea Technology over Punishment City, while suppressing news of the players who had died there.
• Xu Huo left the authorities searching for him and boarded a sightseeing train in the City Roller Coaster, which toured underground holographic displays.
• Xu Huo learned that two Chief Executives had been victims of genetic-editing experiments and had passed resulting diseases on to their descendants.
• Xu Huo booked a ticket to a sculpture exhibition after hearing passengers discuss the Chief Executive’s youngest daughter and her birthday celebration.
• Xu Huo steadied a woman with a pustule-covered face, then saw Enforcement Department officers check her identification and let her go.
• Xu Huo arrived at the sculpture exhibition and found the woman already halfway through the queue.

Xu Huo met a woman who claimed she had helped Gu Huifeng create Bone Remains and was searching for him after he disappeared. She revealed that the sculpture’s huge sale might have put Gu Huifeng in danger, leaving Xu Huo interested in investigating her work and claims.

• Xu Huo saw the woman with facial sores staring at a Photo of Bone Remains in Gu Huifeng’s gallery.
• The woman demanded to know who had bought Bone Remains, then tried to attract attention by claiming Gu Huifeng had stolen her work and owed her money.
• Xu Huo entered the woman’s hotel room and challenged her story, suspecting that the sculpture’s 980 million White Cash sale had put Gu Huifeng’s life at risk.
• The woman admitted that she and Gu Huifeng were lovers who created his works together, and that Gu Huifeng vanished after arranging the sale of Bone Remains.

Xu Huo investigated Gu Huifeng’s disappearance and traced it to the vanished biotechnology company NS Biological and a patent deletion ordered by the governor’s secretary. He found the company’s former broker, Nong Zheng, and brought him to Xin Qin, who demanded to know where Gu Huifeng was.

• Xin Qin told Xu Huo that Gu Huifeng had invested in NS Biological, which claimed to have a treatment for her genetic illness, and showed him the Potion’s patent application.
• Xu Huo learned that the patent had been deleted through the review department’s internal system at the order of the Earth Star City governor’s secretary.
• Xin Qin gave Xu Huo the contact information for Nong Zheng, the intermediary who had introduced Gu Huifeng to NS Biological.
• Xu Huo traced Nong Zheng to an underground district and captured him when he tried to flee.
• Xu Huo brought Nong Zheng to the hotel, where he recognized Xin Qin and she demanded that he reveal where Gu Huifeng was.

Xu Huo and Xin Qin questioned Nong Zheng about Gu Huifeng’s disappearance, and Nong Zheng linked it to NS Biological’s breakthrough and a government cover-up. They ended with the Star City Chief Executive as a possible lead, though Nong Zheng could not identify the Players involved.

• Xu Huo promised to help Nong Zheng leave the country or Sub-district if he provided useful information, and Nong Zheng explained that NS Biological had vanished without a proper investigation.
• Nong Zheng said two families connected to the company had held funerals and warned Xin Qin that Gu Huifeng might already be dead.
• Nong Zheng revealed that NS Biological had made progress toward curing genetic diseases and that Gu Huifeng had planned to fund its final experiment before the company disappeared.
• Nong Zheng recalled a similar incident ten years earlier, when actresses, Players, agents, and their boss vanished after attending a rich person’s party, then were quietly compensated.
• Xin Qin vowed to find Gu Huifeng and make whoever harmed him pay, while Xu Huo asked Nong Zheng whether he recognized the Star City Chief Executive.
• Nong Zheng recognized the executive but could not explain what he might gain from the disappearances, and Xu Huo asked him for a better lead.

Xu Huo tracked a lead about the actresses who disappeared from Golden Rain Star-Making Company ten years earlier to the broker Black Snake. He forced Black Snake to help investigate the kidnappers, saying the case was interfering with his level clearance.

• Nong Zheng told Xu Huo that a former boss had once fainted after encountering a Player who handled dirty work, and Xu Huo obtained the Player's identifying information.
• Xu Huo found the Player, who denied knowing about the missing actresses but directed him to Black Snake on Treegreen Street.
• Xu Huo met Black Snake in his heavily secured office on Underground Level 3 and asked him to find the people who kidnapped employees of NS Biological.
• Xu Huo incapacitated the other Players in the room, threatened Black Snake with a Space Ray blade, and demonstrated that he knew where Black Snake's people were.
• Black Snake asked why Xu Huo was pursuing the matter, and Xu Huo said it was getting in the way of clearing the level before covering Black Snake with white mental Manifestation.

Xu Huo traced the cover-up of several disappearances to the Chief Executive and investigated his manor, where Gu Huifeng’s sculpture had been placed. While searching for Gu Huifeng, he witnessed the manor’s cruel residents tormenting one another, and a woman warned that they were all going to die.

• Xu Huo learned that Black Snake had helped cover up disappearances linked to the Chief Executive, including the stars who vanished ten years earlier.
• Xu Huo questioned a manor servant and learned about the Chief Executive’s unusual household and the newly installed Bone Remains sculpture.
• Xu Huo entered the manor at night and found Gu Huifeng’s work displayed casually in a second-floor lounge.
• The twins tormented the residents, frightening the mentally ill girl, hurting Tiantian, and destroying the youngest girl’s doll.
• Xiao Xiao and Tiantian helped the youngest girl, while the frightened girl ran into Xiao Xiao’s room and barricaded herself inside.
• A woman emerged from her room, called the residents freaks, and warned them that they would all die sooner or later.

Xu Huo watched the children in the estate torment one another as two Players searched for the real Bone Remains. The Players escaped the estate’s shifting corridors with help from the little girl, who said she had seen another statue on the floor above the second.

• The little girl cried to her mother’s portrait about being bullied and wanting to escape the estate.
• The sick girl tried to flee from the Third Floor, but the servants caught her, tied her to a bed, and gagged her.
• Tiantian warned the sick girl that she would be killed if she escaped; she attacked him, while Xiao Xiao watched before pulling her away and insulting her.
• Two Players searched the estate for the real Bone Remains, then became lost in its endlessly shifting corridors.
• The little girl led the Players out and told them she had seen another statue on the floor above the second; they offered more candy to have her take them there.

Xu Huo investigated the governor’s estate, where players abused the little girl and the children retaliated, while he confirmed the Bone Remains was genuine. After returning to the estate that night, he saw the recovered girl unlock a sealed room on the Fourth Floor.

• Two players threatened and hurt the little girl, but the Twins drove them off with foul-smelling water balloons before attacking her themselves and leaving her injured.
• The Doctor treated the little girl, while Xiao Xiao and Tiantian provoked the Twins; a fight ended with one Twin’s eye pierced by broken glass.
• The governor dismissed reports of the trouble, and the woman believed to be his lover drank alone and cried in her room.
• Xu Huo asked Xin Qin to examine images of the Bone Remains, and she judged it genuine based on its anti-counterfeiting marks.
• Xu Huo returned to the estate after dark, where five players vanished before encountering the children.
• After recovering, the little girl left her room without her Doll and unlocked a sealed Fourth Floor room with an ornament on her skirt.

Xu Huo confronted the little girl about her collection of body parts and discovered that she was behind the disappearances in the manor. She used her ability to drag him through strange spaces, and he provoked her by suggesting she was the Chief Executive’s altered daughter until she attacked him with a knife.

• Xu Huo deduced that the little girl wanted the adult woman in the manor and learned that she had been testing players and plotting to lock them away.
• The girl tried to swallow herself into darkness, but Xu Huo grabbed her and was pulled along as she moved between rooms containing dead and imprisoned players.
• After the girl failed to shake him off, Xu Huo suggested she might be the Chief Executive’s youngest daughter, born with effects from gene editing.
• The girl screamed at Xu Huo to stop and stabbed at him with her knife.

Xu Huo confronted the little girl about the deaths at the estate and discovered that she possessed a special item from the game that let her travel through darkness. After she agreed to transfer it to him, she asked what it felt like to grow up.

• Xu Huo stopped the little girl from escaping and forced her to reveal that Gu Huifeng was being held on the first floor.
• The little girl admitted she had killed people because their happiness angered her, and explained that her father indulged her because she could threaten his life.
• Xu Huo deduced that her ability to travel through darkness came from a special item given by the game, not from her own Ability or Evolution.
• Xu Huo threatened to kill the little girl, and she revealed that the item could only be obtained through a transfer before death.
• Xu Huo told her that none of the people nearby had come to save her, and she eventually asked him what it felt like to grow up.

Xu Huo took the hidden reward My Heart Is Gloomy from Leijie Lian and learned how its darkness could distort perception, transport people into an adjacent black space, and interfere with other powers. As pursuers surrounded the mountain and demanded that he release Leijie, he found the item still worked despite the game panel lockdown.

• Leijie Lian transferred My Heart Is Gloomy to Xu Huo, and he accepted the hidden reward.
• Xu Huo tested the item’s darkness and learned its limits, while Leijie explained that people she had sent into the black space had never returned.
• Xu Huo told Leijie that killing her would not revive the dead and that he had encountered her by chance.
• Pursuing Players shattered Xu Huo’s defenses and surrounded the mountain, where a short-haired woman demanded that he release Leijie.
• Xu Huo tried the item despite the game panel lockdown and found that he could still use it.

Xu Huo confronted the District Government over Leijie Lian’s crimes and negotiated Gu Huifeng’s release in exchange for her punishment. Gu Huifeng reunited with Xin Qin, and Xu Huo recorded the manor and Bone Remains in his travel log as “A witness to friendship.”

• Xu Huo disabled the District Government’s lockdown devices and aircraft, then pressed Leijie Lian to explain how she had found her reward item.
• The short-haired player revealed that Leijie Lian would be sent to Punishment City and that others involved in her crimes would also be punished.
• Xu Huo demanded Gu Huifeng alive, along with his carvings and the Bone Remains, and the short-haired woman agreed.
• The District Government exchanged Gu Huifeng for Leijie Lian and withdrew, leaving Xu Huo and Gu Huifeng on the hilltop.
• Xu Huo brought Gu Huifeng to Earth Star City, where he reunited with Xin Qin and recounted how Leijie Lian had abducted him to carve a statue.
• Xu Huo told Nong Zheng he could go home safely and recorded the manor and Bone Remains in his travel log.

Xu Huo tested My Heart is Gloomy, received evidence that intelligent Aliens existed, and traveled to Lake City. There, locals welcomed him with a photo and recommendations, including a submerged-art sightseeing trip featuring carvings by Gu Huifeng.

• Xu Huo tested My Heart is Gloomy and found that its dark substance covered a limited area while the item worked well as a Defense Artifact.
• Chai Sheng sent Xu Huo a video showing an intelligent Alien being handed over and shared the address of the biotech company's Laboratory.
• Xu Huo left Earthstar City under the watch of several Players and reached Lake City without being disturbed.
• A young woman in Lake City invited Xu Huo to take a local souvenir photo, and the shop's staff posed with him.
• The locals introduced Xu Huo to wine, food, and accommodations, then recommended sightseeing beneath the lake to see carvings by Gu Huifeng.

Xu Huo visited Lake City's underwater attractions and encountered a mysterious, beautiful woman who had drawn admirers for years. After hearing that she had resisted powerful suitors and unknown intruders, he wondered what she was waiting for in the city.

• Xu Huo toured the island, saw its underwater sculptures, and bought a ticket to view the underwater meteors.
• A mysterious woman appeared inside a bubble amid the meteor-like insects and invited an admirer to settle in Lake City if he wanted to find her.
• Visitors said the woman had returned to watch the meteors for ten years, rejected many suitors, and demanded that anyone courting her commit to living in Lake City.
• Xu Huo asked locals about the woman and learned that even the government did not know her background, while businesses had failed to recruit her.
• A snack shop owner told Xu Huo that suspected intruders had once disappeared after trying to break into the woman's place, and Xu Huo wondered what she was waiting for.

Xu Huo sought help contacting Madam Ruo through the owner of Wildberry Bar, the Boss Lady, while concealing his gloves' purpose. After two Players followed him to question him about their conversation, he trapped them in midair with Space Ray.

• Xu Huo visited the small islands and the underwater meteor, but neither found a meteor nor saw the woman appear.
• Local enforcement warned outlaws not to approach the lady's residence after they discussed looking for her.
• Xu Huo met the Boss Lady at Wildberry Bar and paid her to ask around about Madam Ruo and his unanswered letter to Whale Garden.
• The Boss Lady questioned Xu Huo about his gloves, but he refused to remove them and left after she agreed to inquire.
• Two Players followed Xu Huo and asked what business he had discussed with the Boss Lady.
• Xu Huo suspended the two men in midair with Space Ray blades and barriers.

Xu Huo killed two Players who had followed him, then secured a meeting with Madam Ruo at Whale Garden. He arrived with Gong Ying, whose gift of a Fleeting Flower seemed to surprise him when Madam Ruo recognized it.

• Xu Huo trapped and killed one of the two Players who had harassed the landlady, while the other tried to flee and was killed by his Spatial Cutlines.
• The landlady told Xu Huo that Whale Garden would respond, and an intermediary arranged for him to meet Madam Ruo the next morning.
• Xu Huo bought a Fleeting Flower specimen and a strangely shaped Stone as gifts after Gong Ying advised him on choosing a present.
• Xu Huo traveled to Whale Garden and unexpectedly met Gong Ying at the entrance; Madam Ruo invited them both inside.
• Madam Ruo recognized the Fleeting Flower Gong Ying presented, and Xu Huo paused, surprised by her response.

Xu Huo and Gong Ying visited Madam Ruo, who told them about her childhood at a Livestock Farm and the man she had waited ten years to see again. After sharing tea, Madam Ruo showed them her garden, where she and Gong Ying talked about beauty and letting nature grow freely.

• Gong Ying tried to redirect Madam Ruo's attention to Xu Huo's gift, and Madam Ruo identified his stone as a relic from Lake City's excavated lake.
• Madam Ruo revealed that she had been born at a Livestock Farm and killed everyone there, including her parents and siblings, after becoming a Player.
• Madam Ruo told Xu Huo and Gong Ying that she had settled in District 022 to wait for a man who had saved her ten years earlier.
• Xu Huo questioned whether Madam Ruo's hope of seeing the man again rested on an embellished memory, and she admitted that waiting was all she had to live for.
• Gong Ying asked to see Madam Ruo's garden, where they discussed plants growing naturally and Madam Ruo said she liked Gong Ying.