Recaps

Xu Huo explored the Combat Angel Wreckage Ruins with Upstairs, investigating statues that appeared to drain energy and rooms that shifted when crossed. After one statue weakened him, Xu Huo suspected the statues targeted only one person at a time and entered a tea room to examine them.

• Upstairs told Xu Huo that he had become exhausted whenever strange sculptures appeared and that his companions had disappeared.
• Xu Huo and Upstairs entered a room, found a fallen sculpture, and emerged into a different, more ruined room.
• A sculpture appeared suddenly and drained some of Xu Huo's energy, while Upstairs seemed unaffected.
• Xu Huo reasoned that each sculpture might target only one person at a time and continued exploring with Upstairs.
• Xu Huo entered a tea room and lifted one of the statues from the table, alarming Upstairs.

Xu Huo and Lou Shang searched the unstable dungeon site while grotesque statues repeatedly appeared and drained mental energy. After realizing they had been circling the same area without finding other players or an exit, Xu Huo decided to investigate the hidden places where Space Power gathered.

• Xu Huo tested whether carrying a statue would cause another to appear, then dragged it along while he and Lou Shang searched the dungeon site.
• When another statue appeared, Xu Huo attacked it with Kaleidoscope Threads, damaging the unstable dungeon and forcing both men to retreat from the darkened room.
• Xu Huo observed that the statues’ energy shifted between them and that sufficiently strong barriers could weaken or block its effects.
• After wandering for more than half a day without meeting anyone or finding the Fielder Family crest, Xu Huo concluded they had been circling the same area.
• Xu Huo suggested trying the hidden places where Space Power gathered, startling Lou Shang.

Xu Huo and Lou Shang entered a restaurant, confronted three Players, and avoided a fight before discovering Photos that showed people inside changing into them and other strangers. They continued through the Dungeon, where another identical Photo displayed a hostile group from different sub-districts.

• Xu Huo hurled a sculpture into a vortex and dragged Lou Shang through it, leaving Lou Shang with a bloodied face.
• Xu Huo and Lou Shang found a restaurant where three Players wearing leaf-shaped brooches confronted them over the food.
• Lou Shang attacked with his mental abilities, but the young Player suppressed the attack and challenged them until his companions stopped him.
• Xu Huo and Lou Shang avoided a fight, then left by another exit after Xu Huo suggested they might use the young man as a punching bag.
• Xu Huo and Lou Shang found a Photo that shifted between showing the Fielder Family and a frightened group of strangers, including a Player Lou Shang recognized.
• The pair encountered another Photo showing strangers from different sub-districts looking resentfully toward them.

Xu Huo and Lou Shang explored the shifting spaces of the dungeon grounds and discovered that the enlarged photo in a dining room could affect Lou Shang’s mind. As they rested, two players rushed in, but cutting lines immediately tore through their barrier and swept across the room.

• Xu Huo and Lou Shang found that the dungeon spaces looped and that they had not encountered the Combat Angel or any lingering Super Player energy.
• They returned to a different dining room, where Mr. Carmen’s face in an enlarged photo kept changing.
• Xu Huo rested and reflected on how the Gravity Field had changed his perception of shifting Space Power and linked spaces.
• Lou Shang snapped out of his fixation on the photo, and he and Xu Huo ate while they waited to leave.
• Two players rushed into the dining room and sealed the entrance, but cutting lines pierced the barrier and swept through the room.

Xu Huo stopped a fight over a button prop and learned it had fallen from a mysterious crack in the Ruins. He led both groups to the crack, while questioning the young man’s group about their unusual eye-emblem accessories.

• Xu Huo used spatial evolution to pull three pursuers into the restaurant and stop their attack on Fu Kuan and Zhu Nuo.
• Xu Huo examined the button and asked Fu Kuan and Zhu Nuo to explain how they had found it near a crack with a plaster hand reaching out.
• Xu Huo took the button and invited the young man and his two bodyguards to accompany the group to the room where the crack had appeared.
• Fu Kuan and Zhu Nuo introduced themselves as they led the group through the Ruins, and Zhu Nuo explained the young man’s group might be connected to the Fielder Family.
• Xu Huo questioned the young man about the group’s eye-shaped brooches, and the bodyguard and Zhu Nuo described their use and origins.

Xu Huo forced the group through a spatial passage, where plaster hands drained their strength and nearly killed them. He rescued them, and they discovered an enormous, many-handed statue with a single red eye looming over them.

• Xu Huo took the passage-opening devices from the others and used Zhu Nuo's device to open a passage at the ceiling crack.
• Xu Huo pulled the group into the passage with his spatial power after their attempts to resist failed.
• The group emerged into darkness and was seized by cold plaster hands that drained their strength.
• Xu Huo snapped his fingers to wake the young man and free the group from the hands.
• The group looked up and saw a mountain-sized statue covered in hands, with one open red eye.

Xu Huo resisted the Combat Angel’s lingering power and removed the Angel’s Eyes from its ruined head, freeing the others from the illusion. He kept the powerful Origin Stone as the group recovered in a damaged study.

• The exhausted group succumbed to the statue’s terrifying red gaze, while Xu Huo remained standing and extended several pairs of arms toward it.
• Xu Huo’s childlike arms plucked the red eye from the statue, causing the illusion and its crushing pressure to vanish.
• Lou Shang recognized the stone as Angel’s Eyes, and the young man tried to buy it from Xu Huo.
• The bodyguards stopped the young man from provoking Xu Huo, and the group cautiously stood after he offered to help them.
• Xu Huo identified the leaking spiritual energy and walked toward the fallen books, lifting them into the air and flipping through their pages.

Xu Huo and the others examined Carmen Field’s ruined study and discussed the Combat Angel’s origins, remains, and abilities. They learned that the Fielder Family had recovered most of the Super Artifact, while its rare Origin Stone made it impossible to recreate.

• Xu Huo examined the study’s crafting tools and sketches as Lou Shang wondered whether the Combat Angel had been made there.
• Xu Huo questioned the young man’s Bodyguards about the Combat Angel, and they said they had never seen it firsthand.
• The young man claimed that the Combat Angel could never be reborn because it had used an extraordinarily rare Origin Stone unavailable even to the Game Government.
• Xu Huo learned that the Fielder Family had recovered most of the Combat Angel’s remains after the battle, while fragments others found had lost their special effects.
• Fu Kuan asked why District 001 portrayed the Combat Angel as female, and Zhu Nuo suggested that stories had added a romance because Carmen Field was a man.

Xu Huo took Carmen's books and diagrams, then emerged with his group into a greenhouse where players fought over the manuscripts. After demonstrating his overwhelming spatial power, he claimed an Hourglass instrument and invited its former owners to come ask him for it.

• Xu Huo divided fragments of the angel's head among the others, collected Carmen's materials, and used the ring instrument to take the group out of the study room.
• Xu Huo and the others emerged in a greenhouse between two fighting groups, where players rushed for the scattered manuscripts and their supplies.
• Xu Huo's Kaleidoscope Threads destroyed weapons and killed a player, while Fu Kuan gathered the manuscripts and confirmed they were still readable.
• Gene Anderson pointed the rival players toward Xu Huo, who drove the two Young Masters and their guards out of the greenhouse with his spatial power.
• Xu Huo pressured the remaining players into admitting the Carter Family and the Paen Family had taken the object they fought over, then took their Hourglass and told them to send its owners to him.

Xu Huo examined Carmen Field’s manuscripts and found notes about Dr. Wu, while the group discovered Carmen’s collection of love letters. The chapter ended with Gene recounting how a player family’s great-aunt had fabricated a romance with Carmen after meeting him only twice.

• Xu Huo reviewed Carmen Field’s records about Super Evolution, Dr. Wu, and Perfect Potions, but found no major revelations or clues to the potions’ whereabouts.
• Fu Kuan found Carmen’s thick collection of love letters, and Zhu Nuo and the others read and discussed his writing and romantic reputation.
• Xu Huo asked how many partners Carmen had reportedly had, and Zhu Nuo said rumors put the number near a hundred, including men.
• Gene dismissed the rumors and described how Livin Carter’s great-aunt had falsely claimed she married Carmen and was pregnant after meeting him twice without speaking to him.

Xu Huo and the others sorted through Carmen Field’s books and manuscripts before a player tried to steal Xu Huo’s backpack and offered to lead them to a possible clue about Combat Angel’s remains. They reached a greenhouse divided into four spaces, and Xu Huo forced the player to enter the kitchen space first.

• Fu Kuan, Zhu Nuo, Gene, and a bodyguard discussed Carmen Field’s charm and integrity, while Lou Shang asked why Carmen had fought other Super Players.
• Xu Huo selected manuscripts about Combat Angel, Dr. Wu, instruments, and Carmen’s travels, along with Carmen’s love letters, while Lou Shang and the others helped sort the remaining books.
• A player tried to steal Xu Huo’s backpack through a spatial passage, but Xu Huo stopped him and forced him to reveal a possible location of Combat Angel’s remains.
• The player led Xu Huo and the others to a greenhouse whose ceiling showed four separate spaces, including a kitchen and a bed on the left.
• Xu Huo ordered the player to choose a space and pushed him into the kitchen when he hesitated.

Xu Huo entered Carmen Field’s Spiritual World and discovered that its darkness was filled with the Super Player’s overwhelming despair. He used the Gravity Field to counter the mental pressure, but found Gene Anderson and his bodyguards still trapped in the space and trying to kill themselves.

• Xu Huo entered the darkness and found himself isolated, unable to penetrate the space with his mental power.
• Xu Huo encountered a fragment of Carmen Field grinding a stone; the fragment said its opponent was not human and that it could not defeat itself before crumbling away.
• Xu Huo resisted Carmen Field’s despair and used his mental power to clear a small area, where he found three players who had died by suicide.
• Xu Huo activated the Gravity Field, which distorted and neutralized the surrounding mental energy and eased the pressure.
• Xu Huo found Gene Anderson and his two bodyguards mechanically trying to slit their throats while their armor’s defenses prevented them from succeeding.

Xu Huo and the others escaped Carmen Field’s despairing mental domain and debated what it revealed about Carmen’s mind and fate. When the Carter Family group confronted them again, Xu Huo sent Livin Carter and another young scion into the mental domain and killed their accompanying players.

• Xu Huo used Gene’s ring-shaped device to open a passage, then brought Gene, Lou Shang, Zhu Nuo, and Fu Kuan out of the mental domain into the kitchen.
• The group recovered and speculated that Carmen Field’s despair might have resulted from a failed mental evolution or an unavoidable fate.
• Xu Huo considered Carmen’s study of Dr. Wu and questioned whether Carmen could have mistaken a changeable future for a certain outcome.
• The Carter Family group encountered them again, and Gene warned Livin Carter that the Anderson Family protected Xu Huo’s companions.
• Xu Huo opened a passage to the mental domain, kicked Livin Carter and another young scion inside, and killed the other Carter players with his space abilities.

Xu Huo left the dungeon site with Angel's Left Eye and returned Carmen Field's collected materials to Kailuoer. He boarded a Class C train at night, rescued players from an Alien swarm, and approached the tense survivors in the next carriage.

• Xu Huo used Kailuoer's teleportation device to leave the dungeon site with Lou Shang's group and Gene's group.
• Kailuoer arrived, and Gene and the others handed over their backpacks before leaving.
• Kailuoer took Carmen Field's materials and warned Xu Huo to keep a lower profile; he said Carmen had never mentioned Curved Time.
• Xu Huo boarded a nearby train with a Temporary Pass and killed the Aliens attacking its ruined rear carriage.
• The injured survivors followed Xu Huo toward the next carriage, where the players waited tensely as he knocked.

Xu Huo traveled aboard the Dimensional Train, recovered from his exhaustion, and considered using a Yongxing membership to explore its trade network. He then read news about the Fielder Family and learned that Kailuoer had confronted his family over Carmen Field’s manuscripts before leaving home again.

• Xu Huo moved through the first two carriages and settled alone in the third, then checked updates about District 014, District 011, and District 025.
• Xu Huo slept poorly, woke to a brief sunset view, and accepted breakfast from a Conductor.
• The Conductor gave Xu Huo a supreme Yongxing membership card, and Xu Huo considered visiting its trade channels.
• Xu Huo searched Dimension Below for news about the Fielder Family and learned that Kailuoer had obtained some of Carmen Field’s manuscripts.
• Kailuoer confronted his family, questioned why they had not done more to help Carmen Field, and left home after being expelled from the estate.

Xu Huo returned to District 009 to investigate what might have broken Carmen Field’s faith, but found a district weakened by infighting and neglect. After an ambush failed to stop him, he saw how thoroughly the District Government controlled ordinary residents’ behavior around players.

• Gene and the others concealed that Xu Huo had taken Angel's Left Eye and prepared to spread false information if the truth leaked.
• Xu Huo considered whether Carmen Field’s death and the war involving Super Players had been shaped by repeated Time Rewinds, then used a Return Ticket to travel to District 009.
• Xu Huo recalled District 009’s integration troubles, devastating losses, civil wars, and continuing disorder under a weak District Government.
• Players ambushed Xu Huo as he entered District 009, but he cut apart their binding items and they retreated after sounding whistles.
• Xu Huo surveyed the damaged, deserted city and saw government notices forbidding ordinary people from going out after dark or secretly watching players.

Xu Huo enforced silence across District 009 after killing players who disturbed the peace, then entered the District Government’s celebration banquet and forced its leaders to issue a citywide ban on noise. The Capital Prefecture fell under mandatory silence, while Xu Huo remained in control of the hall.

• Xu Huo killed six C-class players who had resumed talking loudly after passing him, then left the street.
• Xu Huo sealed off the city and entered the District Government building during a banquet celebrating the conquest of two A-class instances.
• Xu Huo ordered Chief Executive Mr. Mo to forbid anyone in the city from making a sound, threatening death to anyone who spoke.
• Several players collapsed after Xu Huo’s warning, and an A-class player’s prop device shattered when he tried to confront Xu Huo.
• Mr. Mo had his secretary broadcast an immediate mandatory silence order throughout the Capital Prefecture.

Xu Huo imposed strict rules on Capital Prefecture and challenged its leaders to enforce them, killing players who tried to destroy the city’s sealing barrier. When residents began breaking his rules, he ordered the government’s players to punish them or face his retaliation, and Mr. Mo tried to deflect the demand by claiming the rules were about to be abolished.

• Xu Huo allowed a child to use the restroom but warned everyone to stay quiet and inside the government building, then inspected the management manual and said he approved of it.
• Capital Prefecture’s players secretly planned attacks and tried to destroy the sealing barrier, but Xu Huo killed the first group sent to its distant edges.
• Residents and players across the city broke Xu Huo’s rules, while officials at the District Government building watched to see whether he would respond.
• Xu Huo returned to the government hall and ordered the players to deal with rule-breakers within thirty seconds or suffer his escalating reprisals.
• Mr. Mo claimed the government had planned to abolish the manual’s rules, but Xu Huo insisted they were good and ordered the banquet’s guest of honor to act.

Xu Huo forced Capital Prefecture’s players to control the city while he searched classified records for the precognitive Painter Jiang Jiang. He learned that Jiang Jiang’s real name was Liu Yi and that she had left District 009 under pursuit, with no confirmed trace of her since.

• Capital Prefecture’s players withdrew from the government building and ordered residents to shelter silently while they bought soundproofing props and prepared to contain anyone who made noise.
• A middle-aged player warned his companions not to provoke Xu Huo, and a woman reported that Mr. Mo’s family and the families of three council members had been killed.
• The Capital Prefecture players took control of the city, and Xu Huo ordered Mr. Mo to bring him classified files about District 009 players.
• Xu Huo searched the files for Jiang Jiang, whose real name was Liu Yi, and learned that she had left District 009 after players hunted her for her ability to foresee deaths.
• The latest government report said a suspected fortune-teller in a town had been investigated and exposed as a fraud, leaving Liu Yi’s whereabouts unknown.

Xu Huo questioned two players who had pursued Jiang Jiang, learned details that narrowed his search to three locations, and watched the Capital Prefecture descend into silent violence. As residents vented their anger and fear on the Jixin Terminal, an ordinary citizen called for awareness, public condemnation, and resistance.

• Xu Huo asked Mr. Mo to identify players involved in hunting Jiang Jiang, and Mr. Mo brought forward a man and a woman.
• Xu Huo questioned the two players, who described Jiang Jiang’s hiding places and the people who had sheltered and supported her.
• Xu Huo compared their accounts with the files, narrowed the search to three locations, and planned to investigate after daybreak.
• Players in the Capital Prefecture continued killing one another in silence, spreading fear among residents caught in the struggle.
• Residents used the Jixin Terminal to curse the District Government and players, celebrate the turmoil, and call for the Capital Prefecture to be cut off from supplies.
• An ordinary citizen argued on the Jixin Terminal that awareness, public condemnation, and collective resistance could challenge the district’s privileged people.

Xu Huo used District 009’s discriminatory regulations to terrorize government officials and players gathered in the government hall, killing people through a deadly lottery. As news spread and players gathered outside, a child confronted Xu Huo and called him a bad person.

• Xu Huo read the Ordinary Citizens' Declaration aloud and mocked Mr. Mo over the resentment caused by District 009’s player privileges.
• Xu Huo threatened the officials with a lottery based on their regulations, and Mr. Mo knelt and pleaded for the players’ lives.
• Xu Huo selected people with a floating arrow and killed those who begged or drew the wrong grapes.
• News of the killings spread, drawing players to the Capital Prefecture, while Xu Huo killed Outer District Players who tried to ambush him.
• A child broke away from their parents, ran up to Xu Huo, and repeatedly called him a bad person.

Xu Huo left District 009 after exposing a player's test of his limits and causing a shift in the district's balance of power. He arrived in a coastal town and ordered an iced fruit juice.

• Xu Huo questioned a little girl about why she thought he was bad, then sent her home with her parents.
• Xu Huo dragged out a mental Evolver who had used the girl to test him and severed the man's left hand.
• The injured player learned that their plan had succeeded and that District 009's balance of power would change after daylight.
• Xu Huo rested in the government building until dawn, then disappeared as the city's sealing barrier vanished.
• District 009's new government took office and abolished a series of administrative regulations.
• Xu Huo arrived in a coastal tourist town south of District 009 and ordered an iced fruit juice.

Xu Huo paid Dai Si for information about a woman he was seeking, then questioned Liu Yi about her predictions and whether the future could be changed. Liu Yi argued that countless factors shape outcomes, leaving Xu Huo uncertain whether his attempts to alter fate—or Curved Time itself—actually changed anything.

• Xu Huo paid Dai Si two thousand White Cash for an address where a pessimistic young painter might live.
• Xu Huo threatened Dai Si over the possibility that she had given him false information, and Liu Yi revealed herself as the dishwashing woman who had made a prediction about him.
• Liu Yi explained that she had foreseen two thugs dying in Dai Si's shop and believed Xu Huo's arrival was one thread among many leading to that outcome.
• Xu Huo considered how trying to prevent Xiao Yuan and Tan Qi's injuries may have helped bring them about, and questioned whether Curved Time truly changed the future.
• Liu Yi said the universe neither cared about nor acknowledged human ideas of fate, and Xu Huo asked what would eventually make him kill her.

Xu Huo questioned Liu Yi about resisting fate, then encountered two men who harassed Dai Si and wondered whether he could change their predicted deaths. Liu Yi revealed she had deliberately misled him about where they would die, leaving Xu Huo to consider whether changing parts of a prediction could alter its outcome.

• Liu Yi told Xu Huo that she had no answer about fate and described how her Teacher had accepted his foreseen death.
• Xu Huo drank with Liu Yi and Dai Si, then told two men harassing Dai Si to go home and sleep.
• Liu Yi said the two men were destined to die with blood flowing from their seven orifices, and Xu Huo considered killing them himself to test whether he could change their fate.
• Dai Si revealed that she had poisoned the liquor bottle the men took, and Xu Huo learned they had died at another roadside bar.
• Liu Yi admitted she had given Xu Huo the wrong location to test whether changing the place or method of death could break a prediction.

Xu Huo considered Liu Yi’s belief that her death in District 009 was inevitable, then watched the beach and reflected on how ordinary events came and went. An old woman urged him to appreciate what he already had, leaving him to keep looking forward.

• Liu Yi told Xu Huo that she had given up trying to escape her predicted death and would cooperate if he had a good idea.
• Xu Huo spent the next day watching children quarrel over a sandcastle until it was destroyed and washed back into the beach.
• A sudden rainstorm swept over the beach while Xu Huo held a handful of sand.
• An old woman gave Xu Huo a basin for shelter and told him that events were like rain and that he might already have what he sought.
• The rain stopped, and the old woman patted Xu Huo’s head and told him to keep looking forward.