Recaps

Xu Huo explained that the hospital was shaped by the patients’ minds and that Sima Xiao Er’s vision of Xu Huo being killed came from mental interference. Realizing the Fog Zone might be a mental-contamination space rather than a Dungeon, Xu Huo concluded they could escape by waking up and prepared to test a method.

• Sima Xiao Er fled after believing Xu Huo had been killed, then hid on the lawn and questioned what was real.
• Xu Huo found Sima Xiao Er and showed him that the hospital’s name and appearance changed with people’s perceptions.
• Xu Huo explained that the hospital was formed by overlapping imaginations and that someone had interfered with Sima Xiao Er’s mind.
• Sima Xiao Er described the Fog Zone’s isolation from the outside, and Xu Huo inferred that it was an invading space affecting their minds.
• Xu Huo concluded that they were trapped mentally and could escape by waking up, then told Sima Xiao Er he would test a method first.

Xu Huo subdued the three other personalities in his Spiritual World and regained control, then woke to find himself and his companions trapped in an Unstable Space. The Awakening Doll's little girl identified the place as Post-War Ruins drifting between worlds and said a Player War had destroyed it.

• Xu Huo used his White-Covered Book to repel the Black Sliver's invasion and reclaim his Spiritual World from his other personalities.
• Xu Huo forced the child-sized shadow to release the Black Sliver and arranged the objects in the Round Tower to suppress the three personalities.
• Xu Huo left the Round Tower and found Yan Jiayu, Sima Xiao Er, and others unconscious in a dilapidated building, with Nie Xuan missing.
• Xu Huo summoned the little girl from the Awakening Doll and persuaded her to explain the Unstable Space.
• The little girl said they were in Post-War Ruins drifting between worlds and that a Player War had destroyed the space.

Xu Huo learned that his Super Evolution had let him escape the place of Mental Contamination and realized he could use his Spiritual World to rescue the others. He returned to the mental hospital and enlisted Sima Xiao Er to help him find someone.

• Xu Huo questioned the little girl about the Stellar Company, naturally formed instances, and why District 014 had survived when other new Game Zones were destroyed.
• The little girl warned Xu Huo that his mental-domain Super Evolution was usually not useful, and cautioned him against using Space Artifacts in an unstable space.
• Xu Huo realized he could connect with the trapped minds and transfer them from the place of Mental Contamination into his Spiritual World.
• Xu Huo sent the little girl back into her doll, returned through the Round Tower to the mental hospital, and found Sima Xiao Er and the tall, dark-haired man still behaving strangely.
• Sima Xiao Er rushed to hug Xu Huo, who pulled away and told him to wake the Special Defense Department and help find someone.

Xu Huo led Sima Xiao Er and the others through the deteriorating hospital as patients and monsters attacked them. They reached a sunny Sixth Floor and found Yan Jiayu, but a Bandage Monster attacked just as Xu Huo discovered something moving in a room filled with blood.

• Sima Xiao Er gathered the group and warned them not to trust the patients or alert the medical staff.
• Xu Huo searched the Fifth Floor as its walls deteriorated, then led everyone onward when an alarm announced that patients had escaped.
• A Bandage Monster chased the group along the walls while awakened patients attacked them, and one Special Defense Department member turned into a zombie after being bitten.
• A staircase appeared to the Sixth Floor, and the closing walls trapped the Bandage Monster and several patients behind the group.
• Xu Huo found Yan Jiayu on the colorful, sunlit Sixth Floor, where security and another Bandage Monster appeared; Yan Jiayu struck the attacking monster with a tabletop after Xu Huo shut a door opening onto a sea of blood.

Xu Huo struggled to escape the mental hospital’s spreading contamination and rescued Yan Jiayu and the Special Defense Department Players one by one. After everyone else got out, he went back into the transformed hospital alone.

• Xu Huo led the group downstairs as contamination spread, but repeated doors kept them trapped on the Third Floor.
• Yan Jiayu realized each person was trapped in their own consciousness, so Xu Huo took her out first and promised to return for the others.
• Xu Huo repeatedly entered the hospital and brought Sima Xiao Er and the other Players outside, while they prepared to leave the Fog Zone.
• Yan Jiayu and Sima Xiao Er discovered that the Fog Zone had moved from Ting City to Flower City, and the Special Defense Department Players left the building.
• After sending everyone on the first floor outside, Xu Huo went back into the hospital, now covered in black shadows and throbbing pustules.

Xu Huo fought through the increasingly warped floors and reached the sixth floor, where he found an Instance Authorization Letter offering him control of the new Dungeon. He decided not to sign it, weighing the safety it offered against the limits it would place on his Player identity and growth.

• Xu Huo rescued an unconscious player and Xiao Gao from the contaminated floors, then continued upstairs through the Monsters and pus.
• Xu Huo escaped a Flesh Cavity by finding a door to the fifth floor, where darkness and scattered stairways led him to a White Spiral Staircase.
• Xu Huo reached the sixth floor and found Yu Qingqing, Zhou Ning, Dai Wenqian, and his family standing before him.
• Xu Zhi pointed Xu Huo toward a Scroll that offered him the chance to become the new Dungeon's Instance Authority Holder.
• Xu Huo studied the letter's rules and chose not to sign, deciding that the restrictions would hinder his Player progression.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu escaped the fading Fog Zone after Xu Huo rescued trapped players, then reported the mutated sewer rats and suspected Director’s remains to Flower City officials. As they left for a place to rest, Xu Huo developed a severe headache and appeared to affect the driver.

• Xu Huo woke on Yan Jiayu’s back, and they escaped the building as the Fog Zone began to disappear.
• Xiao Gao woke outside and said Xu Huo had pulled him out of the mental contamination.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu emerged from the fog, and Xu reported mutated sewer rats and human bones that were probably the missing Director’s remains.
• Team Leader Liao invited Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu to stay in Flower City, while Team Leader Wu prepared to return to Ting City and investigate the fog.
• Xu Huo’s headache worsened in the car, the player driving lost control after meeting his gaze, and Yan Jiayu played her master’s scripture recording as Team Leader Liao ordered them to take Xu to a hospital.

After Xu Huo collapsed, Yan Jiayu prevented the doctors from drawing his blood and resisted efforts to transfer him to Capital City. The authorities recognized him as the country’s first Player to undergo a special mental Evolution, and the chapter ended with Yan Jiayu insisting that Xu Huo decide for himself whether to reveal his secrets when he woke.

• Xu Huo fainted on the way to the hospital, and Yan Jiayu refused to let the doctors draw his blood, bending the bed railing and striking the wall with her Dharmachakra when they tried to move her.
• Team Leader Wu and Team Leader Liao learned that Xu Huo had mumbled before losing consciousness and reported his condition as a special incident.
• Capital City ordered Xu Huo transferred, but Yan Jiayu insisted that the doctors and equipment be brought to him instead.
• Minister Fan advised the officials to reason with Yan Jiayu, while Team Leader Liao ordered Hou Song and the other Players to guard the hospital.
• Team Leader Wu told Yan Jiayu that Xu Huo’s brain activity was far above an Evolver’s and that the government considered his special Evolution important, but she continued to refuse the blood draw until Xu Huo could consent.

After Xu Huo’s Special Evolution leaked, Players and organizations converged on Flower City while the Special Defense Department tried to secure him. Yan Jiayu, the painted woman, and Yuan Yao prepared to defend Xu Huo and find help as threats gathered around the hospital.

• Team Leader Wu learned that the news of Xu Huo’s unusual condition had spread and arranged for the hospital to be secured as Players approached.
• Team Leader Wu and Team Leader Liao suspected Hou Song had leaked the news, then ordered patients and staff evacuated and Xu Huo moved under Special Forces protection.
• Dai Wenqian and Zheng Ke discussed why Player organizations wanted Xu Huo, while Dai Wenqian relayed Team Leader Song’s suggestion that Xu Huo should not die for nothing.
• The painted woman and Yuan Yao arrived at the hospital, where Yan Jiayu warned them that someone might be trying to kill Xu Huo.
• Yuan Yao contacted Zhou Ning and others, proposing to create a distraction and use the chaos to escape with Xu Huo.

Special Defense Department officials debated whether Xu Huo should receive scarce Evolution Potions while his friends guarded him and other returned members remained unconscious. As Professor Lan examined Xu Huo, he appeared to wake, but Yan Jiayu carried him away just as a truck smashed through the hospital wall.

• Professor Lan said Xu Huo’s unconsciousness might be caused by Evolution and proposed testing his blood before deciding whether to use the two available Potions.
• Team Leader Song urged the Special Defense Department to assert its authority, while Team Leader Wu warned that conflict with Players could undermine their trust and destabilize the country.
• Professor Lan said four unconscious Special Defense Department members might die unless someone brought them out soon, and learned that Xu Huo was responding to Tang Guangbo’s psychological intervention.
• Professor Lan found that a dose of purified Evolution Potion had no effect on Xu Huo, suggesting his condition differed from that of other Evolvers.
• Xu Huo moved his hand, and Yan Jiayu hoisted him onto her shoulder and ran as a huge truck smashed through the hospital wall.

After an attack on the hospital, the Special Defense Department negotiated with a group of Players who demanded confirmation that Xu Huo was safe. Xu Huo remained unresponsive after Professor Lan gave him two Potions, but Yuan Yao later heard someone calling him by Xu Huo’s voice.

• A truck crashed into the ward, and Yan Jiayu, Yuan Yao, the painted woman, and the others helped evacuate the people inside.
• Team Leader Wu and Team Leader Song learned that a group representing 271 Players wanted Xu Huo released to them, then agreed to clear a two-kilometer Ring Zone for cooperating Players.
• Team Leader Song ordered the evacuation of residents near the hospital and sent Dai Wenqian and Zheng Ke to investigate the source of the call.
• Professor Lan injected Xu Huo with two Potions after he showed no response to their questions.
• The lights went out while Yuan Yao was in the Restroom, and he returned to find the warehouse empty before someone called his name from behind.

Huacheng fell under the game’s influence, plunging into darkness as people vanished and the city became sealed off. While rival groups moved toward the hospital to reach Xu Huo, he appeared to Zhou Ning and the others, who had gathered to help him.

• Huacheng lost power, and Team Leader Wu learned that the city was cut off while large numbers of people, including Players, had disappeared.
• Team Leader Wu found the Warehouse empty and ordered the hospital secured and Survivors searched for, while Team Leader Song prepared decoys against intruders.
• A masked Hooded Man led more than twenty Players toward the hospital to reach Xu Huo, and Dai Wenqian sent Zheng Ke’s group to follow and give the Iron Triangle an opening.
• Zhou Ning, Liu Jia, Shen Xin, and Hu Wenhu learned of Dai Wenqian’s plan and prepared to help Xu Huo, whom they feared was unconscious in the hospital.
• Xu Huo emerged from the shadows and reunited with Zhou Ning and the others, who asked how he had left the hospital.

Xu Huo and his companions returned to the hospital as the Special Defense Department fought the Hoodie and Triangle Mask players searching for him. The defenders captured most of the Hoodie players, but a Triangle Mask player threatened to destroy the hospital with explosives, forcing an evacuation as the attackers saw through the decoys.

• Xu Huo learned that the Triangle Mask players, known as the Iron Triangle, were targeting him and returned to the hospital with Liu Jia, Shen Xin, Hu Wenhu, and Zhou Ning.
• The Special Defense Department lured Hoodie players into traps on the Third Floor, capturing several while one escaped.
• A Triangle Mask player blew up a room on the Fourth Floor, revealed explosives strapped to his body, and demanded that Xu Huo be handed over.
• Team Leader Song ordered the Special Defense Department to evacuate the hospital, but players overturned two ambulances and exposed the decoys.
• As the defenders struggled to draw the attackers away from the hospital, the Triangle Mask player tilted his head and threw a Smoke Bomb.

Xu Huo used his mental power in a strange Dark Space to help defeat the Iron Triangle players, then met Huang Junjie and Tan Yang, who asked him to lead the Player Association. He rejected the idea that the association needed him as president, leaving their negotiations unresolved.

• Team Leader Wu realized the Triangle Mask players had used the hospital threat to lure Xu Huo out, but the attackers had already withdrawn from the hospital.
• The Triangle Mask players followed an apparently injured Xu Huo into a mall filled with Zhou Ning's snake illusion, where Shen Xin and the others killed the trapped players.
• Xu Huo recognized that the Dark Space let him project his mental power into reality and tested the limits of its range.
• Xu Huo confronted the Hooded Man and discovered that he was Tan Yang, vice president of the Player Association, with Huang Junjie and their companions.
• Tan Yang asked Xu Huo to become president of the Player Association, but Xu Huo said they did not need him for the role.

Xu Huo rejected Tan Yang’s invitation to join an association, warning that District 014 would eventually face threats from other game districts and the game itself. He then sent Yuan Yao to help deal with Dai Wenqian’s Players and returned from Otherspace to his body, where the painted woman was waiting for him.

• Xu Huo refused to join Tan Yang’s association and urged its members to consider the future conflict with other game districts and the game.
• Xu Huo told Tan Yang to use the situation to negotiate for members held by the Special Defense Department, then left without accepting the invitation.
• Yuan Yao reported that several groups had watched the Mall, including a Triangle Mask Player speaking with a foreigner, and Xu Huo told him to send the Player’s location to Team Leader Wu.
• Xu Huo directed Yuan Yao to join Zhou Ning and deal with the Players Dai Wenqian had sent to the hospital.
• Xu Huo returned to the hospital, merged his three Walking Personas, and vanished back into Otherspace to rejoin his body.
• The painted woman greeted Xu Huo when he woke, and he asked where she had learned to say she was worried about him.

Xu Huo woke after his brain Evolution and underwent tests that failed to explain his new ability to sense objects and spatial fluctuations. As the Special Defense Department returned, he prepared to leave Flower City, but Team Leader Song hinted at the people gathered around him.

• Yan Jiayu asked Xu Huo about new powers, and he denied having abilities like seeing through objects or controlling minds.
• Professor Lan argued that Xu Huo’s ability to sense a truck through a wall showed an unprecedented form of brain Evolution, despite his ordinary test results.
• Xu Huo questioned Tang Guangbo about the broken water dispensers and suspected objects had failed to cross space, then thanked Yan Jiayu for protecting him.
• The Special Defense Department members returned after Xu Huo lost access to his mental powers but retained heightened senses; Yuan Yao and Zhou Ning confirmed they had left no traces.
• Xu Huo planned to return to Ting City, but Team Leader Wu arrived with Team Leader Song, who remarked on Xu Huo’s many friends.

Xu Huo negotiated with the Special Defense Department after the Flower City incident, then reviewed his gains from the trip and the unexplained Dark Space. On the ride back to Ting City, he sensed trouble and ordered the driver into the woods.

• Xu Huo told Team Leader Song that Yuan Yao had tipped off the Special Defense Department about the Iron Triangle, and Yuan Yao claimed credit for the lead.
• Team Leader Song left after demanding Xu Huo show sincerity, while Dai Wenqian suspected Xu Huo had manipulated events and retreated when their eyes met.
• Team Leader Wu agreed to provide Xu Huo with two serums and said the Special Defense Department was still investigating why Flower City had gone dark.
• Xu Huo reflected on his Super Evolution, the portable Instance Entrance, the Instance Authorization Letter, and the unexplained Dark Space during the drive back with his companions.
• Xu Huo opened his eyes, ordered the driver into the woods despite the lack of a road, and warned the others that trouble was coming.

Xu Huo and his allies ambushed the Players pursuing them in the woods and killed several of them. With the bald man still holding off Sima Xiao Er and the Special Defense Department Players, Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu moved to help confront him.

• A little girl, Xu Huo, and the others attacked the two cars, killing several pursuers as Sima Xiao Er's group engaged the bald man.
• Xu Huo, Yan Jiayu, Zhou Ning, Liu Jia, Shen Xin, and Hu Wenhu fought the remaining Players, countering their items and abilities.
• Liu Jia blinded the Player controlling leaves, allowing Xu Huo to cut him down, while Xu Huo caught and killed another fleeing Player.
• Yan Jiayu's Big Scissors and Zhou Ning's Hair Serpents stopped a Toy Mouse item, which Xu Huo added to his inventory.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu moved to help Sima Xiao Er's group against the bald man, and Liu Jia called out to him.

Xu Huo and his companions defeated a bald Player who had been hired to kill him, then forced him to reveal that Hou Song had arranged the ambush. Xu Huo offered the prisoner a chance to live if he took him to the exchange in Ting City.

• Xu Huo, Yan Jiayu, and Zhou Ning worked together to break through the bald man's Golden Bell and defeat him.
• After the bald man begged for his life, Xu Huo pressured him into admitting that Hou Song had hired him to kill Xu Huo and take his body to Ting City.
• Xu Huo's companions identified Hou Song as Team Leader Liao's driver and suspected him of leaking news about Xu Huo's Evolution.
• Xu Huo offered the bald man a chance to live in exchange for leading him to the exchange.

Xu Huo's group lured Hou Song to an abandoned factory and ambushed him, capturing him after he revealed himself as a Vanguard Player. Before Xu Huo could learn more, Hou Song claimed he had been trying to save him by seeking the method of second Evolution.

• Xu Huo's group used the bald man to lure Hou Song to a factory in Ting City, while they discussed the risks of confronting him.
• Hou Song and three companions arrived at the factory, but Xu Huo's group stole their gold and escaped after puncturing their tires.
• Xu Huo's group ambushed Hou Song and his companions; Xu Huo cut off Hou Song's foot and trapped him in a Glue Bucket.
• Shen Xin and the others attacked Hou Song's companions, killing one while two escaped into a Dungeon.
• Hou Song told Xu Huo that sharing the method of second Evolution would make him a hero and claimed he had been trying to save him.

Xu Huo exposed Hou Song’s hypocrisy and learned that Nie Xuan had survived the fog zone and undergone a second evolution. As Nie Xuan warned that the rise of players had ended the country’s peace, Xu Huo said he planned to move across from the Special Defense Department.

• Xu Huo mocked Hou Song’s claim that he wanted to strengthen District 014, and suggested handing him over to the Special Defense Department for research.
• Sima Xiao Er hesitated to kill Hou Song, but a hidden shooter shot Hou Song dead before he could act.
• Nie Xuan arrived, had his people remove Hou Song’s body and clean up the factory, then invited Xu Huo to talk by the river.
• Nie Xuan told Xu Huo that only a third of Ting City’s Special Defense Department players who entered the fog zone had returned, and Xu Huo realized Nie Xuan had undergone a second evolution.
• Nie Xuan warned that the growing number of players had brought ambition, cults, and foreign interference, ending the country’s peace.
• Xu Huo told Nie Xuan he planned to move across from the Special Defense Department, then left when a patrol spotted him.

After Xu Huo returned, he and his companions decided to seek safer housing near the Special Defense Department. He questioned Brother Tu about mental Super Evolution and learned more about Dou Shengnan, while wondering why her hypnosis had failed to affect him in Hai City.

• Xu Huo took the bald man's Golden Bell while Yan Jiayu and the others divided the remaining items, then proposed moving near the Special Defense Department.
• Xu Huo summoned Brother Tu from World in the Painting and asked about mental Super Evolution while the painted woman tried to fold him.
• Brother Tu revealed that mental influence could affect reality when amplified by a powerful item, and named Dou Shengnan of the Ghastly Sound Knights as a prominent example.
• Xu Huo recalled resisting Dou Shengnan's hypnosis in Hai City and questioned why blocking his senses had worked before his Super Evolution.
• Brother Tu described how Dou Shengnan's hypnosis had helped destroy a rebel group, leaving Xu Huo still searching for a way to counter her influence.

Xu Huo spent the morning with his friends, who gathered for a meal and took a group photo. They formed the Sunflower Squad and agreed on a simple code to recognize one another in games.

• The painted woman went out for breakfast with Yan Jiayu, then served the group after Yan Jiayu left to get her hair cut.
• Xu Huo, Yuan Yao, Zhou Ning, Hu Wenhu, Liu Jia, Shen Xin, and Yan Jiayu shared breakfast and decided to spend the day together.
• Yan Jiayu borrowed clothes from Lichun and joined the others in taking a group photo.
• Yuan Yao suggested forming an organization, and the group chose the name Sunflower Squad.
• Liu Jia proposed using groups of three flowers or other objects as a code, and the others agreed.

Xu Huo and his companions celebrated founding the Sunflower Squad and discussed their hopes for District 014’s future. Meanwhile, rival player organizations sought official recognition through the Special Defense Department, whose officials weighed the risks of cooperating with them.

• Yuan Yao toasted the founding of the Sunflower Squad as the group celebrated, and Xu Huo and Zhou Ning discussed Player ranks and District 014’s future.
• Yuan Yao and Yan Jiayu rallied the group to take on Outer District Players and the game, drawing attention from restaurant staff and other diners.
• Xu Huo exchanged sharp words with Zheng Liang and politely declined Gu Yu’s invitation to drink, while his companions wondered why they had come to Ting City.
• Gu Yu and Zheng Liang attended discussions about the Player Association’s agreement with the Special Defense Department, while representatives of other player organizations watched for a chance to gain official recognition.
• Nie Xuan gave Team Leader Wu a roster of groups seeking agreements, and a middle-aged official criticized the risks of supporting small organizations.

Nie Xuan and Team Leader Wu argued for supporting civilian players, while Xu Huo prepared to enter an instance and set off for Garden Castle Station. He arrived in a blood-soaked station where two starving people were eating a corpse.

• Director He objected to giving Evolution Potions to players outside the Special Defense Department, but Team Leader Wu defended the plan and Nie Xuan criticized the department for squeezing civilian players out.
• Team Leader Wu planned to persuade the players on the List to join forces, and Nie Xuan said D-class players could obtain Evolution Potions through the game and instance worlds.
• Yan Jiayu arranged to search for a Random Instance with Zhou Ning and Hu Wenhu, while Liu Jia and Shen Xin returned to their city for training.
• Xu Huo tested what he could store for an instance and left his bank card with the painted woman before departing.
• Xu Huo used the Ticket for Garden Castle Station to enter the instance and found two emaciated people gnawing on a corpse.