Recaps

Xu Huo and the others noticed that time seemed to be passing strangely in Museum City when a second batch of players entered the instance. After finding that a date-tracking item showed a day later than the game panel, Xu Huo led the group toward the Mannequin Building, suspecting the city itself was causing the discrepancy.

• Long Aotian and Xie Ling chatted about tattoos before the group realized the time had advanced to noon far sooner than expected.
• Xu Huo spotted the short shadow beneath his feet, and the group noticed a new batch of players entering Museum City.
• Xu Huo and Long Aotian discussed the risks and possible benefits of cooperating with the newcomers.
• Xu Huo searched nearby shops for a calendar, and Xu Ruosi showed the group an item that tracked dates and time.
• The item matched the game panel's time but showed a date one day ahead, so Xu Huo took the group to the Mannequin Building.

Xu Huo and the others investigated the Mannequin Building and Mad Prison, finding clues that the attractions might reflect real deaths and torture. After they searched beneath the prison floor, its doors locked and chains sealed the building as a group of hostile players arrived outside.

• Xu Huo's group explored the Mannequin Building and found numbered dummies whose sequence appeared to match the graves at Decapitation Cemetery.
• Xiao Ling and Yu Guangnan explained that cemetery graves contained numbered dummies and tortured human skeletons, while Xu Huo noticed gaps in the Mannequin Building's numbering.
• The group entered the Mad Prison and found displays of mannequins depicting prisoners being abused, tortured, and killed.
• Xu Huo agreed to search beneath the prison floor, but the group found no remains.
• The Mad Prison's doors slammed shut and chains covered the building as hostile players appeared outside and one of them leered at Xiao Ling.

Xu Huo and his companions fought four Cannibal Players who had trapped them inside Mad Prison with an electrified Artifact chain. After Xu Huo killed one attacker and Xiao Ling’s curse helped corner the others, one Cannibal Player escaped while the remaining fight continued.

• Long Aotian and Yu Guangnan tried to break the electrified chain, while Xu Huo’s group attacked the Cannibal Players holding it.
• Long Aotian used a corrosive Metal Block to destroy the chain, then fought off the four attackers surrounding him.
• Xu Huo saved Long Aotian, killed one Cannibal Player, and escaped the man’s Balloon Artifact after pulling him into his Spiritual World.
• The other three Cannibal Players tried to retreat, but Xiao Ling bound them with Love Means Mutual Destruction, and Yu Guangnan’s group closed in.
• One Cannibal Player slipped free of the cord and threw poison gas bombs, but his feet froze as he tried to escape.

Xu Huo and the others killed the Cannibal Players and agreed to avoid a fight with other players near the Mannequin Building. They headed to Needle Mountain Physiotherapy before sunset and entered to find a mannequin impaled on long metal spikes.

• Xu Huo used his Spiritual World to kill the Cannibal Player who tested its boundary with pea seeds.
• Xiao Ling tortured and killed the fat Cannibal Player, then Xu Huo teased her about licking her bloody hand.
• Xu Huo agreed to stay out of the way of players hiding nearby, but they refused his offer to complete the Dungeon task together.
• Xu Huo led the group toward Needle Mountain Physiotherapy before sunset, and they entered despite concerns about spending the night inside.
• The group found a mannequin pierced by three-meter metal spikes and rusty surgical instruments displayed near the entrance.

Xu Huo and the others searched Needle Mountain Physiotherapy and the Doll Clothing Store for clues, finding no bodies but discovering dolls with signs of stitching. The chapter ended when the dolls in the store all turned to face the group and an iron skewer narrowly missed Xu Huo.

• Liu Chengyi recognized the surgical tools at Needle Mountain Physiotherapy, where the group found unsettling displays of needles but no bodies.
• Xie Ling suggested the attractions might only become active at night, and Xu Huo agreed to wait while they searched the neighboring Doll Clothing Store.
• Xie Ling discovered that a doll's eye was a realistic silicone eyeball, while Yu Guangnan found that some dolls had been cut open and sewn back together.
• Xiao Ling said a life-sized doll had turned to face the group, so Xu Huo tied it to a display case to keep it in place.
• An iron skewer flew past Xu Huo, and the dolls throughout the room turned their heads toward the group.

Xu Huo and Xie Ling fought their way through the Doll Clothing Store as the dolls came alive and attacked with metal spikes. Xie Ling’s attempt to send a doll searching failed when her Ability wore off, and Xu Huo tried to create an opening so they could keep searching.

• Dolls fell from the display cases and attacked the group, and one broke Xie Ling’s leg before piercing her chest with a metal spike.
• Xu Huo rescued Xie Ling, set fire to the mobile dolls and the lights, and tried to escape through the darkened store.
• Xu Huo and Xie Ling fought off waves of dolls, and Xu Huo told her to search for a doll representing the Twins.
• Xie Ling sent out a doll to explore, but it returned under the dolls’ control and attacked her after her Ability wore off.
• Xu Huo asked how many dolls Xie Ling could affect, then drew attackers away while she continued searching; one doll pounced on him and stuck to his Protective Suit.

Xu Huo and the others fought their way out of the Doll Clothing Store and Needle Mountain Physiotherapy as the Dolls and mannequins pursued them through Sun Museum City. From a rooftop, Xu Huo began piecing together connections between the themed buildings, including a possible link between the Dolls and the pregnant women in Mad Prison.

• Xu Huo dismantled attacking Dolls and rescued Xie Ling from beneath a pile of Dolls in the Doll Clothing Store.
• Xiao Ling used Roadkill to collapse part of the Doll Clothing Store entrance, helping the group escape Needle Mountain Physiotherapy.
• Mannequins emerged from Mad Prison and pursued Xu Huo and the others, while Long Aotian and Liu Chengyi split off to hide.
• Xu Huo took Xie Ling to a nearby store, where Xiao Ling and Yu Guangnan joined them and Xu Ruosi found a small Warehouse.
• Xu Huo climbed onto the roof in his Invisibility Cloak and considered how the buildings' stories might connect, including whether the Dolls corresponded to Mad Prison's pregnant women.

Xu Huo connected Museum City’s venues to a history of captivity, abuse, and human experimentation, advancing the completion task to 3/6. The group realized the dungeon’s date had stopped changing and feared they could be trapped if they failed to clear it within seven days.

• Xu Huo submitted his theory about prisoners, human experiments, and children used as test subjects, raising the task progress to 3/6.
• Xu Huo led the group around the searching mannequins and back near Mad Prison.
• Xu Ruosi checked her timekeeping item, and the group saw that midnight passed without the dungeon’s date changing.
• Xu Huo explained that the stopped date could leave them trapped, while game time might still impose a seven-day deadline and expose them to a high-risk instance.
• Xiao Ling asked Xu Huo to share the clue that had earned progress at Wax Figure Museum.

Xu Huo and the others compared progress in Sphinx's Riddle and debated whether the instance’s frozen time was part of its final challenge. They left the Decapitation Cemetery riddle unresolved as mannequin activity subsided and tension rose over Xie Ling’s injury.

• Xie Ling and Xu Ruosi exchanged information with Xiao Ling and Yu Guangnan after Xiao Ling confirmed she had gained one-sixth of the progress.
• Xiao Ling suggested that the instance’s final riddle might involve why time was stuck on the first day, and Xu Huo proposed watching for new Players at noon to test their theory.
• Xu Ruosi submitted her explanation of the Decapitation Cemetery, but the game did not register it as progress, so the Players considered that the cemetery might not be one of the six riddles.
• As the mannequins grew quieter, Yu Guangnan climbed out to investigate, while Xie Ling said she had recovered from her injury.
• Xiao Ling accused Xie Ling of pretending her broken leg was healed, and Xu Huo tried to ease the resulting tension.

Xu Huo and his companions survived a coordinated ambush by a group of players who withdrew after testing their strength. Suspecting Xiao Ling and Yu Guangnan of possible betrayal, Xu Huo refused to cooperate with Xiao Ling and demanded that she prove herself.

• Xie Ling openly displayed her items while keeping her distance from the others, and Xiao Ling said Yu Guangnan had left to look for the missing mannequins.
• Xu Huo and the others escaped a shop as six beams of light sliced it apart, then fought off attackers who had surrounded them.
• Xu Huo fought one attacker, destroying his metal spider legs and forcing him to flee after he used a whistle to escape.
• The attackers withdrew, and Yu Guangnan returned to help Xiao Ling, who accused him of leading the ambush and held a sword to his throat.
• Xu Ruosi questioned Xiao Ling's apparent interrogation, and Xu Huo rejected working together, telling her to prove herself if she wanted their trust.

Xu Huo and the others weighed Yu Guangnan’s report of a rumored high-level item before agreeing to split up and investigate nearby exhibits. At the Infectious Disease History Museum, Xu Huo found photographs documenting epidemics across a decade and names written on the back of a medical staff group photo.

• Yu Guangnan told the group that pursuers had discussed searching the Dungeon for an unowned high-level item, and Xu Huo judged that he was likely telling the truth.
• Xu Huo set aside the rumor and urged the group to focus on clearing the Dungeon and learning the dangers of its exhibits.
• The group rested near the central exhibits, then agreed to split up after daybreak while staying close enough to help one another.
• Xiao Ling and Yu Guangnan headed for the Styx Ferry, Xu Ruosi and Xie Ling planned to investigate the attic, and Xu Huo chose the Infectious Disease History Museum.
• Xu Huo noticed someone leave the Adult Psychological Treatment Room before dawn, then entered the Infectious Disease History Museum after it grew light.
• Xu Huo examined the museum’s photographs of epidemics and found several rows of names on the back of a group photo of medical staff.

Xu Huo uncovered evidence that the Shang family’s history and Museum City’s epidemic records were unreliable, then found a hidden basement beneath the Adult Psychological Treatment Room. Inside an illusionary living room, a doll sang a disturbing rhyme as the doorbell rang, and Xu Huo began investigating its clues.

• Xu Huo examined the epidemic exhibits and notebook, finding that a doctor surnamed Shang had survived ten years of outbreaks without being recorded as infected.
• Xu Huo concluded that the game’s account of Museum City’s origins and the Shang family’s hereditary disease might be unreliable, then discovered black dust on his fingers that would not wash off.
• Xu Huo entered the Adult Psychological Treatment Room, found a concealed button beneath the desk, and descended a staircase into a clean underground room.
• Xu Huo sat in the basement chair and found himself in an illusionary living room, where a doll sang a rhyme about a family meeting grisly deaths.
• Xu Huo was transported back to the sofa when he approached the door, then explored the kitchen and found food preparations and a missing knife as the doll began its song again.

Xu Huo tried to survive the nursery rhyme’s fatal loop but discovered that the mother and child’s deaths could not be prevented through ordinary defenses. After hearing the father’s regrets upstairs, he realized that turning back time might save them, and the middle-aged man vanished, leaving a Potion on the chair.

• Xu Huo tested the Doll, the doors, and the stairs, then concluded that the nursery rhyme’s events caused his death regardless of where he went.
• Xu Huo tried blocking entrances, using his items, hiding in Shelter 101, and breaking a window, but each attempt still ended in his death.
• Xu Huo heard the nursery rhyme reveal that the Doll and mother died and that the father came home and lay down beside them.
• A glass marble rolled to Xu Huo’s feet, and a light appeared upstairs, allowing him to enter the Study Room.
• The middle-aged man described the chain of delays that had made him arrive five minutes late, and Xu Huo realized he might save the family by turning back time.
• The middle-aged man vanished, and Xu Huo found a Potion on the chair.

Xu Huo discovered that the potion in the basement had been a hallucination, then fought Players who ambushed him at the Styx Ferry. He escaped deeper into the underground waterway and found gravestones suggesting that many members of the Shang family had died in the same year.

• Xu Huo realized the potion and chair in the basement had been hallucinations, then encountered a badly injured Long Aotian upstairs.
• Xu Huo killed the disguised puppet Long Aotian and chased the fleeing person into the Styx Ferry, where new Players tried to rob him.
• Xu Huo fought the Players using smoke and his items, killing several before the Bright Red Sword's eye opened and made him retreat.
• Xu Huo boarded a ferry and passed displays of human bones and fuel made to resemble a river of blood.
• Xu Huo noticed around twenty gravestones bearing the Shang surname, most marking deaths from the same year.

Xu Huo evaded the players pursuing him through the River of the Dead while Long Aotian, Xiao Ling, and Yu Guangnan ambushed and fought another group. As the three headed onward, a strange shadow killed the final pursuer, and the stronger players who had attacked them the previous night forced them to flee back through the winding channel.

• Xu Huo used his invisibility outfit and the Poster of Repentance to mislead the players chasing him along the waterway.
• Long Aotian, Xiao Ling, and Yu Guangnan overturned the pursuers’ boat and killed or drove off the players who attacked them.
• The three found more corpses and saw a ghostly shadow kill the last player from the pursuing group.
• A twisting band of light pulled the three toward the players who had ambushed them the previous night, so Xiao Ling used a propeller-like item to send their boat back the way they came.
• Long Aotian questioned whether they were trapped underground as the group fled through the winding waterway.

Xu Huo pieced together how the Shang family may have been victims of the human experiments in Museum City, advancing the disappearance mystery to 4/6. He returned to find Xiao Ling, Yu Guangnan, and Long Aotian confronting the group that had ambushed them, whose leader asked where Xu Ruosi and Xie Ling were.

• Xu Huo examined the Shang family’s memorial tablets and concluded that the Shang family had likely been subjected to human experiments rather than conducting them.
• His theory advanced the disappearance mystery to 4/6, and he pieced together a possible history of Museum City’s experiments and their exposure.
• Xu Huo heard a splash and found Xiao Ling, Yu Guangnan, and Long Aotian trying to dig through the waterway ceiling.
• The group that had ambushed them arrived, and its leader questioned them about the people killed outside.
• Xiao Ling challenged the group’s motives, then denied knowing where Xu Ruosi and Xie Ling were.

Xu Huo and his companions escaped a group of Players pursuing them and took refuge in the Corpse Hiding Hotel. They hid in the hotel’s oddly arranged rooms and began considering why the attackers were hunting Dungeon Players, leaving open whether the pursuers aimed to weaken rivals or recover items already taken.

• Xiao Ling’s group revealed Xu Huo’s hiding place, and he fought the pursuing Players before Long Aotian pulled him out through a hole in the ceiling.
• The group fled through a maze attraction toward the Corpse Hiding Hotel while the Players chased them and attacked with restraints, blades, and nets.
• Xu Huo and his companions entered the hotel, used smoke to delay their pursuers, and went to the Third Floor.
• The group muffled their footsteps and climbed through an outer window into one of the hotel rooms.
• Xiao Ling and the others questioned why the Players were hunting them, and Xu Huo suggested they might be trying to weaken rivals or find Players who had obtained valuable items.

Xu Huo and his companions hid from hostile Players in the Corpse Hiding Hotel, where the darkness brought unsettling sounds and Yu Guangnan vanished from the Restroom. Xiao Ling’s mechanical bee caught sight of a face outside the Restroom window.

• Long Aotian told Xu Huo that he had escaped a group of Players and that Liu Chengyi had likely been captured.
• Xu Huo, Xiao Ling, Long Aotian, and Yu Guangnan evaded an attack on the hotel stairs and hid in a suite.
• Xiao Ling discovered that three pursuers were inside the hotel, while two others watched its entrances.
• After dark, Long Aotian used the Restroom and returned safely, but Yu Guangnan disappeared when he went in.
• Xiao Ling sent a mechanical bee out the Restroom window, and its camera caught a face outside.

After Museum City lost power and skeletons rose from the cemetery, Xu Huo and his companions were attacked by three Players in their hotel room. Xu Huo fought back and pursued them into a darkness that seemed to distort the hotel, where he noticed the leader had been affected by his poison bluff.

• Xu Huo, Xiao Ling, and Long Aotian watched a power outage plunge Museum City into darkness as skeletons climbed from the graves and headed toward the city center.
• Three Players burst into the room and used a freezing Ability and a contract item to trap Xiao Ling and Long Aotian in separate sections.
• Xu Huo tossed Potion into the air to make the attackers dodge, then kicked one Player into the wall and used his Spiritual World to distort the room and hide the exit.
• Xu Huo and the leading Player fought with fire and items until the battle moved into the hallway.
• Xu Huo found the hallway unnaturally dark, while the leading Player created faint light in the wall and reacted to Xu Huo's warning by believing poison had touched his hand.

Xu Huo and his companions fought to survive the unnatural darkness and disappearances inside the Corpse Hiding Hotel. After Xu Huo vanished from the stairs, he found himself alone in a distorted, mirror-like part of the hotel, facing a mutilated corpse.

• Xu Huo trapped the leading Player in his Spiritual World, but the man vanished when mysterious footsteps sounded.
• Xu Huo, Xiao Ling, and Long Aotian regrouped after Xiao Ling and Long Aotian killed one Player and another escaped.
• The group climbed toward the top floor as footsteps followed them, though the dusty stairs showed no footprints beyond their own.
• Xiao Ling disappeared while standing close to Xu Huo, and Xu Huo then vanished when Long Aotian glanced away.
• Xu Huo found himself in a hotel room where the room number and hallway features appeared reversed, with a mutilated corpse in the room opposite.

Xu Huo encountered a monstrous creature in the Corpse Hiding Hotel and learned from the other players that it left people alone while they stayed in their rooms. He reunited with Peng Fengnian, who revealed that the hotel was a Mirror Hotel with no way out.

• Xu Huo found the corpse of a missing player and hid when a huge, human-faced Monster approached.
• The Monster tore through a wall, ate from the corpse, and nearly detected Xu Huo before leaving.
• Xu Huo joined Xiao Ling and Yu Guangnan, who said the Monster seemed to attack only people who left their rooms.
• Yu Guangnan called down Peng Fengnian, an old acquaintance of Xu Huo's who had been trapped in the hotel for five days.
• Peng Fengnian told Xu Huo that they could not escape because the hotel was a Mirror Hotel.

Xu Huo questioned Peng Fengnian about the Mirror Hotel’s strange rules and learned that its occupants grew hungry rapidly while a Monster stalked the halls. After Peng Fengnian went to meet Teacher Pan, Xiao Ling worried the stranded Players might turn into Aliens, but Xu Huo chose to use their knowledge while staying wary of them.

• Peng Fengnian described the Mirror Hotel’s reversed layout and explained that his group had been trapped there for five days after hearing footsteps.
• Peng Fengnian said the occupants burned through food quickly, had seen only one Monster, and found that shutting a room’s door kept the Monster from entering.
• Xu Huo questioned Peng Fengnian about the footsteps and Monster while assessing the risks and considering how to search the hotel.
• A young Player arrived and summoned Peng Fengnian to speak with Teacher Pan, leaving Xu Huo with Xiao Ling and Yu Guangnan.
• Xiao Ling warned that the group might succumb to the Gluttony Urge and turn into Aliens, while Xu Huo said their information could save time and that irrational Players would be dangerous.

Xu Huo compared his group's experiences with Peng Fengnian's group to investigate the footsteps and their connection to the Mirror Hotel. The evidence suggested the footsteps inside and outside the hotel behaved differently, leaving their source and the spaces involved unresolved.

• Peng Fengnian introduced Xu Huo to Sun Bo, Lin Zhenhuai, and Gao Xiaoyue, who said their group had found no key to the hotel.
• Xu Huo learned that Peng Fengnian's group heard footsteps only at night and could find no traces, though an item they used could detect even a feather.
• Peng Fengnian explained that his group heard footsteps before following them, unlike the footsteps outside that followed people, and Gao Xiaoyue said they could not reach whoever made the sound.
• Xu Huo proposed that the footsteps might be connected to entering the Mirror Hotel and might appear around Players or target them at random.
• Peng Fengnian said his group had encountered three of six later arrivals whose locations and times matched the footsteps, while Yu Guangnan noted that the footsteps outside and inside did not behave consistently.

Xu Huo reasoned that the footsteps heard inside the Mirror Hotel could reveal a flaw in the place, and proposed searching it again after confronting the Monster. The group debated the risks and agreed to discuss whether everyone would take part.

• Xu Huo argued that the footsteps inside the Mirror Hotel were different from those outside and might point to a loophole in the hotel.
• Peng Fengnian and the others described the Monster, which appeared when they left their rooms, pursued only one person at a time, and rapidly healed from injuries.
• Xu Huo asked about the Mirror Hotel's daylight hours and learned that they matched those outside, from six in the morning until nine at night.
• Xu Huo proposed waiting for the footsteps and searching the entire hotel again, saying they should first badly injure the Monster and find its lair.
• Lin Zhenhuai and Sun Bo went to discuss Xu Huo's proposal with their companions, while Xu Huo said a one-and-done solution was best.

Xu Huo and his allies tried to drive the enormous beast out of the hotel, but it survived their traps and escaped back inside. Xu Huo chased it and ended up facing it in a corridor, where he threw an object into its mouth.

• Xu Huo, Lin Zhenhuai, Gao Xiaoyue, and their allies lured the beast upstairs, burned it, and used a cable and pulley to drag it through a window.
• Xu Huo and the others dropped the beast to the ground floor and tried to herd it toward an invisible barrier with an electrified net and a whistle artifact.
• The beast tore through the net, smashed a Player through the hotel's outer wall, and wounded him before fleeing inside.
• Xu Huo followed the beast's blood trail to an open room, where it ambushed him; he blocked it with Condensed Air, dodged away, and threw an object into its mouth.