Recaps

Xu Huo rejected Dr. Deng’s urgent offer of a Perfect Potion for now, while Dr. Deng argued that Perfect Evolution could extend a Player’s lifespan. After returning to the Ancient Castle, Xu Huo joined Mr. Dong and the others as Mr. Dong buried his aging spider in the Garden Maze.

• Xu Huo told Dr. Deng he would consider a Perfect Potion but did not need one immediately, and had Mr. Dong lock him back up.
• Xu Huo spotted the Black Shoulder Badge disguised among the clouds and learned that Mr. Dong wanted to hold a funeral for his dying spider.
• Xu Huo agreed to attend the funeral and told Mr. Dong he could compete in other game Sub-districts, though Xu Huo could not accompany him.
• The painted woman and Xiao Yuan relayed Bai Kou’s message that she did not want spiders in the castle, so Mr. Dong kept the spider outside.
• Yan Jiayu chanted beside the spider as Mr. Dong fed it, said farewell, extracted its venom, and buried it beneath a flower’s roots in the Garden Maze.

Xu Huo asked Mr. Dong to guard the Ancient Castle after Black Shoulder Badges began spying on it. The intruders were driven off by terrifying spider and plant attacks, and Ran Ying received a note warning, "Only this once."

• Black Shoulder Badges spotted the funeral staged for a spider, reported it, and left the airspace above the Ancient Castle.
• Xu Huo asked Mr. Dong to watch for Players around the castle, and Mr. Dong agreed.
• At night, the Black Shoulder Badges entered the castle grounds and were attacked by a giant spider that seemed partly real and partly an illusion.
• The squad retreated from the castle, while members sent to the Annex were carried out poisoned and mentally disturbed.
• The female Cheng Bing found a note on an injured Black Shoulder Badge and transmitted its message, "Only this once," to Ran Ying.

After the Enforcement Department retreated, Xu Huo enrolled Xiao Yuan in school and investigated dimensional storm risks at the Game Government Base. He and Wan Tingfang discussed the Holy Sword Society’s attacks on government bases, leaving the group’s potential threat to District 011 unresolved.

• Xu Huo left Dr. Deng’s matter aside and took Xiao Yuan to her new school, telling her to contact him or Mr. Dong if anything happened.
• Xu Huo asked Sanyang about dimensional storms and learned that the Game Government often repaired risky routes rather than abandoning them, while Eternal Star sold route forecasts to customers staying at its properties.
• Xu Huo reviewed storm maintenance records and found that encounters with dimensional storms had a far lower survival rate than encounters with Aliens or Player attacks.
• Xu Huo found a file predicting the Holy Sword Society’s next targets, and Wan Tingfang explained that the organization opposed the Game Government but had little room to operate in stable District 011.
• Xu Huo told Wan Tingfang that the Holy Sword Society’s massacres of ordinary people were no different in principle from the game, and she questioned why the group would attack a base full of documents instead of the Exchange.

Xu Huo and Wan Tingfang discussed the Game Government’s control over its base and the dangers of its experiments before Xu Huo went looking for Defense Artifacts. Unable to find any, he returned to Rose Castle and asked Bai Kou to help him find someone, but she refused unless he left her the castle in his will.

• Xu Huo warned Wan Tingfang that base staff who broke the Game Government’s rules could be punished, and they finished sorting orbital alarms before leaving.
• Xu Huo and Wan Tingfang heard that the Holy Sword Society had stolen experiment samples from a Game Government outpost, and Wan Tingfang described a toxic-gas disaster that turned much of a sub-district’s population into Aliens.
• Xu Huo told Wan Tingfang that experiments and Alien breeding grounds would continue as long as the game existed, then flew to the Exchange to buy a dress and two Defense Artifacts.
• Xu Huo found that several Dukes had bought all the high-level artifacts, so he returned to Rose Castle.
• Xu Huo asked Bai Kou to help him find someone, but she refused unless he wrote a will leaving her the castle, and he declined.

Xu Huo discussed Bai Kou’s plans to attend District 011’s noble investiture banquet as a New Wheel Cult operative, then prepared to attend the event with Yan Jiayu. The chapter ended with Bai Kou leaving early and Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu arriving at the hotel on time.

• Bai Kou told Xu Huo that she would attend the banquet as a New Wheel Cult operative and explained the cult’s history and its suppression in District 011.
• Xu Huo agreed to cover Bai Kou’s evening gown and the garden repairs, while Mr. Dong warned him about the Ancient Castle’s finances.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu finished sweeping the garden, and he persuaded her to stay for the banquet instead of traveling while still recovering.
• Xu Huo arranged an evening gown for Yan Jiayu, who chose to wear a wig and discussed outfits with the painted woman.
• Bai Kou left for the banquet early, and Xu Huo arrived at the hotel with Yan Jiayu at the appointed time.

At a District 011 banquet, Yan Jiayu rebuffed Kag Herta’s advances and got into an awkward confrontation with his fiancée while Xu Huo avoided Bai Kou. The medal ceremony and dancing were interrupted when a mysterious blond man appeared and caused many guests to laugh uncontrollably.

• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu greeted the Duchess, who introduced Yan Jiayu to young nobles while Bai Kou arrived and began promoting the New Wheel Cult.
• Kag Herta offered Yan Jiayu wine, and Lady Lily suggested she marry him, but Yan Jiayu said she had no plans to marry.
• Kag Herta’s fiancée confronted Yan Jiayu and pulled off her wig, but Yan Jiayu calmly put it back on and walked away.
• At the medal ceremony, Kag Herta invited Yan Jiayu to dance, and she refused while pointing out that he already had a fiancée.
• A wave of uncontrollable laughter spread through the ballroom, security equipment exploded, and a blond man in a black suit appeared among the fallen guests.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu were caught in a trap at a District 011 banquet when Jin Feixue and the Ghastly Sound Knights attacked. The fighting escalated as District 011’s players confronted Jin Feixue, whose artifact reversed a space-distorting attack.

• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu tried to retreat, but a blue barrier sealed the banquet hall and trapped the guests inside.
• Jin Feixue revealed himself as the Ghastly Sound Knights’ leader and killed the kneeling guests with invisible blades.
• Jin Feixue attacked Kag Herta, and Yan Jiayu shielded a blond woman before Xu Huo deflected the deadly string into the ceiling.
• Jin Feixue unleashed music and more strings, while District 011’s players retaliated and several players were struck down.
• District 011 players immobilized Jin Feixue and distorted the space around him, but he used a pointer to reverse the distortion and send it spreading outward.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu watched District 011’s Players deploy an extensive defense against Jin Feixue, but he broke through their traps and used his violin to turn the battlefield into a rotating golden floor that trapped his opponents. The battle remained underway as Asis Werner ordered the Players to force Jin Feixue away from the center.

• Xu Huo, Yan Jiayu, and another Player escaped the hotel as Jin Feixue and the others emerged from the banquet hall and the building began to warp.
• Players from District 011 attacked Jin Feixue with darts, blinding lights, spatial barriers, and a shrinking black coating around half the building.
• District 011 evacuated civilians and activated layered defenses and weapons while Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu watched from a distant shelter.
• Jin Feixue split the compressed building with a beam of light, escaped its wreckage, and returned to the banquet platform with his Short Sword.
• Jin Feixue raised his violin and spread golden light across the area, forcing airborne Players onto rotating sections of ground that trapped two of them in a grinding attack.
• Asis Werner ordered the Players to force Jin Feixue out of the area within ten meters of the center.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu investigated the attack on the Game Government Base, suspecting the Ghastly Sound Knights and Holy Sword Society had coordinated their actions. A supernatural darkness separated Xu Huo from the others and trapped him in a barren battleground, where he found a Safe House that would remain secure until the dark fog lifted.

• Jin Feixue's golden curtain thwarted the District 011 Players, and two cannons turned on their own weapons platforms, causing explosions and chaos across Base City.
• Xu Huo recognized the suicides and bombings as Dou Shengnan's handiwork and suspected that the Ghastly Sound Knights' theatrical revenge concealed another objective.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu went to the Game Government Base and found it sealed off by armed robots, with fighting inside but no Base Players outside.
• Wan Tingfang arrived and asked Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu where everyone else was, but darkness surged from the Base and cut Xu Huo off from them.
• Xu Huo crossed a barren, silent space and found a Safe House; he entered when crushing pressure filled the air and discovered signs that others had used the room before him.

Xu Huo was unexpectedly teleported from District 011 to a dangerous alien zone in District 004, where Qing Cai rescued him before they were both forced back into the mysterious safe house. Trapped together, they discussed District 011’s reputation and the evolved gemstones Qing Cai had collected.

• After the safe house door opened, Xu Huo stepped into an abandoned city in District 004 and fled a horde of Mutant Animals.
• Qing Cai pulled Xu Huo onto her aircraft, but a surge of darkness sent them crashing back into the safe house, injuring her.
• Xu Huo and Qing Cai found that the safe house door would not open, and Qing Cai suspected it was a Space Teleport Artifact that sent people to random locations.
• Qing Cai called Players from District 011 locusts and described their recent damage to a small Sub-district while Xu Huo wondered whether ore had caused turmoil in his district.
• Qing Cai examined a large emerald and explained that it was an evolved Stone, which could sometimes become a Sub-class Stone used to make artifacts.

Xu Huo learned more about stones that could alter properties before a storm swept him and Qing Cai into another space, where someone stole her glowing gemstone. After Bai Kou guided him back to District 011, he learned that the Sub-class Stone He Pu gave him was a top-grade material for spatial-temporal items and advanced weapons, prized especially for its origin.

• Xu Huo discussed the Nuwa Stone and the possible effects of unusual geological formations with Qing Cai, who hoped to loot the Ghastly Sound Knights during the fighting in District 011.
• A hurricane overturned the safe house and carried Xu Huo, Qing Cai, and her green gemstone into the air, but an unseen figure stole the gemstone.
• Bai Kou contacted Xu Huo through his Communicator and guided him through the darkness back to District 011, where Qing Cai had been sent to another sub-district.
• Xu Huo and Bai Kou saw the devastation around Base City and learned that the Ghastly Sound Knights and the Holy Sword Society were attacking cities and research laboratories across the sub-district.
• Bai Kou explained that the Stone He Pu gave Xu Huo was a top-grade Sub-class Stone used to make spatial-temporal items and advanced weapons, and that its origin made it especially valuable.

Bai Kou explained the immense value of the Time Origin and discussed the possibility that District 011 had found an Origin Stone. As Bai Kou headed into the war-torn city, Xu Huo let her go and contacted Wan Tingfang, who told him Director Sanyang had rescued her.

• Bai Kou explained that a Time Origin could be traded to the Game Government for control of an entire Sub-district and that its effects were not fully understood.
• Xu Huo considered why He Pu had left him a Sub-class Stone and asked whether District 011 might have found an Origin Stone.
• Bai Kou said District 011's recent looting had prompted speculation that its Players had found an Origin Stone, though its type and quality remained unknown.
• Xu Huo noticed Bai Kou seemed to enjoy watching the war and saw her walk into the darkened city despite warning her to be careful.
• Xu Huo contacted Wan Tingfang, who said Director Sanyang had rescued her from the base.

Xu Huo and Wan Tingfang watched a mysterious darkness and a force that weathered buildings spread across District 011, then tried to escape the danger. They became caught in a fight between a Holy Sword Society player and Black Shoulder Badge members, who managed to trap the masked player in melted metal.

• Xu Huo met Wan Tingfang near the Dark Space and learned Director Sanyang had gone inside while residents were being evacuated.
• Xu Huo and Wan Tingfang saw buildings crumble into ash-like material and fled toward the edge of the weathered area.
• A masked Holy Sword Society player used a tiny toy door to stop Xu Huo, Wan Tingfang, Ran Ying, and a Black Shoulder Badge member.
• The masked player trapped himself and the others in rolling spheres, then bounced through the area at high speed to evade capture.
• Ran Ying split the sphere's movement range, and the Black Shoulder Badge member used a banana drawing to make the masked player crash into a car.
• The Black Shoulder Badge member melted the car around the masked player and trapped him.

Ran Ying and the Black Shoulder Badge players fought the masked player while Xu Huo and Wan Tingfang tried to avoid the battle. After escaping a fight in a building, Xu Huo left Main City with Wan Tingfang and waited near its edge to watch for news from the base.

• The masked player trapped Ran Ying with red beams and a balloon full of Black Liquid, but she teleported behind him and resisted his attack.
• Black Shoulder Badge players joined the fight, freed Ran Ying, and helped her knock the masked player away.
• The battle spilled into the building where Xu Huo and Wan Tingfang were hiding, and a player's item dragged them and two Holy Sword Society players into the fight.
• Xu Huo used “Sit Please” to lock the fighters to chairs, and Wan Tingfang broke a Holy Sword Society player's attack with a red trampoline.
• Xu Huo and Wan Tingfang escaped the building and left Main City, deciding to wait nearby for news from the base.

Xu Huo realized that District 011's absent reinforcements and the Game Government Base's suspicious behavior pointed to a trap. After the dark zone erupted and Players showed Alien traits, a beam from the base froze the city, and Xu Huo fled toward the old district as frozen Players began to explode.

• Xu Huo questioned Wan Tingfang about the base's recent activity and learned District 011 had a Super Player, strengthening his suspicion that the crisis was a trap.
• Xu Huo decided to leave, and Wan Tingfang disappeared as he hurried toward Rose Castle.
• An explosion tore open the dark zone, scattering black-smoke-covered Players across the city, where many displayed Alien traits and attacked others.
• A beam of light shot from the base and froze the city, but Xu Huo gradually regained control of his body.
• Xu Huo ran toward the old district as frozen Players began exploding around him.

A Super Player from District 011 used time-based rays to attack the city, but Xu Huo saw the rays and avoided them. Back at the Ancient Castle, Xu Huo questioned Bai Kou about Super Evolution, then used Completed Script to learn more about the safe house and the missing emerald.

• A Super Player from District 011 attacked the city with Still Time, and Xu Huo saw and dodged one of the Time Rays.
• Bai Kou explained that seeing the rays might indicate Xu Huo had been changed by contact with Lawrence Li’s space-time artifact, and warned him about Super Evolution.
• Xu Huo and Bai Kou returned to the Ancient Castle, where Mr. Dong and the painted woman checked on Xu Huo; he told Xiao Yuan to study with Mr. Dong.
• Xu Huo asked Bai Kou about Super Evolution, and she suggested he consult Mr. Dong about changing the state of objects.
• Xu Huo used Completed Script and witnessed someone steal the emerald while Qing Cai gave chase; he also saw a Player with a golden sword insignia bow to Bai Kou.

After the polluted Main City was left for the authorities to clean up, Xu Huo returned to the Ancient Castle and spent the next morning with Bai Kou and the others. Bai Kou explained how object control could work through manipulating space, giving Xu Huo a new way to understand the ability.

• Xu Huo read the Completed Script’s account of Director Sanyang hiding an item and the black gas polluting the city, then sent Bai Kou an antidote through the painted woman.
• Xu Huo returned to the Ancient Castle, where the painted woman tried to stay in his room and admitted she was afraid of Bai Kou.
• Bai Kou arrived, and Xu Huo learned that the painted woman became unusually docile around her because Bai Kou had beaten her when she misbehaved.
• Xu Huo asked Mr. Dong about Static Reversal, and Mr. Dong said Players could use items without understanding how they worked.
• Bai Kou demonstrated that object control could manipulate space, sending a petal into a table and uprooting a flowering tree dozens of meters away.

Xu Huo considered Bai Kou’s offer, stayed out of a suspicious trap, and learned that District 011 had finished clearing Base City. That night, he experienced a strange memory or vision in which a Doctor treated him as a child and told him he had failed a test.

• Xu Huo offered Bai Kou a secret about District 001 in exchange for help with Super Evolution, but she asked to borrow his Super Artifact instead, and he declined.
• Shi Youzhi told Xu Huo he was on leave while the base was restored, and the District 011 authorities publicly blamed the Holy Sword Society for the contamination of Base City.
• Xu Huo suspected that Director Sanyang’s hidden box was bait and decided not to investigate it.
• Black Shoulder Badge members questioned the Ancient Castle’s residents, then the government announced that Base City was clear and residents could relocate at government expense.
• Xu Huo reviewed He Pu’s materials in the Study Room, fell asleep after the lights went out, and saw a Doctor give a child a Potion injection before declaring that the child had failed a test.

Xu Huo relived a childhood memory in which he outmaneuvered a violent child and drew the Doctor’s approval. Afterward, Bai Kou suggested that his memories were returning because his brain had evolved, and Xu Huo asked how someone could erase memories and records of a person at once.

• The Doctor told young Xu Huo that his concern was unnecessary, then gave him an extra injection.
• Xu Huo found himself in a room with other children, where one threatened to blind him with a sharpened spoon while Chang Bei and two others restrained him.
• Xu Huo provoked the attacker by calling him a pig and revealing that he and Chang Bei had seen him stealing medicine, then held his ground until the Doctor arrived.
• Xu Huo called the Doctor a pig too, and the Doctor appeared pleased that Xu Huo had judged his own worth and used a calculated trick.
• Back in the present, Xu Huo spoke to Bai Kou, who denied manipulating him and suggested his childhood memories might be returning as his brain evolved.
• Xu Huo asked Bai Kou what could alter someone’s memories and erase every record of them in reality.

Xu Huo made a will naming Bai Kou as his heir so she would teach him about Super Evolution. After struggling to sense her manipulation of space, he studied Mr. Dong’s Static Reversal and assured him Rose Castle would not pass to Bai Kou.

• Bai Kou explained that memories could be erased or sealed, but Xu Huo insisted he wanted his own memories back.
• Xu Huo wrote a will leaving Rose Castle and his inheritance to Bai Kou if he died, and Bai Kou signed it before agreeing to teach him.
• Bai Kou used a mechanical glove to help Xu Huo sense space and explained how perception could lead to Super Evolution.
• Xu Huo tried repeatedly to feel and control the force Bai Kou created, but he failed, so she left him the glove to practice with.
• Mr. Dong demonstrated Static Reversal with a broken teacup and an Hourglass, and Xu Huo told him Rose Castle would not end up in Bai Kou’s hands.

Xu Huo negotiated with Dr. Deng over information about the Perfect Potion and agreed to let him stay in the Annex in exchange for a file. The file revealed that the Perfect Potion could react specially with the Wormhole Flower.

• Mr. Dong said He Pu did not want to hand Rose Castle over to Bai Kou, and Xu Huo asked him to prepare her favorite dishes for dinner.
• Xu Huo told Dr. Deng to leave District 011, but Dr. Deng refused and offered a file about the Perfect Potion in exchange for an experimental subject.
• Xu Huo rejected Dr. Deng's request for his blood and agreed to let him stay after receiving the file.
• Xu Huo examined the file and found that the Perfect Potion could produce a special reaction with the Wormhole Flower.

Xu Huo questioned Dr. Deng about Wormhole Flowers and Perfect Evolution Potions, then left with the research documents while remaining suspicious of him. In the old district, Black Shoulder Badges accused Xu Huo of involvement in two incidents, but their team leader stopped them from detaining him without evidence.

• Dr. Deng explained how Wormhole Flowers reacted to Evolution Potions and argued that Perfect Potions affected their growth.
• Xu Huo speculated that Stellar Pharmaceutical might have developed Perfect Potions earlier and Dr. Wu had spread them, but Dr. Deng dismissed the theory.
• Xu Huo questioned Dr. Deng about later potions and suspected that he had built up resistance to truth-serum potions.
• Xu Huo ordered Wormhole Flowers and other items, then headed to the old district to check on orphans he had sponsored.
• Black Shoulder Badges accused Xu Huo of links to the Rongxin classified-information theft and the Attack Incident, but their team leader refused to detain him without evidence.
• Xu Huo defended his presence in District 011, saying his money and charity work contributed to its prosperity.

Xu Huo met Qing Cai and brought her back to Rose Castle, where she revealed she was tracking an experimental box and her stolen emerald. The box had been sent to a Level Three Laboratory in Lincheng, while Qing Cai settled in at the castle and gave Xu Huo’s family meeting stones that glowed like starlight.

• The team leader told Xu Huo that the children from the Welfare Institute had been sent away safely and warned him to stay out of the Main City.
• Xu Huo visited the children, then encountered Qing Cai, who had come looking for a place to stay and told him her belongings had been stolen.
• Qing Cai explained that she had marked a Black Shoulder Badge member transporting an experimental box and that her emerald also had a tracking mark.
• Xu Huo took Qing Cai to Rose Castle, where she gave meeting stones to the painted woman and Xiao Yuan.
• Qing Cai’s tracking disk reported that the box had gone to a Level Three Laboratory in Lincheng, and she later asked Mr. Dong to prepare supplies for her.
• The painted woman returned excitedly to Xu Huo and gestured that her meeting stone gave off starlight.

Xu Huo verified Dr. Deng’s claims about identifying a Perfect Potion, then went to the Duchess’s mansion when she called for help. There, the government and Enforcement Department were confronting Lady Lily over her brother’s suspected ties to the Holy Sword Society.

• Xu Huo tested the green Potion on a Wormhole Flower and confirmed Dr. Deng’s information about identifying Perfect Potions.
• Xu Huo used a prop to test Dr. Deng, concluded that Dr. Deng could evade its detection, and ordered Mr. Dong to keep him locked up for a few more days.
• After Bai Kou failed to return, Xu Huo accepted the Duchess’s call and found government Players and the Enforcement Department surrounding her mansion.
• Serin told Xu Huo that Lady Lily’s younger brother was suspected of secretly colluding with the Holy Sword Society and was hiding inside the Ancient Castle.
• Lady Lily appealed to the gathered nobles by recounting her family’s sacrifices, while Asis demanded that her brother come out and answer questions.

Asis led an attempt to search the Duke's Mansion and take Leyton Miller into custody, but Leyton surrendered voluntarily to protect the Miler family. Lady Lily later told Xu Huo that she planned to make the Werner family pay and asked which faction among District 011's nobles he supported.

• Asis demanded that Lady Lily cooperate with an investigation into Leyton Miller, then ordered his Players to search the Duke's Mansion.
• Lady Lily used her castle's strange spatial abilities to resist the search, but Leyton emerged and agreed to submit to an investigation.
• Asis and the government Players took Leyton away, while Lady Lily stopped the Miler Players from trying to rescue him.
• Lady Lily told Xu Huo that she intended to make the Werner family pay because they had no evidence against Leyton.
• Lady Lily asked Xu Huo whether he favored the nobles who wanted to keep plundering or those who wanted trade relations with higher-level Wormhole Points.