Recaps

Xu Huo and his companions fought the little girl over the living sample, using their abilities and items to overcome her space-manipulating defenses. The girl began to retreat, while Xu Huo turned on the baby-faced man after he tried to seize the prize.

• Xu Huo used Forced Forgetfulness and an anesthetic to restrain the Player in the car, then tried to negotiate with the little girl for the item.
• The little girl attacked Xu Huo, but Shangguan Xi caught her leg in a bear trap while the baby-faced man and Shangguan Xi weakened her with their abilities.
• The little girl used her Space Artifact to pull Xu Huo toward its boundary and free her companion, but Xu Huo blocked her with Road Closed and recovered the man.
• The baby-faced man tried to attack the little girl from behind, but Xu Huo used The Strength of Writing against him and sent him flying with a slap.

Xu Huo and the other Players compromised and agreed to cooperate so they could clear the Dungeon while protecting the living sample and repairing their vehicle. They entered the Sole Entrance together, where the sample revealed itself as a violent Alien, and the chapter ended with the group exchanging limited information as Teacher Ai worked on the vehicle.

• Xu Huo, the baby-faced Player, and the little girl reached a standoff, so Shangguan Xi proposed that they cooperate against other Players seeking the samples.
• The baby-faced Player, who introduced himself as Zhu Feiyun, agreed to cooperate; the little girl, Kuang Wenjun, accepted after explaining that her unconscious companion's survival did not matter to her.
• Shangguan Xi called Teacher Ai out, and Teacher Ai examined the off-road vehicle and said he could replace its damaged wire.
• Xu Huo opened the Sole Entrance and stored the vehicle inside, and the group entered together with the living sample.
• The living sample roared and clawed at its cage, revealing itself as an Alien, so Pan Qiao tranquilized it after Kuang Wenjun suggested knocking it out.
• The Players exchanged names and limited ranking information, and Shangguan Xi revealed that Xu Huo ranked in the top five thousand.

Xu Huo and the others discussed the living samples, the clearance mission, and rumors of players ambushing travelers near W37 as they prepared to continue their journey. While repairing the car, they learned that W37’s mayor had built an artificial river to block routes into the city.

• Kuang Wenjun, Shangguan Xi, Zhu Feiyun, and Xu Huo considered whether delivering the living samples might trigger a branch mission and debated whether bracelet authentication was separate from clearing the instance.
• Shangguan Xi reported that failed players were allegedly ambushing others near W37 and destroying their bracelets, while Kuang Wenjun and Zhu Feiyun discussed how the samples’ survival might affect clearance.
• Xu Huo reminded Shangguan Xi that Teacher Ai needed to reach W37 alive, then explained that Ding Wei and Zhao Jiahua had died after leaving marks on the car that led them astray.
• Xu Huo took over repairing the car while Teacher Ai rested, and Shangguan Xi showed him a map of the route from W19 to W37.
• Teacher Ai noticed a river on the map and said W37’s mayor had built an artificial river to block routes from other base cities.

Xu Huo and the others debated W37’s history and chose the shortest route to deliver the live samples, despite the dangers on the way. After surviving Alien nests, they faced a charging herd of Rampaging Bison.

• Zhu Feiyun told the group a rumor about W37’s female mayor, and Shangguan Xi and Xu Huo questioned its accuracy.
• Xu Huo suggested the rumor combined the stories of two women and that the first woman fled during an Alien wave.
• The group decided to cross the river by the shortest route and set off with Teacher Ai guiding them.
• Xu Huo killed several Alien nests along the route, where the group found human bones and a few props.
• A herd of Rampaging Bison charged toward the vehicle, and Shangguan Xi urged Teacher Ai to speed up.

Xu Huo and his companions escaped a stampeding herd of cattle with help from a group of Players, then discovered another group had set a trap for them. Xu Huo and the woman and lightning-pattern man retaliated against the ambushers.

• Teacher Ai drove while Xu Huo and the others killed cattle, but the seemingly endless herd kept catching up with them.
• Shangguan Xi spotted an off-road vehicle, and its driver raised the ground into a bridge that sent the cattle plunging to their deaths.
• Xu Huo noticed hidden people around the road, and a man revealed three disguised cars surrounding the two vehicles.
• The ambushers demanded their goods and the women, but Xu Huo cut the front car in half while the young woman and the lightning-pattern man destroyed the cars on either side.

Xu Huo’s group fought off several Players attacking their car and discovered that the assault was a diversion while a much fiercer battle raged around the other vehicle. As the ground shifted like a giant seesaw, a lightning-wielding Player reached them and the fight escalated.

• Pan Qiao warned the group about something in the air, and two concealed Players attacked them after forcing everyone out of the car.
• Zhu Feiyun and Pan Qiao helped kill one attacker, while the other vanished and threatened Kuang Wenjun and Teacher Ai.
• Xu Huo killed the invisible Player beside Teacher Ai, and the group realized the two attackers had been a diversion from the battle around the other car.
• The ground rose and fell beneath the vehicles, and a lightning-wielding Player joined the fight as others deployed a mirror and threw an iron ball into the clouds.

Xu Huo’s group encountered Players fighting in the wilderness and asked whether any of them were from W37 Base City. After Xu Huo mentioned their delivery of a virus-carrying mutant from W11, the W37 Players slaughtered their opponents and left Xu Huo’s group facing their intimidating strength.

• A lightning attack struck the seesaw, and Kuang Wenjun used a Space Artifact to move Xu Huo’s vehicle and shield the group.
• Xu Huo’s group was trapped beside a spatial barrier while two groups of Players fought nearby.
• Teacher Ai and the others discussed whether the combatants included Players from W37 Base City.
• Xu Huo called out to ask if anyone was from W37 and said his group was delivering a virus-carrying mutant from W11 to W37.
• The young woman from W37 crushed the bald man’s head, and her companions killed the remaining members of the opposing group in under a minute.

Xu Huo and his companions accepted Gao Xiaoyan’s invitation to travel to W37 with the Alien, while he learned more about the base city and its people. During a camp meal, suspicion between the two groups flared when the ponytail man stopped Zhu Feiyun from approaching the fire.

• Gao Xiaoyan’s group agreed to let Xu Huo’s party accompany them to W37 with the Alien instead of killing it on the spot.
• Gao Xiaoyan introduced herself to Xu Huo as they traveled and told him about W37, its resources, and its willingness to take in infected ordinary people.
• Gao Xiaoyan said that death and survival were both a matter of luck at the station, prompting Xu Huo to change the subject.
• At their overnight stop, Gao Xiaoyan’s group shared roasted ox and their homemade liquor with Xu Huo’s party.
• The ponytail man stopped Zhu Feiyun from approaching the fire, and Gao Xiaoyan challenged the group after a dagger flew toward Zhu Feiyun with meat on it.

Xu Huo negotiated a truce with Gao Xiaoyan’s group and agreed to guide her younger brother in exchange for safe passage to W37 Base City. The group set out before dawn, facing two dangerous high-heat zones on the way.

• Xu Huo convinced Gao Xiaoyan that killing Zhu Feiyun would undermine his plan to deliver the Alien to W37 Base City, and she agreed to let him live.
• Gao Xiaoyan asked Xu Huo to demonstrate Super Evolution, then offered safe passage if he guided her younger brother, and Xu Huo accepted.
• Gao Xiaoyan’s companions seized Zhu Feiyun’s bracelet and revealed they knew Xu Huo’s group were Dungeon Players tasked with delivering the Alien to W37.
• Xu Huo asked Gao Xiaoyan to spare Zhu Feiyun, then gave Teacher Ai a sleeping bag and stamina tonic while the group settled in for the night.
• Before dawn, Gao Xiaoyan woke everyone and warned that they had to cross two high-heat zones before noon, and Xu Huo asked if they could go around them.

Xu Huo and the others traveled toward W37, speculating about Gao Xiaoyan’s motives and the Dungeon’s possible branch mission. They agreed to divide clear rewards evenly and to keep working together if Xu Huo could bring them along on a branch mission.

• Xu Huo stayed with his group as Gao Xiaoyan’s people drove ahead, and the travelers discussed whether they might attack or trigger a branch mission.
• Xu Huo suggested W11 and W37 might be cooperating, while the group considered whether the branch mission could involve vaccine research.
• As the heat intensified, Zhu Feiyun produced buckets of ice, and Gao Xiaoyan offered Xu Huo a seat in her car, which he declined.
• Zhu Feiyun asked how they would split the clear rewards, and Xu Huo proposed an even split plus a third of any branch mission rewards for himself if he took the others along.
• Teacher Ai said she expected to live out her remaining days in W37, where welfare policies would provide for her.

Xu Huo’s group endured extreme heat, deadly rabbits, and a torrential storm while traveling with Gao Xiaoyan’s group through W37. They took shelter from the rain, and Gao Xiaoyan’s growing attention to Xu Huo left Shangguan Xi and the others sidelined.

• Shangguan Xi was attacked by a swarm of vicious rabbits, which chased the vehicles until the group escaped the shade and entered the scorching sun.
• Xu Huo and the others struggled to keep their vehicles cool as the heat melted their ice and defeated their attempts to make shade.
• Gao Xiaoyan warned that the rain was coming, and a violent storm soon forced Pan Qiao to stop the vehicle.
• Xu Huo used the Sole Entrance to bring Gao Xiaoyan’s vehicle inside while the group waited out the storm.
• Gao Xiaoyan explained W37’s harsh weather and defended the decision to stay and support ordinary people, then focused her conversation on Xu Huo while ignoring Shangguan Xi and the others.

Xu Huo and his companions reached W37's training city after enduring repeated Alien attacks, but they still needed to reach the Base City to complete their dungeon. Gao Xiaoyan brought Xu Huo to meet her younger brother, and revealed that the mayor was her aunt.

• After Gao Xiaoyan and her group stood by during repeated Alien attacks, Xu Huo's injured team reached the flooded bridge near W37 and crossed on a bridge reserved for W37 Players.
• At W37's gates, Gao Xiaoyan introduced Xu Huo as a teacher for her younger brother, Xiao Mantou, and led the group into the city.
• Xu Huo's companions noted that they had received neither a dungeon-completion notification nor a side-quest prompt, and wondered whether meeting Xiao Mantou might trigger one.
• Gao Xiaoyan explained that the city was a training facility built by the mayor and said she would take Xu Huo to W37 Base City after he met Xiao Mantou.
• Xu Huo asked whether Gao Xiaoyan held a high position, and she told him that the mayor was her aunt.

Xu Huo toured W37’s training facilities and learned that Ren Man’s declining mental-energy readings threatened his chance at a second Evolution. Gao Xiaoyan asked Xu Huo to help him, and Xu set conditions for trying, leaving Gao to consider the deal.

• Gao Xiaoyan showed Xu Huo W37’s simulated combat training rooms and Ren Man, whose mental-energy readings had fallen toward the threshold for losing his chance at a second Evolution.
• Gao explained that Ren Man might undergo mental Super Evolution and asked Xu, a mental Super Evolver, to help him in exchange for a reward and assistance clearing the Dungeon.
• Ren Man agreed to begin, but Xu said he had not yet accepted and named two B-level combat props, a meeting with the mayor, and Gao’s exclusive companionship as his conditions.
• Ren Man objected to Xu’s third condition and refused to be used as a bargaining chip, while Gao asked Xu to explain what he meant.
• Xu clarified that he wanted a guide available around the clock, with no physical contact, and said the conditions would be void if he failed to help Ren Man.

Xu Huo visited W37’s training base to learn about Ren Man’s declining mental power and let the staff test his own. His reading reached fifty thousand, leaving Ren Man discouraged and the researchers eager to study Xu Huo’s abilities.

• Gao Xiaoyan agreed to let Xu Huo visit Ren Man’s training room and examine the base’s research.
• A staff member explained the risks of using instruments to stimulate mental power and described how powerful Players could interfere with signals and matter.
• Xu Huo agreed to test his mental power and held the entire room within its range for three seconds.
• The staff member reported that Xu Huo’s reading had reached fifty thousand, while Ren Man’s highest reading had been nine thousand and was declining.

Xu Huo taught Ren Man how to project his mental power and open a spiritual world, helping him create a small doorway into an incomplete space. Ren Man’s unusual spiritual world led Xu Huo to realize that Bai Kou had layered a separate space outside her own to conceal her Manifestation, and he began exploring how to see beyond his spiritual world’s range.

• Gao Xiaoyan ended the staff’s discussion and arranged for Xu Huo to teach Ren Man in the woods.
• Xu Huo used the Door of Severed Relations to draw Ren Man into an illusion filled with chained doors and told him to find the key himself.
• After struggling to open the chains, Ren Man realized he could create a door and formed a black hole in the ground.
• Ren Man emerged through the black hole and manifested a surveillance camera that briefly spotted Xu Huo.
• Xu Huo concluded that Bai Kou had layered a separate spiritual space over her own to protect her Manifestation.
• Xu Huo summoned a vertical pupil behind himself as he considered how to perceive beyond his spiritual world.

Xu Huo developed his Spiritual World after Mental Evolution, using vertical pupils to see and influence a wider area. He discovered that his reach now extended five hundred meters and spotted ten Players observing him, while the lightning pattern man wondered whether Xu's evolution had succeeded.

• Xu Huo formed vertical pupils that followed his gaze and could be spread throughout his Spiritual World.
• Xu Huo used the pupils to see previously obscured areas, making his Spiritual World more lifelike but seemingly more fragile.
• Xu Huo experimented with expanding the Book Tower into seven connected towers, then merged them back into one.
• Xu Huo measured his Spiritual World's range at five hundred meters and found he could see and mentally influence people beyond that distance.
• Xu Huo detected ten Players hiding three hundred meters away and tested his new fine control on three of them.
• The lightning pattern man asked over his Communicator whether Xu Huo had succeeded, noting that Ren Man had been sitting and Xu had been standing still for nearly ten minutes.

Xu Huo ended Ren Man’s Super Evolution training after observing the limits of the Spiritual World and warned him about the strain on his mind and body. Ren Man reaffirmed his faith in W37 Base City and its agreement, while Xu Huo questioned whether its ideals would survive harsher circumstances.

• Gao Xiaoyan’s team discussed Xu Huo’s unusually high mental power readings and wondered whether he could detect their distant observers.
• Xu Huo explored the boundary of Ren Man’s Spiritual World, then ended the training after Ren Man failed to make further progress.
• Xu Huo warned Ren Man that using Super Evolution placed a heavy burden on his body and mind and could leave him vulnerable to other Players.
• Ren Man insisted that Gao Xiaoyan would not sacrifice herself for benefits and said he would rather die than let her do so.
• Xu Huo questioned Ren Man’s confidence in W37 Base City and its future, then looked toward the training base.

Ren Man began Super Evolution under Xu Huo’s guidance, while Xu Huo explained that talent and recognizing opportunities in Dungeons mattered more than seeking a shortcut. After eating with his companions, Xu Huo turned his attention to the caged living specimen and wondered who had killed it.

• Ren Man began Super Evolution, revealed fragments of his Spiritual World, and tested at over thirteen thousand mental strength.
• Gao Xiaoyan thanked Xu Huo and invited him and his companions to eat before departing.
• Pan Qiao pressed Xu Huo about a shortcut to Super Evolution, and Kuang Wenjun rebuked him for asking.
• Xu Huo explained that a low-level Player needed talent to recognize mental, spatial, or temporal Dungeon conditions as opportunities to evolve.
• Shangguan Xi encouraged himself by saying he might find such an opportunity, and the group ate.
• Xu Huo finished his meal, studied the caged living specimen, and wondered who had killed it.

Xu Huo's group discovered that the Alien specimen had been dead despite appearing alive, and its death exposed strange behavior by W37 Base City. Gao Xiaoyan offered compensation, but Xu Huo's questions about the specimen's intended use led her to investigate where Aliens were taken in the city.

• Xu Huo suspected that the Alien carried an infectious virus and questioned why W37 Base City had shown so little interest in receiving it.
• As the group prepared to leave the training base, Shangguan Xi noticed that the vehicle's detection system showed one fewer living being than expected.
• Gao Xiaoyan used the item Truth to reveal that the Alien in the cage had been dead for some time.
• Shangguan Xi accused Gao Xiaoyan's people, but Gao Xiaoyan denied killing the specimen and offered to make up for its loss.
• Xu Huo said that three Alien specimens were meant for vaccine research, prompting the lightning pattern man to claim W11 was trying to spread the virus.
• Gao Xiaoyan asked where Aliens were taken upon entering Base City, and the ponytail man said the dead went to the incineration plant while the living went to the Laboratory.

Xu Huo tried to take the live Alien specimen to W37 Base City, but Gao Xiaoyan and her players moved to stop him. Xu Huo escaped amid a chaotic pursuit and a supervirus alert, leaving Gao Xiaoyan’s group to abandon the chase and enter dormancy chambers.

• Gao Xiaoyan ordered the Laboratory secured, while Xu Huo insisted on taking the specimen to Base City and refused to hand it over.
• Gunfire, grenades, and smoke erupted around the training building, and Xu Huo drove away as Gao Xiaoyan pursued him.
• Gao Xiaoyan’s items and the players’ attacks failed to stop the vehicle, while Xu Huo’s illusion made the fight and the vehicle’s position difficult to distinguish.
• The ponytail man tried to reverse the vehicle, but Xu Huo and the others vanished as the building’s level-one alarm sounded.
• Gao Xiaoyan abandoned the pursuit and led the players to dormancy chambers, while Xu Huo told Shangguan Xi that the supervirus alert had taken priority.

After the live sample was revealed to be dead, Xu Huo and the others escaped the Training Base and headed for W37 Base City. The group abandoned hopes of clearing the Dungeon and continued toward the city, while Xu Huo confirmed that the Alien’s virus matched the one found in W18.

• Shangguan Xi suspected a virus leak, but Xu Huo said the alarm was false and explained that he had known the sample was dead by the time they reached the lounge.
• The group debated who had killed the sample, and Xu Huo told the Training Base Players to reflect on their failure to notice it.
• Shangguan Xi proposed joining Xu Huo in W37 Base City, while Zhu Feiyun and the others planned to part ways once they reached the city.
• The group discussed how to enter W37 Base City and agreed to replenish their supplies there before deciding what to do next.
• Xu Huo tested liquid from the Alien’s corpse, confirmed its virus matched the one from W18, and sealed the body inside Justice Umbrella.

Xu Huo's group entered W37 Base City without being stopped and found a heavily monitored city where ordinary residents lived alongside Players in an unusually normal atmosphere. Xu Huo headed toward the city center and asked Shangguan Xi to secretly follow Teacher Ai and record his movements and contacts.

• Xu Huo's group reached W37 Base City's open gates, paid to enter, and passed through without a close inspection.
• The group saw that the city remained lively, with ordinary residents going about their routines and enforcement Players patrolling under a B2-level alert.
• Teacher Ai said he would register with the enforcement team, while Zhu Feiyun, Kuang Wenjun, and Pan Qiao went their separate ways.
• Xu Huo headed toward the city center and asked Shangguan Xi to follow Teacher Ai and note where he went and whom he met.

Xu Huo investigated W37 Base City's handling of Aliens and the infected as he headed toward the incineration plant, suspecting the city knew the Alien's role as a virus carrier. The city’s residents expressed confidence in W37’s recovery, while the mayor’s broadcast ended with a pledge of loyalty to the city.

• Xu Huo told Shangguan Xi to keep his distance from Teacher Ai and contact him by Communicator, or wait at Tree-Crown Pillar Number One.
• Xu Huo took the express train toward the incineration plant, reasoning that Aliens brought into W37 would likely end up there and that the city might be allowing the virus carrier to serve a hidden purpose.
• An elderly passenger told Xu Huo that W37 disinfected daily, isolated infected people for treatment, and had opened experimental fields where they worked.
• Passengers praised W37’s improving living conditions, and a girl asked her mother to buy a banana for the family.
• The mayor’s broadcast recalled W37’s hardships and declared that she would live and die with the city.

Xu Huo explored W37’s bar district and learned that the incineration plant had been working overtime to burn the Laboratory’s discarded materials. As he left a bar, a shifty-eyed man tried to take his business card and asked whether Xu Huo was a Player and the owner’s new lover.

• Xu Huo passed the experimental fields and chose to visit the bar district to look for work and learn about the city.
• Xu Huo ordered a meal at a bar, where patrons discussed the incineration plant’s heavy workload and the Potion offered as overtime compensation.
• Old Ding explained that the Laboratory was clearing out its inventory, sending useless materials to be burned into fertilizer.
• Xu Huo paid and left the bar, dodging a man who tried to snatch the owner’s business card.
• The thin middle-aged man asked Xu Huo whether he was a Player and the owner’s new lover.

Xu Huo triggered a difficult side quest at W37’s incineration plant and investigated whether the epidemic was spreading through burned samples. After observing infected children in the quarantine zone, he concluded that the last live sample had likely been delivered successfully.

• Xu Huo avoided Brother Ma’s men until they ambushed him near the incineration plant, where he killed them and carried their bodies inside.
• Xu Huo triggered a 48-hour side quest while examining the incineration plant’s pile of Alien corpses, then disposed of the three bodies in the furnace.
• Xu Huo reasoned that W37 might have been marked for sacrifice and posted a bounty for information about the epidemic.
• Xu Huo entered the quarantine zone and watched infected children playing until a girl’s sore opened and her mother carried her away.
• Xu Huo concluded that the last live sample had probably been delivered successfully.