Recaps

Xu Huo refused to hand Dong Jingxuan over and turned the train hijackers’ own controlled passengers against them. After defeating the invisible Player and striking the driver, he faced Mr. Chang directly.

• The hijackers used their items to trap Brother Lei’s group behind a thick metal door while Mr. Chang pushed them into another car.
• Xu Huo said he would protect Dong Jingxuan because he had been paid, and the invisible Player’s Pocket Watch had no effect on him.
• Xu Huo made the controlled passengers attack the invisible Player, located him through his concealment, and slammed him into a wall.
• The driver used “Decisive Breakup” to free the invisible Player, but Xu Huo struck the driver and Mr. Chang trapped Xu Huo with “Inviolable Territory.”
• Xu Huo moved Dong Jingxuan and the boy into car two with a spatial item, resisted Mr. Chang’s power, and punched him in the glasses.

Xu Huo fought Mr. Chang and his companions aboard the train while protecting Dong Jingxuan, using his Spiritual World and illusions to outmaneuver them. Mr. Chang tried to recruit Xu Huo with a higher payment, but Xu Huo refused and insisted on his professional ethics.

• Xu Huo shattered Mr. Chang’s glasses and defended Dong Jingxuan from the invisible Player’s attack.
• Xu Huo pulled Mr. Chang and the others into his Spiritual World, where he overheard them planning to contact the Dong family for a genetic password.
• Xu Huo used Desert Windmill to fill the train with sand, and the train’s driver split the carriage with an Artifact while the invisible Player’s scorpion struck the driver.
• Mr. Chang attempted to trap Xu Huo in a cage, but Xu Huo exposed the scene as an illusion and struck him.
• Mr. Chang asked who Xu Huo was and offered him double payment, but Xu Huo refused, claiming he had professional ethics.

Xu Huo protected Dong Jingxuan while Brother Lei’s team fought Mr. Chang and the Players who had hijacked the train over the Dong family’s genetic code. The battle remained unresolved as the two sides exchanged powerful Abilities and items, and Brother Lei warned that the Dong family would pursue the attackers from Zone 002.

• Xu Huo trapped Mr. Chang and two companions in chairs, then warned Brother Lei that the hijackers were targeting the Dong family and had mentioned a genetic code.
• Mr. Chang used “Back Off” against Brother Lei’s team, while the invisible Player hypnotized children to block their advance.
• Brother Lei knocked the invisible Player’s Pocket Watch away and wounded him, as the driver Player and the peacemaker Player attacked to protect their companions.
• Mr. Chang pinned Brother Lei with “Do not look directly at me!” but Brother Lei broke free and used “Deathbed Embrace,” which Mr. Chang countered by forcing him to retreat.
• The driver Player used a smoke bomb to cover the group’s retreat, and a black scorpion poisoned the female Player with the injured eye.
• Brother Lei warned the Zone 002 Players that the Dong family would hunt them if they returned to its territory.

Xu Huo helped repel Mr. Chang’s group on the train, then befriended Dong Jingxuan and traveled with him to Snow City. After touring the festival city, they entered the Botanical Collection Museum, where a giant flower greeted them.

• Mr. Chang used an item to escape the train with his companions after Xu Huo warned that reinforcements were outside.
• Brother Lei thanked Xu Huo, and Xu said he admired Dong Jingxuan and wanted to be friends with him.
• The little boy revealed that his name was Xiao Dou, while Xu Huo and Dong Jingxuan discussed visiting Snow Palace.
• Xu Huo and Dong Jingxuan arrived in Snow City and toured its festival decorations and unusual buildings by aircraft.
• Xu Huo suggested visiting the Botanical Collection Museum, and Dong Jingxuan took him inside despite Brother Lei’s objection.

Xu Huo watched Snow City's Most Beautiful feed on a human body part at the plant exhibition, then investigated Dr. Zhang's former residence and found reports that its tenants died or disappeared mysteriously. He left the chapter preparing to visit the estate, whose history cast doubt on what he had been told about Dr. Zhang.

• A staff member demonstrated how Snow City's Most Beautiful absorbed a chunk of a person and turned crimson before returning to normal.
• Dong Jingxuan showed Xu Huo other plants, then left after Brother Lei warned that his father would be angry.
• Xu Huo told Chi Minghong he would not enter her Dungeon and agreed to divide the items after she emerged.
• Xu Huo researched Dr. Zhang's address and discovered the estate was owned by Jin Li's family and had been rented to several people.
• Xu Huo found reports that tenants at the estate died mysteriously within three years, while Dr. Zhang was listed as having disappeared.

Xu Huo visited the Dong family estate with Dong Jingxuan and was drawn into a hunting contest against Dong Qifeng. Dong Jingxuan wagered the little tunnel, a Space Artifact that allows one person to travel freely through space.

• Zeng An explained that lodestone beneath a nearby forest disrupted electronic devices, and Xu Huo declined her invitation to visit it.
• Xu Huo arrived at the Dong family estate, where Dong Jingxuan invited him hunting and Xu Huo left Xiao Dou behind.
• Dong Jingxuan and Xu Huo encountered Dong Yanqiong and Dong Qifeng at the hunting grounds, and Dong Jingxuan challenged Dong Qifeng to a contest to hunt a Mutant Tiger.
• Dong Qifeng and Dong Jingxuan agreed to wager money and a return to school against the little tunnel, and Dong Jingxuan told Xu Huo what the Space Artifact could do.

Xu Huo helped Dong Jingxuan win a hunting wager against Dong Qifeng and borrowed the spatial item called the Little Tunnel. After they returned to the manor, a kitchen mix-up forced them to grill the tiger themselves, where Dong Yanqiong arrived to mock Dong Jingxuan.

• Xu Huo used cigarette scent and mental power to steer a mutated tiger toward the Dong brothers during their hunt.
• The gel-haired player tossed the tiger aside, but Dong Jingxuan and Dong Qifeng both shot it, and Dong Qifeng conceded the wager by giving Dong Jingxuan the Little Tunnel.
• Dong Jingxuan demonstrated that the Little Tunnel opened a five-second space gate and lent it to Xu Huo for two days.
• Dong Jingxuan learned that his father had borrowed the chef to entertain important guests, so he and Xu Huo prepared to grill the tiger in the courtyard.
• Dong Yanqiong came over and mocked Dong Jingxuan for not being invited to the main table.

Xu Huo explored Dong Jingxuan’s family estate in Zone 002 and learned more about its family politics and pressure on women to bear children. In the botanical garden, he inferred that the Game Government and Zone 002 traded spatial travel items, and wondered whether he could obtain one.

• Dong Yanqiong warned Dong Jingxuan that Dong Qifeng could undermine him in the family business, then argued with him over how the family treated women and stormed off.
• Xu Huo asked Dong Jingxuan about marrying into a wife’s family and reflected on Zone 002’s incentives for childbirth and restrictions on in vitro gestation.
• After the Game Government guests left with Dong Qifeng, Brother Lei summoned Dong Jingxuan to the Study Room, while Xu Huo headed to the botanical garden.
• Xu Huo found a white-haired, violet-eyed girl by a stream and explored the garden, where most of the Wormhole Flowers were red.
• Xu Huo concluded that Zone 002 had been game-ified for a long time and considered whether the Game Government sold spatial travel items to the zone’s powerful families.

Xu Huo met Guo Longzhi in the Dong estate’s botanical garden and learned that the beauty-pageant finalist was a transgender girl suffering from painful episodes and forced medication. He left her behind and opened a passage to Snow White Villa, after overhearing that someone would have to die to calm her current episode.

• A long-haired woman forcibly injected Guo Longzhi with her medicine after Guo Longzhi knocked over the first tray.
• Xu Huo introduced himself as a psychologist, and Guo Longzhi discussed her identity, the beauty pageant, and her impending transfer to another Sub-district.
• Guo Longzhi tried to draw Xu Huo closer, but he recognized her dangerous intentions and refused to help with her pain.
• Guo Longzhi collapsed with pain after Xu Huo left, and the long-haired woman comforted her as she said someone had to die during her episode.
• Xu Huo overheard them and opened a passage to Snow White Villa with "Little Tunnel".

Xu Huo arrived at Snow White Villa just as a competitive Dungeon began, becoming an extra player without receiving a game notification. He and Chi Minghong investigated the villa while the players waited for the first slip of paper to appear after midnight.

• Xu Huo crossed a spatial passage to Snow White Villa and found the area sealed as the Dungeon began.
• Xu Huo entered the villa and discovered twelve players, including Chi Minghong, before a bespectacled man arrived as the fourteenth player.
• Chi Minghong proposed that the players share clues, but the others refused and waited for the Dungeon's slips of paper.
• Xu Huo reasoned that the players were competing for slips that would appear at a set time and went upstairs to inspect the villa with Chi Minghong.
• Xu Huo noted that the worn, rented rooms were full of paper and told Chi Minghong not to overcomplicate the search.
• Chi Minghong said the first slip would appear after midnight and suggested they rest until then.

Xu Huo investigated the bloodstained rooms in the Villa and searched Dr. Zhang’s unusually well-kept suite. He discovered a Secret Room behind the study wall, where fresh footprints matched his own shoes, Gentleman's Demeanor.

• Xu Huo and Chi Minghong examined strange bloodstains and ritual-like circles in several rooms.
• Xu Huo noticed that two players were missing from the hall and heard Teacher Fan and Miss Ding discuss Zone 002’s appearance and beauty.
• Xu Huo chose to rest in Dr. Zhang’s former suite, where a magazine suggested Dr. Zhang had never returned after leaving Zone 002.
• Xu Huo found scratches on the lock and signs that someone had maintained the otherwise dusty room, leading him to suspect it contained a Secret Room.
• Xu Huo realized his sense of time had been distorted, cut through the study wall, and found fresh footprints matching his Gentleman's Demeanor shoes.

Xu Huo uncovered a hidden P2 S injection in the Secret Room and recovered memories identifying Dr. Zhang as the man who had trained him at the Seventeenth Hospital. He took the Potion and the evidence with him, but Dr. Zhang’s purpose and whereabouts remained unknown.

• Xu Huo realized that his memory of the Secret Room had been wiped and searched it for the source of the effect.
• He photographed Dr. Zhang’s investigation records and gathered the room’s documents before finding a D-rank item box containing a P2 S injection labeled “Reward.”
• The handwriting on the label triggered Xu Huo’s memory of Dr. Zhang, who had trained him at the Seventeenth Hospital.
• Xu Huo concluded that Dr. Zhang might still be cultivating Players for Perfect Evolution and considered whether he had come to Zone 002 to check on his work.
• Xu Huo put the Potion, its label, and the box in his Storage Compartment when Chi Minghong called for him to open the door.

Xu Huo and the other players searched the Villa for a mysterious note that might reveal the Dungeon’s rules, then returned to their rooms without finding it. The next morning, they discovered a player brutally murdered, leaving them to wonder whether the note had demanded the killing.

• Xu Huo agreed to work with Chi Minghong to clear the Dungeon, and the players claimed separate rooms in the Villa.
• After midnight, the lights went out, and the players searched the Villa for the note but found nothing.
• The players speculated that the note might command them to kill each other, and most returned to their rooms for the night.
• Xu Huo and the others found the short-haired female player dead outside her room, her body mutilated and encircled by blood.
• The players discussed whether the killing was part of a ritual or a Dungeon requirement, while Xu Huo questioned whether the murderer had even found the note.

Xu Huo and the other players discussed the unexplained murder, suspected the Dungeon was protecting whoever received a note, and moved the body to the first-floor hall to disrupt a possible ritual. After Chi Minghong repaired the villa’s wiring, she and Xu Huo cooked with the long-haired female player, who shared suspicious observations about other players.

• Xu Huo agreed that the murder might have been committed by a Red Player, while Chi Minghong and the others considered whether the Dungeon or a powerful item had concealed it.
• Xu Huo carried the dead player to the first-floor hall, and Chi Minghong placed religious objects on the body.
• Xu Huo and Chi Minghong repaired the villa’s old wiring, restoring the lights.
• The long-haired female player joined Xu Huo and Chi Minghong to prepare dinner and said she had seen the lip-pierced player wearing a woman’s nightgown and knocking on the muscular man’s door.
• The long-haired female player discussed the local player’s odd behavior with Chi Minghong, who said he had touched every decoration in the hall.

After another player was found murdered and posed inside a room marked with a bloody ring, Xu Huo used Narrator's Charm to persuade the group to investigate the ritual and coordinate instead of turning on one another. They agreed to keep their doors open and stay together during the day, but the next slip of paper had yet to appear.

• After lunch, the long-haired female player and the others returned to their rooms to sleep.
• Xu Huo found the long-haired female player's body in a ring-marked room, where the hat-wearing player examined and arranged it before leaving.
• The players debated whether a second slip had appeared and whether its instructions required killing someone and posing the body.
• Xu Huo used Narrator's Charm to calm the group and argued that they should understand the ritual and the Dungeon rules before acting.
• The players agreed to leave their doors open, stay together during the day, and avoid leaving their rooms at night.

Xu Huo deduced that the mysterious slips were connected to the order Players entered the Villa, then was attacked in his room by a Player wielding chains and blades. He trapped the attacker in a sealed, looping space, leaving him unable to escape.

• Xu Huo used Narrator's Charm to persuade the Players not to kill each other, and their group search of the Villa found no slips.
• Xu Huo told Chi Minghong that the dead female Player had been investigating the order in which Players arrived at the Villa, possibly to identify targets listed on a slip.
• A Player attacked Xu Huo in his room with knockout gas, blades, and chains, but Xu Huo broke his hand and countered with his defensive Abilities.
• Xu Huo trapped the attacker in an illusion-like space where the doors led back to the same room and the windows and walls could not be breached.

Xu Huo captured a male Player in the Villa and pressured him for information and valuables instead of killing him. The Player revealed a possible plot in Snow City and offered his best items in exchange for his life, while Xu Huo demanded more.

• Xu Huo took the male Player’s slip, marked with the number 13, and questioned his plan to kill based on the drawing.
• When the male Player threatened to escape and proposed working together, Xu Huo dislocated his arms and put a Binding Collar around his neck.
• The male Player told Xu Huo that Teacher Fan had likely killed the first victim after seeking information about the Players’ arrival order.
• The male Player revealed that Snow City’s leaders had acquired spatial weapons and that he planned to exploit the coming chaos with his allies.
• Xu Huo said the male Player needed to trade at least two decent items for his life, and the Player offered a B-class item, a C-class item, and a special item.

Xu Huo uncovered the players’ arrival order and seized Teacher Fan’s note, which suggested that the dungeon’s numbered clues tracked targets in a sequence. He pressed the player in the hat for information about the dead long-haired woman’s note, leaving the group suspicious of how much he knew.

• Xu Huo considered the leaked news about Snow City’s spatial passage equipment and a possible invasion of a new Sub-district.
• Xu Huo interrupted Teacher Fan and Miss Ding’s fight, then accused Teacher Fan of killing someone and demanded his note.
• The male player who had ambushed Xu Huo admitted he was the third player to receive a note, and Teacher Fan handed over a note marked 3.
• The players established their arrival order and deduced that the long-haired female player’s note may have been marked 6.
• Xu Huo ruled out the ambusher as a likely target and questioned the player in the hat about the dead woman’s note, but the man challenged Xu Huo for knowing too much.

Players confronted Liang Zong over the body and the missing second note, and his fiancée Ding Xiang was attacked as the group suspected them of concealing a clue. Xu Huo questioned the group’s assumptions and proposed that the numbered notes might reveal how many targets the Dungeon contained.

• The players pressured Liang Zong to explain why he had handled the dead woman’s body, and he denied killing her or finding anything useful.
• Teacher Fan accused Ding Xiang and Liang Zong of acting together, prompting the muscular man and two others to attack Ding Xiang.
• Liang Zong used his Ability, "Triangle Fixed," to rescue Ding Xiang, then said she had not killed the woman and pointed out that weapon marks resembled those made by her item.
• Ding Xiang questioned Xu Huo about his knowledge of the marks, while Liang Zong revealed that she was his fiancée.
• Xu Huo reasoned that Liang Zong and Ding Xiang would know each other’s items well and warned that the numbered notes might indicate either repeated targets or a total of fourteen notes.

The players suspected that some notes might be fake and agreed to stay together while searching for more. As they investigated the villa’s history, they focused on Jin Li, an unusual former owner, and the local player produced books she had written.

• A player suggested that someone might be drawing fake notes to provoke the group into killing one another, and Xu Huo proposed that they stay together and compare any notes they found.
• Most players agreed to stick together, while Teacher Fan, Liang Zong, and Ding Xiang remained under suspicion and watch.
• The group searched the villa but found no fourth note, then gathered in the local player’s room to wait and discuss when notes appeared.
• The local player explained the history of Snow White Villa’s five owners and described Jin Li’s disability, surgeries, charity work, books, and marriages.
• The local player took out several picture books written by Jin Li.

Xu Huo and the Players searched books in the Villa for clues to Jin Li’s notes and found that two books matched the notes’ pictures. Xu Huo suspected the Dungeon turned a family note game into a hunt for people, but the group still had no clear way to escape.

• The local player explained that Jin Li had unusually good mental health and that note-writing had once been a popular form of therapy.
• The muscular man proposed that some books left by Villa tenants had originally belonged to Jin Li, so the group retrieved and searched them.
• Xu Huo found book passages matching two notes and reasoned that Jin Li’s family may have played a picture-and-book game that became the Dungeon’s picture-and-person game.
• Zhou Yuanzhu found another book passage matching a note, but the Players realized that matching a note to a book did not clear the Dungeon.
• Xu Huo considered how the numbered notes might be tied to Players’ deaths and reminded the group that it was past midnight.

Xu Huo and the muscular man argued over whether matching notes to books could clear the dungeon, while both concealed their suspicions from the other players. Xu Huo killed the muscular man to take his note and urged everyone to search for the matching book, leaving the group tense but with a way to test the method.

• Xu Huo and the muscular man discussed the notes, possible ways to clear the dungeon, and the danger of telling the others their theory.
• The players searched the floors for a fourth note but found nothing, then returned to their rooms.
• Before dawn, the muscular man captured the freckled player and took his note, then demanded a trade from Xu Huo.
• Xu Huo poisoned the muscular man when he tried to escape, and the man died before he could use an Antidote.
• Xu Huo took the note and asked the players to find a book matching its picture, then told them the note and book might reveal how to clear the dungeon.

Xu Huo tested his theory that a player could clear the dungeon by matching a slip and book to their number. Number 10 succeeded and escaped, while the remaining players considered what the result meant for finding the other slips.

• Xu Huo explained that he was not a dungeon player and let Number 10 test the matching slip and book he had taken.
• The players searched the villa’s books together, and the lip-piercing player found the book matching Number 10’s slip.
• The player who had ambushed Xu Huo handed Number 10 his matching slip and book, and Number 10 cleared the dungeon.
• Number 10 left the villa and launched a colorful flare outside to signal his success.
• Xu Huo concluded that the slip was genuine and that the number of slips appearing each day was probably random if Teacher Fan had not forged the second slip.
• Zhou Yuanzhu warned the player with the birthmark to stop provoking others, and he fell silent when Xu Huo looked at him.

Xu Huo and the other players discussed the Villa’s picture-matching game and investigated what the dungeon’s title and circled pictures might mean. Suspecting the Villa’s unusual magnetic field was connected to the dungeon and Dr. Zhang’s choice to live there, Xu Huo went to examine the first floor.

• Xu Huo told the players to take turns checking upstairs and explained that matching pictures to books was the proven way to clear the dungeon.
• Ding Xiang questioned the meaning of the dungeon’s title, while Zhou Yuanzhu and the others discussed the circled pictures and the Villa’s history of tenant deaths.
• Chi Minghong recalled that people had blamed the Villa’s deaths on paranormal activity, a special magnetic field, and players.
• Xu Huo reasoned that the children’s game might not explain the dungeon’s deeper origin and considered whether the magnetic field had caused the Villa to become a dungeon site.
• Xu Huo left the others checking the rooms and went to investigate the first floor.

Xu Huo searched Snow White Villa for numbered notes while investigating the strange magnetic field and the villa’s history. His tests suggested an Origin Stone had once been hidden in the Secret Room, and he spotted someone concealed outside it.

• Xu Huo questioned a local Player about the villa’s history and learned that its size was restricted, its owner Jin Li had barred rebuilding, and a magnetite deposit had recently been discovered beneath it.
• Xu Huo reviewed the family records and noted that Jin Li’s family had been unusually mentally healthy across three generations.
• Xu Huo and the local Player found note number 5, depicting a person with broken arms and legs, and brought it downstairs for the others to examine.
• Xu Huo used a detector and soil samples to trace the villa’s magnetic field to the Secret Room, concluding that an Origin Stone had likely been there before Dr. Zhang took it.
• Xu Huo noticed someone hiding outside the Secret Room, activated Spiritual World, removed the wall between them, and closed the distance.