Recaps

Xu Huo took the Eternal Time bead from the player in the hat and continued fighting the poison consuming him. Two days later, the others began leaving Little River City, while Xu Huo stayed behind with Chi Minghong, Lin Qiao, Uncle Guan, and Tan Qi.

• Xu Huo searched Dimension Below for information about the Magician's Gift and decided to be cautious about using Cube Space.
• Xu Huo found the player in the hat and took the Eternal Time bead after learning what it was.
• Xu Huo returned to the bar and told the frightened survivors that his virus was not contagious; Lin Qiao and Chi Minghong failed to find an Antidote.
• Xu Huo spent the night vomiting dead mycelium as the detoxification process drained his stamina, though King Fungus kept the poison from killing him.
• Two days later, Uncle Guan and the others sent off the survivors and Ruan Qiyan, while Chi Minghong, Lin Qiao, and Tan Qi stayed behind with Xu Huo.
• Tan Qi asked to inherit Xu Huo's items if he died, and Chi Minghong rebuked him.

After seven days in Uncle Guan's prop, Xu Huo returned to District 014 despite his worsening poisoning, hoping to recover at home. His arrival triggered an alarm at the Safe Zone, where Team Leader Wu and his companions were nearby.

• Chi Minghong and Uncle Guan discussed Xu Huo's worsening condition and advised him to seek treatment in a developed game Sub-district.
• Xu Huo said he wanted to go home, exchanged Dimension Below accounts with Chi Minghong and Zhou Yuanzhu, and used a Return Ticket.
• Xu Huo appeared in a sealed room in District 014, vomited black blood and fungal threads, and stopped the workers from raising the alarm inside the room.
• The workers alerted the Special Defense Department, whose Safe Zone security system contained the incident and summoned nearby Players.
• Team Leader Wu, Team Leader Chang, Jiang Qiao, and Dai Wenqian arrived near the Safe Zone, where Sima Xiao Er announced that someone unexpected had appeared.

Xu Huo returned to the Ting City Safe Zone injured and sealed himself inside a detention room, asking only to rest for two days. As the Special Defense Department arranged medical help, Dai Wenqian claimed he was Xu Huo’s old friend and rushed inside when the door opened.

• Sima Xiao Er told Team Leader Wu that Xu Huo had returned to the Safe Zone, and Wu hurried to meet him with Team Leader Chang and Jiang Qiao.
• The Special Defense Department discovered Xu Huo inside a detention room surrounded by strange black fungal threads, and he asked to rest there for two days.
• Team Leader Wu promised Xu Huo medical support and said the department had protected his family and recorded his contributions.
• Dai Wenqian questioned Xu Huo’s injuries and claimed he had come to say hello as an old friend, while Sima Xiao Er’s group tried to keep him away.
• The detention room door suddenly opened, and Dai Wenqian slipped past the guards and rushed inside.

Dai Wenqian entered Xu Huo’s holding room but was overwhelmed by the danger he sensed and left after Xu Huo warned him away. Team Leader Wu kept the room under guard, and Capital City’s delegation arrived with supplies, Professor Lan, Tang Guangbo, and a medical team to help Xu Huo.

• Team Leader Wu ordered Sima Xiao Er and the others to stop Dai Wenqian, but Dai Wenqian froze after Xu Huo’s glance and retreated when Xu Huo told him to leave.
• Team Leader Wu confronted Dai Wenqian and Team Leader Chang, then arranged a hotel for Chang’s group and Jiang Qiao after closing the Safe Zone.
• Team Leader Wu scolded Sima Xiao Er and the others, then posted twelve Special Defense Department players outside Xu Huo’s holding room and stayed there himself.
• Sima Xiao Er asked whether Xu Huo had reached C-class, and Team Leader Wu explained how the Special Defense Department trained players to reach D-class through frequent instances.
• The delegation from Capital City arrived with supplies, Professor Lan, Tang Guangbo, and a medical team, and Tang Guangbo asked how Xu Huo was doing.

A coordinated attack knocked out the Safe Zone’s power and communications while Xu Huo remained behind his closed door. The attackers breached the facility, and as Sima Xiao Er’s group faced them, an unseen force stopped one intruder mid-boast.

• Xu Huo declined help, and Sima Xiao Er left a bowl of dumplings outside his room.
• The Safe Zone lost power and communications, and Team Leader Wu sent Professor Lan and Tang Guangbo to an A-class safe room.
• The defenders discovered intruders using poison gas bombs, while a nurse attacked the group inside the safe room and was subdued.
• Ye Suqiu found that many medical supply boxes had been marked, so Qin Jingyuan sent her and three others to move the Potions.
• Five intruders broke through the defenders’ line and dismantled Sima Xiao Er’s Defense Artifacts, then blocked his bullets with a barrier.
• As the long-haired intruder mocked the idea of being held accountable, his mouth began widening grotesquely and he could not finish speaking.

Xu Huo tested the Cube Space’s range and limitations while recovering in the Safe Zone, as Sima Xiao Er’s team captured intruders with his help. The attackers were subdued, but Xu Huo remained weakened and continued investigating the Cube Space’s unusual properties.

• An unseen force killed two D-class Players by splitting their heads and pinned three others in place, though one fainted before he was killed.
• Sima Xiao Er’s team injected the surviving intruders with muscle relaxant and took them to the Laboratory, keeping them on IVs so they could not escape.
• Sima Xiao Er thanked Xu Huo and asked him to handle the people outside, but Xu Huo stayed silent inside the detention room.
• Xu Huo unfolded the Cube Space and found that Safe Zone metal did not block its power, though complex spatial layouts reduced his accurate perception range.
• Xu Huo discovered he could nudge small objects using Space Rays but could not directly control the rays within them, and he noted that time inside the Cube Space had not accelerated for a week.

Xu Huo used Cube Space and his Spiritual World to locate intruders inside the Safe Zone, then questioned two attackers about who had leaked information from the Special Defense Department. They named Bian Ling, a C-class player, but Xu Huo doubted their account.

• Xu Huo found that Cube Space had expanded his Spiritual World and made it easier to manipulate rays, then located intruders searching and fighting inside the Safe Zone.
• Xu Huo entered Tang Guangbo's safe room, but Tang Guangbo acted as though he could not hear him and left under the players' protection.
• Xu Huo subdued three intruders hunting Safe Zone residents and captured two more waiting outside with sniper rifles.
• Xu Huo forced the two captured players to answer his questions by cutting off their arms, then threatened to kill the Special Defense Department's informant.
• The players identified Bian Ling as the leak, and Xu Huo questioned whether her supposed arrangement with them made sense.

Xu Huo interrogated two injured players about rumors surrounding Bian Ling and learned that three player-autonomous cities had emerged in Country X. After killing the men, he returned to the Safe Zone.

• Xu Huo checked the Vanguard Player Forum and found suppressed rumors accusing Bian Ling of murder and robbery.
• Xu Huo used truth serum on the two players, who admitted they had only heard secondhand claims about Bian Ling leaking information.
• Xu Huo found messages describing three player-autonomous cities where local players had wrested control from the authorities.
• Xu Huo learned that a government squad and a later group of outside players had both been defeated in one of the cities.
• Xu Huo killed the two players and returned to the Safe Zone.

After intruders attacked the Ting City Safe Zone, Xu Huo remained behind the detention room door while Special Defense Department officials waited and tried to contain rumors that they were holding a powerful player captive. Team Leader Wu faced mounting pressure from other organizations, and the group debated whether revealing Xu Huo’s identity would stop the rumors, but no decision was made.

• Qin Jingyuan and his group dealt with the intruders, while Xu Huo stayed inside the detention room and Sima Xiao Er told Team Leader Wu he was safe.
• Professor Lan and Tang Guangbo waited outside the detention room, and Professor Lan offered the Antidote, but Xu Huo did not respond.
• The Special Defense Department called the previous night’s attack a drill, but an anonymous Vanguard Forum post claimed the Safe Zone was holding a powerful High-level Player captive.
• Team Leader Wu fielded calls from nearby branches and official organizations seeking to send personnel, while Sima Xiao Er and Tang Guangbo suspected someone was deliberately spreading rumors.
• Tang Guangbo proposed revealing Xu Huo’s identity, and Qin Jingyuan suggested blaming the attackers on players from Country Y, but Team Leader Wu warned that disclosing Xu Huo’s connection to the Black Rain incident could cause trouble and might require Xu Huo’s consent.

Team Leader Wu struggled to control the crowd of Special Defense Department branches gathering in the Ting City Safe Zone until Nie Xuan returned and drove most of them away by announcing a headquarters operation against Players in Tianshi. Nie Xuan then visited the injured Xu Huo, discussed the rising conflict between the government and Players, and asked whether the Safe Zone’s Space Power field was Xu Huo’s.

• Team Leader Wu tried to refuse Team Leader Zhang’s group, but Zhang brought fifteen Players into the Safe Zone and triggered its alarm system.
• More Special Defense Department groups arrived, including Tan Yang and Huang Junjie, and tensions threatened to turn into a fight.
• Nie Xuan returned, announced that he would seek headquarters’ approval for an operation against Players in Tianshi, and sent most of the gathered groups away.
• Nie Xuan entered the detention room and questioned Xu Huo about his bloody appearance and the two Players killed nearby.
• Nie Xuan warned Xu Huo that conflict between the government and Players was nearing a decisive confrontation, then asked whether Xu Huo had created the Safe Zone’s Space Power field.

Xu Huo reunited with Nie Xuan, discussed his evolving spatial condition, and learned about the Special Defense Department’s plans and concerns. He then confronted department leaders who had gathered at the Safe Zone, demanded they write down their names, and made clear that none of them would leave if they refused.

• Xu Huo saw that Nie Xuan’s spatial evolution had spread from one leg to both legs, and suggested he look for Lawrence Li, who had caused the condition.
• Nie Xuan told Xu Huo that his family was in Capital City’s classified Safe Zone and warned him about the man Ms. Fang was seeing.
• Nie Xuan said the Special Defense Department would keep Xu Huo’s role in recent incidents secret and suggested he request compensation from them.
• Xu Huo used Cube Space to bring Special Defense Department team leaders and their Players into a conference room, then asked them to sit down and talk.
• A team leader tried to leave, but Bian Changxing and the other Players were too afraid of Xu Huo to move, and a Player collapsed and died.
• Xu Huo demanded that the gathered leaders write down their names and warned that none of them would leave if he were not showing the Special Defense Department respect.

Xu Huo forced Special Defense Department team leaders to write down their names after confronting them over leaking his information, then left the department. He checked his messages and learned of possible human experimentation, threats against Yu Qingqing, and other developments before calling the Xu family.

• Xu Huo killed two players who tried to challenge him and made the team leaders write down their names in exchange for leaving the conference room alive.
• Xu Huo gave Team Leader Wu the list and asked him to investigate the leak, then left the Special Defense Department without meeting Professor Lan or returning to the capital.
• Professor Lan decided to stay one day before returning, and Tang Guangbo told him that Xu Huo's old home had been demolished.
• Xu Huo restarted his phone and read messages about Professor Han possibly surviving, suspected human experimentation, and Yu Qingqing being blacklisted by the First Association.
• Xu Huo ignored the messages and invitations that required no action, then called the Xu family.

Xu Huo booked a flight from Ting City to visit his family in Capital City, but the plane vanished shortly after takeoff. The chapter left the fate of Xu Huo and the other passengers unknown.

• Xu Huo learned from Father Xu that the Yu family had suffered several kidnapping attempts while the Xu family remained safe in a classified Safe Zone.
• Xu Huo agreed to visit his family for New Year's Eve and booked a flight to an airport outside Capital City.
• On the way to the airport, Xu Huo saw Ting City's new security measures and heard the driver describe conditions in Country X and overseas.
• At the airport, Xu Huo saw a convoy of Players clear the entrance and later watched a young Player claim the plane's first four rows before an escort settled a dispute.
• Xu Huo rested aboard Jinghang 6538 and thought about upgrading his Protective Suit and contacting an Artificer in District 011.
• The control tower lost contact with Jinghang 6538 after the plane suddenly vanished from the sky.

A young master’s search for a stolen item caused chaos among the Players aboard Xu Huo’s plane, which had mysteriously vanished after takeoff. The blond Player was exposed as a thief, and two strange paper boxes appeared behind him.

• Team Leader Wu learned Xu Huo’s plane had vanished and rushed to the airport while requesting support from headquarters.
• The young master ordered the Players aboard the plane to be searched for his stolen item and used a grid-patterned paper item to divide the cabin.
• A scan revealed fluorescent marks on the blond Player, and a bodyguard retrieved the young master’s nail clipper from a tall man’s sleeve.
• Several Players found unfamiliar items in their clothes, and the blond Player denied being responsible as the cabin turned against him.
• A milky-white paper box and a black paper box appeared behind the blond Player.

The Magician from the C9 wormhole point appeared aboard the plane and forced the Players to take part in a deadly magic show. After the blond-haired Player chose the wrong box and vanished, the Magician selected another audience member for the next trick.

• The Magician appeared in the cabin, revealed that he had taken items from some Players, and summoned the blond-haired Player to participate.
• Xu Huo went to the front of the cabin as the Magician began a box-and-ball guessing game.
• The blond-haired Player chose the black box, which was empty, and the Magician made him vanish.
• The Players learned that Tickets could not be used to escape, and the Magician pointed to another Player for the next round.

The Magician continued forcing Players to choose between two boxes, disappearing those who failed, while a female Player volunteered to take her turn and asked about advancing to the next round. Outside the plane, Team Leader Wu and Minister Fan searched for the vanished flight and feared the situation could become a wider disaster if Xu Huo did not escape soon.

• The Magician made a bodyguard choose a box, then disappeared him after he chose the empty one.
• The Magician selected another Player, who also failed to choose the ball and was disappeared.
• A female Player asked whether choosing the ball would let them leave and whether finding it advanced the performance.
• The Magician said a successful show would lead to another performance, then sent the female Player to choose a box.
• Team Leader Wu told Minister Fan that the plane remained undetected despite three radar flashes and three people falling to their deaths.
• Minister Fan gave the search team half an hour before Capital City considered other measures, and Team Leader Wu urged the searchers to find a way to board the plane.

Xu Huo confronted the Magician, who had concealed the plane and trapped its passengers in a deadly performance. After the Magician followed him into his Spiritual World, the two fought as evenly matched spatial and mental specialists, and the chapter ended with the Magician apparently slicing Xu Huo in half.

• Xu Huo realized the plane was still on course to Capital City and that the Magician had concealed it with an illusion.
• The Magician’s box challenge killed several Players, so Xu Huo volunteered to take the next round and crushed all ten boxes at once.
• Xu Huo showed the Magician the “Magician's Gift” card, provoking him to attack and pull the passengers and objects toward him with confetti and thin lines.
• Xu Huo used “Inviolable Territory” and “Holder's Death” against the Magician, but the Magician evaded him by switching places with Players and using confetti as portals.
• Xu Huo pulled the plane into his Spiritual World, where the Magician filled the space with confetti; Xu Huo countered with staircases and a library, but the Magician emerged through the confetti and sliced him diagonally in half.

Xu Huo fought the Magician to a stalemate aboard a plane, and the Magician agreed to return in five days. After reaching the Safe Zone, Xu Huo reunited with his family, where a neighbor recognized him.

• Xu Huo and the Magician battled aboard the plane for more than twenty minutes, with neither gaining the upper hand.
• Xu Huo asked the Magician to return after the New Year holiday, and the Magician agreed to come back in five days.
• Xu Huo assured Minister Fan that the plane could land safely, then rested until it reached its destination.
• The rescue team inspected the plane and screened its player passengers, while Xu Huo was cleared to travel to the Safe Zone.
• Team Leader Lu brought Xu Huo to the apartment where his family was staying, and he reunited with Tongtong, Father Xu, Ms. Yu, and the old man.
• A neighbor brought vegetables to the apartment, recognized Xu Huo, and reacted with surprise.

Xu Huo reunited with his family in the Safe Zone, caught up on messages, and reviewed the items he had brought back from his recent trip. He identified the bead called “Eternal Time” as something other than an item and left its nature unresolved.

• Xu Huo met his downstairs neighbor Aunt Zhao, then went upstairs to sleep while Ms. Yu kept Tongtong from following him.
• The next morning, Xu Huo read his messages and agreed to meet Gu Yu after receiving several invitations.
• Xu Huo teased Tongtong about eating too much ice cream, and Tongtong fled when Ms. Yu approached with a workbook.
• Xu Huo sorted through his loot, including the A-class Carefree Ball and several unusual B-class and special items.
• Xu Huo concluded that Cube Space was an Owned Item, while Mr. Kang’s bead called “Eternal Time” was not an item.

Xu Huo reviewed his sub-class stones, potions, and leads on Doctor Zhang and Dr. Wu, then considered what equipment he still needed. After selling unused items, he had over a hundred million White Cash but still lacked a close-combat weapon capable of breaking stable spatial barriers.

• Xu Huo recalled how temporal sub-class stones like "Eternal Time" could resist Time Power and considered Mr. Kang's protection from the time chaos in Little River City.
• Xu Huo reviewed the sub-class stones and Perfect Evolution Potions he had collected and noted that he still had no lead on a P3S-version potion.
• Xu Huo connected Doctor Zhang to the drug training he had undergone at the Seventeenth Hospital and planned to investigate through Laboratory materials and Tan Qi.
• Xu Huo concluded that the Game Government might know Dr. Wu best and decided he would visit District 001 after leaving District 014.
• Xu Huo sold items he did not plan to use, raising his savings above a hundred million White Cash.
• Xu Huo identified his need for a practical close-combat item that could break stable spatial barriers.

Xu Huo upgraded his Isolation Suit, let Tongtong try a bubble-making Potion, and went to meet Gu Yu and Wen Xue Lin for New Year’s Eve. After learning that Dai Wenqian had been causing Gu Yu trouble, Xu Huo decided to warn him.

• Xu Huo upgraded his Isolation Suit with Flexible Mechanical Armor but found no suitable close-combat item.
• Xu Huo gave Tongtong a Potion that made him blow bubbles, and Tongtong ran off to share it with neighborhood children.
• Xu Huo left the Safe Zone and met Gu Yu and Wen Xue Lin at a private restaurant.
• Gu Yu told Xu Huo that Dai Wenqian had been causing her trouble.
• A Player from Dai Wenqian’s group saw Xu Huo and retreated into a room, prompting Xu Huo to say he would give Dai Wenqian a warning.

Xu Huo met with Gu Yu and the others, who discussed Dungeon guides, player fame, and the growing power of the Special Defense Department. The gathering ended with the players worrying about the dangers facing ordinary people and wondering when the Game Government might let them suspend their player status.

• Xu Huo joined Gu Yu and the others in a private room, where Wen Xue Lin asked about his trip to Country Y.
• Wen Xue Lin showed Xu Huo a leaderboard of players who sold Dungeon videos and offered to escort others through Dungeons for a fee.
• Yang Qian Xi criticized popular players who killed innocents in Dungeons, and Xu Huo considered the Special Defense Department's efforts to control players.
• Gu Yu worried that players could not protect their families from a changing world, while Dan Feng noted that even remote places could become Random Instances.
• Gu Yu complained that she dreaded entering another Dungeon after the New Year and wished the Special Defense Department could connect with the Game Government sooner.

Xu Huo watched a Special Defense Department Player stop a Player named Brother Zhong from assaulting a woman, then pursued the fleeing attackers. He killed the remaining men and answered a call on Brother Zhong’s phone.

• Brother Zhong harassed a child and tried to abduct the child’s mother until a female Special Defense Department Player intervened.
• Wen Xue Lin told Xu Huo that Players who protected ordinary people had sometimes faced deadly retaliation against their families.
• Xu Huo tracked down and killed Brother Zhong’s injured companion, then used an Ability or item to trap Brother Zhong on the same street.
• Brother Zhong’s Ticket and items failed to work as Xu Huo approached, and he died from a wound to his throat.
• Xu Huo collected the spoils, took a phone from Brother Zhong’s Storage Compartment, and answered an incoming call.

Xu Huo hired eight Chunyu Association Players to monitor locations near the District 014 command center and report their observations. After returning home, he met Bian Ling, a Special Defense Department Player and Aunt Zhao’s daughter, whose reputation he already knew.

• Xu Huo reported two addresses from the tattooed man’s phone to the Special Defense Department, then returned to the meal with Zheng Liang, Wen Xue Lin, and Gu Yu.
• Xu Huo offered the Chunyu Association Players paid work, and Gu Yu and seven other Players agreed to monitor several locations and send him updates every fifteen minutes.
• Wen Xue Lin disguised the team with makeup and markings before they split up to watch the assigned places near the Safe Zone.
• Xu Huo returned home and met Bian Ling, whom Ms. Yu introduced as Aunt Zhao’s daughter and a Special Defense Department Player.
• Xu Huo recognized Bian Ling from an account of her reputation, and she told him she had heard of him before becoming a Player.

Xu Huo spent New Year's Eve with his family and warned them to stay inside as strange fog covered the residential complex. As messages reached him, he went out to join the players guarding the complex entrances.

• Bian Ling and Ms. Zhao visited Xu Huo's family, where Tang Guangbo and Ms. Zhao asked about Bian Ling's and Xu Huo's love lives.
• Xu Huo encouraged Tongtong to prepare to become a strong player by studying, training, and learning housework.
• The family ate New Year's Eve dinner, and Tang Guangbo left with Ms. Fang without mentioning Ting City.
• Xu Huo told his family to stay home instead of visiting the lantern fair, then watched as dense fog blotted out the residential complex.
• After receiving a growing number of messages, Xu Huo went downstairs and joined players guarding the entrances under orders to let no one in.