Recaps

Dr. Dorr considered the Ya tribe’s shorter lifespans and early maturation unremarkable, then wondered whether the boy Xu Huo had met in the abandoned city was older than he appeared. The chapter ended before that question was answered.

• Dr. Dorr dismissed the Ya tribe’s short lifespans as normal for their people.
• Dr. Dorr recalled that the boy Xu Huo had met in the abandoned city claimed to be older than he looked.
• Dr. Dorr considered whether the boy’s apparent age could be explained by malnutrition.

Xu Huo judged that the dummy player likely made handicrafts and that his ability stiffened nearby objects without making them unbreakable. The two players had already gone far away.

• The dummy player's ability made nearby objects, including the props' cutting lines, stiff and harder to destroy.
• Xu Huo judged from the dummy player's props and abilities that he likely made handicrafts.
• The two players went far away.

The dummy Player tried to counter Xu Huo's sudden increase in power with a heart-shaped item, but an invisible force knocked it away. The confrontation remained unresolved in the available text.

• The dummy Player realized that Xu Huo had suddenly become much stronger.
• The dummy Player deployed a heart-shaped item that rolled onto the ground.
• Xu Huo remained unmoved as an invisible force knocked the item away.

Dr. Dorr died after being frightened by the fight outside the Winter Wind Laboratory, and Xu Huo teamed up with a bold player to plan a robbery of the new District Government. As Xu Huo went to recruit allies near the laboratory, he spotted players marked with rotating numbers entering and leaving the barrier.

• Dr. Dorr died in the big man's grip, and the players escorting him charged at those who had surrounded them.
• Xu Huo learned that Gemini City had sent fragile stand-ins and heard that Zone 023 players were fighting over human experiments at the Winter Wind Laboratory.
• Xu Huo and the scarred player agreed to rob the District Government, then recruited two more players and assigned themselves numbers.
• Xu Huo went to the Winter Wind Laboratory to recruit allies and saw players marked with the numbers 17, 19, and 20 pass through the barrier.

Xu Huo intervened in the standoff at the Winter Wind Laboratory, stopping Number 3 from detonating a bomb and exposing evidence that the Laboratory had conducted experiments on living people. The last surviving staff member revealed that the Fangcao Laboratory had sent them to collect Dr. Dorr's latest data.

• After 17, 19, and 20 confronted him, the unnumbered Player fled into the Laboratory and dropped a mask that disabled their protective shields.
• Number 3's group attacked the barrier protecting the Warehouse, then prepared to destroy it with a bomb and accused the Laboratory of hiding evidence of human experimentation.
• Xu Huo seized Number 3's remote and stopped him from detonating the bomb, then pulled He Yong through the barrier and injected him with a truth serum.
• He Yong died after the injection, and a researcher said he had taken an anti-interrogation drug beforehand.
• The injured female Player used a truth-inducing item on one staff member, who admitted the Laboratory had experimented on living people; she killed him.
• The last staff member said the person in charge of the Fangcao Laboratory had sent them to collect Dr. Dorr's latest experimental data.

Xu Huo challenged the Ya tribe’s belief that Dr. Dorr had experimented on them, arguing that the evidence and circumstances pointed toward another explanation. He left Number 3 wondering whether the “New Hope” Dungeon was actually a trap aimed at the Ya tribe.

• Xu Huo guarded against Number 3 and asked the Winter Wind Laboratory members whether they knew Dr. Dorr had doubles.
• Xu Huo revealed a living painting containing Dr. Dorr’s face, and the female player confirmed the Laboratory’s key members were present.
• Xu Huo showed Number 3 Dr. Dorr’s face and said the doubles he had met had denied conducting human experiments.
• Xu Huo argued that Gemini City lacked the resources for such experiments and that the Dungeon’s name, “New Hope,” suggested a different purpose.
• Number 3 asked whether Xu Huo meant the Dungeon was a trap targeting the Ya tribe.

Xu Huo analyzed how a third party had manipulated the Ya tribe and Gemini City into fighting, then left the Laboratory after urging them to seek the real enemy. He rejoined Number 1 and the other Players, who discussed the Dungeon’s prospects as reports suggested the fighting had stopped and the Ya tribe had withdrawn.

• Xu Huo explained that the Dungeon’s setup had made the Ya tribe and Gemini City Players suffer the greatest losses, and advised them to identify whoever was manipulating them.
• Dr. Dorr asked Number 3 and the Ya tribe to inspect the Warehouse, but the Winter Wind Laboratory staff refused to open it for fear of contaminating the Experiment Samples.
• Xu Huo removed his barriers, told both sides to settle matters themselves, and left after Dr. Dorr asked him to witness the Warehouse inspection.
• Xu Huo returned to Number 1, who introduced Players Numbers 5 through 8, and they discussed recruiting more Players despite the Dungeon’s grim chances.
• Numbers 2 and 3 reported that Heaven’s Ladder had quieted, the Ya tribe had gone into the forest, and the Laboratory fighting had stopped behind a restored barrier.
• The Players speculated that the Ya tribe had achieved its goal at the Laboratory and that the Dungeon might no longer be clearable.

Xu Huo reviewed his S-level dungeon rewards, including a new ability and a high-tech RV, while players gathered in Gemini City after hearing rumors of a chance to make a big score. The chapter ended with Xu Huo among the gathered players, listening as two men traded remarks about personal hygiene.

• Players in Gemini City weighed whether to stay for a possible score despite the risks of the dungeon disappearing or no Dr. Dorr appearing.
• Xu Huo received an S-level rating for delivering Dr. Dorr and uncovering the dungeon’s truth, earning items and the ability Reasonable Existence.
• Xu Huo examined his RV reward and the Staff Dormitory item taken from the player who controlled dummies.
• Thirty players gathered in the vacated building after hearing news of a chance to make a big score.
• The scar-handed player joked about his sweat and teased an upright-looking man, who replied that players should live with dignity.

Xu Huo and the gathered Players discussed how to enter the new District Government city and organize a possible raid on its factories for valuable resources. The respectable-looking man offered information about the factories’ encrypted Warehouse doors and irregular opening times, but the scarred Player questioned whether his claims were reliable.

• Xu Huo advised the scarred Player to use game-exclusive perfume to erase his scent and traces, and the scarred Player accepted the advice.
• The Players learned that Outer District Players could apply for passes to enter the heavily guarded new District Government city, though the passes took two days to activate and Space Artifacts were disabled there.
• Big Man No. 7 proposed sending a reconnaissance group into the city before the others, while the Players debated how to choose leaders and divide responsibilities.
• The respectable-looking man argued that the Players needed a practical plan before entering the city, and the group accepted the need to cooperate.
• The respectable-looking man revealed that he had information about encrypted factory Warehouse doors and a way to learn their irregular opening times, but the scarred Player challenged his claim.

Xu Huo followed Bai Jing to question him about the Ya tribe and the new District Government, arguing that the Ya tribe seemed better adapted to Zone 023’s heat than outsiders. Bai Jing acknowledged the possibility but maintained that strength determined who controlled the zone, then asked Xu Huo whether he knew what had happened inside the Winter Wind Laboratory.

• Xu Huo left the meeting about confronting the new District Government and followed Bai Jing’s group toward the Winter Wind Laboratory.
• Xu Huo sat in a roadside shop and shared meat soup with Bai Jing, warning him not to provoke a fight he could not win.
• Bai Jing demanded that Xu Huo stop following him, but Xu Huo questioned whether Bai Jing and the Ya tribe were truly natives of Zone 023.
• Xu Huo pointed to the Ya tribe’s apparent adaptation to the heat as evidence that they might be the zone’s original inhabitants.
• Bai Jing said strength determined who controlled Zone 023 and asked Xu Huo what he knew about the Winter Wind Laboratory.

Xu Huo questioned Bai Jing about human experimentation in Zone 023, then prepared to travel with a group of players to rob the new District Government. He agreed to take Dr. Dorr there to obtain medicine, and asked Dai Song whether he had seen Qiu Ming and Cao Qinglin.

• Xu Huo questioned Bai Jing about the Winter Wind Laboratory and whether the new District Government had evidence of human experimentation, then told him he planned to rob the new District Government.
• Xu Huo joined the scarred-hand player's group, which planned to travel to Government City after waiting another night for more players to clear the Dungeon.
• A Gemini City player asked Xu Huo to escort Dr. Dorr to the new District Government to obtain an ingredient for medicine.
• Xu Huo agreed to take Dr. Dorr, accepted the offered payment, and sent him into World in the Painting.
• Xu Huo asked Dai Song whether he had encountered Qiu Ming and Cao Qinglin.

Xu Huo joined the players’ plan to travel to the new District Government and searched for a faster route using a map and a city-to-city teleportation item. He and Dai Song’s group chose to try a direct path through woodland, though unmarked towns could disrupt their journey.

• Dai Song told Xu Huo that three people were dead and that the group had not encountered Qiu Ming or Cao Qinglin.
• The players agreed to reach Government City within ten days or be excluded from the operation, then began leaving the city.
• A Winter Wind Laboratory player explained the restrictions on his city-to-city teleportation item, and Xu Huo arranged to buy part of Bai Jing’s map.
• Xu Huo compared the maps and asked Dai Song’s group about towns that might interfere with the teleportation route.
• Xu Huo chose a direct route through the woodland, deciding it was worth trying despite the possibility of unmarked towns.

Xu Huo and his companions reached Dedication City and joined forces with the scar-handed Player as they traveled toward the new District Government. Their journey was interrupted when they entered the Bauhinia Restaurant Random Instance, and Xu Huo’s number tag drew the diners’ attention as soon as he went inside.

• Xu Huo and the others reached Dedication City, where they met the scar-handed Player and his long-haired companion.
• The scar-handed Player revealed that his group had a robot-disruption device and joined Xu Huo’s group for the journey.
• On the sixth day, the group entered the temperate region and was automatically pulled into the Bauhinia Restaurant C-class Random Instance.
• The restaurant’s mission required Players to select a dish for “Today’s Best,” and Dai Song warned that the restaurant welcomed Red Players.
• Xu Huo entered the restaurant with Dai Song, received number tag 172, and dropped it in front of the watching diners.

Xu Huo and Dai Song explored the crowded restaurant, where Players competed for seats and tried to learn the dungeon’s rules. As the restaurant expanded and the crowd grew, Xu Huo noticed that two of its Servers were Twins, hinting at unusual restrictions.

• Xu Huo and Dai Song backed away from a confrontation with two armed Players and accepted a seat offered by a thin Player, who warned them that the men had killed other Players.
• The thin Player explained that rooms might appear when the restaurant closed, while Xu Huo and Dai Song ordered food and learned how to vote for the day’s best dish.
• Xu Huo stopped eating and observed the restaurant as it filled with nearly a hundred Players and expanded to twice its original size.
• Dai Song reported what he had learned about the Back Kitchen, its staff, and its locked storerooms and freezer.
• Xu Huo pointed out that two of the restaurant’s seven Servers were Twins, and Dai Song and the thin Player asked how he had figured it out.

Players waited in the restaurant, where voting for cheap vegetarian dishes was the safest plan. When a Player with a gun assaulted a non-Player woman, a female Player in a Duckbill Hat intervened and fought him until another Player helped free her from a trap.

• The Players ordered cheap vegetarian dishes, discussed their votes, and waited in the restaurant because the Server refused to answer questions about lodging or number tags.
• The Player with a gun and his companions attacked a non-Player woman, who resisted and tried to stab herself rather than be taken away.
• A female Player in a Duckbill Hat shattered the gun-wielding Player’s medicine bottle and challenged him to fight her instead.
• The Player with a gun attacked with an Artifact, but the woman in the Duckbill Hat blocked his blows, threw him through tables, and damaged his spiked shield with a rusty helmet.
• A trap pinned the woman in the Duckbill Hat as the Player with a gun fired three golden bullets at her head.
• A spinning metal bookmark deflected the bullets and freed the woman, while one of the gun-wielding Player’s companions called for the fight to stop.

Xu Huo and the other players gathered information and prepared for their first night in the restaurant, where the rooms were unregistered and their number was unknown. As the restaurant closed at eight, Li Kun warned that whatever emerged after dark might be more dangerous than the players expected.

• Brother Dou stopped his companion from attacking the injured newcomers, and Maris introduced himself to the two people the baseball cap player had helped.
• Xu Huo, Dai Song, Zhou Donghe, Li Kun, and Zhang Zhaogang exchanged contact information and discussed how to find rooms and coordinate after the restaurant closed.
• The players speculated about how the restaurant would choose Today's Best and whether the servers' changing dish recommendations held clues.
• A female server announced that the restaurant would close at eight, that guests could choose any unregistered room, and that servers would be off duty afterward.
• Xu Huo asked whether guests could order room service at night, and the server said they could not.
• After the server locked the Back Kitchen door, Li Kun warned Dai Song that the danger inside the restaurant after dark could be beyond their expectations.

When the restaurant’s lights went out, corridors and rooms appeared, and the players rushed to claim places to sleep. Xu Huo secured Room 172, inspected its contents, and ended the chapter by contacting Dai Song.

• At eight, the restaurant plunged into darkness, and two dim lamps revealed corridors that expanded as the players advanced.
• Players split up to search for rooms, while Zhou Donghe claimed Room 42 and Dai Song and Li Kun went down the right corridor.
• Xu Huo chose a room beyond Room 42 and secured Room 172 before other players could claim it.
• Xu Huo repaired a failing lamp, searched the room, and found an old brochure about ocean views and local delicacies.
• Zhou Donghe messaged Xu Huo offering him a place in Room 42, but Xu Huo did not reply and instead contacted Dai Song.

Xu Huo listened as lethal hunters roamed Bauhinia Restaurant at night, killing players who had no room or made noise. After identifying several possible threats and testing how they reacted to sounds, he played a recording of knocking from inside his room.

• Xu Huo ignored Zhou Donghe's message and listened as a hunter searched the Warehouse before a scream and the sounds of a body being dragged away followed.
• More knocks, impacts, and dragging sounds came from around the rooms, and Xu Huo tested the area outside his door with recordings on his Communicator.
• A bloodied object rolled to Xu Huo's door, and he spotted a terrified woman hiding beneath a crate but signaled for her to stay quiet.
• A sharpening sound returned to Xu Huo's door after the woman made a noise, and it carried her away as she screamed.
• Xu Huo noticed tracks across the ceilings and concluded that three hunters might be roaming the restaurant, then played another recording of knocking from inside his room.

Xu Huo tracked the restaurant killers’ activity and used a quiet interval to explore, but a limping butcher ambushed him. After the butcher killed two hidden Players and resisted Xu Huo’s attacks, Xu Huo escaped through a door.

• Xu Huo watched the corridor and recorded the Raincoat Cleaner’s movements and the hunters’ activity periods.
• Xu Huo changed his door number to 72 and headed toward the restaurant during a quieter interval.
• Xu Huo found a Warehouse where two Players were hiding and spotted toys and ornaments among bloodstained objects.
• The Butcher ambushed Xu Huo with his cleavers and forced him into close quarters.
• The Butcher killed the two hidden Players with a chained curved knife and a thrown cleaver.
• Xu Huo attacked the Butcher with Holder’s Death and Backstab, then escaped through a door as the Butcher pursued him.

Xu Huo joined Maris and the others to map the guest-room corridors and discuss the restaurant’s voting rules. After learning that the route to the restaurant had vanished, they considered interfering with the ballot but could not find a way to get enough players to vote for the same dish.

• Xu Huo helped Maris and the others map the rooms, identifying a hexagonal corridor and the Warehouse outside Room 172.
• Xu Huo told the group that the path back to the restaurant had disappeared, and Tabby Cat said he had seen a player return from it before dawn.
• Maris explained that the group suspected the voting rules were key to the instance and that reaching the restaurant at night might reveal them.
• Xu Huo questioned Tabby Cat about who had eaten and voted for antler soup, but Tabby Cat could not remember amid the crowds and changing menus.
• Maris proposed sealing off the ballot box and interfering with the vote, and Xu Huo agreed while questioning how they could persuade players to order the same dish.

Xu Huo and the others considered whether players could vote at the restaurant at night and planned to investigate its missing passage and voting rules. Xu Huo found the passage still closed, then discovered the Raincoat Cleaner and Limping Butcher hunting players in another warehouse.

• The long-haired woman suggested the restaurant might allow nighttime voting, and Xu Huo said there could be a condition for entering that round.
• Maris, Xiao Wan, and Xu Huo discussed persuading later players to vote during the day and waiting to see whether the next day's Best dish revealed the voting rules.
• Xu Huo went to check the restaurant passage while Maris and Xiao Wan prepared to investigate separately and alert Xiao Wan if the Limping Butcher appeared.
• Xu Huo spotted a tall staff member with an iron rod, confirmed the restaurant passage had not reappeared, and returned to Number 172's door, which had changed to 111.
• Xu Huo explored a warehouse and found the Raincoat Cleaner moving items and a player hiding in a crate.
• The Raincoat Cleaner pulled out an injured player, and the Limping Butcher killed him before dragging away his body as the Cleaner cleaned the floor.

Xu Huo encountered a mysterious figure in high heels whose knocks preceded the brutal deaths of three Players, then was caught between the Raincoat Cleaner and the Limping Butcher after two Players tried to draw the cleaner to him. He escaped into the murder scene’s room and waited for the hunters to leave.

• Xu Huo heard a figure in high heels knocking on room doors, then found three C-class Players decapitated inside one of the rooms.
• Xu Huo exchanged number cards with two Players, who identified themselves as 201 and 202.
• Two Players dropped an orange to attract the Raincoat Cleaner to Xu Huo, but he dodged her and used Space Power barriers to impede them.
• The Limping Butcher arrived, and Xu Huo used Forget Switch before breaking the barrier at the warehouse entrance.
• Xu Huo used the Goalkeeper barrier and Space Power to reach the room with the three bodies, then rested on its sofa after the Raincoat Cleaner and the Limping Butcher left.

Xu Huo and the other Players discussed the restaurant’s vote for pork shoulder patties and the risks of interfering with the ballot. Zhou Donghe admitted he had entered the restaurant at night, but he did not know enough about its voting rules to clear the Dungeon.

• Xu Huo found the expanded restaurant and joined the other Players as they debated why pork shoulder patties had become Today's Best.
• Maris warned the group against guarding the ballot box, and Xu Huo suggested that invalid votes may have disqualified the roasted leg of lamb.
• Zhou Donghe said someone had knocked on his door and admitted he had gone to the restaurant after leaving his room.
• Xu Huo and the others confronted Zhou Donghe about luring Players to Room 42, and Zhou Donghe explained that he had hoped to fool someone.
• Zhou Donghe revealed that Players who ate meat during the day could enter the restaurant at night and vote, but warned that it was dangerous.
• Xu Huo asked Zhou Donghe about the nighttime voting rules, and Zhou Donghe claimed he did not know them.

Xu Huo and the other Players debated how the restaurant’s voting system worked and how to survive its nighttime meal. Xu Huo doubted that coordinating votes would clear the instance and instead ordered several dishes recommended by a Server, leaving the Players to prepare for the night.

• Zhou Donghe explained that only guests who ordered meat during the day could be selected at night, and that refusing to eat would prevent them from clearing the instance.
• A female Player proposed that repeated votes invalidated the voter’s ballot, then tried to secure a predictable result by ordering the same meat dish as her companion.
• A gentlemanly Player used a gravity force to stop a confrontation, then ordered multiple dishes rather than following the female Player’s plan.
• Xu Huo asked a Server for recommendations, ordered several meat and vegetable dishes, and suggested his companions try them.
• Maris followed Xu Huo’s approach and also ordered the female Player’s dish; Xu Huo told Dai Song that coordinated voting and eating just one dish would not clear the instance because the contest was about choosing the best dish in a restaurant.

Xu Huo and the other players discussed how to influence the restaurant’s daytime vote and whether Cannibal Players could vote at night. As the restaurant grew busier, they prepared to investigate its nighttime operations and find a way to clear the game.

• Xu Huo and the others praised different dishes, prompting nearby customers to ask Servers for recommendations and try the suggested food.
• Tabby Cat questioned whether discussing dishes could unfairly influence the vote, but Maris argued that the players were simply sharing their preferences.
• The woman asked whether Cannibal Players were excluded from the daytime vote, and Xu Huo suggested the restaurant might serve them at night.
• Maris challenged Zhou Donghe’s account of the nighttime restaurant, but Zhou told the players to investigate for themselves.
• Players 201 and 202 warned that more restaurant staff might appear at night, while Xu Huo noted that customer numbers had already risen sharply compared with the previous day.