Recaps

Xu Huo and the painted woman entered a village after Bubble Bean and the Yin Yang Master wandered through the woods without finding them. Xu Huo learned that the village girls feared both the hidden friend and the Aliens outside, but their stories suggested they had never heard its call themselves.

• The painted woman found unusual markings in the woods, and Xu Huo asked her to wait while he prepared to deal with Bubble Bean and the Yin Yang Master.
• Bubble Bean and the Yin Yang Master questioned Deng Guang's account of the hidden friend, then discovered Bubble Bean grass and left after its bubbles rose into the air.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman entered a nearby village, where a braided girl recognized their waterproof clothes from Grandma Yi of Shangmu Village.
• The girls told Xu Huo they feared being taken by a hidden friend or killed by Aliens, though some said they would rather face the hidden friend than an Alien.
• The braided girl said no one in her village had been called away in recent years, and the girls dismissed reports of hearing the hidden friend as fake.

Xu Huo and the painted woman settled into an empty house in a village where the locals treated the feared “hidden friend” with unusual familiarity. As Xu Huo tried to learn more about the villagers and their past, a friendly young man offered to help them fetch water.

• Xu Huo wondered why the villagers seemed neither deeply afraid of nor devoted to the “hidden friend.”
• The braided girl directed Xu Huo and the painted woman to Grandpa He, who offered them an empty house and invited them to the village’s communal meal.
• Xu Huo gave Grandpa He food from outside in exchange for lodging, and Grandpa He asked cautiously about Grandma Yi.
• After finding signs that Players had stayed in the house, Xu Huo accompanied the painted woman to seek water, but two households refused to help.
• A young man offered them water and volunteered to guide them to the village’s water jar.

Xu Huo fetched water with the painted woman and a young villager, who told him about village life and his wish to see the world as a Player. After returning, Xu Huo encountered Bubble Bean and Yin Yang Master, then warned Bubble Bean to stay out of his way when they spoke by the stream.

• Xu Huo discussed Grandma Yi, the village, and the outside world with the young man while they gathered water.
• The painted woman tasted sweet juice from a local vine and offered leaves to Xu Huo and the young man.
• Xu Huo and his companions ran into Bubble Bean and Yin Yang Master, who were angry but avoided confronting him.
• The painted woman began cleaning the house while Xu Huo went to the stream for more water.
• Bubble Bean accused Xu Huo of killing Deng Guang and asked whether he was the hidden friend, but Xu Huo denied involvement.
• Xu Huo warned Bubble Bean not to cause trouble or bring his plans to him again.

Xu Huo and the others shared a peaceful village dinner until three Players brought their fight to the banquet. Xu Huo stopped the injured Player from attacking the villagers and invited all three Players to sit and eat, leaving the tense confrontation unresolved.

• Bubble Bean and the Yin Yang Master agreed not to antagonize Xu Huo and joined the villagers for dinner.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman mingled with the villagers as the meal grew lively.
• An injured Player fled into the banquet while two pursuers attacked him, and he targeted a child among the villagers.
• The painted woman shielded the child and trapped the injured Player with paper scraps, but he broke through her barrier.
• Xu Huo restrained the injured Player, forced him to agree not to attack unless the others attacked first, and invited the three Players to join the meal.

Xu Huo restrained the injured player and questioned three newcomers about the hidden friend, while the dungeon players remained unsure how the role worked. After the villagers explained their casual view of the hidden friend, Xu Huo warned that more players gathering could lead to trouble, though it might also draw the hidden friend out.

• Xu Huo used Sit Please to make the two newcomers sit, and Bubble Bean questioned them about who was the hidden friend.
• The eyebrow-pierced player accused the injured player of spying and trying to kill them, while the injured player denied it and suggested the role might rotate.
• Xu Huo said he was not a player in the dungeon, and Bubble Bean and the Yin Yang Master admitted they had found no real players in the woods.
• Bubble Bean and the others asked villagers about the hidden friend, and the villagers said the oddball might want friends from out of town and that players could not hurt ordinary people.
• After the feast, the players split between two empty houses, and Xu Huo asked the injured player how the role and dungeon rules might work.
• Xu Huo concluded that more players could cause trouble, but that their presence might also bring the hidden friend out.

Xu Huo and the others tried to attract players to Middle Wood Village while gathering information from the villagers and searching the forest. They encountered Chi Cai, a White Player who had been lost in the woods for days, and he asked to stay with them.

• Bubble Bean and the others placed a bright lamp near the village to draw in players, but no one arrived overnight.
• Xu Huo asked the painted woman to watch Yang Tian, and the group stayed in the village as villagers shared inconsistent stories about the forest.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman went to gather firewood with a young villager, and the painted woman spotted a waving figure that vanished when Xu Huo used a gust-generating device.
• On the way back, Xu Huo, the painted woman, and the young villager met Chi Cai, who identified himself as a White Player and said he was not the hidden friend.
• Chi Cai told Xu Huo he had spent nearly five days lost in the forest and reported that the Dungeon's player count had fallen from 42 to 35 before asking to stay with him.

Xu Huo’s group met Chi Cai’s two pursuers and then joined villagers searching for Grandma Yi’s missing granddaughter. Chi Cai suspected the hidden friend had taken the child, and Xu Huo’s group continued searching with the possibility that older villagers had been its main victims.

• Chi Cai demonstrated his speed and escape ability before two players—a green-haired woman and a man missing half his right ear—arrived looking for him.
• Chi Cai fled toward Middle Wood Village, where the players gathered in the Wooden Cabins and watched one another for signs of the hidden friend.
• Villagers from Shangmu Village reported that Grandma Yi’s granddaughter had gone missing, and Xu Huo proposed joining the search.
• Xu Huo’s group searched the forest with a young villager as their guide, while Xu Huo asked whether the girl might have gone to visit Tuo Tuo in Lower Wood Village.
• Chi Cai told Xu Huo he suspected the hidden friend had taken the girl and reasoned that its past victims were probably elderly people.

Xu Huo found the missing girl in a tree hollow and learned that she believed the forest spirit was Sister Toto, a dead woman who had once told her stories. He brought the girl back to Shangmu Village, where Grandma Yi reunited with her, and a neighbor blew a wooden whistle toward the forest.

• Xu Huo found the little girl asleep in an underground tree hollow and gave her food and water.
• The girl told Xu Huo that she believed Sister Toto had called her into the forest and explained that Toto and other villagers had died and returned to the woods.
• Xu Huo persuaded the girl to give him her candies for Sister Toto and walked her back to Shangmu Village.
• Grandma Yi struck the girl, then hugged her in relief, while the girl's little brother began to cry.
• A neighbor blew a wooden whistle toward the forest after hearing that the girl had returned safely.

Xu Huo rescued a girl and heard Grandma Yi explain how her dying mother followed a figure into the woods, leading her to believe the hidden friends were Monsters. After warning Xu Huo to leave and answering his questions about disappearances, Grandma Yi sent him off with a whistle.

• Xu Huo accepted Grandma Yi's invitation for tea after rescuing the little girl.
• Grandma Yi recounted how her dying mother saw her dead father's figure signal to her and then vanished into the woods.
• Grandma Yi said she later cleared the vines where her mother disappeared and found nothing, then concluded the hidden friend was a Monster that ate people.
• Xu Huo suggested the figure might have been a Mutated Plant imitating a person and asked Grandma Yi about disappearances among outsiders.
• Xu Huo gave the children a snack pack for the painted woman, and the little girl handed him a whistle from Grandma Yi.

Xu Huo searched near Tuo Tuo’s grave for the Mutated Plant that had lured the little girl into the forest, but found only seeds of a carnivorous plant. He was confronted by the Players who suspected he was hiding Dungeon clues, and Chi Cai warned them against killing anyone.

• Xu Huo took the painted woman to Tuo Tuo’s parents, then used their Route Map to find Tuo Tuo’s grave and left the little girl’s two candies there.
• Xu Huo examined the plants around the grave and dug into the ground, uncovering mud-covered seeds that proved to belong to a carnivorous plant.
• The painted woman wanted to take a seed, but Xu Huo identified what it was, and she buried them again.
• The Player with the missing ear arrived with his allies and accused Xu Huo of concealing Dungeon clues.
• Chi Cai stepped forward and reminded the Players that the Dungeon required the friend hiding away to have only one friend each day.

Xu Huo and the other players investigated the girl Tuo Tuo’s grave and debated whether to kill someone to lure out the Hidden Friend. Chi Cai talked them out of the test, and the chapter ended as night fell on the fifth day.

• The green-haired female player scanned Tuo Tuo’s grave and found no bones, though the soil contained bone matter.
• The players discussed whether killing someone would attract the Hidden Friend, but Chi Cai warned that it could lead to more deaths or cause the Dungeon Boss to blame them.
• The eyebrow-piercing player withdrew from the plan, and the green-haired female player teased Chi Cai before leaving.
• Xu Huo and Chi Cai returned to the Wooden Cabin, where Chi Cai said he had been a teacher and the painted woman gave him sour fruit to quiet him.
• The forest gradually sank into darkness on the fifth day.

Xu Huo and the other players struggled against an unnatural drowsiness that overtook the village at night, and Xu Huo stayed awake until dawn. The players resumed investigating the forest the next day, while Chi Cai and Yang Tian hurried after the middle-aged man when they learned he had left alone.

• As the village went dark, Xu Huo noticed the players becoming unnaturally sleepy and tried to keep Chi Cai, Yang Tian, and the painted woman awake with a card game.
• Chi Cai and Yang Tian eventually fell asleep, and Xu Huo went outside, where he and Bubble Bean were the last players to remain awake.
• Xu Huo stayed up assembling his robot until dawn, then told the painted woman to keep watch while he slept.
• The players suspected the nighttime mist or the Dungeon environment had caused their drowsiness, then split up to investigate plants and the forest.
• Chi Cai and Yang Tian followed the middle-aged man after learning he had gone off alone, but found that he was not with the three local youths.

Chi Cai and the other Players investigated the middle-aged man’s disappearance and suspected he had obtained the identity of a friend in hiding. As Yang Tian went missing in the fog and Xu Huo remained in the village, Chi Cai wondered whether Yang Tian had left a coded warning or deliberately split from him.

• Chi Cai questioned Yang Tian and the three young men, then accompanied them through the fog while Yang Tian headed back toward the village alone.
• The middle-aged man became trapped in the woods, used a metal bird to follow its blue smoke to a marked tree, and fled when the man with a pierced eyebrow appeared.
• The man with a pierced eyebrow, Bubble Bean, and the Yin Yang Master concluded that the middle-aged man might be playing the role of a hidden friend, and the Yin Yang Master planted coded warnings on marked trees.
• Chi Cai found one of the coded marks and messaged Yang Tian, who dismissed the warning while lost in the woods and cutting down trees to clear a path.
• Chi Cai returned to the village and found Xu Huo awake; after learning Yang Tian had not returned, he wondered whether Yang Tian had left the coded mark or deliberately separated from him.

As the players returned to the village, they debated a cryptic warning and a sudden drop in the player count while Yang Tian remained missing. That night, Xu Huo and Chi Cai were overcome by drowsiness again, but Xu Huo noticed a figure outside the middle-aged man's venue Wooden Cabin.

• The battered middle-aged man returned to the village and went into his simulated Wooden Cabin, while Chi Cai showed the others a code that might identify a hidden friend.
• A message announced that only 34 players remained, and Chi Cai worried that Yang Tian had not replied to him.
• Xu Huo invited the young man to dinner and asked about a missing child, but the young man insisted that no children had ever disappeared from the village.
• Chi Cai volunteered to keep watch, but the familiar drowsiness overcame him, and he accidentally knocked the painted woman away when she tried to wake him.
• Xu Huo noticed a figure outside the middle-aged man's venue Wooden Cabin.

Xu Huo and the other players followed a middle-aged man into the woods, where he muttered religious words before escaping with a Space Teleport Artifact. Back in Middle Wood Village, the players discussed the hidden friend and found Yang Tian alive but poisoned after a large man rescued him from a carnivorous plant.

• Xu Huo and several players followed the middle-aged man into the woods while Bubble Bean and two others investigated a strange gulping sound.
• The middle-aged man muttered religious words, then bolted into the fog and escaped with repeated uses of a Space Teleport Artifact.
• The players returned to Middle Wood Village and discussed the missing players, the hidden friend, and whether Dungeon Players were replacing local victims.
• A large man appeared carrying the missing Yang Tian, who was poisoned after nearly being eaten by a carnivorous plant.
• Chi Cai injected Yang Tian with an Antidote, and the big man praised him for showing compassion.

Xu Huo considered whether the hidden friend was a specific Dungeon Boss and agreed to stay with Chi Cai's group in his Location Artifact. Yang Tian woke unable to feel his legs, and Bubble Bean questioned him about what happened after he separated from Chi Cai.

• You Daqian introduced himself to the players and said Yang Tian had been lucky to survive after he found him in the forest.
• Xu Huo reasoned that the middle-aged man's disappearance and Yang Tian's injuries might point to different methods used by the hidden friend, or to something else in the forest.
• Chi Cai proposed gathering the players in his open pavilion Location Artifact, and Xu Huo agreed to join them.
• Chi Cai's Location Artifact expanded to hold the group, and You Daqian questioned what it could do.
• Yang Tian woke up unable to feel his legs, failed to recover after injecting Antidote, and accused the others of harming him.
• Bubble Bean asked Yang Tian what happened after he separated from Chi Cai and why he had ended up so far from the village.

Yang Tian returned to the village poisoned and unable to move, but his account of what happened in the forest seemed dishonest. The players failed to agree on who might be a performer, so Yang Tian used a Space Interference Device to prevent anyone from teleporting away.

• You Daqian said he had found Yang Tian poisoned and wrapped in Mutated Plants, while Chi Cai said he had injected him with Antidote.
• Xu Huo confirmed that You Daqian and Chi Cai had saved Yang Tian, who described getting lost, losing consciousness, and waking in the village.
• The players suspected Yang Tian was lying about what happened in the forest, but they could not determine whether he or anyone else was a performer.
• The players argued over whether Yang Tian had been attacked by the hidden friend or targeted by the man with a pierced eyebrow and his companion.
• The Yin Yang Master proposed that everyone stay together, and Yang Tian revealed a Space Interference Device and implanted it in his wrist to block teleportation.

Xu Huo left the village with a group of mushroom-picking villagers to investigate the Dungeon’s hidden power and the “hidden friend.” After the villagers vanished from his perception, he realized he had been trapped in a spatial anomaly and had unknowingly looped back to his marker.

• The painted woman agreed to go mushroom picking with the villagers, and Xu Huo decided to accompany them despite the other Players’ concerns.
• Xu Huo warned the Players that the figures they saw might be subjective and that the hidden friend could make people lose their way.
• The Players considered whether the Dungeon involved folded space and feared that groups might disappear without warning.
• Xu Huo deliberately fell behind the mushroom-picking group to test the Dungeon’s hidden power.
• When the villagers vanished near a stream, Xu Huo used the Cube Space to examine the area and tried to return to the village.
• Xu Huo saw his marker for the second time and realized that he, not the villagers, had disappeared into a trap.

Xu Huo repeatedly failed to leave the forest before confronting a scrawny Player who had been hiding nearby. After learning that impostors had been killed and villagers were near a stream, he ordered the woman to lead him there.

• Xu Huo tried several ways to escape the forest but always returned to the same spot, then waited beneath a marker.
• He saw shifting figures that resembled people he missed and Players from Middle Wood Village, and attacked them without effect.
• After Chi Cai's voice seemed to come from a solid figure, Xu Huo used a Mental Portal to seize a scrawny woman hiding in a tree.
• Xu Huo overpowered the woman and held a black knife beside her head until she begged him to spare her.
• The woman said two impostors had killed Players before disappearing inside their pocket-dimension items, and she had seen villagers and another Player near a stream.
• Xu Huo ordered the woman to lead him to the villagers.

Xu Huo reasoned that the forest’s dangers targeted isolated people and that the Dungeon’s rules mainly protected the village’s locals from Players. At the creek, he photographed the children and invited the gaunt woman to join them.

• Xu Huo questioned the gaunt woman about the missing Players and concluded that their disappearances differed from the disorientation he had experienced.
• Xu Huo inferred that being alone near the village could trap someone in a ghostly loop, while the Dungeon’s restrictions on killing benefited the locals.
• Xu Huo reasoned that actors and the friend hiding away shared a daily limit on killings, and that someone in his group might soon be assigned the hidden friend role.
• The little girl showed Xu Huo the mushrooms, fish, and shrimp she had gathered by the creek.
• The painted woman asked Xu Huo for his old-fashioned camera, so he bought one and photographed the children before inviting the gaunt woman to join them.

Xu Huo brought Old Chai and his two companions to Middle Wood Village, then warned the players that acting alone could trigger changes in the Dungeon. After discussing impostors and disappearances, Bubble Bean proposed that players form groups of three to keep each other in check.

• Xu Huo sent the skinny woman with the painted woman to catch rabbits, then met Old Chai, Zhizhi, and Moon Upon Willow Branches by the stream.
• The skinny woman recognized Old Chai as the first person to leave their group, and Xu Huo made Old Chai and his companions join the others on the way to the village.
• Xu Huo and the other players shared a communal lunch, and he explained that he had been trapped alone and heard Chi Cai's voice calling to him.
• Xu Huo urged everyone to avoid going off alone, while the players discussed how impostors, hidden friends, and the recent disappearances might be connected.
• Bubble Bean asked whether anyone had killed someone since entering the Dungeon, then suggested that the players form groups of three to watch one another.

The players split into groups and settled in for the night while the painted woman explored the village with local children. A voice from the woods lured her to a hidden robot repeating her name, making the players suspect that one of the newcomers had chosen her as a target.

• The players divided into four groups, and Yang Tian ended up with Chi Cai, Xu Huo, and the painted woman before they agreed to rest and take turns keeping watch.
• The painted woman roamed the village trading snacks for unusual food and objects, then played with three children on Grandpa He's suggestion.
• A voice from the woods repeatedly called the painted woman Lichun, and she went into the woods after it when Xu Huo did not come looking for her.
• The painted woman returned with a muddy, broken robot that was still repeating her name, then crushed it beneath her foot.
• Bubble Bean suspected that an actor among the players had sent the robot, and Bubble Bean and the green-haired female player focused on the big man and Old Chai's group of newcomers.

Xu Huo and the other players waited in Middle Wood Village as the Dungeon remained quiet, then traveled to Shangmu Village after a local went missing. Some players vanished during teleportation, and the remaining group learned that eight more players had died, leaving 21 in the Dungeon.

• Moon Upon Willow Branches and Yin Yang Master debated whether players should reveal who had failed to play a role, but no one fought.
• Xu Huo, Old Chai, and the others kept watch and waited through days of silence as the Dungeon's player count fell from 33 to 29.
• After fifteen uneventful days, the players learned that a villager from Shangmu Village had gone missing and decided to attend the funeral there.
• The fourteen players used two Space Teleport Artifacts to travel, but one group vanished, leaving Bubble Bean, Xu Huo, and a few others at the funeral.
• The player count abruptly fell to 21, and Bubble Bean told Xu Huo and the painted woman that he was beginning to believe they were not Dungeon players.

Xu Huo and the other Players compared what they had learned about missing Players and the forest’s villages, but found no explanation for the disappearances. As the group split up for safety, Xu Huo stayed with the painted woman and asked Grandma Yi about the forest, who mentioned seeing mutated plants grow out of season.

• Bubble Bean and Chi Cai reported that Lower Wood Village had seen three Players who did not match anyone from Middle Wood Village, suggesting there might be other settlements in the forest.
• The Players considered why a group of seven had disappeared together, while the Yin Yang Master provoked Chi Cai and accused him of harming Yang Tian and targeting Xu Huo.
• The seven remaining Players abandoned their plan to watch one another and split up; the man with a pierced eyebrow and Chi Cai teamed up, while Yang Tian paid a villager for lodging.
• Bubble Bean left with the Yin Yang Master, and the man with a pierced eyebrow and Chi Cai invited Xu Huo to join them, but he declined and went with the painted woman to Grandma Yi’s house.
• Xu Huo asked Grandma Yi about the seasons and mutated plants, and she said she sometimes saw mutated plants growing out of season.

Xu Huo investigated the forest’s strange flower growth and deduced that the Hidden Friend might be replaying past voices and figures rather than appearing in the present. He called Bubble Bean into his Spiritual World to test his theory, where Bubble Bean became trapped in a terrifying illusion and was stabbed by his own weapon.

• Xu Huo visited the flower patch Grandma Yi had described, but found the flowers blooming normally and detected no unusual changes.
• Xu Huo reasoned that the forest might record and replay past sights and sounds, explaining the disappearances and the voices that called to Players.
• Xu Huo returned near Shangmu Village, waited until the other Players slept, and called Bubble Bean into his Spiritual World.
• Bubble Bean mistook Xu Huo’s call for a trap, found that he could not wake the Yin Yang Master or escape the Wooden Cabin, and became unable to use his items or make himself heard.
• Bubble Bean charged at the door with a weapon, but it ended up plunged into his own chest, and he collapsed.