Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo helped the painted woman recover her stolen belongings on the train and kept her from wandering into more trouble. As night fell, he had her stay in their private room, though she continued to flirt with him.

• The painted woman spent all her White Cash on food, then used a gemstone to buy dessert with Xu Huo’s help.
• After exploring the train, the painted woman returned to Xu Huo and said a Player had stolen her belongings and hit her.
• Xu Huo confronted the thief, forced him to confess, and used Space Sharp Blades to make him return the painted woman’s things.
• The painted woman took two of the thief’s items as compensation, and Xu Huo stopped her from killing him or taking more.
• The painted woman lost her remaining gemstones playing cards, and Xu Huo later told her to stay in their private room for the night.

Xu Huo and the painted woman discovered two Players had been killed by blood loss and poison aboard the train. The other Players suspected one another, but they left the bodies for the Conductor to handle without learning who the killer was.

• The painted woman changed into a purple dress and unpacked her clothes, snacks, toys, and other belongings from Xu Huo’s suitcase.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman found Players gathered around the bodies of a man and woman who had died in the Transfer Carriage restroom.
• The Players determined that the man had died from blood loss and the woman from poison, with both bearing puncture marks and no obvious signs of struggle.
• Players from Carriages Three and Four suspected one another, while Xu Huo suggested the killer might have an Ability like a Vampire’s and noted that nobody from Carriage Four had left.
• A Player removed the dead woman’s Mask, revealing her real face, but the Players stopped investigating and left the bodies for the Conductor.
• The painted woman asked Xu Huo whether Vampire Players slept hanging upside down, and he joked about them developing acrobatic abilities.

The painted woman irritated players across the train while searching for Vampires, and Xu Huo warned her they might leave soon. After everyone else left Carriage Four, Xu Huo faced a nearly undetectable Player who entered the carriage searching for someone.

• The painted woman visited other carriages, provoked players, and asked whether they were Vampires, then told Xu Huo she had guessed the blond Player might be one.
• Xu Huo told the painted woman to stay in her room because they might get off the train, and he turned her into paper after the lights went out.
• Several Players left Carriage Four, leaving Xu Huo alone there, so he rested on the sofa.
• A nearly invisible Player entered from the carriage ahead and searched the carriage in silence.
• Xu Huo detected the intruder and asked whom he was looking for, but the Player threw out small items that swarmed through the carriage like bats.

Xu Huo arrived at C11-011’s Myriad Faith Station and watched a fierce battle between Ye City factions. The fighting continued as he learned that the District’s chaos came from powerful rival Player groups, and that it strongly opposed Cannibal Players.

• Xu Huo reached Myriad Faith Station and found the surrounding countryside scarred by recent battles.
• A Mutant Animal hawk triggered a charge of wild boars against Players operating modified harvesters, while both sides ordered Xu Huo away.
• Xu Huo avoided the boars, asked a bearded Player whether a war was underway, and learned it was a Ye City family matter.
• The boars and harvesters clashed before the Players on both sides began fighting with items, devices, and Potions.
• Xu Huo watched the battle and recalled that C11-011 was chaotic because powerful Player factions refused to yield to one another, and that the District particularly hated Cannibal Players.

Xu Huo and the painted woman entered Xicheng, where the Shadow Eater sect enforced deadly rules about shadows and outsiders. After buying a costly Dungeon manual, Xu Huo found nearly ten known Instance Entrances in the city, but their destinations remained unknown.

• Xu Huo traveled to Xicheng with the painted woman after the Dungeon information failed to activate near Ye City.
• At Xicheng’s outskirts, a Player stepped on a vendor’s shadow, prompting the shadow’s owner to flee and other vendors to kill him before returning to the city.
• Xu Huo bought an umbrella and entered Xicheng with the painted woman, where they saw the Shadow Eater sect’s influence across the streets.
• A nearby Player warned Xu Huo and the painted woman that even Outer District Players were targeted, then vanished as three Players tried to catch him.
• Xu Huo bought a Dungeon manual and discovered that Xicheng had nearly ten known Instance Entrances whose destinations were uncertain.

Xu Huo left the dungeon entrance in Xicheng after a fight with Shadow Eater cult Players and traveled with the painted woman to Ye City. There, a dungeon notification appeared when he entered the trigger range of "Doll," and he was due to be transported within a minute.

• Xu Huo watched a dungeon entrance in Xicheng, then saw a battle between white-robed Players and Shadow Eater cult members devastate the city center.
• A Shadow Eater cult Player attacked Xu Huo and the painted woman, then gathered companions to confront them; Xu Huo killed the attackers using his Spiritual World and abilities.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman left Xicheng as residents and Players fled the ongoing chaos, and they headed to Ye City.
• In Ye City, Xu Huo bought dungeon handbooks and used their information to seek a nearby dungeon entrance.
• Xu Huo entered the trigger range of the dungeon "Doll," and a notification announced that the dungeon would open once twenty-four people had entered its range.

Xu Huo entered the B-class Doll instance with the painted woman and joined nineteen other players in Doll Castle. As the castle owner approached for dinner, four late players fought over the three remaining seats, and one was knocked into the display case.

• Xu Huo and the painted woman entered the Doll instance and found a dining room prepared for twenty-four guests.
• The instance introduction announced that players had to obtain a doll that satisfied the doll maker, who could punish disobedience and make only three dolls a day.
• Servants 1 through 4 arrived and told the players that dinner would begin at 6 p.m.; Xu Huo asked Servant 3 to show him the restroom.
• The players took their seats while leaving places near the head of the table empty, and the painted woman sat beside Xu Huo.
• Four players emerged from hiding just before the owner arrived, but only three seats remained; as they fought for them, one player was knocked into the display case.

The players attended dinner with the Castle's master, then explored the Castle in search of a way to clear the Dungeon. They entered the vast Exhibition Room, where a player wondered if the puppets had been modeled after previous visitors.

• The Castle's master arrived at the dining room, and the players began dinner after Player 1 rang the Bell.
• The painted woman asked to inspect and trade for puppets, but Player 1 said the displayed puppets were not for sale and could only be viewed through the glass.
• After dinner, Player 2 invited the players to explore the Castle and showed them the studio and the rooms open to guests.
• Xu Huo discouraged the group from lingering over the paintings, and a player uncovered a diagram detailing a puppet's construction.
• The players entered the enormous Exhibition Room and saw thousands of varied puppets; a female player wondered whether they resembled people who had entered the Dungeon.

The players explored the Castle and found few clues, then several ventured out at night and encountered a dangerous cat. By dawn, one player was dead, and the painted woman revealed that the cat had come out of a painting she had damaged.

• Zuo Yu recognized a doll as an A-class player who had been dead for some time.
• Xu Huo and the other players explored the Castle, found no further clues, and returned to their rooms.
• Several players left their rooms at night; the middle-aged man returned with claw wounds, while the player who had missed dinner never came back.
• At dawn, the players found the missing player's body on the dining table with claw marks and a fatal wound to his neck.
• The painted woman led the players to the art room and showed them a damaged painting of a cat, explaining that she had injured it.
• The woman with the high ponytail confirmed she had seen a huge black cat, which she thought was an item.

The players found a headless doll resembling the dead player and feared the dolls might be linked to their lives. Xu Huo searched the Castle and found a doll missing its right arm that belonged to the high-ponytail woman.

• The middle-aged man confirmed that the painted woman had injured a black cat, and the long-clothed man warned the players not to provoke her.
• Xu Huo asked the servants how to obtain a doll, but they did not answer.
• The painted woman found a headless doll beneath the dining table, and the players noticed its clothes and scratches resembled the dead player's.
• The painted woman admitted she had carried the dead player's body to the table so others could see him, unsettling the players.
• Xu Huo searched the accessible rooms and found a doll missing its right arm that belonged to the high-ponytail woman.

Xu Huo and the other Players tried to work out why the Castle’s owner was making dolls of them as another doll appeared, resembling the middle-aged man. As the Players stood to greet the doll maker, an invisible force crushed the middle-aged man to death at the dining table.

• The high-ponytailed woman found an incomplete doll, and Xu Huo and the sweet girl speculated that its missing arm might have been removed deliberately.
• The painted woman described following the black cat, finding the dead twenty-fifth Player, and moving his body to the dining room after taking some of his items.
• The long-clothed man suggested that the Castle’s owner might be making dolls of the Players he disliked most, while the others wondered whether someone had broken the Castle’s rules.
• The Players gathered for dinner, and the doll maker arrived carrying a doll that resembled the middle-aged man but was missing a leg.
• As the Players stood to greet the doll maker, an invisible force crushed the middle-aged man and slammed his bloodied body onto the tables and chairs.

At dinner, the Castle’s owner crushed two players without warning, leaving the survivors terrified and unsure what counted as breaking the rules. Xu Huo examined the doll designs afterward but could not determine the conditions for the deaths or the doll maker’s choices.

• The Castle’s owner killed the middle-aged man and the high ponytail at dinner, even though the latter had hidden her doll and used a defensive item.
• The painted woman asked the doll maker to make her a complete doll and returned the headless doll she had found.
• The sweet girl asked what made someone obedient, while the long-clothed man pointed out that the doll maker could not make enough dolls for everyone in seven days.
• The players returned to their rooms after dinner, and Xu Huo inspected the dolls and sketches in his Exhibition Room.
• Xu Huo reasoned that the deaths might have depended on the doll maker and the victims being present and on someone seeing an act, but he could not confirm the rules.

Xu Huo questioned the painted woman about the previous night and pieced together clues about the Castle’s dollmaker and his rules. He exposed Fluorescent Powder’s attempt to manipulate them and sent her back to her room, where she hit the doll ornament.

• Xu Huo considered how the servants’ connection to the dollmaker might affect the Dungeon’s rules and questioned the painted woman about what she had seen the previous night.
• The painted woman confirmed that No. 25 and a middle-aged man had fought the black cat, while the high-ponytailed Player had avoided it and she had seen no servants.
• Xu Huo concluded that punishments usually involved the dollmaker seeing the Player, that Player dolls could be found elsewhere, and that they could be retrieved.
• Fluorescent Powder accused Xu Huo and the painted woman of teaming up, and Xu Huo argued that she might be the non-Ticket Player rather than the painted woman.
• Xu Huo opened a portal beneath Fluorescent Powder and sent her to her own room, where she collided with the doll ornament.

Xu Huo navigated the players’ suspicions and a proposal to kill the doll maker while the dungeon produced more dolls. After catching an intact doll that appeared to belong to Zuo Yu, he returned it, leaving the players uncertain about his intentions.

• The sweet girl offered to team up with Xu Huo to kill the doll maker, but he questioned how that would clear the dungeon.
• The players found the scarred man’s headless doll at breakfast and learned that no new dolls had appeared in the Exhibition Room.
• A headless doll appeared in the scarred man’s room, and Xu Huo quietly urged the fluorescent powder to try something after her doll, missing both legs, appeared.
• An intact doll belonging to Zuo Yu appeared in the corridor, and Xu Huo caught it after it fell through a small doorway in the floor.
• Xu Huo returned the intact doll to Zuo Yu and told him to keep it safe.

Zuo Yu tried to protect his doll from the other Players, but the sweet girl destroyed it and defeated him. Xu Huo stopped her from further harming him, and the painted woman began waking Zuo Yu with a series of slaps.

• Zuo Yu fled the three Players chasing him and gave his doll to the painted woman in the dining hall.
• The sweet girl destroyed the doll with lightning, claiming she was testing the rules and trying to prevent another Player from clearing the game.
• Zuo Yu attacked the sweet girl, but she countered with red lightning that overwhelmed his defenses and knocked him unconscious.
• The painted woman stopped the sweet girl from cutting Zuo Yu's tendons, saying she was returning his gift.
• Xu Huo asked the sweet girl to stop; she agreed to back off, and the three Players who had chased Zuo Yu retreated.
• Xu Huo gestured for the painted woman to wake Zuo Yu, and she sat on him and slapped him five times.

At dinner, the doll maker killed Zuo Yu and Scarface after Zuo Yu’s doll was damaged, while Fluorescent Powder survived with her doll intact. Xu Huo and the other Players worked out more of the doll rules, but whether hiding or deliberately damaging a doll could help clear the dungeon remained uncertain.

• The painted woman revived Zuo Yu, who thanked her and learned that the sweet girl had tried to injure her.
• The doll maker arrived for dinner, gestured for the Players to sit, and caused Zuo Yu and Scarface to burst into blood mist.
• Fluorescent Powder survived dinner with her doll intact, and the doll maker had Number One collect it afterward.
• The long-clothed man suggested that each doll’s missing parts corresponded to the Player’s body, while Fluorescent Powder blamed Zuo Yu’s death on her shattered doll.
• Xu Huo reasoned that the doll maker had to witness rule-breaking and suggested hiding a doll or reducing the number of Players, though he admitted the risks were unknown.
• Fluorescent Powder hinted she might target Xu Huo’s doll, but the painted woman threatened to kill her if she damaged it.

Xu Huo considered how doll damage and repairs might affect the Dungeon’s rules while players continued eliminating one another. By the third day, the player count had fallen to fifteen, and a glasses player received a complete doll, though it remained unclear whether hiding it would help him clear the Dungeon.

• Xu Huo warned the sweet girl that destroying dolls could have unknown consequences, and she suggested the dollmaker might not care about them.
• Xu Huo told the painted woman that killing Fluorescent Pink was unnecessary and considered whether the missing dolls might be repaired later.
• Players formed teams and reduced the number of living players to fifteen by the morning of the second day.
• On the third day, Doll Servant No. 2 gave a complete doll to the glasses player when they met in the hallway.
• Fluorescent Pink questioned why players could hide damaged dolls without punishment, and the long-clothed man warned that intact dolls might still not be satisfactory.

Xu Huo and the other players debated whether dolls could be repaired or used after their owners died, while the long-clothed man fought the player who had found his doll and recovered it broken in half. The long-clothed man then threatened to take the glasses player's complete doll, but Xu Huo argued that the group should focus on learning the Castle's rules before risking another fight.

• The long-clothed man and the sweet girl debated whether recovered dolls could be repaired and whether the players could clear the instance without them.
• A player found the long-clothed man's missing doll in the recreation room and hid it in his Storage Compartment.
• The long-clothed man fought the player in the garden, killed him, and discovered that his doll had been snapped in half.
• The long-clothed man threatened to take the glasses player's complete doll, while the sweet girl blocked the glasses player's escape.
• Xu Huo urged the players to avoid fighting over the doll and explained that a damaged doll might still matter if its owner was alive.

At dinner, the players confirmed that damaging dolls caused them to lose more parts, while hiding a damaged doll could avoid its dinner punishment but prevent its return to the dollmaker. They agreed to stay together and watch one another, but ended with a question about whether a non-Ticket player could escape the Dungeon’s rules.

• Xu Huo explained that doll damage would reveal the punishment and warned the players that losing both arms was worse than losing one.
• At dinner, the dollmaker brought the sweet girl’s doll, which was missing both legs and its right arm; the players avoided moving the corresponding body parts, and no one died.
• After dinner, the players concluded that damaging dolls made repairs harder and that hiding a damaged doll prevented it from being returned to the dollmaker.
• The players counted fourteen people remaining, discussed how damaged dolls could affect their chances of clearing the Dungeon, and agreed to stick together and watch one another.
• The painted woman objected to sleeping in the same room, and another female player asked whether the non-Ticket player was still alive and might be free of the Dungeon’s rules.

The Players found ten identical dolls with their arms missing, and the long-clothed man admitted to planting fakes before using his Ability to stop an attack. Xu Huo proposed keeping everyone in the dining room under watch, but the chapter ended with him demanding the long-clothed man agree.

• The Players spent the night watching the three women, but in the morning they found ten arm-less dolls in the dining room and no others elsewhere in the Castle.
• The long-clothed man admitted he had planted fake dolls, provoking several Players to attack him.
• The long-clothed man used his Ability, saying "Meditate," to stop the attackers, while the middle-aged man urged everyone to avoid being provoked and keep watch on him.
• The long-clothed man warned the group that Xu Huo could secretly move or hide dolls, and Xu Huo replied that other Players also had Super Evolver abilities.
• Xu Huo proposed a new agreement against planting fakes and suggested that everyone stay in the dining room; the fluorescent pink woman and sweet girl agreed, and he asked the long-clothed man for his answer.