Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo, Meng Wenguang, and Feng Hui infiltrated Little Star Company to investigate a home invasion case and uncovered a connection to Stellar Group's chairman and Dr. Wu. Xu Huo suspected that 9:17 p.m. was when the Players' memory loss would occur, while the owners' locations remained concealed.

• Xu Huo noticed a strange tingling sensation whenever the group crossed a street, but Meng Wenguang's instrument detected nothing unusual.
• At Little Star Company's entrance, the group recognized Stellar Group's chairman in a promotional photo and learned that Dr. Wu had contributed technology to the company.
• Xu Huo, Meng Wenguang, and Feng Hui disguised themselves as employees and split up to investigate the home invasion case, personnel changes, and financial records.
• Xu Huo found that Little Star's analysis had identified five suspects in the home invasion case and noted that the Players repeatedly lost their memories at 9:17 p.m.
• Meng Wenguang accessed salary and dividend account records, but found that the company owners' locations and authorized payment locations had been hidden.

Xu Huo and his companions investigated Little Star Company and learned about its citywide surveillance project while trying to find Dr. Wu. After they pulled two player intruders out of the company, one begged for food and warned that he might eat people.

• Xu Huo recorded information about Little Star Company, Pumpkin City, and the company's proposed city defense and population-control system.
• Xu Huo found Dr. Wu, who said he trusted Landau not to sell his technology to arms dealers and mentioned his child, Xiao Ling.
• Xu Huo, Meng Wenguang, and Feng Hui followed Dr. Wu to the cafeteria, then avoided forcing their way into the workroom after a false alarm.
• Two players broke into Little Star Company seeking Dr. Wu, and Xu Huo and Meng Wenguang dragged them outside.
• One intruder attacked Meng Wenguang, while the other collapsed and begged for food, saying he might start eating people.

Xu Huo and Meng Wenguang questioned two starving Players, but one suddenly turned to ashes after being killed by Time Power. The surviving Player, Shen Liang, explained the city's daily time loop and shared records, then raised the possibility that Pumpkin City's strange structure involved Curved Time.

• Xu Huo gave a starving Player dried meat and water while Meng Wenguang subdued his companion.
• The subdued Player suddenly crumbled into ashes, and Shen Liang identified Time Power as the cause.
• Xu Huo reasoned that Time Power periodically purged Players in the abandoned city, while Shen Liang said survival seemed to depend on luck.
• Shen Liang explained that time reset at 9:17 every night and that he had witnessed Players perish under Time Power.
• Shen Liang gave Xu Huo old recorders filled with records, and the group confirmed the abandoned city was Pumpkin City.
• Shen Liang asked Xu Huo whether he had heard of Curved Time and connected it to the city's unusual structure.

Xu Huo and the others discussed Dr. Wu’s connection to curved time and the purpose of Pumpkin City, then decided to search for his family’s address. Yue Rui found a lead from one of Dr. Wu’s fans, and the group headed to check it.

• Shen Liang said he had heard Dr. Wu might have jumped through curved time, while Meng Wenguang argued that the apparent time loop came from erased memories.
• Xu Huo reasoned that Pumpkin City was likely designed to help Players grasp Time Power, and suspected Dr. Wu was testing and cultivating them.
• After Meng Wenguang shared Yue Rui’s report about Little Star Company’s self-defense devices, Xu Huo proposed searching Dr. Wu’s workplace and rival companies for his address.
• Yue Rui found an address from an obsessed fan of Dr. Wu, and Xu Huo told the group to check it first.

Xu Huo and the others searched for Dr. Wu’s family while weighing whether to wait for the suspected home invasion at 9:17. After Yue Rui confirmed one residence was fake, new Players arrived at Little Star Company and began asking about clues.

• Meng Wenguang suggested waiting until 9:17 to see where a robbery occurred, but Xu Huo said they needed to find Dr. Wu’s wife and daughter before the tragedy.
• Xu Huo stayed at Little Star Company while Meng Wenguang investigated its rival and Feng Hui questioned company employees.
• Yue Rui told Xu Huo that the address she had found was a fake residence, furnished with fresh snacks and signs designed to make it look lived in.
• Shen Liang questioned why Xu Huo was waiting at the company and asked whether time items were necessary to enter or leave the real Pumpkin City.
• Five Players arrived at Little Star Company, and Shen Liang asked them whether they had any clues.

Xu Huo and the others investigated Dr. Wu’s whereabouts in Little Star Company as more players arrived in Pumpkin City. After a newcomer used Time Power to freeze much of the company and then left, Xu Huo and Meng Wenguang considered how time-based arrivals might affect the search for the home invasion’s location.

• Kong Ying introduced the other players and said they had come to Little Star Company hoping to learn who had changed the Dungeon.
• Feng Hui reported that company staff would not reveal Dr. Wu’s address, while Meng Wenguang later found nearly twenty likely fake addresses clustered near the company.
• A fashionable man used Time Power to freeze many people in Little Star Company, then left after Xu Huo escaped its effect.
• Xu Huo guessed that the newcomer had already visited the company and learned what he needed, and Meng Wenguang returned with the addresses he had found.
• Xu Huo and Meng Wenguang discussed whether players whose arrival times had not yet come could have remained in Pumpkin City and whether the newcomer might know the home invasion’s location.

Xu Huo questioned the players in Pumpkin City, then tracked down a man who had arrived earlier and carried a recorder. He argued that Time Power might endanger players who stayed too long, but the man refused to share his records, leaving Xu Huo to search elsewhere for clues.

• Kong Ying, Chen An, Shen Liang, and the others told Xu Huo when they had arrived and when they had encountered players in the abandoned city.
• Meng Wenguang suggested that many players who arrived the previous day were still trapped, and Xu Huo told him to stay behind and contact Wang Ling and Long Jianfeng.
• Xu Huo searched Pumpkin City and found the man who had left earlier near the southern edge of the city.
• The man demanded a time-related item in exchange for his recorder, and Xu Huo warned that Time Power might eliminate players who stayed too long.
• The man dismissed Xu Huo's claims as speculation and refused to cooperate, so Xu Huo left to look for other players carrying time-related items.

Xu Huo rescued Wang Ling and Long Jianfeng from two Players pursuing Wang Ling’s time Artifact, then discussed the threat of another time-stopping Artifact and the robberies linked to Little Star Company. As the group prepared to investigate nearby addresses, a newcomer returned the escaped Player and offered it as proof of his willingness to cooperate.

• Xu Huo destroyed the Flying Arrows and helped Wang Ling and Long Jianfeng confront the two Players, but one escaped underground.
• Xu Huo told Wang Ling and Long Jianfeng that he had encountered someone with a time-stopping Artifact, and they agreed that confronting the unknown owner was too risky for now.
• Long Jianfeng reported the municipal government’s robbery findings and Little Star Company’s defensive shield project and privately signed weapons contract.
• Xu Huo questioned whether the reported robber was real or whether an insider had altered the evidence, then proposed investigating nearby addresses.
• A newcomer appeared on a rooftop, returned the escaped Player, and said he was showing his sincerity about cooperating.

Xu Huo negotiated a partnership with Tang Ming to investigate Dr. Wu’s research and the Perfect Potion, while Tang Ming revealed details about the murder of Dr. Wu’s wife and daughter. The chapter ended with Xu Huo asking when Pumpkin City had refreshed.

• Tang Ming proposed taking half of anything they found, but Xu Huo negotiated an even split of the Perfect Potion among Players with time-related abilities and shared clues for everyone.
• Long Jianfeng accepted the proposed agreement, and Tang Ming agreed to let Xu Huo bring his companions along.
• Tang Ming revealed that Dr. Wu’s wife and daughter were killed during a home invasion at Sunshine Tree No. 12 at 9:17 p.m.
• Tang Ming said the robber fled after the killings and was later shot dead by armed patrol officers.
• Wang Ling questioned the circumstances surrounding the murders, and Xu Huo asked whether Pumpkin City had refreshed at 12:03 or 9:00 in the morning.

Xu Huo and the others investigated Dr. Wu’s disappearance and considered whether saving his family could change the outcome of the home invasion. Xu stayed at Little Star Company to watch for Dr. Wu, while the others went to Sunshine Tree No. 12 or prepared to search there.

• Tang Ming told Xu Huo that Dr. Wu had left Little Star Company around eight and had not answered his Communicator since the home invasion.
• Xu Huo argued that Dr. Wu’s unusual absence could not be explained by ordinary distractions, and Long Jianfeng suggested protecting Dr. Wu’s wife and daughter to alter events.
• Xu Huo sent Tang Ming and the others toward Sunshine Tree No. 12 while he returned to Little Star Company to look for Dr. Wu.
• Xu Huo felt an electric-shock sensation again while crossing a street and wondered whether it was connected to his time-related evolution.
• Meng Wenguang agreed to send Yue Rui and others to Sunshine Tree No. 12, while Xu Huo stayed at the company and asked the remaining Players to regain their strength for another sleepless night.

Xu Huo and the other players guarded Sunshine Tree No. 12, waiting for the robber to appear while Dr. Wu remained at Little Star Company. The robber emerged from a kitchen cabinet and attacked the hostess, but after a flash device disrupted the players, Tang Ming killed him, leaving them without a chance to question him.

• Xu Huo left recording devices at Little Star Company and joined Tang Ming and the others at Sunshine Tree No. 12.
• Tang Ming argued that they should focus on keeping Dr. Wu away from the robbery rather than tracking his movements.
• A new neighbor arrived with a gift shortly before 9:18, and the hostess let him leave before taking the fruit to the kitchen.
• A robber burst out of a cabinet and slashed at the hostess, but Xu Huo blocked the knife and Wang Ling pulled the man out.
• The robber dropped a device that blinded the players and charged at the hostess, and Tang Ming killed him as Xu Huo shielded the mother and daughter.
• The new neighbor saw the blood through a window and fled, while Wang Ling reproached Tang Ming for killing the robber before they could question him.

After discovering that killing the burglar did not change Pumpkin City’s storyline, Xu Huo and the others investigated Dr. Wu’s movements and found that clocks behaved differently depending on where they were viewed. Xu Huo sent Meng Wenguang to test the pattern on other streets, and Meng Wenguang’s signal began flashing red, then green.

• Tang Ming killed a burglar, but a television report showed that the man had still killed one person and seriously injured another in the storyline.
• Xu Huo retrieved his recording device and found that Dr. Wu had left the company while the footage’s time was far ahead of the Players’ experience.
• Xu Huo and the others noticed that clocks appeared to run backward on streets behind them, while clocks on the street they occupied appeared to run normally.
• Xu Huo’s group tested the clock behavior across several streets and found that the direction changed depending on where they stood.
• Xu Huo sent Meng Wenguang to check the clocks around 6th and 4th Streets, and the distant warning light flashed red before turning green.

Xu Huo and the others tried to understand why Pumpkin City’s street clocks ran in opposite directions, concluding that neighboring streets differed in time by about fifteen minutes. They remained unsure how the distortion worked or how to use it, and Tang Ming challenged Meng Wenguang’s idea that moving between streets could reverse time.

• Wang Ling asked whether the backward-running clocks on 17th Street reflected Pumpkin City’s symmetry, and Xu Huo agreed that opposite streets appeared to correspond.
• Xu Huo proposed that backward clocks marked time already passed while normally running clocks marked the future, and Wang Ling inferred that each street’s time differed by about fifteen minutes.
• Xu Huo studied the map and questioned whether street clocks represented genuinely different time flows, since the players’ devices and experience had not changed as they crossed streets.
• Meng Wenguang returned, and Wang Ling said that knowing the time difference did not explain what to do next.
• Meng Wenguang suggested that traveling between streets might let them reverse time, but Yue Rui explained that differing street times could not reverse a player’s personal timeline.
• Tang Ming asked Meng Wenguang whether his repeated travel along the street had actually changed the past.

Xu Huo led his group along 23rd Street toward the Time Tower to investigate why the Players arrived there at nearly the same time as groups traveling shorter routes. He left them wondering what he had discovered and warned Tang Ming not to interfere with their attempt to escape Pumpkin City.

• Meng Wenguang went back to Sunshine Tree No. 12 and signaled with a green light that the time there had changed as expected.
• Yue Rui suggested that the Players might find a way out by damaging the Time Tower, and Xu Huo told her group to meet Meng Wenguang there.
• Xu Huo sent Shen Liang and the others along 16th Street, then led Tang Ming, Wang Ling, and Long Jianfeng toward the Time Tower via 23rd Street.
• Xu Huo's group reached the Time Tower at around eleven, shortly after the groups that had taken shorter streets arrived.
• Wang Ling questioned why all three groups had arrived at nearly the same time, and Xu Huo challenged Tang Ming's ability to understand his reasoning.
• Shen Liang warned Tang Ming not to provoke Xu Huo or obstruct the Players' effort to escape.

Xu Huo explained that Pumpkin City’s streets formed a system of Curved Time that could let players jump back to earlier events, but the group did not know how to trigger the jump. With 12:03 approaching and memories at risk of changing, they considered having Tang Ming wait for them to return the next day.

• Wang Ling asked Xu Huo whether he was a Temporal Evolution Super Evolver, and Xu Huo began explaining why the group could not go farther.
• Xu Huo compared the groups’ travel times and distances to argue that Pumpkin City’s streets followed Curved Time rather than ordinary differences in time flow.
• Xu Huo explained that jumping back from later streets could return players to a point before Dr. Wu’s wife and daughter were killed at 9:17 p.m. on 12th Street.
• Meng Wenguang urged everyone to hurry to 23rd Street, but Xu Huo said they had no way to trigger the time jump, and Tang Ming confirmed his time items had not worked before.
• Yue Rui warned that players might leave Pumpkin City at 12:03 with altered memories, so the group considered having Tang Ming wait for them to enter the city again the next day.

Xu Huo disrupted the Time Rays in Pumpkin City and witnessed Curved Time causing moments to overlap and reverse. He realized that the Super Artifact “Three Seconds of Life” captured Curved Time, then tried to draw Curved Time into the ordinary flow on 12th Street.

• Xu Huo left Tang Ming and headed for 23rd Street, with Wang Ling and the others following him.
• Xu Huo reflected on his stalled Temporal Evolution and wondered how Curved Time might affect the Time Rays in Pumpkin City.
• Xu Huo disturbed a node in the Time Rays, causing strands throughout the city to ripple and overlap.
• Xu Huo reversed one strand and watched a passerby’s movements rewind, leading him to realize that “Three Seconds of Life” captured Curved Time.
• Xu Huo sensed Curved Time in chaos across Pumpkin City and reached out to draw it into the normal flow of time on 12th Street.

Xu Huo manipulated time while the others fought Tang Ming, whose time-based item proved ineffective. As Tang Ming fled toward 12th Street, Xu Huo’s Curved Time ray reached it and time stopped across the city.

• Tang Ming tried to attack Xu Huo, but Meng Wenguang blocked him and Wang Ling refused to join his ambush.
• Tang Ming attacked the group, and Meng Wenguang, Yue Rui, Long Jianfeng, and the others worked together to restrain him.
• Tang Ming escaped underground and injured Yue Rui, but Meng Wenguang forced him back to the surface by pounding the street.
• Tang Ming’s time-based item failed to affect the group, and Xu Huo rewound Tang Ming’s attack to its starting position.
• Tang Ming fled toward 12th Street as Xu Huo’s Curved Time ray reached it, and time suddenly stopped throughout the city.

With Pumpkin City frozen by time power, Xu Huo visited Dr. Wu at Sunshine Tree No. 12 and learned more about Curved Time and its dangers. Dr. Wu gave him a P5S potion and told him to take the Time Tower before the city disappeared in ten days, then vanished before Xu Huo could ask more questions.

• Tang Ming rushed toward a beam of white light but disintegrated after entering another stream of time power.
• Xu Huo warned Wang Ling not to move and went to Sunshine Tree No. 12, where Dr. Wu welcomed him.
• Dr. Wu explained that Curved Time could return someone to an earlier state, but its range and effects were difficult to predict.
• Xu Huo questioned whether a Super Artifact used Curved Time and whether it could return the game world to its beginning.
• Dr. Wu gave Xu Huo a P5S potion, told him to find the Player called Foodie if he needed more, and said the city would disappear in ten days.
• Dr. Wu vanished before Xu Huo could ask his remaining questions, leaving him to take the Time Tower.

Xu Huo took the Time Ring from Lu Miaomiao after Pumpkin City began moving again, then warned the others that the unstable time instance might last several more days. He left them with a chance to survive and explore time evolution while he continued to consider Dr. Wu’s creation and past.

• After the figure vanished and the city resumed moving, Xu Huo sensed chaotic Time Power appearing throughout Pumpkin City.
• Lu Miaomiao fled Wang Ling and the others with the Time Ring, but Xu Huo used Curved Time to bring her back and took the ring.
• Xu Huo told Lu Miaomiao and the others to stay put, explaining that they would probably survive the instance but might lose their memories.
• Xu Huo warned the group about the unstable Time Power and encouraged them to try sensing it for a possible second evolution.
• Wang Ling asked Xu Huo about time evolution and Dr. Wu, while Kong Ying asked whether the chairman of Stellar Group had killed Dr. Wu’s family.

Xu Huo showed Yue Rui how Time Power appeared in Pumpkin City, then realized how time-related items and the Time Tower could act as mediums for Curved Time. By testing the Time Rays, he managed to create a small field that slowed everything within it, leaving him exhilarated but wary of Time’s overwhelming power.

• Shen Liang, Meng Wenguang, and the others speculated about Dr. Wu’s motives and the Game Government’s influence.
• Meng Wenguang asked Xu Huo to help Yue Rui understand secondary Evolution, and Xu Huo agreed to show her Time Power.
• Xu Huo gave Yue Rui the time Ring, allowing her to see Pumpkin City’s chaotic Time Rays through the Spiritual World.
• Xu Huo realized that items such as Three Seconds of Life and the Time Tower could draw on nearby Curved Time as mediums.
• Xu Huo plucked at the Time Rays and created a field that slowed a passerby and everything else within its range.
• Xu Huo recognized that controlling Time through a medium did not mean he had mastered it, and cautioned himself against its immense power.