Chapter Summaries

After the ten-day simulation ended, Xu Huo retrieved the Time Tower and returned to the real city, where the Cockscomb Flower faith had been replaced by a Passerby A Church. The painted woman was running its headquarters and greeted Xu Huo eagerly, though she did not know how the new religion had started.

• Yue Rui failed to achieve temporal evolution but completed a second bodily evolution that let her rapidly recover from exhaustion and injuries.
• Meng Wenguang gave Xu Huo an A-class item and shared a secret as a private code for recognizing their friendship.
• When the simulation ended, Xu Huo picked up the Time Tower, a Super Artifact that created a special time field between 9:17 p.m. and 12:03 a.m.
• Xu Huo returned to the engineer's home and saw people replacing Cockscomb Flower symbols with images of Passerby A.
• Xu Huo found the painted woman distributing White Cash at the Passerby A Church headquarters, where she greeted him and admitted she did not know what was happening.

Xu Huo learned that the painted woman’s search for him had accidentally turned him into a religious figure in Cockscomb Flower City, then left with her and encountered Meng Wenguang’s group. In Harmony City, he found that Cannibal Players were violently barred from entering, and the chapter ended with one being killed and another escaping by Ticket.

• The painted woman explained how her paid search for Xu Huo had become an initiation ceremony, spreading his portraits and sculptures across Cockscomb Flower City and making many people worship him.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman visited the courtyard, where Xu left a metal badge for the sleeping mentally ill woman, then departed the city.
• Xu Huo met Meng Wenguang and his two companions, who remembered little of what happened after 9:17, and told them there would be no more unexplained Player disappearances in Cockscomb Flower City.
• Xu Huo used a teleportation item to take the painted woman to another city, then traveled with her to Harmony City, where Outer District Players were inspected at the gates.
• Harmony City patrol members exposed and killed a Cannibal Player, while another escaped using a Ticket, causing several people in line to disappear.

As Players waited for inspections in District 011, an old man explained the district’s history of brutal conflict with cannibal players and defended its strict policy. Xu Huo and the painted woman discussed cannibal players as the line continued, drawing the attention of those nearby.

• An older man described how District 011’s Players and residents fought cannibal players who had seized a city, then evacuated its population and razed the city.
• The old man rebuked a younger Player for mocking District 011’s hatred of cannibal players, and the younger Player left the line.
• Players in the queue debated whether District 011’s harsh treatment was fair to cannibal players who had been forced to eat people.
• A man suspected the young woman defending cannibal players of being one herself, but patrol Players prevented their argument from escalating.
• The painted woman asked Xu Huo whether cannibal players enjoyed eating people and whether they would starve if given only ordinary food; Xu Huo suggested she test it, prompting nearby people to stare.

Xu Huo and the painted woman explored Ting City while waiting for their turn to enter the battle Ruins. After the painted woman spent her money giving gifts and buying trinkets, she learned about a nearby market for props and prepared to go shopping.

• Xu Huo and the painted woman received queue numbers 235 and 239 for the battle Ruins, then walked around the open site.
• The painted woman spent money on trinkets and handed cash to children she befriended, while Xu Huo carried her bags.
• At a restaurant, the painted woman asked Xu Huo for money, and he told her she could use the funds deposited with him.
• The painted woman learned that Outer District Players sold props at temporary stalls in eastern Ting City and handed Xu Huo her backpack to prepare for shopping.

Xu Huo witnessed a confrontation in a Hecheng restaurant, then explored the free market and bargained over a terrarium of poisonous fungi. He left the seller protesting after offering only two thousand White Cash.

• A group of Players crowded into the restaurant, and one of them provoked the female Player by putting an arm around her.
• The female Player poisoned the man and summoned Hecheng's patrol officers, who warned the troublemakers and drove them out.
• The female Player said she liked civilized worlds, while Xu Huo studied a map and guide to the Battle Ruins.
• An old woman handed Xu Huo a flyer advertising a fighting match, and he threw it away before reaching the free market.
• Xu Huo identified freshly dug plants in a seller's terrarium and offered two thousand White Cash for the poisonous fungi, but the seller protested.

Xu Huo accompanied the painted woman through Harmony City’s free market and an underground boxing arena, where several players tried to lure her upstairs. After one of them injected her with a Potion, she and Xu Huo confronted the group and their Young Master.

• Xu Huo bought a glass cabinet and learned that the painted woman had been spending money on goods at the free market.
• The painted woman threatened the peddlers surrounding her, and Xu Huo helped her choose a few decorative items before she lost interest in shopping.
• At an underground boxing match, the painted woman watched the fighters, then joined children playing with pebbles.
• Several players tried to take the painted woman upstairs to meet their Young Master, and one player forcibly approached her after she refused.
• The painted woman used flyers to attack after a player injected her with a Potion, while Xu Huo dodged an injected syringe and appeared upstairs beside the Young Master.

Xu Huo and the painted woman fought the Boxing Arena’s players after the Young Master tried to capture them. Trapped inside the Arena as it contracted, Xu Huo used the “Big Mushroom Cloud” to blast their way out, and the explosion began just as the old man declared they would never escape.

• Xu Huo dragged the Young Master onto the ring, where the painted woman knocked him down and challenged the Arena’s players alongside Xu Huo.
• Xu Huo activated the Ring to slow time in the Boxing Arena, but an old man bypassed its effect and warned him to leave.
• Xu Huo attacked the players with his manifested mental power, killing the Young Master, while the old man tried to seal the Secret Room’s exit and then fled.
• The Arena’s doors shut and its walls contracted, trapping Xu Huo and the painted woman inside; Xu Huo brought out the “Big Mushroom Cloud” and sent it outside the Cabin in the Storm.
• The old man told arriving players and city officials that the Arena would kill Xu Huo and the painted woman, but the contracting structure suddenly expanded with a deafening blast.

Xu Huo destroyed the Boxing Arena and killed Elder He after the local players tried to trap him and the painted woman. The two rested at a hotel before entering the Ruins the next day, while the painted woman sampled food she had collected.

• The Boxing Arena Artifact cracked and burst, leaving Xu Huo and the painted woman unharmed inside Cabin in the Storm.
• The government players urged Elder He to withdraw, but Xu Huo froze the surrounding area, trapped Elder He in Mirror Space, and killed him with his black knife.
• Xu Huo warned the Boxing Arena and government players not to provoke him, then left with the painted woman as the government squad decided to monitor them.
• Xu Huo booked a hotel room and said they should avoid further trouble before entering the Ruins the next day.
• The painted woman returned with snacks and trinkets, tried them all, and spat out the bitter ones while Xu Huo gave her water.

Xu Huo and the painted woman entered the battle Ruins, where he sensed lingering spacetime forces and examined how space rays could be used. The chapter left Xu Huo exploring ways to change the state of those rays.

• The painted woman attacked the players monitoring them and tried to force poisonous trinkets into their mouths, but Xu Huo stopped her and told her to wait until after the Ruins.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman entered the Ruins the next morning, following the rules that limited entry to ten people for an hour at a time.
• Xu Huo touched a charred wall and felt a fleeting surge of power that seemed like a gust from the battle’s past, while nearby players discussed the Ruins’ possible origins.
• Xu Huo sensed a sharp quality in the lingering space rays and compared their potential uses with the techniques of Xue Lang and Lawrence Li.
• Xu Huo moved to another area and decided to experiment with changing the state of space rays.

Xu Huo rescued the painted woman from five Players sent by the Boxing Arena, who had attacked her outside the Ruins. Their leader suspected Xu Huo possessed mental, spatial, and temporal Evolutions, leaving the group to fear they had chosen the wrong enemy.

• The painted woman sold her Boxing Arena instruments, bought paper and party supplies, and made paper weapons while waiting beside Xu Huo.
• Five Players appeared near the Ruins entrance and attacked the painted woman, using a barrier to restrict her paper weapons and tearing her clothes.
• The painted woman wounded two attackers, broke through their barrier with her paper weapons and dagger, and tried to reach the Ruins.
• Xu Huo stopped the painted woman from running into a thread of Space Power and used his Mental Portal to send one attacker back into the Ruins.
• The five Players regrouped around Xu Huo and the painted woman as bystanders jeered at them, and their leader wondered whether Xu Huo had all three Evolutions.

Xu Huo avoided a confrontation with the Baiye Chamber of Commerce and returned to the Ruins to explore how Space Rays could be manipulated. As his Spatial Evolution reached a bottleneck, a notification offered him a directed inheritance gift.

• The Baiye Chamber of Commerce's middle-aged man demanded that Xu Huo settle their dispute outside Hecheng, but Xu refused and returned to the Ruins.
• The Chamber of Commerce players withdrew, while onlookers debated whether they had backed down because Xu was too dangerous to challenge.
• Xu Huo studied Space Rays and Lawrence Li's abilities, trying to alter the rays by dividing, weaving, and recombining them.
• Xu Huo realized his experiments were ineffective and considered taking a more macroscopic approach to his Spatial Evolution.
• A game notification told Xu Huo that he had a directed inheritance gift and asked whether he would accept it.

Xu Huo inherited all fifteen Angel's Teeth from Granny Bai and traveled to the abandoned Sub-district containing Building Block Fairy Tale Town to retrieve the remaining ten. He found the city deserted and eerily untouched by Aliens, with no sign of its former residents.

• Xu Huo accepted Granny Bai's inheritance and became the sole holder of all fifteen Angel's Teeth, with the remaining ten still at the E27 wormhole point.
• Xu Huo learned that Building Block Fairy Tale Town's Station was inaccessible through ordinary tickets, then bought a one-use Sub-district teleportation device through the game's bounty platform.
• Xu Huo took the painted woman to the wormhole point, crossed into the ruined Sub-district, and found a map confirming the city's location.
• Xu Huo teleported to Building Block Fairy Tale Town and discovered its buildings, Government Hall, and Yongxing Hotel abandoned.
• Xu Huo searched the city center and found no people, human corpses, or Aliens, as if every living thing had vanished.

Xu Huo searched Fairytale City for clues about Granny Bai and the vanished residents, finding evidence that a space vessel had appeared before the city fell silent. After uncovering a damaged positioning device among the Aliens, he uploaded its serial number to Dimension Below in hopes of identifying what happened.

• Xu Huo searched Government Hall, Yongxing Club, and Granny Bai's home, but found no clear signs of a struggle or evacuation.
• Xu Huo asked Yongxing Hotel for surveillance footage and found a surviving photograph showing part of a space vessel near the edge of Fairytale City.
• Yongxing Hotel sent Xu Huo eight hours of footage, which showed a space vessel appearing at six in the evening, a sharp sound and explosions, and the city's residents walking toward the vessel.
• Xu Huo heard someone identify the vessel's destination or connection as Rabbit Ear Amusement Park, but learned the name was shared by many places.
• Xu Huo searched Alien nests along the city's viewing route, found a damaged positioning device, and uploaded its serial number to Dimension Below.

Xu Huo arrived in District 008, learned about its player-friendly but tightly regulated society, and investigated Rabbit Ear Amusement Park’s vessels. He took a counseling job at a nearby school to get close to the amusement park’s warehouse, where a stern woman immediately sent him to counsel a student in trouble.

• Xu Huo researched District 008 and learned that it welcomed players seeking a peaceful home, hosted many Stellar companies, and had no Super Players or Random Instances.
• Xu Huo arrived at B37-008, had his physical features recorded, and learned that his safety rating depended on keeping his appearance and following local laws.
• Xu Huo bought a watch terminal and asked an information broker for recent details about Rabbit Ear Amusement Park and its shared vessels.
• Xu Huo found that the amusement park’s next outing was a week away and chose to investigate a vessel at its remote warehouse.
• Xu Huo accepted a counseling job at a special school near the warehouse and went there through a city portal.
• A stern woman greeted Teacher Xu and told him that a student had gotten into trouble and needed counseling.

Xu Huo began counseling a troubled boy at a heavily surveilled school and discovered that the child’s emotions were monitored by an implanted chip. The boy revealed that earlier counseling teachers had killed their students and suggested Xu Huo might have been hired to do the same, leaving Xu Huo to question him about District 008’s genetic screening.

• Xu Huo entered the school and was directed to counsel a boy in the counseling room.
• The boy tried to escape, attacked Xu Huo, and collapsed after the school’s punishment mechanism activated.
• Xu Huo demanded privacy, and the woman disabled the counseling room’s surveillance equipment.
• The boy hurt himself when the surveillance stopped, then screamed in pain after Xu Huo tapped the recorder.
• Xu Huo explained that the boy likely had an emotion-monitoring chip and said he had been selected for criminal tendencies.
• The boy said earlier counseling teachers had killed their students and asked whether Xu Huo had been hired to kill them, prompting Xu Huo to ask when District 008’s genetic screening began and ended.

Xu Huo investigated the ship Haiyun Technology had borrowed from Rabbit Ear Amusement Park and used a therapy session to probe an employee’s secrets. The chapter ended as he guided the woman to imagine herself aboard a ship.

• Xu Huo told the boy about District 008’s history of genetic screening and challenged him to see himself as an ordinary person rather than an outsider.
• Xu Huo sent the painted woman onto the ship and learned that Haiyun Technology had borrowed Rabbit Ear Amusement Park’s originally booked vessel, forcing the park to prepare another ship in a rush.
• Xu Huo retrieved the painted woman and traveled to Haiyun Technology’s headquarters, where he observed the company’s security measures.
• Xu Huo followed two women to a psychological treatment center and posed as a therapist to meet one of them.
• Xu Huo asked the woman to imagine a ship and recreate its conditions and passengers in her mind.

Xu Huo investigated a Haiyun Technology executive and was captured in a black-market ambush, but escaped by using the Spiritual World and tracking a substitute. He reached the heavily guarded mansion district linked to the Tian Family, where the painted woman’s attempt to sneak inside triggered an alarm.

• Xu Huo hypnotized a Haiyun Technology employee and learned that an executive had been beaten and the company’s finances and benefits were in disarray.
• Xu Huo arranged a face-to-face purchase of information about the executive, but the seller and Sister Lan ambushed him and drugged him.
• A middle-aged man took Xu Huo away in a container item for the Tian Family, while Xu Huo used the Spiritual World to escape and left a tracked substitute in his place.
• Xu Huo learned that Haiyun Technology’s executive was connected to the Tian Family and followed the tracking Ability toward a mansion district.
• The painted woman tried to enter the mansion district aboard a transport vehicle, but security detected her and sealed the vehicle for a search.

Xu Huo watched masked Players attack the mansion district, then went to the school after a girl attempted suicide. The painted woman remained inside the mansion district, while Xu Huo began speaking with the girl about why she wanted to die.

• A fireball breached the mansion district’s barriers, allowing masked Players to enter while others attacked the guards and tried to break the blue-Masked Player’s snail-shell domain item.
• An A-class Player used mental control to force the blue-Masked Player from the shell, but he escaped back inside after losing his mechanical arm and left the Sub-district before the shell broke.
• The crew cut man noticed Xu Huo watching, and Xu Huo concluded that the mansion’s High-level Players were genuine; the painted woman remained inside and out of contact.
• The school summoned Xu Huo, who found a pale-faced girl with a freshly bandaged self-harm wound and gave her bread.
• Xu Huo asked the girl about her suicide attempt and whether she had considered asking a classmate for help.

Xu Huo investigated a girl's repeated suicide attempts and uncovered signs that her assault had been covered up by powerful families and school officials. When he confronted the school employee who knew more, she arrived with two Players and expelled him as the lockdown barrier activated.

• Xu Huo read the girl's file, learned about her assault and her parents' deaths, and told the woman that punishing the people who hurt her might help her sleep.
• Xu Huo tracked down the girl's aunt and learned that she had moved away after sending the girl to a special school, while neighbors said the girl had accused three classmates.
• Xu Huo learned from a former teacher that three students had committed the crime and arranged for someone else to take the blame, but the investigation failed to convict them.
• Xu Huo returned to the school and asked the woman to help him understand what had happened so he could save the girl.
• The woman arrived with two Players, the building's lockdown barrier activated, and she told Xu Huo he was expelled.

After exposing two students’ plan to frame someone for a near-fatal assault, Xu Huo tracked them to a city where he discovered their connection to a scheme trafficking drugged people in metal boxes. The two students’ second brother sent a man and a woman away in the boxes through a spatial portal.

• Xu Huo obtained and verified recordings showing students discussing a memory reset and plotting to cover up their victim’s disappearance.
• Xu Huo used a school employee’s travel recommendations to locate the two students in another city and watched them leave home under the notice of their player guard.
• The long-haired student followed his second brother into an entertainment venue and offered to select people for him.
• The student chose a man and a woman, who were drugged, examined, cleaned, and placed inside metal boxes.
• The second brother left with the man and woman, and two players packed all six boxes into a container item before passing through a spatial portal.