Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo manipulated a scheme involving the Tian Family, Fu Jie, and Fang Jing to provoke a political scandal in District 0081. After Young Master Tian survived an attempted suicide, the story left Xu Huo at the hotel as Fu Jie’s body was exposed and linked to Secretary Fu.

• Xu Huo tracked the people carrying the metal case, found Fang Jing, and used him to learn why he was targeting the Tian Family.
• Xu Huo told Fang Jing that Fu Jie had taken his place and described how poison, planted evidence, and a staged suicide could stir conflict among the Tian Family, Fu Family, and city government.
• Fang Jing called Secretary Jiang, who sent people to verify the allegations and protect him, while Xu Huo took Fang Jing back to the bar.
• Young Master Tian survived his attempted suicide, and Xu Huo left as Secretary Jiang’s people and the enforcement team arrived.
• At the sealed hotel, two naked men fell in front of the entrance; Xu Huo exposed Fu Jie’s identity by tossing out his student ID, and Fang Jing loudly identified him as Secretary Fu’s son.
• Brother Fu and the other men who had dumped the bodies signaled Fang Jing to leave, and the group moved quickly to a safe place.

After exposing the Tian Family’s scheme involving Fu Jie, Xu Huo warned Fang Jing that revenge through violence would likely fail, then returned with evidence of a grisly body-storage site. He left the local Players to use the law and public pressure against the Tian Family while he aimed to keep them occupied.

• Brother Luo and Brother Fu discussed how the scandal over Fu Jie could hurt Secretary Fu more than the Tian Family, and Xu Huo said other Players might seek to exploit the fallout.
• Fang Jing vowed to risk his life to oppose the Tian Family, but Xu Huo urged the group to find his missing companion first.
• Xu Huo received a photo from the painted woman showing preserved, mutilated corpses in numbered body bags, then returned to Brother Luo and the others.
• Xu Huo gave the group a developed Photo of the corpses, and Brother Luo resolved to file a complaint with the city government under his real name.
• Xu Huo let the local Players pursue a public complaint, hoping the evidence would keep the Tian Family too busy to focus on him.

Xu Huo escaped the Tian Family players pursuing him and used their attack to draw District 008 law enforcement into the case surrounding Fu Jie’s death. The law enforcement team detained the pursuers while Xu Huo took shelter inside a tech company.

• Brother Luo and the others prepared to report the Tian Family, but Xu Huo returned and warned them that they were being followed.
• Brother Luo and the others split up and escaped, leaving Xu Huo to evade the Tian Family players through the city’s teleportation gates.
• Xu Huo ambushed and killed one pursuer, then entered a rival tech company and called for help from its staff and nearby law enforcement.
• Xu Huo shouted that the Tian Family had killed Fu Jie to silence him and claimed he had proof, drawing the pursuers’ attention to the connection with Fu Jie’s death.
• Xu Huo slipped into the company as security opened the barrier, and the law enforcement team detained the Tian Family players while the team leader demanded an explanation.

Xu Huo sent Fang Jing to City Hall, then evaded the authorities and returned to Station City in disguise. As public scrutiny grew over the Tian Family and a suspicious ship, he found his next destination in online posts.

• Xu Huo told Fang Jing he could not escort him to City Hall after attacking a Tian Family member, and Fang Jing went there alone.
• Xu Huo saw his photo appear on the wanted list, escaped the armed robots, changed his appearance, and reentered Station City.
• A Flying Monitor began following Xu Huo as he browsed news about the scandal involving Secretary Fu's son, a government official, and the Tian Family.
• Xu Huo read reports linking Fang Jing's missing family and a freezer photo to the Tian Family, while online rumors spread about a government-linked ship.
• Xu Huo found his next destination among the posts about the ship.

Xu Huo traced a damaged ship’s delivery route to Kesi Biology, a Tian Family company heavily suspected of conducting human experiments. After uncovering a plan to dispose of the experimental subjects, he left an employee with a warning that might prompt him to act.

• Xu Huo traced repairs and transport orders to Kesi Biology, which received the largest food deliveries from the Tian Family transport company.
• Xu Huo found that Kesi Biology’s defenses destroyed Flying Devices and overheard an employee discuss suspicions that the company was experimenting on people.
• The employee agreed to move the experimental subjects, then took an unmarked pill; Xu Huo drugged him, injected him with truth serum, and questioned him.
• Xu Huo’s questioning led the employee to reveal that Old Tian planned to dispose of the experimental subjects and that the plan was already underway.
• The employee woke from what he thought was a nightmare, then requested a direct passage using his teleportation device.

Xu Huo infiltrated Kesi Biology's secret laboratory to search for information about Granny Bai and discovered how the company disposed of its captives' bodies. After freeing the prisoners, he confronted Kesi Biology's Players and demanded to know how Granny Bai died.

• Xu Huo used staff member 221's identity to enter Kesi Biology and found cages holding human test subjects in its underground laboratory.
• Xu Huo learned from a captive that people from Building Block Fairy Tale Town had been abducted, and an old man said the laboratory dissolved corpses in corrosive liquid.
• Xu Huo freed the caged prisoners, found containers of dissolving liquid and partially dissolved bodies in the Garbage Warehouse, and collected a sample.
• When Kesi Biology's Players arrived, Xu Huo asked how Granny Bai had died, then cut through the laboratory ceiling and disappeared.
• Xu Huo broke through Kesi Biology's protective barrier and appeared above the building, repeating his demand to know exactly how Granny Bai died.

Xu Huo attacked the Tian Family and Kesi Biology while searching for information about Granny Bai and Building Block Fairy Tale Town, then triggered the B-class instance "Stolen Declaration" while evading his pursuers. He read the case description and learned that a killer had murdered nearly fifty people after interrogating them in search of a declaration.

• Xu Huo ignored Kesi Biology's attacks and vanished after saying he would question someone who should know.
• Xu Huo blew up a Tian Family Laboratory, questioned a doctor, and then confronted the Tian Family at Haiyun Technology about Granny Bai before escaping its attackers.
• Xu Huo changed cities repeatedly to evade tracking Players, but the game assigned him to the B-class instance "Stolen Declaration" in Chongming Bird Administrative Region.
• Xu Huo entered the Game Government library and read that nearly fifty people had been murdered after interrogation over six months.
• Xu Huo learned that the thirtieth victim briefly revived and said "declaration," leading investigators to suspect the killer was searching for one.

Xu Huo investigated the serial murders connected to a stolen declaration while tracking public reaction to his accusations against the Tian Family. He met people with information about the case and said he suspected a witness had been present when the thirtieth victim was killed.

• Xu Huo reviewed the victims list and searched the Enthusiast Forum for information about the serial murders.
• Xu Huo posted a bounty for clues, then investigated Station City and the Tian Family.
• Public accusations and reports linked the Tian Family to abductions, human experiments, and the destruction of Building Block Fairy Tale Town.
• District 008 suppressed information about Building Block Fairy Tale Town and Xu Huo's public confrontation, while reports about the Tian Family continued to spread.
• Xu Huo met five people who had answered his bounty and told them he suspected a witness had been at the scene of the thirtieth victim's murder.

Xu Huo reviewed evidence about the serial killer and a detailed investigation assembled by a player organization. The investigation’s leading suspect profile and search of shared locations had yielded no culprit, and the intercity airship appeared to be a decoy.

• Xu Huo traded information with two men, then watched three covert recordings of the Enforcement Bureau investigating murder scenes.
• He opened the middle-aged man's files, which compiled evidence and theories about nearly fifty murders committed despite upgraded surveillance.
• Municipal governments and player organizations profiled the killer as likely a single person with surveillance-blocking equipment, a legitimate job, and a connection to the victims' shared past.
• Investigators identified twelve places where many victims had crossed paths six months earlier, including Rabbit Ear Amusement Park and an intercity airship.
• Authorities cross-checked the airship's passengers but found no long-term District 008 resident capable of committing the crimes, leaving the airship as a decoy.

Xu Huo investigated the unsolved murders tied to the Stolen Declaration Dungeon and searched for information from Outer District Players. He learned that the Dungeon was considered unsolvable because the authorities had exhausted every lead without identifying the killer.

• Xu Huo reviewed the murder case materials and bought vague inside information at the Underground Market.
• Xu Huo visited a lounge where Outer District Players traded Dungeon information and selected the Stolen Declaration Dungeon.
• A female Player also selected the Dungeon and questioned the Server about the lounge’s service fee and information guarantees.
• A Player told Xu Huo that the Dungeon was considered unsolvable because the cases had been thoroughly investigated and no clues to the killer had emerged.

Xu Huo and Zhao Zizhen suspected someone connected to Stellar Company was behind the killings and planned to use a fake declaration to draw the killer out. Their scheme aimed to involve the public, while the circulating report had already brought scrutiny onto the Tian Family and left a surviving Player recovering in the hospital.

• A female Player mocked another Player’s theory that the killer had left District 008, and they traded insults without fighting.
• Xu Huo left the lounge, and Zhao Zizhen followed him and proposed they investigate the Dungeon together.
• Zhao Zizhen theorized that a powerful ordinary person at Stellar Company was the killer, and Xu Huo agreed that the company was a plausible source.
• Xu Huo proposed forging a declaration and using it to lure the killer out, while stirring enough suspicion to enlist help from the public.
• Xu Huo and Zhao Zizhen agreed to work together, introduced themselves by name, and headed for Station City.
• The report forced the city government to inspect the Tian Family, and the Player Xu Huo had nearly killed continued recovering in the hospital.

Xu Huo and Zhao Zizhen questioned Wang Cang about the Tian Family and a series of murders, then returned to the Chongming Bird Administrative Region to steal shipping records from a Tian Family transportation company. They left with shipment information and encrypted documents, while Xu Huo planned to use the theft to draw the company players' attention.

• Xu Huo and Zhao Zizhen disguised themselves as Tian Family disciplinary officers and questioned the recovering Wang Cang.
• Wang Cang revealed that the murders were being covered up and that two Tian Family players had been killed in the same manner as other victims.
• Xu Huo warned Zhao Zizhen that drugs, surgery, or mental defenses might have kept Wang Cang from disclosing crucial information, and they chose not to pursue his account further.
• Xu Huo and Zhao Zizhen returned to the Chongming Bird Administrative Region and targeted a Tian Family transportation company.
• Zhao Zizhen entered the company and copied shipment records, including encrypted information about experimental materials and secret Laboratories, then took encrypted paper documents from a Cabinet.

Xu Huo and Zhao Zizhen framed the Tian Family by leaking evidence and spreading rumors, provoking public demands for an investigation. As they searched for the real killer, Xu Huo spotted a familiar face in a Station City news report and recognized a Wanted Criminal.

• Xu Huo helped Zhao Zizhen escape the Tian Family Players, and she slipped the Manifesto among the stolen files before the Players recovered them.
• Xu Huo and Zhao Zizhen regrouped, and Xu Huo uploaded footage of the chase and paid a team to spread theories linking the Manifesto murders to the Tian Family.
• Online speculation tied the Tian Family's Laboratories to the murders, while victims' families, ordinary people, and Player organizations demanded an investigation.
• Zhao Zizhen wondered how they would find the real killer amid the uproar, and Xu Huo recognized a Wanted Criminal in a Station City news report.

Xu Huo and Zhao Zizhen discussed the Ghastly Sound Knights’ possible role in the Tian Family affair as District 008’s enforcement team trapped players inside artifact-suppressing barriers. Xu Huo suspected the barriers could cut players off from the game and led Zhao Zizhen toward something he had detected nearby.

• Zhao Zizhen identified Dou Shengnan as an A-class Super Evolver from the Ghastly Sound Knights and warned Xu Huo that the organization might be involved with the Tian Family.
• Xu Huo and Zhao Zizhen watched the enforcement team steer fighting players toward a plaza as nearby Stellar Company buildings were destroyed.
• District 008’s enforcement team raised two containment barriers, trapping local and Outer District Players and preventing them from using their artifacts.
• Outer District Players searched for a way through the barriers while local players and enforcement officers attacked those trapped inside.
• Xu Huo searched the surrounding area with his Spiritual World, suggested District 008 might be able to disconnect players from the game, and told Zhao Zizhen to follow him.

Xu Huo searched for the plaza barrier’s instruments while fighting continued nearby, and Chongming Bird Pharmaceutical staff watched the battle from a distance. In a private argument, Dr. Dian warned that District 008’s dependence on instruments and experiments to create intelligent Aliens was weakening humanity.

• Xu Huo searched the area around the plaza and found two aerial surveillance devices beside Chongming Bird Pharmaceutical.
• A manager and Dr. Dian disagreed over District 008’s reliance on instruments to handle the battle and protect its residents.
• Dr. Dian admitted that he feared instruments would make Players seem useless and reduce people’s willingness to risk their lives in Dungeons.
• Dr. Dian told the manager that District 008 and Stellar Group were trying to create a second kind of human by transforming Aliens.
• The manager argued that humanity would either destroy intelligent Aliens or assimilate them, and Dr. Dian angrily insisted that both instruments and intelligent Aliens weakened humanity.

Xu Huo confronted Dr. Dian about humanity’s exploitation by the game and questioned whether he knew anything about the stolen declaration. Dr. Dian denied involvement, and Xu Huo left after warning that he would visit again, while the plaza’s violence was quickly erased from public view.

• Dr. Dian denounced the game for turning ordinary people and Players into expendables, then regained his composure after Xu Huo’s disguised administrator broke a cup.
• Xu Huo dismissed Dr. Dian’s assistant robot and asked whether he had been involved in the theft of a declaration.
• Xu Huo challenged Dr. Dian over District 008’s responsibility for destroying other Districts and the value placed on secrets over innocent lives.
• Dr. Dian denied knowing anything about the declaration and warned that District 008 would not tolerate Outer District Players acting freely.
• Xu Huo said he would visit again, then met Zhao Zizhen, who reported that the plaza blockade had ended and the Tian Family had left.
• Xu Huo observed that the plaza’s violence would be forgotten in less than half an hour.

Xu Huo analyzed how District 008 would respond to escalating Player violence and planned to use the Chongming Bird Administrative Region as an arena while drawing the Tian Family into the Stolen Declaration Dungeon. He returned to Station City under heightened surveillance and was warned by a refined-looking man not to cause trouble.

• Zhao Zizhen questioned whether the battle had accomplished anything, and Xu Huo explained that District 008 might not send major reinforcements unless fighting spread.
• Xu Huo reasoned that District 008’s containment barriers and non-game area simulations gave its enforcement team an advantage, and he identified the plaza as a potential arena.
• Zhao Zizhen suspected Xu Huo was targeting the Tian Family instead of focusing on clearing the Dungeon, and Xu Huo urged her to investigate the Transport Company and Tian Family Laboratory for Stolen Declaration.
• Zhao Zizhen warned Xu Huo to grow stronger before seeking revenge for Building Block Fairy Tale Town, then left, and Xu Huo returned to Station City.
• Armed robots and surveillance devices recorded Xu Huo’s appearance, warned him not to change it, and gave him a temporary identity card.
• A refined-looking man pinned the card to Xu Huo’s sleeve and warned him that District 008 was not afraid of trouble, and Xu Huo said he would obey the local rules before leaving.

As Xu Huo remained under surveillance in Station City, a scholar published an article warning that unchecked technological progress could weaken players and ordinary people while empowering families and organizations. The article sparked widespread calls for reform and resistance, and the scholar told Xu Huo he had published it to raise awareness and make amends to the people of Building Block Fairy Tale Town.

• Two players followed Xu Huo after he left through the portal and openly said they were keeping him under watch.
• A scholar published an article arguing that District 008 should limit instruments in some areas and strengthen municipal-government players to protect ordinary people and maintain the government's authority.
• Readers reacted to the article by calling for the government to train more players, punish abuses of power, and eliminate threats to the district's peace.
• The scholar told Xu Huo that he opposed the Tian Family's actions and had helped publish the article to make amends to the people of Building Block Fairy Tale Town and awaken the public.

Xu Huo persuaded a neutral scholar to publish an article criticizing District 008’s treatment of ordinary people, hoping to make the Tian Family’s crimes a local concern. As Xu Huo watched the Tian Family’s hotel, another player proposed that the Outer District Players join him in a public hunt for a wanted criminal.

• Xu Huo explained to a scholar that he wanted justice and persuaded him to publish an article about the harm caused by rapid technological progress.
• The scholar left after receiving a summons from the Scholars’ Association, while his article continued to gain attention.
• Xu Huo reviewed reports about Dou Shengnan’s visits to Tian Family properties and learned she had stopped leaving her hotel after being recognized.
• Xu Huo used a portal to reach the area near the Tian Family’s hotel and settled in a shop watched by law enforcement officers.
• An Outer District Player mocked Xu Huo for tolerating his surveillance, and Xu Huo challenged the player to prove his courage through action.
• A player restrained the heckler and suggested that the group publicly hunt a wanted criminal.

Xu Huo and a glasses-wearing player discussed a plan to trap Dou Shengnan, but left without making arrangements, leaving others unsure whether they were serious. The municipal government pressured the Tian Family to send Dou away, while Dou stayed at the hotel and the chapter ended with a young woman being humiliated at a pool party.

• A glasses-wearing player proposed using a non-game field simulation device to strip Dou Shengnan of her items and trap her with an outnumbering force, and Xu Huo discussed the risks.
• Xu Huo and the glasses player departed separately without exchanging contact information, prompting other players to suspect their plan was only talk.
• Law enforcement was ordered to watch Xu Huo and the glasses player, while the municipal government told the Tian Family to send Dou Shengnan away.
• Dou Shengnan refused to leave the hotel, saying she was waiting for the Tian Family to deliver items for their deal, and the Tian Family warned her that players planned to surround and kill her.
• At the hotel pool, a young woman begged Young Master Tian and the other guests to stop humiliating her, but they continued to mock her.