Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo learned that Players who entered Buliu City’s second game went missing, then was pulled into a spacious room as the game began. The room held many Players and a hanging corpse, and one Player became violently agitated before collapsing.

• Xu Huo read that the District Government had abandoned Buliu City after Players sent into the second game disappeared, and that the game’s entry conditions were uncertain.
• Xu Huo confronted the female Player over incomplete records, while she threatened to draw the District Government’s attention to him.
• Xu Huo told the painted woman to keep the female Player locked up and not hurt her, then spent half a day catching people.
• Xu Huo returned to the venue prop and was transported into a spacious room when a water Rubik’s Cube touched his skin.
• Xu Huo found many Players in the room, including a recently hanged corpse, and watched a distressed Player bash his head against a wall before passing out as others swallowed audibly.

Xu Huo and the newly arrived Players found themselves trapped in a foodless maze of identical rooms, each containing the same corpse at a different stage of decay. After exploring dozens of rooms, the Players concluded that the dungeon’s strange repetitions meant they were trapped in time.

• The newcomers discovered that their Personal Panels and Storage Compartments would not open, while Xu Huo gave an energy candy to a starving woman and learned she had been trapped for more than ten days.
• A Player lunged at the woman to steal the candy, but she kicked him away and saved the wrapper.
• The woman led Xu Huo and the newcomers through rooms that repeated endlessly, each containing the same corpse in a different state of decay.
• Xu Huo examined the corpse and learned that trapped Players had tried eating it, only for it to reappear the next day.
• After exploring dozens of identical rooms, the Players reasoned that the dungeon was filled with Time Power and that they were trapped in time.

Xu Huo and the other Players explored a seemingly endless series of rooms containing corpses, learning that the second One-Third Game selected Players without a clear pattern. After hearing that the rooms continued for a thousand rooms and the corpses decayed farther ahead, Xu Huo continued alone to investigate.

• Xu Huo asked about the Players' past games and learned that they included previous winners, losers, newcomers, and a Super Evolver.
• Ye Jiwen concluded that the second game selected Players without a consistent pattern, leaving them with no reliable clues about how to escape.
• Xu Huo and the others explored more rooms and noticed that the corpses' apparent flow of time varied from room to room.
• The group met three Players returning after exploring a thousand rooms, who said the rooms remained identical while the corpses gradually decayed.
• Xu Huo decided to continue alone, then used Space Power to open the next room and hurried through it without examining the corpse.

Xu Huo explored a seemingly endless line of rooms and found two players who had turned back after passing ten thousand rooms filled with corpses. As he waited for the rooms to refresh, he heard their theory that the changing corpses were clues to the dungeon’s connection to time, but they had not worked out what the clues meant.

• Xu Huo opened five hundred rooms and found that they continued in a perfectly straight line without repeating.
• Xu Huo met two exhausted players who said they had explored at least ten thousand rooms, most of them containing corpses in different stages of decay.
• Xu Huo shared half a piece of candy and a cup of water with each player, then refused to give them more water.
• The long-haired player theorized that each room represented a physicalized time slice and that the corpses’ changing decay was connected to Time Power.
• The player on the left agreed that the One-Third Game likely had a purpose beyond killing players, though neither player knew what the clue meant.

Xu Huo investigated how the rooms’ twelve-hour resets related to the Time Power surrounding their hanging bodies. By the five-thousandth room, he had found several unusual patterns but no explanation for them.

• Xu Huo discussed the Time Slices with two Space-based Players, then watched the rooms reset and considered whether the bodies and rooms were real or illusory.
• Xu Huo resumed searching rooms, checking each hanging body for changes in its condition and Time Power.
• In the two-thousandth room, Xu Huo noticed the Time Power around a body slow down, searched the room, and marked the body with a scrap of cloth.
• In the three-thousandth room, Xu Huo found a body with an irregular flow of Time Power and repeated his search and marking process.
• Xu Huo reached the five-thousandth room, rested, and considered the bodies and their unbreakable ropes, but found no clue beyond the differing Time Power.

Xu Huo questioned Shi Sanjiu about the rooms extending beyond the One-Third Game and learned that the unbreakable hanging rope might hold the key to escaping. The two exchanged information about player rankings and instances, and Shi Sanjiu asked Xu Huo about the instance he carried.

• Xu Huo gave the exhausted player candy and water, and the man explained that he had explored more than twenty thousand rooms without finding an exit.
• The player said the corpses showed changes in how quickly time passed, but the rooms formed no loop that revealed a way out.
• Xu Huo and the player suspected the hanging rope because it could not be moved or damaged, unlike the corpses and other objects in the rooms.
• The player introduced himself as Shi Sanjiu, an A-class player, while Xu Huo used the name Xu Zhi and gave him a false background.
• Shi Sanjiu explained player rankings and how players could sell certain Instance Authorization Letters, then asked Xu Huo what kind of instance he had.

Xu Huo explored the endless rooms and studied how their different flows of Time Power interacted, hoping to find a way out. He began to suspect that the rooms and the Hanging Rope were portals connected to multiple spaces, but he still could not tell whether the rope was an object or Time Power in physical form.

• Xu Huo told Shi Sanjiu that he owned a low-grade Random Instance but rarely used it because his strength was still low.
• Xu Huo chose to keep exploring while Shi Sanjiu waited in the thousandth room, then used his power to speed through the doors.
• Xu Huo passed more than fifteen thousand rooms and observed that the Time Power in the milestone rooms grew stronger from one thousandth room to the next.
• Xu Huo reasoned that the mixed Time Power might be disrupted if he and Shi Sanjiu combined their efforts, but he continued onward to study the pattern further.
• After reaching one hundred thousand rooms, Xu Huo theorized that each room might be a Space Portal linked to multiple spaces and examined the Time Power in the Hanging Rope.

Xu Huo and the other Players tried to break the forces of time and space surrounding the Hanging Rope, but their attempt unleashed lethal streams of Time Power. Xu Huo survived the One-Third Game and returned to Buliu City, where he was invited to bring more people to the next game.

• Xu Huo returned to Shi Sanjiu and joined Mai He, Ren Wenxu, Brother Nan, and Qiu Guangyang in planning how to escape the repeated rooms.
• The group tried drawing out the Time Power around the Hanging Rope and breaking the surrounding space, but their efforts failed.
• When the room refreshed, the group’s powers affected the Hanging Rope, which released streams of lethal Time Power.
• Qiu Guangyang, Mai He, and Ren Wenxu died as the Time Power flooded the room, while Xu Huo, Shi Sanjiu, and Brother Nan struggled to find shelter.
• Xu Huo was teleported to Buliu City and learned that he had won the round and could invite more people to the next game.

Xu Huo entered Buliu City’s chaotic city center to investigate its spatial and temporal hazards, but a powerful spatial force crushed his Spiritual World and drove him back out. He searched Dimension Below for clues and learned the strange hollows might be regular spatial gaps.

• Xu Huo headed for the city center with the painted woman while Old Cai accompanied them and other players watched from a distance.
• Old Cai explained that the city center was cut off by unstable space, and the painted woman’s recorder vanished when she sent it across the boundary.
• Xu Huo probed the city center with his Spiritual World and found lethal spatial chaos, brief temporal disturbances, and broad hollows in the ground that seemed to leave passable gaps.
• A powerful spatial force crushed Xu Huo’s Spiritual World and forced his consciousness back outside, where he emerged bleeding from the nose.
• Xu Huo searched Dimension Below for information about spatial power, and a player suggested the hollows were regular spatial gaps.

Xu Huo confronted Buliu City's former government players and threatened to spread rapidly growing bacteria throughout the city unless they told him the truth about the city center and the water Rubik's Cube. Old Cai arrived to mediate as the standoff continued.

• Xu Huo learned that spatial rifts could connect different spaces unpredictably and exchanged contact information with a player who offered to help.
• Xu Huo confronted Ding Dong Bleeding and her companions, questioning whether anyone remained in the city center and whether their former companion had brought the water Rubik's Cube there.
• Xu Huo accused the former city-government players of using the One-Third Game to keep players trapped in Buliu City and preserve its population.
• Xu Huo released fast-growing bacteria and threatened to contaminate the entire city if he could not clear the game and leave.
• The tattooed woman doubted the bacteria could kill Xu Huo, but he revealed he had an Antidote, and Old Cai entered to try to mediate.

Xu Huo defeated the municipal government Players and forced Old Cai to explain the One-Third Game and the water Rubik’s Cube. Old Cai said a Designer trapped in the city center might be able to put the Cube into dormancy, and offered not to stop Xu Huo from taking it if the plan worked.

• Xu Huo entered his Spiritual World, disabled or broke the municipal government Players’ equipment, and defeated them.
• The tattooed woman begged Xu Huo to stop killing her companions and offered to authorize him, but Xu Huo asked whether she could make that decision.
• Old Cai admitted that a Designer remained trapped in the city center and that the city’s mainframe was beneath the Office Building.
• Old Cai said the water Rubik’s Cube had initially floated harmlessly near Buliu City until someone touched it, triggering the One-Third Game.
• Old Cai explained that the trapped Designer believed he could put the Cube into dormancy, then offered not to stop Xu Huo from taking it if the attempt succeeded.

Xu Huo interrogated Old Cai and the tattooed woman about the water Rubik's Cube and their plan to enter downtown. Old Cai described Buliu City's history with the Cube and theorized that forces of time and space attract one another, leaving Xu Huo with a possible explanation for the Cube's presence.

• Xu Huo used truth serum on the tattooed woman, who confirmed that some players had considered killing the Designer after the One-Third Game ended.
• Old Cai showed Xu Huo a blurry photograph of downtown, and Xu Huo confirmed that its outskirts were full of craters.
• Xu Huo asked Old Cai to obtain a drawing or description of the water Rubik's Cube, then dismissed most of Old Cai's injured companions while keeping Old Cai, the tattooed woman, and a second-evolved player behind.
• Old Cai explained that Buliu City's players had found and studied the metallic-looking Cube before it was accidentally triggered, and revealed that their former organization was called Newborn.
• Old Cai theorized that the Dimensional Rift Game Company had deliberately placed the Cube and that forces of time and space could attract one another.

Xu Huo and Old Cai suspected the One-Third Game had appeared in Buliu City to kill Super Evolvers with spacetime affinities. After learning that A-class wormhole points hunted such Evolvers and could eliminate even groups of Super Players, Xu Huo received Bai Kou’s warning not to force his way into the city center.

• Old Cai told Xu Huo that Buliu City’s spatial and temporal Super Evolvers had disappeared after the water Rubik’s Cube appeared, and he suspected the One-Third Game had been sent to kill them.
• Xu Huo waited for more information while the painted woman refused to enter the city center, and he messaged Bai Kou and another Player about spatial gaps and Dimension Rift.
• Bai Kou explained that game-created spatial gaps followed patterns too complex to detect without large-scale instruments and warned that Players who committed crimes at A-class wormhole points rarely survived.
• Another Player told Xu Huo that A-class wormhole authorities prioritized hunting spacetime Super Evolvers and that a group of Super Players had vanished after attacking a suspected game headquarters.
• Xu Huo bought a detector that sensed Space Power, then received Bai Kou’s warning not to force his way into the city center.

Xu Huo weighed the Designer’s information about the Magic Cube and negotiated with Old Cai over the city’s Wanted Criminal cases and the Dungeon. The painted woman proposed blowing up the city center, but Xu Huo rejected the idea and urged Old Cai to gather enough criminals for his plan.

• Old Cai showed Xu Huo the Designer’s drawing and explanation of the broken Magic Cube and the bouncing water Rubik’s Cubes.
• Xu Huo learned he could review Buliu City’s Wanted Criminal applications and told Old Cai he would consider taking him in after clearing the Dungeon.
• The painted woman suggested using her explosives to destroy the city center, but Xu Huo stopped her and reassured Old Cai that he would not blow it up if he cleared the Dungeon.
• Old Cai reported that the tattooed woman and her companion had dealt with the bacteria and said he had sent Players to gather more criminals.
• Xu Huo asked the painted woman what she had been watching, then challenged her enjoyment of crime and war shows by asking if she wanted to be hung back on the wall.

Xu Huo assessed the danger of entering the city center and found the risk level was 83%, but he decided to wait for a chance to proceed. The chapter left him observing the water Rubik’s Cubes and the shifting spatial hazards around the city.

• Xu Huo urged the painted woman to avoid harming people without reason, and she agreed while eating the snacks he gave her.
• The painted woman warned Xu Huo that the area reminded her of Suitcase Man’s castle, where spatial gaps made the place dangerous.
• Xu Huo used Choice of Fate to assess the marked locations and found an 83% risk level.
• A huge water Rubik’s Cube crossed the city, carrying off two players and causing spatial gaps to appear before the area gradually stabilized.
• A second water Rubik’s Cube caused another disturbance, and Xu Huo waited on the balcony while considering the hazards and the route into the city center.

Xu Huo attempted to cross the barrier into the city center, but chaotic spatial forces blocked his path and forced him back outside. He returned to the painted woman’s resting place, where Zhu Xiaojin and Mi Qiaonan arrived with an A-class player who recognized him from their second game.

• Xu Huo observed the barrier and found that spatial gaps appeared unpredictably, then entered the city center with his lifesaving items equipped.
• Xu Huo dodged spatial gaps and Space Sharp Blades until the route ahead and his retreat were blocked, then used collapsing spatial constructs to break through a spatial wall and escape.
• Old Cai and the others watched Xu Huo emerge from the barrier and asked what he had encountered inside.
• Xu Huo told Old Cai that the city government’s Route Map was useless and that the spatial power made reaching the water Rubik’s Cube’s core extremely dangerous.
• Xu Huo returned to the painted woman’s resting place, where Zhu Xiaojin and Mi Qiaonan introduced an A-class player; Xu Huo and the player exchanged business cards from their second game.

Shi Sanjiu met Xu Huo and proposed preparing together for the third One-Third Game, which he suspected would combine Time and Space Powers. He revealed an idea for escaping through spatial gaps, but said its success depended on finding the right partners.

• Shi Sanjiu introduced himself to Xu Huo and said he wanted to discuss preparing for the third game.
• Shi Sanjiu served tea made from a cultivated plant that gently enhanced ordinary people, then described his views on evolution and genetic engineering.
• Shi Sanjiu theorized that the first game involved Space Power, the second involved Time Power, and the third might involve both.
• Zhu Xiaojin speculated that the game had evolved beyond its creators' control, while Shi Sanjiu and Xu Huo rejected the idea that it was an uncontrollable artificial intelligence.
• Shi Sanjiu suggested gathering Evolvers in Buliu City to survive the third game and hinted that spatial gaps could provide an escape route if he found suitable partners.

Shi Sanjiu proposed using a device to find safe spatial rifts as a backup plan for the third game, while Xu Huo continued investigating the city center and the delayed wanted-criminal review. Xu Huo withdrew after spatial blades wounded him, then heard more about dangerous districts and the early conflicts between wormhole points.

• Shi Sanjiu demonstrated a detector for stable spatial passages and gave Xu Huo his plans for the third game as a backup.
• Xu Huo noticed the wanted-criminal review had stalled, and Old Cai left to investigate the unstable communication channel.
• Xu Huo tried to approach the former city government site but retreated after spatial blades pierced his arm and lower leg.
• Zhu Xiaojin and Mi Qiaonan urged Xu Huo to be patient and explained that natural spatial rifts could lead to chaotic, dangerous places.
• Zhu Xiaojin and Mi Qiaonan discussed early wars between districts and how players infiltrating Stellar Corporation's headquarters forced A-rank wormhole points to negotiate.

Xu Huo searched for a newly appeared water Rubik’s Cube and lured the Players who tried to steal his Communicator into the dangerous space inside Buliu City’s barrier. The attackers realized they were trapped among unstable Space Power, and a black crescent moon appeared above them.

• Zhu Xiaojin and Mi Qiaonan discussed high-level Sub-districts and decided to stay and help Xu Huo for now, despite his warning about the One-Third Game.
• Xu Huo asked for information about a recent water Rubik’s Cube on Buliu City’s Jixin Terminal and received a video recorded nearby a minute earlier.
• Xu Huo hurried to the cube’s location as several Players followed him, including two Cannibal Players who demanded his Communicator.
• When the Players tried to restrain him, Xu Huo transported them into the dangerous area inside the city-center barrier.
• The Players recognized the Space Power around them, and three ran into Space Rays, killing one and injuring two.
• A black crescent moon appeared above the trapped Players.

Xu Huo escaped the collapsing passage through the city center, but a spatial passage transported him to a strange room where a floating cube struck him. He woke at an illegal gambling den, apparently stripped of his Evolution-enhanced strength, with people calling him Second Young Master Xu and demanding that he bet.

• Xu Huo dodged Space Power and waves of Time Power as Players chasing him were killed or trapped.
• Xu Huo turned back when the water Rubik's Cube's passage closed, leaving two trapped Players behind.
• A spatial passage appeared at the city center's edge and carried Xu Huo into a sealed room with floating metal cubes.
• One of the cubes struck Xu Huo, and he briefly lost consciousness.
• Xu Huo woke at an illegal gambling table, where a man called him Second Young Master Xu and offered to trade five hands for one of his.