Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo and the painted woman traveled by train to District C01-001, where overcrowding caused by damaged trains tested the passengers’ patience. They arrived safely and found a desolate, neglected city filled with people eager to offer services to newcomers.

• Xu Huo brought the painted woman along to District C01-001 and bought information and a guide for a Dungeon there.
• On the train, the painted woman tipped a violin-playing Player but declined his invitation, and Xu Huo warned him not to approach further.
• The painted woman annoyed other passengers by eating noisily until Xu Huo used a soundproofing item.
• Passengers explained that many trains had been destroyed, likely by a large dimensional storm, leaving trains overcrowded for a day or two.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman arrived safely in C01-001 and were surrounded by residents offering lodging, errands, and other services.

Xu Huo and the painted woman traveled to Chunyi City to search for the Fish Banquet entrance, exploring the city and its food while keeping an eye out for suspicious Players. In a crowded commercial district, a woman deliberately bumped into Xu Huo and tried to pass it off as a romantic chance encounter.

• Xu Huo rejected people seeking to accompany him, bought a map, and chose the nearest circled city to search for the entrance.
• The painted woman chose Shi Sanjiu's Fish Banquet invitation, and Xu Huo used a teleportation item to take them to Chunyi City.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman explored Chunyi City, sampled local food, and shared snacks with children who recommended places to visit.
• After checking into a hotel, the painted woman told Xu Huo that several unfamiliar Players in the lobby had been watching them.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman went out to explore a commercial event, where a woman bumped into Xu Huo and flirted with him after he called out her repeated collisions.

Xu Huo and the painted woman encountered a thief who later survived a violent night after the painted woman intervened. The wounded woman refused to become the painted woman’s servant and instead offered herself to Xu Huo.

• A woman slipped an item into Xu Huo’s pocket as a pretext to escape pursuing Players, but Xu Huo returned it and avoided calling the enforcement team.
• Xu Huo saw the woman at a bar, where she flirted with a middle-aged Player before they left together.
• A fight broke out in the bar’s Restroom, and the woman emerged injured; two Players followed her after she left.
• The painted woman killed the two Players who ambushed the injured woman in an alley, while Xu Huo gave her Cleaning Agent.
• The woman thanked the painted woman, who demanded that she become her servant, but the woman refused and offered herself to Xu Huo instead.

Xu Huo sought information about the Fish Banquet and tracked down a middleman who could arrange entry. The middleman offered to help him and the painted woman get inside, but Xu Huo questioned the cost and risks.

• The painted woman demanded payment from a woman who had helped them, and Xu Huo learned the woman knew about the Fish Banquet and its likely entrance contact.
• The woman warned Xu Huo that the Fish Banquet was dangerous and gave him the code name Fortune and Prosperity.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman found Fortune and Prosperity, who agreed she could arrange entry despite the painted woman lacking an invitation.
• Fortune and Prosperity named a price for an invitation and offered to lend money against a high-level item as collateral.
• Xu Huo asked whether they could enter without an invitation and what risks that would involve.

Xu Huo and the painted woman entered the Fish Banquet through a hidden passage after being lured there by a middleman. Their masks changed to piranhas, revealing they had invitations, and the jellyfish-masked attendant died before Xu Huo could question him.

• The middleman agreed to bring the painted woman into the Fish Banquet and planned to get rid of Xu Huo, but Xu Huo recognized her scheme.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman waited two days, then rode with a Player who tried to warn them to leave before another Player forced him to go.
• The middleman led them beneath an ancient tree, where Xu Huo’s invitation reacted to a fish-shaped plaque and opened a hidden entrance.
• Inside, a jellyfish-masked attendant gave them masks, which changed the painted woman’s mermaid mask and Xu Huo’s clownfish mask into piranha masks.
• Xu Huo immobilized the attendant as he tried to flee, but the man convulsed, bled from his mouth and nose, and died.

Xu Huo and the painted woman entered the Fish Banquet and learned that the daily lot had selected Mermaid Masks as prey. A female Player wearing a Mermaid Mask approached them and began explaining the banquet’s rules, revealing that they were on its lowest floor.

• Xu Huo took a dead Server’s Mask, exchanged invitations with the painted woman to test how they determined identity, then left before the Server’s disappearance drew attention.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman followed guests to the banquet hall, where he identified jellyfish as Servers and sharks as security.
• A Whale announced that the Mermaid had been chosen as the Lucky One, prompting the guests to focus on everyone wearing a Mermaid Mask.
• Xu Huo led the painted woman out of the hall, and another Mermaid-Masked Player followed, offering to cooperate and explain the rules.
• The female Player said Mermaid-Masked guests were usually allies and targets of the night’s hunt, then revealed that the Fish Banquet had one hundred floors and they were on the first.

Xu Huo and the painted woman searched the hotel floors for a safe room before two octopus-mask players cornered them. They fought back, and Xu Huo took one attacker’s invitation card, causing the pattern on his mask to blur.

• The female player explained that the daily draw selected a fish mask who could open an empty safe room, while other players hunted for the thrill.
• Xu Huo, the female player, and the painted woman searched the first four floors but found no open rooms.
• A Mermaid-mask player fled down the stairs as three pursuers attacked, and the female player and another Mermaid split off from Xu Huo and the painted woman.
• On the fifth floor, two octopus-mask players blocked the corridor and attacked Xu Huo and the painted woman.
• The painted woman drew one attacker’s invitation card out from behind his clothes, and Xu Huo caught it and stored it, blurring the pattern on the attacker’s mask.

Xu Huo and the painted woman defeated two octopus-mask Players, and Xu Huo discovered how invitations and masks changed when combined or exchanged. He returned toward the first floor, intending to learn more about the banquet’s room rules, but doubted that the Servers would provide reliable information.

• When an octopus-mask Player attacked after losing his invitation, Xu Huo used his mechanical suit to protect himself from weapons and poison while the painted woman and the Manifestation attacked their opponents.
• The painted woman and the Manifestation wounded one Player until he fled upstairs, while the other octopus-mask Player escaped; Xu Huo told the painted woman not to pursue them.
• Xu Huo opened the stolen invitation and found ten piranha invitations, which merged with his own into two invitations; he concluded that ten piranha invitations formed an octopus-mask invitation.
• Xu Huo tested how invitations affected masks by taking and returning invitations, learning that an invitation changed a mask’s pattern but did not create a mask for someone who had none.
• Xu Huo left the piranha invitation with a clownfish-mask Player and returned toward the first floor, where he considered how to verify the rules governing the rooms.

Xu Huo and the painted woman explored a room at the fish feast after seeing four players dragged inside another room by tentacle-like shadows. They found a vast, shifting space filled with unclaimed items, and the painted woman uncovered a strange shadow-like item called "Face-Plant on Flat Ground."

• Xu Huo and the painted woman watched tentacles drag four players into a room, while the fifth escaped.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman opened the same door and found an empty, lavish room with a pool and garden.
• Xu Huo concluded that the rooms likely changed whenever their doors were opened, making risk-predicting items unreliable.
• Xu Huo searched the room and collected several unclaimed items, including a floating board and a poison-detecting teacup.
• The painted woman found a black, rubbery shadow in a wall crack, an item named "Face-Plant on Flat Ground."

Xu Huo and the painted woman searched the building for clues and stronger items, then reached the eighth floor, where two players ambushed them for their invitations. Xu Huo revealed the high-level device "Seal Gate" and killed one attacker, while the fight with the other remained unresolved.

• Xu Huo gave up his room to three players, then continued upstairs with the painted woman as a piranha-masked player mocked them and fled when they calmly confronted him.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman traveled up to the eighth floor, where two octopus-masked players attacked them to steal their invitations.
• The attackers focused on the painted woman, but Xu Huo intercepted one and used his items to break through the player's defenses.
• Xu Huo used "Seal Gate" to pierce the player's barriers and heart, then restrained him with Cutting Line.
• The wounded player offered his invitation and items, then attacked Xu Huo with a short knife; Xu Huo's barrier stopped the blade, and Cutting Line cut off the player's head.

Xu Huo and the painted woman avoided joining the Giant Eyed Fish Player’s group and entered an occupied room on the Ninth Floor, where they learned about a Player called Tattoo Master. Their rest was interrupted when five Players burst into the room.

• The Giant Eyed Fish Player tried to recruit Xu Huo and the painted woman, but Xu Huo refused and noticed that the group had captured a Mermaid Player.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman entered a room on the Ninth Floor, where two badly injured Players cautiously let them stay and shared food with them.
• The painted woman learned that Tattoo Master had inflicted the flower-shaped wounds with a fast, autonomous artifact and said she wanted to find him.
• The painted woman collected the injured Players’ blood to color her paper animals, but Xu Huo refused to let her experiment on them.
• Five Players forced their way into the room, drove the injured occupants back, and noticed Xu Huo sitting on the battered sofa.

Xu Huo fought the Giant Eyed Fish Player and his companions after they trapped everyone in the room, using the clash to test his growing physical strength. The Giant Eyed Fish Player tried to escape, but Xu Huo’s door ability stopped him at the threshold.

• The Giant Eyed Fish Player and his companions trapped Xu Huo, the painted woman, and two injured Players inside rings formed by an Artifact.
• Xu Huo cut through the barriers, and the ensuing fight ended with the Giant Eyed Fish Player killing both injured Players.
• Xu Huo repeatedly overpowered the Giant Eyed Fish Player in close combat, while the painted woman kept another opponent occupied.
• The Giant Eyed Fish Player called two companions to help, but Xu Huo held all three off and grew faster as the fight continued.
• The Giant Eyed Fish Player tried to flee through the door and ran into a sharp clang.

Xu Huo defeated the Giant Eyed Fish and his companions, then questioned the wounded Players about Feaster. He killed the Giant Eyed Fish when he recognized the name, gathered useful items, and settled in to rest with the painted woman.

• Xu Huo trapped the Players with mental interference, cut off the Giant Eyed Fish's hand, and forced him to kneel.
• The Giant Eyed Fish seized the painted woman as a hostage, but she stabbed him and broke his hand while the other two Players fled.
• Xu Huo asked the Giant Eyed Fish about Feaster and killed him when he appeared to lie; the painted woman then helped finish off another wounded Player.
• Xu Huo collected useful items, upgraded their Masks, and decided they would rest in the room for the night.
• Xu Huo discussed the painted woman's improved Ability and her paper frog, suggesting she try making a paper ball instead.

Xu Huo and the painted woman ate at a restaurant, where a player in a formal suit stopped a fight and told them about the building’s Carnival Day. The painted woman asked how to become a Whale, and the formal-suited player explained that the boss’s rules allowed a Whale to draw only one mask at a time.

• Xu Huo took the painted woman to a restaurant, where a ravenous player’s eating drove some diners away.
• A player in a formal suit threw out three players who tried to start a fight with the ravenous diner.
• The painted woman teased the formal-suited player about his unpleasant food while he struggled to finish it.
• The formal-suited player told Xu Huo and the painted woman that Carnival Day was happening that night and that a hidden maze on the twentieth floor could shelter them.
• The painted woman asked how to become a Whale so she could draw masks and make them fight, and the formal-suited player said the boss’s rules allowed only one mask to be drawn at a time.

Xu Huo and the painted woman explored the fish feast and learned about its mask hunts and a hidden Easter egg. Xu Huo bought information about the player in formalwear and the fish feast, but ended with only a lead about a powerful visitor.

• The painted woman learned how players could collect thirteen masks to become a whale, though finding the rare thirteenth mask was difficult.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman went to the fifteenth floor, where players openly bet on Carnival Day hunts and drew lots for masks to target.
• Xu Huo heard about an Easter egg hidden somewhere between the tenth and twentieth floors that could be redeemed for a high-level item.
• Xu Huo paid the round-faced player for information about the player in formalwear, who was a frequent visitor known for sudden violent outbursts.
• The round-faced player said he knew of a high-level Wormhole Point player whose defensive barrier activated from inside his body.

Xu Huo learned that a mysterious player might possess powerful, always-active defensive items, then took the painted woman away from hostile onlookers and killed a player who followed them. They reached the Sixteenth Floor, where players were gambling to avoid eating a revolting dish.

• Xu Huo paid a round-faced player for information about a player who seemed protected by an unending defensive device and learned where they usually stayed.
• On Carnival Day, a Server told Xu Huo there would be no new draws and that the previous day's selected mask remained the main hunting target.
• The painted woman threatened to dig out the eyes of players staring at her, and Xu Huo hurried her away from the recreation room.
• Three players followed Xu Huo and the painted woman to the stairs, where Xu Huo attacked and killed one of them, then took his belongings and removed his item devices.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman bypassed the Fifteenth Floor and found a gambling game on the Sixteenth Floor in which players competed to cut the largest piece of skin from a bound player.

Xu Huo and the painted woman encountered cruel players at a carnival rest area, where an A-class player named Ma intervened when a group of youngsters was threatened. Xu Huo defended the painted woman from harassment and killed a black-toothed player's poisonous insects with bug spray.

• Xu Huo learned that players were wagering by cutting pieces from a bound victim until the carnival began.
• A young player challenged the crowd, and Uncle Ma killed the player who grabbed him before escorting the youngsters away; three more players then collapsed from poison.
• Xu Huo tried to leave with the painted woman, but a black-toothed player harassed her and demanded to rent her for a night.
• Xu Huo repelled the black-toothed player's attack with his Spiritual World and demanded that he pull out his teeth.
• The black-toothed player released poisonous insects, but Xu Huo sprayed them with bug spray and killed them.

Xu Huo and the painted woman learned that Fish Banquet Tower concealed dangerous beings and that its hosts could secretly turn players against targets during a drawing. Xu Huo continued searching for information about the Diner, while the chapter ended with a player suggesting they question a Server about the past purge of Cannibal Players.

• Two players stopped the Black-Teeth Player from releasing more poisonous insects, and Xu Huo left with the painted woman.
• A player warned Xu Huo and the painted woman that hidden monitors watched the Fish Banquet and that conspicuous people sometimes disappeared.
• An information trader told Xu Huo that the tower contained Dungeon Boss-like beings and described a drawing that had once turned players against masked targets for rewards.
• Xu Huo considered whether the drawing was connected to the Diner and continued seeking information about him.
• A short female player said the drawing had been organized to deal with Cannibal Players who had gone too far, then suggested Xu Huo ask a Server for more details.

Xu Huo and the painted woman were caught up in the Fish Banquet Tower Carnival, where Players were forced out of their rooms and into fights. After Xu Huo escaped a restraint artifact and defeated its owner, he rescued the painted woman, who had fought off an attacker by clinging to him and smashing his head against a wall.

• A female Player spread word that Xu Huo was a suspected Cannibal Player, and Xu Huo decided not to ask Servers for information.
• The Carnival began, forcing Players out of their rooms and triggering fights across the tower.
• Xu Huo was trapped inside a restraint artifact with two fighting Players and joined forces with one to defeat the artifact's owner.
• The painted woman warned approaching Players away, but one attacked and knocked her into a wall.
• The painted woman grabbed the attacker's knife, tore through his defensive barrier, and clung to him until his artifact stopped working and his face was bloodied.
• Xu Huo escaped the barrier, finished off the artifact's owner, and picked up the injured painted woman.

Xu Huo and the painted woman were dragged through a Space Portal into a dim corridor by a fleeing middle-aged player. As they explored the strange space, the man opened a small window and found a bloodied head staring back at them.

• Xu Huo escaped the players pursuing him and the painted woman, then disguised her as a B-class player.
• A middle-aged player pretending to be a Super Evolver drew the anger of several female players and repeatedly used Xu Huo as a shield while fleeing.
• The middle-aged player dragged Xu Huo and the painted woman into greenery, where a Space Portal pulled all three inside.
• Xu Huo sensed at least five concealed people in the dim corridor and continued along it with the painted woman and the middle-aged player.
• The middle-aged player opened one of the corridor's small windows, revealing a head bleeding from its eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.