Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo considered whether the hidden friend was a specific Dungeon Boss and agreed to stay with Chi Cai's group in his Location Artifact. Yang Tian woke unable to feel his legs, and Bubble Bean questioned him about what happened after he separated from Chi Cai.

• You Daqian introduced himself to the players and said Yang Tian had been lucky to survive after he found him in the forest.
• Xu Huo reasoned that the middle-aged man's disappearance and Yang Tian's injuries might point to different methods used by the hidden friend, or to something else in the forest.
• Chi Cai proposed gathering the players in his open pavilion Location Artifact, and Xu Huo agreed to join them.
• Chi Cai's Location Artifact expanded to hold the group, and You Daqian questioned what it could do.
• Yang Tian woke up unable to feel his legs, failed to recover after injecting Antidote, and accused the others of harming him.
• Bubble Bean asked Yang Tian what happened after he separated from Chi Cai and why he had ended up so far from the village.

Yang Tian returned to the village poisoned and unable to move, but his account of what happened in the forest seemed dishonest. The players failed to agree on who might be a performer, so Yang Tian used a Space Interference Device to prevent anyone from teleporting away.

• You Daqian said he had found Yang Tian poisoned and wrapped in Mutated Plants, while Chi Cai said he had injected him with Antidote.
• Xu Huo confirmed that You Daqian and Chi Cai had saved Yang Tian, who described getting lost, losing consciousness, and waking in the village.
• The players suspected Yang Tian was lying about what happened in the forest, but they could not determine whether he or anyone else was a performer.
• The players argued over whether Yang Tian had been attacked by the hidden friend or targeted by the man with a pierced eyebrow and his companion.
• The Yin Yang Master proposed that everyone stay together, and Yang Tian revealed a Space Interference Device and implanted it in his wrist to block teleportation.

Xu Huo left the village with a group of mushroom-picking villagers to investigate the Dungeon’s hidden power and the “hidden friend.” After the villagers vanished from his perception, he realized he had been trapped in a spatial anomaly and had unknowingly looped back to his marker.

• The painted woman agreed to go mushroom picking with the villagers, and Xu Huo decided to accompany them despite the other Players’ concerns.
• Xu Huo warned the Players that the figures they saw might be subjective and that the hidden friend could make people lose their way.
• The Players considered whether the Dungeon involved folded space and feared that groups might disappear without warning.
• Xu Huo deliberately fell behind the mushroom-picking group to test the Dungeon’s hidden power.
• When the villagers vanished near a stream, Xu Huo used the Cube Space to examine the area and tried to return to the village.
• Xu Huo saw his marker for the second time and realized that he, not the villagers, had disappeared into a trap.

Xu Huo repeatedly failed to leave the forest before confronting a scrawny Player who had been hiding nearby. After learning that impostors had been killed and villagers were near a stream, he ordered the woman to lead him there.

• Xu Huo tried several ways to escape the forest but always returned to the same spot, then waited beneath a marker.
• He saw shifting figures that resembled people he missed and Players from Middle Wood Village, and attacked them without effect.
• After Chi Cai's voice seemed to come from a solid figure, Xu Huo used a Mental Portal to seize a scrawny woman hiding in a tree.
• Xu Huo overpowered the woman and held a black knife beside her head until she begged him to spare her.
• The woman said two impostors had killed Players before disappearing inside their pocket-dimension items, and she had seen villagers and another Player near a stream.
• Xu Huo ordered the woman to lead him to the villagers.

Xu Huo reasoned that the forest’s dangers targeted isolated people and that the Dungeon’s rules mainly protected the village’s locals from Players. At the creek, he photographed the children and invited the gaunt woman to join them.

• Xu Huo questioned the gaunt woman about the missing Players and concluded that their disappearances differed from the disorientation he had experienced.
• Xu Huo inferred that being alone near the village could trap someone in a ghostly loop, while the Dungeon’s restrictions on killing benefited the locals.
• Xu Huo reasoned that actors and the friend hiding away shared a daily limit on killings, and that someone in his group might soon be assigned the hidden friend role.
• The little girl showed Xu Huo the mushrooms, fish, and shrimp she had gathered by the creek.
• The painted woman asked Xu Huo for his old-fashioned camera, so he bought one and photographed the children before inviting the gaunt woman to join them.

Xu Huo brought Old Chai and his two companions to Middle Wood Village, then warned the players that acting alone could trigger changes in the Dungeon. After discussing impostors and disappearances, Bubble Bean proposed that players form groups of three to keep each other in check.

• Xu Huo sent the skinny woman with the painted woman to catch rabbits, then met Old Chai, Zhizhi, and Moon Upon Willow Branches by the stream.
• The skinny woman recognized Old Chai as the first person to leave their group, and Xu Huo made Old Chai and his companions join the others on the way to the village.
• Xu Huo and the other players shared a communal lunch, and he explained that he had been trapped alone and heard Chi Cai's voice calling to him.
• Xu Huo urged everyone to avoid going off alone, while the players discussed how impostors, hidden friends, and the recent disappearances might be connected.
• Bubble Bean asked whether anyone had killed someone since entering the Dungeon, then suggested that the players form groups of three to watch one another.

The players split into groups and settled in for the night while the painted woman explored the village with local children. A voice from the woods lured her to a hidden robot repeating her name, making the players suspect that one of the newcomers had chosen her as a target.

• The players divided into four groups, and Yang Tian ended up with Chi Cai, Xu Huo, and the painted woman before they agreed to rest and take turns keeping watch.
• The painted woman roamed the village trading snacks for unusual food and objects, then played with three children on Grandpa He's suggestion.
• A voice from the woods repeatedly called the painted woman Lichun, and she went into the woods after it when Xu Huo did not come looking for her.
• The painted woman returned with a muddy, broken robot that was still repeating her name, then crushed it beneath her foot.
• Bubble Bean suspected that an actor among the players had sent the robot, and Bubble Bean and the green-haired female player focused on the big man and Old Chai's group of newcomers.

Xu Huo and the other players waited in Middle Wood Village as the Dungeon remained quiet, then traveled to Shangmu Village after a local went missing. Some players vanished during teleportation, and the remaining group learned that eight more players had died, leaving 21 in the Dungeon.

• Moon Upon Willow Branches and Yin Yang Master debated whether players should reveal who had failed to play a role, but no one fought.
• Xu Huo, Old Chai, and the others kept watch and waited through days of silence as the Dungeon's player count fell from 33 to 29.
• After fifteen uneventful days, the players learned that a villager from Shangmu Village had gone missing and decided to attend the funeral there.
• The fourteen players used two Space Teleport Artifacts to travel, but one group vanished, leaving Bubble Bean, Xu Huo, and a few others at the funeral.
• The player count abruptly fell to 21, and Bubble Bean told Xu Huo and the painted woman that he was beginning to believe they were not Dungeon players.

Xu Huo and the other Players compared what they had learned about missing Players and the forest’s villages, but found no explanation for the disappearances. As the group split up for safety, Xu Huo stayed with the painted woman and asked Grandma Yi about the forest, who mentioned seeing mutated plants grow out of season.

• Bubble Bean and Chi Cai reported that Lower Wood Village had seen three Players who did not match anyone from Middle Wood Village, suggesting there might be other settlements in the forest.
• The Players considered why a group of seven had disappeared together, while the Yin Yang Master provoked Chi Cai and accused him of harming Yang Tian and targeting Xu Huo.
• The seven remaining Players abandoned their plan to watch one another and split up; the man with a pierced eyebrow and Chi Cai teamed up, while Yang Tian paid a villager for lodging.
• Bubble Bean left with the Yin Yang Master, and the man with a pierced eyebrow and Chi Cai invited Xu Huo to join them, but he declined and went with the painted woman to Grandma Yi’s house.
• Xu Huo asked Grandma Yi about the seasons and mutated plants, and she said she sometimes saw mutated plants growing out of season.

Xu Huo investigated the forest’s strange flower growth and deduced that the Hidden Friend might be replaying past voices and figures rather than appearing in the present. He called Bubble Bean into his Spiritual World to test his theory, where Bubble Bean became trapped in a terrifying illusion and was stabbed by his own weapon.

• Xu Huo visited the flower patch Grandma Yi had described, but found the flowers blooming normally and detected no unusual changes.
• Xu Huo reasoned that the forest might record and replay past sights and sounds, explaining the disappearances and the voices that called to Players.
• Xu Huo returned near Shangmu Village, waited until the other Players slept, and called Bubble Bean into his Spiritual World.
• Bubble Bean mistook Xu Huo’s call for a trap, found that he could not wake the Yin Yang Master or escape the Wooden Cabin, and became unable to use his items or make himself heard.
• Bubble Bean charged at the door with a weapon, but it ended up plunged into his own chest, and he collapsed.

Bubble Bean became trapped in a series of apparent deaths and followed a voice calling him into the woods, where Xu Huo had lured him out. Xu Huo then discovered that Bubble Bean’s escape and the surrounding events were part of a strange spatial change that had swept them both up.

• Bubble Bean woke from an apparent death, found a lookalike on his bed, and attacked a figure resembling Xu Huo before being killed by one of his own arrows.
• Bubble Bean woke again and was killed by Yin Yang Master when he tried to leave the cabin, then returned to bed once more.
• Bubble Bean destroyed the Wooden Cabin and rushed into the woods after the voice, calling for Xu Huo and tearing through the trees with his items.
• Xu Huo explained that he had used mental interference to lure Bubble Bean out, believing the voice and figure were replays of a past event.
• Xu Huo felt a subtle force envelop him and Bubble Bean and realized Bubble Bean’s dramatic escape had only happened in his imagination.

Xu Huo followed a force through the forest’s overlapping spaces and watched memories of people who had passed through, including Tuo Tuo and Grandma Yi. He hid the unconscious Bubble Bean in a tree hollow, then received two messages on his Personal Panel.

• Bubble Bean wandered through the forest, unknowingly followed by Yin Yang Master and the others, while Xu Huo followed a faint force through a different space.
• Yin Yang Master pressed into the fog after Bubble Bean, but the man with a pierced eyebrow and Chi Cai refused to follow farther.
• Xu Huo reasoned that the hidden friend could draw people into the forest without fully controlling them, and that outsiders might interrupt the process.
• Xu Huo saw memories of Tuo Tuo, Grandma Yi, and others recorded in the forest, then spotted Bubble Bean looking like a True Man.
• Xu Huo knocked Bubble Bean out, hid him in a tree hollow under scented leaves, and saw two messages appear on his Personal Panel.

Xu Huo cleared the Dungeon by recognizing that it ended when anyone succeeded, then explored the underground cavern where the forest’s hidden victims had been buried. As he prepared to leave with mud for his mutated seed, his ability revealed that the figure following him had approached.

• Xu Huo received the Dungeon-clear notification and realized players did not need to kill anyone to end the Dungeon.
• The painted woman stamped Bubble Bean’s forehead, then followed Xu Huo to investigate where the Dungeon hid people.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman descended into a vast cavern of roots and found numerous bodies absorbed by the plants.
• Xu Huo used Home Field Advantage Perspective and learned that a figure had followed him into the forest and was now approaching.
• Xu Huo recognized the wet cavern mud as suitable for growing mutated plants and collected some for his seed.

Xu Huo found an Instance Authorization Letter and the S-class Core of Eternal Sleep beneath the mud in the cavern. He chose to suspend the Dungeon by taking the letter away, then left by train, where he unexpectedly encountered Bubble Bean.

• The painted woman found an Instance Authorization Letter and a Core of Eternal Sleep beneath the cavern’s sludge, and Xu Huo examined both items.
• Xu Huo decided to take the authorization letter away and suspend the Dungeon rather than destroy it, leaving the area safe for ordinary people to shelter in.
• The painted woman asked whether their images would remain after the Dungeon was suspended, and Xu Huo said they might still appear on the surface.
• Xu Huo left the cavern and checked his Dungeon rewards aboard the train, including an S-class reward set, Nutrient Amber, and a Plant Enthusiast Badge.
• Bubble Bean entered Xu Huo’s carriage, tried to avoid him, and walked toward the next carriage as the painted woman followed and greeted him.

Xu Huo and Bubble Bean reunited on the train after escaping the Hidden Friend Dungeon, and Xu Huo explained how he had cleared it. During the journey, the painted woman fixated on a short female Player, who angrily challenged her questions.

• Bubble Bean thanked Xu Huo for sparing his life and treated him and the painted woman to a meal.
• Xu Huo explained that the Hidden Friend Dungeon ended when one person cleared it, and Bubble Bean accepted that Xu Huo had saved him.
• The train entered an energy-explosion zone, and the passengers discussed the dangerous, unstable spaces along the tracks.
• The painted woman approached a short female Player and asked why she looked like a child.
• The female Player suggested cutting sections from the painted woman's bones, and the painted woman asked if there was another way.

On the train, Xu Huo’s painted companion was mistaken for a victim being held against her will, prompting two female Players to offer her help. After clearing up the misunderstanding, Xu Huo learned about a pharmaceutical company in C20-001 and received an invitation to visit its representative there.

• A knowledgeable female Player described unusual genetic diseases and told the others that some youthful-looking people had been exploited as test subjects.
• The painted woman said that people who tried to take her had been killed, and identified Xu Huo as her companion.
• Two female Players offered to help the painted woman escape from Xu Huo, but Xu Huo explained that she was his friend and was going with him to a Dungeon.
• The painted woman ran to Xu Huo and called him handsome, revealing that she wanted his beauty rather than needing rescuing.
• Xu Huo spoke with the knowledgeable Player about genetic diseases, and she gave him a Ren Zhi Pharmaceutical card and invited him to visit her in C20-001.

Xu Huo arrived in a tourist city in District 001 and learned that he had entered the B-class instance "Cat Whiskers Fruit Journey." Unable to determine how to complete its vague mission, he investigated the route and conflicting guides before searching for a nearby Dimension Rift library.

• Xu Huo arrived in a tourist city, where a female Player explained that its streetlamps released harmless medicinal fragrances, and he said he had hay fever.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman checked into the Yongxing Hotel, where Xu Huo reviewed the instance information.
• Xu Huo learned that the clearance mission was to complete one "Cat Whiskers Fruit Journey," with no time limit, and suspected the fruit might not be the mission’s true focus.
• Xu Huo studied the route between Cat Fruit Town and Cat Eye City and found that it passed through numerous cities and towns.
• Xu Huo read conflicting instance guides, considered that earlier clearance methods might stop working, and searched for a nearby Dimension Rift library.

Xu Huo researched Cat Fruit Town and Cat Eye City at a library, uncovering the history and unusual adoption practices of the influential Wan family. He turned to Cat Eye City’s records and learned that it was an “independent” city.

• Xu Huo left the painted woman at the hotel and went to the library to research the cities on his route.
• Xu Huo searched for scandals involving District 001’s pharmaceutical companies but found nothing significant.
• Xu Huo learned that Cat Fruit Town had remained peaceful during Evolution and read about Town Chief Wan’s safety measures.
• Xu Huo discovered that Secretary Wan and other members of the Wan family were adopted rather than blood relatives, and planned to investigate the family in Cat Fruit Town.
• Xu Huo began reading about Cat Eye City and found that it was an “independent” city.

Xu Huo investigated Cat Eye City’s peaceful public image and met Wen Xin, who suspected the District concealed its violence. Back at the hotel, Xu Huo learned that the painted woman had left with a stranger after visiting a handicraft shop.

• Xu Huo researched Cat Eye City’s government and found that its leadership mostly descended from officials of the destroyed country.
• Wen Xin called Cat Eye City boring and suggested its crimes might be hidden or displaced, while Xu Huo said bloodshed might force people to conceal it.
• Wen Xin introduced himself to Xu Huo, then departed after learning they were in different Dungeons.
• Xu Huo noticed someone following him and made several stops before returning to Yongxing Hotel, where the tail disappeared.
• A hotel employee gave Xu Huo a note saying the painted woman had gone out for fun and showed him footage of her leaving with a woman who had approached her outside a handicraft shop.

Xu Huo used District 001’s law enforcement team to find the painted woman, only to discover she had spent the day shopping, donating money, and enjoying an entertainment venue. After returning to the hotel, he learned that multiple groups were screening Players and suspected a wider problem in the Sub-district.

• Xu Huo hired two law enforcement Players, who charged him upfront and coordinated a search across surveillance records and nearby departments.
• The search showed that a woman had taken the painted woman luxury shopping, to a welfare institute to make a donation, and then to a women-only entertainment venue.
• Xu Huo found the painted woman spending money in a private room, paid the remaining fee, and took her back to the hotel.
• A hotel staff member explained that locals sometimes targeted wealthy visitors from other Districts and that law enforcement charged outsiders for assistance.
• The painted woman told Xu Huo that several groups, including powerful Players, had watched them, and Xu Huo concluded that District 001 might be screening people amid a serious wider problem.