Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo seized control of the deadly paper scraps and helped his group escape the Trackers, who had killed four of their people. As the survivors fled toward the outskirts, Old Mrs. Gui claimed her grandson had been murdered, and the long-haired player pressed her to explain whom she was really seeking.

• The Trackers unleashed pink paper scraps that trapped Xu Huo, Bubble Bean, Old Mrs. Gui, and the remaining Wan family members inside their protective barriers.
• Xu Huo redirected the paper scraps toward the Trackers, helping breach two barriers and kill one player before the scraps burned to ash.
• Xu Huo escorted Old Mrs. Gui out of the area, and the long-haired player rejoined them with news that four people had died.
• The long-haired player said the attackers were likely a private punishment group backed by politicians and warned that the survivors could be hunted.
• Old Mrs. Gui insisted her grandson had been murdered, while Xu Huo questioned whom she was really looking for.
• Bubble Bean slapped Old Mrs. Gui, and the long-haired player stopped her and demanded that the old woman explain herself if she still wanted the item delivered.

The old woman explained how her grandson had entrusted her with a carved cat-whisker fruit before dying in a political struggle. After someone stole the fruit, Xu Huo decided the group should investigate the restaurant where it was meant to be delivered.

• The old woman told Xu Huo and the others that her grandson had asked her to deliver a cat-whisker fruit bearing an obscure carved symbol, and she had made duplicates to conceal it.
• She explained that her grandson had died after being caught up in a political struggle, and that she had sought help from the Wan family while keeping the fruit for herself.
• Xu Huo questioned the old woman about her hostility toward Outer District Players, and she said several of her children had died in attacks involving them, though her grandson had not shared her hatred.
• The old woman gave the group a cat-whisker fruit, but it vanished from Bubble Bean's hand and Bubble Bean disappeared briefly while pursuing whoever had taken it.
• Xu Huo urged the others not to turn back and proposed investigating the restaurant where the fruit was supposed to be delivered.

Xu Huo questioned the long-haired Player about the Wan family’s troubles and learned that District 001 was facing political upheaval after its Super Player died. The group continued toward Cat Fruit Town, while the cause of the Wan family’s involvement remained unclear.

• Xu Huo invited Old Mrs. Gui to continue with them, and she insisted on joining so she could find her grandson’s killer and seek revenge.
• Xu Huo asked the long-haired Player about the lack of Random Instances and Super Players, and learned that the Sub-district’s Super Player had died a year earlier.
• The long-haired Player explained that the Super Player’s death had weakened the government’s control over major Player organizations and that District 001 would soon face a political storm.
• Xu Huo questioned whether the Wan family was involved in the upheaval, and the long-haired Player denied it while noting that the family had few blood relatives in Cat Fruit Town.
• Bubble Bean suggested that Xu Huo’s distant relatives in Cat Eye City might have caused the trouble that brought the group under scrutiny.

Xu Huo and Bubble Bean arrived in Ren Zhi Pharmaceutical Industry City after leaving Fengxing City and explored a local pharmacy. Xu Huo bought medicines and learned where to find an armaments Exchange, while the group remained cautious about the Players pursuing them.

• The long-haired Player decided to stay away rather than return, and a Wan family member reported that the Players following Xu Huo's impostors had not been attacked on the train.
• Xu Huo and his companions got off at Ren Zhi Pharmaceutical Industry City, where Bubble Bean suggested seeking help from the young woman who had given them a business card.
• Xu Huo entered a pharmacy and listened as an employee promoted Ren Zhi Pharmaceutical's medicines and cellular health robots.
• Xu Huo bought medicines, then asked about small positioning devices and learned that an armaments Exchange nearby sold new weapons.
• Bubble Bean questioned whether Xu Huo really intended to buy weapons.

Xu Huo bought Enforcement Squad equipment, trackers, and small detonators at the Exchange, spending tens of millions in cash. He left with the gear packed in a bag carried by the painted woman.

• Xu Huo asked the Exchange staff about the Enforcement Squad's equipment and ordered three sets of selected devices.
• After the staff member obtained access to semi-public military weapons, Xu Huo chose ten trackers and twenty small detonators.
• Xu Huo paid tens of millions in White Cash rather than transferring money through a Player account.
• Xu Huo packed the detonators in a bag and handed it to the painted woman to carry as the group left the Exchange.
• Bubble Bean remarked that the money could have bought Xu Huo a good A-class item.

Xu Huo and his companions learned that the old woman had come to Fengxing City seeking a cat that might recognize her and help her contact someone. They arranged to meet the cat’s owner near Ren Zhi Pharmaceutical Industry City, but remained wary of him.

• Xu Huo warned the old woman that whoever had taken the fake cat-whisker fruit might be coming after them, and she revealed that her grandson Xiaofeng had told her to find a cat he once brought home.
• The old woman explained that she had seen a missing-cat notice for a cat with the same markings and believed it might recognize her.
• Bubble Bean found the notice on his Jixin Terminal and called the listed number, whose owner claimed he had already found his cat.
• Bubble Bean demanded money and arranged a meeting after the caller said he was near Ren Zhi Pharmaceutical Industry City.
• Xu Huo and the long-haired Player cautioned that the caller’s nearby location could be suspicious and that they could not trust him.

Xu Huo and his companions met a man who claimed the Cat Whisker Fruit was genuine, but Xu suspected he was pretending. They stayed in Pharmaceutical City after a strange medicinal mist engulfed them, and Xu realized they could not leave.

• Bubble Bean met a middle-aged man in the park, gave him a fake Cat Whisker Fruit, and accepted his payment after the man claimed its carved information was important.
• Xu Huo told Bubble Bean that the man had likely been acting because he had not recognized the writing on the fruit.
• The long-haired Player suggested they stay near the city government, since their pursuers could track them and the group still had not found the cat.
• A cloud of fragrant medicinal mist suddenly swept across the street, and Xu Huo concluded that they could not leave Pharmaceutical City.
• Xu Huo and the others checked into a hotel near the city government, where law enforcement officers were searching for a missing Player.

Xu Huo concluded that pursuers had trapped the group inside Pharmaceutical City with spatial jammers and planned to wait for Wen Xin and the others before acting. During the night, Bubble Bean alone heard a strange bubbling sound, but nothing unusual happened, and the others arrived nearby by morning.

• Bubble Bean discussed District 001’s laws concerning missing Outer District Players, while Xu Huo noticed the Fragrance of Medicine Lamps releasing smoke.
• Xu Huo explained that jamming devices around Pharmaceutical City could prevent teleportation and trap them, and he warned Bubble Bean not to seek an escape route alone.
• Xu Huo learned that Wen Xin and the others were nearing the city and asked the long-haired Player to tell him when they arrived.
• During the night, Bubble Bean heard a bubbling sound that no one else could hear, but Xu Huo found no evidence of poisoning or changes nearby.
• By morning, Wen Xin and the others had checked into a nearby hotel, and Xu Huo left the painted woman with the old woman before going to meet them.

Xu Huo learned that wealthy District 001 heirs were betting on Outer District Players and sending teams to sabotage their journey. He agreed with Wen Xin’s plan to delay the group at a Station, then stayed in Pharmaceutical City with the old lady as the Wan family members departed.

• Wen Xin and the others learned that the attacks on their route were part of an underground casino’s betting pool, where District 001 heirs treated traveling Players as contestants in a race.
• Wen Xin proposed ambushing the attackers near a tunnel, but Xu Huo suggested waiting at the Station to disrupt the betting pool; the group agreed to wait a day and involve other attacked teams.
• Xu Huo discovered that the Players tracking him had followed the disguised Wan family members into Pharmaceutical City, and he considered drawing them outside the city.
• Bubble Bean woke up unusually hungry and ate until his stomach was full, while Xu Huo suspected something was wrong with him.
• The long-haired Player and another Wan family member left the hotel, taking the disguised people with them, while Xu Huo stayed behind to care for the old lady.

Xu Huo’s group was ambushed in Pharmaceutical City by Miss Yi and the Player in the hat, but he redirected them to Wen Xin’s hotel and fought back. Just as Xu Huo trapped the attackers with the Time Ring and prepared to interrogate them, they escaped using their Tickets.

• Wen Xin told Xu Huo that his group had been attacked repeatedly on the road and had stopped in Rice Town, where another group of Players was tailing them.
• Bubble Bean became unusually exhausted, injected several Evolution Potions, and quickly fell asleep after taking the second half of the night watch.
• Miss Yi and the Player in the hat entered Xu Huo’s room and tried to capture him, the painted woman, Bubble Bean, and the old woman, but Xu Huo pulled everyone through Mental Portals into Wen Xin’s hotel room.
• Wen Xin’s group and Miss Yi’s Players mistook each other for enemies and began fighting, while Xu Huo brought in the Players who had been watching Wen Xin.
• Xu Huo’s armed drones and the painted woman’s explosives helped drive Miss Yi’s side back, and he used the Time Ring to trap them in Still Time.
• Xu Huo told the painted woman to take the attackers for interrogation, but Miss Yi, the Player in the hat, and their companions broke free and escaped with their Tickets.

Xu Huo led his group into a medicinal field to lure pursuers into a trap involving the law enforcement team, while Wen Xin and the others went ahead to draw the officers in. The painted woman triggered a chain reaction among the mutated flying-catkins plants, leaving the field engulfed in a mass of airborne seeds.

• Xu Huo disguised the painted woman and Bubble Bean as law enforcement officers, then sent Wen Xin and the others toward the next station to help lure the bet participants and officers together.
• Xu Huo, Bubble Bean, and the painted woman took Old Mrs. Gui through the tunnel toward the medicinal field, with pursuers following them.
• Xu Huo deliberately damaged the field's perimeter and triggered alarms to draw the pursuers deeper inside.
• Bubble Bean recognized a patch of mutated flying-catkins plants and warned that their seeds could spread across the field.
• The painted woman broke a sensor and tossed it among the plants, triggering a chain reaction that filled the field with flying catkins and swept her away with her scattered notebook pages.

Xu Huo and his allies set the medicinal fields ablaze and drew the enforcement squad into a chaotic battle with the players involved in the wager. The opposing players escaped, and Xu Huo and his group withdrew after fighting the officers and setting more fires.

• Xu Huo repelled the players attacking him, killed two, and set the airborne fluff alight.
• Wen Xin and the others returned with an enforcement squad, and Bubble Bean drew more of the opposing players into the clash.
• The enforcement squad fought the wager’s players, suspecting them of sabotaging District 001 despite their credentials.
• The wager’s players used teleportation Artifacts to escape, and Xu Huo signaled his allies to withdraw.
• Xu Huo immobilized some officers with the Time Ring, fought the rest, set more fires, and teleported away after insulting the enforcement squad.

Xu Huo and his companions followed a group of cats to the cat Old Mrs. Gui remembered, and she gave it and its lookalikes the secret messages to deliver. The cats scattered before Xu Huo could confirm whether the task was complete, so he disappeared to follow them.

• Xu Huo used a photograph to send Fengxing City's law enforcement teams searching for a suspected player while he and his companions continued their aimless investigation.
• The painted woman spotted cats emerging from an underground pipe, and one tugged Old Mrs. Gui's trouser leg to lead the group away.
• The cats guided Xu Huo and the others through Wetland Park to a giant apricot tree, where Old Mrs. Gui recognized a dyed marking hidden in one cat's fur.
• Old Mrs. Gui tied cat-whisker fruits containing secret messages around the necks of the recognized cat and its lookalikes, then asked them to deliver the messages.
• The cats scattered through the park, and Xu Huo stowed Old Mrs. Gui in a container item before vanishing to follow them.

Xu Huo and his companions followed a calico cat through the city to a wealthy pet trainer, who identified the cat-whisker fruit as a List and said the matter had already ended. Xu Huo left without learning what the List said, while Bubble Bean questioned whether they had cleared the level.

• The calico cat led Xu Huo and his companions from the city park to a pet shop, where an employee said its owner had gone to the training park.
• The group followed the cat across the city to the training park, where it greeted an elderly woman and brought her the cat-whisker fruit.
• The old woman examined the fruit, cracked its shell, read the writing on its seed, and called someone to say they could begin.
• The old woman invited Xu Huo and his companions inside, and she and Xu Huo discussed animals, instincts, and human nature over tea.
• The old woman said the matter had ended a day earlier, but refused to tell Bubble Bean what the List had said.
• Xu Huo left with his companions, and Bubble Bean complained that he still did not know whether they had cleared the level.

After Mr. Valen withdrew from the council election, Xu Huo and Bubble Bean returned to Cat Fruit Town and learned that the Wan family had been abducted. Xu Huo identified the old woman they had met as Mrs. Valen Shera, leaving them to investigate how she was connected to the attack and the election.

• A Jixin Terminal headline announced Mr. Valen's withdrawal from the election, triggering the side quest "Noble Character" for Xu Huo and Bubble Bean.
• Xu Huo and Bubble Bean teleported to Cat Fruit Town, found the Wan family's neighborhood sealed off, and learned that the entire family had been abducted after their guards were killed.
• Old Mrs. Gui blamed herself for drawing the Wan family into the danger, while Bubble Bean suspected the attack was meant to force Mr. Valen out of the election.
• Xu Huo searched the Jixin Terminal and identified the old woman as Mrs. Valen Shera, Mr. Valen's mother and a former Chief Secretary.
• Xu Huo and Bubble Bean discovered that Henderson, another election candidate, was rumored to be Mrs. Valen Shera's child with the former Chief Executive.

Xu Huo and Bubble Bean considered whether the Wan family’s disappearance was part of a political conspiracy involving Valen and his rivals. They decided to investigate the Wan family’s surviving Players, while Old Mrs. Gui and the painted woman set out to gather information.

• Bubble Bean and Xu Huo discussed whether Valen’s withdrawal and the attack on the Wan family had been staged to influence the Council election.
• Xu Huo rejected confronting Valen without proof and proposed searching for surviving Wan family Players instead.
• Old Mrs. Gui volunteered to use her contacts to learn what had happened and left to investigate.
• The painted woman offered to eavesdrop on nearby residents, and Xu Huo warned her to escape underground if detected.
• Xu Huo left Small Item Carving and joined the stranded Outer District Players, who were discussing the Wan family and their stalled Cat Whisker Fruit business.

Xu Huo tracked down a Player who had escaped from the Wan family home and paid him for his account of the attack. The Player believed the Wan family might still be alive and pointed Xu Huo toward the Mi family as his next lead.

• After hearing that a strange human-shaped shadow had fled the Wan home, Xu Huo followed a crew-cut Player out of town.
• Xu Huo confronted the Player in a Beverage Shop and offered him a Class C device in exchange for every detail he remembered.
• The Player admitted he had entered the Wan home to steal valuables and witnessed nearly thirty newcomers appear after an Artifact sealed off the residence.
• He described a brief fight, a search of the house, and his own escape past a barrier after a woman screamed.
• The Player said the Wan family might still be alive and suggested Xu Huo investigate the Mi family.

Xu Huo and his companions found a Player living in a hidden underground room beneath the Wan family’s home. The man revealed that his surveillance device had recorded the Wan family being taken away, and the chapter ended as they began watching the footage.

• Bubble Bean told Xu Huo that Players who witnessed the Wan family’s attack had been knocked unconscious and taken by the military.
• The painted woman returned with a Player she had found underground and taken prisoner.
• The painted woman led Xu Huo and Bubble Bean through a passage from a park to a furnished room beneath the Wan family’s home.
• Xu Huo threatened the bruised Player until he admitted that his surveillance device had recorded the Wan family being taken away.
• Bubble Bean found the storage device and projected its footage, which opened with a young girl in pajamas approaching the camera.

Xu Huo questioned the voyeur who had recorded the Wan family’s abduction and found secret footage identifying Wan Dong’s suitor, a young man surnamed Mi, as a possible lead. The group set out to investigate the Mi family, while the bruised man joined them and revealed that the Wan family’s adopted son was a powerful A-class player who was likely killed first.

• Bubble Bean and Xu Huo interrogated the bruised man, who showed footage of a hooded man abducting Wan Dong.
• Xu Huo concluded that the kidnapper had been watching the Wan family from more than one location and asked whether anything unusual had happened before the abduction.
• Bubble Bean retrieved a storage device containing the bruised man’s secret recordings, which showed that Wan Dong was dating a young man surnamed Mi.
• Xu Huo agreed to bring the bruised man along to investigate the Mi family, and the man identified Xu Huo’s photo as the Wan family’s adopted son, an A-class player with a powerful Beast-Fighting Platform item.
• Xu Huo asked whether the Mi family’s activities had seemed normal since the abduction.

Xu Huo investigated the Mi family's connection to the Wan family's disappearance and devised a plan to draw their attention. He recruited the buzz-cut Player to help distract the Mi family while Xu Huo negotiated with them.

• Old Mrs. Gui reported that Mi Fei had been placed under house arrest after arguing with his family over Wan Dong.
• Xu Huo reasoned that the Wan family's guards had either been subdued or gathered inside when the attack happened, suggesting someone within the Wan family had been involved.
• The buzz-cut Player told Xu Huo he had overheard a Mi family member say that the Wan family did not have much time left.
• Xu Huo proposed using the buzz-cut Player to attract the Mi family's attention while he approached them to negotiate about the kidnapping case.
• The buzz-cut Player objected to the risk, and Xu Huo offered to provide insurance by presenting the Mi family with a written accusation and keeping the others outside.