Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo uncovered the Holy Sword Society’s deception at the Chaos Space passage and learned that District 001’s true exit had not been sealed. He returned to Chang Yu and joined District 001’s elite players at another training ground, where Yao Yuan welcomed him.

• Xu Huo killed the Holy Sword Society players guarding the Chaos Space passage and exposed the Lord Envoy’s disguise.
• The Lord Envoy revealed that the Portal Space’s exit was inside the Chaos Space, but Xu Huo killed him without entering the dangerous passage.
• Xu Huo concluded that the Holy Sword Society had blocked the real exit and used other outposts to divert District 001’s players.
• Xu Huo returned with captured equipment and information, and Chang Yu said the group would set out for the original exit.
• Xu Huo traveled with Chang Yu’s group to another training ground and met the First Squad’s military representative, Yao Yuan.

District 001's leaders prepared for a covert takeover by a powerful enemy, evacuating children and key resources while waiting for the First Squad to return and possibly produce a new Super Player. With eight hours left before the election results, Valen sent his colleague to escort the Wan family’s hero away and planned to follow.

• District 001's leaders concluded that an outside power had abducted officials and their families to covertly turn the district into a supply zone.
• Valen and the council prepared a secret evacuation and placed the military, law enforcement, and high-level players on standby.
• The District Government sent screened children and other valuable people away while preserving resources for District 001's future.
• The council waited for the First Squad's signal, hoping a new Super Player would save the district and preparing to withdraw if the takeover succeeded.
• Valen told his colleague to go to the Wan family and send the hero away before he followed.

A blue-eyed man entered District 001 and used Time Power to witness Xu Huo killing the Silver Robe, then destroyed the Chaos Space entrance. Elsewhere, Xu Huo and the First Squad retreated from a Spatial Storm, leaving the passage’s fate uncertain as District 001’s forces suffered heavy losses.

• A blue-eyed man entered District 001 through the passage Xu Huo had visited and killed the Players who attacked him.
• The blue-eyed man used his Gemstone Ring to replay the Silver Robe’s death and identify Xu Huo across time.
• The blue-eyed man left, and a Spatial disturbance destroyed the entrance to Chaos Space and isolated the outpost.
• Xu Huo and the First Squad encountered a Spatial Storm while exploring another passage and retreated to safety.
• A second Spatial Storm struck as Xu Huo and the First Squad emerged, killing dozens of Players guarding the mountain forest.

District 001 ended its crisis by accepting the occupying forces’ demand for twenty years of tax revenue, while officials suspected Xu Huo’s actions in the portal space had helped force their retreat. On a departing ship, Carroll Field hinted that Xu Huo might become the next Morning Star, while Xu Huo struggled in mud at a Station.

• District 001 lifted its alert, celebrated the council election, and learned that the occupying forces had withdrawn in exchange for forty percent of annual tax revenue for twenty years.
• Yao Yuan and the others reported that Xu Huo was a three-directional Super Evolver and that a Silver Robe had died in the portal space, leading officials to suspect those events had influenced the retreat.
• A Silver Robe thanked Carroll Field for helping negotiate the withdrawal and discussed retrieving the Super Dungeon left in District 001.
• Carroll Field said his family feared the return of a Morning Star and suggested that someone else might deserve the title.
• Xu Huo struggled to pull his legs out of the mud at a Station.

Xu Huo emerged from District 001 into a Station buried in sticky mud, where he met a player selling Potions and learned about a female player’s revenge on a mediator who had pressured her to return to her abusive ex-husband. The chapter ended with Xu Huo asking the meddlesome player what profession he had chosen.

• Xu Huo became trapped in the Station’s mud after the Water Rubik’s Cube Barrier returned, then pulled himself free with a Manifestation.
• A player who had been dangling from the ceiling offered Potions to the trapped players, but they dragged him into the mud when he dodged their attacks.
• Xu Huo pulled the Potion seller out, questioned him, and let him go after the man denied making the mud and blamed the two fighters.
• A train arrived, and most of the players left the Station while Xu Huo, the Potion seller, and a female player remained.
• The female player described how she had forced the mediator who pressured her to reconcile with her abusive ex-husband to marry him, then asked Xu Huo what profession the man had chosen.

Xu Huo reunited with Sister Zhong and Shi Potian aboard the train, then checked the rewards for clearing the dungeon with an SS rating. He received three A-class items and remained unsure whether the blue-eyed people who had let him escape were allies.

• Xu Huo, Sister Zhong, and Shi Potian met again on the train, where Sister Zhong questioned them about their families and relationships.
• Shi Potian told the carriage how his fiancée had left him for another man, and Sister Zhong comforted him.
• Xu Huo let the painted woman out in the restroom and checked his dungeon settlement after forfeiting the team reward to leave the Super Dungeon site quickly.
• Xu Huo considered whether the blue-eyed people had deliberately let him escape and decided to set the matter aside for now.
• Xu Huo received three A-class items: Integrate with Space, Dreamy Dentures, and String of Destiny.

Xu Huo reviewed his rewards from the B-class instance, including upgraded items and Abilities, then checked on District 001 after its immediate danger had passed. The chapter left the reasons behind the threat’s sudden disappearance and the Sub-district Government’s mass departures unclear.

• Xu Huo assessed his three A-class items and upgraded Life Core to strengthen its ability to reveal things within his Evolution powers’ reach.
• Xu Huo reviewed his new special items, including This Place is Silent, and noted that it could counter Abilities requiring speech.
• Xu Huo examined his upgraded Abilities, game gifts, and Super Artifact Inversion Ring.
• Xu Huo checked on District 001 and learned that its Players believed the immediate threat had lifted, while many Sub-district Government personnel had disappeared or been arrested.

Xu Huo received gifts from District 001 and Bubble Bean, including Angel's Index Finger and an A-class theft item, and discovered that his upgraded Life Core had become Life Origin. The chapter ended when Shi Potian used Conflict Mediation to stop a player who was trying to kill him aboard the train.

• Xu Huo read Yao Yuan's messages and accepted District 001's gifts, including the incomplete Super Artifact Angel's Index Finger.
• Bubble Bean apologized to Xu Huo and gave him the A-class theft item Invisible Hand as his share of the team rewards.
• Xu Huo found a map marked with a time two months in the future among the Holy Sword Society's belongings and inspected his upgraded Life Origin.
• Sister Zhong and Shi Potian fled into Xu Huo's carriage as a player pursued them and held a knife to Shi Potian's throat.
• Shi Potian activated Conflict Mediation, froze the players, and warned his pursuer that attacking could leave them trapped in the carriage.

Shi Potian and Xu Huo dealt with confrontations aboard the Transfer Carriage, and Xu Huo made a playboy kneel and apologize with his Ability. After retreating to his room, Xu Huo used Home Field Advantage Perspective to read notes suggesting the United Capital spaces had unusual properties and that chaotic spacetime might have recorded the crime scene.

• Xu Huo forced Shi Potian to stand, ending the suppression of the other Players, and Shi Potian's attacker was thrown into another carriage when his blade broke against a defensive barrier.
• A playboy flirted with the painted woman and traded insults with a female Player until the painted woman's Communicator announced another Dungeon clear failure.
• The painted woman tried to make Xu Huo clear the game for her, then attacked the playboy with paper toys when he reached for her Communicator.
• Xu Huo told the playboy to apologize, and the man's knees bent as he knelt and struck his forehead against the floor before leaving the carriage.
• Xu Huo entered his room, set up protections, and used Home Field Advantage Perspective to read notes about the United Capital and the possibility that chaotic spacetime had recorded the crime scene.

After leaving District 001, Xu Huo worried that Kailuoer Field might investigate his three-way Evolution and considered the unresolved problem with his water Rubik's Cube. He boarded the train, where the painted woman followed him to the dining car and tried to order food beyond the menu.

• Xu Huo identified Kailuoer Field as the likely person behind the destruction of the passage and District 001's peaceful resolution, and hoped to avoid meeting him again.
• Xu Huo decided he needed to solve the water Rubik's Cube problem and read District 001's Super Evolution training notes before resting.
• At the train door, Xu Huo found the painted woman blocking it with a sofa and moved her aside after she asked whether she could take a baby out of the womb to look at it.
• The painted woman followed Xu Huo to the dining car, complained that he had not comforted her, and asked how much money they had made.
• The painted woman ordered every limited-availability dish and asked the Conductor for food not on the menu, but he refused and clarified that the train did not provide food-processing services.

Xu Huo and the painted woman ate in the restaurant, where an A-class Wormhole Point Player killed a man who insulted her companions. The painted woman traded for a jeweled clock-patterned outfit and, back in Carriage 3, told Xu Huo that the female Player smelled like a medal.

• Xu Huo ended the painted woman's questions, and a Player at the restaurant explained how drugs could redirect animals' evolution and how some Players were genetically modified.
• A man insulted A-class Wormhole Point Players, and the female Player in the apprentice uniform crushed him to death by clapping.
• The painted woman admired the female Player's clock-patterned clothes, traded her an A-class item for an outfit, and wondered whether the woman had been flirting with her.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman passed through a confrontation in Carriage 4, where the apprentice-uniform trio cleared the way for them.
• Back in Carriage 3, the painted woman told Xu Huo that the female Player smelled like a medal.

Xu Huo studied ways to break the water Rubik’s Cube while the painted woman went to ask a female player for her pendant. She returned with a jade pendant bearing a valuable Origin Stone, and Xu Huo recognized the woman who had given it to her.

• The painted woman waited until morning, then went to ask the female player in the carriage behind them for something she wanted.
• Xu Huo researched spatial super-instruments and learned that breaking one might require matching powers or help from an Artificer at an A-class wormhole point.
• Sister Zhong asked Xiao Xiao about her difficult pregnancy, and Xiao Xiao explained that the baby’s father had died protecting her.
• Shi Potian tried to chat with Xu Huo, who offered him a way to stop talking and sent him fleeing to the dining car.
• The painted woman returned carrying an “Unpolished Jade” pendant with an Origin Stone on its tassel, and Xu Huo looked toward the woman in the next carriage.

Xu Huo and the painted woman learned that the pendant she admired was an Origin Stone numbered S-112, and Xu Huo planned to ask around for more information. They arrived in District C9-001 and visited its famous Time Square, where the time tower began to chime.

• The painted woman learned that the jade pendant was an Origin Stone called S-112, and Xu Huo searched for information about it.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman arrived in District C9-001, known for its accurate time tower and district clocks.
• At Little Full Moon station, the painted woman watched the enormous clock beneath the transparent floor as Xu Huo explained that a broken clock would not break time.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman teleported to Time Square, where the painted woman went looking for food and Xu Huo gazed up at the time tower.
• The largest rectangular clock’s six hands stopped at 36, and the tower rang out three times.

Xu Huo explored Time Plaza, where residents gathered to calibrate clocks and the surrounding shops sold time-themed goods. After buying a set of gemstone bookmarks, he noticed a book signing for Teacher Jing Shi and went into the mall.

• Xu Huo watched people calibrate clocks at the Time Tower as the plaza celebrated the start of a new day.
• Shi Potian and the painted woman shared their breakfast with Xu Huo, then complained about the clock shops and went to play arcade games.
• Xu Huo browsed the clock shops and bought a set of seven gemstone bookmarks with miniature clock faces.
• Xu Huo saw a sign for Teacher Jing Shi’s book signing, entered the mall, and picked up a copy of Time That Never Stops.

Xu Huo read Jing Shi’s book about time and questioned her claims about Time Power during a private signing. After she suggested that time could exist and be annihilated, he left and found the painted woman and Shi Potian buying clocks and watches.

• Xu Huo read Jing Shi’s explanation of time and Curved Time while another Player argued with her fans at the book signing.
• Xu Huo asked Jing Shi to inscribe “The Jumping of Time” and questioned whether small-scale Time Power truly affected time.
• Jing Shi said that borrowing time was not the same as affecting it, and that true interference would occur when one space’s time completely covered another’s.
• Jing Shi suggested that time could both exist and be annihilated, but ended the conversation when a staff member reminded her of the schedule.
• Xu Huo left the signing room and found the painted woman and Shi Potian in a luxury store with nearly fifty clocks and watches laid out for them.

Xu Huo and the painted woman explored District 001, where she won two Clock Exhibition tickets and caught a boy trying to steal from her. After officers dismissed the theft, Xu Huo defended her and the pair continued on to look for food.

• The painted woman wanted to buy fifty watches, but Xu Huo set a time-based condition that led her to choose just a hair clip and a wristwatch.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman parted ways with Shi Potian, then wandered through District 001 and watched people try their hand at making watches.
• The painted woman assembled watch parts at two shops and won two tickets to the Clock Exhibition.
• A boy tried to steal from the painted woman's backpack, and she restrained him and accused him of theft.
• Two officers tried to let the boy go with only a reprimand, but Xu Huo challenged their handling of the case and left with the painted woman.
• The painted woman complained that people bullied her because she could not speak, and Xu Huo suggested she could type instead before they stopped at a roasted-bird shop.

Xu Huo witnessed a contract killing in District 001 and learned that licensed hit companies operated openly under the District’s tradition of private justice. The painted woman asked whether assassination organizations still existed, while the Players debated why the government allowed them.

• Xu Huo and the painted woman checked into Yongxing Hotel, where Players were waiting for an introduction to the famous Clock Master.
• The painted woman admired District 001’s unusual night sky, and Xu Huo sent bookmarks to Xiao Yuan and Tan Qi before going to sleep.
• Xu Huo saw Quick Delivery leave a beauty salon after killing two people inside, and the victims were later identified as adulterers.
• A Player explained to Xu Huo and the painted woman that licensed hit companies accepted contract killings and that the District had a long tradition of assassination.
• The painted woman asked whether assassination organizations still existed, and another Player said the licensed companies were their modern form.

Xu Huo learned how District 001’s assassination companies enforced laws and moral boundaries, backed by a public belief that anyone who committed a crime could be punished by anyone. He visited the former headquarters of the famed Kongyou Service Company and found that it had moved to Smiling Face Park.

• At a breakfast shop, Xu Huo heard locals explain how assassination companies investigated wrongdoing and took jobs to punish people who crossed legal or moral lines.
• A customer mocked the district’s strict customs, and the shop’s patrons and owner drove him out after revealing that he had once harassed women and had his legs broken three times.
• A local described how one small company spent half a year and lost more than ten High-level Players before returning the bodies of two Outer District Players who had killed sixteen citizens.
• Xu Huo left the shop with the painted woman and went to the former headquarters of Kongyou Service Company.
• Xu Huo found praise written across the old headquarters, along with an advertisement saying the company had moved to Smiling Face Park.

Xu Huo and the painted woman visited Smiling Face Park, where he hired Kongyou Service Company to provide bodyguards and tour-guide services in District 001. He booked five days and arranged for the company to pick them up at Yongxing Hotel for the Clock Exhibition the next morning.

• Xu Huo and the painted woman arrived at Smiling Face Park as local players argued with government workers over repairs to their homes.
• A guard directed Xu Huo to Kongyou Service Company after he asked whether it was there.
• Xu Huo met the company's smiling female boss and learned she and her cousin offered bodyguard services.
• Xu Huo agreed to pay 15,000 a day, booked five days, and signed the company's binding contract.
• Xu Huo gave his surname as Xu, introduced the painted woman as Xiao Chun, and arranged a hotel pickup for the Clock Exhibition.

Xu Huo discussed time, Curved Time, and the angles between spaces with writer Jing Shi, who shared her theories about time being displaced rather than erased. After Jing Shi left, Xu Huo took the painted woman out to find local food, where someone targeted her backpack again.

• Xu Huo and the painted woman returned to the hotel and ran into Jing Shi in the lobby.
• Xu Huo and Jing Shi discussed how different times could overlap, with Jing Shi proposing that covered time was squeezed into the angles between spaces.
• Jing Shi suggested that Curved Time resulted from collisions between different times, and Xu Huo reflected on artifacts that could capture or stabilize it.
• Jing Shi gave Xu Huo her business card and left for her hometown, while Xu Huo asked the hotel staff to send the fruit platters to his room.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman went to find local specialties, where someone set their sights on the painted woman's backpack.