Chapter Summaries

After upgrading, Xu Huo investigated the bounty platform and reviewed the abilities and items he had received. He learned that he was now a D-class player and faced restrictions on using his remaining E-class ticket.

• Xu Huo found a notice linking Blazing Chariot’s suspected death to a Super Player and revealing that Tongue Eater’s account had been terminated.
• Xu Huo tried to buy information about reaching a game sub-district without a Return Ticket, but the game said he could not afford it.
• Xu Huo reviewed his new rewards, including Accident Trigger Constitution, the tracking Screaming Chicken, Eye of Prying, World in the Painting, and Five or Five Open Air Window.
• Xu Huo examined the open-air window and inferred that specialized items could manipulate space beyond the tickets supplied by the game.
• The game notified Xu Huo that he had become a D-class player and warned him about limits on clearing low-level Dungeons and penalties for breaking rules.

After leaving a dungeon, Xu Huo stumbled into a kidnapping and extortion attempt, then met Nie Xuan, who explained how the Special Affairs Bureau had been reorganized. Over drinks, Nie Xuan asked why Xu Huo refused to join the Special Defense Department, and Xu Huo suggested he already knew the reason.

• Xu Huo reviewed his dungeon tickets and left the blank space, then emerged in an alley where kidnappers attacked him.
• Xu Huo fought off the kidnappers, discovered they had a Cannibal Player in a suitcase, and handed the scene over to arriving Special Affairs Personnel.
• Nie Xuan arrived and told Xu Huo that the Special Affairs Bureau had been renamed the 014A Foreign Special Defense Department.
• Xu Huo and Nie Xuan went to a bar, where Nie Xuan revealed that a game item had saved his injured leg.
• Nie Xuan asked why Xu Huo would not join the Special Defense Department despite the country's generous offer and protection, and Xu Huo replied, "You really don't know?"

Xu Huo returned home, found Yu Qingqing had passed the Preliminary Train, and warned her to face herself honestly as a Player. Unable to sleep, he drank a Dream Come True Potion and fell into a dream of a childhood visit with a doctor.

• Xu Huo noticed a man on the subway preparing to stand and warned him to stay seated.
• Xu Huo returned to his apartment and learned that Yu Qingqing had passed the Preliminary Train and chosen the profession of psychological analyst.
• Yu Qingqing rejected her mother's wishes and argued with Xu Huo about her ability to protect herself and her mental state.
• Yu Qingqing asked to stay with Xu Huo, and he let her in despite her bickering with the painted woman.
• Xu Huo drank a Dream Come True Potion and dreamed of a doctor testing a child with mahjong tiles and puzzles.

Xu Huo woke with a headache and realized that his memories of a Doctor and childhood medication might have been tampered with. He joined his companions for a meal, where Zhou Ning told him that friends from their earlier fight with the Holy Sword Society had not returned from a game.

• Xu Huo recalled a dream about a Doctor and a card game, then used the Appraisal Fork and concluded that someone had altered his memories.
• Yu Qingqing told Xu Huo she could train in Ting City, and Yuan Yao invited the group to eat out.
• Xu Huo, Yu Qingqing, Yuan Yao, and the painted woman ate at a Star Hotel, where Yu Qingqing broke Yuan Yao's bank card and he fussed over Lichun.
• Zhou Ning and Hu Wenhu joined them, and Zhou Ning told Xu Huo that her friends from the Holy Sword Society clash had not made it out of the game.

Xu Huo and his companions shared items and discussed the changing treatment of Players in District 014. After the meal, Xu Huo invited Zhou Ning and Hu Wenhu to go elsewhere with him.

• Zhou Ning gave Xu Huo a pair of Degenerated Gloves, and he offered her a D-Grade Hair Growth Potion in return for her gift.
• Zhou Ning told Xu Huo that her Ability had improved and asked for his guidance, so he agreed to spar with her after they ate.
• The restaurant owner waived the group's bill and gave them a prepaid membership card, explaining that his hotels offered Players free meals and lodging.
• Xu Huo and the others discussed growing public support for Players, the risks they still faced, and whether Players should share Dungeon information.
• Xu Huo sent Yuan Yao and the others back and asked Zhou Ning and Hu Wenhu to go somewhere else with him.

Xu Huo fought Zhou Ning in a remote factory district and learned how her Medusa Abilities used vivid imagination to make illusions more real. After he spotted her hiding among the hair serpents and wounded her, Zhou Ning attacked again from above as her pupils began to contract.

• Zhou Ning’s hair serpents surrounded Xu Huo, but he used the Adult Fairy Tale Book to frighten her out of hiding.
• Zhou Ning explained that her Medusa Abilities let her turn her hair into snakes, disguise herself among them, and make their attacks more realistic through imagination.
• Xu Huo tested Zhou Ning’s abilities with the Bright Red Sword, cutting her hair as she tried to evade him among the steel beams.
• Zhou Ning trapped Xu Huo beneath the beams and a cocoon of hair, but he used the Eye of Peeping to notice her hiding place and wounded her with his sword.
• Zhou Ning attacked Xu Huo from above with sharp steel beams as her pupils began to contract.

Xu Huo trained with Zhou Ning to understand how her Hair Serpents Ability altered her body and state of mind. He advised her to practice controlling when she entered and left that state, then departed Ting City for the Airport to handle matters back home.

• Xu Huo stopped Zhou Ning’s attack with the Fairy Tale Book and noticed her snake-like movements, altered pupils, and scaled skin.
• Zhou Ning realized she had been treating her Elderly Medusa profession as if she were truly a snake, though she felt her Ability worked best in that state.
• During their training, Zhou Ning remained in her Ability state even after Xu Huo seriously wounded her, but she stopped when he called out.
• Zhou Ning told Xu Huo that while using her Ability she lost her instinct to retreat from danger, and he advised her to set a training limit and learn to stop at will.
• Xu Huo contacted Hu Wenhu, then left Zhou Ning and headed for the Airport; Zhou Ning watched him go and remarked that he was different from them.

Xu Huo tracked down Professor Lin, the former director of Seventeenth Hospital, and questioned him about who had funded the hospital. Professor Lin could only recall that a businessman surnamed Zhu had hired him, while Xu Huo revealed that the hospital and all related records had disappeared.

• Xu Huo helped an elderly woman carry her groceries into Hongxing Residential Area while asking whether she knew the former director of Seventeenth Hospital.
• The elderly woman and Professor Lin mistook Xu Huo for a loan shark until Xu Huo said he had been a patient at the hospital twenty years earlier.
• Professor Lin recognized Xu Huo and invited him home, where he explained that he had left hospital work after resigning from Seventeenth Hospital.
• Xu Huo asked who had appointed Professor Lin as director, and Professor Lin said a businessman surnamed Zhu had hired him through a secretary.
• Xu Huo told Professor Lin that Seventeenth Hospital had vanished and that records of its patients and transfers were now blank.

Xu Huo questioned Professor Lin about the Seventeenth Hospital and learned that records and a photograph had been altered to erase evidence of it. Professor Lin recalled a dangerous child who may have caused the deaths of other former patients and their families, leaving Xu Huo uncertain whether the children had truly died.

• Professor Lin showed Xu Huo his notebooks and an old photograph, where references to the Seventeenth Hospital and the hospital itself had vanished.
• Xu Huo asked about the other child patients, and Professor Lin learned that four had disappeared or died about ten years earlier, along with most of their families.
• Professor Lin recalled that one child had an antisocial personality, controlled his emotions over time, and may have caused five medication incidents involving staff.
• Professor Lin explained that Chang Bei had hyperthymesia and had warned him that another child was collecting pills to poison him.
• Professor Lin regretted resigning without acting on his suspicions, while Xu Huo wondered whether the children had truly died and said he was still normal.

Xu Huo questioned Professor Lin about Seventeenth Hospital and learned the address of a former female doctor who had worked there. After visiting her at a nursing home, he asked how many doctors had worked at the hospital, leaving his investigation unresolved.

• Professor Lin told Xu Huo that the female doctor in the photograph had been brought to Seventeenth Hospital and gave him her address.
• Xu Huo stopped debt collectors from pressuring Professor Lin and his wife, then gave Professor Lin money and asked him to move somewhere safer.
• Xu Huo visited the former doctor's son, Liao Xu, who said his mother had burned the belongings she brought home from the hospital.
• Xu Huo asked the former doctor how many doctors had worked at Seventeenth Hospital.

Xu Huo uncovered a hidden portrait suggesting the female doctor might remember the erased seventh doctor, then considered how he and the other children had been manipulated. Outside the nursing home, he attacked a Player who claimed Xu Huo had gambled away Xu Zhi’s life and learned Brother Jie had spread the story.

• Xu Huo questioned the female doctor about a missing doctor from Seventeenth Hospital, and she retrieved a heart-shaped mirror hiding a portrait of an eyeless man.
• Liao Xu explained that his mother had drawn many identical portraits and said she had forgotten what the model looked like while sketching.
• Xu Huo reasoned that the seventh doctor may have trained him and the other children before their memories were erased, and wondered why he alone had been left behind when Xu Zhi died ten years earlier.
• Brother Jie arrived with several men and confronted Xu Huo over lost debt money and old disputes.
• When a lanky man accused Xu Huo of gambling away Xu Zhi’s life, Xu Huo beat him and forced him to name Brother Jie as the source of the claim.

Xu Huo confronted Yang Chao at Longxing, where Yang Chao trapped him in an electrified cage with six starving Evolvers and demanded a fight. Xu Huo escaped and turned the Evolvers against the spectators, then set several Players and bodyguards on fire as he pursued Yang Chao, who retreated behind the Players.

• Brother Jie took Xu Huo to Longxing, where Yang Chao revealed he had arranged the trap and taunted Xu Huo about Xu Zhi's death.
• Yang Chao released six chained, starving Evolvers into the cage and offered to remove their shock collars if they attacked Xu Huo.
• Xu Huo cut through the cage and escaped in the darkness, then took Yang Chao's remote and switched it off.
• The freed Evolvers climbed onto the platform and attacked the spectators and bodyguards as Xu Huo warned Yang Chao about trying to control Evolvers.
• A trench-coated Player attacked Xu Huo while a burly man carried Yang Chao away, but Xu Huo set three Players and several bodyguards ablaze and pursued Yang Chao.

Xu Huo hunted down Yang Chao and forced him to recount what he knew about Xu Zhi’s death, then killed him and exposed the Yang family’s criminal operations. The videos and fires ignited a citywide scandal as Xu Huo went to sleep amid the turmoil.

• Xu Huo defeated the Players blocking his way and pursued Yang Chao out of the Underground Market.
• The bare-chested Player attacked Xu Huo, but a Flying Arrow killed him as he entered the Underground Market.
• Xu Huo dragged Yang Chao back and learned that Yang Chao had invented his claim about a bet; he remembered Xu Zhi dying from a stray bullet, though the two gunshots and other details did not match.
• Xu Huo killed Yang Chao, set fire to the Underground Market, and reported the Yang family’s warehouses and its uncle’s home to the police.
• Xu Huo exposed hidden facilities holding Evolvers by uploading videos, set the facilities ablaze, and went to sleep as the videos spread across the city.

Minister Fan and the Special Defense Department debated how to respond to Xu Huo after his actions sparked public support, then sent Jiang Qiao and Team Leader Wu to negotiate with him. Xu Huo revealed he had reached D-class and asked them to uncover what happened at the Seventeenth Hospital around the time he was treated there twenty years earlier.

• Minister Fan, Team Leader Song, Team Leader Wu, and Jiang Qiao argued over Xu Huo’s actions and the public’s reaction to the treatment of Evolvers.
• Minister Fan sent Jiang Qiao and Team Leader Wu to make one final attempt to negotiate with Xu Huo.
• Xu Huo told the pair he was already a D-class player, making the snipers waiting outside unable to prevent his escape into the game.
• Xu Huo asked Team Leader Wu about the Seventeenth Hospital and what had happened there twenty years earlier.
• Team Leader Wu gave Xu Huo classified files and explained that the hospital’s remote location and missing surveillance footage left only a report about abnormal equipment.

Xu Huo rejected the Special Defense Department’s offer to cooperate, arguing that it could not control Players and that District 014 faced threats from other Sub-districts. He left the hotel using a Space Movement Tool, leaving the department scrambling to find him.

• Team Leader Wu and Jiang Qiao discussed reports of past incidents that Xu Huo believed were caused by Players invading District 014.
• Jiang Qiao suggested the Seventeenth Hospital had experimented on Xu Huo and the four other children, and questioned whether Xu Zhi’s death had been faked.
• Xu Huo insisted Xu Zhi was dead and refused to join the Special Defense Department, saying he wanted to investigate the matter himself.
• Xu Huo warned Team Leader Wu and Jiang Qiao that Players could eventually replace the department and that District 014 could fall under outside control.
• Xu Huo apologized for the trouble he had caused, then escaped through a window using a Space Movement Tool.
• Jiang Qiao told Team Leader Song that Xu Huo had a Space Movement Tool and mocked the department for failing to anticipate his backup plan.

After escaping the Special Defense Department, Xu Huo arrived in Flower City and decided to focus on raising his player level and evolution rate. There, he found Yan Jiayu in a park, where she beat two youths who had approached her with bad intentions.

• Team Leader Song lamented that Xu Huo had escaped, while Dai Wenqian argued that the department should leave him alone and quietly help free captive Evolvers.
• Dai Wenqian told his subordinate to contact their allies and protect Evolvers in hiding so he could take advantage of the situation.
• Xu Huo concluded that joining the Special Defense Department would not help him find the Doctor and resolved to become a famous High-level Player instead.
• Xu Huo used Five or Five Open Air Window to escape, landed safely in Flower City, and went to a noodle shop in the old district.
• After hearing two youths discuss a girl with money in a deserted park, Xu Huo went there and found Yan Jiayu watching a crooked puppet.
• Yan Jiayu broke the youths' limbs with her Stone Staff and said she was giving them a beating on society's behalf.

Xu Huo reunited with Yan Jiayu at a haunted amusement park, and they entered the Pink Hat Amusement Park Dungeon together. After buying a Double Ticket, they received the park’s rules and a mission to visit at least one park.

• Xu Huo found Yan Jiayu waiting for a glowing puppet that served as the Dungeon entrance, and she explained that children had disappeared there.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu waited until night, touched the Wooden Puppet, and entered the Dungeon.
• They fought off balloons inside the amusement park as the entrance’s Clowns exploded and revealed three park routes.
• Yan Jiayu confronted a Puppet Pirate demanding tickets, and Xu Huo bought a Double Ticket for them to stay together.
• The Dungeon identified Xu Huo as Player Passerby A and Yan Jiayu as Player abbot, then issued rules requiring them to follow a route and visit at least one park.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu entered Rabbit Bear Happy Park, where they met a suspicious player and learned that the park’s games awarded collectible Little Hats. At Bear Snack Stall, Xu Huo bought expensive candy and snacks to obtain a Play Guide, leaving the pair ready to learn more about the park.

• Yan Jiayu chose Rabbit Bear Happy Park, and she and Xu Huo entered through a hollow in a giant tree.
• Xu Huo threw a Stone at a nearby tree, revealing a man in a pink bowler hat who offered them Little Hats and suggested they team up.
• Xu Huo declined the Little Hats but invited the man to visit Bear Snack Stall with them; the man instead vanished into the woods.
• At the stall, a Plush Bear offered snacks and said customers only got a Play Guide when they bought something.
• Xu Huo bought two jars of limited-edition Jar Candy and several thousand White Cash worth of snacks, then took out the Play Guide.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu reached the first game point at Rabbit Bear Happy Park and discovered that its rock-paper-scissors game forced them to play scissors against the Plush Rabbit’s rock. They stalled the game by tempting the rabbit with candy, leaving the contest unresolved as the giant rabbits waited outside.

• Yan Jiayu and Xu Huo bought cabbage leaves, killed the cannibal rabbits attacking them, and entered the Wooden Cabin.
• Mother Rabbit’s giant rabbits returned and ate the dead rabbits outside the cabin.
• A Plush Rabbit announced a game in which it could only play rock while Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu could only play scissors.
• Xu Huo learned that losing would open the door to the mutant animals and asked whether the game had a time limit.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu ate candy during the ten-minute pause, and the Plush Rabbit asked to try some.
• Xu Huo offered the Plush Rabbit candy only if it played paper, and the rabbit licked its lips as they discussed buying more jars.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu outwitted Plush Rabbit and obtained two Little Hats before following its directions to the Mirror Tent. They found a busy amusement park where Players were displaying their hats, and two Players approached to offer an upgraded Play Guide.

• Yan Jiayu ate candy to tempt Plush Rabbit while Xu Huo refused to play its game, prompting the rabbit to attack him with an axe.
• Xu Huo offered Plush Rabbit candy in exchange for admitting defeat, and the rabbit accepted candy before giving Yan Jiayu Little Hats.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu discussed the Dungeon’s hidden consent rule and why they should avoid taking extra hats.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu followed Plush Rabbit’s directions to the Mirror Tent and found many Players gathered around the amusement park.
• Two Players approached Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu and offered them an upgraded Play Guide.