Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo tried to enter the Restricted Zone to find a friend, but its unpredictable spatial shifts kept him outside. When the Zone expanded violently and began swallowing many more people, it finally pulled him and three enforcement Players inside, where danger immediately approached.

• Xu Huo crossed the blockade at Yangming Building, pinned four enforcement Players with gravity, and asked about entering the Restricted Zone and its disappearances.
• An enforcement Player explained that the Zone swallowed people unpredictably and that the support team was at Nature Park; Xu Huo told them he would wait twenty minutes before going to Lan Shui Wu.
• District 001's government agreed to arrange a passage for Xu Huo, but the next wave of disappearances took people nearby without allowing him to enter.
• The Restricted Zone expanded several times over and swallowed people at a greatly increased rate, pulling Xu Huo and three enforcement Players inside.
• Xu Huo landed in a pitch-black space amid dust and the stench of blood, as something rushed toward him from ahead.

Xu Huo and the painted woman fought their way through the theater as Ghost Face Headsets attacked them, then faced a giant headset that nearly destroyed the building with Silvery-White Filaments. After escaping the theater’s collapse, they continued battling the headsets pouring from nearby buildings.

• Xu Huo cut apart the Ghost Face Headsets attacking him in the theater and stored the recovered headsets after they began disappearing from the painted woman’s box.
• The painted woman searched the theater’s bodies and collected their terminals, tools, and food while Xu Huo fought off more headsets.
• A Giant Headset released Silvery-White Filaments that pierced the painted woman’s paper tools and trapped Xu Huo in a web across the theater.
• Xu Huo used gravity to crush the theater and its filaments, then transported himself and the painted woman outside as the building collapsed.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman prepared to fight as Ghost Face Headsets continued flying out of the surrounding buildings.

Xu Huo and the painted woman explored the dungeon’s Restricted Zone, discovered it was sealed off and nearly empty, and rescued a player from lethal filaments. They learned that time passed much faster outside than inside, while the rescue team was likely in grave danger.

• Xu Huo used space bombs to escape a swarm of Ghost Face Headsets, then explored the Restricted Zone with the painted woman and found an impassable spatial boundary.
• Xu Huo surveyed the theater’s surroundings with drones and found no people, then located corpses near a Mall ten kilometers away.
• Xu Huo saved a player from Silvery-White Filaments that killed another player, and the surviving player said the filaments became blades when attacked or removed.
• The player told Xu Huo he had entered from Lan Shui Wu, and Xu Huo learned that the Restricted Zone and the outside were running at different speeds, with two outside hours passing during his ten minutes inside.
• Xu Huo learned that Lan Shui Wu had evacuated nearby citizens and protected vulnerable teenagers, but concluded that the rescue team was probably in grave danger.

Xu Huo guided a growing group through the Restricted Zone as Ghost Face Headsets attacked people appearing throughout the city, and he learned that neither Cabinets nor venue items could provide safety. With the headsets multiplying and pursuing survivors, the group feared they could not endure seven days of attacks.

• Xu Huo told the auxiliary staff member he had entered without a Ticket to rescue someone and used his Spiritual World to search for the missing person.
• Xu Huo rescued a young woman and child from a shop, gave them protective masks, and continued moving as more people appeared across the Restricted Zone.
• Ghost Face Headsets killed people and began hunting survivors, while Xu Huo knocked them away and stopped a player who was attacking others.
• Xu Huo discovered tendrils beneath a headset had killed the player, and he and the auxiliary staff member tried to find a place to hide.
• A headset entered a Cabinet and then a venue item, leaving the auxiliary staff member to warn that they could not withstand the attacks for seven days.

Xu Huo, the painted woman, and an auxiliary officer traveled through the Restricted Zone as Ghost Face Headsets attacked more people after dark. Xu Huo refused to let another Player join them, and the man who tried to force his way into their protection was cut across the throat.

• The auxiliary officer used his funnel-shaped container item to shelter five citizens, while Xu Huo searched for more containers and continued toward the barrier with him and the painted woman.
• As night fell, more people appeared throughout the city, and Xu Huo used A-class instruments to knock away Ghost Face Headsets without destroying them.
• A Player asked to join Xu Huo's group, but Xu Huo warned him to keep his distance and continued onward.
• The Player followed the trio and tried to enter the instruments' protective ring, so Xu Huo sliced his throat with a thin line.

Xu Huo and the painted woman crossed the barrier into a deeper part of the Restricted Zone, where more dangerous Demon and Monster masks attacked them. Using Rain in the Sky and Halo of Justice, they fought their way through, only to be sent back near the barrier by an invisible space portal.

• Xu Huo cut through the barrier wall and crossed it with the painted woman, while the Ghost Face Headsets vanished against it.
• Demon and Monster masks attacked the group, and Xu Huo put the freelance worker inside the Staff Dormitory before moving on with the painted woman.
• Xu Huo opened Rain in the Sky and activated Halo of Justice, using the amplified rain to disable the pursuing masks.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman traveled several thousand meters beneath the umbrella before an invisible space portal returned them near the barrier wall.

Xu Huo fought four A-class rescue team players who attacked him amid the rain and ruins of the Restricted Zone. After evading their city-wide assault, he suddenly appeared before them with his Black Umbrella.

• A rescue team player warned Xu Huo that killing the Demon and Monster masks made more appear, then attacked him with metal artifacts.
• Xu Huo destroyed the player’s artifacts and withstood his spatial attacks, while the rescue team player summoned three A-class teammates.
• The four rescue team players advanced on Xu Huo through the rain, and he used Mental Portals and Dreamy Dentures to force them together.
• The rescue team players unleashed lightning, rain, tornadoes, and collapsing buildings across the city, but Xu Huo evaded the destruction with his Spiritual World.
• Xu Huo crossed the battlefield through a series of Mental Portals and appeared in front of the four players, bringing his Black Umbrella into view.

Xu Huo rescued Old Mr. Xi from underground in the Restricted Zone and learned that Xiao Chuan had been transferred out safely. As the group searched for a way out, Old Mr. Xi shared a pattern he had found in the portals.

• Xu Huo pulled Old Mr. Xi from underground after rescuing him from the storm, and the rescue team joined them on the rooftop.
• The painted woman confronted Old Mr. Xi for mistaking her for a Dungeon enemy, while Xu Huo kept her from kicking him again.
• Old Mr. Xi explained that the Restricted Zone had overlapping spaces and invisible doors, warning the rescue team that powerful moves could endanger people in other spaces.
• The rescue team told Xu Huo that Xiao Chuan had been transferred out in a container item, and Xu Huo relayed the news to Liu Jie for Jing Shi.
• Xu Huo released the temporary staff and Xia City residents he had rescued, then asked Old Mr. Xi to help find a way out.
• Old Mr. Xi showed the group a rough city map and explained that nearby portals could not open in the same direction at the same time.

Xu Huo explained how the Dungeon’s portals and shifting spaces might work, while the rescue players debated how to escape the Restricted Zone. Old Mr. Xi refused the rescue team’s offer to leave in a container item, then followed Xu Huo when he set off alone.

• Xu Huo explained that the seven portals could open in different directions and might scatter people across the Dungeon’s spaces.
• Xu Huo identified areas beyond the partition wall as relatively safe and suggested the Dungeon was a survival instance rather than a puzzle about finding an exit.
• The rescue team urged Old Mr. Xi to leave through a container item, but he refused because he feared being confined or trapped as the Dungeon’s medium.
• Xu Huo invited Old Mr. Xi to leave with him and reminded him that he still owed Xu Huo an item.
• Xu Huo started to leave without Old Mr. Xi, who changed his mind and followed him.

Xu Huo and the rescue team encountered Players who used protective suits to wear Demon and Monster masks without being controlled, drawing a growing line of followers. As spatial gates separated the groups into different spaces, Xu Huo proposed leaving the Restricted Zone by following the Night Tour procession, shocking the Metal Plaque Player.

• Xu Huo and Old Mr. Xi found that six marked space-gate locations had no portals, then entered a new space through the seventh.
• Xu Huo encountered two calm Players, including Big Brain, who explained that protective suits kept the masks' roots from reaching their brains.
• More Players began wearing masks and following the rescue team, until the Metal Plaque Player ordered masked followers to leave.
• Spatial gates split the rescue team and other Players into separate spaces, forcing them to search independently for a way to clear the Dungeon.
• Xu Huo suggested following the Night Tour procession out of the Restricted Zone, and the Metal Plaque Player reacted in disbelief.

Xu Huo investigated the Restricted Zone’s shifting spaces as his group tried to reach the area with the ghostly masks and survive until the Dungeon ended. He realized the Space Portals were transporting people between layers rather than dividing the city into blocks, then took out the “metallic putty.”

• Xu Huo led the group through streets and across rooftops while Demon and Monster masks forced them to keep moving.
• The player with the metal tag explained that rescue team members had found at least five layers of space overlapping near the city library, but could not reunite.
• Xu Huo considered how the Restricted Zone’s spaces differed from spaces he had encountered before and concluded that the portals randomly connected different layers.
• Xu Huo pulled out the “metallic putty.”

Xu Huo learned that the Night Tour procession was killing and absorbing people across Lan Shui Wu, including High-level Players, and suspected the Dungeon was growing to gather suitable targets. As the group argued over whether to leave the Restricted Zone, Xu Huo said no one should leave yet and chose people to test the situation.

• Xu Huo marked nearby metal objects with pig-head imprints while explaining his theory that the Restricted Zone contained only a few spatial layers.
• The metal badge player reported that a Horror Theme procession in Lan Shui Wu had killed fifty-one people and swallowed thirty-six others, including ten High-level Players.
• Xu Huo watched footage showing that the procession lacked the ghost gods seen on Culture Street and wondered whether their absence meant the ghost god costume had become a key character or the Dungeon Boss.
• Xu Huo reasoned that missing rescue players might be absorbed into the procession, while the metal badge player's grim expression suggested the government was restricting High-level Players from entering the site.
• Old Mr. Xi urged the group to leave the Restricted Zone, but the metal badge player defended the rescuers and the people still trapped inside.
• Xu Huo rejected the idea of anyone leaving, said they should wait for government news through the metal badge player, and pointed out people at the back of the group to test the waters.

Xu Huo and the others escaped a vast attack of Silvery-White Filaments, then a Space Portal plunged them back into darkness. As bells rang nearby, they realized the Night Tour procession was approaching.

• A Player questioned Xu Huo's theory that missing Players were joining the Night Tour, and the group discussed the difficulties of testing it or evacuating the cities.
• Xu Huo used the metal putty to form cat heads as the masks kept attacking the exhausted Players.
• A Player tore apart a mask and was seized by Silvery-White Filaments, but the metal plaque Player severed the threads before a wave of filaments swept through the area.
• Xu Huo led Old Mr. Xi and the painted woman through portals, using his Space Defense Barrier and Time Power to escape the filaments.
• A second Space Portal returned Xu Huo's group and the other Players to darkness, where they heard bells and recognized the approaching Night Tour.

Xu Huo and the others were forced into the Night Tour procession, where ghost masks and roots threatened to kill them. Xu Huo broke free and escaped with the survivors, but two of their companions died and another was left gravely injured.

• The Night Tour procession trapped Xu Huo, the painted woman, Old Mr. Xi, the metal-card Player, and the Player from District 001 in ghost masks that took control of their bodies.
• An Hourly Smart Medication Reminder System alert restored Xu Huo's memories, and he fought off the roots while the ghosts attacked him.
• Xu Huo used Time Power to destroy the axe-wielding ghost god, broke out of the cocoon, and escaped the procession with the painted woman and the others.
• The metal-card Player helped remove the head coverings from the painted woman and Old Mr. Xi, while two companions were found dead and a third was riddled with roots.
• The survivors questioned what kind of Dungeon could immediately affect them and restrain High-level Players with mental props.

Xu Huo and the others analyzed how the Night Tour troupe’s hoods controlled Players and concluded that avoiding the troupe was their best chance of survival. They prepared to run through the Restricted Zone, while the painted woman hinted she could escape the hoods and help Xu Huo.

• Xu Huo explained that the hoods acted more like container items than ordinary mental-control items, quickly assimilating their wearers into the Night Tour performers’ routine.
• Xu Huo said Old Mr. Xi’s medication reminder had helped them escape, and the group discussed how the Night Tour troupe could appear anywhere through Spatial Portals.
• The painted woman compared the Night Tour troupe to gophers, and Xu Huo asked her to plan how to escape their control and help him next time.
• The Player with the metal tag dissected the remaining corpse while Old Mr. Xi asked Xu Huo what they would do next.
• Xu Huo decided they should run to avoid the Night Tour troupes as they spread through the spatial zone.

Xu Huo, the painted woman, and Old Mr. Xi escaped the Night Tour performers and masks, with Xu Huo using portals to get the stubborn old man to their marked location. Old Mr. Xi defended his long resistance against the associations, while the painted woman pointed out that he was still alone.

• An explosion scattered the Night Tour performers, but they chased Xu Huo and the others after the group split up.
• Xu Huo used a spatial bomb to scatter the attackers, then brought Old Mr. Xi and the painted woman through a portal to safety.
• Old Mr. Xi used a thread device to pin the masks to streetlamps, but Xu Huo and the painted woman had to flee when one broke free.
• Xu Huo sent Old Mr. Xi through a series of portals, making him travel like a roller coaster until he agreed to keep moving.
• Xu Huo took Old Mr. Xi to their marked location, where they found no animal head and Xu Huo stamped a shaped snake onto a streetlamp.
• Old Mr. Xi argued that pioneers had to lead resistance, while the painted woman pointed out that he had been doing so alone.

Xu Huo and Old Mr. Xi struggled to stay awake while trapped beneath the water Rubik’s Cube barrier, as new Night Tour groups spread through other cities. Xu Huo asked whether his Space Power could dismantle the barrier, but Old Mr. Xi warned that it might require the power of a Super Player, leaving Xu Huo facing a problem he could not postpone.

• Old Mr. Xi suggested hiding in the sewers, but Xu Huo warned that the Silvery-White Filaments and unpredictable Night Tour groups could make hiding underground unsafe.
• Xu Huo learned that Religious Theme and Doll Theme Night Tour groups had appeared in other cities, using chants and widespread slaughter to threaten people beyond the Restricted Zone.
• When hoods blocked Old Mr. Xi from entering a sewer, Xu Huo knocked them away and caught him, then refused to knock him unconscious so he could sleep.
• At a nearby Mall, Old Mr. Xi examined Xu Huo’s water Rubik’s Cube barrier and explained that its Super-instrument spatial structure might be beyond ordinary Players’ abilities to dismantle.
• Xu Huo said he had been told Evolution power could deconstruct the barrier, and Old Mr. Xi suggested that the advice might mean Xu Huo had the makings of a Super Player; Xu Huo replied that the problem could not wait until then.

Xu Huo asked Old Mr. Xi how he might understand and remove the water Rubik's Cube's spatial barrier, and learned that a high-risk Chaos Space could offer the right conditions. As a swarm of masks attacked, he helped Sister Zhong, Shi Potian, and the unconscious pregnant Player Sister Mei, but a bell rang and a monstrous face appeared in front of them.

• Old Mr. Xi advised Xu Huo to enter a stable, risk-classified Chaos Space to study the water Rubik's Cube's barrier and structure.
• Xu Huo asked about temporal-spatial instruments, and Old Mr. Xi explained that ordinary artifacts held little power while Super Artifacts were beyond the understanding of lower-level wormhole points.
• A swarm of masks and fleeing Players approached Xu Huo and Old Mr. Xi.
• Xu Huo pulled Sister Zhong, Shi Potian, and the unconscious Sister Mei to safety as Shi Potian explained that they had been trapped in a Restricted Zone.
• Xu Huo told Shi Potian to run as soon as he heard bells, then a sharp jingle sounded and a monstrous face appeared before them.

Xu Huo followed the Night Tour procession through successive Space Portals to study its power, but as it grew stronger, it nearly overwhelmed his mind and body. He summoned Time Power to stop it, only for the power to engulf the entire procession and leave him frozen in time.

• Xu Huo found that the Night Tour procession controlled his movements but left his thoughts clear, and he called out to check whether the others were conscious.
• Xu Huo moved Old Mr. Xi, Shi Potian, and Sister Zhong out of the procession, then continued through a Space Portal with the painted woman to look for an exit.
• Xu Huo watched the procession gather more people and grow stronger as it crossed spaces, while some Players were pulled in and dressed in costumes.
• Xu Huo threw the Unlucky Eggs out of the procession and saw its movement falter, realizing that its growing completeness strengthened its control over Players.
• Xu Huo summoned Time Power when unprecedented Space Power covered the procession, but the Time Power engulfed everyone and stopped them in space.

Xu Huo and the Night Tour team crossed a strange space where Space Power slowly dissolved living beings and their outfits, then escaped through a vortex into an ambush in Lan Shui Wu. After fleeing the District 001 Players and the citywide seal, Xu Huo checked for lingering injuries and asked the painted woman why she had reverted to paper.

• Xu Huo realized the Night Tour team was trapped in an unusual space where Space Power flowed slowly and independently of the Restricted Zone and District 001.
• A ghostly figure and the Night Tour outfits began dissolving, revealing the lethal effect of the strange space.
• Xu Huo grabbed the painted woman, used the water Rubik's Cube for protection, and led her through a vortex that he sensed was the exit.
• Xu Huo and the painted woman emerged into an ambush by District 001 Players and armed machines, then vanished as Lan Shui Wu's citywide seal briefly disappeared.
• The District 001 leader ordered Xu Huo's identity investigated and sent forces to the B3 forecast zone after the detection wave peak vanished.
• Xu Huo examined himself and had the painted woman check him before asking why she had turned back into paper.