Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo stopped two dungeon players from fighting in the manor, then sensed a chilling gaze from Madam Ti Hui. By morning, eight players were dead, and the group suspected Mr. Wen was killing them.

• The Botanist, Gourmet, Photographer, Scholar, and Xu Huo discussed whether the dungeon pitted players against one another and whether it allowed only one person to survive.
• After the banquet, dungeon players silently killed one another, and three died within ten minutes.
• Xu Huo stopped two players from attacking each other in the hallway and warned them to return to their rooms.
• Outside the manor, Xu Huo felt a chilling gaze and saw Madam Ti Hui lower her eyes before she walked away.
• The next morning, the group learned that eight players had died, and the Gourmet suggested Mr. Wen was responsible.

Xu Huo learned that the manor dungeon was a timed assassination challenge in which players had to kill the current assassin, while he and his companions questioned whether their own task was to protect Mr. Wen. After speaking with Harry, Xu Huo discovered a blood-soaked room on the Fourth Floor.

• Xu Huo questioned two dungeon players, who explained that any player could become the assassin and that clearing the dungeon required killing the assassin before time ran out.
• The group considered whether their side quest was to protect Mr. Wen and whether the players had concealed information about the dungeon.
• Xu Huo visited Mr. Wen but learned from the butler that he was ill and would not receive guests for several days.
• Harry told Xu Huo that Mr. Wen had A-level access and openly hoped to inherit something from him.
• Xu Huo found a room on the Fourth Floor covered in dried blood and scattered tissue.

Xu Huo and the other players were attacked by a swift, powerful figure in a feathered protective suit that killed several players and escaped. After the butler arrived and the victims’ bodies disappeared, a player accused him of being the killer, and the butler attacked him.

• Players hid around the manor and lay in wait for the assassin as night fell.
• A shadow killed a player on the Third Floor stairs, then split another player into pieces.
• The shadow attacked Xu Huo in the garden, broke through his spatial defenses, and fled after he stopped it with Time Power.
• Xu Huo found the botanist dead and identified a mutated human fingernail; he concluded the attacker was a second-stage Evolver wearing a Protective Suit.
• The butler appeared, and the bodies of the two players killed on the stairs had vanished without a trace.
• A player accused the butler of the killings, and the butler thrust his fingers into the player's throat.

The butler attacked the players during a manor-wide blackout, but Xu Huo led the survivors to Mr. Wen and confirmed the botanist had died. The players took shelter in the Study Room and debated the Dungeon’s setup, concluding that the assassin might be another player tasked with killing Mr. Wen.

• The butler nearly tore out a player's throat and dragged him into a wall before a protective item freed him; then the manor lights went out and the botanist was killed.
• Xu Huo activated a light and led the surviving players up to the fifth floor, where the butler reappeared as Mr. Wen opened his bedroom door.
• Xu Huo told Mr. Wen that the botanist had died, and Mr. Wen said everyone should cherish life before returning to his room.
• The butler told the players to wait two days before arranging the botanist's funeral, and Xu Huo led the group to the Study Room for the night.
• The players discussed the Dungeon and reasoned that Mr. Wen was probably the assassin's target, while killing the assassin might be the other players' route to clearing it.

Xu Huo and the others debated how to complete the side mission as they suspected Mr. Wen was the murderous shadow and a Cannibal Player. The Gourmet proposed either concealing Mr. Wen’s crimes or killing him, while Xu Huo asked about District 022’s laws governing Cannibal Players.

• The butler told the Players that the botanist had no family and that the manor would hold a funeral, and Xu Huo handed over the body.
• An enforcement squad examined the botanist, visited Mr. Wen, and one member recognized Xu Huo, causing his hostility rating to rise.
• The Photographer proposed killing Mr. Wen, but the Players could not agree on a way to defeat the shadow.
• Mr. Wen attended the botanist’s funeral in tears, then avoided Xu Huo and his companions at the Tea Hall.
• The Gourmet suggested covering up Mr. Wen’s abuse and cannibalism or killing him, and Xu Huo asked about District 022’s laws on Cannibal Players.

Xu Huo spoke with Harry and then visited Mr. Wen, who had asked to see him. Mr. Wen allowed Xu Huo to keep the hummingbirds and asked whether he liked birds, leaving their conversation poised to begin.

• The players discussed Cannibal Players and decided to wait another night before choosing how to deal with the shadow.
• Harry invited Xu Huo to his room, shared stories about Mr. Wen, and warned him not to ask about Player Dungeons.
• Harry asked Xu Huo to hint to Mr. Wen about his conflict with a scarred enforcement officer and his hopes of inheriting the manor.
• Xu Huo went to Mr. Wen's Study Room, where the old man allowed him to keep the hummingbirds and asked if he liked birds.

Xu Huo and Mr. Wen discussed survival, morality, and the changing fate of Players, while Mr. Wen revealed his fear of dying and losing his dignity. Xu Huo left the manor convinced that Mr. Wen was unstable and capable of killing to stay alive.

• Mr. Wen compared humans with birds and animals, arguing that survival governed creatures while human thought and power complicated their actions.
• Xu Huo and Mr. Wen debated whether right and wrong could be judged fairly and whether the strong should make the rules.
• Mr. Wen recalled how Cannibal Players in District 022 had once been celebrated as defenders before being wiped out when they were no longer needed.
• Xu Huo said people, not the world, repeated history, and told Mr. Wen he was curious about humanity's future but did not want to die.
• Mr. Wen admitted he was also trying to survive and feared losing his human dignity as he died.
• Xu Huo left after concluding that Mr. Wen was mentally unstable and would do anything to cling to life.

Xu Huo fought Mr. Wen after Mr. Wen attacked him at the estate, and used the Time Tower to kill him. Mr. Wen received a public funeral, and Xu Huo left the city for the next attraction.

• Xu Huo told the Scholar, the Gourmet, and the Photographer that Mr. Wen would not compromise and sent them away before the midnight attack.
• Mr. Wen attacked Xu Huo, and the two fought through the estate gardens and greenhouse.
• Xu Huo used the Time Tower to age Mr. Wen until he withered and died, ending the Dungeon.
• The Photographer bought one of Xu Huo’s red-feathered hummingbirds, and Xu Huo left the city after learning Mr. Wen would be honored with a funeral and burial in the martyrs' cemetery.
• Xu Huo set out for the next attraction and was stopped for questioning three times along the way.

Xu Huo thwarted a staged identity inspection, then fought two players who ambushed him aboard an aircraft. After killing them and evading pursuers, he reached the city’s edge, where an Enforcement Department member approached him for an inspection.

• Xu Huo used his lawyer's certificate and recording device to challenge three Enforcement Department members, then exposed them as impostors by disabling their disguises.
• Xu Huo met Chai Sheng, who said he was searching for a hidden-variant Ice Cream doll at Ice Cream Castle, but two players ambushed them aboard the aircraft.
• The attackers used a game-board effect to pin passengers in place and sent the aircraft into a plunge, but Xu Huo moved the attackers away from the aircraft through a Mental Portal.
• Xu Huo used Destiny's Downhill Path and other items to force the attackers into the lake, pinned them underwater with the String of Destiny, and killed them.
• Xu Huo changed his appearance as he escaped the pursuing players and reached the city's edge, where an Enforcement Department member approached to inspect his credentials.

Xu Huo obtained the Bride’s Tears souvenir by giving a newlywed couple B-level citizen privileges, then joined a group being recruited to distract guards at Punishment City. The group grew to fifteen Players, and its employer’s contact, Hong Shi, joined them.

• Xu Huo evaded the search, uploaded footage of the officers to his travel log, and looked for the Bride’s Tears souvenir.
• Xu Huo bought two B-level citizen identity privileges and gave them to newlyweds, whose tears of joy fulfilled the souvenir requirement.
• Xu Huo took money from a Player who suggested making a bride cry by force, then heard the Player’s proposal to enter Punishment City as a diversion.
• Xu Huo questioned the plan and agreed to bring more Players; the recruiter returned with fifteen people, including the employer’s contact, Hong Shi.

Xu Huo and a group of players accepted Hong Shi’s offer to sabotage Punishment City in exchange for items, though Xu Huo suspected the operation might be a scam. Two days later, the players gathered and split up to begin the mission, each team having arranged a way to retreat.

• Hong Shi gave the players a plan to destroy devices in Punishment City and offered each of them an advance payment and a later reward.
• Xu Huo took a B-class item, and he and fourteen others stayed at the hotel after Hong Shi left.
• Lei Xiaohe worried about the risks of the operation, while a curly-haired female player encouraged the group to prepare contingencies and stand their ground.
• Xu Huo told the players that Hong Shi was a Mental Evolver and that he sensed a possible scam, but he did not know what was really happening.
• Two days later, all but two of the players arrived, checked the time, and split up toward their assigned destinations.

Xu Huo and Lei Xiaohe infiltrated Punishment City to disable its interference device and open an emergency exit for their allies, but they found the prison nearly empty and its control room inaccessible. After meeting two other intruders, Xu Huo shut down nearby surveillance and one of them cut through a sealed door, setting off an alarm.

• Xu Huo, Lei Xiaohe, and a female Player entered Punishment City disguised as unconscious prisoners, and staff separated the female Player from them.
• Xu Huo and Lei Xiaohe freed themselves, used Protective Suits against possible airborne poison, and planned to locate the interference device before opening the emergency exit.
• The pair found the corridors nearly empty despite the many surveillance devices and saw no prisoners or staff.
• Xu Huo and Lei Xiaohe encountered two Players who claimed they had come from different entrances and were also searching for the control room.
• Xu Huo disabled the nearby surveillance devices, and one of the Players cut down a metal door, triggering an alarm.
• Lei Xiaohe asked the two men who had hired them.

Xu Huo and Chai Sheng became trapped in a sealed underground section of Punishment City, where they discovered degenerated players being held and experimented on. After fighting through several rooms of altered patients, they wondered how Punishment City had gathered so many degenerated players.

• Chai Sheng recognized Xu Huo’s item and said Punishment City’s temporary-worker recruitment was likely a scheme targeting Outer District Players.
• After poison filled the corridors and metal barriers blocked their route, Xu Huo and Chai Sheng entered a malfunctioning doorway, where a cutting net trapped Lei Xiaohe and another man on the other side.
• The corridor carrying Xu Huo and Chai Sheng descended into a sealed underground space that Chai Sheng suspected was a spatial item.
• Xu Huo and Chai Sheng found a severely mutilated bandaged man in an operating room, restrained him when he attacked, and discovered he had become an alien.
• Xu Huo explained that degenerated players could develop animal traits or suffer failing bodily functions, and he and Chai Sheng encountered more altered patients in the following rooms.
• Xu Huo wondered how Punishment City had gathered so many degenerated players.

Xu Huo reunited with the curly-haired female player on Punishment City's underground level and learned about her encounters with a powerful Alien. They discovered three dead teammates in tanks and revived the bitten big man, who insisted an intelligent Alien was nearby.

• Xu Huo was separated from Chai Sheng when a doorway trapped him on the second underground level.
• Xu Huo restrained the curly-haired female player as she attacked him, then waited while she recovered from what she believed was a hallucination.
• The curly-haired female player told Xu Huo about a fast, elusive Alien that had attacked her underground.
• Xu Huo and the curly-haired female player found three dead teammates inside glass tanks.
• A crazed, badly bitten big man attacked Xu Huo, and the two players injected him with Antidote until he recognized them.
• The big man claimed that an intelligent Alien had bitten him and was still nearby.

Xu Huo led the burly man and the curly-haired woman through Punishment City to investigate the smart Aliens, while they discussed how degenerated Players might be turned into experimental subjects. Their broadcast drew out a strange, humanlike Alien, which Xu Huo pinned to the floor.

• The burly man and the curly-haired woman described the fast, elusive Alien and debated whether it was deliberately toying with them.
• Xu Huo led them away from the vats to search for where Punishment City kept its Aliens.
• The burly man explained that some Sub-districts had subjected degenerated Players to brutal experiments, and Xu Huo suggested smart Aliens might be experimental products.
• At a corridor junction, Xu Huo played District 022 news over a Communicator, and the group began hearing faint noises between reports.
• A powerful force of gravity pinned the burly man, the curly-haired woman, and a newly appeared, stitched-looking Alien to the floor.

Xu Huo and his companions fought through Punishment City, destroying the aliens kept in its underground laboratory and killing the players sent to stop them. After Punishment City’s players retreated into the game, Xu Huo dissolved the city and rose through its collapsing dome.

• Xu Huo killed an alien, then led the curly-haired woman and the burly man to a room containing more than thirty alien-filled tanks.
• When the aliens woke and attacked with a piercing scream, the burly man and the curly-haired woman used their Artifacts to kill them.
• A Punishment City player trapped the trio in a wall of solidified air and tried to bind them, but Xu Huo broke through the barrier and dragged him back; the player escaped into the game.
• Punishment City sent players in groups, and Xu Huo killed twelve before the city slowed its attacks.
• Xu Huo dissolved the walls, floor, ceiling, and structure of Punishment City, then rose through its dome as the circular building crumbled.

Xu Huo destroyed Punishment City’s defenses with a sudden tsunami, allowing his allies to escape while devastating the Enforcement Department’s forces. He then confronted Toven Smith, the executive responsible for Punishment City, and began questioning him about the Smith family’s businesses.

• Chai Sheng urged Xu Huo and the others to flee in different directions before more Enforcement Department reinforcements arrived.
• Xu Huo tore open a gap in the sealing barrier and unleashed a huge wave that swept over Punishment City, killing many Players and clearing the way for the others to escape.
• Children found a sign bearing the words “Welcome to the Show” as the Enforcement Department surveyed the wreckage.
• A middle-aged executive at Black Sea Technology Co., Ltd. ordered his staff to cover up the disaster and recover the Players’ bodies.
• Xu Huo entered the executive’s office, identified him as Toven Smith, and forced him to acknowledge that Punishment City belonged to him.
• Xu Huo asked Toven Smith what industries the Smith family operated.

The District Government launched an investigation after Toven Smith’s livestream revelations and a series of public scandals implicated Black Sea Technology and Enforcement Department officials. Xu Huo met Levi and Zhan Erliu, then arranged for Levi to meet someone who could help him find a souvenir.

• The Enforcement Department blamed Punishment City’s collapse on an escaped experimental subject, but underground livestream clips and Toven Smith’s revelations sparked public outrage over Black Sea Technology’s dealings with officials.
• After Toven Smith’s body was found with a “Thanks for watching” sign, more scandals surfaced, and the District Government announced an investigation into the Enforcement Department.
• Another “Thanks for watching” sign appeared at the Enforcement Department as Levi and Zhan Erliu discussed whether the unfolding scandal might be used to redirect public attention toward Outer District Players.
• Levi showed Zhan Erliu Xu Zhi’s “Realtime Hotspot Visit” update, and Xu Huo soon joined them at a nearby restaurant in a new disguise.
• Xu Huo contacted Lei Xiaohe and arranged for Levi to meet a friend who could help him find a souvenir.

After the Punishment City scandal was settled, Xu Huo traveled to District 022’s major transportation hub and learned more about the district’s history and genetic-editing laws. He headed to a sculpture exhibition, where he spotted a woman with a severe skin condition whom Enforcement Department officers had let go.

• The District Government punished local Enforcement Department officials and Black Sea Technology over Punishment City, while suppressing news of the players who had died there.
• Xu Huo left the authorities searching for him and boarded a sightseeing train in the City Roller Coaster, which toured underground holographic displays.
• Xu Huo learned that two Chief Executives had been victims of genetic-editing experiments and had passed resulting diseases on to their descendants.
• Xu Huo booked a ticket to a sculpture exhibition after hearing passengers discuss the Chief Executive’s youngest daughter and her birthday celebration.
• Xu Huo steadied a woman with a pustule-covered face, then saw Enforcement Department officers check her identification and let her go.
• Xu Huo arrived at the sculpture exhibition and found the woman already halfway through the queue.

Xu Huo met a woman who claimed she had helped Gu Huifeng create Bone Remains and was searching for him after he disappeared. She revealed that the sculpture’s huge sale might have put Gu Huifeng in danger, leaving Xu Huo interested in investigating her work and claims.

• Xu Huo saw the woman with facial sores staring at a Photo of Bone Remains in Gu Huifeng’s gallery.
• The woman demanded to know who had bought Bone Remains, then tried to attract attention by claiming Gu Huifeng had stolen her work and owed her money.
• Xu Huo entered the woman’s hotel room and challenged her story, suspecting that the sculpture’s 980 million White Cash sale had put Gu Huifeng’s life at risk.
• The woman admitted that she and Gu Huifeng were lovers who created his works together, and that Gu Huifeng vanished after arranging the sale of Bone Remains.