Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo and the other players endured another night in the Small Compartments as the mysterious footsteps patrolled the corridor. The footsteps stopped briefly outside one room, leaving the players unsure whether the pause signaled danger as they emerged at midnight to retrieve their damaged devices.

• The purple-haired man suggested that players could complete the first clearance task by killing enough people to force the research institute to stop operating.
• The short old man tried to plant a mental suggestion in Xu Huo's mind while he slept, but Xu Huo pretended not to notice.
• At eight o'clock, Xu Huo, Wang Xin, and Yue Yan'er secured a first-floor Small Compartment, and three Bailin Association players crowded inside with them.
• The footsteps returned less than twenty minutes after the door closed, passed the players' room, and briefly stopped before continuing their patrol.
• After the Small Compartment doors opened at midnight, Yue Yan'er retrieved three nearby devices and complained that her camera had been ruined.

Xu Huo and the others found that every surveillance device had been destroyed after recording events up to 8:30, so he resumed investigating the Dungeon in person. A Space Portal then separated Xu Huo and several Players, leaving Sparrow and two Bailin Association members together before Xu Huo called to them from outside their compartment.

• Yue Yan'er showed Xu Huo and the others instant-camera photos and footage that all ended at 8:30, after which every device had been damaged.
• Xu Huo concluded that equipment could not reveal more and searched the Dungeon, finding unfamiliar Players and learning that Players sometimes killed others by making noise outside Small Compartments.
• A Space Portal appeared on Underground Level 4, and the older of two Players vanished after grabbing its shard of glass.
• Space Power fluctuations caused Xu Huo to disappear, and the nearby Players entered a Small Compartment but became separated across different spaces.
• Xu Huo knocked on the compartment door and told Sparrow and the two Bailin Association members that it was him.

Xu Huo weighed the Dungeon Boss’s hunting rules while the group searched the research institute for items. After a Player made noise and was reduced to ash, the Dungeon Boss attacked nearby Players, leaving the survivors scrambling for Small Compartments.

• Xu Huo reunited with Sparrow, Wang Xin, and Yue Yan'er after several members of Sparrow’s group vanished into different spaces.
• Xu Huo argued that group size alone did not determine who the Dungeon Boss hunted, while privately reasoning that Small Compartments must have a limit on how many people they could protect.
• Xu Huo considered making noise to test the Dungeon Boss’s rules, but a scream rang out from the east building and the institute shook as Space Power surged.
• The Player who had made the noise crumbled to ash in front of everyone.
• Two Players who fell behind while fleeing to the Small Compartments were killed in quick succession.

After the Dungeon Boss killed seven Players, the survivors learned that breaking the dungeon’s rules could disrupt its usual activity and put anyone nearby in danger. Xu Huo urged his group to split up the next night, while the Bailin Association revealed one of the Boss’s patterns in exchange for an item.

• The Dungeon Boss killed seven Players in a Small Compartment, and the survivors realized that having too many people in a room could trigger an attack.
• Yue Yan'er sent her mini robot through the west building, but its video feed cut out near a glass marble that seemed to be an item.
• After the Small Compartments opened at six in the morning, Xu Huo said his group would have to split up that night.
• Players argued with the Bailin Association over its test of the dungeon rules, and the silver-armored woman traded the Boss’s activity pattern for a door knocker.
• The silver-armored woman said the Dungeon Boss usually patrolled outside from eight at night to midnight and from four to six in the morning, but rule-breaking could override that pattern.

The Players analyzed the Dungeon Boss’s hunting patterns and debated how to clear the Dungeon. Xu Huo proposed reducing the number of Players until the Dungeon was cleared, but the group had not yet tested the theory.

• The Players ranked noise, overcrowding the Small Compartment, and leaving it at night as risks, and Shen Ling’er warned that the Dungeon Boss might have no limit on how many Players it could kill.
• Wang Xin invited Xu Huo to explore the building, but the bearded man from the Bailin Association demanded that Xu Huo hand over his item for entering other spaces before leaving.
• Xu Huo suggested keeping everyone out of Small Compartments after midnight and killing Players in other spaces who had entered one, but the nose-pierced woman objected that those outside would be trapped during the sealed hours.
• Xu Huo proposed destroying the Dungeon grounds as another possible way to stop the Institute, but the silver-armored woman warned that it could collapse the unstable space and kill them all.
• Xu Huo argued that the Dungeon’s clear condition was likely tied to reducing the number of Players below the ten that had remained inside since it opened, and he said they should keep reducing the number until they cleared it.

Xu Huo proposed reducing the Dungeon’s population to test more rules, then gathered a group to search the central building and prepare experiments involving the Dungeon Boss. He left the group planning to use small items to attract the Boss and test its behavior, despite the risks of provoking the Bailin Association.

• Xu Huo proposed that the Players reduce the Dungeon’s population and suggested using items that could open passages between spaces to exploit the Dungeon Boss’s absence.
• Xu Huo invited Sparrow and the bearded man to search the central building, but the bearded man stayed behind as Xu Huo walked past his followers; Wang Xin, Yue Yan'er, Sparrow, and others followed him inside.
• Xu Huo found that someone had taken the robot and glass-bead item he had left at a Space Power hotspot the previous day.
• Xu Huo told Sparrow they shared a goal in opposing the bearded man and asked Yue Yan'er for small items that could attract the Dungeon Boss or help test the rules.
• Yue Yan'er proposed using the items to lure the Boss and test whether it would attack people in a Small Compartment when no one broke a rule.

Xu Huo discovered a hidden notebook in the Hexin Research Institute that linked the test subjects’ disappearances to the Dungeon Boss’s patrol schedule. After a hostile player attacked him, Xu Huo restrained him and warned him against trying to escape.

• Wang Xin said the Zisheng Research Institute players should avoid the Bailin Association rather than risk weakening their group or provoking retaliation.
• Xu Huo found a large Space Portal in the east-side building and fell through with Yue Yan'er, the sparrow, and the silver-armored woman, but they landed in different places.
• Xu Huo used Space Rays to retrieve a hidden notebook describing numbered test subjects, their routines, and their nighttime disappearances.
• Xu Huo concluded that the notebook’s records matched the Dungeon Boss’s patrol schedule and suggested that players became test subjects when they entered the instance.
• When Xu Huo asked a nearby player how long he had been in the instance, the player attacked and fled, so Xu Huo broke through his barriers and suppressed the players with gravity.
• Xu Huo cornered the hostile player inside a spatial construct and warned that forcing his way out could injure him in the A-class instance.

Xu Huo questioned the trapped Players about the Dungeon’s rules and survival patterns, then learned that no one had found a reliable way to clear it. A new Player organization arrived to investigate the space, and its members opened a portal to what they believed was a second layer.

• Xu Huo forced six Players out of hiding by threatening to release his spatial power, then asked how long they had been inside and what they knew about the Dungeon.
• The six Players explained that older arrivals were more likely to be targeted, while Xu Huo reasoned that rule violations mattered more than time spent inside and that Players in different spaces could interact.
• A tall, thin Player claimed the only way to clear the Dungeon was to kill everyone, but the others doubted that was possible as more Players kept arriving.
• Players from another organization entered the research facility with instruments to measure spatial fluctuations, and one invited Cong Lei to join their operation.
• The newcomers used a Space Artifact to open a Space Portal and announced they had found a second layer of space.

Xu Huo, Cong Lei, and Black Eye entered another layer of the Dungeon, where they discovered discarded objects and evidence of the Hexin Research Institute’s experiments. A recovered terminal revealed Dr. He’s abuse of child test subjects, while the group found part of his remains; the layer’s connection to the institute’s hidden history remained unclear.

• Xu Huo invited Cong Lei and Black Eye to leave with him, and they agreed while the other four stayed behind.
• Xu Huo opened a portal in the eastern building and led Cong Lei and Black Eye into a layer filled with discarded equipment, daily necessities, and human remains.
• Cong Lei recovered a working terminal and played a recording of a boy apologizing to Dr. He for speaking with Subject 0234 and promising to give the children medicine.
• The terminal showed Dr. He describing the boy as his greatest masterpiece after 131 drug trials and boasting that the boy would become part of medical history.
• Cong Lei identified Dr. He as a former Hexin Research Institute researcher who had died during an attack, and Black Eye recognized the nearby half-skeleton as the rest of his remains.

Xu Huo, Cong Lei, and Black Eye entered a hidden layer of the Zisheng Research Institute and encountered the Dungeon Boss, a cloud of dust that hunted intruders. They escaped through a Space Portal, and Xu Huo decided to keep searching the other layers for missing people.

• Xu Huo and the others explored the basement, where they found human remains and ash from a player killed by the Dungeon Boss.
• A pile of ash became a dust shadow that began destroying objects and moving through the building, but a bell in the basement interrupted it and triggered its patrol.
• Xu Huo tried to retrieve the bell, but the Dungeon Boss reached it first; he used the Dungeon Owner Coupon to halt its advance and retreated to a Space Portal.
• Cong Lei, Black Eye, and Xu Huo escaped the hidden layer and met Yue Yan'er, Sparrow, and the silver-armored group in the deserted research institute.
• Xu Huo confirmed that the Dungeon had at least three layers of space and said he would continue searching for other people.

Xu Huo captured the nose-pierced woman and found a hidden lawsuit accusing the Hexin Research Institute of human experimentation, along with a B-class defensive item. He stored both items and continued exploring the A-class Newborn Dungeon.

• Xu Huo took Black Eye and Cong Lei with him to search for spaces and encountered the bearded man and the nose-pierced woman.
• The nose-pierced woman attacked Xu Huo, but he subdued her and the bearded man escaped through a Space Portal.
• Xu Huo learned from the woman about a moving pocket space and retrieved its small Leather Case.
• Inside the case, Xu Huo found a lawsuit accusing the Hexin Research Institute of buying people for live experiments and a B-class item called the Heart of the Brave.
• Xu Huo stored the lawsuit and the Heart of the Brave, remarking that the A-class Newborn Dungeon contained many items.

Xu Huo gathered players from several spatial layers while investigating the dungeon’s items and the Dungeon Boss’s unpredictable activity. The players regrouped in one space, where the Ruby-necklace woman warned that the newcomers might draw the Dungeon Boss there more often.

• The nose-pierced woman offered a ransom and revealed a rumored treasure vault, but Xu Huo put her in his Picture Frame container item and considered testing whether its passages could cross item boundaries.
• Xu Huo and his companions found no more clues, then returned to the previous space as five members of the later-arriving player organization entered.
• Xu Huo found the crew-cut, middle-aged man and invited him and the few surviving players in his layer to join the group for safety.
• Xu Huo’s group returned to a space where Bailin Association members, the bearded man, and the silver-armored woman had gathered, while more players continued entering the dungeon.
• Yue Yan’er criticized the newcomers for failing to recognize the dungeon’s danger, and the Ruby-necklace woman warned that the long-time survivors could make the Dungeon Boss visit their space more often.

Xu Huo searched the dungeon after midnight while three players were found dead or missing, then entered the Dungeon Boss’s space and retrieved the Bell. He rang it from inside a Small Compartment, drawing the Dungeon Boss toward him.

• Xu Huo refused the buzz-cut middle-aged man’s proposal to cooperate and entered his Small Compartment before it sealed at eight o’clock.
• After midnight, players found three Small Compartments still closed; one player had turned to ash, and another’s room had been tampered with.
• Xu Huo searched shifting spaces until he found the space where the Dungeon Boss was lingering.
• Xu Huo saw the silver-armored woman and another organization enter the space, then went to the fifth basement level and took the Bell.
• Xu Huo jumped into a Small Compartment and rang the Bell, attracting the Dungeon Boss.

Xu Huo used the Little Dog Bell to draw out the Dungeon Boss, then killed the Bailin Association Players who had come with the silver-armored woman and searched unsuccessfully for the Perfect Potion. The next morning, the Bailin Association attacked the short old man, who revealed his mental-power blade and fought back.

• The Dungeon Boss killed an Unlucky Egg after the Players hid in Small Compartments, then searched the building for the bones before disappearing.
• Xu Huo examined the Little Dog Bell, an A-class item that sealed an area and periodically killed people trapped inside, then left his compartment and killed the silver-armored woman with a time-related ability.
• Xu Huo returned the bone box to the room of human bones and killed the Bailin Association members, while five Players from another organization escaped through a Space Portal.
• Xu Huo searched the Dungeon for the Perfect Potion until the Small Compartments closed, then decided to search for two more days before attempting to clear the Dungeon.
• The Bailin Association blamed the short old man for a Player's apparent psychological suggestion and attacked him, but he killed one attacker with a mental-power blade and faced the bearded man and the others.

The bearded man and the Bailin Association attacked the short old man, and the battle drew Xu Huo, Wang Xin’s group, and others into an all-out melee. As explosions erupted through the smoke-filled area, everyone scattered to avoid the blasts.

• The short old man fought off the Bailin Association players, killing three before the bearded man and his companions trapped him and attacked.
• The short old man used a water ball and electric orbs against the bearded man’s group, while a swamp Ability caught Xu Huo and his companions as well.
• The Bailin Association players attacked Xu Huo, but he used the Hand of Time and Space to drive them back, kill two, and damage their Artifacts and interference devices.
• The bearded man created a space that pushed aside the spatial cutlines, while Yue Yan'er, Wang Xin, and Shen Ling'er joined the fight against the Bailin Association.
• Black Eye brought airborne Artifacts down, and Cong Lei deployed electrical induction equipment, but the battlefield’s indiscriminate attacks turned the conflict into a melee involving nearly everyone.
• Someone released smoke and caused explosions throughout the area, forcing the players to scatter.

Xu Huo confronted the old man over his mental abilities and followed him into another layer of space to fight. Xu Huo overwhelmed him with Mirror Space and forced him to kneel, then asked who had sent him.

• The Sparrow denied poisoning the players on the train and accused the old man of using mental strength to make people break rules and die.
• Xu Huo challenged the old man’s Mental Evolution and entered a Space Portal with him to fight.
• The old man unfolded his Spiritual World and filled the Dungeon with convincing copies of himself, but Xu Huo attacked them with Spatial Power.
• The old man unleashed mental-energy manifestations, while Xu Huo pushed them back and led the fight into the courtyard.
• Xu Huo expanded Mirror Space, incapacitated the old man, and commanded him to kneel.
• Xu Huo asked the kneeling old man who had sent him.

Xu Huo forced the short old man to hand over a puzzle ball from Dr. Zhang, opened it, and found a green Syringe labeled P7S. After killing the old man, Xu Huo learned that the Dungeon was sealed for a month, then watched the surviving Players begin plotting against one another.

• Xu Huo deduced that Dr. Zhang had sent the short old man to deliver a puzzle ball and used mental control to make him hand it over.
• Xu Huo opened the puzzle ball, found a green Syringe labeled P7S and a tiny device inside it, then sealed them away in a metal case.
• Xu Huo killed the short old man, collected his belongings, burned his body, and returned to the previous space.
• A Player told Xu Huo that District 033 had sealed the Dungeon for a month and would send in a team if no one cleared it by then.
• The surviving Players avoided confronting Xu Huo and began quietly choosing targets among one another.

Xu Huo studied the Dungeon’s spatial structure and lured the Dungeon Boss away with the Little Dog Bell, helping the players survive the night. After Xiong Xiaoxin approached him on behalf of the Holy Sword Society, he demanded to know how it planned to make amends for the people it had killed in his hometown.

• Xu Huo explored other Small Compartments to study their spatial walls while the Dungeon Boss’s patrol continued into the second half of the night.
• When a powerful force appeared as Xu Huo opened a Space Portal, he escaped through space and used the Little Dog Bell to lure the Dungeon Boss away.
• The Dungeon stayed peaceful until dawn, but Xu Huo found that someone had taken the Bell.
• Xiong Xiaoxin told Xu Huo she wanted to represent the Holy Sword Society and befriend him.
• Xu Huo said the Holy Sword Society had killed many people in his hometown and asked Xiong Xiaoxin how it planned to make amends.

Xu Huo continued studying the Dungeon’s shifting spatial structure and discovered that Cube Space could create unstable intersections that swallowed a player and then stabilized. As the Dungeon’s surviving players gathered around him for rest, the chapter left the remaining groups badly depleted.

• Xu Huo rejected Xiong Xiaoxin’s invitation to meet the Holy Sword Society’s vice president and said he would leave after clearing the Dungeon.
• Over the next five days, players continued disappearing, mostly through fights with one another, while spatial gaps became less frequent.
• Xu Huo studied Cube Space and realized its intersecting Space Rays could form a connection between spaces; he tested the effect by tossing an attacking player into a gap, which then stabilized.
• Xu Huo decided he would ask the Magician about Cube Space when he had the chance.
• Wang Xin, Que Niao, and the others gathered near Xu Huo so they could rest, while Cong Lei slept for half a day.
• The surviving groups were reduced to a handful of players, including five former Zisheng Research Institute members and seven members of the Bailin Association.

With the instance growing more dangerous, Xu Huo and the other players argued over whether to use container artifacts to reduce the number of people exposed to the Dungeon Boss. When Xu Huo tried to persuade Wang Xin’s group to enter his artifact, the bearded man attacked and escaped his perception, leaving Xu Huo facing an unexpected opponent.

• The bearded man proposed that the players hide in container artifacts to reduce their numbers and try clearing the instance, but Wang Xin’s group refused to trust the player organizations.
• After Xu Huo and Xiong Xiaoxin persuaded the bearded man to test the plan with their companions, the players emerged again when nothing changed.
• Xu Huo offered to put Wang Xin’s group in his container artifact, but they remained wary despite his assurance that he would let them out.
• The bearded man tried to retreat, but Xu Huo used Mirror Space to make him return; the bearded man resisted with a metal helmet and launched a counterattack.
• The bearded man used Darkness Without End and several explosive artifacts to cover his escape, while Xu Huo discovered that the fleeing figure was a decoy.
• Xu Huo turned toward the person approaching him and asked whether an artifact or an Ability had concealed the real bearded man.