Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo entered a small space wall in the Barren Area and found a sealed corridor lined with corpses, including District 025 law enforcement officers and a Player who died while injecting a hidden Potion. After he left, the Chaos Space disappeared, and he reunited with Ding Xiang, Love Orange, and the others.

• Xu Huo opened a passage into a small space wall and walked through darkness until he reached a solid, transparent wall.
• Xu Huo examined the wall of corpses and found that it contained Players from different Sub-districts, many of them District 025 law enforcement officers who had died between nine and thirty years earlier.
• Xu Huo noticed a dead Player holding a Potion sewn into his skin and connected him to Ding Xiang and Yilan, who had hidden similar Potions and seemed to be investigating something.
• Xu Huo found that the corpse-lined passage was sealed in every direction except the way he had entered, then backed out of the space wall.
• The small space wall and the other scattered walls disappeared, and Xu Huo saw Two Heads, Old Duan, Wood, Ding Xiang, and Love Orange nearby.
• Xu Huo regrouped with the others, who said they had been trapped in the Chaos Space for two days without leaving the same area.

Xu Huo and his group crossed the wasteland, recruited two stranded Players, and encountered the white-haired man's team before a massive tsunami of Space Sharp Blades attacked them. As the spatial force surrounded both groups, Xu Huo stopped to draw on the Space Rays.

• Two Heads and the others shared their remaining food and water as they continued across the hot wasteland.
• Xu Huo's group subdued Norman and Chen Xiao, took their supplies, and invited them to join.
• Xu Huo's group met the white-haired man's team, and Two Heads traded barbs with one of its members.
• A corpse impaled on Space Sharp Blades flew into the white-haired man's team, unleashing a spatial tsunami that chased both groups.
• The spatial force closed in around the fleeing Players, and Xu Huo stopped to draw on the Space Rays.

Xu Huo protected his group from a spatial tsunami, but an unpredictable spike killed one of their companions. Afterward, the white-haired man offered to take Xu Huo’s group in, and the players discussed the dangers and unknowns of Challenge Island.

• Two Spatial Evolution users from the white-haired man’s team helped Xu Huo form a barrier, and he repeatedly deconstructed and rebuilt it to withstand the spatial tsunami.
• After the tsunami weakened, a Space Ray spike pierced a player and shattered his body from within; Yilan confirmed he was dead.
• When the Space Sharp Blades receded, Love Orange noticed Xu Huo was exhausted and bleeding, and he said a Potion would not help him.
• The white-haired man invited Xu Huo and his group to join his team, but Two Heads insisted Xu Huo was their captain.
• Xu Huo asked whether a larger team would affect arena matches, and the white-haired man warned that Challenge Island would eventually split large teams apart.
• Ding Xiang asked whether anyone had left the wasteland, and the white-haired man said his team knew of no successful crossings and had only estimates about the points and conditions required.

Xu Huo and the others struggled through the desolate zone as a fast-moving spatial wall closed in around them. After Xu Huo broke through it with his spatial power, the group vanished into another space, leaving their fate uncertain.

• Xu Huo declined to join Yilan and the others, though both groups continued onward within helping distance.
• After two days of extreme heat and blizzards, a player from the white-haired man's group disappeared, and Xu Huo identified a moving spatial wall.
• Xu Huo and the others fled as the spatial wall closed in from all sides, killing players it caught.
• Xu Huo used a strand of space power to break open the wall, unleashing chaotic spatial energy that injured him.
• The spatial bodies rushing toward the group suddenly vanished, and Ding Xiang wondered whether the space or the group had disappeared.

Xu Huo’s group followed the white-haired man’s map across the Wasteland and entered an arena match against a hungry team. Two Heads won the first round and fought the opposing team’s muscular female player in the next round, leaving the duel unresolved.

• The white-haired man showed Two Heads, Yilan, Xu Huo, and the others a map marking a cross-district point and a shop that had vanished.
• Xu Huo’s group followed the map, traveled through changing weather, and was eventually pulled into an arena match against seven gaunt players.
• An opposing player fired a sealing device at Two Heads, but Xu Huo redirected its needles, and Two Heads made the player surrender without killing him.
• Two Heads’s score rose, making him the winning team’s player selected for the second round, and a muscular female player challenged him.
• Two Heads used a Windmill to raise a sandstorm and attacked the woman, but she stunned him and pierced his shoulder with a curved metal earring.
• Two Heads wounded the woman’s leg with a blade from his calf, and she rolled away and slashed at his throat.

Two Heads won a brutal ring match, earning the group points as they continued across the Wasteland District. Their journey ended with a confrontation looming against the armed Players they had encountered before, who carried human ears and promised to kill them as a supposed good deed.

• Two Heads defeated the physically evolved female Player, and Challenge Island eliminated the losing team.
• Xu Huo and his companions received points, continued through the Wasteland District, and won two more ring matches.
• The white-haired man spotted a group approaching, and Xu Huo's companions recognized the Players who had previously ambushed them.
• The newcomers carried numerous guns and human ears, claimed they had found a supply point, and threatened to kill Xu Huo's group.

Xu Huo and the white-haired man’s group fought off an armed team in the wasteland, though three attackers escaped. Realizing Challenge Island was deliberately weakening them, the survivors agreed to split up and meet again in half a day.

• The white-haired man led his team and the other players into battle against six armed attackers while Xu Huo and Two Heads conserved their strength.
• When a sandstorm obscured the battlefield, two attackers targeted Xu Huo and Two Heads; Two Heads fought one while Xu Huo killed the other and took his gun.
• Xu Huo used the stolen gun to shoot into the fight, helping the white-haired man’s group defeat two more attackers as the remaining three escaped by teleporting.
• Ding Xiang complained about Challenge Island, and her score dropped sharply; Old Duan warned the others to keep their voices down.
• The white-haired man said the encounter was no coincidence and told Xu Huo they should split up and meet again in half a day.

Xu Huo and the other Players crossed the Wasteland District while speculating about the Challenge Island and the world beyond it. Under the light of Rabbit Eye Star, the planet suddenly appeared to rush toward them, revealing a volcanic surface as it loomed over the horizon.

• Xu Huo agreed discreetly to help the white-haired man’s group stay in contact while keeping his distance from them.
• Love Orange tried to lift Wood and the others’ spirits, while Two Heads urged the Players to fight back against the island’s organizers.
• Xu Huo asked about the island’s center, and the group speculated that it might hold staff or supplies before continuing onward.
• Rabbit Eye Star appeared after sunset, and Love Orange said it was seen only once every twenty years and had last appeared seven years earlier.
• The group wondered if the island was far from District 025, then watched Rabbit Eye Star rapidly grow larger and reveal its volcanoes and lava flows.

Xu Huo explored the island’s Curved Time, using it to watch past events recorded in the walls of corpses. He discovered that Enforcement Department teams and other Players had been searching for Potions and dying there, and he continued looking for traces of Dr. Wu.

• Xu Huo recognized that the duplicated corpses and space walls were linked to Curved Time, then rewound one stretch to watch a female Player die and a wounded man inject himself with a hidden Syringe before dying.
• Xu Huo watched Players search the dead man’s body, then concluded that multiple organizations had landed on the island.
• Xu Huo rewound another stretch of Curved Time and saw an Enforcement Department team carrying red ore debate whether finding the Perfect Potion was worth their lives.
• Xu Huo saw the Enforcement Department team later die in a space wall after its captain transmitted coordinates in a final report.
• Xu Huo watched more past events, including Syringe-carrying Players and a female corpse resembling Ding Xiang, whose terminal showed the event had occurred ten years earlier.
• Xu Huo spotted a familiar member of the armed squad among later arrivals on the island, though that member’s teammates had changed.

Xu Huo searched the Curved Time segments in Chaos Space and discovered that Dr. Wu had hidden a red ore key in the Wasteland Zone after a meteorite impact. After the spatial walls vanished, Xu Huo questioned Love Orange about Rabbit Eye Star, while Ding Xiang and Old Duan reacted to the many bodies they had seen.

• Xu Huo reviewed memories of the island, learning that Rabbit Eye Star appeared frequently, meteorites had transformed the landscape, and the island was divided into several zones around a central district.
• Xu Huo saw Dr. Wu leave a red ore key on the ground, where a later meteorite impact buried it beneath soil and rocks.
• Xu Huo found a memory of a scientific team planning to install energy-release devices in the central district to prevent further meteorite impacts.
• Xu Huo concluded that the key might not lead to the Perfect Potion and that Rabbit Eye Star and a red streak of light could offer clues to its whereabouts.
• After the spatial walls disappeared, Xu Huo asked Love Orange whether Rabbit Eye Star's orbit could point toward another zone, while Ding Xiang asked about the corpse wall.
• Old Duan said the corpse wall contained many dead people, including members of the Inspection Department.

Xu Huo’s group joined forces with the white-haired man’s group while other Players harassed them, then faced a sudden storm that revealed a Chaos Space. Its Space Power swept everyone away in different directions.

• Old Duan said a corpse might have belonged to a friend in the covert Inspection Department, and Xu Huo’s group continued through the barren zone.
• Xu Huo’s group reached low hills, rested, and discovered that Ice Shovel’s team was repeatedly attacking and retreating to wear them down.
• Xu Huo signaled the white-haired man’s group, and the two groups joined together as Ice Shovel’s team and two other groups followed at a distance.
• Two Heads spotted five tornadoes approaching, and the groups found themselves blocked from going around them by the other Players.
• Xu Huo saw a red flash inside a tornado, and several tornadoes vanished as a Chaos Space appeared and scattered the Players.

Xu Huo questioned Ding Xiang about her mission on Challenge Island and learned that District 025 believed Dr. Wu had left behind an ingredient for the Perfect Potion. The chapter ended with Xu Huo wondering what uncontrollable substance the Potion might contain.

• Xu Huo watched Rabbit Eye Star trigger a brief rewind that transformed the wasteland into a green plain before meteorites fell and restored the barren landscape.
• Xu Huo told Ding Xiang he had seen a woman resembling her in the corpse wall and questioned her about why she had come to the island.
• Xu Huo used his mental power to restrain Ding Xiang and infer that she was an Inspection Department Player investigating Challenge Island.
• Ding Xiang told Xu Huo that meteorites had struck Challenge Island and rumors of an Origin Stone had led the Enforcement Department to search the island for years.
• Ding Xiang explained that some government officials believed Dr. Wu had used an ingredient from Challenge Island to make the Perfect Potion.
• Xu Huo wondered whether the Perfect Potion contained a substance that even District 025 could not control.

Xu Huo questioned Ding Xiang about Challenge Island, Dr. Wu, and the missing Origin Stone, learning how the island became a dangerous search site. He suspected that Alton Company and government officials were connected to the disappearances and the underground show, while the island’s central area remained unexplored.

• Xu Huo asked Ding Xiang what she knew about Challenge Island and the search for the Perfect Potion’s ingredients.
• Ding Xiang explained that meteorite impacts had transformed the island’s Chaos Space and left red ore, while the Origin Stone believed to be there had never been found.
• Ding Xiang said a red light was thought to be a replay of the Origin Stone flying away, and Xu Huo noted that it seemed to head toward the island’s center.
• Ding Xiang revealed that the District Government had sold Challenge Island to Alton Company for mining after withdrawing its forces.
• Xu Huo connected the island’s underground show to disappearances of Players and challenged Ding Xiang over why the Inspection Department had not simply arrested Alton Company and the suspected officials.

Xu Huo questioned Ding Xiang about District 025’s limits on investigating suspected officials, then resumed searching the barren zone for the mineral key. He spotted a red glimmer among scorched stones, suggesting the key might be nearby.

• Ding Xiang explained why District 025 had abolished its public officials’ oath system and allowed some minor offenses to go unpunished.
• Xu Huo challenged Ding Xiang over the Inspection Department’s inability to question suspects and asked what she was investigating in Challenge Island’s central area.
• Ding Xiang refused to answer, and Xu Huo set off to search for a way out while still looking for the Perfect Potion.
• Xu Huo investigated nearby space walls, reasoning that Dr. Wu’s mineral key was likely hidden near the red light he had previously seen.
• Xu Huo watched Rabbit Eye Star appear over scorched ground as a red streak passed and a faint red glimmer flickered among the stones.

Xu Huo recovered Dr. Wu’s unusual ore key from Curved Time and continued toward the district crossing with Ding Xiang. After surviving arena matches and reuniting with Old Duan and the white-haired man’s group, they followed the map to a vast city near the crossing point.

• Xu Huo retrieved the ore key from underground after Curved Time ended and concealed what he knew about it from Ding Xiang.
• Xu Huo and Ding Xiang left Chaos Space, encountered Ice Shovel’s seven-player group, and entered an arena match before they could fight.
• Xu Huo won two rounds, taking the group’s points; six players died, while Ice Shovel escaped using a resurrection ticket and a teleportation device.
• Xu Huo and Ding Xiang used the defeated players’ supplies, crossed the hills, and met Old Duan and the white-haired man’s group again.
• The white-haired man’s map led the groups toward the district crossing, and after a day of clashes they reached the outskirts of a vast city.

Players at Challenge Island’s central area faced a crossing challenge that ranked teammates by score and pushed them to turn on one another. Xu Huo’s team began sharing points to help everyone qualify, while the first player to enter the central area was killed by a mysterious ticket that drained his score.

• Players learned that only those with at least 10,000 points could cross zones, with each team limited to one crossing every half hour and priority given to its highest scorers.
• Members of the white-haired man’s team attacked one another to raise their rankings, and other teams began fighting over points.
• Xu Huo suggested killing outsiders until each team had only four members, while Na Wei pointed out that Xu Huo and Ding Xiang could share their surplus points with the team.
• Ding Xiang let Na Wei gain points by fighting her, and Xu Huo drove off players who tried to interfere.
• Xiao Xiao Fei Ying entered the central area and received a Full-Nudity Ticket, which rapidly drained his score and caused him to melt away.

Xu Huo entered Challenge Island’s final round, fought off players who tried to ambush him, and discovered that surrendering meant certain death. He searched the central district for clues about Dr. Wu’s Perfect Potion and found the injured player who had fled earlier.

• Xu Huo crossed into the central district and received a notice that players had to score over fifty thousand points to enter the spire.
• Several players ambushed Xu Huo, but he cut through their barriers and weapons before they retreated into nearby buildings.
• Levi challenged Xu Huo to an arena match, but Xu Huo disabled Levi’s devices and restrained him with spatial rays.
• Levi surrendered, lost all his points, and burned to death, so Xu Huo continued searching the city for the Perfect Potion.
• Xu Huo found the injured armed player hiding in a storeroom and waved to him from across the street.

Xu Huo cornered a man connected to Alton Company and questioned him about the red streak, the Perfect Potion, and rumors of an Origin Stone. The man revealed where the company had dug passages and mining shafts, and that workers still entered them to search for valuable ore.

• Xu Huo repeatedly pursued the man until he agreed to talk about the rumored Perfect Potion and the red streak of light.
• The man explained that the island had originally been planned as a tourist attraction and that his assignment was to kill players for the show.
• Xu Huo asked about the Origin Stone, and the man said the District Government and Alton Company had searched the island and sea without finding it.
• The man showed Xu Huo a map marking the company's supply points, mining shafts, and passages dug near the original meteorite crater.
• Under Xu Huo's influence, the man revealed that workers could still enter the shafts and passages, and that he had once found two tiny Sub-class Stones in Mining Shaft No. 3.

Xu Huo followed a map into the underground passages beneath Challenge Island and was swept into a colony of Mutant Rats living in a vast seabed nest. He escaped the colony’s feeding ground, but a large sea beast began repeatedly charging his spatial barrier.

• Xu Huo memorized a map to Mining Shaft No. 3, and concealed Players killed the man who had shown it to him.
• Xu Huo entered the mining tunnels, found a huge Mutant Beast tooth beneath discarded machinery, and heard creatures moving below.
• A swarm of Mutant Rats trapped Xu Huo inside their mass and dragged him through a pressure chamber into their nest beneath the seabed.
• Xu Huo saw the rats feed fish to their newborns, then expanded his spatial barrier and moved toward the nest’s exit.
• Several sea beasts hunted the rats outside the nest, and one repeatedly rammed Xu Huo’s barrier.

Xu Huo explored the cavern beneath Challenge Island, found a hidden compartment containing a P8S Syringe and an Origin Stone, and realized District 025 had already recovered another set of the items. He stored the Origin Stone and used his Script Ability to verify the Potion.

• Xu Huo traced the edge of the Mutant Rat nest and concluded that the cavern beneath Challenge Island might have been deliberately created.
• The Mutant Rats dragged in dead sea beasts, whose blood caused plants on the cavern walls to glow and illuminate the water.
• Tiny glowing fish carried Xu Huo's mineral key to a hidden keyhole, where he uncovered a compartment containing a P8S Syringe and an Origin Stone.
• Xu Huo inferred that District 025 had already obtained one Perfect Potion and one Origin Stone, likely before allowing Alton Company to mine the island.
• Xu Huo placed the Origin Stone in a metal box and activated Script to check whether the Potion was genuine.