Chapter Summaries

After reading a script of the island’s coming crisis, Xu Huo took another Potion and reached a new level of mental ease. He gathered Bai Po, Ding Xiang, and Yilan to learn why they were investigating the spire and asked whether they could take control of the island terminal without activating its defenses.

• Xu Huo read the pen’s outline of the next three hours and considered how the island’s seals and defenses would affect escape.
• Xu Huo injected another Potion, surpassed 90% evolution, and found that manipulating mental power felt easier.
• Xu Huo found Bai Po searching for an underground passage and warned him that Company Players still entered the mining shafts.
• Xu Huo used his Spiritual World to bring Ding Xiang and Yilan to meet Bai Po.
• Bai Po explained that he had come to investigate the guests who hired Players through the spire, after two of his friends died under company contracts.
• Xu Huo asked whether they could steal control of the island terminal without triggering its defense program.

Xu Huo questioned Ding Xiang, Yilan, and Bai Po about their plans to steal Challenge Island’s data and escape, then revealed an underground route he could use to reach the sea. Their goals converged on the spire and the company’s operations, while Xu Huo made clear he intended to confront Alton Company rather than leave quietly.

• Xu Huo warned Ding Xiang, Yilan, and Bai Po that stealing the terminal data could trigger the island’s defenses and leave them no way to escape.
• Xu Huo revealed that he had found an underground passage leading into the sea, though only he could safely use it to leave the island.
• Bai Po explained that he planned to take a company insider hostage and use their clearance to move around or board a departing ship.
• Yilan disclosed that she and Ding Xiang had a cross-space device they could use once they got beyond the restricted area.
• The group discussed pursuing their separate goals through the spire’s arena matches, while Xu Huo said he would not leave quietly after Alton Company cheated him on his contract.

Xu Huo formed an alliance with Bai Po, Ding Xiang, and Yilan to enter Challenge Island’s tower and investigate Alton Company. As the group prepared to earn points, Bai Po warned Xu Huo that the Inspection Department might be using him for interests beyond exposing corruption.

• Ding Xiang cautioned Xu Huo against challenging Alton Company and the Sub-district Government, but Xu Huo asked why the others risked their lives pursuing justice.
• Bai Po declared that they were allies and said they needed to enter the tower to learn about Challenge Island’s clients and obtain Alton Company’s files.
• Yilan refused to reveal classified information about Transdimensional Space Instruments, and Bai Po described how the Game Government and powerful Sub-districts exploited weaker populations.
• Xu Huo proposed entering the tower and targeting players with more than fifty thousand points, and the groups split up to earn points.
• Bai Po warned Xu Huo that the Inspection Department’s investigation likely served greater interests, and Xu Huo replied that weakness could be used as a tool.

Xu Huo reasoned that Challenge Island was secretly selecting degenerated players as research subjects for District 025, then realized Dr. Wu possessed something the Game Government lacked. After dismissing nearby players’ questions, Xu Huo confronted a Cannibal Player and said he would not let him leave.

• Bai Po explained that he wanted revenge on Alton Company by destroying Challenge Island, and Xu Huo told him they would meet at the Spire.
• Xu Huo concluded that both Bai Po and Ding Xiang’s group wanted information stored in Challenge Island’s terminal.
• After seeing a player’s degeneration, Xu Huo reasoned that Challenge Island was meant to identify promising degenerated players for research.
• Xu Huo suspected that Dr. Wu possessed something the Game Government needed and laughed at the reversal of power between them.
• Xu Huo told nearby players his laughter was none of their business, then warned a Cannibal Player that he was not going anywhere.

Xu Huo let his score fall to avoid triggering a forced test, then helped Ding Xiang and Yilan access restricted areas while they pursued the island’s data. Bookworm contacted him and asked for his cooperation in hacking the Challenge Island terminal, offering analysis and help disabling the island’s sealing sequence.

• Xu Huo killed a Cannibal Player, but his score rapidly dropped near the spire and stopped just above twenty thousand.
• Xu Huo fought two more battles and approached the spire again, but his score fell below fifty thousand before he could enter.
• Xu Huo gave Ding Xiang and Yilan two work badges, which Yilan modified to grant them access to restricted areas.
• Ding Xiang and Yilan entered an underground area through an extraction shaft, and Xu Huo saw signs that their attempt had gone smoothly.
• Bookworm contacted Xu Huo through his wrist terminal and asked him to stay within five hundred meters of the terminal while Bookworm hacked it.
• Bookworm offered to analyze the data and help stop the Super Dimensional Instrument from sealing the island.

Xu Huo worked with Bookworm to access the tower’s data and considered using Curved Time to counter the Super Dimensional Instruments. As Bookworm tried to bypass the terminal, Xu Huo delayed Yilan and Bai Po and learned the Inspection Department might help him leave the island.

• Xu Huo asked Bookworm about the Super Dimensional Instruments, and Bookworm explained their locations, the island’s blockade, and the difficulty of countering transdimensional power.
• Xu Huo proposed using Curved Time to return the area to before the instruments activated, and Bookworm agreed to try while retrieving the data.
• Alton Company players pressured Xu Huo toward the arena, so he used nearby players to distract them while he waited.
• Yilan and Bai Po arrived near the spire with more than fifty thousand points, and Xu Huo persuaded them to delay interfering with Bookworm’s work.
• Yilan offered to help Xu Huo leave the island and argued that they shared the goal of obtaining files that would damage the Alton Company.

Xu Huo learned that Challenge Island was observing degenerate players and preparing to sell them as test subjects, then decided to leave before entering the spire. He took Ding Xiang with him and escaped the island using a stolen work ID and a teleportation device, prompting the company to try to kill them.

• Bookworm told Xu Huo that Challenge Island was observing degenerate players and that Alton Company planned to buy them as test subjects after their final observation.
• Xu Huo learned that the company used a work passage to remove players and located the Super Dimensional Instrument and the non-game-area simulation instrument.
• Xu Huo called Ding Xiang over and told her he was leaving the island, then compelled her to come with him.
• Xu Huo and Ding Xiang passed through the barrier using a stolen work ID and teleported away in view of other players, including Ice Shovel.
• The company noticed their escape and immediately tried to kill them, while Xu Huo relied on his prepared teleportation device.

Xu Huo escaped Challenge Island with Ding Xiang by using his spatial abilities and destroying the underwater Super Dimensional Instrument. After they reached safety, the island announced that its observation had ended and that no players had been selected for experiments or research.

• Xu Huo and Ding Xiang fled through Chaos Space while Challenge Island’s weapons pursued them, and their points dropped to zero when they emerged.
• Xu Huo carried Ding Xiang through spatial passages to Bear Hug Zone, then broke through its barrier with a powerful Space Ray.
• Xu Huo took Ding Xiang across the sea to the underwater Super Dimensional Instrument and destroyed it without releasing Transdimensional Power.
• Xu Huo and Ding Xiang escaped the island, and the instruments sealing off the area stopped working.
• Ding Xiang received a notice that Challenge Island’s observation had concluded and no players had been selected as experimental subjects or research candidates.
• Xu Huo tossed his terminal into the sea and asked Ding Xiang what had happened to the Inspection Department’s people.

After the devolution research was exposed, Challenge Island erupted as players learned they had been used as test subjects and began demanding justice. Xu Huo praised Ding Xiang for refusing to abandon her principles, while Yilan left the island after receiving Ding Xiang’s message.

• Two Inspection Department agents told Ding Xiang that her mission had failed, ordered her to report within a day, and left Xu Huo alone with her.
• The exposed research sparked outrage among Challenge Island’s players, many of whom returned to District 025 to demand justice.
• Company players destroyed the terminal beneath the tower before Yilan and Bai Po could reach it, then withdrew from the island.
• Yilan received a message from Ding Xiang and used a Ticket to leave Challenge Island.
• Ding Xiang offered Xu Huo a Return Ticket and questioned why District 025 treated its people as expendable.
• Xu Huo told Ding Xiang he was praising her and argued that goodness remained the foundation of human society.

Xu Huo spoke with Ding Xiang about her ideals, the Inspection Department’s mission on Challenge Island, and the selection of District 025 talent for the Game Government. Ding Xiang shared her impression that people from Ticketless Sub-district seemed like “glass people,” then gave Xu Huo a Return Ticket and terminal for her safe house before he asked her for a favor.

• Ding Xiang described her family’s history in government and explained why she had joined the Inspection Department and pursued its ideals.
• Ding Xiang criticized the Inspection Department’s costly, roundabout operation on Challenge Island, and Xu Huo assured her that the dead would be brought home and honored.
• Ding Xiang told Xu Huo that people from Ticketless Sub-district seemed different from ordinary humans and compared them to glass people.
• Xu Huo speculated that the people from Ticketless Sub-district might have mutated genes, then joked that he lacked a sense-of-humor gene.
• Ding Xiang gave Xu Huo a Return Ticket and terminal to access her safe house, which she planned to have decommissioned in five days.
• Xu Huo accepted the items and asked Ding Xiang for a favor.

Xu Huo returned to Starfruit City and found the mother whose son had disappeared at Player's Home. He persuaded her to seek an official investigation and offered to help her get revenge, leaving the case poised to reopen.

• Xu Huo ignored Ding Xiang's concerns and used a Return Ticket to reach the area outside Starfruit City.
• Xu Huo entered the city during the unrest and went to the sealed-off capsule housing.
• Xu Huo asked the mother of a missing Player whether she had heard from her son, and she warned him that no one could leave Player's Home once they entered.
• Xu Huo revealed the woman's handwritten records about Player's Home and explained that District 025's law allowed her to request that her son's case be reopened.
• Xu Huo returned the records and told the woman he could help her get revenge if Player's Home had killed her son.

Xu Huo helped a woman force a public hearing into her son's death at Player's Home, exposing the use of experimental drugs and government negligence. The scandal spread to Alton Company and the Inspection Department, whose decade of secret visits to Challenge Island Xu Huo publicly revealed.

• Xu Huo took the woman to the municipal government and used his credentials as a psychologist to get her mental evaluation approved immediately.
• Xu Huo hired lawyers to uncover her son's cause of death and hold the government accountable, and they launched a public hearing.
• The lawyers produced genuine records and witness statements showing that Player's Home had secretly given experimental drugs to residents, prompting closures and investigations.
• Records revealed that several regressing players had disappeared, while key Player's Home figures had died or become unable to answer for their actions.
• Players sued Alton Company over Challenge Island, and the scandal led the public to demand answers from the Inspection Department.
• Xu Huo released information from Bookworm and part of Challenge Island's List, exposing Alton Company's research and the Inspection Department's decade of visits to the island.

Xu Huo tried to expose the buyers behind Challenge Island beyond District 025, but authorities suppressed the evidence and sent law enforcement after him. After Bookworm warned him, Xu Huo fled with Mrs. Qi and brought her five men involved in her son's death; she killed them all and told Xu Huo she no longer wanted to live.

• District 025 released retirement data and information about Alton Company, while Xu Huo urged lawyers to expose buyers from other districts and Wormhole Points.
• Xu Huo sent materials to the Inspection Department through Ding Xiang, but the uploads were destroyed, Ding Xiang went out of contact, and law enforcement began tracking him.
• Bookworm warned Xu Huo that law enforcement was closing in, so Xu Huo left Starfruit City with Mrs. Qi and several Player's Home members involved in the case.
• Xu Huo brought Mrs. Qi five men who had taken part in her son's death and told her she could do what she wanted with them.
• Mrs. Qi stabbed all five men to death, then told Xu Huo she had taken her revenge and did not want to live anymore.

After Ms. Qi killed herself on a live underground broadcast, her letter and the names she left behind sparked protests and demands for an investigation in District 025. Xu Huo escaped by train and arrived at B02-001, Carmen Field’s hometown, where he encountered the city’s elaborate tributes to the late hero.

• Ms. Qi broadcast her confession, displayed names copied from the lawyer, and cut her own throat on camera.
• The lawyer released Ms. Qi’s letter, in which she questioned why the government had refused to investigate her son’s death and her own inquiry into it.
• A Player Family demanded that the District Government contact other Sub-districts about the names on the List, and citizens joined demonstrations.
• Xu Huo left District 025 ahead of law enforcement and rode a B-class train to B02-001 using a Temporary Pass.
• Xu Huo arrived in Carmen Field’s hometown, observed that its statues did not resemble the Carmen Field he had seen, and accepted a free hero-themed snack and drink.

Xu Huo explored Carmen Field, bought a map of suspected Combat Angel sites, and heard tourists debate whether the Artifact had feelings for Mr. Carmen. The chapter ended with a young woman asking Xu Huo what kind of person Mr. Carmen was.

• Xu Huo studied the Combat Angel statue and considered the powers and fragments of the Artifact he had obtained.
• A middle-aged man sold Xu Huo a map for five thousand White Cash, marking suspected sites and places Carmen Field often visited, including Fielder Manor.
• Xu Huo rode a city cable car and listened to tourists discuss the unstable ruins, the Combat Angel, and who should inherit it.
• A girl argued that the Combat Angel had loved Mr. Carmen, while an older boy objected to turning his sacrifice into a romance story.
• A young woman beside Xu Huo turned off her smart mirror and asked him what kind of person Mr. Carmen was.

Xu Huo visited the Field battle sites in District 001 and questioned how Carmen Field’s war had ended without wider retaliation. He saw Daiting Field, Carmen’s granddaughter, listed as a candidate for District Chief Executive.

• Xu Huo told a woman in the cable car that Carmen Field must have been humorous because he had made children laugh, prompting passengers to praise the legendary hero.
• Xu Huo arrived at Yongxing Hotel, learned that access to sites containing Combat Angel remains required the Field family’s permission, and applied to visit them.
• Xu Huo studied the battle-site map and wondered how the destruction across several wormhole points had not led to further wars, considering whether the Field family or another force had intervened.
• Xu Huo watched the candidates for District Chief Executive appear above the city and recognized Daiting Field as Carmen Field’s granddaughter.

Xu Huo explored information about Carmen Field and the Field family while waiting for his route application to be approved. He left the chapter curious whether people could be born with the ability to undergo Super Evolution.

• Xu Huo considered the Field family's influence and the possibility that Carmen Field's death had left lasting turmoil within the family.
• Xu Huo visited B02-001 to pay tribute to Carmen Field and explore the site of their battle for traces of his power.
• Xu Huo reviewed tourist packages about Carmen Field, including an exhibition hall and a theme park that displayed items from his life and relationships.
• Xu Huo learned how Carroll Field and Daiting Field were connected to Carmen and the Field family, despite not being his direct descendants.
• Xu Huo read about Daiting Field's early talent for Super Evolution but found no official proof that anyone could be born with the ability.

Xu Huo visited an exhibition of Carmen Field’s relics and learned about Carmen’s childhood, marriage, and outlook on life through his diaries and the android’s explanations. The chapter ended with Xu Huo looking at Carmen’s brief notes on a novel.

• Xu Huo entered the exhibition and read Carmen Field’s flag inviting visitors to make noise at his grave.
• Xu Huo read Carmen’s childhood diary entries about his parents, teachers, and younger brother, while an android explained how one entry had been copied as punishment.
• Xu Huo learned that Carmen had placed ninth in a competition to stay just below the girl he liked, later married her, and designed their wedding clothes.
• Xu Huo reflected on Carmen’s ability to find inner freedom, then moved past everyday exhibits to a book Carmen had read in his youth.
• Xu Huo saw Carmen’s short notes, including “Time is a lot like a bug” and “Dormant cognition.”

Xu Huo studied Carmen Field’s fragmented notes on time, space, and mental evolution, using them to reflect on his own Spatial Evolution and the possibility of changing space as Curved Time changed. He left without a definite breakthrough, still wondering whether Carmen Field’s notes about “dormant cognition” described a form of Mental Evolution.

• Players discussed whether Carmen Field’s public notes contained useful secrets, while Xu Huo closely examined the projections.
• Xu Huo interpreted several notes as impressions of Time Rays and spatial bodies, recalling how Curved Time in Pumpkin City had made space change along with time.
• Xu Huo considered how his layered spatial bodies formed the basic “gossamer” of Kaleidoscope World and wondered whether space could undergo a qualitative change.
• Xu Huo thought Lawrence Li’s ability to collapse the Space Rays inside other people might have realized a theory worth investigating in the battle ruins.
• Xu Huo examined notes beside “dormant cognition,” including “Twins,” “looking in the mirror,” and “spatial folding,” but could not tell whether they described Mental Evolution.

Xu Huo toured Carmen Field’s exhibition, garden, and theme park while learning about Carmen’s work, marriages, and rise to fame as District 001’s Morning Star. The tour ended with the Android unable to explain what had happened to Carmen’s friends after the battle.

• Xu Huo left the exhibition hall after seeing Carmen’s books and research notes, then went with the visitors to City Garden.
• The Android showed the visitors humanoid plants and explained how the garden’s talking birds collected and gave away other birds’ feathers.
• Xu Huo toured Carmen’s buildings and theme park, where the Android described his changing style and his first wife, Nuolinlin, and second marriage.
• The Android recounted how Carmen returned to District 001 with fewer than thirty friends and helped repel an invasion, earning the title Morning Star.
• A visitor asked whether Carmen’s friends had died in the battle, and the Android said she could not give exact details.