Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo deciphered coordinates from Lady Feng’s kaleidoscope and entered the Rock Forest Restricted Zone to investigate. He camped at the location, where a sightseeing group joined him, but the night ended with a boulder striking their vehicle and unfamiliar Players arriving.

• Xu Huo noticed a pattern in the kaleidoscope’s changing triangles that pointed to a location in the Rock Forest Restricted Zone, and Lady Feng explained the zone’s unusual lack of Dungeons.
• Xu Huo prepared supplies and drove alone into the Restricted Zone, then camped at the coordinates indicated by the kaleidoscope.
• A sightseeing vehicle stopped nearby, and its tourists, driver, and accompanying Players invited Xu Huo to join their barbecue.
• In the middle of the night, a huge boulder fell onto the sightseeing vehicle, and the driver hurried to leave when several Players appeared.

Xu Huo and the tour group were pulled into the A-rank Random Instance You Have a Choice, where Aliens attacked them in an abandoned city. After saving the group, Xu Huo set out to find more people and learn the Instance’s rules.

• A battle between Players triggered the Instance after the crowd reached twenty-six people, transporting Xu Huo, the tour group, a family, and the fighting Players to an abandoned plaza.
• Aliens attacked the arrivals, and the other Players fled while Xu Huo stayed behind and killed the creatures threatening the tour bus.
• Xu Huo cleared the Aliens around the bus, packed his belongings, and told the tour group and family to follow his car.
• Xu Huo drove through the city with the tour bus behind him, killing Aliens as they pursued the vehicles.
• Xu Huo decided to look for more people because the Instance had not revealed its background or clearance requirements.

Xu Huo searched a deserted city for clues about the Dungeon and discovered a law that let some criminals choose between mental and physical punishment. The chapter ended with three Players who had fled earlier appearing in a building across the way.

• Xu Huo drove the group to a reinforced building and cleared out an Alien so they could rest.
• The driver and Old Ping examined the group's supplies and decided to eat perishable food first.
• Xu Huo read records showing that the city had been abandoned decades ago after most residents evacuated and Aliens took over.
• Xu Huo found a law granting some criminals a choice between mental and physical punishment, but suspected Dungeon participants would have no such choice.
• The driver spotted three Players across the way, and Xu Huo recognized them as members of the group that had fled earlier.

Xu Huo and the others entered the A-class dungeon “You Have a Choice,” which required them to survive for 25 days. As the groups prepared to shelter for the night, mutant rodents began exploring the pipes beneath their building.

• The three injured players in the opposite building received the dungeon notice and learned that they had to survive for 25 days.
• Big Sis divided her group's equipment and planned for the group to protect one another, while Tong Chuan worried about keeping enough people alive.
• Big Sis's group discussed the aliens, the lack of food, and the need to cooperate with Xu Huo's tour group.
• Xu Huo told the driver to arrange night watches and conserve strength as they sheltered in the building.
• Xu Huo sensed a large number of mutant rodents moving through the underground pipes around the building.

Xu Huo held off a massive nighttime alien assault on the building while protecting the ordinary people sheltering there and the nearby player groups. After moving everyone to safety at dawn, he met the other players, who thanked him and began settling their earlier dispute.

• Xu Huo found mutant rats gnawing at the lower floors and noticed that aliens nearby appeared to be cooperating.
• Aliens swarmed the buildings after nightfall, and Xu Huo repeatedly used his Spatial Cutlines to kill them while keeping the sheltered people safe.
• Xu Huo moved the vehicle through a Mental Portal and endured the assault until the aliens retreated at dawn.
• Xu Huo transferred everyone to a building five thousand meters away, where the other groups followed and thanked him.
• Bingbing introduced herself and her companions, and Tong Chuan's group explained their grievance with Brother Ya's group.
• Brother Ya promised to return Tong Chuan's stolen item and offer compensation if they survived.

Xu Huo’s group explored the alien-infested city while trying to understand its unusual lack of mutated vegetation. At lunchtime, the instance selected an ordinary tour-group member for a survival minigame, and Xu Huo sent the eldest sister through the portal in his place.

• The eldest sister and Brother Ya suggested that a gas from mutated vines might explain why the city had few mutated plants, while Xu Huo continued searching the streets for an unknown purpose.
• Xu Huo stopped the vehicles at a shopping mall, where the group cleared out aliens and set up protective devices before preparing a meal.
• A screen and portal appeared before a tour-group member, whose choice to send someone else prompted Xu Huo to consider the players as substitutes.
• The eldest sister volunteered to enter the minigame, and Xu Huo gave her three devices before she stepped through the portal.
• Xu Huo warned that the group needed to preserve its numbers, while Brother Ya and the others discussed how the game might grow more difficult for future substitutes.

The group treated their leader after she returned gravely wounded from a survival minigame, and Xu Huo warned them not to move or wake her. As everyone feared being chosen for the next game, Xu Huo refused to promise the children would be spared, and a light screen appeared before him.

• The leader emerged from the portal after five minutes, badly wounded, and Old Yuan used Self-Healing Agents to stabilize her.
• Xu Huo stitched her internal injuries with Space Ray and warned Tong Chuan not to move or wake her because she might have a head injury.
• Hat blamed Brother Ya and his companions for stealing their items and forcing them into the dungeon, while Da'an suggested the minigame might have lasted longer than five minutes inside.
• Old Ping wondered whether multiple people could enter the next minigame, and the driver and others anxiously asked Xu Huo what they should do.
• A couple begged Xu Huo to leave their children until last, but he said he could not promise that and told them the children might be placed first or last.
• As Bingmei tried to reassure everyone that the next minigame might take a long time to appear, a light screen appeared before Xu Huo.

Xu Huo entered the dungeon’s survival minigame, where destructive Snowflake Spatial Entities triggered a spreading spatial storm. He escaped the storm’s center by repeatedly using the dark space, but remained trapped in a dangerous region as the snowflakes began to thin.

• Xu Huo chose to enter the minigame himself despite being given only a 20% chance of survival.
• Xu Huo discovered that the falling snowflakes were unstable spatial entities that exploded on contact and set off a chain reaction through the ice mountains.
• Xu Huo defended himself with spatial barriers and fled thousands of meters through the dark space as the storm engulfed the area.
• Xu Huo doubled back through the storm’s center using Kaleidoscope Threads and layered barriers, suffering powerful impacts along the way.
• Xu Huo returned to the storm’s starting point, where the spatial entities had grown sparse, and carefully avoided further eruptions while escaping.

Xu Huo explored the strange Iceberg Space, discovering that its Snowflake Spatial Entities emerged from a boundary between two joined spaces and rebuilt the icebergs after storms. After nearly an hour inside, he returned badly injured, restoring the group’s hope and leaving them eager to learn what he had faced.

• Xu Huo studied the Snowflake Spatial Entities and found that a powerful pull near the overhead boundary dragged him toward the sky before he returned to safety.
• Xu Huo used his Spiritual World to discover that the apparent sky contained another iceberg-filled space, joined to the lower one at a dividing line where the spatial entities appeared.
• Xu Huo returned to the ground and waited, uncertain whether the black vortex would reappear before another storm.
• Brother Ya, Tong Chuan, Bingmei, Old Yuan, Hat, and the others feared Xu Huo had died and worried about surviving the remaining days without their devices.
• The driver reclaimed the first aid kit and held onto it while the group waited for Xu Huo to return.
• Xu Huo emerged from the black vortex badly wounded, and the driver, Old Ping, and Little Sun helped tend to him as Brother Ya’s group asked about the minigame.

Xu Huo and the others traveled toward the outskirts in search of food, water, and shelter while trying to understand the survival minigames. A drone brought a plea from five survivors, whose account suggested the minigames became much more frequent after their group fell below twenty-five.

• Xu Huo suspected the survival minigame could take place in different arenas and considered how player numbers might affect its appearance.
• Xu Huo led the group toward the outskirts to look for supplies and possible surviving players.
• As night fell, the group reinforced a building and fought off waves of aliens attracted by the noise.
• Brother Ya spotted a drone carrying a plea for help from five people who wanted to join them.
• The five survivors reported that twenty of their twenty-six dead companions had died in survival minigames and that the games became more frequent below twenty-five people.
• Brother Ya asked Xu Huo whether the survivors were telling the truth.

Xu Huo’s group shared limited food with five newcomers while keeping them at a distance, and Big Sis recovered enough to describe a deadly minigame. The newcomers revealed that minigames had become more frequent and that one survivor had escaped a place filled with water, while the group suspected that making someone take another person’s place increased the danger.

• Xu Huo agreed to let five players join the group but ordered Brother Ya to keep them separate from the Tour Bus passengers.
• Big Tiger demanded food, but the middle-aged glasses man stopped him and offered survival-game devices in exchange for help; Brother Ya gave them a packet of compressed biscuits.
• Xu Huo’s group shared out soup and dried meat, while Xu Huo refused the newcomers’ request for extra soup for their injured companion.
• Big Sis woke up, described a minigame filled with attacking mutated pine needles, and thanked Xu Huo for lending her a device.
• The middle-aged glasses man told Xu Huo that minigames had grown more frequent and described one survivor’s water-filled game; Brother Ya suggested that taking someone else’s place increased the frequency.
• The driver rebuked the survivor who looked to Xu Huo for help, and the man stared back through tears with resentment and defiance.

Xu Huo exposed the middle-aged glasses man’s group for hiding how they had survived the escalating mini-games, then forced them to explain their history. The group debated whether selected people should enter the games or use substitutes as they faced the dungeon’s remaining days.

• Xu Huo questioned the middle-aged glasses man about the group’s time in the dungeon and whether they had used substitutes, then used his spiritual world to compel him and his companions to obey.
• The middle-aged glasses man admitted his group had been in the dungeon for sixteen days and described how the games increased in frequency as selected people found substitutes.
• He revealed that his five survivors had joined another group, let its ordinary people become substitutes, and then joined Xu Huo’s group after the previous group was killed.
• The middle-aged glasses man argued that the ordinary people should be used as substitutes, while Bingmei and the older woman challenged his attitude and debated how to handle future selections.
• The older woman suggested searching the city for other survivors, and asked Xu Huo what he thought.

Xu Huo kept the group under control as two people were selected for survival minigames, then led everyone to inspect the city’s vast, poisonous plant barrier. The group found that the vines blocked passage and contaminated the groundwater, leaving them with few options for food and water.

• Xu Huo told the group to organize night watches and had the driver distribute candy to calm the frightened tourists.
• After dawn, a tourist and Big Tiger were selected for minigames with survival rates of zero, and Xu Huo kicked Big Tiger into a portal when he tried to seize an ordinary person.
• The group ate breakfast and set out without waiting for the two who had entered the minigames.
• Xu Huo led the group to a massive wall of mutated vines and used his psychic power to inspect its dense, rotting interior.
• The middle-aged glasses man warned that the vines hunted living things and that the groundwater was contaminated, while Xu Huo asked about the water treatment plant.

Xu Huo evacuated his group when a massive Mutated Plant vine attacked their shelter, then entered the Survival Minigame after it selected a child. With Xu gone, his companions and the surviving members of the group of five faced off over supplies while waiting for him to return.

• Tong Chuan suggested eating Aliens or Mutant Animals if survival demanded it, and Big Sister told him to stop provoking the group.
• A giant vine burst through the building, releasing poison as Xu Huo cut it apart and used Mental Portals to move his companions to a rooftop two thousand meters away.
• The group regrouped amid an Alien attack, and the Survival Minigame selected the older of two children, whose screen showed a survival rate of zero.
• Xu Huo selected “Someone Else” and entered the black vortex to take the child’s place in the minigame.
• After Xu disappeared, the group of five pressed to control the supplies, but Big Sister warned that Xu had survived the minigame before, and they agreed to wait behind a defensive barrier.

Xu Huo explored a resource-rich mutant forest, gathering food and water while trading candy with a troop of monkeys. He spent the night with them, but the black vortex still had not appeared by morning.

• Xu Huo avoided deadly mutant animals and insects, then caught small creatures to take with him.
• Xu Huo collected water from flowers and traded candy with the monkeys for a large gourd of water.
• The monkeys led Xu Huo to a waterfall, where he filled several gourds and gathered herbs and fruit.
• Xu Huo packed his supplies and stayed at the monkeys’ home when the black vortex failed to appear by nightfall.
• The night passed without Xu Huo emerging, and the people waiting outside felt a shadow hang over them at dawn.

Xu Huo escaped a volcanic eruption by taking a portal back to the city, where he found two starving players who had survived alone for over a month. Meanwhile, the older woman and the others agreed to use people as substitutes in the survival minigames, believing Xu Huo would not return.

• The middle-aged glasses man persuaded Tong Chuan, Brother Ya, the older woman, and the others to send other people into the survival minigames, and the group agreed despite the older woman's concern about Xu Huo returning.
• Xu Huo spent the night near the monkeys' nest, traded with the monkeys for strange mushrooms, and collected fertile soil to bring back for Dr. Deng to examine.
• A distant volcano erupted, sending animals fleeing and threatening the area around Xu Huo.
• A black vortex opened two thousand meters above the ground, and Xu Huo leaped through it to return to the rooftop in the city.
• Xu Huo followed the banners left by the group and found two emaciated sisters, who told him they had been in the instance for over a month and that everyone else had died soon after arriving.

Xu Huo returned to the group with two new players and a large supply of food, then took charge of the survivors at the mall. The middle-aged glasses man and his companions followed him inside, while Xu Huo’s return left the group preparing to rest and eat.

• Xu Huo brought two sisters to the vehicles after rescuing them from the dungeon, and they agreed to join his group.
• On the tour bus, a member of the five-person group threatened the ordinary people, but Xu Huo appeared and killed him.
• Xu Huo ordered Tong Chuan to drive the lead vehicle and directed the group to rest at a mall ahead.
• Xu Huo brought baskets of food, live animals, and other supplies into the mall, introducing the sisters as new players.
• Big Sis let the middle-aged glasses man and his companions enter, and Xu Huo had the driver collect flower dew for everyone to drink.

Xu Huo moved his group away from a massive rat swarm and learned that mutant vines were carrying the rats underground. Tong Chuan recovered a red sub-class stone, which the middle-aged glasses man identified as one produced by a Creation Origin Stone, prompting Xu Huo to question its ranking against mother stones.

• Xu Huo and the others survived another night of alien attacks, but a huge swarm of mutant rats forced them to flee through his mental portal.
• Tong Chuan investigated the rats and discovered mutant vines swallowing them into hollow stems and carrying them underground.
• Tong Chuan brought back a red fragment from one of the vines, and the middle-aged glasses man confirmed it was a sub-class stone.
• The middle-aged glasses man said the stone came from a Creation Origin Stone, and Xu Huo asked whether mother stones ranked just below time-type stones.

The middle-aged glasses man proposed that Xu Huo’s group search underground for a Genesis Origin Stone, and Xu agreed to proceed after the group built instruments. Big Sister revealed that the stone could cause hallucinations and brain lesions, while the group remained wary of the dangers ahead.

• The middle-aged glasses man explained that Genesis Origin Stones could accelerate the growth of Mutant Flora and Fauna and offered to help Xu Huo search for one in exchange for Sub-class Stones.
• Xu Huo agreed to let the glasses man and his companions build instruments, warning that they would receive no Sub-class Stones if the equipment proved useless.
• Xu Huo sent Da'an and Old Yuan to watch the three scavengers for trouble while they searched for materials.
• Big Sister told Xu Huo’s group that Genesis Origin Stones could cause hallucinations and brain lesions after prolonged contact, and she suspected the Game Government valued them for medical experiments.
• Brother Ya and Bingmei argued about whether Bingmei’s remarks seemed to predict misfortune.

Xu Huo considered how temporal and spatial powers interacted and decided to approach the origin stone cautiously, weighing the danger of disturbing it. After the group traveled toward the city’s edge, Brother Ya was selected for the survival minigame and entered its black vortex.

• Xu Huo reflected on the Snowflake Spatial Entities, the water Rubik's Cube, and his limited control over transdimensional space power.
• Old Yuan and the others returned with components and built drilling machines while Xu Huo left them to work.
• After learning the origin stone could affect brains, Xu Huo worried that taking it might trigger changes and destroy the city or dungeon.
• The group drove for half a day, then Brother Ya and a tourist were selected for the survival minigame.
• Brother Ya entered the black vortex, and Tong Chuan offered to take the older woman's place if she was selected next.