Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo entered the sealed Cangxian Lake district and asked the patrol Players to summon Wang Quan. He disappeared into the fog before they could question him, leaving them to wonder whether they had met the real Xu.

• Two ordinary men on a night patrol saw a human-shaped figure in the fog and fled toward their vehicle.
• Players on night patrol spotted the approaching figure and challenged it, suspecting it might be an Outer District Player.
• Xu Huo stopped nearby, asked whether Wang Quan was still in charge of Cangxian Lake Base, and requested that he come to the lake.
• Xu Huo vanished into the fog, and the Players decided to notify Team Leader Wang.

Xu Huo returned to Cangxian Lake and learned that its unstable, expanding spatial anomaly had become more dangerous, though it was not yet close to an A-class Dungeon. He left the lake and returned to the Capital City Safe Zone, where Tongtong and the family welcomed him home.

• Wang Quan gathered the base members and went to the lakeshore after receiving notice that Xu Huo had returned.
• Wang Quan told Xu Huo that players probing beneath Cangxian Lake had vanished and that the unstable anomaly appeared to be spreading through overlapping spaces.
• Xu Huo examined the lake and judged that it was not close to an A-class instance and might never become a Dungeon.
• Xu Huo dismissed Wang Quan and continued along the lakeside before returning to the Capital City Safe Zone.
• Tongtong spotted Xu Huo at the refrigerator, shrieked and threw himself at him, waking Ms. Yu, who called Father Xu downstairs.

Xu Huo returned home and spent time with his family, giving Tongtong a mechanical dog while a Man-Eating Mushroom he brought back multiplied throughout the storage room. The chapter ended with Tongtong bargaining with his friends to borrow Xu Huo for two hours in exchange for their toys.

• Xu Huo showed Tongtong a Man-Eating Mushroom, and Father Xu wrapped it up and threw it in the trash after it bit at them.
• Xu Huo gave Tongtong a mechanical dog, which Tongtong showed off to his classmates.
• Xu Huo found that the painted woman was away with friends and left her alone because she seemed happy and safe.
• Father Xu opened the storage room and was buried in multiplying mushrooms, so he called the Enforcement Department to dispose of them.
• Tongtong brought five friends home, introduced Xu Huo as his brother, and bargained to lend him to them for two hours in exchange for their toys.

Xu Huo reviewed the District Government’s first leadership list after spending time playing football with local children. His influence helped District 014 balance its new Player-centered government against the rights of ordinary people.

• Xu Huo took the children to a park and used spatial barriers to let them play high-altitude football.
• Ji Tong visited Xu Huo and presented the District Government’s proposed leadership list and candidates’ backgrounds.
• Xu Huo reviewed the list, and Ji Tong credited him with helping non-Players retain a voice in the new government.
• Xu Huo’s approval finalized the leadership list, which was set to be announced after official appointments.
• District 014 shifted toward Player-centered management, while Xu Huo’s power helped keep Players and ordinary people in balance.

Xu Huo took his family camping in a government-restricted mountain area, where they enjoyed a meal and a rare outing amid the dangers of District 014. After Father Xu’s fishing attempt revealed the river’s mutated fish, the family abandoned fishing for a safer activity.

• Xu Huo arranged for Players stationed in the mountains to withdraw, then took his family to camp there.
• Xu Huo collected improved food from nearby Players and brought it back, while his family prepared a barbecue.
• Tongtong tried to impress the family with his fruit peeling, then complained that Ms. Yu disliked him.
• Father Xu reflected on Xu Huo’s responsibility for District 014 and urged him not to shoulder everything alone.
• Father Xu tried fishing, but Xu Huo showed the family that the mutated fish had sharp teeth, so Father Xu turned his attention to Tongtong digging for earthworms.

Xu Huo spent a rainy mountain outing with Tongtong and his family, teasing the boy about poisonous mushrooms before Ms. Yu punished him for asking about eating them. Back at the District Government, a Player calling himself the Magician demanded to see Xu Huo and threatened to reveal why Xu Huo was looking for him.

• Xu Huo took Tongtong fishing and mushroom-picking, then playfully suggested that he try a poisonous mushroom.
• Tongtong ran back to camp, and Ms. Yu scolded and spanked him after Xu Huo reported his question about eating poisonous mushrooms.
• Tongtong made peace with Xu Huo while they shelled peanuts, and Ji Tong called to say that the Magician had arrived at the District Government asking for Xu Huo.
• Xu Huo refused to interrupt his vacation, but the Magician told Ji Tong to warn him that he would reveal why Xu Huo was searching for him.

Xu Huo reunited with Moth Art and revealed that he planned to kill a Super Player who threatened District 014. Moth Art balked at the danger, while Xu Huo explained why he hoped to recruit the Magician for the fight.

• Moth Art met Xu Huo on a rooftop and was stunned by how powerful the Temporal Evolver had become.
• Xu Huo confirmed that he had met the Magician before and invited Moth Art to join a mission.
• Xu Huo told Moth Art that he planned to kill a Super Player, shocking him into backing away.
• Xu Huo said the Super Player had become his enemy and could endanger District 014 once he recovered.
• Xu Huo explained that he wanted the Magician's help because of their past connection, while recruiting Hua Han would be difficult and risky.

Xu Huo weighed his options for dealing with a Super Player and decided the Magician was the best candidate, though the Magician had not replied. Moth Art left after meeting Lichun, and Xu Huo discovered she had neglected the Goddess Vine he had asked her to tend.

• Xu Huo considered Shi Shuai and the Paper Puppeteer but judged the Magician the best choice for his plan involving the Super Dungeon.
• Xu Huo and Moth Art discussed how difficult it was to kill Super Players, and Moth Art asked whether the Magician had replied.
• Lichun arrived and teased Moth Art, who decided to wait a few more days for news before leaving.
• Lichun offered Xu Huo half of the gifts she had received, and he asked whether she had cared for the Goddess Vine.
• Lichun admitted she had fed the Goddess Vine meat, and Xu Huo threatened to plant her and the vine in the same flowerpot if she did it again.

Xu Huo transplanted the Goddess Vine and ordered the area around his home cleared and restricted. Team Leader Wu then presented plans to expand Ting City, prompting Xu Huo to question whether concentrating so many people there might trigger a Dungeon.

• Xu Huo returned to Ting City with the painted woman and transplanted the Goddess Vine into his garden with Lichun.
• Xu Huo asked Team Leader Wu to clear residents within ten kilometers of his home and designate the area a Restricted Zone.
• Team Leader Wu cleared the surrounding area and showed Xu Huo a plan to expand Ting City southward while incorporating the northern area into a Restricted Zone.
• Team Leader Wu explained that migration, overcrowding, and Outer District Players settling in District 014 had driven the expansion plan.
• Xu Huo questioned whether the District Government had studied Dungeon formation rules and warned that bringing so many people to Ting City could cause trouble.

Xu Huo allowed Ting City’s potential merger with nearby cities to proceed cautiously and reviewed the District Government’s game-related supplies. He asked Ji Tong to seek unusual props and game items from Enforcement Department Players, while his search for the Magician remained fruitless.

• Team Leader Wu asked whether Xu Huo opposed merging nearby cities with Ting City, and Xu Huo told him to proceed at his own pace while keeping patrols away from the mountains and Safe Zone.
• Team Leader Wu offered gifts from Ting City, which Lichun eagerly unwrapped before he left.
• Ji Tong presented the District Government’s inventory of props, instruments, ores, tickets, and other game-related resources, explaining that supplies were scarce and many props had been lost during district integration.
• Xu Huo asked Ji Tong to have Enforcement Department Players lend him props or game items with unusual effects, promising to return or compensate for them.
• Xu Huo checked the messages responding to his post, found mostly impostors and false offers about the Magician, and wondered whether the Magician had seen his message.

Xu Huo used a public post to draw Magician out, despite Moth Art’s objections and warnings about the risks of challenging a Super Player. Magician appeared in District 014, and Xu Huo revealed that he had the Instance Authorization Letter for Happy Circus City.

• Moth Art confronted Xu Huo, suspecting he was gathering information to target Magician rather than cooperate with him.
• Xu Huo explained that he could not contact Magician and wanted to find him, while Moth Art defended his idol and warned Xu Huo to be careful.
• Moth Art left District 014 after asking Xu Huo to get Magician’s autograph if they met.
• Magician appeared from a mutated cedar in the Safe Zone and joined Xu Huo for tea.
• Magician challenged Xu Huo’s claim that he did not want fame, and Xu Huo disclosed that he had the Instance Authorization Letter for Happy Circus City.

Xu Huo learned that killing Suitcase Man would be difficult because his powers let him escape across Sub-districts, but Magician agreed to consider helping after Xu Huo survives a Dungeon. Xu Huo visited Hua Han, who explained Magician’s connection to He Pu and said Xu Huo was equivalent to a second He Pu to him.

• Magician explained that Suitcase Man had escaped a coordinated hunt through his ability to open passages across Sub-districts, and that Hua Han Werner’s Super Dungeon might seal his escape route.
• Magician gave Xu Huo a Station Ticket and agreed to consider helping him if he survived the Dungeon, while warning him not to contact him through Dimension Below again.
• Xu Huo left for District 011 with Lichun after asking Ji Tong to watch the Safe Zone, then visited Hua Han at the Werner family estate.
• Hua Han told Xu Huo that Magician had known He Pu, whom Magician admired despite his weakness, and said Xu Huo’s existence was equivalent to a second He Pu for Magician.

Hua Han explained how Transdimensional Space Instruments could restrain Xu Huo’s Temporal Evolution and taught him a way to damage them using Time Resonance. He warned that the instruments existed within time themselves, leaving Xu Huo with a possible means of counterattack.

• Xu Huo helped Hua Han tend the garden, then asked him about Suitcase Man’s black vortex and its connection to spacetime.
• Hua Han explained that the game’s powers came from spacetime and that Transdimensional Space Instruments could seal off Temporal Evolution.
• Hua Han described the two types of Transdimensional Space Instruments and warned Xu Huo that Suitcase Man might prepare one.
• Hua Han taught Xu Huo to use Time Resonance to vibrate the Time Rays inside an instrument, giving it a one-in-ten chance of destruction.
• Hua Han warned that Transdimensional Space Instruments could restrain Time Power but still existed within time.

Xu Huo worried that using Time Resonance could disrupt the balance between the forces in his body, and Hua Han taught him how to control its range. Meanwhile, Asis and Dolo Werner discussed Xu Huo’s effect on Hua Han’s inheritance and District 011, while Asis sought instruments and prepared to receive his future third wife.

• Xu Huo worried that Time Resonance might upset the balance between the water Rubik's Cube and Transdimensional Space Power in his body, and Hua Han assured him the Cube was protected by Time Power.
• Hua Han warned Xu Huo that abnormal Evolution could eventually make him lose control of his body, advised him to strike first when using Time Resonance against an instrument, and offered to teach him to control its range.
• Hua Han transformed the room around Xu Huo as he began teaching him, while Asis arranged clothes and combat gear for Xu Huo to be delivered before breakfast.
• Dolo Werner worried that Hua Han might leave his estate to Xu Huo, and Asis acknowledged Xu Huo was not their enemy despite the danger his presence could pose to District 011.
• Dolo told Asis that the Game Government was restricting their access to large Transdimensional Space Instruments, so Asis directed her to seek partially completed instruments from the Platinum Eye.
• Dolo reminded Asis that the Wainwright family's young lady would arrive the next day and was expected to become his third wife.

After two days of practice, Xu Huo emerged from the tower and attended dinner at Werner's estate, where Heather Wainwright openly pursued him while discussing marriage and lovers. Hua Han explained that Wainwright had sent Heather to seek Xu Huo for the sake of producing an exceptional descendant, then sent him off to face the dungeon chosen by the Magician.

• Xu Huo came out of the tower, saw that snow covered the estate, and went to sleep in a guest room.
• Heather Wainwright flirted with Xu Huo and asked whether he would consider marrying into Wainwright or taking a lover, while Asis tried to stop her.
• Xu Huo joined Hua Han and the Werner household for dinner, then told Hua Han he planned to leave afterward.
• Hua Han explained that Wainwright had sent Heather to approach Xu Huo because the family wanted an exceptional descendant.
• Hua Han warned Xu Huo not to follow the example of Carmen or himself, then sent Xu Huo to see what dungeon the Magician had chosen for him.

Xu Huo arrived in District 041’s impoverished Silver District and found that a spatial distortion kept him from reaching the main city. He met Xiduo, who had triggered the Throne Tournament instance but was stranded outside its entrance, while Xu Huo’s own instance had yet to begin.

• Xu Huo crossed the desert-like outskirts of Silver District and realized the distant main city never seemed to get closer.
• Xu Huo met Xiduo, who said he had been stranded for three days by the same spatial problem.
• Xiduo told Xu Huo that outsiders had taken over District 041’s main city and exploited its resources and people.
• Xiduo asked Xu Huo for water and revealed that he had triggered the Throne Tournament instance but could not reach its entrance.
• Xu Huo explained that his own instance had not triggered, so he had not made it through the door either.

Xu Huo and Xiduo reached the Main City after crossing the Silver and Gold districts, but the city’s guards admitted them into a trap. Their game panels were sealed and poisonous gas incapacitated Xiduo.

• Xu Huo agreed to travel with Xiduo, and they drove toward the Main City in Xiduo’s RV.
• Xiduo fired the RV’s cannons, accidentally blasting three players who emerged from distorted space; they refused his offer to team up and continued toward the city.
• Xu Huo and Xiduo used space artifacts to reach the Main City, where they learned that entry required a fee and a waiting period.
• Xiduo offered local specialties to a gate guard, and a guard admitted them sooner than expected.
• After Xu Huo and Xiduo passed through the inner gate, a barrier locked their game panels and poisonous gas poured into the passage, causing Xiduo to collapse.

Xu Huo and the other captured players were forced into an arena where spectators could grant contestants five seconds of prop activation. After a contestant used the brief window to kill his opponent and attack the arena, the organizers punished him by feeding him to beasts, leaving Xu Huo and the others to consider how little chance they had of escaping.

• Xu Huo pretended to pass out, then was fitted with spider locks alongside the other captured players and herded through several gates.
• Xu Huo and the other players discovered cages surrounding an arena where injured contestants fought for the entertainment of a cheering crowd.
• A spectator gave one contestant five seconds of prop activation, allowing the one-eyed player to kill his opponent and unleash lightning across the arena and stands.
• The arena organizers declared the one-eyed player had broken the rules by trying to escape, and released beasts to devour him after his body began to fragment.
• Players near Xu Huo concluded that five seconds was not enough to break the arena's barriers, especially since most of them had already entered dungeons.

Xu Huo and Xiduo were selected to fight in District 041’s arena, but Xiduo’s attempt to break free triggered a crackdown. Xu Huo freed the imprisoned players and destroyed the arena’s restraints, then confronted three men who warned him to leave District 041.

• Spectators voted Xu Huo and Xiduo into the arena, where the host announced that District 041’s governor had arrived and selected them personally.
• Xiduo crushed his Spider Locks and used a blue bead to weaken the arena’s containment barriers, prompting armed aircraft and local players to respond.
• Xu Huo removed the Spider Locks from the imprisoned players, destroyed the containment barriers and simulation devices, and caused the arena to collapse.
• Players from other districts broke free and fighting spread as spectators fled; Xu Huo reached the governor’s viewing platform, but the governor had disappeared and Xiduo was surrounded.
• Three players warned Xu Huo to leave District 041, and he revealed enormous eyes in the sky as a black wave made them recoil.

Xu Huo entered the A-class instance “People in Glass Tubes,” where deadly gravity and poisoned air threatened the players. After learning the clearance objectives and hearing how District 041 had persecuted people, he continued toward the refuge city with Guo Xiaomao and Keke while Xiduo pursued their enemies.

• The District 041 leader activated a ticket instance, and Xu Huo pulled nearby players into it as several escaped using their own tickets.
• Xu Huo endured the instance’s crushing gravity and poisonous air, then killed seven District 041 players who attacked him and demanded information about the instance.
• The instance system identified the location as “People in Glass Tubes” and set clearance objectives of completing thirty exchanges between the inside and outside of the tubes and securing passage of the Glass Exchange Act.
• Xu Huo learned that Guo Xiaomao and Keke had entered randomly and joined them, while Xiduo left to pursue the fleeing District 041 players.
• Guo Xiaomao and Keke described how District 041 abducted ordinary people and persecuted outsiders, and Xu Huo confirmed that Dimension Below was inaccessible.