Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo learned that Random Instances were making people disappear across the country, then went to meet the Special Affairs Personnel and Yu Qingqing’s company managers. As officials tried to arrest him, a Random Instance swallowed people throughout the 28th Floor, including Xu Huo’s pursuers.

• Xu Huo heard that several families in Guang Cheng had been killed and learned that similar incidents were occurring elsewhere.
• Xu Huo read that the authorities had classified the unexplained disappearances as Random Instances and were asking Players to help find those taken.
• Xu Huo arrived at Yu Qingqing’s company, where Special Affairs Personnel prepared to arrest him for disrupting public order.
• The arrest team rushed into the Reception Room, but people vanished as they confronted Xu Huo, who then leaped through a window and disappeared.
• A Random Instance began taking people across the 28th Floor, and the red-haired Special Affairs Personnel member ordered everyone to evacuate.
• The staff, police, and Special Affairs Personnel vanished one after another, including the red-haired man as he tried to call the research institute.

Nie Xuan learned that Xu Huo had helped expose a Cannibal Player, while Xu Huo was trapped in a Dungeon where people were turned into pigs for slaughter. The chapter left Xu Huo among the captives as the Red-Nosed Foreign Man dragged three apparently sick pigs away to kill them first.

• Team Leader Wu told Nie Xuan that forty-six people had disappeared from Golden Light Building and that Sima Xiao Er was the only Player inside the Dungeon.
• Nie Xuan learned that Xu Huo had helped catch Liu Mei, earned a B-level rating, and found stranded Players at Hot Spring Villa.
• Xu Huo was wrapped in pigskin and dropped into a cramped space with dozens of other captives.
• The Red-Nosed Foreign Man cut open the captives' eyes and mouths, revealing that they could only squeal and crawl like pigs.
• Two captives tried to escape, but the Red-Nosed Foreign Man killed them and hung them on meat hooks.
• General Manager Zhu and two others pretended to be sick, but the Red-Nosed Foreign Man dragged them away to slaughter them first.

Xu Huo escaped the pigsty after removing his pigskin and learned the factory’s tasks, including stealing a treasure, saving children, or completing a job for Karl. He investigated the factory and opened a blood-soaked room, seeking a way to fulfill a task and rescue the others.

• Red Nose Karl herded Xu Huo and the other transformed people into a pigsty after killing General Manager Zhu and two men.
• Xu Huo used a fragment of the Head Chopper Demon’s axe to remove his pigskin and received the instance tasks and factory background.
• Xu Huo promised the trapped people he would find a way to return, while pigs covered the discarded pigskin to hide his escape.
• Xu Huo questioned a pregnant pig and learned that pigskin fused with flesh after five hours, but the pig did not know how to escape.
• Xu Huo crossed the filthy slaughterhouse, noted a welded pipe opening, and entered a blood-reeking room.

Xu Huo investigated the Factory and learned that the other Players were searching for the skin stripper’s collection while two of them explored the Pigsty. After finding Sima Xiao Er trapped in pig form, Xu Huo cut his stitches and asked whether the game had notified him.

• Xu Huo found a numbered piece of meat in the Workshop and overheard the Players divide up to search the Factory while Karl was away.
• Qin An and a female Player left to search for the Collection Room, while Zou Weichang and Xian Dazhi went to the Pigsty.
• Zou Weichang dismissed Xian Dazhi’s concern for the pig-children and kicked Sima Xiao Er away when he tried to get their attention.
• Xu Huo returned to the Pigsty, recognized Sima Xiao Er as Red Hair, cut the stitches beneath his belly, and asked if the game had sent him a notification.

Xu Huo investigated the Factory while hiding his presence from the skin stripper, then returned to the orchard to lie low. Meanwhile, the other players discussed the sealed Secret Room and learned from Peng Fengnian that another player was there.

• Xu Huo warned Sima Xiao Er and the pigs to stay quiet and cooperate, then left the Pigsty to explore the Factory.
• Xu Huo searched the office, read the account books, and heard news about Carroll Field's arrival and the district's leadership changes on the Radio.
• Xu Huo saw the skin stripper return with Yang Can badly beaten, then hid in the orchard.
• Tang Pei told the players that the Secret Room behind the bedroom was sealed by a vault-like door they could not open.
• Tang Pei contacted Peng Fengnian and told the others that he had reported another player at the Factory.

Xu Huo subdued Peng Fengnian and persuaded him to cooperate, revealing they shared the Dungeon task and discussing the skin stripper’s weakness. He borrowed Peng Fengnian’s Paper Phone and called one of his companions, leaving his identity unclear to her.

• Xu Huo ambushed Peng Fengnian, dodged his attacks, and pinned him down with the slippery Potion.
• Xu Huo claimed he was a Random Player and proposed working together; Peng Fengnian confirmed they shared the task and were both D-class players.
• Peng Fengnian explained that the skin stripper could not use his Skinning Knife during the day, a weakness the other players also knew.
• Xu Huo returned Peng Fengnian’s black Stone and borrowed his Paper Phone after learning it could call its paired phone from anywhere.
• Xu Huo called the paired Paper Phone, and a female Player answered by asking whether he was Peng Fengnian; Xu Huo replied that she had the wrong number.

Xu Huo enlisted Peng Fengnian and Tang Pei’s group to cooperate in clearing the Skin Stripper Dungeon, then disguised himself in Peng Fengnian’s suit and entered the factory. He confronted the Skin Stripper by claiming the Tax Bureau had come to audit the place.

• Xu Huo persuaded Peng Fengnian to lend him a Paper Phone and suit in exchange for a chance to clear the Dungeon that night.
• Tang Pei brought Peng Fengnian the other Paper Phone, and he explained Xu Huo’s proposal and their agreement to work together.
• Tang Pei returned to the factory and told the others about the plan, but Zou Weichang refused to risk helping Xu Huo.
• Xian Dazhi spotted someone entering through the front, and Xu Huo, dressed in Peng Fengnian’s suit, told the Skin Stripper that the Tax Bureau was there to audit the factory.

Xu Huo disguised himself as a powerful official to intimidate the skin stripper and gain leverage at the factory. He learned that the E27 wormhole point had recently changed officials, but his cover remained under scrutiny.

• Xu Huo demanded the factory’s books and ridiculed its filthy workshop, forcing the skin stripper to invite him back to the office.
• Xu Huo rejected the skin stripper’s cash and used talk of powerful connections and valuable gifts to keep him uncertain.
• Xu Huo used a coded call from Peng Fengnian to stage an angry complaint about his sister’s partner and his low-ranking position.
• The skin stripper asked whether Xu Huo had been transferred after the chief official at the E27 wormhole point was replaced.
• Xu Huo recognized E27 from his Return Ticket and rebuked the skin stripper for asking questions.

Xu Huo posed as Wang and befriended the Skin Stripper to get access to his Secret Room while the other players searched for a way to open it. Inside, he discovered human skins, strange collectibles, and a lifelike woman summoned from a portrait, leaving him to assess the Skin Stripper’s disturbing collection.

• Xu Huo changed the subject from questions about his identity and persuaded the Skin Stripper to serve fresh fish while Tang Pei prepared it.
• Xu Huo drank with the Skin Stripper and claimed that women could be raised and shaped from childhood, winning his confidence.
• Qin An, Tang Pei, Xian Dazhi, and Zou Weichang failed to find the Secret Room and discussed waiting out the fifteen-day game, while Tang Pei revealed she had no Ticket.
• Xu Huo accompanied the Skin Stripper into the Fur Room, where he saw pelts that the Skin Stripper identified as animal fur and human skin.
• The Skin Stripper shoved aside a wall to reveal his Secret Room and showed Xu Huo his collectibles, including a woman who emerged from a portrait when summoned.

Xu Huo investigated the skin stripper’s pelts and planned with the other players to use them to clear the First Task and try to save the children in the Pigsty. The Factory suddenly drew closer as darkness closed in around it, cutting off Peng Fengnian’s warning.

• Xu Huo found several pelts that might hide human skins, memorized their locations, and told the players that pushing a wall backward opened the Secret Room.
• Xu Huo reasoned that the prized possessions for the First Task were likely pelts tied to Skin Stripper Karl, not items in the Secret Room, and planned for the players to take them the next day.
• Xu Huo asked the players to help save the six children in the Pigsty, and Tang Pei, Yang Can, Qin An, and Xian Dazhi agreed to act.
• Peng Fengnian warned Xu Huo that the Factory had suddenly gotten closer before their connection cut off.
• Xu Huo left the room and saw that darkness had swallowed the surrounding tree silhouettes and was closing in on the Factory.

Xu Huo hid in the Pigsty as the Skin Stripper entered the Factory at night, but the killer’s oppressive presence left him unable to move until a piglet drew the Skin Stripper away. Meanwhile, Peng Fengnian hid above the Workshop and hoped Xu Huo would distract the killer, while Zou Weichang slipped out of the Players’ room and entered the Fur Room.

• Xu Huo chose the Pigsty, hid beneath pigskin, and used meat-wrapped rats to prepare a distraction as night fell.
• The Skin Stripper entered the Pigsty in a clean lab coat, and his gaze overwhelmed Xu Huo with fear until a piglet squealed and drew him away.
• The Skin Stripper sensed a new smell, left the Pigsty to hunt it, and Xu Huo found he could not escape the Factory through the surrounding darkness.
• Peng Fengnian hid atop the Gate Wall, hoping Xu Huo would attract the Skin Stripper’s attention while he waited for a chance to reach the Players’ rest room.
• Zou Weichang used his Darkness Under the Lamp Ability to leave the Players’ room unnoticed, cross the Workshop, and enter the Fur Room.

Zou Weichang discovered that Xu Huo had misled him and became trapped in the changed Dungeon, while Peng Fengnian was discovered by the skin stripper. The skin stripper captured Zou Weichang and prepared to skin him using the Nape of Destiny.

• Peng Fengnian hid from the skin stripper, injected himself with Black Potion, and collapsed as the skin stripper found him and left for the Fur Room.
• Zou Weichang realized Xu Huo had tricked him and that the Dungeon had changed, trapping him inside the skin stripper's bedroom.
• The skin stripper approached the bedroom, and Zou Weichang escaped on his Skateboard before crashing into a hide that transformed him into a tiger.
• The skin stripper dragged Zou Weichang to the Workshop, stomped his hands, and hung him from a heated hook piercing the back of his neck.
• The skin stripper explained how the Nape of Destiny and Sober Iron Hook immobilized Zou Weichang, then prepared to skin him within two hours.

Xu Huo returned to the players’ room after the night’s violence and found Zou Weichang skinned alive and Peng Fengnian traumatized. The players accused Xu Huo of misleading them, but he defended his advice and left the group, while they planned to search the Secret Room at daybreak.

• Xu Huo found Peng Fengnian hanging on the wall and Zou Weichang skinned alive in the Workshop.
• Peng Fengnian attacked Xu Huo, and Yang Can and Xian Dazhi helped restrain him as he described watching Zou Weichang being skinned alive.
• Peng Fengnian accused Xu Huo of giving false information, but Xu Huo argued that Zou Weichang had ignored the warning to wait until daytime.
• Xu Huo explained the difference between Red Nose Karl and the nighttime skin stripper, then ended his cooperation with the group and left.
• Peng Fengnian told the others to rest and search the Secret Room after daylight, while Xu Huo returned to the Pigsty and told Red Hair to promise good behavior.

Xu Huo arranged a plan with Sima Xiao Er while testing whether human skin could clear the dungeon, then left the factory as the other players searched for the hidden layer. Qin An found human skin inside a pelt and cleared the dungeon, but the skin stripper recognized Xu Huo’s scent as belonging to the escaped Little Piglet.

• Xu Huo helped Sima Xiao Er remove the pigskin fused to his body and explained a plan to lure out the skin stripper.
• The skin stripper ordered Tang Pei and the others to process Zou Weichang’s body while Xu Huo left the factory with Yang Can.
• Sima Xiao Er retrieved a picture from the hidden room, while Qin An searched the pelts and found a hidden layer of human skin.
• Qin An and the ticket-holding players received notice that they had cleared the dungeon with a shared D rating.
• The skin stripper recognized Xu Huo’s scent as that of the escaped Little Piglet, and Xu Huo hooked a large fish.

Xu Huo and the players ambushed the skin stripper in the Workshop, breaking his left leg with Tang Pei’s Ability. Xu Huo then used the Woman Painting to pressure him into agreeing to attack the players, leaving the confrontation poised to continue.

• Xu Huo spotted a fire at the Factory, and the skin stripper dragged Yang Can back to investigate.
• The players sprang their trap in the Workshop, but the skin stripper broke free and destroyed Qin An’s whip and part of the beam.
• Tang Pei used her Ability to mirror the skin stripper’s injury and break her own left leg, leaving his leg broken as well.
• Sima Xiao Er told Xu Huo that the human skin that cleared the Dungeon had been hidden among the animal pelts.
• Sima Xiao Er threatened to burn the Woman Painting unless the skin stripper freed the people in the Pigsty, but the skin stripper lunged at him and the players restrained him.
• Xu Huo persuaded the skin stripper that the woman in the painting was only an item, and the skin stripper agreed to attack the players.

The skin stripper appeared in the Workshop and slaughtered or wounded the Players and captives, turning their rescue attempt into a desperate escape. As the survivors fled toward the Warehouse, Xu Huo confronted the skin stripper with burning firewood.

• Yang Can led the captives from the Pigsty into the Workshop, where the skin stripper removed their hides and freed them.
• Sima Xiao Er threatened to burn the painting unless the skin stripper released the six children, but another skin stripper appeared and attacked the group.
• The skin stripper badly wounded the Players, killed several captives, and sent Xu Huo crashing through the Fur Room and into the bedroom.
• Sima Xiao Er carried two children toward the Warehouse, while Tang Pei was killed trying to follow with children in her arms.
• Peng Fengnian used the Eye of the Strong to protect himself and Qin An, but a pelt turned Qin An into a Shar-Pei and dragged him out of the safe zone.
• Xu Huo aimed burning firewood at a suspended wolf pelt as the skin stripper prepared to kill Qin An.

Xu Huo destroyed the wolf hide that served as the core of the D-class instance, causing the Factory to collapse and eject everyone inside. Back in Ting City, he collected his rewards and began investigating the hide's significance by calling Peng Fengnian.

• Yang Can used Fair Trade to free Qin An from the skin stripper's dog hide, and Qin An warned everyone that wearing a hide suppressed Abilities and items.
• Xu Huo burned the wolf hide and taunted the skin stripper, whose attack shredded the hide and triggered the instance's collapse.
• Peng Fengnian sent Sima Xiao Er to deliver a box to Xu Huo, then vanished as the Warehouse was swept into darkness.
• The instance forcibly removed everyone to the Golden Light Building, where Xu Huo took the box from Sima Xiao Er and left.
• Xu Huo returned to his rental apartment, treated his injuries, and received credit for completing all three tasks plus the Gentleman of Light Medal and a special item.
• Xu Huo concluded that the wolf hide contained the instance's core and used the Paper Phone to contact Peng Fengnian.

Xu Huo questioned Peng Fengnian about the game’s districts, passes, Dungeons, and Evolution Potions, learning more about the world beyond his newly opened game site. He explained that his claim of being connected to the Field family had been a bluff, and the call ended with Peng Fengnian impressed by how Xu Huo had deceived the skin stripper.

• Peng Fengnian told Xu Huo that players usually stayed within their own wormhole point and explained how fixed Dungeons, Random Instances, and the Paper Puppeteer worked.
• Xu Huo revealed that he was an E-class player whose world had only recently begun producing Evolvers, and Peng Fengnian reacted with disbelief that he had collapsed a D-class Dungeon.
• Peng Fengnian explained that Evolvers needed Evolution Potions to survive and that higher evolution rates required stronger grades of Potion.
• Xu Huo explained that he had pretended to be related to Carroll Field to frighten the skin stripper into leaving the area and stop the Dungeon from taking people there.
• Peng Fengnian realized that Xu Huo had successfully deceived the skin stripper and praised his ability to exploit the situation.

After returning from the Random Instance, Xu Huo examined his rewards and considered what the E27 wormhole point revealed about the game’s wider multiverse. He tested his new Abilities, confirmed his next instance was 34 days away, and finally inspected the Gentleman of Light Medal and white Mask.

• Peng Fengnian thanked Xu Huo for his help, explained that he had to return to District 009, and Xu Huo stored the fireproof, waterproof box and read the Paper Phone’s information.
• Xu Huo considered how wormhole points might connect different universes and concluded that the game’s vastness left open the possibility of finding a way to address the flaws in Evolution Potions.
• The game awarded Xu Huo the Rampaging Bison Ability, and he tested its strength by cracking the tile and concrete beneath his foot.
• Xu Huo received the Good Friends Score Ability and tested it by calling Yuan Yao, whose score rose from 4 to 5 after he recognized Xu Huo.
• Xu Huo reviewed his cash, Potions, Self-Healing Agents, and 34-day countdown, then took out the Gentleman of Light Medal and white Mask.

Xu Huo discovered that the Painted Woman had escaped from the Dungeon and followed him home, then tested his enhanced stamina. Team Leader Wu visited with research supplies and an apology from Sima Xiao Er, and Xu Huo asked whether their Antidote could counter the toxin carried by the Aliens aboard the Preliminary Train.

• Xu Huo used the Twisted Mask and found the Painted Woman in his rental, where she agreed to help with housework and gave him the Gentleman of Light Medal.
• Xu Huo tested his Tireless Legs by running in the Nature Park and concluded that further physical evolution would help him reach their limits.
• Xu Huo returned home and found Nie Xuan, Special Affairs Personnel, and Team Leader Wu waiting for him.
• Team Leader Wu thanked Xu Huo for rescuing nearly forty people, and Sima Xiao Er apologized for the mistaken arrest.
• Team Leader Wu gave Xu Huo Evolution Potions, muscle enhancers, and an Antidote that could delay the effects of the toxin in Evolvers.
• Xu Huo asked whether the Antidote would work against the toxin carried by the Aliens aboard the Preliminary Train.