Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo explained that the hospital was a mental-type Random Instance where Players’ beliefs could make imagined threats real, then left Gu Yu and the others to wait for morning. When they woke, the terrifying night seemed to have vanished, and a nurse arrived to give the patients their medicine.

• Gu Yu and the others repeatedly fell asleep despite trying to stay awake, while a Monster broke into a room of Cannibal Players and was killed.
• Monsters and other imagined creatures appeared throughout the hospital as Players stayed behind locked doors.
• Xu Huo sent a female ghost into a room and then entered Gu Yu’s room, explaining how the instance worked and advising them to stay inside until daybreak.
• Xu Huo left, and Gu Yu and the others wondered whether he and the hospital staff they had seen were real.
• Gu Yu and the others woke in hospital gowns to a seemingly ordinary morning, and a nurse called out that it was time for Room 407 to take its medicine.

Gu Yu and the other Players discovered that they could no longer access their Personal Panels and had been reduced to ordinary people inside the hospital. When Players who had escaped returned bound and injured, Team Leader Wu killed attackers with his gun, leaving the remaining Players to face their helplessness.

• Gu Yu and the others hid the nurse’s red pills and found that their Personal Panels and equipment no longer worked.
• The Players saw that the hospital had returned to normal, while security guards stopped Cannibal Players from harassing other patients.
• The head nurse took a patient to the guarded seventh floor for psychological treatment, prompting the Players to speculate about the hospital’s upper floors.
• Two ambulances brought back Players who had escaped the hospital, and a doctor described them as delusional patients who had attacked a police station.
• Wen Xue Lin and Zheng Liang recognized Dai Wenqian and Team Leader Wu, and a Player attacked the group.
• Team Leader Wu shot the attacker and two Cannibal Players; other Cannibal Players rushed him but proved as weak as ordinary people.

Players discovered that the hospital Dungeon had been subtly distorting their perceptions and disabling their abilities, so Gu Yu and the others went to seek the Doctor. Xu Huo trapped the scarred Player in a chair, and the Player's attempt to escape through self-harm left him bleeding uncontrollably.

• Security guards carried the players who had gone outside back to the seventh floor, while some players tried and failed to use their items and abilities.
• Wen Xue Lin and the others realized the Dungeon had been affecting their perceptions, and they noticed their hearing seemed to have worsened.
• Gu Yu and the others decided to find the Doctor and went upstairs with other players heading for the Third Floor.
• The scarred Player asked Xu Huo how he could be discharged, then attacked him after Xu Huo said he needed treatment.
• Xu Huo restrained the scarred Player in a chair, and the Player's attempt to wake himself by cutting his hand led to wounds appearing across his body and bleeding heavily.

Xu Huo used a staged blood-loss illusion to torment the scarred player while Zheng Liang and Wen Xue Lin fought off Cannibal Players in the hallway. After Zheng Liang failed Xu Huo’s discharge test, Xu Huo revealed that his parents and Xu Zhi were coming to visit him.

• Xu Huo blindfolded the scarred player after cutting his wrist and left him to panic over the sound of dripping water.
• Wen Xue Lin and Zheng Liang stopped two Cannibal Players from entering the room, and a Doctor ended the hallway fight by threatening to send them to the seventh floor.
• Zheng Liang entered Xu Huo’s office and answered a discharge test, hoping to leave the hospital that day.
• Xu Huo showed Zheng Liang photos of Xu Zhi visiting him at the hospital, contradicting Zheng Liang’s claim that Xu Zhi had died ten years earlier.
• Zheng Liang refused to leave, and Xu Huo told him that his parents and Xu Zhi were coming to visit that afternoon.

Xu Huo encountered siblings A Yi and A Ying searching a mental Dungeon’s sample storage room and shared his method for resisting the Dungeon’s influence. The cabinets were empty, so the three prepared to search the floor below, while A Yi asked whether Xu Huo was using an item to stay lucid.

• Xu Huo noticed two Players had entered Building Two and created rooms with imagined Aliens behind them.
• A Yi and A Ying discussed how Players could use the rules of a mental Dungeon to their advantage as they searched for samples.
• Xu Huo met the siblings and joined them in trying to open the sealed sample storage room.
• Xu Huo cut through the reinforced door with the Bright Red Sword, and the three found the cabinets empty.
• A Yi introduced himself and A Ying, explained that they ran Divine Wind Express, and offered Xu Huo payment for advice.
• Xu Huo explained that blocking the Dungeon’s medium could reduce its influence, and A Yi asked whether he was using an item to resist it.

A Yi explained how Players could use the hospital’s initial layout as a reference to resist the mental Dungeon’s illusions, and Xu Huo considered how its basic infrastructure might be exploited. After A Ying and A Yi found the sample and cleared the Dungeon, Xu Huo returned to his role as hospital director and learned the infection had spread.

• A Yi told Xu Huo that Players could compare the hospital’s changing interior with its initial layout to identify false details and find task locations.
• Xu Huo discussed using known reference points to resist mental interference and suggested that destroying the Dungeon’s basic infrastructure might disrupt it, though doing so could provoke the Dungeon Boss.
• Xu Huo, A Yi, and A Ying encountered medical staff upstairs and triggered an alarm that sent them rushing to the sample room.
• Xu Huo held off the approaching security guards while A Ying found the sample, and A Yi handed Xu Huo the wrapped Glass Bottle before vanishing.
• Xu Huo handed the bottle to the medical staff and ordered them to check for missing samples and increase patrols.
• The Doctor told Xu Huo that an infected patient had been moved from the seventh floor to isolation after a patient entered the laboratory in Building Two, and Xu Huo ordered a thorough inspection and treatment of anyone infected.

Xu Huo’s actions remained a mystery as players in the mental instance grew anxious about a supposed contagious disease, while Nie Xuan learned that Lichun was resting at a hotel instead of helping Xu Huo. The chapter left Nie Xuan wondering how Xu Huo planned to deal with the many players inside the instance without her.

• The players in the first building feared they might be infected after guards took two spotted patients to the isolation ward, while nurses’ conversation made them doubt whether the hospital was real.
• Zheng Liang and the others questioned a patient making a scene over canceled visits, but Brother Liang decided they might have to take a risk that night.
• The Special Defense Department tracked the Fog Zone and reported that at least seventy or eighty people, including Cannibal Players, had entered it.
• Nie Xuan reviewed footage of several people who looked like Xu Huo and concluded that the first one was probably the real Xu Huo and the others were disguises.
• The Secretary told Nie Xuan that Lichun had refused the department’s job offer, taken a hotel job, and gone to sleep, leaving Nie Xuan to wonder what Xu Huo was planning.

As the hospital grew more dangerous, Gu Yu and the other players tried to use Cleaning Agent on the main gate, believing the infection might let them clear the Third Task. Gu Yu reached the gate and threw the Glass Bottle, but vanished after a Cannibal Player bit her shoulder.

• Gu Yu, Zheng Liang, Wen Xue Lin, and the other players learned that patients were disappearing and that the hospital might be experimenting on them.
• The players drew lots, assigning one group to lure monsters away while Gu Yu and five others went to the main gate with stolen Cleaning Agent.
• Brother Liang and the others found the corridor covered in writhing flesh and faced a patient who had turned into a powerful monster.
• Gu Yu climbed down from the Third Floor and cut the bedsheet rope when monsters grabbed it from below.
• Several monsters attacked Gu Yu near the gate, and a Cannibal Player bit her shoulder before she threw the Glass Bottle and vanished.

Zheng Liang, Gu Yu, and the others escaped the instance and spoke with Nie Xuan, while concealing what they knew about Xu Huo. Meanwhile, Xu Huo detained ten foreign Players in an isolation ward and began interrogating one by making him doubt his identity.

• Zheng Liang, Wen Xue Lin, and Guan Zu Hong escaped the instance after scrubbing the entrance, and Gu Yu joined them outside.
• Nie Xuan questioned the group about the instance and Xu Huo, and Gu Yu told the others to conceal how they had entered.
• Gu Yu set out to find Lichun while Zheng Liang and the others stayed near the instance to wait for Xu Huo.
• Xu Huo restrained ten foreign Players in Building Three's isolation ward and questioned a brown-haired Player named David Pierce.
• Xu Huo showed David Pierce a mirror, and David screamed when he saw a black-haired, black-eyed reflection.

Xu Huo extracted information about a foreign spy network and Country Y’s item trading and newly discovered ore from David Pierce and Bentley Abe. After obtaining coordinates for the ore, Xu Huo killed Bentley and prepared to investigate the site himself.

• Xu Huo invented a past for David Pierce, who began recalling the spy network’s failed attempts to seize the antidote fungus and assassinate officials.
• David Pierce told Xu Huo that other countries had item-trading shops and that Country Y had traded for items using ore from a new resource zone.
• Xu Huo questioned Bentley Abe, who recognized him as the Dungeon Boss and offered rewards in exchange for his freedom.
• Bentley offered to trade ore for his release, then gave Xu Huo the site’s coordinates when Xu Huo pressed him.
• Xu Huo praised Bentley’s loyalty and killed him with a sword stroke.

Xu Huo cleared the Dungeon of Cannibal Players, escaped the Special Defense Department’s encirclement, and learned that foreign Players were also attacking across Capital City. The chapter ended as strange, foul-smelling black rain began falling and Xu Huo tested a raindrop with King Fungus filaments.

• Xu Huo killed the Players in isolation wards who might have known the mineral deposits’ location, then discharged David Pierce, sending him out of the Dungeon.
• Xu Huo manipulated the hospital’s entrances and unleashed ghosts, viruses, and escaped Experiment Samples, causing most Players inside to die or go mad.
• Xu Huo collected items left by ship Players, ended the Dungeon, and fled the Special Defense Department’s encirclement using Straight Line Distance.
• Xu Huo learned that the Special Defense Department had targeted Cannibal Players, controlled ordinary Players, and fought foreign Players around the city.
• Black, foul-smelling rain began falling, and Xu Huo released King Fungus filaments to test a drop on the windowsill.

Xu Huo and his companions discovered that the spreading black rain poisoned water and transformed exposed people into violent Aliens. As Aliens broke into their shelter, the group fought back while Xu Huo blocked the windows, but more attackers poured into the room.

• Xu Huo tested the rain and warned Zheng Liang and the others that it was poisonous, then Guan Zu Hong found that their water was poisoned too.
• Xu Huo pulled a transformed Special Defense Department Player into the room, and the group killed him after he attacked Brother Liang.
• More Aliens broke through the windows, and Zheng Liang and Guan Zu Hong killed one that attacked them in the hallway.
• Brother Liang emerged from the bedroom with several Aliens behind him as Xu Huo finished barricading a window with Harm Not Self.
• Xu Huo sliced apart Aliens trying to enter through the window and shot several others in the head.

Xu Huo and Zheng Liang's group escaped an Alien attack and hid while black rain and mass mutations plunged the city into chaos. The Special Defense Department struggled to contain its mutated Players, but an Antidote showed promise and Nie Xuan reported that Country Y's rain-related high-level Artifact might be in the city.

• Aliens overwhelmed Zheng Liang's group, so Xu Huo weakened the floor and collapsed the room behind them as they escaped downstairs.
• Xu Huo and the others sheltered in an apartment building's security office, where they saw mutated Special Defense Department Players and decided to stay put because the Aliens had keen hearing.
• Emergency broadcasts warned residents to avoid tap water and stay indoors as panic, traffic jams, and fights over supplies spread across the city.
• Minister Fan and other leaders were trapped in the temporary command center while the department struggled with mutations and collapsing trust among its members.
• Jiang Qiao reported that an Antidote fungus had restored a mutated Player, and Nie Xuan told Minister Fan that Country Y's rain-related high-level Artifact might be in the city.

As the rain-driven Alien tide overwhelmed the command center and destroyed Special Defense Department headquarters, Xu Huo left his group to search for survivors. He found an injured Special Defense Department Player trying to rescue two children and intervened just as Aliens cornered them.

• Minister Fan ordered a search for the hidden Player while his command center came under attack from Aliens.
• Minister Fan ordered troops to prepare to drive the frenzied people toward headquarters, but the Special Defense Department building collapsed before they could proceed.
• After seeing the collapse on the remaining surveillance screens, Xu Huo told his companions to relocate and left the security room alone.
• Xu Huo found an injured Special Defense Department Player trying to lift two children to safety as three fast Aliens attacked her.
• The Player threw the second child toward a balcony and reached for a grenade, but Xu Huo stopped her and shot all three Aliens with his Water Knife Gun.

Xu Huo saved a Special Defense Department Player from Alien poison with his Antidote, but she died after rushing to answer a distress call. After killing two Players who attacked him and looted her belongings, he delivered the children to Zheng Liang and called Nie Xuan to ask about a nearby reservoir.

• Xu Huo lifted the female Player and two children to safety, then killed the Aliens approaching through the rain.
• He treated the female Player with an Antidote Syringe, discovered it could cure Alien poison, and warned that the rain would eventually contaminate the city's water supply.
• The female Player went to answer a distress signal, but Xu Huo found her dead and placed the children inside Shelter 101.
• Xu Huo killed two Players who had attacked him and tried to steal from the female Player.
• He took the children to Zheng Liang and called Nie Xuan to ask whether a reservoir was near the Special Defense Department headquarters.

Xu Huo planned to test whether diluted Antidote could purify a reservoir while asking Zheng Liang to obtain identity documents. Meanwhile, Nie Xuan’s forces surrounded a hideout linked to the Y Country players, trapping Mr. Lin and his allies as they tried to escape.

• Xu Huo learned the locations of two reservoirs from Nie Xuan and decided to use the larger one to test the Antidote.
• Xu Huo gave Zheng Liang a list of requirements for obtaining identity documents, then left through the rain.
• Nie Xuan sent the Special Defense Department to surround a Y Country players’ hideout, where several players escaped using disguises and unusual abilities.
• Mr. Lin ordered his allies to break out without entering a dungeon, but the Special Defense Department captured the square-faced man after he triggered an item.
• Mr. Lin escaped through a window using an air cushion after his glass-shattering ability erupted, but a Special Defense Department player attached a rope to his shoe.

The Special Defense Department captured Mr. Lin and questioned him about the high-level item causing the black rain, but he refused to reveal where it was hidden. Xu Huo reported finding twelve Players near Wenshan Mountain and agreed to help investigate.

• Special Defense Department Players subdued Mr. Lin with a coordinated attack and remotely controlled capture clamps.
• Nie Xuan interrogated Mr. Lin, who claimed the black rain item could affect an enormous area and that someone else would take over if he died.
• Nie Xuan ordered Players to search the area around the Sub-district for the item, while Lichun refused to help.
• An elderly man called Xu Huo for assistance, and Xu Huo told him he had encountered twelve Players in a lowland beneath Wenshan Mountain.
• The old man promised to send Players to meet Xu Huo and place Wenshan Mountain and the Special Defense Department headquarters under Lichun's name.

Xu Huo fought three raincoat-wearing Players in the woods near the source of the black rain, using his artifacts to resist their attacks. The depression’s hallucinations and black rain trapped the attackers, and C discovered the rain had poisoned him as he tried to escape.

• Xu Huo spotted the black-rain source at the depression and fled into the woods as three Players approached.
• The raincoat-wearing Players used restraints, weapons, and coordinated attacks, but Xu Huo countered with his artifacts and dissolved several of their items.
• The depression appeared behind the attackers, and black hands dragged one Player into the water while another became trapped in a hallucination.
• C fired at the surroundings, saw a woman's face, and retreated after abandoning his companions.
• C noticed his raincoat was torn and black poison was spreading across his hand, then stabbed his arm to test whether he was hallucinating.

Xu Huo survived C's explosion by sheltering in an intact metal house, while the Special Defense Department searched for him and pursued the hidden players toward Wenshan Mountain. The chapter ended with Xu Huo answering their call as he stepped into the burning forest.

• Poisoned C tried to detonate a bomb, but Xu Huo's attack prompted him to throw an explosive barrel that killed the three raincoat-wearing men and ignited the forest.
• Codename A ordered B to retrieve the high-level item while the others led the Special Defense Department toward Wenshan Mountain.
• Special Defense Department players argued about Xu Huo's fate as Wang Chaoqing sent eight shadows into the mountain to search.
• The Special Defense Department team entered the woods under a strict time limit while helicopters searched from above.
• Xu Huo emerged unharmed from a metal house that had survived the fire and answered the incoming phone call.

Xu Huo investigated the unseen player near the depression and drew Code Name B into a trap. B’s attempts to hunt Xu Huo ended with his feet pinned and a blade narrowly missing his head.

• Xu Huo offered the painted woman a part-time job in exchange for a Medal of the Gentleman of Light, and she eagerly accepted.
• Team Leader Wu told Xu Huo that eight players had entered Wenshan Mountain and the Special Defense Department was preparing to bombard the area.
• Xu Huo returned to the depression and discovered that a hidden player was concealed near an ordinary tree stump.
• After the hidden player fired at Xu Huo, the helicopter attacked the area, forcing the player to move into the woods.
• Code Name B approached Xu Huo and shot at him, but Xu Huo retreated while drawing B toward the burning belt.
• Xu Huo’s trap pinned B’s feet to the ground, and a streak of cold light nearly struck B’s head.