Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo’s Spiritual World failed to hold B, and the backlash left him with throbbing temples as the Players regrouped for battle. Codename A disappeared after a fight with the tall, thin Player’s group, while the painted woman arrived to assist them and landed behind Xu Huo.

• B escaped Xu Huo’s Spiritual World with a movement item, and Xu Huo felt the backlash of the breach.
• B warned the other Players in Wenshan Mountain about a possible Special Defense Department ambush as the helicopter resumed firing.
• Codename A fought the tall, thin Player and his mechanical puppets, then vanished after a grenade exploded and scattered Wang Chaoqing’s shadow.
• The tall, thin Player searched the mountain with the female Player after Wang Chaoqing reported seeing something green fly over the hollow.
• The Special Defense Department sent the painted woman as support, and she flew through the woods before landing behind Xu Huo.

Xu Huo sent the painted woman into the depression with the Nuwa Stone and King Fungus mycelium to help reverse the damage from the black rain. Meanwhile, Zeng Tai fought Code B, who entered the depression and found himself trapped again on the white spiral staircase.

• Xu Huo sent the painted woman to take the mycelium-covered Nuwa Stone into the depression and let it spread underwater.
• Zeng Tai and his animal props attacked Code B, but B eventually gained the upper hand and escaped into the depression.
• Code B used a cloth prop to shield himself from the poisonous water and pressed a glowing blue device into the depression.
• The white spiral staircase appeared beneath Code B, his props vanished, and Big Scissors rushed toward him after shearing off both his arms.

Xu Huo and the Special Defense Department fought aliens emerging from a water-filled depression, while Painted Woman recovered a high-level item hidden in one alien’s stomach. The aliens then rushed toward headquarters, and Xu Huo began investigating the item and its absent owner.

• Xu Huo killed Code Name B, took his belongings, and found a high-frequency device but no black-rain item.
• Wang Chaoqing arrived with Special Defense Department players, and an alien surged from the depression before Xu Huo cut it down.
• More aliens attacked the group, but they abruptly abandoned their fight and charged toward headquarters in Capital City.
• Painted Woman brought Xu Huo a cube-like electronic item from an alien’s stomach, and he noticed that the black rain eased after it left the depression.
• Xu Huo concluded that the item needed to stay near open water and suspected its owner was hidden among the aliens heading into the city.

Xu Huo and Nie Xuan deduced that the Aliens were transporting the black rain item and halted the bombing of Wenshan Mountain. As the Special Defense Department moved to intercept the Aliens, Xu Huo put the Nuwa Stone and King Fungus in the reservoir, while one of the captured Players died inside the painted woman's World in the Painting.

• Xu Huo reasoned that the Aliens and the Players at Wenshan Mountain were bait and transporters, and told Nie Xuan to look for open water along their route.
• Xu Huo said bombing Wenshan Mountain was no longer useful, and Nie Xuan withdrew the bombing order and sent Zeng Tai's group to defend headquarters.
• Zeng Tai argued about being ordered to stop pursuing the infiltrating Players, but Jian Yuanjie made him obey.
• Zhu Yuchan recognized an infiltrating Player flying backward toward the basin, and the group hurried to intercept the Aliens instead.
• The painted woman put two unconscious Players in the World in the Painting while Xu Huo placed the Nuwa Stone and King Fungus in the reservoir.
• The painted woman admitted that one of the Players inside the painting had suddenly spat blood and died.

Xu Huo discovered that the Black Water item was incomplete and had the painted woman throw it into the rain clouds, reversing the flow of the poisonous rain. The reversal destroyed Country Y’s base and forced its leaders to evacuate.

• Xu Huo questioned Codename A in an enclosed space and deduced that the Black Water item had to remain within the rainy area.
• Xu Huo concluded that the cube was incomplete after Codename A reacted to his deduction.
• Xu Huo had the painted woman throw the cube into the rain clouds, causing the rain to stop and the Black Water on the ground to rise.
• The reversed Black Water flooded Country Y’s temporary base, contaminating thousands of staff and Players and killing the operation’s person in charge.
• Country Y ordered an emergency evacuation and destroyed the base before leaving it in flames.

As the black rain stopped, the Special Defense Department struggled to contain the growing number of people contaminated by Alien toxin. Xu Huo prepared the reservoir’s King Fungus water as a temporary measure and promised the painted woman a trip to District 011, while drawing her into one last task.

• Nie Xuan led a search that found and arrested the foreign Players hiding near a park and river.
• Minister Fan ordered the department to isolate people who had turned into Aliens and let those still able to save themselves scatter and hide.
• Xu Huo told Team Leader Wu to send people to take over the reservoir, where the King Fungus could produce water that might delay the toxin’s effects.
• Xu Huo persuaded the painted woman to stop worrying about losing her pocket money and promised her an Ancient Castle in District 011.
• The painted woman eagerly helped Xu Huo lift boxes from the reservoir after he said they had one more task before leaving.

Xu Huo and the painted woman reached a checkpoint, where her unpredictable violence escalated into the killing of several journalists before they drove on. As they entered the Alien-infested area, Xu Huo called Gu Yu to ask where to pick her up.

• The painted woman crashed into a military truck while trying to park, then threatened the checkpoint by learning how to use a Rocket Launcher.
• Xu Huo blocked her Paper Knife and identified himself, while journalists confronted him with questions about the Black Rain and the detoxifying fungi.
• Zeng Tai relayed Team Leader Wu's order to let Xu Huo and the painted woman through, and Zhu Yuchan destroyed the journalists' recording equipment.
• The painted woman killed several journalists who had been questioning Xu Huo, then got into the car as the Special Defense Department personnel watched in alarm.
• Xu Huo questioned the painted woman about why she had killed them, drove around Aliens charging at the car, and called Gu Yu to arrange a pickup.

Xu Huo rescued Gu Yu and the other trapped players, then fought an alien-like player who threatened his younger brother. After discovering the man’s escape ability had been disabled, Xu Huo confronted him as they fell from a rooftop.

• Xu Huo drove toward Gu Yu and the trapped players while aliens gathered around his car, and he used Completed Script to reveal that someone was following him.
• An alien-like player attacked Xu Huo and the painted woman with a sword and a Micro Bomb, but the painted woman and Xu Huo overpowered him.
• The attacker threatened to hand Xu Huo’s younger brother to human traffickers unless Xu Huo let him go, so Xu Huo carried him to a rooftop and left him hanging over the edge.
• Xu Huo let go of the man’s Kite String and discovered that the man’s signal transmitter had not been destroyed when he crushed it.
• Xu Huo revealed that the man could no longer escape into the game and confronted him as they fell from the building.

Xu Huo learned that Country Y players had kidnapped Tongtong to lure him into a trap, and he raced to one of their suspected hideouts. He sent the painted woman into the sealed building to find and protect Tongtong while he prepared to confront the kidnappers.

• Xu Huo tortured a Country Y player until the man revealed that Tongtong was being held at a hideout and explained how Country Y had staged its attacks.
• Xu Huo called Team Leader Wu, learned Tongtong had been kidnapped, and asked Nie Xuan to send people to retrieve him.
• Xu Huo ignored Team Leader Wu's warnings and sped toward one of the two suspected addresses.
• Xu Huo crossed the cordon, startling Dai Wenqian and the other players as he raced past them.
• Xu Huo reached a building sealed by a special Item and sent the painted woman inside to find and protect Tongtong on the Ninth Floor.

Xu Huo and the Special Defense Department team searched the item-infused building, where hidden players used dolls and movie illusions to ambush them. The team pursued an escaping player into a dark corridor.

• Xu Huo entered the deserted building with a Special Defense Department scouting team after their surveillance devices failed.
• The team fought a giant doll and used a robot item to reach the second floor, where they discovered the movie theater was dark.
• A hidden player used movie illusions and real gunfire to attack the team, but Xu Huo identified the illusion and struck the player.
• Xu Huo exposed another player hiding inside a crocodile doll, and the team leader stopped a fox doll from escaping with a Potion.
• The player concealed in the fox escaped from sight, and the team pursued him into a corridor where the lights flickered and went dark.

Xu Huo led a Special Defense Department team through the cinema after identifying an illusion that had altered their senses, while Country Y’s Players prepared to target him. A painted woman disguised herself as Tracy and killed a guard, taking his signal button.

• Xu Huo stopped a Player from shooting at the rabbit doll, exposed that the group’s senses were being affected, and agreed to stay with the team leader as they advanced to the Third Floor.
• A Player who had escaped the doll warned the Players on the Ninth Floor that Xu Huo was formidable and unaffected by his item.
• The blond man identified Xu Huo as their target, left the card game to check on his teammates, and triggered a protective shield when a sticker of a female ghost attacked him.
• The painted woman transformed into a blonde beauty and lured a Player who mistook her for Tracy.
• The painted woman trapped the Player in paper, killed him with blades, and took the signal button from his chest.

Xu Huo and the Special Defense Department Players became trapped in a mirror maze on the Third Floor, where Captain Wang and another Player were swallowed by a mirror. As the group tested the maze, Xu Huo knocked several Players down and sent them into confusion, leaving them facing strange moving lights.

• The painted woman folded the button transmitter into a paper Frog, sent it hopping down the corridor, and stored the Player's corpse in a Cabinet.
• Xu Huo and the Special Defense Department Players found the Third Floor sealed by mirrors, and Captain Wang led the group into the maze.
• Captain Wang and another Player were sucked into a mirror after he tried to retrieve his rubber adhesive, while the others' gunfire ricocheted and injured two teammates.
• Xu Huo tested the mirrors with a marble and reasoned that the group might find a way through without splitting up.
• A burly Player began passing through another mirror, but Xu Huo suddenly knocked several Players over, and fist-sized patches of light moved toward them in the darkness.

Xu Huo and the Special Defense Department players fought their way through the Mirror Maze, where Xu Huo broke the maze apart and confronted the woman in red. The chapter ended with their fierce battle resuming as she attacked him with Love Me Heart to Heart.

• Xu Huo covered the mirrors with artifact fabric, stopping the bouncing lights, and the group found the corpse of a player who had left with Captain Wang.
• A mirror swallowed Xu Huo and 3973, and Xu Huo used the Whispering Ball and a grenade to pull the Third Floor into his Spiritual World and destroy its floor.
• As the mirrors fell, the Special Defense Department players reunited and saw the woman in red; Captain Wang attacked her with an artifact, but she knocked it aside.
• Xu Huo fought the woman in red with the Water Knife Gun and Bright Red Sword, while she used a shield and Refusal Charm to defend herself.
• The two fighters clashed and separated, and the woman in red threw a red string at Xu Huo with Love Me Heart to Heart.

Xu Huo fought the woman in red through her poisonous weapon and mirror maze, then left Captain Wang’s group behind to reach the upper floors. He found Tongtong and the painted woman captive among masked players on the eighth floor.

• The woman in red attacked Captain Wang and 3973 with poisonous confetti, but Xu Huo disarmed and trapped her before she escaped through a hole in the floor.
• Xu Huo turned the woman’s mirror maze against her and poisoned her, forcing her to flee despite gunfire from the Special Defense Department outside.
• Captain Wang learned that the person using 3304’s uniform was likely Xu Huo, who had come to rescue his younger half-brother.
• Xu Huo climbed to the eighth floor and found Tongtong and the painted woman bound and blindfolded before several masked players, including the woman in red.

Xu Huo confronted a Country Y Player who had taken Tongtong and demanded the Antidote, while a painted woman was killed during the standoff. Xu Huo exposed the enemy’s illusion and battled him, ending with the crew cut man unleashing a swarm of bees.

• A golden-haired crew cut man held Tongtong at gunpoint and demanded the Antidote from Xu Huo, then killed the painted woman when Xu Huo refused.
• Xu Huo noticed the floor beneath the crew cut man forming a spiral staircase, sending him falling through it, then confronted a second crew cut man who had disguised himself with an illusion.
• Xu Huo deduced that the illusion had prevented the other figures from speaking and warned that an A-grade contaminant could spread through Country Y.
• The crew cut man attacked with metal objects, sand tornadoes, and shock waves, while Xu Huo used doors to evade and counter his attacks.
• The crew cut man’s copper bell swallowed Xu Huo’s legs, but Xu Huo used “Like repels like!” to destroy the prop and push them apart.
• The crew cut man released an artificial Honeycomb and a swarm of bees, and Xu Huo tossed the Desert Windmill onto the ground.

Xu Huo fought through several Players on the eighth floor, overcoming their items and killing one while the man with the buzz cut escaped. He reached the Secret Room and found the painted woman with Tongtong, who was safe and able to walk.

• Xu Huo used linked doors to turn the attackers' weapons against their own teammate, then fought off their items and attacks.
• Xu Huo resisted the buzz-cut man's poison, injured him, and pursued him through a wall before another Player blinded him with a mirror.
• Xu Huo used Plant's Lament to overwhelm the man with the buzz cut and his companion, then killed the companion while the man escaped.
• Xu Huo recovered his sight, climbed into the Secret Room, and followed the painted woman's ringing phone.
• Xu Huo found the painted woman trying to hide Tongtong in a drawer, and Tongtong confirmed he could walk.

Xu Huo rescued Tongtong from the Secret Room and left him with the Special Defense Department before setting out on another plan. After learning about a newly opened smuggling route, he decided to travel overseas with Lichun and prepared for the risks ahead.

• Xu Huo and the painted woman carried Tongtong out of the Ninth Floor, and Xu Huo entrusted him to Team Leader Wu and the Special Defense Department.
• Xu Huo drove to the former base while Nie Xuan learned that Zheng Liang's friend had uncovered a new smuggling route and ordered it monitored.
• Zheng Liang gave Xu Huo the route information, and Xu Huo said he would take Lichun and needed identity documents for one person.
• Gu Yu offered to help Xu Huo prepare supplies, and he told her he would compensate the players and that she should monitor her condition.
• Xu Huo finished his preparations and searched the bounty platform for Space Artifacts because the Five or Five Open Air Window had already been used once.

Xu Huo assessed his limited funds and posted a list of targets and supplies on the Vanguard Player Forum, making the Special Defense Department realize he planned to act in Country Y. Minister Fan approved support for him, and Team Leader Wu delivered a huge reward and valuable supplies, including a B-class item whose history hinted at a curse.

• Xu Huo judged the items taken from Country Y Players and decided he needed more supplies, so he posted a list of requested information and targets on the Vanguard Player Forum.
• Minister Fan and the team leaders discussed Xu Huo's apparent plan to enter Country Y, and Team Leader Lu argued that the Special Defense Department should support him without officially directing his actions.
• Minister Fan ordered the department to upload an encrypted file to the forum and send Xu Huo approved items, Potions, and White Cash.
• Team Leader Wu delivered Xu Huo a hundred million White Cash, forty-six kinds of Potions, and five items, including three B-class items.
• Xu Huo inspected the first B-class item, The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Is a Straight Line, which was associated with the deaths of three Artificers.

Xu Huo accepted five weakening items and a selection of Potions from Team Leader Wu, then shared White Cash with his companions. He learned that Yan Jiayu had survived the Random Instance, acquired a C-class item, and wanted to travel with him to Country Y, but he was leaving the next day.

• Team Leader Wu explained the five items selected to weaken opponents, and Xu Huo accepted them along with several useful Potions.
• Xu Huo and Team Leader Wu parted on friendly terms without discussing Tongtong's kidnapping or the reservoir's Antidote.
• Xu Huo gave his companions five hundred thousand White Cash each and set aside shares for those who had not returned.
• Zhou Ning told Xu Huo that Yan Jiayu had been seriously injured after killing three Twin Serpent Players in the Random Instance.
• Yan Jiayu explained that she had broken her leg kicking an item and gained a powerful C-class item, then asked Xu Huo to travel to Country Y with her.
• Xu Huo declined Yan Jiayu's invitation because he was leaving the next day.

Xu Huo and Lichun joined a group of Players trying to cross Country X’s southern border using Brother Sun’s Ability. The crossing began under cover of the cards, but the group was still approaching the second fence as time ran short.

• Xu Huo and Lichun met several Players at the border, where Brother Sun sold them cards that let them cross safely for a limited time.
• Brother Sun secretly gave the painted woman a blue card with a four-minute timer before the group set off.
• The six Players crossed the first fence and hid in a hole to avoid a mobile security camera on the second fence.
• As the cards’ time dwindled, the burly man and another Player climbed out despite the young Player urging them to wait.