Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo crossed out of Country X, abandoned a group of Players to be detained by the military, and secretly boarded a chartered plane to Country Y. During the flight, Country Y Player Karbi Nix confronted him about his identity and purpose, and Xu Huo proposed discussing a deal after they arrived.

• Xu Huo and the painted woman crossed the mountains while the Bald Player, the young Player, and two foreign Players argued about Country X and its Special Defense Department.
• After a military force surrounded the group, Xu Huo and the painted woman hid until the four Players were taken away, then continued toward the city.
• Xu Huo used fake documents arranged by Zheng Liang and boarded a Country Y charter flight disguised as the wealthy Mr. Qi.
• Karbi Nix introduced himself and asked Xu Huo where the real Mr. Qi was; Xu Huo said he was at a hotel and offered to discuss a deal after reaching Country Y.
• Nix asked whether the plane could land at a military airport.

Xu Huo evaded Nix’s attempt to poison him and used a Space Artifact to bypass Y Country’s defenses and enter a newly operational Safe Zone. He began an attack on the Safe Zone, intending to destroy its metal structure and undermine the refuge Y Country had built.

• Xu Huo and Nix discussed Y Country’s epidemic, the Alien threat, and the place of Players in District 014.
• Xu Huo detected poison in the liquor offered by Nix’s flight attendant and confronted Nix about it.
• After spotting an island, Xu Huo used a Space Artifact to leave the plane and cross into Y Country, while Nix pursued him and the plane began breaking apart.
• Xu Huo landed in the middle of a leadership conference inside a Safe Zone and pulled several people into his Spiritual World as bullets swept through the room.
• Xu Huo escaped into an empty office, prepared to use Life Core against the Safe Zone’s metal structure, and relied on Three Seconds of Life to restrict its Space Artifacts.

Xu Huo and the painted woman escaped the destruction of the Country Y Safe Zone, but Nickus tracked him to another Safe Zone and attacked. The painted woman deflected Nickus’s electric pellets, and the fight continued as both men made their next moves.

• A mysterious effect caused the conference building and other metal structures across the Safe Zone to crumble, and players searched the ruins for the intruder.
• Xu Huo disguised himself, reunited with the painted woman, and slipped through the ruined gate as crowds fled the Safe Zone.
• Nickus returned and ordered checkpoints set up, but Xu Huo used The Shortest Distance Between Two Points to escape to another Safe Zone.
• Nickus pursued Xu Huo to a plaza, where the painted woman caught his electric pellets and flicked them back at him.

Xu Huo evaded Nyx while the painted woman fought the players, and the Safe Zone began collapsing as metal throughout the city turned to powder. Nyx found Xu Huo hiding in a shop and confronted him about the deaths of ordinary people.

• Xu Huo used his items to defend himself from Nyx, escaped into a shop, and hid in its warehouse through his Spiritual World.
• Players arrived and attacked Nyx and the painted woman, but the painted woman escaped their traps and killed several players.
• The painted woman entered a building, where players discovered metal crumbling from a chandelier and began evacuating people.
• Metal supports across the Safe Zone turned to powder, causing buildings and underground structures to collapse as rescue convoys arrived.
• Nyx sensed Xu Huo behind the break-room door and challenged him over the innocent people who had died; Xu Huo argued that ordinary people suffered for the mistakes of governments and players.

After Xu Huo’s attack destroyed two Y Country Safe Zones, Y Country’s leaders debated retaliation and security while protests spread and X Country celebrated the collapse. The Y Country government publicly blamed a suspected X Country Player, but the Special Defense Department refused to confirm the accusation.

• Nicks confronted Xu Huo over the attack, but the painted woman entered and the presence in the room reminded Nicks that one good turn deserved another.
• Y Country’s leaders learned that only two intruders had destroyed the Safe Zones, and an analysis suggested the attack had been a warning that spared the nearby Alien base.
• Y Country’s leaders argued over whether to declare war, then set the proposal aside and assigned Nicks to find ways to protect the Safe Zones from future attacks.
• After rescue efforts ended, protests and riots spread across Y Country while people in X Country celebrated the Safe Zones’ destruction.
• The Y Country government released a photo of Xu Huo and challenged the Special Defense Department, which refused to engage or confirm the accusation.

The Special Defense Department discussed Xu Huo’s attack on a Safe Zone in Country Y, debating how to protect his family and manage the consequences. Nie Xuan said Xu Huo had shown restraint, and Minister Fan asked for the detailed report on the Black Rain incident.

• Minister Fan celebrated the public-relations impact of the attack while the Country Y official angrily ended their call.
• Nie Xuan warned the leaders that Country Y’s Elite Players could identify Xu Huo from his revealed items and past encounters.
• Nie Xuan said the Player who had leaked information about Lichun’s Super Artifact had been dealt with and the evidence destroyed.
• Minister Fan ordered Xu Huo’s family to be moved periodically and asked Team Leader Lu to look after Yu Qingqing.
• Jiang Qiao defended Xu Huo as a trustworthy hero, and Nie Xuan said his actions in Country Y had been a lesson rather than revenge.
• Minister Fan asked whether the detailed report on the Black Rain incident was ready.

Nie Xuan presented the Special Defense Department with a theory that Xu Huo had influenced or gained access to the Seventeenth Hospital instance, while privately burning his handwritten notes. On a bus, a burly Player confronted other passengers and froze just as he reached for an injured Player.

• Nie Xuan reported that the Seventeenth Hospital Random Instance had caused nearly eighty deaths and suggested Xu Huo’s past and mental Evolution might be connected to it.
• The department debated whether Xu Huo owned the instance or possessed an item that could open it, and Minister Fan assigned Nie Xuan to lead the interference operation without linking Xu Huo to the Attack Incident.
• Nie Xuan told Team Leader Lu that he doubted Xu Huo owned the instance, then agreed to enter an instance the next morning and burned the final page of his handwritten notes in his office.
• On a bus to the county town, a burly Player argued with a braided-haired woman and tried to take the seat of a bloodied Player.
• A nearby young Player tried to stop the burly man from starting a fight, but the burly man abruptly froze as he reached for the injured Player.

Xu Huo and six other Players arrived in Sifang Palace City and learned they had entered the seven-day D-class survival instance Co-Eye. With night approaching, they began looking for places to stay while tensions surfaced among the group.

• Xu Huo endured his worsening arm injury during the bus ride to the remote county seat.
• The Players received the instance briefing, which described Sifang Palace’s dwindling population, religious customs, and midnight deadline to find lodging.
• Tian Kunwen proposed that the Players cooperate, and six of them introduced themselves while a seventh Player walked away.
• Fu Danhong criticized Yi Pei, and the two argued about whether the group should trust one another.
• Xu Huo urged the Players to find lodging first, and Tian Kunwen agreed that they should settle in before discussing their next steps.

The group searched for lodging in the county, where residents insisted that each household could host only one guest and directed anyone wanting to stay together to the hotel. After checking into the hotel, Xu Huo argued that the group should split up because the county’s rules might make staying alone safer.

• Wei Xian and the others found that residents refused to rent rooms to multiple guests, and an auntie offered Fu Danhong a room only if she stayed without Wei Xian.
• The group followed Yi Pei’s suggestion and went to the hotel, where the manager required one guest per room while the building was being disinfected.
• Two players who had checked in earlier hurried out and warned the group not to stay, while another player said the hotel was safer than the guesthouses.
• Tian Kunwen concluded that the hotel and guesthouses seemed similarly dangerous, and the players discussed the risks of grouping up in the instance.
• Xu Huo chose a room by himself and explained that the county’s one-guest rule might make splitting up safer, despite Yi Pei’s warning that staying alone also carried risks.

Xu Huo and the other players searched for You Jun after he disappeared when answering a midnight knock at the hotel. They found no trace of him inside and debated whether to risk searching outside in the fog.

• Xu Huo refused to go out that night, but a sudden knock woke him at one in the morning.
• Xu Huo found Wei Xian searching for You Jun, who had vanished after opening his door to someone knocking.
• The players questioned Fu Danhong and Tian Kunwen, then considered how You Jun could have disappeared without making a sound or resisting.
• Xu Huo, Yi Pei, and Wei Xian found the hotel manager absent and checked the register, discovering Liu Shiyan had stayed longer than he claimed.
• Fu Danhong and Tian Kunwen failed to get information from Fang Penghui, and Fu Danhong refused to search outside for You Jun.

Xu Huo and the other players investigated the disappearances in Sifang Palace City, while Xu Huo searched for clues in the woods. He found a broken religious carving that contradicted the Dungeon’s background information, then heard someone call out behind him.

• Xu Huo and the others learned that three players had gone missing overnight and agreed to search for clues in separate groups.
• Yi Pei questioned locals about Sifang Palace City, while Xu Huo decided to investigate the woods for traces of You Jun.
• Xu Huo met the braided girl, learned that her older brother made the county’s best-selling handicrafts, and arranged to visit her home to buy some.
• Xu Huo encountered Fang Penghui in the woods and uncovered a broken Stone Carving after Fang left.
• Xu Huo noticed that the carving and the lack of religious signs in the county conflicted with the Dungeon’s description, then heard someone call to him.

Xu Huo investigated why the county’s residents seemed wary of eyes while helping stop a player from assaulting a family. Back at the hotel, Tian Kunwen reported that the residents worshipped a god in their bedrooms.

• Xu Huo and Xiaoyun’s brother encountered a player attacking an old man and a little girl, and Xu Huo blinded the attacker before another player pulled him away.
• Yi Pei arrived to support Xu Huo, and the attackers left; Xu Huo gave the old man White Cash and went with Yi Pei to buy carvings from Xiaoyun’s family.
• Xu Huo noticed that Xiaoyun’s brother carved lifelike eyes but local residents avoided mirrors, so he ordered wooden mirror frames and asked about supply runs.
• Xu Huo told Yi Pei that the residents might be avoiding eyes, while Yi Pei noted that they knew little about their religion despite welcoming guests.
• The players gathered in Fu Danhong’s room, where Tian Kunwen said the residents worshipped a god in their bedrooms.

Xu Huo and the other players investigated the disappearances in Sifang Palace City, where locals worshiped gods whose idols were hidden in wooden cabinets. After the manager revealed little under Fu Danhong’s questioning, Xu Huo reviewed Yi Pei’s recording and began examining how the idols might be seen.

• Tian Kunwen and Fu Danhong explained that players who opened the wooden cabinets often disappeared, and the group considered whether You Jun had seen an idol.
• Xu Huo and the others seized the manager and questioned him; under Fu Danhong’s item, he said the missing people had shown disrespect to the gods but claimed he knew nothing about You Jun.
• The players discussed whether a local or another player had knocked on You Jun’s door, and whether the gods punished people who attacked locals.
• Xu Huo accepted medicine from Yi Pei and borrowed her recorder before returning to his room to investigate.
• After listening to the recording and noticing the locals avoided discussing their gods, Xu Huo ordered small mirrors from the front desk.

Xu Huo investigated the locals’ fear of mirrors and learned that young people left the county and never returned. At the cemetery pool, he encountered Cao Dong, who warned him that disturbing statues in the woods could leave someone marked.

• Xu Huo revisited the grandmother and granddaughter, offered them fruit, and found that they were frightened of mirrors.
• Xu Huo questioned local families and learned that avoiding mirrors was a strict local custom.
• A boy guided Xu Huo toward the cemetery pool and said that the dead were sunk there, but that young people usually left and never came home.
• The boy’s grandmother stopped him from questioning the fate of his parents and warned him not to leave like the other young people.
• Xu Huo met Cao Dong in the woods, and Cao Dong warned him not to turn over the statues because doing so could mark him.

Xu Huo investigated the hotel’s disappearances and suspected that seeing something through the peepholes or in the rooms might trigger them. He persuaded Yi Pei to help test the peephole that night, where the chapter left them preparing to investigate the danger.

• Cao Dong told Xu Huo that the hotel’s wall carvings seemed to come alive at night, and Xu Huo questioned whether the manager was frightening players.
• Eight new players arrived at the hotel and booked five rooms, while Xu Huo and Yi Pei discussed the disappearances and the dangers of sharing rooms.
• Xu Huo revealed that he had realized Yi Pei’s eyesight was poor, and Yi Pei confirmed that she could hear footsteps outside before You Jun disappeared.
• Xu Huo and Yi Pei reasoned that the reliefs, mirrors, and peepholes might be connected to the disappearances, including those of players whose doors were not knocked on.
• Xu Huo proposed testing the peephole when the manager knocked that night, and Yi Pei agreed to help because she suspected the dungeon’s danger involved seeing something unusual.

Xu Huo interrogated the hotel manager about Sifang Palace City’s god and discovered that confronting its image could trigger a deadly effect. He stopped Yi Pei from approaching the mirror and reconsidered how the hotel’s rooms and peepholes exposed Players to danger.

• Xu Huo watched the fog gather outside the hotel and waited for someone to knock on his door.
• Xu Huo and Yi Pei pulled the manager into the room and threatened him until he admitted he was from Sifang Palace City and protected by its god.
• Xu Huo reasoned that locals lured outsiders toward the god’s statue to spare their own people, then pressed the manager’s face toward a mirror.
• The manager reacted in terror when the mirror cracked and nearly killed himself before Xu Huo knocked him unconscious.
• Yi Pei moved toward the mirror, but Xu Huo stopped her and concluded that the god’s influence might affect people who merely shared a room with its image.

Xu Huo and Yi Pei investigated the administrator’s disappearance and encountered mysterious figures in the fog, escaping back to the hotel. By morning, four players were missing, and Xu Huo warned that bed-and-breakfasts were safer than the hotel, though Liu Shiyan pointed out that two people who had stayed at one had also vanished.

• Xu Huo and Yi Pei forced the administrator to open his eyes, but he vanished from a locked room while they tested whether a phone could record what was killing people.
• Xu Huo and Yi Pei followed the Screaming Chicken into the foggy woods, where Xu Huo spotted a figure that disappeared when he attacked it.
• As they tried to leave the woods, mysterious figures followed them, and two players who had been trailing them screamed before falling silent.
• Xu Huo and Yi Pei escaped to the hotel using their abilities and items, then decided to wait until morning to review the phone footage.
• The next morning, the players counted four people missing, and Xu Huo told Liu Shiyan that bed-and-breakfasts were safer than the hotel; Liu Shiyan countered that two people staying at one had disappeared.

Xu Huo fought off a player who attacked him and noticed that the county’s residents were behaving strangely. After heading into the woods in the rain, he met Fang Penghui, who told him that a couple had died there and asked how Xu Huo survived the night.

• Xu Huo stopped a player’s ambush, burned him with his Lighter, and watched the residents react strangely before returning to their usual chatter.
• Xu Huo gave money and snacks to the old man and his granddaughter, then went into the woods despite the old man’s warning about the pond where the dead were buried.
• As rain began to fall, Fang Penghui and several players surrounded Xu Huo in the woods and told him a couple who had entered after him had died.
• Fang Penghui asked Xu Huo what had happened the previous night and how he had survived, noting that the couple had died horribly.

Xu Huo investigated the hollowed-out corpses and discovered an underwater road that suggested Sifang Palace City extended beyond the county seat. When he returned to town, he found the hotel burning and a crazed Player warning that everyone who saw the eyes had to die.

• Fang Penghui proposed gathering the Players to face the Dungeon together, and Xu Huo agreed to meet in the hotel lobby.
• Xu Huo examined the couple’s bodies and found their eyes, brains, and internal organs missing, with no footprints nearby.
• Xu Huo sent the Screaming Chicken through the woods, then used a monitoring device to discover a submerged road beneath the pond.
• Xu Huo suspected the abandoned parts of Sifang Palace City lay beyond the pond, away from the county seat.
• Xu Huo hurried back after seeing smoke and found the hotel partly burned, with Players restraining a crazed Player who shouted that everyone who saw the eyes had to die.

The Players debated the Dungeon’s eye-related dangers and whether to stay together after the hotel burned, while Fang Penghui tried to organize them. Xu Huo and Yi Pei reviewed footage of the administrator’s disappearance and suspected that a red light and eyes were connected to the threat.

• Liu Shiyan warned that the hotel’s decorative patterns could psychologically influence the Players, while others argued over moving to guesthouses and staying together.
• Fang Penghui explained his theory that eyes were dangerous, citing the hotel’s peepholes, mirrors, wall patterns, and the damaged Stone Carvings.
• Liu Shiyan proposed testing the locals, but two Players killed several elderly residents; the locals silently carried away the bodies.
• Cao Dong suggested that the Players stay together in the vacant courtyard, while Xu Huo returned to his lodging.
• Xu Huo and Yi Pei watched footage showing a red glimmer before the administrator walked out the window, and Xu Huo linked the light to the old man’s bloodshot eyes.