Chapter Summaries

After a player was killed in the county town, Xu Huo and the others discovered that two elderly residents’ corpses and two players had vanished. The players debated destroying the town or seeking the Dungeon Boss, and the artsy player warned that the hotel’s monthly checkout might mean they would all die if they waited.

• After hearing a scream in the rain, Xu Huo found two elderly sisters and the burned player dead in a courtyard, all killed in the same gruesome manner as the couple in the woods.
• Xu Huo and the other players discussed whether the killer was a player or the Dungeon Boss, while Fang Penghui sent people to search for the two players who had driven the elderly sisters from their home.
• The searchers reported that the two players were missing, and the elderly people’s corpses had vanished from a nearby courtyard without signs of a struggle.
• The artsy player suggested destroying the county town, but Xu Huo warned that the statues, missing bodies, and unknown extent of the dungeon made that plan risky.
• The artsy player revealed that the hotel emptied all its guests once a month and argued that they should seek the Dungeon Boss rather than wait for the dungeon’s deadline.

After the players debated how to respond to the dungeon and prepared to track a corpse, Xu Huo discovered that a tiny worm was worsening his wound. When the power went out and a little girl called to him from the unlocked side door, he prepared to confront whatever was haunting the lodging.

• The players split over whether to take the initiative, cooperate, or act alone, and Brother Shi attached signal flares to the burned player's corpse so they could track it.
• Xu Huo sensed something watching them from the corpse, then heard phantom footsteps following him through the fog.
• Xu Huo used the Universal Lubricant to dislodge a pebble-sized item that had been planted on his shoe.
• Xu Huo found a nearly invisible worm in his wound and contained it in a potion bottle after tending to the injury.
• The power went out, the side door unlocked itself, and a little girl called to Xu Huo for a light as he prepared to confront the intruder.

Xu Huo resisted the idol’s compulsion and led the residents and Players out of the county town, where the red influence suddenly vanished. Back at the hotel, the Players pieced together how the idol had drawn them in, and Xu Huo warned that its mental influence would grow stronger over time.

• Xu Huo stopped himself from entering the room with the idol, restrained the grandmother and granddaughter, and taunted the being behind the door.
• The idol’s red light drove residents from nearby courtyards into a frenzied crowd, and Xu Huo led them through town with several Players following.
• Xu Huo guided the crowd toward the woods and pond, but the red lights disappeared before they arrived, returning the residents to their normal behavior.
• At the hotel, Players who had been caught in the crowd recalled seeing the stone eye in a wooden Cabinet before losing consciousness.
• Xu Huo explained that the idol’s mental influence would deepen over the next several days and could eventually overwhelm Players with insufficient mental strength.

After the players realized they could resist the statue’s influence, a fire at the hotel sparked a battle between Fang Penghui’s group and Brother Shi’s. Xu Huo killed Brother Shi, leaving his allies unwilling to retaliate.

• Fu Danhong said the statue could be resisted, while Fang Penghui warned that the players had already been affected and might not last until the Dungeon’s deadline.
• Yi Pei told Xu Huo that she had nearly opened the door after hearing voices, and Xu Huo suspected the hotel’s carvings and carpets had been influencing players.
• A fire engulfed half the long street, and players rescuing the sleeping residents found Brother Shi’s group preparing to start another fire.
• Fang Penghui’s group confronted Brother Shi’s team, and both sides exchanged abilities and items as the fight escalated.
• Brother Shi escaped an encirclement by swapping places with a female player, who burst into flames, then used his ability to make another player explode near Xu Huo.
• Xu Huo restrained Brother Shi with an unseen force and shot him dead, while Brother Shi’s surviving companions stayed back.

Xu Huo challenged the Players’ plan to slaughter the residents after the idols revealed rotten human eyeballs inside them. He suggested the missing people might be moving corpses and left everyone wondering whether the missing Players were already dead.

• Xu Huo killed Brother Shi, then asked Fang Penghui and the other Players whether they objected; Fang Penghui accepted the death but warned that the idols must not be burned or exposed.
• Bewitched residents rushed into the burning buildings to rescue the idols, which broke apart in the water and released rotten eyeballs that might have belonged to missing Players.
• A Player proposed killing the city’s residents, but Yi Pei, the Black Shirt Player, Fang Penghui, and Tian Kunwen opposed the slaughter.
• Xu Huo pointed out that Brother Shi’s corpse had disappeared and suggested it might have left on its own.
• Yi Pei recalled encountering strange figures in the woods and wondered whether they had been corpses; Xu Huo asked whether all the missing Players were dead.

Xu Huo learned that Sifang Palace City was preparing for the Eye Offering Festival, when the locals believed their missing family members would return. He questioned Brother Xiaoyun about the trapped city, then saw parade floats decorated with an eye symbol that made him and his companions look away.

• The players considered whether missing players were still alive and might become another threat inside the instance.
• The townspeople prepared for the Eye Offering Festival, and a little girl told Xu Huo that her parents and everyone from Sifang Palace City would return that day.
• Xu Huo visited Brother Xiaoyun, who said people trying to leave the city died and returned as corpses, before Xiaoyun stopped him from destroying the worship cabinet.
• Xu Huo asked Brother Xiaoyun about the missing young men and the city across the pond, but Brother Xiaoyun said no one could stay clearheaded inside Sifang Palace City.
• Xu Huo met Yi Pei and the Black Shirt Player, then the three looked away when they saw an eye design on the festival parade floats.

Xu Huo and the other players fled the eye-patterned festival decorations and watched the living residents reunite with an approaching procession of corpses. When the procession turned its glowing wooden eyes toward the players, they fought to destroy them as the corpses attacked.

• Xu Huo, Yi Pei, and the others fled the eye-patterned pictures as the residents filled the town with them and an oppressive sound surrounded the players.
• The players hid in the woods and watched countless hollow-eyed corpses march into town, where residents embraced them as their dead relatives.
• A drum sounded from the pond, and the living and dead turned toward the players as the sacrificial procession emerged from the town.
• Cao Dong became entranced and walked toward the procession, so the Hoodie player stabbed him before he could reach the others.
• Xu Huo told the players to destroy the procession's wooden eyes, and they attacked them as the corpses charged.

Xu Huo and the other players followed the Eye Offering Festival across the pond to the real Sifang Palace City, where black-armored guards and pervasive eyes revealed the danger of the place. After a drumbeat began controlling the procession, several players broke away to escape.

• The players let the corpse horde pass and followed the Eye Offering Festival toward the pond, where the water level dropped to reveal a stone path.
• Xu Huo and the others crossed the pond with the procession, disguising themselves by walking in step after the people and corpses watched them.
• Xu Huo and the players reached the vast Sifang Palace City, filled with eye-patterned buildings, smiling people, and black-armored guards on the rooftops.
• A player broke from the procession and was attacked by the guards, while Xu Huo's attempt to use an item drew their attention.
• A nearby drumbeat disoriented the players as eyes appeared everywhere, and three players broke away from the procession in an attempt to escape.

Xu Huo discovered that the black-armored men were robots resistant to most items and abilities, and he destroyed one with help from a mysterious gust of wind. After escaping the parade’s search, he headed toward the great palace as the drums brought the fighting to a halt.

• Black-armored men captured two Players and forced them to meet the Eye Offering’s gaze, while Xu Huo escaped the sandstorm and tried to evade their pursuit.
• Xu Huo fought a black-armored man alongside the Black Shirt Player and discovered that the armored attackers were robots beneath human skin.
• Yi Pei used Magnetic Field Center to make two robots collide, but Xu Huo and the others found that their usual weapons and abilities could barely damage them.
• Xu Huo jumped into the parade while keeping his eyes closed, fought off people carrying wooden eyes, and used a bubble to lift a robot into the air.
• A gust of wind tore off the robot’s metal head, and Xu Huo destroyed its body before escaping a search with the Invisibility Cloak.
• When the parade resumed and the fighting stopped, Xu Huo moved through the air toward the great palace.

Xu Huo investigated the Sifang Palace and discovered that its drum could control Players, while the city’s worshippers had begun attacking them. He reunited with Fu Danhong, Yi Pei, Fang Penghui, and the others outside the city, where they concluded that the palace itself or something inside it was driving the danger.

• Xu Huo used the Same Kind Retriever near the Sifang Palace and identified the drum, the black-armored men, and two hidden items as valuable items.
• A disguised Player entered the palace, triggering a drumbeat that disoriented Xu Huo and several Players and caused the worshippers to tear apart and devour them.
• Xu Huo escaped to the city entrance and spotted Fu Danhong, Yi Pei, Fang Penghui, the Black Shirt Player, and others hiding near the woods as black-armored men carried away Players from the county town.
• Xu Huo told the group that the road to the county town was blocked and that Players near the palace had already devoured three others.
• The group discussed how the drum’s effects worsened with each beat, and Xu Huo warned that a red glow inside the palace—or the palace itself—might be causing the hallucinations.

Xu Huo and the other Players discovered that the Co-Eye Dungeon’s deadly influence might be connected to puppets made by the Super Player known as the Suitcase Man. They planned to burn Sifang Palace City to weaken the Dungeon’s influence, leaving their group preparing to lure away the Black Armor Men and set the fire.

• Yi Pei examined the Black Armor Man’s mechanical head and identified it as a creation of the Suitcase Man, a notorious Super Player who made puppets from corpses.
• Xu Huo suspected that Players were being gathered as materials for a delivery at the end of the month and recalled the Suitcase Man’s power and interest in tracking his puppets.
• Xu Huo concluded that destroying the eye-patterned buildings could reduce the Dungeon’s mental influence, and proposed burning Sifang Palace City.
• The Black Shirt Player offered an item to counter the palace drum, while Yi Pei proposed luring Black Armor Men away from the group.
• Fu Danhong gave Xu Huo a one-time explosive, and Xu Huo distributed burning Potion as the group prepared to start fires and use tripwires against the slow-moving enemies.

The Players planned a coordinated attack on Sifang Palace City to draw out the Black Armored Men, set fires, and disrupt the city’s mechanisms. As the operation began, Xu Huo spoke with Brother Xiaoyun, who revealed that earlier Players had tried and failed to save the city’s ordinary residents.

• The group assigned roles for a plan to lure the Black Armored Men away from Sifang Palace City, set fires, and target the eye totems and the drum.
• Fang Penghui warned the Players to cooperate, while Fu Danhong cautioned them that the Dungeon Boss might torture them if provoked.
• Fu Danhong, Yi Pei, and the Black Shirt Player set off toward their assigned positions, while Xu Huo waited near the entrance to start fires.
• Xu Huo put on his invisibility coat and found Brother Xiaoyun watching the city’s celebrating residents from a room.
• Brother Xiaoyun told Xu Huo that he knew about the Players and the outside world, and that previous Players had tried to save the residents but died.
• Xu Huo explained that the dungeon’s apparent rule-breaking had drawn no intervention and suspected its owner wanted to avoid an upgrade.

Xu Huo gave Brother Xiaoyun a chance to become an Evolver, then set Sifang Palace City ablaze and blasted the palace gates to destroy the prop drum. Yi Pei retrieved the drum, but the gates remained closed, leaving Xu Huo facing an unresolved obstacle.

• Brother Xiaoyun told Xu Huo that the entrance to Sifang Palace was likely a trap and explained what he knew about the Divine Eye and the sacrifice.
• Brother Xiaoyun begged Xu Huo for a way to become a Player, so Xu Huo left him Syringes, Self-Healing Agents, and Nutrient Agents, warning him about the risks of becoming an Evolver.
• Xu Huo used his Lighter to start fires across the wooden city and made his way toward Sifang Palace while slowing the pursuing Black Armored Men with props.
• Xu Huo fired a small energy cannon at the palace gates, blasting the Black Armored Men, Players, and Yi Pei's group outside.
• Yi Pei grabbed the prop drum and stored it, completing his and the Black Shirt Player's mission, but Xu Huo saw that the palace gate had not opened.

Xu Huo entered Sifang Palace after Yi Pei and the Black Shirt Player created an opening, then faced the palace’s mental interference and a hidden monster. He left the chapter running deeper into the palace while trying to evade its attacks.

• Xu Huo used Sword Qi to crack open Sifang Palace’s doors while Yi Pei and the Black Shirt Player distracted the black-armored men.
• Yi Pei, the Black Shirt Player, and the other Players fled as the black-armored men split up to hunt them and guard the palace.
• Xu Huo entered Sifang Palace and resisted the giant eye’s influence by listening to voices through the Whispering Ball.
• Xu Huo explored the palace, opened his Spiritual World despite the pain, and spread pollutants that quickly dried under the palace’s influence.
• A hidden monster attacked Xu Huo with a huge axe and a tentacle, and an eye emerged from the floor as he tried to escape under his invisibility cloak.

Xu Huo attacked the Sifang Palace with an energy cannon and accelerants after escaping its corridors and discovering that survivors outside were devouring people. He weakened the palace and its mental interference, then challenged the hidden Dungeon Boss while preparing to deal with its body-controlling wires.

• Xu Huo fled the Monster through the Sifang Palace’s looping corridors, burning corpses and using Absolute Safe Distance to cross a sea of fire.
• Xu Huo descended to the first floor and forced his way out of the palace while the Monster and a flying axe pursued him.
• Xu Huo found survivors outside the palace feeding on corpses and fired Bai Kou’s Energy Chips at the palace, its giant eye, and the Monster.
• Xu Huo blasted the palace with accelerants, then escaped the tentacles with help from the painted woman and the Life Core, landing on the second-floor eaves.
• Xu Huo used the Whispering Ball to taunt the hidden Dungeon Boss, asking why it feared upgrading and daring it to come out.

Xu Huo fought the Dungeon Boss’s forces at Sifang Palace, where Xiaoyun’s failed Evolution turned her into an Alien and her brother charged into the palace after her death. He rescued Yi Pei and the Black Shirt Player, then led the survivors toward the pool to escape the burning city.

• Xu Huo used the Desert Windmill and Life Core against the black-armored figures, then tried to lead Sifang Palace City’s residents away with his Spiritual World.
• A boy attacked Xu Huo, and he discovered Xiaoyun had rapidly become an Alien after being injected with an Evolver’s blood.
• Brother Xiaoyun blamed Sifang Palace for ruining the residents’ lives, but a tentacle killed Xiaoyun and pulled him into the palace when he grabbed it.
• Xu Huo set buildings on fire, rescued Yi Pei from rubble, and found Fang Penghui and the others dead while Bian Jin survived with severe injuries.
• Xu Huo and Bian Jin exchanged names, and Xu Huo carried Yi Pei and the unconscious boy toward the pool to leave the county.

Xu Huo and the others escaped Sifang Palace City with an unconscious child and learned that Bone-Corroding Worms had been used to consume corpses. After draining the pool and discovering the hidden sluice gate, Xu Huo began preparing a gift for the Dungeon Boss.

• Xu Huo told Yi Pei that about half the people from Sifang Palace City were still alive, and the group encountered Wei Xian on the stone path.
• Xu Huo asked Wei Xian to find the sluice gate beneath the pool, then treated his wound and learned from Bian Jin that it contained Bone-Corroding Worms.
• Xu Huo tested the worms on food and wooden chips, divided them into bottles, and said he was preparing a suitable gift for the Dungeon Boss.
• Wei Xian opened the hidden sluice gate, draining the pool and revealing that the Stone Bridge had appeared when the water level dropped.
• Yi Pei worried that Sifang Palace City could no longer stay hidden, while Xu Huo said the survival Dungeon could continue operating without ordinary people.

Xu Huo and his companions survived the dungeon and waited for its clearance, while he left a Paper Plane in Sifang Palace in hopes of disrupting a possible deal between the Dungeon Boss and the Suitcase Man. After boarding the Dimensional Train for District 011, Xu Huo reflected on the risk he had taken.

• Xu Huo and Wei Xian gathered flammable materials and defaced the Stone Carvings, while the county town's residents returned from the pond and began repairing their homes.
• Xu Huo arranged for a Tour Bus to collect the group two days later and spent the remaining time playing with the children as Wei Xian worried about the Suitcase Man.
• After the dungeon cleared, Wei Xian left while Yi Pei and Bian Jin stayed behind, and Xu Huo returned to Sifang Palace to leave a Bone-Corroding Worm and write a taunt on a pillar.
• The Dungeon Boss attacked Xu Huo and collapsed the palace's upper floors, burying the Paper Plane beneath the ruins as Xu Huo escaped.
• Xu Huo boarded Train E2497 for District 011, moved to the front carriage, and considered the small chance that the Paper Plane might lead the Dungeon Boss and Suitcase Man to clash.

Xu Huo returned to District 011 during its Harvest Festival and learned that the Whale had targeted him after the cruise ship massacre. He arrived at Rose Castle as the Ghastly Sound Knights and the Black Shoulder Badge began investigating everyone who had boarded the ship.

• The Suitcase Man entered Sifang Palace, where a paper crane attacked him, and his Leather Case unleashed a colorful world that expanded through the city.
• Xu Huo arrived in District 011 and saw the district celebrating a government team’s return with supplies and a subsidy for residents.
• Xu Huo found that news reports concealed the cruise ship’s killing game while praising Captain Matt and Ran Ying, and that Ran Ying had gained authority over the White Shoulder Badge.
• Bai Kou told Xu Huo that the Whale had set his sights on him and that the Ghastly Sound Knights were working with District 011 to investigate the ship’s passengers.
• Xu Huo reached Rose Castle, where Mr. Dong greeted him at the gate.

After returning to Rose Castle, Xu Huo handled his new noble status, settled the painted woman there as Xu Chun, and reviewed his game resources. He then revisited V’s Photo Album and used the Diamond Key’s address to investigate a possible special mineral, leaving to look into the arson news about Fanshaw in District 001.

• Mr. Dong told Xu Huo that his baronial title had been recognized and that the Duchess had invited him to Duke Tar’s funeral and a charity dinner; Xu Huo agreed to visit her in a couple of days.
• Xu Huo learned Bai Kou had not returned, set Ran Ying’s invitation aside, and brought the painted woman out under rules requiring her to use an inconspicuous appearance and not wander or kill.
• Xu Huo asked Mr. Dong to arrange a room, servants, and identification for the painted woman, who received the name Xu Chun.
• Xu Huo reviewed his game-base messages and considered his need for better combat items and Evolution Potions after the A-rated Co-Eye dungeon.
• Xu Huo examined the black stone in V’s Photo Album and considered that it might be a special mineral, then noted that the Diamond Key pointed to Area 01 in Sub-district 001 at the E27 wormhole point.
• Xu Huo took the Photo Album’s news about Fanshaw’s arson in District 001 and left the partitioned space.