Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo escaped Jiang Jiang’s destructive items and confronted her about the death she had foreseen. Jiang Jiang vanished from the art gallery after hinting that she might have answered his questions on the bounty platform, leaving Xu Huo in the ruins.

• Jiang Jiang combined her ring and pendant, unleashing shock waves that tore through the Book Tower and forced Xu Huo to flee with her.
• Xu Huo protected Jiang Jiang from the blast, and they landed in an art gallery, where she asked to see his real face and told him to kill her.
• Xu Huo questioned Jiang Jiang’s belief that her foreseen death was inevitable, and they discussed time travel and the grandfather paradox.
• Jiang Jiang refused to explain her Teacher, suggested she might have answered Xu Huo’s questions on the bounty platform, and invited him to find her in District 009.
• Jiang Jiang and the art gallery vanished, and Xu Huo kicked away someone who came flying at him.

Xu Huo fought his way out of the art gallery, rescued the wounded Old Zhou, and tried to find a quiet place to rest in the Safe Zone. His search ended when Yan Jiayu appeared and knocked a man into his path.

• Xu Huo killed the Black-Clad Players who attacked him, then stopped fighting to retrieve the Awakening Doll and announced he would return in three days.
• Xu Huo used his Kite String to pull Old Zhou out of danger after hearing that the Black-Clad Players had been killing Evolvers, then left him in a secluded spot.
• Xu Huo examined Jiang Jiang’s Painter’s Brush and considered her troubled state before resting on an apartment rooftop.
• Xu Huo moved between rooftops to avoid other Players and left the building complex when he realized people were lying in wait below.
• Xu Huo followed a closed-off road and encountered Yan Jiayu, who knocked a man through a barricade and into his path.

Xu Huo reunited with Yan Jiayu, who had acquired an intelligent A-class stone lion and used it to drive off two Players. As they ate, Xu Huo suggested her rapid recovery and new ability might indicate a second evolution, and they planned to travel to District 009 before continuing to District 011.

• Xu Huo watched Yan Jiayu defeat a Player and summon Big Mao, a living stone lion that forced two Players pursuing him to retreat.
• Yan Jiayu killed the Player she had pinned, then told Xu Huo that Big Mao was an intelligent A-class item she had recently acquired.
• Xu Huo noticed Yan Jiayu's injuries and learned that she had developed an ability to drink without getting drunk after fighting Big Mao.
• Xu Huo suggested Yan Jiayu might have undergone a second evolution and advised her to try controlling her body from within.
• Yan Jiayu said she wanted to visit District 011 and buy paintings in District 009, while Xu Huo revealed that the Painter and her paintings were gone.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu secured a car and parking spot after Yan Jiayu stopped two Players from forcing another vehicle out. They spent the night in the underground garage with their nervous passenger, while Xu Huo mysteriously disappeared after following him outside to throw out the trash.

• Yan Jiayu accepted one million white cash from Xu Huo and offered him the items she had collected in other Sub-districts.
• Yan Jiayu attacked a Player who was forcing a sedan out of its parking spot, and Xu Huo subdued the passenger; they took the car and parking space.
• Yan Jiayu shared pancakes with Xu Huo and the passenger, who said he had left his mother in the mountains because she would be safer there.
• Yan Jiayu drove off people fighting near the garage entrance, returned with food, and settled down to sleep while Xu Huo promised to handle any trouble.
• Xu Huo followed the passenger outside with the trash, then disappeared before the passenger could turn around.

Xu Huo used a terrifying mental illusion to drive off Players who tried to enter the underground garage, then spent the morning with Yan Jiayu as the Capital Safe Zone restricted movement and forced ordinary people to relocate. The two headed to the Player Mall, where Yan Jiayu bought Potions and discovered that one tasted like canned herring.

• Xu Huo blocked the parking garage entrance and used a mental illusion to make a Player flee in terror, causing both groups outside to withdraw.
• At daybreak, Yan Jiayu exercised while Xu Huo bought breakfast, and public screens reported that Player violence had killed at least fifty ordinary people.
• Uniformed Players ordered people to leave the parking garage and move to parks, while forbidding them from taking their cars.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu decided to visit the Player Mall, and the passenger they had traveled with joined the departing crowd.
• Yan Jiayu bought several Potions and tried a jelly Potion that tasted like canned herring.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu watched an attack on a government Office Building in District 009, where intruders used black spheres to collapse part of the structure while searching for an Artifact. One attacker then killed players by writing their True Names, and the surviving intruders prepared to leave as new groups arrived.

• Yan Jiayu and Xu Huo left the Mall, bought supplies, and flew by hot-air balloon to watch a large player fight.
• Xu Huo spotted coordinated intruders moving toward a government Office Building, where they launched four black spheres at it.
• One sphere brought down half the building, burying players and civilians beneath the rubble.
• An intruder threw colored marker-like darts into the wreckage, apparently searching for an Artifact, while his companions held off the defenders.
• One intruder wrote players' True Names on a sheet of paper, killing them one by one and driving the others into Dungeons.
• After killing more than a dozen people, the intruders prepared to leave as new player groups arrived.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu pursued the Players who had attacked the fleeing group, suspecting they were hunting someone with a Perfect Potion or powerful Artifact. They joined the fight inside the Commercial Building, where the battle continued with both sides injured.

• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu recognized the name-crossing killings as similar to the deaths linked to the List and followed the remaining attackers into the Commercial Building.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu entered the building separately and found a fleeing Player being pursued by another man.
• Yan Jiayu attacked the pursuing Player with Big Mao and her Doll sticker, breaking his shield and driving him through the building.
• Xu Huo used Shelter 101 and his Artifacts to support Yan Jiayu as the pursuing Player resisted their attacks and escaped their traps.
• After three minutes of fighting, Xu Huo, Yan Jiayu, and their opponent had all taken damage.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu learned that the killer was connected to the Holy Sword Society and suspected the lethal paper might be tied to it. After their investigation was interrupted by collapsing buildings, they helped rescue survivors from the rubble in District 009.

• The pursuer attacked the government player, but the government player revealed his control over lethal threads and killed him.
• The government player found a copy of the Holy Sword Society's rules in the pursuer's Storage Compartment, but said the killing paper was not there.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu suspected the killings were a trap and agreed to seek more information in District 011.
• As buildings began collapsing, Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu rushed to help evacuate and rescue people.
• Xu Huo marked buried survivors with flags while Yan Jiayu and Big Mao dug people out, rescuing nearly thirty.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu helped rescue people after a building collapsed amid the fighting in District 009, then returned to their hotel. Before dawn, Capital Safe Zone representatives arrived, apparently to question them about the previous day’s events.

• Yan Jiayu pulled a trapped man free and encouraged the survivors as Xu Huo and she helped rescue people from the ruins.
• When the building collapsed, Yan Jiayu urged a discouraged Player not to give up on helping others, and she and Xu Huo continued assisting the rescue teams.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu left the cordoned-off area, accepted a hotel room from a rescue Player, and watched news of District 009’s worsening crisis.
• Xu Huo visited the collapsed government building at night and found that ordinary office workers’ bodies remained buried beneath the rubble.
• Before dawn, He Hui arrived with other Players and thanked Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu before asking about the previous day’s events.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu left the government Players behind and recovered the Awakening Doll, which released Chi Nan and her companions. They used their Tickets to escape pursuers, landed in a Station where they killed deranged Players, and boarded a train.

• He Hui questioned Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu about the pursuer, then left them gifts after they refused to sign a document.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu stayed in their hotel as the Player organization's mobilization calmed the area around the Capital Safe Zone.
• Xu Huo returned to the exhibition hall and used a pebble to make the Awakening Doll release Chi Nan and her companions.
• Yan Jiayu warned Xu Huo that someone was following them, and the Awakening Doll lunged at him before they used their Tickets to escape.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu arrived at a bloody Station and killed the Players who had been eating a victim.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu boarded a train, where the passengers paused their conversations at the sight of their bloodied clothes.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu rode the train, where a middle-aged woman tried to sell players dubious beauty and luck products. Yan Jiayu won enough at cards to cover their meal and shared her stocked-up food with the carriage.

• A middle-aged woman sold special lipstick to two female players and tried to sell Mommy's Scent to a grieving woman, who said all three of her children were dead.
• The middle-aged woman pitched her products to Yan Jiayu, who challenged their effectiveness and refused to buy; Xu Huo pretended to be deaf.
• Xu Huo ordered the day's special, while Yan Jiayu joined the card players and lost her first three rounds without paying.
• Yan Jiayu won every round after her free losses and returned to Xu Huo with enough winnings to cover their meals.
• Yan Jiayu shared her local snacks with the card players and the other players in the carriage.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu rode through a stretch of water lit by grayfish, then learned that a dangerous storm was approaching the train. Xu Huo recognized signs of a dimensional storm and led Yan Jiayu toward another carriage as the other players began following.

• Yan Jiayu shared food and chatted with the middle-aged woman, who explained that she sold goods to afford Potions and support her family.
• Xu Huo woke at dinnertime and saw strange lights reflecting across the water as the train passed through it.
• The old man explained that grayfish produced the lights and warned that their appearance meant a change in the weather was coming.
• The players spotted gray clouds ahead, and the old man advised them to wait while Xu Huo took Yan Jiayu to another carriage.
• Xu Huo recognized the clouds as signs of a possible dimensional storm and recalled that remaining aboard could protect them if the spaces beside the tracks survived.

Xu Huo, Yan Jiayu, and the other passengers survived an E3 dimensional storm by sheltering in the train’s middle cars, but most of the train and its passengers vanished. Stranded beside the damaged tracks with little oxygen and no way to teleport, they waited for the Rail Supply Department to arrive.

• Xu Huo warned Yan Jiayu that the approaching storm might be a dimensional storm, and the train controller announced it was an E3 storm and directed passengers to the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Cars.
• The dimensional storm swept through the train in seconds, destroying the cars at both ends and leaving only parts of the Third and Fifth Cars intact.
• Players who survived the storm reported that there was little oxygen outside, and Xu Huo found that his Ticket could not teleport him to a nearby Station.
• Xu Huo, Yan Jiayu, and the others went outside in Protective Suits and learned that the destroyed tracks and surrounding space made escape dangerous.
• The traffic controller said the train had sent a signal before the storm and that the Rail Supply Department would arrive within three days, so the stranded passengers settled beside the tracks to wait.

As darkness fell around the tracks, a player attacked others after becoming fixated on the smell of food, but train staff killed him and revealed that each staff member had a specialty. Xu Huo and the others discussed the staff’s origins and the history of the game, ending with a lead about clockmakers at C9 Wormhole Point who might know when it began.

• After night fell, a player’s light revealed that several people had become unnaturally greedy after smelling a Cannibal Player’s food.
• A player protested the light, attacked the pink-haired woman, and was trapped and crushed by a train staff member.
• The conductor warned the passengers that everyone working on the train had a specialty, and the players settled down.
• Yan Jiayu asked whether the train staff were players, and the elderly man explained that many were experienced players raised in the game world.
• Xu Huo asked when the game began, and the elderly man said clockmakers at C9 Wormhole Point might have recorded its history.

Xu Huo and the other players rested beside the tracks until a midnight fight broke out after four players walked away from the group. Two female players returned with severed heads, and the group later questioned what had really triggered the violence.

• Yan Jiayu suggested that time travel might offer hope, and the old man agreed that hope was better than none.
• Two men attacked a nearby player as they headed along the tracks, sparking a brawl that spread to other players.
• The curly-haired and short-haired female players returned carrying heads and warned the men against trying to force themselves on women.
• Yan Jiayu stepped on Unlucky Face, and Xu Huo pressured him into admitting he had started the argument.
• The old man pointed out that the two men’s behavior did not fit a straightforward assault, leaving the women to reconsider what had happened.

The players waited beside the tracks in the endless night, but a nearby body of water shifted into the illuminated area, suggesting spaces around them were moving. The group searched for three players who had gone exploring and continued along the tracks when they could not find them.

• When players asked why it was still dark, a staff member explained that some spaces did not follow a normal day-night cycle.
• Three players set off along the tracks to search for valuable materials, while Xu Huo and the others stayed near the train.
• Yan Jiayu tossed a Lollipop into a pit, and the old gentleman warned her that the depths and spatial density near the tracks could be deceptive.
• After the group played cards and gambled for two hours, the gray fish's body of water appeared inside the illuminated area, alarming the players and train staff.
• The train dispatcher ordered the players to find the three explorers and keep them on the tracks, but the group found no sign of them and continued in the opposite direction from the moving space.
• After ten hours of walking, some players began to grow restless.

Xu Huo and the other players continued along the tracks while the train conductor punished anyone who challenged or attacked his staff. After days of travel and mounting exhaustion, daylight returned and the conductor allowed the group to rest while they waited for the rescue team.

• Duckbill Hat suggested a rest, but the train conductor initially continued ahead until most players voted to stop.
• After the group set off again, the train conductor used his authority to kill the bearded man and other players who had challenged him, and the staff dissolved their bodies with Cleaning Agent.
• Players began ambushing one another for supplies, while Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu drove off an attacker targeting Unlucky Face.
• Xu Huo used Kite String to carry the tiring Yan Jiayu, and other players relied on mobility aids and knitted toys to keep moving.
• At nine in the morning, the sky brightened, and the train conductor stopped the group, saying they could rest while they waited for the rescue team.

As tensions and hunger worsened among the stranded players, Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu watched a series of nighttime fights break out. They subdued two female players who had attacked the pink-haired woman and prepared to question them about their behavior.

• Xu Huo asked the train operator and a staff member about the day-night cycle and learned that stable spaces followed a normal cycle.
• Yan Jiayu shared food with the staff, while the old man and his group rationed their supplies as other players eyed them warily.
• After the players' lights went out, a fight broke out in the dark and ended with four deaths; some players then began eating the bodies.
• Further fights erupted, including an attack on Unlucky Face and an assault by two female players on the pink-haired woman.
• Xu Huo knocked the short-haired woman unconscious, and Yan Jiayu subdued the curly-haired woman before trying to wake her and question her.

Xu Huo and the others discovered that several players had been poisoned and hallucinating after using a lipstick sold by a middle-aged woman. When the poisoned players attacked her, she killed two of them with unusual items, leaving the remaining players facing a deadly threat.

• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu questioned the players who had fought, and Pink Hair used her item to check their recent item use.
• Xu Huo tested the players with the Appraisal Fork and found that the curly-haired woman, the short-haired woman, and the woman holding Unlucky Face had all ingested a hallucinogenic poison.
• Xu Huo connected the poison to lipstick the woman holding Unlucky Face had bought from the middle-aged woman.
• The curly-haired woman and her companions attacked the middle-aged woman, who trapped them with a giant Poster and killed one of the female players with her curved blade.
• The curly-haired woman and the short-haired woman used laser-like lines to corner the middle-aged woman, but she sent her blade along a line and killed the short-haired woman.
• The curly-haired woman charged the middle-aged woman and was cut into pieces by bloody lines.

After days stranded in a dimensional storm, Xu Huo and the surviving Players were rescued by the Rail Supply Department after witnessing a phenomenon described as curved time. The sight led Xu Huo to wonder whether Dr. Wu’s movements and items connected to precognition involved unusual properties of time and space.

• The curly-haired Player recovered her companion’s body after the middle-aged woman was killed, and the Players’ numbers dwindled as days passed without rescue.
• Yan Jiayu spotted a rippling boundary between spaces, and the train’s traffic controller explained that it showed a space undergoing a period of curved time.
• Xu Huo asked whether curved time could enable travel between past and future, but the controller and an old man explained that such a journey was unlikely and difficult.
• The Rail Supply Department arrived on a track-repair train and brought the stranded Players aboard.
• Xu Huo wondered whether Dr. Wu had used curved time to evade the Game Government and whether He Pu’s predictive notes or the Perfect Potion were connected to it.
• Yan Jiayu told Xu Huo that curved time was not cyclical and that the past could not be changed easily.