Chapter Summaries

A Super Player from District 011 used time-based rays to attack the city, but Xu Huo saw the rays and avoided them. Back at the Ancient Castle, Xu Huo questioned Bai Kou about Super Evolution, then used Completed Script to learn more about the safe house and the missing emerald.

• A Super Player from District 011 attacked the city with Still Time, and Xu Huo saw and dodged one of the Time Rays.
• Bai Kou explained that seeing the rays might indicate Xu Huo had been changed by contact with Lawrence Li’s space-time artifact, and warned him about Super Evolution.
• Xu Huo and Bai Kou returned to the Ancient Castle, where Mr. Dong and the painted woman checked on Xu Huo; he told Xiao Yuan to study with Mr. Dong.
• Xu Huo asked Bai Kou about Super Evolution, and she suggested he consult Mr. Dong about changing the state of objects.
• Xu Huo used Completed Script and witnessed someone steal the emerald while Qing Cai gave chase; he also saw a Player with a golden sword insignia bow to Bai Kou.

After the polluted Main City was left for the authorities to clean up, Xu Huo returned to the Ancient Castle and spent the next morning with Bai Kou and the others. Bai Kou explained how object control could work through manipulating space, giving Xu Huo a new way to understand the ability.

• Xu Huo read the Completed Script’s account of Director Sanyang hiding an item and the black gas polluting the city, then sent Bai Kou an antidote through the painted woman.
• Xu Huo returned to the Ancient Castle, where the painted woman tried to stay in his room and admitted she was afraid of Bai Kou.
• Bai Kou arrived, and Xu Huo learned that the painted woman became unusually docile around her because Bai Kou had beaten her when she misbehaved.
• Xu Huo asked Mr. Dong about Static Reversal, and Mr. Dong said Players could use items without understanding how they worked.
• Bai Kou demonstrated that object control could manipulate space, sending a petal into a table and uprooting a flowering tree dozens of meters away.

Xu Huo considered Bai Kou’s offer, stayed out of a suspicious trap, and learned that District 011 had finished clearing Base City. That night, he experienced a strange memory or vision in which a Doctor treated him as a child and told him he had failed a test.

• Xu Huo offered Bai Kou a secret about District 001 in exchange for help with Super Evolution, but she asked to borrow his Super Artifact instead, and he declined.
• Shi Youzhi told Xu Huo he was on leave while the base was restored, and the District 011 authorities publicly blamed the Holy Sword Society for the contamination of Base City.
• Xu Huo suspected that Director Sanyang’s hidden box was bait and decided not to investigate it.
• Black Shoulder Badge members questioned the Ancient Castle’s residents, then the government announced that Base City was clear and residents could relocate at government expense.
• Xu Huo reviewed He Pu’s materials in the Study Room, fell asleep after the lights went out, and saw a Doctor give a child a Potion injection before declaring that the child had failed a test.

Xu Huo relived a childhood memory in which he outmaneuvered a violent child and drew the Doctor’s approval. Afterward, Bai Kou suggested that his memories were returning because his brain had evolved, and Xu Huo asked how someone could erase memories and records of a person at once.

• The Doctor told young Xu Huo that his concern was unnecessary, then gave him an extra injection.
• Xu Huo found himself in a room with other children, where one threatened to blind him with a sharpened spoon while Chang Bei and two others restrained him.
• Xu Huo provoked the attacker by calling him a pig and revealing that he and Chang Bei had seen him stealing medicine, then held his ground until the Doctor arrived.
• Xu Huo called the Doctor a pig too, and the Doctor appeared pleased that Xu Huo had judged his own worth and used a calculated trick.
• Back in the present, Xu Huo spoke to Bai Kou, who denied manipulating him and suggested his childhood memories might be returning as his brain evolved.
• Xu Huo asked Bai Kou what could alter someone’s memories and erase every record of them in reality.

Xu Huo made a will naming Bai Kou as his heir so she would teach him about Super Evolution. After struggling to sense her manipulation of space, he studied Mr. Dong’s Static Reversal and assured him Rose Castle would not pass to Bai Kou.

• Bai Kou explained that memories could be erased or sealed, but Xu Huo insisted he wanted his own memories back.
• Xu Huo wrote a will leaving Rose Castle and his inheritance to Bai Kou if he died, and Bai Kou signed it before agreeing to teach him.
• Bai Kou used a mechanical glove to help Xu Huo sense space and explained how perception could lead to Super Evolution.
• Xu Huo tried repeatedly to feel and control the force Bai Kou created, but he failed, so she left him the glove to practice with.
• Mr. Dong demonstrated Static Reversal with a broken teacup and an Hourglass, and Xu Huo told him Rose Castle would not end up in Bai Kou’s hands.

Xu Huo negotiated with Dr. Deng over information about the Perfect Potion and agreed to let him stay in the Annex in exchange for a file. The file revealed that the Perfect Potion could react specially with the Wormhole Flower.

• Mr. Dong said He Pu did not want to hand Rose Castle over to Bai Kou, and Xu Huo asked him to prepare her favorite dishes for dinner.
• Xu Huo told Dr. Deng to leave District 011, but Dr. Deng refused and offered a file about the Perfect Potion in exchange for an experimental subject.
• Xu Huo rejected Dr. Deng's request for his blood and agreed to let him stay after receiving the file.
• Xu Huo examined the file and found that the Perfect Potion could produce a special reaction with the Wormhole Flower.

Xu Huo questioned Dr. Deng about Wormhole Flowers and Perfect Evolution Potions, then left with the research documents while remaining suspicious of him. In the old district, Black Shoulder Badges accused Xu Huo of involvement in two incidents, but their team leader stopped them from detaining him without evidence.

• Dr. Deng explained how Wormhole Flowers reacted to Evolution Potions and argued that Perfect Potions affected their growth.
• Xu Huo speculated that Stellar Pharmaceutical might have developed Perfect Potions earlier and Dr. Wu had spread them, but Dr. Deng dismissed the theory.
• Xu Huo questioned Dr. Deng about later potions and suspected that he had built up resistance to truth-serum potions.
• Xu Huo ordered Wormhole Flowers and other items, then headed to the old district to check on orphans he had sponsored.
• Black Shoulder Badges accused Xu Huo of links to the Rongxin classified-information theft and the Attack Incident, but their team leader refused to detain him without evidence.
• Xu Huo defended his presence in District 011, saying his money and charity work contributed to its prosperity.

Xu Huo met Qing Cai and brought her back to Rose Castle, where she revealed she was tracking an experimental box and her stolen emerald. The box had been sent to a Level Three Laboratory in Lincheng, while Qing Cai settled in at the castle and gave Xu Huo’s family meeting stones that glowed like starlight.

• The team leader told Xu Huo that the children from the Welfare Institute had been sent away safely and warned him to stay out of the Main City.
• Xu Huo visited the children, then encountered Qing Cai, who had come looking for a place to stay and told him her belongings had been stolen.
• Qing Cai explained that she had marked a Black Shoulder Badge member transporting an experimental box and that her emerald also had a tracking mark.
• Xu Huo took Qing Cai to Rose Castle, where she gave meeting stones to the painted woman and Xiao Yuan.
• Qing Cai’s tracking disk reported that the box had gone to a Level Three Laboratory in Lincheng, and she later asked Mr. Dong to prepare supplies for her.
• The painted woman returned excitedly to Xu Huo and gestured that her meeting stone gave off starlight.

Xu Huo verified Dr. Deng’s claims about identifying a Perfect Potion, then went to the Duchess’s mansion when she called for help. There, the government and Enforcement Department were confronting Lady Lily over her brother’s suspected ties to the Holy Sword Society.

• Xu Huo tested the green Potion on a Wormhole Flower and confirmed Dr. Deng’s information about identifying Perfect Potions.
• Xu Huo used a prop to test Dr. Deng, concluded that Dr. Deng could evade its detection, and ordered Mr. Dong to keep him locked up for a few more days.
• After Bai Kou failed to return, Xu Huo accepted the Duchess’s call and found government Players and the Enforcement Department surrounding her mansion.
• Serin told Xu Huo that Lady Lily’s younger brother was suspected of secretly colluding with the Holy Sword Society and was hiding inside the Ancient Castle.
• Lady Lily appealed to the gathered nobles by recounting her family’s sacrifices, while Asis demanded that her brother come out and answer questions.

Asis led an attempt to search the Duke's Mansion and take Leyton Miller into custody, but Leyton surrendered voluntarily to protect the Miler family. Lady Lily later told Xu Huo that she planned to make the Werner family pay and asked which faction among District 011's nobles he supported.

• Asis demanded that Lady Lily cooperate with an investigation into Leyton Miller, then ordered his Players to search the Duke's Mansion.
• Lady Lily used her castle's strange spatial abilities to resist the search, but Leyton emerged and agreed to submit to an investigation.
• Asis and the government Players took Leyton away, while Lady Lily stopped the Miler Players from trying to rescue him.
• Lady Lily told Xu Huo that she intended to make the Werner family pay because they had no evidence against Leyton.
• Lady Lily asked Xu Huo whether he favored the nobles who wanted to keep plundering or those who wanted trade relations with higher-level Wormhole Points.

Xu Huo accepted Lady Lily’s request to kill a Holy Sword Society Player, a mission that would bind him to the Nobles’ faction in District 011. After taking a Perfect Evolution Potion and traveling to Xiang City, he infiltrated the courthouse where the prisoner was being held and prepared to act.

• Lady Lily asked Xu Huo to kill a captured C-class Holy Sword Society Player before sunrise, and Xu Huo recognized the assignment as his Allegiance Pledge to the Nobles.
• Xu Huo returned to Rose Castle, where Bai Kou warned him not to rely too heavily on his Spiritual World with so many Players nearby.
• Xu Huo injected a P2S Evolution Potion, raising his evolution rate to 40%, but felt resistance in his movements and learned that rapid advancement could cause fatigue.
• Xu Huo disguised himself, traveled to Xiang City, and entered the courthouse invisibly by following Black Shoulder Badge guards.
• Xu Huo marked paintings, damaged a restroom pipe, stole a spare cleaning uniform, and added a false name to the staff roster.

Xu Huo prepared a subtle pollen trail in the courtroom and investigated suspicious handling of blood collected during courthouse identity checks. As the trial began under heavy security, the White Shoulder Badges argued with the Black Shoulder Badges over a lead they had found in the Locker Room.

• Xu Huo scattered traceable plant pollen across the courtroom, then left with a patrol team and waited nearby for the trial.
• Xu Huo watched a Black Shoulder Badge discard blood from identity checks, then followed a woman who retrieved it and entered an apartment building.
• The White Shoulder Badges found something suspicious in the cleaning staff's Locker Room and arrested the cleaners, while the Black Shoulder Badges secured the courthouse and closed the men's restroom.
• The hooded Holy Sword Society player arrived in restraints, followed by Leyton Miller, Asis Werner, Kag Herta, Lady Lily, and other trial attendees.
• The Black Shoulder Badges barred everyone from entering or leaving once the trial began, and the White Shoulder Badges eventually agreed to let them accompany the team investigating the Locker Room lead.

Xu Huo tried to make contact with the Holy Sword Society player in custody, but the player spotted him, took his ticket, and exposed his position. Xu Huo escaped the courthouse and led the pursuers to a hidden room in a middle-aged woman’s home, where she attacked him.

• Xu Huo slipped into the courthouse during a disturbance and identified the injured Holy Sword Society player after he left court.
• Xu Huo searched the restroom and later planted a ticket as a signal, hoping the player would mistake it for a message from a rescuer.
• The Holy Sword Society player reached through the wall, grabbed Xu Huo, and took the ticket, alerting the Black Shoulder Badge guards to Xu Huo’s presence.
• Xu Huo escaped through a window, evaded pursuit with his abilities and disguise, then led guards and government Players to the middle-aged woman’s home.
• Xu Huo broke through a wall into the home’s hidden room, where the middle-aged woman shoved him back with an invisible force.

Xu Huo deduced how a Holy Sword Society player was using a one-time paper item to kill people across great distances. After the Yelan Laboratory exploded and the killing resumed, he took a dead Black Shoulder Badge agent’s Communicator.

• The middle-aged woman and arriving Holy Sword Society players broke through the Black Shoulder Badge agents’ encirclement and headed toward the courthouse while Xu Huo escaped in disguise.
• The Yelan Laboratory exploded, drawing Ran Ying and many Black Shoulder Badge agents away from the courthouse as Asis Werner and his companions emerged.
• Players began dying across the city, and Asis ordered his forces to kill Holy Sword Society members and anyone suspected of belonging to it.
• Xu Huo recognized the killings from earlier incidents and deduced that a one-time paper item used victims’ real names and blood as ink.
• Xu Huo took a dead Black Shoulder Badge agent’s Communicator.

Xu Huo escaped to the Station after a Holy Sword Society Player attacked him through space, and he suspected the captured Player had been taken deliberately. At the Station, he observed a Potion seller and several other Players, then boarded the train with most of them and sat behind the man missing two fingers.

• Xu Huo considered the Holy Sword Society’s organization and returned to Rose Castle, where he learned Qing Cai had left.
• When Xu Huo examined the marked Diamond Glove, a Holy Sword Society Player attacked him by manipulating space, but Bai Kou sent him to the Station.
• Xu Huo concluded the captured Player had likely been taken on purpose and noticed that his own repeated Evolutions were causing symptoms like an Aftereffect.
• At the Station, Xu Huo watched a Potion seller trade with Players and heard him criticize the train’s food prices.
• Xu Huo boarded the train with several of the Station’s Players and sat behind the man missing two fingers from his right hand.

Xu Huo and the other Players traveled aboard Train 792, where a birthday announcement imposed a five-thousand-White-Cash spending requirement. As the Conductor pressured passengers to buy the special meal, Xu Huo paid for it, added a tip, and sent the Chef a gift.

• A Player with a mole sat beside a beautiful woman and invited her to dine, while the Potion seller moved to another carriage.
• The train announced its rules and revealed that passengers were encouraged to spend at least five thousand White Cash for the Chef's birthday.
• The Potion seller described how powerful Conductors could be, and Xu Huo explained that train staff were generally strong enough to restrain passengers.
• The Conductor distributed birthday cakes and promoted a five-thousand-White-Cash meal set.
• Xu Huo paid for the meal, added a five-hundred-White-Cash tip, and bought a gift package for the Chef.

After the train lights went out, a mysterious attack killed two Players in Xu Huo’s carriage while many others slept. The surviving Players realized other carriages were affected too and suspected the danger was inside the carriages.

• Xu Huo, Xiao Xianglin, and the other Players shared a meal and spent the afternoon dancing with the beautiful female Player.
• After the carriage went dark, Xu Huo woke to an axe-wielding shadow that vanished when he struck it.
• Xu Huo found the elderly man and the blonde Player decapitated, then woke Xiao Xianglin, who used a megaphone to rouse the sleeping Players.
• The female Player identified three others who had been awake, while Xu Huo said the victims were already dead when he opened his eyes.
• A Player from the carriage ahead sealed their door, and Xu Huo noticed the rear carriages were silent.
• The Player with the severed finger reasoned that the killings had happened too quickly to be caused by someone moving between carriages, so the danger was likely inside them.

After several passengers were found murdered across the train, Xu Huo and the other Players debated how the killer had put them to sleep and who among them could be responsible. They kept watch through the night, with Xu Huo privately suspecting several passengers but leaving the killer unidentified.

• Xu Huo suggested checking nearby carriages, and the smoking player returned from the carriages behind them reporting more deaths.
• The Players debated whether the killings came from poison, an item, or an Ability, and suspicion fell on Xiao Xianglin because he had sold Potions in other carriages.
• Xu Huo privately suspected the smoking player, the man in a raincoat, and the player with severed fingers, while withholding what he knew about the figure he had seen.
• Xu Huo said he had not seen the attacker clearly and suggested the figure might have been a hallucination, after which the Players stayed awake to guard themselves.
• Xiao Xianglin played cards with Xu Huo and Xu Jinfeng to stave off sleep, while the smoking player kept scraping at the table and insisted he would not drink.

Xu Huo investigated the locked carriages and encountered a player who might be the Holy Sword Society member he had tracked, while his strange nighttime visions continued. He wondered whether the Potion he had taken was causing the hallucinations as the players took turns resting.

• Xu Huo and the other players found blood in the corridor and discovered that the carriages ahead were locked, while the Conductor refused to reveal what had happened there.
• Xu Huo recognized the player with severed fingers as a possible captured Holy Sword Society player, and the player's Good Friends Score briefly rose before dropping as he considered killing Xu Huo.
• Xiao Xianglin suggested Xu Huo's vision had been a hallucination and gave him several Potions, while Xu Huo bought two Evolution Potions in return.
• Xu Huo sprang up with his sword after sensing someone nearby, but found no one, so the players divided into groups to rest.
• Xu Huo lay down with several items equipped and wondered whether his lingering unease and visions were an Aftereffect of the Potion.

Xu Huo and the other Players spent the night in the train carriage as a ghost story seemed to become real, and a Player was dragged away and killed. At dawn, Xu Huo inspected the neighboring carriage and found its Players dead, then discovered that the skinned man had died from blood loss.

• Xu Huo rested in shifts with the other Players and introduced himself to You Si while smoking.
• The female Player told a ghost story about a bus, funeral money, and a living passenger, then Xu Jinfeng claimed he saw people waving funeral money outside.
• A bloodied Player from the carriage ahead begged for help before vanishing, and Xu Huo and the others blocked their carriage door with tables.
• At dawn, Xu Huo entered the neighboring carriage and found every Player there dead, with the previous night's victims brutally mutilated.
• Xu Huo examined the skinned man's corpse and concluded that he had died from blood loss.