Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo developed his Spiritual World after Mental Evolution, using vertical pupils to see and influence a wider area. He discovered that his reach now extended five hundred meters and spotted ten Players observing him, while the lightning pattern man wondered whether Xu's evolution had succeeded.

• Xu Huo formed vertical pupils that followed his gaze and could be spread throughout his Spiritual World.
• Xu Huo used the pupils to see previously obscured areas, making his Spiritual World more lifelike but seemingly more fragile.
• Xu Huo experimented with expanding the Book Tower into seven connected towers, then merged them back into one.
• Xu Huo measured his Spiritual World's range at five hundred meters and found he could see and mentally influence people beyond that distance.
• Xu Huo detected ten Players hiding three hundred meters away and tested his new fine control on three of them.
• The lightning pattern man asked over his Communicator whether Xu Huo had succeeded, noting that Ren Man had been sitting and Xu had been standing still for nearly ten minutes.

Xu Huo ended Ren Man’s Super Evolution training after observing the limits of the Spiritual World and warned him about the strain on his mind and body. Ren Man reaffirmed his faith in W37 Base City and its agreement, while Xu Huo questioned whether its ideals would survive harsher circumstances.

• Gao Xiaoyan’s team discussed Xu Huo’s unusually high mental power readings and wondered whether he could detect their distant observers.
• Xu Huo explored the boundary of Ren Man’s Spiritual World, then ended the training after Ren Man failed to make further progress.
• Xu Huo warned Ren Man that using Super Evolution placed a heavy burden on his body and mind and could leave him vulnerable to other Players.
• Ren Man insisted that Gao Xiaoyan would not sacrifice herself for benefits and said he would rather die than let her do so.
• Xu Huo questioned Ren Man’s confidence in W37 Base City and its future, then looked toward the training base.

Ren Man began Super Evolution under Xu Huo’s guidance, while Xu Huo explained that talent and recognizing opportunities in Dungeons mattered more than seeking a shortcut. After eating with his companions, Xu Huo turned his attention to the caged living specimen and wondered who had killed it.

• Ren Man began Super Evolution, revealed fragments of his Spiritual World, and tested at over thirteen thousand mental strength.
• Gao Xiaoyan thanked Xu Huo and invited him and his companions to eat before departing.
• Pan Qiao pressed Xu Huo about a shortcut to Super Evolution, and Kuang Wenjun rebuked him for asking.
• Xu Huo explained that a low-level Player needed talent to recognize mental, spatial, or temporal Dungeon conditions as opportunities to evolve.
• Shangguan Xi encouraged himself by saying he might find such an opportunity, and the group ate.
• Xu Huo finished his meal, studied the caged living specimen, and wondered who had killed it.

Xu Huo's group discovered that the Alien specimen had been dead despite appearing alive, and its death exposed strange behavior by W37 Base City. Gao Xiaoyan offered compensation, but Xu Huo's questions about the specimen's intended use led her to investigate where Aliens were taken in the city.

• Xu Huo suspected that the Alien carried an infectious virus and questioned why W37 Base City had shown so little interest in receiving it.
• As the group prepared to leave the training base, Shangguan Xi noticed that the vehicle's detection system showed one fewer living being than expected.
• Gao Xiaoyan used the item Truth to reveal that the Alien in the cage had been dead for some time.
• Shangguan Xi accused Gao Xiaoyan's people, but Gao Xiaoyan denied killing the specimen and offered to make up for its loss.
• Xu Huo said that three Alien specimens were meant for vaccine research, prompting the lightning pattern man to claim W11 was trying to spread the virus.
• Gao Xiaoyan asked where Aliens were taken upon entering Base City, and the ponytail man said the dead went to the incineration plant while the living went to the Laboratory.

Xu Huo tried to take the live Alien specimen to W37 Base City, but Gao Xiaoyan and her players moved to stop him. Xu Huo escaped amid a chaotic pursuit and a supervirus alert, leaving Gao Xiaoyan’s group to abandon the chase and enter dormancy chambers.

• Gao Xiaoyan ordered the Laboratory secured, while Xu Huo insisted on taking the specimen to Base City and refused to hand it over.
• Gunfire, grenades, and smoke erupted around the training building, and Xu Huo drove away as Gao Xiaoyan pursued him.
• Gao Xiaoyan’s items and the players’ attacks failed to stop the vehicle, while Xu Huo’s illusion made the fight and the vehicle’s position difficult to distinguish.
• The ponytail man tried to reverse the vehicle, but Xu Huo and the others vanished as the building’s level-one alarm sounded.
• Gao Xiaoyan abandoned the pursuit and led the players to dormancy chambers, while Xu Huo told Shangguan Xi that the supervirus alert had taken priority.

After the live sample was revealed to be dead, Xu Huo and the others escaped the Training Base and headed for W37 Base City. The group abandoned hopes of clearing the Dungeon and continued toward the city, while Xu Huo confirmed that the Alien’s virus matched the one found in W18.

• Shangguan Xi suspected a virus leak, but Xu Huo said the alarm was false and explained that he had known the sample was dead by the time they reached the lounge.
• The group debated who had killed the sample, and Xu Huo told the Training Base Players to reflect on their failure to notice it.
• Shangguan Xi proposed joining Xu Huo in W37 Base City, while Zhu Feiyun and the others planned to part ways once they reached the city.
• The group discussed how to enter W37 Base City and agreed to replenish their supplies there before deciding what to do next.
• Xu Huo tested liquid from the Alien’s corpse, confirmed its virus matched the one from W18, and sealed the body inside Justice Umbrella.

Xu Huo's group entered W37 Base City without being stopped and found a heavily monitored city where ordinary residents lived alongside Players in an unusually normal atmosphere. Xu Huo headed toward the city center and asked Shangguan Xi to secretly follow Teacher Ai and record his movements and contacts.

• Xu Huo's group reached W37 Base City's open gates, paid to enter, and passed through without a close inspection.
• The group saw that the city remained lively, with ordinary residents going about their routines and enforcement Players patrolling under a B2-level alert.
• Teacher Ai said he would register with the enforcement team, while Zhu Feiyun, Kuang Wenjun, and Pan Qiao went their separate ways.
• Xu Huo headed toward the city center and asked Shangguan Xi to follow Teacher Ai and note where he went and whom he met.

Xu Huo investigated W37 Base City's handling of Aliens and the infected as he headed toward the incineration plant, suspecting the city knew the Alien's role as a virus carrier. The city’s residents expressed confidence in W37’s recovery, while the mayor’s broadcast ended with a pledge of loyalty to the city.

• Xu Huo told Shangguan Xi to keep his distance from Teacher Ai and contact him by Communicator, or wait at Tree-Crown Pillar Number One.
• Xu Huo took the express train toward the incineration plant, reasoning that Aliens brought into W37 would likely end up there and that the city might be allowing the virus carrier to serve a hidden purpose.
• An elderly passenger told Xu Huo that W37 disinfected daily, isolated infected people for treatment, and had opened experimental fields where they worked.
• Passengers praised W37’s improving living conditions, and a girl asked her mother to buy a banana for the family.
• The mayor’s broadcast recalled W37’s hardships and declared that she would live and die with the city.

Xu Huo explored W37’s bar district and learned that the incineration plant had been working overtime to burn the Laboratory’s discarded materials. As he left a bar, a shifty-eyed man tried to take his business card and asked whether Xu Huo was a Player and the owner’s new lover.

• Xu Huo passed the experimental fields and chose to visit the bar district to look for work and learn about the city.
• Xu Huo ordered a meal at a bar, where patrons discussed the incineration plant’s heavy workload and the Potion offered as overtime compensation.
• Old Ding explained that the Laboratory was clearing out its inventory, sending useless materials to be burned into fertilizer.
• Xu Huo paid and left the bar, dodging a man who tried to snatch the owner’s business card.
• The thin middle-aged man asked Xu Huo whether he was a Player and the owner’s new lover.

Xu Huo triggered a difficult side quest at W37’s incineration plant and investigated whether the epidemic was spreading through burned samples. After observing infected children in the quarantine zone, he concluded that the last live sample had likely been delivered successfully.

• Xu Huo avoided Brother Ma’s men until they ambushed him near the incineration plant, where he killed them and carried their bodies inside.
• Xu Huo triggered a 48-hour side quest while examining the incineration plant’s pile of Alien corpses, then disposed of the three bodies in the furnace.
• Xu Huo reasoned that W37 might have been marked for sacrifice and posted a bounty for information about the epidemic.
• Xu Huo entered the quarantine zone and watched infected children playing until a girl’s sore opened and her mother carried her away.
• Xu Huo concluded that the last live sample had probably been delivered successfully.

Xu Huo followed Teacher Ai to a retired government Laboratory security guard’s home, where players were secretly watching the apartment. When Xu Huo brought food upstairs, an explosion tore through the building, leaving him protected by his item but causing widespread destruction and casualties.

• Xu Huo learned from Shangguan Xi that Teacher Ai had visited a retired security guard from a government Laboratory, and that someone was watching the guard.
• Xu Huo joined Shangguan Xi at a dance club and observed Teacher Ai meeting the guard across the street.
• Xu Huo called the guard’s home, identified himself as Xu Gou delivering food to Teacher Ai, and entered the building as other players approached.
• A player rushed into the apartment after hearing a crash, and Xu Huo sensed the two people inside disappear as something began clicking.
• Xu Huo leaped through a hallway window and activated Absolute Safe Distance as the building exploded, killing many people and players nearby.

Xu Huo pursued Teacher Ai as W37 law enforcement Players tried to contain the chaos after explosions triggered a citywide search and clashes with outside Players. He reached Teacher Ai in a jewelry-store warehouse and warned that the W06 epidemic was spreading again, leading Teacher Ai to suspect live samples were the source.

• After the blasts, Xu Huo and Shangguan Xi tracked Teacher Ai and the retired security guard, but the pair vanished just as law enforcement captured them.
• Xu Huo spotted Teacher Ai fleeing and evaded law enforcement Players who tried to stop him.
• Outside Players stirred up trouble and attacked civilians, breaking the cordon as law enforcement clashed with them across the streets.
• Xu Huo tracked Teacher Ai to a jewelry-store warehouse and warned him that the W06 epidemic was spreading through W37 Base City again.
• Teacher Ai angrily concluded that live samples delivered to W37 had caused the infection, and the square-faced man asked what samples he meant.

Xu Huo questioned Teacher Ai and the square-faced man about the SE virus, learning that it was a genetic weapon originating in 01 Base City and that a renewed outbreak could spread from W37 to other Base Cities. He left the conversation facing doubts about the virus’s claimed effects on Evolver genes and the urgent need to stop its spread.

• Xu Huo confronted Teacher Ai and the square-faced man, offering not to harm them in exchange for information about the SE virus.
• Teacher Ai agreed to talk after Xu Huo showed a video of infected children, and explained that W37’s quarantine-zone outbreak could contaminate the city within forty-eight hours.
• Teacher Ai said the SE virus had weakened as it passed through successive infections, allowing some people to survive.
• Teacher Ai confirmed that the SE virus was a genetic weapon developed in 01 Base City to weaken other Base Cities, and claimed it damaged descendants’ genes and prevented them from becoming Evolvers.
• Xu Huo questioned whether the virus could truly damage Evolver genes, while Teacher Ai warned that ordinary residents could die and spread the infection to other Base Cities.

Xu Huo agreed to seek an SE Antidote at the government laboratory, while arranging for his companions to track Teacher Ai and Xiong Qing. He and Kuang Wenjun infiltrated the Canopy Pillar by disabling its spatial restrictions and setting fires to distract the guards.

• Xu Huo learned that W37's laboratory might hold research data and an SE Antidote, and agreed to retrieve them with Teacher Ai and Xiong Qing's help.
• Xiong Qing gave Xu Huo a laboratory map, and Xu Huo promised to draw the law enforcement team's attention while the others headed toward the city gate.
• Xu Huo found Shangguan Xi with Kuang Wenjun and Pan Qiao, then assigned Shangguan Xi and Pan Qiao to track Teacher Ai and Xiong Qing.
• Xu Huo took Kuang Wenjun toward the Canopy Pillar and asked whether she had an invisibility item.
• Xu Huo disabled the spatial restrictions around the Canopy Pillar, set several shops on fire to distract its guards, and led Kuang Wenjun into a television station building.

Xu Huo used a hijacked television broadcast to warn W37 that he would release biological weapons at the R1 Laboratory, prompting a government evacuation while Kuang Wenjun held off the enforcement team. He entered the evacuated laboratory, searched its archives, and found a file on the SE virus naming Luo Changren.

• Xu Huo took over Bluebird TV Station and ordered the host to broadcast an attack warning while Kuang Wenjun stayed behind to delay the enforcement team.
• The host announced that biological weapons would be released at the R1 Laboratory in five minutes, and W37 officials ordered nearby laboratories evacuated and sent Players to the station.
• Kuang Wenjun used her Space Artifact to repel successive waves of Players as she tried to buy Xu Huo time.
• Xu Huo entered the evacuated R1 Laboratory, disabled its electronic surveillance, and checked the floor plan against Xiong Qing's information.
• Xu Huo searched the archives and found an SE virus file identifying Luo Changren as a surgeon and former director of Project J1 at the A1 Laboratory in W06 Base City.

Xu Huo uncovered records linking Luo Changren, A1 Laboratory, and the SE virus, but found only an antidote for a weakened variant. As the base government searched R1 Laboratory and Duckbill Hat entered with Players, Xu Huo used the broadcasting system to claim he was breaking dangerous virus samples and trigger an evacuation alarm.

• Xu Huo read reports about Luo Changren’s genetic experiments, the SE virus’s possible inherited aftereffects, and A1 Laboratory’s destruction, then concluded that W11 and W37 may have preserved the original virus samples as weapons.
• Xu Huo found an antidote for the weakened SE3 variant and learned from Shangguan Xi that Players were guarding Bird Tower, where Teacher Ai and Xiong Qing might be headed.
• Xu Huo took several A- and B-level virus samples from R1 Laboratory and learned that Shangguan Xi’s companion had been caught after the biological-weapons threat was exposed as a diversion.
• Xu Huo smashed virus Potions beside the main control room microphone and warned the laboratory that he would break more, while Duckbill Hat entered and threatened him.
• Xu Huo’s smashed test tubes triggered an alarm that reported a biological weapon leak and ordered all laboratory personnel to evacuate.

Xu Huo triggered a crisis at the R1 laboratory, prompting W37’s mayor to order a full response as a virus outbreak and citywide riots unfolded. While Players searched the laboratory, Xu Huo used his Spiritual World to alter the search, and the chapter ended with the bespectacled Player separated from his team.

• Duckbill Hat warned that Space Artifacts across W37 had stopped working, and the mayor ordered everyone to defend the city.
• Law enforcement Players evacuated the laboratory, sealed off R1, and sent sixty Players inside to find Xu Huo.
• News of an invasion and an SE virus outbreak spread through W37, and explosions sparked riots across the city.
• Xu Huo opened doors along the laboratory’s third floor, moved downstairs, and brought a main building into his Spiritual World.
• Duckbill Hat noticed the lighting dim and warned the search teams that more than one threat might be present.
• The bespectacled Player pursued a figure through a dark corridor, but the figure vanished, and his teammates disappeared as well.

Xu Huo used his Spiritual World to trap and mislead the enforcement team inside the R1 Laboratory. Duckbill Hat realized the Clown had escaped by blending in with the team, then learned that Team 13 had spotted a clown-costumed Outer District Player at Tree Crown Pillar 06.

• Xiao Meng and the glasses man searched for their missing teammates while Xu Huo kept the eight Players trapped in a distorted version of the laboratory.
• Duckbill Hat followed traces to Da Liu, found him trapped in a hallucination, and threatened to make the Clown pay.
• The Clown lured Duckbill Hat through a sequence of illusory spaces and questioned him about the SE virus and the original sample in W37.
• Duckbill Hat returned to the laboratory and realized the apparent escape, the command-room call, and the Clown's disappearance had all been part of a trick to infiltrate the enforcement team.
• Duckbill Hat ordered the enforcement Players restrained, then received word that Team 13 had found an Outer District Player in a clown costume at Tree Crown Pillar 06.

As W37 descended into chaos from the SE virus outbreak, Xu Huo reached Bird Tower to investigate the people inside. He entered through a window and discovered that an intricate patterned surface had a mental interference effect.

• Duckbill Hat sent another squad to Crown Pillar 06 while he continued searching near the Laboratory, as the government focused on capturing Xu Huo amid the outbreak.
• Xu Huo saw Zhu Feiyun near the Crown Pillars and realized Zhu had used a tracking item on him; infected residents suffered under the lockdown while players and ordinary people blamed one another.
• Xu Huo met Shangguan Xi outside Bird Tower and learned that Teacher Ai and Xiong Qing had entered about five minutes earlier, while Pan Qiao had seen Teacher Ai at a window.
• Xu Huo flew invisibly to Bird Tower's top floor and saw an intricate curved surface whose patterns drew in and interfered with the mind.
• Xu Huo used Eye of the Deceased to pass through the iron bars and entered Bird Tower.

Xu Huo confronted a woman guarding the mental interference artifact on the Bird Tower’s top floor, and the two exchanged attacks while trying to protect the building. He used “Whispering Ball” against her as she stood inside his Spiritual World.

• Xu Huo found the tiny, spinning mental interference artifact on the Bird Tower’s top floor and met a woman who demanded that he leave.
• The woman attacked Xu Huo with golden metal fences and other artifacts, but he countered with his own items and closed in on her.
• Xu Huo and the woman fought at close range, each suffering minor wounds while avoiding damage to the Bird Tower.
• The woman used artifacts to escape Xu Huo’s grasp, but he pursued her and asked whether she heard anything.
• The woman blocked her ears and threw a smoke bomb as Xu Huo used “Whispering Ball” against her inside his Spiritual World.