Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo watched two Players interrogate Teacher Ai, whose real identity was Luo Changren, about the SE virus antidote vaccine. The gloomy Player offered to spare Luo Changren’s companion if he handed over the vaccine, but Luo Changren had not answered.

• Xu Huo’s Spiritual World revealed that Xiong Qing and Teacher Ai had been defeated, and that the red-clad Player had subdued Teacher Ai with a needle.
• The red-clad Player identified Teacher Ai as Luo Changren, a fugitive from 01 Base City who had come to W37 with the SE virus antidote vaccine.
• Luo Changren told the red-clad Player that Gao Zhen had let him escape after he promised to bring the vaccine back to W37.
• Luo Changren resisted questions about the vaccine and refused to reveal anything, even when the red-clad Player threatened him.
• The gloomy Player offered to release Luo Changren’s companion in exchange for the vaccine.

Xu Huo rescued Luo Changren and Xiong Qing from W02 players in the Bird Tower, then helped W37 law enforcement capture the intruders. He confronted Gao Xiaoyan about W37’s broken promises and its secret population cleanup, and asked whether Mayor Gao Zhen had allowed the original SE virus sample into W37.

• Xu Huo used the Spiritual World to extract Luo Changren and Xiong Qing from the Bird Tower and bring the W02 players outside.
• Gao Xiaoyan ordered W37 law enforcement to surround the W02 players and take them to Prison No. A13, while the high-heeled woman escaped with a Ticket.
• Xu Huo reunited with Shangguan Xi and Pan Qiao, then reminded Gao Xiaoyan that she had not fulfilled her three promises to him.
• Xu Huo accused W37 of secretly carrying out population cleanup, but Gao Xiaoyan denied knowing what he meant and ordered him into a car.
• Xu Huo asked Gao Xiaoyan whether Mayor Gao Zhen had allowed the original SE virus sample to enter W37.

Xu Huo persuaded Gao Xiaoyan to take him to Government Hall so he could meet Mayor Gao, while W37 Base City descended into chaos from the infection. At Government Hall, the group encountered Zhu Feiyun and Zhao Jie, and an A-class player said the mayor might receive Xu Huo; the chapter ended with an author’s personal note.

• Xu Huo told Gao Xiaoyan he had tampered with Ren Man’s Spiritual World and insisted he could leave whenever he wanted.
• Xu Huo asked Gao Xiaoyan to arrange a meeting with Mayor Gao, and she agreed to contact the mayor when they reached Government Hall.
• The vehicle crossed W37 Base City as fires, infection, and desperate pleas for help overwhelmed the streets.
• Xu Huo and the others arrived at Government Hall, where Zhu Feiyun angrily confronted Xu Huo for impersonating him.
• Zhao Jie approached Xu Huo, but an A-class player stopped him and said the mayor might receive Xu Huo.

Xu Huo and his companions were released and summoned to meet Gao Zhen, the dying mayor of W37, alongside Luo Changren. Gao Zhen asked for the vaccine and admitted she planned to use the original SE virus sample against the infected, leaving the vaccine’s fate unresolved.

• Xu Huo persuaded the enforcement team to release Zhu Feiyun, and his companions ate while they waited.
• A secretary summoned Xu Huo and Luo Changren to the mayor’s office, where they found Gao Xiaoyan leaving and Gao Zhen connected to an IV stand.
• Gao Zhen asked Luo Changren for the vaccine, saying W37 would distribute it throughout the Base Station.
• Luo Changren accused Gao Zhen of allowing the original SE virus sample into W37 and using it to kill infected non-players.
• Gao Zhen admitted she intended to ease W37’s burden and said the remaining people would still need to reproduce and carry on the next generation.

Xu Huo confronted Mayor Gao Zhen about W37 Base City’s SE virus deaths and recognized that she planned to use outsiders as scapegoats to shield the government. As Gao Zhen faced death, Xu Huo offered to play along with her plan if she told him the full story behind the outbreak, and she asked whether he would do one last favor for her.

• Luo Changren described how others had led him to commit terrible acts, and Xu Huo mocked him before having Lou Jia take him away.
• Gao Zhen told Xu Huo that at least half of W37 Base City’s population would die, while the death toll continued to rise outside.
• Xu Huo realized the government intended to blame him and his companions for the outbreak to redirect public anger and protect W37’s leaders.
• Gao Zhen said she hoped people would remember the good she had done, and Xu Huo asked her to explain the entire SE virus incident before she died.
• Xu Huo offered to play his part in Gao Zhen’s plan, and she asked whether he would do one last favor for someone about to die.

Gao Zhen recounted how 01 Base City turned Luo Changren’s Evolution Potion into the SE virus and revealed that the virus could not harm infected people’s descendants. After Gao Zhen died, Xu Huo warned Gao Xiaoyan that he had recordings and asked her to get him a map of Government Hall showing Luo Changren’s location.

• Gao Zhen explained that 01 Base City secretly funded Luo Changren, then used his Potion to create the SE virus and target 06 Base City.
• Gao Zhen revealed that the Potion damaged Evolution genes, but the SE virus would not affect infected people’s descendants, and that she had let Luo Changren go to preserve hope for W37 Base Station.
• Gao Zhen said Luo Changren had mentioned a Doctor surnamed Zhang before she died in her office.
• Xu Huo silenced the monitor alarm and called Gao Xiaoyan, warning her not to rush in and telling her he had saved recordings of their conversations.
• Xu Huo confronted Gao Xiaoyan over the killed living sample and asked her to mark Luo Changren’s location on an indoor map of Government Hall.

Xu Huo seized Gao Zhen’s corpse and used the ensuing alarm to set plans in motion, then confronted Luo Changren about the vaccine and Dr. Zhang. Luo Changren insisted the vaccine was hidden in Bird Tower, but Xu Huo revealed that W37 had disproved the virus’s hereditary nature and that the supposed Evolution Potion was a gene-damaging drug.

• Gao Xiaoyan refused to let Xu Huo take Luo Changren, but agreed to let him question Luo Changren alone after Xu Huo threatened to act regardless.
• Xu Huo carried Gao Zhen’s corpse through Government Hall, triggering alarms that detected his mental strength above 200,000; Gao Xiaoyan ordered lower-ranked players to evacuate and called back B-level players.
• Xu Huo met Shangguan Xi and his companions, instructing them to distract the Enforcement Team at Bird Tower in ten minutes while he prepared to take over.
• Xu Huo went to Luo Changren’s room, where he exposed Luo Changren’s feigned unconsciousness and asked about Dr. Zhang and the Evolution Potion.
• Luo Changren demanded to see the vaccine spread before he would talk and claimed it was hidden in Bird Tower, but Xu Huo challenged him with evidence that the potion was fake and genetically damaging.

Xu Huo questioned Luo Changren about Dr. Zhang, the Evolution Potion, and the vaccine, uncovering how Dr. Zhang had drawn Luo into genetic research and left him a vaccine. The chapter ended with Xu Huo asking Luo Changren to describe Dr. Zhang’s appearance.

• Luo Changren rejected the claim that the Evolution Potion was fake, but broke down after Xu Huo showed him evidence from Gao Zhen.
• Xu Huo reasoned that Gao Zhen’s goal had been population control and that she would not have endangered Base City’s genetic future.
• Luo Changren explained that he had met Dr. Zhang in E21-District 024 after being driven out of 01 Base City, and that Dr. Zhang had persuaded him to research genetic modification.
• Luo Changren said Dr. Zhang had warned that forcibly changing genes could cause unforeseeable consequences, then later left him a vaccine after the SE virus outbreak.
• Xu Huo considered that Dr. Zhang might have anticipated the Evolution Potion’s adverse effects, but treated this as a theory, then asked Luo Changren to describe Dr. Zhang’s distinguishing features.

Xu Huo extracted clues about Dr. Zhang and Dr. Wu from Luo Changren, then used Gao Zhen’s corpse to draw W37’s law enforcement players away and escape into Bird Tower. With his allies’ items barely holding the pursuers back, he called Gao Xiaoyan as officials debated negotiating for the mayor’s body.

• Xu Huo questioned Luo Changren about Dr. Zhang, learned an address, and agreed to take him to uncover the vaccine buried beneath a floor tile.
• Xu Huo arranged for Shangguan Xi to collect Luo Changren, then carried Gao Zhen’s corpse into the air to attract the law enforcement players pursuing them.
• Lou Jia and other players attacked Xu Huo, but he used Gao Zhen’s corpse as a shield and broke through their encirclement with Go to Destination.
• At Bird Tower, Kuang Wenjun and Zhu Feiyun combined their items to stall the pursuers, while Xu Huo sent Pan Qiao to the fifth floor with an alien corpse.
• Gao Xiaoyan and Lou Jia surrounded Bird Tower, and officials argued against storming it because Xu Huo held Gao Zhen’s body; Xu Huo called Gao Xiaoyan as Luo Changren prepared to dig up the vaccine.

Xu Huo demanded an A-class item from W37 in exchange for Gao Zhen’s body while Gao Xiaoyan prepared for a possible fight. Inside Bird Tower, Luo Changren opened a hidden Metal Block but found its compartment empty.

• Xu Huo demanded an A-class item and gave Gao Xiaoyan thirty minutes to arrange the exchange, warning her to keep everyone away from Bird Tower.
• Gao Xiaoyan agreed to the deal while secretly ordering her people to test the defenses and kill everyone inside if fighting began.
• Xu Huo’s group learned that W37’s interference device was still being prepared, and Shangguan Xi worried that a clash could start soon.
• Xu Huo asked Luo Changren to show him where to break the floor, and Shangguan Xi helped dig up a Metal Block buried beneath Bird Tower.
• Luo Changren unlocked the Metal Block and found its compartment empty, leaving him horrified.

Xu Huo exposed Luo Changren’s claim that he had brought back a vaccine, revealing that the Potion was meant to treat the Aftereffect of Evolution. Luo Changren then admitted Dr. Zhang had also set aside an antidote for W37, but accused Xu Huo of taking the Potion and offered information about Dr. Zhang in exchange for its return.

• Luo Changren searched his empty box and accused those nearby of stealing his Potion.
• Xu Huo reasoned that Luo Changren’s supposed vaccine could not have been for the SE virus and confronted him about bringing the Potion back to W37.
• Luo Changren admitted the Potion was meant to treat the Aftereffect of Evolution and explained that he had received two doses from Dr. Zhang.
• Luo Changren revealed that Dr. Zhang had set aside another dose as an antidote, though he was unsure whether it could help W37.
• Luo Changren accused Xu Huo of taking the Potion and offered to tell him everything about Dr. Zhang if Xu Huo returned it.

Xu Huo exposed Luo Changren’s deception about the treatment Potion and learned that the blue Potion was the original SE virus sample. After deciding Luo Changren had not deliberately caused the outbreak, Xu Huo injected him with the green Potion and learned the Bird Tower launch platform’s codes were held by government officials.

• Shangguan Xi, Zhu Feiyun, and Kuang Wenjun argued over whether Luo Changren had acted selfishly or tried to help W37 Base.
• Xu Huo offered Luo Changren a choice between two Potions, but the apparent green Potion turned blue in Luo Changren’s vision, revealing that he was trapped in Xu Huo’s Spiritual World.
• Xu Huo identified the blue Potion as the original SE virus sample, and Luo Changren admitted he had planned to use it to punish Gao Zhen and those who believed themselves good.
• Xu Huo concluded that Luo Changren had not deliberately done evil and injected him with the green treatment Potion.
• Luo Changren revealed that only Base government officials knew the Bird Tower launch platform’s three encryption codes.
• Zhu Feiyun noticed movement outside, and Xu Huo said he had removed the spatial barrier and told Pan Qiao to throw the body bag outside.

Xu Huo revealed that former mayor Gao Zhen had used an Alien carrying the original SE virus to reduce W37 Base City's population, and explained how this discovery connected to his Dungeon side quest. He summoned Gao Xiaoyan to Bird Tower, while the group realized there was no vaccine or antidote to save the infected.

• Xu Huo threw Gao Zhen's body out of Bird Tower and used a megaphone to tell the people outside to check the numbers on the big screen and consider how to save W37 Base City.
• Gao Xiaoyan learned that the interference equipment had failed and agreed to bring an A-class item into Bird Tower with someone accompanying her.
• Luo Changren questioned why Xu Huo had summoned Gao Xiaoyan, while Shangguan Xi asked how the SE virus mystery related to clearing the Dungeon.
• Xu Huo explained that the Dungeon was called "Encrypted Information" and identified Gao Zhen as the mastermind behind spreading the original SE virus through an Alien sample.
• Xu Huo linked the forty-eight-hour countdown side quest to Luo Changren's warning about the virus spreading across the city, then said there was no vaccine or antidote.

Xu Huo confronted Luo Changren about his past lies and learned more about Dr. Zhang, then negotiated with Gao Xiaoyan at Bird Tower over the City Sandbox and an Antidote. He offered the Potion as a way to become W37 Base City’s savior, but Gao Xiaoyan challenged his claim about the SE virus.

• Xu Huo questioned Luo Changren about operating Bird Tower, and Luo said it would take at least ten doses to cover the city and delay the virus.
• Luo gave Xu Huo Dr. Zhang’s actual hideout address, and Xu warned him not to seek Dr. Zhang after leaving W37 Base Station.
• Gao Xiaoyan entered Bird Tower and offered Xu Huo the A-class City Sandbox and two B-class items in exchange for removing his trap from the Spiritual World.
• Xu Huo showed Gao Xiaoyan the Potion Luo had brought, explaining that it could slow the SE virus and weaken any hereditary properties it might have.
• Gao Xiaoyan rejected Xu Huo’s claim that the SE virus had hereditary properties and demanded to know what he was trying to do.

Xu Huo tried to persuade Gao Xiaoyan to use the Antidote to save W37’s infected residents, and proved it worked on a little girl. Gao Xiaoyan still defended the Government Hall’s plan to sacrifice some people, leaving Xu Huo weighing how to spread the Antidote without her cooperation.

• Xu Huo said he was keeping his promise to help Gao Xiaoyan and proposed testing Luo Changren’s Antidote on an infected person.
• Gao Xiaoyan had a little girl brought in and injected her with the medicine, which quickly improved the girl’s condition.
• Gao Xiaoyan isolated Xu Huo behind barriers and argued that W37 had to sacrifice some people to preserve resources and protect others.
• Xu Huo challenged her right to decide who lived, then warned that the virus could spread beyond W37 and provoke another Base City outbreak.
• Gao Xiaoyan said the Government Hall had already accepted the risks, while Xu Huo considered how to distribute the limited Antidote and asked whether many people knew about the plan.

Xu Huo forced Gao Xiaoyan to agree to save W37’s residents, but Lou Jia seized the Antidote and defended the mayor’s plan to sacrifice half the population. Xu Huo challenged him to let ordinary residents fight for their own survival.

• Xu Huo revealed that he had removed the seal on Bird Tower and argued that someone could have spread the truth about Gao Xiaoyan’s delay.
• Gao Xiaoyan agreed to save the residents, and Xu Huo insisted she open Bird Tower before he released the Antidote.
• Xu Huo, Luo Changren, Gao Xiaoyan, and Lou Jia went to the top floor, where Gao Xiaoyan entered the passcodes and opened the central mechanism.
• When Xu Huo brought out the blue Potion, it flew into Lou Jia’s hand, and Lou Jia declared that it was part of Gao Zhen’s final plan for W37.
• Xu Huo questioned whether the government would keep sacrificing residents whenever resources ran short, then urged Lou Jia to give them a chance to survive.

Xu Huo used his Spiritual World to buy time for Shangguan Xi to deliver the Potion, then escaped Lou Jia as the Bird Tower collapsed. Lou Jia and the law-enforcement Players were left scrambling to reach Gao Zhen’s body amid the falling tower and suspended buildings.

• Lou Jia crossed the rising staircase and attacked Xu Huo, but Xu Huo used phantoms and the shaking tower to evade him.
• Zhu Feiyun and Kuang Wenjun moved Lou Jia away from the Bird Tower, but Lou Jia broke through their defenses and froze them and Gao Xiaoyan.
• Xu Huo trapped Lou Jia in the Book Tower to distract him while Shangguan Xi delivered the Potion to Pan Qiao on the top floor.
• Xu Huo shut down his Spiritual World and shouted for someone to take Gao Zhen’s body as the cannon fired.
• Lou Jia attacked Xu Huo, but the Bird Tower collapsed and Xu Huo vanished while Lou Jia rushed downstairs to protect Gao Zhen’s remains.
• The law-enforcement Players attacked as the tower fell, and the suspended buildings began crashing down around them.

After the chaos at Bird Tower, the Government Hall discovered Gao Zhen’s body and broadcast that the tower had released Antidotes, presenting her as a heroic savior. Xu Huo met with his companions at the Star Bar and confirmed that staging Gao Zhen’s final pose had been an extra safeguard for shaping the aftermath.

• The Government Hall’s rescuers cleared Bird Tower’s entrance and found Gao Zhen dead, seated with a Pocket Watch held to her chest.
• The Star Bar owner, who showed signs of infection, stayed behind as the city emptied and served two Players watching the news.
• The broadcast announced that Bird Tower had released Antidotes and portrayed Gao Zhen as a martyr who had saved W37 Base City.
• Shangguan Xi arrived with Luo Changren and revealed that Xu Huo had asked him to pose Gao Zhen’s body.
• Kuang Wenjun explained that the Government Hall’s credit and Gao Zhen’s heroic image would raise residents’ goodwill, leaving the officials burdened by expectations of divine power.
• Xu Huo arrived at the Star Bar, confirmed the staged pose was an extra safeguard, and ordered a late-night snack for the group.

After saving the base city and clearing the Dungeon, Xu Huo and the others celebrated their success and received high completion ratings and rewards. They then began negotiating how to divide the team rewards, a process that could keep them trapped in the Dungeon if they failed to agree.

• The group ate and celebrated their role in saving the base city, while Xu Huo shared a Potion that protected against poison and pollution.
• Xu Huo captured the Alien in a cage, and the Players received notice that they had cleared the Dungeon and earned extra rewards for saving the city.
• The Players discovered that Xu Huo had earned an SS Rank and the others had earned S Ranks, then discussed how to divide their team rewards.
• The team began its thirty-minute reward allocation, which included an A-class item, B-class items, a special item, an Ability upgrade opportunity, and a Storage Compartment.

After clearing the dungeon, Xu Huo divided the team rewards and received a lead on Dr. Wu from Shangguan Xi. He stayed behind to meet Gao Xiaoyan, who asked him to honor their agreement now that he had saved many people.

• Xu Huo took the A-class item, Realistic Wax Figure, and Storage Compartment space, while the others divided the remaining rewards and he compensated Kuang Wenjun and Pan Qiao with White Cash.
• Shangguan Xi demonstrated Big Face on Ground by making Zhu Feiyun fall, then gave Xu Huo a card pointing to a place in E20-002 that might lead to Dr. Wu.
• Kuang Wenjun and Pan Qiao left, followed by Zhu Feiyun, and Xu Huo gave Luo Changren a non-player Ticket before he departed.
• Gao Xiaoyan arrived at the shop and asked Xu Huo to honor their agreement, citing his high dungeon rating after saving many people.