Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo tested the abilities of Cube Space while Little River City was being overrun by Aliens, then Zhou Yuanzhu arrived to take him back to safety. When Gong Jiaji and other players confronted him, Xu Huo exposed Mr. Kang’s deception, but the group still threatened him.

• Xu Huo used Cube Space to trap two Black Wolves in a spatial passage, but a Mutant Beast broke through it.
• Xu Huo studied Cube Space’s ability to adapt to other spacetime artifacts and found he could only keep its range stable at about three hundred meters.
• Zhou Yuanzhu found the wounded Xu Huo and prepared to take him to the Commercial Building, where Uncle Guan and the others were hiding in an artifact.
• Gong Jiaji and six other players confronted Xu Huo, accusing him of killing Mr. Kang.
• Xu Huo told the players that Mr. Kang had caused the crisis and trapped them in Little River City, where time passed four times faster.
• The tall B-class player said the group would leave the city but threatened Xu Huo for ruining their refuge.

Xu Huo killed the remaining threat from Little River City and returned to the survivors, where he learned more about Dr. Wu from Uncle Guan. Uncle Guan revealed that Dr. Wu had left behind a cryptic recording: “The end of the game is the starting point of time.”

• Xu Huo used Mr. Kang’s Space Artifact to kill Gong Jiaji and two other Players, then killed the tall Player who attacked him as Zhou Yuanzhu piloted them away.
• Zhou Yuanzhu brought Xu Huo back to the collapsed Commercial Building, where Ruan Qiyan stitched his wound and the survivors discussed the women rescued from the building.
• Xu Huo and Uncle Guan discussed the remaining Players and the possibility that the building’s time rules had stopped working.
• A girl from Zone 002 asked to travel with the group and join the Holy Sword Society, while the survivors made plans for her and the other children.
• Uncle Guan told Xu Huo that Dr. Wu was alive, might be a founder of the Dimension Rift game, and had sought to spread the Perfect Evolution Potion.
• Uncle Guan shared Dr. Wu’s cryptic recorded words: “The end of the game is the starting point of time.”

Xu Huo questioned Uncle Guan about Dr. Wu’s cryptic message and the Holy Sword Society’s theory that it pointed to a ticketless Sub-district at the A1 wormhole point. Learning more about Dr. Wu’s family and credentials, Xu Huo realized that differences in how time passed between Sub-districts could explain how Dr. Wu gained his expertise.

• Xu Huo challenged Uncle Guan’s theory that Dr. Wu’s message referred to the game’s hidden headquarters in a ticketless Sub-district at the A1 wormhole point.
• Uncle Guan said the Holy Sword Society had clues about Dr. Wu’s message but refused to disclose where and how they had found them.
• Xu Huo learned that Dr. Wu had a daughter and that the Society believed his wife and daughter died during a home invasion.
• Uncle Guan described Dr. Wu as a 220-year-old genius with credentials across many fields, and Xu Huo questioned whether the Game Government’s account was reliable.
• Xu Huo realized that Dr. Wu could have gained far more time by moving between Sub-districts where time passed at different rates.

Xu Huo and his allies defeated the players who tried to force their way into the bar, then rested and discussed Zone 002. As Xu Huo spoke with Tan Qi, he discovered that someone had poisoned him with dead mycelium.

• Xu Huo and Uncle Guan discussed whether Dr. Wu had gained extra time through game privileges or time reversal.
• A group of players demanded shelter in the bar, but Xu Huo used his props and Cube Space to scatter them, while Uncle Guan, Lin Qiao, and Chi Minghong helped eliminate the attackers.
• After the Alien creatures outside were driven back, Xu Huo and the others shared a meal and discussed a Society membership card and the turmoil in Zone 002.
• Xu Huo told Tan Qi he was not returning to Zone 002 yet and advised him to leave on a non-player Ticket.
• Xu Huo found dead mycelium in his drink and realized he had been poisoned.

Xu Huo used Completed Script to understand how Mr. Kang’s poison had affected him and learned that his King Fungus was struggling to keep up with the toxin. While treating the poisoning, he found a metal playing card that marked him as the target of the Magician’s next show.

• Xu Huo used Completed Script and learned that he had been exposed to Mr. Kang’s toxin, which was overwhelming the King Fungus in his body.
• Xu Huo discovered through the script that a hat-wearing Player had taken a blue bead from Mr. Kang’s arm and that a metal playing card had been blasted into the debris.
• Xu Huo tested Antidotes in Shelter 101, but only three showed an effect and none could fully eliminate the rapidly multiplying toxin.
• Chi Minghong noticed Xu Huo’s poisoning, and Uncle Guan offered to search Mr. Kang’s home for an Antidote, but Xu Huo left to handle something else.
• Xu Huo found the metal playing card and learned it was the Magician’s Gift, which meant a magic show would eventually come for him.

Xu Huo took the Eternal Time bead from the player in the hat and continued fighting the poison consuming him. Two days later, the others began leaving Little River City, while Xu Huo stayed behind with Chi Minghong, Lin Qiao, Uncle Guan, and Tan Qi.

• Xu Huo searched Dimension Below for information about the Magician's Gift and decided to be cautious about using Cube Space.
• Xu Huo found the player in the hat and took the Eternal Time bead after learning what it was.
• Xu Huo returned to the bar and told the frightened survivors that his virus was not contagious; Lin Qiao and Chi Minghong failed to find an Antidote.
• Xu Huo spent the night vomiting dead mycelium as the detoxification process drained his stamina, though King Fungus kept the poison from killing him.
• Two days later, Uncle Guan and the others sent off the survivors and Ruan Qiyan, while Chi Minghong, Lin Qiao, and Tan Qi stayed behind with Xu Huo.
• Tan Qi asked to inherit Xu Huo's items if he died, and Chi Minghong rebuked him.

After seven days in Uncle Guan's prop, Xu Huo returned to District 014 despite his worsening poisoning, hoping to recover at home. His arrival triggered an alarm at the Safe Zone, where Team Leader Wu and his companions were nearby.

• Chi Minghong and Uncle Guan discussed Xu Huo's worsening condition and advised him to seek treatment in a developed game Sub-district.
• Xu Huo said he wanted to go home, exchanged Dimension Below accounts with Chi Minghong and Zhou Yuanzhu, and used a Return Ticket.
• Xu Huo appeared in a sealed room in District 014, vomited black blood and fungal threads, and stopped the workers from raising the alarm inside the room.
• The workers alerted the Special Defense Department, whose Safe Zone security system contained the incident and summoned nearby Players.
• Team Leader Wu, Team Leader Chang, Jiang Qiao, and Dai Wenqian arrived near the Safe Zone, where Sima Xiao Er announced that someone unexpected had appeared.

Xu Huo returned to the Ting City Safe Zone injured and sealed himself inside a detention room, asking only to rest for two days. As the Special Defense Department arranged medical help, Dai Wenqian claimed he was Xu Huo’s old friend and rushed inside when the door opened.

• Sima Xiao Er told Team Leader Wu that Xu Huo had returned to the Safe Zone, and Wu hurried to meet him with Team Leader Chang and Jiang Qiao.
• The Special Defense Department discovered Xu Huo inside a detention room surrounded by strange black fungal threads, and he asked to rest there for two days.
• Team Leader Wu promised Xu Huo medical support and said the department had protected his family and recorded his contributions.
• Dai Wenqian questioned Xu Huo’s injuries and claimed he had come to say hello as an old friend, while Sima Xiao Er’s group tried to keep him away.
• The detention room door suddenly opened, and Dai Wenqian slipped past the guards and rushed inside.

Dai Wenqian entered Xu Huo’s holding room but was overwhelmed by the danger he sensed and left after Xu Huo warned him away. Team Leader Wu kept the room under guard, and Capital City’s delegation arrived with supplies, Professor Lan, Tang Guangbo, and a medical team to help Xu Huo.

• Team Leader Wu ordered Sima Xiao Er and the others to stop Dai Wenqian, but Dai Wenqian froze after Xu Huo’s glance and retreated when Xu Huo told him to leave.
• Team Leader Wu confronted Dai Wenqian and Team Leader Chang, then arranged a hotel for Chang’s group and Jiang Qiao after closing the Safe Zone.
• Team Leader Wu scolded Sima Xiao Er and the others, then posted twelve Special Defense Department players outside Xu Huo’s holding room and stayed there himself.
• Sima Xiao Er asked whether Xu Huo had reached C-class, and Team Leader Wu explained how the Special Defense Department trained players to reach D-class through frequent instances.
• The delegation from Capital City arrived with supplies, Professor Lan, Tang Guangbo, and a medical team, and Tang Guangbo asked how Xu Huo was doing.

A coordinated attack knocked out the Safe Zone’s power and communications while Xu Huo remained behind his closed door. The attackers breached the facility, and as Sima Xiao Er’s group faced them, an unseen force stopped one intruder mid-boast.

• Xu Huo declined help, and Sima Xiao Er left a bowl of dumplings outside his room.
• The Safe Zone lost power and communications, and Team Leader Wu sent Professor Lan and Tang Guangbo to an A-class safe room.
• The defenders discovered intruders using poison gas bombs, while a nurse attacked the group inside the safe room and was subdued.
• Ye Suqiu found that many medical supply boxes had been marked, so Qin Jingyuan sent her and three others to move the Potions.
• Five intruders broke through the defenders’ line and dismantled Sima Xiao Er’s Defense Artifacts, then blocked his bullets with a barrier.
• As the long-haired intruder mocked the idea of being held accountable, his mouth began widening grotesquely and he could not finish speaking.

Xu Huo tested the Cube Space’s range and limitations while recovering in the Safe Zone, as Sima Xiao Er’s team captured intruders with his help. The attackers were subdued, but Xu Huo remained weakened and continued investigating the Cube Space’s unusual properties.

• An unseen force killed two D-class Players by splitting their heads and pinned three others in place, though one fainted before he was killed.
• Sima Xiao Er’s team injected the surviving intruders with muscle relaxant and took them to the Laboratory, keeping them on IVs so they could not escape.
• Sima Xiao Er thanked Xu Huo and asked him to handle the people outside, but Xu Huo stayed silent inside the detention room.
• Xu Huo unfolded the Cube Space and found that Safe Zone metal did not block its power, though complex spatial layouts reduced his accurate perception range.
• Xu Huo discovered he could nudge small objects using Space Rays but could not directly control the rays within them, and he noted that time inside the Cube Space had not accelerated for a week.

Xu Huo used Cube Space and his Spiritual World to locate intruders inside the Safe Zone, then questioned two attackers about who had leaked information from the Special Defense Department. They named Bian Ling, a C-class player, but Xu Huo doubted their account.

• Xu Huo found that Cube Space had expanded his Spiritual World and made it easier to manipulate rays, then located intruders searching and fighting inside the Safe Zone.
• Xu Huo entered Tang Guangbo's safe room, but Tang Guangbo acted as though he could not hear him and left under the players' protection.
• Xu Huo subdued three intruders hunting Safe Zone residents and captured two more waiting outside with sniper rifles.
• Xu Huo forced the two captured players to answer his questions by cutting off their arms, then threatened to kill the Special Defense Department's informant.
• The players identified Bian Ling as the leak, and Xu Huo questioned whether her supposed arrangement with them made sense.

Xu Huo interrogated two injured players about rumors surrounding Bian Ling and learned that three player-autonomous cities had emerged in Country X. After killing the men, he returned to the Safe Zone.

• Xu Huo checked the Vanguard Player Forum and found suppressed rumors accusing Bian Ling of murder and robbery.
• Xu Huo used truth serum on the two players, who admitted they had only heard secondhand claims about Bian Ling leaking information.
• Xu Huo found messages describing three player-autonomous cities where local players had wrested control from the authorities.
• Xu Huo learned that a government squad and a later group of outside players had both been defeated in one of the cities.
• Xu Huo killed the two players and returned to the Safe Zone.

After intruders attacked the Ting City Safe Zone, Xu Huo remained behind the detention room door while Special Defense Department officials waited and tried to contain rumors that they were holding a powerful player captive. Team Leader Wu faced mounting pressure from other organizations, and the group debated whether revealing Xu Huo’s identity would stop the rumors, but no decision was made.

• Qin Jingyuan and his group dealt with the intruders, while Xu Huo stayed inside the detention room and Sima Xiao Er told Team Leader Wu he was safe.
• Professor Lan and Tang Guangbo waited outside the detention room, and Professor Lan offered the Antidote, but Xu Huo did not respond.
• The Special Defense Department called the previous night’s attack a drill, but an anonymous Vanguard Forum post claimed the Safe Zone was holding a powerful High-level Player captive.
• Team Leader Wu fielded calls from nearby branches and official organizations seeking to send personnel, while Sima Xiao Er and Tang Guangbo suspected someone was deliberately spreading rumors.
• Tang Guangbo proposed revealing Xu Huo’s identity, and Qin Jingyuan suggested blaming the attackers on players from Country Y, but Team Leader Wu warned that disclosing Xu Huo’s connection to the Black Rain incident could cause trouble and might require Xu Huo’s consent.

Team Leader Wu struggled to control the crowd of Special Defense Department branches gathering in the Ting City Safe Zone until Nie Xuan returned and drove most of them away by announcing a headquarters operation against Players in Tianshi. Nie Xuan then visited the injured Xu Huo, discussed the rising conflict between the government and Players, and asked whether the Safe Zone’s Space Power field was Xu Huo’s.

• Team Leader Wu tried to refuse Team Leader Zhang’s group, but Zhang brought fifteen Players into the Safe Zone and triggered its alarm system.
• More Special Defense Department groups arrived, including Tan Yang and Huang Junjie, and tensions threatened to turn into a fight.
• Nie Xuan returned, announced that he would seek headquarters’ approval for an operation against Players in Tianshi, and sent most of the gathered groups away.
• Nie Xuan entered the detention room and questioned Xu Huo about his bloody appearance and the two Players killed nearby.
• Nie Xuan warned Xu Huo that conflict between the government and Players was nearing a decisive confrontation, then asked whether Xu Huo had created the Safe Zone’s Space Power field.

Xu Huo reunited with Nie Xuan, discussed his evolving spatial condition, and learned about the Special Defense Department’s plans and concerns. He then confronted department leaders who had gathered at the Safe Zone, demanded they write down their names, and made clear that none of them would leave if they refused.

• Xu Huo saw that Nie Xuan’s spatial evolution had spread from one leg to both legs, and suggested he look for Lawrence Li, who had caused the condition.
• Nie Xuan told Xu Huo that his family was in Capital City’s classified Safe Zone and warned him about the man Ms. Fang was seeing.
• Nie Xuan said the Special Defense Department would keep Xu Huo’s role in recent incidents secret and suggested he request compensation from them.
• Xu Huo used Cube Space to bring Special Defense Department team leaders and their Players into a conference room, then asked them to sit down and talk.
• A team leader tried to leave, but Bian Changxing and the other Players were too afraid of Xu Huo to move, and a Player collapsed and died.
• Xu Huo demanded that the gathered leaders write down their names and warned that none of them would leave if he were not showing the Special Defense Department respect.

Xu Huo forced Special Defense Department team leaders to write down their names after confronting them over leaking his information, then left the department. He checked his messages and learned of possible human experimentation, threats against Yu Qingqing, and other developments before calling the Xu family.

• Xu Huo killed two players who tried to challenge him and made the team leaders write down their names in exchange for leaving the conference room alive.
• Xu Huo gave Team Leader Wu the list and asked him to investigate the leak, then left the Special Defense Department without meeting Professor Lan or returning to the capital.
• Professor Lan decided to stay one day before returning, and Tang Guangbo told him that Xu Huo's old home had been demolished.
• Xu Huo restarted his phone and read messages about Professor Han possibly surviving, suspected human experimentation, and Yu Qingqing being blacklisted by the First Association.
• Xu Huo ignored the messages and invitations that required no action, then called the Xu family.

Xu Huo booked a flight from Ting City to visit his family in Capital City, but the plane vanished shortly after takeoff. The chapter left the fate of Xu Huo and the other passengers unknown.

• Xu Huo learned from Father Xu that the Yu family had suffered several kidnapping attempts while the Xu family remained safe in a classified Safe Zone.
• Xu Huo agreed to visit his family for New Year's Eve and booked a flight to an airport outside Capital City.
• On the way to the airport, Xu Huo saw Ting City's new security measures and heard the driver describe conditions in Country X and overseas.
• At the airport, Xu Huo saw a convoy of Players clear the entrance and later watched a young Player claim the plane's first four rows before an escort settled a dispute.
• Xu Huo rested aboard Jinghang 6538 and thought about upgrading his Protective Suit and contacting an Artificer in District 011.
• The control tower lost contact with Jinghang 6538 after the plane suddenly vanished from the sky.

A young master’s search for a stolen item caused chaos among the Players aboard Xu Huo’s plane, which had mysteriously vanished after takeoff. The blond Player was exposed as a thief, and two strange paper boxes appeared behind him.

• Team Leader Wu learned Xu Huo’s plane had vanished and rushed to the airport while requesting support from headquarters.
• The young master ordered the Players aboard the plane to be searched for his stolen item and used a grid-patterned paper item to divide the cabin.
• A scan revealed fluorescent marks on the blond Player, and a bodyguard retrieved the young master’s nail clipper from a tall man’s sleeve.
• Several Players found unfamiliar items in their clothes, and the blond Player denied being responsible as the cabin turned against him.
• A milky-white paper box and a black paper box appeared behind the blond Player.

The Magician from the C9 wormhole point appeared aboard the plane and forced the Players to take part in a deadly magic show. After the blond-haired Player chose the wrong box and vanished, the Magician selected another audience member for the next trick.

• The Magician appeared in the cabin, revealed that he had taken items from some Players, and summoned the blond-haired Player to participate.
• Xu Huo went to the front of the cabin as the Magician began a box-and-ball guessing game.
• The blond-haired Player chose the black box, which was empty, and the Magician made him vanish.
• The Players learned that Tickets could not be used to escape, and the Magician pointed to another Player for the next round.