Chapter Summaries

The Magician continued forcing Players to choose between two boxes, disappearing those who failed, while a female Player volunteered to take her turn and asked about advancing to the next round. Outside the plane, Team Leader Wu and Minister Fan searched for the vanished flight and feared the situation could become a wider disaster if Xu Huo did not escape soon.

• The Magician made a bodyguard choose a box, then disappeared him after he chose the empty one.
• The Magician selected another Player, who also failed to choose the ball and was disappeared.
• A female Player asked whether choosing the ball would let them leave and whether finding it advanced the performance.
• The Magician said a successful show would lead to another performance, then sent the female Player to choose a box.
• Team Leader Wu told Minister Fan that the plane remained undetected despite three radar flashes and three people falling to their deaths.
• Minister Fan gave the search team half an hour before Capital City considered other measures, and Team Leader Wu urged the searchers to find a way to board the plane.

Xu Huo confronted the Magician, who had concealed the plane and trapped its passengers in a deadly performance. After the Magician followed him into his Spiritual World, the two fought as evenly matched spatial and mental specialists, and the chapter ended with the Magician apparently slicing Xu Huo in half.

• Xu Huo realized the plane was still on course to Capital City and that the Magician had concealed it with an illusion.
• The Magician’s box challenge killed several Players, so Xu Huo volunteered to take the next round and crushed all ten boxes at once.
• Xu Huo showed the Magician the “Magician's Gift” card, provoking him to attack and pull the passengers and objects toward him with confetti and thin lines.
• Xu Huo used “Inviolable Territory” and “Holder's Death” against the Magician, but the Magician evaded him by switching places with Players and using confetti as portals.
• Xu Huo pulled the plane into his Spiritual World, where the Magician filled the space with confetti; Xu Huo countered with staircases and a library, but the Magician emerged through the confetti and sliced him diagonally in half.

Xu Huo fought the Magician to a stalemate aboard a plane, and the Magician agreed to return in five days. After reaching the Safe Zone, Xu Huo reunited with his family, where a neighbor recognized him.

• Xu Huo and the Magician battled aboard the plane for more than twenty minutes, with neither gaining the upper hand.
• Xu Huo asked the Magician to return after the New Year holiday, and the Magician agreed to come back in five days.
• Xu Huo assured Minister Fan that the plane could land safely, then rested until it reached its destination.
• The rescue team inspected the plane and screened its player passengers, while Xu Huo was cleared to travel to the Safe Zone.
• Team Leader Lu brought Xu Huo to the apartment where his family was staying, and he reunited with Tongtong, Father Xu, Ms. Yu, and the old man.
• A neighbor brought vegetables to the apartment, recognized Xu Huo, and reacted with surprise.

Xu Huo reunited with his family in the Safe Zone, caught up on messages, and reviewed the items he had brought back from his recent trip. He identified the bead called “Eternal Time” as something other than an item and left its nature unresolved.

• Xu Huo met his downstairs neighbor Aunt Zhao, then went upstairs to sleep while Ms. Yu kept Tongtong from following him.
• The next morning, Xu Huo read his messages and agreed to meet Gu Yu after receiving several invitations.
• Xu Huo teased Tongtong about eating too much ice cream, and Tongtong fled when Ms. Yu approached with a workbook.
• Xu Huo sorted through his loot, including the A-class Carefree Ball and several unusual B-class and special items.
• Xu Huo concluded that Cube Space was an Owned Item, while Mr. Kang’s bead called “Eternal Time” was not an item.

Xu Huo reviewed his sub-class stones, potions, and leads on Doctor Zhang and Dr. Wu, then considered what equipment he still needed. After selling unused items, he had over a hundred million White Cash but still lacked a close-combat weapon capable of breaking stable spatial barriers.

• Xu Huo recalled how temporal sub-class stones like "Eternal Time" could resist Time Power and considered Mr. Kang's protection from the time chaos in Little River City.
• Xu Huo reviewed the sub-class stones and Perfect Evolution Potions he had collected and noted that he still had no lead on a P3S-version potion.
• Xu Huo connected Doctor Zhang to the drug training he had undergone at the Seventeenth Hospital and planned to investigate through Laboratory materials and Tan Qi.
• Xu Huo concluded that the Game Government might know Dr. Wu best and decided he would visit District 001 after leaving District 014.
• Xu Huo sold items he did not plan to use, raising his savings above a hundred million White Cash.
• Xu Huo identified his need for a practical close-combat item that could break stable spatial barriers.

Xu Huo upgraded his Isolation Suit, let Tongtong try a bubble-making Potion, and went to meet Gu Yu and Wen Xue Lin for New Year’s Eve. After learning that Dai Wenqian had been causing Gu Yu trouble, Xu Huo decided to warn him.

• Xu Huo upgraded his Isolation Suit with Flexible Mechanical Armor but found no suitable close-combat item.
• Xu Huo gave Tongtong a Potion that made him blow bubbles, and Tongtong ran off to share it with neighborhood children.
• Xu Huo left the Safe Zone and met Gu Yu and Wen Xue Lin at a private restaurant.
• Gu Yu told Xu Huo that Dai Wenqian had been causing her trouble.
• A Player from Dai Wenqian’s group saw Xu Huo and retreated into a room, prompting Xu Huo to say he would give Dai Wenqian a warning.

Xu Huo met with Gu Yu and the others, who discussed Dungeon guides, player fame, and the growing power of the Special Defense Department. The gathering ended with the players worrying about the dangers facing ordinary people and wondering when the Game Government might let them suspend their player status.

• Xu Huo joined Gu Yu and the others in a private room, where Wen Xue Lin asked about his trip to Country Y.
• Wen Xue Lin showed Xu Huo a leaderboard of players who sold Dungeon videos and offered to escort others through Dungeons for a fee.
• Yang Qian Xi criticized popular players who killed innocents in Dungeons, and Xu Huo considered the Special Defense Department's efforts to control players.
• Gu Yu worried that players could not protect their families from a changing world, while Dan Feng noted that even remote places could become Random Instances.
• Gu Yu complained that she dreaded entering another Dungeon after the New Year and wished the Special Defense Department could connect with the Game Government sooner.

Xu Huo watched a Special Defense Department Player stop a Player named Brother Zhong from assaulting a woman, then pursued the fleeing attackers. He killed the remaining men and answered a call on Brother Zhong’s phone.

• Brother Zhong harassed a child and tried to abduct the child’s mother until a female Special Defense Department Player intervened.
• Wen Xue Lin told Xu Huo that Players who protected ordinary people had sometimes faced deadly retaliation against their families.
• Xu Huo tracked down and killed Brother Zhong’s injured companion, then used an Ability or item to trap Brother Zhong on the same street.
• Brother Zhong’s Ticket and items failed to work as Xu Huo approached, and he died from a wound to his throat.
• Xu Huo collected the spoils, took a phone from Brother Zhong’s Storage Compartment, and answered an incoming call.

Xu Huo hired eight Chunyu Association Players to monitor locations near the District 014 command center and report their observations. After returning home, he met Bian Ling, a Special Defense Department Player and Aunt Zhao’s daughter, whose reputation he already knew.

• Xu Huo reported two addresses from the tattooed man’s phone to the Special Defense Department, then returned to the meal with Zheng Liang, Wen Xue Lin, and Gu Yu.
• Xu Huo offered the Chunyu Association Players paid work, and Gu Yu and seven other Players agreed to monitor several locations and send him updates every fifteen minutes.
• Wen Xue Lin disguised the team with makeup and markings before they split up to watch the assigned places near the Safe Zone.
• Xu Huo returned home and met Bian Ling, whom Ms. Yu introduced as Aunt Zhao’s daughter and a Special Defense Department Player.
• Xu Huo recognized Bian Ling from an account of her reputation, and she told him she had heard of him before becoming a Player.

Xu Huo spent New Year's Eve with his family and warned them to stay inside as strange fog covered the residential complex. As messages reached him, he went out to join the players guarding the complex entrances.

• Bian Ling and Ms. Zhao visited Xu Huo's family, where Tang Guangbo and Ms. Zhao asked about Bian Ling's and Xu Huo's love lives.
• Xu Huo encouraged Tongtong to prepare to become a strong player by studying, training, and learning housework.
• The family ate New Year's Eve dinner, and Tang Guangbo left with Ms. Fang without mentioning Ting City.
• Xu Huo told his family to stay home instead of visiting the lantern fair, then watched as dense fog blotted out the residential complex.
• After receiving a growing number of messages, Xu Huo went downstairs and joined players guarding the entrances under orders to let no one in.

Xu Huo protected the residential complex from masked Players and captured an infiltrator after discovering the attackers had not entered through the Special Defense Department’s defenses. He demanded to know where the man’s companions were.

• Masked Players attacked the residential complex, and one seized a pregnant woman and forced her husband to threaten the defenders.
• An unseen Player rescued the couple, contained the grenade’s blast, and later killed the masked attacker who fled into a building.
• Xu Huo learned from Gu Yu that three groups had attacked the Special Defense Department but had retreated without entering the complex.
• Xu Huo found a masked Player preparing to escape from a nearby building, pulled him through a Space Portal, and stopped his attack.
• Xu Huo struck the captured Player and demanded to know where his companions were.

Xu Huo interrogated nine Players who had attacked residents and heard their accusations that the Special Defense Department was secretly forcing people to evolve. A video from a dying woman supported their claims, but Xu Huo remained unconvinced and questioned whether the department would risk such a scheme when it already struggled to control Players.

• Xu Huo subdued nine Players from nearby buildings and injected them with muscle relaxant.
• Xu Huo questioned the injured Players about why they had attacked ordinary residents, and one accused the Special Defense Department of abusing the population.
• The Player claimed the department secretly forced people with high evolution potential to evolve, despite the risks of failure, death, or turning into Aliens.
• Xu Huo watched a video in which a woman said she had not chosen to evolve and warned her brother not to let their younger sister sign up.
• The Player argued that the department used food and drink to make people evolve and trained successful candidates to serve it, but Xu Huo said the allegations were not convincing.

Xu Huo challenged the Special Defense Department over allegations that it was coercing ordinary people to evolve and leaking resources, while Bian Ling tried to silence the accusers. After trapping Bian Ling and her masked ally, Xu Huo confronted Minister Fan and invoked the Y Country Safe Zone incident.

• Xu Huo dismissed the accusers’ claims as unproven and demanded solid evidence before he would spare them.
• Bian Ling arrived with a masked Player and said the group was backed by a cult; the masked Player tried to choke one of the captives, but Xu Huo knocked him away.
• Bian Ling defended the Special Defense Department’s lethal response, and Xu Huo asked whether it had leaked transport routes and forced ordinary people to evolve.
• Xu Huo trapped Bian Ling and the masked Player inside an invisible space barrier, then called Minister Fan and played him an audio clip about the allegations.
• Minister Fan asked Xu Huo what he thought should be done, and Xu Huo reminded him of the Y Country Safe Zone incident.

Xu Huo threatened the Special Defense Department with destroying its Safe Zones unless it exposed and punished those involved in the abuses within two days. After he confronted Team Leader Lu and sent nine people back with her, the department assessed his power while deciding how to respond.

• Xu Huo gave Minister Fan two days to make the truth public, hold a public trial for those found guilty, and deal with the people involved, threatening to destroy a Safe Zone each day if the result was unsatisfactory.
• The Special Defense Department deployed nearly fifty players to the residential complex, where Xu Huo confronted Team Leader Lu and demonstrated his speed and spatial abilities.
• Xu Huo let Team Leader Lu take nine people away and returned to his family, reassuring Father Xu that they were safe.
• Team Leader Lu returned to headquarters, where Minister Fan asked how strong Xu Huo was; she reported that he could precisely control an area of at least three hundred meters, beyond the reach of most of the department's items.

The Special Defense Department debated whether to confront Xu Huo, comply with his demand, or investigate corruption within its own ranks. Minister Fan called for a public vote on an internal investigation.

• Minister Fan and the team leaders weighed the risks of trapping or attacking Xu Huo and questioned whether he was serious about destroying the Safe Zone.
• Team Leader Chang warned that Xu Huo could escape into the game and return stronger, while Team Leader Lu estimated a single top combat team had less than a fifty percent chance of beating him.
• Tang Shao suggested dealing with corrupt officials, and Jiang Qiao argued that rooting out internal rot would cost fewer lives than fighting Xu Huo.
• The gathered officials split into factions over whether to target Xu Huo, focus on internal affairs, or do both.
• Minister Fan called on team leaders and prospective team leaders to vote on an internal investigation.

The Special Defense Department faced a wave of public outrage after evidence revealed that some branches had forced people to undergo Evolution, while attacks and unrest spread across the country. Xu Huo received a list from Nie Xuan and set out to act against the people on it.

• The Special Defense Department's Elite Players arrived in Tianshi, and footage of clashes with independent Players set off rumors of a government war against Players.
• Videos and eyewitness accounts exposed forced Evolution screenings, prompting the Special Defense Department to announce arrests and release data about the violations.
• A Player attack on a Special Defense Department branch intensified the unrest, and the department sent Players to respond across the country.
• Wen Xue Lin and the others warned Xu Huo that unfamiliar people had appeared near the residential complex.
• Nie Xuan told Xu Huo that the forced Evolution scandal would have surfaced anyway, then sent him a list of people with photos and information about their habits and safe houses.
• Xu Huo rose from his seat and vanished as the sun went down.

Xu Huo went to a classified Safe Zone and intervened when Players fleeing it came under attack. After helping survivors escape a rockslide, he confronted a white-haired woman on the Special Defense Department's wanted List.

• Minister Fan ordered headquarters to handle only essential calls as evidence and pressure mounted against the Special Defense Department.
• Xu Huo used a prop to reach the classified Safe Zone, where a convoy of Players fled through the tunnel amid gunfire.
• An unknown attacker shot down a pursuing Player and caused two armored cars to crash, leaving several people dead or injured.
• The attacker brought down a rockslide on the survivors, and Xu Huo secretly teleported them a hundred meters to safety.
• The white-haired woman summoned two companions and surrounded Xu Huo, who recognized her from the Special Defense Department's wanted List.

Xu Huo intercepted the convoy carrying an old man who had authorized Qicheng Laboratory’s forced Evolutions and challenged his justification for sacrificing people. The old man’s fate remained unresolved as Xu Huo revealed a red syringe.

• Xu Huo killed three foreign attackers and caught up with the convoy as the assault on it continued.
• A powerful attacker tried to cut into a convoy vehicle, but Xu Huo kicked him away and pursued the old man in another vehicle.
• Xu Huo asked whether Laboratory 22 had selected 124 of its 367 Evolvers using the Evolution success rate List, and the old man did not deny it.
• The old man defended the forced Evolutions as sacrifices for the country, while Xu Huo argued that they were self-serving and undermined the country’s principles.
• Xu Huo asked how many Players would die that night, then opened a box and showed the old man a red Syringe.

Xu Huo injected Old Yang with Evolver blood, and the old man soon regressed and became violently cannibalistic. At a secret safe house, Liu Zhichao and other officials discussed the attack, their role in forced regression, and plans to let the Special Defense Department take the blame while they rebuilt their laboratories.

• Xu Huo injected Old Yang with Evolver blood and left him in the convoy, warning that the military would handle him if he regressed.
• Old Yang lost control, bit the driver, and was subdued as the Players reported that the attacker might be carrying Evolver blood.
• Nian arranged an evacuation, and Xu Huo followed the remaining personnel to a secret safe house.
• Liu Zhichao told the gathered officials that Old Yang had died after being injected with Evolver blood, prompting them to discuss the Special Defense Department's secret forced regressions.
• Liu Zhichao urged the officials to stay quiet until the Special Defense Department finished its cleanup, while they agreed that removing unruly Players would let them resume their work.
• After several people left, Old Wan defended the laboratories and argued that results mattered more than debates over right and wrong.

Xu Huo confronted the people behind Ice City Laboratory 66 and forced them to draw lots to decide who would receive an Evolver blood injection. The first recipient was chosen, and Xu Huo prepared to inject him.

• Liu Zhichao questioned Old Wan and the others about their confidence that Players posed no threat.
• Xu Huo revealed himself after disabling the safe house’s alarms and locking its doors, then explained that he had thrown Liu Zhichao off the plane.
• Xu Huo produced syringes of Evolver blood and said the eight people on his target list would draw lots to determine who received an injection first.
• When Lin He attacked Xu Huo, he killed her with invisible cutting lines and explained her role in the abuse at Ice City Laboratory 66.
• Old Wan and the others rolled the die; the last man rolled a six and tried to flee, but an invisible force dragged him to Xu Huo.
• Xu Huo took a syringe from the bag as the chosen man was pinned before him.