Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo learned how Ai Li had stolen a gemstone and considered the King’s and Queen’s roles in the Castle’s dealings with puppets. After Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu returned to the Castle, they asked the King to identify the Black Gemstone.

• Xu Huo had Excavator 114 dig three underground escape passages for Ai Li and Ai Shan after questioning them.
• Yan Jiayu told Xu Huo that Duan Cheng and Li Kun had searched empty homes for items, and Xu Huo planned to return to the Castle after reviewing their books.
• Duan Cheng and Li Kun proposed tallying their loot, but Xu Huo revealed that his quill was a B-class item, and Li Kun agreed they could settle compensation later.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu went to the Castle under the pretense of getting their temporary public-service document signed again.
• The King refused to issue a second document if the first was damaged, so Xu Huo sent him a Photo and asked whether it showed the gemstone he had lost.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu recovered the King’s missing Black Gemstone and learned how the Queen’s dolls became people, while Xu discovered buried bodies and hidden items in the Rose Garden. After the King identified the true gem, Xu asked for the executed thief Number 37’s belongings and left the Castle with Yan Jiayu.

• The King told Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu that the Queen’s dolls came to life after a Wooden Puppet gave him Black Gemstones, but that the Wooden Puppet later took dolls and killed people in Gemstone City.
• Xu Huo gave the King a Black Gemstone, but the King said it was not the missing one and prepared to send them away.
• Yan Jiayu offered the King several pieces of black ore, and he found the missing gem among them.
• Xu Huo used his Spiritual World to locate buried dolls and a box of items hidden in the Rose Garden.
• Xu Huo asked the King for the belongings of the executed thief Number 37, collected them, and left with Yan Jiayu, promising to explain outside.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu uncovered the truth behind the missing artisans, returned the stolen gemstones, and cleared the Gemstone City Dungeon with A ratings. As they left the city, they fought off Players who tried to kill them and steal their gains.

• Xu Huo told Yan Jiayu that the King had killed the missing artisans and buried their bodies beneath the rose trees, and they discussed the flaws in the King's story about the puppets and Black Gemstones.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu received A ratings after the game confirmed that they had cleared the Dungeon by solving the artisans' disappearance and returning the stolen gemstones.
• After the city announced a banquet and opened its gates, Xu Huo changed his appearance and told the old woman where the broken puppet had gone, leaving out that the residents had once been puppets.
• Duan Cheng, Li Kun, and three other Players attacked Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu, who drew them into a forest outside Gemstone City.
• Xu Huo killed the leading attacker with Space Sharp Blades, while Yan Jiayu and the Stone Lion killed another Player; Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu then intercepted the last Player as he tried to flee toward Duan Cheng and Li Kun.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu broke with Duan Cheng and Li Kun after accusing them of hiding their intentions, then split up to investigate the Dungeon. Xu Huo traveled toward Moon City with a caravan and learned about its currency and a mine, but the merchant pointed out that his map was wrong.

• Duan Cheng and Li Kun asked Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu for their temporary official document, but Yan Jiayu refused and suggested they pose as performers instead.
• Xu Huo confronted Duan Cheng and Li Kun about secretly taking items from the King's Castle, and the two sides agreed to pursue the Dungeon separately.
• Xu Huo suspected Duan Cheng and Li Kun were after more than the hidden items, so Yan Jiayu followed them toward Gemstone City while Xu Huo continued toward Moon City.
• Xu Huo helped a stranded caravan and two injured travelers, then traveled with the caravan along a shorter route to Moon City.
• A merchant explained that Moon City used Moonstones, Moon currency, and White Cash, then told Xu Huo that his map showed the river in the wrong direction.

Xu Huo investigated Moon City and learned that its people believed the Most Beautiful Gemstone had been stolen from them by Gemstone City. After the ninth King was murdered just seven days into his reign, Xu Huo was granted an audience with the young new King, who asked if Xu Huo had come to kill him.

• A merchant showed Xu Huo the location of a mine containing black or gray ore that might be useful for making props.
• Xu Huo arrived in Moon City and learned that the King planned to display the Most Beautiful Gemstone publicly the next day.
• Xu Huo presented his document at the King's Castle and overheard staff complain that Gemstone City's King had stolen the gemstone from Moon City.
• Xu Huo learned that the ninth King had been killed after only seven days on the throne and that the castle workers blamed Gemstone City for the theft.
• The guards escorted Xu Huo into the hall, where the young King asked him if he had come to kill him.

Xu Huo questioned Moon City's young King about the Most Beautiful Gemstone, and the King presented documents and letters claiming it had been returned to Gemstone City. The King recounted the gemstone's history and the rumors that led outsiders to demand it, leaving Xu Huo to consider why Moon City had faced violence despite returning a gemstone.

• Xu Huo examined Moon City's records and letters while the young King insisted the Most Beautiful Gemstone had been returned.
• The King explained that the third King had found a radiant white gemstone, but it was stolen before he died searching for it.
• The fourth King sealed away the white gemstones, and the fifth King later borrowed a similar gemstone from Gemstone City and returned it.
• Rumors spread in Moon City that Gemstone City's King had stolen the original gemstone, despite the fifth King's efforts to silence them.
• Outsiders later accused Moon City of keeping the borrowed gemstone, took the fifth King hostage, and eventually returned to slaughter people in the Castle.

Xu Huo questioned the people of Moon City about the missing gem and the history of Gemstone City, finding contradictions in the two kingdoms’ accounts. He agreed to inspect the third King’s belongings and promised to help protect Moon City by taking the white gem the next day.

• Xu Huo questioned the Duke about the third King’s search, the gem returned to Gemstone City, and the attendants who had traveled with the King.
• The Duke explained Moon City’s account of Gemstone City’s sudden appearance and a legend in which its founders had defeated a band of thieves who hoarded gems.
• Xu Huo questioned how many people accompanied the third King and how the letters and white gem were delivered, then concluded that the story of the search did not add up.
• Xu Huo asked to see the third King’s belongings and promised to take the white gem the next day.
• The King and the Duke welcomed Xu Huo’s offer, and the King ordered the third King’s belongings brought from the Warehouse.

Xu Huo learned about the third-generation king’s obsession with gemstones and received the fiancée’s plea to save her child, Moon City’s future king. When Players broke into the Castle for the most beautiful gemstone, Xu Huo recovered it and escaped Moon City despite others trying to stop him.

• Xu Huo questioned the elderly maids and Ms. Fina about the third-generation king, and Ms. Fina asked him to save her child if the current king died.
• The little king gave Xu Huo the hidden white gemstone as more Players searched the Castle for the most beautiful gemstone.
• Two Players burst into the Study Room and tried to steal the gemstone, but Xu Huo took it back, killed one Player, and captured the other.
• Xu Huo told the little king that the Players would keep targeting Moon City while their quest remained active, then arranged to leave through the Castle gate.
• Players sealed off the Castle area to prevent Xu Huo from escaping, so he flew through a skylight and used “Go to Destination” to reach the area outside Moon City.

Xu Huo searched Gemstone City for the white gem and questioned the Queen about the third King of Moon City. The Queen described the man as handsome and pure-hearted, and Xu Huo asked whether she had stolen his gem.

• Players tried to rob Xu Huo of the white gem, but Gemstone City's defenses barred them from reentering after they attacked its envoy.
• Xu Huo searched the rose garden with his robots but found only doll limbs, and Maid Xiao Si said only the King and Queen had seen the most beautiful gem.
• Xu Huo went to the Queen's workshop, where Xiao Si pinned him to the wall before the Queen stopped her.
• Xu Huo showed the Queen a portrait of Moon City's third King, and she described his beauty and clear heart.
• Xu Huo asked the Queen whether she had stolen the man's gem.

Xu Huo learned more about the Black Gemstone and the Queen’s missing gemstone, then traveled to the mine. There, Yan Jiayu revealed that Duan Cheng and Li Kun had entered and that a possibly modified human was inside.

• The Queen told Xu Huo that the most beautiful gemstone had disappeared after a living-looking doll visited, and Xiao Si explained how the Black Gemstone gave the dolls their unusual agility.
• Xiao Si said the doll-maker prized the Black Gemstone, knew the location of its mine, and had threatened the King and Queen over any loss of it.
• Xu Huo questioned Xiao Si about King Chris and the Queen, then left Gemstone City to investigate the mine.
• Xu Huo reached the mine at midnight and found Yan Jiayu hiding near its guarded entrance.
• Yan Jiayu told Xu Huo that Duan Cheng and Li Kun had entered the mine through an opening the dolls had deliberately left, and that someone inside looked like a doll but might be a modified human.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu fought their way through the mine, killing the doll people and surviving a series of traps and a tunnel explosion. They sent a combat robot into the remaining passage, where they discovered that not all the traps had been set by the doll people.

• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu agreed to destroy the dolls and draw out the doll people without alerting them all at once.
• Xu Huo destroyed one doll while Yan Jiayu dealt with two others, then they ambushed and killed the first doll person who investigated.
• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu found Li Kun's body and fought a second doll person, with Big Mao biting off his head after Yan Jiayu blasted through the rubble trapping them.
• They pursued another doll person through a narrow tunnel, but his bomb caused the mine to collapse, forcing Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu to flee in opposite directions.
• Yan Jiayu's little doll was destroyed by a trap, so Xu Huo sent in their combat robot, which detected that some traps had not been placed by the doll people.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu cornered and killed Duan Cheng in the mine, then began collecting its black ore while searching for the Most Beautiful Gemstone. After finding numbered puppets and learning they might belong to the notorious Suitcase Man, Xu Huo realized his past encounters with the Super Player could put them in danger.

• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu stopped Duan Cheng as he fled through the passage, and Duan Cheng admitted he had recruited them to share the risks of claiming the mine’s ore.
• Xu Huo demanded the white gemstone from Duan Cheng, then killed him when he denied having seen it; Xu Huo found no Most Beautiful Gemstone among his belongings.
• Yan Jiayu arranged for Tu Xiaoxiao to store the black ore they collected, while Xu Huo deployed robots and Excavator 114 to help search and clear the mine.
• Xu Huo examined the numbered puppets and learned online that they could be connected to the vengeful Super Player known as Suitcase Man.
• Xu Huo recalled how he had manipulated events involving Suitcase Man at Building Block Fairy Tale Town Station and Sifang Palace City Station.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu recovered the Most Beautiful Gemstone and escaped the King's Gemstone Dungeon, where Xu Huo received new rewards. He boarded a train and found a peaceful carriage of Players after the one he first entered had been wrecked.

• Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu found the Most Beautiful Gemstone in the mine and agreed that Yan Jiayu would take it to Moon City while Xu Huo returned to Gemstone City.
• Xu Huo took the code of laws from the King's Study Room, left King Chris's handwritten bookmark with Xiao Si, and cleared away the traces of their actions.
• Xu Huo cleared the King's Gemstone Dungeon with an A rating and received new Abilities, items, and other rewards.
• Xu Huo boarded the next train and found his first carriage wrecked, so he moved to the carriage ahead.
• Xu Huo entered a peaceful carriage where five female Players played cards and several male Players appeared to be protecting them.

Xu Huo encountered a severely contaminated Player on the train and investigated whether the man’s poisonous emissions could spread through the air. After testing the air and eating safely, Xu Huo warned that the growths on the man’s body were spreading quickly.

• Xu Huo read a robot-making manual while tensions rose between a group of men and female Players in the carriage.
• A foul-smelling, visibly contaminated man entered, ate Flesh Worms squeezed from his boils, and was driven out of the carriage ahead by the other men.
• Xu Huo asked the man about his poisonous condition and requested a sample, but the man refused and later said his contamination would not spread through the air.
• Xu Huo tested the air, removed his mask, and ate a meal, prompting the other Players to cautiously eat as well.
• Xu Huo observed mold-like growths spreading behind the man’s chair and warned him that the contaminants on his body were growing fast.

Xu Huo tested whether King Fungus Antidote could suppress the Poisoned Person’s contaminant and offered him Antidotes in exchange for samples. After the Poisoned Person left the carriage during an Alien attack, Xu Huo gave him three Antidotes and Dimension Below’s contact information; the train then continued toward a station near Platinum Eye.

• Xu Huo tested the contaminant with King Fungus Antidote and found that its contagiousness dropped to less than one percent.
• The Poisoned Person asked Xu Huo for Antidote for the children in his home, and Xu Huo offered him some in exchange for collecting contaminants.
• When the train entered a dangerous area, the Poisoned Person left the carriage and did not return as an Alien swarm attacked the train.
• The train arrived safely the next morning, and Xu Huo found the Poisoned Person back in the contaminated Transfer Carriage.
• Xu Huo gave the Poisoned Person three Antidotes and Dimension Below’s contact information, then learned that the short-haired woman and her companions were heading to Platinum Eye.

Xu Huo reunited with Little Pink Hat in Platinum Eye and indulged her candy cravings before sending her back to her Dungeon. He then met Yan Jiayu and Tu Xiaoxiao at a warehouse to inspect the ore from the fairy-tale Dungeon, where Tu Xiaoxiao asked about sharing the profits.

• Xu Huo encountered Little Pink Hat on the ship, and she tried to persuade the female players to buy her an expensive box of candy.
• After reaching Platinum Eye, Xu Huo heard that Little Pink Hat had closed her Dungeon after visitors bullied her dolls, then bought her two boxes of limited-edition candy.
• Xu Huo sent Little Pink Hat back to her Dungeon and arranged to leave her Awakening Doll somewhere quiet.
• Xu Huo contacted Yan Jiayu and visited the warehouse where Tu Xiaoxiao was examining the ore and the “Most Beautiful Gemstone.”
• Tu Xiaoxiao asked whether Xu Huo would share the profits, and he credited her help and asked if she had brought out the gemstone.

After clearing the Dungeon, Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu discussed their rewards and how to sell the dangerous ore, then Xu Huo visited Bai Kou at the Mechanical Castle to test their Super Evolution. The test ended with Xu Huo crashing into a wall and spitting blood.

• Yan Jiayu agreed to try selling the black ore through the bounty platform or the District Government, and she borrowed Xu Huo's doll-making manual.
• Xu Huo gave Yan Jiayu a C-class doll, and she eagerly considered making robots herself.
• Xu Huo went to the Mechanical Castle and waited while Bai Kou met with two brothers, then asked her to help test Super Evolution.
• Bai Kou brought Xu Huo to a testing room, where the recorded readings fluctuated before Xu Huo struck the wall and spat out blood.

Xu Huo recovered from Bai Kou’s mental attack and learned that it represented a higher level of Mental Evolution. After testing the limits of a Player tailing him, he went to meet Xin Rong at a clubhouse.

• Xu Huo endured the effects of Bai Kou’s mental attack and realized it was far beyond ordinary mental interference or manifested mental power.
• Xu Huo left the inner castle and checked into Yongxing Hotel, where a Player followed him into the neighboring room and reported on him.
• Xu Huo tested the limits of the Player’s see-through vision and concluded the man was tracking him because he had visited Bai Kou.
• Xu Huo rested, then went to Stars and Moon Shine to watch arena matches before heading to meet Xin Rong.
• Xin Rong greeted Xu Huo at the clubhouse and ushered him inside, eager to spend the evening together.

Xin Rong brought Xu Huo to a private gathering of fellow Players and showed them a new energy weapon part from another Sub-district. After analyzing its unusual white material, he revealed that it most closely resembled a human skull.

• Xin Rong introduced Xu Huo to his friends, who discussed Xin Rong's dangerous travels between Sub-districts.
• The group explained their work making weapons and machinery in the Platinum Eye.
• Xin Rong placed a new weapon component on the table, and the others examined its energy structure and white chip core.
• Xin Rong said the material could power a large aircraft for over twelve hours and be reused several times.
• Xin Rong showed an image of a skull as the closest match to the material's composition.

Xu Huo discussed Xin Rong’s discovery that human bones could power aircraft and heard his theories about hidden Sub-districts monopolizing advanced technology and resources. Xin Rong tried to learn more about the Sub-class Stone Xu Huo had given Old Mrs. Lu, but Liao Ying pointed out that Xu Huo had not mined it himself.

• Xin Rong shared his test data on aircraft powered by human bones, and the group discussed whether the bones contained an undetectable energy source.
• Xin Rong explained to Xu Huo that advanced machinery depended on both energy and scarce materials, and suggested that hidden Sub-districts might keep their resources and technology secret.
• Xu Huo agreed to bring any unusual weapons or useful materials he found to Platinum Eye.
• Xin Rong asked about the ore Xu Huo had given Old Mrs. Lu to craft a Defense Artifact, and Xu Huo said he had found the Sub-class Stone by chance.
• Xin Rong hinted that other ores might be available, and Liao Ying teased him for not realizing Xu Huo had not dug up the stone himself.