Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo, Wen Dachui, and Tang Tiantian compared theories about Xiaoyue City’s mirror-space maze and weighed ways to escape. While they agreed to wait until daytime, an unknown person secretly left a directional message in a park.

• Tang Tiantian explained that she was a Red C-class player trapped in Xiaoyue City and proposed contacting players in other mirror-space layers through marks and spatial interference devices.
• Xu Huo, Wen Dachui, and Tang Tiantian discussed how the city and its residents appeared across the maze’s layers, while Xu Huo focused on finding the barrier or edge where the mirror space formed.
• Wen Dachui suggested lying low and waiting for the maze’s owner to leave, and Tang Tiantian agreed they should wait until daytime before exploring.
• Tang Tiantian and Wen Dachui chose rooms for the night, while the rescued girls stayed together in the living room until exhaustion overcame them.
• After the city fell asleep, an unidentified person went to a park and used an item to write an address and directions on the lawn.

Xu Huo pursued Tang Tiantian through the spatial maze, then witnessed a Player steal artifacts with an Ability that forced people to kneel and beg. Back at the apartment, he and Wen Dachui considered how the mirror space expanded while keeping Players isolated, and Xu Huo proposed checking the bar.

• Xu Huo confronted Tang Tiantian about her mark and suspected she was trying to lure the maze's owner, but she used an artifact to enter another part of the mirror space.
• Xu Huo was attacked by a Player's Ability and saw several Players forced to kneel by a man who stole their artifacts through begging.
• The begging Player fled after the Ability wore off, deceiving his pursuers with a shower of fake artifacts.
• Xu Huo returned to the apartment and told Wen Dachui what had happened, revealing that he had reached a deeper layer of the mirror space than Wen Dachui.
• Xu Huo and Wen Dachui discussed how mirror spaces could expand while remaining isolated, and Xu Huo suggested they check the bar.

Xu Huo tested his theory that Xiaoyue City’s mirror spaces were shifting regions by moving rapidly through the city, where he encountered other players and rescued three from an attacker. He eventually spotted Bai Tiaoyi near a school, sneering at someone in a corridor.

• Xu Huo questioned whether the mirror spaces were shifting regions and decided to test his theory by moving quickly through Xiaoyue City.
• Xu Huo used spatial rays to travel ahead of Wen Dachui and found that the spatial maze’s force followed him even when he moved away from places he had marked.
• Xu Huo encountered players across the city and saw a kneeling player and two companions pinned beneath a huge curved blade.
• Xu Huo used his Spiritual World to move the three players away from the blade wielder until they were safe.
• Xu Huo found Bai Tiaoyi near a school, where Bai Tiaoyi sneered at someone in a corridor.

Xu Huo rescued three players from District 014 after their attempt to assassinate Bai Tiaoyi failed, then questioned whether the Special Defense Department had ordered the attack. The survivors insisted they had come to avenge their loved ones in Hai City and could not let the killings go unavenged.

• Bai Tiaoyi interrogated Fang Zhong, a wounded Ghastly Sound Knights player, and killed him after Fang refused to reveal his companions’ identities.
• Fang Zhong’s death triggered a whirlwind of blades that swept Bai Tiaoyi into a vortex, while Xu Huo spotted three people waiting outside the school grounds.
• Xu Huo used the Spiritual World to take the three would-be attackers away before Bai Tiaoyi emerged.
• The three attacked Xu Huo, then recognized him as a player from District 014 and thanked him for rescuing them.
• Xu Huo challenged the group’s chances against Bai Tiaoyi, but the older man explained that they had come to avenge their family and friends lost in Hai City.

Xu Huo learned about the Super Players and Random Instances in District 017 while weighing how to deal with Bai Tiaoyi and the Ghastly Sound Knights. After the others left, Bai Tiaoyi confronted Xu Huo, who claimed he was following him to find a way out of Xiaoyue City.

• Xu Huo told the three Players that Bai Tiaoyi was likely unharmed and asked whether Nie Xuan had come; they said Nie Xuan could not get away.
• The "begging" Player told Xu Huo that Paper Puppeteer, Lawrence Li, and Meteor Star were in District 017, along with an unidentified Super Player who had sealed off a country.
• Xu Huo asked about Random Instances, learned of three C-class instances and one B-class instance, and told the three Players to leave once the spatial maze dissipated.
• After the three Players departed, Xu Huo followed Bai Tiaoyi through the city, but Bai Tiaoyi repeatedly appeared behind him and asked why he was following.
• Xu Huo said he wanted to leave Xiaoyue City and was following the person most likely to get out; Bai Tiaoyi said he still suspected Xu Huo was lying.

Xu Huo fought Bai Tiaoyi, who used powerful items and spatial interference to trap and overpower him. As Bai Tiaoyi tried to seize Xu Huo’s black blade, Xu Huo recalled it and released the Magician Person.

• Bai Tiaoyi attacked Xu Huo with chains, and Xu Huo evaded him by using Space Rays and the surrounding buildings.
• Bai Tiaoyi used smoke rings and a drawer item against Xu Huo, but Xu Huo recovered his stolen item with An Irresistible Request.
• Bai Tiaoyi used a spatial interference device and a ring of cards to trap Xu Huo, then struck him through his defenses with a kick and an umbrella.
• Bai Tiaoyi questioned Xu Huo with a black notebook, but Xu Huo cut through the umbrella and attacked with his black blade.
• Bai Tiaoyi tried to seize the blade and fix Xu Huo in place, so Xu Huo recalled the blade and released the Magician Person.

Xu Huo’s fight with Bai Tiaoyi turned against him when Bai Tiaoyi countered his mental powers, but a short woman intervened and sent Bai away with an A-class Space Maze. She invited Xu Huo to eat and offered to guide—or punish—him, leaving him in the hands of a powerful stranger.

• Xu Huo used his space-time items, mental power, and the Magician Person to break through Bai Tiaoyi’s defenses, but Bai caught his manifested blade and used a device to disrupt the attack.
• Bai Tiaoyi kept out of range of Xu Huo’s mental powers, then overpowered him and sent him crashing through several buildings.
• Xu Huo and Bai Tiaoyi burst into an office where players were grilling food, and a short woman insulted Bai Tiaoyi before they attacked each other.
• The woman used an A-class Space Maze to make Bai Tiaoyi vanish, then beckoned Xu Huo over and gave him food.
• Xu Huo thanked the woman and learned that she had noticed him, liked him, and intended to teach him if he proved sensible.

Ms. Gong taught Xu Huo how to develop his Space Power through precise deconstruction and layered compression of Space Rays. She demonstrated that the same power could control or destroy a human body, leaving Xu Huo to consider the difference between crude destruction and precise deconstruction.

• Ms. Gong called Xu Huo Little Barbecue and asked him to demonstrate his use of Space Ray, then showed how she could precisely break a skewer into smaller pieces.
• Ms. Gong explained that Xu Huo should align the Rays inside an object with his own instead of specializing in controlling particular materials, and suggested he study the Cube Space.
• Ms. Gong formed a cube from layered spatial barriers, compressed it, and explained how a sudden release of its stored Space Rays could crush a container.
• Ms. Gong said Space Rays could treat a human body as an object or container, then enclosed an unknown Player in a spatial barrier and made his body explode.
• Ms. Gong asked Xu Huo whether forced destruction or precise deconstruction was more impressive.

Xu Huo watched Ms. Gong fight two Holy Sword Society Gold Apprentices after she confronted them over their killings in District 017. He returned to help, acquired a spatial artifact that let him see through overlapping spaces, and spotted the battle again as the middle-aged Gold Apprentice brought out Precise Hit.

• Ms. Gong confronted five Holy Sword Society Players and fought the two Gold Apprentices while sending Xu Huo away from the battle.
• Xu Huo chose to return to the city center, but five Holy Sword Society Players surrounded him before he could locate the mirrored space.
• Xu Huo defeated a B-level Player and found the Moon Gazer in the man's inventory.
• Xu Huo used the Moon Gazer to follow Ms. Gong as she fought the two Gold Apprentices and scolded them.
• The middle-aged Gold Apprentice produced Precise Hit, and Xu Huo suspected the attack might be a trap.

Ms. Gong fought off two Gold Badges and Bai Tiaoyi, while Xu Huo intervened to save her from a surprise attack. After Bai Tiaoyi escaped with a Ticket, Ms. Gong gave Xu Huo a Ticket and mentioned a rumor about Dr. Wu in the sub-district.

• A middle-aged Gold Badge used a medicine designed to weaken Ms. Gong, causing her disguised face to sag as he and another Gold Badge attacked her.
• Ms. Gong used Space Rays to wound the Gold Badges, but Bai Tiaoyi appeared behind her and tried to seize her neck.
• Xu Huo disrupted Bai Tiaoyi's vision and pulled him away from Ms. Gong, then survived Bai Tiaoyi's attack with the help of Kitty Borrows Three Lives.
• Bai Tiaoyi tried to kill Xu Huo, but Ms. Gong restrained him with threads, and he escaped into the game using a Ticket.
• Xu Huo asked Ms. Gong about her plans, and she gave him a Ticket while mentioning a rumor that Dr. Wu had appeared in the sub-district.

Xu Huo was followed by four emotionless people who seemed to be observing him and wanted the chips he carried. The Paper Puppeteer arrived in District 017, exchanged information about the Holy Sword Society with Xu Huo, and warned him that Suitcase Man was there too.

• Xu Huo accepted a Ticket from Ms. Gong and left Xiaoyue City, evading a trio who called after him.
• Xu Huo noticed four people following him whose Emotional Color and attention scores stayed unusually low, and his attacks failed to hit them as they vanished and reappeared.
• Xu Huo showed the four people two chips taken from an intelligent Alien, and they briefly looked at the chips before turning their attention elsewhere and disappearing.
• A vast storm of paper scraps swept toward the city, and the Paper Puppeteer appeared before Xu Huo.
• Xu Huo gave the Paper Puppeteer two addresses linked to the Holy Sword Society and told him about its internal split.
• The Paper Puppeteer said the old Holy Sword Society still did some good and warned Xu Huo that Suitcase Man was in District 017.

Xu Huo rescued a group of passengers from a fight over a military truck and brought them to the AS9 Safe Zone, where they found the city burning and its underground base abandoned. The stranded survivors faced new danger as two bloodthirsty Players began hunting them.

• Xu Huo encountered a Special Defense Department team fighting five Players over a military transport truck and offered to take its passengers to the AS9 Safe Zone.
• Xu Huo put the passengers inside the "Staff Dormitory," sent an attacking Player through a door to the District 014 Players, and left for the Safe Zone.
• Xu Huo released the passengers into the burning AS9 Safe Zone, where they learned the underground base was gone and watched a military convoy refuse to take them along.
• Two Players from other districts noticed the stranded survivors after killing a rescue team and began competing to kill them for spoils.

Xu Huo stopped Cannibal Players from approaching a group of survivors and warned that District 017 might not survive. A girl claiming to be the granddaughter of Country A’s top leader offered him A-class items to escort her to the Capital Safe Zone and rescue a Player in the AS9 Safe Zone, whose work deciphering an Alien chip she said made him their country’s hope.

• Xu Huo killed the two Cannibal Players who approached him, and the others backed away.
• Xu Huo advised the Players behind him to buy container items and take people to another Sub-district because District 017 probably would not hold out.
• A girl revealed that she was a Player and offered Xu Huo three A-class items to escort her to the Capital Safe Zone, plus two more if he helped rescue someone in the AS9 Safe Zone.
• The girl revealed that she carried a remotely triggered Micro Bomb to prevent Xu Huo from taking her hostage without fulfilling the deal.
• In private, the girl told Xu Huo that the person she sought had deciphered part of a chip taken from a Big Head Alien and was the only Player in her country to experience abnormal brain Evolution.
• The girl explained that the chip could expose how Aliens were brought to District 017 and said the decipherer was their hope; Xu Huo asked whether he was a Player.

Xu Huo accompanied Jin Zi to a nursing home to find Meng Cun, a dying Player with an abnormally enlarged head who refused to leave before decrypting a chip. Xu Huo revealed that he had found three identical chips inside Big Head Aliens, making Meng Cun reconsider whether his condition and the chip were connected.

• Xu Huo took Jin Zi to a nursing home on the outskirts of the city, where they found Meng Cun in the basement.
• Jin Zi urged Meng Cun to leave for treatment, but he refused because he wanted to finish decrypting the chip before he died.
• Meng Cun warned Xu Huo that helping Jin Zi would bring no reward and explained that he had less than three days to live without the fluid in his brain being drained.
• Xu Huo told Meng Cun that Big Head Aliens were called Intelligent Aliens and showed him three chips he had removed from them.
• Meng Cun reconsidered his work when Xu Huo suggested the chips might matter because of the Aliens they came from.

Xu Huo decided to take Meng Cun to another Sub-district for treatment, but four mysterious Players tracked them and forced him to flee. Trapped in Dagang City with his teleportation device disabled, he faced a citywide web of strange Space Rays.

• Xu Huo told Meng Cun that someone had tracked the chips and offered to take him to a Doctor in another Sub-district, while Jin Zi warned Meng Cun not to trust him.
• Meng Cun chose to go with Xu Huo, and Xu Huo removed the chips before a surge of power struck the area.
• Xu Huo pulled Meng Cun and Jin Zi into Staff Dormitory and escaped the AS9 Safe Zone with the End-to-End Ring, but explosions followed them into the next city.
• Xu Huo crossed five cities while four Players followed his teleportation route, then found his device disabled after he was trapped in Dagang City.
• Multicolored Space Rays spread across Dagang City, covering it in Space Power.

Xu Huo navigated the deadly Space Rays spreading through the city while confronting the four players tracking him. A mysterious man in a black coat intervened, and Xu Huo found himself transported to a gloomy Castle.

• Space Rays spread across the city, killing or injuring players who touched them and forcing others to flee or turn back.
• Xu Huo sensed a safer route through the rays and charged toward the city, narrowly avoiding a dense shower that killed several players.
• The four players tracking Xu Huo pursued him toward the northwest, where Space Power was most concentrated.
• Xu Huo attacked one pursuer, but the man vanished, and another struck Xu Huo and sent him flying.
• The pursuers aimed energy weapons at Xu Huo, but a man in a black coat froze three of them and took a weapon.
• The black-coated man opened his case, and Xu Huo was transported to a gloomy Castle.

Xu Huo killed a well-equipped Player in a strange space where Tickets could not work, then continued through the corridor with a long-ponytailed Player. They found a lifelike doll made from a modified Player's corpse, suggesting the Suitcase Man's Dungeon held a worse danger ahead.

• Xu Huo attacked a Player whose spatial device had failed, broke through his defenses, and killed him with a Manifestation.
• The dead Player's devices began to crack or leak, and Xu Huo found little useful among his belongings.
• A long-ponytailed Player joined Xu Huo in searching the corpse and suggested the group might be connected to the Aliens' invasion of District 017.
• The long-ponytailed Player suspected they were trapped in the Suitcase Man's Dungeon and identified Lawrence Li as the other Super Player.
• Xu Huo and the long-ponytailed Player reached the end of the corridor and found a lifelike doll made from a modified Player's corpse.

Xu Huo and the other Players searched the windowless Castle after realizing they could not escape the Suitcase Man’s Leather Case. Xu considered whether the Castle was a Dungeon contained in an Artifact and left to investigate a possible way out.

• Lian Hanshan identified the trapped Players as those caught by the Space Ray, while a middle-aged woman complained that the Suitcase Man might kill them.
• A bearded Player threatened the woman, and the others debated whether the Castle was a Dungeon or a container Artifact.
• Lian Hanshan confirmed that Lawrence Li had been fighting the Suitcase Man, and the Players split up to search the Castle again.
• Xu Huo reasoned that a Dungeon might be inside the Leather Case and considered using his Super Artifact, but worried it could expose him or make escape harder.
• Xu Huo told his companions he was going to the Restroom, and Lian Hanshan suggested stopping for food in a nearby hall.

Xu Huo learned that the painted woman had escaped the Castle through a portal that appeared in its space, supporting his theory that Suitcase Man’s Leather Case had opened a passage. The group then considered using Guan Donglai’s item to escape, but they lacked the required A-class spacetime items.

• Xu Huo questioned the painted woman and learned that she had escaped through a portal that suddenly appeared high in the Castle.
• The painted woman said the Castle’s dolls had been busy cooking and cleaning before she found the portal and escaped with a wooden doll.
• Xu Huo concluded that Suitcase Man had likely opened the Leather Case and that its portal might have formed before or after he entered the Castle.
• Xu Huo and the other Players introduced themselves as Zhu Zhu, Guan Donglai, Lian Hanshan, and Yu Er.
• Guan Donglai proposed using his Narrow Escape rope, which required each user to pay an A-class spacetime item.
• Xu Huo and Lian Hanshan said they lacked the required items, so Guan Donglai put the rope away and said he would seek help elsewhere.

Xu Huo considered searching the Castle for the Suitcase Man’s Instance Authorization Letter while the Players sought a way out. Outside, the Suitcase Man and Lawrence Li fought in a safe city, where Lawrence Li attacked after demanding the Super Artifact, but the Suitcase Man’s power began to overwhelm his Space Rays.

• Zhu Zhu asked Guan Donglai to sell her an A-class escape item, but he left without agreeing.
• Lian Hanshan explained that Guan Donglai could exploit the Players’ desperation because he held a possible route out and demanded a valuable space-time item.
• Xu Huo proposed searching the Castle for the Suitcase Man’s Instance Authorization Letter, and Lian Hanshan and Zhu Zhu went their separate ways as explosions sounded.
• The Suitcase Man and Lawrence Li continued their battle in a safe city near the Capital Safe Zone, after having destroyed three cities.
• Lawrence Li demanded that the Suitcase Man hand over the Super Artifact, and the Suitcase Man challenged him to stand up and take it.
• Lawrence Li’s Space Rays struck and surrounded the Suitcase Man, but the rays drooped around him as the street began collapsing.