Chapter Summaries

Lawrence Li fought the Suitcase Man as the Players searched for a way out of the Castle. Guan Donglai opened a passage that let Xu Huo and others escape, but the Suitcase Man froze everyone outside and confronted them.

• Lawrence Li used Space Rays to halt the Abyss’s advance, then pierced the Suitcase Man’s defensive barrier and made his Leather Case’s clasp shift.
• After the Players failed to find the Instance Authorization Letter, Guan Donglai offered to lead an escape in exchange for A-class space-time items or spatial instruments.
• Guan Donglai prepared his climbing rope while the bearded man attacked the middle-aged woman, who filled the corridor with mist from her steamer pot.
• Xu Huo escaped through Guan Donglai’s spatial passage with the painted woman’s help, while Lian Hanshan escaped by his own means.
• The Suitcase Man appeared outside, froze everyone in place, and looked toward Xu Huo as he said, “Someone opened the suitcase.”

Xu Huo escaped the Suitcase Man’s attack as Lawrence Li intervened, then hurried to R City to investigate the combat base and help Jin Zi contact her family. The call ended with Jin Zi’s mother apparently captured, and five Players confronted Xu Huo and demanded that he hand Jin Zi over.

• The Suitcase Man killed Guan Donglai by making his body boil and vaporize, but Lawrence Li’s Space Ray broke the frozen area and the Players fled.
• Xu Huo escaped to another city with “Ring of Ends Connected” and saw holes clearing the storm clouds toward the Capital Safe Zone.
• Xu Huo reached R City, released Jin Zi, and asked her to contact her family to locate the command room.
• Jin Zi called her mother, who said Jin Zi’s brothers were dead and urged her to hide, before a man interrupted and the call ended.
• Five Players surrounded Xu Huo and Jin Zi, and the man in the gold jacket demanded that Xu Huo hand her over.

Xu Huo returned to the Capital Safe Zone to find the command room and learn what had happened to Jin Zi’s family. He infiltrated the combat base amid a hostage crisis, where Outer District Players were killing government staff to force officials to surrender items.

• Jin Zi showed Xu Huo the command room’s location and asked him to get her family out, then stayed behind and asked him to look after Meng Cun.
• Xu Huo returned to the Capital Safe Zone and used his Spiritual World to start a fight among Players, creating an opening to infiltrate the combat base.
• Xu Huo reached the command room, where Outer District Players held government staff hostage and killed captives in front of senior officials.
• A tattooed Player threatened an old official after the man warned that the Suitcase Man and Lawrence Li were approaching the capital.

Xu Huo infiltrated the Capital Safe Zone's command room to send an encrypted message, then escaped amid an explosion that crashed the system and caused the command room's staff to disappear. The Players were left trying to determine how he had entered and where everyone had gone.

• The tattooed Player killed several government staff members for refusing to cooperate, and the glasses man ordered him to stop.
• Xu Huo had a translator send an encrypted message to Safe Zones, then told him that the Super Artifact had not been found.
• A Player noticed Xu Huo in the command room, but Xu Huo used an explosion to crash the computers and vanished.
• The Players discovered that everyone in the command room was gone and argued over how Xu Huo had entered.
• The glasses man concluded that Xu Huo had likely entered through the ground beneath the command room.

Xu Huo freed government officials held in the residential buildings and encountered Dou Shengnan controlling Players near the combat base. He warned Jin Zi’s family that District 017 was becoming dangerous, leaving them to decide whether to stay or flee.

• Cai Bo discovered that the command room’s Players and detained officials had disappeared, then learned that officials in the residential buildings had also been rescued.
• Dou Shengnan used her Pocket Watch to control Cai Bo and other Players, including two A-class Players, as Xu Huo watched from a distance and withdrew.
• Xu Huo returned to the residential building and released Jin Zi’s family, who had learned about the Encrypted Information.
• Jin Zi’s grandfather asked whether Xu Huo held a grudge against Dou Shengnan, and Xu Huo explained that he was trying to locate the woman in the black windbreaker who had arrived with Xue Lang.
• Xu Huo warned Jin Zi’s family that Alien viruses could spread through District 017 and cause regression, death, or violent behavior, while they struggled with whether to abandon the people they were responsible for.

Jin He asked Outer District Players to help people escape District 017 after Xu Huo explained the limits and dangers of evacuation. Elsewhere, Xue Lang ordered Chang Bei to deal with Xu Huo’s interference, and their confrontation escalated.

• Jin Zi's grandfather told Xu Huo that District 017 could not evacuate everyone and agreed to seek help for the children from the Holy Sword Society.
• Xu Huo advised Jin He to post a public plea asking decent Outer District Players to take people with them, and Jin He sent out a video appeal.
• Jin He assigned most of the remaining combat-base personnel to leave with Xu Huo while he and several elderly people stayed behind.
• Xue Lang read a message describing a black-clad Super Evolver who had obtained a Super Artifact and accused Chang Bei of being that Player.
• Xue Lang told Chang Bei to clean up Xu Huo’s mess, and she challenged his fear of Xu Huo before he cut across the floor with a Space Ray.

Xu Huo gave the Special Defense Department King Fungus fluid to treat a deadly fungus infection targeting women, then reunited with Chang Bei and asked about her plans. Chang Bei warned that Xue Lang might go after Xu Huo’s home and revealed Dr. Zhang had been busy seeking children.

• Chang Bei left after mocking Xue Lang, who smashed his Communicator and glared at the nearby players.
• Xu Huo stopped Qian Qiyun and other Special Defense Department players, who explained that a deliberately released, mutated fungus was killing women and that King Fungus fluid was the only treatment that had helped.
• Xu Huo gave Qian Qiyun two boxes of King Fungus fluid, explained how to use them, and asked for updates on the treatment.
• After the Special Defense Department players left, Xu Huo spoke with Chang Bei across the shattered windows of an office building.
• Chang Bei told Xu Huo that Xue Lang might visit his home and that she had recently visited it herself.
• Xu Huo and Chang Bei discussed Dr. Zhang’s interest in children, and Xu Huo asked where she planned to go after leaving District 017.

Chang Bei was ambushed by Players seeking the Super Artifact and was nearly killed before Xue Lang intervened. Xue Lang and Chang Bei resisted Dou Shengnan’s mental attack, leaving the confrontation poised to continue.

• Chang Bei gave Xu Huo a puzzle ball and said she had not finished Dr. Zhang’s task before withdrawing into the darkness.
• Players attacked Chang Bei with a glowing Stone, a trapping chest, steel bars, gravity, and spatial transport, quickly overwhelming her.
• Dou Shengnan hypnotized the attackers while Jin Feixue used his Violin’s air blades to drive them away and seize Chang Bei.
• Chang Bei escaped Jin Feixue’s grip, but Space Rays cut through buildings and Players, prompting the attackers to retreat.
• Xue Lang appeared beside Chang Bei, and both of them remained unaffected by Dou Shengnan’s Pocket Watch attack.

Dou Shengnan and Jin Feixue fought Xue Lang while Chang Bei was caught in the Suitcase Man’s attack, but Lawrence Li and the Paper Puppeteer helped her escape. Xu Huo fled as the Capital Safe Zone burned and District 017 collapsed, then asked Bai Kou where large numbers of ordinary people could find refuge.

• Dou Shengnan trapped the nearby Players in her Spiritual World, and Jin Feixue’s strand infected Chang Bei as she and Xue Lang tried to escape.
• Jin Feixue and Dou Shengnan attacked Xue Lang, who called Chang Bei out of the rubble; the Suitcase Man appeared and began melting her.
• Lawrence Li and the Paper Puppeteer disrupted the Suitcase Man’s control barrier, allowing Chang Bei and the other Players to flee.
• Xu Huo returned to the combat base, gathered the painted woman and the others, and escaped through the End-to-End Loop as the Capital Safe Zone erupted in flames.
• As District 017 fell to Aliens and invading Players, Xu Huo contacted Bai Kou to ask where many ordinary people could be taken in.

Xu Huo rushed to evacuate residents from a small city in District 017 using container artifacts, with help from a Special Defense Department squad leader. After learning that a concealed ship in Yuecheng was taking people aboard, he headed there, leaving the evacuation of the small city behind as an alien group approached.

• Xu Huo borrowed two container artifacts from Bai Kou and began moving residents into them, asking nearby Special Defense Department Players to help prioritize children.
• A squad leader questioned where Xu Huo planned to take the evacuees, and Xu Huo said he had found them shelter and would check on District 014 afterward if needed.
• Xu Huo filled the first artifact and transferred it and its occupants to Bai Kou through Dimension Below, then continued loading people into the second.
• The squad leader showed Xu Huo footage of a concealed ship above Yuecheng that was taking residents aboard, and Xu Huo decided to go there.
• Xu Huo caught two sisters who had jumped from a balcony and put them in an artifact, but he remained unmoved when other people jumped to their deaths.
• With an alien group expected to reach the city in about ten minutes, Xu Huo said he would head to Yuecheng and asked whether B-class Players there could delay the ship if it tried to leave.

Xu Huo left Wucheng as an Alien horde consumed the city and reached Yuecheng, where residents were being herded aboard a mysterious ship. He confronted Dou Shengnan of the Ghastly Sound Knights, then was suddenly dropped at her feet when her darkness engulfed the city.

• Xu Huo rescued children and young adults in Wucheng before leaving as the Alien horde overran the city.
• Xu Huo entered Yuecheng and learned that residents were orderly boarding a huge armored ship while the Special Defense Department Players found no Players among the living.
• The Special Defense Department Players reported similar evacuations in other cities and suspected the ship might be linked to the Game Government.
• Xu Huo recognized Dou Shengnan of the Ghastly Sound Knights and sent the Special Defense Department Players away.
• Dou Shengnan warned Xu Huo that he was outmatched and that Jin Feixue would prevent his escape.
• Xu Huo charged toward the ship, but Dou Shengnan unleashed darkness that swallowed the city and left him collapsed in front of her.

Xu Huo used the City Sandbox, his Ability, and the Book Tower to evade Dou Shengnan’s overwhelming mental attacks. He left her holding an incomplete, grinning figure, while the ship and the reason Jin Feixue had been holding back remained unresolved.

• Dou Shengnan trapped Xu Huo in her black Spiritual World and repeatedly blocked his attempts to reach the ship.
• Xu Huo used the City Sandbox to escape layers of Dou Shengnan’s mental space, but she cornered him with black cubes that sealed his Mental Portal.
• Xu Huo activated Truth Transcends All and cut through the black cubes, escaping into another layer as Dou Shengnan pursued him.
• Xu Huo opened the Book Tower, where Dou Shengnan flooded its floors with manifested Black Water and chased him up the spiral staircase.
• Xu Huo asked why Jin Feixue had held back, then used the staircase to slip away and left Dou Shengnan clutching an incomplete figure that grinned at her.

Xu Huo and Dou Shengnan faced off aboard the ship carrying Yuecheng residents, and he tried to learn why she was evacuating them. Their fight resumed after Xu Huo damaged the ship, while the battle above also broke out again.

• Dou Shengnan destroyed the black figure in her Spiritual World, but it stole a black cube before the Book Tower vanished and the Black Water swept it away.
• Xu Huo and Dou Shengnan boarded the ship, where Xu Huo saw the wounded white-haired elder facing the poisoned Jin Feixue in a tense standoff.
• Xu Huo discovered rows of container artifacts that transported the residents aboard and questioned Dou Shengnan about the people and the ship.
• Dou Shengnan suddenly attacked Xu Huo, destroying his defensive items and closing in on him.
• The black figure appeared on Xu Huo's back, giving him time to reach the stern and fire a new energy weapon into the ship.
• The impact angered Dou Shengnan and reignited the fight above, where a loud gunshot rang through the ship.

Xu Huo was forced out of the clash between Jin Feixue and Dou Shengnan’s group and took shelter underground to recover. Using Completed Script, he uncovered hidden tracking, a concealed object with Space Power, and several unnoticed actions and abilities affecting him.

• Jin Feixue emerged from the ship holding the White-Haired Player’s head and destroyed the ship’s protective barrier with a barrage from his weapon.
• The Paper Puppeteer sent Xu Huo away from the confrontation, leaving him in an underground shelter crowded with ordinary people.
• Xu Huo checked the shelter for High-level Players, rested, replenished his Potions, and handed the item containing the ordinary people to Bai Kou.
• Xu Huo received the Special Defense Department’s treatment update and replied to its messages asking whether he was alive.
• Xu Huo used Completed Script and learned that experimenters could track him, an object disguised as ore held Space Power, and the shadow person had hidden something in Dou Shengnan’s Spiritual World.
• The script revealed that Dou Shengnan and Jin Feixue had used Abilities on Xu Huo and that a scrap of paper had slipped into his collar after the Paper Puppeteer appeared.

Xu Huo reviewed what he had learned about Jin Zi, his shadow personality, a possible experimental item, and the Paper Puppeteer’s flower. Meanwhile, panic spread through an underground plaza as an Alien swarm attacked the city, and the trapped crowd turned on the Players.

• Xu Huo considered whether Jin Zi had encountered or owned a Super Artifact, and worried that his shadow personality might have tampered with Dou Shengnan’s Spiritual World.
• Xu Huo recalled a cone-shaped object from Suitcase Man’s Castle and identified the Paper Puppeteer’s flower as a B-class item that could track when it changed hands.
• People in the underground plaza heard Aliens approaching, and one man warned that a swarm had entered the city.
• A panicked man accused the Players of eating people to evolve, turning the crowd against them.
• The Players tried to escape the crowd by climbing onto the metal framework, but people dragged one down and began biting him.

Xu Huo stopped the massacre in the underground plaza and evacuated the surviving players and their families before the plaza collapsed. After returning to Ting City, he encountered surveillance devices and players monitoring District 014 for High-level Players.

• The crowd attacked the players and their families, and a player killed people who were pulling his child apart before warning that the violence would attract Aliens.
• As ordinary people targeted Xu Huo, he used Space Ray to kill those around him and silently stopped attacks on the other players.
• Xu Huo offered to take families somewhere safe, proved they were alive after transporting them with a container item, and urged everyone to leave before the plaza collapsed.
• Xu Huo transferred everyone to Bai Kou and used a Return Ticket just before the underground plaza gave way.
• Back in Ting City, surveillance devices tracked Xu Huo, and three players arrived as an alarm warned residents to take shelter.
• A buzz-cut young man told Xu Huo that the devices targeted High-level Players and that most of District 014's High-level Players were registered with the National Team.

Xu Huo returned to District 014 and learned that deliberate fungal infections had spread to two more cities despite the antidote fungus solution. He headed for Lian City, the site of the first outbreak and the worst-hit city, while Nie Xuan’s condition remained uncertain.

• Xu Huo met Li Kui, Zheng Ting, and Yuan Hao in Ting City, where Li Kui told him that the Special Defense Department had stopped offering Dungeon guides to C-class Players and above.
• Team Leader Wu and Sima Xiao Er arrived and brought Xu Huo to the repaired Safe Zone, where Team Leader Wu reported new infections in two cities and said two ordinary carriers had been caught.
• Xu Huo told Team Leader Wu that the Special Defense Department needed a practical plan because the antidote fungus supply was limited, but he made no promise to solve the outbreak.
• Xu Huo asked about Nie Xuan and learned that the Special Defense Department could only leave his fate to luck.
• Xu Huo used the teleportation device to travel to Lian City, where Jiang Qiao would meet him.

Xu Huo went to Lian City’s isolation hospital to assess whether his King Fungus solution could treat the mutated fungus outbreak. He said he could not save the growing number of infected, and a Special Defense Department Player revealed that the Black Liquid left in Ting City contained only dead mycelium.

• Jiang Qiao took Xu Huo from the Safe Zone to Lian City’s isolation hospital, where Team Leader Lu welcomed him.
• Team Leader Lu showed Xu Huo Patient Zero from the fifth infected group, whose condition had improved after receiving the King Fungus solution but remained dangerous.
• Team Leader Lu told Xu Huo that infections had surged and asked whether the antidote fungus could save the patients.
• Xu Huo explained that the King Fungus could not be cultivated on a large scale and that his limited supply was insufficient to save everyone.
• A Player told Xu Huo that the Special Defense Department had examined the Black Liquid he left in Ting City and found only dead mycelium.

Xu Huo left the isolation hospital after the Special Defense Department failed to negotiate with him, but offered to help Team Leader Lu save her infected daughter. Back in Capital City, he reunited with his family and took Tongtong home, where the boy asked whether Xu Huo was truly the only one who could save the sick.

• A Special Defense Department player accused Xu Huo of stockpiling antidote fungi, but Xu Huo claimed he had used them all to save himself and left to rest.
• Jiang Qiao stopped the player from detaining Xu Huo, and Team Leader Lu offered him help getting to the airport.
• Xu Huo learned that Team Leader Lu's daughter was infected and offered to save someone she chose, though he would decide how the potions were used.
• Xu Huo returned to Capital City, where Father Xu and Ms. Yu welcomed him home and told him the safe zone and market had expanded.
• Xu Huo picked Tongtong up from tutoring, handed out candy to the children, and teased him about wanting an item before becoming a player.
• Tongtong asked Xu Huo whether he was the only one who could save the many people falling ill and dying.

Xu Huo learned that new forces were reshaping the Special Defense Department and warned his family that conditions in District 014 could worsen. After arranging care for Meng Cun, he began sorting the items he had brought back from District 017.

• Ms. Yu and Father Xu told Xu Huo that unfamiliar, hostile Players had replaced familiar members of the Special Defense Department, and Xu Huo suggested his family consider moving if they felt unsafe.
• Xu Huo explained that Yu Qingqing was away from District 014 and reassured his family that they did not need to move yet.
• Team Leader Lu asked Xu Huo to have Jiang Qiao take her daughter to Capital City for treatment and told him that Nie Xuan was safe and would soon return to the Special Defense Department.
• Xu Huo released Meng Cun at home, gave him a stamina-boosting Potion, and asked Lichun to watch over him while she played with Tongtong.
• Xu Huo sorted the items from District 017 and discovered that “Addicted to Stealing” had stolen one A-class item and one B-class item.