Chapter Summaries

Nie Xuan’s plan to escape District 014 collapsed as Outer District Players killed most of his allies and cornered him in an amusement park. A hidden wielder of the Super Artifact intervened, leaving Nie Xuan face-to-face with a man in a wheelchair.

• Shengnan told the blond man that five Little Torpedoes had exploded, and he sent his group toward southwestern Hai City after learning Lawrence Li was there.
• Nie Xuan recalled that fifteen of the seventeen Players he had recruited had died, and he realized their strength gap made his escape plan futile.
• A group of Outer District Players surrounded the wounded Nie Xuan, but a giant Poster blocked their attack and helped him flee.
• The Players pursued Nie Xuan, and the Posters turned into sharp blades that overwhelmed the group.
• Nie Xuan recognized the paper attack as the Super Artifact and saw a man in a wheelchair standing nearby.

Nie Xuan escaped as powerful High-level Players fought over the Super Artifact at the Amusement Park. At Haishi Command Center, the Commander-in-Chief learned that the artifact’s influence was driving people who had visited the Skyscraper to kill themselves and their comrades, and asked whether the painted woman had made contact.

• The man in the wheelchair took the Poster and killed the three remaining Outer District Players who had been trapped by paper scraps.
• A tattooed strong man attacked the wheelchair-bound man with cars, but the man cut the stacked cars apart with an unseen force.
• A blond man played his Violin, casting an illusion over Nie Xuan and the Amusement Park; the wheelchair-bound man broke the spell by snapping an imagined Violin String.
• Colored Threads pierced Nie Xuan’s foot as he fled, and he realized the High-level Players were fighting through forces he could barely perceive.
• At Haishi Command Center, the Commander-in-Chief learned that people who had visited the Skyscraper were being hypnotized into suicide and attacks on their teammates after someone mentioned the Super Artifact.
• The Commander-in-Chief ordered the affected teams recalled and asked whether the painted woman had contacted them.

After Painted Woman gained control over Hai City's paper objects, Xu Huo sent her to draw Outer District Players toward the Black and White Big Wheel while he headed for the Pearl Hotel. Her attacks revealed the Super Artifact, and she continued luring players into the Game until a timed signal forced her to retreat toward the Skyscraper.

• The Commander-in-Chief spoke with Xu Huo, who confirmed that he would begin his plan and ordered the Pearl Hotel blown up at 7:31 p.m.
• Xu Huo gave Painted Woman the Gentleman of Light Medal, reviewed the plan with her, and left for the Pearl Hotel.
• Painted Woman used her new control over paper to attack Outer District Players and pull them into the Multiplayer Life-or-Death Game.
• The Outer District Players recognized that a Super Artifact was involved and began chasing Painted Woman, who fought back and trapped several in the Game.
• After being hit by distant attacks, Painted Woman heard Xu Huo's timed signal and changed course to appear driven back toward the Skyscraper.

The painted woman drew powerful Players to the Pearl Hotel while Xu Huo’s plan made the pursuit public. As artillery struck the hotel, she tried to enter the game, but the Holy Sword Society and the Half-Grown Boy attacked before she could escape.

• The painted woman rescued people with paper while three Players chased her into the Pearl Hotel, where one used an iron block to crush holes through the building.
• A Gold Apprentice of the Holy Sword Society trapped the iron blocks in a cube and offered to recruit the painted woman, while the Browless Man demanded the Super Artifact.
• Dou Shengnan and a Half-Grown Boy arrived, prompting the Browless Man and his companions to retreat as five powerful Players surrounded the painted woman.
• At 7:31, artillery struck the Pearl Hotel, and the painted woman raised her hands and taunted the Players as she tried to enter the game.
• The Holy Sword Society’s three Gold Apprentices attacked, but the Half-Grown Boy swept poisonous gas across the rooftop and challenged them.

Xu Huo took the Super Artifact from the Pearl Hotel and escaped to the Station, where he faced a group of hungry players trying to get his Tickets. The painted woman survived and hid, while the battle for the artifact ended and rescue efforts began in Hai City.

• Dou Shengnan failed to hypnotize the painted woman, and the hotel collapsed during the fight as a female player was hurled into the ruins and the Super Artifact changed hands.
• A masked, hooded player resisted Dou Shengnan’s command, took the Super Artifact, and vanished in under ten seconds, ending the battle over the artifact.
• The Holy Sword Society members, Dou Shengnan, Balloon Youth, and other players left the area, while Hai City’s command center halted the bombardment and organized rescues.
• The painted woman changed her appearance, hid in a hotel with the Gentleman of Light Medal, and messaged Xu Huo that she would wait for him.
• Xu Huo reached the Station and removed his disguise, then faced four players who asked to buy Tickets before threatening to rob him.

Xu Huo rode the train to Building Block Fairy Tale Town Station and entered the E-class Dungeon “The Woman Who Tells Stories.” He arrived in the ruined old city with the female player and the big man, while the old man was left behind.

• Xu Huo boarded Train 219 after leaving four bodies at the station and found three other players in the carriage.
• The train announcement listed rules forbidding firearms, requiring players to spend at least five hundred White Cash, and permitting violence between players.
• Xu Huo ordered noodles and water, then tried to team up with the female player, who declined after learning he had an E-class Ticket.
• After two hours, Xu Huo received the Dungeon tasks and learned that he had to enter Building Block Fairytale Tourist City before dusk.
• Xu Huo arrived on a ruined street beside a Bus stop with the female player and the big man, then asked the female player which way they should go.

Xu Huo and three other Players boarded a bus touring the Building Block Fairytale Tourist City, where the guide introduced the Aliens and the feeding zone. Xu Huo bought a live Pygmy Monkey to feed, but it escaped and was eaten by Aliens, and the guide charged him for ointment for its scratches.

• Xu Huo boarded a crowded driverless tour bus with the other Players and received a booklet about the Aliens.
• The long-faced tour guide described the Algae-Shell Alien migration and promised tourists a chance to see and eat algae-shells.
• As the bus crossed a Suspension Bridge over the feeding zone, the guide offered the Players live animals to feed to the Aliens.
• Xu Huo bought a Pygmy Monkey, but it scratched him, escaped through the window, and was torn apart by Aliens below.
• The guide gave Xu Huo ointment for the scratches and took fifty White Cash from him.

Xu Huo arrived at Building Block Fairytale Tourist City, chatted with a local woman on the bus, and learned that the gates closed at dusk. After getting off, he and several other newcomers began looking for a place to stay before nightfall.

• Xu Huo watched Aliens follow the bus and observed workers harvesting algae-shells from sedated Aliens.
• Xu Huo asked the tour guide why the other Aliens were kept alive, and the guide said they attracted tourists.
• Xu Huo shared roasted sunflower seeds with the female Player and chatted with an old woman, who gave him discount coupons and recommended lodging.
• Xu Huo and several other newcomers entered Tourist City as its gate closed behind them.
• The tour guide warned the newcomers to find lodging before dark, then gave the couple business cards after the man paid him White Cash.
• The newcomers questioned the tour guide's lodging recommendations and checked the Route Map, where the long-haired female Player noted that lodging was about a half-hour walk away.

Xu Huo was forced by two armed Players to visit the Bear Claw Restaurant after they learned he had been scratched by an animal from the Contaminated Zone. There, he paid a diner for insider information and learned the restaurant's steak was made from human flesh.

• Xu Huo and a young man were held at gunpoint by two thugs who stole their coupons and questioned them about lodging and contamination.
• The thugs forced Xu Huo to go with them to the Bear Claw Restaurant, while the young man remained unharmed.
• At the restaurant, a diner offered Xu Huo information about his contaminated scratches and claimed locals could develop immunity.
• Xu Huo paid the diner fifty White Cash, and the diner revealed that the Bear Claw Steak was made from human flesh.

Xu Huo investigated Building Block Fairy Tale Town’s contamination and learned how the Tourist City concealed its past while presenting a tragic romance as a tourist attraction. He met the female Player again, who offered to trade information and pointed out that the city had no children.

• Xu Huo heard a diner claim that tourists entered an Alien Zone and never returned, then registered for a room before deciding to leave by another exit.
• Xu Huo visited a flower shop, bought a Golden Powder Purple, and learned the story of a mutated husband and his wife, whose deaths were commemorated at True Love Plaza.
• Xu Huo bought a Tourist Guide and learned that a Gene Experiment Company’s contaminant had caused humans to regress, prompting the government to quarantine the town and establish research institutes in the contaminated area.
• Xu Huo noticed the female Player and the big man from earlier, and the female Player offered to trade mission information.
• The female Player told Xu Huo that there were no children in the Tourist City, despite Building Block Fairy Tale Town once being known as a paradise for children.

Xu Huo investigated how the Great Contamination related to Building Block Fairy Tale Town’s mission and sought stories about the incident. After hearing several versions that offered no useful clues, he settled into the Yongxing Club, where the town’s dark streets left him with more questions than answers.

• A female Player told Xu Huo that no children had been born in the city for twenty years and that tourists sometimes disappeared from shops where people were made into meat; she lent him five hundred White Cash for lodging.
• Xu Huo reasoned that the Great Contamination and the city’s isolation might conceal the Dungeon’s correct story, and he connected the mission’s later tasks to finding a woman and her Teeth.
• Xu Huo used his Yongxing Restaurant membership card to enter the Yongxing Club, booked its panoramic suite for two nights, and asked for a storyteller.
• A young storyteller recounted several tales about the Contamination Incident, but Xu Huo found nothing that answered his questions.
• Xu Huo watched wildcats devour one of their own on a darkening street, then drew the curtains and went to bed.

Xu Huo investigated the story of True Love Plaza and survived a nighttime visitor who tried to lure him outside. At Tourist City’s entrance, five other Players reunited, exhausted, and began comparing their dangerous encounters.

• At night, a bloodied woman pounded on Xu Huo’s door and window, but he refused to let her in and sent her away.
• Xu Huo learned that the hotel’s Servers worked only from six in the morning until nine at night, then heard that a guest had broken an expensive Crystal Wine Glass.
• At True Love Plaza, Xu Huo listened to a Guide tell the love story and asked whether the protagonists had graves; she said Fairytale City had no gravestones.
• Xu Huo left the plaza and headed for Tourist City’s entrance, where four Players and the young man who had been taken hostage reunited.
• The injured woman Player told the others that fierce stray cats and dogs had attacked them because the animals in the city ate people.

Players in Fairytale City compared their dangerous encounters and agreed to search together for the Dungeon’s story. Xu Huo arrived with food, dismissed their suspicions about the locals, and offered to share a lead only if their information was worth it.

• Tao Chengxin proposed that the surviving Players work together after they described dangerous inns and missing companions.
• Sun Jirou and the others identified a missing male Player who had entered Bear Claw Restaurant and never returned.
• Xu Huo arrived, questioned Tang Yuan about two missing Players, and interrupted Gao Baimei’s accusation against him.
• Xu Huo claimed Fairytale City’s residents were honest and hospitable, prompting the other Players to challenge his trust in them.
• Tao Chengxin suggested that the Players pool their information, and Xu Huo asked whether their leads were worth sharing.

Xu Huo traded clues about Fairytale City’s missing people and an old Contamination Incident with the other Players, then hired a guide to learn about the city. As artificial Petal Rain fell, he asked why he had not seen any old people in the streets.

• Xu Huo pointed out nearly a hundred missing-person bounties near the accommodation area and offered clues in exchange for money or information.
• Tao Chengxin paid Xu Huo and learned that a Contamination Incident from around twenty years ago might have begun earlier, and that the task’s storyteller had to be at least thirty-five.
• Sun Jirou paid Xu Huo for the same clues and learned that more than nine Players were in the Dungeon.
• Xu Huo visited a central mall, then hired a guide to show him Fairytale City and explain its history and customs.
• During artificial Petal Rain, the guide said the city’s old customs had mostly disappeared, and Xu Huo asked why no old people were visible.

Xu Huo tracked the girl in the white skirt to Bear Claw Restaurant, where a Wooden Puppet hunted guests at night. After the puppet slaughtered people upstairs, it spotted Xu Huo on the first floor.

• The girl in the white skirt told several groups that Xu Huo wanted to find elderly residents, naming Building Block Bun Shop and Fresh and Delicious Sausage Shop.
• Xu Huo used an Anti-theft Monitor to follow the girl to Bear Claw Restaurant and checked in; Tao Chengxin arrived shortly before the city gates closed.
• Late at night, Xu Huo followed the smell of food downstairs while Tao Chengxin cautiously followed him.
• Xu Huo saw a Wooden Puppet cleaning the first-floor dining area and evaded it as it searched for him.
• The Wooden Puppet rushed upstairs after a service bell rang, and screams and crashing sounds soon stopped.
• The Wooden Puppet appeared at the second-floor stair railing and stared at Xu Huo.

Xu Huo and Tao Chengxin discovered a hidden passage beneath Bear Claw Restaurant and became trapped in a sealed dining room, where an unseen force bound them to chairs. Xu Huo recognized Tao Chengxin as the woman who had posed as a ghost and pressed her to retrieve a scroll, leaving their uneasy alliance under strain.

• Xu Huo and Tao Chengxin avoided the Wooden Puppet and found a hidden staircase beneath a bed on the fifth floor.
• They entered a decorated dining room, but the passage vanished and they could find no way out.
• Xu Huo and Tao Chengxin were suddenly forced into chairs and restrained, so they set up defensive measures and called for whoever had trapped them.
• Xu Huo asked Tao Chengxin to use a ranged item to bring him a scroll held by a skull ornament.
• Xu Huo revealed that he had recognized Tao Chengxin as the female ghost and suggested they were allies, while accusing her of trying to rob him.

Xu Huo and Tao Chengxin were trapped at a dining table where menus listed parts of their bodies and demanded that they eat someone. Tao Chengxin accidentally triggered a deadly menu, while Xu Huo broke free of the illusion and fought the Wooden Puppet in the restaurant.

• Tao Chengxin tried and failed to hook a Skull with her fishing rod before she caught one and the Skulls revealed menus to her and Xu Huo.
• Xu Huo realized that one menu listed parts of his body and the other listed parts of Tao Chengxin, and he resisted the force trying to make him choose.
• Tao Chengxin struck the Red Menu with her fishing rod, causing it to dissolve into smoke that entered her body and made her bleed and vomit.
• Xu Huo used his Strings to expose and drag down an unseen person, breaking the force restraining him and revealing that they were in an illusion of the second-floor restaurant.
• The person who had taken Xu Huo's Magic Cube attacked him, but the Wooden Puppet rushed in and began swinging cleavers at them.
• Xu Huo cut the Wooden Puppet apart and rammed it into a wall, but it reassembled and its severed arm threw a cleaver back at him.

Xu Huo and Tao Chengxin escaped a wooden puppet and followed a scream to the Building Block Bun Shop, where Xu Huo rescued Sun Jirou from a spiked trap. Sun Jirou told him Shen Tai was dead.

• Xu Huo and Tao Chengxin fought off a Player at Bear Claw Restaurant, and Xu Huo killed him after Tao Chengxin was bitten.
• Xu Huo and Tao Chengxin fled the reassembling wooden puppet through the streets and lured it away with a scream.
• Xu Huo and Tao Chengxin entered the Building Block Bun Shop and found a bloody chimney leading to an underground kitchen.
• Xu Huo found the recipe sheet titled "Secret Recipe Rou Jia Mo" and freed Sun Jirou from spiked boards.
• Sun Jirou told Xu Huo that Shen Tai was dead.

After escaping the Building Block Bun Shop, Xu Huo and the others pieced together that Cannibal Players were hunting the original Players of Building Block Fairy Tale Town, possibly as part of a larger scheme involving the Government Hall. At dawn, they confronted the girl in the white skirt at True Love Plaza, who admitted sending them after the Cannibal Players and agreed to take them to the old Players.

• Sun Jirou revealed a List of twenty original Fairy Tale Town Players targeted by the Building Block Bun Shop owner, with only three still alive, including the woman who tells stories.
• Xu Huo explained that the Bear Claw Restaurant killer was an E-Rank Cannibal Player, and he suspected the female tour guide had directed them toward the shops to make them kill the Cannibal Players.
• Sun Jirou speculated that the Government Hall might be behind the attacks, while Xu Huo concluded that outside forces were trying to eliminate Fairy Tale Town's original Players.
• Xu Huo, Tao Chengxin, and Sun Jirou waited at True Love Plaza until dawn, where they found the girl in the white skirt.
• The girl admitted that she had sent them to the shops hoping they would kill the Cannibal Players, and Tao Chengxin demanded that she take them to the old Players.

Xu Huo led Tao Chengxin and Sun Jirou to meet the white-skirted girl, who revealed that he had used them to draw other Players into investigating. At her home, Grandpa Bai began recounting how the Government Hall and LT Biological Pharmaceutical Company turned Fairytale City into a city of Aliens twenty years earlier.

• The white-skirted girl revealed that Xu Huo had monitored her umbrella and explained that several groups of Players had visited her.
• Xu Huo deduced that Wang Qiao and Gao Baimei had likely gone to the Fresh and Delicious Sausage Shop with Tang Yuan, and Sun Jirou realized he had baited the other Players into searching for clues.
• The white-skirted girl brought Xu Huo, Tao Chengxin, and Sun Jirou to her courtyard, where the Not-So-Bright Sunflowers turned their backs on the visitors.
• At the house, Grandpa Bai recognized them as Players and urged them to spread the truth about Fairytale City.
• Grandpa Bai said the Government Hall and LT Biological Pharmaceutical Company had experimented on Players to develop an Evolution Potion that made people turn into Aliens.
• Grandpa Bai recounted how LT framed and transformed resisting Players, then contaminated the city's water supply, causing half of Fairytale City's population to become Aliens.