Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo searched the rainforest for fungi growing in rocky environments, then rescued an injured girl who offered to take him to Butterfly Bone Town. He learned that she carried a fungus growing inside a stone and asked whether such fungi were common in the town.

• Xu Huo and Chi Xian avoided the group led by the young man in sunglasses, then separated so Xu Huo could search for fungi.
• Xu Huo found a cave filled with lizard-like mutant beasts and eggs, but left without entering it.
• Xu Huo spotted numerous traps near a lake and river, then followed a faint cry for help into the forest.
• Xu Huo rescued a girl caught in a trap and gave her a Potion before treating her wounds.
• The girl told Xu Huo about Butterfly Bone Town and offered to take him there in exchange for help.
• Xu Huo examined the fungus growing inside the girl's hollow stone and asked whether such fungi were common in Butterfly Bone Town.

Xu Huo brought the injured Xiao Tan back to the underground Butterfly Bone Town, where he met her parents and learned that a strange fungus had devastated the town. He asked Liu Da to take him to see the fungus.

• Xiao Tan told Xu Huo about the fungi in the area and offered him medicine she had made.
• Xu Huo reached the underground Butterfly Bone Town with Xiao Tan and examined the mycelium covering the entrance.
• Liu Da found his injured daughter, introduced himself and Xiao Tan, and invited Xu Huo to their home.
• Xu Huo met Liu Da's sick wife and watched the family tend to Xiao Tan.
• Liu Da said a peculiar fungus had killed most of the town's residents, and Xu Huo asked to see it.

Xu Huo investigated the fungus beneath Butterfly Bone Town, survived a trap that dropped him into an underground cavern of shoulder blades and poisonous fungi, and tested ways to cultivate King Fungus there. He found that its threads could draw nutrients from a white stone and continued experimenting as Cong Yu asked him to buy Antidote.

• Liu Da led Xu Huo beneath Butterfly Bone Town, where Xu collected a sample of black fungus and asked about the town's name.
• A boulder trap dropped Xu Huo into a cave, where he discovered a mound made entirely of human shoulder blades and fended off swarms of venomous insects.
• Xu Huo tested King Fungus threads in several locations, but they began dying in the cavern's poisonous environment.
• After more than twenty attempts with the Nuwa Stone, Xu Huo found that the threads could draw nutrients from a white stone and set up further tests.
• Cong Yu messaged Xu Huo to ask for Antidote, and Xu told him he had none left; when Xu looked down afterward, he was surprised.

Xu Huo cultivated poison-neutralizing King Fungus mycelium and sent a sample to Team Leader Lu, then defended his underground growing site from intruders. Aboveground, Young Master Mo questioned the captured residents and Players about Midsummer Night Star River.

• Xu Huo found that feeding King Fungus mycelium a rock fungus accelerated its growth and confirmed that it could neutralize poisonous fungi.
• Xu Huo sent a sealed mycelium sample to Team Leader Lu and kept another to test how long it survived.
• Two fighting Players entered Xu Huo’s cave, so he sent them into his Spiritual World and set tripwires at the entrance.
• After the Special Defense Department confirmed the mycelium worked, Xu Huo sent Butler No. 11 to search for and destroy passages to underground Butterfly Bone Town.
• Scarred Glasses came to bring everyone outside, but Xu Huo confronted him at the cave entrance.
• Young Master Mo gathered the town’s residents and the captured Players, then asked them where Midsummer Night Star River was.

Young Master Mo’s group searched Butterfly Bone Town for Midsummer Night Star River, killing the town’s Players and residents before leaving. Chi Xian learned that their lead was a lie about a poisonous fungus, then killed the surviving Player who had misled them.

• Young Master Mo tortured District 013 Players until one pointed to Stone Medicine City, then ordered his group to kill the captives and town residents.
• Chi Xian arrived and exposed that the townspeople had eaten human flesh, but Young Master Mo killed Liu Da as he fled.
• After Young Master Mo’s group left, Chi Xian checked on Xu Huo in the underground cave and found a Player hiding beneath the corpses.
• The survivor admitted that Midsummer Night was a poisonous fungus in Stone Medicine City and that he had never heard of Midsummer Night Star River.
• Chi Xian killed the survivor with a blade through his head.

Xu Huo and Chi Xian explored the underground fungus cave, where Chi Xian explained how cicada fungus could sustain Xu Huo’s King Fungus mycelium for only seven days. After Xu Huo gathered samples for the Special Defense Department, Chi Xian remained in the area and greeted him with mutant rabbits covered in fungi.

• Xu Huo and Chi Xian examined the cave’s fungi, and Chi Xian explained that cicada fungus lived for seven days and could temporarily sustain King Fungus mycelium.
• Chi Xian discussed the bones and the dangers of Butterfly Bone Town with Xu Huo, who suggested that some Players might have killed others for items.
• Xu Huo sent information about the fungus to the Special Defense Department and learned that an ordinary B-level antidote for fungi could treat cicada fungus poisoning.
• Chi Xian collected poisonous insects and rare fungi, then suggested that he and Xu Huo go to Shiyao Island to investigate Midsummer Night Star River.
• Xu Huo stayed in the cave for three days to collect mycelium, then emerged to find Chi Xian still nearby with five mutant rabbits covered in fungi.

Xu Huo explored the ruins around Butterfly Bone Town and found human-shaped fungi growing over buried skeletons. Chi Xian explained how fungi communicate and suggested that humans might evolve to coexist with them, leaving Xu Huo considering whether such an evolution was possible.

• After resting, Xu Huo searched beyond Butterfly Bone Town and discovered the ruins of a large city.
• Xu Huo found rows of human-shaped fungi and uncovered matching human skeletons buried beneath them.
• Chi Xian explained that the fungi imitated corpses and described Network fungi that could communicate across a Sub-district.
• Chi Xian theorized that fungi might one day rule the natural world and that people could gain an advantage by coexisting with them.
• Xu Huo wondered whether Players could Super Evolve to coexist with fungi, and Chi Xian replied that where there was a will, there was a way.

Xu Huo and Chi Xian crossed to Shiyao Island on their way to Big-Small Eye Station and explored a city filled with infected, unnaturally silent residents. Xu Huo discovered that the Ticket’s directional prompt had shifted, suggesting the Dungeon site was now in the city, while the whereabouts of Young Master Mo’s group remained unknown.

• Xu Huo and Chi Xian used Chi Xian’s teleportation artifact to reach Shiyao Island, where they landed in a swamp and struggled free.
• After traveling through the rainforest, Xu Huo and Chi Xian reached a city whose residents mostly had eyes of different sizes and seemed lifeless.
• The city’s residents rushed toward Xu Huo and Chi Xian to ask for food, then scattered when the two raised combat artifacts.
• Chi Xian questioned a child about people sleeping in the streets and learned that the child had seen many outsiders, but the child spat out the candy Chi Xian gave him.
• Xu Huo checked his Ticket and saw that its directional prompt had changed, indicating that the Dungeon site might be in the city.

Xu Huo and Chi Xian were drawn into the C-class instance "Another Choice" when white mist swallowed the city. They joined Bian Lu’s group, learned that people were disappearing after falling asleep, and began questioning whether one missing Player had found a clue to Midsummer Night Star River.

• White mist covered the city, and Xu Huo received a notification that he had entered Midsummer Night Star River and must find it within ten days.
• Xu Huo and Chi Xian found themselves in a changed landscape and met Bian Lu, who said he and his companions had arrived two days earlier.
• Bian Lu explained that the place seemed to be a separate instance world and that people fell asleep easily under the mist.
• The group encountered a pustule-covered person asleep in a shop, and Xu Huo learned that Players feared sleeping because one of Bian Lu’s companions had vanished overnight.
• Xu Huo suggested that the missing person might have discovered a clue and left alone, prompting Bian Lu’s companion to question whether anyone would share such a discovery.

Xu Huo investigated the dream-related dungeon and questioned a diseased local about Midsummer Night Star River. The man described how sleep had brought relief from his pain, and Xu Huo ended by asking whether anyone had died while asleep.

• Xu Huo told Chi Xian that the dungeon task was to find Midsummer Night Star River and warned him to watch the fungi.
• Xu Huo failed to wake the sleeping people and found an elderly local wandering through the dungeon, muttering about Star River.
• Xu Huo gave the hungry man dried meat and water, and the man agreed to answer his questions.
• The local said he came from Brown Skin City, had been in the dungeon for seven or eight days, and had slept better there than he could outside.
• Xu Huo asked the local whether anyone had died in their sleep.

Xu Huo questioned a starving man about Midsummer Night and heard how people in Brown Skin City believed its Star River could heal the dying. The man left with food and water, and Chi Xian wondered whether he had invented much of his story.

• The man told Xu Huo that he had entered Midsummer Night alone after a rainbow appeared and fog covered Brown Skin City.
• The man recounted how a dying young man entered Midsummer Night after burying a child's skeleton and returned with his diseased skin shed and his strength restored.
• The man said a second person later returned from Midsummer Night, but that person was a Player who left without explaining what had happened.
• Xu Huo considered whether Midsummer Night's shifting entrances and exits selected who could enter, then asked the man about local experiences.
• The man argued that Midsummer Night had a reason for choosing everyone, perhaps using some people as bridges to pass along information.
• Xu Huo gave the man dried meat and water and sent him away, after which Chi Xian suspected the man had embellished his story.

Xu Huo and Chi Xian explored the fog-bound Star City Dungeon, investigating its connection to the Midsummer Night Star River and the mysterious disappearances. As night fell, they grew sleepy despite their protective gear, and Xu Huo considered whether sleeping might be the key to clearing the Dungeon.

• Xu Huo and Chi Xian discussed reports of the Midsummer Night space and the high death rate among those who entered it.
• Xu Huo and Chi Xian explored the city, found a map, and concluded that the involuntary sleep was real while the Dungeon might be an unstable, mobile space.
• Xu Huo and Chi Xian traced the city’s layout and visited its planetarium, but the telescope showed only white fog.
• When night fell, Chi Xian began to feel sleepy, and Xu Huo and Chi Xian changed into protective suits with their own oxygen supplies.
• Xu Huo suggested that sleeping might reveal what they wanted most and could be the key to clearing the Dungeon.

Xu Huo and Chi Xian searched District 013 for clues about the sleeping and disappearing people while resisting the dungeon’s sleep-inducing effects. After Xu Huo killed two players who had attacked a sleeping woman, he followed another group and began testing a metal sphere as the fog thickened.

• Chi Xian and Xu Huo split up to investigate the disappearances and mark players, victims, and clues on their linked maps.
• Xu Huo found two players trying to exploit a sleeping female Player, killed them, and ordered her to bury their bodies in exchange for taking her Artifacts.
• Xu Huo and Chi Xian searched through the night but found no evidence of anyone disappearing.
• Xu Huo followed a group of players until they all fell asleep despite taking Antidote and setting a watch.
• Xu Huo expanded Cube Space, layered it with his mental power, and pressed the patterns on a metal sphere as the fog thickened.

Xu Huo fought Young Master Mo and Scarred Glasses after they tried to enter the room where he was guarding sleeping Players. When one Player disappeared during their escape, Xu Huo tracked the pair through the Dungeon city and discovered Scarred Glasses attacking Young Master Mo.

• Xu Huo blocked Young Master Mo and Scarred Glasses from entering the room, then fought them when they forced their way inside.
• Scarred Glasses rescued Young Master Mo from Xu Huo and teleported away, and Xu Huo noticed that one of the sleeping Players had disappeared.
• Xu Huo examined the surveillance footage, saw that it had skipped briefly when Scarred Glasses entered, and pursued the pair through the city.
• Young Master Mo berated Scarred Glasses, who suddenly attacked him and fought him through the collapsing buildings.
• Young Master Mo blew into a thin tube while the two continued fighting nearby.

Xu Huo fought Young Master Mo and Scarred Glasses, then questioned them about interference in footage of a missing player. He concluded that the Dungeon’s sleepiness and disappearances might be tied to another space, leaving players caught between staying awake and risking sleep to clear the Dungeon.

• Young Master Mo trapped Xu Huo in bubbles, but Xu Huo escaped the slime and seized him after overcoming Scarred Glasses’ defenses.
• Xu Huo paralyzed Young Master Mo with poisonous fungus and threatened to cripple him further while keeping Scarred Glasses at bay.
• Xu Huo showed Scarred Glasses the Projector footage and asked whether either man had interfered with the monitor; both denied using any such device.
• Xu Huo released Young Master Mo, and Scarred Glasses gave him an Antidote before asking why Xu Huo was searching for the missing players.
• Xu Huo explained that a sleeping player had vanished from the monitor and considered whether the Dungeon’s sleepiness could lead players into another, potentially dangerous space.
• Xu Huo weighed the Dungeon’s conflicting clues: staying awake might prevent a clear, while sleeping could worsen the poison or expose players to danger.

Xu Huo investigated the disappearances and found that the sleeping Players had been murdered, then tried to stay awake while monitoring others in a school. By dawn, no one had disappeared, and he used an unknown ability to bring a wary Player back into the classroom so he could question him.

• Xu Huo returned to find the sleeping Players dead from slit throats, while Young Master Mo and Scarred Glasses suspected a Player who knew the Dungeon's rules had attacked them.
• Xu Huo warned Young Master Mo and Scarred Glasses that District 013 Players might be responsible, then went to the school where Chi Xian had left his location.
• Xu Huo searched the school, failed to find Chi Xian, and tried to sleep in a nearby room but woke after less than ten minutes when someone tapped his shoulder.
• Xu Huo moved sleeping Players into the school, placed surveillance devices around the classrooms and grounds, and stayed awake watching them until dawn.
• A Player woke and ran onto the athletic field, but Xu Huo ordered him back, and the Player vanished from the field and reappeared in the classroom.

Xu Huo gathered six players who had been drawn into the classroom while asleep and questioned them about the Dungeon and the Midsummer Night Star River. Tong Qi argued that the Dungeon lured players into dangerous sleep or near-death experiences, and Xu Huo suspected his dream meant he had come closest to seeing the Star River.

• A player who had been forced back into the classroom tried to escape, but Xu Huo’s group stopped him and the spatial barrier kept him inside.
• Xu Huo questioned the six players, who said they had entered through Big-Small Eye Station and described Flower Capital’s residents with differently sized eyes.
• Tong Qi and Mi Yaojia said they had not heard of anyone falling asleep involuntarily, while Tong Qi described dreaming of becoming a powerful Super Player.
• Tong Qi warned that the Dungeon’s clues about sleep and the Midsummer Night Star River could lure players into traps that might prevent them from waking.
• The other players decided to keep trying to clear the Dungeon, and Xu Huo suggested Tong Qi’s dream meant he had come closest to seeing the Star River.

Xu Huo gathered players in the city to share information and work out how to find Midsummer Night Star River. After a huge explosion drew nearly fifty players together, he also called out the people from Brown Skin City who had been hiding nearby.

• Xu Huo and the others compared what they knew about the instance, while Tong Qi offered to help keep watch despite claiming he would not try to clear it.
• Xu Huo suggested gathering everyone in the city so they could work out the rules behind the disappearances and find Midsummer Night Star River.
• Xu Huo’s group caused a massive explosion in the city center to attract the other players.
• Nearly fifty players gathered around the crater, including Chi Xian, Scarred Glasses, and Bian Lu’s group.
• Xu Huo called out the people from Brown Skin City hiding nearby, and a burly player kicked two of them forward as they begged for mercy.

Xu Huo gathered the players to discuss the Midsummer Night Star River and proposed that the Dungeon’s drowsiness and disappearances might involve mental interference and other spaces. He began connecting these theories to the lack of information about the Dungeon outside, but had not yet explained how his third theory fit.

• Xu Huo questioned the players about whether anyone had seen the Midsummer Night Star River, knew definite clues, or could rule out other spaces in the Dungeon.
• Xu Huo suggested that mental interference caused the drowsiness, that missing players had entered other spaces, and that players might be unable to leave after ten days.
• Players challenged Xu Huo’s theories, citing the drowsiness on Shiyao Island and an item that detected no Chaos Space.
• Xu Huo argued that he had fallen asleep despite taking an Antidote, proposed that Shiyao Island was the Dungeon’s main area, and asked the two men from Brown Skin City about local reports of drowsiness.
• Xu Huo suggested that disrupted surveillance devices could point to unstable spaces and noted that, despite the many players present, no one had taken news of a Midsummer Night Star River Dungeon outside.

Xu Huo gathered players and locals to discuss how to survive the mental interference and layered spaces in the C-class instance, but no one had found a way to clear it. The group narrowed to twenty-three people, and Xu Huo proposed taking turns sleeping while others kept watch.

• Players debated whether Midsummer Night Star River was an ordinary instance or one with an exceptionally high death rate, and Xu Huo said they needed to find clues to clear it.
• Xu Huo invited the gathered players to cooperate and offered to pay for any useful information, but the refined player questioned how they could stay safe while asleep.
• Most players left, while Scarred Glasses, Young Master Mo, Chi Xian's group, and several District 013 locals stayed to help investigate.
• Chi Xian taunted Young Master Mo, but Scarred Glasses stopped their exchange before another B-class player asked how the group could remain safe during sleep.
• Xu Huo proposed that one group sleep while another kept watch, explaining that he had watched Tong Qi and the others overnight and they had all survived until morning.