Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo repeatedly tried to break out of the dream by changing the stationmaster’s fate, but each attempt returned him to the ticket counter. After the dream forced him to relive Xu Zhi’s death, he woke in the mall, where poison gas had filled the area.

• The Cannibal Player fled the mall, while the remaining players struggled against overwhelming sleepiness and spent the day waiting near the entrance.
• At three in the morning, a District 013 player disappeared; Xu Huo failed to catch him, then tracked down and dealt with the player after he returned.
• Xu Huo reentered the dream and tried to prevent the deaths connected to the stationmaster, but his interventions repeatedly failed to end the loop.
• Xu Huo exposed the stationmaster’s crimes and threw him from a building, but the crowd—including the dead stationmaster—stared at him before darkness took over.
• Xu Huo relived Xu Zhi’s death in a black tunnel, struck the phone booth, and woke to find the mall filled with poison gas.
• Xu Huo grabbed a figure in the mall and demanded to know what they were doing.

Xu Huo woke to find players missing from the Mall and stopped four intruders, one of whom suggested that approaching death might lead to another space and reveal the Dungeon’s clearing clue. Xu Huo poisoned them to test the theory, and as the last three began to succumb, one broke through his defenses and attacked him.

• Tong Qi told Xu Huo that eight people and the surveillance monitors had disappeared, while Scarred Glasses and Young Master Mo were also missing.
• Xu Huo intercepted four players sneaking toward the Mall, broke their legs, and questioned them about the Dungeon’s clearing clue.
• One player claimed that nearing death might let players enter another space and see the Midsummer Night Star River.
• Xu Huo poisoned the player to test the theory, but the man died despite injecting Antidote.
• Xu Huo poisoned the remaining three players, and one broke through the Space Ray barrier, restricted Xu Huo’s movements, and slashed at his neck.

Xu Huo defeated the players who ambushed the Mall and reunited with Scarred Glasses and Young Master Mo. As they discussed the Dungeon and the power of Player Families, Xu Huo questioned how families preserved their strength.

• Xu Huo killed the player who attacked his decoy and kept two poisoned survivors under watch while Tong Qi collected the fallen players’ items.
• Scarred Glasses returned with Young Master Mo and explained that he had chased a player who stole Young Master Mo’s location item.
• The group learned that one of the two poisoned players disappeared after struggling for an hour, while the other died.
• Tong Qi and Young Master Mo argued over unaffiliated players, poverty, and the conduct of people who survived through the game alone.
• Xu Huo asked how Player Families stayed prosperous if they did not take in outsiders, and Young Master Mo mentioned special methods for nurturing genius players.

Xu Huo speculated about the Game Government’s hidden resources and how it trained its personnel and powerful Players. He entered the black tunnel and repeatedly relived Xu Zhi’s death, eventually witnessing what Xu Zhi had done afterward and reconsidering how his brother had saved him.

• Xu Huo reasoned that the Game Government had special routes, privileges, and methods for training its personnel and Players, and wondered what would happen if it confronted Players directly.
• After finding no news on the bounty platform, Xu Huo told Scarred Glasses and Young Master Mo to clear the Dungeon themselves and entered the phone booth to sleep.
• Xu Huo went into the black tunnel, where he repeatedly saw Xu Zhi get shot and tried in vain to save him.
• After many repetitions, Xu Huo stood between Xu Zhi and the bullet, then watched Xu Zhi mourn him and search for ways to revive him.
• Xu Huo wondered whether Xu Zhi would have done the same for him if their lives had been exchanged, and concluded that Xu Zhi’s sudden appearance had likely been the turning point that saved him.

Xu Huo confronted an illusion of Xu Zhi, then entered a fungus-ravaged city in District 013 and searched for the Starry River. He found the glowing river and saw people from District 013 and players gathering there.

• Xu Huo rejected the illusion of Xu Zhi merging with him, and his shadow personality vanished after their brief confrontation.
• Xu Huo walked through a forest and entered a crowded city where people from Brown Skin City were covered in fungus.
• Xu Huo gave bread from his backpack to children who begged him for food.
• Xu Huo asked a local for directions to the Starry River, then followed the directions beyond the forest.
• Xu Huo found a river glittering with fungal lights and saw people from District 013 and players in and around the water.

Xu Huo dreamed of people walking through the Star River, where some recovered by consuming a fungus, some died, and some cleared the Dungeon. He woke in a phone booth being carried by Tong Qi and learned that players had attacked Mo and the others, so he set out to kill them.

• Xu Huo watched people in the Star River die or recover after consuming glowing fungi, and saw a player vanish after seemingly clearing the Dungeon.
• Xu Huo followed the river upstream and spotted a deep pool containing a huge pillar of clustered fungi, but woke before he could investigate it.
• Xu Huo woke in the phone booth as Tong Qi carried him away from pursuing players, who fled when they saw Xu Huo.
• Tong Qi told Xu Huo that Mo and the others were holding off attackers who had returned to target them at the Mall.
• Xu Huo took Tong Qi and used Go to Destination, intending to kill the attackers.

Xu Huo returned to the mall and helped defeat the players attacking Young Master Mo and Scarred Glasses. The group discussed the dream and the approaching seventh day, then Scarred Glasses fell asleep and Tong Qi disappeared after closing his eyes.

• Xu Huo used his Spiritual World and abilities to kill or incapacitate the players who had fled from the mall, then returned to help Young Master Mo and Scarred Glasses finish the remaining attackers.
• Xu Huo, Young Master Mo, Scarred Glasses, and Tong Qi found three players and two District 013 residents still asleep in the mall.
• Xu Huo described his dream, leading Tong Qi and Scarred Glasses to conclude that the starry river existed in another space and might hold the way out.
• Scarred Glasses said he needed to sleep before the seventh day and proposed that the others take turns resting; Young Master Mo enclosed him with a location-based item as he fell asleep.
• Tong Qi accepted the items Young Master Mo offered, thanked him and Xu Huo, then shut his eyes and vanished.

Xu Huo discussed Player Families, revenge, and the Dungeon’s influence with Young Master Mo, whose past trauma led him to attack the corpses before Xu Huo knocked him out. Left alone in the Mall, Xu Huo began unlocking the puzzle ball Chang Bei had given him.

• Young Master Mo advised Xu Huo to join a powerful Player Family and use resources and items to advance, while Xu Huo questioned how families kept Players loyal.
• Xu Huo suggested Young Master Mo might have been lured to District 013 by the person who killed his friend, and Young Master Mo explained that a Player had taken one of his eyes when he was a child.
• Young Master Mo removed his artificial eye and condemned the decline of morality among evolved humans, while Xu Huo warned him that the Dungeon might be affecting his mood.
• Young Master Mo stabbed the eyes of the corpses and turned his attention toward the sleeping survivors, so Xu Huo knocked him out and moved him aside.
• Xu Huo ate the jerky, took out Chang Bei’s puzzle ball, and began using his mental energy to unlock it.

Xu Huo helped a sick District 013 resident and searched underwater for antidote fungi, but found none. In a wetland lake, he followed mutant fish through narrow caves and discovered a glowing stone inside a huge fish.

• Xu Huo gave a District 013 resident bread and an Antidote, and promised to look after his children if he reached Brown Skin City.
• Xu Huo left the Mall with Young Master Mo and Scarred Glasses after the others recovered enough to move on.
• Xu Huo searched an artificial lake and found glowing fungi that were not antidotes, fish-shaped fungi, and several skeletons.
• Xu Huo entered a wetland lake, followed mutant fish into underwater caves, and killed a huge fish that charged at him.
• A faintly glowing round stone fell from the huge fish's belly.

Xu Huo found depleted mineral stones inside fish at the aquarium, and touching one shifted the city into a more intact version filled with fungi and the newly appeared corpses of missing Players. He investigated a barrier-like boundary where cries for help and a sensed person appeared and disappeared depending on which side he stood, leaving him suspecting powerful mental interference.

• Xu Huo found a depleted, radiation-dense stone inside a giant fish and searched the city’s lakes for more.
• At the aquarium, Xu Huo found the same kind of stone in three fish, and touching one caused a disorienting shift.
• Xu Huo emerged to find the city more intact and overgrown with fungi, with the missing Players from District 013 lying dead in the street.
• Xu Huo investigated a barrier that crossed the city and found that cries for help and his perception of the caller changed with his position.
• Xu Huo’s monitoring device recorded only his footsteps, and he concluded that powerful mental interference might be distorting his senses.

Xu Huo discovered that barriers divided the city into scenes replaying events from different points in time, with scenes nearer the Aquarium closer to the present. He headed east to investigate the lake and found a District 013 resident who reached the Galaxy’s glowing water and survived.

• Xu Huo crossed a barrier and saw a Player whose lost item was real even though the scene around him vanished when Xu Huo stepped back.
• Xu Huo recognized that the scenes between barriers were linked across time and suspected the space involved Time Power.
• Xu Huo returned to the Aquarium, confirmed that he had been recorded in the scenes, and continued toward the city’s eastern side.
• Xu Huo found the dead Cannibal Player and decided to investigate the lake after finding the Stone still broken.
• Xu Huo touched a District 013 resident crawling toward the Galaxy, and the man reached the glowing water and declared that he was alive.

Xu Huo discovered a fragile container of antidote beneath the Midsummer Night Star River and weighed taking its Perfect Potion against saving District 013. The container restored itself, the Perfect Potion vanished, and the game and Midsummer Night Star River offered him special gifts.

• Xu Huo found a cracked cylinder of glowing antidote beneath the river and recognized a Perfect Potion stored inside it.
• Xu Huo failed to move the fragile cylinder or extract the potion, then sent samples to the Special Defense Department for testing.
• Xu Huo gave additional samples to Cong Yu and investigated how the potion could have remained potent for years.
• Xu Huo wondered whether time held back could make matter regenerate, and the container returned to its earlier state with the Perfect Potion gone.
• The game awarded Xu Huo a special gift, and Midsummer Night Star River offered him another gift to open.

Xu Huo listened to Dr. Wu explain that Evolution Potion altered human genes in ways that could not be controlled, and that the game itself had escaped human control. Dr. Wu told him to take the J13 Gene Potion to save District 013, then Xu Huo returned to the water with a force and unusual ray fluctuations released.

• Xu Huo entered a simulated operating room and met Dr. Wu’s recorded projection.
• Dr. Wu explained that Evolution Potion accelerated evolution but caused harmful genetic consequences, including Aftereffects and the creation of Aliens.
• Dr. Wu identified the J13 Gene Potion as an Antidote for District 013 and urged Xu Huo to take as much as he could to save its people.
• Xu Huo asked whether humanity could control the game and whether Time Power controlled the dungeon; Dr. Wu said the game had escaped human control and that the Time Power belonged to Xu Huo.
• The operating room disintegrated, and Xu Huo returned to the water as a released force churned the current and unusual ray fluctuations appeared underwater.

Xu Huo recovered Angel's Eyes, a time-powered component of the Field Battle Angel, from the pool after securing the J13 Gene Potion. He considered Dr. Wu's message about humanity's and the game's limits, and the chapter left him questioning whether the game could ever be destroyed if even its creators could not fully control it.

• Xu Huo swam to the bottom of the pool and found a milky-white stone with a black ring attached.
• Xu Huo stored the stone in his Personal Panel and learned it was Angel's Eyes, a component of a Super Artifact with the power to intercept time.
• Xu Huo concluded that Dr. Wu had designed the Dungeon to test players and that choosing the J13 Gene Potion over the Perfect Potion triggered his recording.
• Xu Huo connected Dr. Wu's claims about the game to Bai Kou's explanation that Time Origin was a multidimensional cornerstone of the game.
• Xu Huo wondered whether the game had developed autonomy and whether it could be destroyed if its creators could not control it.

Xu Huo took Angel's Eyes, breaking the Dungeon's Time Power and freeing the trapped Players before the group was expelled into District 013. As Xu Huo, Tong Qi, and Chi Xian crossed a fungus-covered forest, they fought off an ambush and found signs of a battle, where Xu Huo spotted a female Player from the train killing someone from District 013.

• Xu Huo took Angel's Eyes and the J13 gene potion, causing the Dungeon's Time Power to vanish and Tong Qi and Chi Xian to recover from their hallucinations.
• Fog swept Xu Huo, Tong Qi, and Chi Xian out of the Dungeon and into a forest covered in fungi, and Xu Huo placed the potion container in Shelter 101 for transport.
• Tong Qi used a farming item to clear a path through the forest, but specialized nets and mechanical insects sprang up in an ambush against the group.
• Tong Qi used an interference item to disable the mechanical insects, and the three continued on with detection items to guard against further traps.
• Xu Huo found signs of an earlier battle, left a battle robot with Tong Qi and Chi Xian, and went ahead to scout.
• Xu Huo spotted the middle-aged female Player from the train, whose hand had been reattached, cutting off the head of a Player from District 013.

Xu Huo rescued people from District 013 from Cannibal Players and learned that Brown Skin City was their intended refuge. As Xu Huo and his companions headed there, they suspected the Cannibal Players were moving to take over the city, and Chi Xian and Tong Qi went ahead to scout.

• Xu Huo killed three Players who were threatening the people from District 013, while three others escaped using their Tickets.
• A man from District 013 told Xu Huo that the group planned to flee to Brown Skin City because Players elsewhere would not protect them.
• Xu Huo said he was also going to Brown Skin City and brought the refugees along; Tong Qi shared food with them after he and Chi Xian caught up.
• Xu Huo and his companions suspected Cannibal Players were heading to Brown Skin City to seize it, leaving the refugees despairing.
• Tong Qi and Chi Xian went ahead to scout, while Xu Huo took Tong Qi's path-clearing item and the refugees cleared a route for Twisting Pulley.

Hope City's Players held Brown Skin City hostage and tortured its captives, forcing Cong Yu and his companions to consider sacrificing themselves to weaken Hope City. Their plan was interrupted when Liao Jie, Hope City's leader, revealed himself and attacked, leaving Cong Yu fleeing while the others entered the game.

• Hope City's Players abducted children and tortured Brown Skin City's captured Players, prompting Cong Yu to discuss a desperate plan with his companions.
• Cong Yu proposed abandoning the hostages and killing as many of Hope City's Players as possible, but his companions argued over the cost to their city and families.
• Cong Yu's companions gradually accepted that they might have to die fighting, until Liao Jie revealed he had been listening from the room's corner.
• Liao Jie attacked and killed one Player, and Cong Yu ordered his companions to enter the game while he fought to buy them time.
• Liao Jie kicked Cong Yu out of the building, and Cong Yu fled toward the edge of the city as Cannibal Players surrounded him.

Xu Huo trapped Cong Yu, Liao Jie, and the other Players from Hope City inside the mental-type Dungeon Seventeenth Hospital. As the hospital’s dangerous rules and staff confronted them, Liao Jie lost contact with the Players below and found the lobby empty.

• Cong Yu escaped Liao Jie’s pursuit with help from Tong Qi and Chi Xian, who then informed Xu Huo about the attack on Brown Skin City.
• Xu Huo told Tong Qi and Chi Xian to lure the Players from Hope City toward the red tree while he arranged to work with Brown Skin City’s Players.
• Tong Qi and Chi Xian smeared District 013 fungus over their Protective Suits to disguise themselves as Brown Skin City Players.
• Xu Huo intercepted Cong Yu, Liao Jie, and six other Players and led them into the D-class random instance Seventeenth Hospital.
• The hospital’s staff attacked Liao Jie and the others after a nurse warned them against carrying sharp objects, and Liao Jie went upstairs to search for Cong Yu.
• Liao Jie turned back after the sounds from the first floor vanished, but he found the hospital lobby empty.

Xu Huo used Seventeenth Hospital’s mind-altering properties to manipulate players and delay their progress while he waited for the designated treatment time. He received the new abilities Lock Target and Moving Mosaic, while Cong Yu relayed his message and tried to evade the hospital’s strange doubles.

• Xu Huo sent Cong Yu Gene Potions that could eliminate the fungi and a message for him to pass to their companions, but the children in Brown Skin City had already died.
• Cong Yu relayed Xu Huo’s message, then encountered copies of himself appearing on the beds as footsteps moved through the hospital.
• Xu Huo used the hospital’s special properties to interfere with players’ minds and explained that his limited mental control could only briefly freeze weaker targets.
• Xu Huo tampered with the second building’s sample and used Cong Yu to lure Liao Jie and the others around the hospital, preventing them from clearing the Dungeon quickly.
• Xu Huo gained Lock Target, which could track one person across Sub-districts for up to half a year, and Moving Mosaic, which obscured him from surveillance for three minutes.

Xu Huo examined his Dungeon rewards, including a game-granted safeguard called the Heart of Innocence, and considered how the game's authority could override normal rules. When Liao Jie reached the Director's office, Xu Huo used his Dungeon privilege to bar anyone from entering without permission.

• Xu Huo reviewed several rewards, including the teleportation item "Open Door Visit," the stealing item "Look How Pitiful I Am," and the flying item "Like Wind Brushing."
• Xu Huo read that the Heart of Innocence would protect him when items and Tickets could no longer save him, and he recognized it as access to a game backdoor.
• Liao Jie shook off the security guards and the Doctor, found the Director's office, and knocked on the door.
• Xu Huo used the Pen of the Codex and Custom Law to forbid anyone from entering the Director's office without his permission.
• The game recognized Xu Huo's new rule, which replaced the first rule posted in the hospital.