Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo spent time sightseeing in Platinum Eye with Tan Qi and Xiao Yuan, telling them he was resting because using his brain too much had caused an aftereffect. Xin Rong found them and joined their outing, then asked Xu Huo if he had heard that the engagement was off.

• Xu Huo took Tan Qi and Xiao Yuan to a restaurant, a botanical garden, and several animal shows, then stayed with them at a hotel.
• Xu Huo told the children they would meet an Artificer in a few days and learn to make items while keeping up with schoolwork.
• Xu Huo spent the next day sightseeing with the children, who worried he might be ill because he was unusually willing to play with them.
• Xu Huo reassured Tan Qi and Xiao Yuan that they were healthy and said his time off was due to an aftereffect from using his brain too much.
• Xin Rong found Xu Huo and the children, gave them red envelopes, and joined their outing as their host.
• Xin Rong thanked Xu Huo for borrowing his props and asked whether he had heard that the engagement was off.

Xu Huo learned that Platinum Eye and the Lang family’s broken engagement may have been a plot to seize a powerful weapon-conversion chip. After spending time with Xin Rong and the children, he went to a hidden attraction at Sky Amusement Park and floated into the sky.

• Xin Rong told Xu Huo that Platinum Eye and the Lang family suspected each other of possessing a chip that could make ordinary ore power weapons the game might not be able to ban.
• Xin Rong explained that the engagement may have been a scheme for each side to swallow the other and obtain the chip, but he did not know why the plan had fallen apart.
• Xu Huo and Xin Rong discussed Platinum Eye’s losses and whether the Game Government would end up with the chip.
• Xin Rong helped Xiao Yuan and Tan Qi play on rubber floats, then asked Xu Huo to remember him if the city government offered contract work.
• Xu Huo’s group used his Platinum Badge to enter a hidden Sky Amusement Park attraction, where a transparent platform lifted them into the air.

Xu Huo accompanied Xin Rong to a family gathering at the Xin estate, where he realized the dinner was likely about dividing the family’s resources. Xin Rong’s ailing grandfather addressed the assembled family as its patriarch for the last time.

• At the Sky Castle, Xu Huo asked whether the Lang family might attack Platinum Eye, and Xin Rong assured him the city’s defenses would deter them.
• Xin Rong invited Xu Huo to dinner at his grandparents’ estate, explaining that bringing a Player friend would impress his family.
• Xu Huo met Xin Rong’s relatives and learned that the gathering followed his grandfather’s serious illness and recovery.
• Xin Rong’s grandfather was wheeled into the hall, asked everyone to sit, and called it the last family gathering he would host as head of the family.

At the Xin family dinner, Xu Huo’s Platinum Badge bolstered Xin Rong’s hopes in the inheritance contest, while Xu later negotiated wills with Bai Kou in exchange for her help studying Time Rays. The chapter left Xu Huo explaining his understanding of how Time Rays worked as Bai Kou used the Origin Stone.

• Old Man Xin acknowledged Xu Huo at dinner, and the Xin family members later waited to be summoned individually about the inheritance.
• Xin Rong told Xu Huo that he was competing for the family’s connections and had mentioned Xu’s Platinum Badge to his grandfather.
• Yan Fang brought Xu Huo to meet Bai Kou at the mechanical castle, where she agreed to exchange wills with him.
• Xu Huo and Bai Kou each wrote and fingerprinted a will, promising the other their respective castle after death.
• Xu Huo explained to Bai Kou that Time Rays curved, flowed forward, and could connect across spaces, potentially causing instant death.

Xu Huo tried to help Bai Kou sense Time Rays, but she made no progress, leaving him to wonder whether she lacked the talent for Temporal Evolution. He brought Xiao Yuan and Tan Qi to meet Old Mrs. Lu, who accepted two Sub-class Stones as tuition and revealed the item she had made from Xu Huo’s contaminated ore.

• Xu Huo explained his perception of Time Rays and Time Power to Bai Kou, but she failed to sense them after several hours of trying.
• Xu Huo returned to the hotel, read about Super Evolution, and considered that Bai Kou might lack talent for Temporal Evolution.
• Xu Huo took Xiao Yuan and Tan Qi to the mechanical Castle, where Bai Kou introduced them to Old Mrs. Lu before leaving for other duties.
• Xu Huo offered Old Mrs. Lu two Sub-class Stones as tuition, and she promised to make defensive items for the children and possibly teach them as apprentices.
• Old Mrs. Lu showed Xu Huo a chest containing black pellets made from the contaminated ore he had left with her.

Xu Huo accepted Old Mrs. Lu’s radioactive tools and learned about her work as an Artificer while Xiao Yuan and Tan Qi tried carving patterns. He left to arrange their school enrollment, planning to return to Old Mrs. Lu’s workshop afterward.

• Old Mrs. Lu explained the risks of the twelve radioactive tools she had made, and Xu Huo stored them away.
• Old Mrs. Lu showed Xu Huo her workshop and explained how Artificers made and certified Dungeon Authorization Letters.
• Xiao Yuan struggled to carve a pattern while Tan Qi completed his first carving, and Old Mrs. Lu encouraged Xiao Yuan to keep practicing.
• Xu Huo told the children he would arrange their school enrollment and return, then left Old Mrs. Lu’s home.
• Xin Rong met Xu Huo outside with the children’s electronic credentials, and Xu Huo invited him to help make the enrollment arrangements.

Xu Huo visited Bai Kou at the mechanical Castle and learned she was searching for an energy conversion chip, not preparing the Platinum Eye for war. When the mayor’s wife arrived, Bai Kou revealed her hostility toward her mother and vowed to keep the Platinum Eye from her.

• Yan Fang brought Xu Huo to Bai Kou, who was studying Angel's Eyes while handling her duties at the mechanical Castle.
• Xu Huo questioned Bai Kou's determination to become a time-type Super Evolver and asked whether the Platinum Eye was preparing for war.
• Bai Kou said she was searching for the energy conversion chip and insisted the Platinum Eye could protect itself without a time-type Super Evolver.
• Yan Fang announced the mayor’s wife was arriving, and Bai Kou made Xu Huo stay to meet her.
• The mayor’s wife invited Xu Huo to visit Bai Kou’s younger sister, but Bai Kou ordered her to leave and warned that she would never let her take the Platinum Eye.

Xu Huo learned that Madam Bai possessed an item that made her impossible to kill, then investigated her past and suspected she was a dangerous rival to Bai Kou in the struggle for the Platinum Eye. His search revealed a pattern of Madam Bai’s partners dying before she remarried into greater power, though most people still remembered her as saintly and her romances as true love.

• Madam Bai urged Bai Kou to return home, but Bai Kou refused and told her to leave.
• After Madam Bai left, Bai Kou told Xu Huo that her mother was not a Player but carried an item that made her impossible to kill, even for a Super Player.
• Xu Huo and Bai Kou trained with the Time Power for several hours but failed to make progress.
• Xu Huo visited Old Mrs. Lu, gave her a school enrollment certificate and stationery, then checked into the Yongxing Hotel and researched Madam Bai.
• Xu Huo posted about Madam Bai on Dimension Below and learned that her partners had repeatedly died before she remarried into greater status, while her reputation remained untarnished.
• Xu Huo concluded that Madam Bai could be a dangerous factor in the contest for control of the Platinum Eye.

Xu Huo studied how Time Rays connected across spaces and discovered he could make the rays around him vibrate together, briefly sensing identical courtyards in other spaces. Bai Kou warned him against merging with the Spacetime Rays, and he continued training to control them without being affected by their flow.

• Xu Huo took Xiao Yuan and Tan Qi to school, then went to the mechanical castle to train with the materials Bai Kou had found.
• Xu Huo reasoned that Time Rays ran through space like a web and tested how their vibrations could reveal connections between spaces.
• Xu Huo made all the Time Rays passing through his body vibrate together and sensed identical courtyards beyond the Study Room.
• Bai Kou grabbed Xu Huo's hand, warned him not to become one with the Spacetime Rays, and agreed to help him activate the device for another injection.
• Xu Huo practiced separating himself from the Time Rays overnight, then met Bai Kou the next morning and offered her breakfast.

Xu Huo completed another activation and used a P4S Evolution Potion under Bai Kou’s supervision. After his absorption rate reached nearly 70%, he told Bai Kou he was already a B-class player despite having only a 60% Evolution rate.

• Bai Kou checked on Players who had halted activation and ordered the staff to investigate unsuitable Evolution Potions and replace them.
• Bai Kou oversaw Xu Huo’s lower-intensity activation and privately ensured his data was sent directly to her micro-terminal.
• Xu Huo injected a P4S Evolution Potion and noticed his recovery and physical abilities had improved.
• Bai Kou measured Xu Huo’s Potion utilization rate at nearly 70% and said he could continue absorbing Potions without forced stimulation.
• Xu Huo told Bai Kou he was already a B-class player, and she asked whether he had skipped a Dungeon level.

Xu Huo discussed his rapid advancement, the survivors he had evacuated from District 017, and a video showing an intelligent Alien with Bai Kou. He planned to investigate a hidden Laboratory and stayed behind to test his evolved abilities, including his control over the Time Rays.

• Bai Kou told Xu Huo to buy a Protective Suit, then encrypted and transferred a copy of his data.
• Xu Huo asked where the people he had rescued from District 017 had settled, and Bai Kou described a welcoming Sub-district with many migrants.
• Xu Huo showed Bai Kou a video of evolved Aliens from District 017, and she identified a mineral in the intelligent Alien's eye as a source of mental interference.
• Xu Huo and Bai Kou discussed the possibility that Stellar Pharmaceutical had run experiments in a secret, ticketless Sub-district, and Bai Kou warned that entering would require special access or a legitimate identity.
• Bai Kou let Xu Huo use her Laboratory, where he tested his Spiritual World and spacetime powers before practicing control of the Time Rays.

Xu Huo spent the morning practicing in the laboratory despite other players trying to drive him out, then trained with Bai Kou in the afternoon and demonstrated his growing control over the Time Rays. Bai Kou explained that he could use the Power of Time to affect Artifacts, though its basic applications differed from disrupting one Artifact with another.

• At lunch, Xu Huo returned to the laboratory after a staff member told him he could keep using it.
• Three players tried to pressure Xu Huo into giving up the laboratory, but the staff member told them Bai Kou had reserved it for him.
• Xu Huo let the three players use the laboratory and waited outside, reading until Bai Kou finished her work.
• During afternoon training, Xu Huo made the Time Rays resonate without relying on "Angel's Eyes," though he could not yet connect them to rays in other spaces.
• Xu Huo showed Bai Kou how he manipulated the Time Rays in his Spiritual World, making the lines tremble throughout the space.
• Bai Kou explained that controlling Time Rays could let Xu Huo affect Artifacts and compared it with using Space Rays to disrupt a Space Teleport Artifact.

Xu Huo and Bai Kou practiced controlling Space Rays and Time Rays, and Bai Kou explained how Temporal Evolution might disable artifacts. After the training, Xu Huo caught three Players pranking his hotel room and trapped them in a Cube Space that continued to compress.

• Bai Kou taught Xu Huo how Time Rays might disrupt an artifact’s time-sensitive mechanisms, and he made an artifact fail during their test.
• Xu Huo and Bai Kou practiced Ray control, then discussed the importance of time and Bai Kou’s search for an opportunity to advance.
• Three Players sneaked into Xu Huo’s hotel room and covered his bed with potion and animal feathers while recording the prank.
• Xu Huo revealed that he had been watching them, trapped the Players in a multilayered Cube Space, and began compressing it around them.

Xu Huo drove off three Platinum Eye players who harassed him, then returned to the mechanical Castle to train with Bai Kou. She helped him understand spatial control and taught him to compress Space Rays into a stronger blade.

• The three Platinum Eye players threatened Xu Huo, but he trapped them among cutting lines and spread a black shadow over their legs until they fled.
• Xu Huo gave the hotel footage of the men’s misconduct, moved to a new room, and received an upgrade and discount coupons.
• The next morning, Xu Huo encountered the three men leaving the mechanical Castle and saw them walk away without confronting him.
• Hou Pei apologized to Xu Huo for Platinum Eye’s management and escorted him to Ms. Gong’s Study Room, where Bai Kou trained with him.
• Bai Kou explained that Xu Huo needed to control his Space Power precisely and demonstrated how to pierce an ornament by stacking Space Rays.
• Xu Huo practiced controlling Space Rays for an hour and strengthened his ray blade.

Xu Huo trained his Space Power at the Platinum Eye, spent time with Xiao Yuan and Tan Qi, then boarded a train to leave. On the train, he solved Dr. Zhang's puzzle ball and found a Ticket to C20-District 035, Hornless Lamb Station.

• Xu Huo refined his Space Ray Blades and took Bai Kou's notebook on Space Power training.
• Xu Huo took Xiao Yuan and Tan Qi to the amusement park and told them they could travel back if they planned carefully.
• Xu Huo said goodbye to the children and spent two more days training at the mechanical Castle.
• Xu Huo collected Angel's Eyes and his custom Protective Suits, then used a Ticket to leave the Platinum Eye.
• Xu Huo solved Dr. Zhang's puzzle ball on the train and found a Ticket to C20-District 035, Hornless Lamb Station.

Xu Huo arrived at Hornless Lamb Station and entered the B-class instance "Justice" as a new West District inspector. After being mistaken for a criminal and stopped by inspectors, he recovered his stolen money and headed toward the Surveillance Department branch.

• Xu Huo used the Hornless Lamb's Ticket and arrived two days later at Hornless Lamb Station.
• Xu Huo chose the identity of a newly hired West District inspector and received three possible objectives for clearing the instance.
• A group of inspectors tackled Xu Huo in an alley, searched him, and discovered his work ID.
• The inspectors returned Xu Huo's money after he demanded it, then directed him to the nearby Surveillance Department branch.
• Xu Huo left the alley and walked through the crowded, watchful streets toward the branch.

Xu Huo reported for duty at the Surveillance Department and witnessed its officers abuse a woman and beat local witnesses. After an aircraft crashed outside, he learned how the department treated West District residents and was advised to find lodging near the shadow wall.

• Xu Huo entered the Surveillance Department and found four officers assaulting a woman during an interrogation.
• Xu Huo identified himself as a new officer, and an aircraft crashed into the building after gunfire rang out outside.
• Lin Guang helped the woman escape through a storage-room window while the officers prepared for a possible attack.
• The officers returned with aircraft wreckage and detained five locals as witnesses, then beat them during questioning.
• A tall officer told Lin Guang and Xu Huo that West District residents were all criminals and warned them not to feel sympathy.

Xu Huo learned how the understaffed Surveillance Department handled crime in the West District and received his inspector’s gun and wrist terminal. After deciding to stay at the branch overnight, he used the Jixin Terminal to study Yuquan City’s divided and overcrowded districts.

• The tall man and Lin Guang explained that the Surveillance Department could not investigate every crime and that the Rebel Army’s Players had killed inspectors.
• The officers locked up the arrested suspects and left for food, while Xu Huo and Lin Guang stayed behind to watch the branch.
• Lin Guang took Xu Huo to the storeroom, gave him a service gun and wrist terminal, and explained their functions and his housing allowance.
• Xu Huo decided to spend the night at the branch and look for housing the next morning.
• Xu Huo used the Jixin Terminal to learn how pollution, scarce land, and overcrowding shaped the West District and limited surveillance.

Xu Huo considered how the East and West Districts were connected, the forces controlling the West District, and the dangers facing anyone investigating there. He identified solving a West District murder as the most approachable Dungeon task, but learned that investigators had only thirty hours before a case was sealed.

• Xu Huo reviewed the East District’s systems for admitting West District residents and the different groups that made up the Rebel Army and Divine Fire Surveillance Department.
• Xu Huo concluded that the West District’s residents had few ways to improve their lives and that the Dungeon’s different assigned identities would likely put Players at odds.
• Xu Huo searched the Internal System for recent cases in which inspectors had been killed and watched footage showing several bodies and signs of struggle.
• Xu Huo learned that the Divine Fire Surveillance Department gave investigators thirty hours to solve a murder before sealing the case and ending its support.

Xu Huo considered how his assigned identity and the Surveillance Department’s attention could complicate his mission, then was caught in a thief’s escape attempt inside the department building. After keeping watch through the night, he received a day off to find somewhere to live.

• Xu Huo reviewed information about how dungeon identities and missions varied by entry point and worried that the Surveillance Department might be watching him.
• After being kept awake by the noise outside, Xu Huo chased a shadow down the stairs and fell when someone kicked open a door.
• Lin Guang and Brother Hao subdued an intruder who had picked the lock and stolen equipment from the Surveillance Department.
• Lin Guang locked the thief in the interrogation room and warned Xu Huo to avoid getting involved in other people’s business.
• The next morning, Xu Huo’s squad leader gave him the day off because he had stayed up all night and had nowhere to live.