Chapter Summaries

Lin An learned more about Xuan Ziyi’s past, gave Xuan Haicheng Abyssal Aura to become a Black Dragon Guard, and headed toward Dragon An Base. At Fengming Road 97, a mysterious presence inside a black vortex opened a scarlet eye and declared that it had seen him.

• Lin An chose to keep the fragment for later cultivation and used the Death God Mask to intimidate the Zombies blocking the road.
• Lin An examined Xuan Haicheng’s Self-Sacrifice talent and learned how Ziyi had survived the apocalypse and reunited with her father.
• Lin An gave Xuan Haicheng Abyssal Aura and told him to use it to change class into a Black Dragon Guard (Shield Warrior).
• As the vehicle passed Fengming Road, Lin An recalled the Black Hole and the place where he had lived.
• At Fengming Road 97, a scarlet eye appeared in a palm inside a black vortex and said, "I saw you."

Lin An returned to Dragon Security Base, where Huang Zheng organized an elaborate welcome as Lin An prepared for the Trial Tower. A message from the Capital Military Region offered Trial Tower intelligence in exchange for equipment, while a weakened dark-blue Spirit Body warned Lin Zhan that “they’re here” and this was their final chance.

• Huang Zheng rallied Huang HaiTao and Dragon Security forces to welcome Lin An, arguing that the display would show their loyalty and make the base’s chain of command clear.
• Lin An returned to Dragon Security with Xuan Haicheng and the others, and Xuan Haicheng gaped at the fortress-like base and its escort.
• Lin An clarified to himself that he had ordered the base to stay alert to guard against an Unknown Mutant while he was away on the Trial Journey.
• Gao Tian told Lin An that the Capital Military Region wanted him on its Trial Tower team and would trade intelligence for equipment, while implying he would need their help.
• Lin Zhan questioned the weakened dark-blue Spirit Body, which pointed upward and warned that they had arrived and it was the group’s final chance.

Lin An briefed the base on preparations for the Trial Tower and heard the Capital’s intelligence about its deadly trials and their effect on War Zone disasters. The Capital also blamed him for triggering the Cataclysm early, leaving his squad angry and the meeting tense.

• Lin An told the base’s Awakeners to raise their unequipped attributes to around thirty before entering the Trial Tower and ordered the base to avoid the Xi'an and Huanjiang War Zone defensive lines.
• An JingTian reported that the Capital believed the Trial Tower included deadly battles and functioned like Gu Breeding.
• Gao Tian explained that Trial Tower rankings would affect later disasters, rewarding high-ranking War Zones and accelerating the Cataclysm for those ranked poorly.
• Lin An inferred that the Capital wanted him to earn a high ranking for China War Zone, but Gao Tian said the Capital also blamed him for triggering the Cataclysm early and warned he would bear primary responsibility if the trial worsened the apocalypse.

Lin An rejected the Capital’s demand that Dragon Security obey its command and provide supplies, offering instead to cooperate if he received command authority and first choice of rewards. At the Capital’s Seventh Defense Line, General Lin Zhan was ordered to return after the Military Headquarters received Lin An’s reply.

• Gao Tian relayed the Capital’s warning that Lin An should cooperate during the Trial Journey, accept its command, and provide supplies or risk being isolated and attacked.
• Lin An rejected the proposal and told the Capital to give him command authority and let him choose rewards first if it wanted him to let bygones be bygones.
• Chu An secretly messaged Nie Ping and asked him to make contact.
• At the Seventh Defense Line, Lin Zhan and other Awakened fought Mutants as one of their comrades was killed.
• Lin Zhan received orders to return after the Military Headquarters learned that Lin An had replied.

Lin Zhan dismissed the military’s anger over Lin An’s refusal to cooperate and turned the meeting toward the threats facing the Trial. The chapter left the capital focused on formidable Awakeners and rival war zones rather than Lin An.

• Lin Zhan rejected the psychological analysis of Lin An, saying Lin An’s hostility and arrogance followed from his view of the capital’s weakness and its past actions.
• An Awakener denounced Lin An’s demands, while Luo Feng privately hoped Lin An’s arrogance would provoke the military into killing him.
• Lin Zhan told the meeting to stop worrying about Lin An, reasoning that he lacked the time and opportunity to grow much stronger.
• Lin Zhan warned that the North America War Zone’s first Second Order Awakener had escaped pursuit and might become a major Trial competitor.
• Lin Zhan reported that the East Ying War Zone had completed a war-zone-level mission and detonated a nuclear bomb, and warned that its Awakeners might threaten the Qingniao War Zone.
• Lin Zhan revealed that an unknown Awakener in the Siberia War Zone had exchanged 175 Dragon Remnant Crystals and an item suspected to be worth 800 points.

As the First Trial Tower prepares to open, Lin An learns that participants must survive trials and then fight for the title of First, while Bear Dunce endures Chu An’s extreme resistance experiments. Lin An and Zhang Tie are teleported into the Tower, with Lin An determined to claim the top spot.

• Chu An continued testing Bear Dunce with extreme cold and radioactive material, building his resistance while exposing his weakness to mental attacks.
• Lin An told Bear Dunce that the First Trial Tower would test strength, agility, and physique before a deadly Deathmatch War, with rewards tied to Fourth Order and Cataclysms.
• Lin An worried that the China War Zone had suffered an undisclosed failure during the previous First Trial Tower and resolved to change its fate.
• Lin An and Zhang Tie prepared to enter the Tower, while Lin An noticed that Mo Ling had not returned.
• The System announced the trial’s rules, increased difficulty, and participant count, then teleported 16,587 Awakened ones as Lin An vowed to become First.

Ten thousand Awakeners entered the Trial Tower and learned that they would face ability-based trials before a final Deathmatch, with a unique reward for the highest scorer. As the first Strength Trial approached, Abomination tried to recruit cannon fodder by intimidating the crowd, but Li Hao saw through his plan and stopped him from targeting the China War Zone.

• The System announced the Trial's stages, Solo and Team modes, escalating difficulty and rewards, and the final Deathmatch for the only reward.
• A Strength-based Awakener from the Nordic War Zone named Kulunsi hesitated over choosing Solo or Team Mode as Abomination mocked him.
• Abomination transformed and proclaimed himself the strongest, while an Awakener from China questioned him and Li Hao warned him to stop his schemes.
• Abomination concealed his anger and scanned the crowd for someone else to target, noticing a masked Awakener and Colonel Ron.

Lin An resisted Abomination’s provocation while considering a hidden Perfect Trial that would keep him at Second Order against Third Order opponents. After revealing his identity to the gathered Awakeners, he accepted the Perfect Grade Trial mission, activating its increased difficulty.

• Abomination charged Lin An but was stopped by the System’s protection, then threatened him after Lin An’s apparent mental attack was blocked.
• Abomination tried to recruit Zhang Tie, who angrily told him to get lost and struck at him, prompting Abomination to leave while the Nordic Survivors watched.
• Lin An read the hidden Perfect Trial conditions and hesitated over the challenge and its unknown reward.
• Paladin introduced himself to Lin An, who did not recognize him, then Lin An stated his name and drew the attention of Awakeners from across the gathering.
• Lin An confirmed the Perfect Grade Trial mission, and the Trial Tower announced that difficulty stacking had reached 100%.

Lin An and Zhang Tie prepared to enter the Perfect Grade Strength Trial as other Awakened watched and assessed them. The trial began, and the selected participants were pulled through the red entrance.

• Lin An watched the China military and suspected it knew more about the trials than it had revealed.
• Bear Dunce angrily rebuffed people who tried to recruit Lin An, while Lin An prepared to face the trial with Zhang Tie.
• A military commander warned Zhang Yong not to get close to Lin An, but Zhang Yong chose to trust Nie Ping and Commander Xia and stay near him.
• The System announced that 4,112 Awakened had joined the group trial and three had chosen the individual trial.
• A powerful suction force and a thick smell of blood swept over the area, and the selected participants vanished through the red gate.

The Strength Trial turned into a deadly ordeal as Awakeners were slaughtered by powerful Mutants, while Lin An learned that his Perfect Grade Trial had changed to Silent Hill. He fought through the monsters as the Trial’s difficulty continued to rise.

• Outside the Trial Tower, Ron wondered why he felt hostile toward Lin An, while the Mind Controller dismissed reports about Lin An’s abilities as false.
• Li Hao learned that Zhao Yang had chosen the solo Trial and expected the China War Zone to gain a lot, but rapid death announcements soon shocked everyone outside.
• Inside the Trial, two armored Triangle Head monsters pursued seven Awakeners from the Brahma War Zone and killed several of them.
• The surviving Awakeners discovered that the Strength Trial stripped away non-Strength attribute bonuses and weakened equipment and item effects.
• Lin An punched through a Triangle Head’s helmet in an abandoned steel factory and received a Perfect Grade Trial notice identifying the tower as Silent Hill’s Surface World.
• Lin An realized that the Trial’s difficulty was still increasing and that he needed to reach the Inner World to complete the Perfect Trial.

Lin An struggled to survive the Strength Trial, where the System stripped away most of his attributes and hordes of Triangle Head monsters attacked him in a steel factory. He escaped the factory and contacted Zhang Tie as another Awakened squad fled, but one member turned on a companion to save himself.

• Lin An realized the Strength Trial had reduced his attributes to near-minimum levels, and the Triangle Head monster he had crushed remained alive.
• Lin An fought through a horde of Triangle Head monsters, taking serious wounds before using his skills to break out of the steel factory.
• Lin An assessed the damage to his body, decided he could not continue fighting inside, and escaped while contacting Zhang Tie.
• An Awakened squad fled after its strongest member was killed, and a resentful European man attacked the companion ahead of him with a Horse Chopping Saber.

Awakeners endured a deadly Strength Trial that rewarded killing both fellow Awakeners and monsters, while an alarm temporarily protected the survivors. Lin An suspected the rules were a trap and urged Bear Dunce to find the next floor without killing Awakeners, as a military commander demanded answers about the unexpected Trial.

• Du Lun Te severed an Awakener’s leg and attacked his companions, but the alarm sounded before he could continue.
• The Trial’s protection mechanism stopped the monsters and announced that participants could withdraw at the cost of half their attributes and their chance to advance to the Third Order.
• The system revealed that killing Awakeners or Triangle Evil Spirits earned points, and that reaching the next floor also granted points.
• After losing nearly thirty Awakeners, the Chinese military officer read the rules and contacted the commander carrying the special existence for an explanation.
• Lin An studied the rules and told Bear Dunce to use the safe period to find the next floor and avoid killing Awakeners because he suspected a trap.
• The Solo Trial commander demanded an explanation from the thin old man, who was bewildered because he remembered the first Trial being different.

The old man urged the commander to hunt other Awakened for advancement, and the commander ordered the military to follow his advice. In a dark bathroom stall, Zhang Tie questioned Team Leader Lin about why hunting Awakened was a trap.

• The commander's Bone Armor absorbed the disintegrating Executioner (Triangle) while the commander demanded an explanation from the old man.
• The old man said the Trial Tower's increased difficulty might be due to its early activation and argued that killing other Awakened was the simplest route to survival and Third Order advancement.
• The commander questioned whether advancing to the next floor might be more rewarding, but the old man warned against choosing a higher-difficulty mission.
• The old man argued that war zones would be forced to hunt one another and claimed the brief Safe Time after an alarm was meant for teams to find each other.
• The commander ordered the military to avoid monsters and hunt other Awakened with all their strength.
• In a dark bathroom stall, Zhang Tie handled the Scorched Corpse and asked Team Leader Lin why hunting Awakened was a trap.

Lin An explained that the Executioners were manifestations of Awakened people’s evil thoughts and that the Strength Trial tested their courage, while the Inner World punished those who killed other Awakened instead of facing the monsters. When the countdown ended, he killed a newly spawned Triangle monster with a surprise attack, while an Awakened corpse in the Nordic War Zone began watching the blond man.

• Lin An deduced that the monsters were projections of the Awakened’s evil thoughts and that the trial tested whether they could face them despite their restricted attributes.
• Lin An explained that teams could exploit the alarm’s safe interval to separate and ambush monsters, while weak Awakened would struggle to survive.
• Lin An concluded that killing other Awakened could draw people into the Inner World, where monsters might evolve from the dead.
• As the countdown ended, Lin An leaped down and killed a Triangle monster by piercing its skull with Cain's Blade.
• In the Nordic War Zone, a corpse’s eye began moving and fixed its gaze on the blond man.

Kurosawa Ichibi’s East Ying team killed an Executioner by working together, but the small point reward pushed them to consider hunting other war zones. After receiving America’s proposal to target China and a message from their own higher-ups, Kurosawa weighed the attack against East Ying’s plan to migrate to China.

• An East Ying team restrained an Executioner and killed it with a coordinated assault, earning only a small fraction of a point each.
• Kurosawa Ichibi received America’s offer to cooperate against other war zones, with China’s locations marked and East Ying expected to test them first.
• Kurosawa’s teammates objected to America treating them as expendable, while he explained that America might have informants among East Ying’s ranks and scouts with rare dual-system abilities.
• Kurosawa said East Ying’s higher-ups wanted China’s strength weakened and reminded the team of the military’s Migration Plan to relocate to China if East Ying could no longer survive.

Hicks and another American Awakener plotted to manipulate other war zones into attacking China War Zone, while trial participants across the town began forming alliances and hunting one another. In a sudden shift, the chapter showed Lin An presiding over a massive Dragon An Base briefing, where Wen Ya noticed his displeasure as officials reported the base’s strength.

• Hicks and his teammate discussed pressuring East Ying and Great Korean War Zones to help eliminate China War Zone’s team and locating Lin An.
• After the second Air Raid Alert, war zones began seeking alliances to hunt rival Awakeners as Trial Takers fled Executioners.
• The remaining twenty-three Awakeners from Brahma War Zone complained that other teams refused to ally with them.
• Lin An attended a formal briefing at Dragon An Base as officials reported its population, Awakener ranks, armed forces, and food reserves.
• Wen Ya noticed that Lin An appeared impatient or disgusted while the reports continued.

Zhang Tie fought through the monster-filled town and reunited with Lin An at the church. He brought equipment salvaged from dead Awakened people, and Lin An inspected several useful pieces.

• Zhang Tie endured an Executioner's axe strike, then crushed its neck and tore off its head.
• Zhang Tie followed Lin An's guidance through the town, killing monsters and passing the bodies of dead Awakened people.
• Zhang Tie's wound rapidly healed as his Undying Asura trait restored his defense.
• Zhang Tie smashed through the final wall and found Lin An on the church's cross.
• Zhang Tie dropped his collection of equipment for Lin An, who examined several Blue Equipment pieces that could replace his own.

Lin An realized that corpses left behind by human killings might trigger the major incident he had anticipated. Meanwhile, a Nordic War Zone group debated hunting the China War Zone, unaware that blood was dripping inside their shelter as the fog darkened.

• Lin An examined his new equipment, asked whether anyone had collected gear from corpses killed by humans, and a fourth Air Raid Alert sounded.
• Twelve Nordic War Zone Awakened took shelter in a police station, where a wandering Executioner had nearly killed one of them before the alert made it disappear.
• The Nordic group discussed joining other War Zones to ambush the China military and speculated about Lin An and other powerful Awakened.
• The jacketed man doubted that killing the China group would earn him enough points and wondered whom he would kill afterward.
• As the group prepared to hide underground, drops of blood fell from the police station ceiling beside a charred newspaper about an Evil Witch and a not-guilty verdict.

The Leather Armor Man questioned the team’s plan and explored the police station basement, while secretly considering killing fellow Awakeners to meet the Trial Tower’s requirement. He left the bathroom unaware that the person he had killed was nailed to the ceiling above him.

• The Red-Haired Awakener dismissed the Leather Armor Man’s theory about the Executioner and ordered him to follow the System’s plan.
• After Safe Time ended, the group hid in the police station basement and waited for the main force to help kill the Triangle monster outside.
• The Red-Haired Awakener told the Leather Armor Man to search for water because Ake could draw strength from it.
• At the bathroom sink, the Leather Armor Man recalled killing an Awakener and calculated that he still needed four more heads.
• The Leather Armor Man left the bathroom without noticing that his victim was nailed to the ceiling.

Lin An explained that the trial would grow deadlier and urged Zhang Tie to wait before advancing. After Zhang Tie admitted killing an Awakened, Lin An asked what he feared most, while elsewhere a crossbow-wielding Awakened was seized by a new Female Corpse monster.

• Lin An told Zhang Tie that waiting could force him to unlock his Gene Lock himself as stronger monsters appeared.
• Zhang Tie pulled an Executioner through the church window and killed it with his transformed strength.
• Lin An learned Zhang Tie had killed an Awakened and asked what he feared most.
• A crossbow-wielding Awakened killed another Survivor and went to loot the corpse.
• A Female Corpse appeared behind the crossbow-wielder and pinned him against her as its spinning blades cut into him.