Chapter Summaries

Jin Yi endured Lu Xiu’s weaponless horror instance, fleeing a hulking monster and hiding from threats as his DV camera ran out of power. After breaking down and demanding weapons, he became the subject of a furious forum post while still trapped in the instance.

• Jin Yi explored a dark room filled with corpses and fled after seeing a living person impaled atop a pile of bodies.
• A giant man grabbed Jin Yi, threw him through a window, and sent him crashing into the lobby; Jin Yi searched for a weapon but found nothing usable.
• Jin Yi escaped through the dark corridors, hiding from the giant man and deranged patient NPCs while searching for batteries and a weapon.
• Jin Yi’s DV camera battery died as the monster broke into his hiding place, but he crawled beneath a hospital bed and waited until it left.
• Jin Yi finally broke down, shouting at Lu Xiu about the missing weapons and the instance’s length, while a forum post appeared echoing his complaints.

Sun Yi endured the Outlast instance’s darkness, helplessness, and repeated attacks before dying and returning to the office, where he and Feng Yan compared their failures. After learning that only an hour had passed since the instance launched, Sun Yi opened the forum and saw that players were overwhelmingly discussing Outlast.

• Sun Yi struggled through Outlast’s pitch-black basement with a nearly dead DV camera, then restarted the generator and was attacked by a skeletal patient wielding an iron pipe.
• The DV camera’s battery died as the patient struck Sun Yi twice, triggering the dungeon-failure prompt and teleporting him back to the office.
• Sun Yi recovered in the office and spoke with Feng Yan, who had also died in the instance; they discussed how Outlast differed from Resident Evil and how little they had learned from it.
• Feng Yan told Sun Yi that only an hour had passed since the instance launched and that many players had voluntarily quit; Sun Yi opened the forum and saw Outlast dominating its posts.

Players flooded into Lu Xiu’s new S-rank horror dungeon, [Outlast], expecting something like her earlier [Resident Evil], but found themselves trapped in a helpless struggle to flee and hide. The dungeon left players furious and traumatized, while Jin Yi and the Coordination Bureau’s elite raiders blamed the civilian construction clubs and asked to withdraw; Yan Fushou refused until they discovered the rewards.

• Players entered [Outlast], where they could not fight back and had to flee, hide, and explore with a battery-limited DV camera; the first player quit and posted an angry warning on the forum.
• As more players shared their breakdowns, the forum filled with complaints about Lu Xiu and [Outlast], while players also blamed the civilian construction clubs for making them underestimate horror-survival dungeons.
• Jin Yi returned from the dungeon and found players cursing the Builder Club, then angrily protested that he had suffered too and collapsed with what appeared to be a brain hemorrhage.
• Wei Yidong, Cheng Xiu, Fan Lixin, and other Coordination Bureau raiders told Yan Fushou that their combat instincts were useless in [Outlast] and asked to send in another team.
• Yan Fushou refused to rotate the raiders out before they learned the dungeon’s rewards and ordered them to continue the raid.

Yan Fushou recruited Shen Nian to discreetly assess Lu Xiu’s psychological state after her brutal new Outlast instance. Meanwhile, Lu Xiu reached Tier 2, reviewed her powerful stats, and checked the forum to see that players still had not cleared the instance.

• Yan Fushou worried that Lu Xiu’s rapid creation and clearing of horror instances might indicate psychological problems, then asked Shen Nian to assess her without letting Lu Xiu know.
• Shen Nian agreed to try speaking with Lu Xiu after remembering the Strategy Group members’ complaints about Outlast.
• Lu Xiu used the Outlast clear reward to raise her sequence to Tier 2 and inspected her stats and equipment.
• Lu Xiu considered running system dungeons to improve further but decided she had no time and was unimpressed by their rewards.
• Lu Xiu checked the forum, noticed civilian construction clubs were taking much of the criticism, and wondered why nobody had cleared Outlast yet.

Players learned that Outlast offered varied A-rank consumables and the powerful S-rank Survival Instinct, which linked with Resident Evil’s Ordinary Person’s Courage and made the grueling instance impossible for top players to ignore. The Coordination Bureau ordered an urgent strategy and new regulations while Lu Xiu, unaware of the commotion, heard someone knock at her door.

• A trading post revealed the A-rank Exclusive Clue consumable, which briefly detected nearby threats, exits, mechanisms, traps, and ambushes.
• Another player posted Breath of Life: Light, an A-rank consumable that hid vital signs and removed enemy lock-on for five seconds.
• Players discovered the S-rank Survival Instinct skill, which boosted attributes and mental resistance at low HP and could activate alongside Ordinary Person’s Courage.
• Jian Li showed Yan Fushou her reward and left to find Lu Xiu, while Yan learned that different clearing methods and performances produced different items.
• Li Bao ordered the Coordination Bureau Strategy Group to develop an Outlast strategy, protect Lu Xiu, station soldiers near her apartment, and prepare new regulations.
• Jiang Qiu ordered Longsword Guild’s Strategy Group to strategize Outlast, while Wei Zhe warned Zhao Qingdai that Li Bao would push the new regulations; Lu Xiu then heard a knock at her door.

Shen Nian and Jian Li visited Lu Xiu, who mistook their arrival as a response to the punishing Outlast instance. Lu Xiu hinted that the instance served a necessary purpose, then convinced herself that her difficult instances were preparing players for a future arena.

• Shen Nian brought Lu Xiu desserts and tried to insist that Lu Xiu alone deserved credit for completing her dungeons, but Lu Xiu invited her inside.
• Lu Xiu made tea for Shen Nian and explained that she had refused the Coordination Bureau’s offer to arrange people to manage her home.
• Jian Li arrived, and Lu Xiu invited her in and led her to the sofa beside Shen Nian.
• Lu Xiu told Shen Nian and Jian Li that Outlast was an instance of necessary malice, prompting them to infer that it had a hidden purpose.
• Lu Xiu explained that her instances could prepare players for a future arena, then convinced herself that she had made them difficult for the players’ own good.

Lu Xiu, Jian Li, and Shen Nian went out to eat and discovered that all three were too polite to admit they could not handle spicy food. Meanwhile, Strategy Group players returned from Outlast with no useful progress, and the news that Lu Xiu had a purpose for making the dungeon failed to convince them to keep trying.

• Jian Li and Shen Nian told Lu Xiu they had come to ask about Outlast settings, and Lu Xiu invited them to dinner.
• The three women chose a Sichuan restaurant, but each ordered sautéed seasonal vegetables because none of them could eat spicy food.
• Fan Lixin and Wei Yidong returned from Outlast after dying, but neither remembered useful details about the dungeon.
• Yan Fushou told the Strategy Group that Lu Xiu had made the dungeon for a purpose that might relate to the new version, but the players still believed she was torturing them.
• Jiang Qiu sent the same information to the Longsword Guild, whose members also doubted the dungeon had any benefit.

At Sea City's Northern Seventh Defense Line, Han Xiao's soldiers used weapons and rewards from the Titanfall and Sekiro dungeons to repel a massive Crawler assault with unprecedented force. As the monsters fell, Han Xiao realized the front line's four-year struggle had been transformed, though the tide's attack was still underway.

• A huge wave of Crawlers emerged from the rift and charged Sea City's northern defense line.
• Han Xiao ordered his soldiers to fire Titanfall weapons, and their concentrated gunfire killed many Crawlers before the monsters reached the partition walls.
• Han Xiao ordered the front row to raise Loaded Umbrellas, which blocked the Crawlers' deadly breath attacks.
• The second echelon ate Ungo's Sugar, Yashariku's Sugar, and Rice, then charged into the staggered monsters and cut them down.
• Soldiers used Ordinary Person's Courage and Loser's Obsession to keep fighting through severe injuries and fatal damage, while Han Xiao watched in astonishment at their changed strength.

Han Xiao’s front line repelled a monster tide with help from the civilian instances’ gear and abilities, and he was ordered to return to Chen Capital to assess Lu Xiu’s new [Outlast] instance. After an awkward dinner brought Lu Xiu, Shen Nian, and Jian Li closer, Lu Xiu received a prompt that someone had activated [Builder Roleplay] in [Titanfall].

• Han Xiao’s soldiers withdrew under cover, then used Jump Kits to kill the flying monsters as the ground forces finished off the tide without any deaths on his defensive line.
• An officer ordered Han Xiao to rest for two hours before returning to Chen Capital to help the Strategy Group clear and evaluate [Outlast] and follow a protection mission.
• The soldiers discussed Lu Xiu’s instances and the survival theme of [Outlast], reflecting on how the rewards had helped them stay alive on the front line.
• Lu Xiu left a Sichuan restaurant with Shen Nian and Jian Li after an embarrassing meal, and their awkwardness eased as they walked back to the apartment.
• A prompt appeared before Lu Xiu announcing that a player had activated the [Builder Roleplay] challenge mode in [Titanfall] and asking whether she would accept.

Zhao Qingdai challenged Lu Xiu in Titanfall, hoping to persuade her to oppose the Coordination Bureau, but Lu Xiu defeated her brutally before she could explain. Zhao Qingdai returned furious, while Lu Xiu dismissed the challenge as a waste of time and left with Jian Li and Shen Nian.

• Zhao Qingdai convinced Li Zhong and Wei Zhe that she could use a challenge to reach Lu Xiu and turn her against the Coordination Bureau’s new regulations.
• Lu Xiu accepted Zhao Qingdai’s challenge in Titanfall and took the role of Kane while Jian Li and Shen Nian waited outside.
• Zhao Qingdai tried to greet Lu Xiu, but Lu Xiu interrupted her and attacked, dodging missiles and overpowering BT with a series of brutal maneuvers.
• Lu Xiu crushed BT’s head, tore open its cockpit armor, and killed Zhao Qingdai, causing her to lose one Constitution point.
• Zhao Qingdai returned to the hotel and angrily complained that Lu Xiu’s tactics were not Titanfall combat, while Lu Xiu reappeared outside and said the challenge had been a waste of time.

After repeatedly challenging Lu Xiu across several instances, Zhao Qingdai, Li Zhong, and Wei Zhe were defeated and left furious. Meanwhile, Jian Li and Yan Fushou prepared a front-line squad to test Lu Xiu’s Outlast instance, but a global announcement revealed that the new “Iron and Blood” expansion was coming soon.

• Jian Li contacted Yan Fushou after Lu Xiu told her about the Red Owl Guild’s challenge, and the three women returned to the apartment to eat desserts.
• Lu Xiu dismissed the guild’s approach and decided she would kill them if they challenged her again.
• Zhao Qingdai challenged Lu Xiu in Sekiro, then Li Zhong and Wei Zhe tried as well, and all three were instantly killed.
• The trio challenged Lu Xiu in Resident Evil, where her control of the instance left them despairing; Li Zhong later erupted in anger at the hotel over Mia performing backflips.
• Jian Li met Yan Fushou at the Coordination Bureau training ground, where he told her the Internal Security Division was monitoring the guild leaders and introduced front-line Captain Han Xiao.
• A global announcement informed all players that the “Iron and Blood” version expansion would be released soon and warned them to prepare for battle.

After the Iron and Blood update announcement warned that collisions between planes and regions were unavoidable, the Coordination Bureau and players braced for a looming crisis. Han Xiao’s team entered Lu Xiu’s Outlast dungeon to assess it, and their repeated failures left Yan Fushou grateful that Lu Xiu was on their side.

• The system announced that the gentle dormant period was ending and that collisions between planes and regions were unavoidable, alarming Yan Fushou, Han Xiao, and players across the world.
• Yan Fushou left for an emergency meeting and told Jian Li to send him the results after Han Xiao’s team entered the Outlast dungeon.
• Han Xiao led his soldiers into Lu Xiu’s dungeon, while Jian Li waited in the training ground.
• Players on the forums panicked and speculated about the new version, while top players wondered what role Lu Xiu and the Architects would play.
• The soldiers returned from the dungeon one by one after failing, and Han Xiao came back an hour later, shaken by how difficult it was.
• Yan Fushou reflected that Lu Xiu’s dungeons were torturous but rewarding, and that having her would help the Coordination Bureau face the coming update.

Han Xiao explained why the [Outlast] Instance was difficult, then re-entered it to adapt to its survival rules. Jian Li arrived at Lu Xiu’s apartment after Yan Fushou asked her to consider protecting Lu Xiu, and a system alert revealed an imminent cross-world event that would expose core builders’ locations and put them at risk.

• Han Xiao described how darkness, limited DV camera batteries, forced helplessness, and scripted scenes made [Outlast] more difficult than Resident Evil, then chose to enter the Instance again.
• Yan Fushou asked Jian Li to consider living with Lu Xiu to protect her, and Jian Li replied that she would ask Lu Xiu.
• Lu Xiu waited at home after the usual challenges stopped, then let Jian Li into her apartment when she arrived.
• Jian Li grabbed Lu Xiu’s wrist and stared at a system window announcing the Iron and Blood update and the Hunt and Watch event.
• The system revealed that twenty players from each region could invade the other, core builders’ coordinates would be exposed, and killing a builder would permanently kill them; the passage was set to open in twelve hours.

Jian Li warned Lu Xiu to stay put and sent her intelligence about a coming cross-world PVP event, leading Lu Xiu to fear that she might be the region’s only target. The Coordination Bureau learned that the first opponent was Prison Rock and began preparing to protect Lu Xiu, while debating whether to send players across the passage or keep their forces at home.

• Jian Li suppressed silver scales on her hand, told Lu Xiu not to leave, and rushed out after sending her the updated event intelligence.
• Lu Xiu realized that her region might have no other prominent builders to draw attackers away, leaving her as a target for all twenty cross-world players.
• Yan Fushou received confirmation that the region’s first cross-world PVP opponent was Type IV Otherworld · Prison Rock, with only twelve hours to prepare.
• Yan Fushou ordered Han Xiao to halt the dungeon strategy and reinforce security around Lu Xiu’s home.
• The Coordination Bureau debated protecting Lu Xiu, sending top players to attack Prison Rock, and managing risks from large guilds and the unknown passage.
• Yan Fushou watched the countdown reach ten hours and fifty-six minutes as the meeting failed to resolve whether to split their forces.

The Coordination Bureau decided to send ten top players through the new passage while keeping its strongest defenders near Lu Xiu, and it publicly revealed the event’s rules and betrayal risk. When the passage opened, the system’s rankings showed Lu Xiu far ahead of every other Nine Provinces Architect, leaving her worried that the Construction Clubs had failed to develop anyone who could share the burden.

• Zhao Qingdai, Li Zhong, and Wei Zhe debated whether to cross into the other world for the PVP event, while the Coordination Bureau weighed the risks.
• Li Bao ordered the Strategy Group to take ten passage slots, kept Jian Li, Cheng Xiu, Fan Lixin, and Wei Yidong in Nine Provinces, and told the bureau to publish the event rules and open the other ten slots to civilian players.
• Players reacted with alarm to the rules, especially the possibility of betrayal and the erasure of a Builder’s instances if they were killed.
• Han Xiao stationed his team on Maple Leaf Avenue and ordered them to rest in shifts as the passage opening approached.
• The passage opened above both regions, and the system announced Comprehensive Influence Rankings for Nine Provinces and Prison Rock.
• Lu Xiu saw that her influence score of 28,000 dwarfed Jin Yi’s 400 and Fu Xi’s 350, and she lamented that the Construction Clubs had produced no comparable Architects.

The cross-boundary hunt began as Prison Rock’s vanguard targeted Lu Xiu, whose overwhelming influence made her the Nine Provinces’ sole priority. The attackers descended on Maple Leaf Avenue, where Jian Li and Wei Yidong’s group met them, and Prison Rock’s leader immediately engulfed the area in his Abyssal Sea Sinking Fog.

• The regional rankings revealed Lu Xiu’s 28,000 influence against the Construction Club’s 400, while Prison Rock’s top Builders had much more evenly distributed scores.
• The Coordination Bureau’s ten Strategy Group members and ten other players were selected as the Nine Provinces’ vanguard, while twenty Prison Rock players prepared to invade.
• Prison Rock’s leader ordered his group to descend at Lu Xiu’s location and prioritize killing her, believing she might be creating an S-rank civilian instance.
• The vanguards descended on Maple Leaf Avenue, and Jian Li noticed their arrival as twenty Prison Rock players struck the street.
• The dark-robed leader planted his spear and activated Abyssal Sea Sinking Fog, covering Maple Leaf Avenue and the apartment building where Lu Xiu was located.

As Prison Rock players attacked the apartment building under the cover of [Abyssal Sea Sinking Fog], the Coordination Bureau’s elites fought back while Lu Xiu watched through her Visual Mindscape. Jian Li drew six attackers away from the entrance, but Lu Xiu sensed that someone had entered the apartment, leaving the intruder’s identity unknown.

• Gray-white fog swallowed Lu Xiu’s apartment, and she used [Reverse Visual Imagery] to survey the building and battlefield below.
• Wei Yidong unleashed his fiery domain against the scarred giant, while Cheng Xiu and Fan Lixin engaged other Prison Rock players in separate fights.
• Six armored Prison Rock players charged the apartment entrance, but Jian Li intercepted them, killed one, and fought the remaining five away from the building.
• Lu Xiu watched Jian Li’s battle through her Visual Mindscape, then sensed that someone had entered the apartment.

Zane slipped through the fog into the apartment after his forces were held at bay, intending to kill the Nine Provinces Architect Lu Xiu, but news of Martin Abbey’s death drove him to attack the defenders. He overwhelmed Han Xiao and the frontline soldiers on the stairs, only for Lu Xiu to appear and challenge him.

• Zane infiltrated the apartment through the fog after realizing the battle outside had stalled.
• A system notification announced that Shen Nian had killed Martin Abbey, prompting Zane to attack Han Xiao and the frontline soldiers.
• Zane used his fog domain and superior attributes to defeat the soldiers as they tried to keep him from reaching the stairs.
• Han Xiao refused to give up despite his injuries and broken weapon, but Zane raised his spear to kill him.
• Lu Xiu appeared beside Han Xiao, parried Zane’s thrust, and told him she would fight.

Lu Xiu fought Zane inside his Abyssal Sea Sinking Fog domain, overwhelming him with her speed, deflections, and charged Dragon Flash. After blasting Zane through the apartment wall and pursuing him, she appeared on the battlefield with her Nameless Blade and Loathing Halberd, revealing herself to the Prison Rock players as the Nine Provinces Builder.

• Lu Xiu deflected Zane's attacks and countered him with rapid strikes, leaving him unable to track her movements inside his own domain.
• Zane gathered the fog into a powerful spear attack, but Lu Xiu activated her Jump Kit to evade it and launched a charged Dragon Flash that tore through his defense and struck his chest.
• Lu Xiu chased Zane through the wall while Han Xiao Squad watched in disbelief and the fog cleared from the apartment.
• A Prison Rock player fighting Wei Yidong believed Zane's attack had succeeded, but Zane was blasted out of the apartment and crashed into the battlefield, gravely wounded.
• Lu Xiu leaped onto the battlefield carrying the Nameless Blade and Loathing Halberd, and the Prison Rock players saw her title: [Nine Provinces Builder · Lu Xiu].

Lu Xiu activated immersion mode and fought Zane and Thunder as Sword Saint Isshin, overwhelming the two Prison Rock players with precise deflections and relentless blade-and-halberd attacks. Thunder and Zane struggled to believe that the terrifying opponent facing them was a Constructor.

• Lu Xiu activated immersion mode and adopted Sword Saint Isshin’s composure and fighting style, alarming the Kyushu players who recognized it.
• Lu Xiu charged Zane with the Loathing Halberd, then deflected Thunder’s lightning-fast sneak attack and swept Zane away.
• Lu Xiu deflected Thunder’s repeated axe strikes and counterattacked with a fluid combination of her blade and halberd.
• Wei Yidong and Cheng Xiu held off Prison Rock’s other players while they watched Lu Xiu fight, and Wei Yidong admitted she had beaten him repeatedly in the dungeon.
• Lu Xiu’s halberd gathered force and unleashed lethal wind blades, smashing Thunder into the ground and leaving Zane struggling behind fog shields.
• Thunder asked Zane who they were fighting, and Zane insisted Lu Xiu was a Constructor before Thunder shouted that he did not believe it.