Chapter Summaries

Shen Ru met Mo Yu at the Villa’s rooftop pool, where they fought and Mo Yu admitted his jealousy over the Puppeteer’s photograph. The chapter ended with Mo Yu fastening an anklet around Shen Ru’s ankle and declaring that he had taken Shen Ru’s silence as consent to being locked up.

• Shen Ru gave Gu Changming a glowing stone from a monster’s gallbladder and called him “Mommy Gu” before taking the elevator to the Top Floor.
• Shen Ru waited by the rooftop pool, where Mo Yu surfaced and grabbed his ankle.
• Mo Yu pulled Shen Ru into the pool, kissed him, and bit his lip and neck while Shen Ru fought back.
• Mo Yu said he alone should be allowed to see Shen Ru like that and that Shen Ru had to be his.
• Shen Ru and Mo Yu fought in the pool until Mo Yu pinned him against the wall.
• Mo Yu used black fog to fasten an anklet around Shen Ru’s ankle and said he had taken Shen Ru’s silence as permission to lock him up.

Mo Yu explained that his anger came from Shen Ru refusing to rely on him, then kissed him and took him back to the bedroom, determined to keep him close. When Shen Ru tried to leave the villa, the elevator became a door to a wedding banquet instance, where the guests called him the bride.

• Mo Yu told Shen Ru that he wanted him to rely on him and kissed him beside the pool.
• Mo Yu took Shen Ru to the bedroom and gave him a loose shirt, insisting he did not need pants because he was not going out.
• Shen Ru challenged Mo Yu’s confidence that he could keep him captive and later walked down the Long Corridor to escape.
• The elevator at the end of the Long Corridor transformed into a bloodstained wooden door marked with a double-happiness character.
• Shen Ru entered a wedding banquet courtyard filled with ghostly guests, and a child shouted that the bride had arrived.

Shen Ru was trapped in a haunted wedding room and forced by a letter to act out its writer’s memories until Mo Yu arrived and freed him. Shen Ru reconciled with Mo Yu by choosing to share the flames with him, but Mo Yu then confronted him about insulting the Puppeteer.

• After the ghosts vanished, Shen Ru entered a ruined courtyard’s lavish bridal chamber and was forced to put on a wedding gown.
• Shen Ru found a letter describing its writer’s forbidden love, and the letter took control of his body and made him wear Mo Yu’s clothes and lie on the wedding bed.
• Mo Yu entered in wedding robes, explained that the Puppeteer could imprison Shen Ru just as he had, and kissed him to tear the letter apart.
• Shen Ru pinned Mo Yu down, apologized, and knocked over a candle, letting the flames engulf them together.
• Mo Yu pulled Shen Ru into an embrace and asked why he had called the Puppeteer a stinking dog.

Shen Ru and Mo Yu entered a rock-climbing and bungee-jumping scenario, where Mo Yu revealed he planned to send a video to the Puppeteer. After Shen Ru cut their safety rope and they returned to Mo Yu’s bedroom, Mo Yu revealed that Shen Ru had one day to find the key to the Anklet trapping him in the villa.

• Shen Ru entered a stormy climbing scenario with five others and discovered Mo Yu was among them, pretending they had just met.
• Shen Ru helped Mo Yu prepare for bungee jumping, and Mo Yu caught his hand while acting like a new acquaintance.
• At the cliff’s edge, Mo Yu said he would send the experience to the Puppeteer, and Shen Ru cut their safety rope as they plunged.
• The scene shifted back to Mo Yu’s bedroom, where Mo Yu told Shen Ru the Anklet would drag him into endless instances if he left the villa.
• Mo Yu explained that the Anklet’s key was somewhere in the villa and gave Shen Ru one day to find it.

Shen Ru learned that Mo Yu had confined him to keep him out of the Puppeteer's new instance and demanded the key to his Anklet. Mo Yu unlocked it just as midnight struck, and they were pulled into the game together.

• Sheng Ziyao told Shen Ru that every player in the Infinite Channel would be forced into the new instance at midnight, except Shen Ru.
• Meng Yizhi tried to start a fire at the Dark Night Guild to get inside, while Sheng Ziyao directed him toward Gu Changming's room instead of helping him sneak in.
• Shen Ru searched the Villa for the Anklet's key, then confronted Mo Yu on the rooftop as a fire spread below.
• Mo Yu warned Shen Ru that the Puppeteer was targeting him, but Shen Ru threatened to keep killing himself until Mo Yu gave him the key.
• Mo Yu unlocked Shen Ru's Anklet, and at midnight they were transported into the Puppeteer's eternal life game.

Shen Ru and Mo Yu entered a seven-day apocalypse survival instance in a polluted wasteland, where they sought shelter from corrosive rain in an abandoned factory. After discovering armed NPCs inside, Shen Ru held back his attack to question them, but their rough treatment provoked him to threaten them.

• The system forced players into the large-scale Uncontrolled Evolution instance and described a wasteland where pollution caused humans to mutate.
• Shen Ru and Mo Yu crossed the wasteland and took shelter in an abandoned factory as corrosive rain began to fall.
• Mo Yu spotted hidden figures upstairs, and Shen Ru realized the people inside were likely NPCs rather than players.
• Armed NPCs ordered Shen Ru and Mo Yu to surrender and inspected them for contamination.
• Shen Ru restrained his talent and Dark Shadow, then threatened the man who grabbed his hair and demanded to know what he had been checking.

Shen Ru interrogated and killed a factory gang, then learned more about the mutations and used a walkie-talkie to contact nearby survivors. As Mo Yu fought off the mutants, Shen Ru agreed to exchange hostages with the suspicious group on the other end of the radio.

• Shen Ru forced the gang’s boss to explain that pale pupils marked reverse evolution and that drinking the blood of forward-evolved humans could slow mutation, then shot him when he tried to kill Shen Ru.
• Shen Ru had Mo Yu hang the gang members outside the factory, and an extreme heat wave rapidly decomposed their bodies while scorching insects on the ground.
• Mo Yu wielded a black sword to cut down a horde of reverse-evolved mutants attacking the factory.
• Shen Ru activated the gang’s walkie-talkie and contacted a nearby group, which told him the mutants feared fire despite tolerating extreme heat.
• Shen Ru agreed to provide a hostage for a face-to-face meeting, after the other group demanded that both sides exchange hostages.

Xie Chi led his group to an abandoned factory, where he met Shen Ru and Mo Yu, the pair who had requested help. Shen Ru revealed that they had killed the people at the factory and caused the earlier attack, then demanded information about the world in exchange for sharing the factory.

• Xie Chi decided his group had to abandon their damaged shelter and head for the nearest factory.
• Sheng Ziyao and Meng Yizhi learned that Xie Chi had undergone positive mutation as the group waited out the extreme weather.
• Xie Chi brought about twenty people to the factory, where Shen Ru and Mo Yu awaited them, and the two groups exchanged hostages.
• Shen Ru admitted that he and Mo Yu had killed the bodies hanging by the factory and caused the attack, then offered to share the factory for detailed information about the world.
• When an NPC swung at Shen Ru, Shen Ru caught the fist, crushed the man's fingers, and tossed him aside before asking Xie Chi to decide.

Shen Ru learned that reaching safer zones required offering human flesh, then set out to gather allies and storm the city. As the group followed a radio signal toward an illuminated house, a voice warned that one of them would die in five minutes.

• Xie Chi explained that survivors had to offer unmutated or forward-mutated human flesh to enter the safer B Zone and A Zone.
• Shen Ru borrowed Xie Chi’s vehicle to search for allies and announced that he intended to storm the city.
• Shen Ru chose Little Yellow and Little Pink to accompany him, and Mo Yu drove the group away from the Factory.
• Shen Ru discussed recruiting hungry survivors, taking supplies from those who refused, and forcing captives to endure starvation; Mo Yu agreed that the plan sounded fun.
• The group reached an eerie road and spotted a house with its light on, whereupon the radio warned that one of them would die in five minutes.

Shen Ru and the others fought their way into the house after a threatening voice over the walkie-talkie, where they discovered dead players transforming into stronger monsters. The chapter ended as a newly transformed monster lunged at Meng Yizhi and time appeared to stop.

• Mo Yu drove the group toward the house, where monsters burst through the door and attacked their car.
• Shen Ru, Mo Yu, Sheng Ziyao, and Meng Yizhi killed the monsters outside, and Shen Ru decided to enter the house.
• Sheng Ziyao broke down the door, and the group found a filthy first floor containing dead players and signs of recent habitation.
• A monster hidden in the floorboards attacked Shen Ru, while Dark Shadow struck down several more monsters on the stairs.
• The dead players' bodies rapidly transformed and rose as monsters, and Shen Ru warned Meng Yizhi to duck.
• The walkie-talkie crackled, and a monster lunged at Meng Yizhi as Mo Yu could not intervene and the clock's hands stopped.

Shen Ru and Mo Yu’s group discovered that electrical interference could revive the mutants, then left with several captured monsters tied behind their car. At a supermarket shelter, Wei Lanxing and Gu Changming learned that the approaching car was towing a pack of mutants, and their teammates feared the people inside.

• Shen Ru’s attack on a revived mutant was interrupted by electrical interference, and Mo Yu shot it before Shen Ru’s minor wound healed.
• Shen Ru ordered Sheng Ziyao and Meng Yizhi to capture and tie mutants behind the car while Mo Yu warned that he would protect Shen Ru if the wound became abnormal.
• Shen Ru and Mo Yu discussed the risk of infection, and Shen Ru held off kissing Mo Yu because the virus might spread through saliva.
• Sheng Ziyao and Meng Yizhi secured the captured mutants to the car, and the group drove away.
• At a supermarket shelter, Wei Lanxing and Gu Changming discussed dwindling food and sent teammates to scout; the scouts returned warning that a car was approaching with mutants tied behind it.

Shen Ru and his companions suspected that Xie Chi had undergone reverse evolution and that he was seeking forward-evolved humans. At the supermarket, Shen Ru’s group clashed with Wei Lanxing’s ambush, and both recognized each other.

• Wei Lanxing and Gu Changming planned to split up and ambush the approaching group on both floors of the supermarket.
• Shen Ru realized the walkie-talkie’s voices might have been imitations by mutants and proposed that Xie Chi had undergone reverse evolution.
• Shen Ru reasoned that Xie Chi might be encouraging them to find their teammates to increase the chance of locating forward-evolved humans whose blood could suppress reverse evolution.
• The walkie-talkie crackled as Shen Ru’s group reached the supermarket, where Wei Lanxing’s team had set an ambush.
• Shen Ru threw a blade at a sound, fought Wei Lanxing with her silver whip, and both recognized each other.

Shen Ru lured Wei Lanxing to the supermarket warehouse, where he forced her to help capture a mutant and keep his changing body secret. After his blood began restoring a mutant’s organs, he revealed that he was undergoing forward mutation and asked Wei Lanxing to fetch Mo Yu.

• Meng Yizhi rushed to Shen Ru after hearing Wei Lanxing’s voice, and the two groups confirmed that everyone was alive and uninfected.
• Gu Changming and Sheng Ziyao fought upstairs while Wei Lanxing noticed that Shen Ru’s eyes had grown lighter.
• Shen Ru persuaded Wei Lanxing to accompany him to the locked warehouse by promising to explain his changing eyes.
• Shen Ru smashed the warehouse lock, trapped the mutants inside, and threatened Wei Lanxing into helping him capture one alive.
• Shen Ru opened the captured mutant’s belly, and his blood visibly restored its rotting organs as his own body underwent painful changes.
• Shen Ru told Wei Lanxing he was undergoing forward mutation, asked her to keep it secret, and told her to get Mo Yu.

Shen Ru survived a brutal positive evolution that strengthened his body and revealed Xie Chi may have orchestrated his exposure to the aberrant virus. After leaving the warehouse, he used his new power to terrify the players who demanded to learn how to evolve.

• Shen Ru endured repeated death and revival as his body evolved, while Mo Yu held him and pleaded for him to respond.
• Shen Ru recovered, reassured Mo Yu, and concluded that only he could undergo positive evolution because of his body's unusual ability to repair itself.
• Shen Ru and Mo Yu suspected the Puppeteer had arranged for Xie Chi to expose Shen Ru to the aberrant virus, but agreed they still needed to verify Xie Chi's identity.
• At the supermarket, players accused Shen Ru of hiding how to trigger positive evolution and threatened to stop him from leaving.
• Shen Ru transformed several players into monsters with his rose-scented power, then made them burst into petals to warn the others against challenging him.

Shen Ru returned to the Factory after discovering his rose fragrance could slow reverse evolution, then baited Xie Chi into revealing that the Puppeteer sometimes controlled his body. When a larger, faster mutant horde arrived, Shen Ru and Mo Yu exposed Xie Chi as a mutant and killed him in front of everyone.

• Sheng Ziyao, Meng Yizhi, and Gu Changming reacted to Shen Ru’s actions, while Wei Lanxing agreed to join forces and return with the group to the Factory.
• Shen Ru discovered that his rose fragrance could be used against people and slow reverse evolution, and he planned to conceal his true abilities from Xie Chi.
• At the Factory, Shen Ru questioned Xie Chi about forward mutation and inferred from his reactions that the Puppeteer sometimes controlled him.
• A much larger and faster mutant horde arrived, and Shen Ru invited Xie Chi to fight beside him while pretending he had awakened only a healing ability.
• Shen Ru used his healing skill to distract the mutants as Mo Yu restrained Xie Chi, then Shen Ru cut him apart and killed him in public.

Shen Ru and the guild presidents debated whether to storm the city, with the group splitting over the decision. The assault was set for sunset, but the Dark Night Guild seemed more interested in playing cards than preparing for battle.

• Shen Ru confirmed the cycle of extreme weather and mutant attacks, while players gathered at the Factory as Qin Yu and Qi Ning arrived with their teams and NPCs.
• Qin Yu argued that the group could survive by gathering food, while Qi Ning questioned Xie Chi’s claim that A Zone was safer and Wei Lanxing urged them to investigate despite the danger of entering B Zone.
• Shen Ru proposed a show of hands, and Shen Ru, Mo Yu, and Wei Lanxing voted to storm the city while Qin Yu and Qi Ning voted to defend.
• The assault was scheduled for sunset, with attackers gathering on the Factory’s first two floors and defenders staying on the third and fourth.
• Wei Lanxing found Sheng Ziyao, Meng Yizhi, and their guild members playing cards instead of preparing, and asked if Shen Ru had hexed them.

Shen Ru and Mo Yu drew the mutants away from Surrounded City so the players could enter B Zone, but Shen Ru redirected the horde toward Qin Yu and Qi Ning’s guilds to punish them for staying behind. Shen Ru returned to the city wall exhausted, where Mo Yu caught him as the mutants were shut out.

• Shen Ru told Wei Lanxing to hide her guild members and wait for Mo Yu’s signal, while the other guilds declined his invitation to join the operation.
• As the guilds approached Surrounded City, Shen Ru used his rose fragrance to lure the mutants while Mo Yu scattered explosive Cards among them.
• Shen Ru led the horde toward the Abandoned Factory, forcing Qin Yu and Qi Ning’s guilds to fight or flee with the mutants on their heels.
• Shen Ru drew the mutants away from the survivors, then gave Qin Yu and Qi Ning five minutes to reach B Zone before he returned with the horde.
• Mo Yu caught the exhausted Shen Ru outside B Zone as the wall kept the mutants out, and Shen Ru asked whether he had been cool.

After the battle, the players entered B Zone and searched for shelter before sunrise. Qin Yu led them to a spacious, well-stocked underground shelter, but Shen Ru and Mo Yu suspected that Qin Yu and Qi Ning might be acting suspiciously, leaving the group wary despite their relief.

• Wei Lanxing praised Shen Ru's plan for keeping casualties low, and Meng Yizhi warned her that opposing Shen Ru always ended badly.
• In B Zone, Qin Yu suggested splitting up to find shelter, while Mo Yu directed Dark Night and Kanghe to search and let Qin Yu's and Qi Ning's teams wait.
• After they separated from the others, Mo Yu told Shen Ru that he suspected both Qin Yu and Qi Ning, and they agreed not to alert the group without stronger evidence.
• Mo Yu found a cave that could shelter everyone, but Qin Yu returned with the same discovery and shared it with the group.
• The players followed Qin Yu to a five-floor underground shelter stocked with food and medical supplies, and they began organizing rooms and supplies.

Shen Ru and Mo Yu anticipated trouble in B Zone, and the shelter erupted when NPCs began reverse-mutating. Shen Ru offered to heal the victims and bleed himself to lure out the traitor and expose the Puppeteer’s connection to them, ending by asking who would be first.

• Meng Yizhi and Sheng Ziyao wondered whether B Zone’s calm meant reverse-evolving Mutants were hiding nearby.
• Mo Yu kissed Shen Ru and warned that the Puppeteer would try to get Shen Ru alone, admitting he was jealous.
• On the fifth day, an NPC attacked a Player and began reverse-mutating, triggering chaos as other NPCs showed signs of mutation too.
• Players demanded that Shen Ru use his healing ability and blood to save them, while Sheng Ziyao and Meng Yizhi objected to them treating him like a resource.
• Shen Ru offered to help and provide blood, intending to appear weakened so he and Mo Yu could draw out the traitor and find a way to use them against the Puppeteer.
• Shen Ru cut his palm, let his blood’s rose scent fill the air, and asked who would be first.

As mutations accelerated, Shen Ru concluded that Qi Ning was serving the Puppeteer and confronted him at the entrance to A Zone. Qi Ning summoned an army of mutants to seal the passage, then entered A Zone and forced Shen Ru to choose between following him or returning to the base.

• Shen Ru treated the mutating people for two days, sharing diluted blood as Mo Yu worried over his exhaustion.
• Mo Yu told Shen Ru that Qi Ning had begun showing signs of mutation that day.
• Shen Ru caught Qi Ning trying to enter A Zone and reasoned that crossing into it accelerated mutation.
• Qi Ning fought Shen Ru while drawing on the Puppeteer's support, then tore off his arm and used its blood to summon tens of thousands of mutants.
• The mutants gathered around A Zone's walls and sealed the only passage, while Qi Ning entered and demanded Shen Ru follow him or return to the base.