Chapter Summaries

Xie De and Beiwei searched the untraceable sanatorium instance for Huang Zhuowang, while 730 warned that the instance had no discoverable origin or clear objective. Elsewhere, Ying Lin confronted Asmodeus and died after exposing the Laboratory’s alliance with demons, leaving Xi Yijiu to relay her warning.

• Beiwei found a notebook describing the deaths of Jialike and Jialina and a doctor’s failed surgery, while Xie De questioned 455’s silence around 730.
• Xi Yijiu joined Xie De and Beiwei, and 730 warned Xie De not to follow the instance’s chaotic broadcast because its origin could no longer be traced.
• Xie De decided to go to the Recreation Room, but a piercing scream sounded from below as the group left.
• Ying Lin listened to Mena and Orion through the Compass and recognized that Asmodeus had appeared, then pushed Wei Yunmo into hiding as the demon approached.
• Ying Lin denounced the Laboratory’s deal with demons, declared her loyalty to the Illuminati, and was killed by Jialike under Asmodeus’s influence.
• Ying Lin’s loudspeaker relayed a scream carrying her message, and Xi Yijiu told Xie De that Asmodeus was present and the Laboratory had betrayed them.

Xie De realized the Laboratory was colluding with Hell and the Main God System, and urged 730 to flee the instance while he tried to protect Wei Yanchi. Orion killed Xi Yijiu, and Xie De sent Beiwei to find Wei Yanchi as he unleashed his ghosts; elsewhere, Juelu's group encountered Silas.

• 455 and 730 suspected that the Laboratory had joined forces with Hell and a Main God System to capture Huang Zhuowang and target Xie De.
• Xie De warned that Xu Gong could cripple the instance and that Wei Yanchi was in danger, then persuaded 730 to leave and investigate Hell's infiltration.
• Orion shot Xi Yijiu dead, and Xie De pulled Beiwei to safety and told her to find Wei Yanchi and have him release the dragon.
• Xie De expanded his Domain and sent countless ghosts pouring through the building as Beiwei ran down the stairs.
• Juelu understood fragments of Ying Lin's scream about the Laboratory's betrayal but stayed silent as she, Su Fangmu, and Haxibo encountered Silas.

Yue Xiamo and the others gathered at a cemetery where an out-of-control instance was about to open, while Xu Gong left the Instance Faction and returned to the Laboratory. Inside the instance, the Laboratory’s betrayal left the teams scattered as Xie De confronted Orion.

• Yue Xiamo and the Martial Arts Hall leaders waited at the cemetery as the authorities prepared for an instance opening that could pull anyone inside.
• Xu Gong’s mother pressured her to return to the Laboratory, and Xu Gong resigned from the Instance Faction after recommending Liu Jiarui to Lin Darong’s team.
• The cemetery’s offerings blew away as 730 departed and a gray building appeared, signaling that the instance had opened.
• Zuo Shenghang told Beiwei that Wei Yanchi had gone missing and Lü Yating was fighting Laboratory agents; he sent Beiwei to seek help from the Plague Doctor and returned to assist Lü Yating.
• Orion used a shield to repel the ghosts around Xie De, and Xie De attacked him with a powerful electric current as Orion welcomed their fight.

Xie De defeated Orion and demanded to know where Huang Zhuowang was, but Asmodeus arrived and offered the information in exchange for Orion. Xie De escaped upstairs while Jialina attacked Asmodeus, who vanished in flames.

• Xie De overpowered Orion, pinned him by the throat, and asked where Huang Zhuowang was.
• Asmodeus arrived with Jialike, revealed that Huang Zhuowang was in Top-Floor Room 402, and tried to bargain for Orion.
• Asmodeus confronted Xie De about his ties to the Instances and his foreign system, while Xie De pretended to welcome his interest.
• Xie De used the Piano music to draw Jialina to the stairway, where she recognized Jialike and attacked Asmodeus for seducing her sister.
• Orion and Xie De fled as Jialina fought Asmodeus, who accused her of causing the sisters to die in one body before disappearing in flames.

Xie De reasoned that the sisters Jialike and Jialina’s tragic love had shaped the Instance, then left room 402 after Huang Zhuowang screamed and he suspected Wei Yanchi was in danger. In the lobby, Juelu shot and subdued Silas, then decided to leave the Instance with Beiwei and two Club members to investigate the rituals behind Asmodeus’s appearance.

• Xie De deduced that the Main God System feared this world’s native powers and speculated that Heaven might provide allies against Asmodeus.
• Xie De theorized that Jialike and Jialina’s divided identities and tragic deaths had formed the Love Triangle Instance.
• Huang Zhuowang screamed from room 402, and Xie De left without opening the door because he suspected Wei Yanchi was in danger.
• Beiwei met Juelu during a gunfight, and Juelu explained that she had betrayed the Laboratory after it mishandled a three-month-old corpse.
• Juelu drew Tarot Cards warning of danger and a breakup, then shot Silas when he refused to kill her and carried him away.
• Juelu told Beiwei she planned to investigate sacrificial and summoning rituals in the real world, and recruited Beiwei and two Club members to go with her.

Xie De discovered that Anbers and Wei Yunmo had escaped the instance into the real world, where Hell and the Laboratory threatened to unleash chaos. He reunited with Huang Zhuowang after Room 402 spat him out, but Wei Yanchi vanished back inside it.

• Xie De learned from Little House Centipede that Anbers had rescued Wei Yunmo from a demon and taken him outside the instance.
• Xie De realized the Laboratory and Hell were releasing NPCs into reality to destabilize 730 and cause mass deaths.
• Xie De found Room 402 in the corridor, and Wei Yanchi emerged from its fiery interior before a force pulled him back inside.
• Huang Zhuowang clung to Xie De and described being abducted, taken to Hell, and rescued by Wei Yanchi.

In Hell, Asmodeus taunted Wei Yanchi with visions of Xie De and the factions turning against him, hoping to exploit his love as a weakness. Wei Yanchi recognized the visions as illusions but remained determined to explore Hell and save Xie De.

• Asmodeus mocked Wei Yanchi and threatened to kill Xie De because Wei Yanchi loved him.
• Asmodeus cast dust over Wei Yanchi, showing him an illusion of the Instance spilling into reality and factions confronting Xie De.
• In the vision, Xie De shot an S-rank player who accused him of allying with a Demon, then left as the factions blamed the Instance.
• The Giant Dragon attacked Asmodeus, and Wei Yanchi insisted the images were fake when the illusion shattered.
• The Giant Dragon urged Wei Yanchi to stop exploring Hell, but Wei Yanchi refused, while the Ghost Bride and the Rich Landowner questioned whether Xie De needed him.

As the groups entered the building, Lü Yating and Zuo Shenghang tried to find Mr. 39 while the Laboratory, Club, and Martial Arts Hall pursued their own agendas. Xie De appeared, used a Medical Card to make Lü Yating vanish, and asked the Martial Arts Hall to work with him.

• The building broadcast ordered the patients to dinner as Nurse Puppets roamed the halls, and Zuo Shenghang and Lü Yating set out to find Mr. 39 and escape the instance.
• Su Fangmu and Haxibo attempted to snipe Dr. Xu, but her equipment deflected the bullet, forcing the Club agents to flee.
• Lü Yating and Zuo Shenghang encountered Zhang Ninde and the Martial Arts Hall, and Zuo Shenghang accused the Laboratory of betraying humanity and possibly killing Wei Yanchi.
• Nurse Puppets approached the group, but Xie De appeared and made them retreat by tossing something aside.
• Xie De gave Lü Yating a Medical Card and snapped it, causing her to vanish, then asked the Martial Arts Hall to work with him.

During a citywide lockdown, Anbers wandered into a hospital while Wei Yunmo warned the authorities about the S-Rank NPC and the threat posed by the Laboratory and Hell. The authorities learned that only Mr. 39 might persuade Anbers to return to the instance, and Wei Yunmo urged them to send help inside.

• The authorities sealed off the Cemetery area and nearby cities, while Anbers and Wei Yunmo walked through the deserted streets beneath a gathering swarm of crows.
• Anbers entered First People's Hospital to meet its doctors, and Wei Yunmo knocked an orderly unconscious before the orderly could scream.
• Anbers frightened a doctor in the intensive care unit, then disconnected an unconscious patient's oxygen and brought out his tools.
• Wei Yunmo met the authorities' representative outside and explained that Anbers was an S-Rank NPC who had been lured into the Real World through cooperation between the Laboratory and Hell.
• The authorities' researchers identified Anbers as a dangerous former Laboratory research subject, and Wei Yunmo said they needed to enter the instance and find Mr. 39 to persuade Anbers to return.

As S-Rank NPCs escaped into the Real World, factions gathered at the Martial Arts Hall and learned from Zhang Mingqi that the Laboratory had betrayed them. Daoist Liu agreed to cooperate with Mr. 39 on the condition that Wei Yanchi be rescued, while Xie De sought Wei Jianye’s help to save him.

• Representatives of factions outside the Laboratory, the Club, and the Illuminati argued at the Martial Arts Hall over whether to obey the United Nations’ laws or act on their own.
• Daoist Liu took a call from Zhang Mingqi, who reported that Nurse Puppets had entered the Real World and were forcing people to eat.
• Zhang Mingqi told Daoist Liu that Wei Yanchi was trapped in Hell and Mr. 39 wanted to join forces against the Laboratory and Hell.
• Daoist Liu agreed to cooperate with Mr. 39, making Wei Yanchi’s rescue the first condition.
• Xie De visited Wei Jianye at a temple and asked him to save Wei Yanchi.

Xie De sent Wei Jianye into Hell with an angel’s eyes to rescue Wei Yanchi, while the Laboratory escalated its campaign against 730 and the instances. The chapter ended with Emma showing Xie De that soldiers and armored vehicles had surrounded a building as puppet nurses carried in a corpse.

• Xie De explained that Wei Yanchi had been sent to Hell and gave Wei Jianye angel’s eyes to bring him back.
• Wei Jianye agreed to rescue Wei Yanchi, then disappeared when 730 dismantled the temple instance.
• Xie De told 455 that he could not safely enter Hell because he was alive, while the Laboratory publicly announced plans to overthrow 730 and merge the Surface and Underworld.
• 730 listed demon-origin instances and said it needed more cooperation to counter the Laboratory’s actions.
• Emma sent Xie De a video showing soldiers and armored vehicles surrounding a building as puppet nurses carried a corpse inside.

Wei Jianye searched Hell for Asmodeus and learned that Wei Yanchi was near a mysterious Giant Dragon. He persuaded Asmodeus to take him there, where he saw the dragon and confirmed Wei Yanchi had not been subjected to Asmodeus’s depravity.

• Wei Jianye asked a resident and Belial about Asmodeus, and Belial told him they were involved in a project connected to the Real World.
• A dragon’s cry and golden light drew Wei Jianye’s attention; 730 told him Wei Yanchi was in that direction and warned that Asmodeus was behind him.
• Asmodeus arrived and argued intimately with Belial, while Wei Jianye hurried toward the dragon’s light.
• Asmodeus caught up in his carriage and threatened to judge Wei Jianye’s sinful soul, but Wei Jianye offered to help deal with the dragon.
• Asmodeus accepted Wei Jianye’s offer and took him to the Giant Dragon, where Wei Jianye saw mountains of bones and felt relieved that Wei Yanchi had retained his decency.

Wei Yanchi and Wei Jianye became trapped in Asmodeus’s Skeleton Purgatory, where illusions mixed with real people. Wei Yanchi found a way to shatter the illusions and charged toward Asmodeus’s goat head, while Wei Jianye and the others fled and encountered Xie De.

• Wei Yanchi fought through an illusion of pale cemetery ghosts and recognized that Wei Jianye was real.
• Wei Jianye learned from the Rich Landowner that Wei Yanchi’s Wei Family bloodline allowed him to enter Hell, and he warned Wei Yanchi to avoid further conflicts.
• 730 warned Wei Jianye not to use the Angel’s Eye in Asmodeus’s strongest territory and advised him to seek a weak boundary.
• Wei Yanchi used another dragon’s cry to shatter the illusions, then charged toward Asmodeus’s goat head to escape Skeleton Purgatory.
• The Rich Landowner, the Ghost Bride, and Wei Jianye fled Skeleton Purgatory and found Xie De standing on the wasteland.

Juelu, Beiwei, and Silas entered locked-down F Country to seek the Illuminati’s help with the Mad Romance invasion. Elder Terry contacted Xie De and invited him to discuss a prophecy that faith could save the trapped and besieged.

• Juelu drove through F Country’s lockdown with a government permit, accompanied by Beiwei and Silas.
• At the cathedral, Juelu met Elder Terry and asked for the Illuminati’s help.
• Elder Terry said he had expected Juelu and wanted to speak with the person who had authority over the instances.
• Elder Terry called Xie De, told him that the prophecy said faith brought salvation, and invited him to F Country.

Xie De coordinated with Hua Country officials on confronting the Laboratory, then traveled to F Country with Emma and three former teammates to investigate the Instance incursion and the Illuminati’s warning. Meanwhile, Xu Gong returned to the Laboratory, and the government tried to manage Anbers in Magic City.

• Xie De discussed the Laboratory, Hell, and shutting down the Instances with officials Qi Zongyu and Ling Huanle, while 730 handled the diplomatic questions.
• Xie De learned that Xu Gong had resigned and gone to the Laboratory, then brought Li Yang, Lin Darong, and the third member of their trio with him to F Country.
• Xie De and Emma boarded a government-arranged private plane for F Country, while Zuo Shenghang and Huang Zhuowang stayed behind to follow 730’s instructions.
• In Magic City, Anbers killed a patient during treatment, and Wei Yunmo brewed tea while medical experts tried to keep Anbers occupied.
• On the plane, 455 reassured Xie De that information about Magic City was sealed and said it had hired workers to plow his family’s fields.

Xie De learned that the unusual Romance instance represented a madman’s nihilistic inner world, then heard the grand elder’s plea for him to enter Hell and investigate its connection to the Laboratory. Convinced that 730 was weakening and the instances’ disappearance could doom them, Xie De prepared to enter Hell by bringing himself to the brink of death.

• Xie De entered F Country with his team, and 455 explained that the Romance instance devoured reality faster as more people entered it.
• Juelu asked the Illuminati grand elder about the Laboratory and how to avert the destruction she had foreseen, but he answered that salvation came through faith.
• The grand elder asked Xie De to go to Hell, gave him monk’s robes, and said the disguise might help him there; Xie De declined at first, noting that he had already sent an S-rank NPC.
• Xie De stayed behind in the Catacombs, changed into the robes, and told 455 that he needed to learn how the Laboratory and Hell were working together because 730 was growing weaker.
• Xie De returned to his room, injected himself with Anbers’s Painkiller, and slashed his wrist so that his near-death soul would enter Hell.

Xie De searched Hell for 730 and 455, but after finding that the city’s technology did not work, he took a car from a little boy named Beelzebub. Beelzebub asked Xie De to be his date for Leviathan’s party, and the chapter ended with Beelzebub’s attendant Baal claiming to have gotten rid of Xie De’s existing dance partner, Belial.

• 455 told Xie De that 730 and 730's shared location placed them in another city, while the city’s electronic devices and transportation were useless.
• Xie De openly took a parked car and found Beelzebub, a little boy who said he was over thirty thousand years old and asked Xie De to be his date for Leviathan’s party.
• Xie De noticed Belial outside the café and told Beelzebub that Belial was already his dance partner to test Beelzebub’s identity.
• Beelzebub asked his attendant to get rid of Belial, then told Xie De he was happy that Xie De no longer had a partner.
• The attendant introduced himself as Baal, Beelzebub’s trusted subordinate.

Xie De questioned Beelzebub about demons, the Laboratory, and Asmodeus while driving to the red wilderness, then found Wei Jianye, the Ghost Bride, and the Rich Landowner. Wei Yanchi arrived pursued by Asmodeus, and Xie De drove everyone away with Beelzebub aboard, leaving Asmodeus behind.

• Beelzebub insisted that Xie De explain his sins, and Xie De tested what the demon knew about systems, the Laboratory, instances, and Asmodeus.
• Xie De invented a story about being a corrupt priest who had killed himself, and Beelzebub accepted the bribery confession as convincing.
• Xie De followed the map to the red wilderness, where he found Wei Jianye, the Ghost Bride, and the Rich Landowner but could not see Wei Yanchi at first.
• Wei Yanchi arrived covered in soot and blood, pursued by Asmodeus, and Xie De let him and Wei Jianye climb into the car.
• Xie De drove away with Beelzebub, Wei Yanchi, and Wei Jianye, while Beelzebub called out to Asmodeus and reminded him about Leviathan's party.

Xie De and Wei Yanchi investigated Hell after leaving Asmodeus’s lair, and Wei Yanchi shared his theory that factions in the Real World were acting out of fear of alien systems. They arranged clothes for Wei Yanchi and discovered that the shopkeeper Sidi had a connection to Asmodeus.

• Baal carried the sleeping Beelzebub back to the café while Xie De decided to investigate Hell instead of immediately using the angel eyeballs to leave.
• Xie De and Wei Yanchi entered a clothing shop, where Xie De ordered clothes for Wei Yanchi and asked what he had learned in Asmodeus’s lair.
• Wei Yanchi explained that the Laboratory and other organizations contained a faction colluding with Hell, and he suspected their actions stemmed from fear of alien civilizations and the Main God System.
• Xie De revealed that 455 was connected to the Main God System, surprising Wei Yanchi and making 455 protest.
• Xie De arranged for the shopkeeper to deliver Wei Yanchi’s clothes to another city by the next day, mentioning that Asmodeus would be going there.
• After they left, Xie De identified the shopkeeper as Sidi and explained that the shop’s name linked her to Asmodeus.

Xie De shared a drink with Wei Yanchi in a hotel room in Hell, where Wei Yanchi told tragic myths and confessed his love. The chapter ended with Xie De acknowledging that he knew how Wei Yanchi felt.

• Xie De opened his hotel-room door to Wei Yanchi, who had cleaned up and brought liquor and mixers from the café.
• Wei Yanchi mixed drinks for them, and Xie De tried his drink while teasing him about being unable to handle the liquor.
• Wei Yanchi told Xie De the story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, then said he would not let his own story end in tragedy.
• Wei Yanchi held Xie De’s hand and compared him to Achilles’ heel, but Xie De laughed at the tragic myths he kept choosing.
• Wei Yanchi embraced Xie De on the sofa and confessed that he loved him, and Xie De said he knew.