Chapter Summaries

After Tide Cry brought anomalies and monsters to the world, starving Chen Mo struggled to keep pace with a southbound convoy. After Brother Dao knocked him down and insulted him, Old Yang helped him up and gave him a moldy biscuit, leaving Chen Mo determined to survive and repay the kindness.

• Tide Cry devastated the world, and Chen Mo fled his office building with only a shared yellow bicycle.
• While riding at the rear of a southbound convoy, Chen Mo was clipped by Brother Dao's off-road vehicle and fell.
• Brother Dao berated Chen Mo, then drove off as the convoy continued without helping him.
• Old Yang helped Chen Mo stand and gave him a small moldy biscuit.
• Chen Mo ate the biscuit, remembered Old Yang's kindness, and got back on his bicycle to keep going.

Chen Mo and the convoy reached Sunward Village after days without supplies, and Lin Lu ordered them to rest and search the village while warning everyone away from the supermarket. When Big Niu and the crowd rushed in, Chen Mo raced ahead on his bicycle to find supplies.

• Lin Lu stopped the convoy at a fork, chose a road, and led everyone toward Sunward Village.
• The convoy reached the village, where hungry survivors waited for Lin Lu's instructions.
• Xiao Liu announced a three-hour rest and supply search, warning everyone to avoid the supermarket at the village entrance.
• Big Niu charged into the village, prompting the crowd to follow him.
• Chen Mo pedaled ahead of the others, while people shouted insults after him.

Chen Mo encountered a sinister presence at the Sunny Village Convenience Store, saw through its kindly old-woman act, and escaped on his bicycle. He then raced into Sunward Village to loot before others took everything and spotted a wealthy-looking courtyard compound.

• Chen Mo stopped outside the Sunny Village Convenience Store and sensed something watching him from the darkness inside.
• The creature lured Chen Mo with promises of food, but he asked whether it had a son and mocked it before pedaling away.
• The creature cursed Chen Mo, and he felt a sharp pain in his brain but kept riding without looking back.
• Chen Mo reached the village, where looters were already breaking in and rummaging through homes.
• Chen Mo turned down a narrow path and spotted a standalone courtyard that looked like a wealthy landlord's home.

Chen Mo scavenged potatoes and rice from a village house, stole the keys to an old blue Agricultural Dump Truck, and joined the convoy with his haul. As he considered the dangers posed by other survivors, screams from the village announced that a horror was pursuing Big Niu and the others.

• Chen Mo entered a quiet courtyard house and found a corpse with empty eye sockets beside bloody scratch marks.
• Chen Mo searched the kitchen and found sprouted potatoes and a little rice, which he packed with two metal bowls.
• Chen Mo spotted truck keys on the corpse, found a blue Agricultural Dump Truck with half a tank of fuel, and took the keys after the corpse stayed still.
• Chen Mo loaded his bicycle and supplies into the truck and drove to the village entrance, where scavengers questioned him about his haul.
• Chen Mo rejected Zhang Nan when she asked to rest in his truck and worried that Brother Dao's gang might target his supplies.
• Screams erupted from the village as Big Niu, carrying two sacks, ran toward the convoy and shouted for everyone to flee.

Big Niu tricked a predatory old woman at the Sunny Village Convenience Store into filling his sacks, then slapped her and escaped with the supplies. The enraged old woman chased him out into the sunlight as he warned his companions to run.

• Big Niu looted houses in Sunward Village and discovered the Sunny Village Convenience Store.
• The old woman tried to lure Big Niu into the dark store by promising him food and supplies.
• Big Niu stayed in the sunlight and waited until the old woman dragged two stuffed sacks to the doorway.
• When Big Niu tried to pull the sacks outside, the old woman clawed his arm and tried to drag him inside.
• Big Niu slapped the old woman, seized both sacks, and ran from the village while shouting that she was coming.

An unleashed old woman pursued the fleeing survivors from Sunward Village, forcing Chen Mo and the convoy to retreat. After the black wind vanished, Lin Lu confronted Big Niu for risking everyone’s lives to scavenge food.

• The old woman emerged in a mass of black wind and killed Li Gang after he looked at her eyes.
• Chen Mo recognized the danger and backed away, while Lin Lu warned everyone to flee Sunward Village.
• Zhang Nan begged Chen Mo to take her, but he drove off without letting her into his Dump Truck.
• The convoy escaped as Big Niu ran behind it with burlap sacks, transformed with horns; the black wind disappeared hundreds of meters from the village.
• Lin Lu grabbed Big Niu by the collar and rebuked him for risking the convoy to gather potatoes.

Chen Mo secured his supplies and a blade at the convoy’s camp, where he stayed wary of the people around him. After he repaid Old Yang with potatoes and settled into his truck, Zhang Nan tried to get Li Dahai to steal from him, but Dahai beat her instead.

• Chen Mo hid his supplies and recognized Brother Dao’s nod as a sign that he had noticed the goods in the dump truck.
• Xiao Liu announced that the convoy would camp for the night, and Chen Mo cooked potatoes by his truck while using his Mountain-Cleaving Blade to deter covetous onlookers.
• Chen Mo gave Old Yang potatoes to repay his earlier kindness, then locked himself inside the truck to rest.
• Zhang Nan urged Li Dahai to steal Chen Mo’s rice and potatoes and avenge her, but Dahai refused because Chen Mo had a blade.
• Li Dahai slapped Zhang Nan and threatened to kill her if she caused him trouble, while a woman in Brother Dao’s tent complained about the commotion.

Chen Mo and Old Yang were left at the rear of the convoy as they fled across Horseshoe Gully No-Man's Land from a third-tier Spectral Bear. After Old Yang repaired Lin Lu's Command Vehicle, he gave Chen Mo gasoline as payment for the ride and joined the lead group, while the convoy pressed on toward Apricot Blossom Town.

• Old Yang warned Chen Mo that a third-tier Spectral Bear was pursuing the convoy, so they followed Lin Lu into Horseshoe Gully No-Man's Land.
• At dawn, Lin Lu's faster vehicles pulled ahead, leaving Chen Mo and Old Yang at the rear as the people on foot and bicycles disappeared.
• Chen Mo passed two stranded convoy members without stopping, while Old Yang struggled to keep pace on his modified bicycle.
• When Lin Lu's Command Vehicle broke down, Old Yang quickly repaired its engine with tools from Xiao Liu.
• Old Yang gave Chen Mo a gasoline can as payment for the ride, then boarded the Command Vehicle as the convoy set off at full speed toward Apricot Blossom Town.

Lin Lu negotiated a merger with Su Qian’s convoy at an abandoned gas station, where Chen Mo learned their group would gain new ordinary members to serve as its “tail.” The combined convoy gathered under Lin Lu and Su Qian’s leadership, and Chen Mo noticed that Xiao Ya’s doll seemed to move on its own.

• Chen Mo’s convoy confronted a much larger group at a gas station, but Lin Lu went alone to speak with the woman who led them.
• Lin Lu and the woman, Su Qian, negotiated for about ten minutes, then allowed Chen Mo’s group to refuel.
• Old Yang told Chen Mo that the other convoy had two Transcendents: Su Qian, a sequence one Healer, and a mysterious girl named Xiao Ya.
• Old Yang explained that the groups had merged, with Lin Lu as captain and Su Qian as deputy, because Su Qian needed Lin Lu’s ability to sense anomalies.
• Lin Lu and Su Qian called everyone to assemble, and Chen Mo saw Xiao Ya’s Barbie Doll turn its head and roll its glass eyes at him.

After the convoy merged into Spark, Chen Mo learned it would soon face a dangerous supply run through Wugui Village. Despite his reluctance, he agreed to enter the village and took a prototype weapon from Old Yang before driving toward the entrance.

• Lin Lu, Su Qian, and Xiao Liu announced Spark’s leadership, bus arrangements, and rules, while Xiao Ya was revealed as a Transcendent.
• The convoy set out for Wugui Village, where Lin Lu sensed an eerie Tide Cry response and Big Niu organized a voluntary supply operation.
• Old Yang warned Chen Mo that supplies would be scarce farther north, persuading him to join the Wugui Village expedition.
• Old Yang gave Chen Mo a prototype attachment that coated his Mountain-Cleaving Blade in blue energy, in exchange for its return, a report, and forty percent of any supplies.
• Chen Mo drove toward Wugui Village’s entrance, where several vehicles and motorcycles had gathered.

Chen Mo entered Wugui Village to scavenge supplies, but a kindly old woman’s house trapped him in an illusion that made strangers seem like his family. After realizing Grandma was a horror and pretending to remain her grandson, he heard her announce where the plump and skinny children would sleep.

• Big Niu and the other scavengers drove into Wugui Village, and Chen Mo left them at the convenience store to search a farmhouse.
• Chen Mo entered the spotless house and met an old woman who called herself his Grandma; she and the arriving scavengers appeared in his mind as family.
• At dinner, Chen Mo’s memory of being an orphan broke through the illusion, so he pretended to feel sick and stepped into the courtyard.
• Chen Mo discovered the courtyard gate was locked and its walls were too tall to escape, while Hu Yaya checked on him.
• After about an hour, Grandma gathered the apparent grandchildren and said the plump ones would sleep beside her while the skinny ones slept beside the wall.

Chen Mo spent the night in Grandma’s house, where he heard her crunching something beside the green-haired boy and realized the house’s time was false. After surviving breakfast, he secretly approached Grandma’s locked room during her nap and saw something unforgettable through the door crack.

• Chen Mo lay awake as Grandma crunched through the night, then heard her tell a street punk she was eating jujubes and offer him a place beside her the next night.
• In the morning, Chen Mo found Grandma and the green-haired boy gone, while Grandma claimed the boy had gone to his aunt’s house.
• Chen Mo noticed the wall clock showed 17:35 despite the morning sunlight and realized the time was fake.
• Grandma assigned Chen Mo and his younger brothers to chop wood and Hu Yaya to sweep, then locked herself inside the main house for a nap.
• After Yellow-Hair and Redhead fell asleep in the woodshed, Chen Mo crept to the locked room and peered through a crack in the door.

Chen Mo discovered that the creature in Grandma’s room had eaten her and was sewing her skin into a disguise, then awakened Hu Yaya and told her what he knew. Hu Yaya agreed to work with him, and she asked whether he knew the local legend of the “Hairy Savage.”

• Chen Mo saw a black-haired hand sewing what appeared to be Grandma’s human skin and hurried away after nearly being discovered.
• Hu Yaya approached Chen Mo, and he used the pain of recovering memories to help her remember her life and find her Mercedes keys.
• Chen Mo told Hu Yaya about the creature, the previous night, and the deadly rule of sleeping beside Grandma.
• Hu Yaya wanted to wake Redhead and Greenhead, but Chen Mo warned that everyone knowing the danger would turn tonight into a fight over who had to sleep beside Grandma.
• Hu Yaya accepted that she had to cooperate with Chen Mo and asked whether he had heard the local legend of the “Hairy Savage.”

Chen Mo and Hu Yaya identified clues to Grandmother’s Hairy Savage weaknesses while pretending not to suspect her, and Yellow-Hair vanished overnight. With Grandmother ordering Chen Mo to wash away his sweat and Hu Yaya realizing she would likely be targeted next, she demanded they act that day, and Chen Mo agreed.

• Hu Yaya told Chen Mo that Hairy Savages feared loud noises, red things, and impure yang, and they agreed to keep pretending they knew nothing.
• At dinner, Chen Mo noticed stitches on Grandmother’s neck and realized the village’s silence, its lack of color, and her fear of his sweat were clues to her weaknesses.
• Grandmother assigned Redhead and Hu Yaya places beside her for the night, and Yellow-Hair disappeared by morning.
• Grandmother told Chen Mo to wash his clothes and himself, leading Hu Yaya to conclude that she would be chosen to sleep beside Grandmother that night.
• Hu Yaya threatened to scream unless they acted immediately, and Chen Mo agreed.

Chen Mo and Hu Yaya used red cloth and Redhead’s sweat to weaken Grandma, then lured her into the courtyard and destroyed the woodshed to expose her. Grandma’s disguise peeled away, revealing a black-furred creature that recognized the techniques Chen Mo used.

• Chen Mo searched the woodshed for a loud-burning trap and had Hu Yaya keep Redhead busy while he collected his sweat.
• Hu Yaya found a red undergarment, and Chen Mo tore it into strips for them to wear around their wrists.
• Chen Mo set fire to the woodshed, then joined Grandma and the others for a tense meal while Hu Yaya drew Grandma outside.
• Chen Mo retrieved the Mountain-Cleaving Blade as Hu Yaya screamed and the burning woodshed collapsed, leaving Grandma writhing in the courtyard.
• Chen Mo threw Redhead’s sweat onto Grandma, and her human skin peeled back to reveal glossy black fur.
• The creature demanded to know where Chen Mo had learned the techniques he used.

Chen Mo, Hu Yaya, and Big Niu fought the injured Hairy Savage, but an unseen creature stole its corpse as they tried to salvage it. The group escaped the village with a claw, while a black-and-white donkey revealed itself as the one that had taken the body and showed interest in Chen Mo.

• The Hairy Savage transformed and offered to spare Chen Mo and Hu Yaya, but Chen Mo mocked it, and it tore off Redhead's arm when he tried to flee.
• Chen Mo and Hu Yaya held their ground until Big Niu arrived, transformed, and charged the Hairy Savage.
• While Big Niu pinned the wounded Hairy Savage, Chen Mo began cutting into it to collect valuable materials, and Hu Yaya loaded supplies into the vehicles.
• A black-and-white blur knocked Chen Mo off balance and took the Hairy Savage's corpse, leaving only a claw in his hand.
• Big Niu warned that the village's other creatures were emerging, and he and Chen Mo escaped in the dump truck.
• A black-and-white donkey licked up the remains, revealed that it had taken the Hairy Savage, and said it wanted to meet Chen Mo again.

Chen Mo returned to camp with supplies and a valuable anomaly claw, secretly keeping part of it while negotiating with Old Yang. As A Ye threatened Hu Yaya over her rice, Chen Mo noticed Li Shiqi’s suspicious behavior.

• Chen Mo secretly cut off one of the Hairy Savage’s fingers and hid it in the dump truck, keeping the claw from the others.
• Chen Mo divided his supplies and offered Old Yang an extra share in exchange for the Charging Enchantment Device, but Old Yang refused to trade it.
• Old Yang claimed Chen Mo as one of his own, forcing A Ye to back away from demanding a protection fee from him.
• A Ye threatened Hu Yaya for a share of her rice, while Li Shiqi stayed back and cried.
• Li Shiqi approached Hu Yaya after A Ye left, and Chen Mo remarked that her best friend seemed suspicious.

Chen Mo encountered a talking donkey named Red Hare, who claimed to be a level-two Variant and offered to teach him how to awaken a Sequence. Red Hare tempted Chen Mo with the chance to gain power and save Hu Yaya, leaving Chen Mo wondering how the donkey could evade Lin Lu’s perception.

• Chen Mo discovered a donkey lounging in the dump truck and reached for the Mountain-Cleaving Blade, but the donkey warned him that Lin Lu’s ability could not affect it.
• The donkey offered to teach Chen Mo how to awaken a Sequence if Chen Mo called it Daddy, then revealed it had eaten the Hairy Savage’s corpse.
• Red Hare pointed out that Li Shiqi was urging Hu Yaya to pay Brother Dao protection money and tempted Chen Mo with the chance to save Hu Yaya and gain power.
• The donkey produced a soil-covered potato from inside its boxer shorts and identified itself as the level-two Variant Red Hare.
• Chen Mo wondered how Red Hare could block Lin Lu’s perception despite being a level-two Variant.

Chen Mo negotiated with Red Hare, a donkey-shaped second-tier variant being hunted by the Spectral Bear, and agreed to help it hide in the convoy in exchange for protection and a chance to become a Transcendent. The deal began when Big Niu discovered the donkey beside Chen Mo’s truck and someone behind him identified it plainly as a donkey.

• Red Hare revealed that the Spectral Bear was hunting him and asked Chen Mo to help him enter the convoy and hide his aura.
• Chen Mo refused Red Hare’s offer at first, then stood his ground until Red Hare agreed to his terms.
• Chen Mo required Red Hare to avoid harming convoy members, save him once if his life was in danger, and help him become a Transcendent during his next scavenging trip.
• Red Hare dismissed the Hairy Savage’s severed finger as awakening material but suggested taking it to the convoy’s scrap repairman to make an eerie item.
• When someone approached, Red Hare disguised himself as an ordinary donkey and told Chen Mo to claim he had picked up a horse.
• Big Niu found Chen Mo beside the donkey, and a cold voice behind him said it was clearly a donkey.

Chen Mo traded the Hairy Savage’s claw for a free modification to his dump truck, securing his place in the convoy. After Old Yang sealed the truck bed into a metal compartment, Red Hare warned that the stupid bear was coming.

• Lin Lu demanded the Hairy Savage’s claw and offered Chen Mo food and medicine or a free truck modification in exchange for it.
• Chen Mo handed over the claw and chose to have Old Yang modify his dump truck, while Lin Lu acknowledged his contribution to the convoy.
• Chen Mo asked Old Yang to enclose the truck bed in sheet metal and cut an opening between it and the cab.
• Old Yang finished the modification the next morning, and told Chen Mo that his actions had secured his place in the convoy.
• Red Hare warned Chen Mo that the stupid bear had caught their scent and was coming.