Recaps

Ye Lin explained that the Echo Demons’ small bodies had piloted advanced Bio-Mecha, revealing that their technology came from outside the Death Exam. Huang Liang realized they might be able to bring powerful equipment into future Exams and left the group determined to survive, while He Zheng asked Ye Lin about his new abilities and whether they could defeat the remaining teams.

• Ye Lin explained that each Echo Demon had an actual Imp body inside a Bio-Mecha, with the mecha stronger than its pilot, and that sonic attacks had reached the hidden Imps.
• An Ke understood why the Echo Demons had seemed to lack vital spots, while Huang Liang realized the Bio-Mecha had been brought into the Exam from the demons’ reality.
• Huang Liang grabbed Ye Lin’s arm and asked him to confirm the Bio-Mecha had not come from a system exchange.
• Ye Lin confirmed it, explaining that the system had given no notification when he touched the mecha and that devouring it had granted him a separate ability.
• Huang Liang thanked Ye Lin and began checking his weapons, resolved to survive and send the information back to reality.
• He Zheng asked Ye Lin what abilities he had gained and whether they could kill the other two teams.

Ye Lin revealed that he could fight the Two-Horned Demon alone with a thirty percent chance, then learned from Aroro that the demon had been only an unusually weak intermediate Third Tier. Aroro warned that the Starshatterer Alliance would send terrifying hunters after Ye Lin, leaving him to consider ability fusion as his last trump card.

• Ye Lin told the group he had a thirty percent chance of killing the Two-Horned Demon alone, and explained that he had grown stronger through Devour.
• Ye Lin noticed the perfected one prototype’s warning that further Devour could cause physical or mental collapse, while its temporary Directed Fusion ability had one use remaining.
• Aroro woke and insisted that the Two-Horned Demon had been an intermediate Third Tier, then described the immense speed, durability, and strength of higher Third Tiers.
• Aroro told Ye Lin that Third Tiers had shared information about his hunt and warned that the Starshatterer Alliance would spare no cost to kill its targets.
• Ye Lin asked whether an advanced Third Tier would come next, but Aroro could not say and only wished for Ye Lin to survive.
• Ye Lin silently concluded that ability fusion was his remaining trump card.

Aroro explained that hunters targeted examinees who repeatedly earned full marks because their corpses were valuable, but revealed that their real aim was to prevent anyone from passing the tenth examination. He left the reason for stopping examinees at the tenth exam unanswered as Ye Lin and the others demanded an explanation.

• He Zheng asked Aroro why hunters pursued them despite the risks of the Death Exam.
• Ye Lin suggested that hunters saw them as future competitors, but Aroro said that was not the main reason.
• Aroro explained that examinees who earned full marks in few examinations could become special, and hunters fought over their valuable corpses.
• Ye Lin wondered whether the hunters could gain something from devouring him, then concluded that his own origin did not match Aroro's description.
• Aroro revealed that the hunters' real goal was to keep anyone from passing the tenth examination, shocking the group.
• An Ke pressed Aroro to explain what happened after the tenth examination, but he had not yet answered.

Ye Lin and his team learned that Aroro knew little about the tenth exam, then Ye Lin deduced that the Echo Demons had brought in a dismembered advanced Third Tier being as their Bio-Mechas for an unknown purpose. The system warned that the Demihuman Empire Team was about to enter the exam.

• Aroro admitted he did not know what would happen in the tenth exam or whether anyone had passed it, and He Zheng apologized for frightening him.
• An Ke suggested capturing members of other factions for information, but Ye Lin warned that enemy teams could mislead them with false intelligence.
• While the team recovered, Ye Lin concluded that the four Bio-Mechas belonged to one advanced Third Tier individual whom the Echo Demons had dismembered and brought into the exam.
• Ye Lin suspected the Echo Demons had a hidden objective connected to the exam and the dark sun, but he could not determine what it was.
• The system announced that the Demihuman Empire Team was about to enter the exam and ordered all examinees to prepare.

After learning the demihuman squad would enter twelve hours after the Echo Demons, Ye Lin argued they might be less powerful than the timing suggested and that weapons could give the team an advantage. The team rested for fifteen minutes before continuing to search for the puzzle’s solution, while Ye Lin privately looked grave.

• The announcement that the demihumans would enter twelve hours after the Echo Demons made the team fear they would face advanced third-tier enemies.
• Ye Lin reasoned that the Echo Demons’ Bio-Mecha had raised their apparent strength, so the demihumans might only reach intermediate third tier, and said the team could prepare with powerful weapons.
• He Zheng and Huang Liang speculated that other military bases might contain weapons, but An Ke warned that the demihumans would be alert and urged the team to solve the puzzle and escape.
• Ye Lin agreed to rest for fifteen minutes and then search for clues, saying he needed to test a few things.
• The exhausted team settled down to rest, while Ye Lin’s relaxed expression gave way to grave concern.

Ye Lin recognized that the generous rewards might conceal a trap and prepared for the Demihuman Empire and Starshatterer Alliance to arrive while he tested his Devour abilities. In the Simulation Space, he activated Star God Demon and transformed into a powerful, star-charged monster.

• Ye Lin realized the demihuman squad might also bring a Bio-Mecha and that fighting among survivors could hasten the arrival of the Demihuman Empire and Starshatterer Alliance.
• Ye Lin entered the Simulation Space to test Hell Echo, Hellfire, and Star God Demon, and he suspected the Echo Demon had a secret purpose for entering the examination.
• Ye Lin activated Star God Demon and endured intense pain as his body grew to three meters and changed form.
• Ye Lin discovered that his new form radiated immense power, and its drifting starlight annihilated the ground beneath him.

Ye Lin tested the Star God Demon transformation and found it gave him overwhelming strength and near-immunity to conventional attacks, but drained his energy so quickly that it lasted only seconds in combat. He considered fusing his remaining abilities to improve it, then chose to prioritize finding clues and a way to escape, while questioning what the Echo Demons were and what they were trying to do.

• Ye Lin transformed and killed an Echo Demon with a single strike, then tested his enhanced speed, strength, mental power, and durability against attacks.
• Ye Lin realized the transformation converted his vitality and mental power into starlight, making it end within seconds when he took damage.
• Ye Lin briefly considered hunting the pursuers for their abilities, but suppressed his greed and kept the search for clues and an escape as the priority.
• Ye Lin predicted that fusing Star God Demon with Hell Echo would grant a star shield, while fusing it with Hellfire would grant starfire attacks and mental-damage resistance.
• Ye Lin decided not to fuse either ability because neither addressed the transformation's short duration, and questioned whether the Echo Demons belonged to a different species and what they were trying to do.

Ye Lin’s team spotted fellow human examinees being massacred by half-orcs and decided to intervene, with Ye Lin ordering them to kill the most valuable Orcs and capture the rest. As they rushed in, Huang Liang saw the opposing team’s leader prepare to detonate an explosive charge with the monsters.

• Ye Lin left the Simulation Space after He Zheng reported a fight ahead and saw one team fleeing another in the distance.
• Huang Liang recognized the fleeing group as fellow countrymen pursued by half-orcs, and Ye Lin’s team watched an Orc sever and begin eating a wounded boy.
• The fleeing team turned back to rescue their fallen companions, and the girl leading them fought off three Orcs while her teammates tried to help.
• He Zheng and the others urged Ye Lin to save the group and take supplies, and Ye Lin ordered them to kill the most valuable Orcs while capturing the others if possible.
• As Ye Lin’s team charged toward the fight, Huang Liang spotted the girl preparing to detonate an explosive charge alongside the Orcs.

Ye Lin and his team arrived in time to rescue a group of Chinese examinees from an orc squad, and Ye Lin swiftly overwhelmed the attackers. The survivors recognized Ye Lin as the Soul Peace Team, leaving their first meeting with him in stunned excitement.

• Ye Lin ordered Huang Liang to fire, and the wounded girl fled toward the gunshot before an orc struck her down.
• Ye Lin killed the orc pursuing the girl with a shot, while the Orc Team Captain fled after recognizing his strength.
• Ye Lin crushed one orc with a stomp and killed the fleeing captain with Mental Shock.
• He Zheng and An Ke stopped the two remaining orcs, ending the fight in seconds.
• Ye Lin asked the rescued survivors whether they were Chinese, and the girl identified him as Ye Lin of the Soul Peace Team.

Ye Lin's team rescued Han Yuer and the White Jade Team, then demanded their potions and information about the Safe Zone. Before they could learn more, a hidden foreign girl appeared and warned them that time was running out.

• Han Yuer recognized Ye Lin and thanked him for saving the White Jade Team.
• He Zheng told the White Jade Team that Ye Lin had passed three examinations and reached the intermediate level of the third tier.
• Ye Lin asked for the team's remaining potions and questioned them about the Safe Zone's abnormalities and the examination question.
• Han Yuer ordered her teammates to hand over their potions, but Ye Lin sensed movement in the nearby shadows and drew his sword.
• A foreign girl in mechanical armor appeared, said she was not hostile, and warned Ye Lin that it would be too late if he did not shut something down.

Ye Lin’s group met Lia, a native Resistance Army member who urged them to shut down a machine controlling people in the Safe Zone. As they prepared to travel with her, Han Yuer asked to join, revealing an ability that could help them.

• Lia introduced herself as a Resistance Army member and said she had been following Ye Lin’s group with an advanced cloaking device.
• A system notification reported that [Transcendence] information had been encountered and total progress had reached 11%.
• Lia confirmed that the Resistance Army opposed the Controllers and said the machine they needed to shut down was hundreds of kilometers away.
• Ye Lin agreed to discuss the details on the way, while He Zheng worried Lia might be a Patroller and An Ke pointed out that Lia had no System Wristwatch.
• Han Yuer asked to join Ye Lin’s group, deduced they were being hunted by the third faction, and revealed her Psionic Hacker ability.

The group traveled toward the Safe Zone in Han Yuer’s cramped vehicle, and she explained why her team lacked combat strength and had lost their veteran leader. Ye Lin pressed Lia for an explanation of the Safe Zone’s crisis, and Lia began to tell the story from the beginning.

• Han Yuer transported the group in her vehicle, and Chen Qing explained that the White Jade Team had spent its points on abilities for solving mysteries rather than combat.
• Ye Lin concluded that the examinations had tested the team’s strengths before forcing them into combat, while He Zheng advised them to spend future points on strength.
• Huang Liang asked whether the White Jade Team had been guided by a veteran, and Han Yuer revealed that she had killed their leader after he tried to rape her and take their points.
• An Ke took Han Yuer’s hand, and Huang Liang apologized as the group reacted to her account.
• Ye Lin asked Lia what had happened in the Safe Zone, and Lia said she had been messaging her rebel army so they could coordinate with the group before offering to explain the situation from the beginning.

Lia told the others how the IJ Group’s founder transformed humanity’s prosperous Solar Age into the Lightless Age by monopolizing resources and charging people for even air and sunlight. She left them with the horror of a world where capital consumed every form of human life and value.

• Lia explained that a wealthy jeweler—or someone rumored to be of royal descent—founded the IJ Group and became known as the Final Producer.
• Lia described how the IJ Group’s technologies ushered in the Solar Age, ending wars and freeing humanity from work and scarcity.
• Lia said the IJ Group killed the Earth Federation’s senior officials, monopolized resources, and began charging people for necessities such as food, water, and air.
• Lia recounted how the Final Producer enclosed the sun in a Dyson Sphere, ushering in the Lightless Age and claiming ownership of human corpses.
• Lia told how her father fought a recycling robot that had processed her grandfather, and the robot killed him by squeezing the air from his body.
• An Ke explained that capital had to keep growing and would devour people when it could no longer expand.

Lia explained that the Final Producer had enslaved humanity through virtual machines, and Ye Lin’s team agreed to help destroy the last machine in Virtual City. After reaching the city’s outskirts, they discovered that the city was an enormous structure hovering beneath a cliff.

• Lia said the Final Producer had used people’s brains as biocomputers and that her resistance had destroyed ninety percent of the virtual machine network.
• Ye Lin and his companions discussed whether Lia’s account fit the examination’s clues and agreed that reaching and shutting down the final machine would be dangerous.
• Ye Lin told the team to follow their plan and assigned An Ke and Chen Qing to watch for approaching threats.
• Four hours later, Ye Lin’s team arrived near Virtual City without encountering any other teams.
• Lia led the group to a cliff, where He Zheng and the others saw a vast, flame-propelled structure hovering beneath it.

Ye Lin’s group followed Lia’s plan to infiltrate the Virtual City through an engine outlet, relying on brief engine shutdowns and identity-disguising sunglasses. As they approached the starship, Han Yuer offered her team’s technical skills, but the group spotted ratman examinees and Rebel Army members ahead.

• Lia revealed chains leading down the cliff and explained that the Rebel Army would briefly shut down an engine so the group could enter through its outlet.
• Ye Lin judged the infiltration plan was genuine and led everyone down to a cave, where they put on sunglasses containing identity-recognition chips.
• Lia explained that Rebel Army contacts were already inside but could not reach the machine because of the city’s security and lack of heavy weapons.
• The group ran beneath the enormous Virtual City, and Han Yuer offered her team’s hacking, signal interception, disguise, and mechanical skills to help locate the machine.
• Ye Lin, An Ke, and Huang Liang noticed three ratman-like examinees and two cloaked Rebel Army members pointing toward a nearby engine.

Ye Lin realized the Rebels’ identity disguises had been compromised, and the Starship’s defenses were killing anyone who approached the Virtual City. The group fled under attack, leaving them wounded and pursued by drones and a mechanical spider.

• Ye Lin questioned Lia about other infiltrators and recognized that the earlier death notifications likely came from the Starship’s defenses.
• The Starship’s laser cannons vaporized the ratmen, and Ye Lin ordered everyone to discard their Identity Recognition Devices and run.
• Ye Lin used Blood Shadow Impact to survive the laser barrage but suffered a severe chest wound, while A Long died protecting Han Yuer.
• Drones and a seven-meter mechanical spider emerged from the Starship as Ye Lin and An Ke led people in separate escapes.
• The survivor count fell to 54, and the system shortened the Demihuman Team’s estimated entry time to two and a half hours.

Ye Lin and the others faced a pursuing mechanical spider and a swarm of drones, while Han Yuer attempted to hack their targeting systems. Her hack briefly turned the machines against one another, giving the group a chance to escape, but she warned that the override would last only three minutes and that many more spiders remained.

• He Zheng carried Chen Qing as he and the others fled from the mechanical spider and its barrage of missiles.
• Han Yuer said she needed ten seconds and a range of one hundred meters to interfere with the machines' target locks, then ran toward the spider.
• Ye Lin protected Han Yuer by crushing incoming missiles with psychokinesis and blocking the spider's autocannon fire with Sonic Shield.
• Chen Qing and Xiao Qi assisted Han Yuer as she scanned the spider and waited for it to enter hacking range.
• Han Yuer hacked the spider and rewrote its recognition program, turning it against the other spiders and redirecting the drones.
• Han Yuer urged everyone to flee, warning that her modification would last at most three minutes and that at least a hundred mechanical spiders were nearby.

After escaping the Mechanical Spiders, Ye Lin reasoned that the group had missed a way to enter the Virtual City without triggering its defenses. The survivor count fell, shortening the Demihuman Team’s arrival time to one hour and twenty-seven minutes, leaving the group under greater pressure to find the solution.

• The group rode the bullet train in silence, and An Ke asked whether they should keep searching for clues or seek the Military Base.
• Huang Liang suggested using the Starship’s weapons against the Demihuman Team, but Ye Lin explained the risks and outlined two possible ways to use the Starship.
• He Zheng proposed having Lia use the glasses on a Demihuman, but Ye Lin pointed out that the third faction had no examination question and that the plan could leave them trapped between enemies.
• Ye Lin reviewed the system’s earlier clues and concluded that the group had not missed information; their mistake was how they tried to enter the Virtual City.
• Ye Lin inferred that someone had previously entered the city, and the system then reported 54 survivors, followed by 51, and moved the Demihuman Team’s entry up to one hour and twenty-seven minutes away.

Ye Lin realized that the Virtual City could be entered by boarding a transport ship carrying supplies from the Safe Zone. He proposed killing every NPC in the Safe Zone to trigger the arrival of new customers and a transport ship, leaving him with a plan to confirm before luring the Demihuman Team to their deaths.

• Aroro pointed out that there were no transport trucks in the Safe Zone, prompting Ye Lin to question Lia about what lay beneath it.
• Lia confirmed that the Safe Zone had no underground city and that the Virtual City was the only place of its kind.
• Ye Lin deduced that transport ships brought food from the Virtual City and that the group could enter by sneaking aboard one.
• Lin Yu warned that deliveries were infrequent, so Ye Lin suggested killing every NPC in the Safe Zone to make the system send new customers and supplies.
• Ye Lin recalled hearing an aircraft when the Echo Demon arrived and decided to confirm his theory before using it to lure the Demihuman Team to their deaths.

Ye Lin’s team entered No. 03 Safe Zone and killed attendants, piling up their bodies to prepare for the transport ship that could take them into Virtual City. As Ye Lin explained the plan to Huang Liang, he began to suspect that the attendants were copies or robots tied to the Service area.

• Ye Lin led Han Yuer’s team into No. 03 Safe Zone and ordered them to kill attendants and pile their bodies in the road.
• An Ke and the others opened fire, while He Zheng obeyed and Chen Qing struggled with the mass killing.
• Han Yuer explained to Chen Qing that the transport ship’s robots would collect the bodies, so intact corpses would make the process faster.
• Huang Liang questioned whether so many attendants had to die, and Ye Lin explained that time was short and hiding among bodies might be the only way for all teams to board.
• Ye Lin told Huang Liang to think of the attendants as robots, then froze as the ideas of robots, copies, and the Service area came together in his mind.

Ye Lin stayed behind while the others boarded a transport ship, planting Psionic Explosives on dormant service workers before teleporting aboard. He revealed he intended to lure the Demihumans into the Virtual City, leaving the group alarmed that they could be trapped between the Demihumans and the threats inside.

• Ye Lin told He Zheng, An Ke, and the others to hide in the corpse pile while he stayed behind to carry out an uncertain task.
• Han Yuer and her companions seized control of the transport ship, and Ye Lin watched from a nearby shop as it prepared to depart.
• After the ship took off, Han Yuer revealed that Ye Lin had asked for their Psionic Explosives, prompting He Zheng to fear Ye Lin had stayed behind to face the Demihumans alone.
• Ye Lin teleported aboard and explained that he had planted explosives on the dormant service workers, which could blow up ordinary people.
• Ye Lin confirmed that he wanted the Demihumans to see the ship and enter the Virtual City, while Lin Yu warned that this could leave them surrounded and unable to escape.

Ye Lin explained his plan to trap the Demihuman Team aboard an explosive transport ship and destroy it with the Starship’s automatic weapons. The transport ship carrying Ye Lin, Lin Yu, Han Yuer, He Zheng, and Chen Qing entered the Starship’s hangar, where they saw over a hundred transport ships.

• Ye Lin told Lin Yu he wanted to control when the Demihumans entered the Virtual City by making them wary of the Starship.
• Lin Yu realized Ye Lin intended to make the Demihumans suspect the ships were traps, but Han Yuer warned that an obvious trap might not fool them.
• Ye Lin proposed loading explosives onto a transport ship and detonating it over the Starship so its automatic laser cannons could attack the Demihumans.
• Han Yuer and Chen Qing pointed out that they could not control the Starship’s weapons, guarantee the Demihumans would board the rigged ship, or tamper with every transport ship.
• Ye Lin reasoned that the Starship’s energy shortage would force the artificial intelligence to send ships along efficient routes, allowing the group to destroy most ships bound for Safe Zone 03 and leave the rigged one.
• The transport ship entered the Starship and arrived in a huge hangar filled with over a hundred transport ships.

Ye Lin’s team entered the Starship hangar and prepared an explosive trap for the Demihumans, while Huang Liang questioned whether destroying the ships could prevent other teams from reaching the Virtual City. An alarm sounded before Ye Lin could investigate, and the group rushed toward the opening door to find a way to silence it.

• Ye Lin’s team discovered that the hangar’s numbered transport ships matched the Safe Zones, confirming Ye Lin’s deductions and earning Han Yuer’s apology.
• Ye Lin reflected that pressure had kept him from recognizing the system’s clues sooner, while An Ke and He Zheng reassured him.
• Ye Lin ordered He Zheng to leave two ships intact so the Demihumans could discover how to summon transport themselves.
• Huang Liang warned Ye Lin that another team might destroy every transport ship and block everyone else from entering the Virtual City.
• The hangar alarm announced unknown intruders, and Ye Lin’s group hurried toward the opening door to shut it down before the Mechanical Spiders attacked.

Ye Lin’s team silenced the Hangar alarm but learned that escaping its identity system would take too long, so they accessed the surveillance feed to track nearby threats. When four mechanized soldiers carrying recognition modules raced toward them, Ye Lin prepared to attack and seize a module.

• Han Yuer stopped the Hangar alarm, but she estimated that cracking its identity recognition system would take at least half an hour.
• Ye Lin had Han Yuer hack the surveillance feed instead, and she spotted four Mechanical Spiders below and four fast-moving soldiers on their level.
• Zhang Qi revealed that the soldiers carried Identity Recognition Modules and offered to block their signals for ten seconds with an Electromagnetic Bomb.
• Ye Lin took Zhang Qi’s Electromagnetic Grenade, drew the Hell Sword, and declared that ten seconds was enough to fight the soldiers.

Ye Lin and his teammates ambushed and swiftly killed four Mechanically Modified Beings, then returned to the Hangar with their weapons and a severed head. When Han Yuer could not locate the machine through the system, Ye Lin realized there might be another way to find it.

• Ye Lin led He Zheng, An Ke, and Huang Liang toward four Mechanically Modified Beings, and they killed them in a rapid coordinated attack.
• Ye Lin noticed the enemies had human-like internal organs, though An Ke had not sensed them as living beings.
• Ye Lin had He Zheng collect the Electromagnetic Rifles and ordered the team back to the Hangar before the Demihumans arrived.
• He Zheng showed a Mechanically Modified Being's head to the surveillance camera, leaving Han Yuer and her teammates stunned by how quickly the fight had ended.
• Han Yuer told Ye Lin that locating the machine could take several hours because the surveillance system had not saved footage of the Rebels.
• Ye Lin recalled Lia's earlier words and realized there might be another way to identify the machine's location.