Recaps

After He Zheng reported seeing a ghost, Ye Lin’s group left the roadside and continued toward the Academy of Sciences, where they hoped to find Carlton’s suppressed research records. As the team discussed the Stone Tablet, the other group, and Ye Lin’s abilities, a strange chorus of rasps rose around their truck.

• He Zheng panicked after claiming something ghostlike had run past him, but An Ke said the trial’s Zombie Crisis could not include ghosts, and Ye Lin ordered everyone back into the truck.
• Ye Lin explained that Carlton’s research records might still be preserved at the Academy of Sciences, and argued that the professor’s university apartment suggested someone had secretly supported him.
• Hu Jia asked whether they would have to rescue the other team if its Stone Tablet holder was trapped downtown, and Ye Lin said the holder was more likely on the outskirts while the Communicator was the main concern.
• Ye Lin explained that his [Flame Flash] ability could be used once every twelve hours and that its incineration effect only worked on corpses.
• As He Zheng asked about Ye Lin’s sword and powers, Ye Lin heard a muffled mass of overlapping rasps outside the truck.

Ye Lin and his companions were surrounded by hundreds of thousands of unusually fast zombies, and their truck became immobilized as they fought to survive. Ye Lin realized an intelligent mutant was directing the horde, but he could not identify it among the ordinary-looking zombies.

• Huang Liang fired a flare and revealed that zombies had silently surrounded the group in every direction.
• Ye Lin ordered everyone to open fire, and the group fought off waves of zombies as they charged toward the truck.
• A zombie climbed onto the truck, and Huang Liang killed the attackers threatening An Ke.
• The horde jammed the truck's wheels and stopped it, while zombies bit He Zheng before Zhang Tie pulled him onto the roof.
• Ye Lin told the group that something was commanding the zombies and searched for an intelligent mutant hidden among them.

As the horde overwhelmed the vehicle, Ye Lin used blood-soaked clothes to expose the intelligent Mutant directing the zombies. He spotted the suited Mutant and prepared to pursue it as it tried to escape into the crowd.

• Zombies dragged Hu Jia off the roof, but Zhang Tie transformed into a bear and rescued him from the horde.
• With the group close to being overwhelmed, Ye Lin ordered everyone to bleed on their clothes, and An Ke realized he planned to identify the unusually calm Mutant.
• Ye Lin leaped above the horde and had the others throw their blood-soaked clothes into it, driving the zombies into a frenzy.
• Using the Observer's perspective, Ye Lin spotted a tall, thin zombie in a shabby suit that remained still and watched the chaos.
• The suited Mutant noticed Ye Lin and tried to disappear into the horde, but Ye Lin recognized it as the one directing the zombies.

Ye Lin defeated the suited zombie after losing control to his Tyrant bloodline, allowing the group to escape the horde. The first survival round ended, but the system announced that each of the six remaining hunts would be twice as difficult.

• Ye Lin rampaged through the zombie horde, killed the suited mutant, and eventually broke free of the corpse wall.
• He Zheng and the others escaped in their vehicle while Ye Lin regained enough control to order them to leave.
• Hu Jia injected himself with an Antidote after admitting he had delayed using it, and He Zheng discovered he might also be infected.
• An Ke warned the group that they might not have enough medicine as they faced seven days of survival.
• The system ended the first twenty-four-hour round and announced that the second hunt would begin in twenty-four hours, with difficulty increasing by 100% each round.

After the broadcast revealed that seven increasingly difficult pursuit rounds would begin each day, Ye Lin argued that the scheduled breaks gave the team time to find answers and prepare. He planned to question An Ke as their journey continued.

• He Zheng and the others reacted with shock to the announcement that the zombie horde had been only the first, easiest pursuit round.
• Hu Jia asked Ye Lin and An Ke whether the rising difficulty meant stronger Mutants or greater danger overall, and An Ke warned him to protect himself.
• An Ke feared the team would gradually die from exhaustion and asked Ye Lin whether they should seek a safe place to rest.
• Ye Lin argued that nowhere would be truly safe, but the twenty-four-hour intervals between pursuits gave them time to uncover the Stone Tablet's clues.
• Ye Lin said the scheduled rounds could help them earn rewards and prompt the Stone Tablet's holder to contact them; Huang Liang grew hopeful about completing his mission.
• Ye Lin called An Ke into the rear compartment to ask her something, and she followed, intent on asking him questions too.

Ye Lin heard An Ke recount how learning about a flesh-made moon had doomed examinees in a previous meme survival exam, leaving them uncertain whether to seek clues or hide. The group then found a crashed glider that might contain the academy officials and the item they sought, and Ye Lin suspected it could be a trap.

• Ye Lin explained to An Ke that the Tyrant Gene's brutal urges were assimilating him, then asked whether a survival exam could involve a meme.
• An Ke described her fifth exam, where examinees discovered that the moon was made of growing flesh and that seeing it drove people insane and infected them.
• An Ke warned Ye Lin that investigating the current meme might be dangerous, while hiding might also lead to their deaths.
• Ye Lin told An Ke they would survive.
• He Zheng spotted a crashed glider on the highway, and Ye Lin suspected its infected occupants were academy officials and that the documents and locked case nearby might be bait.

He Zheng's group recovered a case containing a letter that linked mass extinction, evolution, and a mysterious God, but it offered no direct way to stop the zombies. After a survivor called for help and mentioned the Stone Tablet, Ye Lin decided the group had to enter the city despite the danger.

• He Zheng found a case beside a crashed plane, but An Ke warned that its convenient appearance might mean it was a trap, so Hu Jia volunteered to inspect it.
• Hu Jia safely read documents describing extinction as part of evolution and a letter claiming that a mysterious force was driving life to evolve through catastrophe.
• Huang Liang and Hu Jia debated whether accelerating the zombies' merging could help the group survive, while Ye Lin concluded that an evolved being might be necessary to prevent the catastrophe from destroying everything.
• An explosion shook the city, and An Ke received a call from survivors fleeing a monster who said they had found the Stone Tablet before the call cut off.
• Ye Lin decided the group would go to rescue the survivors and seek the Stone Tablet despite the danger.

Frank fled through the West City Ruins with Kelin as a giant spider Mutant pursued them, and he escaped its attack after the other team arrived. When Frank tried to get a gun and retreat with Ye Lin’s group, Ye Lin charged directly at the Mutant instead.

• Frank escaped the exploding ammunition depot while Kelin followed, and he killed a zombie with his Flame Ability as they ran through the streets.
• A ten-meter spider Mutant appeared behind Frank and Kelin, and they froze until Kelin accidentally crushed glass underfoot.
• Frank fled toward the highway as the spider chased them and sprayed venom that burned his skin.
• A powerful gunshot from the arriving team briefly stopped the spider, allowing Frank to run toward them with Kelin.
• Frank threatened Kelin to keep him quiet and asked Ye Lin for a gun, but Ye Lin drew his sword and charged at the Mutant.

Ye Lin’s team killed the Mutant pursuing Frank, then confronted him about his betrayal and demanded the Stone Tablet. Frank tried to bargain with his knowledge of the tablet, but Ye Lin threatened to torture him until he agreed to talk.

• Ye Lin, He Zheng, and Zhang Tie killed the Mutant that had marked and pursued Frank.
• Frank realized Ye Lin’s team was far stronger than he had expected and carefully followed them to a deserted stretch of highway.
• He Zheng accused Frank of causing the trouble and planning to get the team killed, while Frank blamed his own captain.
• Ye Lin demanded that Frank hand over the Stone Tablet and threatened him when he could not find it.
• Frank claimed he had deciphered the Stone Tablet and knew how to lower the difficulty, but Ye Lin ordered He Zheng to skin him until he talked.
• Frank panicked and agreed to reveal what he knew.

Frank revealed that creating a Mutant by fusing an examinee with zombies could stop the difficulty from rising, and his team knew how to trigger the process. As Ye Lin weighed whether to use Frank’s information, An Ke and Hu Jia argued that the rules would eventually force the two teams to fight over a major reward.

• Frank told Ye Lin’s group that they had to create a Mutant through a specific fusion method to stop the disaster’s difficulty from increasing.
• Frank admitted that the fused creature also had to eat nearby zombies to evolve, and claimed he knew where to find one and how to lure it out.
• He Zheng interrogated Frank’s teammate, who confirmed Frank was the captain and explained that microchips could control fused teammates and draw them toward the group.
• He Zheng reported that Frank said the Mutant’s blood might have unusual effects, but Frank still refused to reveal the Stone Tablet’s location.
• An Ke reasoned that the documents and letter gave Ye Lin’s team information equivalent to another Stone Tablet, while Hu Jia suggested the teams would ultimately fight over the reward for surviving seven days.

Ye Lin’s group prepared to draw out the hidden monster while Ye Lin hinted that he knew more about their situation than he had shared. As the monster arrived at the city’s edge, the group braced for a fight.

• Hu Jia, An Ke, and the others discussed how to extract the creature and escape, while Ye Lin warned them to kill anyone who acted suspiciously.
• Huang Liang apologized to Ye Lin for being selfish and promised to protect the group, but Ye Lin hinted at questions about their isolation before telling him to focus on surviving.
• He Zheng’s group raced through the eastern outskirts with zombies in pursuit as Frank used a controller to draw out the creature.
• Kelin watched Frank and silently feared that Frank was lying, since they had never obtained the Stone Tablet and had only seen a photograph.
• He Zheng spotted the creature approaching, and Huang Liang aimed his sniper rifle at the hunched monster wearing what looked like a mask of human skin.

Frank led the group in feeding the fused monster called Roger to test whether it could evolve and lock the exam’s difficulty. Roger began eating corpses, and the system announced a new exam objective to ensure the nascent form of an unknown entity fully arrived within six days and eleven hours.

• Frank identified the fused monster as Roger and proposed luring it into a horde of zombies so it could evolve by eating them.
• Ye Lin agreed to the test but followed Frank to the horde, while Huang Liang trained a sniper rifle on him to prevent him from escaping.
• An Ke noticed that Roger reacted to gunfire with apparent intelligence and warned Ye Lin to be careful.
• After blood splashed on its face, Roger tasted it, opened the second face’s eyes, and began tearing into and eating the zombie corpses.
• Roger’s limbs swelled as it fed, and the system announced Frank had completed option one, revealed the second-round objective, and reported that difficulty locking had reached three percent.

Ye Lin exposed Frank’s attempt to manipulate “Roger” and confronted him over the Stone Tablet. Frank claimed there was no Stone Tablet, then tried to fuse with “Roger” as the descent and difficulty-lock progress began advancing.

• An Ke warned Ye Lin that the evolving “Roger” could become dangerous, and Ye Lin ordered Huang Liang to shoot Frank as Frank charged into the zombie horde.
• Ye Lin shot Frank in the leg and revealed that he had found a tracking device Frank had hidden in his belongings.
• Frank denied trying to escape and accused Ye Lin of never intending to spare him, then insisted that his group had never found the Stone Tablet.
• Frank detonated the fire element in his body, crawled toward “Roger,” and bit him in an attempt to fuse with him.
• The system announced that descent progress had reached 6% and difficulty-lock progress had reached 6.01% as the survival countdown sped up.

Frank rapidly fused with another zombie and attacked Ye Lin’s group, forcing them to fight for their lives while Ye Lin rushed to catch up. Ye Lin finally confronted Frank, but Frank’s claw tore open Ye Lin’s chest.

• Frank fused with the other zombie and leaped toward He Zheng and the others to devour them and evolve further.
• An Ke warned He Zheng and fired at Frank, but Frank’s blow sent He Zheng crashing into the truck.
• An Ke shot Frank with a special bullet, punching a hole through his chest and knocking him back, but his wound quickly began to heal.
• Zhang Tie transformed and shielded An Ke and the others, taking Frank’s attack and suffering a crushed chest.
• Ye Lin arrived and clashed swords with Frank, but Frank struck back and gouged a large chunk of flesh from Ye Lin’s chest.

Ye Lin and the others fought Frank as his fusion with Roger made him increasingly powerful, leaving the group near defeat. Ye Lin detonated the Cross Longsword and, while Frank lay crippled, began devouring him.

• Ye Lin wounded Frank with a strike to the neck, but Frank completed the fusion, healed, and badly injured He Zheng, Zhang Tie, and Huang Liang.
• Ye Lin used his Rampage State to attack Frank, but Frank severed Ye Lin’s arm and sent him crashing to the ground.
• Kelin pleaded with Roger to wake up, but the fused creature kicked a stone through him and continued toward Ye Lin.
• Ye Lin charged Frank despite his injuries, and the Cross Longsword detonated in a massive blast that left the fused creature half-destroyed.
• Ye Lin dug into Frank’s chest, attacked his head, and devoured him as Frank’s fading consciousness felt his soul drain away.

Ye Lin’s body regenerated after he devoured the Fusion Entity, while memories from those he had absorbed flooded his consciousness. As he awoke, An Ke wondered whether he planned to kill the group and struggled to decide whether to strike first.

• Ye Lin’s new heart converted absorbed energy into vitality as his body repaired itself and cellular memories flooded his mind.
• He Zheng and the others found Ye Lin alive after the Fusion Entity vanished, while the injured group cleared the remaining zombies and searched for medicine.
• An Ke suspected Ye Lin had deliberately guided events so he could grow stronger by devouring others and feared he would kill the survivors before they returned.
• An Ke considered shooting Ye Lin but lowered her gun, unable to risk killing him or losing their chance to lock the exam difficulty.
• Ye Lin opened his eyes and stared coldly at An Ke just as she gave up on acting.

Ye Lin concealed how much the Tyrant Gene had changed after he ate Frank, while An Ke suspected he had become the embryonic form of the descending creature. Before dying, Malfoy Kelin revealed that the Military knew about the zombies and told Ye Lin to search Frank’s gun magazine for a voice recorder.

• Ye Lin injected himself with the Suppressant and told He Zheng and the others that eating Frank had caused a problem with his Tyrant Gene.
• An Ke suspected Ye Lin had replaced Frank as the embryonic form of the creature because the Descent Progress had not ended.
• Ye Lin said Frank’s method for locking the difficulty was probably wrong and warned them not to create another Fusion Entity.
• Hu Jia told the group that Kelin was still alive, and they gathered around his grievously injured body.
• Kelin admitted he knew Frank had lied and revealed that someone in the Military knew about the zombies and their secrets.
• Kelin told Ye Lin to find the voice recorder in Frank’s gun magazine, then died after sharing his name and home address.

Ye Lin and the others listened to a recording in which Feen explained that mass deaths could awaken a civilization’s collective will and produce a being capable of saving it. The recording revealed the Perfect Being Project, and Ye Lin’s watch reported that his tyrant bloodline had been replaced with a perfected one prototype.

• He Zheng spoke bitterly about Kelin’s death while Huang Liang asked Zhang Tie to help bury Kelin’s body.
• Ye Lin found a miniature voice recorder hidden among the bullets in Frank’s pistol and played it for the group.
• In the recording, Feen told Basher that mass deaths could drive humanity’s collective will to create a powerful individual during an extinction crisis.
• Feen revealed that the project was meant to create a transcendent being through the deaths of countless living beings and called it the Perfect Being Project.
• Ye Lin’s watch identified him as Candidate E99067 and reported that his tyrant bloodline had been replaced with a perfected one prototype.

After learning that Frank's plan to create a perfected one prototype had been right, Ye Lin's team faced an accelerated pursuit countdown and believed they had no way to survive. Ye Lin realized the exam had another fair solution: find the newborn who represented humanity's second prototype.

• An Ke explained that Frank had gained the leaders' trust through the recording and that his prototype plan was correct, leaving the team to consider making one themselves.
• He Zheng and the others despaired over their injuries and the difficulty of fighting a prototype, while Hu Jia said the other team’s mistakes had brought them these consequences.
• The system announced that the next pursuit would begin in one hour and that pursuit intervals and survival time had been halved, prompting He Zheng to curse the unfair exam.
• Ye Lin declared that the exam was fair and reasoned that humanity's many deaths meant a second prototype could emerge from human will.
• An Ke and the others realized the solution was to find the unborn newborn, who had not been infected by the meme and carried humanity's last bloodline.

Ye Lin and the others raced toward the military base, believing the answer to the exam lay with a pregnant woman connected to its experiments. They prepared to confront the fused Mutant under severe time pressure, while An Ke wondered what the Newborn would be and where the Stone Tablet had gone.

• An Ke reasoned that the military base’s experiments and the recording’s mention of a project pointed to a mother and a Newborn as the way to clear the exam.
• An Ke explained that Frank had lured Roger to survive because he had no way to face the base’s Mutants alone.
• Huang Liang warned that the group had only five to seven minutes after reaching the base to defeat the fused Mutant and find the mother.
• He Zheng and the others accepted Ye Lin’s reassurance and prepared for the coming battle as An Ke treated their wounds.
• An Ke wondered whether the Newborn would still be human and where the Stone Tablet was.

Ye Lin and his team raced into the London military base to find the Prototype before the next pursuit round began. They discovered Frank’s abandoned command hall and were confronted by a gigantic Mutant that fired blue plasma from its chest.

• Ye Lin led Zhang Tie, He Zheng, Ye Lin’s companions, and Huang Liang through the military base toward the fourth basement level, where his memories suggested the Prototype was located.
• The team collected weapons as they descended and sensed an unusual fluctuation beneath them, while finding blood trails but no zombies.
• Ye Lin identified a charred corpse and concluded Frank had killed the soldiers and zombies in the passage before fleeing.
• Huang Liang examined Frank’s sealed command hall and warned that the Mutant nearby might be unusually powerful because Frank had not retreated into his reinforced inner shelter.
• A huge Mutant charged around the corner, revealing a hollow in its chest filled with blue plasma, and fired a blast at the team.

Zhang Tie took a plasma blast while shielding the group, and Ye Lin ordered a plan to break through the Mutant’s relentless ranged attacks. As the others prepared to cover him, Ye Lin revealed a new flame ability in his palm.

• Zhang Tie blocked the Mutant’s plasma sphere with his shield, but the blast melted through his armor and left him badly wounded.
• Ye Lin carried Zhang Tie back into the Command Hall while He Zheng led Hu Jia to cover.
• Huang Liang proposed suppressing the Mutant and throwing a grenade into its mouth, but An Ke warned that its mouth might be heavily defended.
• After plasma melted through the wall and burned He Zheng’s face, Ye Lin ordered the group to use smoke grenades and incendiaries while he and He Zheng charged the Mutant.
• Ye Lin declined He Zheng’s axe, drew a tactical dagger, and revealed a flame flickering in his palm from the Bloodline enhancement he had gained.

Ye Lin, He Zheng, and Huang Liang fought the plasma Mutant, with Ye Lin discovering and destroying the slit on its back. As the second round of pursuit approached, an enormous zombie army and multiple Mutants converged on the base.

• Ye Lin used smoke and fire to approach the plasma Mutant while he and He Zheng split up to draw its attention.
• He Zheng charged the Mutant and attacked with his axes, while Huang Liang shot its mouth and interrupted its plasma blast.
• The Mutant blasted He Zheng away and fired at Ye Lin, but Ye Lin stabbed the slit on its back and detonated flames inside it.
• Ye Lin urged the others to move as the system announced that the second round of pursuit would begin in one minute and fifty-nine seconds.
• A vast zombie tide, joined by enormous Mutants, converged on the base from the city and surrounding highways.

Ye Lin and the others reached the fourth basement level and found hundreds of pregnant women in life-support pods, most infected by the meme. With seconds left, they located one apparently uninfected mother, identified as test subject 973, Yang.

• Ye Lin severed zombies’ heads and hands so the group could pass the door’s fingerprint and iris scanners.
• The group entered the fourth basement level and discovered rows of pregnant women in life-support pods, where infected mothers and infants had become monsters.
• An Ke recognized the zombie in a lab coat as Huang Liang killed it, realizing it had infected the pods by repeatedly banging on them.
• Ye Lin ordered everyone to search, and Huang Liang found a sleeping woman whose fetus radiated an unusual pressure.
• The group found the woman’s identification: test subject 973, name: Yang.

Ye Lin stopped short of harming the pregnant Mother when the system confirmed the second-round objective and locked the difficulty to the first round. As the others faced the third round, he examined his fused bloodline and began combining Flame Manipulation with plasma to create a stronger ability.

• Ye Lin smashed the Life Pod glass and caught the Mother, prompting the system to complete the second-round objective and lock the difficulty to the first round.
• Ye Lin handed the Mother to An Ke, left the others to handle the third-round pursuit, and sat down to inspect his bloodline.
• Ye Lin learned that his Tyrant Gene had fused into Perfected One (Prototype), granting him abilities including Devour and Fusion.
• Ye Lin used Fusion to combine Flame Manipulation and plasma, confirmed the choice, and produced an eerie violet burst.