Chapter Summaries

After surviving a plane crash, Zhang Ming learned that worldwide disasters had stranded him on an unknown island with little hope of rescue. As he struggled to gather supplies and escape the rising tide, a mysterious status panel appeared in his mind.

• Zhang Ming woke on a beach beside the wreckage and discovered that he appeared to be the plane’s only survivor.
• Zhang Ming contacted an airport radio operator, who confirmed that his location should be open ocean and reported catastrophic earthquakes, tsunamis, and suspended travel worldwide.
• Zhang Ming found enormous coconuts, searched the wreckage for supplies, and carried luggage to higher ground as the tide rose.
• Zhang Ming learned that rescue would be delayed and that the radio’s battery would not last, then returned to shore after asking the operator to inform his parents he was alive.
• Zhang Ming saw a strange status panel listing his attributes and wondered whether it was a cheat that could help him survive.

As earthquakes and tsunamis struck Earth, authorities struggled to reach people trapped in the Mysterious Zones. Mirages of survivors and strange events appeared in the sky worldwide, drawing public attention as people speculated that spiritual energy was returning.

• Li Xianfeng told the special disaster response department that a citizen was trapped on a Pacific Ocean island and discussed the difficulty of rescuing him.
• Li Xianfeng and the department saw sixteen scenes from the Mysterious Zones appear as mirages in the western sky, including a crashed plane and a stranded man.
• Wang Fumin sat with his wife and daughter in traffic as they evacuated Cloudsea City during the earthquakes.
• Wang Fumin's daughter pointed out the scenes in the sky, and people nearby began filming and discussing the mirages.
• Internet users around the world shared the phenomenon and speculated that spiritual energy was returning.

Li Xianfeng and officials assessed worldwide mirages showing thousands of people trapped in mysterious zones, while reports of superpowers fueled speculation that a new era had begun. As the mirages appeared around the globe and the public reacted to the earthquakes, officials issued a cautious report blaming the mysterious zones and urged people to focus on recovery.

• Li Xianfeng reported that sixteen mirage scenes showed about 4,365 people trapped in four mysterious zones, including Zhang Ming and passengers aboard a cruise ship.
• Officials discussed the global earthquakes, the mirages, and reports of people displaying superpowers, then prioritized rescue work, supplies, and preventing food hoarding.
• An elderly official said the mirages might signal a new era if their scenes were real.
• After the mirages vanished in one region, they appeared elsewhere as online speculation and panic spread.
• Authorities published a report attributing the earthquakes and mirages to mysterious zones, while donors and volunteers aided victims and internet users celebrated the reported superpowers.

Zhang Ming discovered that his attribute panel let him transfer points between Physique, Perception, Mind, and Lifespan, and he sacrificed much of his lifespan to strengthen himself. Meanwhile, Li Xianfeng’s department prepared daily broadcasts to help people trapped in Mysterious Zones survive, while Zhang Ming faced intense hunger on the island.

• Zhang Ming watched his Mind stat rise with his excitement, then fall as he worried about his family and lost life back home.
• Zhang Ming reasoned out how attribute transfer worked and moved points from Lifespan into Physique, Mind, and Perception.
• Zhang Ming felt his body grow stronger but became desperately hungry, with only a small bag of snacks to eat.
• Li Xianfeng learned that Zhang Ming’s parents had been located and instructed staff to keep his situation secret while explaining the difficulty of rescue.
• Li Xianfeng and his colleagues decided broadcasts should teach trapped survivors wilderness skills, explain world events, and maintain their morale, and Li Xianfeng took responsibility for the content.

Li Xianfeng dismissed hostile foreign reactions to the mirages as Great Xia’s industrial advantage grew amid global earthquakes and maritime dangers. Professor Peter Greer’s apocalyptic explanation of the mysterious zones went viral, and discussion devolved into claims that particular races were favored to survive.

• Li Xianfeng told his assistant to focus on domestic work and ignore hostile foreign public opinion about the mirages.
• Professor Peter Greer posted enhanced images of the mysterious zones and argued that the mirages were a warning of an approaching apocalypse.
• Peter Greer predicted that the mirages would return with more spectacular scenes and that few of the people trapped in the zones would survive.
• Niu Musk commented on Greer’s post, saying humanity would fail to unite during a disaster.
• Bluebird users shared Greer’s post until it passed a hundred million likes, making it the platform’s most-liked post and earning Greer millions of followers.
• Users turned the discussion into racial boasting and insults, including mocking the lone yellow-skinned, black-haired man stranded on an island.

On his first night stranded on the island, Zhang Ming struggled with hunger and dwindling supplies while disasters and mysterious regions disrupted the world. He witnessed a gigantic creature devouring bodies in the wreckage, and it smashed his radio, cutting off his only link to humanity.

• Zhang Ming listened to reports of earthquakes, a volcanic threat, tsunamis, and mysterious regions while building a crude shelter and worrying about his family and friends.
• Zhang Ming counted his limited food and water, realized his food would last only two days, and hoped his many unopened suitcases contained supplies.
• Unable to sleep through his hunger, Zhang Ming heard a metallic screech and saw a huge black creature tearing open the aircraft wreckage to feed on corpses.
• A radio broadcaster warned Zhang Ming that hostile life-forms had appeared in the mysterious regions, but the creature smashed the radio before the warning could continue.
• Zhang Ming hid among the coconuts, furious that the creature had destroyed his only link to humanity, and vowed to kill it once he became strong enough.

Zhang Ming searched the wreckage for food and supplies, then began preparing a shelter on the deserted island. On Earth, experts watched his feed and concluded that he would have to rely on himself.

• Zhang Ming found the plane wreckage destroyed and the radio flattened, then searched a passenger's backpack but found no food.
• Zhang Ming discovered an aircraft medical kit and two nylon ropes, and gathered seats and metal panels to build a shelter.
• Viewers argued over Zhang Ming's actions while Li Xianfeng and other experts discussed the wreckage, the monsters, and the lack of contact with survivors in other Mysterious Zones.
• Zhang Ming worked through the day hauling supplies to the shore, then realized he was hungry again.

Zhang Ming opened suitcases from the vanished passengers and found a supply of rice, a usable cooking pot, and two large hams that could help him survive on the island. Meanwhile, people on Earth watched other groups stranded in the Mysterious Zones as they faced shortages, isolation, and unknown dangers.

• Zhang Ming opened suitcase after suitcase containing mostly clothes and personal belongings, including study materials left by someone determined to enter graduate school.
• Zhang Ming found a rice cooker, two and a half kilos of rice, and soil from someone's hometown, and thanked the vanished owner for saving his life.
• Zhang Ming discovered two Two-Headed Black Pig hams and remembered his late aunt, who had often brought ham as a gift.
• On Earth, viewers shifted their attention from Zhang Ming to citizens of their own countries as mirages appeared in the Mysterious Zones.
• The stranded groups struggled with dwindling resources, failed attempts to contact home, and unfamiliar islands inhabited by strange creatures and monsters.

Zhang Ming sorted through suitcases washed up on the island, grateful for useful survival gear and hopeful that its solar-powered radio might connect him with the outside world. Meanwhile, the people trapped aboard the other mirages struggled with shortages and factional conflict.

• The crews aboard Mirages No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 argued over supplies and blamed one another as internal divisions grew.
• The whaling ship at Mirage No. 7 split into three factions after several sailors and foreign laborers gained superpowers, drawing worldwide scrutiny.
• Zhang Ming searched through the suitcases, reflecting on the lives of their owners as he collected useful belongings.
• Zhang Ming found an outdoor kit containing a tent and a solar-powered radio, but heard only static when he turned it on.
• Zhang Ming learned that a satellite broadcast was scheduled around six each afternoon and hoped it might bring news of rescue.

Zhang Ming mourned the passengers who died in the Flight DS898 crash, then prepared shelter and listened to a radio broadcast on the island. Online observers debated what his actions revealed about humanity and civilization, while the broadcast reported worldwide disasters and hinted that their causes remained unknown.

• Zhang Ming opened the remaining luggage, counted his food, water, and cash, and buried clothes beneath a coconut marked as a memorial to the Flight DS898 victims.
• Netizens mocked or defended Zhang Ming’s memorial, and Harvard professor Peter Greer questioned what humanity and civilization meant amid disaster.
• Zhang Ming found a dead tree with a hollow trunk and pitched his tent beneath its canopy.
• Zhang Ming tuned his radio and heard announcer Li Xianfeng report earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, economic disruption, and uncertainty about the causes of the global disasters.

Zhang Ming learned from a satellite broadcast that Mysterious Zones, monsters, and superpowers had emerged, and realized his stats panel was his own ability. He made a shelter and dew collectors on the island, while Li Xianfeng and the experts hoped the broadcast would help him survive.

• Zhang Ming listened to reports about geological upheaval, parallel-world mergers, Mysterious Zones, and the emergence of superpowers, then concluded his stats panel was his own power.
• Zhang Ming finished building a shelter from plane seats, supplies, and coconuts, but felt lonely and uncertain about his future.
• Zhang Ming heard wilderness survival advice about collecting dew and built two dew collectors from airplane metal sheets and suitcases.
• The satellite signal stopped for the night, and Zhang Ming struggled with fear of the monster and hunger before deciding to sleep without changing his stats.
• Li Xianfeng returned to his colleagues, who discussed whether Zhang Ming could hear the broadcasts and how other Mysterious Zones and survivors were affecting international attention.

On the third day in Mysterious Zone 16, hungry and mentally strained, Zhang Ming rationed his food and examined how his attributes affected survival. He adjusted his stats to prepare for the island’s dangers, leaving himself stronger but with only five years of lifespan remaining.

• Li Xianfeng and his subordinates discussed how Zhang Ming’s death could damage Great Xia’s confidence and considered what to send him the next day.
• Zhang Ming woke from a food-themed dream with his Spirit reduced by hunger, then ate instant noodles, ham, biscuits, and candy.
• Zhang Ming studied the effects of Physique, Perception, and Spirit and decided to keep Perception above thirty because a man-eating monster still roamed the island.
• Zhang Ming discovered that cursing increased his Spirit and used it to steady himself.
• Zhang Ming adjusted his attributes to Physique 46, Perception 35, and Spirit 26, leaving his Lifespan at 24 out of 29.

Zhang Ming searched the island for food and found a swarm of enormous crabs, then attacked a smaller one with a metal pipe. In Mirage No. 16, Wang Fumin, Lu Tuyu, and other viewers watched anxiously as Zhang Ming faced the crab.

• Zhang Ming collected dew, prepared dry leaves and branches, and set out along the shore with a salvaged metal pipe.
• Zhang Ming spotted giant crabs on the tidal flats, fled when they pursued him, and noticed they avoided entering the coconut grove.
• Zhang Ming waited for a smaller crab to separate from the swarm, then sprang up and struck at its eyes with the pipe.
• Wang Fumin shielded his daughter from the Mirage, while Lu Tuyu explained that Zhang Ming needed food and might have a superpower.

Zhang Ming fought off a giant crab in Mysterious Zone 16, but realized he was still vulnerable and needed to find food before his supplies ran out. After the crab fled, he spotted a blue-gray crab leg beneath the boulder.

• Wang Fumin and Lu Tuyu discussed Zhang Ming's speed, superpowers, and the public's growing fascination with his survival.
• A glowing blue, jellyfish-like creature boarded a Fuso whaling ship and crawled toward its salted seafood.
• Zhang Ming's pipe broke when a giant crab caught it in its pincer, and he narrowly avoided being struck.
• Zhang Ming climbed onto a boulder and jabbed the crab in the belly, knocking it to the ground and driving it toward the sea.
• Zhang Ming worried that he could not keep relying on his dwindling supplies, then noticed a blue-gray crab leg beneath the boulder.

Stranded on the island, Zhang Ming found a huge crab leg and spent the day making a fire and boiling it. As he waited for his meal, memories of his first girlfriend made him reflect on how ordinary moments could later seem like the best days of his life; he ended the chapter ready to eat the cooked crab leg.

• Zhang Ming found a massive crab leg left behind by the giant crab and hid it in his backpack.
• Zhang Ming returned to the plane wreckage, reshaped a stainless-steel meal drawer into a cooking pot, and gathered materials to make a fire.
• Zhang Ming struggled through the afternoon to start a fire by drilling wood, then boiled the crab leg for an hour.
• Zhang Ming set up dew collectors while the crab cooked and remembered his high-school relationship and happier days.
• Zhang Ming lifted the cooked crab leg from the fire and eagerly prepared to eat it.

As the crew in Mysterious Zone No. 7 was wiped out by rapidly multiplying blue jellyfish, staff at the Special Affairs Processing Department watched in dread. They then learned Mount Fuji had erupted and Fusang had suffered devastating casualties, leaving them to wonder whether the disaster was connected to the team’s annihilation.

• At Yunhai Shelter, Wang Fumin shared his dinner with his daughter while Lu Tuyu told him the people in Mysterious Zone No. 7 were nearly wiped out.
• Li Xianfeng explained that the crew had let the blue jellyfish multiply, then lost their nerve and fled as the creatures attacked.
• The blue jellyfish multiplied to twenty and killed the last survivor, whose invisibility ability had run out, completing Mysterious Zone No. 7’s annihilation on day three.
• Li Xianfeng received a call confirming Zhang Ming was well, then learned Mount Fuji had erupted and Fusang had suffered devastating casualties.

After cautiously tasting a giant crab, Zhang Ming discovered that eating it gave him attribute points and confirmed his physique had increased. He suspected the island’s many enormous creatures were mutated and began planning to harvest crab legs as a steady food and attribute supply.

• Zhang Ming used 60 points to raise his Perception before cautiously tasting the cooked crab meat.
• As Li Xianfeng’s nightly broadcast reported disasters and a fisherman’s illness after eating a mutated catfish, Zhang Ming noticed a warm current spreading through his body.
• Zhang Ming kept eating the crab and felt increasingly refreshed, while the broadcast warned listeners to be careful with mutated creatures.
• Zhang Ming’s attribute panel showed his Physique had risen by one point and his total attributes had reached 150, confirming that eating the crab had given him an attribute point.
• Zhang Ming reasoned that the island’s giant crabs could provide a sustainable supply if he harvested one leg at a time.

Zhang Ming listened to news about Mount Fuji’s eruption and survival advice while reflecting on his isolation and steadily growing attributes. Before going to sleep, he discovered a new superpower on his attribute panel: Strength Burst.

• Zhang Ming heard that Mount Fuji had erupted catastrophically and that deaths in the Mysterious Zone might damage their nations' fortunes.
• Zhang Ming learned how to use coconuts for safe drinking water, coconut oil, and nutrition, and planned to fry crab when he found seasonings.
• After eating crab, Zhang Ming gained two attribute points, raising his total attributes to 151.
• Zhang Ming considered the limits of cultivation and realized he could never match an excavator's strength through ordinary attribute growth.
• Zhang Ming found a new crab-claw icon on his attribute panel and discovered the inactive Strength Burst superpower, which could unleash 50% to 5,000% of his strength.

Researchers in Great Xia discussed how supernatural abilities might work and predicted that strange objects could emerge as the rules of the Mysterious Zones spread. At Cloud Sea Shelter, Wang Fumin found a Mysterious Drift Bottle and considered using it to warn Zhang Ming in Zone 16 about the danger linked to Mount Fuji's eruption.

• Researchers told Li Xianfeng that people with supernatural abilities shared heightened senses and that a mysterious element they called spirit might activate abilities.
• The researchers speculated that Mysterious Zones contained higher concentrations of spirit and that nonliving objects might develop supernatural properties.
• Wang Fumin showed Lu Tuyu a brown glass bottle that identified itself as a Mysterious Drift Bottle, which could be found by a creature he designated if thrown into the sea.
• Lu Tuyu advised Wang Fumin to keep the bottle rather than hand it over to the government.
• Wang Fumin suggested sending the bottle to the young man in Zone 16 with a warning about Mount Fuji's eruption and the destruction of Zone 7.

Wang Fumin and Lu Tuyu sent Zhang Ming a drift bottle packed with a letter, photos, and medicine, while Zhang Ming gained the crab’s Strength Burst ability. After waking to a giant sea turtle near his tent, Zhang Ming faced a new threat as the world watched and feared that deaths in the Mirages might trigger disasters in their homelands.

• Wang Fumin and Lu Tuyu filled the drift bottle with a letter, photos, and medicine, then sent it down a river.
• Zhang Ming spent ten attribute points to gain Strength Burst after discovering that eating the crab’s meat could grant him its superpower.
• Zhang Ming tested Strength Burst, found that it increased his strength by about fifty percent, and went to sleep after extinguishing his campfire.
• Zhang Ming woke from a nightmare, heard movement outside his tent, and spotted a giant sea turtle nearby.
• People around the world debated whether the Mount Fuji eruption was linked to the deaths of people in the Mirages, while Peter Greer warned that the evidence was inconclusive.
• Li Xianfeng watched Zhang Ming face the giant sea turtle and desperately urged him not to provoke it.