Chapter Summaries

Li Zheng and the Hardcore Grinder Group found Broken Star and tried to raise his affinity by offering him canned food, hoping to receive valuable gifts. After Broken Star gave Li Zheng a violet soul crystal but refused to give them a Body Tempering combat technique, Li Zheng’s Forum guide sparked a player-wide craze for trading cheap goods with the God of Wealth.

• Li Zheng and the Hardcore Grinder Group spotted Broken Star in the Blood Plains and approached him, asking for Body Tempering combat techniques and other valuable goods.
• The group guessed that they needed to raise Broken Star’s affinity, so they offered him canned food and imagined his affinity increasing as he ate.
• Broken Star questioned Li Zheng about the Player Race, and Li Zheng explained their origins using the background provided by Guide while concealing that they were players.
• Li Zheng invoked the Player Race’s custom of returning gifts, prompting Broken Star to give him a level 7 violet soul crystal but refuse his request for a Body Tempering combat technique.
• Li Zheng posted a Forum guide claiming that NPC affinity was a hidden stat, and players began seeking Broken Star to trade cheap goods for valuable items.
• Unaware of the coming harassment, Broken Star considered investigating the Player Race’s settlement and recruiting them into the Against the Tide Legion.

Qi Sheng developed a Lucky Wheel prize draw to raise sacrificial power for Ultra-Dimensional’s Armored Vehicle Function, while also planning a universal cultivation organ for players. The event drew players into spending, and Qi Sheng profited as the Lucky Wheel began awarding prizes.

• Qi Sheng found that the Heavenly Talisman Combat Skill could not safely circulate in human bodies and considered creating a universal cultivation organ for players.
• Ultra-Dimensional told Qi Sheng that developing the Armored Vehicle Function was consuming sacrificial power and could hinder reward payouts.
• Qi Sheng decided to raise sacrificial power through a Lucky Wheel event and worked with Guide to launch it.
• Players debated the event’s fairness, and Don't Tell Mom Your Troubles won a gold-tier sacrificial power gift pack shortly after the event began.
• Qi Sheng used server-wide prize announcements to attract hesitant players, and the Lucky Wheel drew increasing participation while remaining profitable for him.

After a prize draw brought Qi Sheng 830,000 Sacrificial Power, players discovered Cloudfield, a resource Domain Node corrupted by a powerful Corrosion Core. Qi Sheng issued a purification quest offering farmland rights, but the Corrupted Plants proved too strong for the players, leaving the node unclaimed and the guilds focused on becoming stronger.

• Qi Sheng tallied 830,000 Sacrificial Power from the 24-hour prize draw and used it to cover Ultra-Dimensional's armed-vehicle development costs.
• Two players exploring Gray Mist Forest found and harvested a Seven-Colored Tree, then discovered the Cloudfield farmland and its Corrosion Core.
• The players attacked the Corrosion Core, which unleashed Corrupted Plants that overwhelmed and killed them.
• Qi Sheng announced a purification quest for Cloudfield, offering farmland usage rights to the top 1,000 contributors.
• Major Guilds sent players to Gray Forest, but the level 30–45 Corrupted Plants proved too powerful, forcing the guilds to withdraw for now.

Wu Quan pursued his favorite hobby in the Darklands and discovered that fishing could help him grow stronger as well as provide food. After catching and eating his first Red-Scaled Fish, he decided to share his findings on the player Forum and recruit others to develop fishing.

• Players competed for contribution rankings at Cloudfield because dealing damage to its powerful Corrosion Core still earned contribution.
• Wu Quan ignored his mother's messages urging him to marry and logged into the Darklands to fish at Turtleback Lake.
• Wu Quan used his level 12 Gargoyle strength to land his first Red-Scaled Fish and chose to dismantle it into fish meat.
• Wu Quan discovered that Red-Scaled Fish Meat granted Body Tempering experience and found its taste extraordinarily delicious.
• Wu Quan decided to post a fishing guide on the player Forum and encourage other players to improve fishing gear and techniques together.

Wu Quan posted a detailed guide to fishing in Monster World, inspiring players to explore angling and revealing new uses for monster materials and aquatic creatures. As Wu Quan’s guide and livestream attracted attention, Qi Sheng saw fishing as a way to develop players and contain underwater Primordial Monsters.

• Wu Quan shared instructions for crafting fishing gear, named two fishing spots, and described fishing’s rewards and the taste of fish meat.
• Players discussed the guide, and Wu Quan answered questions as more players decided to try fishing.
• Demand for Iron-Shelled Insect silk rose sharply after players began using it for fishing lines, while fish meat drew interest from buyers.
• Wu Quan caught a Turtle Ray, grilled its meat on his livestream, and praised its flavor as viewers asked to buy some.
• Qi Sheng recognized that angling could help players find underwater Primordial Monsters and support future development of spiritual food and utility professions.

Qi Sheng introduced the version 1.3 update, adding shared encyclopedias, map details, hunger displays, and inherited-stat information. In the Blood Plains, Lu Xing rejected his viewers’ suggestion to challenge Wonder Butterfly before level 25, but considered using Psionic Bombs instead.

• Qi Sheng decided to add player discoveries to shared encyclopedias and improve the map and stat panels.
• Qi Sheng and Guide implemented the version 1.3 update, which added four encyclopedias, map-area details, hunger, and inherited primary-form stats.
• Players praised the new map details on the Forum while continuing to criticize the Eclipse Race’s scarcity marketing.
• After killing Rageclaw, Lu Xing refused to fight Wonder Butterfly until level 25, even if it fled at that level.
• A viewer suggested Lu Xing use Psionic Bombs against Wonder Butterfly, and Lu Xing considered trying the plan.

Lu Xing bought Psionic Bombs and prepared to challenge Wonder Butterfly, hoping to defeat it and secure the Wind Control Life Soul for the players. Wonder Butterfly blew the bombs out of his hands, and Lu Xing ended the chapter being beaten again.

• Lu Xing bought five Generation Two Psionic Bombs from Weapon Master for 500 Sacrificial Power.
• Lu Xing practiced triggering the bombs in the Testing Tower’s Simulation Space before setting out for Windwave Pool.
• Lu Xing arrived at Windwave Pool and waited for Wonder Butterfly to charge within the bombs’ blast range.
• Lu Xing pulled out all five bombs, but Wonder Butterfly used its wind to sweep them overhead, where they exploded harmlessly.
• Wonder Butterfly beat Lu Xing for more than twenty minutes while the livestream spectators joked about his failed attempt.

Qi Sheng revisited his transformed hometown, then improved the players’ life-soul system after reviewing their forum posts. As Di Nian Evil Spirit and Evil Eye prepared a dark tide assault on the Di Family Mountains, Qi Sheng monitored their growth and trusted the player army to withstand the coming battle.

• Qi Sheng walked through Skywind City, found none of his old haunts, and formally said farewell to his former self.
• Qi Sheng read forum posts about Lu Xing’s repeated clashes with Wonder Butterfly and a player’s request for a life-soul dismantling system.
• Qi Sheng proposed a dismantling and refund function to Ultra-Dimensional, which agreed to develop it before resuming the armored vehicle feature.
• At Earth Vein Cliff, Evil Eye infused Di Nian Evil Spirit with energy derived from the domain node’s rules, while Guide explained that the energy imitated but could not reproduce true rule powers.
• Qi Sheng learned that Evil Eye was raising an army of evil beings for an impending attack on the Di Family Mountains and regarded the coming conflict as training for the players.

Broken Star considered recruiting the rapidly improving Player Race into the Against the Tide Legion but fled when they approached, while Qi Sheng saw players devise trap tactics using the Mud Demon Life Soul. After logging out, Li Zheng read a post attacking Darklands and rallied his fellow grinders to defend the game.

• Broken Star concluded the Player Race had come from another world, admired their growth and potential, and hoped to recruit them into the Against the Tide Legion, but he lacked a way to return and fled when they ran toward him.
• Qi Sheng read about players using Mud Demon’s Dissolve ability in Trap-Style Tactics to lure Blood Ghouls through a damaging passage and defeat them without direct combat.
• Li Zheng logged out, checked his earnings, ordered food, and reflected on how Darklands had improved his quality of life and senses.
• Li Zheng found a forum post criticizing Darklands’ realism, performance, and physics, and dismissed its claims as fabricated slander.
• Li Zheng shared screenshots of the post with the Hardcore Grinder Group, whose members vowed to confront the poster on the forum.

Hardcore Grinder Group players attacked Dong Wei on the Rise of Humanity Forum after he criticized Darklands, and he rallied other players to answer them. The argument escalated into a massive flame war that administrators shut down, while both sides remained convinced their opponents were paid trolls.

• Li Zheng and the Hardcore Grinder Group players flooded Dong Wei’s Rise of Humanity Forum thread with insults after he posted about Darklands’ alleged optimization problems.
• Dong Wei angrily defended his criticism and sought support from players on Darklands’ built-in Forum.
• Li Zheng posted a thread on Monster World’s built-in Forum, prompting Darklands players to join the argument on the Rise of Humanity Forum.
• Players on both sides accused one another of spreading rumors and being paid trolls, and the thread grew into a trending war of insults.
• Rise of Humanity Forum administrators locked and deleted the thread and muted everyone who had posted for twenty-four hours.
• Both groups returned to their own games’ forums, where fellow players agreed with them, and the dispute ended without either side conceding.

Qi Sheng mobilized the players to hunt the Dark Tide, and their growing strength turned the invading horde into a source of rewards. The Di Nian Evil Spirit captured the exhausted Zou Feng and began probing his memories with the Evil Eye.

• Qi Sheng triggered the Dark Tide Hunter quest, raising hunting rewards and sending players across the Emperor Tomb Mountain Range to block the tide’s expansion.
• Players met the Dark Tide on the Ancient Battlefield and discovered its lesser evil spirits were weak, then charged in and slaughtered them for rewards.
• Qi Sheng observed that the players could not nourish the Dark Tide when they died, while their kills strengthened them and increased his sacrificial power income.
• The Di Nian Evil Spirit noticed that the mysterious players and their victims behaved differently from other creatures, and ordered the Dark Tide to capture one for the Evil Eye to investigate.
• After Zou Feng’s teammates died and he collapsed from exhaustion, the Dark Tide carried him to the High Tower; the Di Nian Evil Spirit connected the Evil Eye’s tentacles to his head and began reading his memories.

The Purification System protected Zou Feng from Evil Eye’s attempt to read his memories, and the Di Nian Evil Spirit’s interrogation ended with Zou Feng’s death. Players repeatedly failed to discover how to trigger the hidden mission, leaving the Di Nian Evil Spirit increasingly furious after enduring their bizarre performances.

• The Purification System cleared Evil Eye’s dark tide energy from Zou Feng’s mind, so Evil Eye could not read his memories.
• The Di Nian Evil Spirit interrogated Zou Feng, who answered as an Emperor Zhao warrior and could not explain why players’ bodies vanished after death.
• The Challenger System reduced Zou Feng’s pain perception to zero during torture, but the Di Nian Evil Spirit eventually killed him without learning anything useful.
• Players discussed Zou Feng’s failed encounter on the Forum, then Frenzy Chick and several other players tried different approaches to the hidden storyline and were killed.
• After repeated interrogations produced no useful intelligence, the Di Nian Evil Spirit lost control and roared as dark tide energy swept through the High Tower.

Players enjoyed fighting the Dark Tide, but Qi Sheng noticed that a popular melee-and-elemental Life Soul build revealed a flaw in how Evolution Points were distributed. He created an allocation function to let players focus upgrades on selected Life Souls and prepared to release it.

• Players slaughtered the weak Dark Tide creatures for experience and Sacrificial Power, while the Di Nian Evil Spirit found that contact with them was weakening his forces.
• Qi Sheng gained 580,000 Sacrificial Power from the players' fighting and reflected on how their growth had turned his desperate situation around.
• Steel Giant Arm posted a build combining Shatterblade, Strength Savage Axe, Bonefire, and Qi Eater to handle Shadow Strike while maintaining health and mental power.
• Nightfall Is Coming pointed out that the build's physical and mental Life Souls would divide Evolution Points and leave its physical strength weaker than a pure melee setup.
• Qi Sheng recognized that shared Evolution Point distribution could hinder specialized builds and worked with Guide to create an allocation panel with adjustable percentages and a one-click balance option.
• Qi Sheng tested the new function and decided to update the game so players could distribute Evolution Points freely among their Life Souls.

Qi Sheng launched an update adding life soul decomposition, evolution point allocation, and a trading house, then recruited Li Tie’s veteran comrades to Darklands. The veterans regained their lost limbs in the game and charged into the Dark Tide, where their excitement was cut short by the one-hour death cooldown.

• Qi Sheng released update 1.4 and compensated players who had decomposed life souls before the new refund feature arrived.
• Li Tie reunited with his old comrades at the Veterans' Tavern, learned about Darklands, and shared his access link with them.
• Guide told Qi Sheng that Li Tie had shared the link, and Qi Sheng issued extra download access for the veterans.
• Li Tie and his comrades logged into Di Family Village, where the veterans were stunned to find their missing limbs restored.
• Li Tie demonstrated his combat power against Dark Tide evil spirits, and the veterans followed him into battle.
• The veterans were killed during their first fight and complained in their group chat about the one-hour Respawn Cooldown.

Qi Sheng observed veterans and new players fighting the Dark Tide, then watched a squad capture the randomly respawned primordial monster Flowing Shadow and gain a new Life Soul. He discovered a joking forum post about a future apocalypse that unknowingly described what would really happen, while the players still had time to grow stronger.

• Lao Gou and his veteran comrades fought Evil Spirits with coordinated attacks, while Qi Sheng noted their rapid growth and frustration with the resurrection cooldown.
• New players joined a charge against the Dark Tide, following veterans and learning about the game as they hunted isolated Evil Spirits.
• A squad encountered the level-one primordial monster Flowing Shadow, killed it, and contained it in the underground Containment Wall.
• Jungler Huang Feihong shared Flowing Shadow's analysis in regional chat, and players lamented that the squad had won the 20,000 sacrificial power reward by luck.
• Qi Sheng gained greater control over his primordial power and tested Flowing Shadow's clone trait.
• Qi Sheng read Divine King's forum post joking about spending a billion to prepare for an apocalypse, and recognized that its prediction of darkness and a real-world crisis would eventually come true.

Qi Sheng reviewed the Trading House and players’ experiments with Flowing Shadow before assessing how the Dark Tide had grown stronger after absorbing Cloudfield’s Corrosion Core. As he watched players confront its new, more dangerous Evil Spirits, he continued switching between their viewpoints.

• Qi Sheng inspected the Trading House, where players traded goods and services alongside joke listings with absurd prices.
• Nightfall Is Coming posted tests of four Flowing Shadow Star Meridian combinations, including a doppelganger mining crew, and players discussed their uses and limits.
• Qi Sheng learned that the Dark Tide had absorbed Cloudfield’s Corrosion Core, raising its Evil Spirits’ average Hunting Level from 2 to 4.
• The Dark Tide produced Corrupted Tooth Roots, Ghost Dolls, and Mist Serpents, whose abilities made battles more dangerous and killed some players.
• Qi Sheng reflected that the Dark Tide grew by consuming worlds, while Monster World’s resilience and Emperor Zhao’s former strength gave it an advantage.
• Qi Sheng continued watching players fight the Dark Tide by switching between their viewpoints.

The Kindergarten Squad fought through the Dark Tide and discovered a dying sixth-generation primordial, Infinity, after witnessing the powerful Flame Spirit. Their containment earned them Infinity life souls, but its random world check weakened most of the squad, and Qi Sheng decided not to make the life soul widely available until players could improve their fortune.

• The Kindergarten Squad spotted the level 138 Flame Spirit battling in the sky, then followed the blue liquid it spat out through the Dark Tide.
• The squad found the dying Infinity and killed it, triggering a reward of 100,000 sacrificial power and 15 Infinity life souls.
• Iron Hammer and his teammates socketed Infinity and rolled world checks; Drunken Milk, Black Ball, and Class Monitor gained strength, while the other twelve were weakened.
• Iron Hammer asked the Forum for an explanation, and Nightfall Is Coming concluded that fortune-type life souls could improve Infinity's odds and that its potential increased with its level.
• Qi Sheng learned that Infinity generated 15,000 sacrificial power per hour and kept it unavailable for purchase, reserving it for events until more fortune-related life souls were contained.

Qi Sheng investigated the Mechanical Overlord after its Iron Soul Warriors wiped out the players and Dark Tide forces raiding spirit ore in the Di Family Mountains. He learned it was built by a doomed race to destroy the Dark Tide, but had reached the Monster World instead, making it a threat to the world and Qi Sheng’s forces.

• Qi Sheng learned that the Di Nian Evil Spirit burned spirit ore in the Evil Eye High Tower because the Dark Tide converted it more efficiently that way, then observed the players’ raids against its shipments.
• A spatial vortex opened above the battlefield, and Iron Soul Warriors slaughtered the players and Dark Tide creatures before harvesting spirit ore through a pillar of light.
• Guide identified the Mechanical Overlord as a demigod-level weapon empowered by the Divine Metal Rule, and Qi Sheng followed the Iron Souls through the spatial vortex to its moon-sized body.
• Qi Sheng entered the Mechanical Overlord and used sacrificial power to reconstruct the memories of its dead designer, learning that the machine had been created to destroy the Dark Tide but had arrived in the Monster World instead.
• Qi Sheng classified the Mechanical Overlord as a hostile power and returned home with Guide, anticipating other dangerous forces from different worlds.

Qi Sheng watched players contain the Primordial Monster Extraction, whose Life Soul was dismissed as weak, while Yang Tianxuan realized it could help the Human Federation’s Genetic Modification Department. The chapter ended with Yu Ze unexpectedly gaining access to download the Cracked Version of the Darklands.

• Qi Sheng asked the Guide Water Orb about recruiting the Against the Tide Legion, then decided to keep his identity as Emperor Zhao’s successor hidden.
• Players Hero, Kill My Teammate First, I'm the Teammate, and I'm the Hero killed Extraction and received a shared reward of 10,000 sacrificial power points.
• Nightfall Is Coming assessed Extraction as nearly useless in the current version, prompting players to debate its potential and other Life Souls on the Forum.
• Yang Tianxuan tested Fourth-Generation Spirit-Energy Firearms and, after reading the Extraction assessment, recognized its potential for improving spirit plants and genetic experiments.
• Yang Tianxuan told Yu Ze that the Darklands could help advance genetic modification, and Yu Ze tried downloading the Cracked Version again.
• Yu Ze was stunned when the download finally began.

Yu Ze developed and tested Genetic Seeds, but his first version caused extreme pain while offering almost no savings over ordinary Body Tempering. After a player publicly complained about the product, Yu Ze removed his remaining seeds from sale and proposed that his teammates use them instead.

• Yu Ze borrowed 4,000 Sacrificial Power from Big Killer, bought Spirit Plants, and used his Extraction Trait to obtain plant essence.
• Yu Ze failed to engrave safe spiritual-particle pathways until he raised his Eagle-Headed Demon Life Soul to level 8 with his team's help.
• Yu Ze created his first Genetic Seed and swallowed it, enduring an hour of severe pain with Healing Potions to gain 318 Body Tempering experience.
• Yu Ze found that the seed's materials and healing costs exceeded the value of its experience, so he continued researching ways to reduce damage.
• Happy Chick posted a trending warning about the agony and meager profit from a Genetic Seed, and Yu Ze removed his remaining three seeds from the Trading House.
• Yu Ze told his teammates the seeds probably would not sell and suggested that they use them themselves.