Recaps

After returning to reality, Xiao Hao realized seven days in the survival game had passed in only two real-world days and decided to keep working to avoid revealing he was a player. At the office, a giant cockroach appeared, and Xiao Hao watched as Director Liu went out to confront it.

• Xiao Hao woke in his rented room, remembered the survival game, and discovered that seven game days had passed while only two days had elapsed in reality.
• Xiao Hao checked the news about missing people returning, then went to work and concealed his recent transformation from his colleagues.
• Director Liu summoned Xiao Hao over his unfinished marketing proposal and lectured him about working hard, but Xiao Hao refused to volunteer for weekend overtime.
• Screams about an enormous cockroach broke out in the office, and Director Liu stormed outside to deal with it while Xiao Hao watched.

A giant mutant cockroach attacked Xiao Hao’s workplace, but Xiao Hao’s presence frightened it into fleeing. After the police eliminated the cockroach, Xiao Hao realized they were severely shorthanded, and a detective watched him closely as he left.

• Director Liu and his coworkers discovered a huge mutant cockroach crawling through the office, and it chased Director Liu into his room.
• Director Liu tried to shove Xiao Hao toward the cockroach, but Xiao Hao’s strength held him in place and the monster sensed danger in him.
• The cockroach retreated from Xiao Hao, who told Director Liu that overcoming fear could make mutated creatures fear humans again.
• Xiao Hao left the office while Director Liu called for help, and police later arrived and eliminated the cockroach.
• Xiao Hao noticed the police were too shorthanded to take formal statements, then went home as a detective watched him closely.

Captain Wang suspected Xiao Hao had frightened the mutated cockroach through an unexplained ability and investigated him as a possible player. He visited Xiao Hao with several officers, and Xiao Hao opened the door to face him.

• Captain Wang ordered officers to collect the cockroach and review surveillance footage after concluding that something had frightened it more than the armed police.
• Xiao Hao searched online and found reports of mutated creatures appearing around the world, then stayed home to gather information.
• The Dragon Kingdom established the Dragon Transformation Pool, and Captain Wang was assigned to help find players still hiding among the population.
• Captain Wang placed Xiao Hao near the top of the suspected-player list and decided to visit him with several officers.
• The officers discussed Xiao Hao's difficult past as they traveled to his apartment, then knocked on his door.
• Xiao Hao opened the door and recognized Captain Wang from the police squad that had responded to the cockroach incident.

Wang Hegang questioned Xiao Hao about his encounter with the Mutant Cockroach and suspected he was a player, but Xiao Hao concealed what he knew and rejected the Dragon Kingdom’s offers. Wang Hegang left without recruiting him, though he kept Xiao Hao on the suspect list, and Xiao Hao watched the team depart, finally at ease.

• Wang Hegang visited Xiao Hao’s cramped apartment and took him and the officers to a café for a private conversation.
• Wang Hegang questioned Xiao Hao’s calmness around the Mutant Cockroach and its unusual behavior, while Xiao Hao played ignorant and avoided the traps in his questions.
• Wang Hegang accused Xiao Hao of being a player and offered support, justice, and material benefits, but Xiao Hao acted confused and declined the offer of redress.
• After learning Xiao Hao had paid the café bill, Wang Hegang concluded that he would not join the Dragon Transformation Pool and ended the meeting.
• Wang Hegang kept Xiao Hao on the list of suspects despite finding no proof, while Xiao Hao watched the team leave and finally felt at ease.

Xiao Hao followed the news about the survival games as the Dragon Kingdom and foreign players argued over weapons, while wealthy people and celebrities fled abroad. After Director Liu fired him, Xiao Hao secured compensation and left his job, pleased with the payout as the game’s next update approached.

• Xiao Hao read online discussions about closed-beta players, then researched animal habitats and biology to prepare for future mutations.
• The Dragon Kingdom announced ten types of survival games and explained the rules, prompting widespread discussion and anger over foreign players’ apparent advantages with guns.
• Dragon Kingdom netizens discovered that wealthy people and celebrities had moved abroad and were showing off their guns, while Xiao Hao doubted those weapons would help in the game.
• Director Liu confronted Xiao Hao for watching the news at work, but Xiao Hao pointed out that the Dragon Transformation Pool’s commander had instructed employees to watch it.
• Director Liu fired Xiao Hao, and Xiao Hao negotiated compensation for his dismissal, unused leave, time off, and unpaid overtime before collecting his pay and leaving.

Xiao Hao encountered the Female Ghost Shadow of his deceased classmate Qiu Yanan, who demanded that he stay and help her. After confronting her about the burdens he had endured, he saw multiple ghost shadows closing in and read a game notification that enraged him.

• Xiao Hao sensed danger on his walk home and saw a mangled Female Ghost Shadow take shape beneath a streetlight.
• The ghost revealed herself as Qiu Yanan, his former middle school classmate, and asked him to save her and stay with her.
• Xiao Hao refused, explaining that he had been unable to protect himself and could not be expected to save her.
• Xiao Hao challenged Qiu Yanan for idealizing his strength without understanding his struggles, then turned to leave.
• Several identical Female Ghost Shadows crawled along a wall toward Xiao Hao as he opened his game panel.
• Xiao Hao read a scrolling game notification and grew angry at the people from the Dragon Transformation Pool.

Xiao Hao escaped Qing Feng’s test by exploiting the Ghost Shadows’ and Ghost Infant’s need for logical reasons to attack each other. Qing Feng took Xiao Hao off his suspect list, while Xiao Hao returned home without realizing how close he had come to a real fight.

• Xiao Hao fled from Qing Feng’s Ghost Shadows while pretending to be an ordinary person, then stopped when a Ghost Infant blocked his path.
• Xiao Hao distracted the Ghost Infant by directing it toward a Female Ghost Shadow and persuaded the Ghost Shadows to help him, creating a standoff between them.
• Xiao Hao slipped away while the monsters remained frozen, and Qing Feng recalled his Guardians after he emerged from hiding.
• Qing Feng concluded that Xiao Hao was not a Nightmare Survival player and crossed his name off his suspect list.
• Xiao Hao evaded pursuit, returned to his home, and decided to shower and sleep before reviewing survival information the next day.

Xiao Hao agreed to attend Jin Chuanfu’s lavish class reunion, then discovered he had been left off the guest list and confronted Jin about the slight. The exchange revived Xiao Hao’s suspicion that Jin had helped force him out of high school.

• Xiao Hao accepted the reunion invitation but told Jin Chuanfu he did not need a gift.
• Xiao Hao read the livestream comments and was pleased to learn Qing Feng had crossed him off his list of suspected players.
• A security guard stopped Xiao Hao at the hotel because his name was missing from the guest list.
• Jin Chuanfu brought the classmates to the entrance and claimed he had forgotten to add Xiao Hao’s name.
• Xiao Hao quoted Jin’s invitation back to him and told him not to throw his courtesy back in his face.
• Xiao Hao recalled Jin’s jealousy and suspected he had played a part in forcing him to drop out of high school.

At his middle school reunion, Xiao Hao realized Jin Chuanfu was using the gathering to recruit Survival Game players through classmates’ connections. Jin Chuanfu’s deliberate slight turned Xiao Hao into an enemy, and Xiao Hao resolved to destroy the Jin family when the time was right.

• Xiao Hao arrived in casual clothes and traded awkward remarks with Du Shijie, while Lin Nanyao urged him not to go too far.
• Jin Chuanfu addressed the reunion and announced gifts before explaining that he wanted classmates to connect him with anyone they knew who was a Survival Game player.
• Xiao Hao recognized Jin Chuanfu’s recruitment plan as an application of the six degrees of separation theory and realized the Jin family was investing in a network of intermediaries.
• Xiao Hao concluded that Jin Chuanfu had ignored his father’s advice to build good relationships and had needlessly made a top-tier player his enemy.
• Xiao Hao decided he would wait until the right moment to wipe out the Jin family.

A temporary wave of biological evolution unleashed monsters across the real world, forcing Xiao Hao and the people around him to seek shelter while players and the military fought back. The chapter ended with the Dragon Kingdom revealing three elite player-defenders aboard a flying aircraft carrier.

• Jin Chuanfu offered rewards for recruiting players, prompting several classmates, including Du Shijie, to side with him against Xiao Hao.
• A system notification announced the evolution wave, and emergency broadcasts ordered people to return home and secure their buildings.
• Xiao Hao fled the hotel, then secretly returned using Shadow Transformation to escort Lin Nanyao home without revealing himself.
• Giant ants emerged from a subway station, and fighter jets killed them as the Dragon Kingdom livestreamed its response.
• Players with guardians and abilities from different survival games battled the growing monsters, while many oversized creatures began appearing across the city.
• The Dragon Kingdom revealed Wu Ting, Mu Saying, and Qing Feng as its public defenders aboard a flying aircraft carrier.

As the evolutionary tide subsided, a level-ten giant tree and Flower Eagle overwhelmed the Dragon Kingdom’s players and threatened Blue Dragon City. Qing Feng’s Ceramic Ghost Infant parasitized the tree, turning its leaves to ceramic and weakening it as the chapter ended with the tree dying.

• Blood-Red Sparrows and a Giant Eagle protected the aircraft carrier while Wu Ting’s dinosaurs, aided by Qing Feng’s Ghost Shadow, hunted monsters in the suburbs.
• Xiao Hao recognized Blue Dragon City in the livestream and watched as the giant tree and Flower Eagle emerged as powerful threats.
• Mu Saying sent the White-Eyed Eagle against the Flower Eagle, while Wu Ting’s dinosaurs attacked the tree, but both monsters proved stronger than the players could handle.
• The giant tree drained nearby monster corpses to regenerate and grow, while its expanding crown spread over Blue Dragon City and tanks failed to stop it.
• Qing Feng announced that it had worked, and the Ceramic Ghost Infant transformed the tree’s leaves into ceramic, causing its branches and roots to wither as the Velociraptors escaped.

The Flower Eagle overwhelmed the Dragon Kingdom’s forces and flew into Blue Dragon City, leaving the leaders pressured by citizens’ pleas and foreign countries’ demands for aircraft carriers. As the Dragon Kingdom prepared to consider a sacrifice, the commander of the Dragon Transformation Pool noticed something unusual.

• The Ghost Infant emerged from the Giant Tree, shrank, and returned to Qing Feng, while Xiao Hao slipped away into a wrecked menswear store.
• The Flower Eagle proved too powerful for the Dragon Kingdom’s weakened Guardians and flew into Blue Dragon City as its defenders fell back.
• Foreign viewers mocked the Dragon Kingdom and other countries offered help in exchange for aircraft carriers, while Blue Dragon City’s citizens pleaded for rescue.
• The Dragon Kingdom’s leaders rejected abandoning their people, despite recognizing that surrendering aircraft carriers would threaten their country’s security.
• As the commander of the Dragon Transformation Pool prepared to agree to the foreign countries’ demands, he noticed something unusual.

Xiao Hao confronted Flower Eagle on the hotel rooftop, and the Ghost Scythe Ring’s aura terrified the special boss and nearby monsters. After learning how powerful his equipment was, he challenged the foreigners coveting the Dragon Kingdom’s aircraft carrier, leaving his identity hidden beneath the Shadow Mask.

• Xiao Hao walked through the devastated street toward the hotel as Flower Eagle flew in to attack it.
• Xiao Hao leapt onto the hotel rooftop, cracking it, and activated his Ghost Scythe Ring as Flower Eagle approached.
• Flower Eagle stopped in fear, while Ghost Infant and the other monsters and Guardians reacted to Xiao Hao’s overwhelming aura.
• Viewers explained that the Ghost Scythe Ring carried the power of the nearly level-20 Deep-Sea Ghost and suppressed lower-tier monsters.
• Xiao Hao asked whether the foreigners wanted the aircraft carrier, then warned them that taking it might burn their hands.

Xiao Hao intimidated foreign leaders who wanted the aircraft carrier, then had his Shadow Seahorses capture and kill the Flower Eagle. He stood atop a hotel in Blue Dragon City as the sunset turned the shattered city into a red sea, leaving livestream viewers awestruck.

• Xiao Hao’s threatening words frightened foreign leaders into withdrawing their hackers and paid trolls rather than pressure the Dragon Kingdom.
• The Flower Eagle tried to flee Xiao Hao, but seven Shadow Seahorses emerged and chased it down.
• The Shadow Seahorses bound the Flower Eagle in Shadow Ribbons and drained its life while viewers watched around the world.
• The Shadow Seahorses returned to Xiao Hao’s side after the Flower Eagle died.
• Xiao Hao stood atop the hotel as the sunset painted Blue Dragon City red, and livestream viewers stared in awe.

Dragon Kingdom netizens defended their unseen top player, while senior officials tried to recruit Xiao Hao into the Dragon Transformation Pool. Xiao Hao recognized that the country needed him as a symbol of national confidence and delivered a pointed warning about how it treated its players.

• Dragon Kingdom netizens mocked foreign commenters who doubted Xiao Hao's strength and claimed he might belong to another country.
• Senior officials ordered their subordinates to contact Xiao Hao and meet his conditions without angering him.
• Wu Ting invited Xiao Hao to join the Dragon Transformation Pool and promised that membership would not restrict his freedom, but Xiao Hao refused.
• Qing Feng stressed that the Dragon Kingdom needed Xiao Hao, and Xiao Hao realized that his presence could reassure the country amid its shortage of players.
• Xiao Hao told the livestream audience that the Dragon Kingdom was united and did not dissect its players for experiments.

Xiao Hao exposed other countries’ abuses of their players and affirmed that the Dragon Kingdom could be trusted, while revealing himself as Player 869 to the Dragon Transformation Pool. He left without joining, and the chapter ended with the Dragon Kingdom’s officials urging their players to focus on getting stronger.

• Xiao Hao insisted that the Dragon Kingdom could be trusted even if he did not join the Dragon Transformation Pool, and foreign livestreams revealed players fleeing laboratories and exposing experiments.
• The deep-sea survival players recognized Xiao Hao as Player 869 and eagerly offered to join him, but he refused and disappeared as a shadow.
• Mu Saying promised Xiao Hao that he could choose anyone if he joined, while another woman first objected and then agreed.
• The Dragon Kingdom’s senior officials told their players to leave their safety to the authorities and focus on getting stronger, prompting cheers from players and netizens.

After the evolution wave, Xiao Hao returned to the hotel tower to find Lin Nanyao and escort her home. He and Du Shijie found a giant python waiting in a blood-soaked alley, leaving the girls in immediate danger.

• Xiao Hao learned that killing real-world monsters earned Spirit Pearls and decided to farm more after escorting Lin Nanyao home.
• Xiao Hao was mistaken for a poor scavenger at the hotel tower and insulted by wealthy guests who praised his own famous aircraft-carrier remark without recognizing him.
• Xiao Hao found Lin Nanyao unharmed and waited until the hotel staff sent her classmates away.
• Lin Nanyao and Du Shijie walked home together through a quiet alley and encountered a giant python amid the remains of its victims.
• Xiao Hao used Shadow Transformation to appear behind Lin Nanyao as the python turned toward the screaming girls.

Xiao Hao saved Du Shijie and Lin Nanyao from a giant python, then used Darkness Domain and Darkness Erosion to wipe out the snakes threatening their families and the residential area. After deciding he had repaid Lin Nanyao’s kindness, he returned to his apartment, where he found that the phone network was down.

• Xiao Hao secretly saved Du Shijie and Lin Nanyao by severing the giant python’s head, and the girls continued toward home without knowing who had rescued them.
• Du Shijie and Lin Nanyao reached their apartment building and learned from their parents that snakes were inside, as countless snakes poured out around them.
• Lin Nanyao and Du Shijie begged their unseen rescuer for help, and Xiao Hao covered the residential area with Darkness Domain and used Darkness Erosion to kill the snakes.
• The survivors thanked Xiao Hao as the darkness receded, and Xiao Hao left after concluding he had repaid Lin Nanyao’s kindness by saving her and her family.
• Xiao Hao walked past corpses and grieving soldiers on his way home, then discovered his phone had no signal and went to bed early.

Xiao Hao fought the Insectoid Monster and other wild insects that attacked survivors after dark, then investigated gunshots in the distance. He left the chapter heading toward a possible new threat while trying to avoid exposing himself.

• Xiao Hao woke to find an Insectoid Monster attacking a car and killing its drunk driver, then killed the monster with the Ghost Scythe Ring and Reaper's Scythe.
• Xiao Hao fled the survivors' strange cheers and returned to his room, where a Dragonfly Wild Monster attacked a woman in a nearby building.
• Xiao Hao killed the Dragonfly Monster and realized that many insects had escaped the daytime sweep and were active at night.
• Xiao Hao decided to stay awake farming monsters, killed several giant insects, and heard gunshots in the distance.
• Xiao Hao used Shadow Transformation to investigate the gunshots, concerned that approaching could expose him.

Xiao Hao arrived at the highway battlefield and saved a wounded soldier as the insect horde slaughtered the Dragon Kingdom’s forces. Seeing the soldiers’ losses and their desperate defense of Blue Dragon City, Xiao Hao’s anger surged and darkness descended.

• Mutated insects overwhelmed the soldiers, while a giant white insect laid eggs among the Giant Tree’s remains.
• Wang He ordered his troops to try to retrieve a wounded soldier, and Xiao Hao appeared, killed a mantis monster with his Reaper’s Scythe, and frightened the insects with the Ghost Scythe Ring.
• Xiao Hao carried the soldier back to Wang He and asked where the other players were; Wang He explained they had returned to their own cities.
• Xiao Hao saw the battlefield’s wreckage and the soldiers’ pain after more than half their forces had died defending Blue Dragon City.
• Xiao Hao’s anger grew as he understood the soldiers’ sacrifices, and his shadow boiled as darkness descended.

Xiao Hao unleashed his eightfold Darkness Domain and slaughtered the Insect Monsters, saving the surviving soldiers. He refused Wang He’s plea to join the Dragon Transformation Pool and left as the soldiers mourned their fallen comrades.

• Xiao Hao expanded his Darkness Domain over the Insect Monsters, draining their vitality and killing the entire horde, including the insect queen.
• Wang He and the other team leaders kept the soldiers ready while they waited anxiously for the battle to end.
• Xiao Hao emerged from the darkness, and the soldiers cheered before grieving their many dead comrades.
• Wang He asked Xiao Hao to join the Dragon Transformation Pool, but Xiao Hao refused and explained that not all top players could join.
• Xiao Hao transformed into an Aurora Shadow and flew away, then watched from above as the soldiers gathered their fallen comrades and mourned.

Xiao Hao and his seahorses fought the Insect Monsters invading Blue Dragon City, rescuing civilians and clearing a hotel where officers were holding the creatures back. After Xiao Hao revealed that every monster in the hotel was dead, Officer Nine took him toward the Command Center.

• Xiao Hao's Shadow Seahorse saved a family from a flying Insect Monster, while the other seahorses hunted monsters throughout Blue Dragon City.
• Xiao Hao headed toward the hotel in the city center, where government officers had left the lights on and were using traps and gunfire to protect civilians.
• Xiao Hao arrived on Officer Nine's floor, killed the attacking caterpillar, and pinned four flying insects with his Reaper's Scythes.
• Xiao Hao told the officers over the radio that the Giant Tree's monsters were dead and that he had come from the battlefield there.
• Xiao Hao's Darkness Domain drained the life from every monster in the hotel, and Officer Nine led him toward the Command Center at the police chief's request.

Xiao Hao learned that an intelligent ghost might be a dead player and informed the Police Chief, who sent him the files of three players who died fighting the Giant Tree. One file belonged to Qiu Chengnan, Qiu Yanan’s older brother, as Xiao Hao prepared to investigate the Communications Base Station.

• No. 9 described how police teams had fought monsters inside the Hotel in succession, sacrificing teams to hold out until reinforcements arrived.
• Police Chief No. 1 showed Xiao Hao surveillance footage of the damaged Communications Base Station and explained that an intelligent ghost had killed everyone sent to repair it.
• Xiao Hao told the Police Chief that dead players could become ghosts and explained his deduction, which the otherworldly viewers accepted.
• The Police Chief ordered his subordinates to bring files on three players who had died fighting the Giant Tree.
• Xiao Hao examined the files and recognized Qiu Chengnan as Qiu Yanan’s older brother.

Xiao Hao investigated Qiu Chengnan’s possible connection to the communications base station and learned that Qiu Chengnan possessed the powerful Ghost Banner. At the station, Xiao Hao was ambushed by several monstrous dead players and faced a sneering man who dismissed him as unimpressive.

• Xiao Hao reviewed Qiu Chengnan’s file, learned about his sister Qiu Yanan’s suicide, and agreed to investigate the communications base station.
• On his way to the station, Xiao Hao learned from the chat that Qiu Chengnan had acquired the Ghost Banner, a powerful item that could command ghosts.
• Xiao Hao found poisoned maintenance workers outside the station and dodged an attack from Huo Donglan, a vulture-like ghost with a needle-covered tail.
• Xiao Hao used Shadow Transformation to enter the station, where Chang Zhiqian attacked him with a gaping, tooth-lined maw.
• Huo Donglan struck Xiao Hao from the air as a human-faced spider and a snake-bodied woman watched him from the dark.
• A man approached with his hands in his pockets and sneered that the number one player was nothing special.

Xiao Hao fought Qiu Chengnan and his monsters, discovering that they could phase through physical attacks but became solid when striking. He forced Qiu Chengnan out of hiding and refused to leave him alone after learning he had killed people and cut off Xiao Hao’s internet.

• Qiu Chengnan appeared as Xiao Hao’s Jade Armor withstood Huo Donglan’s venomous tail stinger, and Xiao Hao summoned the Peacock Mantis Shrimp to defeat the attacking monsters.
• Chang Zhiqian transformed into a humanoid worm and was shredded by the Mantis Shrimp, but his flesh regenerated and trapped Xiao Hao until he escaped with Shadow Transformation.
• Qiu Chengnan’s snake woman petrified two of the Mantis Shrimp’s Rinkaku Tentacles, then Qiu Chengnan and his monsters vanished through Phasing.
• Xiao Hao realized Qiu Chengnan’s monsters became solid when attacking and ordered the Mantis Shrimp to use Mantis Scythe throughout the base station.
• Qiu Chengnan was forced to become solid and reveal his hiding place, then demanded that Xiao Hao stay out of his way; Xiao Hao decided he would not let him go.