Chapter Summaries

Luo Fan and Jiang Shengnan settled into life in Jiangkou Town while learning about its costs and rules, and Jiang Shengnan joined the City Guard. Their comfortable routine ended when an alarm announced that many Weird Nests were approaching the town.

• Luo Fan and Jiang Shengnan paid one First-Order Weird Crystal for dinner and spent the night on a rooftop, where they talked beneath the stars before Jiang Shengnan fell asleep.
• The next day, Jiang Shengnan joined the City Guard as a battalion captain, while Luo Fan explored the town and learned about its taxes and living conditions.
• Luo Fan used his daily check-in funds to buy supplies for the Aerospace Base and Greenedge Base, then found a house and cooked for himself.
• After several days in Jiangkou Town, Luo Fan made dinner at home, but a Weird shriek and loudspeaker warning announced that a large number of Weird Nests were approaching.

A massive Weird tide attacked Jiangkou Town, and its Sequence Users organized a defense while Luo Fan stayed among the ordinary survivors. After hearing that the town had endured several attacks despite its powerful rule-type Weird, Luo Fan wondered whether the Weird was secretly orchestrating them but could not explain why it had killed a previous attacker.

• Luo Fan saw thousands of Weird, including third-tier One-Eyed Giants, approaching Jiangkou Town as guards and independent Sequence Users gathered to defend it.
• Jiang Shengnan led her hundred-person guard squad to the defensive line and exchanged a glance with Luo Fan.
• A command-type Sequence User directed the defenders as they prepared traps and unleashed ranged attacks against the first wave of Weird.
• Luo Fan followed the ordinary survivors to the town center and asked a resident why Weird attacked a place considered safe.
• The resident said this was Jiangkou Town's fourth attack in a month and recalled the lord killing a fourth-tier Weird in one blow.
• Luo Fan questioned why a rule mastery-level Weird would allow repeated attacks, then wondered whether it orchestrated them before becoming puzzled by its having killed an attacker.

As the Weird Tide overwhelmed Jiangkou Town’s defenders, a fourth-tier Soundwave Weird and a deadly Nightmare Nekomata devastated the Sequence Users. A powerful woman finally appeared on a rooftop and confronted the Soundwave Weird.

• Luo Fan watched the battle from among the survivors, waiting to see whether Jiangkou Town’s lord would intervene.
• A fourth-tier Soundwave Weird attacked the town with waves that incapacitated residents and Sequence Users.
• A Nightmare Nekomata turned a third-tier Sequence User’s binding ability against him, then bit off and ate his head.
• The Weird Tide drove the defenders back as the Soundwave Weird continued weakening them from the air.
• A tall woman appeared on a rooftop and shattered the Soundwave Weird’s sound waves with a sharp rebuke.

Jiangkou Town’s qipao-clad Rule Weird killed the fourth-tier Soundwave Weird instantly, sending the Nightmare Nekomata and the rest of the Weird Tide fleeing as the town counterattacked. Elsewhere, the Weird Bride caught up with a human-faced Succubus Spider in a forest.

• The Qipao Female Weird raised her hand, made the Soundwave Weird’s wings disappear, and killed it when it crashed to the ground.
• The Nightmare Nekomata fled, and the rest of the Weird Tide retreated as Jiangkou Town’s Sequence Users charged after them.
• Jiang Shengnan rode her brown bear into the counterattack and killed Weirds with her Charge skill.
• The Qipao Female Weird left the rooftop, while Jiangkou Town’s survivors praised her strength and felt safe under her protection.
• A human-faced Succubus Spider fled through a forest, but its webs vanished as the Weird Bride overtook it and blocked its path.

The Weird Bride killed the Succubus Spider and took its Poison Sac while gathering materials to help Luo Fan advance. In Jiangkou Town, an Underground Giant Beast began swallowing survivors, and Luo Fan revealed his powers to attack it.

• The Weird Bride dodged the Succubus Spider's attacks, aged it to death, and took its Poison Sac.
• The Underground Giant Beast collapsed the ground beneath Jiangkou Town and swallowed survivors.
• Survivors pleaded with Luo Fan for help, and he decided to act after realizing they had seen him use Spirit Void Step.
• Luo Fan summoned Black Bird, enchanted a Pear Blossom Needle Storm, and marked the Underground Giant Beast with steel needles.
• Luo Fan used Sealing Trap to immobilize the Underground Giant Beast, then fired his Weird Gun with Triple Shot.

Luo Fan killed a fourth-tier Burrowing Rock Crocodile Beast in Jiangkou Town, drawing the attention of the Qipao Weird. After learning he was a Lv30 Hunter Sequence user, she suspected he had mastered a rule-type skill, and Luo Fan tried to redirect her attention to his Weird Gun.

• Luo Fan used his abilities and crystal-energy bullets to kill the Burrowing Rock Crocodile Beast, stopping the collapse and saving the survivors who had been falling underground.
• The survivors praised Luo Fan, while the Qipao Weird arrived and asked him to come with her.
• Luo Fan followed the Qipao Weird to the Registration Building and told her he had recently arrived in town and concealed his status when registering.
• Luo Fan said he was a Lv30 Hunter Sequence user, and the Qipao Weird noted that he had killed a Lv42 beast with ease.
• The Qipao Weird concluded that Luo Fan had a rule-type skill, so he denied it and showed her his rule-type uncanny artifact, the Weird Gun.

Luo Fan impressed the Qipao Weird by killing a fourth-tier Fierce Beast and was appointed captain of the Guard Team’s third team. Afterward, he and Jiang Shengnan discussed the Qipao Weird’s ability and planned to learn more about her past actions.

• The Qipao Weird inspected Luo Fan’s +8 Weird Gun, recognized his strength, and appointed him captain of the third team.
• Luo Fan left the Registration Building relieved that his rule-type skill had not been exposed and considered how his new position might help him learn about the Qipao Weird.
• Jiang Shengnan asked Luo Fan about the battle, and he told her how the Qipao Weird had caused the Soundwave Weird’s wings to retract before it fell to its death.
• Luo Fan asked Jiang Shengnan to find out how often the Qipao Weird had intervened during previous Weird Tides and what had happened each time.
• Luo Fan planned to meet the third team the next day and wondered whether he would need to fight to establish authority over its members.

Luo Fan arrived to take command of Jiangkou Town’s Third Guard Team, and the members recognized his fame as a hero and accepted him as captain. Elsewhere, the Qipao Weird watched him through a crystal ball and called him cunning.

• The Third Guard Team gathered to await a new captain after its previous captain died during the Weird Tide.
• Luo Fan arrived at the sports field with Black Bird, and a guard who remembered his registration questioned how he could be captain when he had not awakened a Sequence then.
• Xu Si recognized Luo Fan as the hero who had killed the One-Eyed Giant and helped turn the tide at the Yi City Battlefield.
• The team’s two Second-Tier Sequence Users saluted Luo Fan, and the other members followed their lead in accepting him as captain.
• The Qipao Weird watched Luo Fan and the team through a crystal ball and remarked that he was cunning.

Luo Fan hosted the other Guard Team captains for dinner, hoping to learn more about Jiangkou Town while rumors spread that he might be a Fourth-Tier Sequence User. Cao Man and Yan Qiu arrived and were astonished by the pre-apocalypse food he served, then asked where he had obtained it.

• Dongfang Yu and Xiao Huohuo introduced their Lightning Apostle and Frost Warlock sequences, and Luo Fan sent the Third Guard Team out on its usual patrols.
• Jiang Shengnan invited Cao Man and Yan Qiu to dinner at Luo Fan's lodging so he could try to draw information from them.
• Luo Fan bought baijiu and beer and prepared pork, eggs, and fish for his guests.
• Rumors spread through Jiangkou Town that Luo Fan might be a Fourth-Tier Sequence User after he killed a Fourth-Tier Fierce Beast.
• Cao Man and Yan Qiu arrived, admired Luo Fan's dishes, and asked where he had gotten the pork, eggs, and fish.

Luo Fan questioned Cao Man and Yan Qiu about Jiangkou Town’s attacks and the Qipao Weird’s interventions. Their accounts made him suspect that her ability was not quite what it seemed.

• Luo Fan shared braised pork and baijiu with Cao Man, Yan Qiu, and Jiang Shengnan, and they revealed their sequence levels.
• Cao Man said he had lived in Jiangkou Town for over two months and that the town had suffered six attacks, with attacks becoming more frequent lately.
• Cao Man and Yan Qiu recounted how the Qipao Weird had intervened four times, killing three fourth-tier threats and a third-tier Weird Moth.
• Cao Man described the Qipao Weird shrinking a One-Eyed Giant, killing a Fog Bat in obscuring fog, turning the Weird Moth into a worm, and making a Soundwave Weird lose its wings.
• Luo Fan noticed that the Qipao Weird’s ability seemed inconsistent with what he had expected.

Luo Fan proposed that the Qipao Weird might lower her targets' sequence levels rather than simply change their forms, and that her ability might have a long cooldown. Jiang Shengnan agreed the theories were plausible but insisted they needed proof, so Luo Fan said they should find a way to test them.

• After Cao Man and Yan Qiu left, Jiang Shengnan concluded that the Qipao Weird could control changes to other beings' forms.
• Luo Fan questioned why the Qipao Weird had shrunk the One-Eyed Giant and turned the Weird Moth into a worm instead of making them lose limbs or wings.
• Luo Fan suggested that the Qipao Weird's ability lowered her targets' sequence levels, causing their bodies to change accordingly.
• Luo Fan proposed that she could affect only one fourth-tier target at a time and might have waited for her ability's cooldown before appearing near the Burrowing Rock Crocodile Beast.
• Jiang Shengnan said Luo Fan's explanations were still theories and asked how they could test them, and Luo Fan said they needed to find a way.

Luo Fan waited in Jiangkou Town for a chance to test the Qipao Weird’s ability while worrying about the Weird Bride and his companions in the Hope Convoy. He Xing predicted a Weird Tide two nights later involving two fourth-tier Weirds and a fourth-tier Fierce Beast, giving Luo Fan and Jiang Shengnan the opportunity they needed.

• Luo Fan and Jiang Shengnan failed to find a way to test the Qipao Weird’s ability, and Jiang Shengnan contacted the Aerospace Base for advice.
• Luo Fan spent two more days enjoying Jiangkou Town while thinking about the Weird Bride, the Hope Convoy, and the difficulty of attracting fourth-tier creatures.
• Xiao Huohuo summoned Luo Fan to the Resident Registration Office, where the Qipao Weird introduced the astrologer He Xing.
• He Xing predicted that a new Weird Nest and a Weird Tide would strike Jiangkou Town two nights later, bringing two fourth-tier Weirds and a fourth-tier Fierce Beast.
• Cao Man and Yan Qiu asked Luo Fan whether he could handle one of the powerful creatures.

Luo Fan revealed that he was still at Sequence Level Lv30 and said his advancement requirements were difficult, then explained that a rule-type uncanny artifact helped him defeat stronger enemies. As the group discussed the coming Weird Tide, they worried that Her Ladyship might not be able to handle several fourth-tier Weirds in succession.

• Cao Man, Yan Qiu, and He Xing were surprised when Luo Fan said he had not advanced to the third tier, and the Qipao Weird confirmed his Sequence Level was Lv30.
• Luo Fan declined to explain his difficult advancement requirements and said his rule-type uncanny artifact had helped him kill a fourth-tier Fierce Beast.
• The Qipao Weird dismissed Luo Fan and the others after telling them to discuss a battle plan for the attack two days later.
• At a restaurant, Luo Fan said Her Ladyship had killed fourth-tier Weirds effortlessly before, but admitted he did not know whether his artifact could work the same way again.
• Cao Man and Yan Qiu suggested Her Ladyship might not be able to act repeatedly, leaving the group worried that some fourth-tier Weirds could remain unhandled.

The Weird Bride killed the Flame Lion-Tiger Beast and collected the third of the four materials Luo Fan needed to advance. In Jiangkou Town, Luo Fan and the Guard Team captains discussed the coming Weird Tide and confronted the possibility that the town could not withstand the attacks much longer.

• The Weird Bride killed the Flame Lion-Tiger Beast and cut off its fire-element claws, bringing her collection to three of Luo Fan's four needed materials.
• Luo Fan, Jiang Shengnan, Cao Man, Yan Qiu, and the other captains discussed how they might face three fourth-tier enemies and the accompanying third-tier attackers in the Weird Tide due in two days.
• Luo Fan questioned why their lady kept defending Jiangkou Town as the Weird Tides grew more frequent and powerful.
• Yan Qiu agreed that Jiangkou Town seemed like a leaking ship sinking toward destruction, even if it survived the coming attack.

Luo Fan and Jiang Shengnan discussed the approaching Weird Tide and concluded that the Qipao Weird might have created Jiangkou Town to study humans facing death. They considered seeking help from the Aerospace Base but paused over the danger of the residents’ twenty-four-hour rule, suspecting their jade residency tokens enforced it.

• Cao Man and the others prepared Jiangkou Town’s defenses and notified the two independent Third-Tier Sequence Users about the approaching Weird Tide.
• Luo Fan told Jiang Shengnan that the Qipao Weird might be letting Jiangkou Town face increasingly powerful attacks to observe its residents’ deaths.
• Jiang Shengnan proposed contacting the Aerospace Base to rescue Jiangkou Town’s thousands of residents, as they had rescued survivors at the Yi City Battlefield.
• Luo Fan warned that residents might die if they left Jiangkou Town for more than twenty-four hours, and they did not know whether defeating the Qipao Weird would free them.
• Jiang Shengnan showed Luo Fan her jade residency token, and they suspected it bound residents to Jiangkou Town and decided to seek witnesses who knew what happened to anyone who had tried to leave.

Luo Fan and Jiang Shengnan investigated why people who left Jiangkou Town died, but found no answers, so Luo Fan summoned Xu Miao'er to ask about her earlier warnings. Xu Miao'er denied trying to keep him away, and Jiang Shengnan told her they wanted to save Jiangkou Town’s residents, leaving the conversation poised for Xu Miao'er’s response.

• Word spread that another Weird Tide would arrive in two days, and Jiangkou Town’s Sequence Users began preparing to defend the town.
• Luo Fan and Jiang Shengnan investigated the deaths of people who had left Jiangkou Town but found no useful leads.
• Luo Fan recalled Xu Miao'er’s earlier warnings and arranged for the Third Guard Team to find her.
• Luo Fan explained why he thought Xu Miao'er had tried to prevent him from coming to Jiangkou Town, but she said he had misunderstood.
• Jiang Shengnan told Xu Miao'er that she and Luo Fan sided with the survivors and wanted to save Jiangkou Town’s residents.

Luo Fan and Jiang Shengnan persuaded Xu Miao'er that they were willing to oppose Jiangkou Town's authorities, and she explained why she distrusted the town before revealing that her companion had died after missing the twenty-four-hour return deadline. Meanwhile, the Weird Bride defeated a Purple Thunder Eel and obtained its heart, completing her collection of materials before turning on the Doomsday Phone.

• Luo Fan confirmed to Xu Miao'er that he and Jiang Shengnan were not speaking on behalf of Jiangkou Town's authorities, and Xu Miao'er chose to trust him.
• Xu Miao'er explained that Jiangkou Town's ban on leaving and the lord's inhuman appearance made her suspect the town was dangerous.
• Xu Miao'er told Luo Fan that her companion died after returning just minutes too late to meet the twenty-four-hour deadline, and Luo Fan asked what had happened when he died.
• The Weird Bride fought a Purple Thunder Eel amid a tsunami and lightning storm, then killed it and took its heart.
• The Weird Bride declared that she had gathered all the materials and switched on the Doomsday Phone.

Luo Fan and Jiang Shengnan realized the Qipao Weird could reverse the time of a target’s body, potentially through a mastered time-based rule. After Jiang Shengnan left, Luo Fan learned that the Weird Bride had gathered his Third-Tier advancement materials and discovered she was over 18,500 kilometers away, deep in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Xu Miao'er told Luo Fan that her companion had rapidly aged backward into a baby and vanished after exceeding the twenty-four-hour limit.
• Luo Fan and Jiang Shengnan concluded that the Qipao Weird rewound bodies through time rather than directly lowering their levels.
• Xu Miao'er offered to help rescue Jiangkou Town’s survivors, and Luo Fan added her on his Doomsday Phone.
• Luo Fan and Jiang Shengnan suspected the Qipao Weird had mastered a time-based rule, then Luo Fan received a message from the Weird Bride.
• The Weird Bride told Luo Fan she had gathered his Third-Tier advancement materials, and Luo Fan saw that she was more than 18,500 kilometers away in the Atlantic Ocean.

Luo Fan told the Weird Bride about the Qipao Weird in Jiangkou Town, whose time-reversal ability and plans for the town alarmed her. The Weird Bride recognized the woman from Luo Fan’s description and sped up her journey, while judging that the Qipao Weird was between rule manipulation and rule mastery.

• Luo Fan learned that the Weird Bride was gathering his advancement materials far away and that she expected to return in less than two days.
• Luo Fan described Jiangkou Town and the Qipao Weird’s experiments, and the Weird Bride agreed that she was studying human life to deepen her mastery of rules.
• Luo Fan explained that the Qipao Weird could reverse time on her targets, prompting the Weird Bride to ask for her name and appearance.
• After hearing the description of the woman in a qipao, the Weird Bride recognized her and ran faster toward Luo Fan.
• Luo Fan described the Qipao Weird’s ability and its limitations, and the Weird Bride assessed her as being between rule manipulation and rule mastery.

Luo Fan realized the Qipao Weird had only half-step rule mastery and prepared Jiangkou Town for the coming Weird Tide, hoping to hold out until the Weird Bride arrived. Jiang Shengnan agreed to seek Aerospace Base support, and the chapter ended with her messaging Master Wen Hao.

• Luo Fan concluded that the Qipao Weird's rule only partially reversed opponents unless its prerequisite was triggered, suggesting she had not fully mastered it.
• Luo Fan checked the tracking on his Doomsday Phone and realized the Weird Bride had switched hers off while traveling to Jiangkou Town.
• Luo Fan directed the Third Guard Team to prepare for the night's Weird Tide and resolved to hide his rule-type skills.
• Jiang Shengnan and Xu Miao'er visited Luo Fan, who urged them to hold off the Weird Tide and explained his half-step rule mastery theory.
• Jiang Shengnan asked Luo Fan about requesting Aerospace Base support, and he agreed.
• Jiang Shengnan messaged Master Wen Hao to request help.