Chapter Summaries

Zuo Cheng'an and seven other people were pulled into the World Survival Game, where his newcomer gift gave him the Eye of Truth and revealed that eyeballs were filming the players for an audience. Their first instance, Screaming Night, began with a warning that hunters would appear after dark, and a suited man proposed that the group share information and work together.

• Zuo Cheng'an woke in a bare room and learned that the others in the corridor had also vanished from their ordinary lives and been transported to the game.
• Zuo Cheng'an opened his newcomer support gift pack and obtained the Eye of Truth after the system struggled to repair an error.
• Zuo Cheng'an saw blood-veined eyeballs around the players and floating comments, realizing that the eyeballs were cameras for a livestream audience.
• The players saw their personal panels, and a housewife sobbed over her child while an honest-looking man silently held the money meant for his mother's surgery.
• The game announced the Screaming Night instance, its seven-day survival objective, and the danger of hunters appearing in the corridor after dark.
• The group found a carved window depicting three monkey-like creatures, and a suited man suggested they introduce themselves and share information before nightfall.

Zuo Cheng'an stayed alert in room 204 as a hunter appeared after dark and killed the occupant of room 201. When day broke, the survivors found the damaged door and bloodstains, confirming the hunter had dragged its victim away.

• Liu Shuang failed to persuade the newcomers to reveal their items, then returned to room 207; the schoolgirl entered room 203.
• Zuo Cheng'an waited by room 204's door with an axe and shield, using his Eye of Truth and the scrolling comments to gather information.
• After darkness fell, a hunter emerged near room 208 and moved along the corridor, while Zuo Cheng'an kept his peephole closed.
• Liu Shuang hid in room 207 and worried that his dried mutton item only raised his strength briefly; the hunter passed his door and killed someone in room 201.
• At daybreak, Zuo Cheng'an and the others found room 201's battered door, blood, and scraps of flesh, indicating the hunter had dragged the victim away.

After the Hunter killed the burly man in room 201, Liu Shuang proposed that the players join forces, but Zuo Cheng'an redirected them to investigate what might attract the Hunter. As night fell and the Hunter returned, Zuo Cheng'an watched through his peephole and saw a health bar above it.

• The players recalled the burly man in room 201 and feared that even his strength and weapons had not saved him from the Hunter.
• Liu Shuang introduced himself and his strength-boosting lamb jerky, then tried to recruit the schoolgirl and the other players into a team.
• Zuo Cheng'an suggested they compare what they had done the previous night to figure out why the Hunter had chosen room 201.
• The woman in the apron and the man in glasses said they had seen the Hunter pass their rooms, while Zuo Cheng'an ruled out watching through the peephole and staying by the door gap as triggers.
• The man in glasses described the Hunter as a hunchbacked, hairy dwarf with long claws and no eyes, and the players returned to their rooms as night fell.
• When the Hunter appeared and began prowling the corridor, Zuo Cheng'an watched through his peephole and noticed a health bar above it.

Zuo Cheng'an and the schoolgirl came to Lezi-ge's aid when Hunter E attacked his room, and their combined blows brought the hunter close to death. Zuo Cheng'an realized they had struck too hard, potentially killing the hunter before he could weaken it for his own turn.

• Hunter E's health bar showed it had already lost 52% of its health, and Zuo Cheng'an read its annotation identifying it as the Red-Hat Witch's creation.
• Hunter E attacked Lezi-ge in room 202, while the other residents hesitated to leave their rooms despite hearing his calls for help.
• Zuo Cheng'an rushed out with his axe, and the schoolgirl from room 203 followed with an axe of her own.
• Zuo Cheng'an struck Hunter E's head, then the schoolgirl used Double Kick to drive his axe deeper and reduce the hunter's health to 10%.
• Zuo Cheng'an realized Hunter E might die before his planned turn, when he had hoped its weakened state would help him survive.

Zuo Cheng'an killed the weakened Hunter (Type E), then helped Zheng Ren survive his severe injuries with a healing gummy. After Li Yueqiu recovered from her cramps, the three survivors regrouped, while Zuo Cheng'an considered the free attribute points he had earned.

• Zuo Cheng'an killed the Hunter (Type E) with the schoolgirl's axe and earned the Good Start achievement and three Free Attribute Points.
• Zuo Cheng'an found Zheng Ren's healing gummy after Zheng Ren revealed he could still be saved, and Zheng Ren used it to stop his bleeding.
• Li Yueqiu ate the remaining gummy fragment and recovered from her cramps.
• Zheng Ren thanked Zuo Cheng'an and Li Yueqiu, who introduced herself as Li Yueqiu and hoped the group could end the instance early.
• Unknown beings watched the survivors through an eyeball and commented on Zheng Ren's recovery, while Zuo Cheng'an examined his new attribute points.

After the hunter’s death, the survivors learned that it had attacked rooms in numerical order, leaving those in lower-numbered rooms terrified and those in higher-numbered rooms relieved. Zuo Cheng'an suspected they could survive without fighting, and the floating comments revealed that Screaming Night’s rules could be exploited; the chapter ended before he explained his plan.

• Zuo Cheng'an spent his three free attribute points on strength and felt his axe and shield become nearly weightless.
• At dawn, the game announced that the hunter had left, and its corpse decomposed in the corridor.
• Liu Shuang inferred that the hunter attacked rooms in order, upsetting the occupants of rooms 203 through 206 and reassuring those in higher-numbered rooms.
• Liu Shuang urged the endangered occupants to cooperate, then dismissed their plight as none of his business.
• Zuo Cheng'an said they might not need to fight the hunter, helped Li Yueqiu carry Zheng Ren to room 202, and asked Li Yueqiu to stay with him that night.
• The floating comments explained that players could exploit Screaming Night’s attack order and other rules to clear the dungeon safely.

Zuo Cheng'an tested his theory that players could evade Hunters by hiding in other rooms, then warned the survivors that the strategy could not last. When two Hunters appeared on the fourth night and targeted rooms 204 and 205, the players realized the threat was escalating.

• Zuo Cheng'an brought Li Yueqiu to room 204, and a Hunter attacked the empty room 203 instead of finding them.
• After surviving the night, Li Yueqiu emerged unharmed, and Zuo Cheng'an explained his guess that each room could accommodate only two people with keys.
• Zuo Cheng'an warned the survivors that Hunters would eventually destroy enough doors to force them to fight, while Li Yueqiu went to room 208 with its resident.
• Two Hunters appeared that night and attacked rooms 204 and 205, leaving the bespectacled man in 205 frozen with fear.
• Liu Shuang realized the Hunters might target rooms 206 and 207 the following night, putting him in danger.

Liu Shuang stole the bespectacled man's night-vision glasses while the Hunters left at dawn, then tried to recruit allies for the next night. The survivors debated how many Hunters remained, and He Jinmei demonstrated the accuracy she had gained from her skill book.

• Liu Shuang blamed Zuo Cheng'an for withholding information as Hunters broke into Room 205 and killed the bespectacled man.
• As dawn neared, Liu Shuang took the glasses from the corpse and stored them in his game inventory.
• The survivors found the corpse and accepted Liu Shuang's suggestion that a Hunter had swallowed the missing glasses; Zuo Cheng'an noticed they were gone but did not expose Liu Shuang.
• Zhao Chengyuan revealed his green-quality Long-Handled Mirror, and Liu Shuang urged the survivors to cooperate against the Hunters.
• Zuo Cheng'an argued that only two Hunters remained because the players had already killed one, while Liu Shuang insisted they needed to work together.
• He Jinmei said she had used a Basic Archery Techniques skill book and demonstrated her improved aim by striking a monster carving between the brows with a key.

The survivors launched their planned fight against the two Hunters, but Liu Shuang betrayed them by staying in his room, leaving Zhao Chengyuan exposed. After Zuo Cheng'an used a key to split the Hunters’ attention, the group gained an advantage, and the battle continued with one Hunter trapped against Zuo Cheng'an and Li Yueqiu.

• The five survivors agreed to fight the two Hunters together that night, and Liu Shuang repeatedly assured them he would come out.
• When the Hunters appeared, Liu Shuang stayed in room 207 while Zhao Chengyuan charged out alone and was targeted by both Hunters.
• Zheng Ren, Zuo Cheng'an, Li Yueqiu, and He Jinmei joined the fight, and Zuo Cheng'an realized that the Hunters targeted players by their room keys.
• Zhao Chengyuan tossed one of his keys to Zuo Cheng'an, causing the Hunters to split up and letting the survivors divide into two teams.
• Li Yueqiu's Double Kick sharply lowered one Hunter's health, while Zuo Cheng'an severed its wrist and slowed it with a Tetanus Potion.
• As the weakened Hunter kept attacking, Li Yueqiu shoved her axe into its mouth, leaving the fight at a standoff.

Zhao Chengyuan punished Liu Shuang for abandoning the group, but Liu Shuang later hid in his own room to escape the hunters targeting Room 208. When the hunters broke in, they went after him instead, leaving him screaming for help.

• At daybreak, Zuo Cheng'an and Zhao Chengyuan broke into Room 207, and Zhao Chengyuan injured Liu Shuang and threw him into Room 208.
• Zhao Chengyuan gave Room 208's key to Liu Shuang, then handed his own room key to Li Yueqiu and He Jinmei before hiding in another room.
• As the final night approached, Liu Shuang left Room 208 and dragged himself back into Room 207, believing the hunters would only target Room 208's resident.
• The two hunters broke down Room 208's door and went straight to Room 207, where Liu Shuang was hiding.
• Liu Shuang spotted the hunters through the broken doorway, swung his axe in panic, and shouted for help.

Zuo Cheng'an let Liu Shuang die, then joined the others in defeating the three Hunters and clearing the beginner assessment instance. He arrived on a silent, bustling street and received an S-rank rating, doubled rewards, and an offer to spend points healing his injuries.

• Liu Shuang offered Zhao Chengyuan money to help him fight, but Zuo Cheng'an persuaded Zhao to stay inside and pursue healing items in the game instead.
• After the Hunters killed Liu Shuang, Zuo Cheng'an took the dropped glasses and dried lamb, used them to fight more effectively, and led the attack on the Hunters.
• Zheng Ren, Li Yueqiu, and the others helped Zuo Cheng'an defeat the remaining Hunters, and neither final kill produced an item drop.
• Zuo Cheng'an cleared the instance early and appeared on a silent street where viewers could not follow him.
• The game awarded Zuo Cheng'an an S-rank rating, 10 free attribute points, 200 points, and an option to spend 25 points recovering from physical damage.

After clearing his hidden injuries and allocating his settlement points, Zuo Cheng'an explored the game’s market and resisted a guide who tried to exploit him. He learned that the area was Safe Zone 7 when a polite child offered to show him its main facilities for one point.

• Zuo Cheng'an spent 25 points to repair accumulated bodily damage, which raised his Constitution by 1, then used his attribute points to bring Strength, Constitution, and Speed to 10.
• Zuo Cheng'an noticed that his Spirit had fallen from 97 to 74 and began hearing the sounds of the street as he surveyed the market in the game.
• A shrewd woman grabbed Zuo Cheng'an and offered to guide him for five points, but he forced her to release him by tightening his grip on her wrist.
• Zuo Cheng'an observed that guides targeted newcomers and that some used staged hardship to solicit points, but he chose not to intervene.
• A child politely offered to show Zuo Cheng'an Safe Zone 7’s main functional areas for one point, revealing the area’s name.

Zuo Cheng'an learned about Yu Le's life in the game and how players entered instances, then watched two major guilds enter the newly released level-three instance Nowhere to Escape. Yu Le explained the benefits of joining a major guild, while Zuo Cheng'an remained outside the instance.

• Zuo Cheng'an learned that Yu Le had been born in the game and had just turned ten, so the game had sent him out of the Temple instance.
• Yu Le showed Zuo Cheng'an the Instance Hall and explained that players had to enter an instance weekly or pay 100 points to skip it.
• Zuo Cheng'an examined the level-three instance Nowhere to Escape, and Yu Le warned him that no one had cleared it or produced a complete guide.
• Players from Waves Chasing Guild and Dawn Moon Guild filled the hundred-person entry circle and vanished into Nowhere to Escape.
• After the next instance appeared, players bought guides and entered it, while Yu Le told Zuo Cheng'an that joining a major guild offered guides, veteran support, and other benefits.

Zuo Cheng'an learned about guilds, housing, and the Ladder Tower before renting a room and heading to the tower to ascend. There, he saw a mysterious golden annotation calling it the path to godhood and felt the terror of its unreadable author.

• Yu Le explained the major guilds’ recruitment standards and warned Zuo Cheng'an that Chasing Waves sometimes used newcomers to test dungeon rules.
• Yu Le showed Zuo Cheng'an the safe zone’s facilities and explained that players could buy or rent homes, while those unable to pay slept in parks or beneath bridges.
• Zuo Cheng'an paid Yu Le four points for his guidance, then rented a room for 30 points and discovered its door opened onto the plaza outside the dungeon hall.
• Zuo Cheng'an learned that ascending the Ladder Tower required clearing an unopened dungeon and decided he needed strength to confront the beings watching players through floating eyeballs.
• Zuo Cheng'an reached the Ladder Tower and saw a golden annotation calling it the path to godhood, but its author’s name appeared as garbled characters and filled him with terror.

Zuo Cheng'an entered the ladder instance Red-Eyed Uncle's Farm with four other players and learned that they had to complete work assigned by the farm's owner. As the group waited to meet him, Zuo Cheng'an noticed the watching eyeballs and learned from the viewers' comments that Red-Eyed Uncle was a rabbit known for setting traps.

• Zuo Cheng'an chose the five-player farm instance after considering the available options and his preferences.
• Zuo Cheng'an, the twin sisters, and a young couple were transported to the farm, where the instance task required them to complete work assigned by Red-Eyed Uncle within one day.
• Zuo Cheng'an noticed that three to five eyeballs watched each player and read comments describing Red-Eyed Uncle as a trap-setting rabbit.
• Fu Yu and Fu You introduced themselves as experienced players, and Wang Guangfei introduced himself and his girlfriend, Youyou.
• Zuo Cheng'an wondered why the other players emphasized their sanity scores and whether low sanity would cause trouble.

Zuo Cheng'an entered the Red-Eye Farm instance and discovered that his annotations revealed information about its hostile NPC and sensitive tomatoes. After Youyou called the tomatoes “little love apples,” Red-Eyes turned on her, leaving the players in danger.

• Zuo Cheng'an concealed his spirit stat, noticed the players’ concern, and learned from the comments that low spirit could lead to aberration.
• A giant white rabbit named Red-Eyes greeted the players, demanded they owe it one hundred Sky Ladder coins, and appeared to Zuo Cheng'an as a hostile monster.
• Zuo Cheng'an read annotations identifying Red-Eyes’ bloodstained suit and the farm’s easily frightened Wailing Tomatoes.
• Red-Eyes led the players past the tomato fields and boasted about the farm, while Zuo Cheng'an learned the rabbit hated tomatoes being called love apples.
• Youyou praised the tomatoes as pretty little love apples, and Red-Eyes froze and turned to stare at her.

Red-Eyes showed the players around the farm, then assigned them chores after Steel-Toothed Rats raided its tomatoes. Zuo Cheng'an received a hidden quest to kill 100 rats, while the other players were given farm work that might hide dangerous traps.

• Wang Guangfei warned Youyou to stop provoking Red-Eyes because her charm item did not work on instance bosses.
• Red-Eyes took the players around the farm, where Zuo Cheng'an spotted two Steel-Toothed Rats stealing food and saw that they had health bars.
• Red-Eyes assigned Zuo Cheng'an a hidden quest to kill 100 Steel-Toothed Rats before the instance ended.
• Red-Eyes ordered the young couple to herd sheep and pick tomatoes, then told Fu You to collect eggs and Fu Yu to clean the cowshed before dark.
• Zuo Cheng'an decided that killing rats might be easier than the other chores, while the live comments speculated about Red-Eyes' traps.

After Red-Eyes assigned the players farm chores, Zuo Cheng'an searched for a weapon while Youyou picked screaming tomatoes and Wang Guangfei went to herd sheep. The chapter left Wang Guangfei facing a mismatch: Red-Eyes had said there were twenty-one sheep, but he could find only twenty.

• The players discussed the dangers of their tasks, while Wang Guangfei and Youyou dismissed the ladder instance as easy and the Fu Yu and Fu You twins had entered after maxing out two attributes apiece.
• Red-Eyes assigned each player a task and left, telling them it would inspect their work after sunset.
• Zuo Cheng'an searched the farm for a weapon and found a bloodstained pitchfork in a storage shed.
• Youyou returned with a basket of bawling tomatoes and carried them to the warehouse, complaining that the workload was exhausting.
• Wang Guangfei counted the flock and found nineteen white sheep and one black sheep, one fewer than Red-Eyes had claimed.

Zuo Cheng'an hunted Steel-Toothed Rats around the farm while learning that Wang Guangfei could not find one of the sheep assigned to his quest. As the players continued their tasks, Youyou and Wang Guangfei argued over whether he should help fill the tomato warehouse or keep searching for the missing sheep.

• Zuo Cheng'an killed two Steel-Toothed Rats and obtained a Swift Rat Dagger, then saw his rat-killing quest count rise to two.
• Zuo Cheng'an read live comments suggesting that one of Wang Guangfei's twenty-one sheep was missing and realized the search could put Wang Guangfei in danger before nightfall.
• Zuo Cheng'an killed more Steel-Toothed Rats near the granary and cowshed, where Fu You was struggling to clean manure, and spotted an abandoned sheepdog house.
• Zuo Cheng'an hunted more than eighty Steel-Toothed Rats as the players hurried through their quests.
• Youyou pressed Wang Guangfei to help fill the tomato warehouse, while Wang Guangfei insisted he needed to keep searching for the missing sheep, drawing a crowd of viewers.

Zuo Cheng'an completed his hidden task to kill one hundred Steel-Toothed Rats and learned from the scrolling comments that Red-Eyes had left the farm for another instance. With the farm’s guardian gone, he headed toward the red-roofed building to explore it.

• Youyou left Wang Guangfei to finish her tomato task, while Wang Guangfei walked away after telling her he felt their relationship had never become an “us.”
• Zuo Cheng'an killed his hundredth Steel-Toothed Rat and confirmed that his hidden task was complete.
• Zuo Cheng'an learned that Fu You had swapped egg-collecting duties with her injured sister, Fu Yu, and that Fu Yu was now cleaning the cowshed.
• The scrolling comments revealed that Red-Eyes had returned to the level-three instance Nowhere to Escape, prompting many viewers to leave the farm.
• Zuo Cheng'an realized Red-Eyes was likely unable to watch the farm remotely and went to investigate its red-roofed, two-story building.