Chapter Summaries

Zuo Cheng'an and the other players rode a speeding sightseeing cart along a narrow cliff road toward Sunny Village. As the cart continued safely despite its reckless driver, the players heard an advertisement for the village, while Zuo Cheng'an considered how to hide the swarming viewer eyeballs.

• Zuo Cheng'an found himself in an open-sided sightseeing cart beside a cliff, with Mo Dou and Li Yueqiu near him and Zheng Ren shifting toward the safer side.
• The driver sped around the dangerous mountain road, while the Wavebreaker Guild members tied themselves to the cart with ropes and one nearly fell over the side.
• Zuo Cheng'an told Zheng Ren the cart would not fall because it moved on its own, and Zheng Ren relaxed enough to admire the scenery.
• The villager took both hands off the steering wheel to retrieve a loudspeaker and played a garbled advertisement for Sunny Village's activities and ten-day, nine-night stay.
• Zuo Cheng'an focused on the crowded viewer comments and wondered whether he could hide the eyeballs blocking his view.

Zuo Cheng'an used the comments and his Eye of Truth to learn that monsters would attack the sightseeing vehicle, so he and the others tied themselves to it for safety. The chapter ended with Zhang Zhuang dismissing their precautions as the work of poorly equipped cannon fodder.

• Zuo Cheng'an read the comments and learned that mountain monkeys would attack the sightseeing vehicle and that previous groups had suffered deadly losses.
• Zuo Cheng'an spotted moving monster health bars on the cliff and told Li Yueqiu and Zheng Ren to make safety ropes from their clothes.
• Zuo Cheng'an tied himself and Mo Dou to the vehicle, adjusting Mo Dou's tether into a chest harness so it would not strangle him.
• Zheng Ren and Li Yueqiu followed Zuo Cheng'an's example and secured themselves to the vehicle.
• Tan Huihui mocked the group for copying their precautions, while Zhang Zhuang dismissed them as cannon fodder.

Zheng Ren briefly fought Yang Ye aboard the sightseeing cart, but the two stopped when the cart jolted and the fight proved pointless. As monster health bars drew closer, Zuo Cheng'an prepared Little Seven and lent Li Yueqiu Little Flying Stone, then focused on the crowded bullet comments.

• Zheng Ren attacked Tan Huihui with his spatula, and Yang Ye stood up to defend her with his oversized syringe.
• Zheng Ren's spatula summoned flies that swarmed Yang Ye, but both men stopped fighting when the sightseeing cart took a sharp turn.
• Tan Huihui privately judged Yang Ye's limited potential and thought about the coming monster attack.
• Zuo Cheng'an noticed the monster health bars approaching, prepared Little Seven, and lent Li Yueqiu Little Flying Stone.
• Li Yueqiu examined the stone while Zuo Cheng'an concentrated on reading the densely packed bullet comments.

Zuo Cheng'an and the others prepared for the Mountain Monkeys' attack as their sightseeing vehicle rounded a cliffside bend. When the monsters arrived, Zuo Cheng'an and Zhang Zhuang competed for the first kill, and Zuo Cheng'an struck down a paralyzed Mountain Monkey.

• Zuo Cheng'an warned Zheng Ren and Li Yueqiu to prepare for an attack expected at the fourth major bend.
• Zuo Cheng'an and Zhang Zhuang climbed onto the vehicle's roof to meet the monsters, while Tan Huihui, Yang Ye, and Qian Xiang made room to fight below.
• Tan Huihui confronted Yang Ye after he repeatedly brushed against her, and Yang Ye apologized.
• Seven or eight Mountain Monkeys dropped onto the vehicle and climbed down its frame, revealing bright red air sacs on their throats.
• Zhang Zhuang caught a Mountain Monkey with his electrified power strip, but Zuo Cheng'an smashed its neck with Little Seven before Zhang could finish it.

Li Yueqiu used Little Flying Stone to kill a Mountain Monkey and claim its dropped Willow Branch, while Zuo Cheng'an helped the group survive the first wave and treated Li Yueqiu's injury. After learning more Mountain Monkey attacks were expected, Zuo Cheng'an watched the cliffs for signs of danger, leading Zhang Zhuang to suspect they belonged to the Dawn Moon Guild.

• The Mountain Monkey attacked Zuo Cheng'an, but Li Yueqiu sent Little Flying Stone to pierce its throat air sac and secure its Willow Branch drop before Zhang Zhuang could claim it.
• Mo Dou rammed another Mountain Monkey over the cliff, and Li Yueqiu grabbed him before he fell after it.
• Zhang Zhuang and his teammates cleared the remaining Mountain Monkeys from the vehicle, while Zheng Ren gave Li Yueqiu strips of clothing for her injured leg.
• Zuo Cheng'an gave Li Yueqiu tomato juice that healed her wound, then shared some with Mo Dou for his nearly healed scrape.
• Zuo Cheng'an warned Li Yueqiu and Zheng Ren about more attacks and watched the cliffs for approaching Mountain Monkeys.
• Zhang Zhuang saw Zuo Cheng'an's vigilance and privately decided that Zuo Cheng'an and his companions were members of the Dawn Moon Guild.

As the Wavebreaker and Dawn Moon guilds resumed fighting, Li Yueqiu and the others prepared for another Mountain Monkey attack on their sightseeing vehicle. Zuo Cheng'an climbed onto the roof, killed a Mountain Monkey, and pretended to inhale its fragrance to learn from the audience comments what it could do.

• Zhang Zhuang suspected that Li Yueqiu and Zheng Ren had unusual qualities that explained their recruitment by Dawn Moon.
• The Wavebreaker and Dawn Moon guilds blamed each other for their losses in Nowhere to Escape and returned to hostility, while the reclusive Thousand Hunt Guild stayed out of their conflict.
• Zuo Cheng'an spotted Mountain Monkeys gathering above the vehicle, and Li Yueqiu prepared to defend herself with her Willow Branch and Little Flying Stone.
• Mountain Monkeys swarmed the vehicle, and Yang Ye killed the first one by puncturing the air sac in its throat.
• Zuo Cheng'an dragged a Mountain Monkey off the vehicle and climbed onto the roof, where Little Seven killed one.
• After smelling the Mountain Monkey's fragrance, Zuo Cheng'an pretended to take deep breaths, and audience comments revealed that repeated exposure could bring him close to being seeded.

Zuo Cheng'an and the others survived a fierce Mountain Monkey attack, then discovered living, rootlike vines releasing the same suspicious fragrance inside a cave. Their sightseeing vehicle reached Sunny Village, where the villagers welcomed them with a torchlit Smoking Ceremony and Li Yueqiu was moved to see fellow humans.

• Zuo Cheng'an fought while avoiding the fragrance from the Mountain Monkeys' air sacs, and Mo Dou, Li Yueqiu, and Zheng Ren defended the vehicle until the monkeys retreated.
• Zhang Zhuang's team hauled up their dangling teammates and cleared the corpses, while Zuo Cheng'an's group tended to minor wounds.
• Zuo Cheng'an detected the Mountain Monkeys' fragrance in a cave and warned Li Yueqiu and Zheng Ren, who held their breath as he spotted breathing, rootlike vines covering the walls.
• The sightseeing vehicle reached Sunny Village, where the village chief and more than two hundred torch-bearing villagers welcomed the tourists and announced a Smoking Ceremony.
• Li Yueqiu was overcome with emotion at seeing familiar people and accepted the ceremony, while Zheng Ren remembered how dangerous fellow humans could be in dungeons.

Zuo Cheng'an and the other players entered Sunny Village, where they discovered that its smiling villagers were dead players turned into NPCs. As the chief led them through the village and described its attractions, the players focused on studying the surroundings.

• Zheng Ren warned Li Yueqiu that the villagers' identical smiles and expressions were unnatural.
• Yang Ye recognized the NPC Wang Cheng as a former friend, but Wang Cheng denied knowing him, and Yang Ye backed away after remembering that dead players became NPCs.
• The village chief welcomed the players as Sunny Village's first tourists and led them along a path between the staring villagers.
• Zheng Ren saw a child remove an eyeball, moisten it in his mouth, and put it back into its socket.
• The chief described the village's attractions while the players studied the layout of the surrounding buildings.

Zuo Cheng'an learned that the villagers’ red spots and air sacs were part of a growth cycle viewers called the sowing, latent, germination, and budding periods, while Yang Ye mistakenly believed he had uncovered the instance’s hidden quest. The village chief led the players to a raised wooden house, where his next words left them uneasy.

• Yang Ye noticed a red air sac on Wang Cheng and privately decided it was a clue to a hidden quest.
• Zuo Cheng'an knew that villagers all had red spots or air sacs, with some already showing fleshy sprouts, and that no player had survived to see the flowers bloom.
• Viewers discussed the villagers’ abnormalities and the village’s mysteries while Zuo Cheng'an followed their comments.
• The village chief led the players through Sunny Village and stopped at a raised wooden house like the others.
• The village chief spoke, and his words set the players on edge.

The village chief announced a mandatory welcome feast and warned the trial visitors not to leave Sunny Village, while Zuo Cheng'an considered how to uncover the instance's hidden quest and earn an S rating. With the Great Purge only eleven days away, he hoped to maximize his attribute gains before returning to face it.

• The village chief invited the players to a welcome feast and sternly warned them not to leave Sunny Village.
• Viewers debated the instance's hidden quest, and Zuo Cheng'an reasoned that he needed to discover the cause of the red spots and blood-colored air sacs.
• Zuo Cheng'an ruled out sneaking out to the cave for now and decided to follow the instance's sequence and wait for the feast.
• Zuo Cheng'an considered his need to earn an S rating and extra attribute points before the approaching Great Purge.
• Zuo Cheng'an reviewed achievements and noted that instance-exclusive achievement rewards had mostly dwindled to collectibles.