Chapter Summaries

Xin Jiu entered a miniature Forest Labyrinth to search for a Tibetan fox and was followed by Chen Rui’s party. After discovering that Chen Rui’s permanent Heart Flutter skill was affecting her, she continued into the maze with the group, where a player stepped toward a rune-engraved stone.

• Xin Jiu left the group and headed to a nearby labyrinth, hoping to find the Tibetan fox she had encountered during the open beta.
• Xin Jiu opened the stone door and greeted the Cyprus morpho butterflies before confronting the party that had followed her.
• Chen Rui asked Xin Jiu to join his party, and Xin Jiu used Monkey's Eye to reveal his Heart Flutter skill and its effect on her.
• Xin Jiu learned that Chen Rui was the devoted livestream fan Chen Yuyuer, but she refused his party invitation and did not recognize his teammates’ names.
• Chen Rui’s party followed Xin Jiu into the labyrinth, and one player stepped onto a rune-engraved stone as they inspected the forest.

Xin Jiu led the players through the Forest Labyrinth, where a trap separated two teammates and a charging white yak injured another player. She discovered that dodging the yak’s attacks increased agility, and deliberately let its horn graze her arm to test how injuries affected the gain.

• Xin Jiu watched stone slabs rise after a player stepped on a rune tile, separating Xiao Ling and Brother Zhao Fei from the group.
• The young boy’s Navigation Card failed, and Xin Jiu told the anxious players that the labyrinth was vast and dangerous before continuing onward.
• Chen Rui accepted responsibility for following Xin Jiu and chose to keep following her rather than wander in search of an exit.
• Xin Jiu encountered a white yak, dodged its charge, and saw a system prompt award her 0.1 agility.
• The yak injured one of Chen Rui’s teammates, while Chen Rui used Heart Flutter to stop it from pursuing the others.
• Xin Jiu let the yak’s horn graze her arm and received 0.2 agility, leading her to suspect that a more serious injury after a dodge could bring a larger gain.

Xin Jiu exploited Niuniu’s attacks to raise her agility and helped the other Nine Provinces players do the same, while keeping her healing items secret. After night fell, food vanished in the moonlight, and she learned that Li Ran was dead before contacting Ao Lin to confirm the disappearance affected his food too.

• Xin Jiu deliberately dodged Niuniu at the last moment, gaining agility and triggering the Extreme Dodge achievement, then told Chen Rui and the others how to improve their stats.
• Xin Jiu revealed that she had cut off part of Niuniu’s horn so he would follow its scent back; Chen Rui, Doudou, and Jiamin then gained agility by dodging him.
• After night fell, Xin Jiu scattered White Bear’s powder around the group, and moonlight caused Doudou and Jiamin’s bread and water to disappear.
• Xin Jiu saw that Li Ran was marked deceased in her friends list and contacted Ao Lin to ask whether his food vanished in moonlight.
• Ao Lin confirmed that his potato chips disappeared while he fought an elephant-sized spider.

Xin Jiu endured a hungry night in the Forest Labyrinth while her Bear Biscuits remained safe from the moonlight. After Li Tao tried to kill her, Chen Rui stopped him, and the group began searching for food at dawn.

• Ao Lin traded Xin Jiu five Bear Biscuits, and she returned fifteen Bear Gummies; Ao Lin then warned Sang Yi that moonlight made food disappear.
• Xin Jiu ate her biscuits while the others went hungry, and she wounded Li Tao's ear with her slingshot after he insulted her.
• Li Tao tried to stab Xin Jiu while she appeared to sleep, but Chen Rui stopped him and took away his knife.
• At dawn, Chen Rui led the group to gather mushrooms while Li Tao started a fire; Xin Jiu later woke as the livestream began.
• Chen Rui handed Xin Jiu a skewer of freshly grilled mushrooms.

Xin Jiu discovered Li Tao had poisoned the grilled mushrooms and learned he blamed her for his teammates’ deaths and injuries. Li Tao summoned Anubis’s Avatar to kill her, leaving Xin Jiu fleeing through the forest as Anubis pursued her.

• Xin Jiu suspected Li Tao had poisoned the mushrooms and challenged him to eat one; Li Tao admitted he had poisoned them to kill her.
• Li Tao summoned Anubis’s Avatar and ordered it to kill Xin Jiu, while Chen Rui confronted him.
• Xin Jiu spent her ten reward points on agility and fled as Anubis chased her through the forest.
• After five minutes of pursuit, Xin Jiu’s stamina fell to 60%, and Anubis’s scepter repeatedly came close to hitting her.
• Xin Jiu ate two Bear Gummies and regained her running speed, enraging Anubis.

Xin Jiu survived Anubis by using a clown doll, returned to the group, and killed Li Tao after Chen Rui and the others asked her to spare him. She left her former companions behind and continued chasing Niuniu to raise her agility, insisting she would stop when it reached fifty.

• Xin Jiu dodged Anubis's attack with a clown doll, survived the ten-minute time limit, and rode a sika deer back to the group.
• Xin Jiu knocked Li Tao down with her slingshot and prepared to kill him, but Chen Rui, Doudou, and Jiamin blocked her path and asked her to spare him.
• Xin Jiu killed Li Tao despite their pleas, warned the others not to follow her, and left them behind.
• Xin Jiu took Niuniu's horn from her backpack and waited for him to catch up, then chased him for two days and gained five agility points.
• Niuniu finally spoke and demanded that Xin Jiu stop chasing him, but she said she would let him go once her agility reached fifty.

Xin Jiu left the little maze and searched for the Tibetan fox, meeting frightened mushroom folk and then a group of players fighting a flood dragon. After a player drew the creature’s attention to her, Xin Jiu prepared to use her Beast Claw Light Boots to jump onto its head.

• Niuniu refused to lead Xin Jiu to the Tibetan fox, so it gave her an A-rank Niuniu Berserk skill card in exchange; Xin Jiu repaired its horn and learned that the fox was south of the maze.
• Xin Jiu spent two days crossing the maze, killing hostile beasts and raising her points to 8,000 before leaving and saying goodbye to the Cyprus morpho butterflies.
• Xin Jiu found mushroom folk singing and spinning, deflected their spore attack, and let one go after asking about the Tibetan fox.
• Xin Jiu spotted players fighting a flood dragon by a lake, but one player pointed her out and urged the creature to eat her.
• As the flood dragon charged, Xin Jiu called up Li Tao’s Beast Claw Light Boots and prepared to jump onto its head.

Xin Jiu drove the flood dragon back into the lake and learned that her inspector badge frightened it. Later, she traded roast wild boar meat to NPC animals for skill cards, but they fled when she asked about the Tibetan fox.

• Xin Jiu stabbed the flood dragon with her upgraded bayonet until it retreated to the lake, where it asked why its wounds would not heal.
• Xin Jiu showed the flood dragon her inspector badge, and it chased the players who had asked it to kill her.
• Xin Jiu continued searching for the Tibetan fox, killed a wild boar, and cooked its meat over a fire.
• Xin Jiu traded pieces of roast meat to leopards, lion cubs, and wolves in exchange for skill cards, including a permanent B-rank Speed Skill and an A-rank Teleportation Card.
• Xin Jiu asked the animals where to find the Tibetan fox, and they all ran away in fear.

Xin Jiu discovered a Purple Lightning Dragon egg during a kappa ritual and earned a hidden-achievement reward for finding it. Following the egg’s directions, she reached a grotto where a saber-toothed tiger-like NPC guarded the Dragon Fodder Grass needed to heal the hatchling.

• Xin Jiu found kappa performing a ritual around a purple egg, then fought them after they charged her while their priest fled with it.
• Xin Jiu defeated the kappa and their priest, examined the cracked egg, and triggered a hidden achievement worth 50,000 points when she touched it.
• The system identified the egg as an injured Purple Lightning Dragon hatchling and told Xin Jiu to find Dragon Fodder Grass to heal it.
• A purple arrow appeared to guide Xin Jiu through the forest, and the egg grew hot as she neared the grass.
• Xin Jiu reached a grotto marked by torn player clothing and human blood, where a saber-toothed tiger-like animal lay beside a silvery-white plant that appeared to be Dragon Fodder Grass.

Xin Jiu stole Dragon Fodder Grass from a saber-toothed tiger and helped a Purple Lightning Dragon hatch. The dragon revealed that tower administrators could change the floors, and Xin Jiu set off again after healing her wounds.

• Xin Jiu distracted the saber-toothed tiger, grabbed the Dragon Fodder Grass, wounded it with her bayonet, and escaped with the egg using Teleportation Cards.
• The Dragon Fodder Grass vanished when it touched the egg, and a small purple dragon hatched.
• The dragon mistook Xin Jiu for an inspector and promised to carry her through the tower, but its attempt to breathe fire produced only black smoke.
• The dragon said someone on the twenty-eighth floor had knocked it down to the second floor and that the tower administrators had replaced Lilliput's inhabitants with goblins.
• The dragon explained that three masked administrators each controlled ten floors, and Xin Jiu realized she needed to grow stronger before continuing.

Xin Jiu and Bubu found Qingming, a fox spirit who could use an absorption skill Xin Jiu wanted to learn. Qingming offered to teach her and help Bubu take human form if she retrieved his stolen fan from Yin Lingzi, and Xin Jiu asked to test his skill before agreeing.

• Bubu led Xin Jiu through the tower toward Qingming, and Xin Jiu named the little dragon Bubu.
• Xin Jiu and Bubu reached a flower-filled valley, where they found Qingming in a stream taking human form.
• Qingming thanked Xin Jiu for looking after Bubu and learned that she wanted an absorption skill.
• Qingming said he would teach Xin Jiu and help Bubu take human form if she retrieved his fan from Yin Lingzi.
• Xin Jiu asked to test Qingming's skill before deciding whether to accept the risk.

Xin Jiu received a temporary skill from Qingming and set out with Bubu, but an encounter with Chen Rui's group led Doudou to blame her for Jiamin's death. Xin Jiu cut free from the group's restraint and challenged Doudou to face his own guilt.

• Qingming gave Xin Jiu the temporary S-rank skill Fox Dream Flowing Fireflies and told her where to find Yin Lingzi, while Bubu chose to go with her.
• Bubu sensed the aura of ancient ruins, and Xin Jiu found a rune-covered stone formation before Chen Rui's group arrived.
• Doudou spotted Bubu, and Chen Rui's group restrained Xin Jiu with a vine skill as they focused on the dragon.
• Doudou accused Xin Jiu of causing Jiamin's death after she left their group, but Xin Jiu said she had no obligation to protect them.
• Xin Jiu rebuked Doudou for needing Jiamin to protect him, then cut through the vine with her military bayonet.

Xin Jiu fought off the players who tried to kill her for her skill cards and Bubu, then forced Doudou to hand over his Navigation Card. She and Bubu took the attackers’ items and continued with a route toward the Forest Labyrinth’s exit.

• Doudou urged the players to kill Xin Jiu for her cards and Bubu, and one attacker charged at her.
• Bubu struck the attacker with a bolt of purple lightning, killing him and frightening the others.
• Xin Jiu invited the players to attack together, then severed the wrist tendons of those who rushed her.
• Xin Jiu agreed to spare Doudou, but threatened him until Chen Rui persuaded him to surrender his Navigation Card.
• Xin Jiu saw the card showed they were on the correct route to the exit, while Bubu collected the remaining players’ cards and items.

Xin Jiu reached Yin Lingzi’s grotto after accepting a hidden quest that required her to provoke him for a skill that could copy another player’s ability. She told him she had come for Qingming’s fan, and Yin Lingzi mocked Qingming for sending her to die.

• Chen Rui realized Xin Jiu’s poisoned blade had infected the players she wounded, while Bubu asked why she had not killed them.
• Xin Jiu examined the skill cards Bubu had stolen and found abilities that could slow enemies or turn weaker-perception enemies into slaves.
• Xin Jiu accepted the hidden quest to raise Yin Lingzi’s anger to 100% and earn the Copy skill.
• Hash Brown Heavy Dependence shared coordinates for speed boots with Xin Jiu and Heartless Dao Dabao.
• Xin Jiu and Bubu entered Yin Lingzi’s grotto and found him beneath a ginkgo tree, where he asked what they were doing there.
• Xin Jiu said she had come to get Qingming’s fan, and Yin Lingzi scoffed that Qingming had sent an ant to die.

Xin Jiu challenged Yin Lingzi to retrieve Qingming’s fan, but he made her play a question game first. After she used her answers and insults to provoke him, Yin Lingzi summoned a giant spider to attack her.

• Bubu warned Yin Lingzi that tower laws would stop him from attacking, while Xin Jiu realized high-level NPCs were restricted by rules.
• Yin Lingzi demanded three answers before accepting Xin Jiu’s challenge, and she proposed that they take turns asking questions and answer only “Of course.”
• Xin Jiu angered Yin Lingzi by asking whether he had deserted the ancient battlefield and whether his true firefly form was ugly and had a glowing butt.
• Yin Lingzi asked whether Xin Jiu had come only for the fan and whether she could leave alive, while Xin Jiu insulted him instead of answering the last question.
• Yin Lingzi summoned an enormous red-eyed spider to rip out Xin Jiu’s tongue, and Xin Jiu dodged its charge and prepared to tackle it.

Xin Jiu defeated Yin Lingzi’s summoned monsters and completed a hidden quest, earning the SS-rank Copy skill. Yin Lingzi vanished without giving her Qingming’s fan, but challenged her to meet him on the twenty-fifth floor.

• Xin Jiu killed Yin Lingzi’s red-eyed spider with her bayonet and earned 3,000 points.
• Xin Jiu enslaved the queen bee with Let's Blow a Kiss and ordered the swarm to attack Yin Lingzi, whose body proved to be an illusion.
• Xin Jiu filled Yin Lingzi’s rage meter and completed the hidden quest, earning the SS-rank Copy skill.
• Xin Jiu deduced Yin Lingzi’s true body was elsewhere and questioned whether it was hiding at the top of the tower.
• Yin Lingzi claimed Qingming had stolen his treasure, then vanished without returning the fan and told Xin Jiu to meet him on the twenty-fifth floor.

Xin Jiu and Bubu failed to find Qingming's fan, so they recruited a Mushroom Person to transform into a convincing fake. They returned to Qingming with the fan, hoping to get his skill, and left the ruse about to be tested.

• Xin Jiu and Bubu left Yin Lingzi's grotto without Qingming's fan, but Xin Jiu earned an SS-rank skill and 50,000 points for seeing through Yin Lingzi's illusions.
• Bubu suggested using a hallucinogenic Mushroom Person transformed into a fake fan to trick Qingming into giving Xin Jiu his skill.
• Xin Jiu and Bubu found the Mushroom People, who feared Qingming because they were fly agarics and foxes ate them.
• After tasting Xin Jiu's Bear Honey, the Mushroom People agreed to help, and one transformed into a fan matching Bubu's description.
• Xin Jiu and Bubu returned to Qingming's pavilion and handed him the fake fan.

Xin Jiu received Qingming’s S-rank skill and stayed in his valley while he helped Bubu take human form. After Bubu chose to leave with her, Qingming pointed her toward a way to recover her greatsword, and Xin Jiu questioned him about the game’s NPCs and its descent into reality.

• Qingming revealed the Mushroom Person disguised as a fan, gave it a fruit, and told Xin Jiu he would grant her the skill after she survived Yin Lingzi.
• Xin Jiu obtained the S-rank skill Fox Dream Flowing Fireflies and stayed in Qingming’s valley while he helped Bubu take human form.
• Xin Jiu explored the valley, left the herb garden untouched, grilled fish, and slept as curious animals discussed her inspector status.
• Qingming emerged with Bubu transformed into a young boy, and Bubu chose to leave with Xin Jiu despite Qingming’s warning about the tower’s coming chaos.
• Qingming told Xin Jiu that defeating the Human-Faced Tree could earn her a black fruit to forge a greatsword, then warned that NPCs might recognize her if she recovered it.
• Xin Jiu asked Qingming why the game had descended into reality, why he had come to the second floor, and why the NPCs had minds of their own.

Xin Jiu and Bubu encountered the Human-Faced Tree, which forced forest animals to study and challenged Xin Jiu to answer questions for its fruit. Xin Jiu answered the first question about nautiluses correctly, and the tree began to falter as it prepared the next question.

• Qingming sent Xin Jiu and Bubu back into the forest, where Bubu gathered the herbs they had left behind.
• Xin Jiu and Bubu found the Human-Faced Tree forcing trapped animals to study and learned that it had caught them with vines.
• Xin Jiu confronted the Human-Faced Tree and challenged it, but it required her to answer three questions to earn its fruit.
• The Human-Faced Tree recognized Yin Lingzi as its master after Xin Jiu asked about him.
• Xin Jiu correctly answered that nautiluses had existed on Earth for five hundred million years, and she urged the tree to ask its next question.

Xin Jiu answered the Human-Faced Tree’s questions, then defeated it to rescue the captive animals and take its black fruit. Meanwhile, Ao Lin accidentally revealed his face during a livestream, exposing that he had entered the game.

• Xin Jiu correctly answered the Human-Faced Tree’s questions and received six Magic Element Fruits, giving Bubu the lightning fruit.
• Xin Jiu demanded a black fruit, but the Human-Faced Tree refused, so she attacked it.
• Bubu struck the Human-Faced Tree with lightning, allowing Xin Jiu to kill it and take the black fruit.
• The Human-Faced Tree’s death freed the little animals, and Xin Jiu received points, a hidden achievement, and the Branch and Vine Entanglement skill.
• Ao Lin defeated another Human-Faced Tree, removed his mask, and revealed his identity to the livestream viewers.
• Ao Lin’s management company faced a flood of calls and questions after viewers recognized him.