Recaps

Ed explained the limits of Soul Summoning and prepared to bring another Soul Returner into the game. After the players finished testing, Ji He received a shareable beta invitation and gave its code to Yu Yun, who successfully activated his account for the next session.

• Ed told [Do Some Farm Work] that summoning another Soul Returner would require more materials and time, and that souls might take until the next day to respond.
• Ed explained that Soul Returners could only descend for twelve hours because their bodies might otherwise disintegrate.
• The four players ate around the campfire, logged out, and ended the second day of testing while Ed used the Vine Sheep remains to mold a body.
• The players planned to explore the opposite riverbank, and Ji He received a shareable closed beta invitation code.
• Ji He offered the code to Yu Yun for whatever he thought it was worth, and Yu Yun successfully activated his eligibility for the next closed beta session.

A gaming platform’s technical department repeatedly removed “World of Disorder” from its new games rankings, only for it to reappear in the same spot without any trace of an intrusion. After the director failed to stop it, the programmer went home intending to investigate the game as a player.

• A technician told the director that “World of Disorder” kept returning to the twentieth spot in the new games rankings despite being removed each day.
• The director took over the technician’s workstation and deleted the game from the platform’s backend.
• The technician refreshed the homepage, and “World of Disorder” appeared again in twentieth place.
• The director gave up and said he would speak to the boss, while the technical staff ended their overtime.
• The technician went home and decided to investigate “World of Disorder” by approaching it as a gamer.

Cui Yuan explored the official World of Disorder website, discovered its monster entries and unusually intelligent NPC information, and became eager to play despite lacking closed beta access. After changing his username, he noticed something odd in the opening animation while repeatedly refreshing the site.

• Cui Yuan registered an account and examined the map and bestiary, learning about dangerous creatures such as the “Plum Blossom” Deer.
• Cui Yuan found that different players, including [Muninn] and [Zhongde], had edited entries in the bestiary.
• Cui Yuan read the NPC entry for Ed Adrian, who was described as the only NPC in the closed beta and highly intelligent.
• Cui Yuan became hooked on the game’s style and content, though he still lacked closed beta access.
• Cui Yuan shared the game’s homepage in gaming groups, changed his ID to [Great Wei Boxing Champion], and spotted something unusual in the opening animation.

Cui Yuan discovered that the website’s opening animation hid a puzzle, while [Shit Appraisal Master] entered the World of Disorder and joined the other players. The five crossed the river to explore the Black Forest, leaving Ed behind to monitor them and prepare to recover them if they died.

• Cui Yuan recorded the website’s opening animation and analyzed its final frames, spotting a multicolored effect that suggested a hidden puzzle.
• [Shit Appraisal Master] entered the game, reunited with [Do Some Farm Work], and met the other three players, including [Zhongde].
• [Howling Pothos] proposed finishing the raft and crossing the river, and [Do Some Farm Work] introduced the new player to the world outside the castle.
• The players finished a raft before noon and crossed the river together to reach the other bank.
• Ed watched the players begin exploring without their healing-capable NPC, told Little Green to monitor them, and returned to the castle to consider his next move.

The Tree Worship Church bishop accused Dragonborn Village of harboring an apostate and entered alone to investigate. After sensing the village’s fruit tree, he found the apostate’s trail and thanked the dragon-transformed villager for cooperating.

• The Tree Worship Church knights arrived at Dragonborn Village and accused it of sheltering an apostate.
• The dragonborn guard rejected the accusation, then challenged the bishop to enter the village alone.
• The bishop accepted and entered Dragonborn Village while the gates closed behind him and villagers watched.
• The dragon-transformed man warned the bishop not to threaten or punish the villagers, and the bishop declined his offer to fight.
• The bishop touched a fruit tree with his branch-like hand, sensed the apostate’s trail, and announced that he had found it.

The Tree Worship Church bishop tracked Ed east from Dragonborn Village, while Ed used Little Green’s plant network to monitor the riders and tried to delay their pursuit. The bishop detected Ed’s spy weeds and continued east, confident he had found the test subject’s direction.

• The village chief let the Tree Worship Church bishop leave, then sent an aide to report the encounter to the master on the sacred mountain.
• The bishop learned that Ed had headed east and led his knights after him, leaving a nearby villager’s promised tax exemption unresolved.
• Ed watched the riders through Little Green’s seeds and saw the bishop discover and uproot one of his spy weeds.
• The bishop recognized the weeds as Ed’s creations, followed their signs of withering eastward, and ordered his knights to continue the pursuit.

Ed lost contact with his scouts and learned that three players had died, while the survivors returned with the dead players’ recovered body parts. He began rebuilding their bodies, leaving [Howling Pothos] and [Good Times Don't Last] to gather more wood.

• Little Green reported that all the seeds along the route were dead, and Ed asked how the players were doing.
• In the real world, [Zhongde], [Chief Shit Appraisal Master], and [Do Some Farm Work] argued over their deaths before using the official map to watch the survivors retreat by boat.
• [Good Times Don't Last] returned to the castle and announced that sixty percent of the army had fallen, while [Howling Pothos] brought back a sack of body parts.
• Ed inspected the recovered pieces and used the unfinished Vine Sheep to begin repairing the three dead players’ bodies.
• [Howling Pothos] invited [Good Times Don't Last] to go chop trees.

The Tree Worship Church bishop led clerics and a tax collector into a cave to find an escaped apostate, but they uncovered a vast hoard guarded by a living dragon. The bishop realized the Church had sent him into a dangerous place without knowing what lay beneath the mountain.

• Players concluded that the river around the ancient castle protected new players and planned to explore the northern and eastern areas instead.
• The bishop led his clerics and the tax collector into a cave, claiming an apostate was hiding inside.
• The Dragonborn Village messenger recognized the missionaries’ horses outside and killed them one by one.
• The clerics found an altar inscribed with a message about offering flesh and blood, and the tax collector’s wounded palm opened a concealed door.
• The group entered a cavern filled with gold coins, and a young cleric disturbed the pile, revealing a dragon’s golden eye.
• The bishop recognized the creature as a living dragon and realized the Tree Worship Church had not known it was there.

The Tree Worship Church bishop negotiated with a dragon over a bounty for the apostate Ed Adrian, offering gold coins in exchange for his capture. As the clerics prepared to leave, a half-dragon-transformed young man accused them of trespassing, leaving the dragon to judge their conduct.

• The dragon startled the Tree Worship Church clerics and set their wooden swords on fire before demanding to know why they had come.
• The bishop showed the dragon a wanted notice for Ed Adrian and offered one thousand gold coins for his capture, or eight hundred if he was dead.
• The dragon accepted the deal, and the bishop signaled for the clerics to leave.
• A half-dragon-transformed young man arrived and accused the clerics of forcing their way into the dragon's kin's territory and disrupting metallurgical plans.
• The young man claimed the village chief had sent him to report the matter, and the dragon asked the clerics whether the accusation was true.

The players revived after Ed repaired their bodies and worried that the World of Disorder’s resources might run out permanently. Howling Pothos tested whether they could breed monsters themselves, raising the possibility of a farm for renewable resources.

• The bishop tried to bargain with the dragon, but the dragon burned the Tree Worship Church members and ordered the surviving young man to deliver metal as usual.
• Ed finished repairing the three players, who logged back into the game as soon as they could.
• Shit Appraisal Master questioned Ed about whether he was alive, then joined the others outside the castle.
• Howling Pothos pointed out that no Deadwood Vine had grown back from a stump and warned that the world’s resources might be finite.
• Howling Pothos placed a living piece of Deadwood Vine and some of his own flesh in the stump, and the vine began moving, suggesting the players could breed monsters.

After the players logged off, Ed realized that he needed to grind monsters himself to keep gaining offerings and leveling up. Far away, the Tree Worship Church’s presiding archbishop investigated five priests whose soul trees had burned to charcoal and requested reports from the Aduolin Province diocese.

• The players returned to the castle and logged off, leaving markers around the hollow where the Deadwood Vine was growing.
• Ed reviewed his level 3 attributes and worried that he could not reliably gain offerings without recruiting more players.
• Ed decided to go grind monsters after work, despite preferring to maintain his NPC role around the players.
• The presiding archbishop examined five burned soul trees in the Verdant Holy See and considered what could have killed them so quickly.
• The archbishop asked a priest to bring him the latest reports from the Aduolin Province diocese.

An office worker watched a newcomer’s video revealing how to solve an Easter egg on World of Disorder’s homepage and obtain an activation code. Intrigued, he planned to try the game after work, but Cui Yuan said he already wanted to play a new game in his library.

• An office worker found a video about cracking an Easter egg in World of Disorder and realized he had seen the game on the new games chart.
• The video creator pieced together a hidden image of Odin and a treant, then decoded the raven’s wing feathers to identify Huginn.
• The creator used Huginn’s name to find a hidden wiki page, woke a sleeping squirrel with a mallet, and received a pine cone containing an activation code.
• The office worker regretted missing the puzzle and planned to try the game after work.
• Cui Yuan declined dinner plans because he wanted to try a new game in his library.

Cui Yuan’s puzzle-solving video made “World of Disorder” spread rapidly online, bringing a surge of players to the game’s website and bug reports to the platform. As the technical department scrambled to respond, members of the gaming group that had once dismissed the game began discussing it again and asked Zhongde whether it was fun.

• Cui Yuan watched Cui Yuan walk away and felt that the other man’s voice seemed familiar, though he could not remember where he had heard it.
• A novice video creator’s puzzle-solving video went viral, drawing viewers to “World of Disorder” and prompting many to preregister and submit bug reports.
• The technical director called a department meeting as manually submitted reports about the game’s unfixable bug surged, and ordered employees to work overtime.
• Prospective players explored the game’s website, discussed its five listed monsters and NPC Ed, and made “World of Disorder” a trending search.
• Members of the gaming group where [Zhongde] and the others had first discussed the game began praising its video and asking @A Zhongde Dried Meat Wholesale whether the group was playing it.

While hunting near the castle, Ed discovered a massive [Rat King] made of thousands of mutated rats, which devoured a Vine Sheep and rolled toward him. He tried to use the Barony of Tur's secret pact vessel against it by issuing the command [Hang Upside Down].

• Zhou Jue said he would check out the viral game video after his shift.
• Ed used Little Green's plant-sensing ability to see while hunting monsters at night.
• Ed realized the scarcity of prey was explained by an enormous [Rat King] consuming creatures nearby.
• The [Rat King] crushed and devoured a Vine Sheep before advancing toward Ed.
• Ed took out the secret pact vessel and commanded the [Rat King] to [Hang Upside Down].

Ed escaped the Rat King by reversing gravity and flying back to Baron Tuer's castle, where he learned how the swarm formed and dispersed. After dawn, he told Little Green they would add new features, while Cui Yuan logged into the Soul Webway as the game servers prepared to open.

• Ed used the territory's secret pact to try to restrain the approaching Rat King, but the creature resisted his spell.
• Ed cast [Hang Upside Down] on himself and Little Green, then manipulated gravity to fly back to the castle.
• Ed altered gravity at the castle entrance to keep ordinary creatures from entering and watched the Rat King until dawn.
• The rats broke free from the Rat King's core and scattered across the wilderness, giving Ed a rough understanding of how the swarm formed and dispersed.
• Ed told Little Green they would implement new features after looking at the offline players' bodies in the hall.
• Cui Yuan skipped work and entered the Soul Webway as [Great Wei Boxing Champion].

[Great Wei Boxing Champion] joined the closed beta as a Soul Returner and learned about the world and his starting attributes. The players set out to explore northeast from the castle with new interface features, while Ed decided to take the server down for a day tomorrow.

• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] regained consciousness in the castle and recognized the Soul Returner lore from the compendium.
• The veteran players welcomed [Great Wei Boxing Champion], explained their plan to explore northeast, and left Ed behind as their guide.
• Ed announced new map, photography, and low-stamina alert features, which the players began using.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] shared his attributes, and the players explained how constitution and willpower worked.
• Ed watched the players depart, then set out to grind monsters and told Little Green he wanted to take the server down for a day tomorrow.

Ed planned to use the server downtime to introduce villagers as new NPCs while the players hunted monsters near Upperstream Village. As the players headed back toward the castle at dusk, they encountered a powerful Rat King and appeared to face an immediate fight.

• Ed told Little Green he would shut down the servers for a day to introduce new NPCs from Upperstream Village.
• A rat gorged itself on a Vine Sheep carcass until it became bloated, then squeaked toward the sky as movement stirred in underground burrows.
• [Zhongde] and the other players agreed to return to the castle before the daily testing session ended, and they rejected his idea of using the rat's brain to make a Soul Returner.
• On the way back, [Shit Appraisal Master] stopped to harvest a Plum Blossom Deer while his companions went silent and readied their weapons.
• [Shit Appraisal Master] turned and saw a red-named Rat King only a few paces away, then told [Zhongde] they would not have to wait until tomorrow.

Ed planned to use the players’ enthusiasm for farming to organize an effort against the Rat King, while the players returned to the castle after fleeing from it. The chapter ended with Ed revealing that he had seen the Rat King and asking the players about the trouble they encountered.

• The players escaped the slow-moving Rat King and headed back toward the castle, discussing how to document and handle the creature.
• Ed and Little Green evaluated a tasteless fruit as a safe crop, and Ed decided to use the threat of rats to motivate the players to clear farmland and fight them.
• Ed collected the fruit’s gene and used the Territory Secret Pact to command Weightlessness.
• The players visited Howling Pothos’s Deadwood Vine test plot, where the vine had revived and absorbed the scraps he fed it.
• Ed asked the players whether they had run into trouble, then pointed northeast and said he had seen the Rat King from the castle.

Ed provoked the divided players into choosing to fight the [Rat King] by warning that it would destroy their Deadwood Vine farm. [Howling Pothos] organized a battle plan and asked Ed to help, leaving Ed wondering whether the player knew he could fight.

• The [Rat King] approached, and the players split evenly between fighting it and retreating before forced logout.
• Ed suggested the players could escape by abandoning their loot, then warned that the [Rat King] would find and kill the Deadwood Vine seedling regardless.
• The players rallied behind [Howling Pothos], who assigned the group roles to lure the [Rat King], dig a pit, and attack it.
• [Howling Pothos] asked Ed to join the fight if an opportunity to kill the [Rat King] arose.
• Ed sensed that [Howling Pothos] was sincere and wondered whether the player knew he was a capable fighter.

Ed joined [Howling Pothos]'s plan to trap the [Rat King], and the players began luring the swarm toward their ambush. The attack started, but the [Rat King] proved difficult to damage as [Zhongde] and [Do Some Farm Work] dug the pit.

• [Howling Pothos] asked Ed to restrain the [Rat King] with his binding spell, and Ed agreed to help.
• [Howling Pothos] and [Great Wei Boxing Champion] covered themselves in beast blood and lured the [Rat King] toward the planned trap.
• [Good Times Don't Last] threw a short spear at the [Rat King], but it killed only a dozen or so rats before the swarm consumed the weapon.
• [Shit Appraisal Master] charged toward the [Rat King] instead of throwing away his spear.
• [Zhongde] and [Do Some Farm Work] dug furiously with iron shovels while the transplanted Deadwood Vines helped loosen the soil.

The players’ plan to trap the Rat King reached its climax as they lured it toward a pit while fighting off its rats. The Rat King fell into the trap, leaving the group ready to take advantage of its predicament.

• [Zhongde] asked [Do Some Farm Work] about their promised forty-sixty split, and [Do Some Farm Work] said he would settle the money after logging out.
• [Shit Appraisal Master] charged the Rat King with two spears while [Good Times Don't Last] guarded against attacking rats, causing the Rat King’s divided forces to struggle to move.
• The Rat King abandoned the decoys and focused on its attackers, so [Howling Pothos] warned them that they had lost aggro.
• [Zhongde] announced that the pit was ready, and [Good Times Don't Last] pulled [Shit Appraisal Master] into a retreat as the Rat King pursued them.
• [Howling Pothos] and [Great Wei Boxing Champion] watched as the Rat King rolled down the slope and fell into the pit.

Ed trapped the Rat King in a thorny vine cage and used Paralysis Flowers while the players attacked through openings. With logout approaching and the Rat King still alive, [Howling Pothos] asked Ed to use his full strength, and Ed began empowering Little Green.

• Ed used Deadwood Vines to cage the Rat King in the pit and grafted Paralysis Flowers onto the vines.
• When the flowers' toxin weakened but did not incapacitate the rats, Ed opened attack windows and ordered the players to stab the Rat King.
• The players steadily reduced the Rat King's health, while [Howling Pothos] realized they would not defeat it before the 20:00 logout.
• [Howling Pothos] asked Ed to use his full strength to kill the Rat King, and Ed accepted the request.
• Ed withdrew his hands from the ground and greatly expanded Little Green's share of his power.

Ed killed the Rat King's core and secured victory for the players, who celebrated before being forced to log out. Left alone, he turned to the aftermath and began digesting the remaining rats while considering the game's publicity and his lack of money and NPCs.

• Ed drove his wooden sword into the Rat King's core, weakening the swarm and winning the battle.
• The players celebrated their victory, then were forced to log out at 20:00.
• Ed realized the players' recordings could bring more publicity, but he needed to shut down the servers because he lacked money and NPCs.
• Ed used Paralysis Flowers to kill the remaining rats, then had the vine cage absorb their bodies.
• Ed sat beside the cage and considered the experience gained as the rats began to digest.

After logging out, the players discussed whether the Guide had stolen the Rat King’s kill and speculated about the game’s EXP, loot, and open-ended mechanics. Great Wei Boxing Champion asked about the group’s earlier adventures, and Good Times Don’t Last began recounting them.

• Good Times Don't Last added Great Wei Boxing Champion to the players’ group chat, where they discussed the Guide landing the final blow on the Rat King.
• Howling Pothos guessed that EXP might be shared while loot might go to whoever struck the killing blow, and the others planned to find out when they logged in again.
• Do Some Farm Work offered to share a recording of the fight, and Great Wei Boxing Champion asked for footage to edit and post.
• Howling Pothos asked Great Wei Boxing Champion about finding the closed-beta Easter egg, and he confirmed that he had found it and might make game videos his main job if the game became popular.
• Howling Pothos and Shit Appraisal Master speculated that players had triggered the Rat King themselves rather than followed a scripted quest.
• Great Wei Boxing Champion asked what the others had done during the first days of the beta, and Good Times Don't Last recounted their early exploration, hunting, river crossing, and battle preparations.

Cui Yuan and the players discussed World of Disorder’s strange invitation mechanic and speculated that Odin Game Company was using the game to test or train artificial intelligence. They decided to keep playing while watching for clues, and Cui Yuan prepared to leave for work.

• Good Times Don't Last explained that beta players could gain access by sacrificing prey to an NPC, while Cui Yuan learned there was another route.
• Cui Yuan asked what the players knew about Odin Game Company, and Zhongde pointed out that the game’s immersion was unusually powerful.
• Zhongde argued that the game might be a cover for experiments because it lacked basic notices and disconnected players from their bodies while they slept.
• Do Some Farm Work suggested the players might be training AI NPCs, and the group considered whether an invitation system screened out unsuitable players.
• Cui Yuan said the helmets had an upper power limit, planned to investigate the game later, and asked players to send him recordings for videos.
• Zhongde told Shit Appraisal Master that he liked black hair.