Chapter Summaries

Xu Xi tried to escape the island by stealing the production crew’s boat, but a fog made him lose consciousness and brought him back to the point before he withdrew. He chose to withdraw anyway, leaving viewers and commentators wondering what he planned to do next.

• Xu Xi watched the other players leave, suspected the island’s boat was the way to escape, and sailed away alone.
• A fog enveloped the boat after about ten minutes, and Xu Xi lost consciousness before waking back at an earlier point.
• Xu Xi realized he had returned to before his withdrawal request, then raised his hand and asked to leave the competition.
• Viewers debated whether withdrawing could help Xu Xi survive, while Huaguo viewers trusted his judgment.
• Jiang Jin, Yao Han, Luo Zongyun, and Lin Miao discussed Xu Xi’s unexpected choice, and Lin Miao concluded he must have another plan.

Xu Xi tested whether contestants could escape the island by withdrawing and taking the boat, then discovered the instance punished his attempt. He withdrew again and entered the camp with the other players, where the challenge was set to begin the next day.

• Xu Xi withdrew from the competition and questioned the frightened wizard, who said something had possessed him and warned the contestants about danger inside.
• Xu Xi suggested that he and the wizard escape by boat, and the wizard took the production team's boat toward the mainland.
• After rolling back, Xu Xi watched the boat leave and learned from a staff member's phone call that the wizard planned to return it later.
• Xu Xi realized the instance was setting up the players and slashed his own throat with a fruit knife.
• Xu Xi rolled back again, withdrew, and followed the ten players into the camp after they changed into prison uniforms.
• The scruffy man told the players they could rest in clean single cells before the challenge began the next day.

After withdrawing from the competition, Xu Xi watched the players explore the abandoned camp from the monitoring room, wanting to see how he and the others would die this time. Inside, Winniever approached the woman in the leather jacket to discuss Xu Xi’s unexpectedly easy withdrawal.

• Xu Xi entered the monitoring room and persuaded the scruffy man to let him watch the feeds.
• The ten players entered the decaying camp and began exploring its corridors and rooms separately.
• Winniever tried to persuade the others to cooperate, but the red-haired woman said trust was scarce and went to explore alone.
• Winniever caught up with the woman in the leather jacket and asked what she thought of Xu Xi withdrawing so readily.

The woman in the leather jacket encountered an unseen shadow in the camp and smashed the photo wall to drive it away. Xu Xi realized the danger was invisible to the control room and that withdrawing from the competition had brought its own pitfall.

• Winniever spoke with the woman in the leather jacket, who suspected Xu Xi's decision to withdraw might carry a hidden cost.
• The woman in the leather jacket saw a shadow reflected in the display case and shattered the photo wall with her dagger, making it disappear.
• The woman in the leather jacket left the area after deciding the instance would be difficult.
• The control-room staff saw her attack the photo wall but could find no danger on the surveillance feed.
• Xu Xi concluded that the woman had encountered a real threat the monitors could not detect and recognized the information gap as a consequence of his shortcut.

As Xu Xi drew attention from viewers worldwide, the other players explored the eerie camp and encountered its dangers. Winniever spotted a ghost following Dana, leaving him worried about what might happen next.

• Viewers from different countries debated Xu Xi's withdrawal, while Huaguo viewers insisted he had a plan and made him the center of attention.
• Winniever heard a sharp crack near Polina's direction but decided not to investigate.
• Saha chose a room near an escape route and searched it, unaware that a ghostly hand had emerged from beneath the bed.
• Polina was seized by a bluish-green ghost, but Dana's arrival disrupted its grip and it vanished before Polina could strike.
• Dana went to the room next door, unaware that the ghost was following her, while Winniever watched from the second floor and feared trouble.

Polina and Dana both encountered invisible threats in their rooms and joined the bearded man's offer to cooperate. In the control room, Xu Xi chose to keep observing the dangerous competition, then realized he had nowhere to sleep.

• Polina reconsidered cooperating with the bearded man after surviving two attacks by the Ghostly Shadow.
• Dana dodged a bluish-skinned creature in her room and fled into the corridor, where she met Polina.
• Polina and Dana agreed to switch rooms together, and the bearded man called them to the second floor.
• Xu Xi watched the players encounter threats invisible to the cameras while the scruffy director insisted that filming continue and ordered the medical team to stand by.
• The scruffy man assigned Karen and Lasse to night duty and sent the others to rest, leaving Xu Xi wondering where he would sleep.

During breakfast, Dana was attacked by an invisible entity while the other players watched, and her protective talisman failed after three strikes. She collapsed, leaving the players unsure whether she was alive and demanding answers about the attack.

• Xu Xi returned to the monitoring room after waking with a sore neck from sleeping on makeshift beds.
• Winniever denied that he, Polina, and Dana had formed an alliance, and Polina suggested the players exchange information fairly.
• Dana suddenly dodged and slashed at an unseen attacker, then called on Winniever and Polina for help as her protective talisman flashed twice.
• Dana froze when the entity attacked a third time, muttered “Retreat... die...” and crumpled to the floor.
• Winniever called for the production crew to check on Dana, while Saha and Daisy demanded to know what had happened.

After Dana collapsed from an unseen attack, the players discussed what had happened and learned she was alive but unlikely to wake soon. As the medical team eliminated her from the competition, Briman announced that he wanted to withdraw.

• The players debated whether Dana had been unable to use another trump card and what the attacker meant by “withdraw” and “die.”
• Polina described the previous night's attacks, while Daisy and Briman considered the attacker's abilities and possible limitations.
• Xu Xi watched the surveillance footage and wondered whether only an attack's target could see the unseen thing, but he could not make out Dana's words.
• The medical team found Dana's vital signs normal but her brain activity severely fragmented, and declared her eliminated because she could not continue.
• Briman said he thought he should withdraw from the competition.

The commentators analyzed the eerie beings’ attacks and speculated that the bluish-gray figures were victims of the camp massacre who were trying to drive players away. Lin Miao suggested Xu Xi was waiting for the dungeon’s real danger to appear, leaving the commentators and viewers to question whether withdrawing was truly safe.

• Luo Zongyun and Lin Miao theorized that separate eerie beings had appeared in the rooms of Polina, Dana, and Saha, and that the attackers might be massacre victims who could think and communicate.
• The commentators considered whether more than ten thousand eerie beings might inhabit the camp and guessed that Dana had been stunned by seeing a dense mass of them.
• Yao Han and Luo Zongyun explained that the eerie beings could hide from some players’ perspectives, limiting what Xu Xi could learn from surveillance feeds.
• Lin Miao said Xu Xi seemed impatiently to be waiting for a critical event before acting.
• Luo Zongyun noted that the eerie beings did not seem intent on harming players and questioned what the dungeon’s real threat was, leading Yao Han to suggest Xu Xi was waiting for it.

Xu Xi warned Briman that withdrawing was unwise, while Briman discovered something troubling in the surveillance footage. The monitoring staff then decided to start the challenge, leaving the contestants still in danger.

• Briman withdrew from the competition, bringing the number of contestants down to eight, and Winniever urged the remaining players to cooperate.
• Xu Xi watched Briman arrive in the monitoring room and told him that withdrawing had been an extremely unwise choice.
• Briman searched the surveillance footage and froze after reviewing Dana's attack and footage from her room with Polina.
• Viewers debated why Xu Xi seemed confident and what he knew about withdrawing.
• The scruffy man ordered the contestants to begin the challenge so the staff could finish recording and leave.

The eight remaining contestants split into three teams to search dangerous locations for red skull symbols while completing challenges. Briman regretted withdrawing but was denied reentry, and Winniever, Polina, and Daisy reached the Torture Tower with their trust still uncertain.

• The contestants formed teams: Winniever, Polina, and Daisy chose the Torture Tower; two women chose the Burial Forest; and Saha, the man wearing a tie, and the Trench Coat Man chose the Mass Grave.
• Daisy warned the other contestants not to show up where they did not belong, and Saha and the long-sleeved woman answered in kind.
• Briman asked the scruffy director to let him rejoin the competition, but the director refused because Briman had already been eliminated.
• Briman watched the teams depart and wondered which location held the way to survive the instance.
• On the way to the Torture Tower, Daisy questioned Polina about being attacked and suggested that withdrawing might still be an option.
• Winniever stopped at the Torture Tower while Daisy and Polina discussed whether they could cooperate openly.

Winniever, Polina, and Daisy found a challenge in the Torture Tower, while Geseling and Kuxiya discovered a ritual in the Burial Forest and Saha, Yurien, and Ichimura Kōta faced a skull-pit challenge underground. Each group weighed whether to follow the production team's dangerous instructions, and none had started yet.

• Winniever discovered that the figure chained to the Torture Tower crucifix was a mannequin, and Polina found a card instructing one person to whip it while the others were tied up.
• Daisy questioned whether they should attempt the challenge, but Polina said they had no other choice; Winniever asked who would act as jailer.
• Geseling and Kuxiya followed bones through the Burial Forest to an altar and found instructions to light incense and candles, face a mirror, and recite a scripture for ten minutes.
• Geseling and Kuxiya realized the scripture was meant to summon the dead, but decided to proceed because they had no other clues.
• Saha, Yurien, and Ichimura Kōta found a card at the skull pit instructing them to take turns lying among the skulls for five minutes.
• Ichimura Kōta wondered what challenges awaited the other groups and who should go first.

Daisy, Polina, and Winniever faced bluish-gray Ghostly Shadows while carrying out their assigned torture-room challenges. Polina was dragged beneath the pool water, while Winniever fled the torture chamber and collided with Daisy.

• Daisy waited blindfolded and restrained as a Ghostly Shadow breathed beside her, but it vanished when a gunshot sounded nearby.
• A bluish-gray Ghostly Shadow rose from the pool, and Polina drove it away with a silver talisman.
• More Ghostly Shadows appeared around Polina and forced her underwater until she stopped struggling.
• A Ghostly Shadow attacked Winniever in the torture chamber, and he shot it with an enchanted bullet.
• Bluish-gray arms reached for Winniever from the floor, so he ran out of the chamber and collided with Daisy.

Saha and Polina were eliminated after their challenges left them unconscious, and the remaining players gathered to compare what they had encountered. In the control room, Briman tried to recruit Xu Xi, who refused and privately relied on his ability to restart after death.

• Saha jumped into the pit of skulls and began convulsing, so Yurien called the production team for help.
• The medical team declared Polina and Saha unable to compete, leaving six players, and Winniever urged everyone to share what their teams had experienced.
• Xu Xi watched the contestants suffer during their challenges and ordered the medical team to check on them.
• Briman asked Xu Xi to cooperate, but Xu Xi refused and Briman warned that his supposed trump card would eventually run out.
• Briman left to observe the eliminated players, while Xu Xi reflected that his trump card was the ability to use death to restart.

The commentators analyzed how the Ghostly Shadows behaved and speculated that Xu Xi had withdrawn because he understood they were a warning rather than the instance’s true danger. Meanwhile, the surviving players compared their encounters with the uncan and learned that Winniever had faced Ghostly Hands linked to a Hanging Ghost.

• Lin Miao and Luo Zongyun argued that the Ghostly Shadows were trying to drive the players out and that their warnings might point toward the key to clearing the instance.
• Jiang Jin reported that Xu Xi rejected Briman’s offer to cooperate, prompting Lin Miao and Luo Zongyun to remark on his confidence.
• Daisy, Kuxiya, and Geseling compared how closing their eyes and staying silent had helped them avoid danger.
• Winniever explained that Ghostly Hands had attacked him alongside a Hanging Ghost, and he suspected they were its companions rather than creatures it had summoned.
• Ichimura Kōta described how Saha had been eliminated, leaving the group with complicated reactions.

Winniever's group concluded that the island's victims were driving players away and decided to investigate the camp while continuing the show’s challenges. At the medical station, Briman learned that the eliminated contestants' consciousnesses were trapped, then noticed the boat moored by the shore.

• Winniever, Daisy, Geseling, and Yurien discussed why the victims were attacking them and decided to search the camp for clues.
• Winniever insisted that the teams keep participating in the challenges and prioritize cooperation.
• Briman learned from a medical worker that the three eliminated contestants were unconscious because something had trapped their consciousnesses.
• Briman examined the contestants, judged their condition effectively hopeless, and then noticed the boat by the shore.

The players investigated the camp’s mysteries and received a warning before beginning their second round of tasks. As they split up to search for clues, Ichimura Kōta claimed someone had been replaced, while Kuxiya was found dead and Winniever discovered another body.

• Winniever and the others suspected the Rebel Army and considered whether a Faction War or Battle Royale awaited them.
• The five players drew task cards, then found a warning on the basement floor telling them to leave or die.
• Geseling encountered Ichimura Kōta, who said someone among them had been replaced and asked to work with her.
• Daisy and Kuxiya separately went to the storage room to choose tools before heading toward the Dungeon.
• Yurien found Kuxiya dead in a water tank.
• Winniever found the motionless body of a man in a suit in a narrow tunnel.

The players’ escape attempts failed as the killers caught them one by one, while Xu Xi discovered the production crew had vanished and the boat was leaving. The round ended with the livestream viewers realizing that no one had survived.

• Geseling trapped Ichimura Kōta with her beads and found a concealed passage, but a man seized her and dragged her into it.
• A hammer-wielding woman struck Daisy in the storeroom, while Yurien saw a bloodied man appear behind him.
• Winniever realized the dungeon escape route was a dead end and stopped before a burly figure, with only one bullet left.
• Xu Xi found the monitoring room and production camp empty, then saw the boat carrying a brown-haired, blue-eyed young man leave the shore.
• A gray-faced stranger seized Xu Xi and tormented him until the boat returned empty, and the livestream viewers concluded that no one had survived.

Xu Xi returned to the start after withdrawing from the competition and entered the Camp again, intent on investigating what the monitors could not show. He waited in an exhibition hall for the attack he had seen before, then found Polina after she was attacked and asked what she had encountered.

• Xu Xi realized withdrawing had killed him and wondered who the pale, blue-tinged man was and what had happened inside the Camp.
• The scruffy man sent the eleven contestants into the Camp, where Xu Xi eagerly went ahead while Winniever and the others followed.
• Xu Xi explored a random exhibition hall, studied photographs of victims, and waited for the attack that had struck the leather-jacketed woman in his previous run.
• A crash sounded from the neighboring hall, and Polina searched for the black shadow that had attacked her before Xu Xi arrived.
• Xu Xi looked at the broken glass and asked Polina what she had encountered.

Xu Xi explored the camp, reconsidered the island’s supernatural threats, and studied a photo wall dated January 3, 19xx. After Polina was attacked, he asked her about the incident but left when she demanded an exchange, planning to investigate the camp further.

• Polina told Xu Xi that information required an equivalent exchange, but he turned and walked away without hesitation.
• Xu Xi reconsidered his theories about the living corpse man and the entity that possessed the shaman, wondering whether either was connected to the islanders killed by the Rebel Army.
• Xu Xi returned to the exhibition hall, noticed that the photo wall’s victims had died on January 3, 19xx, and wondered whether more than one islander had become a supernatural entity.
• Xu Xi checked the camp map and remembered that Polina and the short-haired woman would soon face further attacks.
• Yao Han, Jiang Jin, Lin Miao, and Luo Zongyun watched Xu Xi enter the camp and discuss his unusual calm and curiosity.
• After Polina was attacked by an unknown creature, Xu Xi approached her, asked what had happened, and left when she tried to sound him out.