Chapter Summaries

Xu Kai and the short-haired woman kept vigil until JK identified that the Stone Statue Weird had changed the candles’ colors, allowing them to survive the night. At the farewell ceremony, the crowd attacked and Xu Kai’s attempt to fight back exposed his strength, causing the game to declare that he had failed his ongoing driver role and eradicate him.

• The short-haired woman replaced the nearly burned-out Eternal Candle with a red candle, and the Stone Statue Weird attacked, destroying the Funeral Hall.
• After rewinding for the seventy-second time, Xu Kai woke JK and asked him to choose a replacement candle; JK selected a white one, and the night passed without incident.
• The short-haired woman asked Xu Kai why he looked exhausted, and he said that someone trying to kill him had kept him awake.
• At the farewell ceremony, the officiant ordered the coffin carried to burial, and the workers and attendees rushed Xu Kai and the others, trying to drag them to the Cremation Workshop.
• Xu Kai released his Weird Energy and fought back, but the game announced that his driver role-playing task had failed and turned him to ashes.

Xu Kai and the players fought off a spellbound crowd at the funeral, but Yellow Hair used his Talent to send the coffin into the cremation machine and break the crowd’s control. The survivors were badly injured, and the chapter ended with the ashes and the remaining burial missions still ahead of them.

• Xu Kai stopped the Master of Ceremonies, but a recorded announcement triggered the crowd to seize him and the players.
• The Short-Haired Woman used her Talent to direct everyone to cling to pillars, while the crowd carried the coffin to the Cremation Workshop.
• The crowd dragged Yellow Hair toward the cremation machine, where he activated his Talent and sent the coffin into its gears.
• The coffin was crushed, the crowd came to its senses, and Xu Kai, the Short-Haired Woman, and JK checked their severe injuries.
• The Short-Haired Woman realized they still had to retrieve the ashes and complete the Digging the Grave, Burial, and Tombstone Erection missions.

Xu Kai helped JK and the short-haired woman bury the ashes under the correct names, completing their tasks just as the Stone Statue Weird broke free. After the players escaped and the instance settled, Xu Kai refused to return to the City and used three portions of Source Weird Qi to obtain entry to the exclusive instance “Battle of All Evils.”

• Xu Kai realized the funeral ceremony was actually unsealing the Stone Statue Weird and fled the hall with JK and the short-haired woman as petrifying haze spread.
• Xu Kai collected and buried the ashes, then discovered that the gravestones needed the names “Yellow-Haired Brother Dog” and “Evil” for the players to complete their tasks.
• JK and the short-haired woman cleared the instance and escaped, while the Stone Statue Weird broke free and attacked Xu Kai before settlement rules forced him to retreat.
• Xu Kai received his rewards, refused the option to return to the City, and combined three portions of Source Weird Qi into a Ghost Entry Ticket.
• As the instance was restored, Xu Kai accepted entry to “Battle of All Evils.”

After the previous instance, Xu Kai spent three days fishing and playing chess to recover before entering the Battle of All Evils. He woke in Red Shirt Hospital, where the room rules seemed to require him to perform exercises that looked like dog tricks.

• Xu Kai returned to the Crematorium, then met an old man fishing and drank with him while learning the old man deliberately blocked the road to find people to chat with.
• Xu Kai caught a large fish immediately, then spent the next two days fishing and playing chess in Maple Town while waiting for the new instance.
• Before teleportation, Xu Kai reviewed his abilities and supplies, including his Weird Energy, Gui Resistance, two skills, and Temporary Ghost Advancement Card.
• Xu Kai entered the Battle of All Evils instance at Red Shirt Hospital, where the rules required patients to compete against other Evils and players for a Discharge Certificate.
• Xu Kai read the hospital room rules and realized the prescribed exercises depicted a dog lying down, holding a plate in its mouth, and leaping.

Xu Kai learned how the hospital’s twisted rules worked, chose the blue pill, and went to investigate the elevator. He was ambushed and fatally wounded by the mirror-traveling Evil He Yu, but vowed to remember her before ending his suffering.

• Xu Kai was erased after hesitating to take the nurse’s medication, then rewound repeatedly and realized the red pill was poisonous and the blue pill was the safe choice.
• On his eightieth rewind, Xu Kai read Patient Number Nine’s record, took the blue pill, and learned the nurse also feared her own perception was changing.
• Xu Kai saw a game notification granting him a temporary crawling speed boost and decided to investigate the elevator and cafeteria, starting with the elevator.
• Xu Kai entered the elevator and was stabbed through the heart by He Yu, who had hidden inside its mirror and attacked him from behind.
• As He Yu escaped through the mirror, Xu Kai shaped his remaining Weird Energy into a blade, killed himself to end his suffering, and vowed to remember her.

Xu Kai anticipated He Yu’s ambush in the elevator, killed her, and discovered the cafeteria floor of the Killing Zone. There he met Leng Chong, and they agreed to cooperate against the players while remaining wary of each other.

• Xu Kai dodged He Yu’s attack, trapped her by breaking the elevator mirror, and killed her with fire and Weird Energy.
• A corpse-disposal trash can appeared, and Xu Kai noticed that the damaged elevator was rapidly restoring itself.
• Xu Kai explored the cafeteria and met Leng Chong, who proposed that the two remaining Evils work together against the players.
• Leng Chong told Xu Kai that a nurse player had killed Tun with a long saber that could cut Weird Energy.
• Xu Kai admitted he had killed He Yu, and he and Leng Chong agreed to meet at the cafeteria at noon before cautiously entering separate elevators.

Xu Kai discovered that Patient Number Eight behaved like a dog and learned that the patients’ condition was transforming them toward strange species. Before the noon cafeteria meal, Xu Kai taught Number Eight to carry out a plan that might reveal the identity of the remaining player.

• Xu Kai found the corridor rule limiting noise to 55 decibels and quietly returned to his room before the doors closed.
• Patient Number Eight grabbed Xu Kai’s leg, so Xu Kai carried him into Room Nine and beat him against the wall without killing him.
• Xu Kai tested Number Eight with a plate and milk, discovering that the patient followed commands and lapped milk like a dog.
• Xu Kai showed Number Eight his diagnosis, Upright Ape Cognition Disorder, and connected it to Leng Chong’s condition and the patients’ apparent transformation.
• Xu Kai taught Number Eight to follow a plan at the cafeteria using a form he had made, then prepared for the noon meal.

Xu Kai navigated the cafeteria’s rules, secretly coordinated with Leng Chong, and observed the two nurse players, Ms. Lin and Liu Fang, as they arrived together. After the meal ended and the cafeteria’s restraints lifted, patient number eight emerged carrying a discharge certificate.

• Xu Kai led patient number eight safely through the hallway and elevator to the cafeteria, where he confirmed he appeared to be the only participant on his floor.
• Leng Chong arrived battered, and Xu Kai used his Weird Energy in a toothpick container to communicate with him about cooperating and locating the two nurses.
• Xu Kai and Leng Chong spotted Ms. Lin and Liu Fang emerging from a blood-covered elevator after killing its occupants, then discussed probing a third player.
• Ms. Lin warned Liu Fang that someone had been spying on them, and the two nurses took nearby seats.
• At noon, the cafeteria’s fat attendant forced everyone back to their seats and enforced the meal rules; Xu Kai realized her authority restrained the room.
• After the meal, the cafeteria’s murderous atmosphere returned, and patient number eight bounded out of booth eight carrying a discharge certificate.

Xu Kai and Leng Chong confronted the third player while Xu Kai used the cafeteria’s rules to stop the nurses and let Liu Fang die under punishment. After Leng Chong struggled to kill the third player, Xu Kai burned him to ash, and the two set out to return to the ward with Patient Eight before their time ran out.

• Player Eight was pulled back into booth eight, and Xu Kai identified the patient who followed as the third player.
• Leng Chong froze the third player, but the player revealed his wounds healed quickly and his body resisted the table knife.
• Xu Kai stole a doctor's clothes, then stopped Ms. Lin and Liu Fang by drinking milk and triggering the rule against disturbing someone who was eating.
• Liu Fang remained pinned under crushing pressure and turned to ash when the ten-minute punishment ended, while Ms. Lin left without attacking Xu Kai.
• Leng Chong continued hacking at the frozen third player until Xu Kai burned him to ash, then Xu Kai and Leng Chong prepared to return to the ward with Patient Eight.

Xu Kai returned to ward nine just before time ran out and discovered that patient eight had mutated into a powerful beast. He subdued and secured patient eight, then noticed that the ward and its walls seemed to heal themselves.

• Xu Kai took the third elevator to the seventh floor, evaded Nurse Lin’s attempt to learn which floor he was on, and reached ward nine with five minutes remaining.
• Patient eight transformed as Xu Kai returned to the ward, and Xu Kai realized the change had begun when he threw the patient a frisbee earlier.
• Patient eight broke through the ward door and attacked Xu Kai, who dodged his charges and pinned him to the floor with an IV stand.
• Xu Kai noticed the wound in the floor and the damaged wall healing, and wondered whether the hospital itself was alive.
• Patient eight tried to bite through the IV stand, but Xu Kai heated it with flames and eventually subdued and secured him in ward nine.

Xu Kai discovered that the hospital’s daily medicine suppressed a transformation affecting its staff and patients, then saved nurse Kana by giving her the correct pill. Kana had no medicine left, and Xu Kai realized her memory loss might mean she was already transforming.

• Xu Kai suspected the hospital cafeteria was causing people’s perceptions to change, but he could not confirm how.
• A nurse crawled into Xu Kai’s ward to make him take medicine, then attacked him when he refused.
• Xu Kai skewered the nurse with an IV stand, learned she was Kana, and gave her the red pill after taking the blue one himself.
• Kana recovered and explained that the hospital was transforming everyone and that only the daily medicine could suppress it.
• Kana told Xu Kai she had no medicine left and could not remember how long she had been searching for patients, prompting him to question whether she was transforming again.

Xu Kai learned that Kana could not remember her past and warned him that the cafeteria was dangerous, but he was carried by the elevator to an arena where the cafeteria should have been. He realized the instance had distorted his perception and found himself trapped by rules requiring him to fight a deadly duel.

• Kana could not remember where her medicine came from or when she arrived at the hospital, and she warned Xu Kai not to enter the cafeteria if his perception was altered.
• Xu Kai gave Kana half a bottle of milk to test whether she could avoid the cafeteria rules, then headed toward the elevator with patient eight attached to an IV stand.
• Xu Kai saw his distorted reflection in the elevator mirror, killed patient eight when he attacked, and realized he had been lying on the floor rather than standing.
• The elevator took Xu Kai to a Roman-style arena instead of a cafeteria, where rules required him to fight a duel and kill his opponent before leaving.

Xu Kai, Leng Chong, and Ms. Lin were forced to fight a huge monster in the arena, where they were badly injured before a strange voice drove it away. Xu Kai then returned to the cafeteria at six and realized killing a patient had fulfilled the arena’s duel rule.

• Xu Kai realized the cafeteria and arena rules overlapped, so he had to fight quickly and return to eat at six.
• Leng Chong and Ms. Lin emerged from other elevators, and a huge monster burst from elevator four and attacked the arena.
• Xu Kai, Leng Chong, and Ms. Lin joined forces against the monster, but its flames, strength, and regeneration overwhelmed them.
• As the three lay near defeat, the spectators charged into the arena, and a familiar voice ordered everyone back to their places.
• The monster killed a patient and fled up the elevator shaft, while Leng Chong and Ms. Lin each killed a patient before retreating.
• Xu Kai returned to the cafeteria at exactly six, still covered in blood, and understood that the arena had been real.

After surviving the monster’s attack, Xu Kai recovered in the cafeteria and met Leng Chong and Nurse Lin, who were all too injured to fight. When the plump auntie drove him away from the serving window, Xu Kai touched her ladle and asked about the patients, and she killed him with a word.

• Xu Kai recovered from his injuries, joined the meal queue, and used the toothpick jar to exchange messages with Leng Chong.
• Leng Chong tried to test Xu Kai by pretending he had killed Nurse Lin, then sealed Xu Kai’s Weird Energy inside a thick ice shell.
• Leng Chong encountered Xu Kai and Nurse Lin in the cafeteria, and the three limped toward the serving windows without fighting.
• The plump auntie served Xu Kai food and drove him away before he could ask questions.
• Xu Kai returned to ask why the patients were being driven away and touched the plump auntie’s ladle.
• The plump auntie said “Die,” and Xu Kai’s body shattered as he fell into darkness.

Xu Kai discovered that sound from the cafeteria loudspeakers caused the instance’s mutations, then tried to leave before further contamination. He and Leng Chong and Nurse Lin entered the elevators together, each attacking the others as the doors closed.

• After repeatedly dying to Fat Auntie’s strange command, Xu Kai concluded that her spoon was not what it seemed and that she had once visited the Arena, won three rounds, met the Chief, and received a Discharge Certificate.
• Xu Kai noticed Fat Auntie glance upward whenever he asked what caused the changes, spotted a loudspeaker on a pillar, and deduced that sound transmitted the mutations.
• Xu Kai tested the loudspeaker with Weird Energy, which mutated and exploded it, then realized the speakers repaired themselves and hurried toward Elevator One.
• Xu Kai found Leng Chong and Nurse Lin in a standoff and proposed that all three enter separate elevators at the same time.
• As the elevator doors closed, Nurse Lin caught fire and stabbed Leng Chong with a knife, Leng Chong threw an explosive Ice Ball into Xu Kai’s elevator, and Xu Kai used Weird Energy to stop its Steel Balls.

Xu Kai struggled through a warped perception that led him into the Arena, where Nurse Lin killed him on his ninety-first Save-Load. After two failed attempts on different paths, he reached Kana’s room on the third and forced his perception back to normal.

• Xu Kai left the elevator badly wounded and found a three-way junction of identical corridors, with red carpets leading to matching Room Nine doors.
• Xu Kai entered Room Nine on the left path, which led to the Arena, where Nurse Lin killed him with a saber while he was down on all fours.
• On his ninety-first Save-Load, Xu Kai took the middle path and died to Nurse Lin’s second attack after dodging her first slash.
• On his ninety-second Save-Load, Xu Kai took the right path and realized he had been crawling; he cut through the webbing on his hands and opened Room Nine.
• Xu Kai found Kana in the room and tore away the beastlike skin covering himself, restoring his perception without medicine.

Xu Kai tried to leave the ward with Nurse Kana, but corridor rules killed them both, so he used a Save-Load to keep her alive and tried again. After stopping her from screaming at what she saw, he discovered her aberration had given her cat ears, and she insisted they still had to go out.

• Xu Kai learned Kana had survived in the ward and confirmed that keeping her there had not violated the meal rule.
• Xu Kai and Kana stepped into the corridor, where Kana screamed and turned to ash; Xu Kai killed nearby patients before the corridor and Non-Killing Zone rules eliminated him.
• On his ninety-third Save-Load, Xu Kai warned Kana not to scream and stuffed a cloth in her mouth when she reacted to the corridor.
• Kana complained after Xu Kai pulled the cloth out, then discovered that her ears had turned furry and Xu Kai confirmed they had aberrated into cat ears.
• Xu Kai determined Kana's aberration had not progressed further, but Kana said she still needed to leave the ward soon.

Xu Kai led Nurse Kana through a corridor warped by his disordered perception, where two mutated patients pursued them under a deadly noise restriction. He sent Kana ahead to the nurses’ station to begin her task and locate the medicine while he stayed behind to block the monsters with only his fists.

• Xu Kai warned Kana to keep the cloth in her mouth and led her into a scorched corridor where neither of them could see a clock.
• Two mutated patients crawled out of neighboring rooms and began silently pursuing Xu Kai and Kana.
• Xu Kai chose to head toward the nurses’ station and staff lounge, telling Kana they would deal with the monsters there.
• As the monsters closed in, Xu Kai sent Kana ahead to complete her nurse task and remember where the medicine was kept.
• Xu Kai stayed at the corner to block the approaching monsters, prepared to fight with only his fists.

Xu Kai and Kana found the hospital rules and made their way toward the seventh-floor pharmacy while Xu Kai’s Cognitive Abnormality still made the corridors look burned and black. Kana stopped outside the pharmacy, where Xu Kai unexpectedly lay on the floor.

• Xu Kai died after making a sound above 55 decibels, then on his ninety-fourth Save-Load was killed by a faster winged monster that also violated the rules and turned to ash.
• On his ninety-fifth Save-Load, Xu Kai evaded the winged monster and found the rules, which revealed that medicine was stored on the seventh floor and could treat Cognitive Abnormality.
• Kana recalled fragments of stealing a patient’s medicine and seeing a frightening medical report, so Xu Kai pulled her away from the information desk and snapped her out of her distress.
• Kana’s view of the corridors returned to normal, and she led Xu Kai through locked passages, rooms of patients in glass boxes, and a smashed wall toward the pharmacy.
• Kana told Xu Kai that her task prevented her from entering the pharmacy, then turned and found him lying on the floor.

Xu Kai endured repeated deaths to retrieve medicine while his corruption transformed him into a powerful monster. After killing the doctor who tried to control him, Xu Kai swallowed the medicine box, heard the corruption command him to fight for victory, and collapsed under the accumulated power.

• Xu Kai repeatedly died while trying to enter the pharmacy code, then finally opened the slaughterhouse door and followed Kana's directions to find a box of medicine.
• As his corruption worsened, Xu Kai carried the box out in his mouth and accidentally killed Kana with the force of his voice.
• A doctor revealed that the pills cultivated monsters and that he served the Great Being, while Xu Kai recognized him from the cafeteria.
• Xu Kai resisted the doctor's attempt to control his mind, tore off his arm, and killed him.
• Xu Kai swallowed a red pill and then the entire medicine box, heard the corruption command him to fight for victory, and collapsed as his body fell apart.