Chapter Summaries

Si Yehan woke from a recurring dream of people burning, then received a supernatural invitation to the Weird Game. The invitation promised rebirth for clearing an instance and death for failure, and Si Yehan looked forward to the challenge.

• Si Yehan woke from a dream of people burning and vicious ghosts, then dismissed the dead as incapable of becoming vengeful spirits.
• He sensed a hostile gaze in his home, checked his surveillance footage, and found no intruder.
• Knocking sounded at the main door as a golden invitation card appeared on the floor.
• Si Yehan opened the door, picked up the card, and read that the Weird Game would begin at midnight and that players had to clear an instance to gain rebirth.
• The invitation vanished into ashes, and Si Yehan returned inside, pleased by the prospect of the game and its promised rebirth.
• Si Yehan reviewed the surveillance footage again and found no trace of the invitation or the strange events.

Si Yehan was transported into the Weird Game and arrived on a mountain path with seven other newcomers and two veteran players. As the burly veteran explained how instances worked, Si Yehan learned that clearing them could grant ghostly powers and extend a player’s life.

• At midnight, Si Yehan vanished from his home and appeared with seven others on a mountain path in the Weird Game.
• Four newcomers panicked over the lives and plans they had left behind, while Si Yehan regarded them as potential test subjects or prey.
• The burly veteran urged the newcomers to compose themselves and offered the student advice, while the ponytailed veteran took interest in Si Yehan and the doctor.
• The burly veteran warned Si Yehan not to harm the group, and Si Yehan answered that he could defend himself if challenged.
• The ponytailed woman revealed that veterans gained ghostly traits outside instances but could not use them inside, and the burly man explained that each player received a letter listing the instance’s conditions for clearing it.
• The burly man explained that clearing instances granted ghostly powers in the outside world and could prevent a ghost from reviving, extending the player’s lifespan.

Si Yehan and seven other participants entered Wang Family Village to investigate the nighttime infant cries and survive for ten days. After the village chief arranged their lodging, Si Yehan suspected the Elder Care Tower was connected to the cries, while the chief and a farmhand revealed that the group had been brought as sacrifices to end a century-old grudge.

• The burly man explained that time outside stopped during an instance and that participants who died would also die in the real world.
• The ponytailed woman had the group read their letters and exchange their different background information, while Si Yehan deliberately altered what he shared.
• The group reached Wang Family Village, where an old village chief offered them rooms in a three-story building beside the eerie Elder Care Tower.
• Si Yehan suspected the tower was tied to the infant cries described in the task.
• After the group left, a farmhand told the village chief that sacrificing the newcomers would allow them to tear down the tower, and the chief said it was time to end the century-old grudge.

Si Yehan and the others inspected their assigned building, found clues about the village’s ghost, and chose rooms for the night. As Si Yehan prepared to sleep, he decided to kill the burly man the next day.

• The group searched the building and found sacrificial objects and eight dolls resembling them in the third-floor storeroom, while the second floor had five rooms with beds and mirrors.
• Si Yehan reported that the kitchen was unusable and there was no food, so the group would need to get supplies from the village.
• The burly man paired with the male student, the ponytailed woman shared with the female doctor, and the woman in the white dress shared with the woman with loose hair; Si Yehan and the man in the suit took separate rooms.
• The ponytailed woman warned Si Yehan that the burly man wanted to kill him and advised him not to rush to uncover the ghost’s killing pattern.
• Si Yehan considered the ghost’s clues, turned his mirror toward the window, and went to sleep, resolving to kill the burly man first the next day.

Si Yehan dreamed of burning corpses before ghosts gathered around the sleeping villagers in the three-story building. The loose-haired woman responded to the children’s cries and was killed, while Si Yehan continued sleeping undisturbed among the ghosts.

• Si Yehan dragged two corpses into a snowy cave and threw them onto a pile of burning bodies in his dream.
• Children’s cries and footsteps woke the burly man, who forced himself back to sleep as ghosts gathered around the sleepers in rooms 201 through 205.
• The loose-haired woman recounted how her mother died after answering a persistent knock, then hid beneath the covers when she heard a strange sound.
• The loose-haired woman opened her eyes, saw three little ghosts, and screamed before the ghosts tore her apart and dragged her under the bed.
• Si Yehan slept soundly as ghosts surrounded him, seemingly unaffected by their presence.

After a woman was killed in room 204, Si Yehan and the others investigated the third-floor storage room and found her corpse and a shattered doll. The group discovered that the doll corresponding to the dead woman had broken, while the cause and rules behind the killings remained uncertain.

• A woman was found torn apart in room 204, and the ponytailed woman suggested that a Ghost Slave had killed her.
• The burly man reasoned that the ghosts attacked people who stayed awake and saw them, while the female doctor and ponytailed woman agreed with him.
• Si Yehan proposed checking the third floor, and the group went to the storage room with the burly man sending the male student away for safety.
• The group found the loose-haired woman's bloody corpse hanging from the ceiling and left it untouched.
• Si Yehan entered the storage room to inspect the dolls, and the group saw that the doll corresponding to the dead woman had shattered and was soaked in blood.

After discovering that the dolls reflected the villagers’ deaths, Si Yehan tested their limits and killed the male student. He then searched the village for the burly man and approached a villager’s home to investigate and kill its inhabitants.

• The loose-haired woman’s corpse and doll turned to ash when the ponytailed woman touched the shattered doll, and the group wondered where the real ghost was.
• Si Yehan found a pointed knife, wounded his own doll without injury, then destroyed the dolls belonging to the male student and the burly man.
• Si Yehan killed the male student, whose body and blood vanished because his doll had already been destroyed.
• Si Yehan searched the village, heard children being silenced inside shut homes, and chose a secluded household to investigate.
• A woman inside the house told Si Yehan that the head of the household was away and asked him to return later.

Si Yehan forced a farming family to reveal the history of the Abandonment Tower and the villagers’ sacrifices. After learning their secret, he killed the couple and their child, then burned their home.

• Si Yehan broke into the family’s house and wounded the woman and her husband until they agreed to explain what had happened.
• The woman said the villagers had used the Abandonment Tower for more than eighty years to abandon elders and children, and that a wandering master had renamed it the Elder Care Tower and ordered them to sacrifice outsiders each year.
• The husband revealed that he believed the village chief had murdered his father and blamed a Ghost Slave.
• Si Yehan said the couple could die, killed them, and set their house on fire.
• Si Yehan killed the child when they ran outside to their parents, then left as the flames engulfed the family.

Si Yehan defeated Zhang Kui in the burning village alley and questioned him about Ghost Tamers and the Weird Game. He left after Zhang Kui died, having learned that the game concealed Ghost Tamers from ordinary people and that some government Ghost Tamers sought to stop it.

• Si Yehan encountered Zhang Kui in the alley, where Zhang Kui attacked him with an iron rod and explained his hatred of players who had killed before entering the game.
• Si Yehan outmaneuvered Zhang Kui, disarmed him, and repeatedly stabbed him until he could no longer fight.
• Si Yehan questioned Zhang Kui about how participants communicated and what Ghost Tamers did in the outside world.
• Zhang Kui told Si Yehan that ordinary people could not learn about Ghost Tamers and that government Ghost Tamers urged participants to fight the Weird Game.
• Si Yehan revealed that he had already killed the male student Zhang Kui wanted spared, then watched Zhang Kui turn to ash and left the alley.

Si Yehan weighed the risks of killing Shen Jing, then returned to his room to sleep while the village chief investigated the burned family and ordered the outsiders watched. When Shen Jing, Chen Yong, Jing Xi, and Xie Ran reunited, they discovered that all three dolls were missing.

• Si Yehan decided to kill Shen Jing, reasoning that the danger she posed outweighed the value of keeping her alive to investigate the ghosts, and went to sleep in room 205.
• The village chief learned that the family had been killed before the fire and suspected the outsiders, especially Si Yehan, Shen Jing, and Zhang Kui.
• The village chief ordered Wang Zhou and Wang Niu to watch the three suspected outsiders and kill any who survived the final sacrifice.
• Shen Jing returned to the building with Chen Yong and Jing Xi, and Xie Ran arrived separately as they prepared to share what they had learned.
• Chen Yong and Jing Xi reported that all three dolls were missing, shocking Shen Jing.

Shen Jing’s group searched for the missing players, suspected someone had taken a ritual object, and prepared to defend themselves. By evening, the burly man and male student had still not appeared, and Shen Jing concluded they were dead.

• Shen Jing sent Chen Yong and Xie Ran to search the second floor while she and Jing Xi discussed who might have disturbed the ritual objects.
• Xie Ran found someone inside room 205, then Si Yehan appeared and said he had taken his own doll.
• The five survivors exchanged names, and Si Yehan discarded the food Chen Yong asked to have.
• Shen Jing and Xie Ran went out that afternoon and returned with three weapons, which they gave to Xie Ran, Jing Xi, and Chen Yong.
• The burly man and male student remained missing, and Shen Jing concluded they had died, though she did not know whether a rule or another person had killed them.

Shen Jing suspected Si Yehan might have killed the two men and prepared to defend herself, but Si Yehan struck first and murdered her. He staged her death to look like a ghost attack and hid her body in the Elder Care Tower.

• Shen Jing dismissed the idea that Si Yehan had killed the big guy, but a glimpse of a shadow on the stairs made her reconsider and prepare for danger.
• Si Yehan overheard the group’s conversation and decided to kill Shen Jing that night, while planning to use the others to explore the Elder Care Tower.
• Shen Jing invited Si Yehan into room 201 and offered him a place in Hanshu, describing the organization’s benefits.
• Si Yehan attacked Shen Jing with a knife, overwhelmed her, and killed her.
• Si Yehan staged the scene as a ghost attack, hung Shen Jing’s body in the third-floor storage room, and returned to his room.

Si Yehan avoided the night’s danger by returning to his room, while a Daoist named Xuan Youzi prepared to use the village’s unusual sacrifices to tame a fierce ghost. The chapter ended with Si Yehan waking after another vivid dream of a world destroyed beneath a deity and Buddha.

• Si Yehan concealed his bloodstains, returned to room 205, and went to sleep before the ghosts filled the rooms.
• A chained ghost watched Si Yehan from beside his bed but could not pass an invisible barrier.
• Xuan Youzi revealed that he had lived in the Elder Care Tower for more than ten years, arranging sacrifices to tame a fierce ghost and suppress the ghost inside him.
• Xuan Youzi withdrew into the shrines as the chained fierce ghost emerged beneath the tower, while the Ghost Slaves left everyone unharmed that night.
• Si Yehan dreamed of a world consumed by rain and fire as a deity and Buddha watched, then woke at the first light of morning.

Si Yehan watched the village’s strange rain and discovered the Elder Care Tower’s sign could influence him, while his doll protected him. In the storage room, the players confirmed Shen Jing’s death, and the ghost’s killing rules changed as a child’s cry approached.

• Si Yehan noticed the rooms had reset overnight, then saw the rain and felt compelled to smear his blood on the Elder Care Tower before the doll’s heat broke the influence.
• Chen Yong, Jing Xi, and Xie Ran joined Si Yehan, and they went to the third-floor storage room to check on Shen Jing.
• The players found Shen Jing’s body and doll gone, while bloodstains vanished; Chen Yong picked up his doll, which appeared to smile and bleed before the vision disappeared.
• Chen Yong told the others that he had moved a rusty Buddha statue and feared the ghost had targeted him after experiencing hallucinations.
• A child’s cry grew louder as the ghost’s killing rules changed, and Si Yehan left the storage room, shut the door, and returned to his room while footsteps lingered outside.

After the instance’s difficulty increased, Si Yehan investigated the Ghost Children’s killing rules. He confirmed that screaming triggered their attacks, while the killing rule of the corridor’s Ghost Slaves remained unknown.

• Si Yehan read a letter announcing that the Vengeful Ghost had escaped, the instance’s difficulty had increased, and the survivors had four days to uncover the plot and survive.
• Ghost Children emerged from the rainwater in Si Yehan’s room, but his doll grew hot and kept them at bay.
• Si Yehan went to the third-floor storage room, where Chen Yong, Jing Xi, and Xie Ran were still alive, and waited to test his theory about the Ghost Children.
• Jing Xi began sobbing, then screamed when she saw the Ghost Children behind her, and they tore her apart.
• Si Yehan concluded that screaming was the Ghost Children’s killing rule, while Chen Yong and Xie Ran remained alive.

After Jing Xi died, Si Yehan tested the ghosts’ killing rules by deliberately making Chen Yong take heavy steps, then killed Xie Ran himself. He concluded that screaming before the little ghost and making heavy footsteps before the ghostly figures brought certain death, while the rain stopped and the building fell quiet.

• Chen Yong and Xie Ran described the frightening illusions that had trapped them, and Si Yehan led them back to the second floor.
• Chen Yong screamed when he encountered a ghostly figure, but it did not attack him until Si Yehan kicked him and made him stumble with heavy footsteps.
• The ghostly figure killed Chen Yong, and Si Yehan deduced that screaming before the little ghost and heavy footsteps before ghostly figures were fatal rules.
• After the rain stopped and the ghosts faded, Xie Ran tried to flee, but Si Yehan wounded her with a knife and tortured her to death.
• Si Yehan reflected that killing gave him pleasure as the three-story building grew quiet.

Si Yehan investigated the village’s dangers and tested whether ghosts attacked people in their sleep based on the weather. He slept safely, but realized the absence of an active ghost might also explain it, so he planned another test that night and an afternoon visit to the Elder Care Tower.

• Si Yehan ate the meal delivered by Wang Zhou and Wang Niu, then followed them to listen to their conversation about the sacrifices and ghosts.
• Wang Zhou told Wang Niu that the village chief’s rules would keep them safe and warned him not to confront ghosts or risk his life over a woman.
• Si Yehan overheard the pair, learned they were close, and returned to his room to test whether rain affected ghost attacks on sleepers.
• Si Yehan fell asleep without the doll growing hot and woke safely while it was still early.
• Si Yehan considered that no ghost might have been active during his test and planned another trial that night before exploring the Elder Care Tower.

Si Yehan investigated the Elder Care Tower and learned that its mural recorded the villagers’ history and their attempt to atone for past sins. He later followed and killed the old madman, burying him over a Buddha statue that resembled one in the tower.

• Si Yehan entered the Elder Care Tower and studied a mural that told its history and described the elderly villagers’ plan to die in atonement.
• Si Yehan left the tower and followed a ragged figure through the village, suspecting he was the old madman Chen Yong had mentioned.
• The old madman buried a rusty Buddha statue, then offered Si Yehan part of a moldy steamed bun.
• Si Yehan stabbed and wounded the old madman, then kicked him into the hole beside the Buddha statue.
• Si Yehan watched the old madman die and left the hole uncovered.

Si Yehan tracked down the old village chief and learned how to survive encounters with ghosts, then revealed his intention to kill the village chief and Wang Zhou and Wang Niu. The chapter ended with the three men attacking him inside the chief’s home.

• Si Yehan found the village chief’s granddaughter, Nannan, and followed her home after she revealed that her grandfather was the chief.
• Nannan told the chief and Wang Zhou that a black-clothed stranger had asked where he lived, and Wang Zhou identified Si Yehan as the last remaining sacrifice.
• The old village chief told Wang Zhou he was dying and entrusted Nannan’s care to him.
• Si Yehan entered the home and asked the chief how to survive ghosts, and the chief explained their killing rules and warned that the other participants were likely dead.
• Si Yehan said he wanted to borrow the villagers’ lives, and Wang Zhou and Wang Niu attacked while the chief gave them wooden clubs.

Si Yehan defeated Wang Zhou, Wang Niu, and the village chief, then killed Nannan and burned the house and bodies. He escaped into the village as the fire drew some villagers toward the chief’s home.

• Si Yehan fought Wang Zhou and Wang Niu, wounding Wang Niu with his dagger while the village chief joined the attack with a sickle.
• Si Yehan disarmed Wang Zhou, seized the sickle, and decapitated the village chief; Wang Niu died while trying to shield the chief’s corpse.
• Si Yehan knocked Wang Zhou down and killed him with a dagger through the head.
• Si Yehan found Nannan asleep beneath a bed, stabbed her, and killed her when she woke.
• Si Yehan set the house and four corpses on fire, then slipped away through the village streets as some villagers headed toward the blaze.