Chapter Summaries

Han Dong and his companions confronted Moonlight-Miles at the Bates Academy baseball field to assess the Hidden Resident’s strength. Miles proved powerful enough to repel Cas’s charge, cut off two of Diana’s fingers, and mark her with a Moon Mark.

• Togu warned Han Dong that Miles had formidable physical strength, sensed creatures exposed to moonlight, and possessed a dangerous ability called Execution.
• Han Dong ordered Diana to stay in sync with the group and told everyone to retreat to moonlight-free cover if the encounter became too dangerous.
• Han Dong, Cas, and Diana entered the moonlit baseball field, where Miles appeared without the crows detecting his arrival.
• Cas charged Miles with his shield, but Miles absorbed the impact and retreated only five steps.
• Diana attacked Miles with a bone spike, but he seized it, cut off two of her fingers, and marked her neck with a Moon Mark.

Diana and Cas fought Miles, a Hidden Resident, and managed to injure him before he vanished into the moonlight. Han Dong observed Miles’s abilities and suspected that the Moonlight Marks could trigger an execution effect, leaving the group to reconsider how they would survive.

• Miles cut off two of Diana’s fingers, so she retreated and fashioned a bone bow and arrow.
• Cas drew Miles’s attention with a shield bash and sword attack, but Miles broke Cas’s Stone Pig Sword and marked him with a Moonlight Imprint.
• Diana shot Miles in the temple with a charged bone arrow, then detonated it and drove bone fragments into his skull.
• A notice announced that Miles had taken 21% damage and would vanish for two hours before returning healed and stronger; Miles then disappeared into the moonlight.
• Han Dong shared little with Cas, saying they would discuss his observations back at the dorm, while Diana struggled to suppress an abnormal change in her bones.

Han Dong proposed using Moonlight-Miles as a bodyguard by exploiting the hostility between Hidden Residents, then went alone to investigate the sealed Old Teaching Building with Nicole. The chapter left Han Dong and Nicole outside the building after she detected a strange smell.

• Cas prepared to fight unarmed while Diana brooded over her failed Lethal Bone Arrow.
• Han Dong reasoned that Hidden Residents might attack one another and proposed using Miles to protect the group while they explored the campus.
• Han Dong asked Cas and Diana to map the campus's Moonlight and Non-Moonlight Zones while he investigated the Old Teaching Building.
• Han Dong released Nicole and brought her to the sealed Old Teaching Building, where she sniffed a strange smell.

Han Dong and Nicole entered Miles' Mask Factory in the Old Teaching Building after a side quest tasked Han Dong with uncovering the demon-making process, killing the overseer, and destroying the factory. Disguised as a worker, Han Dong followed a masked supervisor deeper inside to learn how the factory served Miles.

• Han Dong and Nicole entered the Old Teaching Building, triggering the side quest "Demon Manufacturing" and its warning that Miles might be drawn by a disturbance.
• Han Dong sent Nicole off to distract the factory's inhabitants while he searched for the factory's secrets in disguise.
• Han Dong peered into a collection room and saw missing people hanging as human samples while a masked worker harvested them.
• A female teacher wearing a fused Leather Mask mistook Han Dong for a new worker and escorted him toward receiving his mark.
• The supervisor explained that Miles' factory made demon masks and turned humans with superior qualities into low-level demons, and said Han Dong's mask had earned him a chance to become a Ten-Demon.

Han Dong learned how the Demon-Human factory operated, then used his power to kill the female teacher and infiltrate the production floor. After Nicole killed the supervisor and scarabs destroyed the factory, Han Dong completed the side quest and received a Demon Diary and Perfect Face Skin.

• The female teacher explained the Demon-Human ranks, factory floors, and mask production to Han Dong.
• The female teacher tried to brand Han Dong, but his eye shattered her consciousness, and he absorbed her remains to imitate her form.
• Han Dong observed the Demon-Human production process, learned the side quest required killing the supervisor and destroying the factory, and planted scarab-marked stones throughout it.
• Han Dong contacted Nicole and learned she had already killed the supervisor using the Deep Sea Secret Art.
• Scarabs consumed the factory and its inhabitants, and Han Dong and Nicole received the Demon Diary and Perfect Face Skin as the side quest reward.

Han Dong read Miles's household registration and learned the Ultimate Human Demon's abilities and weaknesses. When Miles ambushed them after their respite ended, Nicole briefly sealed him with a Deep Sea Secret Art, allowing Han Dong to carry her away.

• The system gave Han Dong a Derry Town household register after he consumed the Demon’s Diary, and he read Miles's detailed resident information.
• Han Dong and Nicole discussed Nicole's increased strength and the danger of facing powerful Hidden Residents.
• Han Dong realized their two-hour respite had ended just as Miles appeared behind him and attacked.
• Han Dong entered the Death Domain to survive Miles's knife strike while Nicole attacked Miles with her tentacles.
• Nicole used Deep Sea Secret Art: Eight-Claw Prison to seal Miles temporarily, then collapsed from her injuries and exertion.
• Han Dong carried Nicole away as they fled.

Han Dong had Nicole recover and asked her to help create a prison for Myers, while Cas and Diana tried to delay the demon for an hour. Their ambush froze Myers and shattered his knees, but he remained alive as they threw him out the dorm room window.

• Han Dong healed Nicole with water and explained that Myers had lost their trail, then asked her to help build a prison capable of holding him.
• Han Dong sent Cas and Diana a crow with information about Myers and asked them to delay him for at least an hour.
• Cas and Diana spotted Myers approaching their dorm room and prepared to hold him off.
• Cas punched Myers through the door, then blocked his counterattack and froze him with Winter's Chill.
• Diana shattered Myers's knees, and Cas hurled him out the dorm room window.

Cas and Diana fled Miles through the campus until Han Dong intervened, using a crow swarm and the Yellow Sand Coffin to delay the Human Demon. The three regrouped in a prepared room, where Han Dong said he was seventy percent confident because Miles’s weakness suited his abilities.

• Cas avoided Miles’s blade, escaped across the artificial lake with Diana, and learned that she had broken through by killing a complete Abyssal Demon.
• Miles emerged from the lake and pursued Cas and Diana into the cafeteria, where Han Dong arrived disguised as a crow.
• Han Dong struck Miles with his staff and sealed him in the Yellow Sand Coffin, giving Cas and Diana time to escape with him.
• Miles quickly broke free and resumed tracking them, while Han Dong led Cas and Diana to a prepared room.
• Cas and Diana asked Han Dong how confident he was, and he answered that he was seventy percent confident because he could exploit Miles’s weakness.

Han Dong and his allies lured Miles into a trap designed to exploit the weakness of his mask. After tearing it away and weakening him, they sealed him beneath the Pharaoh’s chamber in a layered prison.

• Commander Hugo warned Han Dong that surviving True Destiny depended on finding its hidden ways out and advised him to learn defensive arts from Anmanet’s corpse.
• Han Dong prepared an Egyptian-style chamber and explained the plan to Cas and Diana, assigning them dangerous roles in the trap.
• Miles followed the Moonlight Imprint into the chamber, where Diana pinned his feet with bone spikes and Cas restrained him with a chokehold.
• Han Dong used Abyssal Demon Tentacles to tear off Miles’s mask without injuring him, weakening the Human Demon.
• Nicole’s tentacles dragged Miles into the seawater, and the group sealed him in a coffin beneath four layers of restraints.

Han Dong kept Miles suppressed beneath Bates Academy until the moonlight lockdown ended, then escaped with Cas and Diana. After resting, he prepared to continue traveling at night and wait for Miles, whom he intended to keep as their bodyguard.

• Han Dong sealed the chamber beneath the lake and used a mechanism inside Miles's coffin to keep the Ultimate Human Demon weakened while he monitored it for forty hours.
• When the moonlight lockdown ended, Miles broke out of the coffin, but sunlight made him vanish; Han Dong collapsed from exhaustion, and Cas and Diana's Moonlight Imprints disappeared.
• Han Dong told Cas to find an inn, then used his dreams to discuss the Human Demon and Diana's dangerous power with Earl.
• After waking at sunset, Han Dong, Cas, and Diana acquired a G-Wagon and waited for the moon to rise before leaving so Miles could join them as their bodyguard.

Han Dong and his companions stopped for food on their way to Derry Town, but a monster attack exposed the restaurant owner as a cannibal. Han Dong’s summoned bodyguard killed the owner, and the group left with their journey ahead and their bodyguard’s usefulness confirmed.

• Han Dong drove with Cas and their companion to Mr. Jade's Pasta, where they planned their two-to-three-day trip to Derry Town and discussed finding Cas a replacement weapon.
• A silent, homeless-looking customer ate a cockroach and stole the group's roast chicken, prompting the owner to attack him with an iron rod.
• The customer transformed into a long-spined monster covered in insects and tried to swallow the owner, who killed it with a butcher's cleaver.
• The owner revealed that he had planned to turn Han Dong's group into premium meat and blocked the restaurant entrance with hanging slabs of meat.
• Han Dong's bodyguard appeared and beheaded the owner, allowing Han Dong and his companions to leave after confirming the bodyguard could protect them.

Huo Ziping’s team was trapped in Mount Herbo Tunnel and encountered Mary Shaw, a Hidden Resident who was studying Pennywise. They learned more about the false Derry Town before escaping her explosive attack, but the tunnel remained sealed.

• Huo Ziping’s team took a detour from Bangor City, but repeated route changes led their bus to the tunnel Yu Wu had warned them about.
• The team entered the tunnel, where Mary Shaw appeared and sealed it for 48 hours, leaving one hidden passage or the option of killing her as a way out.
• Huo Ziping asked Mary Shaw about the Pennywise doll, and she revealed that their Derry Town was false and that she was researching how to truly kill the clown.
• Mary Shaw attacked the team with puppet threads, but Huo Ziping cut her head off with his sword.
• Yu Wu sensed the doll was about to trigger an explosion, so Huo Ziping, Ma Taotao, Gongsun Hao, and Yu Wu fled the bus before it exploded.

Huo Ziping’s team escaped Mary Shaw through a hidden passage after surviving her puppet attacks, then recovered and examined the resident register containing her abilities. They learned Mary Shaw ranked eighteenth among Hidden Residents and began considering how to prepare for their journey through Derry Town.

• After six hours in Mount Herbo Tunnel, Huo Ziping’s team found a hidden passage and escaped Mary Shaw’s pursuit.
• The team received a notice that Mary Shaw would not target or attack them for the next 48 hours, and Ma Taotao healed the wounded with vitality drawn from the mountain vegetation.
• Gongsun Hao asked Ma Taotao to dine and shop with him, and she refused.
• Huo Ziping examined the Resident Household Register—Derry Town, which listed Mary Shaw’s abilities, weapons, and Hidden Resident ranking of eighteenth.
• Huo Ziping said the team needed to plan carefully for their trip through Derry Town.

Han Dong and his companions escaped the restaurant in a G-Wagen while Miles pursued them with Moonlight Teleportation, then reached Misato Farm after sunrise. As they stopped to refuel, eat, and find lodging, Han Dong sensed that something was watching them.

• Han Dong let Miles brand him with a Moonlight Imprint, then drove away with Cas and the others while Miles pursued them by teleporting between moonlit areas.
• Han Dong drove off the blocked highway and into cornfields, where sunrise made Miles vanish.
• Han Dong's group reached Misato Farm, refueled, and stopped at a convenience store to eat and seek lodging.
• The store manager offered to find them a place to stay, and Han Dong sensed that something was secretly watching the group.

Han Dong and his companions discovered that people in the Maine farmland were turning into scarecrows and planned to leave after moonrise. When dark clouds hid the moon, their hired bodyguard Miles could not return as expected.

• Han Dong helped an old farmer carry a scarecrow, then learned the farmer’s son had disappeared and seen straw growing from the farmer’s face.
• Han Dong returned to the convenience store and learned the shop owner had found them an empty farmhouse to stay in.
• Han Dong told Cas and Diana what he had witnessed, and Diana explained that living people appeared to be turning into scarecrows.
• Han Dong, Cas, and Diana inspected the farmhouse, sent crows to watch the area, and took turns sleeping while they waited for the moon to rise.
• Cas woke Han Dong and pointed out that dark clouds had completely covered the moon, preventing Miles from returning.

Bob tried to flee Misato Farm with his straw-afflicted mother, but a scarecrow killed him and discovered memories of Han Dong’s group. The scarecrow returned toward the farm’s center with the child, Sam, riding on its shoulder.

• Bob cleared straw from his mother’s body, then loaded her into his pickup and set out to escape Misato Farm.
• As he drove, Bob noticed straw growing on his hand and later found a straw-hooded child in the passenger seat.
• Bob shot the child with a homemade sawed-off shotgun, but the child reappeared on the shoulder of a scarecrow blocking the road.
• The scarecrow cut the pickup in half, caught Bob, and drained his life force and memories, including what he knew about Han Dong’s group.
• The scarecrow walked back toward the farm’s center with the child, Sam, licking a corn lollipop on its shoulder.

After Scarecrow Sam sealed Misato Farm and activated a curse that would turn its visitors into scarecrows, Han Dong sent Cas and Diana to seek medicine while he investigated Sam. Elsewhere, Huo Ziping’s squad headed toward the farm to observe the other team and the Hidden Resident.

• Huo Ziping’s squad detected unusual activity near the farm, but Gongsun Hao lost control of their jeep and crashed it into a pond.
• Huo Ziping ordered his team to approach the farm on foot and gather information, with the option of eliminating the other squad if they were dependents of the Old King.
• Han Dong, Cas, and Diana received a notice that Scarecrow Disease had activated and could only be slowed with medicine at Sam’s Cornfield Paradise.
• Han Dong sent Cas and Diana to find the antidote and warned them not to fight Sam, while he planned to investigate the farm for catalog information.
• Han Dong summoned Tog, who identified Sam as a neighborhood committee official, then led him to the cornfield, where the farmer and his son had become scarecrows guarding the fields.

Han Dong learned that the Tailor Church and its Godmother, Edithson, might hold the key to delaying the scarecrow curse, and he set out to investigate while disguised as a scarecrow. He avoided a Mechanical Scarecrow on the way and continued toward the church.

• The farmer and his son told Han Dong that the curse prevented infected people from leaving the farm and pointed him toward the Tailor Church on the East Side.
• The farmer's son urged Han Dong to kill Godmother Edithson, whom he blamed for his friend's disappearance and the villagers' infections.
• Han Dong borrowed Mr. Anderson's hat and straw, used Perfect Imitation to disguise himself, and headed toward the church alone.
• The farmer and his son discussed whether they had wrongly sent Han Dong to the church, but a child in a straw hood silenced them.
• Han Dong spotted a Mechanical Scarecrow approaching from the church and hid in the cornfield beside a Scarecrow Kid.
• Han Dong and the Scarecrow Kid evaded the Mechanical Scarecrow using their disguises, then Han Dong continued toward the church.

Huo Ziping sent Yu Wu, Gongsun Hao, and Ma Taotao toward Sam's Cornfield Paradise while he headed alone to the eastern district, where he found Tailor Church. Han Dong entered the church in crow form and discovered a Main Plot prompt before Huo Ziping broke through its doors.

• Yu Wu heard two particularly noisy areas in the farm and reported that he could detect only two Espers from the other team.
• Huo Ziping split the group, sending Yu Wu, Gongsun Hao, and Ma Taotao to seek curse-delaying agents while he went east alone.
• Huo Ziping cut down the scarecrows in his path and continued toward Tailor Church after a Scarecrow Kid appeared beside the road.
• Han Dong reached the church, hid in the shadows, and followed a cursed young man inside in crow form.
• The young man followed a stitched imitation of Godmother Edithson into a sewing room, where his scream soon stopped; Han Dong received a prompt about uncovering the church's secret and the Main Plot.
• Huo Ziping cleaved open the church doors, and Han Dong recognized him as a martial artist from Dragon City.

Han Dong infiltrated the Tailor Church’s underground workshop while Huo Ziping fought his way toward The Godmother. After discovering how the villagers cultivated straw to make shells for Hidden Residents, Han Dong triggered a hidden scenario while examining the stored straw.

• Huo Ziping killed The Godmother’s scarecrow construct, found a passage beneath the altar, and descended into the lair.
• Han Dong watched from his crow disguise and assessed Huo Ziping’s strength and Epic Grade sword.
• Han Dong found a villager being forced to stitch straw into his own body and followed him through a hidden employee passage.
• Han Dong discovered that the underground workshop used villagers’ bodies to nourish corn roots and produce straw for The Godmother.
• Han Dong investigated the straw storage area, where different grades of straw were prepared for scarecrows and shells, and triggered the hidden scenario Black Heart Workshop.