Chapter Summaries

Bai Zhi and Fireworks of Romance discovered that the painted wall at the corridor’s end was a passage into the dining hall. After arriving in a luxurious, empty hall lined with portraits, Bai Zhi decided they would explore the hall before investigating the paintings.

• Bai Zhi and Fireworks of Romance reached a lifelike painted wall that blocked the corridor.
• Fireworks of Romance brought her Number Plate near the painting, activating it and causing it to suck both of them inside.
• Bai Zhi and Fireworks of Romance landed on a carpet in a Golden Splendor hall and bickered about their collision.
• Bai Zhi realized the paintings served as passageways to other areas of the dining hall.
• Bai Zhi chose to explore the empty hall before investigating the portraits.

Bai Zhi and Fireworks of Romance explored the Gallery and entered a portrait that led to a vast, beautiful island. Bai Zhi realized the island was a Breeding Farm for the dining hall’s ingredients, then grabbed Fireworks of Romance and leaped off a cliff to escape a cage descending onto them.

• Bai Zhi and Fireworks of Romance found the hall’s corridors and staircase blocked by Air Walls, so they examined the Gallery’s portraits instead.
• Fireworks of Romance guessed that a crowded market portrait showed a future Fukushima and advised against entering it, so Bai Zhi chose a portrait of a mountain landscape.
• Bai Zhi and Fireworks of Romance entered the mountain portrait and found themselves atop a towering mountain on a lush island.
• Bai Zhi recognized the island as a Breeding Farm where the dining hall raised its ingredients and suspected the farm might span an entire world.
• Bai Zhi pulled Fireworks of Romance into his arms and jumped off the cliff as an eerie cage descended onto the spot where they had stood.

Bai Zhi and Fireworks of Romance escaped a falling cage and a swarm of Stone Crabs at the foot of the mountain, then crossed a dangerous Forest to reach a Sea of Flowers. There, they spotted two figures on the summit who appeared to be their past selves, leaving them facing a strange time-related mystery.

• Bai Zhi took Fireworks of Romance into the shadows and escaped a cage that fell from the sky.
• Bai Zhi and Fireworks of Romance fled a pit formed by Stone Crabs disguised as pebbles.
• Bai Zhi led Fireworks of Romance through the dangerous Forest toward the Sea of Flowers.
• Bai Zhi pointed out that the Sea of Flowers contained only flowers, unlike the creature-filled Forest.
• Fireworks of Romance saw two figures on the mountaintop who appeared to be her and Bai Zhi.

Bai Zhi and Fireworks of Romance escaped the Sea of Flowers after Bai Zhi took something that triggered its rampage, then returned to the hall and entered a bustling market through a painting. They arrived among humans and grotesque beings, including the Mud Swamp Monster, while Bai Zhi’s motives remained unclear.

• Fireworks of Romance proposed that differing Time Flow Rates explained the visions between the mountaintop and the Breeding Farm, and Bai Zhi agreed her reasoning was sound.
• The Sea of Flowers erupted into violence, exposing bones and Chefs’ Number Plates as flowers attacked everything in their reach.
• Bai Zhi grabbed something from the rampaging Sea of Flowers, causing it to surge toward the Forest, and he escaped with Fireworks of Romance.
• Bai Zhi and Fireworks of Romance returned to the hall, where a man appeared after they left and complained that he had to handle the aftermath.
• Bai Zhi pulled Fireworks of Romance through a painting into a crowded trading market filled mostly with grotesquely deformed beings and Inhuman Existence Anomalies.

Bai Zhi explained to Fireworks of Romance that the Breeding Farm’s caretaker had been feeding Intern Chefs to the Flower Field, and that he had retaliated by taking something valuable from it. They hid in a crowded market in case the caretaker pursued them, where Bai Zhi revealed the item was Epic quality.

• Bai Zhi told Fireworks of Romance that corpses and matching Number Plates in the Flower Field showed that Intern Chefs had been killed there as fertilizer.
• Fireworks of Romance reasoned that the Breeding Farm’s caretaker had repeatedly targeted exploring Chefs, and Bai Zhi said he usually settled grudges immediately.
• Bai Zhi explained that the Breeding Farm was an independent world and that he had hurried to the market to avoid a possible pursuit.
• Fireworks of Romance asked what Bai Zhi had taken from the Flower Field, and he told her it was Epic quality.

Bai Zhi and Fireworks of Romance explored the Market and met a former Dining Hall Chef who offered information in exchange for a meal made from his menu. The man explained the dangers of Intern Chef food, but the mystery of the Dining Hall remained unsolved.

• Bai Zhi and Fireworks of Romance stopped at a Market stall, where its owner guessed that Bai Zhi was an Intern Chef.
• The middle-aged man offered information in exchange for a dish, and Bai Zhi signed a Rare-level Justice Contract.
• The man said he had once worked as a Dining Hall Chef and described the Hall as a neutral place in the Void whose origins were unknown.
• The middle-aged man said rumors claimed Evil Gods and Abyssal Beings also ate at the Dining Hall.
• The man warned that food from Intern Chefs could transform diners or kill them, and Bai Zhi and Fireworks of Romance thought of the Lord of the Five Grains Cycle.

Bai Zhi and Fireworks of Romance learned from a middle-aged man about Origin Coins, restaurant prices, and the value of information in the Dining Hall. Fireworks of Romance stormed off after the man mistook them for a couple, while Bai Zhi stayed to ask about the dishes’ special effects.

• Bai Zhi asked the middle-aged man about the difference between Intern Restaurants and Formal Restaurants, and learned that dishes cost Origin Coins.
• The middle-aged man explained that Origin Coins were used beyond the novice domain, that Game Coins exchanged at roughly one hundred to one, and that Intern Chefs could trade a free dish for his intelligence.
• Fireworks of Romance teased the middle-aged man for freeloading, then became flustered when he assumed she and Bai Zhi were a couple.
• Fireworks of Romance stormed off to look around alone, and Bai Zhi told the middle-aged man to leave her be.
• Bai Zhi asked about the dishes’ special effects, and the middle-aged man defended the price of the menu he had given them.

Bai Zhi learned about the dining hall’s dishes, Chef rules, and tickets from the middle-aged man, who also described the danger facing revived cultivation worlds. The White-bearded Old Daoist approached after overhearing the warning about his world.

• The middle-aged man gave Bai Zhi a menu and explained that special ingredients and the dining hall’s kitchen were needed to make its dishes.
• The middle-aged man warned that tasting a dish could lower its rating and cause unknown Negative Effects, while full employees received two free dishes daily.
• Bai Zhi asked why the middle-aged man had quit as an Intermediate Chef, and the man said dangerous ingredients and high-level dishes had nearly cost him his life.
• The middle-aged man explained that the White-bearded Old Daoist came from a cultivation world whose severed Ascension Path and returning Spiritual Energy put it at risk of a powerful Anomaly invasion.
• The White-bearded Old Daoist stood and walked over after the middle-aged man warned that such invasions could destroy entire worlds.

Ku Xuan explained how the Ancient Ruins unleashed Outer Realm Demons and brought him to the Void dining hall, where he tried to trade fortune-telling for information. Bai Zhi learned that the Void Train’s origins were mysterious and its appearances were unpredictable, then left to return to work.

• Ku Xuan recalled that the joint expedition into the Ancient Ruins led to deadly casualties, madness, and a sect-wide outbreak of Monsters that he destroyed with a killing formation.
• Ku Xuan explained that exploration of the Ancient Ruins continued despite the Outer Realm Demons, with progress at 1/10 and several powerful treasures recovered.
• Ku Xuan offered top-grade Magic Treasures and medicinal pills as payment, but the middle-aged man said they could not exceed Perfect Grade because Ku Xuan’s world’s Ascension Path was severed.
• Bai Zhi asked the middle-aged man about the Void Train and There is a Library, and learned only that the Void Train could appear randomly in any world and had mysterious origins.
• Bai Zhi arranged to bring the middle-aged man his requested dish after nine that night, then left to return to his shift.

Bai Zhi returned to the kitchen with key information about the dining hall and learned that Chefs in another kitchen used humans as ingredients. Positive and Negative argued that the practice was simply part of the food chain as dinner service approached.

• Bai Zhi and Fireworks of Romance returned to the kitchen after gathering information and borrowing an Epic Level item.
• Earthly Homeland explained that she and Li Changsheng had fought Chefs in an Anomaly Kitchen where humans were ingredients and Players were considered high-grade ingredients.
• Bai Zhi said Anomalies viewed humans as ingredients just as humans treated Anomalies as ingredients in their kitchen.
• Positive and Negative argued that the dining hall's menus reflected a food chain in which Anomalies could eat humans.
• Earthly Homeland and Fireworks of Romance objected to Positive and Negative's cold reasoning, but she ended the discussion and returned to her stove as the clock reached 6:50.

Bai Zhi shared the dinner menu’s benefits and negotiated an exchange of information before the group struggled through cooking dishes made from Anomaly-like creatures. After everyone was left exhausted, Bai Zhi proposed a safer cooking plan, but the Loudspeaker interrupted him.

• Bai Zhi considered whether the Dining Hall raised worlds and compared it with Orchardist, then decided its mysteries were beyond him for now.
• Bai Zhi told the group what he and Fireworks of Romance's group had learned and offered to share the menu in exchange for their information; Cloudfall Illusion agreed.
• The group carefully prepared dinner, but the unsettling ingredients and draining cooking process left them reluctant and exhausted.
• Bai Zhi helped Positive and Negative finish her second dish when she struggled to continue.
• After everyone collapsed from the effort, Bai Zhi advised them to make their assigned daily dish first and prepare the remaining dishes in pairs, but the Loudspeaker interrupted him.

After the evening shift, Bai Zhi delivered the Players’ dishes to an empty trading stall and returned to the Dormitory. At midnight, a grotesque Figurine came looking for Fireworks of Romance, but Bai Zhi offered to take the hungry creature to the kitchen.

• The Loudspeaker announced that Positive and Negative had poisoned a Customer to death, while Bai Zhi received praise for a dish seasoned with Aqua Regia.
• Bai Zhi and Books brought four dishes to the trading market and left them in a locked storage box at the middle-aged man’s empty stall.
• Bai Zhi returned to Room Five, rested, and waited until midnight.
• A grotesque, palm-sized Figurine crawled onto Bai Zhi’s bed and asked for Fireworks of Romance.
• The Figurine spoke incoherently about being hungry and eating humans, so Bai Zhi offered to take her to the kitchen and feed her.

Bai Zhi fed the Grotesque Girl dozens of dishes, restoring her to human size and prompting her to warn him to leave the Dining Hall. She revealed that she had been the Dining Hall’s Previous Shopkeeper, but could not answer Bai Zhi’s questions about its origins or her transformation.

• Bai Zhi cooked forty to fifty dishes for the hungry Figurine, using [The Dominator] to recover his stamina when it ran low.
• After the tenth dish, the Figurine began growing, and she eventually returned to ordinary human size, revealing stitched marks across her body.
• Once she finished eating, the Grotesque Girl warned Bai Zhi to leave the Dining Hall and never return.
• Bai Zhi questioned the Grotesque Girl about the Dining Hall and her transformation, but she said she could not answer.
• The Grotesque Girl identified herself as the Previous Shopkeeper of the Dining Hall.

Bai Zhi learned that the former Acting Former Shopkeeper was a transformed Monster who warned him the dining hall was dangerous and promised to reveal its deeper secret the next night. After returning to the Dormitory Area at six, he ran into Positive and Negative, whose lab coat was soaked in blood.

• The Young Girl warned Bai Zhi that the dining hall had become a Canteen for Anomalies and that he risked being transformed or made into a dish.
• The Young Girl explained that she had once managed the dining hall, that its hungry Diners had once been Employees, and that she could not remember her name or the current Manager.
• The Young Girl asked Bai Zhi to meet her the following night so she could investigate the dining hall’s deeper secret, and warned him not to reveal her existence.
• Before disappearing, the Young Girl told Bai Zhi that Players had not existed in the era when she lived.
• Bai Zhi returned to the Dormitory Area at six and encountered Positive and Negative, whose white lab coat had been dyed blood-red.

Bai Zhi questioned Positive and Negative after finding her covered in blood and dragging a mysterious sack, but she refused to explain. At breakfast, she poisoned two more diners, bringing her tally closer to a Penta Kill, while the broadcaster warned her to stop.

• Bai Zhi found Positive and Negative in the corridor covered in blood and dragging a sack, but she said she had been gathering material and refused to tell him more.
• Bai Zhi noticed that the bloodstains had vanished by morning, while Positive and Negative appeared clean and wore her lab coat again.
• Fireworks of Romance told Bai Zhi that he was the 7,856th man to catch her attention, prompting Earthly Homeland to choke nearby.
• Positive and Negative poisoned two diners during breakfast, and the broadcaster warned that her repeated killings could bring trouble before the internship ended.
• Fireworks of Romance predicted that Positive and Negative would keep killing because she was close to a Penta Kill.

After Positive and Negative left the kitchen, a blackout separated August Desolation from the others and stranded him in a desolate, dangerous version of the kitchen. Weak and losing Sanity, he tried to use his Unreliable Treasure Bag to find a way to survive, but something grabbed his ankle.

• Broadcast Brother announced that Positive and Negative would undergo an assessment before dinnertime because no customers she had handled had survived.
• Bai Zhi urged Fireworks of Romance and the others to discuss cooperating as the kitchen work grew harder and consumed more Sanity.
• The kitchen lights went out, and when August Desolation lit a Torch, he found himself alone in an abandoned-looking version of the kitchen.
• August Desolation suspected the anomaly was linked to Positive and Negative leaving and decided to search for somewhere to recover.
• August Desolation activated his Unreliable Treasure Bag, but an icy hand seized his ankle before he could pull anything out.

Two Lives Cycle explored a ruined dining hall after being separated from the others during an assessment, while reflecting on his world’s failing Sieve Machine and his return from a doomed future. After killing a human-like Monster, he saw many more pale blue lights appear behind him.

• Two Lives Cycle recalled that his world was divided into regions by the Sieve Machine, which was now breaking down and threatening humanity with destruction.
• Two Lives Cycle revealed that he was a Reincarnator who had witnessed the end of the world in his Previous Life and had returned to the past to try to prevent it.
• Two Lives Cycle explored the ruined dining hall and sensed a terrifying presence in the darkness above him.
• A Monster lunged at Two Lives Cycle, and he killed it with a single strike that severed its head.
• Two Lives Cycle recognized the creature as a human transformed into a hungry Monster, then noticed dense pale blue Light Spots glowing behind him.

Li Changsheng explored a dark, ruined dining hall filled with seemingly endless humanlike Monsters and discovered that looking up or entering the light brought overwhelming danger. Meanwhile, Fireworks of Romance and Earthly Homeland hid beneath an overturned vat to recover, with Fireworks insisting that their hiding place was safe.

• Li Changsheng stealthily passed through three areas and observed that the weak Monsters devoured one another without reducing their numbers.
• Li Changsheng sensed an enormous presence above and concluded that he must not look up, stay out of the light, and avoid the Monsters.
• Fireworks of Romance and Earthly Homeland, exhausted and suffering severe headaches, searched for somewhere safe to rest.
• Fireworks of Romance pulled Earthly Homeland beneath an overturned vat and argued that the Monsters would never find them because they themselves did not know where they were.

Positive and Negative tried to reach the iron gate, but Cloudfall Illusion confronted her and attacked, only to discover that her Anomaly returned any damage he dealt to himself. The Young Girl, bearing the Title Dawn Lord, left Cloudfall Illusion injured and said he no longer had the chance to leave.

• Positive and Negative approached the enormous iron gate, but a black stone wall appeared between her and it.
• Cloudfall Illusion arrived and demanded to know what lay beyond the gate and what Positive and Negative intended to do.
• Cloudfall Illusion attacked Positive and Negative, but she appeared unconscious while the damage was reflected onto him, breaking all four of his limbs.
• Positive and Negative explained that any damage inflicted on her was returned in equal measure and warned Cloudfall Illusion that he had lost his chance to leave.
• Cloudfall Illusion recovered through his Half Dragon Transformation as the Young Girl considered making him a test subject.

Cloudfall Illusion challenged Positive and Negative with his inherited domain, Empire Returns, but she explained that his powers were restricted as an Otherworld Player. Two Lives Cycle then attacked her, survived her reflected damage, and discovered that hurting her soul prevented her from using the ability.

• Cloudfall Illusion confronted Positive and Negative after she proposed dissecting him, then activated his inherited domain, Empire Returns.
• Positive and Negative revealed that Cloudfall Illusion could not use his Talent Core against Players of her world, causing his domain to collapse.
• Two Lives Cycle appeared and beheaded Positive and Negative, but her reflected damage also severed his head.
• Two Lives Cycle emerged unharmed from a shattered mirror, then wounded Positive and Negative's soul and kicked her into the Black Giant Wall.
• Two Lives Cycle concluded that Positive and Negative could not activate her reflected-damage ability while her soul was wounded.