Chapter Summaries

Zhao Hong visited Li Qi and tried to persuade him to become his ward, but Li Qi rejected the offer and asked to hear about Zhang Fengyun instead. Meanwhile, a Heating Plant incident plunged half of Suhe City into a heating crisis, and Yi Cheng and Ye Yue prepared to investigate.

• Zhao Hong introduced himself as Zhang Fengyun's student and offered to become Li Qi's guardian, but Li Qi said he would only accept Liu Cheng.
• Zhao Hong warned that the Evernight and pollution would worsen beyond the Safe House's five-year supplies, but Li Qi said he had another Safe House in Dream Town.
• Li Qi turned the conversation toward Zhang Fengyun and asked Zhao Hong to tell him about his grandmother.
• A special incident made several hundred employees vanish from one of Suhe City's two Heating Plants, cutting heating to half the city.
• Yi Cheng and Ye Yue stood armed near the affected Heating Plant, preparing to deal with what Yi Cheng called a Nightmare Barrier.

Zhao Chenghu prepared to enter the contaminated Heating Plant, but three Strange Item Holders slipped inside first, including Li Qi and Yi Cheng. As Li Qi explored the distorted, gravity-free interior and encountered shadow creatures, a pink-clad Magical Girl appeared and protected him.

• Zhao Chenghu decided to enter the Heating Plant after learning that the cold and shutdown heating were causing a crisis, but a team member detected three Strange Items entering from different directions.
• Li Qi entered through a side door using his Mental Power, sensed Yi Cheng's Magic Tome and an unidentified Strange Item, and began searching the plant.
• Li Qi found the Heating Plant transformed into floating, separated floors and corridors, with gaps where there was no gravity.
• Shadow creatures rose from the floor and approached Li Qi as he prepared to use his Strange Item ability.
• A pink-clad girl cast a protective barrier around Li Qi and landed before him, prompting him to identify her as a Magical Girl.

Li Qi watched Xiao Ying use her living Magic Wand, Loveheart, to defeat Nightmare Remnants, while Yi Cheng blasted a dragon that proved able to recover by absorbing them. When the dragon attacked, Li Qi stepped beyond Xiao Ying’s barrier and unleashed his Magic World appearance as the Wolf of Uno, the youngest general in history.

• Xiao Ying used Loveheart to destroy twenty-three Nightmare Remnants, then scolded the wand for complaining about the magic she had spent.
• Yi Cheng appeared with Ye Yue and struck down a dragon with a powerful-looking beam, startling Xiao Ying, who wondered if Yi Cheng was another Magical Girl.
• The dragon revived after absorbing the Nightmare Remnants and fired a massive blast at the group.
• Xiao Ying shielded Li Qi, Yi Cheng, and Ye Yue with a barrier, but struggled to withstand the dragon’s attack.
• Li Qi stepped outside the barrier, released a surge of energy that shattered it, and transformed into the Wolf of Uno, the youngest general in history.

Li Qi realized that fantasy amplified powers in Nightmare Space and used his magic to destroy the Shadow Wyvern, resolving the Heating Plant incident. At Yi Cheng's home, he learned that Xu Leying had become a Magical Girl after buying her pendant, Love, at a mysterious Grocery Store, though she could not remember what she paid.

• Li Qi explained that unwavering fantasy magnified powers in Nightmare Space, then transformed and unleashed a Magic Cannon that destroyed the Shadow Wyvern while his Magic Shield protected the others.
• The Magical Girl and Yi Cheng watched in shock as Li Qi's attack left a vast gap in the Nightmare Space, and the Magical Girl's staff worried aloud about having called him a brat.
• Li Qi confirmed that the Nightmare Core had been dealt with and led the Magical Girl and Yi Cheng away before officials arrived.
• The group gathered at Yi Cheng's home, where the Magical Girl revealed that she was Xu Leying, a second-year student who had been a Magical Girl for one month.
• Xu Leying said she had bought the pendant Love at a Grocery Store that she could never find again, and Li Qi suspected the store could sell strange objects.
• Xu Leying could not remember what she had paid for Love and said she did not think she had paid any price.

Li Qi questioned Xu Leying’s Heart Necklace about Magical Girls and the Nightmare Space while investigating whether it had a cost. At the Heating Plant, Zhao Chenghu learned that the Old Bureau Chief had used his life to locate Strange Item Holders nationwide, and Zhao Hong ordered him to recruit Suhe City’s listed holders with help from an unexpected person arriving the next day.

• Li Qi took Xu Leying’s Heart Necklace and questioned it about Magical Girls and the Nightmare Space as he examined its structure for a hidden cost.
• Zhao Chenghu and Bureau 057 found the Heating Plant staff unconscious, confirmed there were no pollution traces, and discovered the Strange Item had disappeared.
• Zhao Hong gave Zhao Chenghu a list of Suhe City’s Strange Item Holders and explained that the Old Bureau Chief had sacrificed his life to use divination to locate holders across the country.
• Zhao Hong told Zhao Chenghu to prioritize recruiting cooperative holders and pursuing dangerous ones, rather than arresting everyone on the list.
• Zhao Hong said he had arranged for a person to help Zhao Chenghu and would arrive the next day, leaving Zhao Chenghu wondering who it was.

Li Qi joined Bureau 057 as Suhe City's special consultant and revealed two strange item holders he had brought in. He explained that Xu Leying's transformations created dangerous Nightmare Spaces, leaving Zhao Chenghu to confront the risks of the team's new allies.

• Li Qi arrived at Bureau 057 and told Zhao Chenghu he had accepted the consultant position under conditions that exempted him from ordinary orders and training.
• Li Qi said he had prepared gifts to help with the strange item holders in Suhe City, and Zhao Chenghu found Yi Cheng and Xu Leying in the training room.
• Li Qi stopped Xu Leying from following Yi Cheng's magical training and explained that Yi Cheng's Ten Thousand Spells Magic Tome let her cast magic at the cost of permanent Chūnibyō.
• Li Qi explained that Xu Leying's Magic Necklace let her transform into a Magical Girl, but each transformation created a dangerous Nightmare Space.

Li Qi gave Xu Leying the Heart Necklace under a lock, formed a squad with her and Yi Cheng, and sent them on their first mission to recruit Xie Yan. The chapter ended with Xie Yan hiding in his room five days after entering a mysterious Grocery Store.

• Zhao Chenghu questioned whether Xu Leying could safely keep her Strange Item, and Li Qi revealed that he had taken the Heart Necklace and was himself the Strange Item Wish Doll.
• Li Qi returned the locked Heart Necklace to Xu Leying and agreed she could transform to deal with any Nightmare Space that appeared.
• Yi Cheng agreed to help the squad, and Li Qi assigned her and Xu Leying their first mission: recruit the holder of the Strange Item Flame Juice.
• Xie Yan hid in his room while his mother urged him to eat, still shaken by what happened five days earlier.
• Xie Yan recalled entering a strange, apparently invisible Grocery Store while walking outside, an encounter that changed his fate.

After drinking a strange red juice, Xie Yan transformed into a flame-controlling Ash Person and hid from his mother. Li Qi and his companions arrived to recruit him for Bureau 057, and Xie Yan agreed to go with them after they subdued him and threatened him with a gun.

• Xie Yan recalled how a strange grocery-store juice compelled him to buy and drink it, transforming his body and giving him control over flames that caused him pain.
• Afraid of frightening or harming his mother, Xie Yan stayed shut in his bedroom until unfamiliar visitors arrived and he decided to face them rather than leave her behind.
• Li Qi used a suggestion to get Xie Yan's mother to let the group inside, then identified Xie Yan as the holder of the Strange Item Flame Juice.
• Xie Yan emerged wreathed in flames and demanded to know why the visitors had hypnotized his mother.
• At Li Qi's order, Yi Cheng froze Xie Yan in place, and Li Qi showed his Bureau 057 identification card and announced Xie Yan's recruitment.
• Li Qi threatened to shoot if Xie Yan refused to come with them, so Xie Yan raised his hands and agreed.

After recruiting Xie Yan into Bureau 057, Li Qi learned more about the Grocery Store and received a panicked call from Wang He's wife, Zhuang Yue, reporting that Wang He had vanished. Li Qi rushed to investigate, but the police found no record that Wang He or Zhuang Yue had ever lived in the community.

• Li Qi questioned Xie Yan about the Grocery Store, sketched it from his description, and told him to report any future encounter while joining Bureau 057's supervision and training.
• Xie Yan asked whether he could return to normal and about becoming a full member, and Li Qi reassured him that passing the test would secure his position and benefits.
• Zhuang Yue called Li Qi and said Wang He had disappeared, while others claimed that no one by that name existed.
• Zhuang Yue fell silent during the call, so Li Qi alerted Zhao Chenghu and hurried with Meng Xiaolin to the Education Community near Suhe City First Primary School.
• The local police reported that neither Wang He nor Zhuang Yue lived in the community, as if they had never existed.

Li Qi and Zhao Chenghu investigated a Contamination that erased people from memories and discovered that nearly ten thousand people had disappeared in Suhe City within a week. Li Qi asked Yi Cheng to use her magic to find Wang He, but she failed, leaving the investigation unresolved as Li Qi returned home to cook for his little sister.

• Li Qi and Zhao Chenghu examined Wang Wanshu's home and learned that the girl believed she had always been an orphan, despite signs that Wang He and Zhuang Yue had disappeared.
• Zhao Chenghu discovered that nearly ten thousand people had vanished from Suhe City in one week without most residents noticing, and he raised the Contamination's danger level to B-rank.
• Meng Xiaolin suggested a large-scale Memory Wipe to determine whether the Contamination was cognitive or contact-based.
• Li Qi asked Yi Cheng to use her Person-Finding Magic on Wang He, offering her toys in exchange.
• Yi Cheng tried to locate Wang He using his phone but lost confidence and failed, while Li Qi told her to rest and went home to cook for his little sister.

Li Qi realized that the obedient younger sister Meng Wanwan was a severe pollution that had altered his memories, and remembered his real name and that he had no sister. After sending Li Qiao to contact Xu Leying, he returned to his body and confronted Meng Wanwan, who treated him as one of her kind.

• Li Qi noticed inconsistencies in his memories of Meng Wanwan, but she repeatedly distracted him whenever he tried to investigate.
• Li Qiao told Li Qi his real name was Meng An and that he had no siblings or living relatives, breaking the haze over his mind.
• Li Qi remembered that Liu Cheng had once been beside him, though he could not find Liu Cheng's Spiritual Seed, and concluded that severe pollution had altered his memories.
• Li Qi sent Li Qiao to contact Xu Leying and tell her it was time to transform, then returned to his doll body.
• Meng Wanwan appeared on Li Qi's bed and accused him of lying about where he had gone, saying they were the same and suggesting she regarded him as her kind.

After discovering that an older sister had appeared in her home despite her being an only child, Xu Leying realized her family had been affected by contamination. With Li Qi unreachable and Zhao Chenghu reporting that S-rank contamination was spreading through Suhe City, she faced the choice of transforming despite the Nightmare Space her Strange Item might create.

• Xu Leying returned home from training and heard her mother say that her father had gone out to buy hot-pot ingredients with her older sister.
• The Heart Necklace warned Xu Leying that something was wrong, and she saw a young woman who looked like an older version of herself enter with her father.
• Xu Leying recognized that she had no sister, fled to her bedroom, and tried to contact Li Qi before calling Zhao Chenghu.
• Zhao Chenghu told Xu Leying that S-rank contamination had reached the Municipal Building and that he could not send help.
• Xu Leying considered whether transforming would create a dangerous Nightmare Space, but she could not decide what to do.

Xu Leying was urged by Li Qiao to transform and became a Magical Girl, while Xie Yan trained at Bureau 057. He discovered that S-rank pollution called Family had overrun Suhe City, and Zhao Chenghu sent him back to the training room, leaving him to find a way to stop it.

• Xu Leying heard that her parents were gone, then received Li Qiao's message to transform and became a Magical Girl.
• Xie Yan practiced shooting fireballs at targets in Bureau 057's underground training room but struggled with his aim.
• Xie Yan found the Municipal Building nearly empty and learned from Zhao Chenghu that S-rank pollution called Family was spreading through Suhe City.
• Zhao Chenghu revealed that he had been infected, used the Rewind Pocket Watch to return Xie Yan to his earlier location, and tasked him with finding a way to resolve the pollution.
• Xie Yan realized he might be the only unaffected person left and doubted he could handle the crisis.

Li Qi awakened inside Meng Wanwan’s fabricated world and discovered that she was pollution disguising itself as his family. After exposing her nature, he unleashed his magic power and brought the Nightmare Space down over Suhe City.

• Li Qi recovered the memories of Meng An and realized that Meng Wanwan was pollution, then pretended to accept her birthday plans while staying cautious.
• Li Qi accompanied Meng Wanwan through an empty city and listened as she pleaded for a family, changing forms to imitate different relatives.
• Li Qi asked Meng Wanwan what she was and told her she had no family or self, causing her disguise and fabricated world to falter.
• Li Qi revealed that Meng Wanwan was pollution and prepared to resist when it moved to devour him.
• Li Qi unleashed his magic power, dispersed the special space, and enveloped Suhe City in the Nightmare Space.

Li Qi used the Heart Necklace to create a citywide Nightmare Space, wounded the family Contamination, and absorbed part of its power. He realized another Contamination was fighting the family in Suhe City, while Xie Yan escaped the Municipal Building in flight.

• Li Qi revealed that he had planted a Mental Suggestion in the Heart Necklace so Xu Leying's heightened love and hope would create a Nightmare Space where he could use his full power.
• Li Qi destroyed most of the shadows and blasted the family Contamination's apparent forms, then absorbed part of the wounded Contamination into his books.
• Li Qi concluded that Suhe City was unsafe and prepared to call Zhao Chenghu about evacuating.
• An explosion at the Municipal Building sent Xie Yan flying away as black sludge reached after him and then spread through the city.
• Li Qi heard the family speaking from the Municipal Building and realized that two Contaminations were fighting over territory.

Li Qi learned that Shadow of Destruction had become an Out-of-Grade Contamination and raced to escape Suhe City before Bureau 057 sealed it. He reached a military shelter outside the danger zone, where Yi Cheng had rescued thousands of survivors.

• Li Qi called Zhao Chenghu, then learned from Zhao Hong that Shadow of Destruction was spreading and Suhe City would be sealed within three hours.
• Li Qi rushed toward the outskirts and warned Xu Leying not to land because the ground was dangerous.
• Yi Cheng teleported Xu Leying's parents to safety, then sent a Flashbang signal from a resort beyond Suhe City's ten-kilometer perimeter.
• Li Qi and Xu Leying changed course and reached the resort, where Yi Cheng revealed she had rescued at least ten thousand survivors.

Li Qi explained Suhe City’s contamination crisis to Regiment Commander Wei He as the evacuation waited for the city’s sealing to begin. A golden Eight Trigrams formation sealed Suhe City away, leaving a vast crater and Li Qi wondering what lay behind the strange disasters.

• Li Qi told Wei He that abandoning Suhe City was necessary to prevent far greater loss of life from the contamination.
• Li Qi pieced together how the Family’s focus on him gave the Shadow of Destruction time to spread across Suhe City.
• Wei He spotted a growing golden light above Suhe City, and Li Qi recognized it as the start of the sealing.
• Golden rays formed an Eight Trigrams barrier around Suhe City, and Li Qi studied its symbols and tried to memorize them.
• The formation spun and shrank Suhe City into a point of light, leaving a crater more than thirty kilometers wide.

Li Qi examined the Otherworld Magic Handbook, discovered Liu Cheng and other survivors had escaped Suhe City by hiding in Dream Town, and returned to his Artificial Human body. A soldier then summoned him outside, where Li Qi saw a hypnosis app on the soldier’s phone.

• Li Qi learned that the power he absorbed had transformed his Magic Volume into the Otherworld Magic Handbook, which let him cast spells in exchange for answering questions.
• Li Qi returned to Dream Town to replace his Artificial Human body’s battery with an energy core and found Liu Cheng there.
• Liu Cheng explained that he had escaped Suhe City’s contamination by entering Dream Town, and that Wang He and his wife had taken refuge there too.
• Li Qi told Liu Cheng to help develop the town and introduced Kate as its owner before returning his consciousness to the Artificial Human body.
• A soldier called Li Qi out of his tent, and Li Qi saw a pink swirling vortex on the soldier’s phone that appeared to be the Hypnosis App.

Li Fan used the Hypnosis App to try to control Meng An, but Li Qi revealed himself and stopped him. Li Qi then hypnotized Li Fan and forced him to mutilate himself.

• Li Fan’s Hypnosis App twisted his desires, and he infiltrated the refugee camp to hypnotize Meng An and gain control of the camp.
• Li Fan ordered Meng An to bar people from his tent, then tried to make him undress, but Meng An resisted and mocked him.
• Li Qi revealed that he had been posing as Meng An, severed Li Fan’s hand, and took the Hypnosis App.
• Li Qi explained the app’s ability to manipulate minds and its cost of distorting its user’s personality.
• Li Qi hypnotized Li Fan, increased his pain tenfold, and ordered him to cut off his fifth limb; Li Fan obeyed.

Li Qi sealed away the Hypnosis App and ordered Wei He to find everyone in the camp it had affected while he worked on hypnosis magic. The app’s price altered Li Qi’s preferences, so he appointed Xie Yan as his assistant and restricted girls from approaching him until the influence passed.

• Li Qi kept the Hypnosis App for safekeeping in Dream Town after realizing its price could alter a person’s character and preferences.
• Li Qi asked Wei He to conduct a Mental Health Check throughout the camp and identify soldiers hypnotized by Li Fan, delaying their trip to the Neighboring City.
• Li Qi began creating hypnosis spells with the Otherworld Magic Handbook so he could help the app’s victims.
• When Xu Leying approached him, Li Qi realized the app’s price had made him attracted to older, taller girls and sent her to fetch Xie Yan.
• Li Qi gave Xie Yan heat-resistant gloves and appointed him temporary assistant, ordering him to keep girls away until the app’s influence disappeared.