Chapter Summaries

Angel found the first-floor exhibition room’s hidden passage and crossed its dangerous corridor to reach the magic array’s main control area. Inside, he discovered a living man sealed in a cylinder, marked with an X on one cheek and 0 on the other.

• Angel traced the first-floor magic patterns to the exhibition room and entered by redirecting the patterns on its doors.
• Angel found a hidden opening at a convergence point and entered the blood-red corridor leading to the main control node.
• Angel crossed the corridor’s shifting footholds by using Supercomputing mode, Toby’s Gravity Veins, and the Void Illusion Gate.
• Angel found no trigger points at the doors and opened them into a frost-filled room containing a cylinder and the main control area’s magic patterns.
• Dangros’s voice stirred the man sealed in the cylinder, and Angel watched him awaken and reveal the markings X and 0 on his cheeks.

Angel used an illusion to keep X0 occupied while he studied the master control node and discovered the hidden magic pattern X0 tried to activate. After suppressing it, Angel sent Ermi to restrain X0 as its soul-freezing frost mist threatened the cramped area.

• X0 emerged from its cylinder, identified Angel as an intruder, and attacked him with a Soul Armament dagger and ice-based abilities.
• Angel evaded X0’s attacks with an illusion while his real body moved to the master control node; X0 escalated its threat level and spread frost mist that could freeze souls.
• X0 realized its attacks were not finding Angel and raised the threat level to Level 0, then cut its own neck to activate a hidden guardian mechanism.
• The magic pattern failed to summon the other guardian because Angel had discovered and suppressed it, leaving X0 confused before it resumed attacking the illusion.
• Angel explained how he had blocked the magic pattern and sent Ermi to restrain X0 as its frost mist threatened the limited space.

Angel captured X0 and began studying the laboratory’s control arrays while Nis’s group explained how the Fire-Scaled Familiar exposed them and led them astray on the fourth floor. Angel reported that he had analyzed the floor’s arrays, leaving Nis waiting to hear whether he could take control of them.

• Angel examined X0’s partial mechanization, ordered Ermi to keep him under watch, and returned to studying the main control node.
• Nis told Angel that the Fire-Scaled Familiar had exposed the group’s hiding place while escaping researchers, and Reynolds identified it as a beast from No. 17’s Magic Beast Garden.
• Angel confirmed that the fourth floor’s detection arrays were active and began analyzing them so he could potentially take control.
• Nis and the others continued toward the fifth-floor passage, but Reynolds’s uncertain memories led them down a possibly wrong corridor, so they turned back.
• Angel told Nis that he had roughly understood the fourth-floor arrays and asked whether he wanted to hear the good news or the bad news first.

Angel revealed that a Fire-Scaled Familiar had reached the fifth floor and that the laboratory's external corridors had been physically detached, trapping everyone on the fourth and fifth floors. Nis learned the fourth floor had an Archive Room and headed there to find research materials before visiting the Display Room.

• Angel explained that Reynolds's wrong turn had kept the group away from a dangerous corridor, where the magic energy arrays had been activated to stop the Fire-Scaled Familiar.
• Angel told Nis and Kant that the Familiar had reached the fifth floor and that the controller had detached every external corridor, isolating the floors; the Planar Corridor was their best way to escape.
• Nis learned that Reynolds had concealed the fourth-floor Archive Room because he wanted Nis to continue toward the fifth floor, but he chose not to confront him about it.
• Angel said he could restrict the Archive Room controller and explained that its rules limited visitors to taking three to ten research materials at a time.
• After learning that the Display Room was unattended, Nis headed to the Archive Room to search for materials before looting the Display Room.

Angel deciphered the fourth-floor magic patterns and discovered a powerful Hunting Sequence member asleep beneath them, then found a route that could connect the first floor directly to the fifth. As Angel prepared to explore the fifth floor, he used the Authority Eye to examine the strange Fire-Scaled Familiar whose purposeful journey there suggested it had a target.

• Angel deciphered the floor magic patterns and discovered that X0 could activate a sleeping Hunting Sequence member marked with “yao” and the number 0, but he chose not to awaken him.
• Nis entered the archive room, where No. 50 pretended not to notice him, and worked with Kant and Reynolds to search for Soul Armament research materials.
• Angel explained that the fifth floor’s sole passage connection was vacant, allowing an external corridor from another floor—including the first—to connect directly to it.
• Angel agreed to search the fifth-floor archive and said he would suppress magic-array mechanisms before going there.
• Angel used the Authority Eye to inspect the fifth floor and considered how the unusually capable Fire-Scaled Familiar had reached it, suspecting it had a specific target there.

Angel observed a Fire-Scaled Familiar destroying parts of the fifth floor and realized it was trying to provoke him, possibly mistaking him for one of the numbered wizards. He trapped it in an illusion, but the Familiar detected the hidden illusion nodes, leaving Angel more curious about its unusual abilities.

• Angel watched the Fire-Scaled Familiar avoid magical arrays while damaging equipment and setting fire to a gallery bar counter.
• Angel hurried to No. 02's room to protect its books and research notes, and found the Familiar near the concealed entrance.
• The Fire-Scaled Familiar provoked Angel, and he inferred that it had mistaken him for one of the first three numbered wizards.
• Angel asked whether the Familiar had destroyed things to draw him out, but it grinned and ran away.
• Angel's Harmonic Illusion kept the Familiar from escaping, but it sniffed out the illusion nodes.

Angel defeated and captured the Fire-Scaled Familiar, but it died after a Mist Shadow emerged from its head and escaped. Examining the corpse, Angel suspected the Mist Shadow had transformed the Familiar and wondered whether it could affect the material world while in its semi-ethereal state.

• The Fire-Scaled Familiar used flame clones and a hidden real body to attack Angel, but Dangros identified the true Familiar by sensing its flames, allowing Angel to bind it.
• Angel questioned the captive about strange spatial energy, and Dangros recognized the same energy from the previous floor.
• The Fire-Scaled Familiar inflated its head until it exploded, releasing a star-speckled Mist Shadow that escaped through Angel's illusion.
• Angel examined the corpse and found its flame energy unusually pure, leading him to suspect the Mist Shadow had transformed the Familiar.
• Angel wondered why the Mist Shadow had possessed a weak Familiar and whether its semi-ethereal state prevented it from affecting the material world.

Angel entered No. 02's shadow wizard room, captured a Phantom Shadow Demon, and searched the main hall for useful information. He found mostly travel journals and unfamiliar gossip magazines, leaving the room's secrets unresolved.

• Angel entered the hidden corridor to No. 02's room and used an illusion to lure out a creature lurking in the shadows.
• Angel captured the creature, identified it as a Phantom Shadow Demon, and trapped it in a sphere of light.
• Angel considered whether Mist Shadow might possess the demon, but chose not to seek Mist Shadow out because of his uneasy premonitions.
• Angel reached the main hall and searched its books and papers, finding mostly travel journals and gossip magazines, including one titled "Poem of the Fallen."

Angel explored No. 02’s rooms and copied books, research materials, and publications before entering No. 03’s quarters to investigate the secondary control node and search for traces of the Mist Shadow. In No. 03’s study, he discovered letters showing that she had privately commissioned intelligence from a void merchant caravan, including information about the Laiyi Association’s assignments, and began to suspect the assignments involved competition.

• Angel copied publications from beyond the Southern Region and used a Void Illusion Gate to bypass the light-and-shadow mechanisms guarding No. 02’s rooms.
• Angel searched No. 02’s laboratory, study, and archive room, copying shadow-school research, Soul Armament materials, and issues of “Dance of Metal.”
• Angel entered No. 03’s ocean-themed quarters to investigate the secondary control node and look for traces of the Mist Shadow.
• Angel searched No. 03’s rooms and copied water-element research and Soul Armament materials from her study and archive room.
• Angel found thirteen letters addressed to No. 03 under her alias, Jiasili, revealing that she had privately hired the Sparkling Spirit merchant caravan to gather intelligence.
• Angel read that Jiasili had sought information about the Laiyi Association’s assignments and their progress across the Wizarding Worlds, and wondered whether the assignments involved competition.

Angel read No. 03’s letters and learned about a mysterious illusion-related object called Yisilin’s Mini Castle, then passed intelligence about Loser’s Arrow and the Budding to Iron Armor Granny. He searched the fifth floor for the misty shadow but found no trace of it, and the chapter ended as he checked on Nis, Kant, and Reynolds examining the Night Butterfly Witch’s arm.

• Angel read a letter describing Yisilin’s Mini Castle, a dangerous mysterious object that drew in and expelled illusion nodes, but decided not to pursue it while the Order Guild’s Mysterious Hunters and Feibo were already investigating.
• Angel gave Iron Armor Granny a letter containing intelligence about the Seventy-Seven Red Socks, Loser’s Arrow, and the Budding, then asked whether she recognized the misty shadow; she did not.
• After resting through a wave of law energy, Angel explored No. 03’s fountain room and reached the fifth floor’s secondary control node without activating Hunting Sequence No. 1.
• Angel searched the fifth floor with the Authority Eye but found no trace of the misty shadow and considered that it might be hidden in No. 01’s room, outside the floor, or in an unobservable state.
• Toby alerted Angel that Nis was looking for him, and Angel used the Authority Eye to see Nis, Kant, and Reynolds gathered around the Night Butterfly Witch’s patterned arm.

Angel chose a Hidden-Wing Butterfly Scorpion’s wings from the fifth-floor Display Room, then explored No. 01’s quarters and found letters revealing the Snooker Base Laboratory’s origins. The letters showed that the Laiyi Association had moved its Soul Armament project to the Four-Sided Wizarding World because it relied on forbidden living sacrifices.

• Nis showed Angel several potential organs and Soul Armaments, and Angel chose the Hidden-Wing Butterfly Scorpion’s wings while Nis stored the Night Butterfly Witch’s arm.
• Angel described his encounter with the Fire-Scaled Familiar and the mysterious misty shadow to Nis and Kant, then left the secondary control node after finding no trace of the shadow.
• Angel explored No. 01’s Archive Room and laboratory before crossing the training ground, where No. 01’s lingering aura made him wary of the powerful bloodline wizard.
• Angel uncovered a hidden room and found more than a hundred letters from four sources, including the Chaotic Current Caravan, the Flash Spirit Caravan, and an unsigned sender tracking a City Lord.
• Angel read the Chaotic Current letters and learned that the Laiyi Association and a soul faction from Quest World had created the Soul Armament project, which used living sacrifices to bring down its stock solution.
• Angel learned that the Association had moved the project to the Four-Sided Wizarding World because living sacrifices were forbidden in the Source World, though the Association still had to keep the project hidden.

Angel read No. 01’s correspondence and uncovered signs that he was secretly defying the Laiyi Association while pursuing an intense interest in the Peach Heart Theater and the Nightmare Realm. The final letters revealed that No. 01’s recent aggression began when he found a sleeping magical creature whose bloodline seemed to be the one he had sought for over a century.

• Angel read the Chaotic Current Caravan’s letters and noticed that No. 01’s calm assurances contradicted his rapid escalation of aggression.
• Angel learned from the letters that No. 00 existed and was likely a mechanical creation, though he could not locate it in the laboratory.
• Angel read No. 01’s inquiries to the Sparkling Spirit Caravan and found that No. 01 was intensely interested in the Peach Heart Theater and the Nightmare Realm.
• Angel copied the intelligence about the Peach Heart Theater for Savage Cave and then read No. 01’s final letters to an unknown contact about the City Lord.
• Angel learned that No. 01 had pursued ideal bloodlines for more than a century and had recently found a sleeping magical creature whose bloodline stirred his own.

Angel learned that No. 01 had turned against the Laiyi Association because Gruzdaiwald was closing in, and No. 01 planned to hurt him by hunting Shiz’s cub. Angel then realized the Mist Shadow had possessed Reynolds’s body, which had been hidden in No. 01’s cold, unmonitored room.

• No. 01’s letters revealed that he had fused with the bloodline of a Phantom City citizen, provoking Gruzdaiwald to hunt him for decades.
• Beast Seal warned No. 01 that Gruzdaiwald had found his whereabouts, and No. 01 decided to target Shiz’s surviving cub to make Gruzdaiwald suffer.
• Angel read the letters and explained No. 01’s desperate plan to Nis and the others through the Mind Tether.
• Reynolds reported that his body was moving, and Angel deduced that the Mist Shadow had possessed it.
• Angel noticed the empty space on the experimental table and recalled the frost and Maya’s prophecy, realizing Reynolds’s body had been in the hidden room all along.

Angel uncovered a hidden box in No. 01’s secret room and learned from the letters that No. 01 had begun hunting. As Angel followed Reynolds’s trail, he found that Mist Shadow had triggered several traps, leaving him to wonder whether the repeated accidents were truly coincidences.

• Angel found concealment and camouflage magic patterns on the experimental table, activated its hidden array, and discovered an empty box shaped to hold two bottles.
• Angel told Nis and Kant about the letters connecting No. 01, the Laiyi Association, and Void Merchant Caravans, and explained No. 01’s predicament as he left the hidden room.
• Angel followed Reynolds’s footprints and the smell of blood, finding signs that Reynolds had fallen and triggered a wind-blade corridor trap.
• Angel found that Reynolds had also triggered an electric-field trap, and he questioned whether the repeated mishaps were really coincidences.

Angel concluded that Reynolds’s talent might be causing a rejection effect that brought severe misfortune upon Mist Shadow, then found Reynolds badly injured but still intact. As Angel prepared to test whether Mist Shadow remained inside him, Kant and Nis left to respond to Feiluo’s emergency while No. 03 prepared to face the danger outside.

• Angel suspected that Reynolds’s influence over fortune was triggering a rejection mechanism against Mist Shadow, though its backlash was also damaging Reynolds’s body.
• Feiluo considered crushing Kant’s emergency crystal as law surges and a sea beast’s roar drew closer to the laboratory, while No. 03 chose to leave the Mechanist Core without eating the mystical fruit pit.
• Kant and Nis decided to evacuate the laboratory’s vicinity, then Kant crushed the crystal after learning Feiluo had activated his, leaving to reach him through a space rift.
• Angel used Toby’s Gravity Veins to cross the law surge and found Reynolds lying in a poison-filled trap corridor, badly burned and otherwise injured.
• Angel dragged Reynolds from the poisonous fog, bound him, and waited for the law surge to pass before reaching toward his brow with a hand of Nightmare Illusion power.

Angel treated Reynolds and placed him in Ermi’s care after concluding that Mist Shadow had probably abandoned his body. He discovered a bottle hidden in Reynolds’ mouth that matched one missing from No. 01’s room, and wondered whether Mist Shadow would return for it.

• Angel concluded that Mist Shadow had likely left Reynolds and used Isolation Spell and Vitality Stimulation before placing him in a Healing Ice Coffin.
• Angel asked Ermi to keep Reynolds safe, but paused when Dangros noticed that Reynolds’ cheeks were unusually puffed.
• Angel found a small bottle in Reynolds’ mouth containing cold liquid and a violet-black crystal that he identified as belonging to Shiz.
• Angel compared the bottle with an indentation in the empty hidden box from No. 01’s room and recognized it as one of the missing bottles.
• Angel suspected Mist Shadow had hidden the bottle in Reynolds and considered waiting for Mist Shadow to return for it.

Angel prepared to leave the laboratory after learning that Kant and the others had departed, but Mist Shadow caught up to him in a newly possessed Gomito. The Gomito resisted Angel’s wizard-level pressure with the power of the mind, renewing his interest in capturing Mist Shadow.

• Angel concealed the bottle containing the purple-black crystal in the Geometric Lock and left it with Ermi to reduce the risk of keeping it in his bracelet.
• Angel learned that Feiluo had crushed Kant’s crystal and that Nis and the others had left to support him, so he decided to leave the laboratory as Kant had advised.
• Angel heard a roar from the corridor and identified the approaching creature as Gomito, Mist Shadow’s new host.
• Mist Shadow’s Gomito attacked Angel but focused on searching its surroundings rather than pursuing his illusion.
• Angel released wizard-level pressure, but Gomito used the power of the mind to withstand its intimidating effect.
• Angel realized Mist Shadow had enhanced Gomito’s abilities and considered capturing Mist Shadow rather than defeating it.

Mist Shadow tried to escape Angel by abandoning Gomito, but Angel trapped its true body with the Domain Field. As the laboratory began to shake, Angel sensed someone standing behind him and turned to see a person.

• Mist Shadow regained control of Gomito, worried that the misfortune from possessing Reynolds still clung to it, and decided to flee its body.
• Mist Shadow pretended Gomito would fight Angel, then slipped away in its semi-ethereal form while blood obscured the corridor.
• Dangros spotted Mist Shadow's escape and alerted Angel, who used the Void Illusion Gate to intercept it.
• Angel enclosed Mist Shadow in a green Domain Field and promised Dangros a reward for helping capture it.
• The laboratory began to tremble, and Angel stopped shrinking the Domain Field when he sensed someone behind him and turned to see a person.

Angel met the white-haired Inspector, whose aura distorted perceptions, and confirmed his identity through their conversation. The Inspector said he could not interfere with the danger in the Twin Laboratory or events connected to that world.

• Angel felt the white-haired man's power twisting his perceptions and spread Green Pattern's Domain Field around himself, weakening its effects.
• The white-haired man asked Angel to guess his identity, and Angel identified him as the Inspector.
• Angel explained that he had learned of the Inspector from Lord Kulori's notes about Lord Belos and the Twin Laboratory.
• The Inspector asked whether Angel had been affected by Nightmare Light, and Angel said Green Pattern's Domain Field protected him.
• Angel began to ask about the Twin Laboratory, but the Inspector said he could not interfere with the matter or with events connected to that world.

Angel learned that No. 01 was attempting to kill the Shiz larva, while the Observer warned him about approaching beings from Phantom City and Toby’s value to them. After the Observer sent Angel away, Angel concealed Toby and prepared to leave the tilting laboratory as Gomito began to awaken.

• The Observer told Angel that the Peach Heart Theater was coming to the Southern Region and that its arrival might draw powerful visitors.
• The Observer identified the Mist Shadow as a third-class citizen of Phantom City, then erased its recent memories and returned it to Gomito.
• The Observer explained that No. 01 was trying to kill the Shiz larva, warned that the Devil Sea might grow more dangerous, and sent Angel out of the warped space.
• The Observer warned Angel that Phantom City’s arrivals might recognize Toby as a rare treasure, so Angel hid Toby in his bracelet and reinforced it with a Domain Field.
• As Gomito began to awaken, Angel concealed himself and prepared to leave the increasingly tilted corridor.