Chapter Summaries

Angel rode an intercity train to North Ninth District, where he unexpectedly met Star Worm on the platform. He drew Star Worm into a quiet stairwell, and Star Worm began explaining how Gleipnir had brought him to Modern City.

• Angel tracked Star Worm and calculated that they might cross paths at North Ninth District Station as Star Worm traveled toward North Tenth District.
• Angel reviewed the abilities of the seven fashion Demonic Beasts listed in Zuniga’s quest and found no information about Variety Elf.
• Angel arrived at North Ninth District Station, dispelled his illusion, and caught Star Worm’s attention.
• Angel pulled Star Worm into a stairwell to avoid the patrolling police dogs and asked why he was in Modern City.
• Star Worm told Angel how Gleipnir had brought him to Modern City.

Angel spoke with Star Worm about the Owl conductor’s gray-mist-shrouded dog, then traveled to Prada Media Company and received Main Quest Two, which required raising money for a beauty pageant. He set the main quest aside and planned to complete “The New King of Variety Shows” before using a sky-screen illusion to finish his other random quest.

• Angel told Star Worm he was pursuing the first-round main quest to find Prada Media Company, and Star Worm gave him directions and warned him about dangers in Modern City.
• Angel asked Star Worm about the dog that had barked during the Owl conductor’s recording, and Star Worm described a gray-mist-shrouded dog with black-and-white markings.
• Angel disguised Star Worm with an illusion so he could board the train openly, then headed toward Prada Media Company while suspecting the dog was Spotty Dog.
• Angel reached Prada Media Company without incident and received Main Quest Two, which required finding money to restore a beauty pageant.
• Angel decided to complete “The New King of Variety Shows” first by staging an awards ceremony with illusions, then use a giant-screen illusion to complete “Social Death or Overnight Fame?”.

Angel searched for the three Old Kings so he could draw one of them to a variety show in Modern City, but his attempt to locate them by appearance failed. He traveled to Tina Entertainment in the Central District, chose its crowded plazas for the show, and used an illusion to question an employee, leaving with useful information about the Old Kings.

• Angel aged the championship photos of the three Old Kings in his mind and searched Modern City with his God's-eye view, but could not find them.
• Angel decided to ask Tina Entertainment, the organization behind the Modern Fashion Show, about the Old Kings' whereabouts.
• Angel traveled from North Ninth District to the Central District on the Fashion Express and chose the busy plazas near Tina Entertainment as the site for his variety show.
• Angel entered Tina Entertainment under an illusion and secretly questioned a female employee who was also a fashion magician.
• The employee returned to her normal awareness without remembering the encounter, while Angel learned useful information about the Old Kings.

Angel infiltrated Tina Entertainment to learn about the old kings and discovered that Pink Queen Diane worked in a studio overlooking the plaza. He planned to draw her attention with a variety show, but paused to consider what kind of grand performance could best fulfill the quest and improve his chances of gaining a powerful ability.

• Angel learned that Tina Entertainment’s supervisors were fashion magicians whose abilities could include resistance to ordinary illusions.
• Angel overcame the design department supervisor’s illusion resistance with a Nightmare Illusion and learned the addresses of two old kings, including Pink Queen Diane.
• Angel learned that Diane was a star-tier fashion magician known as Pink Queen and located her studio beside Tina Entertainment.
• Angel realized Diane could see the plaza from her office window, so he decided to set up the variety-show stage there instead of entering her studio.
• Angel reconsidered the plan when he realized he had not chosen a show, and he weighed recreating Carnival activities as a grand performance that might earn him a better fashion ability.

Angel considered how a grander Variety Show Gala could improve his chances of drawing rare fashion magic abilities. He decided to avoid using Firmament Illusion to broadcast the show and instead planned a stage-bound gala stitched together from popular Earth variety-show segments.

• Angel learned that Fashion Magic Books randomly drew abilities from fashion demonic beasts, and that a better challenge evaluation increased the chance of rare abilities.
• Angel decided he wanted to improve the Variety Show Gala so he could draw a powerful ability and learn more about the Instance world.
• Angel considered using celebrities and Modern City's information platforms to attract viewers, but found that neither option was practical.
• Angel considered broadcasting the show across the firmament, then rejected Firmament Illusion because using it for half an hour could entangle him with Modern City and make the Instance collapse if he left.
• Angel chose to attract viewers through the show's content and began planning a fixed-stage gala by stitching together popular Earth variety-show segments.

Angel created an illusionary modern stage in Tina Square and launched a Circus performance, drawing a huge crowd while trapping the real peace officers and patrolling fashion magicians in a Nightmare Illusion labyrinth. The Wonderland mission recognized the stage and began at 10% progress, leaving Angel confident that he could pursue an improved reward by raising the bar to 100%.

• Angel chose the crowded center of Tina Square and used balloons, mist, and illusions to clear space for his stage.
• Angel trapped the real peace officers, mechanical police dogs, and two patrolling fashion magicians in a Nightmare Illusion labyrinth while illusionary officers guided the crowd.
• A Circus troupe of Clowns and masked performers appeared amid balloons and streamers, drawing spectators from nearby plazas.
• Angel's mist dispersed to reveal a vast, technologically styled stage as the opening performance ended.
• Angel interpreted a Wonderland progress bar showing that the random mission had started at 10% and learned that reaching 100% could improve his reward.

Angel’s variety stage drew the Pink Queen’s attention and pushed its mission progress to 59%, but the bar stopped just short of completion. Meanwhile, Tina Entertainment’s executives let the unauthorized show continue, planning to identify its organizer and compete for any fashion Demonic Beasts it attracted.

• Angel’s stage progressed from a musical and drag show to a giant beauty pageant, drawing crowds and catching the Pink Queen’s attention.
• The mission bar reached 59%, then failed to rise during the following soul music segment, leaving Angel puzzled about what was blocking progress.
• Tina Entertainment’s employees went out to investigate the stage and ended up helping maintain order around it.
• Tina Entertainment’s executives concluded that the stage was likely organized by the Dark Round Table and chose to wait for fashion Demonic Beasts rather than shut it down.
• The executives agreed to identify the hidden fashion mage behind the stage and prepare to compete for any beasts that appeared.

Angel discovered that the Variety Grand Prize’s progress had stalled because it lacked interaction with real audience members, then added a color-mixing game that pushed the mission to 200%. He completed the stage and obtained the Fashion Magic Book, leaving the number of puzzle pieces needed to unlock the Variety Elf unknown.

• Angel realized Tina Entertainment had mistaken the Variety Grand Prize for a Dark Round Table provocation, allowing the stage to continue without interference.
• After ruling out the show’s theme, guests, and entertainment value, Angel suspected the stalled 59% progress came from a lack of audience interaction.
• Angel’s illusionary peace officer competed in a color-mixing game without changing the progress, but a real audience member stepping onstage raised it to 60% and released the progress earned by earlier programs.
• Angel continued the Variety Grand Prize, and its finale raised the mission progress to 200% and completed the mission.
• Angel received the Fashion Magic Book and wondered how many puzzle pieces he would need to unlock the high-level Variety Elf.

Angel discovered that the Variety Elf required only one puzzle piece to unlock, but its ability would remain unknown until he activated it. He postponed unlocking it to prepare for the draw, then headed toward Tina Square, where three Tina Entertainment staff members remained unconscious after encountering fashion Demonic Beasts.

• Angel opened the Fashion Magic Book and found the Variety Elf’s illustration fully colored with a puzzle count of 1/1.
• Angel learned that unlocked pages occupied space in the book, while detached pages could be traded if he had the required fashion magic.
• Angel considered selling unused pages to fund the Prada Beauty Pageant, but left the Variety Elf’s ability locked while he prepared a ritual for the draw.
• Angel saw the illusion stage vanish and more than twenty people awaken in Tina Square, while three Tina Entertainment core personnel remained unconscious.
• Angel concluded that his stage had attracted three fashion Demonic Beasts, concealed himself in a Nightmare Illusion node, and drifted toward the square.

Angel assessed the sleepers’ fashion challenges, abandoned the time-limited ribbon task, and used a citywide Sky-Curtain Illusion to complete a popularity task and clear a path to the important unconscious woman. He learned that she was Lily Tina Wilson, Tina Entertainment’s chief planner and a key figure in the main quest.

• Angel examined the Clown Man’s challenge and accepted the random task to make veteran clown Cecile Nicholson smile.
• Angel learned that the Flamingo Man needed to create a cloak in twenty minutes and abandoned his own task to weave stage ribbons within the same time limit.
• Angel accepted the task to make Cecile Nicholson smile, then projected an unconscious man onto a giant Sky-Curtain Illusion above Modern City.
• Angel completed the popularity task and received a Traffic Bat puzzle piece, which added a second, incomplete page to his Fashion Magic Book.
• Angel used the commotion to approach the unconscious woman and learned from Wonderland that Lily Tina Wilson was Tina Entertainment’s chief planner and a key figure in the main quest.

Angel discovered Lily Tina Wilson’s month-long challenge to build a brand for Brand-Name Cat and received a fifteen-day task to earn one million Modern Coins. As the canopy projection vanished, a contestant elsewhere awoke confused after his challenge abruptly failed.

• Angel examined Lily’s challenge and saw the jade-eyed blue cat task her with creating a custom brand within a month.
• Lily chose Gossip Fiend, Nostalgia Monster, and Luxury Demon as assistants and received a Time Pocket Watch that accelerated tedious work while she continued working.
• Angel accepted Brand-Name Cat’s task to earn one million Modern Coins within fifteen days and considered how it might overlap with the Prada Media Company main storyline quest.
• Angel dismissed the canopy illusion over Modern City and disappeared from Tina Square.
• A contestant in West Fifteenth District awoke after his challenge space collapsed and found himself surrounded by onlookers.

After discovering that his challenge mission had failed alongside the Fashion Magician’s, Zuniga investigated the mysterious firmament projection using the Gossip Fiend’s abilities. Targeted News revealed that an Outsider from Beyond the Heavens had arranged Falu’s projection to distract onlookers and approach Tina Entertainment’s chief planner.

• Zuniga learned from nearby children that an unconscious man on the Phantomlight Soundscape stage had suddenly awakened after appearing in a projection across Modern City.
• Zuniga overheard Sweetheart Studio’s staff questioning the Fashion Magician and confirmed that his challenge mission had failed in the same way as Zuniga’s.
• Zuniga used Daily News, which reported that an Outsider from Beyond the Heavens had awakened the long-sleeping city.
• Zuniga locked onto the Fashion Magician backstage and used Targeted News to learn that the Outsider had projected Falu into the firmament to distract people in Tina Square and approach Tina Entertainment’s current chief planner.

Angel investigated the Fashion Guild’s page exchanges and learned that it sold fashion Demonic Beast pages, suggesting Modern City had a way to dismantle them. He also discovered that Zuniga’s Gossip Fiend could sense traces of Wonderland power, then hypnotized a Fashion Guild employee and his date to question them.

• Angel hypnotized a passerby-level employee at Tina Entertainment and learned that the Fashion Guild’s points shop exchanged fashion Demonic Beast pages for points.
• Angel entered the Fashion Guild branch and overheard a hotspot-level fashion magician describe fish rice from the City of Beautiful Dreams.
• Angel followed a strand of Wonderland power to Zuniga and realized the Gossip Fiend could detect clues connected to the sky-curtain projection.
• Angel marked Zuniga as someone to watch and potentially exploit for fashion Demonic Beast tasks.
• Angel used a Nightmare Illusion Node to draw the young couple into an illusory space.

Angel learned that Lily’s campaign against Prada Media Company was partly driven by her desire to reach Lust Knight, and he headed to the western districts to find Sislai Nicholson and pursue other opportunities. He planned to visit the Wishing Tree for a luck-turning ritual before drawing cards, while the crowded train carried people toward a carnival inspired by his projected image.

• Angel left the Fashion Guild, and the Nightmare Illusion dissipated as the young couple continued their date, unaware they had been inside it.
• Angel saw Lily unconscious at Tina Entertainment and recalled Dream Maiden’s revelation that Lily had targeted Prada Media Company to gain access to a fashion Demonic Beast that could break Lust Knight’s defenses.
• Angel left Tina Entertainment for the Wandering House, where he planned to meet Sislai Nicholson and visit the Wishing Tree to perform a luck-turning ritual before drawing cards.
• Angel learned that Fashion Cutters could dismantle book pages and planned to look for one in the western districts, where Zuniga might also encounter a fashion Demonic Beast.
• Angel rode the trains toward the western districts and found them crowded with people traveling to see the projected protagonist at the West Fifteenth District carnival.
• Angel noticed dining carts on the train and thought of the City of Beautiful Dreams, which was also known as the City of Cuisine.

Angel learned more about the City of Beautiful Dreams and its dream adorners before traveling from West Eighth District into the Underground District. Guided by Haman, he headed toward the Wishing Tree, which lay beyond the mutant suburbs.

• Angel recalled Dream Maiden's account of the City of Beautiful Dreams, its design and cuisine, and the permanent decorations dream adorners added to dreams.
• Angel found a public sewer entrance beneath a building in West Eighth District and joined the line to enter the Underground District.
• Angel paid a Wandering House staff member to arrange a guide to the Wishing Tree, and Haman came to lead him.
• Angel followed Haman along a polluted sewage channel and noticed that Haman was a mutant with an extra eye-bearing growth beneath his mask.
• Haman led Angel into the somewhat cleaner mutant suburbs and said the Wishing Tree stood at the center of the Underground District.

Angel followed Haman into Eighth Town, an underground settlement built in an abandoned reservoir, and learned about its customs and the Dark Round Table’s Seven Knights. After spotting the Wishing Tree ahead, Angel also identified Fallen Dream Knight’s likely location and prepared to visit the tree.

• Haman explained that Eighth Town had been built in a former underground reservoir, though Angel recognized that the cavern’s blackened walls were coated rather than burned.
• At the town gate, Haman secretly told local thugs that Angel was a visitor headed to the Wishing Tree and advised them to offer him related goods.
• As Haman guided Angel through Eighth Town, he described Red Alley and said it belonged to Lust Knight of the Dark Round Table.
• Haman listed the known Seven Knights and revealed that Fallen Dream Knight was currently stationed at Wandering House, describing her as a veiled young-looking girl marked by a flower bud.
• Angel used his God's-eye view to find a sleeping little girl with a similar mark near Wandering House, then asked Haman about Fallen Dream Knight’s true name.
• Angel pointed to a large tree visible ahead and asked whether it was the Wishing Tree.

Angel visited the Wishing Tree in Eighth Town and bought supplies for a fortune-turning ritual, hoping to improve his odds of drawing a rare prize. He prepared a quiet space behind the tree and began the ritual, leaving the offering unfinished at the chapter’s end.

• Haman left Angel at the Wishing Tree, which stood beside the Wandering House as a Shining Show drew most of the crowd away.
• Angel visited a nearby vendor and explained that he wanted to draw gold when drawing cards, which the vendor mistook for winning a lottery prize.
• Angel bought a magical scented candle, lucky coin, ruby, red string, and magic pouch for 130 Modern Coins.
• Angel found a secluded space behind the Wishing Tree, lit the candle, and settled himself for the ritual.
• Angel assembled a lucky object by putting the ruby in the pouch, tying the red string into a lucky knot, and hanging the coin from it.
• Angel prepared to offer the lucky object to the Wishing Tree as the ritual’s final step.

Angel sacrificed an item of luck at the Wishing Tree, then unlocked the Variety Elf and drew all three of its abilities. He gained a conventional broadcast skill and a special form called Variety Master, while the hidden ability remained unrevealed.

• Angel chose to sink the item of luck into the pond beneath the Wishing Tree and recited the fortune-changing ritual three times.
• Angel unlocked the Variety Elf's abilities in the Fashion Magic Book and received one conventional, one special, and one hidden ability.
• Angel absorbed the blue sphere and gained Broadcast Ambassador, which let him record and transmit completed variety show performances.
• Angel absorbed the purple sphere and gained Variety Master, a special form that could integrate information and create variety shows.
• Angel realized Variety Master could become his companion pet and potentially learn about Modern City as it gathered information.
• Angel turned toward the final golden sphere, which contained the Variety Elf's hidden ability.

Angel tested the Variety Elf’s three abilities, discovering that Broadcast Ambassador could spread edited variety shows and that its Buzz Points were spent as energy. He summoned and named the erratic Variety Master Turing, then entered the fantasy space created by Scenic Design Expert to try designing a stage.

• Angel activated Broadcast Ambassador, edited a recording of the Variety Grand Prize, and attached it to a crystal so it played as a light-screen broadcast.
• Angel learned that the Variety Elf used Buzz Points as energy, and that public discussion and audience feedback could restore them.
• Angel summoned the Variety Master, found it unable to hold a coherent conversation, named it Turing, and told it to observe the outside world quietly.
• Angel concealed Turing with Nightmare Illusion Nodes and let it float alongside him.
• Angel activated Scenic Design Expert and found himself in an empty fantasy space that he could fill by imagining things.

Angel tested the Scenic Design Expert and discovered it could create real objects through Nightmare Realm power, giving him a promising avenue for researching Fantasy Alchemy. He decided to stay in the Modern City Instance, gather more Popularity Points, and continue exploring its magic system.

• Angel learned from Turing that a full-sized stage would cost 41.76 Popularity Points, while a miniature stage would cost about five.
• Angel created a streamer flare gun and realized Nightmare Realm power had turned his imagined design into a real object.
• Angel connected this discovery to Mystical Manifestation and Fantasy Alchemy, identifying the Scenic Design Expert as a new research path.
• Angel decided to seek more Popularity Points and raise their limit so he could use the Scenic Design Expert more extensively.
• Angel headed toward the Wandering House to visit Sisley, planning first to test whether he could create Modern Coins.
• Angel resolved to remain in the Modern City Instance rather than complete the second round of the main quest.