Chapter Summaries

Angel and Zuniga confronted their mutual suspicions over hypnosis and agreed to speak honestly. They entered the Mind Resting Place, a truth-bound lounge, where Zuniga welcomed Angel and prepared to begin their sincere conversation.

• Zuniga explained that the unnatural calm at Beverly Care Center had led him to suspect Angel had hypnotized everyone, and he revealed that he had hidden part of his consciousness in a coffer that could kill his main body if it detected hypnosis.
• Angel realized Zuniga had been testing his surveillance and admitted he had suppressed the Care Center's emotions to prevent panic during the viral disaster.
• Angel promised not to use hypnosis or emotion-altering abilities, and Zuniga agreed to answer his questions honestly.
• Zuniga's will left Rumor Kid as they reached a red-glowing door, and Angel followed Rumor Kid into a lounge decorated with black-and-red musical notes.
• Angel learned that the Mind Resting Place, built from the City of Music's Mind Notes, would collapse if anyone inside told a lie, and Zuniga welcomed him there.

Angel and Zuniga spoke under the Mind Resting Place’s lie-detecting effect while sharing expensive Niaman Flower Tea, whose temporary energy boost also improved Angel’s physical fitness. Angel explained that he was a wizard from another world on a quest tied to Modern City’s competitions, and the chapter ended with him asking Zuniga why he was special.

• Zuniga explained that the Mind Resting Place would remain active until someone lied, and Angel chose not to test it because he trusted his own judgment.
• Rumor Kid served Niaman Flower Tea, and Angel discovered its energy boost briefly strengthened his body as well.
• Angel introduced himself as a wizard from Savage Cave and Demon Illusion Island who had come to Modern City to complete a quest related to the three major competitions and possibly the Fashion Summit.
• Angel warned Zuniga that more Outsiders from Beyond the Heavens would arrive for the same quest, though many would be ordinary people and Modern City’s wizards could handle them.
• After Zuniga questioned Angel’s unusual power, Angel asked why Zuniga himself was special.

Zuniga recounted how he had been king of the Mountain Kingdom, whose capital vanished into the Dark Corner, and how he entered the Dark Corner searching for his people but emerged far away in Mistforest City. He had spent decades traveling and waiting in Modern City for another chance to find the Throne, and Angel received a sudden burst of Wonderland information as Zuniga finished.

• Zuniga introduced himself as a former king and described the Mountain Kingdom, while Angel noticed that Zuniga had forgotten the names of the neighboring countries.
• Zuniga explained that Mount Diomo and its three hundred thousand residents had vanished, and that he had searched for them after concluding the Dark Corner had swallowed the city.
• Zuniga followed the aura of his clan’s Throne through an anomalous apartment door and became trapped in the Dark Corner.
• Zuniga wandered through strange corridors and spaces until he found the Throne’s aura beneath a swimming pool and followed it through a door that returned him to the outside world.
• Zuniga emerged in Mistforest City, traveled across the continent seeking the Dark Corner, and eventually settled in Modern City for more than a decade.
• After Zuniga finished his story, Angel sensed Wonderland information suddenly strike him.

Angel received the side quest “Bloodstained Throne,” which concerned finding Diomo City and surviving Mountain Folk. He told Zuniga that Mountain Folk had likely escaped the Dark Corner and were somewhere in Modern City, leaving Zuniga eager to find them.

• Angel noticed that the quest’s objective to find surviving Mountain Folk was partially available, suggesting some Mountain Folk were outside the Dark Corner.
• Angel explained side quests and the Great Will to Zuniga, then revealed that “Bloodstained Throne” asked him to find Diomo City.
• Zuniga worried that Angel might be punished for ignoring the side quest, but Angel clarified that only failing the main quest brought punishment.
• Angel explained that the Great Will verified quests and provided clues, then told Zuniga that some Mountain Folk had left the Dark Corner.
• Zuniga asked how many Mountain Folk had escaped and where they were, and Angel said the clue suggested they were in Modern City.

Angel learned that Zuniga planned to find the Mountain Folk by using Pattern Lady to monitor graffiti across Modern City, and agreed to share information if he found them. Zuniga revealed how Style Eye identified Outsiders from Beyond the Heavens, then learned Angel could accept and rapidly complete other magicians’ challenge quests.

• Zuniga decided to search for the Mountain Folk by painting their emblem and coded hints across Modern City, using Pattern Lady to watch for their reactions.
• Angel asked Zuniga to share what he learned about the Mountain Folk, and Zuniga agreed; Angel then questioned him about his abilities and how he recognized Outsiders from Beyond the Heavens.
• Zuniga explained that Style Eye’s Meticulous Observation let him read a person’s aura and detect traces of recently used abilities, including Fashion Cutter and Variety Elf.
• Angel admitted he had obtained Variety Elf from Zuniga and explained that Challengers could gain a magician’s quest by touching them, then complete it to claim the Fashion Demonic Beast.
• Angel told Zuniga how he used illusions and a citywide projection to complete The New King of Variety Shows and another quest quickly, leaving Zuniga astonished by his methods.

Angel explained why he was taking other magicians’ challenge tasks, while Zuniga revealed why he avoided them and hated Fashion Demonic Beasts. Zuniga recounted seeing a Dream Crystal Beast born in Dark Corner and discovering that a beast could possess a human, leaving him fearing that his lost people might have suffered the same fate.

• Angel told Zuniga that he had completed a task in Tina Tower by persuading a deputy minister to help him find fifteen sets of remains, and said he would keep taking opportunities to challenge Fashion Demonic Beasts.
• Angel and Zuniga discussed how Challengers piggybacking on tasks could provoke conflict with magicians, and Zuniga predicted that their arrival would change Modern City’s rules.
• Zuniga explained that his Fashion Magic Book was full, with forty pages thanks to a capacity-expanding prologue, and that he disliked challenge tasks because he hated Fashion Demonic Beasts.
• Zuniga told Angel that he had seen a Dream Crystal Beast form from a model skeleton in Dark Corner, convincing him that the stronghold produced Fashion Demonic Beasts.
• Zuniga recalled killing a human-like figure in Dark Corner that transformed into a Demonic Beast after death, and feared that the beasts might have possessed his three hundred thousand people.

Zuniga explained how Dark Corner left him unusually vulnerable to Fashion Demonic Beast attacks and recounted discovering that Ululu had been only partially possessed by one. He revealed that the beast was trying to replace Ululu’s consciousness, leaving Angel with a crucial lead for his mission.

• Zuniga told Angel that Fashion Demonic Beasts had trapped him in challenge missions for most of each day after he left Dark Corner, until he learned to block low-level attacks.
• Zuniga admitted he did not know why Dark Corner had caused his condition and offered to share more of his experiences later.
• Angel explained that his mission to find Ululu was tied to the main quest, and Zuniga recalled meeting her on a rooftop years earlier.
• Zuniga said Ululu had been suicidal and that he discovered a Fashion Demonic Beast inside her body.
• Zuniga explained that the beast had only partially possessed Ululu, creating two personalities as it tried to take control and replace her consciousness.
• Zuniga said Ululu’s distorted perception of time showed that the possession was nearly complete when she met him.

Angel uncovered the final detail of Ululu’s secret, completed the task, and obtained the Location Rumor needed to plan the ritual for finding the Lightless Room. He and Gleipnir discussed the eighteen possible coordinates and began arranging transport for the ritual’s lighting fixture.

• Zuniga recalled that he had purged the Fashion Demonic Beast from Ululu by telling her stories on a rooftop over the course of a week.
• Angel realized the missing detail in Ululu’s secret was the creature’s identity, and Zuniga named it as a Time Radio, completing the task.
• Angel received a Time Radio fragment and the Location Rumor, which listed eighteen possible ritual locations in Modern City.
• Gleipnir told Angel that she had rented a heavy gas-discharge lamp from Kuai'er Theater, but she did not know where to transport it.
• Angel offered to move the lighting fixture with Magic Hand and concealed it with an illusion, then turned to choosing the ritual coordinates.

Angel chose the Cross Cellar in Eighth Town as the ritual coordinate, with an abandoned laboratory nearby as a backup, and prepared for Gleipnir to bring Star Worm there. He also examined Eighth Town for other reasons to visit, then learned that his magic book was near its page limit and that he should prepare to advance.

• Angel ruled out inaccessible ritual sites and chose the Cross Cellar in Eighth Town because a second coordinate, an abandoned laboratory, could serve as a backup.
• Gleipnir agreed to return to North Ninth District to bring Star Worm before transferring to West Eighth District, while Angel concealed her and gave her control of a Magic Hand.
• Angel inspected the cellar and its Undercurrent Hounds, then considered Kang Mu's luck and the former Noble Knight's villa near Clear Water Canal among his reasons for choosing Eighth Town.
• Star Worm awakened at Prada Media Company and told Kaushike that his task had failed, while Kaushike grew suspicious; Angel watched until he was confident Star Worm was safe.
• Angel claimed the Fashion Demonic Beast puzzle piece and tested his magic book's capacity, learning from Zuniga that it likely had room for only one or two more pages and that he should prepare for advancement.

Zuniga explained how Angel should prepare for a promotion task, emphasizing energy reserves, complete puzzles, and a sensible magic-book layout. Angel examined his new Time Radio puzzle, whose preview ability revealed interesting stories about people, and Zuniga began explaining his complicated connection to the Demonic Beast.

• Zuniga explained that promotion tasks required substantial energy, complete puzzles, and a focused allocation of magic-book pages, and that failure could leave a mage unable to try again.
• Zuniga advised Angel to prepare before his pages reached their limit, and Angel considered how his energy recovery and puzzle fragments could help him advance.
• Angel examined the newly opened Time Radio page and found that its puzzle was one of two pieces, with Person with a Story as its preview ability.
• Angel learned that Person with a Story could reveal a humanoid creature's story if it interested the Time Radio.
• Zuniga identified the Time Radio as an unusually powerful intermediate Demonic Beast connected to time, explained that Echoes of the Past was a hidden ability, and said the creature followed people with stories like Zuniga.

Zuniga told Angel how his Time Radio shattered after he used “Echoes of the Past” to investigate Diomo City’s disappearance, and asked Angel to question his own Time Radio if it ever gained intelligence. He explained the uses and unusual scope of “Person with a Story,” leaving Angel with a new understanding of the ability’s potential.

• Zuniga recounted how he used “Echoes of the Past” at the ruins of Diomo City, heard a strange roar from the Throne, and watched his Time Radio turn to dust.
• Zuniga asked Angel to seek answers from his Time Radio if it unlocked a special ability, and Angel agreed.
• Zuniga explained that “Person with a Story” revealed experiences that interested the Time Radio, though it could not be used on the same target again for a long interval.
• Zuniga told Angel that any living creature reshaped into humanoid form could potentially become a target, and speculated that the ability might even uncover a god’s gossip.
• Zuniga cautioned that the Time Radio likely had an upper limit, as his own had cracked when he used “Echoes of the Past” on the Throne.

Angel and Zuniga discussed how Angel’s illusion might affect the ability “Person with a Story,” then built trust and agreed to cooperate over Zuniga’s challenge quests. They left the rooftop with a plan to help Challengers obtain puzzle fragments, while Zuniga turned his attention to the mountain people suspected of coming from Dark Corner.

• Angel asked whether “Person with a Story” could be triggered by subjective belief, and demonstrated the idea by making Zuniga see a teapot as a dancer through an illusion.
• Zuniga explained that the Mind Resting Place was collapsing as its time ran out, and Angel used truthful statements followed by deliberate lies to hasten its destruction.
• Back on the rooftop, Zuniga proposed exchanging information about Dark Corner and arranging for his challenge quests to fail, while Angel explained his limits on completing them.
• Zuniga suggested that special-form Fashion Demonic Beasts could help Challengers complete quests in reality, increasing their chances of success.
• Angel and Zuniga agreed to cooperate, discussed how to contact each other and identify Zuniga’s special-form Demonic Beasts, and Zuniga left thinking about the mountain people suspected of having come from Dark Corner.

Zuniga used a Pattern Lady avatar to watch a graffiti wall in Fourteenth Town for citizens of Mountain Kingdom, while Angel contacted him through Dan and shared a mission clue about finding Dark Corner. Zuniga agreed to investigate the missing Noble Knight’s former home near Clear Water Canal, leaving the two aligned on their search.

• Zuniga painted graffiti bearing Mountain Kingdom’s emblem at a busy Fourteenth Town intersection and left a Pattern Lady avatar there to monitor passersby.
• Dan contacted Zuniga to report that a girl had copied the graffiti studio’s contact information, then relayed Angel’s request to connect.
• Angel used the contact card to reach Zuniga and explained that the mission The Missing Knight pointed toward the former Noble Knight as a way to find Dark Corner.
• Angel told Zuniga he planned to search the missing knight’s villa near Clear Water Canal after completing the main quest, and Zuniga immediately offered to go too.
• Angel gave Zuniga the villa’s address, and they ended the call after agreeing to share any clues they found.

Angel met Gleipnir in Eighth Town, where they discussed the Dark Round Table, the Fashion Magic ranking system, and the mysteries surrounding Modern City and Dark Corner. Angel asked why Star Worm had not come with Gleipnir, and she explained that Kaushike had refused to let him go.

• Angel spotted Gleipnir entering the Underground District alone while Star Worm followed Kaushike near Prada Media Company.
• Angel met Gleipnir at the cliff entrance to Eighth Town, and they passed the gate after local punks recognized him.
• Angel explained what he knew about the Wandering House, the Dark Round Table's Seven Knights, and the ranks and abilities of Fashion Magicians.
• Angel and Gleipnir discussed Modern City's missing world information and the unusual Instance nested within it, Dark Corner.
• Angel asked why Gleipnir had come without Star Worm, and she said Kaushike had been unwilling to let him go.

Gleipnir explained why Star Worm had stayed with Kaushike, while Angel continued monitoring them. Angel and Gleipnir traveled through Late Ming Street to Ruins Paradise, where they identified the Ruins Battlefield as the ritual site.

• Gleipnir told Angel that Kaushike refused to believe Star Worm had failed to obtain the Time Radio and would not let him leave.
• Gleipnir said Star Worm had chosen to follow Kaushike to investigate a guess and continue pursuing his side mission, “Time Is a Circle.”
• Angel watched Star Worm and Kaushike moving through a low-rent neighborhood in the North Ninth District, then shifted his attention away.
• Angel explained that a mutant flower-shop clerk in the Late Ming Street tunnel was a powerful Creativity-series magician whose magic created a tranquil atmosphere.
• Angel and Gleipnir entered Ruins Paradise under cover of illusion and examined a map of its attractions.
• Angel identified the Ruins Battlefield as the location they needed to reach for the ritual.

Angel and Gleipnir entered the dark cellar in Ruins Battlefield to prepare a Lightless Expanse for the ritual, with Angel projecting the cellar into Gleipnir’s mind so she could navigate without light. They encountered several Undercurrent Hounds, and Gleipnir and Angel knocked them unconscious without spilling blood.

• Angel explained that the Ruins Battlefield had lost visitors to the Wandering House’s high-tech Simulated Arena, though the dogfighting ring and underground attractions remained popular.
• Angel and Gleipnir avoided a couple role-playing on the ruins and headed to the buried cellar, where Undercurrent Hounds had been drawn by the scents of dogfights.
• Angel cleared the rubble, opened the cellar, and projected its surroundings into Gleipnir’s mind so they could keep the site dark before the ritual.
• Gleipnir covered her eyes and adapted to navigating through Angel’s live illusion projection, then entered the deeper cellar with him.
• An Undercurrent Hound lunged at Gleipnir, and she struck its head, knocking it out without drawing blood.
• Four more Undercurrent Hounds attacked, but Angel spread an invisible wave of air that froze them and left them unconscious.

Angel and Gleipnir prepared the cellar for their ritual, with Gleipnir researching Maladaku and drawing a culturally appropriate formation. Meanwhile, Kaushike led Star Worm to a rented room where he said they could find answers about the Time Radio inheritance.

• Angel put the five Undercurrent Hounds to sleep and moved them into their nest, preserving them as the cellar’s traces of life.
• Angel discovered that the pool beneath the cellar connected to waters inhabited by Undercurrent Hounds and dangerous bull-like beasts, then sealed the area with Nightmare Illusion Nodes.
• Angel cleaned the ritual room and gathered the lamps and edible offerings while Gleipnir explained her research into Maladaku’s customs and began drawing a ritual formation.
• Angel watched through his god’s-eye view as Kaushike led Star Worm to room 3-12 in an apartment building.
• Kaushike told Star Worm that the room held both the answer he sought about the Time Radio inheritance and whatever plans Star Worm had, then opened the door.

Angel discovered a second sealed Time Radio puzzle piece in Kaushike’s rental apartment, and Kaushike tested Star Worm but found no puzzle piece on him. Kaushike suspected Angel or Gleipnir had taken over Star Worm’s challenge, and the chapter ended with Kaushike refusing to reveal the former owner’s Time Radio abilities.

• Angel examined the photo wall in Kaushike’s apartment and found a prison-cell picture matching the one in Kaushike’s company dormitory.
• Kaushike told Star Worm that the picture concealed Time Radio’s second puzzle piece, then used it to test whether Star Worm carried the first piece.
• Kaushike detected no Time Radio aura on Star Worm, though he believed Star Worm had completed a Time Radio challenge and that the missing piece remained connected to him.
• Kaushike speculated that a Fashion Mage might have taken over Star Worm’s challenge through an incarnation hidden inside him, and he suspected Angel or Gleipnir had deliberately touched Star Worm.
• Kaushike explained that the puzzle pieces belonged to his deceased friend and that replacing the missing piece would change her inherited abilities, but he withheld details about those abilities.

Angel asked Zuniga about inheriting a Fashion Demonic Beast’s puzzle and learned that the rare forbidden art could preserve a beast’s memories and special form. Tempted by the chance that Kaushike’s Time Radio fragment could unlock such a form, Angel decided to question Kaushike later and went to prepare for the approaching ritual.

• Angel used Dan’s contact card to reach Zuniga and asked whether a Fashion Demonic Beast’s puzzle could be inherited.
• Zuniga explained that inheritance was a lethal forbidden art with strict conditions, and that an inherited beast could retain its special form, memories, and abilities.
• Angel speculated that Kaushike wanted the original Time Radio puzzle pieces to recover the former mage’s memories, and Zuniga advised him to pursue the possibility of a special form.
• Angel considered using Kaushike’s fragment despite the risk that the Time Radio might retain loyalty to its former mage, but decided to ask Kaushike about it later.
• Angel watched Kaushike arrange a guidance ritual to locate the other Time Radio piece, knowing it would fail because the piece was concealed within Angel’s spellbook.
• Angel saw that it was two in the morning and headed to the neighboring compartment as the ritual’s opening approached.

Gleipnir and Angel performed the Six-Pointed Eye ritual to locate the Lightless Expanse and the sealed Carnival Night Clown. The ritual succeeded, leaving a strange clown-colored door before them that Gleipnir identified as the entrance to the Lightless Expanse.

• Gleipnir finished arranging the ritual props and agreed to enter any challenge mission while Angel handled matters from outside.
• At two twenty in the morning, Angel lit the lamp while Gleipnir recited the Poem of Praise to Maradaku.
• Angel activated the Prada Beauty Pageant recording and played the Modern Fashion Show's sound, intensifying the spatial ripples.
• The wax, fabric, and paints formed a door covered in shifting colors that evoked a clown and stabilized the overlapping space.
• Gleipnir and Angel declared the ritual complete, and Gleipnir said the strange door led into the Lightless Expanse.