Chapter Summaries

Srita explained the Golden Country’s market rules, Golden Phantom challenges, and the dangerous side effects of its artifacts to Angel and the others. Angel calmed Srita’s fear but suspected it had altered his personality, and the group ended by preparing to hold a new Stone Table Meeting.

• Srita recounted how teams explored the oasis ruin and learned that the Golden Market was a non-combat preparation area where each person could choose one golden artifact.
• Srita explained that teams faced an equal number of powerful Golden Phantoms on the second floor and could return to the market after a teammate was eliminated, but the Phantoms did not lose members between attempts.
• Srita described how his buckler caused Golden Fear, leaving him fearful and possibly changing his personality even after he left the Golden Country.
• Angel used Nightmare Illusion to calm Srita, while Yifuda reassured him that other methods might help address the lingering effect.
• Srita explained that artifacts had mental or physical side effects and that repeated challenges compounded those effects without weakening the Golden Phantoms.
• After Yifuda took Srita away, Angel proposed convening a new Stone Table Meeting.

The Rabbit Hole Team debated which stage to challenge next and weighed the Golden Country’s mechanics against the alternatives. They settled on the Golden Country, but Angel warned that its lack of an entry limit might make choosing how many participants to send another strategic decision.

• Gray Porcelain chose the Golden Country, Gabriel favored Angel on Earth, and Rabbit Girl wanted a combat-focused stage.
• Angel and Montedan explained why the team could rule out the ghost stage, the long combat stage, and the puzzle-focused art stage for now.
• Montedan argued that the Golden Country’s complex rules might conceal a weakness the team could overcome with its strengths.
• Angel revealed that taking gold artifacts strengthened the Golden Phantoms, and the team considered entering without artifacts because their side effects could hinder them.
• The group chose the Golden Country, and Angel asked how many should enter; Gray Porcelain refused, while Gabriel volunteered.

Angel and the others debated who should enter Golden Country, weighing the danger of facing stronger Golden Phantoms in larger groups against Rabbit Girl’s wish to go alone. They agreed to decide after checking the next day’s rankings, leaving Rabbit Girl’s solo attempt conditional on Rabbit Hole keeping its lead.

• Angel and Laplace agreed that fewer participants might make Golden Country easier, while Rabbit Girl insisted she wanted to challenge it alone and Gabriel asked to join.
• Montedan theorized that Golden Country’s third floor would share the strategic mechanics of the first two floors, making Rabbit Girl’s solo approach potentially viable.
• Laplace told Angel that Rabbit Girl’s wish to go alone came from a sense of responsibility and a desire to prove her worth as a combatant.
• Angel and Laplace agreed to let Rabbit Girl try alone if Rabbit Hole still led the rankings the next day, but to enter with her if another team gained ground; Gabriel might join if it could survive.
• Angel and Laplace presented the plan to the group as a strategic decision, and the others accepted it pending the next day’s results.

Angel found Turing in the Player Camp and gave it footage of Rabbit Hole Team’s Nereid clear to turn into a variety show. He then sought a team entering Golden Country so he could test whether Nightmare Illusion Nodes could track challengers, and followed the Amber Shadow Clan’s North One team.

• Angel found Turing interviewing Woodleaf Clan youths and gave it the full footage of Rabbit Hole Team’s Nereid run to edit into a program.
• Angel promised Turing he would try to obtain footage of Rabbit Hole’s future challenges and envisioned a multi-season series across Dream Crystal Plain.
• Angel planned to use Nightmare Illusion Nodes to track or record challengers inside stages through his God's-eye view.
• Angel overheard Amber Shadow Clan members report that West Two Team had failed in Golden Country after Xi Laiguo’s fear effect got him killed.
• The Amber Shadow Clan members sent North One Team to try Golden Country next, passing along shared items and instructing them to choose wind-pattern rings.
• Angel followed North One Team so he could test his tracking method and learn more about Golden Country.

Angel learned that North One Squad had failed to enter the real Golden Country and recorded their attempt to study their tactics. After the rankings confirmed Rabbit Hole's lead, he showed the recording to the others, leaving Rabbit Girl's challenge postponed while they examined the Amber Shadow Clan's strategy.

• Angel learned North One Squad's speed-based tactics and secretly attached Nightmare Illusion Nodes to its members before they entered the Golden Country.
• Angel found the squad asleep in bubbles in the void and discovered that Ms. Gosha was also asleep there while the Golden Country's observer watched her.
• North One Squad returned to Player Camp after another failed attempt, and Angel retrieved the Nightmare Illusion aura he had placed on them.
• At midnight, the rankings appeared and showed Rabbit Hole in first place with 130 points, ahead of Lord of Myriad Games and the Divine Dragon Team.
• Angel brought Gray Porcelain and Gabriel to Text Manor, stopped Rabbit Girl from immediately challenging the Golden Country, and showed the group his recording of North One Squad's attempt.

The Amber Shadow Clan’s attempts revealed the Golden Phantoms’ forms, arena tactics, and berserk behavior, while Rabbit Girl trained against simulated opponents and prepared to challenge them alone. She entered the stage by herself as the contestant camp watched in stunned silence.

• Angel’s illusion showed North One Squad testing golden artifacts, failing to find one suited to their talents, and withdrawing after Bei Jiji was killed by a Golden Phantom.
• The group learned that Golden Phantoms had different abilities by form, could berserk at roughly half health, and could be countered with spacing and coordinated attacks.
• Angel simulated Golden Phantoms for Rabbit Girl, who handled even berserk opponents without injury using only her combat technique.
• Rabbit Girl declined to rest and set out with Angel and the others to challenge the Golden Phantoms alone.
• As the contestant camp watched, Rabbit Girl vanished from where she stood and entered the stage.

Rabbit Girl entered the Golden Country stage alone while Angel and the others waited in camp. Angel told Babaregon about Montedan, the Nereid observer, and Babaregon went to question him about the scoring before Angel logged off.

• Rabbit Town residents worried about Rabbit Girl but praised her as she entered the Sixfold Platter alone.
• Laplace left for the Tooth Fairy station, while Gray Porcelain, Gabriel, and Montedan stayed in camp and Angel met Babaregon.
• Angel confirmed the Rabbit Hole Team's Nereid run recording would be released soon, and Babaregon said he believed Rabbit Girl could clear Golden Country.
• Babaregon asked who Montedan was, and Angel explained that Montedan was the Nereid stage observer with his own will, not a reward.
• Babaregon asked to question Montedan about the observer score, promised to share Divine Dragon Team's Echo Library intelligence, and went to speak with him.
• Angel watched to ensure Babaregon did not attack Montedan, then logged off.

Angel watched a replay of the pursuit of Mud Duke and his companions after the Bloodletting Sect targeted Mud Duke as a unique race. Kaia used a precious bead to hide Mud Duke from the Blood God, while Wine Cup, Na, and Milk Dragon took a separate route toward Bloodsucker Town and were caught in a violent clash near Morandi Town’s new district.

• Angel woke in the Heart Space, learned that Wine Cup’s livestream had frozen, and began watching its replay with Water Clone.
• Kaia warned that the Blood God’s mark would draw powerful pursuers, then split the group and used a silver bead to conceal himself and Mud Duke.
• Wine Cup, Na, and Milk Dragon decided to double back and travel through Morandi Town’s new district, where they hoped the Bloodletting Sect would avoid attracting attention.
• The Bloodletting Sect sent numerous ritual nobles after Mud Duke, and Morandi Town’s ritual nobles fought them in the sky.
• As Wine Cup and the others neared the new district, a blue attack struck a Bloodletting Sect pursuer, and the resulting explosion’s shockwave hit them.

A violent attack scattered Wine Cup, Milk Dragon, and Na, leaving Wine Cup injured and trapped near the Bloodletting Sect. After escaping through a sewer with a boy, Wine Cup passed out, and Angel learned that the group was missing or incapacitated but still alive.

• An invisible force hurled Milk Dragon, Na, and Wine Cup apart, and Wine Cup landed injured inside a ruined building.
• A boy warned Wine Cup that the Bloodletting Sect and its Flesh Mother were attacking nearby, and her attempt to search outside alerted the sect's followers.
• Wine Cup carried the boy through the building and escaped into a sewer, where she lost consciousness from the stench.
• A homeless man rescued Wine Cup and the boy from the sewer, and the boy cared for Wine Cup while she remained unconscious.
• Water Clone told Angel that Mud Duke and Kaia were missing, Milk Dragon and Na might have been captured, and Wine Cup had not awakened; none of the four had been expelled from the Instance.

Angel, Luigi, and Water Clone watched Wine Cup's livestream as a homeless man carried her from the sewers toward an underground black market. The chapter left them watching a merchant examine the unconscious Wine Cup, apparently preparing to sell her.

• Luigi and Angel discussed the missing team and Luigi asked Angel to describe his experiences in Sandbox Wonderland.
• A homeless man entered Wine Cup's sewer hideout, wrapped her in a blanket, and carried her away while she remained unconscious.
• The little boy tried to stop the homeless man, who kicked him into a wall and left him behind; a woman in a white coat soon came to help him.
• The homeless man carried Wine Cup through Morandi Town's Borderlands to a concealed underground black market.
• A merchant examined Wine Cup and consulted an illustrated guide to identify her race, revealing that the homeless man intended to sell her.

Rono sold the unconscious Wine Cup to a trafficker for five Soul Coins, while Angel and the others watched the livestream and hoped she might wake. The trafficker then performed an inquiry ritual that identified her as rare and warned of misfortune before answering with the word “Wait.”

• Rono accepted five Soul Coins for Wine Cup after the trafficker threatened him with violence and exploited his fear of the Red Moon.
• After Rono left, the trafficker ordered his men to pursue him and discussed reselling Wine Cup for a huge profit.
• Angel asked whether Wine Cup could wake without alcohol, and Water Clone explained that intense stimulation might briefly rouse her.
• The trafficker searched more rare-race compendiums, then performed a ritual using candles, a velvet cloth, and a crystal ball.
• The crystal ball answered “Rare,” then “Misfortune,” and finally “Wait,” leaving Angel and the others unsure what the last reply meant.

The human trafficker moved the unconscious Wine Cup into a slave prison, where customers inspected her but avoided buying her after hearing she carried unknown risks. The God-Worshipping Sect High Priest arrived and examined the slaves, leaving the chapter with the trafficker warning him about the risks surrounding Wine Cup.

• The human trafficker interpreted the crystal ball’s answers as a warning about Wine Cup and a command to wait, but chose to keep her for profit.
• The trafficker ordered his subordinate to take Wine Cup to the cage room, where a ritual imprisoned dozens of slaves for customers to select.
• A succession of customers showed interest in Wine Cup, but they declined to buy her after the trafficker warned them of possible risks.
• Angel and the others recognized a new customer as the God-Worshipping Sect High Priest, who had sacrificed Coleman’s group to the Chocolate Factory.
• The trafficker introduced rare slaves to the High Priest, then described Wine Cup’s unusual rarity and warned him about the unseen risks around her.

The God-Worshipping Sect's chief priest bought Wine Cup, whose misfortune had brought her into his path and made her a candidate for sacrifice. Angel and the others watched her disappear into the chief priest's pocket watch, realizing she had reached the opportunity she needed to enter the Chocolate Factory.

• Angel reasoned that the world's malice had drawn the chief priest to Wine Cup because sacrifice by the God-Worshipping Sect was the worst fate for the people of the Instrument World.
• The chief priest rejected the trafficker's other slaves, warned him to keep quiet, and agreed to take Wine Cup for two hundred and fifty Soul Coins.
• The chief priest opened a silver pocket watch and used its spatial ritual to shrink Wine Cup and draw her inside.
• The chief priest left, and the shaken trafficker knelt before a crystal ball to offer his loyalty to the Cat Lord.
• Angel, Luigi, and Water Clone saw Wine Cup's livestream go dark and realized that her abduction had delivered her to the sacrifice opportunity she needed.

Milk Dragon and Na woke up chained inside a dark ritual chamber, where Na was gravely wounded from the earlier gas blast. A Grayman Ritual Guardian Spirit revealed that they were being held for a future sacrifice and began a hemostasis ritual on Na, leaving their captors’ identity uncertain.

• Milk Dragon woke bound in midair and discovered that Na was chained nearby and too weak to explain their surroundings.
• Na told Milk Dragon that she had shielded it from the gas blast and was bleeding heavily, then suggested they trigger the alert mechanism and die rather than continue the mission.
• A Grayman Ritual Guardian Spirit illuminated the chamber, introduced himself, and told them that their deaths were already ordained by his master but would not happen yet.
• The Ritual Guardian Spirit assembled a hemostasis ritual and warned Na not to move or he would put her back to sleep until the sacrifice.
• Na inferred from the planned sacrificial ritual that their captors were likely members of the Bloodletting Sect or the God-Worshipping Sect.

Na and Milk Dragon were held for sacrifice by the Bloodletting Sect, and Na persuaded the Ritual Guardian Spirit to reveal what he knew before they died. The chapter left them with the revelation that the God-Worshipping Sect’s chief priest likely hid in Bloodsucker Town.

• Na asked the Ritual Guardian Spirit to let them die knowing the truth, and he agreed to answer two questions.
• Na learned that the Ritual Guardian Spirit belonged to the Bloodletting Sect and that his master ignored connections, even sacrificing a former companion to the Blood God.
• Na and Milk Dragon chose to use their questions to uncover intelligence that could help future visitors to the Window Dungeon.
• Na described the red-robed old man from the Cloud Whale Bus and asked who he was and where he hid.
• The Ritual Guardian Spirit identified the man as a chief priest of the God-Worshipping Sect and said the sect’s stronghold was most likely in Bloodsucker Town.

Na and Milk Dragon learned that Mud Duke had gone to Bloodsucker Town and that a Cat Lord follower in the Underground Black Street might know how to find the God-Worshipping Sect's chief priest. As they prepared to trigger their return to the Dream Crystal Plain, an assault on the Blood-Bound Dungeon began, and rescuers found them unconscious.

• The Ritual Guardian Spirit told Na that Mud Duke's group had gone to Bloodsucker Town, then pressed Milk Dragon to ask a question.
• Milk Dragon asked whether the mysterious person who had taken their soul coins was dead, and the Ritual Guardian Spirit guessed it really wanted to know whether he belonged to the Bloodletting Sect.
• The Ritual Guardian Spirit said the mysterious person was likely a Cat Lord follower from the Underground Black Street, whose Cat Lord could provide clues about the God-Worshipping Sect's chief priest.
• Na and Milk Dragon decided to return to the Dream Crystal Plain with the information, but the Blood-Bound Dungeon shook as attackers broke through its entrance.
• Na fainted from the shockwaves, and Milk Dragon lost consciousness as rescuers entered and ordered them taken to the Silent Priest for treatment.

Na and Milk Dragon were rescued from the Blood-Bound Dungeon and taken to an abandoned hospital, where the Silent Priest revealed that she planned to use them as sacrificial offerings. When she described her group’s promise of “flawless sleep,” they suspected a connection to a cult they knew and let themselves fall unconscious, leaving their fate uncertain.

• Na and Milk Dragon awoke in pain as Dufield Family employees carried them through Morandi Old City and warned them to behave around the Silent Priest.
• The employees brought Na and Milk Dragon to an abandoned hospital, where the Silent Priest ordered them taken to Room 101 for treatment.
• The Silent Priest dismissed the medical staff, locked the door, and revealed that she had recognized Na and Milk Dragon as rare beings she could use as sacrifices.
• The Silent Priest used an anesthetic ritual to weaken Na and Milk Dragon and said her group offered clean, peaceful, painless sleep.
• Na and Milk Dragon suspected the Silent Priest’s words connected her to a cult and chose to embrace the sleepiness as their consciousness faded.

Angel watched Sigmund and Zaina flee through rapidly shifting environments in Dark Corner before the footage ended on an endless marble platform. As the Wine Cup livestream signal finally returned, Angel and the others prepared to see what had happened there.

• Angel returned to the livestream area and learned that Sigmund had sent a continuous three-minute signal, while Wine Cup's room remained black.
• The footage showed Sigmund dragging Zaina through a shaking cave, a hospital corridor filled with armed nurse dolls, and a high-rise above dark water pursued by rotten corpses.
• Sigmund and Zaina arrived on an endless marble platform where their pursuers vanished, and the footage cut off.
• Angel and Luigi discussed making character entrance music for a future variety show, and Luigi began composing themes.
• The Water Clone announced that the main body had received a new signal from Wine Cup, and Wine Cup's livestream room began to brighten.

The God-Worshipping Sect chief priest learned that Wine Cup was a stowaway and might be a locator for an organization outside the Instrument World, explaining why he felt watched. He weighed what to do with her, while Angel and the others realized his intuition might have sensed their livestream; the chapter ended with the mysterious woman ranking the possible choices, including sacrificing Wine Cup to the Secret Grounds.

• The mysterious woman traced Wine Cup’s misfortune to her recent arrival as a stowaway and suffered backlash after sensing the aggregate of world will.
• The chief priest told the mysterious woman that Wine Cup made him feel watched, and she suggested that Wine Cup was a locator sent to identify the Instrument World.
• Angel, Luigi, and Water Clone concluded that the chief priest might have sensed the livestream, but decided that continuing to watch was safer than making him suspect Wine Cup was a surveillance device.
• The mysterious woman presented three options for Wine Cup: release her, kill her, or sacrifice her, and judged sacrificing her to Chaos God a poor choice.
• The mysterious woman said sacrificing Wine Cup to the Secret Grounds could be an upper-middle option because her rare race and ice-element abilities suited its employee requirements.

The God-Worshipping Sect's high priest decided to sacrifice Wine Cup to the Secret Grounds and asked the mysterious woman to conceal the ritual's aura. In the Heart Space, Angel and the others speculated that the world's will was guiding the unconscious stowaways toward the sect, while the high priest revealed that the Creator's descendants might have intervened in a recent ambush.

• The mysterious woman argued that sacrificing Wine Cup to the Secret Grounds was a good option, and the high priest chose that plan.
• The high priest asked the mysterious woman to use an Uncontrived Spirit-Calming Ritual to conceal a small sacrifice, offering to help her earn a promotion in return.
• In the Heart Space, Luigi suspected the mysterious woman belonged to the God-Slaying Bureau, while Angel theorized that the world's will was pushing the stowaways toward the God-Worshipping Sect.
• The mysterious woman questioned why the high priest wanted to hide the ritual, and he explained that his people had been ambushed after a sacrifice near Whale-Mooring Station.
• The high priest revealed that the attackers were Late-Sleep Town's Guardian Family, who acted only when directed by the Creator or the Creator's descendants.
• The high priest said he could not confirm whether the Creator's descendants had arrived, but the sect would conceal its rituals to avoid drawing their attention.