Chapter Summaries

The mysterious woman examined Wine Cup, discovered her soul was intact, and learned something about her condition before helping prepare the Uncontrived Spirit-Calming Ritual. The chief priest brought back Kaia and Mud Duke, and while Kaia was spared, the others in Heart Space realized Mud Duke had been drawn into danger by the same force Angel had predicted.

• The mysterious woman demanded extra offerings for the Uncontrived Spirit-Calming Ritual, examined Wine Cup, and found her soul whole before noticing a wine-bottle-like outline inside her crystal ball.
• The chief priest returned with two unconscious intruders, explained that they were investigators caught near the corridor, and proposed sacrificing them alongside Wine Cup.
• The mysterious woman recognized Kaia as Lei Dong's secret student and persuaded the chief priest to hand him over rather than sacrifice him.
• The mysterious woman noticed something unusual about Mud Duke, prompting the chief priest to examine him more closely.
• In Heart Space, Luigi and Water Clone recognized the captives as Kaia and Mud Duke, and Water Clone agreed that Angel's theory about Predestined Fate drawing people toward danger was likely correct.
• Luigi reflected on the revelations about the God-Slaying Bureau, the God-Worshipping Sect, and leech offerings, then wondered whether Na and Milk Dragon were also heading toward the center of the stage.

The chief priest and the mysterious woman discovered that the clay figure carried a flickering Bloodspawn Mark, making it a rare sacrifice coveted by both their factions. They agreed to send it to the Secret Grounds and dispose of its body, while the chief priest learned that Cuphead needed alcohol in her cup head to wake.

• The mysterious woman identified the mist on the clay figure as a high-grade Uncontrived Spirit-Calming Ritual, likely made with Lei Dong's supposedly lost Radiant Glazed Glass item for Kaia.
• The mysterious woman revealed the clay figure's flickering Bloodspawn Mark, and the chief priest realized it was a rare sacrifice watched by the Blood God.
• The mysterious woman asked the chief priest to send the clay figure to the Secret Grounds so Kaia would believe his friend had been chosen, and the chief priest agreed.
• The chief priest said he would dispose of the clay figure's body by building a real Blood Prison and raising it for the leeches.
• The mysterious woman confirmed that Cuphead was unconscious because her cup head lacked alcohol, then left with Kaia while the chief priest completed the ritual preparations.
• The chief priest opened a paper crane's message, saw an image of a snake-coiled scepter, and wondered if it was connected to the Silent Priest.

The High Priest sacrificed Wine Cup, Na, Milk Dragon, and Mud Duke, sending their souls into the Secret Grounds while their bodies remained behind. He and the Silent Priest decided to keep the bodies and use them as the first prisoners in a Blood Prison.

• The Silent Priest brought the unconscious Na and Milk Dragon to the High Priest, who agreed to sacrifice them and credit her for the offerings.
• Angel, Luigi, and the Water Clone recognized Na and Milk Dragon and noted that they had reunited with Wine Cup and Mud Duke while unconscious.
• The High Priest chose not to seek more offerings and performed the ritual, sending the four souls into the Secret Grounds.
• Uniformed strangers carried the four bodies to a hospital-like ward after the ritual ended.
• The High Priest told the Silent Priest that Mud Duke was being watched by the Blood God and proposed keeping all four bodies as the first prisoners in a Blood Prison.

Wine Cup entered the Secret Grounds in a Snow Woman body and restarted the livestream, where she met Na and learned Milk Dragon might have entered too. As the three prepared to report to the Shaping Workshop, Wine Cup still did not know how she had reached the Secret Grounds.

• Wine Cup woke in the Employee Contracting Office, found a mirror, and reopened the livestream before learning she had to report to the Shaping Workshop within an hour.
• Wine Cup met Na, who recognized her as Wine Cup and said Milk Dragon might also have entered the Secret Grounds after the Silent Priest anesthetized them.
• Na explained that she and Milk Dragon had been captured by the Bloodletting Sect, rescued, and then secretly sacrificed by the Silent Priest of the God-Worshipping Sect.
• Wine Cup told Na she had entered the Secret Grounds after losing consciousness in a sewer, leaving both of them puzzled about how it happened.
• Wine Cup and Na left the Contracting Office and found a scarecrow waiting outside; its hesitant speech revealed that it was Milk Dragon.

Wine Cup, Na, Milk Dragon, and Mud Duke reunited at the Employee Contracting Office in the Secret Grounds and discovered their assigned posts. Mud Duke then searched for Kaia, but the group found no sign of him and left open the possibility that he was still alive elsewhere.

• Wine Cup revealed her identity to Milk Dragon and Na, and the three discussed their experiences and planned to report to their posts.
• Na sensed movement inside the Contracting Office, where a cloaked treant emerged and introduced himself as a fermentation worker at the Dream Brew Cellar.
• Na recognized the newcomer as Mud Duke, who had entered the Secret Grounds while searching for Kaia.
• Mud Duke, Wine Cup, and Na searched the Contracting Office for Kaia, but they found no other new employees.
• Na and the others comforted Mud Duke, noting that Kaia might still be alive, and the group agreed to continue on after the wasted search time.

Na, Wine Cup, Milk Dragon, and Mud Duke learned their assignments at the factory and set out to find their work areas before their shifts began. After Milk Dragon was struck by lightning for hopping onto the lawn, Mori directed the group to the Coronation Hall hidden among the clouds above the little volcano, and they continued toward it.

• Na, Wine Cup, Milk Dragon, and Mud Duke described their assigned jobs, and Mud Duke speculated that Dream Energy might be the Wonderland Authority’s objective.
• Wine Cup led the group toward their work areas, and Milk Dragon’s leaps made it the fastest traveler until it landed on the grass and received a Scorch Mark Thunder Punishment.
• Na carried Milk Dragon toward the Coronation Hall, and the group encountered Mori, the manager of the Dream Brew Cellar, at the square.
• Mud Duke asked Mori for directions, and Mori explained that the Coronation Hall was hidden among the clouds above the little volcano and could be reached by hot-air balloon.
• Mori took Mud Duke down a well, while Na, Wine Cup, and Milk Dragon headed toward the volcano and agreed to meet there after work.

Wine Cup began work at Candle House, where Pinocchio’s surveillance eye mysteriously fell asleep and Pinocchio appeared through a fairy-tale shaping avatar. He invited her to become his assistant because she was new, then revealed that he had sensed dust haze.

• Wine Cup started shaping frost at Candle House, where her employee code warned of penalties for breaking rules and missing weekly targets.
• The surveillance eye above Wine Cup’s workstation closed after only a few minutes, prompting her to wonder whether Ice Woman had killed the workshop manager.
• Pinocchio spoke to Wine Cup, then appeared as a cartoon monkey and explained that he was an avatar sharing the sleeping manager’s consciousness.
• Pinocchio offered Wine Cup a job as his assistant, and she gave her name after he identified himself as the Shaping Workshop manager.
• Pinocchio said he had sought someone new for the role because he smelled the scent of dust haze in the air.

Pinocchio hired Wine Cup as an assistant to investigate the unease it sensed in the Shaping Workshop, unaware that she suspected Ice Woman was its source. Wine Cup negotiated for benefits and learned that managers might eventually gain the authority to send consciousness entities outside, but Pinocchio could not promise her a way to leave in her current body.

• Pinocchio explained that its Spiritual Intuition warned of unease in the Shaping Workshop and said it trusted Wine Cup because she had only just arrived.
• Wine Cup suspected Ice Woman and the Rebels were behind Pinocchio’s premonition, while the livestream viewers learned that managers had special talents.
• Wine Cup asked Pinocchio to return her to her original body, and Pinocchio said it could not do so now but might gain that authority in the future.
• Wine Cup pretended to mourn her lost body and inferred that the Rebels could return to Cloud Harbor City if they won the final victory.
• Wine Cup asked for freedom of time and space, greater technical support, and a future chance to leave; Pinocchio agreed to try to grant the first two but could not promise the last.

Pinocchio negotiated terms with Wine Cup, promising to cover her weekly quota while giving her time to investigate the source of unease. Wine Cup went to the fourth floor and met Pinocchio’s guestbook avatar, which directed her to begin investigating the Shaping Workshop’s employees.

• Pinocchio explained that weekly quotas kept the factory’s connected departments running and offered to complete Wine Cup’s work with an avatar, except when the workshop fell behind during the final two days of a week.
• Wine Cup accepted the assistant position and Pinocchio offered her access to his study, but told her to meet his true body on the fourth floor to discuss the investigation.
• Wine Cup found a floating guestbook instead of Pinocchio and learned that his avatars held his single consciousness, while the monkey avatar continued working through a preset program.
• The guestbook told Wine Cup to investigate the employee lists and suggested searching the employees’ dormitories while they were working.

Wine Cup questioned the message book about Shaping Workshop employees and learned that the factory director election might follow the next managers’ meeting. In Heart Space, the Rebels realized their deadline was near and reviewed their growing foothold across all five regions.

• Wine Cup challenged the message book’s defense of Candle Smoke, learned managers had loosened its restrictions, and inferred that the Chocolate Factory currently had no factory director.
• The message book identified No. 17 as a resilient employee worth investigating and admitted it knew little about the newly arrived Ice Woman, while suspecting older employees were more likely to cause its unease.
• Wine Cup recognized that the message book’s suspicion of old employees could provide her with a useful excuse for a future plan.
• Luigi, Angel, and Water Clone discussed Wine Cup becoming Pinocchio’s deputy and learned that the factory director election would likely begin after the next managers’ meeting.
• The Rebels noted that their team had members in all five major regions and agreed they needed a plan within the next two days.

Wine Cup secretly contacted the Time Doppelgänger while Angel learned that Rabbit Hole had perfectly cleared Golden Country but barely led Singers because of the Observer’s scoring. Angel and the others waited for Rabbit Girl to explain Singers’ high rating, and she finally arrived at Text Manor.

• Wine Cup left a coded message for the Time Doppelgänger near the crater, then waited in Ice Woman’s room.
• Angel logged into the Player Camp and learned that Rabbit Hole had cleared Golden Country’s Perfect Mode with 110 points, while Singers scored 90 points.
• Angel joined Laplace and the others, who debated why Golden Country’s Observer had awarded Singers such a high rating.
• Montedan explained that Observers used different scoring standards, and the group speculated that Golden Country’s Observer valued the process over the result.
• Angel told Laplace that Wine Cup and the others had reached the Secret Grounds and were attempting to conquer the Chocolate Factory.
• Rabbit Girl arrived at Text Manor, ending the group’s wait for news about Golden Country.

Rabbit Girl returned after clearing Golden Country with one life and brought Maggie, its blunt-talking observer, to the manor. At the Stone Table Meeting, Rabbit Girl explained the stage’s two-part challenge and began recounting the perilous third level, where the greatest danger came not from Golden Phantoms but from people.

• Rabbit Girl returned to Rose Garden after clearing Golden Country with one life, bringing Maggie along as a potential recruit for Dream Mirror.
• Maggie introduced herself as a deceased Pointed One and former stylist from Konord, then asked the manor’s residents intrusive questions about their bodies and races.
• Angel invited Maggie to the Stone Table Meeting, where Maggie asked whether humans had pointed heads and explained her mother’s rule for her breeding list.
• Rabbit Girl explained that clearing Golden Country’s second level allowed challengers to Ascend the Silver Throne or continue into perfect-clear mode on the third level.
• Rabbit Girl described easily defeating a Golden Phantom on the second level before entering the third level, a continuous battle through a lost ancient city toward the Golden Throne.
• Rabbit Girl revealed that the main danger on the third level was not the Golden Phantoms but people.

Rabbit Girl explained how routes through Golden Ancient City affected the Golden Phantoms and why projected challenger teams, equipped with golden artifacts and flawless coordination, could be more dangerous than they appeared. After avoiding the Amber Shadow Clan team, she reached the royal palace and discovered the Singers team waiting inside.

• Maggie explained that different routes through Golden Ancient City led to different forms of Golden Phantoms, and Rabbit Girl described how a winding route could offer opponents suited to a challenger's strengths.
• Rabbit Girl said she had mostly taken the main road but detoured around projected challenger teams, which Wonderland Authority created with coordinated tactics and their chosen golden artifacts.
• Rabbit Girl recalled how an All Things House member's bracelet reflected her kick back at her, nearly injuring her fatally, before she learned the team's artifacts and defeated them.
• Rabbit Girl avoided the Amber Shadow Clan team because their projected abilities and golden artifacts made them too dangerous to fight without using her trump cards.
• Rabbit Girl reached the palace, opened its golden doors, and found the Singers team inside, including a green-skinned woman, a harp-bearing stone figure, and a black-gold figure with an exposed metal heart.

Rabbit Girl recounted how she overcame the Singers Squad’s formidable defenses and coordination to reach the Golden Throne. Her victory left her uneasy, especially after Maggie appeared with words that further unsettled her.

• Rabbit Girl explained that the palace’s rules prevented shortcuts and that the Singers Squad guarded every route to the Golden Throne.
• She described the Singers Squad’s powerful sound-based attacks, Lady Roseleaf’s sound-amplifying artifact, and Ms. Gosha’s illusions and coordination.
• Rabbit Girl revealed that magic-pattern scrolls, her Reverse Scale, and the Tooth-Bone Staff had helped her defeat the Singers Squad and ascend the Golden Throne.
• Rabbit Girl said that Maggie appeared after the battle and left her thoughts more tangled.

After Rabbit Girl cleared Golden Country, Maggie criticized her use of out-of-bounds items, prompting Montedan to dispute Maggie’s scoring and defend Rabbit Hole’s result. Rabbit Girl’s spirits lifted as the others reminded her that their main goal was to become the Sandbox Lord.

• Maggie told Rabbit Girl that her out-of-bounds items had killed the competition, though Sandbox Wonderland accepted her clear.
• Montedan challenged Maggie’s low score for Rabbit Hole and high score for the Singers Team, arguing that Rabbit Hole had reached the third layer and ascended the Golden Throne while the Singers Team had not entered it.
• Maggie explained that the Singers Team had displayed exceptional strength and had been only minutes slower, while Rabbit Girl had saved time by skipping the golden-artifact selection with out-of-bounds items.
• Laplace and Gabriel pointed out that Ms. Gosha and the Singers Team also had out-of-bounds abilities, and Montedan argued that Rabbit Hole still deserved the higher score for its achievement.
• Montedan and Gray Porcelain comforted Rabbit Girl by reminding her that Rabbit Hole’s priority was becoming the Sandbox Lord, and Rabbit Girl’s gloom eased.

Rabbit Girl apologized for her choices during the Golden Country challenge, while Magic Flute explained how Ms. Gosha had guided the Singers Team to its best possible score. The Stone Table Meeting then turned to intelligence about the Echo Library and introduced Treta Dawn as a suitable raider.

• Rabbit Girl admitted that she had used over-specification items too extravagantly and apologized for acting willfully, while Angel and Laplace reassured her and ended the Golden Country review.
• The Singers Team returned to the Player Camp, where Magic Flute explained that Ms. Gosha had judged the third floor too dangerous and had chosen a strategy that maximized their score without entering it.
• Magic Flute told Lady Roseleaf that Ms. Gosha's intuition had guided their gold-artifact choice and their timing on the second floor, helping them retain a high score.
• Yifuda introduced Treta Dawn, a Crystal-Eyed Race poet and leader of Dawn's Poem, as a raider suited to the Echo Library stage.

Treta explained the Echo Library’s objective and dangers to the Stone Table Meeting: Challengers had to close three rifts and weaken a being that might be a god. Angel and the others learned how Book Sprites and Book Demons worked, while Angel promised to find a map for the maze.

• Treta reported that the Echo Library required Challengers to seal a concealed being, and a Book Demon’s use of the capitalized pronoun “He” suggested it might be a god.
• Rabbit Girl asked Treta about Book Sprites and Book Demons, and he explained that Sprites offered directions after tests while Demons forced random squad members into fights that could expel the whole squad.
• Treta said the Echo Library had three maze-like floors, each containing a rift, and all three rifts had to be closed simultaneously to weaken the being.
• Treta explained that Challengers had to pass tests from multiple Book Sprites and compare their directions to locate each rift, while also navigating mechanisms, puzzles, and hidden paths.
• When Gray Porcelain worried he would burden the squad, Angel reassured him that he had exceptional items and could find a map.
• Treta revealed that defeated Book Demons left final words that might contain hidden information, and one such word had suggested the being was a god.

Angel and the Rabbit Hole Team learned how Dawn's Poem solved Echo Library's puzzles, then discussed Maggie's choice of team and the abilities she could offer. Maggie explained her past as a Mind Master and the distinct management experience she and Montedan could bring to Rabbit Town.

• Angel suggested Book Demons' last words might reveal hidden truths about Echo Library, and Treta explained that the stage required at least three people to close its three rifts simultaneously.
• Treta described Dawn's Poem's specialist lineup and how its members discovered and solved hidden artistic and knowledge-based puzzles.
• After Treta and Yifuda left, Angel asked Maggie about joining Rabbit Hole, and Maggie said she still needed to meet Singers Team before choosing a team to follow.
• Maggie recounted how her Pointed Ones parents settled in Hante World, how she learned Mind Abilities from a Mind Master scholar, and how she became vice president of the Konord Mind Master Association.
• Maggie began describing her management and blessing abilities, and Montedan clarified that her experience coordinating adventuring teams complemented his expertise in managing large-scale operations.

Maggie explained her powerful Blessing Thought abilities as Angel and Rabbit Hole considered recruiting her. Montedan warned that her abilities would only be unsealed by the eventual Sandbox Lord, and Angel offered her Rabbit Hole membership along with an invitation to Dream Mirror; Maggie remained undecided until she could learn what that membership meant.

• Maggie described her blessing effects, including Environmental Adaptation, which could let adventurers enter Thought Abysses requiring unusual forms.
• Angel realized Maggie's Environmental Adaptation might allow challengers to enter the Mist Island Dragon Tomb as dragons.
• Montedan warned Maggie that her abilities might remain sealed unless the team she chose produced the Sandbox Lord, arguing Rabbit Hole had the stronger chance of winning.
• Angel told Maggie Rabbit Hole needed her skills and offered her an invitation to join Dream Mirror if she joined the team.
• Maggie kept her decision to herself, while Montedan suggested she ask someone about Dream Mirror's significance on the way to meet the Singers Team.

Maggie learned why the Singers Team was hated and understood that joining Dream Mirror Organization through Rabbit Hole was her best path to unlocking her permission abilities. She chose Rabbit Hole, returned to Text Manor, and joined its meeting as the team began deciding which stage to select next.

• Yifuda offered to guide Maggie to the Singers Team, and Crystal-Eyed Race members and other players voiced their anger toward the team and asked why Maggie had rated them so highly.
• Maggie learned that the Singers and the Featherwood Clan had brought about the Calamity, and that Dream Mirror Organization had saved the Day Mirror Domain's inhabitants by bringing their conscious minds to the Dream Crystal Plain.
• Maggie decided to follow Rabbit Hole and join Dream Mirror Organization, then returned to Text Manor with Yifuda.
• Maggie announced her choice, received a welcome from Angel and Laplace, and pinned Rabbit Girl's rabbit doll to her skirt as Rabbit Hole's symbol.
• Montedan welcomed Maggie to the meeting, where the team began discussing its next stage selection and the four stages that had not been perfectly cleared.