Chapter Summaries

Liriel questioned whether the Interrogation Labyrinth was the Deep Dream Civilization, while Angel arranged for Nomephins to guide her toward that conclusion. Nomephins’s answer about the drawbacks of enduring consciousness strengthened Liriel’s suspicions, and Angel explained his deception before Nomephins asked why he wanted Liriel misled.

• Liriel argued that the Interrogation Labyrinth’s faint Dream Power made it unlikely to be the Deep Dream Civilization, though she could not explain why it felt as stable as reality.
• Angel instructed Nomephins to hint at the Deep Dream Civilization across several Walls of Questions so Liriel would reach that conclusion herself.
• Liriel asked Nomephins about the drawbacks of enduring consciousness, and he described becoming weaker, leaving his former life behind, and taking on new responsibilities as Gatekeeper.
• After Nomephins deliberately stumbled over his words and mentioned being the first Gatekeeper, Liriel suspected that the labyrinth was connected to the Deep Dream Civilization.
• Angel praised Nomephins for misleading Liriel with truthful details, then explained that Nomephins had lost memories because he had been dead before the Great Will revived him.
• Nomephins asked Angel why he wanted Liriel guided toward the Deep Dream Civilization.

Angel explained how Nomephins could lead Liriel to conclude for herself that the Strange Dream was connected to the dangerous Deep Dream Civilization, making the Cruel Scholar wary of investigating it. As Nomephins planned further clues, Angel considered the risks of the scheme and alerted the Wonderland Authority, while preparing ways to protect the Dream Crystal Plain if the danger grew.

• Angel and Nomephins concluded that the Deep Dream Civilization could make the Cruel Scholar see the Strange Dream as both dangerous and unrewarding.
• Angel told Nomephins to guide Liriel with clues through the Walls of Questions rather than state the answer, and to deny it if she asked directly.
• Angel watched Liriel begin to suspect that she had found the Deep Dream Civilization and decided not to contact or recruit her, so her eventual report would seem genuine to the Cruel Scholar.
• Angel considered the risks that Liriel might conceal her discovery or that the Cruel Scholar might involve a Demon God with authority over dreams.
• Angel warned the Wonderland Authority about those dangers and considered flipping the table or exiling the Interrogation Labyrinth if the Strange Dream came under threat.

Liriel and the Decayer questioned a childlike Nomephins, whose answers strengthened Liriel’s suspicion that the Interrogation Labyrinth was connected to the Deep Dream Civilization. Angel left Nomephins in charge and returned to the Player Camp, but quickly sensed Wonderland Authority forming a Fairyland Instance around him and logged off to keep it from appearing amid the crowd.

• Liriel asked the childlike Nomephins about the benefits of eternal consciousness, and it ranked rebirth, safety, and mystery as the top three.
• Liriel linked Nomephins’s descriptions of safety and mystery to the Deep Dream Civilization and wondered whether the labyrinth was connected to it.
• Angel learned that Nomephins’s different Wall of Questions avatars were sliced versions from different stages of its life, then entrusted Nomephins with guiding Liriel and the Decayer while he left the labyrinth.
• Angel returned to the Player Camp at dawn, where the Dream Mirror members and Laplace had gathered after Nomephins announced his return.
• Angel sensed Wonderland Authority preparing a Fairyland Instance near him and logged off so he could change its landing place and keep it away from the crowded camp.

Angel was forcibly drawn into the Special Dream Realm Fool's Academy City and made its principal, gaining the highest authority. He arrived in the Rules Chamber and discovered that he could enter the academy city in God Mode to establish rules or alter its layout.

• Angel logged back in at a hidden cavern near Rabbit Town to keep the Instance from descending in the crowded Player Camp, then told Laplace what was happening.
• Angel concealed part of the cavern with illusions and waited as the crystal creation took shape as a massive open book.
• The book's information identified the Instance as Fool's Academy City and warned that Angel would be pulled in when its five-second countdown ended.
• Angel let the book's suction drag him into the Instance, where he arrived in the Rules Chamber and learned he was its Level 9 principal.
• Angel approached the city sand table, heard it welcome him back, and received the option to enter Fool's Academy City or use God Mode.

Angel entered Fool's Academy City through a tunnel that shrank him to the scale of the miniature sand table, then accepted a Level 9 principal-exclusive mission to reach the principal's office. He found the vast city largely empty and set off toward it.

• Angel questioned the Spirit of the Academy City, which began a self-inspection after recalling that its memories of the city's past principal, teachers, and students had been erased.
• Angel declined to activate God Mode and entered Fool's Academy City through a tunnel that proportionally shrank him as he walked.
• Angel confirmed that the sand table was the real Academy City and accepted the principal-exclusive chain mission to go to the principal's office.
• Angel tried an orange from a roadside tree, found it far too sour, and discarded it in an irrigation ditch.
• Angel reached the city's outskirts and saw that the city was enormous, with towering buildings and districts but almost no inhabitants.

Angel traveled through the empty Fool's Academy City to the principal's office and discovered that beginning his career required signing an appointment contract. The Spirit of the Academy City awakened and explained that restoring the city could help it regain its former authority, but Angel had not yet signed the contract or received the next main quest.

• Angel followed the quest waypoint through the empty city, learned that the library had no books, and reached the academic districts after a long journey.
• Angel climbed to the mountaintop and found the principal's office, then followed the waypoint into its study and discovered the appointment contract.
• Angel realized that reaching the office was not enough to complete the first quest; he needed to sign the contract and begin his career as principal.
• The Spirit of the Academy City spoke to Angel and apologized for failing to arrange his welcome because it had entered memory retrieval.
• Angel asked whether the Spirit could appear through Mimicry, and it said it might learn how as the city recovered and its growth level advanced.

Angel tested the Spirit of the Academy City’s knowledge and abilities, then signed the appointment contract to activate the next stage of his headmaster mission. He discovered that enrollment could forcibly summon eligible people from Region 1, leaving him shocked by the Academy City’s recruitment system.

• Angel verified the spirit’s awareness by asking about the city gates and an orange he had eaten, then questioned how it managed workers and what authority it possessed.
• The spirit said it could alter workers’ routines, help activate God Mode, arrange buildings, and pass messages, while its memories of the city’s past remained fragmented.
• Angel examined the appointment contract, recognized that signing it might unlock recruitment, and signed his name.
• The Text Panel announced the second stage of Angel’s headmaster mission: enroll one student and appoint one teacher to advance the Academy City.
• Angel opened the Recruitment and Appointments permissions and learned that random or designated enrollment could forcibly summon eligible living beings from Region 1.

Angel explored Fool's Academy City's admissions system and discovered that designated admissions could target people whose consciousness had been eroded or who were considered dull-witted. He concluded that Wonderland Authority had drawn him to the Instance to help place the Prushans, and the chapter left him considering the Academy City as a place to educate them.

• Angel examined the appointment rules and found that a principal could repeatedly appoint someone until they were forcibly conscripted.
• Angel chose designated admissions and saw a limited sandbox view that showed eligible targets as glowing dots without revealing the area in detail.
• Angel found that most eligible targets belonged to the Crystal-Eyed Race, while the Player Camp had only one: Elan.
• Angel asked the Spirit of the Academy City about its former name and learned that it remembered the place as an Academy City with another name, though it could not recall what it was.
• Angel inferred that the eligible targets were people with eroded consciousness or low intelligence, while several naturally intelligent races had no eligible targets.
• Angel concluded that Wonderland Authority had brought him to Fool's Academy City to help accommodate and educate the Prushans waiting to enter the Dream Crystal Plain.

Angel confirmed that Fool's Academy City had appeared to provide a home and education for the Prushans, easing the burden on Laplace and the Crystal-Eyed Race. He began the instance's exclusive mission by enrolling a Prushan girl and selecting Buleida as a teacher.

• Angel asked the Spirit of the Academy City about its capacity and concluded that the instance was customized to settle the Prushans.
• Angel told Laplace that Wonderland Authority's recent changes might stem from absorbing Sebas's knowledge-type authority, and Laplace explained how the city solved the Prushans' housing and teaching problems.
• Angel decided to prioritize Prushan students, with Elan and the consciousnesses in the Sacred Corpse Crystals waiting until later.
• Angel used designated recruitment to enroll a Prushan girl, completing the student portion of the mission.
• Laplace chose Buleida, a friend of Xiluda who had been searching for her, as the teacher, and Buleida agreed to help.

Angel appointed Buleida as an Ordinary Instructor, enrolled a Prushan girl, and received the third stage of his Principal's task: arranging a class and conducting a classroom evaluation. Buleida brought the unconscious student to Building One in the Ninth District, where Angel arrived by gliding and was surprised to hear about the Academy City's school buses.

• Angel learned that staff advanced through ranked tasks and appointed Buleida as an Ordinary Instructor.
• The Principal's task advanced to arranging a course and evaluating a classroom, while Angel chose to postpone large-scale enrollment and appointments until after the tutorial.
• Angel asked the Spirit of the Academy City to guide Buleida and the enrolled Prushan girl to a nearby teaching building.
• The Spirit explained school buses, Academy City Points, housing, and staff tasks to Buleida, who summoned a free Fixed-Route School Bus.
• Buleida rode with the unresponsive Prushan girl to Building One in the Ninth District and led her toward the teaching building.
• Angel arrived by gliding, and Buleida asked where the mechanical bird was because she had assumed he came by Swift School Bus.

Angel helped Buleida and the Prusha girl complete their Academy City onboarding, enrollment, and clothing missions, then discovered that classes could not begin before the school opened. The Spirit of the Academy City explained that Angel could approve a temporary holiday-study request, and the chapter ended as his signature unlocked the classroom.

• Angel learned that Buleida had not opened her Text Panel before and guided her to register as an instructor, while the Prusha girl also received an enrollment mission.
• The Spirit of the Academy City transferred Buleida's onboarding contract and the Prusha girl's enrollment registration to a lobby terminal, where Buleida signed in and the girl's portrait completed her registration.
• Buleida and the Prusha girl received their formalwear and school uniform, and Buleida attached an Auxiliary Hand to the girl to help her move.
• Angel learned that Buleida's next mission was to teach a lesson and the Prusha girl's was to attend one, but the classroom was locked because school had not begun.
• The Spirit of the Academy City told Angel that he could approve a temporary holiday-study request, and Angel signed Buleida's application, unlocking the classroom.

Angel observed Buleida teach a Prushan girl, whose first faint emotion suggested that the classroom’s Divine Awakening and Intent Union effect helped restore fractured consciousness when paired with patient sensory stimulation. Buleida received her next teaching task, and after she took the girl to her dormitory, Angel checked his own Text Panel.

• Angel learned from the Spirit of the Academy City that the classroom’s current benefit was Divine Awakening and Intent Union, though it did not know exactly how the effect worked.
• Buleida taught the Prushan girl by repeatedly blowing on her and teaching her the word “wind,” while Angel observed.
• Angel sensed the Prushan girl develop a faint feeling of trouble and concluded that the classroom effect, combined with Buleida’s patient teaching, had stirred her awareness.
• Angel explained his discovery to Buleida, who was delighted, and she received a task to teach for one week after term began and earn at least 500 Academy City Points.
• The Spirit of the Academy City explained the consequences of failing an instructor task, and Angel learned that the Prushan girl’s next task was simply to attend classes for a week.
• Buleida led the Prushan girl to her dormitory, and Angel turned to check his own Text Panel.

Angel completed the Academy City's basic management structure by appointing Water Tower, Lawrence, and Mona, despite leaving other senior posts undecided. The fifth and final stage of his principal-exclusive task appeared, and completing it would let him enter and leave the Academy City Instance freely.

• Angel gave Buleida an Excellent rating, completing the third stage and receiving management configuration permissions.
• After consulting Laplace and the Dream Mirror at a Stone Table Meeting, Angel chose Laplace and the Decayer for vice principal posts, left another post vacant, and arranged a branch dean position for the Crystal-Eyed Race.
• Angel appointed Water Tower as a branch academy dean, Lawrence as a vice principal, and Mona as a branch academy dean; the Spirit of the Academy City guided them through onboarding.
• Angel completed the fourth task stage, then discovered the fifth stage was the final one and would grant him free entry to and exit from the Academy City Instance.

Angel reviewed the ten missions required to perfect the Academy City System and chose school and academy emblem design as the quickest mission to complete, intending to assign it to Mona. He then began planning improvements to the system, proposing that its hidden functions be made visible and accessible through a tablet-like interface.

• Angel expanded the mission list and learned he could designate managers to accept missions and impose deadlines, but the ten tasks required substantial work and suitable staff.
• Angel sorted the missions into city management and campus management, concluding that most depended on recruiting managers, defining the academies, or expanding the logistics team.
• Angel chose the school and academy emblem design mission for Mona, reasoning that symbols could help shape the academies even before their functions were finalized.
• Angel considered how the Academy City System supported students through Auxiliary Hand and other functions, then decided its improvements should make hidden features more visible.
• Angel suggested giving users access to maps, real-time school bus locations, and the ability to summon nearby buses through a tablet-like interface.

Angel proposed refining the Academy City System with intuitive features and a handheld glass-screen device, demonstrating how it could coordinate help, communications, forums, and missions. The Spirit of the Academy City accepted the plan as mature but warned that producing the devices would require more energy than the system could supply.

• Angel demonstrated how the Academy City System could locate emergencies, summon nearby helpers, and coordinate patients with the school infirmary.
• Angel proposed giving faculty, staff, and students glass-screen devices for maps, support requests, video calls, forums, and mission management.
• Angel showed how an online Mission Hall could let administrators accept missions remotely and suggested using the devices for citywide management.
• The Spirit of the Academy City praised Angel's refinement plan after simulating its interaction logic and finding few flaws.
• The Spirit of the Academy City warned that manufacturing the screens required materials and energy the Academy City System could not adequately provide.

Angel learned that the Academy City System needed more residents to sustain itself and that its stored energy limited what it could create. He and the Spirit of the Academy City designed and produced two Academy City Crystal Devices, leaving further production until Mona designed the school emblem.

• The Spirit of the Academy City explained that the system regulated the city and needed enough residents to achieve energy self-circulation, while its current reserves could only sustain it temporarily.
• Angel learned that the system could reshape ordinary materials and that creating extraordinary items required special tasks and substantial energy.
• Angel decided to make screen mediums for faculty first and worked with the Spirit of the Academy City to design the device and its subsystem display.
• Angel chose a thin, lightweight crystal slab for the device and named it the Academy City Crystal Device.
• Angel reduced the initial production from five devices to two, for himself and Mona, so Mona could use hers to accept the school-emblem design task.
• The Spirit of the Academy City used stored energy to create two Crystal Devices, which completed their formation and floated before Angel.

Angel improved Academy City’s Crystal Instrument software and posted ten missions, but learned the mission system also required suitable rewards. After he assigned rewards and Mona accepted the emblem-design mission, the Wonderland Authority recognized three of the four objectives, leaving the final objective unfinished.

• Angel tested the chat software’s new voice-recognition function and reflected on the Academy City System’s power within the Gulliver Tunnel.
• Angel posted ten missions, but discovered the completion progress remained at 25% because the missions lacked rewards.
• Angel assigned Crystal Instruments as basic rewards and added creation opportunities or Academy City Points according to mission difficulty, raising progress to 50%.
• The Spirit of the Academy City sent a Crystal Instrument to Mona and explained that Angel had assigned her the academy and school emblem design mission.
• Mona accepted the mission and began designing the emblems, raising Angel’s mission progress to 75%.

Angel and Laplace searched for managers to take on Fool's Academy City's ten timed tasks, and Laplace found a candidate for vice principal: Merlin, Eya's renowned city-management Time Doppelgänger. The chapter ended with Laplace revealing that Merlin and Eya had a poor relationship because of a problem with Eya himself.

• Angel discussed the ten seven-day tasks with Laplace, who concluded that they needed to find capable managers and have them accept the tasks immediately.
• Laplace contacted Gleipnir and learned that Eya planned to send his Time Doppelgänger Merlin to Fool's Academy City, where Merlin wanted to serve as vice principal.
• Laplace explained that Merlin was a renowned scholar who had driven major reforms in Unfallen King City, but his authority there was constrained by layers of competing interests.
• Angel accepted Merlin as a possible vice principal and asked why Merlin had not revealed his connection to Eya to gain support in Unfallen King City.
• Laplace explained that Merlin was an unusual Time Doppelgänger formed from external memories, then revealed that his poor relationship with Eya stemmed from a problem with Eya himself.

Angel and Laplace discussed Merlin’s fraught relationship with Eya and agreed to appoint Merlin vice principal of Fool's Academy City. As Angel selected additional managers and studied the Academy City System, he discovered it could create artificial humans and that such beings already maintained the city.

• Laplace explained that Merlin’s purpose as Eya’s Time Doppelgänger had made him feel like an abandoned, heretical version of Eya, though Merlin might not truly hate him.
• Angel agreed to make Merlin vice principal, and Laplace said Merlin’s involvement would help attract leaders and support for Fool's Academy City.
• Angel chose Pisi and Vasha as academy deans and arranged with Laplace to have Gleipnir gather them, teaching staff, and logistics personnel at the Player Camp.
• Angel studied the principal’s authorities and discovered that the Academy City System could generate artificial humans.
• Angel recognized the city’s cleaners and carriage drivers as artificial humans created to maintain Academy City.

Angel toured the Artificial Human Factory and learned that completing formal forum tasks generated the special energy needed to create artificial humans. After discovering that the energy was authority power, he forced some of his own authority into the Human Creation Platform, filling its energy progress to 100%.

• Angel learned from the Spirit of the Academy City that artificial humans were made in the basement factory and that formal tasks generated the energy required for their creation.
• Angel posted a one-point message delivery task, which the Spirit of the Academy City accepted and completed by asking Mona about her emblem design progress.
• Angel recognized the energy produced by the completed task as authority power flowing into the Human Creation Platform.
• Angel used Celestial Change to produce authority power and forcibly fed it into the platform until its energy progress reached 100%.