Chapter Summaries

Angel and the Spirit of the Academy City activated the Human Creation Platform and examined its character-creation options. Angel realized the Spirit might be able to inhabit a created body and proposed making one for it.

• The Spirit of the Academy City explained that special energy and the Academy City's new systems had appeared after it awakened, while Angel concluded Wonderland Authority had reshaped the city to make it easier to manage.
• The Spirit activated the Human Creation Platform, which displayed a detailed character creator with artificial-human appearances and standardized work-skill memory options.
• Angel found that the platform could create Hollow Men without infused memories, which the Spirit said were used for lessons such as sex education.
• Angel proposed creating a real body for the Spirit of the Academy City instead of relying on Mimicry or projection, and the Spirit recognized his intention.

Angel created a body for the Spirit of the Academy City, who chose a silver, angular Mechanical Gentleman with a flesh-and-blood interior. As the Spirit learned to use his new body, Angel discovered that human creation relied on Gatekeeper Authority and showed him how to use an Academy City System task to gain knowledge of basic movements.

• Angel suggested creating a body for the Spirit of the Academy City, and the Spirit agreed that he wanted to experience having one.
• The Spirit of the Academy City customized a Mechanical Gentleman body, and Angel used the Academy City System to create it in Life Pod No. 1.
• The Spirit entered the new body and practiced walking while Angel investigated the Authority Tree and traced human creation to Gatekeeper Authority.
• The Spirit fell while trying to walk, and Angel helped him up before asking whether he could still operate the Academy City System backend.
• Angel issued the Spirit a message-delivery task whose reward was knowledge empowerment for basic movements, then explained the value of finding shortcuts.

The Spirit of the Academy City received a body and an authority-based empowerment while Angel considered how to define Fool's Academy City's nine academies. Laplace told Angel Rabbit Hole would enter Night City Evening Bell without him, where every team, including the Crystal-Eyed Race team, had been trapped for four days and could not be awakened in reality.

• The Spirit of the Academy City returned to Angel after learning etiquette from Mona, who said she needed initial themes for the nine academies before she could design distinct emblems.
• Angel sent the Spirit of the Academy City to Life-Support Pod No. 1 to claim his reward, and the empowerment began calibrating the connection between his consciousness and his body's neural center.
• Laplace relayed Eya's Academy Upgrade Theory: the nine academies could begin with broad concepts and develop into specialized institutions over time, which Angel decided suited Fool's Academy City.
• Laplace told Angel Rabbit Hole remained first in the rankings and Rabbit Girl's team would enter the next stage without him as training.
• Laplace said Rabbit Hole had chosen Night City Evening Bell, where no team had emerged in four days and even the Crystal-Eyed Race team could not be awakened in reality.

Angel outlined the guiding purposes of the nine academies and helped the spirit of Academy City awaken in its new mechanical body. He then took the spirit on a flight above Academy City to explain the academy designs, beginning with the newly named Enlightenment Academy.

• Angel learned that Gray Porcelain would join Laplace and Gabriel in Night City Evening Bell, and asked them to carry Nightmare Illusion nodes so he could help if danger arose.
• Angel surveyed Academy City and designated eight foundational academies, then planned a ninth, the Pathseeking Academy, which could eventually become the Academy of Stars under Decayer.
• The spirit of Academy City emerged from Life Pod No. 1 and discovered that it could walk smoothly in its new body.
• Angel posted a task asking the spirit to relay the nine academies’ design concepts to Mona, with an Academy City crystal device as its reward.
• Angel and the spirit boarded the Swift School Bus and flew over Academy City as Angel began explaining the academies, starting with the Enlightenment Academy.

Angel showed the Spirit of the Academy City the nine academies’ foundational concepts, including the elite-only Pathseeking Academy and its future upgrade to the Academy of Stars. After the Spirit told Mona about the plans, she found an emblem concept for the Physical Academy and chose to become dean of the Arts Academy.

• Angel finished the tour by explaining that the Pathseeking Academy would eventually become the Academy of Stars and would admit only intelligent Prussian students.
• The Spirit of the Academy City visited Mona, and she learned the basic concepts of the nine academies from him.
• Mona settled on a leaf-bearing bone ring as a flexible emblem for the Physical Academy.
• The Spirit of the Academy City added Mona’s crystal device name and asked which academy she wanted to lead.
• Mona chose the Arts Academy, and the Spirit of the Academy City agreed to inform Angel.

The Spirit of the Academy City learned that more than a thousand faculty and staff were arriving, while Angel began issuing them Appointment Contracts. Ye Kalen signed one and was transported with the others to Fool's Academy City, where a voice welcomed them.

• Water Tower chose the Material Studies Academy, and the Spirit of the Academy City accompanied Angel to welcome the arriving faculty and staff.
• Angel summoned Lawrence to help introduce Merlin, Pisi, and Vasha, while Mona declined to attend and Water Tower agreed to come.
• Ye Kalen explored Player Camp, learned that its visitors were focused on Sandbox Wonderland and Rabbit Hole Team, and told others that his group was bound for Fool's Academy City.
• Ye Kalen received an Appointment Contract, signed it, and was transported from Player Camp with the other arrivals.
• Ye Kalen and the others appeared in a rainy, sprawling city, where a metallic voice welcomed them to Fool's Academy City.

Ye Kalen met Angel and learned that his experience teaching Hollow Men could help Fool's Academy City, which gave him a renewed sense of purpose. Angel watched Merlin tour the city and realized Merlin was using his name to encourage the faculty.

• Ye Kalen recalled how Angel’s achievements had anchored his identity as a human and was stunned to meet him at Fool's Academy City.
• Merlin persuaded Ye Kalen to sit beside him on the mechanical carriage and told him Angel had praised his experience teaching Hollow Men.
• Merlin explained that Fool's Academy City’s future students would be Hollow Men and urged Ye Kalen to seek higher authority so he could share his teaching methods.
• Ye Kalen vowed to keep applying for higher authority and not disappoint Angel as Merlin led him off the carriage at Blen Floating Street.
• Angel secretly observed Merlin touring the city and saw him use Angel’s name to motivate Ye Kalen and other faculty members.

Angel and Lawrence discussed Merlin’s calculating nature and his achievements, concluding that Merlin could help lead Fool’s Academy City. Pisi and Vasha chose academy directions for their tasks, while Lawrence remained stuck on his second stage because it could not yet be completed.

• Lawrence described Luigi’s suspicion that Merlin was a smiling, ambitious schemer, and Angel explained that Merlin’s calculations seemed aimed at serving the public good.
• Angel and Lawrence discussed Merlin’s accomplishments in Unfallen King City, and Angel said Merlin might eventually become the Academy City’s principal.
• Pisi returned from inspecting the city by mechanical bird and recounted his many dealings with Merlin without knowing Merlin’s identity.
• Pisi asked for a Crystal Instrument, and Angel had the Spirit of the Academy City make one for Pisi and one for Lawrence.
• Pisi chose the Science Academy and Vasha chose the Physical Academy as their development paths, while Lawrence said his second-stage task could not yet be completed.

Lawrence was delayed by a faculty-review task that could not be completed until students arrived, while Angel prepared to bring the Prushans into Academy City. Pisi persuaded Angel to let him distribute Crystal Instruments to build influence, but his attempt to claim a second deanship ended with Angel ordering him away.

• Angel learned that Lawrence's second-stage task required assessing faculty, forming teaching teams, creating faculty archives, and matching faculty capabilities to teaching assignments, with students needed to finish it.
• Lawrence said faculty and staff would soon be stuck waiting for students, and Angel explained that he was delaying the Prushans' arrival until more staff could supervise them.
• Pisi asked Angel for Crystal Instruments so he could distribute them selectively and gain the respect of faculty who looked down on him.
• Angel permitted Pisi to distribute two hundred Crystal Instruments intended for sale, forbade him from interfering with task rewards, and required the Spirit of the Academy City to track all payments.
• Pisi asked to serve as dean of both the Science Academy and Enlightenment Academy, and Angel shouted at him to get lost.

Angel completed his principal tasks and unlocked full authority, including the ability to freely enter and leave Fool's Academy City. He still chose to wait for the Prushans, while examining his new powers and teleportation options.

• Angel learned that Merlin had discovered the Academy City System, explained its authorities and the Rules Chamber, and found that Merlin could not enter the chamber until he completed his exclusive task.
• Merlin accepted the logistics-team recruitment task, while teachers gathered at the school gate hoping to advance their exclusive tasks and gain freedom to leave the city.
• Mona presented designs for the school and academy emblems, and Angel approved them and submitted the task.
• Angel completed the final stage of his exclusive tasks and unlocked all principal authorities and permission to freely enter and leave Fool's Academy City.
• Angel examined his expanded authorities and learned that he could see others' tasks and place one exclusive teleportation point, but he waited for the Prushans before leaving.

Angel learned how the two types of teleportation points worked, declined to place the authority-exclusive point before consulting others, and saw the academy city emblem pass verification while the academy emblems remained pending. He assigned Merlin the branch academy regulations task and created a management group to discuss where to place the teleportation point, where Pisi surprised Mona by praising him with rapid, flawless messages.

• Angel learned that authority-exclusive teleportation points required cleared exclusive tasks, while public points were open to everyone, and he declined to place his point without knowing the relocation conditions.
• The Academy City System approved the modified academy city emblem but rejected the academy emblems until the branch academy regulations were completed.
• Merlin accepted the Branch Academy Functions and Management Regulations task after telling Angel he had already taken on a logistics task.
• Angel invited the Level 7-or-higher authority holders into a management group and explained that they needed to choose a location for the authority-exclusive teleportation point.
• Pisi sent Angel three fluent messages praising his rapid completion of the Principal tasks, leaving Mona astonished by Pisi's control of thought-directed input.

Angel and the academy deans debated where to place a teleportation point and how to make it a landmark, with Angel outlining practical ways to fund or create it before calling a vote. He explained to Lawrence that shared decisions could build belonging in Fool's Academy City, while the Prushans’ future would remain central to its purpose.

• Pisi and Merlin traded barbs in the group chat until Angel muted Pisi and proposed placing the teleportation point in his office.
• The deans discussed locations and agreed the summit of Central Mountain was the best public site, while Merlin proposed turning the teleportation point into a landmark.
• Pisi warned that building a landmark could cost too many Academy City Points, so Angel presented three options and gave the group five minutes to consider them before a vote.
• Angel and Lawrence discussed how collective choices and real construction could help other races feel invested in the Academy City.
• Angel told Lawrence that Fool's Academy City was prepared as a place of rebirth for the Prushans, and that its future treasure was already in his hands.

Angel led a vote on how to build a new wonder, and the group chose to use the Academy City System despite Pisi’s preference for building it themselves. Angel then assigned most of the remaining task-board duties and closed the discussion, leaving Lawrence to report that the others had stopped complaining.

• Pisi and Water Tower argued for building the wonder themselves, while Vasha, Lawrence, and Merlin supported using the Academy City System; Mona alone voted for an Illusory Wonder.
• Merlin explained that he had accepted two tasks rewarding creation attempts and wanted to save those attempts for the wonder, while Lawrence preferred experiencing the Academy City System’s construction.
• Angel abstained, confirmed the system-built wonder, and said its cost would depend on the blueprint; the Spirit of the Academy City estimated Pisi’s proposed tower would take around ten creation attempts, with additional attempts for its halo effects.
• Pisi blamed Merlin for the vote, so Angel muted the group and assigned five of the seven remaining tasks to members including Pisi and Vasha.
• Angel closed the Crystal Instrument group, and Lawrence told him that the others had stopped complaining after he relayed Angel’s challenge to confront him in person.

Angel organized the growing faculty and staff workforce to prepare for the Prushans’ arrival, then set up a teleportation point and delegated the Academy City’s routine management to its Spirit. Laplace’s next call interrupted Angel as he was about to explain his plans for leaving.

• Angel told Laplace to recruit more logistics personnel and fewer teachers in later batches, while prioritizing teachers experienced in guiding Hollow Men.
• Laplace introduced Spirit Fang Dada, who had salvaged most of the Hollow Men sold by the Tooth Fairy Ruins and was helping select teachers.
• Angel and the management team welcomed the second batch of faculty and staff, who trained with the Auxiliary Hand and Crystal Devices as more batches and Prushans arrived.
• Angel placed a teleportation point on the rooftop above the principal’s office, then installed a contact module on the Spirit of the Academy City’s Crystal Device.
• Angel assigned the Spirit of the Academy City responsibility for coordinating routine school affairs and maintenance, explaining that the Great Will’s task for him suggested he would soon leave.
• Laplace called Angel again just before he could explain his departure arrangements.

Angel learned that the Red Mud Team had escaped Night City Evening Bell with the Rabbit Hole Team’s help, and Laplace recounted what they had discovered inside the stage. The account ended with the Red Mud Team learning that Night City’s residents welcomed them because of an ancient prophecy.

• Angel confirmed that the fifth batch of faculty and staff had settled in and agreed that he would bring the people on the Dream Bridge into Academy City next.
• Laplace told Angel that the Red Mud Team had been trapped in Night City’s Inner World until the Rabbit Hole Team woke them and helped them escape Night City.
• Laplace explained that the Red Mud Team had entered Night City, a neon-lit metropolis divided into the Dark, Regular, and Rainbow Districts, and learned that they had to restore day and night before ringing the evening bell.
• The Red Mud Team discovered that their outsider identities brought both advantages and disadvantages, while Night City’s ghosts were intelligent energy entities rather than undead.
• An elderly woman told the Red Mud Team that residents welcomed them because of an ancient prophecy.

The Red Mud Team learned that outsiders were conspicuous targets for ghosts, and an old woman who revealed herself as a ghost sent them into the Inner World. Angel and Laplace explained how the Inner World trapped teams and triggered a thirty-day Ghost Transformation status, leaving Angel wondering how the Rabbit Hole Team rescued them.

• The Red Mud Team learned that Night City's residents welcomed outsiders because of a prophecy, but Mud Pot suspected the privileged Rainbow District might oppose them.
• The old woman explained that the Surface World and Inner World had once alternated with day and night, but their boundaries blurred after the Great Sun vanished.
• The old woman revealed that she was a ghost, appeared beside Mud Pot, and knocked him unconscious, sending the Red Mud Team into the Inner World.
• Laplace told Angel that the Red Mud Team had awakened in the Inner World, where the Text Panel showed they had suffered a Spirit-Breaking Attack and gained the Ghost Transformation status.
• Angel and Laplace concluded that the trapped teams had been targeted as conspicuous outsiders, and Angel wondered how the Rabbit Hole Team had rescued the Red Mud Team.

Laplace recounted how the Red Mud Team explored the Inner World, where invisible ghosts repeatedly killed them and accelerated their transformation countdown, until Mud Pot discovered that ghosts could also reveal themselves. The Rabbit Hole Team later found the Red Mud Team in the same dream, and Laplace began describing how they had explored Night City under illusion concealment.

• Mud Pot and the Red Mud Team inferred that the Inner World might contain daylight, but invisible ghosts killed the team and accelerated their Ghost Transformation countdowns.
• Mud Pot led the Red Mud Team back outside to search for daylight and a way to detect ghosts, but physical materials failed to reveal the ghosts, so the team stopped exploring.
• Mud Pot left alone and found a humanlike figure, but the apparent person revealed itself as the ghost Jiri and killed Mud Pot.
• Laplace explained that the Rabbit Hole Team and Red Mud Team shared the same dream, and that the Rabbit Hole Team had saved the Red Mud Team while exploring Night City.
• Rabbit Girl had Gabriel and Gray Porcelain conceal the Rabbit Hole Team with illusions, and after exploring for more than two hours, they encountered Mud Pot wandering the street.

The Rabbit Hole Team discovered that the apparent Mud Pot was a ghost named Fashan occupying Mud Pot’s body, and learned that Night City had been overrun by ghosts possessing human bodies. After Rabbit Girl interrogated Fashan, an oath tied to the Dark Energy Society destroyed its consciousness, though its death freed the Red Mud Team from its influence.

• Gray Porcelain recognized that the wandering Mud Pot lacked the real Mud Pot’s habitual squint and warned Rabbit Girl and Gabriel that it was an impostor.
• The Rabbit Hole Team followed the impostor into an apartment, where they found the Red Mud Team unconscious and saw it speak with Barnes about changing bodies and collecting shells.
• Barnes told Fashan that outsiders had appeared throughout Night City and that the cleanup team was busy dealing with them.
• Rabbit Girl trapped Fashan in a Nightmare Illusion and learned that tens of thousands of ghosts had taken over human bodies in Night City.
• When Rabbit Girl asked about the Dark Energy Society, Fashan’s oath triggered its spiritual dissolution, and the ghost’s power over the Red Mud Team disappeared.

The Rabbit Hole Team used Gray Porcelain’s voice and the right timing to summon the Red Mud Team back from the inner world. After the Red Mud Team left the stage with its information, Rabbit Hole planned to split up and search the inner world for daylight.

• The Rabbit Hole Team began the soul summoning at six in the morning after Fashan’s death removed the ghostly power blocking the Red Mud Team’s return.
• Gray Porcelain called the Red Mud Team’s true names, and Niwa followed the voice from Fashan’s House back to the surface world.
• Mud Pot followed the call next, then used a shrill voice as a signal to guide the remaining Red Mud Team members back.
• Mud Pot decided the Red Mud Team could not survive the stage and had its members commit suicide to leave while carrying their information out.
• Rabbit Hole planned to leave Gabriel in the surface world while Rabbit Girl and Gray Porcelain entered the inner world to search for daylight.

Angel learned that Luigi had asked Camilo to investigate the truth about Mist Swamp, while Luigi waited in the Uriel Instance for Camilo’s findings. As strange winds churned the clouds and thinned the mist around the instance, Luigi saw a new door beneath the dead tree in Uriel Courtyard.

• Laplace told Angel that the trouble involving Luigi concerned the Uriel Instance, Luigi himself, and Angel’s request to investigate Mist Swamp.
• Luigi asked Camilo to investigate Mist Swamp after finding the Sun and Moon Wizards absent, and Camilo agreed to check the real-world site.
• Blanche explained that, by her world’s definition, an Evil Spirit had necessarily committed great evil, clarifying why Camilo had reacted strangely to Luigi’s request not to kill it.
• Two hours later, Luigi and Blanche felt a sudden cold, damp wind as black clouds churned and the mist around the Uriel Instance thinned to reveal distant buildings.
• Luigi went to the end of Mullen Street but could not pass through the boundary wall, then turned back and spotted a door beneath the dead tree in Uriel Courtyard.