Chapter Summaries

Maco and Martin led the Vanguard Squad through Dream Layer Twelve, where Kimberly opened a route out of the Power Station’s shifting passages. The squad reached the road to Nightmare Town, while the Nightmare Eye watched them from the fog.

• Maco and Martin analyzed Dream Layer Twelve and guided the Vanguard Squad along the correct route.
• Doctor Maco, the Mysterious Figure, Romary Tahan, Kimberly Cabrera, and Hogney Zede advanced in their assigned roles behind the prophets.
• After an hour, Kimberly Cabrera created a metal door from an inverted Penrose stairway and opened it.
• The squad emerged on a dark highway and spotted a billboard welcoming visitors to Nightmare Town.
• Maco and Martin led the squad toward the town as the fog thickened and the Nightmare Eye watched them.

Yi Chen and Catherine prepared Nightmare Town’s defenses and reviewed the Vanguard Squad’s targets and scores. When the squad entered town, they destroyed an ambush and changed into Gentleman's Attire before advancing.

• Yi Chen learned that Nightmare Town’s smiling residents were trapped consciousnesses, and Catherine explained how they could alter existing spaces to separate the squad.
• Catherine showed Yi Chen the squad’s point chart; Yi Chen asked to handle Doctor Maco himself and declined to test the mysterious Wrinkled Skin.
• Yi Chen agreed to help Catherine arrange the town to split up the Vanguard Squad.
• The Vanguard Squad entered a roadside bungalow, where Romary destroyed attacking vagrants with a snap of her fingers.
• The squad isolated the bungalow with layered barriers, then changed into Gentleman's Attire and prepared to proceed.

Vanguard Squad entered Nightmare Town with Wrinkled Skin Spacy and began occupying the Nightmare Space from its deepest point. They waited in the church for the Nightmare’s source to appear and interrupt the process.

• Prophet Marco thanked Wrinkled Skin Spacy, who revealed his skin-based abilities and agreed to occupy the Nightmare Space once the squad found its deepest point.
• Catherine sent a radio-headed resident to offer the squad individual guided nightmare journeys, but Kimberly killed him before the signal trace could succeed.
• Prophet Marco selected the card for Town Center—Dream Church, and the squad went there together, breaking Catherine’s rules.
• Romary burned the praying residents while Spacy killed the priest with his sewing needle and absorbed his skin.
• Prophet Marco located the church as the axis of Nightmare Space, and Spacy began spreading skin across the floor to occupy it as the squad guarded against an attack.

Catherine summoned three members of the Circus Tent’s core troupe into the dream to help her split up the Gentleman Squad, which had seized control of the church district. Yi Chen agreed to join them as they set out to disrupt the squad and continue their game.

• Catherine admitted the Gentleman Squad’s skin disease was infecting her Nightmare Space and proposed using help from the Circus Tent to forcibly separate them.
• Catherine led Yi Chen and Branklin to the Circus Tent, where she used her clown essence blood to call for aid from the real troupe.
• Three troupe members arrived: a middle-aged woman with a puppet, a man on towering stilts, and Uncle Gian, who greeted Catherine and learned about the game.
• Uncle Gian agreed to help split the six people in the church, while the man on stilts threatened to take the legs of any humans he found appealing.
• Catherine, Yi Chen, Branklin, and the three troupe members left the Circus Tent to confront the Gentleman Squad.

Catherine brought Magician Gian, Mosander, and Aunt Halida to the Dream Church, where they confronted the Gentleman Squad and disrupted its defenses. As Doctor Maco recognized a silver-haired intruder and prepared to fight, the church was on the brink of battle.

• Catherine told William about Gian's role in the Acrobatic Troupe, Mosander's power over legs and feet, and Halida's ability to turn rivals into dolls.
• Prophet Marco's mental probing encountered Gian's trap, and the clash shattered Marco's personality mask before he warned the church that a powerful Nightmare was approaching.
• Gian led the Acrobatic Troupe into the church and locked eyes with Marco, while Mosander became fixated on Zede's legs.
• Gian snapped his fingers to ignite the intruders, but Halida's doll spoke and suppressed the concept of human ignition.
• Doctor Maco spotted a familiar silver-haired youth among the intruders, transformed into combat mode, and prepared to attack.

Catherine and Gian used the circus’s magic to split up Vanguard Squad, but Zede evaded the trap and stayed behind with Mosander. Mosander challenged Wrinkled Skin. Spacy, who struck back and crushed him, prompting Mosander to summon a giant foot that flattened the Dream Church and nearby buildings.

• Catherine chose Deputy Director Kimberly as her target, but Kimberly shot through Catherine’s forehead; Catherine regenerated and asked Gian to separate the intruders.
• Gian’s hats drew four members of Vanguard Squad into Catherine’s prepared independent dreams, while Zede avoided the reversal trap and remained at the church.
• Mosander decided to stay and fight Zede, while Gian and Halida chose to remain and engage other members of the squad.
• Skin surged through the church, but the circus members teleported away; Mosander then noticed Wrinkled Skin. Spacy beneath the altar and silver barrier.
• Mosander taunted Wrinkled Skin. Spacy, who suddenly crushed his head and slammed him down.
• Mosander unleashed his power, summoning a colossal foot that flattened the Dream Church and nearby buildings in Nightmare Town.

Hogney Zede fought Captain Mosander in Nightmare Town while Mosander tried to recruit him, and their battle ended with Mosander losing in the dream. Gian learned that Prophet Marco’s suppressed primary personality, Martin, was extraordinarily dangerous, then warned Catherine to beware of Zede.

• Mosander healed from Zede’s earlier attack, revealed his nerve-filament and leg-fruit abilities, and challenged Zede after his offer to join the circus was rejected.
• Gian gave Prophet Marco a circus business card, ended their dream connection, and reflected on how Martin had suppressed his True Nature to become the Prophet.
• Gian met Halida, who revealed that she had defeated Romary Tahan in a dream and left her unable to fight.
• Gian and the circus members found Mosander severely mutilated in his bedroom and severed his dream connection to wake him.
• Mosander admitted that Zede had defeated him and urged Gian to warn Catherine not to let Zede kill her.

Doctor MacGuffin was trapped in a sealed Nightmare Space and pursued a Silver-haired Youth he mistook for Lorien, losing control and transforming as he slaughtered the hospital’s Nightmare patients. He discovered the youth was not Lorien, but an unfamiliar figure absorbing the Nightmare aura.

• Catherine separated the Vanguard Squad members by sealing them in five landmark areas of Nightmare Town.
• Doctor MacGuffin was pulled into the hospital Nightmare Space by Magician Gian’s top hat and found that an invisible wall sealed off the area.
• MacGuffin opened his skull to sense the dreamscape and located Room 0330, then climbed into it seeking an escape.
• After seeing an illusion of a patient, MacGuffin spotted a Silver-haired Youth and pursued him through the hospital.
• MacGuffin lost control, transformed into the Silver Demon, and slaughtered the Nightmare patients, whose aura gathered around the youth.
• MacGuffin confronted the youth in the lobby and realized he was not Lorien.

Yi Chen provoked Doctor Maco, but Maco mistook him for Lorien and attacked. Branklin intervened to protect his teacher, and after Maco transformed into the Silver Skeleton, Yi Chen pulled Branklin to safety and approached the smoke-shrouded foe.

• Yi Chen disguised himself as a Moonfolk and taunted Doctor Maco, but Maco insisted he was Lorien and attacked with his mutated silver arm.
• Branklin charged through six walls, seized Maco, and began chopping through his spine with his butcher's knife.
• Maco retaliated by stabbing Branklin with his silver fingers, leaving Branklin badly injured and partially numb.
• Branklin severed Maco's spine, but Maco survived and lifted his restrictions, transforming into the Silver Skeleton.
• Yi Chen dragged Branklin out of the hospital and walked toward Maco through the white smoke.

Yi Chen confronted Doctor Maco after Maco’s Limit Release transformed him into a silver-boned fighter armed with a barrage of regenerating spikes. Maco appeared to kill Yi Chen, but Yi Chen then revealed that he had transported them to the Moon Surface, leaving Maco bewildered.

• Yi Chen approached the smoking ward and blocked Maco’s silver bone spike with his Nightmare-infused tentacle.
• Little Grape warned Yi Chen about the silver matter, and Yi Chen opened the Nightmare Eye to see through Maco’s smoke.
• Doctor Maco revealed his ossified Limit Release form and attacked Yi Chen with waves of bone spikes.
• Maco overwhelmed Yi Chen’s tentacle defense, impaled him, and burst his body apart with the spikes.
• After five minutes of dense Blood Rain, Maco found himself on the cratered Moon Surface while Yi Chen sat nearby, alive and gazing at the stars.

Yi Chen tried to enlighten Doctor MacGuffin by guiding him through an illusion, but MacGuffin’s silver brain broke free and the failed attempt left Yi Chen vulnerable. After surviving MacGuffin’s bone-spine attack, Yi Chen seized him and began carving words directly into his silver brain to force the enlightenment.

• Yi Chen guided MacGuffin through a starry Moon Surface illusion, urging him to embrace madness as a path to truth.
• MacGuffin’s silver brain surged with energy, erased the character for madness, and shattered the illusion.
• Yi Chen suffered the failure’s side effects as MacGuffin launched bone spines at him, but his Dead Person Makeup and iron chains helped him endure the attack.
• Yi Chen absorbed the silver bone spines and recognized MacGuffin’s silver brain as the nourishment he wanted.
• Yi Chen used the Nightmare Eye to seize MacGuffin, split open his skull with a hand axe, and began carving words into the silver brain to force enlightenment.

Yi Chen devoured Doctor Maco’s silver brain after confirming his lead over Catherine, raising his Plague Value while the game continued. He then reviewed the remaining scoring targets, as Catherine discovered something in the dream that shocked her.

• Yi Chen checked the scoreboard, confirmed he was ahead of Catherine, and performed Central Taste on Doctor Maco’s silver brain.
• The Central Taste increased Yi Chen’s Plague Value from 1 to 2 and strengthened his abilities, while Maco’s death did not end the dream or the game.
• Catherine recovered in Nightmare Town’s devastated park and reviewed events across the dream before reacting with disbelief and fear to what she saw.
• Yi Chen checked the remaining squad members and their obtainable scores, deciding that the Two-faced Prophet was his only viable target for now.

Kimberly woke from the dream and found MacGuffin dead, Romary badly injured, and Zede displaying terrifying strength while still asleep. Meanwhile, Catherine recovered and searched Central Street for Zede, unaware that something had crawled into her room.

• Kimberly escaped the dream, discovered MacGuffin’s withered brain, and used an electric shock to stabilize Romary as she convulsed.
• Kimberly found the other teammates’ vital signs stable, but Zede seized and nearly crushed his mechanical arm from inside the tank.
• Catherine reflected on Zede defeating Mosander and decided to investigate Central Street after recovering.
• Catherine found Skin Grafting spreading across two-thirds of Central Street, with Spicy undergoing the process at the church ruins, but could not locate Zede.
• A corpse-like figure crawled from a dark corner of Catherine’s room and clung to the ceiling.

Yi Chen erased Branklin’s memories, then confronted Prophet Marco in the library, where Marco deduced the nature of the game and left the dream. Yi Chen checked the scoreboard and discovered that Catherine had died once.

• Yi Chen healed Branklin, altered his memories to conceal their alliance, and severed his connection to the dream.
• Yi Chen entered the library and found Prophet Marco reading instead of trying to escape.
• Marco explained how he had deduced that Yi Chen was competing in a game against the Nightmare Lady, then used a new divination technique to confirm his suspicions.
• A hooded figure cut Marco’s dream connection, and Marco vanished from the library.
• Yi Chen checked the scoreboard and saw that Catherine had eight points, including a death penalty.

Yi Chen learned that Catherine and Mosander had both been killed by Zede, then agreed to team up with Catherine against him. Meanwhile, Prophet Marko discovered that Nightmare Substance had eroded many Zion residents and spotted Senior Yuri’s maid in the lower-level district.

• Catherine emerged from a Human Egg and told Yi Chen that Zede had killed her and Mosander.
• Catherine showed Yi Chen the updated scoreboard, which allowed participants to jointly kill or enslave Zede for points and victory.
• Yi Chen agreed to cooperate with Catherine against Zede, while privately hoping to gauge Teacher Zed’s true strength.
• Marko and Martin secretly tested five lower-level residents and found signs of Nightmare infection in all of them.
• Marko realized he needed help to cleanse Zion before the game ended, then saw Senior Yuri’s maid working at Maid Pancake’s stall.

Yi Chen and Catherine entered Central Street to assess Zede and Wrinkled Skin, but Zede’s oppressive presence immobilized Yi Chen and exposed how outmatched they were. Catherine’s trap briefly disrupted Zede, yet he killed Yi Chen, who lost five points.

• Yi Chen asked Catherine to share her previous death memory, but she refused and reminded him that they were still competitors.
• Catherine set traps inside a bungalow while Yi Chen surveyed Central Street and saw that skin had covered most of the area.
• Yi Chen climbed to the roof and discovered that Zede’s corpse could sense outsiders across the district and radiated an aura that trapped him in the Corpse Demon Den.
• Catherine’s clone distracted Zede with Nightmare Tentacles, allowing Yi Chen to attack with a hand axe, but Zede shattered the tentacles and destroyed Yi Chen’s arm.
• Zede crushed Yi Chen’s head, and Yi Chen died with five points deducted.

After Zede killed him, Yi Chen was reborn in the Nightmare Room and became eager to challenge Zede again. Catherine agreed to let him bring in his attire, and Yi Chen put it on in a dream-altered form with Yellow Skin dominant.

• After Zede crushed his head, Yi Chen was reborn in the library and recovered from the disorienting process.
• Yi Chen recalled Zede's overwhelming power and decided to ask Catherine for permission to fight him again with his attire.
• Catherine returned after losing her own fight with Zede and complained that Yi Chen had been killed instantly.
• Yi Chen asked Catherine to let him bring his attire into the Nightmare Room, and she agreed after checking his intentions.
• Catherine retrieved the sealed Gentleman's Attire and dressed Yi Chen in it, with Yellow Skin transforming its appearance and taking the dominant position.

Yi Chen and Catherine prepared to fight Zede in a school, where Zede attacked Catherine first and forced her to transform into a monstrous combat form. As Zede charged her, Yi Chen intervened, and their first clash left both fighters injured.

• Yi Chen used Yellow Skin to conceal his Gentleman Status and adjust his Inner Skin for a physical fight with Zede.
• Catherine took Yi Chen to a school near Central Street, absorbed its teachers and students, and helped him scatter Scare Boxes throughout the building.
• While Yi Chen and Catherine waited in a classroom, Zede burst through the floor, seized Catherine, and dragged her through the building.
• Catherine abandoned her captured Flesh Shell and transformed into a huge multi-limbed monster to fight Zede.
• Zede charged Catherine, but Yi Chen dropped through the ceiling and struck him with a Hand Blade, breaking his fingers and injuring his wrist and elbow while receiving an eight-centimeter palm wound.

Zede faced Catherine and Yi Chen in his upright combat posture after retreating from their classroom. He swiftly dismantled Catherine’s coordinated attack, leaving Yi Chen alone on the playground to face him.

• Zede retreated to the playground after his palm was deeply cut during his clash with Yi Chen.
• Yi Chen revealed his Limit Release—Full-Body Cutaneous Epilepsy form, while Catherine joined him in pursuing Zede.
• Zede stood upright and adopted bouncing free-combat footwork, making Catherine and Yi Chen recognize his changed fighting style.
• Catherine and Yi Chen attacked Zede together, but Yi Chen withdrew his strike and warned Catherine to stop.
• Zede redirected Catherine’s hammer, broke or turned her other arms against her, then struck her back and sent her crashing down in a rain of blood and debris.
• Yi Chen remained facing Zede, shaken and excited by his teacher’s full strength.

Catherine waited through her third death and wondered why William had not died yet, while Yi Chen spent half an hour fighting Zede to learn pure melee combat. Yi Chen improved steadily but was ultimately killed after exhausting his energy.

• Catherine calmly reflected on her mistakes while sinking through the Nightmare Space, then revived and searched her Treasure Box.
• Yi Chen dodged Zede’s Flash and attempted a Hand Blade strike, but Zede evaded it and kicked him into the school building.
• Zede criticized Yi Chen’s flashy, predictable movements and invited him to continue fighting using only his physical body.
• Yi Chen repeatedly returned to the fight, and his body gradually learned from Zede’s techniques, making his attacks sharper and allowing longer exchanges.
• After half an hour, Yi Chen ran out of energy, Dead Person Makeup deactivated, and Zede crushed his head beneath one foot.