Chapter Summaries

Yi Chen, Lainey, and William traveled through a world where malice had corrupted people while preparing to investigate the Fourth Calamity. As their plane neared the destination city, dark clouds gathered and lightning flashed like camera shutters.

• William explained that the Fourth Calamity had taken root in a world whose society still functioned while its people’s evil impulses flourished.
• A corrupt young man collapsed and was devoured by infants that erupted from his abdomen, while a monstrous stray dog cleaned up the scene.
• William arranged a car ride to the airport, and Yi Chen told him that they had encountered the Sixth Calamity, Aunt Mei, on the way.
• Yi Chen questioned William about his indoctrination and schemes; William said he was spreading Chaos Value and that they needed to investigate the Fourth Calamity in person.
• The driver crashed his car after dropping them off at the airport, and the plane approached the destination city under darkening clouds and camera-like flashes of lightning.

Lainey, Yi Chen, and William traveled from Ariona Airport toward their destination in torrential rain. After their car struck a naked old man who vanished without a trace, William found a newly appeared shortcut leading to their destination.

• Lainey marveled at the plane while William filmed her and Yi Chen during their flight to Ariona.
• After landing, William led the group through the airport, where a flight attendant kicked him in the back and Lainey restrained herself from retaliating.
• Yi Chen drove the group through the rain while William filmed and Lainey slept in the back seat.
• The car struck a naked old man standing in the road, but Yi Chen and William found no body, blood, or other trace of him.
• William noticed a small road that had not been there before and confirmed on his map that it led directly to their destination.

William, Lainey, and Yi Chen entered the Wooden Cabin to find a rare video tape, but the House Owner’s hauntings killed Yi Chen and William while Lainey was possessed. The House Owner watched the tape, which showed the same trio aboard an airplane, as the camera merged with its image.

• Yi Chen and William drove along an unfamiliar shortcut after hitting an old man, then arrived at the Wooden Cabin with Lainey to search for a blood-marked video tape.
• Yi Chen climbed into the cabin through a second-floor window while William and Lainey entered the dusty Basement and found televisions and piles of video tapes.
• William and Lainey searched the first floor, saw signs of the House Owner, and found Yi Chen upstairs watching a documentary after he had gouged out his eyes and died.
• Lainey fled to the Basement, where she watched an exorcism documentary and turned on William; he escaped and found the special V/H/S tape upstairs.
• William played the tape, and the House Owner appeared, beheaded him, and watched the video while holding William’s head.
• The tape showed the same trio seated on an airplane in Row Thirteen as the camera merged with the image.

Yi Chen and William traveled with Lainey to Ariona to retrieve a forbidden video tape, but Yi Chen’s memories and instincts behaved strangely throughout the journey. After dying from the television’s effects inside the cabin, he woke on the plane again and questioned where William had gotten the camera.

• Yi Chen remembered that the three travelers had been hired to find a blood-marked V/H/S tape for three million dollars, and he sensed conflicting urges about his sick mother.
• Yi Chen caught a flight attendant’s kick aimed at William, while William and Lainey both wondered whether their memories of William’s weight were wrong.
• At the airport, Yi Chen let William enter the women’s restroom after Lainey, and the camera’s interference seemed to alter the travelers’ minds before they continued their journey.
• Yi Chen drove through the rain, anticipated danger on the road, and followed a strange old man’s path to a wooden cabin with William and Lainey.
• Yi Chen entered a bedroom containing video tapes, watched the television despite his instincts, and gouged out his eyes before dying.
• Yi Chen woke again to the plane’s landing announcement and asked William where he had gotten the camera.

Yi Chen broke free of a repeated memory restriction on the plane and recovered his original memories, though his strength remained sealed. William explained how he and Lainey had escaped the restriction, then led them toward the Wooden Cabin to destroy the cycle’s central hub.

• Yi Chen stayed behind on the plane, sensed that the airport and his memories were wrong, and was pulled through a fatal videotape scene before awakening back on the plane.
• Yi Chen recognized that his memories, abilities, and surroundings had been restricted, then focused his mind and cut through the restriction.
• William revealed that Yi Chen had broken free after nine cycles and that they were in the videotape’s unfilmed portion, beyond the Fourth Calamity’s view.
• William explained that Lainey had noticed the problem on her third cycle and secretly reproduced herself in the restroom during each cycle to resist the restriction.
• A young, mucus-covered Lainey emerged from the restroom, and William told Yi Chen they would continue acting before heading to the Wooden Cabin to kill the cycle’s central hub.

Yi Chen, William, and Lainey entered the Fourth Calamity’s film cycle disguised as ordinary people and searched the Wooden Cabin for the mysterious Video Tape. They found the marked tape, but the old man was watching them from the room’s entrance.

• William revealed that he had altered Yi Chen and Lainey’s minds and appearances so they could enter the game as ordinary people.
• The group drove back to the Wooden Cabin, where William explained that each entrant received recording equipment and had to obey the filming rules.
• During the filming phase, Yi Chen guided the car onto the hidden path, and the group entered the cabin through the basement while acting terrified.
• William went first into the upstairs room and crashed into the television, interrupting the tape before pretending to recover in Lainey’s arms.
• Lainey found the blood-marked Video Tape labeled V/H/S as the naked old man watched them from the entrance.

Yi Chen, William, and Lainey escaped the Wooden Cabin, exposed the Fourth Calamity’s interference, and followed a cable into its hidden lair. They arrived at a warehouse of Fatal Video Tapes, where William concealed them with his Black Hole Shielding.

• Yi Chen, Lainey, and William fled the Wooden Cabin, and Yi Chen drove them past the pursuing old man.
• William spotted a cable connected to the old man’s head as the Fourth Calamity’s interference became visible, and Yi Chen leaped from the car to behead him.
• William used the camcorder’s non-recording period to fix the scene, then connected the cable to his Abyssal Cavity and led Yi Chen and Lainey through it.
• The trio arrived in the Fourth Calamity’s hidden warehouse, where rows of televisions played Fatal Video Tapes.
• William raised his spiral-patterned red umbrella and activated Black Hole Shielding to keep the group concealed.

William, Yi Chen, and Lainey explored the Fourth Calamity’s mechanical lair, where William examined its victims and learned how they were modified into assistants. The group continued toward the Calamity’s main body, with William eager to discover what it looked like.

• A repairman fixed the television showing the trio’s death loop, while William revealed that their disguised students had been following them and feeding the loop.
• William altered Lainey’s Birth Gate so the mechanical environment would not affect her, leaving her hungrier but more mobile.
• The group passed thousands of televisions and descended into a room filled with video players, oily machinery, and operating tables.
• William inspected a modified middle-aged man and a boy, identifying flaws in their mechanical alterations and noting that the boy had likely died by suicide.
• William explained that victims whose Self-Awareness wore away after repeated fatal loops could be modified into assistants or components of the Fourth Calamity.

William, Yi Chen, and Lainey infiltrated the underground facility to find the Fourth Calamity, waiting for a shift change to pass through a guarded iron door. They reached a vast laboratory and discovered a hundred-meter giant connected to the cables powering the facility, leaving them stunned before the calamity.

• William and Yi Chen inspected the failed specimens and found a human screening factory where researchers modified people pulled from television devices.
• William identified a guarded iron door as the likely entrance to the Fourth Calamity’s chamber, and Yi Chen advised them to wait for an opportunity.
• After fifteen hours, Yi Chen led William and Lainey through the door behind researchers taking over a shift.
• The group crossed an oil-filled passage and followed the researchers through a membrane into the deepest laboratory.
• William, Yi Chen, and Lainey saw thousands of modified recorders suspended from the ceiling and cables connecting them to a gigantic, oil-leaking figure.

William met the Fourth Calamity in its true exterior form and tried to negotiate a secret alliance, but the Fourth Calamity killed him and destroyed his Literary Medium. As the giant turned toward Yi Chen and Lainey, tumors and necrosis spread across its leg, and someone laughed that it had been infected.

• William secretly asked Yi Chen whether they could kill the giant, and Yi Chen warned that fighting it could get them all killed.
• The giant gathered hundreds of thousands of cameramen into lens-covered wings, closed most of its pores, and advanced as Yi Chen and Lainey felt its lethal pressure.
• William offered the giant a rare camera and proposed cooperating to control malice, shut down the Calamity system, and escape the High-Rise's surveillance.
• The Fourth Calamity rejected William's offer, injected him with engine oil until he exploded, and erased and dissolved the Video Tape in his head.
• The giant turned toward Yi Chen and Lainey, but its right leg developed tumors and localized necrosis as laughter announced that it had been infected.

William infected the Fourth Calamity’s giant body and found the Primal Video Tape, which controlled the calamity. He brought Yi Chen and Lainey into the theater created by connecting it to his Smiling Face Video Tape, leaving them poised to enter the calamity’s true interior.

• William used the fat otaku and the Video Tape to infect the Fourth Calamity’s giant body with the plague.
• William followed Little Grape through the giant’s interior and used Abyss Inversion to open a sealed door.
• William found the Primal Video Tape on a stone platform and realized destroying it could trigger a deadly backlash.
• William summoned Yi Chen and Lainey, explained that the giant body would take at least twelve hours to eliminate the infection, and prepared the two Video Tapes.
• Yi Chen and Lainey pressed their brains against William’s Smiling Face Video Tape, and the connected players created a new video world.
• William, Yi Chen, and Lainey awoke together inside an abandoned theater.

After merging their literary mediums, William, Yi Chen, and Lainey entered the Fourth Calamity’s Video Tape, a cramped walled-city building, to find its true body within twelve hours. Catherine stayed behind to maintain the theater, where a peeping presence frightened her until Candle Puppet Thirteen drove it away.

• Catherine supported the damaged theater with her tentacles and stayed behind while William, Yi Chen, and Lainey set out to face the Fourth Calamity.
• Catherine prepared to kill herself with William’s pistol rather than risk being captured, but an invasive eye appeared through a crack in the theater wall.
• Candle Puppet Thirteen’s warm light, connected to the Evil Sun, dispelled the eye, and Catherine clung to Thirteen in fear.
• William explained that the Fourth Calamity’s Video Tape was limited to a single building, and the group entered its walled-city district to search for the true body.
• William tore down a rental advertisement, and a strange middle-aged man appeared and led the group toward an elevator.

William, Yi Chen, and Lainey moved into the old building and tried to draw out the elusive Fourth Calamity by acting like ordinary tenants. After spring cleaning and going to sleep, they discovered a peeper watching Lainey, who woke with a red smiley face drawn on her own face.

• The manager warned William that the old building had broken fixtures, filthy corridors, and peepers that could watch through the Wall Seams.
• William told Yi Chen he had a theory for finding the Fourth Calamity, then guided the group to move in and begin spring cleaning.
• The three tenants cleaned for five hours as an unseen presence watched them through the walls, and William signaled that it was not yet time to act.
• William made instant noodles, and the three went to sleep in their cramped apartment.
• An eyeball emerged from a ceiling crack and peered at Lainey, but she woke before it could look further and revealed a red smiling face drawn on her own.

William revealed that he had switched identities with Lainey and used taunts and whispers to draw the Fourth Calamity out of hiding. Yi Chen struck the exposed Calamity with a powerful sword slash, leaving William to wonder whether Yi Chen had already seized all of the former Tenth Calamity’s Slaughterous Aura.

• William explained how he had replicated Lainey’s appearance and used her as bait for the Fourth Calamity.
• William confronted the peeping entity through the Wall Seam and accused it of being an inferior, cowardly voyeur.
• William claimed Boss planned to replace the absent Fourth Calamity with him and have Mr. Yi support him, pushing the hidden entity past its breaking point.
• The Fourth Calamity emerged from Between the Seams, and Yi Chen unleashed a sword slash that cut away a large section of the Old Building.
• William saw Yi Chen wearing an unusual yellow mask and sensed that his murderous aura surpassed the former Tenth Calamity’s.

Yi Chen’s unleashed killing intent partially beheaded the Fourth Calamity, giving William a chance to expose the world Between the Seams. There, they discovered that the peepers were merely strands of the Fourth Calamity’s hair, while its true body waited at the center.

• The First Calamity had recognized Gap’s widespread voyeuristic malice and named him the Fourth Calamity after a psychological assessment.
• Yi Chen unleashed his accumulated killing intent and slashed apart the fortress, beheading only a small portion of the Fourth Calamity.
• William explained that the strike had briefly stunned the Fourth Calamity and used a modified pistol to fire a bullet into the Wall Seam.
• The bullet turned the fortress and its space inside out, carrying Yi Chen, William, and Lainey Between the Seams.
• Yi Chen and William saw the Fourth Calamity’s true body at the center, with the creatures peeping through seams revealed as its hair.

William, Yi Chen, and Lainey confronted Gap in the In-Between, where William’s tumor attack failed and Yi Chen attempted to decapitate him. Gap vanished at the moment of the strike, leaving Yi Chen badly wounded and the nature of Gap’s power unclear.

• The group found Gap’s true body as a trembling, emaciated man surrounded by the illusion of infinitely expanding Rotting Flesh.
• William tested Gap with tumor bullets, but Gap remained unharmed because the Rotting Flesh offered no nourishment and destroyed the tumors.
• Yi Chen approached Gap quietly while William and Lainey watched, then raised his blade for a decapitating strike.
• Gap sensed death and cried that he did not want to die, then vanished as Yi Chen’s strike stopped and part of Yi Chen’s side was gouged away.

Yi Chen learned that Gapp used extreme speed and precise knowledge of bodily weaknesses to attack, then chose to keep observing rather than team up with William. William revealed his Brain Hole and Evil Sun Eye, drawing Gapp’s attention, while Yi Chen began beheading Gapp’s hair through the gaps.

• Gapp struck Yi Chen at incredible speed, destroying tissue around his kidney, and Lainey repaired the wound with Concept Repair.
• William explained that Gapp’s speed and intimate knowledge of the body let him target weaknesses, and shared slowed-down footage of the attack with Yi Chen.
• Yi Chen refused William’s offer to flank Gapp and told him to observe until he could kill Gapp in one strike.
• William tore away his face to reveal his Brain Hole and Evil Sun Eye, which drew Gapp’s attention and helped him overcome his fear.
• Gapp crawled toward William’s eye, but Yi Chen beheaded a third of the hair spread through the gaps, causing Gapp to collapse in pain.

Yi Chen overcame Gapp’s superior speed, pinned him down, and beheaded him with the Black Blade and Slaughterous Aura. As the rift seemed cleared, Gapp emerged from Yi Chen’s eye socket, pleading that he did not want to die.

• Gapp recalled his Watchers and compressed their bodies into a mass of Rotting Flesh, while Yi Chen shed weight and abandoned his vision to focus on speed.
• Yi Chen charged Gapp, narrowly dodged his attack by sensing changes in the airflow, and pursued him with Instant despite shattering and repairing his ankles.
• Yi Chen caught Gapp with a spinning powerbomb, and Nash bound him with chains so Yi Chen could deliver the beheading.
• Gapp’s body and head liquefied as the sea of death swallowed the Rotting Flesh, and Yi Chen thought the operation was over.
• When Yi Chen opened his eyes, another pupil appeared in his eyeball, and Gapp crawled out through his eye socket, pleading for his life.

Yi Chen discovered that Gapp could return through any kind of gap, even one between thoughts, and prepared his body to prevent the Fourth Calamity from reappearing. After their duel left Yi Chen gravely damaged and Gapp beheaded again, Gapp emerged from Yi Chen’s mind and began pulling himself out through his skull.

• William realized that Gapp’s death cycle was innate and that his will to survive was bound to the existence of gaps.
• Yi Chen concluded that Gapp could return through gaps and sealed the openings across his body before attacking.
• Gapp chose to fight back so he could kill the intruders and return to his former life of peeping.
• Yi Chen and Gapp charged at each other; Gapp shattered Yi Chen’s left side, while Yi Chen beheaded Gapp.
• Gapp reappeared through a gap in Yi Chen’s thoughts and began emerging from his skull.

Director Cao tried to restore Yi Chen to his primitive state while he sat with a young woman in her ruined office. In the In-Between, Yi Chen embraced the Murderer Mask and lost all thought and consciousness, then charged Gapp and cut through his arm.

• Director Cao threatened to erase Yi Chen's thoughts and return him to the state she preferred as the office began to regenerate.
• Gapp targeted William, but Lainey's newborn-like rebirth drew his attention, and he attacked the baby.
• Lainey shielded the boy from Gapp, and Yi Chen thanked her before telling her to join William and avoid rebirth.
• Yi Chen put on the yellow Murderer Mask, unleashed Slaughterous Aura across the outer world, and became a thoughtless primitive organism.
• Yi Chen charged Gapp with a blade formed from Slaughterous Aura and severed his finger, palm, and arm before pressing the blade to his neck.