Chapter Summaries

William discussed the Acrobatic Troupe’s transformation and debated with Jaan whether eliminating malice could prevent the World Reset. He hinted that the higher powers might have created another method, then laughed so contagiously that a deadly gaze turned toward the banquet hall.

• William learned that Jaan had become Boss, Ates had died, and the Acrobatic Troupe had grown into a mobile Source Plague Zone with four new standards of combat strength.
• Jaan asked William whether eradicating malice could solve the crisis, arguing that unchecked divine statuses might still trigger a World Reset.
• William joked about killing the gods, then suggested that the higher powers might have a second method besides malice.
• William pointed toward himself and burst into laughter that spread across the world and reached the calamities of the City of Evil.
• A bloodshot eye watched through the crack between the kitchen and dining hall doors, and Catherine and Thomas joined the laughter.

William said farewell to his acquaintances at the circus before preparing to return home and face the remaining calamities. He encountered Clown Thomas, discovered that the clown was immune to the Clown Virus, and sent him to join the circus's Clown House.

• William visited Zede at the Corpse Department, discussed the organization’s growth and new plague masters, and asked about the monastery.
• Zede said he would leave the monastery alone for now, and William said goodbye and entrusted him with the Eighth Calamity.
• William planned to return home to have Yi Bao deal with the Ninth Calamity, but exhaustion made him fall asleep as he walked toward the exit.
• Clown Thomas approached William, who pierced his brain and tested the Clown Virus, but Thomas regenerated without being harmed.
• William refused to make Thomas his student and told him to join the Clown House, surpass Yate, help with the Eighth Calamity, and attend William’s performance at the Final Stage.

After William implanted false memories of the circus battle, Yi Chen returned to the hotel and was targeted by the First Calamity in a mental examination illusion. The manager rescued him, and Yi Chen concluded that the First Calamity had grown stronger after obtaining something from Lorien.

• William used a fictional video tape to overwrite Yi Chen and Lainey's memories with a false account of their victory over the circus.
• Yi Chen returned to the Hotel Lobby with a severed arm and a damaged soul, then carried the sleeping Lainey to his room.
• As Yi Chen prepared to heal himself through the Dead Sea, a mirror image of a woman warned him to be careful, and the bathroom door opened onto a mental hospital illusion.
• A nurse registered Yi Chen and subjected him to an apparent brain examination before a giant hand tore him from the hospital.
• The manager pulled Yi Chen from the overflowing bathtub and apologized for the intrusion, while Yi Chen suspected the First Calamity had transformed after obtaining something from Lorien.

William learned that the First Calamity was changing after absorbing Lorien and might soon surpass the limits of calamity, while the Lighthouse had also invaded Yi Chen and Lainey's minds at the hotel. After William returned, he warned the manager about the danger, and the manager opened a long-sealed ledger.

• Lainey told Yi Chen that her dream examination at Lighthouse Mental Hospital had involved a nurse extracting brain matter before she returned to the hotel.
• The First Calamity rewarded William with land on the reverse side of the City of Evil, where William planned to build an amusement park called Paradise.
• William learned that the First Calamity might advance the Great Annihilation to reach the Diseased Moon, and agreed to guide it to the Old World.
• William secretly relied on his Tumor Clone to begin building Paradise, then returned to the hotel and learned that Yi Chen and Lainey had suffered brain-cell invasions.
• William warned the manager that the First Calamity might transcend calamity, and the manager retrieved a dusty, sealed ledger from beneath the counter.

Yi Chen confronted William about helping Lorien meet the First Calamity, and William revealed that he wanted their fusion to create a grander Final Stage. Yi Chen realized William’s plan involved something deeper than defeating evil, and they began planning how to keep the other Calamities from interfering with their battle against Prison Boss.

• William told Yi Chen that Prison Boss had begun fusing with Lorien and might transcend through their compatibility.
• Yi Chen accused William of deliberately bringing Lorien to the City of Evil, and William explained that Lorien’s rivalry with him made their eventual fusion likely.
• William admitted that he had arranged events to make the Final Stage surpass their performance against Yate Kramer, with Prison Boss and Lorien as key participants.
• Yi Chen recognized that William was using the First Calamity to address a deeper problem, and William praised his insight before asking to be released.
• William poured wine and spread character cards of the Calamities across the table as he and Yi Chen discussed preventing them from interfering with the battle against Prison Boss.

William explained the threats posed by the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth Calamities and assigned plans to contain them. The group had to recruit the Zombie before it could contaminate the lesion, since failure could destroy the plague system and collapse the Old World.

• William showed Yi Chen that Sweeney Todd had two projections, and that killing Todd would unleash Madam Lovett's terrifying revenge form.
• William warned that Aunt Mei must be kept from the Final Stage, and Lainey agreed to ask Sheep Mother and the others to help stop her.
• William described the Old Man as a blind weapons master who could fight an army, and urged the group to avoid confronting him directly.
• William revealed that the Zombie's virus could contaminate the entire lesion and said Yi Chen needed to recruit it through the Film Crew.
• Yi Chen asked what would happen if recruitment failed, and William said the Old World could collapse and he would kill himself.

Yi Chen learned that William wanted him to investigate the Ninth Calamity while William gambled that the Second Calamity would stay out of the Final Stage. Five days later, Yi Chen attended a press conference for New Halloween, where fans crowded around him for autographs.

• William explained that the Ninth Calamity was a virus cluster that could devour pathogens, and asked Yi Chen to investigate it before the First Calamity acted.
• William said he had no plan to deal with the Second Calamity and hoped to avoid his interference by appealing to his tastes; Yi Chen recognized the risk in William's gamble.
• After William left, Lainey said she believed he was preparing for the Final Stage and would help stop Aunt Mei.
• Five days later, the Film Crew released a teaser for New Halloween and held a press conference attended by huge crowds of fans.
• Yi Chen signed autographs for the fans throughout the first day, and a withered, rotten arm reached toward him on the second day.

Yi Chen lured the Zombie Virus into joining the film crew as an action consultant, then disappointed him by claiming there was not enough time to make a zombie movie. After the Zombie Virus left, Yi Chen continued his plan and met him again at a motel, where he offered him a meal.

• The Zombie Virus arrived too late to receive a commemorative card, but Yi Chen invited him to wait and return to the film crew’s base.
• Yi Chen told the Zombie Virus that the crew was considering a zombie movie and asked him to serve as a technical consultant; the Zombie Virus eagerly agreed.
• The director explained that the Great Annihilation was too near to build the sets or finish the movie, and Yi Chen apologized to the disappointed Zombie Virus.
• After the Zombie Virus left, the director worried that the plan might fail, but Yi Chen insisted that human nature could change the Zombie Virus’s allegiance.
• Yi Chen sensed a frightening smile on the director’s face, but when he turned around, the director’s expression appeared unchanged.
• Yi Chen found the dejected Zombie Virus outside a motel and invited him to share a meal as an apology.

Yi Chen invited the Zombie to dinner and persuaded him to support moving the Film Crew to the Plague Focal World, where they could continue making films after the Great Annihilation. The Zombie agreed immediately and slept outside the Film Crew’s entrance, while a clown secretly watched him to ensure he would not report to the First Calamity.

• Yi Chen brought the Zombie to the hotel restaurant, where the manager explained that Jeffrey Dahmer had been stripped of his calamity title and imprisoned there.
• The Zombie ate only fruits and vegetables, explaining that meat would make the virus inside him reproduce and risk an outbreak.
• Yi Chen proposed moving the Film Crew to the Plague Focal World and making zombie films with the Zombie’s support, and the Zombie agreed enthusiastically.
• Lainey said she would discuss the plan with the director alongside Yi Chen the next day, and the Zombie offered to sleep outside the Film Crew’s entrance.
• Yi Chen returned to his room and praised Lainey, who revealed that she had stayed there the whole time and asked whether he had resolved the Zombie problem.
• A clown outside the Film Crew’s entrance used an eyeball hidden in a balloon to watch the sleeping Zombie and check that he would not report to the First Calamity.

At the Film Crew’s base, Yi Chen helped the Ninth Calamity prepare zombie extras and learned that the zombie’s virus could infect anyone, even the First Calamity. Yi Chen then tested his death powers against the undying zombie, but his near-fatal strike revealed an apocalyptic vision of the dead becoming zombies.

• Yi Chen and the Ninth Calamity chose the Film Crew’s captive humans to serve as zombie extras, and the zombie decided they should use makeup rather than risk spreading his virus.
• The zombie explained that his virus could infect anyone, including the First Calamity, though he could not get close enough to bite him.
• After work, Yi Chen invited the zombie to spar in the Deathmatch Arena and tested whether his death powers could overcome the Ninth Calamity’s undying nature.
• Yi Chen decapitated the zombie with a Consciousness Slash, but the zombie simply reattached his head.
• Yi Chen unleashed a stronger attack over the Sea of Death, but stopped his blade when he saw a vision of the dead becoming zombies and overrunning the sea.
• The zombie offered to help Yi Chen draw the First Calamity’s attention because he could not be killed.

Yi Chen learned why the Ninth Calamity was effectively immortal and heard the zombie explain why he had chosen to support Yi Chen’s plan instead of seeking the Great Annihilation. The zombie and William both warned Yi Chen to distrust the other, and a balloon William gave him burst to reveal three tickets to Smiling Black Hole Amusement Park.

• Yi Chen concluded that the zombie’s S-ranked infection could transfer his consciousness to another individual whenever his body and viruses were destroyed, making him impossible to kill while individuals existed.
• The zombie told Yi Chen that his interest in movies and his experience in Halloween Eve had given him a reason to live and made him choose Yi Chen’s plan, but warned that the manager might still intend to bring about the Great Annihilation.
• Yi Chen began questioning the hotel’s intentions after hearing the zombie’s warning.
• William appeared and told Yi Chen that the zombie might be pretending and could still side with the First Calamity, then said he would watch the zombie through the night.
• William gave Yi Chen a white balloon, which burst at the hotel entrance and dropped three tickets to Smiling Black Hole Amusement Park.

Yi Chen, Lainey, and the zombie entered William Berens's Amusement Park to test its facilities, but the dark, perception-suppressing plaza trapped them without a visible exit. Yi Chen found a set of dangerous Amusement Park Rules, which reminded him of the Cemetery as William remained absent.

• Yi Chen decided to visit William's Amusement Park with Lainey and invited the zombie to use the three tickets.
• Yi Chen, Lainey, and the zombie entered the Amusement Park through a Smiling Black Hole entrance in the alley.
• The three found themselves in a pitch-black plaza where the entrance had vanished and their perception was sharply limited.
• Unseen footsteps approached and disappeared, leaving a flashlight and a sheet of Amusement Park Rules for Yi Chen to find.
• Yi Chen recognized similarities to the Cemetery and noticed that the rules seemed more dangerous, while William did not appear.

Yi Chen and his companions entered the malignant amusement park and followed its rules while searching for batteries. They began the carousel attraction, whose flesh-and-bone design threatened to merge riders with the horses, as a clown watched from the grass.

• Yi Chen recognized that William had adapted the organization's old plague-prevention rules for the amusement park, and Lainey urged the group to find batteries as their flashlight dimmed.
• The group found a snack shop that violated the rules and left when its shelves shook and leaked pus.
• Yi Chen and his companions passed a security booth staffed by two guards wearing rabbit masks.
• The group accepted the Poker Face's invitation to ride the carousel, which required them to remove their pants and wear safety helmets for ten minutes.
• Yi Chen saw that the carousel's flesh-and-bone horses absorbed riders through flesh conversion, then spotted a clown watching from the grass as he mounted one.

The First Calamity investigated the close ties between Yi Chen, Lainey, and the zombie, then went to William’s Paradise to learn what they were doing. There, the attractions repeatedly triggered the zombie’s urge to eat meat, while Yi Chen suspected the trip had a hidden purpose and spotted a clown watching them.

• Gap and Todd reported that Yi Chen, Lainey, and the zombie had been spending time together and that Yi Chen and the zombie had visited William’s Paradise.
• The First Calamity decided to visit the Paradise with Todd after learning that Nine and Ten had also been visiting each other’s territories.
• Yi Chen, Lainey, and the zombie rode the carousel, whose illusion briefly made Yi Chen believe he had a family and awakened the zombie’s craving for meat.
• The zombie resisted the craving by eating weeds, then vomited after the supermarket’s fresh meat triggered it again.
• Yi Chen suspected the visit targeted the zombie, questioned whether the apparent purpose was too simple, and spotted a clown’s head watching them from the weeds.

Yi Chen and Lainey investigated Mr. Zombie’s disappearance in Paradise and discovered that the Lainey with them was a tumor creature disguised as her. After Tomie sensed a connection to William, Yi Chen set off to find him, while another version of Tomie urged him to investigate William’s true intentions before acting impulsively.

• Yi Chen and Lainey discussed whether William planned to provoke Mr. Zombie’s instincts or confine him to the hotel.
• Yi Chen and Lainey searched the dark restroom and found Mr. Zombie missing.
• Yi Chen exposed the supposed Lainey as a Balloon Tumor Person, which admitted it had been made from a tumor near William’s Birth Gate.
• A Tomie head appeared and questioned the Balloon Tumor Person, but it refused to reveal William’s plan.
• Yi Chen crushed the Balloon Tumor Person into a meatball and let Tomie eat it.
• Tomie sensed a direction connected to the creature, so Yi Chen broke the flashlight and headed after it as another Tomie warned him not to act impulsively.

Yi Chen encountered the Amusement Park’s zombie outbreak and raced toward a Haunted House while avoiding infection. At the entrance, the Boss and the barber arrived, discovered that killing zombies caused reverse infection, and realized they had to stop Virus No. 9 from spreading.

• Yi Chen restrained a transformed rabbit guard instead of killing it, then fled toward the location Tomie had identified as a horde of zombies surged through the Amusement Park.
• Yi Chen reached a brightly lit Haunted House, sent Tomie back, and entered with the parasite formed from Nash.
• The Boss and the barber forced their way into the Amusement Park and learned from the Rulebook that its rules concealed a malicious design.
• The barber slit the throats of approaching zombies and sent them to his barbershop, but one escaped and attacked the Boss.
• The Boss smashed the attacking zombie, suffered a conceptual infection in her index finger, removed it, and healed it with her Frame Skip ability.
• The Boss identified the outbreak as Virus No. 9 and said they needed to suppress it before it spread beyond the park.

Yi Chen entered William’s Clown Zombie Haunted House and found the Ninth Calamity being used in experiments to spread its virus through Paradise. After Yi Chen attacked what he thought was William, the Ninth Calamity broke free from its container and faced him.

• Yi Chen subdued the clown ticket seller, read the Haunted House flyer, and entered the attraction after the Director dismissed his question about William as a mishearing.
• Yi Chen smashed the ore cart and followed the track toward the Ninth Calamity, while the boss and the barber entered a different, maze-filled route and were attacked by explosive Clown Zombies.
• Yi Chen reached an experimental field where William and the fellow enthusiasts' society were extracting the Ninth Calamity’s virus and spreading it through Paradise to dilute the original’s consciousness.
• Yi Chen grabbed and twisted William’s neck, but William’s head turned into a balloon, revealing that he was a Tumor Clone.
• The society members gathered around the Ninth Calamity’s container and chanted until it shattered, allowing the freed Zombie to confront Yi Chen.

Yi Chen suppressed the modified Ninth Calamity, but William ambushed him and forced the zombie to bite. William escaped infection by abandoning his body, and two masked figures arrived as Yi Chen prepared to act.

• Yi Chen dodged the zombie’s spatial bite and severed its mutated arm before binding and pinning it with chains.
• The zombie regenerated, corroded Nash’s chains with its virus, and attacked Yi Chen again.
• William grabbed Yi Chen from behind and urged the zombie to bite him to test his resistance to the Zombie Virus.
• The zombie bit William instead, and he exploded his head to abandon his infected body while warning Yi Chen that he was losing control.
• Two masked men descended in front of Yi Chen, and one signaled that he would handle the rest.

Yi Chen realized William had staged the Zombie Amusement Park incident to divert the First Calamity’s suspicions and test whether the zombie was truly on his side. The First Calamity subdued the zombie and William, then told Yi Chen he still trusted him, leaving Yi Chen free to leave the Amusement Park with some memories blurred.

• Yi Chen pieced together that William had used the Amusement Park to make himself appear responsible for gathering the Calamities and to prove the zombie’s loyalty to Yi Chen.
• Yi Chen found and ate a sugar cube William had hidden in his pocket, which was meant to alter his memories before the First Calamity could inspect his mind.
• The First Calamity overwhelmed the zombie and sent it to Lighthouse Mental Hospital.
• William emerged, admitted he had wanted to study the Zombie Virus, and was turned into a human stick and imprisoned deeper in the Mental Hospital than the zombie.
• The First Calamity told Yi Chen to explain the incident later and said he trusted him, while the Fifth Calamity gave him a barber’s Business Card.
• Yi Chen was teleported outside the Amusement Park, where Todd the Barber invited him to share the story, and Yi Chen walked away with parts of the night already blurred.

The boss confronted William in a series of increasingly horrific hospital corridors and offered to release him in exchange for killing the manager. William proposed trapping the manager in the Old World during the search for the New Moon, and the boss accepted, though William remained imprisoned pending an investigation.

• The boss used the nurse’s keys to pass through repeated corridors and found William bound and being eaten by cockroaches in the final cell.
• William defended his plan to use the Ninth Calamity and claimed he had worked for malice, then pretended to give up hope.
• The boss offered to restore William’s status as a Calamity if he killed the manager, while requiring Paradise to stay closed and forbidding him from contacting other Calamities.
• William proposed luring the manager to the Old World and sealing the world with the abyss after the boss found the New Moon, and the boss agreed to the plan in a Soul Contract.
• The boss said William would remain imprisoned until the amusement park memory search and a full examination of his brain were complete, then shut the cell door.