Chapter Summaries

Xu Yanxing and the recorder escaped a dangerous rubbery evil spirit, and the recorder explained the laboratory’s experiments and the creature’s rules. After treating the recorder’s worsening injuries in an abandoned infirmary, Xu Yanxing learned that the escaped subject α-99 had once killed a security captain with a single blow.

• The recorder warned Xu Yanxing not to look at or think about the rubbery figure, then explained the institute’s grafting experiments and the warehouse’s history as an experimental area.
• The recorder explained that the rubbery figure took the form of someone a person thought about and transferred its injuries to that person, so they had to keep their minds blank or avoid it.
• The recorder’s wounds worsened, and he led Xu Yanxing to an abandoned infirmary to treat them, warning him not to touch the unidentified medicines.
• Xu Yanxing asked about α-99, and the recorder said the subject had once killed a security captain in a single blow.

Xu Yanxing and the man discussed Dr. X’s escape and the dangers of the bottles Xu Yanxing had taken from the institute. As they entered C Area, the man warned him about the supernatural hazards ahead.

• The man told Xu Yanxing that Dr. X had defected with core documents and destroyed experimental subjects, and guessed that he had never been caught.
• Xu Yanxing said he would escape if he could and believed another faction might accept him because of his value.
• The man identified the red-bottle medicine as deadly poison and warned that the blue bottle contained pure Soul Liquid that could attract Evil Spirits.
• The man led Xu Yanxing toward C Area and warned him that it was the warehouse’s most dangerous section.
• The man explained that Xu Yanxing must keep his back to a painting of a window if it appeared, and avoid looking into a roaming mirror that could kill him.

Xu Yanxing learned how the warehouse trapped Evil Spirits and heard about the research institute’s supernatural supplies as he and the recorder traveled toward C Area. The recorder said escaping through the Fifth Floor would require finding someone who could get them out.

• The recorder explained that the institute’s research focused on vision-related supernatural phenomena, though he could not verify the secrets he had heard.
• Xu Yanxing asked why Evil Spirits could not leave the warehouse, and the recorder described its Ghost Wall maze, which only living people could pass through.
• As they headed toward C Area, the recorder warned Xu Yanxing about its dangerous spirits and explained how Soul Soothing Incense could hide them.
• The recorder described staff supplies including Ghost Repelling Spells, evil-warding copper coins, and Curse Cleansing Water, but said they came from the logistics department.
• The recorder urged Xu Yanxing to focus on escaping, explaining that they would need to find someone on the Fifth Floor who could get them out.

Xu Yanxing learned about Doctor Wu, a mysterious old man whom ordinary people could see but the institute’s senior staff could not, and the recorder believed he could help them escape. The recorder revealed that the institute stood on an island and that its captured staff had no way to leave for good.

• The recorder told Xu Yanxing about an old man in a white coat whom many people saw in the corridors, though the director and other senior staff denied his existence.
• The recorder explained that the old man called himself Doctor Wu, had a working high-clearance ID, and had once opened the institute’s main exit for an experimental subject.
• The recorder said researchers had failed to capture Doctor Wu and believed he would help them escape.
• Xu Yanxing asked whether the institute was on Mirror Lake, but the recorder said he did not know and explained that ordinary staff had been brought to the island and could never leave.

Xu Yanxing and the recorder entered the Fifth Floor, where escaped Vicious Ghosts and dead security personnel revealed that the floor had fallen into chaos. They armed themselves with broken blades and continued cautiously, leaving Xu Yanxing awed by the research institute’s immense power.

• Xu Yanxing and the recorder opened the warehouse gate and encountered β-50, code-named Stepmother, holding the shadow of a previous victim.
• The recorder explained that Stepmother targeted people as stepsons and could be avoided by taking someone’s hand before it took theirs.
• Xu Yanxing and the recorder found two beheaded security personnel and identified β-82, Scissors Hand, as the likely killer.
• The recorder took two broken blades from the corpses and gave one to Xu Yanxing, explaining that the weapons were enhanced against Evil Spirits.
• Xu Yanxing recognized that the institute’s standard-issue weapons could threaten Fifth Tier experts, revealing its status as a Top Faction.

Xu Yanxing and the recorder encountered two escaped test subjects on the fifth floor, then spotted the oil painting ghost pursuing them. The recorder explained how they could try to repel it, leaving the group preparing to face its attack together.

• Xu Yanxing and the recorder met a white-haired young man and the Bald Man, who explained that they had escaped from an experiment and hoped to reach the exit.
• The recorder noticed the oil painting from the warehouse on the corridor wall, and the group turned their backs to avoid its gaze.
• Xu Yanxing and the recorder suspected that someone had brought the painting out of the warehouse.
• As the painting followed them and drew closer, the recorder warned the group that it could pull anyone it touched into its window.
• The recorder instructed everyone to turn around together and strike the painting when it reached to grab them.

Xu Yanxing used the Broken Blade to interrupt a Vicious Ghost’s attack and cut off its arm, causing the ghost and its painting to disappear. The recorder suspected Xu Yanxing could control the supernatural power in his grafted body, but Xu Yanxing kept quiet as they continued looking for a way out.

• As the Vicious Ghost’s arm reached for his throat, Xu Yanxing sensed a crack in it and struck with the Broken Blade.
• Xu Yanxing cut off the arm, interrupting the attack, and the Vicious Ghost and its painting vanished.
• The recorder, the white-haired man, and Bald Man expressed astonishment at Xu Yanxing’s success.
• The recorder asked whether Xu Yanxing could use the supernatural power in his grafted body and considered how the transplant might work.
• Xu Yanxing neither confirmed nor denied it and suggested they find a way out.

Xu Yanxing and the others searched the Fifth Floor for the Mysterious Old Man, whose identity card could help them escape, while Xu Yanxing tried to understand his control over β-20’s supernatural power. The recorder proposed waiting for a crisis among the security forces before making their move.

• Xu Yanxing reflected on surviving the stone carving and realized he could wield β-20’s powerful supernatural ability.
• The group searched deeper into the Fifth Floor while the recorder, the white-haired man, and the Bald Man looked for food and water after becoming ordinary people.
• The recorder explained that the others were weakened by hunger, thirst, and exhaustion, and warned that fleeing to the First Floor immediately would leave them trapped.
• The recorder suggested betting that the Sixth Floor incident had become a major crisis and that the security forces would encounter serious trouble.
• The group planned to find the Mysterious Old Man and wait for the security forces’ troubles to create an opportunity to escape.

The Recorder led Xu Yanxing and the others through the Institute to find ordinary food, discovering signs that multiple Evil Spirits and possibly human traitors had caused the chaos. They hid in an Instrument Calibration Room while gunfire erupted nearby, and the Recorder explained that a Level Five accident could trigger the Institute-wide Purge Program, creating their chance to escape.

• The Recorder and the others searched the corridor for a kitchen, passing many corpses whose varied deaths suggested that at least five Evil Spirits were involved.
• The Recorder found that the dead security personnel's weapons were missing, and Xu Yanxing suspected that someone had helped set off the chaos.
• The group heard shouting and gunfire near a route to the kitchen, so the Recorder led them into an unlocked Instrument Calibration Room to hide.
• The Recorder explained that the room housed equipment for calibrating the Rule Separator, which could separate the rules of a ghost story.
• The Recorder said the Institute might have reached Level Five, which could trigger the Purge Program and temporarily evacuate all security personnel, giving them a chance to escape.

The recorder explained the institute’s seven accident tiers as Xu Yanxing and the others considered how to escape before the Purge Program. As the institute began shutting down its facilities, darkness and an unknown presence overtook the fifth-floor corridor, leaving the group trapped in the calibration room.

• The recorder explained that Tier 5 accidents triggered the Purge Program, Tier 6 required an even more dangerous emergency plan, and Tier 7 exceeded the institute’s ability to respond.
• Xu Yanxing asked how they would know when the Purge Program began, and the recorder said the shutdown would show warning signs.
• The calibration room lights flickered, and the recorder checked the corridor with Xu Yanxing, finding it dim and affected by a supernatural force.
• The recorder said the institute was shutting down its facilities in preparation for the Purge Program and warned that unrestrained Evil Spirits could escape from a fifth-floor warehouse.
• The darkness spread down the corridor, and Xu Yanxing sensed something wandering outside and slammed the door shut.
• Strange dripping or clock-like sounds echoed through the darkened corridor.

Xu Yanxing and the recorder learned that the institute overlapped with a supernatural place, and that shutting down its equipment could let entities from that place enter the corridors. The calibration room began to darken as a supernatural invasion reached its door.

• Xu Yanxing heard an eerie ticking and dripping sound in the corridor, and told the recorder another entity seemed to be roaming nearby.
• The white-haired man revealed that Dr. H had taken him to Sub-level Three, where he heard that shutting down most of the institute's equipment could expose its overlap with a supernatural place.
• The recorder explained that the institute might intersect with another dimension, allowing its entities to appear as the equipment shut down.
• Xu Yanxing realized the corridor's danger was increasing and that the dim calibration room might not remain safe.
• The Bald Man pointed out that the metal door had turned black as shadows seeped into the room, and the white-haired man recognized a supernatural invasion.

Xu Yanxing and the others faced an unknown Evil Spirit as it approached the calibration room, then heard it manifest inside when the lights began to fail. Xu Yanxing chose to attack while the room still restrained it and struck the Vicious Ghost with two Broken Blades, leaving the fight unresolved.

• Xu Yanxing ordered everyone to stay quiet and wait as dripping sounds approached the iron door.
• The dripping stopped outside the door, then began again inside the calibration room as the lights flickered.
• Xu Yanxing and the recorder realized the dimming light had let an Evil Spirit enter, though the facility’s remaining light still restrained it.
• Xu Yanxing decided to attack before the lights went out and charged toward the sound behind a piece of equipment.
• Xu Yanxing used β-20 to blur the Vicious Ghost’s Mental Power, then plunged two Broken Blades into its body.

Xu Yanxing used β-20 and the Broken Blade to force the Vicious Ghost back, then led the group out of the calibration room as the institute’s equipment shut down and the Supernatural place began to emerge. They headed toward the kitchen’s secondary passage, unsure whether it was still open.

• Xu Yanxing struck the Vicious Ghost with the Broken Blade, forcing it to retreat into the door’s Shadow Figure as the blade rusted where it had touched the spirit.
• The group saw the calibration room’s machines transform into illusory ice coffins holding frozen corpses as the room’s light faded.
• Xu Yanxing and the recorder decided to leave before the institute’s shutdown changed the surrounding space further.
• Xu Yanxing opened the door, sensed that the corridor was clear with β-20, and led the group toward the kitchen and its secondary passage.

Xu Yanxing and the others navigated the dark fifth floor, spotting a dangerous pale-green light and deciding to take a detour. When a staff member ran after them, Xu Yanxing used β-20 to stop him, but the cry for help began again as they moved on.

• Xu Yanxing and the others found the fifth-floor corridors changed and empty of the bodies they had seen earlier.
• Bald Man spotted a pale-green light in a room, and the group realized a dangerous ghost was near its door.
• The group turned back to take another route around the room.
• A white-coated staff member ran toward them, and Xu Yanxing used β-20 to make him collapse.
• As the group entered the side passage, the staff member's cry for help sounded again behind them.

Xu Yanxing and the others fled a shapeshifting Evil Spirit through the institute’s dark corridors, trying to reach the passage off the fifth floor. They reached the half-open passage door with the creature close behind, but the white-haired man suddenly screamed.

• Xu Yanxing used Beta-20’s Mental Distortion to slow the pursuing staff member, then led the group running toward the kitchen passage.
• The staff member transformed into a crowd of overlapping, shadowy figures that chased the group and recovered from Mental Distortion increasingly quickly.
• The recorder explained that the unknown creature might be one of the institute’s many unregistered or forgotten test subjects.
• Xu Yanxing and the others returned to the original corridor, exhausted, while the shadows closed in behind them.
• The group reached the half-open passage door and saw its faint white light, but the white-haired man suddenly screamed.

Xu Yanxing, Bald Man, and the recorder escaped the fifth floor into a descending passage, leaving the white-haired man to be caught by the evil spirit. As they neared the first floor, they encountered an unknown figure, and the recorder stopped Xu Yanxing from attacking.

• The evil spirit seized the weakened white-haired man and smothered him in corpse-stained clothes while Bald Man, Xu Yanxing, and the recorder escaped through the doorway.
• The three fled deeper into the passage as the conjoined shadow cried for help outside, then discussed the failing lights and the danger of the purge plan.
• The recorder explained that the sloping passage led directly to the first floor, and Xu Yanxing worried about security personnel and evil spirits ahead.
• After several minutes, the three came face-to-face with a silent figure on a landing, and Xu Yanxing raised his Broken Blade to strike.
• The recorder shouted at Xu Yanxing to wait and not attack.

Xu Yanxing and the Recorder encountered the mysterious old man in a passageway and borrowed his identity card to reach the first floor. After they left, the Recorder suspected the old man had hidden there because he sensed danger, and that the elevator might also be dangerous.

• The Recorder greeted the old man and explained that evil entities had escaped the fifth floor and the research institute might begin its Purge Program.
• The old man refused to leave with them but lent the Recorder his identity card after hearing they had lost theirs.
• Xu Yanxing, the Recorder, and the Bald Man set off toward the first floor with the old man's card.
• The Recorder noted that the old man had unusually high authorization and could open the first-floor entrance despite his ordinary-looking card.
• The Recorder suspected the old man had sensed danger and hidden in the passageway, and that a threat might be inside the elevator.

The Recorder, Xu Yanxing, and Bald Man reached the first floor and found the research institute reduced to a silent ruin, with a hole bored through several underground levels. As the Recorder explained the institute’s floors and equipment, an elevator that had been out of service suddenly began descending.

• The Recorder used the old man's identity card to open the first-floor door, and the three found the hall shattered and empty.
• Xu Yanxing inspected a huge hole in the floor while the Recorder explained that it pierced several levels and described the protective work clothes in Sub-level One.
• The Recorder revealed that Sub-level Two was a cultivation room where discarded people were decomposed into plant nutrients and nutrient solution.
• The Recorder described the supernatural research equipment on Sub-level Three and said he did not know where it came from.
• The three heard a clang and saw the supposedly disabled elevator start descending.

Xu Yanxing and his companions reached the research institute’s main entrance, where the recorder explained that escaping required both identity and mission verification. They prepared an emergency report that might open the doors, but submitting their fingerprints would let the institute identify and remotely erase them.

• Xu Yanxing, the recorder, and the Bald Man left the elevator area and reached the intact exit hall.
• The recorder explained that leaving required identity verification, an approved mission, and avoiding security personnel.
• Xu Yanxing wondered whether the disguise ability involved in a past escape attempt was connected to Yao Hu.
• The recorder wrote an emergency report claiming a threat had broken through the ninth underground level and warned that all three needed to leave fingerprints.
• The recorder revealed that the institute could use their recorded information to erase them remotely once it identified them.

Xu Yanxing, the recorder, and Bald Man signed the exit documents, but Vicious Ghosts reached the entrance before they could escape. The door opened after a dangerous delay, and while the recorder and Xu Yanxing got through, Bald Man collapsed as the ghosts closed in.

• Xu Yanxing and the recorder pressed their handprints onto the exit document, and Bald Man signed after realizing he could not leave without doing so.
• The three heard an elevator arrive and fled toward the main entrance as dozens of Vicious Ghosts advanced through the corridor.
• The recorder presented the mission verification document, and the system activated emergency access after reporting that verification had been shut down.
• Xu Yanxing used Mental Distortion and threw the rusted Broken Blade, cutting down two approaching figures but drawing more ghosts toward them.
• The access control opened, and the recorder and Xu Yanxing ran outside, but Bald Man's weakened body gave way and he cried out in pain.