Chapter Summaries

Linsey and Wala Wala enjoyed the Art Festival’s performances and explored Fimbul Theater, where they watched lesser-known actors perform. Wala Wala ended the day by challenging Linsey to see her own performance in an empty theater.

• Linsey and Wala Wala admired the Art Festival and wondered whether the major figures were absent because of activity beneath the sea near the Underwater Studio ruins.
• Linsey and Wala Wala ate in the theater dining hall, then Wala Wala showed Linsey the theaters where she had performed throughout her career.
• Linsey and Wala Wala watched actors perform Chronicles of the Wind Child's Conquest in a grand theater.
• After the performance, Wala Wala challenged Linsey to visit an empty theater so she could show him her own acclaimed performance.

Wala Wala performed a moving solo for Linsey in the empty theater, then challenged him to perform. Linsey played and sang “Counting Stars,” and he and Wala Wala began a duet as people gradually gathered in the theater.

• Wala Wala sang and danced alone onstage, using her Source Material Skill to draw Linsey into vivid scenes of emotion.
• After Wala Wala invited Linsey to perform, he began playing “Moonlight Sonata,” but she stopped him and asked for something more passionate.
• Linsey played “Counting Stars” on the violin and sang its lyrics, and Wala Wala praised the song’s direct emotion and catchy melody.
• Linsey agreed to play while Wala Wala sang “Counting Stars,” and their lively duet gradually drew people into the empty theater.

Linsey and Wala Wala’s performance introduced the theater audience to modern music, and their songs sparked excitement throughout the City of a Thousand Sails. After performing “Counting Stars” and “Dragon Fist,” they prepared to continue with Linsey’s favorite, “One Last Kiss.”

• Linsey and Wala Wala finished their first song to thunderous applause, and Linsey’s Rhythm Game Module advanced from 1 to 2, unlocking BGM.
• Wala Wala asked Linsey to keep performing so the audience could hear more music, and they went backstage to learn another song.
• Linsey and Wala Wala performed “Dragon Fist,” whose forceful melody and lyrics thrilled the audience and inspired some listeners to leap from their seats.
• Wala Wala eagerly asked to sing another song, and Linsey began teaching her “One Last Kiss.”

Linsey and Wala Wala performed a long, passionate concert at Fimbul Theater, drawing nearly everyone there before ending with “Flying Boat.” As Wala Wala began breaking through from the Fifth Stage to the Sixth Stage in the basement, Yao Xing arrived at the door asking what had happened.

• Linsey and Wala Wala performed songs throughout the afternoon and evening, turning Fimbul Theater into the center of the venue.
• Linsey photographed Wala Wala and ended the show after audience members compared her to Selina and the returning parade performers drew near.
• Linsey and Wala Wala sang “Flying Boat” as their final song, then left through the backstage passage.
• Linsey noticed Wala Wala’s Source Material Skill surging and carried her to a basement room to undergo her breakthrough.
• Wala Wala’s emotions spread through the room as her Mindset Prototype emerged, while Linsey guarded her.
• Yao Xing knocked on the basement door and asked Linsey and Wala Wala about the concert and its new music style.

Wala Wala advanced to the Sixth Stage, but Linsey and Yao Xing were suddenly swept into a Hallucination Dream while inside Fimbul Theater. They found themselves in an unfamiliar field, where a demon-like creature confronted them.

• Linsey confirmed that Wala Wala was advancing after Yao Xing sensed the power gathering in the room.
• Yao Xing said the Art Festival's scheduled Eighth Stage artists had not appeared, and Linsey suspected something was wrong.
• Linsey's Task Bar announced that Hallucination Dreams had erupted across the city, and his Sky Compass warned him of imminent danger.
• A spatial distortion transported Linsey and Yao Xing to a field, and Linsey realized they had been pulled into a Hallucination Dream.
• Yao Xing began explaining the Hallucination Gate entrances in the Blue District, but a horned demon appeared and called them escaped slaves and livestock.

Linsey killed a Black Horn Herder and decided to seek the Hallucination Dream’s exit rather than wait for rescue. As he and Yao Xing headed toward a village he had found, he suspected the outbreak was deliberate and wondered whether it was connected to Hilude or the Art Festival.

• Linsey killed the Black Horn Herder, confirmed it in his Hunting Notes, and collected its Black Flame Poison Blood.
• Yao Xing explained that the Hallucination Dream’s ordinary creatures were around the Third to Fifth Stage, while its Demon God was at the Seventh Stage, and described ways to leave.
• Linsey rejected Yao Xing’s suggestion to wait for specialists, arguing that depending on rescue could leave them helpless if the outbreak had been planned.
• Linsey expanded his map’s scouting range, found a friendly village to the west, and led Yao Xing toward it as a likely exit.
• Linsey suspected the outbreak was connected to the Art Festival and wondered whether Fenna’s advice and Hilude’s altered fate were related.

Linsey and Yao Xing were caught in Hallucination Dream, where Black Horn Herders attacked a village and carried away many people. After learning that the villagers accepted the monsters’ attacks as part of their world, Linsey rejected the unknown creator’s script and planted a Honeysuckle Bean Vine seed on the altar to challenge the spatial seal.

• Linsey and Yao Xing reached a village where a local told them the World Gate had sealed the Divine Realm off from the Mortal Realm.
• A swarm of Black Horn Herders descended on the village, capturing locals and ordinary residents while Linsey and the Awakened fought back.
• Linsey saved several people, then helped tend to the wounded and learned that the villagers treated monster attacks as an ordinary fact of life.
• Linsey decided not to follow the script behind Hallucination Dream and went to the altar to confront the truth.
• Linsey crushed a stone tile and planted a Honeysuckle Bean Vine seed, declaring that the spatial seal could be broken.

Linsey reopened the passage from Hallucination Dream and escaped with Yao Xing, only to find the City of a Thousand Sails engulfed by powers from multiple dreams. He headed for the Fimbul Theater to check on Wala Wala.

• Linsey used the Honeysuckle Bean Vine to tear open the sealed passage to Hallucination Dream and walked through it, followed by Yao Xing.
• Linsey found the Stone Fort empty, harvested the vine's Honeysuckle Peas, and broke through the sealed exit with his Meteorite Pickaxe.
• Linsey and Yao Xing emerged from the theater into the City of a Thousand Sails, where powerful Source Material had spread throughout the city.
• Linsey checked his map and estimated that about one-fifth of the city's population had disappeared.
• Linsey set off for the Fimbul Theater to confirm Wala Wala's condition, and Yao Xing followed.

Linsey found that the World String had made the City of a Thousand Sails dangerously euphoric, then discovered Wala Wala had vanished into a sealed Hallucination Dream. Fimbul explained that a painter, Impression Space techniques, and specific tokens might let Linsey enter the dream, which was Actor Lord’s dangerous private theater.

• Linsey analyzed the citywide euphoria and learned from Yao Xing that a World String was an underlying rule that musicians could regulate with the Olmas World Harp.
• Linsey reached Fimbul Theater and found that Wala Wala had disappeared from her room.
• Linsey examined the room and concluded that Wala Wala had been dragged into a Hallucination Dream.
• Linsey asked Fimbul how to enter a sealed Hallucination Dream and learned that a painter, Impression Space techniques, and specific tokens might allow it.
• Fimbul told Linsey that the Blue District dream was Actor Lord’s private theater, where truth and falsehood were difficult to distinguish and danger was extreme.

Linsey sought a painter who could create an Impression Channel so he could enter a Hallucination Dream and rescue Wala Wala. He found his old acquaintance Ala Song, who agreed to help after hearing that Wala Wala was trapped, and they hurried toward the Hallucination Gate.

• Linsey learned that entering a Hallucination Dream required a painter capable of creating an Impression Channel and a suitable token to serve as a coordinate.
• A Guardian Statue told Linsey to stay home, but he asked it to help find a qualified painter to rescue Wala Wala.
• The Guardian Statue led Linsey to Ala Song, the one-armed painter he had met on the ship from the Catoer Islands.
• Linsey explained that Wala Wala was trapped in a dangerous Hallucination Dream and that a Seventh Stage Awakened had told him how to try opening a path.
• Ala Song agreed to help despite warning Linsey that Impression Channels were dangerous, then asked whether Linsey had met Miss Yao Xing at the Fimbul Theater.

Linsey and Ala Song searched Wala Wala’s home for a coordinate token and found her Black Cloud Mask, then Linsey collected his shop and continued south. Near Will’s home, Linsey heard a groan and found Will’s wife gravely ill.

• Linsey and Ala Song reached Wala Wala’s home, where Linsey found a hidden compartment beneath her bed.
• Linsey took Wala Wala’s Black Cloud Mask, which could serve as a coordinate token.
• Linsey used his skill to bring his entire plant shop along before he and Ala Song headed south.
• Passing Will’s home, Linsey heard a groan, entered the house, and found Will’s wife near death.

Linsey saved Kona from the effects of a failed awakening and collected Will’s design drafts as payment. He and Ala Song then reached the memorial plaza above Fenna’s Hallucination Dream, whose influence had expanded under the city’s unusual circumstances.

• Kona collapsed after asking Linsey to give her saved jewelry to Will, and Linsey learned that her body was being damaged by powerful Source Material.
• Linsey gave Kona a Steel Vine Vitality Potion and a Wild Ginger Supplement, stabilizing her condition enough for her to rest.
• Kona woke and told Linsey that Will’s design sketches were on the studio table, so Linsey collected them and left gold coins and a broken chair as payment.
• Linsey and Ala Song headed toward the Blue District, and Linsey explained that the chair was made by an artist who had died long ago.
• Linsey and Ala Song arrived at the memorial plaza above Fenna’s Hallucination Dream and saw that its influence had expanded beyond its usual bounds.

Linsey and Ala Song worked with the Sculptor's Guild to reopen the sealed Hallucination Dream so they could rescue Linsey's companion. After Ala Song helped create the passage, he chose to accompany Linsey inside, and they entered together.

• Sculptor's Guild members warned Linsey and Ala Song away from the dangerous square, but Linsey told them he intended to rescue his companion trapped in Hallucination Dream.
• Linsey revealed that he had rescued people from another Hallucination Dream in the Blue District, prompting the guild members to seek Master Rubens and let Linsey proceed.
• Ala Song used the Impression Channel technique and the Black Cloud Mask to paint the square and reopen the passage into Hallucination Dream.
• Though Linsey urged him to rest and stay behind, Ala Song insisted on joining him, and Linsey shared food that restored his strength.
• Linsey and Ala Song entered Hallucination Dream together.

Linsey and Ala Song entered a Hallucination Dream that mirrored the City of a Thousand Sails, where inspiration served as currency and reality-like scenes could reset after destruction. At Fimbul Theater, Linsey searched for Wala Wala, but a child suddenly mistook him for their father and begged him to save their mother.

• A ticket seller invited Linsey and Ala Song to a theater, while a distant explosion destroyed part of the city before the damage abruptly reversed.
• Linsey refused to pay for theater tickets with inspiration and decided to investigate Fimbul Theater for traces of Wala Wala.
• Linsey noticed the dream city's street stalls featured performances instead of food, then arrived with Ala Song at Fimbul Theater.
• Linsey met a friendly, ordinary-human version of Madam Salah and concluded she was likely a locally replicated character.
• Linsey went to the first basement level and approached the room he had previously opened, but a child grabbed his leg and begged him to rescue their mother.

Linsey and Ala Song followed Wala Wala’s trail through the Hallucination Dream, where Madam Salah died after warning them that exhausted inspiration consumed a person’s soul and lifespan. At the Blue District docks, Wala Wala’s footprints vanished, and Linsey encountered a fleeing girl pursued by several men.

• A child appeared before Linsey, claimed to be his child with Wala Wala, and urged him to save her at the Blue District docks before vanishing.
• Linsey found Wala Wala’s Emotional Source Material in her room and followed her footprints with Ala Song out of Fimbul Theater.
• Madam Salah rapidly aged and died in the theater lobby, warning Linsey that depleted inspiration consumed the soul and lifespan.
• Linsey performed a brief rite for Madam Salah, then warned Ala Song not to perform or buy art in this world.
• Linsey and Ala Song followed Wala Wala’s footprints to the Blue District docks, where they abruptly disappeared on a wooden skiff.
• Several men chased a ragged girl in a black cloak across the docks and called for Linsey to stop her.

Linsey intervened when he saw a little girl being chased at the dock, then discovered that the black-haired girl he knew as Wala Wala had arrived on another ship as Selina. He drove off the artists surrounding her, but Selina did not recognize the name Wala Wala and remained wary of him.

• Linsey stepped between the hungry little girl and the burly men chasing her, then quickly subdued their leader and sent the men fleeing.
• The little girl thanked Linsey and explained that she had stolen bread because she had not eaten for two days.
• Linsey saw Selina jump from a nearby ship and challenge the people accusing her of being a criminal.
• Linsey left the little girl with Ala Song and rushed to Selina's aid, knocking down the Fourth Stage artists who surrounded her.
• Selina thanked Linsey but warned him not to expect anything in return, then denied knowing who Wala Wala was.

Linsey met a younger Selina whose memories began resonating with those of her other selves, making her a possible way to locate the Wala Wala he sought. As Linsey and Ala Song protected her from Art Association members, the Blue Robes were suddenly afflicted by what appeared to be Erosion Worms.

• Ala Song brought young Selina to Linsey, and the older Selina mistook the child for an impersonator before fleeing.
• Young Selina recognized Linsey as someone familiar after memories from her other timelines began surfacing.
• Linsey used his Scouting Skill to learn that Selina's encounters with herself had linked their memories, then encouraged her to recall them while Ala Song kept watch.
• Art Association members in Blue Robes arrived with the men Linsey had driven away and prepared to seize Linsey and Selina.
• The Blue Robes collapsed as red-black growths spread across their bodies, and Linsey recognized the apparent Erosion Worm infestation.

Linsey defeated the Erosion Worms and rescued Ala Song and young Selina from immediate danger in the Hallucination Dream. At a temporary hideout, Selina began recovering memories from her future self, and Linsey reassured her as he prepared to save her.

• Linsey used the Red Horn Mistletoe to interrupt the parasitized Blue Robes’ skill, then burned the Erosion Worms and their hosts with crimson flames.
• Linsey pinned the men who had summoned the Blue Robes with wooden spears and led Ala Song and Selina away from the docks.
• Linsey brought Ala Song and Selina to a Uriel ship rental shop and made it their temporary base.
• As Selina absorbed memories from her future self and called herself a sinner, Linsey held her and told her that she truly existed.
• Selina said she was remembering what would happen and offered to tell Linsey what she knew, while Linsey said he had come only to save her.

Linsey crafted a paralysis-curing potion while Ala Song sent paper airplanes to guide people to safety. A gigantic stone statue came alive and began wrecking the city, and Linsey realized its path led toward the Hallucination Gate exit.

• Linsey synthesized a Paralysis Removal Potion from Erosion Worm Blood and other materials.
• Ala Song sent paper airplanes across the city to help people find a way out of the Hallucination Dream.
• Linsey killed a Black Sea Great Water Snake attacking the boat rental shop.
• A colossal statue in the Orange District came alive, shaking the city and flooding streets as it smashed buildings.
• Linsey learned the statue was heading toward the Blue District and the Hallucination Gate exit.

Linsey and Ala Song struggled to survive as the awakened stone colossus devastated the city, while Selina recovered memories that could lead them to Wala Wala. The colossus fell toward them, and Linsey called on the Hand of Construction as their last hope.

• Linsey learned through Decryption Game that the stone statue had come alive because the World Law called All Things Have a Soul was spreading.
• An Awakened's attack knocked the colossus down, but it reassembled itself and smashed the Orange District with its fist.
• The upheaval threw Linsey, Ala Song, and Selina into the air, and Linsey used the Ancient Tree Crest to catch and protect the other two.
• Selina remembered leaving her theater performance and renting a place in the Orange District, bringing them closer to learning Wala Wala's whereabouts.
• The colossus was knocked down again, this time toward Linsey and his companions, and Linsey summoned the Hand of Construction.