Chapter Summaries

Linsey realized the Eighth Stage Fallen Artist from Black Tide Island was manipulating events and continued searching for his abducted friend. After a rescued musician offered to help, the enemy took control of him, and Ala Song fled with Linsey as dark influence spread.

• Linsey concluded that the enemy was keeping them inside her script, but vowed to tear apart the fate imposed on him and save his friend.
• The petrified humans were freed, and a powerful Seventh Stage musician thanked Linsey and offered to return everyone to the City of a Thousand Sails.
• Linsey refused the musician’s offer and revealed that his missing friend had been taken by an Eighth Stage Fallen Artist from Black Tide Island.
• The musician agreed to help Linsey, but the enemy seized control of him and darkness began to influence everyone near the Abyss Whale’s corpse.
• Ala Song sensed danger, ran with Linsey, and told him to take his clothes if he lost control of himself.

Linsey escaped the Fallen Artist’s control and remained alone on the Abyss Whale’s corpse as the passage to the City of a Thousand Sails began to close. Using Ala Song’s paintings and a candy token, he prepared to enter the Hallucination Dream and confront the enemy at a critical stage of her plan.

• The Fallen Artist sealed Linsey’s abilities and forced him, the musician, and the others toward a gate leading to the City of a Thousand Sails.
• Linsey broke free of her restraints with the power of the Garden Nursery Fruit, but everyone else left through the gate as it began to vanish.
• Linsey found Ala Song’s robe bearing two Impression Channel paintings: one depicting an ordinary sky and another showing a bridge that led back to the City of a Thousand Sails.
• Linsey used his Map Skill and the clues from young Wala Wala to piece together the Fallen Artist’s plan and recognize that she was at a critical stage.
• Linsey placed an unfinished candy on Ala Song’s sky painting as a token for the Hallucination Dream and prepared to enter.

Linsey entered the Hallucination Dream of the City of a Thousand Sails, where the Eighth Stage Fallen Artist’s emotional power had turned the city pitch-black and driven its residents into violence. He avoided the fighting and set out to find Wala Wala, considering several likely locations.

• Linsey fell from the sky toward a parallel version of the City of a Thousand Sails and recognized that it had been created by a Ninth Stage Artist.
• The city turned pitch-black as Linsey approached, and he used Cliff Fall Immortality and the Horror Game module to survive his landing and remain hidden.
• Linsey surfaced beside a young man’s corpse and discovered residents attacking one another under the influence of amplified negative emotions, despite the map marking them as friendly.
• Linsey identified Fimbul Theater, Wala Wala’s seaside cottage, and the city’s seven towers as possible places to find her, then entered the city.

Linsey searched Fimbul Theater for Wala Wala and found Savat sheltering ordinary people infected by Mad Art. After learning they had only about a day before their consciousnesses were corrupted, Linsey gave Savat the Flower Headband and set out to rescue Wala Wala.

• Linsey searched Fimbul Theater’s rooms and stages but found no sign of Wala Wala or a powerful Awakened.
• Linsey entered Wala Wala’s locked makeup room and found Savat protecting a group of frightened ordinary people.
• Linsey used his Scouting Skill and discovered that Mad Art Infection was eroding the ordinary people’s consciousness, with about a day before they were corrupted.
• Linsey gave Savat the Flower Headband to ease the group’s emotions and learned Savat had entered the Hallucination Dream from the Red District.
• Linsey told Savat to keep protecting the ordinary people and left to rescue Wala Wala.

Linsey resisted the Hallucination Dream’s escalating emotional influence and raced toward the Red Tower, concluding that the unknown force behind the world was dead but had fused with it as a rule. He entered the tower while the city’s reality continued to change.

• Linsey left Fimbul Theater without telling Savat he was an Eighth Stage Fallen Artist and suspected the Red District held the world’s anchor point.
• The city shifted into crimson light, filling its inhabitants with impulse and fury, while Linsey’s Datafication revealed that the same influence was affecting him.
• Linsey determined that the outsiders in Savat’s basement were less affected than the city’s natives and reasoned that the force was targeting him as a dangerous variable.
• Linsey raced through the City of a Thousand Sails toward the Red Tower as the emotional rules changed again, adding nobility and sorrow to his status effects.
• Linsey deduced that the unknown force had likely fused with the world after the artists destroyed Black Tide Island, then stepped into the Red Tower.

Wala Wala sacrificed herself to stop Emotion Spectrum from completing the city's transformation, and Linsey used the Golden Ring in the Rhine River to break the forces of fate binding her. He then placed her in the Unfinished Painting, erasing Emotion Spectrum and ending the crisis, before Fenna welcomed him home.

• Emotion Spectrum tried to persuade Wala Wala to accept its plan, but she snapped her legs and leaped from the collapsing Red Tower to stop the city's color transformation.
• Linsey caught Wala Wala as she fell, put the Golden Ring in the Rhine River on her finger, and guided her to return it to the sea, washing away the fate controlling her.
• After the flood receded, Linsey confronted Emotion Spectrum, who revealed that it depended on Wala Wala's Source Material Skill and claimed she could not be saved.
• Linsey used Story Performance to challenge fate, then put Wala Wala into the Unfinished Painting, erasing her from reality and destroying Emotion Spectrum's foundation.
• The city's color curtain and temporal seal collapsed, the outside audience returned, and Fenna praised Linsey's performance and welcomed him home.

Linsey advanced his will through courage and learned that the Sleeping Maiden Painting was sublimating to protect Wala Wala and grant her a new form of existence. After the critic returned him to the City of a Thousand Sails, Linsey chose to stay until he had enjoyed the Art Festival with Wala Wala.

• Fenna's touch ended Linsey's Datafication, and his Will Source Material advanced to the Fourth Step, greatly increasing his attributes.
• Linsey saw that the Unfinished Painting had become the sublimating Sleeping Maiden Painting, which would help Wala Wala recover and gain a complete status of reality.
• Fenna revealed that she and the other Eighth Stage artists had stopped others from interfering, while the critic praised Linsey and granted him protection from control over his fate.
• Fenna warned Linsey that the chaotic temporal domain had scrambled the Hallucination Dreams and urged him to beware of time-related trouble.
• The critic returned Linsey to the City of a Thousand Sails and offered him safety or a way to leave, but Linsey decided to stay through the Art Festival as he had promised Wala Wala.

After the Art Festival ended, Linsey packed up Wala Wala’s home and prepared to leave the City of a Thousand Sails, reflecting on his powerful rewards and the person he wanted to become. He said goodbye to the city and set out on his next journey.

• Linsey finished his daily studies and prepared to leave now that the Art Festival had ended.
• Linsey reviewed his rewards, including the Oblivion Potion, Strange Matter, and Destiny Gravel, and recognized that Strange Matter could destroy the world.
• Linsey reflected on how high-stage Awakened were shaped by their abilities and resolved to hold fast to the courage of a true human.
• Linsey prepared seeds for Green Fir and a letter for the Hidden Borderlands, then left Wala Wala’s house and departed the City of a Thousand Sails.

Linsey said goodbye to his friends in the City of a Thousand Sails and teleported to the border world of City of Law. He found the arrival courtyard deserted and used his skills to discover that its staff had been killed six hours earlier.

• Yao Xing gave Linsey two pure white light-element Advanced Gems and hurried back to the Fimbul Theater.
• A staff member escorted Linsey through a side passage, and Mr. Fayton personally oversaw his teleportation.
• Linsey arrived at a silent courtyard with no living people and found no one using his Map Skill.
• Linsey used Information Combination to reconstruct how the courtyard's staff had been killed by sudden attacks and their bodies removed.
• Linsey's deduction revealed that the massacre had happened six hours earlier.

After arriving in a desolate world, Linsey traveled alone for four days without finding any clues about a massacre or the fate of the land. He finally discovered a group of humans surrounded by Barren Earth Imps and prepared to intervene.

• Linsey searched the area around the massacre but found no killer, law enforcers, or clues, then left the courtyard.
• He surveyed the barren landscape and followed the eastern road toward the connection between the two worlds.
• Linsey traveled alone for four days, surviving on his supplies and Blackberry berries while finding only sickly beasts.
• Linsey used Map Scouting to find seventeen humans surrounded by twenty-one Barren Earth Imps, including two exhausted Awakened.
• Linsey took out his Iron Horn Great Bow and prepared to save the humans and ask them about the world.

Linsey saved a group of seventeen people from Barren Earth Imps, but the survivors feared him and two Awakened attacked. After easily subduing them, Linsey stopped the others from fleeing and asked the group to explain themselves.

• Linsey killed all twenty-one Barren Earth Imps with arrows, saving the group of seventeen people.
• Linsey examined the group and found that most adults regarded him as a threat despite his rescue.
• The Awakened Tie Yu and his companion charged Linsey, but he disarmed and subdued them with ease.
• Linsey released the two men and asked them to explain why they feared him, but the others fled.
• Linsey threw a spear that burst into flames and blocked the fleeing group's path, then called everyone back to answer his questions.

Linsey learned that the wasteland was a ruined world where scarcity and violence threatened survival and civilization. After hearing the refugees’ plans and fears, he said he was going to the City of Law.

• Linsey asked Tie Yu and Kate where they were and learned that bandits controlled the Teleportation Courtyard.
• A middle-aged man explained that the wasteland had once been the Moon Weeping Mountain Range World, but its climate had grown barren and its people fought over resources.
• The middle-aged man said his settlement had been attacked two weeks earlier, forcing him to flee with the young people as several refugees died along the way.
• Tie Yu questioned whether they could cross the Pitch-Black Abyss, while Kate mentioned the Green Swamp and the middle-aged man warned that it was deadly.
• The middle-aged man asked Linsey why he had come, and Linsey said he planned to go to the City of Law.

Linsey traveled toward the Pitch-Black Abyss with a group of refugees, helping them survive while reflecting on the hardship and power imbalances in the Barren Earth. After defeating a pack of Barren Earth Imps, he detected a hostile group near the camp, but they withdrew before he intervened.

• Linsey slowed his journey to accompany Hammer and the refugees heading toward the Pitch-Black Abyss.
• Linsey killed around twenty Barren Earth Imps with his bow, and the refugees butchered them for meat.
• Tie Yu and Kate brought Linsey some of the meat, and he let the refugees keep the rest.
• Linsey considered how the Awakened would dominate the refugees and worried that their survival would not last.
• Linsey detected around ten hostile people south of the camp, but they silently retreated before he acted.

After spotting a potentially hostile band of Wilderness Hunters, Linsey warned Hammer, who hurried the refugees into a night march. Linsey claimed to be roughly Fourth Stage, then checked his latest rewards and left a hunter’s warning behind before following the group.

• Linsey saw a group of about ten people watching the refugees and warned Hammer that they seemed unfriendly.
• Hammer identified them as Wilderness Hunters and ordered the refugees to pack up and leave immediately.
• Hammer explained that hunters were skilled wasteland survivors, and Linsey said he was roughly at the Fourth Stage.
• The refugees regrouped and began traveling through the night, with Linsey following behind them.
• Linsey claimed the Barren Earth Imp Slayer achievement reward and found its pendant and crafting options useless to him.
• Linsey left a warning recognizable to hunters before departing with the refugees.

Linsey discovered an abandoned camp where ten people had recently met and then traveled west together. A Task Bar task called “Fallen Kindness” prompted him to pursue them, while he left Hammer to guide the refugees.

• Linsey estimated that the refugees would reach the World Boundary in no more than two weeks and assured Hammer that the Wilderness Hunters posed no threat.
• Linsey spotted an abandoned camp near a riverbed and used his skills to uncover recent footprints from six people and four newcomers, including a young child.
• Linsey reconstructed how the two groups met and left the camp together, then received the “Fallen Kindness” task to protect people from a planned betrayal.
• Linsey decided to follow the group west and told Hammer that the refugees could wait or continue onward while he investigated.

Linsey interrupted Wilderness Hunters who were trying to kidnap Vivian and swiftly overpowered their group. He told the surviving attackers he would spare them for now, but might kill them after learning the full story.

• Bull shielded Vivian as six Wilderness Hunters surrounded them and demanded that Vivian come with them.
• Linsey arrived, shot six Black Feather Arrows at the attackers, and wounded two of them.
• Linsey appeared beside the archer, crushed his hand and bow, and knocked him to the ground.
• Linsey confronted the three remaining Wilderness Hunters as they tried to retreat.
• Linsey warned the attackers that he would question them first and might kill them afterward.

Linsey rescued Bull, Vivian, and their companions from a Wilderness Hunters’ trap, then learned about Yarrow Camp and its Law Knight leader, Yarrowen. He accompanied the refugee group east to inspect the camp, where Hammer considered settling, and they arrived safely the following evening.

• Linsey subdued the Wilderness Hunters, and Vivian explained that Bull’s group had been lured into a trap while bringing refugees to Yarrow Camp.
• Vivian told Linsey that her father, Yarrowen, led the camp according to civilized laws, and Linsey learned that Bull was a Law Knight.
• Tie Yu and Kate joined Linsey’s group, and they bound the captured Wilderness Hunters before setting off east with Bull’s party.
• Linsey recognized that Hammer was considering bringing the refugees to Yarrow Camp and offered to help him judge whether it was safe.
• Linsey and the others reached Yarrow Camp, where guards hurried over to ask Vivian and Bull whether they were all right.

Linsey and his companions reached Yarrow Camp, where he met its founder, the Law Knight Yarrowen, and learned about the dangers facing the surrounding worlds. Linsey remained determined to reach the City of Law to find his family and address the world's crisis, while leaving the refugees in Yarrowen's care.

• Bull brought Linsey and the others to Yarrow Camp, where Yarrowen welcomed them and arranged food and rest for the group.
• Yarrowen questioned Linsey about the abandoned teleportation courtyard, and Linsey reported that its occupants had been killed by a powerful Awakened while the teleportation formation remained intact.
• Yarrowen explained that restoring the formation could reconnect the camp to the outside world if they found a willing Space Sorcerer.
• Linsey told Yarrowen that he was going to the City of Law to find his family and confront the source of the world's crisis.
• Yarrowen described the dangers in the neighboring Dust Road World, and Linsey asked him to look after the refugees before leaving.

Linsey left Yarrow Camp after refusing Vivian’s Warm Stone Necklace and continued east toward the Pitch-Black Abyss. At the World Boundary, he discovered that the stone bridge connecting the worlds had collapsed, leaving him with no way forward.

• Linsey offered to identify spies in Yarrow Camp, but Yarrowen refused to act against people who had not committed a crime.
• Vivian offered Linsey her Warm Stone Necklace as thanks, but he told her to keep it and continue helping others.
• Linsey left Yarrow Camp and traveled alone for three days and two nights until he reached the World's Edge.
• Linsey checked his status and wondered why the Task Bar had shown no follow-up task.
• Linsey reached the World Boundary and found that the stone bridge over the Pitch-Black Abyss had broken apart.

Linsey discovered that the Sky Stone Steps could not be repaired and realized the Purple Leaf Vine Branch might rebuild them if supplied with immense Life Force. He decided to return to Yarrow Camp for help, but the Sky Compass revealed a hidden space beneath the broken bridge.

• Linsey used the Decryption Game module to learn that the Sky Stone Steps were completely destroyed and could not be repaired.
• Linsey found that the Purple Leaf Vine Branch could grow into a bridge between worlds, but it needed a world-level supply of Life Force.
• Linsey reasoned that the fading Life Force in the wasteland might point to its source and chose to seek help from Yarrow Camp.
• Linsey decided to offer blackberries as payment and headed back across the wasteland.
• The Sky Compass alerted Linsey to a hidden space wrapped in stone beneath the broken bridge, and he found it on his map.