Chapter Summaries

Lu Ban completed the third refinement, transforming his revolver into Last Words, a Silver Pen that made written words temporarily affect objects and living creatures. He tested its powers at home and at work, where Qin Tiantian briefly became smarter before the effect faded.

• Lu Ban endured the merging of the icy heart, ancient book, and talisman, completing his refinement and manifesting Last Words.
• Lu Ban transformed the revolver into a Silver Pen and tested it by making paper turn to steel, burst into flames, and a cup briefly come alive.
• Lu Ban found that writing on paper could cause limited, temporary effects, and he tested the word "Die" on a mouse before Laika ate it.
• Lu Ban wrote "Smart" on Qin Tiantian's head at work, briefly helping her identify the hidden wolf in her game before the effect faded.

Lu Ban tested Last Words’ new ability to create temporary effects by writing on things and discovered it could not make Qin Tiantian a genius. After taking her out for hot pot, he received a career task to present an unconventional work and earn ten million positive reviews.

• Lu Ban explained that Last Words could now grant written attributes to objects and living beings, though the effects were temporary and required his touch.
• Lu Ban wrote “Genius” on Qin Tiantian and gave her a calculus problem, but she still could not solve it before the effect disappeared.
• Lu Ban asked Qin Tiantian about recent news, and she listed several bizarre stories involving psychiatric patients.
• Lu Ban invited Qin Tiantian to dinner, chose hot pot, and watched videos of useless products while considering making videos about strange events.
• At the hot-pot restaurant, Lu Ban received a career development task requiring him to present an unconventional work and gain ten million positive reviews.

Lu Ban struggled to find a suitable format for his Glass Flower project, then discovered that immersive live-action games might bring the story to life better than a movie. He decided to inspect an escape room and invited Qin Tiantian to go with him.

• Lu Ban used Last Words to make beef taste delicious and a rough drawing look good, surprising Qin Tiantian.
• Lu Ban reviewed the Glass Flower materials, which included parts of Stone, Liz, and Ai Ou's pasts, but could not settle on an approach.
• Lu Ban watched an escape-room video and learned about large-scale immersive live-action games that let audiences participate in stories.
• Lu Ban imagined players taking the roles of himself, Old Cui, Xiya, Stone, Liz, and the others in Glass Flower.
• Lu Ban decided to inspect an escape room and messaged Qin Tiantian to ask if she wanted to play one the next day.

Qin Tiantian agreed to visit the Red Candle haunted house with Lu Ban, despite getting scared by a video of it beforehand. Inside, Lu Ban spotted a woman who appeared to be a real ghost and followed her through a hidden door into a boudoir.

• Qin Tiantian accepted Lu Ban's invitation to visit the Red Candle haunted house and watched a frightening video about it.
• Lu Ban and Qin Tiantian entered the haunted house with a young couple, and Lu Ban used True Sight to see clearly in the dark.
• An NPC in a red wedding dress tried to scare Qin Tiantian, but Lu Ban startled her by tapping her shoulder and then pointed out the NPC.
• Lu Ban noticed a mournful woman watching the NPC leave and realized she did not seem human.
• Lu Ban followed the woman through a hidden door and entered a room resembling a young woman's boudoir.

Lu Ban explored an escape-room set, spoke to a ghost only he could see, and frightened an NPC into collapsing. Afterward, he told Qin Tiantian he planned to turn an abandoned town into an immersive game based on Ruined City, leaving her stunned by the scale of his ambition.

• Lu Ban identified the room’s hidden scare mechanisms and spoke to a woman in the corner who was invisible to everyone else.
• When the bride-costumed NPC entered, Lu Ban explained that the woman had died of illness and had not hanged herself; a colleague’s walkie-talkie report confirmed the NPC could not see her, and he collapsed in fear.
• Outside the escape room, Qin Tiantian claimed she was brave, though her trembling legs kept her clinging to Lu Ban.
• While they ate ice cream, Lu Ban told Qin Tiantian he was researching an immersive real-life game to present Stone and Liz’s story and Ruined City in a more engaging way.
• Lu Ban said he planned to transform an abandoned town into the game’s setting, leaving Qin Tiantian overwhelmed by the idea.

Lu Ban sought land for an immersive live-action game town and discovered that the Silence Store could sell contaminated items for enormous sums. After seeing the suggested price for his Affliction mask, he left it unsold and checked the store’s upcoming items.

• Lu Ban called Li Zijian to ask about land for a themed town built around an immersive live-action game.
• Li Zijian agreed to look through Jiangcheng Industries' land holdings after Lu Ban described what he needed.
• Lu Ban opened the newly unlocked Sell option in Silence Department Store and found that ordinary items and temporarily altered objects could not be sold.
• Lu Ban listed his Affliction mask and saw a suggested retail price of 1,777,177 Silence Points.
• Lu Ban kept the mask and looked at the store’s upcoming items.

Lu Ban browsed the newly unlocked Tier Four shop and found My Grotesque Town, an ideal but unaffordable resource for his planned live-action game. After reviewing two potential sites sent by Li Zijian, he chose an abandoned town near Jiangcheng and decided to inspect it.

• Lu Ban examined the Tier Four shop's expensive Erosion-level items, including the He Ming True Scripture, Queen Insect's Egg, and Ocean of Knowledge.
• Lu Ban found My Grotesque Town and recognized that its creatures could help him rebuild a Ruined City, but he could not afford its 700,000 Silence Points price.
• Li Zijian sent Lu Ban information about two plots of land for his planned immersive game.
• Lu Ban rejected the industrial zone in Liangcheng because it was too close to the city, would require extensive demolition, and was too far away.
• Lu Ban chose the abandoned town near Jiangcheng as a suitable game site and told Li Zijian he would go inspect it.

Lu Ban and Li Zijian surveyed the abandoned Zhuomo County and discovered a deserted amusement park beside the Ling River. After a surveyor vanished near the slope, Lu Ban found him entranced and saw the amusement park suddenly light up and run on its own.

• Lu Ban and Li Zijian arrived at abandoned Zhuomo County to inspect its buildings and noticed an unrecorded, dilapidated amusement park by the Ling River.
• Lu Ban thought he saw something move near the amusement park, but it disappeared when he looked again.
• After the survey team finished for the day, a surveyor went back for a missing theodolite and failed to return.
• Lu Ban followed the surveyor's flashlight, briefly saw a strange child in the grass, and found the surveyor kneeling with blank white eyes.
• Lu Ban knocked the surveyor unconscious and saw the empty amusement park blaze with light as its rides began operating and playing music.

Lu Ban investigated the strange Amusement Park near Jiangcheng Mountain, then returned to the city with the surveying team and discovered that an extra person had followed them out. After identifying the intruder with True Sight, Lu Ban pressed ahead with plans to develop the area into an amusement attraction.

• Lu Ban found the Amusement Park dark again, carried an unconscious surveyor back, and briefly saw a little girl with a rusted lock around her neck.
• On the way back, the team exchanged rumors about Jiangcheng Mountain and why the townspeople had moved away, while Lu Ban insisted the site would make an immersive attraction.
• Li Zijian noticed that one extra person had returned with the surveying team, and Lu Ban used True Sight to identify the strange entity and erase its name from the roster.
• Lu Ban assured Li Zijian that the development would continue and told him to find powerful legal teams for the project.

Lu Ban oversaw construction in the mountain town and recruited performers for a large-scale immersive escape room, prioritizing people who could withstand its frightening scenes. He began interviewing a diverse group of applicants, including former patients and former prisoners seeking a chance to rebuild their lives.

• Lu Ban’s construction crew demolished the town’s dangerous buildings and prepared the foundations, while the mountain singing and children did not reappear.
• Lu Ban planned the escape room’s sets, interiors, and NPC roles, deciding he needed to recruit professional performers.
• Lu Ban’s recruitment advertisement drew widespread attention and a flood of applicants.
• After a week of screening, Lu Ban narrowed the applicants to about two hundred and prioritized bravery and resistance to contamination.
• Lu Ban also recruited people from Jiangcheng Mental Hospital and former prisoners, hoping they could contribute and start anew.
• Lu Ban prepared to interview the applicants.

Xu Chen attended a group interview at Silent Media, where Lu Ban tested candidates by having them perform from scripts. As Xu Chen memorized his role, he became immersed in the character, and Lu Ban concluded the best actors were those compatible with their scripts.

• Xu Chen applied to Lu Ban's recruitment drive after his escape-room job and recurring dreams about a woman in a red wedding dress left him troubled.
• At Silent Media, Xu Chen met other interviewees, including a man claiming to be a Dragon Tiger Mountain disciple and a woman who called him son.
• Xu Chen entered the interview room and was surprised to find Lu Ban conducting the group interview himself.
• Lu Ban distributed scripts and assigned roles for the candidates to perform after ten minutes of preparation.
• As Xu Chen memorized his bartender role, he felt the character's memories and experiences become his own.
• Two candidates began performing, and Lu Ban judged the applicants by how naturally they matched their roles.

Lu Ban completed preparations for Glass Flower, a four-day immersive live-action game with fifteen players whose choices would determine the ending. After recruiting participants worldwide, he announced that the premiere would run from late December through New Year's Day and be livestreamed globally.

• Lu Ban recruited over a hundred NPCs, divided them into alternating teams, and prepared them to portray their roles in Glass Flower.
• After several months of construction, Lu Ban finished preparations for the game, which offered fifteen roles and multiple possible endings shaped by players' decisions.
• Lu Ban released a trailer and solicited the first participants worldwide, prompting debate about access, ticket prices, and whether the players would be his acquaintances.
• After a week of recruitment, Lu Ban finalized the fifteen participants and announced that their late-December game would be livestreamed globally through wearable cameras and other equipment.

Outdoor streamer Lin Xiaohao learned he had been selected for Lu Ban’s Glass Flower live-action game and traveled to Jiangcheng City. Lu Ban prepared the town and a global livestream, intending to use the participants’ performance to earn ten million favorable reviews.

• Lin Xiaohao received a call and email from Silent Media informing him that he had been selected for Glass Flower.
• After the plane tickets and participation documents arrived, Lin Xiaohao confirmed the selection was genuine and announced it in his streamer group.
• Lin Xiaohao found that other selected participants included a European Modern Artist, a High School Detective from an island nation, and an ordinary Silly Netizen.
• Lu Ban explained that the script had chosen fifteen participants suited to its story, and he had sent them invitations.
• Lu Ban installed a professional livestreaming team’s cameras throughout the town and prepared to begin the global broadcast.

On December 27, Lin Xiaohao and the other fourteen participants prepared for Lu Ban’s Glass Flower, a globally livestreamed murder mystery game. After receiving role memories and arriving separately in Ruined City, Lin Xiaohao stood before a door as the game began at midnight.

• Lin Xiaohao started a hotel livestream and chatted with viewers before the participants gathered for Glass Flower.
• Kusanagi Gaku introduced himself as a High School Detective, and a glasses-wearing keyboard warrior challenged him as the group began getting acquainted.
• Staff gave the participants action cameras, AR glasses, and detailed documents describing their assigned roles.
• Lin Xiaohao read his role information in a vehicle and felt the character’s memories merge with his own.
• Lin Xiaohao arrived alone at a building in Ruined City and followed his AR instructions to a door.
• At midnight, the door opened and Glass Flower officially began.

Qin Tiantian livestreamed viewers watching Lu Ban’s murder mystery game, where Kusanagi Gaku investigated the Detective Agency and a keyboard warrior explored the streets at night. The keyboard warrior found a corpse marked by a Glass Flower.

• Qin Tiantian livestreamed Lu Ban’s globally streamed murder mystery and commented on the players’ opening scenes.
• Kusanagi Gaku searched the Detective Agency’s shelves and found Gudu’s novel, Shadows of Terror, filled with material about the Ruined City.
• A keyboard warrior playing a mob enforcer ignored warnings and left the warehouse to follow Mackey.
• The keyboard warrior entered a dark alley, heard eerie laughter, and ran through the streets.
• After moonlight returned, the keyboard warrior saw a person lying on the ground with a Glass Flower blooming on their body.

A keyboard warrior playing a gangster underling witnessed Mackey’s corpse blooming into a Glass Flower and broke down in shock. As he was dragged back to the warehouse, a ghostly child appeared and vanished, and a gangster NPC insisted that no children lived there and the apparition was not human.

• The keyboard warrior saw Mackey’s corpse and, overwhelmed by the Glass Flower, collapsed as the gangster NPCs dragged him back to the warehouse.
• Viewers debated the strange death and speculated about the killer while the livestream audience remained shaken.
• A pale, ghostly child appeared at the warehouse entrance as the keyboard warrior was being dragged inside.
• A gangster NPC approached the child with a stick, but the child vanished before he could hit him.
• The keyboard warrior asked whether the child had been the killer, and a gangster NPC said there were no children there and the apparition was not human.

Psycho Bro was trapped inside a coffin in a burning cremation furnace until a female mercenary and a deliveryman rescued him. After they introduced their roles, Psycho Bro spotted a strange child behind them, but the others could not see her.

• Psycho Bro woke inside a wooden coffin, found the carved words “Save me,” and realized he was trapped in a cremation furnace.
• As the coffin grew hotter, Psycho Bro panicked and shouted for help until someone opened the furnace and pulled his coffin out.
• Psycho Bro escaped the burning coffin and met a female mercenary and a deliveryman who said their characters knew one another and had rescued him.
• Psycho Bro told them he was a mental patient, then pointed out a pale, black-eyed child standing behind them.
• The female mercenary and deliveryman turned around but saw no one where Psycho Bro had pointed.

Zhou Yuan entered Lu Ban's immersive live-action game as a poor factory worker and struggled through an exploitative day at work. After the supervisor drove him out and took his money, Zhou Yuan encountered a monstrous woman and fell into a sewer.

• Zhou Yuan woke before dawn, went hungry, and arrived at a foul-smelling factory, where he vomited.
• Zhou Yuan learned he had to make twelve hundred components for a tiny wage and started working.
• The supervisor declared Zhou Yuan's components defective, demanded compensation, and had security guards seize his remaining money.
• Zhou Yuan left the factory and encountered a woman whose face twisted as shadowy tentacles wrapped around him.
• Zhou Yuan stepped backward into a sewer as the scene changed.

Archide, a chef playing the gang's eldest son, joined Biso to investigate a family member's murder while Lu Ban monitored the players and the uncanny events. French Police Flower found a special fragrance on Dr. House's corpse, leaving the investigation with a new clue.

• Archide attended a family meeting where the gang discussed a member's death and searched for the assassin.
• After the meeting, Archide met Biso, who suggested they inspect the body and find the culprit before other players.
• Lu Ban watched the livestream and concluded that the uncanny events had limited effects on players and viewers, while the world continued functioning normally.
• Psycho Bro, the delivery man, and French Police Flower returned to the funeral home and saw Dr. House's corpse, while a child appeared and vanished beside it.
• French Police Flower discovered and memorized a special fragrance on the corpse.

Qin Tiantian watched the players’ livestream as the group assigned to assassinate the Godfather uncovered their own hidden objectives. The four players began investigating Dr. House’s death and the gang, leaving their plans to infiltrate a banquet—and their divided loyalties—unresolved.

• Qin Tiantian reviewed the four teams’ missions and saw that Killer Bro’s group had been assigned to assassinate the Godfather, Corneon Catania.
• The Taoist proposed infiltrating a gang banquet by posing as restaurant staff, and the four players went to scout the restaurant.
• The underground doctor slipped into the kitchen, found Dr. House’s corpse in the cold-storage room, and was confronted by the Taoist, who revealed he wanted Dr. House’s book.
• The underground doctor admitted his objective was to avenge Dr. House, and the Taoist suggested they work together to investigate.
• The Bounty Hunter Miss told Killer Bro that her true target was the gang’s adviser, Stone.