Chapter Summaries

Zheng Li read about Daoist He Ming’s supposed resurrection ritual and suspected Mud Monsters were behind it, but Lily died mysteriously and Zheng Li shot himself under a supernatural influence in the game. After escaping the game, he researched Lily’s death and sought advice on breaking into her locked room so he could save her on another attempt.

• Zheng Li read a notebook account of Daoist He Ming resurrecting a poisoned mayor and suspected the ritual had involved Mud Monsters and a false accusation.
• Zheng Li heard Lily scream, but could not break into her room before she died, apparently strangling herself with her own hands.
• Shaken by Lily’s death, Zheng Li returned to his room and shot himself after a voice blamed him and his reflection appeared corpse-like.
• Zheng Li exited the game, vomited after recalling the death, and searched the school’s electronic library for information about Lily’s cause of death.
• Zheng Li decided he had to save Lily in the game and posted online asking how to break through a locked door; a reply told him to turn himself in.

Zheng Li prepared strategies for surviving Soul Summoning Night, while players remained unable to complete the game even a week after Morning Star launched. The device received overwhelming international praise, but overseas players struggled with the Chinese-only game and some hackers threatened to crack it.

• Zheng Li gathered advice for getting room keys and keeping everyone together, then searched for clues about Soul Summoning Night.
• Zheng Li found that most players had failed to survive the first night, while he expected to save Lily and reach the second day on his next attempt.
• A week after launch, no player had completed Soul Summoning Night, and the farthest player had reached the sixth day before Browning's son killed him and left his save file useless.
• Gaming media around the world praised Morning Star as a revolutionary device and a new era for entertainment.
• Foreign players obtained Morning Star through friends in China but found that Soul Summoning Night had only Chinese dubbing, so they sought translations or demanded English localization.
• International hacker organizations announced plans to crack Morning Star and unpack Soul Summoning Night.

Johnson’s pirate organization tried to crack Morning Star’s virtual reality headset and extract Soul Summoning Night’s files, despite the technology’s baffling circuitry. After succeeding in unpacking the game’s resource package, the organization stood on the verge of a disastrous discovery.

• Johnson led his pirate organization toward cracking Morning Star, hoping to gain fame and possibly profit from the technology.
• Johnson considered offers from powerful interests, including a military corporation that wanted Morning Star’s technology for military applications.
• After Morning Star had been on sale for a week, Johnson’s technicians opened a headset and found circuitry they could not understand.
• After two weeks of sales, Johnson’s organization spent a week extracting Soul Summoning Night’s resource package.
• Johnson’s organization celebrated its success without realizing that the consequences of its discovery were imminent.

Johnson and the technicians extracted Soul Summoning Night’s files, but the strange resource package and an opening coffin brought a supernatural presence into the room. A woman in a cheongsam appeared behind Johnson, invited him to play a game, and left him unconscious.

• Johnson and the technicians struggled to unpack Soul Summoning Night’s files before extracting a resource package of just over three hundred gigabytes.
• Johnson noticed the cracking program’s progress bar moving erratically, and the room’s lights flickered as he searched the electrical panel.
• Johnson found a coffin among the extracted assets and began opening it in the 3D software.
• The lights went out, and the coffin opened by itself to reveal an empty interior as the cracking program’s progress returned to zero.
• A woman in a brightly colored cheongsam appeared behind Johnson, invited him to play a game, and caused his consciousness to separate from his body.

Criminal investigator Essenwell examined a slaughtered hacker organization's base and found evidence of an unknown woman, but his superiors ordered the case closed. Later, he saw a woman in a qipao that no one else could see, leaving him shaken by a growing premonition.

• Essenwell entered the abandoned factory and saw grotesque corpses and signs of a massacre.
• Essenwell found a Morning Star helmet and learned the hackers had been trying to crack it.
• Essenwell discovered a slender woman's high-heeled shoeprint, though no woman appeared on the organization's list of dead members.
• Essenwell's superior ordered him to seal the evidence and stop investigating the case.
• Essenwell heard news of an explosion at a weapons company's experimental facility while driving home.
• Essenwell saw a woman in a qipao cross the road, but a traffic officer insisted there was no woman there.

Zheng Li joined a gathering of Morning Star players at a mountain villa to work on clearing Soul Summoning Night. A sudden blizzard trapped the group inside, and the late-arriving Charcoal Grilled Salt and Pepper Seal looked exactly like the woman from Zheng Li’s dream.

• Zheng Li arrived at the villa and met Crimson Lotus of Azure and the other players.
• Zheng Li helped prepare the barbecue and revealed that he studied forensic medicine.
• A sudden blizzard covered the roads, trapping the group at the villa for at least seventy-two hours.
• Zheng Li heard someone knocking and opened the door to find Charcoal Grilled Salt and Pepper Seal outside.
• Zheng Li recognized that Charcoal Grilled Salt and Pepper Seal looked like the woman from his dream.

Charcoal Grilled Salt and Pepper Seal unsettled Zheng Li’s group while they worked on Soul Summoning Night, then vanished into the snowstorm. The next morning, Zheng Li realized everyone else had forgotten her, and she appeared at Lu Ban’s door.

• Zheng Li watched Charcoal Grilled Salt and Pepper Seal charm the others and felt afraid of her.
• Charcoal Grilled Salt and Pepper Seal noticed that the group had not checked the mourning hall for a coffin, prompting Zheng Li to enter the game and investigate.
• After making instant noodles, Charcoal Grilled Salt and Pepper Seal left the house and disappeared into the snowstorm.
• Zheng Li discovered two Brownings in the game, one in the wine cellar and one in the mourning hall, and believed they held the key to clearing it.
• Zheng Li noticed Charcoal Grilled Salt and Pepper Seal was gone, but the others denied she had ever been there.
• Lu Ban answered his doorbell and heard Charcoal Grilled Salt and Pepper Seal introduce herself.

Lu Ban hosted Charlotte, who explained that speaking the true names of certain beings could expose people to deadly contamination, and they shared a meal before he fell asleep. Charlotte transformed into Lu Ban and read a message asking him to fix Wang Chuan’s computer.

• Lu Ban welcomed Charlotte into his home and asked why she had come.
• Charlotte warned Lu Ban that uttering certain beings’ names could let them sense his existence and spread deadly contamination.
• Lu Ban proposed using aliases, and Charlotte adopted the name Charcoal Grilled Salt and Pepper Seal before conjuring roasted seal for them to eat.
• Lu Ban and Charlotte shared breakfast, after which Lu Ban fell asleep.
• Charlotte transformed into Lu Ban and read Wang Chuan’s message asking for help with his computer.

Lu Ban's otherworldly companion answered Qin Tiantian's message, visited her apartment, and altered her computer while pretending to repair it. The real Lu Ban arrived as the two identical figures came face to face.

• Lu Ban's companion went to Qin Tiantian's apartment after replying to her message and found her computer crashed.
• She touched the computer, causing it to run Qin Tiantian's game at 999 frames per second, while a tentacle briefly emerged from the case.
• She startled Qin Tiantian by whispering that someone was behind her, but Qin Tiantian told her to act normal and continued playing.
• Qin Tiantian received messages from Lu Ban, learned he was coming over, and happily told his companion that he would pay for hot pot.
• Qin Tiantian asked Lu Ban's companion to answer the door, where she found the real Lu Ban standing outside and asking if she was having fun.

Lu Ban learned that Bao Bao was an incarnation born from his game’s mark, then dealt with the pollution affecting Qin Tiantian’s computer. The three prepared to go out for hotpot together.

• Bao Bao revealed herself as a new incarnation born from the mark in Lu Ban’s game and explained how Time Worms enabled travel between foreign realms.
• Bao Bao called Lu Ban her father, and Qin Tiantian overheard the word and eyed him suspiciously.
• Qin Tiantian told Lu Ban that her repaired computer seemed strange, and he found its case growing tentacles to steal snacks.
• Lu Ban used Last Words to make the computer case sit obediently, then agreed to take Qin Tiantian and Bao Bao out for hotpot.

Lu Ban watched Morning Star sales surge after the Soul Summoning Night walkthrough became mainstream and explored using the console to project into otherworlds. On New Year's Day, he completed his career development task and received 100,000 Silence Points, but still had to claim his reward.

• Lu Ban saw news report that players and streamers were entering Soul Summoning Night using his walkthrough, while Morning Star sales reached eighty percent of the influence target.
• Bao Bao left after saying she had come to find her incarnation, and Morning Star sales climbed to the limits of Lu Ban's production capacity.
• Lu Ban reasoned that Morning Star might use his marks to project his incarnation into distant otherworlds, and decided he would have to develop new applications himself.
• Lu Ban spent New Year's Eve with Feng Yu and Qin Tiantian and did not ask about Bao Bao's search for her incarnation.
• Lu Ban woke on the first day of the lunar new year to find that he had completed his task, received 100,000 Silence Points, and been told to complete the task to receive his reward.

After completing the mission, Lu Ban examined the materials required for his next Sublimation Transformation and considered how to obtain them from the ancient histories of other realms. He then viewed three possible missions and found one set in a doomed civilization, where he would choose whether to save the city or record its collapse.

• Lu Ban discovered that the Sublimation Transformation required one million Silence Points and four materials, including a Glorious Realm Fragment.
• Lu Ban studied the descriptions of the Glorious Realm Fragment, Primordial Falling Cherry, Gray Tower Cornerstone, and Ruined City Secrets, and considered missions into the dangerous pasts of other realms to acquire them.
• Lu Ban decided that Charlotte could help him obtain Ruined City Secrets and formed a plan to take advantage of her assistance.
• Lu Ban looked at three possible missions and read the Tomorrow scenario, which placed him in a city before the apocalypse and asked whether he would try to save civilization or document its end.

Lu Ban chose a mission set in the ancient Night Country to resist the Demon Tide and establish the Gray Tower, which could complete a loop of fate connected to his own past. He invited companions to join him, and three people accepted, leaving him wondering who the third was.

• Lu Ban considered whether he could save the Wasteland without disrupting the loop of fate and thought about meeting the Wasteland Saint.
• Lu Ban examined the Reawakening mission and inferred that he would lead people through an ancient world threatened by Old Ones.
• Lu Ban examined the Cage mission and realized he could establish the Gray Tower before its history began, completing a closed loop of fate.
• Lu Ban chose the Glorious cooperative mission to resist the Demon Tide and establish the Gray Tower.
• Lu Ban invited others to join him, and three companions accepted; he recognized Xiya and Stone but did not know who the third was.

Lu Ban used a Last Words to turn a wrench into a material capable of withstanding nuclear fusion and sent it to a research institute. The institute's analysis revealed that the wrench could revolutionize materials science, while Xiao Wang wondered how Lu Ban had obtained it.

• Lu Ban searched for ways to restrain the Demon Tide and decided to help researchers solve the materials problem holding back controllable nuclear fusion.
• Lu Ban wrote on a wrench that it was made of material capable of withstanding nuclear fusion, transforming it, then mailed it to the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of High Energy Physics.
• Intern Xiao Wang found Lu Ban's package, noticed the wrench's unusual appearance, and brought it to Brother Zhao for analysis.
• A week later, the laboratory's results showed that most of the wrench's elements were undiscovered and its structure could advance materials science by more than fifty years.
• Xiao Wang called Silent Media to ask about Lu Ban, learned he was away gathering material, and wondered if he had obtained the wrench's material himself.

Lu Ban searched the Silence Department Store for ways to hold back the ancient Demon Tide, then realized he could recreate useful items himself. He altered an ordinary radio into a Minor Disaster Generator and tested it by summoning scorching heat, turning night into day.

• Lu Ban considered the scale and duration of the ancient Demon Tide and searched the Silence Department Store for tools that could help defend against it.
• Lu Ban examined an Automated Killing Tactical Squad game machine, a World-Ending Gate, and a Lush Swamp, weighing their possible uses against their limits.
• Lu Ban realized he could imitate extraordinary items with the Silver Pen and reproduce them for free.
• Lu Ban bought an old-fashioned radio and wrote the Minor Disaster Generator's functions into its description with the Silver Pen.
• Lu Ban turned the radio's dial to Scorching Heat, and daylight appeared instantly.

Lu Ban used the radio to turn off the midnight sun, then entered the Silent Land and traveled to the Night Country to resist the Demon Tide and establish the Gray Tower. He reunited with Xiya, Stone, and their third companion, Old Cui.

• Lu Ban switched off the radio, ending the sudden appearance of the sun and plunging his neighborhood back into darkness.
• Lu Ban chose to enter the Silent Land and traveled to the Night Country as the Blood Moon approached.
• Lu Ban arrived in a forest beside a convoy and learned that his mission was to resist the Demon Tide and establish the Gray Tower.
• Lu Ban climbed into the carriage and reunited with Xiya and Stone.
• Lu Ban greeted his third companion, Old Cui.

Lu Ban, Xiya, and Stone reunited with Trist and explained that he would become the Mysterious Lord and die, though Xiya believed the outcome might still be changed. The group discussed whether the Gray Tower’s construction guaranteed their mission’s success, and Lu Ban insisted that building it was their achievement.

• Lu Ban and his companions met Trist, who recognized Stone’s matching pipe and realized he was destined to join their mission in the past.
• Xiya explained that Trist would become the Mysterious Lord and vanish, but withholding the words that revealed his identity might leave room to change his fate.
• Xiya described how people who had crossed time could perceive events differently from those bound to their own time, while Lu Ban interrupted to say he wanted cake.
• Lu Ban suggested that Old Cui’s situation and Xiya’s presence meant their mission and the Gray Tower’s construction were destined to succeed.
• Stone noted that the Gray Tower might be built by someone else, but Lu Ban declared that its construction was definitely their achievement.

Lu Ban and his companions reached a poor settlement in the era before the Gray Tower was built, hoping to find its founder and help establish it. Baron Jero introduced himself, but an explosion from his house interrupted their meeting.

• Lu Ban explained that the missions were fragments of history controlled by the true gods, and that the Gray Tower's founder had not yet completed the loop of its creation.
• Xiya said the Gray Tower's earliest builders were unnamed, while Stone concluded that they needed to find the founder and help him establish the Gray Tower.
• Lu Ban and his companions arrived at a muddy settlement surrounded by farmland and crude defenses.
• Baron Jero told the group that he had bought his title expecting to profit from the land, but the impoverished town had left him with little to gain.
• An explosion sounded from the house behind Baron Jero.

Xiya and Lu Ban met Jost, Baron Jero’s friend and a Court Mage, after an explosion filled his home with smoke. When Jost tried to understand Xiya’s spellcasting, his corruption overwhelmed him, and Lu Ban found that he was likely to die within three years; Xiya wondered whether someone like him could establish the Gray Tower.

• Xiya cleared the smoke from Jost’s room and met the soot-covered alchemist, whom Baron Jero introduced as his friend and a Court Mage.
• Jost questioned how Xiya had dispelled the smoke without incantations or rituals, then became violently ill and collapsed.
• Xiya put Jost to sleep, and Lu Ban examined him and identified severe corruption that would likely kill him within three years.
• Xiya recalled how earlier mages developed Bloodline and Court Mage traditions to manage corruption, though neither could prevent its eventual effects.
• Xiya wondered whether Jost could really establish the Gray Tower.

Baron Gero explained Jost’s history, and Xiya concluded that his rapid magical studies had overloaded him with contamination and shortened his life. After learning Jost was exiled for teaching magic to ordinary people, Xiya began reading his notebook about the magical network as Lu Ban called from outside.

• Baron Gero told Trist and Xiya that Jost had been a childhood friend and an exceptionally talented mage who was exiled to Sunset Town.
• Xiya explained that magic accumulated contamination and that Jost’s rapid progress had likely damaged his body and shortened his lifespan.
• Baron Gero revealed that Jost had been expelled for trying to teach magic to ordinary people.
• Trist realized the ban on teaching magic could prevent contamination from spreading and causing mass madness or disaster.
• Xiya found Jost’s notebook in his laboratory and began reading it before Lu Ban called from outside.