Chapter Summaries

Actor Shi Ming met Lu Ban, who had bought the ominous Villa No. 13 and planned to investigate it overnight. After hearing accounts of strange lights, distressed animals, and former residents’ behavior, Lu Ban settled into the house and encountered a flickering light and a television that turned itself on.

• Shi Ming opened his door and recognized Lu Ban, who explained that he had bought Villa No. 13 and wanted to introduce himself to his neighbor.
• Shi Ming warned Lu Ban that the villa had a troubling history, including unexplained lights, animals dying or acting frightened, and former residents becoming withdrawn.
• Lu Ban told Shi Ming he was using the villa for research and would stay there that night, then asked other neighbors about the house.
• Lu Ban returned to the villa, speculated that a strange entity might cause accumulating mental pollution, and saw the lights flicker as the television switched on by itself.
• Lu Ban approached the television as an unknown retro-looking broadcast began with the words, “News broadcast.”

Lu Ban watched a television play a series of disturbing broadcasts about Jiangcheng’s mental health center, an elementary school, and a theater fire, followed by advertisements for Smart Baby. When the reporter confronted him through the unplugged television, Lu Ban used the Silver Pen, Last Words to read the words appearing on its screen.

• Lu Ban watched a news report show patients performing unnervingly at Jiangcheng City Mental Health Center while doctors applauded without emotion.
• A reporter interviewed and swallowed elementary school students, then repeatedly grabbed and ate more children as they fled.
• The news showed the burned Jiangcheng Grand Theater still engulfed in flames as charred actors performed for an audience of burning skeletons.
• Two of the swallowed students appeared in a Smart Baby advertisement, drank crimson medicine, and split open their heads to sprout a tiny tree.
• Lu Ban discovered the television was unplugged, but the reporter’s face appeared on its screen and demanded to know whether Lu Ban wanted to drink Smart Baby.
• Lu Ban answered the threatening television and used the Silver Pen, Last Words to read the words appearing on its screen.

Lu Ban investigated the villa’s contaminated objects and discovered that its television and bathtub could provoke fear and violent impulses. He found the pillow was contaminated too, but the chapter ended before he identified the villa’s main source of contamination.

• Lu Ban analyzed the conscious television, which created frightening programs and fed on its audience’s fear.
• Lu Ban touched the bathtub’s water and experienced visions of himself dying and committing violence, then identified the tub’s ability to amplify people’s hidden madness.
• Lu Ban searched the villa for the source of its contamination and lay down on the bedroom bed.
• Lu Ban recognized the erotic images in his mind as an illusion and noticed that the pillow was rising and falling as if it were breathing.

Lu Ban tested whether three low-level strange objects could contaminate one another until they destroyed themselves. After the objects exploded in his bathroom, he told the concerned residents he was fine despite his clothes being shredded.

• Lu Ban identified the breathing pillow as a Pillow Demon that fed on people’s desires and reflected on how contamination affected the villa’s residents.
• Lu Ban carried the pillow and the strange television into the bathroom, soaked the pillow in the bathtub, and submerged the television on top of it.
• The television, pillow, and bathtub reacted to one another until the bathtub exploded, scattering fragments across the bathroom and embedding some in the mirror.
• Lu Ban concluded that the three objects’ mutual contamination had caused them to destroy themselves and considered using the method against other strange objects.
• Residents gathered outside after hearing the explosion, and Lu Ban reassured them that he was fine while standing in his torn, hole-riddled clothes.

Lu Ban discovered that the shattered mirror had absorbed the pollution from the destroyed objects and could create dangerous incarnations. After testing how it reacted to another mirror, he received Feng Yu’s invitation to judge a film festival in Miskatonic, Massachusetts.

• Lu Ban found the pollution in the shattered bathroom mirror, whose reflections tried to make him crave Smart Baby.
• Lu Ban read that mirror-born incarnations could attempt to replace their originals, then covered the mirror and went to sleep.
• Lu Ban placed the shattered mirror opposite the mirror in his home, but the reflection hid in a corner rather than face it.
• Lu Ban checked his task and saw that Magram influence had reached 8975 of 10000000, then considered bringing players into a ruin to gain more influence.
• Feng Yu sent Lu Ban a location and an invitation to serve as a judge at the Miskatonic Film Festival in Massachusetts.

After Feng Yu stopped responding, Lu Ban suspected someone else was using her account and traveled to Massachusetts to investigate Miskatonic. He joined five Boston film students driving to the Miskatonic Film Festival, where they planned to make a film about the event.

• Lu Ban researched Miskatonic and its university, film festival, and rumors of supernatural events.
• When Feng Yu did not answer his messages or calls, Lu Ban concluded that someone else was using her account and decided to investigate.
• Lu Ban flew to Providence and stayed overnight near Green Airport before heading toward Miskatonic.
• At the hotel, Lu Ban met five film students who recognized him as the director of Demon Tide and were traveling to the festival.
• Lu Ban claimed the festival had invited him as a judge and asked for a ride, and the students agreed to take him in their rented RV.
• The students told Lu Ban they planned to make a film about the festival for a university student film festival.

Lu Ban traveled with James and the college students toward Miskatonic as they filmed their horror movie journey. When their motorhome stopped in thick fog near an eerie farmhouse, James discovered they had run out of motor oil and suggested asking the residents for help.

• James introduced the students' horror-film premise and said Scott had written the script.
• Lu Ban advised the students to film their trip, and Scott began recording him for a cameo.
• As the group drove through heavy fog, Valerie and Talia argued about leaving a window open.
• The motorhome slowed to a stop near a few houses, and James found that it had run out of motor oil.
• James suggested asking the family in the nearby house for motor oil.

James and his companions entered a house beside the highway to seek help after their vehicle broke down, despite James's unease. The old woman living there offered motor oil from the garage, but warned them they could not go to Miskatonic.

• James, Wes, Talia, Valerie, and Scott entered the unlocked house after receiving no answer, and Wes ate a piece of ham while Scott filmed.
• Valerie and James noticed a group photograph with blurred faces, and James was startled by the old woman appearing in the dim living room.
• James explained that their vehicle had broken down and asked for motor oil, while Wes backed away from the stairs.
• The old woman said the motor oil was in the unlocked garage, and James learned she lived alone.
• When James mentioned their planned trip to Miskatonic for a film festival, the old woman stopped cutting meat and warned him they could not go there.

James and his companions learned about the old woman's son, who died at a film festival in Miskatonic, and Lu Ban accepted the son's videotape. Scott played another tape showing a pale, mutilated body in a cornfield, leaving the group confronted with a disturbing mystery.

• The old woman warned James and the others not to go to Miskatonic and told them her son had made movies before he died there.
• The old woman gave Lu Ban the videotape labeled "Film Festival" after he said it might inspire their movie.
• James and Valerie left with Wes to repair the vehicle, while Scott filmed the old woman's room and played a tape labeled "Field".
• The tape showed a cameraman entering a cornfield and finding Gellotte lying motionless, with his legs and lower body missing.
• The videotape ended abruptly after showing Gellotte's mutilated body, and Talia screamed.

Lu Ban, Talia, and Scott watched a disturbing tape at the old woman’s house before leaving as she warned them against attending the Miskatonic Film Festival. In the car, they watched the festival tape, which showed the old woman’s son arriving in Miskatonic as dense fog covered the city.

• Lu Ban explained how the tape’s ordinary home-video style made its frightening footage more unsettling, while Scott filmed the shelves of tapes.
• James returned and urged the group to leave, and the old woman warned them that the film festival involved sacrifices and children chosen as offerings.
• As the car drove away, Lu Ban spotted a figure watching from a second-floor window, and Talia wondered if it was the old woman’s son.
• Scott played the tape labeled “Film Festival,” which showed the old woman’s son recording his trip to Miskatonic and the foggy festival preparations.

Lu Ban and the others watched a fragment of an old film about the Miskatonic Film Festival, then heard a strange Christmas song on the radio. After the group fell asleep in the motorhome, Lu Ban woke to find the film playing again, now showing the festival auditorium.

• Scott found that the Video Tape stopped just as the festival opening ceremony was about to begin.
• Wes dismissed the film as clumsy and switched on the radio, where the hosts played the unsettling song "Red Brain Mi-Go Freddy."
• Valerie, Talia, Scott, and Lu Ban fell asleep in the swaying motorhome.
• Lu Ban woke when the vehicle stopped and saw James and Wes outside while Scott checked the instruments.
• A television turned on by itself and showed handheld footage of the auditorium, apparently continuing the film.

Lu Ban watched a Video Tape showing a film festival where the guests prepared a sacrifice and then stared directly at him. He postponed replaying it until morning and learned from Scott that Miskatonic’s residents distrusted outsiders and that Scott wanted only to finish their film.

• Lu Ban watched footage of a film festival whose guests gathered around a bound man for a sacrifice, then turned to look at him through the screen.
• James interrupted Lu Ban, and the Video Tape player had stopped with the television screen black.
• Lu Ban waited until the others were asleep before trying to replay the Video Tape, but Scott asked what he was doing.
• Scott suggested watching the new footage together in the morning and told Lu Ban that Miskatonic’s residents disliked outsiders and viewed the university’s changes with suspicion.
• Scott said he wanted to finish their movie, even if it was clumsy and received no audience or applause.

As Lu Ban's group neared Miskatonic, they found an abandoned church and uncovered the strange eyes beneath a black covering on its statue. Lu Ban covered them again, and the group prepared to continue toward the city.

• Lu Ban and Scott noticed an abandoned church and a road sign showing that Miskatonic was less than twenty kilometers away.
• Wes led Scott and Lu Ban into the church, where they found a damaged statue of the Holy Mother Mary with its eyes covered by black material.
• Wes pulled off the covering and revealed lifelike, star-filled eyes that mesmerized him, Scott, and James.
• Lu Ban identified the covering as treated leather and put it back over the statue's eyes.
• James came out of his daze, and the group prepared to continue toward Miskatonic.

Lu Ban and the others entered Miskatonic as a radio hotline aired bizarre letters about people eating corpses and a dead man being consumed. The broadcast ended with a hymn to the Old Ones, while the group saw smiling pedestrians in the city streets.

• James tuned the RV radio to Miskatonic's hotline as the vehicle neared the city.
• The host advised Branny to join her husband in eating a stray dog's corpse.
• The host encouraged Raphael to shoot people who were digging up and eating corpses.
• A letter from the dead Gaul described being drained of blood, stolen, and eaten before his attackers were killed.
• Wes suggested the letters were a special film festival program, and the hotline played "Hymn of the Old Ones."
• Lu Ban and the others entered Miskatonic and saw pedestrians wearing exaggerated smiles.

Lu Ban and the film crew reached an eerily quiet city near Miskatonic University, where smiling locals tried to seize Wes as a sacrifice. Lu Ban rescued him, then found a mysterious message signed by Feng Yu that connected the incident to the film crew's script.

• James drove the group to an empty parking lot near Miskatonic University, where Wes explored the grass and Scott filmed him.
• After Wes bumped into a local, the man and other smiling citizens surrounded Wes and said they needed an offering for a sacrifice.
• Lu Ban pulled Wes away and told the citizens they had the wrong person, causing them to disperse.
• Wes yelled at Scott for filming instead of helping, and Scott said he had mistaken the attack for a scene from their script.
• Lu Ban noticed Chinese writing on the grass that read “Camera, don't stop,” “I'll Wait for You at the Ending,” and “Feng Yu.”

Lu Ban investigated Feng Yu’s written message and suspected that keeping the camera running was connected to the eerie events in Miskatonic. After learning the students’ improvised horror-film plot, he told Scott to keep filming and wondered whether finishing the movie would lead him to Feng Yu.

• Lu Ban confirmed that Feng Yu had written the words telling him not to stop the camera and noticed her message that she would wait for him at the ending.
• Scott gave Lu Ban the rough script, which followed college students filming a horror movie while monsters attacked them in Miskatonic.
• Lu Ban suggested that the students’ script might keep coming true and told Scott not to stop filming, no matter what happened.
• Wes found black handprints where the citizens had grabbed him and saw that the marks seemed to be spreading up his arm.
• Lu Ban considered whether completing the film would let him find Feng Yu and began forming a plan.

Old Eggplant struggled to uncover the truth behind a murder at a school in The Silent Land before learning that the game had added a special task. He entered The Film Festival and discovered that its setting, the Miskatonic Film Festival, was also taking place in the real world.

• Old Eggplant died in The Last Lesson and reflected on the unsettling connection between The Silent Land and reality.
• He found reports about a real school near Jiangcheng that matched the game’s setting, but could not determine how a girl had died there.
• The Silent Land players discussed a new special task in their group chat while sharing advice about their current challenges.
• After updating the game, Old Eggplant found a new door and entered The Film Festival, whose task required him to witness the film’s ending and survive.
• Old Eggplant searched online and found that the Miskatonic Film Festival was currently underway.

Old Eggplant entered the film festival instance of The Silent Land and found himself in a sinister winter town where the locals tried to sacrifice him to a monstrous being. When an obsidian dagger struck him, he dissolved into sludge, leaving the ritual circle soiled.

• Old Eggplant wondered whether Lu Ban had created the film festival instance for himself or was letting players visit a real festival through virtual reality.
• Old Eggplant entered the film festival doors and arrived in a cold New England town, where he discovered he could speak fluent English.
• The town’s stiff, smiling pedestrians called Old Eggplant a sacrifice, seized him, and carried him into a church.
• Old Eggplant saw a black, tentacled mass in the Virgin Mary statue’s arms and was placed in the center of a ritual circle.
• A hooded man stabbed Old Eggplant with an obsidian dagger, but Old Eggplant turned into sludge and ruined the circle.

Old Eggplant returned to Miskatonic and discovered that time continued to pass while he was outside the virtual world. After seeing another player fail as a sacrifice, he fled the church but was struck by a car, hearing a name linked to the Black Goat of the Woods as he lost consciousness.

• Old Eggplant woke in reality with phantom pain and recalled the grotesque creature and ritual he had seen in Miskatonic.
• Old Eggplant re-entered the game and realized that its timeline had continued while he was away, while the residents rejected him as an unsuitable sacrifice.
• Old Eggplant returned to the church and found a hooded man sacrificing another player, whose body dissolved into black sludge.
• Old Eggplant fled the pursuing cultists, was hit by an old-fashioned car, and heard a whisper about the Black Goat of the Woods as he passed out.

Old Eggplant and Zhou Changqing compared their experiences as outsiders in Miskatonic and agreed to reenter the game before time passed further. Old Eggplant appeared on an empty street, where the city’s hostility became clear and a woman’s shadow revealed countless tentacles.

• Old Eggplant and Zhou Changqing shared how they had been captured and taken to a church as sacrifices, then agreed that the synchronized time might make the instance irreversible.
• Old Eggplant and Zhou Changqing arranged to meet and entered the game again, but Old Eggplant appeared on a deserted street and could not find his way back to the lawn.
• Old Eggplant found a church whose stained glass showed a tentacled monster and whose congregation chanted prayers to an unknown Great Being.
• When Old Eggplant asked the church how to reach the lawn, someone behind the door called him an outsider and told him to leave.
• Old Eggplant knocked at a lit shop and lied that he had merely gotten lost; the woman inside lifted the shutter slightly, revealing a shadow covered in countless tentacles.