Chapter Summaries

Zhou Changqing joined Lu Ban and a group of college students filming in Miskatonic after escaping a sacrificial abduction. As Lu Ban suspected a cult and powerful entities were behind the city’s strange behavior, James became eager to investigate the church.

• Zhou Changqing entered the game, found no sign of Old Eggplant, and joined the college students barbecuing near their RV.
• Zhou Changqing recognized Lu Ban, described how Miskatonic’s citizens had abducted him for a sacrifice, and concluded that the city was wrong.
• Lu Ban discussed the bizarre religion with Wes and Scott, speculating that Miskatonic’s film festival might be tied to a sacrificial ritual and powerful entities.
• James became excited about filming the cult and its secrets, and asked Zhou Changqing where the church was.

Zhou Changqing followed Valerie to the Miskatonic police station, filming as Lu Ban instructed, and discovered that the camera showed things he could not see. The chapter ended as he turned the camera toward whatever had frightened the woman in the viewfinder.

• Zhou Changqing warned the group not to go to the church because he had already died there once, and Wes agreed the city was dangerous.
• Valerie argued with James about leaving Miskatonic, then set off alone to find the police station; Zhou Changqing followed her with a camera on Lu Ban's orders.
• Zhou Changqing and Valerie found the brightly lit police station, where the police emblem looked like a sinister, tentacled creature.
• Inside the empty station, Zhou Changqing saw a frightened policewoman through the camera, though no one appeared at the reception desk in person.
• The policewoman stared in terror at something behind Zhou Changqing, and he turned the camera toward the spot she watched.

Zhou Changqing and Valerie entered a police station overrun by monsters that could only be seen through his camera. They tried to escape, but the creatures in the parking lot killed them; meanwhile, James saw Valerie approaching from the street.

• Zhou Changqing saw a tree-like monster through the camera and realized that the police station was surrounded by creatures.
• Zhou Changqing and Valerie fled through the station, and he watched a monster kill a policewoman hiding at reception.
• Zhou Changqing found a shotgun, gave Valerie a pistol, and explained that the monsters were visible only through the camera.
• Zhou Changqing found the parking lot packed with monsters and saw that the apparent starry sky was an abyss.
• An invisible force lifted Zhou Changqing and Valerie into the air, and both were torn apart.
• James dismissed Scott's concern about Valerie, then saw Valerie walking toward him from the street.

Lu Ban watched the Video Tape evolve to show a ritual at Miskatonic University, where worshipers summoned a monstrous Black Goat that attacked the festival crowd. As Lu Ban wondered what had happened to the city, a pair of eyes stared at him from the dark RV.

• James left Valerie alone in the vehicle and discussed the next day's filming plans with Scott.
• Lu Ban played the Video Tape again and saw hooded worshipers sacrifice a man at the university auditorium.
• A monstrous deity called the Black Goat of the Woods emerged from the ritual and devoured people as the festival crowd panicked.
• The Video Tape ended in static, and Lu Ban concluded that its footage changed as they explored.
• Lu Ban pondered the festival's history and noticed a pair of eyes watching him from the darkness inside the RV.

Lu Ban used the Silver Pen to put the contaminated Wes to sleep, then suspected the city’s mutations were being concealed by an Old One and a strange object. In the motor home, James discovered that Valerie had transformed into a monster and found himself trapped in her grasp.

• Wes woke with blackened skin and flesh, scratched himself raw, and told Lu Ban that his whole body itched.
• Lu Ban used the Silver Pen to make Wes fall into an unbreakable sleep and concluded that the man had suffered severe contamination.
• Lu Ban suspected the city’s townspeople had mutated and that an Old One and a strange object were concealing the film festival.
• James entered the motor home and discovered that Valerie’s body had opened into a cavity lined with teeth, with her organs and tentacles exposed.
• Valerie grabbed James and asked whether he still loved her.

Lu Ban discovered that Valerie and Wes had mutated into creatures serving the Supreme Mother Goddess, a deity tied to reproduction and childbirth. After recognizing Miskatonic as a sealed center of contamination, he filmed the monsters on the lawn and spotted a person among them.

• Valerie transformed into a monster and attacked James, while Wes mutated and died as sprouts grew from his body.
• A force tore open the motorhome, and James was knocked unconscious amid the wreckage.
• Lu Ban examined a wounded monster and learned that it had once been human and worshipped the Supreme Mother Goddess.
• Lu Ban reasoned that Miskatonic was a sealed-off city whose contamination had been contained by the fog.
• Lu Ban picked up a camera and filmed the lawn, where he saw a person standing among the monsters.

Lu Ban confronted Scott after Talia and the others were killed, and Scott revealed that the group was trapped in a repeating film-festival story. Lu Ban questioned why Scott was bound to the cycle, leaving the cause unresolved.

• Talia fell asleep on the lawn and was devoured by a monster that formed from her remains.
• Lu Ban found Scott filming near the ruined RV, where Valerie and Wes lay dead and James was critically injured.
• Scott said the others’ personalities changed in Miskatonic and that they died every time, regardless of their behavior.
• Scott revealed that he remembered countless repetitions of the Miskatonic Film Festival, where the group’s story always ended in death.
• Lu Ban asked Scott why he and the others were bound to the repeating cycle.

Lu Ban explained that gods’ observations could fix history, while the Miskatonic time loop remained changeable because it had been sealed off from spreading pollution. He urged Scott to move toward the ending, hoping to uncover who trapped them and what awaited them there.

• Lu Ban reasoned that supreme beings avoided directly intervening because their gaze could make history irreversible, while their Chosen competed to influence unsettled events.
• Lu Ban concluded that Miskatonic was a preserved segment of history whose students were destined to die, but that its time loop still allowed a chance for change.
• Scott asked Lu Ban why they were trapped in the repeating cycle, explaining that he alone remembered each loop.
• Lu Ban blamed the monsters’ presence for drawing a transcendent will’s observation and suspected someone had sealed the resulting pollution and trapped the group in the loop.
• Lu Ban picked up the camera, recalled Feng Yu’s words, and invited Scott to go see the ending.

Lu Ban took Scott to the church, where they found a human sacrifice and a congregation corrupted by worship of the Great Being. After killing the believers and destroying the forming monster, Lu Ban prepared to shoot the Holy Mother statue and witness the ending.

• Lu Ban told Scott that the story had reached its turning point and headed for the church while monsters spread across the city.
• At the church, Lu Ban shot the door inward, killing the person behind it and interrupting the congregation's response to his arrival.
• Lu Ban gave Scott the camera, used his Silver Pen to turn the door into a weapon, and killed the charging believers.
• Lu Ban examined the dead ritual leader and fired a Speech Bullet into the monster forming from the woman's sacrifice, causing it to explode.
• Lu Ban asked Scott if he had recorded everything, then aimed his revolver at the Holy Mother statue.

Lu Ban endured the statue’s ancient muttering and accusations, was born again after a creature burst from his stomach, and destroyed the weeping statue. He sent players to destroy the other statues and confront the believers, then reached the towering statue in Miskatonic University’s square, which he recognized as the source of the city’s transformation.

• The Virgin Mary statue’s black tears formed tiny monsters as ancient voices and visions of the dead tormented Lu Ban.
• A creature emerged from Lu Ban’s abdomen, but it was another Lu Ban, who reunited with his dissolving body.
• Lu Ban fired Last Words at the statue, breaking it and revealing writhing black flesh beneath its stone exterior.
• Lu Ban changed the players’ mission to destroying church statues and dealing with believers, and players began attacking across Miskatonic University.
• Lu Ban reached the campus square and recognized its towering statue as the source of Miskatonic’s transformation.

Lu Ban destroyed the outer statue and uncovered the Statue of the Goddess of Dark Harvest, whose contamination resisted the Great Being on Aldebaran. After sealing it in stone, he explained to Scott that the repeating cycle had come from Scott turning contaminated Miskatonic and himself into a film, and told him that the story had ended with him saving the city.

• Lu Ban shot the church-like statue, exposed its writhing flesh, and picked up the statue hidden inside it.
• The inner statue contaminated Lu Ban’s hand and eyesight, so he transformed and reassembled himself to absorb the effects.
• Lu Ban read that the Statue of the Goddess of Dark Harvest governed breeding and growth, and his shot carrying the Great Being’s mutterings failed to affect it.
• Lu Ban concluded that the deity was one of three supreme God of Gods and sealed its statue inside stone.
• After Scott ended his recording, Lu Ban told him that Scott had turned Miskatonic and himself into a film and that Scott had saved the city.

Scott remembered that he had sealed Miskatonic’s contamination inside a film, using his incarnations to search for a way to save the city. With the contamination resolved and dawn breaking over the real Miskatonic, Lu Ban encountered Feng Yu, who said she had run into trouble.

• Lu Ban questioned why Scott alone remembered the cycle and could move safely among the monsters, then concluded that Scott had made the film.
• Scott recovered memories of his life as a traveler and revealed that he had used All In to turn contaminated Miskatonic into a film, sealing the danger away from the real world.
• Lu Ban explained that Scott had created incarnations to repeat events inside the film and search for a way to save the city, and said the contamination had now been resolved.
• Scott watched the sun rise over Miskatonic and accepted that he was about to disappear, while Lu Ban caught his camera.
• Lu Ban found himself in the normal, real Miskatonic during its film festival, holding the scratched Video Tape.
• Feng Yu appeared behind Lu Ban, said she had run into trouble, and asked him to walk with her while they talked.

Lu Ban and Feng Yu discussed the danger in Miskatonic and the supernatural video tape that could draw its viewers into a horror film. Feng Yu took Lu Ban to the ruined City of Dusk, where they saw the devastation left by a failed attempt to summon a deity.

• Feng Yu told Lu Ban that a hidden danger lay in Miskatonic and that she had been watching him through the video tape.
• Lu Ban read the tape’s warning that nearby people would be drawn into a horror film and would have to survive until it ended.
• Feng Yu took Lu Ban to the destroyed City of Dusk and suggested they discard the statue sealed in stone there.
• Feng Yu explained that the City of Dusk’s Chosen of the Gods had sacrificed every living creature across time to summon a deity, but the deity had not saved them.
• Lu Ban saw a blue-green flame streak across the sky as emerald gas spread through the cracked earth.

Lu Ban and Feng Yu left an Outer God to consume a doomed planet, placing the corrupted Stone there as a seed for new life. Back in Miskatonic, Feng Yu warned that Old Ones were awakening across other realms, and an arriving woman interrupted their conversation.

• Lu Ban witnessed the green flames of an Outer God consuming a planet and learned from Feng Yu that the being was above the Old Ones.
• Lu Ban placed the corrupted Stone on the barren ground, where its plants spread into a strange purple-and-crimson meadow.
• Lu Ban and Feng Yu returned to a café in Miskatonic and discussed how the awakening Old Ones and spreading pollution could threaten other realms.
• Feng Yu implied that someone Lu Ban knew was awakening the Old Ones, and Lu Ban thought of the dark-skinned man who traveled between realms and removed seals.
• A young woman carrying hot milk sat beside Lu Ban and Feng Yu and asked what they were discussing.

Lu Ban and Feng Yu encountered Bao Bao in Miskatonic, where she explained how different beings sought different kinds of chaos and revealed that a powerful deity’s kin had appeared in the city. The three prepared to explore together, while Lu Ban considered turning the film festival into a game to expand the Magic Net.

• Feng Yu tried to leave with Lu Ban when Bao Bao appeared, but Lu Ban explained that he knew her.
• Bao Bao said she had followed a familiar scent into the city and confirmed that the deity they had encountered ranked among the most powerful beings.
• Bao Bao explained that she sought chaos in another dimension and described how other powerful beings pursued different forms of chaos.
• Feng Yu told Bao Bao to leave, but Lu Ban agreed that Bao Bao could accompany them to the film festival.
• Lu Ban saw that the Magic Net's influence had risen to over five million and planned to use the film festival's events to create a game for players.

Lu Ban visited the Miskatonic Film Festival’s organizing committee with Feng Yu and Bao Bao, only to learn that Feng Yu had fabricated his invitation. After the receptionist recognized him, the committee welcomed him and Lu Ban asked them to arrange rooms for his group.

• Lu Ban walked through Miskatonic with Bao Bao and Feng Yu, and Bao Bao changed her appearance to avoid attracting attention.
• Lu Ban headed to the film festival’s organizing committee, which Feng Yu revealed was not expecting him because she had made up the invitation.
• The receptionist recognized Lu Ban after he removed his mask and called the committee staff.
• The committee welcomed Lu Ban, and he asked them to arrange rooms for the group.

Lu Ban and Bao Bao entered Arkham Asylum after Bao Bao used forged-looking but apparently valid paperwork to claim they had arranged a film screening. Lu Ban learned that the asylum housed criminals deemed mentally ill, and he and Bao Bao approached a patient to ask what was wrong with him.

• Lu Ban and Bao Bao persuaded the security guard to let them into Arkham Asylum by claiming they were film festival staff scheduled to screen movies.
• Lu Ban read the asylum’s notice and learned it housed criminals whose trials or incarceration were affected by claims of mental illness.
• Lu Ban and Bao Bao entered the grounds and saw patients in hospital gowns alongside armed guards.
• Bao Bao filmed the asylum and joked around while Lu Ban observed the patients.
• Lu Ban approached a patient sitting on a bench with a laptop and asked what was wrong with him.

Lu Ban and Bao Bao investigated a patient who was secretly trading stocks and discovered he was a fraudster using an insanity defense to evade responsibility. After Bao Bao opened his head and extracted his soul, Lu Ban realized she might not be able to restore him, leaving the surrounding patients stunned.

• The patient ignored Lu Ban while browsing stock information on his laptop.
• Bao Bao split open the patient's head, searched his brain, and crushed a translucent crystal that revealed his memories.
• Lu Ban learned the patient was a stockbroker who had defrauded investors and was sent to Arkham Asylum after pleading insanity.
• Lu Ban told Bao Bao to restore the patient, but she asked what restoring him to normal meant.
• Lu Ban realized Bao Bao had extracted and destroyed the patient's soul as nearby patients watched in shock.

Lu Ban and Bao Bao arranged an outdoor movie screening for the patients at Arkham Asylum after Bao Bao accidentally killed one and then brought him back to life. Lu Ban used his Silver Pen to obtain the projector and make the patients sit down, and the chapter left the screening about to begin.

• Bao Bao accidentally killed a patient, then revived him when Lu Ban stopped her from killing the witnesses.
• Lu Ban noticed a strange thread emerging from the revived patient's neck, while the guards returned to their posts.
• Lu Ban used the Silver Pen to convince a doctor to lend them the hospital's projector and screen.
• Lu Ban set up the screening, borrowed a guard's shotgun, and fired it to get the patients' attention.
• Lu Ban fired beside a bald patient's feet, and the patients obediently took their seats.

Lu Ban screened horror films for the mental patients, using a modified projector to make one film’s violence feel real to them. After a patient tried to contact his lawyer to escape the hospital, Lu Ban praised him and promised another movie, leaving the patient terrified.

• Lu Ban screened a folk horror film, judged its story and effects, and found the patients unmoved.
• Lu Ban upgraded the projector and screened a serial-killer film whose supernatural effect made the patients experience its victim’s pain and terror.
• Bao Bao admitted that watching the patients get frightened was more entertaining than the films, and Lu Ban ordered them back into their seats.
• During the third film, Lu Ban found a patient messaging his lawyer to confess to crimes and get transferred out of the mental hospital.
• Lu Ban praised the patient and promised him another movie, leaving the patient ashen-faced.