Chapter Summaries

Lu Ban met independent musician Hammer to discuss the soundtrack for his movie and showed him a rough cut. Hammer became absorbed in the terrifying underwater scene and found himself inspired by the film’s images.

• Lu Ban finished a rough cut and arranged for Hammer to score the movie through Song Yunyan’s connections.
• Lu Ban asked Hammer for eerie and frightening music, along with a warmer piece, and offered to show him a clip.
• Hammer watched the opening scene, where Lu Ban encountered a colossal sea monster and pale flames destroyed it.
• Hammer experienced suffocation and then a sense of salvation while watching the scene, and several melodies came to mind.
• Hammer praised the movie’s substance, while Lu Ban wondered whether something was wrong with it.

Lu Ban screened his movie for Hammer, who experienced increasingly intense physical reactions to its imagery and atmosphere. After Hammer paused the screening to recover, he saw his reflection smile despite his own unchanged expression.

• Lu Ban watched Hammer react to the hellish painting and wondered whether the movie caused unusual effects in its audience.
• Hammer felt cold and frightened during the Torii Gate sequence, then praised the film’s visual style and composition.
• During the Hyakunin Isshu scene, Hammer felt unable to move as Momiji approached the shrine maiden, and he asked the assistant to pause the movie.
• Hammer went to the restroom to recover, then saw his reflection smiling at him when he was not.

After watching Lu Ban’s film, Hammer was deeply affected by its immersive effects and insisted on composing its soundtrack. He and Lu Ban completed the music and assembled a full sample film, which Lu Ban prepared to submit to a video website for review.

• Hammer watched the film’s ending and asked Lu Ban questions about the island, Momiji, and the protagonist’s survival.
• Hammer and his assistant remained absorbed in the film, while Lu Ban recognized that it caused viewers to experience its scenes physically and emotionally.
• Hammer insisted on composing the soundtrack, and Lu Ban pointed out scenes that needed music.
• Hammer composed a traditional Japanese-style melody based on the shrine maiden’s humming, then used a water zither and other melodies for the mountain scenes.
• Over several days, Hammer finished the soundtrack while Lu Ban refined the film and integrated the music into a complete sample.
• Lu Ban opened video websites and prepared to submit the sample film for review.

Lu Ban chose an all-platform release for his film Hyakunin Isshu after turning down an exclusive deal and a possible guarantee. The film went online on Mid-Autumn Festival, and Lu Ban ended the chapter preparing to watch it with his family.

• Lu Ban told Mahua he preferred an all-platform release, despite her offers of promotion and a guaranteed payment.
• Lu Ban asked what quality would merit a one-million guarantee, then declined the deal and settled on releasing the film across all platforms.
• Lu Ban finalized the release time and learned he would earn 1.5 yuan per valid view, needing more than six hundred thousand valid views to complete the mission.
• Hyakunin Isshu went online on Mid-Autumn Festival, and viewers on Old Days Video Network reacted excitedly to Lu Ban's first movie.
• Lu Ban picked up mooncakes and prepared to watch the film with his family.

Xu Duzhong watched Motionless's new short film, Hyakunin Isshu, and was terrified by its underwater monster before becoming captivated by Momiji. He found no information about the actress and returned to watching the film.

• Xu Duzhong went home for the Mid-Autumn Festival and listened to his mother urge him to study and find a girlfriend.
• Xu Duzhong opened Motionless's new movie and watched Lu Ban encounter a gigantic underwater monster, feeling as if he could not breathe.
• Xu Duzhong mistook nearby cables for tentacles before the film showed the monster consumed by flames and revealed its title, Hyakunin Isshu.
• Xu Duzhong became interested in Momiji and searched online for information about the actress, but found nothing.
• Xu Duzhong picked up a mooncake and continued watching the movie.

Xu Duzhong watched Lu Ban and Momiji’s increasingly eerie journey through the island and felt the film’s sensory effects as if they were real. After a scene with a ghostly shrine maiden left him unable to move, he and the other viewers wondered whether the movie had affected them physically.

• Xu Duzhong smelled food while watching Lu Ban question workers, then paused the film to look for something to eat.
• Xu Duzhong watched Lu Ban and Momiji walk through mist toward a shrine and was startled by a ghostly shrine maiden and a solemn procession of dead shrine maidens.
• Xu Duzhong watched the group play Hyakunin Isshu and recoiled at the monstrous faces of Tachibana Masamune and Ginpei.
• Xu Duzhong felt unable to look away or move as Momiji approached the eerie shrine maiden, and the comments stopped appearing.
• A buzzing sound restored Xu Duzhong’s control, and viewers flooded the comments with reports that they had also frozen in fear.

Xu Duzhong watched the Poetry Festival film and was overwhelmed by its horrifying dance, eerie beauty, and Momiji’s tragic story. He finished the film in tears, then argued with a commenter over who could call Momiji their wife.

• Xu Duzhong watched the monsters dance and felt both terrified and strangely captivated by the scene.
• Xu Duzhong checked his reflection after a comment warned viewers they might have become monsters, briefly saw green flesh beneath peeling skin, and then found himself normal in the bathroom mirror.
• Xu Duzhong watched Momiji’s flashback and learned of her betrayal, suffering, and self-sacrificing redemption, which moved him to tears.
• Xu Duzhong watched Lu Ban and the painter drift across the ocean in a boat as the film ended, then read viewers’ theories about its horror and story.
• Xu Duzhong disliked a commenter who called Momiji his wife and replied that Momiji was his own wife.

On Mid-Autumn Festival, Lu Ban tracked the views and paid-view figures for Hyakunin Isshu, then encountered an unknown presence in his room that vanished before he could identify it. The next day, he found the work ranked fourth on Old Days Video Network and opened a discussion about it on Did You Get It?.

• Lu Ban compared Hyakunin Isshu’s view counts and valid views across four video websites and was satisfied with its first-night results.
• Lu Ban posted a Mid-Autumn Festival greeting, went to sleep, and awoke to a shadowy figure pressing him down.
• Lu Ban searched his room and questioned his supernatural roommates, but none seemed to be responsible for the disturbance.
• Lu Ban played Hammer’s funeral music and slept peacefully until morning.
• Lu Ban saw Hyakunin Isshu ranked fourth among Old Days Video Network’s films and series, then opened a Did You Get It? post asking about his work.

Lu Ban read audience reviews of Hyakunin Isshu, including praise for its effects and Momiji's acting and criticism of his own performance. He noticed a comment claiming that a group had encountered something supernatural while playing a creepy game and opened its video link.

• Lu Ban read a film critic's review praising Hyakunin Isshu's special effects and atmosphere, and he liked the answer.
• Lu Ban read an actor's review praising Momiji while criticizing his own performance, and he resolved to study acting.
• Lu Ban read an anime fan's love letter to Momiji, touched the Crimson Crystal, and replied that he would pass on the fan's feelings.
• Lu Ban saw that Hyakunin Isshu had received mostly positive reviews and noticed a comment claiming that friends had encountered something unclean while playing a creepy game.
• Lu Ban clicked the video link attached to the comment.

Lu Ban watched a viral video of people playing the Hyakunin Isshu game and recognized that a mysterious door had appeared during the staged prank. He altered the film and warned viewers not to try the game, but public speculation about the edits drove the view count higher.

• Lu Ban watched a video in which an extra person appeared during a Hyakunin Isshu game, then a participant used a ghost mask to prank viewers.
• Lu Ban noticed that the room's candlelight dimmed and saw a mysterious door trembling at the center of the room.
• Lu Ban removed part of the game from his film, contacted website operators to replace the video source, and warned viewers not to play it.
• Viewers argued over whether the film had changed and whether the game was dangerous, while Lu Ban's view count began soaring again.

Lu Ban’s video earnings reached one million yuan, completing his career development task with a mediocre evaluation and earning him 6,300 Silence Points. He considered how to improve his acting and prepared to unlock the next level of the Silence Store.

• Lu Ban woke with black mist resting on his chest, and it fled through a crack after he touched it.
• Lu Ban checked his video statistics and found his earnings close to one million yuan.
• Lu Ban studied acting methods and decided the method school suited him best.
• Feng Yu messaged Lu Ban to cancel their National Day plans because her filming schedule had changed.
• Lu Ban’s career task completed at one million yuan, and the system awarded him 6,300 Silence Points with a mediocre evaluation.
• Lu Ban opened the Silence Store to see what he could unlock with his accumulated points.

Lu Ban browsed the newly unlocked shop tier, where he found powerful, polluted items priced far beyond his means. He recognized the Hyakunin Isshu as a possible summoning ritual and ended his search on a familiar item, Saint's Remains.

• Lu Ban saw that unlocking the next shop tier required five hundred thousand Silence Points and complained about the steep increase.
• Lu Ban examined the shop's Pollution-quality items, including Minor Miracle, False Name, Hyakunin Isshu, He Ming's Handbook, and Worm Brain, and judged them too expensive to afford.
• Lu Ban suspected the shop's Hyakunin Isshu was a complete ritual capable of reaching a Great Being, and he wondered what forbidden knowledge He Ming's Handbook contained.
• Lu Ban spotted the Pollution-quality suona Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix and speculated that it might summon an evil god.
• Lu Ban finished browsing the shop and found the Saint's Remains among its new products.

Lu Ban examined expensive breakthrough materials in the shop, then opened the mission selection interface and found three eerie destinations in his transformed room. The hospital mission appeared to be Nanhua Private Renji Hospital, but Lu Ban closed the door before learning what awaited him.

• Lu Ban found Saint's Remains and other breakthrough materials in the shop, judged them too expensive, and closed the shop.
• Lu Ban saw three exits appear as his room turned gloomy and discovered a tombstone-filled mission called Happy Death Anniversary.
• Lu Ban opened his cabinet and found the Sea of Trees mission, which described a forest where visitors went to die and their corpses no longer belonged to them.
• Lu Ban opened his front door and found a hospital corridor where an empty elevator, red infant-sized handprints and footprints, and a baby's cry appeared.
• Lu Ban recognized the corridor as Nanhua Private Renji Hospital and closed the door.

Lu Ban chose Nanhua Private Renji Hospital as the site of his next mission and contacted Song Yunyan to arrange support. Song Yunyan agreed to provide funding, demolition equipment, and the hospital’s records, then noticed strange details in the files.

• Lu Ban reviewed what he knew about the otherworldly realms and chose the hospital over the Sea of Trees and the unknown gravestones.
• Lu Ban called Song Yunyan and told her the accidents halting the hospital’s demolition might be connected to Du Danping’s side.
• Song Yunyan checked the project records and asked whether something was inside the hospital.
• Lu Ban offered to handle the threat in exchange for funding, an explosives-equipped demolition team, and the hospital’s files.
• Song Yunyan agreed and, after the call, noticed strange details in the hospital records.

Lu Ban read the demolition reports detailing the strange incidents and mounting casualties at Nanhua Private Renji Hospital before the hospital appeared around him and a mission began. The mission difficulty changed to Erosion, and Lu Ban was tasked with surviving until dawn and finding Du Danping's Melody Fragment.

• Lu Ban read reports describing failed demolitions, unexplained apparitions, and more than ten casualties, including the deaths of Wang Yuan and two workers.
• Lu Ban recognized the abandoned hospital corridor beyond his room as the scenery turned black and white and a mission appeared.
• The mission initially required Lu Ban to enter Nanhua Private Renji Hospital and survive until dawn.
• The system detected a side-mission item, raised the mission difficulty to Erosion, and added the objective to find Du Danping's Melody Fragment.

Lu Ban spent two weeks reviewing Nanhua Private Renji Hospital’s records to prepare for a task requiring him to spend a night there and find Du Danping’s Melody Fragment. He uncovered a nurse’s account of a critically ill patient appearing in a long-empty room, and began reading another strange duty memo.

• Lu Ban checked the task requirements and began studying the hospital’s archived records, which took him two weeks.
• Lu Ban bought the apartment he lived in and continued examining the hospital’s finances, operations, and duty rosters.
• Lu Ban read He Bixiong’s 2005 memo describing Robert, a patient from Room 502, standing in empty Room 510 and waving unnaturally.
• Lu Ban confirmed Robert had survived surgery and been discharged, then wondered whether Room 510 could heal people and what price its power demanded.
• Lu Ban started reading a February 2009 memo in which a nurse described the cold and hinted at another strange discovery during rounds.

Lu Ban investigated strange hospital records about the fifth floor and the room at the end of its corridor, then entered the abandoned hospital to begin his search. As he looked up, he saw a girl watching him from a fifth-floor window.

• Wang Ping's memo described how Xu Xiao disappeared after leading her to the fifth floor, where she was absent from the elevator mirror.
• Lu Ban found that other strange incidents also pointed to the fifth-floor room, and that the missing construction crew leader and workers were difficult to track down.
• Lu Ban noticed that the security guards at the site were not the workers who had taken away a streamer, and wondered whether missing people had become inhuman beings.
• After three days of preparation, Lu Ban packed his equipment and went to the hospital on Nanhua Road.
• Lu Ban showed the guards his identification, saw a wooden-faced girl watching him from a fifth-floor window, smiled at her, and entered the hospital.

Lu Ban explored Nanhua Private Renji Hospital, tested the elevator mirror, and found a red notebook at the nurses’ station. As dusk fell, writing appeared in the notebook and revealed its recorder’s name: Xu Xiao.

• Lu Ban entered the hospital, inspected explosives and a health poster, then pried open the elevator doors.
• He studied the clean mirror, entered the unstable elevator, and escaped when it seemed to move and his reflection smiled at him.
• Lu Ban examined the nurses’ station and wondered why nurses had been assigned to patrol the hospital at night.
• He found a red duty notebook beneath the desk and noticed that its records were incomplete.
• As the hospital grew dim, handwriting appeared on a blank page and named Xu Xiao as the recorder.

Lu Ban read Xu Xiao’s account of a night shift at the hospital, where crawling footprints led her to a mysterious room at the end of the fifth-floor corridor. Comparing her account with Wang Ping’s conflicting record, he concluded that the room held the hospital’s secrets and considered taking the memo to a related location to reveal more.

• Xu Xiao described Sister He warning her that the hospital stood on an execution ground and telling her to avoid the room at the end of the fifth-floor corridor.
• Xu Xiao followed crawling footprints to the room, glimpsed something inside, and fled to find Wang Ping.
• Xu Xiao returned to the fifth floor with Wang Ping, but Wang Ping and the thing in the room disappeared, along with the patients.
• Xu Xiao found the hospital empty and dark, then waited at the nurses’ station and pleaded for help in her memo.
• Lu Ban noted that Xu Xiao’s and Wang Ping’s records contradicted each other and wondered what the room contained.
• Lu Ban connected Sister He to He Bixiong and identified the nurses’ station and Room 502 as possible locations to investigate.

Lu Ban explored the hospital after night fell and found a strange examination room where a corpse-stitched doctor tried to operate on him. After defeating the doctor with a Speech Bullet and a crowbar, Lu Ban hid from another armed doctor, but it discovered him.

• Lu Ban noticed the hospital grounds were swallowed by darkness, stayed inside, and ate while considering the missing nurses listed in the notebook.
• Lu Ban found an examination room with an unusually short hospital bed and lay down to inspect it.
• A stitched-together doctor appeared and tried to operate on Lu Ban, but Lu Ban used a Speech Bullet to break free and knocked it unconscious with his crowbar.
• Lu Ban examined the doctor's stitched, inhuman face and heard another doctor approaching with an orthopedic saw.
• Lu Ban hid in the shadows, but the saw-wielding doctor poked its head into the examination room.