Chapter Summaries

Lin Yu learned why Jiang City was strategically important, joined Order’s First Squad there, and then went to Li Nian’s villa disguised as Doctor Xia to investigate the Phantom Thief. The chapter ended with Lin Yu entering the villa under the pretense of checking on the family dog.

• Good Night told Lin Yu that Jiang City was Order’s most important city and the location of the Forum, though Lin Yu suspected the reasons behind its importance ran deeper.
• Good Night appointed May May to Order’s First Squad in Jiang City, and Lin Yu received an internal badge.
• Lin Yu learned that Order’s Jiang City headquarters was in the old shipyard across the river from Tycoon’s Jiang'an Hall.
• Lin Yu left the hospital, changed back into Xia Yue’s appearance, and headed to Li Nian’s villa to investigate the Phantom Thief.
• Lin Yu introduced himself at the villa as Doctor Xia and persuaded the man who answered the door to let him in to check on Tigerhead.

Lin Yu told Li Nian that he had joined the Psychology Society and asked how to meet the Freedom Alliance’s public withdrawal requirement, while making clear he intended to strike back at the Society. He then asked Li Nian what was special about Jiang City.

• Lin Yu told Li Nian he had joined the Psychology Society and asked how expelled players learned forum news and how to satisfy the Freedom Alliance’s withdrawal requirement.
• Li Nian described how the Mortician and Master Chef had publicly left their organizations, and Lin Yu considered using their examples.
• Lin Yu said he had joined the Psychology Society because he held grudges, and Li Nian warned him to tell her before he acted so she could stay clear.
• Lin Yu explained that the Order and Psychology Society were watching his home as his fake death became harder to conceal, and described how he concealed his identity switches.
• Lin Yu asked Li Nian what was special about Jiang City.

Lin Yu visited Li Nian to confirm the Order’s warning about an unspeakable terror connected to the forum, then returned home to find Shen Bingmiao had left him a mysterious, potentially valuable item disguised as a phone. The chapter ended when the item began pulling Lin Yu’s phone toward itself.

• Lin Yu confirmed that Li Nian had heard of an unmentionable terror in the city that was probably connected to the forum.
• Lin Yu returned home and found Lin Zhao taking the day off to cook for him before his exams.
• Lin Zhao told Lin Yu that Shen Bingmiao had brought gifts for the Drama club and left him a top-of-the-line phone.
• Lin Yu discovered that his transparent phone was the item called Ghost's Electronic Coffin, created by a deity and capable of growing.
• Lin Yu messaged Shen Bingmiao to ask what she had given him, but the item suddenly sucked his phone toward itself.

Lin Yu discovered that Shen Bingmiao’s [Cyber Ghost's Electronic Coffin] could absorb electronic devices and imitate them, but consuming an item only charged it by 0.02%. He thanked Shen Bingmiao and returned to studying, still wondering whether she suspected anything.

• Lin Yu found that [Cyber Ghost's Electronic Coffin] could imitate any electronic device it had absorbed and display its contents directly to him.
• Lin Yu worried that Shen Bingmiao might have realized something, but decided not to ask her or test her suspicions yet.
• Lin Yu fed the [Multi-tool Screwdriver] to the panel and learned that it charged by only 0.02%, without revealing what a full charge would do.
• Lin Yu considered using the panel to dispose of items he could neither use nor safely sell, while noting that his various identities needed more [Items].
• Lin Yu messaged Shen Bingmiao to thank her for the gift, then returned to his studies.

Fu Luo received orders from the Hacker to cause trouble for Nian, an anonymous Tier 3 Player ranked seventy-seventh. As Lin Yu prepared for the next Game, he learned it would begin before midnight and resolved to treat every Instance as though it were a Rank Advancement Trial.

• Fu Luo begged the Hacker not to make him kill Fluoxetine, and the Hacker said he still needed her and instead asked him to cause someone trouble.
• The Hacker identified Nian as Fu Luo’s target, and Fu Luo agreed to try because Nian did not kill people.
• Lin Yu finished his exam and saw a prompt instructing him to enter a dark, enclosed place and restrict his breathing before the next Game began.
• Lin Yu wondered whether he would face a Tier 2 Rank Advancement Trial, activated several buffs, and prepared cautiously despite lacking information about the process.
• Lin Yu recalled the dangers of his earlier Instances and decided to prepare for every future Instance as though it were a Rank Advancement Trial.

Lin Yu entered the three-player game One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, where he began bound and suffocating in a padded solitary confinement room. After Hannah spotted a giant doctor preparing an injection, Lin Yu summoned Stiller, who defeated the creature and freed him.

• Lin Yu entered One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with the clearance condition of leaving the island.
• Lin Yu found himself restrained in a padded room with a bag over his head, and he summoned Hannah to scout.
• Hannah reported that a three-meter-tall doctor was mixing drugs nearby while Lin Yu remained bound to a chair.
• Lin Yu summoned Stiller and ordered him to knock down the doctor.
• Stiller quickly defeated the creature, freed Lin Yu, and recognized its condition as something called Soul Dissolution Infusion.

Lin Yu escaped his restraints in an unfamiliar hospital-like facility and met Max, a Night Watcher Player who proposed they team up. They discovered they belonged to allied organizations, but Max admitted her internal codename was “Wild Boar.”

• Lin Yu and Stiller concluded the facility was probably not in the world where Truth Company operated, and Lin Yu freed himself from the restraint chair.
• As someone opened the isolation-room door, Lin Yu had Hannah disguise Stiller and conceal him.
• Max entered the room and explained that she had escaped the monster in her room by running away, then asked Lin Yu to form a team.
• Lin Yu and Max exchanged their Order and Night Watcher credentials and introduced themselves as members of allied organizations.
• Lin Yu asked why Max's codename did not follow the Night Watcher's animal naming convention, and she revealed her internal codename was “Wild Boar.”

Lin Yu and Max left the sickroom and surveyed the abandoned asylum, where they found a corridor full of monstrous patients. The chapter ended with Lin Yu observing the creatures in the activity area and sizing up the dangers ahead.

• Max told Lin Yu that strange patients were wandering the corridors and that she had lost track of the giant doctor.
• Lin Yu revealed Stiller, disguised as a ninja, and passed him off as a simple mechanical puppet.
• Lin Yu and Max searched the sickroom, then left before a possible mechanism could be triggered.
• Lin Yu examined the polygon-shaped asylum and learned that Max had come from another open room nearby.
• Lin Yu and Max found an activity area filled with bizarre humanoid patients playing games and exercising.

Lin Yu and Max used a compass to search for another Player and found a dangerous passage, where a tentacled monster ambushed Max. Stiller defeated the monster, leaving Lin Yu optimistic that the Instance would be easy.

• Lin Yu deduced that Max had an Item for finding people and asked her to locate the other Player.
• Max used a golden pocket compass to lead Lin Yu and Stiller to a blood-smeared door marked “Unsafe Passage.”
• Max tossed a Cheese Cat Cat plushie through the door, then opened it and was dragged inside by a tentacled monster.
• Lin Yu transformed into shadow and called Hannah to send Stiller into the passage to attack the monster.
• Stiller slashed the monster and freed Max, who fell headfirst before getting back up.
• Lin Yu praised Stiller and concluded that the Instance's monsters seemed weak.

Lin Yu, Max, and Stiller investigated the stairwell, where a huge stone ball swept away monsters and revealed another player approaching. The newcomer was Robin, whom Max recognized as Teacher Robin.

• Max threw the Cheese Cat Cat upstairs to scout, and it was destroyed by the monsters.
• Lin Yu sent Stiller up the stairs, but a huge stone ball rolled down and forced the three of them to retreat.
• After the stone ball cleared the stairwell of monsters, Max threw the Cheese Lynx upstairs and heard a human response.
• Lin Yu and Max cautiously returned to the stairs, where a player used a periscope to inspect them.
• Robin came down with her hands raised and said she was a player, and Max excitedly recognized her as Teacher Robin.

Lin Yu and Max met Robin, a powerful Night Watcher, in the Mental Hospital and learned that they were on a smaller island in the Misty Sea archipelago. Robin explained that escaping the island was their goal, and the group prepared to continue downstairs as Lin Yu sent Stiller ahead to scout.

• Max introduced herself and Lin Yu to Robin, who greeted Lin Yu as Doctor May.
• Robin said she had descended from the fourth floor after clearing monsters and finding no useful clues.
• Robin explained that the hospital was on an island in the Misty Sea archipelago, a realm resembling Earth with supernatural incidents, and that the group had to escape the island.
• Robin warned that they needed to act quickly because they had found no hint of the Rule and delaying would make their situation worse.
• Robin suggested continuing downstairs, and Lin Yu agreed and sent Stiller ahead to scout.

Lin Yu, Robin, and Max explored the first floor of the hospital instance, where the easy fights deepened Lin Yu and Robin’s suspicions that a greater challenge remained. Their search led them into an administrator’s office, where they triggered an alarm and found themselves surrounded by guards and a giant armed with a massive rifle.

• Lin Yu and Robin grew uneasy because the stairwell monsters were too weak for Robin’s Tier 3 strength, suggesting the instance’s real challenge remained undiscovered.
• Robin removed the stone ball from the stairwell entrance, and the group stepped onto the first floor to search its wooden-doored rooms.
• Max’s compass failed to identify a room, so the group chose the nearest door; Max chopped through it with a fire ax and opened it.
• Lin Yu, Robin, and Max entered what appeared to be a hospital administrator’s office and found a towering blue-purple monster behind the desk.
• The administrator sounded an alarm, drawing groups of tentacled guards in black Security Uniforms into the corridor.
• The administrator pulled a huge hunting rifle from beneath the desk as Max, Lin Yu, and Robin faced the guards.

Lin Yu, Robin, and Max found the asylum’s staff rules and suspected that the patients were its greatest danger. Max’s compass led them to the main gate, which they unlocked and passed through, leaving the asylum.

• Robin quickly killed the monsters in the room by sketching on a page, and the group searched the bodies.
• Lin Yu found a staff manual and a Finance Office director’s nameplate, and learned that the asylum was on the 37th Island.
• Lin Yu questioned Robin about the patient-like monsters she had killed, since the manual’s warnings about patients did not match what they had encountered.
• The group inferred that Rule Five might explain how to leave and used Max’s compass to find a gate they thought led to the director’s office.
• Max found the main entrance key, opened the iron gate, and led Lin Yu and Robin out of the asylum.

Lin Yu woke restrained in an isolation room, cut off from Hannah and Stiller, and used food from [Reusable Delicious Paper] to distract a giant doctor while freeing himself. After his [Infallible Revolver] failed, he fought back with [Fear Torch] and [BBE-300], leaving the giant badly hurt but the danger unresolved.

• Lin Yu awoke bound and hooded, unable to contact Hannah or Stiller, and suspected the Instance had separated him from his summons.
• Lin Yu used [Reusable Delicious Paper] to lure a creature away, then pried open his restraints with [Bone Crusher] and removed his hood.
• Lin Yu saw a giant doctor in the isolation room, which charged at him with a syringe after he broke free.
• Lin Yu's [Infallible Revolver] failed to fire, so he used [Fear Torch] to drive the doctor back and knock aside its syringe.
• Lin Yu threw [BBE-300] behind the giant, and its explosion badly burned the doctor and sent it collapsing.

Lin Yu defeated the giant doctor and encountered Max, who claimed to be a fellow Player, but he realized that something had been manipulating his thoughts and memories. The chapter ended with Lin Yu wondering whether his past self had deliberately stopped using [Closed Mind] to protect his memories.

• Lin Yu knocked the giant doctor unconscious, searched his body, noticed a nearly fatal neck wound, and broke all four of his limbs.
• Lin Yu left the unlocked cell and met a woman who introduced herself as Max, a Tier 1 Thief from the 'Night Watcher.'
• Lin Yu noticed that he had trusted Max without proof and recognized that something had been interfering with his judgment.
• Lin Yu found that [Closed Mind] had only eleven hours and thirty-seven minutes remaining, suggesting he had used it for twenty-three minutes during the Instance.
• Lin Yu connected the missing bullets and his vanished companions to possible memory gaps, then wondered whether his past self had voluntarily stopped using [Closed Mind].

After realizing his memories of the Instance had been altered, Lin Yu used Max to get some privacy and checked the Ancient Notebook for a message from his past self. The note confirmed that the Instance repeatedly erased or altered Players’ memories and provided guidance on the asylum and its inhabitants.

• Lin Yu realized that his memories were unreliable and concluded that his past self had anticipated the memory loss.
• Lin Yu persuaded Max to scout the floor by praising her information-gathering skills, then returned to his room alone.
• Lin Yu found a message in the Ancient Notebook, marked with the words “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
• Lin Yu read that the Instance periodically erased and altered Players’ memories, in a process resembling reincarnation, and learned about fellow Players Max and Robin and the Items already used.
• Lin Yu learned the asylum’s layout and dangers, including that patient danger increased on higher ward floors and that he should avoid fighting staff or attacking patients.

Lin Yu and Max searched the hospital for the third player, Zhigeng, whom Lin Yu believed was a powerful Tier 3 player. Max's compass led them to a stairwell, where Lin Yu opened the door and was attacked by tentacles.

• Lin Yu read his notebook and concluded that he should find Zhigeng, avoid fighting patients, and seek contact with them.
• Max returned and told Lin Yu about the hospital's corridors, patients, and a manic doctor, then admitted she had let the monster from her room escape.
• Lin Yu and Max decided to find the third player, and Max used her golden compass to locate her near a stairwell.
• Lin Yu deduced that Zhigeng was likely on the fourth floor, then followed Max to the stairwell door marked "Unsafe Passage."
• Max offered to scout with her [Cheese Cat Cat], but Lin Yu used the [Fear Torch] and opened the door, where tentacles lunged at him.

Lin Yu and Max met Robin in the mental hospital on the 37th Island of Misty Sea Island and learned that she had been investigating a way to escape. Robin’s briefing confirmed Lin Yu’s suspicion that the Instance looped and that she had carried information across a rollback.

• Lin Yu defeated a Security Uniform monster with his [Fear Torch], and Max praised his combat strength.
• Lin Yu wondered where Stiller and Hannah had gone and considered whether summoned creatures were unaffected by the rollback.
• Robin appeared on the stairs, recognized Lin Yu and Max as Players, and introduced herself as a Night Watcher expert.
• Robin said she had killed the monsters upstairs and identified their location as the 37th Island of Misty Sea Island.
• Robin explained that escaping the mental hospital was likely the first step toward clearing the Instance, and that they might need an item granting the director’s authorization.
• Lin Yu realized that the Instance had a loop and that Robin had found a way to retain information across a previous rollback.

Lin Yu split from Robin and Max so he could investigate the second floor and learn more about the building’s rollback. In the activity area, he tried talking to a strange patient and was startled when the patient pulled a comic out of thin air.

• Lin Yu decided Robin and Max should search the first-floor dean’s office while he investigated the other floors for clues.
• Robin and Max agreed to the plan and went downstairs, leaving Lin Yu to return to the second floor.
• Lin Yu cautiously entered the activity area and sat across from a metal-headed, lizard-like patient reading a comic.
• The patient explained that the comic was called Dinosaur Carries Wolf and then pulled another comic out of the air.

Lin Yu questioned the reality of a Lizardman’s comic, then sought out other patients and paid a Fuzzball fortune teller with the borrowed comic. The Fuzzball recited a cryptic prophecy about Trapped Dragon Peak and three guests, which Lin Yu recorded in his [Ancient Notebook].

• Lin Yu accepted a physical Dinosaur Carries Wolf comic from the Lizardman and wondered whether the patient had created it or whether it revealed something stranger about the world.
• Lin Yu approached a Two-headed Bird playing chess against itself, but left after its bird heads disagreed about whether to play him.
• Lin Yu met a black-furred Fuzzball who offered Iron Mouth Divination in exchange for the comic.
• The Fuzzball recited a cryptic rhyme about Trapped Dragon Peak and described three guests who had entered the mountain game.
• Lin Yu hurriedly recorded the Fuzzball’s words in his [Ancient Notebook].