Chapter Summaries

Lin Yu interpreted Fuzzball’s riddles as clues about the asylum’s reincarnation mechanism and the three Players, then explored the devastated third and fourth floors. He reached the fifth-floor entrance, where a password left by his past self failed, leaving him facing an alarmed lock.

• Lin Yu reasoned that the riddles described reincarnation, the Players, and possible conflicts among them, and suspected the passages referred to himself, Zhigeng, and Max.
• Lin Yu explored the third floor and found it filled with corpses, concluding that Zhigeng had likely killed everyone there.
• Lin Yu found the fourth floor similarly devastated, including a wrecked ward he believed had belonged to Zhigeng.
• Lin Yu decided to investigate the dangerous fifth floor, trusting that his past self had left evidence that it was safe to approach.
• Lin Yu entered the carved password 620150 into the fifth-floor lock, but it rejected the code and sounded an alarm.

Lin Yu used a video stored in May May’s phone to unlock the fifth-floor door, then found two doctor monsters waiting inside. Their weapons and healing abilities suggested they carried items resembling a doctor’s Profession Items.

• Lin Yu found a note in the [Ancient Notebook] explaining that the real password method was stored in the phone.
• Lin Yu watched a video showing him twist the keypad and hold the 5 key while saying, “Open the door,” then used the method to enter the fifth floor.
• Two tall doctors spotted Lin Yu and charged at him with a giant syringe and a medical kit.
• Lin Yu used [Ice Blessing] to increase his speed and burned the syringe-wielding doctor with [Fear Torch].
• The other doctor healed its injured partner with medicine from the kit, and Lin Yu recognized the weapons as resembling a doctor’s [Syringe] and [Medicine Kit].

Lin Yu discovered that the two doctor monsters wielded weapons similar to Players’ Profession Items and used the syringe’s power to test his theory. He defeated and burned both monsters, then found two glittering objects among their ashes.

• Lin Yu deliberately let the syringe monster wound his palm, confirming that its weapon had an ability like a [Profession Item: Syringe].
• The doctor monster healed Lin Yu’s wound, and Lin Yu used [Shady Corner] to ambush and burn the monster holding the medical box.
• Lin Yu fought the syringe monster after its teammate was gone and its special ability had been spent, then set it ablaze.
• Lin Yu watched both monsters burn to ash and found two glittering objects among the embers.

Lin Yu explored the fifth floor after defeating two doctors and finding two keys in their ashes. He inspected the Senior Physician On-Duty Area, then decided to investigate the Intensive Care Unit before Robin and Max returned.

• Lin Yu found two metal keys among the ashes of the doctors and stored them.
• Lin Yu examined the fifth floor’s signs and learned it was divided into the Special Examination Area, Senior Physician On-Duty Area, and Intensive Care Unit.
• Lin Yu walked through the empty examination area, saw its machines performing routine self-checks, and postponed a closer investigation.
• Lin Yu considered joining Robin and Max if they found important clues, but trusted his intuition not to invite them to explore the fifth floor.
• Lin Yu decided to investigate the Intensive Care Unit as quickly as possible before Robin and Max found him.

Lin Yu opened an Intensive Care Unit ward and found a young Robin, who warned him to leave before a blinding wave of light swept through the asylum. As the light exposed a second perspective outside the building, Lin Yu realized it might be connected to his amnesia and prepared to act.

• Lin Yu matched [Key A] and [Key B] to the locks on the third Intensive Care Unit door and opened it.
• Lin Yu found a young Robin painting in an empty classroom inside the ward.
• Robin urgently told Lin Yu to leave because it was almost too late.
• Lin Yu activated [Blissful Immortal Pot] and used [Closed Mind] as intense white light engulfed the asylum and caused him severe pain.
• Lin Yu saw the light pouring into the asylum from ten sources above it and suspected that maintaining [Closed Mind] would trap him in the disorienting state.
• Lin Yu took out the [Ancient Notebook] and [Cyber Ghost's Electronic Coffin].

Lin Yu woke restrained in a psychiatric hospital’s seclusion room, unable to remember the Instance’s name or find Hannah and Stiller in his Item Space. He escaped using [Shady Corner] and emerged into the corridor as a doctor chased a woman he suspected was another player.

• Lin Yu realized he was restrained in a seclusion room and could not remember the Instance’s name or Clearance Conditions.
• A tall doctor entered, said he could not release Lin Yu, and began preparing an injection.
• Lin Yu discovered Hannah and Stiller were missing from his [Item Space] and used [Shady Corner] to escape into a shadow.
• The doctor failed to find Lin Yu and fled the room, allowing Lin Yu to leave the shadow and enter the corridor.
• Lin Yu saw a woman in gold-rimmed glasses run into the doctor, who chased her, and decided to help her.

Lin Yu realized that the Instance had a reincarnation mechanism and that his notebook recorded knowledge from previous attempts. He used his information advantage to pose as a prophetic Player and deceive Max, leaving her startled and increasingly inclined to believe him.

• Lin Yu discovered from the [Ancient Notebook] that he had already explored the Instance across multiple reincarnations and that Robin knew more about it than she had revealed.
• Max returned after escaping the monster doctor, and Lin Yu recognized her from the notebook as a Player from the Night Watcher.
• Lin Yu decided to exploit the information gap between himself and Max by inventing a powerful identity.
• Lin Yu told Max he was the 'Prophet,' a Monk with a Unique Profession that let him obtain answers through prophecy, and claimed he had learned her identity that way.
• Max questioned whether such a Unique Profession could exist, but Lin Yu sensed that she was beginning to believe him.

Lin Yu strengthened Max’s belief in his Prophet identity by inventing specific limits, which caused the profession and its abilities to become real. His new prophecy directed him upstairs to find Robin, but Max’s familiarity with the stairwell made Lin Yu suspicious.

• Lin Yu explained the limits and two-hour cooldown of his supposed prophetic ability until Max believed him and the ability became real.
• Lin Yu received a prophecy that going to the fourth floor would lead him to Robin and reveal one of Robin’s secrets.
• Lin Yu told Max that his prophecy pointed to a powerful teammate upstairs and reminded her that the Instance interfered with memory.
• Max agreed to go upstairs, but Lin Yu wondered how she knew where the stairs were.

Lin Yu and Max reached the fourth-floor stairwell, where Robin appeared and recognized them. Robin privately summoned Lin Yu, leaving him to wonder how much she remembered from previous cycles.

• Lin Yu questioned how Max had found the stairwell, and Max could only guess that intuition had guided her.
• Lin Yu opened the door marked "Unsafe Passage," but Robin rushed down the stairs and crushed the monster behind it with a geometric shape drawn by her paintbrush.
• Max introduced herself and Lin Yu to Robin, who consulted a small notebook before explaining that they needed to reach the first floor to clear the Instance.
• Lin Yu realized Robin had retained information across cycles and suspected that she doubted his claim to be a Prophet.
• Robin asked to speak privately with Lin Yu, and Max agreed to wander outside.

Lin Yu learned that Robin suspected he was May May from the Order and had uncovered the Instance’s looping mechanism. Using a hint from his false Prophet ability, he got Robin to reveal that the Instance was connected to the Psychology Society and the Lord of Mist Island, leaving her realizing she had been tricked into sharing information.

• Robin recognized Lin Yu as May May from the Order and explained that the Instance periodically erased their memories while she preserved records between loops.
• Robin accused Lin Yu of using the false profession Prophet to disguise his ability to predict events, and Lin Yu praised her analysis.
• Lin Yu used a hint from Rich Miser to ask Robin about the Psychology Society and the Lord of Mist Island.
• Robin panicked and demanded to know how Lin Yu had learned about the connection, then realized he had tricked her into revealing information.

Zhigeng explained how player permissions deepen their connection to Instance worlds and enable trade, crafting, and influence. She revealed that Tier 3 [Map] permission can grant additional opportunities to enter Instance worlds, though its role in the Psychology Society’s control of the current place remained unclear.

• Zhigeng agreed to tell Lin Yu important information about the Instance while reserving anything she found difficult to discuss.
• Lin Yu told Zhigeng he had unlocked the Tier 1 [Social] permission.
• Zhigeng explained that [Social] helps players maintain relationships and conduct reliable transactions with NPCs and other players, and that these relationships can support advancement to Tier 2.
• Zhigeng described Tier 2 [Codex], which reveals information about materials, NPCs, and regions and allows players to gather materials for crafting Items.
• Zhigeng told Lin Yu that Tier 3 [Map] permission can provide additional opportunities to enter the worlds of Instances.

Lin Yu learned that the asylum had once been used by the Psychology Society to create an artificial Trial Instance. Robin revealed that she had survived the brutal experiment because a member of the Psychology Society saved her.

• Robin explained that Tier 3 players could enter Instance worlds outside scheduled Instances and choose where to arrive.
• Robin said the asylum had once belonged to the Lord of Mist Island and served as a refuge for the island’s mentally ill and persecuted nobles.
• Robin revealed that Freud, the Psychology Society’s First Generation leader, had turned the asylum into a laboratory for an artificial Trial Instance.
• Lin Yu realized Robin had participated in the experiment and deduced that someone had rescued her.
• Robin admitted that a girl from the Psychology Society had saved her from a monster in the asylum.

Lin Yu learned from Zhigeng that Freud’s death in the asylum may have caused the Instance’s reincarnation mechanism and turned former Players into monsters. As they set out to find the absent director’s office and forge a permit, Lin Yu recognized a connection between the Inverted Tower’s master and the mysteries of the Instance, then asked Max to help him open doors.

• Lin Yu questioned Zhigeng about the Instance, and she explained that its reincarnation mechanism appeared after First Generation Freud died there.
• Zhigeng guessed that Freud’s soul and memory abilities had caused the changes, and that many current monsters were Players who had died in the asylum.
• Lin Yu and Zhigeng reviewed the unanswered mysteries, then agreed to seek the absent director’s office on the first floor and forge a permit.
• Zhigeng said the director might be Freud’s remnant will, the Lord of Mist Island, or an even more terrifying power, and identified that power as the master of the Inverted Tower.
• Lin Yu sent Zhigeng toward the first floor and asked Max to help him open a few doors.

Lin Yu and Max searched the second floor’s wards until they found the Two-headed Bird, while a familiar furry monster appeared and destroyed itself. Recognizing the bird heads as a clue to a presence with a crow incarnation, Lin Yu confronted the toothed head and demanded that it reveal its true self.

• Lin Yu asked Max to unlock every ward on the second floor, believing the search would help them clear the Instance.
• Max opened several wards, and Lin Yu encountered Fuzzball, who refused to talk and exploded across the room.
• After opening every other door, Max and Lin Yu found the Two-headed Bird playing chess in the final ward, and Max collapsed into sleep from exhaustion.
• Lin Yu deduced that the bird heads represented a crow and a raven, then grabbed the toothed head and demanded that the being behind it reveal itself.

Lin Yu met the God of Change, who explained that the Instance altered cognition and memory and warned him that others were seeking its inheritance. After the god departed, Lin Yu reunited with Max and headed to find Ruo Geng, still uncertain about the misleading hint concerning her.

• The God of Change appeared between the two bird heads and told Lin Yu that his visit was unexpected, though he had partly anticipated it.
• The God of Change explained that the Instance's reincarnation was an alteration of cognition and memory, and that identity and self-understanding were key to clearing it.
• The God of Change warned Lin Yu that other intruders were pursuing the inheritance and said the one who had warned him was relatively kind.
• The God of Change refused to explain the Instance's name or Clearance Conditions and hinted that Max's background would become clear soon.
• The God of Change vanished, the bird heads resumed moving, and Lin Yu woke Max before taking her back toward the first floor to find Ruo Geng.

Lin Yu and Max followed a compass to the director’s office, where Robin had vanished despite leaving signs that she had been there. Lin Yu found the Exit Permit Slips in a desk drawer and discovered a notebook in another drawer.

• Max’s compass led her and Lin Yu to the director’s office, whose door was unlocked.
• Max entered the empty office, and Lin Yu concluded that Robin was still nearby despite being nowhere in sight.
• Lin Yu noticed fresh dust marks and fingerprints near the desk, suggesting Robin had searched it.
• Lin Yu opened a drawer and found the Exit Permit Slips, taking four of them.
• Lin Yu examined Robin’s movements and opened another drawer, where he found a notebook.

Lin Yu found a register listing the hospital’s staff and patients, including three mysterious patients on the fifth floor. He discovered a hidden button that opened a secret room where Nightingale had likely gone, and judged the entrance relatively safe.

• Lin Yu examined the register and found about 235 names, many of them apparently players.
• Lin Yu noticed that the fifth floor had three patients: Jiang Lin, one with no name, and one recorded as garbled symbols.
• Lin Yu tucked away the register and found a concealed button beneath the desk.
• Lin Yu asked Max to arrange her twelve dolls around the desk, then pressed the button and opened a hidden floor entrance.
• Lin Yu identified the opening as the secret room where Nightingale was inside and judged it relatively safe.

Lin Yu and Max discovered a wine cellar beneath the opening and found Robin unconscious beneath a false shadow. Lin Yu recognized the cellar’s connection to Mist Island wine and tried to flee with Robin, but a sinister presence confronted them.

• Lin Yu and Max descended a spiral staircase, using Max’s dolls to test the way for danger.
• Lin Yu and Max reached an ancient locked door that Robin had opened with two drawn keys, then entered a wine cellar filled with barrels.
• Lin Yu recognized the wave symbol on the door from Mist Island wine labels and suspected a connection between the winery and the asylum’s effects on memory.
• Lin Yu uncovered a canvas disguised as a shadow and found Robin unconscious beneath it.
• Lin Yu carried Robin toward the exit as Max followed with the dolls, but a cold presence and sinister chuckle stopped them.

Lin Yu realized the endless staircase was trapping him and confronted the gray monster pursuing him. He gave Max the Exit Permits and stayed behind with a bomb so she could escape with Zhigeng.

• Lin Yu and Max fled the wine cellar with the unconscious Zhigeng, but the staircase stretched endlessly as the monster pursued them.
• Lin Yu handed Zhigeng to Max, turned around, and raised the [Fear Torch] to face the unseen threat.
• The [Fear Torch] went out, and a gray-white monster with a face resembling Lin Yu’s appeared behind him.
• Lin Yu threw the three [Exit Permits] to Max, told her to guide herself with her compass, and confessed he was May May from Order, not a Prophet.
• Lin Yu made a bomb with the [Replica] and rolled down the stairs toward the monster, intending to perish with it.

After Lin Yu sacrificed himself to save Max and Zhiqing, they learned the necromancer could not be affected by the asylum’s reincarnation and prepared to leave with his exit permit. They escaped the Instance, and Jiang Lin woke in a mental hospital believing the events had been a Nightmare.

• Max dragged Zhiqing into the director’s office as an explosion sounded below, then grieved over Lin Yu’s apparent death.
• Zhiqing explained the reincarnation and the necromancer’s history, telling Max that Lin Yu could not be saved.
• Zhiqing used the previous director’s seal to complete exit permits for herself, Max, and May May.
• Zhiqing and Max left the asylum, and a white light made them lose consciousness.
• Jiang Lin woke in a mental hospital and, after speaking with her doctor, remembered the Instance as a dream.