Chapter Summaries

Jiang Lin left her ward and went downstairs, where she met a suspicious patient on the second floor and made a new friend. The woman insisted they use codenames, but forgot the one she had chosen for herself.

• Jiang Lin decided to explore the lower floors and found the emergency stairwell.
• Jiang Lin passed patients painting on the walls and promised a smoking security guard she would not report him.
• Jiang Lin met a gold-rimmed-glasses woman on the second floor, who suspected she was gathering intelligence for a floor war.
• Jiang Lin explained she had come downstairs because she was bored, and the woman agreed to be friends.
• Jiang Lin gave the codename Robin, but the woman forgot the codename she had prepared.

Jiang Lin received a hidden vocabulary notebook from the seemingly unresponsive boy in the mental hospital and discovered a message inside. The chapter left her learning that her surroundings were a game, not reality.

• Jiang Lin wondered if she had amnesia and learned from the woman in gold-rimmed glasses about the nameless boy who barely reacted to anyone.
• Jiang Lin approached the boy, who unexpectedly handed her a vocabulary notebook decorated with sketches she recognized as her own.
• The boy returned to his hospital room without explaining himself, while the woman in gold-rimmed glasses offered to keep watch for Jiang Lin.
• Jiang Lin secretly opened the notebook and read the message, "You are not in reality. This is a Game!"

Jiang Lin read a notebook left by her past self and learned that she and Max were players trapped in a resetting mental hospital. She decided to search the fifth floor for a fallback item, but Max betrayed her to two doctors.

• Jiang Lin read the notebook’s warnings that her memories had been altered and that she had repeatedly attempted to escape the hospital.
• Jiang Lin told Max that they were players in a supernatural game, and Max accepted the explanation.
• Jiang Lin said they should escape together and head to the fifth floor to find the fallback item left by her past self.
• Jiang Lin discovered Max had disappeared and then saw her leading two doctors toward Jiang Lin, claiming she was a patient who wanted to escape.

Jiang Lin was restrained after Max reported her attempted escape, and Doctor Li evaluated her belief that the hospital was part of a Game. He claimed the supernatural notebook was a trick made by the second-floor patient, leaving Jiang Lin shaken and unsure what to believe.

• Jiang Lin was strapped to a chair in the fourth-floor isolation room after Max brought doctors to subdue her.
• Doctor Li questioned Jiang Lin about believing reality was a Game and trying to escape from the mental hospital.
• Jiang Lin tried to explain that she had only been joking with the second-floor patient, but Doctor Li challenged her reason for running.
• Doctor Li said Jiang Lin had repeatedly shown these delusions and claimed the second-floor patient had imitated her handwriting in the notebook.
• Doctor Li explained that the notebook's writing appeared through temperature-sensitive ink mailed by the boy's family, and said the hospital had discovered his first Item.

Doctor Li tried to convince Jiang Lin that she was a long-term patient at Jiangcheng Mental Health Center rather than a Player named Robin, and she began doubting which memories were real. After the notebook pointed her toward the fifth floor, she agreed to go there with Doctor Li and two guards to test its claim.

• Doctor Li told Jiang Lin that she had schizophrenia and amnesia, showed her medical records, and explained that she had been hospitalized for five years.
• Doctor Li played a video message from Jiang Lin’s parents, deepening her uncertainty about whether she was a patient or Robin, a member of the Night Watcher.
• Jiang Lin admitted she could not summon Items but said the notebook named the fifth floor as a backup plan.
• Doctor Li agreed to accompany Jiang Lin to the fifth floor, and two guards escorted them through the Unsafe Passage toward the stairs.

Jiang Lin followed Doctor Li to the fifth floor, where a crow mark restored her memories and convinced her the hospital was an Instance in a Game. She exposed the notebook as a Counterfeit and revealed that she was Robin, also known as May May or the Director, confronting Doctor Li as the First Generation Freud.

• Doctor Li showed Jiang Lin the apparently empty fifth floor and admitted that a man had once reached it before security dragged him away.
• At a dangerous patient's door, Jiang Lin saw a gray crow mark and recovered memories revealing that the hospital was an Instance and the mark had preserved the truth.
• Jiang Lin rejected Doctor Li's claims and said the vocabulary notebook was her Item, but Doctor Li challenged her to store it in her Item Space.
• Jiang Lin explained that her Item authority was sealed and transformed the notebook into flowing black matter, exposing it as a Counterfeit.
• Jiang Lin revealed that she was Robin and addressed Doctor Li as the First Generation Freud, calling herself May May or the Director.

Lin Yu confronted Freud, the first-generation Player behind the asylum, and explained how he exploited Freud’s limits on controlling memories and souls to break the cycle. Freud admitted he was trying to resurrect himself, and Lin Yu’s account revealed how he had used the wine cellar, a staged death, and lost memories to deceive him.

• Freud acknowledged Lin Yu’s deductions and explained that his ability separated souls from bodies, using the Players’ souls and memories to run the asylum’s cycles.
• Lin Yu inferred that Freud wanted to resurrect himself after dying as a Player, and that he needed only fragments of Players’ souls.
• Lin Yu explained that Freud could alter memories and cognition but lacked complete control over the asylum and could not directly identify people by their souls.
• Lin Yu said Octopus and the Ninja had found an uncontrolled wine cellar, where he arranged to replace Robin with an illusion disguised as Hannah and staged his own death.
• After the reset, Lin Yu used [Closed Mind] and an Exit Permit bearing the name Jiang Lin to make the asylum believe he was Robin, while Stiller emptied his mind and helped prompt Freud to appear.

Lin Yu confronted Freud while secretly using their apparent negotiations and captured allies as bait to divert Freud’s attention from the Nightingale. As Freud’s hidden core came under threat, Lin Yu turned to Max and demanded to know why he had come to the Instance.

• Freud revealed that he wanted to use Players’ bodies and souls to resurrect, while Lin Yu argued that Freud could not act on him without certain conditions being met.
• Freud summoned patients to threaten Lin Yu physically and revealed that Stiller, Hannah, and Max had been captured.
• Lin Yu explained that the captives were bait and that Freud did not know the real Nightingale’s location.
• Lin Yu said Stiller had secretly carried the Nightingale out of the wine cellar, where she was now searching for Freud’s hidden core.
• Freud realized Lin Yu had never intended to negotiate and feared that Lin Yu planned to have him killed.
• Lin Yu asked Max what he hoped to gain by watching him work through the Instance.

Lin Yu realized Max was an abnormal hidden being, and Freud’s illusion collapsed as she acted against him. Max explained Freud’s plan to become a god by gathering souls and fabricating reality, then sent Lin Yu flying with her compass.

• Lin Yu questioned Max’s identity after realizing her name was missing from the asylum’s list and that the clues might describe her.
• Freud recognized Max as an intruder and warned Lin Yu that his death would remove the asylum’s restrictions.
• The asylum’s illusion broke apart, revealing the ruined building on Mist Island and Freud’s decomposed body.
• Stiller explained that Freud had constructed the illusion from the perceptions and memories of trapped souls.
• Max explained that Freud planned to gather souls, seize a god’s rank and Authority, and expand his fabricated world, then used her compass to send Lin Yu into the air.

Zao confronted the Diviner, who had stolen Max’s body and intended to claim the raw soul of the Lord of Mist Island. Though the Diviner badly injured her, Zao revealed she had disrupted his ritual, unleashing the soul’s mist from the wine cellar.

• Zao returned to the asylum and confronted the Diviner, who wore Max’s appearance and admitted he had removed her soul to take her Tier 1 identity.
• Zao refused to leave and attacked the Diviner with paintings made from her blood, seeking revenge for Max.
• The Diviner countered Zao’s reality-warping paintings with lightning, leaving her badly injured.
• Zao taunted the Diviner and revealed she knew what he wanted: the raw soul of the Lord of Mist Island.
• Zao’s blood-red ground collapsed into the wine cellar, and white mist poured out as the soul’s cries spread across the island.

Robin confronted the Diviner and tried to prevent him from claiming the Lord of Mist Island's soul, but his original body arrived and trapped her. An illusion of A'yu distracted the Diviner, allowing a tiny Octopus to escape into the sea with Robin.

• Robin explained that the Diviner's possessed body and single compass had allowed her to disrupt his plan, and she refused to give up despite her injuries.
• The Diviner returned Max's body to Robin, then revealed that he had come to the island in person as a safeguard and gathered the dispersing mist into his hand.
• Robin prepared to fight the Diviner, accepting that she might die but vowing to make his invasion costly.
• A'yu appeared and asked the Diviner to capture Robin alive, but the Diviner realized she was an illusion and struck it with lightning.
• A tiny Octopus darted from the rocks into the sea, and Robin disappeared along with it.

Lin Yu returned to save Zhigeng, but the Diviner found them and trapped them in his Heart Domain. The Diviner revealed that a confusing divination involving Lin Yu and Zhigeng had led him to believe Lin Yu was special, though he had only just understood why.

• Lin Yu hid with Zhigeng inside [Shady Corner] and said he had returned because saving a Tier 3 Night Watcher would benefit his future.
• Zhigeng explained that the Diviner might be constrained by his Tier 4 status, but warned that he held grudges and was skilled at finding people.
• The Diviner tore apart [Shady Corner] and used his Heart Domain to weigh Lin Yu and Zhigeng down.
• Lin Yu challenged the Diviner to kill them quickly and reasoned that he had spared Lin Yu because he wanted something from him.
• The Diviner explained that A'yu had asked him to divine her confusion, and that his own attempt to seek a clearer revelation had entangled Lin Yu and Zhigeng in a bizarre prediction.
• The Diviner said that after the events of the Instance and Lin Yu's question, he had finally understood the twists and turns of destiny.

Lin Yu and Zhigeng tried to escape the island while Freud’s resurrected monsters distracted the Diviner, but the Diviner’s Heart Domain caught them and brought them back. After he knocked them unconscious, intense music suddenly sounded from Lin Yu’s body.

• The Diviner revealed that he intended to shatter Lin Yu’s soul, and Zhigeng realized he planned to do the same to Max.
• Lin Yu told Zhigeng to run with him, explaining that Freud and the asylum’s resurrected corpses could distract the Diviner.
• Zhigeng drew a raft, and she and Lin Yu jumped from the island’s cliff toward the sea.
• The Diviner used his Heart Domain to halt their fall and return them to his side, where the corpses lay destroyed.
• The Diviner knocked Lin Yu and Zhigeng unconscious, then powerful music began coming from Lin Yu’s body.

The Diviner confronted the Hacker, who used a Digital Barrier to keep gods and other high-dimensional entities away while pleading for Lin Yu’s life. The Diviner refused to relent, but just as he prepared to kill Lin Yu, Grandmaster appeared and challenged him.

• A pink phone hidden in Lin Yu’s coat rang, and the Diviner answered a call from the Hacker.
• The Hacker raised a Digital Barrier over the island and expelled a ball of fluff, declaring that high-dimensional entities could not enter.
• The Diviner rejected the Hacker’s request to spare Lin Yu and said he intended to kill him.
• The Hacker ended the call, claiming it was not too late to stop the Diviner, and the Diviner sensed danger as he moved toward Lin Yu.
• Grandmaster caught the falling phone with her toes, greeted the Diviner, and took a Baji Quan stance.

After clearing “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,” Lin Yu reunited with Zhigeng in the Settlement Space and reflected on how his survival fit the role he had been playing. He collected his rewards, including a powerful pocket watch and Freud's brain, and left with new resources for his plans.

• Lin Yu found himself in the Settlement Space with Zhigeng, while Max remained behind on Mist Island.
• Lin Yu thanked Zhigeng and apologized for Max's fate, and Zhigeng told him they could seek revenge together after growing stronger.
• Lin Yu received seven days of Survival Time and earned the “Unraveling the Clues” rating, which granted him a Madhouse Patient Uniform and a Repaired Mist Pocket Watch.
• Lin Yu considered the uniform's risks and recognized that the pocket watch could rewind an object by sacrificing a soul.
• Lin Yu discovered that Freud's brain had become an Item and concluded that the founder of the Psychology Society could help him.

After escaping the instance, Lin Yu reported his encounter with the Diviner to Order and tested the items he had acquired. He summoned Freud’s brain and began discussing how it could cooperate with him, leaving its abilities still unknown.

• Lin Yu messaged Good Night about encountering the Diviner, and Good Night sent him a link to submit a report.
• Lin Yu filed a report describing the instance and the Diviner while omitting his deception and possession of Freud’s brain.
• Lin Yu told Good Night he had submitted the report, then decided which of his new items to test.
• Lin Yu summoned the Sage’s Active Brain, and the First Generation Freud rejoiced at returning to Earth.
• Lin Yu proposed that he and Freud had a foundation for cooperation and asked what Freud could do as his item.

Lin Yu learned that First Generation Freud could still control one Remnant Soul and interfere with people’s memories under strict conditions. Freud also explained that Tier 4 players fused their Items and Permissions into a Heart Domain, their own Divine Kingdom.

• First Generation Freud explained that he could control one Remnant Soul, but only through a recently dead body whose soul had already been incomplete.
• Freud described how he could erase memories and implant subconscious suggestions if he directly caused someone to lose consciousness.
• Freud said his former ability to turn controlled people into gigantic monsters came from his Heart Domain, which he could no longer open as a brain.
• Freud explained how Rank Advancement and its Items and Permissions made Players increasingly unique and more like gods.
• Freud told Lin Yu that a Tier 3 Player formed a Heart Domain by fusing their Items and Permissions and gaining a clear understanding of themselves and the world.

Lin Yu learned more about the Death game and discussed his revenge against the Psychology Society with Old Zheng, who offered to help him make the confrontation fair. Old Zheng recognized Fluoxetine as an unusually special player and revealed that she had caused his current state while only Tier 2.

• Old Zheng explained the Heart Domain and the Death game's deeper nature, then asked Lin Yu to call him Old Zheng.
• Old Zheng said he wanted to support Lin Yu because of his potential, and Lin Yu revealed that he was S-class and had been killed by the Psychology Society's execution department.
• Lin Yu said he wanted revenge on those who ordered and carried out his death, and Old Zheng offered to provide information so the conflict could become an evenly matched Trial.
• Lin Yu identified Fluoxetine as the S-class Specialist who carried out the order, and Old Zheng reacted with excitement at the prospect of the two S-class players becoming enemies.
• Old Zheng said Fluoxetine was exceptionally special and had put him in his current state when she was only Tier 2.

Lin Yu learned more about Fluoxetine’s unusual entry into the Death game and told Old Zheng about his rapid advancement. After Good Night summoned him urgently to Tom Supermarket, Lin Yu slipped out of his home with Old Zheng and Hannah in his backpack.

• Old Zheng explained that Fluoxetine had entered the Death game after committing suicide, leaving the Psychology Society unable to understand her desire to live.
• Lin Yu revealed that he had cleared six Instances, reached Tier 1, and was due to receive a Rank Advancement Trial in his next Instance.
• Good Night called Lin Yu and urgently asked him to come to Tom Supermarket by Old Alley Road.
• Lin Yu packed Old Zheng and Hannah into his backpack, then told Lin Zhao he had an urgent filming assignment.
• Lin Yu left home, and Old Zheng remarked that Lin Zhao was beautiful.

Lin Yu joined Good Night on an urgent Order operation investigating the murder of Radish and the theft of a dangerous Item. Good Night outfitted Lin Yu with a Tier 2 Item Integration Set before they headed toward the case.

• Lin Yu met Good Night at Tom Supermarket, where Good Night explained that Sherlock and Gambler had recruited Lin Yu to assist with an investigation.
• Good Night told Lin Yu that Radish, a founder of the Player Mutual Aid Society, had been murdered in a Sea City hotel and that a dangerous Item had been stolen.
• Good Night said the case was too serious to involve many people and led Lin Yu to the supermarket's Cargo Hold to collect equipment.
• Good Night obtained a Tier 2 Item Integration Set from a logistics worker and gave the ownerless box to Lin Yu to bind.
• Lin Yu bound the box and received four Items: a protective suit, a dagger, a healing potion, and a buff potion.