Recaps

Fu Qian drove Katon to a derelict inn after leaving Lucy’s family, where Katon checked in and lay down in a ruined room. Watching him, Fu Qian wondered whether Katon had stayed there before and where the doctor who was Katon’s father was now.

• Fu Qian and Katon left Lucy’s home without the family opening the door again, and Katon asked Fu Qian whether he had eaten.
• Katon told Fu Qian to drive to a deserted inn, then said Lucy’s family did not matter to him and neither did the cat.
• Fu Qian drove into the inn’s overgrown courtyard, where another rusted car sat beside the building.
• Katon told Fu Qian to stay in the car, went through the lobby as if checking in, and disappeared into a room.
• Fu Qian saw Katon remove his coat and lie stiffly on a bed in the wrecked room, then wondered whether Katon had stayed there before and where his doctor father was.

Katon revisited the abandoned Far View motel and began reenacting a disturbing memory from his stay there. As midnight passed, he entered a neighboring room and acted as though he were talking to someone in bed, eventually pressing a pillow down over their head.

• Fu Qian suspected Katon had begun the second item on his Wish List while they waited at the motel.
• Fu Qian watched the motel’s clock tower as midnight approached.
• Katon opened his eyes and sat upright after the midnight chimes.
• Katon put on his coat and entered the room beside his.
• Katon stood beside the bed, pressed a pillow down as if smothering someone, and spoke to the unseen person about their illness.

Fu Qian pieced together that Old Man Katon's pillow-related regret involved his father and Mr. Dawkins, though the past event remained unclear. After Katon completed another item on his Wish List, he sent Fu Qian back toward the place where they had bought gas and asked what he thought of it.

• Fu Qian inferred that Katon had once pressed a pillow over his doctor's father’s face while trying to respond to something strange happening next door.
• Katon left the room, returned to the car, and rejoined Fu Qian after completing the second item on his Wish List.
• Katon told Fu Qian to drive back to the place where they had bought gas, saying they had enough fuel.
• On the way, Katon asked Anke what he thought of the place they had just visited.

Fu Qian drove Old Man Katon around town and learned that Katon had not slept since meeting Lucy, which explained why he had aged so much. Katon led him to a buried skeleton and arranged it in a seated pose, leaving Fu Qian to watch from the car.

• Katon asked Fu Qian to review the trip, and Fu Qian gave it three and a half stars.
• Katon asked why he looked so much older than Lucy, and Fu Qian suggested that he had experienced more time than she had.
• Katon said he had twenty-four hours in every day because he had not slept since meeting Lucy.
• Fu Qian drove Katon past the locked shop and out to the edge of town, where Katon told him to wait in the car.
• Katon used a shovel to break through a shop window and the floor, then dug up a skeleton in prayer-like clothing.
• Katon propped the skeleton against a wooden frame, adjusted it to look seated, and solemnly kissed its bony hand.

Katon finished his personal list by digging up a skeleton he had buried years ago, while Fu Qian watched as his witness. Katon then proposed an additional task, leaving Fu Qian to face the next item: forcibly taking possession of something without permission.

• Katon dug up a skeleton buried underground and knelt before it while Fu Qian watched from the car.
• Katon asked Fu Qian what he thought, and Fu Qian called the discovery a time capsule.
• Fu Qian reminded Katon that the car was nearly out of gas, and Katon said everything on his list was done.
• Katon noticed Fu Qian seemed unsatisfied and offered him an additional task, which Fu Qian accepted.
• Katon told Fu Qian to get out of the car and named the next task: forcibly taking possession of something without permission.

Fu Qian helped Katon fulfill his fourth wish by taking a white car, then learned that the fifth wish, “Reflection,” would reverse their identities. The chapter ended with Katon handing him a metal pendant that Fu Qian recognized from the skeleton.

• Fu Qian concluded that Katon's earlier wishes might be connected by supernatural events and realized the fourth wish involved taking a car, not a person.
• Fu Qian hotwired the white car and let Katon take over the driver's seat.
• Katon said they had completed the fourth wish and announced the next item, “Reflection.”
• Katon explained that their identities would be reversed and handed Fu Qian a familiar metal pendant that had hung from a skeleton.

Fu Qian continued the fifth item on the list by taking Katon, who was playing his driver, back to the roadside shop and making coffee. He left Katon wondering who the coffee was for, as Fu Qian said it was meant for another friend.

• Fu Qian examined the burial offering tied to the third item and reflected that the latest list items had taught him little.
• Katon took the wheel and drove Fu Qian back to the roadside shop at his request.
• Fu Qian unlocked the shop, turned on the lights, and began preparing coffee.
• Katon left the car and entered the shop, asking why Fu Qian had brought him there.
• Fu Qian offered Katon a seat, then said the coffee was for another friend.

Fu Qian and Katon discussed Katon’s plan to examine himself by exchanging identities with a driver, while townspeople gathered outside after discovering the stolen car and pit. The driver used supernatural power and broke character, and Fu Qian singled out a plaid-shirted figure outside to remain behind.

• Katon questioned Fu Qian about the other friends he had invited, and Fu Qian said they had not arrived yet.
• Fu Qian recognized that Katon had hired the driver to become his Reflection and help him examine himself from a different perspective.
• Katon warned Fu Qian that people were converging on the shop after the area’s suppression lifted and the stolen car and pit were discovered.
• Fu Qian placed his pistol on the counter, checked its magazine, and dismissed Katon’s warning as they continued drinking coffee.
• The people outside fell silent and began to leave after the driver used supernatural power and broke character.
• Katon said the Reflection part was over, but Fu Qian pointed to a figure in a plaid shirt and told him to leave that person behind.

Fu Qian confronted Katon at the shop and deliberately provoked him into using his supernatural ability. Katon’s reluctance to rely on that power led Fu Qian to suspect that, near the end of his life, Katon was trying to live as an ordinary person.

• Fu Qian invited the Plaid Shirt shopkeeper into his own shop, despite Katon’s surprise.
• When the shopkeeper questioned whether Fu Qian’s gun was real, Fu Qian fired it and wounded Katon instead.
• Fu Qian pointed the gun toward the shopkeeper and asked Katon why he disliked his supernatural self.
• Katon tried to use mental influence on Fu Qian, but it had no effect.
• Fu Qian reflected that Katon had repeatedly waited until he had no choice before using his supernatural power.

Fu Qian questioned Katon about what he truly wanted, then turned his attention to the terrified shopkeeper, Lei Meng. He left Lei Meng with advice to keep the best coffee beans ready for Bernard or Loretta.

• Fu Qian tested whether Katon would reveal what he wanted, but Katon denied understanding and prepared to attack.
• Fu Qian invited the Plaid Shirt shopkeeper inside and reassured him that Katon would survive his wound.
• Fu Qian held a gun to the shopkeeper's head, learned his name was Lei Meng, and told him he was going to die.
• Lei Meng admitted he hated his job and could not think of anything he wanted to do.
• Fu Qian advised Lei Meng to buy the best coffee beans and make coffee for Bernard or Loretta if either visited.

Fu Qian pushed Lei Meng to give Bernard and Loretta free coffee, explaining that the routine mattered even if it changed nothing. After leaving Lei Meng’s shop safely, Fu Qian and Katon returned to the car, where Old Man praised Fu Qian’s performance, and Fu Qian moved on to the next item on the list.

• Fu Qian told Lei Meng to set aside coffee for Bernard and Loretta, and insisted he do it simply because Fu Qian had told him to.
• Katon understood Fu Qian’s approach and praised his guidance, then urged them to leave because the coffee was awful.
• Fu Qian left payment and tossed Katon’s holster and pistol beside Lei Meng before walking out with Katon.
• Old Man praised Fu Qian’s performance in the car, and Fu Qian thanked him for helping make Lei Meng less likely to shoot them.
• Fu Qian noted that the fifth item on the list was complete and volunteered for the next task.

Fu Qian drove Katon back to the abandoned hotel as Katon explained his connection to the Unjust and the power he had gained. Katon revealed that the last item on his list was to die in his sleep.

• Katon told Fu Qian that he knew about the Unjust and the old Warehouse, and Fu Qian showed him the pendant he had taken from a dead man.
• Katon explained that the Unjust belonged to a group who prayed to their own true selves and had invited him to join them.
• Katon said he had refused because he believed he had already achieved what the group sought.
• Katon admitted that he tested his gained power by giving the Unjust an ascension, but that power had also kept him from visiting Lucy's house and caring for his father.
• Fu Qian drove Katon to the abandoned hotel, where Katon revealed that his final list item was to die in his sleep.

Fu Qian questioned Katon about his final wish and learned that the old man had planned for him to remain involved regardless of his willingness. Fu Qian’s observation about the hotel clock led Katon to reveal that his father’s visit had involved the same unusual group—and a disturbing method of treatment.

• Katon told Fu Qian to stay in the car and explained that he still did not trust him enough to reveal the plan for his final wish.
• Fu Qian asked what Katon’s original plan would have been if he had refused to help, and Katon said he would still have brought him inside.
• Fu Qian aligned the Cross Star Pendant with the hotel clock and suggested that someone had removed the clock hand to ruin the hotel’s prospects.
• Katon agreed that the group had removed the hand and said his father had also sensed the hotel’s potential.
• Katon revealed that his father had come to treat a patient who belonged to the unusual group, and that he and the other “unjust ones” had eaten one of their sisters as part of the treatment.

Fu Qian questioned Katon about how he discovered his father’s secret and learned that Katon had gained Supernatural Power that night. Katon explained how the Unjust’s experiments had harmed the area’s business, then invited Fu Qian to come with him.

• Fu Qian asked Katon why his father had brought him to the feast and why he had left his room that night.
• Katon said he had sneaked outside after hearing his father return and discovered his father’s secret when he reached the parking spot and gained Supernatural Power.
• Katon said he stayed by the car instead of visiting Lucy, then watched his father and confirmed what was happening.
• Katon explained that he found the Warehouse and met another self-deceived member of the Unjust, whom he later killed.
• Katon said the Unjust’s experiments had caused strange incidents that hurt local business, then invited Fu Qian to come along, and Fu Qian agreed.

Katon brought Fu Qian to the room where his father had once lived and prepared to enter a long sleep, reflecting on their past. He asked Fu Qian to help him die peacefully if necessary, then closed his eyes.

• Fu Qian considered how the Unjust might have treated Mr. Dawkins’s experience as a model for transcendence and why the hotel had become significant to them.
• Katon thanked Fu Qian and left without sharing more details.
• Katon told Fu Qian that his father had stayed inside the room for a day and a night before emerging, and that they rarely kept in touch afterward.
• Katon asked Fu Qian whether he liked dreaming, then explained that he had prepared to enter death and sleep for a long time.
• Fu Qian offered to help Katon die peacefully if the situation called for it, and Katon accepted before closing his eyes.

After Katon fell into a seemingly peaceful sleep, Fu Qian considered whether completing the final checklist item meant euthanizing him, but doubted that would fulfill the Old Man’s purpose. He left medical alcohol beside Katon as a farewell drink, then drank apple juice and tore his expensive outfit.

• Katon told Fu Qian he could euthanize him whenever he thought it necessary, then appeared to fall asleep peacefully.
• Fu Qian reasoned that Katon’s final wish had a hidden purpose he could not verify, and that his one-shot task rules made further attempts impossible.
• Fu Qian decided not to euthanize Katon and placed medical alcohol beside his bed as a farewell drink.
• Fu Qian drank apple juice he had taken from Lei Meng’s shop, and his outfit split in several places.

Fu Qian realized Katon was using him as an anchor to confirm that he had fallen asleep, but he kept disrupting Katon’s attempt to die peacefully. Katon’s face then twisted in apparent agony, reminding Fu Qian of the nonexistent Mr. Dawkins and the sensation of something trying to crawl out from inside him.

• Fu Qian activated the Glorious Tyrant aura, and Katon’s breathing briefly stopped as he sensed the disturbance.
• Fu Qian deduced that Katon was keeping watch on him as an anchor to tell whether he had fallen asleep and entered a dream.
• Fu Qian intensified the aura’s disruption, reasoning that Katon would likely fail if left to follow his plan uninterrupted.
• Katon groaned and twisted in agony, and Fu Qian remembered Katon’s earlier words about something trying to crawl out from inside Mr. Dawkins.

Fu Qian watched Mr. Dawkins and Tooth-Robe Lady emerge from Katon as blood-red manifestations and learned that Tooth-Robe Lady owned the inn. Mr. Dawkins then asked why Fu Qian believed Katon had killed the original owner of the object in his hand.

• Katon's features changed as a blood-red figure tore free and demanded to know why Fu Qian was interfering with his last wish.
• Mr. Dawkins accused Fu Qian of obstructing Katon, and a second blood-red figure—a woman in a tooth-marked robe—appeared.
• Tooth-Robe Lady told Fu Qian he should not be there because guests had to pay for the room.
• Fu Qian offered her banknotes, but she waived the fee and asked him to answer Mr. Dawkins.
• Mr. Dawkins asked Fu Qian why he thought Katon had killed the object's original owner.

Fu Qian questioned Mr. Dawkins and Tooth-Robe Lady about why Katon had killed a fraudster and later dug up his body, while uncovering the doctrine they followed. He left them with questions about whether Katon had forced the victim into their supposed salvation.

• Fu Qian proposed that Katon had killed the fraudster either for his lies or because he could not endure the pursuit of enlightenment, then asked Mr. Dawkins and Tooth-Robe Lady to explain the doctrine of the unrighteous person.
• Mr. Dawkins explained that everyone was unrighteous and that angels could devour their polluted flesh, freeing them to live eternally in the angels' will.
• Mr. Dawkins confirmed that he had tried to help Tooth-Robe Lady attain salvation and that the savior and the righteous person were meant to guide each other.
• Fu Qian asked whether someone being saved had to know what was happening and whether a person could be forced into the offering, gesturing toward Katon.

Fu Qian guided the Dawkinses to consider that Priest Elder had used Katon as a vessel and that Katon had later tried to undo the ritual. Their discussion brought Katon’s buried truth to the surface, but Priest Elder revealed that Katon could not escape the outcome, and a golden flame began consuming the note.

• Fu Qian suggested that Priest Elder had deliberately performed a ritual on Katon and himself, and that Katon later tried to reverse it.
• Mr. Dawkins and Tooth-Robe Lady reasoned that Katon’s inability to sleep may have reflected his fear and his need to undo what had happened.
• Fu Qian challenged the idea that the timing of Katon’s transformation and Mr. Dawkins’s ritual had been coincidence.
• Mr. Dawkins, Tooth-Robe Lady, and Katon each agreed that it could not have been coincidence, and Priest Elder rose from beside Katon.
• Priest Elder declared that the outcome was set, saying Katon could not fool himself because his self had already become Priest Elder.
• Priest Elder held up a note resembling the Wish List as golden flame spread across it.

Fu Qian used the Glorious Tyrant’s Madness Fire to destroy Priest Elder and the other figures in Katon’s mind-palace, but Katon’s pain worsened instead of ending. Fu Qian suspected the story Katon had accepted was false and questioned whether the figure before him was Katon or the hidden anomaly.

• Fu Qian ignited Katon’s separated will with Madness Fire, causing Priest Elder to scream and Tooth-Robe Lady and Mr. Dawkins to attack him.
• Fu Qian slapped Tooth-Robe Lady and Mr. Dawkins into the wall while Priest Elder burned to ash.
• Katon thanked Fu Qian as flames began flickering across him, but the Glorious Tyrant continued expanding and the mind-palace crumbled.
• Fu Qian watched the remaining figures disintegrate as Katon groaned beneath the golden light shining through his eyelids.
• Fu Qian explained that Katon’s story had holes, then asked whether the figure before him was really Katon or the thing Katon did not want him to know about.

Fu Qian kept Katon awake and pushed him to confront the danger hidden within himself. Figures including Katon, Lei Meng, and Loretta emerged from Fu Qian, while Katon revealed a mirror showing the blood-red figures inside his body and explained why it was hell itself.

• Fu Qian used his disruptive aura and taunted Katon, urging him to defy fate rather than give in to death.
• A voice spoke from Fu Qian, and Katon tore himself out of Fu Qian's body.
• Lei Meng emerged from Fu Qian and mocked Katon, while Katon insisted he was destined to complete his final step.
• Loretta emerged and warned Katon that he was doing something dangerous.
• Katon gathered the ash into a black mirror that reflected layers of blood-red figures, then explained that only the death of the flesh could mark the passage from childhood to maturity.

Fu Qian deduced that Katon’s supernatural power came from a parasite awakening inside him and resisted its attempt to corrupt him. He contained the entity, and the old Katon died as the scene disappeared.

• Bernard, Professor Kalaodola, Nepheli, and Old Master Li explained that Katon’s transformation was tied to his death and a struggle between his selves.
• Fu Qian concluded that a bug in young Katon’s stomach had awakened and was gestating into a supernatural being.
• Fu Qian let the entity reveal its power, then grew stronger and challenged it to summon every force it could.
• The entity shattered the black mirror and called Fu Qian beyond saving, while the figures around him joined in pointing at him.
• Fu Qian traced the force behind their collective attack and used Calamity Power to contain No. 2-013.
• The figures vanished, leaving the old Katon dead and appearing to sleep peacefully.

Fu Qian returned to the Warehouse after killing the Redeemed and received an evaluation confirming that Katon Diggins had sealed a Higher Being by dying as a mortal. He examined his special reward, a mask said to lead its wearer toward godhood.

• Fu Qian heard the Warehouse's account of Katon Diggins's final attempt to reject his supernatural nature and seal a Higher Being.
• The Warehouse awarded Fu Qian 30 Sanity Value for killing the Redeemed and granted him the Calamity of the Unworthy Godslayer.
• Fu Qian considered how his severe injuries and the connection between the Redeemed and its avatar might have amplified his counterattack.
• Fu Qian examined the mask and learned that wearing it would draw him toward a path to godhood.

Fu Qian examined the Calamity of the Unworthy Godslayer and the statue recovered from 2-013, reflecting on how Katon Diggins’s resistance may have prevented the birth of a god and its retainer. After tending to his injuries, Fu Qian put on the Messenger and traveled through time aboard a streetcar.

• Fu Qian considered the risks and potential insights of using the shattered Black Dream destiny of godhood.
• Fu Qian found a life-sized statue with a child’s face inside the box for 2-013.
• Fu Qian connected the Righteous One’s role as a divine retainer to the possible birth of a god and concluded that Katon Diggins’s resistance had stopped both.
• Fu Qian checked his injuries, put on the Messenger, and saw a streetcar hurtling through the years.