Chapter Summaries

Fu Qian searched the hospital for Tina, hoping to learn why she had appeared at his house and what had happened in the hospital’s Inner World. He found her at work and asked to speak with her.

• Fu Qian went to the hospital reception desk to ask for Tina, but the receptionist refused to help without an appointment.
• Fu Qian pointed his gun at the counter, then put it away and asked the receptionist to tell Tina that Anke was looking for her.
• Rachel questioned why the receptionist had agreed to help, and Fu Qian gave her no explanation.
• Tina hurried over to Fu Qian and asked why he had come to the hospital.
• Fu Qian told Tina he needed to talk and gestured for her to step outside.

Fu Qian asked Tina to help him investigate a corpse he had found at the Art Prison, and Tina led him toward the hospital's body storage area. Rachel stayed behind, reluctant to go near the building.

• Tina confronted Fu Qian about bringing up what happened the previous night, then noticed Rachel and recognized her.
• Tina asked Rachel why she had come with Fu Qian, and Rachel explained that Mr. Anke had asked her to drive him because his car stood out.
• Fu Qian asked where the hospital kept its bodies and told Tina he had found a corpse that seemed to belong there.
• Rachel realized Fu Qian had found the corpse at the Art Prison, and Tina offered to take him to the likely storage building.
• Rachel refused to go inside, and Fu Qian agreed to let her wait behind while he followed Tina.

Fu Qian and Tina searched a quiet corpse-storage building for a woman who was absent, then discussed Fu Qian’s green, painful hand and the events of their drunken night. Tina explained how she had given him an IV and borrowed an outfit, while Fu Qian asked why she had gone drinking.

• Fu Qian told Tina he had encountered the woman at the prison, and Tina said she knew Rachel and Ed through her uncle Hake.
• Tina searched the building for the woman but found no sign of her, so she and Fu Qian decided to wait.
• Fu Qian showed Tina that his hand had turned green and hurt, and Tina doubted her injection had caused it.
• Tina recalled that she had insisted on giving Fu Qian an IV and had borrowed another outfit for him from a friend at a bar.
• Fu Qian asked Tina why she had gone drinking.

Tina told Fu Qian that shadows had seemed to form faces and terrified her, especially when she was alone at night. Their conversation was interrupted by a girl who crawled out of a cabinet and said she had come looking for a boy, revealing herself as one of the missing pair.

• Tina explained that she had gone to the bar because she feared being alone and that patches of darkness had appeared to form faces.
• Fu Qian suggested Tina discuss her strange experience with Rachel, then joked about someone hiding in a cabinet.
• A girl crawled out of a metal cabinet, startling Tina, and challenged Fu Qian for guessing she was there.
• Fu Qian denied seeing the girl before she revealed herself, and Tina asked who she was.
• The girl said she had come to find a boy, identifying herself as one of the missing pair.

Fu Qian questioned the girl about how she and Dennis had become separated and why she suspected the hospital was involved in his disappearance. The girl had found no trace of Dennis in the hospital, leaving Tina troubled by the unexplained situation.

• The girl explained that she and Dennis had argued after finding a hole behind a painting, and she left him behind when he offered her his clothes.
• The girl returned to the underground passage to find Dennis, but found only a frozen corpse and went to the hospital because she suspected it was involved in sinister activity.
• Fu Qian explained the girl's theory to Tina, who questioned its logic, while the girl challenged Tina to rule it out.
• The girl admitted she had arrived at the hospital long ago, found no one there, and hid when Fu Qian and Tina appeared.
• The girl said she had already searched inside the hospital and found no Dennis.

Fu Qian and Tina met a girl claiming to be Emily, who insisted that Dennis was missing and urged him to involve the police and hospital. Fu Qian suspected she was his rival in disguise, and her determination to risk Dennis’s life suggested her performance had slipped.

• The girl told Fu Qian that she had searched the hospital and revealed that her companion Dennis was missing.
• Fu Qian claimed he was a police officer and offered to investigate, while the girl gave her name as Emily and agreed to proceed.
• Tina tried to persuade Emily to use a less alarming excuse, but Emily insisted that she was taking Dennis with her that day.
• Fu Qian considered how the girl’s story fit his discoveries, while suspecting that his rival had staged the encounter in the Inner World.
• Fu Qian concluded that Emily’s insistence on a dangerous plan exposed her as someone who did not share the real Emily’s concern for Dennis.

Dennis suspected they were inside the Inner World and recognized that his injured hand was worsening in strange, supernatural ways. He gained Emily’s trust enough to question her, while continuing to probe the person behind the situation for clues about the White Key.

• Dennis inferred that the group might already be in the Inner World and noticed his hand’s pain and unusual sensations had intensified.
• Dennis promised Emily that he would help find her companion and invited her to come with them, but Emily refused and said they should not follow her.
• Dennis asked Emily why she and her companion had run away, and she admitted that she hated everyone, including herself.
• Emily said her companion Dennis knew nothing, giving Dennis a glimpse into her feelings about him.
• Dennis reflected that he had questioned Emily to test his rival and gather information about the White Key, while suspecting the Old Hunter might be another senior with guidance.

The narrator questioned Emily while investigating Old Hunter’s search for Dennis and the White Key, considering whether Old Hunter was restricted to the Inner World and whether the key was there. He left Emily free to go after asking whether she had found a grimy, unlicensed clinic.

• The narrator suspected Emily was acting from information gained through the real Emily and considered how Old Hunter might have found and used her.
• The narrator weighed whether the White Key existed in both worlds or only in the Inner World, where Old Hunter seemed to operate.
• The narrator asked Emily whether Dennis would search for her if she went missing, and she said she believed he would.
• The narrator asked Emily whether she had encountered an old, unsanitary unlicensed clinic with bloody-looking fluid in its IV bottles.
• Tina protested the narrator’s description of the clinic as especially bad.

Fu Qian let Emily leave after questioning her about the Full Moon Garden, then set out with Tina to find Hake and locate Dennis. After Rachel failed to notice Emily, Fu Qian used a coin toss to decide who would stay and keep watch, wondering whether his competitor could see the scene.

• Fu Qian questioned Emily about the Full Moon Garden, then allowed her to leave after she said she would return.
• Fu Qian told Tina they should focus on finding Dennis and suggested Hake might be impatient because they had searched several places without finding the girl.
• Fu Qian and Tina found Rachel waiting outside, but she said she had not seen Emily come out of the building.
• Fu Qian decided someone needed to stay and keep watch, then used a coin toss to choose between Tina and Rachel.
• Fu Qian caught the coin and wondered whether his competitor could see what was happening.

Fu Qian reasoned through how the Inner World and the Old Hunter’s trap might work, then used a coin toss to test whether the Old Hunter could affect the real world. Afterward, he set off with Rachel and redirected her toward the prison to retrieve something.

• Fu Qian considered how the Reversed Tree, the Inner and Outer Worlds, and the Old Hunter’s methods might be connected.
• Fu Qian told Rachel he would take her into the Inner World so they could confront the uncertainty firsthand.
• Fu Qian revealed the coin toss’s result, concluding that the Old Hunter could not observe or influence the real world; Tina objected to the game and asked for a surrender option.
• Rachel drove Fu Qian toward his place, and Fu Qian agreed before wondering whether the trap forced real-world visitors into the locations of their Inner World counterparts.
• Fu Qian changed their destination to the prison, saying he had forgotten to bring something.

Fu Qian took Rachel to her studio and opened a hidden compartment in a cabinet, where he found Dennis alive. He recognized the scene as Rachel’s work and confronted her about helping Dennis, while Rachel’s composed façade gave way to a furious, monstrous expression.

• Fu Qian had Rachel drive him to the prison, then walked toward her studio while she waited in the car.
• Rachel followed Fu Qian into her studio and told him not to touch her paintings.
• Fu Qian opened a cabinet and found Dennis curled up alive in a hidden compartment.
• Rachel cursed Fu Qian as he studied the disturbing scene and asked whether Dennis had found her and asked for help.

Fu Qian found Dennis hidden inside Rachel’s cabinet and took him from the prison to search for Emily before the dangerous people pursuing her could find her. Dennis revealed that he and Emily had crashed their white car into a tree, but its keys were missing, leaving Fu Qian to ask where the crash happened.

• Rachel admitted that she had found Dennis on the road and hidden him in her cabinet as part of her artwork.
• Fu Qian questioned Dennis about Ivan’s death, then persuaded Rachel to explain how she had brought Dennis to the prison and concealed him.
• Fu Qian helped Dennis out of the cabinet and drove him away from the prison, telling him that dangerous people were looking for Emily.
• Dennis agreed to answer Fu Qian’s questions after learning that the people searching for Emily were not police officers.
• Dennis said he and Emily had crashed their white car into a tree and walked away, but the car keys that had been in his jacket were missing.
• Fu Qian asked Dennis which tree they had crashed into.

Fu Qian took Dennis to the wrecked white car where Emily was hiding, bringing the two teenagers face to face. When Emily admitted she had taken and lost the car key, Fu Qian threatened Dennis with a gun and began using Russian roulette to pressure her.

• Fu Qian drove Dennis out of the city to the old white car wrecked against a tree.
• Fu Qian found Emily asleep in the passenger seat and forced her to open the car door.
• Dennis and Emily reunited, and Emily said the car belonged to Dennis's father and only Dennis had its key.
• Fu Qian questioned Emily about the key, and she admitted she had taken it but thrown it away and forgotten where.
• Fu Qian pressed his gun to Dennis's head and showed Emily that two bullets remained; Emily finally looked away from Dennis.

Fu Qian recovered the White Key from Emily, restoring his supernatural abilities and updating his mission to face and execute the Serpent of Fate behind the silver door. He brought Emily and Dennis back to town, where they stopped at Old Man Hake’s breakfast shop.

• Emily retrieved the worn White Key from the ditch and handed it to Fu Qian, updating his mission and ending the pain in his arm.
• Fu Qian recognized the key as the means to break the rules suppressing his powers and invited Emily and Dennis to come with him.
• Emily got into the car, and Dennis followed her without being stopped.
• Fu Qian drove them to the breakfast shop favored by Old Man Hake, where Jane told him to put their food on Hake’s tab.
• Fu Qian introduced Emily and Dennis to Maggie.

Fu Qian searched for the silver door required by his next task and found it in a bar, where he recognized it as one of the doors from the Nightmare Corridor. An invitation came from behind it, leaving him poised to enter.

• Fu Qian apologized to Jane, praised her, and asked whether she had seen a silver door.
• Maggie told Fu Qian there was a silver door in a nearby bar, and he left after telling Emily, Jane, and Maggie they were free to go or stay.
• Fu Qian found the closed bar and used his lockpicking skill to enter.
• Fu Qian discovered a silver-painted door in an inconspicuous corner and recognized its pattern from the Nightmare Corridor.
• Someone behind the door invited Fu Qian to come in.

Fu Qian confronted the Serpent of Fate, who recognized him as a fake King of Prison Break and revealed that the Old Hunter had previously come after him with more guidance. Fu Qian attacked with the Calamity Eye, but the Serpent survived and began to reveal his transformed form.

• Fu Qian met the Serpent of Fate, who immediately identified him as a fake King of Prison Break.
• The Serpent praised Fu Qian for finding the key and disparaged the Old Hunter, confirming that the Old Hunter had tried to deal with him before.
• Fu Qian questioned the Serpent about the Warehouse and why he had not attacked, then detonated the Calamity Eye when the Serpent pointed out his delay.
• The Serpent emerged from the fading Madness Fire in a transformed body covered in opening and closing eye-shaped scales.

Fu Qian tested the Serpent of Fate’s defenses with several attacks, discovering that its scales changed to resist each threat. He launched another attack with a vicious claw, leaving the battle unresolved.

• Fu Qian examined the Serpent of Fate’s strange body and noticed that one of its eye-shaped scales had fallen off.
• The Serpent of Fate told Fu Qian he knew nothing of his role in fate, and Fu Qian mentioned comparing himself with the Blasphemy Monarch.
• Fu Qian’s revolver misfired, so he fired Air Bullets instead, but they failed to affect the Serpent of Fate.
• Fu Qian struck the Serpent of Fate with Three Faces’ lightning, and its scales changed from eye shapes to broad diamonds that resisted the attack.
• Fu Qian sent a vicious claw sweeping across the Serpent of Fate.

Fu Qian tested how the Serpent of Fate endured damage and realized that injuries and calamities were being delayed rather than prevented. With little time left and his chance to confront the Serpent hard-won, Fu Qian attacked again, leaving the results unclear.

• Fu Qian found that his strike passed through the Serpent of Fate’s scales without leaving an immediate wound, while the scales changed shape and injured Fu Qian’s hand.
• A scale fell from the spot Fu Qian had struck, confirming that the Serpent of Fate’s damage was postponed and that Fu Qian’s earlier calamity was still taking effect.
• The Serpent of Fate showed disgust at Fu Qian’s mechanically transformed hand and urged him to act before his time ran out.
• Fu Qian considered the dangers of the Nightmare Corridor and the risks of restarting, then decided to make the most of his hard-won chance to meet the Serpent of Fate.
• Fu Qian stepped forward and thrust his claws through the Serpent of Fate’s folds to attack its interior, but the sensation still seemed wrong.

Fu Qian learned that the Serpent of Fate could alter outcomes after his attacks, turning an apparent internal target into something outside the body. He forced damage through with a barrage of tendrils, but the Serpent began transferring the consequences to him, leaving Fu Qian wounded as its scales fell more slowly.

• Fu Qian's Internal Organ Critical Hit struck scales after the Serpent of Fate changed the target's nature, and the Serpent mocked his crude use of calamity.
• Fu Qian questioned the nature of fate, and the Serpent explained that countless possibilities could develop into the outcome that suited it.
• Fu Qian unleashed Tendril Barrage Devastator, knocking scales from the Serpent of Fate while its body remained visibly intact.
• Wounds appeared on Fu Qian as the Serpent's scales began falling more slowly, suggesting that it was sharing the damage or its consequences with him.

Fu Qian discovered that the Serpent of Fate was redirecting the damage from his attacks onto him, then used his power to sever the connection transferring that damage. The Serpent began to decay, but it regenerated a new head and neck before the instance could end.

• The Serpent of Fate explained that Fu Qian's attacks were being turned back on him through fate, while taunting him about his purpose.
• Fu Qian ignited Madness Fire and attacked with tentacles, worsening his own injuries as the Serpent resisted and redirected the damage.
• The Serpent suggested Fu Qian release his other form, and Fu Qian expanded his battered body while detonating an illusory eye of calamity.
• Fu Qian used the accumulated damage to find and destroy the abstract connection transferring his attacks, causing the Serpent of Fate to decay.
• The Serpent of Fate regenerated a new head and neck as Fu Qian gathered another ball of golden flame.