Chapter Summaries

Fu Qian forced Goya Ulrich to confront the Pachi identity hidden within his self-perception, then challenged him about the dangers and nature of the Abyssal Colt’s cognitive influence. The mission remained incomplete, and Fu Qian pressed Goya for answers as time ran short.

• Fu Qian grabbed Goya Ulrich by the neck and ordered him to look into Soul's Lure, loosening his grip when Goya obeyed.
• Goya identified himself as Goya Ulrich but struggled against the possibility that he had inherited Pachi’s ability and identity.
• Fu Qian covered the mirror and taunted Goya by calling him Mr. Pachi, provoking Goya’s emotions.
• Goya demanded an explanation for Fu Qian’s actions and threatened to choose what tests to run on him.
• Fu Qian checked Goya’s gold watch, noted that it was nearing eight o’clock, and wondered why the mission was still incomplete.
• Fu Qian criticized Goya’s research into the Abyssal Colt and asked whether he had found a way to suppress its influence or understood Pachi’s nature.

Fu Qian tested how much Goya knew about the Abyssal Colt, and Goya led him and Cynthia into the chamber to observe their reactions. There, Goya revealed that he had endured the Colt’s influence and believed he had learned to separate his own identity from the devil’s, leaving Fu Qian intrigued by his claims.

• Fu Qian challenged Goya’s reliance on his own experience as proof that the Abyssal Colt’s effects could be controlled.
• Goya questioned Fu Qian about why the Colt’s influence could not be eliminated, and Fu Qian persuaded him to take them downstairs.
• Goya led Fu Qian and Cynthia into the chamber and ordered the guards not to open the door without his signal.
• Goya asked Fu Qian whether he was unaffected by the Abyssal Colt, then explained how he had struggled with its influence and eventually distinguished it from his own identity.
• Cynthia listened, moved by Goya’s account, while Fu Qian silently considered the situation.

Fu Qian realized the apparent test was a ritual designed to deceive the Warehouse and attacked Goya, but killing him did not complete the mission. He noticed that Cynthia also became unstable when he tore out Goya’s kidney.

• Fu Qian suspected Goya was lying about the pact and reconsidered the Warehouse mission’s real purpose.
• Fu Qian concluded that the setup was meant to deceive the Warehouse, possibly with the Abyssal Colt’s powerful figure behind it.
• Fu Qian refused Goya’s apparent agreement and declared that he could not pass.
• Fu Qian struck Goya with a devastating blow, tearing open his abdomen and killing him.
• Fu Qian saw that Cynthia’s condition had become unstable after he pulled out Goya’s kidney.

Fu Qian discovered that Cynthia was conceptually linked to Goya and suspected she was connected to the oath behind the Abyssal Colt. He forced the being behind the oath to save her, then returned to the research facility with his suspicions confirmed.

• Fu Qian realized that his Internal Organ Critical Hit had injured Cynthia through her connection to Goya, explaining why the mission had not registered as complete.
• Fu Qian hurled Cynthia into the Abyssal Colt, then attacked her to force the being behind the oath to choose between saving her and letting her suffer another Split Attack.
• Cynthia survived Fu Qian's attack through an unlikely movement, and Fu Qian used Transcendence before time ran out.
• Fu Qian concluded that Cynthia was abnormal and connected to the oath, then answered the Doctor's question about how he felt.

Fu Qian suspected the ritual was designed to drain Sanity Value by repeatedly drawing the Warehouse into failed containment attempts. During another reset, he ignored the violence around him and swallowed Abyssal Colt, leaving the test’s outcome unresolved.

• Fu Qian reasoned that repeated mission failures might consume Sanity Value for the figure behind Abyssal Colt.
• Fu Qian repeated the sequence that brought him before Doctor Cynthia, who ordered him back into the testing room.
• Fu Qian rejoined Brother 1349 and Kuraki Eiko as Abyssal Colt’s howls drove the other participants into violence.
• Fu Qian approached Abyssal Colt and swallowed it in one bite.

Fu Qian swallowed the Abyssal Colt, suppressed its power, and transformed into a creature resembling it, pretending to be the true god behind the power. Doctor Cynthia and the others were left questioning what he was as he approached her and noted her many questions.

• Fu Qian swallowed the Abyssal Colt and suppressed its force, but gained no new skills and continued to hear its neighing in his mind.
• Fu Qian transformed into a pale-yellow, beaked monster resembling the Abyssal Colt and demanded that Kuraki Eiko and Brother 1349 bow to the True God.
• Cynthia, Goya, and guards entered the testing room, and Fu Qian claimed the Abyssal Colt was a counterfeit creation that had stolen authority.
• Cynthia explained that her team had found the entity and begun researching it, while privately wondering if Fu Qian had assumed a Mythical Form.
• Fu Qian approached Cynthia and remarked that she seemed to have many questions.

Fu Qian killed Cynthia to provoke reactions and identify the hidden targets, then tore through the testing room and discovered Goya’s private space below the lowest level. He confronted Goya, whose aura had transformed to that of a demigod, and wondered whether the deaths had triggered a special mechanism.

• Fu Qian killed Cynthia after asking about Goya, then watched the guards hesitate in fear.
• Fu Qian’s tentacles killed the fake Goya and Lady Kuraki Eiko after he noticed their auras fluctuate when Cynthia died.
• Fu Qian unleashed his tentacles against the room’s walls and ceiling, destroying them until he uncovered a space below the lowest level.
• Fu Qian jumped through the opening into Goya’s private office and found Goya rising to meet him.
• Fu Qian sensed that Goya had become at least a demigod and wondered whether he had run out of doubles.

Fu Qian confronted Goya beneath the company site and questioned him about the dreamlike world and the Yasui Company. Goya offered his immunity and personal collection in exchange for his life, but Fu Qian countered by asking for four maximum Intermediate immunity packages.

• Fu Qian flushed Goya out of hiding and found a hidden escape passage, while the crowd above fled and an alarm sounded.
• Fu Qian questioned Goya about whether the world felt like a dream and explained the idea of Lost Domains.
• Goya warned that the Yasui Company would hunt Fu Qian, but Fu Qian said he could kill Goya and return as 9527 under company immunity.
• Goya accepted that he could not defeat Fu Qian and offered everything covered by his maximum Intermediate immunity, along with his personal collection.
• Fu Qian rejected the offer as insufficient and asked whether four maximum Intermediate immunity packages would be enough.

Fu Qian exposed that Kuraki Eiko, Cynthia, Goya's stand-in, and the real Goya were linked as four manifestations of Goya, and Kuraki revealed herself as a demigod. Kuraki offered to negotiate, but Fu Qian chose the maximum exemption range for a demigod.

• Fu Qian confronted Goya, claiming that he considered Goya and the three others he had identified to be the same target.
• Goya transformed into Kuraki Eiko and revealed a demigod aura, challenging Fu Qian's assumption that no one above Intermediate Tier could be an impostor.
• Fu Qian realized that Kuraki Eiko, Cynthia, Goya's stand-in, and the real Goya had all become Goya in a way that let any survivor preserve the group.
• Kuraki Eiko offered to negotiate and promised not to pursue Fu Qian's identity or how he had discovered the four of them.
• Fu Qian agreed that the situation sounded reasonable, then chose the maximum exemption range for a demigod.

Fu Qian questioned Cynthia about the four-in-one experiment and reasoned that the group’s identities were bound to Pachi through the Deception Aura. After Fu Qian asked to speak with Pachi, the mysterious figure appeared and revealed that he had been the one who sent Fu Qian to find him.

• Fu Qian recovered his golden watch from his chest and pressed Cynthia about why the group had changed themselves for the experiment.
• Cynthia explained that the experiment was meant to help them resist the power behind the Abyssal Colt and said any one of the four surviving would mean they all survived.
• Fu Qian challenged the group’s certainty that they remained themselves, then asked to speak with Pachi.
• Pachi appeared and spoke with Fu Qian, who explained his theory that the four had each come to see themselves as Pachi beneath their disguises.
• Pachi asked who had sent Fu Qian to find him, and Fu Qian answered, "You."

Fu Qian questioned Pachi and pieced together how the Abyssal Colt trap and the Warehouse’s resets worked. Their conversation was interrupted when Fu Qian’s alarm rang at 7:50, a time he did not remember choosing.

• Fu Qian confirmed that Pachi regarded him as a clean-up crew and suspected the Abyssal Colt was a trap designed to harvest Sanity Value.
• Pachi explained that the Abyssal Colt was a symbolic collection and that he would leave when the game ended, while claiming he did not yet know how much Fu Qian had lost.
• Fu Qian inferred that the Warehouse reset Pachi along with each containment attempt, and that Pachi retained the results only once an attempt finally ended.
• Fu Qian asked whether Pachi had instructed Goya and the other Horse Legs to create the test, but a cricket-like chirp interrupted him.
• Fu Qian found his golden wristwatch ringing at 7:50, though he was certain he had set the alarm himself and could not recall why he had chosen that time.

Fu Qian recognized that his alarm was a warning against Pachi’s manipulation of his perception of time and attacked before the deadline. He defeated the disguised Doctor Goya, completing the mission and containing No. 2-155.

• Fu Qian interpreted the alarm’s time as a signal to attack immediately and unleashed his Mythical Form against Pachi.
• Pachi dodged Fu Qian’s tentacles, but Fu Qian wounded him with Air Bullets and explained how Pachi had altered his sense of time.
• Fu Qian pinned Pachi to the wall and revealed that he knew his opponent was Doctor Goya.
• Fu Qian crushed Doctor Goya’s head, and the system announced that the mission was complete and No. 2-155 had been contained.

Fu Qian reflected on how Goya and his partners’ oath had used self-deception to conceal their identities, then reviewed the task’s ordinary summary and received the Phantom Step Ring. He tested its teleporting step and left dissatisfied with the reward but pleased to add another ring to his collection.

• Fu Qian concluded that Pachi was a shared false identity formed through the oath, while Goya and the other participants remained themselves beneath their self-deception.
• Fu Qian reasoned that the ritual required him to kill four targets and that the final survivor would only break free of the deception after the other three had died.
• The task evaluation named Cynthia, Kuraki Eiko, Goya's Substitute, and Goya Ulrich as eliminated, and awarded Fu Qian 31 Sanity Value and the Phantom Step Ring.
• Fu Qian examined the ring and discovered that it let his next step land anywhere within range, with a one-hour cooldown.
• Fu Qian activated the ring and appeared behind the long table, then judged the reward insufficient for the task's difficulty.

After returning from his mission, Fu Qian tested the Emissary Mask and considered what he had learned about the Yasui Company and the forces behind the trap targeting him. He and Su Gao received an unexpected visitor, who introduced himself as Carlos, the doctor leading the Yasui Company's Miracle Potion project.

• Fu Qian put on the Emissary Mask and confirmed he could move between the Warehouse and the real world, though his temporary anchor could still expire.
• Fu Qian reviewed his gains from the mission, including the Phantom Step Ring, the deaths of the four Horse Legs, and the attention the incident would draw from the Anjing Group.
• Su Gao told Fu Qian that someone was sneaking toward the house, and Fu Qian asked her to show the visitor what it meant to be on the verge of demigodhood.
• Fu Qian made tea with Su Gao as the newcomer silently entered the living room and asked for a cup.
• The visitor named himself Carlos and revealed that he was a doctor and the project lead for the Yasui Company's Miracle Potion project.

Fu Qian fended off Carlos’s probing questions about his transformation and Kunio’s suspicious time of death while trying to determine why the Yasui Company researcher had come. Carlos then turned his attention to Su Gao and demanded that she explain Fu Qian’s sudden return.

• Carlos introduced himself as Yasui Company’s project lead and praised Fu Qian’s transformation while questioning how it had happened.
• Fu Qian challenged Carlos’s condescending remarks and deflected his questions about the deceased staff member’s head.
• Carlos noted that Kunio had still been alive when Fu Qian left, and Fu Qian inferred that Carlos had come to assess whether he posed a threat to Yasui Company.
• Fu Qian recalled that he had used Sin Fire to accelerate the decay of Kunio’s remains, making the time of death appear much earlier.
• Carlos asked why Fu Qian had returned after being gone so long, then cut him off and told Su Gao to answer instead.

Fu Qian and Su Gao confronted Carlos, and Fu Qian used Su Gao’s apparent power to make the Yasui Company believe they had a powerful organization behind them. Their tense discussion was interrupted when Asao Sakura returned with Hayami Suzune and a mercenary Fu Qian recognized from the Corrupt Forest.

• Carlos addressed Su Gao as Lady Violetta and threatened Fu Qian, while Su Gao coolly replied that they had come with no intention of attracting attention.
• Fu Qian realized Su Gao had understood his plan and was helping him convince Carlos that they had powerful backing, creating a new balance between the Night Watchers, Yasui, and its rival.
• Su Gao told Carlos that she and Fu Qian were old acquaintances and that they were seeking an answer to a question.
• Carlos asked Fu Qian about the Creep-7 and warned him that necessary sacrifices were acceptable if they served a greater goal.
• Asao Sakura returned with Hayami Suzune and a bald, burly man whom Fu Qian recognized as Delin’s marksman, one of the mercenaries who had survived the Corrupt Forest.

Carlos explained that Yasui Company had come to investigate Kanna Kisaragi’s poor trial results, while Leigo challenged his story and hinted at Fu Qian eating people. Carlos and Asao Sakura left, and Fu Qian invited Leigo and Hayami Suzune to sit down.

• Leigo questioned Carlos about why he and his team were at Dancy’s home, and Carlos said they were investigating factors that might have affected Kanna Kisaragi’s trial results.
• Leigo remarked that eating people might affect the drug’s effectiveness, prompting Hayami Suzune to watch Su Gao for a reaction.
• Carlos wondered aloud whether eating people or supernatural flesh could awaken someone’s power, while Leigo questioned whether Carlos had come to investigate or observe an anomaly.
• Leigo told Carlos he could leave, and Carlos departed with Asao Sakura after nodding to Fu Qian.
• Fu Qian invited Leigo and Hayami Suzune to sit and offered to bring another pot.

Fu Qian hosted Leigo and Hayami Suzune, using misleading truths and strange remarks to guide their conversation. Leigo revealed why he joined the Night Watchers, and Fu Qian asked about the teammate who retired after their operation.

• Fu Qian welcomed Leigo and Hayami Suzune, then left Hayami to prepare tea while Leigo spoke with him.
• Leigo asked where Fu Qian had been, and Fu Qian said he had gone to Dunis to see an opera and brought up the God of War's wife liking blue pecs.
• Leigo asked Su Gao where she came from, and she said she grew up on Leaf Island.
• Fu Qian asked Leigo how long he had lived on Leaf Island, and Leigo said he had been there for more than ten years and joined the Night Watchers after a supernatural operation changed his views.
• Leigo explained that a teammate had retired after the operation to marry, have children, and live an ordinary life, and Fu Qian asked for the teammate's name.

Su Gao spoke with Leigo about his former teammate Delin, while Fu Qian considered what Su Gao remembered and why the Night Watcher’s records might omit details. Leigo questioned Fu Qian about Carlos’s suspicions, and Fu Qian admitted he had a connection to the Siren Group.

• Leigo recalled how his former teammate Delin was just, perceptive, and powerful, and offered to introduce Su Gao to him.
• Su Gao asked Fu Qian what he thought of Leigo’s offer, and Fu Qian agreed, then asked whether Delin had a pretty daughter.
• Fu Qian wondered whether Su Gao had learned about her past from Night Watcher archives that left out classified details.
• Leigo warned Fu Qian not to get strange ideas, then asked whether Carlos had accused him of being a Siren spy.
• Fu Qian explained that Carlos suspected him of being a Siren spy and, when Leigo asked whether he had ties to the Siren Group, answered yes.

Fu Qian deflected Leigo and Hayami Suzune’s questions about the Siren Group and warned them that public scrutiny kept them from using force against him. After they left, Fu Qian recognized the popular Leaf Island show "Everyone Knew His Infamy" as the game Leigo had alluded to.

• Leigo asked Fu Qian about his relationship with the Siren Group, and Fu Qian claimed they owed him a rental deposit.
• Hayami Suzune demanded serious answers, while Fu Qian pointed out that proving his involvement could give her an excuse to kill him.
• Leigo threatened Fu Qian and warned him that he was on the road to death, but Fu Qian argued that public scrutiny constrained the Night Watchers on Leaf Island.
• Hayami Suzune left Su Gao a note with the address of Chie Kisaragi’s fortune-teller’s shop before leaving with Leigo.
• Su Gao called Leigo and Hayami Suzune serious people, and Fu Qian turned on the television and recognized "Everyone Knew His Infamy" as the game Leigo had mentioned.