Chapter Summaries

Bo Shuo gathered Ni Zi as a follower and led the group back to search the dormitories for clues. After the examinees recognized and feared Bo Shuo, he entered a dark room on the First Floor ahead of Meng Ran Nian.

• Ni Zi asked to follow Bo Shuo, who agreed, and Ni Zi revealed that he felt part of his memory was missing and his Second Personality had not appeared in a long time.
• Bo Shuo confirmed that the tasks were identical and decided to search the dormitories for clues while there was still a day left.
• Bo Shuo and the others encountered a crowd of examinees, who recognized Bo Shuo and moved aside as he entered the dormitory building.
• Bo Shuo reached the First Floor, where Meng Ran Nian picked the lock of a dark room.
• Bo Shuo entered the room before Meng Ran Nian could use a detection skill, walking in without hesitation.

Bo Shuo and the others found that the daytime dormitory was a different space from the one they had explored at night, then investigated how to reach the archives and identify their roles. A blood-filled glass bottle nearly enthralled the group, but Bo Shuo injured his companions to snap them out of it.

• Bo Shuo led the group to his room, where they found no evidence of a search and realized the daytime dormitory differed from the nighttime one.
• Bo Shuo proposed finding the identity of “me” and going to the archives at the sorting center.
• Ni Zi explained that only the leader, packer, transporter, and cleaner could enter the sorting center, and that workers needed matching ID badge colors except for cleaners.
• Yu Zhou questioned why examinees could not avoid dangerous work by staying in the dormitory, and Ni Zi said nonworkers mysteriously disappeared.
• Ni Zi stepped on debris, causing a large glass bottle of scarlet paste to roll out and its scent to enthrall him, Yu Zhou, and the third companion.
• Bo Shuo used a scalpel to cut the three enthralled examinees, waking them from their fixation on the bottle.

Bo Shuo led the group fleeing through the corridors as a pack of ghosts pursued them, ignoring his Stealth Buff. Yu Zhou’s failed talent activation drew the monsters’ attention to him, leaving him racing for his life as they closed in.

• Bo Shuo used the map and an Emotion Points Stealth Buff to try to evade the ghosts, but 007 warned him that they were still tracking the group.
• Ni Zi escaped the pursuing ghosts by dashing into a room and shutting the door.
• Yu Zhou used Luck Amplification to judge Directional Speed, but rolled three ones and received a five-minute Ghost Attraction amplification.
• The ghosts swerved past Meng Ran Nian and charged after Yu Zhou, who closed his eyes as they drew near.

Bo Shuo discovered that the Blood Glass Bottle’s contents drew nearby Ghosts into a frenzy, letting him escape their pursuit. Ni Zi found a blood-written diary that revealed a slaughterhouse’s terrible secret, but its warning about eating people ended abruptly.

• Bo Shuo threw the Blood Glass Bottle, drawing the Ghosts to its contents and clearing his path.
• Bo Shuo told Meng Ran Nian and Yu Zhou that the meat made supernatural beings fight over it, while Meng Ran Nian said its aura felt familiar.
• Ni Zi found a diary and brought it to Bo Shuo.
• Bo Shuo read Zhang Xiong’s diary, which said he regretted eating meat soup and warned against eating people.

Bo Shuo forced Yu Zhou to submit his paper to test whether their faction had gained points, then concluded that all examinees belonged to the same faction. He left with Ni Zi and Meng Ran Nian, while the two watched him and wondered about him.

• Bo Shuo held a scalpel to Yu Zhou’s neck, and Yu Zhou submitted his paper, correctly answering the first question for 15 points.
• Yu Zhou watched Bo Shuo for signs of whether they were on the same team, and Bo Shuo’s lack of alarm reassured him that they were allies.
• Bo Shuo told 007 that every examinee had gained ten points and concluded that all examinees were in the same faction.
• Bo Shuo explained that he had inferred this from clues about Ni Zi’s early entry and the Proctoring System’s failure to classify the examinees, admitting he had gambled and won.
• Bo Shuo left the room, while Ni Zi and Meng Ran Nian watched him and pondered their questions about him.

Bo Shuo recognized that the midnight contamination was changing his companions and led them to the Sorting Center to take cleaning jobs. There, a Bandaged Maniac began directing the examinees as Bo Shuo and the others waited for work.

• Meng Ran Nian asked Bo Shuo whether he had known all examinees were on the same side, and Bo Shuo confirmed it.
• At eleven o'clock, the dormitory transformed, and the Bell Tower rang as its clock showed midnight, triggering contamination that Bo Shuo's Emotion Points protection suppressed.
• Bo Shuo saw that Ni Zi and the others were weakening and their Work Badges were changing, so he cut them to shock them back to awareness and ordered them to the Sorting Center.
• At the Sorting Center, a Bandaged Maniac told examinees other than cleaners to go inside and begin work, while Bo Shuo and the other cleaners removed their Work IDs and waited.

Bo Shuo and the others entered Room Five for the Cleaner checkpoint and learned that two passages led onward, one safe and one that increased corruption. They began searching the ordinary-looking room for clues, but had not yet found anything unusual.

• Ni Zi said he had survived the previous challenge without knowing what he was doing, and Bo Shuo identified his talent as Strong Luck.
• Bo Shuo led the group into Room Five, where the Proctoring System assigned them the Cleaner role and the entrance vanished behind them.
• Meng Ran Nian sensed that the room contained a bedroom, a living room, and a kitchen.
• Ni Zi showed Bo Shuo two dark passages and explained that both led onward, but one carried corruption that could eventually cost them their candidacy.
• The group searched the living room, and 007 reported that nothing there seemed unusual.

Bo Shuo and the others entered a one-way passage and found themselves in an untouched copy of the room, where they discovered a woman’s mutilated corpse concealed in the ceiling. Ni Zi then found a pure-black Work ID, leaving the group to investigate what it meant.

• Bo Shuo entered the dark passage, gained Corruption Value, and emerged into a locked room identical to the one they had left.
• Meng Ran Nian and the others followed Bo Shuo through the passage and began searching the room.
• Meng Ran Nian sensed a faint fishy smell and detected that a woman had died above the ceiling.
• Bo Shuo cut open the ceiling, revealing the shattered remains of a woman who had been tortured before her death.
• Ni Zi found a pure-black Work ID beside the bedroom table, and the group identified black as the color for the highest Corruption Value.

Bo Shuo led the group through the right-hand passageway after 007 chose it, and they entered another version of the living room without gaining Corruption Value. There, a blood-written warning and Meng Ran Nian’s reaction signaled that danger was approaching.

• Bo Shuo urged the group to choose a passageway, then asked 007 to pick because he feared Ni Zi’s Strong Luck brought danger to those around him.
• 007 chose the right passageway, and Bo Shuo led the group through it into another room like the one they had left.
• The group saw that the Little Bear Wall Clock had deteriorated and found the bloody warning, “Run through the passageway on the right!”
• Meng Ran Nian activated his skill, collapsed against the wall, and sprayed blood from his throat as he warned the others to run.
• Fragmented footsteps and the sound of a bedside table falling came from inside the room.

Bo Shuo identified the passage exam as a Find Anomaly game and tested his theory by choosing the left passage after searching the rooms. The group returned to the familiar area without the Corruption Value increasing, leaving Bo Shuo’s deduction apparently confirmed.

• Meng Ran Nian noticed his Work ID turn pure yellow as pollutants approached and urged everyone to run through a door.
• Bo Shuo led the group through the right-hand passage, then paused in the darkness to organize the clues from their previous choices.
• Bo Shuo deduced that the two passages represented choices with and without an anomaly, like a Find Anomaly game.
• The group searched the bedroom, kitchen, and living room and reported no anomalies.
• Bo Shuo chose the left passage, and the Corruption Value did not increase.

Bo Shuo searched for a way to detect the invisible anomalies and realized that higher corruption let people perceive more. As he felt an urge to find something in the house, a familiar voice whispered, “Find him.”

• Ni Zi feared that the group would have to choose a passage by chance because they could not see the anomalies.
• Bo Shuo and the others searched the room again but found everything normal.
• Bo Shuo reviewed footage and noticed that employees with black work IDs reacted to the leader, suggesting higher corruption allowed people to sense anomalies.
• Bo Shuo asked 007 how many emotion points it would take to raise and then offset his corruption, and 007 panicked at his question.
• Bo Shuo felt a craving drawing him toward something in the house and heard a voice that sounded like his own tell him to find him.

Bo Shuo entered a room that appeared to him as a living monster, while the others saw it as clean and orderly. He explained that higher Corruption Values revealed more anomalies, then discovered his Work ID had turned black and was beginning to crack.

• Bo Shuo sensed that the room was a monster’s internal organs, and its map marker reacted to his presence.
• Meng Ran Nian’s talent failed in the living room, and Ni Zi gave him a Mid-tier Potion to restore him.
• Bo Shuo returned looking pale and directed Yu Zhou, Ni Zi, and Meng Ran Nian to inspect the room.
• Ni Zi saw nothing unusual, while Bo Shuo explained that people at different corruption stages perceived different anomalies.
• Meng Ran Nian sensed a frightening change in Bo Shuo’s aura, and Bo Shuo’s emerald Work ID turned black and began to crack.

Bo Shuo led his group through the remaining rooms and reached a corridor where another team was waiting. The Scarred Man tried to approach them for a deal, then focused on Ni Zi, believing he had survived two cleaning missions.

• The Illusion Dog carefully brought Bo Shuo the White Jade, and he picked it up before leading everyone onward.
• Bo Shuo guided the group through the remaining rooms without their Corruption Value increasing, while Ni Zi said the final passage should be the last one.
• The group emerged into a narrow corridor and found six candidates waiting there, led by a Scarred Man.
• Meng Ran Nian noticed the candidates had not entered the rooms to perform the cleaning, and Bo Shuo told them to scram.
• The Scarred Man claimed he wanted a deal, but Bo Shuo showed him a Silver Gleam and ordered the group to move.
• The Scarred Man accused Ni Zi of surviving two cleaning missions, and Ni Zi denied knowing anything about them.

Bo Shuo fought the examinees who tried to detain Ni Zi, using Puppet Silk to control them. After the Scarred Man was killed, one of his teammates transformed into a dog and turned its blood-red gaze on Bo Shuo.

• Bo Shuo wrapped the corridor in Puppet Silk as the Scarred Man and the other examinees attacked him.
• Bo Shuo's threads controlled several examinees, leaving the Scarred Man helpless and unable to move.
• A controlled woman wielded an axe and killed Zhao Wuji, the Scarred Man.
• The woman's black badge shattered, and she transformed into a dog; the Proctoring System announced Zhang Jiaji's death.
• The dog fixed its hungry gaze on Bo Shuo, who reacted by driving his scalpel into someone beside him.

Bo Shuo and the others left the corridor and headed through the factory toward the Archives, where they found evidence that a candidate might have been turned into a pig. They were left facing the possibility that the pig with a rose tattoo belonged to one of their companions.

• Meng Ran Nian said the group should leave for the Archives and search for Zhang Xiong's records, and Bo Shuo led them out of the corridor.
• Bo Shuo used 007 to control his Corruption Value, and his black Work ID changed to green and yellow as the group put on their IDs and blended into the factory.
• Bo Shuo followed the factory map to the Sorting Area, where a starving old administrator stared at him through a Glass Cover.
• Meng Ran Nian spotted a black rose pattern tattooed on a pig's hoof and recalled that it matched a candidate's hand.
• Yu Zhou asked whether the pig could be the candidate who had traveled with them.

Bo Shuo and his companions approached the archives but were surrounded by numerous pseudo A-Class ghosts. With escape seemingly the only safe option, Bo Shuo considered gambling on a way to distort the background, but 007 revealed they lacked enough emotion points.

• Meng Ran Nian recovered from the strain of the corridor while Bo Shuo used 007’s map to lead the group toward the archives.
• Bo Shuo and his companions encountered five examinees wearing yellow work badges, who cautiously tried to pass them.
• 007 warned Bo Shuo that pseudo A-Class ghosts were approaching, but the security-guard-like creatures soon surrounded the group.
• Bo Shuo refused to retreat and asked whether emotion points could distort the background, but 007 said they did not have enough.

Bo Shuo used a red Work ID and copied aura to impersonate the Slaughterhouse Leader. He walked into the Sorting Center, where the guards mistook him for their superior and hesitated to attack.

• Meng Ran Nian asked Bo Shuo if he had a way to clear the level, but Bo Shuo had not heard the question.
• Bo Shuo received a Work ID marked "Slaughterhouse Leader" and found that his aura had changed to match the dead leader's.
• Bo Shuo reassured the panicking 007, put on the Work ID, and walked toward the guards.
• The guards sensed an eerie hunger toward Bo Shuo but could not bring themselves to attack him.
• The guards recognized the Work ID and debated why the leader inspecting the Slaughter Area had arrived at their Sorting Center.

Bo Shuo used his assumed status as the Slaughterhouse Leader to send the security guards away, then wondered why the Ghosts seemed afraid of him. The Leader Security Guard was left speechless when Bo Shuo directly asked whether he feared being harmed.

• Yu Zhou and the others were stunned to see Bo Shuo treated as the Slaughterhouse Leader.
• Bo Shuo rebuked the security guards, and their fear convinced them that he was truly their leader.
• The Leader Security Guard claimed they had come to search for intruders, then ordered everyone to return to work when Bo Shuo told them to leave.
• After the other guards scattered, Bo Shuo told 007 that the Ghosts feared he would do something to them, not merely that he was their leader.
• Bo Shuo asked the sweating Leader Security Guard if he feared being harmed, leaving him unable to answer.

Bo Shuo and his companions searched the archives and uncovered evidence that fifteen people who went missing five years earlier had all joined the slaughterhouse. Bo Shuo suspected the slaughterhouse was an organ trafficking factory, leaving the group to investigate the purpose of its carefully divided processing areas.

• Bo Shuo opened the archives and searched its time-organized records with his companions.
• Bo Shuo found Zhang Xiong's file, while Yu Zhou discovered a newspaper article about fifteen missing people.
• Bo Shuo matched Qian Ting's name and entry date to the newspaper, then directed the group to search for the other names.
• Bo Shuo and his companions found files for all fifteen missing people and learned that each had joined the slaughterhouse five years earlier.
• Ni Zi proposed that the slaughterhouse processed human flesh, but Bo Shuo argued that its layout and cold-chain belts suggested organ trafficking.

Bo Shuo and the others escaped the archives after the real leader broke in and attacked the security guards. They ran into Wen Yanqing in the sorting area while the leader continued to pursue them.

• Bo Shuo and 007 realized the white-shirted man was the real leader, while the security guards mistook him for an impostor and attacked him.
• The leader defeated and devoured the security guards, so Apple broke windows for Bo Shuo and the others to escape.
• The leader smashed into the archives after they fled and pursued Bo Shuo, who followed 007's route back to the sorting area.
• Bo Shuo ran into Wen Yanqing and his group, and judged the pursuing leader less dangerous than Wen Yanqing.