Chapter Summaries

The Male High School Student faced a terrifying vision in the fish tank and nearly drowned, but escaped just before the Countdown ended and passed with a score of 60. Bo Shuo suspected the hostile Audience did not control the scoring, leaving the Examinees to question who did.

• The Male High School Student saw the teammate he had killed inside the fish tank, then entered the water as the Audience booed and the score fell.
• A Water Ghost dragged the Male High School Student underwater, and his Amulet of Protection failed to activate.
• Bo Shuo observed that the Male High School Student seemed trapped by something invisible in the tank and wondered whether the danger was an illusion or had both real and illusory forms.
• The Male High School Student broke through the water's surface, and the Countdown reached zero with his score at 60.
• Jiang Xiuyi questioned why the hostile Audience had awarded a passing score, and Bo Shuo suggested that either fixed criteria or a hidden scorer determined the results.

Bo Shuo discovered that the stage could not turn his lack of fear into a Performance Project and had become an Audience member instead. He used his new position to switch places with the Audience, leaving them onstage as Actors and himself seated with a scorecard.

• The Wooden Plaque appeared blank because the stage could not find any fear in Bo Shuo.
• The Audience realized the stage might feed on them, and one fleeing member was crushed into ash.
• Bo Shuo asked 007 whether he could rate the Audience now that he had become one.
• Bo Shuo announced a ten-minute countdown and transported the Audience onto the stage while taking a seat among them.
• The Foreman watched Bo Shuo warily but remained unable to intervene.

After the Audience died and the assessment was postponed, the Foreman assigned the examinees rehearsal projects for Madam Golia’s afternoon performance. Bo Shuo identified the route to the rehearsal rooms and led a group toward the easternmost rooms.

• Bo Shuo gave the dead Audience a failing score, and the scarlet curtain fell.
• The Foreman postponed the Intern Actor assessments and assigned rehearsal projects for the afternoon performance.
• Bo Shuo received The Little Match Girl project, while Jiang Xiuyi received The Ball; the examinees shared their assignments.
• Jiang Xiuyi planned a search, but Bo Shuo directed the group east toward the Last Three Rooms, and Ni Zi followed him.
• Bo Shuo led the group through the Opera House until they reached The Easternmost Last Three Rooms.

Bo Shuo and Ni Zi entered the rehearsal for The Little Match Girl and encountered the Little Girl in the forest. After Bo Shuo noticed the gruesome human she was dragging and calmly asked about her matches, the Little Girl grew pleased with him and asked what kind he liked.

• Bo Shuo entered the snowy rehearsal area with Ni Zi and found himself in a forest instead of the town.
• Ni Zi cautiously joined Bo Shuo, and they heard a hostile creature approaching through the trees.
• The Little Girl appeared and offered to sell them matches.
• Bo Shuo asked about the matches behind her, revealing that she was dragging a man pierced on a sharpened wooden stick.
• The Little Girl was pleased by Bo Shuo's calm reaction and asked what kind of matches he liked.

Bo Shuo asked the Little Girl what kinds of matches she liked, and she explained that she hated the rough, untrustworthy person she had turned into one. When she mistook Ni Zi for a present Bo Shuo intended to give her, Bo Shuo rejected the idea by criticizing Ni Zi.

• The Little Girl complained that her current match was coarse and had broken a promise, so she had punished him.
• Bo Shuo asked whether she had used other materials to make matches, and the Little Girl looked at Ni Zi as if he could be one.
• The Little Girl thanked Bo Shuo for supposedly offering Ni Zi as a present, while Ni Zi feared Bo Shuo would abandon him.
• Bo Shuo said Ni Zi was not a suitable present because he was unattractive, ill-tempered, and had illnesses, prompting the Little Girl to wrinkle her nose at him.

Bo Shuo and Ni Zi entered a gloomy path to find matches, only to be surrounded by copies of the Little Girl and forced to accept 13 match-collecting tasks. As the copies closed in, Xiao Mu rushed in and claimed Bo Shuo as her Gege, confronting the others.

• Bo Shuo led Ni Zi down the rightmost path toward the matches.
• They hid as a second Little Girl appeared and walked away, then another Little Girl suddenly confronted them.
• More Little Girls appeared and surrounded Bo Shuo and Ni Zi, while the Proctoring System automatically assigned them 13 tasks to obtain matches.
• As the Little Girls closed in, Bo Shuo told Ni Zi not to run.
• Xiao Mu rushed over and shouted that Bo Shuo was her Gege, prompting the surrounding Little Girls to challenge her.

Bo Shuo used the Little Girls as match materials to complete their task, while Ni Zi helped finish the work. The rehearsal ended, and the Proctoring System revealed that Lady Golia had noticed Bo Shuo and was becoming more favorably disposed toward him.

• The Little Girls stopped fighting and asked whether Bo Shuo's offer was the trade they had agreed on.
• Bo Shuo demanded that the Little Girls remain still for five minutes, then used his blade to turn them into matches without killing them.
• When one Little Girl broke her promise and moved, Bo Shuo punished her, and Ni Zi joined in to help with the remaining work.
• Bo Shuo and Ni Zi connected the Little Girls with wooden sticks, completing the task and earning a huge amount of fear from them.
• The Proctoring System announced Lady Golia's rising favorability toward Bo Shuo and confirmed that the Little Match Girl rehearsal was complete.
• The scenery shifted, but Bo Shuo and Ni Zi were pulled into the plot rather than leaving the Rehearsal Project.

Bo Shuo investigated the rehearsal area while Jiang Xiuyi’s group shared news of the deadly Ball and the hostile Examinees in the Exam Venue. Mrs. Golia arrived at the Rehearsal Room after Bo Shuo refused her summons, leaving the Examinees facing the mysterious figure.

• Jiang Xiuyi told Bo Shuo’s group that the Ball required a fixed death toll and that other hostile Examinee groups were in the Exam Venue.
• Ni Zi described the events in the Frozen Jungle while Bo Shuo inspected the area and found the damaged Vengeful Spirit Doll at the Rehearsal Planning workstation.
• Rehearsal Planning told Bo Shuo that Mrs. Golia wanted to meet him, but Bo Shuo refused to go because no mandatory mission had been issued and filming was about to begin.
• The Foreman confronted Bo Shuo for refusing Mrs. Golia’s summons, then hurried to greet her as she arrived at the Rehearsal Room.
• Mrs. Golia entered in a black Mermaid Skirt and Small Hat as the Examinees watched.

Bo Shuo refused Madam Golia’s invitation to enter The Ball as her partner and revealed that he had a Golden Invitation allowing him to enter under another identity. His invitation stunned the Rehearsal Room and made Madam Golia wary of him.

• Bo Shuo politely declined Madam Golia’s offer to leave the theater, and she sensed her daughter’s aura on him.
• Madam Golia learned that Bo Shuo had been involved in the performance that killed her daughter, then invited him to enter The Ball with her.
• The Foreman announced that the props for The Little Match Girl had been destroyed and tried to blame Bo Shuo, but Madam Golia dismissed the matter.
• An assessment mission to join The Ball appeared for everyone, and Bo Shuo declined Madam Golia’s invitation, saying he would enter under another identity.
• The Foreman challenged Bo Shuo’s right to enter as a guest, and Bo Shuo produced a Golden Invitation, leaving everyone stunned and Madam Golia wary.

Bo Shuo killed the Foreman and entered The Ball, where the guests were waiting for Golia. His arrival beside Golia left the Ghosts wondering who he was.

• Bo Shuo refused to take back his genuine Golden Invitation from the Foreman and passed by as the severed head begged for forgiveness.
• The examinees playing Opera House actors entered The Ball and joined the lowest-ranked guests, while Jiang Xiuyi's group noticed Qian Wenqi, Qiao Yang, and Shi Ling.
• Qian Wenqi and Qiao Yang recognized Jiang Xiuyi and worried that her group might know the Exam Venue's crucial information.
• Golia arrived at the ball with a maid, and the Ghosts focused their attention on her.
• Bo Shuo walked beside Golia, and the Ghosts wondered who the handsome youth was.

At a Ball, Qiao Yang tried to escape blame for toppling a cake by calling on Bo Shuo, then exposed him as a human Actor when Bo Shuo refused to help. The Ghosts turned their attention toward Bo Shuo, leaving his identity under suspicion.

• Jiang Xiuyi caught a guest’s slipping wineglass, while Zhao Gao was forced to cut off his own arm after cleaning up spilled wine.
• Mrs. Golia introduced Bo Shuo to the surrounding Ghosts as her friend, signaling that he had an important standing.
• Qiao Yang toppled a towering cake and faced the Ghosts’ demand that he identify who had pushed him.
• Qiao Yang called for Bo Shuo to save him, but Bo Shuo remained indifferent and the Ghosts grew hostile toward Qiao Yang.
• Qiao Yang declared that Bo Shuo was a human Actor, prompting the Ghosts to shift their attention to him.

Bo Shuo faced down the hostile Ghosts at the Opera House ball after Qiao Yang rejected his attempt to help. The Dean arrived and respectfully called Bo Shuo “Teacher,” and Bo Shuo suggested they talk somewhere more private.

• Bo Shuo withdrew from Qiao Yang as the surrounding Ghosts watched him warily.
• The Dean arrived at the Opera House, prompting the Ghosts and the person in charge to treat him with fear and deference.
• The Dean spotted Bo Shuo, hurried over, and addressed him as “Teacher,” astonishing Qiao Yang and the other guests.
• The Dean said he had come to see Bo Shuo while researching a project, and Bo Shuo proposed they talk elsewhere.

Bo Shuo finished modifying the ballroom and returned to the gathering, where Shi Ling asked to join his team in exchange for information about the Exam Venue. She explained that the Opera House was a Chimera of different Timelines and that Examinees from a doomed Timeline were invading other venues to escape their deaths.

• Bo Shuo left the Dean after completing his modifications and returned to the ballroom, where Ghosts tried to curry favor with him.
• Shi Ling approached Bo Shuo and pleaded to join his team, offering to explain why so many batches of Examinees were in the Exam Venue.
• Shi Ling revealed that the Opera House was divided into Exam Venues across different Timelines and that other Examinees had invaded her venue without the Proctoring System intervening.
• Jiang Xiuyi asked why the invaders were taking over Shi Ling’s Exam Venue and how strong they were.
• Shi Ling said the invaders came from a later Timeline where the Opera House would collapse and everyone would die, and that Examinees could invade venues of the same or higher rank.

During the Opera House’s prayer ritual, Bo Shuo learned that the Black Stone was a sacrifice being fed with pain and fear, while Shi Ling’s group planned to find the key to the locked second floor. Bo Shuo led the group out of the venue, but the faceless person in charge noticed them leaving.

• The ball ended with the lights going out, and attendants brought a black-cloth-covered object into the hall for Prayer Time.
• The person in charge revealed a Black Stone, which 007 explained was a semi-finished sacrificial object that absorbed pain and fear.
• The ghosts, including Golia, knelt and prayed to an Evil Deity while their suffering fed the Black Stone.
• Shi Ling told the group they needed the key from the person in charge’s rest room to reach the second floor and invade other exam venues.
• Bo Shuo led the group away from the praying guests, and the person in charge noticed them as they departed.

Bo Shuo discovered that Shi Ling’s manager’s key was fake, and the group realized the opera house’s manager might remember events across timelines. When the corridors fell silent and someone unlocked the lounge door, they fled toward the balcony overlooking an abyss.

• Bo Shuo had 007 identify the Opera House Manager’s Key as a fake, then confronted Shi Ling for knowing it differed from her earlier key.
• Shi Ling said she had sensed a difference but believed keys could vary between timelines, and Jiang Xiuyi lowered his bayonet rather than risk drawing the ghosts outside with bloodshed.
• Bo Shuo suggested that the monsters shared memories across timelines, and Zhao Li and Jiang Xiuyi reasoned that the manager could have learned from the earlier key search.
• The footsteps outside stopped, and the group realized the manager might have returned.
• The group rushed toward the balcony as footsteps halted at the door and a key turned in the lock.

Bo Shuo trapped the Opera House’s person in charge inside a room distorted by his Talent Skill while the others fled a Shadow Figure across a rope bridge. The group regrouped on a balcony and discovered that its surroundings had changed.

• Ni Zi spotted a patch of Black Shadow on a balcony, and it transformed into a figure resembling the person in charge.
• Bo Shuo returned to the lounge, concealed himself, and altered the room with his Talent Skill to trap the person in charge in a maze-like space.
• The person in charge tried to escape by turning into Black Shadow but kept encountering obstacles and demanded to know who was hiding there.
• Another Shadow Figure chased Ni Zi and the others across the rope bridge, so Jiang Xiuyi cut the rope and sent it falling.
• Shi Ling approached Bo Shuo on the balcony, and the group noticed that furniture had appeared in the changed surroundings.

Bo Shuo trapped the Dean in a room by convincing it that it had entered the wrong lounge, then asked about the Opera House while 007 copied a key. The Dean began proudly explaining the Opera House’s history and rules as Bo Shuo waited for 007 to finish.

• Bo Shuo told the others to stay on the balcony and entered the room alone.
• Bo Shuo confronted the Dean and insisted that it had entered the wrong room, confusing it with a bluff.
• The Dean checked outside, accepted that it had gone to the wrong place, and sat down across from Bo Shuo.
• Bo Shuo asked the Dean to explain the Opera House’s history while urging 007 to finish copying a key.
• The Dean launched into a lengthy explanation of the Opera House’s philosophy and management.

Ni Zi and the others escaped the Shadow Figures and reached the second-floor Broadcast Hall, where the Proctoring System announced a five-team Cat and Mouse Game for Points. Bo Shuo and Shi Ling began searching for Treasure Chests, and Bo Shuo opened one after killing a monster that burst from a lounge.

• Ni Zi led the group across ropes to a balcony, and they fought off Shadow Figures before escaping into the Opera House corridor.
• Bo Shuo used a copied key to lead everyone to the second-floor Broadcast Hall, where five teams gathered.
• The Proctoring System announced a three-hour Cat and Mouse Game in which teams collected Points and the leading team chose its Exam Venue Timeline first.
• Bo Shuo split his group into three search parties, and he and Shi Ling headed away from the Broadcast Hall to look for Treasure Chests.
• Shi Ling warned Bo Shuo about Ghosts and dangerous chests, but he opened a lounge door and killed the monster that lunged out.
• Bo Shuo entered the lounge and opened a floating wooden Treasure Chest as Shi Ling followed him inside.

Bo Shuo’s team met Bian Qiulan’s team after both were assigned to the Mouse faction, where members could still attack one another for points. Bian Qiulan revealed that Ghosts blocked the corridor behind her team and proposed that they cooperate.

• Bo Shuo and Shi Ling waited at the rendezvous point, where Jiang Xiuyi and Ni Zi joined them, but Zhang Jiamu and Zhao Li did not arrive.
• The countdown ended, assigning Bo Shuo’s team to the Mouse faction and marking them with hamster symbols.
• Bo Shuo’s four-person team encountered Bian Qiulan’s six-person team and both sides cautiously assessed each other’s strength.
• Bian Qiulan led her team out from behind the corner and said they meant no harm, while Jiang Xiuyi and Ni Zi remained wary.
• Bian Qiulan explained that Ghosts had appeared in the corridor behind her team and proposed that the Mouse teams help each other.

Bo Shuo led his team into a Safe House as ghosts overwhelmed the area outside. Trapped beyond the door, Bian Qiulan offered increasing sums of Points to get her group inside, but Bo Shuo had not answered by the chapter’s end.

• Bo Shuo warned the opposing group to run, then entered a nearby room with his team.
• After Ni Zi shut the door, the team heard the burly man cry out and learned from Jiang Xiuyi that ghosts had filled the area outside.
• Ni Zi realized Bo Shuo had found a Safe House, which the ghosts could not detect.
• Bian Qiulan and her group begged to be let in, and she offered five hundred Points in exchange.
• As the attack intensified, Bian Qiulan raised her offer to one thousand Points.