Chapter Summaries

After the Ghost Tide dissipated, Jiang Xiuyi revealed that an examinee had caused it with a Talent Skill, raising suspicions that someone on Yang Xuan’s team was a mole. As the teams prepared to separate, Bian Qiulan offered Bo Shuo a place on her team and half their points, leaving his current teammates alarmed.

• Bian Qiulan handed Bo Shuo her team's points card, raising his score to 1780 and their ranking to first place.
• Jiang Xiuyi sensed that an examinee had used a Talent Skill to cause the Ghost Tide and said one of them had been targeted.
• Yang Xuan suspected that Akita Kohei had cursed their team and realized that a mole might have provided the curse's required medium.
• Bian Qiulan offered Bo Shuo the captaincy of her team, startling Yang Xuan and putting Bo Shuo's teammates on alert.
• Bian Qiulan added that her team would give Bo Shuo half their points if he joined.

Bo Shuo’s team discovered that two other teams had worked together to eliminate members of “Harmony Brings Wealth,” and Jiang Xiuyi warned that they were likely the next target. Elsewhere, Akita Kohei’s tracking doll burned after its target was found, and his team moved to pursue another group.

• Bo Shuo named his team Q, and the leaderboard showed “Pick A Name” had risen to third after two members of “Harmony Brings Wealth” died.
• Jiang Xiuyi sensed a planned ambush in the three o’clock direction and warned that the cooperating teams might be able to track them.
• Akita Kohei’s straw doll burned to ashes, and he realized that someone had found one of the people he controlled.
• Akita Kohei ordered Zhao Li and Zhang Jiamu kept as replacements while checking his remaining dolls and driving silver needles into them.
• A team member told Akita Kohei they had found another team’s traces ahead.

Bo Shuo and his companions watched from hiding as Zhao Liu and Deng Fei’s teams cornered Bian Qiulan’s group. After Yang Xuan and Yun Haoran died, Bian Qiulan escaped the encirclement alone, only to hear a greasy voice beside her.

• 007 marked Akita Kohei as Bo Shuo’s strongest enemy and suggested waiting in hiding for a chance to attack.
• Bo Shuo spotted Bian Qiulan’s team surrounded by Zhao Liu and Deng Fei’s teams, while Akita Kohei’s team escorted two captured figures.
• Bian Qiulan prepared to make a path for her teammates, but Yang Xuan used his agility talent and charged into the enemy formation.
• Yang Xuan was killed as Bian Qiulan fled, and Yun Haoran died moments later, leaving Bian Qiulan alone.
• Bian Qiulan slipped beneath a railing while escaping, then heard a greasy voice beside her.

Akita Kohei used curses to make examinees attack their own teammates, then prepared to control Bian Qiulan so he could gain control over her team. Bo Shuo decided to intervene and approached openly, forcing Akita Kohei to realize that the newcomer was the leaderboard’s first-place contestant.

• Akita Kohei’s curse made examinees turn on their teammates, leaving Zhao Liu and Deng Fei among the survivors and unsure who else was controlled.
• Akita Kohei took Bian Qiulan’s hair and blood to use with a Scarecrow Doll, intending to control her and the examinees assigned to her team.
• The broadcast audience discussed how Akita Kohei could use Bian Qiulan’s team slots to control more contestants, and 007 sent the information to Bo Shuo.
• Jiang Xiuyi urged Bo Shuo to act, and Bo Shuo told him to get out before heading toward Akita Kohei without disguising himself.
• Akita Kohei heard someone approaching, took a defensive stance, and recognized Bo Shuo as the likely newcomer.

Bo Shuo faced Akita Kohei, who revealed himself as a Dual Talent Awakener and attacked with a ghost weapon and blade. When the dust cleared, a broken blade fragment lay on the ground, but the chapter left the fighters’ condition uncertain.

• Akita Kohei cautiously questioned Bo Shuo after realizing his control technique had no effect on him.
• Bo Shuo assessed Akita Kohei’s strength and confronted him without showing fear.
• Akita Kohei revealed his dual talents and lunged at Bo Shuo with a ghost weapon and an azure Folding Long Blade.
• The examinees and their teams clashed as Jiang Xiuyi tried to help Bo Shuo, and a blade sliced off a lock of Jiang Xiuyi’s hair.
• A metallic impact sounded through the dust, a broken blade fragment fell, and the fighters withdrew to opposite sides.

Bo Shuo’s team won the Cat and Mouse Game, selected a Timeline five days earlier, and arrived at an Exam Venue already occupied by another team. The other examinees fled in fear, and after the group settled in, Jiang Xiuyi noticed Bo Shuo and Shi Ling were missing.

• Bo Shuo’s team won the game after Bo Shuo killed Akita Kohei, and they earned priority to choose a Timeline.
• 007 reminded Bo Shuo that Zhang Jiamu and Zhao Li were still bound, and Bo Shuo chose the Timeline five days earlier.
• Bo Shuo’s team arrived in the Broadcast Hall and received a warning that ten people exceeded the venue’s limit of six.
• The opposing team recognized Bo Shuo’s group, surrendered, and tried to leave, but Bo Shuo stopped them to ask whether he was scary.
• After the other team left, Bo Shuo’s group decided to rest, and Jiang Xiuyi noticed that Bo Shuo and Shi Ling were missing.

Bo Shuo learned that Shi Ling was Xi Guici, the killer who had chosen his Timeline deliberately. Xi Guici admitted he had approached Bo Shuo to get closer to him, leaving Bo Shuo uncertain of his intentions.

• A burly man told Bo Shuo that Shi Ling had killed everyone in the previous Cat and Mouse Game except his team, then chosen Bo Shuo's Timeline.
• Bo Shuo and the burly man heard Shi Ling approach and call out to Mr. Bo.
• Bo Shuo recognized Shi Ling as Xi Guici after noticing her resemblance to him.
• Shi Ling admitted she was Xi Guici and denied coming for revenge.
• Xi Guici told Bo Shuo that he had only wanted to get a little closer to him.

Bo Shuo rejected Xi Guici’s offer to help him reach S-rank in exchange for staying by his side, after hearing Xi Guici’s vision that Bo Shuo would destroy the world. Back in the Performance Hall, Bo Shuo received the final task: find all of Golia’s treasures scattered across the Third Floor.

• Bo Shuo confronted Xi Guici, who claimed he wanted to make a deal and sent the other examinees away.
• Xi Guici said he and Eveya were enemies, then revealed that he had seen Bo Shuo destroy the world despite Eveya prophesying he was its savior.
• Xi Guici offered to help Bo Shuo advance to S-rank if Bo Shuo let him stay by his side, but Bo Shuo refused.
• 007 told Bo Shuo that Xi Guici before him was only a puppet nearing collapse, suggesting Xi Guici’s true body remained in the instance.
• Bo Shuo returned to the Performance Hall, where the Proctoring System assigned the final task to find Golia’s treasures on the Third Floor within three hours.

After the group escaped the second-floor game, they found themselves trapped in a repeating stairwell where every landing was marked “Second Floor.” With time running out, Bo Shuo recognized a clue in the Red-Clothed Little Girl and led everyone to the rehearsal room.

• Zhang Jiamu warned the group to watch for nearby danger after they saw two people die as mummies.
• The group climbed the stairs repeatedly but found the same “Second Floor” sign and an increasingly open iron door, suggesting they could not reach the Third Floor by going upward.
• Jiang Xiuyi reasoned that either they were using the wrong route or “Third Floor” referred to a place elsewhere, while Bo Shuo ruled out seeking help because Madame Golia had not arrived and the group was unregistered.
• Zhao Li proposed searching the first floor for overlooked clues, but Bo Shuo stopped the group and produced the Red-Clothed Little Girl doll.
• Bo Shuo led the group to the locked rehearsal room, and they opened it with the key they had.

Bo Shuo and the other examinees entered the Opera House’s third floor and began a hide-and-seek game against Golia’s daughters, where being caught meant erasure. Bo Shuo suspected the Ghosts had a way to locate the humans and chose an abandoned restaurant as a hiding place, while keeping an escape route in mind.

• Bo Shuo recognized the low-grade doll from the Rehearsal Planning desk, which had apparently become important to their progress.
• The group entered the third floor of the Opera House and received the task of helping Golia find her treasure through a deadly game of Hide and Seek.
• Golia’s daughters appeared as ghostly figures, and the examinees were assigned the human faction with three minutes to hide.
• The examinees split up, and Bo Shuo reasoned that the Ghosts might have a detection ability to compensate for the size of the venue.
• Bo Shuo chose the Abandoned Restaurant in the eastern area, noting its many obstructions, windows, and exits, but avoided disturbing the rusty kitchen lock.

Bo Shuo escaped the little girl ghost by jumping from a window, then used his knowledge of the search area to move toward the Performance Hall. There, he met Jiang Xiuyi, who had turned back from the west after sensing danger.

• A little girl ghost attacked the room with a long rod and searched for Bo Shuo and the others.
• 007 warned Bo Shuo to jump out the window, and he escaped as the ghost pressed her distorted face against the glass.
• After confirming the ghost had left, Bo Shuo reasoned that changing hiding spots could help him survive the ten-minute search.
• Bo Shuo headed back toward the central area and reached the Performance Hall.
• Bo Shuo encountered Jiang Xiuyi, who explained that she had turned east after her intuition warned her away from the west.

Bo Shuo tried to escape the Little Girls, but their pursuit kept shifting between him and Ni Zi as the final minute of the countdown approached. He confronted Ni Zi while the ghosts closed in behind him.

• Bo Shuo smashed a window to flee, but 007 warned him that Ni Zi was leading the Little Girls toward him.
• Bo Shuo, Ni Zi, and Jiang Xiuyi split up, confusing the Little Girls and sending them after different targets.
• Bo Shuo saw Ni Zi repeatedly evade capture through lucky obstacles and sudden movements.
• A Little Girl switched from chasing Ni Zi to pursuing Bo Shuo, and the countdown reached its final minute.
• Bo Shuo walked toward the exhausted Ni Zi, who finally noticed the swarm of ghosts behind him.

After the first round of Hide-and-Seek ended without any deaths, the surviving players regrouped in the Waiting Area and treated their injuries. Ni Zi found a dusty diary and a red crayon in a dark corner, and the group opened the diary to discover a familiar, disturbing drawing.

• Ni Zi escaped the Wolf Fang Club’s range, and the players returned to the Waiting Area after the first round ended.
• Jiang Xiuyi drank and offered Mid-level Recovery Potions, while Zhao Li and other injured players tended to their wounds.
• Ni Zi dropped a potion bottle, followed it into a dark corner, and found a red crayon and a dusty diary.
• Ni Zi brought the items to the table, and the group saw a smiling face drawn in red crayon with a long stroke across its eyes.

Bo Shuo used clues from the Little Girl’s diary and split from the group to search the corridors alone, suspecting that someone among them had been replaced. After a ghostly voice and footsteps appeared nearby, his thread pierced through a wall and struck something unseen.

• Bo Shuo copied the Little Girl’s diary, and the second round of the game began with a Search skill available.
• Zhao Li suggested that the group work together to intercept the Little Girls, but Bo Shuo walked off alone while Jiang Xiuyi assigned guards to positions.
• Bo Shuo explained to 007 that he distrusted Zhao Li because Zhao Li had returned unharmed from the dangerous western corridor, and he questioned whether the others were genuine as well.
• Bo Shuo searched the less-damaged southern corridor, where an unseen voice and fleeting footsteps drew his attention.
• Bo Shuo hurled a strand of thread through a thin wall, and a miserable sob came from the other side.

Bo Shuo rapidly captured the remaining Little Girls until the Exam Venue drew the attention of an unseen presence and unlocked a new side quest. He was transported to a snowy setting a hundred years in the past, where he had to impersonate a Priest and enter a castle before returning to the Hide and Seek exam.

• Bo Shuo used threads and 007’s search ability to capture Little Girls and collect Golia’s Treasures as he explored the Exam Venue.
• The lamps and murals changed, and an unseen voice repeatedly whispered for Bo Shuo to save it.
• The system unlocked Xiao Mu’s Wish and temporarily suspended the Hide and Seek quest, then transported Bo Shuo to a snowy landscape.
• Bo Shuo received the identity of a swindler disguised as a Priest and was instructed to enter the castle.
• 007 explained that the Timeline had shifted back one hundred years and that Bo Shuo needed to complete the side quest before returning to the exam.

Bo Shuo arrived at Uller Castle as a priest of the Shadowless Church and met the younger Madam Golia, who believed he was the figure she had long awaited. She led him to her hidden Collection Room, where he discovered people posing as him imprisoned in cells.

• Bo Shuo arrived at Uller Castle, and the frightened butler escorted him to meet Madam Golia.
• Madam Golia questioned Bo Shuo about the Shadowless Church, then excitedly welcomed him as the one she had been waiting for.
• Madam Golia invited Bo Shuo to her Collection Room and led him through a hidden door into a series of gloomy cells.
• Bo Shuo saw prisoners in black robes and Inverted Crosses, their tongues missing and their bodies piled together.

Bo Shuo kept up his act as a cold, indifferent Priest while Golia led him through the prison. At the end of the corridor, he recognized Golia’s abused daughter Xiao Mu as an NPC.

• Golia accepted Bo Shuo’s claim to be a Priest and offered him a room, believing his ruthless demeanor proved his identity.
• Golia led Bo Shuo through the prison, where he concealed his horror at the gruesome scenes while secretly calling for help from the system.
• Bo Shuo spotted the name Xiao Mu and stopped at a cell containing a small, restrained girl.
• Golia introduced the girl as her daughter Xiao Mu and claimed she was being punished for mischief.
• Xiao Mu woke and raised her pale face to look at Bo Shuo.

Bo Shuo stopped Golia from taking Xiao Mu away by claiming he wanted to teach her about God, and Golia agreed to send the frightened child to him. The chapter ended with Bo Shuo trying to ease Xiao Mu’s fear as he opened her Bible.

• Golia apologized to Bo Shuo, then angrily smashed her kerosene lamp and strangled Xiao Mu with a hemp rope before letting her down.
• Bo Shuo claimed Xiao Mu had a connection with God and asked to bring her out for religious instruction, and Golia readily agreed.
• Golia had Xiao Mu cleaned and sent to Bo Shuo’s room with a Bible.
• Xiao Mu trembled and kept her guard up while Bo Shuo tried to make her comfortable and began opening the Bible.

Jiang Xiuyi found a diary that revealed the Little Girl feared a Priest she identified with Bo Shuo. The discovery left her questioning Bo Shuo’s connection to the instance as she took the diary for further investigation.

• Jiang Xiuyi entered a room where her Detection Skill confirmed someone was hiding, but found it empty except for a diary.
• The diary rewrote itself, describing a frightening Priest who had visited the Little Girl’s home and whom the girl called a demon.
• Jiang Xiuyi saw a drawing of the Priest and recognized him as Bo Shuo.
• Jiang Xiuyi collected the diary, while viewers in the Broadcast Room debated whether Bo Shuo was truly a test-taker.

Jiang Xiuyi discovered that the room was haunted by the deaths of many people and ordered the floor broken open to reach a dungeon below. In another timeline, Bo Shuo continued caring for Xiao Mu while 007 recalled how it first came to him as a stray tortoiseshell cat.

• Jiang Xiuyi used her Talent Skill, saw the room’s bloody past, and told Ni Zi to summon Zhao Li and the others to break up the floor.
• Bo Shuo continued treating his side mission as raising Xiao Mu and gradually earned her trust.
• Xiao Mu visited Bo Shuo, who was reminded of his younger sister, Bo Chunzhang.
• 007 revealed that it had met Bo Shuo long before binding to him, after a failed mission left it a nearly powerless stray cat.