Chapter Summaries

Ling Chu opened the crew’s System Blind Boxes, revealing useful supplies, treats, and odd gifts alongside two Mysterious Fruits for each person. The crew enjoyed their mixed luck, and Ling Chu’s own Blind Box remained unopened.

• Ling Chu opened You Jiali’s Blind Box, which contained kitchen supplies and two Mysterious Fruits.
• Ling Chu opened Squid Ball’s Blind Box, which contained a beanbag chair, a squishy toy, a curling iron, and two Mysterious Fruits.
• Lingering Wind and Fading Moon received ten KFC family buckets, and she offered them to the crew instead of having You Jiali make breakfast.
• Ling Chu opened Huang Xiaowen’s Blind Box, and the crew found uses for the pet feeder and anti-snoring device while Huang Xiaowen set aside the polka-dot bikini.
• Ling Chu opened Clumsy Bear’s Blind Box, which contained drinks, snacks, pressed ducks, and two Mysterious Fruits.
• Ling Chu’s own Blind Box was the only one left unopened.

Ling Chu opened a Blind Box and received invitations to the Golden Finger Gambling Ship, a magic pillow, an Intermediate Mana Stone, and two fruits. Her crew traded fruits to focus on their preferred stats, while Ling Chu offered her Charisma Fruit for Strength or Agility and waited for a trade.

• Ling Chu opened the Blind Box and found five Golden Finger Gambling Ship invitations, a Magic Sleep Pillow, an Intermediate Mana Stone, and two Mysterious Fruits.
• Huang Xiaowen wanted to use the invitations to confront Claude, but Ling Chu told her to level up before seeking revenge.
• Ling Chu gave the Magic Sleep Pillow to Lingering Wind and Fading Moon and decided to save the Intermediate Mana Stone while prioritizing a Netherworld Warhorse token for duplication.
• Ling Chu and her crew traded Mysterious Fruits to obtain the stats each of them prioritized.
• Ling Chu offered her Charisma Fruit in the Public Chat Channel for a Strength or Agility Fruit, then went to the restaurant with her crew while she waited for a trade.

Ling Chu’s safe zone continued to attract players, and she prepared to leave after two days at the lighthouse. A system announcement then revealed that another group had reclaimed a Whispering Lighthouse and opened a second temporary safe zone.

• Huang Xiaowen dramatically praised the fries, and You Jiali said she could make fries and ketchup herself.
• Ling Chu traded a Charisma Fruit to Runny Egg for an Agility Fruit, which she ate.
• Ling Chu watched Wei Baoguo and Li Shufen catch a large conch while their ships fished safely.
• The Beethoven Ship and the Firewood, Rice, Oil and Salt Ship arrived, and Ling Chu refused the latter fleet’s supplies, insisting the safe zone was free.
• The safe zone grew to more than fifteen hundred players, and Ling Chu planned to set sail at dawn.
• The system announced that Smiley, Juliet, Chen Piaopiao, Plucking Flowers and Seeking Willows, and Zhi Nan had cracked the Whispering Lighthouse and made Wanderer a temporary safe zone with a capacity of two thousand.

After the Circus cleared the Whispering Lighthouse and announced a way to find its safe zone, Ling Chu’s crew discussed the news and prepared to sail. Ling Chu gave Great Strength Creates Miracles teleportation tickets for Hope Island and left the choice of joining her to him and the other players.

• Players in the Public Chat Channel argued over whether to thank the Circus for clearing the Whispering Lighthouse, since the Circus had released the Wanderers in the first place.
• Smiley shared the lighthouse’s coordinates and said he would release balloons to guide players to its safe zone.
• Ling Chu’s crew discussed the Circus, learned that Head Chef was pickling something, and went to sleep before their planned departure.
• The next morning, Ling Chu gave Great Strength Creates Miracles twenty teleportation tickets for Hope Island and asked him to distribute extras to reliable players.
• Great Strength Creates Miracles said he and his brothers might keep sailing after the fog disaster, and Ling Chu accepted his choice without pressuring him.

Ling Chu’s Ghost Ship left the safe zone and sailed toward Lucas’s coordinates, while sour bamboo shoots drove off a Drowned trying to climb aboard. Ling Chu won a buff that increased the chance of special events, and a lookout reported a ship approaching through the fog.

• Great Strength Creates Miracles agreed to offer teleportation tickets to Li Shufen and her husband, Flying Mouse and Coffee and Cat, and the captains of Beethoven Ship and Firewood, Rice, Oil and Salt Ship.
• Ling Chu sailed the Ghost Ship away from the safe zone, leaving the other ships and their crews behind.
• You Jiali’s sour bamboo shoots filled the ship with a foul stench, and a Drowned fell into the sea after smelling it.
• Ling Chu used the Gambler Coin and Lucky Spin Wheel, winning the Chosen One buff, which increased her chance of encountering special events for 24 hours.
• A skeletal lookout reported that a ship was sailing toward the Ghost Ship through the fog.

Ling Chu met a Tier 6 Soul Ferryman and paid it Nether Pearls to lead her Ghost Ship to a Whispering Lighthouse. After deciding not to pay for another destination, she watched the Ferryman vanish into the fog and examined the eerie lighthouse.

• Ling Chu spotted a cloaked Soul Ferryman on a tiny raft and discovered that it wanted Nether Pearls.
• Ling Chu paid the Soul Ferryman ten Nether Pearls, and it led her and the Ghost Ship through the fog for two hours.
• The Soul Ferryman brought them to a Whispering Lighthouse, and Ling Chu considered leaving Skeletons behind to guard it.
• The Soul Ferryman demanded more Nether Pearls, but Ling Chu refused and it disappeared into the fog.
• Ling Chu examined the lighthouse, noting its faded colorful paint, rusted iron strips, and tattered cloth dolls hanging from the door.

Ling Chu led her crew to challenge a newly discovered Whispering Lighthouse after a swarm of poisonous Six-Legged Horseshoe Crabs attacked them on the Reef. The crew cleared the creatures and reached the lighthouse, where Ling Chu learned the puzzle challenge allowed one hour and had three attempts remaining.

• Ling Chu decided to challenge the lighthouse, and her crew prepared their weapons and supplies before disembarking onto the Reef.
• Huang Xiaowen killed a Six-Legged Horseshoe Crab, and Lingering Wind and Fading Moon collected its body for potion-making.
• A swarm of Six-Legged Horseshoe Crabs surrounded the group, but Clumsy Bear used Glutton's Roar to frighten them away.
• Ling Chu knocked on the lighthouse door and learned that the puzzle challenge allowed up to six challengers, lasted one hour, and had three attempts remaining.
• Ling Chu asked the four skeletons if they were ready, and Titch promised he would not lose his femur again.

Ling Chu and the crew entered the Whispering Tower, where a childlike voice announced a two-round hide-and-seek challenge and barred investigative items. The first round began with the group searching the living room for the hidden Ghost Doll, while the second round’s rules remained unknown.

• Ling Chu entered the lighthouse with the crew, but Titch, Raphael, Peter, and Emily were repelled by a magical restriction that barred non-human creatures.
• Ling Chu and the others explored the tower’s spacious, cozy living room and received the challenge rules: find the hidden child within half an hour, with each person allowed one attempt.
• A childlike voice interrupted the system, explained the first round, and warned that cheaters would become dolls.
• Ling Chu activated her Eyepatch to inspect the room, but the voice disabled it and threatened her.
• The voice started the timer by flipping an hourglass, and Squid Ball realized they had to play hide-and-seek with the unseen speaker.

Ling Chu and the others searched the house for the ghost doll, splitting up among its rooms while watching for suspicious objects. They found several unsettling clues, but had not yet identified the doll when Ling Chu thought the girl in a painting had blinked.

• Ling Chu assigned everyone a room to search and told them to bring suspicious objects back to the living room for inspection.
• Clumsy Bear searched the toy room and noticed a running toy train, a cuckoo clock, and a teddy bear that seemed disturbing.
• Lingering Wind and Fading Moon found a gruesome version of Cinderella in the study, then heard a childlike voice coming from a radio.
• You Jiali searched the kitchen and found fresh meat in the refrigerator among spoiled food.
• Ling Chu inspected the living room and thought the blonde girl in a wall painting had blinked.

Ling Chu and the others searched the house for clues while the game’s timer ran down, uncovering evidence of the Ghost Doll and disturbing items in the storage room. They regrouped in the living room to compare their finds, but had not yet identified the solution when the chapter ended.

• Ling Chu found a hidden compartment behind the crooked oil painting and assembled a puzzle showing the bloodied girl and torn rabbit doll; a phone call warned that the game was halfway over.
• Squid Ball screamed after finding childlike blood-red writing on a storage-room wall and a hanging doll that resembled the girl in the painting.
• Ling Chu led everyone in searching the storage room, where they found a bloodstained chain, syringes containing what Lingering Wind and Fading Moon identified as chlorpromazine, and a bloodstained axe.
• With five minutes left, Ling Chu gathered everyone in the living room to compare their finds.
• Ling Chu discovered that Clumsy Bear’s self-moving train concealed a Primary Mana Stone, while You Jiali’s fresh meat and Lingering Wind and Fading Moon’s strange Cinderella book remained unexplained.

Ling Chu reasoned that the Ghost Doll could make its voice heard throughout a room only when it was there, narrowing the search to objects from the storage room. The Ghost Doll taunted the group after Squid Ball guessed the cloth doll, and Ling Chu ruled out the chain as Huang Xiaowen prepared to try the axe.

• Ling Chu and the others compared the fairy tale book, family photo, radio, and several strange items brought from different rooms.
• Lingering Wind and Fading Moon guessed that the Ghost Doll was hiding in the fairy tale book, but it said they were wrong.
• Ling Chu inferred that the Ghost Doll was in the living room because everyone there could hear its voice, and that it had earlier been in the storage room when Squid Ball heard it there.
• Squid Ball guessed the cloth doll, but the Ghost Doll rejected the guess and mocked the group, especially Ling Chu.
• Ling Chu told Clumsy Bear that the Ghost Doll was not inside the chain, and Huang Xiaowen picked up the axe to make the next guess.

Ling Chu realized Ghost Doll was hiding in a shadow and pulled it from Clumsy Bear’s shadow, passing the first challenge. Ghost Doll then announced a second round in which it would hunt them, leaving the group five minutes to hide.

• Ling Chu concluded that Ghost Doll was not in the suspicious items and searched for another explanation before time ran out.
• Huang Xiaowen guessed that Ghost Doll was in the axe, but Ghost Doll mocked her and rejected the guess.
• Ling Chu reached into the air and pulled a small girl’s shadow from Clumsy Bear’s shadow, revealing Ghost Doll.
• Ghost Doll slipped into the sofa’s shadow and confirmed that the group had passed the first round.
• Ling Chu explained that Ghost Doll could hide in shadows, and Ghost Doll announced a second round with five minutes for everyone to hide and twenty-five minutes for it to hunt them.

The players hid around the house for the Ghost Doll’s second hide-and-seek round. The Ghost Doll searched the toy room and noticed Clumsy Bear hiding in the corner disguised as a second teddy bear.

• The Ghost Doll began the round after promising to close its eyes and ears while the players hid.
• Clumsy Bear moved a teddy bear onto the toy rack and transformed into the Gluttonous Giant Bear in its place.
• You Jiali hid as a bat in the refrigerator, while Lingering Wind and Fading Moon and Squid Ball concealed themselves in the study and storage room.
• Huang Xiaowen hid beneath the bedroom bed, and Ling Chu hid among clothes in the wardrobe.
• The Ghost Doll searched the toy room, rummaged through the boxes, and spotted the teddy bear Clumsy Bear had moved, then turned toward him in confusion.

The Ghost Doll found Clumsy Bear Who Can't Get Full and Lingering Wind and Fading Moon, then searched the kitchen for You Jiali. It opened the refrigerator’s last drawer, where You Jiali was hiding.

• Clumsy Bear Who Can't Get Full was caught in the toy room, and he told Ling Chu that the Ghost Doll had headed toward the study.
• The Ghost Doll searched the study, found Lingering Wind and Fading Moon under the desk, and trapped her in a ring of light after she stumbled while escaping through poison smoke.
• Lingering Wind and Fading Moon warned You Jiali that the Ghost Doll was heading for the kitchen.
• You Jiali hid as a bat in the refrigerator’s bottom drawer while the Ghost Doll searched the kitchen cabinets and opened the refrigerator.
• The Ghost Doll opened the final refrigerator drawer where You Jiali was hiding.

Huang Xiaowen used her skills and taunts to evade Ghost Doll as it searched the house, frustrating it until it became enraged. The chapter left Ghost Doll charging into the kitchen while the remaining players were still hiding.

• You Jiali reported that Ghost Doll had searched the kitchen, while Ling Chu heard it enter the bedroom.
• Huang Xiaowen teleported away just before Ghost Doll looked beneath the bed, then swapped back under it after drawing Ghost Doll away with a fallen vase.
• Ghost Doll searched the storage room and found Squid Ball, who warned the others that it was heading back to the bedroom.
• Huang Xiaowen openly taunted Ghost Doll, then used her swapping skill to escape to the toy room and avoid being grabbed.
• Huang Xiaowen escaped Ghost Doll twice more, leaving a toy car and an iron pot in her place, until Ghost Doll screamed and rushed into the kitchen.

Huang Xiaowen used her final “Let's Swap” to evade the Ghost Doll, then was caught and eliminated as Ling Chu hid nearby under invisibility. With nine minutes left, the Ghost Doll searched the apartment for Ling Chu and You Jiali, who remained concealed in the kitchen drawer.

• Huang Xiaowen teleported to the living room and hid behind the sofa, but the Ghost Doll followed a strand of her hair and caught her.
• Huang Xiaowen was eliminated, while Ling Chu used her invisibility to avoid the Ghost Doll's search of the bedroom wardrobe.
• The Ghost Doll searched the apartment as the crew members placed bets on whether Ling Chu or You Jiali would be found last.
• The Ghost Doll ransacked the kitchen cupboards and refrigerator, shaking You Jiali inside a bottom drawer.

Ling Chu and You Jiali survived Ghost Doll’s hide-and-seek challenge until time ran out, so Ghost Doll accepted that they had passed. It then offered one more game: answer a question correctly for a special reward, or face another round of hide-and-seek.

• Ghost Doll searched the bedroom while Ling Chu used Omni Reset, Curtain of the Dead to escape its search and hide beneath the bed.
• When Ghost Doll found Ling Chu, she used all four charges of Ghostly Steps to keep out of its reach until the hourglass ran out.
• Ling Chu told Ghost Doll that it had not found You Jiali, who emerged from the drawer and returned to human form.
• Ghost Doll conceded that Ling Chu had followed the rules and released Huang Xiaowen, Clumsy Bear, Squid Ball, and Lingering Wind and Fading Moon.
• Ghost Doll proposed a final question, promising a special reward for a correct answer and another hide-and-seek round for a wrong one.

Ling Chu answered Ghost Doll’s question about what it loved and hated most, rejecting the group’s theory that its mother abused it. Ghost Doll reacted with confusion and distress, and Ling Chu began explaining why the clues pointed to a different story.

• Ghost Doll asked Ling Chu what it liked most and hated most, and the group discussed their answer.
• Lingering Wind and Fading Moon, You Jiali, Squid Ball, and the others deduced that Ghost Doll’s stepmother had abused it, using the storage-room evidence and the altered Cinderella book.
• When Squid Ball was about to answer that Ghost Doll loved hide-and-seek, Ling Chu said it loved Mom most and hated hide-and-seek.
• Ghost Doll broke down and contradicted itself, insisting it hated Mom while questioning whether it had loved her.
• Ling Chu told the group they had been misled by the fairy tale, pointing out that the photograph showed Ghost Doll’s biological mother and that the house was full of toys and a portrait of the girl.

Ling Chu deduced that Ghost Doll had lost her legs in a refrigerator accident, not because her mother had cut them off, and that the fairy-tale book reflected the girl’s distorted memories. Ghost Doll recovered the truth: her mother had cared for her, but Ghost Doll had killed her with an axe.

• Ling Chu explained that the little girl had hidden in the refrigerator during hide-and-seek, suffered hypothermia, and lost her legs, which accounted for the meat and the unplugged refrigerator.
• Ling Chu suggested that the dark Cinderella story was Ghost Doll’s distorted psychological projection, while the chains and injections had been used to manage her illness.
• Ghost Doll remembered her birthday, the refrigerator accident, her father’s fatal car crash, and her growing resentment toward her mother.
• Ghost Doll recalled pretending to recover, hiding an axe beneath her wheelchair cushion, and waiting for her mother to remove the chains.
• Ghost Doll realized that her mother had loved her and that she had killed her with the axe.

Ling Chu and her crew reclaimed the Whispering Lighthouse, turning it into a safe zone and gaining Ghost Doll’s Rabbit Doll. After more Lighthouses were cleared and the fog thinned, Feng Qiusheng warned the public that the Circus had attacked people who sought refuge at a supposed safe zone.

• Ghost Doll vanished, the Lighthouse challenge ended, and Ling Chu picked up Ghost Doll’s Rabbit Doll, which could summon Ghost Doll to attack nearby creatures.
• Ling Chu’s crew left the Lighthouse, and she posted its coordinates so other players could reach the new safe zone.
• Runny Egg cleared another Whispering Lighthouse, permanently reclaiming Bone General and creating a second safe zone.
• The system announced that the fog’s density had decreased after more than four Lighthouses were lit, allowing players to see farther across the sea.
• Feng Qiusheng warned players not to trust safe zones and said the Circus had attacked his companions, seized their ship, and left him as the sole survivor.