Gao Tian

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	Gao Tian (高天)
Alias(es)	Zhao Qiang — identity assumed after killing Zhao Qiang and taking his face and memories 33
Species/Race	Human; the only living person initially concealed within the Jialan Society chat group 1 2
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Jialan Society; Living Person Apartment 1 13
Occupation/Role	Living Person Apartment resident and Green Text Mission participant 22 43
Status	Alive 49
First Appearance	Chapter 1

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Urn acquired	5 6 7	Uses the Urn's absolute game rules to defeat and seal the Red-eyed Person in a Rock Paper Scissors match.
Shattered Face Ghost ability	7	Inherits the sealed ghost's ability: five stares can kill a human and optionally take their face and memories, or steal one killing rule from a ghost.
Memory Ghost killing rule	11	Copies the Memory Ghost's rule after accumulating five facial-feature observations across its “father,” “mother,” and “sister” disguises.
Black Card	14 15	Gains a card that can instantly teleport him back to the Living Person Apartment.
Ghost Transformation Spear	16 25	Receives Xu Yuan's former weapon. Its normal effect turns anyone killed by it into a ghost, though it can suppress Xu Yuan's own corpse.
Ghost Card	25	Obtains up to thirteen revivals after death, at the risk of immediate death if two cards with the same number are drawn.
Red Pot prophecy	40 41 42	Steals a red pot containing a miniature world; it later projects an event involving Gao Tian that proves to be a future occurrence.
Human Skin Gloves	45 46	Acquires gloves that identify a supernatural item's known information after fifteen seconds of contact.
Terror Blade	46 49	Obtains a cleaver capable of dismembering a ghost by sacrificing a living person; uses Zhou Yan as its first documented sacrifice.

Personality

Gao Tian begins as a skeptical ordinary person, but the Red-eyed Person's pursuit forces him to accept the existence of ghosts and supernatural rules. Rather than surrendering, he repeatedly looks for exploitable conditions even when survival appears impossible 1 3 5.

He is highly analytical under pressure. During the Urn's Rock Paper Scissors game, he recognizes that the ghost may be anticipating his counterplay and wins by deliberately keeping his injured right hand in play 6. He similarly uses Xu Yuan's clue about hiding “a leaf in a forest” to deduce that the corpse pieces are concealed among mall staff 21 22.

His pragmatism can become ruthless. Gao Tian manipulates Zhao Qiang with false memories, kills him after collecting five facial-feature fragments, and takes over his identity to command Zhao's subordinates 27 33. On the supernatural bus, he sacrifices Zhou Yan to empower the Terror Blade after Zhou Yan and Ling Feifei vote to eliminate him 49.

Despite these actions, Gao Tian recognizes moral boundaries. He resists using Shattered Face Ghost on Yusheng simply to steal his memories, since doing so would kill a fellow resident; he considers crossing that line only if survival demands it 14 31.

Abilities & Skills

Shattered Face Ghost

Gao Tian's primary supernatural ability was inherited from the Red-eyed Person, also known as the Shattered Face Ghost 7.

• Staring at a human five times kills them and allows Gao Tian to take their facial appearance and, optionally, their memories 7.
• Staring at a ghost five times allows him to steal one of that ghost's killing patterns 7.
• He can hold the rules of up to three ghosts; after obtaining the Memory Ghost's ability, two slots remain 11.
• Ghost abilities are suppressed inside the Living Person Apartment 14.
• He uses the ability to kill Zhao Qiang after completing five observations, then takes Zhao Qiang's face and memories 33.

Memory Ghost

The Memory Ghost's rule allows Gao Tian to implant and reinforce false memories through language, details, and repeated “anchor points” 17 19.

• Victims may unconsciously expand on the false memory themselves once the initial premise takes hold 19.
• Gao Tian uses it to convince an elderly mall guard that they were former classmates, allowing him to investigate Sapphire Mall 17.
• He pressures Zhao Qiang by making him “recall” a murder and concealment of the victim's body 27.
• It can be used to manipulate groups; after Zhao Qiang's death, Gao Tian convinces Zhao's subordinates that he is their boss 33.
• The child Xu Yuan is completely unaffected by the ability 19.

Strategic Reasoning

Gao Tian is adept at identifying rules, patterns, and exploitable weaknesses in supernatural incidents.

• Wins the Urn's Rock Paper Scissors game through layered prediction and deception 6.
• Determines that Xu Yuan's dismembered corpse is hidden across six mall personnel 21 22.
• Uses the red pot's future projection to safely perform the ritual needed to obtain the Terror Blade from a corpse on bus 444 42 46.
• Chooses not to challenge the S-level Multi-headed Ghost for its killing rule, judging the potential reward insufficient for the risk 48.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Urn — A supernatural item that compels participants into a game governed by absolute rules. It sealed the Red-eyed Person after Gao Tian won their match; opening it could allow the ghost to escape 5 6.
• Black Card — Instantly returns Gao Tian to the Living Person Apartment. He views it as a crucial escape option after a Ghost Card revival 14 25.
• Ghost Transformation Spear — Xu Yuan's former weapon. Anyone killed by it becomes a ghost, but it can restrain Xu Yuan's own corpse and is exceptionally sharp 16 24 25.
• Ghost Card — A revival item with a maximum of thirteen lives, offset by a lethal duplicate-number risk 25.
• Red Pot — Contains a detailed miniature world, ancient inscriptions concerning Myriad Laws True Monarch, and projections that can reveal future events 41 42.
• Human Skin Gloves — Merge into the user's hands and identify a supernatural item's known properties after fifteen seconds of touch 46.
• Terror Blade — A rusty long cleaver that sacrifices one living person to dismember one ghost within roughly ten meters. Its use inflicts severe physical backlash on Gao Tian 46 49.

Relationships

• Ghost Cave — Jialan Society member who suspects Gao Tian is alive and sends the cursed black packet intended to expose and kill him 1 2.
• Red-eyed Person / Shattered Face Ghost — Gao Tian's first major supernatural enemy; he defeats and seals it with the Urn, gaining its ability afterward 5 6 7.
• Shata — Living Person Apartment administrator who rescues Gao Tian, explains the apartment's rules, and supports his development through missions 13 14 16.
• Xu Yuan — Jialan Society's group owner and a vengeful ghost. Gao Tian accepts Xu Yuan's mission to find his corpse, receives his spear, and later steals the red pot from his old home 16 25 40.
• Little Xu Yuan — Xu Yuan's child self, encountered through a Space-Time Vortex. Gao Tian tells him about his future and receives the clue that helps locate Xu Yuan's corpse 19 20 21.
• Yusheng — A cryptic Living Person Apartment administrator whose concealed knowledge makes Gao Tian consider using Shattered Face Ghost on him, though he ultimately refrains 14 31.
• Zhao Qiang — Former high-school classmate and criminal. Gao Tian manipulates him into investigating Xu Yuan, kills him when he attempts murder, then impersonates him 27 33.
• Su Jiu — Fellow mission participant who regards Gao Tian as a comparatively reliable ally during the Pagoda Elementary School mission 25 43.
• Ling Feifei — Mission participant who votes against Gao Tian on the bus; after witnessing Zhou Yan's sacrifice and the Terror Blade's power, she begs Gao Tian to spare her 49.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Jialan Society and the Red-eyed Person

Gao Tian joins the Jialan Society believing it to be an unusual online group, only to discover that its members are ghosts and that Ghost Cave is attempting to identify the sole living participant. After accepting a cursed black packet, Gao Tian is pursued by the Red-eyed Person, a vengeful ghost that gradually copies his face 1 2 3.

Unable to flee forever, Gao Tian returns to Pingshui Apartment with the Urn and forces the Red-eyed Person into a game. He wins despite having his fingers broken during the match, sealing the ghost and acquiring the Shattered Face Ghost's ability 5 6 7.

Living Person Apartment

Gao Tian returns to what he believes is his childhood home, where ghosts impersonating his family attempt to overwrite his memories. He remembers that his parents died in a fire when he was ten and that he was an only child, exposing the false family created by the Memory Ghost 11.

After stealing the Memory Ghost's rule, Gao Tian is attacked by the Building Manager and rescued by Shata. He learns that the Living Person Apartment separates living residents from ghost-controlled floors and that residents must survive ten Green Text Missions to leave 13 14.

Sapphire Mall Mission

Gao Tian joins Shata, Jiangyang, and Boss Jin at Sapphire Mall, where he is unexpectedly added as an official participant in a Green Text Mission. He investigates the mall with the Memory Ghost's ability, meets the child Xu Yuan through a temporal rift, and deduces how Xu Yuan's corpse pieces are hidden among employees 17 19 21 22.

When the reassembled corpse transforms, Gao Tian uses the Ghost Transformation Spear to pin it down. This completes both the apartment mission and Xu Yuan's Jialan Society task, earning Gao Tian the Ghost Card 24 25.

Zhao Qiang's Identity

After learning that Zhao Qiang intends to murder him, Gao Tian allows the ambush to proceed, then activates Shattered Face Ghost once the fifth observation is complete. Zhao Qiang dies instantly, and Gao Tian takes his face and memories to pose as him before Zhao's subordinates 33.

Using the false identity, Gao Tian leads Zhao Qiang's men to Xu Yuan's old house as disposable scouts. The exploration traps him inside a distorted ghost domain, but he survives by exploiting information from the Jialan Society chat group 34 35 36 37 38.

Red Pot and Pagoda Elementary School

Gao Tian steals a red pot from Xu Yuan's old home and discovers an intricate miniature world within it. The pot later projects a future scene of Gao Tian aboard a bus with a corpse carrying a rusty saber 40 41 42.

During his third Green Text Mission, Gao Tian follows the projected ritual on bus 444, safely restrains the corpse, and obtains the Terror Blade. When Zhou Yan and Ling Feifei arrange votes to eliminate him, Gao Tian sacrifices Zhou Yan to activate the blade and dismembers the Multi-headed Ghost's clone 46 49.

Trivia

• Gao Tian failed the Gaokao and had been preparing to retake it before becoming entangled in supernatural events 11.
• His real parents died in a fire when he was ten years old 11.
• He exercises by running five kilometers, believing physical endurance is vital in supernatural incidents 26.
• He considers the Black Card and Ghost Card together to be a particularly effective survival combination 25.