Chapter Summaries

Qi Si tortured and killed Liu Ajiu, then learned that Liu had been an Eerie Game player whose wishes had cured his illness and erased evidence. Facing his own terminal illness, Qi Si accepted the invitation and was sent into the game.

• Qi Si interrogated Liu Ajiu about the strange benefits he had gained from paranormal events, but Liu could not reveal the details.
• Qi Si killed Liu Ajiu after deciding the wounded man was no longer useful to him.
• The Eerie Game appeared and explained that players entered dangerous instances for points that could grant wishes.
• Qi Si learned he could inherit Liu Ajiu's eligibility and asked whether the game could cure his terminal illness.
• Qi Si agreed to become a player, signed the contract, and the instance began loading.

Qi Si entered Rose Manor, a team-survival instance where he and five other Players had to survive three days and decipher its rules. After the Players introduced themselves and exchanged information, The Butler presented the manor’s dangerous rules, and Miss Anna’s arrival remained imminent.

• Qi Si arrived at Rose Manor and read the instance’s survival objective and preliminary hint.
• Five Players introduced themselves, and Qi Si joined them while pretending he was a specimen maker and a second-time Player.
• Shen Ming summarized the group, and the Players discussed their experience with the Eerie Game as Qi Si listened for useful information.
• The Butler arrived with a dining cart, announced that Miss Anna would soon join them for dinner, and produced a list of eight manor rules.
• Qi Si read the rules, which covered meal times, Miss Anna’s requests and clothing, the roses, and how to respond to danger.

The Players discussed Rose Manor’s rules before Miss Anna appeared at dinner and singled out Qi Si. After dinner, Qi Si revealed that he had learned something from the encounter but kept the clue to himself.

• Shen Ming, Zou Yan, Lin Chen, and Ye Zi discussed how to follow the rules and investigate Rose Manor while Qi Si stayed mostly quiet.
• The Mechanical Clock struck six, and Miss Anna entered in a black dress and introduced herself to the Players.
• Miss Anna asked Qi Si if they had met before, and he shook her hand despite the rule warning Players to keep their distance from her.
• Miss Anna asked the Players to eat, and Qi Si began eating the meat, prompting the others to follow.
• Lin Chen warned Qi Si that Miss Anna had worn black, and Qi Si explained that the rule had already been broken and hinted that he had found a clue.

Qi Si learned the new rule forbidding Players from visiting the third floor unless they could avoid Miss Anna, then secured Lin Chen as his roommate. The Players settled into three pairs for the night, while Qi Si planned to bring Lin Chen under his control.

• The Butler led the Players upstairs, assigned two people to each room, and warned them not to go out at night or lose their keys.
• Qi Si asked about Miss Anna and learned she lived on the third floor, prompting the system to add a rule forbidding visits unless she remained unaware.
• The Butler said he lived underground, then left; the Players discussed whether to avoid the third floor and prioritize survival.
• Qi Si offered to share a room with Lin Chen, and Shen Ming approved the pairing.
• Zou Yan paired with Ye Zi, Shen Ming paired with Chang Xu, and Qi Si took the key marked 2 and led Lin Chen down the corridor.

Qi Si secured the room, found a red gown and a dangerous four-line poem, and manipulated Lin Chen into trusting him and falling asleep. He left the poem’s effects for investigation in daylight, while planning to use Lin Chen and other Players to test it.

• Qi Si searched the room, found a red court gown beneath the mattress, and frightened Lin Chen with a story about obsessive love before explaining it was speculation about the instance’s backstory.
• Qi Si questioned Lin Chen about his past, learned that he had entered the Eerie Game after dying while helping a girl, and persuaded him to share the bed and sleep.
• Qi Si reassured Lin Chen that Miss Anna was alive and would not harm them, then used an awl to knock him unconscious when he could not fall asleep.
• Qi Si recalled the four-line poem in the notebook and its disturbing effects, then decided to investigate it during the day by testing it on Lin Chen or other Players.

Qi Si stayed silent while a visitor calling herself Miss Anna tried to enter his room at three in the morning, then hid from a presence outside his window. In Room 3, Shen Ming ignored Chang Xu’s warning and triggered a door-opening incident, and his talisman redirected the attacking vines toward Chang Xu.

• Qi Si woke at three in the morning, heard someone descend from the third floor, and watched the visitor knock on Ye Zi and Zou Yan’s door before coming to his own.
• Qi Si refused to answer the visitor’s requests, despite the Rules, and Miss Anna grew angry before claiming he had promised to take her away.
• A presence approached Qi Si’s French windows, but he pretended to be asleep until it left; meanwhile, knocking began at Shen Ming and Chang Xu’s door.
• Shen Ming tried to get out of bed to answer Miss Anna, but Chang Xu restrained him and warned him to stay quiet.
• Shen Ming’s struggle caused the door to open, revealing a red-clad figure whom vines dragged away before more vines lunged into the room.
• Shen Ming activated his Disaster Transfer Talisman, causing the vines to target Chang Xu instead.

Qi Si explained his deductions about Miss Anna’s nighttime visit and concluded that the manor might have two Miss Annas, with a ghostly NPC still unseen. As Qi Si and Lin Chen planned to investigate the third floor, a scream sounded outside their door.

• Qi Si woke at dawn, told Lin Chen how Miss Anna had visited their room, and explained why he believed she could not kill players who were asleep.
• Qi Si reasoned that the black-clad Miss Anna outside the window and the knocking in Shen Ming’s room indicated there might be two Miss Annas, one of them a ghostly NPC.
• Qi Si proposed investigating the ghost NPC on the third floor and speculated that the instance’s backstory involved love, using the apples at dinner as evidence.
• Qi Si told Lin Chen that hiding in his room and pretending not to know anything might be enough to survive, though his deductions could be wrong.
• A shrill scream sounded outside Qi Si and Lin Chen’s room.

Qi Si investigated Shen Ming’s gruesome death and questioned Chang Xu, who said an NPC had dragged Shen Ming away after he tried to open their door. Chang Xu revealed that a damaged Pocket Watch of Fate had let him check the time, leaving Qi Si with a possible way to survive Rule Two.

• Qi Si found a bloodied corpse covered in roots and roses, then identified it as Shen Ming by reconstructing his face.
• Ye Zi questioned how Shen Ming had died while Chang Xu survived, and Chang Xu said an NPC had dragged Shen Ming away after he tried to open their door.
• Ye Zi accused the Players of possibly exploiting the Minimum Death Quota, while Zou Yan argued that Rule Seven prevented Players from killing one another directly.
• Qi Si followed Chang Xu and asked how he had known the time despite Rule Two.
• Chang Xu tossed Qi Si a damaged Pocket Watch of Fate, whose effect displayed objective time.

Qi Si questioned Miss Anna about her love of roses and a lost sister, then privately told Lin Chen that the Eerie Game could let survivors clear an instance after enough Players died. The five remaining Players faced growing suspicion as Qi Si warned Lin Chen that someone might try to kill the others.

• Chang Xu showed Qi Si the [Pocket Watch of Fate], and Qi Si returned it after briefly examining it.
• Qi Si suspected Ye Zi and Shen Ming had known each other before the instance, but Ye Zi refused to explain why she was certain Shen Ming would survive.
• The Players gathered for breakfast, where Miss Anna confirmed that she loved roses and had once had a sister before something prevented her from answering further.
• Qi Si and Chang Xu began eating, easing the other Players into joining them, and Qi Si pocketed his napkin before leaving the table with an apple.
• Qi Si told Lin Chen that the Eerie Game had a protection mechanism that could let the remaining Players safely clear the instance after enough deaths, and warned that someone might harm the others.

Qi Si persuaded Lin Chen that the Players could not safely trust one another, then used their apparent partnership to get him to read the manor’s notes and agree to explore the third floor. After spotting an eerie reaction to the notes and learning that the garden was likely being explored by the other Players, Qi Si planned for Lin Chen to scout upstairs while he distracted Miss Anna.

• Qi Si explained the Players’ mutual suspicion through the Prisoner’s Dilemma and told Lin Chen he was the only one he could trust.
• Lin Chen brought the notes to the hallway and read entries about a beautiful girl, a sister who had died of illness, and a plan to preserve her perfection.
• Qi Si saw black smoke and phantom vines when he looked at the notes, while Lin Chen experienced no apparent danger.
• Qi Si decided to search the third floor instead of the garden, reasoning that the other Players had likely chosen the garden and that the upper floor might hold fresh clues.
• Qi Si assigned Lin Chen to scout the third floor while he tried to distract Miss Anna, and Lin Chen agreed to do his best.

Qi Si explored Rose Manor’s garden, resisted Zou Yan’s attempts to probe him, and pressured The Butler into fetching Miss Anna. He left The Butler going to invite her, while the manor’s rules and a possible underground entrance remained clues.

• Qi Si found Zou Yan among the Roses and deflected her questions about Miss Anna and his feelings.
• Zou Yan tried to draw out Qi Si with suggestions about shared Sin and loneliness, but he recognized her probing and walked away.
• Qi Si observed Chang Xu digging by the castle wall and Ye Zi searching the Rose bushes before finding an engraved stone platform near the locked garden gate.
• The Butler appeared and warned Qi Si not to leave the manor, and Qi Si used the rule that Miss Anna liked guests to challenge his refusal to arrange a meeting.
• The Butler reluctantly agreed to invite Miss Anna to the garden.

Lin Chen explored the locked rooms on Rose Manor’s third floor and was confronted by a grotesque old woman asking him to identify her. In the garden, Qi Si and Chang Xu examined a dead player, while Qi Si began considering Chang Xu’s history of kill-on-sight missions.

• Lin Chen found all three rooms on the third floor locked and started retreating toward the stairs.
• An old woman in a red dress appeared and repeatedly asked Lin Chen who she was; remembering Qi Si’s warning, Lin Chen called her Miss Anna.
• Qi Si and Chang Xu discovered a recently buried player whose blood had been drained by the Rose.
• Chang Xu said he had found the corpse through intuition and explained that one of his clues linked death with nourishment for Roses.
• Chang Xu admitted he had carried out kill-on-sight missions without failing, and Qi Si recognized that his experience might make him prone to killing.

Qi Si manipulated Lin Chen into believing he had violated a rule by calling the Old Woman in red “Miss Anna,” then offered to risk an equivalent violation so Lin Chen might survive. Qi Si left for the third floor, leaving Lin Chen to guard the room and wait.

• Zou Yan, Ye Zi, and Qi Si debated whether Miss Anna killed Players who violated more rules, while Chang Xu continued digging in the garden.
• Lin Chen reported that the third-floor doors were locked and that he had met an Old Woman in red, whom he had called “Miss Anna.”
• Qi Si used Rule Nine and a diary passage to convince Lin Chen that the Old Woman was Miss Anna and that he had endangered himself.
• Qi Si told Lin Chen that someone else could be made to violate more rules before nightfall, then said he would go to the third floor so they would have violated the same number.
• Lin Chen urged Qi Si not to risk himself, but Qi Si left for the third floor and told Lin Chen to guard the room.

In Rose Manor, Chang Xu and Zou Yan examined three buried corpses as Ye Zi accused Zou Yan of hiding knowledge about the instance. Qi Si proposed cooperating with Chang Xu to investigate the third floor, and Chang Xu agreed to share clues; Qi Si then read a document describing Anna, Annie, and the writer’s growing suspicions about Anna’s Roses.

• Chang Xu and Zou Yan found three corpses in the garden, and Zou Yan questioned whether they belonged to earlier Players or were clues left by the instance.
• Ye Zi accused Zou Yan of concealing information and demanded to know how she had known that covering her head would keep her safe.
• Qi Si asked Chang Xu to investigate the third floor with him, offering to share clues and claiming he knew how to clear the instance.
• Chang Xu accepted Qi Si’s cooperation proposal and unlocked his room so they could compare their clues.
• Qi Si read a document recounting Anna and Annie’s lives at Rose Manor, the writer’s love for Anna, and his suspicion that Anna believed death nourished Roses.

Qi Si and Chang Xu combined their clues about Rose Manor and uncovered a time anomaly, while realizing someone had been spying on them. The chapter ended with Qi Si suspecting that Ye Zi and Zou Yan had faked their conflict as part of a larger plan.

• Qi Si shared his deductions with Chang Xu, concluding that Annie had impersonated Anna and killed the man who came to the manor; Chang Xu reported finding three Player bodies in the garden.
• Qi Si and Chang Xu examined their poetry clues and decided to investigate the third floor, but the Mechanical Clock chimed as they prepared to leave.
• Zou Yan showed Ye Zi that the Eye of Hermes was watching Qi Si and Chang Xu, then asked Ye Zi to close her eyes for an experiment.
• Chang Xu discovered that his Pocket Watch had advanced an hour during the clock’s chime, and Qi Si identified the event as a one-hour time reversal.
• Chang Xu found a damaged Eye of Hermes in his pocket, and Qi Si concluded that Ye Zi and Zou Yan had likely staged their argument to hide their alliance.

Zou Yan exposed Ye Zi and Shen Ming’s connection to the Sariel Guild, took Ye Zi’s Black Ring, and threatened her. Meanwhile, Chang Xu and Qi Si found the skeletons of Anna and Annie’s parents and a journal blaming Annie, before the skeletons rose and the bloodied pages began burrowing into Qi Si’s hand.

• Zou Yan revealed that she knew Ye Zi and Shen Ming belonged to the Sariel Guild, then removed Ye Zi’s Black Ring and threatened her.
• Chang Xu told Qi Si that Shen Ming had carried the Sariel Guild insignia, a ring that improved the odds of entering the same instance together.
• Qi Si picked a locked door on the vine-covered third floor, and he and Chang Xu discovered two skeletons beneath a dusty quilt.
• Qi Si found journal entries saying Anna and Annie were twins, that their parents suspected Annie of harming Anna, and that Annie’s behavior had become disturbing.
• The skeletons sat up and faced Qi Si as bloody writing spread across the journal page and its tendrils burrowed into his hand.

Qi Si experienced Annie’s past and learned how her bargain with the God led to blood magic and murder, then awoke as time reversed again in Rose Manor. He and Chang Xu suspected the reversal was tied to Zou Yan or Ye Zi, but still needed to discover what triggered it.

• Zou Yan killed Ye Zi with her transformed arm and headed toward Lin Chen’s room, intent on killing one more person and ending the instance.
• Qi Si was caught in a Nightmare as blood threads and vines engulfed the room, and he witnessed Annie’s memories of making a bargain with the God to become beautiful.
• Annie’s parents feared she would harm her sister Anna, and Annie prayed to the God for two deaths that would not arouse suspicion before learning blood magic.
• Chang Xu smashed the skeletons and woke Qi Si, who found the red dress and clue paper had disappeared before time reset and the paper reappeared beneath the pillow.
• Qi Si told Chang Xu what he had experienced, and they considered the one-o’clock time reversal and whether Zou Yan or Ye Zi had triggered it.

Lin Chen hesitated to open his door to Zou Yan, while Qi Si and Chang Xu completed a deadly side quest and uncovered evidence that the players might be trapped in a repeating cycle. The chapter ended with the manor’s backstory revealing why its sisters kept guests and fed them to the roses.

• Lin Chen remembered Qi Si’s warning not to open the door to anyone else and hesitated as Zou Yan begged for help outside.
• Qi Si entered Room 2 with Chang Xu, triggered a mandatory hide-and-seek quest, and proposed that the girl choose and open a wardrobe herself.
• Chang Xu crushed the doll, causing the apparition and two wardrobes to vanish, and he and Qi Si found a photograph showing Shen Ming and three dead players.
• Qi Si suspected the manor had reset after previous failed attempts and that the players might already be in their second three-day loop.
• The photograph blurred and revealed the message, “We will all die.”
• The backstory revealed that Annie killed her sister’s lover, then used an endless three-day loop to preserve her sister and began feeding manor guests to the roses in hopes of restoring her beauty.

Qi Si explored the last room on the third floor and discovered that the Old Woman was Miss Anna, then manipulated her into summoning Zou Yan and Liu Qingye. His investigation clarified how monsters interacted with the time loop and revealed that the seventh rule pointed toward the way to clear the instance.

• Qi Si reasoned that a previous cycle had failed and concluded that uncovering the manor’s truth was the only way to clear the instance.
• Qi Si and Chang Xu knocked on the last unexplored third-floor room and found a decaying Old Woman among tangled vines.
• After Chang Xu told her the time, Qi Si coaxed the Old Woman into asking Zou Yan and Liu Qingye to come upstairs, forcing them to choose between breaking the fourth and ninth rules.
• Qi Si revealed that Lin Chen had already gone upstairs and that he had deliberately spread the risk of rule violations among the players.
• Qi Si concluded that people’s bodies rewound with time while monsters could retain memories and act during the extra hour.
• Qi Si recognized the seventh rule as a hint that the hostile Miss Anna needed to be made human to clear the instance.

Lin Chen avoided opening the door to Zou Yan, while Qi Si and Chang Xu descended from the third floor and confronted Zou Yan. As Zou Yan attacked with vines, Qi Si stabbed Chang Xu in the neck, leaving him to die.

• Zou Yan gave up waiting outside Lin Chen’s room and went downstairs, deciding she could kill someone else instead.
• Lin Chen hid from Zou Yan, then heard Miss Anna knock and ask him to open the door.
• Qi Si and Chang Xu descended from the third floor cautiously, with Chang Xu leading and Qi Si following close behind.
• Zou Yan pretended that Ye Zi was chasing her, but Qi Si exposed her disguise and guessed how she had gained power from the roses.
• Zou Yan sent vines surging at Qi Si and Chang Xu, but Qi Si stabbed Chang Xu in the neck as Chang Xu lunged toward her.
• Qi Si mocked Chang Xu as he collapsed and died.