Chapter Summaries

Qi Si entered the Double Happiness Town stage and realized he would be exposed to Chang Xu once he left the tower, while Lin Chen found a possible way to help him survive. After killing himself to escape the coffin, Qi Si emerged in a shrine and offered to make a deal with Li.

• Lai Na'an, Ge Lin, Lin Ye, and Chang Xu discussed Qi Si's strategy and his team's last-place ranking as the other Players watched the tower.
• Goat started a one-on-one Mouse challenge for 500 points, and Lin Ye volunteered, only to be attacked after learning that bleeding meant defeat.
• Inside the coffin on the ninth floor, Qi Si recognized the Double Happiness Town stage and told Lin Chen he expected Chang Xu to kill him after he left the tower.
• Chang Xu killed the rat-headed monster attacking Lin Ye, earning the Lion Team 500 points, and Goat announced that future challengers could not bring weapons.
• Lin Chen found Lin Ye's livestream and suggested Qi Si use the monsters behind the iron gate against Chang Xu; Qi Si slit his throat to escape the coffin, then greeted Li at a shrine and proposed a deal.

Chang Xu killed Qi Si with Life Severer, but Qi Si rose from the ground as a corpse and escaped with Nian Fu through the iron door. As Chang Xu pursued them down the corridor, Qi Si revealed that he had already been dead.

• In a dream, Li asked Chang Xu what he wanted and what he would pay to shut down the Eerie Game and revive its innocent victims.
• Chang Xu fought the ratman while Qi Si cleared the third stage and appeared before Nian Fu, prompting Chang Xu to rush toward him.
• Qi Si and Nian Fu rode the Straw Tiger toward the iron door, but Chang Xu teleported after them and pierced Qi Si through the chest with Life Severer.
• Chang Xu found no breath in Qi Si and left him for dead, but Qi Si suddenly got up, gathered his organs, and escaped with Nian Fu.
• Chang Xu chased them through the corridor as Nian Fu bandaged Qi Si, who told her he was still moving because he had already been dead.

Qi Si led Nian Fu into an underground courtyard filled with ratmen and used his blood to free them from their curse, turning their devotion into divine power. As his life dwindled, he gambled that their faith would make him a god and change the course of the game.

• Qi Si and Nian Fu reached an underground courtyard modeled after Nian Fu's orphanage, where she explained how its children had been confined and forced to fight.
• Qi Si realized the ratmen were beneath the courtyard and stayed as they burst through the floor, despite Nian Fu urging him to flee before Chang Xu caught up.
• Qi Si told Nian Fu he planned to die once and gave her the choice of hiding his corpse or handing it over to Chang Xu, but he kept the rest of his plan secret.
• Qi Si entered the ratmen's ranks with his blood and scepter, drawing out their desire until they petrified, then used his blood to restore them and lift their curse.
• The ratmen worshipped Qi Si and spread his blood to free their petrified companions, while their faith empowered his [Scarlet High Priest] card and his remaining life rapidly drained away.

Qi Si led Nian Fu into an underground courtyard modeled after her childhood orphanage, where he discovered the imprisoned ratmen and used his blood to lift their curse and win their faith. As his life ran out, his plan began turning him into a godlike figure, leaving the game’s outcome uncertain.

• Qi Si and Nian Fu reached an underground complex resembling the orphanage where Nian Fu had grown up, while Chang Xu pursued them through the corridor.
• Qi Si recognized that the ratmen lived beneath the courtyard and stopped the tiger rather than flee when they burst through the ground.
• Qi Si told Nian Fu he would truly die once and gave her the choice to hide his body or hand him over to Chang Xu, but he refused to explain his plan.
• Qi Si entered the ratmen’s midst, revealed his scepter and blood, and drew them toward him until their desire turned them to stone.
• Qi Si used his blood to revive the petrified ratmen and ordered them to spread it, as the ratmen gathered around him in worship and his Scarlet High Priest card absorbed their faith.
• As Qi Si’s life dwindled and his divine status strengthened, he wondered whether a being without desire could be a god and decided to stake his life on the gamble.

After bleeding out in the Beast Arena Instance, Qi Si wagered with Li that he would survive to the end, while the red-clothed god explained how desire connected gods to human souls. Qi Si remained uncertain whether he could be reborn, but his ratman followers preserved his body and Nian Fu stayed with them as the chapter left his bet unresolved.

• Qi Si decided to challenge the gods’ roles as players and made the ratmen his followers by giving them his blood and a final oracle before he appeared to die.
• Nian Fu reported Qi Si’s apparent death to “that person,” while the ratmen carried his body away, cleaned the scene, and promised to protect her and preserve him for his rebirth.
• Qi Si’s [Undying One] ability reached [0%], and he drifted through a deathlike void before encountering the red-clothed god.
• The god explained that gods were vessels shaped by human desires and said Qi Si had felt desire only three times; Qi Si rejected the god’s offer of a deal but learned the truth would be revealed if he cleared the Instance.
• Two hours earlier, Qi Si had proposed a wager to Li, claiming he would survive to the end of the game.

Liu Yuhan survived the Glazed High Tower by stepping forward at twelve o’clock and chose five hundred points, while the Eerie Tale Notebook revealed that making a wish to the Sphinx was the way to kill Qi Si. Chang Xu was overwhelmed by the ratmen after Qi Si freed them from their curse, and the Beast Arena ended with Qi Si and Nian Fu’s team in last place.

• Liu Yuhan gambled by stepping forward at twelve o’clock, cleared the tower stage, and chose five hundred points, bringing her team’s total to three thousand.
• The Eerie Tale Notebook revealed that one must make a wish to the Sphinx to kill Qi Si.
• Chang Xu found Qi Si and Nian Fu among the ratmen, but the monsters attacked him after Qi Si’s actions had freed them from their stone curse.
• Goat broadcast Nian Fu’s view of Qi Si, prompting the Players to debate whether Qi Si was an Undying One and whether he had a resurrection plan.
• The Beast Arena game ended, and the rankings placed Chu Xun and Ge Lin first while Qi Si and Nian Fu finished last.

The Players returned to the Jungle Chess board after Chang Xu survived the ratmen’s attack, while the revealed history of the rats and snakes led Chu Xun to suspect the Beast Arena’s rules served a deeper purpose. Food was distributed according to points, leaving Chu Xun with control over the scarce supplies and the other teams facing a worsening struggle to survive.

• Chang Xu returned to the board badly wounded, and the Players recalled how rats and snakes had been cursed and oppressed after their sacrifices helped animals replace humans as the followers of The God.
• Ge Lin questioned why humans were offered a chance to become gods while rats and snakes were made into monsters, prompting Chu Xun to reconsider the Instance’s rules.
• Nian Fu learned from "that person" that the rats and snakes were used as sacrifices because their large numbers produced enough Sin.
• Goat announced that Lin Ye’s food rewards would be distributed by the highest-scoring team, and Fan Zhanwei fought Lin Ye after he angrily protested.
• Chu Xun won the right to allocate the four portions of food and gave them to Dong Xiwen and Lai Na'an in exchange for 3,201 points, leaving the other teams short of food.
• Goat announced that a new rule would benefit everyone after food distribution ended.

After Qi Si died in the Beast Arena, Lin Chen discovered a message suggesting he could reach Qi Si by winning the Instance, so he entered it himself. He appeared before the Players as Lin Crow and accused the Nine Provinces Guild of murdering Unnamed Guild members, declaring that he had come to rescue his vice president.

• Qi Si told Lin Chen he had only minutes to live, urged him to abandon the Lin Crow identity, and died after his blood lifted the ratmen's curse.
• The ratmen took Qi Si's body and declared that he would be resurrected, prompting Lin Chen to realize his [Bird-Beaked Doctor] card could revive one person within an Instance but could not reach Qi Si there.
• A message in Lin Chen's consciousness instructed him to win the Beast Arena for the authority to interfere with other time-spaces.
• Qi Si explained to the pact that he had guessed winning the Beast Arena could let Lin Chen enter the time-space where Qi Si was, and admitted he was gambling on Lin Chen's success.
• Lin Chen spent 10,000 points to enter the Beast Arena, kept his Human Skin Mask on, and introduced himself to the livestream audience as Lin Crow, president of the Unnamed Guild.
• Lin Crow accused the Nine Provinces Guild of luring and killing Unnamed Guild members and said he had entered the Instance to save his vice president.

After Goat changed the rules to encourage teammates to kill one another, the Players argued over whether to pool points to fulfill Chang Xu’s wish to kill Qi Si. In the darkness, Qi Si explained that distrust would keep the Players divided and revealed that he was wagering on his revival, not on avoiding death.

• Goat announced that teammates could attack one another outside the games, prompting Chu Xun to explain how the new rules could help Players consolidate points by killing companions.
• Liu Yuhan revealed that her [Eerie Tale Notebook] said Qi Si could only be killed by making a wish to Sphinx, but the Players doubted that Chang Xu and Liu Yuhan would honor their promises if given points.
• Lin Ye protested Chu Xun’s plan to wait, and Fan Zhanwei squeezed Lin Ye’s petrified arm before claiming that suppressing desire could slow the curse and offering to test whether his blood could lift it.
• Chu Xun persuaded the Players to wait until the next day for possible changes to the rules, and they returned to their rooms as the second day ended.
• Qi Si told the man in the darkness that distrust would prevent the Players from pooling points and that Goat would help Chang Xu kill him; Qi Si said he was counting on revival rather than survival.

Nian Fu and Chang Xu relived memories of the orphanage as hunger and petrification worsened in the Beast Arena Instance. Fan Zhanwei killed Lin Ye to take his resources, then spent nearly all his points asking Sphinx how to save everyone, including a madman threatening the world, as the curse petrified him.

• Nian Fu remembered the woman who had visited her orphanage searching for a child and had invited her to leave with her.
• Nian Fu realized that missing meals created hunger that counted as desire and accelerated petrification, while Chang Xu remembered how Ning Xu had taught him that humans were not born to be beasts.
• Liu Yuhan said the group was short on food and other resources and would have to rely on themselves.
• Lin Ye’s petrification rapidly worsened, so Fan Zhanwei shot him and took his remaining resources.
• Fan Zhanwei moved the Lion mask, summoned Sphinx, and asked what would happen if she could not answer his question.
• Fan Zhanwei spent nearly all his points asking how everyone could survive a madman’s killing contest, including the madman himself, while his body petrified.

Qi Si rejected the contract’s moral dilemma and said he would rather seize the world-destroying power from the madman himself. In the Beast Arena, Fan Zhanwei was petrified after the Sphinx answered his question with a loophole, while Lin Chen’s livestream turned public opinion against Nine Provinces and ended with him threatening its captured members.

• Qi Si told the contract he wanted to kill the madman and take control of the world-destroying button, despite the risk of losing everything.
• Fan Zhanwei’s petrification reached his head as he waited for the Sphinx’s answer; the Sphinx proposed stopping the madman to force a draw, and Fan Zhanwei realized it had exploited its authority over the Rules.
• Players on the game forum condemned Nine Provinces after Lin Chen’s tirade, while rational voices questioning the accusations were attacked and silenced.
• Players gathered in the Ruins of Sunset to watch Lin Chen’s livestream, arranged through the Private Screening service, and speculated that Unnamed Guild was preparing to confront Nine Provinces.
• Lin Chen used his blood to lift the ratmen’s curse, gained their support, and had them restrain three Nine Provinces members; he warned them to pray Qi Si could come back to life.

Lin Chen entered the Beast Arena Instance to find a way to resurrect Qi Si, then led the Players through the game and reached the Evil God’s temple. There, he learned that becoming a god could save the other Players and reunite the time-spaces so he could reach Qi Si, but it required killing his teammate and remaining behind.

• Lin Chen used his knowledge of the Beast Arena Instance to control the food supply and rankings, while the Nine Provinces members failed to kill him with a curse because his Ominous Crow Identity Card reflected it.
• Lin Chen’s team won the seven-day beast-fighting game and ascended to the temple, where a voice told him that killing another person would make him a god.
• When his teammate attacked him, Lin Chen used Pilgrim’s Blessing to block the blow and ran into the temple, reminding his teammate that their mission was only to meet the Evil God.
• The God completed the main mission but explained that the other Players would remain trapped unless one of them became a god, and that godhood could reunite the time-spaces and let Lin Chen see Qi Si.
• The God urged Lin Chen to kill his teammate and become a god, while Lin Chen tightened his grip on the blade beneath his sleeve.

After Fan Zhanwei and Chu Xun became stone statues to fulfill wishes, the Players tried to survive the Beast Arena’s food shortage without sacrificing anyone. As hunger threatened to petrify them, Liu Yuhan chose to die so the others could eat, but Chang Xu stopped her, saying he knew how to clear the Instance.

• The Players found Lin Ye dead from a gunshot and discovered that Fan Zhanwei had become a stone statue after using Sphinx’s wish.
• The Players agreed to earn points through the Beast Arena rather than risk making wishes, and Chu Xun later became a stone statue after fulfilling his wish to save someone important to him.
• Ge Lin persuaded the Players to spend a game coin on food, but Goat changed the rules so someone had to die before the others could receive food.
• Ge Lin attacked Nian Fu during the game, while Chang Xu thwarted Lai Na'an’s attempted sneak attack; no one died, and Liu Yuhan’s notebook predicted only two Players would survive.
• Nian Fu considered sacrificing herself for her sister, but the voice from her pendant urged her to stay alive.
• As hunger worsened, Liu Yuhan stabbed herself so the others could receive food, and Chang Xu told her to stay alive because he knew how to clear the Instance.

Chang Xu sacrificed himself to have the Sphinx execute Qi Si, clearing the Beast Arena Instance and saving the other players. As the Instance began merging with other facets and the Evil God’s eye appeared, Qi Si returned and killed Chang Xu.

• Chang Xu asked the Sphinx to grant his wish and kill Qi Si, spending his points as petrification spread across his body.
• The black-clad judge sentenced Qi Si to the ultimate penalty, and the system announced that the players had cleared the Beast Arena Instance.
• The players recovered from their injuries and petrification, while Chang Xu saw visions of the Beast Arena’s history and learned that the Eerie Game had involved him since childhood.
• Li told Chang Xu that his actions had returned the dead to the world, and the system announced that a new god had been chosen and the Instance facets were merging.
• Chang Xu teleported toward the Evil God’s eye, but Qi Si appeared alive and negotiated with Li before impaling Chang Xu with the Sea God Scepter.
• Qi Si crushed Chang Xu’s organs and said farewell as Chang Xu’s consciousness faded.

Lin Chen learned that the gods had engineered the Beast Arena to harvest Sin and chose to sacrifice himself so he could resurrect Qi Si. Qi Si returned as an existence between man and god, won his bet with Li, and demanded that Lin Chen be given to him as the stake.

• The God told Lin Chen that a player had to become a god to fill a vacant divine seat, and Lin Chen killed his teammate before reviving him with [Bird-Beaked Doctor].
• Lin Chen learned that the gods had created conflict to gather Sin for The Rules, which would consume him after he became a god.
• Lin Chen entered Qi Si's Beast Arena Instance and used [Bird-Beaked Doctor] to resurrect him, accepting that he would remain behind as a sacrifice.
• Qi Si returned to life between man and god as the ratmen destroyed the Beast Arena, and he completed the main quest.
• Qi Si told Li that he had won their bet and demanded to take Lin Chen away as his stake.

The Beast Arena Instance ended with Qi Si as its sole final clearer, while Lin Chen returned safely to Ruins of Sunset. After the players were expelled, Qi Si negotiated with Li, revealing his plan to replace the Contract and take a place at The Rules’ gambling table.

• The Beast Arena Instance was permanently closed, and the plaza players speculated about its endings and the unidentified MVP.
• Lin Chen returned to the guild base and, reassured by Qi Si, went to a restaurant to wait for him.
• Qi Si asked Li about the Gods' Gamble, and Li explained that the Contract had won and that The Rules had gone mad.
• Qi Si asked for Chang Xu's corpse, but Li refused because he intended to visit Qi Si's world using Chang Xu's shell.
• Qi Si proposed sacrificing the Contract and taking its place, offering to help Li gain control of the Eerie Game and kill the Contract.
• Li agreed to help Qi Si within The Rules' limits and said he might seize divine power in the next Instance; he also revealed that the Contract was in Rose Manor.

After Goat changed the rules to permit teammates to attack one another, the Players debated using Sphinx’s wish to kill Qi Si but refused to pool their points for Chang Xu. In the darkness, Qi Si explained that he expected the others to distrust Chang Xu and Liu Yuhan, and revealed that he was gambling on rebirth rather than survival.

• Goat announced that teammates could attack one another outside the beast-fighting games, then left with the animals.
• Chu Xun explained that the new rules encouraged Players to kill teammates and consolidate their points, and guessed that Goat wanted Qi Si dead because he had lifted the ratmen’s curse.
• Liu Yuhan revealed that her Eerie Tale Notebook said Qi Si could be killed only by making a wish to Sphinx, but the Players refused to lend Chang Xu enough points.
• Fan Zhanwei squeezed Lin Ye’s injured hand and claimed that suppressing desire could slow the ratfolk curse, then offered to test whether his blood could remove it.
• Chu Xun advised everyone to wait for the next day’s rules, and the Players returned to their rooms as the second day ended.
• Qi Si told his unseen opponent that the Players would distrust Chang Xu and Liu Yuhan, while Goat and the animals would favor Chang Xu; he said he was betting on rebirth, not survival.

Nian Fu and Chang Xu confronted painful memories and the Beast Arena’s hunger-driven petrification curse, while Fan Zhanwei killed Lin Ye and spent nearly all his points to ask Sphinx how everyone could survive a deadly contest. As his body turned to stone, Fan Zhanwei insisted that the solution must save even the madman.

• Nian Fu remembered the woman who had visited her orphanage, then realized that hunger created desire and accelerated petrification as her legs turned to stone.
• Chang Xu recalled his violent childhood, his arrest, and how Ning Xu taught him that humans were not born to be beasts.
• Liu Yuhan told Chang Xu that their group lacked food and other resources and would have to fend for themselves.
• Lin Ye’s curse worsened, so Fan Zhanwei shot him and claimed his remaining resources, then approached Sphinx wearing the Lion mask.
• Fan Zhanwei spent 3,000 points asking Sphinx how everyone could survive a contest in which a madman would destroy the world if he lost.
• As petrification climbed past Fan Zhanwei’s waist, he added that everyone must survive, including the madman.

Qi Si rejected the Eerie Game’s forced choice and declared he would take control of the world-destroying threat himself, while Fan Zhanwei was petrified after Sphinx answered his question with a loophole. Outside the Instance, public opinion turned against Nine Provinces as Lin Chen’s livestream showed him restraining its members and warning them that Qi Si might revive.

• Qi Si told Contract that he would rather kill the madman controlling the world’s fate than follow his killing-game rules, and he vowed to win despite the risk of losing everything.
• Sphinx answered Fan Zhanwei’s trolley-problem question by proposing that everyone stop the madman and force a draw, but Fan Zhanwei was already completely petrified and could not respond.
• Players on the forum condemned Nine Provinces after Lin Chen’s denunciation, while rational voices questioning the accusations were attacked and silenced.
• Players gathered in the Ruins of Sunset to watch Unnamed Guild’s publicly screened livestream and speculated that Lin Crow had carefully planned the conflict with Nine Provinces.
• In the livestream, Lin Chen used his blood to lift the ratmen’s curse, gained their support, and had them restrain three Nine Provinces members.
• Lin Chen told the restrained Nine Provinces members that he would spare them for now because Qi Si might revive, and warned them to pray that he really did.

Qi Si manipulated Reiko and Kurokawa Akira into fleeing Rabbit God Town, then used Reiko’s transformation into a ghost to kill her before the Rabbit God could choose her. He left the forest with Reiko’s corpse, advancing the main quest to 6/7.

• Qi Si replaced Reiko’s prayer ribbon with his own and triggered the objective to prevent Reiko from being chosen by the Rabbit God.
• Kurokawa Akira told Qi Si and Reiko that the Rabbit God Festival sacrificed a child every eighteen years to restrain the Rabbit God.
• Qi Si persuaded Reiko and Kurokawa Akira to flee Rabbit God Town with him, and the three entered the forest.
• After night fell, Reiko transformed into a vengeful ghost, and Kurokawa Akira disappeared.
• Qi Si showed Reiko her prayer ribbon, used his recorder to evade her, and tried to cut her throat, but the blade did not harm her.
• Qi Si formed a Soul Contract with Reiko and crushed its red leaf, killing her and updating the main quest to collecting her corpse at 6/7.