Chapter Summaries

Qi Si triggered a time rewind by killing Chang Xu and concluded that human-on-human murder brought the dead back while preserving the killer’s memories. After returning to the first room on the third floor, he warned Chang Xu about Zou Yan and sought to borrow the Pocket Watch of Fate for his next test.

• Qi Si watched time reverse after he killed Chang Xu, and reasoned that human killers retained their memories while their victims and bystanders did not.
• Qi Si awoke beside Chang Xu in the first room on the third floor, where Chang Xu had smashed the skeletons during Qi Si’s Nightmare vision.
• Qi Si told Chang Xu that he had returned from an hour in the future and warned that Zou Yan might be waiting to trigger the Minimum Death Quota.
• Qi Si urged Chang Xu to go downstairs, watch Lin Chen, and lend him the Pocket Watch of Fate.
• Qi Si headed down to test his theory but refused to explain it, telling Chang Xu to guess.

At two o’clock, Qi Si used a rose to transform himself and triggered time reversal, unlocking the “Humanoid Evil Spirit” identity. In Room 2, Lin Chen tried to kill Chang Xu as Qi Si had instructed, but Chang Xu subdued him before the reversal began.

• Qi Si picked a rose in the garden as the gathered dead surrounded him, then recalled Miss Anna’s claim that beauty belonged only to her.
• At two o’clock, Lin Chen attacked Chang Xu with the blade Qi Si had given him, but Chang Xu dodged and knocked him unconscious.
• Qi Si pressed the rose stem into his heart and recited the four-line poem as its thorns and branches transformed his body.
• As Qi Si’s sense of self faltered, he laughed at the thought that he was neither human nor ghost and triggered time reversal.
• A card appeared and granted Qi Si the “Humanoid Evil Spirit” identity as he watched the rain rise back into the sky.

Qi Si used Rose’s power to control Rose Manor, confront Annie, and kill Zou Yan before finding the last clue in Room 1. The clue revealed Anna’s bargain with the god and the price she had paid, while Qi Si’s encounter with the idol left him with missing memories.

• Qi Si used time reversal and Rose’s power to immobilize Annie, accuse her of envy rather than love for Anna, and command The Butler to bring Anna down.
• Qi Si spotted Anna watching from the castle and remembered that Zou Yan held the final clue.
• Qi Si killed Zou Yan, searched her body, and found a key and the idol from the Dream Graveyard.
• The idol cracked apart after a vision of scarlet eyes and golden vines, and Qi Si forgot what had happened during the vision.
• Qi Si unlocked Room 1 and read Anna’s writings about her sister, the Butler, and a bargain whose price was enduring love.

Qi Si exposed the sisters’ twisted relationship and helped Anna and the Butler escape Rose Manor, while Annie was dragged back into the castle. The manor collapsed after the instance ended, and Qi Si prepared to leave with the Pocket Watch of Fate.

• Qi Si read Annie’s notebook, then told Annie that Anna feared her and told Anna that Annie had killed her lover.
• Anna and the Butler fled through the manor gates and vanished in a burst of rose petals despite Annie’s desperate cries.
• Withered vines dragged Annie into the castle, and the gates slammed shut as time reversal ended.
• The castle collapsed, and the Eerie Game announced Qi Si had cleared Rose Manor and recorded its True End, “Cage of Obsession.”
• Qi Si mourned Chang Xu and Lin Chen in the rain, then pocketed the Pocket Watch of Fate.

As she died from the Eerie Game, Zou Yan remembered the first round of Rose Manor and her alliance with Qi Si. The memory ended with the loop about to reset and Zou Yan watching Qi Si alone among the roses.

• Zou Yan sent Ms. White Crow a report about Rose Manor, its ancient being, and the players she suspected before collapsing in her bedroom.
• In the first round, Zou Yan chose Qi Si as a roommate and watched him sacrifice their frightened newcomer to the vines after Miss Anna knocked on their door.
• Zou Yan and Qi Si agreed to work together, killed another player, and joined Shen Ming and Ye Zi to overpower Chang Xu, Lin Chen, and Xu Xinyi.
• After Xu Xinyi's death yielded a clue-finding item, Zou Yan discovered that Rose Manor was trapped in a time loop and explained her findings to Qi Si.
• Zou Yan considered killing Qi Si but let him leave the castle, and she watched him stand among the roses before the next loop began.

After perfectly clearing Rose Manor, Qi Si received the Rose Heart and a time-rewinding Pocket Watch of Fate, then learned his wish to be cured would cost one million points. He left the game still curious about Chang Xu’s unusual ability and unwilling to change his wish to investigate it.

• Players in the Eerie Game’s plaza heard that an unnamed MVP had cleared Rose Manor’s True End.
• Qi Si received 4,500 points, an S rating, the True End, full worldview decipherment, and several achievements.
• Qi Si acquired the Rose Heart and learned that Chang Xu’s Pocket Watch of Fate could rewind objective time by one minute once per instance.
• Qi Si entered a wish to be cured, and the game calculated that it would require one million points.
• Qi Si learned that the game could not directly raise his combat ability and refused to change his wish to learn Chang Xu’s background.
• Qi Si exited the game safely.

After returning from the Eerie Game, Qi Si disposed of Liu Ajiu’s body and talked his way past a police officer searching for the dead man. He discovered that he had brought the Rose Heart back from the instance, leaving him curious about what else the game could do.

• Qi Si found that the corpse he had killed, Liu Ajiu, wore a ring marked with the Sariel Guild’s emblem.
• Qi Si packed Liu Ajiu’s body into a suitcase, cleaned the studio, and called Jin Yusheng for help while arranging to visit Bob’s pig farm the next day.
• Qi Si spotted police cars near the warehouse and avoided them, but a middle-aged officer stopped him and asked whether he had seen Liu Ajiu.
• Qi Si claimed he had been in his studio and that his suitcase contained unfinished specimens, and the officer let him leave without inspecting it.
• After walking away, Qi Si found the Rose Heart pendant around his neck and realized he had brought an item back from the Eerie Game.

After returning home from Rose Manor, Qi Si explored the Eerie Game forum and learned about its rules, guilds, and the Sariel Guild’s Social Darwinist ideology. He uncovered how the red dress had saved players in Rose Manor, but kept his own escape route secret before going to sleep.

• Qi Si returned to his apartment, cleaned up, ate instant noodles, and searched online for the Eerie Game forum.
• Qi Si read the newcomer guide and learned about the game’s history, its Rules, player guilds, official-player status, and the rumored final instance.
• Qi Si researched Sariel and learned that the guild promoted Social Darwinism while threatening to pursue anyone who killed its members.
• Qi Si read Rose Manor walkthroughs and realized the red dress could reverse time once to save a player from a death point.
• Qi Si declined to post his Rose Manor walkthrough, examined a strange rubbing sheet, and went to sleep.

Qi Si entered the randomly generated Carnivore instance and found himself on a bus with ten other players, headed for Su Village. After learning the five-day survival mission and its cryptic warning, he eyed the empty driver’s seat and began considering how to exploit the instance.

• Before the countdown ended, Qi Si prepared a gun, chainsaw, and tools, but none of them came with him into the instance.
• Qi Si entered a mirror vortex and appeared on a bus, retaining his special wristband, Rose Heart, Pocket Watch of Fate, and Humanoid Evil Spirit Identity Card.
• The eleven players woke on the bus, and several experienced players explained the Eerie Game to frightened newcomers, including a crying girl and a confused blond young man.
• The system announced that the players had to survive five days in Su Village and warned that villagers could not harm them if they reconstructed and repeated the truth hidden in the villagers’ remarks.
• Qi Si disliked the prospect of staying in the countryside and studied the empty driver’s seat while considering how to use the instance’s rules.

Eleven players arrived at Su Village for a five-day stay centered on the village’s legendary God Meat, and Qi Si secretly took a tape recorder from the bus. As ominous mist closed in, the group entered the village, with Qi Si keeping his distance and assessing his new teammates.

• The players introduced themselves, and Qi Si used the alias Chang Xu while Zhou Yilin offered her experience with mystery puzzles.
• The bus stopped at Su Village, and Qi Si took a tape recorder from the driver’s seat before joining the others.
• The game’s narrator explained that the eleven players were tourists visiting for five days to taste the God Meat and experience local customs.
• Yang Yundong revealed that this was a newly opened instance, while Zhu Ling comforted Zhou Yilin after an argument with an unkempt player.
• As mist and shadowy figures approached outside the village, Yang Yundong led the players inside, and Qi Si followed at the rear while sizing them up.

Qi Si and the other players entered Su Village, where a hungry ghost boy named A-Xi attacked Zhao Feng until Yang Yundong helped him promise to provide meat. A-Xi led them to his home, where his grandmother welcomed them and offered rooms and meat.

• A-Xi asked the players for meat, and Zhao Feng attacked him with a cross before the system revealed that Su Village’s ghosts could not be killed by outside forces.
• Yang Yundong told Zhao Feng to promise A-Xi meat, and Zhao Feng agreed to bring some the next day.
• A-Xi restored his severed head, introduced himself, and led the players through the deserted village toward his house.
• Qi Si questioned A-Xi about the empty village and learned that the villagers came out at night and that someone had to stay to look after the Ancestral Hall.
• A-Xi brought the players to his grandmother, who welcomed them and told them to choose rooms before they could have meat.

Qi Si learned how Su Village began worshipping the God Meat and secured a room alone after Granny Su described the famine deaths in the village. He found a cryptic poem in the room’s Travel Guide.

• Granny Su warned the players not to eat more meat, described the deaths in the six empty rooms, and assigned them places to stay.
• Qi Si asked Granny Su about the God Meat, and she explained that starving villagers had found a deity whose flesh regrew after they ate it.
• Granny Su said the old village chief had gone with the deity to become one, but gave Qi Si no further explanation.
• The players divided into rooms, and Qi Si took the room closest to the main house by himself.
• Qi Si found a Travel Guide on the dusty table, with a poem about famine and people eating dirt, wood, and stone.

Qi Si and the other players learned they could explore Su Village by day, then faced the strange God Meat at dinner. After seeing a vision of the Evil God and suspecting the villagers’ vegetarianism was an act of atonement, Qi Si secretly took his portion and an abandoned one, while Zhao Feng also kept meat for A-Xi.

• Qi Si studied the village map, noticed its blank western section, and joined the other players for dinner at Granny Su’s house.
• Zhu Ling asked Granny Su to guide them around the village, but Granny Su refused; the system refreshed the rules and warned the players to return before dark.
• Granny Su served the players God Meat, and Qi Si saw a vision of villagers tearing apart a red-robed god before receiving a message that the Evil God had noticed him.
• Granny Su claimed the villagers ate only vegetables to repay the god, but Qi Si suspected their vegetarianism was meant to atone for a past sin.
• The players avoided eating the God Meat, but Zhao Feng pocketed his portion to offer A-Xi, while Qi Si wrapped his own portion and a player’s abandoned serving in cloth.

Qi Si investigated Granny Su’s suspicious injuries and learned that a God-level NPC had appeared as the instance’s rules changed. When hunger struck during the night, he ate God Meat to survive, while the strange effects and corrupted system warnings left him wondering what had happened in his dream.

• Qi Si tricked Granny Su into revealing her cold, bruised left arm, then learned from Zhang Licai that items from the Eerie Game supposedly could not be brought into reality.
• After setting his Pocket Watch to nine o’clock, Qi Si slept fitfully and woke to warnings that a God-level NPC had appeared and that he was already insane.
• Qi Si discovered it was midnight and heard the Tattooed Woman and her roommate fight, after which the injured man crawled outside and ate dirt in a frenzy of hunger.
• Qi Si concluded that God Meat was necessary to survive the hunger and swallowed a piece, feeling it writhe inside him as black smoke flickered around his body.
• Qi Si wondered what had happened in his dream and stared at the corrupted system warnings, uncertain what the God-level NPC’s appearance meant.

Yang Yundong and the other players discovered that three people had died from the night’s supernatural hunger, while their investigation of the village yielded few answers. Qi Si urged Zhao Feng to ignore human laws and consider feeding the ghost with human flesh, leaving the group facing a dangerous choice.

• Yang Yundong and Allen were struck by supernatural hunger on their night walk and survived by eating God Meat, then spotted faint green lights in the darkness.
• Zhu Dafu relived memories of famine as hunger overwhelmed him in his room.
• Qi Si found Lu Keliang dead in the courtyard, and Yang Yundong later discovered Wu Heng and Zhu Dafu dead inside a room.
• Yang Yundong told the players that villagers had demanded meat and that fog prevented access to mapped landmarks during the night.
• Zhao Feng admitted that he still needed meat for the little ghost, and Qi Si privately suggested that human flesh could satisfy it.

With the God Meat gone, Qi Si identified the Village Chief's House as a possible source and learned that dead players' mutated flesh could not replace it. He suggested that Zhao Feng provide fresh meat, leaving Zhao Feng facing the choice without guilt or hesitation.

• Zhao Feng considered harvesting flesh from the dead players, and Qi Si gave him a blade while reinforcing their alliance.
• At breakfast, Granny Su refused to serve more God Meat, but Qi Si prompted her to confirm that the village chief was still at the Village Chief's House and had become a god.
• Zhao Feng tried cutting flesh from the bespectacled man's corpse, but the flesh vanished and prompts warned that mutated flesh could not be used.
• Qi Si told Zhao Feng that the monsters wanted fresh food and implied that he should kill someone to provide it.

Qi Si manipulated Zhao Feng into cutting flesh from himself to satisfy A-Xi, then used the promise of joining Sariel to recruit him into a plan to control the instance’s sacrifices. Zhao Feng accepted Qi Si’s reasoning, and Qi Si left him poised to help deal with A-Xi.

• Qi Si warned Zhao Feng that targeting another person could make him a target and hinted that Zhao Feng could offer his own flesh to A-Xi.
• Zhao Feng cut a piece of flesh from his arm, kept it, and tried to hold onto Qi Si’s blade.
• Qi Si let Zhao Feng keep the blade temporarily and claimed he was a Sariel Guild member, offering to recommend Zhao Feng to the guild.
• Qi Si showed Zhao Feng a black butterfly ring, convincing him that he belonged to Sariel.
• Qi Si argued that the instance would force the players to provide more meat and that they should eliminate the strongest players before deciding who would be sacrificed.
• Zhao Feng grew convinced by Qi Si’s plan, while Qi Si offered to help him get past A-Xi.

Zhao Feng traded flesh to A-Xi for a nursery-rhyme clue, while the players planned their route through the village and confronted the problem of feeding the monsters. Qi Si subtly suggested sacrificing some players to preserve the others’ strength, and Yang Yundong shut down the idea before leading the group to the Village Chief’s House.

• Zhao Feng gave A-Xi a piece of his flesh, and A-Xi recited a story about a grandmother who ate a younger brother and left his bones behind.
• Qi Si played the nursery rhyme on a Tape Recorder he had taken from the bus, while Zhao Feng asked about the recorder and his bandaged arm.
• Granny Su refused to let Zhu Ling accompany her to the Ancestral Hall, so Yang Yundong proposed visiting the Village Chief’s House and Village History Museum before going there.
• Yang Yundong questioned Zhao Feng about his wound, and Zhao Feng revealed that players had to find meat for the monsters.
• Qi Si suggested that sacrificing a few players could preserve the group’s strength, but Yang Yundong rejected the idea and led everyone toward the Village Chief’s House.

The players reached the Village Chief's House, where living slime from a gigantic flesh tumor attacked them and a compelling aroma stirred their hunger. The tumor, apparently the village chief, warned them that they were guilty for eating the God and told them to worship at the Ancestral Hall, while Qi Si began craving its flesh.

• Zhou Yilin asked to stay behind, and Yang Yundong allowed her to remain at Granny Su's house while the other players set out for the Village Chief's House.
• Qi Si picked the lock at the Village Chief's House, and the players entered its overgrown, shadowed courtyard.
• Allen touched and licked living slime that dripped from the canopy, but Zhao Feng struck him until he came to his senses.
• The players saw slime spreading across the courtyard and a strong meaty aroma affecting Allen, Zhang Licai, and the Tattooed Woman.
• Yang Yundong opened the main house and revealed a huge flesh tumor that appeared to be the village chief.
• The village chief muttered that they had killed and eaten the God, urged them to worship at the Ancestral Hall, and warned them against eating it as Qi Si struggled with an urge to take a bite.

Qi Si broke free of the village chief’s illusion and used sunlight to destroy the tumor, revealing that it had become edible God Meat. With the other players incapacitated, he weighed killing them to clear the instance but chose to keep them alive for now.

• Qi Si regained his lucid awareness, while Allen succumbed to the slime and began melting into it.
• Qi Si pieced together that sunlight was the villagers’ weakness and threw Yang Yundong’s Pu Saber through the south-facing window.
• Sunlight struck the village chief, who melted into a pool of God Meat after muttering, “The God cursed us...”
• The other players began recovering, leaving Qi Si as the only one able to stand and temporarily in control of their lives.
• Qi Si considered killing the players and Zhou Yilin to trigger an immediate clear, but decided to preserve the group and continue exploring the instance.