Chapter Summaries

Qi Si recalled how he escaped the cult camp as a child and reasoned through why eight earlier clones had failed to escape the Origin. He realized Jin Yusheng’s hints meant Subject 9 was smarter than his predecessors and could devise a better plan.

• Qi Si remembered how he gained the cultists’ trust, started a fire, freed the children, and escaped the mountain camp with Jin Yusheng.
• After Jin Yusheng left the Observation Room, a nurse released Qi Si from his restraints and the ceiling camera was switched off.
• Qi Si searched the room for a weapon but found nothing useful, then concluded Jin Yusheng had anticipated that he might try to attack him.
• Qi Si modeled the failed clones’ possible strategies and struggled to determine which escape plan Subject 9 should choose.
• Qi Si recalled Jin Yusheng saying that earlier clones had never made the same request and that Subject 9 had scored higher on intelligence tests.
• Qi Si realized he could choose a better plan than the first eight clones and smiled at the possibility of escaping.

Qi Si broke out of the Observation Room and explored the Research Institute, intending to escape rather than help Jin Yusheng kill the Origin. After discovering the institute was an Eerie Game anomaly, he followed a strange fog into a corridor filled with corpses that looked like him.

• Qi Si escaped his room by picking its lock with his IV cannula and sneaked through the Research Institute toward the surveillance room.
• Qi Si studied the surveillance feeds, mapped an escape route, and planned to search the director's office before hiding in a blind spot.
• Qi Si encountered supernatural phenomena and saw a message identifying the Research Institute as an anomaly exchanged by Jin Yusheng.
• Qi Si suspected that the institute might still be an instance and hurried toward a surveillance blind spot.
• Qi Si entered a foggy, temple-like corridor and saw several corpses bearing his own features.

Qi Si realized the Research Institute was a constructed layer of the instance and that the corpses were versions of himself trapped in a cycle of repeated deaths. Rejecting the offer to leave the Eerie Game, he followed the path to a copper door and heard his own voice call him inside.

• Qi Si recognized flaws in the Research Institute and concluded that the instance had been steering him through an artificial chain of reasoning.
• After finding no clues in the rooms, Qi Si returned to the foggy corridor and discovered that every corpse wore a red 9 like his own.
• A voice explained that countless versions of Qi Si relived the same death, and Qi Si accepted that the corpses were all versions of himself.
• Qi Si refused the chance to leave the Eerie Game and walked over the corpses, finding a key in the last one's pocket.
• Qi Si unlocked a copper door in the fog and tossed a corpse through it to test for danger.
• A voice from inside the door, sounding like Qi Si, told him to stop wasting time and come in.

Qi Si outmaneuvered his copies to obtain the Key of Superego and clear the Dialectical Game, deciding that the surviving version of him was the real Qi Si. As the dungeon began to transform, he sensed that the truth behind it went beyond the research institute.

• Qi Si entered the temple and confronted a lookalike who claimed to be the real Qi Si, then died when his opponent used a knife.
• The chapter revealed that Qi Si had designed the dungeon, sending nine copies through eight fatal traps so the last survivor could reach the key.
• Qi Si took the Key of Superego from the corpse and argued that whichever version survived could define himself as Qi Si.
• The system announced that Qi Si had cleared the dungeon and recorded the Dialectical Game True End.
• A voice claiming to be Qi Si stopped the countdown, and the research institute burned away to reveal a strange gallery.

Qi Si recovered memories of his childhood and learned that the God had watched over him and made a deal with him. The God revealed that the Gods' Gamble had begun and urged Qi Si to collect Soul Leaves, leaving him facing the Golden Giant Tree and the promise that he would rule the Eerie.

• Qi Si witnessed memories of his younger self, including the deaths around him and his confinement at the cult's base, where the God first offered him a place in the Eerie Game.
• The God explained that Qi Si's concentrated Sin made the world reject him and admitted to covering up evidence from incidents when Qi Si was twelve and sixteen.
• Qi Si challenged the God about their agreement, and the God revealed that the Rules had banished it to Su Village and that their interests were now aligned.
• The God told Qi Si that the Gods' Gamble had begun and urged him to keep winning until he claimed the final crown of the Ruins of Sunset.
• Qi Si examined the Golden Giant Tree as the God explained that players were Soul Leaves that could be hung on its branches, then declared that Qi Si would rule the Eerie.

After clearing the Dialectical Game, Qi Si received the Soul Contract skill promised by the God and explored the newly unlocked Points Mall. He returned to his Game Space without choosing a display nickname and found it resembled a filthy, ruined temple.

• Qi Si received 10,000 points and unlocked the Soul Contract skill, which could bind entities to agreed terms or succeed on a dice roll when their intent was unclear.
• Qi Si questioned the skill’s low success rate and considered ways to exploit its rules to secure contracts.
• Qi Si opened the Points Mall, examined its videos and merchandise, and found that each player could own only one Pocket Watch of Fate.
• Qi Si returned to the Game Space, declined to set a display nickname, and recognized the space as a dilapidated, unclean palace.

Qi Si left the Game Space and endured the memories of his nine clones before recording the Dialectical Game’s painful death methods in his notebook. He read a player’s forum account of the instance, but the account ended abruptly after the player went downstairs to collect takeout.

• Qi Si watched players’ livestreams, reflected on his distrust of the Evil God, and left the Game Space before its time limit expired.
• Back in his room, Qi Si experienced the memories and deaths of his nine clones, then went through an out-of-body episode.
• After his soul returned to his body, Qi Si added the Dialectical Game’s eight painful death methods to his notebook, “How Will Qi Si Die?”
• Qi Si read a forum post from a freshman who described answering questions, finding eight lookalike corpses, and killing a doppelganger in the Dialectical Game instance.
• The poster said she was going downstairs to get takeout and never replied again.

Qi Si tested the Soul Contract on his taxi driver and learned that its power worked in the real world, then discovered signs of official scrutiny and information control. Meanwhile, Chang Xu was alive and had grown suspicious of Qi Si, but Mu Dongxu told him to recruit Qi Si instead of investigating him privately.

• Qi Si used Soul Contract to make Liu Pu keep their conversation confidential, and the contract succeeded.
• Jin Yusheng warned Qi Si that officials had surrounded Su Village and were restricting travel between cities.
• Qi Si found no results when he searched the game forum for “game invasion reality,” then saw players praising Chang Xu as a genuine, upright survivor.
• Chang Xu told Mu Dongxu that Qi Si seemed suspicious, but Mu Dongxu said the bureau had monitored Qi Si for six years without finding evidence of wrongdoing.
• Mu Dongxu forbade Chang Xu from investigating Qi Si privately and suggested recruiting him; Chang Xu accepted the plan.

Qi Si reclaimed his family home, arranged for his relatives’ graves to be removed, and returned to the Game Space. He entered a randomly generated instance after declining to choose one or start a livestream.

• Qi Si found his old family home occupied by villagers, secured a world-guaranteed contract for them to change the lock, and warned them about the corpse oil left behind when his cousin was carried out.
• Qi Si reported the village’s illegal burials, then agreed to have his relatives’ remains cremated and their ashes scattered in the fields.
• Qi Si returned to the Game Space, examined his item bar, and used an appearance modification voucher to disguise the Pocket Watch of Fate as a plain wristwatch.
• Qi Si declined to pay points to select an instance and refused to start a livestream.
• Qi Si entered the black whirlpool, and the system randomly generated and loaded an instance.

Qi Si entered the multiplayer survival instance Sea of Hopelessness and reunited with Chang Xu aboard a ship bound for the Devil's Triangle Sea. After the captain warned the players to sleep, ghosts emerged from the cabins, and a voice declared them stranded in a land beyond the map.

• Qi Si surveyed the ship and met Chang Xu, then Zhang Hongfeng and Liu Yuhan emerged from a trapdoor as other players gathered on deck.
• Players recognized Liu Yuhan for her instance guides and crowded around her, while Qi Si stepped away with Chang Xu.
• Chang Xu questioned Qi Si about Rose Manor, and Qi Si admitted he had manipulated events to trigger time reversal and escape Zou Yan.
• The captain, Crouch, warned the players to return to their cabins and sleep before the ship crossed the Devil's Triangle Sea.
• Players found ghosts inside the cabins, and the ghosts filed across the deck and leapt into the sea as the captain cried that the ship was cursed.
• Darkness and violent waves engulfed the ship as a voice described the players' voyage and welcomed them to a hopeless sea.

Qi Si and the other players reached an island after the ship’s apparent wreck, where they learned the main quest was to escape. Qi Si bluffed Chang Xu about the Carnivore instance, then discovered his Merchant identity and a new side quest as the island’s rules introduced the Sea God’s dangers.

• The players woke on the beach, and a scholarly young man gathered their accounts of the ship’s ghosts and speculated about what they had seen.
• The main quest refreshed to Escape the Island, and Chang Xu pressed Qi Si about the Carnivore instance; Qi Si defended himself and challenged Chang Xu’s right to interrogate him.
• Qi Si explored the beach, spotted a mermaid statue and a Clock Tower inland, and received the Merchant identity with an optional quest to kill all Scholars.
• The players gathered at the statue and read rules explaining the island’s payment system, clock-based sleep schedule, food, offerings, and warnings about the Sea God and ocean.

Qi Si and Chang Xu joined the other players as they explored the rules of Sea God Island and met Yuna, who offered them money and lodging. The group followed her through the Coconut Grove to an inn, while the island’s rules and dangers remained unclear.

• Qi Si moved beside Chang Xu and said he trusted him, while Chang Xu considered whether Qi Si could be a threat.
• Lu Li gathered the players to ask whether anyone had cash, and Qi Si warned Chang Xu that Lu Li might be trying to control the group.
• Yuna emerged from the Coconut Grove, introduced herself through sign language, and explained that the island had no boats; she directed the players to ask the Sea God about leaving.
• Yuna distributed strange banknotes from the Sea God and offered to take the players to her inn.
• The players followed Yuna through the Coconut Grove and reached a two-story wooden cottage.

Qi Si and the other players learned the inn’s costs and rules, then debated whether they could trust one another in the faction-based instance. Qi Si privately gained Chang Xu’s trust by claiming they were both Nobles, and Chang Xu revealed that they had ten days’ worth of room money.

• Yuna explained that rooms cost 300 yuan per night, allowed up to three guests, and that island residents could not give change; the players’ rules updated.
• Lu Li proposed cooperation and revealed that he was a Merchant, but Qi Si questioned whether his claims could be trusted, increasing suspicion among the players.
• The players booked rooms and handed their banknotes to Yuna, who made the money vanish before leaving to prepare dinner.
• Qi Si asked Chang Xu to share a room and claimed he was a Noble with the ability to receive more starting funds.
• Chang Xu revealed that he was also a Noble and that they each had 1,500 yuan, enough to pay for ten days together.

Qi Si and the other players ate the inn’s foul fish dishes while Lu Li explained his theory about the island’s setting. Later, Qi Si tested a lock and discussed morality and guilds with Chang Xu, whose team-up offer led Qi Si to discover that Chang Xu’s refusal had made Soul Contract fail; Qi Si then considered him a threat.

• Yuna served the players a table of fish dishes, and Lu Li introduced himself as a history professor before explaining that the instance appeared to be set during the Age of Exploration.
• Qi Si ate most of the seaweed and left the remaining half for Chang Xu, while the other players later found only fish dishes left to eat.
• On the way upstairs, Qi Si picked a room lock and argued with Chang Xu about morality, survival, and whether to join a guild.
• Chang Xu offered Qi Si a team-up ring and said he had not joined a guild, and Qi Si accepted the ring.
• Qi Si attempted to use Soul Contract on Chang Xu, saw that the skill had failed because Chang Xu had refused, and concluded that Chang Xu might become a serious problem.

Lu Li organized the players to investigate three locations while Chang Xu and Qi Si searched their room and found a diary describing a cursed voyage into the Sea of Hopelessness. The diary raised questions about the dead, the Siren, and the shipwreck, and Qi Si proposed searching the other rooms for more clues.

• Lu Li suggested splitting into three teams to explore the Clock Tower, the Altar, and Coconut Grove, and warned that the Altar was dangerous.
• Angela considered why Chang Xu and Qi Si had left the group and touched a consumable card that could reveal a player's Identity Card.
• Chang Xu apologized to Qi Si for questioning him, and they examined a room whose painting and strange dusk-lit window suggested clues about the instance's rules.
• Qi Si found Viscount Crouch's diary, which described a voyage through cursed waters and sailors haunted by the dead and the Siren.
• Chang Xu and Qi Si discussed what had happened to their ship and how they might escape, while Qi Si suggested searching the other rooms for clues.

Qi Si and Chang Xu prepared for the inn’s dangerous first night, while the rules and strange sounds led to multiple players’ deaths. Angela woke at four and discovered her Scholar identity could track money, but two player markers had disappeared.

• Lu Li visited Qi Si and Chang Xu to discuss exploring the Altar, Clock Tower, and Coconut Grove, but Qi Si said they would not go to the Altar.
• Yuna brought Qi Si and Chang Xu Soul-Calming Soup and warned that they might die if they failed to sleep; Qi Si and Chang Xu drank it before the clock struck ten.
• Xu Maochun followed a mysterious song out of the inn and walked into the sea despite his last attempts to resist.
• Gao Musheng drank the soup after hearing something at his door, but black shadows broke in as he lost the strength to resist.
• Angela woke when the clock rang four times and realized her Scholar identity tracked money, while two markers had vanished from the system interface.

Qi Si stayed lucid while the other players wandered through a dreamlike town afflicted by visions of the Sea of Hopelessness. At the church, he encountered a projection of the Evil God and spotted Yuna as a little girl holding a statue he wanted.

• Qi Si found Chang Xu, Liu Yuhan, and Lu Li behaving as if they were caught in their own confused dreams, then followed thirteen players to a church.
• The townspeople gathered to seek help from a red-robed bishop, and Qi Si recognized him as the Evil God.
• Qi Si identified the bishop’s Scarlet High Priest Master Card, but the instance prevented him from unlocking it.
• The players’ offerings sent black smoke from their bodies into the bishop, and Qi Si recognized it as Sin being collected by the Eerie Game.
• Thinking about his lack of a clear wish, Qi Si noticed Yuna as a little girl clutching an ivory statue and told Chang Xu he wanted it.

Qi Si woke with the [Humanoid Evil Spirit] Identity Card and an Idol from his dream, then discovered a player had been killed overnight. As the players resolved to cooperate and escape the island, Liu Yuhan identified a boat as the key, while Qi Si watched Yuna and wondered what the dream had revealed.

• The Ancestral God appeared to Qi Si in a dream, called itself Si Qi, and warned him to beware the Puppeteer.
• Qi Si woke beside Chang Xu and took the Evil God Idol that had appeared in Chang Xu’s hand, claiming it might help uncover information about Yuna.
• Qi Si and Chang Xu found a player’s room flooded with bloody water and discovered the victim, Gao Musheng, had been eaten by a fish-like creature.
• Lu Li announced that Gao Musheng was dead and Xu Maochun was missing, possibly because Yuna had withheld the Soul-Calming Soup from him.
• Lu Li urged the players to cooperate and escape the island, while Liu Yuhan said a boat was the key to the instance and asked whether anyone could repair one.
• The players ate breakfast as Qi Si watched Yuna standing silently behind the counter.

Qi Si searched a backpack, then explored the Clock Tower with Chang Xu, while Liu Yuhan investigated a ship escape plan with Zhang Hongfeng. Their work was interrupted when Zhang Hongfeng suddenly ate a severed head, which warned them that Yuna planned to kill them and was working with Crouch.

• Qi Si searched the backpacker's room and found only books and cigarettes, then discussed Angela's theory that players could gain money by killing one another.
• Angela revealed that she had used her Card of Peeking on Qi Si and Chang Xu, then left after implying she wanted to work with Qi Si.
• Qi Si and Chang Xu went to the Clock Tower, and Qi Si picked the lock on its bronze door.
• Liu Yuhan followed her Eerie Tale Notebook's clues to a buried wooden ship that could carry four players off the island, while Zhang Hongfeng worked on carving a model ship.
• Zhang Hongfeng appeared to eat a human head, which warned Liu Yuhan and Zhang Hongfeng that Yuna was going to kill them and was working with Crouch.

Angela abandoned Lu Li after the Nightmare ensnared him near the Altar, while Qi Si and Chang Xu climbed the Clock Tower and discovered a dead Bell Ringer and a cryptic inscription. Reading the words plunged Qi Si into a vision of unfamiliar knowledge.

• Angela realized Lu Li had been caught by the Nightmare and urged him to turn back, but he continued toward the Altar.
• Angela left to seek help, deciding she would not risk following Lu Li.
• Chang Xu uncovered a skeleton hidden in the Clock Tower wall, and Qi Si identified it as the remains of a modern player.
• Qi Si experienced a terrifying vision in the tower and nearly attacked Chang Xu, but an instance warning stopped him.
• Qi Si and Chang Xu reached the tower’s top and found the Bell Ringer’s skeleton and an inscription about a hopeless voyage.
• Qi Si read the inscription and was overwhelmed by darkness and visions as unfamiliar knowledge entered his mind.