Chapter Summaries

Xu Yao returned with news of Liu Bingding’s death and the town’s history of sacrificing girls, while Qi Si learned that Double Happiness Town trapped its victims in a repeating cycle. Xu Wen revealed that she knew he was a Player, then used a god’s power to bind him and shut him inside a coffin as a sacrifice.

• Xu Yao told Shang Qingbei and Du Xiaoyu that Liu Bingding had died saving her and shared the clues they had discovered about Lady Joyous God and the well.
• Shang Qingbei questioned Qi Wen about Xu Wen’s remains, then gave Xu Yao the Instance’s rules while Qi Wen changed his clothes and went to sleep.
• In the world beneath the well, Xu Wen led Qi Si toward the Temple of the Mourning God and explained that Double Happiness Town had vanished twenty years earlier and its townspeople were trapped in a seven-day cycle.
• Xu Wen called Qi Si a Player, held a shard of glass to his neck, and revealed that she wanted to end the town’s cycle and had come seeking her missing younger sister.
• Xu Wen said a god had promised to end everything if she killed Qi Si, and a coffin’s golden vines bound him and dragged him inside.
• Qi Si questioned Xu Wen’s motives as she admitted she only wanted to save herself, then the coffin lid closed over him.

Qi Si resisted a god’s search for the [Soul Contract] authority by withholding its location and bargaining from a position of informational advantage. Meanwhile, Shang Qingbei received a dream contract ordering him to kill Qi Si, but he chose to accompany him as the Players went out to investigate The Gate.

• An evil god searched Qi Si’s memories for the authority of the [Soul Contract], but The Rules blocked access to crucial information.
• The god offered Qi Si survival and the chance to worship it in exchange for the authority’s location, then tortured him when he demanded a better offer.
• Qi Si laughed through the pain and refused to reveal the location, telling the god, “You guess.”
• Shang Qingbei dreamed that his contract required him to kill Qi Si and recognized Qi Si as the target, but hesitated to harm another Player.
• Qi Si woke Xu Yao and Du Xiaoyu, and the Players left the courtyard at night to search for the Ghost Gate.
• Shang Qingbei proposed splitting into two groups and went left with Qi Si as eerie suona music sounded in the distance.

Du Xiaoyu and Shang Qingbei fell into deadly traps after following the false clues Qi Si had planted, while Qi Si endured the pain of dying beneath the well. The chapter ended with Qi Si's death and rebirth apparently defeating the entity bound to him, though the entity demanded to know what he had done.

• Du Xiaoyu saw a ghost woman clutching his shadow, was lured toward a well, and died after falling into it.
• Shang Qingbei threatened Qi Si with a Book of Life and Death Fragment as a ghost procession and bridal sedan trapped them in an alley.
• Qi Si revealed that the rules Shang Qingbei had relied on were fabricated from scripture paper he had sent up from the well.
• Shang Qingbei crossed out Qi Si's name, but Qi Si survived because he was already dead and killed Shang Qingbei instead.
• Qi Si endured his pain beneath the well until he died, then watched the golden-eyed entity collapse into dust and laughed as it asked what he had done.

Qi Si exploited the fixed probability behind Soul Contract to bind a rule forbidding gods from entering the Instance and arranged for his corpse to inherit his identity and memories. Now living as Qi Si in the corpse’s body, he killed Shang Qingbei and questioned Xu Yao, who revealed her bargain with The God; she urgently asked whether Qi Si had seen “him.”

• Qi Si used his seventy-eighth Soul Contract attempt to make a contract with his corpse, establishing that gods could not enter the Instance after his death and that the corpse would inherit his thoughts, memories, and belongings.
• The Soul Contract skill changed to allow only three uses per Instance, and the dice landed on a critical success as Qi Si’s body died.
• The new Qi Si killed Shang Qingbei and found that his system interface and some items had returned, though he still lacked a heartbeat and could not sense Soul Contract.
• Qi Si learned from Xu Yao that Du Xiaoyu was dead and that she had made a deal with The God to kill people in town in exchange for the trapped girls’ rebirth a hundred years later.
• Qi Si challenged Xu Yao’s justification for killing, then asked whether she had seen “him”; Xu Yao urgently asked where he was.

Xu Yao recounted how she became trapped in Double Happiness Town and made a deal with an Evil God, while Qi Si learned the truth and cleared the Instance after abandoning its main quest. The chapter ended with Li Yao discovering Qi Wen’s corpse and identifying his finger bone as an Evil God item.

• Xu Yao told Qi Si how she had tried to end the Xu Family’s crimes, died in a well, and eventually accepted an Evil God’s offer to rule Double Happiness Town and kill outsiders.
• Qi Si explained that the county deputy had returned for Xu Yao and that the Evil God had kept them apart, then invoked the Pact and encouraged her to seek its help against Xu Wen.
• After the system reported that the other Players had died, Qi Si abandoned the main quest and cleared the Double Happiness Town Instance with a reduced evaluation.
• The ending footage showed the Eerie Investigation Bureau deciding to wall off Double Happiness Town and sacrifice people to contain its danger, recording the Normal End, “Sacrificial Victim.”
• Li Yao followed a golden beam into the Temple of the Mourning God, found Qi Wen’s corpse in a coffin, and discovered that his finger bone was an Evil God item.

After clearing Double Happiness Town, Qi Si examined his rewards, watched an S-rank True End video, and considered his plans involving the Church of the Scales. He used his golden branch to observe Liu Yuhan in another Instance, then discovered that his Evil God Finger Bone was missing.

• Qi Si received 6,000 reward points and confirmed that the Humanoid Evil Spirit Card had not followed him back to the Game Space.
• Qi Si checked his returned items, entered the shop, and watched Xiao Fengchao's S-rank True End video for Double Happiness Town.
• Qi Si suspected that the Eerie Investigation Bureau was connected to reality and considered how he might use the Church of the Scales without exposing his weakness.
• Qi Si used Liu Yuhan's golden leaf to observe her in the Strange Island Instance, where she sat beside a wooden finger wrapped in threads.
• Qi Si checked his inventory and realized that the Evil God Finger Bone was missing.

Qi Si questioned the entity about the Eerie Game, the Rules, and his items, learning that the Main God Li had restored Chang Xu and that the Rules collected sin to sustain the world. The entity showed Qi Si how to use the Sea God Scepter to create a Joy God Idol, and vanished after asking what Qi Si would choose in a deadly wager; a Game Space renewal notice then appeared.

• The entity told Qi Si that Li controlled time and fate, had reversed the life states of the wager’s pieces, and had likely restored Chang Xu.
• The entity explained that the Rules reclaimed sin through gods and that the Eerie Game had been created to connect the Rules with low-dimensional beings.
• The entity said the Identity Card’s true purpose would become clear in the final Instance and showed Qi Si how to use the Sea God Scepter to make a Joy God Idol capable of turning a town into a ghost domain.
• Qi Si decided he would use the Joy God Idol to bring an eerie incident into reality and create a disaster on a large scale.
• The entity asked Qi Si what he would do in a wager where winning might get him killed and losing would destroy the world, and Qi Si said he would watch the destruction while eating popcorn.
• The entity vanished, and a Game Space notice told Qi Si that he could remain for one hour at a time or exchange points for more time.

Ning Xu registered Chang Xu’s mental condition and learned that the Gate had appeared, then received approval to carry out her proposed plan. She visited the contained Eerie Zhang Yiyu and persuaded her to join the Bureau and re-enter the Eerie Game.

• Ning Xu recorded Chang Xu’s aberration level as 6% and learned that the Listen Wind Guild had confirmed the Gate’s appearance.
• Ning Xu received a call approving her plan and assigning her full responsibility for it.
• Ning Xu went to the fifth underground level to visit the girl classified as the Eerie Impostor.
• Ning Xu tested Zhang Yiyu by having her swallow an iron ball, showing her that she was no longer human.
• Ning Xu offered Zhang Yiyu freedom within her authority, monthly contact with her mother, and the chance to enter the Eerie Game as a ghostly creature.

Qi Si examined the Joy God Idol’s remote power and searched the forum for clues about Xiao Fengchao and Double Happiness Town. He theorized that the Eerie Game was testing its system on one world before expanding across many, then returned to the forum as Players continued living under the threat of death.

• Qi Si learned he could trigger the Joy God Idol’s effect remotely and considered how much damage it might cause in reality.
• Qi Si searched the forum and concluded that Xiao Fengchao had probably died after disappearing from public view.
• Qi Si found an old post linking Xu Wen’s disappearance to Double Happiness Town and learned that Xiao Fengchao had cleared its Instance days before the real eerie phenomenon was resolved.
• Qi Si reasoned that the Eerie Game linked reality and Instances to multiply evil, and considered whether it drew Players from different worlds.
• Qi Si concluded that his world might be a pilot program for the Eerie Game’s larger plan, then returned to the lively forum homepage.

The author reflected on Volume Two’s problems, addressed reader feedback about Qi Si, the lack of a female lead, and Chang Xu, and outlined plans to revise the book and begin Volume Three. The author planned to return with the next update on January 1st.

• The author explained how reader numbers and writing difficulties changed Volume Two’s structure and disrupted its pacing and main plot.
• The author acknowledged problems in Sea of Hopelessness and Double Happiness Town and said future Instances would focus more on strategy, puzzles, plot, and characters.
• The author defended Qi Si’s established personality, ruled out a female lead, and said Chang Xu would remain until the finale.
• The author planned to revise earlier chapters during a half-month hiatus and continue Volume Three according to the original outline if the book remained available.
• The author recommended four other books and announced the next update for January 1st.

Qi Si mailed away the Joy God Idol, reviewed his limited combat options, and entered a new multiplayer puzzle Instance under the alias Zhou Ke. There, he joined Heyi, Hansen, and Cynthia on a brightly lit stage as the players gathered around numbered seats.

• Qi Si arranged for a child to deliver the boxed Joy God Idol to the post office after learning that Jin City had handled his family graveyard.
• Qi Si assessed his items, worried about facing the Puppeteer without the Evil God Finger Bone, and considered cutting off his little finger as a last resort.
• Qi Si transferred Liu Yuhan’s reward points, bought a clown mask, and matched into the Instance Grand Performance, whose hint was “Every one of us is guilty.”
• Qi Si found himself designated as player No. 1 at a round table, unable to touch the papers and pens assigned to other seats.
• Heyi arrived and took Seat No. 3, followed by Hansen in Seat No. 2 and Cynthia in Seat No. 4.
• Qi Si introduced himself to the group as Zhou Ke while wearing the clown mask.

The Players began Charlie’s murder-voting game, in which they had to answer questions about their first killings and identify the killer among them. Qi Si recognized the displayed corpse as the first person he had killed at age twelve, and the chapter ended as Charlie asked how each Player had killed and disposed of their victim.

• Cynthia proposed sharing puzzle-solving experience, but Hansen and Qi Si challenged her motives and questioned whether the Players could trust one another.
• Charlie appeared at the Scarlet Theater and announced that a killer was among the Players, who would have to vote for someone to be executed.
• Charlie explained that the Players had to answer three questions truthfully and vote using the role names they had introduced themselves with.
• Charlie asked how old each Player had been when they first killed someone; Qi Si answered twelve, while Hansen said nineteen, Heyi fourteen, Cynthia described a death caused by her at age thirty-two, and Dong Xiwen said twenty.
• Charlie asked how the Players had killed their victims and disposed of their bodies.

The Players questioned one another about how they had killed their victims as Charlie enforced limits on their answers. Qi Si’s calm account of murder and corpse disposal left the others especially wary of him.

• Hansen tried to change the speaking order, but Cynthia accused him of acting suspiciously and failing to take notes.
• Dong Xiwen said he had used hallucinogenic sedatives before throwing his brother’s killer from a roof, while Cynthia admitted she had ordered tanks to crush suspicious targets in Silesia.
• Charlie stopped Heyi from answering Hansen’s question as irrelevant, then Hansen confessed he had killed his father over money and his mother when she threatened to call the police.
• Qi Si described killing someone when he was young and suggested he had survived an experience like Dong Xiwen’s brother.
• Qi Si asked Charlie whether motive mattered, then said he had eaten parts of his victim because he had been hungry, shocking the other Players.

Qi Si recalled how his childhood friend’s betrayal led him to kill and eat him, then recognized that the Players had each seen a different victim because each had killed someone. When Charlie demanded they judge one another by profession and contributions, Qi Si challenged the idea of measuring human worth and urged the group to vote Hansen out as a dangerous threat.

• Qi Si remembered befriending a boy as a child, then killing and eating him after the boy joined others in tormenting him.
• Qi Si noticed that the Players had described different corpses, and the group concluded that each of them had murdered someone.
• Charlie asked the Players to name their professions and contributions, suggesting that valuable people might be spared.
• Cynthia, Hansen, Dong Xiwen, and Heyi described their work, past actions, or hopes for the future.
• Qi Si questioned how anyone could measure a person's value and argued that promises about future contributions were irrelevant to the vote.
• Qi Si proposed voting Hansen out, calling him a forceful and unintelligent threat who might lead the group into danger.

The Players voted Hansen out, and Charlie executed him in a grotesque spectacle. Charlie then revealed that the Instance would last three days and sent the Players to choose rooms haunted by the sins of the living.

• Hansen tried to persuade the Players to vote for Qi Si or Cynthia, while Qi Si argued that Hansen posed the greatest threat.
• The Players cast their votes, and Hansen received two votes, more than Cynthia and Heyi, who each received one.
• Charlie announced Hansen as the round’s murderer and killed him in a horrific execution that left his remains on a chair.
• Qi Si asked Charlie how long the performance would last, and Charlie explained that the script had three acts, one per day.
• Charlie opened six rooms for the Players to choose from and warned that each contained a ghost formed from someone’s sins.

Qi Si chose Room 4 and discovered it held the dead Hansen’s harmless ghost, while Dong Xiwen found a script hinting that Charlie’s puppet had taken over his writing. The chapter left Qi Si examining a character card and Dong Xiwen unaware of the threatening eyes watching him.

• Qi Si asked Charlie about the ghosts’ strength and learned that stronger sins might affect where ghosts chose to reside, but Charlie offered no reliable clues.
• Cynthia entered Room 1, Heyi chose Room 3, and Dong Xiwen chose Room 6 after suggesting that stronger ghosts might be nearer the front.
• Qi Si tested the doors, entered Room 4, and found the dead Man-Beast ghost corresponding to Hansen, which vanished and left behind an invalid Cannon Fodder character card.
• Dong Xiwen read a script in Room 6 describing Charlie’s failed plays and a puppet offering to write a more popular story for him.
• As Dong Xiwen read, scarlet eyes opened across the ceiling while the script’s words changed to describe Charlie handing his quill and Papyrus to the puppet.

Qi Si questioned whether the players’ roles and deaths followed a predetermined script, while Heyi and Cynthia encountered ghosts connected to their sins. The first act ended after Heyi obtained the protagonist character card and Qi Si uncovered a script fragment hidden beneath the theater wallpaper.

• Qi Si examined Hansen’s Cannon Fodder Card and wondered whether the Instance assigned players roles such as protagonist and villain.
• Cynthia dreamed of her past murder, encountered the ghost formed from Zhou Ke’s sin, and saw its identity as the Skin Collector.
• Heyi wandered into a mirror maze, met the ghost embodying her sin, and obtained the Protagonist character card with a one-time resurrection effect.
• Qi Si dreamed of Hansen suffering in a burning cage, then woke and peeled back the wallpaper to reveal fire damage and a fragment of the play’s script.
• Every player’s system announced the end of Act One.

Qi Si tried to persuade the other Players to seek the Instance’s worldview instead of voting someone to death, while turning their suspicions toward Cynthia. Charlie began Act Two with a new identity-card game, and Qi Si discovered he was the Fox.

• Qi Si found that the theater and its props had reset, but he could interact only with the items at Seat No. 1.
• Dong Xiwen shared a script fragment about Charlie and Puppet, and Qi Si argued that collecting such fragments might reveal the Instance’s worldview.
• Qi Si claimed that his death could lock away clues and used Cynthia’s opposition to the plan to make Heyi and Dong Xiwen question her motives.
• The Players debated whether to risk investigating the worldview or vote someone out, while Dong Xiwen recalled his younger brother’s wish to live without killing anyone.
• Charlie appeared and introduced Catch the Fox, in which the Wolfhound and Rabbit could identify the Fox and a death would end the game.
• The Players revealed their identity cards, and Qi Si saw that his card made him the Fox.

Qi Si questioned the fairness of Charlie’s Fox Hunt game, then claimed to be the fox as the players debated how to avoid a death. Dong Xiwen correctly identified Zhou Ke as the fox, but Cynthia chose to kill him, leaving the first round’s execution decided.

• Qi Si asked Charlie about the rules, learning that chips could serve as lives and that the rabbit could end the game after three consecutive draws or wins.
• Heyi proposed that everyone reveal their identities and let the rabbit draw three times, but Cynthia warned that the fox could undermine the plan.
• Qi Si claimed to be the fox, while Heyi identified herself as the rabbit, Cynthia as the tiger, and Dong Xiwen as the wolfhound.
• Dong Xiwen named Zhou Ke as the fox, and Charlie confirmed that he was correct.
• Cynthia wrote “Kill” as her choice for the fox, and Charlie announced that Zhou Ke would be killed.

Qi Si survived Cynthia’s execution by spending one of his three chips, then used his insight into the game to pressure her into signing a binding contract. After Catch the Fox ended without a death, Charlie began Crazy Blackjack and revealed that the game would continue until someone died, leaving Qi Si to challenge whether Charlie himself was guilty.

• Charlie sentenced Qi Si to death, but Qi Si returned to the game after one chip transformed into blood and disappeared.
• Qi Si explained that the rabbit identity would remain fixed and argued that the others should target Cynthia, whose betrayal made her dangerous.
• Qi Si exposed how Cynthia could lose all her chips and offered her a contract binding her to promises not to harm the other players after leaving the Instance.
• Cynthia signed Qi Si’s contract, and the players completed the second and third rounds of Catch the Fox without anyone dying.
• Charlie announced Crazy Blackjack and said the game would only truly end when someone died.
• Qi Si asked Charlie whether he was guilty, challenging the claim that everyone was guilty.