Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• After finding Gunner’s corpse, Xia Lun discovers a tattoo reading “Three more to go,” continuing the mysterious countdown associated with the Salt Monsters.
• Gunshots sound above. A Ghoul has attacked the survivors in the cabin, gravely wounding Brigadier General.
• Xia Lun tells Delis, Horn, and Brigadier General that the Serko is trapped in a loop and is about to break apart. He breaks through the blocked cabin door and explains that their memories reset between loops, while objects and events persist.
• To persuade them, he cites personal details they had previously told him, shows Horn a duplicate of his Sabre and a Molotov cocktail marked in Delis’s handwriting, and describes Horn’s dead Monkey.
• Delis remains skeptical, suspecting Xia Lun might have abducted them. Brigadier General accepts Xia Lun’s explanation, while Horn is frightened but increasingly unsettled by the evidence.
• Xia Lun points out that the three survivors have failed to notice how many people have vanished from the ship. Delis realizes her own thoughts had made the absence seem normal.
• As the Serko begins to break apart, Xia Lun guides the group toward the Island and tells them how to cross the Reef Bridge. He and Horn retrieve a gun carriage, which Xia Lun remembers Horn hauling in an earlier loop.
• Once everyone leaves the ship, it splits in two and sinks. Xia Lun suspects the sinking is triggered not by time, but by everyone leaving the ship.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun acts as an experienced guide, using calm explanations, concrete evidence, and selective personal details to gain trust. His confident manner conceals his continuing uncertainty about the loop and its mysteries.
• Brigadier General stays composed despite his severe wound and becomes the first to accept Xia Lun’s story, reasoning that its absurdity makes it difficult to fabricate.
• Delis is protective of Horn and applies careful logic to challenge Xia Lun’s claim. Her skepticism weakens when she recognizes that her own thinking has concealed the disappearance of the other passengers.
• Horn begins panicked and distrustful, but the duplicate Sabre and details about his past shake his certainty. He follows Xia Lun’s lead and helps carry the gun carriage.
• The group’s interactions shift from suspicion to tentative cooperation as they face the immediate danger of the sinking ship.

Significant themes

• Memory and identity: The survivors’ memories reset, while physical objects preserve traces of earlier loops.
• Persuasion and trust: Xia Lun must convince people of an impossible truth by tailoring his arguments to their personalities and offering tangible proof.
• Perception and denial: Delis’s realization shows how people can unconsciously accept an abnormal situation when their assumptions go unchallenged.
• Repeated loss and mounting mystery: The dwindling passenger count, monster deaths, and tattooed countdown suggest a larger process whose rules remain unclear.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun’s group returns to the Shelter just before a brewing storm, carrying a gun carriage and the wounded Brigadier General.
• Delis recognizes that the gun barrel and the cans used in the traps are the same objects encountered elsewhere, confirming that the group is trapped in a repeating loop.
• Xia Lun lights a fire and serves heated canned food. As the rain begins, Horn and Delis share an affectionate moment, feeding each other.
• The Brigadier General resumes their earlier discussion about missing passengers. Xia Lun explains that passengers who died in previous loops become Salt Monsters, whose red inscriptions have changed from “5 more needed” to “3 more needed.”
• Xia Lun senses intense, conflicting emotions in the otherwise composed Brigadier General. The General offers to help repair the cannon, then draws Xia Lun outside into the rain and asks what he thinks of regret.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun is pleased to reunite with the others and takes practical responsibility for the group. He watches their changing behavior with curiosity, while quietly suspecting the Brigadier General is hiding strong feelings.
• Delis is shaken by the physical evidence of the loop but gradually calms. Her tender exchange with Horn contrasts with Xia Lun’s private recollection of her possessive nature in the real world.
• Horn remains considerate and warm, helping the injured General and tenderly sharing food with Delis.
• The Brigadier General is cautious and deferential around Xia Lun, yet his hidden emotions suggest powerful excitement and desire. He steers Xia Lun into a private conversation about regret.

Significant themes

• Cycles and repetition: Familiar objects and changing inscriptions reinforce the group’s entrapment in a loop.
• Uncertainty and hidden motives: Characters’ outward composure can conceal intense emotions, especially the Brigadier General’s.
• Tenderness amid danger: The fire, shared meal, and Horn and Delis’s affection offer temporary comfort before the storm and unresolved mysteries return.

Chapter Summary: “The Eve of the Storm (II)”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Xia Lun and Brigadier General repair a damaged heavy cannon beneath the Shelter’s awning. The cannon’s barrel is intact, but its trunnions and recuperator spring require repairs.
• During the work, Brigadier General discusses regret and admits that his greatest regret was helping cause the Red Rose Civil War. His desire to strengthen the Borland Kingdom led him to make impatient decisions that ultimately destroyed his dream.
• Xia Lun explains that he regrets swimming in one of Whitewash City’s waterways, though his comment conceals the fact that doing so caused his terminal illness. He argues that regretting irreversible consequences is pointless and that people should focus only on what they can control.
• The cannon is successfully restored. With suitable ammunition, it could kill Digestive Salt in a single shot.
• Xia Lun reorganizes the survivors’ duties: Horn and Brigadier General guard the Shelter, while the nun Delis expands the Shelter, translates books, and investigates ways to escape the time loop.
• After nightfall, Xia Lun secretly leaves the Shelter alone to continue exploring the Circular Bottomless Pit. He chooses not to wake the others because of an unclear suspicion and follows his policy of trusting only those he feels confident working with.
• While traveling through the Salt Pillar Forest, Xia Lun kills a noisy seagull to prevent it from attracting Salt Monsters. He discovers that the bird is undead, with rotten organs and black, maggot-like sludge inside it—just like the Ghouls.

Character Developments

• Xia Lun: Demonstrates a pragmatic, emotionally controlled worldview. Rather than dwelling on the past, he concentrates on actions within his control. His growing suspicion of the others also shows increasing caution and independence.
• Brigadier General: Reveals guilt over his role in the Red Rose Civil War and the collapse of his political ambitions. His conversation with Xia Lun exposes a more reflective and remorseful side beneath his military competence.
• Horn and Delis: Resume their former responsibilities, reinforcing the Shelter’s practical organization and the group’s reliance on established roles.

Significant Themes

• Regret and responsibility: The chapter contrasts Brigadier General’s painful remorse with Xia Lun’s rejection of regret over unchangeable events.
• Control versus chaos: Xia Lun accepts that the world is unpredictable and believes survival depends on controlling one’s own choices rather than lamenting outcomes.
• Repair and restoration: The repaired cannon symbolically represents the group restoring its ability to resist major threats, even as past damage—both mechanical and personal—remains significant.
• Hidden corruption and uncertainty: The undead seagull suggests that the island’s contamination is more widespread than expected and foreshadows further danger.

Character Interactions

• Xia Lun and Brigadier General bond through repairing the cannon, but their philosophical discussion reveals sharply different attitudes toward regret.
• Brigadier General presses Xia Lun to share his regrets, while Xia Lun challenges the Brigadier General’s tendency to dwell on the past.
• Xia Lun later assigns duties to the survivors, reestablishing cooperation within the Shelter, though his decision to explore alone indicates that trust within the group is incomplete.

Key events and plot points

• Xia Lun kills an Undead Seagull and realizes the mastermind has been using the birds to spy on him. He considers several possible culprits—Delis, the Brigadier General, Horn, or someone unknown—but cannot identify the controller.
• Rather than turn back, he continues toward the Circular Bottomless Abyss. A sudden storm gathering around the island suggests an approaching crisis, pushing him to hurry.
• He suspects the mastermind used a flying seagull to steal the Prayerbook of the Drowned from the pavilion across the abyss.
• Xia Lun begins descending the shaft, carefully securing himself with pitons, rope, and an Expansion Bolt. Deep below, he hears laughter and discovers a fissure.
• Inside, he meets a living but blind old man who resembles the Doctor from the previous cycle. The Doctor recognizes other names from Xia Lun’s group, mistakes Xia Lun for Delis, Narga Da, and then Horn, and concludes that the others are dead.
• The Doctor says someone visits him every six months, usually by way of an Underground Labyrinth. He also mentions a “Sacrificer,” but Xia Lun has not yet asked what that means.

Character development and interactions

• Xia Lun responds to the revelation of surveillance by calming himself and focusing on what he can control. He acknowledges that deduction is not his strength and chooses decisive action over speculation.
• His descent shows caution and preparation, but also his willingness to risk his life to reach the Demon, kill and sacrifice it, and seek a way to remove his Soul Curse without side effects.
• The Doctor is eccentric, cryptic, and manipulative in conversation. He limits Xia Lun to one answer after Xia Lun asks two questions, framing information as something exchanged for goodwill.
• Their exchange establishes an uneasy rapport: Xia Lun remains polite but probing, while the Doctor treats him as a stranger whose name seems oddly familiar.

Significant themes

• Surveillance and hidden control: Even ordinary seagulls may be tools of the unseen mastermind.
• Action versus deduction: Xia Lun accepts his limits as a detective and relies on intuition and action.
• Cycles and repetition: The Doctor’s six-month visitors and recognition of people from prior events suggest a recurring pattern tied to the island.
• Risk and sacrifice: Xia Lun’s dangerous descent parallels his willingness to wager his life for answers and a cure.
• Approaching catastrophe: The unnatural storm signals that time may be running out.

Key plot points and events

• In the cave beside the Circular Bottomless Pit, Xia Lun questions Doctor about the island’s apparent half-year time loop. Doctor demands payment for answers: a new story about whales.
• Xia Lun recounts Moby-Dick. Pleased, Doctor accepts him as a friend and explains that Delis suspects a “Sacrificer” among the survivors—someone who controls undead to kill people and throw them into the pit. Doctor believes such figures have appeared throughout the island’s history.
• Doctor says hiding in the cave’s “Eye of the Storm” preserves memories. Without memory, people repeat the same choices each cycle, acting like instinct-driven “ghouls of time”; in this way, they themselves perpetuate the loop.
• Doctor lists several ways to leave the island, including building a raft, lighting the Wood of Seizure, or sacrificing something in the pit, but insists no one can truly escape their predetermined ending. He hints at another method before a giant, many-eyed creature—the “Demon”—appears outside.
• Doctor suggests that sacrificing the Demon might offer a way out. Xia Lun considers how to fight it, but a cannon blast suddenly strikes the creature. It plunges into the abyss, badly injured but apparently still alive.
• Above the cave, Xia Lun hears the Brigadier General, Delis, and Horn discussing the attack. The Brigadier General orders that Xia Lun not be brought up—and someone cuts Xia Lun’s rope.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun stays composed and resourceful: he trades a story for information, pieces together Doctor’s confusing account, and quickly begins assessing the Demon’s weaknesses. The others’ betrayal leaves him in immediate danger.
• Doctor is eccentric and unsettling, but also curious and conversational. He values stories as a means of expanding his world and gives Xia Lun crucial knowledge about the loop, though his explanations are cryptic.
• Delis, Horn, and the Brigadier General appear to have coordinated the cannon attack. Delis cautions that the Demon may have survived, while Horn praises the weapon and the Brigadier General compliments the team. Their celebration turns sinister when the Brigadier General excludes Xia Lun and orders his rope cut.

Significant themes

• Memory and repetition: The loop persists because people without memories repeat their earlier choices.
• Stories and reality: Doctor treats stories as a way to recover the past and expand the world.
• Agency versus fate: Doctor claims escape is both possible and impossible, suggesting that choice may exist inside a predetermined cycle.
• Betrayal and survival: Even as the survivors unite against a common monster, they appear willing to abandon Xia Lun.

Key plot points and events

• Brigadier General cuts Xia Lun’s rope, alarming Horn. Delis realizes the General survived a supposedly fatal gunshot and suspects he controls the undead and intends to kill them.
• Delis and Horn try to approach him from opposite sides. Delis fires a shotgun, but Brigadier General effortlessly slices every pellet out of the air.
• He kills Delis with a lightning-fast sword strike, then throws Horn into the Circular Bottomless Pit after Horn breaks through a supernatural paralysis and attacks him.
• Xia Lun, hidden nearby, identifies Brigadier General as the undead-controlling Sacrificer and recognizes that he has now eliminated nearly all the survivors. Determined to survive and avenge his companions, Xia Lun asks Doctor for a way out.
• Doctor warns Xia Lun that the Sacrificers are immensely powerful and directs him toward Isoville. When Doctor finds the Prayerbook of the Drowned among the sacrifices Brigadier General has thrown into the abyss, he realizes it is the same book as the storybook he once manifested.
• Convinced this revelation means he has already achieved eternal life and should seize his chance, Doctor leaps into the abyss with the books, laughing ecstatically.

Character developments and interactions

• Delis proves perceptive and courageous: she deduces Brigadier General’s danger, negotiates for Horn’s life, and then attacks when mercy is refused. Her request to spare Horn reveals her affection despite her usual self-interest.
• Horn moves from anger and suspicion to grief and defiance. Though overwhelmed by Brigadier General’s power, he breaks free through sheer determination and dies still wishing he could have protected Delis.
• Brigadier General sheds his feeble, genial façade, revealing a formidable and ruthless killer. He calmly promises to honor Delis’s and Horn’s unfinished wishes, even as he kills them.
• Xia Lun shifts from grief and anger toward a practical resolve to escape and eventually defeat Brigadier General.
• Doctor abruptly becomes convinced he has fulfilled his lifelong pursuit of immortality. He abandons caution and plunges into the abyss; Xia Lun can only watch in stunned disbelief.

Significant themes

• Powerlessness and defiance: Brigadier General vastly outmatches his opponents, but Horn’s final resistance preserves his dignity.
• Love, loyalty, and loss: Delis tries to save Horn, while Horn’s dying regret is that he could not save her.
• Ambition and sacrifice: Brigadier General pursues his lifelong goal by sacrificing the survivors; Doctor’s revelation drives him toward an equally reckless leap.
• Uncertainty and obsession: The books’ strange connection fuels Doctor’s ecstatic certainty, while Xia Lun is left facing an increasingly dangerous mystery.

Plot points and events

• After Doctor’s suicide, Xia Lun is left with unresolved questions about “infinity,” the Evil Flesh Codex, and the corpse at Camp No. 2. He decides to postpone investigating them and focus on stopping Brigadier General, whom he believes is preparing a catastrophe.
• Following Doctor’s directions, Xia Lun travels through the interstice and emerges beneath the restored Wicker Man in Isoville. The city has been rebuilt after the fire, though traces of the destruction remain. He slips past the Salt-Covered Wild Men and reaches the surface.
• A violent storm has plunged the island into darkness. Tracking Focus reveals Brigadier General’s crimson glow and more than fifty Undead connected to him by red threads. Xia Lun recognizes him as an exceptionally dangerous opponent, combining advanced swordsmanship, supernatural control, and tactical skill.
• Xia Lun predicts Brigadier General’s route to the Salt Pillar Forest and plants Plastic Explosives in Bonefall Valley, a narrow passage. He hides nearby with a clear view and prepares to trigger the charge with a shot.
• As Brigadier General and his Undead approach the trap, the entire group abruptly stops. Holding a Wicker Man, Brigadier General announces that he knows Xia Lun is there and calls him out.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun shifts from grief and confusion to disciplined determination, prioritizing the immediate threat over unanswered mysteries. He demonstrates careful planning, patience, marksmanship, and resourcefulness, using his survival skills to build both the explosive trap and a speaking tube.
• Doctor remains a mysterious presence through his final words and decisive suicide; his motives and discoveries continue to haunt Xia Lun.
• Brigadier General is established as a formidable, calculating adversary with command over a large force of Undead. His direct call suggests he has detected or anticipated Xia Lun’s ambush.
• The chapter’s central interaction is a tense, indirect confrontation: Xia Lun secretly prepares to kill Brigadier General, while the general’s sudden challenge reveals that the hunter may have been discovered.

Significant themes

• Urgency versus uncertainty: Xia Lun accepts that some mysteries may have to wait when an immediate danger threatens.
• Knowledge and its limits: Doctor’s death leaves important questions unanswered, while Xia Lun must act on incomplete information.
• Preparation and control: Both men appear strategic, setting up a contest between Xia Lun’s carefully laid trap and Brigadier General’s apparent awareness.
• Darkness and ominous change: The black dawn and storm frame the coming confrontation as a moment of escalating danger.

Plot points and events

• The Brigadier General calls for Xia Lun to surrender and talk, claiming they share the same memories from the previous cycle and could cooperate. He cannot locate Xia Lun precisely, so he sends Undead to sweep the area while tracking his general direction.
• Xia Lun realizes he can use the Brigadier General’s tracking ability to lure him and his followers into the blast radius of explosives. To survive the blast, he prepares a revival point by removing his left eye and leaving it with Nutrient Paste, relying on his regenerative abilities.
• As Xia Lun moves toward the explosives, the Brigadier General explains that the island’s repeating cycles are part of a living Event Life. When certain conditions are met, the Event Life resets the scenario: living beings lose their memories, while acknowledged inanimate objects can be restored. Those who die between resets are permanently erased, and their bodies become Salt-Covered Wild Men.
• The Brigadier General says the island and its sacrificial ritual are manifestations of this higher-dimensional Event Life, which cannot be fought directly from within the event. He also reveals that a memory-bearing bullet is how he preserves knowledge across cycles—and why he is shot in every one.
• The Information Panel confirms that Xia Lun has uncovered the scenario’s hidden worldview. He gains 1,000 Memory Points and the perk Unveil the Veil, which increases his Perception but permanently worsens his mental state.
• Xia Lun speaks through a makeshift tube to ask why the Brigadier General began killing people in this cycle when he did not in the last. The Brigadier General and the Undead stop, momentarily distracted.

Character development

• Xia Lun stays cautious despite the Brigadier General’s appeals. He shows calculated resolve by preparing for death as part of his plan, then responds to the new information with genuine fear and disorientation. His investigation advances, but the truth exacts a lasting mental cost.
• The Brigadier General presents himself as a knowledgeable, persuasive potential ally. His explanation reveals that he understands the cycles and has a deliberate method for retaining memories, though his motives and the reason for his changed behavior remain unresolved.

Significant themes

• Cycles, memory, and identity: The resets erase personal memories, while objects—and the traces of the dead—follow different rules.
• Knowledge at a cost: Discovering the truth earns Xia Lun a reward but permanently damages his mental state.
• Control and survival: Both men use information and manipulation strategically: the Brigadier General tries to draw Xia Lun out, while Xia Lun exploits the General’s tracking and attention.
• The limits of agency: If the world is contained within a living event that cannot appear inside itself, its inhabitants may be unable to confront the force governing their reality directly.

Character interactions

• The Brigadier General alternates between offers of cooperation and pressure, using his account of the Event Life to hold Xia Lun’s attention while his Undead close in.
• Xia Lun refuses to engage at first, but once the General approaches the explosives, he asks a targeted question through the speaking tube to halt the pursuit and probe the General’s motives.

Plot points and events

• In a stormy valley, Xia Lun confronts the Brigadier General, who is surrounded by undead and standing near Plastic Explosives. Xia Lun demands to know why the Brigadier spared most people in the previous cycle but has begun killing them in this one.
• The Brigadier explains that he wants to end the Red Rose Civil War and restore the Borland Kingdom. His sacrificial wish requires the lives of everyone aboard the Serko, two recurring forbidden books, and ultimately himself.
• He admits that, despite his professed willingness to die, he feared death. In earlier cycles he sacrificed only one person at a time; this time, he believes Xia Lun is the final offering needed for his wish—and a way for him to avoid sacrificing himself.
• Xia Lun keeps the Brigadier talking while retreating toward safety and aiming at the explosives. The Brigadier reveals that he has used a cursed Wicker Man, linked to Xia Lun by his hair and blood, to prepare a lethal curse.
• Both men recognize that the other is in their way. Xia Lun fires at the explosives as the Brigadier crushes the Wicker Man’s head, leaving the outcome unresolved.

Character developments

• The Brigadier General reveals himself as both a zealous patriot and a frightened, self-serving man. His idealism is genuine, but his fear of death has led him to sacrifice others and target Xia Lun.
• Xia Lun remains calculating under pressure. He uses strategic provocation and conversation to learn the Brigadier’s motives, then acts decisively rather than accepting the proposed sacrifice.

Significant themes

• Idealism versus morality: The Brigadier treats mass sacrifice as a necessary price for national renewal; Xia Lun challenges the legitimacy of sacrificing others.
• Courage and self-preservation: The Brigadier’s rhetoric of self-sacrifice conflicts with his fear of death and attempt to survive at Xia Lun’s expense.
• Duty, honor, and power: Their dispute centers on whether devotion to a cause can justify extreme violence.
• Cycles and regret: The Brigadier’s wish to undo the civil war drives the repeated sacrifices and escalating conflict.

Character interactions

• Xia Lun probes the Brigadier’s motives and deliberately acknowledges his devotion before criticizing his actions, provoking an angry outburst that exposes the Brigadier’s fear.
• The Brigadier tries to persuade Xia Lun to sacrifice himself, while secretly using the Wicker Man curse against him.
• Their conversation ends in a direct contest: Xia Lun shoots toward the explosives as the Brigadier crushes the curse figure.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun detonates the explosives among the undead, destroying many of them—but the Brigadier General survives and attacks him with a Secret Art.
• A Wicker Man doll in Xia Lun’s belt cracks and releases a crimson light that cancels the attack. Xia Lun then resumes the fight, using a gunshot to disrupt the Brigadier General and slash away half his skull.
• The Brigadier General withstands the damage. Xia Lun tries Life Drain, but the Brigadier General cuts its effect apart with his sword.
• The Brigadier General proposes an honorable duel and emerges from his decayed body as Ralph Delmaster. The two engage in a fierce sword fight, exchanging and building force until Xia Lun begins suffering severe internal injuries.
• Xia Lun uses Wind Whisperer to anticipate Ralph’s moves. A feint and delayed strike let him cut open Ralph’s abdomen and win the duel.
• Ralph admits he cannot afford to lose because he must save the Kingdom, though he acknowledges Xia Lun’s victory. Before Xia Lun can finish him, a cannonball—fired by the undead—kills them both. Xia Lun revives at his observation point using a planted eyeball.

Character developments

• Xia Lun demonstrates resourcefulness, resilience, and growing swordsmanship, combining abilities, firearms, and tactical observation. He is pushed to the edge and recognizes the limits of his skill, but adapts to defeat a superior opponent.
• Ralph Delmaster, the Brigadier General, is revealed as a formidable, monstrous fighter with extraordinary resilience and mastery of sword techniques. His insistence on an honorable duel coexists with a desperate commitment to saving the Kingdom.

Significant themes

• Honor versus necessity: Ralph values the duel’s honor but admits that his duty may require actions that disgrace it.
• Adaptation and perseverance: Xia Lun survives through quick thinking and varied abilities rather than strength alone.
• The cost of combat: Their escalating duel physically damages Xia Lun, while the battlefield’s chaos ultimately makes individual victory meaningless—at least temporarily.

Character interactions

• Xia Lun and Ralph exchange mutual respect through sword salutes and direct praise, even as they fight to the death.
• Ralph asks Xia Lun to forgive him for what he is about to do, acknowledging Xia Lun’s victory while prioritizing his mission.
• The undead do not join the duel; instead, they retrieve a cannon and kill both combatants, interrupting the confrontation.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun survives the fight with Brigadier General Ralph Delmaster by consuming Nutrient Paste and jerky, but is left severely injured and depleted of Life Force. His tracking ability still points to Ralph, confirming the Brigadier General survived too.
• Xia Lun discovers that Geliide’s Willow Effigy neutralized Ralph’s Willow Nightmare Curse. It also reveals a new Specialty, Hatred Blood Oath: killing Ralph will turn Xia Lun’s resentment into curse and mental resistance.
• Convinced Ralph’s death could also yield swordsmanship memories and help resolve his Soul Curse, Xia Lun decides he must kill him. Rather than risk another immediate confrontation, he follows a newly visible gray tracking trail south, hoping to recover or find an advantage.
• Along the way, Xia Lun sees the Demon emerge from the clouds, leading an army of Salt Monsters toward Bonefall Valley. He deduces that the Demon plans to kill the weakened Ralph and claim the sacrifice progress accumulated from nearly two hundred victims.
• At the battlefield, Ralph is suffering severe mental strain from overusing his Secret Art, Flow. He rallies himself with the conviction that he must save the Kingdom, recognizes the Demon’s threat, and prepares the Undead to fight it. He draws his sword, determined not to lose.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun moves from survival and recovery to a deliberate plan: he remains intent on killing Ralph, but chooses stealth and caution over a reckless rematch. His brief, cynical humor underscores how dangerous the island has become.
• Ralph is nearly overwhelmed by hallucinations and conflicting thoughts, yet his patriotic resolve restores his composure. His earlier belief in fighting for the Kingdom remains powerful, though he now accepts that survival cannot be his priority.
• Xia Lun and Ralph do not meet again in this chapter, but their earlier duel continues to shape both men’s choices. Ralph recalls Xia Lun’s warning against self-pity and implicitly accepts its wisdom.
• The Demon becomes an active third threat, exploiting the rivals’ exhaustion in an attempt to take the sacrifice prize.

Significant themes

• Resilience and its limits: Xia Lun’s regeneration and Ralph’s willpower help them endure, but both pay a steep physical or mental cost.
• Rivalry and reluctant influence: Each man’s struggle affects the other; Xia Lun’s words linger with Ralph even as they remain enemies.
• Opportunism and shifting threats: The Demon waits for the duel to weaken both sides before moving to seize the advantage.
• Sacrifice and ambition: The accumulated sacrifices are a source of power that may determine the fate of the Kingdom—and invite increasingly dangerous choices.

• Xia Lun evades the Salt Monsters: Hiding in heavy rain, Xia Lun lets the Salt-Taker, Bound Salt Skulls, Digestive Salt, and the many-eyed “Demon” pass without noticing him. His proficient Stealth specialization keeps him concealed.
• The battle turns against both leaders: Cannon fire and gunshots erupt behind him as the Undead army clashes with the Salt Monsters. Using Tracking Focus, Xia Lun watches the Brigadier General swap places with his Undead and fight fiercely. Weakness Insight appears on the General, suggesting he is near defeat—but a cannonball also wounds the Demon, which escapes into the sky. Xia Lun decides not to join the fight and follows the gray tracking trail instead.
• Xia Lun finds the General’s phylactery: The trail leads to a hidden reef crevice containing the General’s pipe. Its item description reveals it is a soul vessel phylactery: the Lich-like General can revive through it unless it is destroyed, but destroying it would kill him permanently. Xia Lun realizes this explains how the General could survive apparent death. Rather than smash the pipe immediately, he takes it, intending to use the situation to his advantage.
• The battlefield aftermath: The chapter shifts to the General after the battle. The Undead and Salt Monsters lie scattered across Bonefall Valley, and the General—badly injured—has defeated the Demon. He keeps it alive because only recently dead sapient creatures can serve as replacement mass for his sacrifice.
• The General prepares his final sacrifice: He raises Walking Corpses to carry the wounded Demon and heads toward the Sacrifice Cave. Though he briefly considers using Xia Lun as a substitute, he decides the risk is too great and accepts that he must make the sacrifice himself. He privately prays that Xia Lun will recover too slowly to interfere—unaware that Xia Lun is already watching from nearby.
  Character developments and interactions: Xia Lun moves from cautious observer to someone holding a decisive advantage, choosing strategy over an immediate attack. The Brigadier General is revealed as a determined, desperate figure whose willingness to sacrifice himself outweighs his instinct for survival. The Demon’s taunt that the General cannot escape hints at a deeper connection between him and the island. Xia Lun and the General remain unaware of the other’s full position and intentions as the chapter ends.
  Themes: Hidden vulnerabilities and the cost of power; strategy and patience over brute force; sacrifice as both a practical tool and a personal choice; and the danger of underestimating an opponent.

Plot

• The Brigadier General leads the dying Demon toward the Circular Sacrifice Cave, intending to sacrifice himself to undo his past mistake and save the ailing Kingdom. The Demon tries to shake his resolve by arguing that duty and morality are merely stories used to exploit people, but the Brigadier General rejects this as just another shallow narrative.
• As the Brigadier General is about to throw the Demon into the cave, Xia Lun appears and drains the creature’s power. He then crushes the Brigadier General’s phylactery. The Brigadier General falls and dies just short of the cave, still believing his sacrifice might have saved the Kingdom.
• With the Brigadier General dead, his Undead servants collapse. Xia Lun absorbs the released energy and checks his rewards: 2,000 Memory Points for killing Tedilina, the Eye of Ambition; 4,000 for defeating the Brigadier General and his Undead; and progress on the Hatred Blood Oath specialty, which slightly improves his curse and mental resistance.
• Xia Lun searches the Eye of Ambition’s shed skin and finds the passcode to the black touchscreen phone from Isoville City’s treasury. He memorizes it, planning to investigate the phone at the Shelter, then throws the skin into the cave as another offering.

Character developments and interactions

• The Brigadier General remains committed to taking responsibility for his past, even when the Demon challenges his beliefs. His calm resolve gives way to regret only at the very end, when he realizes he has fallen one step short.
• The Demon attempts to undermine the Brigadier General’s purpose, but its confidence collapses into panic as it nears the cave. Xia Lun’s sudden arrival ends both the Demon’s resistance and the Brigadier General’s plan.
• Xia Lun is practical and opportunistic: he reflects on his growing resources, considers how his new resistance may help against Curse Death, and eagerly pursues the mystery of the phone.

Themes

• Belief and responsibility: The chapter contrasts the Brigadier General’s chosen commitment to duty with the Demon’s cynical claim that morality is merely a tool of exploitation.
• Sacrifice and futility: The Brigadier General dies pursuing redemption but never reaches the cave, leaving the outcome of his intended sacrifice uncertain.
• Aftermath and reward: The fighting ends, but Xia Lun’s gains and the phone’s unresolved mystery point toward new possibilities.

Plot and key events

• After defeating the Eye of Ambition, Xia Lun searches Brigadier General Ralph’s clothes before sacrificing the body. He finds a small box containing Daoist Huang’s Left Palm, a unique corpse fragment holding abandoned research memories of the traditional Corpse Liberation Art. Its one-time memory effect has already been used.
• Xia Lun stores the palm beside Daoist Huang’s Eyeball, joking that collecting more body parts might let him resurrect Daoist Huang.
• He throws Ralph’s corpse into the Circular Sacrifice Cave and wishes for an item that will remove his Soul Withering curse without side effects and grant permanent immunity to similar curses.
• At first, nothing happens, and Xia Lun grows anxious, wondering whether the offering was insufficient or his wish too ambitious. Then the cave releases a pillar of light; its sparks flow into Night Plume, transforming the sword into a legendary weapon.
• Night Plume can now become indestructible and grow stronger through powerful kills, damage an enemy’s body, mind, and soul while restoring Xia Lun’s mental health, and—through Curse Severance—remove curses and mystical bonds.
• Curse Severance can solve Xia Lun’s curse, but it requires him to pierce his own heart and permanently transform. Afterward, he must absorb ten human souls every 24 hours or die. Xia Lun judges this cost extreme but sees the sword as a possible way forward. He plans to return to the Shelter, rest, and examine a black touchscreen phone.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun’s usual composure gives way to visible nervousness while he waits for the sacrifice to respond, revealing how urgently he wants relief from the curse.
• He reacts to Daoist Huang’s severed palm with dark humor, connecting it to the Eyeball he already possesses and speculating about restoring the mysterious scholar.
• Xia Lun remains pragmatic after receiving the sword: he recognizes its immense combat benefits but does not mistake its costly, irreversible effect for an easy solution.
• Daoist Huang is not present, but his research and body fragments link him to Xia Lun’s unfolding discoveries.

Significant themes

• Power comes at a price: The wish grants a powerful cure, but its permanent soul-feeding requirement makes the solution morally and practically dangerous.
• Hope amid uncertainty: Xia Lun’s fear that the sacrifice has failed turns to cautious optimism when the sword changes.
• Immortality and bodily transformation: The Corpse Liberation research and Night Plume’s effect both raise the question of what must be surrendered to escape death or affliction.
• Sacrifice and unintended consequences: The result fulfills the wish in a technical sense while violating Xia Lun’s demand for a side-effect-free remedy.

Plot and key events

• After the storm, Xia Lun returns to the Shelter, reflecting briefly on the island’s dead inhabitants and the sea’s endless motion. The familiar shelter eases his tension.
• He unlocks the cracked black phone belonging to Tedilina, the Eye of Ambition, using symbols he remembers from her.
• The phone’s notes reveal that Tedilina was once a civil-engineering student and urban-legend investigator. She had discovered that a recurring symbol belonged to the Anomalous Phenomena Prevention and Control Committee, a government agency that contained supernatural events—not, as Xia Lun expected, the Foresight Club.
• Tedilina had set out to search for her missing girlfriend, carrying her investigation notes and a handgun, but later woke up on the island with no memory of how she got there.
• A second note describes a supposedly dangerous e-book. Xia Lun recognizes it as an Evil Flesh Codex, reads it using Symptom Reading, and gains the secret art Phantom Flesh Refines Essence. It converts life force into mental health and can also restore another person’s mind.
• Xia Lun judges the skill unlikely to help him and spends his unused attribute point on Constitution.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun shows growing confidence in his abilities: he moves stealthily through the forest, recalls the phone’s password symbols, and reads the dangerous codex without being overwhelmed by its hallucinations.
• He is surprised and unsettled by the mismatch between the Committee’s official-sounding name and his assumptions about the Foresight Club.
• Tedilina’s notes reveal her as a determined, curious investigator whose search for her missing girlfriend interrupted her research. Her past—and the circumstances of her arrival on the island—remain mysterious.
• Xia Lun’s only direct interactions are with the phone and its recorded contents; he also reflects on Tedilina, whom he killed, while choosing to investigate her unfinished lead.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and danger: Investigating supernatural phenomena can reveal useful powers, but carries mental risks.
• Misleading appearances: An organization Xia Lun associates with chaos is revealed as a government containment agency, while an ordinary-looking e-book proves to be a dangerous codex.
• Isolation and unanswered questions: The island’s silence, Tedilina’s lost memories, and her missing girlfriend’s fate all deepen the chapter’s mystery.
• Adaptation: Xia Lun turns discoveries from a former enemy’s records into new abilities and practical character growth.

Chapter summary

After confirming the island’s major threats are dead, Xia Lun spends a day recovering, honoring the fallen, and preparing for his next stage of survival.

• Attribute increase: Xia Lun uses a free point to raise his Constitution from 18 to 19. The change causes intense, burning pain, followed by a surge of warmth and vitality. It also raises his Intelligence from 13 to 14. He finds his senses sharper and his thoughts faster, briefly entering a flow state. He recognizes that greater toughness should also improve his ability to absorb force and deliver powerful attacks, and that the increase has erased the fatigue left by his revival.
• Memorials: Rather than immediately pursuing more powers, Xia Lun digs graves on the western slope. He buries Delis’s leather bag and Horn’s sabre, marking their graves with their names. He also buries the Brigadier General, Ralph, under the title “Sacrificer Ralph.”
• A rare break: With the island’s powerful enemies gone, Xia Lun tries fishing but catches nothing despite using all his biscuits as bait. He eventually activates Heightened Focus and spears a fish with his upgraded Short Sword, Night Plume. After gathering crabs and coconuts, he cooks and enjoys fish soup.
• Plans: Before sleeping, he lays out his next steps: obtain memories from the Brigadier General, then visit Isoville to kill the Wild Men and collect memory points, set another fire to earn the “Arsonist” perk, and improve his sleeping arrangements.
• Dream exchanges: In the dream space, Xia Lun spends 9,000 memory points to materialize Ralph’s swordsmanship specialization memory, which grants 70% mastery. He also spends 7,200 points on Curse-Reversal Strike, a skill Ralph developed to reflect a secret-art curse with a precisely timed sword slash. Xia Lun is eager to learn it and use it against “Curse Death,” seeking revenge.

Character development and interactions

Xia Lun’s physical and mental growth makes him more capable, while his decision to bury the dead shows a quieter, respectful side beneath his pragmatic survival instincts. His brief fishing attempt offers a moment of leisure, though his impatience and skill lead him to turn it into a hunt. His interaction with Ralph is posthumous but significant: Xia Lun studies the Brigadier General’s abilities and intends to turn his own technique against the enemy who cursed him.

Significant themes

• Growth through pain: Becoming stronger brings intense physical suffering, but also renewed vitality and clearer thought.
• Remembrance amid survival: The graves preserve the dead’s identities even in a looping world.
• Knowledge as power: Xia Lun converts the enemy’s memories and techniques into tools for future combat.
• Restraint and resolve: Though he has time before the scenario ends, Xia Lun balances preparation with rest—and remains focused on revenge.

Plot points and events

• Xia Lun begins the day rested and heads to the City of Isoville to earn Memory Points and train his Stealth, having spent most of his points on sword-related memories.
• Rather than attacking openly, he uses stealth and assassination to kill nearly forty Salt Monsters. The method works well, though he makes mistakes that sometimes alert nearby enemies. His haul is 2,312 Memory Points—useful, but less than he hoped.
• After killing the remaining monsters, he sets the city on fire. The blaze earns him the Arsonist specialty, which he sees as a potential way to deal with groups of spirits.
• His Stealth improves from 20% to 32%, reinforcing his belief that it has considerable potential.
• With the island cleared, Xia Lun settles into a comfortable routine: raising Grouse, building a fishpond, planting wheat, improving the Shelter, and tending the graves of Gunner and the others.
• He continues training in dream duels against Brigadier General. Unable to rely on guns or Heightened Focus, he repeatedly loses—but gradually adapts and deepens his sword technique.

Character development

• Xia Lun grows more capable and confident as an assassin, learning through combat rather than relying on theory.
• He balances practical concerns—such as his limited Memory Points and the modest rewards for killing weak enemies—with a growing appetite for power and progress.
• His island life reveals a calmer, more domestic side: after eliminating the threats, he takes pride in making the Shelter comfortable and self-sufficient.
• His sword training shows persistence and humility. He accepts repeated deaths in the dream and treats each defeat as a lesson.

Character interactions

• Xia Lun’s encounters with the Salt Monsters are defined by concealment and sudden violence. Once the survivors gather together, he patiently waits for their attention to lapse, then breaks their group’s resolve by making members disappear one at a time.
• In his dreams, Brigadier General remains Xia Lun’s relentless opponent and teacher: the General’s overwhelming speed and force expose Xia Lun’s weaknesses and push him to refine his technique.
• Xia Lun also remembers Gunner and the others by renovating their graves, linking his new peaceful routine to the losses of the past.

Significant themes

• Practice through experience: Xia Lun improves both Stealth and swordsmanship through repeated real combat and failure.
• Power versus reward: Killing many weak enemies brings limited returns, prompting him to consider the value of stronger foes and treasure.
• Mastery through perseverance: Repeated defeat becomes a means of adaptation rather than a reason to quit.
• Survival turning into comfort: Once danger is gone, Xia Lun transforms the island from a place of bare survival into a home—and nearly a vacation spot.

Key events

• Xia Lun repeatedly duels the Brigadier General in his dreams, dying over and over but steadily improving. He learns to anticipate the flow of force rather than simply react faster.
• On day 122, the island resets and the Serko returns, but it is empty: no survivors or Salt Monsters. Xia Lun suspects the Event Life’s cycle may have stalled because he is still alive. He leaves the wreck before it breaks apart.
• With the island reset, Xia Lun returns to Isoville and swiftly eliminates its Salt Monsters, earning 2,312 Memory Points and improving his Stealth Specialization. He then burns the city, enjoying the release it provides.
• He devotes the rest of the scenario to swordsmanship. By day 168, he defeats the Brigadier General using only a sword; by day 172, he can do so consistently and fully absorbs the opponent’s “Cold Weapon Use—Swords” mastery. He also learns the force-drawing technique he calls Flow and quickly acquires Curse-Reversal Strike.
• His training raises his base Agility from 17 to 18. On day 183, he releases his animals, goes fishing, and completes the survival objective just as he gets a bite. He is transported away before seeing the fish.
• In his place, a plane suddenly appears and crashes into his shelter. A passenger, Tedilina, wakes, finds herself on a deserted island, and begins recording her situation.

Character development and interactions

• Xia Lun becomes more skilled, patient, and composed. Repeated defeat teaches him humility, while his growing ability to read force lets him match the Brigadier General’s pace.
• His interactions with the Brigadier General are entirely through repeated dream combat: the opponent serves as both a formidable adversary and an instructor whose techniques Xia Lun gradually understands.
• Xia Lun shows a subdued respect for the dead Serko survivors, despite having no practical reason to search the empty ship.
• Fishing and meditation-like quiet offer a contrast to his intense training and violence. His comic regret at losing the fish also gives his departure a light, human note.
• Tedilina’s awakening introduces a new character and hints that the island’s next cycle may be beginning.

Significant themes

• Learning through failure: Repeated death becomes a source of practical knowledge rather than a reason to give up.
• Skill as understanding: Mastery depends on anticipating forces and reading an opponent, not merely speed or reflexes.
• The costs and uses of violence: Combat can fuel arrogance, while being defeated encourages humility; Xia Lun also channels stress into the ritual of burning Isoville.
• Cycles and uncertainty: The island resets, the Event Life remains unexplained, and Xia Lun’s sudden departure coincides with a new crash—suggesting the loop continues beyond what he understands.

Plot points and events

• Doctor Dawlt awakens in his younger self’s home, apparently restored to health and free of the island’s time-loop “event life.” He remembers escaping by creating a logical paradox involving two copies of the Evil Flesh Codex.
• Overjoyed, he goes into the town square and asks a woman for the date. She recognizes him as her husband, but he has no memory of her.
• His memories begin disappearing rapidly. He realizes that the island’s loop was only one part of a larger event life—and that these loops are nested within one another.
• As despair threatens to destroy his sanity, Doctor refuses to give in. He runs to the old harbor and tries to deduce how to escape the larger loop, but his mind fails before he can complete the solution.
• With his remaining will, he uses a materializing secret art to create Captain Haya and a frigate, then gives Haya necromantic knowledge, the Prayerbook of the Drowned, and a fabricated motive for revenge. Doctor loses his sanity, and months later a bishop cures him, but he has again lost his memories and a great deal of property.

Character developments and interactions

• Doctor Dawlt moves from exhilaration at believing himself free to terror and despair as he discovers the deeper loop. Even as his memories and sanity collapse, he remains defiant and tries to leave behind a plan and accumulated abilities for another person.
• Doctor’s wife recognizes his confusion and tries to help, urging him to seek an exorcism at the cathedral. His failure to recognize her frightens and hurts her; she calls after him as he runs away.
• Captain Haya, created by Doctor, receives knowledge and motivation that may help continue Doctor’s struggle across the loops.

Significant themes

• Nested cycles and false freedom: Escaping one loop does not guarantee escape; each apparent reality may be contained within a larger cycle.
• Reason and human defiance: Doctor’s faith in human intelligence is shaken, but he keeps resisting even when reason and memory fail him.
• Memory, identity, and madness: As Doctor’s memories vanish, his sense of self and grasp on reality unravel.
• Inheritance and persistence: By creating Haya and passing on knowledge, Doctor attempts to make progress survive beyond his own collapse.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun returns from the 180-day island scenario and reviews the settlement. Though the basic objective was simply to survive, his discoveries, relationships, kills, exploration, and achievements raise his rating to SS.
• His rewards include 2,500 Memory Points, bringing his total to 7,244, and 210% Memory Manifestation Authority—above the usual 200% limit. The over-limit authority gives him discounts on manifested items.
• He checks his growth in attributes, specializations, perks, and skills, noting that he learned much of it during the island scenario and can now focus on his real-world business and the Foresight Club.
• He reflects on Night Plume, his legendary short sword. It can grow stronger, strike souls, restore sanity, and potentially break his Soul Curse, but doing so requires consuming ten human souls a day. He decides to reserve that power for emergencies.
• Xia Lun tries the Fantasy Casket and draws a worthless piece of cloth. Its cryptic note about nested time loops reminds him of Event Life and unsettles him.
• He spends most of his points on the Evil Flesh Codex Secrets of Flesh. Reading it causes disturbing visions and damages his mental state, but enhances Phantom Flesh Refines Essence. This, in turn, improves Life Drain, allowing him to drain a target’s Mental Health while restoring his own.
• The chapter ends as Xia Lun notices a new exchange option: Multiplayer Scenario Mode.

Character development and interactions

• Xia Lun emerges from the scenario confident in his accomplishments, practical about his new powers, and increasingly alert to the danger behind seemingly ordinary systems and clues.
• The settlement records his relationships with survivors and allies: Brigadier General Ralph admitted defeat; Gunner, Monkey, Delis, and Horn admired him; and Dawlt, the Prophet (Doctor), approved of him.
• Xia Lun’s dealings with the system are transactional and self-directed: he weighs costs, tests exchanges, and chooses when to risk disturbing knowledge. His reaction to the casket’s note reveals a growing unease beneath his humor and confidence.

Significant themes

• Achievement and cost: Xia Lun’s extraordinary rating and rewards come from survival, construction, exploration, and lethal victories, while powerful abilities carry steep personal or moral prices.
• Knowledge as a threat: The casket’s note and the Codex suggest that greater understanding can expose frightening realities and damage the mind.
• Pragmatism and restraint: Xia Lun treats Night Plume’s curse-breaking ability as a last resort and carefully manages his limited resources.
• Progression and uncertainty: His growing abilities open new possibilities, but the mysterious time-loop hints and Multiplayer Scenario Mode suggest that the wider system is stranger—and more dangerous—than he understands.