Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1 Summary

Key plot points and events

• Chen Feng, a 26-year-old gaming streamer who has crossed into another world, realizes he has died and reloaded a save. His Save-Load System lets him return to a saved point after death, but he has only eight reloads left. He cannot remember what killed him.
• During a heavy downpour, he meets He Ting, the attractive landlady of the Happiness Internet Cafe, who invites him inside and offers him a job.
• Chen Feng recognizes the cafe and its staff from his previous run. He suspects the place may be connected to his death, but has nowhere else to go and decides to stay.
• The cafe’s staff include She Qingqing, a hostile cashier who objects to Chen Feng tracking mud inside, and Zhu Xianxian, a sunny cashier who offers him food. Remembering how her kindness affected him before, Chen Feng keeps his distance and offers to help with the work instead.
• After Chen Feng quickly helps prepare the customers’ drink orders, He Ting hires him as an attendant and lays out three rules: stay off the third floor, don’t set the air conditioning too low, and avoid people in white coats, whom she describes as escaped patients from a nearby rehabilitation hospital.
• He Ting gives Chen Feng a room on the second floor, across the hall from her own. Though he is tempted by her flirtatious manner, he prioritizes survival.
• Having died after sleeping during his previous attempt, Chen Feng decides not to go to bed. He watches the doorway, determined to find out what happens to him.

Character developments

• Chen Feng is cautious and increasingly guarded after his first death. Rather than trusting the cafe’s apparent hospitality—or becoming distracted by romance—he focuses on staying alive and investigating the danger.
• He Ting appears welcoming and generous, hiring Chen Feng despite his lack of identification and offering him a place to stay. Her flirtatious behavior also leaves him uncertain about her intentions.
• Zhu Xianxian is kind and cheerful, but Chen Feng’s prior experience makes him wary of accepting her attention.
• She Qingqing is sharp-tongued and openly antagonistic toward Chen Feng.
• Two police officers—an experienced male officer and a resolute young female officer—briefly appear, establishing a veteran-and-novice partnership.

Significant themes

• Survival and uncertainty: Chen Feng has limited chances to recover from death and does not know what killed him.
• Suspicion beneath ordinary life: The internet cafe seems like a mundane workplace, but its unusual rules and Chen Feng’s unexplained death make it feel threatening.
• Memory and repetition: Chen Feng’s prior run gives him knowledge of events and people, but not enough to prevent danger.
• Trust and self-protection: He weighs offers of help against the possibility that they conceal ulterior motives.

Character interactions

• He Ting welcomes Chen Feng, hires him, explains the cafe rules, and gives him a room; her flirtatious manner both attracts and unsettles him.
• She Qingqing challenges his presence, while Zhu Xianxian defends him and offers him food. Chen Feng declines the meal but helps with the cafe’s work.
• The two police officers exchange a brief, familiar reprimand: the veteran reminds the younger officer to use his professional title while on duty.
• Chen Feng’s final choice—to stay awake and watch the doorway—sets up his attempt to uncover the cause of his repeated death.

Key plot points and events

• A thunderstorm knocks out power at the Internet café. After the entrance’s glass shatters, a tattooed customer is killed when his head is violently twisted around.
• The panicked customers flee upstairs. Their phones have no signal, and the commotion below soon falls eerily silent.
• A young customer is killed in the restroom by an unseen presence, which seems connected to the unnaturally cold running water.
• Chen Feng runs toward the forbidden third floor. There he finds rows of ropes bearing flayed human skins. The skins move and turn toward him.
• A system activates, revealing that the skins belonged to dead transmigrators. Chen Feng inherits their abandoned systems.
• Landlady He Ting appears and confirms she had warned Chen Feng not to go upstairs. As he tries to escape, his body rapidly withers and his vitality drains away. He realizes this is how he died on his previous run.
• The chapter ends with an apparent reset: Chen Feng is back in the hot, humid weather before the rain, as a beautiful woman approaches and warns him to find shelter.

Character developments

• Chen Feng shifts from treating the setting like a lighthearted romance to recognizing it as a lethal supernatural world. He remains observant, but fear and desperation drive him to break the third-floor rule.
• He Ting, the landlady, becomes deeply suspicious: her presence among the skins and her apparent role in Chen Feng’s death suggest she is connected to the café’s horrors.
• The customers’ brief, ordinary reactions—panic, arguing, and failed attempts to call for help—show how quickly everyday people become helpless in the crisis.

Significant themes

• The danger beneath the ordinary: a familiar internet café turns into a place of supernatural slaughter.
• Rules and survival: the third-floor prohibition may conceal a deadly secret, but desperation pushes Chen Feng to ignore it.
• Death and repetition: Chen Feng’s realization that he has died before, followed by the return to an earlier moment, introduces a cycle or reset.
• Inherited power with a cost: the systems left by dead transmigrators offer potential resources, but their many deaths raise questions about whether such power can help Chen Feng survive.

Character interactions

• Chen Feng warns the upstairs customers about the killing and urges them to call the police; they discover their phones have no signal.
• The customers argue over who should investigate, but none volunteers until the restroom death sends them fleeing.
• Chen Feng’s encounter with He Ting turns the landlady from a rule-giver into a possible threat.
• The chapter closes with the approaching woman addressing Chen Feng kindly, creating a sharp contrast with the violence he has just experienced.

Key plot points and events

• During a rainstorm, Chen Feng avoids He Ting, the landlady of Happiness Internet Cafe, because he knows she is a demoness who kills homeless men and hangs their skins. He is so frightened that he urinates himself.
• Remembering that he inherited systems from previous transmigrators, Chen Feng summons the system interface and sees three choices. He selects the Great Benefactor System, which offers charitable missions and rewards System Points. Points can enhance his other systems, including restoring Save-Load lives.
• His first mission is to destroy the power behind Happiness Internet Cafe. Reporting He Ting could earn a small reward; confronting her, a larger one; killing her, the greatest. Chen Feng decides he would rather report her than fight.
• Police officers Old Li and Zhang Ruobing leave the cafe after an unsuccessful investigation. Chen approaches them with a story about being stranded and hungry. Zhang dismisses him as lazy, but Old Li offers him food and shelter to avoid neglecting someone in need.
• In their police car, Chen realizes the officers’ search should have uncovered the bodies upstairs, yet they found no clues. This deepens his suspicion that something unusual is happening.
• A radio call sends the officers to Cihang Bridge, where someone is attempting suicide. Old Li explains that the bridge has a long history of deaths, apparently caused not by stress or its oddly personal warning signs, but by a water ghost.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Feng remains cowardly and survival-focused, but the new system gives him a potential way to grow stronger and earn extra lives. He weighs reward against danger and chooses the safest option. His observations also show he is beginning to question what he sees and how the supernatural works.
• He Ting appears charming and confident, but Chen knows her murderous nature and treats her invitation as a threat.
• Zhang Ruobing is blunt and judgmental toward people she sees as unwilling to work. She clashes with her mentor, Old Li, over whether to help Chen.
• Old Li is cautious and compassionate, though partly motivated by fear of public and professional consequences. He insists on helping Chen and urges Zhang not to jump to conclusions about the cafe.
• Chen’s interaction with the officers shifts from a plea for food into a ride with the police, bringing him closer to the city’s investigation—and its next supernatural danger.

Significant themes

• Survival versus heroism: Chen’s first instinct is to avoid a dangerous fight, even when the system offers a greater reward for confronting evil.
• Charity and self-interest: The new system turns helping others into a route to power, while Old Li’s kindness is mixed with concern for public accountability.
• Appearance versus reality: He Ting’s beauty masks her cruelty, and the bridge’s well-intended signs appear to have worsened the problem.
• Unseen supernatural forces: The officers’ inability to find evidence at the cafe and the revelation of a water ghost suggest that ordinary explanations and investigations may not be enough.

Key plot points and events

• Old Li tells Chen Feng a supposedly true story about a rich businessman whose beautiful wife drained the life from her lover. The businessman discovered her holding the lover’s corpse, then died after she threw him from Cihang Bridge.
• According to Old Li, the drowned man became a resentful Water Ghost that haunts the river and seeks a victim to take its place. The Great Benefactor System confirms a Water Ghost is present and assigns Chen Feng a mission to eliminate it.
• Chen Feng suspects the Water Ghost is the invisible entity that previously broke into the Internet Café. Old Li believes the ghost cannot leave the water, but Chen Feng knows from experience that it can come ashore.
• At the bridge, a figure jumps into the river. Old Li dives in to rescue the person, who turns out to be a young woman. Zhang Ruobing anchors and throws a rescue rope; Chen Feng joins them.
• The woman appears to struggle helplessly, but once Old Li is in danger, she grabs the rope and shoves him underwater, then stops struggling and floats. Though Chen Feng wants to abandon her, Zhang insists they must still save her.
• The woman cries that something has grabbed her foot. She is dragged under, and the rescue rope begins jerking as if a much heavier, unseen presence is climbing it.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Feng shifts from listening skeptically to recognizing the danger as real. He is frightened and initially ready to flee, but chooses to help Old Li and the woman. His anger at the woman’s apparent betrayal clashes with Zhang’s insistence on their duty.
• Old Li moves from joking storyteller to courageous rescuer, risking his life to save the jumper. He disappears underwater after the woman pushes him away from the rope.
• Zhang Ruobing remains practical and compassionate: she secures the rescue line, helps with the rescue, and stops Chen Feng from retaliating against the woman.
• The young woman first presents herself as a drowning victim, then reveals apparent selfishness by sacrificing Old Li. Her cries for help may be genuine after something seizes her—or another deception.
• Old Li’s tale frames the Water Ghost for Chen Feng, while the crisis forces Chen Feng and Zhang into an uneasy disagreement over whether the woman deserves rescue.

Significant themes

• Duty versus anger: Zhang argues that rescuers must help even someone who behaves cruelly; Chen Feng questions whether the woman still deserves to be called a person.
• Appearance and deception: The woman’s apparent helplessness conceals her ability to swim, while the ghost’s presence remains invisible but unmistakable.
• Resentment and revenge: Old Li’s story links a violent death in water to a ghost driven by unresolved hatred.
• Courage and sacrifice: Old Li risks himself to save a stranger, even when she turns against him.

Key plot points

• Chen Feng recognizes the invisible Water Ghost climbing a rope and warns Zhang Ruobing, but she dismisses his alarm. The Ghost kills her by crushing her throat.
• Chen Feng deliberately rams the spot where he believes the Ghost is, hoping to expose and kill it. He injures himself and hits the creature, but the system’s quest remains incomplete. The Ghost gets into the car and kills him.
• Chen Feng reloads at the start of the scenario, discovering that his Save-Load Count has fallen to six. Although the Great Benefactor System is gone, its two quests remain: destroy the Internet Cafe and eliminate the Water Ghost.
• He chooses a new system, the Great Villain System, which offers a quest to kill Zhong Jielian, a girl pretending to threaten suicide to avoid school.
• Chen Feng joins Old Li and Zhang Ruobing again. Rather than prevent the rescue call, he decides he must go to the bridge so Zhong will actually be there and the quest can be completed. He hints that a Water Ghost lives beneath Cihang Bridge, then offers to tell Old Li a story about it.

Character developments

• Chen Feng becomes more calculating and risk-tolerant: he uses Zhang as bait to locate the Ghost, then accepts that he must return to the dangerous bridge to pursue his new quest. He also starts learning how the systems and repeated lives work.
• Zhang Ruobing remains skeptical and dismissive of Chen Feng’s warning, despite her mentor’s knowledge of the Water Ghost.
• Old Li is puzzled by Chen Feng’s familiarity with the city’s ghost stories and by Chen Feng seeming to anticipate the radio call.
• Zhong Jielian is presented as a girl using a staged suicide threat to avoid school; Chen Feng’s new quest reframes her as a target.

Character interactions

• Chen Feng urgently warns Zhang Ruobing, but she refuses to take him seriously and is killed.
• Chen Feng uses Old Li’s familiar excuse to get into the police car, then surprises him by responding to the radio call before Old Li explains it.
• Chen Feng challenges Zhang’s disbelief in ghosts and uses Old Li’s own saying—“better to believe they exist”—to introduce the Water Ghost story.

Significant themes

• Trial, error, and survival: Chen Feng’s repeated deaths force him to learn from failure, though each reset costs a limited save.
• Power and moral compromise: The new system rewards villainous acts, pushing Chen Feng toward killing someone for points.
• Knowledge versus disbelief: Chen Feng’s firsthand experience clashes with Zhang’s skepticism and Old Li’s uncertainty.
• Systems as persistent forces: Even when a system disappears, its quests remain, while each new life offers another system and another set of choices.

Plot points and events

• Chen Feng arrives at Cihang Bridge with Old Li and Zhang Ruobing, expecting the water ghost to appear. He changes his plan and joins them in preparing a rescue rope.
• Zhong Ruobing jumps into the river, apparently attempting suicide. Chen Feng stops Old Li from jumping in, pointing out that she seems able to swim. When she ignores the rope and then disappears beneath the water, Chen Feng receives a system point for completing his task.
• The rope jerks as if something invisible is climbing it. Old Li fires toward the unseen presence; bullets draw blood, but Chen Feng tells him to shoot the rope instead. Once it is severed, a huge splash suggests the water ghost has fallen back into the river.
• Chen Feng warns that the creature is still alive. The three escape, then discover they cannot report the incident normally: Zhang Ruobing’s phone has no signal, and her body camera is broken.
• Old Li orders Zhang Ruobing to go home, saying he will find someone else to deal with the threat. As they argue, invisible footprints appear on the road behind their departing car.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Feng acts more protectively than before, using his knowledge of the previous events to keep Old Li from repeating a fatal mistake. He remains pragmatic and alert to the supernatural danger.
• Old Li shows his instinctive courage and compassion by preparing to rescue the girl, but listens to Chen Feng’s reasoning and avoids jumping into the river. He later takes charge and tries to protect Zhang Ruobing from a threat he believes she cannot handle.
• Zhang Ruobing is shaken by the invisible, bleeding creature, but remains determined to stop it from killing again. Her concern for Old Li mirrors his concern for her.
• Chen Feng and Old Li work together against the water ghost, while Chen Feng’s urgency clashes with Zhang Ruobing’s desire to follow procedure and report the incident.

Significant themes

• Compassion and self-sacrifice: Old Li’s willingness to risk himself to save another person is admirable, but Chen Feng urges him to consider whether such a sacrifice would actually help.
• Knowledge versus disbelief: Chen Feng’s firsthand knowledge of the ghost helps the group survive, while ordinary procedures and evidence fail them.
• Protection and responsibility: Old Li and Zhang Ruobing argue over who should face the danger, each motivated by concern for the other.
• Unresolved supernatural threat: The ghost escapes, and the unexplained footprints suggest it may still be pursuing them.

Key events

• Old Li stops at a convenience store for cigarettes while Zhang Ruobing sits dazed and Chen Feng struggles with his wet, uncomfortable clothes.
• The Water Ghost follows them, marked by approaching footprints in the rain. Old Li and Ruobing fire repeatedly, but their bullets cannot stop it.
• Chen Feng drives the police car into the creature. The impact knocks it down, but Old Li’s baton slides harmlessly over its oil-coated body, and the Water Ghost throws him aside.
• Realizing the monster is covered in oil, Chen Feng uses Old Li’s windproof lighter to ignite it. The Water Ghost burns despite the rain and is reduced to char. The system declares the elimination mission complete with a perfect rating and awards Chen Feng three points.
• Exhausted, Chen Feng falls asleep in the car. He recognizes a seductive dream featuring He Ting, the Landlady, as the same kind of dream that killed him during his first crossing. Before he can escape it, Old Li and Ruobing discover that Chen Feng is dead, his body reduced to an empty skin.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Feng again proves resourceful under pressure, identifying oil as the reason the baton fails and finding an unconventional way to defeat the Water Ghost. His apparent victory is undercut by his fatal return to the Landlady’s dream.
• Old Li risks himself to keep the Water Ghost away from his wife, fighting alongside his apprentice even after his ammunition runs out. Though injured, he survives and wants to thank Chen Feng with dinner.
• Zhang Ruobing begins the encounter distracted and shaken, but joins Old Li in firing at the monster. When their weapons fail and Old Li is thrown aside, she is overwhelmed by fear and despair.
• Chen Feng works with both officers: he warns them of the pursuit, takes the dangerous initiative with the car and lighter, and ultimately saves them from the creature. Their relief and gratitude turn to horror when they find him dead.

Significant themes

• Ingenuity over force: Bullets, a baton, and a car fail; understanding the creature’s weakness makes the difference.
• Courage and loyalty: Old Li refuses to endanger his wife, while Ruobing refuses to abandon her master.
• Victory shadowed by danger: Chen Feng completes the mission and survives the immediate threat, but the familiar dream reveals that supernatural danger remains—and that his success may be short-lived.

Plot points and events

• Another loop begins after the landlady kills Chen Feng whenever he falls asleep, regardless of where he is. He concludes that he must kill her before nightfall.
• Chen Feng activates the Strongest Ghost-Catching System, which requires him to defeat a ghost and fulfill its wish before he can fully subdue it.
• He targets the Water Ghost, whose weakness is fire and whose desire for revenge against the landlady he already knows. At Cihang Bridge, he sets the ghost alight, weakening it, then persuades it to cooperate against their common enemy. The system temporarily subdues it and reveals its abilities and vulnerabilities.
• Chen Feng tells officers Old Li and Zhang Ruobing that the Happiness Internet Cafe’s landlady is a supernatural killer responsible for the disappearances and the deaths of homeless people. Old Li agrees to act despite the lack of conventional evidence.
• An hour later, eight officers arrive at the Internet Cafe during heavy rain to investigate and confront the landlady, with Chen Feng among them.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Feng moves from surviving repeated deaths to planning an offensive. He uses his knowledge from previous loops to recruit the Water Ghost and persuade the police to help him.
• Old Li shifts from skepticism about Chen Feng’s supernatural claims to trusting him after witnessing the Water Ghost. He accepts the risks of acting because he sees it as his duty.
• Zhang Ruobing remains cautious and questions her mentor’s decision, but the Water Ghost’s appearance has shaken her disbelief.
• The Water Ghost is revealed as a powerful but vulnerable ghost with water-based abilities, and it temporarily allies with Chen Feng against the landlady.

Significant themes

• Learning through repetition: Chen Feng turns knowledge gained across loops into practical strategy.
• Trust and duty: Old Li chooses to investigate even without standard evidence, guided by responsibility and belief in Chen Feng.
• Alliances against shared threats: Chen Feng recruits a ghost by appealing to their mutual hatred of the landlady.
• The supernatural and the ordinary: Police procedure and conventional investigation collide with a world where ghosts and supernatural killers are real.

Plot points and events

• After evacuating the Internet Cafe’s customers, Old Li questions receptionists Zhu Xianxian and another staff member about the Landlady. Zhu says the Landlady has gone out, but Chen Feng recognizes this as a lie from his earlier loops.
• Surveillance footage shows the Landlady going upstairs. Old Li orders the receptionists restrained and leads a search. The third floor is only an unfinished hall—unlike the room full of human skins Chen Feng remembers.
• Chen Feng realizes the building may have a false third floor and that the staff key he obtained in a previous loop is what allows access to the real one. He retrieves a key from a strangely unresponsive attendant.
• The attendant suddenly attacks, breaks free of its handcuffs, and withstands the officers’ Tasers. When its skin tears away, it is revealed as a monster. It dies, and Chen Feng’s system identifies it as a one-star Imposter.
• The cafe’s lights go out. On the first floor, a vast swarm of spiders traps Old Yang and the other officers. The spiders use bits of skin to hold up Zhu Xianxian, revealing her monstrous nature. The swarm overwhelms the team before they can warn the others.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Feng relies on his memories of previous loops, challenges Old Li’s plan to split the group, and pieces together the key’s importance. His experience helps him react quickly to the Imposter’s attack.
• Old Li takes Chen Feng’s warning seriously, changes his initial plan, and helps subdue the monster.
• Zhang Ruobing questions Chen Feng’s sarcasm but unintentionally prompts his insight that the building may have two versions of the third floor.
• Zhu Xianxian, initially appearing to be a harmless receptionist, lies about the Landlady and is revealed as part of the spider threat.
• The officers work together to restrain the Imposter, but their teamwork cannot protect the first-floor team from the spiders.

Significant themes

• Deception and false appearances: The receptionist, the attendant, and even the building’s layout conceal dangerous truths.
• Knowledge gained through repetition: Chen Feng’s memories from earlier loops give him clues others lack.
• Escalating danger: The Imposter’s attack is followed immediately by a larger assault, showing that the cafe is crowded with monsters.
• Limits of authority and force: Police training, restraints, and Tasers prove ineffective against supernatural threats.

Plot points and events

• Unable to contact Captain Yang, Old Li and the officers search the cafe. Old Li shoots a disguised attendant, discovering that the imposters’ human skins peel away when damaged.
• The group finds Zhu Xianxian, who reveals she has eaten Old Yang and his colleagues. Bullets expose her monstrous form but do not hurt her; she releases a swarm of spiders. Old Li’s tear-gas grenade kills many, allowing the survivors to retreat.
• Two officers turn to stone, revealing that She Qingqing—the snake demon—has been attacking them. She kills Zhang Ruobing by tearing her in half, and petrifies Old Li.
• Chen Feng recognizes the danger of She Qingqing’s gaze and escapes by keeping his eyes shut. He lures her into a bathroom and turns on the tap, summoning the Water Ghost.
• The Water Ghost throws She Qingqing against a wall and, despite beginning to petrify, tears off her head.

Character developments and interactions

• Old Li acts decisively throughout, but his attempt to protect his team ends in the deaths of Zhang Ruobing and others, and his own petrification.
• Chen Feng notices the snake demon’s petrifying power and improvises a plan, using the Water Ghost as his only defense.
• Zhang Ruobing is killed by She Qingqing while calling for her mentor.
• She Qingqing claims she does not want to kill, but attacks the group and underestimates Chen Feng and the Water Ghost.
• The Water Ghost, summoned by Chen Feng, proves powerful enough to kill She Qingqing despite her petrifying gaze.

Significant themes

• Survival through observation and improvisation: recognizing each monster’s weakness offers a chance to survive, though not always in time.
• The cost of protecting others: Old Li’s resolve cannot prevent devastating losses.
• Appearance versus reality: ordinary-looking attendants and people conceal lethal monsters.
• Uncertain alliances: Chen Feng relies on the Water Ghost, a dangerous supernatural force, as his rescuer.

Chapter Summary: “Demoness”

Key plot points and events

• After She Qingqing’s petrifying gaze saves him, Chen Feng cautiously leaves the bathroom and encounters Zhu Xianxian, the Human-Skin Spider. She has survived his tear-gas grenade by producing countless spiders from eggs inside her body.
• The Water Ghost attacks Zhu Xianxian, but her multiplying swarm overwhelms it. Realizing that tear gas might disrupt the spiders, Chen Feng searches for another grenade, then devises a more powerful tactic: using She Qingqing’s head to petrify the swarm.
• Chen Feng draws the spiders’ attention to the head. They all see She Qingqing’s gaze and turn to stone, defeating Zhu Xianxian. The Water Ghost survives, but is badly injured by poison, fire, and petrification.
• With a key recovered from a fallen attendant, Chen Feng reaches the true third floor: a room transformed into the Skin Forest. He uses She Qingqing’s head to catch the Landlady by surprise, partially petrifying her and slowing her movements.
• The Water Ghost ambushes the Landlady and tears off her head. Chen Feng suspects she is not defeated—but the severed head opens its eyes and speaks, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Feng shifts from confidence to desperation as his group is whittled down. He improvises under pressure, using She Qingqing’s dangerous power as a weapon despite having to handle her severed head.
• Zhu Xianxian reveals that her spider offspring let her recover from devastating injuries. She fights the Water Ghost with her swarm but is ultimately petrified.
• The Water Ghost acts as Chen Feng’s ally, first engaging Zhu Xianxian and later ambushing the Landlady. Its injuries show the cost of these fights.
• The Landlady appears resistant to petrification: her face is affected, but her body remains mobile enough to counter a straightforward attack. Even decapitation may not stop her.
• She Qingqing’s power remains useful after her death, though Chen Feng must carefully position her head to make enemies look at it.

Significant themes

• Resourcefulness and survival: Chen Feng repeatedly turns limited supplies and the enemies’ own abilities into tactical advantages.
• The danger of underestimated powers: Petrification, invisibility, and regeneration all have limits, and apparent victories can be misleading.
• Escalating attrition: Chen Feng’s force collapses until only he and a wounded ally remain, underscoring the cost of confronting the Landlady.
• Horror and grotesque transformation: Spiders hatch from a body, a swarm becomes a stone ornament, and the Landlady continues speaking after decapitation.

Plot points and events

• Chen Feng discovers that the landlady can survive decapitation. On her command, hundreds of human skins swarm the Water Ghost, pinning him down and draining his strength.
• Chen Feng smashes part of the landlady’s head, but the skins drain him too. The red lights they absorb flow back to her, rapidly healing her.
• He knocks her unconscious with a tear-gas grenade, briefly stopping the skins. The Water Ghost nearly reaches her, but she teleports away and resumes her attack. Drained completely, the Water Ghost dissolves into corpse oil, and the system declares the wish quest failed.
• The landlady then kills Chen Feng through her dream-related power. He wakes after a save-load, back before the fight, and pretends to accept her invitation to join her team.
• He warns Old Li not to go near the water, but expects him and Zhang Ruobing would be liabilities in the next fight. Chen Feng plans to face the landlady with only the recovered, healthy Water Ghost.
• He considers activating an Immortal World quest system, but decides it would not give him the immediate strength he needs. Instead, he opens a long-held exchange-system box, activating the Mythic Three Kingdoms System.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Feng shifts from desperate improvisation to strategic planning. Though badly outmatched, he uses a grenade and learns how the skins sustain the landlady; after resetting, he hides his intentions and prepares a more controlled rematch.
• The landlady, He Ting, is revealed to be exceptionally difficult to defeat: she commands the skins, drains strength to heal, attacks through dreams, and teleports. She remains playful and flirtatious even while overpowering Chen Feng.
• The Water Ghost fights fiercely but is weakened by the skins and ultimately destroyed in the failed attempt. After the reset, he is healthy again and becomes Chen Feng’s planned sole ally.
• Chen Feng tries to protect Old Li with a warning, but Old Li and Zhang Ruobing dismiss him. Chen Feng decides not to involve them in the next battle.

Significant themes

• Learning through failure: Chen Feng’s defeat reveals the landlady’s abilities and informs his revised strategy.
• Trust and deception: Chen Feng feigns loyalty to He Ting while secretly preparing to fight her again.
• Power and sacrifice: Adding allies could make the landlady stronger by giving the skins more people to drain, so Chen Feng chooses to limit the risk.
• Uncertainty of systems: A potentially powerful-sounding system may offer quests and points rather than the immediate combat advantage Chen Feng needs.

Plot points and events

• Chen Feng learns that his Mythic Three Kingdoms System lets him spend Points—each representing one life—to grant people supernatural Blessings from Three Kingdoms heroes.
• He selects three abilities for dealing with the Landlady: Ma Chao’s [Iron Cavalry], which guarantees attacks hit; Lu Xun’s [Humility], which blocks abnormal conditions; and Diaochan’s [Discord], which forces nearby male creatures to duel.
• The Water Ghost arrives outside, and Chen Feng decides that weakening the Landlady’s support is the next step. He targets She Qingqing and plans to have the Water Ghost ambush her, then use her head to petrify Zhu Xianxian.
• To win She Qingqing’s trust and lure her outside, Chen Feng secretly moves the lemons at the drink counter, then arranges for a tattooed customer to complain when she mistakenly cancels an order. Chen Feng intervenes as her defender, though the customer’s exaggerated acting nearly exposes their setup.
• She Qingqing thanks Chen Feng, but instead of falling for his advances, she urgently warns him that the Internet café is a monster’s den and that he is cursed. She offers to take him somewhere that might break the curse.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Feng shows himself to be calculating and manipulative, using a staged incident to exploit She Qingqing’s sympathy. His confidence in his plan is shaken when she recognizes his danger.
• She Qingqing is revealed as a long-lived but unusually weak monster because she has never harmed humans. She wrestles with the idea of killing for the first time, yet remains compassionate enough to warn Chen Feng—even though she believes he is doomed.
• The Landlady and Zhu Xianxian are portrayed as predatory and powerful: the Landlady gains strength by draining souls, while Zhu Xianxian has eaten six people in a month.
• The tattooed customer is Chen Feng’s recruited accomplice. His ham-fisted performance creates the confrontation that lets Chen Feng appear helpful.
• The exchange between Chen Feng and She Qingqing shifts from apparent flirtation to a serious warning, leaving Chen Feng surprised and his scheme unresolved.

Significant themes

• Power and moral cost: The system’s abilities are potent but consume lives, while monsters gain strength by preying on humans.
• Compassion amid monstrosity: She Qingqing’s restraint and concern distinguish her from the other monsters, complicating the boundary between human and monster.
• Manipulation versus sincerity: Chen Feng stages kindness for strategic gain, but She Qingqing responds with genuine concern.
• Fate and urgency: Chen Feng’s curse and the approaching threat make his choices feel increasingly time-sensitive.

Plot points and events

• She Qingqing reveals there is a way to escape the scenario, but Chen Feng refuses because he has already spent Points on Warlord’s Protection and wants to complete the Water Ghost’s mission and earn the reward for destroying the Happiness Internet Cafe.
• At Chen’s order, the Water Ghost knocks She Qingqing unconscious. Chen then buys highly toxic, banned pesticide from a nearby supermarket.
• He tricks Zhu Xianxian into drinking juice mixed with instant coffee, exploiting her spider nature, and has the Water Ghost cut the power so the customers leave.
• When Zhu becomes agitated from the caffeine, Chen tries to open the pesticide bucket but cannot. The Water Ghost arrives just in time and opens it for him.
• Chen throws the pesticide over Zhu. She breaks apart into spiders, and the Water Ghost kills the four Imposter attendants. Zhu’s true body attempts to attack Chen with a nearly invisible thread, but the Water Ghost catches and crushes it. The thread still grazes Chen’s cheek, showing how close he came to dying.

Character developments

• Chen Feng is pragmatic and determined to protect his investment, even when offered a safer escape. His plan shows resourcefulness, but his inability to open the pesticide container leaves him exposed.
• She Qingqing is revealed to have been trying to save Chen from the beginning; her warning was misunderstood as an attempt to drive him away.
• Zhu Xianxian shifts from busy, seemingly ordinary attendant to a dangerous spider monster. Her hidden vulnerability is caffeine, but she remains lethal even while weakened.
• The Water Ghost acts as Chen’s ally, following his orders and saving him from Zhu’s final attack.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as survival: Understanding a monster’s weakness can make a seemingly overwhelming threat vulnerable.
• Risk and reward: Chen chooses to stay for Points and mission rewards rather than take the safer route.
• Misunderstanding and hindsight: Chen recognizes too late that She Qingqing’s earlier hostility was actually a warning.
• Narrow escapes: Even a successful plan can fail at a crucial moment, and Chen survives only because the Water Ghost intervenes.

Character interactions

• She Qingqing urges Chen to flee, but he refuses and has the Water Ghost incapacitate her.
• Chen deceives Zhu with doctored juice; when she questions him, he tries to stall while backing toward the exit.
• Chen’s awkward request for the Water Ghost to open the pesticide bucket briefly interrupts the brewing confrontation.
• The Water Ghost supports Chen throughout the attack, killing the attendants and stopping Zhu from killing him.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Feng returns to the Internet Cafe’s third floor for the final confrontation with the Landlady, the Demoness. She is expecting her Water Ghost husband and believes her traps will stop him.
• The Landlady’s human skins attack Chen Feng and the Water Ghost. Chen activates Diaochan’s Blessing: Discord, turning the male human skins against one another and breaking her control over them.
• Chen’s Lu Xun’s Blessing: Humility prevents the Landlady from draining his life force, leaving her unable to replenish her strength.
• When the Landlady teleports away, Chen uses Ma Chao’s Blessing: Iron Cavalry to ensure the Water Ghost’s heart-ripping attack cannot miss. Though the Water Ghost’s strike appears to fall short, it reaches the Landlady and pulls out her heart, killing her.
• The human skins collapse, and the system declares the mission complete with a perfect rating: no ordinary people were harmed. Chen earns nine System Points, fulfills the Water Ghost’s wish, and gains permanent control of him. Chen saves his progress.
• Chen goes outside to find the unconscious She Qingqing, but she has disappeared. A group of people in white coats then rushes toward him, recalling the cafe’s warning to beware them.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Feng demonstrates growing confidence and tactical skill, combining three one-use Blessings to counter the Landlady’s attacks and secure victory. He is relieved by the end of the curse, but remains alert enough to save his progress.
• The Landlady shifts from smug confidence to shock and desperation as her human skins, life-draining power, and escape plan are neutralized. Her attempt to flee ultimately fails.
• The Water Ghost fights alongside Chen and fulfills his wish by helping defeat the Landlady; the victory makes Chen’s control over him permanent.
• She Qingqing, last seen unconscious, vanishes before Chen can retrieve her. The approaching white-coated figures introduce a new immediate threat.

Significant themes

• Preparation and strategy: Chen wins by matching specific Blessings to the Landlady’s powers rather than relying on brute force.
• Cooperation and fulfilled wishes: Chen and the Water Ghost work together, and their alliance changes from temporary control to permanent partnership.
• Consequences of control and exploitation: The Landlady’s use of human skins and stolen life force ends with her power—and the lives sustaining it—cut off.
• Victory followed by uncertainty: The cafe’s evil is destroyed, but the white coats’ arrival suggests the danger is not over.

Plot points and events

• Chen Feng wakes in a filthy, sealed room after being abducted by people in white coats. A huge man wearing a pig’s head mask orders him to strip, and four camouflage-clad men overpower him and lock him in solitary confinement for seven days.
• His system reports that his previous save has been corrupted and replaced with a new one from the moment he woke in the room. If he dies, he will return to the same humiliating predicament rather than escape.
• Trapped in suffocating heat and darkness, Chen Feng refuses the sour rice porridge at first. He passes the time counting bricks and thinking through the supernatural nature of Cihang City, while insects crawl through the room.
• As confinement continues, hunger, thirst, beatings, and disorientation wear him down. Eventually the Pig-Headed Man takes him out, gives him camouflage clothes, and brings him to a training ground beside a building marked “Internet Addiction Rehabilitation School.”
• The Pig-Headed Man welcomes him to the “Fourth Psychiatric Hospital,” revealing the institution’s strange, sinister identity.

Character developments

• Chen Feng begins confused and defiant, considers using a system point to escape, but realizes he cannot summon Water Ghost because it is not raining. His awareness of the danger forces him to submit when overwhelmed.
• His confidence in the Save-Load System is shaken when the save is corrupted. Prolonged isolation then erodes his strength and sense of time, leaving him exhausted and vulnerable.
• Despite his fear and misery, Chen Feng tries to regain control by reasoning through the situation and looking for clues about the world.

Character interactions

• The Pig-Headed Man dominates Chen Feng, orders him to undress, confines him, and later escorts him out. His clipped, authoritarian speech makes him a threatening authority figure.
• Four expressionless men in camouflage restrain Chen Feng and later help carry him from the cell.
• Chen Feng resists, curses, and threatens his captors, but their numbers and control of the facility leave him powerless.

Significant themes

• Loss of control: Chen Feng’s system, body, surroundings, and even sense of time are all compromised.
• Survival versus dignity: He weighs preserving his pride against staying alive, only to be overpowered regardless.
• Institutional horror and uncertainty: A psychiatric hospital disguised as an internet-addiction school suggests that the ordinary city conceals a deeper, organized menace.
• Isolation and psychological endurance: Darkness, confinement, hunger, and uncertainty steadily wear Chen Feng down.

Plot points and events

• Chen Feng watches military-style drills and realizes that about half the camouflage-clad trainees are Imposters. He also learns that the Pig-Headed Instructor is only one of several monsters in the academy.
• A bespectacled girl approaches Chen Feng about escaping, but Li Guolong warns that she was likely trying to trick him: trainees earn rewards for reporting rule-breakers.
• Li Guolong explains that the academy takes people found at internet cafés without identification. Their existence is erased from the world, including people’s memories and records.
• Chen Feng sees the dormitory’s ten rules, which label almost any ordinary behavior—and, finally, the trainees themselves—as “bad.” Punishments escalate from physical discipline to electric shocks, solitary confinement, and “reconditioning.” The Model Student Imposters were once human trainees.
• At dinner, Yellow Hair reveals that the Sheep-Faced Professor controls lightning and oversees morning reading, while a Rabbit-Faced Nurse runs the convalescent ward where Model Students come from. The hospital Director may be another hidden threat.
• Li Guolong tells Chen Feng to sit in the back row by the window during morning reading. Later, Li Guolong, Fatty, and Yellow Hair disappear, apparently attempting an escape. The chapter ends when the dormitory light suddenly goes out.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Feng remains cautious and observant. Though tempted to escape, he avoids acting rashly after learning how many threats the facility contains.
• Li Guolong acts as Chen Feng’s guide, explaining the academy and its dangers, but keeps his own plans secret. His instruction about the next morning suggests he may be leaving Chen Feng a clue.
• Yellow Hair’s gaming metaphors reveal that he and his companions think in terms of an escape “quest,” while Fatty’s teasing and Li Guolong’s evasiveness help conceal their departure.
• The girl’s apparent escape offer contrasts with the academy’s atmosphere of surveillance and mistrust.

Significant themes

• Erasure and loss of identity: Captives vanish not only physically but from memory and history.
• Institutional control and dehumanization: Arbitrary rules brand everyone “bad,” while coercive punishment turns former trainees into Model Students.
• Trust and resistance: Chen Feng must judge who is sincere in a setting where escape talk may be a trap.
• Caution amid escalating danger: New revelations show that defeating one apparent enemy would not be enough to escape the larger system.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Feng finds a hidden map of the rehabilitation school. It marks the psychiatric sanatorium as exceptionally dangerous and warns that crossing the athletic field at night requires a key from Professor Sheep’s office. The electrified outer wall may be passable during a blackout.
• During physical training, Professor Sheep arrives and incapacitates the intimidating Pig Instructor with a lightning strike. He reveals that two escapees have been “corrected”: Yellow Hair and the fat man. Both have become blank-faced Imposters. The third escapee, Li Guolong, is unaccounted for.
• Chen Feng tries to jog Yellow Hair’s memory, briefly succeeding—but Yellow Hair reports him for encouraging disobedience, earning Chen another hour of punishment.
• Chen Feng considers using Hua Tuo’s healing Blessing to restore the transformed men, but decides that saving them with Load Save may be more useful and cost fewer Points.
• As the days pass, Chen Feng begins to accept the school’s routine and even sees its safety as preferable to the dangers outside. Seeing the rule-abiding girl with glasses transformed into an Imposter Model Student makes him realize that obedience and comfort may gradually erase a person’s identity.
• Determined not to be institutionalized, Chen Feng waits for a rainy night and summons a Water Ghost. He orders it to kill his Imposter roommates.

Character developments

• Chen Feng shifts from studying escape routes to recognizing the school’s subtler threat: it can make prisoners willingly conform until they become monsters. He renews his resolve to resist and takes drastic action.
• Yellow Hair and the fat man have lost their memories and humanity after being transformed. Yellow Hair shows a brief flicker of recognition, but his conditioning quickly reasserts itself.
• Professor Sheep is revealed as a powerful, controlled authority figure who can incapacitate the Pig Instructor effortlessly.
• The girl with glasses becomes an Imposter despite her exemplary rule-following, prompting Chen Feng to question the school’s system.

Significant themes

• Institutionalization and loss of identity: Routine, safety, and obedience can gradually make people accept confinement and become part of the system.
• Freedom versus security: Chen Feng briefly weighs the apparent safety of the school against the dangers outside, then recognizes the cost of surrendering his autonomy.
• Resistance and moral compromise: His determination to escape and retaliate culminates in ordering a supernatural creature to kill the Imposters.

Character interactions

• Professor Sheep disciplines Pig Instructor and presents the transformed escapees as proof that they have been corrected.
• Chen Feng appeals to Yellow Hair’s former desire to escape, but Yellow Hair turns against him by reporting him to Pig Instructor.
• Chen Feng’s final interaction with his Imposter roommates is not a conversation but a command: he unleashes the Water Ghost against them.

Plot points and events

• Chen Feng and the Water Ghost reach Professor Sheep’s office, intending to defeat him and obtain the key needed to leave the school grounds.
• Chen Feng distracts the professor while the Water Ghost attacks from behind, but Professor Sheep counters with powerful electricity. The Water Ghost’s oil-soaked body catches fire, and it is killed.
• Recognizing that the fight is unwinnable without spending several valuable Blessing Points—and uncertain even then—Chen Feng accepts that he must sacrifice this attempt. Professor Sheep kills him.
• Chen Feng reloads his save, returning to the dark room with 10 System Points and the Water Ghost restored. To avoid solitary confinement, he humorously complies with the Pig-Headed Man’s demand to undress, then gets dressed and follows him to class.
• At school, Chen Feng reviews what remains in his system inventory. The earlier Mythic Three Kingdoms Shop is gone, though some previously acquired abilities remain available. He regrets not using Hua Tuo’s Blessing to learn more about the others’ escape.
• Concerned that the Quest System may not return and that his Points are limited, Chen Feng avoids the implausible xianxia option and selects a sports-world system. It binds successfully as the Proficiency System, promising to help him grow strong enough to save the world.

Character development

• Chen Feng becomes more strategic about when to spend scarce resources, choosing retreat and a fresh attempt over an uncertain, costly fight. His willingness to trust Li Guolong’s instincts—and his readiness to use his own save-and-reload ability—remain central to his approach.
• He continues to rely on humor and improvisation under pressure, using exaggerated obedience to get past the Pig-Headed Man.
• Professor Sheep is revealed as overwhelmingly powerful, with electricity that defeats both Chen Feng and the Water Ghost and exploits the ghost’s vulnerability.
• The Water Ghost is restored by the save reload, but its defeat highlights the danger of relying on it alone.

Character interactions

• Chen Feng provokes Professor Sheep while the Water Ghost attempts a surprise attack; the professor swiftly turns the ambush against them.
• After Chen Feng reloads, his unexpected compliance confuses the Pig-Headed Man, who abandons the usual punishment and escorts him to class.
• Yellow Hair comments that Chen Feng is another person entering the “game instance,” while the fat student objects to that talk and Li Guolong tells them to keep quiet.

Significant themes

• Trial and error: Chen Feng treats death and reloading as a way to learn, adapt, and prepare for another attempt.
• Scarcity and risk: Limited System Points force him to weigh potential gains against the cost of Blessings and new systems.
• Trust and instinct: Chen Feng remains inclined to trust Li Guolong despite recognizing that kindness can be dangerous.
• Growth through preparation: The new Proficiency System shifts the focus toward steadily building strength rather than relying only on one-off advantages.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Feng discovers the Proficiency System’s training plans and chooses the Hero Training Method, which promises increasingly superhuman strength in exchange for daily workouts. He starts with the free C-Rank plan: 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10-kilometer run. The system warns that failure will bring severe punishment.
• After class, Chen Feng reports a bespectacled student who tries to lure him into escaping. The professor takes her to the Electric Shock room, and Chen Feng receives an apple as a reward. Li Guolong and his friends see the incident and grow more contemptuous of him.
• At lunch, Chen Feng approaches Li Guolong, Fatty, and Yellow Hair with a map he found hidden near their seats. He reveals that he could have reported them but did not, then offers to help them escape by stealing the key they need. Li Guolong agrees to let him join if he brings it.
• Chen Feng completes his 10-kilometer run, but the academy’s schedule leaves no time for the remaining exercises. He stays after military drills to do push-ups and quickly struggles from exhaustion.
• When Chen Feng falls behind, the system’s “assistance” proves to be an invisible whip. It repeatedly lashes him whenever he stops or uses poor form, forcing him to continue.

Character developments

• Chen Feng is ambitious and determined to gain strength for himself, not rely on the power of the Water Ghost. He also proves calculating: he uses his knowledge of Professor Sheep’s schedule to accept the supposedly dangerous task of stealing the key, believing it is actually safe. His confidence gives way to fear and pain during training, but he keeps going under pressure.
• Li Guolong remains wary of Chen Feng, whom he sees as a lackey after his earlier compliance. Still, he accepts Chen’s offer because the key is essential to the escape plan.
• Fatty and Yellow Hair share their group’s suspicion of Chen, though Yellow Hair lets slip information about the key before Li Guolong silences him.
• The bespectacled girl is caught by her own escape-baiting trick and taken away for punishment.

Significant themes

• Power through discipline: Chen Feng seeks strength that belongs to him, but the training plan demands far more than enthusiasm—it requires endurance and strict consistency.
• The cost of ambition: The promised rewards sound thrilling, yet the system’s punishment makes progress brutal and coercive.
• Trust and self-interest: In the academy, students bait and betray one another, so Chen Feng must prove his usefulness rather than expect acceptance.
• Dark comedy: The heroic workout is undermined by Chen’s exhaustion and the system’s merciless “assistance,” while his classmates interpret his suffering as evidence that he is abnormal.

Character interactions

• Chen Feng turns the bespectacled girl’s own escape invitation against her by reporting her to the professor.
• He confronts Li Guolong’s group with their hidden map and negotiates a place in their escape plan by volunteering to steal the key.
• Pig Instructor refuses to let Chen Feng do extra exercises during drills, forcing him to train afterward.
• The system treats Chen Feng not as a coachable student but as someone to punish into compliance; Fatty and Yellow Hair watch his ordeal and conclude that he is “not a normal person.”