Chapter Summaries

Li Wei discovered a dragon beneath the city and escaped its lair with Katie while calling the Eye of the Sky for support. As the dragon pursued them into the air, Li Wei ordered the fleet to fire.

• Li Wei saw a dragon resting on a hoard of treasure and told Katie to retreat while he distracted it.
• The dragon sensed the humans, rejected Li Wei’s plea to leave, and tried to devour him.
• Li Wei used a flare and Shifting Positions to escape the dragon, then ordered the Eye of the Sky to prepare for combat.
• Li Wei and Katie boarded the Descent Pod, but the dragon pursued them and blasted the pod with fire.
• Li Wei triggered the escape system, leaped from the burning pod with Katie, and ordered the Eye of the Sky to fire.

Li Wei and Katie fought a dragon after it escaped its cave and the Eye of the Sky fell silent under its roar. Li Wei shot out one of the dragon’s eyes and used Shifting Positions to set up a move inside its mouth.

• Li Wei ordered the Eye of the Sky to bombard the dragon, tearing up its wings but failing to inflict fatal wounds.
• The dragon’s roar silenced the airship, and Li Wei and Katie faced it alone as it charged toward them.
• Li Wei distracted the dragon while Katie wounded its hind leg and severed one of its toes.
• Li Wei used Ricochet Shot and Shifting Positions to get close enough to shoot out the dragon’s eye, then fired another bullet into its mouth.
• Li Wei summoned his Grim Reaper Doll and prepared to use Shifting Positions to get inside the dragon.

Li Wei and Katie killed the Dragon by attacking it from within and striking its heart, while the crew of the Eye of the Sky recovered from a wave of terror. Li Wei contacted the ship and asked Military Intelligence Section Seven to handle the Dragon’s corpse.

• Li Wei controlled the Grim Reaper Doll to tear through the Dragon’s insides, but the Dragon trapped it by clenching its muscles and tried to flee.
• Li Wei used the Persuader and Death’s Eye to bombard the Dragon’s empty eye socket while Katie severed its tail with her greatsword.
• Li Wei sent the Grim Reaper Doll to destroy the Dragon’s exposed heart, and the Dragon fell dead.
• Lieutenant Huo En awoke on the bridge, revived Mariana, and ordered the crew back to their stations.
• Li Wei contacted the Eye of the Sky and asked it to summon Military Intelligence Section Seven to deal with the Dragon’s corpse.

After Li Wei and Katie slew the dragon, Queen Victoria II arrived to inspect its corpse and announced plans to publicize the victory and study the creature. She also asked about Li Wei’s airship, the Eye of the Sky, and considered whether it could serve the Empire.

• Li Wei and Katie returned to the Eye of the Sky, washed off the dragon’s blood, and changed into spare clothes.
• Li Wei met Queen Victoria II at the dragon’s corpse and learned that royal photographers were documenting it for public release.
• Victoria II explained that she wanted people to see humanity could defeat supernatural monsters, and she summoned scientists from several countries to dissect the dragon.
• Li Wei recounted how he and Katie had killed the dragon, and Katie proudly described herself as a hero.
• Victoria II asked whether the Eye of the Sky could be mass-produced, and Li Wei left the matter to the Empire’s specialists.

Li Wei inspected the dragon’s treasure as soldiers hauled away its gold and Katie found a magical Natural Staff. After discovering that using the staff drained his lifespan, Li Wei accepted it into his safekeeping at the Queen’s instruction.

• Li Wei watched the Queen’s soldiers and Military Intelligence Section Seven transport the dragon’s gold, which the Queen planned to keep partly as collectibles and otherwise melt down.
• Li Wei examined the underground city and oversized treasure objects while Katie swam through the gold.
• Katie found a wooden staff with a white flower, and Li Wei identified it with Soul Sight as a Natural Staff that could wield nature’s power.
• Li Wei used the staff to sense and control plants in the Forest, then stopped when he realized the brief experiment had cost him more than a year of lifespan.
• Li Wei concluded that the dragon had likely used the staff to control the Forest, and the Old Butler told him the Queen wanted dangerous objects left in his safekeeping.

Li Wei returned to Fog City with the dragon’s corpse, where the public and invited biologists witnessed the creature firsthand. After Doctor Jean Dorest condemned Li Wei for killing it and challenged Annie Branson’s appointment, Li Wei had him removed from the investigation.

• Li Wei refused to punish the Eye of the Sky’s crew for succumbing to Dragon Might and used [Old Sign Blessing] and cheerful violin music to ease their fear.
• Li Wei led the Royal Fleet’s airships back to Fog City, where crowds gathered to see the dragon carried toward the Royal Park.
• Maloney and Tom doubted the reports until they saw the dragon’s enormous corpse lowered into the glass conservatory.
• Li Wei greeted Annie Branson, then dismissed Doctor Jean Dorest’s objection to the dragon’s death and criticism of Annie’s role.
• Li Wei argued that human lives mattered more than preserving a rare species and ordered the guards to escort Doctor Dorest out.

After completing the Dragon investigation, Li Wei received a major system reward and chose Reality Anchoring, which could nullify occult powers at a potentially enormous lifespan cost. He also upgraded Puppeteer and discovered that his Dolls could now look and feel lifelike, leaving him eager to test the ability further.

• Li Wei returned home, claimed the Myth Reborn mission rewards, and gained 1,600 lifespan plus an 800-point bonus.
• After Occult Resistance reached 100%, Li Wei chose Reality Anchoring over Occult Absorption, planning to rely on the Empire’s weapons against threats he weakened.
• Li Wei gained ten points each in strength, constitution, and agility, and learned that people who drank dragon blood had died from horrific mutations.
• Li Wei spent his two skill points on Puppeteer, raising it to LV9 and unlocking Appearance Disguise.
• Li Wei tested the new skill on his Doll Cat, Doll Bird, and cockroach Doll, finding that they looked and felt like living creatures.
• Li Wei wondered whether a maid Doll could become lifelike and decided to experiment.

Li Wei tested his Doll’s disguise and found it failed in combat, then spent a leisurely day playing Monopoly with Katie, Alice, Kia, and Muse. John Dun, an inventor Li Wei had met on the Orient Express, called to request investment in a shell that could launch without a cannon barrel, and Li Wei set out to inspect it.

• Li Wei discovered that the Doll’s humanlike disguise worked only outside combat and left it motionless without his control.
• Li Wei played Monopoly with Katie, Alice, Kia, and Muse using Dragon Coins, and Muse won the round.
• Erin told Li Wei that John Dun was calling to request investment, and Li Wei remembered meeting him on the Orient Express.
• John Dun said he had invented a shell that could launch without a cannon barrel, and Li Wei asked to see it before deciding whether to invest.
• Li Wei contacted Lieutenant John and boarded the Eye of the Sky to travel to John Dun’s town.

Li Wei visited John Dun and recognized that his self-propelled shell used a primitive jet engine, so he funded the invention and hired John to develop it. He took John and his research materials to Sophia’s arms factory, where the work could lead toward missiles and jet aircraft.

• Li Wei arrived at John Dun’s home and watched him demonstrate a rocket-powered shell that flew into the mountains.
• Lieutenant Horn criticized the shell’s limitations, but Li Wei realized that its propulsion system could be developed into a jet engine.
• Li Wei announced that he would invest in John’s project and ordered Lieutenant Horn to help move the research materials aboard the Eye of the Sky.
• Li Wei offered John an annual salary of three hundred pounds, reimbursement for experiments, and a position improving the machine at a factory.
• Li Wei took John to Sophia’s arms factory because it had the license and resources to manufacture weapons.

Li Wei persuaded Sophia and the munitions factory’s engineers to prioritize jet engines and missile development, with planes to follow once they found experienced builders. When Dun asked to bring back her former assistants and consult Doctor Bruce Andrew, Li Wei learned that Andrew had disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

• Li Wei explained how missiles could give the Empire’s aerial forces greater range and accuracy than conventional shells, and the engineers agreed the concept was feasible if the jet engine proved powerful enough.
• Li Wei ordered the factory to prioritize jet engines and missiles, asked Dun to pursue the engine’s technical problems, and approved her request to rehire her former assistants.
• Dun asked to speak with Doctor Bruce Andrew, but Li Wei learned that Andrew had been missing for a week.
• Lestrade told Li Wei that witnesses had seen Andrew enter Shuo Academy on the day he vanished, but nobody had seen him leave.

Li Wei learned that Professor Andrew had voluntarily hidden somewhere inside the Royal Academy of Medicine as part of a wager with Professor Stuart, and agreed to search for him. After watching the academy empty out and using [Soul Sight], Li Wei found no souls inside, leaving Andrew’s whereabouts unexplained.

• Li Wei asked Professor Henry about Professor Andrew’s disappearance and learned it was part of a month-long hide-and-seek wager with Professor Stuart.
• Professor Henry asked Li Wei to help find Andrew, hoping to win his £100 stake, and Li Wei agreed.
• Li Wei entered the Royal Academy of Medicine and waited for classes and the professors to end for the day.
• Li Wei released the Doll Bird and used [Soul Sight] to search the academy, but by nightfall he saw no souls inside.

Li Wei investigated Professor Andrew’s disappearance by asking Kia about Shuo Academy’s ghost stories and learned of a legend about a dead student and a vanished teaching assistant. He decided to search the school archives for the teaching assistant’s identity, hoping it would lead him to the source of the rumor.

• Li Wei found no trace of Professor Andrew with [Soul Sight] and returned home to ask Kia about strange stories connected to Shuo Academy.
• Kia recalled a legend about a dead student who returned to attend classes and caused anyone who discovered the truth to disappear, then introduced Li Wei to her friend Etina Lawrence.
• Etina explained that Student A had died before attending Shuo Academy but later appeared as an unexplained extra student, while Student B, a former classmate and teaching assistant, disappeared after investigating the phenomenon.
• Etina said Student B had told a close friend about the investigation before vanishing, and Li Wei concluded that he first needed to identify Student B through the school archives.

Li Wei investigated three disappearances connected to the Royal Academy of Medicine and interviewed Stephen Pitt about Andri Brown’s case. Stephen recalled Brown’s sudden change in behavior and fixation on a graduation photograph, but knew nothing about the eerie rumor; Li Wei then set out to question the person connected to the second disappearance.

• Li Wei searched the Police Station’s records and found three reports of disappearances at the Royal Academy of Medicine, including a guard who vanished while patrolling the West Wing.
• Li Wei copied the names of the people who reported the cases and obtained their personal records from the archives.
• Li Wei found Stephen Pitt, who recalled that Andri Brown became jumpy after his teaching class graduated and spent time studying their graduation photograph.
• Stephen told Li Wei that Brown had asked what someone would think if a loved one died and came back to life, and that Brown often returned to the classroom and was close to one girl in the class.
• Li Wei asked Stephen about the rumor of a dead person at Shuo Academy, but Stephen showed no sign of knowing its origin.
• Li Wei left to question someone about the second disappearance.

Li Wei questioned the old guard and two witnesses about Lake’s disappearance and a later sighting of a woman in the West Wing. The witnesses’ account of the woman vanishing from a watched building led Li Wei to ask where the classroom was.

• Li Wei learned from the old guard that Lake vanished during a night patrol, and the guard suspected something had happened in the West Wing.
• The old guard recalled that police found no trace of Lake and that no further incidents occurred after the West Wing became a records repository.
• Li Wei interviewed two men who had reported seeing a woman in white at a third-floor window during a university dance.
• The men said they searched the West Wing without finding the woman and that two students watched the entrance the entire time.
• Li Wei asked the witnesses to identify the exact classroom where they had searched, believing its location held the key to the case.

Li Wei used old records to identify the supposed Student A as Andri Brown’s deceased friend and deduced that Brown had hidden her ashes at Shuo Academy. He and Katie entered the abandoned West Wing at night to search for the ashes and Brown’s body, with Li Wei ready to question the ghost if they found nothing.

• Li Wei searched neighborhood records for people who might have been Student A and discovered her death record, which showed Andri Brown had claimed her ashes.
• Li Wei told Katie he suspected Brown had secretly buried the ashes at Shuo Academy to fulfill his friend’s wish to attend classes.
• Li Wei reasoned that Brown repeatedly visited one classroom because the ashes were hidden there, and that he may have died in an accident while trying to move them.
• Li Wei brought Katie to the Royal Academy of Medicine’s West Wing and led her to the classroom where he intended to search for Brown’s body and the ashes.
• Li Wei told Katie that if they could not find them, they would ask the ghost themselves.

Li Wei and Katie searched the West Wing for Professor Andrew and uncovered a hidden office, a corpse, and an urn linked to Aitina Lawrence. Aitina appeared and Li Wei asked her where Professor Andrew was.

• Li Wei reasoned that Professor Andrew had hidden in the classroom building and followed footprints to a concealed room behind a mirrored wall.
• Li Wei and Katie found Professor Andrew's supplies in the hidden office, then broke through the ceiling to explore the space beneath the roof.
• Li Wei identified the human remains there as missing student Mr. Brown and found an urn engraved with a message to Aitina.
• Li Wei called out Aitina Lawrence, who appeared and warned him that people who learned the truth disappeared.
• Li Wei asked Aitina to tell him where Professor Andrew was.

Aitina told Li Wei and Katie how she became trapped at Shuo Academy and explained that people who recognized her as a ghost had vanished. After learning that Professor Andrew was among the missing, Li Wei accepted a mission to find them and deliberately revealed Aitina’s identity, disappearing as a result.

• Aitina explained that she could not leave Shuo Academy and had remained there as an apparent student after her death.
• She told Li Wei that a guard vanished after calling her a ghost, and that she had spread safer versions of the school rumors to prevent panic.
• Aitina described Professor Andrew vanishing after seeing her in the Secret Chamber and recognizing her as a ghost.
• Li Wei received the system mission to find the missing people and asked whether speaking Aitina’s identity aloud would make him disappear.
• Li Wei told Aitina he would go where the others had gone, and the scene abruptly changed before he could finish speaking.

Li Wei found himself in a strange blue-outlined world where Professor Andrew and a guard lay unconscious in coffins, and he theorized that rumors and shared beliefs shaped this reality. He suspected he had uncovered the world’s underlying rules, but was left wondering how to free the two men and escape.

• Li Wei discovered that Aitina and Katie had vanished and that Fog City looked like a blue-outlined alternate world illuminated by his Tower.
• Li Wei found Professor Andrew unconscious in a coffin in the secret chamber, then found the guard in another coffin downstairs.
• Li Wei concluded that the men had entered this world because people believed they were missing, leaving them suspended between life and death.
• Li Wei connected the strange world to the collective unconscious and reasoned that rumors and subjective beliefs could influence objective reality.
• Li Wei considered his own popularity and the Tower’s light, then wondered how to rescue Professor Andrew and the guard and find a way out.

Li Wei used [Reality Anchoring] to erase the supernatural legend at the Royal Academy of Medicine, returning the campus to reality and freeing those trapped by it. Aitina remained at the school as a ghost, and Li Wei helped her replace the troubling rumor with one promising good luck.

• Li Wei tested [Reality Anchoring] on the Royal Academy of Medicine, causing the Tower to vanish and bringing him back to the real world.
• Li Wei found the guard and Professor Andrew unconscious but physically safe, and Katie explained that Li Wei and Aitina had suddenly disappeared.
• Li Wei and Katie took the guard and Professor Andrew to the hospital, then Li Wei updated Professor Henry, who said the guard could stay and work at the school.
• Aitina appeared after Li Wei and Katie discussed her, explaining that she remained bound to the school even after her ashes were moved.
• Li Wei advised Aitina to start a rumor that seeing her brought good luck, and Aitina agreed before leaving.

After completing the Tracking quest, Li Wei analyzed how rumors shaped reality and how [Reality Anchoring] countered their effects. News of Grand Duke Fernando’s assassination interrupted his thoughts, and the Old Butler summoned him to an urgent assignment from His Majesty.

• Li Wei received an SSS rating, 150 days of added lifespan, and an upgrade to [Death's Eye] after completing the quest.
• Li Wei recorded his theories about the influence of rumors, supernatural creatures, and the thirty-day cost of using [Reality Anchoring] across the Royal Academy of Medicine.
• Li Wei considered how scientific understanding could weaken rumors and limit the growth of supernatural creatures.
• A radio bulletin announced that Grand Duke Fernando and his wife had died in an assassination in Sera, and that the assassin was linked to the Death Society.
• The Old Butler told Li Wei to board the approaching Eye of the Sky and depart for an important assignment from His Majesty.