Recaps

Ke Meng moved the Volcanic Stone away from Koi City and helped with disaster relief while Shadow Stream Home exploited the catastrophe to attack the Investigation Bureau. He uncovered the group’s hidden network, revealed technology from Orange Star, and continued suppressing players in World, where a growing connection to reality threatened believers.

• Warship No. 37 rescued prisoners from Orange Star’s Sea Prison, escaped its pursuit, and carried tens of thousands of people away.
• Ke Meng moved the Volcanic Stone away from Koi City as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions devastated the region, then joined rescue efforts and was appointed captain of the Major Disaster Rescue Team.
• Shadow Stream Home sent assassins to attack the Investigation Bureau, killing several Senior Investigators before Ke Meng captured Deacon Zhu and learned of the organization.
• Ke Meng entered the joint dream as Cthulhu and ordered Black Ghosts to kill players at Respawn Points, while Orange Star researchers tested the game’s death and teleportation safeguards.
• Ke Meng and the Investigation Bureau recreated Shadow Stream Home’s group using its recovered ID, exposing its members and tracing some Deacons overseas.
• Ke Meng drew designs for the Super Electromagnetic Cannon and related technology from his memory, giving Orange Star scientists hundreds of pages of plans.
• Ke Meng relocated to Whale City and investigated a haunted dressing table as he continued studying the game’s effects and the Volcanic Stone’s worldwide impact.
• Ke Meng ordered Black Ghosts to keep attacking Respawn Points, while researchers discovered that World could run without public internet and that the game could purge players’ Cthulhu faith and another unknown faith.

Ke Meng and the Investigation Bureau targeted Shadow Stream, dismantling its ritual nodes and uncovering its plan to summon the Lord of Shadow Stream. The sacrifice began despite their efforts, leaving red clouds over much of Blue Star and an unknown force summoned.

• Ke Meng and the bureau used the Dragon King's Mask to provoke the Internet Cafe Deacon into attacking them, then captured him and used his information to identify Shadow Stream's ritual nodes.
• Ke Meng recognized the nodes as parts of a Sacrifice Ritual, and investigators across Koi Continent and other countries demolished buildings and sealed sites to weaken it.
• Shadow Stream activated the ritual just before investigators demolished a node, sending red beams into the sky and causing blood-colored rain and severe mental pollution in many places.
• Ke Meng had Tangyuan cover a ritual beam with the Black Light-Blocking Cloth and urged overseas teams to seal their nodes, while reports showed red clouds spreading across Blue Star.
• Ke Meng traced the Shadow Spear to a shadow mire and discovered that the Group Owner was praying for the Lord of Shadow Stream to descend and take over Blue Star.
• Ke Meng sensed that the ritual had succeeded despite the destruction of its nodes and warned Di Ping that an unknown force had been summoned.
• Ke Meng and Old Shi flew overseas, where Ke Meng sensed the red clouds' despair-inducing power and warned the investigators not to look at them.

Ke Meng and the Investigation Bureau fought the Despair Mist with a continent-wide storm and plans to strengthen people’s mental resistance, while Ke Meng pursued the Shadow Stream Group Owner. After destroying the Group Owner’s main soul, Ke Meng and the Flaming Man continued hunting its scattered shadows and prepared to evacuate and quarantine the town.

• Ke Meng and Old Shi planned to stop the red clouds, and the Investigation Bureau used a transformed volcano and Di Ping’s winds to clear them from Koi Continent.
• Ke Meng learned that the Despair Mist spread despair through rain and could eventually breed an evil god, then urged people to build resistance by watching his Dark Cuisine Videos.
• The Poem of Despair spread worldwide and caused mass mental breakdowns, so the Investigation Bureau banned it and sought ways to give people hope.
• Ke Meng entered Shadow Stream, located the Tentacle Monster Group Owner in Crocodile Continent, and joined the operation to capture it.
• Ke Meng resisted the Group Owner’s attacks, learned that a failed ritual had brought the Despair Mist to Blue Star, and destroyed the creature’s original soul in a dream.
• Ke Meng hunted the Group Owner’s scattered shadows, captured many of them, and helped the Investigation Bureau recover an investigator possessed by another remnant.
• The Group Owner ordered Shadow Stream members to activate the Kindling plan, while Ke Meng found that the remaining shadows could keep dividing.
• The Flaming Man burned the Tentacle Monster’s body, and Ke Meng and he evacuated the town’s residents after finding that at least a tenth of them were missing.

Ke Meng helped guide people lost to the Despair Mist, then investigated Di Ping’s return, a room that trapped visitors in writing, and a mysterious voice connected to Moonlight Bars. The arc ended with Ke Meng and Zhou Mo heading to the Half-Ice Continent to investigate the voice and possible vampires.

• Ke Meng and Flaming Man burned the isolated town with the Heartflame Candle, destroying the Tentacle Monster’s legacy before returning to Whale City.
• Ke Meng received the Lost One’s Lantern and helped investigators use it to restore hope to people overcome by the Despair Mist.
• Ke Meng and the Investigation Bureau spread lantern-guided videos, eventually using slimes produced by a Wind Slime Flower as volunteers when human volunteers ran short.
• Ke Meng helped the Five Continents purge Shadow Stream, then found the ocean motionless while Di Ping was trapped in a deep darkness.
• Ke Meng used Synesthesia and Dream Invasion to startle Di Ping awake, restoring the ocean’s waves, though Di Ping returned exhausted and mentally shaken.
• Ke Meng entered the Black Room and discovered that visitors had to write their assigned word count to escape, while each return doubled the requirement.
• Ke Meng investigated the Black Room’s dead original owner and traced a mysterious voice to a passage associated with Moonlight Bars.
• Ke Meng accepted the voice’s offer, learned it wanted him to summon it again in the Half-Ice Continent, and flew there with Zhou Mo.