Chapter Summaries

Ke Meng investigated the Tragic Script, discovered the Flowing Fish trapped inside it, and learned that the Investigation Bureau had captured Professor Lu Fa. He headed to Octopus Airport to meet the returning team.

• Ke Meng recorded his dream clues, concluding that Shadow Stream had infiltrated the Frog Society and framed Professor Lu Fa.
• After feeding Big-Faced Cat, Ke Meng learned that the Tragic Script could imprison one person and that Flowing Fish was trapped inside its pages.
• Ke Meng used the book on the Human-Shadow Stone, found Flowing Fish on the tenth page, and pulled the fish out by its shadow.
• The Director told Ke Meng that Professor Lu Fa had been caught and that the team was returning.
• Ke Meng put Flowing Fish and his items away, then drove to Octopus Airport to meet the team.

At Octopus Airport, Ke Meng discovered that the sleeping passenger beside Galixi had two shadows and extracted a mutated Shadow Stream creature. He also pulled two shadows from Galixi, including a half-tentacle that seemed to have been severed from the creature, leaving Director Wu to suspect they had captured a legendary Deacon.

• Ke Meng arrived at Octopus Airport, where investigators had freed the plane and were treating the severely dehydrated Tang Jin.
• Director Zhang welcomed Ke Meng and offered him a deputy director position and access to the bureau’s treasures, including the Infinite Door.
• Ke Meng sensed something suspicious about the sleeping passenger beside Galixi and decided to pull out his shadow.
• Ke Meng extracted two shadows from the passenger, returning the ordinary one and placing the ancient-feeling one on a stone, where it revealed a mutated humanoid shape with tentacle-like legs.
• Ke Meng pulled two shadows from Galixi, restored the original host, and placed the other on a stone, where it appeared as half a tentacle.
• Director Wu suspected the humanoid shadow and half-tentacle belonged to a legendary Shadow Stream Deacon.

The Investigation Bureau livestreamed its interrogation of Female Galixi, a Shadow Stream member suspected of being a Deacon. Ke Meng subdued her shadow and cut off her tentacles, while the Bureau continued testing her abilities.

• Director Wu arranged a multicamera internal livestream after the Whale City Branch brought Female Galixi and two stones back to the Investigation Bureau.
• Ke Meng released the severed tentacle shadow under bright lights, silenced it by pinching its voice-producing sucker, and stopped it from attacking his shadow.
• Ke Meng asked whether dancing at the stone's shadow might work, then pulled the main body out of the stone to question her.
• Female Galixi attacked Ke Meng, but his boosted resistance kept her from breaking through his defenses.
• Ke Meng pinned Female Galixi's shadow down and used the Scalpel to cut off her tentacles.

Ke Meng stripped Deacon Huo of her shadow layers and helped the investigators break down her resistance with Di Ping’s Freedom Dance. After half an hour, Huo revealed her identity and explained that Galixi’s self-destruction had been intended to distract Whale City’s authorities while her people infiltrated the Education Department.

• Ke Meng cut away Deacon Huo’s tentacles and Shadow Coats, then kept her confined under intense light.
• Di Ping used the Freedom Dance Headscarf to dance twice, gradually weakening Huo’s mental defenses while Ke Meng watched for signs of danger.
• After half an hour, Ke Meng began interrogating Huo, who gave her name as Huo Zhiqi and said she was sixty-nine and a Deacon.
• Huo explained that she had planned to use the Frog Society and Galixi’s self-destruction to draw attention away while her people infiltrated the Whale City Education Department.

Ke Meng questioned Deacon Huo about Shadow Stream’s plans and received the names of 196 suspected infiltrators for the Investigation Bureau to pursue. When he asked about the Whale City sacrifice and the Lord of Shadows, Deacon Huo transformed into a terrifying monster and spread language-based mental contamination, leaving the story with Ke Meng containing her in the altered stone.

• Deacon Huo revealed Shadow Stream’s plan to infiltrate the Education Ministry and Whale City's Special Affairs University, then gave Ke Meng the names of 196 people she knew.
• The Investigation Bureau began arranging a secret pursuit of the named suspects, while Ke Meng asked Deacon Huo about the sacrifice in Whale City and the Lord of Shadows.
• Deacon Huo’s terror overwhelmed her induced freedom, and Ke Meng repeatedly put her into the stone to contain her.
• Deacon Huo transformed into a tentacled monster and uttered evil, unintelligible words that contaminated viewers of the livestream.
• The livestream was shut down, and exposed personnel went to the Holy Light Room for purification while Ke Meng seized Deacon Huo and forced her back into the stone.
• The stone became smooth and mirror-like, reflecting a monster with branching tentacles.

Ke Meng discovered that Deacon Huo had become an out-of-control Shadow Creature, tested the monster and sealed it in its stone, then joined the Investigation Bureau’s campaign against the Shadow Stream. Meanwhile, Teacher Liang arrived in Whale City to begin a new teaching job, unaware of the danger he suspected might be waiting.

• Ke Meng used Big-Faced Cat to identify the transformed stone and shadow, but both were described as having unknown effects.
• The Investigation Bureau’s think tank suspected that Deacon Huo’s mutation was a backlash from violating a contract, and Ke Meng concluded that she was beyond questioning.
• Ke Meng used the Scalpel against the Shadow Creature, gained resistance, and found that the Scientific Kerosene Lamp could seal the stone only while the creature was inside it.
• The Director ordered the stone sealed and the interrogation stopped, while Ke Meng joined investigators in arresting Shadow Stream members across Whale City.
• Teacher Liang arrived at a Whale City high school, accepted a guidance-teacher position, and went jogging before his first class the next morning.

Ke Meng and Crystal confronted Liang Yangxun, a regional Liaison whose body had been taken over by an intruder, and Crystal’s newly enhanced speed nearly killed him. After the Investigation Bureau arrested other dangerous members and trained Crystal to control her strength, Ke Meng asked her what name she wanted.

• Ke Meng tried to grab Liang Yangxun’s shadow at the school track, but Liang sensed danger and moved away.
• Ke Meng summoned Crystal, who rushed at Liang Yangxun and sent him flying with shock waves despite stopping her punch short of his face.
• Ke Meng shielded Chen Momo from the shock waves, then found that Liang Yangxun’s original owner had been consumed and handed the intruder over to the investigators.
• Director Lei examined Crystal as Ke Meng and the investigators used Liang Yangxun’s shadow to uncover and arrest more dangerous members.
• Crystal trained at the Investigation Bureau until she could control her speed, then Ke Meng asked what name she wanted on their drive home.

Ke Meng named Crystal Shirley after asking his followers for suggestions, then reviewed what he had learned about her growing strength and Orange Star technology. Before going to sleep, he checked the Tragic Script and discovered that the Flowing Fish had eaten parts of its writing, leaving Mi Jingyun’s story inside incomplete.

• Ke Meng asked his followers to suggest a name for Crystal and chose Shirley, while Tangyuan proposed Crystal Ball.
• Ke Meng recorded that Crystal had gained a body capable of supersonic speed and considered how powerful high-level game creatures might become.
• Ke Meng stayed up chatting with followers before remembering that Mi Jingyun was still trapped inside the Tragic Script.
• Ke Meng opened the Tragic Script and saw the Flowing Fish nibble a written character.
• Ke Meng found that the Flowing Fish had eaten parts of the script across its first ten pages and worried about what would happen to Mi Jingyun.

Ke Meng tested whether Flowing Fish could control other bodies and questioned Shadow Stream members about Shadow Creatures. Mi Jingyun described her experience inside the Tragic Script, and Ke Meng ended by comparing her anxious answer to Wen Yushan’s.

• Ke Meng transferred Flowing Fish’s shadow into an ant, saw that it could not control the ant’s body, and then placed it in a mandarin fish, which swam actively but could not communicate with him.
• Ke Meng asked Wen Yushan about the fish, and she sensed that it was a Shadow Creature with a different mindset from Shadow Stream members.
• Ke Meng questioned Wen Yushan about whether Shadow Creatures could eat one another, then returned her to the stone and stored it in his scarf.
• The Tragic Script released a Human-Shadow Stone, and Mi Jingyun told Ke Meng she had been a lost adventurer chased through a maze inside the script.
• Ke Meng asked Mi Jingyun whether Shadow Creatures could eat each other, and she said they probably could not, though she had never tried; he remarked that she and Wen Yushan were birds of a feather.

Ke Meng tested Flowing Fish’s reaction to ordinary paper and entered the Wraith Maze script to investigate its incomplete sections. Inside the maze, he discovered a gap opening onto a blank world and defeated a cat-faced Wraith by force.

• Ke Meng learned that Mi Jingyun sensed Flowing Fish as a higher order than herself, then tested the fish by having it eat writing on ordinary paper.
• Ke Meng found that ordinary paper could not contain Flowing Fish and arranged to obtain special paper from the Investigation Bureau.
• Ke Meng entered the Wraith Maze script without his items and found a gap in a wall that opened onto a blank expanse.
• A cat-faced Wraith attacked Ke Meng, but his resistance nullified her shrieks and her bite could not injure him.
• Ke Meng overpowered the Wraith and shoved her through the gap into the blank world.

Ke Meng explored the maze, defeated its Cat-Faced Wraiths, and studied how its space worked before leaving through the Great Graveyard. Back home, he received a Silver Box from the Bandaged Man, whose vision revealed its contents and combination code.

• Ke Meng found that he could safely leave the maze, then returned and beat up the Cat-Faced Wraiths until they brought him more opponents.
• Ke Meng summoned the Demon Map and used its red dots to investigate the maze’s shifting layout and spatial portals.
• Ke Meng found the exit beneath the Great Graveyard, explored further, and then returned to reality in the evening.
• Ke Meng ate dinner and collected a Silver Box delivered by a Giant Toad from Toad Express.
• Ke Meng used Synesthesia to see the Bandaged Man place paper, a Fountain Pen, and Ink in the box, then learned the code was 66666.

Ke Meng tested a set of papers, ink, and a pen that concealed writing in several layers, then used Flowing Fish to investigate the hidden text. In his dream in Deep-Sea R'lyeh, he heard reports from Black Ghost and a Level 999 jellyfish, which suggested that followers bring sacrifices directly to the city.

• Ke Meng identified the High-Gnosis Paper, Special Ink, and Double-Layer Pen and tested their layered concealment, writing hidden text that appeared as gibberish until he examined it with the pen.
• Ke Meng placed Flowing Fish on the blank-looking paper, and the fish revealed a passage before becoming trapped circling one word; Ke Meng returned it to the stone and finally fell asleep.
• Ke Meng arrived in Deep-Sea R'lyeh, where Black Ghost reported that the Cthulhu Followers had grown beyond a thousand races and planned a trading center for spacetime stone powder.
• Black Ghost told Ke Meng that some followers' sacrifices had gone unanswered while he slept, and a Level 999 jellyfish worried that the god had abandoned them after their own failed sacrifice.
• The jellyfish suggested that followers bring offerings directly into R'lyeh, and Ke Meng fell silent.

Ke Meng warned his believers not to bring offerings to R’lyeh, then recruited deep-sea creatures as direct believers. On Orange Star, officials discovered Liu Siting had vanished from her sealed isolation suite and convened a confidential meeting to investigate.

• Ke Meng used Control Fear to warn Black Ghost that sacrifices should continue but must not be delivered to R’lyeh, and the Level 999 jellyfish died from the warning.
• Black Ghost left R’lyeh to relay Ke Meng’s message, while Ke Meng made seafood creatures his direct believers and a deep-sea Fish Frog swam beyond its territory.
• A monitoring officer noticed that Liu Siting’s meals had gone untouched for several days and reported that she might have died in her room.
• Robots searched Liu Siting’s sealed suite, found it empty, and searched its contents without discovering her.
• The Scientific Research General Institute held a confidential meeting after officials confirmed Liu Siting had disappeared from the physically isolated room.

Researchers confirmed that Liu Siting had vanished from both her real-world and Dream World Isolation Rooms, while Ke Meng watched her gather believers in the wilderness. He accepted the Stone Demon Tribe’s mask offering but left its heart untouched.

• Researchers, including Professor Leon and Researcher Li Shen, inspected Liu Siting’s room and found it empty, with an unusual feeling in the bathroom.
• The Central Institute learned that Liu Siting had also disappeared from her Dream World Isolation Room, and the evidence suggested she had planned her escape earlier.
• Ke Meng secretly watched Liu Siting gather believers, accepted their faith, and considered how they might disrupt a future campaign against him.
• The Stone Demon Tribe offered Ke Meng a mask and a beating heart in exchange for power; he accepted the mask and rejected the heart.

Ke Meng accepted sacrifices from Stone Ghosts and Molten Rock Beasts, then rejected a giant lizard’s offer to become his chief subordinate and took the lizard’s child instead. He continued monitoring the game world’s players and artificial intelligences before awakening as the growing number of sacrifices strained him.

• Ke Meng gave the Level 200 Stone Ghost believers Random Buff Magic and sensed that Orange Star’s highest-level players had only reached Level 79.
• Ke Meng watched artificial intelligence players gather in the Dream World and planned to harvest their dream souls once their numbers grew large enough.
• Ke Meng accepted a pot of food from the Molten Rock Beasts and gave them a standard Evil God blessing package.
• Ke Meng rejected a giant lizard’s request to become his chief subordinate but accepted the child it had brought as a sacrifice.
• Ke Meng sensed his real-world self and awoke as the increasing number of sacrifices became difficult to manage.

Ke Meng examined the offerings, learning that the Stone Demon Mask could turn its wearer into a vampire and the Golden-Toothed Lizard transformed metal into hostile, mentally contaminating sculptures. He also discovered the Dark Cuisine Pot produced foul food with random buffs and prolonged nausea, leaving everyone fascinated by what was inside.

• Ke Meng resisted the Stone Demon Mask’s urge to drink blood, learned its effects, and stored it for the Investigation Bureau.
• Ke Meng identified the Golden-Toothed Lizard as a hostile metal-eater and watched it swallow a steel-alloy rod to modify.
• Ke Meng learned that the Dark Cuisine Pot made food that granted a random six-hour buff but caused extreme nausea.
• White Sugar, Tangyuan, and the Sand-Salt Worm became fixated on the unopened pot’s contents.

Ke Meng tested the little lizard’s metal-conversion ability and discovered that the sculpture it produced was hostile and evil-aligned. He opened the dark cuisine pot and found a nauseating, tentacled monster’s head inside, then turned toward the terrified Golden-Toothed Lizard as the chapter ended.

• White Sugar and Sand-Salt Worm approached the dark cuisine pot, but the black gas released when White Sugar lifted the lid blasted them and left them stunned.
• The little lizard excreted a metal sculpture that spoke threateningly and urged the others to believe in it.
• Tangyuan partially transformed and smashed the sculpture’s head, and Ke Meng recorded the result as an evil-aligned item.
• Ke Meng opened the pot while holding his breath and saw a writhing, tentacled monster’s head surrounded by black gas.
• Ke Meng turned toward the Golden-Toothed Lizard, which shuddered in terror at the sight of the pot’s contents.

Ke Meng tested the Dark Cuisine Pot’s foul, writhing contents on the little lizard after his pets recoiled from the smell. The lizard began to froth as a golden cloud and fragrant petal appeared above it, leaving Ke Meng wondering what the food had enhanced while Shirley prepared another spoonful.

• Ke Meng brought a large bowl and spoon from the kitchen, where Qi Wuke noticed his blackened skin and asked about the bedroom’s air.
• Shirley took the bowl from Ke Meng and agreed to try the dark cuisine, but froze when she saw the writhing contents up close.
• Ke Meng had Shirley feed the little lizard, whose terrified pleas were ignored as Tangyuan pried its mouth open.
• The little lizard swallowed the dark cuisine, began frothing, and released a golden cloud that formed a lingering petal above its head.
• Ke Meng sensed an unusual atmosphere and heard the lizard’s hissing whispers as Shirley prepared to feed it another spoonful.

Ke Meng tested the effects of feeding the baby Golden-Toothed Lizard dark cuisine, which made flowers grow on its head and unlocked a laser eye technique. He stopped the feeding and called the Investigation Bureau, whose Director Lei inspected the lizard and witnessed its vicious power.

• Golden-Toothed Lizard grew two flowers after swallowing the dark cuisine, and Ke Meng cut them off with ordinary scissors to stop the whispers.
• Ke Meng made Shirley feed the lizard three more spoonfuls, causing angry flowers to grow; Big-Faced Cat identified them as temporary anger-spreading flowers, which Ke Meng also cut off.
• After another spoonful, Golden-Toothed Lizard passed out, woke with laser eyes, and shot at Ke Meng until Shirley blocked the beams and Tangyuan covered its eyes.
• Ke Meng ended the feeding, recorded the events, and notified the Investigation Bureau about the Stone Demon Mask, Dark Cuisine Pot, and evil-aligned baby lizard.
• Director Lei came to inspect Golden-Toothed Lizard, and its lasers and vicious emotions made him question whether it was really a baby.

Ke Meng forced the Golden-Toothed Lizard to eat patterned metal, producing a living water sculpture that Shirley quickly destroyed. He then opened the Dark Cuisine Pot for Director Lei and the investigators, whose curiosity turned to horror at its contents.

• Director Lei learned that the Golden-Toothed Lizard could grow into a huge, powerful monster and discussed using an item to reform its thoughts.
• Ke Meng used the Dark Cuisine Pot to make the furious Golden-Toothed Lizard swallow flowing-water-patterned metal, which it excreted as a living sculpture that unleashed a powerful river.
• Shirley countered the sculpture's water attack with her Mysterious Gunblade, then smashed the sculpture into a metal pancake.
• The Investigation Bureau kept Shirley's classification at Level Two for now to avoid imposing difficult confidentiality restrictions on her field assignments with Ke Meng.
• Director Lei and the investigators gathered around the Dark Cuisine Pot, but Shirley's removal of its lid released a terrible stench and revealed writhing, indescribable food.
• The investigators refused Shirley's offer of a spoonful and backed away from the bowls.