Chapter Summaries

Ke Meng tested the Dark Cuisine Pot and discovered that it could resist the Scientific Kerosene Lamp, suggesting it was exceptionally powerful. He disposed of its indescribable food by feeding it to Big-Faced Cat, while the pot finished cooking a new batch of ingredients.

• Ke Meng used the Scientific Kerosene Lamp on the Dark Cuisine Pot, but the pot resisted the lamp in a confrontation, so Shirley covered the lamp and ended the clash.
• Ke Meng emptied the pot, added fish and other ingredients with water, and set up a camera to record its automatic cooking.
• Ke Meng decided to dispose of the leftover indescribable food by feeding it to Big-Faced Cat, and Shirley filmed as the cat ate every spoonful.
• Big-Faced Cat developed a temporary buff that added colors and complexity to his markings after eating the strange food.
• The Dark Cuisine Pot finished cooking and gave off an irresistible aroma, making the distant investigators drool.

Ke Meng gave the Investigation Bureau the Stone Demon Mask and Golden-Toothed Lizard, then received a Sealed Item in exchange. After reviewing the Vampire footage, he asked to join the international operation to capture the Frog Society’s leader.

• Ke Meng had the Big-Faced Cat eat the Dark Cuisine Pot’s grotesque fish, then explained to Director Lei how blood and the Stone Demon Mask could turn someone into a Vampire.
• Director Lei took the mask and Golden-Toothed Lizard to the Investigation Bureau, and Ke Meng used his contribution points to obtain a toad charm that could seal living things.
• Ke Meng edited a video of the Dark Cuisine Pot and sent it to the Investigation Bureau for review.
• Ke Meng watched Director Lei’s videos of Vampires attacking people and noted how they ignored bystanders while drinking blood, then killed anyone who filmed them.
• Ke Meng called the Investigation Bureau and requested to join the international operation to capture the Frog Society’s leader.

The Investigation Bureau postponed Ke Meng’s plan to arrest Professor Lu Fa and focused on dismantling the Frog Society’s organizations at home. Ke Meng accepted the decision, then released his review of the Dark Cuisine Pot, whose cooked fish gave viewers a supernatural aroma.

• The Investigation Bureau’s S-Class personnel identified Professor Lu Fa as the Frog Society’s leader and decided to eliminate his local organizations before dealing with him abroad.
• Ke Meng accepted the Bureau’s decision to handle the domestic trouble first.
• Ke Meng’s Dark Cuisine Video passed review and went live on the Video Website.
• Ke Meng unboxed the Dark Cuisine Pot, added fish and seasonings, and cooked them as viewers watched.
• The pot released an enticing fish aroma that viewers could smell through the video.

Ke Meng’s dark-cuisine video horrified viewers, while he and Shirley left the grotesque dish for Big-Faced Cat to eat. Afterward, Ke Meng helped investigators crack down on the Frog Society and Shadow Stream, and the chapter ended with Lu Fa receiving an urgent report from the Koi Continent branch.

• Shirley opened the pot to reveal a writhing, indescribable fish dish, frightening most viewers into stopping or skipping the video.
• Ke Meng added a disturbing-content warning to the video, and Shirley fed the untouched dish to Big-Faced Cat, which ate it all.
• Chen Momo repeatedly watched the video to build her mental resilience as she prepared to apply to a special university.
• Ke Meng investigated a Whale City charity and joined nationwide efforts to arrest Shadow Stream members and Frog Society associates, including frogmen.
• After working through the night and following day, Ke Meng returned home to sleep, while Lu Fa received an urgent report overseas and sensed trouble.

Lu Fa suspected Koi Continent’s crackdown on Frog Society-linked groups was connected to the unseen watcher spying on him. In the Dream World, Ke Meng discovered a bloody Minotaur sacrifice and slaughtered the Minotaurs before players returned to find their village deserted.

• Lu Fa learned that Koi Continent had sealed twenty-one charitable organizations and shut down five sects for links to evil illegal organizations, while no other continent had acted.
• Lu Fa ordered his followers to investigate why the Investigation Bureau had discovered the Frog Society, then examined photographs of the destroyed secret chamber.
• Ke Meng observed that Orange Star had added more Dream World players and that Cthulhu Followers had infiltrated the frontline groups.
• Ke Meng answered the Minotaurs’ sacrificial prayers and found that they had offered countless hearts in a blood-colored lake surrounded by dead players.
• Ke Meng used mental skills to kill the Minotaurs and players, then used Soul Harvest to pull the Minotaurs’ souls into Cthulhu’s special space.
• Players later returned to rescue the Minotaurs and found their village empty, with only an aura of evil and chaos remaining.

After players found a completed sacrifice ritual in the vanished minotaur village, the General Research Institute debated whether to suspend everyone exposed to it and established a Rationality Test to decide who could keep playing. Li Shen helped shape the new standard, but he continued hearing evil whispers and resolved to find Liu Siting and shoot her.

• Shang Zhiyu and Dao Xiaodao discovered the minotaur village deserted, saw the remains of a Sacrifice Ritual, and fled after experiencing hallucinations of Cthulhu worshippers.
• The rescue players logged out and reported the scene, and the General Research Institute suspended the exposed players pending psychological assessments.
• Li Shen argued against automatically barring players who had witnessed an Evil Cultist Sacrifice Ritual, and the Director established a Rationality Test with a score threshold of sixty.
• Orange Star researchers began developing standards that would let psychologically resilient players return to the game while requiring others to undergo rehabilitation.
• After returning home exhausted, Li Shen heard illusory murmurs and decided to find Liu Siting and shoot her to stop the whispers.

Ke Meng received offerings from players and monsters, rejected the Golden-Toothed Lizard King, and collected Level-Up Fish from its lake. Back home, he fed the fish to his pets and examined a strange tomato, whose full effects remained untested.

• Ke Meng accepted an Angel Wing and a rare fruit from players, then rejected the minotaurs' offering and the Golden-Toothed Lizard King's attempt to offer itself.
• Ke Meng used Synesthesia and gray mist to catch thirty-one Level-Up Fish from the Golden-Toothed Lizards' lake, leaving the waiting Lizard King behind.
• Shirley brought the fish to Ke Meng, who identified them as Level-Up Fish with a level-up cap of two hundred.
• Ke Meng fed fish to Tangyuan, White Sugar, and Big-Faced Cat, while setting three aside for Director Lei.
• Ke Meng examined the One-Hit Tomato and learned that it charged toward the source of jokes or dirty jokes, with its speed depending on their impact.

Ke Meng tested a sound-triggered tomato and attached the Angel Wing, learning to fly and discovering that its Energy-Gathering Ring charged in sunlight. After testing the ring’s Holy Light effect on a bullet, he continued experimenting with his new abilities.

• Ke Meng played a joke through his speakers, causing the One-Hit Tomato to smash through both speakers before landing intact.
• Ke Meng attached the Angel Wing and, with Tangyuan’s help, saw and removed the Energy-Gathering Ring above his head.
• Ke Meng practiced flying outside, crashed several times, and gradually learned to fly more steadily as the ring grew brighter.
• Ke Meng flew to breakfast, told Qi Wuke that the ring was recharging when Qi Wuke asked about taking it, and ate before resuming flight practice.
• Ke Meng fired at a rock without the ring and missed, then put the ring back on and shot again, sending a streak of Holy Light that struck the rock and exploded.

Ke Meng tested the One-Hit Tomato at the Investigation Bureau and discovered that its striking power grew with the number of people listening to a joke in real time. After the test, he began examining his angel transformation, leaving the testers stunned by his glowing halo and luminous bullets.

• Ke Meng gave Director Lei three Level-Up Fish, and Director Lei sent them to the Technical Division for study.
• Ke Meng and the testers found that the One-Hit Tomato grew stronger with its audience, pierced increasingly thick steel plates, and attacked only sound sources it could hear.
• A major streamer told a joke for the test, and the One-Hit Tomato struck a laptop at twenty kilometers per second and destroyed it.
• Ke Meng stored the tomato and transformed into an angel, then flew and fired bullets that left trails of light.

Ke Meng tested his holy light powers and discovered that the Flawless Sword’s effects could deliver holy light attacks against evil creatures. The test ended with the sword purifying an evil mass created by the Dark Cuisine Pot, revealing a new use for the seemingly harmless item.

• Ke Meng used a holy-light-charged submachine gun to purify a zombie, exhausting the tester’s supply of evil creatures while the tester remained stuck to his Sealed Item ring.
• Ke Meng revealed the Flawless Sword and found that its dazzling sword effects gained holy light when combined with his angelic powers, though a strike against an ordinary wooden target did no damage.
• Ke Meng used the Dark Cuisine Pot to turn soil, plants, and insects into an evil mass and placed it on a wooden target.
• Ke Meng struck the evil target from a distance with the Flawless Sword, and the holy light purified the target’s upper section, demonstrating that the sword’s effects could attack evil.

Ke Meng tested the Angel Wing’s holy light with a rotary machine gun, then let Tangyuan, White Sugar, and Shirley try the wings and halo. He headed to the Investigation Bureau to observe a test of the Stone Demon Mask’s Vampire transformation.

• Ke Meng used a rotary machine gun to sweep holy-light attacks across a sludge monster, destroying it as cameras recorded the test.
• Ke Meng gave the Angel Wing to Tangyuan, which grew wings and a halo, flew around, then removed them.
• White Sugar and Shirley each tried the Angel Wing; White Sugar flew smoothly with four wings, while Shirley struggled before learning to fly.
• Ke Meng stored the Angel Wing in his basement and answered a call inviting him to watch the Stone Demon Mask’s Vampire test.
• Ke Meng arrived at the Investigation Bureau, where investigators prepared for the test and briefed him to intervene with the Flawless Sword if needed.

The Investigation Bureau tested the Stone Demon Mask on Zhou Mo, an investigator whose organs were failing, to see whether its vampire transformation could heal him. Zhou became younger and stronger but developed an intense thirst for blood, which he restrained while the bureau evaluated his condition.

• After learning about the Stone Demon Mask from Big-Faced Cat, the Investigation Bureau chose Zhou Mo to test it, hoping its healing effects might repair his failing organs.
• Zhou Mo cut himself, dripped blood onto the mask, and put it on, undergoing a transformation that made his body crave blood.
• Despite his thirst, Zhou waited half an hour before drinking pig blood, and the bureau observed that he had visibly grown younger and more handsome.
• Zhou Mo could stomach cooked pig blood but felt sick after trying milk tea and a meal, while Ke Meng and Director Lei noticed faint black smoke above him.
• Zhou admitted he had briefly wondered what human blood tasted like, then drank the rabbit, dog, chicken, and cow blood in the safe while continuing to restrain himself.

Ke Meng tested how holy light affected vampire Captain Zhou, then learned he would travel abroad with an S-Class captain to hunt the Frog Society's president. The S-Class member, Shi Jun, arrived at the bureau and introduced himself to Ke Meng as Bandage.

• Ke Meng used his Angel Wing and Flawless Sword to expose Captain Zhou to holy light, making him sweat and suppressing his healing after a holy-light-inflicted cut.
• The tester concluded that light-based items strongly suppressed vampires, and Director Lei told Ke Meng that Headquarters had approved his mission to hunt the Frog Society's president abroad.
• Ke Meng claimed the reward from his completed Dark Cuisine Video task, raising his resistance to 480 while waiting at the bureau.
• Shi Jun arrived at the branch office, unnoticed by passing F-Class investigators, and Ke Meng recognized and greeted him.
• Shi Jun introduced himself to Ke Meng as an S-Class member known as Bandage.

Ke Meng joined the Bandaged Man’s covert team as they used a summoned whale monster to cross the sea from Koi Continent toward Crocodile Continent. The team began its high-speed journey inside the whale’s illuminated stomach, which reminded Ke Meng of the retired Great Whale in the Dream World.

• Ke Meng tested the Bandaged Man’s faint presence and learned that it came from an aftereffect of studying a Zero-Level Item, while his bandages strengthened his presence.
• The Bandaged Man introduced Ke Meng to the five investigators joining their covert crossing and explained that they would seek help from Bureau resources on Crocodile Continent to capture the Frog Society’s leader.
• The team drove to the coast at night, where the medic used a whale-summoning flashlight to bring a huge whale monster out of the sea.
• Ke Meng transformed into an angel and carried the team into the whale monster’s mouth before it dove underwater and raced toward Crocodile Continent at nine hundred kilometers per hour.
• Inside the whale monster’s brightly lit stomach, Ke Meng noticed that its interior resembled the retired Great Whale in the Dream World.

Ke Meng and the Investigation Bureau team traveled inside the whale monster to the Crocodile Continent while discussing the Frog Society’s use of sacrifices to smuggle sculptures. After arriving, Ke Meng discovered that Flowing Fish reacted to the whale-marked flashlight, and the team postponed further testing until they had settled in.

• The Bandaged Man warned Ke Meng not to sleep during the journey and briefed the team on Frog Society sculptures sent to the Koi Continent through sacrifices.
• Ke Meng learned that captured Frog Society members transformed into maddened frog-bodied people, while the team reviewed the Crocodile Continent’s map.
• Nine hours later, the whale monster brought the team to the Crocodile Continent, where the team doctor recalled it into a flashlight.
• Ke Meng showed Flowing Fish to the team, and it swam from a blank page onto the flashlight and tried to eat the whale marking.
• Ke Meng suggested testing with the cat, but the Bandaged Man told him to wait until they had settled in.

Ke Meng learned that the Three-Dimensional Life Summoning Flashlight could turn two-dimensional life into physical bodies and planned to exchange contribution points for it. In the Dream World, he observed Great Whale and began considering how to connect the Dream World to other virtual games, while more summons reached him.

• Ke Meng used Big-Faced Cat to identify the flashlight’s purpose, but his Shadow-Grasping Hand failed to pull out the whale monster mark.
• Ke Meng explained the flashlight’s ability to Bandaged Man and agreed to exchange contribution points for it after the mission.
• Ke Meng and his teammates slept in the wilderness under the watch of their pets and scouting items.
• Ke Meng became Cthulhu in his sleep and used Synesthesia to observe Great Whale and the Dream World.
• Ke Meng imagined making the Dream World a crossroads connecting virtual games, but could not find a way for people to enter other games themselves.
• Ke Meng heard summoning voices and worried about handling more summons as his followers increased.

Ke Meng received several sacrifices from Level 999 sea creatures, but refused them because their powerful aging and destructive effects could endanger Blue Star. He returned to watching the Dream World as construction projects resumed, while more dangerous offerings continued to arrive.

• A Level 999 crab summoned Ke Meng in the Deep Sea and offered him a rusty anchor that could age bodies, terrain, and even the boundaries of R'lyeh's seal.
• Ke Meng sensed the anchor's danger, saw that the crab was already suffering from internal decay, and canceled the sacrifice.
• Ke Meng watched Orange Star People return to the Dream World, where players resumed building the World Tree and launched a renewed effort to construct the Sky-Piercing Tower.
• More max-level sea creatures offered dangerous items intended to weaken the seal, and Ke Meng refused each one rather than risk bringing them to Blue Star.
• Ke Meng wondered whether Blue Star's great filter membrane would block offerings capable of destroying the planet.

The antenna man’s team abandoned Lu Fa’s spying job and escaped by group teleportation, leaving Lu Fa furious. Ke Meng discovered that Blue Star rejected the Black Jade Stone’s god-level memory, so he directed the coral monster to bring it to R'lyeh instead.

• The antenna man refused Lu Fa’s job, crushed a group teleportation stone, and escaped with the listener and telescope user as Lu Fa tried to stop them.
• Lu Fa’s frog-like transformation and cry failed to prevent the three men from vanishing through a distorted vortex.
• Ke Meng accepted the coral monster’s Black Jade Stone offering, but Blue Star’s resistance returned the stone to the monster.
• Ke Meng sent an unclear call that the coral monster interpreted as an order to bring the stone to him.
• The coral monster carried the Black Jade Stone to R'lyeh and approached Ke Meng through the barrier, overwhelmed by fear.

Ke Meng used the Black Jade Stone to connect with its sealed memories, then woke in a silent campsite where he examined two offerings. The Sound-Absorbing Sponge explained the silence, and Shi Jun confirmed he had watched Ke Meng’s Special Items appear as he woke.

• Ke Meng watched the Coral Monster go mad, harvested its soul, and turned it back into a direct follower.
• Ke Meng stared at the Black Jade Stone until he awoke at the campsite with Tangyuan and the sleeping team.
• Ke Meng used the Big-Faced Cat to identify players’ ten lottery cards and a Sound-Absorbing Sponge offered by a level-250 follower.
• Ke Meng squeezed the sponge, releasing the sounds it had absorbed and startling his sleeping teammates.
• Shi Jun told Ke Meng he had stayed awake to see where Ke Meng’s Special Items came from.

Ke Meng used a ten-pull in the wilderness and received a hundredfold experience card and Horse Hunter's Leather Boots, while most of the other cards yielded nothing. After testing the boots, he followed the Bandaged Man toward a nearby city to meet undercover agents and gather intelligence on Professor Lu Fa.

• The Bandaged Man explained that he had witnessed Ke Meng's cards and Sound-Absorbing Sponge appear, and Ke Meng had squeezed the sponge to restore sound.
• Ke Meng showed the Bandaged Man his unused ten-pull, and the group moved away from the others to use it safely.
• Ke Meng drew eight cards that yielded nothing, one that produced Horse Hunter's Leather Boots, and a golden card that became a hundredfold experience card.
• Ke Meng used the Big-Faced Cat to learn what the rewards did, then put on the boots and tested their speed.
• The Bandaged Man led Ke Meng and the others toward a nearby city to contact undercover agents and gather information about Professor Lu Fa.