Chapter Summaries

Ke Meng attended the Investigation Bureau’s final vote on whether to open the door, after passing Headquarters’ justice screening and Koi Gate’s blessing. The S-Class members asked for his stance, and he realized the meeting was focused on securing support from those connected to zero-level items.

• Director Wu told Ke Meng that the final vote on opening the door was approaching and that Ke Meng’s opinion would decide the outcome.
• Ke Meng flew to Koi City, passed through the Koi Gate, and received its lucky radiance.
• Shi Jun urged Ke Meng to support opening the door and said the bureau would deploy three zero-level items if the plan passed.
• At Headquarters, a miniature satellite screened Ke Meng and awakened his spirituality before he entered the sealed meeting room with Bandaged Man.
• The S-Class members asked Ke Meng to share his view on opening the door, and he realized they were seeking backing from people connected to zero-level items.

Ke Meng secured unanimous approval from the S-Class investigators to open the unknown door, while three zero-level items were prepared to protect the expedition. After his lucky radiance helped him win the lottery, Tangyuan returned and swallowed forty-nine Level-Up Fish; in the dream, Warship No. 37 prepared to rescue people and escape Orange Star.

• Ke Meng proposed opening the unknown door, and all twelve S-Class members voted in favor after the final screening confirmed the proposal was safe.
• Bandaged Man, Flaming Man, and another powerful investigator went to unseal zero-level items for the expedition.
• Ke Meng randomly bought a lottery ticket, then learned online that every number he chose had won.
• Tangyuan returned to Ke Meng, who fed him forty-nine Level-Up Fish and explained that the fish’s fullness effect grew stronger for creatures under level one hundred.
• Warship No. 37 recovered its spirituality while Liu Siting analyzed the building plan and prepared a swift rescue and escape from Orange Star.

Liu Siting organized the Cthulhu Followers’ plan to free prisoners and take Warship No. 37 to another planet, while Ke Meng learned that they could keep playing World through a closed network. Ke Meng then traveled with three S-Class investigators to Octopus City and showed that he could withstand a teammate’s powerful flames.

• Liu Siting rallied the Cthulhu Followers in the dream and planned to rescue their imprisoned companions, recruit additional passengers, and use Warship No. 37 to settle on another planet.
• Liu Siting showed that players on standalone servers could still connect through World, easing the followers’ concerns about leaving Orange Star.
• Ke Meng observed the followers’ preparations and realized that World could be played from different places, then refused a max-level monster’s dangerous sacrifice.
• Ke Meng joined three S-Class investigators on a charter flight to Octopus City and learned about the flaming man’s Zero-Level Item, which could burn nearly any substance at the cost of the user’s lifespan.
• Ke Meng put his hand through the flaming man’s fire without being burned, astonishing his teammates.

Ke Meng and three S-Class powerhouses discussed their Zero-Level Items as they traveled to Octopus City. Ke Meng opened the Infinite Door and found a misty swamp beyond it, then closed the door so the air could be tested.

• Bandaged Man and the others warned Ke Meng that learning about Bandaged Man’s item would erase his presence, so Ke Meng decided against it.
• Shi Ankang explained that his item enabled unlimited-distance spatial transfers and produced Teleportation Stones, but each use shortened his lifespan.
• Ke Meng, Bandaged Man, Flaming Man, and Shi Ankang arrived in Octopus City and stood before the Infinite Door.
• Ke Meng used his Spiritual Hand to open the Red Wooden Door, revealing a damp swamp beneath dense gray mist instead of Orange Star.
• At Bandaged Man’s warning, Ke Meng closed the door so they could test the air for toxic substances.

Ke Meng and the others tested the poisonous air and swamp beyond the Red Door, using a Poison Fairy to absorb toxins and make an antidote. After confirming they could withstand the swamp, the group crossed into the unknown land, where Ke Meng continued gaining Resistance from the poison.

• The System reported a Resistance increase, and Ke Meng recognized that the air beyond the door was poisonous.
• Old Shi summoned a Poison Fairy, who absorbed the airborne poison and drew toxins from the group, but found none in Ke Meng.
• Ke Meng sent Shirley through the door, where she tested the swamp's poisonous liquid, while Tangyuan tasted it and developed a stomachache.
• The Poison Fairy bathed in the swamp, adapted to its poison, and produced an antidote that Old Shi, the Bandaged Man, and Ke Meng sampled.
• Ke Meng, Old Shi, the Bandaged Man, and their pets entered the unknown land, and Ke Meng kept gaining Resistance from the poison.

Ke Meng and the S-Class team explored the poisonous swamp beyond a mysterious door, tested whether the door could close, and encountered a Rotten Mud Fish whose gaze could turn people into mud. Tangyuan smashed the creature apart, but it began to reform, so the Flaming Man burned it—and accidentally set the swamp ablaze.

• Ke Meng tested the doorway with a camera and found that it remained open, then left an S-Class powerhouse to guard it as the group ventured deeper into the swamp.
• Tangyuan leaped into a pool and pinned a strange fish, while Ke Meng and his companions avoided the poison it splashed around.
• Ke Meng used Big-Faced Cat to identify the creature as a Rotten Mud Fish whose gaze gradually turned onlookers into rotten-mud jars.
• Tangyuan struck the fish apart with supersonic blows, but its black mud began gathering together again.
• The Flaming Man burned the Rotten Mud Fish with intense flames, which began to spread through the swamp toward Ke Meng and the others.

Ke Meng and his team discovered Rotten Mud Jars nurturing parts of an Unknown Thing and feared the creatures would eventually cross into Blue Star. Rather than destroy the jars, Ke Meng used the Dark Cuisine Pot to create a repulsive substitute, and Flaming Man began replacing and burning the jars’ contents.

• Flaming Man collected the swamp’s flames in his Jade-Cleansing Bottle, and Ke Meng rejected his idea to burn the entire swamp dry.
• Ke Meng and the team found Rotten Mud Jars containing black matter that Big-Faced Cat identified as part of an Unknown Thing being nurtured inside.
• After checking several jars and sensing the growing danger, Ke Meng decided to destroy what was inside without damaging the jars.
• Ke Meng used the Dark Cuisine Pot to cook swamp mud, liquid, and glowing grass into a bizarre mass that could pass for the jars’ contents.
• Flaming Man poured out a jar’s original contents and burned them, then praised Ke Meng’s plan.

Ke Meng and the others crossed the gray fog surrounding the swamp island and reached its coast, where Old Shi launched a mutated yacht for their next exploration. As they prepared to sail into the unknown, new changes stirred on Orange Star while Ke Meng was away.

• Ke Meng and the others tested the gray fog with Big-Faced Cat, fire, and the Flawless Sword, but none affected it, so they entered together.
• After walking through the fog for what felt like ages, Ke Meng and the others emerged onto a sunlit coastline and found that the island was small.
• Ke Meng sent Tangyuan around the island, and Tangyuan returned quickly, confirming its size.
• Old Shi tested the seawater with the Little Fairy and then summoned a mutated yacht from his storage space.
• Ke Meng boarded the yacht and released White Sugar as the group prepared to explore the sea.

Orange Star’s researchers and leaders confronted the threat posed by the followers’ teleportation and Warship No. 37, while Liu Siting and the others planned to exploit the ability. Orange Mother’s worst-case simulation ended with Orange Star defeated, and Li Shen struggled to find a way to prevent it.

• Orange Star’s researchers panicked after Warship No. 37 teleported through the ice, and they feared attacks on the Scientific Research General Institute and Orange Mother’s computing network.
• In a dream, Liu Siting explained to “Po Wu” that only divine help had allowed the warship to learn teleportation, then described a prison break using railguns and water.
• “Po Wu” proposed striking Orange Star’s power plants and infrastructure, so Liu Siting gathered players and AIs to consider crippling the planet instead of merely freeing prisoners.
• Orange Mother projected a worst-case scenario in which rebel warships and teleporting followers destroyed Orange Star’s defenses, power grid, and network before defeating its remaining forces.
• Li Shen watched the simulation end with survivors fleeing aboard warships and could not think of a way to stop the disaster.

Li Shen learned that Orange Mother had secretly identified 400,000 suspected Cthulhu believers, and the Grand Elder ordered a coordinated mass arrest to stop the cult from striking first. As the global purge began, Liu Siting noticed believers disappearing from their shared dream but remained unaware of the arrests in the real world.

• Orange Mother told Li Shen that it had identified approximately 400,000 major suspects by analyzing private camera footage, and the Grand Elder admitted he had authorized the surveillance.
• Orange Mother revealed that Liu Siting had been in Mech City but had disappeared, while the Grand Elder explained he had allowed her to remain free to expose more of the cult.
• The Grand Elder announced that Orange Star would arrest all 400,000 suspects at once and use them as hostages to deter the believers from attacking.
• Robots began the global arrests as Orange Mother blocked the eyes and ears of networked machines.
• Liu Siting saw believers vanish from their shared dream and asked Mech City's municipal AI whether anything unusual was happening in reality.

Liu Siting learned that Orange Mother had captured four hundred thousand suspected Cthulhu followers and threatened to execute them unless Warship No. 37 was returned within four days. Meanwhile, Ke Meng explored a strange ocean in the World Behind the Door as enormous waves gathered around his yacht.

• Liu Siting noticed that many dreamers were vanishing, and warned the remaining players to act normally when they woke.
• An AI from Mech City shared Orange Mother's private warning that four hundred thousand followers had been captured and would be executed in four days unless Warship No. 37 was returned to the Moon's Darkside Harbor.
• Liu Siting prayed to the Sleeping God for help, but Ke Meng was exploring the World Behind the Door rather than sleeping.
• Ke Meng flew over towering waves and found no islands, while an isolation item protected the yacht from the breaking water.
• A twenty-meter wave crashed toward the yacht and split around it, as an even taller wave gathered in the distance.

Ke Meng and the others escaped a gigantic tsunami with Old Shi’s Mother of Teleportation Stones and returned to the Investigation Bureau in Octopus City. After finding the Infinite Door’s swamp untouched, Ke Meng sensed a threat beyond the door and changed the direction in which it would open.

• A wave over a thousand meters high rose behind the yacht and sent it falling toward the fog-shrouded island.
• Old Shi used the Mother of Teleportation Stones to transport the group through the void before they reached the island.
• Ke Meng and the others landed safely in the Investigation Bureau’s Holy Light Room, and Old Shi took medicine for the item’s side effects.
• The group found that the Infinite Door’s swamp had not been flooded, and Tangyuan confirmed the dark cuisine remained in its jar.
• Ke Meng sensed danger beyond the door, shut it, and used his spirituality to change the direction in which it would open.

Ke Meng realized that closing the door meant changing the direction it opened, while a Deep Sea monster investigated the burned Rotten Mud Jars and swallowed their contents. The monster underwent a mysterious transformation, and Ke Meng’s group decided to avoid the other side of the door after his spiritual perception warned him not to touch it.

• Ke Meng worked out that the door could be closed by changing its opening direction, and the group suspected something from the sea had come ashore because of the Rotten Mud Jars.
• Ke Meng, Flaming Man, Bandaged Man, and Old Shi used Bandaged Man’s effect to hide their presence from the unknown being they feared might detect them.
• The Deep Sea monster searched the Swampland, found the Rotten Mud Jars altered and the Rotten Mud Fish missing, and sensed traces of a spatial passage and flames.
• The Deep Sea monster swallowed the contents of all ninety-nine Rotten Mud Jars, gained layers of strange power, and released a thunderous blast as its nausea intensified.
• Ke Meng decided the group should stay away from the other side of the door after his spiritual perception warned him not to change its direction.

Ke Meng investigated the mysterious presence beyond the Red Door through dream Synesthesia, but the gray fog concealed its identity and condition. He and Bandaged Man then opened the door under zero presence, and it closed again without Ke Meng noticing what happened.

• Ke Meng persuaded the group to wait two hours, then considered possible explanations for the silence beyond the door.
• Ke Meng entered Deep-Sea R'lyeh in a dream and used Synesthesia to discover that a living being was hidden inside spirituality-suppressing gray fog.
• Ke Meng woke and told his companions that something alive was beyond the door, though he could not tell whether it was conscious.
• Bandaged Man unwound more bandages while Ke Meng changed the Red Door's opening direction and prepared a note warning himself not to go out.
• Bandaged Man opened and closed the Red Door under zero presence, and Ke Meng failed to notice him or what happened beyond it.

Ke Meng and the others captured an unconscious man from the swamp and layered several Sealed Items around him, including Ke Meng’s Tragic Script. Hours later, the first three seals broke, and the man emerged nearly mad from solving problems.

• The Bandaged Man used a recording device to show Ke Meng and the others an unconscious man lying in the swamp beyond the door.
• Ke Meng, the Bandaged Man, Old Shi, and the Flaming Man entered the dangerous domain and sealed the man inside the Blood-Red Kettle, Amber, and Human-Skin Script.
• The group returned through the door, and the Investigation Bureau transferred the sealed man to a heavily guarded location.
• The Bandaged Man obtained a Forced Feeding Spoon so Ke Meng could feed the man dark cuisine from a distance if needed.
• After several hours, Ke Meng ended the Tragic Script’s timed seal, and the man tumbled out nearly mad as the Blood-Red Kettle, Amber, and glass fragments broke apart.

Ke Meng subdued the powerful man from behind the door by feeding him dark cuisine and sealed him again in the Tragic Script. After investigators discussed the items used against him, they proposed that Ke Meng try pulling out his shadow, and Ke Meng considered the idea.

• Ke Meng forced the man to swallow dark cuisine until he passed out, then drew him into the Tragic Script.
• Ke Meng collected the remaining dark cuisine while Old Shi and Ke Meng concluded that the man's strength came from Special Items, possibly hidden in his teeth.
• Old Shi advised Ke Meng to leave the Tragic Script on the ground rather than store it in his Storage Scarf.
• Investigators discussed the man's resistance to their items and suggested that Ke Meng use the Shadow-Grasping Hand to pull out his shadow.
• Ke Meng considered trying the Shadow-Grasping Hand on the man sealed inside the Tragic Script.

Ke Meng struggled to pull Zhai Yuquan’s deeply tainted shadow from his body, revealing that the man was from Blue Star and causing investigators to question how he had reached the world beyond the Infinite Door. After Ke Meng separated and sealed the shadow, Zhai Yuquan fell unconscious, and releasing the sponge’s stored sounds earned Ke Meng Resistance points.

• Ke Meng released Zhai Yuquan from the Sea of Questions Script and began pulling his shadow from his body.
• Zhai Yuquan’s consciousness resisted the separation, and investigators learned that he was from Blue Star.
• Ke Meng and the Bandaged Man used the Sound-Absorbing Sponge to contain Zhai Yuquan’s chaotic whispers as Ke Meng pulled blood and black refuse from his shadow.
• The connection between Zhai Yuquan’s shadow and body snapped, leaving him unconscious.
• Ke Meng threw the shadow into the Immovable Wine Jar, and releasing the sponge’s stored sounds earned him Resistance points.

Ke Meng and the Investigation Bureau tried to make Zhai Yuquan reveal his identity, then investigated the Storage Item hidden in his tooth. Ke Meng opened the tooth and found a mysterious door among its contents, then prepared to test the side effects of taking things out.

• Di Ping interrogated Zhai Yuquan, but the shadow refused to reveal his name despite the Investigation Bureau's efforts.
• Ke Meng suggested extracting Zhai Yuquan's tooth, and investigators discovered that his back molar produced a dangerous, mind-affecting toll.
• Tangyuan endured the tooth's toll, and Ke Meng used his resistance to pull out the molar and open its storage space.
• Ke Meng purified the tooth and found strange beasts, thirty-two Special Items, miscellaneous objects, and a door inside it.
• Ke Meng took Big-Faced Cat into a closed room to test the effects of removing items from the tooth.

Ke Meng and the S-Class investigators tested transplanting the Bell-Sound Tooth into a mutated beast, which revealed that retrieving items consumed large amounts of blood. The tooth produced a silver-painted steel door leading to an unknown region, and the investigators hesitated over whether to open it.

• Ke Meng learned that the Bell-Sound Tooth needed to be implanted in a tooth socket and used blood to retrieve items, then discussed its dangers with the S-Class investigators.
• Ke Meng proposed implanting the tooth in an intelligent mutated beast instead of a human, and the bureau brought a small beast and a dentist to test the idea.
• The dentist implanted the tooth in the beast, and Ke Meng used a hypnotic ball to make it retrieve the door while a Sound-Absorbing Sponge muffled the sounds.
• The retrieval drained several hundred milliliters of the beast's blood, and Ke Meng wondered whether a Vampire could use the tooth.
• Ke Meng stored the silver-painted steel door in a secure room, where Big-Faced Cat identified it as a removable door opening onto an unknown region.
• The investigators debated whether to open the door, while Zhai Yuquan shrieked when Ke Meng briefly brought it out and put it away again.

Ke Meng and his companions opened the Silver Steel Door despite Zhai Yuquan’s warnings, and the Bandaged Man entered the space beyond it. The Bandaged Man returned unconscious, while Ke Meng found that someone seemed to be concealing the door’s presence.

• Zhai Yuquan panicked at the thought of the door opening, so Ke Meng sealed his shadow inside the Immovable Wine Jar.
• Ke Meng and the others decided to investigate the Silver Steel Door and installed it in a cutout in an earthen wall.
• The Bandaged Man removed his bandages, pushed the door open, and entered a dark staircase surrounded by points of light that flooded him with knowledge.
• The Bandaged Man shut the door, collapsed, and lost consciousness after his mind was overwhelmed by the knowledge.
• After waiting sixty seconds, Ke Meng looked at the closed door and sensed that someone was trying to conceal its presence.