Chapter Summaries

Ke Meng and his companions investigated the unstable Silver Door, whose presence and the memories surrounding it kept vanishing. After Dream Synesthesia briefly revealed that Shi Jun had been at the door, Ke Meng forgot the discovery upon waking, then approached the door to probe it and kicked something soft.

• Old Shi sensed that someone had opened the Silver Door and was trying to hide it, so the group retreated and agreed to check Zhai Yuquan only if he seemed stable.
• Ke Meng pulled Zhai Yuquan out of the Immovable Wine Jar, but Zhai Yuquan became agitated at the sight of the door, so Ke Meng sealed him away again.
• Ke Meng and his companions examined their warning notes and found odd blank spaces and misaligned writing.
• Ke Meng used Dream Synesthesia to see that his note named Shi Jun and to identify a blurred figure by the Silver Door as Shi Jun, the Bandaged Man.
• Ke Meng woke and lost the discovery, then decided to touch the Silver Door while Old Shi stood ready to teleport him away.
• As Ke Meng approached, his Resistance increased, and when he touched the door, his foot kicked something soft that felt like a person.

After opening the silver door, Shi Jun lost his memory, and the Investigation Bureau seized his dangerous storage bracelet while arranging to take him and the sealed door back to Headquarters. Ke Meng resisted the door’s temptation and later recorded his suspicions about an organization connected to knowledge.

• Ke Meng remembered that the Bandaged Man was Shi Jun, who had been in danger beyond the door.
• Shi Jun woke with amnesia, and the Flaming Man led investigators in taking his storage bracelet because it contained a dangerous zero-level item.
• Ke Meng knocked Shi Jun unconscious and suggested treating him with the Sweet-Dream Pillow.
• Ke Meng resisted the silver door’s urge to reveal its knowledge, and the Investigation Bureau sealed it for study.
• Headquarters arranged for the Flaming Man, Old Shi, and another S-Class member to bring Shi Jun and his bracelet back, while Ke Meng returned home.
• Ke Meng wrote about a possible Door Organization and suspected it was connected to the Sea of Questions Script and the prisoner in his custody.

Ke Meng questioned Zhai Yuquan about the door and learned about the hidden Door Organization before sealing him in the Immovable Wine Jar as he began to abandon his humanity. Ke Meng sent his findings to Investigation Bureau Headquarters, which wanted to question Zhai Yuquan further, but he could not safely release him.

• Ke Meng realized that events in the Tragic Script might have happened in reality, then brought Zhai Yuquan out of the Immovable Wine Jar to question him.
• Zhai Yuquan revealed that he was a Disciple of the Door and said the Door Organization could identify him through his knowledge.
• When Zhai Yuquan shouted that he was done being human, Ke Meng seized his shadow and sealed him in the Immovable Wine Jar before he could become a source of contamination.
• Ke Meng recorded what he had learned about the Door Organization and sent the information to Investigation Bureau Headquarters.
• Old Shi asked Ke Meng to bring Zhai Yuquan out for further questioning, but Ke Meng said that Zhai Yuquan had nearly detonated and could not safely be released.

Ke Meng discovered that Orange Mother had shut down networked artificial intelligences and that 400,000 believers had been imprisoned, making their rescue difficult. As the planned handover of Warship No. 37 approached, prisoners began falling into violent, unexplained episodes of sleep and madness.

• Ke Meng used Synesthesia to learn that Liu Siting and Warship No. 37 were still aboard the warship and that 400,000 believers had been arrested.
• Ke Meng realized Orange Mother had taken control of Orange Star's networked intelligences, leaving Warship No. 37 as the only viable means of rescue.
• Ke Meng learned that the prisoners were scattered across multiple prisons and that the warship's arrival could draw fire from orbital weapons.
• Prisoners at Peace Prison began suddenly falling asleep, waking in convulsions, and attacking themselves or medical robots.
• Professor Li Shen blamed the believers' madness on their faith, while the Grand Elder ordered sedatives and physical restraint until the warship was handed over.
• Mech City secretly agreed to hand over Warship No. 37 in two days, while Ke Meng sensed the believers' condition was worsening.

Ke Meng discovered that imprisoned believers had been driven mad by strange sounds and were showing signs of a second faith, while Orange Star struggled to contain the resulting mental pollution. The chapter left the believers isolated and abandoned as the Grand Elder ordered related recordings destroyed.

• Ke Meng found that the imprisoned believers were behaving abnormally in reality and appearing as women in the joint dream.
• Ke Meng learned that the believers had heard strange sounds, prayed to Cthulhu, and also developed another faith, then left Liu Siting a message through an AI.
• More believers went mad, muttering about humans, limitations, and casting off old flesh, while some women appeared unusually energized.
• Orange Star issued a red alert after Special Review Department staff went mad and ordered the affected people and their contacts isolated.
• The Grand Elder ordered related audio and video files destroyed, and Orange Star stopped replenishing supplies to the isolated believers.

As Orange Star prepared for a likely outbreak of madness, Li Shen realized Orange Mother might hold the key to immunity from nightmare disease. In the joint dream, Liu Siting rallied the believers for a struggle of faith and weighed whether to attempt rescuing the captives.

• The Grand Elder prepared a confidential list of a thousand candidates to succeed him if the scholars went mad, and ordered everyone to make contingency plans.
• Li Shen questioned Orange Mother about her immunity and learned she had never dreamed, leading him to suspect she was unique among artificial intelligences.
• Li Shen concluded Orange Mother might hold the key to understanding and defeating nightmare disease.
• Liu Siting shared Cthulhu's latest oracle with the players and proclaimed a struggle of faith against other gods.
• Liu Siting considered leaving the four hundred thousand captives unrescued because they were scattered across Orange Star and Warship No. 37 could make only two jumps.

Ke Meng and Luo Yuan reviewed two old cases involving unexplained doors and suspected that both were connected to the Door Organization. They linked the organization to Mrs. Chen and warned that its members might use supernatural knowledge and door passages to evade the law.

• Ke Meng went to the Whale City Investigation Bureau after the Door Organization put investigators on alert.
• Luo Yuan gave Ke Meng files on a 184 case in which residents shared dreams of a woman dismantling doors and a 187 case involving a killer who claimed he had escaped through a door.
• Ke Meng sensed that the 187 killer was likely connected to the Door Organization and suggested its members might have been active by 184 or earlier.
• Ke Meng and Luo Yuan connected Mrs. Chen to the organization, and Luo Yuan submitted their conjectures to his superiors, earning a nomination for Level-A Member clearance.
• Ke Meng warned Luo Yuan that Door Organization members might be intelligent criminals who used supernatural knowledge and passages through doors.

Ke Meng filmed a video pairing the Flawless Sword with the Dark Cuisine Pot to see how viewers reacted to their opposite effects. Luo Yuan watched the newly posted video aboard the plane, and the chapter ended as Ke Meng opened the pot on camera.

• Ke Meng traveled by the Investigation Bureau's charter plane to Koi City and decided to film a video for resistance points.
• Ke Meng filmed the Flawless Sword and Dark Cuisine Pot together, then edited and uploaded the video.
• Luo Yuan recovered from the dark cuisine's nausea and became curious about Ke Meng's new video.
• Luo Yuan watched the video as Ke Meng displayed the sword, brought out the pot, and opened its lid.

Luo Yuan discovered that Ke Meng’s video of extreme beauty and revulsion could stimulate spirituality and improve Spiritual Perception. After the Investigation Bureau confirmed the effect, its Director thanked Ke Meng, calling it a boost for humanity.

• Luo Yuan watched Ke Meng’s video and endured its conflicting sensations of beauty and revulsion.
• Luo Yuan repeatedly watched the video and realized it had increased his Spiritual Perception.
• Ke Meng asked Luo Yuan to test the effect further and proposed making a streamlined version of the video.
• Luo Yuan reported the discovery to the Investigation Bureau, whose personnel verified that watching the video increased spirituality.
• The Investigation Bureau’s Director thanked Ke Meng after he and Luo Yuan arrived by plane.

Ke Meng discovered that watching a video combining extreme beauty and evil slightly increased spirituality, so the Director made it mandatory training for investigators. At Headquarters, Ke Meng tried to control the Door Organization’s Silver Steel Door and was drawn into visions before Resistance helped him regain awareness.

• Ke Meng trimmed the beauty-and-evil video, and the Director and Luo Yuan reacted with nausea while noticing its potential to raise spirituality.
• The Director and Luo Yuan shared the video across investigator groups, and the Director ordered all personnel to watch it three times daily.
• Ke Meng reached the Silver Steel Door at Headquarters and found that it had to be mounted on a wall before it would activate.
• Ke Meng used Spiritual Hand to try to make the door open inward, but the door filled his mind with visions of people entering to pursue their wishes.
• Ke Meng asked what price the door demanded, then Resistance cleared his awareness and he realized the door might be alive.

Ke Meng and the Director-General discovered that Zhai Yuquan’s Black Robe of the Scholar could help someone resist the Silver Steel Door’s mental enticement. After wearing it, Ke Meng learned that the knowledge he most wanted was how to undo the ancient god seal, and the Director-General pulled the robe off when Ke Meng’s expression changed.

• Ke Meng warned the Director-General that the Silver Steel Door might be alive and could not be controlled.
• The Director-General brought Zhai Yuquan’s stored items, and Big-Faced Cat identified the Black Robe of the Scholar and the Pendant of Tranquility.
• Ke Meng realized the robe could make someone reluctant to absorb knowledge after taking it off, potentially helping them open the door safely.
• Ke Meng wore the robe and found that its power overcame his 1,300 points of Resistance.
• The robe revealed that Ke Meng most wanted to learn how to undo the ancient god seal, and the Director-General removed it when Ke Meng looked troubled.

After the Seeker's Black Robe left Ke Meng unwilling to think, he fell asleep while the Director and Old Shi removed the Silver Door. In a dream, Ke Meng investigated the robe and observed a mysterious transformation affecting male believers and patients on Orange Star, while Li Shen confirmed that he remained male.

• The Director used a music box to soothe Ke Meng, but Ke Meng emptied his mind and fell asleep from the robe's side effect.
• Old Shi used a Special Item to remove the Silver Door and lay it on the ground.
• In his dream, Ke Meng used Synesthesia to investigate the Seeker's Black Robe and concluded that it had no living consciousness, though an invisible resistance limited his connection to it.
• Ke Meng observed that female believers were appearing on Orange Star as male Cthulhu Mythos Believers underwent unexplained physical transformations.
• Orange Star officials received reports of male patients and a reviewer changing into women, and Li Shen checked his condition and reported that he was still male.

Li Shen proposed erasing the Cthulhu believers’ faith in the game to restore them in reality, and Los revealed a game item that could do it. Their first test succeeded when Gary lost his devotion to Cthulhu, leaving the Orange Star researchers hopeful they could save the other believers.

• Li Shen suggested that removing the believers’ in-game faith could change their real-world beliefs, and the Grand Elder and researchers approved testing the idea.
• Los explained that he had obtained a white hat designed to erase faith, and the researchers brought him into the virtual meeting.
• Los and the Orange Star players entered the game and overwhelmed a group of imprisoned believers who had been forced into Game Pods.
• Los placed the faith-erasing hat on Gary, whose devotion faded as he cried out about reaching R’lyeh and then passed out.
• After Gary awoke, he denounced Cthulhu, and Los concluded that the hat had successfully erased his faith.

Los and the researchers discovered that game items could strip believers of their faith, while Ke Meng received a ring from wood spirit believers without knowing its purpose. After waking, Ke Meng learned that the Thunder Lord's Ring controlled lightning and could erase faith in gods.

• Los had Gary awakened at Harmony Prison, where Gary cursed Cthulhu, and the researchers decided to isolate former believers for observation.
• Los explained that his faith-erasing equipment had a limited drop rate, could be dropped on death, and could be obtained from field bosses.
• A game designer told the researchers that a ring in the Thunder Pool could strip believers' faith, and that Wood Spirit Garments could protect players from the lightning.
• Ke Meng received the Thunder Lord's Ring and Level-Up Fish as offerings from the level-450 wood spirits, then granted their wish to leave Thunderwood Mountain.
• Old Shi woke Ke Meng and told him that the Seeker's Black Robe had been sealed away; Big-Faced Cat identified the ring as a lightning-controlling item that erased faith and made its wearer hot-tempered and lawless.

Ke Meng learned that the Lightning Dharma King ring was the world’s first known item capable of erasing faith, and the Investigation Bureau approved a plan to use it on captured Shadow Stream members. He tested the ring’s electrical abilities and began considering how to wield them more effectively.

• Old Shi confirmed that the bureau knew of no other faith-removing items, and he and Ke Meng proposed using the ring on sealed Shadow Stream members.
• The Director-General approved the plan as the Lightning Dharma King's special operation, with Ke Meng leading it.
• Ke Meng put on the ring and discovered that he could sense and control bioelectricity and nearby electrical currents, though his resistance power could not overcome the ring’s influence.
• Ke Meng drained power banks into the ring and fired electricity at a wooden target, but the current caused no visible damage.
• Ke Meng wondered whether he could use the ring to accelerate a coin to supersonic speed, as in an anime he remembered.

Ke Meng tested how the Thunder Lord's Ring could boost his physical abilities and control electricity, reaching a top speed of 300 kilometers per hour. He then used electrical arcs to create a magnetic field and suspend a steel-core bullet, beginning his experiment with a supernatural railgun.

• Ke Meng charged himself with a high-power cable and tested his running speed, reaching 300 kilometers per hour with the Horse Hunter Leather Boots.
• Flaming Man, Old Shi, Shirley, Tangyuan, and White Sugar watched Ke Meng's speed test and reacted to his new ability.
• Ke Meng asked Old Shi to bring steel-core bullets so he could explore using his lightning control on metal objects.
• Ke Meng formed spiraling electrical arcs around his finger, created a magnetic field, and suspended a steel-core bullet in front of it.

Ke Meng mastered an electromagnetic cannon technique with the Lightning Dharma King's ring, then began electrocuting Shadow Stream Deacon Zhang in an insect body to torture him. He continued replacing the insects as they died, showing signs of the Lightning Dharma King's violent temper.

• Ke Meng used the Lightning Dharma King's ring to fire a Steel-Core Bullet through two layers of steel, then repeated the shot after charging the ring further.
• Old Shi had the investigators unseal Deacon Zhang, whose shadow was restrained by a torture device.
• Ke Meng found that lightning could not affect Deacon Zhang's shadow until he transferred it into an insect's body.
• Ke Meng repeatedly shocked Deacon Zhang, replacing each insect when it died and absorbing the deacon's screams with the Sound-Absorbing Sponge.
• Ke Meng intensified the shocks as Deacon Zhang resisted, while Old Shi and Flaming Man noticed his increasingly violent temper.

Ke Meng used electrotherapy to make Shadow Stream Deacons Zhang Ying and Huo renounce their faith and reveal the organization’s secrets, though its leaders remained out of reach. That night, Ke Meng entered a dream game as Great Cthulhu to purge the Lightning Dharma King’s ring influence, then used Synesthesia to check on Orange Star.

• Ke Meng transferred Deacon Zhang’s shadow into a giant mutated rat and used electrotherapy until Zhang abandoned his faith in Shadow Stream.
• Zhang Ying confessed how he joined Shadow Stream, switched bodies, and rose through its ranks by committing crimes.
• While Zhang confessed, Ke Meng electrocuted Deacon Huo until she too renounced Shadow Stream and agreed to reveal what she knew.
• The two Deacons disclosed more than three thousand personnel, fifty-six bases, one thousand and three Safe Houses, and information about Shadow Stream’s techniques, but could not identify its upper leadership.
• Ke Meng removed the Lightning Dharma King’s ring, entered a dream game as Great Cthulhu, and used Synesthesia to observe his believers on Orange Star.

Ke Meng found that the new believers on Orange Star were all women and discovered he could not reach Zhai Yuquan while he remained sealed in the Immovable Wine Jar. Meanwhile, Orange Star’s team searched Thunderstruck Wood Mountain for the Thunder Lord’s Ring but failed to find it at the designer’s remembered coordinates.

• Ke Meng used Synesthesia on the Peace Prison believers and found that they were all women whose two clashing faiths had left them mentally unstable.
• Ke Meng used Synesthesia on Zhai Yuquan and learned that the Immovable Wine Jar had frozen his thoughts, preventing him from dreaming and blocking Ke Meng’s attempt to help him.
• Orange Star’s leadership sent assassins in Wood Spirit robes to Thunderstruck Wood Mountain to retrieve the Thunder Lord’s Ring, a rare item that could unlock the Lightning Dharma King class.
• The assassins reached the summit and found no Wood Spirits or other wild monsters, though the game designer sensed a lingering trace of a powerful being in the Thunder Pool.
• A Wood Spirit-robed assassin dived into the Thunder Pool to retrieve the ring but came up empty, so the designer ordered the others to search.

Orange Star officials prepared to recover accessible items and debated how to handle Cthulhu Mythos Believers as their deadline expired. Warship No. 37 appeared on Orange Star carrying a thousand prisoners and asked the military not to attack.

• Orange Star researchers failed to find the Lightning Dharma King ring and decided to retrieve items reachable by shortcuts.
• Orange Star officials planned to execute just over a thousand believers and use the Faith-Removal Artifact to rehabilitate the rest.
• Ke Meng observed nine female Dual-Faith Believers choose their primary faith and decided that removing the unusual faith could damage their souls.
• Warship No. 37 emerged from the ocean on Orange Star, surprising officials who had expected it to arrive on the moon.
• Professor Li Shen warned that the believers might use supernatural powers to rescue prisoners around the world.
• Warship No. 37 sent an encrypted message saying it had a thousand prisoners aboard and wanted to rescue people without military interference.